A few years ago, I attended a conference in Oslo where psychologist and coach Aaron Turner shared a story that has stayed with me ever since.
He was on holiday in Hawaii with his family, standing in the sea and enjoying the warm water. The ocean was calm. The water barely reached his knees.
Yet something felt off.
He remembered hearing a quiet thought in his mind:
“You should get out now.”
He ignored it.
Moments later, a powerful rip current swept him off his feet and dragged him away from the shore. He tried to swim back, but the force of the water was too strong.
Thankfully, he was spotted and safely brought back to shore.
What struck me wasn’t the drama of the story. It was the point Aaron made afterwards.
We all have access to a deeper intelligence. An inner wisdom that intelligently guides and supports us.
The challenge is that we don’t always listen.
The voice we talk ourselves out of
Looking back over my own life, I can see many such examples.
By the early 2000’s, I had built a successful financial advisory practice.
From the outside, everything looked good. But something inside me kept nudging me in a different direction.
There wasn’t a logical argument for it. Financially, it would be like starting again.
I resisted it for quite a while because there seemed to be too much at stake.
Then life did what life often does. It got my attention.
Around that time, I became interested in meditation and was taught Transcendental Meditation. As I developed a regular practice, my mind became quieter.
And in that quieter space, a greater sense of clarity naturally appeared.
Within six months, I had arranged to sell my financial planning practice and begin a new chapter as a full-time coach.
Looking back, I don’t think meditation gave me the answer. I think it simply helped me stop drowning it out.
The real conversation
Over the years, I’ve noticed something similar happening with many coaching clients.
People often arrive with what appears to be the problem…
A business challenge, a difficult decision, or feeling stuck.
But as we explore more deeply, it becomes clear that the issue itself is rarely the real issue.
Somewhere beneath the mental noise, the overthinking, and the analysis, they already have a sense of the answer.
The struggle comes from not trusting their deeper wisdom.
Sometimes that’s because the truth requires a difficult conversation, a bold decision, or a change in direction.
Sometimes it’s simply because we listen to our rational mind because it shouts louder.
Either way, clarity tends to appear when the noise settles.
From transactional to transformational
This has profound implications for financial planners.
Most advisers are trained to solve financial problems. And that’s important.
But numbers, products, tax strategies, and investment returns are ultimately vehicles. They are not the destination.
It can be easy to believe that your client has their life all figured out.
Yet often they don’t. So, the real value lies in helping clients gain clarity about what truly matters to them.
*What are they really planning for?
*What kind of life are they trying to create?
*What would make their future genuinely meaningful?
When clients connect with those answers, the work becomes more than transactional.
It becomes transformational.
Because there is extraordinary peace of mind in knowing that the life you’re building is aligned with what matters most.
You have to go first
This is where many advisers hit a ceiling.
Not because they lack technical ability but because transformational work cannot be learned purely from a textbook.
It’s not about just having better techniques, following a process, or some kind of intellectual exercise.
You can only guide clients as far as you’ve been willing to travel yourself.
If you’ve never explored what truly matters to you, it’s difficult to help someone else uncover what matters to them.
If you’ve spent years ignoring your own wisdom, you’ll find it harder to recognise when a client is doing the same.
The quality of our presence with others is deeply connected to the quality of our relationship with ourselves.
Transformational client work begins long before the client arrives.
It begins with you.
With your willingness to listen to your deeper wisdom. To trust it.
And while that path can sometimes feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable, it is also where authenticity lives.
And authenticity is where your greatest impact will always be found.
PS. Are you ready to explore what going deeper might look like for you? Let’s talk. send me a message at [email protected] and we can go from there.
