In this interview, a marriage, family, and sex therapist (Speaker A) and her business partner Kyle recount the founding of Wright Wellness Center and the financial chaos they faced early on, illustrated by a vivid anecdote about being unable to afford carrots due to an overdrawn bank account. They explain how their complementary backgrounds—therapy and corporate training—merged into a relationship‑coaching business that uses simple analogies to teach couples communication skills. Confronted with constant cash‑flow anxiety, they were urged by peers to read the book Profit First. Despite initial skepticism and resistance, they opened five separate bank accounts as the system recommends, negotiated away bank fees, and began allocating money for profit, taxes, owner’s pay, and operating expenses. The new structure immediately delivered relief: tax bills were covered, they could pay themselves regularly, and the mindset shifted from “self‑employed” to “company owner.” They discuss the psychological benefits of having a clear financial infrastructure, the decision to later work with a Profit First‑certified accountant, and their recommendation that other small businesses adopt the system incrementally—start with the book, set up the accounts, and avoid trying to do everything at once. The conversation ends with reflections on readiness, the power of small steps, and how the Profit First framework transformed their relationship with money and their business.
Chapters
We wanted a snack. I was like, "Oh, I want carrots." We didn't have carrots. And Kyle says, "Okay, well let's go out and get carrots." And so I check the bank account to see which card to use and it's overdrawn. And I was like, "Okay, we have to have cash somewhere laying around. Like, it's just carrots. Let's try to find cash." No cash. We go to our change jar and it had like 50 cents in it. And I looked at Kyle and I was like, we cannot afford carrots. And it was so heartbreaking.
Yeah, that was not a fun day.
It's really that that made me realize that we needed people in our lives to help us. And nobody in our lives at the time really understood that because in their mind it was like, okay, well, it's not working, so stop.
We started a company called Wright Wellness Center. We use scientifically backed research taught in an easy-to-understand format to help people have happier, healthier relationships.
I'm a marriage, family, and sex therapist, and I kept seeing individuals and couples come into my office that did not need therapy, but they all had the same problems. We started implementing some of the tools that I was teaching people in practice in our relationship, and Kyle was like, "Other people need to know these things." We met as corporate trainers working in a restaurant company, So we kind of combined our working together in the training aspect and then my therapy and degree and put it together. And then Right Wellness Center was born. He was able to help me break down these giant concepts into like food analogies, car metaphors, car metaphors and all of these different things. And I couldn't do it without him. But I told him, like, you need to leave your job if we do this. It was so up and down at the beginning. It was terrifying. Starting a business is terrifying and exciting all at the same time. And if we couldn't start a business together, we have no business helping couples communicate, right? We tossed ourselves into the deep end. But I didn't know about taxes, I didn't know about being profitable, I didn't know about any of these things. So when we started Wright Wellness Center, we didn't have any of that set up. That's a memory that sticks out to me like very clearly. I remember that feeling of like, we cannot go get carrots.
That was eye-opening in a lot of ways because we realized we needed to make a lot of changes.
Everybody kept saying, "Go read and implement Profit First. Go get this book, Profit First." And I was like, "That's a business money book. I'm not capable of reading that." This was the story I had playing in my head. These people say it's really good, but like they're also having Facebook ads. We're not there yet, so maybe it's not for us. Yet I ordered it. It had an immediate impact, and then we had so much resistance after we took the first step that we paused for like a month and a half. We were like, "No, it's too fast. We opened up the accounts. We're done. Like, can we just stop? It's fine." I think that at first it can come off as almost too structured, but it's one of those things that the structure allows the freedom. Because that step of even going to a new bank and saying, "I want to open up 5 accounts," and they look at you like you have 18 heads. And I brought the book book with me so I could be like, "Look, this guy says that you can open up—" Like, because I felt like I needed to back myself up with it. So we went to Chase, they told us they would charge us bank fees, and we literally got up and were walking towards the door and they were like, "Well, hold on—" Like, it was like bartering at like a market. They're like, "No, no, no, we can waive them!" And they did. So we got our 5 accounts without fees.
Setting it up was awesome. We're like, "We did it!" This is great. We didn't touch it for like a month and a half, and then we're like, oh, we should probably use this as it's intended. And so we tried one day and just sort of funneled money in and laid it out the way it's supposed to go. And when it all spread out the way it was supposed to work based on the book, we're like, oh.
And the relief of seeing everything go in the different places. And then our tax bill came in.
The tax thing is my favorite one.
Favorite. Favorite. The tax bill came in. My first instinct is like, oh no, we don't have— because old thinking, right? And so that old thinking kicked back in. In and I thought, oh wait, no, we have a tax account now. Does it have money in it? I wasn't used to it yet. And I go check the tax account and there was more in the tax account than what our tax bill was. And I was like, whoa, like it was the best feeling. I transferred it right out of the account, paid on the IRS site, and I was like, why did we wait so long to do this?
There's just so much that we didn't know what we were doing. And I look back on that being like, well, this is why having the system that Profit First gives, especially with the taxes, is so helpful. Our taxes are accounted for all the time without worrying about it, and it's taken care of without even thinking. It's a huge weight off our shoulders.
We pay ourselves more regularly now. We know how much we're gonna make based on how much the business brings in, instead of it just being like, well, hopefully like a client pays today and then we can go get carrots. It feels so much better than just having a personal savings, which I'd never had because I was constantly living paycheck to paycheck. I was like, what is savings?
The biggest resistance that I felt was like, oh, it feels like a lot. And then I'm like, ooh, but am I, am I this serious about what I'm doing? I am. Let's do it. And it's been greatly rewarding.
There are just so many different applications to this that I can see moving forward. It's changed the way that I think about money. Don't get me wrong, there's obviously still moments and times of like, oh, well, we need to up our revenue. But the times of stress or struggle is not coming from a lack of infrastructure. It's coming from just like normal business things. Everything that we can control has been put in place, and that to me has been the biggest gift of Profit First, is that I don't have to worry about our money consciously. We let go of our accountant before we implemented Profit First, and now moving forward, we're gonna definitely go with a Profit a Profit First professional so that we don't have to deal with that anymore. But I don't see why you wouldn't go with a Profit First professional. Like, I want my accountant to know more than me, so I want them to know the system we're using too. I do think that all small businesses can benefit from Profit First. I don't think that they all should implement it. I think that if they're ready to achieve peace of mind around their finances, then it's the next best step.
Don't try to do it all at once, but start. Get the book. If it's the time for you to implement it, then just go for it rather than overthinking the decision to act.
This whole idea of when I'm ready, you're never ready. Like, none of us are ever ready. Anything that's scary, we're not going to feel prepared fully to go do. And it's just those little baby steps that eventually you're like, oh, I have a whole accounting system in my business now. And I know for me it really helped switch the mindset between working for myself, like being self-employed, versus owning a company. Because now we own a company and our bank shows that we own a company.
