Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?
“Change is inevitable,” goes the famous saying by author John Maxwell. “Growth is optional.” Rarely has there been a time — in my lifetime, anyway — that this has rung truer. The pandemic has forced us to shift and pivot, whether we like it or not. We’re all dealing with this change in our own way; some are feeling very challenged and discouraged, while others are seeing opportunity for adaptation.
A large part of the wealth advisory industry is about helping people navigate change, whether it’s helping investors react to a volatile stock market or being there with a family as they deal with many of life’s most important moments — getting married, retirement, a new baby or the loss of a loved one. My colleagues at JNBA Financial Advisors have relied on those skills over the past year like never before.
Throughout, we’ve found that the pandemic has revealed or reinforced several important truths that are critical to navigating change, no matter if it’s in our personal lives, at work or with clients.
Having a plan is crucial.
Our firm does financial life planning. We’re planners by nature, but like a lot of businesses, we didn’t have a plan specifically designed to respond to a pandemic. We did, however, have a more general crisis plan in place to make sure we could continue our work if we weren’t able to be together. It outlined how we could work remotely, provided guidance on how to stay connected with our clients, staff, and partners and spelled out an emergency call chain. We were able to quickly put an adapted version of that plan into action. A plan, even one that isn’t all the way there, should be the foundation for everything.
Determine what’s most important.
The past year has provided a lot of clarity for people around what’s important and where they want to spend their time and resources. “We’ve had some of our clients tell us they found they don’t mind working remotely, so they’re going to put off retirement a little bit longer than they’d anticipated,” says Elise Huston, advisory services manager and leader of JNBA’s Financial Planning Committee. “Others have decided to take early retirement and buy a cabin so they can spend more time with their grandchildren. They tell us, ‘You know what? Life is short. Let’s do it now.’”
Trust your process.
Our business utilizes the Entrepreneurial Operating System, a system of concepts, tools and processes that helped us to stay on task and on target during this time of dramatic change. It’s given us really useful structures that guide us on how we run meetings, how we keep track of tasks and goals, and how we solve problems. The fact that we had a proven roadmap to follow was a game-changing lifeline during COVID-19. We didn’t have to invent a new response for each new challenge the pandemic threw our way. Eventually, muscle memory takes over and we’re able to spend our energy on more important issues.
Don’t forget the human elements. It was important for our team to reframe our processes to make sure we could continue to serve our clients as effectively as possible, but it was just as important to ensure we connected as human beings.
“Financial planning is very relational, and in turn we are a very relational firm; we spend a lot of time together and we enjoy each other’s company,” Huston says.
When the pandemic hit and we were all suddenly working from home, we quickly realized we’d need to try to replicate what it was like when we were all in the office together by adding some fun elements into our Zoom meetings. We started weekly coffee conversations where we’d talk about anything but work. We hosted virtual baby showers, a Fourth of July barbecue, a holiday party — all of which helped us feel more engaged and connected during this difficult period. No matter what change you’re working through, remember that the people on the other end of an email conversation or phone or video call are human too.
Embrace evolution.
We often tell our clients that a financial plan is a living, breathing document. In or out of a pandemic, change comes so quickly and so frequently even the best-laid plans evolve over time. That’s where it becomes really important to seek opportunities in the chaos. Ask a lot of questions and challenge conventional wisdom. How does an obstacle align with the foundational plan you’ve put together, including your values, goals and objectives? Where are you willing to compromise or completely take a left turn? We assumed our entire team would always come into work every day in a more traditional office setting, but the pandemic is allowing us to take another look at how we want to use both our physical space and video communication in the future.
Rely on others.
Don’t feel like you need to make every decision on your own. If you’re a business owner, the decisions you make impact the lives of your employees and clients, which makes it even more important to get multiple perspectives before you act. In our case, we’re very proud of the multi-generational team we’ve assembled, and their skills and unique points of view have contributed in a big way to our firm not only surviving over the past year, but also thriving. As you’re dealing with change, leave space for conversation — whether it’s with a spouse, coworkers, clients or friends. And remember that everybody navigates change differently, with distinct tolerance levels and response time.
Choose progress over perfection.
Finally, how you act during a time of great change doesn’t need to be 100% perfect. The events over the past year have demonstrated that and helped to humanize each other. We work in an industry that tends to be more structured and formal. But even our client calls and Zooms feature our dogs barking or an occasional kid walking through the background, which often produces a laugh. Sometimes the first thing to do is to simply acknowledge and appreciate that you were able to show up, and then start moving forward, one step at a time.
