“I don't have enough time.” “I don't have enough talent.” “It's so tiring.” I keep hearing this over and over again, and I used to say it too, and I think to myself, why don't I reverse that and say I do have enough time. I do have enough money.

Q: What is an abundance mindset, and how has adopting it changed the way you approach your business?

Since young, I was led to believe by schools, by society, that we don't have enough. There's always a shortage of resources, of time, of money in our bank, and therefore people become very competitive.

After I became an advisor, I realized that doesn't work at all, because if we constantly think we don't have enough, then we tend to undercut each other or talk bad about each other, and the sales environment becomes very toxic. I decided, no, I want to change the way we do things. I decided to embrace the abundance mindset, which is: We have more than enough. It's not literally having more than enough in the bank, but once I believe there's more than enough, it changes my behavior, my energy, even my smile, and the way I spend time with my clients.

And people can feel it, and once they feel that this guy is different. He's more generous with his time, with his money, with his advice, then that is how abundance spreads across to all my clients and to even other advisors.

One specific example is organizing community-based events. For example, I love to organize movie events.

My degree is actually in film and television, so I always love watching movies, critiquing, and writing reviews. I thought, why don’t I make it part of my financial advisory business as well? So, I will go and book cinemas. I look through the whole year, including all the blockbusters that I personally like to watch and think my clients can bring their family along — very wholesome kind of films. And then I see, wow, they really enjoy themselves. A lot of my clients bring their siblings, their spouse, their neighbors, their colleagues.

But something I don't like to do is I don't like to make it transactional. That means you don't need to be my client before coming. You can come first, and even after watching the movie, you don't become my client. it's fine. Because it's very strange, in this industry, I’ve worked out the math. Actually, out of the whole cinema of 100 people, only two need to be my clients, and that already more than covers the cost of the entire movie. I don't need to feel very selfish or very anxious about things.

Q: What are some ways you apply this mindset in your daily practice?

In my career as a financial advisor, I meet five to six people a day. Sometimes I go on stage and talk to 20 people at one go, and sometimes I run a zoom webinar to talk to again to 20-30 people. In all these interactions, I realized that my friends, my clients, they really, really like the fact that I walk and talk the abundance mindset.

Because just like my own childhood, just like my own corporate life, they also face all these scarcities, bell curve, competition, and they are very tired of it. So, whenever they hear me, either one on one or in a group, they feel like it's a breath of fresh air. And it’s the kind of life that they want to embrace.

I remember there's one particular client, he was actually doing very well as an IT manager, earning five digits per month, but then he lost his job, and obviously it's very natural for someone with mouths to feed to feel anxious. But because we have already been interacting for a few months, he asked me again, “Hey, how do I apply abundance mindset in my situation now?” So, we sat down, and it's not just about financial tools, because in MDRT, we talked about the Whole Person. So, I talked to him about neurolinguistics programming, how he can reprogram his belief system, how he can even change the way he scripts himself when he talks to his family with prospective hires.

And then that, of course, is not overnight success, but over the next few months, I could see right in front of me, he changed his thinking, he changed his behavior, he changed the way he spoke. So instead of feeling anxious, he started feeling more confident, more peaceful, and that kind of energy attracts, he, in the end, decided not to look for a job anymore, and he became a coach. That's why I felt very, very proud of him, and such a 180-degree change from IT to coaching, which is a very people-oriented thing.

This is one of many, many examples. I have so many clients in their 40s, 50s, who changed their career, and instead of feeling anxious and depressed that, oh, they lost their job, now they feel abundant and fulfilled and peaceful that they now can live life on their own terms, being free to pursue their own passion and still having the financial tools to provide for their family.

From scarcity to abundance: The mindset that transformed this advisor’s career and life

Transcript

Author(s):

Eugene Seah