Advisers: Speak up and share what you know and what you do

This week I want to focus on something a little less technical. I want to say thank you. First, thank you for listening. I know you have a choice about how to spend your time and I so appreciate the time and attention you've given this column. I hope you feel it's been helpful to you, and by connection, to your clients. Second, I want to say thank you for doing such a fantastic job. I know you may not hear that very often. But I hear frequently from people telling me what a difference it's made in their lives to work with real financial advisers. You're doing great work, and more people should know it. I think many of you belong to the Secret Society of Real Financial Advisers. You're doing amazing work, but you're so busy doing the work, that you don't always have time to let anyone know what you're doing. So when there's an opportunity, don't be afraid to speak up and share what you know and what you do. Finally, over the next few weeks, I encourage you to tell the people in your life how much you appreciate them. From your clients and peers to friends and family, make it a point to tell them "thank you." To help you with that, I'm sharing my Circle of Gratitude sketch. It's free to you to download and share under a Creative Commons license. It's a hi-res file, so you can print it and share it or drop it into an email. Just click here to download your sketch. For some reason, sharing this image sparks some incredible conversations and moments. So if you think of it, I'd love to hear your stories. Just shoot me an email at [email protected]. Carl Richards is a certified financial planner and director of investor education for the BAM Alliance. He's also the author of the weekly "Sketch Guy" column at the New York Times. He published his second book, The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to Be Smart About Your Money (Portfolio) this year. You can email Carl here, and learn more about him and his work at BehaviorGap.com.