John Christianson, founder of Highland Private Wealth Management, in Seattle, Washington, started his company in response to God’s call to step out in faith. Deciding to make God his business partner and coaching clients about generosity have transformed his own life and how his clients think about giving.
In our continuing series with advisors, we sat down with John to hear about how this has played out during his more than 25 years as a financial advisor.
Why is generosity important to you personally and in your practice?
My entire journey has been one of faith, of trying to listen to what God wanted for me, for the business. This has changed me at every level.
A friend of mine took my wife and me on a Journey of Generosity that was life-changing for us. It started the journey for us – this idea of abundance over scarcity, stewardship over ownership. We explored what generosity meant to us, how that would manifest itself in our personal life, how I was holding this business, and the resources and success of it. It started at a very personal level, more than it did at a business level.
But the bulk of our clients aren’t necessarily faith-based. So, we’re always navigating this idea of being who we are and not shying away from it, but also recognizing that not everyone shares our faith journey.
A number of years ago, I created a way to connect people’s money to a life of meaning and purpose, through an experience called the Ideal Outcomes Experience, which taps into the vision of success for an individual’s life without telling them, “You need to be generous.” I think it’s clear to everybody that generous people are happier, healthier, more fulfilled.
Through the Ideal Outcomes Experience, I invite them to explore what they want for their money and their life in a way that’s exciting. Tying generosity to what people already want to do is much more effective than trying to convince them to do something that maybe they don’t want to do.
Can you tell us about a generosity conversation with a client that resulted in someone being more generous?
Sometimes clients inspire me more than I feel like I inspire them. Early in my own journey, I remember having a conversation with someone about their generosity, and the way they looked at it was really interesting. They didn’t just ask about what percentage they were going to give. This individual was calculating their financial independence. And instead of doing the traditional “check the box,” they said, “I want to throw everything in the hopper I have, houses and everything, and do a calculation based on that every year.”
I was so struck by that idea, that everything is God’s, and not just the amount I define. I thought, what a bold move, pushing it all into the middle of the table and defining generosity as a percentage of that. It was freeing to think about and really life changing for me, honestly. It caused me to think differently about how I’m deciding what’s in and what’s out.
Why did you decide to work with NCF?
NCF has been instrumental for my wife and me. Opening a Giving Fund allowed us to give away part of the business and acknowledge that God had been my partner all along. Before bringing in any partners to Highland, I wanted to reflect that divine partnership – and NCF made that ownership transition possible, shaping the culture of our business.
I wanted to foster this idea of a bigger conversation around wealth. If you’re just talking about making the pile bigger, even to faith-based people, what’s the money for? I was intrigued with this question in my own life and how I might help foster more conversations in the faith-based community and beyond.
Another other benefit of NCF is just the quality of people who work there. There isn’t a person who isn’t trying to be helpful, to help you along on your journey. They’re actually trying to help mobilize the resources you have in a way that’s aligned with your values and goals.
Are giving conversations with your clients deepening relationships?
To help a client well, I need to understand where their definition of meaning and purpose resides. Everything we do at Highland is putting ourselves in a place where we can have real conversations, where people can actually be honest and vulnerable with us. And our process is safe and solid enough that they can let the walls down a little bit.
I created the concept of a Wealth Confidant, a new kind of advisor who has coaching skills. Financial advisors are really good at telling people what to do because we’re the experts. The problem with generosity is we’re not the expert of that. The client is. It’s their life, their faith, their journey.
Why don’t some advisors discuss generosity with their clients?
I think generosity is hard for everybody. It’s not something advisors have all figured out. And if we haven’t figured it out for ourselves, how can we confidently talk to somebody else about it? It’s hard, scary, and takes a lot of faith. When we learn to let go of the resources we have and hold them in a stewardship position, we can use our own journey to say, “I’m not asking you to do anything I’m not already doing.”
If you don’t have that shared experience, it’s hard to empathize with clients.
At Highland, we share this idea of Living Fully, which means to flourish in all facets of life. And one of those pillars is generosity. It’s challenging for us to challenge clients to be risky. As wealth managers, our job is to protect and preserve. If I tell you to go do something that pushes you out of your comfort zone or makes your financial plan not as good, what kind of a financial advisor am I? But, in fact, that may be exactly the thing you need to do.
What results have you seen from making generosity part of your business?
Living Fully in my own life has had ramifications in my marriage, my extended family, my kids, and grandkids. Our staff, partners, and clients regularly share their appreciation for how we’ve freed them up to experience a level of joy and peace and fulfillment that maybe they couldn’t have imagined otherwise. That’s incredibly fulfilling.
Generosity is messy, just like everything else. You’re either on it and you’re going to do it in a vulnerable, conscientious, intentional way, or you’re going to avoid it and pretend you don’t have to do it. I’ve just found that people resonate with generosity.
Knowing so much about clients – the good, the bad, the ugly? That’s a lot to hold and to manage. There’s a reason people hire an advisor: They need help. That’s why the role we have, if done well and thoughtfully, is such a sacred one.
