The Sketch Guy, Carl Richards, CFP, Speaks with Marie Swift: On Being a Guide in a Changing Landscape

In this Swift Chat video conversation, I speak with author / speaker / thought leader Carl Richards. The topic: Why advisors should think of themselves as a guide in a changing landscape, not a seller of certainty or a defender of an outdated map.

Carl is a Certified Financial Planner™ and creator of the Sketch Guy column, appearing weekly in The New York Times since 2010. Carl has also been featured on Marketplace Money, Oprah.com, and Forbes.com. In addition, Carl has become a frequent keynote speaker at financial planning conferences and visual learning events around the world.

In this blog post, you will find an excerpt  from the forthcoming  paper, Conversations That Matter, a video interview with  Carl Richards, and an invitation to the webinar via RIA Channel where I'll be joined by  Bob Veres, Shannon Stone, and Heather  Kelly.

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Register for the Conversations That Matter webinar (live Nov 20, 2020, replay available thereafter) via RIA Channel and get:

-  An overview of  the  survey results
-  A copy  of the Special Report
- Insights and observations from Bob Veres, Heather Kelly, Shannon Stone and Marie Swift

Carl's comments (and many other  financial advisors, academics and industry influentials) will  be included in the paper.

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Carl Richards has long been known for his visionary work within the fiduciary advisor community. In a video chat on November 3, 2020, Carl shared his thoughts with Marie Swift of Impact Communications. Watch the 13-minute Swift Chat to learn more about Richard’s current initiatives and where he is focusing now.

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An excerpt from the Conversations That Matter
paper is shown below

    When the client walks in and they bring the stress of their current situation with them, part of the advisor’s job is to be the release valve for their anxiety. Not to go on the defensive." ~ Carl Richards, CFP

Looking Back Gives Provides Clarity for the Future

2020 has forced advisors and clients to think about what matters to them personally and professionally. Advisors have seen a shift in their client’s focus, wanting to spend more time planning for family, health, and long-term well-being. While the financial advisor role has been changing over the last few years, 2020 proved that wealth management is no longer the only necessary skill needed for a successful advisory practice. Advisors had to shift:

1. How they communicated with their clients
2. When they communicated with them
3. The topics they spoke or wrote about
4. The products they chose to invest their clients’ money in
5. How they view the value of their advice

Defending an Outdated Map Doesn’t Work

Many advisors consciously or subconsciously had to shift how they view their relationship with their clients, becoming guides as opposed to map builders or, gulp, defenders of an outdated map. So says Carl Richards, CFP®, Founder of Behavior Gap and creator of the Sketch Guy column which has appeared in The New York Times since 2010.

Richards describes our current situation the following way:

“I think for too long, we've thought of ourselves, financial advisors, as map builders. We’ve allowed ourselves to become sellers of certainty. And the dilemma is, certainty is easy to sell, but it's impossible to deliver. If you’re a defender of a map and the map blows up, you feel shame, you feel blame, you feel like you've let people down. When you’re a defender, you also get defensive. When the client walks in and they bring the stress of their current situation with them, part of the advisor’s job is to be the release valve for their anxiety. Not to go on the defensive.”

“If advisors switch the framing from which they operate from map building or defensive planning to reality based financial planning, it allows them to become the guide in a changing landscape. The guide absorbs client stress and anxiety with empathy and compassion while reminding their clients that they may not know exactly where the road will lead, but they have the skills and knowledge to put their client’s on the right path.”

Kenneth Korngold, International Director at Intercontinental Wealth Advisors, said via the Conversations That Matter survey (essay box): “During periods of such great loss on a human scale our role as financial advisors take center stage as guardians and stewards of our clients patrimony thus the conversation deepen. This is facilitated by the bonds developed throughout the years through our friendships with our clients.”

Another interesting metaphor to Richards is the pilot: “You know, the only thing worse than really turbulent weather in a plane, being a passenger and really turbulent weather, the only thing worse is seeing your pilot freak out. Right? So, so the pilot can be empathetic. But there's a difference between being empathetic and transferring my anxiety to you. You're human, living through this experience yourself as a planner. And it may be exacerbated by the fact that your revenue is linked to this thing, too. So you may feel like not getting out of the bed. You’ve got to take care of yourself, but then you’ve got to get up and go be the pilot. You’ve got to be the guide. And then at night, you know, collapse and do the thing you need to do and drink the tea and have the yoga and do your sun salutations. But then get back up. You can't hide, unfortunately; it's kind of what you signed up for right now.

And so I think that framing guide versus defender to me is the most useful, because we can capture both the internal struggle that the planners go through – internal, private struggles – and realize that we all need to be more generous and help each other. A guide will grab you by your collar and say ‘I got you. I'm, a little nervous about this storm too, but I know how to deal with storms. Right? I got you.’ So that's the framing I would use to explain how I'm thinking about the current environment.”

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