About Coach Deb

Deb Howard Coaching & Consulting

I didn't just study this.
I lived it.

And everything I teach, I learned on the other side of loss, debt, and the quiet fear that it was already too late.

I know what it feels like to hold an entire household together while grieving. To have faith and a mortgage and bad credit and a heart full of questions for God. To wonder if the promises were ever really for you — or if maybe, just maybe, it was somehow already too late.

It wasn't.

And it's not too late for you either.

The Story That Built the Mission

The Foundation

I grew up watching my father's entrepreneurship journey - a candy store, a janitorial business, whatever the family needed. He was an entrepreneur before anyone in our house knew what the word meant. I learned early that money meant access: to stability, to options, to possibility.

But like a lot of us, I didn't grow up with practical financial education. Nobody sat me down and explained how credit worked, what debt really cost, or how to build something that would last. That gap quietly became a cycle, one I carried for years without fully understanding why.

The Crisis

In August of 2002, I became a licensed minister. In November of that same year, my husband unexpectedly passed away.

Overnight, I was holding the full weight of an entire household: two children, aging parents, a mortgage built for two incomes and a grief so heavy that even the scriptures I'd leaned on for years stopped feeling like comfort.

I had bad credit. Defaulted student loans. Debt obligations I wasn't sure I could meet. And I was supposed to be "the strong one."

I had faith. But I also had real, pressing fear. And I had to figure out how to hold both.

The Decision

At some point, I stopped waiting to feel ready.

I discovered personal finance education through Dave Ramsey's teachings. This would be the first door and I realized there were tools I had simply never been taught. I started learning aggressively. Reading. Taking notes. Applying. Organizing. Setting goals.

And then I made a decision that changed everything:

"I will change."

The Transformation

Over the next few years, I tackled my debt one account at a time — student loans, credit cards, collections. I took on additional work. I created structure. I stayed committed even when it was uncomfortable.

And then I paid off my home!

But the transformation wasn't only financial. It was internal.

I had to unlearn what church had quietly taught me about money, that wealth was for "them," that desire was selfish, that enduring lack was somehow holy. I had to reread scripture with fresh eyes and rediscover a God who actually wanted me free.

That journey from grief to clarity, from shame to stewardship, from survival to purpose is why I do this work. Not from a textbook. From the other side of the fire.

Deb at 5 years old with family.

Why Deb Is Qualified to Lead You Here

Today, Deb brings more than two decades of lived experience and formal training to every coaching relationship.

  • Certified Faith-Based Life & Financial Coach — trained to address both the emotional and practical dimensions of money
  • Licensed Minister, Prophet & Teacher — over 20 years of ministry experience...
  • 25+ Year HR Leadership Veteran...
  • Founder, Deb Howard Coaching & Consulting...
  • Founder, The Dream Empowerment Network (DEN)...
  • Host, The Global Wealth Exchange Summit...
  • She paid off her debt. Then she paid off her home...

"I'm not teaching theory. I'm teaching the exact path I walked — with the tools, the faith, and the scars to prove it."

— Deb Howard

What Deb Stands For — and What She Stands Against

VALUES INTRO

I didn't arrive at this work through a curriculum. I arrived through a crisis — and through years of watching women just like me stay stuck inside systems that were never built for their freedom.

So let me be clear about what I believe.

I STAND AGAINST

  • Shame-based money teachings that leave believers broke and guilty
  • One-size-fits-all, anti-credit rules that ignore the real lives of Black and minority families
  • Religious systems that profit from your scarcity while calling it stewardship
  • The lie that wealth is for "other people" — and that enduring lack is somehow holy
  • Financial programs that skip the healing and wonder why nothing sticks

I STAND FOR

  • Healing money trauma in Black and minority communities, at the root

  • Spirit-led strategy that honors both your faith and your math

  • Wise use of credit as a wealth-building tool, not a trap

  • Generational wealth, legacy, and joyful stewardship, for all believers

  • The abundant life Jesus actually promised — not someday. Now.

"I stand against the Scarcity System that keeps minority believers confused about credit, bound by shame, and settling for survival. I fight for healed, Spirit-led, strategic stewards who confidently use money and credit to build generational wealth and legacy."

— Deb Howard, Brand Positioning Statement

The Invitation

If this story sounds like yours — the faith, the pressure, the quiet belief that maybe it's too late — I want you to hear something directly:

Deb has been exactly where you are. She found a way through. And she built a practice to help you do the same.

The tools are real. The healing is possible. The abundance is not reserved for someone else. And you don't have to figure this out alone.

Your next step

Let's talk about where you are
and where you're going.

Book a complimentary 30-minute Clarity Call. We'll map out exactly what's been standing in the way, and what a path forward looks like for you. No pressure. No judgment. Just clarity.

30 minutes · Free · Completely confidential