Case Study: Matt Reiner / Dr. Cole Cash Will See You Now: Cole and the Next Gen

Follow me on this one. Matt Reiner is a consultant who works solely with financial advisors, helping them understand their issues about money so that they can help their clients identify and understand their issues about money. So how do you turn a practice like that into a book that his market will want to read?

As you know, I’m a big believer in stories to illustrate ideas.

In this case, I thought, what if we

had a psychologist who found money interesting but who found people with psychological issues not that interesting? He is from a small town in the South, first to college, first to grad school, and had never heard of a financial advisor in his life until he met a woman at college who was planning on becoming just that. Fascinated, he decides that he is going to become a therapist or counselor … just to financial advisors. And he is going to help them identify and handle their issues regarding money so they can help their clients identify and handle their issues with money.

Anyway, thanks to John’s trust in his somewhat wacky writer (me), a new character was born, Dr. Cole Cash, and he is the centerpiece of a series of books that I did with John, the first of which is called Dr. Cole Cash Will See You Now. Each book presents four “clients” – financial advisors who are seeing Dr. Cash to work out certain issues around money. Each of the four issues presented in each book is something financial advisors deal with every day. Dr. Cash has a waiting room, a couch, and a comfy chair … all the accoutrements of a practicing psychologist, which is exactly what he is. He can help his clients with precisely the issues with which John helps his financial advisor clients.

And a good time is had by all.

I always hold my breath when I present an idea like Dr. Cole Cash to a client. Will they think I am crazy? Is the idea any good? Will they go for it? So, it is always very satisfying when a client runs with the idea, and it is even more satisfying when the published book comes out and helps people. Not a bad day at the office if you ask me.