Tag: business

Proving Your Faith as a Financial Advisor

Proving Your Faith as a Financial Advisor

We all have aspirations in life that often mean we need to “prove” ourselves first. If you consider one’s experience to apply for a new position, we put together a resume to prove that we are qualified to do this job. Even more than that, we want to demonstrate that we are “the best” candidate to be hired for this role.

What exactly are we trying to prove? For financial advisors, many have set a goal to be the most trusted advisor – therefore attracting clients and business relationships to them. That seems to make sense but as a Christian professional, is this the best goal?

Since I read Matthew 3:8 a few weeks ago, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. John the Baptist, was preparing the way for Christ by giving this instruction:

“Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.”

John was really asking if they had any fruit in their lives that demonstrated that they were living a life surrendered to God.

In other words, is there proof in your practice that sets you apart or makes you unique from those who have no relationship with God? In your conversations, the way you use money, your business practices, your marriage and family relationships – all these should be positively impacted because you have “turned to God.”

John’s message and also that of Jesus, called people toward repentance – a change in thinking. When we change the way we think, the result is we change our behaviour – what we do. Here’s the big question: Is there proof in your life and your work that you have “turned to God?”

My question to Christian advisors many times is this: Is there any difference in your advice to clients because you are a Christian? Here’s how one advisor responded:

After going through the CKA material this past year and spending time with my cohort, I have learned a lot. The CKA® training and shared learning experience with my cohort has changed my perspective on my role in the financial business. I have been encouraged to practice these Biblical principles in my personal life and incorporate them into my business. 

When meeting with clients during their last review, I decided to add to the agenda a discussion about their legacy planning & giving goals.  I wasn’t sure how the clients would respond as this was out of my typical market based conversation (and personal comfort zone). Thankfully, the clients very much resonated with the agenda item and the questions I asked about their giving goals. We had a truly life giving conversation about their ministry passions, future opportunities to give, and how we can help them achieve these more personal goals. I believe the clients went from concerns about short term market trends (which are out of our control anyway) to a place of gratitude about how God has blessed them and excited about how God could use them (and their resources) to bless others. I hope and pray I can have more review meetings like this!   

For advisors in the cohort it has meant weekly meetings over five months with many hours of study to be prepared for the discussion times together. The result in the advisors words:

  • 1) a changed perspective on my role in the financial business
  • 2) life giving conversation(s) with clients
  • I added the “s” – I’m confident more life giving conversations will follow because of the changed perspective.

Therefore let your lives prove your change of heart

Weymouth New Testament Matthew 3:8

The Secret to Growing Your Business

The Secret to Growing Your Business

In the past several weeks I have had multiple conversations with self-employed entrepreneurs who have expressed the urgency to focus on growing their business.

I completely understand the urgency and have been in the exact situation myself ​- fully focused on growing the business with little time for anything else. ​Based on my own experience, as long as my sole focus remained on growing the business, I was working hard and striving for success. I was doing all the right things like marketing myself, networking, asking for referrals and in general, working hard. None of these are really secrets to success, are they? They are simply the necessary elements we would immediately think about and without implementing, success would be extremely unlikely. All of these efforts gave me only a measure of success as a financial advisor.

However, it was only ​when I focused on ​incorporating God into my business that I truly came to reach a level of success that I desired and at a rate of growth that I had never thought possible. In the last 5 years that I was a practicing advisor, my business grew by more than 1200%.

As I look back, this business success happened only when I began to invest some of my time away from the typical business opportunities. I started a training course that gave me a different perspective, namely that God was more interested and involved in my business success than I realized. Somehow, I was convinced that my own efforts had brought me this success, but then again, I wasn’t the first to come to that conclusion. God reminded the Israelites how He fed them manna and cared for them in the wilderness because He knew they might want to take the credit for their prosperity.

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Deut. 8:17-18 NIV

Despite this verse being underlined in my Bible, it was far too easy for me to emphasize the part I played in this success, and in so doing, diminish the role that God played in it. Sure, my ability played a part, but who gave me the ability? While my training, education, sales skills had to be developed, ultimately it was God who had positioned me in this role to start with. He had opened the opportunity to be trained in this field and I certainly would not have chosen this path on my own.

The global financial crisis of 2008/2009 was a time of profound soul searching for me but was very pivotal in my journey. It led me to a deeper study to earn my CKA® (Certified Kingdom Advisor®) designation which helped me understand God’s activity in my business.

The result: first, surrendering the ownership of my business to Him, then second, my striving diminished as He grew the business. Maybe that’s exactly what John meant when he said, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

For the record, the S&P 500 did increase in value from 2010 – 2015 by 92%, so this does account for some of the growth in business. The remaining 1100% growth that occurred in less than 5 years is much more than I could have ever accomplished unless I decreased and He increased.
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