Watch these two videos from Financial Planning magazine’s AdvisorTV where you will learn the importance of creating your mission statement and how new planners can learn from their veteran counterparts.

Click Here For Part One
Click Here For Part Two

What makes you different from the advisor down the street? Before you say we have extraordinary service or something in the same vein, stop to think about what all other advisors say: aren’t they saying pretty much the same thing?

Is it time to re-evaluate your mission statement and/or vision statement? If it’s time… read this for more.

Read this interesting article about how brands like Gucci and Apple inspire a cult-like following. Is your brand compelling enough to inspire your devotees to get a tattoo of your logo?

So tell us?
What brands are you obsessed with?

What makes your business unique is the same thing that makes you different. So embrace your strangeness and read this for the author’s three steps to becoming successful through your strangeness.

So Tell Us!
What sets you apart from the crowd and how do you leverage this uniqueness in your business?

By Steve Sanduski, CFP®

It would be so much easier to build your business if clients came to you instead of you having to chase them. Creating an effective brand can help you do that.

As branding expert Mark Di Somma says, great brands, “…embody an idea. They represent a cause. That cause fires up the customers. It also excites the people inside the culture. It provides them with a purpose, something to believe in, and deliver on.” While this is a high standard, it is worth pursuing.

At Peak Advisor Alliance, we stress the importance of having a compelling vision for your future. If you are clear on your vision for your business, and it is compelling—not just to you but to your staff as well—then that excitement, enthusiasm, and passion will carry over to your prospects and clients and help create your brand.

Here’s an example of an overarching vision that generated tremendous results. 

In his book, “The Highest Goal,” Michael Ray tells a story about Charles Garfield, a professor of psychology at the University of California Medical Center. Garfield worked on the Apollo 11 project, which resulted in man's first step on the moon. Prior to that step on the moon, Garfield observed that his office was full of passion, excitement, and energy. After that step on the moon, Garfield noticed that everything changed. People were working, but there was no excitement. There was no compelling vision driving their work. Confused, Garfield asked his boss what was going on. His insightful boss led him outside, pointed to the faint moon and said, "We don't have that to motivate us anymore." 

Granted, helping clients navigate retirement is not like putting man on the moon. However, all of us need to be inspired by something. If you haven’t done so already, identify and work toward the vision that will inspire all your constituents. It will be your personal, “One giant leap for mankind.”