Archive for May, 2011

Last week I was reminded of a very difficult time in my business, a time when no matter what I did I could not get my business to grow.  I tried everything hoping to find that silver bullet that would turn things around but nothing worked.

I was STUCK, until I met Betty.

Betty Robinson is a Life Coach and President of Enough Consulting.  Working with Betty I learned that business growth is not always about the strategy or sales idea.  Often times the thing that is preventing our business from growing is internal.  Its issues that we can’t seem to overcome on our own and they continually raise their ugly heads and get in our way to success.

For many those issues come from past experiences. Attitudes that we inherit from our parents, personal experiences that caused us pain, or society’s perception of how women should behave. Sometimes it’s simply the fear of success that holds us back. 

These issues are not easy to spot, they are sneaky and subtle in their attempt to sabotage our success. Even if we do recognize them we often don’t want to face them pushing them back into the recesses of our mind. 

So how do you know when they are preventing your success? When the problem persists, when you can’t seem to get beyond a certain point in your business.  When you try everything but the same problems and issues plague your desire to succeed.  When there is a pattern of behavior that you can’t seem to break.

This Thursday you can hear Betty live on my monthly Power Call.  Betty will share real life stories working with female financial advisors like yourself who got STUCK.  During this call Betty will share the most common roadblocks female advisors face and how these issues show up on our business.

You can learn more by visiting Your Pink Office online or Google Betty Robinson Enough Consulting.

Last week I was speaking with one of my coaching clients.  She recently moved from the Operations side of the business to become a female financial advisor and take over a book of business. Her firm has really no training so we have been working for months to help prepare her for her “transformation”.  While she is focusing on the existing book of business she is at the same time developing new relationships.  In our call last week she shared that she had a total meltdown over the weekend.  While she has always worked in the back office, getting in front of people and even hosting events is WAY out of her comfort zone, but you know what SHE IS DOING IT.

Every day this young woman, this new financial advisor is pushing herself out of her comfort zone.  Anything I ask her to do she does it regardless as to how uncomfortable it is.  We have all had those times as a fully commissioned financial advisor where we wake up at night in a cold sweat wondering “Am I going to make it” or “Will I disappoint my family”,   while these panic attacks can be debilitating they are also signs that you are very determined to achieve and succeed.

There is no doubt that this young woman will succeed because every day she is out there, talking to people, asking for business and inspiring referrals.  I suppose she is actually fortunate that she did not go through any intensive formal training because then I would have had to spend our valuable time RE-Training her.  She is building her practice based on her experiences in the industry and her strengths as a woman.  She has a focus, a target market, a compelling message and is already promoting her first event and she only opened the doors to her business April 1^st.  WOW

Perhaps it was working with this client that helped me to recognize I too needed to get out of my comfort zone.  While she may be a bit panicky about the future and her ability to succeed she is an inspiration to me. Needless to say we will be spending time on heavy breathing exercises going forwardJ

“And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” – Erica Jong, Writer

What risks did you take in your business this week?