Key links

• Episode 2 (featuring Gina Cotner) of The Perfect RIA
• Gina Cotner’s website for virtual assistants: Athena Executive Services
• The financial advising program that Matt was enrolled in: Academy of Preferred Advisors
• The two books referenced in this episode: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell & The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
• Matthew Jarvis’s prospecting process

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If you are currently successful, so-so, struggling, in a down quarter, thinking about quitting or unsure of where to turn regarding your practice, Matthew Jarvis has some valuable advice to give. In this episode, he explains to fellow advisor Adam Hersh that there are a few important concepts necessary for elevating your practice to its optimal level. This is done by centering your focus on time blocking, prospecting, defining a clear client-service model, and staffing.

Because of his six years spent with Tom Gau and Ken Unger’s coaching program, The Academy of Preferred Financial Advisors (APFA), Matthew learned a lot and transposed those ideas to fit his own practice. He explains that the concepts he learned while in that program helped him work with retirees, gave him ideas for how to naturally increase his network, which in turn led to robust opportunities for prospecting new clients. Also, Matthew gives Adam some good advice on prospecting potential clients and expanding his network when he suggests that he teach free college classes at the community college. The reason for this being that those who attend a three hour lecture (one with an overabundance of information) are bound to come up and ask questions after the lecture--which is a perfect icebreaker for generating a new client. Matthew also explains the importance of being a young financial advisor and being able to assure clients that you are there for the long haul, that you won’t be retiring before them. He also talks a little about delegation, and how Adam should hire a virtual assistant to do some of the non-value tasks (like paperwork) that he spends so much time on. Referring back to the second episode of The Perfect RIA, he recommends Gina Cotner’s platform: Athena Executive Services as an invaluable resource for this.

Finishing up his talk, he has five key takeaways that one can utilize for generating a more valuable practice: These are as follows:

1. Ideally, designate a day of the week which is proactively spent on just working on your business. For example, you could make this a Monday, where the phones are off the hook, and you are proactively working to generate more value for your practice.
2. Pick five non-value tasks to delegate or eliminate.
3. Read Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point
4. Read or reread Tim Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Workweek
5. Remind yourself that doing is the key to all success, and just knowing is not enough.