From the Clouds to the Street
At SHIFT this year, we were in awe of Brendan Frazier's 10 Insights to Master the Human Side of Advice. So many of the insights resonated with us — they speak directly to the problems we've set out to solve, or at least make easier for advisors.
For those wondering how you can use Lumiant to maximise Brendan's insights and change your business's trajectory, you're in luck. This week we're covering Insight Three: From the Clouds to the Street. If you didn't attend SHIFT, you can check out his full article on his website.
From the Clouds to the Street
"The more vivid and clear your future, the more likely you are to change your behavior."
We couldn't help but shout "YES" when we read that quote. It's one of the main reasons we built Lumiant — to help clients truly articulate and visualise what their best life could look like. This isn't something they can achieve by staring at spreadsheets, graphs, or vague financial goals like "retire at 65 with $X." They can't relate to it. It doesn't resonate. They can't visualise how those numbers translate into real-life outcomes — what that dollar figure in retirement actually empowers them to do.
Morningstar's research reveals a direct link between savings behaviour and mental time horizon. People who think at least ten years ahead save significantly more than peers with a shorter outlook. It's about having a clear, vivid, specific vision of the future — one that makes the mental imagery feel tangible and real. It's why visualisation techniques have been used for centuries, and why creating vision boards still holds genuine power. Seeing what you want to achieve helps you go after it.
For advisors looking to motivate clients to act on their financial plans, making those plans visual could be the key to getting goals ticked off. And the more goals clients achieve under your guidance, the happier and more engaged they'll be.
Tips to Bring Your Plan to Life
Personalise Plans with Images and Videos
A list of goals on a sheet of paper, an Excel document, or a Kanban board isn't particularly inspiring. Clients have to work hard to bring it to life in their minds — and that gets harder as visual imagery vividness naturally declines with age.
To help bring goals to life, we recommend asking clients to attach real-life pictures or videos of what they want to achieve. It could be a video from a past holiday to motivate saving for their annual trip. It could be a photo of the family outside their dream home, or the campervan they'll buy to tour the country in retirement. Whatever it is, ask clients to choose imagery that is personal to them — images and videos that evoke the right emotions and feel genuinely inspiring.
In Lumiant's Goals module, clients can upload these images and videos directly to their goals, creating their own personal digital vision board that greets them every time they log in.
Ensure Your Client Portal Visualises Outcomes Beyond Performance Reports
Many client portals offer an on-demand view of financial data and performance reports. While those numbers are critical to optimising net worth, they still leave a lot to the imagination — and for non-financial clients, they can lack meaning and require significant explanation.
At Lumiant, we roll up strategies, goals, and portfolio modelling into a simple colour-coded score: Underfunded, On Track, or Overfunded. Clients don't need to parse through data to know where they stand. One glance tells them everything — and what action to take next.
Lumiant's Best Life module goes further, overlaying goals on the financial model alongside the client's age, so they can see exactly what they're going to achieve and when. And our Wellbeing score shows how your advice is impacting the client's overall wellbeing over time — a powerful visual that, overlaid on financial results, demonstrates the positive impact you've had on every aspect of their lives.
Capture the Non-Financial Goals Too
To give clients a truly complete view of their best life, it's important to capture non-financial goals alongside the financial ones. Purely financial goals can be hard to make emotionally resonant — paying down $5,000 in debt is important, but it's difficult to make visually inspiring.
What can be more powerful is showing clients all the non-financial goals they can achieve alongside the financial work. Running to work instead of catching an Uber. A date night picnic instead of a fancy restaurant. A hiking and camping holiday rather than the usual city break. When clients attach positive, meaningful imagery to these goals, they're more likely to achieve them — and achieving those goals increases satisfaction even when other aspects of the plan involve short-term lifestyle trade-offs.
Update Those Images When Goals Are Completed
As clients achieve goals, update the imagery. Replacing the "dream" image with a real photo taken at the moment of completion creates a powerful reminder of how it felt to get there. At your annual progress meeting, you can scroll through those real-life moments together — reflecting on what's been achieved with your guidance. It strengthens your perceived value, reinforces the progress made, and motivates clients to keep taking action toward their best lives.
Making your plan as visual as possible is critical if you want to motivate clients to act on your guidance and achieve success. That's why we've built Lumiant to be as visual as possible — so you can help your clients get out of the clouds and onto the street toward their best lives.
Get a demo today, or learn more about the Goals module.