How do I choose the right financial coach for me?
First. Congratulations. Seriously. If you are reading an article on how to choose the right financial coach for you, it means you’ve likely already overcome many of the entrenched societal and emotional hurdles that usually prevent us from getting any coaching help at all. That’s definitely worth a mention and some encouragement. So let’s get started.
One last hurdle to overcome, are you ready for a coach?
There is one last hurdle that usually creeps up and stops people in their tracks before they schedule an initial consultation. They are about to make the call or schedule a time on a calendar, when they have a moment of doubt. Here is where they feel, at a very high level, what we all intuitively know. That a financial coach is likely going to recommend we make changes in our lives.
Those changes could include some very uncomfortable realities; delaying gratifications, making difficult phone calls, writing down plans and goals and objectives, getting better organized, and creating the much hated, but imminently useful, family budget. All with the intention of helping you make better, wiser decisions within the context of your own financial lives.
So, said another way…
Don’t we already know what we need to do? Do we really need a financial coach at all? Do I really need to pay someone to tell me all this stuff? What am I really paying for?
All very good questions. All very good points.
Let’s address this directly.
If you already know what to do and you’re already doing it. Great. Maybe you don’t need a financial coach. We don’t need coaches when we are completely satisfied with our lives. We only need coaches when we are looking for an outside perspective on what we can do to improve. We only need coaches when we want to accelerate our progress towards future goals or to help us escape a prison we have created for ourselves. We only need coaches when we’ve acknowledged we have problems that we are finding are difficult for us to resolve on our own.
In the words of Alan Watts, it is the student who gives authority to the teacher, not the other way around. If a teacher has nothing to offer you, then you’d be foolish to waste your time being their student.
You have to decide if you have a problem you need help resolving.
You have to decide if you are ready for a coach.
Once you are ready, these are the things you need to look for…
Compatibility
This may sound obvious, but it’s absolutely critical. The most important part of picking a coach is to find someone you are compatible with. You need a coach whose background and experience is one you respect and trust, whose demeaner and personality is one you feel comfortable with. You need a coach that you can connect with on a personal and emotional level; because this is someone you will be sharing intimate financial details with and someone who may be sharing some very “hard to hear” truths with you.
The coach you pick may be the smartest, most business savvy, most experienced, and most financially successful person on the planet; but if something feels off, something feels weird, you don’t quite trust them or maybe you just feel judged, it’s simply not going to work. Regardless of any other attributes you may find, the coach you pick has to be someone you are willing to listen to and one you are willing to accept guidance from.
Value
Once compatibility is settled, then you can start to evaluate the monetary value a coach brings to the table.
Financial coaches often encounter the question “How do you charge people who have no money?” As we covered in Part 1, it’s usually not the case that people have no money, it’s whether they are spending beyond their income or investing effectively towards their long term goals.
The question is important though, because it does speak directly to the monetary value of financial coaching.
The reason you pay a coach is because you value their time, their expertise, and their perspective.
In regards to time, you are paying for something that is often subtle, but should not be overlooked. When you pay for a coaches time, not only do you get the benefit of buying more actual time (something that is commonly thought of in our culture as impossible), you are paying for the vicarious experience of their time. The experience of all of their wins, all of their losses, all of their mistakes, all of their accumulated wisdom. You don’t have to live your coaches journey yourself in real time, you get to buy that time and wisdom and use it at your disposal.
In regards to expertise, you are paying for access to everything they have learned, mentorship in skills they have already acquired, tactics and strategies and how to execute them in your life, knowledge of programs, associations, laws and regulations that may protect you and your family, and within the context of the business world, may include knowledge of processes you need to know about that might not even occur to you to research on your own.
In regards to perspective, coaches can see your life and circumstances from a position of caring and distance. They can see the life you can achieve for yourself, even when it seems cloudy and murky to you. They are able to share the hard truths of your situation in a compassionate and positive way. And something people usually don’t know, is most coaches have been through this journey themselves. Most have faced financial hardship in their lives and passed through it to the other side. The best coaches leverage their own past hardships and perspective to encourage their clients on their journey and provide much needed hope when things seem pretty dark and dismal. Another benefit is they can see when our brains are leading us towards decisions that will lead to pain and misery. Even rational individuals can allow the negative patterns of their brain to warp their behaviors. Coaches have the distance and perspective to help us get our lives back on track, even when our brains are trying to derail us.
Effectiveness
Setting aside the obvious need for a coach to be able to provide value, value provided is not really the ultimate benchmark for a successful coach. This may sound overly simplistic, but it’s really simple to determine whether you have chosen the right coach for you. Just ask yourself if the coaching relationship is effective? Do you feel encouraged, inspired, and educated? Do you feel momentum and progress on your journey towards financial freedom and peace?
Effectiveness does not rest on whether you or the coach are great as individuals. What matters is the effectiveness of the coaching experience. You might try out a coach and determine they are not a great fit for you. You might try out a coach and the coach might determine you are not a great fit for them.
Either way, it’s okay. It is the effectiveness of the relationship that is being evaluated. Not the worth of the coach or student themselves. If it’s not working out, it’s okay to move on.
It doesn’t mean you are not coachable. It doesn’t mean the coach should coach others.
It just means you need to keep looking and find the right coach for you.
