Don’t mistake taking action for moving toward your goals

As a financial advisor, you know the crucial long-term difference between spending versus investing. But what about spending your time casting a wide net versus investing your time with the right niche of clients and products?

It has a major impact on your future, so make sure you’re investing your time wisely by creating crystal-clear goals about where you’re headed in the future to help you make better decisions today — decisions like where and how you want to specialize. And making better decisions faster is even more important in today’s world where “shiny object syndrome” is becoming an epidemic.

A filter helps sift out distractions from opportunities. Yet, many advisors operate without a helpful filter and continue to spend versus invest their time. Let’s dig a little deeper and look at a few issues that hold people back from optimizing a niche, causing them to spend time in a way that doesn’t get them what they hope to achieve.

They’re afraid of being too specific. Many advisors feel they need to keep all their options open or there may not be enough clients. Plus, they don’t want to turn anyone away. If, however, they can shift their mindset to one of abundance, they’ll realize that there are more than enough clients to be had, and instead of losing out on anything, they’ll gain much more by specializing. Focusing on a certain niche doesn’t mean they have to turn away every person who doesn’t fit into it exactly. It just means they can be more targeted in their marketing efforts and more selective about whom they bring on.

What got them here won’t get them there. Many advisors reach a certain level of success and then get stuck in a rut. And while they would be OK just continuing to do what they’ve always done, it won’t get them to the next level.

They chart the course without clarifying their destination. Often, advisors fail to optimize a niche because they mistake taking action for moving toward their goals. The thing is, it doesn’t matter how hard we row if our boat is pointed in the wrong direction. If we don’t take the time to step back and get clear on where we are headed, we’ll end up wasting our time with what seems productive in the moment but doesn’t get us anywhere.

Without a specific destination plugged into our GPS, we can end up in a tough spot when we inevitably get to the next fork in the road. We find ourselves in one of two situations when we get to that fork: Either we’re paralyzed by indecision and go nowhere, or we go a little bit down one road and get nervous and turn back. And then we go a little bit down the other road but can’t commit there either and come back again.

Set your course and celebrate

Write down that one single thing you’ll be laser-focused on over the next 90 days. Think of this as your definition of success three months from now. And once you achieve it, celebrate it.

Celebrating the small wins brings in the big ones. When we mark these milestones, we don’t wake up five years from now and think How did I get here? Instead, we can look back at all the progress we made along the way and the significance of what that path has meant for us as professionals and as people.

And the celebration doesn’t have to be throwing a party for yourself. It could be a massage, a solo hike, taking a favorite client or a favorite person in your life out for a special meal, or anything else that resonates with you.

I’m excited for you to optimize your niche and live your vision into existence!

Lois Weinblatt is an international visioning expert and founder of True North Business Development. She has worked with visionary leaders and global organizations to close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. This was excerpted from her 2019 MDRT Annual Meeting presentation “Clarify your vision, optimize your niche.” (MDRT member-exclusive content)

For more about goals, watch these MDRT member-exclusive videos:

• “Proven strategies for achieving Top of the Table every year”
• “How to achieve your goals”