022. How to Create Wealth with Shannon Brome-Ward

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Okay. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. I am so excited for our podcast today because we're going to be talking about all things money and especially around finances in your business. And I am so passionate about this because I see so often out in the online space and with all the business coaches and a lot of the business discussion that goes on around building a business. We talk a lot about the front end, about marketing and sales and all of that, but then we find a lot of entrepreneurs making all this money but not having any money. And so I couldn't think of a better person to bring on to talk about creating wealth in your business and for yourself. Then my coaching colleague, Shannon Broome Ward, and I'm going to ask her to introduce herself and talk a little bit, tell us her story and also just give us an introduction to the work that she does. Shannon, welcome.

Thank you so much. Melissa. Thank you for having me on. This is so exciting. Glad to be here. Ok, so let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Shannon Bromword. I am a money mindset coach. I really got into coaching because I've always been really curious about how people talk about money, manage money, how they feel about money. And I think that was because I was raised, born and raised in Toronto, Canada. And my parents were immigrants from Barbados. And because they immigrated to Canada, their whole idea was, okay, they're going there, obviously like most immigrants, to make a better life for themselves. And they were not well off at all. And, you know, that's why they moved to Canada. And their whole philosophy was, okay, they're going to buy a home, they're going to educate their children and then that was the end of it, right? Like, that's it. You don't spend money for anything else but those things. And they also realized that they had to save, save, save, save, save their money. So they did that. It wasn't a very sophisticated way of doing it, but they were really good at saving and living below their knees. But what I saw with that is that they also were very, they had real scarcity mindset and so investing wasn't something that they would ever consider doing. That was far too risky. Everything that they did was about, look, we have two goals in mind. Educating and Buying, paying off this home. And that's the extent of it. And so when I went to school and I saw I had friends and other families, and the way that they talked about money is it was so abundant that it was there to create and to be there for spending and stuff like that. And enjoyment was foreign to me, and I was fascinated by that. And I thought, well, there's got to be another way to do this, right? So, anyway, I did the traditional route. I went to school, I went to undergrad, I went to grad school, and I got a job, and then I started making money. And because I was raised in a household where it's like, oh, you got to hold on to every penny, I decided, no, I wanted to enjoy my life. I wanted to spend it. I wanted to have fun. Of course, yeah, what they were doing didn't make any sense to me. I'm like, you can do it all. And so I did. I did a lot of stuff before I got married and had kids. I, you know, just. I went out, I traveled, I did all the things. And then we got married, we got a house, we had kids, and we started, you know, accumulating stuff. Stuff. And the stuff was put on credit. And before you know it, we had quite a bit of debt. And it was like, this is looking. Like this could be problematic. And I guess, you know, being raised by folks who are like, they didn't have any debt, like, debt was bad. They only, you know, had a mortgage at one point. And I inherently felt like, oh, things are getting out of control. And so I tried a bunch of different ways to eliminate the debt, most of which was cut everything out, reduce myself and the family and everything to the bare minimum and not do anything, and it wouldn't last. And then I tried again, and that wouldn't last. And it was just too restrictive. And so I figured out that the best way to do this was to allow myself the opportunity to spend some money while paying off the debt, while investing, and while giving. And those four things, for me, enabled me to build wealth while eliminating my consumer debt, which it did take a little bit of time, but also still enjoy life. So we were still able to go on vacations, we're still able to go out to dinner. We're still able to do all of those things, but in a more balanced way. And it enabled me to actually eliminate the debt once and for all, which, if I had started with that approach in the beginning, I probably would have done it a heck of a lot sooner.

Yeah, I love that And I think I've told you about my journey as well. We paid off a lot of debt, consumer debt, on the personal side. And, you know, we went through that process and completed it, but never really took the next step of thinking about creating wealth.

And.

And then also in thinking about our businesses, you know, like I was saying earlier, we're not really taught how to create wealth in our business as well. And I think. I mean, I think this is a generalization, but a lot of times women are not really. Well, we haven't really been involved in the economy the way that we are now to the degree that we are now. There's more women now that are starting and building businesses. And so, you know, I'd love to, like, talk about what is the different thoughts that you have around our business finances versus personal finances and how can we create wealth in both of those spheres?

Yeah, yeah, that's such a good question. I think one of the things that most women have to become comfortable with if they're not already, is talking about money. Right. And that's not solely for women. Societally, we don't talk about money. We don't talk about how much we make. We don't talk about how much we have, where we invest money. If we do it all, what you have in your savings account, we don't even talk about what you paid for your house. For some, you know, until the Internet, you know, it was like nobody would talk about what they paid for their house even. Right. So I think becoming comfortable talking about money is the first step because you have to know your numbers, right? And so if you don't know your numbers, if you're not looking at what you're bringing in, it's really difficult to start forecasting right. Where the business is going, because money management is really about planning. So if we think about our personal lives, if you are not involved in the money management in your personal life, you're going to bring that same attitude to the business. So what happens is if you don't look at it at home, you're not going to look at it during work, you're not going to look at your business finances. And you really want to hone in on where that money is going because you're making plans with it, and most of the plans are based on that money, right?

Yeah.

The other thing that I find that women who own businesses are investors, and I don't think they think of themselves as investors, but you're an investment. You're investing in yourself. You're investing in the Future, you're investing in your business. So any money that you put infuse into the business or create in the business is an investment. And the idea is you want to get a return on that money. So it's so important to really hone in and know your numbers because that's the only way that you can start planning where you're going with your business in the future.

So what are some of the things that we need to be thinking about in terms of investing and creating that wealth? Because we see so many, you know, you and I being in the coach world where I didn't say this in the intro, but we actually know each other. We're in a women's mastermind together. And so we see a lot of people and thankfully our coach and you know, we talk about money and you bring that to the fore a lot in the group as well. But in so many other circles that I'm in, there's a lot of women making a lot of money, but they don't. But it just is getting burned or I don't even know what's happening to it. Right. But it's just disappearing. Like what, you know, what are we doing? What kind of mistakes are we making that we're not creating that wealth and building and planning for that future, you know, spending it or what's happening? Yeah.

You know, I think the perception is that people are just spending all of this money, but it's really, it's. It's sort of vanishing because they're really not looking at what's coming in and where it's going. There are a lot of things that go into running the business and a lot of expenses and a lot of the times there aren't. People aren't taking a break to make the assessment is this necessary? So a lot of things, a lot of expenses are being paid that are unnecessary. So a lot of the money disappears that way. Right. Also, I noticed that a lot of women aren't paying themselves. They don't have a set draw that they're taking like a paycheck every two weeks or every month or whatever the case may be. And so they randomly go in and pull out money out of the business. But it's not consistent. Right. I love it when women set up a consistent paycheck for themselves. Right. And it's that way we can then say, okay, if you're paying yourself this amount, now we're going to do some more investing. We're going to take some money out of your personal paycheck and we're going to put it aside. Are you saving it for an upcoming expense? Are you investing it for retirement or the future? Are you investing it in a. In real estate, whatever the case may be? I want them to, to kind of subdivide the money that they're making so that they can continue to grow that money. What happens a lot is the money comes out and it goes right, and we don't know where it's going. I want you to further invest the money from the investment of your business and for your personal growth, your personal wealth. One of the biggest mistakes I hear a lot, especially in the coaching community, is I'm scaling and I'm growing this to a million dollar business. A million dollar business, for example. But a million dollars in revenue does not mean that you're going to have a million dollars in net worth. And that disconnect is so prevalent in the coaching industry and with small businesses that I have a lot of clients who come to me and they're like, well, I've made, you know, $500,000 a year for the past four years, and they don't have any. And it's like business made $500,000 a year, you didn't make $500,000 a year. And as a result, because you weren't investing what you were making, your personal draw, you don't have anything. So I think really getting into the habit of paying yourself and then contributing a portion of that to an investment, so it grows, you'll end up in the next four years, five years, having something, a nest egg there that you had as a result of the business.

Yeah, I love that, that approach because I feel like, I mean, I know in my own thinking, I'm like, all right, well, I'm not gonna, you know, you know, I'm. I am now doing this where I'm paying myself consistently the same amount every month. But I didn't always do that. And because I was always thinking, oh, well, when I get to that big number, whatever it is, 100k or 500k or whatever, then I will do it.

Yeah, yeah. And this is why I always say start with something small. I love this story that I always talk about that I started investing with $12.50 every two weeks. And I was like, that was a lot of money, 25 bucks a month at the time. And I was investing that. And I've been. I never contributed more to that one particular account. And it has over six figures in it. Why? Because I was consistently investing every two weeks. I never, ever stopped and so when you're, you're consistent with your money, it will grow. It will definitely grow. So that's why I love that you're paying yourself consistently. Then, you know, once I get women to do that, pay themselves out of their business, then it's like, okay, let's take a portion of that and start investing it. Right. And once you start doing that consistently, that's what money needs. It needs time. It needs time to grow so that you can build wealth. So that's why I'm like, don't solely look at, hey, I'm scaling to this dollar amount. Right. But look at what am I personally going to have at the end of the day. Yes. As the business grows, you too should be growing your wealth.

Yeah, I love that. So what I hear you saying is that we set, first we set our priorities, then thinking about what we want for our future. Like, for me, retirement is not that far off in the future, hopefully. And then we create that plan and then it's all about consistency over time.

Consistency over time, Absolutely. And you know, I know for some folks, depending on their age, retirement is not. Or for everybody, quite frankly, retirement isn't like, okay, you get your gold watch and you walk out the door, especially if you own your own business. Right. But I want people to think about it as like a work optional life. You can work when you want, how you want, with whomever you want, wherever you want. Right. And that's what retirement is. What do you want that to look like? So when I retired from my first career or my career, I was able to say, I don't, I don't want to do this any longer. This is now. I don't want to travel internationally as much. It was really exhausting. I was away too much. And so I was able to say, okay, I can walk away. That's the freedom that I want people to have when they build wealth. It's the ability to say, okay, I want to do something different. And this is what I want it to look like. Right. And so that's what I want people to think about when they think of retiring.

Yeah, I love it when you talk about retirement because I feel like it's totally, you're just totally redefining the way I think about retirement. Because I've always seen it, you know, from that W2 perspective where it is, you know, you get to age 60, whatever, and you get your gold watch and you close the door. And that's never applied to me.

Right.

Because I have my own business and I love what I do. And like, I could envision myself working for the rest of my life, but not because I have to, like, punch in and punch out and grind. It's because I love the work that I'm doing. So for those of us that have our own business and love what we're doing, you know, from what you're saying, we get to redefine what retirement is for us. So talk more about that. Like that. I love your term, the work optional life. Yeah.

I just think that the idea of. And this is nothing against the W2 employees.

No, not at all.

Very long. And I mean, I made a lot of my wealth through, you know, a corporation, so it can work for you either way. What I love about when you own your own business is that you have like a printing, a money printing machine, right. And so you have the ability to create as much money as possible. And so now you, you can choose to decide where you want to do this, how you want to do this, when you want to do this. Like, you just have that flexibility. So you've had that flexibility owning a small business. Why not have it when you're ready to, say, change venues, live somewhere else, slow down a bit, work a little bit less? Why not create, continue to enjoy that same flexibility that you've had? That's the whole point of having your own business too. That's one of the beauties of it. So I really want people to, when they decide that they want to shift gears, to have the money that supports that lifestyle. Right. So that's why, because you have a small business and you can generate a lot of revenue, I want you to put the money that you pay yourself to work now so that when you're ready to shift gears into that work option life, the money's there for you. And now it's like, supported, Right. You can do it wherever you want, however you want, whenever you want.

Sounds fun. Sign me up.

You're totally gonna do it. I know.

And it's almost uncomfortable to like, dream about it, right? Because, like, we get so. Or at least for me, like, I get so in the weeds with what I'm doing this month or what I'm doing this year and, you know, or maybe even my three to five year goals. But we really do need to start dreaming about that. Like, what do we see that being like, is it, oh, well, I can just work from anywhere and I can have my, you know, condo at the beach and then my condo in the mountains and, you know, fly first class between the two of them.

Exactly. And See, that's the beauty of it. Like right now it may seem like that's so far off, I can't really envision it. And that's okay. I don't expect you to be able to like exactly envision it right now, especially if you still have kids at home. Where are you going? You know what I mean? You're not taking off anytime soon. However, I want to set up the systems so that when you're ready to do it, the only question is where, which beach, which condo, which mountain house? You know what I mean? Not, oh, I can't afford it because I don't have the money. Right. So setting it up now is what's key for me. This is what I really encourage people to do. Let's put it in place, then get back to the business at hand and as long as it's just streamlined and consistently going and you check in on it occasionally, you're going to be okay. But it's not that that's going to become your primary focus, but you have to start. You have to start so that when you're ready, and I'm personally counting down when you're ready, you can just, you know, hit the road and decide to do whatever it is that you want.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's turn a little to investing and growing wealth in the business and what that looks like. I talked to so many women and my business was like this too for probably the first 10 years where the, you know, we can make good money and bring in good money, but the business is not profitable. And so how do we go from that place to like becoming profitable and then investing and what does that look like on the business side so that we can create that future business that we want?

Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. I think that, and I personally haven't been in business very long, but I like to look at my business as just another investment pillar. Right. So for me, I think that when you're looking at building your business, you have to give a certain amount of a certain time frame. I know people now, they look and they think, oh, in a year I'm going to have a multi six figure business or a couple of years, a million dollar business. I think that again, the consistency and the time that needs to go into it is important because you need to develop the foundation. Right. And once you do that, then you can start scaling. Right. So I always look at it as this is the beginning for me, it's the beginning of my business pretty much. I have to invest more into it than what I'm taking out of it. So I like to think of it as, okay. When I was starting off with a 401k, let's say at my W2 job, I started off, I couldn't put in 15% what they suggest you should contribute. So put in 3% or whatever it was until I could get the match. And you start off there and you continue to build. But I knew I always had to put something in, always had to invest, because the only way for your money to grow is for you to put money into it. And that's the same thing with the business. So I see that people are oftentimes hesitant to invest in their business. Right. But really and truly, the only way for your money to grow and the business to grow is to plant the seeds for it and then to water it. You can't necessarily. And you can see that we can see that with the trajectory of most people's businesses. If you're not investing in it, the commitment there isn't exactly the same. And that's a bit of the mindset piece, like you're. You're not putting in and showing up in the same way as you do when you say, hey, I'm putting down the money I'm paying to play. So if we look at personal debt and business debt, and I know people get really uncomfortable with debt, but it's because the debt that most of us had was garbage, the consumer debt, you weren't getting a return on that investment. Right. Because it wasn't an investment. And it's fine to spend. I have nothing, nothing against spending, but when you're spending other people's money for things that you want and then you don't get anything back from it, that's where we tend to get into trouble. Yeah. The difference with borrowing money for business is that the expectation is that you're going to get a return on that borrowed money. So you're taking cheap money, you know that you're borrowing, and you're going to put it into your business, and then you're going to make more money, and then you can pay that back, and then you do that again if you have to. And the, the secret, right, of the wealthy is they borrow money all the time. They borrow money all the time to create more investments. So to invest in their businesses or to buy real estate or whatever the case may be, they don't use their own personal funds. So that's why I really encourage people to pay yourself, put your money aside, let that grow, borrow cheap Money, make an investment in your business and pay that back.

That's the, that's the key to like exponential growth. Because I mean, I, I know speaking from experience, I did not invest in my business or I invested, I should say, as little as humanly possible.

For.

Like the first 10 years of my business. And so because of that, you know, I grew almost as little as humanly possible. Like I was growing my business, but it was very arduous and long and slow. And since I made that decision to invest heavily in myself and my business, my revenue has grown exponentially. And, and it is part of that mindset. Right? It's part of, and that's one of the questions I wanted to hear from you is, you know, for us as women, what are some of these thoughts that keep us from creating wealth in our business? I know one of mine was I'm not worth investing in. Like, you know, my, my money would be better put in, you know, Apple or Dell stock or something rather than in myself.

Yeah. And that is so true for women all the time. Like that their own intellectual property, their brains, their minds, their businesses aren't worth investing in. Why not go with something else that's more established? Something else or someone else even? Unfortunately, sometimes we even say we'd invest in someone else's business. I mean, we know plenty of women who are investing in their husband's businesses, but not their own. And it's like, why not, why not your own? So that is often a roadblock, right, for women and why their businesses? I'm sure you know the stats, but I think it was the other day I heard that there's like 1% of women have million dollar businesses. It was so minuscule. It was pathetic. Right? Considering how many women owned businesses there are in the United States and how few have made it to the seven figure mark. And it's primarily because most women don't feel like they should invest in themselves and in their businesses. And it's really, really unfortunate.

Yeah, yeah, I, yeah, I could get on the soapbox there hugely. But it's so true because, yeah, I think it's either 1 or 2% of women owned businesses will ever reach a million dollars in revenue, which means that at least 98, 99% of them don't. And furthermore, stat that I heard that that really set me free when I heard it was that 88% of women owned businesses make less than 100k a year. And I thought, and you know, I should probably update that stat, but that's the last one that I heard, and at the point when I heard that I was feeling, I always felt so much shame that I had not reached 100k in my business yet. Like, I thought I was probably the only woman on the planet that had a business that hadn't made 100k yet at that time. And so I think this goes back to what you said at the beginning, like demystifying and talking about money, and for us as women, getting comfortable talking about money is so freeing. Right. Because when I heard that and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not the only one that's never made 100k. All right, well then I'm in good company and let's get going with this and let's make 100k and make it to that top 20% and then let's go on and make it to that top 2%.

Right, exactly, exactly. And I think being in communities with other women who are doing exactly what we're talking about makes all the difference because you have to see it to believe it sometimes, right. When you're in an environment where you can hire a business coach like yourself and be around women to say, oh my gosh, this is actually possible, instead of feeling isolated like what you were saying, like, I'm the only one who's never made a, you know, who hasn't made 100k. You can find out that. Oh, no, first of all, that is like the majority of women owned businesses, unfortunately. But you can actually make that 100k and beyond. And actually working with someone to show you how to do it is key.

Yeah, you can begin. So what you're saying is we can begin investing on the personal side and on the business side. Even when we're just starting out like that, we need to be doing that.

I'm telling you, $12.50 twice a week. It does add up. It really, really does. And it's just the funniest thing because in the beginning that was a lot of money. And I was like, okay, I'm going to take this 25 bucks a month and I'm going to do it. And it really does make a difference. Putting, you know, $25 in the bank is not going to do that for you. Right. So that's why I really promote investing. And why not you guys who are. You have these businesses that are making such a difference in people's lives. Ultimately, I want you to have a different life. When you want to, you know, transition to the work optional life, I want it to be, what is the point of slogging away at this business and then not having anything to show for it at the very end. I see that so much with some of my clients, and it's heartbreaking. Right. So they really want to learn, okay, how can I manage my money differently? Because you can make a lot of money, which is great. So now it's like, how can you keep it and grow it?

Yeah, I love that. So good. Awesome. Well, tell us about how you work with clients and how we can work with you.

Yeah, so I work with clients one on one for six months at a time, and we really start looking at, okay, what's the money? We got to know the numbers. I love talking about money, and I want my clients to get comfortable talking about. About money. Right. So we really have to see what's going on. A lot of the times we think we know, but we really don't know. So I'm really good at digging in, and I call myself the money finder. I will find the money for you that you need to invest. But what I need to know from everybody when I work with them is what do you value? What's important to you? Right. Like, where do you want your money to go? Right. What do you want to do? How do you want to spend your time? Whom do you want to spend it with? And that's what we're going to be focusing on when we're growing that money, because that's what's important to you, and it's different for everybody. Right. And then we just take that money and we start investing it and we put it there, and then that's it. You put it aside, it grows, and you go back to your business and you go back to work and you go back to doing all the things that you were doing, and that money continues to accumulate, and that is what creates a level of security so that you know that if I want to start working, if I want to cut down the number of hours, if I want to transition and do something else, I have the finances to support that life. And that creates a certain level of security.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And we will put the links to contacting you and reaching out to you in the show notes. And I highly recommend that you follow Shannon on social media because she is dropping knowledge bombs, like, multiple times a day. We quote her all the time in our mastermind because she is so wise and so just in one sentence, she can say so much, as I'm sure you've seen here today. But thank you so much for your time and this is going to be so helpful and, you know, in creating wealth for women and creating more freedom and choices for us as we grow our businesses. And I just really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much. And thank you for creating this space for women because I think it's just really fascinating for women to see that they can grow these amazing businesses like you've done with yours and that they too can do that as long as they invest in themselves and their businesses. So thank you, Melissa.

You're so welcome. Yeah, that's such a great point because we're not that special. Anybody can. Thank you so much, Shannon.

Thank you.

If you like this podcast, then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training, Grow youw Sales Doing what yout Love, where I teach you in depth my simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time.