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. 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 adviser podcast.

Brittany A.: Welcome back to your Ultimate Advisor Podcast here with you again today is Brittany Anderson. I have got Draye Redfern and Bryan Sweet and we are going to just piggyback jump right in off of last week's episode where we rounded out the conversation by talking about the importance of having a vision and holding true to it.

Now, we have shared throughout the course of our whole entire podcast journey, we've mentioned multiple times, multiple different resources on ways that you can create your own vision or your own vivid vision for your company. Now, vivid vision that was coined by Cameron Herold, he has a whole book called Wait for It vivid vision. It'll help you create it. It's a tool that we have used at Sweet Financial. We've shared this with many of the different business owners, other advisors that we've worked with under our ultimate advisor mastermind, under ultimate advisor coaching. And time and time again, we hear that it is just a really impactful piece to help them create it.  

 So before we get into why you would get clear on to that future, I do want to share so that I don't forget, it's at the top of my mind is that there are actually, there's companies out there, there's businesses out there that can actually help you to create and create this beautiful picture of what this vivid vision is. Well, instead of sitting down and just writing out a yellow legal pad of all the great things that you want to accomplish in your future, there's actually companies out there that can help bring that to life for you. So you could view a quote audio interview, you could fill out a document and then they help you bring it to life. So we have had actually a guest on our podcast previously. It was Jennifer Hudye of Conscious Copy. She is one that we would highly recommend.

 She is who helped us at Sweet Financial to create that. So that is one that we wanted to throw out there before I forget because they didn't exceptional job of helping us with ours. So Brian, I think that you would just be such a good one to kick off this conversation because I think that from you, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think that in us creating and going through the exercise of creating that vivid vision for the future, of having that three year look forward, that it's actually helped all of us in the business to be able to make more informed and almost quicker decisions. So Bryan, I'd like for you to kind of take and share about that journey.

Bryan Sweet: Yeah, I would agree with that Brittany. And let me give you a little background. Going back, I would tell you that there's been so many times that I've been my own worst enemy and there's been lots of ideas or things that I really thought we should have implemented. But the eight inches between my ears caused me to overthink and say, well in a little town of 10,000 oh you probably can't do that. And consequently I delayed it or waited. Now, the thing that I've realized over the years is that everything that I've ever tried, we've actually accomplished, and all I did to myself was delay some really great results. But I think part of it was I never had a clear vision of where the company was going. So I just haphazardly let myself talk myself out of things that would have helped us move things along much, much quicker.

 And so having a vision is like having a roadmap on how to get from where you're at to where you want to go. And for those of you that have ever traveled, which is probably all of us, if you don't have a map, it's pretty easy to get lost. And sometimes it takes you quite a long time once you get lost to get back on track. And all that does is delays where you want to be, when you want to be there. And so I just think it's so good to know what your future looks like. And as we talked about in previous podcasts, everything that you do has to be for your vision, not your neighbor's vision, not the top advisers vision. It's your vision. And a quote that I heard just recently that I think is really helpful on why visions help you actually accomplish things is it went something like this.

 When the why is strong enough, you'll find the how. And I will tell you that's so, so true. And what I've found is the more time we spend on getting clear on what our vivid vision is, it's become so much more easy to differentiate myself in what is really a crowded market. And everybody sells the same product, has the same mutual funds and ETFs, and the only thing that's going to make you stand out is how you can differentiate yourself. And if you have a clear vision, it's going to make you do whatever it is to get to that vision we happen to use three years. And when we realized that the company we wanted to be, and who we wanted to serve, it was so much easier to also say no to those things that didn't help us move forward. And also to say yes to the things that helped us get there.

 And so the motto is if it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no, excuse my French. But that's our motto and I think it's just really easy to look back on what it is that you've written. And as Brittany had mentioned, ours is really pretty. It's got pictures and it's kind of makes you want to look at it and makes it fun to look at it. So I would tell you if you've not ever done that exercise, three years happens to be a really good time period because it's not too far out where it seems like it's impossible. But it also gives you 12 quarters to do things. So if you get a little bit off track, you've got time to get back on track and not feel too bad about it. So I know Draye, you've got some other comments to expand on that differentiation, which I think is so critical. So I'll turn it over to you.

Draye Redfern: Certainly. So the vision is an interesting component when it comes to marketing because if you have the vision dialed in and you know who you are, which is actually critically important to actually know who you are and what it is that you're actually offering. Easily overlooked though, if you know who you are and who you serve and how that vision plays into that, it makes it significantly easier to market. So as an example, it's Sweet Financial. There are no financial advisors, there's none of them because those individuals are boring. Financial advisor Diamond does it, Sweet Financial, they use dream architects. Trademark process, you can't go knock that off. But that in of itself plays into the idea and the vision of Sweet Financial, helping individuals architect their dreams. That is the vision that they want to basically convey to the world.   So when it comes to your marketing, if you have your vision very clearly defined, it makes it easier to actually implement into your marketing. And it's funny because we have conversations like this often and most people when you ask them what their vision is, they can maybe rattle off like a goal and it's usually a revenue goal. and it's just like, well, I'd like to be making $1 million two years from now. Well, that's not really like a vision. That's a goal. And so a lot of people can't even really clarify what their vision really is. And so there's a quote from Napoleon Hill that I love. He says, a man without a definite purpose is as helpless as a ship without a compass. Meaning that once you have this vision clearly defined for your life, it makes it significantly easier to have that vision be that guiding compass in which you make decisions.  

 So as Bryan said, if it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no. If a option or opportunity or something comes up and it doesn't fit in or doesn't follow the path of that compass and your ship. It's a hell no because it doesn't fit your vision. Now, the interesting thing about being entrepreneurs is that we're all like squirrels, squirrel and we're like sideways and we go do 15 other things that we think will fit into meeting our goals. But again, a goal is usually shorter term, whereas a vision is longer term. And if you have an actual vision that's concrete, that's written, that's posted publicly in your office and you could follow Cameron Harold's model and go three years just like that, that's a wonderful way to act as an additional qualifier to additional ideas or ways to may come up in your marketing or your decision making.

 And once you have it dialed in, it's really becomes much easier to convey your true differentiation to the marketplace because I'll tell you right now, in the financial services industry, most financial service providers are all the same on paper. When it comes to an ad, they're all selling financial future or financial security. There's no real vision that is actually conveyed in their marketing or in their messaging, making it really easy for you. So if you actually take the time to craft your vision, trust your vision and use that as your compass is we're going to be real easy to use that as a differentiator in your market to attract more clients, have a deeper relationship with your existing clientele. Because that in and of itself is a massive, massive differentiator in the financial services market. So that being said, Brittany, why don't you sort of take this and the vision component and sort of really tie it up with a pretty bow on how you can get your vision if once it's executed or created and sort of adapt that to maybe the team component side of things.

Brittany A.: Yeah. So there's actually a couple things that both you and Bryan made me think of as you were sharing. And this is something that I think it could be really interesting for you to do in your business. So tune your ears up audience members to this little tidbit. One thing that I think we've seen at Sweet Financial is that by getting crystal clear on our vivid vision, on who we are, but also more importantly who we best serve. So Draye talked a little bit about how at Sweet financial we are focused on helping people live their dreams. So by getting crystal clear on that, what that means is that we are not necessarily the best fit for somebody who only wants a transactional relationship, who only wants investment management. Because what's going to happen is they're not going to see our true value.

 So here's the test for you is that once you get a crystal clear vision put into place and you know who it is that you serve, you know where you can be an absolute rock star in someone's life. Start looking at the people who ate cat out. Start looking at the people that leave you. Now there's a natural attrition. Even if you have exceptional client service, if you are completely a client centric practice, you're still going to have some form of attrition, some form of clients leaving you.

 Now, what's been interesting is that what we see is that we're starting to measure and say, okay, why did this person leave? What were the characteristics? What could we have done better as we've talked about in the past? And what we find is that the majority of the time they were just not in line with the vision we have for the company and therefore they didn't really care about the services that we offer.

 So what happens then is that instead of taking it personally and feeling like we completely failed somebody, in reality, when you can look at it from this different sculpt, from this different perspective, you're able to say, hey, that actually makes sense for them and for us because they value something that is different than we value and they're going to go somewhere where they are going to get what they think they need for themselves. And that's okay because all of our marketing, all of our communications and how we ask for referrals is all geared around the audience that we know we can absolutely serve best and provide a ton of value to. So I really encourage you that once you get that vision in place, start measuring what happens. There is a saying out there and this is a Mary Morrissey comment again, I shared something last week and I'll share it again at the end of this episode.

 She talked about how when you get so crystal clear on your vision that the universe basically naturally starts getting rid of the things that are not going to help you get there. There are things that are going to start happening that are going to leverage you towards and propel you towards that bigger vision for your future because you have made a decision, you have decided on what you want to do on the legacy you want to leave and the people that you want to serve. And everything else kind of gets out of the way. So that's why this whole conversation on vision is so important because it will help you get to that bigger picture, to that definition of success that you have created for yourself that you will always continue to tweak and improve and move towards. It's going to help you get there faster. So before I shift into the whole team comment and then round us out with a few key takeaways, Bryan, I think there's something else that you were going to add today.

Bryan Sweet: Yeah, and it has made me think of this when Draye had mentioned, when you talk to a lot of other advisors and you talk about their vision, they might mention a goal. And so what I did is I just pulled our vivid vision out and I thought it might be helpful to the listening audience to give them a little bit of an idea of what ours looks like. So first of all, ours is eight pages long and it talks about things like what are the company values, what's the team look like in three years? All down to my each department. So how many advisors, what's the marketing department look like, what's the wealth management team look like? How many partners am I going to have? We talk about culture, we talk about systems and processes. There's a whole two pages on our dream architect and what that looks like.

 We talk about some sub things that we do, which is our women initiative and our business initiative and what does that look like, how many offices will we have. Also talks a little bit about what we're going to be doing for sales and marketing and where our business will be coming from. What media will we be in and there's a really small, about 25% of one page that talks about financials. So the financials is actually the smallest portion of our vivid vision because if you do everything else in the vivid vision, the financials will exceed whatever you've listed. And then at the end when we talk a little bit about how we're going to give back. And then I have a little bit of what's called the founders feeling, which is just describing a little bit about, and I can just read it to you.

 It says since founding the company in 1987 I have made it my goal to help people achieve their definition of success when it comes to their financial lives. It is our dream here at Sweet Financial to help people understand how their money can work for them, inspire them to build a bigger future and empower them to create the retirement of their dreams. This vivid vision reflects our dream as a company for the next three years. Will you help us get there? Now, reason I wrote that is every team member has a copy of this and we highly recommend whether they do it or not, I don't know, but we highly recommend that they read this every morning and this is part of my morning ritual is to read this because the more I completely understand it and believe it, the more likely all of the things in here will come true.

Brittany A.: I think that's so powerful and just hearing that language. I mean, think about, as Bryan said, he reads that every single day. I read it at least once a week, if not every single day, depending upon what's going on in the office. But think about that. Put that in your head every single week. At least make a commitment, let's just say Monday mornings to start off your week. That's how I start my days. So think about the impact of that. Think about how that could change the trajectory of your week and all of a sudden it makes the fires, the fires that you are stuck putting out sometimes, just being a business owner, being a second in command, whatever your role is, and listening to this. Think about how it makes those so minimal because you know you are working for a grander purpose. So it goes back to the folk that I shared in last week's episode from Mary Morrissey.

 Trust the vision, not the circumstance. You're constantly aligning every decision towards that greater vision and that's impactful. And sometimes Brian said, for our team, we have an amazing team at Sweet Financial. I feel very, very fortunate for the people that we have brought on board. But the thing is is that it's not always like that. You don't always get 100% buy-in and that's okay to a certain extent. I'm going to leave that hanging there and you can wonder why in the heck I would say that it's okay for people not buy into your vision. I'll just leave it hanging so that you have to feel it in next week in order to check that out.

 But, we'll talk about that and how you can build, you can absolutely build the best team around you who supports your vision 110%. Who helps move you towards the bigger goals that you have for the company you have for them that helps get them outside of their comfort zone. You can do all of that with ease as long as you make some tough decisions initially. So again, I'm going to leave that hanging out there. We're going to touch on that next week. So before I round into a few key takeaways that people could implement immediately. Brian, Draye, any final comments you want to add?

Draye Redfern: I just want to say there's so many insights from this episode that Bryan and Brittany have shared that it's been fun just even just to listen. And just go along and hear and then we adapt similar things in our company. But there's so many things in the differentiation of really decipher and what is your vision and what is your goal is a wonderful way to get started on the right track. And I highly recommend alongside Brittany, Bryan, Cameron Harold's book on vivid vision because I can give you the framework and the structure to help you execute upon this.

Brittany A.: I love it. So I know that it probably seems like if you've been following us through since day one, episode one, we talk about vision a lot. And the reason that we're doing this is because we know that the majority of people write it down that they need to get to it someday and that someday just keeps getting further and further into the future. So that is the reason that we constantly are going to have little reminders, little tidbits to move you towards that bigger picture because it is so incredibly essential for your business and for keeping you in that positive state of mind. So the first action item or takeaway is to create your map. I think that Bryan's analogy earlier about how it's really easy to get lost if you don't have a map, if you don't have some sort of GPS to get you there, right?

 So I think it's important to create your map, to really hone in on what that vision looks like and to decide what it is you want for your future so that your team, so that your clients, so that everybody can align and get behind you. The second component to creating this vision is to use it to differentiate yourself in your marketing. Put language out there that is not like everyone else. and Bryan has a rule at Sweet financial If everybody else is doing it, we're not doing it. It's pretty cut and dry and simple. You want to do things that others are not because that is how you stand out and that is how you attract the ideal client who again you know you can provide immense value to and who is going to absolutely become a major raving fan because they love and appreciate what it is that you are doing.

 And the final takeaway is to trust your vision because it's so important, because you will, I've seen this happen with clients that we've coached before, with businesses that we have dealt with, is that when we start putting these visions into place, there have been times where team members leave, where clients leave. And the thing is is that if you can trust your vision and you can trust that bigger picture, it always comes out in a really positive way. So that is the final takeaway for today, is to trust that vision and know that everything is happening for a purpose to align you towards your bigger future and the goals, the targets, the exceptional life that you have set in store for yourself, for your business, for your team, and for your clientele. So that rounds out this week's episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We will catch you back here next week, be ready for some good stuff.

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 ultimateadvisorpodcast.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, the clients can't stay away from. We look forward to seeing you back here in next week's episode.