The Juggling Act is Real: How Advisors Can Balance It All and Avoid Burnout

By Luis Rosa

One of the main reasons that financial advisors enter our profession is because they want to make a positive impact in their clients’ lives. However, the daily juggling act of running a business, giving back to the profession, and living our personal lives can often lead to burnout.

As part of running our business, especially for solo practitioners, we are often the chief marketing officer, the chief compliance officer, the chief technology officer, the bookkeeper, the rainmaker, the paraplanner, and the financial advisor all in one. In addition, we often give back to our advisor community by doing things like participating in panels, volunteering at conferences, writing articles, and participating in webinars or public speaking.

As a financial planner who is very active in our community, a solo practitioner, an RIA firm owner, an internship program co-founder, and an enrolled agent preparing tax returns for over 20 years, I’ve done my fair share of juggling. The juggling act has often led to an overall general feeling of dissatisfaction to the point where I’ve even questioned if I want to continue to do this for a living. This actually surprised me—because I’m so passionate about what I do—until I realized that “what I do” currently is a lot of stuff that gets in the way of what I really want to do, which is work with clients.

If you, too, feel this sense of burnout or dissatisfaction, do not worry. There is light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve learned a few things that can help you run your business efficiently, give back to the advisor community, and have a personal life—all without feeling like you’re being pulled in a million different directions.

What Do You Really Want?

For a very long time, I worked very hard to grow my practice without having a very clear goal in mind. I knew I wanted to grow the business and make more money, but that was not specific enough. I needed to develop a compelling vision of what I wanted my business to look like.

You can do the same. Get very specific. Decide the lifestyle that you want to live. Figure out the revenue that will support that lifestyle, then work backward from there to see the average or minimum revenue per client you would need based on the number of clients you want to work with. This is simple yet very powerful because you’ll no longer have vague thoughts about your overall goal. We often tell our clients about SMART goals—goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—and we should be no different. What sounds better to you? “I want to grow my AUM,” or “By 2025, I’d like to work with 50 clients averaging $10,000 per year in revenue”?

Knowing your numbers will help you identify better methods of attaining the goal because you have a goal in the first place! You can work backward from the goal because you can determine how many prospect meetings or referrals you need to reach the goal. This will drive your actions to get you there.

Use Filtering Questions to Evaluate Decisions

Once you know the goal, you can use filtering questions to evaluate any decision that needs to be made. Every time a new opportunity comes your way or a shiny new technology catches your eye, you can have a set of questions that you ask yourself to help you determine if it makes sense to pursue.

Say, for example, that you are doing third-quarter reviews with your clients, and you get an opportunity to speak at an event. You feel like you may have time for it but are not sure. It’s helpful if you already have a set of filtering questions to determine what you should do.

For example, filtering questions could include the following:

• Will this get me closer to my goal of adding two new clients per month?
• Will I enjoy it?
• If I say yes, what’s the best that can happen? What’s the worst that can happen?

Answering these questions will help you decide much faster, and you won’t need to feel bad if the answer is “no,” because if the answer is “no,” it’s because it’s not aligned with your goals. Sometimes a “no” can be turned into a “not now” if it’s something that you’d like to do but for which you don’t have time right now. When it’s a “no,” I often check with a colleague whom I think may be a good fit. This way, when I say “no,” I can introduce another advisor who can take advantage of the opportunity. This way, you do not compromise your time, and you are still helpful to the person asking.

Respect Your Calendar and Add Some Color to It!

As a juggler in recovery, I often violate my calendar, although I’ve gotten much better. In the past, I’ve had very little respect for things that I had on my calendar that were for myself, such as a workout. I started color-coding my appointments as follows:

• Green = client and prospect meetings
• Yellow = working on the business
• Blue = meetings with colleagues
• Purple = time for self or quality time with loved ones
• Light blue = administrative tasks

There is no scientific meaning behind the colors; they’re just a matter of preference. However, it provides really good insight into what my week or month looks like. So in my case, if there is not enough purple in my calendar, I need to add things for self-care like workouts and quality time with my wife, such as a date night.

If I don’t see enough green in the calendar, but see lots of light blue, then I’m spending way too much time on non-revenue-generating activities, and I need to better manage my time. This may be a sign that perhaps it’s time to hire or better delegate to existing team members.

If there’s not enough yellow, then I need to make time for working on the business, workflows, processes, and learning activities. And if I don’t see enough blue, then perhaps I should join a study group, attend webinars, or engage in local networking with colleagues or other centers of influence.

Thoughtful Balance Is the Key

If you are feeling burned out from the juggling, remember why you got into this profession in the first place, and then start actively creating the business that will allow you to live your desired lifestyle while having a positive impact on both your and your clients’ lives. Your business should be a tool that allows you to live a higher purpose, not the thing that gets in the way of it. 

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Luis Rosa, CFP^®, EA, is the founder of Build a Better Financial Future LLC, a financial planning firm in Los Angeles. He’s also the host of the “On My Way to Wealth” podcast and co-founder of the BLX Internship.

image credit: istock.com/D-Keine