From Solopreneur to Nine-Figure Exit: Danielle McKinley on Scaling with Systems & Soul

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Yeah, IT systems are your bestie. That there, there couldn't be more truth to it than that.

Yeah, they really, really are. Okay. I want to take people back because you have such a diverse entrepreneurship journey and I think it's really interesting to hear where people come from and how they got to where they are. So I did a little bit of cyber stalking, as I1 does, and you have really done a lot. So you've gone from dance teacher, bartender, you sold gym memberships, you were an event coordinator, you got into payment solutions, and then you started scaling and selling multiple eight figure companies within the software space. So can you just take us back? And how did you get on this path? And like, did you always know that you were going to be an entrepreneur? Did you always know that you wanted to scale and sell SaaS companies like, I imagine not. But take us back on that journey and how you got there.

No looking back. So hindsight's always 20 20, right? So looking back, I'm like, oh, there signs. There were signs like when I was little, playing with friends, we would play business and have phones and papers and notepads. Like, my mom would always be like, here she is with all her crap. I would just have binders. And I was really obsessed with office materials. So there were signs, right? And I didn't realize this until recently. It all stems from my money story. So my money story was built, like many of ours in our childhood and, and growing up. My dad is an alcoholic. He is undiagnosed bipolar. My parents fought all the time, often about money. When I was eight years old, I asked my mom to leave my dad and she responded with, honey, I would if I could, but I can't afford to care for you kids on my own. I didn't know it then, but in that moment, I made a decision about money. I knew something that 8 year olds shouldn't know. That money wasn't just to buy things. It was your choice to stay or go in a situation you didn't like. My money story was solidified. That's when all also my entrepreneurial flame was lit. Didn't realize it then, so I made a decision about money, like so many of us do. Like any listeners, if you think back to your childhood, I can guarantee there is a moment in time where you made a decision about money. That it's scarce, that it means that you're greedy, that you're less than if you don't have it because the neighbor across the street made you feel shitty about it, there's something there, right? So my decision was it was your ability to have choice and to have freedom. I was gonna go make all the money that I could possibly make, and I was gonna do it to make sure that I always had a choice to stay or go, no matter what the circumstance was. I, in my journey, discovered I was really good at sales. And that is sort of what took me through the timeline that you described. Like, oh, being a bartender, I was good with people. You have to be good with people to be good at sales. Right. I learned at the gym membership that that was, wow, like, I can make a lot of money doing this, and that gives me my freedom and choice. So my drive was always about, how do I make money to have that independence? And after some of the exits and realizing that they don't feel as good as I thought they would, or that listeners are probably going, wow, that's cool, and they're picturing it in their head. And I realized I had to make a shift, and that's when I dove into my money story. So the short answer is that trajectory came from my money story.

I love that. And this is one of the reasons that you and I connected so deeply is because we had that similar connection. We obviously love money and we love helping women shift their relationship with it, because it's just. It's so at the core of being able to do anything and to do hard things. So I'm curious, that money story that you had, with the hindsight that you have now, how has it helped you and how has it held you back? What's the contrast there of that story? Because I think there's always polarity there.

Nothing's ever going to be perfect. Right. So how it's helped me is I've acquired a tremendous amount of knowledge. I am a multifaceted business coach now as a result of it, I can really wear a lot of different hats to help my clients. But it's held me back in the sense that I experienced massive burnout. I dislocated my shoulder in my sleep in 2021. I'm a generator in human design. And so I've got, like, that endless energy. But I wasn't always good at listening to, hey, you need to slow down. There's some things that I sacrificed, like building a in your early 20s. There's trips to Europe that I passed on. I can go do those now. But they're going to be very different than the experience would have been in my early 20s. I really made a decision. I'm going to set myself up. And as a result of that, there were things that I didn't get to experience in my early 20s because I was building for now.

You were building because you wanted to make sure that you didn't end up in a similar situation. And I feel like a lot of people can relate to that. I know that that's something I resonate with. I know that a lot of my clients resonate with the idea of watching our parents, for better or for worse, make decisions that maybe didn't lead them down the path of the life that they wanted to end up in or that maybe you would have hoped or wanted for them. And we're trying to course correct. But I think it's really cool that there is so much good in that because now you've got the structure, you've got all this stuff in place. You, you know, you're a very successful entrepreneur, you've got a beautiful family. Like, there's been so much good that can come out of that. And sometimes I think, especially in our world, talking about money stories, it's. It's really easy to harp on the negative and how it may hold you back, but there is also a lot of positive in that. And now you've been able to lead a different example for your kids.

I'm learning how to apply what was once the drive to just have the independence and to give. Like, I always knew that I wanted to be a mom, right. And knowing that what my upbringing was, I knew I wanted to give my kids a different life. And I knew that you can't predict the future. Things happen in marriage. I wanted to guarantee that if things went away, I didn't like that. I always had an exit strategy for it. And that's really how I thought. I think that hindsight, now that I'm aware of the money story, I'm able to course correct some of the negative aspects of it and apply the skills I learned because of the negative aspects, to help more women and make a bigger impact on having, like, no resistance around money and opening the door to be like, look, I want to. I want to change this. I want to learn about it and to take action on it.

I love that so much. I'm curious your perspective, like, what is a common money story that you see holding a lot of women back? Because I think as unique as we all have backstories, there's just some core beliefs. I'm curious what some of the ones that you notice are in your clients, and I'd love to hear. How do you help them break through that and start to really rewrite it?

I love this question because there's so many themes. For one, everyone thinks they're the only one that feels that way. So there's a shame of, is anyone else feeling this too? And then money's taboo, so we don't typically lead with that. We'll talk about struggles in our marriage or struggles in our parenting or struggles in our sales or our messaging, but not in the fact that, hey, none of us were ever taught how to manage money. I don't know what to do, but I'm afraid to ask you if you know what to do. Right. So definitely, like, fear of, am I alone in this? And then there's common ones, like, more money, more problems. And that's usually somebody who, you know, growing up, their money story stems around people who have money are greedy or they saw, like, ebbs and flows of, they had money, they lost money, they had money, they lost money. Then if I get money, I won't know what to do with it. Right. So they have this, like, feeling that, hey, they're gonna do well, but ultimately they're gonna go five steps backward because they don't know how to manage it. Another will be, like, just around, like. Like, scarcity mindset and not being worthy of abundance and thinking that, like, they've hit the ceiling. Those would be, like, probably the. The top three that are really consistent with clients.

Yeah. I think nail on the head. Those are the same things that I see often, too. And it's so interesting. Like I said, we all think I should know this. And then all of a sudden, the deeper path, it's just like, no, actually, you shouldn't. There's no reason that you would have this information. And so many people feel like that. I think that's so fair and worthiness a lot with women specifically, I see in moms, like, there's a lot of mom guilt that I think that Comes up with finances. What's like your favorite go to tip to help someone to start to rewrite that? Because I think it's really important for people to realize that your past doesn't have to be your future. We all have limiting beliefs when it comes to money. It doesn't matter what your. Your upbringing was, whether you grew up with no money or you grew up with a lot of money. You were going to have a story that you tell yourself about what you believe to be about money, and you get to rewrite it. I think that's really, really exciting. What you decide now gets to be the future story. So what's like your favorite go to tip that you like to give your clients on shifting their mindset?

I love this one. And it's something that we can do with listeners right this moment. Okay, first, before we do the tip, I want to set some context. I believe that you have a money story. Your money story is programmed into you. You absorbed it. It's emotional, it's got deep roots. And it, it usually stems from something in your childhood where you observed or were told things about money. Then you have your money mindset. Your money mindset is your present. So that's what you choose to do with the story. That's where you get to do what you just described. We get to rewrite it. We can change it, we can strengthen it. I talk a lot about money muscle and that it's like any other muscle in your body. If you don't use it, it gets weak. If you wait a while to start exercising it again, it doesn't feel fun at first. Right. So how we begin the rewiring system. And one of my favorite ways to start is think about your money story listeners right now. You've probably already thought of something in your childhood where you're like, o man. Or you're nodding your head yes or thoughts were pouring in. Whatever your negative belief, usually the first one that comes to mind, that's the deepest rooted. Write that down and then ask yourself, what if I could believe something different? What if something different could be the outcome? And write down a positive reframe for it. So if it was more money, more problems, it's more money, more opportunities, for example. Then even if you don't believe it right now, because that's what happens with these deep limiting beliefs is we're like, cool, Danielle, that sounds nice, but I don't believe that. That's okay. I want you to pull out your phone, the phone that you're listening to this podcast on and I want you to open your alarm and I want you to set an alarm. So I know Madison, me and you are into the angel numbers and all of that fun stuff. So my favorite number is 3. My alarm goes off every day at 3:33pm so choose a time that works best for you and title your alarm your positive reframe. What's going to happen is you're now going to see that every single day. You're going to start to rewire your mind, your neurotransmitters, to begin to believe it. If you couple that with taking action, like listening to busy getting better or working on your money story or your investment strategy or your cash flow tracking, and you're seeing that too. So action with the visualization, you will shift and your money mindset will become separate from your money story.

Obsessed. Love that. We are all about that here on the podcast. So, guys, see, it's not just like me yelling at you. It really does work, right? And I have the same hack. So I have one that goes off at 8am every single morning as I'm starting my day. And it says I am worthy and deserving of all of this success, abundance and money that I desire. And I say it to myself before I start every single day. And it's just a reminder of like, yeah, I am worthy of these desires and they are desiring me too. And it's such a great way to just like set the tone throughout your day. As a reminder, we like to use the text to automate our reminders. So I love that that's part of it. Because you're such a systems girly. Okay. I want to talk a little bit about moving from this solopreneur. You. Right. You were very scrappy in that. In that chapter, right? That's a chapter I'm in. I think that's a chapter a lot of my audience would be in if they're their business era right now. What was the mindset shift and maybe moving from this, like, scrappy solopreneur into building a company and leading a company that is worth nine figures? That's a big gap for a lot of people to really conceptualize. So what mindset shifts had to change? Who did you have to become on that journey of moving from solopreneur to leading a business that was worth selling for nine figures?

So many different versions. Okay. There's not like one. If there was a light switch, we would all be flipping it it, right? There's a lot of darkness, a lot of layers of peeling Back of getting to know yourself. And there's many, many versions that you'll go through to get to, like, a big dream or a big exit and things like that. But if there's one thing that I could nail in and you could take away from, like, a shift that is a must, is that you're never going to do it alone. The hard thing for entrepreneurs is when you are building something that you're super passionate about, it's your baby. And so the hardest thing to do, when I look back on the journey, one of the hardest things for me to do was, was begin to delegate. And I had an epiphany moment because I was deep in studying. I was reading. I mean, I have tons of mentors. They don't know they're my mentors. Right? Like, you're a mentor for people, people who listen to my podcast. I'm a mentor for them. Authors are mentors. So don't always think of a mentor as, like, you have to physically be with them or paying them as a coach. There's ways to get mentorship. It's endless in today's age. So I was deep in that journey of learning from people who have walked the path before me. What I started to notice is that all had two things in common every single time. The people that I was looking up to, and it's that they deeply understand their strengths and weaknesses, and they're masters of delegating where they're weak. So that was a pivotal point for me, is I'm really good at sales and relationships and systems, but I can't be the onboarding department. I can't be the channel sales representative. I can't be taking all of the sales calls for the organization, right? So how do I start to break down my strengths and then use data to determine where the best seat is for me? Because no one's going to care about the company as much as you do or the thing that you're building. Becoming a master of delegation and how you do that. So let me back up. How you do that is start to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Your weaknesses is where you want to hire from and where you want to delegate. And as you begin to grow, sometimes your strengths, even though you're really good at them, they may not be the best use of your time to move the ball forward in the journey. So don't be afraid to look at it and go, okay. Although I'm really good at this, my time is better spent in seat A versus seat B. So, short answer, because I like to give long ones is you've got to become good at delegating. You've got to know when to pass it on and ask for help.

Yeah, I think that's such a good message and a reminder because it's so hard to want to pass things off because you're like, nobody cares more than me. And how are they going to pour the same level of energy into this? Also, if you are someone who's on this path, like you're probably a highly ambitious person who is capable to do a lot of things. But I love what you said there is. Even if you can do it, the question is really, should you be doing it? And when we're starting out, you know, I think of it as you have either time or money at the beginning. You probably have a lot more time to be pouring into these tasks. Eventually you're going to have more money. And now it's hey, how do I start to buy back some of my time? I think that's really important. I love the leaning on your strengths. This is actually a conversation I've been having with people this week around women specifically not wanting to own their strengths, not wanting to raise their hand and admit what they are good at. Also how easy it is to overlook your strengths because your strengths are often things that do come really easy to you. We really like to reward things that we feel like we have to work for as a human species. So sometimes we don't value what we're good at. I think it's a really, really important skill to be able to identify what your strengths are and confidently own them without having to feel like you are being braggy. It's like, no, I'm just good at this. I'm not good at this. So what's your advice to women if they're trying to figure out what are my strengths and how can I confidently own them?

Y so if you're trying to discover your strengths and look like there's gonna be a journey, cuz we as humans, we evolve, right? So number one, start to look at, like you said, what's coming easy to you and just start journaling on it. And even you can start with like what do you like to do? And then start to look at the data on is that thing you like to do? Is there a revenue opportunity for it to support the shift that you're looking for? Right. Ask your friends too because sometimes you need someone else to see it in you to help build that confidence. Or you're. You're not aware of it because it is so easy. So solicit your close group of friends or colleagues and ask them what. What do you see that I'm good at and what sets me apart from other people? If you're journaling and you're like, nothing's coming to me, I don't know. That's another really great place to start.

Love that. I've told this story on the podcast before, but when I was still in corporate and I was trying to really figure out what the next step was because I didn't know what. I just knew what I was doing was definitely not the rest of my life path. I did this. I. I went around and I would just pay attention. I started a notes, app, phone, and anytime someone said something nice about me, anytime someone said I did something. Well, for me, a lot in corporate was, I love the way you said that. Can you say that again so I can try and capture it? Or I love the way that you wrote that email. Those little things that in the moment, you're just like, whatever, yeah, sure, I'll say it again. Sure, I'll help you write your email. Pay attention to that. What I took out of that was, oh, I'm really good at articulating my message. I can get good point across. And that's. Talking is just something that I've always done. I don't really think about it. That led me to starting this podcast to create a platform where I can talk about things, things that I really care about, because people tell me they want to hear me speak. Right. And so it's something so little where you do have to sit with it. And then a while later, it came to the idea of, okay, well, maybe, maybe this could turn into something. And it's fun. It is really fun. I think that's the other piece that I always want people to hear is it doesn't always have to be hard. Whatever you're having the most fun doing is probably going to be an indicator of where you should be spending some of your time and what a strength is for you.

Yeah. Path of least resistance. Right. I would say too, for from like, the owning your strength side is not everybody's gonna love it. It when you own your strength. And that's like the real, real. There's going to be people that talk behind your back. There's going to be people that try and pull you down and are like, why are you. Why aren't you going on the trip? We're in our 20s. Let's go to yacht week. And if. If it matters to you, to do the thing.

The.

The people and the cheerleaders that are meant for you will come. And sometimes it's painful for the space to open up for them to come into your life. You're going to lose some people along the way, but if you stand in it, it. The right circle will come. So no sugar coating here. Owning your strengths isn't always easy. Yeah, so true.

It's so, so true. But it's so necessary if you really want to lean into your purpose. Your purpose is going to be your strengths. Like, you really have to learn how to leverage those if you want to make the biggest impact. Okay, I love that. I want you to take us to the moment that you signed the exit deal for this company. Like, you sign a deal for nine figures. Like, what the fuck is going on in your mind? What's the first thing that you do? How do you celebrate? Are you processing? Are you happy? Are you sad? I want to hear what's going on in that moment.

So once you get to that moment, so much has happened. Like, honestly, I was pregnant with my second child, and I was exhausted. But there's. It's not just, oh, somebody wants to buy you, and then you sign the deal, right? There's tons of auditing. There's books that they have to look at. There's a whole process. It took almost a year for ours, so by the time you get there, you're like, yay. And to be honest, my journey was hard. I had three other partners, and in the experience, I was the youngest. I was the only female. The journey was really tough. So by the time we got there, I was so ready to be through it. I remember signing the contract and the money hitting the bank and being like, that's it. It didn't feel anything like what I had had pictured it would feel like in my head. It was a huge accomplishment. But for some reason, when I was doing it, I always knew this. That wasn't the big thing for me, that I was meant for more. But that journey would teach me the skills and give me the experience and the credibility that would be required to do the big thing. I still today, don't know what that big thing is. I just know that I am, like, more aligned than ever. And the work that I'm doing feels really, really good, Good now. So it's not what people would expect. And I think everyone's journey with an exit is different. Right. My journey to the exit was really, really challenging. By the time we got there, I was ready to move forward, and it Just didn't feel it was empty, it was anti climatic. What I am so grateful for about it being that way is it forced me to look inward in a deep way that I had never done before to discover like, okay, who I am and who I want to be. They're totally out of alignment. That led me to discover it's because of my money story. Right? It's not the money that gives you the fulfillment, it's the purpose and the impact. Like we all raise our hands and we're like, we want more time, freedom, we want to make a bigger impact. Right? What does that require? It requires money. So it's just a vehicle in the game. And that's why now I'm like, how can I help people get what they actually want and the missing piece. And I know you know this because it's what you, you do too is to teach them about how to leverage money and how to play the game of money. And every time I think about it, I'm like, I need to write a book just on an exit. I feel like because there's so many different emotions and they're so different from what people talked about or what I had anticipated. But at the end of the day, I'm so grateful for the experience because I wouldn't be who I am today with.

I think it's so interesting because again, I've talked about this too. A big motivator for me going down this path was hitting a six figure income in my corporate job and just being like, wait, why? Why doesn't this feel the way that I thought it was supposed to feel? It's so easy to put money on a pedestal. Here you are saying pretty much the same thing with building and scaling and exiting a nine figure company. Those are two very different financial outcomes. However you want to look at it, but the feeling is still the same. If your purpose behind it, if the intention behind it, if there's not fulfillment behind it, then it does feel a little bit empty and it can leave you feeling a little bit get lost after that, I would imagine.

Absolutely. Because you like, it's just bananas. The experience when someone acquires you, you know, you're not in charge anymore. So you hear all the time, it's your baby, like we talked about in the beginning. So you're like, wait, why are you not handling like that? Why are you not doing the customer experience? And you just like really have to surrender and let go and you do you like. My clients were my everything. I loved our clients, I loved our partners and Pouring into them. And now they're having this different experience, but you have no control over that experience. I wish I had, like, one word for it, but it's the experience of going through those highs and lows and those ebbs and flows of the emotional roller coaster to. To building something. And it's there anywhere. Like, I think the. The thing I love about money, and we talked about this a moment ago, is that people think they're alone in it. It doesn't matter which threshold you're at. Like you said, the feelings are the same.

Yeah. Way more relatable. Was there ever a part of you that regretted selling? Like, when you're seeing the way that they're taking over and not doing things your way? Was there any part of you that regretted going down that path and wishing you kept it? Or did you always know at the core, like, this is the right decision?

No, I always knew at the core that was what we set out to do. The mission was always an exit. It was to build and sell. I knew that wasn't my life's purpose, but for whatever reason, when I reflect on it. So it's not saying that I knew that in the moment, but remember how you asked me, did you want to do that when you were a kid?

Right.

And I'm like, well, there were signs. It's the same thing. I didn't necessarily know the signs in the moment moment, but I know for certain now that if I wouldn't have gone through that journey, I wouldn't be the coach that I am now. I wouldn't be helping in the way that I am now, and I wouldn't have the skills to do it without that exit.

Yeah. Always giving us the purpose for our next step. Always preparing us for the next chapter, which I think is lovely. Okay, let's get into to exits, because I know this is something that you obviously love to talk about and really building with the exit in mind. Can you explain what are exit options? Because I know when you and I spoke offline, this was really exciting to hear about. You know, I think there is one way that a lot of people might think about exits or people might be like, what do you even mean when you're saying you're exiting a company? So what are some different ways people can exit? And then when you think about building with the exit in mind, like, what are some things people should really be thinking about that maybe we're not? Right. I think most of us get into entrepreneurship, like me, we're like, I'm go build a Business. I'm gonna make an impact and I'm gonna have fun. No part of me's really thought about an exit other than maybe hiring people to take loads off of my plate. I' so intrigued by this and I would love for you to break it down for everybody. Yes.

I want you to think about it. So goal setting, right? That's an easy one that we can all relate to that when you're goal setting, you want to reverse engineer. If you want to double your numbers, okay, what is that going to take? And an exit strategy is no different. You want to start with the end in mind. Like, do you want freedom? Do you want to keep the company? Do you want to run the company? Do you want to be on a board? How? What do you see the end outcome? Everybody starts with their impact pact and that they want the freedom. Okay, but what does that actually look like for you? Because it can be different for everybody. I think when we hear Exit, we typically think my experience, where you sell a company and an exit doesn't have to be the sale of your baby. It can be that you work yourself out of it and you hire an intermittent CEO or you come in and sit on the board, or you don't ever get rid of it, but you leverage systems and automation and a team to continue running it. Maybe you just act as the face of it and just do the parts that you really, really like. So Exit doesn't always have to be grow to sell when you are building something because life happens, we are going to age, right? What do we want that to look like for retirement? What do we want that to look like at a certain age? And then how do we work backwards to make it happen. But a lot of people that start a business like you just described, they don't think about what is the exit strategy. Right. So when you're doing it, that's the best way. Just with goals. You wouldn't say, I want to double my numbers and not have a plan in place. When you say I want time, freedom and I want to make more impact, what does that look like?

What does that look like?

What does your day to day look like? How is your daily schedule mapped out? How much time off are we talking? And then you build, and it doesn't happen overnight. Right. But you build according to that and you use that as your anchor and your driver for the decisions that you're making to get it there.

What's something that you see a lot of entrepreneurs doing wrong when they're setting up their business or working to get to the point where they. They can sell it or exit. What. What are some things that maybe from a structural perspective, maybe it's a systems perspective, maybe it's a mindset. What are we doing wrong if we want to sell our business one day? Yeah.

Look, none of us are perfect, right? And I don't have all the answers. I wish that I did. I know some things, but you should always be learning. I want to start with that. Like, the second you think you know everything, you're done. Nobody knows everything. So to kind of encompass a general answer that feeds a lot of those descriptors that you just had, I would say that the number one thing that I see happening wrong, and I was guilty of this too, is waiting too long to get help and to delegate and sitting in the like. I just have to figure it out. It's true what they say, that when you, when you solicit help from somebody who's done it before you or has that niche skill set, that's one of their core strengths that they're using and providing impact to the world on, you truly collapse the timeline for yourself and for me. I'll give an example in it took me two years to hire an assistant. Two years when I was in the thick of it. My fiance at the time, he's like, you need an assistant. And I'm like, I don't have time to train one. I don't have time to train one. And someone listening to this is probably going, oh, yeah, that's me right now. So I want to give some tips on how you can start to get out of that. If that's the place you're living in now, and it's to build your operating procedures while you're doing the thing mapping out the things you know, eventually you're going to delegate. Delegate when you're early on in the business, or even if you're in the middle of the game but you're. You didn't delegate fast enough, is to take a task like podcasting, for example. Podcasting is a leg of your business. How are we going to create operations and systems to make it flow so that if you're a podcast assistant left tomorrow, they could sit in the seat and read your sops and do the work for you. So delegating, that's the number one thing that I see people waiting too long to do do, asking for help.

I think I hear this often. How do you know? Like, if you're looking back on that situation now, was there, like a clear moment where that was probably the best point to hire the assistant because I think there probably is a point where you're like, I am so busy, I don't even now I need to put in these systems now I need to go set aside and train some things. So, like, is there like one or two things to look out for? I'm like, am I at that point, do I need an assistant? Like, what am I looking for in my business?

Yeah, so you likely are there if you're thinking about it. So it's one of those things where you almost don't know until you need it. Right. So it's, it's a hard thing to solve for unless you have somebody kind of understanding your exit strategy. Where are you going? What's your ultimate plan for this? And where are you spending your time now? So if you're thinking about it, the chances are really good that you, you need to bring on somebody and you need to get some help. But one way to identify it is to do a time audit. So for a week, journal your time, literally everything that you're doing for the day, as truthful as you can be. No one else is reading it, it's just you. And then that will give you a lot of information to go, wow, I'm really wasting my time on these things. Or if you're, I'm not sure what to hire for or what my assistant or my VA would do. That's a really great way to see it. And then once you see it, then you do what I described, where you start to build the operating procedure so that it's mapped out and you want to build it as if you're brand new. You have no context. Can you walk in and open the files and follow the step by step or the video guides and do the test task? I'm a big fan of working interviews. If you're looking to get an Assistant or a VA, having them go through one of your SOPs and see if they can complete it, that's going to do two things. One, tell you if the SOP is good or needs revision, and two, if they are a right fit, you get to know them a bit more.

And it's like, I feel like some people might be hearing this and their eyes are glossing over. Oh, this sounds so boring. The back end systems. But you really do hit a point where you're, yeah, that sounds so hot. Please let me outsource some of them. This and give me some of my time back. Let's talk too about the mindset shift here, because now You're. You're moving from solopreneur to you're hiring someone maybe full time, but also just maybe contracting a couple hours out. Now you're starting to give away some of that revenue to somebody else, right? To free up your time. We know that there's a benefit there. But let's talk about that mindset shift, because you're now having a team. You have someone that you're responsible for. You have someone that reports to you. You're paying somebody. I think a lot of people might be in this, the stage. Where do I want to let go of that revenue? And how do I start to really own and see the value of. Of moving in that direction and no longer being in the solopreneur era?

It's something that is real. It happens to everyone. It happened to me too. It's simply you're looking at it through the wrong lens. That person is not an expense. They are an investment in your future self and the ultimate plan in life that you want to have now. Things can happen. People aren't perfect. You could go through bad hires. I certainly did have some stories. Right. But if you don't take the jump, you're not going to learn the skills to be the leader for that person. Person. A couple of things that you want to do is you want to get really clear on if you need it. So doing some of the things that I talked about, really clear on your core values and what the overall mission is and the culture that you want to create and expanding your company with people. Because we're humans, right? We want it to be a good experience. And if you identify those things, you're more likely to hire somebody that is a good fit. And if you're willing to do the work to identify the roles that they're going to do, you're setting them up to for success so they understand what they're supposed to do every day when they come to work for you. I think it really is just identifying what do you want that to look like and spending the time with it. But if you're looking at it like it's an expense that's costing me money and now I'm making less. You're not ready to hire. You need to do some additional work because it's actually an investment to make more money. When I hired my Assistant, after waiting two years, in the next 12 months, I doubled my numbers. So she more than paid for herself. Right. I might have triggered something in a listener where they're like, how do I know if my team member I currently have is the right fit. When you hire, you want them to not only be covering what you're paying them, but 3xing what you're paying them. So, like, they're paying for themselves and they're earning you money. That could be. Not necessarily like they're a sales rep, but it could be that they've allowed you to record two podcasts a week instead of one and you're making X on the podcast. Right. So it's all. All variable in how they're making the money. But if you're wondering that, look at the data first. Are they paying for themselves and earning you money on top of it? And then if you're having to micromanage them, they're likely not the right fit, they're not in the right seat. It doesn't mean they're not the right fit for your organization. They just may not be in the right seat for their skill set.

Love that. Okay, what are two systems? One or two that everybody needs? And if you're like, if you don't have these, these are the best place to start before even thinking about hiring out. Because I think with AI, there is so much benefit to being able to maybe do a little bit more on our own as a solopreneur before we venture out. What's one to two? And this could be business systems or like finance systems. What do people need to have in their business today? They're going to leave this and be like, oh, shit, I'm implementing now.

Yeah, number one thing, if you have no systems or you need something is a cash flow tracker. You need to know your number. The number one thing that I see is people may have like a financial planner or an investment account, but they have no idea exactly how much money is coming and going each month. You need to know those numbers in order to set yourself up for success with your financial planner, with your CPA, or with your tax strategist. Okay, so a cash flow tracker. The second one is going to be a CRM to keep track of your customers. You want a CRM that has things like text automation, email automation has robust automation in it. Sometimes entrepreneurs will move to a CRM and they'll go with something that is more affordable and you get what you pay for. I want you, if you're thinking about making that decision, keeping your end goal in mind, because migrating CRMs and databases is not fun. That's again, a mindset thing on. Do you believe in yourself that you can get there and what are you ultimately building? So Cash flow tracker in a CRM.

Love that. Yeah, we got to know where the heck the money is going. If we don't know there, you've got to start there because it's a must. You're not going to have a sustainable business for too long if we don't know where the heck our finances are going. I love that. Okay. You are also really into helping people preserve their wealth. One of the things that I love. You have this listed in your bio. I'm going to read it just as you have written. Leverage life insurance. Like the 1% love that we are obsessed with thinking about how the wealthy are utilizing the tools that are available to us to not only grow our wealth, but preserve it. Life insurance is one of those things from a money perspective that I think, think is very confusing. On the Internet. There are a lot of people talking about life insurance. There are a lot of people trying to sell people life insurance and convincing them that they need it and that this is how the 1% are getting ahead. I think that there's a ton of misinformation on the Internet about this vehicle, this tool that you can leverage. So can you please give the people a breakdown of life insurance and how are people actually leveraging it like the 1%? And more importantly, how could someone get started? Why does somebody need life insurance as part of their money plan?

Yeah, sure. So a couple of things. Like anything, there's bad actors out there, right? When you're working, when you're, when you're getting life insurance, you want to make sure that they're credentialed. You want to, you want to look for brokers that are nationwide because that means that they have access to more carriers, which means they're more informed and more likely to find a plan that's specific to you. How are they leveraging it like the 1% percent? It's through a policy called an IUL. It's an index. Universal life. Don't snooze over. Stick with me. Okay? This is a policy that allows you to grow cash value that you can use tax and penalty free while you're alive. You've heard the term. I know we talked about this a little bit. Becoming your own bank, that's a way to do it. You have to pour a lot of money into an iul, right. But you're able to use it for investments. Like I have clients that will use it to flip a house and they'll pull out $60,000 dollars for the rehab costs. They'll flip the house. They'll make the money, they'll put the 60,000 back into the policy and let it compound interest and rinse and repeat. Another creative way would be for business owners, right? I've got a client that purchased a car under their IUL and they use the money from the IUL to pay cash for a car that was for the business and then they got the tax deduction for it as well. So in simplest terms, it is a vehicle. That's part of your investment strategy. Where bad actors get it wrong is they're like, no, use an IUL as your investment strategy and your retirement plan. No, no, no, no, no. You want to have your traditional accounts. This is just another leg in your wealth strategy to diversify your plan and protect your money. What do I mean by that? So things happen. 70% of us are going to have a long term care incident. It's the sickest number. I hate that number. Which means you're going to need hospice or in home health care or cancer treatments, things like that. If that occurs before retirement age and you need to pay for those and you're using your okay or your Roth, you're going to be penalized for those because you're taking the money out before retirement. The other thing that this IUL does is it comes with what's called living benefits. So in those scenarios you get to pull from the death benefit to pay for it tax and penalty free. That's how it's protecting your wealth, right? So you're not accessing it. And then of course, the traditional way that everyone thinks about when it comes to life insurance is if you pass away. And iuls are permanent coverage. So they're not like term policies where once you hit 65, you've put all this money in and now the coverage is just gone and you're too old and you're not healthy enough to get a new plan. UL has the protection. And my favorite thing is for with kids, getting kids. Iuls I have a 6 year old and almost soon to be 3 year old. They'll both have have multi million dollars at 65 if they don't touch their cash at all. And they let it just keep growing in their iul. Now they have a permanent coverage plan at a very low contribution amount monthly.

Love that. This is like what we're talking about, putting systems in place to actually implement and build generational wealth. Right? You are setting your kids up to make things so much easier by like you said, just contributing a small amount. Now when does someone know if they're ready for an iul. Right. If they're looking at investing into things like their 401k, their IRA, and they're really just focusing on, on their retirement, at what point would you recommend somebody actually start to look at and prioritize something like life insurance into their, into their money plan?

Yesterday. Okay, so the best time to get life insurance is yesterday. The next best time is today. And the reason being is that life insurance is based on your age, health and habits. So the younger you are that to get the coverage, the healthier you typically are, the lower the cost of insurance is, which is what determines your monthly income amount.

Right.

And if you are, are building a business, if you are planning for retirement, the sooner that you, you get the policy, the longer time it has for the money to grow. So it should be something that you start as soon as possible if the funds are there, Especially if you're somebody who's maxing out HSAs, maxing out your Roth IRA, take a portion of that and diversify so that now you have that, that coverage for the ultimate goal and if life lives before the age of retirement.

Okay, love that. Anything to say on the other types of insurance out there? I know you mentioned term. I feel like there's like term whole universal, like we just hear all this terminology like iuls and stay away from everything else is kind of what I'm gathering from this.

No, it's all based on what are your goals and what's going on. Because there's really great policies out there for mortgage protection. Everybody thinks PMI that you see when you close on a house. PMI protects the lender. It's not giving you any protection. But there's specific term policies that you have to have a mortgage in order to qualify. And it's called mortgage protection is what the industry calls it. And it would literally pay your mortgage if you had a critical chronicle or terminal illness occur while you're alive. So it's all dependent on what your goals are. Like, are you an investor? Do you have multiple properties? How many kids do you have? What are your expenses per month? A good agent is going to really understand you before making recommendations. You don't want to over insure with coverage. And sometimes it makes sense because. So here's the other thing. With an iul, when structured properly, it's designed to have max cash accumulation, minimum death benefit. So a lot of my clients will stack policies, will do a term policy with an IUL so that they have the right death benefit, but they're maximizing the cash growth so it's all based on you individually and your current financial situation.

Okay. And I feel like that probably left people with even more questions. So call Danielle if you have. If you have questions about this. One of the things that I love is that it's not your whole business. It's a tool in your tool belt. I think that's really important too. Like if someone. You don't need to be making commission off of people. You just really care about your clients and you want to see them be protected after they've built the all. All of the wonderful things that they're building. I think that that's so cool. So thank you for breaking that down and just highlighting the importance of that because I do think, you know, we talk a lot about making money, but the other side of it, after you make it, is learning how to not only grow it, but to keep it. This is a really important tool to be able to protect that, especially if you've got loved ones, family, like all these people that you want to make sure you're taking care of. So love your perspective on that. Okay, I am going to go through a few lightning round questions for you.

You.

One of them is what is a belief about money that you have completely outgrown on your journey?

A belief about money that I've completely outgrown. I think it's not about me personally, but I think that the belief that I've outgrown is that anyone can get the knowledge about money. I think I used to think that it was just for the tax strategists, the CPAs, the financial advisors. Even early in my career, I was doing the things we've talked about today. I now realize in the work I.

That that I do.

Like literally any of us can become competent around money.

Yeah, 100%. We have so much information out now, but it's being able to be stand in the ground of I am worth this, I'm going to learn this and I'm going to implement this stuff. Yeah. Love that. Okay. If you had to start over tomorrow with just your brain, all the knowledge that you have now, and $1,000, what would you do?

I would create a digital coaching program.

Love that. So good. Okay. What is a book that everybody needs to read?

Ooh, that's. There's so many. I am such a reader. One that would be for everybody, though. I would say Think like a Monk by Jay Shetty.

I love this. This was actually one of the first books I read years ago when I started going down the personal development journey and it was really good. I kind of forgot about that one. So thank you for the reminder. I might have to refresh myself.

Okay.

What is something that you are busy getting better at right now?

So many things right now. I'm in sort of like a new journey too. I sold my company in 2022 too, and I am at that phase where I'm like ready to call in additional help. I'm really being truthful with myself. Hey, are you practicing what you preach and are you asking for help? I'm flexing that muscle again and it feels really good.

Love that. Taking your own medicine, delegating, bringing all that stuff. I love it. Okay, tell everybody how they can find you. I know you have your hustle. Harmony Academy, who's it for? And then pimp yourself out. How can everybody find you and follow up with you?

So if you want to check me out, you can come find me on Instagram. Let's be buddies at Life by Danielle. Or you can go to my website to find out about my coaching program. It's the called the Harmony Hustler Academy and it's for any six to seven figure entrepreneur that is looking to scale, looking to implement systems, get some strategy in place and have a good time. Come say hi and let's be buddies.

I love it. You also have your podcast Magic and the Mess, which I just had the opportunity to be on too. Yeah, it's good. Real raw conversation. So definitely, definitely. I'll link all that in the show notes so you guys can follow up. Danielle, thank you so much for answering all of my questions and taking us on your entrepreneurial journey. I know I got so many good nuggets from that and just so many core reminders that I think a lot of women needed to hear. So thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate you being here.

Yeah, thanks for having me.