What if someone gets stuck on the Financial Road Map®? For example, we’re going up the Values Staircase™ and they say, “Taking care of my kids.” And I say, What’s Important About taking care of your kids, To You?” And they say, “I don’t know what’s important about that. It just is.” I tried projecting into the future but hit the same roadblock. Is there anything else I can do to help them move up further, or should I just stop there even if it is only ½ way up the Values Staircase™?

Article ID: 290

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

First part of response is the same as above. Then: If projecting them into the future doesn’t work the first time, do it slower the second, “Let’s say that you are at a place in your future where you have done virtually everything you can imagine doing to take care of your kids… What’s…. Important… About… knowing that you did that for your kids… To… You?”

Also listed in

Values Conversation™ -> What's Important About...To You?

« During the Values Conversation™ I often get the response "Give...

When you ask the What’s Important About…To You,” question and... »

Others in this category

What should I say when I am asked off topic questions or when a client's spouse interrupts the Values Conversation™?

I've been having some difficulty in the values conversation with clients not going "higher" than basic needs. It almost seems like I need to cue them that it's OK to go beyond money and that I want to hear about the things that are really important to them. They seem to not understand that and there's nothing in the script to let them know that. To be honest, I’ve deviated from the WIA__TY and the associated framing/bridging framework in order to have clients understand what the exercise is really about...I found it frustrating to keep hearing that money is important to pay bills without anything deeper or more important. Please share your thoughts on these several issues.

When conducting the Values Conversation™ with a couple, what should you do when they consistently interact with each other? For example in working with the husband, the wife would interject something. I reminded her that we would get to her shortly, that this was a discussion with the husband. The husband would then answer and confer with the wife or otherwise engage her. When it was the wife’s turn, the same thing happened, a lot of back and forth conversations. I would repeatedly steer them back but it was like herding cats. What is the suggestion for making it clear that it is a separate conversation for each of them?

During the Values Conversation™, the client sometimes goes down a path about a particular aspect of their life, like travel, and may even get to level three, but then indicate that there are some level one and two responses in some other area of their life like children or community. How do we best encourage the client to transition to these other areas of their lives in the conversation without complicating or disrupting the flow of the process?

Going into my first Financial Road Map® interview, do clients ever ask or express skepticism/sarcasm at the, ‘What’s Important About…To You’ questions because it's just a fill in the blank formula. I ask because someone I practiced with asked this and I must admit that I felt a similar feeling. I know that the process works and gets to important values, but it feels almost too simple. Please offer your thoughts and perspective.

» More articles