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, Brian 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.

Brittany A.: Brittany Anderson here, with your Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We've also got Draye Redfern and Brian Sweet, and today we are talking about the six characteristics. So week five out of a 12-week series where we're diving into characteristics of top advisors.

 So if you did not catch the first four episodes, you need to go back and get them. Because up to this point we have talked about how forward-thinking and being big picture focused is a characteristic of a top advisor, of how top advisors are focused on their long-term game. They are long-term greedy because they know that the long-term gain is worth the short term pain. They are growth-minded and they are flexible, and they're open to change. 

 That leads us up to today where the fifth characteristic of some of the top advisors is that they are self-confident and self-motivated. So what that means is that oftentimes, top advisors, they don't necessarily need somebody to continue prodding them along, but, and there's a big but here. It's because of their tenacity, because of their love of ideas, they do sometimes need someone to pull the reigns a little, right. We've talked about this in the last couple episodes about how top advisors, they can't help but be motivated. It's like there's something in them that just ticks, that they just want to keep getting even better. And to really expand that, it doesn't just stop at top advisers, it's top entrepreneurs, top business owners, as a whole.

 I think back as a personal example and I remember at one point telling my mom, I was like, "I think there's something wrong with me. I think there's actually something wrong me." And if you know me, hold the jokes. Okay. But realistically speaking, I always had this odd hunger and this desire that I just had to make an impact in the world. I had to do something that was bigger than myself, and as a young individual, as a teenager who did not have any sort of a entrepreneurship examples in my family, I was this kind of lone wolf. But as I've grown and as I've been able to be around more and more individuals, more and more entrepreneurs, these top, high level growth-minded individuals, it's helped me realize that again, some of the most successful, some of the top advisors in our industry, the top entrepreneurs, they are constantly internally-motivated. There's very little that could ever be done to kind of put out that flame.

 So Draye, I would love for you to jump in here and just share a little bit about the success stories that you have seen with advisors that we've worked with, who've really capitalized on our Ultimate Advisor Coaching Program. And the thing here that I want to kind of set the stage before Draye takes over, is that we're not talking about this for some big self-promotion. It's just a real life example of how the people who are self-motivated, who have that confidence, how they just tend to have more success with the things that they dive into.

 Draye, I would love for you to share some examples of some of the people we've worked with and how that's really been brought to light.

Draye Redfern: Totally. I think the people that we've ended up working with that are, number one, enjoyable that have achieved results, that are having success. Yes, they're self-confident and self-motivated, but they're also self-starters. They recognize and I think realize that the buck stops with them. Sort of complacency and mediocrity is not really words that are in their vocabulary.

 And you talked about a few episodes ago, Brittany, as far as like some people are totally fine. Like, "I've got half a million in production, it's me and one support person. I'm going to just coast at home." I'm just like, "That's it." But the advisors and the offices that are really having success are self-confident, they're self-motivated, and they self-start. They don't need someone to get them motivated. They don't need someone to get them up out of bed in the morning, and they're hungry more than anything from our experience, to take on more. And not just more work or more clients, but take on more knowledge, and that comes in the form of books, or courses, or insights, or resources, whatever the scenario may be, to take on more because they're a self-starter.

 There's a quote, "That success precedes confidence," and as you start to get some success, you start to build the confidence and some of the things that go with it. And I think that if that is psychologically true, then the individuals who are actually self-starting and having a little bit of success, that confidence sort of goes in line and that helps to keep them motivated. I think that sort of flow of things really can tee an individual up for success, whether they're a financial advisor, whether they're second in command, whether they're support staff, because I think those facets are really just innate in all of us, as humans, regardless of even the financial advising industry because really, they all matter. The individuals who do have success sort of embody those characteristics.

 I guess the second part of that is if they're self-starting and they're confident, how are they staying motivated? Once they have some of that momentum, what's keeping them there? What's keeping them in that consistent motivated state? And I think that Brian can shed some light on this because we both have a lot and could probably go back and forth on books and ideas of courses, but I think that having had a longer career and having had some really wonderful success, I happen to know what some of Brian's secret weapons are. Well, I'll let him tell you about it because I think that it really is, if you piece these puzzle pieces together it really does become an unfair advantage.

Brian Sweet: Well, I wouldn't call them secret weapons, Draye, because everybody would have access to them. But anyway, I appreciate that. I think it's kind of interesting because this is really a topic that I love and enjoy. I love being confident. I love being self-motivated. But I will tell, you there's a couple of things that I think if you did these on a regular basis, if you don't feel that you're as motivated as you'd like to be or you're not as confident, doing a couple of things that I'll talk about will be very, very helpful.

 First of all, I do love to read, I love to read motivational books, business books, how to get better books because I always pick up an idea, or two. Or, as Brittany would say, "Too many ideas." But all things that are little tweaks on how what we do we can do better.

 A thing that I would tell everybody to try this, and there's actually a book about this called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. And I just had a guy in my study group read that book and he's kind of had this transformation in his life. And really what it is, it's creating, for the most part, morning rituals. I would tell you, I would take that another step and do an evening ritual, also. But what it is, it's a list of things that when you get up first thing in the morning and everybody could be different, you might want to do exercise, meditation, write in a journal, write your day's activities out, write some gratitude. Everybody's are a little bit different, but it's something that you do every single morning to start your day out well, to create the right mindset. Then if you also did the same thing in the evening, you would end your day just as well as you started your day.

 Part of my evening ritual is reading books, so when I have some free time, not that I don't watch TV and things like that, but I do purposely take a couple of days a week and read a book, something that typically does help my business career. I'm not a big reader at this point of fun books, if you would call it that, but I actually think these are fun. I think if you don't find that if you just did that every single day, that that didn't bring you some different way of thinking and motivation to do better, I would be thoroughly surprised.

 My friend John, I'll call you out here, John. John [inaudible 00:09:55], he's in my study group, has just had this remarkable transition. He gets up an hour earlier now and does these things, and his outlook on life, it's always been fantastic, but it's like out of this world now. And he loves speaking on the subject and actually gives talks on this now, and it's just had this remarkable effect on his life, his family life, his career.

 And it's really nothing more than this morning ritual that you set up, that you just religiously follow and do each and every day. So mine includes listening to Darren Hardy each morning. I like to write gratitude in my little planner. I read a motivational quote each morning. I like to think of positive notes I can send to the team each day, things like taking your vitamins is important. In the evening, I have exercise, book reading, listening to podcasts, those kinds of things. You can even put in things like complimenting your wife every single day, that happens to be on my evening ritual.

 So Brittany, I've kind of given you a couple of things that I'm doing, but one of the things that I've also found that when I'm self-motivated and I'm self-confident, if I can provide that energy and that input to the team, they have better days, and they have better lives. So maybe you could comment a little bit on your thoughts on how to implement that for team members.

Brittany A.: Yeah, I'm so glad that you brought that up because my wheels are sitting here spinning, and I think there's a really important concept to touch on here, and that's that it is great as a top adviser, as a high-performing high level entrepreneur, it is so important to just envelope yourself with all of these great resources, to dive in to find the things that motivate you. I think that's one interesting part before I kind of touch on the team stuff, is Brian brought up a few different examples of things that are working for individuals.

 There was some language there that said, "Find something that works for you. What does that look like? What is your morning routine? What is your evening routine? What keeps you ticking? What keeps you motivated?" One thing that we have done, because Brian is an avid reader and the bottom line is, is not everybody's like that. There's some of you that are listening to this podcast right now that I know for sure are thinking, "I don't love reading, right. I maybe don't retain it." Whatever the case is, that's not how your brain is wired to learn. The good news in that is that there is this thing called Audible. There's a couple different resources you can use where you can listen to essentially the new version of books on tape. So anybody who says they don't like reading, I'm always like, "Yes, but I have a solution for you."

 That being said, what we have done with our team members is we've actually implemented a book club app Sweet Financial. So what we do is every single quarter, a book is assigned and people have that time period to read it, but not to just read it and be like, "Yeah, yeah. That was great, thanks," but to bring some of the best insights and ideas that they got out of it to a team meeting.

 Number one, by having a dedicated time to discuss some of these learning opportunities, to discuss the book that we've assigned, number one, it's an accountability factor. "Hey, did you read it?" Number two, it really is cool to see how you can have a team of 10, 15, 20, 30 different people all come with completely different takeaways from the exact same book, from the exact same training video, from the exact same article. It's amazing at how peoples' brains are really wired to find whatever it is that they're searching for, right. So there's that brain thing, there's that brain power, where you don't even realize your subconscious is looking for solutions to problems that you instinctually have. We absolutely encourage, Brian has always been a great resource because he does love to read because that is such a huge thing in his life, he is a great resource to be able to say, "Hey, here's some that I think would be great for the team. Here's some that I think would be great for this particular department."

 So you as a top advisor, as our listeners, I really encourage you to think outside the box a little bit when it comes to the education you're providing yourself and what you're putting in your brain. Make sure that you're sharing that with your team and even better to take it a step ahead, is have an implementer on your team that can actually take, "Hey, here's a great book," and then they put a process to it. That's what happened in the office is Brian's like, "I love to read. I have all these resources. How do I ensure that people are actually getting it, that they're getting something out of it?" It's like, "Well, let's put a process to it. Let's put a system to it and let's help everybody be accountable."

 And from my perspective, I always try to choose a topic that's going to be, number one, a really good read, right. Because there are some books out there that, there is great content, there's great concepts, but it can be a dry read. That's hard when you're trying to implement it with the team., so you find things that are maybe a lighter read, and you don't put any sort of boundaries around what they're coming to the table with, as far as what they found.

 What I like to do for structure in those meetings is I say, "what were your few biggest takeaways? So three biggest takeaways as an overall theme for the book, what are the top few things you'd love to see us implement as a company? And what are the top few things that you would like to implement, individually?" Which that individual kind of flip on it, really lets you do exactly what Brian just talked about, is deciding what works for you. Because what works for me in my life, in how I do business, and how I interact with people might not work for the person in the office next to me.

 We all have different ways of approaching things and I think that what the core of this all is, is you have to find what keeps you motivated. One of my favorite quotes of all time, it's from Zig Ziglar and it says, "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily." So soak that in a little bit, let that really sink in. If you want to stay motivated and you want to embrace that characteristic of a top advisor, find the stuff that works for you, find what works for you and put a process to it.

 Brian gave the example of The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, and how that has changed one of his really good friend's life, how it's made just such great strides. Brian gave some examples of things that work for him.

 The thing to take in here, when you're looking at encouraging your team members, or even maybe loved ones, maybe family members, you're encouraging people to embrace motivation, embrace self-motivation, embrace self-confidence. Just because it works for you, doesn't mean the exact process is always going to work for them. But by sharing resources, by focusing on motivation daily and sharing those with the people around you, they're going to find something that works for them. And that's when you have leaps and bounds made in your company because your team is all looking for ways to self-motivate cause you are leading by example. So that is my soapbox for the day.

 Before I wrap up, I'm going to step off that box and say Brian, Draye, anything else you guys want to add?

Brian Sweet: Just one other quick thing. These rituals I talked about is really just creating proper habits. And one of the things that I have or I look at every morning is just a saying that says, "I get to versus I have to." And if you think about that, there's a lot of meaning to that. So we're very fortunate and that we get to be in this industry and we get to do these things to get better, versus I have to do it. Well, you don't have to do it, but I get to do it because I want to, and I want to get better. So I think if you looked at that mindset, that's an interesting way of helping you create those habits a little easier.

Draye Redfern: Yeah, I love it. The only other thing that I would add is that, around the habit idea and concept is the importance of sticking to that routine. Everyone has always said, "That it takes 21 days to reinforce a habit, and actually, that's the minimum amount that it takes. It actually takes 21 days to 66 days on average to actually solidify a habit and perpetuity in your life. And the importance of those habits, as Brian uses an example of his friend John, can create so much momentum.

 Everyone's going to be different in having a morning routine or evening routine. I have morning routines, evening routines that literally primed me for success and help me wind down every day. I can't say enough good things about it. So that being said, I just wanted to basically just reaffirm what Brian was more or less giving to the listeners today because there's some really good stuff there. And The Miracle Morning is a wonderful book and [inaudible 00:19:30] concept.

Brittany A.: That's awesome, and all these resources, the things that we talk about, we're going to be putting some of the resources into the show notes. So if you're scrambling, if you're trying to rewind, whatever the case is, we've got you covered. We are going to document some of that into the show notes.

 To wrap up today's episode, there are three key action items that I strongly encourage you to take immediately. The first one of those being, define what it is that keeps you in a state of constant motivation, right. What keeps you in a constantly motivated state? Whether it's through daily habits, certain rituals, like Brian threw out. Is it exercise? Is it meditation? Is it just by having a schedule in a certain way? Define what it is that keeps you motivated, put those resources in place so that you are constantly keeping yourself in that motivated state.

 The second is to choose some of the resources that you have seen to be most impactful, whether it be in your life, in your business, and encourage your team to read those, to absorb those, to really share in those resources. Don't keep it a secret, as we like to say at Sweet Financial. Don't keep it a secret. If you found a great resource, absolutely share it with your team. And what that does is it encourages them to do the same amongst each other.

 The cool thing that I see oftentimes, for example at Sweet Financial, is that because we are constantly, Brian and I are avid readers, we're constantly sharing resources with the team, I now get some of those team members sharing resources with me. So that's cool. You love seeing that. You're like, "Yes, they are getting it. They're buying in. I love this." It really helps improve your culture, so choose those resources, encourage your team to read, to dive into them, and create a system that helps them to be accountable to those commitments so that they can also participate in that self-motivated state.

 And the third thing, Draye, I'm so glad you mentioned this because I think it is absolutely relevant, is creating the habit and sticking to it. All too often, we fall off of that bandwagon so just be consistent with your commitment and that ties back into finding what keeps you motivated. You have to find what works for you, share it with others so that they have a multitude of resources, and then you stick to your committed method. That is the key characteristic of the top advisor that we talked about today in being self-confident and embracing self-motivation.

 That wraps up the fifth episode in our 12-week series in focusing on the characteristics of top advisors. We're going to see you back here next week on the ultimate advisor podcast.

Draye Redfern: Hey, there. Draye Redfern here, and before you go, we just wanted to say thank you for listening to this week's episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. If you enjoy this episode, then please subscribe to the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or Spotify, and be sure to rate us five stars on iTunes. Because when you do, you'll be entered into a monthly drawing for our Ultimate Advisor Coaching Program, which is a $2,000 value. And if you would like to access more of the show notes, additional resources in our free premium content, then please visit ultimateadvisorpodcast.com. We look forward to seeing you in the next episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We'll see you there.