Jeff Burrows - The Entrepreneur's Success Code

Becoming the CEO of Your Life!™

Brian Fricke
Financial Management Concepts
www.fmcretire.com

I understand you graduated from our program in 2004. What is different today in the way you lead and manage your company versus before completing Mastery?
My leadership and management style was more like running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I was focused more on marketing and sales, rather than spending time on systems and processes. The old way of doing things led to frustrations with staff as well as anyone that got involved with me.

Today, with people systems and processes in place, folks have fun working with us- from employees to vendors. This is one of our core purposes now, ‘To have a significant impact on lives that we touch,’ this includes clients, employees, and vendors. (We want to be one of our vendor’s best customers in terms of quality of life, not necessarily revenue generated.)

How has the work impacted how you and your staff handle client fulfillment?
We have a clearly defined set of deliverables for clients. We know and understand what we deliver and our clients know what to expect. Now there is very little stuff slipping through the cracks- what used to be daily and weekly occurrences, now rarely happen.

What does your typical week like look now that you have become the CEO of your life?
I am pretty much like the title of my book, Worry Free Retirement, putting yourself in a position to do what you want, where you want, when you want. If I apply this to my current life, I am 90% there. The only thing holding me back is that our son is still in school so our personal life’s schedule is regulated a bit by that. Let’s see, specifics- I see clients 3 days a week because that’s what I like to do, and I spend one day/week working on the business- this is purely because that’s how I want to live my life.

I do have people systems and processes in place so 95% of the business is run day to day based on these systems with the right people operating them. I usually take summers off (this is on purpose because it is when our son is out of school). This time off enhances my personal way of life, it sends a message to people that work for me that I trust my employees, and it also gives me chance to step back and see what’s working and what needs to be strengthened in my business.

You are in a volatile business right now with Wall Street seemingly under siege. How did your work with The Burrows Group prepare you for difficult times like these?
Where do I start? It has put me in a position that I have the right people in the right place so we can get through tough times. We were able to really solidify what our ideal client looks like.

In good times everyone is happy, but in tough times the rubber meets the road. Therefore, a handful of clients have been identified that will be invited to go to other sources for their financial planning/investing. With other clients, we want to express our gratitude (this latter, larger group is actually more concerned about us than them and they understand that they, as clients, are in the right place, and that we have the right team in place and it’s a good match for them).

Prior to the big meltdown, we took 70% of clients’ money out of the markets. This was a lesson we learned from the last bear market of 2002. We looked at traditional investing and came to conclusion that this system of investing does not work for everyone. The research is solid but is based on large pension funds, so finances needed for family emergencies, new cars, and vacations are not taken into account. This type of investing mainly dealt with long term. This caused us to look at different system of investing, to allocate systems that are strong in demand and invest in those. As a result, relative to most advisors, we are doing very well. And, we are salivating at opportunity to invest our clients’ money again- 12 to 24 months from now all our clients will be sitting really nicely.

What marketing opportunities do you see given your extensive training in our Lead Generation and Lead Conversion systems?
We are in process of (in response to wire house brokerage firms laying an egg for their clients) putting together a Lead Generation piece to mail to a targeted list that is made up of people with existing relationships with bigger wire house firms. We want them to know that smaller, boutique firms are out there that may better match their needs. We will get this initial test mailing out just after first of year.

By being in contact with clients and friends of our firm with a monthly newsletter, we have let clients know that we are accepting clients. This marketing aspect makes potential clients feel like they are becoming a member of an exclusive club- prospects must be sponsored and invited. Periodically we open membership up to public, such as in times like these when some people have been abandoned by their advisors.

Is there anything else you would like to share with our clients and prospects about the program and how it impacted your life and business?
Anybody that is thinking about the program- get involved! Your life will be better in ways you can’t even imagine or understand when you initially get involved.

Here’s something really cool- because of my new lifestyle that the business supports, rather than controls, my wife and I are asked more and more by friends and acquaintances if we are retired. I have coached Little League teams over the years and often, at the kids games, other wives will ask my wife, “How can your husband do this- spend all this time away from work? Are you already retirees?” They are shocked and amazed that I am running my business! Yet, sadly, when I try to talk to them or their husbands about the fact that, if I can do it so can you, after about 10 minutes I realize that it might be easier to bang my head against the wall.

I understand that you now are the proud author of your very own book, which you mentioned earlier in the interview. What is it called and who should read it?
Worry Free Retirement.

The title hints that it targets those who are retired or those close to retirement. Each chapter has a key concept, which is then tied down with real life examples, though names and situations have been changed to protect clients. It was intentionally kept in a light tone, it’s a primer. It doesn’t put you in a position to know all rather, this book gets you thinking about all different aspects of retirement so you can enjoy worry free retirement. The primary reason for writing the book- it’s a marketing tool which enhances credibility. How many other financial advisors can boast that they’ve written a book? Clients can boast, too, that their financial advisor is an author.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Anyone can handle investments, but what else can your advisor do? We try to be one stop shopping for our clients- a solution source for them. To accomplish this, I chose to outsource with strategic alliances rather than build internal ones.

Courtesy of The Burrows Group, we created a modified Position Agreement for each of our strategic alliances. In writing, we sign off- here’s what we expect from them and what they can expect from us. I have chosen not to do any type of revenue sharing with our strategic alliances based on the perspective that we want people to do really great work. If they do great work, it further enhances our name.

Here’s a neat story about one of our strategic alliances. Financial advisors have all kinds of systems out there. For the past 15+ years, we have referred folks to same estate planning attorney. Now and then we have talked about revenue sharing and always come back to the fact that neither one of us is interested. Well, the last client they referred to us resulted in an $8 million investment account for us to manage. Here’s another strategic alliance example- We work with a long-term care specialist. Since we do not revenue share, he keeps all commissions for himself. So, if he is working with other advisors that share in revenues, who do you think gets pushed to the front of his line? We do! Also, this agent has become a client of our firm who has referred clients to us, who have referred clients to us- the revenue generated from those opportunities has far exceeded any revenue sharing program.

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Dominque Vercaemert
Valta, Inc
Charlotte, NC

Why are you still engaged with our coaching after 7+ years?
First and foremost, the best answer I can give you is that

growing a business has a lot of moving parts to it. Things change all the time. In 2005, I changed my business model from commission based to completely fee based, due to a connection with Bill Bachrach and his method of financial planning. It was like going from the old world to new world.

Because of this shift in my business, there is/was lots of work to do. Even though you go through the E-Myth work and The Burrows Group coaching, the work is never ending. This is the best business development consulting service, with many experts by your side to make sure you stay focused on the right things. This process keeps me sharp- I really like having a coach help me get where I want to go.

My focus right now is on Position Agreements. Also, I have re-written my Strategic Objective and many systems to reflect, essentially, my new business.

Any life lessons along the way?
I am tempted now and then to get off track with ideas and short cut the system- I have learned my lesson with that. Hiring is my biggest weakness. Because I trust people and am big-hearted, I have had a difficult time holding people accountable. I used to think I didn’t have time for employee development meetings and I delegated to the wrong people. Over the past 3 years, I have learned my lessons by listening to my coaches, Janice and Jeff. Now when we hire, we take potential employees through some testing- a series of questions that Jeff helped me formulate. This gives me a more objective view and steers me away from hiring the wrong people.

What is the impact on your life?
Unbelievable. . .unbelievable. I can probably say that if it had not been for this process, I would not be where I am today. I would never have been able to fulfill my Primary Aim. I used to work 70 hours/week; 7 days a week- now I don’t even go to the office on weekends at all. I have time to start thinking about missionary work, flight school, and time with my wife and golf. I am just ecstatic that I now see how my business serves my life.

What is the impact on your business model?
The biggest impact really stood out for me recently. I just got back from San Diego, and was with a group of self-employed owners. Most owners had no assistants and some had one or two. While talking with them, it was so apparent that others don’t ‘get’ the issues of delegation, they are all working in their businesses, they don’t see that there is a way to get out of the ‘doing it, doing it, doing it.’ Having the guidance to structure business correctly, to live in the visionary box rather than tactical, has been a savior to me. I think and breathe just like it. There’s no way I’d be here today without the business development knowledge and coaching help. Having the proper business structure foundation in order to grow is vital; otherwise there comes a point when things get out of hand. The business needs to be built with proper structure and accountabilities.
I have also learned to stay within my core competence and delegate everything else.

What led you to change your business model from commission to fee based?
I loved this business, not from selling products aspect, but from the perspective of seeing this as my calling, my ministry. I love helping people have a better life. I liked the comprehensive environment of 1 stop shopping- legal, tax and financial planning.

My coach, Jeff, uncovered something for me. He said, “Dom, you have been operating a business within an environment that you don’t like. If your heart is not in the right place, you can never be the kind of person you want to be.” He was right. I felt there was a lack of integrity in the bigger scope of things.
Now I am a fee-based advisor. I hooked up with Bill Bachrach, and there was an instantaneous connection. He gave me a process to follow. It was very stressful to turn away from the successes I was having as a commission-based advisor, but I jumped in anyway and I am very happy that I did. I can now be who I am, and I have created an environment where I am the trusted advisor with a wonderfully competent Deliverables Team that does the work. This allows me more time with the clients to help them with their quality of life. I have finally my built business exactly how I imagined it to be. I feel so much happier being out of that other environment- being held captive by companies that only want you to sell product did not feel right to me.

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Mike Rubie
Mountain Supply Company

How many years have you been a Client with us?
I started with you guys in 1999 or 2000.

How many years have you been in business?
My Company was started in 1960 and I took over in 1987.

During this time, you have had complete turnover of management- your CFO, COO and 3 branch managers.
When I started with my coaching, after the first 6 months I saw that I needed to enroll at least my Chief Operating Officer into the program. I remember that Mick, my first coach, was in Montana visiting so he stopped by to say hello. I introduced my COO to him and after 15 minutes of talking to my COO, Mick came back and said to me that even though the COO agreed to do the program the COO had no interest in it. Of course I was shocked, how could anyone not want to have an easier way to do things? About five months later my COO resigned, then my branch manager in Bozeman that had been with me the longest resigned, then my branch manager from Missoula resigned. Had the branch manager in Billings not been hired within the last six months I’m sure he would have resigned also. Then lastly, my controller resigned.

When all this happened I was wondering if I had made the right decision. But what I found is when we showed the new replacements our vision and invited them into our group we started to see excitement grow. This excitement started to extend to all employees. Even the people that have been here 25-30 years see that we have changed for the better. I have had several employees tell me that they have turned down offers from competitors for more money because they knew that they would not get the same environment at some other place. We have had employees leave to go to work other places and have called back in a few weeks to see if they could come back to work for us. They didn’t realize just what kind of environment they had here and they wanted to come back.

Now, when we recruit for a position, we have people knocking on our door. We have some people coming back every time and say they aren’t giving up until they get a job here. Not only does this help us in recruiting, it gives our managers great satisfaction that they are on the right track.

Now I have all the managers being coached. They see it as not only a great help on the work side, they also see the benefits in their personal side.

Please explain the biggest shift you’ve noticed in yourself and the way you go about doing business every day as a result of our coaching.
About one year ago we started a mentoring program. I noticed that we weren’t developing new managers. What I thought would be a way to just replace managers has become a great way to help the current manager push their vision down into the branch. I have five in the program right now and will be looking at adding another two to three people this fall. I didn’t realize how much fun I would have with the program or the great ideas that come from these students!

How would you describe your leadership style now as opposed to before you worked with us?
When I took over Mountain Supply Co. in 1987 I didn’t know anything about the business. So my style of management has always been to ask questions. Now I ask questions to see if other people understand what to do. I ask questions on purpose. If they understand the concepts I don’t ask anymore questions, if they don’t understand I keep asking questions until they get it or I have them research the question and get back to me.

How has your Life Purpose Statement/Primary Aim impacted your life?
Having a primary aim makes decisions a lot easier. When I developed the mentoring program it was an easy decision who should be running it. Because it fits with my Primary Aim I can have a lot of fun doing this program.

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Annie Small
Safeguard Vermont & New Hampshire
www.safeguardvtnh.com

Jeff Burrows has had a profound effect on both my business and personal life in so many ways.

If asked to pick just one example of this, it would be the wake-up call that I alone am responsible for my success or failure. This often means that I have to step out of my comfort zone and make a personal commitment to change.

Jeff helped me find the clarity of my underlying personal life-goals and discover how my business can help me reach them. From techniques and systems that lead me to hire the right people for the right positions, and to identify the management and marketing tools that support my employees' efforts, Burrows coaching and the "Entrepreneurial Success Code" have provided the appropriate framework when I needed it the most.

By applying the principles learned, my company's sales grew by 10% this past year.

Jeff, I thank you for challenging me intellectually and touching me emotionally as I overcome the barriers that get in the way of my personal joy.

Sincerely,

Annie Small

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Wes Burnett
Navigator Wealth Management, LLC
(formerly known as Legacy Analytics, LLC)
www.legacyanalytics.com

What a year of change!

One year ago, May 2007, we had a 1 week retreat with Tony Arnold. During this 5-day retreat, we explored our life goals, our Primary Aim (where we are & where we want to go), developed our Strategic Objective (the vision of the business) and our Company Story (a story of who we are and how we got here), determined our Key Strategic Indicators, aka KSIs, (how we measure what we do). It was an amazing experience for everyone in our business! Prior to this we did not have a clear vision of where we were going. We discovered that our underlying theme is to be a ‘truly caring organization.'

With this clear vision in mind, we are able to communicate both to prospective employees and clients who we are and where we want to go.

What we have accomplished:

Created a clear vision of our company and changed the name of the company
Rebranded our company with new brochures, new web sites, new letterhead, and rebranded marketing materials
Moved our business location to a new location with all new equipment and furniture and renovated our software, hardware and back up systems scanning over 1,000,000 pages for thousands of clients to go paperless
Recruited high caliber employees that are extremely dedicated to our vision- we are light years from where we were 1 ½ years ago!
Documented hundreds of work processes step-by-step for every position agreement to ensure continuity and consistency and eliminate errors and frustrations for personnel. Challenged each employee to improve their processes.
Weekly EDM meetings- different than a performance review- really gets employees to talk, also produces better leaders in our managers

Our ‘truly caring organization’ shows itself to our employees and our clients each and every day. We’d really like to thank our coach, Tony Arnold, for guiding us through these processes. We could not have done this without him!

-Wes

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Jeff Morris
Western Commercial Services, LLC
www.westerncommercial.net

Below is the text of a conversation with Jeff Morris about the results created from more than 10 years of business coaching.

Q: How long have you been in our coaching program?
In 1997, we began working with Tony Arnold. Since that time we have more than quadrupled our business, grown from 10 employees to 70, we went from one to three businesses, and changed facilities to accommodate our growth needs. In addition, our 10-year plan came to fruition last year.

Q: What caused you to seek out a business coach?
My wife and I had been listening to Michael Gerber’s E-Myth tapes and we then read the book, The E-Myth Revisited. We called for coaching and hit the jackpot when we got Tony as our coach. It was a difficult time for us, I was busy ‘doin’ it, doin’ it.’ Although I have a couple of degrees, including an MBA at Carnegie Mellon, I attribute much of where we are now to the coaching we have had. The program teaches you to hold employees accountable, helps you realize the importance of planning, and the Position Agreements and Systems are of tremendous value.

Q: What has surprised you about the coaching experience?
How successful it has been. We have been able to achieve all of our objectives. I remember Tony telling me 10 years ago, as we were going through the Strategic Objective, “You will be a dominant player in Vegas.” I replied, “Yeah, right.” Well guess, what? Tony was right, I now am a dominant player in Vegas.

Q: What has been the impact in your personal or professional life as a result of coaching?
Professionally: I was elected President of the BOD International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association, which is the premier trade association for the kitchen exhaust cleaning industry.

Personally: I am able to spend time with my family- I’m not sure I would have done so if I had stayed in the Chief Technician mode of my business rather than in the Entrepreneur mode.

Q: What has been the impact of your relationships with your employees as a result of coaching?
Much better. Everyone is clear on what we want to achieve. Our Strategic Objective is clear to everyone. You could say- we are all singing out of the same songbook.

Let me share a story with you from an employee’s perspective. About 6 months after I had written our Strategic Objective, an employee told me, “After you came out with that piece of paper, everything has sky-rocketed and changed around here.” I really would not have expected this from him.

Q: Are there any obstacles that have been transformed as a result of your work?
Many. Michael Gerber states that you need to recognize that you are the leader; how you act is how your employees are going to act. This was a hard lesson for me to learn but I realized that I had to be aware of my actions. Any rules I give to my employees, I, too, must follow. This helped me clean up my act in certain areas.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Tony, our Success Code Coach, has been instrumental in our success. The program has been lots of work, but it really pays off. It’s hard at the beginning to see where this journey is going to take you. And it can be frustrating at times because the only immediate results you see is that you have less time because of all the work you are doing! However, 1-2 years down the road you can see results, and 10 years down the road you can REALLY see the results.

This program truly gives you what you want.

- Jeff

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Karen Price
Karen Price & Associates
www.sbsforms.com

"I just wanted to send you a BIG Thank You for the impact you have had on my business and life.

We were working on a marketing project in our office this week that we put off 2 years ago because I had too many other things on my plate and was not getting anything done, let alone effectively. I realized in the process that both myself and the folks who work in my office are approaching this project from an entirely different perspective than we would have two years ago....one that is much more direct and customer-focused that will create huge results we will be able to tangibly measure.

While there are definitely outside, physical changes, a lot of the changes are inside--in the way we think and how we approach every aspect of our business, which then expresses out to attract the perfect customers. I feel like we are on the precipice of huge growth this year & everyone is on the same bus and excited about it.

There are, of course, dozens of things we either haven't gotten to, or aren't doing as well as I think we could/should, but I think I've come to realize we can have significant improvement & impact with just a few small things done well. Now I just need to release the need to get it all perfect!

And, of course, then there's the relationship....!!! Thank you for the work you do in fulfilling your Primary Aim & helping me to do the same!"

- Karen

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Tony Capullo
Professional Provider Services, Inc.
www.ppsgroup.org/

I want to share this with you.

I got a call today from one of my consultants who told me how excited he was about the things we are doing here at PPS. He thanked me for the strides we have made over the last year. Specifically, he said, "Thank you for being such a great leader". That blew me away. He told me that he knew I had put my heart in it and now we are seeing the results. Funny, I am so immersed in working on the business, I hadn't really stopped to notice. I have to tell you, that call, and someone thanking me, was probably the greatest call I have ever gotten. So, this message is to thank YOU for giving me the guidance, the tools and the support to make all of this happen (and I am nowhere near done).

There is an old Kenny Rogers song called "When You Put Your Heart In it". I think that would be an appropriate theme song for our next company meeting.

With heartfelt thanks,

Tony Capullo

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Marty Pomerantz
Safeguard Business Management Solutions Company
www.myvendor.com

This month, Marty shared some of his thoughts on The Burrows Group coaching experience.

How long have you been in our coaching program?
This is the start of my 3rd year.

What caused you to seek out a business coach?
I was part of a group of like-minded business owners, within the Safeguard arena, who got together to share ideas on how we ran our businesses. We shared many great ideas over the years from our various businesses, but then went back to our offices and did our own thing- the same, old thing. Our commonality was that we were all struggling with operations. (We would soon learn we also had leadership issues.) We had great discussions but never got anything resolved. We didn’t have any tools, we were just sharing info. One man in our group decided to reach out to find a business coach. We narrowed our search down to 3 finalists and interviewed each. We chose Jeff Burrows, based on his E-Myth coaching background, his presentation of his plan to our group, and his dynamic personality.

What has been your experience thus far?
It has really been a roller coaster ride; Success Code coaching truly makes you more aware and more conscious. It’s not just the work; it’s a frame of mind, a perspective that has transformed me into seeing a different way to approach everything. My point of view has certainly shifted. The up part is the excitement you feel about what you are learning. You can see the results. Also, I have learned what my strengths are. I love sales and the vision part of the business. The way I see something, as a business owner, may not be what my employees see when I present it to them. Therefore, the Strategic Objective is a piece that has been very instrumental to me. The Strategic Objective is what everything in my business refers to. I am able communicate to my employees what and why we are doing things based on the Strategic Objective (my vision of the business). The downside is that I have realized what I don’t like to do and that my weakness is implementation. What I am not good at I must delegate or hire out. It is hard to face your weaknesses, but I am given the tools to move through this. A very effective part of this coaching process has been to have someone else come in to document our systems. I now see how systems relate to other areas of my business. I am much better at looking at my business as a whole.

What has surprised you about the coaching experience?

I have been most surprised about how often in every day life and conversation I think about and relate to what I am learning. It’s crazy, I don’t think I am doing anything much differently than before, but several times/day I find myself referring to the coaching principles and point of view that I have learned.
From my employees’ perspectives, the coaching has been phenomenal! They will tell you that I am a much calmer individual.
From my perspective, the coaching and tools provided allow me to communicate in a form that is much clearer to my employees. The Strategic Objective, the Company Story and the Employee Agreements have reduced the anger and frustration for me. I used to think that the employees knew what I wanted, but they didn’t. From their perspective, I used to jump all over the place when explaining the plan and the goals. It made sense to me, as the owner, but the employees never saw a clear picture. Now, I have much more buy in and support because they can see a clear picture of where I am going. I also get much more feedback and input on how to do things better.

Is there anything else you would like to share?
Yes. Even though I am not there yet, I have the focus of doing what I want in my business & making sure others in my business get ‘it’ done. I am very aware of “creating a business that serves my life” and I look forward to being there.

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