I Might Tell You A Joke, But I'll Never Tell You ...

... A lie!

Last year this time I was studying to become an Accredited Financial Counselor, I was being considered as a contributor for Forbes, and I wrestled with the idea of calling myself a financial therapist.

Today I have the AFC? credential, recently published an article with Forbes that was broadcasted across their social media platforms on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook - a combined multiple of millions of subscribers/followers - and have settled into the title of financial therapist (bonus points because I'm also Trauma of Money Certified and a candidate for the Financial Therapy Association's Certified Financial Therapist designation).

A lot can change in a year!

I started this newsletter as an inside joke in response to several individuals telling me that I could not call myself a financial therapist and that I was misleading my audience in doing so. Hence the name, not YOUR financial therapist-that is, until you become my client.

Lately I've been considering what financial therapy looks like for me in theory and in practice. How do I untangle my services as a financial counselor (or coach) and make financial therapy more accessible to those who need it? So far, I've landed on a preliminary model that allows me to assign a higher price point to counseling clients and a lower price point to financial therapy clients. Of course, this model attracts higher income earning coaching clients and as a result provides me with a lot of data. See below for an excerpt from my most recent Forbes article titled: "Americans Making $100K Are Still Impacted By Financial Trauma" .

As a financial therapist and financial counselor who works with high income professionals stuck in a paycheck to paycheck cycle the most frequent pain points I see include the following:

• The desire to save, invest, and enjoy leisurely spending;
• A difficult time establishing financial boundaries with friends and family;
• No formal budgeting system or strategy;
• A desire to build community.

This data has been invaluable to me in recognizing a neglected niche within a niche and repositioning my services to isolate pain points and provide solutions just in time for the celebratory Financial Literacy Month in April and Mental Health Awareness Month in May.

If you're reading this then you're likely someone in my target audience, a colleague, a friend, or all of the above.

If you believe that the work I'm doing is important work and that I can potentially improve the quality of someone's relationship with their money please help that individual, organization, or corporation by connecting me with them via email.

If you are a marketing manager, an ERG lead, a manager of partnerships, or adjacent to a decision maker who can put me in front of people, please connect with me via DM or email.

I'm always booking for speaking engagements but I'm especially interested in helping as many organizations as I can during the months of April and May.

I'll include my contact information for intros and a speaker request for info form link below:

Email: [email protected]

Speaker Request Form: Click HERE