For our third Anti-Sell Story (and 11th overall, if you count the original 8 from the book), I asked Talia Loderick for her experiences doing sales and networking as a self-employed money coach & financial education consultant, who – prior to that – was a freelance journalist. We met when Talia first toured Welsh ICE (the awesome coworking space) a few years back – and possibly before that at a random meetup as well.
A few highlights from Talia’s Anti-Sell Story:
- Rather than being visible on all the social media platforms, Talia decided to only focus her efforts on LinkedIn and Instagram. This was after speaking to people from her target audience and finding out where they tend to hang out.
- Talia has used the quieter times in her business to reflect on what’s worked well in her business and what hasn’t. She’s used it to develop a new coaching package, update her pricing, and work on her website – all of which has been worth it as it’s helped to bring in leads.
Steve Morgan: Hi Talia! First off: please introduce yourself! Who are you and what do you do?
Talia Loderick: Hi 👋🏾, I’m Talia Loderick. I’m a Money Coach and Financial Education Consultant, based in Cardiff. I call my money coaching practice TLC because when I realised the acronym for Tender Loving Care also stood for Talia Loderick Coaching, I almost swooned with joy. Because who doesn’t need a dose of TLC from time to time? Rhetorical question – we all do.
As a money coach, through conversation and exercises (as in activities, not a workout!), I help women understand their emotions and beliefs about money so they can improve their behaviour with money, feel better and be better with money. I do this all with a big dose of TLC creating a judgement-free, safe space for women to talk openly and honestly about money.
My first career was journalism and I covered money matters for outlets including the BBC but I eventually longed to go deeper, to do more. Because I came to realise that you can know all of the practical money-management tips you want but until you take a step back and identify and examine your emotions and beliefs around money, it’s hard to put any of those practical tips – budget! save! spend less! – into, well, practice. I finally heeded the call and retrained as a money coach, launching TLC in 2019.
As a financial education consultant, I work with The Money Charity to deliver workshops to 11-19-year-olds in schools, colleges and community settings, that help young people develop lifelong skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours to manage their money well.
Steve: Why did you decide to go self-employed?
Talia: I decided that self-employment would allow me to be a ‘free-range human’: doing work that excited me; work with purpose and meaning, work that developed my skills and knowledge.
Later, I discovered Marianne Cantwell’s book Be a Free Range Human [Amazon link] and realised I hadn’t coined the term. But I was glad to find out I wasn’t alone in using ‘free-range human’ to refer to how I wanted to be and feel in all aspects of my life, including work. Because honestly, I didn’t actively decide that I wanted to be self-employed. Rather, towards the end of 2014, I decided I was done with the job I was doing and the thought of not working there gave me so much joy that I was happy to leave without a job to go to.
So that’s how I got started being freelance (as your previous interviewee Steve Folland would say 😉), using my journalism skills to pursue freelance and contract work. Deciding to pursue money coaching came later and building my business has been a series of baby steps: achieving my coaching qualification in 2017; completing money-coaching training in 2018; publishing my website and running money workshops for women in 2019; developing my money coaching practice as the financial impact of Coronavirus is felt by many in 2020.
Steve: How did you find the transition from freelance journalist to your current business? Did it feel like starting again from scratch in a way, or did the business skills you picked up previously help you out with the process at all?
Talia: It was a real mindset change going from being a jobbing freelancer, doing whatever work happened to come my way, to deciding to pursue money coaching and take myself seriously as a business owner. As a freelancer, I waited for work to come my way. I shied away from putting myself out there and I relied on word of mouth for much of my work – which was great when work came my way and not so great when it didn’t. As a money coach, I’m focused on building a sustainable business. That involves doing market research, knowing who my ideal client is, working out my pricing, having a marketing plan, having a separate business bank account. I guess whether you call yourself a freelancer or a business owner is down to personal preference, because they’re really just different terms for the same thing. But for me, freelancer felt passive whereas business owner feels proactive and that’s helped me change my mindset about what I do and how I do it and it’s made me take myself seriously.
“Build yourself a financial buffer to see you through quieter months. This will ease the stress that comes with feeling you have to say yes to every piece of work that’s offered to you because you’re worried about making ends meet.”
Steve: How did you find your first few clients as a money coach?
Talia: By telling people what I do. You can be the best at what you do in the world – but if no-one knows about you then how is anyone going to hire you? I kept this thought in mind throughout 2019 which is when I started getting serious about marketing myself as a money coach in order to build a sustainable business. And it guides me now. I took my time doing my website – procrastinating over the words and pictures and branding. But it was worth the effort as it brings in leads. I spoke at a couple of key events I thought my ideal clients may be at, I started to post regularly on the social media channels my ideal clients use (LinkedIn and Instagram) and have conversations on those platforms (engagement over broadcasting!). And, importantly, I told my family and friends what I do so they could help spread the word. Because word-of-mouth marketing is invaluable. And together, these efforts to tell people what I do, have helped me gain traction.
Steve: How do you market yourself these days?
Talia: A continuation of the above. Seeing my marketing efforts pay off helps me continue marketing because I’m definitely the right fit for the Anti-Sell method, Steve! I hate sales and I struggle to promote myself. It doesn’t come naturally to me, it’s a self-doubt thing – but that’s something I’ve worked on with the help of self-doubt coach Sas Petherick. Currently, I’m trying to understand more about why what’s working is working when it comes to my marketing efforts, so I can do more of the same but better.
Steve: Has there been a particular marketing or networking tactic that’s worked really well for you?
Talia: LinkedIn has surprised me by working really well for me. I had thought Instagram was going to be my top social media channel for raising awareness of who I am and what I do but LinkedIn has really driven client enquiries of late.
Steve: What about Facebook and Twitter, out of interest? Have you tried them (and do they work for you if so), or would you rather continue pouring your efforts into LinkedIn and Instagram, knowing that they work?
Talia: I did market research in 2019, speaking to different women about money so I could build a picture of my ideal client, understand their needs and wants and tailor my coaching offering around that. And one key learning was that my social media efforts are best spent on LinkedIn and Instagram. That’s why I now concentrate on those platforms and not Facebook or Twitter. As a one-woman band/small business owner, time is precious and it’s really hard to be across all of the things all of the time and that includes social media. So it makes sense to concentrate your efforts on the platforms where your ideal clients are.
Steve: You mentioned the Coronavirus earlier (eek)… Have you had to make changes to your business as a result of COVID-19 and lockdown, and especially on the client acquisition side of things? And if so, how?
Talia: Yes, Coronavirus and the resulting lockdown caused me to make changes to my business – positive changes. I’ve been able to use the time to reflect on what works well, what doesn’t work so well, and what I’d like to do differently in my business. The market research mentioned above that I carried out in 2019? It wasn’t until lockdown 2020 that I found the time to analyse that research. And I learned so much: I’ve developed a new coaching package; I’ve updated my pricing; I’m rewriting my website – all things I wanted to do but was only able to do because the world came to an unexpected standstill. I’ve also used this time to revisit why I’m doing what I’m doing – we all need to check in with that from time to time, right? It helps keep us on track, especially when times are hard, as they have been for many this year, whether employed or self-employed.
Steve: What advice would you give to your younger self – the version of you who’d only just gone self-employed?
Talia: I would tell my younger, fresh-to-freelancing self, two things:
- Build yourself a financial buffer to see you through quieter months. This will ease the stress that comes with feeling you have to say yes to every piece of work that’s offered to you because you’re worried about making ends meet.
- With the security of a financial buffer, take the time to focus on yourself and figure out what you really want to do with your life and career. It’s fine to be a sounding-board for friends who are also figuring this stuff out, but being a free-range human doesn’t mean being free at all times to meet up in the week – for lunch! afternoon coffee! dinner! – just because you can. Don’t prioritise other people’s development over your own. Your time is precious. Spend it wisely.
Talia Loderick is a Money Coach and Financial Education Consultant, who can be found online at talialoderick.co.uk, on LinkedIn @talialoderick, and on Instagram @talialoderick.
