Read The Transcript Of The Episode:

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

You'll be joined by your hosts, Bryan Sweet, who has more than half a billion dollars in assets under management, Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to hire, improve their operations and company culture and Draye Redfern who can help you systematize and automate your practice's marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So what do you saying? Let's jump in to another amazing episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast.

Brittany Anderson:

Welcome back to your Ultimate Advisor Podcast. This is Brittany Anderson and I have with me Mr. Draye Redfern and Mr. Bryan Sweet. And today's actually a really exciting day. It is the one year anniversary of our podcast. So we are on episode number 52, so we're pretty excited about this. And in honor of this awesome, exciting time, we have some good stuff to share with you.

Brittany Anderson:

So next week, which is the week of April 27th, if you would like to learn how to optimize your financial practice during this time of economic uncertainty, during this little thing called the COVID crisis, if you really want to learn some tactical skills that you can put into place to help you thrive during times of adversity, check out the ultimateadvisorsummit.com. We have got a lineup of some killer speakers. We've got about seven to eight people that are going to be presenting throughout those five days of the summit, which includes the legendary Don Connolly who is going to help you sharpen your sales skills and the original referral coach himself, Mr. Bill Cates. So we are really excited to bring this to you.

Brittany Anderson:

Again, it's five days. So April 27th is the kickoff date. The whole entire week, we are going to have awesome presenters from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM central standard time. You do not want to miss this opportunity. It is a teeny tiny little investment of $97 for a week of exceptional, exceptional content. So again, go to ultimateadvisorsummit.com and you can get your seat booked. You're going to want to do this. Get your seat fast because we are filling up. This is exciting, taking advantage of great opportunity in a challenging, challenging time.

Brittany Anderson:

So that actually leads us into what today's topic is going to be on and what the next few weeks are actually going to be on. We are going to share some of the best practices that just came out of our Ultimate Advisor Mastermind that is all centered around accelerating growth in times of adversity.

Brittany Anderson:

So the first thing we're going to talk on today is mind over matter. Now, if you've been following us for this full year, again, there's a little plug, it's the one year anniversary. If you've been following us for a full year, you know that mindset is a huge thing that we talk on and focus on because it really matters more than anything else. So in today's episode we're going to talk and share on how you can focus on what you can control. How you can ignore the stuff that you don't have any hand in, that you can't control, that you cannot change. How we can really center ourselves by creating small wins in your week. How do you focus on the stuff that matters? How do you celebrate those little wins to keep your head straight, to help be an example to your team, to be an example to your clients and to be steadfast in all that you're doing so that your clients have confidence because you show up confident?

Brittany Anderson:

The other thing that I think is really powerful, and this is one that came out of the Mastermind, is all centered around making new decisions. So recently before the world came to a crashing close, I was at a conference that was put on by David Bayer. He runs a conference called The Powerful Living Experience. You can Google it to check it out if you want, but he's really got some exceptional content around mindset. And this is one that I would love to put in front of you as our listeners because I know that if you're here listening, you are an ultimate advisor. You are set on thriving, on growing, and on succeeding.

Brittany Anderson:

So when we're in times of adversity, when we're facing challenges, it's really easy to tell ourselves, "My gosh, this is hard. This is frustrating, this is draining." Those are things that we put in our head, and then we just subconsciously find evidence to prove that. So then you start seeing things around you that prove that, gosh, life is really hard right now. Gosh, there's so many frustrations. My goodness, I'm spread thin. You find examples of that.

Brittany Anderson:

So what we encourage you to do, and part of what we want to talk on today is how you can frame your new decisions. So David Bayer has this awesome concept where he says, "All right, here you go. Instead of saying, this is hard, why don't you say this is not hard. There's your new decision, right? I'm not going to sit here and tell myself the negative stuff about why things are so hard right now. Rather, I'm going to say it's not hard. And the proof of that is that I'm able to still help my clients. I'm helping people every day to overcome challenges, to be calm, to be centered, to stay on track with their plan. This is what I do, it's what I've always done and I'm good at it. So I don't feel like times are hard. Times are actually simple right now because I can focus on what matters."

Brittany Anderson:

So that's your new decision and all of a sudden you'll find by telling yourself that times right now are not hard, that they're actually simple. You are going to find, again, subconscious evidence of what you're telling yourself. So the biggest issue we have is in that six to eight inches in between our ears, right? Like that's where we really drown and it's what we feed our mind that matters.

Brittany Anderson:

So Bryan, I would love for you to jump in at this point and just talk a little bit about how you really make the effort to focus on gratitude, how you do this for our clients, how you've really been doing it for clients even more now than ever. So I'd love for you to comment.

Bryan Sweet:

Well I think more now than ever, you need to be the positive force and be that rock for your clients. Clients are going through totally unexpected times as we are, but they have added fears. We're fortunate enough being in this industry, we still have jobs. A lot of our clients are in businesses that were forced to close or they were laid off because their business was forced to close.

Bryan Sweet:

So you need to be that person, that rock that people can count on. And when you talk to clients, and this is really the time when you really need to be out there giving your all and being a resource and a positive person to allow your clients to feel better about the circumstances. And a couple of things that I've found to get you in that mindset, if you will, is just to start up every day with some gratitude.

Bryan Sweet:

And one of the things that's really interesting is it doesn't take long to think of positive things as you said. And it's really just a framework. And if you start your day and write down two or three or four things that you're grateful for, all of a sudden that positivity takes hold, and in all your conversations it actually comes through and is helpful to you. And I think, when you're talking to clients, you've got to talk about when we come out of the other side of this and what does that look like? But you need to be known as that person that was steadfast and help them make decisions and stand strong during this period of time.

Bryan Sweet:

And I think a really great example of that, Brittany, and maybe I'll have you comment on this, is we were fortunate enough to have our Client Advisory Council last week and it was so interesting when we started talking about mindset and positivity. How clients opened up that I've known for literally 30 plus years. And the information that they shared was amazing. So I don't know if you want to maybe make any comments on that, but I think it all relates to mindset and positivity and gratitude and it all ties together.

Brittany Anderson:

Yeah. I'm so glad you brought that up Bryan. I think part of it too is when you're in your advisor mode, when you're wearing that advisor hat, it's really easy when a client gets in front of you to just get to business, right? Like you have your small talk and you catch up for a minute and then you're like, "Okay, let's talk about your plan. Let's talk about your goals. Let's, make sure that we're on the right path." Maybe you answer some questions during these times that they may have.

Brittany Anderson:

But here's the thing. It is way more impactful if you pause for a minute and just say to them, "How are you? How are you doing? And how are you handling what's going on?" It's questions like that, that show that you care, that you're more than an advisor.

Brittany Anderson:

And sometimes people, especially if you have business owners for clients, if you have very wealthy individuals that you're working with, high net worth, a lot of times people who are self sufficient and have created success for themselves, people look at that person as somebody who maybe doesn't need as much support. Man, they're so independent, they've always done this themselves. They're self-driven, they've got this. But sometimes all they need is somebody to stop and ask, "Hey, how you doing? Are you okay?"

Brittany Anderson:

So again, it's by shifting the conversation, really paying attention to what they need and helping them be able to share. So I think too... Another thing that we did is we started and ended with Dan Sullivan, a strategic coach with his positive focus concept. So we open it up by saying, "Hey, what's one thing positive?" It's that old adage of everyday may not be good, but there's something good in every day.

Brittany Anderson:

So, even if the positive is, "You know what, I've got a cup of coffee in front of me right now and that's how I'm surviving." So it's just getting them to find and recognize that, that is the case. And again, closing it out with that. So when you're in a client meeting, start with that conversation of, "Hey, how are you?" And share something positive. And at the end of it, we like to call it, it's like putting your meeting in a big hug. It's opening with something positive and closing with something positive. So even if the conversation in between can be a little bit rough, like gosh, the markets are crazy right now and there's some uncertainty and you have to do some plan adjustments and have those really tough conversations. If you start on a positive and end on a positive, you're going to see so much great result.

Brittany Anderson:

So at the end of the meeting, ask them, "Hey, what are you grateful for? What are you most grateful for right now?" It's amazing at how that little shift, that tiny little spotlight at the end of the tunnel, it really helps people get into that groove and get into a positive mindset and it drives the conversation in a really positive direction.

Brittany Anderson:

So Draye, I know that you're another one. I mean we joke about how you're always Mr. Positive. You're always Mr. Sunshine. So I would love to have you just chime in and talk about how really limiting your time in front of the negative stuff and just capitalizing on all that is great in the world still. How that can really impact your business in a positive way.
 

Draye Redfern:

Yeah, I love this. And who me? Like Mr. Positive, I don't know who you're talking about. It's funny because in this world that we live in right now, it's so easy to get caught up in all of the negativity. And it's actually hard to almost find a positive news story these days. And so there's a few things and there's three psychological principles that I want to discuss that you could do, but I think there's two sides to this, is you basically got to like protect and preserve.

Draye Redfern:

And so the first part I want to talk about is the protect side of things because when it comes to like protecting you, your psyche, your subconscious, your positivity, all of these sorts of things, there's three psychological principles that sort of allow you to deviate. The first one is negativity bias. And that just basically means that if you tend to watch negative news or negative anything, you tend to have a more negative outlook on life or the markets or opportunity or all of these sorts of things.

Draye Redfern:

I mean, you can Google. Negativity bias is a real thing. And so the more negative aspects that you've put into your brain and into your subconscious, the more negative that you're thinking naturally becomes just because that's how we are wired. So that's the first thing. It's just like if you're limiting your news exposure and I literally watch next to no news and I'll tell you how I curate my news in a minute, but my negativity bias is very, very low because I limit almost all negative things that can come into my world because I recognize the importance of it. So that's the first one to do is sort of limit it.

Draye Redfern:

The second one is availability bias. And so when you see negative things you tend to, or even anything in general, you tend to overestimate psychologically the significance of that thing. And so this is also related to your reticular activating system where like if you bought a blue Ford Explorer and then all of a sudden you see all sorts of blue Ford Explorers and because your availability bias and your reticular activating system, we're basically saying they're everywhere.

Draye Redfern:

But the reality is that there's no more than there was previously. The availability bias basically has taken control of that. You see a small sample of these things and all of a sudden you think there's significantly more things that are going on until when you bring in negative news and negative aspects into your life and your psyche, your availability bias tends to think that it's negative freaking everywhere. I might as well as shutdown, go hide under a rock and just like rock myself to sleep in the fetal position because that's my only chance of actually surviving this thing. And that's not the case. So that's the second part. So we've got negativity bias and availability bias.

Draye Redfern:

The third one is confirmation bias. And that is basically is that we tend to favor the ideas that we agree with or that we've already experienced before. And so even if it's wrong, you could have experienced something or having a thinking, but it could be wrong, but you're going to have a confirmation bias because that's your reality. You had a confirmation. It's something that confirmed your feeling even if it's wrong in the future.

Draye Redfern:

And so when you influx all of this negative news from all of these different angles, you're getting flooded psychologically with negativity bias, availability bias and confirmation bias that literally just like rip your brains to shred because it doesn't know which way to go. Is it positive, is it negative, which way it's going? And then it just causes overload and analysis paralysis for so many people and negative tends to outweigh positive at least psychologically.

Draye Redfern:

And so from those standpoints, knowing those things psychologically, I literally just watched next to no news in order to protect myself, my wife, my family. Because I don't want any of that to come into my world because a lot of it is not actually as bad as things are made out to be.

Draye Redfern:

So how I curate news because I think it's still relevant and it's still important to stay updated on current events or what's going on. I curate everything that I read. I use an app called Feedly, F-E-E-D-L-Y. And Feedly, basically just allows me to curate specific news sources or news content, whether it's entrepreneurship content or marketing content or psychological content or any sorts of things like this. I can curate the exact things that I want to let into my life and my world. And then Feedly will add those things to basically my daily feed. And that's a way for me to stay updated on the news without necessarily feeling overwhelmed with all of the negativity.

Draye Redfern:

Those are two sort of sides. I think there's the protect side of things, but also the preserve. And so if you're preserving, create some sort of system for yourself going forward, but it doesn't have to be Feedly, it could be something else that you could actually do that works for you, that actually allows you to preserve your psychology and your subconscious and all of these things because whatever you think becomes your reality. And so those are two things that I recommend a lot, is basically protect what comes in and preserve what you have there already in order to really continue thriving even in the middle of the crisis.

Draye Redfern:

And so I take that a step. So that's me, how I actually manage my life internally. But we also do things like this for the team. And so any coaching calls that I'm a part of, because I'm a part of also multiple masterminds and coaching programs and all sorts of things. I let my team in on all of the virtual coaching calls that go on. If they can't attend live, I have them watch the replay because I want them to have access to thinking and psychology and business strategies that aren't necessarily available to the general public, keeping them sharp.

Draye Redfern:

And so that's another way that as far as the preserve side of things that we really spend a lot of time and effort on when it comes to preserving the team and the culture and really investing in the team to stay positive and to really I guess, exemplify the mind over matter concept. So there's probably a few things there, Brittany, that maybe we could discuss or recap on. But I'll let you tie it off with a pretty bow.

Brittany Anderson:

Yeah. So I think something that I think is interesting is you're talking about your team and you're talking about how do you control your mind? How do you control what you feed? You know right now, we are in a time where we have to be on our game. We have to be ready to pivot in a moment, right? You have to be putting out content, putting out copy, providing value to people that is relevant to right now. Because our messaging strategy and what we were doing before is not so much, but what goes hand in hand with taking care of your mind is taking care of your body.

Brittany Anderson:

So when you look at how do you take care of your team, how do you feed them the good stuff? Something we just brainstormed on today actually as a leadership team is how can we encourage our team members who are all working remotely or mostly working remotely right now? How do you encourage them to feed their body, feed their mind? Well, we're going to do something where we say every day at a certain time, get up and move. Whether that means going for a quick walk, it's doing a quick yoga sequence, it's hitting the weights for a minute. It's just stretching, whatever it means to you and what works for you. Because a healthy body helps a healthy mind. And how do you feed those happy endorphins? It's by getting your body moving.

Brittany Anderson:

So those are things that you can do for your team, for yourself. And even when you think about what kind of content are you putting out to clients. I can tell you right now that every single one of your clients, and I'm reading their minds right now. Every single one of them has plenty of news sources they could go to if they wanted to get some negative stuff. They could have plenty of resources to go to to get information on COVID-19 and whatever else comes with that.

Brittany Anderson:

But what they may not be looking for right now, because they are potentially blindsided by some of the negative stuff, they may not be focusing as much on self care. So be a resource for them. Be more than just the advisor. Be that all encompassing person that's there to support them, help them and give them the resources that they need. So before I go into some of the key takeaways from today, because I think there are some really powerful ones to share and to recap, is there anything Brian Draye that you guys want to add before we round this out?

Bryan Sweet:

Well I have one thing. I just thought you two were exceptional today and definitely on your A game and so appropriate for where we're at in the world today. So thank you for those great comments. The other thing I think that I got out of this that I'm going to do immediately is I was not aware of this Feedly concept and I think that application is awesome and I'm going to send that out to all my clients because they get so inundated with negative, negative, negative. If they can help control that, which I think sounds like that's a great opportunity, that's going to be remarkably helpful. So thanks for sharing that.

Brittany Anderson:

Yeah, Draye's always got the good stuff.

Draye Redfern:

I spend a little bit of time doing it every month and being in the industry, I guess it helps me to have a little bit better pulse on things. But it's definitely really good. And I think for like... There's a free version and a paid version, which is maybe like 50 bucks a year or something very, very affordable.

Draye Redfern:

And I would just say that, it's easy to get... Everyone talks about the negative news and news is negative and all of these sorts of things. But I would really just challenge anyone and everyone listening to actually take some form of action to do something about it.

Draye Redfern:

So, we talked about the three different biases that you can use to help protect yourself and your subconscious from some of these things. But there's plenty of things that you could actually do for the community. Like where we were talking with an advisor last week or week before and he went out and bought 500 tablets for his local community, for the kids who are trying to... Underprivileged or underserved areas to help them with the e-learning, working remotely and all this sort of stuff.

Draye Redfern:

And like there's things that you can do that may seem marginal or nominal or not that big of a deal, but there's a lot of things that you could do for the community. And there's a saying, and I can't remember who says it, that small hinges swing big doors and it's really easy for you to be one of those small hinges to really make a big impact on the community during these times. But protect yourself, protect your family and your thinking. But there's also plenty of things that you can do to really benefit yourself and the community as a whole.

Draye Redfern:

So I just wanted to leave everyone at least a positive note, shifting some of the conversation a little bit as we wrap up.

Brittany Anderson:

That's so good. See, that's why we hang out with you Draye. Because you've always [inaudible 00:23:18]. So to round out some of the key takeaways today, number one is going back to what we opened with and that's making new decisions. Now, I just want to touch on that one again because you might be looking in and or you might be listening, thinking, "Okay, great Brittany. Yeah, you're telling me to just decide that it's not hard. Life is hard right now. You're just telling me to decide that." Well, no, I'm encouraging you to just find proof that it's not, right? To really look at, again, what are the positives? What's the good that's happening in the world and there are people all over that are bending over backwards to contribute to their communities, that are helping the medical professionals, that are helping each other, the teachers. My goodness, that talk about pivot. They've had to pivot and create a whole online learning platform within days.

Brittany Anderson:

I mean, that's amazing. There are amazing things that people are embracing. I'm sure you're seeing it in your own communities. You're seeing it with your clients, with your team, people just being flexible and getting on board and being willing to do what it takes to serve others. So find the evidence of that and make new decisions around what's going on right now in this world. Because there's really good stuff.

Brittany Anderson:

The second key takeaway I think is it's a constant reminder. We talk about it a lot, but I don't think you can ever exhaust it. And that's in practicing gratitude. Staying in that mindset of being grateful and realizing that there are so many things, even in the darkest of times, even in the tough stuff. Man, there is stuff to be grateful for. So being intentional about that. And again, even if it's just that delicious cup of coffee, I use that example because some days that's what I've got. But really, I mean find that silver lining.

Brittany Anderson:

Third, I think limiting the negative. Man, there are so many things right now that you could be exposing yourself to that could cause you to go down the rabbit hole in a really bad way. So just making the conscious decision that you're not going to feed that into your brain intentionally, that you're going to stay off of the negative news feeds, that you're going to limit your time in front of the TV, that you're going to spend this time that you have potentially at home embracing your loved ones and doing things that are positive and productive. Reading a new book, listening to a podcast, maybe this one, maybe you want to go back and listen to all 52 episodes. I don't know. It's just a good idea. So it's things like that. Feed your mind with the positive stuff.

Brittany Anderson:

And then finally I'm going to second what Bryan and Draye said about the whole Feedly app. I would say that the fourth takeaway is to go check that out or something like it. Google is our friend. You can find a lot of good stuff out there, but deciding how you can curate what's fed into your brain.

Brittany Anderson:

So I think those are the key takeaways. And as a round out of this, I want to remind you of the summit that we have coming up the week of April 27th. So next week we are going to rock and roll starting at 11:00 AM central time on Monday the 27th. We have a whole lineup of amazing speakers that you are not going to want to miss and it's for a nominal, $97 fee. You are going to get that value times 10 within the first speaker.

Brittany Anderson:

I mean we have this much confidence around who we're bringing in and what they deliver because the awesome thing is, is we have worked individually in some capacity with every single one of them. So we're not just bringing anybody from the street to come in and talk to you and to serve you and to give you good ideas and actionable items. These are actually people who we have engaged with, who we can see the proof in our business of how they've impacted us and how they can impact you. So we definitely recommend you go sign up. It's ultimateadvisorsummit.com. You do not want to miss that opportunity.

Brittany Anderson:

And because, Draye, you had that whole warm fuzzy of focusing on the positive. Bryan you are all on gratitude, I have to share this story before we jump off. So I'm sorry if we're going a few minutes longer than normal, but I just got to do it.

Brittany Anderson:

So a mentor of ours, Sean Stephenson, is his name. He was known as the three foot giant. You can Google him, you can look him up on YouTube. He had a very rare bone disease where if you even touched him, he could break a bone. So he was in a wheelchair his whole entire life. Well, he took a bad spill out of a new wheelchair last summer and ended up in the hospital. He unfortunately did end up passing from that fall. But something that I think is so incredibly powerful is that in the moments before he passed, he actually... A mutual friend of ours was there with him in the hospital and he had been in this foggy state. He was not really coherent with it. He hit his head hard. He had a moment of clarity where he sat up and said, "This is happening for me, not to me." And moments later he passed.

Brittany Anderson:

So what I want you to think about is that even in the most difficult times, during times where we're facing adversity, where we're struggling, find ways that this is happening for you. Because if somebody who was born with a disability their whole life, who became a motivational speaker and impacted millions of people and on his deathbed maintained a positive attitude, we can get through this. We can get through this and we can make a heck of a good impact on the people whose lives that we are influencing.

Brittany Anderson:

So that is the story that I'm leaving you with today. Take it, embrace it. Find the silver lining, focus on the positive and decide that you are going to be grateful. So that rounds us out on this week's Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We'll catch you back here next week.

Brittany Anderson:

Hey there, Brittany Anderson here. If you are loving what you're hearing on our Ultimate Advisor Podcast, don't keep us a secret. Share us with other advisors that you think would benefit from the messages that you are hearing. The easiest way to do that is to simply send them to ultimateadvisorpodcast.com. And if you want to learn a few other ways that we could potentially serve you as an advisor, go check out ultimateadvisormastermind.com.

Brittany Anderson:

As always, we are so happy to have you here with us as part of the Ultimate Advisor community and we look forward to a continued relationship.