The Financial Coach Academy® Podcast

Kelsa Dickey
  • 5.0 (107)
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The Financial Coach Academy Podcast is a weekly show for financial coaches and practitioners who believe that doing great work is the best business strategy there is. Hosted by Kelsa Dickey, founder of SpendFirst, Financial Coach Academy, and Money Made Human, each episode explores what it actually takes to build a coaching practice that lasts — from how we show up in sessions to how we think about our businesses. New episodes every Thursday.

  1. 5D AGO

    152. The Framework That Changed How I Coach

    Your client just made a choice you wouldn't have made. You walked them through the options. You built the understanding. They applied it, reflected on it, and came back with their decision. And it's not the one you would have picked. What you do in the next thirty seconds is the real test of whether you're coaching or telling. This is the kind of moment the Clarity–Application–Commitment framework is built for. It's the three-phase framework I've used in every coaching conversation for years, and the one I teach other practitioners to use too. In this episode, I walk through what each phase looks like in practice, where coaches skip steps without realizing it, and how to hold the line when a client surprises you. If you're newer to coaching, this might become one of the most foundational episodes you listen to. If you've been at this for years, it'll give you language for something you're probably already doing instinctively. Links & Resources: Episode 150: When Everything Feels Urgent: A Real Coaching Session on Prioritizing Financial GoalsFinancial Coach AcademySpecialty Toolkit Guide

    17 min

  2. APR 30

    151. Inside the Session: Three Things to Notice in a Real Coaching Session

    Last week you listened to a real coaching session with Lauren, a financial coach working through competing goals, limited margin, and a jumbled mind full of priorities she couldn't rank. This week I want to give you something to do with what you heard. I'm pulling three takeaways from Lauren's session: one for newer coaches, one for coaches who've been at this a while, and one for experienced practitioners who want to sharpen how they see their own work. They look like three different skills. They're actually the same skill at three different stages: paying attention to what the client actually needs versus what you're tempted to give them. If you haven't listened to Part 1 and Part 2 of Lauren's session yet, I'd recommend starting there. You'll get a lot out of this episode either way, but you'll get more if you've heard the session first. Haven't heard Lauren's session yet? Start here: Part 1Part 2Learn more about the Money Made Human Peer Advisory Group.

    16 min

  3. APR 23

    150. A Real Coaching Session on Prioritizing Financial Goals (Part 1)

    Lauren is a financial coach. She knows exactly what she'd tell a client who was juggling competing financial goals with limited margin. She'd say: pick one. Prioritize. Stop trying to do everything at once. And yet, when it came to her own money (her IVF goal, her emergency fund, her coaching business, her serving job she was ready to leave) everything felt jumbled. In this Client Seat episode, I coach Lauren through what happens when you stop trying to figure out all the things and start choosing. You'll hear the exact moment her energy shifts from heavy and overwhelmed to clear and motivated. And I share something about my own coaching in this session that I would have done differently — because knowing a client well can be a gift, and it can also lead you to steer when you should be listening. This is Part 1 of a two-part session. Part 1 covers the goals and priorities conversation. Part 2 goes into Lauren's income picture and what it would actually take for her to leave her serving job behind. Get access to Part 2 here.  Want to be a guest on a future Client Seat episode? Apply here. In this episode: Why seeing income as separate buckets keeps clients stuck in scarcityWhat happens when you stop trying to fund everything at onceHow Lauren's gut gave her the answer before her logic caught upThe chicken-or-egg loop that keeps big goals permanently on holdWhat I'd do differently in my own coaching — and why naming it mattersResources Mentioned Money Made Human Peer Advisory GroupYNAB

    1h 23m

  4. APR 16

    149. How to Make Financial Progress Visible

    Coaches are really good at helping clients build plans, organize their money, set goals, and adjust their behavior. These are excellent things. But something that comes up in almost every coaching relationship, usually several months in, is this: “I think things are okay. I mean, we're getting by. But I don't really know if we're ahead or behind.” The client is still doing the work. Still showing up. Still trying. But the enthusiasm isn't what it was, and they can't quite tell whether any of it is actually paying off. This week, we’re sharing the Progress Number, a single percentage that tells clients exactly how much of their income is actively going toward their financial future. Not their budget. Not their bank balance. A clear, revisable number that answers the question most clients are afraid to ask out loud. We walk through the formula, how to calculate it, how to handle the gray areas, how to introduce it in a session, and what happens when a client who's been working hard finally gets to see the proof that it's paying off. The progress number isn't just a coaching tool. It's what gives clients something to stand on when motivation gets harder and a rough month makes the whole year feel like a loss. Links & Resources: Financial Coaching EssentialsEpisode 143: How Confidence is Actually BuiltKey Takeaways: Without a concrete way to measure progress, clients go by feelings. A rough month makes the whole year feel bad. A good paycheck makes everything feel fine. Neither is the full picture.Net worth is a snapshot. It shows where someone stands, but not how fast they're moving or how intentionally they're directing resources toward their future.Two clients with the same net worth can be in completely different places in terms of momentum. Snapshots don't show trajectory. The progress number does.The formula is simple: total financial progress divided by total income, multiplied by 100. What counts as progress is something the client gets to define.The number itself matters less than the direction. A client who started at 3% and is now at 8% is winning, even if 8% sounds small.When a client can point to a number and say, “I was at 4%, now I'm at 6%,” something shifts in how they carry themselves. That's not a pep talk. That's identity.Your progress number is also your coaching tool. It gives you a concrete way to revisit progress across sessions, something to celebrate when things are going well, and something to investigate when they're not.

    22 min

  5. APR 9

    [The Client Seat] When Your Emergency Fund Creates More Stress Than Relief

    If you followed the recent series on calibration and the three rhythms that money flows through, this session is where both of those ideas come to life. Mary Ann Stenquist is a spending coach who helps ambitious women break free from the shop-regret-shame cycle and align their spending with their values. She knows money. She teaches it. She coaches on it. And she's stuck. For four years, Mary Ann has been caught in a cycle: fund the emergency savings, drain it when something happens, rebuild it, drain it again. The AC breaks. Then the furnace. Health expenses pile up. Then the car. Each time she taps into that fund, guilt follows. The balance drops, and with it, her sense of security. What makes this exhausting isn't the expenses themselves. It's the way her emergency fund has become a scorecard for whether she's doing money right.  When the balance is high, she feels secure. When it dips, she questions everything. Before you listen, here are three things to pay attention to: First, notice how long it takes before any strategy is offered. This session is about 70% emotional coaching and 30% logistics. Second, listen for the distinction between emergencies and what we call Whammies, the irregular expenses that aren't unpredictable, just unplanned. Those fall into the SpendFuture rhythm, and once we name that distinction together, the whole conversation shifts.Finally, listen for the moment Mary Ann says she can't control her money, because that's a borrowed belief. When you look at the evidence, it's simply not true. She has an emergency fund. She's living on one income by choice. She's been managing well in so many areas. The story doesn't match her reality.This is what calibration looks like. A real session with a real person, and the choices happening underneath it. Links & Resources: Money Made Human AdvisoryFinancial Coaching EssentialsJoin the Facebook groupJoin our email listApply to be on the Client SeatListen Inside the Session of this episode

    1 hr

  6. APR 2

    148. The Three Rhythms Your Client's Money Actually Follows

    Most clients walk into a session already convinced they failed. The bad month is fresh. They went over budget. The spreadsheet is in the red. And every line item feels like evidence that they just aren't good with money. But here's something to note when you look at months like that: most of the time, nothing actually went wrong. The rent was paid, the groceries were normal, and the everyday spending didn't spike. The month exploded because of something else entirely. And that something else has a name. In this week’s episode, we’re introducing a lens that changes how clients experience conversations about their money. It's not a new tool or a new system. It's a way of looking at what's already in front of you and giving that picture to clients so they can see it too. All money moves in three rhythms. Once a coach can see these rhythms clearly and help clients see them, the emotional temperature of even the most discouraging conversations changes. Not because the numbers got better, but because the story around the numbers finally makes sense. This episode is practical. We’re walking through exactly how to introduce this framework in a session, what to say, what to notice, and why the rhythm that causes the most financial chaos is also the one most clients have never planned for. Links & Resources: Join the Facebook groupEpisode 147 Key Takeaways: A bad month and a planning gap are not the same thing. The ability to tell the difference is what separates a frustrating conversation from a useful one.All money moves in three rhythms: SpendFixed, SpendFreely, and SpendFuture. The third one is the one that derails most clients, and the one almost no budget accounts for.When a client can see that the month fell apart because of unplanned irregular expenses, not personal failure, the emotional temperature of the session drops fast.Irregular expenses aren't surprises. They happen every year, and many happen at roughly the same time every year. The only thing missing is a plan for them.Your job as a coach isn't to point out what went wrong. It's to show your client what was always true about their money that they simply couldn't see before.SpendFuture is almost always the thread that unravels the whole thing. Find it, name it, and the path forward becomes clearer for everyone in the room.Clarity always comes first. Before strategy, before solutions, before next steps, a client needs to be able to see what's actually happening.

    10 min

  7. MAR 26

    147. What I've Learned About How Practitioners Actually Grow

    There's a question many financial coaches don’t stop long enough to ask: What actually makes us better at this? Not what we think makes us better. Not what the industry says we should do. What actually moves the needle when it comes to the craft of coaching. I’ve spent nearly two decades working with coaches at every stage, from training my very first coach to building a team of 50 practitioners in 18 months with cohesive standards and consistent client experiences. I’ve seen what works and what doesn't. And in this episode, I’m naming the gap. Most of us have invested heavily in content. Courses, certifications, webinars, frameworks. And all of that has its place. But there's a pattern that keeps showing up: we consume, we feel inspired, we go back into our sessions, and not much changes. Not because we weren't paying attention. Because knowing the right answer and knowing how to use it in a live, messy human conversation are two very different skills. What I’ve observed in my work over the years changed how she understood practitioner development entirely. The thing that accelerated growth faster than anything else I’ve seen wasn't a training manual or a certification. It was watching real sessions together, then talking about what they saw. Not grading. Not correcting. Just reflecting, noticing, and sharpening. I call this calibration. And in this episode, I’m explaining exactly what it is, why it matters at every stage of your coaching career, and what it means for how you grow from here. Links & Resources: Financial Coaching EssentialsJoin the Facebook groupSign up for emailsKey Takeaways: Knowledge tells you what to do. Judgment tells you when, how, and why. They're not the same skill, and only one of them develops in a live session.Calibration is not learning new information. It's getting more finely tuned in the instincts you already have.You can't see your own misreads. The misreads feel like accurate perception. That's the whole problem. Other eyes in the room are the only way to surface them.The best business development strategy isn't a better content calendar. It's being excellent enough that the people around your clients notice and ask what happened.A technically fine session and a session the client actually remembers are different things. The gap between them is judgment.Community gives you proximity. Calibration gives you precision. They are not the same container.Wherever you are in your coaching journey, the principle is the same: growth doesn't come from more information. It comes from better observation of your clients, yourself, and this craft.

    17 min

  8. MAR 19

    How to Take Feedback

    Getting feedback used to make my chest tighten. I'd spend so much energy trying to live a life where I'd never have to hear that I let someone down or disappointed them. The problem? That's impossible. You will inevitably get feedback as a coach and as a business owner. So you need to get good at it. Not just operationally, but emotionally. This episode walks through the three mindset shifts that change how you receive feedback, plus the actual systems we use at my companies to automate and analyze feedback without it derailing an entire day or week. What’s important to remember is that you get to choose what you think of the feedback you receive. Feedback isn't fact or truth necessarily. It's just an opinion, an observation, or a thought. The choice you make about which feedback gets your energy is entirely up to you. Don’t let one negative comment spiral you out of control while barely registering the positive ones. Instead, appreciate positive reviews and feedback more deeply so you can stay grounded when the negative ones come in. This week, we’re covering how to automate your feedback process so it doesn't hit your inbox unexpectedly, when and how to review it, what questions to ask yourself when analyzing whether to act on it, and why the customer isn't always right. That last one matters more than you think when you're trying to build a sustainable business. If feedback makes your stomach ache or your palms sweat, this episode will help you build the operational and emotional shields you need. Links & Resources: How to Create Buy-in - Free WorkshopJoin the Facebook groupFinancial Coach Academy enrollmentKey Takeaways: You get to choose what you think of the feedback you receive. Feedback isn't fact or truth necessarily; it's just an opinion, observation, or thought. You decide what to make of it.Negative feedback doesn't have to be louder than positive feedback. Which feedback gets your thoughts and energy is entirely up to you. It's your choice.You will get feedback, so you might as well get good at it. Once you accept this is inevitable, your mind shifts from trying to prevent it to learning how to be ready for it operationally and emotionally.Never make changes based on one person's feedback. Note it, but wait to see if others bring up the same thing. Over-tweaking costs you time, money, and business momentum.Ask: Is something wrong, or is this a personal preference? This prevents over-optimizing. Nice-to-have ideas go on a list and get prioritized. Broken things get fixed.Is there merit to this feedback? This softer question makes analysis easier than asking if feedback is "right" or "wrong;” you can find merit in pieces even when the full feedback stings.The customer isn't always right. Sometimes you've already considered what they're asking for and chose not to do it. That's okay. Feedback needs to be weighed against values, resources, and other priorities.

    14 min
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The Financial Coach Academy Podcast is a weekly show for financial coaches and practitioners who believe that doing great work is the best business strategy there is. Hosted by Kelsa Dickey, founder of SpendFirst, Financial Coach Academy, and Money Made Human, each episode explores what it actually takes to build a coaching practice that lasts — from how we show up in sessions to how we think about our businesses. New episodes every Thursday.

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