In order to guide clients through the kind of conversation I just described, you have to be there yourself. You have to be clear on your values, your purpose, your goals and have a high-level of self-awareness. Here are some suggestions.
1. Download and complete my values-clarification toolkit as a way to help you clarify—and live—what you say is most important to you.
2. Learn how to gain greater self-awareness by listening to my podcast and reading the book, Elevate, by Commonwealth Financial founder Joe Deitch.
3. Learn how to facilitate values and purpose type conversations by listening to my podcast with Dr. Martin Seay.
What I’ve described in this article represents a major shift for many advisors and you might be wondering where you’ll find the time to have these types of conversations with clients. What I see happening is advisors will use technology to automate much of the money management and planning process and use the freed-up time to have deeper life-centered conversations. Advisors who continue business as usual will begin falling behind at an ever-increasing pace.
Steve Sanduski, CFP, is the founder of Belay Advisor, the CEO of ROL Advisor, a discovery process technology system, a New York Times bestselling author, host of the Between Now and Success podcast, and a financial advisor business coach.