In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, Rob Pyne speaks with Terri Reid—business coach, consultant, and former financial planner—about the human side of leadership in advice firms. They explore the tensions advice principals face as they grow their businesses, from stepping back as the chief problem solver to building strong team cultures. Terri shares practical tools for empowering staff, improving communication, and reframing leadership at all levels. A valuable conversation for any advice leader wanting to build a business that performs well and feels good to be part of.
LISTEN
SHOW NOTES
Topics Discussed
Redefining Leadership in Advice Firms
- Why leadership is about values, not titles
- How reframing leadership empowers every team member
- The role of cultural leaders and “leading from the reception desk”
Sustaining High-Performance Cultures
- The tension between autonomy, mastery and purpose
- Why shared purpose must include clients *and* staff
- How business owners can model care, connection and clarity
Letting Go of Being the Problem Solver
- Common blind spots for advice firm founders
- How overreliance on technical knowledge can limit growth
- The power of building processes *with* your team, not for them
Unlocking Team Alignment and Communication
- Lessons from a two-day symposium with a Brisbane firm
- How emotional intelligence and shared truth created buy-in
- When to bring in an external facilitator—and what kind
From Overwhelmed to In Control
- The importance of stopping to reflect and recalibrate
- Tools to help advisers break out of the daily grind
- How self-care drives insight, clarity and sustainable success
The Power of Peer Groups
- Why lonely leaders need safe, generous peer communities
- Creating trust through shared vulnerability and abundance mindsets
- What advice firms can gain from leaving ego at the door
Quotes
“Leadership is not about a title or a level of status, hierarchy, and organisation. It’s actually about living true to your values and leading by example.” — Terri Reid
“Are you running your business, or is the business running you?” — Terri Reid
“You can think you can fake it, but you can’t really fake it. People can feel the difference.” — Terri Reid
Resources
- Drive by Daniel Pink – Exploring autonomy, mastery and purpose
- Getting Things Done by David Allen – Productivity and overwhelm relief
- Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday – Leadership and humility
- Terri Reid Coaching – Leadership and cultural advisory for financial services firms
TRANSCRIPT
Rob Pyne
Welcome to The Trusted Adviser podcast, where you get a deep dive into the world of financial planning with industry leaders who share their stories of winning and learning as they chart their path to success. This podcast is for the curious. Those of you who like to dig into the detail, and if that sounds like you, get ready to listen and learn, and if you’ve been here a while and you’re getting value from these conversations, I’d really appreciate you subscribing or leaving a review. It helps others discover the podcast and join the conversation.
Rob Pyne
In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, I’m joined by Terri Reid, an experienced business coach, consultant, and former financial planner, for a wide-ranging conversation on the inner workings of advice businesses and the human dynamics that drive them, we explore the real challenges advice principles face today, from sustaining strong cultures to stepping back from being the primary problem solver. Terri shares powerful insights on leadership and how firms can create environments where people feel empowered, connected and purpose driven. Listen as Terri shares how reframing leadership can empower every team member, regardless of title, and why investing in your own wellbeing leads to clearer insight and better decision making, and how courageous collaboration can shift even the most entrenched team dynamics. It’s a thoughtful and energising conversation for any advice leader looking to build a business that’s not just high performing, but deeply human. Let’s dive in. Welcome Terri Reid to the Trusted Adviser podcast.
Terri Reid
Great to be here. Rob, great to chat to you today.
Rob Pyne
Terri, you’ve worked with advice firms, within advice firms, and also in the shoes of a financial planner yourself. And now, over the past several years, you’ve coached and consulted to dozens of advice firms at various stages of growth, you’ve seen what makes practices thrive and what can hold them back. And today I’d love to draw on that experience and unpack what you’ve learned along the way. Happy to share. I want to begin by getting some reflections that you’ve picked up along the way, and just from the people you’ve spent time with, advice, principals, and firms. No doubt you’ve picked up some that are really progressing strongly and succeeding, and some that are perhaps struggling to break through certain barriers of growth. Terri, from your perspective, what do you see as the biggest inner tension that financial planning business owners are grappling with today?
Terri Reid
That’s a really good question, and I would have to say I don’t think there’s one big thing. There’s multiple things, and it also depends on what stage the business owner is at in terms of their business journey or their personal journey as a leader of a business. So, some of the tensions are, how do I charge for what I do? How do I show the intangible value? How do I handle all of the regulations and compliance that’s still a big, pressing issue? How do I maximise that and the efficiencies in the business and still show the heart and the care that I have in the business. How do I invest in in my people? Because people, you know, obviously drive the performance of the business, but how do I do that without creating a sense of entitlement from the staff? You know, you want to reward your people for the right things, and so you’ve got the right behaviours, but then what happens if they start gaining an expectation of this is how I’m going to be treated every year, and then it becomes something as a given, not as a real bonus.
Rob Pyne
Yeah, it’s tricky that balance, isn’t it? That’s something that a lot of advice principles would have experienced. Almost all would have experienced that because you often have young, talented people in your team that are very ambitious and want to grow quickly. You know, you’ve spoken with many, many planners over the years, what patterns have you noticed among the businesses that have been able to sustain strong cultures and performance over time?
Terri Reid
I think in the main it’s when people are looking they’re not looking at their employees as just cogs in a wheel. They’re looking at the actual person that’s doing the work and having a greater understanding and appreciation of what makes them tick, what their unique way of operating and showing up in the world is, and creating an environment where people actually love coming to work and there’s a bit of joy in the air, and it doesn’t feel like you’re kind of counting down their days till the weekend.
Rob Pyne
How do you see firms do that? One of the things I just want to query, if you’ve seen this, is that firms that have really created a sense of purpose where people feel like they’re turning up because they believe in what they’re doing, not just because they’re getting paid well, or because they’re on a career track that sort of helps sustain their own financial needs. And obviously there’s that sort of framework that Daniel Pink put together in the book Drive, called autonomy, mastery and purpose were the three sort of drivers, purpose being the one I’m sort of referring to now, but autonomy is largely let me do what I need to do. Don’t micromanage me. Mastery is that sense of you’re developing, feel like you’re growing and improving and learning and becoming more capable in the role that you’re in. But that one, that third one purpose, is one that I spent a lot of time thinking about because the work of a financial planner is very purposeful work. You get a very deep connection to the client, and you get to see firsthand the impact your advice can have on them. Can be very emotional for clients, at times, just in a very positive way, helping people feel a greater sense of security and just confidence around their finances. It’s a massive thing we do. So, have you seen firms that have really tapped into that sense of purpose with their team, and that that team is really driven by that greater good that we’re doing in the community?
Terri Reid
Yeah, I have to be honest, I haven’t seen a huge amount of firms that do that. And so, the firms that do are real standouts. For me, the thing that sets them apart, I think, is that they don’t just have the purpose for their clients. The purpose is a shared purpose across the firm. So, they’re actually engaging with their staff in the way that they might engage with their clients. So, say, for example, as a purpose, we might have a purpose to enrich the lives of our clients. The firms that do really well are the ones that say, okay, well, let’s actually enrich the lives of people, which includes our employees, and it might include the way we interact with our suppliers and other networks. Because when a client comes into your office space, they will pick up on the vibe that’s going on in the business. You can think you can fake it, but you can’t really fake it. People can feel the difference. So, getting everyone to buy in and understanding what that means, like enriching lives, for an example, what does that mean, and having a shared definition of what that means, and how might we then contribute to that? Businesses that take the time to do that, they are the real standouts.
Rob Pyne
I was chatting to another business leader just yesterday, in fact, James McGregor at app wealth, and James said to me, and something that really resonated strongly is that you’ve got to be looking at all the three major stakeholders in the business, and trying to balance the needs of all of them, you can’t let the staff’s demands of their career growth and income desires to sort of make the profitability the business suffer such that shareholders don’t get a return. But equally, clients aren’t paying extraordinary fees in order to be able to pay high compensation packages or extraordinary high levels of profit, and I’ve always tried to maintain that really constant sense of balance between those three. And James was reflecting on that with me yesterday, and it is something we have to always hold in fine balance. How do you make sure your team are well rewarded? Because obviously a great team needs to be well rewarded for the work they do and making sure that they feel the work is purposeful beyond their salary, but knowing that the impact they have with clients is meaningful, and the clients are not paying extraordinary fees for the work we’re doing, but a reasonable fee for the value we’re delivering and making sure there’s a good return for shareholders as well. Because something we’ve done to help do what you just spoke about, which is to get you people being a part of that success with the clients, giving advice, helping them financially, is to have an employee share plan where our team are invested in the success of the business, and if we can help them succeed financially, in the process of helping their clients succeed financially, it’s not a bad combination, so it’s certainly something we’ve been paying some attention to.
Terri Reid
Having the employee share plan is incredible when I obviously caught up with you when you told me about that, and I’m like, that’s what I’ve been banging on about that I’ve been in business now for about 10 years. I’ve been banging on about that in years. So, it’s so refreshing to see an advice firm that’s actually living that rather than just reading the theory from a textbook or whatever. But just beyond the money side of things, I know you’re very humble, guys. You’re not going to toot your own horn. I’ll toot it for you, the fact that you actually, genuinely care about the well-being of your staff. Like, you know, HPH solutions is about health and prosperity and happiness, and you’re actually living that. It’s not just for your clients, it’s for your employees as well. So, you’re actively investing. You know, you’ve got people within your business that are mentoring your staff, and that’s actually their role in the business. So, like, we can be rich in realisations and rich in awareness. It’s like if we turn up to work and we’re more aware today than we were yesterday, that’s true progress, and the money comes from that, putting that insights into action and then sharing those insights with others, or allowing others to share their insights with us, which because then we all grow together.
Rob Pyne
Yeah, so in your work with leaders of firms, what do you find are the most common blind spots that get in the way of progress in business?
Terri Reid
Wow, there’s a number of them. Some of them would be things like feeling like you’ve got to have all the answers, and being worried that you’re going to get caught out if you don’t know what to say, and if you’re put on the spot, rather than actually coming to the fact that part of our role as advisers is to actually ask really great questions, to actually help draw out what’s going on for the client, and just creating that space. Where clients can actually speak up and talk freely with an adviser or with their partner, or even if they’re in a relationship, whether it’s a business or a personal relationship. So definitely the knowledge thing that can take us all out, because we’re trained as advisers, to think that we have to know all the stuff racing, trained as people like, if you think about it, like from age five or six, we go to school and we’re rewarded for how smart we are, and then we go to high school, and then we go to Uni, and then we go and do the professional development. So, it actually requires a lot of unlearning to not just sit there and regurgitate information that we’ve got in our mind. That’s a huge one that I see.
Rob Pyne
Yeah, I’m sure it is because it stands to reason, though, doesn’t it? If the firm’s growing, you can’t expect to be the best subject matter expert in everything inside the business. I mean, it’s not realistic. It’s just not practical. So really leaning into your team’s knowledge of the work they’re doing and learning from them and listening to them, and having a mechanism, I suppose, for that to be shared across the team, so that you’re actually not just letting them go off and do their own thing, but actually really contributing to the understanding from the whole team as to how things can be done to improve. So, I think it’s that belief that people need to sort of have all the answers, and certainly I know in my journey, very quickly realised that the best way to effectively get the best out of our team is to listen to them and have them contribute to what it is that we are doing. And I talk about our process of how we do what we do, and I might have initially built the skeleton of our process, but then it’s transformed many times over since then, because it’s been built by the team. For the team, they built the process and how we do things, because they’re the ones doing the work. So I totally get that and not being the one to sort of try and dictate to the team, there’s always guidance, there’s always setting strategy and direction, but really asking the team to get on board with that direction and then helping to shape it as we go speaking of direction, I’m keen to hear how you have worked with practices that might be growing but struggling to get their people rowing in the same direction, really getting everyone to sort of commit to doing a one way, as opposed to doing it their own way. As the firm’s grown and you’ve got more people doing disparate things, portfolios, platforms, processes, how do you approach helping a practice that’s growing and struggling with that?
Terri Reid
It’s a really great question. And again, I always my kids get frustrated when they say, What’s the best way? And I’m like, oh, it depends. I always say it depends because every situation is unique. I answer that with an example of a client that I worked with. So, they’re a financial planning business that’s based in Brisbane, and they have about 16 or 18 staff, and they engaged me for a two-day team symposium. They called so we went there. They’ve got a couple of people who work offshore as well, who dialled in for the two days. So, they just set this great agenda where we talked about business performance and where they were headed as a business, and looking back, because I’d done some business acquisition, so it had been a really intense year for them, and we wove in a lot of emotional intelligence concepts and communication keeps coming up for them as a business. So how do we communicate better with each other? And then on day two, there was a certain project that they wanted to look at, because I was struggling in the advice to they broke it down into two teams. They slid off the advice team was really struggling to come up and agree on a certain way of doing things. And they tried and failed in the past. And the owner of the business said, Look, I know we’ve tried and failed on this in the past I just wanted is bring it back up and just see what we can do about this, and just have another look, just to see if there are any other options. Well, it was incredible what happened, because they’d had the foresight to actually weave some of these emotional intelligence concepts in, and we actually could use some of those skills that the people had been exposed to over the couple of days. And at the end of it, they actually managed to get six people with like advisers and associate advisers, to actually agree that they were actually going to do this. And they were all fully bought into it, like there were a couple of naysayers. One in particular said, I just thought there was no way that that was humanly possible to do that was like just magic, how it all played out, and it was because we looked at it from a perspective of what is going to serve everyone here. So, a lot of people think I’ve got to have the courage of my convictions if we’ve done something for a really long time and it’s worked for us, it’s very, hard for people to want to change their mind, because then obviously change is hard, and it’s a bit clunky, and it takes more time and all that sort of stuff. And I say, okay, well, let’s go beyond conviction, like, let’s not have that as the bar, like, let’s get to a place of absoluteness. So, if we’re absolute on something like, if you’re firing an. Arrow, if you like your bow and arrow. If something’s not going to hit the exact dead centre on that board, it’s actually off track, like it’s either there or it’s not. So, let’s take that as the outcome, and we’ll go for truth. So is it true that this is going to support everyone in this situation, and if it’s not supporting everyone in some way in this situation, is actually not a process that we can use, and we use the communication skills and some of the other frameworks that I regularly draw on to get to that. And people all have a heart, and they’re like, oh, actually, yeah, that really doesn’t work for the admin team, if we’ve all got a different way, like how much extra tension that it creates for the support staff who are trying to do the right thing and serve the clients. It doesn’t serve the business owner, obviously, because it’s inefficient, it actually doesn’t serve the adviser necessarily, because if an adviser goes away on leave, then does everyone understand, you know, all the quirks that they need to address and how might people be able to support them in their clients? So, they actually quickly worked out that wasn’t serving all parties, so the app they needed to fall into line.
Rob Pyne
How much do you think having you there to sort of build that opportunity to communicate more effectively was instrumental in getting that result? Because they’d said that they’d tried many times before and not really ever achieve the outcome they knew was the best outcome, or at least could accept, was a better outcome than what they were working to. But our experience is just having an external facilitator that can bring an objective point of view that doesn’t have an axe to grind, or they’re not trying to sell a message. They’re really just saying, I’ll just help you clarify your own perspectives and share your viewpoints so that together we can actually find the way forward. And communication is always key, isn’t it. You can’t underestimate the power of just getting people together to actually collaborate around an issue and trying to get a common perspective. If there is a common agreement as to what the right outcome is, ultimately you need to get that first, but then working through that. So how much do you think you know your role as an external facilitator is critical in that process to get people to get through business barriers they’ve struggled with for a long time?
Terri Reid
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it’s having an external facilitator that doesn’t have a vested interest. Because I don’t think you can just say any external facilitator is a good external facilitator. It really takes someone who can put their own needs and ego and all that sort of stuff to the side and just be in the moment with the people and respond to that situation. Doesn’t have to be me. It could be anyone who’s got their capability to do that. And different facilitators will have different ways of communicating. And you know, mine happened to work for that team in that moment, but it’s not to say that that type of approach would always work. So, I’m a very multi perspective person, so I will always be saying, Okay, what about from this angle? What about it from this angle? And that’s my way of showing up and offering other external facilitators, might be more black and white, and so they can just cut through the noise, and they might be a bit more sharp when they see things that aren’t working, or pull things back into light. And that style can work really well. So, there’s a directive style, yeah, there’s a directive style, there’s a facilitative style. There’s like, a real future focus role, like, let’s just get on with it. And there’s a real energetic sort of role. So, there’s different styles. So, feeling in to see what sort of style of facilitator might be useful in any moment, I think, is a really key consideration for someone who’s looking to appoint someone, because it’s a huge cost, right? It’s not just the financial cost. And when I come in to help, I don’t just think of the money that someone is paying me and, you know, flying me there and all the rest of it, the opportunity cost of 18 people in that organisation who I taken off the tools to actually come together. That’s a hugely expensive for a business owner to do that. So, I don’t take that lightly, and even more so now that I’m running my own business, because I think when you run your own business, you have a much greater appreciation of that than when I was employed years ago, when I was an adviser, I didn’t really get it. You can understand it intellectually, but until you feel it and you’ve lived it, you don’t really get it.
Rob Pyne
That investment of time, though, as you say, bringing people together, yes, it is an investment. It can be expensive when you look at the hourly rates in effect of everyone in the room, but it’s the only way really to break through and actually get progress, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s the only way to really level up. And people who are saying, oh, meetings, meetings. You know, we’re always in meetings, and it can be a bit of a resistance point for people, thinking we’re just wasting our time in meetings, but in reality, a well-run meeting that actually breaks through obstacles that have existed in the business for a long time that haven’t been surmountable because the business owners just haven’t put the time aside to dedicate a focus to that issue. It’s the only way. Really get strong progress. When you get people together that actually have vested interest in the outcome. They are together wanting to get the outcome, and just getting them to commit to that makes a massive difference. But you’ve obviously seen people you’ve talked about ego there a moment ago, and how that can sometimes be the barrier for some people. How do you get founders and leaders to move from being the chief problem solver, to empowering others to lead within the business and in those environments where you bring people together, do you help facilitate, sort of the voice of others, so that it’s not the highest paid person’s opinion that’s getting the traction only.
Terri Reid
Probably the best example that springs to mind, given that I’m talking about that particular client, we talked a lot about leadership in that workshop, so we did a whole section on leadership, and I love to challenge the definition of words. So, what is leadership? Have we got a shared view of what leadership is, and what does leadership look like in this organisation? And when you boil it all down, leadership is not about a title or a level of status, hierarchy, and organisation. It’s actually about living true to your values and leading by example and all those lovely qualities and like, they really embrace that. And their business is extraordinary. So, I’ve rocked up to Brisbane, and I literally walked into their office the day before the two-day workshop, and literally, people, like, called out my name and basically cheered that I was there. And I’m like, oh, I’ve never had that experience before. It was extraordinary, and they didn’t even know me, but the owners had actually warmed up the crowd, if you like, some of them I’d worked with before. So, they were already showing leadership by doing that, by being open. And then by the end of it, you’ve got people at all stages of their development and their careers who are showing true leadership. You’ve got people who are offshore with English as a second language, showing extraordinary leadership in how they were expressing themselves and showing real heart and care, and they were so emotionally invested in the business. So you haven’t got one or two or three leaders in that business, you’ve actually got 18 people showing leadership, and I think just understanding and defining what that means and how they’re going to show up, and then helping each other see that we all keep each other accountable to, that it’s not one person’s role to carry the load or a few people’s role to carry the load, like if we’re all carrying the load and taking responsibility for our own stuff, then it’s far easy for everybody.
Rob Pyne
I love that question right at the start that you said, what is leadership? And let’s define it, because I think everyone would like to think that they actually are a leader, or at least have the potential to be a leader, and this is before people could have had the title to be one. You know, that’s considered a leadership title But-
Terri Reid
Can I challenge that?
Rob Pyne
Sure, fire away,
Terri Reid
Yeah, so, the reason I’m challenging it is there are a lot of people that are super humble, and they just shy away from the fact of being called a leader, right? I have that a lot, so not necessarily in the more senior roles. And they think about, who am I to think that I could potentially be a leader. I love challenging people, as I have just now, and I’m like, who are you not to be a leader? Like, What makes you think, because you’re sitting on the reception desk, that you are not a leader, like you’re the first face of the business, like you’re setting the stage for everyone who walks into that office, like, that’s an enormously responsible role, and when they see that, like, sometimes it takes People a lot to accept that and to feel confident in to live that. So that’s why I’m challenging it.
Rob Pyne
Yeah, it’s interesting. Yeah. I mean, it’s a certainly different perspective, for sure, and it’s reframing leadership, because people have this idea of what it is. And the point I was going to make there is just about how people often know what it looks like. And if you ask what leadership looks like, they’ll start to rattle off a series of behaviours that they think leaders do and the way that leaders behave, and then you actually look around and the people that are often sharing this perspective actually behave that way, already themselves, not necessarily with the title attached. So, you can help, as you just described there, Terri, you can help them to actually understand and appreciate they, in fact, are demonstrating leadership. And they are, in fact, a leader in the firm, without necessarily being seen to be a title leader. They actually are a cultural leader. They behave in a way that actually shows the example to others. And cultural leadership is a massive factor in businesses. I think that’s so often overlooked. People you know within your firm, everyone knows that person that people sort of look to and respect just because of the way they conduct themselves, the way they help others, the way they support other people. That’s what leadership is really in many ways, it’s a supporting role. It’s not a Follow Me role, necessarily. And there are various forms of leadership, but the leadership that kind of most resonates with me is that idea that you’re there to support other people. I’ll. Ultimately, and if you behave in such a way that supports others, people will see you as a leader, whether you have a title or not. And so, it’s really helping people reframe what leadership looks like, isn’t it? And then maybe they, then, as you said, there can see themselves as being a leader in the sense of the definition of what leadership is, without necessarily thinking they are that on title.
Terri Reid
Yeah. And it’s such a great topic leadership, because as a coach, I help people on things like the imposter syndrome as well, and it can rear its ugly head in many, many ways. And there’s some research that over 80% of the population does actually struggle with that from time to time, I would actually say that the percentage is higher from what I see, and it’s when we’re put in a position we don’t think we actually have the capabilities of it. But it could also be that we’re incredibly humble. And I’m not sort of trying to advocate for people to be super arrogant. It’s actually to be humble and still be able to speak with authority and being able to hold both of those notions in your head at the same time,
Rob Pyne
Something that occurs to me here, and it’s something that goes to leadership and how you show up, if you’re in your own mind about how do people perceive me, and you’re focused on how you’re being perceived by other people, it’s a really not a very constructive way to process that role. You have to move past that self-sort of centric, sort of approach to how you’re behaving. And think, what can I do here to help others? And you move from that sort of self-oriented perspective to a team oriented perspective, how can I do something here to help and so whenever you speak to people, whether it’s in a public forum, whether it’s in the team, if you’re thinking, the thing you’re saying right now is all about trying to contribute to that person’s success or the team’s success. You don’t need to be as self-conscious. The imposter syndrome is very much about, oh, how do people perceive me? Am I really worth this and sort of that self-orientation really is quite damaging to just being a primarily focused on helping others, so that’s how I think about it anyway.
Terri Reid
I love what you shared. And one of the words that kept coming out to me was, you know that being in your head, I think that’s a really cool one, because when you’re in your head, that’s when that critical inner voice can come up. That’s when you think it’s all about me. We have such a focus on the brain and being knowledgeable and smart and all the rest of it. And sometimes we can do that at the expense of, like, the care factor. So, if we’re actually doing it from a place of genuine care for other people, the words just come from us. I’ve just been at a networking thing this morning, and someone didn’t turn up. One of the tradies stepped in at the last minute to speak on this person’s behalf. And he told me in the past that he was so shy that he couldn’t even speak in front of a few people. And he said, oh, I’ll get up and do it. He’s this incredible guy, and he was sharing all about trust and, you know, the importance of being together. And he said, and you know, one of the things he said, it was like, we’re a business family here, and it’s just like, he just did not miss a beat, and people basically applauded what he said, because he just did it so effortlessly. And he’s like, oh, that was just straight from the heart. And you could tell it was, there was nothing about him in that message. It all just came through him, not from him, if you like. And I just think about it in terms of the organs in the body. If you think about the brain, like, you can be brain dead, but the heart is the last thing that keeps beating. And some people think, if you talk about stuff from the heart, that’s fluffy, there is nothing fluffy about the actual heart, like it just keeps beating all day, every day. Doesn’t need a hand clap, doesn’t need to like, prove itself on my heart’s better than your heart. Like it’s just, it just is right. So, whenever we’re sharing from that, maybe, if you call it like that servant leadership space, it just comes through.
Rob Pyne
Yeah, sounds like peer group. Guy this morning wasn’t pre prepared. He just said what he authentically believed. And that’s the stuff that always resonates the strongest anyway, isn’t it? Oh, it was beautiful. Yeah, it was beautiful. So, I want to just take a bit of a step back here into the world of sort of financial planning and how planners are often in their business and really heavily focused on client work. It’s always the demand that they have that never goes away. If you’re serving clients that’s always going to be first priority. First priority if there’s a need there. How do you help business owners that have still got advisory responsibilities get unstuck, if you like, from working on their business as much as working in it? Because it’s obviously time constraint, and the role of an adviser is quite relentless. You know, there’s an annual obligation with each client, and if you’ve got a lot of clients to see, there’s really no way, easily to sort of get respite from that. So, do you have frameworks or reflective questions that you often come back to when helping planners step back to work on the business and not just getting stuck in it, day in, day out?
Terri Reid
I think pretty much all advisers notes you. Important to work on the business, not just in the business, but it is really hard, like you say, to balance all the responsibilities. And one of the questions I sometimes ask, and it’s not from judging, it’s just saying, oh, are you running your business, or is a business running you? So that’s a really key one, and just creating a space where people can really stop and reflect about that, and then being that sounding board to help them think through, well, what is the impact going to be if you keep doing it in that way? Because maybe you’re doing it for a period of time, but say, for example, you’re not investing in your future growth of your business. You’re not kind of getting out and about and networking, or whatever it happens to be, having those coffee meetings, or whichever way you do things like what relationships they’re actually going to provide an ongoing source of referrals for you, or might you need some people that you can refer other work to so to help you get your client work, it might even be the admin type stuff. A lot of advisers gravitate to their working serving the clients, or like the admin things, because they have this discomfort of putting themselves out there. You know, that’s a key thing, just having that question, being that sounding board. And another one is a tool that I’ve developed, which is a spreadsheet. As a former bean counter and financial planner, you know, don’t mind a spreadsheet every now and again, is to look at like, what are the different functional areas in your business? And I break it down into the four S’s, so it’s strategic sort of activities. So that’s like looking at your blue-sky opportunities. You’ve got your sales and selling sort of activities, and that’s looking after your revenue for today’s dollars. And you want to make sure that your business is running efficiently, and you’ve got a sustainable source of revenue coming in, then you’ve got your support function. So, what creates the foundation in your business? And then another one that a lot of people don’t even think so much about, but it’s becoming a bit more mainstream now, is the self-care type things. How are you reinvesting back into yourself as a person so you’ve got energy, so you can have sustainable performance, rather than feeling like you’re operating like something like the cat dragged in at the end of the week, or you’re gasping across the finish line when you’re coming up to 30 June or whatever, if you think about it, like our clients are coming to us as an adviser, we want to be reflecting what it looks like to be well advised and have our ducks in a row. So, when advisers start thinking about that love, they’re like, oh, yeah, I never really thought about it like that, because I’m just trying so hard to help everyone and be everything to everyone. It’s like, well, investments is not just about the money. You’ve got to invest in yourself, you’ve got to invest in your relationships, you’ve got to invest in the infrastructure in your business, because being in business is a long-term investment. It’s playing the long game, not just looking from a short-term focus. So, when you start painting that picture back to the adviser in a way that makes sense for how they operate with their clients, that often can really help them put them into perspective. And then they can allocate the time in the various buckets, and we can look at things like their productivity levels and their profitability of their business, and the type of clients they serve, and their pricing models and all of that sort of stuff can follow from those conversations. Our activities impact everything.
Rob Pyne
Yeah, I can really relate to that message. They should say the self-care part of it, something that a few months ago, businesses had a really strong year, and everyone was really, really busy with client work, new clients, existing clients, and, and I just read it to the team, the advisers, in particular, in this instance, you know, we are health, prosperity, happiness. That’s kind of the whole ethos of the business. And you have to look after yourself, and you have to be doing what it takes to take care of yourself, because in order to show up effectively in your role, you must prioritise self-care in the process. If you don’t, then you aren’t going to be at your best. You’re not going to be an example to your clients who are coming in for not just financial advice. They’re coming in for someone who can actually help guide their life choices based on what the client’s trying to understand that they want their life to look like you’re not there to try and tell them how to live their life, but you want to be an example to them as to how you’re living your life and so just showing up in your best form by making sure you take care of yourself in the process. So, it’s an it’s an important thing that people often overlook. I can tell you that many advisers, and not just advisers, people in practices would relate to this really strongly, that they feel at times, that the work is dictating them, that they feel as though the their task list and the job is actually driving them, and they’re not actually in control of it. I remember a situation a couple of years back now where an adviser came to me and was quite distressed about being out of control, completely out of control. Felt like there was no time to keep up, and just was overwhelmed. Had a real strong sense of overwhelm, thinking I just can’t keep up. And the action that we took that day, I said, so first of all, every meeting you’ve got today, we’re going to reschedule, and you’re going to just sit down and spend the entire day just. Getting across what it is you need to do, because often that sense of overwhelm comes, and I can attest this personally, when you almost lose track of what you have to do, because there’s so many things you now don’t even know you’re trying to then retain all this information your head about I’ve got a distance and all these tasks are flowing through your head. But if you stop, take a moment to kind of capture all of that, and really have a better sense of what it is that’s required of you. And you often get to the point it’s that sort of, you get a bit of a planning high, like at the end of it, you go like, okay, now I know, or just a sense of relief. It’s not now overwhelmed. It’s like, yes, a lot to do there now, but I can see it all now, and I have a sense of back in control again. Because when the overwhelm comes, when you’ve got so much coming through at you, so thick and fast, you can’t keep up, and you get that sense of now I don’t even know what I’ve got to do, because I’ve got too many things coming at me too fast here, you’ve got to take that time to stop, pause, and capture it all. David Ellen wrote a great book called Getting Things Done, talks about this capture process, and it’s such an important part of being in control, knowing what it is you require to do, even if it’s a lot, and some of it might be able to be delegated. Some of it you can defer, as kind of the framework that David Allen uses. But yes, do it delegate it or defer it? But it’s so critical, because the overwhelm does come for all of us in different roles. You know, at times there is too much coming through, and we have to preserve our own mental health by stopping and taking stock of what it is it’s in front of us. Instead of just getting on the treadmill and going as hard as possible, thinking, if I just pedal faster, I’ll catch up and I’ll get in front of it all at times, it does take a bit of a stop and reflection to make sure you are staying in control.
Terri Reid
Yeah, I love that. It’s kind of very similar to the urgent, important framework, you know. And there’s an extra quadrant, which is the diarised so it’s like, it’s the important and not urgent tasks, which are like the self-care, the future focus, sort of things, and then the other D’s that you talk about, 100% agree with what you say about writing things down. And I can, at times, get to that as well. And then I, when I write it down, I’m like, I’m really making a bigger deal about it than it needs to be, and do I really need to do all of those things right now, because there’s stuff that you don’t actually have to do. We all get caught doing stuff that we don’t really have to do, or we actually take on other people’s responsibilities rather than thinking, oh, okay, why am I feeling like I need to do their stuff now, especially if they haven’t asked me for help. So, it’s like being the observer of where we’re at in a situation and attending to our responsibilities in creating space. They are some of the biggest power moves that we can make to relieve any sort of stress and obligation. Yeah, it’s creating a not to do list. So, it’s not just having the to do list. It’s a not to do list.
Rob Pyne
Yes, it’s the old, stop, start, keep doing. There’s a sort of a framework there as well. Yeah, now I can relate to all that. And so, you know, you’ve worked with groups financial planning businesses, and worked in group forums, and you’re about to lead a new WA based peer group for financial planning leaders. What excites you about bringing people together in that format, where you’re bringing leaders together in a room to share notes and swap stories and really support each other through the challenges each of those businesses are facing.
Terri Reid
I love I love bringing people together, and I love learning from people, because I you know, like you, I don’t think that I’ve got all the answers, and I love hearing people’s stories. And there is something quite magical when you get a group of people together in a room where people leave their ego at the door, they check in, and they’re prepared to open up and share from a place of generosity, when they’ve got this abundance mindset, realising that there’s actually plenty of business for Everybody, and that we can all grow faster and stronger by being together rather than trying to go into competition or comparison. Like there’s something quite magical about that everything just feels easier. And I think we very quickly realise that there are universal issues that we all have. Often part of the biggest issue is that we get ourselves in the way, and if we take ourselves out of the equation and just come together in a group, we can see, oh, okay, what are these challenges that we all have here, and how might we come together to resolve them? Because everybody’s got a unique angle of note, what is there 8 billion people on the planet? There is not one person on the planet who’s got exactly the same set of skills and experiences as you or me or whatever. So, if we’re not coming together and then sharing that with people in some way, then like, we’re leaving a whole bunch of value on the table. And I look at it like a multi-faceted diamond, right? So, imagine this group of people is like a multi-faceted diamond, and you’ve got that together, the brilliant cut diamonds sparkles so much more brightly than just like if it was just sheared off with one face on it. So, I’d know that just popped into my head just then.
Rob Pyne
Yeah, now, when you said that, getting together in a peer group format, where you walk in, you. Leave your ego at the door. It’s something that’s easy to say, and not everyone has practiced at doing that, but, but there’s a great book about that that I’ll just mention, because I love reading books and learning from the wisdom of others, and Ego is the Enemy. By Ryan Holiday is an absolute cracker of a book, just about realising what gets in the way of your success often is your own ego and being prepared to check that at the door and be more of a giver. And good things happen. A truth in life is you get what you give and certainly contributing does tend to pay off in spades. Well,
Terri Reid
What goes around comes back around, like the actual planet is rotating. So, it’s sort of a no brainer, and it is possible to do this because I’ve worked with a group of advisers in the past. It was a group of advisers in WA, there were about 10 businesses that came together which and there were a number of advisers in those businesses, and they were under the same licensee. So, there was a kind of commonality there. But they created this amazing cohort of people that did not see to the outside worlds. They were competitors. They did not see that at all. They were sharing all sorts of stuff. They were talking about pricing models that, you know, essentially created, like, like a mini pricing committee. So, if someone had a new client scenario that came in, they would actually send emails with this group of people and say, here’s all of the issues. What would you price it at and like, the richness of responses was extraordinary. And you know, it’s lonely being in business by yourself, especially if you’re a solo leader of a business with a team like, who do you actually talk to about? You can share some things with your staff, but you might not necessarily share all of it. If you’re in a personal relationship, how much does your partner really want to hear you banging on about your business all the time, especially when there’s stuff going on personally? I mean, they might be somewhat interested. Maybe they don’t even have the skill set, and yeah, it’s great to have a coach, but sometimes you might just want to share the challenges and the frustrations and celebrate the wins with people who really get it because they’re in the trenches with you. So, I love being able to create an environment where people can come together and feel that they can trust each other and do that.
Rob Pyne
Yeah, you do get amazing insights there, don’t you, and you just get that sense of connectedness with others that are finding the same challenges, coping with the same issues, and, as you say, celebrating successes of each other and learning from each other. And so, it’s a it’s a powerful way to learn from others in a really constructive and positive way. If you do it over lunch and you know, everyone’s kind of relaxed and can talk openly and freely and share their stories, it’s um, it’s a wonderful way to sort of learn from others and their experience. And apart from that, we’re social creatures. We get the benefit of working with other people and learning and building friendships and trusted relationships, which is actually a big plus that goes along with it, as well as just the technical element of learning and what they’ve done and how you can might apply it. So, I want to close if that’s okay, with a question just about your own journey. You were a financial planner in the early days, and in the last decade or so, you’ve been coaching consulting to advice businesses and other professional services firms. What is the one piece of advice you wish someone had given you earlier along the way?
Terri Reid
Probably just to be more embracing of what makes me, and not try and always be on their self-improvement hamster wheel and get a greater appreciation of the qualities that I bring naturally and playing to those strengths. So, I felt like, over the last few years, I’ve been like culling more and more books. Obviously, we still read, but we learn so much from working with other people, and the greater the appreciation I have for the qualities that I bring, the more I can see those in other people. We just always offer a reflection to each other, either positive reflection or not so positive reflection. So, the more I invest in my health and wellbeing, the greater my insights. They just seriously like took off, and I never realised that before, and I don’t even think I fully realised it now, from a practical sense. But the more I do that self-care is like, hands down, the greatest way of boosting insight into how we show up in the world and what’s going on for other people.
Rob Pyne
As we spoke about during the chat, it’s almost goes number one. You talked about it being strategy, sales, support, and then self-care, but it actually goes around, isn’t it? It’s really self-care. It’s take care of yourself first, make sure you’re ready to show up and be your best version of yourself. And that’s mentally, physically, emotionally, is it’s so critical. And if people do that, well, they can be much more effective in life, in general, just in interactions with people, whether it be in social, you know, personal relationships, in professional relationships. And so, yeah, can totally relate to that one. And I think we’re finally starting to see a shift towards a recognition of advice and what good it does for people. And so, I’m just super excited to be a part of that. I really appreciate taking the time today having a chat on the Trusted Adviser podcast.
Terri Reid
Oh, always great talking with you, Rob. There’s always lots of nuggets of gold that I get from our conversation. So, thank you.
Rob Pyne
Thanks, Terri, appreciate it.