struggling to shake my traditional financial advisor voice
It’s funny, but I was (and still am) really excited to start this Substack. The writing under AlignedLife is my space to lean into areas of finance, money, investing, and other financial planning-related areas that I don’t feel I can elsewhere.
It’s not that I can’t be authentic in my Daily Notes or company website—I just feel like those platforms have a different purpose in my overall creative ecosystem. AlignedLife is where I can experiment with explaining new beliefs, explore concepts out loud, share ideas most in my space would never share, and challenge the status quo of how we view money and finance.
My Daily Notes are reserved for the spirit, mind, body, and creativity focus of my work. Plus, these are written each morning and are basically a download of a message I’m supposed to share with readers. I’m 875 Notes in, and not a single one has been planned in advance. They’ve all been written the day they're posted, and in less than thirty minutes.
The blog on the Santiago website is really there for two purposes:
1.) For whatever SEO benefit that exists, I hope there is a decent bang for my buck on SEO since the folks I’m writing for, creative entrepreneurs, are relatively new and not many financial advisors will put into writing how I work with these creative entrepreneurs. Without being reckless, I’m all for planning outside the box, taking calculated risks, betting on our Selves, and doing what is right for the client, not necessarily most optimal on a spreadsheet or in financial planning software.
2.) To help visitors to the website understand my approach to AlignedLife+, give them a feel for how I’m different, and decide if my approach to working together is a good fit for their needs.
Despite having the space to talk about finance, money, investing, and other financial planning-related areas, I’m struggling to write new posts, not because I lack ideas. It’s quite the opposite. I have a notebook full of ideas that I want to write about. To tease some of them:
Money through the lens of energy.
Inauthenticity’s impact on your finances.
When living an aligned life, money tends to take care of itself.
Money operates in a state of flow.
Where traditional financial planning gets it wrong.
How planning outside the box has worked for me.
How staying out of the way has positively impacted my financial plan.
Not only do I have the ideas, but I already know what I want to say.
So why doesn’t AlignedLife have more posts right now?
Well, the first is a legitimate reason that is now behind me. Last week, I announced the rebranding of my firm from RLS Wealth to Santiago.Life (Santiago for short). This required a lot of video editing, writing, and planning, in addition to my responsibilities to my clients and my family life.
But, there is another reason—one I didn’t expect.
It’s hard for me to shake the traditional financial advisor voice in my head to write these posts. I’m also working on getting over the fact that some of my posts are going to make people upset—maybe make some feel excluded (I am a people pleaser so this is tough for me), be dismissed because readers’ experiences won’t let them believe what I’m sharing, and will be more “controversial” than anything I’ve written in the past. I say “controversial, " which is probably a bit dramatic, but it will go against what many of us have been taught or grew up believing. For example, suggesting that one needs to find an alignment of spirit, mind, and body, do the work in life, get out of the way, and money will take care of itself (this is an extremely simplified example) goes against what most people have been taught and experienced.
So, bear with me as I slowly start writing these posts—I know once I get a few done, the creative flow will begin and I won’t be able to stop.
Keep pursuing,
JC
