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This is The Perfect RIA, in case you didn’t know. Bringing you all the strategies to help your business grow. Are you happy? Are you satisfied? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat? Sit back and listen in while you feel the beat. Another myth bites the dust…

Matthew Jarvis: Welcome to another episode of The Perfect RIA Podcast. I’m your cohost, Matthew Jarvis, and with me as always the man, the myth, the legend, Micah Shilanski. Micah. How are you, my friend?

Micah Shilanski: Jarvis, I am doing excellent. Excellent to be back here today. As our listeners may not know, we took a little bit of a break from podcasts, but we had prerecorded some, so it’s been a little while since, Jarvis, we’ve gotten together because we both had surge. It’s been an amazing time and it feels great to jump back on these pods, bud.

Matthew Jarvis: Yeah, it really has been, I mean, we both did weeks of surge. Micah, you’ve already hit your quota or not quota, it’s the wrong words, your goal for this year for new clients onboarding. So, here we are recording this at the end of April and already crushing it there, really been an amazing year. We both learned a lot of great things in surge that we’ll talk about in future episodes, but boy, great year so far.

Micah Shilanski: Yeah, outstanding, right, and what a benefit is surge because you get to go into it super excited. You got to help a tremendous amount of people in surge with everything set up in your team, et cetera. And then you get to go into surge and which is great. Now, let’s go ahead and pivot to the next thing to make us better, to make our team better so that we can help our clients become better.

Matthew Jarvis: I will say the one mixed blessing of surge that, Micah, you and I were texting about this during surge, which by the way, highlights the importance of having a mastermind, that’s when you discover where your systems need to be improved.

Micah Shilanski: Oh yes.

Matthew Jarvis: We’re really careful with the team not to say, “Hey, this system broke,” because that gets to a negative mindset. We look and we say, “Hey, this system did not deliver the results I intended. How do we improve this system?” But it’s painful. It’s painful to see your systems break especially when you think you’ve got them dialed in.

Micah Shilanski: It is. So, Jarvis, you’re not supposed to say, “Why did you screw this up?” That’s not what you’re supposed to say? No, no, of course not.

Matthew Jarvis: Those are my ticks from Micah, right, I vent. I’m like, “You won’t believe what happened.”

Micah Shilanski: It is stuff that happens in all of our offices, regardless how perfect we are because it’s a process. And that’s one of the things we got to make sure what we’re doing is following a process of success. In fact, we’re thinking about rolling out some extreme accountability with our team about putting some extreme accountability in when we break the process. So, whether an advisor breaks it or a team member breaks it, right, what’s that accountability because that’s when 90% of your issues will come from is when you do not follow your success process.

Matthew Jarvis: Yeah, and Micah, on the comment of success process, we get a question from advisors. In fact, it’s a question that you and I asked ourselves many years ago, more years than I want to admit, but many years ago, which is sort of like, “Why am I not having the success that I want?” And you can kind of word this one of two ways, right? What will keep me from failing, which is sort of eliminating mindset, and what can get me to success? Kind of two sides of the same coin.

Micah Shilanski: You know, when we started off with the title of this, what is the one thing advisors can do to make sure they’re not a failure, and really, it’s follow a success process that you’re going to set up. But inside of that, we’ve kind of broken it down a little bit, Jarvis, producing different success rules, and we came out with a foundation of four rules of success you have to follow if you want to be a rockstar. If you want to be highly successful, if you want to help a tremendous amount of people in order to grow, you have to follow these four rules, and if you don’t, some catastrophic things can happen.

Matthew Jarvis: That’s right. And, of course, Micah and I define success in financial services as delivering massive value. Now, we have some ways to measure the massive value, right? The number of clients you serve, your EBOC, all of these different ways to measure it. But we define success as delivering massive value. And Micah, as you pointed out, we’ve come up with four rules. I don’t even want to say we’ve come up with. They’re sort of rules that we’ve discovered over time as we look at practice after practice.

Micah Shilanski: That’s a good point.

Matthew Jarvis: Jocko, our leadership idol, Jocko, he talks about this. He say “The rules of war are always the same. All great leaders follow these same rules, even if they didn’t learn them from each other.” It’s like the laws of physics if you will.

Micah Shilanski: Yeah, so let’s break those down, and just like everything else, it’s not just about knowing what it is. It’s about implementing them at your level, then in your team’s level, and really empowering everyone to follow the rules of success. And I kind of refine this a little bit, like when I’m talking to clients. Sometimes when you’re talking to clients, clients know the concepts they’re supposed to do. They’re just not doing them. And so, sometimes it’s just about shining light in that area. It’s just like bringing a little bit more attention to it, then all of a sudden, you can auto-correct and you can become highly successful because you already knew it. You were so close to it. It just wasn’t top-of- mind awareness. But now when we bring light to this, now it’s top-of-mind awareness. And if you can keep it at top-of-mind awareness, now you’re constantly producing that A game which you need to do to DMV, deliver massive value.

Matthew Jarvis: I love it. I love it. So, as you listen to these four rules, I would just strongly encourage you to not just nod and say, “Well, that’s interesting, that’s interesting,” but really look at each one and say, “How can I improve my practice, improve my entire life by following these rules?” Micah, why don’t you go ahead and kick us off with the first, and I would easily argue the most important of the four rules.

Micah Shilanski: That is giving us a five-star review. Oh, wait, that’s the other one. I’m sorry.

Matthew Jarvis: That’s rule six, yeah.

Micah Shilanski: No. We know a lot of people listen to this on the go while you’re working out, while you’re doing other things, while you’re mowing the lawn. So, when you’re doing this, if you’re listening to these rules and you don’t write them down, email us, lifestyle@theperfectra.com, and just say, “Hey, Episode 112,” and we will send you the list of the rules to make sure you have them.

Micah Shilanski: Okay. Diving into the first one, and my dad taught me this at a very young age. Rule number one, do what you said you were going to do. Now, this is so, so important. It seems so simple. Do what you said you were going to do because what does this do? This shows integrity, right? Are you going to be able to do the things that you said you’re going to do? This is going to show work ethic. Are you going to commit to these things? This is going to show communication ability with a client. There’s so many things that you’re in a foundation about this, about doing the things that you said you’re going to do, especially in a society today where a lot of people don’t do that, and a lot of people won’t be clear in things, and you can set yourself apart by simply doing what you said you were going to do.

Micah Shilanski: It’s as simple, Jarvis, as returning a client call. Says, “You know what? I’m going to call you tomorrow at 10:30.” Does the client’s phone ring at 10:31, 10:35, or 10:30 on the money? And it’s on the money. That’s when the phone rings. And clients, we’ve talked about this before, they will joke with me consistently about how they could set their watch by my phone calls because it will be on the money when we call them. And these are things that are doing what you said you’re going to do to… This could be important as distributions. This could be important as planning, as tax calculations, and as simple as returning a phone call.

Matthew Jarvis: Boy, this is critical. Micah, we’ll have to do a whole series of podcasts just on this one rule. I want to cover kind of one other side of this rule, which is to make sure that you actually say what it is that you’re going to do. Some of this is dishwasher rule, but let’s use a really great example. You meet with a client. You say, “Mr. and Mrs. Client, I will get back to you with that tax projection.” And you forget to say by when you will do that. So, the client is left, in their mind, deciding that when. So, in their mind, it might be this afternoon. It might be next week. It might be next month. Odds are, it’s not going to align with the when that you had in your mind.

Matthew Jarvis: So, when Micah and I meet with clients, and as a reminder for our new listener, Micah and I each have our own books of business, our own practices, our own companies. I meet with a client. I am writing down in front of them, Mr. and Mrs. Client, I will send you this tax rejection by next Thursday. Is that okay with you? And 99 times out of a hundred, they say, “Great, Matthew, I’ll look for that next Thursday.” Or they might say, “You know what, actually, I really need that by Tuesday because of XYZ.” No problem. I just dodged a bullet because if I didn’t get it to them on Tuesday, they now have a problem. So, it’s doing what you said you were going to do but also saying what it is that you’re going to do. Manage that expectation.

Micah Shilanski: Now, let’s apply this to your team as well. Right? Because if your client is calling your office and for whatever reason, the team member’s not available, they got to call back. He says, “Well, I’ll call you back later. I’ll have Sierra call you back later.” Right? Whatever that conversation is going to be. Great. When’s later? Right? And we all know that’s a so big of a difference. Are they retired? Are they not retired? Right? Finding these things, I’ll have X person call you at X time, making sure they’re available, making sure we have time to get things done in order to be productive for that phone call as well.

Matthew Jarvis: Yeah, boy, as you mentioned, that so many systems that go into that, and so often advisors set their team up for failure. Hey, call in. We’ll give you a call about this, and then I forget to tell Colleen. Now, Colleen’s the one that’s under the bus because the client says, “Hey, Colleen never called me. You said she was going to. What the heck?” And that could have been my failing. So, yes, we look at every system. Will this system let us do what we said we were going to do?

Micah Shilanski: Now, Jarvis, I want to talk about this, an asset transfers a little bit too, just to dive a little bit more in-depth. So Charnell, the head of our operations teams does most of our TSP transfers, et cetera. And now with the TSP system, we have to do it with the client. The client has to log on to do it to print off forms to send them in, but whatever. So, one of the things that they’ll do is when I’m talking with a client and we’re going to do a transfer, I say, “Look, I’ll get in trouble if I book something on Charnell’s calendar because she may have something else to do. So, I’m going to have her call you by X date and time to set an appointment to do the transfer.”

Micah Shilanski: So, when you say this, do what you said you’re going to do, I don’t have to jump to the end thing. Right? I don’t have to say, “Hey Charnell’s going to wrap everything up in your transfer by next Tuesday.” I’m going to say, “Hey, by next Tuesday at three o’clock, she’s going to call you, and you’re going to schedule a time with her to take the next step.” That is still doing what you said you’re going to do.

Matthew Jarvis: Oh, totally. Well, it speaks to the point, Micah, we can do a whole podcast on this. It speaks to only saying things that you can control. So, on this TSP transfer, if you say the transfer is going to be done in two weeks, but then OPM loses the paperwork, now you have not done what you said you were going to do. So, be very careful to only say those things that you can do. And Micah, like you said, we live in a world where everyone over promises and under-delivers. If you just call people when you said you were going to call them, you stand head and shoulders above everyone else.

Micah Shilanski: Yeah. And on that note, I always hate it when people say, “Well, I don’t want to over promise and under-deliver.” Right? From a salesman’s perspective, I cannot stand that. Just do what you said you’re going to do. All right. So, Jarvis, on that note, before we go off on a whole other tangent, what’s the second rule that you have to do?

Matthew Jarvis: Rule number two in my view, and I put a lot of thought into how to articulate this, but ultimately it comes down to be intentional. Be intentional. So much of our life is just by default. It sort of just happens because it happens. Let me just use an example of email. This is something we harp on every day or not every day but on a regular basis. How often are you checking your emails? And is that frequency because you thought to yourself, “Based on optimal efficiency and delivering massive value to clients, here’s when I need to check it,” or are you just going for that dopamine high in your brain of, “Ooh, I wonder what it came into my email?” when the alert popped up?

Micah Shilanski: Yeah, exactly right. So, we have to be intentional with things. Now, also with being intentional, I like to use this in not gaming things. So, we should be measuring what matters. We’ve already had many podcasts we talked about those. But what are the goals that you have? What are those OKRs that you want to make sure that you’re achieving objective key results and how are you measuring those things?

Micah Shilanski: And this is also where it says be intentional. So, don’t play games with yourself that inhibit your success, i.e. playing office. How often do you think you’re working, right, and I’m using big air quotes right here, working in the office, and all you’re doing is messing around and you’re not actually being productive with your time? That’s not being intentional. So, being intentional to what are your key areas of success that you want to go for? Right? I want to spend time with my family. I want to deliver massive value to our clients. I want be able to have a profitable firm. Those are the main things that I want to do. Therefore, when I’m in the office, I am being intentional about achieving those three big results. And if I’m playing office, then I’m not delivering massive value to clients, I’m not running a profitable firm, and I’m avoiding spending time with my family. That’s what that one is.

Micah Shilanski: So, I’m being very intentional about this of saying, “Great, what do I need to do while I’m working to be hyper-effective so I can pivot to the things that are most important in my life to me?”

Matthew Jarvis: Yep. And that be intentional applies to every single thing. It applies to what kind of paper is in your office? What speed internet do you have? What time do you get up in the morning? When do you schedule your meetings? When do you get your exercise in? What do you eat? Every single thing and high performers across every field, the higher their performance, the higher their intentionality.

Matthew Jarvis: Steve Jobs famously wore those $2,000 turtlenecks sweaters every single day because he never wanted to think about what am I going to wear. He says, “I don’t want to waste my brain power trying to decide what to wear in the morning. Just give me the same turtleneck sweater.” A lot of high-performers eat the exact same breakfast every single morning because they say, “I want to be intentional about this. I don’t want to waste my brain power thinking about it.” So, yeah. Be intentional in every single thing. Always be asking, “Why am I doing it this way? And is this in fact the intention that I want to deliver on?”

Micah Shilanski: And that be intentional also kind of morphs a little bit into everything counts. Right?

Matthew Jarvis: Oh yes.

Micah Shilanski: So, that’s also what this aspect is too. So, from a prospect or from a client’s perspective, when they walk in your office, are you being intentional about being a highly successful firm? Are you being intentional about them saying, “Hey, can I transfer…” The client’s saying, “Can I transfer my entire life savings to this person, and will they take care of me?” Are you being intentional in that setup and foundation? Because that’s the question that they’re asking in the back of their mind when they’re interviewing financial planners because that is actually what they are doing. So, we really got to be intentional about everything that we’re doing.

Matthew Jarvis: Yeah. Yeah, and a great place to learn this is to go to any sort of high-end luxury experience. Even a Starbucks, a Ritz-Carlton, go to a casino, right? You go in there and every single thing is done with intention. Now, we can argue motives in some of those places, but everything is intentional.

Micah Shilanski: Okay. So, let’s switch off of the be intentional. Oh, I guess we need to really be intentional about our third one. This is where Jarvis and I are really passionate about this one. Rule of success number three, do what works. This is so important. Do what works. So often in our industry, we are plagued with experts that are out there that have never run a financial planning firm or best, they ran one, they sucked as an advisor, so they decided to become a wholesaler or a broker or someone else selling to financial advisors and telling them how to run their practice. Well, that may not be doing what works. Stop reinventing the wheel. Nothing is brand new. It’s all a version of something that’s been successful in the past. So, what this really means is find people who are experts in or crushing in the areas that you want to crush it in, learn what they are doing, and copy that aspect of it. Do those things until you are an expert in that area and don’t mess around with the process.

Matthew Jarvis: Yeah. This is a filter that I wish I would’ve learned way earlier in my career. And Micah, to your point, does this actually work? Now, this is a soapbox for Micah and I. Got a text from an advisor friend the other day. He says, “Hey, so-and-so in the industry is claiming that they taught you this really important technique.” And I don’t want to divulge the details. And my initial response-

Micah Shilanski: I will.

Matthew Jarvis: … was how dare that person claim that they taught me this. I was doing it long before I met them. I’ve got this level of success. But that, while that strokes my ego, that doesn’t matter for you, the consumer. What you want to know is who is doing this the most successfully, who is actually making this work. If I want to learn about one-page financial plans, for example, I want to know who’s writing the most one-page financial plans for clients and having them sign up as clients. That’s who I want to learn from. I don’t care what else you’ve talked about, the articles you’ve written about it, the books that you’ve published, I don’t care about anything. I want to know how often are you delivering this technique. Surge meeting, I want to know who’s doing surge meetings.

Micah Shilanski: Yes.

Matthew Jarvis: Sorry, Micah.

Micah Shilanski: No, I was just about to jump right into that. It’s like surge meetings is the next one. Right? Not who’s doing two meetings a week and calling it a surge meeting. Show me your actual calendar, and let me see how you define surge because this is a really big thing. Because how I define surge… Well, Jarvis and I’s definition of surge are the same thing, but there’s different numbers in there because we’re solving for different things. So, what are you solving for, and find someone who’s crushing it in that area. Profitability is another one. So often we hear these people go off in all of these things advisors should do and how they should run the firm. And I’m looking at it and they’re making maybe 20%. Maybe 20% is their EBOC, earnings before owner’s comp.

Micah Shilanski: That is not crushing it. Right? You should be well north of 50%. So, all of these things, do what works. Online marketing, how often are we pitched from online marketing companies and all these amazing things to do, and they don’t run advisor practices. So, I like to take things from people that have actually gone in online marketing, have actually produced and added value to many, many different people, and those people have decided to come and become clients, and they’re running a successful firm. What are all of those components together and how does it equal success? It doesn’t have to be the super sexiest, most cool thing. It’s doing what works that matters.

Matthew Jarvis: Totally. Totally. Well, and this goes to advisors call us all the time. “Hey, should I join this coaching program? Should I buy these leads? Should I sign up for this marketing?” And we say the same thing. Let me see your tax return. Let me see your results. Let me see that it works, and then I’ll be glad to talk about it. Micah and I are heading down to a coaching program actually in a few days from when we’re recording this because the gentlemen leading the program has what we want in one area. Right? So, he’s proven that it works. That’s what we want to find out more about. We want to know does it work. That’s my question number one for all things.

Micah Shilanski: You know, this is kind of funny because I always think about it. I always wonder when clients… I’m meeting with clients, or prospects, I should say, and they decide to hire us, which is great, and we’re moving for the process so clearly we’ve delivered value, but they never asked me how I’m investing my own money. They never asked me where that’s going. And I always find that fascinating.

Matthew Jarvis: Me too.

Micah Shilanski: Maybe it’s just a mindset different because I would be the first one to ask that question because I do. Right? When I’m getting pitched from other people on investment strategy, I’m like, “Perfect. Where do you invest at?” Schwab Fidelity, wherever. “Great, log onto your account right now, and I want to see how it’s invested and how much money you have.” They’re like, “Well, why does that matter?” I’m like, “Well, because it matters is if you’re doing what you said you’re going to do,” right, because now this rule number one. “Are you recommending to someone else something that you’re not doing? Okay, now we have a violation of integrity. And number two, do you do what works? And where people invest their money is where they’re committed.” So, I’m always shocked by that from the investor standpoint. From our standpoint, as advisors, you need to ask for confirmation. How do you know someone’s really doing what they said they’re going to do? What proof do you have? And make sure they’re successful before you blindly follow them.

Matthew Jarvis: Yeah. Micah, quick story about this. Early in my career, the insurance agency we were part of, they were promoting working with CPAs, and they ended this whole elaborate system for working with CPAs. And as much as I tried it, I couldn’t get a ounce of traction out of it. So, they would parade this all around. They had all these experts in. Well, then I found out that none of them were actually meeting with CPAs, and the one person they were parading, it was actually his brother who was sending them all of the referrals. And so, I was devastated because I had spent all this time and money on this elaborate CPA strategy.

Matthew Jarvis: But then I met another insurance agent who was… He says, “Jarvis, come here.” So, I come here. He shows me his commission statement, the hundreds of thousands of dollars he was making a month. He says, “You want to know how I do this?” I said, “Yeah, of course I want to know. I want to know what works.” He says, “Well, number one, I didn’t waste my time with this garbage. These people have no idea what they’re talking about. Here’s what I did. I call CPAs and I offer to pay for an hour of their time.” And that was this guy, Ray Adams is his name. Maybe he listens to the podcast, maybe he doesn’t. I said, “Ray, are you serious?” He says, “Yeah. Look, here’s the check I wrote for him.” He was all about do what works. And I started following that strategy.

Matthew Jarvis: Now, I’ve perfected it a lot since I met Ray, but that forever changed the course of my career because I stopped focusing on what people said would work, started doing what really works.

Micah Shilanski: Just because they’re on the platform doesn’t mean they have experience. It does mean they have the ability to write a check, right, to be on top of the platform. But that’s about it.

Matthew Jarvis: Yeah. If you want to get on the top of the platform, they’re a great person to ask. How to run a practice, not so much.

Micah Shilanski: Okay. So, that’s the first three rules and let’s get on to the fourth one because, Jarvis, this is something that you and I are also extremely passionate about and have had a lot of fun with.

Matthew Jarvis: We really have. So, rule number four is that willpower is not enough. Willpower is not enough. And this can be a tough one to get your mind around because you think, “Well, I’ve got this far, right? I can will myself.” But as I like to say, if willpower was enough, you would already be there. Right? So, if you’re stuck at some level of performance or some behavior, checking your emails, whatever it was, if your willpower alone was going to get you there, you’d already be there and you’d have six-pack abs to go with it because you’d have the willpower to do sit-ups every night.

Micah Shilanski: Yeah, and you’d be a billionaire.

Matthew Jarvis: And you’d be a billionaire now.

Micah Shilanski: So, since we’re not, right, what are the things that you can do? Now, like all of these things, and it really sums it up in this rule number four, we need to set ourselves up for success. Now, I know there are certain things that I should be doing that aren’t the most fun things in the world for me, and so I’m not going to get them done. And that’s one of the reasons that we’ve created this extreme accountability program.

Micah Shilanski: Now, extreme ownership is a hundred percent Jocko, right, which is just outstanding and phenomenal. Basically, everything is your fault. Fix it. Right? I mean, that’s kind of the synopsis of it. He says it a lot in a lot more words with a hell of a lot better stories than I have. But that’s the concept of the book. When Jarvis and I were going through it, one of the things that we found was we needed a bigger stick in order to help motivate us to get certain things done. And this is where extreme accountability really comes into this where willpower’s not enough. So, if you know you’re failing in one area, what’s a stick you can put in place in order to motivate you in order to get it? So, basically, how do you create so much pain by not doing the event, it’s worth getting through the pain of doing the event?

Matthew Jarvis: Totally. Totally. And big, big things have to be dealt with an accountability partner. It cannot be someone you’re in a relationship with, cannot be someone who works for you. It needs to be a good, trusted friend. We’ve talked on this podcast about some of the extreme accountability Micah and I have had going back and forth, and it gets pretty extreme because that’s what it takes for us to take action. But some of it is even just know yourself.

Matthew Jarvis: For example, I compulsively read The Wall Street Journal. I can spend days reading The Wall Street Journal. I absolutely love it. But it was playing office. It was burning up a lot of times. So, I canceled my membership and I told Colleen, my office manager, I said, “Do not allow any charges to go through for The Wall Street Journal.” And I still, by the way, Micah, I still compulsively check The Wall Street Journal but because I don’t have a subscription, all I can read are the headlines. So, every single day, I’m in The Wall Street Journal app, reading the headlines, but because I don’t have a subscription, I can’t read the articles. So, what was burning up hours every day now just burns up 10 minutes or so of me reading the headlines. So, willpower is not enough. You’ve got to just know yourself, know where you can do things, and know where you need help.

Micah Shilanski: Yeah. Now, this is another thing that comes with your team as well. Right? Because this is not just about your success, it’s about your team’s success because the better your team is, the better everyone is going to grow. So, how does that work with your team? Well, same thing. Do your team have tasks they’re not getting done? Do they have things that they just dread? And if you just dread it, guess what? Willpower’s not enough. They’re not going to get it done.

Micah Shilanski: So, when you have a team member that’s really dreading tasks and not doing things, you got to look at it from a couple of different angles is number one, okay, are they just being lazy and they don’t want to get it done, or number two, are they really the wrong person for that job, and really, you should pull it to someone else? Because if they have something they’re excited about and something they have a ton of expertise in, they’re going to crush it and do a great job versus even if it’s something they have a lot of expertise in, but they just hate it, they’re going to put it off. Most team members don’t want to eat that frog, take it from Brian Tracy, right, to jump on that task they hate first thing in the morning and just get it done.

Micah Shilanski: So, with that in mind, how do you implement these strategies with your team? Now, extreme accountability can be a little bit fun and interesting to do with your team members. So, it’s a nice thing to talk about and have them independently implement. But if your team’s not getting things done, how do you rebalance that work chart? How do you do different things to help motivate them to get things done?

Matthew Jarvis: By the way, it works with your family as well. I discovered in my own family, I was having constant battles with my kids about when electronics should get turned off at night.

Micah Shilanski: That’s a good point.

Matthew Jarvis: And it was a headache for me. It was a headache for them. So, I thought, “Great, willpower’s not enough. I don’t want to have to deal with this every night.” So, I’ve got Google wifi that magically shuts off at 8:00 PM every night. Suddenly, all the internet turns off at 8:00 PM. I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t need to have willpower. I just, I do. I have an advisor friend, a good friend of ours. He, every day when he gets home from work, he powers his phone off, completely puts it in a locked drawer, and doesn’t turn it on again until his kids leave for school the next day because he knows for himself, he doesn’t have the willpower to leave his phone alone so he completely turns it off and locks it in a drawer.

Micah Shilanski: Yeah, I think it’s outstanding. Funny marital story why you shouldn’t do extreme accountability with your wife. So, Kelly was telling me a little bit that she was on her computer a lot. She’s like, “You know what? I really want to be kind of off my computer by this time in the morning, and then we done spend time with the kids.” She’s like, “But I’m having a hard time just not doing it.” I said, “Well, not a problem. I can just throw a lock on there real fast. It just times out and will lock your computer. So, this is not a problem.” So, we’re actually on a roll.

Matthew Jarvis: I hope those of you listening can hear this train wreck in motion. I’m really curious now. Please go on.

Micah Shilanski: How do I do not see this coming? Right? So, anyways, I love my wife dearly. She’s so creative.

Matthew Jarvis: Amazing person, yeah.

Micah Shilanski: Yeah, I set this up and so it locks her computer out at a certain time. And then I come in later, whatnot and she’s on a computer. I’m like, “What are you doing?” She said, “Well, my computer locked out so I took somebody else’s.” So, I was like, “Okay, we’re moving the lock from the computer.” Right? There was no good that was going to come from me trying to enforce those things on a spouse. So, these are really things that you’ve got to be creative in. You got to have good accountability partners, someone’s a peer that you respect that’s not a family member or a team member.

Matthew Jarvis: I love it, Micah. Well, let’s recap these four rules, and let’s jump into some action items because again, this podcast is all about taking action. So, rule number one, do what you said you were going to do. If you said you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it, and you’re going to make sure you’re very clear with everyone what it is you said you were going to do.

Micah Shilanski: Number two, be intentional. That means know what you’re solving for and make sure the goals and everything you’re setting up is to achieve your ultimate goals.

Matthew Jarvis: Rule number three, do what works. I don’t care how fancy it is. I don’t care who invented it. I don’t care how long it’s been around. I want to know who’s doing this and who’s having results that are better than mine that I can duplicate if I follow this system.

Micah Shilanski: Rule number four, willpower is not enough. You have to create forcing mechanisms. You have to create things in place to convince yourself, mental hat games, whatever you want to call it, taking out your head trash, whatever it is because willpower is not enough. You have to design your life for success.

Matthew Jarvis: I love that. I love that. All right, action items. Action item number one, I would write down these rules. Micah, as you pointed out, you can email lifestyle@theperfectra and put Episode 112 in the subject line, and we will send you these and you can print them out and stick them on your monitor or your bathroom mirror. By the way, this is not a hypothetical. I mean, when I’m trying to adapt things, I put them literally on my bathroom mirror. I put them on the home screen of my phone. I stick it next to my monitor. I want to see these again and again and again until they become just part of my operating system if you will.

Micah Shilanski: You know, if you think about it, a lot of these, the reason we came up with four, kind of the backstory behind this was for firearm safety. Right? There’s four key rules in firearm safety that virtually everyone with a gun knows. And they’re such key rules because they’re four and they’re simple. But if you go to a shooting range, you go anywhere else out there, they have the four rules everywhere. Right? They’re just don’t have them in one place. They have them everywhere. So, everyone has top-of-mind awareness of what these are and it works, this do what works, same thing here. Make sure you put these four rules everywhere. All right. Now, the second action item I’m going to give you pick one area for improvement. Right? So, here’s all four that you got to do, what’s the one that you massively need to improve on, and how are you going to do that this week?

Matthew Jarvis: Action item number three, and this goes to do what works. We reached out to John Lee Dumas, which EOFire if you’re not familiar with John Lee’s work, phenomenal stuff. That guy is absolutely brilliant. His new book just came out, highly recommend it. At his recommendation, which we paid a lot for, we are now going to be doing three podcasts a week. So, we have our main one on Mondays that you’re listening to right now. We have our Tips in the Trenches with Micah, alternating with Reading Time with Jarvis on Wednesdays, and Fridays, we will have our Follow-up Friday looking at action items you can take into the weekend. So, go ahead and make sure you’re downloading that on iTunes. And of course, Micah, we know what else to do when we’re on iTunes.

Micah Shilanski: Amen. Since you’re there, squirrel on over. Give us five stars. Leave a comment. We love seeing the comments. We love getting the rating. Seriously, they help us grow, and by you allowing us to grow and reach a wider audience helps other advisors, and those other advisors that are running phenomenal firms help other clients, and that is one of our biggest goals is to DMV, deliver massive value to our clients. So, you are helping with that by helping this podcast grow. Share it with your friends. Share with your coworkers, et cetera. It’s great to get a collaborative effort. It’s great for mastermind feedback, quite frankly, right? If you’re thinking about what to talk about on a mastermind, great. Grab our most top 10 popular podcasts that are out there and go through and talk about those on a mastermind event, and apply those into your practice with these four rules of success.

Matthew Jarvis: Perfect. Well, Micah, as always, it’s a ton of fun. Absolutely loved doing these podcasts. Thanks to our entire nation for listening. And until next time, happy planning.

Micah Shilanski: Happy planning.

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