Tips to communicate, disrupt yourself and save time

Kueh lapis

I suggest a “kueh lapis” approach to help my clients understand how a comprehensive plan can bring financial security and personal fulfillment. Just like a kueh lapis — a multi-layered steamed cake popular in Southeast Asia — has several colorful layers making up the bite-sized dessert, using a mix of financial instruments, such as government programs, endowments and property income, can create a balanced retirement portfolio. This diversified approach ensures my clients don’t rely on a single income source, and they can navigate uncertain economic conditions with confidence.

—Jerry Jin Chong Yeo, CFP, ChFC, 10-year MDRT member

 

AI mindset

The key to successful AI isn’t the technology; it’s shifting your mindset. Before you waste money on another AI tool, ask yourself these three questions:

1. What specific process am I trying to improve? (Not “How can I use AI?” but “What four-hour task can I reduce to 20 minutes?”)
2. Where do I need to maintain the human touch? (Hint: Client touchpoints where empathy matters)
3. What’s my implementation plan? (Tools without workflows are just expensive subscriptions.)

One immediate action is to identify one repetitive task your team does weekly. Write it down — this is your first AI automation target. Don’t waste time: Stop researching the “best AI tools” until you’ve clearly defined what you’re trying to accomplish. The tool is secondary to the strategy.

—Ford Saeks, CSP, CPAE, 2024 MDRT EDGE speaker

Eye their eyes

Client concerns often become clear during casual conversations, so our role is to guide these discussions and create a comfortable atmosphere to encourage the prospect to open up. The key is to ask questions and pause to match the client’s eye movements. When people are thinking, their eyes tend to wander. Remain silent during these moments. When their eyes return to us, they’re signaling that they have gathered their thoughts, so we can ask the next question. By understanding your clients’ values, you connect and make them more willing to discuss the true meaning of insurance. This allows us to communicate what is important to protect and propose plans that align with their feelings.

—Miho Oki, nine-year MDRT member

10x with less work

Growing 10x does not mean doing more but doing less. It is about removing the things that do not get us to 10x and having more time to get creative and focus on activities that can get us to 10x. My staff helped me remove all the administration that is needed but can be done by someone other than me.

—Gregory Fok, CFP, 19-year MDRT member

Disrupt yourself

As a business leader, you have to invest ahead of the curve. The future of financial advising is going to change because client expectations are changing. It is incumbent upon us to take intelligent risks, embrace what’s next and new, invest in teams and technology, and stay ahead of the competition. The way we actually talk about it in my company is we use this phrase, “We’re going to disrupt ourselves before the marketplace or competition does it for us.” You want to be in a continual state of reinvention.

—Ryan Estis, 2024 MDRT EDGE speaker

 

What do you do?

When asked, “What do you do?” have you ever said, “I’m a financial planner” or “I’m an investment advisor” or something like that? It’s a very closed-ended response, isn’t it? Worse, you are now whatever they perceive a financial planner to be based on their past experience and lost that opportunity to tell your story. Here’s a different way to think about this and to respond: Think of the question as: What do you do for people like me? Because that’s what they care about. They may be polite and ask you what you do, but really, they want to know what you do for people like them.

My responses are: I focus on helping medical professionals eliminate their debt. I help dentists secure their retirement. What I’m really doing is this: I help a who — who I think you are — do a what — what I think you care about.

—Adrian George, CFP, TEP, 15-year MDRT member

 

Start a good habit

Overcoming misconceptions is a significant challenge, particularly among younger clients who may believe financial planning is exclusively for the wealthy. I address this by sharing success stories of clients who started small and maintained consistency. Many young people think, I don’t earn enough to start planning, but I always tell them, “It’s not the amount — it’s the habit. Start small and stay consistent.”

—Rema Rahayu Binti Ismail, eight-year MDRT member

 

Drive time

I get driven to client meetings more than 50 miles away from our office base. I work in the car there and back. This has created an additional eight hours a week of productivity, creating a full working day, which can be dedicated to working either on the business or in the business doing more profitable tasks.

—Helen Jayne West, APFS, 26-year MDRT member

Promise keeper

Life insurance represents love. It is the sincerest love letter we can write for our family. It represents the hopes and dreams of parents for their kids to pursue their dreams, even when they’re not around anymore. Life insurance puts money on the table in the most unpredictable moment and takes care of the widower’s dignity and pride. It keeps a promise from a husband to take care of his wife for the rest of her life. That’s how beautiful this product that we share every day is.

—Joy Agatha, CIEM, nine-year MDRT member

Demonstrating a strong ethical compass

Ethics are the bedrock of both volunteering and the insurance profession. Being known for your integrity and ethical behavior in volunteer work speaks volumes about your character. Consider the respect garnered in your role from handling sensitive information and resources with the utmost responsibility. Your ethical conduct becomes a beacon of trust, and trust transforms a prospect into a lifelong client and a client into a fervent advocate. Unwavering adherence to ethics also establishes you as a beacon of integrity in the insurance profession.

—Neha Prasad Doiphode, MBA, 13-year MDRT member

Direct and sincere request

When clients have a good experience with our services, don’t forget to ask them for referrals. Generally, satisfied clients are more than happy to help, but asking has to be done properly. I use direct and sincere words, such as, “If there is a family member or someone you care about who you think could benefit from the same advice you have received, would you mind recommending me to them?” This method sounds sincere, does not create pressure, and also gives us the opportunity to start talking to new people who may become our clients and our centers of influence in the future.

—Thakrit Sangiembumrungkul, seven-year MDRT member

Clients’ personalities

Approaching a client at their level is the best way to communicate. Someone who is analytical is going to want numbers, figures and charts, whereas someone who is feeling-oriented will want to avoid all of that. We like to drill down on where we think someone is going to fall on that spectrum, so we’ll use things such as their employment: an engineer versus a kindergarten teacher, a business owner versus someone who’s in some type of clerical or support role. We’ll test the waters by asking: How do you feel about retirement? Their answer is going to tell us what type of personality they are. If it’s a quick, to-the-point answer, then they’re probably a quick-and-to-the-point person. If they start telling us all about what their retirement looks like and what beach they’re going to be on, how the ocean is going to feel across their face, we know that they’re a much more touchy-feely type of person, and we can tailor our advice and our recommendations toward that.

—Brandon J. Wellman, CFP, RICP, seven-year MDRT member