Crush Your Goals As A Financial Advisor

You spend most of your time as a financial advisor helping your clients meet their financial goals. But what about your personal and professional goals? Do you have a comprehensive plan to help you reach your client acquisition goal this year, or are you winging it and hoping for the best?

In our four-decade history, we’ve seen what works (and what doesn’t) when helping financial advisors set and meet big goals. Consolidated Planning helps financial advisors grow bigger, better, and faster using our proven planning process and practice building playbooks. Our average new financial advisor helps 125 families and businesses during their first five years with the firm and earns over $250,000 annually by their fifth year in the business. The typical experienced advisor joining our firm triples their practice value within five years of joining Consolidated Planning.

Keep reading to learn the eight steps you need to take to crush your goals this year. 

Step #1: Schedule 2-3 Goal Planning Sessions

Writing down your goals is not enough. It’s essential to be out of your normal environment and someplace new to spark creativity and dream. You must schedule two or three sessions away from your office and house to work on your business. 

Schedule these sessions over a month to give yourself time to reflect and process between sessions. Your brain is a powerful tool that will use this time to think about your goals and problem solve.

Step #2: Define What’s Ideal

When you sit down in your goal planning sessions, the first question you need to answer is, “what is ideal personally and professionally?” As a financial advisor, your personal and professional lives are intertwined. You cannot become the type of advisor you want to be unless you are the person you want to be as well. 

When defining your ideal personal and professional life, use a three year time frame. Three years is the perfect time frame for goal planning because time, money, and relationships don’t get in the way. Ten year goals are too long and get fuzzy, while one year goals are complicated by time, money, and relationships.

Step #3: Goals Must Be Measurable

Your goals should be clear and specific. They cannot be mushy. For example, I want to bring in more clients is a mushy goal. A better way to write this goal is I want to add 12 new business owner clients.

Writing clear, measurable goals allows you to reflect on your goals and track progress. If a goal is properly defined, an outsider should be able to look at the goal and determine whether or not you accomplished it.

Step #4: Be Clear About Obstacles In Your Way

After you write down your well defined goals, it’s time to get clear about the obstacles in your way. Identify everything that can get in your way. Sometimes, simply acknowledging an obstacle exists is enough to overcome it. Other obstacles require more planning to get past. 

Again, your brain is a powerful engine that will work on problem solving this list even after your planning session has ended. Be clear about what’s in your way, it will often show you the path forward.

Step #5: Be Clear About Your Unique Abilities

Everyone has things they are below average at, average at, and uniquely gifted at. Almost always, the activities you are below average at doing will drain you of your energy and joy. Conversely, the activities you excel at doing are likely to bring you joy. 

As an advisor, your exceptional talents likely revolve around meeting with clients, prospects, or centers of influence. Completing paperwork is likely something you are below average at doing. That’s okay.

Structuring your time around your unique abilities is a primary key to successfully achieving your goals. Be clear about the activities you do in each of these categories. Be especially aware of the activities you do that you are below average at and the activities that you are exceptional at.

Step #6: Stop Doing Below Average Activities

Remember all of the activities you do in the below average and average categories from the previous step? Yes. The ones that you aren’t any good at and hate doing. 

Stop doing those activities. Really. Stop.

Use technology or other people to handle tasks you aren’t good at. This will free up time for you to do more of what you are exceptional at doing and drive growth. You must have control over your time and activity to meet your goals.

It’s important to note that this step is not what you were taught in school or in life. If you weren’t good at something growing up, you were encouraged to practice until you were at least average at it. As a financial advisor, we’ve found it’s better to outsource the things you don’t do well so you can spend more time on what you do.

Step #7: Share Your Goals

People who keep their goals to themselves do not achieve them. It is essential that you share your goals with others. Sharing your goals with others does two things.

The more you share your goals, the more clear you become. Even if you do all of the talking, your brain processes and refined your goals each time you talk about them. 

Often, when you share your goals with others, you will receive feedback. Whether you are sharing your goals with a mentor in the industry or someone with a beginner’s mind when it comes to financial planning, new perspectives are valuable and help you move forward.

Step #8: Schedule Time To Review

Just as you help clients review and monitor progress toward their financial goals, you need to review your progress toward your goals. Schedule time at least monthly, but ideally weekly to review your goals and keep them fresh in your mind. 

How Can Consolidated Planning Help Me Crush My Goals?

Consolidated Planning provides advisors with unique resources to offload non-revenue producing activities and focus on their unique abilities. We help dozens of advisors launch or relaunch financial planning practices with aggressive growth goals year after year.

Reach out to our team to receive a copy of our practice building playbook and learn how we can help accomplish your goals together.

2023-149550 Exp 1/25