by Jim Stackpool | Jul 13, 2026 | Activity v Productivity, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Capacity-To-Serve, Competitive pressures, Complexity, Consequences, Goals, growth, Growth Stress, Hiring advisers, Hiring Team Members, Measures of Success, Productivity, stages of growth, Talent
Charmeon runs a $1.8m advice firm. She has just hired another junior adviser. Her plan: hit $3m by 2030. She left a big bank in 2018, starting with no clients. She is excited about her firm’s future. She has a great team, good clients, aligned centres of influence,...
by Jim Stackpool | Jun 9, 2026 | Business Performance, Client Offerings, Competitive pressures, Cost-To-Serve, Fee For Service, Financial Complexity, Future of Financial Advice, Pricing Advice, Profitability
Australians are anxious. NAB’s Consumer Stress Index recently hit its highest level since 2014, driven by what most of us already knew – that the cost of groceries, fuel, utilities, rent, and mortgages is grinding people down. Despite so much to be...
by Jim Stackpool | Oct 13, 2022 | advice skills, advisers v distributors, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Competitive pressures, Future of Financial Advice, Leadership, Measures of Success, Professionalism, Separation of advice from product, Successful On Purpose, Value Proposition
Some lessons from the covid pandemic promised to unleash new productivity growth. Studies don’t prove it. Yet. The Economist reported that post-pandemic spending is reinforcing supply lines, re-building inventories and attracting talent from the tiniest unemployment...
by Jim Stackpool | Sep 29, 2022 | Advice is not a Product, advice skills, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Business Planning, Career Management, Client Offerings, Commoditisation, Competitive pressures, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Goals, Measures of Success, perfectionism, Quality Advice, Successful On Purpose
The first benchmark of significance to me was a number of flip-flaps. When I could do ten flip-flaps at one time, I’d make the school’s gymnastic team. Gary Kurtz from my class did it. But I could never get to 10. I have slowly moved on from my missed benchmark of...
by Jim Stackpool | Aug 4, 2022 | Advice Clients, Business Performance, Business Planning, Career Management, Competitive pressures, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Greater Good, Leadership, Productivity, Quality Advice, Serve the Greater Good, Transformations, Valuations, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
I love my vinyl record collection. It started when I discovered Electric Warrior in early ’76. The collection continues to grow despite Anna’s opinion that I’m a hoarder. Regular vinyl still beats the best digital sound – vinyl is so much bigger, brighter and better....
by Jim Stackpool | Feb 25, 2022 | Certainty Advice, client conversations, Competitive pressures, Consultative Approach, Corporations Act, Future of Financial Advice, Leadership, Separation of advice from product, Uncategorized, Value Proposition, Vertical Integration
Know any life and personal insurance agents? My first training workshop was full of them. That was November 1989 at Greenmount Resort, Coolangatta. My “Agent as a Business Person” workshop aimed to assist attendees with the opportunities created by the...
