Is your primary goal to get more revenue? Do you focus on adding more assets under management? Do you focus on success? And do you hope your clients do not call you in times of uncertainty?

If you answer yes to any or all the above, you are an advisor, not a leader.

Leaders see their primary goal as having a greater impact, according to Chris.Smith, managing principal of branding at CEG Worldwide. They focus on adding more value,  on success and significance, he said. And in times of uncertainty, they proactively call clients.

“It’s easy to be an advisor and in doing so, it’s easy to be a commodity,” said Smith, who presented at the Advisor Growth Summit, sponsored by Financial Advisor, last week. “It takes more effort and more of a commitment to say, ‘I am not going to be an advisor. I am going to be a leader and provide leadership’ and we believe that is the fastest path to this idea of pre-eminence."

Advisors want to be "preeminent," he said. “One of the biggest frustrations we often hear from advisors is that they are tired of looking and sounding like everyone else. They’re tired of feeling like they are this best kept secret of this hidden talent,” he said.

Smith said that when he talks to advisors about being confident and bold and even having a little swagger, they oftent are uncomfortable with the idea. But Smith said he has to explain to them that it’s not about them. “You’re having the confidence and the boldness and the swagger because it’s about your clients and how much you can make a difference for them, and that confidence translates over to them,” he said.

One way to look at it, Smith tells advisors, is to put yourself in the seat of a perspective client. “Would you want to meet with an advisor who is very humble and just says, ‘yes, we’re really great at wealth management and investment advice,’ or would want to meet with an advisor who looks you in the eyes and say, ‘Look, I promise you won’t find another advisor firm that is as committed to your family as we would be. You won’t find someone who is going to show up for you just as an advisor,'” he said.

Smith said when you believe you are the best because of the difference that you can make for your clients, you can help them achieve success beyond what they thought possible. “We can also help them live a life of significance beyond what they thought possible.”

“Embracing this idea of preeminence and embracing this boldness and this confidence and this swagger, it creates a ripple effect that starts to make its way into your team, so your team starts to see you show up as more of that bold, confident leader with a little bit of that swagger, and they start to show up that way,” Smith said.

Smith said language is also a key piece of becoming distinct. “It’s a combination of leadership and language, that’s how you stand out,” Smith said. You are a force of nature when you have both, he said. “That’s when people can’t deny you. They will be like, ‘I don’t know what it is but there is something about you and your team that’s just different and I want to work with you.”

Smith said these are the three main ways advisors can stand out:

•  Uncovering Your Identity. This, he noted, focuses on who you are, who you serve and how you are different. Smith said he believes most advisors at firms who have been in the industry three to five years have either forgotten who they are or did not exactly know who they are. He noted that what they do and who they are, have started to blend into one thing. “And we really lose sight of that deeper identity that transcends wealth management and financial planning and investment advice, to our detriment” he said. “And the more we lose our identity, the less unique we are and the more we are seen as advisors, as a commodity,” he added.

•  Unlocking Your Message. Your message must be simple, Smith said. “If your message isn’t simple, it will never be scalable,” he said, adding that part of the reason so many advisors struggle to have an impactful message that their team will embrace is because it’s confusing. “Again, the language has to be powerful around your leadership and it also has to be simple,” he said.

•  Unleashing Your Team. Smith said you have to inspire your team and seek their commitment on this journey, and help them to be in alignment with it. “What you do is amazing but there is something even bigger going on in wealth management and financial planning and investment advice, and that is you have this opportunity to help people live a life of significance and go do things that they would have never otherwise done,” Smith said. “Leaders do all of that plus so much more.”