00:00:01 Seth

Well, even how we operate within the firm, you know, we just held a retreat in Denver over three days. We go through listening exercises with our team. So what's level three listening level, one listening is when you listen to reply, you're just thinking about what you're gonna reply. Level two listening is when you listen to understand.

00:00:22 Seth

And level three listening is when you listen for what's not being said, whole body listening and we'll have them practice with each other within the firm. So then when they have some of those listening skills and they connect with the client, they're able to do level three listening and become available for what's beyond the balance sheet.

00:00:41 Seth

Position. Same thing on sharing. Oftentimes as advisors, the vulnerability is on one side. It's the client we're asking to open up and talk about your your hopes and fears and dreams and your family dynamics. And I'll just listen and be kind. Well, you know, vulnerability is A2 way St. so we as advisors need to be willing to share what's on our heart.

00:01:01 Seth

And and what our fears and concerns are, which then invites the clients to do more of the same. So we talk about Level 3 sharing.

00:01:10 Seth

Lowest level sharing is when you share just facts and information.

00:01:14 Seth

Level 2 sharing is when you share some stories and you share usually stories that are narratives that kind of make us look good. Well, I did this with the client and this paid off, but Level 3 is when you actually share about your feelings. You know your concerns, how you're navigating your kids, aging, how you're navigating, the loss of a parent. And so by Level 3.

00:01:34 Seth

Listening Level 3 sharing just those two tools in and of itself. It helps even our younger advisors and team members.

00:01:41 Seth

Better connect with clients.

00:01:44 Sam

Welcome to the Future Ready Advisor podcast. I'm your host Sam Sivarajan, wealth management consultant and behavioral scientist. Join me and my guests from industry experts to top advisors as we explore the pain points of financial advisors face how they can solve them.

00:02:03 Sam

Free up their time and make their practice future ready.

00:02:11 Sam

Hi everyone I'm your host Sam Sivarajan. Welcome to today's episode of The Future Ready Advisor. Today I'm here with Seth Streeter, the founder of Innovative wealth management firm Mission Wealth.

00:02:25 Sam

Seth, welcome to the show.

00:02:28 Seth

Thank you so much, Sam. I'm excited to be here with you.

00:02:31 Sam

I'm excited to get into our conversation. Let me quickly introduce you to our audience. Seth is the founder and Chief impact Officer of Mission well.

00:02:41 Sam

A US wealth management firm with over $8 billion in client assets, a noted thought leader in life, centered planning set empowers individuals to redefine wealth beyond financial metrics, paving the way for a more balanced, impactful and fulfilling lives.

00:03:00 Sam

In 2016, he delivered a Ted talk, the untethered life wealth redefined, which is an interesting topic in and of itself.

00:03:09 Sam

And this has made him a sought after speaker at industry conferences, in the media and various podcast programs. Seth joins us today from Austin, TX. Seth, I'm really looking forward to our conversation because I like this concept of wealth redefined, looking well beyond the.

00:03:29 Sam

Financial metrics before we dive into questions on that area, I wanted to talk a little bit about your background. So you've had a successful career in wealth.

00:03:38 Sam

And.

00:03:39 Sam

Can you share for the audience a bit of your background, what motivated you to found mission wealth and how your vision for the firm has evolved overtime?

00:03:49 Seth

Sure.

00:03:51 Seth

Well, I'm no spring chicken. I started 34 years ago in Los Angeles working for a large multi financial services.

00:03:58 Seth

Company and you know, I started a week after graduating college, so we didn't really know. We're getting ourselves into. But there was a lot of hustle, essentially a lot of a sales culture back then wanting, you know, to to sell certain mutual funds, certain insurance products. And, you know, after having success within that world for seven years.

00:04:18 Seth

Also kind of cutting my entrepreneurial teeth, learning how to do seminars and focus on different niches with different client types.

00:04:26 Seth

It really became apparent to me, and then a coworker who became my co-founder, that we were just kind of fed up with the conflicts in the industry. We felt like our clients were our bosses, not the product companies. And we felt like comprehensive planning and meaningful service was important versus just getting the transaction and moving on to the next so.

00:04:46 Seth

The vision for mission wealth, which was 25 years ago, was really around building a firm based on objectivity that didn't have any proprietary products, didn't have those conflicts of interest, and that focused on true comprehensive planning. Brad Stark, my cofounder and I were two of the youngest certified financial planners in the state of California at the.

00:05:05 Seth

Time and so we really believed in taking a comprehensive approach with clients looking at cash flow, looking at real estate, looking at taxes, estate planning, philanthropy. And we knew that a meaningful proactive service model was also really critical. So you can't just say, hey, clients call me if you have questions, clients don't know what they don't know. So it's on us as advisors.

00:05:26 Seth

To come up with a meaningful service model that's going to help them think about should they give to their kids, should they set up a donor advised fund? Should they think about a Roth conversion? So we wanted to build a firm based on those key metrics of objectivity, being comprehensive and planning and then proactive service.

00:05:45 Seth

And then I guess that the latter part of your question is really around where do I see things going? I see things going where we're going to continually as financial firms offering expanded services. So our job used to be really portfolio construction and management, then it was financial planning. Now it's expanded into tax services.

00:06:05 Seth

Estate planning, philanthropy, bookkeeping, life coaching, behavioral finance, the list just keeps expanding.

00:06:14 Sam

I love that.

00:06:15 Sam

You mentioned objectivity and a client centric focus and the planning orientation and to some extent in 2024 we take that as given. But as you say like you started that 25 years ago and.

00:06:30 Sam

That that was visionary and a little bit of going against the grain at that point because that wasn't the typical approach in the industry. You're partly having to educate not just the industry, but I'm assuming your clientele that this is a better way of doing things. Can you talk a little bit about that?

00:06:49 Seth

Absolutely. Well, I I remember coming up with the name of our firm in 1999 and it was Mission Wealth management and we really thought about the first word should have some type of kind of purpose principle around it. The middle word should be what we're actually advising on wealth, the comprehensive definition of that and then management represented we practically.

00:07:10 Seth

Do something.

00:07:11 Seth

And at the time, people didn't even know what wealth management was. I mean, yeah, financial advisors, investment advisors, stockbrokers like, what's wealth management now? Even the wealth was kinda.

00:07:22 Seth

Pioneering in a way. And then when we talk to clients and said, yeah, we don't have a, you know, fidelity have their Magellan Fund we don't have.

00:07:29 Seth

A fund we.

00:07:29 Seth

Use open architecture. We're here to really be your advocate, to be aligned with you as a fiduciary and to help partner together for you to achieve your goals. And you know our tagline was your goals, our mission.

00:07:42 Seth

So we were really focused on goals. We were helping clients navigate life transitions and we just dove in head first and you know you get one client, you get 2, you get 5, you get 10 and then you start to scale over time.

00:07:55 Sam

And you talked a bit just now about transition. So wealth management as as it's evolving is helping clients through major life transitions. There is a bigger focus. I've seen it on the non financial elements of wealth management. You talked about metrics and the more holistic view of.

00:08:15 Sam

Wealth or redefining wealth.

00:08:18 Sam

I've seen, for instance, uh, the a more broader thinking about what retirement involves and how you could prepare for retirement, not just from ensuring that you have enough savings, but your purpose, your social network, your engagement, etc.

00:08:36 Sam

How do you address at mission wealth the emotional and psychological aspects of these transitions? I mean, to me it seems that again, there's an element of educating clients that to be thinking along these lines because it's not something that they have been taught or led to believe that they should think about it.

00:08:58 Sam

How have you worked with clients in kind of getting them to start moving along this direction?

00:09:06 Seth

MHM.

00:09:07 Seth

Well, I think it starts with.

00:09:08 Seth

How we think of our role and identity as an advisor.

00:09:13 Seth

So if we think that we are in the business of delivering services, I almost think about it like bricks. I deliver portfolio construction and I deliver cash flow modeling and I deliver retirement forecasting and I deliver tax service.

00:09:27 Seth

That is, that's just a professional service provider delivering services. But if instead of thinking of delivering services of individual bricks, you think of yourself as helping to build a cathedral of a client, living their most fulfilled life, we are here to be catalyst for change in clients lives. That's a whole different framework of do I deliver services or I'm here.

00:09:48 Seth

To be a vehicle for change in clients lives.

00:09:50 Seth

That's where we start, right? It's it's we are using financial planning and investment conversations as a Trojan horse to open up a far broader level of connectivity with client and ability to impact in their.

00:10:03 Seth

Lives.

00:10:04 Seth

How we actually do it is, you know, you have to meet clients where they are. So clients usually come to us because they think, OK, I have a financial pain point.

00:10:12 Seth

I need to retire in a year or I need to boost my income so I you address their particular need when they come to you with that financial interest.

00:10:21 Seth

But then through the relationship you can really provide more support as these transitions come underway. So for instance, if someone says, hey, I want to retire in a year, you start talking about their portfolio strategy and should they timing of Social Security and pensions and you know brass tax around the the work that we do. But then you also start to talk to the client.

00:10:41 Seth

Well, you know, how do you envision your retirement chapter looking how how do you expect to spend your time?

00:10:47 Seth

You know you you've had a lot of identity being a doctor, being a business owner. How do you think your identity will shift as you go to this next chapter and you start to talk to them about these more holistic elements and you know, we we talk about wealth across 12 dimensions, so finances is only one of 12. So it's their relationships, it's their intellectual growth, it's their impact in the community.

00:11:09 Seth

It's their physical health, it's their spiritual life. So helping clients really think through the broader aspects of.

00:11:18 Seth

Retirement or empty nesting, or transitioning from a business, or losing a loved one. There's all these chapters that do happen to us in life. We as advisors then can tap in and provide additional thought, process thoughtful processes and exercises so clients can think more holistically and better navigate those transitions in their lives.

00:11:38 Sam

That analogy of building a cathedral versus putting bricks together to a wall. I mean, it's I love this story and I love the application to your practice.

00:11:50 Sam

And meeting the clients where they are. You're right. You can't sit there and get esoteric without addressing the initial reason they're coming to, but then using that to expand the conversation. Now you've talked about having 34 years of experience that is giving you, I guess, that ability to kind of broaden that.

00:12:11 Sam

Conversation to build that trust, that experience.

00:12:15 Sam

For the younger members of your firm, like, how do you get them up to speed in terms of that kind of training, that kind of thinking, that kind of empathy and trust building? Because those are, I assume, not skills that are in, in a sense taught, but that that are learned over time, with experience with.

00:12:35 Sam

Clients.

00:12:36 Seth

100%.

00:12:37 Seth

Yeah, well, even how we operate within the firm, you know, we just held a retreat in Denver over three days. We go through listening exercises with our team. So what's level three listening level, one listening is when you listen to reply, you're just think about what you're going to reply. Level two listening is when you listen to understand.

00:12:58 Seth

And level three listening is when you listen for what's not being.

00:13:01 Seth

Said.

00:13:02 Seth

Whole body listening and we'll have them practice with each other within the firm. So then when they have some of those listening skills and they connect with the client, they're able to do level three listening and become available for what's beyond the balance sheet conversation.

00:13:18 Seth

Same thing on sharing. Oftentimes as advisors, the vulnerability is on one side, it's the client we're asking to open up and talk about your, your hopes and fears and dreams and your family dynamics. And I'll just listen and be kind. Well, you know, vulnerability is A2 way St. so we as advisors need to be willing to share what's on our heart and and what.

00:13:37 Seth

Their fears and concerns are, which then invites the clients to do more of the same. So we talk about Level 3 sharing.

00:13:45 Seth

Lowest level sharing is when you share just facts and information.

00:13:50 Seth

Level 2 sharing is when you share some stories and you share usually stories that are narratives that kind of make us look good. Well, I did this with the client and this paid off, but Level 3 is when you actually share about your feelings. You know your concerns, how you're navigating your kids, aging, how you're navigating, the loss of a parent. And so by Level 3.

00:14:10 Seth

Listening Level 3 sharing just those two tools in and of itself. It helps even our younger advisors and team members.

00:14:17 Seth

Better connect with clients now. On top of that, we have our inspired living services. So we actually have inspired talks every quarter we'll have a thought leader across these 12 dimensions of wealth give talks to our entire client community and then that brings up conversations that those advisors even if younger.

00:14:37 Seth

Can start to dive into further with their clients. So when we had Bruce Fieler, you talked about life in the transitions, talk about transitions or Dan Buettner talk about longevity in the blue zones.

00:14:48 Seth

Mark Abrams talk about levels of impact that then sparks interest for those clients to go to their advisor and say, gosh, if I were to live 10 years longer than expected, how would that affect my plans? What are things my wife and I could do that we hadn't thought we could do on our bucket list? How should we think about giving if I'm going to live to be 100 instead of, you know, 80 like my parents?

00:15:09 Seth

And so these inspired talks also help kind of open up the conversation possibility, which even when younger advisors are talking to their clients, can can spark some expanded conversation.

00:15:21 Sam

Yeah, I was quite intrigued about the inspired living platform on your website. It's quite unique. I haven't really seen much like it, not as comprehensive as what you've built.

00:15:33 Sam

You talked a little bit about what it is.

00:15:36 Sam

And how you some of your younger advisors use it? Can you talk a little bit about your clients reaction like what are they getting, how are they engaging with it? What are they getting from it? Are they following up with their advisors almost proactively to kind of explore a little bit more of some of the content?

00:15:55 Seth

Yes. So in addition to the inspired talks which we put on and bring in really amazing thought leaders to share, you know, kind of innovative ideas around these different dimensions. We also have wisdom shares and conversation circles.

00:16:09 Seth

Where we will.

00:16:10 Seth

And the wisdom shares put together clients on certain subjects and allow for kind of crowd sourced.

00:16:16 Seth

Peer sharing for.

00:16:18 Seth

Clients to learn from other clients and for advisors to listen in. So we talked about the art of giving, how to give enough to charity, but not too much. How to give enough to children, but not too much? And what's the nuance there and how are families thinking about their giving strategies and then having small groups so they could get feedback from other clients from.

00:16:39 Seth

Different walks of life and how they're.

00:16:40 Seth

Pulling that so understanding that we have a community of 3000 people, 3000 families we're serving, there's a lot of wisdom outside. Just our advisory team, but of the actual client base that we have. So how can we cultivate connections and networking opportunities within our client base for wisdom sharing?

00:17:01 Seth

Because, you know, we'll talk about AI a little bit and technology to.

00:17:05 Seth

You know, it used to be a knowledge economy and as advisors we were in the business of sharing knowledge. Clients wanted to know facts and we would give them the answers. Well, now you can go into ChatGPT and you can pretty much get any answer you want. Knowledge is ubiquitous. It's available. So now.

00:17:20 Sam

Sometimes even the right answer. Yeah, so.

00:17:24 Seth

You learn how to do prompt engineering and we actually did an inspired talk on prompt engineering with with using you know a language learning model. So we are in the.

00:17:36 Seth

Wisdom economy now we've graduated beyond the knowledge economy. We're in the wisdom economy, so clients have access to knowledge. It's our job to help clients understand how to apply that knowledge and turn it into wisdom and then integrate that into their lives. So if we talk about longevity.

00:17:55 Seth

And clients get sparked about, gosh, I'm really, I'm hopeful. I really want to start exercising more.

00:18:02 Seth

The advisor can say, well, great, let's add that to our goals. Your goals are mission company tagline. You know, what are your goals? Well, you want to run a 5K before the end of the year. OK, let's let's put a pair of running shoes on your list. You're gonna get a pair of running shoes within the next month, and you're gonna have your sign up for a 5K by the end of the year, and you're gonna start to build.

00:18:22 Seth

Milestones of walking and then jogging and then running. Up until that point. Or maybe it's conversations with kids. I really want to have more open conversations with my children. The advisor can keep them accountable to these more holistic goals that get sparked in these inspired talks. In these wisdom shares and these conversation circles.

00:18:41 Seth

So it's not just looking at our job to say, here's your balance sheet, here's your cash flows. Here's your portfolio. It's no, this is my client and I come from a place of caring. One of our top 4 core values. I want to serve this client. However I can and maybe that's helping them write the book they want to write or to make a career change because they don't feel appreciated in their career.

00:19:00 Seth

Spark open conversations with their children or to put on running shoes and get in better shape. So it's it's expanding our definition of what our role is and it goes beyond just advising. And to truly serving our clients in the area of fulfillment.

00:19:15 Sam

That's really interesting and I really like that characterization of moving from knowledge to wisdom and and you're right. Knowledge is.

00:19:25 Sam

Ubiquitous these days and you can find it anywhere on Google Church EPT. It's the application of knowledge that wisdom that bringing in that heart that experience that I think is truly differentiating. So I I love that definition.

00:19:39 Sam

And you got me thinking. So you're expanding the the definition of what it means to serve the client. And I love the examples of running, buying shoes, etcetera. So your advisors would typically take that kind of step with their clients and their clients expect it to say that they're non.

00:19:59 Sam

Metrics non financial non wealth oriented metrics and accountability that you, your advisors would help their clients meet and the clients are.

00:20:10 Sam

Happy to be held accountable by their financial advisors too.

00:20:15 Seth

In some cases, yes, some cases no, you know, like I said, clients come to us because they have a financial need. So we address the financial need and maybe that's the focus of the first three to five years of the relationship. OK, let's get the estate plans updated. Let's get your budget going. Let's pay off for the kitchen remodel. Let's get your portfolios.

00:20:35 Seth

Fixed.

00:20:36 Seth

And you have to kind of understand the timing like then there's something happens, right, the the the life event happens and all of a sudden they're like, Oh my gosh, I got laid off or I inherited money or like, I'll give you a story. That's a great example. So a woman that I had worked with, she had been married 30 some years. She had two daughters.

00:20:56 Seth

The youngest had just empty nested and they she was in California and the daughters went to school in the.

00:21:00 Seth

Coast and right at the time that their youngest was heading to college, her husband said he wanted a divorce. He didn't want to stay in the marriage, so he ended up moving away also. So this very dedicated mom basically had her life blown up because her husband and her daughters all left. Now in doing the financial planning conversation.

00:21:21 Seth

It was clear she had more than enough money. She was going to be fine even after the divorce, she was going to stay in the home. She was gonna. She was going to be fine. So my job as a financial advisor, putting that hat on should have been done. But she wasn't happy. She was really struggling.

00:21:37 Seth

And so using level three listening, I went through a process and asked her it's like, you know what, what really brings you joy?

00:21:44 Seth

She said. I just love connection. I love nurturing and and I miss nurturing my daughters and I I I feel so lonely. And so I asked her, well, what are your other passions? You know what else lights you up? And she said, well, you know, I've always loved skin care. She always loved, you know, learning about the latest skin care products and skin care routines. And so I invited her. I said, you don't need the money.

00:22:06 Seth

But what if you got a license to become an aesthetician?

00:22:09 Seth

And what if we converted your husband's office in the home because it had a separate entrance to become like an in home studio and you could get all the equipment, the misters, and you could start to, you know, give facials. And she was really passionate also about helping women who've been in domestic violence situations. She got her esthetician degree. She opened up.

00:22:29 Seth

Converted this office into a beautiful home studio and she started to give out facials for free and some for money. But to women who had come out of really tough domestic abuse situations.

00:22:42 Seth

It created new connection. It gave her a new sense of purpose. She was able to give nurturing. She got so much back, it created community so that helping her think about that pivot had nothing to do with her financial plan. It had to do with caring for her as a human because I saw my role as being broader than just. Is she not going to run out of money?

00:23:00 Sam

That's such an amazing story and very illustrative of your point. On Level 3, learn listening but also applying.

00:23:10 Sam

I think it's clear that you've taken a relatively broader definition of wealth, that mission wealth, and that's led to your success and growth.

00:23:19 Sam

How have you balanced the drive to scale with maintaining what seems like and sounds like a very personalized service? And what advice would you give to smaller firms that are trying to compete against the industry giants who have that scale?

00:23:37 Seth

Yeah, it's a constant balancing act because we've been growing significantly. And so how do you keep culture front and center while scaling now you know in our case, we really wanted to build a firm that was beyond Brad and myself. We wanted to, you know, have departments and you know systems and and have the business be run based on those systems and technologies and have good people that support those.

00:24:02 Seth

But if I'm a smaller firm, and maybe it's just me or it's, you know, 1234 team members, it's hard to try to compete with the larger firms that have in-house Cpas and in-house estate attorneys and trust departments and a whole suite of alternative investments. And so, you know, that's challenging. But what you do have is you have the ability.

00:24:22 Seth

To really stay in your lane and know.

00:24:24 Seth

Who you work best?

00:24:25 Seth

With partner with others when you need complementary expertise and services so you partner with other Cpas, other attorneys, other insurance experts, other mortgage brokers and then really make the decision, do you want to be a lifestyle firm and just keep it small? Take care of a handful, you know?

00:24:45 Seth

Maybe up to 50 clients really well during your lifetime and maybe that will be the end of your business when you're done, right? Or do you want to think about kind of phase two where you think about your succession, you hire an associate, you train them up, you come up with an internal transition pathway?

00:25:02 Seth

So that the business can go on and those clients can be served after you no longer are able or want to be doing it. What's happened is a lot of these smaller firms, there's over 15,000 Ras just in the United States and you know, you add more thousands in Canada and other parts of North America. They are seeing the writing on the walls that it's hard for many of them.

00:25:24 Seth

To compete on the service enhancements at larger firms are offering, clients are like, wait, I'm paying 1% on assets and I can get six extra services for the same fee.

00:25:36 Seth

And they haven't really cultivated the next Gen. of talent to be able to transition their business too. And then you couple on top of that the vast PE influx into our business where private equity is rapidly going after acquisitions, many of those firms are just selling. They're just like, you know what I'm done.

00:25:55 Seth

I'll just sell out and I'll work another year or two and I'll just write off.

00:25:58 Seth

Into the sunset.

00:25:59 Seth

So that's a big transition that's happening in our industry. The consolidation is just.

00:26:05 Seth

Rating so small firms need to figure out who do you want to be. Do you want to last beyond your life? If so, what's your succession strategy? And if not, then you know how can you stay relevant with your clients by offering value added services either yourself and or with partner firms that can keep those clients well serviced and cared for while you want to remain in the industry.

00:26:28 Sam

That's great advice, and you're absolutely right, we are at an influx point of consolidation. So I think there is a a bit of consolidation, but there's also fragmentation coming along.

00:26:37 Sam

As what you did 35 years ago, like split out because you or 25 years ago, I should say that you split off from a larger institution because you're seeing that the that the path is diverging and what you want to offer your clients is different than what the corporate entity wants to do. But I think the key from.

00:26:52 Seth

Yeah.

00:26:58 Sam

As you say, it is trying to be very clear, be purposeful as to what is it that you're trying to achieve and for what time period.

00:27:06 Seth

Yep 100%.

00:27:07 Sam

You've mentioned set the importance of understanding clients true motivations and goals. This is the Level 3 learning listening Level 3 sharing.

00:27:18 Sam

Can you?

00:27:19 Sam

Give some examples or specific techniques and approaches that financial advisors may think about using to uncover those deeper client insights during their meetings.

00:27:31 Seth

Sure. Yeah. So first is expand your mindset. You're not just a brick layer of services.

00:27:38 Seth

And if you see yourself as, yeah, I I'm here as an advocate for my clients, I want to use these conversations to create something deeper and more meaningful. If that's you, I would say, you know, it starts with how we do discovery. Our first discovery meeting. So, you know, in the days we used to use fact finders. Now a lot of it's digital. But if you think about a typical financial advisors.

00:27:59 Seth

Track Finder. I'll just pick a couple of categories on real estate. The questions would be, and I'm gonna talk about going from 2 dimensional questions to three-dimensional questions. So formerly the two-dimensional questions would be, do you own your home?

00:28:13 Seth

Great. When did you purchase it? What is your cost basis? Do you have any expected improvements? What your outstanding mortgage is it fixed? Is it adjustable? Those are the base, those are two-dimensional questions, a three-dimensional question is do you feel a sense of place in this home?

00:28:30 Seth

Do you feel like you really.

00:28:32 Seth

Have landed where you want to be.

00:28:34 Seth

Clients think, Oh well, I don't know. I always thought about living in a city or living in nature, or maybe bicoastal, or. I've thought about living in a foreign country like that opens up how they would like to live. Or maybe it's about decluttering their home. We did an inspired talk with an expert on decluttering and how.

00:28:48 Seth

That could change.

00:28:49 Seth

The way they live within their career, it used to be two-dimensional questions. Where do you work? What do you do?

00:28:55 Seth

Is your salary fixed or variable? Do you have a bonus structure? What are your benefits? Those were the questions we would ask.

00:29:03 Seth

You add a three-dimensional question, something like.

00:29:07 Seth

Do you feel like your values and your passions are aligned?

00:29:10 Seth

With your career?

00:29:11 Sam

Well.

00:29:11 Seth

Do you feel that your talents are being fully utilized and are your talents appreciated in what you do with your, with your supervisors, with your peers? You start to ask those level questions and people kind of reflect well.

00:29:26 Seth

I don't know. No, I'm kind of frustrated. I don't feel really appreciated. I don't feel my values or interests are aligned. And again like back to a story in my Ted talk, I talked about the corporate attorney who made a lot of money traveling across the country doing big deals. But he was miserable when I asked those questions, he hated his job.

00:29:44 Seth

He had back pain. He hated traveling all the time. He was away from his family and through these types of conversations we were able to get him to realize his passion was history.

00:29:55 Seth

And through the financial planning process, we helped him pivot to become a.

00:29:59 Seth

High school history teacher.

00:30:01 Seth

Doing what he loves, and even though his, you know, financial compensation was much.

00:30:05 Seth

Less.

00:30:06 Seth

He was willing to work much longer. He was much happier. He wasn't traveling all the time. His health improved. He had summers to spend time with his wife and his kids. It really improved his overall wealth when one defines wealth holistically versus just based on the numbers.

00:30:21 Sam

Those are such great examples that I like this characterization of 2D versus 3D questions, and I've I've always believed that the importance of discovery.

00:30:31 Sam

Is in asking better questions for advisors, right? We've tended to believe because we are the experts that the expectation of our clients is that we have all the answers, so that it's a very technical approach to the job, etc. And I've come to realize over time and your characterization, I think.

00:30:51 Sam

That illustrates that that.

00:30:54 Sam

The the real value you add your clients is asking those call it the third dimensional questions and things that they've never really thought about. And it's not Even so important. I believe that they get the answer or they find the answer. It's the process of asking themselves the questions and perhaps sitting with that discomfort.

00:31:17 Sam

I think eventually it leads to clarity. It may not be in that meeting, but it leads to clarity. And if you as an advisor can provide that path to clarity, I think you've done far more than what what your fees are charged for.

00:31:32 Seth

100% and and again, you know people can feel the difference when you walk away and they feel like you really cared about them.

00:31:41 Seth

Help spark something new in them. You have them. Maybe think about undifferentiated a part of themselves that has been deferred for too long cause you know we all have followed this. Not all, but most of us have followed a success script that was handed to.

00:31:54

Yes.

00:31:54

This.

00:31:55 Seth

It wasn't ours. Like all of a sudden, it was like I was taught to get all A's and do community service and be in student government and play sports and then go to college and repeat and get a good job and work your **** off. And it was, you know, my self worth was tied to my productivity. That's what I was taught. I grew up in a farming family. It was all about work and work ethic. And so that was handed to me and that was handed to my parents and it.

00:32:18 Seth

Was handed to my grandparents so.

00:32:19 Seth

I just rinsed and repeated and kept doing the same thing until I realized, wow, this is, you know, I hit the pause button. Is this really serving me? Yeah, I'm achieving and I'm productive. But am I fulfilled?

00:32:31 Seth

And so when we start to really think about what life we want and are we getting it doing, if we keep doing what we're doing, are we actually getting there or do we need to hit pause, really reflect on our our values, our priorities and then think about how we might, you know, reimagine living in a way that's more aligned, it's so valuable.

00:32:51 Seth

And we as advisors are in such a privileged seat where clients are opening up to us, maybe more than anyone else in their lives like they tell us their family dynamics, their hopes, their fears. And we have an opportunity to take that information and help them make pivots to live a more fulfilled.

00:33:09 Sam

Absolutely. So last question, before we dive into the rapid fire set of questions. So we talked briefly about technology and AI and we see them rapidly advancing.

00:33:22 Sam

How can smaller firms leverage these tools and remain competitive? Is there?

00:33:29 Sam

Technologies that you and your team at Mission Health are looking at that you're finding helpful and impactful.

00:33:37 Sam

Never losing sight of the fact, as you said, that there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom, and that it is a very personalized business that they're looking for the human relations. But where do you see technology playing a useful role going forward?

00:33:54 Seth

Ohh, I mean technology is huge and it will only continue to be a big part of any successful advisors life.

00:34:02 Seth

So there's a lot of the baseline tools that I think if advisors aren't really maximizing, they're missing out. So really understanding your financial planning software, usually it's money guide pro or E money are kind of the two most popular ones, there's many others. And then doing live planning with your clients, so.

00:34:21 Seth

It used to be we would.

00:34:23 Seth

Do discovery. We then go in the in the back, in the boiler room we'd create the plans and then we would set up an appointment. We'd deliver the plan and go through like 50.

00:34:31 Seth

Pages if you know. Here's this. Here's that.

00:34:32

Yeah.

00:34:34 Seth

It's much more interactive now, right when you can sit down with the client and say, well, what if you retire in two years? What if your company stock does this? What if you downsize the home? What if you want to get this much to the kids or the charity and they can actually see in real time how that affects their choices? So really mastering the financial planning tool is critical. And and those tools keep getting better.

00:34:54 Seth

They're including behavioral finance pieces and other.

00:34:57 Seth

Components we use what if scenarios also with hidden levers which is another software that's kind of does probability analysis around different? What if scenarios we use holistic plan on the tax side. So again having meaningful conversations with clients on tax strategies right? Like what if you do some tax loss harvesting?

00:35:18 Seth

But if you do fund the Roth, how is this going to affect things on the tax return? So the I would just say there's there's technology that's within our industry that we can leverage as far as the practice management side of the business, you also really have to know your numbers.

00:35:34 Seth

On clients, revenue services delivered delay of services delivered and you know we use Salesforce and have really put a lot of effort into customizing Salesforce as our CRM tool. There's other CRM tools that you can utilize, but you have to know the practice management side of your business as well as the financial planning tools.

00:35:55 Seth

So those are like the common ones.

00:35:58 Seth

I would say.

00:35:58 Seth

Here's a powerful tool that a lot of people don't take advantage of a cell phone.

00:36:04 Seth

Yep, when you're talking to clients about estate planning, you could be a one person shop. Most people, when it comes to a state planning the two-dimensional conversation is do you have a will, do you have a durable powers of attorney? Do you have a living trust? You know, let's get those updated when were they last updated? OK, we need to get those updated and then you're done.

00:36:24 Seth

But if you think about helping clients really further their legacy, the legacy is not just about the assets and distributions of their balance sheet that you know is what you get in a will in a.

00:36:36 Seth

Trust. It's about your life lessons. It's about your values. It's about your stories of the toughest time of your life and how you got back up afterwards.

00:36:46 Seth

And so being able to as an advisor, encourage and maybe even help your clients record those stories.

00:36:54 Seth

Put it on video and press record and say tell me what it was like starting out when you started off. You know, living in Latin America or whatever their story is, how did, how did you and mom meet? You know what? What? What was the love story? What was the toughest time in your life? How did you get through it? What values have been your guiding light through your journey like these that's like?

00:37:14 Seth

See. So when it comes to estate planning, let's not forget the tool of recording the legacy stories of our clients. That's another great way to show how much we care. And they will truly appreciate that they've been able to kind of document that to be able to share with.

00:37:28 Sam

Future generations. I like that. Highlight the importance of technology, but I think it's something that I've always believed that that there is you can't ever.

00:37:36 Sam

To get the human touch. So when you talk about financial planning?

00:37:40 Sam

I it made me think as you were explaining that yes, in olden times you used to collect all the data, produce the plan, hand it over, maybe go through a quick executive summary to say this is what they say. But those plans never looked at. Afterwards they gathered dust and it is not compelling the approach. I prefer to take and I think what you're talking about is what I call Co creating the solution.

00:38:04 Sam

Right. Like by working with the client and drafting, whether it's the financial plan, looking at those, what if?

00:38:11 Sam

Scenarios or creating the investment strategy, there's a big difference in compliance if you hand them a plan and say OK, here you are, go do it. And if you say OK, let's look at option A and option B and work through the pros and cons and get that client to kind of.

00:38:31 Sam

Input why they prefer A&B and make changes on the fly now it requires as you say you to have as an advisor an understanding of the client's understanding of your own numbers. Understanding of the products and solutions that you're solving.

00:38:46 Sam

But by being able to do this, uh, as you say, on the fly with the client, you're more likely to be able to come with the solution that they're going to buy into and stay on track with no matter what is happening down the road.

00:39:04 Seth

Yeah, you you get engagement right that way because they were part of that Co creation.

00:39:10 Sam

Awesome.

00:39:11 Sam

Seth, we're coming to the end of our podcast. It's been a fantastic conversation. I have a few final rapid fire questions for you that I ask all my guy.

00:39:21 Sam

So if you're ready #1 professionally, what is the most important lesson you have learned?

00:39:28 Sam

Over the years.

00:39:30 Seth

Hmm.

00:39:31 Seth

Just one.

00:39:31 Sam

You can do more.

00:39:34 Seth

Never give up. Never give up. You know, I would say honestly, it's it's vulnerability and caring when in the end like clients can feel how much you care.

00:39:45 Seth

And really, being willing to connect with them in deep ways both from your side and receiving from their side. And that comes from having a service, a service mindset and that that goes not just with clients that goes with your team, right as you're growing your team, really invest in your team and invest in that type of connection always, you know say to our team like we're not just.

00:40:05 Seth

Human doings were human beings.

00:40:08 Seth

So even if you're calling the investment department to place a trade, or you're calling the operations team to get the beneficiary forms updated, there's still a human on the other side. How can we connect to each other from that place of Beingness and show that level of caring that's gonna build much deeper, more meaningful relationships wherever we go in life?

00:40:27 Sam

Yeah, and I.

00:40:28 Sam

Keep thinking I've never heard this before, but what you talked about the Level 3 sharing to me that is so powerful and that's a a further example of that caring and sharing element that you talked about.

00:40:42 Seth

I quote on that is listening is the highest form of.

00:40:45 Seth

Loving, I love that.

00:40:48 Seth

Deep listening is the highest form of loving. So like when you really can have someone feel heard.

00:40:53 Seth

It's such a gift.

00:40:55 Sam

True words. What is 1 practical tip you would offer listeners keen to apply your insights.

00:41:04 Seth

Well, you know I I just got back from walking the Camino from France over the Pyrenees into Spain, and I did that. I just empty nested. And so it was kind of like, OK, this is a chance for me to reflect on my priorities and to really like.

00:41:09 Sam

Wow.

00:41:17 Seth

Get clarity. So I would say.

00:41:20 Seth

A big ASK or invitation for the listeners is.

00:41:26 Seth

Don't just hide with being busy.

00:41:29 Seth

We're all busy and it's it's a social norm to say how you doing super busy these meetings. I've got 100 emails. I've got all this to do is.

00:41:37 Seth

Don't let that be your excuse for not diving underneath the hood and tapping into your heart of what you really want, and your ability to do the same with your clients, your coworkers in the community. So hit the pause button enough to tap into your truth so that you can say yes to your big yes in life.

00:41:57 Seth

Know you're big. Yes. In life. And then take the steps to be able to say yes to your yes.

00:42:03 Sam

That's great advice, Seth.

00:42:06 Sam

Set. This has been fun. Lots of really, really deep powerful insight.

00:42:13 Sam

If listeners want to learn more about you or find your work, where do they go?

00:42:20 Seth

Yeah, a number of places they can go to missionwealth.com company website. They can go to sethstreeter.com my personal website. They can watch the Ted talk and they can go to, you know, any social channels. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Instagram on Facebook. So I make posts and share a little bit across social media as well.

00:42:38 Sam

Seth, thank you so much for joining us today on the future Ready advisor.

00:42:44 Seth

Thank you so much, Sam. It was a pleasure.

00:42:52 Sam

In this episode of The Future Ready Advisor, I had the pleasure of speaking with Seth Streeter, the founder of Mission Wealth. Seth shared his innovative approach to wealth management, focusing on holistic life planning that goes beyond traditional financial advice. Here are my three key takeaways.

00:43:11 Sam

Number one, redefining wealth beyond finances, Seth emphasizes the true wealth extends far beyond financial metrics at mission wealth that focuses on holistic life planning that includes emotional, social and psychological aspects. Financial advisors should consider the entire well-being of clients.

00:43:30 Sam

Guiding them through major life transitions by addressing not just their financial needs but also their broader life goals and personal fulfillment.

00:43:39 Sam

#2 the power of level three listening and sharing, Seth introduces the concept of level three listening, which involves deeply understanding what clients are saying, not just with words but with their emotions and unspoken concerns. This level of engagement allows advisers to connect on a deeper level.

00:43:58 Sam

Fostering trust and creating more meaningful client relationships. Likewise, Level 3 sharing involves advisors being vulnerable and sharing their own experiences, which encourages clients to open up and engage in a richer dialogue.

00:44:15 Sam

#3 asking 3D questions to uncover deeper client insights, Seth highlights the importance of moving from 2D to 3D questions and client meetings. Traditional questions about assets like real estate might focus on basics, purchase price, mortgage details or cost basis.

00:44:35 Sam

Instead, steps suggests asking deeper 3 dimensional questions, such as do you feel a sense of place in this home, or is this where you truly want to?

00:44:45 Sam

Repeat these questions. Open up a broader conversation about clients, life goals and aspirations, helping advisers understand their clients on a more personal level. This approach not only enriches the client relationship, but also uncovers insights that lead to more tailored and impactful financial planning.

00:45:05 Sam

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Future. Ready.

00:45:08 Sam

Advisor, please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and if you could rate it while you're at it, I would appreciate it. Visit samsivarajan.com where you can download a behavioral coaching guide and find other resources. Join me in the next episode for more tips and tools to make your practice.

00:45:28 Sam

Future ready?