Good morning. These are photos from some of the best runs I've ever had. Runs, walks across mountains, workouts, and the best part of all of this is these people either are or are going to be clients of mine. That's the kind of relationship I that I share with my clients. And it's not by accident. It's actually a careful design around a concept called “Right-Fit Clients.” In fact, it's the very concept as a result of which I've shifted to taking on just six clients a year instead of the 80 I used to before. It's also the reason that I've been able to cut down working hours from 60 hours a week with a team of 40 advisors, to under 30 hours a week with a team of just three admin assistants, and have since surpassed my financial goals.

Beyond work, identifying this Right-Fit Client has helped me to focus on my personal goals and achieve feats that a few years ago I thought impossible. Let me tell you a little bit about my Right-Fit Clients. I have them defined down to every aspect of their lives. These aspects are either qualifiers or disqualifiers for me to deal with them. My Right-Fit Clients fit broadly under two categories: established entrepreneurs with the following mindset, and the age groups of 36 to 57, who are either from the Indian subcontinent or the Arab world; and high-income executives whose collective income is upwards of half a million US dollars. Most of the same criteria apply to them as well.

Both these groups have a very distinct set of problems that my team and I address and solve. The biggest qualifier for me, though, is: Can I have a meal with this client in my house? If the answer to that is no, then we're not doing business. Selling these criteria, for me, wasn't a short exercise. It also meant turning down revenue, just because the client didn't fit the bill. And I arrived at this Right-Fit Clients concept by studying the clients that I actually enjoyed working with. Something that I normally say is. “It's not just business. It's personal.” As a life insurance adviser, it's very important for me that I show up with a check at the worst time possible to make my client's beneficiaries lives better.

I can't begin to tell you how important it is at that point in time that, when I'm at their doorstep, I'm as good as family to them. I have my clients over for brunches at home. We celebrate Christmas together. I work out and run marathons with them. And I'm also available if they need to discuss a financial matter or a business decision. So, when I say I take on six clients a year, these are six all-consuming client relationships that go well beyond the 9-to-5 appointments or schedules.

What you see over here is a template that I use to identify my Right-Fit Clients. For the one or more distinct categories that you might identify with, define in as much detail the possible, are dangers, opportunities, and strengths that your clients might face.

I'd like to define this Right-Fit Client as an individual or organization or families who are the perfect match for your business. These are clients around whom you don't have to deliver an unnatural pitch to. You can just tell them what you do really well, what you're best at, and they will do business with you just for that. Beyond this, as a life insurance agent, I think a few more factors are worth considering. You should typically like, trust, and respect your clients. Without this, the transparency to form a great client/advisor relationship is nonexistent, and the transaction just becomes that, a transaction. You should have similar beliefs and philosophies around money, business, investment, and protecting your key assets and your business. All of these things are tools that I use to identify my Right-Fit Client. I think all in all, a Right-Fit Client relationship is a lot like any other relationship. It definitely is not effortless, but everything you put into it feels worthwhile.

There isn't one method that I use to identify my Right-Fit Clients. I think it has to do more with the set of fundamental questions that you need to ask and answer for yourself. Based on these questions, you formally structure a definition of what your Right-Fit Clients look like. While the process goes on, you'll probably find yourself turning down some of the clients that you would have taken on earlier, and you probably also find yourself more drawn to platforms, networks, group activities, where you find more of your Right-Fit Clients. Identifying my Right-Fit Clients is something that has changed my life entirely. I'm doing something meaningful for people that I genuinely care about.

If any of you know me from before, the impact it has had on my life has been tremendous. Over the last seven years, I've shed 60 kilos, or 132 pounds. I've run two ultra marathons across the Sahara Desert, and I'm currently training for my first triathlon. Thank you. I do this by taking 196 free days every year. This is time just for me and my family. Those of you who are curious about this, I'll be talking about that entire lifestyle change in my focus session later this afternoon. All that freedom has been possible because of implementing the Right-Fit Clients criteria in place and working only exclusively with people who fit that definition perfectly. Thank you so much.