Hi Brooke,

I’m a CFP and Certified Coach and have really wanted to pivot my business from traditional planning work to helping women save more and take productive action with their money using many of the coaching tools you provide with over eating and drinking, but applying them to their financial life.

My issue is that whenever I try to do that, I feel like I get feedback that that’s not what people want. That they actually don’t care about their money behavior and are not interested in understanding their thoughts about money and just want someone to tell them what to do.

For example, I just had two separate speaking engagements – one at an entrepreneurs conference and one at a corporation – where I spoke about how to have a healthy relationship with money, manage money stress, practice delaying immediate gratification so they can reach long term goals, etc. My talks were advertised as such, with a focus on Money behavior and mindset, and not on Financial planning, so I thought that’s the audience I would attract.

But at the end of both presentations, all the questions I got from the audience were technical and advice driven: e,g. People wanted to know what they should do about this or that account, if they should buy long term care insurance, how much money they should put aside for a new house, etc. I didn’t get one question related to their thoughts or what they can do if they find it difficult to consistently save or earn more, etc. (total number of people there was about 150).

I am making this mean that there is not a market for money coaching and that clients just want a CFP. This thought is making me stuck in confusion.

At this point, I’m not sure if I just need to do a better job of finding my target market. That this group just wasn’t filled with my clients and that’s ok. I just need to do a better job of finding where they are.

Or do you think it’s market research telling me that that’s what people are really looking for when it comes to money help. They don’t care about the thought work and just want someone to tell them what to do?

Thanks!