Imagine walking into a doctor’s office with a bad cough and walking out on crutches, still coughing. That’s how Brent Brodeski saw the client experience of financial advisory in 1992 when he co-founded Savant Capital Management in Rockford, IL.
“It was kind of like going to the general practitioner, you get a checkup, and he wrote prescriptions and sent people on their way,” said Brent. “And people take that prescription and imagine the pharmacist saying, ‘No, I’m going to sell you this wonder drug instead. It’s more expensive and doesn’t really make you better.’ That was the problem, the clients had a prescription for one thing and they often were getting something else.”
On today's pod we discuss lessons Brent learned from diagnosing his clients’ problems and devising the best cures for their finances on his way to expanding Savant to nearly $5 billion in assets under management and 13 offices throughout the Midwest:
Nobody can accurately and consistently predict the future but by observing and curating ideas, you can uncover accelerating trends, see things other people miss, and position your business to profit from these upcoming opportunities.
In 1982, John Naisbitt wrote a book called Megatrends. It became a huge bestseller and he made the term "high tech high touch" a household phrase that we still use today.
Unfortunately, Naisbitt's trends were so big and unfolded over decades that they weren't immediately actionable.
In steps Rohit Bhargava. Rohit publishes a yearly book called Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas and Predict the Future.
Rohit says, "A great trend is a unique curated observation about the accelerating present. Great trends are never predictions about the world 20 years from now. Those are most often guesses or wishful thinking."
Another trend forecaster, Chris Sanderson, describes trends as “profits waiting to happen.” That's clever but to turn trends into profits, you have to act on them.
In today's show, Rohit and I discuss some of the non-obvious accelerating trends he sees happening right now. We then talk about how to apply those trends to the work financial advisors do.
Could 3 words be the difference between success and failure for you over the next 12 months?
The recent presidential election proved once again that words are powerful. The words that we use, the language that we use has the ability to move people to take action.
For several years now, I’ve taken this idea of “words are powerful’ and completed an exercise that I want to share with you. The exercise is this, “Identify 3 words that would set the course, give you direction, and totally excite you as you move through the year and look at them repeatedly for the next 12 months.”
I started doing this 3 words exercise several years ago after hearing about it from Chris Brogan.
The premise is simple. Pick 3 words that motivate you, remind you, and guide you on your road to making 2017 your best year ever.
I encourage all my coaching clients to do this same exercise as it helps them stay focused on the most important outcomes for the year.
In today’s episode, I discuss my 3 words for 2017 as well as review my 3 words for 2016 and discuss how well I executed on them.