Bringing boot camp discipline into the advice business: Lessons for advisers

Chief Brabon, a celebrity transformation coach, shared insights at the Adviser Innovation Summit in Sydney and Melbourne in June, highlighting valuable lessons that financial advisers can draw from fitness boot camps. One key aspect he emphasised is the importance of instilling discipline in clients, which aligns with the principles of financial advice.

“Our bootcamp programs, in particular, and our small group training as well are built around the premise that we motivate you through discipline. Obviously, that comes from the militaristic side of what we do, but also through support, healthy competition, and that idea that you’re working as a team,” Mr Brabon said.

Chief Brabon explained that his clients in the eight-week boot camps find motivation from having clear start and completion dates, along with tangible goals to achieve. However, he also pointed out that it is essential to address some fundamental issues right from the beginning.

“We have what we call periodised programming. We have to create things based on certain building blocks. There are certain decisions that need to be made or changes that need to be made right at the beginning,” Mr Brabon said.

“Then if those aren’t made, you can’t move on to the next level. So, if somebody starts with me and they can’t do squat without hurting their knees or whatever it might be, I have to address that before I can get them doing burpees and jump squats in all these sorts of more ballistic movements.

“It’s the same premise, we do a needs analysis at the beginning, we do an assessment to know exactly where they are just like [a financial adviser] would do to know exactly what their current situation is. Then we look at where they’re trying to get to, and we create that map.”

Much like a financial adviser, personal training can sometimes seem like an expensive service and a luxury reserved for those with larger incomes, however, Mr Brabon explained that when it is framed as a cost to achieve a goal, it becomes more palatable.

“The way we go around it is, when someone approaches us, we do right there and then a needs analysis, understand what it is that they want to achieve, and even more importantly, why they want to achieve it. From there, I basically outline how we’re going to get them to the result,” he said.

“I go through the process, what it’s going to take and by the end of that we often just get people saying, ‘OK, when can I start tomorrow’, and they haven’t actually even asked you what the investment is.

“If someone said to me that it seems to be a lot per session, because a lot of people break it down in that manner rather than looking at it as a $10,000 investment to achieve your goal, which is probably cheaper than going to get gastric band surgery and all these sorts of things. But they look at it as $275 a session. Well, no, look at it the other way around.”

Mr Brabon added that ongoing assessments are also vital to show clients that the plan is yielding results. For his business, he uses comparison photos that showcase a visible transformation after two weeks. While the frequency may differ for an advisory business, he suggested portfolio comparisons could work or simply regular updates, albeit not necessarily every two weeks.

“Every two weeks we do a photo, and we do all their biometric measurements as well. Now, it’s great to be able to say they’ve lost three millimetres off here, and whatever it might be, but the actual graphic of the photo is amazing,” he said.

Mr Brabon added: “I didn’t realise that until you actually put it side by side, you often forget how bad things were in the beginning. It’s literally the most common thing we get at the end of a transformation was the look at that before photo.

“That must be exactly the same situation for most of the people [advisers] talk to, they don’t actually realise how bad a situation they might be in right now. So, having something to show them where they were before where they are now and making that regular occurrence and not just going back to the last time that you measured them. Go back to the beginning to show how dramatic that change has been over that period in time.”