People make money decisions and manage money every day. A financial coach helps them optimize their money by guiding them to the micro-habits that lead to an improvement in their financial situation.

Kelsa Dickey, founder of Fiscal Fitness PHX in Phoenix, described how she helped more than 1,000 clients reduce stress, pay off debt and save money. Dickey explained the benefits of financial coaching during the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors' Apex Conference.

Dickey became a financial coach 16 years ago after working as a financial advisor for more than two decades. As a coach, she focuses her clients on four key areas: income, expenses, savings and debt. The goal is to optimize these four areas as quickly as possible – in just 30 days.

“Imagine clients holding a big ball of yarn that is all tangled up. They pull on one thread and the ball of yarn gets tighter,” she said of her clients' financial problems. “My job is to pull all the threads at once and untangle the ball of yarn.”

Coaching is different from consulting, she said. Coaching is about spending and saving in the “here and how,” while consulting is about long-term planning.

Dickey works with her clients on what she calls “real-time goal changing.” At the beginning of her work with a new client, she talks to them almost every day about the financial decisions they need to make that day—whether it's which debt to pay off first or how to pay for an unexpected expense.

“We start with a client on payday,” she said, “and we plan everything. We talk about what's happening the next week, the week after that, and eventually plan the whole year. I tell them, 'As soon as something happens that disrupts that plan, call me.' When that happens, I ask them what's going through their minds, how I want them to think, and how they can stay grounded.”

Many of Dickey's clients are high earners who are heavily in debt. She said 42% of people who earn $100,000 or more annually report living paycheck to paycheck.

When people don't get their spending under control, they often become overwhelmed and that leads them to put off what Dickey calls maintenance on their home, their car and their physical and financial health. “My job is to help people get a handle on these things,” she said.

Providing coaching options

Most of her clients are referred to her by financial advisors. She explained to the audience that they are in a perfect position to offer coaching services to their own clients and presented three ways to do so.

1. Complement your service model with coaching – for a fee. Set an annual fee and design the service you will offer.
2. Hire a paraprofessional coach. Administrative assistants who already work at your company make good coaches, but you need to give them the tools and teach them how to use them. Coaching is unregulated and the barrier to entry is low because there are no licenses or regulations, she said. “We don't do investments; we don't talk about life insurance.”
3. Work with a financial advisor. Ask a few questions before agreeing to work with them. What is your philosophy when talking to your clients about investments or long-term goals? What is your philosophy about financial advice? What strategies or methods do you use when coaching your clients? How do you help your clients get results? How often do you call your clients?

“Customers are craving better conversations around money,” she said. “They're craving people to discuss their decisions with them.”

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