So what tip would you give a person on how to recognize that old belief and how it's shaping the way they price maybe, the way they spend, save and pay themselves?

I think by just starting to notice, right? Like I think this year, I think we're all about the big transformation, the big wave.

I'll never forget.

I took my daughter to um, Italy for, uh, when she, when she graduated high school and she didn't know where she wanted to go to school.

She didn't know what she wanted to be.

And she said, I don't know, mom, on the way home, she goes, I just really thought this trip was going to tell me everything I needed to know about life and that I would come home knowing exactly what I wanted to do because we're taught in movie moments, you know, we're taught that that Oh, the light bulb moment.

And I think allowing yourself to know there's not a light bulb moment here, okay? This is small acts.

Let's talk about discipline because we touched on a little bit about getting accustomed to reading balance sheets, understanding financials once a month, right? So what financial discipline has mattered most in growing your own company sustainably? You mentioned the pivot and I'm just really interested to hear.

In an aesthetic practice specifically, what does that unhealthy spending usually look like before the owner ever notices it?

Yeah.

So what I want to bring attention to is the word notices it because how is a business owner going to notice it? It is our responsibility.

I know that's kind of some tough love right there, but as the business owner, it is your responsibility to know your numbers.

The IRS does not care if you are a creative, if you are not good with numbers, if you don't understand the income statement, you started a business and now it's your responsibility to know those numbers.

And so every month your bookkeeper goes in and strategically categorizes every single one of your transactions.

At the end of each month, you should be receiving a set of financial statements from your bookkeeper.

What happened? Why did it happen? What am I going to do? If you don't mind, can you run a short scenario of how that would look like in play?

So what did you notice about how everyday business owners view numbers during your time in the salon, and why do so many entrepreneurs develop a fear of their own financials?

You know, I keep on using the word tool in our toolbox, and I do that very intentionally.

What I find is that most people and business owners put their head in the sand around financials.

It feels like something, ooh, I've never been good at math, or, ugh, it's that time that I went into a whole bunch of debt and I don't know how to get out of it, or I just don't understand this.

This doesn't come natural to me.

I'm a creative, and therefore, this is difficult.

And so there's just a lot of confusion.

And they're like, "What budget?"

Mm

... uh, small business owners, um, we bring into our business all of our personal experiences.

So our parents' money mindset, our teachers, our, the programming from social media and television and...

Right? Like, we don't get to hang that up on the door and walk into small business, right? So we're taking all that.

And many of us are told, "I'm not a numbers person.

I don't get it.

Uh, I feel lost, confused.

[laughs]

If we're not having this like high cashflow, what do you think an entrepreneur should look like? Like what are some green flags that signal like, okay, it's okay to move forward with this type of investment, knowing that even though it might make things tight now, it's going to yield a high ROI when you're done.

So there's a few options.

And it depends on your money personality type and your risk tolerance.

So if you're somebody you're like, I actually need to have the cash first, you might be somebody who actually needs to save before you're able to make the investment.

So I had a client who was really scared to hire.

And for her, this new team member was going to be revenue generating, but it was going to take her three months to get this person fully up to capacity.

So for her, she needed to have three months worth of her salary saved up before she could bring that team member on because it gave her the peace of mind to be able to make that type of an investment, knowing that she was going to be in control of somebody's finances.

love her for that though? Don't we love

But that brings up something else that you and I had begun to talk about, and I just can't wait to hear more of your thoughts on it, which is why does your childhood money story run the business? How does that come in?

Now think about it.

And I think about like Mr. Rogers every time I tell this story, but we don't get to put on a hat or a coat when we walk into our business.

Unfortunately, we take our entire personal life and all of our stories into entrepreneurship with us.

You know that teacher who had a poor money story, who talks poorly about money? Yep, we're bringing that with us.

That friend's dad who owned the restaurant that went out of business and then your parents talked about them at the dinner table? Yep, we're taking that story with us too.

All of those stories that we've heard growing up, and I think that this also is compounded these days with Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, like all the stories that we're hearing, it shapes who we show up as a CEO and as a business owner.

Can you comment on that?

Um, so tell us a little bit about what you look at when you work with your clients and studio, and, and sp- specifically studio owners when you're thinking about finances and what data really is important.

We...

Like I said, there's some of us who really enjoy this, so we can think about, like, all the information that we can look at.

But I really don't want you spending more than 30 minutes a week looking at your financial data.

Like, as a seven-figure business, I spend 30 minutes every Tuesday with my leadership team looking at my finances.

So we encourage our clients to do the same thing.

I practice what I preach.

Yes.