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

In a discussion with a group of entrepreneurs, I asked them the question: What Makes People Successful? I enjoy asking questions like this. I always learn something from others perspectives and insights. It gets me to think at new levels. As you may expect dealing with a diverse group everyone's responses were great and quite different. I personally think the keys to success are the sum of what everyone said. There are probably more, or in some ways the same points expressed a different way.

Where is your focus? What message are you conveying? Whatever you are doing in your life or business, perhaps consider the message which is behind the following google research that I have recently done with one of our Certified Wealth Mentors George Vieth whilst "word-smithing" how we define our own values and brand messaging. This may help you re-define your own messaging in terms of focus, simplicity and connecting to what people are looking for. For us, it very much clarified the Financial DNA brand promise is that "we guide and give you the education to help balance your life and money". This is very consistent with our "Understanding People before Numbers Philosophy".

How confident are you in the business, financial and life decisions you are making? Do you have times of doubt? Have you ever created thoughts in your mind that are not reality, or what can be called gremlins? These questions are equally valid whether you are an investor, executive or advisor. When you have confidence almost anything can be achieved, adversity can be handled, your mind opens up to new possibilities, you get unstuck, relationships can get built, people are attracted to you. Personal confidence is an energy force that sustains you. With plenty of confidence, there can be never ending growth in ALL areas of your life.

What really drives you in your life? What types of activities motivate you? When are you the most productive? Where do you believe you could have never-ending improvement? These are questions we often guide people in finding the answers to. You may well ask what has this got to do with wealth creation. Well, if you believe the greatest source of wealth creation is the productive use of your human capital then it is significant. Discovering your Unique Gift is a foundational component of your Life Purpose which is vital to determining your goals and ultimately the purpose of money in your life.

Do you know what your likeability factor is? What do others say about you? What do you say about yourself? I recently read a book called "The Likeability Factor" by Tim Sanders. The message of the book was to focus and continually reinforce all of those aspects about you that are likeable and further, to encourage you to be doing more of what is likeable about you. The other side of the message is not to continuously look at the negatives.

Just as eye glasses or contact lenses improve the clarity of what you are seeing, the Financial DNA Discovery Process has been designed to clarify what you are doing with your life and how your financial decisions are aligned with your life. Seeing what you want is the first step – finding your passion. But it is vision that takes that discovery from a want to a plan. Vision is what allows you to flesh out a two-dimensional life of commitments to a three-dimensional life of vitality. Having a clear vision can deliver your life purpose by bringing your passions from the realm of your dreams to the realm of your waking life. The vision will determine the shape of your life, although people with very similar passions can end up with very different visions.

Do you have the right clients? This is a very topical issue for many financial planners, particularly those who have already built a business to a reasonable level. Actually, it is as important as the client selecting the right advisor. In the end there must be a mutual relationship with the parties comfortable with each other. The relationship cannot start out (but it often does) with the client simply having dollars in the bank account and some financial planning needs, and on the other side the client believing the advisor has the skills and the necessary integrity. In fact, these are all assumed to get to the point of the first meeting. Bob Veres of Inside Information (www.bobveres.com) has written a great article this month called "Segmentation or Bust" mainly directed at advisors to consider the structure of their client base.

This topic came from a discussion I was having this morning with some of our wealth mentors. So, you may well ask the question: What on earth has mastering your personal energy got to do with building wealth? Let me tell you it is totally connected if you believe in an "inside-out" approach to building a quality life and creating wealth, whether that be measured on financial or non-financial factors. There is no doubt I am seeing this more and more for myself every day and also a fast growing number of others are experiencing it too. Your personal energy can be described in many ways and is sourced from many things. Let's try describing it as your level of personal confidence, the positive way you feel, the balance of your emotions, your mood, contentment with your inner self, the warmth of your heart, comfort in dealing with others, the ability to show gratitude, and there is much more. Perhaps, your personal energy is at its highest when you are living in alignment with yourself and totally believe in who you are.

An activity I enjoy doing every month is moderating a discussion amongst a group of high powered, highly successful and highly interesting entrepreneurs with very different businesses and from different backgrounds. When you are amongst them for a few hours every month the ideas and perspectives that come out can be mind blowing. For me also, in a subtle sort of way, it is an opportunity to play the role of educator. Of course that connects to my passion and purpose in life. At the start of the last meeting, as usual I asked this group an "Ice Breaker" Question: How has initiating a difficult conversation resulted in a benefit for you?

Financial decisions are seldom made in a vacuum. Your decisions impact the lives of those around you, especially the members of your family. And just as you should make decisions in alignment with your life and financial personality, if you are in a family (as most of us are), you will be helped by working toward alignment with family members as well. A family unit can only be truly wealthy and lead a life of unity and prosperity with trust. The foundation for trust is developing great family relationships. The starting point is for all family members to be liberated in the knowledge of who they are and what they are supposed to do. When you look at the different behavioral styles in the family you can see that some family members will inherently have lower levels of natural trust. If they are unaware of this there is a chance their behavior will breed distrust throughout the whole family, which is the seed of disaster.

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.

An area that we are regularly asked about is hiring the right people. This is an issue that is very relevant to many of the financial advisors who use Financial DNA, as well as some of our corporate, family and entrepreneurial clients. Even some students, who we provide development programs for, ask about the hiring process to help them better present their strengths to a prospective employer and to learn what questions they should be asking. In our role working as a resource partner to many businesses and also closer to home in running our own business, I have come to learn the multiple dimensions of hiring. It definitely takes strategy, focus and knowledge of people.

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.

Did you know that icebergs connect below the surface? Well people do as well. This is where truly lasting relationships are formed. So how do you get below the surface and connect with others? I am not just meaning a one sided conversation where you find out the other persons dreams and aspirations. How do you share some of who you are with them? What I am talking about is creating a safe environment for a Wealth Mentoring Conversation, which is by its very nature mutual. Why would a prospect or client, or for that matter any one else, start totally sharing who they are with you, if you do not reciprocate? I appreciate this is not the normal approach in a traditional advisory relationship, which by its very nature is somewhat one-sided. However, in a wealth mentoring relationship where you are building a long term relationship with the client to be their trusted guide, it is absolutely foundational. This is a key differential in building trust along with listening.

There is no doubt devising an appropriate planned giving strategy has become a very big focus in the United States and other countries where the level of wealth is growing. Advisors are being asked what do we do? People are questioning their legacy and how much is enough? Some are suspicious of the process and others say, well I don't need the money nor do my children. Further, planned giving officers at not for profit organizations are looking for ways to better communicate with their donors, discover their values and make them feel appreciated. None of these are easy questions, and addressing this could take a whole book in its own right.

At the start of a radio interview, I was asked a fundamental question: What is the relevance of behavior to your wealth creation? In my view, your behavioral style is foundational to your wealth creation. When I use the term "wealth creation" I do not just mean money or financial wealth, it also includes your whole of life wealth. I adopt the approach that the correct place to start building true wealth in your life is from the inside. In essence, I have an "inside-out" approach to wealth creation.

What do you do when you have multiple passions? This is a great position to be in, particularly as many people do not lay claim to having one passion. If you do have multiple passions then in my view you are very wealthy in terms of having a quality life. Some may be surprised to know that Financial DNA is not my only passion. I add in the development of youths as another, then watching cricket (sorry not baseball!!) and other sporting activities, and wine tasting. The key is to work out how all of your passions can get squeezed into your busy life.....

Have you ever wondered why your financial attitudes are different from those of your siblings? Why is this the case when you have been brought up in the same home with the same money messages, you have gone to the same schools, and mixed in the same circles? Addressing these questions is VERY important for parents who are making financial decisions that will impact their children (for instance, business succession or estate planning). It is also important for the parents and siblings themselves to understand how these differences may potentially have a significant impact on the family relationships. Finally, the advisors need to have this insight as well so that they can facilitate the family with greater understanding.

In my last topic on engaging the client, I concluded with the comment that facilitating the Financial DNA profiles with your clients is easier than you may perceive, and does not have to take you away from being an advisor to a counsellor. There is no doubt this is a concern for some advisors particularly for those who have been more focused on the investment side of the business. In my training sessions, I often use the golf analogy, if you already have a good golf swing meaning you are a good client facilitator, then Financial DNA is putting a much better golf club in your hands. So we are not here to change your swing, just make the ball contact better and straighter, meaning have a more powerful conversation. I wish to be clear that the goal is not to convert advisors to being counsellors or defacto psychologists. Rather, our goal is to take a lot of the guesswork and assumptions about client behavior out of the client discovery process.

Interestingly, the most common question that we have been asked by financial advisors is: How do I get my clients to take the profiles? Will they do the profiles? I have been in the shoes of the advisor introducing the Financial DNA Profiles and fully appreciate the questions. Being honest, when I started down the track of introducing the Financial DNA profiles to my clients in 2001 and, before then asking more probing life orientated discovery questions, I did not necessarily expect such a process would be for everyone. Particularly in Australia where there is less personal openness than in the United States. There is no doubt that I was expecting resistance.....

Communication is a significant theme in Financial DNA and one that I am often asked to talk about. Certainly, it is a foundational starting point in all of our work with advisors and clients. How advisors and clients communicate is not only important to the quality of the relationship but also to the quality of the financial decisions that get made. What happens when the communication is poor is that people start making decisions around each other because the trust has been diminished. Also, poor decisions get made because the information has not been heard as intended. The same is true when couples, families, business partners and teams communicate.

The average fully employed person spends over 1,800 hours each year at work, more than one-third of his/her life. Therefore, people tend to spend as much time, if not more, with their co-workers as they do with their families. Essentially the workplace has become more than a home away from home. It has become home – and not always a happy one! In most cases, a business runs on results, which if not achieved will ultimately cause the business to fail and force everyone to look for other work. So it is natural for many people to become obsessively results-oriented in their working lives. The problem with an exclusively results-focussed approach is it ignores the importance of relationships and communication, which are ironically significant contributors to achieving results.