Read Time: 5 minutes
Carly and I are expecting our first kid early next year.
With that comes a lot of doctor appointments (and doctor bills, but that’s a different story). While we are still a few months away, we recently started researching potential pediatricians. Many things “kid-related” in Santa Barbara are in short supply - OB/GYNs, pediatricians, daycare, and so forth. Credit to Carly, she’s been very on top of getting us appointments and on waitlists.
On Wednesday we met with a potential pediatrician, and it was such a pleasant surprise.
A quick note - Santa Barbara’s healthcare options are relatively limited. Many of the providers are understaffed and overbooked. It often feels like you are a number in a system, waiting an hour for your 5 minutes with the doctor to do a quick check and ask you if there’s any questions. This post isn’t to complain about the quality of care in Santa Barbara but rather to paint a picture (and ultimately bring it back to financial planning).
Our visit Wednesday was wonderful, and a huge departure from our previous experiences with most doctors and healthcare providers.
The doctor came in and greeted us with a big smile. If I had to use one word to describe my initial impression, it was warm. Mind you, this was a meet and greet. There was no payment for this appointment and there was no guarantee we would move forward. But when we left we immediately decided we wanted to work with him, and in a more serious sense, trust our future baby’s health to him.
Here’s some things that stuck out:
He listened to our cares and concerns. And just as important, empathized with us. While we may be his 1,000th family, he recognized that this is our first baby, and all the hopes and fears and uncertainties that go along with it.
We weren’t rushed. We sat and talked and he asked us what was on our mind. He probably has quite a lot to do, but it never felt like
He was available. A bonus of this doctor is that he can do family medicine for me and Carly too. And he has availability! Here’s what I mean specifically. I have been waiting to get a physical for well over 6 months. But this doctor could give me a physical next week!
He was confident. As we left our appointment, he said “it would be an honor to take care of your family.” That left a huge impression on me and Carly. I don’t want a cocky pediatrician, but I also don’t want a timid one either! He is confident in his skills and abilities to help us, and that means a lot.
Some of this may seem like a bunch of “no duhs”, but like I said before, that hasn’t been our experience. I don’t doubt that most of the various doctors we’ve met with had the requisite technical expertise (nice double negative Joe). But most experiences left us wanting a bit more. This pediatrician delivered that experience.
And most importantly, we felt cared for.
Reflecting on this (and a recent blog post from Meg Bartelt that helped inspire this newsletter[1]), this is my goal as a planner.
To build a practice and become a planner that has time for clients and makes them feel heard.
Because our number one value to our clients is to be there when they need us.
Clients will sometimes apologize for venting about work or whatever is going on in their lives. Often they comment that it feels like therapy (hopefully in a good way!). But that’s often the highest compliment they can pay me - to trust me enough to include me in all parts of their lives, good and bad.
In some ways, I think I’m doing a good job right now. When I meet with prospective clients who happen to already be working with an advisor, one thing they often mention is that they rarely hear from their current advisor. This must be so frustrating! As we talk through this, I joke that one thing they can expect if we work together is that they will hear from me.
A lot!
The funny thing is that we actually have the data to back it up. Yesterday I was talking with Chris as we migrate our CRM and we were looking at some back end data. This data isn’t perfect, but I think it illustrates the point. My average client has been with us about 2 years, and in that time I’ve had formal phone calls or zoom meetings 11 times on average. And this doesn’t include texts & emails!
And yet there’s still so much room to grow and improve.
I want to continue to learn to ask better questions, to listen more and speak (and interrupt) less, and to be more patient. As I spend more and more time as a planner, I realize that while the technical side matters, it’s the human side that matters more. Or as Brendan Frazier says, “Plans and pie charts don’t change lives. People do!”
So while this newsletter is a deviation from our usual, more technical posts, I hope this was helpful. Part of writing this newsletter is sharing how our firm is growing and evolving and how we think about “things,” both financial planning, business, and personal stuff. A large part of the reason I got into financial planning was to build long term relationships. In tech sales, that didn’t happen. You would work with a company for 3-4 months and once you closed the deal, you passed them along to implementation and more than likely never talked with them today.
I want to work with our clients for the next 20 to 30 years, or more! I want to see them grow families and buy houses and put kids through college and take trips and retire and laugh and grow.
This is the part of the business I love, and the part I most want to continue to improve. I want clients and prospects to have the experience that I had with our pediatrician this week.
To be cared for and to be heard.
If any of this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of or a planner you’d like to work with, reach out and schedule a free consultation. We are taking on new clients.
[1] This post was heavily inspired by Meg Bartelt’s recent blog post. Meg is one of my favorite writers to read, financial or otherwise. I hadn’t intended on writing a post similar to hers, especially in the same month. But reading and reflecting on her post + having a similar experience with a doctor (albeit for very different reasons) made me want to write this