How is that for a before and after picture??
The journey from the guy on the left to the guy on the right began with a conversation in my doctors office 10-years after the ‘before’ photo was taken.
The real story is that it only took 90-days to solve my health problem. Well, 90-days after 10-years of my own dithering and procrastinating about fixing my health habits.
This is what happened.
During my routine physical my doctor gave me a serious talking to about my cholesterol levels. He recommended medication to lower my blood cholesterol levels, which I immediately declined simply because I didn’t want to be on any kind of medication.
I’d like to take a moment to recognize the absolute silliness of my response. My doctor gave me vitally useful information about my health. He made that recommendation based upon his knowledge, training and all his years of experience practicing medicine. To make my outright rejection of his advice even worse, he gave me this advice because I paid him to assess my health and then make recommendations on how to make it better.
Instead of taking his recommendation, I decided to do all of my own research on how to reduce my cholesterol without taking the prescribed medication. While reading all of the different books and Internet articles, I wrote down all the diet and exercise tips that would lead me to solving my high cholesterol problem.
Over time my numbers s-l-o-w-l-y came down from their originally atmospheric levels, but they never quite got down to the levels my doctor felt were safe to continue without medication.
Each year at my annual physical, my doctor would re-recommend that I take the cholesterol pill. Each year I’d decline to take the pill and recommit (again) to my doctor that I ‘d hit the cholesterol target by my next physical.
This became my pattern for ten-years. Every year, I’d fall short and then recommit…again.
After ten-years of doing this, I finally agreed to take the cholesterol pill because I wasn’t getting the job done my way.
In a sad attempt to keep my ego safe, I made another bold declaration. I told my doctor that I was going to take the medication to give me the added motivation to get off the medication.
He smiled with that knowing smile that someone that has heard empty promises like that 1,000 times before, but he said nothing as he nodded his head.
My research (and common sense) helped me determined that almost all of my weight and cholesterol problems existed between my hands and my mouth. This time I chose to hire an expert to help me produce a result (low cholesterol) instead of continuing to flounder doing it my way.
A friend introduced me to a nutritionist named Robyn Webb. After an initial phone interview, she prepared a customized 90-day plan to help me fix my eating. Robyn explained that if I cleaned-up my eating, then my weight and my cholesterol problems would get fixed.
Each day, I kept a food log of what I ate, how I was feeling and probably more importantly what I was doing/thinking when I was most inclined to eat foods that I wasn’t supposed to eat. On a weekly basis I’d email her my logs and during coaching calls she’d walk me through my food choices.
In the first 10-days, I lost 6 pounds. By the end of the 90-days I had lost over 12 pounds and I felt the best that I had felt in years! My body just worked better. My energy was better, I slept better and my occasional need for antacids disappeared along with the need for the cholesterol pill. With Robyn's help, I got my blood cholesterol levels low enough to get my doctor to cancel the cholesterol pill prescription.
It took me 10-years to solve my problem in 90-days. Had I hired Robyn Webb 10-years prior, I would have felt better for 10-years and would be enjoying even better health today.
The question nagged at me as to why it worked during those 90-days and didn’t work during those first 10-years. The answer was two-fold:
- This time I had a coach that acted as a helpful guide during my journey towards good heart health.
- This time I paid a fee to my nutritionist, so I had money on the line.
Those that pay, pay attention.
My nutritionist provided me with: expert knowledge, accountability, real-time feedback on my results, motivation and encouragement. From my research, I knew WHAT TO DO, but it was Robyn’s coaching and accountability that delivered the result.
You might be wondering what all of this have to do with personal finances.
The majority of the clients that I serve are nice families with children between the ages of 5 and 10. The most common area that I am able to produce a high value result in the initial engagement is helping my client with their monthly cash flows and getting their legal documents and their life insurance done in 90-days.*
My clients are all really smart people that hold professional positions with lots of responsibility. They all know the what needs to get done, but just like me when I did all my own research it wasn’t the knowing what to do that had me stuck. Making the time to implement and follow through is where I got stuck.
My most successful clients are the ones that went through that exact same epiphany that I went through before I hired Robyn Webb. They knew that they wanted to improve their financial balance and their financial lives. They maybe even read a book or two on the topic of money. They may have researched on the Internet how to achieve financial balance, but for whatever reason the implementation never occurred or never occurred to a level they were hoping.
The people I meet that ultimately become those successful clients start their journey to financial by asking one of my existing clients for an introductory meeting with me. Sometimes it happens in reverse where one of my clients suspects that their family member or friend could use a helpful guide to get those important tasks done and proactively makes the introduction.
My Initiation to You
....maybe you’ve read this far and feel like your family doesn’t have the financial balance you’d hope to have.
…or maybe you have an existing advisor that you like, but feel like they are only serving you in one or two specific areas and not in the other ten…
My invitation is that we meet for a no-cost, no-obligation initial consultation to see if the service I provided to my clients would be of benefit and value to you and your family.
The only upfront cost is our collective time. The cost of potentially not addressing certain money related to-do’s could be substantial.
Please don’t wait 10-years to solve your problem. Take action today.
Click HERE to schedule a phone consultation with me and lets see if I can help you resolve one or two of those money related to-do’s before the end of 2019.
*Guardian, its subsidiaries, agents, and employees do not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Consult your tax, legal, or accounting professional regarding your individual situation.