Create the framework to increase your success

By Antoinette Tuscano

WHEN IT COMES TO QUALIFYING for Top of the Table, it comes down to systems, goals and mentors, said Paul S. McCready, RFC, CFP. McCready, a 34-year MDRT member from St. Paul, Minnesota, shared these insights at the 2019 MDRT Global Conference.

Start with a vibrant vision of your desired future. That vision will turn into systems, and those systems can lead you to Top of the Table production. Start with writing down your goals.

People frequently avoid writing down a goal simply because they don’t know how to achieve it. But if you already know how to accomplish your goals, then those goals are too small. Write down the really big goals.

Always be looking for your next mentor. I often say, “I’m looking for a person of integrity who makes a million dollars more than I do, so I can learn from them.” And I’ve met most of those people at MDRT.

You don’t rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems. The systems we put in place determine our successes. The system I have in place allows me to be free from work for five months each year. Everything that you want to accomplish, you can accomplish by being deliberate about your systems.

The search for sustainable happiness

By Antoinette Tuscano

VENTURE CAPITALIST NATALY KOGAN thought she had it all when it came to success. Until she burned out and could barely function. This led her on a quest for true happiness. What she found required her to change her thinking and accept the following truths.

1. Emotional health and happiness are not just a bonus you might get by accomplishing enough. When we look for happiness as a result of our achievements, we endlessly chase results. Research shows that happiness isn’t the result of success but an essential input into it.
2. Being happier doesn’t mean being positive all the time. We can’t expect to find joy in every moment — some moments in life are difficult, stressful, even tragic. Instead of pretending they aren’t or faking our way through them, we need to learn to embrace all of our emotions, including the difficult ones.
3. Happiness isn’t something you feel, it’s something you do. Genuine, lasting happiness doesn’t result from anything on the outside. It’s a skill, and as with any skill, you can improve it with practice. You hone your happy skills by regularly practicing gratitude.

Why you need to know your hourly rate

By Antoinette Tuscano

IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE DOLLAR VALUE of your time as a financial advisor, you’re selling yourself short and creating a barrier for reaching the next level in your career. As many top financial advisors will say, “If you spend your time doing work worth $10 an hour, how much can you expect your income to grow?”

“All over the world, we all have one common denominator, and that is 365 days to a year,” said 27-year MDRT member Marcus T. Henderson Sr., RFP, MRFC, of Brentwood, Tennessee. This common denominator “permits us, as mostly commission-based advisors, to calculate what an actual hour of our time is worth.”

When you know the value of your time, Henderson said, you gain information about how and where you should spend your time because you:

• Know when to hire staff
• Understand what cases to walk away from
• Align your professional mindset with other top-paid professionals, such as attorneys, accountants and consultants

“By assessing my time very discerningly, this one act took me from a Qualifying MDRT member to a Top of the Table qualifier, almost overnight,” Henderson said. Finding out his hourly value, “was the missing digit we all seek to unlock the door.”