Capital One’s New Money Coaching Program Asks: Where Will Your Money Take You?  

After 15 years as a business professional, I’ve taken pretty much every career assessment and executive coaching course available to better understand my professional strengths and weaknesses, learn how to work more effectively with team members, and find out the best way to chart my career growth. Not to mention how to enhance my executive presence and professional branding.

Recently, I had the pleasure of participating in a Money Coaching session with Capital One. I had already attended its Banking Reimagined Tour, which promoted how it is redesigning the bank experience and the expansion of Capital One Cafés, which are innovative community cafés set up around the US. They have everything you’d expect from your local café – coffee, snacks, comfortable seating areas, and free Wi-Fi – and, of course, help with your banking needs. They even offer students, entrepreneurs and professionals a communal place to work, for free. An interesting concept and on-trend with the growth of co-working spaces popping-up across the country. If there isn’t one in your local city, it’s definitely worth testing out on your next business trip when you’re in need of a place to work between business meetings. Two new Cafés are coming to Austin, TX in 2018, and there are currently open Cafés in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other cities.

What I was a bit skeptical about was this thing called Money Coaching. I didn’t want to share my financial information with anyone, and I wondered if it would really benefit me, or if it was just a sales pitch. Fortunately, the former was proven true.

What Is a Money Coach (aka Life Coach)?

The Money Coaching session was being offered for free from Capital One, so I was a bit suspicious about the services that would be provided. I thought the Money Coach would want to dig into my finances to figure out how he (or she) could make us both rich, before trying to sell me something. As it turns out, my finances were not the primary topic of conversation.

Capital One’s Money Coaches are certified life coaches, which are different from mentors, counselors, executive coaches, or financial advisors. Life coaches focus on personal goals and career/business goals. They help individuals identify obstacles and challenges in achieving those goals by prioritizing their values, beliefs, and objectives.

So What Is the Capital One Money Coaching Program?

The Capital One Money Coaching program offers three free 60-minute sessions. You don’t have to participate in all three sessions, but it’s encouraged. Each session involves an activity to help you gain clarity on your goals and values, remove roadblocks, and make an actionable plan. Each subsequent session includes time for you to reflect on the progress you’ve made since the previous session and for self-correction, as needed.

There are 10 exercises a money coach might walk you through:

• Make your travel plan.
• Chart your values.
• Map your money.
• Scale your spending.
• Find your future.
• Consult your inner guide.
• Discover your islands.
• Clear your path.
• Plan your journey.
• Get directions.

In my session, we charted my values: achievement, growth, community, impact, experiences, pleasure, balance, and independence. And I realized that my finances were a means to support, enable, and enhance my values. If I have a successful business, then I have more time (and money) to spend on pleasurable experiences with family and friends. But I also discovered how important it was to me, as a driven professional, to build a successful business that also impacted others. These are things that are easily discovered after some self-reflection, but who has time for that? Net-net: make time–it helps identify what you’re working toward and what you might be missing in trying to achieve your goals, and gives you reassurance that you’re moving in the right direction (or shows you that you’re moving in the wrong direction and need to course-correct).

What Can You Get Out of the Program?

Capital One’s Money Coaching program is set up to support your life and career needs. Because it’s a free program, the only cost to you is time and the courage to try. I see four specific areas as the most beneficial:

• Identifying What’s Important to You – Between work, personal relationships, and planning for the future, life can be overwhelming. Take some time to reflect and ascertain what’s important to you for your career and personal life, and use that to plan for the future. A life coach can help you identify these important goals, as well as the obstacles to achieving them.
• Planning Your Future – It’s critical to have a plan, both personally and professionally. But it doesn’t have to be three, five, or 10 years out. It can be for as soon as next week or next month. Planning out small goals for the near future can help in the long run. A life coach can help you articulate what you want for the future and map out the next steps (big and small) to achieve it.
• Holding Yourself Accountable – Once you’ve spent time identifying your priorities, mapping out a plan is the easy part. Holding yourself accountable to that plan is what’s tough. A life coach is a neutral third party who will hold you accountable to your goals and actions, but never push you to do anything you don’t want to do.
• Pivoting as Needed – As a business owner, professional, or individual walking through life, you’ve likely learned to change course as needed, usually after a significant event, like a layoff or break-up. A life coach can help you identify these potential obstacles and plan to change course, if necessary.

Life is a never-ending process of personal and professional obstacles and achievements. Having someone help you along the way is vital to achieving success. Take advantage of programs like these to ensure you become your best self.

Thank you Capital One for sponsoring this post! This is a paid endorsement. All opinions are my own and were not directed by Capital One.