Building Financial Confidence with a Coach

Jessica Quindlen: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Sound Cents podcast. I'm Jessica Quindlen. Today we're discussing financial confidence with a financial coach. I have with us today, Emma Protsik, our Financial Coaching Supervisor. Hello, Emma.

Emma Protsik: How's it going Jess?

Jessica Quindlen: It's good. Thank you. And we have a new guest with us today, Austin Brownell, our Financial Coaching Specialist. Hello, Austin.

Austin Brownell: Hello. How are you doing?

Jessica Quindlen: I'm fantastic. How are you?

Austin Brownell: Good. It’s good to be here today.

Jessica Quindlen: Yes. I'm so excited to have you. All right, Emma, let's dive right in. Why is building financial confidence important and how can a financial coach help with that?

Emma Protsik: Yeah, so I think no matter where you're at in your financial journey, financial confidence and kind of those skills are something you need to flex and practice.

Because the more confident you feel in your decisions, when you have the education, you understand the different resources that are available to you, the better decisions you can make to help you achieve your different goals. And a financial coach is your unbiased sounding board to talk through those different things.

Jessica Quindlen: I think another thing that's great with a coach is they're not only unbiased, but they're not a friend, [00:01:00] a family member who feels like, almost like a therapist where there's no judgment because they're this unbiased third party.

Austin, we've dove into this already, but what exactly is a financial coach? And how does that differ from other financial professionals and educators and other organizations?

Austin Brownell: Yeah, great question, Jess. So as a financial coach, we provide guidance and education on topics such as budgeting, savings, debt repayment and credit.

So, we are not there to tell people what to do with their finances, but give them ideas of ways that they can better their financial situation. We are not there to provide tax advice, legal, or investment advice. So those need to be licensed professionals for those types of topics.

Jessica Quindlen: And certainly, it can be guided in that direction, but that's not what we're here to do.

Austin Brownell: Exactly.

Jessica Quindlen: Yes. So how does a financial coach help someone who's just starting their financial journey, whether they're very young or they've just blindly been existing and are now looking to actually focus on finances?

Emma Protsik: So, what I absolutely love about financial coaching is [00:02:00] we take a future focus. We talk a lot about your goals, those new behaviors that you want to implement, but we need to figure out where you started from, of course.

Typically, that looks like a review. So, you have a conversation with your financial coach. You'll tell them your story with finances, what you're going through currently, if this is something that's new or you've experienced for a while, what's coming down the road. And then from there, just using different tools, whether that's budgeting or maybe looking into your credit report, just gathering that information.

And then taking that, working with you to develop that action plan so that you can achieve all the things that you want to financially.

Jessica Quindlen: Great. How do coaches help people feel more confident about their finances?

Austin Brownell: We help them create those action plans and then the end goal is allowing them to make their own decisions and plans for the future and allowing them to make those budgeting decisions on their own, without our help. So, that's the end goal with that is that we give them the [00:03:00] tools so that they can succeed with their finances on their own when those situations pop up in the future.

Jessica Quindlen: I love that. So, the end goal is almost, we want them to come back and work on their finances, but we want them to be able to not come back and handle it on their own, which I love.

So you both are coaches. Yes. And obviously you're both the supervisor and specialist, so you work with all of our coaches. Can you share some examples of how coaching has made a difference for our members or non-members?

Emma Protsik: Jess, how much time do you have? We have endless stories.

Jessica Quindlen: Fair. Can we have at least one or two?

Emma Protsik: Absolutely. I think one of my all-time favorites was one of our financial coaches was working with a member who was trying to get approved for an apartment, finding a place to live. And we know life happens, so things like credit score, savings, they might start to decline as different situations arise. But this landlord was willing to work with this individual because she was meeting with a financial coach. So getting that budget into place that education, then the landlord was comfortable allowing them to move into this home.

So that's one of my favorite stories, but I think [00:04:00] with financial coaching we have a lot of great stories. When it comes to financial coaching, we are able to help those that are going through something currently with finances.

If you're struggling with rent, being approved for loan products that you might need, but we're also there to help prepare. So even if you're getting ready to maybe get your first job or move into college. Some of my favorite sessions that I've had with individuals, are a little bit more just educational. “Hey, here's some different ways you can maybe go about budgeting just to get you off on the right foot.”

Jessica Quindlen: I love that. That's fantastic. I also think it's so fantastic that our coaches, they're not just employees of Ent to know about finances because we work for a financial institution. These are trained, certified coaches who have done the work to really make sure that they are providing the best for each individual person because finances are so individual. We all have different journeys, different backgrounds, different education, debt, et cetera. Some of us are a triple income household, some of us are not.

Emma Protsik: And we're here to meet you wherever you're at.

Jessica Quindlen: Yes. Oh, I love that. All right. What should someone do if they're interested in working [00:05:00] with a financial coach?

Austin Brownell: Yeah. Great question. So, the first place to start with this is Ent.com/Coaching. We have virtual options, and we also have in person sessions at most service centers. The website will break down based on the area that you live in and the centers that have coaches in those particular areas. Then, you can schedule a session and get started there.

Jessica Quindlen: Fantastic. And typically, an intro session, are these 30 minutes, hour a couple hours?

Austin Brownell: Yeah, so usually it's about an hour. However, if it takes less time, that is okay. And if it takes more time, that is perfectly fine too.

Jessica Quindlen: Great. And what should someone prepare maybe to make the most of that hour? What should they bring or be prepared to discuss? Obviously, money, but really breaking down what would be helpful for the coach?

Austin Brownell: Yeah, absolutely. It depends on the situation. If they are coming in talking about budgeting, we have an Excel sheet that we send out to just get some preliminary information as to where they are spending their money in certain categories, as far [00:06:00] as maybe rent, utilities, groceries, just getting as much information as possible We have them bring in their statements, so then we can dive deeper into those certain categories and figure out what categories we need to add to and which ones we need to take away from.

Jessica Quindlen: That's fantastic. And then I'm guessing if it's debt repayment, being comfortable with coming in this these are my cards or my house or my car, et cetera.

Emma Protsik: Yeah. We'll need information, interest rates, all that stuff.

Jessica Quindlen: Great. All right. So this may seem like an obvious question, but how can our listeners take that next step to build their financial confidence in 2025?

Emma Protsik: Ooh, I think my challenge for you in 2025 to help build that financial confidence is do the thing that you have been putting off. So, whether that's opening the credit card statement, or really looking at those expenses and getting that budget in place.

Just take that first step for it. It's always good to break down our financial goals into bite sized pieces. That can really help build our confidence. So just do one thing, whatever you have been putting off to start to bettering your financial quality of [00:07:00] life and just do it. And if you need some help, we're here to help you with that.

Jessica Quindlen: I love that. That brings us to the end of our show, Emma Austin. Thanks so much for being here. It was great having you both.

Emma Protsik: Thanks, Jess.

Jessica Quindlen: And now for our new segment brought to you by Dave Logan, the iconic voice of the Denver Broncos.

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Jessica Quindlen: Thank you for listening to Sound Cents from Ent Credit Union. Be sure to follow our podcast as well as rate and review us. I'm Jessica Quindlen. I will see you in two weeks. Same time, same place.