Mastering Your Money Mechanics with April Stroink Perfect Practice

Today, Sachin interviews April Stroink on our money journey as practitioners. They discuss how April came into coaching practitioners on finances after being trained as a financial advisor. April shares how her baby benefitted from health practitioners when medical care was powerless to help her. April talks about how a holistic view of well-being is similar to a holistic view of financial well-being, which she calls “wealthcare,” and how she began coaching practitioners. The conversation covers how little entrepreneurs know about finances, and how they can put together a financial system they can manage with the right team. Listen in for advice on fixing your finances while you still can.
 
Key Takeaways:
[1:02] Sachin welcomes listeners to Perfect Practice. Today, Sachin is speaking with April Stroink. Sachin introduces April and her work of coaching about money and thanks her for joining the podcast.
 
[3:24] April describes her work as a “wealthcare” practitioner. Your financial well-being is closely connected to your physical health, mental health, and close relationships. It’s important to understand what’s happening in our finances if we want to get healthy.
 
[3:51] Finance is one of the pillars of overall good health and well-being. It is one of the major stressors for most people. When the body is under stress it releases cortisol. Stress also impacts sleep. A lack of sleep impacts health. In Canada, where April lives, money stress is the number one reason for relationship breakdown, as well.
 
[4:57] April was trained as a financial advisor to get people to retirement with a safety net. She was not trained in behavioral finance. Money is emotional and we have biases about it. People behave differently with their money than with other areas of their lives.
 
[5:56] April worked with clients who told her they were living paycheck-to-paycheck even though they were making a good income. The more they made, the less disposable income they had and they were drowning in debt from student loans and business loans.
 
[6:26] In 2017, April shifted her practice away from “assets under management” to helping people on the coaching side of things to help people understand their spending behaviors and their emotions around money so they can reach their financial goals.
 
[6:56] Along the way, April has been very in-tune with her “wealthcare” and healthcare and the health of her family. Her nine-month-old daughter was constantly sick. Antibiotics made her sicker. April tried naturopathic medicine and worked with an ND as part of her healthcare team. Within 48 hours her daughter was like a new child.
 
[7:54] April’s classical financial training wasn’t serving her clients. She needed a more holistic view to look at the entire picture of their wealthcare, as naturopathic doctors and functional medicine professionals use in treating patients. April’s approach to wealthcare is similar to this healthcare community. So she started to work financially with the community of practitioners.
 
[9:15] Numbers don’t lie. When you use good data, it takes gives you a solid foundation to work past the emotion of the equation. April asks her clients to step into the Chief Financial Wellness Officer role for their firms. There are three attributes of a CFWO: 1. To be fearless about their numbers, 2. To be curious about their finances, and 3. To be passionate about their numbers.
 
[11:36] April will show a client the mechanics that work with the cognitive biases around money. She says the biggest thing that she helps clients with is increasing and boosting their confidence when it comes to their numbers and their finances.
 
[12:57] We have to realize Parkinson’s Law that demand always meets supply. If we have a month to do a task, it will take a month. If we have a week, it will take a week. The same happens with our money. As business owners, we have the axiom that Sales minus Exp