Changing Narratives in the Profession
b"Diane Bourdo, CFP\\xae, is the president of The Humphreys Group, a women-owned and women-operated wealth management firm. A proud feminist, as she states in her Twitter bio, Diane is passionate about the role of women in the profession, as well as the perception of women and money.\\xa0\\n\\nIn our latest episode of YAFPNW, Matt speaks to Diane about why those perceptions of women and money in our society need to change, the power of listening, how her firm serves clients, and much more.\\nThe myth of women and money\\n\\u201cI've always considered myself a feminist even when I was a very young girl,\\u201d said Diane. \\u201cAnd so being the head of a firm that has always had a focus on women has been a bit of a no-brainer.\\u201d\\n\\nDiane\\u2019s firm has always targeted women who were recently divorced or inherited, \\u201cthe whole women-in-transition before it was really a thing,\\u201d as she put it. Why? Our culture\\u2019s ideas of what it means to be good with money, successful with money, are tired and outdated. They\\u2019re also not accurate, and they need to change.\\n\\n\\u201cThe idea of women not having confidence or knowledge about money doesn't sync up with my experience with women....generally I've found that women are much better at money than they've been led to believe,\\u201d said Diane. \\u201cAnd of course it's also true that men are generally not as good at money than they have been led to believe. And so we're all suffering by this narrative. It's not good for anybody.\\u201d\\xa0\\xa0\\n\\nHow do we start reversing this stereotype? As financial planners, we can start by listening.\\xa0\\nWhy listening is essential for success\\nIt sounds obvious, but anyone in the profession knows that we\\u2019ve been trained to fix things. Find solutions. Focus on the technical side of things to make our clients happy. But there\\u2019s more to being successful as a financial planner than the numbers.\\n\\nThe details, the calculations, the specialized stuff that financial planners do is still very important, Diane says. However, that expertise has to be balanced with empathy. You could have the best plan in the world for a client, but if you don\\u2019t know their motivations, emotions, or even struggles behind their decisions, it\\u2019s not going to work.\\n\\nThat\\u2019s why listening to your clients from the get-go is essential. Asking broad, open-ended questions to get an idea of their relationship with money will give you valuable insight. Letting them talk without responding too much. That gives you the context of any problems you\\u2019re trying to solve, and you\\u2019ll be better equipped to help your client.\\n\\n\\u201cWe always want to have a solution,\\u201d said Diane. \\u201cBut at least at the beginning, the idea of listening without fixing is something to think about.\\u201d\\nCultivate change...starting with yourself\\nMatt says in this episode that the way the financial planning environment was built sometimes isn\\u2019t the best fit for helping our clients. It\\u2019s also ill-equipped to allow for gender equality. However, we can start changing the system by committing to that change, especially from the top-down.\\n\\n\\u201cIn some ways you want to throw the whole thing out and start anew. And that's not really practical or possible and it's not going to happen,\\u201d said Diane. \\u201cIt takes leadership from the top. It takes people to recognize that these things are important and they're actually good for everybody.\\u201d\\n\\nIf you\\u2019re a new financial planner, how can you be the best at your job? How can you be a champion of change for the profession? Diane says that curiosity, self-inquiry, is the most important thing to cultivate to find success.\\xa0\\n\\n\\u201cWe can't change anything in the outside world until we take a look at ourselves,\\u201d said Diane. \\u201cI think one of the most important things to cultivate to be successful is curiosity, true curiosity, and to have a curious mindset. And you have to just keep practicing that curiosity.\\u201d"