Overcoming Perfectionism Burnout While Still Serving Clients Well With A Standard Of “Calm Excellence”: #FASuccess Ep 458 With Lisa Brown

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 458th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Lisa Brown. Lisa is the president of Greenwood Gearhart, an RIA based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, that oversees approximately $1.8 billion in assets under management for 1,070 client households.

What’s unique about Lisa, though, is how her firm has implemented an approach of “calm excellence” (in contrast to a practice of “urgent perfectionism”) that has allowed her firm to manage its rapid growth while maintaining a high level of client service and mitigating potential burnout amongst staff members.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Lisa’s firm made the transition from being investment-centric to being planning-centric (helping it avoid fee compression and maintain the same fee schedule it’s had for its 43- year history), how Lisa’s firm experienced significant growth after developing its comprehensive planning model (while also adding significant work for the firm’s staff), and how Lisa found that striving for perfection in the planning process led to burnout amongst team members (who sometimes would work past midnight trying to create the best possible plans and client experience).

We also talk about how Lisa recognized that her team was likely on an unsustainable path and instead developed a framework of “calm excellence” (which her firm defines as “Striving to be our best with measured and paced progress while allowing ourselves to learn and grow from challenges and mistakes”), how Lisa’s approach has her team focus primarily on what matters most to the client and what’s going to move the needle for them (reducing the number of supposedly “urgent” tasks they face during the day), and how Lisa’s “calm excellence” model has led to more efficient (and fewer) work hours for her staff and an element of mutual respect with clients (as both the firm and the clients focus on what’s most important).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Lisa shares how her firm reduced the number of internal meetings to two (a daily huddle and a regular investment committee meeting) and only brought back other meetings on an as-needed basis (freeing up staff time for more important tasks), how Lisa’s firm has boosted morale by implementing a “kudos” program that allows team members to publicly recognize peers (and award them with a $100 gift card), and how Lisa overcame her own perfectionist tendencies through coaching, reading, and journaling and ultimately embrace the calm excellence framework.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how to overcome the temptation of perfectionism, how to incorporate a framework of “calm excellence” across an entire firm, or how to effectively reduce the number of meetings on team members’ calendars, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Lisa Brown.