July 28, 2025

The Top 7 Questions your Financial Advisor Coach should ask you!

(And why they change everything) 

 The Top 7 Questions Advisor Coaches Use to Help You (And Why They Change Everything)

You’re in the room. Door closed. Notebook open. You’ve finally carved out time to work on the business instead of being buried in it.

Your coach looks across the table—calm, focused, holding a silence that’s long enough to make you think and short enough to make you lean in.

“Let’s start here,” she says. “What’s the real opportunity in front of you right now that you’re not fully capitalizing on?”

Welcome to a coaching session with purpose. No sales talk. No filler. It’s just a space where your vision meets real strategy—and real accountability.

Here are the 7 questions top advisor coaches use to unlock momentum, clarity, and results—and how to create takeaways for you to implement.

Question 1: "What’s working better than you expected?"

Success leaves clues. Too often, advisors focus on what’s broken instead of what’s working.

Coach Insight: "We’re not just here to fix problems. We’re here to amplify and replicate what’s worked."

Homework:

1. Think of the last 30–90 days.
2. Identify what surprised you—in client wins, referrals, team energy, or business flow.
3. Ask: “How can I do more of this, faster, or with greater impact?”

Question 2: "What’s taking up your time—but not driving your growth?"
The biggest threat to your next level isn’t failure. It’s friction disguised as productivity.

Coach Insight: "Your calendar is either your compass or your cage."

Homework:

1. List every recurring task or responsibility.
2. Highlight anything that doesn’t directly impact growth, clients, or strategy.
3. Decide: Delegate it, delete it, or systematize it.

Question 3: "What would be possible if you stopped playing small?"
Most advisors don’t need more tactics. They need permission to think bigger.

Coach Insight: "You’re not capped by your capacity. You’re capped by your comfort zone."

Homework:

1. Imagine it’s 3 years from now and everything worked. What changed?
2. What are you no longer tolerating (in your team, clients, or mindset)?
3. What’s the one bold move you’ve been avoiding?

Question 4: "What’s one bottleneck you’ve normalized?
What you tolerate today becomes your standard tomorrow.

Coach Insight: "You cannot grow into excellence if you’re managing around dysfunction."

Homework:

1. Identify where things feel consistently slow, messy, or unclear.
2. Name it. Don’t soften it. Say it out loud.
3. Ask: “What system, person, or boundary needs to change?”

Question 5: "Where are you overdelivering and undervaluing?"
The biggest leaks in your profitability are often hiding in your generosity.

Coach Insight: "Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should include it."

Homework:

1. List what you do for clients outside your standard scope.
2. Ask: Is it systematized? Valued? Communicated clearly?
3. Decide: Is this an upgrade, a new service tier, or a conversation about boundaries?

Question 6: "If your future self ran your business today—what would you do differently?"
This collapses time. It forces you to stop reacting and start leading.

Coach Insight: "Run your business like it’s already where you want to be."

Homework:

1. Think of your best version of yourself—3 years more focused, confident, and in control.
2. Ask: What would they eliminate? What would they automate? Who would they hire?
3. Pick one of those moves. Commit to starting it this quarter.

Question 7: "Who do you need to become to reach the next level?"
Growth isn’t just tactical. It’s personal. Who you are determines what you create.

Coach Insight: "Your business is a mirror of your habits, beliefs, and standards."

Homework:

1. Describe the traits of the advisor you want to become.
2. Identify the gap: What habit, mindset, or relationship needs to evolve?
3. Pick one commitment: What will you start doing this week to close that gap?

Final Thought: You Don’t Need More Time. You Need Better Questions

The right question, asked at the right moment, can shatter a plateau. It can spark clarity, ignite action, and reconnect you to the reason you started this business in the first place.

Top coaches aren’t just accountability partners. They’re clarity creators—reminding you that your next level isn’t about being more. It’s about being more you, more intentionally, more often.

Your Next 3 Moves:

1. Print these questions OR ask us to email our APM 7 Questions Workbook. Bring either to your next strategy session or journal through one each morning.
2. Run a 45-minute solo coaching session. No distractions. Just you, a pen, and the truth.
3. Pick one insight and take one action. Today. The magic is in the follow-through.

Thank you for reading! This is what we help advisors do every day! 

To book a no-obligation appointment with Jeff to discuss practice management or coaching, click https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm

Would you like a copy of our Comprehensive Practice Management Checklist for financial advisors?

How About Your Goals for Your Practice in 2025?

 While each financial advisor's practice may have a different approach, advisors need to understand where their practice needs help, and will they get the right help for the right part of their practice. What areas does your practice need help with?

Free Resources:

21 Page Technology Checklist to Become a Future-Ready Advisor

Fee Audit Checklist for Ideal Prospects

Updated Comprehensive PracticeManagement Guides

We are here to serve your practice, let’s talk

Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and have the goals conversation by contacting Jeff at jeff@jeffthorsteinson.com  

Regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.

To book a NO obligation conversation with me to discuss practice management or coaching click the following link https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm  and let’s talk.

Jeff Thorsteinson, Grant Hicks and  Advisor Practice Management's combined financial advisor clients manage over 8 billion AUM, and earn over $80 million dollars combined!

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Visit www.advisorpracticemanagement.com for speaking, workshops, or coaching, contact us below  

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