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 up, 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

Welcome back to your Ultimate Advisor Podcast. Again, here with you today it is Brittany Anderson. And with me, I have Bryan Sweet. And we're gonna keep this conversation going on some of the simplest, yet most effective business tips for you in your business. So today's topic, you know, we rounded out the last couple of weeks talking about creating an amazing first experience, or amazing lasting experience. We talked about paying attention to the small stuff. Now let's get into the nitty gritty, let's talk about what it means to run your practice like an actual business. So I think this is a really big one. Because what we've seen as we coach advisors, as we have people come through our programs, and we get to meet these wonderful human beings that are looking to serve their clients, they're looking to grow their business, they're looking to take more time off, one of the things that happens is there's this turning point or this tipping point, as an advisor, you may have been for some period of time a one man or one woman operation. And then all of a sudden you see something bigger happen, you get to maybe some revenue point in your business, and it becomes time to hire other admins, it becomes time to look at your financials, it becomes time to look at your processes. You know, last week we talked about workflows, we'll talk about it again today, because it is so stinking important. You all of a sudden have to start developing service models, you may need a more defined structure to your appointments, your scheduling, how you meet with clients. I mean, just with the regulations that have come down the pipeline in the last couple years, if you don't have service models, and you don't have a streamlined methodology for how you reach out and talk to people, and what that framework looks like, you may be getting yourself into some trouble, right? That may be an issue for you and your business. Again, when you get into this, the majority of advisors are not getting into this business saying, gosh, you know what I really want, I really want to manage a big team. And I want to manage processes and technologies. And that is just really what I am in hearing what makes me tick. That is not what we hear. I don't think that's ever what we've heard. Typically, they're like I got in this business, because I want to help people, because I want to, you know be of service to people when it comes to their wealth when it comes to their finances. I want to be a sounding board, I want to be the logic in their lives. So those are the comments that we hear not that they want to figure out how to run a business that's complex and has all these needs. And you know, you're looking at making sure that every aspect of your life is covered because you built something that's bigger than yourself. So that's what we're pushing on today. And that's what we're going to talk about. And I thought there was nobody better to talk about that than somebody who's been in it for maybe a few more years than I've even been alive. I mean, not to call anybody out. But Bryan has been in business for over 40 years, and he's been able to see and come from the place that some of you listening are at where you be you are that one person shop and then you start rolling and you're adding people and adding complexities and it becomes something that's it's scary, but it's also exciting. So Bryan, I'd love for you to talk a little bit about your journey. And I had to pick on you a little bit there. But sharing your journey, sharing the experiences and just talking from a perspective of somebody who has built multiple incredible businesses.

Bryan Sweet  04:42

You know, I know it was just your birthday and you turn 35 but I never quite thought about it in that perspective that I've actually been in business longer than Yeah, that's kind I'm starting to feel old today, Brittany.

Brittany Anderson  04:56

I'm sorry, I just had to throw it out there.

Bryan Sweet  04:58

That's okay. I actually feel like I started when I was five. So, I'm in my mid 40s. Anyway, this is this is truly a topic that I think more financial advisors need to pay attention to. Because as our businesses grow, this gets to be quite a very profitable business as everybody knows, but you're actually talking about large sums of money. And if you don't run it, like a business, it's pretty easy to be able to waste or not use money efficiently. And I'll talk about several things that I would suggest we've done that have been very helpful and in the hopes that maybe some of these things might resonate with you and be helpful. But as Brittany alluded to, obviously, 40 some years ago, I started out and just like everybody else, you know, I filled out applications and stayed up late and called people and did appointments and, you know, sharpen the pencils and dusted the desks and all of those things. But one of the things that I guess was fortunate to understand was, how did I make money. And I made money when I was actually in front of a client. So I think if you think about what are the activities that you're doing, and maybe code them 123, ABC, a being, you know, revenue generating ideas, and C being pushing paper, and you know, all of those things. I think you really want to, it should be a very high goal for you, and 2021 is to delegate every single one of those, because first of all, you probably don't like doing those duties. And if you think about it, there's a lot of people out there that love doing what you hate to do. And it's just a matter of finding them. So the key thing is to hire people that have those skill sets, to free up your time, so that you can do what you're really good at that generates revenue. So if you're making $500 an hour or $250 an hour, and you have to pay somebody $25 an hour, how many times would you do that exercise in a day? Well, you'd probably do it as many hours as you were awake, because, you know, you're making $200 extra an hour or $450 extra an hour. And, you know, it doesn't take long to figure out that that math works pretty good. So I think one of the issues that people lose sight of is they go, Well, that's an expense, you know, I hire somebody that's going to cost me some money. And that's totally wrong. Because when you hire somebody, if you get them doing the right duties and free up your time, it's really an investment. And I would tell you, all the people we have are so amazing and free up my time. And literally, I just do my unique abilities every single day, and everything else is done by somebody else. That's one much better, two does it much better, and three actually likes what they're doing. And so it's a win win situation for everybody. The other thing I will tell you is, you really need to hire people before you actually need them. And what do I mean by that? Well, a lot of times, what we'll do is we'll just keep, you know, pushing along and people and paperwork and you know, the team just kind of working extra hours. And what happens is you start burning out your team and you start getting them frustrated. So you really want to keep a pulse on your team and how they're doing and when they feel overworked. And before they get to that level, hire somebody. And a quick thing that I've always alluded to in this has never been a thing that's backfired on me. But even if you don't need an employee at this time, everything's working. But you run across somebody that's utterly fantastic, hire them. And the reason is, it's hard to find great people. And I can guarantee if you think about it, you could find them work to do that would free you up and ultimately you have an amazing employee that you're just being proactive with.  So don't ever take that you know, with a grain of salt, it's really really important and great people are really important to have and so the other thing that the our team, I was terrible at, but the team has gotten really good at it, is when you hire people just be very careful, it's you know, slow to hire quick to fire concept that really makes some sense. And so don't get somebody just so you have somebody in the chair, make sure it's the ideal person. And it makes a big difference because, it takes lots of time to train people. And you don't want to have to do it more than once. And getting great people just allows you to confidently delegate, as Brittany mentioned, I'm fortunate I get to take a lot of time off. When I take time off, I never call the office, I know things are going well. And when I come back, I'm usually just shocked in a very positive way, all the things that got done, I wasn't even aware of. And we've made such great progress. But it's because I've got the right people. And I'm confidently delegating, and one of the things, and I was slow to learn this. But when you delegate to somebody, I would give you this tip, there's a tool that Dan Sullivan has called the impact filter. And essentially all it does is it says, you know, what does this project look like when it's done? And you know, what are the eight key things that would need to happen for this to be a success. And what I would tell you is if you have access to an impact filter, use that. If not, you can easily create something like that. But if you create this tool that you give to the team member, and you tell them what you want done, and these are the key components that it would have, when it's done. That's all they need, you don't need to tell them how to do it, because they probably have a much better way to do it than you do. But just get quality people and get the heck out of their way. And you will be surprised at what they do. Because they will exceed your expectations beyond belief. If you give them the freedom to do it their way. They have to know what it looks like. But if you give them the freedom, they'll figure it out. And they'll do it in the best way that they possibly can. And I know Brittany's gonna chat, probably more on this down the road. But one of the things that helps immensely to get the most efficiency from the team members you do have is the creation of processes. And we talked a little bit about that in the last podcast, I think Brittany probably talk a lot more here in a minute about it. But the key thing is workflows within CRM. And we've been spending an immense amount of time on what that looks like, and how do we make improvements. And where do we gain efficiencies. And it's really exciting about the things that you can accomplish once you do that, but it just assures you that you don't miss a thing, that all your key team members that are involved in a process, get it when they supposed to get it, you can monitor their success and doing it on time. And it's all automated. So very big time saver and works immensely well. But that's also going to be a critical component to your growth in the future is use of some things like that. And there are more and more and more technology items that are coming down the pike, and just utilizing as many as you can to efficiently give your team some extra tools and horsepower is really, really critical. So maybe at this point, Brittany, I'll turn it back to you. And you probably have some amazing things as always on workflows and other items. And I'll let you share with us.

Brittany Anderson  13:56

Yeah, so you know, there's a couple things that I want to push on a little bit here is that I will talk about workflows in a little bit more depth in a moment. But I think the other thing, too, when you look at all the different components that Bryan's talking about here, you know, with your team, giving them the autonomy to make decisions, you know, allowing for the growth. I mean, sometimes as advisors, we almost get in our own way, or as the business owner, it's like we stunt our own growth because we won't let go of some of those bigger decisions or those bigger things. So I think that's something that's important to note. But also I mean, there's a question that I get asked, I bet you almost every advisor that's come through and we've coached, they asked the question around budgeting, and part of that is because of growth part of that is because, Okay, well what how do I know when to add a new team member? Or how do I know what to invest in when it comes to my growth? Is it technology? Is it marketing? Is it you know, what is it that I put my money at and how do I know that I'm spending it smart? The thing that I will say and that I always say to the advisors that come through is number one, there's not a magic formula, you could literally source 10 different resources, when it comes to organizing a P&L when it comes to budgeting when it comes to growth projections, and you're probably going to get 10 different answers, they'll all net generally the same effect. But if there was a magic formula, we'd all be doing it the same, we'd all be growing by 50% every single year. And it would be these leaps and bounds and amazing things would be happening.

Brittany Anderson  15:37

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

Brittany Anderson  17:37

The thing is you just have to choose something and go with it. You know, we have general guidelines that we like to stick by when it comes to looking at, you know, margins around adding team members, when it comes to percentage that we allocate towards, you know, marketing towards technology, you know, they say in general, you should stay around six to 7%. For marketing efforts, we would argue that there are times that you compress your margins in order to have greater success on the back end. But again, you've got to be tracking what works and what doesn't. So, I mean, I just wanted to we don't have to spend a ton of time on the financials. But I wanted to point that out. Because it's a question we get asked all the time. And it really backs into the topic of technology and workflows and determining you know what's important. So there's this bigger picture thing when it comes to running your business that you have to have figured out before any of the stuff we're talking about today makes sense. Before anything we've actually talked about in the last couple weeks, makes complete aligned sense. And that's having a very clear vision for what you want your company to look like. Because without that vision, it becomes really, really hard to tell you what we would suggest or recommend for planning for you know, when it comes to making decisions, setting targets and goals in your business, when it comes to investing in marketing and technology and people in the kind of people in the different positions on your team. Because the bottom line is is what works for us may not work for your office. What works for your office may not work for us and that's okay. You just have to understand and live by your bigger vision. So for us at Sweet Financial you know, we know that a big long term, you can call it a BHAG a big, hairy audacious goal of ours is to be nationally known for the Dream Architect Process. You know, that's no secret. That's not something that we keep, you know, closed up behind the scenes. We believe so strongly in what we do and how we serve clients and how it impacts their lives and how it makes them think outside the box that we're like we need to get this message out on a grander level because we know it's going to help people. We don't just have confidence around it, we have conviction behind it, because we've seen what it can do. 

Brittany Anderson  20:04

Now what happens there is it allows us to then create a business plan. Because everything that we do, every decision we make we're measuring against is going to get us to that bigger goal. You know, we follow. And we've talked about this before we follow the Entrepreneurial Operating System, EOS, great book by Gino Wickman. It's called Traction. That's a great foundational roadmap and how to create a business plan, and how to set goals that make sense, and how to meet and move forward progress towards those bigger goals. And in turn, it helps you actually start running your company like a business, which is really fun and exciting, when you have a roadmap to follow, it becomes less overwhelming, it becomes less stressful. And it allows these topics of softwares and marketing and people and all of that to make a little bit more sense. So you know, the thing to really push on or think about here is you when it comes to workflows, when it comes to all these little kind of components that adds up to a business, the thing that I want you to embrace and understand is that you are capable, you're capable of so much, so much more than what you even realize. If you don't start setting your intentional vision, your intentional goals, targets, whatever word you like, or don't like, it doesn't matter. You don't start setting intentionality towards your future and what you want, it is really easy to get taken off course. And that's something that we I mean, we still talk about this, that Sweet Financial, because we know that's a true thing. I mean, it's one of those things where we've joked before about liking every shiny object that comes our way. Whereas we can actually be our own worst enemy, where we get great ideas that we know, if you implement them, they'll work, we get excited about something. And then two weeks later, we're introduced to something else. And it's like, oh, well, now we got to do that when we didn't even have time to implement the other thing in the first place. So a great vetting process and a great way to run your business as if you know what your vision is, and you're so stinking clear on that. All of a sudden, these decisions become a lot easier. It's the Roy Disney quote. I know Draye and I have both shared it before. And I'm going to adlib it right now I don't have it in front of me. But essentially, it's that decisions become a lot easier when you've identified your values, it is a lot easier to make those bigger decisions for your business when you know exactly what you're moving towards. So backing into that topic of workflows and how this actually matters and contributes to that bigger picture. Bryan talked and I thought get gave great context around if you're making money for your business by being in front of clients. So there's two fold things, not only are you impacting their lives in a really positive way, but you're also making money doing it. I mean, that's a huge win. And if you could do even more of that by hiring people to take care of the stuff that you're just maybe not exceptional at, that's not a good use of your time, you know, that's a win. But the other thing that happens when you have the technology in place to free up your team members from having to worry about forgetting some of the minutia stuff, all of a sudden, you're playing on their skill sets too. Because you're automating all the stuff that really doesn't matter that literally a software can do that a computer can do for you, and taking your brain power of your team and letting them get creative and how they serve clients, and how they support each other in how they help you move towards that bigger picture and bigger vision just by investing in your future and getting the right software that has the right workflows. I don't think I have to preach on this anymore. I don't think I have to show the importance of it, you know, it becomes something that it actually allows your team to serve in an entirely different capacity, an entirely different level, by just putting a software in place that lets you automate the things that are repeatable, right. So that's the easiest starting point because people often say okay, Brittany, okay, Bryan, Draye, you guys have talked so much about workflows. You've talked about technology, and automations, and all of these wonderful things. Where the heck do I even start? 

Brittany Anderson  24:25

The starting point, when you look at implementing workflows in your office, when you start with streamlining, it's to look at the stuff that can be repeated. If you have, for instance, your onboarding process. This is one of the most popular ones that we end up sharing with other advisory offices through our coaching is when you onboard somebody you want that to be an experience that is repeatable. You want that to be a while every time and you do not want things to fall off course. So what that means is you need to create a process behind it, you need to have an actual system, a checklists for your team to follow, which then gets put into a workflow. So instead of your team having to remember and count manually, okay, so it's been 14 days since they signed paperwork. So now I have to make sure that I send this particular packet of information. And then four more days past that, I have to make sure that this person sends a gift on the team. It is insanity! You don't want your team thinking about that stuff, let the software do the work for you that it was built for. So that's something to think about what is something that's repeatable start with those. And I always say start with no more than three. You cannot, I don't care if you have a team of 40 people, don't do it to yourself. Because what's going to happen is, you start with these three processes, you are going to quickly find it literally touches almost everybody in your company, it touches everybody in your firm. So it's important to just start smaller, because I'd rather have you do that and be like, Oh, we've got this, we can pick up the pace versus going all hands on deck and being like, Okay, well, we have, you know, this many departments and this many people, and they could technically implement, you know, three each, because it's really only one per person, I will tell you time and time again, it has been shown that's not the case, it creates overwhelm, it makes it so people don't actually get the processes done, nothing is implemented. And then everybody's frustrated, because your team is overworked. They're totally burned out. And you're sitting there going, why the heck haven't we made any progress? It's because you bit off more than you can chew. Start small and you can always speed up, versus going 100 miles an hour into a brick wall. I know that's a horrible analogy, but it's what it is. So that's something that's really important. And you know, if you followed us for a while, if you've been listening for you know how many different episodes we've had, now, we're over a year into this podcast, you know that we talk a lot about living in 90 day increments, I can not stress this enough, when it comes to running your business like a business, you need to find that tangible timeframe to live in and to set actual targets and goals that your team can get 100% behind all hands on deck. And everybody's working towards the same mission, the same vision, the same targets, and really what it boils down to, and that 90 day focus, and all the stuff we've talked about with your team, and building your business and all that good stuff. It's focusing only on what you can control. And I know Bryan would attest to this, we have talked to so many advisors through our coaching, that when you ask them, alright, what are your goals for this quarter? Like what's hot right now? What's going on the next 90 days? They're like, Well, you know, we want our aim to be at this level and we were looking at our production, this is our goal to be at this level. And you're sitting there going, Okay, that's great. Those are great things to back into. But can you actually physically control adding $20 million to your AUM pipeline? Can you control that? No, you can't. Because if we all could, we would all be having $10 million plus, you know, revenue producing companies. It's just not the reality of it. But what you can control is how many appointments you are calling for and scheduling in a given week, what you can control is how many people you're reaching out to, or your advisors are reaching out to you in a given week, month quarter, you can control how many pieces of content you're putting out into the world, you know, that are going to get in front of people, those are the things you can control the AUM and the production is a side effect of those efforts. And sometimes you're going to have lags in those kind of lag measures where you know, you might have a ton of activity, and you don't see the results of that until the next quarter. What you need to be tracking is are people doing the things that are going to drive those bigger targets. Okay. So this is a topic that I can absolutely go on and on and on and on for years and years. And I know you're going to get tired of me. So I'm just going to hush. Bryan, anything else you want to add before I go into the top three takeaways in closing? 

Bryan Sweet  29:09

Brittany, that was exceptional. And I think you might have a little bit of passion for that topic. I don't know. It just kind of sounded like maybe that was

Brittany Anderson  29:16

A little.

Bryan Sweet  29:16

Okay, I got that. I have just two quick things that just maybe expand on a couple of things that you so eloquently stated. That was amazing, actually. But one is, you know, the reason why you want to deal with efficiencies and workflows and and you know, doing things that are your unique abilities is that the only thing that you can't get more of his time. So the way you do better is to do more in the time that you're given. We can get more money, we can get more everything but not more time. And I think that's one of the big things that business owners forget. There's 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in an hour. And all of those factors never change. And you can never get back. What you know has happened in the past. So you got to make every minute count. And all of these little things that Brittany so eloquently talked about are so important. And then the other final point that I would tell you I see business owners forget is the following. They know how much money they make. And they kind of keep tabs on it, but they don't spend enough time on their profit and loss statement, and all of the components that make up the profit and loss. So they can, you know, say I made this, but what you need to look at is, what are the trends? Are you finding that some expenses are getting to be a larger number than they were in the past? Well, you should be aware of that, because the what's the why behind that. And if you don't look at trends, things can get out of control very quickly, and all of a sudden, you've got a real negative event happening. And if you keep an eye on it quarterly, semi annually, at least some consistent method, you will catch things that will cause you to do something before it gets to a state where it might cause some real financial pain. So just pay attention to the financials, it's part of running a business. And it's a very important part. And if you just, you know, think about this in a, maybe a little story form, but if you know, you generate a million dollars of revenue, and you find out that your expenses are 5%, higher than they, you know, have been historically, you know, that gets to be a pretty big number, that's $50,000, that's probably more than you paid yourself for quite a few years when you started. And or, gee, maybe that would cover the cost of another team member that I could have that would free up my time to do more revenue generating items. So just have a little system a little tickler file that says, hey, check my financials, and what are my trends on my expenses? I think you'll find it very helpful. Back to you, Brittany!

Brittany Anderson  32:21

I think that brings up a great point, Bryan, and and even, you know, as you grow, and as you add people, you could designate somebody on your team to produce that report for you, right, like, you don't necessarily have to be the one that knows how to run all the reports in QuickBooks or whatever system you use. Now, it's a good idea that you know how, because it's your livelihood, and it's your lifeblood. But you know, in reality, you can designate other people to produce that for you. But Bryan, so right, you got to be putting your eyes on it. So important. So the top three takeaways, if you didn't listen to anything else that we've said, I think these are the three to really drive it home. Number one, again, we have talked about this in previous podcasts, if you've been with us on this whole journey, this isn't new, but it's important. And it is to create your vision for what you want your company to be. You know, it's that adage of what do I want to be when I grow up? I don't think we're ever going to grow up here at Sweet Financial, because that's just no fun. But really deciding, you know, what do you want your future to look like? You know, what do you want? What kind of team do you want to run? Who do you want to serve? What is it? What impact do you want to leave? What legacy do you want to leave in this world? And then back into it, back into what your business plan is, because then you're working towards a commonality, it makes attracting clients easier, it makes attracting team members easier. It's just so darn important. The second is to find a system find a technology that lets you create killer workflows cannot press on this enough, I don't think anything else needs to be said about it. It frees up your brain, it frees up your team, and it creates more efficiencies than you can even fathom. So find a system that integrates that works for you. There's so many out there, it's really up to you to decide what aspects you need of a CRM platform and what you may not, but workflows are essential. The third point is to do the stuff that you're great at that generates results and delegate the rest. You know, Bryan pushed on this. We've talked about this in previous podcasts, but really making sure if you can be in front again, you can be in front of a client, you know, you're generating activity around that you're you're showing results from those efforts. You're creating a wow experience. What are you doing filling out paperwork? And what are you doing doing your own scheduling? I mean, I've met many successful advisors who are producing seven figures and they're still scheduling their own meetings. And they're sitting there like, Well, you know, it doesn't take me that long. It's like well, really, you could easily be in at least two other client appointments in the time that it takes. So that's something that you know, just focus on what you're great at focus on what gives you energy, delegate the rest out. That's where you're going to generate those big leaps and bounds. And that's where you actually are able to scale your business in a whole new capacity. So that rounds out this episode of your Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We will catch you back here next week as we round out some of these simplest and some of the best top business tips for you to continue your growth. 

Brittany Anderson  35:32

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!