12 Key Strategies for Your Success

More Profit in Less Time, with Less Stress and More Joy

Make the time to plan your time and execute around your priorities

Some fundamental time use practices for you to master

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” – Stephen R. Covey

When asked about the essence of what we do for business owners, I often respond that we help our clients establish, and consistently pursue, a clear focus and their most important priorities.

This strategy is a crucial step in the development of your business success. Disregard it at your peril. This is where you make time to work ON your business rather than just IN your business.

Practice #1. In light of your 3-5 year goals and 1 year goals, keep your 90 day written goals fresh and refer to them often, as you plan your months/weeks/days.

Practice #2. Plan your week the week before and plan your day the day before.

A.  For weekly planning: Find/create a regular weekly time (for example, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, Sunday evening) where you can invest 30-60 minutes to quickly write out what you have accomplished and learned in the last 7 days and then plan the next 7 days. Typically, there are 3-8 key priorities (big rocks), that represent you accomplishing 80-90% of what’s most important. These may be key relationships, transactions, focused communications, appointments, projects, etc that really move you, your business and your life visibly forward.

B.  For daily planning: 10-15 minutes at the end of the day – review first thing in morning, after a good night’s rest, to make sure it still make sense. Make the time for Daily Strategic Planning.

Try and find 15-30 minutes every day to switch everything off, find a sanctuary, close the door and allow yourself the time to think and plan. Do NOT allow yourself to be interrupted.

Reflect on what you’re hoping to achieve that day – or the following day/week/month etc.

Do this at a time when you are fresh – not tired – whether you’re a morning, day or night person.

This is primarily the time when you organize your ‘to do’ list for the day ahead. Whether you use a personal organizer, a PDA or a PC, the rules are the same:

• Make a list
• ABC the list
• Prioritize the A’s, B’s, etc

Practice #3. Fully utilize your “peak energy periods”, to most effectively address your highest priorities and biggest challenges.

Most people have 3 1/2 – 6 hour time periods when they have an abundance of seemingly unstoppable energy. For most people, it’s the first part of the day – simply stated, address your most challenging, complicated, intricate, creatively demanding and meaningful priorities then.

Upon the foundation/momentum of those achievements, you can address lighter situations later in the day, other required administrivia, etc with much greater ease and execute all a lot quicker.

Practice #4. Always remember that you can only do the best you can do and no other.

Keep yourself vigilant about continuous training and improvement – do whatever you have do to keep yourself highly inspired, energized and well-taken care of – can’t give away what we don’t have – model an exceptional personal and professional life – exercise well, sleep well, eat well, love well.

Practice #5. The Power of Completion and Celebration – find multiple ways, big and small, to celebrate appropriately with those you work for and with! Enjoy the ride – relish your process of accomplishing as well as your accomplishments, as you beat your most pressing challenges.

Click here for a bonus Team Meeting Guide.

Additional Bonus suggestion – recommended book/reading?

(Considered by many as the best life and time management book ever written)

First Things First [Paperback]

http://www.amazon.com/First-Things-Stephen-R-Covey/dp/0684802031/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Stephen R. Covey (Author), A. Roger Merrill (Author), Rebecca R. Merrill (Author)

“I’m getting more done in less time, but where are the rich relationships, the inner peace, the balance, the confidence that I’m doing what matters most and doing it well?

Does this nagging question haunt you, even when you feel you are being your most efficient? If so, First Things First can help you understand why so often our first things aren’t first. Rather than offering you another clock, First Things First provides you with a compass, because where you’re headed is more important than how fast you’re going.”

That’s it for this week – let’s talk again soon – good luck in the coming days. See you next week!!

12 Key Strategies for Your Success

More Profit in Less Time, with Less Stress and More Joy

“The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment”

William Arthur Ward

Welcome back for Week 3

Further detailing out your business vision, philosophy and written goals.

Stage 2 – Mission Statement

OBJECTIVE: To map out broad vision for yourself and what you are trying to become and do.

“Who am I? What do I do? Where am I going?”

A mission statement is a statement of the purpose for your business. The mission statement should guide the actions of your business, spell out its overall goal, provide pathways, and guide decision-making. It provides “the framework or context within which your business strategies are formulated.” Your Mission Statement gives you the opportunity to define the following terms:

1. Who are my clients?

2. What are my clients’ needs?

3. What products and services will I use to satisfy those needs?

Stage 3 – Investment Philosophy

OBJECTIVE: To define the services, products and strategies that you offer to differentiate you the most, and set you apart, from your competitors, while best serving your highly valued clients.

Note: Don’t confuse your Mission Statement with your Investment Philosophy. Although not required, you may want to write a separate Investment Philosophy, as a set of guiding principles that inform and shape your investment decision-making process. Keep in mind that this stage best be brief and to the point. This is not the place for goals or actions; merely objectives.

Stage 4 – Longer-Term Goals

2-3 Year Longer-Term Projects

OBJECTIVE: Define specific goals and objectives that relate to your Mission Statement.

Goal-setting is a result of conscious, deliberate planning for achievement and acting to bring our goals into reality. It is one of the strongest human forces for self-improvement. Without specific, written goals, our efforts are often neither focused nor directed. Written goals force us to clarify our thinking and serve as a basis for measuring goals. Please make sure that you are creating SMART goals – defined as Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Tangible – the beginning of successful achievement. The following metrics should be part of your goal planning:

1. Commissions generated broken down by year.
2. Assets gathered broken down by year.
3. Asset management
4. Value-added client services.
5. Team building and/or team management
6. Referrals.
7. Target Markets.
8. Time Management
9. Computerizing your business
10. Product Knowledge

Your objectives are (1) to crystallize your thinking in terms of increased in net new assets, production and new accounts, and (2) to look at developing various target markets via relationship building, providing new services to clients and establishing benchmarks for future success.

Stage 5- Short-Term Goals
6 Months – 1 Year

OBJECTIVE: Set yourself up to win!! Remember to keep your goals SMART

(SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE AND ATTAINABLE, REALISTIC and TANGIBLE)

Short-term goals should be a direct reflection of your long-term goals. There should be at least one if not several short-term goals listed for each long-term goal. You can start by carrying forward your commission and asset gathering goals for this year from your long-term goals. From there, you need to go through each long term goal and develop several goals that can be completed in the next 12 months that will work toward the achievement of that one specific long term goal. This may require some brainstorming but remember the more thorough you are in this stage, the easier your plan will be to execute. Please remember that you need the small victories. It would be much wiser to achieve the goal in 6-8 months and raise it then to set a goal that’s unattainable. This is the time to identify projects that need to be implemented.

That’s it for this week – let’s talk again soon – good luck in the coming days. See you next week!!

With sincere and deep appreciation,

Don

To further support this week’s biz development message, you may want to refer to the 1 page biz plan flowchart.

BUSINESS PLAN DEVELOPMENT FLOWCHART

Many have reported that this flowchart gives a simple, easy-to-grasp, visual snapshot of where we are going.

Let us know what you think. Til the next time, best of the upcoming weekend, to you and yours.

12 Key Strategies for Your Success

More Profit in Less Time, with Less Stress and More Joy

Week 2 – Have a strategic business development plan that supports your vision

Welcome back – this week, let’s talk about your strategic business development plan

Today, we will lay out some key principles and ideas for developing, refining and/or reinforcing your strategic business development plan and also encourage you to itemize your benefit list.

It is important at the onset of this process to let you know that this is an ongoing, organic, living document. The completion of this Business Plan is not the end of a project but the beginning of a new way of doing business. It is a plan that will change and grow just as you & your business do.

Developing a comprehensive Business Plan is a primary motivator behind achieving dramatic results in production and asset gathering. You can expect a substantial increase in your business by devising a well thought out Business Plan. We expect this plan to provide you with a path to guide you to a running a more efficient and successful business. As you write this plan over the next several weeks, please feel free to use all of the resources available from us to assist you with whatever questions you may have. We are here to make this process go as smoothly as possible.

Your Business Plan will be written in stages. It is imperative that each stage be completed before moving on to the next. You’ll be receiving constant follow-up to ensure that you are on the right track. Please feel free to e mail your stages to us for any insight we might be able to offer. Examples will be provided on the way. If more are needed, please do not hesitate to call upon us.

Stage 1- Benefits

Objective: First of all, ask yourself questions to identify the personal benefits and rewards of reshaping your business service model and/or doubling your performance/production/revenues.

The first part of writing your Business Plan is probably the easiest and likely the most important. Sit down with a clean sheet of paper and spend some time writing down the personal benefits of this process for you and those you most care about. At least 7-10 clear benefits, even on an index card. What you transcribe onto paper will become your personalized, motivational fuel behind this whole growth process. While this stage will not physically be in the final draft of your Business Plan, we highly suggest that it best be read every day, to harness your highest energies and strengthen your prioritized focus. Often times, family members can also be of assistance, as you brainstorm and work yourself through this exercise. Ask yourself key questions, such as:

A. What real benefits could come to me, by reshaping my business and/or doubling revenues?

1. How would extra income affect my life and the lives of those I most love?

2. How would this impact my long term financial security and my own peace of mind?

3. How would this affect my relationship with my clients, stakeholders & future growth?

Bonus suggestion – recommended book/reading?

The One Page Business Plan, Financial Services Edition James T. Horan Jr. (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Page-Business-Plan-Financial-Services/dp/1891315056/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1322693134&sr=8-8

About the Author

Jim Horan regularly wows audiences across the country. His popular and practical workshops help financial services executives and producers make their businesses more profitable. Mr. Horan is also author of the bestselling The One Page® Business Plan Series. Over the past 16 years, his company has assisted over 100,000 businesses and firms achieve sustainable cash flow and profitable growth by helping them create clear, concise and actionable business plans. Jim has the unique ability to take complex business situations and make them simple. Tom Peters, author of Thriving on Chaos and In Search of Excellence, calls The One Page Business Plan an out and out winner… Period! Peters has been quoted as saying ‘It makes great sense to me as a so-called business thinker. The One Page Business Plan = the proverbial better mousetrap’

We look fwd to expanding our relationship and work together in 2012. See you next week!!

With sincere and deep appreciation,

Don

With so much change and transition happening so fast at so many levels, I think that this is wise and may actually be self-evident, to most. As the expression goes, though everything in life most certainly doesn’t always go according to plan, it always go better with a plan. We can then refer to it along the way and revise ourselves accordingly, so that our game plan map better matches the increasingly informed and updated life experience territory for our most important pursuits. To that end, I offer you a reflection and planning sheet, that has served me and others well.

As one of my favorite colleagues repeatedly says, “may the rest of your life be the best of your life”. So I say to you.

In further collaboration with you, I am looking forward to a banner year in 2012 – I say that the best is yet to come.

Reflection and Planning Suggestions

Don Sardella

I typically ask a question like “So what do you think you now most need to understand and to do, given what you now know, with all these changes?”

In addition to macro-changes, many individuals, families and communities are also experiencing great personal transitions, requiring a direct response.

I suggest that this may call for a fresh clarification of vision, values and priorities, if you will, based upon what you now think matters most to you.

Given our best reflective wisdom, I have also been thinking about major life lessons that I have learned from very special people and mentors over the years. I have also been discussing what I concluded that they most have to offer. Without sharing who they are, I do want to offer a few Take Aways.

Given that some of these teachers are very well known, I invite you to write me and tell me who you think they are. I have referred to and/or cited from them multiple times over the years. Also, please share your timeless lessons.

While part of me thinks that this is mostly common sense, I’ve also noticed that I need to keep reminding myself, as well as help others. So here we go.

• To be exposed to thoughts that I never would have been exposed to otherwise. To challenge my thinking and to stretch myself further.
• To do something every day that I would normally be afraid to do – to live a bold and an adventurous life.
• Though you may know a lot about finances, be very balanced in your life with all that and focus on doing the most with what you do have.
• Be nurtured, be a true friend and truly be yourself with people.
• Be extremely creative and fully express your individual self with everyone and put that out in the world, every day. Get to really know people as individuals and use that as a basis to really touch people.
• Learn how to love and how to be loved.
• Work to be and do your highest, while you are here, financially, emotionally and spiritually.
• Live and work to be of high service to your clients and community.
• Maintain a very positive outlook, no matter how tough things get.
• Learn how to age gracefully and to have it all.
• You can read all the books in the world, but if you, as a person, don’t reach your hand out to help and to serve people, you are nothing.

That’s it for now. So, who would you say have been your most important influences, teachers, mentors, coaches and friends? And what have you received from them and integrated into your life and work, over the years?

I, for one, would be very curious to know. And I may pass that on.

I hope that this has served you as an additional source of perspective and inspiration. Til the next time, with sincere and deep appreciation,

In that light, need something to listen to (or read), to give you fresh motivational or inspirational “juice”, for this next stage??  May I suggest:

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It

Written by expert executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, Mojo covers that moment when we do something that’s purposeful, powerful, and positive and the rest of the world recognizes it. This book is about that moment – and how we can create it in our lives, maintain it, and recapture it when we need it.

I just listened to it for the 2^nd time since its publication a little over a year ago. A definite lift, with field-tested value. Marshall is widely recognized as the world’s leading authority in helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people, and their teams.

Another interesting and fairly quick read for advisors, consultants, writers, speakers and coaches, as you are getting your value out there every day??

The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice by Brendon Burchard (published March 7th, 2011)

A very unique summary about what it takes to organize/package/promote yourself and your heart-felt messages by an Expert who develops Experts.

As I understand it, this book became a best-seller within 2 weeks of its release in early March 2011, without going the traditional promotion routes.

A tribute to the late Paul J. Meyer, a man of character and wisdom:

As I have stated in previous newsletters, the two most important ideas I have ever heard Paul say were that none of us knows how long we are going to live nor do we know how great we can become. I will always remember that.

His lifetime motto could be summed in the following words:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

Paul J. Meyer adopted these words of the great theologian John Wesley for his own and lived them fully. Paul, 81, longtime Waco civic leader, international businessman, philanthropist, loving husband, father, grandfather, and friend to legions of people worldwide. May we take note.

Lastly, you’ve got to love You Tube. “Make My Day” Clint Eastwood pleasantly surprised me in an Inside the Actor’s Studio interview, hosted by James Lipton. Clint talks about the value, power and importance of listening – and how it is under-appreciated and under-taught and under-developed.

Why I listen?? To strengthen myself – to better serve others (aka, YOU)

I invite you to call – to rant and/or rave – I promise to be here to listen

As they say in the commercial roofing business – “keep hammering away”.

Til the next time, with sincere and deep appreciation,

Coach Don

As we are all getting closer to the official start date of springtime, as well as the actual reality of spring emerging, here are some ideas to create as fresh and new.

Are you confident that all your clients and prospects in your marketplace are crystal clear about who you are, what you stand for, what kind of help they can count on you for, and what that means for them, personally and professionally?

In that light, here is the latest from us, to you.

We bring over 25 years of business development coaching experience to you, with the last 15 years concentrated specifically in the Financial Services Industry.

We work to model before we advocate and walk before we talk, for your benefit.

We seek first to understand, so we can best know to whom we speak and serve.

We are deliver highly responsive “speed to service” – never more than 24 hours to get back to you (usually less) – a phone call, an email and a heartbeat away.

We are passionately on fire to make a difference and to see you totally succeed.

We honor integrity and high trust relationships as the cornerstone of our practices. We consider your confidentiality with us to be sacred and inviolable.

We deeply value our connection with you and look to generate long-term win-win.

We constantly renew and sharpen ourselves with our own coaches and mentors.

Ideas to keep you energized, inspired, determined and in action?

“What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful” by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter (Jan 9 2007)

I just reviewed this book, since I first got it in 2007. Leading edge, front-line ideas and practices from a world class executive coach and thought leader. Must read.

A Bonus “Outside the Box” idea, maybe??

Go ‘YouTube’ James Lipton’s “Inside the Actors Studio”

Dozens and dozens of fascinating and real-life story interviews with top, top performers in the worlds of feature films, directing and acting. A steady stream of humorous, moving and inspirational insights to draw from and take into your life.

As Bugs Bunny always used to say when he signed off: “That’s All, Folks”

We look forward to expanding our relationship and future efforts together.

Best, best, best – with sincere and deep appreciation,

Recently, I personally have been reviewing and sharing the following classics:

#1) Maximum Achievement: Strategies and Skills That Will Unlock Your Hidden Powers to Succeed [Paperback] by Brian Tracy (Author)

Brian Tracy is one of the world’s leading authorities on success and personal achievement, addressing more than 100,000 men and women each year in public and private seminars. In Maximum Achievement, he gives you a powerful, proven system — based on twenty-five years of research and practice — that you can apply immediately to get better results in every area of your life.

You learn ideas, concepts, and methods used by high-achieving people in every field everywhere. You learn how to unlock your individual potential for personal greatness. You will immediately become more positive, persuasive, and powerfully focused in everything you do. Many of the more than one million graduates of the seminar program upon which this book is based have dramatically increased their income and improved their lives in every respect.

The step-by-step blueprint for success and achievement are presented and combined in a fast-moving, informative series of steps that will lead you to greater success than you ever imagined possible — they can raise your self-esteem, improve personal performance, and give you complete control over every aspect of your personal and professional life.

#2) The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey (Audio CD)

In the riveting style of The Tipping Point, Stephen M. R. Covey uncovers the overlooked and underestimated power of trust in a gripping look into what he calls “the one thing that changes everything.” Groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting, The Speed of Trust demonstrates that trust is a hard-edged, economic driver — a learnable and measurable skill that makes organizations more profitable, people more promotable, and relationships more energizing.

#3) Tested in the Trenches: A 9-Step Plan for Building and Sustaining a Million-Dollar Financial Services Practice [Hardcover] by Ron Carson (Author), Steve Sanduski (Author)

Build a great financial services practice, AND a great life filled with passion, purpose and enthusiasm.

With more than 1 million financial services practitioners in the US and Canada, competition for clients can be intense. While some professionals believe that working furiously around the clock at the expense of a personal life is the route to success, top-producing industry veterans Ron Carson and Steve Sanduski disagree. They believe that financial services is a commodity business, and that performing better, delivering better financial plans, or having access to certain products doesn’t differentiate advisors effectively. Rather, differentiating through service, brand and relationship is the only sustainable way advisors can compete.

In Tested in the Trenches: A 9-Step Plan for Building and Sustaining a Million-Dollar Financial Services Practice, the authors explain how professionals can do just that… and create great lives along the way. Based on concepts taught in professional coaching workshops worldwide, Tested in the Trenches outlines:

• The four “foundation” steps to success.
• Four ways to generate revenue.
• 15 habits of top achievers.
• Forms and checklists to organize your financial services practice.
• Online sources for additional business-building ideas and tools.

If you have the sincere desire to make significant improvements in your business – and your life – clear your schedule, read Tested in the Trenches, then go back and implement each idea in the order presented. By doing so, you’ll be prepared to join the rarefied group of personally fulfilled and successful top achievers.

Whether it be from reading great books, attending reinvigorating workshops, getting extraordinary coaching/mentoring, we can’t say enough about feeding your mind with buoyant ideas and support.

Immerse yourself in the best of the best. In light of your biggest opportunities and challenges, if you are looking for additional ideas or suggestions to propel you forward, I invite you to e mail/call me or someone you truly trust/respect.

As you are fueling that fire, I also encourage you to build reserves of love, time, energy, money, inspiration, biz prospects, life opportunities, useful knowledge and personal power. This will all serve to further stoke your total momentum.

We look forward to expanding our relationship and future efforts together.

With sincere and deep appreciation,