Be a "Shortcut": Six steps to create more influence

As you consider your value and influence as an advisor take notice of all those who are truly making an excellent living in the financial services industry. My bet is that they're all amazing Shortcuts to their clients.

We're not talking about shortcuts of shoddy quality or questionable ethics, but rather Shortcuts with a capital S, those who make more room in the lives of their clients for the things more important to them. The Shortcut understands intuitively what trend-forecaster John Naisbitt predicted in the late 1980s about success in the new millennium. He said that the individuals and organizations that can organize and make useful the proliferation of information about to come our way will be the most successful and profitable of the 21st century.

Naisbitt was right on. He was talking about being a Shortcut — the go-to person in their own little corner of their industry who can find and distill the right information at the right time to the right people. These people make millions because they've done something the average advisor isn't willing to: They commit themselves deeply and with fierce focus in a very specialized area. They essentially become the Google of their business. Google has become synonymous with everything to do with search and research. It is the Shortcut most of us use in those aspects. What about you? How are you a Shortcut in your business?