37. Motivational Interviewing: Guiding Clients Towards Change Without Being Pushy with Jeremy Keil Artwork

Planning & Beyond® - Where financial planning meets human understanding

Planning & Beyond® is for financial advisors who want to go beyond the numbers and build deeper, more trusted client relationships.

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If you want to improve the way you connect with clients, ask better questions, and bring more empathy and clarity into your planning process, Planning & Beyond® will help you sharpen the human side of your advisory work.

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Navigating difficult money conversations
Understanding client psychology
Building trust and deepening client relationships
Managing emotional client situations
Improving advisor-client communication
Applying behavioral finance strategies
Supporting clients through life transitions

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Planning & Beyond® - Where financial planning meets human understanding

37. Motivational Interviewing: Guiding Clients Towards Change Without Being Pushy with Jeremy Keil

November 20, 2025 • Ashley Quamme

0:00 | 37:17

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You've been to those conferences. Every speaker says "the key to success is asking great questions" - then they stop talking. Maybe they give you one or two magic phrases, but nobody teaches you how to actually have these conversations.

In this episode, CFP Jeremy Keil breaks down motivational interviewing (MI) - a framework that transforms how advisors guide clients through financial decisions. Jeremy shares how he discovered MI through his wife (an elementary school counselor), invested in the training, and completely shifted his approach to client conversations. The result? Clients feel more empowered, make better decisions, and actually follow through on recommendations.

We explore the OARS framework (Open-ended questions, Affirmations, Reflections, Summaries) and why asking fewer questions often leads to better conversations. Jeremy shares real stories - including losing a life insurance client because he skipped the permission step, and helping a widowed client work through guilt about using life insurance proceeds for a family vacation.

This isn't about adding more techniques to your toolkit - it's about fundamentally changing how you show up in client meetings. Whether you're navigating discovery conversations, helping clients through major transitions, or presenting recommendations, MI gives you a structure to meet clients where they are emotionally while still delivering the technical guidance they need.

Jeremy explains how to balance the psychological depth of MI with the technical demands of financial planning, and how to guide conversations without interrogating clients. He also shares the surprisingly affordable training options available

If you've ever felt like you're talking at clients instead of with them, or wondered why smart recommendations don't translate to action, this conversation provides the framework you've been missing.

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