00:00:00 Sam Sivarajan
But to really understand the power of controlling what you can, let me tell you about Andy Grove and Intel. In 1985, Intel was facing an existential crisis. For years, they had dominated the memory chip market, but Japanese competitors were quickly eroding their position. Despite investing millions of dollars in efficiency.
00:00:20 Sam Sivarajan
Improvements and aggressive price.
00:00:22 Sam Sivarajan
Intele market share continued to decline. 1 January day. Grove, who was then the President of Intel, walked into CEO Gordon Moore's office, exhausted from months of wrestling with this challenge, he asked the question that would alter the course of business history if we got kicked out and the board brought.
00:00:42 Sam Sivarajan
In a new CEO and President, what would they do? Moores response was immediate and clarifying. They would get us out of memories. There was a profound silence before Grove replied. Well, why shouldn't you and I walk?
00:00:56 Sam Sivarajan
The door come back and do it ourselves. This moment perfectly illustrates the essence of control. Grove recognized he couldn't control the global memory chip market or Japanese competition. What he could control was Intel's strategic director.
00:01:13 Sam Sivarajan
This is the future Ready Advisor, a show about transforming your financial advisory practice.
00:01:19 Sam Sivarajan
I'm your host, Sam Sivarajan, A wealth management consultant, behavioral scientist, and keynote speaker. In this podcast, I dive deep into the real challenges advisors face and bring you insightful conversations with top industry experts. Together, we'll explore practical strategies grounded in behavioral science.
00:01:40 Sam Sivarajan
To help you better serve your clients, optimize your time and build a future ready practice.
00:01:47 Sam Sivarajan
Hi everyone. I'm Sam Sivarajan and welcome to the Future Ready Advisor podcast. Today is a different episode. It's just you and me, my first solo episode and I'm doing it now for a reason because of what is happening in the markets and the broader economy. In the few days after Trump's Liberation Day global equities.
00:02:08 Sam Sivarajan
Were rocked by panic. The S&P fell 6% in a single day and over 9% in the week, its steepest weekly drop since 2010.
00:02:18 Sam Sivarajan
The Dow dropped over 2200 points on one day alone and almost 8% for the week. The NASDAQ plunged 10% over the course of the week, officially entering bear market territory and in all almost $5 trillion in market value was wiped out in just a couple of days.
00:02:38 Sam Sivarajan
So why? Well, obviously, escalating trade tensions, tariff announcement.
00:02:43 Sam Sivarajan
Political brinksmanship. But here's the thing. These market moves aren't just about economics. They're about uncertainty and how we deal with it. In my recent article in the Globe and Mail, I explored this dynamic how markets tend to react more strongly to geopolitical threats, the possibility of war.
00:03:03 Sam Sivarajan
Tariffs, recession, then to the actual events, because when risk is undefined, our brains go into OverDrive. Now, behavioral finance has an explanation for some of this, and this is loss aversion at one leg.
00:03:18 Sam Sivarajan
We feel the pain of loss about twice as strongly as the pleasure of a gain, and when uncertainty rises, that pain gets exaggerated. But we've seen this before. During Brexit, the 2018 trade war in 2003, Iraq invasion markets have dropped before the event, and often.
00:03:38 Sam Sivarajan
Ever when the event occurs, it's not that the situation has improved, but now the uncertainty has been removed and your.
00:03:47 Sam Sivarajan
It's they're not immune to that dynamic either. They read the headlines, they feel the fear, and they ask questions like, am I going to be OK? I remember a moment like that vividly. It was 2008, during the Great Recession, a client, let's call him Richard, walked into my office.
00:04:07 Sam Sivarajan
After his portfolio had dropped over 30%.
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He shoved the pilot CNBC printouts across the desk and said should we sell everything? What if this time it's different and the honest answer I didn't know. But what Richard really needed wasn't a prediction. He needed a framework, something to help him make clear headed decisions in a chaotic world. A world of change.
00:04:32 Sam Sivarajan
The world of.
00:04:32 Sam Sivarajan
Uncertainty and uncertainty is simply one form of change. Perhaps the most challenging form because it's unplanned and usually unwelcome. Today, we'll talk about a number of frameworks that can help you master all types of change, whether expected or unexpected. Over the years I've developed a structure I call.
00:04:53 Sam Sivarajan
The case foundation, it helps advisors, investors, leaders, really, all of us navigate uncertainty by focusing on what really matters. And I'll be candid, this isn't just a professional challenge. It's the defining challenge of our time, how to lead ourselves, our teams.
00:05:11 Sam Sivarajan
And our clients through increasing unpredictability.
00:05:15 Sam Sivarajan
Let's so let's get into it. The Case Foundation has four parts to give you a solid building to deal with uncertainty, C stands for control. Know what you can change, A stands for a line. Focus on your priorities. S stands for span, balancing the future and the present, and E stands for established measure.
00:05:35 Sam Sivarajan
What matters? So let's dig into each one of these in more detail so.
00:05:40 Sam Sivarajan
Well, the first pillar is control. When markets shake and clients panic, our instinct is to respond with certainty to calm fears with forecasts. But here's the truth. Certainty is a trap. What your clients need isn't answers. They need clarity. This is where the dichotomy of control comes in. It is a concept from Stoic philosophy that applies beautifully.
00:06:03 Sam Sivarajan
To our profession, you can categorize almost everything into spheres that are in your control and those outside of your.
00:06:12 Sam Sivarajan
Troll. Think about it in three buckets. The first is where you have direct control. That's your behavior, your communications, your mindset. The second is where you have indirect influence. That's over client decisions, team dynamics, and partner engagement. The third bucket is where you have no control.
00:06:32 Sam Sivarajan
And that would be things like what's happening in the market, interest rates, regulations, geopolitical events in uncertain times. Many advisors spend too much time reacting to what they can.
00:06:44 Sam Sivarajan
Control. They chase headlines, issue market commentaries and try to outguess the central banks. But the most effective advisors shift the conversation to where they do have agency. Take Sarah, an advisor I coached during COVID her first instinct was to e-mail clients with market predictions. But after applying this framework.
00:07:05 Sam Sivarajan
She changed course. She instead sent personalized video updates, built crisis resistant withdrawal strategies, and created a consistent weekly communication rhythm, and the result was powerful. She retained all of.
00:07:20 Sam Sivarajan
Their clients and gained over 15 qualified referrals during one of the most volatile market periods of the decade. But to really understand the power of controlling what you can, let me tell you about Andy Grove and Intel. In 1985, Intel was facing an existential crisis. For years they had dominated the memory chip market.
00:07:42 Sam Sivarajan
But Japanese competitors were quickly eroding their position despite investing millions of dollars in efficiency improvements and aggressive price.
00:07:50 Sam Sivarajan
Pricing intele's market share continued to decline 1 January Day Grove, who was then the President of Intel, walked into CEO Gordon Moore's office, exhausted from months of wrestling with this challenge, he asked a question that would alter the course of business history if we got kicked out and the board brought.
00:08:11 Sam Sivarajan
In a new CEO and President, what would they do? Moores response was immediate and clarifying. They would get us out of memories. There was a profound silence before Grove replied. Well, why shouldn't you and I walk out?
00:08:25 Sam Sivarajan
Door come back and do it ourselves. This moment perfectly illustrates the essence of control. Grove recognized he couldn't control the global memory chip market or Japanese competition. What he could control was Intel's strategic direction. Rather than fighting an unwinnable battle, he focused his energy on a domain where Intel could lead.
00:08:46 Sam Sivarajan
Microprocessors the decision to exit the memory business wasn't easy. It meant abandoning the product that had built.
00:08:54 Sam Sivarajan
The company. But by concentrating on what they could control their product focus, their R&D investment and their internal culture, Intel transformed itself into a global microprocessor powerhouse. I see the same principle play out with financial advisors every day when markets turn volatile, average advisors focus their energy.
00:09:15 Sam Sivarajan
On areas outside their control, predicting corrections timing the market, guessing the moves of the Fed, but exceptional advisors redirect their attention to what they can influence.
00:09:26 Sam Sivarajan
How they frame market events in terms of their clients to plans, the quality and consistency of their communication, the clarity of their advice and recommendations and the emotional support they provide during difficult times. I witnessed this contrast dramatically during the 2008 financial crisis.
00:09:46 Sam Sivarajan
In our firm, we had two types of Advil.
00:09:48 Sam Sivarajan
Risers the first group spent their days glued to CNBC, obsessively discussing market theories and trying to predict recovery timelines. Their client conversations centered on market predictions and portfolio adjustments. The second group took a fundamentally different approach. They acknowledged the market reality.
00:10:08 Sam Sivarajan
But pivoted to what they could control client communication. Systematic. Rebalance.
00:10:13 Sam Sivarajan
Dancing and financial plan readjustments in meetings, they focus less on market forecasts and more on ensuring clients understood their actual financial position and what concrete steps made sense given their specific circumstances. The difference in outcomes was striking. The first group saw a significant client attrition.
00:10:35 Sam Sivarajan
About 30% over the crisis period, the second group not only retain clients, but grew their books through referrals even as markets plummet.
00:10:43 Sam Sivarajan
What's remarkable is that this pattern repeats in every crisis. I saw it again during Brexit, during the 2018 correction and during COVID, the advisors who thrive aren't those with the best market predictions. There are those who understand the boundary between what they can and cannot control. Think about your own practice for a moment.
00:11:03 Sam Sivarajan
How much mental and emotional energy do you spend on factors outside your car?
00:11:08 Sam Sivarajan
So how might redirecting that energy to what you can influence transform your client relationships and business results before your next big decision or client meeting? Make a quick three column list. What can you control? What can you influence and what's out of your hands? Then lead from the 1st 2 columns.
00:11:29 Sam Sivarajan
That's where trust is built. After control, the next element is aligned, focusing on your priorities. Here I want to share a story from my time building a brand new wealth platform at Manulife just after the Great Recession in the aftermath of that market.
00:11:47 Sam Sivarajan
Not bad. It was clear even among high net worth and ultra high net worth investors that fear had taken a hold. People with multi generational wealth were still asking the same fundamental question. Are we going to be OK? And that became our North Star. So we built the platform from the clients perspective.
00:12:07 Sam Sivarajan
Not the markets. We introduced a goals based investing model instead of a single all in portfolio. We created distinct portfolios tied to the client specific goals, one for retirement income, one for philanthropic giving, one for short term liquidity, one for legacy and.
00:12:24 Sam Sivarajan
Wealth transfer. As a result, the clients could see clearly how each goal was progressing, regardless of what was happening in the market. That transparency and alignment changed everything. Clients stayed committed. We saw a greater share of wallet and more proactive referrals than I had ever experienced before. Why? Because the plan wasn't about me beating the market.
00:12:46 Sam Sivarajan
It was about meeting their life goals. This is what alignment looks like in practice, aligning every decision, every conversation, every portfolio with what truly matters let me.
00:12:58 Sam Sivarajan
Share a powerful.
00:12:59 Sam Sivarajan
Corporate example of alignment that transformed an entire organization. It's the story of Patagonia and its founder, Yvonne.
00:13:07 Sam Sivarajan
To an art in 1973, Patagonia faced a critical inflection point.
00:13:13 Sam Sivarajan
The company's primary product, steel pythons for climbing, generated about 70% of its revenues. Pursuing art had made a troubled, troubling discovery. These same pythons were permanently scarring the rock faces he loved. He faced the significant dilemma. Continue selling a profitable product.
00:13:34 Sam Sivarajan
That damaged the environment or risk the company's financial stability by abandoning it for many business leaders, this would have been an agonizing choice. But shenard's clarity about what truly mattered made the decision straightforward, although not easy, Patagonia.
00:13:51 Sam Sivarajan
Patagonia phased out the Python business entirely and invested in developing alternative climbing equipment that wouldn't damage the rocks. This decision, driven by alignment with core values rather than just short term profit, set the trajectory for Patagonia's future when facing rising cotton.
00:14:11 Sam Sivarajan
Prices and quality issues. In 1996, they made another bold move, transitioning entirely to organic cotton despite higher costs. While conventional business wisdom would have predicted disaster, sales increased by over 25% following.
00:14:28 Sam Sivarajan
The change Patagonia's journey continued with initiatives like the Footprint Chronicles, which dramatically streamlined their supply chain, and the provocative don't buy this jacket campaign in 2011 on paper encouraging customers not to purchase your product seems like business suicide.
00:14:48 Sam Sivarajan
And yet revenue increased by 30%, driven by deeper customer loyalty to the brand's authentic values. The combination came in 2022 when she and art transferred ownership of the $3 billion company.
00:15:03 Sam Sivarajan
To a trust and nonprofit dedicated to fighting climate change throughout this remarkable journey. But guided Patagonia wasn't maximizing quarterly profits or market share. A deep alignment with their core purpose in our profession. This principle of alignment is equally powerful. I've seen it transform advisory practices.
00:15:23 Sam Sivarajan
From transactional businesses into mission driven organizations with profound client.
00:15:29 Sam Sivarajan
Impact. Think about your own practice for a moment in the daily rush of market updates, client demands and compliance requirements. It's easy to lose sight of what truly matters. We get caught in what I call the activity trap, being busy with urgent tasks while neglecting the important ones. You can create alignment.
00:15:50 Sam Sivarajan
Using what I call the four buckets.
00:15:52 Sam Sivarajan
Method. It's a simple way to sort every task or initiative that crosses your desk. Here's how it works. Take out a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. Then another line across the middle. Label that top half high impact and bottom half lower impact. Label the left side high urgency.
00:16:12 Sam Sivarajan
On the right side, lower urgency now you have 4 buckets or quadrants for sorting your activities in the top left bucket are your critical activities. Things that are both urgent.
00:16:25 Sam Sivarajan
And high impact. These might include addressing a major client concern or responding to a regulatory change. These demand your immediate attention in the top right by or your strategic priorities high impact, but less urgent tasks like developing a new service offering or creating a client education program.
00:16:46 Sam Sivarajan
These need dedicated protected time on your.
00:16:49 Sam Sivarajan
Calendar the bottom left holds your necessary routines urgent but low impact tasks like routine reporting or basic administrative work. These should be systematized or delegated wherever possible. And finally, in the bottom right are your energy drains, activities that are neither urgent nor high impact like constantly.
00:17:10 Sam Sivarajan
Checking market updates or attending unfocused networking events, these should be ruthlessly eliminated.
00:17:17 Sam Sivarajan
I work with the founder of a rapidly growing e-commerce retail business. Let's call him Mark, who applied this framework when he found himself drowning in operational chaos. Despite retail growth in despite rapid growth in two years, Mark was working 70 hour weeks and constantly feeling behind.
00:17:37 Sam Sivarajan
These leadership meetings have become marathon sessions covering everything from inventory management to visual merchandising to staff training. Regardless of which issues truly demanded his.
00:17:49 Sam Sivarajan
Attention, the business was growing, but Mark was burning out. His phone buzzed constantly with texts from department managers asking for decisions. His evenings disappeared into spreadsheets. The very success he had created was consuming him using the four buckets method. Mark transformed not just his schedule, but the entire rhythm of his business.
00:18:11 Sam Sivarajan
First he.
00:18:12 Sam Sivarajan
Said first, he restructured his leadership meetings around the two most pressing business priorities each week, rather than attempting to cover every operational aspect, the single change reduced meeting time 60%, while dramatically increasing team alignment and execution speed.
00:18:33 Sam Sivarajan
These systems, once established, largely ran themselves with minimal oversight, freeing up nearly 15 hours each week for strategic.
00:18:42 Sam Sivarajan
Thinking third, he eliminated his energy drains completely, including a detailed daily sales report that nobody used effectively, and several local business committee memberships that generated goodwill but no actual customers, and 4th with all of this, he had now time to spend on his strategic priorities.
00:19:03 Sam Sivarajan
The transformation was remarkable. Within two months, Mark had reduced his work week to 50 hours while simultaneously accelerating the company's growth. What's more, his team reported higher satisfaction and clearer.
00:19:16 Sam Sivarajan
Direction by focusing intensely on what truly mattered, product differentiation and customer experience marks business increased sales by 18% that year, while successfully opening 2 new geographic markets. His experience reveals a powerful truth about alignment when we identify what truly matters and focus our energy there.
00:19:38 Sam Sivarajan
We don't just work more.
00:19:39 Sam Sivarajan
Efficiently, we create more significant impact with less effort. The power of the alignment isn't just about efficiency, it's about impact. When you're crystal clear on what truly matters, you bring a focused energy to your work that clients can feel and respond to. Are your client meetings centered on headlines or outcomes? Start with the goal.
00:20:00 Sam Sivarajan
The map back to the plan. It changes the energy in the room after control and align the third element in the case foundation is span. The ability to hold multiple time horizons in your view. Now advisors are relatively unique in this respect. We help clients manage today's concerns.
00:20:20 Sam Sivarajan
And while planning for years ahead but in volatile times, it's easy to get stuck in the Now I learned this the hard way with a client named Tom who had just sold his business. He wanted stability, so he came with the portfolio focused on short term income. It was working until market volatility returned.
00:20:41 Sam Sivarajan
And he realized he needed help. When we chatted, I pointed out that he had under planned for longevity. Tom expected to live 30 years in retirement, but his portfolio is only built for 50.
00:20:53 Sam Sivarajan
That experience changed how I approach planning. I now use what I call the time Horizons method. Picture 3 concentric circles, each representing a different time frame. The innermost circle is. You're now circle covering the present to when you're out for clients, this includes current income needs tax 6.
00:21:12 Sam Sivarajan
Situations and immediate financial concerns for your practice, its current client service and regulatory compliance. These are the issues right in front of you. The middle circle is your next circle spanning one to three years ahead. This includes preparing clients for upcoming life transitions.
00:21:32 Sam Sivarajan
Or anticipated financial changes for your practice, it might be developing new service offerings or technology capabilities. These are the bridges you're building to the.
00:21:44 Sam Sivarajan
Future the outer circle is your future circle. Looking three to 10 years or more into the distance. This includes clients, retirement, sustainability, legacy planning and long term wealth transfer for your practice, it might be succession planning or positioning for industry evolution. These are the destinations you're working toward.
00:22:05 Sam Sivarajan
Jennifer, an advisor I mentor, use this model with a particularly reactive client by organizing meetings around these three timelines, she shifted the clients mindset from market anxiety.
00:22:17 Sam Sivarajan
To longer term perspective, the anxious calls stopped and trust deepened. To truly understand the power of spanning these multiple time horizons, let me share the story of John Mackey and the Whole Foods Market. In 2017, Mackey faced perhaps the most consequential decision of his career. After nearly 4 decades.
00:22:38 Sam Sivarajan
Building Whole Foods into a revolutionary force in America.
00:22:41 Sam Sivarajan
Retail proving the purpose and profit coexist. He stood at a crossroads. The company's stock had fallen sharply. Activist investors were demanding radical changes and the very values that had defined Whole Foods now seem to threaten its survival. What makes Macy's stories so instructive is how he balanced.
00:23:02 Sam Sivarajan
Immediate pressures with long term vision.
00:23:05 Sam Sivarajan
Faced with relentless demands to boost short term profit performance, many CEO's would have abandoned their principles or clung rigidly to the past. Instead, Mackey made what many considered unthinkable the decision to agree to sell Whole Foods to Amazon for almost.
00:23:25 Sam Sivarajan
$14 billion. And this wasn't just a financial transaction, it was a master class in spanning time horizons. Mackey understood that preserving Whole Foods core values, commitment to quality, sustainability.
00:23:38 Sam Sivarajan
And customer well-being required, embracing significant change. The partnership with Amazon allowed Whole Foods to retain its brand identity and principles, while gaining access to technological innovation and distribution capabilities that would ensure its long term relevance. In essence, Mackey was balancing.
00:23:59 Sam Sivarajan
3 distinct time horizons, the immediate horizon demanded financial stability and protection from activist investors who might dismantle the company's Co.
00:24:09 Sam Sivarajan
Permission. The mid range horizon required adapting to changing consumer behaviors, particularly the shift toward online grocery shopping and the long term horizon, focused on ensuring that Whole Foods values and impact would endure for decades to come. What's remarkable is that Mackey didn't sacrifice any of these horizons.
00:24:30 Sam Sivarajan
But finding a partner that shared the vision for long term innovation while respecting Whole Foods.
00:24:36 Sam Sivarajan
Identity. He secured all three this capacity to span multiple time perspective isn't just valuable for CEO's, it's essential for financial advisors. We're constantly helping clients balance immediate concerns such as market volatility and cash flow needs with long term goals, their retirement security.
00:24:56 Sam Sivarajan
Or legacy planning when we failed to span these horizons effectively, we are creating plans that may not may work perfectly for today or collapse under tomorrow's pressures. I see this principle play out in every aspect of financial.
00:25:11 Sam Sivarajan
Money take retirement income strategies, for instance, an approach that maximizes current income while ignoring longevity risk might seem brilliant for the first decade, but prove disastrous in later years. Conversely, a plan focused exclusively on long term growth might create so much short term volatility that clients abandon it during market.
00:25:33 Sam Sivarajan
Directions the art of spanning these horizons requires both technical expertise and psychological.
00:25:40 Sam Sivarajan
Insight. It's about helping clients understand how today's decisions shape tomorrow's possibilities, while ensuring that long term planning doesn't ignore immediate realities. One advisor I worked with for color, Elena transformed our practice by explicitly incorporating this spanning approach into her client.
00:26:00 Sam Sivarajan
Meetings. She divided each annual review into 3 distinct segments in the now section, she addressed immediate concerns, recent market performance, current cash flow.
00:26:11 Sam Sivarajan
And tax planning opportunities in the next segment, she focused on anticipated life changes in the coming one to three years. Children starting college, planned home renovations, potential career transitions. Finally, in the future conversation, she explored long term aspirations and progress towards those goals.
00:26:32 Sam Sivarajan
Retirement Readiness legacy plan.
00:26:34 Sam Sivarajan
Training and wealth transfer strategies. This structured approach completely reframed client conversations rather than getting stuck in either short term performance concerns or vague long term goals. Clients could see how each time horizon connected to the others. The result? Deeper engagement, more thoughtful decision making.
00:26:55 Sam Sivarajan
And greater commitment to the overall financial plan structure. Your next review meeting around the three horizons, it moves the conversation from.
00:27:04 Sam Sivarajan
Formance to purpose the final element of the Case Foundation is established, measuring what matters. As finance professionals, we love metrics. But here's the thing. AUM revenue and headcount are lagging indicators. They tell you what's already happened, not what's working now or what.
00:27:25 Sam Sivarajan
Will truly Dr. sustainable growth?
00:27:27 Sam Sivarajan
To fully understand the power of establishing the right metrics, let me share a personal experience that reveals how measuring the wrong things can lead an entire organization is straight. A few years ago I was asked to help transform A wealth management firm that was facing a puzzling dilemma. On paper, they were thriving, their assets under management.
00:27:48 Sam Sivarajan
Had grown an impressive 30% over the previous two years. Their advisor headcount was up and their client acquisition numbers set new records each quarter, but conventional industry metric.
00:28:00 Sam Sivarajan
This was a success story, but beneath these glowing statistics lurked A troubling reality. Despite the substantial growth in the UM, their profitability was stagnant, even declining in certain quarters. The executive team was baffled. How could a business be simultaneously growing and struggling? When I arrived, the firms always buzzed with activity.
00:28:21 Sam Sivarajan
Advisors were constantly in motion. Client meetings filled the calendar and marketing events drew impressive crowds. But sitting in their management meeting, I noticed something revealing. Every discussion centered on asset gather.
00:28:34 Sam Sivarajan
The leadership team reviewed AUM growth by advisor, by team by region, slicing the data in countless ways. Advisors who brought in the most assets received recognition and substantial bonuses. What was conspicuously absent from these conversations? Profitability, as I dug deeper, the pattern became.
00:28:53 Sam Sivarajan
And there, the firm's advisors, responding rationally to how they were measured and rewarded, had developed a nearly reflexive habit. They discounted their services, sometimes dramatically, to win new clients. Why wouldn't they? The metric that determined their success and compensation was purely asset based in their pursuit of those assets.
00:29:14 Sam Sivarajan
Advisors routinely slashed fees, waived planning charges.
00:29:18 Sam Sivarajan
And through in additional services at no cost, once senior advisor confided. I know I'm practically giving away our services to lend the big accounts, but that's what gets celebrated around here. Nobody asks about my margins, they just want to know my AUM. This wasn't merely a pricing problem, it was a measurement problem the firm had created a culture where.
00:29:39 Sam Sivarajan
Gathering assets trumped creating value both for client.
00:29:43 Sam Sivarajan
And and for the business itself, they were measuring what was easy to track, not what truly mattered for sustainable success. The solution required courage. We needed to fundamentally change what the organization valued and track in collaboration with the leadership team we implemented what I call a values aligned scorecard instead of focusing solely on AUM.
00:30:05 Sam Sivarajan
We started tracking 2 critical measures in tandem for each advisor, AUM and the discounts given per client. The results were immediate and revealing. Some advisors were routinely discounting their services by 30 to 40%.
00:30:20 Sam Sivarajan
Effectively giving away significant value with no strategic rationale. Others maintained healthy margins while still growing their client base, proving that discounting wasn't necessary to compete effectively. This simple measurement change sparked powerful conversations throughout the organization for the first time, leadership could see the relationship between.
00:30:42 Sam Sivarajan
Asset growth and profitability at a granular level, advisors began discussing the value they provided rather than just the assets they.
00:30:51 Sam Sivarajan
Other we didn't eliminate AUM as a metric, it remained important, but pairing it with discount tracking, we created a more complete picture of business health within three months, the firm's profitability improved dramatically. The average discount rate dropped from 27% to 12% while client acquisition.
00:31:11 Sam Sivarajan
Remained strong. In fact, many advisors reported more meaningful client conversations once they focused on articulating value rather than competing on price. By the six month mark, the firm's profitability and increased by over 2.
00:31:25 Sam Sivarajan
8% even though their AUM growth pace remained relatively constant and something unexpected happened, advisor satisfaction improved significantly as one team member told me, I feel like a professional again, not just a salesperson. I'm having deeper conversations about what clients truly need instead of just trying to win their assets at any cost.
00:31:47 Sam Sivarajan
I learned this lesson again in the most unexpected way through the disorienting fog of the pandemic March 2020 arrived like a storm. None of us are coming overnight. My calendar client meetings and pending deals disappeared. The carefully constructed rhythm of my professional life. The metrics that.
00:32:05 Sam Sivarajan
Fact. The goals I've pursued, the success I measured suddenly seemed hollow as the world grappled with questions far more fundamental than market performance. Sitting in my Home Office surrounded by market reports and deal files, I found myself staring out the window at a neighborhood grown strangely quiet. The metrics that had always defined my professional life.
00:32:28 Sam Sivarajan
And work client acquisition business growth revenue targets felt oddly distant in their place, new questions emerged. Was that truly serving my clients in the ways they needed most right now? Was I using this unexpected pause to deepen my knowledge and cap?
00:32:44 Sam Sivarajan
Quality was that finding meaning in my work beyond the traditional markers of success, this moment of reflection wasn't comfortable like many of us, I built my professional identity around certain measurable achievements, but the pandemic had stripped away the familiar context, forcing me to confront what truly mattered both to me and those I served the breakthrough.
00:33:04 Sam Sivarajan
Came on a Tuesday morning zoom call with a longtime client. I'll call Elizabeth. She was a successful entrepreneur who had always been focused on business growth and financial.
00:33:14 Sam Sivarajan
Metrics. But that day she appeared on screen, looking exhausted. Her Home Office cluttered with evidence of her new remote work. Reality. I don't care about the acquisition, she said bluntly, talking about the deal we've been working on for months. I care about knowing we're going to be OK, but my family has what we need that my parents are secure.
00:33:35 Sam Sivarajan
That we're making the right decisions in a world that suddenly feels completely unpredictable. Her words crystallized everything in that moment, I realized. I've been measuring aspects of my business.
00:33:46 Sam Sivarajan
That, while important, weren't what truly mattered to the people I served that evening. I created another values aligned scorecard, a completely reimagined measurement system reflecting what genuinely mattered for me in this new reality. Instead of tracking only traditional performance metrics, I began measuring how many clients have personally.
00:34:07 Sam Sivarajan
Check in with, not just to discuss markets, but to listen to their concerns. How many educational resources had I created to address clients evolving questions? How much time was I dedicating to deepening my knowledge and crisis?
00:34:21 Sam Sivarajan
Honey, the quality and depth of my client conversations rated on a simple personal scale as I shifted my attention to these new metrics, something remarkable happened. My client relationships deepened, conversations became more meaningful and rather than feeling constantly behind, I experienced A renewed sense of purpose and clarity.
00:34:41 Sam Sivarajan
The irony was.
00:34:42 Sam Sivarajan
Lost on me by letting go of my fixation and traditional success metrics during the global crisis. I had actually positioned myself to be more valuable to my clients than ever before. Think about your own metrics for a moment in this post. Pandemic world, do they still reflect but truly matters to your clients and to your deeper purpose? Or are you measuring?
00:35:02 Sam Sivarajan
That's always been measured simply because that's what the industry expects. Create your own values aligned scorecard, move beyond the standard benchmarks to track what genuinely create.
00:35:13 Sam Sivarajan
Is meaning the depth of your client understanding, not just transaction frequency knowledge growth, not just revenue growth impact on client well-being, not just impact on their portfolio.
00:35:26 Sam Sivarajan
Moments of moments of genuine connection, not just moments of service delivery. If you want clients to focus on what truly matters in uncertain times, you must first lead by measuring what matters to you. So as we come to the end of our episode, where does that leave us? We're in a time of massive.
00:35:46 Sam Sivarajan
And if we're honest, it's most certainly not going away anytime soon, whether it's market volatility, geopolitical threats or the next unexpected crisis, we need to stop chasing certainty and start building capacity to maneuver and adopt. That's what the case foundation is all about, control.
00:36:05 Sam Sivarajan
What's yours to lead? Like Andy Grove focusing on microprocessors when he couldn't control the memory chip.
00:36:12 Sam Sivarajan
Market align your work with what matters like Patagonia, making decisions based on environmental values even when it meant abandoning profitable products span across short term needs and long term goals like John Mackey balancing immediate market pressures with Whole Foods. Enduring mission. Establish the right metrics to track.
00:36:34 Sam Sivarajan
True progress avoiding that wealth business profitability crisis by measuring what truly creates value.
00:36:41 Sam Sivarajan
Your value added scorecard, not just traditional performance indicators. This is the foundation for Future Ready Advisors, and it's just the beginning. In Part 2 of this solo series, I'll introduce another framework, one that builds on case and helps you execute in real time. We'll explore the 3A's of execution.
00:37:02 Sam Sivarajan
Assess, act and adapt practical tools that transform how you respond to uncertainty in the moment. Both of these frameworks are battle tested approaches drawn from my decades in wealth management, investment banking and studying how leaders navigate uncertainty.
00:37:19 Sam Sivarajan
To help you develop what I call strategic fluidity, the ability to move with changes rather than being paralyzed by them, I dive much deeper into these concepts in my upcoming book change mastery, how to lead, adapt, and thrive in a world of disruption, the book offers detailed exercises.
00:37:40 Sam Sivarajan
Decision tools and implementation checklists designed specifically for professionals navigating complex uncertain.
00:37:48 Sam Sivarajan
Environments feud like Early Access behind the scenes content and special launch offers. I'd love for you to join the insider list. Just head to lp.samsivarajan.com/change mastery. I'll be sure to include the link in the show notes below. Sign up to stay in the loop as we get closer to launch.
00:38:09 Sam Sivarajan
You can also download from this site the Uncertainty Advantage Guide.
00:38:14 Sam Sivarajan
For free, which has some frameworks and checklists, you can start applying immediately. In the meantime, I encourage you to start applying the case foundation today. Choose just one element, perhaps mapping your activities using the four buckets method, or restructuring your next meeting around the three time horizons these small shifts.
00:38:34 Sam Sivarajan
Can create remarkable changes in how you and your clients experience uncertainty. The future belongs to advisors who don't just survive in chaos, but thrive.
00:38:44 Sam Sivarajan
Live in it with these frameworks, you're well on your way to becoming one of them. Thanks for joining me today. Until next time, stay grounded, stay focused and stay future ready.
00:39:00 Sam Sivarajan
You've been listening to the future Ready advisor. If you enjoyed the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or a rating on Spotify, or share your feedback wherever you listen. Be sure to follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. For more insights on how to keep your practice.
00:39:18 Sam Sivarajan
Future ready visit www.sam sivarajan dot.
00:39:23 Sam Sivarajan
Com. You can find the link on the show notes. There you'll find free tools and resources along with exclusive bonus content from these podcasts. Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to sharing more strategies with you in the next episode.