I am creative and people will work with me because of it

My creativity is one of my unique gifts and talents.

I assume I’ve always had this creativity in me, but for the majority of my life it remained hidden, only providing small glimpses.

Then, in 2015, when I started my company, I launched a blog as part of my growth strategy and as a way to help educate people about finances. Then came the podcast. Then video. Then more writing.

What started out as a way to grow my business, which it very much did, turned into a way to express my Self and further explore my creativity, and this exploration nurtured my creativity in other areas of life.

Over the years, I’ve used my creativity to help other financial advisors start their own firms, identify who to work with and how to reach them, create their personal brands, and, most importantly, build practices aligned with their Authentic Selves. I’ve done a little consulting here, but mostly it happened in friendly “pick-your-brain” Zoom sessions. At one point, I wanted to grow this consulting work—to be like a Gary Vaynerchuk who would come in and provide endless creative ideas for advisors to implement—but I couldn’t quit giving the advice away for free.

In the last few years, I’ve allowed my Self to bring more creativity into my work at Santiago. Historically, the financial advising world has not been very creative. A profession dominated by left-brain individuals who live by and in spreadsheets. Rules of thumb guide advice, and the threat of compliance keeps most advisors from being confident enough to think outside the box. I’ve done enough outside-the-box planning in my personal life, have an understanding of the flow of money, and have gone outside the box with clients to have the confidence to allow creativity to become a reason for people to want to work with me.

I recently had a conversation with my coach about my creativity. He encouraged me to lean even more into my creativity—after watching me take Mindful Mondays from a passing comment to an idea, to fully planned in an evening, to three impactful conversations in a few weeks, he confirmed that my creativity and vision are not normal. I left that meeting in agreement, but wasn’t sure—and I still am not—how to market my creativity.

Interestingly enough, after the meeting with Phil, I started an AlignedLife+ engagement, and when I asked my client what she hoped to accomplish by the end of the engagement and why she thought I could help, one of the reasons she cited was…my creativity. She felt that, from a creative standpoint, I always seemed to be one or two steps ahead and that my creativity could help her in her creative efforts.

The Universe gave me a wink.

And with that wink, it confirmed that creativity is a reason people will seek to work with me.

The Universe gave me another wink a few days later.

A friend reached out to talk through some of his finances because a story I shared about the creative way I made a purchase stood out to him. He specifically mentioned that he wanted to tap into my creativity around a little financial strategy.

For now, I’m not planning on creating a marketing strategy around my creativity. I’m going to keep showing my creativity in the content I create, the planning work I do with clients, letting it come out whenever it makes sense, and talk more about it.

I’ve already seen that the world is beginning to reflect my creativity back to me, so I’m not sure I need to do much more other than continue to do what I’ve been doing.

Who knows where creativity will take me.

For now, it complements my intuitive guiding and financial expertise, but I have a vision where it expands to creative work with brands I will collaborate with in the future, creative consulting with individuals and businesses, and more work with other Creatives aligning their life, finances, and creative careers.

Only time will tell.

As we wait to see how it all unfolds, consider this an open invitation to reach out to me for creative conversations and collaborations—after all, it is a part of my business and why people are reaching out to me.

Keep pursuing,

JC