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From Scarcity to Prosperity: Insights and Advice from Coach Joe Lukacs
This episode starts with a warning from guest Joe Lukacs about the very real dangers of boredom in the financial advising world. First of all, if someone is bored with any facet of their life or vocation, by definition, there isn’t enough nuance and novelty to sufficiently inspire or motivate one’s life. We all go through slumps and down periods where we lack motivation. That is normal. But if it becomes commonplace in your practice to get bored on a regular basis, one definitely needs to revamp their business plan or increase the amount of challenge in the overall venture. Joe says that so often advisors don’t want to stray from their comfort zone, figuring that because their practice is sustainable, they have the whole game mastered. In reality, they are probably afraid to fail. Instead of finding prosperity and a mentality of abundance, they settle for a middling stage of success. Yes, they are by no means lacking in revenue, but nonetheless, they are still held back by the limitations of their comfort zone; the boredom they feel is a result of playing too safely. There’s that saying that we tend to favor the known, tried-and-true territory over the terrifying unknown. Even if the “known” makes us miserable or bores us to death. And because Joe is in the business of coaching advisors to get off of autopilot and to quit functioning with their unconscious, he has some solutions to combat this complacency. He says that human beings are happiest when they tap into what he calls “expansion mode.” We learn, we absorb, we put an inordinate amount of pressure on ourselves that makes us uncomfortable, but ultimately brings much greater value to our practice. Except when it doesn’t, of course; but failure brings the greatest value of all if we are attentive enough to drop our ego and focus on the lessons they impart. Lukacs urges advisors to make mistakes and be able to affirm that they tried everything they wanted to instead of letting fear win out. And hearing Joe speak about all of this makes failing seem like the most logical thing one can do to learn how to improve and move past a mentality of scarcity to one of prosperity. We can go from the first stage, where we are just trying to break even and pay bills, to a sustainable stage where we are successful, and then to transcend that and go onto “what’s next” type of questions. According to Joe, the “what’s next” stage should constantly be renewed to prevent oneself from slipping back into the safety net of a comfort zone. He urges listeners to not be failure-phobic. There is much more said about this in the episode, and it is really quite profound the places he takes listeners. Moving onto another most-notable bit of an entire episode filled with them, Coach Joe speaks of mastermind groups and how essential they are for reinforcing positive mentalities for advisors. For those who may not know, a mastermind was introduced by Napoleon Hill many decades ago, as an alliance between individuals with the mutual intention of bolstering each other’s success. This practice is extremely valuable in strengthening your network and having profound relationships with other advisors. As Joe states is his own personal motto, he never works with clients whom he isn’t good friends with. He works tirelessly to coach and help his clients because they are his good friends. His practice is driven by client-goodwill, and so too masterminds have a non-zero sum approach for the goodwill of everyone involved.