How To Become A Financial Coach Without Certifications

Foreign hello and welcome. My name is Denzel Rodriguez, your personal finance geek of the 21st century. And in today's video, we're just simply going to discuss how to become a financial coach without any certifications. I want to share with you my quick story, my results, what that has looked like, looked like over the last four years, since 2018, now recording this video in 2022 and how you can maybe take this path if you are looking into whether it's becoming a financial coach, a consultant, a strategist, or maybe you have a service around finances, right? You provide a particular financial service and you want to be able to add some additional value to your practice. And, and so you figure maybe adding some financial coaching to your practice might really bring a ton of value to your clientele. So without any further ado, let's take a look at the board. So with the power of social media, we're in the age of information. Becoming a financial coach without any certifications is extremely possible and in many cases the better pathway compared to investing a ton of money up front to hope and pray that that certification lands you clients instantaneously because you spent all this money, thousands of dollars, to get that certification and you're supposed to just magically get clients. And that is simply not the case with the consumer of the 21st century today. It's just simply not the case. So some alternatives terms, the pathway that I took, I'm now 26 years old, but I started my path at around 18, 19 and it wasn't until 22 years old until I went full force as a financial consultant. Slash coach is what I pretty much call myself. And now my branding is, listen, I'm just your finance geek, right? Your local finance geek helping you out. So some alternatives is attending financial and business events on building and growing a business or financial events that cater to, to financial coaches, consultants, insurance agents, advisors, right, that maybe can benefit you in terms of the networking, the speakers, potential collaboration opportunities which can lead to joining or be a part of mastermind communities where you can actually engage with other successful multiple, say six figure, seven figure, financial coaches, consultants, advisors. Right, let's just say that's the case. Okay, cool. Well, in my opinion, I would rather learn directly from someone, be their, you know, their mentee, right? Have someone mentor me, have someone like I would rather pay someone directly for coaching on how they specifically built their whole entire coaching practice. That to me is more valuable than, than some certification like a paper that says you're certified.

Right?

It's kind of like going to College for four years, right? To study something, to become something. But you actually have no experience doing that something until you actually get in the field.

Right?

And so in many cases certifications, it's like going to college to become something. But just because you got the certification don't mean you is that something until you go what? Get in the field and actually work with people one to one, actually sell clients, market to clients, promote your products and services, you know, generate sales and revenue, manage an operation, have automated follow up systems, have a course, have a program, have an event, talk to people one to one, have multiple hours of communicating with people, generating results. None of that starts while you're getting your certification, right? Most of the time there might be some programs out there where they encourage you to, you know, get out there, like let's go, like get this thing running before getting the certification.

Right.

But the ones that I've seen, most of the ones that I've seen, it's just a simple general template layout of videos and maybe some zoom calls, maybe some in person events. You have to put all this time, money and effort into it, then you get the certification, then you're supposed to have clients knocking on your door and that's just not the case.

Right.

So coming back to the board, some alternatives, again, attending those financial events, investing in networking with people, which then could potentially lead to mastermind communities or joining some courses or programs that aren't say accredited or they don't give a certification. But it's a course or program on how to, how to operate your financial coaching practice, how to actually grow a business, run an operation, learn the tools and resources needed to run your operations on the back end that can, that you can automate to create more time, freedom to be a more effective coach.

Right.

So there's, there's a difference between a financial coaching certification program, but versus a course or program that is catered to say financial coaches. For example, there's a community called the Financial Coaches Unite group. They're on Facebook, you can look that up. Amazing group. The leader there, Kelsey, is amazing. I'm a part of that group. I'm not invested in any of her programs. But she has a free community for all financial coaches where they can like bounce ideas, make posts, give feedback, receive feedback, and then she does some free zoom calls, I think once or twice a month.

Right.

Her program is not a certification. Right. She has this thing called the Financial Coaching Academy. She's got a mastermind, she's got these blueprints.

Okay.

So she's providing resources Tools and a community on how to grow your financial coaching business, how to market, how to sell, how to present, how to speak, how to, you know, get on social media. I mean, the list goes on all the different financial coaching philosophies in terms of how do you have a conversation, how do you take someone from financially being illiterate to financially literate to financially independent to financial free freedom and wealth and legacy creation from multiple generations.

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Like those conversations don't typically exist in the financial certification programs.

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So that would be an example of a course program not accredited. There's no certification at the end, there's no award. It's just here's how you run a financial coaching practice business. Okay, cool. A financial certification would be like a Dave Ramsey Financial Master Coach Training Program or the Christian Kingdom Advisors. Right. Cka, I believe for sure. So Christian Kingdom Advisors or you have the accredited financial certification program. I think it's the AF cpe, something like that. Accredited Financial Counselor or something like that. Then there's the, the National Financial Education Council, nfec, I believe.

Right.

So I'll go ahead. In the comment sections, I'll put some of the links of those different certification programs. You can see the pricing. They're typically high ticket, multiple thousands of dollars, something like the Financial coaches unite group. 200, 300 or so bucks a month for six months, I think minimal commitment. And then afterwards you can cancel at any time. So you, you obtain the information that they provide and then you go apply it. Regardless of your experience, attain the information, go apply it versus certification. I have to go through the program, spend the thousands of dollars, typically higher ticket programs, go through it all to then receive the certification and, and then that's it, it's over.

Right.

And then you've gotta maintain your certification. There's renewal fees, there's maybe virtual or in person events that that certification founder, the host, let's say it's Dave Ramsey or if it's a bigger organization, they'll have these annual conferences or events that you have to go to to have what's called continuing education hours to maintain that certification. So after spending so many thousands of dollars, now you gotta maintain it or else you can lose it.

Right.

So kind of tough when you're a struggling entrepreneur, when you don't know a whole lot about how to run a business, how to sell, how to market when you're on a budget.

Right.

It's a big upfront investment for a startup business that you really gotta ponder and ask yourself, is it actually worth it? You Know, talk to someone who has the certifications. I've spoken to people in the different certifications programs that I've mentioned. The Dave Ramsey 1, the NFEC 1, the AFRCPE 1, and the Christian Kingdom Advisors. Actually, I'm a liar. I've not spoken to anyone at Christian Kingdom Advisors yet. But I have reached out to set up a phone call with someone. And of the certified, quote unquote, certified financial coaches that I've spoken to, they told me, Denzel, you don't need it.

You don't need it, right?

You have a following. You have, you know, a windfall of leads coming in. You're running an operation, you don't need it. I said, great, thanks, appreciate that. You know, I like the transparency. So as a new financial coach, for those who are watching, you're aspiring to be a financial coach consultant, right? Really evaluate the long term value of that certification if it's actually going to help you land business clients, new leads, referrals, right? It may not. It just might be a pretty piece of paper right at the end of the day versus someone that actually knows how to run an operation, how to follow up with a lead, right. How to nurture them through the process to the sale. How to then have them book that first call with you, have it completely automated. How to have them send all their numbers to you in advance before you even get on a phone call with them. So you can maximize that that hour phone call or that or however long that session is. A lot of details in there that is not discussed in the certifications program. It's more so like for example, when I went through the financial Master certification with Dave Ramsey, I did it just to do it honestly. And the other reason why I did it at 26 years old, right. So this is four years in, right. Of running my business. Multiple six figures already crossed, seven figures in revenue total. Only reason why I did it was so that I could communicate more effectively to my potential customers and clients that were coming from the Dave Ramsey mindset, right. They're coming from a philosophy that they are coming to the point where they, they've mastered it and they're looking for new ideas, new concepts, or they've gone through it, did not receive good results and now they're looking for something new. They're looking to drop that philosophy and come to anew. So I need to be able to communicate with that, that person and meet them where they're at and then bring them to the philosophies and ideas and concepts that I'm Teaching over here, which can be, say, a conflict. And so instead of it being a conflict, it's a conversation, it's a dialogue, it's providing full, honest transparency the whole way through. So that's the only reason why I got that. And I looked at long term value that I was like, you know what, that's going to be worth it long term, it's gonna be worth for me to have that. So it made sense there. Okay, cool. But that's after what, seven figures that I got that certification. And when I went through the program, all they were doing was getting me to conform to their philosophy, to their ideas as to how I should be a financial coach. They were, they were really imposing, enforcing, so to speak, their laws of financial coaching. As scripture, if you don't do it this way, you're an idiot. If you don't do it this way, you're stupid. If you tell your client to use a credit card to spend a bit, you're stupid. I can't tell you how many times the word stupid was used in a course, right? And so my experience getting involved with certifications, the other one that I enrolled in was the NF EC1. Again, another program where it's like you're, you're just showing me these philosophies or say one mindset, one philosophy, one way of doing things that has nothing to do with all the things that I want to share, that has nothing to do with how to run and operate a business, how to hire, how to fire, how to deal with bad clients, good clients, how to retain clients, long term value of a client, how to upsell down, sell, how to resell, right? How to retain, how to deal with a conflict of a misunderstanding between emails of a client. Let's say you send something out, you didn't mean to send it to them. Or let's say you meant to do something, you dropped the ball, you didn't do it, or you tell a client to do something, they don't do it, and now they're in a hole because they didn't listen to your quote unquote advice, right? They didn't listen to your coaching. How do you deal with that? None of that is discussed in these certification programs for as far as I'm concerned. Again, another example, the financial Coaches Unite Financial Coaching Academy. Those conversations are discussed, those insights, feedbacks from many of are, you know, transparent dialogue, conversation, right? So really, you really got to choose. Do it. Do I spend five, ten grand on a certification I gotta maintain and sustain and go through all These continuing education hours that, you know, in my opinion, cuts time into me actually serving people. I gotta, I gotta do this continuing education stuff, right? Versus going and serving clients day in and day out, building a practice, a practice that can sustain itself in good times, bad times, stagnant times.

Right?

And that increases my performance because now I'm not a struggling entrepreneur. Now I'm not a struggling financial coach giving guidance to clients. Meanwhile, I'm struggling making a dollar. I, I didn't want to be that type of coach. So coming back to the board here, these are the alternatives that I did myself all before 22 and leading up to 26 and during this whole time, again, zero certifications, zero experience prior to starting.

Right.

Zero contacts, leads, zero credibility, zero. Been able to generate over $1.3 million in revenue in a four year timeframe. Not too many coaches can say that. All right, so if you're a struggling financial coach, been coaching for five years, and you only make 50 grand a year, 60, 70 grand a year.

Right?

Let's have a conversation. Let's figure out, hey man, how can I think more differently in the 21st century? The customer has become more educated in the last few years with the power of social media and the amount of information that is available to them today. You got to be able to up your niche, you got to be able to up your value, you got to be able to think outside the box to attract these new customers who, who are coming in with many different philosophies. And you got to be able to, you know, step into their world, meet them where they're at, and then when the session is over, you go back into your world, they're in their world, and you do with the next client over and over again, right? There's three questions that I ask I think is important from a spiritual component and also just logically. So the spiritual side of it, the faith side of it, I would say is what is God's will for your life? If you're looking to become a financial coach because you want to make a ton of money, don't know if this is the right thing for you. What is God's will for your life? Have you asked that question? What is my purpose? Why am I here on planet Earth? What am I here to do with the time that I've been given? What is that? You can ask that spiritually, faith wise, you can look at it logically. Logically, the second question, why? What are your skills, gifts and talents? Logically, do you have a knack for finance and Strategies, concepts, like, is it in you?

Right?

Do you have the skill of money? Is that a gift? Can you just talk about finances? Naturally, there's just, you know, you could talk all day about it with people and how to improve their finance. You could do it for free, right? Not that you should, but you could and you may and you probably will. You most likely will. I know I did. When I first started out, I literally led with giving. That's a gem. I can give you. I led with giving. In my first year, I raised over a hundred grand. Most financial coaches don't do over 100 grand in their first year. And there was selling. I was not selling in my first year. I literally was giving, giving, giving, giving and asking for return, asking, can you give as I gave to you? Could you love as I loved you? And people said yes. You changed my life. You helped me save over 10,000 plus dollars in interest in the first six months. You helped me pay off over 50 grand. You helped me pay off over a hundred thousand, over 200,000, over 300,000 in debt in the first one year, two year, absolutely. Here, here, here. Amazing experience working with people. People double, nearly triple my age again, I'm a kid still to this day, 26 years old, I'm still a kid. No, no certification, no credibility, right? Zero experience, starting at, you know, 22. Now I got some experience of four years under my belt. Think I know a thing or two, right? Or else I wouldn't be talking to you. But I have the confidence, I have the authority given by my father, my creator in heaven. And so I confidently, with authorization, authentically share my message and deliver the value to the people that need and want and desire to change their financial situation, right? Third question here is simply, do you have a desire to teach? I mean, you got to have a fire in you to want to teach. You got to be fired up when it comes to teaching, right? Like, you need to do it so that you know how to teach it. That's, that's first and foremost. You got to be able to do the thing that you're telling your clients to do. So you're, you're walking the walk, not just talking the talk, right? But in addition, like, you have to have a burning desire. Like it fires you, fire you up, right? You, you can't even talk straight at certain times. You get so excited, you get boiled up inside, you get hot, you get sweaty on the inside, you get a cold sweat. Oh my goodness, you just want to do backflips. You want to, you Feel like you can, you can go to the highest limits, right? I don't even know what I'm saying. I get up, I get so excited about financial coaching, being a financial consultant, I deliver that energy to my clients. And by the way, I'm a soft spoken kind of guy. So even for my introverts, even for my quiet people, even for my shy people, there is a way for my shy people, my introverts, because I'm shy, I'm introverted, right? It's just, I'm introverted. That's, that's me. Sometimes I don't have the capacity to, to yell, right? I don't want to yell. I just want to talk normal to you. I just want to have a conversation. I want to change your life so you can express yourself in a lower tone voice if that is how you operate naturally. You don't, you don't yell and you don't just. And blurt out a bunch of things. Because I know that when I yell, I can't think straight. Like when I start yelling and I start getting excited, overly excited, I try to make a point, I try to teach them. I literally, the ideas fall out of my mind. But when I, when I bring it down to a lower, comfortable level where I can speak directly into someone's heart, I mean, the words just flow through me, through my creator, through Holy Spirit, working through my vocal cords to deliver the exact words that you need to hear that's going to explode inside of your heart to cause you to take massive action, to achieve financial freedom so that you can be an abundant, cheerful giver, so that you can serve your creator, so that money is not a master over you and you're a master over it. I mean, the ideas just become clear. I see I'm centered, focused, I'm aligned, I can, I'm looking at my client eye to eye. Although I'm on the phone, they can feel me in the room, in their kitchen, room, in the dining room table. They can feel me, right? In the presence of the Holy Spirit is with them where two or more are gathered, right? I'm on the phone call with them, on the zoom with them. They are fired up. They feel that energy, that energy transcends and they're able to comprehend what the Father has for them. On the spiritual component, on the logical component, they just see the financial situation that they're in and they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The ideas, they just flow. They just flow, right? So you want to ask yourself those three questions, right? What's God's will for your life? What are your skills, gifts and talents? Do you have a desire to teach? Yes, yes, yes.

Right.

You can answer these things clearly, right? And then these are the alternative actions that you can take. In addition, I want to provide you with an alternative action. I'm hosting a two day virtual event.

Okay.

This is exclusive for those who want to become financial coaches, consultants. You are aspiring to be one. You already are one. You're struggling to generate revenue, you're struggling to reach new clients, to get new leads, to build up your confidence. We're going to Discuss all that two day virtual conference, October 14th from 8 to 10pm Eastern time. This will go over more than likely. And then October 15, Saturday from 10am to 12:30, most likely will go over. Just depends on how many people show up. And this isn't going to be one of those events where I do all the talking, okay? Where. And it's not going to be one of those events where you just hear a bunch of speakers give their story and how they did it and da, da, da, no, no, no, I want to hear you talk.

Right?

So those that enroll, there's going to be opportunities throughout the two days where I'm bringing you on stage to speak. What are your questions? What exactly are you struggling with and what is the next two, three action steps that you need to take to move forward in your business? Because it might just be a little tweak that you need to make, right. A beneficial mutual relationship that you need to. And you need to create a collaboration here, a tweak in your automation system or you need to implement an automation system in terms of how people book calls with you, how do people schedule, how do people follow up with you, right? How you communicate between clients back and forth.

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So that's, that's what will be discussed here. And this is super entry level, 97 bucks, one time, small investment. You can write that off in your business, right? And ideally I am communicating again. Coaches, consultants, insurance agents, CPAs, real estate agents, pastors, network marketers, people who are involved in finance to some capacity. Like one of the services that you provide is say a financial service, right? Or some kind of product. And you're looking to add financial coaching to your practice because that would help you generate more sales in that product or service. Say, for example, you're a life insurance agent. And so you're having continuous meetings with clients, potential clients, and they're not converting the clients because why? They either can't afford the product or they don't know enough about the product to make a decision. Well, most of the time they simply cannot afford it or they don't know how to make sense of parting with their dollars to obtain that product that you presented to them. So instead of that potential client that you spent two hours on presenting or an hour presenting in their home or via Zoom or over the phone call, right. Or in person over breakfast, lunch, to retain that client, you say, hey, I get it, you're not ready to obtain this life insurance product. I want to put this over to the side. I'd like to discuss with you how we can improve your financial situation and then maybe we can revisit that life insurance product. Would you be open to potentially changing your entire financial picture where we can map out an entire debt freedom plan, an entire strategy to be a better investor, to look at cash flow opportunities, income producing activities, to get an alignment in your household with husband and wife to make sure you guys are in alignment, maximizing and being efficient with every single dollar that comes in. They'd be like, yes, I need that. Yeah, we're in a ton of debt right now. You know, the life insurance, it's great. I want it, I just, I can't afford it right now. Wife and I are, we're struggling, trying to pay off our cars, student loans, house, the kids, debts. Okay. I have, I have a whole strategy for that we can work with. I can work with you on this, right. And you can negotiate and map out, you know, pricing and that's a whole nother service, you know, same for CPAs, real estate agents. Are you selling a home to someone?

Right.

They can't afford the home. So that's a lead that goes dead instead of that lead going down. Say, hey, I want to help you make sense of affording this home, whether it's this one or the next one. Okay. Buying a home, you're not ready to buy a home. Let's put that off to the side and let's discuss your financial situation. I want to make sure I'm not putting you in something you can't afford and then years later you're in foreclosure and I made my commissions. No, I don't want to be that kind of real estate agent. So this is a great way to really separate yourself from the crowd and provide additional services on top of your financial coaching practice or adding financial coaching to your practice.

Right.

So we'll discuss that too. I'm going to take some time to really go through my entire process.

Right.

I'm going to provide content in advance. And afterwards during the event, right? You'll have access to the recording. Once it's all done, I'll edit, make it all pretty and whatnot, and then it's boom. It's there for my clients, my existing clients that want to become a financial coach without any certifications, right? Or maybe you already have one, but it's not helping you. And so you're looking for some alternative moves here to improve your practice. If you are already a client of mine, you will be invited to this event completely free, no obligation, right? I'll comp that for you. So you'll get an email from me just inviting you to this event. Again, you don't have to pay. Although if you want to, you want to give or you want to buy it for someone, hey, 97 bucks, nothing crazy. As a business owner, you write that off. Nothing crazy, right? I'm not a guru in this space, so I'm not, you know, charging a high ticket item for this. I'm not looking to, you know, create a whole profitable business out of this. I don't know what, what it might lead to. I just know that lately of the hundreds, thousands of people I've worked so far, I've had many of my clients ask me, hey, can you teach me how to do what, what you do? And so I just worked with them one to one, but never really made any content, never really showed anybody my problem process. And then come to find out when I started getting involved with other financial coaching communities, I also noticed this, this, there's a lack in terms of the, the process, the operations, the automations, the follow up systems that are involved in actually putting this together. And then there also seems to be this, this weird mentality of financial coaches not doing, being able to have any other services that they could make money from and present that to their clients. For example, I am a financial coach consultant, I'm a strategist. So people hire me for one to one coaching and consulting on their financial situation to either help them get out of debt, usually most of the cases is pay down, pay off certain debts, bad debts, and then after building that strong relationship, they then say, denzel, I'd like to get some life insurance. Okay, great. Well, it just so happens I'm also licensed. So as a financial coach and consultant, I also made an investment in myself and actually got a license. License is different from a certification. Certification just says, hey, you know how to do this thing. But a license says you have the authority to provide a specific service and receive Commissions for that service and be paid.

Right.

You're registered with the state, all that good stuff. So as a licensed insurance agent, I can provide a life insurance product to my existing clients. So I've got the first tier. I just sold them a coaching program. I walk them through their finances, create a budget. We become more personally disciplined with our money. We get in alignment. The household's in alignment. They're paying down crazy amount of debt. They're increasing cash flow, they're increasing their income. And they come back and they say, I'm ready for a life insurance policy. Boom, provided. So that's a second tier service.

Right.

So I got paid once, paid twice, Right. Then they're like, denzel, I need some health insurance. I want to, you know, I've been paying crazy amount for health insurance, and I'm thinking I could save money, got my health insurance license. Here are some options. They already trusted me with the financial coaching and consulting part. Then they trusted me with the life insurance. You don't think they're going to trust me to get a health insurance policy? I can direct them to save money on their health insurance and maybe even get more for less. One, two, three. And then they're like, denzel, we've had a great relationship. We're able to pay off so much debt. The stress levels in my house have decreased dramatically. Wife and I are on the same page when it comes to money. I mean, she is. You know, we're working out, we're losing weight, we're eating better. Oh, oh, you're eating better. Oh, so you want to improve your health? Yeah. You got any tips? Well, I know a doctor, I know a nutritionist that you can take a methylation detox test to really see the genetic readings down to a DNA and a cellular level as to what nutrients are entering your body and which ones are not being processed. Right. Because of what you got from mom and dad, your genetics. So you're not able to process B12 correctly or vitamin C or D or certain nutrient or proteins correctly because you have a genetic, say, defect. And so you need a certain other nutrient or protein to accelerate that process so your body can properly process the nutrients that it needs to operate effectively. And if you're operating effectively in your life, aren't you going to perform better at work and potentially get that raise much faster? And won't that have a direct correlation to your income? We're stacking the services. I don't know why coaches are against this in the financial coaching space. Like, there's. There's like this is unethical. I don't know. I've seen the posts and the comments and the videos about it. I'm just like, I've got like 20 different referral, referral agreements, affiliate relationships that I have with other business owners that help my clients. And I go from providing financial coaching, which is one tier, one service, right? For that one click. My flagship, my main coaching program is 3,497 in 2022. As I record this video, it's a seven year coaching service. So that's one time that they pay 34.97 and they never have to pay me another dollar again for financial coaching. They have access me one to one for the next seven years and even after that I'm not even going to charge them again. Been working with you for seven years. You're probably going to invite me to the kids wedding, right? So at that point in those seven years I've got all these affiliate and referral agreements with other businesses, other products and services and they simply ask me, hey, who do you use for this? Who do you use for that? Who do you use for this? Who do you. Well, I made a ton of money working with this guy and this lady made me a ton of money and this guy helped me save a ton of money and this guy showed me how to invest better. I just point them and then that person gives me a referral fee or commission split for the product or service. So that client went from 3,497 to a total long term value of the client being about 20 grand. Coming from one family. $20,000 of revenue from one family, times that by 50 families a year. How much is that? I don't know. Do the math. 20 times 50 out of zero. My goodness, that's not bad. So I want to be able to discuss this with you guys. Two day virtual event, right? Let's discuss ideas, let's comment, let's provide feedback. I'm gonna create a community around this for sure because I'm at a point now where I've been helping thousands of people, one to one and one to many in group settings, different communities. But I've also been getting clients that want to literally do what I do and I want to show them how to do it, Create the content, provide the resources and the tools, Black and white strategy, here's how you get it done and we're gonna have some fun in the process, right? The other thing I love about financial coaching without certifications is the humongous flexibility that comes with it. There's a lot of flexibility. You can say you're really free to share as much as you want to share about finances, whether it's investing and saving.