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 practice's marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So what do you say? Let's jump into another amazing episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast.

Bryan Sweet:

Welcome to the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. With me today is a great friend and the master relationship builder, John Moshides. Welcome, John.

John Moshides:

Hi, Bryan. Good morning.

Bryan Sweet:

So John, tell me a little bit about yourself and a little bit about your Moshides Financial Group.

John Moshides:

Yes, we've been at it for 38 years. I just completed my 38th year in October and it's been a great ride. I was very lucky. I had someone that took an interest in me very early in my career and pointed me in the right direction. We found this wonderful business and like many of us, we were hatched out of the life insurance business through a relationship with the Million Dollar Round Table. The business has morphed into a full service financial services practice where we have done things I think somewhat different because some folks in our business got into asset management in lieu of their insurance training. In our case we tried to build a business in addition to, so for example, I view what we've built as having various profit centers.

John Moshides:

So insurance and protection products being one of the profit centers, asset management being another. We've done a pretty good job in developing relationships with our corporate clients and helping them with their qualified plans, 401Ks, pension, profit sharing, simples, et cetera. Then we've also learned how to do fee-based financial planning over the year, and we do delve a little bit into the group insurance thing, but that's not a huge part of our business. So I think we're full service and we tried to change with the times and point ourselves in the direction where we thought perhaps the business and the industry was going.

Bryan Sweet:

Well, that's excellent, John and I've known you for 22 years and one of the things that I will tell you is a great skill of yours is that you just have this way of connecting with people. So give me a little background on how do you do it and how do you get people to open up so well to you?

John Moshides:

Oh, well thank you for that compliment. I believe I genuinely enjoy people and I am always interested in knowing more about them, what makes them tick. So we spend a lot of time just talking about kind of the personal side of life before we try to have a meeting of the minds with respect to maybe developing a business relationship. I've always been very intrigued by ethnic backgrounds and my brother was a physician, so I was introduced to a lot of physicians over the years and many of them are immigrants. They come from various parts of the world. They say if you really want to educate yourself on what's going on in the world, is talk to your taxi driver, today talk to your Uber driver who often is from another part of the world and came out of maybe a less than ideal economic situation and is looking and recognizes the wonderful opportunity here in the United States.

John Moshides:

Often they're from different religious backgrounds and political systems. I'll never forget where I met a couple of folks from Nigeria. Nigeria is a country that is tribal in its history and there's a couple of major tribes there that as long as you're paying attention, you know that one of the larger tribes is an Igbo tribe. So I happened to be in an Uber one day was a gentleman from Nigeria and I asked him if he was Igbo and he almost fell out of the car. I think as I look back on that exchange that we had, it had something to do with some stranger in his life not only knowing a little bit about his personal history, his ethnic background, but having an interest in it and be willing to engage. So that to me has been a big part of developing personal relationships, is trying to drill down to the things that are important.

John Moshides:

I heard long ago someone say people you meet will forget most of what you tell them. They'll forget a lot of what you show them, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. So I try to use that as kind of the foundation of meeting people. As we all know, the rubber hits the road in this business with being able to develop relationships with people both personally and then trying to get them to sit down and have a business discussion with you and hopefully develop a business relationship. I just think it's that interest in the person across the table from you as a human being that starts the whole relationship building process.

Bryan Sweet:

Yeah, and I would totally agree, John. As I had mentioned earlier, I've known you for 22 years and that's because we're in a study group together and I've learned a lot just by watching how you interact with people when we're out for dinner. It's just truly amazing how you make everybody feel so special in a room, but also that you know literally everything about them and they're willing to share everything about themselves during a conversation. So I think all of us can learn a lot by how you do it because I think that's remarkable. I always like to kind of watch how you do things when we're out together.

John Moshides:

Very kind of you to say that. Thank you.

Bryan Sweet:

So the other thing, John, that you've been doing lately, which is relatively new and which is really kind of why I wanted to have you on the podcast today is you've created a morning routine and I think you've mentioned that it actually has been almost life changing. So if you could tell us a little bit about what that is and what you're doing, I think our audience would love to hear about that.

John Moshides:

As we all know in this business, we're exposed to so many successful people and different mindsets and if you're paying attention, you're buying books and you're trying to grow through the experiences of others. Literally a year ago, November of 2018, a book fell off a shelf that I had and it was called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod and it was given to me by probably someone in our study group, may have even been you, Bryan, and it obviously never got read. It stood on my shelf and later that month we went to the Genius Network, if you remember, and Hal Elrod was in attendance and he actually spoke for a few minutes.

John Moshides:

So in early January of 2019 I read the book and the basic concept of Mr. Elrod's Book is that there is six things that you should be doing every day before 8:00 AM. Now, let me first preface that by saying the only people that would be interested in reading a book like this or similar books are those that have an internal belief that personal growth never ends, regardless of your number of years in business, irrespective of your age. It is a mindset, and that concept appealed to me and I'd always been pretty good at setting goals and doing my best to review them, perhaps quarterly and aging my progress. But as we know are in a business that requires a lot of time and effort. It gets busy and we lose sight of things.

John Moshides:

So what Hal Elrod says is the six things that you should be doing every day before 8:00 AM, he kind of coined in an acronym, which is SAVERS. S-A-V-E-R-S, and here's what they stand for. So the first S is for silence. Silence is you begin each day, it was purposeful silence where you kind of have that sense of nothingness and you clear your mind and you deal with the stress of the previous day or perhaps what the current day's going to bring. What I have done with silence is I've always been pretty good at staying after my personal flexibility.

John Moshides:

I do a flexibility routine and I've learned to do some meditation breathing along with it and I can't begin to tell you what a great way to start the day because you're refreshing your mind, you're refreshing your body. Some people choose to pray, some people will get into full meditation, but I've kind of coupled it with my stretching routine. The A in SAVERS is for affirmations, and Hal teaches you in his book how to write these personal affirmations, which I have written six of them down and you read them every day. So you keep these directives as to how you would like to live your life fresh in your mind every day. So I wrote one on true success, what it means to me. I wrote one on relationships with friends and family. I wrote one on health, I wrote one on our business relationships, etc.

John Moshides:

So what should do is you write a couple of short paragraphs, but you read those affirmations every day and it's always at the forefront of your thinking. The V in SAVERS is for visualization. So we all have two, three, four projects that we either have on the horizon or contemplating whether or not we're going to get involved with them. So the visualization process is where you're thinking through this entire thing that you might embark on and you kind of try to envision the end game and the result and then put all the pieces in place. The people that need to be involved, the resources you have to throw at the effort and it either convinces you to move forward or you decide to shelve it for another time. So the V is for visualization.

John Moshides:

E is for exercise and he kind of put that in perspective for me. I've always looked after my exercise routine, but for those that maybe aren't as consistent as they want to be, he put it in this way. He said, "If you don't make time for exercise, you'll probably have to make time for illness." So I'll let that one sink in for a little bit. I can remember a successful doctor client of mine who I was challenging him to look after his health and his blood pressure was going up and he was borderline diabetic and he was explaining to me how he didn't have enough time to exercise. I saw him recently and he's on diabetic medications and still has fluctuating blood pressure and that just kind of rung home. It really made me think back to this concept, if you don't make time for yourself, it's very, very difficult to continue to be the husband, the father, the community servant, the business person you want to be.

John Moshides:

The R is for reading. You have to read something every day that contributes to your personal growth and you either are into these things or you're not. We often joke in our study group that we're kind of personal growth junkies and we all kind of subscribe to this kind of thinking. The last S was for what he calls scribing. It's journaling and I've always believed what you read. I always retain it to a greater extent when I write it down. So you have a journal and what I did for the first four books that I read this year, and I was never reading books other than industry books. I actually journaled each of the books. I'd read three, four or five pages a day. I'd highlight what I read and then I would journal the book. So when I put the book down or when it was finished, if I wanted to refer back to a highlight, I just pulled up my journal and it was there.

John Moshides:

So it's really had a profound effect on my life. It gets my head in the right place to start each day. I'm not missing many days. I think since January 28th of '19 I've only missed two to three. I keep track. I'm on 164 day streak right now and you can do different variations of it if you're on the move or a fear of traveling. He kind of encourages you to spend 10 times in each of those six activities. I find I don't need 10 minutes on all of them, but I need much more than 10 on a couple of them, such as my exercise routine.

John Moshides:

So sorry to go on a little bit of a tirade there, but I would encourage people that are looking to [inaudible 00:14:25] things together and stay positive. Dan Sullivan always says you're not old until you run out of future and this keeps your forward thinking and you always have a bigger future in front of you as a result.

Bryan Sweet:

That's excellent, John. When you mentioned the health, it made me think of a quote. "He who has his health has a thousand wishes. He who doesn't, has one." So another one to ponder. Maybe taking that one step further. So you've been doing it literally since the first of the year. What changes would you say you've noticed since doing this?

John Moshides:

Well, I found with experience because we've seen so much in this business that there isn't much that stresses me out other than huge demands on one's time. So that's what I'm wrestling with next. Number two, my exercise routine. I was always a three to four, sometimes five day a week person. I'm rarely missing a day. I'm more cognizant of my eating habits. I'm more cognizant of my relationships. I have a dear friend that unfortunately views the world or the cup As half empty and continues to send me emails about the destruction of things and what perhaps could happen to the U.S. if elections go in the wrong way.

John Moshides:

I'm at the point I don't even open the emails anymore because I just don't want to live in that world. Whether part of what he says is true or false, I don't want to live there. So I'm living in a different world now that I'm thinking in terms of bigger futures, in positive futures and talking to people that agree with that. There's plenty of great thinkers in this world today that think there's never been a better time to be in America. There's never been a better time to grow a business and even though there's all these new influences that are changing the way things are, if we are accepting of change and try to hold on and learn what we have to do to adapt to the future, I don't want to be a past based thinker. So I think that's the most important impact it's had on my life since the beginning of the year.

Bryan Sweet:

I would agree so wholeheartedly. I think we all have to be so careful in that positive thinking aspect because negative thoughts can cause lots of things to happen and change. So I appreciate that. John, you've always been very positive and optimistic, but since you've been on this process, since the first of the year, you even upped your game a little bit. So I want to compliment you on that and also thank you for bringing this to our attention, but also encourage people that if you don't do something like this, even if it's not all six, do something. Journal, read something positive to start your day and always saying something positive or something of gratitude puts you in the right mindset for the day. So it doesn't have to follow Hal Elrod's, but create your own system.

Bryan Sweet:

So John, one of the other things that I find that you are really good at and you've created this unique process on dealing with business owners and can you go into a little bit of a detail on how you define that niche and kind of how that works for your clients?

John Moshides:

Yes. I've always enjoyed working with family owned business owners and I've now been around long enough that I've seen many businesses transition successfully and many businesses that unfortunately did not have a good end result in the transition process. So I came up with a concept that I call the business of wealth. I learned from my strategic coach endeavors to always name things that you're trying to describe in detail. I put a flow chart together which recognizes what I believe is the thought process that most family business owners go through before they're ready to embark on a full blown succession plan. So usually it starts something like this and I've actually put a graphic overview together that I can actually explain to a business owner.

John Moshides:

Invariably at the end of the discussion they'll say something like, "Oh my goodness, that's what keeps me up at night." Or you know it's important to them when they tell you that that's what they think about when they're taking a shower. So just a lot of good thinking that happens in the shower. But step one asks them to take a look internally at where they are in their life cycle as perhaps the CEO of their company. So where are they today? Number two would be what vision do they have for where they want the company to go in the future? Could be different markets and obviously could be different leadership. Number three would be have they determined if they have the right team of professionals to help them get [inaudible 00:19:51] for a financial service professional? Number four, usually a business owner isn't ready to start talking seriously about transferring a business unless they're fairly confident that their own financial independence is well in hand.

John Moshides:

So we challenged them to think through if they have done planning to a level that they know that if they choose to start stepping aside or divesting themselves, that in addition to what they will receive from perhaps the sale of their business, that they are in a financial and a psychological position, that they can move into the next phase of their life. Step five is have they identified successors either from within their family, key employees, outside business relationships? Have they identified those successors and have they started to think through a strategy to help the business? So who carries the torch moving forward and how do we pass it on?

John Moshides:

The final step is normally I find that successful business people have good hearts and they want to make sure that this will tie in with creating their own lasting legacy within their family, taking into consideration their charitable endeavors. So the longterm impact that they can have on family, community, charities, et cetera. So when I go through that process, what I'm finding is we haven't talked about insurance, we haven't talked about product. We're talking about concepts where clients will say, "Well, can you help me get through this process and what role would you play?" Which opens the door to say something like, "We believe we can quarterback this process and work closely with your other trusted advisors to keep things moving forward and ultimately get you a finished product."

Bryan Sweet:

I would say that is a great benefit to having a unique process. But wouldn't you say that when you go through that with somebody, it also differentiates you from the competition that you might otherwise have on a particular case?

John Moshides:

Yeah, and I'd been thinking a lot about that, Bryan, because I'm finding as I get older and gain more experience and try to develop, I've always kept my eye on intending to upgrade our marketing to a more affluent prospect and ultimately a client and I'm finding that I'm building deeper relationships with successful people when I don't talk about financial services. When I talk about concepts like the business of wealth, or some of the things that you and I have been exposed to through our relationship with strategic coach in our study group and originally through the Million Dollar Round Table.

John Moshides:

Because even successful people, they're starving for concepts that can help them improve, to help them become better leaders or develop a better leadership team. We so often in our business, because we're exposed as the great speakers of the world, we take this stuff for granted and just if we sit and share these concepts with our clients, it just takes you to a whole nother level in their eyes and it's just a natural progression that they're going to do investment planning or insurance planning or succession planning with you because they can feel the value that you can provide them, their family and their organization. So I agree with that.

Bryan Sweet:

Yeah, it's definitely people are looking to get their problems solved and they're not looking to buy a product, if you will. I think that conversation naturally leads to gaining trust and people knowing that you understand their circumstances and that you can help them work through it and products may be a byproduct of it, but ultimately they feel that you are the person that can help them get there. So anything else on your unique process that you would be wanting to share with others to get them encouraged to maybe create their own?

John Moshides:

Yeah. If someone wants to charge a fee for any of these planning services and you haven't transitioned into asking someone to write a check for a service, it's a little more challenging than you might think. What I've learned is that you have to show people what they're going to get for writing you a check, a fee for a plan. So that's why I came up with the name. That's why I came up with the graphic overview. That's why there's multiple steps and so we try to show people what they'll get if they choose to come into our programs. So it's way that I frame it up and the first step is often what we call a free vision workshop to try to determine where they want to go with their life.

John Moshides:

They know this kind of a plan needs to support the life vision, but once we get through the, again, play on words, but the free vision workshop, then we invite them into the program. That's where they have to make a decision if they're going to write a check and then we try to at least establish in their mind the value in a visual overview of what they're going to receive if they choose to come into the program. So whatever that's worth, I don't think you just go out one day and say, "Yeah, I'm going to do a plan for you. Write me a check for 5 or $6,000." You've got to earn the right to ask for the check.

Bryan Sweet:

Yeah. Nowadays with fee compression and things like that, you really have to be able to deliver value and the way you do it is an exceptionally good way. So maybe one last question, John, before we wrap up the podcast today. Is there one thing or one piece of advice that you would give to a successful wealth advisor? What would that be?

John Moshides:

Well, if I could kind of throw out maybe a couple of things into one common thread, as I look back on what has helped and helped us grow over the years, I seem to be the type of advisor that would achieve a level then kind of stagnate for a while. But every time that I was able to make that quantum leap to the next level, it was always a people decision. It was always putting a person in place that could either relieve me of a responsibility or was better at a responsibility than I was. So I think investing in oneself and in one's business is critical. For those of you listening to the Ultimate Advisor Podcast, we have learned so much from Bryan Sweet over the years and what he's built at Sweet Financial Services because the round table used to say you're supposed to spend one third of your revenue on your overhead.

John Moshides:

Bryan Sweet was spending two thirds of his revenue on overhead because he had a vision of what he wanted to build in the services he wanted to provide. So in a lot of ways, being exposed to our study group and to Bryan and concepts we learned at the round table gave us confidence to invest money that perhaps we didn't even have at the time to try to become better professionals. So I think that's a mindset, right? You grow professionally with people, you grow personally because of mindsets.

John Moshides:

Then a couple of things that maybe I can close with is keep in mind, it's always about your clients. It's always about the teams. It's rarely about you. What's the best compliment one human being can give to another? It's their undivided attention. You must learn to become good listeners in this business. In the acceptance of personal improvement never ever ends irrespective of your age and what a great way to live life. So I thank you for your contributions into my personal and professional life with the rest of our study group guys and I hope what we've discussed today is helpful in some small way.

Bryan Sweet:

Well thank you for those kind comments, John. This has been exceptionally good and one of the things I love and I get to do this quite often is get together with people that think big and are growth minded and you certainly are at the top of that list. So John, I want to thank you for being here today. Been an exceptional podcast. Always fun spending time with you and thank you again for gracing us with your presence on the podcast.

John Moshides:

Thank you for this opportunity and it was good to see you last week.

Bryan Sweet:

Absolutely. Well, I look forward to talking to everybody on the next episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. Have a great day.

Brittany Anderson:

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