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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 us systematize and automate your practice's marketing to effortless attract new clients. So what do you say? Let's jump into another amazing episode of The Ultimate Advisor Podcast.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Hello, and welcome to back to your Ultimate Advisor Podcast. Brittany Anderson here with Mr. Draye Redfern and Mr. Bryan Sweet. And we're going to spend the next few weeks talking about how you can end your year strong. So we're going to really hone in on three of the biggest topics that have really helped us keep our focus at Sweet Financial, that's helped Draye keep his focus at Redfern Media, and that in turn helps us stay focused with Ultimate Advisor Coaching as well. So the first one that we're going to hone in on is just on the topic of staying focused. Easier said than done, I completely understand that. So one of the things that we really want to push the button on is that the shiny object syndrome, or the squirrel syndrome, whatever way you want to call it, can derail even the most disciplined advisors. So one recommendation that we have for maintaining a consistent focus, especially rolling into the end of the year, the wrap up of a big year, is to really hone in on your top three.

 So what three things, if you were to accomplish them, is going to give your business the biggest catalyst for growth? What is going to give you the biggest success? What is going to move the needle the most? So that's what we want you to focus on, and that's going to actually help you keep your focus. So Bryan is actually going to talk a little bit about how he has experienced what we like to call, or what Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach calls open file syndrome, how that can maybe take you off focus or off track. And then we're going to circle back and talk a little bit how you can hone in on that 90 day window and your top three things. So Bryan, I'd love to hear from you since you have experienced all of the above that I just mentioned.
 

Bryan Sweet:

Yeah. I'm just laughing to myself. I think if you looked at that term in the dictionary, open file syndrome, my picture might be there because I'm probably as guilty as anybody on that. And for those of you that don't know that, it's just being kind of obsessed with every little detail on: Has this been done? Has that been done? And probably driving your team absolutely nuts with followup and asking questions, when in reality, they've got it handled 99.9% of the time. So we've done a lot of different things to help me get over that. And fortunately, I think I'm better. I'll maybe defer that to Brittany later, but I think I'm much better at that.

 But one of the things that helps that is to have a system on how you focus on those top three things during any 90 day period of time. And we use a process called EOS, which we've talked about many times, the book Traction, amazing process. And we'll talk more about it in this podcast and also some of the future ones we talk about this topic. But one of the things that has also helped me in addition to the traction or EOS platform is that I created my own planner. And in my planner, I write down everything that I have found over the years that I need to track, follow up on, calls to make, emails to make. And if you haven't ever looked at that, you might want to give that a whirl, everything that you find is important and that you want to look at every single day.

 So I've taken bits and pieces from lots of different platforms, so from one methodology, I write down my daily big three, so these are the three things that if nothing else happens that day, if I get those three items done, I've had a very successful day. Then I write down other tasks, and then next to that I write, those are staff items. So these are those little open file things that I write down, and if after a period of time, I find out that I hadn't heard something on it, it allows me to reference back and double check on it, which normally they're already checked off by the time I have to get to it. But that's been very helpful. And I have a little tab for emails and calls. And each morning, I'm very ... I have my morning routine, as we've talked about, where I write down my items of gratitude.

 And at the top of the page is just a quote that I can start each day with. And so I've found that very, very helpful. So if you are listening to this and you're having some difficulties in keeping tabs on what you need to do any particular day. Just give some thoughts to: Where have I found something I like? And make piecemeal four or five of them together. And we just work with a local printer that puts these together in a spiral bound notebook, and they're 90 days at a time. And it's absolutely been amazing how that's kept me on track and minimized the followup that I need to do, just because it's all in a format that I'd be very comfortable with. So getting back to that open file syndrome, Brittany, is there anything else you'd like me to elaborate on? Or at this point, maybe you can pick on me a little bit since that is a scenario that I might be really bad at, but getting better.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Oh, you are improving greatly every single day. It's all good. So you know the thing I would say and that i want to add to is that, a lot of times, especially rolling into the end of the year, your brain starts thinking about two things. Number one, it's thinking about all the things that you didn't get done in this past year. And number two, it's thinking about all the opportunities you have going into the next year. So it causes this internal unrest because there's just so many things on your mind. So like Bryan said, sometimes all it takes is just getting it down on paper. Those things that you have open questions, or concerns, or maybe you just have a simple question on it, and you just can't get it out of your head. Sometimes just the simple act of writing it down gives you the satisfaction you need to know, hey, this really isn't that big of a priority after all. Or now that I got it down, now I actually remember that we did talk about it, and we decided not to do it, or whatever the case is.

 But I want to just press on kind of looking forward too. So that takes care of some of the back end, the things that you're thinking about that didn't maybe happen, or that you just don't have closure to. But what happens often is that high achievers get a little bit too excited about the new year, and it's totally fine. I'm not picking on you if you're one of those people because I can relate. You start thinking about all the wonderful things that are going to happen in the next 12 months, and it's exciting and it's new and it's shiny and it's beautiful, and nothing's interrupted it yet. But what can happen is it can actually cause you to skip over the current time period. So the time of year when people stress themselves out the most about not getting enough done, they actually shoot themselves in the foot because they're so busy thinking about what they're going to do in the coming year. So it's like this crazy catch-22.

 And what happens then is it can actually leave you feeling defeated when the end of the year rolls around, because then you're sitting there going, "Oh, no. I just spent all my time thinking about what I'm going to do in the next year," because that's what everybody tells us to do. Right? You come year end, and you're like, "Okay. Well, now it's time to start planning for the new year," which is kind of crazy and a little bit counterproductive I think, to what actually could cause you to have even more success and even more focus. So I'm not going to give that secret away just yet because we're going to talk about that in the next couple weeks about how you can do that a little bit different. But that's just one point I want to push on is that this is why it's important. This is why when we talk about keeping focus, it's not just because that's what everybody says. It's because there's true merit to it.

 So we want you to, yes, set up for a great and successful next 12 months. But let's knock out the next 90 days first. Right? Let's keep that focus, and really living in 90 day increments, if you're doing it right, you shouldn't have to spend a ton of time on that year long planning. And that's part of the system that we've been building at Sweet Financial, that we are helping others build through Ultimate Advisor Coaching, and really allowing people to have a little bit of a freeing feeling coming into the end of the year. So if you have plans with your family, and you have the holidays to celebrate, and you have all the good stuff that comes with that, you can actually focus your time and attention, and know that you're still making great strides in your business because all you're doing is closing out another 90 days, and you're focusing on your top three things that are going to be the biggest catalyst for your business.

 So Draye, I know you have some really interesting tips on how you maintain focus that's maybe shifting gears a little bit. So I'd love to hear from you on what you do, and what you do with your team.
 

Draye Redfern:

Yeah. I love this topic so much, and I was literally ... I mean, I was on mute when you were talking about high achievers focus too much on the new year. I was laughing because that's me, absolutely. So there's a couple things that I do. I'm in my 30s. I've got two kids, running a company. But I also try to set big goals every year, and so doing Iron Man within the next six months. And so these are not things, that in and of itself takes 20 to 25 hours a week to train for on top of running a company and having an actual family life, where I'd prefer to be present. So there's a couple things that I do. I've used Bryan's style like that, where I've made my own planner. I've done all sorts of different things.

 The one I'm currently using is Michael Hyatt's Full Focus Planner, and that helps me. It's not perfect. I don't think there's a perfect planner unless you're doing what Bryan's doing, that works really for you. But for me, I set three big things every week, the three big non negotiables for the week. And those three non negotiables, maybe they're chipped away at each day. Maybe it's all a single day that you sort of block those things off. And one of them for me is personal, so I'm going to either work out, or get six workouts in a week, whatever the scenario is.

 But I also, each day of the week, I chunk it down to the three big things, the non negotiables of that day, that if nothing else got done besides those three things, the day was a win. And I've found that leaves me feeling more accomplished at the end of the day because it's so easy to get caught up in the minutiae of the to do list that is literally never ending. My to do list is disgusting how long it is. But with the three big things, it makes it easier to see I got something done today, I feel good about it, and I can go home and keep my head held high knowing that I moved the needle, or whatever the scenario is, so that's just a couple of things.

 But I also track everything. We were talking a little bit about this before the podcast started. It's been one of the biggest things for me over the last, I'd say three to four months, is tracking everything about my day, so that's body weight, happiness, how I'm feeling, whether I journaled or not, how many ounces of water I took, how many hours of sleep, what my sleep score was, all of these sorts of things, and there's all sorts of apps, scales and things you could probably use to measure or track some of those things. We don't need to get into it now, but that's been a real big thing to see where the patterns show on a personal level. Maybe if I'm feeling the most productive, I'm actually getting just shy of seven hours of sleep, and I'm onboarding 110 ounces of water a day, and I start my day out with meditation. And actually, that's one of the things when I feel most productive and I feel the best about my day, that's a pattern that's shown itself over the last few months.

 I would've never know that, had I not been tracking some of these things. So that's another thing. I think I'm just staying focused and realizing what your optimal focus will be. But there's a couple other things there on the daily side of things. If something sits on my to do list for more than two days, I'm not focused on it, I probably don't care about it that much, and so I delegate it. Not saying I shouldn't focus on it, not saying it's not important, but there's obviously things that we all focus on, and the thing that we'd like to do more than the things that we don't liked to do. Sometimes we've got to follow Brian Tracy's advice and just eat that frog. And other times, that to do list is just going to keep getting longer and longer, and you've got to delegate. And so that's some of the stuff around staying focused. We could maybe talk a little bit about new nootropics and supplements, Brittany, if that's something, maybe we save that for another day, but that's a whole other maybe rabbit hole or can of worms that we could probably open.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Why don't you give, Draye, just because I think it's so interesting, just give maybe your top one or two insights when you look at nootropics, and some of the things that you do. I think our audience would be really interested in it.
 

Draye Redfern:

So I have a book in the front of the office. It was co written by one of our contributors, one of our co course creators, Jay Abraham, massive book. I mean, the thing is probably two and a half, three inches wide. The title of the book is called Paid to Think. And at the end of the day, that's what essentially you're paid to do and what I'm paid to do. We're not cranking levers. We're not turning knobs. We're not plowing fields. Nothing against any of those, but we're paid to think. And so how can you think at the most optimal levels throughout the day, even when maybe you didn't get just shy of seven hours of sleep, and you didn't meditate, you didn't onboard 110 ounces of water that day, what do you do?

 Well, nootropics are basically just supplements you can have or take that help to increase your brain or cognitive function. So one of the ones that we use a lot is called Alpha Brain, there's also a product or a company called Four Sigmatic. They make a bunch of mushroom coffees and elixirs, not hallucinogenic mushrooms. This is very, like I said, it could go down a rabbit hole. But mushrooms that help, like lion's mane, et cetera, that help to actually produce the chemicals in your brain that allow you to think clearer. So we also do smart teas from the Republic of Tea, great little things you can take throughout the day to just sort of help to give you a little bit more clarity, maybe reduce some of the brain fog, and just keep you sharp, because like I said, at the end of the day, you're paid to think.
 

Brittany Anderson:

I think that's so interesting, Draye. And you were actually the one that introduced a lot of these different things into my life. And one thing I would say, and I have no affiliation with this, so I'm just saying because we were just talking about it right before the podcast. If you just tried one thing, that Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee, totally amazing when it comes to upping your focus, so I think that's something that's really interesting. And Bryan, I think you had a certain something around your neck earlier. That might be a cool thing to share with our audience too.
 

Bryan Sweet:

Yeah. It's something new that we learned from one of the participants at Genius Network, and it's called Hap, H-A-P-B, as in boy, E-E, Hapbee. And what it is, it deals with, I believe it's magnets. But you put it around your neck, and there's six settings, one is focus, alert, relax, calm, sleep, are some of the settings. And it actually helps your body do one of those six items. And they're actually coming out with other options down the road, so Hapbee is another interesting option. You look at little odd when you have it around your neck because it's not the prettiest necklace, but it's very interesting, and lots of different ways.

 But it think one of the key things about focus is, it's essential for you to hit these big audacious goals that you have. And the other thing I was thinking about when everybody was mentioning this is that when you focus, you want to focus on the things that you're really good at, and not things that I'm trying to figure out: How do I do it? So the book Who Versus How, which we've talked about, just came on the market within the last couple of weeks, and in that book, it talks about having the right who that can help you with your how. And I will tell you, we've just been living by that. And that in and of itself is you just hire the best in whatever it is you want and get the heck out of their way, and it's amazing. You just don't have any followup because they're already exceptional at it. And all you have to do is integrate it into your practice. And I can't tell you enough, if I were you, that'd be the next book I would read is Who Versus How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Awesome. Bryan, I completely agree with that. And I think that's something too. I think Draye brought up a really great point. When you look at delegation, a lot of times when we get stuck or we procrastinate, it's because it's probably not in our wheelhouse. So you go into analysis paralysis a little bit because you're trying to figure out: How am I going to get this done? Or maybe just to be completely blunt, you're sitting there going, "I absolutely don't want to do that. I have the thought of doing that, so I'm probably not going to do it, and I'm just going to see how long I can drag it out." So it's one of those things, just honoring that it's okay that we're not great at everything. And I think that's something that can be really difficult again for the high achieving brain to embrace. And I fight this too, where you feel like, well, I'm capable, so I should be able to take it all on. And I'm more worthy when I put more on my plate.

 But in reality, as I was listening to Draye, and he talked about his ridiculously disgusting to do list, I can relate to that on so many levels, and I know Bryan can too. You sit there and write down all the things that you need to do, but the problem with that is that might feel good to get that thought down to paper, but when you don't check a lot of them off, that's actually super discouraging, and it's not because you're lazy. It's not because you're incompetent. It's just because it's too much. Your brain just can't focus when it has too many things in front of it. So one thing that I think is really powerful that I think could actually help you keep your focus going into the end of the year, setting you up for a killer next 90 days, next 365 days, next five years even, is to create your not to do list.

 What are the things that you should not be doing? And get that stuff delegated. So do the things that Bryan and Draye were just talking about. And that's a lot of the premise of the Who Not How book by Dr. Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan. It's finding the people that are experts in the given area so that you, number one, don't have to think about it, number two, you get it done. You get it done a lot faster. And number three, you're getting it done by people that absolutely own that as their expertise.

 So I think that's really important and really powerful. And I think actually leads into the next couple weeks of podcasts here, is start writing down the things that maybe you shouldn't be doing, so that you can focus on your top three, your big three for the day, so that you walk away from your desk feeling like, man, that was a great day. I accomplished a lot, and I feel really optimistic coming back the next day. I'm not overwhelmed. I'm not bogged because I know what it is I need to focus on. So Draye, Bryan, anything else that either of you would add before I close things out?
 

Draye Redfern:

Yeah. I think that one of the things, especially on nootropics, because everybody loves to talk about that. Just one thing that I would maybe add is there's a term in the field in bio hacking called stacking. And so stacking is where you actually take more than one nootropic, so it doesn't have to be the one, just one thing, like end all, be all. Obviously, for everything that Bryan, Brittany and myself have mentioned, insert disclaimer here. Seek medical advice, yada, yada, yada. You're your own judge of these things. But that's certainly one thing that I recommend is we'll do a nootropic tea in addition to maybe Alpha Brain or something like that. So no affiliation to any of those, but it's definitely one thing I figured is worth mentioning.

 I think obviously the disclaimer as well, but I think that regardless of what you're doing, it's definitely worth exploring or learning a little bit more about because at the end of the day, you're paid to think. You can think well and delegate more effectively, think clear, eliminate the brain fog. It really can set you up for a much more productive day and more productive week as we finish the year off.
 

Brittany Anderson:

So, so good. Well, I think that rounds us out, so we're going to go ahead and wrap up this week's episode of The Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We will catch you right back here next week as we talk a little bit about tying up some loose ends.

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