Ep.22 Busines Power Hour with Faith Mariah

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Hi there Foodiosas. Welcome to the money's not your problem podcast where every week we talk about how you can become good with money in your pocket and in your mind by using practical life coaching tools and simple and efficient ways to do money math. Are you ready to invest in yourself? Let's dive into this episode.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Hey there foodie.

Also, welcome to the money's not your problem podcast. This week's episode is actually a recording of a panel that I participated back in August. I was invited as a guest panelist for Business Power hour with Faith Mariah. I I love how she describes herself on her website. She is a mindset magician. She helps online business owners scale to six figures without the drama. She's a successful online marketer and a certified life coach. She really focuses on helping her clients to learn to line their mindset up with a simple and powerful business strategy, which means they're going to spend less time endlessly debating the next step and actually creating more results than last time. She had three other people on her panel. One was yours truly. We also had Sarah Rose, who's a life coach and she's a mental health advocate. And to complete our panel, we had Whitney Morrison, who is a certified financial planner. During this hour, you hear us discuss different things that businesses need to know about their finances and what are some of the things that sometimes business owners are not paying attention and that they could be taking advantage when they're building and growing their businesses. And after listening to the episode, if you like more information on each one of those three amazing ladies, check out the episode notes where I have listed for you their social handles, their websites, and you can connect with them right now. Let's dive into the episode and I hope you really enjoyed this conversation.

Hello. Hello everybody. We're here. I know. I'm so excited. I really love doing these calls with everybody. I think they're so fun. We're doing another Business Power hour. I'm trying to do them every Thursday at 2:00pm p.m. eastern. And we're talking about a different. I'm trying to have some, like, spicy topics. You guys can let me know in the chat too, like what topics you guys want. We have a bunch of really good ones coming up, but I have to like come up with more ideas for more topics. So if you want more of these, you guys got to tell me what you want. Help me help you. You know, I'm gonna let our speakers go ahead and introduce themselves and then we're going to talk about money. Like money things we think Every business owner should know about. And I'm still so excited to talk about this topic. And it's funny because I hired Whitney's my actual, like, financial advisor personal. And when I hired Whitney, I did not like talking about money. And now I love talking about money. I think everybody should talk about money. And I'm excited to share a little bit about that journey with you guys as well. So I'll let you guys introduce yourselves. Sarah, you want to go first?

Sure. So I'm Sarah Rose. I'm a mental health advocate and I'm a life and business coach for coaches and really passionate about legitimizing the coaching industry. So a lot of the focus of my work is not just on developing business acumen and learning how to be the CEO of a coaching business, but also making sure that that business is built on a solid foundation of skill. So every week, if you're interested in checking out my work, I run better coach workshops. So essentially it's for you to be able to either establish an introductory education or develop your coaching abilities. And those are completely free. So you can check that out on my website. Life coach to co com, you just scroll down to the bottom and you'll see the link where you can sign up for those.

We'll put the link for that in the comments. If you guys are a coach, you have to go to those. Like, she should be charging for them. And I think they're going to be part of a paid program. Right. So she's doing, like, her content right now. Working out the content for what's going to be someday. Am I allowed to say that? But for right now, you guys can get it for free. So I'm like, hello. Like, you guys should go. Like, if you're a coach, you should def. Definitely go to that because she provides a ton of value. Oh, you're doing them weekly?

I'm doing them weekly. And I have eight years of experience in the industry, so this is not brand new.

Yeah. That's amazing. Okay, well, you guys have to go go to those if you're a coach for. Sure. Whitney, you want to go?

Sure. Hello, everyone. My name is Whitney Morrison. So wonderful to be here. I am a certified financial planner, which essentially just means that I've taken a lot of tests and I'm technically considered an expert.

Money.

I've been doing this work for a little over 14 years now, but I like to tell everyone I've really only been a good financial planner for the past seven years. For the first six years of my career, I Was really embarrassed about money because I was helping other people with their finances. But in the background, my own money was a bit of a mess. So I have worked to completely transform my financial life and started my business, which is called Holistic Money, because it really took me taking a holistic approach to wealth building and to money mindset for me to really get where I am today. Because it didn't matter how much I really knew about money. It was learning to change my relationship with money, how I thought and felt about money in order to actually get financial results. And so that's primarily what I help my clients with today. If you're interested in learning more about my work, you can go to holistic-money.com I have a really wonderful freebie that I think everyone needs. It's called my money map. Training is essentially the money system I use to help you all be great with your money management. So I think it's a really great first step if you're interested in doing some money work.

Yeah. And I use Whitney's Money map too, to manage my finances and all of my stuff. So I definitely think you got. I can't believe you're giving that away for free. And then you have to subscribe to her podcast, too. She has an amazing podcast that is, like, so good. And you guys should definitely go subscribe to that. And I hired Whitney. My finances were a total disaster. And I feel I don't even know how to, like, even explain how much how life changing, like getting my money mindset and like, my money stuff all under control has been for a long time. I thought money mindset was like, oh, you just like, think good thoughts about money or like. And I did that to where I was like, thinking like, oh, I could make money. And I became very good at making money, but my relationship with the money I had was, like, very bad. And that's the work that I did with Whitney. So she helped me make, like, an actual strategy where, like, my money is automated now and it goes in all of the things it does, all the things we need it to do. But then she also helped me clean up the, like, story and the, like, terrible relationship I had with the money in my bank account. So you guys definitely have to. I just like, I'm like a huge advocate of Whitney. I just love her because she changed my life.

All of you. And Faith, also, you've done some really cool things since we worked together. You bought your first now is going to be an investment property.

Yeah, I'm in it right now. I'M in it. In it to win it. Whitney asked, this is a funny story. And then I'll let you go. But Whitney asked me, like, in one of our sessions. She was like, well, what do you want to, like, do with your money? And I was like, I thought this was like a someday, like, impossible, like, dream. I was like, well, someday I would love to have an investment property, like where my parents live, like, in this, like, beach town in Florida where they live. And I've always wanted to have, like, a little house there that I could stay in and we could rent. And in my mind, I was like, this is like a 50 year, like, goal. This is like a lifetime goal. And I remember you just kind of being like, yeah, we should do that. What else do you want to do?

Yeah, let's do that in the next few months.

My mind, I was like, what do you. It never even occurred to me that that was, like, a thing. Growing up poor, I was just like, I don't know anybody that has investment properties or, like, houses or anything, right? So I was like, that, like, blew my mind. I was just like, what do you mean? I could just like. She's like, you have, like, if you wanted to do that, like, we could put some of this money there. You could just buy the house. I was like, what? And here we are. That wasn't that long ago either. I think that was like, six months. And now here I am sitting in my investment property in St. Augustine. So it definite fast tracked what I thought was going to take me, like, 50 years. Took, like, I don't know, nine months. Six months? Yeah. Not very long. Okay. And last but not least, Madeline.

Hi.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Thank you so much for having me here. I'm so excited to be talking to women that likes to talk about money. That's the best part. And to spread our goodness to everybody else. Everybody else out there. I'm from Brazil. I moved here in 2000, 1999. And I came with a broke mindset from about money from there, and then I embraced the culture here. So it was a bad mix. But right now, after a lot of trials and errors and learning my way with money, I became a financial coach with the Ramsey Solutions, and I also am a life coach with a life coach, life coach, school. And I use those two things together to help working moms, specifically lds working moms, to become good with money in their pocket and in their minds. As everybody has already said, you have to have that mindset. And a lot of times we don't achieve what we we want. Because we keep thinking the same way we thought when we were broke. So that's why I'm here.

That's awesome, you guys. Thank you. Oh, go ahead. No, go, go, go, go.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: I was gonna say tell them where to go.

Tell them where.

I like.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: I like the holistic approach, Wendy, that you share. And I kind of think the same way you. You to become with good with money, you don't use just the money math. I was a Math teacher for 17 years, and I taught personal finance in the classroom, and I saw the struggles with learning math. But the money math is really important. And I used to tell my students, hey, you're going to use this in real life every day. So you need to learn how to do money math. But you also need. As a mother, as a working woman, I noticed I needed to develop other characteristics that made me good with money, not only just the money math. So if you go to my website is Strasbourg coaching.com Strasbourgcoaching.com you can get a freebie that I have. Just talking about the different attributes that I consider a chief financial mom has someone who's good with money in their pocket and their minds. And we talked about the different things. And the best part is you already have those. Sometimes you just have to develop them. So I'm here for that.

I love that. I love that mindset. It's like, you can do it. It's going to be okay.

But you guys have financial moms.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: The chief financial mom is good, huh?

Yeah. We obviously have an amazing panel here, so if you guys are live. I feel like anybody that's live at Power Hour is like vip. You guys can put questions in the chat and, like, slide. We'll slide them in here for. For our guest experts here. But I'd love to hear from you guys, like, what do you think if you could give new business owners. I work with a lot of, like, newer online business owners, specifically working to make, like, their first six figures with their business. What do you think are the most important things for them to be thinking about with money? I know for me, like, when I was growing my business, it just felt like. It felt like something I didn't even want to think about or deal with because I was like, there's so many different things. There's so much I don't know. I don't know like, even where to start. And so I pretty much ignored, like, that area of my business all the way up until I hired Whitney in November. And we were at, I think, around like, 220 230,000 a year in sales when I hired her. So don't do that. This is why I hired Winnie to coach in the Mastermind, too, because I was like, oh, my God, I wish I had, like, started doing this, like, years ago. And now I'm really passionate about new business owners. Like, you need to start thinking about this stuff now and just building simple systems. It doesn't have to be hard and overwhelming. It's really not that complicated. But where do you advise people kind of start? Or what do you think the most important thing to kind of do when you're in that little baby business phase? What would be like if you could give us a key piece of advice, what would it be? I'd love to hear from each of you.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: All right, who else first?

All you guys fight it out.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Okay, I'll go first. One of the important things from the beginning is to decide to look at yourself. If you have a business that you are a business owner and you have your craft, so whatever it is. So for me, it was a coach. And then I also have the business person is that person who's gonna have to take care of everything business, the. The legal stuff and the money stuff, all of that. So you have to understand that. And advice that I got early on was to decide the days that was going to be the technician and. Or the CEO. So spend a little bit of time. It doesn't have to be complete days in the beginning, but, like, sometime that you're like, as a CEO, what are you thinking? What are your plans for a class? What are your plans for different things that you're doing? And then on the other side, you're looking at, okay, now we gotta get this done. Let's get, you know, the LLC created. Let's go contact someone. I need to open a bank account for my business and how to set up those accounts so it doesn't mesh with my personal money. So you have to make. Make that division was really helpful for me.

Yeah, I think it's important too, because I see a lot of women, I heard someone call it like a jobby once, where they're like, oh, it's a job hobby. It's like your job. And they're like, they don't. They almost like, don't see it as a real business. Right? Because. And it's so interesting because I think online businesses, especially a lot of the women I work with, they don't feel like they're, like, legitimate or they're real businesses. Whereas people open restaurants all the time, and those are in the red for years and they're not like, well, I don't have like a real business though. It's like, it's like most new businesses, like take startup capital and money to invest and it is, I think, normal to an extent. Right. To have some more money going out than money coming in. Potentially in the beginning part.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Yeah.

And.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: And if you think that way, it's a joby. You don't give the right priority. You don't give the, you know, it is a real job or that is going to be my transition. I'm going to make this work. It was like a joby I'll do whenever I can. It just feels different when you.

Someday it'll make money. Like maybe someday. And I'm. You have money going out, you need to figure out how to close that gap. Like you have a revenue problem you have to solve. Like, what are you talking about?

Yeah, one thing I hear a lot from new business owners is, oh, it's just not about the money right now. Right now I'm really just trying to establish the fundamentals of my business. I'm just trying to get out there and be seen. And I really think that when we have this belief that it's not about the money on one side of the coin, it feels like we're doing the work at like a higher level of purpose or like we're above the money. And it's not something that is driving us. But the truth is, is that your business is about the money. It has to be about the money. If it's not about the money, then you will likely go out of business. And the glaring reality of a lot of entrepreneurs or businesses is that they end up going out of business. And so your business really does. It doesn't have to exclusively be about the money, but it definitely is about the money. And I think one of the advice I would give is from the very beginning, you have to really start to think about how am I going to create a profitable business for myself that actually supports me? Because the goal of a business is not to suck you dry, to make you miserable, to leave you broke, to leave you struggling every month. That's not the goal of our business. The goal of our business is to make as much money as we want and live a wonderful life on our terms. Unless you're really thinking about your money creating business strategy that actually speaks to the money and reflects the money that you want to make, then you're not going to get there and you will go out of business and it's going to be a long, hard road on building your business.

Yeah. It's so funny because I work with a lot of new business owners, too, and I think a lot of. I think women are, like, conditioned to work for free. Right. Like, we're basically programmed to do free labor, like raise kids and queen houses and do unpaid free and work for free. And that's how you're like, a good woman. Right. Is like, you just serve everything. And I think a lot of women are, like, they feel dirty being like, well, I want the business to make money, and I want to make a hundred thousand or I want to make 50,000 or I want an extra 20,000 or whatever it is. It's like, almost like, oh, like, what does that mean about me? Right. And I think that that is very interesting work. Yeah. What were you gonna say?

Comfortability that people experience around money is that we're often conditioned to see money as an end in and of itself, and that's uncomfortable to people. And I think that goes back to what Madeline was saying around the fact that the way that you make your money matters. And that's one of the things to take into account, because to Whitney's point as well, like, we need to have strategy, but you're slowing down to think about the value that you're creating is really, really important. Your process matters, because at the end of the day, if you made your. Your money in such a way that you don't love how you made it, or you don't love who you are while you're making your money, all of that matters at the end of the day, because you might end up with a lot of money, but you may not end up with happy customers, and you may as well not be living that happier, freer life.

Yeah. So how do you suggest people balance that if we're just starting? Like, how do you balance, like, making sure the business is profitable, but making sure I like making the money and, like, my customers are all happy? Like, where do you suggest people start? Get, like, started with that?

One of my personal philosophies when I got started was l apostrophe earning, learning. It's like, learn as you're earning. Like Madeline said, we need to balance out our different responsibilities. So you need to be proactive about making sure that you're accounting for time for skill development, along with separating time from being the employee of your business and the CEO. And I think those are not roles that are typically, like, well delineated for people. Like, when we talk about being the technician or being the CEO. A lot of people have a very loose idea of what that even means or what the responsibilities entail of that role. And I think it's really important to slow down to define those things clearly. And like Madeline said, really being strategic about thinking through how you time block things and making sure that you're making space for that. Particularly in your like year one to three of business, but probably continuing moving forward. Just like any respectable profession, whether it's law or medicine or that thing, there's an element of continued education. So whatever field you're in, it's important that you be doing that as well.

Yeah, I love that. Oh, go ahead. Another thing is there is no shame in the first year of your business of having another side hustle or another job.

Oh, preach girl.

Go off really helping you pay your bills. Because if in your first year of business maybe you're not comfortable charging thousands of dollars for the work that you do. And if that's the case, if you're entering a new field or starting a new practice, then you gotta listen to that. Because the moment you try to say, okay, I'm gonna charge this just so I can make this much money, you're gonna hit. Just like Sarah was saying, those blocks where it's like, oh, I don't like how I'm trying to go about this. This doesn't feel good to me. My first year of business, I had a whole full ass job. Like I had a, I had a full time job and I was building my business on the side. And the reason why was because I knew in my first year of business I wasn't going to make the amount of money that I needed to be able to show up without. I had a, a client. She called it desperation breath. Like when you get desperation breath in your business, it means you're like really.

Funny because I think we all know exactly what that is. Like we've all seen a coach like try to sell something, something or somebody's trying to sell something online where you're like, oh God, that person's got bad breath.

Yes, but you will get desperation breath if you aren't, if you can't pay your bills. It's like it's human nature. You can't mindset coach yourself out of that. That is just real.

Yeah, it will like decrease your love for your business like real quick. It's like make your business in charge of like your financial well being like your little baby new business that's maybe never been profitable. And then all of a sudden we're going to take that and make that responsible for like paying our bills. And it's like really messes, I think, with your relationship with your business. Very hard to enjoy it and love it when it, I mean, the thought process I see all the time is just like, why is I making money? I need to be making money. Why isn't it making money? Oh my God, we need to make more money. Oh my God, this isn't working. Oh my God, what am I gonna do? And it's like you're just in that all the time. And that's what I advise people often to get side hustles and to stay at their job. And I know the mastermind hates it because they're always just, I, I think part of them wants me to tell them, like, oh, go all in. And I'm like, I'm not gonna tell.

You to do that.

Like, no way. I'm always gonna say, like, there's no safety net here. Like not in the States anyway. Like, people die on the streets here. Like, you gotta take care of number one here. Like we gotta have money in the bank account first and foremost. And that's not something, I don't take that risk lightly. I take it very seriously. And so I always advise people. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, get, go doordash, go get a va job, go get another. Take the pressure off the business so you can actually love it and let it be a little baby business and nurture it and build something that is sustainable that you're going to love, that you can actually enjoy and take the pressure off of it. Yeah.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: And that leads to you not rushing. So you have to find equilibrium somehow that you are moving forward, that you're doing the steps, the proactive steps, but at the same time you're not rushing and coaching yourself. Just like, okay, it's not done yet. I haven't made any money yet. No, take your time. When you don't have that pressure of not being able to pay your regular bills, you're like, okay, it didn't happen this month, so what do I need to change? You do your evaluation of how you're doing and then you, you say, okay, let's set some goals. But there's no pressure on, I cannot eat next month.

Yeah, yeah.

If you're a service based solopreneur, you really need to slow down. I think sometimes we miss it because, you know, if you had a brick and mortar business where you're responsible for like paying people to work in your business, you're more aware of your overhead and that sort of thing. And I think what I see with a lot of people that I've worked with or haven't worked with or just in general in the industry is that people aren't used to looking at their numbers. And so sometimes I will get people to kind of audit what they're doing and saying, like, if you are no longer. You are only allowed to be the CEO of your business and you had to hire people, people to work in your business to generate revenue, would you be focused on what you're focused on right now?

That's a really good question to ask. Megan. Just put a question in the chat. I wanted to bounce to you guys. She says, I've been trying to hit a 10k month for a year now and it hasn't happened. I feel like my strategy is good, my money mindset is good. I don't know why it's not happening. Any insight? What do you guys think? I'll give you like a really annoying answer, Megan. I think a lot of it is like strategy over time. A lot of it is like strategy and mindset over time. So it's like if your strategy is actually working and your business is actually growing and you are project out, where do you think you would be in two years, five years? Do you have a strategy that is actually growing and is actually working? And a lot of it is you haven't had the strategy and the mindset over a long enough period of time. That's something I would definitely think about is like, how long have I been actually executing this strategy? How long have I been actually executing it at this level? And if I did this for another year, would we be consistently at 10k months? You're not going to know. But you can kind of take your best guess at like. But I would do some projections out into the future and see if you. It could be that you haven't executed it over a long enough period of time. And I don't know for sure. That's just like my first little.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: As a, as a life coach, I would say that she probably knows. She just needs to dig a little deeper and see, you know, she probably knows why it's not happening. And if she doesn't, what could it be? What would be the possible answer for this? If you, if she knew, what would it be? Right.

That way opens a possibility to. Because that's. That's where I went first. I was like, I don't know why. Let's start to look a little closer. But Then I mean, I think we do this a lot in all parts of our lives as a. Relate to, as it relates to money. We have the story of what's happening. So, like, my strategy is good. That's a story. My money mindset is good. That's a story versus the facts. Like Faith is going to. The facts are I started my business in 20, 20, year one. I made this, I changed my strategy.

Yeah, look at your year over year growth. Megan put that in the chat because I think that's probably pretty significant. That number.

Yes. And that tells a very different story than what our brains like to offer us. Our brain, like Faith, when she's kicked off this thing, she was like, I was a disaster with my money when I first got started. And I'm thinking to myself, like, Faith.

You'Re like, God, I've taught her nothing.

But like, that's her. That was her experience of herself with money. But y', all, I promise you, if we were to sit down and I would be like, hey, Faith, let's show everyone your number. All of you would look at Faith and be like, this does not look disastrous to me. But it is the stories that we have. And so I think it's so important to separate those two things. This is how I'm thinking, this is how I'm feeling. This is what the actual numbers are telling me about my business and my strategy and my money mindset. Yes.

See, look at this.

48K already this year.

Yeah. So it's year over year growth. Like sometimes you get. Sometimes I think part of like there's a lot of things I think about online business land that can be toxic. And one of them is this stupid monthly revenue thing. I think it can be very fucking unhelpful. And like looking at like the year over year growth and like, where are you at for the year? Where are we at for the next 12 months? And it's like, sometimes the monthly stuff is fun to do or whatever, but as a serious business metric, like that doesn't tell me that much about your business that you did a 10k month. Like, it just doesn't. Right.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: And sometimes I don't pick any fights here, but sometimes we have that entitled mindset. I've done this, I've done this. Where's my reward?

So look at it, right?

We're like, where's my thing?

Right?

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: You really need to put. You really need to put the facts down and look and look at your strategy. Maybe you will find or maybe take it to a coach or something and See, okay, maybe this did not work as much as I'm thinking was good. Maybe it did not work as well. So then you can tweak that.

Yeah. And then she said, I guess I just tripled my growth from year one to year two and it's been much slower this year and it's kind of stressful.

I would say, okay, that's a story because she's saying it's much slower this year, but she's at 48k this year.

Already made more than you made all of last year. You already made more money.

And someone else is saying that. Speaking to the effect of, you know, we're sold a lot on this idea of like consistency. Almost like deep down we all know that success is not this linear thing or that income is not this linear upward track. But at the same time that's kind of what it portrayed. We're told like, like 10k, like automate, 10k months, 10k months on autopilot, that sort of thing. And I think for a lot of people that creates this impression that there's something wrong if there's a change in their numbers. And it also doesn't account for the fact that if, if we, we treat sales numbers kind of like, wait, there's like natural fluctuation that happens. And so it's such an incomplete variable. That's why when you change the way you were doing the math, completely different experience of the numbers. Right. When we look year over year. So that's something to take into account like sales numbers don't tell us the whole story. And if you're in your, your early years of entrepreneurship, very important that you don't mistake someone's sales numbers or their, how good their, their brand or how good they're actually doing. It is now common knowledge that a lot of seven, six, seven figure coaches out there are having break even years or actually in debt. There's a lot of people carrying spiraling debt. It's so important to be very cautious about doing what so many of us have named here, which is like slow down, slow down. Do your due diligence. Get comfortable at looking at your numbers and making sure that you're not investing over your threshold threshold of risk.

Oh my gosh. Let's talk about that.

We talked about it last week too, because I, we, the panel I had last week was your biggest business mistakes and we were talking our biggest business oopsies. We were talking about our mistakes and me and my friend Allison and Melanie Childers was on as well. Like we all have invested had made some investments that we felt kind of like about and we were talking about, about overspending. But I'd love to get your guys's take on that. And like how do you invest like a responsible amount? And I think when I finally like had my little come to Jesus moment and decided to hire Whitney to help me like make sort my business finances and make a plan and everything, I was making sales arguably more and more money. But I was spending like I couldn't spend it like fast enough. I was just like. And I really was in this belief that like, like the more I invest like it's all going to come back and it's all like every time I invest I make more. And that worked for me to an extent. Right when I was investing in like $1,000 things, $2,000 things. I did get the investment back multiplied like many times from those programs. And so as it grew it was really easy for me to be like, oh, now we'll do $25,000 masterminds, we're going to do $10,000 programs, we're going to do $20,000 certifications. And I was investing in these more, more priced things. And I actually saw my ROI decrease as I was spending up those premium price points. I did not get a bigger return in the same proportion personally. And this is just a personal antidote, right?

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: And what also makes a difference when you're talking about is that whose money you're investing because a lot of people, new business owners go and borrow money so then they're more willing to put more money towards different things that if they had just, just run as the, the speed of cash, run their business as Peter Cash, then you think more before you invest in those things that really good but not at that time.

Yeah, I'm going to take that one step further because it isn't just investing at the speed that you're earning. But I feel like this over investment thing in the coaching industry is like gonna kill the industry.

I do too.

As a financial planner, I've worked on the back end of hundreds, probably thousands of people's finances at this point. And getting into the coaching world and starting to look at the expenses that coaches take on so early in their business, I'm like, oh my God, like we really need to have a conversation about this because putting all of their income towards freaking coaching and growing their business. I was in a mastermind. I think some of you also may have been in this mastermind where quite literally the coach in the mastermind said your coaching investment in this, Mastermind is a top level expense. It is one of your number one expenses in your business. And we're talking four to $5,000 a month going towards these programs. And I. And this was something that she stated over and over and over again. And I just remember being in there as a financial planner, like, oh my gosh, people are listening. People take her word like gospel and they're gonna listen to this idea that they need to be spending $5,000 a month, top line, to make sure that she's getting her mastermind payment. What about paying their freaking rent and bills?

Businesses are also like doing. Many of them are doing less than six figures also. So I think that's like, important to put in this conversation as well. But I, but I think it's an easy idea to buy into. Like, because, I mean, I got great results from coaching, right? And so it's like a really easy jump to make to be like, oh yeah, like, I'll just like invest more and I'll get more return. And I think you've just got to watch like, where that line is. And then also the thing that helped me kind of snap out of the like, gross overspending I was doing, like, I spent, I would say over $70,000 on coaching in like one year. Like, I was making more and more money. But like I'm saying, I was just spending it as fast as I freaking got it, thinking, this is how I'm gonna make more money. I'm gonna like overspend on coaching into being wealthy or something. It was like, I just like got sucked into this weird vortex. And I just want to offer you guys, like, just spend in proportion to what the size of your business is. Like, do not spend $25,000 on coaching or even $5,000 on coaching. Like, if you're not at a place in your business where that makes financial sense. And the way I factor that in is I look at our profit, not our sales numbers, our profit numbers, and I spend a percentage of that profit on coaching, not all of it.

You know.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: I like that because when we look at the. And we do that, our two main resources are time and money, right? And a lot of times we want to get better. We think that we're not good enough or that, you know, imposter syndrome, that we need to get better so we can do better service and help others more. Then we're like, we sign up for a bunch of classes and it doesn't even need to be the 5,000, you know, mastermind. It could be Just oh, I'm going to buy another course, another 50,000, another $50, another 97A 90 $10. And then you don't have time to cover all those. So then you're like I am not good because I'm not making all of those, all those things that all these people are teaching me, which is great. But you have to pace both the money and your time because that it, those are limited I don't think. But like the time is limited.

I'll tell you guys too, like I think the most valuable thing of like a mastermind or like a high end program, a lot of those, those things are available to you for free. So like the most valuable part of it in a mastermind is networking and the people you meet. Well, put some time into networking and meeting people. Like go get on Zoom and like talk to people and have conversations, invite them on your podcast or on your show or like do different things to like network. And you might have to make more effort if you can't spend that money. And then like let's be honest at this point like all of the business strategy is online for free. Like yes, I have a program, I think it's great. But if you can't afford it, I'm like don't wait to start. Like go get that information like it is out there. Find like a couple things you can do and get started. Get some revenue coming in, right? And then get a program that makes sense, that's like the level of support that you need, that has very clear deliverables, that solves a very clear problem for you, that has a good reputation. Don't get caught up in all the shiny testimonials. Talk to real people that have done the program. Ask around, ask in this group, like a lot of people in my group, if you ask people like hey, has anybody done this program? Like they'll tell you, right? I'll tell you. Like there's lots of programs I recommend and some that I have criticism of. But I just try to be honest about what my experiences are and the results you guys will get. But I would those that would be like my advice about all of that is like don't and don't think like throwing a bunch of money is going to grow your business faster. That is like the most costly mistake I think that I had financing important.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Thing too is for you to go through your expense expenses as you start a business. Go through your expenses regularly and see what are the expense that you have. They're not make sense anymore. I had a Couple products, like softwares that I looked, I was like, I'm not using these. So I just cut those out. Or I had a Google phone so people wouldn't call my personal phone as a no, that, that it's $5 a month, who cares? But no, everything adds up. So you start cutting those things and thinking, okay, what is really important? And then when you see there is something that will solve a lot of your problems, but it's too expensive, you still have to have the discipline and say, no, this is not for me right now. I got a call yesterday from Frank Kern, team member, and they're trying to sell me their program, which sounds amazing and look wonderful. I went to the free webinar, I'll get all the free stuff when they offer me. But then I had to tell the lady, I said, right now, for my business, I'm not making enough to justify this expense with this program, which I.

Feel like we need to freaking have that on an Instagram slide. And like, that needs to be like all over the Internet. I'm not making enough money to justify this program for sure. And I think there's also a mindset thing that I think a lot of us need to start to adopt, which is like, when we look at the priority of our expenses for our business, I think we have to prioritize paying ourselves first. I often will work with business owners and the first thing that goes, the first thing that starts to go down or gets adjusted is the salary that we're paying ourselves. And I just think that mentally we have to learn to prioritize that as number one profit first formula. For anyone who has not heard of, this is a wonderful resource to help you start to allocate your business expenses to be able to, number one, prioritize your profit first, then paying yourself, then your taxes and then your business expenses. And according to this formula, ideally you want to have 15% of your income going towards your business expenses. That's not going to work for every single business. But y', all, if you have an online business as a coach, you can absolutely have your fixed expenses fall within that range.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Can I share something real quick? Book about taxes. You talk about taxes, Whitney, and it's so important because I had no idea about this. So a lot of the things on the first year I miss in terms of deductions and everything. So I got this book right here. It's from Candy Valentino. It's an incredible book. Aligns with 99% of the things that I believe.

So it's great.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: But the most important part was the taxes and the information for. For business owners. It was incredible. And it tells you exactly what you have to do so you can qualify those tax exam exemption things the right way. So you have the documentation, and it's something that you cannot leave for the last minute, especially if you're making profit right away. You have to be paying your taxes every quarter. If you don't, when you get the next year, you're gonna have a big tax bill, and you're like, okay, that was not worth anything. You have all the problems. So jump on the tax information right away. And you don't have to do everything. But if you want a basic. This book is really good.

Yeah. I want to talk about this comment Megan made. She said she's getting into dangerous waters, not tracking my expenses. As my business grows, I've made several relatively small investments, but they totally add up. I need to start being aware of them more. This is something that I have done. I see a lot of people do, and it's like, it's. It's just like the. I don't know, like, I don't want to look at it. I want to think about it. I'm just not going to do my numbers. What advice do you guys have to, like, get people to start looking at these numbers? And what numbers should they start looking at if they haven't been doing it?

I think that they. There are a few numbers every business owner has to know off the top of your head. Whenever I work with my clients, like the first.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: The.

Like every. At the beginning of every session, I'm like, okay, tell me how much your business expenses cost, and I'll do it again at the next session. Tell me how much your business expenses cost, because I want to make sure that they know it. That for sure is number one. You have to know your fixed monthly burn. For me, my fixed monthly burn in my business is $4,000. Next, how much you're paying yourself. Know exactly that number, because then you can start to understand.

The.

Really, the structure of your business and also how much money you need to make. I. I mean, I use that all the time. I'm thinking, okay, I have four grand going out for sure. I have, you know, 17 grand in my bank account right now. I have a Runway of about three months.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Like, this is.

I'm constantly thinking these things through and making decisions about my launch strategy and when I'm gonna. When I'm gonna sell different offers that I have based off my numbers. If you're not taking A financial backed approach to the decisions that you're making in your business. You will wake up one day and be like, I have no idea what to do financially or strategically in my business to grow. Those two things are really like, you have to know those two things.

I guess.

Yeah, I think it's a very intimidating process initially. But. But you know, one of my friends, the way that she suggested approaching it that I think like kind of warms people up to it is the idea of like having a weekly money date and to like set up your conditions around you to be able to like relax a little bit into the exercise. Some people need to get support with us initially, but if we think about our relationship with money, like a relationship, a lot of people are in a relationship of codependency with money. There's a lot of anxious avoidance, attachment styles and things going on. So if we look at it like a relationship, it's normal that when you go out onto like that initial first date, then there's some nerves around that. So set it up for yourself to create some comfortability because it gets easier over time.

Right.

And start small. If you, if going through all your expenses and everything is overwhelming, you take a portion of it and work through it a little bit gradually over time, the little things add up. Just like Megan said of like how the little investments add up a little bit adds up. But one of my recommendations as a CEO of your business on a weekly basis, you need to be reviewing those numbers, have a money date, go over those figures.

Yeah, and I'll tell you too, because I know Megan because she's in my mastermind and she's a client of mine. And I know that she, she just got a va and I know she also has adhd.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: She's getting everything out of this call. She's awesome.

I would assign, I would assign to your va, like, hey, every week can you make sure I update my expense tracker? Like, can you make sure it gets done? And like, I would have her message you and tell her, tell you, like, okay, today you got to update the thing. Right. And like have her make sure that you do it. That's how I delegate everything. My team, I'm like, I just do everything my team tells me. I just tell them everything. Do it.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Instead of that 15% Megan, for taxes, you gotta set a little bit more about 25%.

Okay.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: So you don't get hit with a tax bill.

I have an anxious avoidant attachment with money for sure. You're not the only one.

Oh yeah, yeah, That's a good attachment styles with money, Sarah, Because I think that that is such an interesting thing to think about is how you relate to your money. And yeah, I think the attachment styles that even we bring to our relationships, our closest relationships, just like you said, money is a relationship. We can do the exact same thing with our money. How do we show up to our money? How do we not show up to our money? And I do think it's really great advice. Start slow. Take small pieces at a time even. You know, I think there's a lot of great resources online. One of the things that helps me with my money mindset is to make sure that I'm consistently consuming abundantly focused money content. And I will find people that I really enjoy listening to, the way that they talk about money and think about money. And it really helps my mind stay on track because I am definitely someone who I wasn't. I didn't just, like, come out of the womb with a great relationship with money. I just wrestle. I struggled for a long time and I still struggle. And my financial numbers look so much better than they ever have in my whole life. And I still can spin out and like, do the math to where I'm going to end up broke in six months. But I just really have to make sure that I am feeding myself content and people that have great relationships with money to keep me, my brain on track.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: And like, I love what Sarah said about the. The tracking and having that weekly money date because then you're. You're not avoiding the subject, right? You're like, no, I'm gonna be spending time with my money and looking at my money. And so it becomes something important. Of course, you cannot only just. And always finding that balance of not being so focused only on the money, finding your purpose in your business and doing those things, but having that time set aside. I have a checklist. I'm a checklist type of person that I have a weekly things that need to be done in my business every week. And one of them is to go through my expenses. And I have, you know, a software that. That reconciles everything for me. So once a. Once a week at least, I get those reconcile. And I think about my money, you know, my goal and things like that.

Yeah, I remember one of the things that really stands out for me from working with Whitney is you clobbered the shit out of me one day. I can always tell when Whitney's about to, like, really coach clobber me because she, like, she starts talking, like, very slow and she like, starts Asking all these powerful. And she did that to me one day, and she's like, would you say you have a good relationship with your money? And I was like, like, what? Like, does that even mean? And I was like, yeah, I guess. Like, I mean, it's fine. And you're. She ended up pointing out to me, and she's like, this poor money, it's just, like, sitting in this account. I had inherited some money, and I had, like, literally tried to give it to everybody in my family. Like, I had, like, tried to, like, give it away. And then it was, like, sitting in my checking account because I, like, didn't want to invest it. And Whitney would ask me about it, and I'd be like, well, that's not, like, my money, though. And she's like, like, whose money is it? Like, like. And she was just kind of like, I think you need to, like, really look at, like, are you honoring this money? Like, are you treating it well? And, like, how are you thinking? Because just thinking, like, oh, it's not mine, and no one will take it. It's like, it's. This poor money is just sitting there without any home. She's like, well, I think she's like, I don't really know. Like, I don't really know if that's the relationship you want to have.

I think sometimes what I know this is, like, when people ask, like, how's your relationship with money? Like, all people here is money. And for people who have, you know, a lot of worry, anxiety, that sort of thing around money, it just kind of shuts them down. So one of the people that I've learned a lot of my money philosophy from, Ken Honda. You know, one of the things he'll sometimes ask in his seminars is, like, how many people here love money? And, you know, not everyone's super comfortable always, like, admitting that. But for a lot of people, people, the answer is, like, on some level, yes, or they want to be able to, right? And then he follows that up with. So usually, like, the people he appeals to are, like, entrepreneurs. It's like, all hands go up. Then he says, okay, so how many of you now would say that money loves you back? And then it's like, okay, so one of the exercises that I often do with my clients is to think about, okay, if. If money were a person. So sometimes we need to, like, person quantify it a little bit to go deeper with this is how would. How would money describe you as a. As a romantic partner? How does it describe you and the way that you show up for it. And usually that's a very clarifying thing to. To kind of consider that vantage point.

Yeah. I think that's what was so powerful about that question for me was like, oh, well, who are you being in this relationship? Well, I'm being someone who's avoiding it, who literally tries to give it away, who doesn't want it, who's not utilizing it. Right. And it did kind of flip the vantage point about, like, who am I being in this relationship? And, like, what kind of relationship do I want to have? And that was, like, really interesting for me to think about, for sure. Really, really powerful.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: What is his name again?

Sarah.

Ken Honda. He's the first book, Happy Money.

Okay.

And the idea behind Happy Money philosophy is that. But the way that money is given or received affects the way that we experience money, which makes a lot of sense. Right. And so it's like, smiling or is there money crying? Not all money is good money, for that very reason, always make you feel better. Doesn't always leave customers feeling better about themselves. So we need to take that into account.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Thank you.

Yeah, that's great. I totally agree with that. One of the. One of the exercises that I actually had a somatic coach, because as a money coach, I firmly believe you have to get your own money coaching. But I. I had a somatic coach, and she was working with me on my own relationship with money and really helping me, in the beginning, get more comfortable with having a more intimate relationship with money. And she really had me, like, close my eyes, and she would, like, okay.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: She would.

She would say, like, okay, tell me where you feel most comfortable visualizing your money. Is it in the same room with you? Is it in your living room? Is it in your neighbor's house? Is it in the grocery store downtown? Is it in New York City? Like, what distance do you really feel most comfortable with your money? I was like, well, I think I feel most comfortable, like, if my money's just, like, in my neighbor's house. It's like, I can walk over there. It's pretty easy to get there. But, like, it's not sitting in the same room with me. And so she really helped me start to work on, okay, let's just work on moving your money just into your living room or just in your front yard. Doesn't have to be in the same room with you, but it's not gonna be at your neighbor's. It's gonna be in your front yard. How does that feel for you? And she really helped me work through a lot of the anxiety that I would feel when I would get closer and closer, closer to my money. And eventually I started to become very comfortable with my money in the same room as me. And I loved that exercise because it was so physical. It was really addressing my nervous system and really helping me address how I felt about money. And so I think that that can be a really beneficial exercise for those of you that are listening to. Also try with yourself as well. Like, where do you feel comfortable with your money now? And, like, what are some small movements that you can start to make where you start to get more and more comfortable having your money more intimately?

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Like in the.

In the next. Right next.

Just.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: Just make sure that you don't put that. The money into the sock drawer. Because, you know, according to some studies done in. In Norway, they identified that about a thousand in 15 stocks get lost in the year. So, you know.

All right, you guys, I want to make time to, like, wrap everybody up. Let's do, like, one more round of. Just, like, shouting out what you guys do and where to stalk you. Just for anybody that has just jumped on, if they missed the beginning, I want to make sure everybody knows where to go find all of you.

[CFM COACH ASSISTANT AI ]: All right, so I'll go first. I am Madeline Strasberg. If you go to Instagram, I am at Madstrass Coach, and I have. My website is StrasbourgCoaching.com and if you want to see the attributes that make you good with money in your mind and in your pocket, sign up for my nine video series and you're going to learn all about those.

Oh, that sounds amazing.

Awesome.

All right, again, my name is Whitney Morrison. My business is Holistic Money. You can find me on Instagram at Holistic Money. You can Find me on YouTube. I have a big library of videos that you can watch. All about money, Holistic Money there as well. And then I also have a podcast on Apple Spotify, the Holistic Money podcast. And I have a lot of cool freebies out right now. I would say the best one to get started with is my money map training. Just a really simple, easy approach to start to manage your money.

Yeah. And Megan, you gotta go get that and then give it to your assistant and make her make you update it. If you guys don't have an assistant yet, just put it in your phone like a reminder every week to, like, update it. And then. What about you, Sarah Rose?

Yeah, so I'm Sarah Rose. And if you're a coach who's in the process of converting your certifications and qualifications into a coaching business. You're going from certified to CEO. Then I have a program that's designed to support you. I'm also, I lead those Better Coach workshops on a weekly basis every Friday at 11am CST. And tomorrow's topic is going to be on how to keep your money happy. This is specifically tailored towards coaches, but at the same time, if you're not a coach, you'll probably get a lot.

Out of it as well.

So you're.

Tomorrow you're doing it.

Yeah.

Oh, that's so aligned. Well, you guys have to go to that, obviously.

So you can sign up for the workshops over at life coach to CEO.com and you just scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and you'll see the place where you can join us.

Yeah. And if you guys are listening or to the replay on the podcast, we'll put all their links in the show notes. So please go follow them and support them because they're amazing. I really appreciate you guys taking the time. I'm Faith Mariah. I'm a business mindset. I say I'm a mindset magician, business strategist and mindset magician. And I do business Power hour every week. Every Thursday at 2pm we do a different panel and have a different discussion about entrepreneurship. And it's really fun. So I'd love to have you guys join us for more power hours. And that's it. Oh, Megan got her money map. Congratulations, Megan. Now you have to know your expenses.

Thank you so much.

Thank you guys so much for coming. Bye, everybody.

Bye.

Bye.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode. Remember to, like, subscribe and share. And if you want to learn more about the attributes that make you good with money, go to my website right now, Strasbourgcoaching.com and sign up for the free 9 video series. I'll be back next week at the Brevio Brigade.