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INSPIRING FINANCIAL SELF TRUST
Financial confidence isn't about knowing more
It's about trusting yourself when decisions feel personally exposing. Whether you're leading a team or building your own success, we help you develop the capability for confident decision-making under pressure.
Financial confidence isn't about knowing more
It's about trusting yourself when decisions feel personally exposing. Whether you're leading a team or building your own success, we help you develop the capability for confident decision-making under pressure.
The Financial Self Trust Framework™
For leaders and organisations making financial decisions under sustained pressure.
I help senior leaders and organisations make clear, proportionate financial decisions when responsibility is high and certainty is low.
This work is not about knowing more about money. It is about trusting judgement when decisions carry real consequence.
What the Financial Self Trust Framework™ is
The Financial Self Trust Framework™ is a structured methodology for strengthening decision quality in environments where financial consequence and responsibility are high.
Developed through more than twenty years working alongside leaders, founders, and executive teams, the framework focuses on what most leadership, finance, and wellbeing initiatives overlook.
Not skills.
Not strategy.
But the internal capacity to remain clear, grounded and decisive when pressure is sustained.
Financial Self Trust is the ability to make financial decisions without avoidance, over-control, or quietly deferring responsibility to process, policy, or consensus.
The framework operates beneath strategy, at the point where judgement forms and responsibility is carried.
When Financial Self Trust is strong, decisions are timely, proportionate, and owned. When it erodes, hesitation quietly becomes cost.
Why this matters now
Most organisations are no longer navigating short periods of disruption. Pressure is ongoing.
Regulatory scrutiny is higher. Economic conditions are less predictable. Decision windows are tighter.
Financial decisions are more visible and responsibility feels heavier, even when it is not openly acknowledged.
The common response is to add more governance, more reporting and more frameworks.
Very few organisations address the internal capacity of the people making the decisions.
This is not a capability gap. It is a Financial Self Trust gap.
And that gap shows up as delayed decisions, excessive caution, inconsistent risk appetite, and burnout at senior levels.
The Emotional Balance Sheet™
A core diagnostic within the Financial Self Trust Framework™ is the Emotional Balance Sheet™.
Every financial decision carries an emotional cost. When that cost is ignored, clarity deteriorates long before performance does.
The Emotional Balance Sheet™ makes emotional load visible and workable. It maps the hidden pressures that accumulate when responsibility, uncertainty, and consequence converge.
Through a structured set of questions and facilitated reflection, leaders and teams can identify where emotional pressure is distorting judgement, distinguish strategic caution from avoidance, and reduce decision fatigue.
The Emotional Balance Sheet™ can be used as an individual diagnostic, a team-based exercise, or an ongoing leadership check-in.
This is not therapy. It is decision intelligence.
Who this work is for
- CFOs, Finance Directors, and senior finance leaders carrying significant financial responsibility in professional services, financial services, and regulated environments.
- CEOs and executive teams accountable for financial outcomes and long-term sustainability.
- Founders and business owners where financial decisions are both professional and personal.
- Organisations operating in complexity who want better decisions without adding more process or pressure.
How organisations work with me
Engagements with the Financial Self Trust Framework™ begin with a facilitated workshop.
This workshop creates a shared language for Financial Self Trust, surfaces how judgement is currently held under pressure, and establishes the foundation for all further work.
From there, organisations choose how far they want to deepen the work, depending on need, timing, and context.
Stage 1: Financial Self Trust Workshop
A facilitated session for senior leaders or executive teams focused on how decisions are actually made when responsibility carries financial consequence. This is the required starting point for all engagements and can also stand alone as a complete intervention.
Stage 2: Emotional Balance Sheet™ Diagnostic
Following the workshop, organisations may choose to deploy the Emotional Balance Sheet™ diagnostic. This provides deeper insight into where emotional load is distorting judgement at individual or team level and where hesitation, over-control, or avoidance is shaping outcomes.
Stage 3: Structured Coaching and Advisory
Where appropriate, insight from the workshop and diagnostic is then supported through structured coaching and advisory conversations. This allows leaders to work through live decisions with clarity and ownership, without defaulting to delay, escalation, or unnecessary risk avoidance.
Organisations may engage solely at the workshop stage or choose to add one or both of the subsequent stages. Progression beyond the workshop is optional, but the workshop is foundational.
What makes this work different
This is not money mindset coaching. It is not financial advice. It is not motivational speaking.
This work focuses on behaviour under pressure, not theory.
It brings emotional reality into financial decision-making without blame or therapeutic language. It restores ownership without forcing certainty.
The framework is grounded in trademarked intellectual property, tested across multiple sectors and delivered with the rigour senior organisations expect.
About Lesley Thomas
I work with senior leaders and organisations to strengthen decision-making capacity under sustained financial pressure.
After more than twenty years working with founders, business owners, and leadership teams, I observed a consistent pattern. Financial decisions falter not because people lack data, intelligence, or strategy, but because internal capacity erodes clarity and judgement under pressure.
That insight led to the creation of the Financial Self Trust Framework™ and the Emotional Balance Sheet™.
My background spans entrepreneurship, governance and executive development. I co own a property business, have served as a School Governor with responsibility for leading the Finance Committee, and work with senior leaders across multiple sectors where financial decisions carry real consequence.
I hold a Master’s degree in Executive Coaching and Mentoring and am an accredited Money and Mindset Coach. I am also the author of the Amazon No.1 bestselling book Parents, Let’s Talk Money and host of the Let’s Talk Money and More podcast.
What consistently shows up in this work is that clarity erodes not because leaders lack competence, but because emotional load is not acknowledged or supported.
The Financial Self Trust Framework™ exists to address that gap.
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Beyond the Numbers
Join growth focused business owners and leadership teams who want clearer financial judgement, stronger money conversations and more confident commercial decisions.
Let’s create that change together.
It's time to stop numbers feeling loaded or personal.
To stop second guessing and start acting with intention.To build the kind of financial self trust that holds under pressure.
It is time to clear what is getting in the way. To expand how you show up as a decision maker. To operate at a level that is felt across your organisation.
