Elizabeth Dipp Metzger

Elizabeth Dipp Metzger

By Elizabeth Dipp Metzger
Financial Adviser, New York Life

As I look at the sunrise from my airplane window on the way to a business meeting in Dallas, my blessings wash over me. I am a daughter of wonderful parents, an aunt to the coolest kids I know, a wife, and, most important, a mother of three wonderful and fascinating young children.

However, at this moment, work beckons.

Friends often ask me, “How do you do it all?” After all, I am all of the above. I am also a highly productive financial advisor with a large and growing business. So large, in fact, that my friends at New York Life have informed me that I have the privilege of being the highest producing Latina of all time at the company.

So, do I carry a superwoman’s cape and pull it out early in the morning to start my day? Absolutely not! I am very much like many women I know. Just trying to get out of bed each day, get through the hectic to-dos of life, and get to the next day.

Having come from an entrepreneurial family, having had unique work and life experiences (I did spend my time as a little girl working at my dad’s amusement park), and having a thirst to learn from others has allowed me to make some important observations in my life that have enabled me to be successful. These strategies have served me well in good times and bad.

Let me suggest a three step plan that has helped me:

STRATEGIES FOR A PRODUCTIVE LIFE

 

VISION

One of the things I have learned over time is that the most successful people I know, or have ever met, have a vision. They see where they want to be and what they want to do. They don’t always know how exactly they will do it, but they have a vision.   That vision might be something very small or very lofty. If you haven’t quite figured out what the big idea is, just try envisioning the small things that you would like to change. Little successes multiply on each other until you reach your larger goal.

Vision is as important, or MORE important, when times are bad. When I’ve had a very hard time, the thing that has helped me through is ENVISIONING what the other side looks like. It helps me take the appropriate steps to get from where I am to where I want to be.

ACTION

There are a lot of four letter words that keep us from success. CALL. WORK. Set a GOAL. What I see so often is that people talk about what they want to do and instantly talk themselves right out of doing it. I have found there is only one cure for this. ACT! The world is full of stories of the impossible happening. Why can’t that impossible happen for me?

Imagine a mother of three, including a 6-month-old baby, starting in an industry that is populated primarily by men, in a job that requires months and months of education, testing, and licensing before you begin. However, those weren’t my main obstacles. My main obstacle was my environment. No one I knew had ever achieved the production that I aspired to. Those around me were discouraging, not encouraging. So the only person I had to rely on for encouragement was me.

My solution? Take ACTION! Every time I was discouraged, I would make a call, have a meeting, network. Nothing is accomplished by thinking and worrying about problems.   When a problem comes up, you have to make a decision. Can you change the outcome by taking action? If you can’t, then there’s no sense worrying—let the cards fall where they may. If you CAN do something, take action.

What’s funny is that if you can get past the early naysayers, more and more people will start to jump on your bandwagon. And that leads me to the final step…

GET HELP

There is so much written about successful leaders, and business owners. The one commonality among almost all of them? They surround themselves with others who support their vision and help them along the way.

As a business owner, I’ve learned this well. I have a staff of four wonderful people who help me. They are very skilled at what they do. They understand what the business needs and do their jobs well.

But most important, they believe in my vision. The people that work for me, the people I surround myself with—friends, family, clients—all strongly support me in what I try to accomplish. If you find that every time you have a positive idea someone is trying to drag it down, you may need to rethink the people you are surrounding yourself with.

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Elizabeth “Lizzie” Dipp Metzger is the founder of Crown Wealth Strategies located in El Paso, Texas. A financial adviser and agent of New York Life, Metzger and her firm focus on wealth management, and estate and advanced business planning for business owners, physicians ,and independent professionals. A native of El Paso, she is fluent in Spanish and serves her local community, as well as transnational clients in the US and Mexico. Learn more at www.lizdippmetzger.com.