Dance your way to the top. Change your tune. What is your tune? Same as it was two years ago? Five years ago? Ten years ago? Previous to my first MDRT meeting, I shunned business groups, coaching gurus, but MDRT inspired me so much that I joined a study group. I changed my tune. With their help and motivation, I achieved Court of the Table status within 12 months and thereafter Top of the Table.

I changed my tune. Why? The study group challenged me. It shared ideas, promoted confidence and broke down the old-fashioned ways in which I had been working. I changed my tune. How? We changed the concept with the client eight to 10 times a year. Christmas cards designed by my children have created dialogue in the New Year. We changed the way we presented to the customer — not PowerPoints, but flip charts and crayons for engagement. We upgraded our service — hotcakes, champagne, black and white videos to follow up meetings. We upgraded our attitude. The whole team jumped on board. We upgraded our look — waistcoats, music, refurbished offices. We changed our targets — no more incremental targets of 5 percent a year, but seismic targets of 27 percent a year.

We got a new tune, giving us 90 percent growth in four years. We changed the mindset toward premium. I copied Brian Heckert’s phrase about adding a zero for revenue purposes.

The study group gave me the confidence to change my tune. We have to travel all over the U.K. to meet up. We run independent businesses. If we listen and invite a guest speaker, we invite industry legends such as Tony Gordon. We challenge each other and push the boundaries on traditional ways of thinking and working. The only way to dance your way to the top for success is to change the tune you listen to. Find or create a study group of your own with forward-thinking, like-minded MDRT members.

Flashes of inspiration to let me know I was on the right track came in the shape of Guy Kawasaki of Apple, showing a picture of Richard Branson preparing to polish Guy’s shoes to get him to change airlines to Virgin. Richard Branson put his ego to one side, changed his tune and gained more than just a new customer.

Has this journey been easy? No. Has it been worthwhile and fun? Absolutely. In every country, there are thousands of financial advisors, and we need to be memorable to our clients.

What’s your tune? How will you dance to the top? How will you remember me? I may have danced my way with a different tune to a better practice and increased a more satisfied client base, but the one thing that the Good Fellow study group, who are an amazing set of people, has not been able to teach me though, or anyone else, is actually how to dance. But I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Andrew William Maher is a four-year MDRT member with one Court of the Table and two Top of the Table qualifications. Maher moved to financial services after finishing a career in which he combined playing professional basketball with teaching children in secondary school. This June marks the 25th anniversary of Maher’s financial services company, Maher Brownsword Ltd.