The Financial Coach Academy® Podcast

Hosted by Kelsa Dickey

Business Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

192

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

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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60 recent

June 15, 202632 min

Why Conference Fears Are Actually Reasons Financial Coaches Should Attend (with Philip Taylor)

Every year the same hesitations come up when I talk to coaches about conferences:I won't know anyone. It's too expensive. I'm not far enough along. I don't have time. I can probably learn all of it online anyway.This week I'm replaying my conversation with Philip Taylor, CPA, entrepreneur, and founder of FinCon, with a fresh intro and outro for FinCon 2026. Philip has watched thousands of financial professionals walk through those exact hesitations, and we work through all five of them together.What we land on is something I come back to every year: the fears that keep you home are usually pointing straight at the growth you're looking for. Philip walks through how he got past each one, from joining the online community before he arrived, to going in with a clear mission so the cost made sense, to finding the other people in the room who felt just as new as he did.I also share why I still attend conferences after nearly two decades of building a financial coaching practice, and why FinCon is the one I keep coming back to.FinCon 2026 is September 16 through 18 in Palm Springs, CA. Registration is open at finconexpo.com. Use code KELSA50 for $50 off. If you caught last week's episode on how to prepare for a conference, this one pairs with it.

June 11, 202633 min

156. How to Prepare for a Conference (So You Don't Waste $4,000)

Someone on Reddit spent more than $4,000 on a conference and came home with six business cards on their desk and nothing else. No meetings booked, no follow-up calls scheduled, no real conversations. They did all the things people tell you to do: They worked the expo floor, sat through the sessions, showed up to the networking cocktail hour. And they still felt like they had lit that money on fire.Their question was simple, and it is one I hear from coaches all the time: What do you actually do before a conference to make it worth going?In this episode, I walk through exactly how I prepare so a conference earns its cost. I talk about who to reach out to before you go and how to do it so people actually respond, what to focus on once you are there, and the part most people skip entirely, which is the follow-up that turns a hallway conversation into a real relationship.I also share the one number I use to know whether a conference was worth it, why three to five people is the right size for your list, and the permission slip most people need to hear about skipping sessions. Whether you are going to FinCon, AFCPE, or any professional event this year, this one is practical enough to put to work right away.FinCon 2026 is September 16-18 in Palm Springs. Registration is open at https://finconexpo.com, and code KELSA50 gets you $50 off.Links & ResourcesFinCon 2026 (use code KELSA50 for $50 off)Episode 154: The One Question That Simplifies Every Business DecisionEpisode 122: Interview with Philip Taylor, FinCon founder

June 4, 202629 min

155. How to Connect With People Who Need You (When You Feel Like You've Tried Everything)

A few weeks ago, an email came across my desk from a financial coach who said she'd never struggled this much to make something work. She'd been posting consistently, running webinars, building a community, and getting engagement on every post.And she had zero coaching clients and six months of runway left. Her friends and family were telling her there wasn't a market for financial coaching and she should go back to her corporate job.We got on a call. The session went deeper than tactics like "post more on LinkedIn" or "change your niche." She wasn't solving the wrong problem with her business. She was solving the wrong problem in her business.In this episode, I walk through the five principles that came out of the session. These are lenses, not tactics, for thinking about your business when you feel stuck. I cover why "I've tried everything" usually means you're solving the wrong problem, the difference between being seen and being known for something specific, what it takes to commit to one platform long enough for it to work, why your past clients are the most underused roadmap you have, and the difference between creating content and creating demand.I close with the three questions to sit with this week if you're in that stuck place yourself. If you've ever felt like you've tried everything and nothing is working, this is the episode for you.Resources & LinksEpisode 154: The Three-Lens FrameworkEpisode 153: The Four-Stage Client JourneyThe Builder

May 28, 202617 min

154. The One Question That Simplifies Every Business Decision

Every business decision you make has three stakeholders, and most coaches only think about one or two of them. That's usually why the decisions feel so hard.Pricing, marketing, who to hire, what to say yes to, what to say no to. If you've been going back and forth on a decision for weeks (or months), the problem is rarely the decision itself. It's that you don't have a clear way to think about it.In this episode, I teach you the Three Lens Framework, the thinking tool I use for every business decision I make. I walk through why business decisions feel overwhelming when you're missing one of the lenses, break down what each lens is asking you to consider, and then show you how the whole thing works using a real question I get all the time from coaches: "Should I list my prices on my website?"There's no universal right answer to that question. But there is a right answer for you, and the framework will help you find it.The Three-Lens Framework is also the backbone of The Builder, a free course that walks you through eight foundational business decisions every coach has to make.Links & ResourcesThe Builder (free course)Episode 84: Interview with Haley and Justin Price of Avocado ToastFinancial Coaching Essentials

May 21, 202625 min

What You Need (and Don't Need) to Be a Financial Coach

If you've been thinking about starting a financial coaching practice, there’s probably a list running in the back of your mind. The certification you should probably get. The website you need to build. The LLC you think you're supposed to file. The handful of topics you still need to master before you'd feel ready to call yourself an expert.I had that same list almost two decades ago, when I was still working in corporate America and trying to figure out how to make the leap. I spent so much of that first year bootstrapping and second-guessing, and looking back, a lot of what I thought I needed was actually getting in my way.In this episode, I'm walking through what's really on that list once you strip out the things you can stop worrying about. Some of it might surprise you. Some of it might be the permission you've been waiting for. And some of it might shift what you focus on this week, this month, or for the rest of the year.If you've been circling the question of what it takes to get started, this is the conversation I'd want you to hear first.Links & ResourcesThe Builder (launching Memorial Day weekend)Financial Coaching EssentialsNolo.com

May 14, 202620 min

153. The 4-Stage Client Journey Every Financial Coach Needs to See

Every client you work with moves through a journey. The situations are always different, but the stages are remarkably consistent. I’ve watched them unfold across hundreds of clients over nearly two decades, and at some point I started giving them language.In this episode, I walk through the four stages I see every client move through when they start working on their money: See Clearly, Stand Firm, Own It, and Build Forward. I talk about what the client is experiencing at each stage, what they actually need from you (which is often different from what you want to give them), and the coaching mistakes that happen when you’re doing the right work at the wrong time.This episode connects to the SpendFirst™ methodology, but the pattern applies regardless of what system you use. Once you see it, you’ll coach differently.Resources mentioned: Episode 27: The four Stages Framework

May 7, 202616 min

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 Goals

April 30, 202615 min

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.

April 23, 20261 hr 22 min

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 MentionedMoney Made Human Peer Advisory GroupYNAB

April 16, 2026Episode 14922 min

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.