Squiggley Brains

What’s the best personality type for FINANCIAL PLANNERS? Introvert or extrovert?

Both and neither is the answer.

In order to be a fantastic financial planner, we need conflicting skill sets, and that’s what makes finding great financial planners so hard.

1. Social Skills (Extrovert)

People buy people, and if you can’t connect on a human level with your clients, then you are going to struggle to get them to open up and really ignite the possibilities in a financial coaching session.

And more importantly, if you can’t get people to warm to you, then you’re probably going to struggle to get clients in the first place.

2. Technical skills (Introvert)

Technical skills help us learn to do all the product analysis, tax calculations, and such, and pass all those pesky exams.

However, this doesn’t matter if we have no clients to do technical stuff with; see 1 above.

But being able to connect with clients on a human level and then do all the technical stuff STILL isn’t enough!

There’s a third skill that we need.

Most of the issues that clients face when they come to see you are a big old mix of contradictions, emotions, limiting beliefs, false truths, and life experiences.

In other words, when it comes to the issue they are wrestling with, their brains are all squiggly.

And we can’t help them if our brain is squiggly as well.

We need another skill set…

3. Structure (Straight Line Brains)

A great financial planner has the natural ability to see the lack of structure in their client’s head and help them build a framework in their mind within which the root issues can be seen clearly, decisions made, and plans built.

So, as you can see, all it takes to be a great financial planner is to be an extroverted introvert with a straight-line brain.

And there’s a name for these people—they’re called ambiverts.

Extroverts get their energy from connecting with other people and lose energy when faced with a technical theorem or a need for structural discipline.

Introverts get their energy from structure and order and lose energy when forced to interact socially.

Ambiverts would rather be doing other things than interacting socially, but if the connection is stimulating and debate-worthy, they become energised.

Likewise, they can revel in technical work, but only if it supports or relates to a real-world outcome or solution. The technical theorem for the sake of it doesn’t do it for them.

And most importantly, they see order where there is none and have a desire and a drive to build it.

See if you recognise yourself as an ambivert…

• Do you need to make an effort to go to social events? Do you hate small talk but come alive and energised in conversations and discussions of substance and passion?
• Do you need to make an effort to engage in technical analysis, which is largely theoretical, but love working up solutions where there is a real-life outcome?
• Do you love planning and organising things? Does a messy room (or mind) irritate you and drive you to put a system and structure in place?

If that is you, then you have all the ingredients of a great financial planner.

But remember, with great power comes great responsibility… (10 bonus points if you can tell me in the comments below who said that.)

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