At the recent Top Advisor Summit in Toronto, perhaps no presentation stirred the pot as much as the talk by Michael Mountford of ScotiaMcLeod on "Running a conviction based business".

Having joined the firm directly from university, today Michael manages $500 million in client assets. In his session, he talked about the investment and self management philosophies and disciplines that have been central to his success. He talked about keeping his business simple and consistent, about staying away from flavor of the day investments and about asking clients and prospects tough questions.

He also talked about coming to work to work. One of his ideas an advisor commented to me on afterwards was ensuring that before leaving the office on Friday, he plans the week ahead so that he hits the ground running on Monday morning.

More controversial was the discussion of his habit of working on many Sundays - particularly in the spring and fall when this doesn't interfere with family time skiing and sailing with his wife and children.

While not common practice, there are advisors who work many Sundays to get caught up on paperwork and get their reading done. Less typical are advisors who use that time to call clients.

Michael talked about the initial concern which some clients express when he calls them at home on Sunday. Often, their immediate question is "What's the matter?" To this he replies, "Nothing's wrong, I'm in the office today and was reviewing your portfolio and thought I'd give you a call to talk about it."

Of course, you don't have to work Sundays to achieve this effect - you could accomplish almost the same thing by working the odd evening.

There are a number of lessons from the Sunday Michael Mountford spends working in the office.

First, successful advisors stay successful by maintaining their work ethic and their edge.

Second, it's hard to stand out by doing what clients expect, calling them when they expect to be called on the topics they expect to be called about. Talking about the commitment to your clients isn't enough - you have to demonstrate it.

And finally, in a time pressed world when it's hard to have quality conversations with busy clients, there are real advantages to finding ways to talk to them when they aren't distracted with competing demands for their time and attention.

Working Sundays helps gives Michael Mountford an edge. It may not work for you (and it doesn't have to be all day Sunday and it doesn't have to be every Sunday, by the way) - but the key question is, what will you do to develop the same edge as this successful advisor?