I qualified only once for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT). It was 2007 and it was to speak on the Main Platform at the annual meeting in Denver. It was a highlight of my speaking and insurance career. It was also the beginning of my great passion for the meeting and its benefits to advisors. The energy in a room with more than 10,000 qualified advisors who want to be there is a feeling you will never forget. This is a standard you want to meet and a meeting you want to attend, regardless of your age or tenure.

Contrary to some opinions, you do not get too good to go to MDRT. The meeting is rife with TOT producers of every discipline and every country from whom you only need to learn one idea that can change your business for the better, anytime. 

It would be a herculean task to summarize the takeaways from the 2019 meeting held last June in Miami Beach but here are some of my favourites to help you get a sense of the value of MDRT 2019: 

You can either be right or be in a relationship with your clients. Offer your opinions by request only. “Would you like my opinion?” 

To network in a room full of people you don’t know, simply walk up to a group and ask, “May I join you?” 

Have a “Bias for action” in your business. It is better to do something than to sit around all day wondering what to do, or just planning what you might do.

You can predict the kind of person you will become by observing the kind of people with whom you associate.

The worst outcome is not to fail. The worst outcome is not to try. 

There is only Work/Life harmony, not Work/Life balance. 

Five steps to make the impossible dream possible:

• Writing it down makes it 42% more likely to be achieved.
• Share your list to be accountable. 
• Persist – we only fail because we stop trying
• Take “Moonshots” – Try great things and you will have less competition. Everyone is competing for lesser accomplishments.
• Give. Help someone else and light up your head and your heart.

When selling life insurance, probability of need is not the issue. It’s 100%. Consequence is the consideration. What are the consequences of their death? People buy for their consequences.

Get up. Dress up. Show up and never, never, never give up.

Gene Mahn hands a prospect a business card and a pen. He asks them to write on the back of the card the names of the 3 people they know who would absolutely pay their mortgage and support their family if they died. When they aren’t able to do it, he tells them to flip over the card and read the name. That’s the person who will do the job.

After Jim Silbernagel sells a large policy to parents, he calls a mandatory family meeting. He tells the children that they are having a meeting to discuss Mom and Dad’s estate planning, and would they like to attend? It’s a great way to attract new business and solidify cases.

Henry Ford said that “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal”. 

Steve Plewes on reducing your Energy Blocks, the G.A.I.L.s: 

• Gremlins: Toxic self talk comes when you are growing out of your comfort zone. When you hear negative self talk, use it to drive toward your goal. 
• Assumptions: We think that because it happened in the past, it will happen again in the future.
• Interpretations: Interpretation creates opinion and eliminates options. Fight against them.
• Limiting Beliefs: These are the ideas that you have bought into or sold yourself on that hold you back? 

The energy draining symptoms of the “Imposter Complex”, when you worry that people will find out you are a fraud and don’t know what you say you know: 

• Procrastination
• Relentless second-guessing
• Guilt 
• People-pleasing
• Fear 

Keep in mind that your personal energy introduces you before you even speak. 

Here are the success mindsets to get exactly what you want: 

• Stop trying to please everyone - especially clients and prospects. 
• Be completely clear about how you provide value. 
• Accept that failing gracefully is the secret sauce of success – we must be comfortable with failing - the more you fail, the more you will succeed. 
• Be prepared to walk away from the wrong prospects to save enough capacity for the right clients. 
• There is no end point to success. There is also no perfection, just progress.
• Relentlessly pursue the release of personal control of the results. 
• When activity becomes a habit, you no longer need to exercise self discipline.

Even small changes in your thinking will change your performance trajectory in a big way.

This column by renowned advisor coach Jim Ruta was first published in the October 2019 edition of Insurance Journal magazine.

For more information on the tools to use to build your brand, check out www.advisorcraft.com/solis

Jim Ruta’s mission is simple – to preserve, promote and propel the financial advisor business. A former insurance advisor and executive manager of a 250-advisor agency, Jim is a highly regarded coach, author, podcaster and keynote speaker. He has spoken 4 times at the MDRT Annual Meeting including the Main Platform. Jim Ruta is an Executive Coach and Keynote speaker specializing in life insurance advisors and leaders. He works with top advisors around the world and re-energizes audiences with his deep insight and passion. 

If you have a question for Jim, you may send an email to [email protected]