Practice technology remains a major source of frustration for many firms. Which is why I wanted to share some frameworks from our recent program training session Practice Tech Optimiser to show how we work out what you should stay away from and what you should focus on in terms of optimizing technology.   What's most interesting is how often the same, few challenges pop up time and time again.   Ironically, at a time when so many practices are seeking a solution, the big one is often a choice.   It's interesting to know that there are always options out there and w ..read more

    There are a hundred and one ways you could approach the initial appointment. Ultimately, everyone has a way that works best for them, but this is how I approach it and, to me, it just feels better when it's done this way.   I've also found it results in faster turnaround times, less procrastination when it comes to the decision to get advice, reduced fee sensitivity and the client experience is ramped up to 11.   If you asked met the one principle at the heart of "why" I'd say it's simply...   "When you can articulate the core issues better than the person who has ..read more

    I recently ran a three-week Productivity Challenge with some of our Leveraged Advice Firm members... ....and I wanted to share a six-minute highlight reel of our session from week 1.   Time management can be a really touchy subject, particularly right now because I know that there's nobody still in our industries who has not been working hard.   The last two years, we've had all sorts of competing priorities, so when I start talking about managing time, it's important for me to put it out there upfront that it's not because I'm criticising, or saying you're no ..read more

    The first 90 days when you start working with a client is full of the opportunity to nail your experience on so many levels. It's when we want everything you do to reinforce the value of the decision they've made to work with you and get advice.   I want to share with you a short summary of some of the training within the Leveraged/ Leveraged Online curriculum that's all about enabling your brand new client to go from: "Okay, I'm doing this..." to... "So far, so good. This is what I expected" then onto... "Wow. This is better than I expected" arriving at... "This was a great ..read more

    One of the things I love about business is the fact that in many ways, it's the most complex game in the world.    And if you win at this game, you don't just get a badge or get to battle of the boss at the end.  You get financial freedom.  You get to do the work you love.  You get to work with amazing people and all the other things.  But in order to get there, there's a progression.  There are different phases.     When I sat down to put together this framework I wanted to share to, it was based on the idea that if we were ..read more

     I recently discovered a way to condense some of the live sessions I'm running within the program from their full length running time of over an hour to less than five minutes. With all that's going on, I think it's more important than ever to be able to get high-level insight into a topic quickly and then be able to decide whether it's relevant and useful to what you're working on right now. But then I thought to myself; why not share it more widely? To kick it all off, I want to introduce you to a framework that I use in our business which, whenever we deviate from applyin ..read more

    Gall’s Law is a handy principle to know when it comes to looking for ways to optimise your advice process. The guy who first observed it, John Gall, was actually a pretty prolific author for a pediatrician, and of the seven books he published between 1975 and 2008, three focused on systems. It was in his 1986 effort - Systemantics: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail - he observed the Law to which he gave his name A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works an ..read more

  I grew up in Wales for about four years of my life, and it left a real impression on me. One concept that stuck with me is the idea of the "canary in the mine", and today I wanted to explain it and link it back to a topic that has most definitely been hot in 2021 - systemisation. For those who haven't heard the term before, here's the skinny. Back in the day when Wales was the mining powerhouse of the UK, miners would work deep underground with what is by modern standards pretty basic equipment that put them at risk of all sorts of potential problems. One of those issues was ..read more

  There are a lot of great things about email and... ...there's a lot that isn't great. In truth, though the difference between the two is mostly about how YOU choose to manage it.   A friend once showed me his inbox over some beers one fine Saturday afternoon in The Paddington Inn. I almost spat my beer when I saw the state of it. 10,000 unanswered emails....I had no idea the counter icon went to five figures before that. "Come on, smart ass", he said jokingly. "How do you fix that?" So I deleted every single email in his inbox. Why? There was no way he was ever going to clear ..read more

  I wanted to share a little about what I've learnt about audio file noting and put forward the idea that your choice of software isn't the key decision. So what is? Your "framework" Let me explain. If you know what the Enigma Machine is you may have heard of it because: You know who Alan Turing is, You're a history buff with a penchant for WWII You've seen The Imitation Game.  For those who aren't, Enigma was a machine built by the Germans for sending encrypted communications between troops. The way it worked was the secret to its success.  At i ..read more