I get asked about this all the time. So many coaches reach out, wondering how they can grow their business when they aren’t quite ready to invest in something like the Financial Coach Academy®. Maybe you’re just getting started, or you’re in that phase where you’re building momentum, but not quite ready for that level of investment.
There’s this misconception that you need to invest thousands before you can make progress, and I want to bust that myth wide open. Let’s look at the many ways you can grow your financial coaching business using resources that are available right now.
The Mindset Foundation You Need First
But before we talk about specific resources, I want to address the mindset piece, because it’s absolutely foundational to your growth. Many coaches get stuck in this place of thinking they need to know everything before they can help anyone, and that’s simply not true.
The reality is that you likely know more than you realize about personal finance, and you’ve already overcome challenges that your current and future clients are still facing. We’ve seen coaches stall their businesses because they’re waiting to feel perfectly prepared when what they really need is to start working with clients and learn through experience.
Growth as a coach happens through a combination of learning and doing, not just one or the other. Think about doctors—even after medical school, they learn through residency by working with actual patients under supervisors. Financial coaching works similarly. You need both knowledge and practical experience to truly develop your skills.
Here’s why: when you already know a lot, what you’re seeking is certainty.
Can I coach someone?
Do I know enough?
Can I help someone get results?
The only way to gain that certainty, that proof you’re after, is to make the decision to help someone and see the results for yourself.
From Consumption to Implementation
The next mindset shift is to move from consumption to implementation. Many coaches consume endless content without taking action. The most successful coaches we work with are the ones who take one idea, implement it fully, measure the results, and then move on to the next thing.
Our financial coach mastermind coaches excel at this. They identify the area of their business they want to focus on, then the outcome they want to achieve in that area, and then they commit to achieving that outcome by a set date. They’re learning at the exact same time, but they commit to an outcome first.
How do you know what you need to learn unless you know what it is you want to be doing?
They don’t learn then do. They learn, do, learn some more, modify, learn some more, refine, learn some more. They’re not trying to do everything at once in their business either. Nor are they waiting till they feel completely ready to take action.
Be Discerning About Your Choices
Something important to keep in mind: your growth journey is going to be unique based on your background, skills, and the clients you want to serve. The resources I’m about to share should be viewed as tools to support your journey, not checkboxes to complete before you start making an impact.
Your job as a professional and as an entrepreneur is to be discerning about the offers that exist.
What area of your business, of your own skills, are you trying to improve?
What area feels like there might be a gap?
What is your weakest link and how can you strengthen it?
Who do you resonate the most with, and how can you learn from them?
Every once in a blue moon, we’ll get an email from someone saying they’re torn between the Financial Coach Academy® and Dave Ramsey’s program. I sort of chuckle, because our value propositions are entirely different. What we offer is different. Our philosophies on coaching people, financial progress, the strategies we adopt—so much is different from one another.
This typically boils down to self-awareness of what matters most to you, what factors you are trying to consider, what gap you are trying to improve in your own skill set and in your own business model. Keep that in mind as you explore your options.
Free Resources to Get You Started
Let’s start by talking about the free resources we offer that are specifically designed to help financial coaches grow.
The Financial Coach Academy® Podcast
You’re already here reading this blog, which is one of the free or low-cost resources we offer through our podcast. With well over 100 episodes to choose from, you are sure to find answers to the questions you have and the motivation to try something new. The beauty of podcast learning is that you can fit it into the margins of your day while driving, exercising, or doing household tasks.
Free Roadmap Training
Our free roadmap training is a great starting point if you are trying to figure out your next steps in building your coaching business. This training walks you through the core elements of a successful financial coaching practice and helps you identify where to focus your energy right now based on where you’re at. Coaches who have gone through this training often tell us it helped them get clarity on what to prioritize when they were feeling overwhelmed by all of the possibilities.
The Ultimate Growth Guide
The Ultimate Growth Guide is another powerful, low-cost tool that helps you map out a sustainable growth strategy for your coaching business. Many coaches use this guide as a framework for their quarterly planning because it helps them focus on high-impact activities. We’ve had coaches share with us how this guide helped them double their client base in six months, because it helps them stop spinning their wheels on low-return activities.
Here’s why the Ultimate Growth Guide was created: I know everyone wants the secret marketing formula that is guaranteed to work. It’s your clients’ experience working with you and the results they see. Experience is how clients feel about the session itself. When clients think “this was so helpful” or “I feel so much better,” they’re more likely to share that with others. But our aim is not only for clients to be happy—we want them to see tangible results.
The Ultimate Growth Guide gives you specific steps to strengthen your client experience so they not only feel empowered, there are tangible results that back up that experience. As a result, the lifetime value of your client increases, and word of mouth referrals become your number one source of new clients.
Community Support
The free Financial Coaches Unite Facebook group hosts over 10,000 other coaches where you can ask questions and learn from other people’s shared experiences. The value of community cannot be overstated when you’re building a business that can sometimes feel isolating.
We also host a monthly virtual financial coach meetup—a welcoming space for coaches of all experience levels. Surrounding yourself with others doing what you want to do boosts your identity, curbs imposter syndrome, and gets you out from lurking on social media to engaging in a super supportive space. Sign up to be notified every month of this free virtual meetup.
Beyond Our Platform: Industry Resources
There’s a wealth of resources available to help you grow as a financial coach beyond what we offer.
Many established financial coaches host their own podcasts that offer different perspectives and approaches to the work we do. I encourage you to explore several different financial coaching podcasts to get other viewpoints and hear other powerful voices.
Books can be an incredible resource for deepening your knowledge in specific areas like behavioral finance, communication skills, or business development. Look for reading recommendations from coaches you respect and don’t feel you need to read everything. Focus on books that address your current growth edge.
Here’s something someone told me years ago that was so helpful: give yourself permission to not finish a book. As a professional, as an entrepreneur, you might start a book thinking it fills a gap you have, that it will give you tools you’re looking for, or that it will spark genuine inspiration in some way, and then it doesn’t do the thing you hoped for. Give yourself permission to not finish a book. That was so freeing for my perfectionism back in the day.
Local small business development centers often offer free or low-cost workshops on business fundamentals like marketing, bookkeeping, and legal considerations. These resources can be particularly valuable if you’re transitioning from an employee mindset to an entrepreneurial one.
Personal finance blogs, websites, and YouTube channels can help you stay current on financial topics and provide ideas for how to explain concepts to clients. Industry conferences, even virtual ones, and professional associations can be excellent for both learning and networking with potential referral partners.
If you’re not already familiar with FinCon, it’s an annual conference for money creators specifically. If you want a discount on your ticket, use the code KELSA50 at checkout.
Creating Your Personalized Growth Plan
The key with these external resources is to be selective and intentional. Choose the ones that address your specific needs, rather than trying to consume everything.
The first step is an honest assessment of where you currently are in your coaching journey and what your immediate needs are. Are you still developing your coaching methodology, working on finding clients, struggling with pricing or packaging your services?
Your current challenges should dictate which resources you prioritize, rather than trying to learn everything at once.
We’ve seen coaches make amazing progress by focusing on just one area of growth for 60 to 90 days before moving on to something else.
Once you’ve identified your focus area, look for two to three resources specifically addressing that challenge and commit to implementing what you learn. Create a simple learning schedule that is realistic for your life. Maybe it’s listening to one podcast episode during your morning walk and then implementing one idea from it that week.
Try blocking specific time for learning and implementation rather than fitting it in when you have time. If you do that, chances are you’ll never have the time.
Consider creating a peer accountability relationship with another coach who’s at a similar stage. You can share resources, discuss what you’re learning, and hold each other accountable for taking action. These peer relationships often evolve into valuable referral partnerships and friendships that support your business long term.
Document your learning and growth process. Keep notes on what you’re trying, what’s working, and what isn’t. This creates a valuable resource for future reference. Set clear metrics to track your progress. If you’re focusing on client acquisition, track your consultation calls. If you’re working on your process, track client outcomes.
Be patient with yourself during the entire process of growth. Building a successful coaching practice is a marathon, not a sprint. You can make incredible progress in just six months by being focused and consistent with your learning and implementation, but not even notice that progress on a week-by-week basis.
Practical Examples of Resource Combinations
Let me share some practical examples of how coaches have combined these resources to solve specific challenges in their business.
Crafting a clear offering
Many coaches struggle with exactly what services to provide and how to package them. A practical approach would be to listen to our podcast episodes on service packages, review the relevant section in the Ultimate Growth Guide, and then join the Facebook group to ask specific questions or get feedback about your draft offerings.
Having confident sales conversations
You might start with sales modules in the roadmap training, complement that with our episodes on selling, books on consultative selling, or courses on enrollment conversations, and then practice with a peer coach for feedback.
Time management struggles
This might involve using the podcast (specifically episodes 88 and 106) and perhaps finding a business operations mini course.
Marketing guidance
The roadmap training covers marketing fundamentals, which you could supplement with industry-specific webinars and local business development workshops on digital marketing. We also have podcast episodes on the topic, including numbers 105, 93, 66, and many others.
Client retention and results
Our podcast has several episodes on effective coaching techniques that you could combine with books on behavior change and financial psychology.
For each of these examples, the key is taking what you learn and immediately applying it in your business, even in small ways. If you learn about a new approach to discovery calls, try it with your very next prospect, rather than waiting until you feel completely confident.
When You’re Ready for More Structure
As you leverage these resources and grow your practice, you’ll eventually reach a point where you’re ready for more structured support. Signs that you might be ready for something like the Financial Coach Academy® include having a few clients under your belt and feeling like you’re ready to be a more professional financial coach.
Another indicator is when you’re successfully implementing what you learn from free resources, but finding yourself with questions that go beyond what those resources cover. You notice that you’re looking for more than basic advice and seeking a more nuanced understanding of strategies.
Many coaches reach a point where they want to refine their methodology or deepen their identity as a financial coach. They want to improve their deliverables, their coaching, or their business model, and those types of things often require more structured guidance.
Until you reach that point, continue to leverage the many resources that are available to you to help you build a strong foundation for your coaching practice. Remember that there’s no rush.
Growing at a pace that allows you to serve clients well and build sustainable systems is more important than rapid expansion.
Your Next Steps
The key takeaways are to be focused in your approach to learning, consistent in your implementation, and patient with your growth process.
Here are three action steps I encourage you to take this week:
- First, identify your most pressing current challenge or growth opportunity in your coaching business.
- Then, select one to two resources from what we’ve discussed today that directly address that challenge and commit to working through them in the next 30 days.
- Finally, find an implementation buddy – another coach or business owner who can provide accountability and feedback as you apply your learning.
If you haven’t already joined our free Facebook community, that’s a great place to find support and connect with other coaches on similar journeys, or join our monthly virtual meetup and find someone there.
Remember, every successful financial coach started exactly where you are now. The difference makers are consistency, implementation, and a willingness to learn through action. The most important factor isn’t which specific resources you choose, but your commitment to applying what you learn consistently over time.
