Host of Elementality, Jordan Haines, CFP®, outlines how financial advisors often miss the opportunity to articulate real value to people by just focusing on the future benefits of financial planning. Benefits liek increased net worth, higher probability of success, and future peace of mind are often hard for people to internalize.

Instead, financial advisors should focus on how financial planning and advice will benefit people today. This leads to increased client satisfaction and success.

Transcript

Jordan Haines:

Welcome to Elementality everyone. I’m Jordan Haines, financial models expert here at elements. And I want to bring to you a solo episode today. Now I just got off an awesome conversation with Adam Frederico. Now, none of you know who Adam is, because I’m assuming all of you are financial advisors and are super inundated into this world. Adam. 

And I were [00:01:00] introduced originally from Wade Anderson, our COO, who also does not come from financial advice, financial planning. Now Adam is a landscape. He owns a landscape company, but he also is an E O S implementer. What does that, the entrepreneur operating system?

And without getting into what this system actually is, I will tease it and wait for next week. So you’ll have to be patient for then. Essentially what it is. It’s a system to run your business, get things out of your head. And out in the open and recorded. So you know how to run your business. It’s fantastic for solo entrepreneurs. It’s wonderful for a business like elements that’s rapidly growing and it’s great for even medium-sized businesses. So I’ll let you get excited for next week, but there is something that we talked about in the meeting that has really caused me to think. And one of the important aspects of EOS. Is the focus on digestible periods of time in which we take action. And that system, they call [00:02:00] them 90 day rocks. What are you going, essentially? 

What that is is what are you going to do in the next 90 day? To make a meaningful impact on your business. And I really like that because for me personally, in my own career and in my own personal life, I have a hard time looking beyond even just. A year. Or six months from aura. Now I might be unique in that. 

I’m pretty darn young. So I have a long time to continue working. But I tend to operate my life. As someone that may be can see a month, two, maybe even three months into the future. And beyond that, I don’t know. And I don’t try to know. Because of that. I want to focus on the things that are most important to me right now. Now, one of the issues that I see with financial planning, financial advice, as it exists today. As we focus almost entirely on the future. Now go to LinkedIn, go to Twitter, go to Facebook. Um, Instagram, YouTube, wherever you find financial advisors, posting content. And I want you to look at what [00:03:00] they state as the benefit of doing a quote unquote financial plan or engaging with a financial planner or financial advisor. And I can almost guarantee that in 90% of those, uh, uh, posts or situations, you’re going to find an advisor that is talking about future benefits. Preparing for the future. 

That’s a scary value proposition because for me personally, I don’t really care. And the reason I don’t care is because I have no idea what’s going to happen to me 30 years from now. So you’re going to tell me that if I invest, I’m going to have compounding returns and in 20 years, I’m going to have a $6 million more than I would if I didn’t do that today. What does that actually mean to me today? How is that going to change my life? Today. 

And that’s what I want to talk about here and what I really want to surface to you today. What are you doing? That is solving some sort of a problem to your clients right [00:04:00] now. Today. Not in 10 years, not in 15 years, not in 30 years. Today. If they partake in the value of financial planning, if they come and they talk to you as a financial advisor, what are they going to receive? 

Right. Now. 

What does that. Now a great friend of mine who is also an element’s user, Brett, my Koski. he posted something today. I’m going to dig that up real quick, because I think it’s really valuable and he tagged me in it. Um, And it’s, and it was in response to an article that he had written about the future benefits of financial advice. 

And I questioned him and asked the same question. Um, what about what’s happening today? How can we do that? And he mentioned me in this post and he listed quite a few things. I thought this was really valuable. This is what he wrote. He said, here are the 10 ways financial planning or financial advice can help you the client today. Number one clarity. Number two focus. Number three stress reduction. 

Those are [00:05:00] my favorite three. And we’ll talk about those more. Number four, confidence and empowerment. Number five improved cashflow. Number six better debt management. Number seven lower taxes, number eight protection number nine, goal alignment and number 10, move beyond rules of thumb. 

These are a great example, good list of things that I can receive today from doing financial planning. 

So if I do what you asked me to do financial advisor, what am I going to get out of it? Not what’s going to happen to me in 30 years. I want to know what I’m going to get out right now. Now those first, um, Let’s say four or five are my favorite clarity. He says a financial plan gives you the clear picture of your current financial situation, helping you make more informed decisions in your everyday life. 

I can think of so many times in my personal life where I don’t take action. Because I have no idea what’s gonna happen. There’s no clarity. I don’t know what I’m working towards. There’s no rally and crime my life. If you have a financial plan, we’re hoping that if you sit down with a [00:06:00] financial advisor, you can receive a little bit more clarity today that what you are doing is the right thing. I think focus is a little underrated. 

That’s his number two. This is what he says. He says there’s an endless supply of financial information out there. Some good, some bad. When you have clear understanding of your situation, you can tune out the noise and focus on what actually. Matters. I love that. Now I’m a big follower of, uh, an author. Uh, thought leader named Patrick Lencioni. Um, he’s written tons of books. 

Many of you have probably read them before or heard of them. Five dysfunctions of a team is one of them. The advantage is another one. Um, He’s the founder and owner of the table group, a consulting agency for companies. Around organizational health. And one of the things that he stresses in his consulting engagements, and a lot of his books is this concept of a rallying cry. I know, actually what I’m working towards, just having that focus alone is really helpful. 

So I would even go as far to say that this particular point focus, we can focus on [00:07:00] near term focus. What’s going to happen in the next 90 days. That brings us back to this EOS idea, this, this idea of a 90 day rock. Number three. Uh, Brett says stress reduction. Is what he says. Having a clear financial plan in place can immediately reduce anxiety about money. You’ll sleep better knowing you’re making smart money decisions. I think that that’s probably, that would be number one on my list. I think there’s so much anxiety out there around money. And I’ve referenced this conversation so much. 

I did it a few weeks ago when we talked about the core financial behaviors. I think one of the reasons why many people don’t take action is because they have a lot of anxiety that they’re not doing the right things right now. And while financial advisor has come to them and said, Hey, if you do these things, you’re going to be well-prepared 30 years from now. I don’t feel like today I’m doing the right things. I don’t know if I’m saving enough. 

I don’t know if I’ve enough liquidity. I don’t know if I have allies sings. So if we can engage people in financial advice and call out that stress reduction, I think that’ll be really valuable. Number four, he says confidence and empowerment. Understanding your finances can help you feel more confident that you’re [00:08:00] making the right decisions and taking advantage of the opportunities right in front of you. This is awesome. 

I love this. So we’re not going to go through every single point of this list, but what I would challenge each of you listening today. What can you do with clients? To help them experience near term value. 

Rather than focus on the next 30 years or what’s going to happen in 20 years, if they decide to save money, invest that and see what compound interest is going to do for them. What are they going to experience right now? Why should they even talk to you? What value are they going to get out of that? I think about those financial influencers that many of you know, Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman. Tony Robbins. The one commonality that I think they have right or wrong. Is that they really lean into that near term value. Yes, they talk about the future and the value of that, but they talk about the feelings that you will have tomorrow. If you do the things that they ask you to do. And that. Is how we get people to take action. So as you [00:09:00] prepare to listen to next week with Adam, where we talk about in-depth. Uh, what USAA is. 

I want you to think about what you can do with clients or what you could do in your business to help people experience a near term value and to create a rallying cry that is going to actually get people to take action. That might mean that you don’t present the full financial plan to them. I know that’s really controversial, but I said it. Maybe you don’t tell him what’s going to happen in 30 years, maybe you say, Hey, based on my professional opinion, this is what I think you need to do in the next 30 to 90 days. And I’m really curious. What would happen to our clients? 

What would happen to this younger generation? If we had a fleet of financial advisors. That focused on what happens. Today. If you decide to work with me. With that, I’ll leave you to it. We’ll talk next week with Adam. Happy planning.