Leap from Corporate Banking to Financial Coaching with Patti Handy

Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective, planning for your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves, get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Hey, Freedom Nation. So glad to see all of you out there today. Although I don't get to see you. I get to know that you're out there. And hopefully, you'll give us some comments. So we know what's going on. Today, I will be interviewing Patti Handy. She's a financial coach. She and I have a lot of very similarities and our careers and all that. So I'm excited to have the conversation. Patti, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Jeff, I appreciate you having me.

I am so glad to have you on today. Really excited to hear your story. So let's start off with that. First, tell us how you got to where you're at today.

Okay, well, I'll give you the Reader's Digest version, because the long version can take a very long time. So I most recently was a financial advisor. Prior to that I was a mortgage advisor. Prior to that, I was incorporated financial banking roles had my son and when he was 18 months old, and went through a divorce. And at that time, I knew I wanted to be at home with him. I actually had him by IVF. And we tried for five years. So the last thing I wanted to do was after going through that one to put them in daycare all day. So I scrambled and looked at what I could do, I didn't want to go back to corporate and I went to the mortgage lending world, which allowed me some flexibility with my schedule work at home. And it was wonderful, I have no regrets. I was there as a full time mom, I took them to all the sports. And that was all wonderful. But I remember that the seed for what I'm doing today was planted probably a couple of weeks after my divorce. And now it's been It's been decades. But I remember laying in a fetal position to sobbing, just shortly after my divorce, overwhelmed with the emotion of oh my gosh, I have this baby and oh my gosh, I don't have a job and oh my gosh, I've lost my husband and all this, you know, obviously the stuff that happens when you're going through divorce. And I had this very strange download, it was very random, because I wasn't thinking about money at all. But I had this strange download was your going to be okay, because you know how to manage your money. And I thought, well, that was just the most random thing ever. I was just, I mean, I think it was like, oh my god wake it was like, That's it, you know, you're, you're gonna be okay. And months later, when I came out from under the fog and all the craziness, I remember thinking, I'm gonna somehow take this experience in my life and turn it around someday and help others. And I was so busy for so many years doing, you know, raising my son and, you know, paying bills and all that good stuff, that I didn't do anything with it. But fast forward, I again, was mortgage lending for many years got into financial planning, because I love the deeper relationship that that world had versus the mortgage, which is more transactional. And I've had so many conversations when I was in the financial advisory role with women, specifically those that were divorced or widowed or single that came to the office, sometimes in tears, sometimes just feeling embarrassed and in fearful and overwhelmed, didn't know what to do. The husband used to take care of the money and they didn't know what they were doing. And the common theme would happen over and over and over. I decided, You know what, I've gotta serve this community in a bigger, better way. And oftentimes, our firm had minimums, you know, so the client had to have a certain portfolio size to become a client. And sometimes these clients or these prospects didn't have those, you know, minimums. So I pivoted somewhat recently, and at the ripe old age of 62, I might add, so there is a retirement date, there's more of a as you put it a Freedom Day. And it's you know, to do what I want when I want how I want but but basically I'm doing financial coaching and I'm serving that that demographic the divorce widowed and single women.

Very cool. Well, I can say from looking at you, you do not look 62 by any way, shape or form. So you've got lots of good years ahead.

Thank you. That's the plan.

You know, when you start thinking about okay, and now I'm gonna transition, I'm gonna pivot into this, did you purchase a coaching program? Did you you know, create all this on your own? What, how did you do that?

I was following different coaches for a while. And just kind of taking it all in, I saw that a lot of growth was in the digital space, digital course space, and I wanted to reach you know, 1000s of women and I wanted to reach everybody, you know, nationwide, I had this I have this big mission and movement that I that I plan on having so I you know, kind of an accumulation of all of my information that I had in my in my had in this life experience being, you know, single mom and divorced, I put together this course I recorded it, I put all the material together that was, you know, months and months and months of work, and then more so. And then. Yeah, so I have this digital course that I've created encompassing nine different modules, which is nine different areas of our life. So when Yeah, it was really it was a, it was definitely a birthing process, I invested in myself by hiring coaches, and getting the help I needed, I would definitely encourage that for others, a coach can, you know, shortcut your path from A to B, and just eliminate a lot of the heartache and the cost that you would have otherwise?

Now, did you? Did you do this kind of side by side with your old job as a financial advisor? Or did you just kind of stop one and start the other one.

So the idea has been percolating in my head for decades. And I knew that I wanted to do something with this, I went to my, the owner of the company at my firm in January of 2023. And I gave notice, and he had asked if I could stay on for you know, for several more months, as we transition clients over and I say goodbye and whatnot. And, and I said, Well, you know, do that. So let's let's, you know, coordinate this. So I was working three days a week at the office two days a week, you know, at home, and it was two days that I was, I shouldn't say working at home, I was working on my business, those those two, those two days were my, my, my days, obviously days, you know, with the firm. So I was creating all the modules and the courses through you know, so you know, through those days, and then, of course, weekends and nights. And you know, I worked crazy hours as I launched this. And then and then officially left the firm in April.

Very cool. So that it was almost more of a ripping the band aid off. But you did have a little bit of transition time in there. So how are your clients find you.

Right now I am focused on more organic, a lot of word of mouth, I'm reaching out to those that were, you know, my COI. So my circle of influence the divorce attorneys, estate planning attorneys, CPAs, mortgage lenders, insurance agents, I mean, people who deal with individuals in this in this situation, even financial advisors, funny enough, what I do complements a financial advisor. So financial advisors, from what I've read, they're hiring life coaches in their firm, because a lot of times they're not dealing with the behavioral side, the emotional side, the you know, the, the Money Story, some of those deep things that I cover in my program. I'm also a certified life coach and certified executive coach. So I already have all that into everything. So it's a great complement. So I'm reaching out to financial coach or financial advisors as well. And then social media and just doing these podcasts and I'll be hosting a masterclass coming up the end of June and so they are the organic route. Yeah. Sometimes that's

the best way. Yeah. And especially the referral side of it, and I could see where it would be a great fit for financial advisors because you don't really compete, right, either and you solve a lot of the problems that an advisor will have, okay, yeah, you're not quite ready for me yet. I need somebody to kind of help you get to where you need to be. Let's talk a little bit about what you what your process is what you would do with a typical client.

So the first the first step really is they book a discovery call with me I want to find out more about what they're you know what's going on in the world. And then determine if my program is a fit for them. i If it's not, I will tell them it's not a fit. And we will then if they onboard, then we onboard them and they have access to the course again a digital course so they can watch at their pace the videos. Again, it's nine different areas of someone's life, which includes self care, their money, stories will behavioral piece, getting organized, getting your stuff in order, just you know life, which oftentimes is a mess, getting into income, like you said, cashflow we deal with debts and spending and we look at why we spend and how we spend, we look at their credit and if it needs to be you know, improved, we increase our credit, and I debunk all the myths that are out there online. If they want to buy a home or if they want to, you know refinance, if they're dealing with a divorce, I help them with what that looks like and qualifying as a lender. And then two portions are investing. So we get into the investing piece, some tax planning stuff, very simplistic overview, I keep everything very simple in terms of just making it very easy to understand and small nuggets. And then we talked about leaving a legacy and what that ultimate retirement looks like and how you don't want to go on chair and watching TV all day with your bonbons.

And that once again, it's a big thing that a financial advisor or financial planner doesn't really have the time or the a lot of times the inclination to spend that time with somebody and I know I've worked with, you know, divorce clients and I mean, especially on the women's side I tried. It's it's a massively disrupting experience. And, you know, a lot of times a male financial advisors like, Okay, let's get to the outcome, let's get going, let's get on to this. There's some, there's some work that needs to be done before you can even get to that place. So I think it's a wonderful compliment for financial advisor, you know, to have somebody like yourself that can do this, and really help somebody kind of get their their life in order before they start making decisions.

I agree, I think it's a wonderful value add a complimentary service, I don't I don't manage assets. So I don't take anything. So it's there. Like you said, there's no competition I deal with, you know, what they don't do and vice versa. So it is a it is a great, a great fit, for sure.

How's that? How was that giving up the financial advisor side of it,

you know, it wasn't too bad for me, because I love the side of the coaching piece. I love the education piece, I'm a teacher at heart, and I love to just break down complex, you know, topics and simplifying them. And the coaching piece really gets to the person's, you know, heart and soul. And I love that deeper connection. So, you know, that's, that's really a favorite piece for me. And so I get to just, you know, sit in my son of my purpose in this role.

I love that. Yeah. I mean, I, like I said, I could see the smile on your face, too. It's just, you know, what you're doing is right. And I mean, that was the same thing for me. Although I didn't give up, you know, I just refocus myself a little bit more towards helping people find that, you know, that ultimate thing for them whatever freedom means. So let's talk a little bit about delivery. How do you I know you do the online course? Do you do any kind of one to one.

So there's a couple different ways that someone can work with me, there's three different ways actually, one way is they get to see online course and they have lifetime access to it. And they can just watch it at their pace. It's there's sort of a self study. The next level up from that is they get the entire course, again, lifetime, but they have weekly coaching calls and a group environment for 90 days. And that's an opportunity to ask questions, and we can put it on the hot seat if they choose to be in the hot seat. And again, that's 90 days. And then the higher level from there is all of that only in six months of the group coaching calls. And then 10 meetings with me one on one for one hour, and we go deep into their personal situation. And we really dig unwind a lot of what's happening in their world. So some of those situations that are more complex, with lots of moving parts, that we can go into that one on one with that platinum level.

Yeah. Now, do you charge on an hourly basis? Or do you do you have packages?

It's a different package. Yeah, each package has a different set price. Nice, nice, perfect

On, at least they have the option of having that one to one interaction, realizing they're gonna pay a little bit more for it. But you know, that one, one interaction is extremely important for a lot of people that need that extra handling.

I need the one. Yeah. And I do that for Yeah, so six months, over six months. And yeah, it really and I give them you know, at every price point to, you know, participate in the program. And I'm reaching out to financial advisors and saying, you know, I will give you a discount, you pay for it, you give it to the client, it's a value add. And the guy the clients gonna go, oh, my gosh, that's fantastic. And it's a win win win. Everybody comes out ahead. Sounds really

Exciting. I mean, what's what's kind of on the horizon for you anything that you're working on that you want to share?

I'm trying to get on CNBC. When That'd be nice. You know, I'm actually creating a five day masterclass that I have coming up at the end of June. And I am, you know, doing a lot of podcast interviews, which are just a blast for me, I just love talking about the program and giving nuggets of information and help and just, you know, whatever I can do to share with your audience, looking at a couple other things, I'm I'm entertaining the idea of doing some corporate wellness workshops, I've been told I shouldn't I should do some of that. So I'm starting to explore that as an option. But I'm really focused on you know, this women's kind of piece.

Yeah. So you know, when you think about it, I mean, and thinking back to, to where you were, you know, what do you think is the biggest one challenge and to one of the keys to success that if you get it right, you're going to be successful moving forward with with, you know, this, this type of training and all that. I think

in general, if I'm understanding your question correctly, I think if you you find your zone of genius. You find your where your skill set lies and your talents and your gifts and fun Find a way to serve people. And a way to create an impact. I think those two combined creates an unstoppable situation where you can, if you're truly coming from your heart, and you really want to be fulfilled with making that, you know, impact and doing inspirational work. And then again, you're tapping into your, your genius. That's that's where the magic is.

By I answered the question terribly, which you answered it wonderfully. I was stumbling on my own question, but you answered it absolutely correctly. That was what I meant to say. Patty, what, you know, if somebody is out there, that's kind of in your situation, you had this idea for many, many, many years. And you kind of acted upon it and changed your life shifted gears, you know, left your job and moved into this new career. What do you think held you back for as long as you did? And then, you know, do you think you were ready years ago and just didn't do it?

That's a great question. I think at the end of the day, it was, you know, fears that kept me in a safe situation, you know, I was making a decent income, I had benefits 401k, all this stuff, right. And I was dealing with clients on a deeper level. So it was fulfilling in that regard. But there was still a missing piece that I was gnawing at me. And I feel, I finally listened to my intuition. And I finally listened to my inner we just had that nudge. And it was a leap of faith, it still is a leap of faith, right? I, you know, I'm creating this, this, the service. But, you know, at the end of the day, there's no guarantees, I mean, even if you have a job job, right, if you go nine to five, you can get fired anytime. So, yeah, I just, I think it was fear base that kept me, they kept me holding back. I mean, I'm the sole provider, you know, I'm the one that's bringing the income. And, you know, that's a big responsibility. So, I just, there was a lot of fear in that but, but if ik finally came to the point, really, where the fear of regret of not doing this was greater than the fear of doing it, and then failing. Yeah, I thought, you know, what I can, I can always fall back on something else if I need to, but it's gonna work. You're definitely gonna work and

Go back and do what you were doing before?

Yeah, I, I still have my mortgage license. If I want to do mortgages, I have my securities licenses. I, you know, and but I in my head is just like, I'm not planning on plan B. I know this is gonna, this is gonna work. And it's it is I just feel it my bones.

Yeah, for me, I, you know, when I decided to go independent and launch off, I just burned the ships at the shore. You know, I mean, I in fact, had a, I had a binder with all my stuff in it. And on the cover of that was the picture of LG psyche, brain just totally lost. Cortes ships burning at the shore, I just put that in the Yeah. And I just have never looked back, I refuse to look back and told my wife, I'd be glad to live in a car before I go work for somebody again. And she looks at me and says, Well, okay, have fun. That's not for me. But yeah, I mean, you know, I think you just get to that point where you've had enough of enough. And, you know, it does become that if I don't do this, I'm gonna regret it. And there's a whole lot of people sitting in old age homes that are that have regrets and things that they didn't do. And, you know, you and I will never have that regret, you know, even if you fail you still want in the long

Yeah. And hopefully, I'm inspiring others to do the same. Well, me like I said, I, you know, I'll be 63 In a few months. And I, you know, my friends are thinking about Medicare retirement, and I'm like, Well, what are you gonna do? Yeah, you got three more years. What are you gonna do for 30 more years? Yeah. And, and to me, it's, it's so it's so amazing when you find something that you love that you can do for not for fun, but really, for fun, you know, if you if you have enjoyment, and it's a good time, doesn't mean you got to grind out 5060 hour work weeks, you can work 2030 hours, you can take a month off if you want and work on your laptop from wherever you are. The Internet is a beautiful thing, right? If you've got the ability to work anywhere, take your laptop, and you go, I think

The beauty of what happened in 2008 if we got anything good out of the pandemic, we realize that we can pretty much be anywhere in the world and do that. I mean, you know nowadays, I guess I have few more appointments with clients in person, but you know, usually it's only Once at that, and then most of the time we do everything through zoom, because it's just, it's easier. You know, and I think people are happier with that they don't have to get in a car and drive all over the place because I ain't driving them.

Right? Yeah. Even when I was working in my financial firm, even the clients who are local, so like within a 10, or 15 minute drive, they still did zoom. Yeah, it was it was this easier for them. And you're right, if COVID taught us anything, or if there's any silver lining at all, to COVID, it was that everyone's who acclimated to zoom and to working remotely, that I mean, that's a beautiful thing, there's less cars on the road. And,

And it's way easier to, you know, in so many instances, I'm sure you were the same with me, you know, you have somebody come in, and we're using software, we were using financial planning software. So you're both craning your neck over to look at it, versus I can just share my screen with you. We can walk through the software, then I can hand it to you after we're done. And, you know, so much easier in the live. Well, cool. So let's try and make a transition now into the Fast Five questions. Okay, you're ready?

I think so. All right. So

you wake up in the morning, business is gone. You have $500 laptop, computer, place to live and food, what are you going to do first?

I probably go to Italy for a month. I would enjoy some time away. But once Yeah, once reality came back, I probably would do the same thing I'm doing. I mean, I'm I would, you know, recreate the course. And I would reach out to my network, you know, my network of people, the relationships that I have people who know me and and, you know, know what I'm about? Reach out to them and start building that. That backup bill, the bills, business backup. Cool thing is that what you the knowledge that you have no one can take, right? The the What's up here can't be taken from you. Although I should say my mom has advanced dementia, so I should qualify that statement. But that's extreme. My point is that, you know, with that knowledge that you learn, you're able to capitalize on that and create, you know, so much, and there's unlimited opportunities and possibilities out there. And I think if you have that mindset that, you know, the world is your oyster that you can do whatever it is you want. That's a beautiful place versus oh my gosh, I'm out of work, I have no job, I've got 500 bucks, what do I do, and if you get in that constructive fear a victim state, you will get creative and and be able to open up for, you know, all of the various opportunities that are out there for you.

Yeah, I mean, I always think about it, about Chris Gardner, the growth, the pursuit of happiness. I remember the second book that he wrote, he was writing it because it was a series of conversations he had had with people during the 2008 crash. And I remember him telling a story once that, you know, he was on the subway in New York, and there was a guy sitting there, you know, and he's probably in his late 30s or late 20s, sitting there with his box, you know, because he'd been fired from the financial firm he was with and he said, You know, I sat down next to them. And we started talking. And he said, You know, I mean, my whole career is over my life's over and he looked at me he's like, No, it isn't, is you still have all the knowledge in your head that couldn't take that from you. And you have all the experience that you've had, they can't take that from you. So you start from where you are in the books called start from where you are. But yeah, I mean, it's absolutely you just start where you were at, you know, where to start where you are right now and then go for it. What is the biggest business mistake you've ever made?

I guess bizza I would probably say not hiring a virtual assistant or assistant sooner. Yeah, you know, I have a VA. And I don't like the tech side of things. And it doesn't make sense for me to try to, you know, spend my precious time trying to figure it out. So I outsource that. And it's, it's huge.

I am loaded with it is the best thing ever. I look at every possibility in my life that I can outsource and I outsource it. Because yeah, I don't want to have to spend I could, I could learn it. And I could be probably decent with it. But I'm never going to be as quick or is as you know, efficient. I can spend my time on better things. Right? Right. It's a good book that you would recommend for our audience.

I am just wrapping up a fantastic book called over subscribed. And it's by Daniel Priestley. And it's about and it's perfect for those who are business owners who want to stand out from the crowd, you know, social media and all the noise and you know, the sales funnels and all the all the different things that you can do they tell you, you know, do this do that whatever he he's he goes through how he's built many multimillion dollar businesses very differently and and actually a coach that I work with, had referred me this book. And it's fantastic. I'm just, I've got like a few more, I'll probably 50 more pages left. But it's it's fantastic. I

definitely add to the reading list that

were subscribed. Yeah.

What is a tool that you use in your business every day that you might recommend?

I use. It's called nimble. It's a CRM, CRM, and I am BLE. And it is just it's a very user friendly CRM, it allows me just to track things super easily reminds me of tasks. You know, it's just it's it's all that stuff that a good CRM does. And that just is a great place to dig a brain dump.

I love it. Yeah, that's I think I've seen that, but I've never used it. But I think something I think it was connected to one of my other tools and said that they connected the nimble and I just never did, I never went down that path, because I'm committed to where I'm at the point, but Okay, so last question, what is your definition of freedom?

My definition of freedom is doing what I want, when I want, serving who I want. And having that fulfilling, impactful work that I that I do. And I've come to find that, you know, time freedom is as precious if not more so than then financial freedom. We're also focused chasing the dollar, but then we don't have time in our lives to speak with our family until we look back and go, oh, shoot, but it's not the way it's supposed to have happened. And, you know, I saw a lot of that with, with clients, both in the mortgage world and in the financial world, where they're just, you know, crazy working. But yeah, having that having that success is just that freedom. I love it. Yeah,

I love that you said time to I think it's as important for time, you know, as everything else, you can't

Get back your time, you can always you know, earn money and find ways to earn money and create cash flow in different ways. But once your time has gone, it's gone.

It is an endless, and you only get the only good at one time. So Patti, thank you very much for for joining us today, if someone wants to learn a little bit more about you where's the best place?

The best places probably to learn more about me would be my main website, which is Patti handy.com. It says pa TTI. H A nd y.com. To learn more about the program. It's called minding her money. And there's a link on the website to spending her money click on that. And then it'll take you to a page where you can download a roadmap. And then I also offer a free download of a book that I wrote. And then if you want to learn more about the program, there's an opportunity to book a call with me, we do a 30 minute call complimentary discovery call. And like I said, I just kind of get an understanding of where where you're at. And if we decided together if the program makes sense for them.

Absolutely. Oh, that's fantastic. Well, thank you for being on the show today. I appreciate it. I'm so excited for you. I hope to all the success in the world to you because the more successful you are, the more successful your clients are going to be.

And it's a ripple effect. They'll teach their kids and then their kids and the whole world is gonna have

everything yes, that butterfly effect that happens. So. So thank you for being on. And folks, thank you for joining in with us. Love your comments. So if you have the opportunity, share, comment below here. And also share this with someone else along the way. If if you feel like somebody else could use this information, share the show with them so that they can actually get get a little bit of information and understand a little bit about how paddy helps folks. So once again, thank you for joining us, we do these shows twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays we publish. So keep your eyes out for that and make sure that you subscribe to the channel and wherever you're at make sure you hit the little notification button so that you know that it's going to come out and we are doing a fuel special show so you better subscribe and make sure thanks a lot. We'll see you back here the very next time.