The CEO Money Mindset

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates. Any questions or comment should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W four WN Radios success successful, hard successful women.

0:57 Did you know women represent just three of Fortune five hundred CEOs and less than fifteen percent of corporate executives at top companies worldwide? Have you wondered what the secrets are to getting into the top ranks, whether in the private or public sector. Do you want to figure out how to stop being held back in your career? Are passed over for promotion, then you're in the right place. Hi. I'm doctor Matlanane lewis President and CEO of the Executive Women's Success Institute. I have decades of experience in the military, the federal government, and corporate America, and my mission is to help women succeed and tap into their full potential.

1:42 I want to reach a million plus women around the world to become the leaders they are meant to be. So, if you want to move into a management or executive level position, or maybe you are a female veteran transitioning out of the military into business entrepreneurship, and reach out to the Executive Women's Success Institute at three zero one six nine three three two eight four let us get you on the fast track to success. Well. Hello, and welcome to the Success for Women's Show, where you can view us on Talk for TV and listen to us on the Women for Women Network. I am doctor Madeline Ann Lewis your host, and my mission is to help women accelerate the path to success. Well, today's topic is the CEO mindset and we're gonna be talking about We're gonna have some great nuggets coming up for you today and the CEO mindset from avoiding your finances to owning your wealth. And my guest today is none other than Miss Kristin Graham. Let me give you just a little bit of background on her. Kristin Graham is the co founder of six Figure Business Coaching. Kristin is a business coach.

3:17 She's a podcaster and real estate investor who believes that sustainable growth starts with strong business systems and the right support team. She understands that the time is that time is the most valuable asset for business owners. With years of experience in real estate, mortgages, and business ownership, she helps entrepreneurs delegate confidently and scale with the help of virtual assistance, from bookkeeping to marketing. Her passion lies in empowering business owners and creating opportunities for talented virtual assistance world.

4:00 Why I would like to bring my guests to screen, Miss Kristen Graham. Hello, Doctor Lewis, Thank you so much for having me today. Well, it's a pleasure to have you here. I know your schedule has been busy, so we are looking forward to some of the nuggets that you're going to share with us today. But before we get started, I always share the standard bio, but I also like to ask my guests or just to tell us what you want us to know about Kristin Graham. Oh, my gosh, Like you said, my background is real estate. I love everything about real estate. But I've got a pillow from my sister in law that says, I'm not bossy, I have better ideas. So I've always been really good at delegating. I know you were in the military, so thank you for serving my joke that I would do really well in the army if they let me start off as a general. So delegation has kind of always been my thing. I guess I love helping business owners, but particularly female business owners, step into their leadership power and understand we leave people and we manage task and the women deserve to have support in their businesses.

5:13 Absolutely, absolutely, that's one of the reasons why I love working with women also, So tell us why do so many entrepreneurs avoid looking at their numbers, you know, in their business in the first place. Why do you think that is? Well, we joke when you start a business, you get to wear a lot of hats. Right, Well, there's hats we don't even know we have to wear when we start a business. We do know. Bookkeeping is one of them, but if you haven't taken bookkeeping classes and you don't feel comfortable with accounting software and principles, it's one of those things that gets pushed to the back burner. Right. So marketing is important because it helps you bring in clients. Client work is really you know, top priority. So it's one of those things that just gets pushed back. There's also a lot of shame and guilt and fear around money, you know, So it's just one of those things that again it keeps getting pushed back. Also, I have found that sometimes CPAs will talk down to women, belittle them, and so again sometimes they've had bad experiences, they've been told they're not great at math. So it's a lot that goes into the psychology of why I think women in business sometimes of away their finances and so it's a lot.

6:28 To unpack, right absolutely, I tell you what, what Math was never my favorite subject in school. I remember I had to have tutors to make sure I got their math. But I do have a wonderful CPA, So I am thankful for that that she makes sure that all the numbers are where they're supposed to be. But you're absolutely right about the fact that there's that fear there in business, especially if you're in business, to make sure that the numbers are correct. So what do you think is the biggest bookkeeping our financial mistake? You see that small business owners of making.

7:11 Yeah, this one really surprised me. But business owners will start an LLC or they incorporate their business because they want lead protection for their asset real right personal assets and business assets. Sometimes what they don't understand is with that LLC or that incorporation, there are rules you have to follow. One of those rules is you need to keep your business and personal finance is separate. If you're not doing that, you could be opening yourself up if you were to be sued that your personal assets could be at risk. That is a really big one, and it's you know, it's one of those things we don't ever talk about. So I guess I was surprised how many people didn't understand that. But it does make sense.

7:52 I mean a lot of times people said their own LLC or maybe the attorney does it, but they don't talk to them about all the rules. So yeah, it makes sense. But that's that was the one that surprised me the most. Wow. That, Yeah, that is interesting. I guess I never thought about that, but that that is very interesting. What would you say is the difference though, between bookkeeping and accounting and why should business owners understand that difference? Yeah, so every month you have money coming in and you have money going out. If you don't have that money tracked properly, then it's really hard for you to make decisions in real time. So to me, bookkeeping is having you know, everything reconciled every month, taking the time to review your profit and loss statement. And sometimes it's recognizing, oh my gosh, I need to raise my prices, or that particular offer is not profitable at all, and I don't think I could raise it high enough to be able to sell it and make it profitable, so maybe I need to let it go. So it's one of those things where that information is so important. I think about accountant or your CPA is the person that does your tax this so having a bookkeeper, a very affordable bookkeeper can take care of all the day to day bookkeeping for you, and then every month they can review your numbers with you and point out things that maybe you wouldn't see and say they can help you challenge am I spending too much money in this category? You know?

9:16 Do I need again raise prices? Do I need to cut costs? Do I just need to generate more clients? And if so, how much more so that I can bring home the paycheck that I need and I want my life as well as having a profitable business. Oh well, I guess I'm kind of lucky then because my person she can do both. She could do the book, so I guess I'm lucky in that respect then that there is that difference, but she can handle both ends of it. Now, this is kind of an maybe an off question. What do you think is when you talk about the money coming in and the money going out? I know sometimes you know, being in business, your face with having to sign u invoices, sign checks and whatever things like that. Do you think it's a good idea to have the person handling your books. Have they let them have that power of attorney where they can sign the checks? Or should you always sign your own checks?

10:23 It depends on the business and how it's set up. So I would say, first of all, a lot of CPAs, a lot of accountants will do bookkeeping, or they have people in an office that will do bookkeeping. Generally, you know, a great CPA is probably gonna bild one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars an hour for the work that they do. So a lot of times that's just it's not affordable for a lot of small business owners to pay that. So that's one of the reasons why they separate out bookkeeping and who defiles their taxes. But when it comes to you know, I. Feel like so many things have become more electronic. I don't have checks personally, I don't even have I don't have checks in the business, so I don't worry about writing checks. When I have my mortgage company, I did have an office manager and she wrote all the checks and I signed them. We had really good checks and balances in place. With a situation where you know, right now all of our money comes to paypaler stripe, It's all transferred to us digitally, I don't really need to worry about, you know, the invoice that goes out. The money comes in electronically, so there's not that that issue.

11:19 And the same thing with paying bills that we do everything online. I think you have to be very careful how much power you give to people, though, and if you do that, you have to have checks and balances. If you google fraud, whether it's in the small businesses or nonprofits. You will be shopped. How many people go to business to go to jail for fraud, whether that's CEOs you know, the family friend who's been the book cut keeper for twenty five years that they find out is embezzled millions of dollars. So you always want to be on top of your finances. You know. For us, a lot of our clients are you know, they're pushing that hundred thousand dollars or maybe they're at one hundred. They're tying to get to two fifty to half a million dollars. So for them, having really solid, affordable bookkeeping with someone that can trust in systems and processes in place is important. And in our particular model, we do not recommend that your bookkeeper is taking care of paying any of the bills. They don't have any access to your full account numbers in anything.

12:14 And that's what that's my thinking too. I just feel like I kind of want to put an eye on just everything that especially you know, if it has to do with the money going out and different things like that. But I've had some a couple of friends that did that and they wound up getting into well not only getting into trouble, but almost losing their business in some cases losing their business because, like you said, with the fraud part of it. So that is something that you as a business person, you really have to be careful about doing that. Yeah. Yeah, But even if you think about something smaller, what we find is a lot of times when clients have their bookkeeper have everything set up, they realize they've been paying for a software that they haven't used in two years.

13:03 You know, it's only sixty bucks a month or whatever, but that adds up, you know, Or they realize maybe they've mispaid you know, their annual renewal fee for their LLC, or their insurance lapsed. So being on top of the numbers. It's not just about embezzlement, but it's also about just knowing and making very conscious decisions about where your money's going. I think it's so important. Exactly absolutely at what stage should a business owners start taking their bookkeeping serious. I mean at the startup, I mean in the middle of it, or once they're well established, or at what point should they take it serious? Day one? So, for example, if you're starting a business and we just talked about, you set up an LLC and you incorporate it, well, if you're paying all the business expenses out of your personal account, you've already commingled your funds. You know. The way you do that is you set up the business checking account, you loan the business money from your personal account, and then you pay the bills from there. If you're not a person who enjoys bookkeeping or who wants to do it, you know, I highly recommend that you go ahead and outsource it immediately because getting in the habit of knowing what's coming in and what's going out, and if you don't know how to read your profit law statement or your balance sheet, you're better off to start learning that as you grow your business. So I think at the beginning is really important.

14:25 And we do have clients who start their businesses and they get a bookkeeper right away. And then we have clients who, you know, they're further down the road, but inevitably I always hear from them I wish I'd done this a lot. Sooner, right, right, Yeah, Because I think what happens is too when you're starting out, you're looking at like, like you say, your finances, but you're also looking at a point, at a point where can I afford to do this? And so sometimes you might think maybe I could wait a little while before I bring on the bookkeeper, you know, but as you said that, that's one of the more important spots that you should probably feel when you're starting your business.

15:05 Well, you know, again you're learning right off the bat from a professional. You know the importance of how you're categorizing things. You know, something as simple if you have several different offers, does it make sense to track the revenue for each offer separately? If you're spending money on marketing or ads or things like that, are you really tracking the ROI? This is something a great bookkeeper can help you with. Are you not getting invoices out fast enough so you're not getting cash flows always clogged up because you're the bottleneck the invoices haven't gone out. There's a lot of things that can play into what that bookkeeper can do for you. And because we do talk about outsourcing, you know, we're talking nine dollars an hour, you know, so it's very affordable and you have someone who's a professional bookkeeper on your team working for you.

15:48 H Absolutely, how does proper bookkeeping actually increase your profitability? Yeah, that's a great one again, and it goes back to the things that we see the most with clients early on, is they one they realize they're wasting money on things that are not giving them an ROI. So that's the profit right there. Two, Especially women. The number of women who realize they are really really undercharging for their services and that if they don't turn it around, they're going to continue to go in debt or they're just going to go out of business. So it's really important to have an understanding of what it truly costs you to run your business because that can help you calculate the prices that you need to charge for your services.

16:31 And if you don't have that in play, it's very easy to undercharge, and it's very easy to continue to play small or to go in debt. So how often should a business owner review their financial numbers? Every month? So our system, the way we work it with our bookkeeper, is the last Friday of every month at eight am, we meet with our bookkeeper. So let's say at the end of March, we are going to review our profit loss and our balance sheet from February. We're going to compare it to January. We're going to look to see if there's anything out of you know, if we spend more money in certain categories. It just gives us a solid understanding of what's going on. The reason we meet with her at the end of March is that gives her a great opportunity to ask us, Hey, you have this transaction, I'm not sure how it needs to be categorized, or you have these payments come in and I want to make sure, because we do break down our income, that I've categorized it correctly. So that's our meeting where we just make sure everything is in the right place. Your bookkeeper is not a mind reader, and so again we have several different offers and so sometimes it's not one hundred percent clear you know what the invoice was for because a lots we use click and pay electronic transfers. So meeting with her to go over any questions that she has about the transactions is so important. And then we know the following month that profit losses is absolutely incorrectly.

17:53 Absolutely because a lot of that too helps you when it does come time for to pay your tech because you can buy, like you said, making sure that you stay on top of the numbers. You can make sure that everything is where it's supposed to be, so when tax time comes, you're not scrambling to find this or find that or you know, okay, I you know, should do I? Uh? Can I put my guess? Uh? You know that I drove to this meeting or I went on this trip. Can I put all? Can I put that on there? So you already know if this is a transaction that you can, you know, put where you need to put it. So if you stay on top of the numbers and different things like that too, that makes every I think it makes everything go by a little smoother.

18:42 Absolutely, we have all those numbers together at tax time. It makes it very easy for you to hand things off to your CPA to file your taxes. But we also want to empower our clients to know what questions to ask their CPA because so many small businesses are leaving money on the table because they're missing write offs. You know. For example, have you heard of the AUGUSTA rule. Are you familiar with that rule? Yes? Yeah, So a lot of people don't realize you can wrint your house to the business for fourteen days a year and write that write that cost off, or that you can pay your kids anywhere from thirteen to fifteen thousand dollars a year without them paying taxes on it. But I always like to say we think that tax code was written by the irs. It wasn't. It was written by Congress. It was rich people writing tax code for rich people. So yeah, just call it like it is. Yeah, what happens with that is some of those great write offs that we can take. You know, it comes with some compliance and it comes with some paperwork. So in the past, sometimes it didn't make sense for a smaller business to take advantage of those because the cost of a CPA to do all the compliance stuff for you, you know, made it not worthwhile. But now with technology and software, it's so much easier, and so business owners are really able to lean into a lot more of the tax write offs that we weren't really accessible to a few years back.

20:01 Mm hm. And it's also, like you said, with the technology, the financial reports, you can they can knock that out real quick. I mean they where it used to probably take them a while to put everything together and put it down and then get that report out. Now they just plug it in probably and here you come, here comes that report. Everything is you know right there. I'll never forget the first time that I brought my paperwork to the person that was she was gonna do my taxes, and I had all these receipts and a vanilla envelope, and I'm just you know, I'm just happy that I had all these receipts. She looked at me, like, Okay, this is not how we're gonna do this from that.

20:48 Yeah, the shoebox, that's what you always hear, the shoebox, solo style everything. I just put it through it in there, you know, until we she and I really got to know each other, and and then she explained everything to me how it's supposed to be done and how we were going to do it from that point on, which, again, like I said, made life much easier. Absolutely, it's way more affordable to keep everything caught up. So the number of business owners that stress out from January to April because they know they need to file their taxes or maybe if it's a partnership they need to file by middle of March, but they stress out about it. So what do they do. They file an extension and then they extend this stressing out till October. Right. So, when you think about it, being a business owner, our mindset is so important, and if we have things in the back of our mind that are eating away at us.

21:39 You need to do that paperwork, you need to file those receipts. You know, you've got to get this done. You've got to file your taxes. That is just pulling away your creativity. It's pulling away the energy that you could use, you know, to serve your clients better, to bring on more clients. So there's a lot of peace of mind that goes with having your numbers and everything in order so that when you go at tax time you just simply say here it is, and you're not one of those people stressing or freaking out at tax time or oh my gosh, I've got to set outside a whole weekend to do this. Yeah, it's no way to live. Yeah, I mean that that would that that would really be stressful. Yeah. Absolutely. So what financial reports should everyone are every entrepreneur understand, even if they don't, you know, know the numbers or they're not a numbers person.

22:29 Yeah, I really just I think the most important one is your profit loss statement, so understanding where your money's going and where it's coming in. And I think that's really important. Understanding your balance sheet and your cash flow. I think that's a little bit harder to take in for a lot of people. But this is where if you're working with someone you know who is going to talk you through it because it's that's their superpower. They love bookkeeping, they understand this stuff inside and out. Then you have an opportunity to have someone on your team who can really help you dig in and understand those things, but not just understand what they need, but understand how to decisions from the information. Yeah. Absolutely. So what habits help business owners build financial confidence?

23:13 Yeah? So definitely. It's hard to be a confident business owner when you're not making money, right and when you start, When you first start a business, it can be tough, right, So we want to make sure that you have you start from the beginning building a solid financial foundation. Then from there it's very important that you set aside the time to meet with your bookkeeper to really start to learn and understand your numbers. Again, I love the book. I don't know if you're familiar with the book Profit First. Are you familiar with the book? It is a fantastic book. And one of the things that Mike does in that book is he talks about if your business is from zero to two hundred and fifty thousand. He gives you a little graph and a chart. The way he breaks that out is your expenses should only be thirty percent, your salary should be fifty percent of what you in. Okay, you should be putting fifteen percent in a tax savings account for taxes, and then you should have five percent profit.

24:07 So we really want to get our clients looking at the fact that your goal is to make your business profitable as quickly as possible, ideally from day one, right, but as soon as you can make that happen. So what happens is when you focus on your finances, it shifts your mindset to the point where, oh, well, you know they say you have to spend money to make money. You get out of that rut into thinking, Okay, I am here to build a profitable business. I want a business that supports the lifestyle that I want to live. I want a business that I'm running that's not running me. And so those are the things that I think are so important if people want to build a successful business. Anyone can build a business. Building a successful business is a different thing.

24:47 It's yeah, totally different, totally different. You're absolutely right about that. So do you feel that organized bookkeeping. From what you're saying, it sounds like the organized bookkeeping help that will help entrepreneurs pay themselves more consistently. Absolutely and stay on top of panther taxes. Yes, okay, okay, So what role does bookkeeping play when a business is ready to scale? You know, you always hear the especially with coaches. You hear them talking about how they want to have product, a product that's scalable, different things like that, and I think a lot of businesses are like that. So what role does book keeping play when a business is ready to scale?

25:33 So it gives you the ability to know what money you have to invest. So, for example, let's say you've got your offer really dialed in. You're a coach, You've got this great offer, the pricing solid you've got that, You've got your marketing down, you know your landing page is converting. Well, now you want to run ads. We all know if you're going to run ads, you really want to have somebody who's an expert at running ads. You're probably looking at a five thousand dollars a month spend and you need to do that probably for three to four months. Really get the algorithm to know how to put your ads in front of the right people. Well, if you don't have that money prepared to do that, it makes it harder. Or maybe you have a business where you want to buy a second van. You know, you need to buy equipment. So if you if you're ready to scale, it tells me that you have money in the bank, that you're ready to invest in the things that you need to invest in to take it to the next level. Hmm.

26:23 Okay, that makes sense. And never looked at it like that, but that that definitely makes sense if you're ready to scale, that meg money in the bank. Okay. So what is one financial matrix every entrepreneur should track weekly? Yeah? I want to laugh because it's hard sometimes to get people to track it monthly, most last weekly. I mean, you really want to track your revenue, okay, because once you're in touch with your expenses. So let's say you know your expenses for your business on average or twenty five hundred dollars a month, not counting your salary. With your salary, let's say it's five thousand dollars a month, so you know that is the bare minimum that you need to bring in. So if you're tracking your revenue, every week, then you're okay, am I on track to make that? Obviously, if you want to scale your business, you know you're looking at how do I increase my revenue?

27:16 Always about how to increase my revenue because at some point you can only cut costs so much. Right, there's cost of having a business, and you can cut out all the things that aren't moving the needle or making a difference. But the thing that is going to grow your business is getting more clients bringing in more revenue, and that's what you want to focus on. So how can entrepreneurs stay informed about their finances without spending hours doing bookkeeping themselves? Because I know I don't want to do any bookkeeping, right. So yeah, so you can work with us in outsource your bookkeeping. You could hire a local bookkeeper in your community, or you could ask your CPA if they will take care of your bookkeeping. But at the end of the day, hiring someone else to take care of the day to day bookkeeping allows you to act as a CFO, review the financials and have great information. I love to say here it all the time. You need to work on your business and not in your business. So here's a great example. Working in your business is doing your own bookkeeping.

28:20 Working on your business is reviewing your financials to make great decisions to move the business ahead. So we want to spend as much time as business owners working on our business as possible, so that we have time to focus on the bigger picture things new offers, new clients, great new opportunities or collaborations, rather than doing the day to day task. Okay, so what systems are support help would entrepreneurs need to maintain financial clarity as that their business grow. I mean systems that you would put in place to do that. Yeah, definitely bookkeeping software. There's lots of software out there other people and I will age myself, but I remember when QuickBooks first came out, and I remember every CPA I knew back then was like, oh, it'll never take off.

29:07 People aren't going to use it because they were so dedicated to their spreadsheets and the systems and processes that they had spent decades building. So then quick Books came out and that kind of became the primary. But there are tons of other great bookkeeping software so ho zero lots of great softwares. So finding the right software for your type of business is important. And then also having systems and processes in place. You know, are you going to attach your receipts in your software to each transaction or have your bookkeeper do that, or are you going to scan your receipts and put them all on a Google Drive folder. Finding a way to keep everything super organized is important. At the end of the day, none of us want to get audited. And I had written an article about this and someone made a comment. They said, you know, the IRS is still using antiquated equipment and they're so short staffed, the chances of you getting audited are slimm to um none with the past decade. I would agree with that. Whatever the I R S is updating their systems. And I said, I don't know if anywhere in the tax code it says we have to be edited audited by a person at one point when the I R S use AI to allow right, And I think if I were the I R S, I'd be working on that as fast as I could, so I would what I would do is I would use that to audit and then what do you think got flagged?

30:22 And obviously you have a person get involved and take care of that. So I think with AI, we're moving into a very different space where I think it's going to be really important. You know, you want to maximize every write off you can, but you don't want to go to jail for fraud. So if you know, having your numbers and your information in order are so important, not leave you money on the table is really important. But working with the fantastic CPA who can review what your bookkeeper's done and help you strategize have tax strategy. You know, if you've been very profitable, does it make sense to put thirty thousand dollars in your retirement account or if you're behind on saving for retirement, Like, there's so many different things that you can do if you have the information.

31:05 Wow, it is just so much. And you know, when you start, especially when you're starting out and when you think about the financial part of it, it is just so much that you need to know to make sure that you could even get that business off the ground. And like you say, because you want to make a profit from day one, but you know, we know that sometimes that doesn't happen. It may take you, it may take you a year to turn a profit in your business, but in the meantime, you still have to have certain things in place to make sure that when that happens, you're still pretty much organized to be able to handle it and to keep growing. Yeah.

31:48 Absolutely, you know, we have paper, software, our websites. There are costs to having a business. I think most people just don't prioritize bookkeeping like they. Should, right exactly, Yeah, that is true. So what first step should someone take if they've been avoiding their numbers, like, you know, I don't want to know anything about my numbers. Talk to me when it's April fourteen, the day before text day, then you can come and talk to me. So if they're avoiding, and what should they know. Well, my number one thing is if you have an LLCA or you've incorporated and you're commingling your funds, you need to stop that. You need to buy that as quickly as possible. You know, Again, you can reach out to us, you can reach out to a local bookkeeper, but start having some conversations about what it would look like to have someone do your bookkeeping. Because again, at the end of the day, we will avoid what we do not enjoy doing often, or we will avoid something that because bookkeeping isn't screaming, it's not a phone call you have to apply to. It's not an email. It needs to get done, but it's quietly screaming at you in the background, right, So realizing that it's way more important than you could ever imagine, and if you focus on building a really solid financial foundation for your business, it'll change everything.

33:04 Now, you mentioned several times working with you to tell me about that? What do you when you say working with you? I know you when I mentioned read your bio. You have in your bio that you work with virtual assistance. Talk to us about that. Sure, So we're not an outsourcing agency. A little over at almost two decades ago, we started outsourcing and I started helping my one on one clients with outsourcing. And then Genie and I, because she had a marketing agency, marketing was changing, so she and I decided to partner and help our clients with marketing virtual assistants. What we realize is people often fail when it comes to outsourcing because they don't have systems and processes in place. So for the type of virtual assistance we place, we always have systems and processes in place. Okay, early twenty twenty five, our bookkeeper retired and she sold her business, but at that point, I have I'd already been hiring bookkeepers for CPA firms and bookkeeping companies for a couple of years, so I was really great at hiring bookkeepers. So I said, Genie, why don't we just outsource our bookkeeping? And we did, and we knew it would save us money and I did about thirty six hundred dollars a year. But what also happened was there's a different relationship when it's business to business versus We always say a bookkeeping virtual assistant.

34:22 They are professional bookkeepers degrees and accounting, our degrees in finance, quick book certify, zero certify, a certain amount of years of bookkeeping, so they're very professional bookkeepers. We use the word VA to indicate that they're not local and to also indicate that they're affordable. So it's a little bit of different dynamic because you know, we consider our bookkeeper be part of our team. She works about five hours a month for us, but we still consider her part of our team. We started meeting with her every month and she was the first person who said to us, you have different revenue streams, would you want to divide that up? And we were like yes, and our past bookkeeper didn't bring it up, never thought of it, you know, So it was just overlooked. But that one thing that she helped us change changed a lot for us. And then a lot of our clients who have our marketing virtual assistants and our guest podcasting virtual assistants, they started asking about it because the knwhere were the process of doing it. So we decided last year to start interviewing, hiring, and bringing on bookkeeping virtual assistants for our clients. And so we actually work with a client to pick the best software, We help them understand all the compliance things and maybe write offs that they're missing, and then we actually pair them with the bookkeeper who joins their team.

35:36 The bookkeeper that work for us, they work directly for them, and we give them all the tools that they need to build a long term relationship with that bookkeeper who is going to be their financial guide. Wow, that is very interesting. So tell us if you had one final piece of advice that you could give to women entrepreneurs who want to feel more confident and in control of their finances, what would that advice be? If anyone ever told you that women aren't good with money, or they told you that you're not great leaders or you're not a managing people. That is total for lack of a better word, BS right, Women are fantastic with money.

36:20 They actually often handle all the household finances. Women are fantastic when it comes to building successful businesses once they have the support that they need. The other thing is females. All of our female clients that have any of our virtual assistants, they are fantastic leaders. They do just such a great job of bringing that virtual assistant on, making them part of the team and building a lasting relationship. When you get the right team members, you want to keep them for a long time. And that's the magic power that I think women have a superpower. Absolutely absolutely, So tell us is there anything do you do any type of training? I know you said that when the person contacts you about a virtual assistant, then you all work with them to make sure that they have the right assistant helping them. So, is there anything that you want to tell us about anything that you might have coming up, Any programs or you know, training that you have that you want to let us know about.

37:21 Absolutely so. If you're interested in learning more about bookkeeping and your finances, we host a live class twice a month. You can just go to Lessmathmoremoney dot com. Lessmathmore Money dot com and just sign up for the class. It's live. Genie are there to answer questions, so it's very you know, we're there to answer any questions you have and support you through the process. If you're interested in marketing, virtual assistance and things like that, you can go to our website six figure Business Coaching dot com and that's six Figure Business Coaching dot com and we'll talk to you there about some of the things we do and you can book a call with me if you have questions. Okay, so tell us again. If somebody want to reach out to you again to find out about what you do, how you do it, and maybe to get a virtual assistance, give us your email address and also your website again please sure.

38:10 It's six Figure Business Coaching dot com and again six figure Business Coaching dot com and you can reach me at Kirsten k I R S T E N at six Figure Business Coaching dot com. Oh, Kirsten, I called you, Kristen. It's okay, I joke. If it starts with a K or a CI answer to it. Well, it has been a pleasure having you on the show telling us about all this uh, giving us all this financial you know, these great financial nuggets, because as I said, when you're starting a business, it's that's one of the main things you've got to be on top of your finances because basically that that's what you're in business for. You want to make money, so you want to make sure that it's coming in and it's going in the right places you know that it needs to go.

39:00 And as you said, that you have the right write offs. You know, we leave sometimes we leave a lot of money on the table because we don't know where or what we should be writing off. So definitely, I would. Urge anyone that's viewing this show to reach out to you to find out more about what you do, how you do it, and also to set them up with a financial maybe a bookkeeper, virtual bookkeeper. To help them with their business. Awesome, Thank you so much, doctor Lewis. I've enjoyed this conversation. I love your show, by the way, Thank you so much, appreciate you. It's been a pleasure having you with you all righty.

39:41 So now I'm just gonna let everybody know what's going on. What has been happening, what will be happening. I want to let you know that. I'm also excited that I've been named to the Women in Leadership Top one hundred lists for the twent six by the Global Publishing Media Group. This list recognizes influential female leaders driving change across global industries. This recognition is as you know, I always say it's bigger than me, and I always just want to make sure that women know that even when the room didn't look like her, it represents every late night, every bold decision, every moment we choose, you know, to be representative of what we do, and our voices need to be heard.

40:37 So that's why I'm always eager to share these things which you let you know. If I can do it, you can do it too. I also received a Certificate of Excellence and was recognized as one of onw IT magazine's top women leading in excellence, authority, influence, and Legacy. This recognition is a testament to the profound and life change impact made through servant leadership in the home, community, career, and business. I also recently had the pleasure to be interviewed on her Story Circle podcast with the phenomenal host get Through messhe in Melbourne, Australia. Her her Story Circle podcast celebrates the powerful journeys of women from all walks of life, highlighting our triumphs, our challenges, and the defining moments that shape who we become as leaders. And if you would like to watch the episode, or you can go to YouTube and actually you could probably put my name in next to it her Story Circle Podcasts and it should come up. I was also honored to be a featured speaker at her Story International Women's Day Summer which took place March eight through the twelfth in Melbourne, Australia.

42:05 And you can also see that talk if you put my name in the search box. If you put in the search box, you can put my name and you put it took place. I was on the ninth of March twenty twenty six session three her Story International Women's Day Online Summit. I know that's a lot, but you can always go back and listen to this episode and you can hear the whole thing as to how to listen to that episode. I'm still excited about the successful Women radio and TV show making the rank of feat spots list of top one hundred best career Mindset and Working Women Podcasts, and that we went from number sixteen on the list to number eleven, so we're still trying to move up that list. And I got to say, I think that's great because it highlights podcasts that empower women to build successful careers, navigate workplace challenges, and find true fulfillment in work and life. And so I am definitely honored to be on that list. Make sure to check out my book Show Up to Rise Up, Explore the Transformative Power of a Positive Mindset, which achieved bestseller status on Amazon in the Women and Business in Women in Business category. If you'd like to get the book, you could either go on my website which is www

43:35 dot EXWSI dot com and click on bookstore and you'll be able to purchase it, or you could go to Amazon dot com. Of course, put my name in the search box and the book will come back up, Come right up. If you have not viewed my TEDx talk that I did in Vancouver, Canada, make sure that you do so the topic was show Up to Rise Up. You can also watch my TEDx talk on YouTube. Again, just put my name in the search box doctor Madlin and Lewis and it will come right up, or you can email me for the direct link at info at EXWSI dot com and I'll send you the direct link.

44:24 I'm excited because we're still moving and getting views on it. We're now at two hundred and thirty five thousand, seven hundred and eighty four views, and of course you know my goal is one million plus views. So I want to thank again all of you in advance for your support and for those of you that have continued to support, continue to share, like and comment on the video. Thank you so much. And finally, as you know, I'm a contributing writer to on It magazine where I shared nuggets and resources every month. On It magazine is a resource for personal and professional developments. So make sure if you'd like to get a free copy of free subscription that you can contact me again send me an email info at e xw SI dot com and I will make sure to give you the information to subscribe to own It magazine Again. I want to thank my guests Ms.

45:34 Kirsten Graham, and my views and listeners for joining me today. This is a successful women's show. I'm doctor Madeline Ann Lewis, and if you would like to reach out to me. You can email me at info at exw SI dot com while you're or go to my website www dot e xw SI dot com and while you're there, make sure you download my free three part video series on three things every woman should do to position herself for executive leadership. You can also sign up for my online course which is Cracked the Career Code how to Lead with Confidence, Charisma and Credibility. To sign up for the course, go to www dot crackthcreercode dot com. And again, you can also reach me on all the social media sites.

46:32 Don't forget to make sure that you subscribe to our channel. Make sure that you share. Like this episode, we had some great nuggets on business financial financial information from Kirsten Graham. If you're an entrepreneur, you don't want to miss this information. So again, this is the Successful Women's Show. We're here every week. I am your host, doctor Madeline Anne lewis helping women to accelerate the path to success. Thank you again for joining me. I love you all to life and as always, be well and stay safe out there.

47:15 This is success Successful Heart, sun Set Dahrise, Successful Women