Scale Up Series #2 – Sue Viskovic – Transcript

Episode details

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, advisors, business, clients, pricing, advice, years, important, money, conversation, identify, create, services, bit, piece, helping, financial, coaching, investment, absolutely

SPEAKERS

Sue Viskovic, Fraser Jack, Clayton Daniel

 

Fraser Jack 

Welcome to the x y advisor podcast. A global community of financial advisors sharing and learning with one another to drive the positive evolution of financial advice. To get involved, go to x y advisor.com. Or simply download the x y for Pfizer

 

Clayton Daniel 

portfolio construction of risk management tasks that take you away from where you need to be building relationships with your clients. Aberdeen standard investments can support you by creating bespoke investment solutions. Outsourcing portfolio and risk management creates efficiencies enabling you to focus on fulfilling the ambitions of both your clients and your business this podcast has been prepared with tears based on sources believed to be reliable and opions Express honestly held at the applicable day however it is general information only and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions Be prepared without taking into account the particular objectives financial situation or needs of any investor investing involves risk including the risk of losing capital. It’s important that before acting investors should consider their current circumstances objectives and financial situation the information is appropriate and is to them and consult financial and tax advisers investors should consider PDS available Aberdeen standard.com before making an investment decision products issued by Aberdeen standard investments Australia limited ABN five nine double 02123364 Episode Number 2042632.

 

Fraser Jack 

Another episode of The X Y advisor podcast I’m Fraser Jack, your host and I’m joined by Sue viscologic. Hello,

 

Sue Viskovic 

hello. Hello. I love it to be here.

 

Fraser Jack 

fantastic to have you on the x y podcast again. It’s totally been no no three years since your last episode.

 

Sue Viskovic 

I know. I’ve missed you guys, even though you’re new in the state. Hi. Very happy that you’ve taken this gig.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, I’m really, really happy. Thank you. So it’s been it’s been three years. I look back it was um, February 2017. And you were on with, with Phil and Adrian talking about a business planning article that you’re you’d written and sort of this is the time of the year when everyone’s doing their business planning.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah, my goodness. Time flies when you’re having fun. Hey, three years ago? Wow.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, exactly. And mind you mind you thinking back was actually the second time you’ve been on in I think was Episode 18. So to get on twice, and with an 18 episodes is pretty good.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Very impressive. And then I went I Well, clearly, I obviously had lots and lots more interesting speakers to fall back on.

 

Fraser Jack 

But clearly you’re out of favor. Did you? Did you not get them in? No.

 

Sue Viskovic 

I did not. I did not. Although What did I do to get back in? No, not at all. I it’s a it’s a really great crew. And I think during that time, we also did a bit there was a few other things that I helped out with there wasn’t video content that we provided for the academy and so forth. So yeah, I think I’m pretty sure there was just there like mixing up their speakers not

 

Fraser Jack 

just must have been absolutely. Now. Now, I went back and listen to that episode. And we talked a lot about the idea around really having some critical thinking around your planning. And you don’t have to label a business plan. But some critical thinking about the sort of four main areas of a plan that you saw well, over time, let’s say your client value proposition all about where you are now. technology that you’re using, and how that’s going to provide efficiencies and scale in your business. Pricing around the numbers getting numbers, right. And in the last section was really focusing on you know, the advisor, the player, the business owner, and making sure you have that balance. Three years on looking back. Oh, how, how was how did that go? How was that? Is there anything you add to that?

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah. Look, I think I think the fundamentals of strategic planning doesn’t don’t change over the years in the fact that it’s really important to do it and do it well. So I think when you’re actually doing it, it, the first thing is still the same as what I would have said back then, and that is get a really good, honest, critical view of what’s happening in your business now. Because there’s one thing is to plan of where you want to go and how you want to move forward. But if you’re not really getting a clear understanding of where you are now and what might hold you back, you may not necessarily be able to identify the things that you’d want to that you want to strategize with. So that’s really critical. But it’s interesting, isn’t it? And I pulled out those four things as being so important back then, we probably are. Let’s I’ll just claim it as being Hagel was my crystal ball around looking after you. So in those three years, you know, even apart from the global pandemic, that we’ve all been through what advisors have been through over the last few years after the Royal Commission and with the fuzziest standards coming in and the exam, the mental health, in advice has been really under threat has been really pushed to its limit. So I do hope that people do listen to that component of it because we do you know, I know we’re all guilty of it. We Put our family first we put our clients first. And our family, we put our business first. And we usually come last. But over those last few years, that’s a really put test to that has meant that if we don’t put our own oxygen mask on first and make sure we take care of ourselves, it’s pretty hard to be there and show up for everybody else. So that one was definitely a bit of a one that came more important than any others over that time. I think pricing obviously is still huge today, in fact, probably bigger than it was three years ago, because obviously, people have lost their grandfathered RAM, if they had some trails coming in. So we’re still talking a lot of advisors that are handling the fallout from that. But I think we’re starting to see, oh, gosh, I said benefits. Obviously, a lot of the things that came out of the Royal Commission are beneficial because they are protecting consumers. And they’ve removed some behaviors that weren’t across all advice businesses, but certainly, obviously they did happen. But I think what’s maybe more important now than ever before, we’re really in an environment where there’s less advisors, to service people, more people needing advice. And so I think the critical factor now does come back to that value proposition. What are you? What are you delivering? What are you here? And probably before that, it’s actually identifying who you’re going to work with? Who are you serving, and designing your business because you can’t be all things to old people anymore, you can’t just say yes to everybody and get a bit of trial and metal build up over time, you really need to run it like a business. So that’s probably I would say the biggest fundamental shift that we’ve seen is people having to get far more clear on who they’re working with. What’s their proposition and deep, deep client engagement, filling the hole where the robo advisors or the robo investment pieces don’t serve, and helping people with behavioral change and values and goals based financial planning, all that good stuff that we love,

 

Fraser Jack 

certainly isn’t I I resonate with this. And I actually think that you’re spot on, when it comes to a lot of businesses I’ve spoken to that have ever really focused on that niching down on their, who they who they serve, who they help the most, and who they who they personally enjoy helping to, you know, the values compensation around the values of the advisor matching the values of their clients, and therefore, a win win.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah, well, life’s too short, right. So, you know, most advisors spend a huge amount of time in their business and they get passionately involved with their clients, you know, they don’t just do it, because it’s a it’s a technical expertise, they actually aren’t personally invested emotionally invested in their clients. So you know, you want to work with people that you respect and you want to share common values with I think that’s really important. At Alexa, we call it a no ticket policy amount latticework by but yeah, we, you know, life’s too short, you want to make sure that you’re working and empowering people that you enjoy working with. So yeah, with no judgment, of course,

 

Fraser Jack 

yes, it is different. Well, exactly. Right. And that policy could be somebody that he could not be somebody might not be somebody else’s.

 

Sue Viskovic 

That’s exactly that. That’s exactly right. Yes. And, you know, in a in a marketplace moving forward, where there are limited numbers of advisors, and we’re seeing limited numbers of new advisors coming through the profession and, and being qualified. You know, you really can carve out your own space, and build your business to be whatever you want it to be. And you know, dealing with whoever and however many clients you want to deal with. It’s really quite exciting and empowering.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yep. Fantastic. Now I wanted to put out 2021 hits on and think about these four areas, and maybe some other areas that we haven’t covered in these four. But starting with the client value proposition, you know, what are you seeing practices doing? What are you seeing, like, apart from Ravasi, we went through the knitting conversation, we could go back into that again, but what are you seeing people doing with assessing where they are now? How are they getting to the bottom of exactly or diagnosing where they are now?

 

Sue Viskovic 

So I think I think it really is important to be able to identify the people that you work best for you then and so that that is the first step in the value prop creation or enhancement, if you like, and I think more and more advisors are really realizing. I mean, I think there’s actually a combination of factors, the fact that you do have more and more Robo advice styles of digital platforms emerging. And most advisors would say, as we’ve even said five years ago that there’s no fear around, those players getting better and coming to the market, but be and because it’s not a bash. It’s because for most people that engage with financial advice, they actually Want the accountability, they want the empathy, they want people that you know, a human that they can throw ideas around with. And so to try and deliver an advice proposition that really is just about rolling over super, or identifying the best, you know, risk insurance provider when you already know what you’re looking for, that’s not really the place for financial advisors anymore. And what’s exciting about that is that for the advisor, it is actually more rewarding because they have a deeper engagement with their clients. And so we’re seeing, because to the flip side to that, when you get really good around your targeted clientele, and I think I’ve said before, we used to use the term ideal client, I don’t use that term anymore, because I think people think ideal is like, you know, I’m using my quotation marks with my fingers here. And ideal world is something that’s not achievable. So we don’t even turn that ideal client anymore, because there’s no no law unicorns out there. But it’s around getting clear on the types of clients that you work with. And we actually even go through a process to build client avatars within a business. And so understanding the demographics of the people that you’re looking for the psychographics, what makes them tick, what do they want? How do they think what are their challenges in life, and then when you do that, you can get really clear on the problems that they have, and the need that they’re trying to solve. Sometimes it even gets down to profession, which lends itself to a particular personality type or, you know, introvert, or extrovert. And when you do that, you can then get very clear around the services that you provide. And it’s not when I say services, it’s not even just are we, you know, we give advice on self managed super funds, or, you know, whatever the technical services are, that’s all part of it. But I think it’s also the style of engagement that you want. So what I find really exciting about that is that we’re seeing more and more propositions that are far more suited. You know, it used to be 1015 years ago, everybody was after the retiree, right, because we got paid by commission, or we got paid by asset base fee. So if you, you had to find clients that had the lump sums already accumulated so that you could afford to give advice to them. And and so the younger people and the accumulators were somewhat neglected by the advice profession. And yet what we see now in in the communities, you know, people, people want a connection with their finances, they’re more, maybe not more aspirational. But people certainly are aspirational, they want more out of life, they want to live their best life. And so they want to have advisors and there are more and more advisors out there able to help them create that. So as an advisor, in your strategic planning, really identify the people that you work best with, and then how can you solve their services, solve the issues, and sometimes their issues have nothing to do with financial products? They might be behavioral, they might be saving strategies where, you know, you don’t even need to advise on a particular bank account or a particular savings. Again, it’s a it’s a cash flow and money management pace as well,

 

Fraser Jack 

I can I just dig deeper and learn to that behavior conversation? Because I agree, you know, clients are there, they’ve got issues or problems, we’ve got issues, let’s face it. And, and so you mentioned behavioral decision making and habit. Now, I like to dig down even deeper into the idea of what are the micro decisions that are going through their head that they’re not asking you about that they need to be solved? You know, like, from the very beginning of, they need to know they have a problem, I think urgencies they need to know that they have a problem, and they need to know that you’re the doctor and the need to know, you know, is it going to provide value, either for money or for time or for whatever they whatever they associate value with? And, you know, while there will be these micro decisions being answered, in within your process, before they have to ask them because I think they have to ask them then is it too late? You know that I’ve already thought about it and meld on the decision that became a pain point and had to ask,

 

Sue Viskovic 

yeah, yeah, and it’s fascinating, because with your business hat on, you go wow, with all my compliance requirements. Now, this is why people are saying financial advice is getting too expensive and out of the realm of most people, because, you know, by the time you actually get to spend the right amount of time with a client to get to know them at that level, and to build trust for them to be able to be open and have those conversations with you and let them let you in on their fears and how they hold themselves back. That doesn’t happen immediately. And it certainly doesn’t happen if you sit in front of them with a fact find and you ask them about their super funds and if they’ve got an accountant and those sorts of questions. So the engagement techniques that advisors are using a very, I wouldn’t say different but they are structured in a different way. So you know, if we reflect on the fact fine for example, there are great tools that you can use now to do data scrapes, and you Like technology to be able to import information for you to then process so you can spend the valuable time that you’ve got with the client, talking about the more meaningful, emotive behavioral kinds of things. You know, I never forget the fabulous Eleanor Dart now. I think she’s nine to the x y community. She’s a lovely advisor in this country, New South Wales. And we were actually on our judging panel together for the female excellence and advisory boards for a couple of years. I remember having this conversation with with her and one of her favorite things was to make sure that she understood if a client does come to her with assets, where does this money come from? What is the emotional connection that they have to that money, and the stories that she shared were amazing, you know, it is it is very different for a client, if they’ve worked hard, their whole life, their parents never really had much. So that inspired them to really save well, that connection to that money might look very different to if it’s an inheritance that’s come from a family member, that’s no longer with us. And that line has stopped. You know, those kind of emotive things are important to understand. And so I’m just well aware that we’re on the the theme of scale for this podcast. How do you do that? as an advisor? How do you get to that point, without having to literally get a psychologist degree or, you know, get people to fill in some some digital forms? Because that is the human element that has to come through? Yeah, I

 

Fraser Jack 

remember, I remember, Eleanor saying to me, that she even goes so far to say is, when you know, somebody had an inheritance, you know, what does this money mean to the person that earned the money? and How hard did they work to get it in? What do you think? What advice would they be telling you right now about this money, even if they weren’t here? And that information, gave the client the answer, to tell the advisor how they want to invest?

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yes, because sometimes we make decisions. And we’re not consciously aware of why we’re making them. But there is an emotional connection that sits underneath there somewhere. So So that’s, and I find that that actually makes advice even more rewarding, because you really are getting to know people’s motivators, and you can really help them it’s not because it’s not that you’re just adding value, because you help them save some money, or you pick the right investments. And so you get a better alpha, but you’re actually helping them be a better version of themselves and take more control, it’s probably a good word, but but feel more empowered about their money, because they understand their relationship with it. And they understand, you know, we, we haven’t talked about the fact that money really is just an enabler. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s just a thing. And what it really is there for is to help people live the life that they want to live. And so even the fact of holding space for them and a couple to articulate what is the life that they want to live? What are they actually working towards? And what is important to them? What are their values? And what do they want their money to do that in itself is a gift, even before you start talking about where to invest it and what platform to put it in? And you know, accessing better tax rates and so forth.

 

Fraser Jack 

Now, I just wanted to go a bit deeper on this client value proposition pieces. First part of the puzzle? Yeah, there is a lot of you know, like, information about where are you now? How exactly, you know, like, let’s be honest and raw and bring that information out. Because I know, there is always a facade, when you have a business and you don’t, you don’t always want people to really get under the hood. So there’s that side of the spectrum versus the other side of the spectrum. Where is if you had a blank sheet of paper, and you could just do anything you wanted? And what was the best outcome? I’m not gonna use ideal client, we would the best of the best case scenario being let’s just look at building that versus fixing up the old engine, if you like. Yeah. Tell us about those two different sides of the coin help when they both?

 

Sue Viskovic 

Were working with the business. So not not so much the client working the advisor working with their client

 

Fraser Jack 

advisor working on their business? Yeah,

 

Sue Viskovic 

on it. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, we as business coaches, we actually hold a really privileged position. And we’re quite honored. But because we do get to know all the warts and all of our clients, it actually is quite an intimate relationship that we have with our clients. Because usually, when they’ve reached out to us, they’re kind of signature cats, either, that they’re just overwhelmed. And I would say the last four clients, we’ve we brought on in the last month or so have all been working 7080 hours a week, they’re overwhelmed, they just can’t do it anymore. They don’t want to do it anymore. And with all of the change that’s been thrown in and they’re just struggling to lift their head up. And we also have a lot though, that we’re have always run good businesses. And as the world has changed, they have evolved over time, and they also want to get even better. So no matter what stage you’re at, in a business, there’s always going to be challenges going on. And you know, when you are at a PTA or a conference, actually, you know what I used to see people go Oh, yeah, that’s great. Yeah, yeah, it’s good. My business Good. Now I do see people a little bit more honest. And it tends to be over zoom more than it is over a drink. But I do see people openly able to go Yeah, it’s been bloody tough. Like it’s it’s this has been a really difficult environment to work with. And even incredibly successful advisors are, you know, honestly saying to anybody that yeah, it’s been a tough time. And, and it’s challenging to get through. So when we work with a firm, it is really important about understanding the vision of what they’re trying to create. And sometimes when you’ve been so buried in a business that you have been working really have, sometimes you’re not making enough money out of it. But it’s really taking you away from what’s most important, we actually go to the principles, personal values as well and help understand what is important, why they’re actually in business in the first place. Because when you can reconnect to that the old Simon’s neck, why once you are really clear on what you’re doing, we’ve even helped people make those decisions about Do they even stick around, you know, people that have been in the game for 30 years, and we’re on the brink of leaving. One of them has made that decision. But I’ve got quite a few others that have said or have reconnected with what I’m doing, then. And I can put up with the challenges and get through the other side, because it’s so important. So I think understanding that and then reflecting back on how is what is your business like today, because sometimes it’s kind of got away from them. Sometimes it’s just morphed over time, because of all the crap that’s been thrown at them from compliance and legislation and so forth. And it’s actually not the business they want. And the biggest thing that I think a lot of people are challenged by is the ability to say no, you know, when we talk about the whole targeted clientele thing, advisors are in the business, because they want to help people, it’s their fundamental, it’s the one thing that ties us all together is that motivation and passion about why it is at some level, they want to help other people. And so it absolutely goes against the grain to say, Well, if someone’s coming to ask me for help, I don’t want to say no to them, if I’m capable of doing it, I want to be able to, and yet, the way that the market is you just cannot afford to do so. So that tends to be a quite a challenging soul searching piece for a lot of people. Because when they get that realization, we’ve got one advisor at the moment, and she’s amazing, She’s incredible lady, and she honestly is working herself into an early grave, because she’s, she’s very kind and has a lot of very young clients coming and speaking with her. And so you know, she knows that they just need a leg up. And I’m talking like they’re in their 20s first and second jobs. But they can’t afford to pay what it costs to, to deliver services. So the trick is to actually identify who are the ones that you want to help the most. And if it is people in their 20s that have very, I don’t want to sound offensive, but they do have quite straightforward simple names, then it’s understanding that actually is less complex, yes, less complex, that sounds better. But you know, they don’t need the full financial advice. Or maybe they don’t need the really, really deep engagement where you understand their values and everything that sits behind it, maybe what they need is more education, and a really simple way to compare their funds and to understand what contributions look like. And so if you really do want to service that market, we take the time to create an offering that suits them. So it’s probably going to involve digital engagement, it’s probably going to be links off to the asset, money, sweat website, you know, plate weight, ways that people can help themselves without having to pay 1000s of dollars.

 

Fraser Jack 

And then I want to get into that in a minute. But I just want also want to cover the concept of Navy, if you had a blank piece of paper, and you could redesign a business model, you know, like from from a high touch business model point of view, versus just, you know, fixing what you’ve currently got. So you know, a blank piece of paper static in concept. Yeah, that’s,

 

Sue Viskovic 

that’s a good one to do some blue sky thinking. But I’d actually say like, our coaching style is really pragmatic, right? So the reality is, you know, I’ve done those sorts of exercises with people, and they’re exciting and they’re fine. And they you know, are they really aspirational? They’re awesome. But if that piece of paper then looks so totally different to where they’re at right now. The reality is they’ve got something to deal with and and look at maybe that they sell the current business they’ve got and start one from scratch. But my most people aren’t prepared to do that. It is about well, I now have what what do I do with this, this whole thing? If I want to create what I want, and so then it’s identifying Well, what are the steps required to get there and it might not be that it’s going to happen immediately. But but I think it’s still important to be pragmatic and the reality is for most people, when they identify that blue sky, thinking of who they want to work with and how they want to serve them, They’re actually their favorite clients already. They’ve already got some of them. It’s not it might not represent the whole business, but they’ve already got some. And that’s how they identify that they’re the ones that really want to work without I don’t think I’ve come across an advisor yet, who hates their time. So, yeah, it’s identifying that. And it’s then saying, Well, what are the tweaks that we need to do to move the business forward? And how are we going to sell off a portion of clients to somebody because as you said, before, you know, what’s not valuable, or the degree to one person is not to another. And I don’t mean that in. Yeah, actually, that was a really bad example. But what might be the future of your business might look very different to somebody else. So it does mean that you may choose to sell off a group of clients, or it means that you transition them away. And that’s so many advisors are doing that right now. Because there are some people paying fees that well below the minimum fee that they’ve worked out, they need to charge. So they had kind of had gone some way to changing the relationship, but grandfathered rooms gone now. So you know, if you’ve got a client that’s paying you $500 a year or even $1,000, a year, and your minimum phase three and a half, there has to be a question to say, Well, does this client actually need me on retainer anymore? Or can I make sure that they’re self sufficient? They’re on the auto rebalance, they’ve got everything, right. And if they need me later, they can come back. So going through that experience of shifting people on that no longer need your services has to be done hand in hand with the growth strategy of well, how are you going to find more of the people that are going to pay you a profitable fee and get really true value out of the services that you deliver? Yeah. I think part of the part of the success factor is not only knowing where you want to go and what you need to do to get to that place, but it’s also knowing where to send the others to. And it’s much easier to say no to somebody, if it’s not just know if it’s Well, I’m not the right advisor to help you with that. But let me give you some resources that you’ll be able to find your answers. So

 

Fraser Jack 

yeah, yep. Fair enough. Now, let’s let’s jump into the scale conversation. Let’s I mean, I think about this is obviously that, like you mentioned, the the idea of how do you provide something that’s going to be helpful that is affordable? At one end of the scale scale? And then the other end of the scale scale is how do you replicate something in a way where that is already profitable to be even more profitable?

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah. So the first point I would say is, don’t expect that you can do both ends of the scale, if you’re a one or two advisor business, right? If you’ve got a big team, sure, you can have different people assigned to different avatars. And you specialize in different fields. But if you’re, if you’re a smaller business, trying to use going back to that, trying to be all things to all people. Now, that is slightly different to where you might identify a niche of a certain group of people, and you’re creating your lead funnel. So it might be that you do create some free content, and you create some online courses or things like that, to get people to the point when they then need your services. So that’s different. That’s a marketing strategy. But if you are then deciding on the service that you want to provide, then you go deep on that, and you go, right, how do we how do we get better and better at doing this? And, you know, it’s something that we have worked on with so many clients over the years is that when you really stop and unpack, how do you onboard a new client? What do you do? How do you get to know them? How do you build trust quickly? And then even? What’s your ongoing client experience? You know, what do they get from you year on year, not just your, you know, your advice docs and taking your compliance boxes to say you don’t have to refund when you get to FDA time, but what is the actual experience the client has, and so many advisors find that they’ve really haven’t re examined that in a long time. And, you know, for many years, we would help advisors recreate that. And it’s, it’s difficult, right? Like, like, knowing as much as you need to know about understanding how to unpack people’s behaviors and emotions and their values, and so forth, and then plugging it into a system that’s going to deliver that really efficiently. I mean, we have helped people do it for years, and you put different apps and you put a tech stack together and yet you’re so it’s it’s very time consuming. And then the ability to pivot and iterate at once is not working or understand human behavior and how they respond. So that is going to where I think you asked me a little while ago, what’s going on with you at the moment? Well, I’m on the board of a new company that is called Lumia, which is actually solving so many those challenges for advisors. So and I’m not I’m not here to do a big sales pitch for that by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m like The work that lumion is doing because it is I’m trying to remember the word center users it is creating bionic advisors, because it’s giving them the tech tech enabled pace to get the scale, but the very human centered conversations and values, pace and ongoing goal collection and recognition and celebration as well. So, yeah, I think we will probably see more and more of those types of tools and systems, because that’s really what good advisors name to enable them to get to scale. I think,

 

Fraser Jack 

yeah, that’s certainly rather than sort of just being there to crunch numbers and financial numbers, which we’ve known tech to do for many years. But to be around the intent really help engage a client in and get them emotionally engaged in the process and allow to allow them to sort of dictate the flow of the process and where it takes them. place where they want to be.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah, and particularly I think, if you’re dealing with a couple, as most of us tend to do, or most advisors tend to do with their client base, is that, you know, what do you do when you don’t have alignment between the couple, and there is usually the CFO, spouse and the non CFO, there’s usually one of them, that tends to take more of the reins in managing the finances. And so, you know, I know advisors often will talk about couples where they struggle to get that non CFO, spouse be at the husband or the wife, it’s different in every family. But, you know, sometimes the the one that has the reigns is Yeah, we want to come to the review, absolutely, I was on and you take care of it. And you can’t give good advice when you’re just dealing with one of them, really. So it recognizes that as well and enables you to help people get on the same page around what’s most important and then creating the life they want and what role money has in that.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, that’s really interesting part of it, isn’t it, I mean, I, you mentioned the non CFO, I sort of think of this as the non dominant in that particular subject, because obviously one person is is going to be more dominant in the, in the financial, you know, part of that relationship and understanding the finances, and they’ll be the ones that want to speak up. Yeah, but if that person is also the dominant person in the relationship, on decision making around what they do, and how they spend their money, and all those sort of things, then the other person just gets left out. And essentially, a couple that you’re giving advice to is really only one person that you’re giving advice to

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yes. And we’ve, you know, I think the statistics prove that when you look at when a couple, one of them passes away, and how often the widow or the widower leaves the original advisor, because if that was the dominant one that passed away, they’ve never had a connection with them, because they’ve never been heard, they’ve never felt, you know, the ability to speak up and have those conversations. So yeah, it’s important, I think, to be able to, to create that. And, you know, when I talk, I know for perhaps some people, I might sound like I’m a little bit woowoo, because I talk a lot around emotion and and human behavior that drives what might otherwise be a very dry subject of money and financial decision making. But at the end of the day, we are humans, and we don’t always make rational decisions, and the best advisors, I think I understand that and learn to work within that, unfortunately, compliance doesn’t always recognize that hence the need to document all of your alternative strategies and so forth. That’s also

 

Fraser Jack 

sorry, this is a bit of technology has come a long way since you know, three years ago when you’re on on the last podcast, with the x y advisor, but you know that the idea was around a number crunching. Now it’s around capturing that, you know, we will, as you call it, capturing the emotional behaviors, capturing, you know, where they how they feel about something capturing their preferences, and then being able to, you know, go through an advice process and then recapture those preferences again, to show a growth in something that’s not necessarily money.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yes, absolutely. And over time, that that, that just continues to grow. So, you know, we, we, we love, I love the language that looming at users, and it’s about helping people live a rich life not die rich. So, you know, it’s not always about having the most money at the end of the day or creating, it’s about putting that money to good use in the way that the couple or the family wants to, and helping them make those decisions. And we’ve all heard of clients who’ve got plenty of money and they don’t go on their trip. Well, they can’t now but you know, they don’t enjoy it. They don’t spend it on the kids or the grandkids or doing things that they enjoy because they’ve they’ve never realized that actually, they do have enough and they will continue to have enough even if they live to layer 120. So sometimes that’s the value in the advice relationship to is is you know, empowering people to be able to do that. Yeah. So as the advisor, I think when it comes to doing your business strategy work is to identify how you do that. How you have those very personal relationships in a scalable way. And part of that has to come down to a really good process that your whole team follows. Because you want the advisor to be in the position where they are having the high value conversations, and the strategic input. But they, they have a great team of people around them that were really good at the admin and the power planning and the paperwork, and you know, whether it be outsourced or otherwise, or whether it be utilizing technology or otherwise, but how they can then capture all of the information in that very rich data, if you like, that comes out around the non specific stuff that doesn’t always fit into a spreadsheet.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, fair enough. And then we also see at the other end of the, the, you know, the high scale area of, you know, people just doing one thing, you know, you know, they don’t say robo advisor, because that always just tended to be just, you know, leading people towards an ETF but, but the idea of, you know, where people just doing one thing, and then using really smart processes, and efficiencies and technologies all together, to then reduce, you know, the doing that one thing, and this is where scale advice and really comes into it, and just like allows people to, you know, deal with hundreds of people a day, but just do one thing for them.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah. And and, you know, if you choose that, that’s the model that you want, then you get very, very clever at understanding the legal ramifications of that, that and, and, and, and making sure that you do scope the advice very, very clearly, and clients know exactly what they’re looking for, and what they’re coming to you for. There are ways to do that. I must admit, I most of the advisors that we speak with, they get their joy from having those relationships, and helping people live that deeper. Yeah, yeah.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, want to talk about that. I want to talk about pricing, because I know that you’re one of the country’s leading experts in the subject,

 

Sue Viskovic 

area, factor about

 

Fraser Jack 

pricing, and you just you mentioned the, you know, the relationships and then putting a price on the relationships, it’s a hard thing to do. Sometimes the mindset around pricing can really trip people up, talk to us about the pricing work you’ve done, and also how you deal with it.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah, well, it’s, it’s a funny thing, right? Because again, it comes back to exactly what we’re talking about in financial advice. In theory, you you get a calculator and you plug it costs in and you plug your chargeable time in and you put in the profit margin you want and outputs a number, and that’s what you charge. But it doesn’t always work that way. And not every client looks the same. And not every relationship delivers the same value to people either. So yes, we we continue to do a huge amount of work on pricing. And we are finding, and so we have our pricing research as well, right. So that is where we go out to market. And we talk to the whole profession as much as possible, obviously, not the whole profession, because we can’t reach everybody. But so our fifth edition was 713 advisors across 273 businesses plus and risk specialist pass a few mortgage brokers in there too. And that was only 12% of the people that we dealt with, right? So So we, in helping advisors to create their model, they always want to benchmark they always understand well, what am I up against in other businesses? And is this reasonable? And, you know, if you’re used to charging $3,000, and suddenly you’ve done your numbers, you really shouldn’t be charging any less than five, that’s frightening. And so you want to know, well, what what’s everybody else doing? Is that, okay? And then, of course, you have to then be looking at, well, what’s the value that I’m delivering to my clients for that? Because it’s one thing that it can they afford it or not, but are they actually going to get an outcome? And so the research we do every couple of years, and and that in and of itself, you know, we did the last one at the beginning of 2020. So about a year ago was when we collated the data. So if you think of that in context, that was when we knew that grandfathered room was being switched off in the year ahead. So the businesses were still receiving it at that point, the large majority of them if they had it, and they hadn’t yet switched off. And I think that we probably weren’t seeing the true reflection of the actual cost of advice still at that point. And certainly, there are a lot of businesses that really needed to do a lot of work on it, because we asked about EBIT figures. So what were people aiming to achieve in their business? What kind of EBIT were they looking for? And the average answer came back at 32%.

 

Fraser Jack 

So okay, so that’s this is the business planning. People want to get the 2% EBIT from the practice from their prep for all the risks they’re taking and all that stuff.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah. So because pricing is a really important lever in order to achieve But sadly, the average of what was being achieved was 23%. So despite where they wanted to They they weren’t necessarily there Now, that doesn’t automatically tell you that their pricing is wrong, because it can just be a growth part of the growth curve. So they were charging people the appropriate price, they just didn’t have enough people to fill their capacity and their business.

 

Fraser Jack 

So I bet so if I just stick with this limit, again, the Yeah, the reality was 22. But what they thought they were doing over they thought they wanted to do

 

Sue Viskovic 

know what they want to do. What they were targeting was 32. And their actual was averaging at 23. Well, so that’s, that’s really quite fascinating, because we can then separate out Well, okay, let’s look at only the firm’s that are getting more than 30% profit, what are they doing differently to the others? And, yes, typically, they were charging a higher amount. But it also comes down to their mindset. And they’re not even necessarily the the quality or complexity of the clients that we’re dealing with. It wasn’t just they only dealt with high net worth clients, so they could charge more. It was that they were really confident because they absolutely knew that they had enhanced their service offering the value proposition was great. They delivered value to clients, they didn’t have a lot of people saying no, they were in growth mode. And they were confident. So when we deal with our coaching clients, again, it’s one thing to say, well, it’s just your mindset, you got to get confident to charge a higher fee. Well, it doesn’t just happen because somebody told you to right. So when we work with clients, it is a process that we take them through and and a large part of it is them getting absolutely confident in the numbers being right. So you know, advisors are numbers, people, right, and the plumber with the leaky taps is is a real thing. But you know, once they know that the inputs are correct. And they know what they had minimums need to be and then they have an ability to talk out loud, what does value actually even mean? And how can you quantify what is often quite an intangible measure, and it’s subjective? And then how do you actually have the conversations with the clients? How do you go back to your client base and lifted on average? 2025 30 35%? You know, how do you how do you actually do that? And so having a bit of confidence, and support and accountability, to just hold your feet to the fire and, and help you get over? those first few conversations, I think is, is really, really helpful.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, this is a benchmark is an interesting point, when you say it’s 30, you know, 3233 3332,

 

Sue Viskovic 

our targeting 23? was

 

Fraser Jack 

what I guess it was 9%. So you know, you want 32 is that was that becomes the benchmark in someone’s head, how often do they say, Well, I want 32 as well.

 

Sue Viskovic 

I think that’s a big thing about what’s achievable, right? So, you know, if someone thinks that 20% is a good return on investment, for all the risk and the pain and suffering that you go through and running an advice business, then to know that actually 30 and 40% is possible. Yeah, I’ve got clients, I’m 55% a bit. It The only thing that is honestly, again, this might really sound woowoo. But the only thing that holds people back from achieving whatever the number is that they want is themselves, it’s those self limiting beliefs. That’s the understanding of what’s possible. And, and I think there’s also an element of, I don’t know if guilt is the right word, but you know, we have the same that we use a lot. And that is just because you can doesn’t mean you should, right? So sure, I could teach you how to charge a client eight grand, but if you’re not delivering eight grands worth of value, and that client doesn’t actually need your services, take a good hard look at yourself. So I think there’s a bit of that too. Advisors are by their nature, caring people, they want to help others. And sometimes there is a little bit of a limit that says, Do I deserve to actually have what a 30 40% EBIT would results in for me that you know, is that is that actually okay? And sometimes that’s an inner dialogue sometimes that’s because they’ve been beaten over the head by the media and everybody else for so long. Yes, but you know, the reality is what most advisors do with that significant profit margin is they pay really good staff really well and they take care of their people and they change lives for the better and they reinvest in their business and they use technology to then keep their costs down for clients while keeping their profit margin up. And most of them also donate and and support their communities as well. So I don’t even know why I went down that tangent but

 

Clayton Daniel 

the mindset are important

 

Fraser Jack 

it’s and again, if I go back to that in my 32% or 31%, since I’m 32 to the target What does that do for the average business like I mean as in not just increasing their you know, profit this year in this financial year, their their income and their, you know, their savings, but also their business valuation?

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah. Well, it’s you know, it has a compounding effect on a lot of things. Business valuation, absolutely, you know, we are seeing more of a shift towards EBIT multiples than recurring revenue multiples, but it depends on how the business is being bought. And is it just a client book that’s being plugged in elsewhere or someone buying the whole business, but, you know, if you are aiming for a healthy ebook, even if your business is valued on multiple of recurring revenue, typically is, is pretty powerful, and has a good impact on that. So people actually being able to leverage the quality and the value of what they built over for some people a lifetime, that that is really important. But even along the way, it also has an impact, like I say, on the quality of the business, because they can now afford to grow to scale to, you know, have staff with a bit of surplus capacity, so they can investigate even technology and things that they can use to do better. You know, it also has an impact on on mental health. You know, people feel more successful when they are, families are happier, they’re paying down their own debt, they don’t feel like a fraud, because who am I telling my clients what to do with their money, but I’m not actually earning what I would like to and I’m in more debt than I would like to all of those in monologues that happen around the country, and they do happen, that all improves as well. And there is nothing more satisfying and empowering than the decisions that you can make when you feel successful. And you’re seeing the wins that you’re making along the way. It absolutely has a compounding and

 

Fraser Jack 

it sort of has this this part has a big flower effect all the other parts, what technology you can use, yeah, what do you want to help and how you help them? You know, the focusing on you with it sort of all kind of starts with the fact that is positive income flowing?

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah. And you know, funnily enough, when I spoke three years ago, about that fourth element being taken care of yourself. It’s not just physically and emotionally, it’s also actually recognizing that if you’re the business leader, and your business is not where you want it to be, then you’re playing a role in that. Yes, legislations being tough. Yes, you might have had to change licensees, or you might have had a spurious client complaint that threw you off center, and they had no grounds. But it took you years to do it, like sure, there’s going to be external things. But at the end of the day, we’re all responsible for what happens. And so I find those that enjoy the most success are those that are prepared to look inward, and to do self development, not just on mental health and staying physically fit and healthy and active. And all of those are really important things. But also, reading listening to podcasts. Clearly, I’m talking to the converted here. But you know, thinking about how we can improve our own decision making and how we handle ourselves in the world, and how we show up for things and how we respond to our staff and our clients and all the difficult things that happen to us. I think advisors looking after themselves, and being willing to learn to do better and be better is Yeah, really, definitely, I

 

Fraser Jack 

couldn’t agree more. There’s definitely some issues that the industry is coming to light with regards to what the health toll on mental health of an industry has been, I think that’s a conversation that we’ll have continually over the next couple of years, as some of these tears come out. I just want to quickly go into pricing if I can, because because I know that working on you focusing on you can just start with one thing, you can just do that. And then you can move on to the next thing, pricing, and even your CVP To what extent is one of those things that you kind of have to bite off in a big chunk, you there’s not just a small divot, you can you kind of got to do a whole big thing, right. And obviously, people have been busy with, you know, exams and new qualifications and all these other things that are not the thing that are that are forcing to the front of the queue when it comes to, you know, their list of priorities. But yeah, it sounds like from what we’re talking about. It’s pricing is such a big effect. And it’s about biting off that big chunk of work and making sure that gets done so that all these other things can happen. How long? How long does it take to go through a transformation or pricing structure,

 

Sue Viskovic 

it depends on where the business is starting from when we So typically, once you’ve actually decided what you’re going to do, it typically takes a 12 month period to transition your whole business because obviously you’re not just going to pull clients in when they’re not due to see you just to have a pricing conversation. So you have that conversation at review, which makes sense that it takes four months period, but to actually get ready to implement that can be months and years. In fact, we’ve had clients come to us that have had a crack at it, have tried to do it a few times either get too busy that they don’t finish it or they they’re still not confident with it. If we do on a one on one engagement if it’s a private coaching engagement, typically depending on the size To the business, it can take, you know, one to two months to get it ready to go. And then the implementation takes four months. And I think you’re segwaying to the fabulous joint piece of work that we’re doing together through COVID. Hitting last year, you know, we, we engage people in a couple of different ways. The main thing that we usually do is one on one coaching. But we also know that sometimes it’s better to learn things when you’re in a group environment, because you’re sharing stories with other advisors, sometimes that happens because people can’t afford the one on one. So for years, we’ve done a we called the pricing advice program. So it used to be when we could get groups of people together, it used to be a two day experience. And even that people were still coming out of the back of those two days going, Oh, I still, I still want to read crunch some numbers, I still I’m still wrestling with it a little bit. So in that sense, COVID was a bit of a blessing, because we had a group ready to go through that program when the first lockdown hit in Australia. And so we pivoted it to doing it via zoom, and we broke it out because nobody wants to be in front of a screen for eight hours. So we broke it up across a number of different sessions. And we found that breakout rooms are brilliant, you can still do very intimate conversations, and dare I say role plays and activities and make it a really interactive program using the breakout sessions in zoom. So since we did the first one, we’ve then had numerous conversations with you and quite a few people saying we love the value proposition pays. We love the pricing, we love the implementation. And we’ve also identified that we want to get better at capturing the goals of our clients and really digging deeper into those conversations. So therefore, we put together that little program that you and I have put together that the team have been working on.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, shameless plugs slash disclosure, you and I are working on a program that through goals versus vice and their pricing. So yeah, that’s definitely something that we are very passionate about. So getting through that process, I want to talk about the concept of pricing. It’s one of those things that you and again, if you’re going through a one on one coaching, or however you’re doing it, you’ve got to pay some money to do it, obviously.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Well, if you’re gonna get professional advice to do it really well, just like you want your clients to pay professional advice to get their financial house in order. It’s a good thing to do with your pricing, too. Yeah,

 

Fraser Jack 

yeah. I’ve always said it’s in the implementation, right? You know, it’s all very good to get advice. But if you don’t implement it, then it doesn’t actually work. And I guess it’s the same thing with learning about pricing. And if you don’t implement it, then hey, guess what, you’re not actually going to be any better off? Yeah, notice? What sort of, I know, in the first podcast, you mentioned the concept of a UI a 10 times uplift in, in revenue based on you know, coaching and those sorts of things, what are getting your pricing, right? Is it something that with your one on one coaching or group courses?

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah, I mean, it has a massive impact on the business and and are you look, I won’t shy away from the fact to pay for a private coach. It’s not necessarily a cheap exercise, but were very fortunate in it’s the type of exercise that always had has a good return on investment. So it’s not a compliance cost, it’s not a thing that you have to do that you do, then just, you know, put down to Well, that was a, that was an expense in my business, it’s generally always an investment. And, and with the program that we’ve put together in the group environment, we very quickly realized that that getting traction for people when you haven’t necessarily got the one on one support. So you know, in a group, and we just eliminate groups, but you’ve got a group of, say, six to 10 businesses together. So you’re not always getting the personal attention. But it’s really powerful when you can then have the session so that we stagger it over a 10 week period. So we do a session, it’s not just a talk at you session, we actually get you you get your software, we take you through it, you crunch the numbers, you do the exercise, you create the value prop, you build it as you go. And then it’s great, because then you go out, you do a few things in real life with some real clients, you come back, you unpack that you’re learning and iterating over that 10 week period. So over that time, by the time you get out the back of it, you know, I think ask the question, what what return would you expect to get this particular program that we’re running is a $10,000 investment for the business and we suggest that you bring all of your advisors along to the zoom calls for that. So that covers up to two people from the business. Now, if you did not make that back, within three months of commencing your implementation, I would be incredibly surprised. And usually you find a snowball effect. So the first few conversations and the most challenging for you but once you build that confidence, you get on a roll. And we are constantly having our previous participants letting us know oh my gosh, I’ve just you know I had this up lift. I was worried about that. I’ve just done my quarters figures and we’re, you know, 25% ahead on the previous quarter. It is it has a massive impact on the business, not only for how you price your new services and enabling you to afford to deliver a great onboarding experience, but of course, also those services that you’re delivering to your ongoing clients. And you know, that always depends on the business. So if you find that you’ve got 50% of your business paying you less than $500 a year, well, you know, there’s likely to be a lot of those people that don’t need a full advice proposition anymore. But also, I know, there’s other advisors that have actually doubled fees to some clients, because they deepen the conversation and suddenly found that there’s more work that can be done, or even the fact the clients going, Yeah, we’ve been waiting for this to happen, because we know that you’re really cheap. And we’re not going anyway, we love you. We think you’re amazing. Yeah, it’s

 

Fraser Jack 

interesting as in there, how do you find people on one on one coaching versus sort of peer group that pay group mentality? I think, you know, I’m one of those people. For some things, it’s good to have one on one for others, I really get into the idea of a peer group and learning together and coming along and holding each other accountable.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah, yeah, I think the peakers are great for that. And also the ability to hear other advisors stories firsthand. I mean, I have been running Alexa for 14 years, I’ve helped 1000s advisors now over the years to do this. But it’s different when I’m reflecting on somebody else’s story versus that person actually sharing their own story and their emotion and their thought process around it. So where it’s things like specific structure, things like your pricing, or, you know, particularly around the sessions that you’re doing on the goals based and having some practice conversations, that’s incredibly helpful to do it in a group environment. We’ve got some advisors who have actually done both. So they’ve engaged us for private coaching to help with the strategy and the implementation across other elements of the business. And they’ve done the group based pricing program at the same time, because they’ve, they’ve got benefit from both aspects to it, I guess that, you know, pricing can be a very personal thing, and the thought processes that you have to go through to evolve, it can still be quite intimidating or personal. But it’s really helpful to actually know you’re not the only one. Yeah, exactly.

 

Fraser Jack 

Glass Ceiling conversation comes into effect, though, and, and the whole benchmarking thing as well, you know, like, you know, what everyone else in the group doing and, and, and do they have the same limiting beliefs as I have? And if they don’t have them, then maybe I don’t need them? No, there’s a lot to grow from a group. Very good. So you got the group coaching at the personal coaching, tell us about what else you’re doing in 2021?

 

Sue Viskovic 

Well, our we have a digital platform platform called the BB Alliance. And that’s where we have put all of our coaching tools and resources and videos and templates. And we’ve got a huge amount of material. Because we help people on so many different aspects of their business pricing is one thing, but also staff management and corporate governance and a whole range of different things. So there’s huge amounts of material. So that is, actually we’ve opened up that platform to people that aren’t coaching, so people can subscribe to that. So we have brought on a guardian who’s looking after that. So Atlanta, his role is to continue to build that. And very soon, we’ll be releasing the provider member part of that portal as well. So it means, you know, advisors can get in, they can do their analysis of the business. So we’ve got a great online tool that you can analyze your business to get really clear on where you’re at. And then where you’ve identified areas that you want to work on. Being able to be that conduit to great providers in the marketplace, that gives you ideas as well. So that’s a big piece of work that’s coming, we’re actually enhancing our business analysis tool as well, because, as of the end of this financial year, people won’t have any financial years that will have had grandfather investment commission anymore. So it’s been really great to help people identify just the financial ratio component identify at risk income. And so we’re embedding some more updated elements of that analysis piece, which is really good. And also extending it a little bit further with some requests that people have wanted additional services that they can have in there. So that’s really cool. So that’s within the elixir backers, obviously my involvement with lumion has been so exciting. I love what they’re building there. That’s a non executive board role. But also, my Alexa coaches are rolling out the training for people that are going on to start using it. And so that’s been fantastic. And another thing which has been on the cards for a number of years that my beautiful colleague Lana Clark in Brisbane is doing, she’s actually setting up a separate business called the GSD lab. And elixir is involved in the ownership of that but it’s a separate business. Do you know what GSD says

 

Fraser Jack 

yesterday? I’m suspecting it’s getting something done. We’ve already sworn in this so heavily it was too late. It’s not PG anymore. It’s we’ve got the explicit getting

 

Sue Viskovic 

my potty mouth came out. I’m

 

Clayton Daniel 

sorry.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah, it’s getting shit done. So one of the things that we see so often with our coaching clients is they get coaches in to help strategize and figure out where they want to go and how they’re going to get there. So we create the strategy. But often advisors don’t have any staff within the business that have the capacity to implement the projects that they want to do to move the business forward. And sometimes, the projects don’t need somebody full time, they just need somebody with the skills to come in, get it done, build it, implement it in the business and then leave. And so the GSD lab will provide exactly that. So people can outsource power planning with other businesses, they can outsource admin. So client file work, that’s all businesses that are in place already, the GSD lab is the business strategy implementation piece. So you know, they could be doing anything from embedding new operations manual and actually documenting all the all the processes and services to running a client feedback exercise to actually running the counts. Because when we do pricing from a coaching level, we usually create nowadays a quite complex, but a well structured pricing tool that advisors can put their clients through, there’s always a base level of service for typically that one review a year and then different complexities will impact the price. So as you price each client, you have a look at their their needs and their how they use your services. And you create a bespoke price per client. Well, sometimes businesses actually get a GST person in to say, Well, actually, he’s on my client base, you get the data, you even trying to get historical figures of revenue that have come through through company or whatever system they’re using can be challenging. Sometimes that’s an exercise in itself will somebody in who’s knows what they’re doing, get it down, and then they’re off again. So that’s quite excited is

 

Fraser Jack 

exciting, that makes perfect sense. It’s kind of like, instead of just providing a recommendation to a client, and then telling them to go and implement all the products themselves, you’re actually helping with the project managing I could probably say to project managing that to put stuff in place.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Exactly right. And as we know, that change management pace. It’s partly around designing the change management piece, which the coach does. But then it’s also getting that implementation and accountability piece is a is a project and and the skills to run a project and managers are different to the skills to be a financial planner, and to necessarily even run a business or manage staff or any of those other things. So that is a very exciting new little thing.

 

Fraser Jack 

Absolutely not a little over imagine that sounds like quite

 

Sue Viskovic 

nothing not to do.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah, fantastic. So pretty, pretty hectic year ahead by the sound of it.

 

Sue Viskovic 

You know what, yes or no, it is a very productive year ahead. And it is also looking like the thing that I have spoken about for about three or four years, is about to come to fruition. So one of the things I’ve wanted to do, I’ve worked my butt off for many, many years in this business. And like so many of my clients, I don’t just want to be working. And that’s it, I do have four children. So for a long time I want and a husband, I’ve talked about this thing on for 40. So working four days a week, 40 weeks of the year, and it is looking like all I have is going to happen as of about June, July this year. So I have great people in place. I have great systems in place, we’ve now got four consultants around the country that’s going to grow by the end of the year as well. So I can still achieve the vision that I have for Alexa and still keep creating incredible meaningful change in the advice world doesn’t all have to be done by my human working hours

 

Fraser Jack 

for 40 hours. And that’s probably something that a lot of advisors can strive for as well.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yeah, absolutely. And I kind of woke up and went oh my gosh, if I don’t get on with this and make a conscious decision to put things in place to make it happen. My kids will be out of school by the time I want to work 40 weeks a year and so I’ll be having school holidays often they’ll be working so sorry. Yeah, I made that decision to move on it.

 

Fraser Jack 

It’s funny how we can make to this right because you mentioned the advisor with the plummet leaky taps the advisor they don’t know their their cost to serve and business strategist just that can’t find the fifth day off that they needed to

 

Sue Viskovic 

kind of implement their own bloody business strategy. But yeah, so that that’s so when you say a hectic year, not so hectic in the negative sense, but very productive. Well,

 

Fraser Jack 

interesting. Well, so thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Please don’t leave it another three years before we catch up with you again.

 

Sue Viskovic 

I promise I will not. I mean well. You know what the other thing is really good about this is that a lot of people have never even known that I live in Perth. My whole family’s here in Perth because I’m always on planes. I used to be speaking at conferences and all around the countryside. So this is officially this week. It is 12 months since I’ve been on a plane. And I think I’m one of the few people that celebrate that I would love to travel for joy and for holidays again and I’m sure Well, but of course, the the flip side of that too, though, is that I used to get a lot of thinking time and strategic time when I was on those planes and didn’t have Wi Fi. So now it’s conscious strategy to find the time make the time sheduled the time for those things to happen. Fantastic. You’re,

 

Fraser Jack 

you’re a Western Australian resident, and stuck there at the moment. Yeah,

 

Sue Viskovic 

that’s okay. Sounds good.

 

Fraser Jack 

Yeah. Wonderful.

 

Sue Viskovic 

I’m still in touch.

 

Fraser Jack 

Hey, so thanks so much for coming on. We look forward to catching you again shortly. How can people get hold of you quickly? if they if they want to continue the conversation? Well,

 

Sue Viskovic 

LinkedIn is great. It’s a great way to message me, our elixir consulting website is elixir consulting.com.au. If you want to check out GSD that’s GSD lab.com.au. That website is still under construction right now that’s implementing may have jumped the gun on announcing that because technically, the marketing materials not launched but the business is there and ready and the skills are there.

 

Fraser Jack 

Okay, so if you’ve heard about GSD lab, then it’s a secret for now.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Yes. depends on when you’re listening to this by by first of March, you’ll be good to go. Alright, and the websites about that 18 something lovely,

 

Fraser Jack 

thank you so much. So there you have it, another episode of The X Y advisor podcast. And now our favorite part of the week when we get to give people a bit of a shout out for all of the good that they’re doing.

 

Sue Viskovic 

Love it froze up. And today is exactly one of those examples. So shout out to excellent players like Kevin Smith, who jumped on socials this week and shared an awesome good news story. He received a handwritten letter from a client who was expressing their gratitude and thanks for the effort Kevin went to to help her sought out his centerlink situation dramas worse, she

 

Clayton Daniel 

spoke about how

 

Sue Viskovic 

he helped her, reduce the stress, bring some clarity, and just a bit of peace of mind. And for

 

Clayton Daniel 

her to go to the effort to do that.

 

Sue Viskovic 

And send a handwritten letter is a true representation of the value that Kevin was providing to her and just a real great example of the value of advice. So virtual high five,

 

Clayton Daniel 

welcome Kevin legend,

 

Fraser Jack 

virtual high five, two thumbs up, whatever you want to call it. That was really good. Hold on, Kevin, the whole you know why you get into providing advice in the first place and that is, you know, having that, you know, being able to help somebody having them appreciated. So, two thumbs up on virtual high fives. What are you gonna call it if you if you know, Kevin reached out to him and and just say Well done, and good luck. Good luck. Good news story.