I’m noticing a continuing trend of some financial professionals leaning into extreme financial transparency online, and I want to explore why I might be seeing this trend (and some thoughts on the results of this trend).

I’m seeing firm owners online actually displaying their full P&Ls to everyone, showing how much money they make annually, and making videos on Youtube to give even more details. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with doing this, but the depth of the transparency is often shocking to me. Those that share all of their financial information online seem to think nothing of it, as if they just are going over their numbers with their intimate business coach. I’ve wondered why they are doing this, since most firms you see would never do this, including our firm. And there’s a reason why (later in the post).

Transparency is not new online – we all see the “come follow me as we go through a day in my life as a yoga teacher” videos, or laugh at the #fail videos online of people wiping out on skis, mountain bikes, or scaring each other over and over. We show the most intimate moments online, and it seems there is a growing, perhaps comforting, perception that the people we are sharing these things with actually care for us, are interested, or are part of our “community.” Maybe we believe their care is proven out when the numbers of our followers increase, or we get a lot of likes.

But is that what an ever-increasing follower or subscriber count means?

I’ve even seen people that share their life transparently online, then also make videos about getting comments from followers that disagree with them, challenge them, speak poorly about them, or even act cruel. There’s a principle: some of your most intimate moments are not meant to be shared with everyone because they are not in a community with you and won’t understand the moments in their full context. 

This lack of understanding and context from followers seems to confuse those making the transparent videos. Another principle: people confuse followers with their community.

A community are people that are committed to you, will stay with you through the ups and downs of life, and who will offer real challenging insights and feedback to help you grow as a person.

Actually, I think many people online are voyeurs, not really part of your community. As voyeurs, we’re just astounded at what you are sharing (knowing that we would never share those intimate details). Yet, many do. You can see this voyeur vs. community concept break down very quickly when challenged. This type of transparent sharing is not with people who are part of your community:

• X profile #1: “Our firm grew 73% last year! Boom!”
• X profile #2: “Sounds like you bought a firm to produce that kind of growth. Did you?”
• X profile #1: “Why don’t you show your numbers #2 and let’s see how you’re doing! 😤”

Turns out, Profile #1 was not looking for what communities offer – feedback, clarification, challenge, and correction. We learn quickly that our transparent posts online can be disagreed with, countered, challenged, and picked apart for no reason. So we react as if we thought someone that cared about us was viewing our posts online; while most of us are just voyeurs of each other’s content and we come to blows online when someone disagrees with us, makes fun of us, or truly calls out something we all wish we had the guts to say. 

Some principles:

1. Transparency is for your close community. If you are going to be truly transparent, and derive the benefit from it, then you want to do it with people who will support you, challenge you, and will also share their struggles with you too. And through all of this deep relationship, we get better as people – as our rough edges are constantly being worn off by our caring community. Online followers are not there to do that for you. 
2. Transparency looks different at different firm sizes. As mine and Ian Vacin’s upcoming book will show, there are hard periods of growth for firms at different team sizes and varying revenue sizes. You may share things now online in front of everyone when it looks good, but it gets much harder to share transparently when you go through a difficult season of growth (and you will). Nice-looking transparency may look a little embarrassing at other times.
3. It’s not easy to pull back transparency. There is a strange pull and rhythm to sharing things that you must keep up indefinitely. If you share your P&L online for a few years, then get to a team size of 8 to 10 people and start making some of the common scaling mistakes that firms make at that size, you’ll be less eager to share your financials online then. Yet people may ask you “Hey where’s your annual video of how much you make every year? I really like watching those!” It’s hard to pull back transparency (I have made these mistakes in spades, so I know).
4. You are never seeing the full story. I think we forget this, but when someone shares their P&L online, notice that they don’t often share their Balance Sheet. In fact, I’ve never seen anyone share their balance sheet online. We accountants know why. That’s where the truth lies, for good or bad. Our cash balances, our debt, and our equity can’t be hidden on a balance sheet. 
5. Your team won’t understand. There will come a time where your team will start to have opinions about how much your firm is making and how much you are making as the owners. I know… you might say “That is none of their business, I’m the owner.” Regardless of this truth, your team will have an opinion about what you are sharing and then you will have to explain it or just tell them to mind their own business. Neither one of those may be good options. The reason is – understanding the numbers of your financials has to come with some context. P&Ls and Balance Sheets are just snapshots of a certain period of time. The context of your vision (e.g. investing now in new team members and showing a lower profit for a time so you can grow in the next 2 years) are not shown in your financials unless you tell someone in your community. So it takes context to really understand the numbers (isn’t this what we sell our clients as advisors?).

Bottom line: treat your intimate information with respect and respect the people who consume it. We all need the intimate context of who you are, your life, your past, your struggles and hopes, and your ups and downs to be able to view your transparent information in the proper light that allows us to show you the proper care in return. Not everyone who is online is part of your community, and a profile (especially a hidden profile, which is just another example that not all people online are part of a community) feels no restrictions to say whatever they want to you. 

Treat your followers with respect by choosing what they should and should not see. Your information is more valuable than a social media post airing it in front of everyone. That is unwise and it can easily backfire on you, your family, the team you care about, and even your clients (that are also seeing how much you make). Take a look around and notice that most firms do not share their information. If you share your financial statements, then you are in the minority. Stop and wonder why.

I will say that there is no wrong or right decision to make about the financial transparency you choose to share online (or why most people choose not to share online). There is nothing inherently wrong with it, just note the risks and think more deeply about the people you are sharing it with. Stop following trends, and apply wisdom to your actions.

We love community! That’s why Thriveal exists. Our community is made up of people who know each other’s names, show up monthly to hear each other’s stories, and work through the places where their community is struggling (with no judgment). Sometimes we cry together because our work of firm leadership can get that hard. But you have to contractually agree to privacy and to not share anything you see in our private community online. 

But we’re not for everyone, you have to apply to join.

What’s next for you? Join our community and share your inspiration with other like-minded firm entrepreneurs.