What were the biggest challenges preventing you from moving from Court of the Table to Top of the Table?

Seeing enough high-net-worth clients.

What are the most significant changes you made to overcome those difficulties, and how could you tell that the changes were working? What should others know about how to follow your example?

We do dinner workshops to meet new prospects, and one of the best things we did was add an expert estate planning attorney to speak at our workshop. They discuss strategies to help keep the assets you leave to your children protected from divorces, lawsuits and creditor claims. They also discuss keeping your assets in your family bloodline. These are important goals of high-net-worth clients, and that has made a huge difference in our practice, as many high-net-worth clients come to our workshops to listen to the attorney.

What roadblocks did you encounter during this process? What else had to be adjusted that you didn’t expect?

You have to find the right attorney to work with, which is sometimes challenging. Generally, attorneys at big firms might not be a good fit; it’s better to find a firm with one or two estate planning attorneys who are usually more flexible to work with your clients on your terms as part of your team of planning specialists. The attorneys we work with are able to give our clients a discount on their estate plans, as we are able to save the attorney a lot of time, so it makes it easier for the client to choose our team approach.

How did you utilize MDRT to help move to the next level?

I went to my first MDRT meeting about four years ago, and it was great! I met someone there who gave me just the right advice I needed at just the right time that helped propel our business to the next level. My dad, who’s a Life MDRT member and a Top of the Table member, always meets great people at these types of events and learns great ideas, especially learning next-level ideas that might not be well known at the time.

How long did it take between when you first became a member and when you first reached Top of the Table?

I qualified for Court of the Table in my first year of MDRT membership and Top of the Table for all five years after that.

How else have you grown and changed to get to where you are now, and how do you track these changes to measure your performance? What specifically would you advise to other members looking to make the same progress?

One of the greatest things I’ve implemented at our firm is “The 12-Week Year,” which is excellent for financial advisors who want to take their business to the next level. As outlined in “The 12-Week Year,” the problem with a company that has annual goals is that if you don't hit the pace in the first quarter, then you always can tell yourself that you have the second quarter to catch up, and so on until the 4th quarter where the whole team picks up the pace to try to frantically meet your annual goals. “The 12-Week Year” turns each quarter into its own year, keeping the 4th quarter pressure up all the time. It really has the whole team focused on achieving the company's goals because each person knows what their personalized bonus will be should the company hit their sales targets this quarter. Whether you're a secretary or a manager, having that 12-week goal in front of you really aligns the corporation to achieve great goals together. Since implementing these strategies in January 2019, we more than doubled our previous business volume, thankfully! Besides the quarterly sales goals, you can also implement other short-term goals the company wants to achieve. You can even have employees write down their personal 12-week goals so everyone can support each other to achieve those personal and corporate goals at the same time. Having these 12-week year goals has definitely improved our company culture and employee happiness at my office.

How have you engaged with MDRT during your membership?

MDRT Annual Meetings, Zoom calls, etc.

How can MDRT help support members once they reach Top of the Table?

Keep bringing great ideas to us like you do!