Episode summary
When Clients Would Rather Feel More Financially Successful Than Take Action - Kitces & Carl Ep 193
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
· · 32 min · Hosts: Michael Kitces · Guests: Carl Richards
Summary
The discussion centers on a three-part distinction: feeling productive, being seen as productive, and actually being productive. The host argues that the market for the first two is much larger than the market for the third because real change is hard, risky, and often uncomfortable. Carl Richards agrees that people can get much of the emotional payoff from performance, tools, and busyness without doing the difficult work that actually moves the needle.
They connect that idea to advice and client behavior. Carl suggests that some clients may not want immediate action so much as reassurance, social proof, or the feeling that they are trying. In that framing, a planning meeting can still be valuable even when a client does not implement every recommendation. The host pushes back on the tension advisors feel when clients pay fees but do not act, noting that the bar in financial planning is often to get clients to implement, while human behavior makes that expectation unrealistic for many people.
By the end, they land on a more nuanced view: advisors should distinguish between clients who want to be heard, clients who want to change, and clients who are simply not ready yet. The conversation suggests that a good advisor can use readiness questions and scaling questions to meet clients where they are, rather than treating hesitation as failure.
Key takeaways
- The host argues that people often prefer feeling productive or being seen as productive over doing the harder work of real productivity.
- Carl Richards says productivity theater can be a form of avoiding creative vulnerability while still looking disciplined.
- The host notes that many advisors expect implementation, but some clients may only want to feel or appear more financially successful for now.
- Carl Richards suggests that part of the advisor’s craft is asking whether a client actually wants to act yet, not assuming readiness from the fact that they asked for advice.
- The conversation treats small, incremental behavioral changes as meaningful, especially when they compound over time.
Notable quotes
“The market for feeling productive is orders of magnitude larger than the market for being productive”
“You can tell the truth to people who want to be told the truth. And you'll make a living”
“productivity theater is the avoidance of creative vulnerability”
“What if you're a a normal human being and a few like weird freaks manage to do whatever the the other thing is”
How the episode opens
Well, greetings, Carl. — Hello, Michael. How are you? — I'm doing well. I'm enjoying the spring season. The season is turning. We're we're May here, June by the time everybody is listening to this. Almost summer, depending on where you are.
Yeah, so good. Yeah, it's such a I was out on a hike the other morning and thought, I love being in the mountains. And I remembered, oh, it's 55° and not snowing. You know, like I love snow, but it's so it's it's so this time of year is so great.
Well, I was going to say, is there a problem being in Utah when it's not snowing? — So well, that's the little secret we don't want anybody to know. People often come They they come to ski and they come for one summer and that's when they move here. Like you you you you come for one summer and that's the hook. So, don't it's terrible. Don't come during the summer.
Okay. Okay. Understood. — Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah, what's happening? — What would you like to delve into today? — You know, there's Yeah, funny you should ask. Um — In this random Zoom room we found ourselves in together to do this recording.
Right. — There's this there's this phenomenon that I've been — Okay. — Trying to like get my arms around for a long time and I ran across the quote a couple of months ago and it was and I I wish I could attribute it. It was on some essay about uh AI tools as I recall it.
Okay. — And it was just a it was you know, it was a almost like a throwaway line in the essay that that is the only thing I can remember from the essay now, which is Here's the quote.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- client communication
- productivity psychology
- financial advisor motivation
- behavior change
- implementation coaching
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Financial Advisor Success (Kitces), this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Kitces. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
