Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Authority Playbook. I'm Jeff Brandeis and today we're talking about the strategies to help you stand out, be seen and be heard. You're watching NOW Media Television.
Welcome to the Authority Playbook. I'm Jeff Brandeis. This is the show where we explore how leaders earn trust, communicate with authority, and create conversations that move people to confident decisions.
Whether you're speaking from a stage, leading a boardroom discussion, hosting a webinar, or sitting across from a client, every important business result begins with a conversation.
Today's conversation focuses on one of the most important aspects that people will ever have planning for retirement with confidence.
And joining me today is Kirsten Crumb, wealth advisor with SRG Financial Advisors in Osage Beach, Missouri.
Kristin specializes in retirement income planning, Social Security strategies, tax efficient retirement planning, and wealth management.
As a fiduciary, she helps pre retirees and retirees build strategies designed to create sustainable income and long term financial confidence.
What makes Kirsten especially well suited for today's Authority show is her ability to simplify complex financial decisions.
Rather than overwhelming clients with information, she helps them gain the clarity and confidence needed to make informed choices.
Because that's what authority really is all about. It's not about having the most information.
It's about communicating expertise in a way that builds trust, reduces uncertainty, and helps people take meaningful action.
Today, we'll explore how financial professionals build that trust, how difficult financial conversations become opportunities for deeper relationships, and how clarity can become one of the most valuable services you can provide. Kirsten, welcome to the Authority Playbook.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Jeff, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on today.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: That's awesome to have you here.
Before we unpack this masterclass on transformational networking and financials, ensure your leadership team stays positioned for growth.
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as we begin, I'd like you to ask yourself this question.
What is your next breakthrough? Is it one more strategy, but one more meaningful conversation?
In this first segment, we'll explore how serving others first can build trust, strengthen relationships, and become the foundation of lasting authority.
Kirsten, if I may, what drew you into wealth advising?
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so what drew me into wealth advising? It actually happened in college for me, kind of during the pandemic time. And I just realized we had all of these headlines talking about finance and the stock market and all of the fear and the volatility that was happening in the market. And you realize people are not truly talking about how to even get started, how to start learning more about finances and feeling more confident in them. And so I kind of took that to be my own mission of wanting to learn as much as I possibly could about finance. I actually took a year off of school just during the pandemic and everything, and found myself just fully enthralled with wanting to learn as much as I could about finance as humanly possible and found myself starting to educate folks on how to actually make those decisions. And it led me into a career in wealth advising, and I couldn't be more thankful for it.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: That's awesome. If you don't mind me asking, as you were growing up, were your parents forthright and talk about their financial situations with you as a child and the family, or was it something that was kind of hidden and that kind of got you into not learning more until you got to college?
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I think as growing up, financial questions weren't something that was necessarily happening at the dinner table, if you will.
And so I think I saw that there needed to be more financial education out there and being less taboo about any questions about finance. So, yeah, growing up, I don't think that was something that I had as much education as I wish that people had to. That
[00:04:22] Speaker A: should be something that should be more discussed with families around the table. Or is it something that you're.
When you talk to your people, who you are planning for retirement, you say, hey, do you discuss these topics with your children and with others?
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think that finances should be discussed with children in some shape or form.
Now, I understand that personal finance is very personal. Right. We get scared to start making these decisions or start talking about these things openly with folks. But at the end of the day, having that conversation of, okay, you know, what questions do you have? What are some things that you wish you had more resources to. And maybe just having that conversation to start getting people on the right track so they feel more confident at the end of the day.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Kirsten, we all know at some point in time we should begin to plan for retirement, but everyone these days seems to be more focused on today. What kind of emotions that go on when you. That you hear when people are concerned about the future and the retirement, but they're struggling to make ends meet.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: There's plenty of emotions that go into thinking about retirement. Absolutely.
I think a lot of them become fear or fear of the unknown.
When you come to retirement, you also realize this almost void you might be Having because you know, just think about it. People work to have a career their entire lives and to think you're walking away from that. Like, yes, we get so excited that we're hitting retirement, but then you realize, okay, but now what, what's going to fulfill me at the end of the day now that I'm not doing that anymore? And we want to make sure we're making the right decisions and understand why it is that you're wanting to retire, what goals you have in mind, and that at the end of the day, it's not just a game when it comes to retirement. We want to really understand what emotions are going on and what is going to fulfill folks at the end of the day.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: I couldn't agree with you more because I think it becomes one of those things that really impacts us. But yet so many successful people making six figures and some even make seven avoid these conversations because they don't want to talk about retirement.
Why?
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I think people will be scared talking about retirement at the end of the day because they just don't know what is next.
They just start getting uncomfortable thinking of all of the things that they don't know. And that's one of the things that we really want to help people with.
When someone comes down to sit down and have a conversation with us, we want to sit down and get to know the person you know. We want to know everything about your financial story that makes you you or what makes your household go on a day to day basis.
So. So we want to make sure that at the end of the day this whole process is going in alignment with your guys's values.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: I love that. And I think so many of us hear from financial advisors, they're advertised. We get phone calls on them, we get text messages from them.
What communication habit do you think should every advisor stop doing at this point in time?
[00:07:26] Speaker B: I think the communication habits that advisors should stop doing is trying to use all of these really big words and make things so much more confusing than they need to be at the end of the day. Right. Again, goes back to our last conversation we were just having. As far as it's who you're talking to on the other side of the table. Right. We want to make sure we understand their story. It's never just a numbers game. Uh, you could give me a scenario for someone and say this is all of their investables, this is everything they have. But at the end of the day, I can't make a good plan of. I don't understand what's Truly going on in the behind the scenes of their life, what their goals are, why they're doing what they're doing. Um, because that's really the most important part.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: It is very true.
So I'm curious, is there a moment in time when you're actually having a conversation with a client that, you know, I earned their trust. I'm confident that we're going to be able to work together? Is that magic moment, and do you sense it?
What telling signs do you actually see?
[00:08:29] Speaker B: I think that moment comes over time throughout each meeting as we're meeting with clients. It's not just like everything all happens in one meeting, because if you think about it, that would be very overwhelming. We talk about being overwhelming clients, and that's the last thing we want to be doing. And so you kind of just see this aha moment. Every time we start meeting, they gain more trust. The more we learn, the more they end up opening up. You know, it's crazy that we see the first meeting we. We. We meet with folks how much more their story kind of changes in the second, third, fourth meeting because they just slowly get more comfortable, they share more information.
Oh, by the way, we want to make sure that we go on this family reunion every year. Maybe they were scared to share that in the first meeting because they were ashamed of how much that might cost and what that might do for their plan. But we want to make sure that they know. At the end of the day, we're here to plan for your life. We're not here to plan for unknowns as far as other people's. We want to make sure that we're planning for you.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: We. I know we all should be planning for retirement, but is there an age where you got. You say, hey, now is the best time to do this. Don't put it off any longer.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: I wouldn't say that there's an exact age where we have to start. Obviously, the sooner the better, the sooner. Just starting to position yourself.
The one thing that we hate to see happen is when people come to us just in dire need because something has gone wrong in their life and they need help for something. Right now we're a lot more limited into what that planning looks like, because now we're kind of reacting rather than planning. So. So, you know, as soon as you can start getting started, getting involved, getting to understand what investments you even have, you know, taking a look as simple as, like, what your 401k or what your investments you have offered through your workplace, that's also a good place to start just to even understand where you might start looking financially for your future.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: That's awesome. Kirsten. This is such an important starting point because authority is not just about knowing more than what the audience is. It's about helping the audience feel less lost.
When people understand the conversation, they can participate in the actual decision. And when they can participate, that's when the trust begins to grow. When we come back, we'll go deeper into retirement conversations, Social Security decisions, and how to communicate strategy when people are worried about getting it wrong. We'll be right back. We'll be right back with more insights and frameworks to help you elevate your brand and your influence. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Jeff Brandeis, and this is the Authority Playbook on NOW Media Television. Let's dive deeper.
Welcome back to the Authority Playbook. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite, live or on demand, anytime you like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or on iOS and unlock nonstop bilingual programming in English and Spanish. You're on the move. Catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture, wellness and beyond, NOW Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are.
I'm Jeff Brandeis and I'm here with Kirsten Crone, wealth advisor with SRG Financial Advisors. In the first segment, we talked about why clarity creates authority. Now we're moving into the decisions that often carry the most pressure for families. Retirement income, Social Security, taxes, and whether the money will truly last forever.
These are not just technical conversations. They are emotional conversations. People are trying to protect their future, their spouse, their independence and their peace of mind.
The way an advisor communicates can either increase the fear or create confidence.
Kirsten, why are retirement conversations often so emotional for the clients?
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Yeah, retirement conversations become extremely emotional because we kind of touched on it as far as now, what do you do in your life? Right. There's such this hole to fill. As we have worked for years and years, we've taken great pride in building a career in something and really enjoying it.
Folks get to this point of retirement of what are they going to do next? So we like to call it work optional because a lot of times it's not just, okay, I'm going to retire and that's it, okay, well, maybe there's something fulfilling in life that we want to continue doing. How can we build that into your plan? Maybe we want to work part time at the dog shelter or volunteer somewhere. Or maybe our work optional is Simply, we don't have to work anymore, and we'd like to be traveling with our grandchildren at the lake house, whatever that is, coming to, what that emotion might be at the end of the day and how we can solve for that and feel comfortable that we build a plan around all of those things that kind of makes people take a deep breath, lets them let go of any tense, any emotions that they have when they just think of retirement or financial planning.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: I truly love the work optional phrase. I think it becomes really hone in on people's lives, their mindset. You know, for me personally, when I kind of semi retired, it was like, yes, all right. What does Jeff want to be when he grows back up again? I mean, so it's kind of reinventing yourself as you retire. But I know from when you talk to people, there's a ton of fears about retirement income planning. One of the most. One or two common fears that you hear most often.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Yeah, some of the most obvious fears are, am I gonna run out of money?
And. And just what. I don't even know what. I don't know. You know, this, this. Starting to think about your financial future after retirement becomes this huge scary unknown, especially when they've never walked into this before.
And also it becomes scary because what your situation is, is so different from your neighbor, your family, your parents situation.
You know, we like to talk about what is important truly to you.
So at the end of the day, that just becomes so scary because they don't know what they're walking into. And we want to make sure that we look at every aspect of someone's life when they hit retirement because we simply can't make one decision in a vacuum. We have to look at all pieces of life before we even start to consider what we end up doing.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: There's so much going on in the news. We pick up newspaper, we now go online, and we hear so much. We watch the stock market go up. We watch the stock market go down. We get advice from our friends. How often do you see people making mistakes when they try to rely upon or they take the words of somebody else about their retirement decisions?
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Yeah, we certainly see a lot of people that start to have concerns when they start listening or reading the news about the market mistakes. Sometimes we see folks that come in that maybe tell us some story of I saw something on the news and I decided to buy into this. And unfortunately, it kind of led me into a not great place. But. But more than anything we want, we like to say that the news is just to Try to blur that out. Right. The end of the day, if we have a sound financial plan, we want to know that the end of the day, someone feels comfortable. Okay, let's say if the market were to crash or the market is volatile, that I am comfortable in my plan. The way that it's, it's seated right now, that, okay, I have different buckets, or I have different risk tolerances for different sets of money and that I'm going to feel comfortable at the end of the day, that my plan is, is considering this and that there is going to be market volatility. Now, I can't tell exactly what's going to happen in the market every day. If I did, I wish I had a crystal ball that could tell me. Come on.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: But I don't have a crystal ball for us.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah, unfortunately, I just don't.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: Ah, okay. Well, let's just lie.
I'm sorry, but you're right. But having that balanced portfolio so that, you know, yes, there are risks, something sometimes certain things will go up, certain things will go down.
And I guess at the end of the day, what part of your job or your role, so to speak, is to let everyone live their life and have a good night's sleep knowing that they're going to be taken care of in the future, Correct?
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. At the end of the day, we like to say we want to make sure we're planning for anything to pass the pillow test. If there's something that's sitting at you all night and you just realize it's something that you have concern about, we want to make sure that we have a plan for that and you feel comfortable in it.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Let's kind of shift gears a little bit here, if you don't mind. Let's talk about Social Security strategies because I think everybody these days, we've been hearing a lot about Social Security. It's not going to be here in the next five years or ten years.
It's gone. And yet what are the elderly people going to do without that? How do we actually plan or not plan for Social Security in today's day and age, when you start to talk to people.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Yeah, Social Security, just like we said things in the news, right. We never know what truly is, is truth at the end of the day. Now we like to build contingency scenarios for. Yeah, let's say, for example, Social Security does get cut at the end of the day or five, ten, fifteen years from now. We want to make sure that there's a plan working in, in unison with everything else that you have going on in life, whether that's a pension, that you have Social Security as well as your retirement assets, you know, now. So. But since Social Security is something that has a possibility of going down in the future, well, now that onist is much more on those savings or those investable accounts that people have been growing for so many years. We want to make sure that we're able to make the most use out of those. Now, if we can make Social Security work into their scenario as well, even better. But let's not rely solely on Social Security to build their income plan.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: How do you actually talk to people about Social Security? Because, you know, most of us, with all due respect, are very ignorant about it.
We know they're taking money out of our paychecks and we go, got it. I hope someday I get to see this money back. But you know, there's full retirement age. There's, you know, start. When can you start to take? When should I start to take? And how do you make people, with all due respect, not feel so ignorant when you try to explain their options about Social Security?
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah, as far as making folks not feel ignorant about Social Security is we take it back to the household level again because it's important to look at both you or your spouse and look at them together as well. Like you mentioned, there is full retirement age, there's spousal benefits. There's so many different things to consider when we talk about Social Security when we're never making that decision in a vacuum on its own. We have to look at all of the other pillars you have going on in your life, whether that's, how are we positioned in all of our other investable accounts, what is our tax planning look like this year? You know, that's another thing people don't think of. Social Security is great. Okay, how is that maybe going to affect my taxes this year? How is this going to affect all of my other accounts that I start taking money out of once I hit this work optional or this retirement stage? So the answer as far as Social Security is that there's not simply one perfect time to take it and what's best for you is not going to be best for someone else down the street. And it really all depends back to that core financial plan and what it is that you're truly trying to accomplish and what's important to the family.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: There's so much information that's being discussed with you and the client. It's almost like mind boggling to some extent because it just seems like Information overload.
How do you kind of simplify this for the most people to truly understand it so that they can understand and to make a very informed, intelligent next decision? What's your process?
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Yeah, our process is simply getting to know the client first. We want to understand what truly is important to them.
And then we start getting to more of the financial planning and everything. And at the end of the day, we talk to so many different folks with so many different backgrounds. The way I explain something to someone is going to be very different to someone else. And that's something that we can gauge on the conversation level.
Some people are, you know, I want to know a little bit more about this. Like I want to see the Excel sheet and I want to know in a little bit more detail how my investments are running in the back end. That's something I'm more than happy to explain and educate and have a conversation with. And then there's other people that, you know, we want to make sure they're well informed as to what we're, what we're doing and how we're planning for them. But they don't necessarily want to know absolutely everything in the back end. So kind of just gauging how that client is reacting to information is important.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: I think at the end of the day you got to judge and understand who, who you're working with and understand what their wants are and their desires. And I think that's what differentiates yourself versus some other financial planners that just kind of, there you go. Take it and digest it yourself.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: Right?
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you. So this segment reminds us that communication is not just the delivery of facts, it is the management of emotional weight. When people are making life changing decisions, they do not just need data, they need clarity, hasting context and trust. And when we come back, we will talk about women and their financial confidence and why education can become one of the strongest forms of authority. We'll be right back. We'll be right back with more insights and frameworks to help you elevate your brand and your influence. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Jeff Brandeis and this is the Authority Playbook on NOW Media Television. Let's dive deeper.
Welcome back to the Authority Playbook. I'm Jeff Brandeis. I'm continuing my conversation with Kirsten Crumb. And now I want to talk about financial education and confidence.
One of the most powerful things Kirsten brings to this conversation is her belief that finance should not feel closed off, intimidating or reserved for a small group of insiders. When people understand Their options, they show up differently, they ask better questions, they make stronger decisions, and they become more confident participants in their own financial future.
Kirsten, why has financial education become such a personal mission for you?
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Excuse me? Financial planning has become such a personal issue for me because growing up, I just saw the lack of financial education growing up. You know, we go to school and we're taught so many different things, and finance is just certainly not one of those things.
So it's been a mission for me ever since then. And I've realized as much as I can educate people, the more empowered that I feel that I can do that, and I just enjoy that.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: As I learned more about you, you seem to be especially focused on women. Is that one of your initiatives to get women more informed about their financial future, their financial education, and help them financially as they move later into life?
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think women being empowered in finance is a huge thing, and I have felt very important to be able to speak on that topic because for some reason, this conversation is taboo, especially for women to be involved in. And, you know, even in this industry, I look around and don't see too many women in it. And so being able to want to be a voice or a leader in that role, I think is very important, because at the end of the day, finances is. Is related to everyone, right? It's not just one person in the household. It becomes a group decision, and we want to make sure that the wife or the lady on her own is able to understand and feel confident in the decisions just as much as the husband or whoever the he of the household might be.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: How often you come across women who either now just got divorced or just became recently widowed, and they wake up one morning and they find out, I know nothing.
How often do you come across that?
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Yeah, unfortunately, we do come across that. And it's the. You know, the whole time growing up, my husband was the one who took care of finances. And now, at the end of the day, I don't even know what accounts we have. I don't know where to look. And. And now, unfortunately, this is just the worst time that there's a burden happening in their life, and they also have to start picking up the pieces in the financial world. And to have to see them do both of those things at once, it's just terrible. You don't like to see that.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: How do you begin to educate someone who's never been educated before on their own financial aspects of things? Never balance a checkbook, don't even know what a 401k is. And how do they begin to even pay bills?
That must be quite an undertaking at stuff to take on.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Yeah. There's so many different aspects when we think about finance at the end of the day. Right. Whether it's someone was kind of the bookkeeper of the household and now, like you said, they're learning to write the checks and the bills at the end of the day, that's such a lifestyle switch. Right. Especially if someone has never been exposed to that. And then, yeah, talking about even the 401k accounts, you know, at the end of the day, we also hate to see, for example, beneficiaries aren't looked at as closely as they should be because unfortunately, there are circumstances where we have to have those listed. Right. And that's a conversation that we hate to have, but we do have to have that. At the end of the day,
[00:26:10] Speaker A: how often do people, I mean, we're talking about the women at the moment. How often do they know. Come to you and go, kirsten, I don't even know what questions they even ask you. I don't even know where to begin. How do you begin to guide them?
[00:26:23] Speaker B: That's how a lot of the first conversations start. Right. They come in not knowing what they don't know. And, you know, we've had people come in with big old laundry baskets full of things like, here's, I think, everything that I have, but I'm not quite sure what any of this even means. I think there's a bunch of statements in here. I don't know. I've never even looked at them. I've never logged into my account.
And so just taking kind of a breath, letting them understand, like, it's. It's going to be okay. Right. We're able to make a plan with whatever you've got. Right. And just going by one by one, we like to, as we have our meetings with folks is we like to put everything on a big board. And a lot of times this is the first time folks have seen, like, everything that they have all in one place. You'd be amazed at the way people's faces just light up of like, wow, I have all of that. I just. I didn't even know. I've never put all of that together. So being able to see that at one time, starting there with simply what you have, is such a good starting point.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: I love the laundry box or laundry basket analogy.
I was an accountant in my prior life, as I like to phrase it, when I got out of school and back then we used to Call it the shoebox.
People used to bring in shoeboxes of their receipts and basically created a tax return out of the shoebox. So now we graduated to the laundry. So that's awesome.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: It's gotten bigger
[00:27:47] Speaker A: and probably actually the more electronic also. I mean, I'm sure there, there are ways or there are times you find somebody and you start talking to them and obviously they don't know what they have. Then you have two or three conversations, then they come in with you, hey, I got this email. Or I got the same. Where did this come from?
[00:28:05] Speaker B: Definitely that that happens more times than not. I would say there's less times that we have someone that comes into the first meeting saying, this is everything I have and that the next meeting. That's still the case because like you said, an, we love that everything's digital nowadays, right? Except for now we realize maybe we just didn't even know we had this login to this account we forgot about until it comes tax time or something and we realize we got something for some miscellaneous account we forgot about.
So yeah, as we work with folks, we learn more and more about them. And a lot of times that's, oh, wait, I forgot about this. Or oh, wait, I had an old job from when I was a teenager back in the day and I didn't realize I had a 401k with them. How do we start planning with this? Can we incorporate that? And the answer is always, yes, we want to incorporate that. But tracking it all down is sometimes a hard part for folks.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: So as you begin your financial planning, you're also talking to people about their wills, their trusts, their dates, and making sure their other documents are in order. Because it's not just all about financial plan at the end of the day, it's also about making sure everyone has left the situation. Because we don't know when our expiration dates are, but everything is in order. You get into that as well when you begin to plan.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: Yeah, we do get into that. Now, of course, at the end of the day, we are not lawyers practicing law, but we are talking about all of that things that go into legacy. Planning is that pillar that we talk about. And it is asking those questions, you know, what do you want to leave behind at the end of the day?
For some folks, it's, you know, when I get to this end of life, I want to make sure that my kids, my grandkids are all taken care of.
Some folks we see, you know, maybe they don't have family members or kids to leave behind to we get to the end of life and they want to say, hey, how can I get my accounts closest to zero at the end of the day, at the end of my time? And so that's just kind of the interesting part of planning is we get to see all of these different aspects of life. So to answer your question, at the end of the day, we're not lawyers or anything, but we are definitely taking into consideration what that legacy or estate plan is for a client.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah, you gotta make sure the expression you need to make sure you have all your ducks in a row, and that's just all about what happened when you're alive, what happened when you also pass away.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: That's right. We can't just have all these baskets without name tags on them. At the end of the day, we need to make sure they have a place that they're going.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: I love your expressions. So that's awesome.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Why, thank you.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: So if you were to give advice to people who are outside of your industry, but basically advise people of the way financial advisors earn their trust, what would you provide advice to people in other industries to earn their trust through education?
[00:30:52] Speaker B: I think advice for any professionals is taking a moment before you start and before you start getting into the nitty gritty of anything, is understanding who you're sitting in front of. Right.
As we start with our financial planning, it's all about the client. It's all about what is important to them. We want to. We want to understand why we're doing something. We don't want to just get to the very end goal and say, you know, this is why you need to get into this. Or whenever someone is trying to sell something, they get straight to the point, because at the end of the day, that's not going to resonate with anyone. So as professionals, taking that moment with someone in front of you, earning that trust with them, letting them talk is also a huge thing. I think we get so involved with wanting to speak out or trying to have the biggest and longest words as we're talking to someone to impress them, when in reality, that's not what's going to get someone to understand what you're saying.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: I couldn't agree with you more. I think in today's world, and I see it, you know, in many presentations where it's all about me, me, me, as opposed to about them, them, them.
With all due respect, no one wants to hear your biography for the first 10 minutes that you speak to them because it's just one ear out the other. But when you start asking those questions.
[00:32:10] Speaker B: I absolutely agree.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: That's awesome. So thank you for that.
Kirsten. What stands out in this, in this portion is that education is not just about transferring information.
It's about getting people back. A sense of agency and urgency.
When people feel safe enough to ask, clear enough to understand, and confident enough to decide, communication has done its job.
When we return, we will close by talking about how to move an audience towards action, not through pressure, but through trust, clarity and the message that lands. We'll be right back. We'll be right back with more insights and frameworks to help you elevate your brand and your influence. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Jeff Brandeis, and this is the Authority Playbook on NOW Media Television. Let's dive deeper.
Welcome back to the Authority Playbook. I'm Jeff Brandeis. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite, live or on demand, anytime you like it. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or on iOS and unlock nonstop bilingual programming in English and in Spanish on the move. Catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv. from business and news to lifestyle, culture, wellness and beyond, NOW Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready when you are.
I'm here with Kirsten Crone, wealth advisor with SRG Financial Advisors. In this segment, we are bringing the conversation back to action because the goal of authority is not to impress people. The goal is to help people move.
A strong presentation, a strong consultation, or a strong client conversation should leave people clearer than they were before and confident enough to take the next right step.
Kirsten, what helps a client move from uncertainty to taking action?
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I think clients move from uncertainty to taking action when they realize there's a plan for everything in place. Right. As we're going through the planning process with them, we talk about all of the possible things that are going to happen in their life. We like to call these mile markers or these critical life events that are going to happen. And so if we understand that there's a plan in place for those that shakes a lot of the uncertainty out and understanding, okay, we have a plan for what the next step is. Let's say something happens in our life rather than it becoming this crisis moment, it's okay. Let me call Kirsten. I know we have a plan set up for this. I know we knew something like this was going to happen eventually. So let's just take the next step and make that plan adjustment.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Life happens, as we all know. I mean, we can plan.
As we talked about earlier, we don't know when our expiration date is. Life happens, heart attack happens. You know, accident even happens.
So having that comfort factor, having an advisor like yourself to go to and feel comfortable about is so important.
Which kind of leads me to this question. Yes, go ahead.
[00:35:20] Speaker B: Nope, you're all good. Feeling comfortable for sure. And wanting to ask those questions and not feeling insecure or having any anxiety for any questions that come up is a huge part in being confident in moving forward with the next steps or what the change in plan might be for them.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: I can imagine you have an expectation of how you want your clients to feel after they have a conversation with you.
Describe that to us.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: Being able to see clients go from that first meeting of feeling anxious or having all of these built up emotions to as we start working down the line with them and just seeing them feel more confident, just, you can just see this whole tense, just relax feel with them over time. And that's truly the best thing about what I get to do is seeing that at the end of the day. And you know, is every meeting, are they going to walk away with that?
[00:36:17] Speaker A: Not.
[00:36:17] Speaker B: Not always. Right. The end of the day they might have questions and they start thinking of more things when they go home. We like to say, you know, after you have a meeting with us, go home if you have any questions. Because it can be overwhelming as you're sitting in a meeting across from someone and I don't know, I want to maybe ask my husband this question first and we'll talk about it at home. Please do that. Call us back, ask that question and then we can just keep planning from there. And being able to see just that relief is awesome.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: That's great. I love it.
I'm sure you've. People come into your world, ask you questions, but sometimes they feel like they're very far behind in their planning. They feel overwhelmed or God forbid.
A lot of people are probably embarrassed about their own financial knowledge or where they are today. What do you say to someone who feels that way?
[00:37:10] Speaker B: I definitely don't want anyone to feel embarrassed about their financial situation. We truly get to see all sorts of different situations. So there's nothing to be ashamed of. There's nothing to feel guilty about. The end of the day, if you're starting to make that step, to start planning and to start understanding what your financial future might look like. You've already been starting so far ahead of so many other people. So just starting that conversation is what I would say at the end of the day is just start there and then we can start building that plan and we don't have to feel anxious about it anymore.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: I realize we're talking about retirement planning and financial situations, but today when we look at the US economy, we have more people in debt than we've ever had before and continuing to grow.
How do we balance any of our debt to retire to planning for retirement?
[00:38:04] Speaker B: Yeah, we like to call this kind of the cash management portion of your financial picture. And it's going to be different for so many folks. And not all debt is bad debt. Right. We see folks with medical debt, we see folks with different school debt, boats, loans, houses, all kinds of different things. Well, we want to just make sure at the end of the day that we take a look at each one of these and, and how does it fit with our plan? You know, is our goal to be completely debt free? We've talked about that, that pillow test. What makes people feel comfortable. If at the end of the day they're going to feel more comfortable knowing they're debt free, then we're going to make that a priority in their plan to start putting some money towards that debt. Now we have other folks at the end of the day that are just like, you know, it's not at the something that I have to feel paid off in loans, but we can keep planning and just look at everything else in our future and that's just fine.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: I realize there's good debt and there's bad debt and there's low interest rate and there's high interest rate.
[00:39:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:03] Speaker A: So that becomes one of those balancing acts that you need to work with people to truly understand their financial situation. So obviously paying 33% interest is not a good thing to do when you're
[00:39:16] Speaker B: trying to look for those credit card nowadays, they get that way. And I just, just. That's crazy to me.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: Yeah, there should be a law against that. I think that's a whole separate conversation.
[00:39:27] Speaker B: Absolutely right.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Control that.
I'm sure there's many times when you're talking to people and they say, hey, that all sounds good, let me think about it. And you know, maybe they don't get back to you right away or even two weeks later, a month later. How do you kind of begin to kind of get them to make a decision without making them feel you're pressuring them to get this done.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: We never want to make people feel pressured to make any decision.
We like to say that we'll tell you what's going to happen if we make a decision, but we're never going to tell you to Just straight up make that decision on your own.
I think a common misconception with financial advisors is that we'll tell you not to spend your money, and that's not the case at all. We just want to tell you what's going to happen if we do spend that money. What happens if we do plan that big Europe trip every single year? And how do we make sure we do it in a tax efficient way? How do we make sure we do it as we're mitigating our risk, we're pulling it from an account that, okay, it's okay to take that out any time of the year. We've structured this to be able to take that money out. And so we just want to make sure that plan aligns with what they're trying to accomplish.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: Kind of leads me into this question about how do you know when someone needs more information versus they might need more confidence in making that decision?
[00:40:47] Speaker B: Yes, some people like more information and some people like to feel more comfortable. Right. It just depends on who you're sitting across the table from at the end of the day.
Some people, we like to show all of the numbers to as far as a big Excel sheet, and we go line by line by line. And that's something that the client is going to feel more comfortable seeing. Now there's a different client out there that they're going to see line by line by line. And. And they're going to feel overwhelmed. So we don't want that to happen. So trying to understand who it is we're sitting across the table from is so important because we never want to overwhelm someone. We want to make them feel comfortable. And so maybe we have to take a different route. And that's telling the whole financial story. How does this truly affect them rather than what just the numbers are? And there's going to be a different person for each of those scenarios.
[00:41:35] Speaker A: That is true.
I'm curious, can you tell us a little bit more about SRG Financial and what their specialty is and how your motto is, or just how long you've been there working with them? You don't mind me asking?
[00:41:49] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So SRG Financial Advisors has been around for about three decades now.
And I love that we're a family business, which is so nice. We're located at the heart of Osage Beach, Missouri. If anyone's familiar with Lake of the Ozarks, I'm a gal who doesn't love the city. So to be able to work in finance in a place where I get to be around the lake is so special to me and I didn't know I was going to find a place like that.
And we work primarily with pre retirees and retirees who are getting to that point of life of, okay, I've retired. Now what? All of the unknowns are in front of them. And that first conversation we have with them is what we like to call is just our fit phone call or our fit appointment. We just sit down and see what it is that they're looking for, what are they trying to accomplish in life, and we see if they're a good fit for us or if we're a good fit for them because we're not going to take on absolutely everyone that sits down in front of us. We want to make sure this is something that is good for both of us. Right.
And so that's just really what I think makes us stand out in a way is because we truly get to know every single client before we ever talk any numbers. The first conversations are what is important to you. I just can't emphasize enough. That's where we start. Rather than just, okay, throw me all of your statements, let's look at the numbers and build a plan. Because you just can't build a plan off of that.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: I love the philosophy. I love talking to you, Kirsten. It's been a pleasure having you on the show. If people want to find out more about you or contact you, what's the best way for them to reach out?
[00:43:25] Speaker B: Absolutely. If anyone wants to reach out, you can visit our website at www.srgfinancialadvisors.com. you can also give a phone call to us at 573-302-7212. We'd be more than happy to have that initial conversation with you and just speak about where you're at. Where's your conversation? What's headed next in your financial life?
[00:43:51] Speaker A: Kirsten, thank you for bringing such clarity, warmth and practical wisdom to this conversation.
Today we explore financial communication, retirement confidence, Social Security, tax efficient planning, education, trust, and the kind of authority to help people move from confusion to action.
What I'm taking away from this episode is the Authority is not about overpowering the room. It's about helping the room understand what matters, why it matters, and what the next step should be. Thank you for joining us again and to our viewers, thank you for sharing your insights on building authentic relationships, serving others first, creating lasting authority, and growing a business through trust and meaningful connections. At the Authority Playbook, we believe your greatest competitive advantage isn't what you know it's how you effectively communicate it because better conversations lead to better decisions and better decisions drive better business results. I'm Jeff Brandeis. Thanks for joining us. Have a great day.
