Working 3 days a week and only 5 hours a day? This is strategy

Hello and Ciao from Italy!

While I write this article, I'm currently overlooking Lake Como in Northern Italy!

This is just my first stop on a 6-8 week summer trip where I am traveling, eating a LOT of pasta, and working remotely. During my trip I am taking off at least 2 (sometimes 3) days a week and only having meetings for 4-5 hours a day.

If you’re in the camp of “Dang, I really want to learn how to work less and make more” – I want to share the single strategy that makes #WorkLessMakeMore possible for me in my life. 

The strategy?

Create Structure.

Seriously. Here’s how this plays out.

There are three things that create 90% of the work in our professional lives:

1. Meetings (both revenue generating and service-oriented)
2. Back-end service work (aka: things to keep the business running)
3. Prospecting (aka: meeting new people – which can include “dialing”)

There may be other things “to do” – like studying for exams and attending pointless office meetings (lol) – but to actually RUN a business, these are the only three things that MUST get done.

Structure is what’s allowed me to offload MOST of the work from those three. I’ll explain.

1.Meetings: I believe my job as a business owner is to generate revenue. PERIOD! So all non-generating revenue meetings are delegated to my staff.

This took a while, but creating the structure around this (and having the right team member, a clear process, etc.) is what has created more freedom for me.

(simple but controversial thought: 90% of those in-office meetings are pointless, eating away your time, energy, and are not actually benefiting you. How much time and energy could you get back if you stopped saying yes to everything but instead spent time on the right things?)

2. Back-end service work: This is simple, but not easy. In order to free up time on this, I had to create a system for what happens when (aka: a series of “what if” statements for my business)

In March of 2020, my business partner Ashley and I sat down for an entire WEEK and drew out every single step of our business > and who’s responsible for each step. This took 50+ hours, but once we completed it, we were able to delegate our business in a way that NO ONE else was doing.

We truly became business owners once that was completed > and now, all service-work is handled by our team.

3. Prospecting: THIS IS THE GOLDEN TICKET. If you take anything from this article, this is the section to pay attention to.

Prospecting – aka: meeting new clients – is (typically) the most challenging aspect of the business for most advisors. It’s the part of the business that creates these types of thoughts:

• I can’t take time off – I’m not where I want to be financially
• I’m sick and tired of the roller-coaster feeling with my income: one month it’s so high, then I have 2 months afterward that are so low. It’s frustrating!
• Do I have enough meetings for next week? No? Shoot I guess I need to work late tonight – I need to prospect/dial!
• My mentor said if I just did 2 more FactFinders a week I would hit my goal. Okay… but where TF do I find these FactFinders?

If you think (or have thought) any of these – I get it. I’ve been there (hello Scottie from 2018, 2019 and 2020!!).

But nowadays? I don’t worry about prospecting or dialing AT. ALL.

How?

I’ve created and implemented a proven, step-by-step system where I’m currently generating inbound leads and booking around 10 approaches per week (per WEEK!). And on average book 3-5 per week consistently.

My strategy consists of:

• Training my clients to refer me business (this is so simple to do, but MUST be done right otherwise it's super ineffective)
• Automating my LinkedIn (I book 3-5 approaches per week via LinkedIn). This also must be done "right" (I see a LOT of advisors spend lots of money and/or time to get lackluster results on LinkedIn)
• Prospecting UP super effectively, and
• Writing email marketing campaigns that BLOW normal “reach %s” out of the water

The first two points above are important, but I’d consider automating these a “nice to have”.

The third point is not only important, it’s vital.

Having a proven, repeatable prospecting system is “make or break” in this career.

If you’re 2+ years in your business, really good at closing cases, are craving more income and more freedom… this is your sign.

🔥 I help advisors 2-10 years in the business double their production by implementing next-level prospecting strategies, tactics and systems.

If you're interested, you can explore my signature coaching program The Financial Advisor Academy, click here to learn more.

Want to see if working together is a good fit for you? Click this link to fill out a short (<1 min) application. I’ll reach out if I think you’re a good candidate for the program.

Ciao from Italy! Time for an espresso! :)

Published by