Episode 702 - Live From Scottsdale

In this week’s episode of Monday Morning Mojo, Phil goes live from Cannon Schools in Scottsdale, Arizona to reflect on what truly sets top professionals apart in the world of trust and wealth management. Drawing from years of observing the rising generation of trust and wealth management professionals, Phil shares a few defining traits like curiosity, service, and the art of conversation that quietly shape the most impactful careers. Tune in for a spark of insight, a challenge to lead with greater purpose, and a reminder that the best professionals never stop learning.

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Transcript

Top performers in every field surround themselves with those who inspire them, who seek to build them up, and who push them to reach beyond their current limits. I'm Phil Buchanan, executive chairman of Cannon Financial Institute. I designed Monday Morning Mojo to provide you with a weekly spark, a push and motivational insight to live your best life. 

Thanks for joining. Good Monday morning. It is Phil here with a special live recording of episode 702 of Monday Morning Mojo.

Thank you. Thank you. We are recording from the Cannon Trust Schools in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I am joined tonight by a few hundred of the greatest leaders and emerging leaders in the world of trust and wealth management. You know, for 64 years, Cannon has had a front row seat in observing the rising generation of professionals who will serve the trust and wealth management industry.

Now, from those insights, I wanna share with you some perspectives. It's interesting to me that there are those who rise to the pinnacle of success, and there are those for whom this industry just doesn't realize its import. So, what are the traits and what are the factors of those top wealth management professionals, of those top leaders that that rise to that pinnacle level?

Well, having had a front row seat in watching literally tens of thousands of individuals come through the Cannon Trust Schools and our other programs, I wanna share with you some insights that I've gained. Now, none of these insights are in any particular order, but together, with other factors, they form a mosaic of real leaders and top professionals.

First, I find that the elite in this business understand the fundamental truth that this job is about service to others. Every firm represented in this room, and listening to us on the podcast, has a unique culture. But, in order for your mission to be deemed a success, it's important that we continually attract and retain high-net-worth, valued clients, organizations, and individuals.

Now, families that are served by organizations represented here, they don't choose your organizations because you are the low-cost leader. They don't choose your organizations based on investment performance over some microscopic period of time. They choose your organizations because they believe, and rightfully should believe, that you are going to provide the very best in counseling advice at each generation for multiple generations.

Now, we have all encountered those personal experiences where we were disappointed with a service provider. We reached the point of recognizing that that service provider not only either understood us or valued us, and when that happens, trust is broken. And that's when individuals and families make major moves.

So, I challenge each of you to be committed to always delivering an elite client service experience. You cannot control the markets. You cannot control tax law, you can't control any of the rules and regulations, but what you do have control over is the service experience you deliver to clients. A second trait, and I have shared this on previous podcasts that I find in great leaders and very elevated professionals, is curiosity.

The very best wealth advisors and leaders have this insatiable appetite of learning. They're curious about what makes things work and not just curious about the technical nature of our industry, but they're curious about their clients. They're curious about how their wealth was created. They're curious about their family dynamics.

They're curious about how their clients make decisions. Now, elite leaders I find to be lifelong students, and not just in the areas of trust and tax and legal ramifications, but in outside passions. And sometimes those interests are varied, and they're very unique. I love aviation. Other people are into cooking. Other people are into art. Anything that pushes you intellectually, you tend to find that those learnings in a certain area can transcend into how you communicate and dialogue with your clients. 

Of course, that brings us to my last observation, and that is the best advisors and the best leaders tend to be great conversationalists. Not necessarily great orators, although some are. But great conversationalists and great conversationalists understand that conversations are a two-way street. There is give and there is take, there are questions and there are answers, and then there are follow-ups to that. Now the very best conversationalists recognize that again, through this two-way street, relationships are being developed.

There is an old saying out there that every relationship begins with a conversation. Now, if there is one area, again, that I would really encourage our industry to work more on. The skill of conversations, the ability to synthesize the complexity and simplify it in our delivery. Don't use $5 words when a 50-cent word would do.

You're not smarter because you can use the fancy terms. You're actually more elegant when you communicate it simply. Now, some of you might be interested that I have not mentioned at all and may find it actually a little ironic that I haven't commented on technical prowess, that you need to build deep expertise in all these subject areas.

Two comments I'll make on that. Number one, there's always gonna be somebody smarter than you are. Always, and I'm reminded what Albert Einstein responded to when he was chided one time for not knowing the answer to a particular question and saying he was gonna have to do a little research. We are told that he looked at his inquisitor and said, “I don't need to know the answer. I simply need to know where to find it.” I think that's an important lesson for all of us. The other thing on this intellectual building, if you listen to the first three parts. If you listened, okay? And you really think about the traits and the characteristics, well, you're gonna be naturally pretty curious.

You wanna be a good conversationalist. You wanna build that skill and ability, you're gonna develop that intellectual prowess and that intellectual prowess, it'll amaze you how much you'll develop over the years. So, with these thoughts and with these comments, I wanna offer you, our listeners, this: be committed to the industry that you're in.

Rise to the level of professional proficiency with everything that you've got. Be committed to the course of action that you will always be a learning individual and never consider yourself to be fully a learned individual because there's always an additional step on the ladder. And so with that, I wish you all continued success.

Monday Morning Mojo is a production of Cannon Financial Institute, executive producer of Monday Morning Mojo is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. Until next time, I'm Phil Buchanan reminding you to be a force of good. 

Have a great week and thanks for being part of the Mojo community.