SHOWNOTES
I met Mandyy Thomas in my Front Row CEO program, and I was completely blown away by her systems-based mind. She is a successful financial coach and the host of the “Intentionally Wealthy” podcast.
In this episode, Mandyy talks about:
💰Her own journey to financial success, as a person with ADHD, who didn’t feel like she was really a “numbers person”.
💰Her very interesting perspective on “financial intimacy”.
💰The biggest mistakes that she sees entrepreneurs make when it comes to their finances.
💰How much to pay ourselves.
💰The most impactful things that we can do to get off to the right start this year.
💰The strategies to help business owners get clear on their goals and create a path to reach those goals.
💰The first step is to take to achieve long-term financial success.
💰 The importance of creating a budget and sticking to it, as well as looking for potential areas where you can cut costs in order to save money.
💰 Why it’s important to reach out for help if needed, whether that means talking to friends and family about financial advice or consulting with a professional.
Don’t miss this episode and let me know your thoughts after you listen. I always love hearing from you. If you have any questions about this episode, comment below or DM me on Instagram @jen_lehner
RESOURCES
Connect with Mandyy at:
Podcast: Intentionally Wealthy
Instagram: @intentionallywealthyco
Bookkeeping Implementation Bootcamp
Freebies:
[00:02.570] - Gary Vee Hey, guys, it's Gary Vaynerchuck, and you're listening to the Front Row Entrepreneur Podcast with our girl, Jen.
[00:10.850] - Jen Lehner Our guest today is the financial coach for six figure earning, service-based women entrepreneurs. She takes a holistic approach to help business owners implement a system so that they can more easily save for taxes, actually pay themselves a personal paycheck, build their savings, pay down debt, and feel organized with the finances in their business. Her zone of genius is taking the complicated back-end money stuff and simplifying it so you could feel confident and like the true CEO of your business. Welcome, Mandyy Thomas. I'm so glad to have you here.
[00:46.380] - Mandyy Thomas Thank you so much for having me.
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[00:49.150] - Jen Lehner So we met in my Front Row CEO program, which we're not going to talk about today, but I was completely blown away by your systems-based mind. You demonstrated for us some ways that you have been taking your virtual assistants through a trial week and you're incredibly meticulous. You definitely have a systems mind. And of course, as we got to know each other and I learned of what you really specialize in and that you're a financial coach and that you bring in systems and help CEOs master this, I was like, oh, man, we got to have you on the podcast because it's so needed. So many of us entrepreneurs really struggle with this because it's not like being a good entrepreneur and being good if finances are the same thing. Right. Like, contrary to actually in my ten years of coaching people in this realm, I think a lot of people are struggling with this. So let me stop yammering and ask you, let's start off with what are the biggest mistakes that you see entrepreneurs make when it comes to their finances?
[01:57.670] - Mandyy Thomas Absolutely. So the first one is not separating your business and personal and really running them as two separate entities because they really are. And I've seen people all the way up to the seven figure mark still having commingling. And I'm going to tell you because you hear a lot of people say, like, make sure you separate. We need to go deeper. Like, why is this so impactful? Yes, of course, for taxes and for running a real business. But also what's happening is when you have them commingling, you cannot tell. It does not matter how good your bookkeeping is, you still can't really tell how truly profitable are you? Where is that? Because there's just so much like you don't have any clarity. And that is one of the biggest things that people come to me that they know that they need right off the bat is they're like, everything's messy, it's a disaster. I don't have any clarity. Well, the first step to getting clarity is they need to be separate. The other thing is you will run your business completely differently when you see they're two separate because now you have two checking accounts that you don't want to overdraft versus a lot of people will keep it in one because they're afraid that they're not going to have enough for kind of all their expenses.
[03:02.590] - Mandyy Thomas And so that is the first and foremost thing that you need to do. And in most places, you don't have to pay a fee for your business checking account, but if you do see that as one of the best expenses, that is going to help you to be more profitable. The other thing I see is when you have that clarity of where you're at, even if it isn't what you're liking seeing, maybe things feel a lot tighter when it comes to cash flow. You will make different decisions in your business, you will take bigger actions, you will do things you've been procrastinating on, and your profit will grow faster. So the longer that those two are together, the less profitable your business is going to be. The other thing is you're really putting out into the universe that you want more money coming in because there's actual places for it to go. You feel responsible with it. So that's the first mistake is waiting to do that way too long or having a business checking account, but really kind of things are still commingling. You want it to be completely separate. The second mistake that I see is not paying yourself consistently.
[04:02.710] - Mandyy Thomas So even if you're not set up as an S Corp and on payroll, I still want you to pay yourself on a very consistent basis. And what I want you to think about is the more consistent you're getting paid and the more that it feels like it's going to be consistent versus you just taking money from the business to transfer to your account personally when you have a big bill coming up, the more that you really operate from. Like think about if you had a nine to five previously, you probably got paid twice a month, potentially on set days or biweekly, and it was a lot more consistent. You can absolutely get there with your business. And I will tell you when you're paid on a very consistent basis from your business and it's enough to actually cover what you need versus transferring multiple times a month just when expenses are coming up, you feel so much more grounded. You aren't coming from a scarcity energy, you will also, again, not only make more money, but you'll also have more bandwidth and energy because it's not exhausting, always worrying about it, not knowing when you're going to get paid.
[05:03.630] - Mandyy Thomas Because I see for entrepreneurs for a really long time, not really ever paying themselves from their business. And the more that you go on like this, the more that your business can kind of be a cash-eating machine versus like an actual profitable thing that is paying you. So that's a really big thing. And now in the beginning, it can be hard to actually start implementing this. What I want you to know is to think about working up to getting paid twice a month. I think that is the best schedule for entrepreneurs. A lot of times paying yourself, like on the first and the 15th of the month can work really well. That's when I have a lot of entrepreneurs that I work with paying themselves. Or the 30th and the 15th of the month, that works really, really well. But in the beginning that can be hard because you need to build up enough of a buffer in your business checking account. So what I tell people in the beginning is to transfer yourself a set amount, maybe every Friday, like pick one day a week and do it weekly until you have enough buffer built up in that business checking account that you can wait two weeks to transfer to pay yourself.
[06:03.280] - Mandyy Thomas Because your business completely changes when you actually feel like personally you're being compensated properly and you just feel way more grounded with money. So those are the two biggest mistakes and things that can drastically increase how much money is coming in, but also how much you're keeping when you get those two in place and you do them consistently.
[06:22.650] - Jen Lehner I love this. Is there a formula of some sort that can help us figure out once we get that buffer account, I mean, that buffer amount in the checking account, how much to pay ourselves?
[06:35.710] - Mandyy Thomas Yeah, so, great question. It totally is going to depend on how much your business is making and what your expenses are personally. So what I would recommend first is to figure out what is your goal actually needing to be for you to get paid personally. So I have a spreadsheet that you can use to fill in your numbers to see what that would look like. And I'll provide that link to Jen and she can put it in the show notes or whatever. But basically first figuring out what are your personal expenses so you know what you're working up to, because it really depends. Sometimes maybe you have a partner and they're bringing in a lot of income so it can help offset it. But maybe it is just you. So that number does need to be bigger, faster. So figuring out what your personal expenses are is the best way to figure it out. And what I do with entrepreneurs when they first come to me is really helping them to see like a tiered system. So almost three different numbers. One is like the bare bones. So if they're newer in business or they don't have as much cash flow, or cash flow really varies, then we're going to start working them up to being paid that bare bones amount.
[07:32.140] - Mandyy Thomas And then the next tier would be including a little bit more maybe to put towards debt or towards something that I call like savings buckets. And then that third one, that will be more money, so they're living a more comfortable life. So I love entrepreneurs seeing that three tiered system instead of just a big number that feels so far off because the more we can break it down, the easier it feels for them to achieve. And what this might look like for someone in the beginning is maybe they're transferring themselves 250 weekly, maybe it is 500 weekly. So kind of really look at your cash flow. And even if you're not transferring yourself exactly what you need to right now, the biggest and most important thing is to get it a habit, get that amount consistently, and then you can just keep bumping it up from there. That's exactly what I did in the beginning of my business. I wasn't making a lot. It wasn't what I needed to live personally, but I just kept bumping it up and I made it consistent. And it made it actually a lot easier to make more money in my business because it felt like what I was doing was actually getting me ahead financially.
[08:30.110] - Mandyy Thomas Because I had consistency there, even though the money wasn't quite enough yet.
[08:34.450] - Jen Lehner It's so funny because on this podcast, it really doesn't matter what we talk about, it always ends up boiling down to consistency. You know what I mean?
[08:42.010] - Jen Lehner And whatever we do, consistency is king. Consistency is the name of the game. Maybe that's going to be my word again for the year. I don't know. All right, my next question might actually have already been answered. But maybe beyond separating out our business from our personal and then also paying ourselves, what are some other of the most impactful things that we can do to maybe get off to the right start this year for 2023 with our finances?
[09:09.470] - Mandyy Thomas Absolutely. So the biggest thing is to think about increasing your financial intimacy. So what I mean by that is none of this will improve unless you're looking at the numbers consistently. There's no way you can make changes unless you know what they are. And that is a huge fear for people, is to actually look at their money whether they run a business or not. So just understanding what one of the biggest roadblocks can be is just basically taking like that avoidant behavior. And that's the most common behavior I see from the vast majority of my clients when they come to me. So understanding that that is one of the biggest things you need to do is to look at the numbers on a very consistent basis, even when it feels uncomfortable. And the people who are the most intimate with their numbers are the people who are growing their mission faster. They're able to help more people and they run a profitable business because they look at the numbers, not just when it's great, because the numbers will get great. Because you're intentional and you're looking into it and you're dealing with it when it doesn't feel good.
[10:12.710] - Mandyy Thomas So I'll just share. For example, when I started my business, my journey was very different than a lot of other people. I didn't start it as a side hustle and then make a nicer transition already having clients in place, money coming in. I got very sick in my mid 20s from extreme financial scarcity, even though I had saved and invested a quarter of a million dollars by the time I was 26. For me, I got so sick, I had to leave my career as a power engineer. I went back to school for a year, and I had no income for 13 months before I started my business. And then I invested heavily into it. So when I was updating the numbers, I can tell you, they were so uncomfortable because there was no money coming in, and there was money going out both personally and in business. I managed to not go into debt because I looked at them when, honest to God, for a solid 24 months, they sucked. They sucked every month. Emotionally, it didn't feel good. It did feel anxiety producing, but it also helped me to step up and do the stuff that I was afraid to do.
[11:08.410] - Mandyy Thomas So I want you to know that you have to work through looking at the numbers when they are uncomfortable for them to feel a lot more comfortable. So really increasing it's just like in a relationship, it's only going to go so far if you don't allow yourself to be vulnerable with that other person. So really take that and apply that with your finances as well. So I really want you to think there's two pieces when you break this down. One is actually sitting down, looking at the numbers, taking action on both the personal and the business side on a very consistent basis. Get this in your calendar like a money date. Treat it as if it's a very important doctor's appointment. Don't miss this. I used to have it every single week. On Friday morning is when I would dive into my money in the beginning, and I needed it in my calendar because it was the one thing I really, honestly didn't want to do, even though I am a numbers person. The second thing I want you to think about is working through and processing the emotions that are causing you to avoid your money.
[12:03.660] - Mandyy Thomas All the reasons it feels icky, it doesn't feel good. So the feelings of scarcity, shame, fear, worry, anxiousness, and what I find works very well on the processing side is to use something called Tapping Emotional Freedom Technique. I'm a huge fan of it, and what I'll tell my clients is, let's say you don't want to open up any of those accounts. You don't want to open up a spreadsheet, whatever that is. I want you to be super honest and say out loud all of the things you're feeling, the fears, the worries to tap on that so that's something you can look up on YouTube if it's something that you are not familiar with and basically just think of it this way. Think that you're talking on the phone to someone who's a really safe space and you're telling them like, there's not enough money coming in. I feel like I'm not making enough. Like, be really honest as to those things that are actually going through your head and dump all of those out, get them out. It actually feels very freeing to feel heard and understood, even if you're not talking to anyone and you're just doing this on your own.
[12:59.460] - Mandyy Thomas And then after you get everything out, the fears and the worries, then start saying the things of how you want to feel. So that's more like Affirmation-based? No, I want to feel really good about the income I'm making. I want to feel like I can pay myself really consistently. I want to feel grounded with money, whatever that is. But I find if you just try and do money affirmations, they really don't go very far. But when my clients do the negative tapping first, it makes it so you can actually then focus on everything else versus staying stuck in those emotions. And then your business will also stay stuck as well. So that's something for financial intimacy to increase. You need to sit down, you need to put the work in even when it's uncomfortable and when it feels uncomfortable, do tapping. Do something to move the motions, the emotions out of your body so it doesn't keep you stuck and constantly avoiding the numbers.
[13:49.610] - Jen Lehner Love this. What if you're someone who really is so disorganized at this point that they don't even know how to look? Is there a favorite first step in organizing your finances so you can even look at them? In other words, is it enough to just open up the bank statement, the online bank statement and reading through it? Is it better to have some sort of basic create some sort of basic checklist or something that says, okay, I'm going to look at my balance? I really think that for a lot of people, even that step is daunting. Like where to look, what do they look at?
[14:32.890] - Mandyy Thomas Absolutely. So what I would say is to find someone that you want to follow online that you can consume their information, who is a financial-based person for entrepreneurs and use any of their free templates. So, for example, I have two. I have one for the personal finances that I mentioned that you can use to really help to figure out what is that amount you'd need to make personally to get paid from the business. The second one that I have is a very simple spreadsheet. It's already set up and it shows you from month to month, you enter in your income and expenses for the business. It will do all the rest of the calculations and then you can see what that looks like. So let's say if you don't have a bookkeeping system in place that is so, so important that that can help you there, you don't need to use an accounting system. Honestly, that's way more tricky that you can use a good spreadsheet for quite a while in your business. And I would say to start there with those two types of tools and really just take little actions, but allow yourself to feel really good about just doing like small steps.
[15:30.870] - Mandyy Thomas But what I would say is to honestly, if you're feeling really disorganized, I would try to honestly work on your finances about three times a week in very small amounts. I don't want anyone thinking about doing this for one to 2 hours because honestly, that feels daunting. It feels like too much and you will not do it. I tell my clients, you will win with your money in 15 minutes time blocks, basically. So that's something where I would love for you to book into your schedule three times a week, working on your money for 15 minutes of time because it feels doable and everyone can do something for 15 minutes. Like, it's easy to scroll on your phone. So you can really think about just doing this in really small amounts. And if you just want to start on personal first and get more organized there a huge thing is understanding when do your expenses actually come out of your account. So that's one of the things that you can do is first just figure out what are the dates so you know what's even coming up for some people when you're doing that, you could open up your online account, you can see what those dates are looking at, your checking account, and then also your credit card.
[16:28.430] - Mandyy Thomas And then you can go ahead and put in Google Calendar when the next one is. And then you can create a recurring, basically event so you know ahead of time. You can see for the rest of the year when those expenses are coming out. And you only have to do it once you make it recurring. So that's another really important thing, is just not feeling blindsided about what's coming up. So we don't have a lot of time to dive into it in this episode. But timing of your money is very important. So knowing when do those personal expenses come out and when do those business ones. And like I said, you can just automate that in Google Calendar and you can look and you can see when that is happening in regards to your client payments or business income coming in.
[17:05.460] - Jen Lehner That is so genius. Never thought of that. I love that idea. Like just a simple Google scheduling your expenses and when they're coming due so you're not blindsided. That's just genius, Mandyy gold. Pure gold. Real quick, want to make sure that you sign up for my upcoming free three-day workshop called three secrets to scaling your business and building your dream team so you can get more time, make more money with more sanity and success. This is going to happen February the 6th, so just go to CEO secretstraining.com that's Secrets with an S and hope to see you there. All right, back to our conversation. Okay, now, I can guess what you might say, but I have a lot of listeners who have ADHD, as many entrepreneurs do. So what if they push back against what you're saying right now? Like, I just can't do this stuff. My brain is not wired for it.
[18:03.310] - Mandyy Thomas Yes, so I have ADHD, and I work with a lot of clients who have it as well. And the first thing that I'm actually going to say is, you need to be very careful about your wording, because I find when it comes to things like ADHD disorganization, having a hard time focusing, that we also can get so caught in that identity that we allow it to stop ourselves from even taking that action. So really being careful of identifying with it. So, yes, it is something that does affect me, but I'm not going to say I have ADHD because I try to be very careful about that because I'm not that's really taking on that identity. So it's something where I want to know if a client has those types of symptoms and struggles with it, because it's really good for me to know they're probably just going to need some more support, and that's okay. So just be careful what you tell yourself. For example, like, I'm bad with numbers, I'm bad with money. Don't say that because you're taking on that identity. Say, I'm becoming better with my money. Because a lot of times when people that have symptoms of ADHD, they will feel like they're irresponsible with money.
[19:03.260] - Mandyy Thomas The longer that you say that, the more that your beliefs, habits, and actions are going to follow from there. So I would love for you to just start saying, you know what? I have this and I can excel, because you can manage a lot of things at once. And the more that you dive into this, the easier it is going to be to get better at it. And I know, for example, because this is something that I deal with in my life, that there are certain areas of my business that I excel in because of this, because I get the spurs of energy in that extreme focus in certain areas. So that's something to keep in mind is just be careful of your wording and tell yourself when it comes to ADHD, you just need to break it down more. That's a huge thing where a lot of stuff you'll read online about finances, it makes it sound so dang simple that then anyone who does this is tougher for them, it's really hard to implement. So when I work with clients, I like to break it down as much as possible. So instead of something being just one goal or one thing, I'll have them do basically like, five steps, and they can feel good about it all along the way.
[20:04.800] - Mandyy Thomas So that's something I want to think about, is for your brain, it feels harder to do because it feels like this big thing, and that makes it easy to procrastinate. So break it down as much as you can. So, for example, instead of just thinking about like, oh, my God, I need to separate my business and personal, the first thing is just going ahead and opening up a business bank account. So first researching. You can look into, for example, Chase Bank of America, pick a couple, look into it, don't do some research, but don't keep doing research forever. Then just open up the account, take it step by step, and then work on slowly doing that transition instead of just thinking like, this is such a massive thing, where do I even begin?
[20:45.950] - Jen Lehner Love that. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I know when I was looking at business bank accounts, I learned that because I wanted to open up multiple and, like, one for taxes, one for profits. Yada, yada. And Chase would not offer me free checking. And then I was advised that a lot of the smaller local banks will let you have free checking with less fees or no fees or whatever. And that was just a matter of making a couple of phone calls. I ended up in Cleveland at Dollar Bank, which I've been very happy with. So for whatever that's worth.
[21:22.650] - Mandyy Thomas Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of credit unions that are really fantastic. I just want to add one more thing. When it comes to the ADHD side, is not trying to remember this all in your head. So I want everyone to tell themselves that organization is absolutely your friend and just breaking it down to get organized, because there's a lot of stuff that you can get systems in place to then not have to try and remember that every single month on your own. So, for example, setting up Google reminders to tell you, like, so I love numbers. I love numbers. I love diving into my money. I love everything about it, and yet I still have a Google reminder to tell me on the first and the 15th. And in my calendar, it's the very first thing on those days to pay myself, to pay my team, to make sure I've finished up anything for the month, to update my net worth from the previous month. And I am someone who loves it and does it every single time, and I still have automated reminders to remind me of this. So I do not forget. So I want you to tell yourself that you can get organized on the front end, and that will save you so much time going forward, because you're not because the big thing that I see is the anxiety of forgetting things.
[22:27.460] - Mandyy Thomas Even. For example, if you have credit card debt, automating just a little bit more than your minimum payment so you don't miss it because that will greatly affect your credit score. But you only have to do that once. So really think what can you do on the front-end? Get it into your calendar and if that's not something you're not great at, just start getting just do literally only one thing and then just keep building on that. Ask yourself like what is one thing that I can kind of automate for organization to make it easier to remind me to do these things. And if you need to put multiple reminders, maybe you put it on one day and then you put it on other days in case that day was crazy busy. Anything? I am a huge fan of Google Calendar and everything you can automate in there to give you as many reminders as possible. If you use something like Asana, you can assign things in there. I've got inside of Asana, I have a whole card. I guess that is just financial stuff where I have everything in there so I don't constantly have to go look for those links and those places and it is so easy for me to find everything there.
[23:23.650] - Jen Lehner I love that. And speaking of tools, I'm so glad you brought that up. Our listeners here are very geeky and they love to geek out on tools. Do you have a favorite accounting software that you use that you recommend beyond the free Google tools or any other tools that we haven't talked about?
[23:40.330] - Mandyy Thomas Yeah, so I will say I'm not a huge fan of apps because I find that they actually take a financial apps where people are like, oh, I'll help this to use for budgeting. I find that they really take a very almost so I'm speaking right now from the lens of your personal finances for this. They take a lot more of like a tracking standpoint which can feel like it's doing something but it's never ever planning ahead. And that's something I just want to distinguish here is the difference between tracking and cash flow management. We're not going to dive into that here, but I just want to say make sure that you're looking at your money coming up like three months from now and this is something that this takes time to work towards. So what I'm sharing here is really just a goal to keep this in the back of your mind to work towards this. So I don't have any for the personal finance side, I will say when you have a bookkeeper that using Xero so it's actually X-E-R-O that is great accounting software when it comes to especially online coaches and business owners.
[24:39.540] - Mandyy Thomas It works quite well with PayPal and Stripe and I actually prefer that over QuickBooks. I will. Also say, don't go down this road on your own. This is something you absolutely it's a great business expense to have someone else set it up for you and either to do your bookkeeping or to teach you how to do it, but don't try and do this on your own because it can get complicated really fast and that can feel overwhelming. But I'd rather have you basically go from using a good spreadsheet to then someone doing your bookkeeping for you is a really great way to go. But that is an awesome option. And let's say you do want to hire a bookkeeper now or in the future. You could ask them if they're trained in that software or not.
[25:19.670] - Jen Lehner Love it. What does it look like, Mandyy, to work with you in your business? How do you help people? Do you do coaching? Because I don't even know. Tell me about that.
[25:29.350] - Mandyy Thomas Yeah, so I do when I work with entrepreneurs, I work with them both on the personal and business side. It's a big thing. I won't work with someone just on one because it's where I see it's a huge lacking area. So accountants, they only help you really on the business side, and there's no help to figure out anything on the personal side. So when I work with entrepreneurs, I'm helping them on the cash flow management side of both their business and personal to really tie everything together that they want to do. So, for example, being able to pay themselves consistently, it's probably going to start off slower and it's going to build up to be a bigger amount over time to make sure that their business expenses are paid, that their team is paid, or being able to bring on a team and then also tying in the tax portion. So accountants definitely, I'll tell everyone here, get a good accountant, interview them, that is something you absolutely can do. And make sure that they feel like they're going to be a fit to grow with you and that you feel like you can be really honest with them.
[26:21.130] - Mandyy Thomas So that's what I'll say. Have a great accountant, have them do your taxes. I love numbers and I'll never do my own taxes. That's a great business expense. So they will help you to know what to pay in taxes. But what I will say is I see a lot of entrepreneurs, they know what to pay, but they don't know how to save for that on a monthly basis, what that looks like, and that can feel so overwhelming. So that's a big piece that's missed on the accountant side because that's not what they do. So I help my clients also to make sure that they have money set aside for taxes. So it's really tying in them getting paid the business, their taxes and being able to keep scaling and growing their business going forward. So I mostly work with clients one on one. I will be doing a group program in the future. And then for people who aren't quite ready to work with someone at a higher level, maybe cash flow wise, you don't have as much coming in the door yet. I have a monthly program called my Bookkeeping Implementation Bootcamp, where you show up and it's not just show up and learn, it show up and work on the stuff that you've been avoiding.
[27:18.670] - Mandyy Thomas That's difficult to do. And then you know that you're on top of the numbers every single month, but you weren't quite ready for one on one. But yet all of that is taken care of. So those are really the two ways that you can work with me.
[27:32.210] - Jen Lehner Fantastic. All right, well, before we go, is there anything that I missed that I should have asked you that might benefit our listeners?
[27:39.970] - Mandyy Thomas Yeah. One of the things I'd love to talk about is a little bit about making smart business investments. And how do you evaluate that? Because every single person listening here, there are so many priorities of where your money can go in business, and it can be very challenging to figure that out. I know for the first at least two and a half to three years of my business, that was not easy because, like, everyone knows that in the beginning, you really are taking spaghetti and just seeing what sticks. So I will say in the beginning, there's so much trial and error, but then there also gets to a point where what I want you to do is to take a step back and to reflect on the investments that you have made and what you felt like was really worth it and what wasn't. And I think that that is so fantastic because it will strengthen your intuition for going forward. What are the best ways to make investments in your business, what that looks like for hiring coaches, programs, getting systems into place, all sorts of things like that. And really asking yourself, because there can be lots of different things that you want to put money towards.
[28:39.610] - Mandyy Thomas I think one of the best things to ask yourself is, what do I need in this season of life? So, for example, sometimes I see a lot of people where they just still keep investing in business mentors, which is great, but not realizing that maybe if they had some systems and automations in place, oh my God, if they got things more organized, they would have more money coming in. Because I do see when people feel disorganized that clients have literally opened up to me and they say, of course I want to make more money, but until I'm organized, it feels like a disaster. And I'm afraid clients aren't going to feel taken care of and the balls are going to be dropped. So they are literally blocking money coming in. So a business coach who just works on marketing really isn't on sales, isn't really going to help them with that. So really seeing like, what do you need in this season of life? I know a big thing for me was I knew that I needed to this would have been a few months ago. I had found Jen on a podcast and I heard her, I looked at her sales page once, I looked her up on Instagram for probably less than two minutes.
[29:39.830] - Mandyy Thomas I'd never heard of Jen previously, and as soon as I seen her sales page, I knew that she was exactly what I'd been looking for for a year. Because I worked with a few people on hiring, but I still felt like they were missing so many systems and I'm a very systems person. And I knew that the next hire I brought on, I wanted to make sure that this person, I did everything I could to have them with me for years. And that was exactly what I needed. I did not need another person helping me with sales marketing. And that has made a massive difference because all of the things that have happened in the past month, because now I have my energy freed up. Oh, my God, it is crazy. So really thinking about what is it specifically you need and who has that expertise, and really just asking yourself and making sure that you're not making business investments from scarcity because that's so common. I will admit I'm speaking from personal experience that I kept hiring people because I felt like they were going to be that thing that opened the floodgates and I finally realized, no, that thing is me.
[30:37.260] - Mandyy Thomas And so now I hire mentors very, very differently than what I did previously. I also work with very different people and I feel like I get a much greater ROI and my business profit has massively grown. And that's something that when a lot of entrepreneurs come to me, they're like, oh, this feels intuitively, like the next step. But they really honestly need to take just a step back to reflect on what has been working, what hasn't worked, and seeing why are they doing it. Because one of my clients, she was paying for PR each month and it was quite a bit and I did not see the cash flow coming in from it. And so I asked her about it and we dove deeper and she's like, honestly, it just feels good to my ego to say I have PR. And it was really great for her to have that awareness, to realize, you know what, she could redirect her money and actually have money coming in the door instead of just from the outside it looks great, but not getting any more clients from it. So really just making sure you're coming from the right space of what you need and it's not coming from a place of scarcity or ego and just being really honest with yourself, because when you can do this, holy cow.
[31:41.850] - Mandyy Thomas Will your business investments pay off a lot more? And then, of course, you're going to feel better about it.
[31:49.090] - Jen Lehner Such good stuff. Really great advice. I love this, and I'm glad that you've had such success with your new team. And I'm guessing on your podcast, you talk a lot about a lot of this stuff. Yes?
[32:02.040] - Mandyy Thomas Yes, I talk about a lot of things that are very strategy based. So you can literally stop the podcast episodes. You can take notes about breaking stuff down step by step. I also talk about the emotional side, because that is a huge component, is you can know everything under the sun and not be taking action or not doing the things you need to do because of how you're feeling. So I share very openly that I've had a lot of clients that have come to me that are accountants, financial advisors, and bookkeepers who actually have either, quote unquote, more financial schooling than I do, but are still struggling with their money, because it's not just about the logic side. It's also very much so about the emotional side. So I really like sharing that so clients will understand that there's two very distinct areas you need to dive into, the logical and the strategic. And then in that, there's the personal and business, and then there's also the emotional side. So the podcast really focuses on those two different aspects. Yes.
[32:57.750] - Jen Lehner I love it. Well, we got to say the name of the podcast. It's called Intentionally Wealthy. And you know what's so great, Mandyy, is that what I love in your work and that what you're doing is that you're really removing all of the shame. Because let's be honest, there really is so much shame in all of this. And I hear it all the time. It doesn't come out in our first conversation, but later, it's like, I'm not good with money. I'm not good with finances. I think I'm making money, but at the end of the year, there's really nothing to show for it and just really, like, apologizing all over themselves and feeling a lot of shame. And I've always identified myself as not a numbers person. I'm over that now, but after a lot of work, it took a lot of work, but to say, I'm not a math person, I'm not a numbers person, and then just stick my head in the sand, and I think you're taking that shame away, which is so empowering and so necessary. So thank you for your work. So, folks, if you want more of Mandyy, make sure and follow her on Instagram.
[34:02.340] - Jen Lehner Her handle is @intentionallywealthyco, like co. And again, her podcast is Intentionally Wealthy. Mandyy, this has been so wonderful, so informative. Come back anytime. Thank you.
[34:14.880] - Mandyy Thomas Thank you so much for having me.
