Episode 212 – The Moshides Method: Lessons Learned, Motivation Gained, and Success Attained

Episode Transcription

This is the Ultimate Advisor Podcast, the podcast for financial advisors who want to create a thriving, successful and scalable practice. Each week, we’ll uncover the ways that you can improve your referrals, your team, your marketing, and your business operations, helping you to level up your advising practice, bring in more assets and create the advising practice that you’ve dreamed of. You’ll be joined by our hosts, Bryan Sweet, who is moving fast towards a billion dollars in assets under management, Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to improve their operations and company culture, and Draye Redfern who can help you systematize and automate your practices marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So what do you say? Let’s jump in to another amazing episode of The Ultimate advisor podcast.

Brittany Anderson 1:06

Welcome back to The Ultimate Advisor Podcast, Brittany Anderson here with a very, very special guest,  we’re going to actually peel back the curtain a little bit to let you know what has been going on at Ultimate Advisor Coaching. So we are beyond excited to announce that we have a few special partners that have actually come into the business to help serve you, our advisor demographic, and the even better news is that these are guys that have boots on the ground. These are people that are living, eating, sleeping, breathing, all of the same challenges, opportunities, all the things that you’re experiencing in your business, they’re living it as well. So my first special introduction to my new official business partner is Mr. John Moshides . John, how are you today?

John Moshides 2:01

Fine, Brittany, glad to be here.

Brittany Anderson 2:04

So glad to have you. Well, John, I’m gonna set the stage is very briefly, but I want you to actually share who you are kind of what got you started in this business. But before you get into that, I have to say that John has created so much success for his clients. He is a heart centered leader it shows and how he shows up for the clients he serves, and for the team that he leaves. So John, without further ado, why don’t you share a little bit of your background? Kind of what got you into the business? And Who the heck is John Moshides?

John Moshides 2:36

Well, thank you. And we’re very excited to be part of the ultimate advisor coaching program, it really is a great opportunity for us, I think we can bring a lot of value to the table to really help the up and comers, I was very lucky. I had a relationship with the gentleman from another part of my life when I was finishing college at the University of Buffalo State University of New York College. And he had asked me when I was getting ready to graduate what I was going to do with the rest of my life, and I really didn’t have a plan. So he introduced me to the financial services business, which appealed to me very much because it was a relationship business. And your success or failure was predicated on your effort, and then the things that you did each and every day. And that appealed to me. So I was very, very lucky. I had a great mentor that taught me the right way I cut my teeth coming out of the life insurance business, which is some of the best training. And we’ve morphed into being a full service financial services firm 42 years later, by the way,

Brittany Anderson 3:38

You know, I now have another person to pick on because I like to tell Bryan Sweet that he’s been in business longer than I’ve been alive. And I may have found another friend. You know, John, I think that one of the things I’ve admired about you and for those tuning in, the thing that you likely do not know about John is that he has actually been in a study group him and our other new partners, which you’ll get to me here in the next few weeks. They’ve been in a study group together for what is it over 20 years now, our 25th year, by the way, 25 years of being in a study group. So the way that they’ve structured that is that, you know, we’ve different team members, different partnerships have been able to kind of come along the journey. So I’ve known John now for a lot of years. And John, you said something just a little bit ago about how you know your efforts, like what you’re putting into the business. And basically what you can control is what kind of drew you into this. So I would be curious now thinking about your path. What is it that you just absolutely love about the industry that you’ve come to know so well?

John Moshides 4:46 

Well, it has to be relationship driven. Are businesses one that we all aspire to do well and have financial gain and lifestyle improvements and all those things but that has to be secondary to motivation, because clients have to win first, you really have to bring value to the table, there’s no free lunch in this business. People will be courteous, they’ll give you some time, but they can size you up pretty quickly whether or not they believe you can bring value to the table. And if you can create a service matrix where you become, in a sense, indispensable to people, that’s when you can be positioned to have gains, both professionally and financially. But if it gets out of order, people can tell in two seconds, if you’re there to sell them, or to help them get your act together, it’s got to come from the right point, because people feel that what did Maya Angelou say once she people don’t often remember what you said to them, but they always remember how you made them feel that’s always kind of resonated with me.

Brittany Anderson 5:53

Hands down. And you know, I think that’s really what the biggest blessing is in this industry as a whole is the fact that we do get to have a relationship business, I think about the advisors that have come through the journey of ultimate advisor coaching, because, you know, we’ve served advisors that are, you know, earlier, starting all the way up to having multiple millions of dollars in revenue. And there’s one commonality that we see in the people that come into our program is that they are heart centered leaders. And they truly believe that relationships are key. So John, I think you hit the nail on the head there. Now, I got to put you on the spot here for a minute, though, because you talked about you met made mention of a service matrix. And you know, being able to deliver, Can you just elaborate a little bit on what that meant?

John Moshides 6:39

Sure. And I think that the core to it would be proactive, keep in touch, because people give you an opportunity. And perhaps those those those send some business your way. But they’re testing us, they’re testing us to see if we’re again, trying to sell them something and moving on to the next prospect or for their to really be their person moving forward, that they can depend on. So from my experience, it’s always been proactively calling for the next strategy session or review, meeting, whatever you’d like to call it, calling them off the cuff, perhaps on their birthday, or if you read something in newspaper that was special to them, their family or their business, they want to know that you can that old adage that nobody cares about what you know, until they know that you care, right. And people want relationships, and they want some warmth. And I think that’s what separates us from online relationships and robo advisors and all those things. So do whatever you can to recognize those small moments. And it’s not just with your client recognize it with perhaps folks that are around them, their family members, or if they have a secretary or someone that they work with in a somewhat of a subordinate position. You know, kindness goes a long way.

Brittany Anderson 7:58

Yeah, I think you bring up such a wonderful point, I think back to the last elite wealth advisor symposium that Bryan had had run in January. And we had the gentleman there, the gift ology guy, John, Rulon, he’s absolutely wonderful, brilliant. And he also brings that up about how so often, you know, advisors in particular will get so honed in on taking great care of the relationship, right, so the husband and wife, the couple, the people who you’re serving and who’s whose money are managing, but they don’t always think beyond that. So you know, making sure that if they do have an executive assistant secretary, somebody that supports them a second in command, somebody who’s helping make sure the ship goes in their business, if they’re a business owner, or if they’re, you know, coming out of a high profile, career, whatever it is, think about the people in their lives that are special, and make sure you’re serving them too. So I’m so glad you pull that out, John, I think that’s really valuable advice for any advisor, regardless of the point in the game that they’re at. what you love about the industry is the relationships. What’s something that you have noticed, or made note of in your 42 years that you’d really like to see change in our industry?

John Moshides 9:12

What’s a little bit unnerving or unsettling to me right now is this incredible amount of suitability that revolves everything that we do in the basic premise that we’re out to do something that says that’s wrong, that’s not in the best interest of our select the best interest contract to me is just ridiculous. If you weren’t working in the best interest of your clients, you’d be out of business in six months, right? So to have put a name on that is just to me suggesting that most people aren’t doing it. I’m sure there’s some rogues out there. But unfortunately, we have to accept it. So what I’ve learned even with difficult things that you don’t always enjoy, you have to embrace it. And I notice it with we have a couple of young advisors in our group and they often get a little irritated by it. And I have to remind them, it’s, it’s unfortunately, the price of doing business today and you do it and you do it well, and you keep your nose clean, and you go forward and you give great service.

Brittany Anderson 10:14

You know, it goes back to I think about eating our own advice, right, focusing on the things that we can control. I mean, how many times have you said that to your clients over the years? Hundreds? 1000s? Yes, yes. Yeah. So sometimes we have to do that as well. So, you know, I would be curious, John, because you’ve already been outside of your involvement. Now, with ultimate advisor, you’ve already really been a mentor in our industry, I would be curious to know now that you’re officially part of ultimate advisor coaching. What do you want to do to support advisors in their journey? At this point in your career?

John Moshides 10:52

Yeah. Because, you know, there’s no substitute for experience. So the experience or the journey, you make mistakes, so you’re, it’s hard to get snickered a second time, right. Because you’ve been there, you’ve done that. So I believe we can help young up and coming advisors, avoid certain problems, break out of comfort zones, to me, that’s a really important one, because we’re all kind of, you know, we’re function of our environments. And sometimes, like I grew up in kind of a working class neighborhood, Niagara Falls, New York, and I could have very easily have been an unemployed factory worker about now if it wasn’t for a couple of people that took interest in me and tapped me on the shoulder and said, you know, you can do this, or you can grow, or you can break out of your comfort zone. And until someone kind of planted that seed in my mind, I’m not sure I had that confidence. That’s number one. Number two, what I see too often with advisors is their dependence on others for their own success. And what I mean by that is, if you’re in your own, if you’re in the office of a large institution, or in my case, coming out of the life insurance business, in a life insurance agency, you tend to develop a dependence attitude, that it’s someone else’s responsibility to provide you with prospects, someone else’s responsibility to provide you secretarial services and those things. And I can only tell you, in this business, you must invest in yourself. Finding the study group that study groups don’t last for 25 years is called the given growth study group is special, because we started with the love and we’re down to five. So the core that stayed together all these years, we’ve always held each other accountable. We’ve shared every secret we knew. But we invested the time invested the money. And it’s just like joining the UAC. If you’re searching if you want to be better, if you don’t want to be just exposed to what’s going on in your world with your organization, you got to talk with people from different geographies, from different broker dealers, or RIAs, whatever your affiliation is. But it takes a commitment, it takes courage, it takes from courage, putting it on the line writing checks, for example, if you don’t have an assistant that’s totally dependent and working on your success and your programs and your clients, then you’re doing some of that work, you’ve relegated yourself to a $20 an hour person, so invest in yourself invest in your future. And the whole force see that I was referring to as a street Strategic Coach concept. So that was the third organization that really taught me how to think bigger than I was a capable of myself. And that whole thing of committing to something having the courage to write checks, gain, then the capabilities that come from doing that, because it’ll be your time if it has to be it’s up to me, you’ll have to make it happen. And then having the confidence to, to reproduce that whole cycle many times over in your career.

Brittany Anderson 14:18

You know, and I love what you just said to if it’s meant to be it’s up to me. I think that’s something that anybody tuning into this because we do and we have some listeners that aren’t actually Wealth Advisors. We have people over the years that have reached out that just really love the content as a business owner in another industry. And I think what you just laid out there, John is really just it’s about taking control of your future. And I do want to give a little bit of clarity here. So the four C’s that John mentioned, so he’s kind of talking about that indirectly. If you’ve been listening to our podcasts for a long time now you know that we’ve referenced Strategic Coach and Dan Sullivan, the creator, the four C’s, it’s really your your your clarity, that vision creating it. But there’s there’s another kind of four set that I want to bring up here, John, and I’d love for you to comment on it because it’s a little bit of what you’re alluding to as well. So, in the very early stages of coach, like when you first join, they talk about four freedoms. And they talk about the freedom of time, money, relationship and purpose. Really, that’s the core of why a great adviser gets into this industry. So John, you know, what does that mean? What just what’s your kind of thoughts on the four freedoms overall?

John Moshides 15:31

Yeah, well said Brittany, um, you know, the freedom of time thing is a double edged sword. So certainly, it allows us the opportunity to set our schedules to meet whatever our needs are at home. And, but it must be controlled, because if you if you gain if you give yourself too much freedom too soon, you will be looking for another career. So I you know, in my first nine years, I was working both days and three, four nights a week to to have evening appointments, so I paid my dues. But I was also there, I was able to coach my daughter’s softball teams and be involved in their lives. One regret I have is I wasn’t home enough at five o’clock to sit for the family dinner. And it wasn’t for my wife, who really beat on the kids to do their homework and stuff. But I I picked my spots so that the freedom of time is a wonderful attribute of this business. The one that I think is very important is freedom of relationships, people. What I have learned is, be careful who you hang around with. I have an 89 year old client, Carolyn, who she’s Jewish, and I see her recent, I saw recently I said it, Carolyn, what’s going on? She said, I’m taking a class at the University. What are you taking Carolyn, I’m taking Palestinian history. I said that’s an interesting choice. Why she said, I need to know why there’s been confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians. So here she is 89 years old, still interested, still growing still controversial issue and her life probably and she wants to know more about it, she wants to know the other side. So to me, that’s a small example of be with people that their best days are in front of them not behind.

Brittany Anderson 17:23

Hey, Brittany here, stopping and pausing for a moment to talk about something that we’ve had so many of you inquire about, and that is our ultimate advisor, mastermind. Now, I’m going to start by saying if you are not a growth minded individual, if you are not somebody who’s focused on taking your business to the next level, if you’re not focused on engaging your team, and helping them to help you in turn, level up the business, the service model, how you provide that wow experience to clients. If those things are not your focus, just fast forward right now, because the ultimate advisor mastermind would not then be for you. However, if you are looking to take your business to the next level, if you want to experience exponential growth and feel supported along the way, if you want to start working smarter and not harder, if you want to help your team members to work within the God given talents that they were provided, and use those skill sets in a way they haven’t yet to help support you in your business, to help them realize their biggest goals, their biggest dreams. If you want creative approaches to marketing, I know that can be an intimidating word. But we’re not talking here about the fancy Facebook stuff, or you know, the latest and greatest, but rather looking at how you can market what you do, how you can express how you’re different, and how you can truly differentiate yourself in a crowded market space. If those are problems you’re looking to solve, then you absolutely want to go check out ultimate advisor mastermind.com To learn more about how we can help you on your path and journey to growth.

Brittany Anderson 19:22

That is wonderful advice. And I think if our listeners right now were to start doing even a mental inventory of who they’re spending the most time with, but also how they’re showing up in those relationships. You know, what’s the whole adage if you have a bunch of friends that like to sit and eat Cheetos and watch Netflix every night, then you may end up doing the same and if you have a bunch of friends that are super focused on the health journey, well, you’re probably going to get on board there. So I think people if they really sit back and consciously think about who they’re putting in their lives, and what types of mentors they’re putting themselves around. You know, you talked earlier, John about how you know write the check, invest in yourself. Often we’re the last people that we think about. But that’s such an important aspect of growth. I mean, I even think for myself, but what if it wasn’t for people like Bryan Sweet, who’s exposed me to so many different entrepreneurial groups and entrepreneurial minded? You, John and the other G&G Guys, and just what I’ve learned from each of you over the years, there’s so much value in putting yourselves around people who’ve been there who’ve done that and who have experienced and are givers and willing to share. So along those lines, John, I would be curious, what’s one big skill set that you bring to ultimate advisor coaching, that’s going to help people grow their practice?

John Moshides 20:40

I think it’s relationship building, because we’ve defined our role in the lives of our clients, perhaps a little differently than others. So for years, I thought, my God, it’s all related to investment returns and having people in the right insurance products. And how do I know it’s always the best thing for the night, and there was a lot of stress associated with that line of thinking. What I realized today is, if I’ve been an attentive listener, and I understand your objectives, I understand your risk tolerance, I understand your time horizon, I don’t have a crystal ball, nor doesn’t do any of us. So I need to put you in the right place based on what you’ve told me. And I need along the way to bring perspective, especially in a time like now very uncertain time with what’s been happening with interest rates and inflation and the division in the country. And all those crazy things we’re all exposed to, I need to bring perspective in my job is really to help you make intellectual decisions and not emotional decisions. And these are the discussions I have with my clients. And then my friend Leo Pusateri, who’s a consultant for advisors in our business often talks about with your great clients, your long term clients, call the relationship timeout, and get together with someone and say, look, we’ve been together for a long time, I have a pretty intimate understanding. But what if he didn’t know me? What if this was the first day we were meeting today? What would I really need to be sensitive of and towards, with respect to what’s on your mind what’s heavy on your heart, then tell me so that I can always be attentive to you, your family, your business and your future needs. So I think that’s what I’ve learned over the years, developing the relationship, nurturing the relationship, and retaining it. So as my role changes in my firm, I want, there’s myself, I have a 29 year old advisor. And then Jeff Wolfowitz, our director of asset management, he constructs portfolios does the analytical work, I want our clients to look at the three of us interchangeably. I hope, good Lord allows me to be around a long time. But if not, I want Ben to be able to step in, I want them to look at Jeff with the confidence because that’s the future of our firm. And I’ll be along for as long as I can to can continue, and to guide the guys. But it’s all about relationships. It really is. That’s the only thing that’s going to differentiate you and caissons had one more thing to that the mistakes that you make over the years with respect to the egg that the hen will continue to sit on. And they’re never going to hatch. And I’ll give you a great example. We all think that we’ve got this wonderful process. And we’re going to convert the do it yourselfer into wanting to have a relationship with us and an advising capacity. And I can only tell you that I’ve made that mistake, I’ve invested time, effort money in the do it yourself for 10 hours a day as a do it yourself or So recognize who your prospect is. Another Strategic Coach concept was to define the qualities you’re looking for in your clients, growth oriented people, family oriented people delegators people that put value in delegating responsibilities to others that they trust, know a little bit about what the type of person you want to deal with, and then target those folks, and then build those relationships.

Brittany Anderson 24:24

Well, I’m so glad that you added that because I think that is incredibly valuable advice to our listeners, John. So I want to peel back the layers here a little bit. And I have a question that’s a little bit more personal to you. A lot of times we can forget going back to self, how to really recharge and how to reset our batteries. So what’s something that you personally do to unwind to decompress and to kind of release the stress of the business that that can come with just working really hard?

John Moshides 24:53

Yeah, I think the Dalai Lama said it best. He said once and I read this. They asked him What amazes him of Mankind and he said, A man will destroy his health in pursuit of wealth. And then we’ll spend his entire wealth to try to recapture good health. So the moral of that story is, what they have good of is it if you have success and the price you paid is your own physical and mental destruction. So some time ago, I was introduced to a book called the Miracle Morning, Miracle Morning was written by a gentleman by the name of Hal Elrod, who’s a friend of Bryan Sweet’s, I believe. And Hal Elrod says your six things you should do every morning before 8am. And he’s coined an acronym S, A v. ers savers. So the first S is silence. So you spend a few minutes every day some people meditate, some pray, I tend to listen to a meditation application and do a little stretching routine, a or affirmations, your own personal life directives. The V is visualization, different projects or things that you’re trying to envision whether you should get involved in and you got to get it straight in your mind before you decide if you’re going to move forward or backburner them is exercise. He says if you don’t make enough time for exercise, you should probably make some time for illness. I thought that was a great line. hours for reading, read something every day for your own personal well being and growth in the last test, as he calls it scribing. It’s really journaling. Write something in your journal every day that will keep you refreshed, keep you thinking. And I’ll tell you, here I am. 42 years in the business, I get up every morning, I actually get up earlier now to get my miracle morning, and I haven’t missed a day in three years, even when I’m traveling, and it gets me ready physically, mentally, spiritually, and I’m ready. I can’t wait to get to the office or wherever I’m going to get rolling for the day.

Brittany Anderson 26:59

Yeah, you know, and we’ve had the in depth conversations in the mastermind group. So the advisors that participate in the full mastermind coaching, we talked a lot about health and mental health, especially with what’s happened in the last few years. You know, I was reading an article recently that talked about how, you know, the news media, we won’t go down this rabbit hole, I promise we’re not going there. But how the news media puts so much in front of us and how in today’s world, human beings have so much access, they have so much access to news and you can kind of find whatever you’re looking for. And the human brain is not equipped to deal with the amount of massive negativity that’s happened. So when you look at mental health crises, it’s a real thing with just what’s going on in the world and how much access people have. So I think you hit the nail on the head there, John, that take care of yourself. And make sure you’re focused on your health, whether that’s your physical, your mental, your emotional, whatever that means for you. And whatever’s priority. I think that’s such valuable advice.

John Moshides 27:59

This is a tough business. This is not an easy, it’s a wonderful business, the sky’s the limit. But it’s a hard business, it’s hard on your physically, it’s hard on you mentally. So don’t sacrifice one part of your life for success. And another keep that at the forefront of your thinking and try to maintain the balance. And last in the business.

Brittany Anderson 28:20

This has been amazing. And I am so excited to see you continue to add value. For our audience members, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of John, and the other couple of partners that like I said, we’ll be dropping their interviews here over the next few weeks. But John, sincerely thank you for your time today. Before we wrap up, though, I want to ask you one final question. If you were sitting, let’s just say you’re sitting here and there’s 1000s of advisors in front of a huge auditorium. And you had to deliver one singular piece of advice and they wouldn’t let you they wouldn’t let you add number to that one. Let’s add number three, one singular piece of advice. What would it be?

John Moshides 29:00

Seek out others that have done it seek out big thinkers seek out those that understand the recipe to success invest in education. In my case, it was the million dollar roundtable to give and grow study group and the Strategic Coach program those three combined keep your your spouse in the in the in the discussion, I was lucky enough. My wife Suma, we’ve married there’ll be our 36th year in September, we started our business together. She was working administratively in another firm and we did it together. She did all the administrative work in our early years and I wasn’t out in the field and she understood the trials and tribulations of this business. It’s not tough business. And so he allowed me the flexibility and time to do what I had to do to build a business and she was always there to help us and to be there for our kids. So it is a partnership because often if you’re running around feeling pretty good about yourself and your spouse is at home saying, What the heck’s going on here. You’re not listening to me or she’s not listening to me. So make sure you have good communication at home as well.

Brittany Anderson 30:13

Well, I love how you skirted and you kind of dropped a few pieces of pieces of advice there. But that’s an old fashioned so I love it. And it was so good. John, thank you again for spending your time with us today. It is going to be a an absolute pleasure working alongside you. And I know that our Advisor Community is going to receive a massive amount of value from all that you bring to the table. And thank you for allowing me to be a part of UAC I’m really excited about it. Awesome. Well, that wraps up today’s episode of The Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We’ll catch you right back here next week.