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Hosted by Financial Advisor Coach, Ray Sclafani, "Building The Billion Dollar Business" is the ultimate podcast for financial advisors seeking to elevate their practice. Each episode features deep dives into actionable advice and exclusive interviews with top professionals in the financial services industry. Tune in to unlock your potential and build a successful, enduring financial advisory practice.
Ray Sclafani (00:00.142)
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Welcome to Building the Billion Dollar Business, the podcast where we dive deep into the strategies, insights, and stories behind the world's most successful financial advisors and introduce content and actionable ideas to fuel your growth. Together, we'll unlock the methods, tactics, and mindset shifts that set the top 1 % apart from the rest. I'm Ray Sclafani, and I'll be your host. So today, I want to briefly share with you what
I believe is the most valuable time of the year. If this magical period between summer's end and Thanksgiving. And why do I think this? Well, for as long as I've been coaching financial advisors and leaders in financial services, I've observed this consistent truth. Those who finish strong are usually the ones who start strong. Now, if you're in the US, this window opens right after Labor Day, you've got
buses back out on the road, the kids back in school, clients are back from summer vacations and starting to think about year-end tax planning and the like. For my friends and clients listening in Canada or Australia, the calendar or even the season might look a little bit different, but the principle remains the same. There's this intentional period of time where if you intently focus on what needs to be done, you can finish the calendar year with enough momentum
that it carries you right into the start of the new year and you're already ahead of the game. It works conversely, by the way, if you have kind of a lousy finish, you know, the intentional year end planning doesn't happen. The budgeting doesn't happen. The business, the tax situation for tax planning, you know, if you don't get it all done and buttoned up, you look up and it's February, maybe even March, and you're wondering where did the first quarter go?
Ray Sclafani (01:56.974)
So I want to talk about what it means to really set up for success. And I've identified five key areas. These are gentle reminders that if I were in your shoes, maybe take a closer look at the financial capital, the human capital, the strategic plan, the opportunity prioritization, and then succession. So let me jump into each one of these and help you think about how to finish strong so you can start next year.
at a much faster clip out of the gate. So let's start with financials. Well, it's top of the mind for everybody this time of year. And I don't mean revenue targets or AUM growth. While that's important, I'm talking about real clarity, understanding exactly how did your business and team perform this year? And what does that indicate for the future? Have you met your organic growth goals? Are your profitability figures where you expected them to be? Not just across the firm, but go a little bit deeper.
Look at the profitability by client segment, by advisor profitability, even per client. This is also an ideal time to review budgets and plan for next year's investments. know this seems super duper obvious to everybody, but if you know you'll want to expand marketing or upgrade technology or increase professional development spending, you've got a budget for that now. I also think this is a critical time to pull out
your 10 year forecast, which is part of your strategic plan. We'll talk about that in just a moment. But really take a look. Are you ahead of schedule? Are you behind schedule? Are you right on track? The capital markets have been screaming as of late. So for many, it looks like growth has really happened. But when you strip out the capital market growth, what does organic growth really look like? Do you have the cashflow and the P &L that's durable enough?
to make some of those investments that you've been thinking about for a while and that will prepare you for the future. The second is the human capital. It's investing in the people who actually drive performance. Now is the time to take inventory of the team. Who's growing? Who's ready for more? Where do you need to fill in some of the gaps? Think about performance reviews, compensation planning, the development conversations, all the ways that communicate to the team how much they matter.
Ray Sclafani (04:16.342)
and that their growth is important to you and to the team. These are a few questions I'd be asking. First, are we rewarding in alignment with our values and results? Two, are we investing in training that will build capability, capacity, and confidence? And third, are we clear on the new roles we may need to create as we scale the organization?
When teams are acknowledged and appreciated for their contributions, they not only finish the year on a high note, they head out on holiday break and then they jump back into the new year totally engaged. Once you've got the right people aligned, the next question becomes, what are we asking them to execute on? And that brings us to number three, strategic decisions, clarifying what does matter most. Every leader I work with has more ideas than time.
more initiatives than bandwidth. So before the year slips away, make sure you focus on what really matters most. What are the three strategic priorities that will determine next year's success? That's part of the setup. Get them prioritized right now. What will you stop doing to make room for these very specific priorities? And ultimately, who on the team's responsible for implementing each one? Less is more here.
and great strategy is about discipline, it's about subtraction. When everything's important, nothing really is. So take this short window of time to narrow the focus and commit to the few things that will actually move the needle the most. Now, once your strategic plan is more clear, the next step is to line up the opportunities that will bring it to life. And prioritization is so important.
What we notice about the best in the business is they've got way many more opportunities than they have time to target. So build the momentum before the year ends and consider this the season as a perfect time to plant seeds for the future, not just finished projects, but really plant some future seeds. Look across your relationships, your partnerships, your pipeline, current clients, which of the opportunities deserve your attention right now and which ones can wait.
Ray Sclafani (06:34.998)
Reconnect with key clients and centers of influence well before the holidays or year end and revisit prospective clients who've gone quiet. Explore ways that you might launch next year's growth initiatives early. Perhaps a January client event is in order, a new podcast series for the following year. Maybe it's a social campaign to energize the start of the year that's in order. The best Januaries, believe it or not, are actually built in October and November.
You see momentum doesn't show up by chance. It's created through this intentional effort we've been talking about here, even before the year ends. And that brings us to the fifth and final objective. One that gets pushed aside until it's kind of urgent. And it's the succession conversation. It isn't about retirement and it's really building beyond yourself. It's about continuity and confidence and ask yourself, if you had to step away tomorrow, who's ready to lead?
I had an advisor share with me this year. One of the greatest successes was that they planned an important sabbatical between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. And they wanted to really allow the team an opportunity to not only finish the year strong, but also set up the new year for success and have an incredible plan for the upcoming year. And I'm happy to report he is halfway through that sabbatical and it's going really, really well.
The question we want to start asking, every leader needs to be asking here, are we proactively transferring trust from senior advisors to the next generation? Do we have a plan to develop those future partners or leaders? And have we communicated that plan in a way that gives clients and team members confidence in the firm's future? Back to that advisor who's taking the sabbatical that I mentioned.
He spent six months prior coming up with performative opportunities where the next gen could make decisions and solve problems and build a budget and develop people and come up with their objective and key results. The OKRs. Well, that preparation has allowed him to succeed in this sabbatical test and learn true succession is a gift. It's not stepping down. It's really about stepping up as a leader and trusting your team. So
Ray Sclafani (08:52.908)
Here's the big question as we head into the final stretch of the year. Are you coasting toward the finish line or are you compounding toward what's next? Because how you finish the year will absolutely determine how you start the next one. I've outlined so far five possible objectives for consideration. Feel free to edit the list. Come up with your own short list of what areas you maybe need to prioritize and focus on.
And each episode, I leave you with a few coaching questions that will hopefully guide your reflection of the episode and maybe even guide some of the conversations with your entire team or leadership team. Today, there are three specific coaching questions. Number one, what would it look like for us to finish this year stronger than we thought possible? Number two, what commitments or investments do we need to make right now to create a powerful start to the new year? And number three,
How can we set up our people, our processes, not only to thrive, but really to thrive in the year ahead. If today's episode helped you think differently about finishing the year strong, I'd appreciate it if you would give this podcast a five-star rating, share it with a friend or colleague who might benefit from it. And if you haven't already, make sure to follow Building the Billion Dollar Business so you never miss an episode. Until next time, here's to finishing strong and starting even stronger.
Well, thanks for tuning in. And that's a wrap. Until next time, this is Ray Sclafani. Keep building, growing and striving for greatness. Together, we'll redefine what's possible in the world of wealth management. Be sure to check back for our latest episode and article.