Latest Articles
Reading Faces
When she sat in my office, I could not stop translating her face. The raised eyebrow was saying one thing but the upturned, impish mouth another. What I first sensed was a tough conversation soon turned into one of the most delightful visits of the day. How do you...
Future Big – Past Small
Some time back, I read an article published by New York Times guest columnist Carl Richards, CFP® that offered wisdom. Titled, “Your Future Should Be Bigger Than Your Past. Here’s How to Do It,” Richards takes on a phenomenon advisors face every day. Time with clients...
Managing an Emotional Storm
Before I answered his call, I recognized the number and felt with pinpoint precision what I was about to hear. “What are we going to do?” he asked. With surprising calm, I responded, “What are we going to do about what?” At that time, not unlike these first months of...
It’s Their Story, Isn’t It?
All of us live in a story-book world. With our first breath, we were birthed into a story of family and faith, country and culture that has been going on a long time. Early on, we live in the “family of origin” story unaware of all the influences we are continually...
Choose Happy!
Golfing legend Gary Player often tells an audience his secret to positive, purposeful living. Says Player, “Every morning when I get up, I look in the mirror and say to myself, ‘Gary, today you can be happy or you can be miserable.’ I choose happy!” Frankly, it makes...
Story’s Fertile Future
At the beginning of this three-part series, we learned how to identify poignant, turning-point moments in our past that have powerfully shaped who we are. Then we explored how we can bring those turning point stories into the palpable present. Now we look to story’s...
Story’s Palpable Present
Here begins the second of three posts on how our story’s past, present, and future create compelling client connections. What turning-point stories from your poignant past have bubbled up? Memories of challenges you faced, successes you enjoyed, and those...
Story’s Poignant Past
Colleagues aware of my work with financial professionals know this: story is a primary subject to which I return often. With the writing of Cadence of Care and the launch of my website in 2016, I have focused on how sharing a personal story connects with clients. To...
Artificial Snow
Yes, it’s true. They are creating artificial snow at the Olympics in Beijing. Some like it, some don’t. Check the facts before you launch an international incident. The winter Olympic Games have been using some form of artificial snow since 1980. I’ve learned that...
The Happiness Factor
Forbes, Trip Advisor, the United Nations, and other entities rate countries annually on the “happiness” factor. Costa Rica, Norway, Denmark, Vietnam, and Canada all rate rather high. The United States is somewhere in the mid-20s or lower. This year, ask strangers,...
Advising Couples Toward Retirement
I came across an online Forbes article by Robert Laura titled “When Couples Argue About Retirement” that snagged my imagination. The 2015 article shares links to a starting-point questionnaire. That instrument has both partners answering retirement lifestyles and time...
Retirement Conversations
Carey sat in my office a couple of weeks ago to discuss an investment in his retirement. During our time together, I suggested a strategy not only for this contribution but for those that would follow in the next several years. Once he decided, he said, “I’ve been...
Addiction
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the use of tobacco, illicit drugs, and alcohol costs our nation over $700 billion a year in health care and work-loss related expense. This figure does not begin to touch the toll addiction takes on families and...
Make Care a Verb
There has never been a time in my 63 plus years of life when it felt like we were drowning in words. We e-mail, tweet, post, blog, send, forward, save, edit, create, copy, paste, delete, and share words at an alarming rate. The fact you are reading this discussion...
THE POWER OF PERMISSION
You would think that working with and being around adults most of the time would free us from needing to ask anyone for permission to do anything. With maturity comes autonomy, with autonomy more responsibility, and with both of those, a sense of self-actualization...
Connecting with Stories
The pressure to develop new clients always stares us in the face—normally on Monday morning! As the manager who hired me wisely taught, “new relationships are oxygen to your business.” We all know it and yet the vast majority of advisors in our firm and all firms...
A clarion call to lead with purpose, Cadence of Care offers a wise and practical guide to deepening and enriching client relationships.