It’s Friday.
I hope that you have plans that you are looking forward to this weekend.
For me, it’s a holy weekend and a time to reflect, be with family, and set apart all of our day-to-day for something transcendent.
I spent my week at home in Charleston, enjoying time with kids and family and working with my partners at Milemarker on many other things that we believe are poised to impact advisors’ experiences in the near future massively.
The path to making this kind of impact requires clear processes and fairly strict adherence to them. I’ll get to that idea in a moment.
Meanwhile, this week saw many interesting and noteworthy moments. Here are the one’s I included in this week’s Connected Advisor Newsletter:
A Pirates Guide to Unleashing the Power of Your Process ☠️
Brandon Averill On the Pod 🎧
AI is Changing Everything: Obama Deepfake
The World Bids Goodbye to Daniel Kahneman ✏️
Milemarker on the Road ✈️ 🚅 🚕
Let’s roll.
A Pirates Guide to Unleashing the Power of Your Process
You’re likely familiar with at least one personality system – from Meyers Briggs to DISC or Strengths Finder, you may have even taken a test with your team at work. I’ve always enjoyed them, until I found the Enneagram.
The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system with roots in various spiritual and philosophical traditions, including mystical Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and ancient Greek philosophy.
Today, the Enneagram is used in personal development, psychology, and business to help individuals understand their behaviors, motivations, and paths for growth. It’s a simple way to understand personality, strengths, and how I tend to exist alongside others, but it’s kind of brutal. I can’t help but read about myself and hear all the ways that I’m difficult.
I’m an individualist and an achiever — a 4 with a 3 wing, sometimes referred to as The Enthusiast.
My enthusiasm comes across when I’m excited about making new things and pushes me to get that thing done no matter what. I struggle to find enjoyment in repetitive tasks and typically love to blaze new trails, each and every day.
Following Process
Blazing new trails usually means that I’d rather create a new process than follow one that already exists.
Of course, I know processes exist, but I can easily view that process as an impediment to the art of creating something truly transformational.
Thankfully I work with a team that appreciates when I wander in the wilderness for a while, but they are equally excited when I return to their expertise when it is time to implement ideas. I have to let go and trust the disciplined process.
My wanderings recently led me to Root Financial Partners, a fascinating, modern RIA in Southern California.
James and the team at Root are impressive. Their clear, well-designed and organized communication has deliver over 100k YouTube subscribers. Their process-driven messaging has grown their audience because clients and prospects understand the process of working with Root.
With a named process, James and team provide clients with a very easy-to-understand, 5-area process that drives success.
Fundamentally, the way your firm delivers services and advice harnesses, defines, and transforms not only your client experience but also the success of your business.
Your process is your playbook.
Pirates, Process & Playbook
I hope you remember the late Mike Leach.
Mike was a lifelong football coach, pirate enthusiast, and anti-establishment personality who coached football for Washington State, Texas Tech, and Mississippi State.
Aside from his hilarious takes on the facts of life, Mike mastered one of the most successful processes in college football: The Air Raid Offense.
His playbooks often had only 14 pass plays, yet his quarterbacks were generally some of the highest-grossing passers in the country.
His team had an identity, they had a process, and they ran a very clear playbook.
His process was as successful as it could have been for the schools he led.
And to this day, his coaching tree is occupied by many of today’s most sought-after coaches.
Your Process is Who You Are
It’s not hard to understand how your team may wind up without defined processes. Letting everyone do what’s right in their own eyes is the easiest path to just getting stuff done.
But getting stuff done is not the same thing as getting stuff done right. Without formalizing your processes, you’ll likely wind up with divided teams, over-extended attention, and disjointed work.
Here are several key strategies that I am working on that may be useful to you and your firm as well as part of embracing a process lead firm:
Defining the Process: Clearly articulate the process that serves most of your clients, ensuring it’s comprehensive and manageable. Your team should be able to fully understand the full process at any moment, so you probably need to keep it pretty simple. Try not to worry about edge cases and standardize wherever you can. Be sure to WRITE IT DOWN. Don’t just talk about it.
Assigning Ownership: Allocate process segments to team members based on their strengths to foster expertise and accountability. They should become the SME for that area of the business, and their area should complement the adjacent goals, processes and outcomes.
Leveraging Technology: Integrate technology to enhance efficiency and effectiveness at every process stage. Where does each piece of technology align with the process?
Practicing Relentlessly: Ensure the process becomes second nature to your team, embodying it in every action and decision.
Perfect Your Playbook: Your process is your playbook. Make it so. Take it with you, lean into it, and make it better every day, quarter, or year.
The Journey Continues
Refining our processes, both personally and professionally, is an ongoing journey that requires continuous learning, adaptation, and commitment.
Where are you on your process journey?
How would you grade out your adoption to process?
On the Pod
Episode 036: In this episode of The Connected Advisor, Kyle Van Pelt is joined by Brandon Averill, Partner at AWM Capital and former professional baseball player. They discuss the unique challenges and opportunities in serving professional athletes and their families. He emphasizes the importance of education in managing finances, shares insights on the complexities of athlete taxation, and highlights the impact of the recent NIL legislation on college athletes.
Athletes are often stereotyped as prone to making poor financial decisions. While this perception is unfair, the real problem lies in a lack of financial education. This gap can leave them susceptible to mismanagement and potentially risky financial ventures. Fortunately, with the right tools and support, professional and college athletes can overcome these obstacles and build a legacy of wealth far beyond the playing field.
The episode is available now on your favorite podcast platform.
While there, please don’t forget to Download, Like, and Subscribe.
AI is Changing Everything: Obama Deepfake
Ten years ago, I helped build a video statement tool for Orion called Engage. This was way before language learning models were changing the game for technology.
We haven’t quite reached a moment where financial advice is significantly impacted by AI video, but I won’t be surprised if three years from now your client statements look very different than they do today.
As we wait for the technology to mature, we are reaching a really interesting tipping point on what is real and what is fake. This deepfake, released this week, of President Obama is truly next level.
We are in a new era.
It’s been an insane week for AI.
Here are 9 massive changes happening around AI this week:
1/ Deepfakes are becoming indistinguishable from reality.
— Barsee 🐶 (@heyBarsee)
Mar 27, 2024
The World Bids Goodbye to Daniel Kahneman
Neil Bage provides a great commentary on the loss of Daniel Kahneman.
In 2012, two years into my first solo Consultancy business, I purchased a book that would change the direction of travel for me forever. The book was Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. 1/8 twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Neil Bage (@neilbage)
Mar 28, 2024
Milemarker on the Road
Catch our team on the road at the following events or cities:
April 10 – Boston, MA
April 24 – Charlotte, NC
April 25 – Charleston, SC
April 29 – Los Angeles, CA
If you’re in any of those cities and want to arrange a meeting time, reply to this email, and we’ll get something on the calendar.
Jud Mackrill
