Goals Shift. Values Persist.
At SHIFT this year, we were in awe of Brendan Frazier's 10 Insights to Master the Human Side of Advice. So many of his 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. We've decided to work through his 10 insights one by one through a Lumiant lens, offering tips, guidance, and practical advice on bringing each insight to life. If you didn't attend SHIFT, you can check out his full article on his website.
Insight One: Goals Shift. Values Persist.
Today we're covering his first insight — an elegant way of saying that goals change, but values don't.
We couldn't agree more.
At Lumiant, we believe you can only set truly meaningful goals and strategies to live your best life if you first understand your values. In today's fast-paced consumer environment, where society continues to shift and evolve, we humans have no shortage of goals competing for our attention and pulling us away from our real priorities. And it's not often that we stop to step back and see the wood through the trees. It's all go, go, go.
With that kind of lifestyle, we never feel fulfilment — because we're not treading our own path. We're being swept along by whatever currents happen to pass us by.
That's why the Lumiant process starts at the top of Brendan's triangle: values. We believe values form the foundation of good, personalised, and memorable financial planning. By helping clients step back, identify what they value in life, define what it means to them, and — most importantly — articulate what progress looks like, we can quickly identify actionable goals. In fact, on average each client in Lumiant has four goals tracked on the platform, and not all of them are financial.
Values lead to goals. More meaningful goals. Goals that help clients transform their lives.
Goals then lead to tasks and strategies. As clients complete those tasks and move toward a life more aligned with their values, they begin to feel a genuine sense of fulfilment — and that will be thanks to you.
It's easy to overlook the small wins, or the fact that a client has simply stayed the course. But celebrating those small wins is what drives big action, because clients can see and feel the momentum. By tracking progress, marking milestones, and keeping clients on track, you'll find them far more motivated to act on their financial plan and implement your advice.
How Lumiant Can Help You Bring This Insight to Life
Start with values. Use Lumiant's Your Values module to help clients identify, define, and articulate what fulfilment looks like for them. Frame it clearly: this process will help them set more meaningful goals and live more extraordinary lives.
Check in regularly on goals. Between progress meetings, track client goals and nudge them to add, update, and complete them on an ongoing basis.
Link advice to values visually. When articulating your advice, use the Key Advice Areas module to visually connect your strategies and the tasks clients need to complete back to their goals and values — showing them their progress toward a life aligned with what matters most.
Measure qualitative progress, not just financial. Use the progress baselines you've set across the eight dimensions of wellbeing, values, and key advice areas to check in on how clients feel. Quantitative monetary progress is only as meaningful as the qualitative sense of accomplishment and fulfilment that comes from living in alignment with their values.
Boost the goal count. Aim for at least one goal tied to each of a client's top five values cards, with extra emphasis on their top three — these will be the most meaningful to them. And don't neglect non-financial goals. By being an accountability partner across all aspects of a client's best life, you'll become even more indispensable to their transformation.
The best part: our platform will help nudge clients for you, so you can focus on making your connections meaningful and memorable rather than chasing people down.
We understand that opening a conversation about values and getting genuine, meaningful answers from clients is hard. If someone asked you right now what your values are, could you clearly and succinctly articulate them? That's why we've built prompts and guides directly into our platform to help you navigate these conversations with confidence.
And that leads us to Brendan's second insight — Asking Great Questions is a Superpower — which we'll cover in our next post.
If you enjoyed this article, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear how you're addressing values with your clients.