If you’re like many advisors, you launched your career in the corporate world. The trouble with the corporate world is that it can put you in a box that limits your potential. The advisors who really excel are those with a leadership mentality and attributes that break the boundaries of the proverbial box. Top advisors also have something else in common; They figure out how to “Control the Grind.” 

Key Takeaways:

  • When you lead by example and treat your team with respect, they will follow your lead.
  • Winning leaders welcome adversity because it brings opportunity.
  • Staying curious is key if you want to lead teams to enduring success.
  • Nonsensical goals are restrictive. Learn how to control the grind instead.

“Control the Grind” or CTG is a phrase trademarked by a recent guest on The Breakthrough Advisor Podcast: Ron Shurts, the CEO and Co-Founder of Annexus, the nation’s leading independent retirement planning product design and distribution company. Shurts joined Simplicity InsurMark CMO Jack Martin to discuss the leadership attributes that distinguish top-performing financial advisors from the rest of the field. Four of these attributes include:

No. 1: Lead by example and set expectations for your team.

In his decades long career as an entrepreneur, one of Shurts’ enduring mantras has been that successful leaders tend to be the first to arrive and the last to leave. “You lead by example and people follow you. I set expectations for people, little things like, if you’re supposed to be in at seven, don’t come in at 7:01. Will the 7:01 change the success of the day or the week or the year? The answer is no, but it’s disrespectful.”

Another way Shurts leads by example is in the way that he treats people. “I think treating people with respect and treating people with this mutual feeling of partnership, no matter what level they’re at for us as any employee, has been really successful for me. And it doesn’t always work out. But I think that’s part of the leadership thing is to set an expectation and lead by example.” 

No. 2: Welcome adversity because adversity brings opportunity.

What do President Andrew Jackson and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts have in common? According to Martin, Hurts has a tattoo that is a riff on a quote from Jackson: The storm suits me. I’m not built for the calm. And whether you’re an Eagles fan or not, you have to admit that Jalen Hurts isn’t one to cower in a storm.

The same holds true of leaders in the financial services sector. “There’s a lot of adversity in our business today. Maybe less adversity, with the stay on DOL, etc. But there’s a lot happening in our space. Good leaders have got to be able to walk toward the gunfire,” Martin says.

Like the rest of the business world, Shurts and his team experienced the deep depths of adversity when the pandemic took hold in 2020. Given the opportunity to sit around and feel sorry for themselves or go out and get something done, Shurts and his team decided to get something done. Their efforts led to the creation of one of the most innovative products in the industry and a big deal with a company they had never done business with before.

Says Shurts, “I think our business has doubled since the pandemic because of the time we took during that adversity, where we stepped up and chased it down. We decided we’re going to go get it done and continue to grind it out. Not everybody can do that, you know. People can talk about it, but not everyone can pull it off.”

The company also transformed its culture during the pandemic. “For real leaders it’s not time to hide. It’s the time to step up. It’s the time to be in here earlier. It’s time to stay later. It’s the time to be around and be accessible and figure out different ways to communicate. When things get a little bit tough and a little bit rough and you get banged around, that’s the time when you have an opportunity to excel,” explains Shurts.

Want to learn how to wire your mindset for success? Check out Jack Martin’s conversation with Dr. Kevin Elko here.

No. 3: Rediscover the natural curiosity that the corporate world shuts down.

In the corporate world, management doesn’t want employees chasing down rabbit trails. They want people to stay focused on the deal or task at hand. 

But according to Martin, “It’s hard to have the vision of a leader if you aren’t curious. To a certain extent, that’s what we’ve been able to do in our firm. There are things we’ve been able to take from other industries, processes, technologies, data, those kinds of things, and bring them into financial services and see pretty interesting results, in a positive way, just by being curious.”

Shurts agrees, “In corporate America, you don’t have to be as curious because you’re going to get paid. You may eventually lose your job. I get that part. But you get paid next week. You get paid next month, right? You’ve got your 401k. But I don’t have a job. For me, either you get curious and figure some stuff out or you’re not paying the rent next week.”

No. 4: Don’t be constricted by nonsensical goals. “Control the Grind” (CTG) instead.

In corporate America, setting goals for annual growth can be limiting. For example, say your plan is to be up 10% by the end of the year. What if you hit that goal in September? Advisors working in the corporate world may resist keeping up that pace because the boss is going to expect them to produce even more the next year. According to Martin, advisors who are really on top of their games don’t think that way.

As he explains, “It’s interesting when you talk to advisors who are really at the top of the heap. They don’t look at a year with a goal. They’re looking at really short periods of time. And they’ve said, ‘For me, four quarters equals 90 days. I’ve got to win the game in 90 days, and then I’m going to reset and roll forward.’ I always thought that was really a powerful way to start to get over this annual plan thing.”

According to Shurts, the idea of planning on a calendar year makes no sense. “How does that matter? So, you didn’t hit your goal by the end of the year but 30 days later you doubled your business based on all the work you put in the previous 12 months. Top advisors are wired much different. They’re all kind of the same. Granted, they have different expertise and different levels of intellect and capabilities. But from a pure grind perspective, it’s pretty damn consistent.”

So, what does Shurts mean by “pure grind perspective?” He actually trademarked the phase “Control the Grind” (CTG) and it’s a key concept he applies in his businesses and shares with others in the sports and business worlds whom he collaborates with.

“When I do speaking engagements, one of the things I talk about is, what can you control in your life? I get that you can control your attitude and all that stuff. But you can’t control where you come from. You can’t control who your parents were. You can’t control the environment. That might be good or bad, right? You came from someplace different. But what you can control though is the grind. You can control how hard you work,” explains Shurts.

He attributes the CTG concept to University of Nebraska football coach Matt Rhule, who told him, “If you can CTG it, good things are going to happen.” From a football perspective, Shurts describes CTG as follows:

“We don’t play football games. We play a play at a time. If you can play a play at a time, you’re probably going to be okay, and you’re not going to be, too. The moment’s not going to be too big either. Right? Whether that’s in the classroom for the kids or wherever you’re at in your career, in your life, in your business, and whether you own your own companies or not, it’s still kind of back to the same fundamentals. Control the Grind,” says Shurts.

Top advisors share a lot of good habits in common. Discover the Five Winning Habits of Top Advisors here.

Looking for more leadership insights?

You’ll want to listen to this podcast episode in its entirety. Martin and Shurts covered a lot of ground during this one. And if you’d like to learn more about Simplicity InsurMark and what our Advisor Development Organization can do for you, reach out! You can learn more about our proven Value Engineering Process on our website, then schedule a discovery call to see if we’re a good fit for you. 

As an ADO – Advisor Development Organization™, Simplicity InsurMark provides solutions to meet the ever-evolving needs of financial professionals with a mission to protect and enhance the financial security of every home in America.