Speaker 1  00:09

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 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 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  01:00

Hey Brittany here and we are 100 episodes into the Ultimate Advisor Podcast journey that is 100 different sessions of delivering value to high achieving advisors, that is moving into year three of delivering impact to you, our wonderful advisor community. Since so many of you have asked what else we have available to help advisors, we are sharing with you the launch of our monthly newsletter, the Ultimate Advisor Insights, all you have to do is go to ultimateadvisorcoaching.com/insights, and you will get access to the not so traditional newsletter. Here we will share with you everything that has helped us to have nine figure AUM years since the founding of Ultimate Advisor Coaching. Thank you so much for making this journey fun. Thank you for the 1000s of downloads, we are lucky to have you on this journey.  Hello, and welcome back to your Ultimate Advisor Podcast. here with you today is Brittany Anderson, myself and Mr. Bryan Sweet, we're going to keep the conversation going, we're going to round it out, we're going to recap today, some of the best and simplest top business tips for you to continue on your path to growth, on your path to greatness, and on your path to serving clients at your utmost capacity. So today is going to be a little bit of a recap of the last few weeks. But we're really going to drive the point home and the theme of today is under promise, over deliver. If Mr. Redfern was with us today on the podcast, he would say and push us being over promise over deliver. So we're going to start with the foundation of what most people can grasp and get their hands around. And that's that whole concept of basically setting the expectation so that you can deliver an incredible experience. So again, this is going to recap a little bit of what we've talked about the last few weeks and give a little bit more context around just the whole idea of implementing some of the best of the best into your business when it comes to growth opportunities serving your clients and the like. So again, we have talked about this, I think we actually have a podcast out there from you know, a handful of months back that was called under promise over deliver. But driving this point home and really relating it to how it helps you run an effective business. Now I want to start by saying, again, we've mentioned we've had the great privilege, the great honor of coaching many, many financial advisors, and one of the biggest things that we hear, and not just from our clients who come on board, but from other advisors clients to is that one of the reasons a person has left their previous advisor is that over the years, they either weren't getting contacted at all, or their expectations were completely missed. So what they were hoping to have or get or gain out of the relationship was not delivered upon. Now think about this. I hope that you're not one of the advisors listening in that has lost a client to that. And if you are and you're listening into this podcast, it means you're trying to make your systems even better. So that's okay, because you're trying to solve a problem here. But in all actuality, I mean, really maintaining clients and keeping clients happy in our industry is not that stinking hard. I mean, we've commented before that we believe that you know, investment choices, all of that it's a commodity, right? Any one of us has access to pretty much the same stuff when it comes to the investment choices out there.  What makes you different and what makes you get long lasting one relationships with amazing clients that you come in contact with, is simply living up to their expectations. It's exceeding on what they are hoping for out of the relationship with their advisor. And it's just making sure that you stay in contact that you show appreciation that you get to know them on a personal level. I mean, this isn't rocket science, it's really simple. But unfortunately, some of these basic foundational things that we've talked about in the last few weeks are the things that have been missed. So even though we're doing a recap today, I highly recommend that if you're just jumping in on this episode, and you didn't listen to the last three weeks, I think you need to, we are going to do a little bit of a synopsis, we are going to round out what we've talked about. But to really get the meat to get the nitty gritty on what it takes to run a great business, on the simple and the best tips that we can muster. To show you how you can differentiate for your client and your prospect. It's important, I highly recommend you go back and listen. So again, to drive the point home the under promise over deliver. A lot of times what it means when a client's expectations have not been met, is that there were never expectations defined in the first place. So that creates a problem. And you know, I've heard from advisors before, they're like, yeah, it was a great experience. We have a good onboarding. And I'm like, Okay, great. So when you set the expectation with the client, you know, how often did you tell them that you'd be in contact? Well, I mean, we talked about how, you know, we do have annual meetings, I'm like, okay, so they're expecting to only hear from you one time a year? Well, no, I mean, we have events and things that we'll invite them to. Okay, well, did you tell them that? Do you have like a pamphlet or anything that spells out how you contact? Or how you stay in touch? Well, yeah, I think we have something I have to check, oh, my goodness, you should know that you should know from the beginning of your relationship, and your client should know exactly what to expect. How many times are you going to meet? That's all fine and good. But you know, what does the onboarding look like? How often can they expect to get an email from your company? You know, how often should they expect to get an invite to something right, you know, we lay it out there, we actually have an annual report we put together, where we lay out what our plan is for the year with events, we lay out the education opportunities that we're focused on for the team, you know, we talk about the cool things we're adding to the office, the client always knows what to expect. And then we deliver and exceed on that. That's what creates a winning opportunity for both ends. So all of that being said, Bryan, you have some amazing examples to how you've really built your business on this whole concept in doing what you say, when you say you're going to do it. So I would love for you to jump in and just talk a little bit about some of your own experiences that you've seen over your many years in business.

Bryan Sweet  07:56

Now, it's really kind of simple when you think about it, but that, you know, your last few sentences were really eloquent. But, you know, when you're talking to clients, if you do what you say, when you say you're going to do it, it sometimes doesn't take any more than that, because then you're meeting and or exceeding their expectations. So one of the things we talked about in the previous podcast is really determining what are the client's expectations. So we all have our own expectations, but what you will find is, a lot of times, what you want to deliver to the client is much quicker, much better than what the client expects. And so if you simply always ask your client, what it looks like, when it's done, when do they need it by and get that expectation from them, then one you know exactly what you need to do, and when it needs to be done by and in most cases, since you would probably have done it sooner Anyway, you can deliver that experience to them a day or two early and you look like a hero. And if for some reason, you know the date that they give you is right really, really short. Most of the time, you can probably have a negotiation with them to maybe extend it or if you know about it in advance and you know, somebody else has got a longer expectation. You can apply the time to them to you know, get theirs done early and and you got a little more time to get the other person's information done. So that's really, really critical. 

Bryan Sweet  09:40

And a couple other things that I think from the previous podcasts that we've talked about is just how important it is to hire people in advance of when you're desperate. So when you're desperate, you're probably going to hire somebody just to have somebody here and they're not really going to be the best fit. That's one thing, too, you want to have time to get the quality person. And that takes time. I don't know about you, but we don't have hundreds of people running around that we would like to hire. It's very rare that we find somebody that meets our really strict qualifications, if you will. And the team does an amazing job of filtering those people. But it's so worth it. You don't want to hire somebody, if they don't have the same vision, believe in the same values that you have. Ultimately, that'll come back to haunt you. And I alluded to the same thing, I one of the previous podcasts that we did, but if you ever run into a great person, and you don't really need anybody at the office, but you know, gee, that person's always impressed me, every time I've run into them, they've just made me feel great or done a great job, you really probably should hire them, and find work for them. Matter of fact, one of the things that we do in the office and try to have everybody in the office do this is if you're out and about you run across somebody who just really impresses the heck out of you, what I would tend to do would say something like this, first of all, Hey, I just wanted to let you know that how you handled this was really, really impressive. I don't always see this, I wanted to compliment you on how you handled this. Matter of fact, I was so impressed with this, that I just wanted to say this, I know you've got a great position. But I was so impacted by it, that if you ever are thinking of doing something different in the future, if you would, please call me and give me the opportunity to talk to you before you accept a different position, I'd greatly appreciate it. So then you've got some people that as they're looking at, maybe switching will automatically call you from time to time, and you're making that person feel good, and highly unlikely that they won't call you when they're looking for another position. And you never know, they may not like the job that they're in. And if you word it that way, you're not trying to hire them, you know, like when you're looking for something different, you may give them the opportunity to actually contact you sooner rather than later. So we've had really good luck with that. And just a good thing to keep in keep in mind. And then the other big thing, and I can't stress this book enough, but there's a book out by Ben Hardy, I think I've read it three or four times now. And then I listened to it on Audible. So maybe you know word for word. But Ben hardy wrote a book called Who versus How. And if you take that book to heart, it basically says, You need to find the people that are the experts in anything that you're doing. And so instead of you trying to figure out how do I do it? Or how do I get a team member to do it, and they have no clue themselves, so they got to research it and do stuff that they hate, if you can go out and find who's the best at whatever it is you're looking into. And then the question becomes, how can I work with them? or How can I collaborate with them, to bring them into my office so that their skill set gets applied to what we're doing? It's unbelievable the power that that has. And we've just had these amazing results with these collaboration since we've wholeheartedly jumped into that. And it's just been, I don't even know if I can tell you of any other experience that's had this magnitude, at least on me. It's just amazing. And as an aside, Dan Sullivan, who the book is actually written for Ben hardy wrote it, but it's really a concept that Dan Sullivan came up with, but Dan Sullivan, he actually came up with a Mastermind program on that concept of who versus how called the free zone. So it's so impactful. He gets people paying and $50,000 a year to learn how to do that and meet other people you can collaborate with. And amazing, but I couldn't stress that enough. So those are a few things. 

Bryan Sweet  14:14

And the other thing is just kind of taken off in what Brittany I mentioned earlier is, you know, having processes and workflows saves immense amount of time, and we all have the same amount of time. So those that can use it most efficiently do tend to get ahead. But in those situations where something does go wrong, and there becomes an error or a problem, never look at the problem as a problem. Look at the problem as an opportunity. And if you have that mindset for your team. When that happens, it's a good thing that the error occurred, because now you have a chance to make it better and make it a wow experience in the future but also make it better in the clients mind then clients and especially team members are never going to be worried about you know trying something new or doing something on your behalf because i might make an error you want them being as proactive but a lot of times they'll never do that if they're scared because I can make an error and i'm going to get in trouble we encourage errors but we look at it as you know we call it the experience transformer which is another strategic coach concept and we make it better once we have them and then just the perception in the office is immensely different so Brittany i'll turn it back to you if there's anything else you'd like me to come in let me know otherwise i'll let your elegance come through

Brittany Anderson  15:47

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 is 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 and 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 advisormastermind.com to learn more about how we can help you on your path and journey to growth.

Brittany Anderson  17:47

Elegance, I like that!

Bryan Sweet  17:48

Yes

Brittany Anderson  17:49

So, you know you're my wheels were spinning as you were talking and you know i think that it's so darn important to listen to it and embrace all the things that Bryan was just talking about but especially when it comes to you know some of the team stuff and hiring in advance and you know that "who not how" mentality I think is absolutely brilliant you know i think so many times and there's again studies around this. Dan Sullivan, strategic coach, is a huge proponent of the topic of procrastination where a lot of times when people procrastinate it's because they're stuck in the house versus finding somebody who can help make that processor system better so I think that's a really important one to drive home but to give some additional context to what we've talked about today I wanted to give a few examples so if you think about expectations so if you're listening to this going yep we get it you know we want to make sure that we're meeting or exceeding our client's expectations. We know it's important, I don't know that we really need to put a ton of time and attention to it you know I hope that's not what your head is but if it is think about some of these scenarios because I think literally all of us can attest to it and say that we've experienced it in some way. So when you think about if you go to a really nice hotel and you know Bryan and I were joking before this podcast because we may or may not have had this experience ourselves recently you know it's never good when you check into a really nice reputable hotel that's supposed to deliver this amazing experience and they don't have a room ready for you and or they put you in a room where people are already inhabiting it it's a little awkward but in reality if you go to a nice hotel and they deliver a terrible experience or really poor service or have team members there that act indifferent to any sense of urgency that is a really really unmet expectation right if you check into a nice hotel that costs a decent amount of money to stay in that's supposed to be creating this well rounded experience and that's not what you're getting it's frustrating, it's annoying, it totally misses the mark and the chances are, you're not going to go back to that. In construction.  You know, so many of us, we all have projects, we have things that we change in our homes and our business, our buildings. How many times out of anybody who's ever had any work done has a target date ever been met when you're in construction? 

Bryan Sweet  20:21

Never 

Brittany Anderson  20:21

Never! It never happens. It always takes longer I joke and my husband is in the construction world and has been since he was like 12 years old. And like whatever they tell you, they're just like eternal optimists. They're looking at it going, Yeah, I can get this done in a couple short months. And then a year goes by and you're like, Okay, those months passed a long time ago. And you know, it's just, it's the way of that world it's construction road, they tend to bite off more than they can chew, they want to help everybody & anybody. And things happen. Weather happens, certain materials get delayed, you know, whatever the case is, it's an unmet expectation. That's why people groan when you go into a remodel, you go into maybe new construction on a new home, there are always unexpected surprises. And a lot of times those surprises are not fun ones. So I think that's a great one to relate back to the importance, something as simple as closing on a home. So you go to buy a home, or an investment property or a building, or whatever the case that is for your office, you know, it can be personal or professional, you go into that closing timeframe. And there are almost always things that pop up in the end. And it can be something as simple and I'm bringing up this particular scenario for a reason. It can be something as simple as you sit down and you sign your life away for like two hours with the stranger across the table. And then you get the phone call the next day, and they're like, Oh, I hate to break it to you, Brittany. But there's three more pages that we forgot to have you sign. And you're sitting there going, I just spent my entire afternoon with you. And you're telling me that out of those 5000 pages, I had to sign you missed three, come on. You know, it sounds tedious. It sounds like no big deal. like Brittany, don't be lazy, just drive over there and go get the signatures done. But in reality, think about this, from the clients perspective, if you're trying to create an experience, like we talked about at the beginning of this little mini series, you're trying to create an experience, you're trying to pay attention to the small details, and you miss something as simple as a signature. That's a big deal. That's a nuisance. And that's annoying. And that's not the impression you're trying to leave when you're first engaging with a prospect. Or when you're going back to a really great client, if you want to stand out and be different than try to dot your i's and cross your T's initially, don't let those unexpected surprises dampen what would have been a really great experience. And like Bryan said, there are things that come up, you know, there's times with our team, or they'll make a mistake or something is missed. And we're fine with that. Because what that could mean is a process was lacking a workflow was lacking, you know, maybe from the back end, there's a new form that got added, and we've never been told about it, those things come up. And that's okay, as long as we address it for next time, as long as it's not something that's repeated. So I think that's something that's so important. And it's a point to drive home, that if you're truly trying to under promise over deliver or as Draye would say over promise over deliver, you want to make sure that those little things are not missed, because it makes you look bad when they are plain and simple. Blunt, to the point, don't make yourself look bad, you know, put the right systems in place, put the right processes in place so that you can avoid some of those. So you get the point here, you get the point of what it means to deliver on expectations, to not let the other party down, to not let yourself down and to not let your team down. You need to deliver what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it. And then everybody wins across the board. So Bryan, before I drive home a few key points. Is there anything else that you want to bring up, add comment, remark anything across the board?

Bryan Sweet  24:23

I thought you gave some great examples that we all have experienced. So I appreciated those and, and the hotel one as you alluded to is was a recent one, which, you know, you have these expectations of a premium brand and everything's supposed to be you know, quality and this particular one there was so many more balls dropped than you alluded to, but that one just stands out to me. But you know, you just never want to be like you said a nuisance to a client. And when you inconvenience them, that's a big deal. And so dotting your I's and crossing your T's and, you know, double checking, for example, did I have the client sign every piece of paper? Takes a couple of seconds, while you're there takes a lot longer when somebody has to come back and you got to set a new appointment, the client gets inconvenienced. So I think those are all amazing examples. And just great things to keep in mind. So you don't have them happen to you.

Brittany Anderson  25:24

You know, and Bryan, you just made me think of something too, when you talk about the potential for a mistake being made, or creating an experience that maybe wasn't ideal, like we both shared, it will happen again, it will happen in your business. And again, it doesn't mean you have bad people, it doesn't mean that they're dumb, it doesn't mean anything like that. It's just that things happen. But something that you can do to empower your team is to have them own those mistakes, and then challenge them by saying, okay, so if something falls through the cracks, or an expectation is not delivered upon, how do you take that scenario for the client and make it so their experience is even better than what happened initially, that's when you're winning. And that's when you're truly empowering your team. So you may have where you know, if something happens, where a couple signatures are missed, rather than being like, well, I'll just pop back in, we'll put it up front for you, we'll make it easy. You could take it to the extreme and be like, I'm going to send my team to them when it is convenient. And then we're going to send them a little wow gift off of a preference sheet, we already had them fill out so that we're saying, Hey, we're owning this, and we want you to enjoy this because we just so appreciate your patience. Then all of a sudden, they're looking at that going, Wow, they drove to me, they completely accommodated my time, my schedule, and I got a gift on the back end, and it's something that I actually like, then all of a sudden that mistake becomes something that is a positive versus a negative. So I think that's something else to be said, you can empower your team to make those decisions. I mean, we tell our team members, if there's times where not only when a mistake is made, but just across the board, you want to create an experience or you want to do something fun for the client, don't come and ask us if you can spend $20 on a book or a bouquet of flowers or, you know, some cool trinket that they enjoy. Like Don't even ask about it, you can just do it, we empower our team to just take hold and create those experiences. And then it's super fun, you know, when when the time comes for a staff meeting, or you know, we have a weekly email we sent out that we've talked about before, you know any of those things happen or occur, then all of a sudden, we're hearing the things that our team is doing. And we're going oh my gosh, like this is amazing. This is cool. This is a movement. This isn't just a company, this is something that we're doing to better people's lives. So I just had to drive that home, because I think that was important. Bryan, anything else you want to add there? Because I know you feel passionate, just like I do on that topic.

Bryan Sweet  27:54

You know that I just want to thank you for bringing that up. Because that is really the critical component of when an error occurs. Because sometimes you can have an error occur. And if you handle it, like you just mentioned, it turns into a huge positive thing, not only for you, because your systems improved, but you did something for the client that stood out and they're going to go talk to their friends and go, boy, this happened. But look at here's what they did, and talk very highly of you from a negative situation to something amazingly positive. You know, we didn't have that happen in the hotel experience. But we want to deliver that for clients. So thank you for bringing that up. That is critical. It's how you handle it, and how you make them feel in the end. That's the best part.

Brittany Anderson  28:42

So good. All right. So the top three takeaways from today's podcast episode, the number one thing is stop making it difficult, you know, make it as simple and set the expectation upfront with your client and with your team. I know we've talked about that a couple different times in the past couple of weeks. But it's one of those things that you need to hear it again and again, to really believe it and to implement it into your own practice. So set those expectations so that you're buying time for yourself, your team and you're creating a while for your clients. The second and I think Bryan did a great job of driving this point is to be proactive in your hiring, never hire based on desperation. When you get to that point, just like Bryan shared, you can make really dumb hiring mistakes, right? Because then all of a sudden, you're like, I just need a body versus being proactive and saying how can I scout for the best talent? And how do I make sure that we get the right people in here that are behind the vision that fit the culture that are going to create those experiences that we want created for our clients and then aren't just filling a space in a void because I'm desperate and I just can't do it anymore. You know, we actually take a really long time like to the point sometimes where our teams like okay, people make some progress here with hiring, you know, we will leave things pending and open because we want to vet the very best talent. And we put them through multiple interviews. And we require they shoot video, and we have them do different assessments. And there is a reason and a logic to it, because we will not settle, we won't settle for mediocre, we want the best of the best. And we want people that are going to add great value to the team. And finally, I'm so glad that Bryan brought this up. But it's the who not how mentality, you know, when you look at allowing yourself and providing the space to truly over deliver, and to create great experience is for your clients for your team. It's in putting the right people that can deliver on it. Because as amazing as you are, and from one superhero to another who thinks they can juggle all the things all at once, you cannot do it all. And you cannot continue to exceed people's expectations when you're trying to do it all yourself, or you're trying to, you know, work outside of what your true like unique core values and really core abilities are. So that who not how if you haven't read that book, you know, we have no affiliation with them, other than knowing them and knowing they're great people, you need to check out that book. It's Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan. They absolutely killed it drove a great point home. And I think every business owner needs to read that. And I want to leave a closing quote, we've shared this before. But I think it's so relevant. You know, if you're listening in on this, and you've been with us on this podcast journey for a while, you know, it can be overwhelming, it can be really overwhelming to grow a business and to make big decisions, and to be scared to implement some of the things that we're talking about. And trust me when I say, you know, we talk about this stuff now with confidence and conviction. But it's because we've been there. It's because we've done these things. And it's because in some aspects, we've learned the hard way. So I just want you to know, if you're listening to this, and you're actually carving time to further yourself, to grow, to become an even better advisor and an even better business owner, then that's a testament to who you are and what you're capable of. So don't let fear get in the way of making some of these really impactful moves in your business. So Keith Cunningham he wrote the book The Road Less stupid, he shares in their quote, and this is a powerful This is a dead ringer. He says For most people, how on earth would be meeting the person you could have been. Think about that. Let it sit, let it soak. It is so true. You listening to this are capable of more than what you even realize you are capable of growing a business that is beyond anything that your imagination can even fathom. And if you just take these little tidbits and you start implementing it, implementing them into your business, you're going to see fantastic strides, you're going to see what you're capable of. And you're never going to be faced with that fear of meeting the person you could have been because you've exceeded that person. So that's what I'm gonna leave you with. We're closing out this week's episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We're gonna catch you right back here next week. 

Brittany Anderson  33:27

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. 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!