You're listening to Financial Advisor Marketing, the best show on the planet for financial advisers who want to get more clients without all the stress. You're about to get the real scoop on everything from lead generation to closing the deal. James is the founder of TheAdvisorCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisers grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard. [00:31.7]
James: Hey what's good financial advisors welcome to another episode of the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast. As always, I am your host, smoking meat, packing heat grilling, and chilling the man with the master plan, the client whisperer himself, James Pollard. And over the past few months, I've been getting more and more emails asking for productivity related content. And I'm absolutely humbled that people ask me about this stuff because I never set out to be a productivity guy or anything, but I guess it does make sense because I do get a lot done. I have this podcast, I've got the website, TheAdvisorCoach.com. I do webinars. I send out daily emails. I write the inner circle newsletter, which is 15 to 20 pages of content every single month in a physical newsletter. I also have separate income streams away from the Advisor oach that I manage. I'm not going to talk about them on the show because they're not relevant. [01:21.4]
But if you've been on my email list, you might remember me sending out an email, talking about how I increased one of my businesses revenue by over a thousand percent in a month. That was pretty darn cool. People also know I tend to read a book every three or four days. It used to be a book about every two days, so now I'm slowing down, I guess. So, on top of all that other stuff, I take time to sharpen the saw. So, I get it from the outside. Looking in. People are like, how does he get all this done? And to be clear, there are people out there who do way, way less than I do and make way more money than I do. I am nowhere near the tippy top of the mountain with this stuff. But I can honestly say that I'm probably in the top one 10th of 1% of all human beings in terms of productivity. I mean, that sounds like I'm sniffing my own farts, but like, it is what it is. I mean, I am pretty darn productive. [02:14.1]
And in this episode, I'm going to recap some of the things that keep me productive as well as an experiment that I've been trying. It's up to you to decide if you want to experiment with me, transparently, I've only just begun. And I don't know if this will be a success or a failure. I can only give you updates along the way. And before we get into this, I want to make something else clear. I am not a doctor. I'm not giving you any medical advice. I'm not giving you any advice at all. Everything I'm telling you in this episode should be viewed as information only it's entertainment, only informational purposes only. Not a doctor, not a lawyer, not an accountant. Please don't take any of my advice without consulting a professional, a competent professional at that and doing your own due diligence. [02:58.8]
Now with that said, let's get into it. We'll start with the basic stuff. The thing that most people don't want to talk about that I've noticed that high performers almost always do is they rely on supplementation. I am a biohacker. I take a lot of supplements. I'm not going to give you any specific recommendations because my body is different from yours. However, I cycle through different brain supplements and I get the vitamins that I don't eat through my diet through supplementation. And here are two mistakes that I see people making right off the bat. First, they don't know what they should and should not be eating. People are different. Take a food sensitivity test. I posted about this on LinkedIn. I sent an email about it and got like three dozen people to take food, sensitivity tests. And a few of them followed up with me and couldn't thank me enough. I mean, they had no idea that they were sensitive to certain foods. [03:52.3]
For example, I am sensitive to bananas. Throughout my entire life from like six years old to 17 or 18 years old, essentially all throughout school, I would have a banana with breakfast. And I did well in school athletics, all that after-school programs I did fairly well, but I never realized that my brain was getting wrecked by these bananas. I just had no idea. If I could go back in time and take a food sensitivity test, I would do it in a heartbeat. And I can only imagine how much better off I would be. I just like, you don't know what you don't know, right? So, when you take a food sensitivity test, you may be shocked to find out that something that you eat every day is actually causing your brain fog. It's actually causing your inflammation. And if you just eliminate that thing from your diet, you will be so much better off. I can't stress this enough; the food sensitivity tests that I personally took. Again, this is not a recommendation. I'm not telling you to go out and take this. I am telling you what I did. The one that I took was Everly Well, E V E R L Y Everly Well, W E L L, and you get a kit in the mail. You prick your finger, you take a little blood sample, you send it back and they do all the magical wizardry stuff and send you your results back. You can check them online through the, I believe they have an app now, I don't think that I've ever downloaded the app, but they may have an app. I checked all my stuff online and I found out the foods to which I had a sensitivity. [05:16.4]
So that is number one, the thing that like, if you take nothing else from this podcast, please, for the love of all that is good and holy get a food sensitivity test. Pay for the darn thing. If you have no sensitivities, right? Your money is still well spent because you can operate with some peace of mind. You can eat more things. You can spread your food wings, okay. So that's the first mistake that I see people making. The second thing is that people take all these supplements and they don't know which ones should be taken with food, because some things are fat soluble, which means you need fat to make the most of them. I pretty much always take my supplements with some sort of fat, whether that's with a meal or something like fish oil, I will quite literally take a shot of fish oil. I know that sounds disgusting, but it is what it is. I've heard from people who take these fat-soluble supplements and they say things like, oh, well, they don't do anything for me. And I'm like, yeah, I wonder why, because you're not taking them with fat. So, they can't work. It's. It is literally science. [06:18.5]
I also do some weird stuff like red light therapy. I don't do this as much as I used to. I used to do a lot of red-light therapy. And if you want to know more about it, I suggest Googling it and going down the rabbit hole, if you're going to do it and you're, and you're going to commit to red light therapy, make sure you buy real red-light panels from a legitimate company instead of these knockoffs that are out there. And once you get into the research, you'll see what I'm talking about. You'll see that there are all these companies to make these cheap imitations, these cheap knockoffs that won't do much for you. There is a company called Joovv, J O O V V. Once again, J O O V V. They're not partners. They're not nobody that I'm mentioning here is sponsoring the show. I am an affiliate of Everly Well, but I haven't provided you with an affiliate link. So, there's no way for me to get paid, not an affiliate of Joovv. What they do is they make modular panels and yes, they are expensive for several thousand dollars a piece. But I'm just telling you that red light therapy works for me. It works for me. It may not work for you. You do your own research. [07:22.4]
It is some crazy stuff. There's some evidence that red light therapy can even help with carpal tunnel syndrome. And I type a lot, thankfully do not have that. I don't know if it has anything to do with red light therapy or not. I don't have it, even though I type tens of thousands of words every single week. My sleep is also on point. If you want to know more about my specific sleep tips, you can go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/sleep. And it's just, it is on point quite frankly, I've talked about this many times in the show. Most people just don't have their sleep dialed in. They just don't know the basics. And I've said this before, but you don't know what you don't know. Even little changes, like keeping your room cool, using a weighted blanket, so on and so forth. These things can make a big difference. And it's not hard, it's just that people don't do it. I'm so sick of hearing people say things like, oh, I know I should get better sleep or I don't sleep well. I don't know why it is. And then you ask them and they keep the room at like 74 degrees. And they have a crappy setup with all this light. And they keep the TV on which emits blue light and like, no wonder they don't sleep well. [08:32.3]
If you're someone who has a television in your bedroom, I'm going to give you a tip right now. Let's say that your spouse likes to watch the evening news or something. Or maybe you like to watch the evening news while you're in bed. I'm going to give you something that is almost certainly going to improve your sleep. This is something that will take one minute or less to change. Get your remote, your television remote, go to the settings. There should be like a display setting somewhere. Every TV is different, but there's usually a display setting somewhere. Change it to warm. Most TVs have this, they just emit tons of blue light and it's cool. White light. You don't want that. You want warm light, lots of oranges and lots of reds. You change it to a warm light or a warm display, whatever it's called on your particular television. And that should improve your sleep. Because again, you can, I'm not going to turn this into a blue light podcast or a specific, you know, health, whatever tips you can Google blue light affecting sleep. And if you just change your televisions and you can, you can do this with TVs all throughout your house, change the one in your living room, your family room. If you've got a little TV in your kitchen, change them all to warm light, to get rid of that blue light, it's junk light. [09:41.5]
Another thing that I do that some people consider weird, although it is very, very helpful is speed reading. I've taken several speed reading courses. My current reading speed is above 1300 words per minute. With 90% comprehension I have had this tested. There are different tests that you go through and low quizzes and comprehension tests within these courses. The average person reads at about 250 words per minute. So, this means I am literally reading five times faster than the average person. So, think about this, if the average person sets a goal to read one book per week, this means I could dedicate the same amount of time as that person. And I could read five books per week. So, imagine the advantage that I will have simply because I'm reading faster. Some of you may think that you don't have time to read. You think that it's tough for you to squeeze in even 30 minutes of reading time per day. It's so sad because I publish a newsletter, the James Pollard inner circle, and there are some people in there who complain about reading 15 to 20 pages per month. They let these newsletters pile up. [10:50.7]
I mean, I love them and I'm thankful to have them. And I'm glad that they're investing in themselves, but holy moly, reading the darn newsletters they're designed to help you there. They're filled with proven tactics, tips, techniques, strategies, campaigns, literally like email campaigns. I have sometimes I include straight up word for word email campaigns that they can use to make more money. And if you don't get around to it, then you're just leaving money on the table. If you're in that boat read faster, you don't have to spend more time reading. You just have to increase your reading speed. And another thing one final thing that I want to point out before we get into the experiment that I do, that some people think is weird is that I operate with a specific software. So, the tip that I have for you is to find some sort of software you can plug into, something that works for you. Something that you are going to use. Evernote is a good example of this, or some people who take tons of notes on Evernote and they integrate it with the different tools. They basically you'd have Evernote on the phone, on their iPad, on the computer, on the laptop desktop, and they are just using it and they're making the most of it. Inner circle members know this specific software that I personally use, it as not Evernote. I'm not going to reveal it on the show because I gave some pretty heavy tips on how to use it in an issue. And if you want that sort of stuff, you're going to have to pay for it. [12:10.7]
Hey, financial advisors – if you’d like even more help building your business, I invite you to subscribe to James’ monthly paper-and-ink newsletter, The James Pollard Inner Circle.
When you join today, you’ll get more than one thousand dollars’ worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren’t available anywhere else.
Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more. [12:33.0]
So, let's get into the experiment. The experiment that I've been doing looks like this. Each day, I'm assigning myself three task, a big task, a medium task, and a small task. The big task is something that requires a lot of time, energy and concentration. It is the most important thing and it must get done, no exceptions. The medium task is something that I can do after the big task, because I was still have some energy, some mental stamina. I could just keep going and get that done. And then the small task is something urgent and or important that doesn't require much effort. I can knock it out without much thought, doesn't require much energy. Doesn't require much brainpower. And for full transparency, these tasks have been dialed in after years of automating, delegating and eliminating. They are the most important things that I could do to move my business forward. [13:29.9]
Some people will listen to this and think that they can't do three things. And only three things because, well, they're not dialed in. I promise you that if you track your activities and you see where your time goes, you will begin to see some patterns. You will see things that come up again and again, you will see things that you can outsource. You will see things that you shouldn't be doing in the first place. And yes, you will see things that you can automate. I see this all the time with marketing. People want to start things like podcasts. Why, what is the point? How does a podcast fit into your overall plan? How are you sure that this will help you accomplish your goals? And I must admit that I'm a little bit of a hypocrite here because I do leave some money on the table. Even though I talk about profit maximization and doing everything you can do and getting everything, you can out of all, you've gotten these cute little things. I am a hypocrite because I do leave some money on the table. I stop before the point of diminishing returns. If you want to squeeze every drop of blood out of yourself to get every last dollar, more power to you. But me personally, I would rather work 20% of the time and make 80% of the money. Then work 100% of the time and make 100% of the money. [14:44.0]
Because at a certain point, the law of diminishing returns starts kicking your butt. And I know the 80-20 rule so well, and I've got my task dialed in to such a degree. This is not beginner stuff people. If you're listening to this and you have never been through a productivity course, you've never tracked your time. You have no idea what tasks are most important for you. You don't know the difference between a high value task and a low value task, this is not for you. But if you're someone who, like I said, wants to work 20% of the time and make 80% of the money, then you have everything that I've talked about. You've talked, you have these prerequisites, this can work for you. And here's how it went. [15:21.1]
I planned my entire week on Sunday night, I planned it from Monday to Friday and I put those three tasks in for each day. So that's a total of 15 things that I had to do all week. Monday and Tuesday went off without a hitch. And I was impressed with myself. I thought it was going really well. I thought that I found the new holy grail of productivity. And then Wednesday happened and a whole bunch of tasks began creeping in my inbox. Now this is different from the tasks that I've assigned myself. This is just an inbox, okay. I had to choose between knocking those little tasks out myself or letting a team member handle it and just knowing that it would get done later, that it wouldn't get done right away. And I chose to let team members handle it, but it was a signal for me that maybe I need to hire someone else. I'm not sure yet, we'll see how that goes on Thursday. My big task was writing my newsletter and my medium task was an appointment I had with a financial advisor. I actually didn't get to the small task at all because I was in the zone when writing the newsletter, the December, 2021 newsletter issue, I'm recording this in November and I'm currently writing the December issue. By the time this comes out, it will have been shipped in. And It's just going to be amazing for lack of a better term. [16:40.3]
I didn't get to that the small task, because I was just working on that. It took a lot out of me. I had enough energy to be on for the appointment, but after that, I had to take a break. And that's why it's so important to assign the most energy intensive task for the first thing like in the morning, the very first thing you do. And there's an entire productivity school of thought that you should give yourself some easy task in the morning to warm yourself up, to build momentum, whatever. I don't really disagree with that, but I will say it depends on how much energy your hard task requires. It, it depends on your circumstance. If it takes all you have, like your hard task takes everything. You've got all your energy, all your focus, all your concentration, like it does for me in the newsletter, because I want to give newsletter subscribers the absolute best that I have then yeah, skip the warm-up stuff and get straight into the hardest task. [17:33.9]
But if your hardest task for that day, isn't incredibly demanding, sure, you can build some momentum. You can check a few small things off your list. I mean, nothing has to be set in stone and we'll get to that at the end of the show. Friday, moving on in the week, Friday was a success and I was able to get all three things done. And in addition to the small task from the day before that I didn't get done. However little things kept creeping my way and I ended up doing a lot of them early on Saturday and Sunday mornings. For some of you that may be unacceptable, it may be unacceptable for you to work on a weekend, but for me, it's no big deal to spend an hour in the morning to tie up any loose ends that come up along the week. I don't mind it. It allows me to focus on my top three most important tasks during each weekday. And that's fine with me. I view it as a small price to pay for massive productivity in the long run. [18:29.9]
Now what's the verdict here? Will I keep doing it? I'm not sure. So far it seems to be working well. And again, I must make it clear that this is not something I would recommend to a beginner. This only seems feasible, if you are 100% clear on what is the most important task within your business, and then the second most important task and the third most important task, right? You have to have the, your business dialed in for the 80-20 rule. If you don't know, or you feel like you're guessing this probably won't end well for you. My personal fear is that a lot of little things would go on the back burner and they will add up over time. And these little things would just stack up and stack up and stack up and become this massive tsunami of little things to just boom, knocks me over. Because even though I don't mind working on the weekend, I'm curious to see how this will hold up if I go on vacation or if I have other plans, I may also modify this. So, I don't have those three task days all week. I may end up doing three tasks on Monday and Tuesday, and then having Wednesday be a normal “normal” or a catch-up day, and then do three tasks again on Thursday and three task again on Friday. [19:43.0]
If there's anything left, I can knock it out Saturday morning and I can get on with my weekend. I think having something in the middle of the week designed to like a catch all day is exactly like I said on Wednesday. Just whatever comes up on Monday or Tuesday, put it off until Wednesday. Knock it out on Wednesday and keep the darn train rolling. I think that's a good approach. I may try that next week. And finally, I want to mention that my productivity approaches are not set in stone. I'm constantly experimenting to see what works best for me. I tried many approaches over the years. This is the newest experiment in a long, long line of tweaks and changes. If you're listening to this a year from now, I may reveal that I'm doing something completely different. So don't assume that this has to be the way things are done. [20:28.7]
Last night I had an inner circle member ask about productivity tools and systems. And I explained to him that there are nos, there's no such thing as a one size fits all approach. Tools are only as good as the person using them. For instance, a chainsaw is much better than a hand saw. You know, this, the saw that you used by hand, you're just going back and forth. There's no motor in it. There's no money, not much of labor saving there, but if you have no clue how to operate the chainsaw, having a chainsaw, doesn't matter. In that situation, having the little handsaw will be better than nothing. I want you to have the right tools for you. I've been to so many productivity trainings, classes, workshops, boot camps, and more. My approach is a hybrid of everything because I haven't found something that works for me 100% of the time. And I can almost guarantee you that you will have a similar experience. You will not find something that works for you 100% of the time. So, if this sounds like something, you want to try, try it, incorporate it into your business and let me know how it goes. And I will catch you next week. [21:41.7]
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