beBetter 

Building Block Two in this series [meant to outline the Four Building Blocks to Move to Advisory Services] is Confidence. 

How do we move our organizations towards advisory services? How do we seize our future by being relevant starting now? I think there are four foundational building blocks. Last week, we discussed the first block: MINDSET SHIFT.

In my previous blog, we talked about “the gap” and our need for a wake-up call regarding moving to an advisory services mindset. 

So how do we move our organizations towards advisory services? How do we seize our future by being relevant starting now? I think there are four foundational building blocks, and we’ll discuss the first one today: MINDSET SHIFT.

We see it every day — automation, implemented well, reduces the amount of compliance work we perform.

We experience it every day — fierce competition from outside our profession pursuing our clients. 

We feel it every day — the market for professional services is demanding and opening the door for “higher-value services.”

My mother-in-law, Happy, loves to come over and visit in the late afternoons and sit by the fireplace outside, weather permitting. She can be quite funny and we so enjoy her visits. This afternoon she is really on a roll and sharing story after story.

As 2020 winds down, I think we are collectively breathing a sigh of relief that we made it through an extremely challenging year.

CeCe and I have spent a lot of time at home together with the COVID-19 shelter in place orders, as I am sure you have with your family. So when the Governor opened up the restaurants for 50% dining capacity, we were the first in line at our favorite spot. It was delightful, and we reflected on how much we had taken this privilege for granted when we were able to go whenever we wanted.

Have you ever taken a shot to the gut? The kind that literally takes your breath and leaves you gasping for air? I had such an experience recently, and I found myself gasping at how far we have to go as a profession when it comes to female talent.

It’s raining on Saturday afternoon and I’m really in the mood to do nothing. I’m okay with that as we all need these moments to recharge. Flipping through the channels, I pause on a bass tournament for about ten minutes but start scanning again. There’s nothing on that is drawing my interest.

It’s about 9:30 p.m. on a cloudy night when blue lights pop on in the median just as my radar detector goes off — I’m toast! I quickly pull over, grab my license, roll down my window and get my hands where the officer can see them as he walks up. Even in this moment, I am always in awe of their courage and commitment to public safety. (Knowing the routine might be a hint that I have been in this situation before, all of which are my fault.)

It’s a sunny, hot mid-afternoon as Sully (my two-year-old grandson) and I make our way across the hot pavement to the sidewalk as fast as his little legs would carry him. We finished the short 50-yard walk to our neighborhood playground that's complete with slides, swings, climbing bars and not a bit of shade. Sully insisted on taking three dinosaurs with us—Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus and one of which I have no idea what it is. They are small plastic dinosaurs but large enough he can only carry one in each hand. So Pops is carrying the unidentified one.