TESTIMONIALS

{Having dealt with many business coaches and consultants over the years, I find Sue and the Elixir Teams style to be refreshingly intuitive and ‘real’.
Sue has a grasp of the big picture strategy discussions coupled with the detailed knowledge of how best to execute and deliver the right outcomes.
She’s a great sounding board and knows when to challenge and when to listen. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Sue and the Elixir Team to help take your business to the next level.

{Lana has worked with us for two years, first in assisting in putting together a flat fee pricing model and also as a knowledgeable strategic coach, who just seems to be across all the important aspects of running a successful advice business.
It has been indispensable working with Lana throughout the period of enormous regulatory change and the massive business transformation that we have successfully undertaken, would’ve been very difficult without her support and specialist knowledge.
Going through pricing in particular was one of the most enlightening experiences and I urge anyone has never undertaken a thorough exercise on it to do so with her, there is no better time than now and there is hardly a person more knowledgeable on this niche topic than Lana.

{Having just passed the FASEA exam, I set Graham Burnard the almost unachievable task of helping me rebuild my financial planning practice to conform to the modern environment with a three month deadline. So we put in place a CRM, a virtual assistant, a complete redraft of my compliance documents, adoption of Zoom and Docusign technology, an external compliance officer and a new website.
True to Graham’s mantra, we achieved it by taking it all “one mouthful at a time”. His input was invaluable in so many ways but the key benefits were;
1. Everytime I needed to employ an external contractor to help with the rebuild, Graham was there with a ready list of useful contacts and a brief run down on their strengths and weaknesses.
2. More it was clear with every contractor we dealt with, that having Graham as part of the team, they weren’t just working with one small financial planning practice, they were show casing their abilities to someone from one of Australia leading consultants in the financial industry. I thought that made a big difference in how seriously they took the work, the priority they gave it and their pricing.
3. The savings I made in terms of my time and the pricing I was able to achieve with these third parties more than made up for cost of employing Graham.
Having said that, Graham’s most important contribution to the project was his steady, calm, consistent advice throughout. I look forward to working with him again.

{I started working with Sue and the team at Elixir in April 2018 after a lot of consideration and very pleased I had taken the step to reach out to Elixir. Sue has been able to easily articulate the way forward with her lateral thinking, experience and skills. The guidance received has seen immediate enhancements to the practice with the monthly catch ups and analysis holding every objective to account. It is comforting working with Elixir and like minded individuals.

{ We have engaged Sue for the last 15 years and going from an infancy to mature business hasn’t stopped the quality of advice provided by her. In fact, we have gone from one of the most profitable businesses within our dealer group and recipient of the WA/NT Excellence Award to being successfully self-licensed and growing across the state, all because of her help.
Her knowledge of the financial services industry is second to none and every legislative roadblock has been overcome with ease by administering her recommendations for our business. Our processes are now such that clients are more informed & happier from restructuring service agreements. She also helped with employee KPI’s and job descriptions being rewritten to ensure staff and business satisfaction.
Sue is also an innovator, whereby she constantly keeps up with industry trends and this helped us facilitate a smooth transition that improved efficiency and transparency. Her Pricing research enabled us to benchmark ourselves against our peers as well as rethink our fee structures to ensure profitability to all owners whilst providing client value with the minimal of fuss.
We cannot thank Sue enough for her hard work and dedication. She is our lighthouse in the financial services unchartered waters and would have no hesitation in recommending her to any other financial services businesses.

{We have worked with the Elixir for the past 12 months and the process has brought great clarity to our business, we now have the practical tools to embed positive changes, and evolve our business for future growth. The complementary peer group sessions with other advisers and similar practices have been the perfect environment to have the freedom to share knowledge and challenges, gain professional and emotional support, get access to useful resources, and be held accountable to improving not only our businesses but our personal life as well.

{At Count Financial we’ve just ran our first 5 State Professional Development Day National tour, the first under the new ownership of Count Financial.
We entrusted Sue with over 2hours after lunch as we wanted to run a focussed workshop, that armed our Advisers with ideas, strategies and tools to tackle some of the very real challenges they are facing in their businesses. Sue’s workshop was engaging, thought-provoking and practical.
The session was also the highlight of the day for many in attendance and the feedback scores were indicative of the significant value the Advisers took from the session. I couldn’t recommend Sue highly enough as a speaker in any forum.

{Sue has been invaluable as a sounding board, source of knowledge and support as I have been in the process of transitioning my business. She is entirely independent and has been”in my corner” which were hugely important when making big decisions. I am endlessly grateful to Sue for guiding and supporting me through this busy and complicated time.

{It’s rare that you find a combination of technical know-how and empathy like Lana has.

I had the pleasure of working with Lana in her compliance role with Westpac in Sydney and more recently in her role as a business coach with Elixir Consulting.

I am always impressed by Lana’s ability to handle even the toughest clients effortlessly. Her ability to understand the technical and process driven requirements of a Financial Planners business often takes years to develop among good coaching professionals, but it seemed to come perfectly naturally to her.

Lana’s ability to connect and truly understand the human element is unlike any I’ve seen before and made a dramatic difference in the productivity level of my business.

Demanding as she was in her accountability, she always made sure everyone left with a smile.

Lana earns my strongest recommendation.

{I have seen Sue present a few times now and always been impressed by her industry insights and depth of knowledge of Financial Planning businesses. We were very lucky to have Sue’s peer from Elixir Consulting, Glenn Bergsma, provide an inspiring presentation for our BD Day. Advisers feedback confirmed it was an invaluable, interactive session worth their time to analyse their business to ensure the ongoing success of their future. I highly recommend Elixir Consulting.

{Sue brings a refreshing approach to the area of personal insurances. Her ideas are backed by data and focused on the future not the past. We greatly enjoy working with her.

{Lana has been my business coach since 2018. She has been able to help coach me to become a better business owner and also given me the confidence to look at how I can improve, but also what I’m doing well. I highly recommend other Financial Planners and business owners speak to Lana.

{I travelled to Perth hoping that I would get some clarity around my business goals.

Sue and I achieved in two days the clarity I have been trying to achieve over the last two years. She enabled me to get all the thoughts down and quantify the big picture. Sue has helped me take the many ideas and challenges I have been facing and develop a straight forward plan to achieve agreed goals and measure my achievements.

Thanks Sue!

{Brilliant presentation, excellent speaker and very useful content.

Completely motivated to make some changes within our business as a result. Fantastic!

{We engaged Lana and Elixir Consulting on the recommendation of our Licensee to assist us in improving our business in anticipation of upcoming legislative reform.

As a result, Lana has become our trusted adviser; she is our sounding board and an external opinion who conducts herself and her business with dedication. We look forward to our regular meetings as they bring great relief as areas of concern are addressed and a clear path for improving our business is constantly mapped out. We cannot recommend Lana and Elixir Consulting highly enough.

{After purchasing and reading ‘Pricing Advice’ by Sue Viskovic we realised how much our business could benefit through a review of our previous pricing model structure.

Not having the time or expertise to conduct this review on our own, we engaged the assistance of Lana who took the time to visit our office and take us through a detailed analysis of how to correctly price our advice fees and charges. We were very impressed with Lana’s professionalism and willingness to listen to our thoughts and concerns. We are very pleased with the almost immediate results achieved so far, and wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Lana to anyone considering a specialist business coach.

{Congratulations to you and your team on the excellent book “Worth Paying For.” I read it over the long week-end and found it completely across the issues, while being clear and concise. I came away feeling energized … setting out the different models available removed all objections and led to a logical conclusion.

It is a really good read and the Adviser Case studies were interesting. Thanks for the inspiration!

{We first went through the Pricing Advice program with Sue just over four years ago. Since then we have also used the program to review and update our pricing structures. Working through this program really helped us to clarify our ‘cost to serve’ and to implement a much more robust and transparent fee structure. It has also really helped me to be much more confident when positioning the costs of our advice with our clients and to communicate the value of the work that we do with them.

{Completing the Pricing Advice program gave me the tools and confidence to transform my business from a commission-driven, minimal service model to a full Fee for Service practice providing targeted, appropriate and relevant advice. Our clients understand that the fees they pay us relate to the advice we deliver, rather than the performance of their investments; they recognise the value of the outcomes we deliver to their personal financial situation; and we have certainty regarding the revenue we receive.

As a principal, I am confident about the current profitability and future revenue growth of my business. Sue and her team delivered a well crafted, insightful and relevant program that was practical, sensible, easy to understand and apply to the business.

{The investment that keeps paying dividends! It has been 4 years since we did the pricing advice workshop with Elixir and we keep appreciating the experience. Taking time out from running a business and hunkering down for 2 days to focus on getting our pricing strategy right was one of the best investments we made. Not only has our income and profitability increased dramatically, the value of the business has also appreciated which has been a real bonus to our stakeholders.

{In 15 years in the industry I have not seen a response from a round of PD days as I have seen with these.

Sue can clearly articulate her research and offers practical hands-on solutions. Sue has experience across the industry from product manufacturing and distribution through to General management of a financial planning business as well as being an adviser herself.

She understands the core of business sustainability and profitability which many of these types of firms do not. I would recommend any financial Services business from manufacturers of financial instruments through to dealer groups to get in touch with Sue for an immediate meeting.
How refreshing!!!

{Sue is a fantastic business coach with a wealth of knowledge and deep understanding of the financial services sector.

Sue has also delivered engaging, entertaining and enthusiastic presentations for our events which always receive excellent feedback from attendees. Highly recommended!

{I highly recommend Sue as a great consulting partner who becomes personally and passionately committed to the success of her assignments. I have worked closely with Sue, and highly value her knowledge, expertise in the business of financial advice, and contribution to developing a distribution strategy.

Sue and her team at Elixir Consulting will add great value to financial services organisations who are looking for work with a business adviser.

{Sue Viskovic’s book on Pricing Advice is a triumph and a must read for every financial adviser. I highly recommend Sue to any financial planning firm looking to get the pricing of their value right.

{As a 30 year “veteran” of financial Services, I thought there wasn’t a great deal I could gain from an external consultant to my practice. I could not have been more wrong! Without a doubt this is the most professional, focused, and efficient a business that I have worked in over my three decades as a financial adviser, most of it due to the efforts of Sue and her uncanny ability to help advisers focus on the core issues and address them in an efficient and timely manner.

Any adviser, irrespective of situation or experience, would benefit from utilising the Services of Elixir.

{We were pleasantly surprised by how relevant this program was to our business and also how broad it is –

this is not just about charging fees, it’s also about looking at your entire business to ensure that you provide value for the fees you charge.

{Sue recently presented to our network of advisers at our annual national conference on the topic of “Getting maximum ROI from your business”. The feedback from advisers on the day was extremely positive – not only in terms of the quality and depth of Sue’s content, but also her style of delivery. It is clear that Sue has a lot of expertise to share, and does so in an engaging manner. As the organiser, I appreciated the time Sue spent with me prior to the conference to better understand the nuances of our model so she could tailor her session appropriately, and the extra time she spent with advisers on-site to answer any additional questions they might have

{I have worked with Lana Clark for several years now. She has a broad range of experience that we have been able to tap into to assist us in preparing the business for the future.

Lana has an engaging personality, she can be firm and direct and diplomatic as the situation demands. She has excelled in her role of keeping us accountable. Lana has shown numerous times that she is prepared to do whatever it takes to assist us reach our potential and has often gone above ‘above and beyond’ to help us do that.

I have no hesitation in recommending Lana and Elixir as her success is our success.

{I first met Sue when she was presenting on creating the right fee model to a small group of financial planners in Perth. Her presentation made so much sense to me that I also bought her book on this subject, some chapters of which I am referring to on an ongoing basis. When the opportunity arose to sign up for the (Business Evolution) Program with Sue we jumped at it and three of us from our small company attended. The program was terrific and great value for money.

We commenced implementation earlier this year (2011) with a target of signing up 100 clients by 30 June 2011 onto our new service packages (which we have met). During the early stages of implementation we met with Sue for our three coaching sessions to discuss any problems and also to complete role plays to review our discussion style with clients. We are now well and truly off and running.

I can without hesitation highly recommend Sue and the Elixir team to anyone wanting to explore their pricing options, and I am sure they will be delighted with the result. Sue has been extremely professional and worked hard to ensure that we achieved our goal of a pricing model that would become an integral part of our growth plans. Sue was terrific to work with and has a great sense of humour which we all needed at times. If you are confused and unsure of your direction given all the changes coming our way, do yourself a favour and contact Elixir Consulting.

{Elixir has a clear and methodical method for determining the appropriate level of fees to charge our clients.

Breaking down the time involved in setting up and servicing each new client is imperative in order to get a grasp on the appropriate fee to charge initially and ongoing. Coupled with the client service document it ensures each client understands what they are paying and what services they expect to receive which we consider to be best practice.

{This is the most practical course I’ve come across in a long time.

The real value in this program is in the material that’s given out, the tools, the software program and the ability to see what has worked for others – it’s not just information provided that is based on purely theory.

{Well I am absolutely amazed at the results Lana has achieved with a business that is 28 plus years young.

Her methods are refreshing and well planned with a great deal of detail that has changed the way we do everything from first meeting to ongoing services we now offer our clients and COI’s.

{As the principal of SFS for nearly 20 years now, I thought I understood the challenges in my own business.

In a single “Juice” session with me and my staff, Sue managed to “rattle all our cages.” We are now on a mission to review and revitalise all aspects of our business using the Juice software.

{I have been in the Financial Planning and before that Life Insurance Industry for 25 years.

I have attended many conferences, been to many educational and training courses, participate in formal education and none to date has been as thorough and personalised to my particular situation as what Sue offers with her Elixir Consulting group. I recommend this business coaching group to you if you are considering this for your business.

{I have engaged Sue Viskovic from Elixir to speak at Zurich events and on behalf of Zurich at Dealer Group and Industry events.

The feedback is always fantastic. Her insight into adviser and industry issues coupled with her natural ability to build rapport with her audience is second to none. I happily recommend Elixir services.

{Sue has a great grasp of the issues facing Financial Planners in making the transition to Fee Based remuneration and I would strongly recommend planners considering this move engage Sue’sfirm, Elixir Consulting, to assist them in this journey.

{On behalf of the Faculty of Business & Economics at Macquarie University, thank you Sue for mentoring our students in the Lucy Mentoring Program. We appreciate you giving back by encouraging and motivating our future leaders with your skills, experience and knowledge.

{Sue is a fantastic speaker who loves sharing her unique expertise with people across different industries and I was drawn to her because of the way she engaged the audience, but at the same time illustrate her knowledge on the topic at hand. Sue has a solid understanding of what is takes to succeed as she has diversified her business interests across different areas – I have learned numerous life skills that will help me going forward.

{Sue is an acknowledged expert in Practice development with a particular skill in pricing models, Sue is a generous sharer her articles in Mentor’s CPD Plus are knowledgeable, clear and concise and add greatly to our subscribers knowledge.

{Given the challenges posed by LIF, Sue’s book ‘Worth Paying For’ provides an excellent road map for risk insurance advisors to ensure their continued success. The fact that it is not prescriptive and offers a range of options which can be adopted demonstrates Sue’s clear understanding of the issues facing the industry.

“Worth Paying For” is a great resource for Insurance Advisors who are looking to transition their businesses in a post LIF environment. I would highly recommend you read it.

{I have had the pleasure of working with Sue through the Elixir “Prac Nav” course since 2007. Sue has assisted us in making extraordinary advances within our business by providing both strategic direction for our business combined with the intricate detail and assistance in setting up processes to make our business achieve more for both the owners and our clients. Sue’s depth of knowledge of the Financial Planning industry is second to none combined with her impeccable level of integrity and work ethic makes working with Sue an absolute pleasure.

{I engaged Sue to get my head around a Fee for Service offering for my clients. With her vast experience on the subject and knowing that no two planning practices are the same, we arrived at an outcome that surpassed my expectations. Sue was generous in what she provided us and made a point of following up our progress. I would thoroughly recommend Sue to any financial planning practice , regardless of how mature the business is.

{Sue and her Team of Business Coaches assist a number of my clients to grow their businesses and provide an invaluable service.

{Sue is a guru with a wealth of wisdom on transitioning our business into the fee for service world. Her book “Pricing Advise” is a must read for anyone looking to transition their advice business to charging fees.

{Sue is a great listener and astute advisor.

{I attended one of Sue’s presentations the other day. One of the best I’ve seen for some time. Highly recommended and inspiring.

{Sue brings enormous energy and passion to everything she does. In her role as chairperson of the WA Chapter of the Financial Planning Association, she has shown herself to be a true leader. Sue has unwavering belief and a genuine commitment to the betterment of the financial planning profession.

{I recently had the pleasure of working with Sue on a National Roadshow for Innovation in the Financial Advice Industry.

She is an outstanding speaker who not only conveyed the cutting edge concepts from the finance industry but also pulled from her extensive business coaching experience to give a well rounded collection of recommendations for the attendees. She also showed her versatility by hosting a round table of industry experts and pulling helpful information from them for the audience.

I would highly recommend Sue as a speaker, business coach and advisor. She is friendly, bright and engaging and is sure to bring life to your business or event.

{The number one thing that working with Sue has helped us with, is our profitability. We also have a more clear investment philosophy and process. We have been really happy with Sue and Elixir, it's why we've been using her for so long! She challenges us on things and helps us get to where we need to be. The connections that Elixir are able to provide to other providers and assistance with referrals during the recruitment process is also extremely valuable. I would have no hesitations in recommending Sue and Elixir to anyone looking for someone to side with them to help you have a clear pathway forward.

{He [Graham] did what he said he was going to do, when he was going to do it. It was very clear. There were no surprises. We got great outcomes. Graham held independent one on ones with the team which really gives people a voice. He was able to really dive into that with the individuals and then distil that information up into something that's common for everybody and he created a really safe environment, which was important. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Elixir to advice practices looking for a Business Coach.

{Lana has worked with us for two years, first in assisting in putting together a flat fee pricing model and also as a knowledgeable strategic coach, who just seems to be across all the important aspects of running a successful advice business. It has been indispensable working with Lana throughout the period of enormous regulatory change and the massive business transformation that we have successfully undertaken, would've been very difficult without her support and specialist knowledge.