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[00:00:00] Ashley: Welcome to the Money Mindset Podcast, where you will find the inspiration and motivation you need to manage your money better. So you can stress less and live the life you want. 

[00:00:15] Welcome to another episode of the Money Mindset Podcast I'm Ashley Patrick with Budgets Made Easy and the Money Mindset Podcast of course. Today's guest is Belinda Rosenblum, who is a CPA and Profit Strategist of Own Your Money. She helps busy female coaches and experts sustainably scale their revenue and profits by up leveling their financial systems, strategies and stepping into the role of C E O. I came across Belinda, many years ago as I was starting my own business. And the last couple of years, she has really focused on, uh, coaching female business owners. And what I love about her is that she really focuses on your mindset. Which of course this is the Money Mindset Podcast, so you know that I love that as well, because you really have to believe in yourself and believe that what you want is possible for you. And she really does a great job of bridging that gap and helping you overcome imposter syndrome is a big one. Um, as well as all those mental blocks that keep you from even saying that you're the CEO. Like I know that I've struggled with this and taking her coaching program these last couple of weeks. Oh has been tremendous. I've had so many aha moments and just mindset shifts around being the CEO of my own business and, you know, really diving deep into those things that have been holding me back in my business.

[00:01:59] That really stemmed from many, many years ago, like before I was even had a business, you know, it was thanks for my childhood, all those things. And, you know, I've had so many business coaches and they don't focus on that. They focus on the tips and the strategies, which Belinda does as well, but she really dives deep into the mindset that you have as a business owner. And you can just tell that this is her passion to help female business owners and busy moms really scale their businesses. And so she has a lot of free resources for you that I'm going to put in the show notes as well. And if you love this episode, go follow Belinda on Instagram.

[00:02:42] Uh, leave us a five-star review But she had so that you, so that I know that you enjoyed this episode, it is a little bit longer than normal. And I told her it would only be like 20 to 30 minutes. Cause I know that you're busy. So much, so many good little nuggets that I couldn't stop myself from asking her more questions. So this episode is just a little bit longer than normal. So if you've got to watch it into, you know, two little segments of time, it's worth it. And of course, as always, if you are struggling with managing your finances and getting started, I do have a Free Budget Starter Kit go to budgetsmadeeasy.com/start to grab that today. Uh, but let's dive into Belinda's episode because it is good. 

[00:03:34] Hey Belinda, thank you so much for being with us tonight. 

[00:03:38] Belinda: My pleasure. I'm so glad that we're able to make this work. 

[00:03:42] Ashley: Yes, absolutely. So thank you for being flexible with the scheduling. Of course, my house is constantly sick. It feels like it's a never ending battle.

[00:03:53] So thank you for being flexible, moving things around. So today we are going to talk about, you know, paying your better or more consistently, especially if you have a irregular income and you know, we're going to talk about business owners because you focus on business owners and you have helped me tremendously these past several weeks.

[00:04:15] And so, you know, I really want to share your insights. On how business owners can build in that consistency, because I know it's a struggle for me and it's a struggle for many other business owners. Um, but before we dive into that, can you just give us a little bit of your backstory about what led you to wanting to help business owners focus on like profit and paying themselves more versus just focusing on revenue. Because, you know, we do like to see that big revenue number and we focus on it so much, but you know, I know you have a personal story about this topic as well. So can you give us a little bit of background about that.

[00:04:58] Belinda: I do I do. Yeah. Thank you for asking. And for everybody listening, like you need to know that Ashley has committed to you all. So committed to making this work and, you know, and I think that, that, it's actually a really good lesson. I feel like entrepreneurship is, is crash course in personal development and resilience. And, you know, it's like fall down seven times and get up eight kind of a thing. Right. And that, you know, I. I have a, I guess a couple of key points that have really led me to where I am. So when, um, when right after I graduated college, my father had a stroke and I became family CFO when I was 21 years old.

[00:05:38] So for any of you who are stuck in this like sandwich generation, where you feel like you have to take care of your parents already, plus you have. Um, I didn't have kids yet, but I felt like a kid myself at 21, like, you know, and so I, um, I kind of tried to figure it all out and band-aid it together. And I was, I focused back on my job because I need to take off some time to make sure he got the care that he needed.

[00:06:01] And then it was like seven years later. I was 28. And I found myself in this dangerous rinse and repeat cycle of avoiding my money and avoiding our bills and just avoiding the responsibility of handling all the things that needed handling. He was in a nursing home. My sister was away at medical school and it all landed on me. And so I would be on the road for one of those big accounting firms. That was my job. At the time I travel Monday to Friday, come home exhausted Friday, not want to look at anything. I get the mail out of the mailbox, stick it in any like basket drawer, free area, you know? And then one day I was away and my sister just, you know, very innocuously just asked me, like, how's it all going?

[00:06:47] You know, like I know you're just working so much and there's so much that's left on you, you know, how's it going? And I realized that I was just living in this like fake reality where I could just avoid my finances and have everything be okay. But the reality is that I was having a lot of shame. I had a lot of worry and I, I was this like star player at, at work in the office, but I just had finance fatigue and didn't want to deal with it. So I came home that weekend, did one of the scariest things. If you've ever been an avoider and I pulled together all of that bill bills and all of the bills and mail from around my apartment and collected all my dining room table. And all of a sudden, I feel like I'm being stared down by these three huge stacks of bills and mail.

[00:07:31] And I, um, you know, in that moment, I literally, like I started my heart, started beating really fast and I had essentially a panic attack and I start pacing around my house and I, uh, I just, all of these like negative thoughts just started to wash over me, you know, like, could my dad get kicked out of the nursing home? Could doctor stop seeing him? Can I get fired from my job? Cause I was like an accountant. I was an auditor. Right. I was like making sure that everyone else has financials were good. And then in that moment I just stopped and I took an extra breath and I realized that. My money was owning me. I wasn't owning my money.

[00:08:10] Right. And I, I think of that moment as this time of like, well, I had a choice, right. I knew that I could be successful at work. And I had to start applying myself with my finances. And so it took six months. It took a friend coming over, even in the beginning and helping me sort through all of the bills and mail. Like we literally had to take out my whole dining room table, took everything off and we had to do piles of each bill, because there were so many months of bills and then they got more colorful as they got more overdue. Right? Yeah. And so eventually it took, it took six months because I was committed to it, but my bills and mail kept coming.

[00:08:47] And I, I created a new mindset for myself and moreover, an organizational system, right. Like an actual money system so that I didn't have all of those piles of bills and mail. And I could actually keep up with it instead on a regular basis. So that was really a pivotal thing that, that like moment for me that drove me, I guess it was about seven years later to found own your money in the first place. And that was back in 2007 and it was before the recession. Everyone thought it was crazy leaving my six-figure corporate job to start this business. Coaching was not sexy. Online education was not sexy. Like none of that people are like, what are you doing?

[00:09:28] You turned down three, like financial advisor jobs. Cause I was like, I don't want to just give people an asset allocation. I want them to figure out why are they making money? And they don't have anything left for themselves and they have this mindset that tells them that they can't be successful and they're not worthy.

[00:09:43] And they're an imposter when actually they're amazing. It's just that they don't know how to believe in themselves yet. And they haven't decided that they could be successful with money. So I spent a year living eat, pray love after I left the corporate job and then started Own Your Money. And then I will say that when everything crashed in 2008, I was very well-poised to have like my business take off. I was literally on the five o'clock news, the day of the federal bailout here in the Boston area, because I was talking about financial stress and that people needed to pay more attention to their money. And you know, why were people making six figures? And it had nothing to show for it kind of thing.

[00:10:21] And then, um, I did that for the better part of 12 years. I wrote a book self-worth to net worth, and then I started creating online courses and in 2019, I, I realized that there were so many business owners that had extra challenges around money, right? Because now they have to deal with this irregular income, right. They're not just getting these like magical paychecks deposited every other Friday, which a to be. And, and yet they have this unlimited ability to make money once they can actually capitalize on their expertise, right. And their skills. And so in 2019, I really shifted to help business owners because they realized that there was this core part of me that had watched my mom really struggled when I was growing up, to try entrepreneurship for herself, she over-delivered and over promised and overworked. And wasn't able to spend the time with us that she would have wanted. And she still regrets it. Now to this day, she was one of my first clients when I started the business and, um, And I really want to help women, especially moms, especially be able to figure out how they can run more sustainable, profitable businesses with real money systems and strategies to help them support, to support them, to be able to do that.

[00:11:38] So, um, yeah, I'm very connected to help like normalize this conversation money and help you really change the legacy that you may have once you can rewrite your money story and actually come to terms with, with what you're living into when it comes to money. So I think that answers it from the personal finance side and from the business owner's side.

[00:11:59] Ashley: Yeah, absolutely. And I love, um, when you share kind of like your background, because it's so relatable. I mean, how many people. Of mail that they're just avoiding. I mean, I do it, I have a little mail thing and like, all my bills are on auto pay except medical bills, you know? And it's like, you don't get just one anymore. You get like 15 for one visit. And so mine just ended up sitting there until I get tired of like the third notice I get I'm like, all right, fine. I got to sit down. I guess I gotta pay these. And it's not like I don't have the money. I just don't want to do it. 

[00:12:37] Belinda: I was the same way. It wasn't like we didn't have the money. If anything, like I was managing seven bank accounts and three credit cards and two properties. I mean, you could have added a Partridge in a pear tree and then it wouldn't be complete, like right at all. And yeah, it wasn't a lack of money. It was, it was a lack of wanting, it was lack of attention, right? It is a lack of wanting to spend my limited, free time doing it. But you know, what I came to realize is just like how much not handling it was actually weighing on me. You know, once I created something different, I think we just get so used to tolerating the shame and the guilt and the fear around handling it.

[00:13:14] Instead of actually finding this place of becoming empowered with our money, learning how to use money as a tool and to live into the power that we have instead of getting stuck in the potential of what we can be creating. 

[00:13:28] Ashley: Yeah. And that's what I really love about your message because you focus a lot on mindset, which is what I focus on as well. I mean, it's the Money Mindset Podcast, right. But why is the mindset and how we think about money, especially as business owners, so important. 

[00:13:48] Belinda: So I think that like, I love that you that you also cover mindset, right? Because they feel like there's, there's too much of the time where we forget that it's two sides of the same coin, right? The mindset is the mindset. Emotional side is, is on one side of the coin. And then the tactical practical is on the other side. And the thing is that you need both to take action, right. To cash in that money to have it be worth something. And too often we think that we can just like strong arm ourselves with the tactics, but we don't do. Like I'm a Testament to that, you know? And then I think, I think there's because it wasn't lack of skill. It wasn't like I couldn't figure it out. Right. It was just that the emotional side of me was holding you back. So I wasn't doing it. And also on the flip side, you can't just be in abundance and not take any action about it, either like that also doesn't work, you know?

[00:14:37] And I think that for entrepreneurs, there's a whole nother level of us needing to be confident in our own worthiness and the value of the services and products that we create. And. It has to start with us, right? Like you won't sell to nearly the potential that you can until you have sold yourself first on your ability to make money on your deserving of the money that you're bringing in. Because otherwise we just start to self-sabotage, there's so many ways that we can cap ourselves when the cap is not actually there. We have an unlimited ability to make money, but it's that we create the cap with our own challenges around imposter syndrome and the fears that we have of failure and success. And, you know, being seen like there's so many fears. That's why I was half joking, but half not that it's like a crash course in personal development, because like, you need to be extra competent with yourself because it's almost like, every time you're offering your service. You're asking people for money, you know, in your corporate job, you negotiated once and you just get these magical paychecks every Friday.

[00:15:52] However, as an entrepreneur, like every time you want to get paid your asking somebody for money, right. You're asking them to, to, um, Choose to see the value in what you're delivering is more than the value of them holding onto their dollar. Right? It's it's always this exchange of value. And the beauty though, as entrepreneurs is that we have this ability that once we learn and you know, you've started to see this come through the cashflow CEO program. Once you can understand the value of the transformation that you're creating, then you have a shot at being able to articulate that value to the buyer. Right. Too often, that we undervalue ourselves that we under charge because we haven't yet found a way to articulate the value and really to articulate the the deeper value. Oftentimes like we, when we're selling something, we often get that like caught up in the features versus the true benefits of whatever is the item that we're selling. Right. So let me use an example. So Ashley, remind me the name of your membership. 

[00:17:03] Ashley: Uh, Money Success Coaching.

[00:17:06] Belinda: Money Success Coach, alright. So when someone is investing in money, success coaching, they're not just invest investing in a certain number of lessons and a certain number of Q&A calls, right. It's not just the, the, um, Basics of what they're getting through that program. They're getting peace of mind. Right? They're getting the ability to build wealth. They're getting themselves off of the hamster wheel that, that we like put ourselves on. Getting a job, getting a paycheck and then spending all the money that we make. That's not what life is all about. Right? So what you can help them to do through your, your money success coaching is to be able to see that they can make their money work better for them, but we're never taught, finding. We're never taught personal finance. We're never taught business finances and we're certainly never taught this mindset element of it. All right. And so we just carry around the shame and the guilt and the fears and all the stuff that I did before I sat down and figured it out. Cause I was like, no, one's going to fix this for me.

[00:18:13] You know, I think that sometimes we hope that like the, the prince charming, I was just going to come in and like so open. And I remember back in the day I spoke to Susie Orman, we're at this conference together and we were talking about, you know, how we will help, um, women and couples with their money. And she was like, yeah, but remember they have, they have to save themselves first. You know, that's always been part of her thing. And I was like, yes, I totally get it because we can't want it more for them than they do. But what's so cool is that once you can start to recognize the actual value of a program like that, right. Of stepping into the next level of what's possible for you around money, then it's like, you want to save. Do you know what I mean? Then it's like, you want to be like, well, why am I tolerating feeling like crap with my money? Like, why don't I just learn what I need to learn and figure it out. I remember I was on a radio show once and they said, you know, what about all the people that want to keep up with the Joneses?

[00:19:14] And I was like, Hey, the Joneses, a lot of the Joneses are my clients. I was like, they can't afford their lifestyle necessarily either. You know, it's not about trying to keep up with anybody else. It's about figuring out, like, what do you really want with your life and how can you help money be a tool to help you make that happen? So, um, yeah, I think that answers the question plus a little bit. 

[00:19:35] Ashley: That was great. Yeah. Um, so for the struggling business owner, where should they start? When it comes to managing their business, finances are like, okay, I know I need to make a change. Something has to give, but they don't really know where to start you know, to start paying themselves consistently or to change their mindset so that they can make more money. 

[00:20:01] Belinda: Totally. Um, okay. So couple of things, you know, I think that the, at a fundamental level, we have to make sure that you're separating your business and your personal finances, like before I can even get into how much you're going to allow the business to pay you. We need to at least have a separation of these two, because I think that sometimes when people are starting and they think like, well, I'll create a new account. Once I make 500 or a thousand or 2000. Like, I just want you to starting right away because it's when you can separate out the two, then you can, um, you give yourself a chance to actually see what the business is bringing. Right. And how much the business is costing you to run and way too often, particularly for MLMs. I'm guessing you have some, um, folks who are doing that. They, I have, oh gosh, I'm going to actually be on the prosperity council of a whole MLM group, um, back in the day. And one of the biggest challenges I would see is that women would collect money from like a party of some sort, right. They would put it into their personal account and then their partner would see the money there. And then they'd be like, great. We have money now let's go pay all these bills. But then when they would need to replenish their inventory, There'd be no more money there because they just spent it all on the bills.

[00:21:19] And then all of a sudden you ended up with business debt somehow when it's not actually a business that it's just that the money that came in for the business, part of it needed to get spent on replenishing the business. But all of a sudden the money was gone and I see way too many times where people get into what they think is business debt, which is actually personal debt because, your personal life pulled out too much money from your business. And so if you can start to separate out business and personal, that goes a really long way. If you have people who are just starting out, I have a really good low cost workshop called Get Smart With Your Business Money, which I'm happy to give you a link to.

[00:21:56] Yeah, you can include in the show notes too, which could be a really good start. Once you're at the point where you're like, okay, the business is starting to make some money. I want to figure out what do I need to have the business make so that I can get paid because way too often, we start the business and the is bringing in money, but we leave all the money in the business and we never actually figure out how to we get to pull some money out. So we just feel. Even though we're supposed to be the CEO. We just feel like there's overworked employee who's underpaid and has like the most demanding boss ever. He gets his work like all the time, you know? And, and so instead I want you to realize that, okay, wait a second. You run the show and you deserve to get paid better, right? You deserve to get paid something for this. So I have a really helpful calculator, literally called the Pay Yourself Calculator is one of the like magic templates that's inside my cashflow CEO program, but I pulled it out because I just felt like there are so many people who struggle with this because they just aren't finding a way yet to work through the money side.

[00:23:03] Like it just feels really confusing and overwhelming. So. You know, even once, by the way, once you're growing your revenue to $50,000 and a hundred thousand dollars, it's not like this challenge goes away as it goes higher. Actually the challenge sometimes increases because your expenses are growing too while your revenue was growing. So I created this really helpful calculator. You literally just plug in three numbers and it'll show you, um, you know, what you need your business to make. And I also put in some cool extra formulas for you to see like, well, how could I double what I'm paying myself right now. Like what would my revenue need to be then? And then I had, you know, you can also play around a little bit and be like, well, what's my ideal goal. What's my minimum goal. Right. And so with a few things, like I've set up the whole spreadsheet, so it's super easy for you. And all of a sudden it starts to put into black and white. What feels hard and uncertain and confusing. It's like, just let the calculator work. Its magic. So I'll make sure I give you the link for that too. 

[00:24:01] Ashley: Yeah, absolutely. I was just checking it out before we started talking because you know, I have struggled with this as well because as I've made more money, the experience I have went up or, you know, the majority of my revenue is coming from like Facebook ads. So that's like an immediate off the topic spend. So, you know, my revenue number may look really large, but then my advertising dollars is really large too. So, you know, and then you start to feel resentful of your business because I'm putting in all this work, all this effort and you know, I'm paying myself last, like on my spreadsheet. You know, I have a spreadsheet. I track what it, every dollar that I'm spending in my business, I know where it's going, but I'm paying myself last and so 

[00:24:48] Belinda: It's like everybody else was getting paid except for you. 

[00:24:51] Ashley: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it's like, okay, at the end of the month, all right. Can I pay myself this month? So, you know, how can somebody, you know, when they are making revenue, you know, because you are focusing now on, um, businesses that have a, um, have a good revenue stream, how do they start paying themselves consistently when they are paying themselves last to start with. 

[00:25:22] Belinda: Well part of it is shifting the whole dynamic, right? So I would at some point, so I had my third year of business and I had, I was growing fast. You know, I just launched in December of 2007 lost money in my first year, but I only really was in business a month. And then second year, or really like first full year in business, I mean, like 65 K. Lost money neck.

[00:25:45] The second full year in business, I grossed 155k and I netted $3,000. So $152,000 went out to everybody else except for me. Right. So I totally can relate to what you're sharing. And it took me deciding for that third year, I was like this. Can I curse on here? Sure. I was like, this shit has to stop. Right? Like this is not, I can't continue this way. Right. Like I left a six-figure job to like lose two, like big down $50,000 after working two years, like, what is this about? And, um, and so I made the part of the definite decision that I made was that I couldn't keep listening to all the business coaches that were like, just focused on revenue, the rest will workout. I was like, Like I have to tap into the, what I know to be true about math and accounting, and it doesn't just quote, work out. You know, I needed to pay attention. I needed to create a profit plan and I needed to decide one of the big decisions I made was that I wanted to start to pay myself something.

[00:26:47] Minimum, relatively minimal consistently. I think I started like a thousand dollars. My, but I was like, I have to start here. And then I grew to $2,000 by the end of the year. And I had to pay a lot more attention to expenses. I streamlined things like I, I had given my assistant, for instance, a blank check, you know, I was effectively like. You're an hourly rate, just work, what you need to work. And I was giving her tasks, but I wasn't being streamlined enough, even in the tasks, for instance, quick, easy example. So at that time I was in the media a lot. Like I did Yahoo finance, I did American Express. I did Saturday evening post, like, and I had my own TV show. Like I was just. Every week, there were more things, right. I was a lot going on. And so somehow I thought that every day my website needed to get updated. Now let's be real Ashley. Right. And everybody listening, you're allowed to laugh at that. It's not like that many people, I didn't even know how to check Google analytics.

[00:27:42] I didn't know how to check how many bore actually looking at my website, but in my head it needed to be ref it needed to be updated. And this was again, I'm dating myself now before WordPress. Like you couldn't just go in and it was like PHP coding for my original website. Oh my goodness. That's right. So it was like, it's just hours were wasted for instance, on that one task. So as soon as I was like, don't update it every day, update it once a week or every other week, you know, that saved me hours. Time and dollars. Right? So, and then I hired another coach so that I could make money off of the time that she was working. Instead of just me feeling like I was trading time for dollars.

[00:28:22] So there was some definite shifts that I had to make. And one of them was to decide that I, my pay was no longer an after thought. Right. And so why, part of what comes out of the calculator is for you to say, Hey, for me to get paid, what I want and for me to spend on the business expenses that I want, then this is how much I need to make sure I'm making at least that number every month. And what's beautiful about it is that once you know what that minimum is, and then once you also figure out what that ideal is, we can reverse engineer your offers and how many. You're selling to because then we know, okay, great. I need to be making $5,000. Right. And then to make $5,000, I'm going to give a thousand dollars of business expenses and I want to take home. And then I need something to set aside for taxes. Let's say we'll do a thousand dollars for taxes. And then I want to get paid $3,000. Great. Now, once I know I need to make $5,000. Now I'm speaking more to coaches and experts who are most of our students, then it's like, okay, great. What do you want to sell to make 5,000? Do you want to sell one client, an amazing $5,000 package? Do you want to sell to clients at $2,500 package five clients, a thousand dollar a month package, you know, or, you know, you have so many more options. Once you actually know what you need your goal to be. Otherwise, people are just like, they're, they're trying to run their businesses blindfolded.

[00:29:51] Like they're, they're just like throwing darts and they don't even know where the target is kind of thing. And so it's like, no wonder. It's so frustrating. And it feels like what's the point. And should I go back and get a job? And it's like, no one ever taught you this finance stuff. I totally get it. There is a better way. I'm happy to help. And there, you know, with a little bit of planning and a little bit of strategy and a better system for you to make sure you're tracking your money, there's so much that becomes possible because then all of a sudden, instead of it feeling like your revenue and your profit are happy accidents, now they can actually feel intentional and you get to make the offers that you want, that will yield you, the revenue and the profit that you're looking.

[00:30:36] Ashley: Absolutely. Now I have seen through the years, other, you know, bloggers and, you know, they, I get so frustrated because they think that they need to be the cheapest option. Uh, what do you say to people that are business owners and they want to, you know, really. They want to pay themselves more consistently, but yet they still want to be like the cheapest in the market.

[00:31:08] Belinda: Okay, well, I'm not sure you want to ask this at the end of the podcast. I have a lot of feelings on this. 

[00:31:14] Ashley: I know I was like, it's about time to wrap up, but I really, I know you probably have some strong feelings about this. Cause I mean, I get so frustrated. I'm like, you're, you're selling that for a dollar. Like, why are you selling that for a dollar? 

[00:31:27] Belinda: Right. Sorry. Right, right. So that's okay. That's okay. I think you and I are on the same page, you know, that, that we w we're not here to like gouge people, right? It's about recognizing that it's always a value exchange, but when, when people are undercharging or when they're trying to be the lower cost option. They're in this race to the bottom. And the only person that ever quote wins is the one who's making no money. Like that's the broke one. Like don't follow their lead. If anything, I want you to decide who do you want to be in the marketplace? Like you don't necessarily have to be the Tesla, but you also don't have to be the 20 year old used car.

[00:32:05] You know, when you're trying to price yourself. And I always prefer to be the value choice, the one that people would want to pay for, because they want the level of service that I'm offering. And. Remember that there are buyers at every price. I mean, there are Louis Vuitton, Gucci. They are not going away anytime soon.

[00:32:30] There are plenty of people still buying those. Plus there are those buying coach. Plus there are those buying purses, at Walmart, and there's no judgment at all. It's just knowing that, no matter what you charge, they'll always be a buyer. So why not charge more and make sure that you can deliver at least whatever you're charging for, you know, providing that level of value so that it always feels like a positive return on that exchange of money for your buyer. Right. You know, that it will never serve you to try and give more, but charge less. Right. That is not going to be a sustainable business model for you. And so many people end up hustling their way to their first 20K, 50K even a hundred K. And then they get there and they're like, holy crap. Like, I can't work more.

[00:33:25] Like, how am I ever going to make more? And they just realized that their formula isn't working. And that's when we need to take that step back and say, wait a second. Do I need to raise my rates. I have another low cost workshop on raising your rates because I find that that is such a big challenge for so many people that they, they keep making these mistakes that have them undercharging and, and then sometimes it feels hard to get out of, right? Like they think, oh, if I raise my prices, then I'm not going to get new clients. Or then my current clients are going to leave. And. It's it all starts with you. That's why we touched on mindset so much today, right? Is that as soon as I can get you to make sure that you're delivering the value for what people are paying, people will pay more it's just you selling yourself on it first that you deserve to get paid. 

[00:34:17] Ashley: And that you believe in yourself enough that you're going to deliver the value so ...

[00:34:22] Belinda: Totally like you got to sell yourself on it first, what, you know, whatever. Sometimes, you know, we joke that like, I mean, I've been doing this now for over 15 years and I think. Sell ice to an Eskimo kind of thing. You know, like if I feel like they're really thirsty and I'm going to put some nice deuce with it and, you know, just, I think learning good sales skills and just learn and believing in yourself, honestly, first and foremost, it goes a really long way. And you know, if you're.

[00:34:51] If you're listening to this, you know, please like take a snapshot of it. Tag me. I'm at owner money on Instagram tag, Ashley. Um, your Budget's Made Easy, right? Um, Instagram. Yeah. So you can find us both tag us and like, let us know, like, what are you going to do differently? Because you heard this today. And if raising your rates is one of your things or, you know, making sure reevaluating what you're charging. That will be music to my DMS. So, um, cause I do think that it is, it's something that we end up defaulted into, right. Because we're trying to like better the next person's price, but that's not actually going to get you. To a model where I can have you working less and making more, it's just going to do the opposite.

[00:35:33] It's going to have you work more and more and get paid less and less, and that's not sustainable and it's not fun. It takes all of the fun out of, out of running a business. Exactly. 

[00:35:44] Ashley: All right. I do. I could talk to you literally all day, but we do have to wrap up. Do you have any. Last words of wisdom or any thing you want people to take away from this episode? I mean, you've given us a lot already. It's like, I mean, like just so much good little nuggets. So I feel like I'm asking a lot for one more, but do you, do you have any last words of wisdom to share. 

[00:36:14] Belinda: Yeah, I think that it's, it's recognizing that even if it feels like you do have, you know, an inconsistent income or it feels like it's like feast or famine for you to recognize that on a larger basis. So if it feels like you get paid daily and some days are up and some days are down, if you look at it over a week or you look at it over a month, it's probably more consistent than you realize that's one option. Another option is that you recognize that you are in control of that. And so if you are more of an expert, a coach, you have a service that you provide, then we need to figure out how do you make it more consistent.

[00:36:52] So I'll end on this funny story. So I, um, when I was pregnant, I used to go for regular massages and I basically convinced my misuse. I'm like, you shouldn't be charging me per massage. You should put me on routine. And then I should pay you monthly. So then that way you get consistent income that you can count on. You can run my card at the beginning of every month. And then I know that I'm going to get a spot to get my massage this month. You know, like we forget that we can actually take our services and find a way to make them more regular and consistent for people. And they will likely get better results as a, because of that.

[00:37:27] Right. And that too often, we, um, We S we feel like the victim almost right. We feel like the, that our money is happening to us. And that, I guess I have to live with us. And I want one of your big takeaways from today that you get to own your money. Now, you know why this is my company. You got to decide that you get to decide and that you get to choose how do you want to get. Right. How do you want to value your services? And none of this is happening to you. It's all happening for you. And you get to make the decision of how you want your business model to work, how you want to get, um, how and how often you want to get paid. And there are ways to make your pay more consistent and to make sure that you are paying yourself in the process. I'll give you one other link. Um, when we're done, um, Ashley that I have. Uh, guide a free guide on creating consistent income. So if that's a thing, I talk about five ways to create consistent 10 K months. And much of it is taking what you're already doing and repurposing it, repackaging it, remarketing it, like it's shifting it in a way that it takes it from a regular income to more consistent.

[00:38:44] Ashley: Awesome. Yes. 

[00:38:45] Belinda: There you go. Got a bunch of free resources when, so yeah, very doable action items for today. 

[00:38:52] Ashley: And I do like to end with your favorite non-fiction book. And please tell us before you tell us, because I know you're probably not gonna plug your own book, but it is one of my favorites and I have. Finished it yet. I mean, I like it so much that I'm going to order, like what I say, like 50 to give away. That's how much I like it and I haven't even finished it. So tell us about your book and then tell us another, not your favorite nonfiction. 

[00:39:19] Belinda: Okay deal. You're right. Cause I wouldn't have mentioned thank you for the suggestion. Um, so my book is called self-worth to net worth and I, um, I co-authored it with a psychotherapist and I did that because I truly wanted to better understand. Our mindset and our childhood influences as they affected us with money. So I bring the very practical side and then we also really dive deep into why we think and feel and act the way we do around money. So it's like a compassionate hug with a gentle kick in the pants to get you to move forward. And it's also part book like reading book and part journal. It's kind of like two thirds book and one third journal where it gives you worksheets and. Journal prompts and like ways to take action on what we're teaching you. And it even it's 12 chapters and even has a little like thumb index on the side. So you can just like flip, open to a page and you'll always learn something new on whatever page you happen to pop up. So the added benefit of the book. And so that's, it's selfworthbook.com or we will include the link for that as well.

[00:40:30] And then a few non-fiction books. I have a ton of favorites. I am a big audible person, um, as well as I'm in hard copy, I feel my favorites one recently a scan on about a year ago. We should all be millionaires by Rachel Rogers. I really like that one because. It is also a kick in the pants to say like, you can be a millionaire, a millionaire status is not for other people. It is for people like you, people like us. And. Uh, you know, it's, it's it normalizes it in a way, very similar to how I teach and how I do right. It says like, we need to be talking about money. We need to be making million dollar decisions instead of broke ass decisions and choosing to move ourselves forward and to follow this path. And, uh, that's a great one. The big leap is a great one on the money mindset side, uh, with gay Hendricks, I shouldn't say money mindset. Mindset side in terms of elevating yourself and really pushing past your own self-imposed limits. And then since we're talking about money here, I also brought in my friend, Mike who wrote Profit First and Clockwork, uh, which will really help you feel understood around money in the profit first side.

[00:41:40] And have you start to see some of what I'm sharing in terms of making sure that you're allocating from the beginning to be able to pay yourself some owners compensate. 

[00:41:50] Ashley: Absolutely. 

[00:41:50] Belinda: You need to get paid. Yeah. There you go. 

[00:41:53] Ashley: Yes, I do. We need to get paid first. Um, so where can people find you and learn more? I will put all the links in here, but like outside of all the other resources that you've mentioned, where can people follow up with you? 

[00:42:06] Belinda: Totally. So my favorite is Instagram and I am at own your money on Instagram. We post so many just like fun, silly reels, informative reels videos. I have a video series coming up where I'm doing like nine videos over the next three weeks to really open people's eyes, to what it takes to scale.

[00:42:29] Two and past a hundred thousand dollars in revenue a year, and really have the conversations that no one is having around money that I feel like you deserve to hear and to know so that you have what it takes to up-level yourself from the money strategies, the money systems, and really be that CEO of your business.

[00:42:47] So I'd say Instagram is my fav, and then if you get any of the. Free gifts that I've shared with you today. Like the pay yourself calculator or the revenue guide, a consistent revenue guide. You can join our free Facebook group, um, called Cash confident cEO's sorry. It's a little here. Um, but we'll, we'll make sure we give you the link once you sign up. And so we have some really great, great conversations happening over there as well. So Instagram and then some Facebook. 

[00:43:18] Ashley: Well, thank you so much for taking the time out of your evening. I know it's late here, so at the time of this recording, so thank you so much for being with us and sharing so many good little nuggets for us business owners.

[00:43:32] Belinda: You're welcome. Thanks so much for having me. And I'm so glad we worked this out and I hope that this really inspires you to, um, to pay yourself, to figure out the money side of your business because your, your impact is counting on it as is your income. Thank you. 

[00:43:50] Ashley: Wasn't that such a good episode. Oh my goodness. I of course learned a, so much as I usually do from our experts as well, but I just love Belinda's message and her passion for working on your money mindset and your business mindset. She actually has a book as well, which we mentioned in the episode on link to it. But as I said, I love it so much that I'm giving it away.

[00:44:19] I'm actually probably going to have it as a bonus coming for, uh, joining Money, Success Coaching, uh, in, um, I think that'll be like October. I don't have the dates in front of me, but it's coming up soon. So keep an eye out for that. Go check out her book as well. Like let us know how you liked this episode. Leave us a five-star review. Yeah. Love you for it. And, uh, yeah, let me know what you thought. And if you really enjoyed this episode, cause I really want to know if it resonated with you and I, even if you're not a business owner and you still listen to this whole episode, let me know what you thought, because a lot of the mindset thing, can be applied to just our everyday life, right? You don't have to be a business owner for, uh, you to get little nuggets out of this episode. So, I will talk to you next week.