Episode 243 – New Year, New You: Supercharging Your 2024

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 into another amazing episode of The Ultimate Advisor Podcast.

Brittany Anderson 1:07
Welcome back to your Ultimate Advisor Podcast. This is Brittany Anderson. And I am here once again with the wonderful gentleman Draye. Redfern and Mr. Bryan Sweet. Now today’s topic I am personally excited about for you, because we’re going to talk about this whole concept of goal setting and being that that New Year New you that you see and hear everywhere, because in the marketing world, they love it and everybody and their mother has grabbed on to that title and ran with it. So we often get to the end of each and every year. And we promise ourselves that whole New year, new year new you, it’s a fresh start, it’s a chance to maybe do something or take on something that you have not committed time or attention to, this can apply both in our personal life, maybe it’s in the form of of weight loss targets or relationships that you want to kindle or whatever the case is, whatever is most important to you. And then it also applies to our business for whatever reason, December 31, has kind of turned into this reset button of okay, that year is wrapped up, there’s there’s a nice bow on it. And now we get to move on to the next year, when in reality, it’s really just another day on January 1. So what I want to talk about today is how the problem with setting these resolutions. The problem with the commitments of New Year New you I’m going to be different this year is that all too often, we do not change our environment around us to actually support our new commitments. And that can be really dangerous when it comes to the psyche of setting targets and then potentially missing them. This is why so many people when they set let’s just use the diet goal per se, is that they set some big proverbial number of I’m gonna lose 30 pounds, 40 pounds, 100 pounds, whatever the case is, but they don’t change their environment to support that. So there’s still garbage in their pantry, there’s still garbage in their fridge, there’s things that they’re putting in their body, they don’t have a plan for exercise or an accountability partner. Well, all of this can be absolutely relative to your business as well. If you have a brand new AUM goal, you have a brand new production goal, but you’re not willing to do anything different to get it, you’re just like, man, all these efforts, this is the year this is the year that we’re just going to all of a sudden have these huge numbers. But you aren’t necessarily willing to put in the work to get there that contributes to the definition of insanity. So Brian, I would love to pass it over to you. You’re actually the one that can put this first whole definition of insanity thing in my head, and I can’t get it out. So I’ll have you

Bryan Sweet 4:04
Sorry about that. I think I might be like most advisors in that when you talk about the end of the year and planning for the next year. That’s really a love hate relationship. And you get to look back and go, you know, what did I accomplish? And unfortunately, a lot of times you focus on the negative and what didn’t I get done? But I think you know, this definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is really one of the big problems that we all have in that when you look back or you look forward. And you try to say well, what what caused us not to meet that goal or what do I need to do to meet my new objectives? A lot of times what we’ll find out is we didn’t do anything different. We did the same thing. things and got the same results, which is what you should expect. So the key is, you got to try something new. And you got to try something different, because that’s the only way you’re going to get some different results. And so I think the other thing that’s really important when you come to the first of the year, and you want to make some, some changes, is, you know, nothing really happens until after you commit to a new goal. So you can talk about it all day long, and tell your friends and your teammates that we’re going to do this. But if you really haven’t committed to that new goal, I can pretty much guarantee you, you’re gonna have the same results and be very disappointed at the end of the year. And one little thing that I’ll kind of start, you know, the podcast out with is, I think the key to setting the standard for your year for your week, is what you do to begin each day. And so one of the things I think everybody that wants to improve should consider if they’re not already doing this, is and we’ll actually have a really good podcast on this, coming up shortly with a friend of mine named John Moshe IDEs. But the secret is really to have a morning routine. And really all the good things that are going to happen probably will happen before eight o’clock. And if you have the right routine, and set your right mindset, put your three most to dues down. And whatever it is that you need to do for a day to make it a successful day. If you consciously think about those, and journal, your thoughts, and I’ve got several things on mine, I will tell you, it’s been remarkable, the change in the results, simply by having a morning routine, because you’re consistently thinking about all the things that need to get done. And it’s kind of amazing that the more you think about what needs to happen, those things just kind of pop up and present themselves. And the solutions just seem to happen. So that would be one quick suggestion.

Brittany Anderson 7:24
I love that. And I think Brian, you actually you made me think of something from a planning meeting that we had at Sweet financial. And you brought this piece of paper where you had written down as part of a Strategic Coach exercise you wrote down, I think it was 10 different goals or targets that you had for yourself that were going to span over a 10 year period. And the simple act of writing them down. And like you said at the beginning, committing to them, you would accomplish every single one. So I think that is incredible. And it’s such a testament to creating that routine, part of what Brian was just talking about here with creating that, that morning routine, something that you can commit to is that you’re you’re forcing your brain into a state where you are looking at all of the great things that you are trying to accomplish and achieve. So Draye, I want to throw it over to you because I know that you have some suggestions on some really simple tweaks that can make this whole concept even more impactful. So I’d love for you to share those with our
audience.

Draye Redfern 8:32
Thanks, Bernie. So this is more I’m glad we sort of like we’re talking about morning routines a little bit because I absolutely love this stuff. So you know, there’s a Dan Sullivan quote, measure the gain, not the gap. And I think that’s an important thing to recognize when going through all of this is that you want to realize that, you know, focus on the positive, like the gains that you’re improving, not necessarily all of the gaps, you may realize as we talk about some of these things, but Bernie mentioned about environment. And in your business, in your life, in your marriage or relationships in your home environment, your environment needs to be something that supports you and doesn’t hinder you. And so one of the first things when talking about a new year new you is that people make these goals or these new year’s resolutions, but they don’t do anything to set them selves up for success and they don’t change their environment. So some of them may say, I’m going to lose 30 pounds this year, like okay, it’s a very common goal probably lose weight in the new year. But what have you done to set your environment up for success? Do you still have all of the junk in the pantry in the freezer? Is your environment still like you know conducive to you eating more of the things that aren’t necessarily healthy? What are you doing to maybe wake up earlier? What sort of habits are you instilling in your life? Now on the topic of habits, the idea of it only takes 21 days to create a habit is false. It doesn’t that’s not actually the case. They’ve proven this Time and time again, it actually takes 66 days to 365 days to actually have a habit that can serve you your whole life. The problem is it only takes one day to destroy that habit. So in order to destroy it, what it happens with most people is they don’t have an environment that actually supports them for the long run. So a friend of mine, his name is Shawn Aiko. He’s a New York Times best selling author, he was our next door neighbor for several years, one of the things that Shawn would do every morning to set himself up in the new year, so on and so forth, was that he would actually wear his gym clothes to bed the night before. So the moment he got up, he would literally just roll out of bed and run out the stair run down the stairs and it off to the gym. That was one less decision that he had to make in the morning that was potentially prohibit him from, you know, reaching his fitness goals. And along that line, if you’re interested in habits and improving your habits in the morning, there’s a great book by a guy named James clear who wrote atomic habits, it’s sold well over a million copies in the last year. So wonderful book about mornings, mornings and habits. And the other book around mornings is the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, we’ve referenced that book a couple times on the podcast. But regardless of what you’re doing, you need to have an environment that supports you when it comes to this new year. So whether that’s an accountability partner, like Brittany mentioned, or setting some making some sort of change in your environment, because there’s a quote by Meredith Wilson that I absolutely love, it says, If you pile up enough, tomorrow’s all that you’ll wind up with is a lot of empty yesterday’s. So the idea is that like all start that tomorrow, or I’ll do that tomorrow, I’m going to actually get up and I’m gonna wake up earlier tomorrow, I’m gonna go to the gym tomorrow. But you’re not, you’re gonna only have a whole bunch of empty yesterday’s. So it’s really important when getting some clarity on your goals. And as Brian said, your commitments when going into the new year, but actually not only something that just manages to hold you over for a couple of weeks, something that allows you to build motivation and build momentum, so that you actually continue with these habits so that it is a new year, but it’s also a permanent, new you not something that’s temporary. So the other thing that I would say as far as like just the idea of a new year, new you is that when we start this new year, Brian was referencing we write down all the goals, we do all of these things, we’re feel like we’re checking all the boxes to lever level ourselves up. But we easily get dragged back into those old patterns. And there’s a quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower, he says, I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important, the urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent. And that is so freaking important when it comes to actually managing your morning and managing the way that you run your life and your day. Because for most people, you immediately wake up out of bed, you’ve opened up your phone, and you’re like, Oh, I’ve got this email. And that email and you immediately go into your brain starts firing and not only dopamine, but you’re also in the fight or flight mode, depending on the level of stresses that are occurring at the office or whatever the scenario is, you need to spend some time really realizing what is urgent, what is important, maybe important. And maybe you don’t open that cell phone for the first hour or 90 minutes of the day. So you can get more clarity on some of those big goals and the things that are actually create momentum into your life that can help you really achieve some of those goals that you that you want to achieve in this coming year. So that being said, for now, I know you’ve got some, you know, some some ideas of how maybe someone could take the tools and planners and all the things out there to really adapt them for potentially themselves. So I unloaded a lot there. I have a tendency of talking too much on morning routines, but I love this stuff. So let me hand it off to you.

Brittany Anderson 13:41
When it’s good stuff Draye You just keep on talking. You know, there was a thing that popped in my head, I cannot for the life of me remember who said this, where it came from. But we talked a lot about health. We talked about weight loss, and those are typically the things that people hone in on. Now, I think it’s really important to give a why behind that. Like why are we on a you know, essentially a business and marketing and operations teams podcast talking about losing weight in the new year and changing your environment? Well, I think that the reason and the why behind that is that there’s a saying out there that says a man who has his health has 1000 wishes, and one who does not has one. And I think that is so important because as business owners as second commands as well. There are so many responsibilities and tugs at your attention. And then you throw in the mix to you. There’s some of you out there who might have kids at home and responsibilities there and you have four seconds to yourself once a week. And it’s important to understand that you have to allocate time to take care of you. So if you are setting those targets for your year, you’re committing to what is important for you to succeed in the new year. You need to set one health goal even if you’re in good shape, even if you’re Your weight is at a healthy range, it’s still important to do something for yourself to make your health even better. So I had to touch on that. And then of course, because I love the team stuff, we got to flip to this for a second. Now, when you look at Brian shared earlier, the definition of insanity, you know, if doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result? Well, I think that this ties back to the expectations that you have for yourself, for your business, and of your team. If your expectations of your team of yourself and of your business remain exactly the same year over year, without any added, the term pressure comes to mind, that’s not set in a negative way. But without enhancing the expectation that you want your team to produce, then you’re really going back into the definition of insanity. So what I would encourage you to do is to look at who are your team members? Who are the people on your team right now? Do you have the right butts in seats? Do you have the right people there that are helping you to steer the ship in the direction that you want it to go? Or are there some that’s taking or dragging the opposite way, basically halting your progress. So you have to have those tough conversations with yourself with your leadership team, you have to look at it through a completely different lens, if you want to make great strides in your business. So again, what are who are the people that are on your team? What are your expectations of them, and you and you as a leader, you have to be the one to lead by example, in that regard. So if you want to create a culture of let’s just say, lifetime learners, people who are constantly growing and striving, then you’ve got a model that because they’re looking to you, they’re looking to you as the leader, whether you are the owner, or you’re the second in command, you’re in a position where people are watching. So you have to lead by example. Now, I want to just comment that even with all of the tools, we talked in Episode 12, of our 12 part series, where we talked about characteristics of top advisors, about using tools using we there’s a tool from Strategic Coach called the experience transformer, where you can look at making a process an event and activity or whatever it is, and your business, making it even better using that tools. But with all the tools with all the planners with the best morning routine, all of that stuff all combined together, there is one thing that can actually throw us off track. Now before I give away that golden nugget, because I want to end with like a mic drop on this one, because it’s good, before I end with that golden nugget, and I give a few takeaways that you can implement immediately. Draye and Brian is there anything that either of you want to add?

Bryan Sweet 18:00
Reading, I just have one thing kind of taken off on what Draye said earlier. And I think one of the things that happen is we all have really great intentions when we start the year. And we’re gonna make it different, we’re going to, you know, make these changes, and maybe we’ve even committed to it. But when Draye mentioned, you know, the whirlwind of the tornado hits, and then you’re thrown into that, you know, craziness, it’s really easy to just go back to what you’ve done before. And that’s why it’s so important to go back, say it and do this morning ritual, where you’re always reviewing and reading what’s important, and not what’s urgent. And that gets you back on track or will help you get back on track. And another thing that you alluded to Brittany, as far as the team is if it happens to you, it’s even more likely to happen to your team. And so if they have a morning ritual, or things that they understand that are really important that they can review, and read every day, so that they don’t lose track of what’s important, and get caught up in the urgency. That’s really important also, so if you could do both of those things for yourself and your team, it’ll exponentially affect your results.

Draye Redfern 19:27
I second that like that in and of itself. If you’d only changed one thing and then a year and you were to still you know, keep everything else the same. That in and of itself could radically transform many people’s lives. Just that simple little nugget.

Brittany Anderson 19:41
I think that is so true and so relevant. All of that is such such good stuff. So I want to go back. We’ve talked some really good things Brian brought up a great point now with not just having a morning routine for yourself but also for your team members. That is all exceptional. There is one thing how Ever, that if you let this get to you, it can throw you off track. And that is the act of comparison. So here’s the deal, the only person and I repeat the only person that you should be trying to be better than is who you were yesterday, stop the comparison game, we’re actually dedicating an entire episode next week to this particular topic, because it is so important, it is so important to realize that the only person you should be comparing yourself to is you. That is how you gain momentum. And we have got some awesome little golden nuggets in the next episode that ties into every aspect of your business and how you can make that come to life. Now, top three takeaways from today that you could put into action immediately. Number one is to create a morning routine. Brian and Draye both gave some great examples and whys behind that highly encourage you to take that and absolutely put it into action. The second is Draye has mentioned of focusing on the gains focus every single day. Maybe it’s in the form of a gratitude journal, maybe it’s in just a couple quick lines of focusing on where is the abundance in your life? Where are the great things or what are those great things that are happening, that you can devote your mind and attention to, versus the gaps in the business. And finally, I would encourage you to manage your expectations. Again, this ties back to the whole conversation of managing the expectations of yourself, of your business and of your team. If you can level up what you expect out of the people that are working with you out of yourself, you are setting yourself up for such great success. So that rounds out this episode of The Ultimate advisor podcast. We will catch you back here next week. Hey Brittany here. We hope you got a lot of value out of today’s episode to access the key takeaways, the show notes and any deliverables go to ultimate advisor podcast.com. And while you’re there, check out the ultimate advisor mastermind. If you want to learn ways to maximize your income, your impact and your legacy through an automated practice, a self managing team and a killer culture that clients can’t stay away from. We look forward to seeing you back here in next week’s episode.