Financial DNA - Discovering Your Unique Financial Personality for a Quality Life

We all know that successful long-term advisor client relationships are built on trust. The question is ... are we as advisors trustworthy?.

There are many levels and dimensions of trust and it can be examined and discussed in many ways. Trust is not just about character, it can simply be about how we act or come across to another person. In the same setting with the same actions, one person may trust you and another may not. So to develop trust with different people you will need to adapt your behavior to meet them on their terms.

In our work of mentoring people based on behavioral styles we teach that for a client (or any person for that matter) to trust you, then the FIRST STEP is for you to trust yourself.

Many people say that they are a good listener. If you are, is it natural or learned? What are your conversations like?

The reality is that many of us are not naturally good listeners. In fact, for many of us we were not born to listen rather to set the agenda. Associated with this trait is the natural tendency to assume or hear what we want, to reach our goals. This will be even more true for a dominant person where such behaviors are very hard-wired in. Please do not take this as a judgement as it is you. You will no doubt have many strengths and this is just a consequential struggle, which can be managed with some recognition and heightened consciousness.

Have you ever been asked a question and then said "aha"? I now get it. Wow, that question has really crystallized some thoughts for me. If you are an advisor, can you recall asking your client that powerful question which gave them an "aha" experience?

Just imagine how liberating that would be if you asked such a potentially life changing question of someone you are interacting with. By asking the question, the trust in you really accelerates and interestingly for the person also, trust in themselves. Their decision-making confidence really increases. This is priceless in any way you want to measure it.

I have to admit some of my close friends, mentors and business associates have asked me these types of questions. Frankly, such "aha" triggering questions are a major reason for why I am doing what I do today.

I am often asked by advisors "Do I really need to do a profile? I already know my clients". Then some clients (i.e. investors) may say "but I already know myself" or "over time I have seen these behaviors come out".

However, whether you are an advisor or client, this begs the questions ... "How conscious are you of the people you have relationships with? Are you really noticing when there is connection or when expectations are not being met?"

I often ask advisors, "Are you sleep walking through the advisory process?", meaning you may know your process well, you have all the steps and procedures and you have learned to follow your intuition with clients. However, are you really picking up all there is to know about the client?

I was having a discussion with an executive coach about how you remain comfortable when having a potentially difficult conversation. There are a lot of theories about this and to some degree everyone will do it differently.

One of the interesting thoughts that arose was that the course of a conversation can go in many directions and you will not necessarily know how it will turn out. All possibilities can exist at one moment. You need to remember you are not the only party to that conversation. What the other person says or how they react or their tone of voice can totally change the outcome. Their reaction may ultimately trigger you to move in another direction. This has been true for me in a number of difficult conversations that I have had.

Wherever I have gone this year more and more advisors and people at large are talking about living a "life on purpose". Advisors are saying to me, we are having deeper conversations with clients about purpose. These conversations are becoming the core of how they help clients find fulfilment and make more discerning decisions. There is also a ground swell of people in all walks of life wanting to have a life with more meaning and they are starting to engage in discussions about their purpose.

To me this is very exciting. I believe people can truly develop and build a quality life once they get close to their purpose and have the courage to start living it.

Are you one of the majority of people who finds it hard to make changes to your life? Do you actually want to make changes in your life? Do you know how to make changes in your life? Do you know where to start?

In my work as a Wealth Mentor, (which involves a blend of being coach, trainer and advisor) helping people make changes to the way they work and live is a big part of what I do. To be honest, I have had to make many big changes personally to be doing what I am doing today. Becoming aware of a deep passion to educate others to become more empowered to make better financial decisions has been a catalyst for me making many changes in my life. Clearly there have been other changes that I have made at times, such as losing weight or getting fitter, that have not always been directly tied to a passion. But even then, those changes were made in the broader scheme of improving my overall life and enabling me to better live my passions.

I believe discovering your passion is an important first step because it is foundational to your life purpose and hence helps you define a goal that is worth fighting for.

One of the financial advisors in a group asked me whether everyone would go through Financial DNA. The answer is potentially yes. We have had people with very little wealth and some with over $1billion go through the process, and all of them have been greatly liberated by the personal knowledge they have gained.

This triggered the response from one of them, "Well if I was super wealthy I wouldn't bother, I would be out of here. I would have my financial freedom". Such a comment raises many questions and issues which cannot all be addressed right now. But my response was: "Well do you really have financial freedom with super wealth?". Many wealthy people are in actual fact prisoners of their wealth. It brings a whole new set of financial complications, let alone the personal issues. I mentioned that it is not always a life on easy street with these people. So perhaps financial freedom at this level is not really the dream?

So, what does money mean to you? There has been a lot written on this topic from many different angles. My sense is that this is a topic of thought that has always been there for many people but not necessarily at a very conscious level. For some, they may even find it very confronting and others may query its importance. Others are more interested in how much they can have and not so focused on what it means. Today, in our wealth mentoring work we are providing guidance for many people to find the answer to this question.

The question is important because it goes to the core of who you are and what your life goals are, and consequently your financial goals. I do not believe you can make committed decisions and ultimately build a quality life until you know the answer to this question and are comfortable with that answer. The journey of discovery will be life shaping and fun. The great thing is that the answer is different for all of us and so whatever money does mean to you, it will become foundational for your life.

Many people have commented to me recently that one of the powerful messages I deliver, is the reality that every financial decision is driven by a life issue and every life decision has a financial consequence. In essence, life and financial decisions are totally integrated.

Therefore, when doing financial planning it is absolutely vital that you understand what drives your financial decisions. To me, the primary driver is your financial personality, or what we call your Financial DNA. Your financial personality is in essence your natural born behavior shaped by your environment, experiences and education. Or we can break it down into behaviors, passions, values, beliefs, purpose and knowledge. All of these factors make up who you are and in their own way fundamentally drive your life decisions and consequently your financial decisions.