Jordan shares a comprehensive framework for creating a business manifesto – an essential strategic tool for financial advisors. Learn how this foundational document can become the lens through which you make critical business decisions, differentiate your practice, and create meaningful client connections.

Transcript

Jordan Haines:

Hello friends, and welcome to Elementality, A show where financial advisors explore modern and relevant client journeys. I’m Jordan Haines,

And today I want to share with you a model that I’ve been developing for the last few weeks, but first. I apologize for missing you guys for the last few weeks. I know we haven’t recorded anything. I could list all sorts of excuses, but really I’m just happy to be back and share with you something that I’ve been building for a while now.

A few weeks ago I was talking to a financial advisor who had some questions about some things that we have talked about on the show, specifically around identifying and understanding their client’s job to be done, finding client relevance, all the things you’ve heard me, um, harp on for some time and ask, how do I do that?

What do I create? Once I’ve figured out what my clients have done, I was looking around the room and to my right, there’s a, a bookshelf. It’s got lots of different nerdy books on it and on the, on the middle of that shelf, I have all of my financial planning books from over the years. Um, I have my, uh, cure, uh, what, what was the, it was back in the day.

It’s not here anymore, but, um. I remember Cure MP three. Cure. Yeah, it’s just Cure. They created a lot of my CFP study materials. I had all sorts of other things, investment books, and on the very front, leaning up against the rest of the books was real financial planning, A manifesto for Real financial Professionals by Carl Richards.

Many of you have probably seen this pamphlet or have read it yourself or have it in your possession. Um. And I, I’ve talked to Carl in the past about having a manifesto and I’ve read a book by Blair Ends. You guys have heard me talk about Blair Ends. One of his first books was, um, the Win Without Pitching Manifesto, and he talks about his perspective and his opinions about certain things when it comes to marketing a services firm.

And I was looking at this and I, and I responded to that advisor. You know, one of the things that you need to create is a business or a firm manifesto, and that advisor asked me what should be in that manifesto. And I spent the last few weeks thinking through what would be in a manifesto, something that I could use as a firm, that would be the lens by which I make strategic decisions, or how I create things for my clients.

And this is it. There are five elements of a business manifesto that I would think would be incredibly valuable. For firms listening to this, let’s talk about each, each one of these. The first is your mission statement. In other, in other words, why are you in business? What, what are you trying to accomplish in the world?

This is gonna be very, very big picture. Um, this is actually talked about in a book by, uh, in a couple books actually by Patrick Lencioni. I think it’s one of the first book he introduced us was The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. He wrote that. Over a decade ago. And then the other one is, uh, kind of a consolidation of his other books called The Advantage.

And in there he talks about one of the first questions you need to be able to answer as a leader is why are you in business? And it’s going to be rather abstract. So, for example, example, let me tell you why I’m in business. I have this actually pulled up right here. Um, my personal mission or my craft is to help organizations create the conditions for unrealized flourishing.

Notice how abstract that is. Notice how it is somewhat specific, but still broad enough for me to explore different avenues to do things. I find this really helpful for, uh, firms or organizations that are building that out. Another book that I think is really helpful here is to start with why. Um, by Simon Sinek.

Great book to help you understand that. So that’s the very first thing in your business manifesto, why are you in business? The second is your target market. Who are you in business for? And I, and I, I don’t know if we’ve talked about this on the program in the past, but I think there’s two parts to this.

There’s the actual quantitative demographics, right? So if you were to go into. Go to, uh, meta Instagram, LinkedIn and say, Hey, I want you to filter out and find these people. They’re the things that are easily identifiable. They’re surface level, you can find them. And that’s generally where most financial advisors think about.

They think about career demographics. You know, dentist advisors a good example of this. We work with dentists. That’s an observable characteristics. That’s something that they can land on. Um, but I think that’s one part of it. The other part of that is psychographic information, so what I call mindset demographics.

What are the things that you believe. About your clients and a firm that I was working with recently, um, mentioned that their psychographics was, they wanted em, um, empire builders. Right. They wanted people that were, were really big picture, big minded. They wanted to achieve grandiose things. And I think that’s really helpful to get really clear who are you in business for?

So to review, the first is your firm’s mission. The second is your target market, and the third is the client demand. And this, honestly, just go back and listen to everything we’ve talked about as it relates to jobs to be done. In other words, a question you can ask here is, what progress are our clients trying to make?

And you can go through that whole Jobs to be done framework. Again, a book I recommend here is the Jobs to Be Done Playbook by Um. Jim Ach goes through very practical ways to identify your client’s job you’ve done through interviews, things of that nature. We don’t have to hash that out. Please go listen to the last few episodes.

That’ll be really helpful. But essentially, you want to understand what your, what progress your clients are trying to make in their life. That’s client demand. The fourth is your firm’s perspective, and I’m pulling this from. Uh, Blair Ends, you’ve heard that name before from his book titled The Four Conversations, and in that book he talks about identifying your ideology or perspective in that new clients will come to you and you will likely win on ideology rather than you will on service.

People will come to you because they believe the same things you believe. So question I find helpful to help prompt this or understand this a little bit more is what do we believe about the progress our clients are trying to make? And so having gone through that job to be done process, maybe creating a job map or a process that your clients typically follow to get their job done, you can start to identify what your opinion is about that process, and that’s going to be the thing that really truly differentiates you from others.

’cause your ideology, your perspective about that job to be done is gonna be very different from other financial advisors in the marketplace. The final thing, and this again, is from the four conversations, is what is your discipline for market? Essentially, how might you use or deploy your craft to help your clients make progress?

High level. High level. It doesn’t necessarily need to be your detailed model by which you serve your clients in the first 90 days, and then ongoing. This is just how are you going to deploy your craft to help your clients make progress as simple as possible? Again, we’re not dealing in. The solution space.

We’re dealing more in the problem space. That I believe creates a really solid foundation for a business manifesto that then becomes the lens by which you make many decisions in your business, in your firm when it comes to deciding what your best client acquisition strategy is going to be, or if you’re gonna adopt a new technology, or if you’re going to go after a new client.

This really helps you get clear. So let me just review those really quickly. To summarize, your business manifesto should include five things. Here are the five things. The first is your firm’s mission. Essentially, why are you in business? The second is your target market. Who are you in business for The third, your client demand, or what progress are your clients trying to make?

Your fourth is your firm’s perspective. What do you believe about the progress your clients are trying to make, and your fifth and final is your discipline for market, or how might you use your craft to help your clients make progress? Notice that this is not my original take on things. I’m pulling these.

From different books that you’re welcome to go look up fantastic books that consolidate this into one clear manifesto. And if you could imagine having a pamphlet, much like Carl Richards does as it relates to real financial planning sitting on your desk or in your office that you could hand to other people that you hire in the future or people that are interested in what your business stands for and what your firm does, this will be the foundation for so many different things in your business.

So I’d love to hear what you think. Please feel free to, um, reach out to me on LinkedIn, Jordan Haynes, H-A-I-N-E-S, or you can email us again at podcast@getelements.com. But with that, my friends, we’ll see you next week. Okay.