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The Client-centred Blog

Welcome to The Client Centred Blog; Free content that shares a fresh approach to thriving as a financial professional in a rapidly changing environment.

This blog has its foundation in a new understanding of the human mind that gives you the ultimate platform for creating better results, thriving under any circumstances and living the life you want.     

I invite you to explore the materials, reflect upon how it relates to you and your business and enjoy the benefits.

Deep rapport and why it matters
Rapport is an essential element in creating strong, productive and lasting client relationships. It is also a highly significant factor in not only the provision of financial planning and advice, but also whether your client follows it. Below is a link to an audio recording (18m39s) where I take a...
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An new way of thinking about financial planning fees  
Although there seems to be plenty of information on the process of increasing your financial planning fee, there is far less on the thinking behind it. So, in this article I am taking an alternative look at fee charging. Read on to discover:  1. How most firms set fees 2....
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Is money holding you back from building a prosperous financial planning practice?
I read a survey conducted with financial advisers asking what their biggest challenge was. Number one was getting clients. It would be easy to believe that all is required to solve this problem is finding a reliable source of potential clients. Yet this is not always true. As I discovered,...
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Four keys to highly motivated financial planning clients
In a perfect world all financial planning clients would be highly motivated to follow through with their financial plans and get the results they want. Yet this is not a perfect world and I remember sometimes getting frustrated with clients that did not take the actions they needed to take....
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Wisdom from one of the UK’s most successful female financial planners
My client Fulva Giust is one of the UK’s most successful female financial planners, operating for over thirty years.  Fulva has built a thriving practice serving wealthy families and individuals built upon rock solid foundations of trust, caring, and kindness. She takes a deep interest in the lives of her...
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My favourite Warren Buffett quote and why it matters
Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time and one of the world’s wealthiest individuals. He also has some very astute observations about life. My favourite is his observation that: ‘Busy is the new stupid.’ One time he was in discussion with another super successful person,...
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A simple guide to living in flow
Would you like to spend far more of your time in a state of ‘flow’? Flow is the experience of being totally absorbed in the moment, when time seems to stand still, and nothing else seems to matter. I was reading about the legendary tennis player Billie Jean King and...
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10 powerful ways a financial planner can deeply serve clients from the first moment
How can you begin to deeply serve a client from the very first moment? When meeting with a potential client there are likely to be at least three important questions on their mind: 1. Do I like them? 2. Can I trust them? 3. Can they help me?
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Why I stopped meditating
Last week I had a wonderful conversation with a friend who has a vast amount of experience as a coach and has worked with thousands of people. She observed that in her experience every single person always wants the same thing in the end. Ultimately, we all want to feel...
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The most popular client-centred blog posts of 2022
What have financial planners been most interested in over the past year? The following are my most popular client-centred blog posts of 2022. Most importantly, none of this would be possible without you. Thank you for your valuable time and attention – you are very much appreciated.
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Do you hate selling financial planning? Discover the two shifts that change everything
Do you love working with your existing clients but hate selling? If so, you would not be alone. Yet rather than enduring this essential aspect of being a financial planner what if you could learn to love what is often perceived as the hard part? If this is you then...
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The 12 client-centred mind shifts – part 4
When ‘The Client-centred financial adviser’ was published back in 2015 the core message in that book was that who you are being is massively more significant than what you are doing. I even wrote a chapter titled, ‘Being is the new doing’. For many years in my own business, I...
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5 truths to help financial planners prosper in turbulent times
What prompted this article were a number of conversations I have recently had with financial planners who were worried about the current trading environment.  So, how do financial planners prosper in turbulent times when the economy is contracting, clients are tightening their belts, and media is spreading doom and gloom?
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The 12 Client-centred mind shifts – part 3
Have you ever considered what creates the very highest value for your financial planning clients? I am going to suggest it is not, important as they are, the financial arrangements you recommend and put in place for them. No. It is their own mind shifts.
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The 8 keys to inspiring financial planning meetings every time!
There are specific and predictable keys that result in inspiring financial planning meetings every time. And by paying attention and making consistent progress with each key, you are: 1. No longer leaving the quality of your meetings to chance. 2. Raising the bar to an exceptionally high level. In this...
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The 12 client-centred mind shifts – part 2
You almost certainly have clients that are worried about their finances, what might happen in future, and if they are doing the right things. We are living in challenging times. Some advisers avoid their clients at times like this. They don’t want to tell them their investments have gone down...
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The twelve client-centred mind shifts – part 1
You have worked hard to become a qualified financial professional. You are making a difference in the lives of your clients and your business is steady. This is a big, well-deserved success and there is much to celebrate. Yet at this stage you might also pause, reflect, and ask yourself,...
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What is the biggest factor in successful financial planning?
Just recently I read an article by a financial planner who said that a client’s financial success comes down to the advice they get or don’t get. This article explores why this will rarely be the case and what really creates successful financial planning.
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What makes a client want to engage a financial planner?
A successful financial planner I work with remarked to me that no one ever approaches him for a financial planning engagement. Instead, there is usually a trigger event that leads a client to thinking they want a financial product, financial issue solved, or investment advice. So, how do you shift...
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How to transcend the financial planner comfort zone
Our comfort zone can be very limiting. For instance, it can hold you back from realising your greater potential, making a bigger difference to your clients, and experiencing greater success. So, in this article I explore what a financial planner comfort zone is and what it takes to transcend it. 
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How to deal with imposter syndrome
Do you ever feel like an imposter in your role, that you will get ‘found out’, or do not deserve your success? If so, you are far from alone as this is extremely common amongst business people.
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The most powerful two word financial planning question
This articles shares a two-word financial question that can significantly increase the value of financial planning for a client. It is also be great for opening up new business opportunities too. So, let me share how I was inspired to write this post.
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Top 10 ways to capture and keep your financial planning client’s attention
To make financial planning meaningful and a good investment for your client it requires them to be fully engaged and do their best thinking in your meetings. Yet we also live in a society where an ever-increasing number of things are competing for our attention. People have shorter and shorter...
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Want more financial planning referrals? This MUST happen first
Good financial planning referrals from happy existing clients are one of the best ways to grow your practice. Yet to create a regular and increasing flow of quality referrals there is something that MUST happen first. Let me share a story.
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Top 10 coaching books for financial planners
If you are doing genuine financial planning where you are helping your client identify and accomplish their goals and live the life they want then coaching them is a necessity. After all, life is full of distractions and people come off track all the time. For example, people can lose...
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How to run magical financial planning review meetings – every time
When a client relationship is new it will feel fresh, engaging, and there will often be a lot to do. You are getting to know your client, they are getting to know you, and important issues are being dealt with. But how do you keep financial planning review meetings fresh,...
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Resilience: An essential key to building a financial planning practice
Have you noticed how resilience has become a hot topic in business? For instance, there are TED talks on it, articles in the Harvard Business Review, and covid brought into sharp focus how unforeseen events can literally change our lives in a moment. This article explores a deeper understanding of...
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How to sell more financial planning: stop giving advice
Do you want to sell more financial planning and boost your income? If so, then stopping giving financial advice might seem totally counter-intuitive, right? In this article I explore why holding back from giving advice can consistently help you sell more financial planning and serve your clients better.
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The 7 secrets of thriving in a long-term financial planning career
It seems to me that many people lose their passion for what they do, especially if they have done it for a long time. So, what are the secrets of thriving in a long-term financial planning career?
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The right way to set financial planning goals
In this article, you are going to discover how to help your clients set financial planning goals, the right way. You are also going to learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy goals and how this makes a massive difference to your client’s level of motivation, inspiration, and enjoyment of...
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Highly effective rapport building for financial planners
A deep rapport with your client is the foundation for a productive, profitable, and long-lasting relationship. Therefore, being highly effective at quickly building and maintaining a deep rapport is an essential skill for financial planners.
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A simple guide to influencing financial planning clients
Do you want to become more effective at influencing financial planning clients? In this simple guide I explore one of the most crucial factors of influence you can apply immediately for better results.
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One of the best financial planning questions and how to use it
Often, the best financial planning questions are the ones that help a client to open up and think more deeply. Why is this important? Because the impact of your financial planning and advice is directly correlated to quality of the information you gather from your client.
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How do you become a great financial planner… not just good?
How do you become a great financial planner? One who has a powerful, positive impact in the lives of your clients? Of course, there are many attributes but one in particular stands out. Read on to discover what this is and why it is so important. What do clients look...
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Clients are not willing to pay fees for financial planning – really?
“Clients are not willing to pay fees for financial planning!” This was the bold claim of an adviser in a post I recently read on LinkedIn. You might refer to this as a ‘gross generalisation’ because, quite clearly, there are many people who do already pay fees for financial planning.
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Should you take notes in a financial planning meeting?
What is the right approach to note taking in financial planning meetings? This is a question that often comes up in my coaching programmes with financial planners. So, let’s take a closer look.
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4 ways to create massive value financial planning meetings
What do clients want most of all? Do you want to create massive value financial planning meetings at every opportunity? One of the challenges in any long-term financial planning relationship is keeping it fresh, inspiring, and avoiding it becoming stale. In this article I explore how value is created and...
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Better time management for financial advisers and planners
As a financial planner are you as productive as you would like to be? Would you like to get more done, in less time, and with none of the stress? In this article I am going to explore the hidden factor that leads to genuinely better time management for financial...
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How to do a brilliant financial planning fact find
Doing a brilliant financial planning fact find underpins everything that you do for a client. It is what differentiates you from other financial planners and is a golden opportunity to build exceptional relationships and provide massive value. But there are also two very different elements to fact finding.
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The hidden secret of where you find financial planning clients
Do you want to know the hidden secret of where you find financial planning clients? Most of the advice on how to find financial planning clients is prescriptive. It tells you what to do or where to look. Yet how helpful is this?
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What are the three roles of a lifestyle financial planner?
Do you ever find your role as a lifestyle financial planner being overly complex? Would you like it to be simpler, more productive, and more rewarding? If so, this article considers that there are only three core roles of a lifestyle financial planner.
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How to successfully sell financial planning
Genuine financial planning is very different from providing purely transactional financial advice. So, how you sell financial planning is a different kind of conversation too. Would you like it to be easier to sell financial planning engagements?
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Building a financial planning business – overcoming the biggest obstacle
Building a financial planning business is not easy! In fact, you are far from alone if you find it challenging. This article explores one of the biggest obstacles of all and how to rapidly get back on track.
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The hidden secret to high-impact financial planning meetings
Do you want to have your financial planning meetings be high-impact, high-engagement experiences for both your clients and you? Of course! We all want this, don’t we?
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Why is client well-being increasingly on the agenda for financial planners?
Client well-being is fast rising up the agenda for financial planners. Why is this and is it something you should be focusing upon with your clients? In this article I explore why financial planners and advisers are increasingly focusing upon the well-being of their clients.
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5 steps financial planners can take to becoming a better listener
As a financial planner what value is there in becoming a better listener? Is it worth your time, effort, and focus to improve? This article explores the value of deep listening and 5 practical steps you can take to immediately become a better listener.
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Asking essential financial planning questions: the ones that no one else thinks to ask
This article looks at an important aspect of asking financial planning questions that often get neglected. Often, financial advice is triggered when something happens or is going to happens in a client’s life. For instance, the sale of a business, divorce, or an upcoming retirement.
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How financial planners can build instant trust with clients
As a financial planner building instant trust with clients is one of the biggest obstacles you will need to overcome. This article looks at a different yet highly effective approach.
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10 career boosting books for financial planners
Why do people’s careers stall, stagnate, become mundane, fall short of expectations, and, ultimately, lack the rewards they want? In my experience it is rarely lack of…
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Getting financial planning clients – the only obstacle
Getting financial planning clients is the number one challenge for many advisers. But why is it such a challenge? It is not for the reasons that most people think…
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Your financial planning fees – why they must NEVER be an issue
This article explores why your financial planning fees must never be an issue with clients. Just recently a financial planner client of mine came to our coaching session wanting to talk about a fee situation with a client of his.
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What is the most important financial planning question of all?
Do you want to have greater impact with your clients, create more value, and escape the diminishing world of transactional financial advice? If so, there is an important financial planning question.
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The three types of financial planning client
There are three types of financial planning client you can build your practice around. And because the three types are defined by what the client values, it can make a massive difference to the quality of your business.
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Financial Planning clients for life – the one thing you MUST do
Creating happy, enthusiastic, loyal financial planning clients for life requires you to do one thing well, and consistently. What is that one thing?
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How to get financial planning clients – the only way I know
Financial planning is not a commodity. It is experiential and conversations are right at the core of this.
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Presenting your clients financial plan – the key to success
Will your presentation pass the 'so-what' test? You have gathered all the information you need from your client, carefully created their financial plan, and are now ready to present it. How do you ensure it is a highly effective and successful meeting? This process actually begins long before the meeting...
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How to get more financial planning referrals
Would you like to generate more high quality financial planning referrals?
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Time management for financial planners – why helpful tips are not the answer
How often have you felt like you had way too much to do, way too little time to do it, and you’ve stressed out as a result?
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To succeed you must have self belief… really?
If you have a goal or outcome that is important to you and you want to go for it, then what does self belief and whether you have it or not have to do with it?
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Great people skills – in an instant!
Is it possible to have great people skills in an instant?
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How to ask great financial planning questions
Asking great financial planning questions is the bedrock of gathering the information you need to create a highly compelling plan for your client.
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Why is your financial planning practice culture the key to delivering exceptional service?
Are you committed to delivering exceptional client service? If so, employees who genuinely care, communicate well, and take responsibility are the key. The foundation of this resides in the business culture you create.
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Giving financial advice – 3 important steps
You no doubt put a great deal of time and effort into creating high quality advice for your clients. Yet this alone does not guarantee it will be accepted and followed.
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The best prospecting advice for financial planners
Why do some financial planners seem to effortlessly find clients whilst others experience growing their practice as a constant struggle?
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Are your financial planning conversations too nice?
What is the difference between a financial advisory conversation and a financial planning conversation?
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What does it really take to 10x grow a financial planning business?
There is a critical factor in growing your financial planning business that is often misunderstood.
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Should Financial Planners stop talking about retirement?
Why should financial planners choose their language carefully in their financial planning conversations with clients?
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Understanding your client’s world – key number 1
Financial Advice is so often delivered in very unimaginative ways that has little difference to how the majority of practitioners deliver it.
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Can coaching for financial planners really help your career?
Why are an increasing number of financial planners choosing to work with a coach? Is it something that could help you accomplish your most important goals and realise more of your potential as a financial planner? Read on to discover why coaching works…
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Financial planning relationships – how to add massive long-term value
No matter how long you have known your client what is the secret to continuing to add massive value? Imagine when you first meet a new client and the early period of your relationship. In the beginning…
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Financial planning – how to have clients sell it to themselves
You should never need to or try to sell financial planning to a client. When conversations are conducted in the right way the client will sell it to themselves and you will have no need to convince them of anything. In fact, trying to convince people is a mistake.
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Why challenging your clients is great for business
The key difference between an adviser who focuses upon doing purely transactional business and a ‘Trusted adviser’ is how the adviser is positioned in the mind of the client. A ‘Trusted Adviser’ is someone a client turns to for their advice, opinion, viewpoint, and even coaching on important aspects of...
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What they don’t teach you at financial planning school
There are some key skills a financial planner should exhibit if they want to be successful, skills that aren’t necessarily taught during financial planning qualification process… 
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Do you ever get in your own way? Here is how to stop
What is it that gets in the way of accomplishing your most desired goals and objectives? Of course, there are often external obstacles to navigate, maybe things that you did not anticipate, tasks you do not yet possess the level of skill for, or creating the time required. But these...
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A simple financial planning questions formula
Effective, heartfelt communication is a natural consequence of a free and present state of mind. This is why trying to use techniques so often diminishes the potential rather than improving it. Questions are a great example. Trying to memorise a question or a series of questions will more than likely...
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The timeless wisdom of Charlie Munger
Charlie Munger (now 97 years young) is a billionaire businessman, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and business partner of Warren Buffett, one of the greatest investors of all time. He is asked about the secret to a long and happy life, and he replies: …
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How to have bigger impact with clients
How much impact am I having? This is a great question to reflect upon when it comes to your client relationships. Whether you have just met someone new or have been working with someone for a decade or longer the amount of impact we are having in that person’s life...
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The two styles of selling and why one of them is toxic
Although you could fill a small library with books on selling it seems to me that there are two distinct styles. You could call these pushing and pulling and here is how they contrast. Pushing is based upon trying to persuade, convince or entice someone into buying a product or...
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Who are the financial advisers of the future?
Going back to when I became a self-employed financial adviser in 1991 it was a sales role. I had my one week of training and then was expected to go out and make money immediately. This is why the attrition rate was so appallingly low. Oh, how things have changed!…
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When are financial advice clients ready for deeper conversations?
A question that comes up from time to time from advisers is ‘When is my client ready for deeper conversations?’. A typical scenario is that the adviser has a transactional relationship with a client and wants to shift to a financial planning relationship. This question arises because there is a...
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10 books to nourish your spirit
How do you get the best from yourself without burning out? Organisations are beginning to realise that to get the best from their people a far more rounded approach is required. This is evidenced through articles such as ‘The Making of a corporate athlete’ in ‘The Harvard Business Review’ and...
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Getting the impossible things done
Do you want to get things done? By this I do not mean your day-to-day routine work. I mean projects that are significant accomplishments in your life. What is on your ‘impossible’ list? Writing the book you have always wanted to write? Completely re-engineering your business? Learning a new skill...
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Why vulnerability is the key to exceptional client relationships
What is the one thing that stops advisers engaging their clients in deeper, emotionally engaging conversations? It is vulnerability or rather the fear of being vulnerable. If we take a conversation into unchartered territory, we are afraid of what we might find. We are afraid that we may not be...
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Telling clients your truth
Building a thriving practice, based on making a bigger difference to clients has many aspects to it. One of the most fundamental is that client relationships are based on truth. It can feel uncomfortable (at first) to share your truth with clients and allow them to do the same with...
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Labels are for jars, not people
Have you ever been told you are not listening? I have. It did not feel good and I thoroughly deserved it. I was new to coaching and was very enthusiastic about sharing my knowledge with my client. So enthusiastic that I thought what I had to say was more important...
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Do you want highly motivated clients?
Do you want clients that are…? *highly motivated to work with you. *highly motivated to follow through on the tasks that you need them to do. *highly motivated to take the actions necessary to achieve their goals. Rather than these being qualities that some people have, and others do not…
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Solve your financial planning lead generation problem forever!
If I had a penny for every time I’ve been asked how to get more clients as a financial adviser, how to grow a client base, and the best lead generation tips, well, I’d be very rich. Getting your first financial planning clients is actually rather straightforward…
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How do you measure your success when life is completely unpredictable?
If there was one thing we learned in 2020 is that life is unpredictable. None of us really know what is going to happen in the next hour, day, week, or month, do we? We can make plans, set goals, have expectations and yet just as we have all recently...
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How easy are you to do business with?
You want to be easy to do business with, right? So, if you were in conversation with a potential client what is the best question you could be asked?
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Do you love what you do?
Going back a while I was invited to speak at an event for advisers at The Etihad stadium in Manchester. I spoke about creating better client engagement through being curious about what it is that clients want from life rather than just focusing on products and investments…
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Getting out of your own way
I was recently in conversation with a client and he said to me that the next month at work was going to be difficult. So, I asked him why he thought that and he explained that several staff were due to be away on training and this was going to...
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Keeping your hand out of the jar
In Africa there is a technique that hunters use to catch monkeys. Ordinarily, because monkeys are intelligent and cunning, they are extremely hard to trap but there is a way. A small jar with a certain size neck is placed where the monkeys frequent and inside the jar are placed...
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The one thing that will help your financial planning business prosper
How do I get my financial advisory practice off the ground? How do I get more clients to notice my financial planning services? If you’ve done all the things you’re supposed to do from a marketing sense to entice new clients with no luck, it could be time to take...
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Shoulder Taps
The impact you can have on another human being has a lot to do with how much you realise you can impact them. How do you see your role as an adviser? You can operate at the level of arranging transactions, you can see yourself as providing a service or...
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Why regulation will never improve the public’s trust in Financial Services (and what can)
Most people I come across in Financial Services are caring, dedicated and highly professional people who do great work for their clients. On top of this a great many of those, like you, continually strive to improve and I have huge respect for this because it takes time, effort and...
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Which screw to turn
There is a famous story about FedEx, the delivery company. In the US the central hub of the business is in Memphis, so all overnight packages go through here. One night the conveyer belt system suddenly stopped working bringing the business to a halt. It meant that the packages could...
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What has spirituality got to do with financial planning?
A while back I was speaking with a financial planner and our conversation turned to what it is that clients really want. Although I had not used the ‘S’ word he suddenly looked at me like I had grown three heads and said in an aghast tone, “Are you talking...
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Growing your business in the quickest, most efficient way possible – Here’s how
Something extremely valuable I learned from my coach is that every system is perfect for the result it creates. For instance, … If you are only getting half of the business that you want, then your current system is perfect for that result. If you are working fifteen hours a...
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Dealing with difficult people
Have you ever encountered a difficult person? Maybe you have a client, co-worker or employee who you think about in this way? I was on a coaching call with a client recently and he recounted a situation with an employee. This employee had behaved in such a way that there...
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How do you know if a client meeting is going well?
Have you ever wondered why young children are able to indiscriminately enjoy almost everything and anything they do? Whatever situation they are in they seem to find a way to be absorbed in the moment and have fun. As adults we often tend to lose this capacity. Business can be...
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Living your life’s purpose
I was an enthusiastic devourer of self-help and personal development material for well over twenty years, although I have now been in healthy recovery for nine years. During my addiction I always noticed how much material there is on finding your life's purpose and it continues to be a popular...
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Working ONLY with wonderful clients – the two essential questions
The very first stage of a new client relationship is connecting with someone. They may get in touch with you. You may get in touch with them. Whichever it is the next stage is that you invite them into a conversation. Conversations are the most important aspect of building your...
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Why mental clarity is the biggest game in town
Imagine someone who absolutely needs to be in the moment. For safety's sake. Say someone like a surfer who is out there in the ocean hanging ten. Picture this surfer riding a huge wave. Can you see how thoughts don't help the surfer? What's the surfer doing? Paying attention to...
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Never be derailed by adversity again
There is no question that many, if not most, businesses have been severely affected by the lock-down. For instance, if you are a retail outfit then you have had no choice but to keep your doors shut. A similar situation with restaurants and bars. Advisory firms have been unable to...
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What is the highest value your clients can get from you?
A few years ago, I attended a conference in Oslo and one of my memories is of Dr. Aaron Turner making a particularly powerful point. Aaron shared a story about a time he was holidaying in Hawaii with his family. They were spending some time on the beach and he...
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The power of simplicity in a world of complexity
The human intellectual mind loves to make things complex. And this is just as true in the financial world as anywhere else. We could have a much simpler tax system - but we choose not to. We could vastly simplify pensions - but we choose not to. We could make...
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Are you sharpening the saw?
It’s important for financial advisers to consider self-care and their mental wellbeing in order to best serve their clients.
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There is an easier way to do life
The world we live in consists of the visible and the invisible. The form and the formless. The finite and the infinite. The business world focuses almost exclusively on the visible, the form and the finite. If you want to improve results in any area – marketing, sales, leadership, management,...
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Where is the opportunity in forced change?
It is said that a week is a long time in politics. Well, that saying seems to apply to just about everything right now! If the lock down (only!) lasts a few weeks, then my guess is that most of us will be tempted to get back to 'business as...
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The biggest Megatrend of our time
Last year at one of my events at Henley Business School, Kimberley Hare, our speaker for the day, put a poster on the wall that read: "Uncertainty is inevitable, insecurity is optional" We humans have a fascinating relationship with certainty, don’t we? So often we try to desperately hang on...
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Stop worrying about your value
Many practitioners seem to waste time worrying about their value. It is one of the reasons people take qualification after qualification. So they can feel worthy. I have often spoken with advisers who say things like, "I can't go and speak to xxx (high net worth, professional connections, etc.) because...
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The little understood power of the present moment
When we truly understand the power of the present moment, then it becomes the most important thing in our life. I learned that to truly connect with others I had to be fully present with them. I learned that happiness and contentment are not circumstance dependent; they are a function...
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Financial planning is about more than your client’s goals
Do you want to vastly improve your client outcomes from your next client meeting? To master exploring ‘the goal behind the goal’ is a learning curve.
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Should you be coaching your clients?
Coaching happens within a conversation and strong powerful conversations are about being fully present, listening deeply and asking questions.
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The most-read blog posts of 2019
I was looking back over 2019's blog posts and I wanted to share the 5 most read with you again. You never know which ones are going to have the most reads and sometimes it can be a surprise. I enjoyed re-living the inspiration for each one and hope you...
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The most dangerous word in the English language
When we were little kids, we never knew what limitations were, did we? In fact, when we are kids the very idea of a limitation is absurd. Our imaginations know no boundaries and we live in a world of pure possibility. Our life was full of curiosity, joy, and wonder....
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Why not even Richard Branson can help you
What is stopping your business becoming a much better business? It is an interesting question to reflect upon, isn't it? One of my clients, Noel, is an entrepreneur who has started several successful companies. His latest creation is a tech business in the financial sector, and it has gone from...
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Becoming a more powerful influencer
Something that looks true to me is that in the world of financial advising there are lots of excellent technicians and yet few highly effective influencers. What is a highly effective influencer? It's someone who is a powerful catalyst for positive, beneficial change in a client. Your client thinks, feels...
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There is only one thing blocking you
I was delivering a workshop to a business a couple of weeks ago and I asked the question… What gets in the way of what you want to accomplish? Each person present had some important business and personal goals and I wanted to know what they perceived as the obstacles....
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Scripts – are they a help or a hindrance?
Going back several years I was once asked by the PFS to speak at the regional conferences on 'How to make an effective elevator pitch'. In case you don't know, an elevator pitch is a script you learn to describe your business. It is supposed to be clever, engaging and...
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The surprising truth about happiness
“If you are doing things in order to be happy… you're doing them in the wrong order.” Michael Neill Although happiness is something that is hard to define it is something that we seem to want more of in our lives. There are dozens of books written on the subject...
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Two emotions – which one do you operate from?
Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to come across and even get to train a couple of times with the great Steve Chandler. Steve has written over thirty books and is a world-famous success coach to high-achieving business people, CEO’s, best-selling authors and Fortune 500 companies. For me, Steve...
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Uncertainty is inevitable, insecurity is optional
On Monday we had our second live day of 'The Freedom of Mind Programme' and we gathered at the inspiring Henley Business school on the bank of the river Thames. The brilliant Kim Hare lead the day and one of the posters she put up on the wall read: Uncertainty...
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What’s controlling your life?
Deepak Chopra said: “What you pay attention to grows. If your attention is attracted to negative situations and emotions, then they will grow in your awareness.” What he points out is that when we worry about things it doesn't improve the situation; it brings more of that thinking into our...
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Creating a client centred culture, not a numbers driven one
Do you lead a team of people? Do you want to get the best from them but avoid the downsides of pushing them too hard? It has often been said that 'an organisations greatest asset is its people'. I believe this has to be true because without people there is...
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This will skyrocket your ability to influence
We live in a world that talks far too much and listens far too little. People love to tell other people their opinions, ideas or just what happens to be on their mind. It seems that most people want to be interesting rather than interested. As a professional person, being...
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Turning financial planning clients away – is it good for business?
Towards the end of last year, I was privileged to be invited along to a focus group for a financial planning client of mine. A group of the firm’s clients had been invited along to a half-day event where an external marketing agency explored with the group a number of...
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Twice the productivity, with half the effort and none of the stress
Is twice the productivity, with half the effort and none of the stress a realistic goal for you and your business? And whether you think it is realistic or not, how much difference would this make to you? Many business people, if not all, are on the lookout for edges...
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The invisible side of client engagement
Client engagement seems to be a bit of a buzz term at the moment and yet what it is and how you achieve it is still widely misunderstood. Ultimately, advancing technology will see to it that face to face advice must offer more than a purely transactional, product-based service if...
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The danger of making assumptions
We probably all like to believe we are open-minded and do not make too many assumptions about other people. Yet this is something I must continually question myself and reflect on, in my work with clients. It is so easy to apply our model of the world to other people...
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What does a reformed prison inmate have to do with us?
Last weekend I attended my favourite annual conference, the 'Life 2.0 Three Principles Conference'. It was my 7th conference and in that time the number of people attending has tripled to around 900. On the drive home afterwards the friend I attended with asked me if any moment stood out...
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What are (great) clients really paying for?
Patsy Rodenburg is one of the world's leading acting and voice coaches, having worked with many famous names including Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Day-Lewis and many others. She has also very successfully taken her work into the business environment, helping people to operate from what she calls second circle....
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Are you ready for a new normal?
'All truth goes through three steps: first, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; finally, it is accepted as self-evident' German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer Imagine you were about to have a medical procedure that involved 'opening you up'. What would be your reaction if you knew that the instruments...
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The truth about breaking bad habits
Reaching your next level of success is so often about what you stop doing, rather than what you start doing. Executive coach Marshall Goldsmith found this in his work with senior leaders in Fortune 100 companies. He even wrote a book about it called 'What got you here, won't get...
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Where do you find new clients?
What prompted this article was recently reading that 70% of advisers are actively seeking new clients. I know from working for myself for over twenty five years and working with dozens of my own clients that consistently bringing on new clients can seem a big challenge. Typical questions that people...
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Without the fear, what would you do?
Fear, if misunderstood, is such a debilitating emotion. When I began my coaching practice it soon became obvious that the business and personal challenges that people experienced were almost always some kind of fear in disguise. I noticed that when people were stuck or struggling - to get clients, build...
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The Most Effective Sales Programme Of All
Being able to sell with integrity is an essential business skill. Yet many people seem to struggle with it. So, what is the factor that makes the biggest difference of all? A while back I met up for coffee with a friend who runs a business networking group in London....
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Effective client acquisition – what do you say after ‘Hello’?
A useful realisation to have, as a professional service provider, is that people do not buy what we do. What we do is always a bridge to something of more substance. For example, in my business, the end result that people want is not coaching or learning how to think...
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Advising is from the head, impact comes from the heart
As an adviser, what do you consider to be the most important activity in your work? Most advisers, at least many of the ones I have spoken to, say that their most valuable time (and the time they enjoy the most) is spending time with their clients. This is when...
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Giving up the illusion of control
I am writing this piece whilst on a train back home from meeting a valued and trusted client in London. An idea for a new programme had occurred to me and it had been percolating in my mind. I had met with my client to ask, "What do you think...
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The power of an incisive question
Incisive questions challenge habitual thinking Questions are important. They make us think. Especially the right question at just the right moment. An incisive question is powerful because it removes a limiting assumption that then allows your client to look at something in a new and completely different way. It may...
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Is some stress good for you?
I was reading an article by a psychologist just recently and he was putting forward the idea that some stress is good for you. He was suggesting that in the absence of stress we would find ourselves sitting around, doing nothing and completely unmotivated. His theory was that you need...
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What it really takes to conduct exceptional client conversations
The quality of your client conversations is the most important part of the relationship you build with them because they form the foundation of everything else that follows. You could think of it like this… Poor conversations = poor (or no!) relationshipAverage conversations = average relationshipsExceptional conversations = exceptional relationships...
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Does goal-setting work?
As we enter a new year it is that time when many people make plans, set goals and resolve to be a new, improved version of themselves - new year, new you and all that. A couple of days ago I read that something like 40% of people resolve to...
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Can money really make you happy?
According to a survey published by Channel 5, 76% of people believe happiness is linked to money but 34% don't agree that money can buy you happiness. So, who is right? The majority or the minority? Dr. Elizabeth Dunn, author of 'Happy Money: The science of happier spending' is quoted...
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Getting clients to come to you
If you are building your practice then having an increasing number of people seeking you out and wanting to work with you is the ideal situation. What could be better than having great conversations with interested people and hearing them say the magic words... 'So, where do we go from...
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Is over-thinking your barrier to a more wonderful life?
My good friend Alex Manzi created a popular podcast called Dreamers Disease where he interviews inspirational guests about what they do, why they do it and their motivations. A few weeks ago we met up for a coffee and came up with idea of sending his subscribers a couple of...
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The biggest lie that holds you back
Do you know what the biggest lie we tell ourselves is? I cannot change. This false belief is at the core of why so many people get stuck in a rut, living out the same old thinking and behavioural habits, often for years. It is also apparent that one of...
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Getting into your client’s world – key number 1
One of the most important things you can do for your business is going 'above and beyond' to create value for your clients. Professional services are so often delivered in very unimaginative ways that have little difference to how the majority of practitioners deliver them. So, the ability to deeply...
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How to stop sabotaging your own success
“Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. An enlightened business leader was teaching a group of new entrepreneurs about increasing their level of success, and...
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How to raise your fees (and have clients willingly pay them)
Going back over ten years to the early days of my coaching business I was walking along Piccadilly on the way to see a client one day and, quite by chance, I bumped into my friend Jamie who is also a business and corporate coach. We both had a little...
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Finding your life’s purpose
I was an enthusiastic devourer of self-help and personal development material for well over twenty years, although I have now been in healthy recovery for nearly seven years now. During my addiction I always noticed how much material there is on finding your life's purpose. Have you ever noticed this?...
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Why advisers shouldn’t avoid challenging their clients
Although the term 'sales' can have negative connotations these days, if you are providing a professional service then engaging new clients and re-engaging existing ones is often an important part of your business. So, what can give you a significant advantage? A while back I came across some research that...
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No pain, no gain vs. no pain, no pain
Dusan Djukich wrote in his book 'Straight-line Leadership', "Most failure comes from quitting too soon." I guess we have all had projects, ideas and changes we intended to implement but, as he says, we have quit too soon. If we had stayed in the game, then we would have created...
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Your ultimate competitive advantage
I recently read about a study that revealed that most businesses lose, in profits, around 25 to 30 percent of their annual sales figure due to something called 'COPQ' - the cost of poor quality. Where does 'COPQ' originate? It comes from good, caring and intelligent people making mistakes, errors...
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The information delusion
I moved offices recently and it was a wonderful opportunity to have a proper clear-out and throw out what I no longer needed. On one shelf there was a large pile of notes and papers and as I began to go through them I realised they were all from the...
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The 4 keys to getting into your clients world
Getting deep into the world of your client is the only way you can get to understand them and what they want, and put yourself in a position to deliver beyond their expectations. This is actually far easier than many people seem to make it. What is the starting point?...
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Trust – what builds it and what destroys it?
Trust is often thought of in terms of behaviours - do trustworthy behaviours and people will trust you. Also, in financial services many people believe that technical mastery is something that builds trust. The idea being that if you have qualifications and professional designations, then this leads to higher trust....
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Who pushes your buttons?
One fine sunny day Theresa was driving down the M20 towards the south coast with her friend Gavin, enjoying the conversation. That was until another car, driven by Jean-Claude, overtook and cut dangerously across Theresa causing her to brake hard. Theresa was not going to let him get away with...
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The key to doing transformational client work – you go first
A couple of years ago I attended a conference in Oslo and one of my memories is of Dr. Aaron Turner make a particularly powerful point. Aaron shared a story about a time he was holidaying in Hawaii with his family. They were spending some time on the beach and...
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The Power Of Vulnerability
As a financial practitioner it is easy to only talk to your clients about products, investments and financial matters. Why? Because it is comfortable for you. It is where you feel safe. It is what you know about. But this isn’t where the real juice in the relationship is –...
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Resilience – The essential key to suffering less and accomplishing more
Have you noticed how resilience has become a hot topic in business? There are TED talks on it, it is being written about in the Harvard Business Review and organisations are beginning to realise that high resilience levels are a major factor in creating sustainable success. Often, the most successful...
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Quick guide: Get more of your best thinking
There are many factors involved in the process of creating, running and continually improving your business. Getting clients, servicing them, building an infrastructure, innovating, responding to changes... Success in any of these activities is under-pinned by the quality of thinking that is brought to each one. A client and I...
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Are your clients emotionally engaged?
In my recent post 'No pressure selling and influence part 2' I touched upon the fact that humans are not driven by reason and logic - we are driven by emotion. Our behaviour is driven by our feeling state. The decisions we make come from how we feel. And what we...
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No pressure selling and influence part 2
“If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.” Sydney Banks Being a powerful influencer is a vital aspect of your role with clients and yet it is something that advisers can be uncomfortable with. In part 1 of this...
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No pressure selling and influence part 1
“This is what it means to serve: improving another’s life and, in turn, improving the world.” Daniel H. Pink, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others Being an effective influencer and confidently selling your services are essential skills if you want to build a thriving practice based upon...
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The more present you are, the more presence you have
A few years ago I read a book called 'Clients Forever' by Doug Carter. He very wisely points out that real value is created when clients have a revelation, an 'ah-ha' moment or an insight. This is when they see something new or differently and this is important because people...
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Good advice is useless without leadership
There is a famous story about a woman visiting Gandhi with her young son. She and her son had travelled a long way and when they eventually got their chance to speak with him he asked how he could help and the woman said "My son eats far too much...
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Qualified Financial Planner – but holding back?
About 18 months ago I published an article titled 'Qualified Financial Planner - but holding back?'. The inspiration for the piece was actually a friend of mine who's an adviser. He had work really hard to get his financial planning qualifications and yet he wasn't putting into practice any of...
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A crucial key to effortless influence
Jacques Prevert  a French poet, once walked by a blind beggar who had a sign next to him that read... "Blind Man without a pension." He asked the man how he was doing, and the blind man replied... "Very badly, no one is making any donations." Jacques picked up the...
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My favourite Einstein quote and why it matters
There aren't that many true bona fide geniuses, past or present, but Albert Einstein was certainly in that category. Apart from his work in the field of physics his insight and clarity into how the human mind works were extraordinary too. My favourite quote attributed to Einstein's is: “We cannot...
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Sell the experience, not the concept
Several years ago I learned from master coach Steve Chandler his 'Eighteen fearless disciplines' for creating clients. He calls them disciplines because you actually have to practice them rather than just know the idea. The first of these disciplines is 'Sell the experience, not the concept' and it can transform...
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What can we learn from doctors who get sued?
Would you like to build even stronger, more productive relationships with your clients and deliver more value than ever before? Although technical knowledge seems to have taken precedence over everything else for advisers in recent years, what use is it if an adviser is not able to combine what they...
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Qualified financial planner – but holding back?
Just recently I had lunch with an adviser friend of mine and he revealed to me that despite becoming a certified financial planner five years ago, regularly attending meetings and events for planners and wanting to only offer a financial planning service he is not actually doing it. He said...
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The real problem with fee charging (and it is never about the money)
Fees and fee charging are now a fact of life for financial professionals and yet it seems to be an area that creates far more challenges than is necessary. Common questions that come up for advisers are: What to charge for? What to actually charge? How to charge? When to...
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Selling your services – are you pushing or pulling?
'To effectively engage someone, you must be operating from a higher level of consciousness than the other person at that moment'. Garrett Kramer, Stillpower At a time when consumers have more choice, are more demanding and less tolerant of being placed under any kind of negative pressure it has never...
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Do you want more of the right clients?
An area that many advisers seem to find challenging is finding and engaging enough of the right clients. Naturally, there is a great deal of information and advice available in this area, however, if you feel you have diligently tried to find out what to do and yet continue to...
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The three levels of value creation
"If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army The primary function of a financial advice practice is to create value for its clients. So, I would imagine that everyone would agree that it is vitally important that...
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The ‘I’ll be happy when’ trap
One of life's illusions is that the attainment of a particular goal, whatever that may be, will provide us with the happiness, fulfilment and peace of mind that we want. It is an easy trap to fall into. James was an adviser I worked with who wanted to grow his...
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Stay in the world of your client
Several years ago I was fortunate enough to come across and even get to train a couple of times with the great Steve Chandler. Steve has written over thirty books and is a world famous success coach to high-achieving business people, CEO's, best-selling authors and Fortune 500 companies. For me,...
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The hidden secret of effective business building
"Why is it that with all the information available today on how to be successful in small business, so few people really are?" Michael Gerber When it comes to building a better business and one that provides more of the rewards that you want there are two kinds of change...
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The inner game of trust
          Many people experience a great deal of insecurity around money and feel apprehensive when faced with talking about the future. Therefore, engaging the services of a financial adviser is not something that most people will take lightly. From an advisers perspective gaining sufficient trust to...
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Get off the safe ground
“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.” Paulo Coelho As a financial practitioner it is easy to only talk to your clients about products, investments and financial matters. Why? Because it is comfortable for you. It...
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Welcome
The Client-centred adviser blog shares materials on the ultimate source of potential, performance and what is at the very core of being Client-centred. Please feel free to explore, consider for yourself and benefit from the ideas.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Dashfield spent 14 years as a self-employed adviser. Since 2006 he has been a coach, mentor and author helping advisers create transformations in their business and personal lives.

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