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The Kitchen Table Is More Important Than Your Laptop
The most valuable conversations in a client’s life don’t happen on a screen.
There is something magical about the kitchen table.
It’s the heart of the home. It’s the family’s command center.
It’s where important decisions are discussed.
It’s where families decide if it’s time to take away Mom’s driver’s license.
It’s where people fret about the cost of a college education.
It’s where retirements are imagined.
It’s where businesses are sold and inheritances are discussed.
It’s where couples talk about the eventual death of one of the spouses.
Can the family afford to stay in the home?
The kitchen table is where financial visions are born.
Then There’s the Laptop
Financial Advisors spend a lot of time getting better at what happens on their laptops.
You get better tools and better software.
Research is forever getting more sophisticated.
AI has become huge.
All the information in the world is at your fingertips.
But at some point, you are going to have to close that laptop and sit across from real people.
Technology can make you more capable.
But human skills make you more valuable.
Technology Has Its Limits
AI cannot hold a widow’s hand.
AI can simulate empathy, but it cannot empathize.
AI doesn’t care about your clients’ lives.
You collect data from your laptop.
You cement relationships around the kitchen table.
Your laptop connects you to the world.
The kitchen table connects you to someone’s life.
How Do You Get There?
So, how do you earn a seat at the kitchen table?
You become the person the family wants involved in the important discussions.
In the meantime, you listen more than you talk.
You show interest in your clients’ lives, not just their portfolios.
You simplify complex ideas.
You return calls.
You never overpromise.
You show up when things aren’t going well.
You stay calm when they are nervous.
Do those things long enough and something changes.
You become the person they call when they don’t know what to do.
Earn the Seat
Once you’ve earned that seat, you’re no longer simply managing your client’s financial life.
You’re part of it.
Don’t make it your goal to capture all of your client’s investable assets.
Make it your goal to earn a seat at the kitchen table.
Related: Your Client Agrees With Everything You Say. That Might Be the Problem.