BOOK REVIEW
By CalBroker Magazine
Joe Strazzeri’s “Motive” is a valuable resource for all advisors looking to help their clients with planning. While the author’s “Motive” process is an excellent resource fit for CPAs, attorneys, and investment bankers who have clients in need of planning tools, it is also the special professional touch outlined in the book that is so valuable. It is clear how insurance professionals belong on the planning team and can also personally benefit from the many ideas and tips “Motive” provides for their own agency.
Successful families and business owners tolerate far too much angst and pain surrounding their material assets and cherished relationships. The key take away from “Motive” is that even in the midst of a difficult and dynamic planning process, this book provides examples of cases where there is hope for a better way through to a positive outcome than you might feel possible. — “Motive”
“Motive” is packed with uncommon insights, boots on the ground exercises, and real client stories. Enjoy as you will emerge from the experience with a profound exhale of relief, and practical steps to make the journey from friction to ease. Insurance brokers can gain an understanding of how they can be part of the planning process and collaborate with subject matter experts as a valuable member of the planning team.
With each page, Strazzeri endeavored to create more of an experience than a traditional book. Some people will power through attempting a quick read, and others will find the popcorn of a new idea in the pauses we have carefully infused throughout.
One of my favorite mottos is, “Hope is a great conversation.” Through a combination of compassionate sarcasm, tender truths, and dense prose, my hope is that families read for what they haven’t heard and not what they already know. At times you’ll find yourself rereading a sentence or a paragraph. When you do, please know that I have attempted to embed deeper nuance into those nuggets of compassion and contemplation. — “Motive”
Joe Strazzeri has kindly taken a few minutes to cover some questions about his book. First, some background about Strazzeri who is an attorney and counselor for successful families and business owners. With a lifelong desire to become a lawyer, he leveraged his second career as a general contractor, hammering nails to pay for law school. He has been self-made since his 20s.
Joe, what motivated you to write “Motive?”
After writing seven legal, financial, and tax books with my friends in the industry, I realized that the reasons that clients sought, chose, and worked with advisors often had less to do with the technical competencies and more to do with the needs of families. These reasons were more common than I had thought.
On the softer side, it felt vulnerable but more important to be transparent about choosing and being chosen, misunderstanding of facts and motives, advisors partnering with clients, and family thriving—all culminating in the invisible guest in these relationships.
What unexpected results have you seen after completing the book?
It has been a pleasant surprise to have current clients—as well as successful families and business owners that I’ve never met—quote sections of the book back to me and explain the impact that it has had on their lives. The common theme has been: “Did you write this section about me or for me?”
With each page, Strazzeri endeavored to create more of an experience than a traditional book. Some people will power through attempting a quick read, and others will find the popcorn of a new idea in the pauses we have carefully infused throughout.
Knowing that it sings to the hearts of this client segment—where they feel not only heard and understood—but provided a way to think through their issues and drive them to a deeper relation with the family members and advisors, has been joyful.
You are such a great leader and have accomplished so much. What suggestions do you have for how one can start each day focused on finding success?
In our digital, interrupted, and soon-to-be incredibly enhanced by AI world, it is easy to be distracted. Those things that are almost always urgent are almost never important. Blocking your monthly calendar, as Dan Sullivan suggests, with days when you only concentrate on your unique abilities, days you do the required “stuff,” and prescheduled free days, gives you the ability to feel rejuvenated and excited as well as the ability to separate emergency or non-essential items into one type of day and truly important items into another.
With that in mind, the biggest gift a high-net-worth advisor can give to their clients, families, and themselves is a dedicated, non-revenue-generating personal assistant who spends half of their time on personal, logistical, and family needs, and the other half acting as a gatekeeper and momentum keeper for their business.
An idea you cover in your book is to recognize the importance of family and cherished relationships. The concepts you outline seem to fit almost any business owner who can find value when applying the tools you offer to evaluate and re-evaluate relationships. What is a good starting point to consider when looking to apply the “Motive” philosophy with clients?
By seeing this book through three lenses, an advisor can gain the most benefit. The first lens is to see how successful families or business owners utilize the content, exercises, and videos. The second lens is understanding how this book influences the way their team interacts with clients. Lastly, if the advisor considers whether they would enjoy the kind of life they hope for their clients, they can see how this applies to themselves, their business, and their own family—gaining firsthand experience to then share with their clients.
As Trusted Advisors to business owners, what do you suggest professionals—from insurance to legal to financial—can do to stay focused on the keys you have outlined in “Motive?”
Realizing that there are wealth-biased relationships is the first step to leveraging this book. The next step is deciding to be transparent with the client about your desire and ability to go deeper into areas of their life and business. In doing so, you partner with the client to consistently create better outcomes.
Click here to get your copy of Motive: Meet the Invisible Guest in your wealth-biased relationships
To learn more and get involved with more advanced planning resources, please review our eCalendar for Exit Planning meetings held monthly and consider joining a meeting to meet with professionals in many planning fields, go online to the view the numerous Southern California Institute resources you can access as a self study opportunity, and consider reading books on exit planning to gain an appreciation of how you can assist your small and medium sized business owners with planning.
Joe Strazzeri is a founding partner in four companies that serve multi-generational affluent families and self-made business owners, and he teaches the trusted advisors to both. Their life’s work centers on Three Systems of Family Thriving: family wealth, family relationships and family business relationships, and family advisory relationships. They focus on four key capabilities: tax masterminding, business succession, cleaning up messes in families’ existing planning, and Family Synergy Work. Over 25 years in business, Joe and his teams have counseled more than 750 eight- and nine-figure net worth families, and thousands of others. This experiential sample size renders the insights and perspectives shared in “Motive.” Joe credits his entrepreneurial tenacity to the dichotomy of his parents’ origins. His mother, a German Iowa farmgirl, and his father, a crazy Sicilian entrepreneur, who began life as a teenage immigrant and drove the success of several real estate enterprises.
Email: joe@caretoknow.info