FIND FREEDOM IN THE WORK

“What am I doing?” 
“Why do I even bother?” 
“It’s not working!” 

Do things like this ever cross your mind? Or more likely enter your mind and take up residence? 

These unwelcome squatters are evidence of attachment to the outcome vs. the work. 

When the end of the month comes and someone asks you how much you “closed” this month, they are asking the wrong question. 

Having been in this business for almost 15 years, I can tell you that it comes in waves. There will be a wave of “closes” beyond the scale of the work I have done, often followed by a lot of work with very little to show for it. 

It is important to know our business metrics, how much we closed this month etc., but if you only focus on that, you will drive yourself batty! 

There has to be something else that we can focus on that we have more control over. We don’t control outcome, but we do control whether we do the work or not! 

—>You can’t control when someone will retire and potentially roll their investment account over, you can only control whether you called them back or not. 

—>You can’t control whether someone is uninsurable or not, but you can control whether you had the conversation about insurance needs. 

—>You can’t control how many referrals you get, but you can diligently ask and deliver a high-value emotionally significant initial experience to every referral you get. 

You can’t control the outcome, but over time you can influence it by consistently doing the work. 

Doing the work is not spending hours reading industry pubs or commiserating with other advisors.  

It is not spending an inordinate amount of time comparing every product in the marketplace. Doing the work is not an endless stream of vendor lunches. 

The work is looking for opportunities to serve current clients, asking for introductions. The work is following up with unfinished conversations with prospective clients. The work is finding Key Partners who will advocate for you and nurturing those relationships. 

Since we can’t control the outcome, but only whether we effectively do the work, then we need to start tracking our efforts to to do the work! 

Are you tracking the number of times you asked for referrals or meetings with Key Partners? 

Are you tracking and processing referrals by getting either a yes or a no? 

Are you tracking potential business and following up until it’s completed one way or another? 

If you are doing those things, then you don’t need to worry about the outcome. If you are doing the work, you just need to keep doing it and the business will come! 

There is so much freedom in focusing on the work. 

So, the next time you think “It’s not working,” just ask yourself with all honesty, “In this moment, how can I do the work?” 

Nothing else actually matters. 

With Purpose,

-Lucila