What Should You Expect From Financial Coaching?

An Inside Look At How Financial Coaching Helps You Achieve Financial Freedom

The goal of the financial coaching relationship is two-fold. The obvious goal is to help you achieve financial freedom. Accomplishing that goal alone would justify the process, but that is only partially what this game is about. It is important and worthwhile, but financial freedom is not the only purpose of financial coaching.

"I only coached with Todd for a few months four years ago and I am still benefitting from the experience as I complete my fourth positive cash flow real estate deal. I am well on my way to achieving my financial goals because of the focus and clarity that resulted from those coaching sessions' years ago."

Sally Trussel, EdD. – Independent Investor, Littleton MA.

The reason is because few people set out to achieve financial freedom just to get more money. Instead, what people really want are the things they believe money will buy. It might be personal freedom, power, flexibility, better quality of life, time off, or any combination thereof. Each person will have their own list. What is common among all lists is the desire for greater fulfillment and meaning in life. Financial freedom is just the external thing we project this internal desire (personal freedom) onto because we believe lack of money limits our ability to satisfy our desires.

As it turns out, the transformational technology and principles practiced during financial coaching not only support financial success but also translate into success for every other aspect of your life. In other words, as you work toward attaining financial freedom you will simultaneously be achieving personal freedom at the same time.

The reason is because as you grow your net worth following the Financial Mentor method you can't help but grow elsewhere in your life as well. Coaching clients routinely report improved relationships with family and friends, better health, losing weight, stopping smoking, and much more. In short, they report greater life fulfillment on the path to achieving financial freedom.

In summary, the stated objective for financial coaching is to achieve financial wealth. That is the carrot we overtly work toward and is how we measure tangible results. However, the underlying objective for financial coaching is true wealth – which is about a lot more than just making money. It is about living a complete and fulfilling life.

How The Financial Coaching Process Works

Financial coaching can be organized into a six step process that subdivides into two distinct stages of three steps each. The first three-step stage is foundational where you build your plan for wealth, and the second three-step stage is where you implement your plan for wealth so that you produce real results.

Stage 1: Assessment & Planning – What You Want, Why You Want It, and How You Will Get It.

What You Want: The starting point for financial coaching is gap analysis. You will begin with an assessment of your current situation – skills, assets, income, expenses and other resources – and compare that to your ultimate goals and objectives – what you want your dream financial situation to look like. The difference between your current situation and your dream life is your "gap", and the objective of financial coaching is to bridge that gap.

Why You Want It: Once you have your financial goals then you must connect them to deeper values inside of you. The reason is because "making more money" is not deep enough to drive you to prioritize the process long enough to succeed. What makes the money game worth playing? What else excites you about the wealth building process besides making money? Without that knowledge financial freedom is just another "to-do" drudgery added to your already long list, and that is a prescription for failure.

How You Will Get It: The final step in preparing for implementation is designing your personalized plan to achieve financial freedom. This plan will be built around your current needs, skills, resources and abilities and will provide the foundation upon which your wealth stands. Your coach will introduce necessary, proven principles for success such as leverage, risk management, valuation and much more so that your plan is realistic. This plan will also set the context for the coaching relationship. It won't be a "cookie-cutter" plan like some "how-to" education programs. It is a collaborative process that will be tailor-fitted to your unique situation.

These first three steps form the foundation of your plan for financial freedom and usually involve a coaching frequency of three times per month. The purpose is to establish the plan, clear the decks for financial freedom, and take preparatory actions. Depending on where you begin this process, the foundation and wealth plan can take anywhere from one coaching session to three months to complete.

Stage 2: Plan Implementation – Take Action, Shape Your Environment, Correct and Adjust Until You Succeed

Take Action: Now that the assessment and planning from stage one is complete it is time to enter the second stage where you get into action – because nothing happens without action. You will begin implementing your plan without getting stuck in "analysis paralysis" but instead starting on the first logical step quickly and efficiently. You will learn by doing, and your financial coach will teach you how to manage risk during these first steps so that you feel confident, secure and productive.

Shape Your Environment: Once you are in action the next step is to shape your environment to support and pull you forward toward your goal. This includes partners, work-mates, office arrangements, masterminds, support relationships, daily schedules, and any other external factors that affect your productivity and motivation. These environmental factors are generally a reflection of where your life has been instead of where you are going. The result is they hold you back rather than pull you forward – until we re-shape them to your advantage.

Correct And Adjust: The final step in the process is correcting and adjusting. This is where the inner game begins. It is one thing to intellectualize financial freedom, but it is something entirely different to walk the talk. Seldom will you reach your goal directly. Instead, you will go through a series of missteps and learning where we assess performance according to the motto "judge by results: often harsh, always fair".

Patterns will be recognized, blind spots made visible, and increased awareness will result. Behavior will be reshaped and lead to revised plans and new actions. Your financial coach will work with you to reach your goal so that you move forward like a guided missile that corrects and adjusts to reach its ultimate target. Progress will be tracked, victories will be celebrated, and losses will be controlled and learned from. The objective of the second stage of the financial coaching process is to create a consistent upward trajectory so that the outcome is certain. Your financial success becomes a question of "when" – not "if".

During this implementation stage clients usually choose to reduce call frequency to twice per month from the three call per month frequency during planning. This minimizes coaching costs, keeps the process fresh, and provides sufficient accountability for success.

What Other Benefits Can I Expect From Financial Coaching?

Financial coaching combines this six step process into two stages because it is a proven model that produces consistent results for you. Below are many of the value-added benefits you will notice from this financial coaching process:

Increased accountability through regular phone contact which helps maintain focus and motivation thus accelerating results.
Increased self-awareness for more effective decision making so that you work smarter – not harder.
Increased congruence between stated objectives and daily thoughts, words and actions so that you are more effective with your time and reduce wasted energy.
Improved focus on activities that are most important rather than most urgent so that the critical tasks get done.
Provides a step-by-step roadmap that breaks big goals into actionable tasks so that confusion, risk and fear are reduced.
Provides a structure and process to stay on track and pull you forward toward your goals so that you persist long enough to succeed.
Provides a safe space for examining and overcoming present limitations and challenges so that you don't get stuck.
Promotes self-confidence and skill mastery so that you can raise yourself to a higher level.
Provides a partner with experience to mentor you so that you can avoid the obvious mistakes and collaborate about best practices thus saving you time and money.

"Just wanted to thank you for your advice about the (name withheld for legal reasons) investment. I recently cashed $220K out of his deals making over 20%. The money was over a month late but it arrived. A real estate lawyer thought it was the worst contract he had ever seen; from the first sentence he knew it was bogus. Working with you really helped. I got an education and learned to do my due diligence and let the numbers be the basis for my decision." (This scam was later uncovered by the S.E.C. – investors who did not get out early lost everything.)

Name Withheld For Legal Reasons

Clients who are actively pursuing financial success and have capital at risk, such as business owners and investors, find that just one mistake avoided or one decision changed can pay for years of coaching – the additional education is thrown in for free.

In summary, the objective for financial coaching is to bridge the gap between your current financial reality and your wealth building dreams. Coaching achieves this objective through a structured, step-by-step process that gets you into action and overcomes the internal obstacles that have previously held you back from financial success – until now.

What Financial Coaching Doesn't Do…

Financial coaching is not consulting, counseling, or therapy. What is the difference? Therapy usually deals with past issues whereas coaching focuses on present action directed toward future goals. Similarly, consulting is about giving answers based on the consultant's expertise whereas coaching is a mutual collaboration between client and coach.

Financial coaching is not for those who want get-rich-quick or don't want to do the work necessary to reach their goals. Instead, it is a serious transformational process for people who want a realistic approach to achieving financial freedom. You will produce the results, and you will determine the rate of progress. Your financial coach will serve as a protagonist and educator – but not an enabler or laborer. Coaches help you produce your best work, but they never do the work for you. In other words, you will get out of coaching exactly what you put into it.

Also, financial coaching does not have a preset agenda even though it follows a step-by-step structure. That is because you are a unique individual with specific needs, goals, and desires. The structure of coaching will help you clarify those issues into a customized plan that will determine your agenda. In other words, you will set the agenda and you will determine the focus based on your needs. Your financial coach will then apply proven principles and techniques to help you achieve those goals. With that said, most clients of Financial Mentor have wealth building and financial freedom as part of their coaching agenda.

"People want to be lead. We did and we sometimes hoped that in our coaching calls you would have the "magic answer". You made us critical thinkers to find those answers ourselves. That is your strength. You are a great coach."

Jeni & Eric Kurowski – Owners, CCR Storage, Willis TX.

Finally, your financial coach is not an investment advisor. There will be no investment market or specific security recommendations during financial coaching. Instead, your coach will educate you to analyze the markets and investments yourself and come to your own independent conclusions about what works in investing. During the financial coaching process you can develop your own investment process uniquely suited to your needs – whether that be hiring managers to do it all for you, or choosing to do it all yourself. The choice is yours.

In summary, financial coaching is not an enabling process that gives you a fish: instead, it is an empowering process that teaches you to fish so that you can have all the fish you want for the rest of your life.

The mission of financial coaching is to produce a self-sufficient investor who can correctly and confidently pilot his own journey to financial freedom with competence and profitability.