I once had an Accounting firm who had been considering engaging us to run a change management program across their business, tell us that ultimately the board had decided that they didn’t believe in paying for external guidance.
Imagine an Advice business saying that it didn’t believe in it’s own value? Yet that is a trap that is so easy for us to fall into.
There is a simple saying that is used consistently in any form of elite sports ‘you can’t be your own coach’. In that truth, however, is a lesson not just for athletes but one that is profound for all Advice Professionals.
Understanding this simple concept is the key to unlocking your deepest value as well as overcoming all of your own business limitations. Not only can you not be your own coach, you can’t be your own Adviser.
You see that is your greatest value, being able to do for your clients what they cannot do for themselves… Advice helps people to take their emotions, their decisions and their possibilities and to put context around them.
Your deepest value comes from your ability to help your clients see and act clearly and all you need to do to have them recognise that and be happy to pay you for it is to believe it.
A good Adviser can change the course of someone’s life for the better in a few words. On the other hand, a technically proficient, compliant, and process driven filler of time sheets can deliver a whole lot of actions for a fee that creates very little impact for the client.
The reality is that there is no inherent value in the things we do in the guise of service – value only comes from the benefit we create and has no correlation to how much we do in order to create that impact.
Now I’m not saying that we don’t need compliance, best practice or process, because we do. I’m saying that all of those things should only ever be a means to deliver the real part of Advice, the part that helps clients make realisations, change behaviour, and make smarter decisions to get more of the life they really want.
The second thing we all need to realise as Advisers is that we cannot be Advisers to ourselves.
Of all of the professions I have encountered those who deliver Advice are the ones least likely to seek it out and pay for it.
To believe in what you do, you should believe in what you do. Help your clients to have more of the life they want, just don’t forget to ask for help in having the same for yourself.
Baz
P.S. If you would like to talk about this in any more detail, drop me a line or let me know in the comments…