Behavior Gap Radio

In order to both do our work as real advisors AND do it for a long time, we need to do a better job taking care of ourselves. Because here's the reality. Our clients need a place they can come to dump their anxiety, and if we aren't taking care of ourselves, we'll drown beneath their anxieties and our own anxieties, too. To learn more about being a real financial advisor, sign up for the Behavior Gap Newsletter at behaviorgap.com.

We've got to change the way we do work. For real financial advisors, this isn't a new concept (robo advisors, anyone?). But how should we work? In today's episode, I review Seth Godin's book, Linchpin, and discuss how we can make ourselves indispensable. It turns out that we're most valuable when we're engaged in a process versus checking individual tasks off a list. Even more important, we need to focus on pushing past our resistance to doing small things that anyone can do and instead make the things only we can do a priority. To learn more about being a real financial advisor, sign up for my newsletter at behaviorgap.com

In this final episode of the series on goals, it's time to be really honest about uncertainty. As helpful as we find Monte Carlo simulations, they doesn't remove all uncertainty. And our clients know it. So if you want to really help your clients reach their goals, you need to become committed to the process of planning and not some outdated map. To learn more about being a real financial advisor, sign up for my newsletter at behaviorgap.com.

In your role as a real financial advisor, you need to practice keeping your personal values from getting in the way of your clients' goals. For instance, let's say you have a very strong whether parents should pay (or shouldn't) pay for their kids' college education. You can't let your opinion trump what your client wants. In this episode, we'll cover how to make sure you're putting your clients goals ahead of your own opinions. To learn more about being a real financial advisor, sign up for our newsletter at behaviorgap.com.

When we're talking about goals with clients, we need to help them define their goals by short term and long term. Do we expect this goal to happen next quarter or years from now? For instance, are we talking about planning for a big, once-in-a-lifetime trip to India is two years or an annual trip to the beach? Helping our clients define their goals can go a long way towards helping them reach their goals. To learn more about being a real financial advisor, sign up for the Behavior Gap Newsletter at behaviorgap.com.

What if we don't have to use the word "goals" to talk about them? I've found it super helpful to change our thinking a bit by using a different word: guesses. For most people, guesses feels a lot more manageable than goals. To learn more about having these conversations and being a real financial advisor, visit behaviorgap.com.

The most important thing we can do as real financial advisors is also the thing that people like thinking about the least: goals. In part one of this five-part series, we'll review why it's so important for us to get around our human dislike for thinking seriously about the future. To learn more about being a real financial advisor, visit behaviorgap.com.

The Cost of Holding On by Carl Richards: Human Behavior, Creativity, Behavioral Finance

It's the rare and oh-so-valuable book that helps you get clearer about an idea you've struggled with. Cal Newport's latest book, Deep Work, did just that for me. It's an insightful journey into what it means to do deep work in a distracted world. In today's review, I share how Deep Work helped me get clearer about the kind of work I want to be doing. To learn more about my work and how I help real financial advisors, visit behaviorgap.com.

I'm convinced that one of the things we need to talk about more in our industry are the things "below the waterline." It's the stuff that makes us happy and healthy and more capable of having an impact on the world. In today's episode, I tackle one of the things I've struggled with over the years: learning that sometimes less is more when it comes to feeling and being healthy. To learn more about being a real financial advisor, try out my Mini Course at behaviorgap.com.