Who is advising you?

When I was 18-19 years old, I earned a little money working in high school and the first year of college working in IT for the dorms. My parents impressed upon me the virtues of saving and investing, and specifically using a relatively new tool called the Roth IRA. Cisco was the big name in networking at the time, so in my infinite wisdom I put all $2,000 of my Roth IRA savings into Cisco.

Flash forward 10 years when I was ready to pay more attention to my investments and my $2,000 had turned into $2,000. Ten years of potential market growth, gone. Opportunity wasted.

This is a cautionary tale, to be sure, but it is also a ringing endorsement for advisory services. Similarly, when you’re forced to watch someone trying to defend themselves without a lawyer in court, having chosen to self-represent, the value of having an attorney by your side is self-evident.

You spend your days advising and serving other people. You’re counseling your clients through life-changing decisions, both fiscal and personal. You know the essential value you provide. You know where your clients would be without you or your profession. You are a representation of how important advisory services are, made manifest … and you return to your office and you run your business alone.

You are intentionally donning the garb of those you serve and making impactful strategic decisions by gut, carrying that professional and psychological burden on your own without any pressure-testing or sanity checking. You are navigating the complexities of pricing, hiring, firing, partnership dynamics, all without a sounding board who understands what is at stake.

Your spouse is tired of hearing about it, your partners are in it with you, and your peers are realistically working alone as well … they’re just in a different hole down the way.

Q1 just ended. You’re about to begin Q2, executing on whatever plans you laid days, weeks, or months ago. That plan you totally have right now.

Who was in the room with you when you created it?

You are incredibly smart, capable, and driven. You’re excellent at what you do. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t.

Can you figure it all out on your own? Maybe.

You definitely don’t need to.

You know how important guidance is. You’re fed and sheltered by that value.

When was the last time someone asked you a question about your business that you didn’t have an answer to? Or … when was the last time someone mentioned a plan they assumed you’d made, when in fact it hadn’t even occurred to you?

It’s okay if it was 30 seconds ago.

What are those questions?

Who advises the advisors?

Reach out and let me know. I know some of you have people you rely on, AI exec boards, peers, networking colleagues … others of you perhaps rely on someone else? Nobody at all?

Who is advising you?