Episode #142 “How to Embrace Financial Change: Insights from Ross Marino on Human First Financial Guidance”

With Ross Marino CFP® CeFT® | Partner Transitus Wealth | Founder of Advisor 2X Summary: In this episode, we delve into the world of financial change and its impact on our lives. Join us as we explore the expertise of Ross Marino, a seasoned financial advisor and advocate of Human First Financial Guidance. Ross shares his valuable insights on navigating through financial transitions, embracing change, and recognizing the importance of prioritizing our human experiences over mere financial equations. Discover how Ross's unique approach can help you gain a deeper understanding of yourself, cultivate resilience, and make informed decisions in the face of financial challenges. Get ready to embrace change and embark on a journey towards a human-centred approach to financial well-being. BIO Ross Marino, a financial advisor for over 30 years, is a passionate advocate of Human First Financial Guidance. With a diverse background as an author, social entrepreneur, and founder of Transitus Wealth Partners, Ross specializes in providing human-centred financial planning services. Through his extensive experience and dedication to helping individuals navigate through financial transitions, Ross has become a prominent figure in the field of financial advisory. Highlights: Gain valuable insights on embracing financial change and recognizing the aspects within your control. Discover the power of Human First Financial Guidance and how it can transform your approach to financial decision-making. Learn how to cultivate resilience and navigate through the messiness of financial transitions. Explore the significance of recognizing your emotions and core values when it comes to money matters. Uncover practical strategies for making informed financial decisions and shaping a brighter future. Quotes "Life is going to disrupt one way or another. I want to make sure I'm there to help you think and make decisions." - Ross Marino "You go from advice to guidance, where you're helping that person go where they're going to be most comfortable going." - Ross Marino "I don’t manifest in my life. But I have agency." - Ross Marino "We have an industry that's almost a hundred percent focused on some goal when almost a hundred percent of people don't actually use goals." - Ross Marino "The aim is to help people worry less about what could go wrong so that they can focus more on what to get right." - Ross Marino LINKS MENTIONED: Advisor2X Youtube: CLICK HERE SHIFT Conference: CLICK HERE Transitus Wealth Partners CLICK HERE Project 100 Financial Anthems: CLICK HERE An article inspired by episode #142 with Ross Marino: Written by Shaun Maslyk Ross Marino's Four Questions of Human First Perspective In the world of financial planning, it's essential to approach clients with empathy and understanding. Ross Marino, a renowned expert in the field, has developed four thought-provoking questions that delve into the human side of financial decision-making. By embracing these questions, financial professionals can create a safe space for clients to open up, leading to more meaningful conversations and better outcomes. Let's explore Marino's four questions and their significance. Question 1: What's going on? When clients seek a financial planner's guidance, something's always happening in their lives. It could be a significant life event, a crucial decision they're facing, or an impending situation. Marino advises asking this question to initiate the conversation. However, it's important to note that the initial response may not reveal the core situation but rather a technical query or a surface-level concern. To unearth the true underlying factors, we must dig deeper. Question 2: How did you get here? This question serves as a gateway to the client's backstory. By encouraging them to share their journey, financial planners create an opportunity for clients to reflect and express their thoughts and emotions. When clients recount the decisions they made, the circumstances surrounding them, and the aspects both within and beyond their control, they begin to connect with their feelings. This storytelling process allows clients to delve into their experiences, often sharing details they may have never articulated before. As clients recount their narratives, they may worry about talking too much or rambling on. Assure them that their story is valuable and encourage them to keep sharing. The depth of information revealed during this stage can be profound, and clients may even touch upon aspects of their thoughts and feelings that they haven't discussed with their loved ones. This safe space fosters a sense of trust, opening the door to meaningful dialogue. Questions 3 & 4 (3) What are you thinking? (4) How are you feeling? After clients have shared their stories, thoughts and emotions start to surface naturally. Combining these two questions allows financial planners to tap into the core of what truly matters. While asking about thoughts alone may lead to a discussion focused on financial decisions, asking about feelings creates an opportunity for clients to express their emotions. As clients reflect on their journey and the emotions associated with it, they become more comfortable sharing their innermost thoughts and feelings. Understanding their emotional landscape is crucial since emotions drive decisions and thoughts. By reaching this level of insight, financial professionals can better guide clients toward informed decisions that align with their values, aspirations, and financial goals. By embracing Marino's four questions, financial professionals can cultivate a human-first perspective in their interactions with clients. Creating a safe and empathetic environment encourages clients to open up, allowing for more fruitful discussions and ultimately leading to better financial outcomes. Remember, it's not just about the numbers; it's about understanding the human beings behind them. Full Transcript: [00:00:00] Shaun: Ross, welcome Ross: to the show. Thanks so much. Appreciate being on it. Shaun: I'm excited to have you here. Just chatting before the show started that I was really sad that I could not attend the shift conference this year, and I I mean for myself, selfishly a second to be in the conference is interviewing the guy who set up this wonderful conference. So I'm [00:01:00] delighted to dig into the insights that are inside of your mind. Ross: Yeah, happy to share some, sometimes it's a little messy, but we'll see what happens. The messiness is where the Shaun: good Ross: stuff lies. Before we really Shaun: get into your book, Your career as a financial planner whether it goes to your podcast, whether it goes to your dedication to creating these conferences, not just shift, but understand there's several conferences. There's so many different areas we can go and each part intrigued me. Not to mention your book about change as well so many different areas. But I thought to kick off the conversation, we would rewind a few chapters in your, but your book or your story of life to a time when you ventured to Wilington, North Carolina, which I do understand. You're still there and at this time, from what the internet tells me, you were fueled by these aspirations to become a C F P professional. You had all these visions and goals in mind, and although those initial expectations you painted [00:02:00] were probably inspiring and delightful, life decided to show you that perhaps a different path existed. Let's start. Here, I believe it was late 1980s. What lasting lessons did your rival in Wilington, North Carolina teach you about life? Navigating financial journeys, or wherever you wanna take this? Ross: Sure. Happy to share. So I entered the business in the late 1980s. I was in my early twenties and got married. I was living in Florida at the time, and my wife and I decided to move to Wilmington, North Carolina. So I was probably 26, 27 years old at that time, had already been an advisor for a while, but the idea of comprehensive financially financial planning had taken hold. I already had a meeting with a prospect who came in and asked if I could help them, and they dumped account statements, insurance policies, their will. They dumped everything on my desk, and it was long before I understood true comprehensive financial planning. [00:03:00] But it was pretty cool. So I dove into it and that's where the fire was lit and within a year or two, we decided, my wife and I, let's move to Wilmington, North Carolina. Enter the C F P program, become a certified financial planner, and let's start a career up there. But as soon as I made it into North Carolina, I ended up having a pretty bad back injury and found myself working out of a room over my garage for the next six years. I couldn't get out and do normal business. I couldn't really stand much, definitely couldn't sit. And I had to figure out in the late 1990s how to run a business just over the phone. And even though I had these wonderful visions of, this is gonna be my practice and I'll go and I'll play golf with people, I'll have lunch, I'll network, I'll do all these things that, that is, you know, how you normally build a business. I pretty much couldn't do any of 'em other than a doctor or two. I was seeing, there probably weren't many people I was meeting in Wilmington. And I had to navigate those first five, six years in the city trying to build a practice and realizing that, you know, it's not just going down a different road. I really had absolutely no idea how it was gonna play [00:04:00] out. Didn't know how I'd stay in the business, didn't know how I was gonna make the numbers work, but, somehow it worked. But it was certainly a scary time. Shaun: Thank you for that. And for those listeners who,