Transcript for:
Roadmap to Becoming a Profitable Financial Coach

welcome to your uh road map to becoming a profitable uh Financial coach I'm really excited for today's training I am really happy to see how many Financial coaches and future Financial coaches are joining me today so again welcome my name is Kel sidiki and I am first and foremost a financial coach and the name of my financial coaching business is fiscal Fitness Phoenix a business I launched 15 years ago now I can't believe it I am also the founder of the financial coach Academy a business that I built from a desire to see more financial coaches in our world I love being a financial coach and seeing the Transformations with my clients and the fact that I've been able to be a part of those Transformations because of this work has been really remarkable I have a few housekeeping items before we kick off this training today uh I'm going to share a little bit more about myself in just a little bit but first let me introduce my co-host for today's Workshop jacn wise one of the financial coaches on my team as well she is going to keep things running smoothly for us and she'll also be linking to some resources and providing additional information in the chat throughout today's Workshop if you are watching the replay we will also be sending these links to you in an email so you will receive them automatically make sure you stay tuned inside of your inbox for those if you have any questions at all about financial coaching becoming a coach finding clients making money or something else that we discussed today at the end of the workshop I will be answering your question so at any point throughout the workshop if you think of a question simply type question in all caps in the chat followed by your question and our co-hostess with the mostest Jacqueline will be compiling those and make sure I have those for the end of today's training if you are catching the replay please email us your questions if you have them the fastest way to get a response is by sending us an email you can do that at info fiscal Fitness phx.com you can also hit reply to any of the emails you received about this workshop and we can help you that way as well finally I do have notes on my screen to help me stay on track so I don't miss anything important that I want to share today we're going to use all 90 minutes of today's training because I've got a lot to cover I want to uh add as much value to this training as possible if you need to turn on closed captioning on your end that setting has been uh turned on on our end so please feel free to turn that on if you need it today I am going to cover a number of things first what is a financial coach are Financial coaches needed and do people really hire a financial coach we'll discuss some very real fears and challenges that you might face when you first start this journey I'll also show you the path that you'll take as a financial coach when you're launching your financial coaching business so that you can clearly see where you are today and where you're trying to go to next this is your road map to becoming a profitable Financial coach and I will detail out what you will want to focus on for each phase of that Journey after I cover those five phases of your financial coaching journey I will then tackle the five steps to launching your financial coaching business so if you are just starting out on your journey please stick around all the way through because we'll want to wrap up the content portion of this Workshop by sharing ways that you can increase your likelihood of success as a financial coach and for those interested in joining the financial coach Academy and the cohort that we have starting very soon I will also walk you through what you can expect once you enroll in the academy and join your cohort that way you know exactly what that looks like and then I will be taking your questions at the very end so 90 minutes is going to be jam-packed and it's going to fly by because we're going to have some fun so let's get started so what is a financial coach since this is really what the workshop is all about I just want to ensure that we are all on the same page Financial coaching is a subset of life coaching it is not a subset of finan advising so there's coaching as your big umbrella and then underneath that is life coaching and then Financial coaching is a Micro Niche under that umbrella as a result you do not need to be licensed or have a certification to call yourself a coach coaching is essentially helping a person to achieve more than they can achieve on their own a financial coach then is someone who helps a person to achieve more financially then they could achieve on their own how do we do that Financial coaches create a plan to achieve a desired Financial outcome or goal along with the habits and behaviors to execute that plan and then we guide the client through it think of it like a personal trainer but for money I have a personal trainer for my training he challenges me to add more weight stay consistent prioritize an area of my life that isn't always naturally easy to prioritize he pushes me to do a bit more weight or do more reps and he coaches me on my mindset now do I know what to do in the gym sure there are plenty of Articles and videos about working out just like there is plenty of information out there about money too some people know what to do with their money but I know and most people know that we are capable of more and capable of more faster when we have a coach and then the reality is is that some people just don't actually know what to do with their money money is the second most talked about and blogged about topic on the internet second to marketing strategies so while there's a lot of information out there sometimes what that does is it causes analysis paralysis and people just get confused on what information is most relevant to them and that's really where US Financial coaches come in and just like personal trainers can specialize in things like powerlifting weight loss bodybuilding Etc Financial coaches can specialize too this is called your Niche or your specific area of focus in the financial coach Academy we have coaches of all different niches which I love to see some focus on mindset others on helping folks pay off debt some on couples and communication or young adults newlyweds or new parents bilingual individuals a specific profession like nurses Engineers or teachers or firefighters the list of niches is truly endless the last thing that I want to point out about this is that Financial coaching is not the same thing as financial literacy or being a financial educator financial literacy is all about financial knowledge or knowing financial information Financial coaching however is the application of that Financial knowledge in other words it's doing something about what you know so if you look at the diagram on your screen uh screen a financial educator would say knowledge is power where a financial coach would say applied knowledge is power Financial coaching is also not the same as Financial counseling my specialty and our focus at the financial coach Academy is to help you become a successful fulfilled and profitable Financial coach the next question people often ask is are Financial coaches needed and the answer is yes very much so we are very needed and we can tell that by seeing what's happening in the world around us so here's some statistics for you 64% of Americans report that money is a major stressor in their lives the average American spends get this you guys less than 4 and a half hours per year of their time dedicated to managing their money four and a half hours per year that blows my mind 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck but that's not all 42% of top earners so those uh top earners are considered those who earn more than $100,000 in salary or in income also 36% of people earning $250,000 or more are also Liv paycheck to paycheck those people are called super earners Financial stress has been shown to increase the severity and frequency of ulcers and migraines and the reality is is that money is a Common Thread between all of our decisions opportunities and challenges in other words there is a massive need for folks who are struggling with money and I really want to make this point clear that struggle does not necessarily mean crisis when we say that we help people who are struggling financially what people sometimes hear is financial coaches help broke people the way I look at it is that money should be used as a tool to live our best lives right therefore anyone who is not using money as a tool to live or prepare for life is experiencing a version of financial struggle and that is where we come in as Financial coaches is to help them stop that struggle Financial coaches are also needed because there are very few people positioned to help people with this part of their money think of all the financial advisers Realtors massage therapists that exist in our world and now compare that to the number of financial coaches that exist I would love to make hiring a financial coach as common as hiring a mechanic to fix your car my guess is that we will not have too many Financial coaches in my lifetime although I would absolutely love to see that happen like I shared earlier I am a financial coach myself and I love Financial coaching I love it even more than when I first started because I have witnessed so many clients getting really tangible and intangible results with their money while also changing the way they see themselves and this happens right before my very eyes so I just believe in it and I understand it so much more now than when I first started I absolutely have an appreciation that I have gained through that experience and witnessing the Transformations that we have in people's lives but when I first started I didn't have that type of clarity uh of just how needed our work is I didn't feel as confident in this belief like I do today in fact I was a ball of fears and worries and a lot of unknown so let's talk about what you might be experiencing if you are just starting out or if you're new to this work and I'm curious which one of these might sound familiar to you when you first launch your business and then at various times as you continue to grow as a financial coach and business owner you are likely going to experience one or a variety of four obstacles these obstacles hinder your progress and simply by talking about them today the goal is to make you more aware of them so that they only hinder your progress for maybe a very short amount of time and they don't stall you out entirely or for too long I want you to pay attention because afterwards I want to hear from you on which ones you are experiencing so we will do a quick poll at the end the first one is a fear of failure I don't know about you but launching a business felt really scary to me when I first started I don't come from a family of entrepreneurs and I really had no idea what I was getting myself into what I knew is that I enjoyed talking about money thinking about money strategizing with money and you name it a lot of us sort of Savvy or maybe money conscious people tend to be a bit of perfectionists which meant that when I was thinking of launching my business I had a plan A and A Plan B and a plan C all of which were preparing me for what I thought was only inevitable which was that I might not cut it as a financial coach luckily I realized that those things were really rooted in a fear of failure I was so afraid of saying that I was going to do something and then what if I couldn't do it what if I and keep in mind this was 15 years ago so there really weren't many other Financial coaches to look to at that time there's the coaching side of me that wants to tell each and every one of you all the things you probably hear other coaches say it's not failure if you learn from it and everything is figureoutable and just go for it failure is part of the game of Entrepreneurship and I do believe a lot of those things but there's also the financial side of me that is really practical too and that part of me say says don't go all in it's okay to take baby steps as you explore this career path for yourself and I will be sharing those baby steps with you today and I also think take some time to think about your plan just don't sit for too long in the wh if stage because at some point you do just have to take that leap of faith and it is only figureoutable if you give yourself the chance to figure it out and while the Practical side of me says yes you should have a plan B where you ask yourself what will I think and how will I feel if this doesn't work the coaching side of me also thinks that you should ask yourself what will I think and how will I feel when this does work and allow yourself to imagine how great it can be too for me personally I got to the point where my fear of regret was stronger than my fear of failure I wanted to help people so bad my desire to help people was so strong that I knew I would regret not giving it a shot and I chose to lead with that and I hope will too now in addition to a fear of failure I also experienced impostor syndrome which is essentially the question we ask ourselves and we say like who am I to do this right I question things like you can't can I help people who are struggling with money and actually get paid for it like is that a thing or is do those two things not Jive and when I would tell people what I want to do they would ask with hesitation you want to help people with just budgeting and I had people tell me that it wasn't a viable business idea and that it would not work I also wondered if if I knew enough or if I needed to learn more about personal finance before I could help someone all of this was really just a major case of impostor syndrome think of impostor syndrome as the act of getting ready it's all the busy work you do to get ready all of it holding you back from the thing you need to do which is probably just launch ask yourself what you know enough of today that you could help someone with I think about the types of financial struggles that I was helping clients with when I first started as a financial coach compared to today and it is vastly different because over time I've grown and expanded my own knowledge for example I didn't know anything about running a small business when I first started I had a degree in finance and I had been a financial adviser for a few years and then I went to corporate finance and in accounting but none of that prepared me for running a small business uh excuse me uh Finance and Accounting just to be clear for corporations and helping people with investment planning are both very different than what I do today as a financial coach so I started coaching individuals and couples because my personal experience with money gave me the Knowledge and Skills to do that aspect of financial coaching I didn't start by coaching small business owners on their finances that came much later in other words I knew enough to help people I knew more than the people I wanted to help so to them I was an expert as I learned more I became more of an expert to more people and in different ways and the same will be true for you too if you listen to the financial coach Academy podcast or if you've attended any of our other trainings you may see me as an expert in this space but to your clients you are also an expert those two things can both be true at the same time one thing I want you to know is that I believe in being a student of this craft you know enough to help someone today and as you go you will gain new knowledge and new skills and you'll be able to help even more people I still don't know everything there is to know about money and personal finance but I have helped a lot of people because I am honest about who I can help and how I can help them you will never have all the knowledge there is to have so you may never feel ready but it doesn't have to stop you from helping someone today episode 32 of the financial coach Academy podcast is titled how to overcome impostor syndrome so if this sounds like something you're experiencing I hope you'll take a listen to that episode and if that wasn't enough a fear of failure and a fear or excuse me an impostor syndrome I also realized that I had a fear of success a fear of success sounds like asking questions before you should even be thinking about that question so maybe you don't have your first client yet but you're asking AKA worrying about things like what happens if I get more clients than I have time for or what happens if I get too busy I remember worrying about what I would do if I got too busy when I hadn't even launched yet I also remember thinking about how how do I go about launching a course or a group program mind you I didn't have an audience or a following at all so I literally had no one to even promote an offering like that too and yet here I was thinking that that's what I needed to be worrying about I had no business thinking about getting too busy when I didn't even have two clients yet that is a very typical fear of success something I didn't fully understand about business before or when I first launched was that there is not just one way of running a business there are a variety of strategies for managing your time or building your offerings and those strategies work well at different times and different phases of your business you don't need to know how to launch a group program until you get to that phase of your business when you're first launching you have to know how to help the person right in front of you to get great results with their money that is it you can think about the next strategy when you get to that next phase of your business what I want you to do is remind yourself that I can trust myself once I get there I'll be able to figure it out but don't let your fear of success or trying to plan for future phases of your business stop you from building the phase that you're in right now the next uh and this was probably the biggest hindrance to my journey as a financial coach was probably really a fear of the unknown I had no idea how to be a coach or an entrepreneur and I felt really overwhelmed with trying to figure it all out I didn't know how to price myself I started by charging $50 per coaching session I do not recommend that please learn from me I didn't know how to attract clients I didn't know how to sell Financial coaching I didn't know how to create an actual offer do I do oneoff sessions or a program model uh I didn't know what costs are associated with being a financial coach and can I even afford to do this by far there was more I didn't know than I did know one thing I did was focus on what I did know I knew I could help someone maybe I wouldn't charge them to start or didn't have the most articulate way of offering my help to them but I just focused on helping them and I hope you will do the same I also made a list of all the questions I had and everything I didn't know and week by week I would pick one of those things and I'd begin to research it I'd read books about that topic or I would research how others were tackling it little by little I chipped away at my list of unknowns and this practice is still something that I do today 15 years later every time we are going to launch something new or I have a new idea for my business or even in my personal life I make a list of the things I don't know and I just start shipping away at it each of these four things are opport unities for you to learn new skills as you overcome them even 15 years later I still sometimes experience a fear of failure impostor syndrome a fear of success and I get overwhelmed by the unknowns I've just learned systems and processes that work for me to overcome these things it's part of the skills that I hope you learn as a coach not only for your clients but so that you can coach yourself as an entrepreneur now I want to hear from you based on these four things which ones have you or are you experienced ing a fear of failure imposter syndrome a fear of success and a fear of the unknown and you can choose more than one answer so if you are lucky like I was and experienced all four of these baby own it and choose all four as your response you can totally do that you'll see a poll on your screen which fear or hesitations have you experienced and if you are watching the replay of this training go ahead and jot down your answer on a sheet of paper which ones of these ring true for you you as well while we're doing the poll I want to share another realization that I had that was really powerful for me personally it was very grounding and calming uh as far as observations are concerned during a time when I had a lot of unknowns and a lot of fears like I've shared with you up until the point in my life when I first launched my business and I started calling myself a financial coach I had gone from not doing the most terrific things with my money to feeling more confident and More in control of it I wasn't financially independent when I launched my financial coaching business and financial Independence this idea of fi wasn't even conceived of yet when I launched my business 15 years ago but I knew where my money was going I knew where we stood and I knew that we were in control of our money and that we were doing okay and then that's when I realized I could launch a financial coaching business because I was in a solid Financial position and isn't that a testament to why I should do it because I was in the financial position that I was in it gave me the opportunity to say yes it didn't mean saying yes was easy I don't want to paint a false picture here but I could say yes and I wanted to help other people create that opportunity for themselves so that they could say yes to opportunities that they wanted for their own lives let's take a look at the poll results it looks like an even split across the board uh so many of you are experiencing the same for uh fears or obstacles that I experience so hopefully that gives you an idea of uh some of the things you might be having going on in your head right now great thank you for taking the time to answer that poll at the time that I was experiencing all of these nerves and worries around launching which was 15 years ago now like I've said there were no other Financial coaches to look to I was one of the only on and there weren't any courses or programs for financial coaches either so it took me years and that is not an exaggeration years of trial and error and figuring things out and the only thing that got me through it was my unwavering commitment to this work because I do still love it so much and the more I helped people and saw them transforming their lives and getting amazing results the more passionate I became that Financial coaches were needed and I hope that by talking about these fears or obstacles today that you'll feel feel successful much faster than I did which is ultimately why I launched the financial coach Academy needless to say I had a lot that I had to work through at the start and maybe you do too but none of those things mean that you can't do this work and now oops excuse me and now I love Financial coaching even more today than when I first started I went from not knowing how to create a program or how to sell coaching or how to talk with people about what I do as a financial coach to cons consistently getting people incredible results at fiscal Fitness we have helped over a thousand clients and we are still coaching clients today it is important to know that there is a dark side to the coaching industry there are coaches who are really good at selling the dream of what's possible but they have never actually built that dream for themselves in other words they tell you that they can help you become a successful coach and have an amazing business and create an offer that you can easily sell but the only business they have the only offer they sell is the one that they are selling to you I am still a financial coach I still have my financial coaching business and my own Financial coaching clients I know what this journey is like because I still very much live it and breathe it every single day this makes it so that I am incredibly connected to financial coaches because I can easy easily relate to what you experience there are many important parts of running a business and becoming a coach but the number one thing and I mean mean the number one thing for you to focus on are the results that you get the people who hire you and pay you to coach them every year we track and summarize our clients progress and here's what last year's results looked like last year our clients achieved a net worth increase in one year of $187,500 and just to be clear we don't charge $187,000 to coach our clients so the results that they got far exceeded the amount that we charge for coaching debt paid off in one year averaged $38,000 across our clients of course we have some clients with lots of debt and uh some clients with very little uh we've had clients leave lucrative jobs to start their own businesses and do so with a ton of success in really smart strategic ways we've had clients navigate stressful situations with ease including job loss divorce major home damage and a lot of other big things I can truly say that over the past year our clients optimized their income they increased their savings they paid off or better leverag their debts they got on the same page with a spouse shifted and aligned their spending to better fit their goals and so much more and that didn't just happen because I told them to go and do it I helped them to feel bought into their financial progress I learned how to support them while they're taking action or when taking action feels hard or they're facing obstacles or they feel stuck I helped them analyze and understand the financial impact of decisions that they were facing and I have really meaningful conversations about the role money was playing in their lives in other words I didn't just educate them on money and then expect them to take action on it just because we know something doesn't mean doing something about it is is easy my clients achieved amazing Financial results like this because I coached them on their money both in learning about it and then applying that knowledge in a way that would work for them as a financial coach you are going to combine two skills your financial knowledge and Acumen with a coaching skill set in the academy that's exactly what I show you how to do I provide over 40 personal finance topics in FCA so you can teach clients about budgeting getting out of debt net worth savings rates emergency savings emergency budgeting value-based spending financial principles planning ahead goal setting and so much more but Financial coaching is more than just here's how you budget okay now go do it successfully your clients won't always be bought in right away they will falter they will have years or Decades of habits that they are trying to reverse while building the new habits you want them to build and I know I did not fully understand that when I first started there is a hard truth to this work that I didn't fully get when I started that I want you to know does exist so that you're not totally blindsided when you first start helping people when I first started I had a limited view of what Financial coaching would be like at the time I listened to the Dave Ramsey radio show and I watched Susie orman's TV show a lot now this was before podcasts or YouTube so being a fan of someone or something really just meant that you would catch it when it was on the radio or it was on TV you couldn't really binge stuff or become obsessed like it's so easy to do today both of these shows were what I thought coaching was people would call in the expert would give advice and that was it in my mind I imagine the caller taking that action once they hung up the phone and voila Financial results abound right so my concept was really based off of both of those personalities I honestly thought that I would meet with a client I would tell them what to do with their money they would be like oh my God Kela you're so smart this makes total sense to me and then they would go and do it but Financial coaching like actual Financial coaching in the practical sense looks so very different than that first not every client takes action even though they say they will and even if they do take action right away that doesn't necessarily mean they continue to take action consistently change is hard and what can't possibly be captured during call-in shows is the journey through this change and just how hard it is your clients will start and stop and start and stop they will make a great decision one day and then falter the next they'll be proud of themselves one moment and feel frustrated as hell the next as a financial coach you are there through all of it number two not only will you witness change and just how hard it is for some folks but you will be a part of it you will meet with clients consistently that means when you recommend something you are there to see the impact of that recommendation and guess what not everything has the intended consequences that we are hoping for as a financial person I know that I like to believe believe that I can analyze anything and everything and that every formula will always balance and that we can project out the exact outcomes in our plan but I promise you that is not the case you will meet with so many different types of people in various Financial positions and the things they care about most will not be the same things that you care about they will make decisions that are off plan or that you would never make not only that but a strategy or an approach that you recommend will not work for every client you have this is probably the thing that surprised me the most when I first started actually coaching clients every day you will have to be so much more open-minded and flexible than what is often portrayed on TV and radio shows you won't worry about an entertainment value for your work and or your sessions with clients as a financial coach you will Coach real people to get real results with their money that is truly at the heart of what you will do as a coach your job is not to deliver a checkpoint OED action list to your clients your job is to support your clients as they go about implementing their action list and in order to do that the key is a business that is built around a client Journey that both you love and your clients love your number one priority is to get your clients amazing results how you do that is by supporting them as they navigate growth and change results will not come at least not repeatedly and consistently across a large number of people without learning how to support people through One Financial change after another after another and how you support them is by designing a clear client Journey that you can lead them through so they feel supported and can really focus on their own growth at the start of this Workshop I promised that I would tell you a little bit more about myself and at this point of the training I used to share things that I've done like publishing the financial coaching Playbook hosting the financial coach Academy podcast and mentoring over 500 financial coaches on doing this work as well but the truth is coach none of those are reasons that you should trust me or listen to a word I say today it's because every day I am doing what you want to do I help people get real results with their money that is what I am personally most proud of I have built a business that is first and foremost client focused and it's also systematic and profitable I have a client Journey that any client no matter their demographic financial position goals or values they can go through that client joury journey to get results and yet it's customizable to each person and it's also me methodical so that you can run an efficient Business Without Reinventing the wheel for every client you meet with one of my biggest personal pet peeves is a person who says they're going to teach you how to be a financial coach or a financial counselor when they've never actually done the work themselves not really well I don't just talk about being a financial coach I am a financial coach who gets my clients great results and I've designed a financial coach experience that clients enjoy at the exact same time I truly believe that coaching doesn't just happen during the coaching session but with every touch point you have with a client every email you send the prep workk you ask them to complete the conversations you have they all contribute to the coaching experience and ultimately the results that your clients achieve so how do you accomplish this what are the steps you should take as you progress as a financial coach what are the steps you should avoid we're going to explore that but first I want to say one more thing just like our clients becoming good with your money doesn't just happen there are skills that they have to build and cultivate right the same is true for you in your financial coaching business it's not something you either have or don't have being good as a financial coach and running a financial coaching business is something that you have to cultivate too so let's talk about what to focus on based on where you are in your journey of financial coaching let's start with the path and the various phases most coaches experience as I describe this path I want you to identify where you are right now so you can see what's coming up and what will it will take to get there we're going to together explore your road map to becoming a profitable profitable Financial coach at every stage there's something really wonderful about it there's something fun and exciting and there's also something really challenging and hard about it when you're in each phase choose to focus on the good work through the challenge and know that it's probably just temporary you will grow and then the next phase there's something really awesome about it and a whole new challenge that is entrepreneurship once you realize that that's what this path is like I think it's easier to fall in love with the journey so let's talk about phase one I'm thinking about becoming a financial coach you're at this stage if you're just exploring what it might look like to be a financial coach you're in the research phase chances are you don't see yourself as a financial coach yet and you haven't told anyone yet or possibly you told just a couple of close friends or you might be helping friends or family members but in a more laid-back way I know this is how I started with just it being a hobby right but you're enjoying it you're enjoying those conversations you might be wondering what people will say or think if you tell them you might be questioning if you need to be further along with money to be qualified but you enjoy managing your money and think it's fun and you geek out on this stuff you might be asking yourself if you need more knowledge on Personal Finance topics and you might be pondering what your first step should be if you're in this phase at this stage you might not feel totally certain you know what a financial coach does uh which is where some of the confusion on where to start actually comes from this is the stage where there's more you don't know than you do know which can be really overwhelming so you're probably reading a lot consuming a lot going down rabbit holes just really trying to take it all in for some of you this might feel like an emotional pull your experiencing you discovered this idea of financial coaching and it's like everything is coming together for you you had no idea this existed but now that you do know you're like OMG that's like what I was meant to do that is how I felt when I first figured this out you see yourself helping people in creating transformations in their lives by using money to achieve their goals and for others this might feel like a really logical or practical step you enjoy managing your own money and you think financial decisions and Analysis are easy or you think this is a skill that you could possibly monetize and enjoy using every day to help other people either way you're allowing yourself to sort of explore the possibilities if you're in this phase and that's exactly what you want to be doing so here's what else I want you to do if you're in this phage phas your goal is to determine if you want to become a financial coach without that being a costly determination what you want to focus on first is I want you to stay curious allow yourself to go down those rabbit holes and imagine what kind of coaching you'd like to do who you'd like to help what role you'd like for it to play in your life just allow yourself to be curious with my clients we call this their goal tinglies goal tinglies are what you get when you can sense that you want something more or maybe something different for your life when an idea a vision or some changes in your life start to percolate in your mind but they haven't really taken any shape or form just yet they're what you get before you pick your next goal typically we're not great at paying attention to these goal tinglies but they can be really insightful sometimes a client will say you know I've been thinking and then they share an idea that they're saying out loud for maybe the first time ever and I'll tell you the same thing that I tell my clients when this happens let yourself desire it ask yourself what would that look like how might I do that there's no no pressure in this exploration you're not committing to anything and you can change your mind in this phase which is why you want to explore it in a way that doesn't cost you too much money some other things you can do are start telling people begin to share this idea with people but be careful questions you might get these are the ones that will probably tap into your own insecurities and fears you'll face doubters people who don't believe in the concept of coaching let alone Financial coaching just know there will always be naysayers on this journey and I believe that the Universe gives these people to us so that we can practice ignoring them choose to let them fuel you instead think to yourself watch me anytime someone says you can't do this or people won't hire someone to help them with their money or just spend less than you make money is easy they don't need someone to tell them how to do that the naysayers at the stage can seem really loud and that's why the next step that I want you to take if you're in this phase is really important I want you to surround yourself with other Financial coaches and I want you to start taking some small actions as a financial coach become a part of the community and space that we've created if you are on Facebook we have a very active and robust Community for aspiring and experienced Financial coaches I would love to have you join us if you're not already a member it's free it's a great place to learn and grow in your understanding of financial coaching Jacqueline is going to put the link to join the group in the chat and if you're watching the replay once you're on Facebook search for financial coaches unite which is a free coach training by the financial coach Academy Facebook group and ask to join it will also be included in one of the emails you received some other things you can do are check out the financial coaching Playbook which you can find at stores like Barnes & Noble Walmart Amazon there's also an ebook version on our website if you prefer that you can also listen to the financial coach Academy podcast I would love to invite you to subscribe to that on YouTube or anywhere that you listen to podcasts and please also add our monthly virtual meetups to your calendar and plan to join us every month except December we host some kind of free Meetup or training all coaches are welcome if you are just thinking about this idea Financial coaching or if you have been coaching for a decade you are invited this invite goes out via email so make sure you keep an eye on your in inbox And subscribe to our emails lastly I do share a lot of stories and perspectives from the front lines of financial coaching so I hope you'll enjoy reading some of my emails as well all of these suggestions are here to help serve a really important purpose you want the idea of financial coaching to become familiar to you if you're in this stage right now it might feel unfamiliar right like it's all brand new the more familiar it becomes the easier it becomes to see yourself as a fin Cal coach and then begin to take action as one the same is true for our clients when they first come to us to be good with money I tell them to start by listening to just one podcast episode each week or read one chapter of a personal finance book each week these small actions help expand their perspective on money and the same is true for you when it comes to your journey of becoming a financial coach I also want you to pick a date one thing to be cautious of in this stage is that you can find yourself in information paralysis quickly you'll never feel totally ready you'll never know all there is to know picking a date helps you ground your idea into a plan a study was done by the Association of training and development that looked at the probability of success for achieving your goals and what it found is that simply by having an idea of being a financial coach you only have a 10% probability of success of actually becoming one but by taking action which you did by join joining this Workshop today or taking any of the steps that I've mentioned up until this point you just boosted your probability of success from 10% to 40% but by creating a plan for your goal which is something you do when you pick a date your probability of success jumps to 50% simply by doing that it's still only a coin flip which I don't love we're going to talk about ways to boost it even more in a little bit but think of picking a date much like using one of the wedding planning apps that exist you enter in the date of your w and then it tells you what to have done and by what date so pick your Venue six months out choose the cater five months out and so on picking a date to launch your financial coaching business allows you to do the same thing it allows you to begin planning for your launch remember your goal is to explore this idea without spending a lot of money the financial coaching Playbook the podcast my emails and our free trainings and meetups are perfect for you if you are in this stage of your journey that is Phase One you are thinking of becoming a financial coach so jot down phase one if this sounds like you some of you though are probably in the next stage stage two is I am ready to become a financial coach this is the scariest phase because this is when the work begins you are in this stage if you know you want to be a financial coach so you have decided that you want to to do this some of you want to coach people while you continue to work your full-time jobs and you see it as a way of helping people with a part of life that you personally enjoy while maybe making some extra money that you could put towards your own goals maybe you're on your path to five Financial Independence and you see Financial coaching as a gratifying way to speed up your progress some of you might imagine doing this full-time and having it become your sole source of income both are great options one of the best things about financial coaching as a business is that you can do it part-time or full-time in person or remote you can help just a few clients at a time or have a robust team of coaches like me and everything in between remember the first phase I suggested that one of the questions to ask yourself is what might that look like or how might I do that you probably have an idea of what you hope this will look like for you keep in mind you don't need a Five-Year Plan here you just need to know what the first phase of this business will look like for you that's where you're starting your number one Focus if you remember on getting is on getting people awesome results how you do that will shift and change over time as you shift and change so as your own life changes and grows it's going to change so you don't need to have a fiveyear plan other things you're probably worrying about in this phase are things like taking money from family or friends how you'll charge for coaching or what you'll talk about with clients during the first second or third sessions now here's the cool thing the reason that these things are beginning to worry you is because you've started to imagine yourself actually coaching people and so you know what that means it's time that you figure these things out it's also why I don't want you worrying about a five-year plan because all too often the reason we go into planning mode of five years into the future let's say is to distract ourselves from focusing on the things that we need to focus on today the part where we actually sit down and Coach a person I remember researching a ton at this phase and feeling really overwhelmed with everything and it got to the point where I wasn't even sure if there was more that I could read or take in because I had done so much already but here's the thing like I was saying this is the scariest phase because you know you have to take action you're probably realizing if you're in this phase that there is no more research to do you've just got to do this thing you've got to go and do it that reality begins to sink in and it's exciting and thrilling but it's also terrifying like I said it's the scariest phase and that's because you have to invest in yourself as a financial coach and by investing yourself I don't mean just by the way of money yes that that is one way that we invest in ourselves but I also mean we have to invest time and effort right and in order to invest in ourselves as a financial coach you have to see yourself as a financial coach you have to believe I am a financial coach and that can be a really hard step to take at this stage it begins to feel like there's anticipation building or like something is bubbling up and it's about to boil over that's because you're facing this dilemma of figuring out the best or the right way for you to launch how are you going to invest in yourself as a financial coach with your time or with your money oh and by the way you don't even maybe see yourself fully as a financial coach yet and so it kind of creates this like vicious cycle right in phase two I'm ready to become a financial coach if this sounds like you go ahead and jot yourself a little note and then we'll talk about what I want you to focus on if you are in this stage I want you to focus first on determining your initial steps because it's also time to back up your desire with action in phase one you're leading with curiosity in phase two you're going to lead with action you can't be passive about becoming a financial coach it's time to do something about it but you want to be strategic and think about taking the right kinds of action what steps are you need to take now what's most important what is not most important you'll also want to decide which form of investment you want to make you are going to invest one way or the other time or money you have to decide which one you're paying with you're either going to invest a ton of time and effort because you have to start not only figuring it all out on your own which takes a long time but then you have to start building things out and that likely requires a lot of trial and error so it can be frustrating yes and progress can sometimes feel slow and that's only possible if you even know what you're building things like what's your client Journey look like what do your email confirmations say which scheduling app is best to use what what do you include on a contract what kinds of client exercises should you be doing do you need a logo how about a website or how what kind of social media content should you create the list can feel overwhelming just knowing what to do and then the time and effort put towards creating each of those can feel really arduous or you're going to invest in financial coach training programs something like the financial coach Academy these programs of course require a financial investment but because you're given the plan and all the tools resources and coaching that you need you're able to get up to speed much faster it doesn't eliminate time and effort but it dramatically decreases those two things but for a financial investment the road map to launch in five steps is your goal we want to have take really targeted action to launch and I'm going to share those with you in just a few minutes but chances are if you're in this phase you are well aware that you need to take action but you're just feeling stuck and possibly not sure what exactly those steps should be but those key action steps are your goal for this phase regardless of how you want to invest with your time or your money later in this Workshop I will give you the exact steps for launching and becoming a financial coach and I have options inside of that for each form of investment you want to make based on what is right for you so just sit tight and know that we're going to circle back on these key steps in just a little bit as soon as I'm done going over this road map I'll share the five steps to launching your business so first let's talk about phase three phase three is I'm coaching but but not consistently if you're in phase two I know La when you look back on that phase what you'll probably say is it wasn't so much hard as it was scary the things you want to focus on in phase two which I'm going to share in just a little bit are new and different so there's a lot of like oh am I doing this right oh is this outside my comfort zone a little bit but here we go I'm gonna do it anyway but once you launch and you get a few clients then you're in phase three where you're coaching but just not consistently and this is when you reach the hardest phase I believe that by talking about it today and me sharing with you honestly that you will be able to be more prepared for it some of you might be in this phas right now so let's talk about what this looks and feels like you this if you have a few clients or maybe even a handful of them in other words you're making money as a financial coach you got over the initial launch and now you're technically doing this thing but in this phase you start to realize that there's so much more to business and coaching clients than maybe you realized initially you might be thinking that you've been thinking that just because I put up a website or I told people that I was a coach that people would sort of miraculously Flack to me and that's not happening you made the decision to offer Financial coaching and you're starting to wonder what you have to actually do to coach more people chances are you're not spending nearly as much time actually coaching clients and that feels a little odd as a result of not coaching as much as you would want to be a lot of coaches question if they can really call themselves a financial coach coach in this phase and only have a handful of clients you might begin to feel like a fraud fraud is the big brother to impastor syndrome first you wondered if you had what it takes to coach anybody at all right that's impastor syndrome then you get a few clients and now you wonder if you're really a financial coach if you only have a few clients fraud is when you have this fear that someone's going to find out that you're calling yourself a financial coach but you or as you thought it would be in this phase you might question if you made the right decision you're probably also in Hustle mode in this phase as a result of these circumstances you'll likely find yourself spending a ton of time between two main roles building the business which is a lot of the behind the scenes things and attracting clients which is your marketing you'll find yourself Googling social media strategies and you'll be listening to marketing podcasts I can almost guarantee it marketing and client attraction feels really hard at this phase harder than you probably initially expected as a result you're unsure of yourself and you're trying new or different ways of doing things and saying things I remember going to networking meetings and saying something and just thinking to myself like oh my God kelsa that was terrible note to self do not say it that way ever again while saying that or thinking that though keep in mind I was trying to display confidence or this like oh no I totally know what I'm doing attitude and that is why we can sometimes feel like a fraud at this stage when really we're just doing our best and some of these things are harder than what we realize they would be you just want to be coaching clients because you know you could really help people but finding people to help consumes you in this phase the other thing I hear from coaches here is that things in the business feel unstructured or inefficient maybe not streamlined and they feel clunky you don't need robust systems in place when you're only helping one or two people at a time you can do things manually or you can probably keep a lot of it straight in your head so what happens is it creates this chicken or egg scenario do I build the systems when I don't have the clients or do I find the clients first another trap that coaches find themselves in in this phase is spending time on a lot of work things like tinkering with their website endlessly or creating content for social media posts because those activities feel safe but you're doing it because you're really just hoping these activities help to bring in more clients that you can help this phase is pled with self-doubt what I call mind drama but the biggest Trap Of All in This phase is not taking consistent and decisive action because you're not really sure what's going to move the needle or what would work to get clients you don't all on any of the things you're trying so then of course nothing you try really works to get you the results that you hope for and you end up finding yourself in a vicious cycle in this phase if this sounds like you first of all I am so sorry I think in a very hard phase but go ahead and jot down phase three and let me share with you what I want you to focus on to get you into phase four because we got to get you out of phase three quickly what I want you to focus on if you are in phase three is to prioritize your client journey I want to make sure you are set up to deliver a positive experience for your clients when they do sign up the number one source of business and all of my 15 years of being a financial coach is referrals from current or recent clients and by client journey I mean three specific aspects number one your client's emotional Journey there are key points of your client's Journey where they will feel frustrated or down and there will be key moments when they are elated and celebrating here are three examples number one when you first tell a client their total debt amount this is usually early in coaching where you help them wrap their arms around what they're working with and where they stand right A lot of the time clients have no idea they'll say I think I have around $110,000 on credit cards or with student loans and cars and other debt yeah I've probably got like $75,000 in debt and then you total it up and you say your debt totals blank whatever that number is your client is going to feel a certain way about it all too often I see coaches F fly past this spot in the conversation so they'll say something like your total debt is $823,000 extra $11,000 to it and if we can rearrange these few things here and if you sell a car you'll have it paid off in 19 months I promise you coach after you said the number 82335 they have no idea what you just said they did not hear anything after that once I say the amount I will take a drink of water I'll take a beat and then I'll say tell me what you think of that number what's your reaction to hearing that and we have a conversation about it another example in the client journey is when your clients first decide to hire you it's actually a low point in their Journey sales psychology has proven this time and time again that after a client commits to something any type of financial investment does not necessarily mean for a coach but anytime they purchase something for their house or that kind of thing the initial feeling is a low point you might be elated you might be thinking I got a new client I'm so excited but your clients are nervous think about it up until this point chances are they haven't made great decisions with their money why should this one be any different that's what's going through their mind they're thinking oh god what have I done am I going to regret this was this stupid is this going to be worth it she probably can't really help me this is why at fiscal Fitness my financial coaching company we do a welcome call with all of our clients they hear our voice we talk with them about how they're feeling we tell them it's okay to feel nervous that we got you it's going to be okay and then we send them a gift with a heartfelt note we let them see that we believe in them because at this moment often times they do not believe in themselves they need to borrow from our belief in that moment the final example of the client Journey uh the client emotional journey is when your clients have to use one of their savings buckets for the first time if you have a client who you have set up savings buckets for things like car repairs or gifts or travel and then let's say their car breaks down and they use money from their car repair fund you might assume this is a stressful moment their car broke down and it's a whammy of an expense right it actually tends to be a really positive and exciting Mo exciting moment because up until that point clients are likely funding their savings accounts because you said to do it their coach told them to but the first time they actually have to use one of the accounts it all clicks they're like I had money for this oh my God I didn't have to put this on a credit card oh my God this is seriously so fun right like to actually see the proof that they can have be prepared for something that they can be ready for a whammy and financially be okay is such a pivotal moment in the client Journey your client's emotional journey is an extremely important element to pay attention to so that you can show up in the best way possible for them another aspect of the client Journey that I want you to pay attention to are your systems that you set up to support you and your client you will hear a lot of business coaches tell you that your systems don't matter just get better at selling they'll say I 100% disagree with this your systems matter because they help you lead your client through a really steady process where they feel supported if they feel supported they're actually able to focus better on their own growth and doing what you need them to do with their money to actually get the results they're after and your systems will free up your time and energy so that you can focus on your clients because things will happen automatically for you but your systems are built based on that emotional Journey that your clients are experiencing we add the welcome call step not just because but because our clients need to hear from us in that moment you get the text or message from a client telling you that they had to use their savings bucket for the first time we pick up the phone and call them and say wooo this is a worthy of a celebration right now these two things the client emotional journey and the systems that you set up to support it are what help you create the third thing that I want you to focus on if you're in this phase which are your client results you got into this work to help people I know that is at the part of why you are listening to me get on my soapbox right now if you want to help people guess what the results you get people matter more than anything keep in mind that results are both tangible and intangible tangible could be that they have more money and savings their debt has decreased their income has increased or their net worth has improved intangible could be that they feel less stressed or more confident they worry less over money they feel more prepared for what's coming or they bicker with a spouse Less in this phase I want you to focus on capturing these results build your system for capturing where a client is when they first come to you and at the end of their program this is why I think it was slide six I was able to share some very important results that we get our clients at fiscal Fitness and I have way more that I could have shared because we care about the impact that we're having on our clients lives at my financial coaching company and we have systems in place to gather those results your client journey is important because coaching doesn't just happen during the coaching session I know I've said this before but it's so important coaching happens with every step in between as well with every email confirmation they receive every conversation you have and all those various touch points so it's really important to think through these steps think about what your client is feeling and experiencing and how you can meet them where they're at we call this your client Journey road map and it essentially forms your entire business model as a financial coach only then with the time you have left if you are in phase three only then do I want you focusing on your marketing and selling here's the thing if you don't have a dialed in process for getting your clients's results consistently you don't have anything to Market or sell your best marketing comes from the results you get your clients and those folks walking and talking about what you do and what you did for them and your ability to invite people to work with you which is what selling is comes from your belief in what you do and I don't know about you but seeing my clients get amazing results from the work we do together is all the proof that I need notice in this phase that it is all about your clients focus on the clients yes even if you only have two clients focus on the clients ask them to share their results with five people ask them for a testimonial or simply tell them you are accepting new clients so if they know anybody who could benefit from your coaching just like they have to please help you spread the word it is the simplest yet most effective marketing and no is talking about it some other things to do if you are in phase three are to surround yourself with other coaches who are coaching we offer a number of monthly trainings and events held virtually that you can take advantage of and we have Live inperson Events throughout the year as well we would love to have you register for those you want to put yourself in the room and it can be a virtual room it can be an in-person room with other Financial coaches who are also coaching that's what this is really all about one of the best ways to do that consistently is by joining a cohort and that's why another thing to focus on in this phase is to consider enrolling in the financial coach Academy the academy is our signature training program for financial coaches it helps you build out your client journey and gives you all of the various touch points which represent how you treat your clients the steps you have them take to get results how they work with you and ultimately your entire business model the academy will help you to fill the gaps in your client experience that you might not realize you have the academy helps you to refine the parts of your business that maybe feel clunky or like it was a bit of guesswork when you created it your goal in this phase is to become bold in your desire to get clients results become Unapologetic about how much time you spend thinking about how you can best help your clients that is phase three coach so let's Now quickly talk about phases four and five we're going to cover these more quickly but jot down phase three if that one sounds like you phase four is when you're coaching consistently but probably struggling in other ways in your business if you are in phases one two and three you probably want to get here you have your site set on this phase like you imagine just how great it will be when you're coaching consistently and you have all of these clients you dream of coaching consistently because that means you're helping a lot of people I totally get it coaching is likely your sole source of income or close to it so you're probably pretty busy at this phe you've got some good systems in place including prices programs name for things business cards printed marketing materials you're able to coach your clients with ease because of these systems that you've got set up to support both you and your client you're feeling confident because you see the consistent results that you're able to help people achieve and you're enjoying most of your client sessions because you've refined your craft and your Niche over time with the more people you help the more clearer you feel about who you help and how you help them if it probably feels like you've got a good little business going on in this phase so there is a ton to celebrate in phase four really and truly like I said phase three is the hardest phase four there's a lot to celebrate one of the best parts of phase four is that all these awesome clients who are getting great results so they are happy they're referring clients to you the systems you've created some of those help you automatically capture testimonials and results and one of them is a client referral program and a steady process for simply asking clients to tell their friends and family about you now the struggle in this phase might sound like a good problem to have if you are currently in Phase 1 two and three so bear with me while I explain this in phase four your biggest challenge is that you have more clients than you can you can support yourself even with the systems that you created to support you you reach the point where there is simply not enough of you to go around there are some strategies you can use initially that will help you can create a weight list which is something we have at physical fitness you can refine your niche even more you can better qualify people on the front end uh when they hire you and you can raise your prices and those strategies will help at first but even with those changes eventually you will get to the point where you have to start making even more changes this phase is hard because you probably got into this work to help people and here are all of these people who want your help and you cannot simply help all of them now when I say all these people I'm not necessarily talking about thousands that's not the picture I'm trying to portray but you might get 20 people a month who want to start coaching with you and even with dialed in systems if you are providing onetoone coaching at a proper level where you're hands on with your clients and providing them with the kind of support that they need in order to get those great results that we're talking about you probably can't onboard 20 clients every single month month after month and in this phase you realize that you have to invest time and effort into new strategies there are so many options here you can do a group program you could hire more coaches that you train to then help more clients you can hire support or admin staff to free up your time there are options but here's what it boils down to in order to create any of those new options it requires you and you are already busy coaching clients and in order to create any of those new options it probably requires new strategies because the ones you use to get where you are now are not the same strategies that you will use to get to the next phase so there's a huge learning C curve at this time really what you have at this phase is both a time and knowledge bottleneck you need to learn new strategies but you also need the time in order to invest in learning new strategies one thing I didn't mention earlier and maybe I should have but I fully believe every person should start with onetoone coaching just you and the one client or couple right in front of you that you can help it is so much easier because your only focus is on that one client and what they need in order to get results once you do that over and over again you'll begin to see patterns and what your clients are experiencing you'll observe what happens when you ask this question vers versus this question you'll notice the impact of one strategy over another and which one fits best for which kinds of clients once you gain all of that Insight then you use that to create a on to many offer a group program for example is you and many clients at once so it's a one to many offer you have to be able to coach a handful of clients at one time which is a lot easier when you've coached individual clients for a long time so start with onetoone coaching if you are not sure where to start please please please start with onetoone coaching in this phase in phase four you're looking at ways to create scale and leverage but all of those require new strategies for you to learn and then execute and like I said you're already busy so phase four is hard because you're wearing a lot of hats you've got a good thing going on but it's taking a lot it's taking a lot of you to make it happen you may feel as if you created another job for yourself where you feel like maybe you're exchanging time for money a little bit phase four is not where you want to end up but is where a lot of coaches can get stuck because of these bottlenecks and they feel like they're hitting a ceiling again these sound like good problems to have I suppose but let's talk about what you can focus on if you are in phase four and if this sounds like you jot down phase four in your notes if you're in phase four what I want you to focus on first and foremost is learn to delegate and not just delegate tasks but ownership over tasks you want to learn to delegate others caring about a particular set of tasks that you don't have to care about everything you cannot wear all of the hats yourself in this phase because you're busy coaching the thing you want to do so you have to learn how to let others wear those hats you have to focus on what you want then get really good at painting the picture so someone else can create that vision for you so you're casting the vision in this phase you're not in Hustle mode of creating the vision like you were in phases one two and three the other thing that I really want you to do and you're probably a financial person you're probably savvy so you'll understand this one but I actually want you to save aggressively people who say that you can't exchange time for money aren't Financial people as a Savvy person we know that you have to save for the future for a time you're not working but need an income or for something you want in the future even if you don't know what that is yet so at this stage you'll want to save aggressively in two different ways first for your own retirement there are a lot of options available for your business so you can fund retirement savings for yourself that way when the day comes that you no longer want to work you don't have to the other thing that I want you to save for is so that you can hire contractors or Outsource some of the business development work that you have on your plate I personally have two savings accounts in my business for this specifically one is a team fund and that's because I know a time will come when I want to hire someone for a project and it will cost me money but again it's saving me time and energy right and hopefully the thing I'm help uh having them help me create will generate more Revenue in the F future but you have the cash outlay first right so a team fund can be really helpful for that the second is a dream fund and that's for those investments into my business that I may not know about today but those opportunities present themselves and I want to be able to say yes and go for it in the meantime if you're in this phase I also want you learning some Advanced strategies in the academy we offer three bonus modules that grow with coaches as they grow these are thinking like a CEO which covers hiring how to delegate and how to Outsource as well as your business financials and how to run your business and pay yourself uh we have advanced marketing so that you can better leverage your messaging and get it in front of a wider audience and advanced programming which walks you through how to create an offer that allows you to scale your business so the core modules of the academy are all about onetoone coaching and then the bonus module advance programming helps you take your onetoone offer and create scale and leverage for yourself I also want you to surround yourself with financial coaches who will challenge you you want to put yourself in the room virtual or in person with other Financial coaches who are coaching but are growing in other ways and are focused on scaling you want to surround yourself with business owners who love their business and it's going good but they want it to go better and they want to make it great for example I do not join masterminds or groups where people just just sit around and complain about their businesses or talk about strategies that will help them to sell their business in the next three years that's not to say I never have anything to gripe about when it comes to my business but it's usually from a productive place like oh I just want this to be better I got to fix this right if you surround yourself with others who are focused on selling their businesses they are looking to get out of it and the strategy someone uses to sell or get out of their business is very different than the business owner who is trying to make their business better more sustainable or simply more enjoyable for themselves your goal if you are in phase four is to not be the one wearing all of the hats choose which hats fit you best and delegate or Outsource the rest if you're in Phase F five this is the phase that you want to get to that is when you're coaching consistently and you're loving it not that things are going perfectly in Phase F but you feel phase five excuse me but you feel like you've got a really good Groove going on you have a fully scalable Financial coaching business to the point where you're helping people while leveraging your time and expertise and also living and enjoying your life there are a number of different approaches you can take in order to do this in phase four you're thinking about and building out the approach you're going to use you're in the iteration phase of business again and you're working through the development of your new business model the one that helps you create scale and leverage for yourself but in face five you're just working it it's in place you're enjoying the fruits of your labor you're helping people you love in a format that you enjoy you have people working for you who support you they are working in their zone of Genius in ways that allow you to work in yours you can take a vacation and not worry about that turning into a bad week or month as far as your Revenue goes in this phase you're probably wearing the coaching hat with your clients but you're also wearing the coaching hat with your team that's something that I've learned that I thoroughly enjoy my management style for my team is that I am a coach I have found personally that it is just as gratifying if not more so to Mentor one of my coaches and watch them get their clients amazing results than just getting my clients amazing results myself it's been a really gratifying journey in order to get to this point you have to focus on you what you want what parts of your work you enjoy the most and being honest with yourself about the parts that you don't enjoy or don't feel the most skilled at so you can delegate those types of things it's really important to focus on how you lead and how you coach all really great things very worthwhile things but who you are and the strategies you use to manage things at this level are simply different from the things that you do in the first three phases which is why phase four you're probably struggling in other ways because you're trying to get to phase five and in Phase five you've nailed it you're through the Growing Pains of phase four and now your business is rocking and rolling not perfect but you found your groove life and business are good and they fit together really well the point of face five the the vision that you are all shooting for is that you are coaching people you love in a format you enjoy and that can and will look different for each of us if things are so perfect then what is it that you're focusing on in Phase five there are still some things to focus on in this phase you will scan the nine key areas of business I'm going to share these in just a second chances are though you're not just skinning them yourself you have people on your team that you trust who take ownership over one or more of these areas it really just depends on the size of the team that you want to have if you want to have a team you don't have to um I want to give you an example in just a moment but um I'm going to show you the uh nine areas of of business in just a second but one of them is does my business operate efficiently because of Smart Systems that I use and for me personally I have a director of operations who makes sure the systems in the business are really dialed in you could also have a marketing manager or director of marketing who takes ownership over your marketing Focus the idea though is that these people scan the area that they're responsible for and they bring insights and strategies and ideas to you the other thing that I want you to focus on is creating and communicating your overall Vision your responsible for the vision of your organization and at this stage you want to be a asking the following question where are we going in why and then paint that clear picture to your team the other thing that I want you to do is Master your skills and knowledge I believe that your business can only grow to the extent you grow so at this stage I spend a lot of time continuing to be a student of this craft I love studying Financial Concepts and I love studying people I love studying coaching Concepts when it comes to personal finance things are constantly changing and I try to stay up on those changes so that my clients don't have to when it comes to people there are an infinite number of models methods tools and approaches that you can use to help clients see their situation more clearly make better decisions and get better results your goal if when you're in stage five it's good right it's really good and for me it's a focus on enjoying and appreciating what I have today while also seeing what more I'm capable of and not because I have to but because I want to some of these earlier phases can definitely feel like hustle mode because they they are when you um get to this phase though you're learning how to be more patient to enjoy your success which can simply feel like a whole new mode to work in but a really enjoyable one and something that I personally still work at every day so here are your nine areas of growth I'm not going to read each one of these um but just so you know all of our programs at the financial coach Academy are focused on these nine areas of growth I'm not going to elaborate on these today because how you focus on each one of these is based on the phase that you are at in business for example number five does my business operate efficiently because of Smart Systems that I use your systems are going to be different when you first start and you only have a few clients compared to when you're in phase four and you have a full book of business that you're managing when you're first starting so if you wrote down um that you're in phase two of this road map areas one through four of these nine areas of growth are key for you you're overcoming those challenges that I talked about at the start of this Workshop fear of failure impostor syndrome those types of things and you're really coaching yourself through them and then your focus is on the people you serve so that's what two three and four are all about number one is all about you coaching yourself on those fears and hesitations two three and four are really focused on the other parts of your business when you're first launching then as you grow through phases three four and five you're going to be focusing on the area that's weakest out of these nine work to uplevel it reassess and repeat that process so we're always scanning these nine areas figuring out which one is our weakest area putting our attention toward our resources towards it our time and expertise towards it figuring out how we can make it better and then we're reassessing again and determining which one's the weakest link and re rinsing and repeating that process like I said all of these nine areas are the focus and included in the financial coach Academy program as well as every one of our other programs because my goal is to help you reach phase five where you're coaching consistently and loving it you're helping people that you love and in a format that you enjoy all right so those are the five phases of your roadmap to becoming a profitable Financial coach now I would love to hear from you so you've seen the five phases which phase do you think you are currently in you'll see the second pop up second poll pop up on your screen so take a minute to answer you can only choose one answer for this one if you feel like you're sort of in between two phases you're in the earlier phase so if you're like I'm kind of two kind of three you're in two if you're like I'm kind of four I'm kind of five you're in four again if you are watching the replay jot down your answer are you in phase one two three four or five awesome okay looks like most of you are in the first three phases welcome to the beginning steps of becoming a financial coach we've got a couple of people in phase four and a couple of people in Phase five joining us live today which is awesome to see congratulations so for those of you who are just starting out I want you to notice that we have people in phase four and five which means it is possible if you have been doubting that up until now one I am proof that it is possible and also the other people on this call who were in phase four and five show you that it is possible to have a viable business as a financial coach congratulations for taking this step with me tonight everybody who's on the call you are in the right place because next I'm going to share your five St steps to launching your business even if you've already launched even if you're in one of those later stages I want to encourage you to stay for this portion of the workshop because you might see a gap that you have that you can fill in your current business and you might hear something and realize I do that that's a strength I have in my business fill me right but before I share those five steps to launching your business I do have one more Poll for you I would like to know do you have Clarity on what you should focus on oops in order to become a profitable Financial coach do you have Clarity yes this was amazing and I know one or two steps I can take and I'm excited to take action yes this was amazing I have a list of things I can do and I feel ready or no I'm still confused or overwhelmed help give you guys a minute to answer the last Poll for today do you have Clarity on what you should focus on in order to become a profitable Financial coach next I should say a minute longer a couple of people still haven't answered quite [Music] yet great wonderful thank you thank you okay so great uh results there we've got most people say yes we've got a couple of people who are still feeling a little confused and overwhelmed I really want to encourage you to drop us an email if you have any questions if we can give you any more guidance or direction we would love to be able to do that for you so please feel free to drop us an an email again our email address is info@ fiscal Fitness phx.com but it looks like I'm so glad to see this that the majority of you feel as if you've got some really great takeaways and some things to focus on now I am a coach after all so I love hearing not just that you learned something today but that you plan to apply what you learned today so in the chat if you please could I'd like to know how you plan to apply this information so in the chat tell me what are one or two things that you are going to uh focus on in order to make progress as a financial coach no matter what phase you're in I want to hear the one or two things that you are going to take action on and as soon as the workshop is done I go and read the chat I can't do it while I am uh delivering the presentation but I can't wait to read the answers it's one of my favorite things to do as soon as we end the webinar so no matter how many times I host this Workshop your answers Inspire and motivate me so thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me uh go ahead and leave in the chat if you haven't yet one or two things that you're going to focus on in order to make progress as a financial coach all right now let's get into the five steps to launching your business and also how you can increase your likelihood of success right out the gate and then at the very end like I was saying I'm going to answer your questions here is your road map to launch in five steps number one get clear get clear on why you want to coach first this will be the core of your business so identify it and learn how to craft it into a compelling story also get clear on who you want to help this is called your Niche now when you first start don't expect this to be perfect or 100% accurate you can and will refine this over time and with experience and fact your Niche not being perfect is one of the first opportunities to coach yourself through your perfectionism you cannot have this perfect when you launch that is impossible if you are waiting to have your Niche perfectly mapped out to start helping people you will never help anyone you can't say you want to help anyone and everyone with every part of money though so you do need to narrow this slightly when you first launch in the academy we tell coaches that if your Niche feels about 60% accurate that's good enough when you you first start and so move along from that lesson the next thing I want you to do is get clear on what the next phase of your business looks like so that you know what you're building you've got a ton of options as a financial coach which is great but it can also be overwhelming because of those options clarify your vision for just the next step so you can take more focused action and not get distracted by what other people are doing second step to launching is to start helping people and start helping people before you feel totally ready I know you might be thinking don't I launch first and then help people and the answer is no you can find people that you can help for free and I highly highly recommend taking this step here's what I want you to do you can either post this publicly or if you're talking with a person and they're sharing a financial stress or struggle that they're having you can say this to them I really enjoy money and finding ways to make it easier and better for people to manage or get control of I'd love to sit down with you and see what you've got going on and offer any ideas or guidance that could help you what do you think to sit down with someone and just see what they have going on and offer some advice is so simple you don't need a logo you don't need a website you don't need an LLC you don't need a contract you don't need a certification eventually you may want some of those things but when you first start you just have to help people all of your business new clients inspiration experience Revenue programming it all comes from the results that you get real people it gets more complicated over time yeah yes but it doesn't start complex it starts simple and when you do this here's the next thing that I want you to be okay with I don't want you to be afraid to tell someone you know I'm not sure about that or you know I don't know the answer to that question but it's a really good one you know what's worse than telling a client you don't know something pretending like you know something when you don't be honest I promise it is actually more professional and more respectable to Simply say I don't know I have haven't seen that before then try to pretend like you know it all the third thing uh I want you to do to launch your business is design your client Journey think about and create the first few steps of your client Journey so that you feel prepared confident and you can lead a client through it with ease when you first meet with a potential new client I promise that your mind might go a little crazy this is that mind drama that I was talking about oh gosh what do I say do I say it this way what am I inviting them to do and how long is that session and what are we talking about and is it a phone call or is it Zoom or I a right that's mind drama you want to be focused on the client so the best thing you can do is know exactly what step you want to invite them to take with you you want that at least outlined that way when you're talking with somebody you're just focused on listening if you're not sure what the first few steps should be do I do a free consultation and if so how long is that conversation and what's the structure of it those types of things I have two resources that will be helpful for you the first is our ultimate growth guide for financial coaches which which is a free resource and then the second is the financial coach Academy program which not only outlines this client Journey For You precisely but it gives you everything you need from contracts questionnaires handouts email confirmations and scripts that you can build it out in its entirety the fourth thing that I want you to focus on when you're launching is to capture your clients results the results you help people achieve matter more to your business success than anything else that you do focus on capturing those results really early in business so that it remains a focal point for you build your system for capturing where a client is when they first come to you and at the end of their program focus on capturing both tangible and intangible results that you help people achieve last but not least lean into your marketing and selling skills once you capture your client's results those give you Clarity into your marketing and messaging so that you can attract and gain even more clients where is your client when they first come to you where are they when they finish your program that transformation that shift that you help them experience your coaching is the solution it's the answer so in your marketing you want to keep talking about those three things where they are when they come to you where they are when they're done and that your coaching is the solution and it's important to believe that selling can occur without feeling spammy or gross don't shy away from learning and growing in sales in the academy we provide modules on both marketing and selling because I do think they are crucial skills for any business but we title the selling module selling with integrity and it's really all about inviting people to work with you to get the results that we offer them and that we can easily point to and that being a beautiful conversation out of the five core modules of the academy the marketing and sales modules are modules four and five so they're after the other modules sometimes a coach will give us feedback that they wish the selling and marketing but first but there is no marketing or sales strategy that I can teach you that works better than your ability to actually deliver results for your clients which is exactly the focus of the first three modules we do give you things like a five-page framework for your website for example but if you haven't helped anyone yet what do you put in the section where it says list three results your program delivers consistently what a lot of business coaches have you do is make up a bunch of aspirational verbage but most clients can see right through that stuff it's not clear enough because you're probably making a lot of it up plus your desire to truly help a person is your best sales skill you will get clients simply by Leading with your desire to help then when you increase your prices and your programs will likely require a greater skill in positioning the offer we have you covered but you don't have to worry about that when you first start these are your five steps to launching successfully which is also why they are the five core modules and the exact design of the financial coach Academy program not only do you learn how to do each one of these things but you are given everything I've created over the years including my client journey and every tool handout or resource that goes along with it so that launching it is as easy as launching a business can be if you are considering other programs you'll want to make sure it covers these things because you will need all of these things in order to launch first identifying and working with your favorite clients everything becomes easier after you've done this I promise number two an ideal client Journey so that you can focus your clients feel supported and consistent results can happen number three marketing and selling how to attract and gain clients so that you have clients to coach number four how to serve clients from prep work to graduation and all of their progress in between and last but not least how to coach not just teach about money but how to take a financial concept and Coach a client on it so they apply it to their life in order to get those amazing results when I designed the Academy I did so because I felt like our world would be better with more financial coaches helping people so the academy was designed in order to help you launch and then also do this work for years and years in other words I want you to be a successful Financial coach that gets your clients results I want you to be someone who doesn't just talk about money but helps others actually make progress with their money so if you are ready to launch or grow as a financial coach here are four ways to boost your likelihood of success now I never want to mislead you or lie to you starting a business any business is a lot of work it will require you to learn new things and grow as a person it's going to require a few iterations before you find the approach that works perfectly for you you'll have days and weeks that are easy and you feel like you are on top of the world and then you'll have days or weeks where your self-doubt and frustrations are high some people will be really good at selling you a dream of a business that makes six figures right away and with ease just like with my coaching clients my job is not to sell them a fall stream but to prepare them for the journey ahead and then support them every step of the way we designed the academy to give you the tools handouts and resources you need to feel more confident it also provides a community and coaching to help you overcome the hard weeks and celebrate with you on the awesome ones in my financial coaching business my clients results are the most important success factor to me and in the financial coach Academy your results as a coach are the most important success factor as a team we take your success seriously so there are five things we offer that boost your likelihood of success and that make me very proud of the academy and the work we do with financial coaches these things are are why the academy is the most robust Financial coach training program that exists the academy helps you to make money faster as a coach the academy is a hybrid program it is not just an online course there are video lessons but also live coaching every single month with me as well which means you're able to gain traction much faster than going at it alone we pulled coaches 64% of them tried who tried to build their businesses without the academy so either on their own or or by taking another training program said that it took them more than six months to get their first paying client whereas coaches who were enrolled in the academy said they got their first paying client by the end of the second month after enrolling we also boost your likelihood of success by giving you lifetime access you are going to experience challenges and struggles at different times of your journey having lifetime access to the academy doesn't mean just lifetime access to the online course it means lifetime access to the monthly coaching call so that you can always have a place to get support guidance and coaching by me and when we say lifetime access we don't just mean the current materials and training videos anytime we make improvements or upgrades which we do whenever things in the world of coaching and business change which is a lot you get all of that too I always Test new things in my own coaching business first so in fiscal Fitness is my business I will try something new I experiment with it I refine it I get it super dialed in I figure out the best practices for it and then I introduce it to all of you in the academy you're also more likely to succeed with the academy because we have made the program fun to complete I don't know if you know this but in the United States the completion rate for online courses is 12% that is disastrous that means one in 10 people who enroll in an online course actually complete the course our completion rate in the Academy is 68% I am incredibly proud of that because we have built it in the same way that we teach you how to build your client Journey with the client's progress and enthusiasm in mind it is designed to keep you progressing and moving forward and it's really hard for us to have an even higher than 68% completion rate because we have coaches enrolling every single month and it does take excuse me a number of months to complete the course so we have some people who just enrolled two weeks ago and uh so completion rate currently is at 68% because your success is based on your ability to get client results we also give you results driven Financial Concepts inside of the academy there is a 90day financial coaching program that you can use with your clients right away there's also a six-month skill-based coaching program that you can use and there are Financial Concepts that you can do with your clients to help them get results right away you getting your clients results is how I make my impact and in the way that I want to have an impact on this world there are enough Concepts inside of the academy to last you two years of coaching one client which means you could meet with a client for two years consistently and just do the material that we give you inside of the academy and it would last you two full years not only do we provide a coaching video outlining the exact process for coaching the client on that particular topic but you get the handout as well and canva templates to make it as easy and as fast as possible for you to repurpose those handouts with your own clients we wanted to create a program that overcomes the most common challenges and the last way that we do that is with our cohorts one of the best way to ensure your success is to embark on this journey with others that you can support encourage and hold one another accountable earlier I mentioned the study by the Association of training and development and I mentioned how you only have a 10% chance of success when you first have an idea of a goal the study though also found that you can reach a 95% probability of success by having others that you meet with regularly and consistently about your goal that is your cohort it is composed of other coaches who enroll in the academy around the same time as you and are committed and excited to learn take action and ultimately launch their financial coaching businesses too coach Jacqueline our co-hostess with the mostest and uh program success coach on my team she serves as your cohort lead coach she ensures that you and your group are off to a great start you are organized you're prepared to show up for yourselves but also for each other every cohort is personalized to the members of each one so if you prefer let's say an evening accountability call or you like Saturday mornings your input helps to create the coh so every single cohort is completely unique because it's designed by the members of the cohort these cohorts and the live coaching exist because we want you to know others have your back and you are not going to get lost in the shuffle when it comes to becoming a financial coach and guess what it just so happens we have a new cohort starting soon when you enroll in the academy you are automatically added to the next cohort that is starting not only are you automatically added to the next cohort but you get immediate access to all of your training materials so the sooner you enroll the more time you have to dive in and begin launching your business so you can get a head start going into the cohort kickoff call that is happening soon if you are ready to turn your dream of helping people into a reality I would love to invite you to enroll in the financial coach Academy today simply go to financial coach academy.com click on the enroll button and launch your financial coaching business the right way I'm going to take your questions now but if you aren't able to stick around for those let me just say first thank you for joining me for this Workshop I truly hope that you have a better understanding of where you are in your journey of becoming or being a financial coach and what exactly you should focus on based on where you are I can't wait to read what one to two action steps you plan to take after today I also hope you gained a bit more insights into what I'm about and why the financial coach Academy is the most robust Financial coaching training program that exists thank you so much for joining me stick around while I answer questions for about 10 more minutes if you're ready or if you're able otherwise I hope to see you soon in the financial coach Academy all right let's take your questions we've got about 10 minutes so let's see what questions you've had throughout the workshop Jacqueline what do you have for me my dear all right so our first question comes from Steve who asks does the academy provide scale and leverage tools and strategies it absolutely does that is one of our bonus modules so everything in the five core modules is all about setting up your onetoone coaching business and getting your onetoone clients results like I said I do recommend that that is the best way to start then our Advanced programming bonus module is all about taking what you've created and turning it into a scalable offer so a Ono many offer there's different options for that that we cover inside of that module so there's different lessons inside of it things like group programs masterminds Retreats or events um hiring people for your team like that's the route that I ended up taking after a few different trial and error of different things that I tried um I ended up uh choosing to go the route of hiring coaches for my team uh we also cover corporate Wellness so if you wanted to go into organizations and create scale or leverage that way that is all covered inside of the advanced programming bonus module okay awesome uh two people asked this next question both Justin Rainey and Sharon mcke asked why is enrolling in the academy not suggested until phase three or would you suggest waiting until phase three to start FCA or is it beneficial at any phase was the other way it was worded thank you for clarifying that it is definitely recommended probably as soon as phase two so if you're in phase two you're ready to get started um you can absolutely enroll in the Academy I do think that oftentimes for somebody in phase three they they tend to think because they've got some of their business built that they don't know what they need or they think that the uh the academy helps you launch and they're sort of like well I've already launched my business but specifically in phase three is going to fill in all of the gaps that you probably have that you don't even know that you have so even if you've already technically launched your business all I was saying was that the academy is still a really great fit for you I would say absolutely if you're in phase two if you're ready to go and you just want to dive in and you want to uh invest in the financial coach Academy it is a great time to do it as well I if you are in Phase One typically you're still sort of considering the idea if if you want to do it or not and I don't recommend investing in the financial coach Academy at that phase which might sound weird that I'm saying that but I think if you are still on the fence about it investing in something like the academy while I believe in the academy that's a big investment and I I want you to make the decision and the commitment with a smaller investment first The Playbook all of the other things that I talked about are lower Investments which means if you end up changing your mind it's like all right well I spent 50 bucks on a book right like it's not that big of a deal it didn't cost me much to make this decision versus investing $3,000 in something like the academy but if you are ready to go if you are in phase two or later even if you're later in business and you feel like you've got some of those gaps or you're just looking to scale or leverage or be part of a community and join the coaching calls and the cohort and that kind of thing that at any phase uh the academy would would work for you great okay question number three do you suggest Financial coaches hire another Financial coach yeah that is definitely one of the scalable options uh that is the route that I took uh I think it's funny because if you knew me know 10 years ago I used to say all the time that I would never hire or train another Financial coach and now not only do I Mentor Financial coaches on my team but I of course Mentor coaches through the academy so it's definitely something that I have personally done a 180 on um I just didn't think that I would know how to do it or I thought what I did and it's true is very nuanced you know it really is about taking care of the person in front of you you know if I have a client I I don't I'll have a client come in with debt and we might follow this the debt snow approach and then I have a client come in an hour later for their session and they have debt and we are using the Avalanche approach and those types of things and it really I think what I bring to the conversation around Financial coaching is critical thinking and I didn't know that I could teach other people how to do that like how do you think critically about these things and also coach and facilitate the client's journey through it when I first started and that was something that the more experienced I became the more I realized that I actually wanted to uh train other coaches to do this too uh Jill on my team is our lead coach she was the very first coach that I ever hired she was actually a client of mine for four years before uh I hired her and I think it was knowing her so well and knowing that she understood my process and the way I coached and she experienced it firsthand was really the thing that unlocked that for me um She's Got an episode on the podcast I can't remember the number but um it was from last summer I believe so if you're looking for the dates um you where she talks about what her journey was like to be a client and what it was like to be on that side of the table and receive coaching and that kind of thing and then switch to become a coach herself um but absolutely hiring coaches to help your clients is a really great option if you are looking to scale and grow your business in a leveraged way okay great uh question number four does your Academy help coaches design their own materials tailored to the niche it does yes so with a lot of what we give you in the academy typically my recommendation is take what we give you and start there because you don't even know necessarily how you want to modify it until you get some clients under your belt and it's really the fastest way to start is by starting with something you know it works we use it every single day in my business and then as you coach people then that's when the iteration phase comes in so we typically call this strategic trial and error trial and error um erratic trial and error is when you're sort of winging it you're like I'm going to try this I'm going to try this I'm going to try this and it all it feels way too half-hazard and all over the place strategic trial and error is I'm going to use this process and this client journey and handouts that I know work and when I go to use it I'm going to pick one piece of it and I'm G to I'm going to test a new way that works for me like my personality we give you templates for everything um so the canva templates the idea is that you take our handouts and you put your logo you make it your colors your branding you put your photo on it those types of things and when you do that feel free to edit the you know the handout so the way I describe something you know we call um one category of expenses for example whammies uh you don't have to call them whammies you can call them non-recurring or random expenses or intermittent expenses or something like that so there's a lot of different ways that you can finesse it to work better for your clients that is why the very first module of the academy we help you to identify your Niche because that is going to inform everything you do from there at the uh fiscal Fitness we coach small business business owners as well as individuals and couples but you might not need any of the small business stuff so that's just part of it where you're like I don't really need this part of it yet I'll I'll tap into that later if I want it but so you can sort of pick and choose the parts that will work best for you great for anybody who listened to the Past question the episode she referenced is episode 33 of the FCA podcast and I'm going to pop the link in the chat for you okay you are the best thank you jacine you're welcome okay question number five we got lots of questions about C uh certification so one question was is it ICF certified what's your take on the certification as it pertains to afcpe um questions about other specific certifications like any FC um so I think just kind of generally addressing ICF and uh what your take on certification is and then a follow-up question was does your Academy cover such things or mainly business building for Focus yeah I I need to do probably a whole podcast episode addressing uh my take on certifications um I think it's a very involved conversation so I'll try and make this as concise as possible just for the sake of time um our uh some of our toolkits um some of our offerings with the financial coach Academy are ICF accredited which means if you take them you get some continuing education credits and that sort of thing so we have sort of passed the ICF accreditation standard which is something we're really proud of the things you want to look for in certifications which is sort of why I am hesitant on them sometimes is because it is a bit of a pay-to-play system especially in the United States where the um you know the the company goes to get its thing accredited like it's offer accredited but really all that that accrediting body does is like kind of do a quick review and then just put their stamp of approval on it but the thing you need to do first is pay right so it is a bit of a pay-to-play system and then it's one of those things where if there is a Code of Ethics that you have to sign um I would ask to read the code of ethics first and then also ask how they uphold the code of ethics one if they have no process for reporting violations of the code of ethics or that kind of thing then it is basically useless okay so it's like if you have a code of ethics but there's no way of honoring it um or clients potentially reporting somebody who's not honoring it and that kind of thing then why do you even have it um two a lot of those put way too many limitations on the coach if you ask me so for example um I won't say the name but there is a certification that is quite popular in the space that says that you cannot collect any sort of revenue from anything other than Ono one offers so you meet oneon-one with a client and that is it you cannot have courses you cannot accept commissions from like a third party affiliate so let's say you refer somebody to a certain bank and you get 20 bucks and they get 20 bucks they they say that you cannot do that um there are also certifications that the code of ethics says that you will only use their method or their modality 100% of the time and My Philosophy is that I just don't think people work that way so I I don't think there's one method that will work for everybody I think the idea of financial coaching is that it's meant to be personalized it should be customizable to the individual and my job and sort of our job in the academy is to give you a lot of different tools that you can use that way you are helping all of your clients you're going to use one tool for this client and one tool for another client I believe that that is the beauty of financial coaching I think that's what makes us good at what we do as Financial coaches otherwise why wouldn't a person just Google what they should do right if it was the same for everybody they could just go to Google where we come in is the personalization and customization so any sort of certification that says I will only do it this one way or I will only collect Revenue in this one way I I think is a m massive shortcoming of certifications the last thing I will say is if you want a certification my recommendation is to hold off for a little while because you are going to change your niche in the first year especially you're going to hone your style of coaching sort of like what types of things do you talk most about with your clients what are the specific topics what area of money do you focus on what is your style of coaching do you tend to ask more questions do you tend to be more of a consultant all of that we help you figure out in the academy and once you figure that out then you can lean into to some of those skills and say you know what this one Avenue that I tend to use most often this tool I'm going to go get certified in that one approach because I tend to use it most often but at first you don't really know and I think it's best to not sort of uh put blinders on and say this is the way I'm going to do it when I first start I would let your work with clients and the sessions you're doing with clients dictate that more than anything and until you meet with a lot of clients you won't know that that was great okay um we have two more quick questions I think we have time to tackle them kelsa um the next question is in which phase would one consider making their business a entity in LLC or otherwise yeah we uh tackled this in the first module of the academy so I would say pretty early on now um if you it kind of depends on your state actually so for example in California it is very costly I think it's like $900 and don't quote me on that exact number it might be 800 or 900 something like that but on becoming an LLC and it's an annual fee uh in Arizona where I live and where I'm registered as an LLC it's like $45 a year and it is like all done online it's super simple super fast you renew it online every year it is very small business friendly so it's very easy so part of it has to do with your um your state and where you live um we have a resource on our website it's I I want to say it's like the what you need and don't need when you're first launching your business and there is a uh Link in that blog post that shows you the different states and how to go about getting your LLC based based on where you live if you're in the United States specifically um so another part of another factor to consider is uh it's it's sort of your stomach for risk if you will um you know everybody has a different level of risk that they want to assume if you think about something like Insurance do you like Insurance some people are like oh I like Insurance because I like to know I'm protected and other people are like I hate Insurance because I pay for it and then I never use it it seems like a waste of money some an LLC is meant to protect you from a liability perspective and some people want that protection right away they don't feel safe without it and other people are like e it'll be fine so it is not legally required I will tell you that um it is one of those things where you're going to go open a bank account um and it's cheap and easy to become an LLC in your state then I would probably do it early on because you're going to set everything up under your LLC the new bank account some of your apps your software like that kind of thing and if you do it early then you don't have to change everything over later but that's based on if it's just an easy and inexpensive step for you to take then that's the route I would take okay great I just posted that blog post um all right final quick question what is the best way to compile results reviews numbers testimonials Etc yes all of the above I think results are so important that anything you can do is going to be helpful so a couple of the things that we recommend in the academy one are your questionnaires when clients first sign up and this is at each stage of your client Journey so when someone does a consult with you you're probably only going to ask two or three questions typically we don't want to overwhelm somebody for a you know 20-minute consult call um but we do want to gather some information so we ask a few questions right then and then we ask questions on the back end after the end of the conversation how they're feeling and that sort of thing and we're able to compare we also do that on the front end of their very first um paid coaching session we asked much more detailed questions about where they stand how they're feeling and again you can quantify feelings so this is something that I think we're really good at at fysical Fitness and we teach you how to do this in the academy as well you can ask a question like on a scale of one to five with one being not at all and five being totally how stressed are you with money and so what we're able to do by qu asking questions like that we can quantify emotions around money we can also ask how confident are you you know those types of things and then periodically through the client Journey we are asking the exact same questions so at fiscal Fitness we know in 30 days 60 days 90 days exactly how are they progressing both financially because we're able to see all of that so you can track too um uh debt amounts when people come to you uh we calculate everyone's net worth in the first year of coaching that is not something we do in the first let say month of coaching at fiscal Fitness you can do it much sooner we talked about that in the academy why you might want to but at fiscal Fitness our clients when they come to us they don't know where their money is going they don't care about their net worth so your clients might and that's okay but ours do not um so we will do do it at some point in the first year but it's not typically in the first month or two um and then we track their net worth and then we grow we we track the growth of their net worth year after year after year so we're able to see their increase in savings their decrease in debt their increase in Investments all that kind of stuff and we're able to measure it from start but also at various Milestones as well all right that was our last question great work awesome thank you so much everybody those were great questions thank you Jacqueline for compiling those uh I just want to end with one last thing this is something that I truly believe creating a plan with your money is the fastest way to achieve any goal you have in life and because of that Financial coaching is the most rewarding way to make living we essentially help people reach their goals faster and I think that is amazing and I love it I can't think of a better profession thank you everyone for joining me today I really appreciate it and I would love to hear from you if you have any questions please reach out to us bye everybody