In both Canada and the US, Labor Day is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of workers, and it pays tribute to the contributions workers have made to their country. In kind, value provided and value returned.
If you are like me, even though it is Labor Day, you are likely laboring with love for some part of today if you own your own business.
If you are a financial advisor, you are likely working today, the first Monday of September, and the first day of your year given that a financial advisor’s year starts after the summer holidays of July and August.
This is the time of year when financial advisors get back to work because their clients are contacting their advisors as they have been thinking of their financial goals and plans over the summer and it is time to get things rolling.
I believe that a labor of love isn’t work.
A labor of love is about the value that the labor provides. The return is secondary and will take care of itself if you are values-based.
If you don’t love your business or work and the value that it provides your family and your clients, then why would you do it?
Then your labor would just feel like work.
Look at all of these words:
- Art
- Career
- Craft
- Job
- Labor
- Occupation
- Profession
- Trade
- Vocation
- Work
- Worship
Which word best describes what you do?
Look at all of these words and consider what Age you are in:
- Industrial
- Knowledge
- Information
- Creation
Which word best describes the Age that you are in?
Are you a power-driven machine that churns out the same one size fits all to your customers, or do you have a value-based approach that includes knowledge, information and creation for your clients?
I love to write blogs.
What is a personal blog? A personal blog is a blog that shares one’s authentic opinions and thoughts on a regular basis so that their readers can get to know them. Like sharing the values of knowledge, information and creation.
At the same time I love to coach and speak.
As I was writing this, I began to think about how many truly personal blogs I have written over the past year. Most blogs have been about practice management. Based first on instincts, and then going back and actually taking a look, there are not that many that I could call truly personal blogs. Here are the lead-in blogs to a few:
- Dec 2, 2013 – Memories From Ecuador Will Last A Lifetime – Compassion Ecuador Travelogue #1
- July 23, 2013 – July 2013 E-Newsletter – Balance · Plan · Reward – Should You Focus On Strengths Or Weakness? Part 1
Not that many truly personal blogs. Then again, there have been plenty since I started writing my blog in February 2005. Glad I just looked; I could have missed the upcoming 10 -year anniversary. Then again, the first blogs were not very good. But sooner or later, through trial and error, one finds their writing voice.
Over the past 12 months the writing that could have gone onto personal blogs has gone more into coaching, practice management blogs, presentation development, speaking, systems, and team building.
Practice management areas include the following that lead with Inspiration:
- Inspiration
- Vision / Plan
- Information & Time Management
- Delegation, Hiring, Team Building
- Financial Controls
- Marketing & Sales
- Customer Service
This includes presentation development that include:
Over the summer, by choice, I have not written that many truly personal blogs. My writing time has been going into enjoying the summer and you can read about it in the following link. Consciously stopping blogging nearly all together over the summer, I decided to invest my art, craft, vocation, worship into improving business systems and our team and you can read about it here:
The end result of improving business systems and our team is I will have more time for my greatest labor of love and that is to write a new book to be published in 2015.
But before this is going to happen, here’s my labor of love list and delegation for the fall:
- Compassion Philanthropic Project
- Event Education, Preparation & Speaking;
- Anthony Morris Top Advisor Program Seattle September 22, 2014
- Million Dollar Round Table Speaking Proposal Request for New Orleans June 14-17, 2015 – that’s right, I was contacted to speak at the MDRT in 2015, still need to qualify 🙂
- NAIFA California Member Benefit Webinar, October 21, 2014
- NAIFA Inland Empire, September 18, 2014
- NAIFA National San Diego Breakfast Meeting September 8, 2014
- NAIFA National San Diego Breakout September 7, 2014
- NAIFA Spokane September 19, 2014
- NAIFA Client Cast Interview October 8, 2014
- NIME Webinar September, 2014
- Portfolio Strategies, September 10, 2014
- NAIFA Iowa Sale Caravan, November 11 – 14, 2014
- Hire a new Accountant and Bookkeeper
- Hire a Social Media / Writing Virtual Assistant to:
- Hold me accountable to write more personal blogs
- Transcribe my thoughts into meaningful articles, blogs and newsletters
- Edit the thousands of words that are transcribed weekly into coaching telephone call follow-up emails into meaningful articles, blogs and newsletters
- Infusionsoft Balanced Business System Edit To Monthly
- iPhone 6
- Macbook
- Project Coaching & Speak Time Availability For 2015
- Speaking Infusionsoft and Send Out Card Campaign
- Web Update Speaking and Team Pages
- Wunderlist
International Values and Behavioral Analyst, Business Coach, Speaker and Author
Executive Coaching Tips for Financial Advisors
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