Working for Jackson National in the early stages of my career afforded me the opportunity to work alongside hundreds of financial advisors across the country. Every day for seven years, I was able to consult with multiple advisors per day on a wide array of client scenarios, stories, and situations.
While I didn’t realize it at the time, the daily repetition of that job exponentially accelerated my learning curve around the dynamics of financial advice that simply can’t be replicated any other way. I was able to observe the systems, questions, presentations, ideas, designs, and process that work wonders in business development and client service. And those that don’t (I could write a novel on some of these that would blow your mind!).
In 2017, I sat in a meeting that forever changed how I viewed the future of financial advice and my own career trajectory. It opened my eyes to the fact that the future of our profession is moving towards the intersection of our technical knowledge and the human side of money. Yet, whenever I would ask an advisor what kind of training they’ve done or resources they’ve used to learn how to incorporate behavior change, psychology, and communication skills into their practice, the silence spoke volumes.
In 2018, I decided to take the best of what I had learned over the years and launch my own advisory business. I could take the best ideas and strategies I learned for business development, asset allocation, client service, etc. Once again, I have been blown away at the disproportionate amount of training and resources for mastering the technical side of advice compared to the human side.
We deal with emotional human beings on the emotionally-charged topic of money, yet the training and resources on how to connect with someone, unearth their values and emotions around money, and change their behavior are sparse at best.
In no way am I claiming to have all the answers and knowledge to solve this problem. However, I’m dedicated to uncovering the research and insights from the fields of behavior change, psychology, communication, negotiation, and more. It’s my job to bring the best ideas and distill them into practical insights that enhance client outcomes and forever change the trajectory of your advisory business!
If you’re wondering what I’m doing in those brief windows when I’m not writing, reading or recording podcasts, you can usually find me doing one of a few things:
Family
Hanging out with my awesome family! My wife, Shannon, and I live in Nashville, TN with our two sons, Brooks and Shepherd, and our yellow lab named Roland (our firstborn).
Sports
Reading about or watching the Oklahoma Sooners, St. Louis Cardinals, and Nashville Predators
Podcasts
Listening to a podcast (Some favorites include The Jordan Harbinger Show, Financial Advisor Success Podcast, Animal Spirits, Brainfluence, How I Built This, Smart Passive Income, and Exponent)
Research
Consuming and absorbing knowledge, information, research, etc. and distilling it into digestible and actionable chunks of wisdom. I’ve been told that I have the ability to “think analytically but explain elementary.” (And, yes, I understand that’s not grammatically on point!)