A Funny Thing Happened to Me at This Week’s PFS Conference!
Well, I think it’s funny.
I met Brett Davidson.
And I told him exactly what I thought of him!
(Which is a lot.
Because I’m truly impressed by his impact in this Personal Financial Planning space.)
I found our 10-minute conversation:
Encouraging
Inspiring
Surprisingly revealing.
I shouldn’t have understood a word that he said!
You see… I have seriously deficient hearing.
About 20% on a good day
I struggle to discern conversation in a crowded room.
I have to read lips.
And this room – The Manchester Conference Centre – was crowded.
Heaving!
A veritable cacophony!
But there we were…
Standing in the middle of that upheaval…
Talking for – I don’t know, say – 10 minutes.
So, I exerted every sense to hang on to his every word.
Now celebrating his 20th year as this sector’s Pioneering Business Consultant…
Brett was disarmingly honest in summarising his relentless-effort, brutal-lessons story.
Because…
Being a Consultant or Coach in Financial Services is a seriously, seriously tough gig!
There are no fees-based-on-other-people’s-assets to be earned here.
No Product or Platform Provider incentives to fund our businesses!
We’re rewarded for our ability to get others to noticeably improve their businesses. And their lives.
That’s it!
And Brett’s really good at that.
Which is why he can command serious fees.
He takes bright, courageous Founders of Advisory & Planning Businesses.
And helps them to become what they’re – by nature – not.
Truly effective business people.
(He did point out the humour in Financial Advisers who charge their clients 5-figure annual fees.
But struggle to invest more than 4-figures annually on their critical education… as business people, as opposed to technicians.)
He passionately encouraged me to keep on keeping on.
Even when some efforts simply don’t work.
And I’m left with my face in the dirt.
Because there’s so much change still needed in this industry. Of minds and hearts. Of thinking and behaviour.
What disarmed me further was…
How much I thought I understood about him.
And how much I was wrong!
As I listened, I heard Brett use the “LOVE” word at least 4 times.
And we men seldom do that.
Do we?
He didn’t just say that he still LOVED his work.
He passionately expressed how much he LOVES the people he works with.
And that’s why he’s still here. 20 years on.
Doing his extraordinary thing.
A Funny Thing Happened to Me at This Week’s PFS Conference.
I learned – yet again – that you can walk around for 15 years with an assumption about what you know.
Then discover – in 10 minutes – that your assumption is just that. An assumption.
Almost totally devoid of truth.
Yep. A Funny Thing Really Did Happen to Me at This Week’s PFS Conference.
I got to talk to Brett Davidson.
And I’m richer for it!
