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Every advisor reaches a point in their career where a problem seems immovable. A client relationship that won’t take the next step. A lead generation strategy that has stalled. A growth plateau refuses to budge despite your best efforts.

You’ve tried brainstorming. You’ve talked to colleagues and mentors. You’ve even whiteboarded it out over coffee with your team. And yet you're still stuck. Here’s the truth: Your problem isn’t the problem. The problem is the question you’re asking about the problem.

Why You’re Asking the Wrong Question

When advisors get stuck, it’s usually because they’re approaching a complex issue with a narrow lens. The questions advisors typically default to are often reactive, logical, and surface-level:

• Why can’t I get more high-net-worth clients?
• How do I get clients to respond faster?
• Why isn’t my team performing better?

These feel like the “right” questions because they sound tactical and professional. But in reality, they often box you in and stall you. They focus your thinking on symptoms rather than causes. They seek fixes, not insights.

Typically, the key to transformation lies in reframing the question.

Real Problems Require Better Questions

Let’s take a few common financial advisor “stuck” points, as mentioned above, that we see every day, and show you how to reframe them for breakthrough thinking.

1. Stuck Question: “Why can’t I get more high-net-worth clients?”

Reframed: “What would make a high-net-worth client chase me down for a meeting?”

This flips the frame from you trying to get clients to becoming the advisor clients pursue. That leads to better follow-up questions:

• What would I need to stand for?
• What would my first impression need to look and sound like?
• Who already has the trust of these people—and how can I collaborate with them?

Now you're designing a magnetic attraction, not chasing.

2. Stuck Question: “How do I get clients to respond faster?”

Reframed: “What’s stopping my clients from seeing this as urgent?”

This question shifts the problem from logistics to psychology. You begin thinking about clarity, emotional engagement, and client motivation:

• Is my message clear, or am I overwhelming them with complexity?
• Did I anchor this conversation in what they care about most?
• Am I speaking to their future, or about mine?
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3. Stuck Question: “Why isn’t my team performing better?”

Reframed: “What would inspire my team to take ownership like it’s their business?”

This isn’t about micromanaging or fixing attitudes. It’s about systems, culture, and purpose. Advisors who ask this question find better answers in:

• Vision that includes the team, not just the founder.
• Clear scorecards that measure what matters.
• Modelling a culture of values and success as a leader will inspire the team to up their game.
• A recognition system that rewards outcomes, not effort.

The Growth Skill Most Advisors Never Learn

Reframing questions isn’t soft thinking—it’s a complex skill. And like all powerful skills, it must be practiced with intention and purpose. Review this three-step process to apply to a problem that remains stuck:

1. Name the problem as you see it.

Example: “I’m not converting enough discovery meetings.”

2. Ask: ‘What question am I really asking here?’

Most likely: “How do I convince more people to sign up?”

3. Reframe: ‘What question would unlock a better future?’

Transformational question: “What would make my discovery meetings so valuable that clients want to onboard before we even talk about fees?”

This last question opens creative energy. It invites innovation. It pushes you toward what matters: solving the problem or issue that has you stuck.

This Is What the Best Advisors Do Differently

Top-performing advisors don’t just work harder or move on from the unsolved problem; they address it. They ask sharper, more profound, more empowering questions—of their clients, their teams, and themselves. They don’t settle for shortcuts to solving the apparent problem. They reshape the landscape to enable better solutions to emerge. They think differently. You can too.

Ready to Try?

Here’s your challenge:

1. Write down a business or client challenge that has you stuck and frustrated.

2. Next, write down the first question that comes to mind. Then flip it. Expand it. Push it toward purpose, not panic. Alternatively, ask, “What question am I really asking here?”

3. Your next breakthrough might not come from working harder. It might come from a better question like “What question would unlock a better future?”

Final Thought:

In this business, clarity isn’t a luxury. It’s a multiplier. And when clarity is missing, confusion or passivism wins. So, the next time you’re stuck, don’t ask, “How do I fix this?” Ask instead: “What’s the question that would change everything?”

Because when you change the question, you not only CHANGE your game, but you also UP it.

Would you like a copy of our Comprehensive Practice Management Checklist for financial advisors?

How About Your Goals for Your Practice in 2026?

 While each financial advisor's practice may have a different approach, advisors need to understand where their practice needs help, and they will get the right help for the right part of their practice. What areas does your practice need help with?

Free Resources:

21 Page Technology Checklist to Become a Future-Ready Advisor

Fee Audit Checklist for Ideal Prospects

Updated Comprehensive PracticeManagement Guides

We are here to serve your practice. Let’s talk

Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and have the goals conversation by contacting Jeff at jeff@jeffthorsteinson.com or Grant Hicks, CIM at grant@ghicks.com 

Regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.

To book a NO obligation conversation with me to discuss practice management or coaching, click the following link

Jeff  https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm 

Grant  https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ, Let’s have a conversation

Jeff Thorsteinson, Grant Hicks CIM and Advisor Practice Management's combined financial advisor clients manage over 8 billion AUM, and earn over $80 million dollars combined!