[00:00:00] And so people really love that there's
[00:00:01] options and that they're able to go to
[00:00:03] different things and maybe they found
[00:00:04] something they never thought they would
[00:00:05] go to and it led to a connection which
[00:00:07] led to a relationship which led to
[00:00:09] business. Right.
[00:00:10] >> And so that little newsletter
[00:00:11] >> Well, I even say two people helping each
[00:00:13] other out.
[00:00:14] >> Yeah. Yeah. Two people helping each
[00:00:15] other out
[00:00:17] your vibe. Let it collide.
[00:00:22] Find your tribe where truth hide
[00:00:27] your vibe. This is Vibe Your Vibe,
[00:00:30] conversations with people who follow
[00:00:31] their passions and do the work because
[00:00:33] they have to. So, I'm Kurt Francis.
[00:00:35] Today, I'm sitting down with Marielle
[00:00:36] Fry. Marielle is the founder of FM
[00:00:38] Bookkeeping, where she helps small
[00:00:40] service-based businesses get clarity
[00:00:42] around their numbers instead of avoiding
[00:00:44] them. So, her background spans corporate
[00:00:45] travel, finance, media, including some
[00:00:47] time working on HBO before stepping out
[00:00:49] to build her own business around money,
[00:00:50] curiosity, and real world experience.
[00:00:53] So, today I'm interested in what it
[00:00:55] takes to build a service business, run a
[00:00:56] podcast. So, she's got a podcast.
[00:00:58] >> Thanks for that.
[00:00:59] >> So, here we go. And I have a, as I told
[00:01:01] you, I got a whole list of questions in
[00:01:02] case we need help. So, where does where
[00:01:04] does your story begin? Because I know
[00:01:05] you have this background in HBO.
[00:01:07] >> Yes. So, I worked in corporate for
[00:01:10] almost 10 years. And the background of
[00:01:12] it is when I was in college, I needed an
[00:01:14] internship. With the internship, I was
[00:01:16] hospitality, travel, and tourism for my
[00:01:18] associates. And so, my dad knew someone
[00:01:20] who knew someone who got me in a travel
[00:01:22] agency. I worked there for about four
[00:01:24] years. And one of the clients was the
[00:01:25] Weinstein Company, which obviously, you
[00:01:27] know, is not really a company anymore.
[00:01:30] They did Mirramax Productions. They did
[00:01:32] a lot of great shows, um, a lot of great
[00:01:34] movies. And working there, dealing with
[00:01:36] the travel was really interesting. That
[00:01:39] experience really leveled me up to work
[00:01:41] at HBO where I was there for about three
[00:01:44] three and a half years. Co happened.
[00:01:46] Nobody was traveling. I kind of knew my
[00:01:49] writing was on the wall. So, I ended up
[00:01:51] working at BBC. In between, I worked a
[00:01:52] few other small jobs in companies. And
[00:01:54] then after BBC Studios, I did a lot of
[00:01:57] project management. Didn't really love
[00:01:58] it at all. Worked for a video game
[00:02:00] company helping with their billing
[00:02:02] platform and just helping with their
[00:02:04] systems. And getting laid off made me
[00:02:06] realize it was the catalyst to the
[00:02:07] biggest blessing of my life, starting my
[00:02:09] business.
[00:02:10] >> Okay.
[00:02:10] >> And it was one of those things where we,
[00:02:12] my husband and I just moved. Obviously,
[00:02:14] we needed money, but my husband said,
[00:02:16] "Listen, I'll do the bills. You figure
[00:02:19] out the business." And I gave myself
[00:02:20] about a year, year and a half to really
[00:02:22] see if I can do this. And here I am. I'm
[00:02:24] going to be in four years of business
[00:02:25] now. So,
[00:02:26] >> wow. You're going to hit that fiveyear
[00:02:28] like point pretty soon. That's like the
[00:02:30] stat, right? That's the stat everybody
[00:02:32] talks about.
[00:02:33] >> Yeah. After 5 years, they say, you know,
[00:02:35] you may not have your business or it may
[00:02:37] not be successful, but knock on wood, I
[00:02:39] am so grateful that my business has
[00:02:41] worked out the way it has. you know, I
[00:02:43] built my business in terms of foundation
[00:02:45] before I had my son and I was able to
[00:02:47] still grow my business and kind of be
[00:02:49] this like mreneur. So, that's the
[00:02:51] podcast I'm looking to launch. I'm
[00:02:52] launching in a couple weeks depending
[00:02:54] when this comes out. But, the podcast
[00:02:56] name is Raising Hustle and the goal is
[00:02:58] kind of raising hell. I want mothers to
[00:03:01] feel like they can work but do it on
[00:03:03] their own damn terms because I know I've
[00:03:05] been able to do that and I want others
[00:03:06] to feel that they can do that, too. I
[00:03:08] think nowadays with the internet, it's
[00:03:10] something we've talked about earlier,
[00:03:11] but you can there's so much you can
[00:03:13] learn out there. There's so much you can
[00:03:16] like absorb and understand and if
[00:03:18] there's something you're interested in,
[00:03:20] you probably can turn a passion to a
[00:03:21] profit if you do it right. And so, I
[00:03:23] just want to encourage other moms that
[00:03:25] there's another avenue. It's not just
[00:03:27] staying at home and it's not just
[00:03:29] working full-time. There's ways to work
[00:03:30] part-time. There's ways to run a side
[00:03:32] hustle, a business, just thinking
[00:03:34] outside the box. And so, I'm really
[00:03:35] excited to launch that.
[00:03:37] You should you should have Julian on my
[00:03:39] assistant.
[00:03:39] >> Yeah. Would love to.
[00:03:41] >> Yeah. She wants to be full-time present
[00:03:43] mother.
[00:03:44] >> Mhm.
[00:03:44] >> And so it frustrates me because I know
[00:03:46] it's horrible, but she works nights.
[00:03:49] >> Her nights.
[00:03:50] >> She's in Asia and um and she knows she
[00:03:53] know I'm I'm very like she does it cuz
[00:03:56] she wants to.
[00:03:56] >> Sure.
[00:03:57] >> She wants to take the kids to school.
[00:03:58] She wants to pick them up. She wants to
[00:04:00] be present during the day
[00:04:03] >> and then she works for me at night.
[00:04:05] >> Yeah. And that's Yeah. And so we have
[00:04:07] some crossover time. So it's good for
[00:04:08] me.
[00:04:09] >> Sure.
[00:04:10] >> You know, because she's on my daytime
[00:04:12] hours pretty much.
[00:04:13] >> It is nice. And plus you can funnel work
[00:04:15] to her and you know within the next day
[00:04:16] it'll be done, right? So I think we need
[00:04:18] to think outside the box of the normal 9
[00:04:21] to5 unfortunately for women.
[00:04:22] >> Exactly. Like we even we even have we
[00:04:24] actually had a little bit of hiccup
[00:04:25] today. Um I usually have the intros and
[00:04:28] show notes and she prepares them for me
[00:04:30] and I ended up having to do them myself.
[00:04:31] So I don't know how good all these are
[00:04:32] cuz I'm the one that Okay. I'm the one
[00:04:34] that did it. Uh, so yeah, but you you
[00:04:37] you know I told her I got this tattoo on
[00:04:40] my arm, so it's good. I like this is
[00:04:41] good. I'm the bottleneck. You're sending
[00:04:43] them to me so that I can print them.
[00:04:46] >> Mhm.
[00:04:47] >> Why don't we get a She already has
[00:04:49] access to a computer in my house. It's
[00:04:51] her basically it's her computer.
[00:04:52] >> Sure.
[00:04:53] >> I'm like, why don't we just get you a
[00:04:54] printer? Duh.
[00:04:56] >> Yeah.
[00:04:57] >> And then I got thinking a little
[00:04:58] further. I go, why don't we get you two
[00:05:00] printers? cuz you know card stock plain
[00:05:02] paper or maybe a printer that can handle
[00:05:05] multiple papers and I go as we discussed
[00:05:07] we're trying to get this as a business
[00:05:10] and this is part of
[00:05:12] >> what we're offering
[00:05:14] >> you know I can't be chasing after this
[00:05:16] or looking for a file it's just printed
[00:05:18] and I don't have to do it. So I think
[00:05:19] that's kind of what you're talking about
[00:05:20] right is just there's ways to do all of
[00:05:23] this.
[00:05:23] >> Yes. and make it so that you can be
[00:05:25] present as a mother with your children
[00:05:28] if you if you have career ambitions. You
[00:05:31] you're going to be able to still do
[00:05:33] those. It doesn't really work in the
[00:05:35] traditional 9 to5 kind of life
[00:05:37] >> and it never will. It never will. It was
[00:05:39] and I don't want to say the patriarchy,
[00:05:40] right? Because that doesn't sound great,
[00:05:42] but the reality is is when you look and
[00:05:45] I read a lot and I follow a lot of
[00:05:46] different things, but when it comes to
[00:05:48] hormones, right, a man's hormones cycle
[00:05:51] every 24 hours. And so you're able to do
[00:05:53] the same thing time and time again and
[00:05:54] almost eat the same food time and time
[00:05:56] again. For women, we have a 28 day cycle
[00:05:59] because of our periods, right? And so
[00:06:01] for women, we can't compete with how men
[00:06:05] are because we're just not built that
[00:06:06] way. And it's not saying we can't do it,
[00:06:09] but physically, mentally, emotionally,
[00:06:11] we do.
[00:06:12] >> You're fighting against the tide
[00:06:13] >> very much so. And for women, we need to
[00:06:15] go with it, not against it.
[00:06:18] >> And when we are tired, right, and they
[00:06:20] talk so much about like ludial phase and
[00:06:23] for every week you know of your cycle
[00:06:25] you feel different. Some days you feel
[00:06:27] really high and some days you feel
[00:06:28] really low and women really need to
[00:06:30] follow that cycle and we need to follow
[00:06:32] the way we feel more than anything else.
[00:06:35] And I think a lot of women try to fight
[00:06:37] to be that alpha or try to do what these
[00:06:40] men do. I'm not saying you can't do
[00:06:41] that. I'm not saying that's impossible.
[00:06:44] But for women, especially if we want
[00:06:45] kids and we want to be present and we
[00:06:47] want to be home, there has to be
[00:06:49] changes. And it doesn't mean we're not
[00:06:51] ambitious. It doesn't mean we don't work
[00:06:53] hard. You know, if you look at
[00:06:54] statistics, I
[00:06:55] >> I don't know. Julie's I mean, I don't
[00:06:56] know how she does what she does.
[00:06:57] >> You just do.
[00:06:58] >> She just makes it happen.
[00:07:00] >> You just do it. And as moms, we just do
[00:07:02] everything. It feels like
[00:07:04] >> Well, we got two jobs. Yeah.
[00:07:06] >> We're mostly men have one, maybe one and
[00:07:09] a half.
[00:07:10] >> I mean, for women, especially in my
[00:07:12] world, right, we have obviously being a
[00:07:13] mother, I have being a business owner,
[00:07:16] and then I'm also running a house. So,
[00:07:18] you're managing all of these things,
[00:07:20] right? And I don't lie or BS this, but I
[00:07:23] hire people, right? Like, you can't do
[00:07:25] anything without hiring people. And when
[00:07:26] I I think women are incredible
[00:07:28] delegators at the end of the day, and
[00:07:30] that's why they can run successful
[00:07:31] businesses because we can delegate
[00:07:33] because we know who the right person is
[00:07:35] for that spot, right? In a business, of
[00:07:37] course, listen, I have contractors in my
[00:07:39] business. And anybody in business will
[00:07:40] understand that you have to hire the
[00:07:41] right people to scale and grow. That's
[00:07:43] obvious. But when it comes to being a
[00:07:45] mom and you know having babysitter help,
[00:07:47] right? And what does that look like? If
[00:07:49] you're doing babysitting or nannying or
[00:07:51] maybe you have to do child care or maybe
[00:07:52] you have to think about cleaners or
[00:07:54] organizers or meal prep people. There's
[00:07:56] so much outside the box that you can
[00:07:57] delegate in your life if you have the
[00:07:59] financial means to, right?
[00:08:00] >> Of course. But that's the whole point is
[00:08:02] like as you grow and become more
[00:08:04] successful,
[00:08:06] >> there's going to be the financial
[00:08:07] ability to do I know I I attended a uh a
[00:08:12] business I don't know what you call it.
[00:08:14] Help. Sorry Josh I'm butchering this for
[00:08:16] you. Uh Josh Nelson with sevenigure
[00:08:18] agency.
[00:08:19] >> Okay.
[00:08:19] >> Him and his wife run sevenigure agency.
[00:08:22] It's a basically an agency to help other
[00:08:24] um social mark social media marketing
[00:08:27] agencies. They actually built their own
[00:08:29] social media marketing agency. So they
[00:08:31] know what it takes. And so now they go
[00:08:33] out and help everybody else. And one of
[00:08:35] the conferences or intensives he as he
[00:08:38] calls it, his wife got up there and
[00:08:40] talked about what you're talking about.
[00:08:42] I mean they have a house manager. They
[00:08:44] actually decided to bring tutors in to
[00:08:46] homeschool cuz they they start I guess
[00:08:48] they analyze you know they're at a point
[00:08:50] with of success. So granted, I mean, you
[00:08:53] know, it's not for everybody as you
[00:08:55] said, but they they started looking at,
[00:08:57] you know, how much time is it taking out
[00:09:00] of our schedule to follow the standard
[00:09:03] public school protocol or we could bring
[00:09:06] in tutors and do our own homeschooling.
[00:09:09] And you know, you don't necessarily have
[00:09:10] to do it the way they did it. You know,
[00:09:12] the idea I'm trying to plant here is
[00:09:13] open your mind up to other possibilities
[00:09:15] because they could go on a trip
[00:09:17] somewhere and take their kids and that's
[00:09:19] actually educational.
[00:09:21] >> I know my mother as a school teacher
[00:09:23] nearly 50 years. Maybe it's I forgot
[00:09:25] how. It's a lot of years.
[00:09:27] >> Sure.
[00:09:28] >> She would never punish kids. The parents
[00:09:30] would take them out to do a travel. All
[00:09:31] she'd ask them to do is bring back a
[00:09:34] journal and tell me what you did.
[00:09:35] >> It's so different now though. I think
[00:09:37] public schools are so strict with so
[00:09:39] many things and you like really have to
[00:09:41] be there otherwise and that's why people
[00:09:43] are doing homeschool. They want the
[00:09:44] flexibility. They're thinking outside
[00:09:45] the box and that's why for me, you know,
[00:09:48] I it's hard right when you're
[00:09:50] >> Are your children in school age yet or
[00:09:51] >> No, my son is 16 months. So babies. Um
[00:09:55] so we're not there yet. But I think the
[00:09:58] reality is is I've talked about this cuz
[00:09:59] I have friends who are stay-at-home moms
[00:10:01] and they love like the mommy and me like
[00:10:03] out pro like you know kind of like a
[00:10:04] morning mommy's morning out, right?
[00:10:06] 9 to 12. But that's great, right? If
[00:10:08] you're a stay at home, you just want a
[00:10:10] few hours. Maybe you just want to go to
[00:10:11] the grocery store, whatever.
[00:10:12] >> But for an entrepreneurial mom, that
[00:10:13] doesn't work. I don't have a drive to go
[00:10:17] and then I'm home for maybe because then
[00:10:19] I have to drive back, right? So, let's
[00:10:20] say it's 30 minutes there, 30 minutes
[00:10:21] back. That's an hour. Then I'm only home
[00:10:23] for 2 hours and I have to go pick them
[00:10:24] up in 30, you know, for 30 minutes and
[00:10:26] come back.
[00:10:27] >> So, you're you're looking at the time
[00:10:28] factor as well. It's a big
[00:10:29] >> time factor. It's huge. I need somebody
[00:10:31] at my house at 9:00 so I can take a 9:00
[00:10:33] call,
[00:10:34] >> right? that time is money, right? And so
[00:10:37] when you think about that as an
[00:10:38] entrepreneur, that's everything. And you
[00:10:39] have
[00:10:40] >> it's your most uh what do you call it?
[00:10:42] Resource. That's lost. Um
[00:10:45] >> um I'm at a loss myself, but it but
[00:10:48] >> it's the main it's the main resource you
[00:10:50] have that's the most scarce. You don't
[00:10:52] have unlimited time.
[00:10:53] >> My time is so limited. I think before a
[00:10:55] child, you just think not time is of the
[00:10:58] essence, but you just think, oh, I have
[00:10:59] not like you're on vacation, but you
[00:11:01] just think time is whatever, right? And
[00:11:02] I talk a lot about routine. And before a
[00:11:04] child, my routine was going to the gym.
[00:11:06] I took my dog on a walk, take a shower,
[00:11:08] have breakfast, and then my day would
[00:11:09] run with my business, right? Maybe
[00:11:11] meetings, happy hours, you know, coffee,
[00:11:15] talking to clients, just doing whatever
[00:11:17] I wanted. And I say that loosely, but I
[00:11:18] was very much on a not as boundary of a
[00:11:21] schedule. Now that my son's in the
[00:11:23] picture, it's a very, very different
[00:11:24] life. And one of the things I did before
[00:11:26] my business to having my child was I
[00:11:28] analyzed my calendar, right? I really
[00:11:30] analyze my calendar to decide what are
[00:11:32] my busy days in my business. That's why
[00:11:34] every Tuesday I have a babysitter now.
[00:11:36] It's my deep work day. It's the day for
[00:11:37] me that I book out meetings ahead of
[00:11:39] time. I schedule appointments, anything.
[00:11:42] Now I actually am pregnant with my
[00:11:43] second. So
[00:11:44] >> Oh, congratulations.
[00:11:45] >> Thank you. And so with that, I'm going
[00:11:47] to do two days a week of babysitting,
[00:11:49] right? Because there's no way I can have
[00:11:50] two kids, be at home, and also run a
[00:11:53] house and my business. Mhm. I'm just
[00:11:56] curious, how does that I mean,
[00:11:58] >> I don't want to get too personal here,
[00:11:59] but how does that work with like your
[00:12:02] have you been able to identify like with
[00:12:05] your cycles like the weeks that you know
[00:12:08] this kind of activity works better
[00:12:09] versus this week and
[00:12:11] >> I should do this kind of work this week
[00:12:13] and like I don't know does it not being
[00:12:16] a woman I have no idea about any of
[00:12:17] this.
[00:12:18] >> So that's one part of it, right? One of
[00:12:20] the things I actually really love and I
[00:12:21] would tell anybody to do this, if you
[00:12:22] don't know human design, I highly
[00:12:24] recommend you look into human design. It
[00:12:26] has changed my entire life and
[00:12:28] perspective on how I look at everything.
[00:12:30] >> Is there like a reference book or
[00:12:31] something that talks about this?
[00:12:32] >> There's a bunch of books. There's one
[00:12:34] website that does it for free. I think
[00:12:35] it's called like I don't have to send
[00:12:36] you a link, but it's like if you look up
[00:12:38] human design or like free human design,
[00:12:41] you essentially type in your date of
[00:12:42] birth, the time of your birth, the
[00:12:44] location of your birth, and then
[00:12:46] obviously your name, etc. And what comes
[00:12:48] up in the town of your birth and what
[00:12:50] comes up is what you are. So there's
[00:12:52] like manifesting generator, there's pure
[00:12:54] generator, there's projector and there's
[00:12:56] like one or two others, but I'm a pure
[00:12:58] generator through and through. And so
[00:13:00] with that, what I've done is going into
[00:13:02] the AI of chat GBT. One of the things
[00:13:04] I've asked is, okay, I am an momreneur.
[00:13:07] I'm an entrepreneurial mother. I own a
[00:13:09] bookkeeping business. I have one child
[00:13:11] and I'm looking to figure out my
[00:13:13] schedule on a week- toeek basis of what
[00:13:14] aligns with me.
[00:13:16] >> Right. That's kind of where I was
[00:13:16] driving at.
[00:13:17] >> Yeah. And so it comes up like the life
[00:13:19] I'm living now matches exactly to my
[00:13:21] human design
[00:13:21] >> and you're just thriving.
[00:13:23] >> And I'm thriving. I'm aligned. I'm
[00:13:25] >> Cuz you're not fighting. You're not
[00:13:26] like, you know, got this big weight on
[00:13:28] your back and you're trying to push that
[00:13:30] big ball of
[00:13:30] >> No, I'm going with the grain, not
[00:13:32] against it. And I think that
[00:13:34] >> this really helps you.
[00:13:35] >> I have been so successful being able to
[00:13:37] do what I do because I'm so aligned. And
[00:13:39] look, let me be clear with my business.
[00:13:40] You have to have hustle and grit and
[00:13:42] determination. I think for anybody to go
[00:13:44] into a business and say, "I'm just going
[00:13:45] to manifest and and get clients," like
[00:13:47] it doesn't work like that.
[00:13:48] >> No.
[00:13:49] >> And I don't understand people think like
[00:13:50] kudos to you if that is how you work.
[00:13:52] But that is so rare for anybody starting
[00:13:55] a business, you you have to have some
[00:13:56] kind of hustle and grit and
[00:13:57] determination and certain parts of your
[00:13:59] business. But once you build the
[00:14:01] foundation, right, once you have that
[00:14:03] foundation of referral partners or
[00:14:05] clients or connections or relationships,
[00:14:07] then you're just leveling, right? And
[00:14:09] then you can manifest and build that
[00:14:10] energy and build the life that you want.
[00:14:12] And I've been able to align so much of
[00:14:14] that and it feels so good. I feel I'm in
[00:14:16] the best place of my life and that's why
[00:14:18] I'm so grateful I'm able to bring in
[00:14:20] children now. I couldn't imagine
[00:14:22] bringing in children when I was in
[00:14:23] corporate. I probably would have left
[00:14:25] and a lot of women do leave corporate
[00:14:26] because they have to make a decision. Is
[00:14:27] it worth the child care costs which are
[00:14:29] super expensive?
[00:14:31] >> Mhm.
[00:14:31] >> And it's not you.
[00:14:32] >> Yeah.
[00:14:33] >> You're putting that onto somebody else.
[00:14:35] >> Yeah. And look, I'm not there's people
[00:14:37] who need daycare, right? And childare.
[00:14:39] I'm not saying that that's not something
[00:14:41] that anybody needs,
[00:14:42] >> right? You're not you're not dissing on
[00:14:44] people that people do what they have to
[00:14:46] do.
[00:14:46] >> 100%. But I knew my husband and I, we
[00:14:48] both morally, look, both of our moms
[00:14:51] were stay at home moms. Both of our dads
[00:14:52] worked. And so very traditional.
[00:14:54] >> Very traditional for the both of us. And
[00:14:56] so my husband really wanted me to be
[00:14:57] home. And we weren't sure how my
[00:14:59] business would go. My business grew at a
[00:15:01] rate that we couldn't even believe that
[00:15:03] it grew. But then it meant, okay, what
[00:15:05] does the delegating look like? And I had
[00:15:06] to decide, do I hire the child care so I
[00:15:09] work or do I hire the people to work in
[00:15:11] my business? And I want the people to
[00:15:13] work in my business. I want them to work
[00:15:15] and gain skills, right? And one of the
[00:15:18] things I love to do is hire moms. I want
[00:15:19] to hire moms who kind of are in the in
[00:15:22] between, right? They have kind of kids
[00:15:24] at zero to five. I want them to feel
[00:15:26] like they're learning a skill. They're
[00:15:27] working for somebody. Because what I
[00:15:29] learned, right, perfect example, when I
[00:15:30] was at a travel agency, you don't care
[00:15:32] how many hours I worked at the travel
[00:15:34] agency. You just cared that I worked
[00:15:35] there and I did the work. But you don't
[00:15:37] really
[00:15:37] >> That's how it is with I mean honestly I
[00:15:39] don't know how many hours Julie works.
[00:15:41] >> Yeah.
[00:15:42] >> I don't care.
[00:15:43] >> But Exactly. And I worked part time.
[00:15:45] >> Everything gets done
[00:15:46] >> and that's all you
[00:15:47] >> and I was in and my challenge was is I
[00:15:50] was always the bottleneck.
[00:15:51] >> Mhm.
[00:15:52] >> And so I wanted to remove every time I
[00:15:54] look at a situ like like I was talking
[00:15:56] about these stupid cards, right? Sorry,
[00:15:58] not stupid cards. I mean they're
[00:15:59] important but
[00:16:01] >> um
[00:16:01] >> it's a good reference point.
[00:16:02] >> It's a good reference point. It's like,
[00:16:04] why am I the one printing them?
[00:16:06] >> Why am I allowing myself to interject
[00:16:07] myself into this? And I guess you
[00:16:09] probably have a lot of thoughts like
[00:16:10] that, like do I really Why am I part of
[00:16:13] this process?
[00:16:15] >> I just need to pull myself out of it and
[00:16:17] let them do what they need to do.
[00:16:18] >> Sure. And I think that takes time,
[00:16:20] right? I think as a business owner, you
[00:16:22] have to build that trust on your team.
[00:16:24] And so, I really believe hire slow, fire
[00:16:26] fast. I think you need to hire people
[00:16:28] really slow and anything, right? Whether
[00:16:30] it's cleaners, whether it's babysitters,
[00:16:32] whether it's, you know, any workers in
[00:16:34] your business, you have to hire slow.
[00:16:36] And what I did was I hired people to do
[00:16:39] a project for me. I wanted to see how
[00:16:41] they performed and then another project,
[00:16:42] another project. And that's what I did
[00:16:44] with one of my top people on my team.
[00:16:46] Now, she, you know, runs full steam
[00:16:48] ahead with all of her client work. And
[00:16:50] I'm able to trust her and I know that
[00:16:51] the work will get done. So, I think you
[00:16:53] just have to be very strategic in the
[00:16:55] approach. I'm very fortunate with my
[00:16:57] team as well because I just let them run
[00:16:59] with it.
[00:17:00] >> Yeah. And you know,
[00:17:01] >> every now and there needs to be a every
[00:17:02] now and then there has to be a
[00:17:03] correction. Stuff happens like that. You
[00:17:06] have to keep an eye on it and you need,
[00:17:07] you know, to get updates and things like
[00:17:09] that. One of the things that I learned
[00:17:11] again have to give kudos to Josh Nelson
[00:17:14] and his little group is they really
[00:17:15] turned me onto this thing called
[00:17:16] ClickUp. I've heard of ClickUp
[00:17:18] >> and it's a like a project management
[00:17:20] tool and that's just been because I
[00:17:22] would I would get on these, you know,
[00:17:24] inspirational moments inside of whether
[00:17:26] it was what did we used to use? I think
[00:17:29] it was Skype or WhatsApp or maybe Signal
[00:17:33] and I would just, you know, it'd be one
[00:17:35] of these. I'm one of those guys, right?
[00:17:37] >> Like a long list
[00:17:38] >> like a Well, not just a long list. is
[00:17:40] just you know look at my son is
[00:17:43] >> essay
[00:17:45] >> an essay or two or a book a novel of
[00:17:48] here's my idea and this is what we
[00:17:49] should do
[00:17:50] >> and and the problem was it's all
[00:17:52] disjointed because there was this idea
[00:17:53] for this and then there was another idea
[00:17:54] for this other thing
[00:17:55] >> that is the entrepreneurial mindset we
[00:17:57] always have the idea
[00:17:58] >> and Hassan who's kind of the director of
[00:18:00] operations and he's just like dude I
[00:18:03] can't like you're making you're g me a
[00:18:06] headache I can't I got to go through and
[00:18:08] I got to he's like, "Oh, just stop
[00:18:11] that." And so now I get to do that. I
[00:18:13] still get to do that organized,
[00:18:14] >> but inside of ClickUp, it's inside of
[00:18:16] the project that I can just sit there
[00:18:17] and have my little novel or whatever
[00:18:20] inside of each task.
[00:18:21] >> Yes.
[00:18:22] >> And I'll be honest, I fall off the wagon
[00:18:25] and I'll go back to my old ways, but I'm
[00:18:28] trying to stay on that. So,
[00:18:29] >> but I think it's good to have that,
[00:18:30] right? And so, I do kind of two separate
[00:18:32] things. So, my business, of course, I
[00:18:34] use an app called Double, which is a
[00:18:36] portal, and that's how we communicate
[00:18:37] with our clients. We get documents from
[00:18:39] our clients. And so on the front end,
[00:18:40] it's a beautiful portal where they're
[00:18:41] able to look at reports. We do client
[00:18:43] announcements and it's really easy to
[00:18:45] use and they answer any questions. But
[00:18:47] on the back end for my team, it's very
[00:18:49] task management heavy. So they know all
[00:18:50] the tasks that they have to do and it
[00:18:52] just makes it really seamless for them
[00:18:53] to have the checklist. Likewise, I do
[00:18:55] another on top of everything else. I do
[00:18:58] kind of another part-time business with
[00:18:59] a partner of mine. It's called Two
[00:19:01] Cents. And the point
[00:19:03] >> I saw that on your LinkedIn. Mhm. So,
[00:19:04] with two cents, what's really great is
[00:19:06] we're hopefully trying to grow
[00:19:07] nationwide. We'll see how it goes. But
[00:19:09] really, we're city by city and the goal
[00:19:11] is to grow business networking
[00:19:12] newsletter.
[00:19:13] >> I built it out of frustration because I
[00:19:15] knew as a business owner, I had to
[00:19:17] network. I had to go out and I didn't
[00:19:18] have the cash to do paid advertising or
[00:19:21] any lead genen or any of this stuff.
[00:19:23] >> So, I had to do Bootstrap
[00:19:24] >> in person going to events and I had to
[00:19:27] look at the events. I had to go on
[00:19:28] Facebook and Eventbrite and Meetup and
[00:19:30] LinkedIn and all these places and the
[00:19:32] Chamber of Commercees or whatever. and
[00:19:33] it was a lot of work to find them. And I
[00:19:35] thought, why isn't someone creating like
[00:19:37] a newsletter every week to find this and
[00:19:39] I thought, well, maybe I'll come up with
[00:19:41] it. So, my partner at the time, we
[00:19:42] branded it under my business and I would
[00:19:45] send a newsletter out every week. I did
[00:19:46] it for free and it grew pretty quick.
[00:19:49] And people would stop me, like people
[00:19:50] didn't know me as the bookkeeper, right?
[00:19:51] They just knew me as the networking
[00:19:53] girl. They're like, "Oh, you're the
[00:19:54] networking girl. You're the newsletter
[00:19:55] girl."
[00:19:55] >> Yeah. I need I need to get a uh I need
[00:19:58] to get toner for my printer. Where do I
[00:20:00] go? you know somebody.
[00:20:01] >> Yeah.
[00:20:02] >> Right.
[00:20:03] >> I felt like I was that person.
[00:20:05] >> New business cards.
[00:20:06] >> Yeah. I felt like I was that. People
[00:20:07] would even come to me thinking I was a
[00:20:09] recruiter and I was like, "Listen, I'm
[00:20:10] not a recruiter. I can't help you there,
[00:20:12] but I know other recruiters, right, that
[00:20:13] I can connect you with." I was always
[00:20:14] this connector and I've always been that
[00:20:16] way with networking.
[00:20:18] >> And so with my partner, we decided to
[00:20:20] rebrand. We called it two cents because
[00:20:21] we wanted to make sense. And so for us,
[00:20:24] we really grew it to the subscription
[00:20:25] model and we're making it really
[00:20:27] affordable. Currently the pricing is
[00:20:29] $4.99 a month or $50 a year and you get
[00:20:31] it every Monday morning in your inbox
[00:20:33] with all the events in your local area.
[00:20:35] So currently we are in
[00:20:36] >> that are like networking events,
[00:20:38] >> business networking events.
[00:20:39] >> Okay, specific
[00:20:40] >> we really want people to have an agenda
[00:20:42] when they go because as a business owner
[00:20:44] or right maybe I have like payroll reps
[00:20:46] who need to go and meet with small
[00:20:47] businesses. So it could be a mix of that
[00:20:49] but it's really businesses that want to
[00:20:51] meet other kind of business owners or
[00:20:52] maybe other potential clients or
[00:20:54] referral partners in person. I think
[00:20:56] after co we were really craving that
[00:20:58] inerson connection more than anything
[00:21:00] else. I know I was and I
[00:21:02] >> I do I mean a lot of people want to do
[00:21:03] this remotely and I don't know what it
[00:21:05] is about just sitting across the table
[00:21:08] from somebody.
[00:21:08] >> It's nice.
[00:21:09] >> It's you you can I think I don't know
[00:21:11] what it is. I guess well it's not cuz
[00:21:13] you get the body language somewhat on
[00:21:15] the on the monitor.
[00:21:17] >> Sure.
[00:21:17] >> But there's something you know we're
[00:21:19] giving off energy. We're you know we're
[00:21:21] being able to feed off of each other I
[00:21:23] think.
[00:21:23] >> And I love that. And look, sometimes
[00:21:25] look, you have to do remote because just
[00:21:27] location.
[00:21:27] >> Yeah, we just got lucky it happened that
[00:21:29] you were in town and we could make it
[00:21:31] work.
[00:21:32] >> No, I love this. I'm super grateful to
[00:21:33] be here in person. It's amazing. But I
[00:21:35] think people are really craving inerson
[00:21:37] connection now more than ever. And to be
[00:21:39] able to have a newsletter in your local
[00:21:41] >> So these are predominantly or do they do
[00:21:43] are they is there are
[00:21:45] >> It's a mix. Okay.
[00:21:45] >> It's a mix. So the way we break out the
[00:21:47] newsletter is kind of non-recurring and
[00:21:49] recurring. What do I mean? Non-recurring
[00:21:50] events are any pop-up events that come
[00:21:52] up. And recurring events are events that
[00:21:54] let's say happen, you know, every third
[00:21:56] Thursday of the month. So, we break it
[00:21:58] out that way so people know what to
[00:21:59] expect on a month-to-month basis, but
[00:22:01] then also see the pop-up events. And we
[00:22:03] pull everything. And I think that's the
[00:22:04] biggest difference of our newsletter.
[00:22:06] It's not just the chamber talking about
[00:22:07] their events. It's not just a local
[00:22:09] group that's just talking about their
[00:22:10] events. It's every single event that we
[00:22:12] can find and pull in that area. And so,
[00:22:15] people really love that there's options
[00:22:16] and that they're able to go to different
[00:22:18] things. and maybe they found something
[00:22:19] they never thought they would go to and
[00:22:21] it led to a connection which led to a
[00:22:22] relationship which led to business,
[00:22:24] right? And so that little newsletter,
[00:22:26] >> well, I even say two people helping each
[00:22:28] other out.
[00:22:28] >> Yeah. Yeah. Two people helping each
[00:22:30] other out. And I think you have to be
[00:22:32] wanting to go right to these events and
[00:22:34] so we're able to put this in kind of a
[00:22:36] newsletter and we do it Monday morning
[00:22:38] strategically because then you're able
[00:22:39] to figure out your week. As an
[00:22:40] entrepreneur,
[00:22:41] >> your life is crazy.
[00:22:43] >> I know mine is and I don't know what's
[00:22:44] going to come up. I don't know what's
[00:22:45] going to happen, but if I can go to
[00:22:47] something last minute, I'll try to go.
[00:22:48] Sometimes I try to plan ahead. It really
[00:22:50] depends.
[00:22:50] >> Best thing I did was hand my calendar
[00:22:52] and my inbox to Julie.
[00:22:56] >> She manages.
[00:22:57] >> She manages it. Yeah,
[00:22:58] >> it's not a bad thing.
[00:22:59] >> I mean, I have an email. Most people
[00:23:01] don't have it. I think there's like
[00:23:02] maybe a dozen people have my actual
[00:23:04] email, so I have a private email, but um
[00:23:07] yeah, so that was that was really hard.
[00:23:09] Again, Josh Nelson was the person
[00:23:11] because he's like, "How much is your
[00:23:13] time worth and how much time are you
[00:23:15] spending going through your emails every
[00:23:16] day?"
[00:23:17] >> The outsourcing is really hard. And
[00:23:19] >> do you do you manage your inbox, too?
[00:23:21] >> I do, but I like some control. So, for
[00:23:24] me, that's what works for me. Like, I
[00:23:26] like to control the sales. I like to
[00:23:27] control the onboarding. I like to
[00:23:29] control the client experience. But then
[00:23:31] once clients are kind of onboarded and
[00:23:33] everything is organized and I kind of
[00:23:34] have things set up, then my team runs
[00:23:36] with it, right? So I think you have to
[00:23:38] know your strengths and your weaknesses.
[00:23:40] And to your point when you talk about
[00:23:41] bottlenecking, I think we have to figure
[00:23:42] out our why in our business more than
[00:23:44] anything else and why in general in
[00:23:46] life, right?
[00:23:47] >> Get or missing an email.
[00:23:49] >> So this way I don't miss emails. Like
[00:23:50] I'll get a I get a text message when an
[00:23:52] important message comes in. Kirk, did
[00:23:54] you see this? You need to you need to
[00:23:56] take care of this. I can't you know.
[00:23:58] >> Yeah. I end up managing my inbox, which
[00:24:00] is a lot, but I try. Again, it gets
[00:24:02] addicting as a business owner, right?
[00:24:04] Because you get a lot of scroll. It is
[00:24:07] hard, but I you do what you can and I
[00:24:09] try to be mindful. Like for me, I try to
[00:24:12] make Mondays and Fridays not not work
[00:24:14] days, but not working as hard days. And
[00:24:16] so I try to really be with my son,
[00:24:18] whether it's taking him to the library
[00:24:20] or going out or doing an activity. Like
[00:24:22] I really try to have alone time with
[00:24:24] him. Not saying I don't throughout the
[00:24:25] week,
[00:24:26] >> but it's hard as a business owner,
[00:24:27] right? When you're an entrepreneur,
[00:24:29] you're
[00:24:29] >> businesses are open most days.
[00:24:32] >> Yeah.
[00:24:33] But I tell you what, my my uh my
[00:24:36] dentist, he doesn't work Fridays.
[00:24:38] >> I've heard that.
[00:24:39] >> Off.
[00:24:40] >> And the orthodontist, he's off Mondays
[00:24:42] and Fridays. He works Tuesday,
[00:24:44] Wednesday, and th I mean,
[00:24:45] >> you know, good for them.
[00:24:47] >> I mean, I'm sure he'd probably come in
[00:24:48] if there was some sort of reason to,
[00:24:50] unless he's not in town. But yeah, maybe
[00:24:52] there's a small movement of people
[00:24:54] saying, you know, is there is there
[00:24:55] really a reason for five, six days a
[00:24:58] week? Um,
[00:24:59] >> I don't think there is. And people are
[00:25:01] happier. You know, you look at England
[00:25:02] or some of these other countries where
[00:25:04] they're doing the 4-day work week or
[00:25:05] maybe they're doing longer days to get
[00:25:07] the Friday off and people have more
[00:25:08] better productivity. They're much
[00:25:10] happier and they can just live a better
[00:25:12] life because they know they have a
[00:25:13] little bit more time for their family.
[00:25:14] And so I think when you allow people to
[00:25:17] give them their time back, they just
[00:25:18] feel more empowered and they're more
[00:25:20] excited and they want to work. I look at
[00:25:22] it like this, right, from a bookkeeping
[00:25:23] but kind of life perspective. Money is
[00:25:25] the foundation to everything. And people
[00:25:27] can argue this all day long. You need
[00:25:29] money to live. You need money to buy
[00:25:31] stuff. You need money for food. I need
[00:25:33] money to go to the gym. I need money to
[00:25:34] buy a car. I need money for gas. I need
[00:25:36] money to pay my bills. I need money for
[00:25:38] everything, right?
[00:25:39] >> But when you have money as the
[00:25:41] foundation and you're in a comfortable
[00:25:42] place, then you level up to do the
[00:25:43] experiences, right? You can give back to
[00:25:45] your community. You can take care of
[00:25:47] your family. You can do all of these
[00:25:49] things. And yes, people argue money
[00:25:51] doesn't go to the grave with you. I get
[00:25:52] it. But guess what? If you don't have
[00:25:54] good things in a goodwill or a trust,
[00:25:56] that money will go elsewhere. And so you
[00:25:58] have to protect what you have. And I do
[00:26:00] feel it's kind of controversial to talk
[00:26:02] about money. It's a very taboo topic. As
[00:26:04] a bookkeeper, I talk about it all the
[00:26:06] time. But more importantly, we need to
[00:26:07] talk about inner life. I can't tell you
[00:26:09] how many women feel especially, right,
[00:26:12] they leave corporate America if that's
[00:26:13] their standpoint. Then they rely on
[00:26:15] their husband in a one-inccome household
[00:26:17] and then let's say something happens and
[00:26:19] they get divorced or a partner dies or
[00:26:20] whatever it is. Then what do they do
[00:26:22] about their finances? What do they do
[00:26:24] about money? And I think we all need to
[00:26:25] have some kind of financial literacy and
[00:26:27] empowerment around this.
[00:26:28] >> Oh, wow.
[00:26:31] Yes. I mean, I have I have a new client,
[00:26:34] Dan Huck. Here's your plug, Dan. Dan
[00:26:36] Huck, uh, founder of Danhuck.com and
[00:26:39] Generation Equipped.
[00:26:41] >> Okay.
[00:26:41] >> Uh, his big big It's not a passion. It's
[00:26:46] it's is back to like my intro. I said,
[00:26:49] he does it because he has to.
[00:26:50] >> Sure. and he wants to educate a million
[00:26:53] kids on financial literacy. There's a
[00:26:56] real gap.
[00:26:57] >> They don't teach it in school. And
[00:26:58] again, I think that's
[00:26:59] >> well, they're starting to they actually
[00:27:01] I actually had a meeting with one of the
[00:27:02] school principles here locally. It is
[00:27:04] part of the curriculum, but it's like
[00:27:08] such it's it's it's this.
[00:27:11] >> Yes. It's not
[00:27:12] >> it's like they put it in just okay, we
[00:27:14] put it in there. It's there. there's,
[00:27:16] you know, they're doing what they can
[00:27:18] and still cover all the other basics,
[00:27:20] >> but I I'll never forget um Dr. Murray
[00:27:23] Banks, probably haven't heard of him.
[00:27:24] He's no longer with us.
[00:27:26] >> He's from like the 50s and 60s. He was a
[00:27:29] psychologist that was like a comedian,
[00:27:31] and I'm going to butcher this, but you
[00:27:32] can find it out on YouTube, but he he
[00:27:34] has this joke where he's like, you go
[00:27:35] through school and you're learning what
[00:27:37] was it? It was some kind of algebra or
[00:27:40] some kind of math and um like
[00:27:42] combinotaurs or something. It wasn't
[00:27:44] that. But And he's like, you know, they
[00:27:46] want to teach you that, but they don't
[00:27:47] teach you how to get a good discount.
[00:27:50] >> It's so true though.
[00:27:51] >> And it's true. Exactly.
[00:27:53] >> It's true cuz my mother taught me a lot
[00:27:54] about money, right? And because my mom
[00:27:56] was home and so her whole thing, so
[00:27:58] here, and I'll talk about money in a
[00:28:00] different context in a second, but my
[00:28:02] mom talked really about saving, right?
[00:28:03] And it was like going to thrift stores,
[00:28:05] going to garage sales, using a coupon,
[00:28:07] and really just saving money. But we
[00:28:10] really need to look at the trifecta a
[00:28:11] little bit where the catalyst is making
[00:28:13] money because if you don't make money,
[00:28:15] you can't save, spend, or invest. You
[00:28:17] can't invest money in different kind of
[00:28:18] accounts, whether it's brokerage, IRA,
[00:28:21] um 529 plans, whatever you're doing.
[00:28:23] Obviously, you have to spend a little
[00:28:24] money because you have to eat, you have
[00:28:25] bills, you have things to pay for, but
[00:28:27] then you can't save into high yield
[00:28:28] savings, money market accounts or
[00:28:29] anything like emergency accounts,
[00:28:31] whatever. But you have to make money.
[00:28:33] And I was only taught to save money
[00:28:36] because I was never taught to make more
[00:28:38] money. I was just taught to go to
[00:28:39] school, go to college, which by the way,
[00:28:42] unless you're an accountant, a lawyer,
[00:28:44] or an engineer, anything like that, 5%
[00:28:46] of what you take out of college goes
[00:28:48] into the real world. So, I questioned
[00:28:51] college. I questioned corporate America
[00:28:53] because I thought, why am I asking for
[00:28:54] permission off? Why am I only getting a
[00:28:56] 3% raise when I come in and bust my
[00:28:59] butt? And then when I realized
[00:29:00] entrepreneurship that there is no cap. I
[00:29:03] think a lot of times when you work for
[00:29:05] someone there is a cap at some point of
[00:29:06] what you can make and then you're
[00:29:08] bottlenecked to that cap and then you
[00:29:10] think you can't go anywhere. You can't
[00:29:12] make more money. And I've realized I
[00:29:14] don't want that life. I want the
[00:29:15] flexibility. I love the virtual side of
[00:29:18] my business that I can travel and be
[00:29:20] places. Yes, I'm always kind of working
[00:29:22] but I love what I do and I'm excited
[00:29:24] about it. I I think uh I had a guest
[00:29:26] Boyd Hoffman and he he put it a really
[00:29:28] good way. He he said uh whatever kind of
[00:29:32] job or income that you have, you want to
[00:29:34] make sure that there's a variable
[00:29:36] component to it. So even if you're in a
[00:29:38] traditional job,
[00:29:40] >> he's in sales. So that's what he said.
[00:29:41] So he's like, so he's why did he get
[00:29:44] into sales? Because there's a variable
[00:29:47] component to it
[00:29:48] >> very much.
[00:29:48] >> You know, I produce more,
[00:29:50] >> I make more.
[00:29:51] >> Yep.
[00:29:52] >> And that's why he went that direction.
[00:29:54] So he he he would suggest though if he
[00:29:57] was here talking to you, he's like,
[00:29:58] "Yeah, you you have a variable
[00:30:00] component. You want more, you go get
[00:30:02] more clients."
[00:30:03] >> Yeah, that's how it works. And you have
[00:30:04] to sell. And I think, you know, I talked
[00:30:06] to I I work with a lot of payroll
[00:30:07] providers, right? And a lot of sales
[00:30:08] reps in these like bigger companies like
[00:30:10] an ADP or Paychecks or whatever. I
[00:30:12] literally tell them because you know how
[00:30:13] to sell, you've already won half the
[00:30:14] battle of being an entrepreneur.
[00:30:16] >> Yeah. Everybody's a salesman. Who's
[00:30:18] that? Daniel Pink. You would you would
[00:30:20] think
[00:30:20] >> everybody's a salesman because even if
[00:30:21] they say but even if they say that his
[00:30:24] his argument would be even if they're
[00:30:25] telling you that they don't want to sell
[00:30:27] they're trying to sell you right now
[00:30:28] that they don't want to sell.
[00:30:30] >> That's true though.
[00:30:31] >> You know the kids trying to sell you
[00:30:33] that oh I can stay up later to watch my
[00:30:36] show or I don't need to do my homework.
[00:30:38] Everybody's learning how to negotiate
[00:30:42] at some point.
[00:30:42] >> Sure you do learn that. But I do think
[00:30:45] there's some people who have a knack for
[00:30:46] actually selling a product or selling a
[00:30:48] service versus negotiating little
[00:30:51] things, you know. So I think we're all
[00:30:52] kind of different in that aspect. But I
[00:30:54] joke with all these sales reps like you
[00:30:56] could sell,
[00:30:57] >> you know, and you can start a business
[00:30:59] because you know how to sell and that is
[00:31:00] truly half the battle. And for me, I was
[00:31:02] never in sales roles. A lot of the roles
[00:31:03] I had were coordinator roles. It was
[00:31:05] kind of a low entry nothing role. So I
[00:31:08] just went from coordinator to CEO and it
[00:31:10] was really just getting laid off and
[00:31:11] starting a business. But there's nothing
[00:31:13] wrong with that. I never thought I could
[00:31:15] be good at it. I was really nervous.
[00:31:16] >> So you're like, are you do you have
[00:31:18] bisdv on your team yet or you are the I
[00:31:20] am the bisdev. You're the bisdev. You're
[00:31:22] the bisdev. And so I do a lot of the
[00:31:25] business development myself and now I'm
[00:31:27] venturing out to do a little SEO and
[00:31:28] LinkedIn gen, but I'm year four in my
[00:31:30] business doing this. Prior to that,
[00:31:31] everything was word of mouth. Everything
[00:31:33] was referral partners. Everything was
[00:31:35] low, you know, barrier to entry. I want
[00:31:37] to pay as little to nothing as possible
[00:31:40] to get the leads coming in. M but I
[00:31:42] think there is a point in your business
[00:31:43] and I would say within 3 to 5 years you
[00:31:45] have to start to think okay how many
[00:31:47] leads can I get word of mouth how many
[00:31:49] leads can I get from just doing
[00:31:50] networking and you get burnt out I got
[00:31:52] burnt out from networking especially
[00:31:53] having a child it was like I can't go
[00:31:55] out the way I used to I can't network
[00:31:57] the way I used to and it's just
[00:31:59] challenging there is a point where you
[00:32:00] do have to pay for some kind of
[00:32:01] marketing at some point in your business
[00:32:03] it just doesn't need to be day one like
[00:32:05] day one be scrappy be cheap and I say
[00:32:08] cheap but like
[00:32:09] >> do low cost yeah be very frugal
[00:32:11] you know, just do everything that you
[00:32:13] can on your own.
[00:32:14] >> So, what are the what are the things
[00:32:16] that you did during your scrappy, frugal
[00:32:19] times that you felt like you got the
[00:32:21] biggest bang for? I'm not going to say
[00:32:23] your buck, but for your time,
[00:32:25] >> networking.
[00:32:26] >> So, networking, meeting face to face,
[00:32:28] the human contact.
[00:32:29] >> I when I would say your first year, do
[00:32:31] spaghetti on the wall. Meet with
[00:32:32] everybody you possibly can. And that
[00:32:34] sounds really crazy, right? You're going
[00:32:36] to meet with people that have no
[00:32:38] relation to your business, but you never
[00:32:39] know if that person knows somebody.
[00:32:41] >> That's what I try to tell people all the
[00:32:43] time cuz like, well, what's your podcast
[00:32:45] about and why are you having that person
[00:32:47] on there? And I'm like, cuz you just you
[00:32:48] just don't know. You're two degrees away
[00:32:51] from everybody, right? Pretty much
[00:32:53] >> it's and I will tell you that is so
[00:32:54] true. There has been people who I've
[00:32:56] met, I've done zero business with them.
[00:32:58] They sent me a referral, they send me
[00:33:00] five clients. And I'm not joking. That
[00:33:02] is always how it goes. And I'm very much
[00:33:04] in the belief of collaboration versus
[00:33:06] competition. And there's plenty of
[00:33:08] bookkeepers and I'm friends with them.
[00:33:09] And we all send business back and forth
[00:33:10] to each other if it's, you know, not
[00:33:12] fit. And I look at it,
[00:33:14] >> wow, I love this.
[00:33:15] >> Yeah. And it's really listening, right?
[00:33:16] I think when you meet somebody, I come
[00:33:18] from an approach of I listen. What do
[00:33:20] you need? Who are you looking for? What
[00:33:22] connections can I help you with?
[00:33:24] >> I don't even think of myself at all.
[00:33:26] Never did. In the beginning of my
[00:33:28] business, I always felt like, well, how
[00:33:29] can I help you? And what relationships
[00:33:30] can I send to you? Or what are you
[00:33:32] looking for? Do you have a book?
[00:33:34] >> Do you keep a book of like So that was
[00:33:36] an idea that I had that I feel like I
[00:33:38] almost should develop.
[00:33:40] >> This is a great idea we're having here.
[00:33:42] And um
[00:33:43] >> in real time
[00:33:44] >> in real time you'd have like a book like
[00:33:45] you'd have like maybe it could be full
[00:33:47] size or whatever. You got a book and you
[00:33:48] got you know you got business card in it
[00:33:50] and okay there's this per maybe even a
[00:33:53] bio and description of what their ideal
[00:33:56] client profile looks like. So, a lot of
[00:33:58] people use CRM platforms for that, like
[00:34:00] a HubSpot, and they're able to kind of
[00:34:02] identify those people to make the
[00:34:03] connection. I used to do a lot of
[00:34:05] >> to connect people to to make sure like
[00:34:07] you I'm sure you know five maybe even a
[00:34:10] dozen bookkeepers, right?
[00:34:12] >> But guess what? Their ideal client is
[00:34:15] probably very different among all of
[00:34:17] them. Maybe some of them are more
[00:34:18] focused on a particular industry
[00:34:20] >> and a bunch of them do niche down. I
[00:34:22] have one or two that are in the real
[00:34:24] estate investing space. I have one
[00:34:25] that's really in healthcare and
[00:34:26] construction. I have one that you know I
[00:34:29] think she does a lot of like nonprofits
[00:34:30] and hotels so they all do different
[00:34:32] things and so I'm able to kind of refer
[00:34:34] and connect and build those
[00:34:35] relationships just with them alone and
[00:34:38] even when I meet with people right and
[00:34:39] you continue to build the relationship I
[00:34:41] have somebody who I know and who does
[00:34:42] solely sales tax he does sales tax
[00:34:44] audits um he's based believe in North
[00:34:46] Carolina travels back and forth between
[00:34:48] North Carolina and South Carolina but
[00:34:50] that's his whole thing he's niched down
[00:34:51] to just doing sales tax and kind of
[00:34:53] doing found money where he's able to go
[00:34:55] back and help clients maybe see that
[00:34:57] they've overpaid on sales tax, how could
[00:34:59] they get money back kind of thing. And
[00:35:01] so, every time I see him, it's kind of
[00:35:02] like, okay, who do you know? Who do I
[00:35:04] know? Who can we make the introductions?
[00:35:05] We're always trying to introduce each
[00:35:06] other. And I've been able to win
[00:35:08] business from that, too. And so, you
[00:35:09] just never know who you're going to
[00:35:11] meet. So, I really think you have to
[00:35:12] come with kindness.
[00:35:13] >> That's great that you have this. So, you
[00:35:15] basically have a network of bookkeepers
[00:35:17] >> that are like your buddies.
[00:35:19] >> Yeah. And we all will not like I don't
[00:35:21] know if we can curse on this, but like
[00:35:23] >> you can curse. It's okay.
[00:35:24] >> Not right? like we all are like
[00:35:26] gh oh okay
[00:35:28] >> like we're all just like gh like these
[00:35:30] clients or this process or something on
[00:35:32] this team like we all just get it and I
[00:35:34] have a lot of like mom friends who are
[00:35:37] business owners and I relate to them the
[00:35:39] most right and it's it's hard because I
[00:35:41] love my stay-at-home mom friends they're
[00:35:43] amazing beautiful people and the job
[00:35:45] that they do is so hard it is so hard to
[00:35:47] be a stay-at-home mom and I shout out to
[00:35:49] any stay-at-home moms by the way because
[00:35:51] your job is one of the hardest jobs out
[00:35:52] there but it's one of those things where
[00:35:54] they don't understand business.
[00:35:55] Likewise, when someone's full-time, they
[00:35:57] also don't understand how I'm even home
[00:35:59] with a child all day.
[00:36:01] >> So, I've struggled to find my people in
[00:36:03] this. And again, kind of going back to
[00:36:04] the podcast, it's kind of why I'm doing
[00:36:06] the podcast is I want people who I'm
[00:36:08] going to interview who are mreneurs and
[00:36:10] who can understand and relate to me. So,
[00:36:12] then it gives other people hope of what
[00:36:14] they could do as possibilities,
[00:36:16] >> right? So, that's that's your target.
[00:36:18] You're looking for those women out there
[00:36:20] that want to be a mom, but then they
[00:36:21] have this also desire that they like to
[00:36:23] do something else
[00:36:24] >> and they want to. And I talked to a lot
[00:36:26] of
[00:36:26] >> it's gonna fulfill them to do that. You
[00:36:28] know, mom fulfills them as well, but
[00:36:31] they still have
[00:36:32] >> I think it's good to have both. I think
[00:36:34] a lot of moms, especially stay-at-home
[00:36:35] moms, they feel so stuck.
[00:36:37] >> Well, from from a father and a wife that
[00:36:41] we still
[00:36:43] were like, "This can't be real. Our
[00:36:46] oldest is going to be 30." Like, how is
[00:36:48] that possible? My wife's like, I'm 38.
[00:36:52] >> Of course,
[00:36:53] >> that I'm having a 30-year-old. I go,
[00:36:55] that baby that's from the prior
[00:36:57] marriage. You forgot it's not your child
[00:36:59] anyway. No, it's it's her child. But,
[00:37:02] uh, I think another part of it that you
[00:37:04] may not have considered, there is going
[00:37:07] to come a time when the children aren't
[00:37:09] at home.
[00:37:10] >> Yes.
[00:37:10] >> And then if you haven't had a plan, plan
[00:37:13] to fail or fail to plan. If you fail to
[00:37:14] plan, plan to fail. And so that way if
[00:37:17] you have a plan, at least you can be
[00:37:19] kind of working on towards that day and
[00:37:21] you'll have something to do.
[00:37:22] >> And that's what I tell a lot of moms as
[00:37:24] well or even people thinking about a
[00:37:26] business. Like just because you don't
[00:37:28] start a business when your kids are
[00:37:29] little, it doesn't mean you can't build
[00:37:30] the education. It doesn't mean you can't
[00:37:32] work for somebody part-time. And that's
[00:37:33] actually something I did and one of the
[00:37:35] best pieces of advice I can give to
[00:37:37] somebody. Work for somebody part-time in
[00:37:39] the business you're interested in doing.
[00:37:41] See if you like like it and like dip the
[00:37:42] toe in, right? And I'm not telling you
[00:37:44] to like jump full throttle. Not telling
[00:37:45] you to go down the deep end, but dip the
[00:37:47] toe in and see if you're even
[00:37:48] interested.
[00:37:49] >> Cost cost you nothing, right?
[00:37:51] >> Perfect example of this, right? So, my
[00:37:52] husband owns a construction business and
[00:37:54] he has a guy who essentially it's
[00:37:57] somebody's son, mid20s, electrician,
[00:38:00] very successful. He's think he was
[00:38:02] thinking about being a GC. So, my
[00:38:04] husband said, "Why don't you come around
[00:38:05] with me for a day and see what it's
[00:38:07] like?" By 10:00, he goes, "Oh my gosh,
[00:38:10] is the day over?"
[00:38:12] He's like, "I can't handle this. This is
[00:38:14] a lot of work and it was very stressful,
[00:38:18] but he got
[00:38:18] >> because he's getting pulled in 20
[00:38:20] different directions
[00:38:20] >> 100%
[00:38:21] >> and he's having to plan everything like,
[00:38:23] okay, where's this at? And we got to get
[00:38:25] this in because we got to get that guy
[00:38:27] scheduled and
[00:38:27] >> and it's multiple projects and you're
[00:38:29] dealing with multiple subcontractors and
[00:38:30] it's a lot of work and you're really
[00:38:32] >> drywalls guy here, but they're still
[00:38:34] working on getting the insulation
[00:38:35] installed and it's like I'm paying for
[00:38:37] this guy sitting here because that guy
[00:38:38] was supposed to be done yesterday, but
[00:38:39] then the materials didn't show up and
[00:38:41] he's like pulling his hair out. Yeah,
[00:38:42] >> it's a nightmare. and he's like, "Yeah,
[00:38:44] I don't think this is for me." And he
[00:38:45] was very polite, you know, came to the
[00:38:46] house and said, "Listen, you're a great
[00:38:48] guy. You know, I love what you're doing,
[00:38:50] but like this is not what I want to do
[00:38:52] and this is not the direction of my
[00:38:53] life." But he got to I guess my point is
[00:38:54] he got to experience that, right? And so
[00:38:56] I think for anybody who has an interest
[00:38:58] in doing anything, especially like you
[00:39:00] want to go in the virtual assistant
[00:39:01] world or social media or anything like
[00:39:03] online that you're interested in doing
[00:39:05] >> or do podcasts and find out that it's a
[00:39:08] lot of work to do a podcast. It is a lot
[00:39:10] of work, but I do feel like at least if
[00:39:13] you dip the toe in and see if you have
[00:39:14] any interest or desire or inkling to do
[00:39:17] it, then it can propel you to want to
[00:39:19] really start the business. But it's
[00:39:21] better to work for somebody and know
[00:39:22] really early on that you don't want to
[00:39:24] do it than be like crap, what am I'm
[00:39:27] stuck or why did I start this? I thought
[00:39:29] I wanted to be a doctor and they had a
[00:39:31] program in high school that let me
[00:39:32] shadow
[00:39:34] >> all the different medical
[00:39:36] >> um professions, you know, nursing,
[00:39:39] respiratory therapists, x-ray, doctors.
[00:39:42] >> So, for a year I'm doing this and at the
[00:39:45] end of that year I'm like, no, thank
[00:39:47] goodness it was in high school. Like,
[00:39:49] no, not no not doing that. They have, in
[00:39:52] my opinion, they have no life. No, I I
[00:39:55] think you dedicate your whole life to
[00:39:57] the industry and I don't right you have
[00:39:59] to like and it goes back to your why
[00:40:00] like why do you want to do something
[00:40:02] right and I think that has to propel you
[00:40:04] so far I think both in personal and
[00:40:05] business that why has to propel you and
[00:40:07] for me that's why I'm willing to have my
[00:40:09] business and work and hire the nannies
[00:40:12] and hire the babysitters and the
[00:40:13] cleaners and all of it because I know
[00:40:14] this window of little kids is a short
[00:40:16] time and I'm embracing it and I love it
[00:40:18] >> 100% embrace it
[00:40:20] >> and I know they're going to grow up and
[00:40:22] >> try to pump the brakes as much as you
[00:40:24] and and take it all in. Oh my good. You
[00:40:27] know, there's one, right? That's the
[00:40:28] baby taller than I am.
[00:40:31] >> Yeah.
[00:40:32] >> Right there. That's what That's what
[00:40:33] happens in 21 years.
[00:40:35] >> Yeah. No, it's it's true though. They
[00:40:37] >> He's going to be a man.
[00:40:38] >> They're going to grow up. And you know
[00:40:40] what? I'm embracing it, but at the same
[00:40:42] time, I still want to take care of
[00:40:43] myself and I still want to do things.
[00:40:45] And it is that balance. And I say
[00:40:47] balance loosely, but it's finding that
[00:40:49] that rhythm or that flow or that feeling
[00:40:52] that you feel good. Back to what was it
[00:40:53] again? Help remind me the human
[00:40:57] >> Oh, human design.
[00:40:58] >> The human design part, right? Is that am
[00:41:00] I right? Does that really help you?
[00:41:01] >> That really helped me figure out my life
[00:41:03] in terms of my personality a little bit,
[00:41:05] but it also helped me figure out like a
[00:41:07] good schedule that worked aligned with
[00:41:09] me, right? And I think you have to think
[00:41:10] about your business, your lifestyle, and
[00:41:13] there's so many factors, right? I joke a
[00:41:14] lot, taxes are like a diet. There's
[00:41:16] always a general rule of thumb, but when
[00:41:18] you get into the details, everybody has
[00:41:20] something different or wrong or unique
[00:41:22] with their situation. Same with your
[00:41:24] life, right? Just because I can tell you
[00:41:25] what I'm doing doesn't mean it's going
[00:41:27] to work well for your life and what
[00:41:28] you're doing.
[00:41:29] >> Exactly.
[00:41:29] >> So, I think you have to look at your
[00:41:30] life and decide what works well for you,
[00:41:33] what excites you, what interests you,
[00:41:35] why are you doing this, you know, and
[00:41:37] what kind of life do you really want for
[00:41:39] yourself? And that's a really hard
[00:41:41] conversation, but I've written it out
[00:41:43] over the years and it's changed. Now
[00:41:45] it's changed even more with, you know,
[00:41:46] having a child, but
[00:41:48] >> and having two.
[00:41:49] >> Yes. And having two coming up, but I'm
[00:41:51] able to build a business that allows me
[00:41:53] to bring more people into the world. And
[00:41:55] I feel really good about that. And look,
[00:41:56] you have your hard days. You have your
[00:41:58] days where you want to scream and cry
[00:41:59] and punch a wall. And you're just like
[00:42:02] gh like what am I doing? Did I make a
[00:42:04] mistake? But at the end of the day, you
[00:42:06] know, tomorrow's a new day. You can get
[00:42:08] up and you can start over. And that's
[00:42:10] one of my biggest beliefs as well is
[00:42:12] this 1%, right? I really believe we can
[00:42:14] all be 1% better every single day. And
[00:42:16] when I say 1%, it doesn't mean you need
[00:42:18] to like run a marathon. It just means
[00:42:20] maybe you need to take 20 steps,
[00:42:22] >> right?
[00:42:23] >> Or, you know, we don't I think we live
[00:42:24] in such a society where it's so
[00:42:26] fast-paced and we're like expecting
[00:42:28] everything done so quick and that's just
[00:42:29] not how life works. It took me four
[00:42:31] years to build my business to get to the
[00:42:33] place where it is now, right? I think
[00:42:34] people have this idea of success. Like
[00:42:36] people think you're crazy. I remember
[00:42:37] telling my family and people about my
[00:42:39] business, you're crazy. Why would you do
[00:42:41] that? And now I have people knocking on
[00:42:42] my door wanting to work for me. So it's
[00:42:45] very interesting when you're when people
[00:42:47] think you're crazy and then you build
[00:42:48] something and then people see the
[00:42:50] success. Nobody sees the behind the
[00:42:52] scenes. Nobody sees the BS you go
[00:42:54] through. Nobody sees the heartache, the
[00:42:57] cries, the blood, the sweat, the tears.
[00:42:58] Nobody sees the behind the scenes of you
[00:43:00] having a business. They only either see
[00:43:02] the failure or success. They don't see
[00:43:04] the in between.
[00:43:06] >> And it's hard to explain that to anybody
[00:43:08] who's not a business owner. But I
[00:43:09] compare that to having kids too, right?
[00:43:11] It's like it takes time to have a child.
[00:43:13] You're b, you know, look, I've been
[00:43:15] pregnant for 10 months, right? And then
[00:43:17] you have this child and then you're
[00:43:18] healing postpartum and then this baby
[00:43:21] eventually grows and becomes bigger.
[00:43:23] They're a little seed and, you know,
[00:43:24] they become an adult. And that's kind of
[00:43:26] like business. And that's why with my
[00:43:27] podcast, I talk so much about the
[00:43:29] correlation between owning a business
[00:43:31] and raising a child. There's so many
[00:43:33] synergies, a lot of differences, but
[00:43:34] there's also a lot of synergies between
[00:43:36] the two.
[00:43:37] >> Yeah. I'm just going to take a small
[00:43:38] break here.
[00:43:39] >> Yeah.
[00:43:39] >> So, this is a little sponsor mention
[00:43:41] talking about businesses. So, my wife
[00:43:44] and I are in the early stages of
[00:43:46] launching Maya Soap.
[00:43:48] >> Cool.
[00:43:49] >> So, Maya Soap's built around the idea
[00:43:51] simple well-made things still matter.
[00:43:53] We're offering a limited number of
[00:43:54] complimentary bars to people engaged
[00:43:56] directly with the conversations on this
[00:43:57] show. So, we'll have the details in the
[00:44:00] show description. This is literally
[00:44:02] changing by the day. But I'll tell you
[00:44:04] this, there'll be an address and there's
[00:44:06] still limited bars, so I can't I can't
[00:44:09] promise you that you're going to get
[00:44:10] one, but if you send me a postcard to
[00:44:12] the address, you're going to go to the
[00:44:14] top of the list. So, I like getting
[00:44:15] mail. So, if you send me a postcard with
[00:44:17] your name, address, email, and phone
[00:44:18] number, we'll do our best to get you
[00:44:20] that bar.
[00:44:21] >> Love soap.
[00:44:22] >> Yeah, we have a we have a bar for you,
[00:44:23] too.
[00:44:24] >> Oh, thank you.
[00:44:25] >> Yeah. So, what was the one thing that
[00:44:26] you stopped doing?
[00:44:27] >> I just stopped realizing that I'm not
[00:44:30] Superwoman. I've realized like I can't I
[00:44:32] can't do it all. Right? I think as moms
[00:44:35] we think we could do it all and we think
[00:44:36] we could take everything on. We think
[00:44:37] that, you know, we're superw women and
[00:44:40] we can clean and we can cook and we can
[00:44:41] run a business and take calls and take
[00:44:43] deal with a crazy crying baby. You just
[00:44:45] can't do it. You know, I need my sleep,
[00:44:48] right? Like I realize I need to
[00:44:50] outsource. I need to hire people. I need
[00:44:52] to let that idea go. And for so many
[00:44:55] women, we need to let this idea go that
[00:44:57] like we're doing it all. We're going to
[00:44:58] get burnt out. I'm part of so many
[00:45:00] Facebook groups of women
[00:45:02] >> who are tired and they ask for help from
[00:45:04] their partners and they feel like
[00:45:06] they're naggy and even my husband
[00:45:07] sometimes feels that. I love him to
[00:45:09] death, but I feel like sometimes I'm a
[00:45:11] nervous to ask him for something cuz
[00:45:12] he's tired, right? And it's like well
[00:45:14] I'm tired too and at the end of the day
[00:45:16] I've just come to grips with like I
[00:45:18] can't do it all and if I need help don't
[00:45:21] be afraid to ask for it. I've just
[00:45:22] stopped saying like why am I doing all
[00:45:25] of this? I stopped apologizing. And for
[00:45:28] women, we need to stop apologizing.
[00:45:30] >> Let me tell you something. Having a
[00:45:32] 20-year-old son, that's awesome. I
[00:45:34] didn't really realize how hard my wife
[00:45:36] worked at home. He does all the grocery
[00:45:40] shopping now. He does a lot of the
[00:45:42] cooking. He's a wonderful kid. We've
[00:45:44] been married 30 something years. Guess
[00:45:46] who did it before he was doing it?
[00:45:49] >> Yeah.
[00:45:49] >> And worked a job.
[00:45:51] >> Yeah.
[00:45:51] >> And ran the kids around.
[00:45:52] >> Yeah. and she did all the well I'll do
[00:45:56] the grocery shopping but that she's like
[00:45:57] that's always dangerous to the budget
[00:45:59] because Kirk doesn't look at prices.
[00:46:01] >> My husband he doesn't do grocery
[00:46:04] shopping. He does like steak and beer.
[00:46:06] >> I don't know if I'm sticking beer with
[00:46:08] I'll walk down the aisles like oh that
[00:46:09] looks interesting. Let me get one of
[00:46:10] those. And then then there's no plan.
[00:46:13] >> Yeah.
[00:46:13] >> There's not a meal there. There's just a
[00:46:15] bunch of junk kind of like it's kind of
[00:46:18] like the steak and beer.
[00:46:19] >> Yeah. It's like two things and I'm like
[00:46:21] this. Can we make a meal out of this?
[00:46:22] It's like what are we doing? Yeah. And
[00:46:25] >> so but to the point it actually takes
[00:46:28] mental effort which I don't know where I
[00:46:31] read it but
[00:46:32] >> the mental load is very
[00:46:33] >> the mental load is it's a very real
[00:46:35] thing towards your fatigue, right?
[00:46:37] >> Oh, you're exhausted. Like I could wake
[00:46:39] up at 4 in the morning, right? Like just
[00:46:41] my daily life now. It's like I do a 5
[00:46:43] a.m. gym class. I come home, quick
[00:46:45] shower, I'll get my son up and it's
[00:46:46] feeding him and it's trying to do at
[00:46:48] least a load of dishes and a load of
[00:46:50] laundry every day. If I can do one of
[00:46:52] each of those, I feel like I've
[00:46:53] accomplished something in terms of the
[00:46:54] house. And then again, it's just like
[00:46:56] running with the day, right? And it
[00:46:58] depends on his nap schedule and if I can
[00:47:00] get work some work done in between a nap
[00:47:02] and then I'm playing with him like on a
[00:47:03] day that I'm home with him and I don't
[00:47:05] have any help. So, you're really just
[00:47:07] trying to figure it out, right? And meal
[00:47:09] prepping, you think of it as like, okay,
[00:47:11] like there's a meal, but you don't
[00:47:12] realize that you have to go to write a
[00:47:13] list, then you have to go to the grocery
[00:47:15] store, then you have to buy the stuff.
[00:47:17] Now, you do Instacart and other things,
[00:47:18] too. But even then, you get Instacart
[00:47:20] and it still gets delivered to your
[00:47:21] house. You still have to bring it in
[00:47:22] your house, but you still have to put it
[00:47:23] away. You still have to prep the food.
[00:47:25] You still have to cook the food. And
[00:47:26] then you want to make sure it's all
[00:47:27] good, right? That takes time. Everything
[00:47:30] you do takes so much time. And again,
[00:47:32] time value money. What is worth it for
[00:47:35] you? Like I don't
[00:47:36] >> Well, and what do you what's your bill
[00:47:37] rate? Yeah,
[00:47:38] >> that's another way to look at it. I
[00:47:39] mean, that's where Josh Nelson would
[00:47:40] come in. He literally has somebody
[00:47:42] that's in the house managing. Can you
[00:47:43] imagine this? Think about this. They
[00:47:44] have somebody
[00:47:46] >> they never have anything in the
[00:47:47] refrigerator anymore. it's expired.
[00:47:49] >> I mean, kudos to them,
[00:47:51] >> you know, cuz they got somebody that's
[00:47:53] taking care of that part of it. They're
[00:47:55] bringing the Instacart in. They're
[00:47:57] checking to make sure that, oh, this
[00:47:59] ketchup bottle has been 3 months
[00:48:01] expired. Well,
[00:48:03] >> Josh's house, it probably never gets
[00:48:04] more than a day expired or maybe, you
[00:48:06] know, probably approaching a week and it
[00:48:08] goes out and they get a new bottle. I
[00:48:10] mean, you know, there's so much that
[00:48:12] goes on to managing a household that
[00:48:14] >> it's crazy. It's crazy. And I remember I
[00:48:16] don't know if you follow Cody Sanchez,
[00:48:18] but she's all about buying boring
[00:48:19] businesses. That's her whole
[00:48:21] >> and she's very successful helping other
[00:48:23] people buy boring businesses
[00:48:24] >> like a laundromat or I don't know I
[00:48:26] don't watch her but I'm thinking like
[00:48:27] laundromat car wash bookkeeping
[00:48:30] business.
[00:48:31] >> Think of every boring business
[00:48:32] imaginable like a dry cleaner. Anything
[00:48:35] that is very boring that makes money.
[00:48:37] That's what she talks about. And one of
[00:48:39] the things she says is
[00:48:39] >> what was her name again so we can
[00:48:41] >> Cody Sanchez.
[00:48:42] >> Cody Sanchez. Great. Is there a title to
[00:48:44] is it just Cody tanches or does she has
[00:48:45] a title to her?
[00:48:46] >> She's kind of just personal branding in
[00:48:47] terms of her I think she owns the
[00:48:49] contrarian training and maybe a couple
[00:48:51] other things, but everything falls back
[00:48:52] on her personal brand.
[00:48:53] >> Okay, so we can find her.
[00:48:54] >> So, one of the things she talks about is
[00:48:56] outsourcing, right? If it's $50 like an
[00:48:59] hour under, don't even think twice about
[00:49:01] outsourcing, right? Because if your
[00:49:03] business is doing well and you're making
[00:49:04] money and you can afford it, if you can
[00:49:06] afford somebody for $50 an hour or like
[00:49:08] under that, outsource anything that you
[00:49:10] don't want to I mean, I just had my car
[00:49:11] washed at a detail place.
[00:49:13] >> Mhm.
[00:49:14] >> It was $45. And I was thinking about
[00:49:17] that. I'm like, well, they put like five
[00:49:20] people on this car. And yeah, they got
[00:49:22] it done in a half an hour, but how long
[00:49:23] how many hours how many hours would that
[00:49:26] take me?
[00:49:27] >> It would take you a long time.
[00:49:28] >> It probably take me two or three hours
[00:49:29] to do the job. I mean, they went in,
[00:49:30] they blew everything out, they vacuumed
[00:49:32] everything.
[00:49:34] >> They put a fancy They took like brushes
[00:49:36] and put fancy designs on the carpet mat.
[00:49:39] I mean, it was amazing what they did.
[00:49:42] They wiped it all down.
[00:49:43] >> Look, and I try to do a lot. I think
[00:49:45] outside the box, even in terms of my
[00:49:47] life when it comes to just other tasks,
[00:49:50] right? So, like we have a dog, love my
[00:49:51] dog, but I definitely get frustrated
[00:49:53] sometimes because I focus on the baby.
[00:49:55] The dog doesn't get as much attention.
[00:49:57] But some of the things I've done to try
[00:49:58] to make things a little better is one,
[00:49:59] I've hired a mobile groomer to come to
[00:50:01] the house to wash her and also trim her
[00:50:03] nails.
[00:50:03] >> So, you're not having to drive the dog.
[00:50:06] And then that adds easily what? Half an
[00:50:07] hour to hour to any kind of task.
[00:50:09] >> Yes. And it's having the dog and the
[00:50:10] baby in the car, which my husband feels
[00:50:12] is a big no no. Not in a bad way. He
[00:50:14] just gets very nervous. So that means I
[00:50:15] have to bring somebody into the house,
[00:50:16] which probably is a little bit more of a
[00:50:18] premium, but it means I have somebody
[00:50:19] coming to my house and that means it's,
[00:50:21] you know, again, time value money. I
[00:50:23] don't need to leave my house. I have
[00:50:24] somebody coming to my house. Likewise, I
[00:50:26] just actually started with a mobile vet
[00:50:28] company. And so they're going to come
[00:50:30] and administer her shots at the house.
[00:50:32] >> I don't need to go out. And so I asked
[00:50:34] about the price and it's maybe a little
[00:50:36] bit more, but they come to my house and
[00:50:39] they're able to do everything that I
[00:50:40] would normally do at going to a vet. It
[00:50:42] saves me babysitting costs, right? Cuz I
[00:50:45] would normally have to hire a
[00:50:46] babysitter. If I couldn't take my son,
[00:50:47] I'd have to take the dog. My husband
[00:50:49] >> possibly going to have to hold the dog
[00:50:50] and you can't hold your
[00:50:52] >> Well, what they do at my vet, they take
[00:50:54] the dog from the car and they call you
[00:50:56] and then kind of let you know. They're
[00:50:58] still kind of on that co thing, which is
[00:50:59] kind of nice. But regardless, I'm
[00:51:01] changing my vet, so I can just have a
[00:51:03] mobile service come
[00:51:04] >> and they can just come and they can deal
[00:51:06] with her and I can still have my son at
[00:51:07] home and I don't need to like shuffle
[00:51:08] out the door.
[00:51:10] >> So, I think as moms, we really have to
[00:51:11] think outside the box when it comes to
[00:51:13] our life. And that's why, look, I hate
[00:51:14] to say it, but I use Amazon, right?
[00:51:16] Like, as much as I love to support small
[00:51:18] business as a small business, sometimes
[00:51:20] you need the convenience and you need
[00:51:22] something delivered. And for a lot of
[00:51:24] moms, Amazon becomes your best friend
[00:51:26] because you just need something quick or
[00:51:27] you need something next day. And so
[00:51:29] having that is just important. You know,
[00:51:31] same with Instacart. Any of these
[00:51:33] delivery services are amazing to have
[00:51:36] something come to your house. The
[00:51:37] convenience of that is unbelievable. My
[00:51:40] mom always said when we were kids and
[00:51:41] she, you know, had to shuffle us to go
[00:51:42] to a grocery store to get something and
[00:51:44] it was like a whole project to get out
[00:51:45] of the house. Now we don't have to
[00:51:47] really deal with that anymore. So we
[00:51:49] have to find ways as moms and again even
[00:51:51] as an entrepreneur, how do we make our
[00:51:53] lives a little bit easier? And this is
[00:51:55] going to be this is going to be kind of
[00:51:57] your theme on your on your new podcast.
[00:52:00] >> And talking about a lot,
[00:52:00] >> tell us the name of the podcast again.
[00:52:02] >> Raising Hustle.
[00:52:04] >> So I didn't come up with the name. My
[00:52:05] partner in two cents. She's incredible.
[00:52:07] Her name's Haley Kruuth. I'll shout her
[00:52:09] out. She's Moxy Made. She does a lot of
[00:52:11] branding and messaging. And so when I
[00:52:13] was telling her about the podcast
[00:52:14] concept, we were going back and forth.
[00:52:15] And
[00:52:15] >> so she's a brand that is that her
[00:52:17] business is
[00:52:18] >> she's a really brand strategist. And so
[00:52:20] she helps with messaging. She can do
[00:52:22] like vision planning, you know, she
[00:52:24] helps with quarterly social media and
[00:52:26] like content, what content you should
[00:52:28] put out every quarter, but she's
[00:52:29] incredible.
[00:52:30] >> She sounds like somebody I need to
[00:52:31] connect with my social media marketing.
[00:52:34] >> Yeah, she's amazing. Um, I really just
[00:52:36] >> goes back to your whole point. Why do I
[00:52:38] want why do I want to cloud and dilute
[00:52:41] what I do when she's already good at
[00:52:45] what she does? This goes back to your
[00:52:47] whole networking kind of thing, right?
[00:52:49] >> She's good at what she does. is why do I
[00:52:51] need to try to bring that into my mix?
[00:52:53] >> I just don't
[00:52:54] >> complicate my whole my process works
[00:52:56] really good right now. I just need more
[00:52:58] clients and focus on what I'm doing
[00:53:00] right now instead of Oh, that's a great
[00:53:02] idea,
[00:53:03] >> Marielle, your your partner over there.
[00:53:05] I should do that for my clients. No, I
[00:53:08] need to just
[00:53:10] >> have her do it for my clients. And this
[00:53:11] is what And then when she gets clients
[00:53:13] that
[00:53:13] >> needs what I do, and I'm guessing this
[00:53:16] is how you helped. What do you you had
[00:53:18] the name for that too? like uh partner
[00:53:20] referrals. Is that
[00:53:21] >> just like collaboration? Yeah. Referral
[00:53:23] partnersh. And I would say that's huge,
[00:53:25] right? And so when I was coming up with
[00:53:27] this name, it's it's so much about
[00:53:28] mental stuff. It's also talking about
[00:53:31] comparisons of entrepreneurship and
[00:53:32] motherhood, but it's really everything
[00:53:34] in between. And so I'm not going to hold
[00:53:36] back. I believe in being really direct
[00:53:38] and upfront. I can't deal with lip
[00:53:40] service. Now, as a mom, I have not
[00:53:42] boundaries, but I am very clear on
[00:53:44] expectations. I'm very clear for someone
[00:53:46] to say yes or no. I don't tolerate maybe
[00:53:49] as a business owner or a mom. Like if
[00:53:51] you right if someone wants to work with
[00:53:52] me and they're giving me maybe. Okay,
[00:53:55] fine. Like I'm not going to chase you.
[00:53:57] It's
[00:53:58] >> reach back when you're ready to start
[00:53:59] moving forward.
[00:54:00] >> It's yes or no. It's yes or no.
[00:54:01] >> Yeah.
[00:54:02] >> Same with people in my life. People have
[00:54:03] said, "Oh, I I want to like I really
[00:54:05] want to come down and help and I want to
[00:54:06] be there." And then when I ask, it's oh,
[00:54:08] maybe I can. Maybe doesn't help my
[00:54:10] situation. If I really need you certain
[00:54:12] days and you're telling me maybe, that
[00:54:14] doesn't work. I need a yes or no answer.
[00:54:16] And as mothers like and especially as an
[00:54:17] entrepreneur on top of it, I don't have
[00:54:19] time to like mitigate this. It's like I
[00:54:23] need yes or no. I need direct responses
[00:54:25] and I'm not going to tolerate that
[00:54:26] anymore. And I think for anyone who is a
[00:54:28] mom,
[00:54:28] >> it's a good boundary to have.
[00:54:30] >> You have to. And I think for a lot of
[00:54:31] moms, they're like nervous. You know,
[00:54:33] we're so nervous to say no. We're so
[00:54:34] nervous to not please everybody. And
[00:54:36] you're not going to please everyone. Not
[00:54:37] everyone's going to like you.
[00:54:38] >> How soon was it that you felt
[00:54:41] comfortable saying no?
[00:54:43] >> Took me a while. I think as women, we're
[00:54:46] always people pleasing. We are always
[00:54:48] trying to get as
[00:54:49] >> You think that's just part of the
[00:54:50] biology or being a mother or
[00:54:53] >> I think it's just being a woman.
[00:54:54] >> Being a woman,
[00:54:55] >> whether you're having a kid or not, I
[00:54:56] think there's always some level of
[00:54:58] people pleasing. And I think you get to
[00:55:00] this point where you're tired. Now that
[00:55:02] as I am a mom, I am tired. I don't
[00:55:05] really have time to like try to
[00:55:07] sugarcoat you, right? Like even in my
[00:55:09] business now, like I'm currently, as
[00:55:10] we're recording this, in the midst of my
[00:55:12] busy season. If you want to work with
[00:55:14] me, it really is a yes or no. Like,
[00:55:15] you're either going to sign my contract
[00:55:16] and work with me or it's just not going
[00:55:18] to happen. I'm not going to chase you
[00:55:20] all the time. Look, I we all chase and
[00:55:23] we all follow up with clients. That's
[00:55:24] just how it goes.
[00:55:25] >> Well, that's being responsible business
[00:55:27] owner.
[00:55:27] >> Yes, it's being a responsible business
[00:55:28] owner, but there is a point where you
[00:55:29] kind of give up, right? And there is a
[00:55:31] point where like I can only chase you so
[00:55:33] much before you're just not responsive.
[00:55:34] And that's fine, you know? And it's nice
[00:55:37] to give an answer or response if you're
[00:55:38] not interested in someone or you found
[00:55:40] it and moved in a different direction.
[00:55:42] All good. I don't care. I just want to
[00:55:44] know.
[00:55:44] >> That's where I really like Jim Camp.
[00:55:46] >> Okay.
[00:55:46] >> Have you heard of Jim Camp?
[00:55:48] >> I don't think so.
[00:55:48] >> He's got a book. I think it says start
[00:55:50] with no.
[00:55:51] >> I love that.
[00:55:52] >> So, you go into a sales call or whatever
[00:55:55] and you're like, you know, if you don't
[00:55:56] like what I'm about to present with you,
[00:55:58] that's fine. Just let me know.
[00:55:59] >> That's literally what I say to people.
[00:56:00] I'm not kidding you.
[00:56:01] >> That's why you're having success because
[00:56:02] you're following the gym camp. it says
[00:56:05] right subconsciously but this is why you
[00:56:07] know when I go on my calls right a
[00:56:09] couple things I say is I believe in
[00:56:10] outsourcing more than anything else I
[00:56:12] said even as a business owner doing
[00:56:14] bookkeeping I outsource a lot I
[00:56:16] outsource my branding right I outsource
[00:56:18] my website I outsource like lead genen I
[00:56:21] don't do a lot of that stuff because I
[00:56:22] don't like it I'm not good at it and I
[00:56:24] don't want to do it and so for a lot of
[00:56:25] my clients who come to me for
[00:56:26] bookkeeping they don't like it they
[00:56:27] don't want to do it they're not
[00:56:28] interested in it not their realm it's
[00:56:30] not what they're good at it's not what
[00:56:32] makes them happy and it's not
[00:56:33] >> that's your perfect client And that's
[00:56:34] your perfect client.
[00:56:35] >> That is my perfect client. And that's
[00:56:36] not what's making them money. They have
[00:56:37] to focus on their zone of genius of what
[00:56:39] is making them money. Period. Case
[00:56:41] closed. But the other thing I say, I'm
[00:56:43] like, look, let's see if we're
[00:56:44] >> You're giving me lots of good marketing
[00:56:46] uh uh content or uh what's the word I
[00:56:49] want to use? Language to put into my
[00:56:51] marketing.
[00:56:51] >> Yeah. And it's really like I don't It's
[00:56:53] like you want to work with me or you
[00:56:55] don't. I'm not going to try to sell you.
[00:56:56] I said this is my pitch. This is what I
[00:56:58] do. These are the expectations. This is
[00:57:00] what you're going to get. It's yes or
[00:57:02] no, right? and I don't have hard
[00:57:03] feelings. And sometimes I have to tell
[00:57:05] somebody no. I'm like, listen, I might
[00:57:06] not be the right fit for you, but I have
[00:57:08] somebody else that is. I, you know, I
[00:57:09] had a client recently who I just gained
[00:57:11] who is so sweet in the kind of baking,
[00:57:13] food and bed world, and she had a
[00:57:16] bookkeeper who was very short and rude
[00:57:18] with her. And to me, I just don't
[00:57:20] tolerate that behavior. I am very much a
[00:57:22] communicative kind of person, whether
[00:57:24] personal or business, right? Like people
[00:57:26] know that they can come to me and I will
[00:57:27] give them kind of honest ad advice.
[00:57:29] Coming from a kind place, but even in my
[00:57:32] business like a women, especially women
[00:57:33] are so vulnerable and nervous about
[00:57:35] money, right? Kind of back to people
[00:57:36] pleasing and trying to do it all. We're
[00:57:39] we're nervous to ask for help. We're
[00:57:41] nervous to talk about it. Especially
[00:57:43] money. Money is like this fear-basing
[00:57:45] thing that we're so nervous of. And
[00:57:46] especially with females, I don't know
[00:57:48] why males don't seem to be as afraid,
[00:57:50] and I say that loosely versus females.
[00:57:52] But she's like, "I'm so nervous. Look at
[00:57:54] my numbers." I think I think maybe I
[00:57:56] think a lot of it is that it's people
[00:57:58] have the idea that it's um finite
[00:58:02] >> probably.
[00:58:03] >> I think there's a lot of it. I mean it's
[00:58:05] obviously finite in my bank account
[00:58:07] right now.
[00:58:08] >> Yeah. Yeah.
[00:58:10] >> It's a definite has a number in there
[00:58:12] but I don't think they have the mindset
[00:58:14] that it's you know the ability to go out
[00:58:16] there and make more is always there.
[00:58:19] that that exists that
[00:58:22] I can't go out. I mean, you can buy
[00:58:24] money in the sense of what you're
[00:58:25] talking about
[00:58:27] >> outsourcing certain things, you can I
[00:58:29] mean, not not buy money. I meant I'm
[00:58:30] sorry. I meant to say buy time.
[00:58:32] >> Yes.
[00:58:32] >> Um, you can buy time in that sense.
[00:58:36] >> But as far as us personally going out
[00:58:39] and buying time, we can't buy more time
[00:58:40] than we got 24 hours a day just like
[00:58:43] everybody else.
[00:58:44] >> And how we use it is up to us. And what
[00:58:46] we can do is we can outsource. And I
[00:58:48] think that's what you're trying to say.
[00:58:49] >> And you free up money, right?
[00:58:51] >> Well, you free up time. Free time.
[00:58:53] Sorry. You free up your time. Confusing
[00:58:54] the two terms.
[00:58:55] >> No, but you free up time so you can make
[00:58:57] more money. And that is what I tell
[00:58:58] every business owner. Like even one of
[00:58:59] my kind of bookkeeping friends. We were
[00:59:01] talking about how she's like a little
[00:59:02] strapped with cash and money's a little
[00:59:04] tight. And I said, "Listen, the beauty
[00:59:05] of your situation is you can always make
[00:59:07] more money." And that is the beauty of
[00:59:09] being an entrepreneur is you always can
[00:59:10] find a way to make more money. Whether
[00:59:12] it's a different offering, a different
[00:59:13] service, whatever you're doing, there's
[00:59:15] always a way to make more money. And
[00:59:17] that's what I been I've been able to do,
[00:59:18] right? And every business is different.
[00:59:19] I look at a lot of different businesses.
[00:59:21] I'm not necessarily industry agnostic to
[00:59:23] one. I have a lot of different
[00:59:24] industries. I'm more about the
[00:59:26] relationship. Cuz for me, my clients
[00:59:28] know if you're my client, you can call
[00:59:29] me, you can text me, you can voice note
[00:59:31] me, you can email me, you have access to
[00:59:33] my team. Like, you have full access,
[00:59:34] right? I want anybody to know money is a
[00:59:36] very sensitive topic and money is one of
[00:59:39] those things that people kind of want an
[00:59:40] answer to right away. just like health,
[00:59:42] right? When you're going through like a
[00:59:44] health crisis, you want the ER, you want
[00:59:46] a doctor to save your life, right? Not
[00:59:48] saying mine is as much of that, but
[00:59:50] people want an answer. And so, I'm just
[00:59:52] very sensitive to people in terms of
[00:59:54] knowing where they're at and just
[00:59:56] holding their hand and just saying,
[00:59:57] "Hey, it's going to be okay, and I'm
[00:59:59] going to be there for you to the best of
[01:00:00] my ability based on what you need." You
[01:00:02] know, I meet people where they're at.
[01:00:03] Well, I think what it is is is I guess
[01:00:05] what I would say, how I would word that
[01:00:07] is that you're you're coming across and
[01:00:09] I can pick up on it now
[01:00:10] >> is you come across very confident in
[01:00:12] what you're able to do and what you're
[01:00:14] able to deliver.
[01:00:14] >> That took time.
[01:00:15] >> Oh, it took time.
[01:00:16] >> Yeah. That this doesn't happen
[01:00:18] overnight. I joke Rome wasn't built in a
[01:00:19] day and neither was my business. I think
[01:00:22] >> or or I guess your confidence.
[01:00:24] >> It took a lot of time. I mean, I had a
[01:00:26] lot of imposttor syndrome in the
[01:00:27] beginning. I remember going to events
[01:00:29] and
[01:00:29] >> Gary Gary Fry wrote a book. The title is
[01:00:32] imposttor syndrome.
[01:00:33] >> It's true. It's such a weird thing
[01:00:35] because when you're starting a business,
[01:00:37] right? You kind of have to fake it till
[01:00:39] you make it a little bit. Like you kind
[01:00:40] of need to know what you're saying and
[01:00:41] doing because you don't want to look
[01:00:42] dumb.
[01:00:43] >> Mhm.
[01:00:44] >> But you you have to kind of work through
[01:00:46] that, you know? And look, I had to get
[01:00:48] my processes better. I had to get some
[01:00:50] of my billing straight. I had to learn
[01:00:52] of what I needed to do to get to this
[01:00:54] point where now I can be in this
[01:00:56] confident place. But in the beginning,
[01:00:59] it's like it's the wild west starting a
[01:01:01] business. You don't know what you're
[01:01:02] doing. That's my first year truly
[01:01:04] spaghetti on the wall. Like try
[01:01:05] different things, do different things.
[01:01:06] Be very clear on what you're selling and
[01:01:08] the clarity around it. A lot of business
[01:01:11] owners will change their mind a lot,
[01:01:12] right? We're we're especially
[01:01:13] entrepreneurs, we're idealists, some of
[01:01:15] them, and there we'll like do an idea
[01:01:17] and then three months later we're not
[01:01:18] making money. We're going to something
[01:01:19] else and we're going to something else.
[01:01:20] And I think when you jump like that, it
[01:01:22] doesn't necessarily work. I think you
[01:01:24] kind of have to stick with something and
[01:01:25] see within a year, does it work? And if
[01:01:28] it doesn't work, do we change the
[01:01:30] strategy? Do we change the approach?
[01:01:32] >> As a business owner, I I I want to say
[01:01:34] that I have tried that and it hasn't
[01:01:35] worked. If I'm really honest with myself
[01:01:38] though,
[01:01:38] >> sure,
[01:01:39] >> did I you know, I think we all as small
[01:01:42] business owners suffer from obscurity
[01:01:44] >> and
[01:01:45] >> you know, did I did I go to enough
[01:01:47] networking meetings? Did I do enough
[01:01:49] speaking engagements? Did I actually
[01:01:50] really how much did I actually really
[01:01:53] try to get the new business to come in?
[01:01:55] And if I was honest with myself, most
[01:01:57] times when things, you know, a
[01:02:00] particular offering didn't work out,
[01:02:02] >> I'm going to have to be honest and say,
[01:02:04] I probably didn't try that hard.
[01:02:07] >> Look, and I think it depends on what
[01:02:08] your idea of trying is, right? And it
[01:02:10] depends on the time you have. It depends
[01:02:12] on the other obligations you have. I
[01:02:14] think as like look, pre-baby, I used to
[01:02:16] go to three to four networking events a
[01:02:17] week. And on top of that, I was
[01:02:18] following up with virtual coffees,
[01:02:20] meetup, happy hours, everything.
[01:02:21] >> Guess what? I wasn't doing that. So, I'm
[01:02:23] going to say I think I can clearly say I
[01:02:26] wasn't trying as hard as I could have,
[01:02:27] >> but that's if you want to. And I think a
[01:02:29] lot of times as a business owner, like
[01:02:31] for me, I really believe like the fire
[01:02:32] in the belly. Like I think it's like how
[01:02:34] bad do you want it and what are you
[01:02:35] willing to do to make that happen?
[01:02:37] >> And a lot of people I think like the
[01:02:39] idea of owning a business, but they're
[01:02:41] not really willing to do the work.
[01:02:43] >> You know, I think even being a mom to a
[01:02:45] certain point, right? Like we all have
[01:02:46] ideas of what we think our life is going
[01:02:48] to be with a kid and then we have a kid
[01:02:49] and we're like, "Oh, wait. This is like
[01:02:51] totally different." like what did I get
[01:02:52] myself into?
[01:02:54] >> But you learn and you adjust and you
[01:02:55] adapt and you shift. And I think there's
[01:02:57] so much of that in motherhood just like
[01:02:59] the synergy of entrepreneurship. There's
[01:03:01] so much you're constantly learning and
[01:03:03] growing and you're seeing what works,
[01:03:05] what doesn't. And that worked today, but
[01:03:06] maybe that doesn't work tomorrow. And
[01:03:08] you just really have to be open-minded
[01:03:09] to it. And I tell a lot of my
[01:03:11] entrepreneurs like be open-minded to
[01:03:13] change, be open-minded to shifting. Try
[01:03:15] different things. Do different things.
[01:03:17] But do do the due diligence to actually
[01:03:20] give it an honest try and be honest with
[01:03:23] yourself about what did I do? What could
[01:03:25] I have done? And the thing is is right
[01:03:27] now Oh, speaking of this, this will be
[01:03:29] interesting. I just found this out this
[01:03:30] week. Are you familiar with the LLM uh
[01:03:33] Perplexity?
[01:03:34] >> I've heard of them.
[01:03:35] >> Perplexity.ai. So, Perplexity.ai,
[01:03:39] they have their own browser now. And
[01:03:40] then they have a thing on there called
[01:03:41] spaces. inside the spaces they have a
[01:03:44] template and you can click template and
[01:03:46] then under I think it's finance or
[01:03:48] technology they'll have why which is
[01:03:49] where a lot of startups came out of and
[01:03:52] so you should should really even take a
[01:03:53] look at it it's it's an amazing thing
[01:03:55] because it's taking all that data from
[01:03:57] that startup incubator
[01:03:59] >> okay
[01:04:00] >> um where I mean companies I think like
[01:04:03] Dropbox and Airbnb and I think
[01:04:05] >> I have heard of this I have heard of
[01:04:07] this
[01:04:07] >> so it's an AI but it has this template
[01:04:11] and it's and pre-programmed
[01:04:14] if you will with you know startup in
[01:04:17] mind or small business as well like what
[01:04:20] do you do now these I think are probably
[01:04:22] geared more towards scale and exit but
[01:04:26] it's still probably going to give you a
[01:04:28] lot it's given me a lot of good like a
[01:04:30] good example I'll tell you then this is
[01:04:32] why we're changing the sponsorship thing
[01:04:34] initially I just wanted people to send
[01:04:36] me a postcard and it's like that's like
[01:04:38] way too sticky
[01:04:40] Yeah.
[01:04:41] >> Why don't you give away, you know, I'm
[01:04:43] giving away a limited number. I haven't
[01:04:44] put a number to it yet. We don't know.
[01:04:46] We need to do production and and see
[01:04:48] what we can afford to do and whatnot as
[01:04:50] far as that goes. But why don't you
[01:04:52] offer have people sign up and you you're
[01:04:55] going to select people to get the free
[01:04:58] bars and I'm still doing the postcard.
[01:05:01] If you send me a postcard, you're going
[01:05:02] to go to the top of the list.
[01:05:03] >> Sure.
[01:05:04] >> And so now it's not so sticky. you can
[01:05:07] go online and put your name in the hat
[01:05:08] if you want to send me a card and jump
[01:05:09] to the top, you know, of the line,
[01:05:12] >> but you're trying it.
[01:05:13] >> And so it was it was really interesting
[01:05:14] because it's like, oh, this is so
[01:05:16] sticky. It's going to be really rare.
[01:05:18] And I'm like, yeah, but I want people to
[01:05:20] really want it,
[01:05:22] you know, but and you know, having this
[01:05:25] conversation with this AI and they're
[01:05:26] like, well, I think that's just probably
[01:05:28] a bit too sticky. and you know for
[01:05:31] somebody to go out and send a letter or
[01:05:32] a postcard and put a 78 cent stamp on it
[01:05:36] and stamps are not cheap these days.
[01:05:38] >> I know.
[01:05:39] >> And do you do any do do you do
[01:05:41] everything electronically or do you do
[01:05:43] mail too?
[01:05:44] >> I pretty much do everything
[01:05:44] electronically but the one thing I do do
[01:05:46] so if you are my ongoing kind of monthly
[01:05:48] client, one of the things I do is a
[01:05:50] client gift. And so I like to give like
[01:05:52] a physical gift. Might change to gift
[01:05:54] cards at some point. Haven't decided.
[01:05:56] But this past year, I gave everybody a
[01:05:58] towel, like a beach towel. And so
[01:06:00] >> cool. Is it branded or just a plain?
[01:06:02] >> No, I did Ver Bradley. Shout out to like
[01:06:04] the Real Bradley LA. That was just a
[01:06:06] deal. But they're beautiful towels and
[01:06:08] people loved them. I mean, it was a
[01:06:10] raving people. I had so many of my
[01:06:11] clients be like, "Thank you so much.
[01:06:12] This was so thoughtful." Wrote a
[01:06:14] handwritten card and put a towel and
[01:06:16] then my, you know, got a little kind of
[01:06:18] band around it. So I joke my mom's like
[01:06:19] my chief like gift officer cuz my mom is
[01:06:21] super creative, which I didn't get that
[01:06:23] gene, but she will help me come up with
[01:06:25] the gifts. So my first year of business,
[01:06:27] I did stationary kits where we my mom
[01:06:29] sewed like these little stationary books
[01:06:31] and we put cards and notebook like a
[01:06:32] notepad in. So it was thoughtful. We did
[01:06:35] like a wedding card, a birthday card, a
[01:06:36] sympathy card, kind of a baby shower
[01:06:38] card, thank you cards. And people loved
[01:06:41] it cuz they're like, "Wow, it's so nice
[01:06:42] to have a place to put like my greeting
[01:06:44] cards. So if I want to give a card or
[01:06:46] I'm going to an event or I'm going to a
[01:06:47] party, at least I have a place for
[01:06:49] that."
[01:06:50] >> And so that was one of the first gifts
[01:06:51] we did. And then we did the towels. I
[01:06:53] think next year we'll I won't say it but
[01:06:55] we'll do something a little different.
[01:06:57] But I you know mail them because I have
[01:06:59] clients kind of all over the country.
[01:07:00] But a lot of my clients I just hired
[01:07:02] again talk about hiring someone. I hire
[01:07:04] time value money on this. I hired
[01:07:06] somebody to just I gave her like 200
[01:07:08] bucks and I said I have all of these
[01:07:09] gifts. Here's all the addresses. I need
[01:07:12] you to deliver all of them in person.
[01:07:14] And she did all of them in a day.
[01:07:16] >> Wow.
[01:07:16] >> So cuz I can't do that with a baby.
[01:07:18] That's crazy. But I'll hire somebody
[01:07:20] else to say hey. And like I put it all
[01:07:21] in boxes. I organized like based on the
[01:07:23] town. I was like, "Okay, bring these to
[01:07:25] the like this same address. Bring these
[01:07:26] to this area of town." And she was able
[01:07:28] to go around and map it out. I was able
[01:07:30] to give them a gift and people loved it.
[01:07:31] They're like, "Oh my god." Like, and I
[01:07:32] was like, "Yeah." It was like my
[01:07:33] assistant did it. She brought the gifts
[01:07:35] and it was just such a cool like way to
[01:07:37] give gifts to people that
[01:07:39] >> And again, it's like that human contact,
[01:07:41] right?
[01:07:41] >> I really want that.
[01:07:43] >> Even if it's through the mail, I just
[01:07:45] think it's I sent out Christmas cards
[01:07:47] this last year.
[01:07:48] >> Nice.
[01:07:49] >> Did you get yours?
[01:07:50] >> Yes, I did. So, I had people actually
[01:07:51] feedback. Sometimes people told me my
[01:07:54] Christmas card was the only one they
[01:07:56] got.
[01:07:56] >> Wow.
[01:07:57] >> Some people said I got two, some got 10.
[01:07:59] I mean, it was like I don't think
[01:08:01] anybody had over 20.
[01:08:02] >> Yeah. People send them. I don't know.
[01:08:05] >> It's just not something that people do.
[01:08:06] And the interesting thing is on the back
[01:08:09] of my card was a I featured a photo of
[01:08:11] my wife and I at a winery in Bordeaux.
[01:08:15] The owner of the winery, I sent one to
[01:08:17] him, too.
[01:08:17] >> Oh, nice. and the owner of the winery
[01:08:19] took the time to write me a thank you
[01:08:20] note. I thought that was incredible. And
[01:08:22] and to me, it's just proof that it
[01:08:24] works.
[01:08:24] >> Yeah.
[01:08:25] >> Now, is he going to hire me or anything?
[01:08:26] Probably not. Doesn't matter. The point
[01:08:28] is is I got a response out of a very
[01:08:31] busy person that's owns and runs a
[01:08:33] winery. He's
[01:08:34] >> But look, it's branding for him too to a
[01:08:36] certain point. Like you're putting that
[01:08:37] out there and you're talking about the
[01:08:38] winery and I'm sure he really appre
[01:08:40] anybody appreciates any kind of branding
[01:08:42] or shout out, right? Period. Case
[01:08:43] closed. anytime someone can get kind of
[01:08:45] free marketing or somebody talking about
[01:08:47] their business or shouting out their
[01:08:48] business. I read a lot like on social
[01:08:50] media about this of even if you can't
[01:08:52] support a business directly by paying
[01:08:54] somebody. There's so many ways you can
[01:08:56] support them for free, re-sharing their
[01:08:58] story, re-sharing a post, commenting on
[01:09:01] a post, liking a post, referring them
[01:09:03] business, right? There's so many ways
[01:09:05] you can help a small business owner that
[01:09:07] doesn't mean that you're out of pocket
[01:09:09] per se, but that you're able to help
[01:09:11] them out. And so I always think it's
[01:09:13] just referring, networking, and just
[01:09:15] helping others.
[01:09:16] >> Do you have any final thoughts to share
[01:09:18] with people?
[01:09:18] >> Just do the thing you love. And I feel
[01:09:22] like just be h like there is a point
[01:09:24] where you have to be happy, right, with
[01:09:26] yourself. And I think that takes a lot
[01:09:28] of time, but do the thing do the things
[01:09:30] that you love in life and know that like
[01:09:33] look, might hit the fan some days
[01:09:35] and there's going to be really hard days
[01:09:36] in life, both as a business owner and a
[01:09:38] mom, whichever way you sway. But you can
[01:09:40] get through really hard times, you know,
[01:09:42] and I just really believe like there is
[01:09:44] a point of choosing your hard, but this
[01:09:47] is all worth it. And I'm just so excited
[01:09:49] to live a life that I'm excited about
[01:09:50] and I hope others listening to this find
[01:09:52] something that they're excited about,
[01:09:54] too.
[01:09:54] >> So, I put it, someone's si sitting in a
[01:09:56] job, they feel like they're outgrown.
[01:09:58] This is my last kind of closing
[01:10:00] question. What's a question they should
[01:10:01] ask themselves before making a move?
[01:10:04] because I'm I'm thinking that kind of
[01:10:05] speaks kind of maybe to a potential
[01:10:07] audience that you're
[01:10:08] >> talking, you know, maybe these folks are
[01:10:11] thinking about maybe motherhood.
[01:10:13] >> They're working that corporate job,
[01:10:15] >> but they're kind of having some
[01:10:16] questions. And
[01:10:17] >> I think you really need to think about
[01:10:19] why you're leaving or why you want to
[01:10:21] leave. Is it because you have a bad
[01:10:22] boss? Is it because you have a bad
[01:10:24] commute? Are you not making enough
[01:10:25] money? Are you just not enjoying what
[01:10:27] you do? There's so many factors that you
[01:10:29] have to think about. And for me, like
[01:10:31] look, I got laid off, right? So that
[01:10:33] choice was already made easy.
[01:10:35] >> Yeah, it was outside of my control.
[01:10:37] >> But if you have control over it, like
[01:10:38] really decide why you want to leave
[01:10:41] something, you know, and really decide
[01:10:43] what like what is the propelling?
[01:10:44] >> That's really wise. Yeah.
[01:10:46] >> Because if you don't think about that,
[01:10:48] then you'll put yourself in a situation
[01:10:49] you might really regret. And for some
[01:10:51] women, and I think this is really hard,
[01:10:53] right? Because for a lot of women,
[01:10:54] you've built this big career. A lot of
[01:10:56] millennial moms or millennial, you know,
[01:10:58] people as I should say, we grew up with
[01:11:00] this idea of like school, college, job,
[01:11:03] become this boss babe, be independent,
[01:11:05] be all these things, but then it's like
[01:11:06] when we have kids, it's like, well, wait
[01:11:08] a second, how does this fit? And it it's
[01:11:09] hard cuz it not that it doesn't, but
[01:11:11] it's challenging. And so, I would say to
[01:11:13] anybody like really think about the life
[01:11:14] you want to live and think of the
[01:11:16] lifestyle cuz I think a lot of it has to
[01:11:18] do with lifestyle. And so, when you're
[01:11:20] at your job, what do you want out of
[01:11:21] your life? Do you want to work and make
[01:11:23] money? Do you want to do it a different
[01:11:24] way? Do you want to do it on your own?
[01:11:26] And if you maybe like your job, you
[01:11:27] don't like the commute, can you
[01:11:28] negotiate to work from home a little bit
[01:11:30] more? Like, how can you make your
[01:11:32] situation a little bit more plausible
[01:11:33] and a little bit more just better for
[01:11:36] yourself? And that's really hard for a
[01:11:38] lot of women and a lot hard for a lot of
[01:11:39] businesses, too. Some businesses won't
[01:11:41] budge. But I really think you have to
[01:11:42] think of your why. And that why has to
[01:11:44] propel you so far to make that decision.
[01:11:47] And that's again a decision with your
[01:11:49] partner, decision with family, decision
[01:11:52] for your child. And I can't tell you
[01:11:54] that, but all I can tell you is if
[01:11:56] you're in a situation and you're really
[01:11:58] not happy, figure out the why of why
[01:12:00] you're not happy and figure out a way to
[01:12:02] either get a new job, maybe start a
[01:12:03] business, or just think of other
[01:12:05] alternatives that work well with you and
[01:12:06] your family.
[01:12:07] >> And if you're a woman, tune in to your
[01:12:09] new podcast.
[01:12:10] >> Yes. And if you're a woman, yes, for
[01:12:12] raising hustle for other ideas, too. So,
[01:12:14] if Marielle's perspective uh on business
[01:12:18] or working women or mothers uh is uh
[01:12:23] something that resonated with you, if
[01:12:24] you want to learn more about it, you can
[01:12:26] find her at fmbookkeeping.com
[01:12:29] >> and there's links there. I'm sure you'll
[01:12:30] probably have a link to your podcast
[01:12:32] maybe on there or on your LinkedIn.
[01:12:34] >> Uh if this conversation was valuable to
[01:12:37] you, please like, comment, subscribe,
[01:12:38] and share it with someone who would
[01:12:40] appreciate it. It really helps the show
[01:12:41] reach the right people. And yes, I do
[01:12:43] read to comments. Marielle, thank you so
[01:12:46] much. Um, just one final shout out to
[01:12:49] Maya Soap. So, Maya Soap is the uh
[01:12:52] sponsor. We're preparing and offering a
[01:12:53] limited number of complimentary bars to
[01:12:55] viewers who are engaged directly with
[01:12:56] the show to participate. You can comment
[01:12:59] soap or you can send a note to our
[01:13:02] mailing address that's going to be in
[01:13:04] the description. Complimentary bars are
[01:13:06] offered in limited quantities and
[01:13:08] subject to availability. My little
[01:13:10] disclaimer, can't be shipping out a
[01:13:12] million bars of soap. And I just one
[01:13:14] last thing I didn't say. This was
[01:13:15] recorded in person at Studio 106 1016
[01:13:19] here in West Palm Beach, Florida.
[01:13:22] >> Thank you so much for coming by. I
[01:13:24] really appreciate it.
[01:13:25] >> I love this. This is great.