- Why you should only work with an advisor
that uses a predictable system
and is accountable to you.
By the end of this video episode,
you will understand why successful advisors
use a predictable system
to help you optimize your assets,
minimize taxes and so forth,
but they need to be accountable to you
and help you save yourself time, energy and money
which is an acronym that spells SYSTEM.
(light upbeat music)
So I'm Doug Andrew
and I've been helping people
optimize their financial assets
and minimize taxes now for more than 48 years.
And I've also trained thousands of financial advisors,
CPAs, tax attorneys, real estate professionals,
and also many asset managers and insurance agents.
And so I wanted you to understand
some of the concepts that I teach them
in order to serve you better, their client.
And so in this episode,
I'm gonna talk about one of the key concepts
why you should only work with an advisor
that uses a predictable system.
I wrote a book called "The 10 Keys Transformation."
This is a sum total
of what I've invested over $3 million in my life to learn
sharpening my saw as Stephen Covey would say.
And so this is the fifth key out of 10,
and I named it "Find Your Niche;
Develop a Unique SYSTEM Based on Predictability."
You want to find an advisor
that worked with you based upon their niche
to be able to optimize your assets the best.
So I'm gonna show you what this means
when I say SYSTEM.
Now Marshal Thurber is one of my mentors.
He was made famous back in the 1970s
in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, why?
Well it's because he passed
the California state bar exam back then
with the highest score ever up until that point.
And he never took one hour of law school
nor read one law book. (chuckles)
He actually had a roommate
that went through law school
and was studying to pass the bar exam
and Marshal, he has an IQ off the charts
and he just says, "Let me show you
how to pass an exam," okay, predictably.
And he helped his roommate in one weekend
create 16 mind maps.
If you don't know what a mind map is,
there's three books on Amazon,
actually more than that,
but three really good ones
that should teach you what a mind map is.
And so he's taught me how to do that
whenever I read a book.
He helped his roommate create 16 mind maps
and in so doing,
he said, "Now go take the bar exam,"
he said, "In fact, just helping you,
I could pass the bar exam."
His roommate said, "Yeah, go try."
And Marshal did and he passed the bar exam
with the highest score ever.
In fact, he went out and practiced law
and 156 consecutive lawsuits,
very predictably.
And so he learned that from a couple of his mentors,
Marshall Thurber's mentors,
his two favorite were Buckminster Fuller,
one of the most abundant-minded scientists on the planet,
and Dr. Edwards Deming.
Deming is the total quality management engineer
that transformed Japan, Asia
to the quality they put out today
with automobiles and electronics
compared to when I was a kid,
anything made in Japan was junker cheap.
So he went over there
and that's why Toyota, Honda, Nissan
became the big three over GM, Ford, and Chrysler
who ignored Deming's admonition.
So Marshal Thurber taught me,
'cause he's one of my mentors,
that 94% of all failures
are a result of the system
or a lack of a system.
So I've always used system as an acronym
and for you, it means the same thing,
I hope that you wanna save yourself time,
energy, and money.
If you go to a financial advisor,
you want that advisor to save yourself,
time, energy, and money.
And I can't believe how many advisors
don't understand how to use a predictable system.
So it was Marshal Thurber and Dr. Deming
that taught us that highly successful entrepreneurs
develop a unique and profitable process,
a unique process or a SYSTEM.
Now, effective management of anything in life,
Deming said, in one word is predictability, okay?
And that's why he was telling Ford, GM and Chrysler
back in the '70s,
you need to create predictable quality
when you manufacture automobiles
in Detroit and so forth
or you won't be the big three someday,
and they laughed at him.
But see, they didn't have quality checks.
And so people would come to the factories on Monday
and they would have hangovers or whatever
and they made a lot of mistakes.
Tuesdays were better cars 'cause they were more focused.
Wednesdays were the best cars.
It was like a bell curve,
but Thursday, the factory workers
would get trunky for the weekend.
And by Friday it was all over.
So the best cars were built on Wednesday.
When that consumer report came out in the 1970s,
they said if you want the best chance of not getting a lemon
when you buy a car, make sure it's built on a Wednesday.
Can you imagine what that caused?
People would go to a car dealership and then say,
I only wanna look at cars that were built on Wednesday.
That means 80% of their inventory had to be gone over
or substantially reduced or sent back to the factory.
Deming predicted that. He goes over to Japan
and he says you've got to, you know,
shape up on your quality.
And they began to do that.
And they went almost overboard.
The Deming awards were the most coveted award to this day.
And of course, Toyota, Honda, Nissan became the big three.
So we missed the boat
but it all was based upon this predictability.
So in order for you to understand where I'm coming from
I do a fun exercise in front of audiences
and I want you to do it with me right now.
I want you to pick a number in your head
a whole number between one and 10
any number between one and 10, are you ready?
Let's see how good you are with simple math.
Take your number between one and 10.
Okay. Whatever it is.
And I want you to double that number,
now add eight to that number.
Now divide that number in half.
Now subtract the original number you started out with
from that last number.
Okay. You should all have a final number
in your head that are watching this.
So you picked a number between one and 10.
Check your math, you doubled it.
You added eight, divided by two
and subtracted the original number you started out with
from that last number,
whatever number you arrived at at the end,
your final number.
I want you to pick the corresponding letter
of the alphabet that that number represents.
So if your last number ended up being one
that would be the letter A, two would be B, three would be C
if your last number was four
that would be the letter D,
five would be E and so forth. Okay.
Take the letter of the alphabet you came up with
based upon the number you ended up with
and I want you to pick a country
that starts with that letter.
I want you to use the American name for that country
not the foreign name
and let's use a country in Europe or the Baltics.
It's gonna be towards the beginning of the alphabet.
So if your last number represents the letter A,
that might be Austria, B might be Belgium,
C, Czech Republic, D, Denmark,
E, England or Estonia, F, France, G, Germany,
H, Hungary, I, Ireland or Italy or whatever. Okay.
Have you got a country,
take the last letter in your country that you came up with
and pick a a zoo animal that starts with that letter
an animal that's not indigenous to the United States,
let's say, but it starts with that letter.
So now you've got a country and you've got a zoo animal
that starts with the last letter of that country.
Now I want you to take the last letter
in the name of that zoo animal and pick a common fruit
that starts with that letter.
Okay. Now, whenever I do this with audiences
I know what 80% or more came up with about you
Denmark, kangaroo, orange.
Now I just created predictability.
Is that what you came up with?
Or if you came up with Denmark, koala, apple, you're unique
or Kiwi, but see, I created predictability,
not 100% come up with Denmark, kangaroo, orange,
but 80%, 85%. And that's what I mean by predictability.
So when I say Denmark, kangaroo, orange
it's synonymous with predictability.
Most people will come up with this result. Okay.
And if you put this much wood in the fire,
you get this many BTUs of heat back,
Denmark, kangaroo, orange,
15 minutes later, it's a predictable process.
Does that make sense? Okay.
Now, if you didn't come up with four
as your final number, you need to brush up on your math.
Okay? Okay. Now, when we talk about predictable systems,
for years with my own clients,
I developed actually a trademark system,
Denmark, kangaroo, orange
and this process people would come in and go through, okay.
And I actually trademark this process.
I teach this to financial advisors, CPAs, tax returns.
I even teach it to chiropractors and dentists
and orthodontists and so forth.
But this is a system
on one eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper.
I laminate it on 80 pound card stock
because it is that important.
I call mine," The True Wealth Transformer,"
because I have a unique niche
and I have certain clients that are the ideal clients
that will be able to implement the strategies that I teach.
But I have the enlightenment experience
the true wealth discovery
the strategic design, the success formula.
Then the refinement process
the final action blueprint, the implementation experience
and then the accountability factor.
This all goes through
a very Denmark, kangaroo, orange process.
And then every year,
when my clients would come in for a review,
I would ask them, okay, has anything changed in your family,
your circumstances from last year?
Do you have additional funds
that you wanna invest or less funds?
Do we need to make adjustments?
And what is it that you would like to accomplish?
Do you have any change in the goals
or your vision for your future?
Okay. Maybe they had a heart attack or something happen
or maybe their spouse passed away or what have you.
I am very interested in what's going on in their life
but I need to be accountable to them.
I feel like I need to answer three questions
and your advisor should answer these questions
for you at least once a year.
What have I done to create value
for you and your family during the last year?
What do I intend to do to create value
for you and your family during the next year?
And what makes me and my firm unique
and why should you continue to do business with us
versus all the other firms out there?
I feel like I should answer those three questions.
I need to be accountable to them
and I expect them to be accountable to me.
And this is incredible when we do that.
But Dr. Deming also taught this
that when you have a predictable
Denmark, kangaroo, orange process,
85% of the result of this process
is determined in the first 15%.
Now what's the first 15% of my process.
I call it the enlightenment experience.
It's understanding, it's getting it.
This is why with my clientele,
most of my clients would invest 15 hours at the least
usually 25 to 60 hours in educational seminars,
in reading books, in watching videos
before I would take them through this process
they would get it.
I didn't want them to take my word for it.
I wanted them to understand it.
I didn't want people to come and say, you just interview.
You just go make the decisions for me.
No, I will teach you.
You will make the choices of the indices and so forth
because I wanted them to take ownership of their future.
And I wanted them to have skin in the game, so to speak.
Otherwise they were not my ideal client.
So that's why when Deming said 85%
of the result is determined in the first 15% of the process.
Yes. When I have people who understand, they get it,
then it's very predictable Denmark, kangaroo, orange.
They will achieve the financial independence
that I show them in the second appointment
which was where I found out, okay, where are you at?
And where are you wanting to go?
And then I'm gonna show you how to get there.
And we will get there together.
That's based upon this concept.
Now, if your advisor does not do that,
I would recommend maybe you look at changing advisor
because this is critical. Now, folks,
if you want to learn more about concepts like this,
this is my 11th book. It's called the Laser Fund.
It's been flying off of our warehouse shelves.
You can claim a free copy of this book.
You don't have to pay 20 bucks on Amazon.
I'll gift you a free copy
but you gotta go to laserfund.com, laserfund.com
and you contribute a nominal amount
towards the shipping and handling.
I'll cover the rest of that.
And I will pay for the book and I'll fire out a copy to you.
It's 300 pages of charts, graphs, explanations
and 62 actual client stories.
It's actually two books in one.
This side are all the charts and graphs.
This side are all the stories.
So whether you're right brain or left brain
it doesn't make a difference.
This book is for everybody.
And when you begin to understand the opportunities
and you read through here,
the type of advisor you wanna meet with,
you'll know the questions to ask.
And that's my purpose.
I want you to have a brighter future
by knowing how to select the right advisor.
(light upbeat music)