Friends With Business
So, here I am--starting this podcast! I'm so excited to start this journey and celebrate the amazing entrepreneurs in our community.
On each episode of FWBP, I chat with entrepreneurs from a wide range of industries to get their take on achieving success. We talk about their stories, strategies and lessons learned along the way. We'll have inspiring stories from entrepreneurs who are succeeding despite the odds, get tips on how to stay motivated and productive, and uncover hidden gems of knowledge that we can all learn from. Plus, we'll also dive into sales strategies, marketing tactics, and financial planning. Of course, it's not all smooth sailing - so we also talk about the challenges faced when launching a business and how to overcome them.
We also have a segment called "Friends with benefits" where listeners will receive an exclusive deal or discount from a featured business.
Together, we'll explore what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in today's landscape, learn from each other's experiences and successes, and have some fun along the way. So, stay tuned and join me on this adventure!
Friends With Business
Fractional CFO Kelle Thorpe's Guide to Strategic Financial Planning
If you're a business owner, you've probably heard the term "Fractional CFO" thrown around at some point. But what do they actually do and how can they really benefit your company?
Meet Kelle Thorpe, a seasoned Fractional CFO who's here to enlighten us on the crucial differences between a bookkeeper and a CFO. Kelle's entrepreneurial spirit runs deep, with not one, but two successful business launches during a global pandemic. She shares her inspiring tale of resilience, adaptability, and determination.
Join us as we dive into the importance of surrounding yourself with diverse voices and investing in your personal growth. Get ready to learn from the best and level up your business game!
Visit www.FriendsWithBusinesses.net to learn more about the podcast and the business.
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It doesn't change any of that right. It came from that environment of speaking the same way I speak in person. And then these messages online is okay, and in emails it's okay. It's how people appreciate you. And then she started dissect what I did and she's like tell me from start to finish, what do you do when a client leaves in discovery?
Speaker 1:So I gave her each step and she's like okay now they're client in that way and I gave her each step and she was like you do all of this. And I'm like, yeah, and she was like, so tell me the stories, tell me some client stories. I was like, well, you know, I had one client that came to me in May of 2022. She was at about 225 and she closed out 2022 at 765. And she was like Kelly, do you realize what you just said? And she was like, okay, I'm gonna hold that. What's the next one? I was like, so I had another one. She's been in business for 16 years and she's been full-time for 16 years and she was running herself out of her business and she just kind of wasn't sure what to do next. She came in about 150 and she's been with me almost three years now and last year we had 1.1. And she was like million. She was like you realize, on average you just told me, you're three to four extra people's income and, on average, five to six months.
Speaker 2:Y'all welcome to Friends with Businesses where I expose you to my friends with businesses and I know that you will benefit. I'm Carl Gray, your business solutions architect, and today I'm joining with somebody who I have not seen in almost 25 years. Ms Kelly, is it Kelly or Kelly? You know, you started Kelly with.
Speaker 1:Kelly. I know everything. It's Kelly today, 25 years later.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, so it's Kelly, Cause it was Kelly to me. Can you put something right there? I'm gonna acknowledge you. I'm gonna acknowledge you that the joint the accent right. So I'm so glad you're here. We went to Parkdale High School together, class of 2000,. We're just telling her how, like you know, we look better than people our age. Look when we were, you know, back then, that's it. Carl Winslow was 37. And I'm sure Carl Gray does not look as old as Carl Winslow. Look way back there. So again, you know this. You know we had these conversations cause I have friends who do some dope stuff and Kelly is a fractional CEO, I mean CFO. You know, and I promise you I'm probably gonna have a program when we're fractional, something for somebody, because it's like the sound of it, right. But can you tell the people you know who you are and what a fractional CFO is, and you know just, we're gonna dive right into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks for the space. This is so dope. I'm so blessed and happy that we get to reconnect in this space. Right it is. It really is a blessing that we're both in this space. It's, we're great, we're healthy and we're doing good. So, yeah, awesome. But yes, so I am a fractional CFO. My business is commas with Kelly, so I show CEO entrepreneurs how to spend strategically to drive up profits, optimize productivity and stay in their zone of genius.
Speaker 1:Most CEOs and entrepreneurs are burning themselves out in their businesses and that's not why they started their business, right? Usually they started their business cause either they hated working for somebody else and they wanted that flexibility, or they may have had children and a family and they wanna do the soccer games and go to cheerleading and do all the things. But then you start a business and you're in the rat race, you're checking your phone at the game, you're not tuned in to your family because you're burning yourself out and you're doing all these things in your business, right? So actually, fractional is this new buzzword in entrepreneurship I'm sure you've heard like fractional CMOs, fractional COOs.
Speaker 2:Me. I'm a fractional COO. That's what I do, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So it's the new buzzword over the last couple of years in entrepreneurship and it means just what it looks like. It means you have whatever the C-suite executive is on your team for a fraction of the time, for a fraction of the cost, right? So a lot of people when they see a fractional CFO, they like, oh look, I can't afford her services. That's, I can't afford them. So let's just move on. Let me go on back to my bookkeeper. And we just won't stay on with the bookkeeper. So I try to do a lot of educating on my platforms to tell people what we do as a fractional CFO, because I think it's very misleading to think that you don't need one when Fortune 500 companies didn't get to Fortune 500 without fractional or without CFO and financial strategy. And that's what a CFO does is give you financial strategy, right? So how do you stay in the bookkeeping lane once you get beyond the first six figures if you're in this for longevity and for the legacy of your business to carry on?
Speaker 2:So, look, you said a lot and I don't even be taking those right. I haven't had an opinion about it. I'm like, okay, she jumped it down. So because one thing I like about this is I bring people on here who do what I can, I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I tell you all the time, don't come to me and ask me how to do your books. Are you serious? Like I wrote a book that's it no, hey, yes, your book.
Speaker 2:No, so all right. My first question is what is the difference between a bookkeeper and a CFO Period? Because I know I'm in the audit space so I work with CFOs all the time and I understand that piece. But most people think that it's really just about tick and tie, devils and credits. But let people know, you know what a CFO to a chief financial officer would do.
Speaker 1:Yes. So let's start with the bookkeeper piece. So a bookkeeper is your transactional person. So they pull your transactions, depending on what software you use. We'll take QuickBooks and they pull them into a bank feed and they categorize those transactions and put them onto your accounting books and then they'll do a bank reconciliation for you to make sure everything ticks and ties. And usually you'll get your financial statements, a P&L and a balance sheet, maybe monthly, maybe quarterly, depending on how you're set up. And that's a bookkeeper.
Speaker 1:A CFO then takes those reports and looks at the back end of the strategy and tells you what the story is behind those numbers. So many of times entrepreneurs or even I'm not even just entrepreneurs, I came from the C-suite and a $2 billion law firm before I started my business and they don't even look at the reports they had me. That's what they had me there for right. So entrepreneur is definitely on looking at them. If y'all are.
Speaker 1:You just wanna see how much money you bought in last month, if you hit that high ticket offer that you were selling or your price point that you wanted to be, and boom, I did it. But what does that tell you? That doesn't really tell you a whole lot, because that doesn't tell you how sustainable you are over the next six months, for the rest of the year, right? So that's what a CFO does. We take those financial reports that you get from your bookkeeper and you drag them and drop them in your email file or on your cloud cloud storage system and don't look at till tax time. And then you want us to work some magic. Yeah, we take those and do something with them and provide you with financial strategy.
Speaker 2:See, and I think that's what you know, so many entrepreneurs need Nothing. This is what separates the men from the boys, the ones who just have a self-employed nine to five to those who actually have a actual business or organization. Is strategy right? Like strategy? I'm learning is, you know, because I'm a business solutions architect. So all I think is strategy and I think everybody thinks strategy, like I'm always, you know, I think I think about strategy too much Sometimes, where I'm like, yeah, I find a new or this thing telling the story, so, but it's up to me to, you know, really help have people in my organization who can really do database stuff. But that's what separates us so often is people don't have a strategy moving forward. So we kind of take what we can get and sometimes it sustains us because what we're getting is good. But we're not about sustainability. You know our people have done that for too long. We're about building legacy, you know this is this goes beyond.
Speaker 2:I mean, sustainability is good, but it's a level above that, because I like to mention that first six figures. Honestly, it's not that hard.
Speaker 1:It's not, it's not easily.
Speaker 2:But no, but there's a whole lot there.
Speaker 1:No. So you know it's funny because I did not realize what I was doing in my clients business as far as how much I was 3x thing, 5x thing, their revenue and the time frames Until the last four or five months. So four or five months ago I started working with a coach to help me with messaging and when I sat down with the messaging coach we realized that my messaging was still very much corporate messaging, right. So I've been in the corporate space and, like I said, I was in the C-suite of A two billion dollar firm. In my last position I was the only black woman in the firm and I was in the C-suite position and there was only one other black person in the whole. So I wasn't in very diverse cultures where I've worked in the C-suite for almost 20 years.
Speaker 1:So which that's been a whole other podcast we could do of how we conform to the cultures that we're in, right, so I didn't. I was telling her in my first or second session that this is who I am like. She's like no. Like who are you really? And I literally had nothing else for her because who I'd become in the C-suite was who I was and she told me she was like no, when we're on these zoom sessions, you're delivering your language and your Assertiveness and, like your matter-of-fact and I know my shit it comes across different than your content on your platforms.
Speaker 2:So so I'm gonna be with a buck, right. I know, you know you need my cut and so I'm sitting down like this and I see you got the tattoo right here. You know, I mean like to say, well, where my hair, you know all these things like it's like yeah, and you know, I know you said we're talking another pocket, but that's part of what this podcast is about. It's, you know, like it's my friends with business, but it's also I recognize where I come from, right, and where we come from.
Speaker 1:You know, you know when I say I grew baby like thank you.
Speaker 2:This is who we are um, and Part of what I love about this, and even who I bring on. It's a celebration of our culture, and not everybody came from the hood like us.
Speaker 1:You know so not everybody.
Speaker 2:You know that you have diversified the way, but no matter what it is, our culture needs to be Celebrated. And you mentioned something and we're gonna get back into this three x thing but you mentioned something about conforming to culture. That's how you, all the time I not only do I not Code switch, I don't know how to. This is how I, this is how I speak. Yeah, I mean, you know I get my passion and you know everyone's know what I'll be talking to a CFO, coo, ceo, whatever it is, and I'm gonna say young, yeah, it's gonna happen, it's not gonna change. But like you see my hair, you know I came here a negro, yeah, and and. But there's nothing wrong with that, we got this. We still got the skills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no. So when she thought it to my attention, she was like so it's okay to be humble, but it's important for you to tell people these results, because that's what drives people to come is Results. So you need to start speaking. The results so in that journey was when I started speaking and I started actually asking my clients who had these results hey, do you mind Given a testimonial? And one of them she just arbitrarily gave a testimonial on a masterclass that I did and I was like okay, this is, this is a thing.
Speaker 1:So I always knew, when I take on new people and I'm in discovery phase, that I'm not going to. I have a bookkeeping team and we do do bookkeeping. So if you come to me and you're like I kind of want to see what this fractional CFO space looks like not sure from ready and Either one of two things either I see, hell, yeah, you're ready. You're just afraid to start at that investment point, which we can talk about too, which I know you can afford it. I've already seen your financials. I know you can afford it. I know I'm going to get you the money back to be able to afford this plus some. So this is not going to be an issue in less than three months.
Speaker 1:Max I'll give you, so I'll put you in bookkeeping. You can come on over here. You're going, my bookkeeping team and I'll just watch from the bookkeeping afar and begin strategizing behind the scenes and You'll migrate on over to full fractional CFO services, which usually is what happens. Or they take the leap and they're like alright, the first tier of investment is 1150 a month. Okay, I'll, I'll do 1150 a month. I'm scared as hell, kelly, because I don't know, but I'm a trust you and I'm gonna do it and it it never fails by month three or four.
Speaker 2:They're just like alright, don't even want me with me, no more.
Speaker 1:I'm like this, the monthly strategy session that we're going over. They like, yeah, no, I'm good this month because they got it. They already know that the money has already started taking the turn and they're in a better place. So it is. It's an interesting Dynamic that I love being in.
Speaker 2:I love Interesting, it's miraculous, all right. So because again, and I'm in my business right and so In some cases you know, I do business process reorganization right. Well, some of these companies in work and when I do that, like I'll increase margins, because I Do that, but from a I very rarely. Unless I'm helping someone to either create a product or sell a product, I Don't increase revenue.
Speaker 1:Right, I disagree with that Talk to me, tell me. It's an indirect increase of revenue. I'll give you a.
Speaker 2:So one of my c-suite, obviously what you do.
Speaker 1:No, because you need to do the same thing and that's part of actually your pivot of messaging right, because one of my positions in the c-suite I had a dual role as the C A O In the CF. Oh, so I was the chief admin officer and CFO. So on the admin side, it was more of what you're talking about like Operational, organizational stuff dissecting the systems, making things run more efficiently, streamlining the processes. Can we be more lean on staff or do we need beef up on staff? Do we need to recategorize where some of the numbers are all in your lane of things that you do right? So when I did that but I had the dual hat, I had the advantage point of saying, yes, I'm not directly bringing in money, but I'm increasing revenue, because the things I'm doing is Optimizing the systems that either they currently have, or bringing in systems that are going to help reduce the time that people are spending. We're just putting money back into the firm or reduce the staff. So when I had the dual hat, I could do the numbers.
Speaker 1:So, for example, that that firm this was Five years since 2015, long before Kobe. One of the first things I saw is they were a Law firm that I don't want to say the industry, because if you go back to my LinkedIn, you're very figure out what one does. So it was a Law firm that made it very, very easy to be go to go paperless, right, because everything they did was kind of on the cloud or electronic, okay. So it was one of the things that I'm like okay, if we continue down this path of going paperless, we can reduce storage. We can reduce onsite and off-site storage fees. We can potentially reduce staff. We can change our software. Yes, we'll need to buy this more expensive software, but we now no longer have an $8,000 storage fees, so this is gonna offset this. Mmm ended up giving back 30% of the office space because we no longer needed the wing that had storage. So when I did all that calculation, it saved them $340,000 a year. That's an increase in revenue. So you're doing so. You just need to start.
Speaker 2:This is crazy. No, I can say the numbers tell the story. Right, the number. So, okay, all right, all right, so I'm so. No, I mean, I mean because, again, like I know what I'm good at and I know what I'm. What's the word serviceable, as they would say? It's like hey, it's getting done. No um, you know, and but this is this is amazing.
Speaker 2:You know, and one of the things that you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a very much an advocate of, and I'm also training myself in, is who, not how, and this is what I tell everybody is what it's a great book. Dance up, sullivan. Um is and you talked about it earlier the first thing I wrote down, that zone of genius.
Speaker 1:Yes, right.
Speaker 2:It's not even a zone of excellence, zone of that thing that you can do in your sleep, not thinking about like I was just doing a coaching session, a Wonder mini coaching session, and I literally did not plan it at all. All I did was hot seat the whole 90 minutes because it's your life. Right, everybody, what's your idea? Let's tweak it, punch it up. Punch it up the whole top to a microphone. I'm not gonna plan it, letting go to sleep tonight. I am this morning.
Speaker 1:I was just and.
Speaker 2:Right, and the session was at noon, so you know, I was like I said. I'm just gonna hot seat everybody. And they were like, oh, this is amazing, this is great. Look, that's my zone of genius, right, my zone of excellence, like high point presentation. Exactly you know I could do that piece of you know, but you just talked about uh, and the reason that I say that is we have to start craving To operate in our zone of genius that part.
Speaker 1:That's the key when you ask how I do it Is because by the time I strip you of the financial worry and you have someone like me in your corner that you know Is for your vision. A lot of people are surprised when they first hit discovery with me. I don't ask numbers. I ask tell me why, why you started your business, what's your vision for your business? What made you start it? What I, what I tell me to highlights what has happened. What dope stuff have you accomplished since you started this business?
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about what's your pay points, what's what's these things? And the reason I do that is to see how dedicated you still are. Are you really burnt out or is it just the stuff you're doing in your business that has you feeling burnt out? That's the first thing I want to see, and the other thing is because I know that's where your zone is and that what you, that's what you crave in conversation and you can talk to me all day about what that is that you do right and that's of interest to me, because when I'm strategizing behind your numbers, I'm going to keep in mind Okay, this Carl said his only zone of genius is helping people Revitalize or build their offers and helping them learn how to sell better.
Speaker 1:Why the hell did I just see him spending two hours on a powerpoint Presentation when he could have hired somebody and just sent that stuff over there and let them chat, gpt and use his notes as best that they could and come up with a draft and send him a draft. He just spent two hours at. We got his rate of 200 an hour when you could have paid a va 150 to do it. Your waste of my time for all.
Speaker 2:I know, and my rate has to 500 hours, but yeah, I Like the point and this to your point of what you said.
Speaker 1:Like people have to know that and stop being scared. You can't be a scary entrepreneur like it's just. You can't be scared like you're wasting money, scared because that's exactly what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Oh, I For this and this is gonna be a real you what she said? You wasted money, scared Way. Yeah, yeah, no, we, we're gonna. We're gonna feed my mind's turning.
Speaker 1:Already know that I'm a master my mind's turning because and if people are staying in their zone of genius, right, 500 hours an hour, you stay in your zone. You gotta work half the time. You might love one of the tasks that I do when I get somebody like you as a client and I'm like all right, I see he, he liked it over here. You know what I call that powerpoint side, that's your procrastination side of box. I got four boxes right. I'm like all right, this the box, this is the box up here on my upper. I'm talking to you. I know. This is the box on my upper left hand side. That's your high revenue box. That's where I need you to live to bring in all this five x. I'm talking.
Speaker 1:The box on the right Is them powerpoint presentations, that research, that review. Do all the desk stage right there. That's the. I'm high, optimizing my time at doing these because this is also my zone. But that doesn't mean that's where I should live. That means I need to hire someone and let them be my right hand and groom them to do this zone for me.
Speaker 1:And then you got the other two boxes that are just like stuff I hate to do, like maybe social media management or something, but I haven't quite outsourced yet. And then the left Is the maybe stuff. That's the stuff that maybe you need to be doing like I don't know what can I think of in your industry. Like maybe you should be helping people. While you're helping them learn how to better sell, they need to also need coaching and messaging. But you don't do messaging coaching. But you're trying to figure out how to do messaging coaching, but that ain't your lane. So you waste some time when you need to just collaborate with a messaging coach and then we can bring this up here. So that's typically how the four quadrants of how it works right, and then you got five x.
Speaker 1:So if you stay in your zone of genius, I know it's crazy like you said, it's easy to make the six figures, getting beyond the first six figures.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And not run yourself out and be rat crazy. That's like.
Speaker 2:Because I legit, I had, I had a six figure week, right, yeah, and it was from one client I know. Yeah, right. Um, and I was like, oh, I can do this again. But what the problem was? I did everything to get there. I did everything to get there. I mean, a couple of things are outsourced to my assistants, my VAs, but for the most part, I did everything and I was like do that again, rough Worth it. I mean of course six reasons a week.
Speaker 1:That's like no great.
Speaker 2:I'm putting my phone on the check. Oh, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1:And that's when the fractional CFO will sit down with you and be like all right dope. That's the highlight for our monthly meeting. Yes, how can we recreate this, but in a different time frame and a different setting? To make the same amount of money, but spread it out a little bit and you don't have to work that hard by yourself.
Speaker 2:And what's crazy is I talk to people all the time. I say this all the time Every coach needs a coach, Because that's exactly the process I'll take my clients through. They're like, oh, this was great, Now let's make it easier on you to make the same amount.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, but doctors can't heal themselves.
Speaker 1:That's the good one.
Speaker 2:It does not happen. Everybody gets better results from your work than you do Everybody. Yeah, it's crazy. It's like, oh wait, like what? Oh, my god, the world, like I tell my clients you're going to make more money than me in that world. Really it's going to happen, because why I have coaches that I'll make more money from them than I pay them.
Speaker 2:That's the point. Yeah, that's the point. And I know a number of people who watch this, who do this, are kind of in this coaching, consulting, entrepreneur, solopreneur space and literally just last week I had somebody who does intellectual property oh wait, it does intellectual property NIL and it's been a continuous thing. To get to the next level, I hired a coach. To get to the next level, I hired somebody who is better at something I need than I am.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We got to continue to do that. But here I got a question, because I know some people out there like all right, so this sounds great, but is it for me Right? The answer is automatically yes. However, what do they need to have to come to you? Is there revenue they need to have? Is there any type of assistance they need to have In order to come see you? What should they have?
Speaker 1:Yeah, now, that's a great question and it's one that I built out on my website too. You need a fractional CFO if and there's four bullet points and usually you've already had a bookkeeper. You have a bookkeeper and someone that's maintaining your books, but you're doing like I talked about earlier you just dragging and dropping them's reports into a file and you're not paying any attention, and then at tax season, you want surgery to happen. The next person is don't make a face so they won't know what I'm talking about you. Oh, the next person is you could be DIYing, right, like maybe you don't mind and I'm assuming, too much. So you're still trying to keep up with your own quick books and you're trying, but you're not quite staying in there as much as you should. You pop in and out once a week, you start it out, then maybe once a month, and so forth, and then the next bucket is you already launched beyond the first six figures? Right, you're beyond the first six figures. You're full time in your business, it's what keeps the lights on for you, but you're not sure how to create.
Speaker 1:I say sustainability, but I use that loosely to not minimize what you make, but how to spread it out over time and manage the wealth so it works for you. Because part of my team is investment advisors, right? So once we get to the point in strategy, then I start talking to them and saying, hey, she came in making $250 this year. She said $675. We need to A figure out how to lessen her tax liabilities and, b talk about how to do this investments for her. Because the other thing in entrepreneurship that we typically aren't doing and I wasn't even guilty of this until this year is you're so used to a 9 to 5 W2 job that if you were taking advantage of the 401k over there, it was automatic coming out of your paycheck. And now you're an entrepreneurship and that just stopped. Ain't nothing happening in that area? Stop talking about me. I had a job in 10 years, so you're just going to do this in front of my face and you're just going to let it just talk about me, right?
Speaker 2:I had a job in 10 years, so nothing ahead of 401k.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so you're at that point. You're like I got beyond the first six figures. Not too sure if I'm ready for a CFO, but I need to figure out my long term goals and plans and there is no minimum. Like I don't tell people you've got to be at six figures to work with me, I work with me. I have a client who she still has her 9 to 5 in her business. She's working on it in hopes by mid next year she can transition full time in it. She's not at six figures yet.
Speaker 1:She stepped out on faith and it's like I've seen the results. I know someone who personally gotten them four. I'm just going to go ahead and jump in and go full fractional CFO so I can get the strategy piece and you can help me get there. I took her on because I see I know that she got it and I know I can get her there right. So book a strategy session. There is no cost, they're free. You can go to my website. There's an inquire now process. There's the application that may take you five minutes to fill out, a solution form that you flow through. It comes to my inbox and that's when I begin dissecting to see, ok, where I think you may fall either. In bookkeeping, we can go straight fractional CFO I do have a membership too so there's three options that we can entertain and then we can take it from there. So there's no that. Those are the buckets that you could potentially, I would say, book a strategy if you fall in any of those categories.
Speaker 2:This is crazy. I'm so glad, I'm really glad that we're doing this. It's open in my eyes a whole lot. I didn't feel bad, but I did with you Sorry.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But OK, all right, all right. All right, all right, here we go, here we go. So how big is your team?
Speaker 1:I have five feet.
Speaker 2:She got to look up.
Speaker 1:No, because I need to expand more. That's my hard thing. So how I knew you lived over there in the stratosphere of PowerPoint and IT stuff, because that's what I do it took me a while to get a bookkeeping team, because that's the side that I'm like. I can sit behind these computers and move transactions all night and all day long, and so I'm at a point where I need to expand even more because I'm still sitting behind a desk doing more things than I probably should be doing.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, we are growing up, we talk, yeah, but so I don't do my PowerPoints anymore.
Speaker 1:Look, look.
Speaker 2:I mean, I do like the outline of it. You know pretty much. I'm like, hey, joni, because I got two right now I got Joni and I got Angie. Angie does like my video stuff, Joni does some of my more high-level things and things like that. But yeah, so all right. All right, so you've seen five people. I'm going to ask you a question. You don't have to answer it how much money do y'all?
Speaker 1:make. So I launched in the pandemic. I started full-time for myself in February 1st 2021. I went full-time July 2020 was when I got my first client and I was working in the C-suite and my business on the side. I launched my first year at multiple six figures and it was I taught people all of them. They're like it was easy. Honestly and I'm hesitant to say that because I realized in the pandemic most people lost their businesses, so I'm being sensitive to that.
Speaker 2:I started mine. I could just did a whole episode about that. So no, it's right.
Speaker 1:And I think it's well not. I think I know it's because of the industry I'm in. Right the same for you the industry you're in has the impact. So I launched at multiple six figures my first year. My second year I stayed around that lower multiple six figure point and this year, in year three, I'm still at multiple, but I'm going to be a little less because I took some steps back to get coaching. Because the first two years it was just God and the blessing and again I enjoy working in the C-suite. So I wasn't the entrepreneur that hated my job and was like one day I'm going to work for myself. I just kind of got pushed into this. So now at year three I was like, oh, I guess I'm at this and I'm nearly unemployable at this point. So I think I need some strategy for me. Like you were saying, I need coaching. So this year I took a step back on my client load to make room for me to actually get coaching and make time for me to use the coaching that I paid for.
Speaker 2:That's another thing Addition by subtracting. Yeah, I did the same. I'm doing the same thing, like I don't know. If you saw, during the challenge I did last week, I wasn't able to do some of the work that I was supposed to and unfortunately I didn't do all that I should have done in the challenge. I mean, I still made a lot of money. I mean not a lot of money. I made relative.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, because when it came time to close the last day I was getting damn paid, Take your money. I'm like, ok, I did it. I'm definitely going to do better at it the next time. But you say something very, very important and you let me know when you run out of time, because I know you're busy. I'm going to take all the fractions at a time. I'm thinking somebody else fraction, but you mentioned something about you launched your business during the pandemic and I launched actually two businesses on the pandemic. I see opportunities and I needed money because I was doing consulting for somebody who a large organization. But they need to switch on the resources. So I'm perfectly good with consulting, obviously, but you said during the pandemic that you basically jumped in this and there are some people who believe that there's another one coming. There's another shutdown.
Speaker 1:This is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:I know. No matter what, there is an economic downturn that is known which can lead to a lot of some of the same situations. Whether we can't go outside of that is neither here nor there. As a fraction of CFO. Oh yes, not the water. I caught it. I caught it Good, I think it's everywhere. Good Bye.
Speaker 1:Quick.
Speaker 2:Good, I can't think of a lie. We'll leave that in there. I got it in there. But in what you do, how would you tell somebody to prepare? Or here's another thing, because as a business solution architect, do you have anything for people? You know whether it's. You know some of the DIY on their own or DFY.
Speaker 2:You know, done with you, done for you, whatever that someone could have in place so that, when this does happen, they flip in the switch because finance has completely changed. When depressions and receptive, you know, we got inflation and stagflation at the same time or and all right, this is just crazy. What should somebody be prepared to? Because you're the one who managed to fund, and what numbers? What do you even tell in your client? I tell them specifically because they ain't paying you yet. They've been not paying you, but give them a little something.
Speaker 1:No, and that's a great question and proves the point of why you need a fractional CFO, right, if you are in business full time for yourself to help figure out those ebbs and flows and what to do.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that we do is we strategize out, we do three, five, 10 years right, and I tell them there's room, we're going to wiggle room at 10 and five, but we need to put a plan in place because if we have the strategy and the revenue goals and the expense amounts in place, then we can project where we could or may be right. So that way, if a recession or went and not a recession happens, you're already on target based upon the revenue goals that we've already spent. And quite naturally, like the space that you're in, I operate pretty lean, so of course, my strategies are built to have my clients scale to be pretty lean, so when the recessions and things happen, they can still maintain the momentum of where they are. So it goes back to that six figure week, right? Yes, we want to duplicate that, but we don't want to spend all of the six figure weeks because that's unnecessary. What you need to do, which we won't spend that much money on, right.
Speaker 2:So it's like a 52, 60 weeks after your highway work. I promise I will buy an island.
Speaker 1:So, but no, to that point you could and reinvested. And those are the things we talk about. All jokes aside, you jokingly tell me I'm going to take the money and buy an island. All right, what are we going to start looking for the island now? How much you think it's going to cost? Can we rent it out? Can we Airbnb out that island? For how much money and put that back into this business?
Speaker 1:All of the reinvestments in those things are all strategy. They're all a piece of the puzzle that help you. That's why you can't think in the same box as an entrepreneur and you can't think scared. You can't make scared decisions Because the financial decisions you make now are impactful for the years ahead. So if you have someone like me strategizing for you and I'm forward thinking years in advance, and you like, hey, I have had multiple six figure weeks over the year and I want to splurge on this and buy an island, then I'm also strategizing OK, the best place to buy this island is here because the Airbnb's, you can mark this up 150% and we can reinvest this.
Speaker 1:So it's not just focused on your business, it's focused on your personal. Because, remember, my initial questions are why, why did you start this? So I cannot, and I do not draw a line and say, no, I don't deal with your personal finances, you need to find somebody to deal with that. No, they all are the same, so we deal with that, right. So if you come to me and you say I had a multiple six figure business, I've been selling out my hot ticket off for all week, yeah, what's your finances look like personally? Oh, I had a $30,000 credit card debt.
Speaker 1:All right, we'll start with that, let's talk about that. So it all goes together and it all helps with that longevity piece that you're speaking of and getting through recessions and getting through even hard times of entrepreneurship when the revenue isn't hitting the goals you thought they were going to hit. That's why you have that sustainability plan in place, and when you hit a spike, you're already okay, that's a win. And when you hit the low, we're just that sustainability, it's fine, but we're still at a win, right. So that's the key. It all boils down to the strategy. That's when the investment advisors on my team come into place for us to do all of that piece and navigate those puzzles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one of the things that I don't encourage. I kind of force some of my larger clients once we're you know, if I'm yours, we always talk about the pivot plan, right, because you know, as I said, I'm you know, I see Arbiter by Tracy my hacker mask over there and all that stuff. But what people don't know is for about since 2006, 2007, probably beyond that. But that's why I actually got into the field. Companies were required to have a pandemic plan to the part of disaster recovery, a continuity of operations with a pandemic. It's a part of the standards.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Is you know you plan for, you know fire, you plan for this, you plan for people being sick and you put the test for that and so many people, so many companies were not ready, big, small, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right. I do remember that when I was in the CAO role, we definitely, after the 9 11 thing happened, and that was when it all started playing out that you had to have these plans. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Biological weapons.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it's like so they were telling people. You know it's like hey, you need to have. Like I was, I actually wrote the, the IT policy for a large HBCU or whatever, and you know they were supposed to have a pandemic plan and this was in 2006. 2006, 2007. Yeah, so of course, nobody had it and I think you know, and we can't act like it's not going to happen again, meaning, like I said, it may not be the same, but we got to be open to all possibilities. Nobody ever thought that there would be a time when you couldn't go into a anything. Yeah, my favorite places were closed for two years.
Speaker 1:I know right.
Speaker 2:What's going on here, like you can't go to a state. So you know, I mean, and I think you know, from a financial, I mean the same way it is from it, like me, I always have like, hey, look, if this happens, this is something you can easily turn on to make. You know, keep revenue coming in, but at the same time, like you said, there needs to be goals that are met up until that point from a revenue standpoint, because flip it a switch, yeah, you flip it a switch, but you need revenue for that. Because you got to market, you got to market the stuff in your coffers to make that happen. And you mentioned something you said you know, you, you one of the reasons that you step back, because you know, you kind of got you know between God and the situation, you know, if there's a little bit of love here and there, kind of helped you out.
Speaker 2:I think so many people were in denial of that, like they drank their own Kool-Aid, you know, and they were like, oh, I got this when, I mean, the pandemic was one of the easiest times to make money, the one we had, you know, I mean we had a president, like him or not. All he cared about was business. Yeah, all he cared about was business. Like he's like yo, business is gonna make money no matter what, and he's blinds his own. So like, look he, you know all his money's a blind trust. We can't see it. Whatever I got to do to keep all business up, so I keep making money, I'm going to do it. So that was already set up.
Speaker 2:Then, you know, people were in positions that had never been in before, and so you're able to touch. You know you don't clubhouse, get on zoom, you don't miss, you don't miss. And you were able to reach people in a different way. And so a lot of people got lucky. They grew lucky, but they did not really know a lot of the basics, and so now there's a lot of struggling going on. You know where they're like and they're, and they're unemployable because they haven't had a job in three years. Yeah, I know I'm unemployable. I haven't had a boss in 10 years. And I'm not just unemployable because I had a boss, I'm unemployable because I don't know that part.
Speaker 1:That's where I am. I can respond to one of these LinkedIn requests right now that sit there that want me to come in and talk to them about a potential opportunity easily.
Speaker 2:I don't want to. I've gotten. I get all these headhunters coming in there.
Speaker 1:Exactly you want to be this CISO.
Speaker 2:Do you want to be no Audit director? Do you want to do this? Man, I'm like no W2, great benefits, I cool. I'm not worried about that. That's not me, like you know. And so, in becoming unemployable, you have to have even more things in place.
Speaker 1:You know, with it.
Speaker 2:So, look, we're going to close down soon with a regional hour and I can't even, like you want to look at it, yeah, and nobody will listen after certain points. I don't know, I don't know with this joint.
Speaker 2:I don't know it's been fire for me, I don't know I don't want to listen to this, because every time you talk you be driving a gym. You tell them you made a whole rack of bread and all this kind of stuff. But I want to ask you, what was the worst situation you ever walked into with a client? Everybody can be brave. You're like don't kind of be like. You got together. That's what you're saying.
Speaker 1:You know, that's what I do.
Speaker 2:I remember.
Speaker 1:That's not even worth. My clients get on. They already know, like they know, I was just one client. I'm still trying to think of the answer to that. I was one client, she she dodged me for a couple. She ain't dodged me, she was a little busy but she could have made time for a couple months, missed a couple of meetings and finally I pinned her down because I had to go on her Facebook page and she got on the meeting and she was like I know, I know, I know, I know I'm in trouble. I was like I ain't said nothing, how you doing, how's it going? So they already know. They called me. I did a live earlier with one of my clients who is a business lawyer and she was like she's a big mama where she can be like baby, don't do that, no more.
Speaker 2:We know you Okay.
Speaker 1:So that's what she calls me.
Speaker 2:I'm on my part there, people I cool Kevin, kevin, kevin, I guess my brother.
Speaker 1:Don't be calling my name. Yes, I stopped. I'm thinking of the word Worst clients, that you wait, okay, um, that I've walked in, you said with a current client or a good average.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter. I mean, you may have fired them, I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the thing too, though, like people have to realize why are you working in a business with people you don't even want to work with? You can go back and get a corporate job, w2 job, to do that. No, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 2:Right, don't waste my time.
Speaker 1:And no. So I think the most challenging that comes to mind there is one client. He only lasted, I think, three months maybe, and he perceived to have more money than he said he had because and this is how my process, this is how you know, I wouldn't I have a business plan. I saw this out it was just like, oh yeah, this works, I'll keep going. That's when I develop these applications. I'm telling you how to go online to do and all the things, because I was just trusting people to say I made this kind of money last month and they really wasn't.
Speaker 1:So that was when I was in his phase. For six months he was making all this money and he had three businesses going on and he was making all these money, this money. One business he was just kicking off, so it wasn't making money yet, but the other two was going to pay for that one. And once I got into his books I realized he literally barely had a three figure number and any of the bank accounts and he had six bank account and I was like what, what am I doing? Like, how am I? You got a three figure number spread across six, but why you got six bank accounts?
Speaker 1:I'm like hundreds like hundreds, like I think, in total I don't even think he had $1,000. And I had to talk to him and be like look, you misled me to thinking that you have more. You can't afford my services. You can't afford my services, so we can't continue on. But I'll give you some trainers so you can know how to do your own quick books, how to do the things and be a couple pointers as far as your business plan model goes, and then you go from there.
Speaker 1:Oh no, no, no, I got it is going to be coming in. And then, of course, you know what happened at a hard time paying second month. Then he's taking money personally to pay the third month and I was like I'm not, I can't let you do this. I am a CFO. Like I cannot.
Speaker 2:Right, there's other coaches.
Speaker 1:You know there's different coaching like my message. Oh, she could have did that. Call the sales coach. They could do that because they help you to make the money right.
Speaker 2:I'm the CFO, I can't do that so if I do share responsibility to be like you, need to cut it.
Speaker 1:One from a client that came in new from the beginning and why you ain't done this the whole time.
Speaker 2:You already frustrated thing about I'm sorry. Is that a trigger? Did I take it? Did I take you to old place? You didn't know, but look, okay. So look, look, look. This is great. This is great that you said that. So is your training that you have for people who need to get to that place, because my goal is there are people watching right now who, like I need to call you. I need to call you right. There are some people that, like I need to call you, but I'm not ready for you. You know what I'm saying, and so you have training. So is it one-on-one training? Is it automated train? What is it?
Speaker 1:So that's the space to that I've been working to Talk to the pain points of people who go to my website or go to my social media. The Person who, like, I don't think I'm ready for her or I don't think I can afford her is I don't know if you're gonna tell him my energy. I don't give a shit. We, this is a judgment-free zone, like I. Yes, I studied, studied accounting and finance in college, but I I checked up, you remember. So I started out at Maryland, but then I had a baby at 19. So I ended up finishing. Oh, it's been 25 years. I ended up and that's a part of my journey in my story Is that ended up finishing online at Strayer because I had to get a job and support. I was a single mom at 19 and raised my kid and along 22.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel low and along that journey, though, I jacked up my own finances. I ran up credit cards.
Speaker 1:I got into ridiculous debt, tore up my credit score, but all in all I knew that I enjoyed accounting in the world of accounting. So I don't ever want people to think just because of where I came from, in the amount of money that I came from in the C Suite and managing overall Means that you can't afford me. Because I work in the entrepreneur space for a reason, I could still be doing business consulting and making 2524 $1 a month per contract doing business advisory level work and that was how I Mastered up so quickly in my multiple six figures in my first couple of years because I stayed in that lane. But it was one day when I decided to cut all my hair off and I was sitting in the salon chair and she's venting to me about how she's tired of being behind the chair but she booked and you can't get on her calendar for six months and she killing it making third to three thousand dollars a week that my will started turning, that my expertise is needed in this space.
Speaker 1:And in order for me to serve the people in this space, I have to build this platform for them, right? So I do have something we haven't talked about yet, which is a membership called crushing it collectively, and in that membership you do get the QuickBooks training. There's some one-on-one training in there, but there's a content vault that Houses all the trainings I've done in the past. You can go look at those and get help on bank Reconciliations and all of those things. All of my masterclasses are in there. All of the masterclasses that I do when you join forward are free for you. They're usually $97 each.
Speaker 1:The replays live in there. You could always reflect back on there. There's debt trackers in there, expense trackers, budget templates. It's so much in the content vault that can help you to get there. And then, depending on the levels of the membership, you can get a one-on-one with me once a month to either get support in the areas where you need it, or there's a One time a month Q&A session when you can jump in the Q&A on zoom. Once a month I pop in and you can pop in and ask whatever questions. We're sure what you're having issues with this month. I also use an app in that program called boxer. Not sure if you heard of it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So you get boxer access to me where I mean, I got boxed clients. I can scroll for days and they'll box me at any point. If I happen to be up like you have experience it is one or two o'clock in the morning I'll answer the question. So, depending on the level of access, there's a signature and premiere. It starts at $97 to 750 a month, but there's room right so you can start. If you can't afford $97 a month, you do not have a business.
Speaker 2:This is true.
Speaker 1:That's it. Oh, and an important piece that's in that space. Actually there's a collaboration, a space in there. There's a private Facebook group where this was important for me, for my fractional CFO clients too, because since I'm all in their business, of their personal things, that's happening.
Speaker 1:I would see Consistent things happening between the clients, but because of the confidentiality, I can't be like, hey, carl called Kelly that she got this and she can help you. So I was like, hey, how about I develop a space and just throw them all in the pool together and then figure it out and collaborate? And so it's a beautiful space to get somebody that you could potentially collaborate with, become your client, share resources, share referrals. There's 40 to 50 people that come to the zoom meetings twice a month on second and fourth Thursdays, and it's called gift goals and gaps. I partner with this bomb girl named Deanna Jean and we go in there and entrepreneurs get to talk about what's your gift and, in your gifted area, what's your gap and what's your goal, what's your goal and what's the gap that's stopping you from reaching the goal, and then people help you in that space too. So, yeah, between that membership, the bookkeeping and fractional CFO of your full-time business owner. We have some for you.
Speaker 2:So you know I'm with the rap side. When we first booked it and you know, as you were talking, I was kind of looking and Y'all. So commas with Kelly, commas with a K, kelly with a e, dot-com, just go, just go look. No, I'm saying just go look, it's something there for you. There's a couple things different me and I'm like alright. So I gotta yeah, yeah, we really do, because, like this, so You're hitting what we need. I'll just actually talking to someone. Yesterday, I know I just had this conversation, I love having this conversation. No, they're great things that are like earn your leisure right.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, the huge just had invest all that type of stuff and they give a lot of advice, to have a lot of people on and they talk, but there's this level that that is missing between the layperson, you know, the entrepreneur, the, you know, but that, and to get to those to even be able to do those things, and a lot of times we don't even have the time to do it. Yes, or the not. It's like okay, yeah, I mean you say it like this, yes, it's simple, but I mean it's easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not even just the time, though, right, you don't even know what you don't know right, I needed somebody like you to teach me sales.
Speaker 1:When I started two, three years ago, I was. I needed that. So you don't know, you need a fractional CFO. It's speaking of investment. I don't know if you've seen a clip a Puffy, I think I just aged myself, but you just saying age, so I don't know what his name is now, but but he was on the investment stage and and they were doing a discussion and he said he recently fired his business manager and hired a CFO and he did that in his business. I actually screen recorded the clip because I told my social media manager most all circulating, because it's what I say in every single Talk I did it's because he realized that after all these years, he's just now realizing he needs somebody to keep eyes on his money and tell him what's happening with this money.
Speaker 1:And that's exactly what a CFO does. We've been five. I know the story behind your numbers and what's happening.
Speaker 2:No, that that that's crazy. This has been wonderful. I was gonna say something else, but I think that's what it was. No, it was about. Okay, it's about fluff. I gotta gotta say it now. That was a we say for the next one. So, like I said, have a concentration.
Speaker 2:My boy, chris, um, he's a Sir. I'm sure he has a bunch of different businesses on that. He runs like he's doing a. He does electric bikes. You know he had a lot, a large, the largest fleet of bird franchise In DC. You know the all types of stuff has a catering company where he doesn't feel crazy, so that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:And what he said was it was like man Did. He don't know what he really has right now. You know he's made money off of the music. He's made money off the products, the services, things like that. But what his his legacy could be, why getting into this information age stuff and Opening doors for the people who are in the high six feet you know you ain't you ain't quite crust seven, but it's like I'm opening the door for you to have conversations with the people that made me who I am. So you know, once a month there's somebody you're able to talk to my attorney. Then the next month you're talking to my CFO, in the next month you're talking to this and talk to that and it's like, oh why, and people will pay 2550k a month just to be in the room.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And one thing that I am learning heavy is the power of proximity. It's like you get in the room with the. It's like people pay. Because I always wanted like I've been going to these, these, these things since the Dan Kennedy days, 2002. I went to my very no, actually no in the 90s when I was in high school. I was like conference my past. But then after that, you know, you know, you know I'm, you know, see the Dan Kennedy's and I, you know I was at the very first funnel hack, a lot, all the type of stuff, and I never really understood why people would buy these platinum packages, these VIP packages, these super Don't know you're paying a hundred thousand dollars just to walk through the door and sit down with some people. Get something about that level of proximity.
Speaker 2:That proximity, being around people who are gonna drive, you're gonna push you the one relationship. You may get the one tip or the one trick, because the thing is, when people have, when all of you have invested a lot, you're not less secretive.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, it's true that. See we. We said we was gonna stop and now I I am literally going to a cbc right after we get off this and get myself together. I'm going to a cbc event tonight that I paid to be in the room. I'm likely gonna be the only, likely the only accountant. Probably I know I'm gonna be the only cfo likely the only accountant. It is a event for healthcare professionals.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:Do you think I'm scared as hell and I'm uncomfortable? Hell yeah. But you know why? I said I'm just gonna pay, I'm just gonna pay it and I literally, as I'm talking myself, trying to talk myself out of it, I just pull out the card and I just thought processing the payment. On sunday afternoon, I sent the text to two of my clients that are ones of psychologists and ones of doctor, to see if I could wheel them over with me, right, so I can have a security blanket to go with me.
Speaker 1:They wouldn't respond and and I knew if I sat at that computer and waited for them, I was gonna talk myself out of it because I'm afraid to be in the room with those people, right? But I know I need to be in the room with those people because they are my target. I ticket audience.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:So I'm just gonna do it and that's just what you're saying. People have you. If you feel uncomfortable, you need to click the button and you need to be there.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's one of the hardest things, I try to get out people to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The only way to succeed is to be uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and do it by yourself. Stop waiting for people.
Speaker 2:No, like you look. Look, only one person can swim at a time.
Speaker 1:I'm out.
Speaker 2:There are certain things you can only do. I can't go to the bathroom for you. No, I can't eat for you. I can't sleep for you. I honestly can't make money for you.
Speaker 1:You can give them all the tips, all the strategies. You can even give them a well-written plan to tell them how to get there.
Speaker 2:Tell me about it.
Speaker 1:But the execution part.
Speaker 2:And I'm telling people all the time the less you pay, the worse your results.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because all you're focusing on is not losing. Yeah, when you open up your checkbook and, like I am a little old, when you open up your checkbook and use right those four, five figure one time things, that's going to change what you do. That's when you're focused on the success.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When you sit there and you try to, you know him and what we've been trained and taught to do is, you know, bring down the value. Okay, let me negotiate all this, that and the other. No, you're already operating from a deficit mindset and you're not going to get the results you want. Well, somebody gives you a price, pay it, yeah. If you believe that it will work, yeah, pay the cost.
Speaker 1:Which is why I said I'm making less this year than I did the other two. Why? Because I knew I needed to pay that and invest and scale back in my business. Because I know next year my goal next year is to double what I made in year two. So I know I now have the strategies because I've invested what you're talking about in the coaching that I needed. And I invested that much because I have to practice it. If I don't pay it now, it's hard. I play tennis, fitness matter of fact. Let me write this down.
Speaker 2:You can't do that. Look me too. Hold on, wait. Here's the crazy thing. I got a plan to fitness account that I ain't cancel. I got a sport fit account that I need to use. I ain't done it yet. That's how you see it.
Speaker 1:But um, I ain't still doing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not doing that, but anyway, what was crazy about all of that? In my backyard right I have a 1400 square foot concert hut with fitness equipment in it. I paid little for all of that, so it's not important. Yeah, but guess what? The stuff in this office I don't pay for.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The stuff that I live in this office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's how it works. You will utilize what you invest in because you don't want to waste your money.
Speaker 2:And I know you're getting all that money.
Speaker 1:That's not a plan and fitness is still open. People used to go to Planet Fitness just on pizza Before Right and now people don't go. It's just come out and we just like yeah.
Speaker 2:I would say so, you know why I got to. Planet Fitness in the country that I am on road trips. There's that. In the other I know there's a bathroom I can use.
Speaker 1:Thought she was gonna say he was gonna go to the gym.
Speaker 2:No, I got pee.
Speaker 1:That's funny, that's actually. If you do the math on that, that's a hefty price to pay to have somewhere to pee, no matter what?
Speaker 2:Hey, hey, hey, hey. I ain't hired you yet, Don't you go to, but literally it's a high price. It's a high price bathroom, but it's immaterial.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The amount is so immaterial. We gotta start making material investors. Find out what, find out the number that makes you scared, find a program that works for you and pay it. I remember writing the first time I did a $10,000 program. I paid for that joint. I was like yo, I'm really doing this. I'm doing this scared, and I spent thousands and thousands and thousands, probably hundreds of dollars on stuff. Yeah, but that was the one that was like I got and I went into it. Very similar. How did all of them like I'm gonna, you know, double that. I'm like hold up. I paid 10k for this. So I said this is the only one I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:That's it. That's it, cause you got a purpose.
Speaker 2:Right, because it creates a spending. The bread creates a focus for you, which is why we can't afford. We cannot afford to be cheap. We can't afford to charge the prices that you think you can afford, because then you won't get checked out. Posted the other day I actually I reposted somebody else. I said if it costs you less, less than $5,000, not going to change your life and there were so many people that were like you can't say that. I'm not this, I'm not listening to you.
Speaker 2:I'm like I understand that that may sound sound a little bit offensive. No, because a few thousand dollars right now would change your family's life very easily. I understand what you say, I get it and I'm sensitive to this, but you're not understanding what I'm talking about right now. I'm talking to entrepreneurs. I'm talking to people who saw this and they felt it. Yeah, I feel like you're right, Because how many times have you bought a 997 product? It didn't hurt.
Speaker 1:And you don't even. You never even opened it.
Speaker 2:I've got so many $1,200 products that I ain't touched. But you know that 10K joint yeah, and I wouldn't even do a payment plan, I paid it all.
Speaker 1:All of it Because the payment plan, if they had spread it across, what three, six months you would have did the same thing, because you didn't see it all in one.
Speaker 2:Exactly, but when that number? Oh my, I really just did it it hurt yeah. But it wasn't a stab hurt, it was a weightlifting hurt, because when that muscle grew up like oh, shoot. But now you know what I do, I ain't got no problem charging somebody 10K.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're doing a disservice when you're not charging your value in the word and you're probably missing your ideal audience, because I mean, if you're too cheap, then I'm going to be like what you doing, what you really doing over there.
Speaker 2:Right. So this episode comes out Monday, right. So today's Monday, whatever Monday, I don't know what day it is, but it's a struggle, but anyway. So this past Saturday, because I honored a Sabbath, I actually have an episode going up. I was talking about the blessing to sell right, and probably it was 11. And what it says? It says a man who hoards is cursed, right, who hoards his reign is cursed. We understand that, right. But it says but the man who sells is black. It didn't even say give away.
Speaker 1:No, that's good. Yeah, no, that's a good point. Oh man preaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, for those who missed it, go back and watch it. But I talked about, you know, yoseph in the time of family, you know when you know he saved up for the seven, the seven gig, three and a half good years or whatever. I mean seven good years and then when the family came, he didn't give the food away, he sold it. He sold it to his own brothers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I never even looked from that perspective. No, that's good. Yeah, no, that's good.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so giving stuff away, it's that you give a man, you give a man a fish you'll eat for a day. That's literally the thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you teach him how to fish you for a lifetime.
Speaker 2:But I'm not teaching you for free. That's what people forget. We don't teach for. We're not giving, like you know, because you're eating for a lifetime. I'm giving you something to last your lifetime. I'm going to give you two a free.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, look, this has been wonderful, I'll close. Okay, I need you to close. Here's a close, here's a close, here's your close. All right, either a piece of advice that you give consistently or that you receive that changed your life. Which one?
Speaker 1:Oh God, I feel like I've given a lot of advice today, so I'm going to do one that I receive consistently and that is to trust myself, which may seem surprising for many people. I'm very indecisive in most of my decision making and it has halted a lot of growth in many areas business and professionally. So if I can turn that advice over to you guys and say trust yourself. You took this leap to entrepreneurship to be full time and you got lights to keep on and stomachs to feed. You got to trust yourself and trust God and the decisions that you make.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Friends with Businesses with Kelly Thorpe. I'm encouraging you right now Go to commas with Kelly that's commas with a K, kelly with a E dot com and sign up now. Get at the very least get the $97 monthly membership. Do that now. As she said, if you can afford $97 to have a good financial business, then you need to call me because I'm gonna have to help you get some money real quick. You know we got way to get money up like that. We're gonna do that. But sign up for that because it's like you need it. We all need what she has. Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 1:Thank, you for having me.
Speaker 2:We're not gonna our folks like we're probably gonna end up doing this again. We actually got to find a way to collaborate because I think there's some, there's some.
Speaker 1:I think so. Yeah, let's talk about that.
Speaker 2:Y'all definitely gonna do that. So all right, y'all, it's been real. This has been Friends with Businesses, where you meet my friend with businesses and I see, and we know that you're gonna benefit, I'll let y'all later See you.
