Welcome to the May 2011 edition of our Plan · Practice · Profit E-Newsletter!

I’m sure that you have noticed the number of articles that are showing up on-line and in magazines and newspapers about the many traditionalists and baby boomers who are pushing their retirement dates back for either economic reasons or they simply enjoy what they do and they plan to keep working and enjoy a balanced lifestyle not because they have to, but because they love what they do. With Canada having one of the number one economies in the world and with a population that doesn’t come close to filling the economic needs of our country, delaying ones’ retirement makes great economic sense. Here are a couple of articles that have caught my attention on this subject:  Happiness or retirement – it’s your choice. Seniors who lose their jobs or retire voluntarily are likely to gain weight, become hypertensive and even develop depression. Amortality: Why It’s No Longer Necessary to Act Your Age

I’ve now gone from coaching, speaking and writing to coaching, speaking, writing and handstands – Doing a handstand at a Yoga Workshop on Saturday, May 14, 2011

One Page Business Plan^(TM) Webinars

Announcing Leading Advisor’s One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinar and the One Page Business Plan(TM) Webinars!

“If you don’t get the words right, you might build the wrong business and may never get the numbers right.”

The dates for the One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinars are:

• Wednesday, May 25^th at 12:30pm EDT  **THIS WEBINAR IS FULL**
• Tuesday,  June 7^th at 11:15am EDT
• Thursday,  June 23^rd at 1:45pm EDT

Who should attend?

• Do you have too many scattered ideas?
• Do you need to focus on a few?
• Do you need to jumpstart your business right now?
• Do you have no time or interest in writing a 50 page business plan?
• Do you need to determine if you’re focusing on the right things?
• Do you need an effective blueprint to keep yourself and team focused?

Then consider a fresh, simple approach to business planning that will enable you to focus on what is important…the One Page Business Plan^(TM) – a powerful tool for building and managing a business.  It’s short, it’s
concise, and it delivers results quickly and effectively. There can be no
question as to where your business is headed when it is in writing, especially when you have the key essentials about growing your business clearly specified on a single page.

Is this another ho-hum course on business planning like the ten others you have attended – no way!  I know how to capture the essence of any business in just a few minutes using the innovative key word and short phrase techniques using the One Page Business Plan^(TM).

To Register for the One Page Business Plan^(TM) Free Webinar:

Call Laura at 250 248-6012 / 1 877 248-6012 or e-mail Laura at lreilly@leadingadvisor.com and you will receive your GoTo Meeting
Webinar Link, Phone Number and Access Code.

• Wednesday, May 25^th at 12:30pm EDT **THIS WEBINAR IS FULL**
• Tuesday,  June 7^th at 11:15am EDT
• Thursday,  June 23^rd at 1:45pm EDT

My mind is at peace because of investing significant focus and time into the above noted projects and my body is at peace because Laura and I went to Yoga Classes at Penny’s Yoga at the end of the day last week on
Monday – Thursday and we also attended a Yoga Workshop on Saturday at Yoga Weyr in Nanaimo that was facilitated by Jenni & Paul of Namastay – ReTreat Yourself from Felton, California. I`m shocked at how peaceful I am feeling after a one day Yoga Retreat … more peaceful than I`ve been after 2 – 3 weeks holiday, so don`t be surprised if you hear that Laura and I are taking in more of these retreats in the future.

I wished that I could stay in this peaceful bliss and waste away my flight to Toronto watching movies  ( which I rarely do ) but alas I cannot as I wish to make an extra conscious effort to jump start myself to prepare for this week’s financial advisor speaking at the IFB ( Independent Financial Brokers Summit, financial advisor telephone coaching, and a few COI appointments while I am in Toronto.

This extra conscious effort is also going into re-focusing me on this complete list of projects:

• June 30th Extra Income Goal To Create Reserve For The Summer
• Review Sales Activity Calculator On A Weekly Basis
• Review & Act On Maximizer Opportunities / Hot List & Prospecting Calls
• Draft & Send Referral Campaign To Current & Past Clients
• Draft & Send Past Client One Page Business Plan E-Mail Introduction
• Fine tuning my One Page Business Plan PowerPoint presentation for the IFB (Independent Financial Brokers ) Summit again on Wednesday, May 18th
• Creating a 3 hour Clear Your Roadblocks PowerPoint / Workshop for delivery for Edward Jones in Victoria, BC at the end of the month
• Creating a 1.5 hour One Page Business Plan PowerPoint / Workshop for delivery for Desjardins Financial in Victoria, BC at the end of the month
• Submitting a One Page Business Plan PowerPoint for 2010 Advocis / CLU CE Credits in advance of speaking at Advocis Ottawa in September
• Produce presentation for Bright Talk
• Join The Financial Planning Association
• Finalize details for NAIFA Washington
• Purchase Book Summaries To Improve Blogging
• Upgrade Coaching GYM Weekly E-Mails
• Upgrade Coaching Welcome Package
• Write E-Newsletter June
• Standardize Prospect Enrolment Questions
• Re-Send One OPBP Progress Report & Scorecard
• Information Management Plan Update

Please don’t get overwhelmed with the above list because most of the above is near completion as I’ve been investing time in this for a while now. This is so that I’m free to use my extra time while I will be off the financial advisor
speaking road in July / August to complete the last of my creative /product/re-invention projects related to more scalable practice management coaching systems and the marketing of same … more on this at another time

Sidebar – Writing the draft of this E-Newsletter in my journal is reminding me to purchase Livescribe ASAP as I believe it will save me an
incredible amount of time.

My information management list of tools and wish list continues to grow to include:

• Dragon Naturally Speaking
• Evernote
• iPad 2 – tablet decision made and purchase to follow. It is my view not to be on the bleeding edge. I’ve thought about and researched the Android Tablets, the BlackBerry PlayBook and the iPad and the bottom line is the Tablet is about Apps and the Android Tablets and the BlackBerry PlayBook are still too new to consider while the iPad is more than cutting edge, it is a work of art and I don’t want to be on the bleeding edge.
• iPhone
• Livescribe
• Moleskin Journal
• MS Tasks

That is the thing, it is not me that is doing all the work, it is the systems and
technology that we use and I continue to look to improve as success is a few
simple disciplines learned and practiced every single day. I say this because
it seems that nearly every time that I talk with one of my peers they comment
that we are doing too much and that we need to slow down. A recent comment that I heard was that Laura and I get more done by 9am on a Monday than they do in an entire week. Another comment was about whether I should continue to speak at some of the financial advisor speaking venues that I speak at now since I have spoken at the MDRT. In the same breath, the same person said that it is amazing how far we have come in a short five years while the financial advisor coaches, speakers and writing veterans in Canada and the USA have been working at it for decades. My belief is that there are no fat, inflexible and technologically incompetent old men … well I guess there are, at the old folks’ home.

The work that we are doing is to create the space for my vision to come out the gate in September speaking at NAIFA’S National Conference in Washington, DC with a focus to coach, speak and write and to be complete with creative/product/re-invention projects.

Blogging and writing e-newsletters has many benefits for both our clients and one of them for me is it allows me to look back to my summer months of blogs and e-newsletters and appreciate the significant projects that have been completed in July – August of 2005 – 2010.

• Summer 2005 – Preparing to move to Vancouver Island
• Summer 2006 – Completed the first of three Website Upgrades between 2006 & 2009
• Summer 2007 – Laura & I went to England to attend a Business Coaching Retreat in Devon with our coach and friend Chris Barrow
• Summer 2008 – Completed writing my book, “Curing The Unmet Needs Disease”
• Summer 2009 – Completed Clear Your Roadblocks One Day Workshop & 8 Week Coaching GYM
• Summer 2010 – Completed Advocis / CLU 2010 CE Credits for Clear Your Road Blocks and Clear Your Roadblocks To The Client Engagement Process
• Summer 2010 – Completed The One Page Business Plan Certification Training Program

So having said all of this, I’m publically renewing my commitment to get these projects completed to be at another level of completion, peace, and focus in September so that I can coach, speak and write.

 

Its 2:15am ET on Monday, May 16^th at the Toronto airport and the baggage carousel is starting to move. Our plane landed late and sat at the gate for over 1½ hours waiting for the airport ground crew to park the plane so that we could de-plane and then I waited for at least an hour for my luggage. So cheers to Laura and I for deciding to fly me out early to avoid jet lag because I would not have been rested if I was speaking… not tomorrow morning, it could have been THIS morning.

The peace from the yoga class still prevails.

For the peers that are worried about me working too much over the summer, there will be lots of time off with Laura, long walks in nature, kayaking, cycling, days at the beach, day trips around the Island, and many trips to Penny’s Yoga.

In closing, our work is to help our clients to meet and exceed their goals by helping them gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their business. When there is no understanding, there is judgment. When there is judgment there can be no understanding.