Fourth Article in the Series: Efficiency and Productivity Continuing on with the evaluation of your non-ideal clients, we come to the No-Fit Client. The No-Fit Client does not match up with any of your Ideal Client parameters. Perhaps you inherited the client or developed the relationship prior to establishing your Ideal Client profile. Use the following steps to evaluate this client: Is the client profitable for you? Are their service needs in line with the …
Clutter. We all have it. For some of us, we derive a feeling of importance from it. Others of us can’t imagine parting with any of it. Others of us are oblivious to the amount of clutter we have. Clutter is physical. Open that hall closet. Yes, it is the same feeling every time…overwhelm and I just can’t deal with it now. Yet once you clear the clutter from the closet, how great do you …
Second Article in the Series: Efficiency and Productivity One of the most challenging conversations I have with financial advisors is that involving the client list. While the advisor/rainmaker would like to add to the client list, there are obligations to serve the clients the advisor already works with. This adds to the conundrum of too little time to market and identify new Ideal Clients. It is also likely contributing to workflow issues in your team …
First Article in the Series: Efficiency and Productivity Once you commit to serving an Ideal Client type or two, you can now turn your energies to increasing the efficiency and productivity of your work. In the many conversations that I have with financial advisors, efficiency and productivity is where they want to start. It seems an obvious place to begin. “If I just had more hours in the day, I could _______________” (fill in the …
Continuing from last week’s theme of making the most of the season, how can you make the most of the endless stream of holiday parties? How can you keep your sanity and good humor, celebration after celebration? Many business holiday parties start in earnest this week as organizations prefer to host their events before the days of travel, last minute shopping and visiting relatives. And you wonder why you are so tired by the time …
How can your holiday season be more productive while allowing time to rest, relax and enjoy the festivities? This will be the first of several messages on making the most of the season. Plan It: A productive holiday season can’t happen unless you plan it. Does that sound like work? Work is when you don’t plan it and are overrun by the events of the season. Here are the steps: 1. Study it. Open your …
What a difference a week makes. Actually, what a difference some white space makes! Yes, I was able to schedule white space this past week and Wow! much was accomplished during the week. The things accomplished were important priorities for me and I found myself on Friday afternoon looking at my watch amazed at the time remaining in the day. The hurry, hurry, busy, busy mode of the previous week was far behind me. As …
It’s challenging to walk away from work, isn’t it? This past weekend I spoke at Invesco’s Financial Boot Camp for Women for the Opening General Session. It meant being at the event at 7:00 a.m., requiring a 5:00 a.m. rise time on Saturday morning. Being an early riser that was not an issue. The Boot Camp was a great event and I enjoyed seeing long-term acquaintances and making new friends. However Sunday, my day for …
In my work with clients, one of the most common topics we address is what I will call, for now, time management. This follows on the theme from last week’s message regarding the true definition of work. I closed last week’s message by stating that it is up to each of us to determine our purpose in life and that is not always easy for us to know. Knowing our purpose and our priorities is …
Last week’s message brought forth the topic of being versus doing. While we get a certain level of satisfaction from doing, it will not address the frustration we may feel at the end of a day, week or year (years!) of not truly moving forward. We may not recognize this frustration, this lack of forward movement, for what it really is. We often blame outside forces such as: management and their insatiable need for reports, the …
Last week I wrote about creating opportunity. It is challenging to create or even recognize opportunity when our minds and lives are crowded with so many things. How challenging was it for you to make 20 minutes of “white space”? Our 24/7, always-on world has conditioned us to believe that “always busy”, “crazy busy” and other similar descriptors of our lives, reflect how on-course we are and how needed and important we are. Yet we …
Do you think the outcome described in last week’s newsletter is fiction? Yes, I did make that one up. However, a few weeks back, I mentioned that I was going to track my “white space” and what came out of it. Here is a partial listing: Organized a dinner party for a group of great friends Thought of a way to have my extended family and immediate family together Came up with another newsletter idea Arrived early to a …
A couple of weeks ago, I asked you to say “yes” to creating space on your calendar. It was to be a 20 minute appointment on your calendar with nothing filling in the blank for what you are going to do. I encouraged you to leave your office, go for a walk, read, get out of the usual and into a space less crowded. What did you learn? Too busy to take twenty minutes away? Really? …
Last week I wrote about creating space. Let me tell you, I have quite a bit of it right now. To visit my horse on the weekend is a 1 hour 40 minute drive, one way. Occasionally, a friend will travel with me, but most times, it is just me and my thoughts and some vocalization practice with my iPod or satellite radio. I generally start off the Saturday morning drive listening to something educational. My …
I’ve written quite a bit over the past several weeks about cleaning out and letting go of the past. We would probably all prefer not to go through these steps. What fun is cleaning out the garage on a Saturday? Or committing Friday afternoon to clearing your desk and organizing your files? More challenging is dealing with a relationship or old thought pattern that no longer serves you. It is harder to see this type …
So you are ready to make some changes in your life and move on to bigger and better things? You want to realize the potential that you know you have. Congratulations! To make room for these improvements, you’ve got to make space and clear the clutter from your life, just as we had to do to renovate our kitchen to make improvements. Having a clear area to make improvements encompasses two aspects: physical clutter and …
As mentioned previously, we recently completed some renovations to our home. In the course of undertaking something such as this, you must clear out the space where the work is to be done in order to make room for the improvements. For us, this meant cleaning out the entire kitchen and laundry room. We started ambitiously, throwing away, recycling or donating things that we did not need or use. As the day wore on and …
How trustworthy are you? Do you think that people are able to trust in you easily? Or do you find yourself questioning others’ motives and wonder why they do the same with you? When you or someone else promises to follow-up, does it happen? It would be easy to say that people aren’t trustworthy anymore and you just can’t count on others to do what they promise. Perhaps that is because you don’t keep promises …
As we are now boot-high and egg-nog deep into the holiday season, allow me some of your time for the timeliest of topics…time.“What time is it?” “Do you have the time?” “May I take just a moment of your time?” These are some of the many phrases we hear associated with the ticking of the clock. Most cause us some level of anxiety and a reaction of “Oh, my goodness, look at the time!” or …
The need for vacation is not just once or twice per year as us Americans like to think. We need rest far more frequently. The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz make the point in their book that as humans we tend to view ourselves much like the machines we utilize. The computer continues to hum along awaiting our next instruction or foray onto the Internet. Except for needing fuel and …