What’s my problem

I have been reading a book titled “Think Like A Freak” by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, and something they said in the book has been twirling in my head: “Easy problems evaporate; it is the hard ones that linger.”

So, why did this particular quote caught my attention? Who knows! But, the effect is that I have been trying to apply this quote to how I’m building my business.  Two questions came to mind:

1. As a Personal Finance Coach, what problem am I trying to solve?
2. How would I characterize THE problem?

I’ll tackle the first question first. As I go through the repetitions of refining my marketing messages for my coaching business, I, like many others, sometimes get stucked on what “I” can offer. Here’s a simple example: when people ask me: “what do you do as a Personal Finance Coach?” My typical answers have been: “I help women acquire knowledge and tools to better manage their personal finances; I help women expand their financial potential by removing money-related emotional and mental blocks; I help women achieve financial independence by raising financial literacy.”

Now, these two authors had just reminded me that it’s not really about me. It’s about the clients. So, if I were to shift my thinking, and look from my clients’ perspective, what problem am I trying to solve for them? This is the question I have been chewing on for the last couple of days. After much brain digging, soul searching, angel calling (ok, just kidding), here’s my crack at the problem statement:

In this day and age, many people lead stressful lives, and some of the stress stem from money-related issues, whether they realize it or not. This is true for people with money in the bank or without.  

This is quite an interesting revelation because while on the tactically level, I help women with managing their finances and dealing with money-related emotional issues, at the end of the day, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY! It’s about alleviating stress. It’s about getting back emotional freedom.

Now, onto the second question: how would I characterize the problem stated above? Is it an easy problem that evaporates or a hard problem that lingers? Well, judging from the fact that there are hundreds of books out there on the topic of personal finances and “how to be rich”, yet, I believe more than 50% of the population still struggle with money-related challenges and issues everyday, I would consider this problem to be a tough one.

So, how do I tackle this hard problem? I don’t have a simple solution, but I do know that one of the main reasons why many people struggle with money is the social & cultural conditioning they have been brought up with. Therefore, education in financial literacy for children is a must! Teach kids early on the concept of money, the “real value” of money (it’s not evil, it’s not good, it’s nothing more than a tool), help them build a positive relationship with money without fear or judgement, so that they will lead an adult life with at least one less stress-inducer.

I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me! One woman, one child at a time!

I have been reading a book titled “Think Like A Freak” by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, and something they said in the book has been twirling in my head: “Easy problems evaporate; it is the hard ones that linger.”

So, why did this particular quote caught my attention? Who knows! But, the effect is that I have been trying to apply this quote to how I’m building my business.  Two questions came to mind:

1. As a Personal Finance Coach, what problem am I trying to solve?
2. How would I characterize THE problem?

I’ll tackle the first question first. As I go through the repetitions of refining my marketing messages for my coaching business, I, like many others, sometimes get stucked on what “I” can offer. Here’s a simple example: when people ask me: “what do you do as a Personal Finance Coach?” My typical answers have been: “I help women acquire knowledge and tools to better manage their personal finances; I help women expand their financial potential by removing money-related emotional and mental blocks; I help women achieve financial independence by raising financial literacy.”

Now, these two authors had just reminded me that it’s not really about me. It’s about the clients. So, if I were to shift my thinking, and look from my clients’ perspective, what problem am I trying to solve for them? This is the question I have been chewing on for the last couple of days. After much brain digging, soul searching, angel calling (ok, just kidding), here’s my crack at the problem statement:

In this day and age, many people lead stressful lives, and some of the stress stem from money-related issues, whether they realize it or not. This is true for people with money in the bank or without.  

This is quite an interesting revelation because while on the tactically level, I help women with managing their finances and dealing with money-related emotional issues, at the end of the day, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY! It’s about alleviating stress. It’s about getting back emotional freedom.

Now, onto the second question: how would I characterize the problem stated above? Is it an easy problem that evaporates or a hard problem that lingers? Well, judging from the fact that there are hundreds of books out there on the topic of personal finances and “how to be rich”, yet, I believe more than 50% of the population still struggle with money-related challenges and issues everyday, I would consider this problem to be a tough one.

So, how do I tackle this hard problem? I don’t have a simple solution, but I do know that one of the main reasons why many people struggle with money is the social & cultural conditioning they have been brought up with. Therefore, education in financial literacy for children is a must! Teach kids early on the concept of money, the “real value” of money (it’s not evil, it’s not good, it’s nothing more than a tool), help them build a positive relationship with money without fear or judgement, so that they will lead an adult life with at least one less stress-inducer.

I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me! One woman, one child at a time!