You're Confusing Activity for Input — Here's the Difference

[00:00:00] Nick: Don't confuse, activity,for input, for action that drives results. You know, going round and round in a , circles is activity, but it's not gonna give you the results that you want as well. There's a beautiful simplicity of when you first start out at something There's nothing. You have to do something to create something. There's no momentum, there's no flywheel, there's nothing pushing you to show up and be busy and do meetings and move your desk around and stuff. If you don't do something that creates something, adds value to someone, there is no follow-up, there is no business, there's no transaction, there's no relationship, there's no depth that comes from that.

[00:00:39] Nick: And so there's something nice about like that and the slate being clean. Like if I gotta go and put myself out there. I gotta go and find someone to talk to. I've gotta add value to them, and then something moves from that point. And there's also a frustration from being in that place as well, but all you're thinking about is, "What do I do?

[00:00:55] Nick: What's my input? What's my action that I can take that goes and creates something?" But once you do that and you start going and you create some things and you are six months, a year, five years, 10 years in, the flywheel is spinning. And so a lot of the things that you do tend to be reactions on previous inputs to get outputs that require administration.

[00:01:19] Nick: It's almost like the waste output of inputs, that it was required to pull around to make sure that all flows the output of revenue, right? And the impact that you're having for your team. And so there's different levels. It comes back around, like success is a cycle. It's not a linear thing. And so that input that you start on the front end is what you need to get your first output.

[00:01:40] Nick: And there may be some admin around that, but it's likely small because you're first starting out, and so easy to get back to the input. So I'll do this again, I get that. And after a while you kind of get so into the weeds of service, of service of clients, of setting up things and doing paperwork and running and reacting, that you start to look at the outputs and start to forget the inputs.

[00:02:01] Nick: And this is obvious and clear, but it's something that, somehow becomes cloudy. it's like the comfort zone itself. The reason why the comfort zone is so scary is that you often can't see that you're in it. And so you wanna make sure that you're always coming back to snapping that chalk line and pin and being clear around, okay,

[00:02:20] Nick: Where are my inputs right now? And something that's come up a lot in the recent weeks with my clients is bringing new people into the team, through expansion. and of course, this happens when you hit a certain level where you can review and go, "Okay, we're at the revenue level now where we need someone else new in the team."

[00:02:36] Nick: Second-- Whether that's first, second, third, fourth, tenth, whatever it might be, it's time for that next new person to come in. And every time that happens, it comes from a place of,of potential and opportunity. But it can also be something that sets you back. And so it's easy to focus on getting that new person in, focus on working on the business, as it said, and but not have a system to make sure that in the business continues.

[00:03:01] Nick: In the business continues in terms of reactions, and this is the distinction to think about- Don't confuse, activity,for input, for action that drives results. You know, going round and round in a , circles is activity, but it's not gonna give you the results that you want as well.

[00:03:18] Nick: So you wanna be really careful that, okay, I'm busy is not the same as I'm doing the right activities to lead to outcomes I wanna get to. And so it's easy to go, okay, what do I need to do today based on my reaction? A good way of thinking about it is what is driving my action right now? Is it something that's coming to me, or is it something that I am coming out for me?

[00:03:36] Nick: And so the way to create the system around those inputs is to define it upfront as well. So very simply, when you're first starting out, it might be cold calls. It might be follow up in other people's leads. So if you're a junior advisor, it might be that you're working someone else's book, and you're getting some leads for that book you can follow up on as well.

[00:03:53] Nick: If you've got an established practice, it might have been that you are doing much less of the input and much more just doing meeting with your clients and doing reviews and asking for introductions. And that's great because the numbers change around a bit as well. And so an example I'll give you for this week.

[00:04:08] Nick: so, worth thinking about, like, do you know on average how many meetings that you had, last year? and what does that look like in terms of a week? And so rough numbers, maybe call it f- 40 weeks a year and just as a starting point and think about how many meetings you wanna run. I worked with a client at the beginning of this year to really define that and say, "Okay, well, we don't know 'cause we didn't measure it in totality in 2025."

[00:04:33] Nick: But the guess was that he did between 10 and 12 meetings. And he said, "Well, I could do 18 to 20." Okay, well, what's preventing us from doing that? It's like, well, not the amount of leads, nor the opportunities. Okay, so if we get really clear about that and we start to measure it, we can really make sure that the inputs are serving the outputs.

[00:04:51] Nick: And we said, "Okay, we don't know if it's 10 or 12, but let's say it's 10, and we don't want it to go to 18 or 20, but let's say 15." And so either way, that's 50% more meetings a week, 50% more meetings a year. Now, 500 meetings to 750 meetings, that's gonna be a lot more impact, a lot more business. Okay, so we started to measure it out and understand it.

[00:05:10] Nick: And so putting it out there creates a lot of clarity. And then it's easy to go work on other things in your business. Okay, I've gotta go and create some more COIs. I've gotta go and make sure I get a new person in my team. Okay, I'm spending all my time and thinking in my CEO hours to work on my team.

[00:05:26] Nick: And of course, I've got all the other things in my life and looking after my family to take care of as well. Oh my goodness, now my average meetings are now down to seven. So creating a system for your inputs is vitally important if you want to continue to trade up. And every time you do trade up, that system for your inputs likely changes.

[00:05:46] Nick: Likely changes. And it might ch- and the further you go, you might find that change is more of a protection than what ... It's more of like, okay, I need to let more and more stuff in, versus I need to be more and more protective of what I let in. L- and so let's say, the analogy I like is pushing a, the old analogy of pushing a snowball up a hill, right?

[00:06:05] Nick: When we push that thing up a hill, when it gets really big, and that's like getting clear on focusing on the amount of meetings you wanna run, and you m- and you might want to even measure the amount of calls or reach outs that you do on the front end as well. And, after a while you'll be like, "It's solid.

[00:06:18] Nick: It works really well." You're like, "Well, I'm on flat ground here. I'll just leave that snowball, and I'm gonna go and work on something else. I'm gonna go work on the next level strategy. I'm gonna work on my client experience. I'm gonna work on my wow for my clients," whatever that might be. But you look, turn round and go, "Oh, wow.

[00:06:34] Nick: Where the hell is that snowball? It's halfway down the hill." Because we weren't clear at creating a system, having something underneath it so it really stays where it needs as well. this is three times this week it's come up for clients, and we wanna make sure that we have the people in our team, whether that be an assistant, an office manager, a COO or COO team, whatever you might call that person in your team, part of their ownership should be to make sure that they deliver amount of meetings per week on the book that you need.

[00:07:04] Nick: And then there's obviously derivatives of that to understand how many meetings with ... Is it how many w- closing meetings, how many prospect meetings, how many client meetings, how many advisory review meetings? And part of that is going through your book and understanding where opportunities are, who you need to serve, how you wanna serve your clients, but it comes from that place.

[00:07:23] Nick: And so you might have a couple of people in your team, and you haven't gotta get it there all at once. But let's say you wanna have 10 meetings a week just to be super easy on the numbers. You might find one other person in your team which perhaps does service work and maybe some new business work for you as well, they should be incentivized to, say, do at least five of those meetings for you on the week as well.

[00:07:43] Nick: So their responsibility is not just to make calls for you. "Hey, here's some clients I want you to call on and do this task for me." You wanna make sure you transfer that ownership. So we're not delegating the task of making calls. We're transferring the ownership of getting calls booked on my calendar so I can serve my clients the best.

[00:08:04] Nick: That's a big differentiator. So that person in your team can come in and go, "My goal this week is to book these five meetings or this 10 meetings," or whatever it is, not just to call on these clients And also, this is how we make sure that we can incentivize people in our team and allows us to have more impact on more resources in our team as well.

[00:08:24] Nick: Shows up all the time, but you've got to make sure that what- however time you're trading up in your business, great, congratulations. Let's come back to make sure that the inputs showed up. You need to have a way of making sure that the reach-outs are there, the calls are booked on the calendar. When they're booked on the calendar, you're going to show up for them.

[00:08:42] Nick: You can't be an established successful advisor without the showing up for your clients and be 100% reliable to do that. That's not the issue here. It's who's booking, who's calling or emailing, who's booking them, who's on the hook for making sure that they're booked. You show up and do your magic. Once you've showed up, you found some more business or there's something to do with that client to serve them, then your team takes it back, follows it through, making sure that their-- the client always knows where they are and there's never a moment where they're going, "Oh my goodness, I thought I was supposed to hear back this week, this day, this tomorrow."

[00:09:11] Nick: There's always a connectivity with that client. They're following through. We help them with the paperwork. We close the business, we move on. That needs to be assessed any given moment so we understand the inputs and the outputs of the success of your business