Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
After working with clients for over 20 years, I believe I have insights and information I could share more broadly and am considering writing a book. I know you have written a few and wonder if you could give me some direction?
I am a good writer but I have asked a couple of clients to read what I’ve written and they say it “needs more” – nothing more specific than that. My impression is that they don’t believe the material is powerful enough. I imagine any writer is close to their material and may have a hard time knowing how much is too little or too much.
Have you dealt with this issue? What should I be considering before getting the book finished and published? I don’t know if you have had this experience, but I’m a bit tired of the book. I think about it as something that has been in the works for the better part of 20 years and I either want to throw it out or get it done.
Scott F.
Dear Scott,
Why are you writing this book? You say you have insights you could share more broadly but to whom, and for what reason? One of the things most authors miss is the why – why does the book matter? What will it do for someone? What will it solve for them? Or is it just interesting and should give the reader a “feel good” once they are done?
I’m assuming from your note that your book is a non-fiction work and most likely about some aspect of the financial business. I’ve worked with many advisors who have published books and all have been non-fiction. I’m not an expert in the fiction genre so if that’s your direction you’ll want to consult with someone else.
On the non-fiction side, there are a few things to consider:
- Define the purpose of the book. What do you want the book to do for your readers? What should they feel or think about once they’ve read it? Do you want it to be actionable or simply information they might be able to use at some point?
- Who is the intended audience? If the book is financially oriented, is it for people who already have money? Or, is it for people trying to accumulate wealth? Is it for those who are close to retirement? Or is it for those just starting their careers? Is it for anyone who might have financial concerns or interests of some sort?
- You mention clients suggesting you need “more” – have you used an editor for the book? One of the most valuable things I found with all of my books, and with advisors I have helped get their own books done, is the value of the editor. An outside view can help you with the flow and with amount of data – what’s too much and what’s too little and with the general organization of your ideas.
- Have you thought about what you want the book to do for you? Is this to raise your profile as an advisor or planner and you would like to have it to hand out to clients and centers-of-influence (COIs) so that they recognize your knowledge – or they are able to hand it off to referrals and other interested parties? Do you want to chart a new career as a public speaker and use the book to create opportunities and inroads for this? Do you want to create a new stream of revenue and hope to sell hundreds of thousands of books? In addition to knowing why you are writing it, you want to establish what you hope the book will do for you and how you want to use it.
- How will you be published? You don’t mention if you have a traditional publisher or not. If you do, this question won’t be relevant to you. If you don’t, you want to think about the different options to get the book published. If you self-publish, you will need to invest in the book – an editor, a professional proofreader and a graphic designer at minimum. You can then make the book available through a service like CreateSpace on Amazon. Traditional publishers will need to believe the book has merit and if they do, will likely offer you an advance and then will take care of all of the expenses to get the book finalized and make it available. Then there are hybrid firms that will “publish” and offer a menu of choices you can choose from depending on what you need. I’m often asked which route is best, but the truth is that it depends on what you want the book to do, and how much energy you want to put into coordinating resources or finding a traditional publisher to embrace your ideas.
- What do you need to do to complete the book? Do you have a plan of action with who, what, when and timelines? Particularly when I hear someone say they are basically “done” with thinking about their book, I recognize the importance of having the plan. Once you have been at it for a while, you just want to finish but sometimes it is hard to get the energy and dedication to do so. Create a plan for yourself on what you need to do and when and then see if you can delegate any of the steps to someone else.
Dear Bev,
Do you see an inherent conflict with advisors who ask their clients to save for retirement but then won’t let the client really live their life in retirement because the assets will go out and this impacts the advisor’s personal bottom line? I work with an advisor who has a retiring base and hear him on the phone basically convincing his clients they should live a frugal life. He positions it like it is in their best interest but I think it’s really about his pocketbook.
S.L.
Dear S.L.,
Are you writing because you know there is an inherent conflict, or because you don’t really like this advisor, or because you don’t have enough information to make a judgment on what he is doing? I’m sorry to be direct on this but I think this situation could have many different answers and perspectives.
It’s impossible for me to judge the behavior. Assuming your advisor is a fiduciary, he is duty-bound to do the right thing by his client. He may take this to mean he has to ensure no matter what tragedy befalls them in retirement (health, hurricane, etc.) they are well equipped financially to deal with it. On the other hand, he may know the clients to be spendthrifts and may be trying to protect them from themselves now that they are in retirement. He may be going to an extreme to do so. And he may, in fact, have some sort of personal ulterior motive to hold on to their assets as long as possible, particularly if he has a number of clients retiring at the same time and taking large distributions as a result. He may believe he is duty bound to protect them and this is his way of doing so.
If you truly believe he is doing something harmful to clients in this approach, I suggest you have a heart-to-heart conversation with him and ask about his motives. We all have the capacity to position something as valuable to others when it really is more beneficial to us. Often times we do this without realizing we are doing it and it takes someone else to bring it to our attention.
I would always give a person the benefit of the doubt unless there is hard evidence to the contrary. And I always believe in having an honest dialogue – not in an accusatory way but in a curious way to learn more. It’s admirable that you are worried on behalf of the firm’s clients so don’t let the issue drop. Seek to understand what’s happening and why.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. In 2008, she co-founded Advisors Trusted Advisor to offer dedicated practice management resources to advisors, planners and wealth managers. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Leadership & Social Responsibility. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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