Financial Coaches Network - The Podcast: Build your Financial Coaching Business

Join Josh and Amelie to discuss info gathering before your first paid meeting! Many of us have a tendency to make fancy forms to gather lots of detailed info about clients, but…what are the best practices? Top takeaways: Ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish in this meeting?” and gather the bare minimum possible. The more information you ask for, the longer it will take them to schedule a...

Join Josh and special return guest Ryan Roi to discuss how to grow your social media audience! Ryan’s business, the Artful Dollar, works primarily with group coaching for tattoo artists. Top takeaways: Niching down is like putting your thumb on the hose–it helps you focus your message and makes it far more shareable. People outside of your niche will ask about your services if your personality res...

Join Josh and Emily to discuss marketing beyond social media. Top takeaways: The first question to ask yourself is, “Where do my ideal clients hang out?” Google ads and websites are a solid combination. Physically get a booth at events attended by your niche. Handing a business card to someone is a great way to get a business card in return. Continue learning with… Episode #43 - Marketing beyond s...

Join Josh and Amelie to discuss prospecting calls–what are they, what should you cover, how to handle various situations. Top takeaways: The most important part of a prospecting call is to find out what the client’s needs are, and whether that’s something you can help them with or not. You also need to figure out whether you even LIKE them–will you enjoy working with them? You ALSO need to build t...

Join Josh and Emily as they share software recommendations!! Top recommendations: Calendar - Calendly or Acuity (leaning towards Calendly having more features) Payment processor - AdvicePay (included with FCN membership) Website - FCN offers a customized website template plus hosting, otherwise Squarespace or Wix CRM - Dubsado (but it takes a LOT to customize), Wealthbox (but will also take quite...

Join Josh and Garrett as they start off discussing what coaching means and what future regulations may look like, then continue to talking about liability in multiple areas. Top takeaways: It’s far easier than most of us would expect to accidentally step into law advice. Remember how complicated the tax code is, and be VERY cautious when giving tax advice. It’s important to be aware of where the l...

Join Josh and Amelie to follow up on a conversation about those clients who just don’t change in 6 months. What are red flags? How do you handle that situation? Top takeaways: There is a potential for brand liability from people who are paying you and aren’t making any changes. Red flags to look out for: debt balances going the wrong way without reasons, no progress towards objectives, if they’re...

Join Josh and Emily to discuss a common fear among new financial coaches. What do you say if a client asks “why do you charge so much?!” Top takeaways: If one person asks, that’s a reflection of their thoughts/opinions. If 50% of people are saying something, then that’s a pattern that you may want to examine. Bring pricing up at the end of the conversation (unless the client brings it up). Get com...

Join Josh and Amelie to discuss pricing–especially pricing at the beginning of your business. Top takeaways: Benchmarking based on other financial coaches can be very dangerous because what other coaches do may or may not have anything to do with what you do. The people you work with, length of your program, technology you offer…all of those should impact your pricing far more than what other peop...

Join Josh and Garrett to talk about the first meeting after a client has signed up! They paid you, now you have to actually…deliver! Note: This conversation was originally in the Financial Coaches Facebook group in late 2020, but has a lot of great info still! At one point, Garrett talks about wishing for a financial coaching software similar to financial planning software…and how Josh and Garrett...

Join Josh and Emily to discuss whether to answer questions in Facebook groups…and if so, what kind of liability could be involved. Disclaimer: As we say numerous times in episode, we are not lawyers and cannot answer exactly what you’re liable for! Top takeaways: Yes, there is potential for liability when answering questions on Facebook. Giving advice online about things you are not licensed to gi...

Join Josh and Amelie to discuss all things VA! How do you find one, and what tasks can they help with? Top takeaways: Start by listing all your business taxes, and then go through asking yourself, “how much do I enjoy this?” and “how good am I at this?” and “how important is this to my business?” Identify the time sucks that aren’t moving the business forward. When you first start looking for a VA...

Join Josh and Emily to discuss a wide range of irregular income Top takeaways: Not all irregular income can be treated the same. The more extreme the scenario, the more you should be concerned over whether your skills as a financial coach are sufficient to give solid advice. If the income is swingy month-to-month, it’s relatively simple to set money aside in high months to compensate for lower mon...

Join Josh and Garrett as they discuss taxes! Specifically, taxes in the early stages of your business. Top takeaways: The government considers you to have a business whether you see it as a side gig/little thing or not. If you have $1 more today than you did yesterday, you need to file (perhaps in your own Schedule C, but.). If you had expenses and no income OR expenses that were greater than your...

Join Josh and Emily to talk about end of service questionnaires. When a client is finished working with you, what should you ask them? What kind of feedback is valuable? Top takeaways: You should have an alternate way of gathering data like, “How much debt did you pay off?” or “How much were you able to save?” You can solicit info about “How did you like my program” but it shouldn’t be the focus....

Episode 70: How do you overcome the objection of “I’d love to work with you but I just need some time?" Join Josh and Emily as they discuss how to handle client objections. Today, they discuss two angles on a “time” objection–either “I need time to decide” or “now isn’t the right time.” Top takeaways: Browbeating a potential client over an objection is NOT the way to go. The way we respond to obje...

Episode 69: Should I create an LLC/S-corp/B-corp/other/nothing? Part 2 Join Josh and Amelie to continue discussing business entities! Top takeaways: For most coaches who are part-time and making less than $10k annually, an LLC or S-corp is PROBABLY overkill but depends on many things including how many assets you have to protect. Hiring employees should be an automatic trigger for entity creation....

Episode 68: Should I create an LLC/S-corp/B-corp/other/nothing? Part 1 Join Josh and Amelie to discuss entities! Should I form an LLC or an S-Corp or…what?! Top takeaways: The answer is always “it depends,” and in this case, one of the things it depends on is how much you have to protect. Talk to an attorney or a financial advisor who specializes in small businesses, and make sure you have a CPA t...

Episode 67: Client Testimonials Best Practices Join Josh and Garrett for part 2 of a conversation about client testimonials and specifics around what to include, how to format them, and more details! Top takeaways: Information-centric testimonials are best in written format; emotion-centric testimonials are best in video format. When a video is too polished, it can make the testimonial lose credib...

Episode 66: How do client testimonials fit into marketing? Join Josh and Garrett for part 1 of a conversation about client testimonials and how/whether they fit into marketing! Top takeaways: Whether to use testimonials depends on your niche. If your target clients rely on gut instinct, testimonials could be very influential. For people who are very analytical and are generally skeptical, testimon...

Join Josh and Emily as they discuss bootstrapping! What NOT to invest in, what TO invest in, and make sure to check the Resources section of the show notes for all the software recs we have! Top takeaways: Bootstrapping is the process of starting small and building things through profit from the business. If you’re going to meet people in person (many coaches don’t!), see if you can rent an office...

Episode 64: Guest Interview: Ryan Roi on the importance of investing in yourself Join Josh as he interviews guest Coach Ryan Roi of the Artful Dollar about niching and the importance of investing in yourself and your business! Ryan has been a financial coach for almost 3 years and has built his business into a highly successful, 6-figure (maybe 7-figure this year!) business. Top takeaways: Ryan st...

Episode 63: What Do You Discuss on a Prospect Call? Join Garrett and Josh as they talk through…prospect calls! How do you make sure you don’t blow the ONE CHANCE YOU GET to “close the sale?” And is that even true? How should we think about prospect calls? Top takeaways: A prospect call should be as much about you deciding if you want to work with a client as it is about them deciding whether to wo...

Episode 62: Ongoing coaching: How do I continue to show value? Josh and Amelie complete their three-part conversation about ongoing coaching. This week, they discuss how to continue to show value. Top takeaways: Things NOT to do: Just meet and keep them to their budget. Set yourself up as an unlicensed, bad therapist (whatever they show up and want to talk about is what we’ll talk about.) I’ll jus...

Episode 61: Ongoing coaching: How do I structure it? Josh and Amelie continue their three-part conversation about ongoing coaching. This week, they discuss how to structure ongoing coaching and transition clients into ongoing coaching. Top takeaways: Consider offering accountability meetings (hey, I noticed X is happening in your spending, let’s discuss) or coaching meetings (going into more depth...