In today’s blog I’m going to be explaining the very first step in starting your own financial coaching business.
Do you have to be debt free in order to be a financial coach?
This is going to be juicy TODAY! Here’s my philosophy: People hire coaches to get them from point A to point B, whether it be a financial coach, health and fitness coach, career coach, etc.
Typically, the coach knows how to get you from point A to point B not because they’ve theoretically read about it in a book, right? They know how to do it because they lived it! They achieved it! They are the guide now because they know the way.
One school of thought says “you wouldn’t hire an overweight fitness coach. WHY would you hire someone who isn’t actively practicing what they preach?”
I get that and I think it’s valid to an extent. However, this perspective only goes so far. If you HAVE to accomplish something completely before you’re qualified to help someone else do the same, then ALL professional athlete coaches would be retired professional athletes.
ALL Olympic coaches would be retired Olympians, but they aren’t. Because a coach brings so much MORE than JUST experience. They bring mindset, discipline, control, focus, etc.
For example, I also think there’s something powerful about a financial coach that’s paying off 6 figure student loans AND helping others pay off 6 figure student loans as well.
SOO which is it? Do financial coaches need to be debt free or not? I think the answer to this question can only be answered by each individual coach.
If I said, YES each and every coach needs to be debt free FIRST, think about all the coaches that would have to WAIT to help people? It feels like a very arbitrary line.
And then what about net worth or investments? I mean, what really qualifies coaches to coach? Does a fitness instructor EVER ARRIVE? Is a financial coach ever DONE? Of course not, it’s a process for the coaches just like it’s a process for our clients too.
Personally, it’s really important to me that I am well ahead and have already accomplished what I am charging people to teach them and hold them accountable to.
A big part of my story is that we lost 60% of our income in 2017 and were living off credit cards to make ends meet. I personally know what I am asking my clients to do when we go through the budget together.
It’s not easy but I also know that I never ask them to do something that I have not been willing to do myself.
Same thing with my coaches that I mentor as well. I’ve created a 6 figure business and I feel extremely confident that I can help my coaches build the same foundation.
I think back to my mentors and coaches that I have hired. ALL of them were so far ahead of where I was and that was a huge reason that I was drawn to them.
I’ve had amazing experiences with the coaches that I’ve hired for my own business and I do think that a huge reason for this is that I really vet them and make sure that they understand what my pain point is what the best way is to address it.
Their testimonials, social proof, and consistent track record compel me to invest.
Is it BEST to be debt free as a financial coach? Yes, but is it a requirement? I think every coach needs to answer that for themselves.
What's Next?
After you’ve decided this for yourself, the next step in becoming a financial coach is finding where your service fits in the market.
You don’t need to know how much you’re going to charge, or what your program looks like yet, or if you should make a website or a fb page first, none of that matters at first.
The first thing you need to do is find where you fit. I honestly picture it like all my coaches are puzzle pieces and when they start the Become a Coach program, it’s like a mystery that they are figuring out. Where does this puzzle piece fit?
I can definitely tell you where you DON’T fit. Your ideal client is NOT women, or young families, or parents, I’ve heard these from financial coaches and this is way too broad!
If I could start all over again, I would have DEFINITELY picked a more specific niche myself. This is something that I learned the hard way, and I’ve been blessed that it’s worked out for me, but it’s definitely not a risk I would want you to take.
I’m going to give you a TINY peak into what you do in the first lesson of my Become a Coach program. After I take you through this exercise today, I’ve got a link at the bottom that will take you to my free 60 pricing workshop.
In the workshop, I go over the mindset that you need in order to sell confidently and with kindness, how to price your services so that you can work with dream clients, how to come along prospective clients with empathy to empower them to make the best decision for themselves, and the #1 way to overcome imposter syndrome when pricing.
I’ve packaged ALL of that up for FREE and you can watch it after this blog.
What I want you to do is write down 5 traits or skills or characteristics of yourself that will make you a great financial coach.
You might be staring blankly at a notepad right now, but really start to think about this, what is going to make you a great financial coach? Are you a good listener? Are you organized? Or high energy? Or a great communicator? Do you love the numbers?
Those are some more generic attributes. Try to be as specific as you can: are you good at coming up with creative solutions to problems? Are you the side hustle king or queen? Are you a brilliant negotiator? Do you specialize in getting spouses on the same page?
After you’ve got 5, start brainstorming some ideal clients that you would be interested in working with. And again, you’ve got to be specific!
Some of the ideal clients that my coaches have had in the past are military spouses who want to increase their income, divorced- single parents burdened by child support, new entrepreneurs who are drowning in the financials, all of these are great ideal clients.
You can not be general. General is boring, dull, it doesn’t call anyone out, and it won’t get you clients. Like I said, if I could go back and get more specific, it would have made my life a whole lot easier!
Ideal clients should also stem from people that you already cross paths with regularly. People that are in your circles. People that already come to you for financial advice.
Now look at the 5 things that you wrote down about your coaching and see where those match up with some ideal clients that you thought of.
Start thinking about these clients through 3 lenses: their pain, their fears, and their dreams. You have got to know your ideal client better than they know themselves. The goal is for them to read your website or see your content and think WOW how did they get inside my head? It feels like they are speaking directly to ME? Those are some of the BEST message to get from prospective clients.
This is probably not a one time, check off the list kind of exercise. Really mull this over, think about what you have to offer and who exactly would benefit the most. Think about who you already come into contact with regularly.
The key here is that it’s not about YOU. I see coaches start their business, create the fb page, write a few posts and they are SO CONFUSED when no one reaches out to them.
If you’re expecting people to just FLOCK to you in the beginning, that’s a little red flag to me that this business is very much still about you.
I’m in several fb groups for coaches and it AMAZES me how stiff necked some coaches are. The sarcasm, the jeers, my way or the highway, people with debt are just dumb, etc.
They have lost all empathy and have become very jaded and you know where I think it all stems from?
They are ME focused. It’s more important to them that they are right than showing love to the other person.
And this is Christian and non Christian coaches alike!
When did BEING RIGHT without any empathy or patience become the most important thing as a coach?
You have got to lay the foundation of your coaching business on service and where you fit in the market. It can be humbling at times, but this is the fast track to a successful financial coaching practice.
Thank you guys so much for reading, be sure to watch my free pricing workshop for financial coaches.
