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Conscious Money Ft. Shena
22 Plays3 months ago
In this episode of Conscious Money, we dive into the remarkable journey of Shena, a business owner dedicated to helping others achieve financial freedom through straightforward, effective techniques. Shena's story is one of incredible resilience and transformation—she's experienced both the highs of millionaire status and the lows of relying on food stamps. With a background in biochemistry from the University of Washington, Shena's path led her from the lab to a successful career in sales, and eventually to entrepreneurship.
Now, Shena co-owns a thriving business with her partner, drawing from the lessons she learned from her previous business and marriage. Her unique insights into money, business, and personal growth are a testament to the power of perseverance and conscious financial decision-making. Tune in to hear how Shena navigated the ups and downs of her financial journey and how she's empowering others to take control of their financial destinies.
Follow her journey HERE
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
And hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the weekly coop I am here talking about conscious money with Sheena. She is a financial coach and fractional chief financial officer for businesses, worked in construction, like construction and administration. She is born, born and raised in Seattle, but then has moved out to Denver and we talk about
00:00:32
Speaker
Kind of a few different things. She's a Broncos fan, so we talked about ah football Sundays and and how she ties it into her business. We talk about ah being smart with your money, being conscious with your money, and also having a business with your romantic partner because she does have multiple endeavors.
00:00:50
Speaker
with her now part now a husband that you know they have kids and you know all the things. And it was just a really cool perspective. So really excited to share that with you as the weekly coop is presented by Feedery. Go to feedery.org. Sign up for the wait list. Become an ambassador. We'd love to have you. We'd love to have you as our first food influencer where you get paid to talk about food. Really cool stuff.
00:01:19
Speaker
um So yeah, that being said, let's get after it. are
00:01:44
Speaker
Are you, okay, there we go. Hello
Sheena's Role and Business Model
00:01:47
Speaker
everyone. Welcome to another episode of the weekly coop. I have a special guest today. We're going to talk about conscious money and how money flows, how to keep track of it, you know, some experiences of, you know, surrounding yourself with the right people and I'll let you take it away. So state your name, occupation, kind of what you do, where you're from, all that jazz. Fun fact about yourself, maybe.
00:02:14
Speaker
Go for it. I don't know if I have fun facts. Okay. my My name is Sheena White and I am a fractional CFO and money coach. And people say, okay, what the heck is a fractional CFO? So big corporations have chief financial officers, right? People who tell them what to do with their money, but small companies can't afford that sort of human. So I do that for multiple companies so that it is affordable for small corporations and small companies to have the same sort of backup in their financial sector as a big company. Okay, cool.
00:02:56
Speaker
um I was actually going to ask you, what is a fractional CFO? I've heard fractional CMOs with some people that I've worked with. Actually, my current business coach now, she's a fractional CMO as well for for small businesses and companies. So with being fractional, so are you just kind of asking for you know like very small equity in these companies? Or how does that, I guess, because you know there might be some people that watch this show or listen to this episode and they get an idea of, oh,
00:03:27
Speaker
Well, I have a great expertise in, you know, operations or marketing, you know, where they could be a C-suite, but, you know, maybe that commitment isn't there, but they could still provide a lot of value ah by being a fractional, you know, C-suite executive for a smaller business. um Like when you go into those negotiations, is it more equity based or is there some sort of contract where you get paid out in a certain timeframe or how does that work?
00:03:55
Speaker
So I generally do it via retainer. Okay. Um, so I have a couple of different programs. And so I have a group program that is just a monthly fee. And then, um, I have, and that's for like really like $250,000 to $2 million dollar companies. And then I have my one-on one-on-one mid tier program. Um, that's for like two to 10 million, maybe 15 million. And then for larger companies where we're getting into the 10 to 25 million, um I have a program, especially for people who are getting ready to want to sell their business in three to five years, where I get a retainer, but and then I get equity, but the retainer is taken out of the equity at the end. So basically,
00:04:41
Speaker
If they do everything I tell them to do and we get the valuation at the end, then they just pay me the percentage of equity difference from the value when we start to the value when we end. And if they don't do what I tell them, then I get my retainer. Yeah. So when you talk about retainer,
00:05:01
Speaker
so can you elaborate on retainer by chance? So that's just a monthly set fee um that is every month and it is for up to a certain amount of services. So if they want extra stuff above and beyond that, like say for instance, um part of our contract isn't to help with funding, but all of a sudden they want me to help them get everything together for SBA funding, then that would be an additional service for just that month.
00:05:32
Speaker
Okay. Gotcha.
The Gig Economy and Football Analogy
00:05:33
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Now that's really cool. Um, I think we're going to shift towards, uh, that type of economy, I think in the very short term and long-term futures, uh, where you're going to have people that have a lot of expertise is that, you know, they could be in a leadership position, but maybe they want to expand to different industries and different businesses and different companies, which I think is more than.
00:05:59
Speaker
I don't know, it keeps it for, I don't know about you, but just from what I'm feeling here, it could be more enticing just to keep it fresh, keep it loose. Like you're working in different, you got your hand in different things. So it just kind of makes your days not kind of all blend together um where it feels like it's a nice change of pace every now and then. They're just doing the same monotonous, you know, trying to stay in one industry.
00:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and I like the fact that I get to help so many people, you know, like right now, between all of my clients, I probably have around 20 ish. um Okay. And so then, you know, I'm helping more people. And that's why I have, I just am launching this group program so I can help even more people, because I like helping people. And yeah so that's what I'm all about. And so it's like, the more people I can help, the better. Yeah, helping people. I mean, I think that's what,
00:06:53
Speaker
I truly believe in purpose. That's why I have this show and I bring on people is to talk about their purpose and it's different for everyone. It's not necessarily just ah just being corporate for the rest of their life, collect a paycheck, you know retire and that's that's it. I think we were more geared to service for others, helping others on a genuine level. um So that's that's really cool. And I see the Denver Broncos are behind you. So we're a Denver Broncos fan. Are you currently in Denver?
00:07:23
Speaker
I am in Denver. I am originally from Seattle. But after graduating from the University of Washington, I moved here to Denver. um I still live in Denver. And I am a season ticket holder for the Denver Broncos. I go to pretty much every game. And the ones I don't go to, I'm watching on TV. And then I watch, I probably watch way too much football during the season. I do too. It's OK. I played football in college. I get it. Well, and I'm I'm very cutthroat on fantasy. and i oh okay So like I have to watch cause I have to be able to see like who's emerging. I don't really like the players on my team. I don't, it sounds bad, but I don't really care about, they'll do what they do, but I have attention more to who's emerging and who I can maybe pick up. Yeah. Who do you think you're starting quarterback week one? Well, we haven't done our draft yet, so I don't know.
00:08:19
Speaker
Oh, who's going to be the Broncos starting? Oh, who's going to be the Broncos? Oh, Bo Nix. Come on. go be I'm a Bo Nix fan. I think so, too. He's got it. He was he was handpicked by Sean Payton. He's the dude. I don't know why um they got Zach Wilson. I really don't. That seems like Oh, it's just good to have a a decent backup. I think I think Zach Wilson will be a better player under Sean Payton than he was for the New York Jets, just because the New York Jets, the Jets or the New York Jets granted way better talent from a perspective of like receiver and and defense. But I do think under Sean Payton.
00:09:03
Speaker
Uh, he's got a shot to, to, if he has to go in behind Bo Nicks, I think he'll make some significant impact. Are you a Seahawks fan then since you grew up in Seattle? Yeah. I used to be a Seahawks season ticket holder. So I am a i never sta i'm a reform.
00:09:21
Speaker
I've been to two Seahawks games, uh, amazing time. I mean, I'll, I'll never forget it. It was honestly. the two best football games I've been to. One of them was a blowout, and one of them was an overtime loss, and I still had the best time with the with the best. I think they are truly one of the best fans in football, if I'm going to be honest. They're just, they're rowdy. ah and And I watch football too. I think football is, ah well, I played in college, so obviously it means a lot to me, but I think football and business and just sports and business really coincide with one another. Oh yeah.
00:09:57
Speaker
and ah yeah i kind of want your to so Obviously, you're a big football fan. like What is football in terms of business? How do those two things coincide with each other? So many ways, I literally, so, okay. So I watched too much football during the season. And then on Tuesdays I go live in my Facebook group. Um, and I talk about, I call it Tuesday morning quarterbacking. And I talk about all the things you could learn from each game. I give it like something I learned from each game that you can utilize in business.
00:10:30
Speaker
Nice. Okay. Yeah. I, uh, yeah, I definitely think that's a good, that's a good bridge, you know, especially on a Tuesday since, I mean, you got football literally from Thursday to like Monday, just every day straight. So that Tuesday, Wednesday window is a pretty nice window, uh, to go live and talk about.
00:10:51
Speaker
Yeah, just like the concepts of being able to quarterback your business and being able to lead a team um because in business, you know, eventually you're going to have to collaborate with other people ah or you're going to have to have employees that work under you. Yeah. um And you're going to have to show that leadership. And I think the quarterback is one of the best positions.
00:11:11
Speaker
to look at and emulate in sports because the quarterback has to know play calls quarterback has to know the receivers are out blocking scheme, uh, where the running, but if the rainbacks going out.
00:11:24
Speaker
to pass or if the running back is going to stay in block as an extra helper, ah same with the tight end. And then you got to read the defense. You got to read defensive front. You got to read defensive coverage. you know The quarterback has to read everything, offense and defense. So you have to be, you have to be on your A game you know and you really got to prep.
00:11:46
Speaker
ah for the for games and you really get to study and go and master your craft. So i I wholeheartedly agree. I think football and business concepts really do match together. Well, and then I talk a lot too about, you know, playing defense too. Cause so many people focus on offense, right? They're focused so hard on sales and production and sales and production and just, and that's when they end up getting on this hamster wheel of sales and production, but they're never actually making money.
00:12:15
Speaker
because they're just spending, their overhead is bloating, their cost of goods sold is going out of control. And so you have to also play defense, right? You have to control your costs, you have to control your labor, you have to do all these other things. So because it's not just one side of the ball, right? No matter how good you are at offense, you also have to play defense. 100%. I played strong safety in college and You know, I had to read, you know, I kind of called myself the quarterback of the defense because I had to know the play call for the defensive side. And then I had to know the defensive front, what we were you're running. Uh, I had to know what the running, uh, the linebackers were doing in terms of blitz or coverage. Uh, and then I had to know what pass coverage we were in. And then if it's a lot on the fly for, for defense.
00:13:11
Speaker
So it's, it's still a lot of prep work, but defense, you have to improvise. So you're obviously reading run versus pass. So when there's a run and you're watching a run play commence, you have to figure out where am I filling space? Cause people don't realize you, yes, you do go to the ball carrier or the receiver and you have to make the tackle. Like if you're there.
00:13:35
Speaker
But part of the thing is you have to fill a gap that's not filled. Like you're assigned to a certain gap. So, you know, linebackers go to A gap or B gap, you know, whether the line is covering that gap or not.
00:13:50
Speaker
Um, and then depending on where the strong safety shifts, we call it the alley. So it's like in between the sideline where the cornerback is. And then like where that outside linebacker is, it's called the alleyway. So it's that open space that I have to fill and hopefully make that tackle. Um, but obviously it changes, you know, depending on where the running back goes. Uh, and then if it's a pass coverage, you know, depending on the certain coverage.
00:14:16
Speaker
I'm covering either a person or I'm covering a space. And you know that's where the prep work comes in. You have to understand, cover one, I'm going man. Cover three, um covering you know the flat space, which in football terms, flat is between the sideline and kind of where the offensive line are. It's like a little gap space that running backs usually go to.
00:14:41
Speaker
um And then cover two, I'm covering deep half of the field. And then cover four, I'm covering a quarter of the field, deep quarter. So
Career Journey and Sales Insights
00:14:49
Speaker
yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. um And then you talk about sales. So was sales part of your profession ah coming out of school and those sorts of things? Yeah. So I went to school for biochemistry and medical anthropology. So um I should have gone into science. That's crazy. Yeah, but instead I went into corporate sales. I was just kind of done with school. you know I was supposed to go to medical school. That's fair. By then, i was just kind of I was over it, and so I was like, whatever. And I just took i had, I think, i four jobs in six months, and I finally fell into corporate sales. And at the time, it was a really good job. And we're talking this is 2010.
00:15:31
Speaker
like though the The landscape was bad for jobs in 2010. I was going to say, yeah, that was kind of like post-market kind of crashing. Exactly. Yeah. So it's like you have to think you know in 2010 to get a pretty good sales job was good. So I just took it. um And i when I first started there, I was in inside sales, and I was selling toilet paper.
00:16:00
Speaker
Oh, I can imagine. and so I've done inside sales, but I did technology. So I was working for a reseller on government contracts. So definitely a way different experience. Very, you know, lucrative somewhat, although inside sales is it's a different animal for sure. So you're selling toilet paper, though.
00:16:20
Speaker
Yep. So it's janitorial products. Yeah. So, and they gave me, oh, you're going to really love this. They gave me a list of thousands of clients that had fired the company and said, call these people and get them back. Whoa. Talk about backtracking.
00:16:42
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't even like. That's crazy. It wasn't even cold calling. It was like, it was like, like disaster calling because these are these people who had already purchased from us in the past and didn't like us. So I had people like threatening me. I had people hang up on me. I had people screaming at me. I mean, it was it was pretty wrapped. Yeah.
00:17:03
Speaker
Um, and so then I thought to myself, I was like, okay, how do I do this so that I don't want to, you know, die every day? Cause this is not fun. So I started calling people and telling them I was doing market research because we were trying to improve the company. I was like, we know you're a past customer. You're not with us anymore. We're trying to improve the company. And I'm doing this market research. I just want to ask you like, what, what did we do? What, how did we suck?
00:17:29
Speaker
And so then they would start telling me things. I'd be like, okay, what do you like about your new company? And they would tell me things. And then I'd be like, okay, what do you not like about your current company? And because by that time I already had them talking, they were opening up to me. And so then they would tell me, I'd be like, oh, and then I would do like the switch where I'd be like, okay, well, did you know, we actually already changed these three things you didn't like. And these three things you don't like about your new company, we fix those too. So you should try us again.
00:17:59
Speaker
Yeah. And I ended up being the number one salesperson in my company that year and I crushed my goals and it was a lot of fun. Yeah. Uh, thanks for sharing that. I have to ask just because, you know, I think, so I worked in sales, I worked in inside sales, I worked in outside sales and you know, I really appreciated the experience. I didn't appreciate it at first, uh, because I don't know, you're used to hearing no.
00:18:27
Speaker
or you're just like used to backlash, you know? And honestly, I got into sales before COVID and then during COVID and after COVID. And then they all have different periods of a just like unique difference in terms of sales before COVID was like,
00:18:48
Speaker
It was different. Like I feel like it was easier to get people on the phone. I feel like it was like you were going to have conversations than during COVID. It was still like somewhat easy, but people, you know, I'd feel like there was a lot of tension and just those conversations were more difficult. And then after COVID, you know, I just felt like it was so hard to get people on the phone after.
00:19:11
Speaker
after like, you know, COVID restrictions and and those things were up. So like trying to call people was just, it was just different. It just felt like day and night. ah I just had a whole different experience, you know, and I was trying to adapt, but more people were responding to LinkedIn messages and emails though, which, which I was like, I'm not going to complain about that. Like if I'm hooking people through email and LinkedIn messaging, you're like, I don't have to call you. um I'm good with that. But, um,
00:19:41
Speaker
What do you think sales, like in terms of relation to like owning your own business and being successful in business, why is sales such an important skill set? I think everyone should have a sales job ah before becoming an entrepreneur. Well, a couple things. So as an entrepreneur, especially when you're first starting your business, you are the salesperson. And you're not just selling a widget. You're selling yourself.
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah. So selling yourself is a million times harder than selling anything else because you have so much head trash that you don't have. Like when I'm selling freaking toilet paper, if somebody hates the toilet paper, well, I'm sorry, we'll get you a different kind, you know. But if I'm selling myself and somebody hates me, well, that's that's a totally different thing. So it's so much harder. But also, I think that My theory is that every single job in the world is actually sales. People just don't want to believe it.
00:20:44
Speaker
Because if you have any sort of customer interaction at all, and or interaction with any other human in a way, that is sales. Yeah. You're selling yourself, even. Or your or your so you know if you go to a performance review, what is that? That's you selling yourself to continue on in your position with your company. So I think that every single human should have better sales skills. And it is a skill. Yeah.
00:21:12
Speaker
People are always like, oh, you're bored with it. No. It is 100% a skill that you learn, that you hone, that you get better at. Everybody sucks at it to begin with. It sucks at first. 100%. Yeah. And then you get used to it, and then you like it. Yeah. And I think I really do want to hone in on the point where you say you're selling yourself, not a product or service. I think there is a lot of truth with that, just from the perspective of,
00:21:42
Speaker
When you're going into you know a call with someone and you know it doesn't matter if you're a fitness coach, if you're a financial coach, if you're anything in the holistic business, if you're anything you know with finance. Yeah, just like anything. Anything that you're trying to sell yourself.
00:22:03
Speaker
You could have a really good product or even if you're like a coder, an engineer, like a software engineer of some sorts, you could be really, really talented at what you do. You could be one of the smartest people to walk into any space. If you don't have that confidence and you don't have that way to ah convince someone that you are great, it's not going to work.
00:22:28
Speaker
Like you could have the next million dollar idea or million dollar concept. If you can't voice that though, nobody's going to want to buy it. Like, you know, even the worst, there are some, you know, products or services that, you know, they eventually did fail in the long-term, but they had short-term success because their message was just so on point. It was very aligned. It was very in tune and they.
00:22:54
Speaker
they could voice it perfectly. And that's why the sales went crazy and people loved it. People loved you know what the the person I was selling it was doing, um even if the product wasn't great. And then when you know the product or service caught up with them, that's when obviously it fell flat on their face. But you know those people had their success, part of its luck, but most of it is because they crafted a ah beautiful message ah behind what they're doing. So i I wholeheartedly agree. It's interesting that like you bounced around um from like a
Entrepreneurship and Relationship Dynamics
00:23:28
Speaker
sales perspective. So you did sales, um where did you transition after that?
00:23:35
Speaker
So after that, i that's when I started my construction company with my now ex. So we had had a child, and um he was he was traveling a lot, and he didn't want to travel anymore. So then we were like, let's start a business. Actually, he was like, let's start a business. I was like, what? No, this sounds terrible. I want a paycheck. um But he was like, no, we're starting a business. I'm like, OK.
00:24:04
Speaker
This is a terrible idea. And I actually really hated it for a long time. I was a very reluctant entrepreneur. And um when my about six months after my daughter was born. So I'd be probably like three and a half years later.
00:24:20
Speaker
um we I actually got a job for six months, because I was like, no, I'm done with this business. I'm going to get a job. And I got another job in sales. um And it was worse. So then I went back to my company. but so And I've been an entrepreneur ever since. i quit i The last time I fired my boss, and I have not gotten another boss since. Yeah, for sure. um Yeah, dating and and business can be tricky. Sure.
00:24:52
Speaker
What, ah yeah, so like what, for those that have maybe thought about that, you know, doing business with their partner, ah some have succeeded, some have not succeeded, I guess like what would you recommend with those people that maybe are wanting to get into that facet of life together um in terms of not doing it just separately or just doing their own thing and then just obviously dating.
00:25:19
Speaker
Do you have any recommendations for those people to try to be successful? So I've done it both ways. I've done it unsuccessfully with a partner, AKA we're divorced, and I've done it successfully so far with the partner. We're engaged and we have some companies together. We're actually in the middle of buying a business together. We do our podcasts together. program I think the biggest thing is communication, which is always, you know, just really having being on the same page, like having a shared vision. I work with a lot of companies that are, you know, husband and wife teams.
00:25:59
Speaker
And at the beginning, a lot of times they're fighting and a lot of times it's because they don't have a shared vision for where they're going. So one person wants to go here and the other person wants to go here. And if you guys are trying to go different directions, it's always going to be a tug of war. So what I do is I try to get them on the same page and to that shared place of vision.
00:26:19
Speaker
because then you can be in the same boat rowing the same direction, right? okay And then it's a lot easier to figure out what the decisions are and how to make them as a team because you're making decisions with the thought of a shared future of the same place you want to go. And then you can you know you can disagree and things like that. And um I also like the way Elena Cardone and Grant Cardone, they talk she talks a lot about this, that in the main 10x company, Cardone company, he is the boss. So if they disagree on something and she's like, no, I want this. And he's like, no, I want that. He wins always because that's, he always wins. But then at home, if they disagree, she always wins. So she has a place where she always wins and he has a place where he always wins and they have
00:27:13
Speaker
because of their their the way that they've split it up in their strong suits. So like me and my family have the same thing, you know, with certain parts of our companies, like there's things where my thought supersedes his because that I'm in charge there. And there's things where his thought supersedes mine because he's in charge there. So I think just having that delineation really helps. So do you work with couples?
00:27:37
Speaker
I do so a lot, not like as a therapist, but I have a lot of clients that are couples. Yeah, no, because obviously, you do financial coaching and those sorts of things. So when you were talking about like like working with couples, I was like, oh, I didn't realize. so you so But you do work with couples in your own like business that yeah that you have. OK.
00:28:03
Speaker
and so with your financial coaching business. ye What exactly, what is your like vision and your mission behind that? And like, what are you doing for people? Obviously you're working with couples, so I'd love to hear your perspective on on that too. But what yeah, what's the mission and vision of vision of that business?
00:28:26
Speaker
Yeah. So after being you know a contractor for so many years and um really struggling for the first few years and stuff like that, my mission is to help 1,000 blue collar entrepreneurs to become millionaires with just their business and then take the money, take money from their business and be able to invest that and and and grow their wealth. So have kind of like that generational wealth component. Wow.
00:28:56
Speaker
That's amazing um and and very fruitful or like very fulfilling, I would say. We we definitely, I think blue collar workers deserve more education and and more respect you know for what they they put out there ah just because they're building so many things you know that we, honestly, some things we could not live without, you know without those blue collar businesses. um So good for you. So yeah so you wanna make,
00:29:25
Speaker
You want to make them millionaires. Oh yeah. That's amazing. Millionaires do their business. And I mean, I think too, it's one of those things where so many accounting professionals, and I was talking to a potential client earlier. And I'm like, so many accounting professionals, it's like they thrive in people not knowing.
00:29:46
Speaker
It's like they want it to be complicated. And yeah, I mean, okay, but it's just math. It's not that complicated. It's just math. It really is. It really is. No, it is. It is. You're right. Yeah, for sure. But I'm the exact opposite. Like I love showing my clients what their books and what their math in their business is trying to tell them and how they can utilize the information to not only survive, but to thrive within their business. And yeah that that information and that math can be so powerful in making decisions and growing and all these sorts of things. And so I'm obsessed with helping people understand what the heck all these charts and spreadsheets and reports are actually telling you.
00:30:42
Speaker
Yeah. um So to be clear, your degree and your background was in science, biology. Biochemistry, but yeah. Biochemistry, yeah, yeah. And now you help people with their finances. So that, and then like, you so you started, so where was like,
00:31:05
Speaker
Where's the transition or like what was the moment I guess is what I want to ask you like you made this conscious decision to go from obviously you didn't use your degree which is okay a lot of people do that honestly ah but you you transitioned into like a whole different sector with finance because finances like It's such a very, I don't even know how to describe it, it's such an expanded, it's like an expanded universe of its own because there are so many sectors in finance. That is true, yeah. um What moment got you, what moment got you into that?
Financial Crisis and Recovery
00:31:42
Speaker
So I had my concrete company and it was about three-ish years in um and I'm driving down the street to an appointment and I'm listening to this radio show called The Troubleshooter who I never really listened to because I didn't really like the guy but that day for some reason I was on the radio.
00:32:00
Speaker
And he says the name of my accountant. And he says, if this guy is your accountant, it's a real bad day for you. And I literally almost ran off the freaking side of the road because that was my accountant. So he's telling me it's a bad day for me. I'm like, oh my God.
00:32:15
Speaker
Come to find out, my accountant who had been doing all of our our books, our payroll, all of our taxes, everything, had been taking money out of our account to pay taxes, but had been stealing it, had been embezzling it all, and had not been sending us the IRS to pay our taxes. Oh, okay.
00:32:35
Speaker
So yeah, so I'm like, oh my gosh. And then all of our documentation, like he had all of it and it all got taken. So then the IRS is like braiding down my neck like, Hey, you need to figure out how much you owe us and pay us.
00:32:52
Speaker
And I had nothing. I had to start over from scratch and reproduce years of records and documentation virtually overnight. And then, of course, you know this guy had come highly rated. It wasn't just me. It was 120 companies in Colorado. It was like $25 million. It was crazy. And so I didn't trust anyone. So I'm like, OK, I'm a smart girl. like I have a degree. I can figure this out. yeah So I just started doing it. I just learned. And I started doing it on my own. and And through learning, I realized how inefficiently my business was I was running my business. And so I was able to not only figure out the whole IRS debacle, but I also took my business from 4% profit to 24% profit in that same year. And then I was able to scale from there. And then you know friends started saying, OK, last year you couldn't buy food. Now you're going to the Bahamas. like
00:33:48
Speaker
Tell us. Tell me your secrets. And so I started helping people. and I just fell in love with helping people to do what I had done and and to understand so that they never had to be in the situation I was in. Hmm. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. ah The. Yeah. In Besselman. Whoo. It was so not cool. It was so not cool. Yeah. How did you? Yeah. How did you recover from that like emotionally? You know, like that's hard.
00:34:19
Speaker
I mean, at the time, I think I didn't have time to even be emotional about it. um And then later, you know, it was one of those things where while you're in it, you can't even stop. And then by the time you can stop, you're out of it. And you're just kind of like, whoa, that sucked.
00:34:40
Speaker
Right. Yeah, no, for sure. It's just, you know, you got to keep chugging along. And so how so this person was doing it for you said how many years was it three years? So for me, for three years. But I mean, there was companies that he'd been doing it for we're like 15 years. That's insane. Yeah, that's just and so did this person face any consequences for that?
00:35:10
Speaker
Oh, yes, straight up. He's in jail.
00:35:14
Speaker
That's okay. So the so the justice was was served. um Yeah. Yeah. I honestly felt the worst for his wife, though, because she lost everything. And I don't think she knew at all what was going on. And so, right, you know, I felt really bad for her because she literally like she lost her home. She lost her husband. She lost all of her income. She didn't work. And and because he was a skis bag. So I do feel still feel bad for her because she was I think she was the biggest victim in the whole thing, honestly.
00:35:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's, yeah I mean, that's that's tough. You know, you you sometimes think you know someone and unfortunately you don't, um but you took that you took that pain and you turned it into your purpose, which is incredible. um So with, you know, your finance coaching, what falls under that umbrella? ah So like, do you do just budgeting? Do you do investing? Like, what do you encompass with your coaching with people?
00:36:14
Speaker
So i um I have a bookkeeper on staff. So I do books. And then do monthly, yearly and or monthly quarterly, and yearly financial analysis. So I have a system that I use called Cash Flow Story, where we really can look at where everything is in the business. And there's seven levers of cash. So you have your your revenue.
00:36:39
Speaker
You have your pricing, you have your overhead, you have your cost of goods sold, you have your work in progress, your accounts payable and your accounts receivable. So those are your seven levers or things you can kind of play around with when it comes to your cash. And in this system, it actually gives us from your own data, the abilities to manipulate those by percentages to to create a cash flow and a profitability plan. So then we look at that quarterly and monthly um and kind of reevaluate the plan and then we implement the plan. And then I also help with like processes and systems and I mean anything because finance touches everything. So I love efficiency and creating new efficiencies across the business.
00:37:26
Speaker
Um, like taking estimates and pulling them through the rest of the business. So you like that estimate becomes a project budget then becomes, you know, the project P and L at the end. And we can see, you know, projected versus actuals. And I can get really nerdy about it. No, I mean, no, it, and it, and it's good that, you know, you go into the weeds because oh yeah finances, you kind of have to, there's not really a whole way around it. You kind of have to.
00:37:55
Speaker
unfortunately do that tedious work um in terms of like you know I need to eliminate this or I need to add this. you know and you know Success can only get you so far if you don't grasp you know the financial tools that you need to use ah in order to be successful in your business. and A lot of that is literally just looking at your line items in terms of what my budget is, you know how much I'm spending with expenses, and those expenses look a lot different. And then, obviously, your revenue is ah is just your revenue. So it's like you can have all this revenue, but if you're expending way too much, you're you're in the red. you know And we don't want that. And that's what a lot of people, I think, don't understand, is you can make a million dollars in a year in revenue, but if your profit is only
00:38:47
Speaker
ah like you know, even like 100K, like your revenue is a million and you're only making 100K profit. Like, I mean, it's, yeah, you're making 100K profit good for you, but you know, what, where is that 900K going and in terms of expenses and what do those look like? Um, sometimes, you know, it's you know just like,
00:39:07
Speaker
investments in your business, whether it's like equipment or, you know, those those types of things. um Or, you know, are you doing, are you spending in a stupid way? That's where you're losing, you know, 900K and it actually could get worse if you keep, you know, that trend going. So now I think the finite details are very important. And that's why, you know, understanding finances Should be a universal thing like I I think the school says did you take finance classes in in college? No, exactly I have so I have a degree in um Biochemistry, but then I have another one in medical anthropology and global health so but you didn't take one finance class because yeah I'm trying to make so so my point here is I
00:39:56
Speaker
You're taking these classes and you don't have any financial literacy as a college student. like Well, I mean, I did, but I was different. I mean, that's fair. that's fair but But what I mean is like you know you can get like a degree in you know the scientific field or you can go be a doctor, but you still like need to learn the basics of finance. You need to learn these terms. You need to learn these spreadsheets. You do need to learn these financial you know Um, you just need to learn in these financial terms because yeah like as it, like if you're a doctor, even like you still have your own business, like chiropractor of your own business, dentistry of your own business. yeah Um, even like in the healthcare field, like you have your own practice in your own business and you don't learn a single business course like that no to me is crazy. And honestly, and then a lot of business courses.
00:40:51
Speaker
teach you how to be a cog in corporate America. We don't teach you how to run a small business. It's so different. And I see a lot of people too, they're always like, Oh, I want to scale. I want to scale. I want to grow. Oh, I want to, you know, but that's so expensive. Growth is a cash like eating machine because, okay, in order to grow, you need more people to get more people you need.
00:41:19
Speaker
Cash, right? Because you have to pay them. You have to pay someone from day one, but they're not going to be cash flowing for probably three to six months, depending upon your business and your system. Right. That means you have to have three to six months of cash just waiting there to invest in them.
00:41:36
Speaker
you know And people people want stuff to be like overnight. It just doesn't happen. It's like with a piece of equipment. you know You invest in that piece of equipment, you buy it, but it's not going to pay you back for a certain amount of time. So it's all about an an investment strategy and then getting the return on that investment.
00:41:53
Speaker
investing, getting the return, investing. Yeah. Well, it's crazy because like now you got, you know, people that are like influencers, right? You got people that yeah do content creation for a living and it's like now they hire, you know, people or AI or, you know, things to help navigate or, you know, create the content for them. So that's kind of like an investment too, because now you're outsourcing anything that you're outsourcing in your business.
00:42:22
Speaker
That's an investment, but you're right. You have to have cash on hand, ah which is why artificial intelligence, I think, is going to be a very interesting ah business acclimation for just individual business owners, like people that want to run a business, but don't necessarily want to pay, you know, for even like, I think even like virtual assistants or people that, you know, social media managers, I think a lot of those positions now are going to get replaced by AI. So now it's like your, your investment is going to be like a monthly subscription to an AI resource, not all of them.
00:43:03
Speaker
But just for the sake of like content creators, just because I feel like that's kind of the easiest examples to go by. um But yeah, you're it's interesting how like you know ah your P and&L sheet and those things will look when like artificial intelligence takes off more and offers more different like products and services to kind of replace humans. i don't I'm not saying humans are replaceable 100%.
00:43:25
Speaker
but I think there will be systems like that. So that investment will make it interesting in terms of how much cash you do need to have on hand for outsourcing investment. Because you're right, you do need three to six months.
00:43:39
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, and no matter what your investment and also you need to you need to give stuff time. I see people all the time, like I've had people like, oh, it's been two weeks. This isn't working. It's like two weeks, dude. Right. And like two weeks is not a big enough data sample. Right. So I think that this is where actually being a scientist helps because, yeah, oh, you actually science is a ton of math.
00:44:04
Speaker
Of course, it's all about data sets. And it's all about trying things. And it's all about, you know, yeah hypothesis, right? And it's all about a hypothesis. Yeah. And what is really great business ownership, but testing a hypothesis, you know, you think, and sometimes, yeah, like, seriously, you're testing a hypothesis and you have no idea if it's going to work or not.
Financial Wisdom and Career Transitions
00:44:25
Speaker
That's why it's called a hypothesis. You're just literally, hypothetically speaking, if it works, it looks like this. If it doesn't work, it looks like this and we're going to figure it out. We're going to just, you're just going to shit. Let's just get it going. So, you know, I actually like that analogy because I think science classes, yeah, helped me understand that a lot of it, I mean, you can take a calculated risk, don't get me wrong. You can weigh the statistics and you can weigh the percentages. I mean, you have so many things now that just throw statistics at you for business concepts and like, oh, this business has like, you know, ah this, you know, I saw something about restaurants, you know, the restaurant industry. yeah Like 50% of restaurants fail within a year.
00:45:13
Speaker
80% of restaurants fail within four years. And it's like, okay, you have those stats. That's true. um But you can't necessarily get paralyzed by that because, okay, well, you could be the other 50%. You also could be the other 20%. It's just like, it's a hypothesis. If you love it a lot, then fucking go for it. You know what I mean?
00:45:39
Speaker
I mean, and in I always say to people like, okay, what's the worst case scenario, right? If the worst case scenario is you fail, well, I mean, yeah, that might, it might hurt your ego.
00:45:54
Speaker
and It might cost you a lot of money, but she didn't die. You're going to keep going. like It's okay. exactly I have to start over a few times. like I'm a two-time domestic violence survivor. I've started over completely. I went from being a millionaire to being on food stamps, and that sucked. That was pretty rough.
00:46:14
Speaker
why you know you can't You can't let it stop you. The only way you really fail is if you quit. Because if you have these little failures, those just lead you to more certainty that the next path is probably the one you're supposed to be on. Yeah, great point. Also, thanks for sharing that that vulnerable side of you. ah the The listeners appreciate that. That is not easy. I'm really sorry that happened to you.
00:46:45
Speaker
And wow, kudos to you for still putting yourself out there, still working with men and still, you know, dating. That's what two humans did. That's not, that was their choices. That's not men. That's two individual humans. That, yeah. I mean, that the mindset is, I mean, your mindset's great, you know? What, what do you attribute that to?
00:47:14
Speaker
Um, I mean, I think a lot of it was a decision and then also, you know, I've had some really amazing mentors and coaches myself. Um, my current mentor is awesome, but I also, um, when I was in a really dark place in my, my last marriage, um,
00:47:33
Speaker
And I found this woman online and she was a successful single mom. And so I was like, man. And she really inspired me. I was like, OK, you know what? Maybe I can do this. you know She's the sex successful single mother who you know, is very happy. and and And I'm like, maybe, maybe I don't have to be stuck here. And it just it was that little light of hope. And then I wrote down a vision of what I wanted. And I wrote down a vision of what I wanted for my life, but also what I wanted in a partner.
00:48:04
Speaker
And so now, you know, ah many years later, um actually had to write down a new vision for my life, at least because I got all the stuff that's my vision and I got even the partner. That was exactly what I wanted. So I always tell everyone just like write down what you want. It's really powerful to actually write it down.
00:48:24
Speaker
and to to just kind of put it into the universe and and have that like with the pen, not just in your brain, like physically writing it to get you to where you want to go. Yeah, wow. um Yeah, thanks for sharing that that. Man, that's just like, it is amazing what the human experience can entail ah in terms of, yeah,
00:48:50
Speaker
being a millionaire, also DV and abuse, ah also going to food stamps and then coming back to that millionaire side, it really just goes to show that life is somewhat cyclical. And it's just like you have to, you got to prepare yourself for where you want to go. And when you're writing it down, and that's why yeah, writing it down is so key. And I think that A lot of people say they wanna be a millionaire, but then they don't understand. They don't even like, cause a lot of people wanna say they're a million they want to be a millionaire, but it's not even like the work ethic at that point either. It's like, if I dropped a million dollars into your lap, how would you respond? Cause like some people don't have a regulated nervous system to handle that. Like if you had a million dollars into your bank account, like it just showed up, like how is your how's your nervous system gonna respond?
00:49:50
Speaker
Like, what are you going to do with that? Because a lot of people would, their nervous system would crash out and and then they would just, you know, be paralyzed and they would just, they would do something. Either they would do nothing at all because they'd be scared or they would be reckless with it. You know, so you really have to reckless was that.
00:50:11
Speaker
I said mostly they'd be reckless. yeah you know I think it's like the average um lottery winner actually is in a worse but financial position within five years. that's yeah i think Yeah, I think you're right. It is something like that because yeah it never ends well for those people. Well, it's because, I mean, a lot of it has to do with Parkinson's law. So Parkinson's law says that humans will use up whatever's available to us.
00:50:36
Speaker
It's who we are, right? And it's the same reason that when somebody gets a raise, if they're living paycheck to paycheck, they're like, oh, I need a raise, I need a raise. They get a raise, and then in a few months they're living paycheck to paycheck again.
00:50:48
Speaker
right because they get lifestyle creep and all these sorts of things. So you know we have two and kind of we have to utilize that psychology to our benefit and we have to disallow ourselves to spend. So that's why things like Profit First work. So Profit First It is a system where, and in business, where money comes in, and and before it ever hits your, like, main account, you allocate it out into tax and profit and owner's pay and then to your operating so that you're left with only a certain amount in your operating account to use. So you'll only use that instead of using all of it.
00:51:32
Speaker
and so that you always are left with your profit. It's the same reason that 401Ks work, right? Because your boss never gives you that money. It goes straight to the 401K company. You didn't even know it existed, so you don't spend it. So we have to like we have to we have to play with our psychology a little bit and and you know and and make it so that we can't spend the money. That's why credit cards, everybody runs them up is because it just, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, swipe, swipe, swipe.
00:51:59
Speaker
And it doesn't even, you don't even feel it. What is the comment what is the most common mistake that you um encounter with your with your clients in terms of like finance and and money-based decision-making? So for me, because I work mainly in construction and with contractors, um the biggest thing I see is not managing their cost of goods sold. So their labor and their materials.
00:52:28
Speaker
oh And yeah so what happens is they create this estimate, right? And they say, OK, this is going to cost me $1,500 in labor materials. So I'm going to charge a client $2,500. OK, so they say this in their head. They make the estimate. The client pays them the $2,500. And during the project, they just let their guys or them or whatever just spend, spend, spend, right? So we have this Parkinson's law. So they're just spending like they don't care.
00:52:56
Speaker
And then they end up spending, you know, say $2,200. So then when they thought they were getting $1,000 to pay for their overhead and profit, they only got $300 to pay for their overhead and profit. And that's never a good day. So if we can just take that $1,500 and actually make it a budget and say, hey, team, you got $1,500 to make this project happen, it will change everything.
00:53:24
Speaker
Okay. i mean It's very simple, but very complicated to execute. Yeah. No, for sure. Awesome things. They are simple, but complicated. Yeah. Well, accounting is a whole nother animal in terms of, I mean, like I said, finance goes beyond just like a scope of like, it's one thing, it's actually many things. Accounting is is one of them. It was probably my least favorite business class I ever took.
00:53:53
Speaker
But you actually did take an accounting class. Yeah, it was the only, I think I got a C. It was the only C I ever got in college because it was just ridiculously hard. I don't know if I actually passed. and Well, I did pass, I guess I technically did pass like two exams, but they were like low C's.
00:54:17
Speaker
on on like I don't I didn't get above a C on any of my exams because like I just I just couldn't grasp the details and the rules behind it. That's where I struggled. Well, I think that the whole debits and credits things also screws people up.
00:54:34
Speaker
Yeah, and that's why yeah that's why accounting, I think, is one of the hardest things you could could possibly get into. I don't know what it's like in a corporate structure, but from a school structure, I understand why accounting majors were always stressed out, because there was no way. um You should have been to the science department. I know, clearly. But like you understand like a lot of accounting terms.
00:54:56
Speaker
did you Did you study that on your own or did you just like, how'd you learn in those terms? Like through experience or what? No, through so many books.
00:55:07
Speaker
so um So I have read more books than one could imagine on all things or all things like small business finance and tax. Like there was this book that was like this thick and I mean like, you know, 10,000 pages kind of thick about um small business tax law. And I actually read the whole thing for fun. Wow.
00:55:35
Speaker
Because I'm a weirdo like that. I love stuff like that. I love to read. um I don't like what I call wasted time. So like if I'm in the car, I'm usually listening to a book. When I'm doing my hair and makeup, and I'm listening to a book or a training. like I'm always, always, always listening to a book. um Jim Collins is my favorite author. If you haven't read everything by Jim Collins, just go get Great by Choice. It's like the best book I've ever read. It's my favorite forever.
00:56:05
Speaker
That's awesome. It's dope. Yeah. One day I will get to meet him. Yeah. Yeah. Got to manifest that. That's awesome. I guess what would you recommend for people that want to get into just upgrading their financial status or their financial literacy? What would you recommend? What is point A? Where's the starting point for that?
00:56:34
Speaker
um The first thing is to actually write down all of your bills and when they're due either and this can be personal or business or both. So one of the things I use with my clients is a weekly cash flow document where it literally lists all the things they pay and then has them in the weeks that they're due. So then we know exactly how much cash we need in the bank at the beginning of that week to pay all the bills.
00:57:00
Speaker
It's a magic document. It's really, I mean, it takes a little bit to like set up, but once you have it set up, it's pretty easy. Cause you just put in how much money you have, how much money is coming in. And then it does the math for you and says, Oh yes, this is a black week. You're good. Or, Oh Nelly, you can't pay your bills this week. And then we have to float, float things around. And then we can, once we start using it, we can see our run rate and we can see our runway, you know, how long until we are in a bad spot.
00:57:30
Speaker
Because I remember when COVID happened, the beauty of COVID. So in California, construction was not essential. So my best friend, she owned a company there. She got shut down.
00:57:43
Speaker
and And here in Colorado, I did not know. We were in the middle of a really big project. And every day, I did not know if I was going to get shut down or not. And so I was doing my runway every single day. I was like, OK, we've done this much work today in this big project. If we can get the big project done, then I can fill out this. And then I can have this much. If I have to pay my employees, I have this many months in a runway. out And if I don't have to pay my employees, I have this many months of runway.
00:58:11
Speaker
Like I every single day was redoing the math. We ended up not getting shut down, but had we gotten shut down, I would have had ah between six and nine months of money in the bank to survive that. And I knew it every single day. So I didn't, I was totally freaked out, but I didn't have to be as freaked out. That is crazy. I didn't realize it wasn't essential. I think it was essential here in Missouri.
00:58:39
Speaker
Most things were actually essential here in Missouri, if I remember correctly. They were like, everything is essential. Pretty much, yeah. Anything blue collar in Missouri was definitely essential. No, yeah. My friend, she got shut down for like three months. And like one of our biggest, so we did floors, one of our big suppliers was getting shut down. like It was very random who was shut down, who was still working. It was i it crazy times. and But I learned a lot from that time on how to really
00:59:12
Speaker
be able to go to sleep at night knowing that I could pay all my employees and that everything was gonna be okay. No, that that is a good feeling. And you know I think getting through that time, I think it really tested a lot of people and it just made a lot of people more adaptable to situations in terms of financial reasons. um and i And I just think like, you know You just gotta adapt to survive and you know, eventually everything will will come together and be put in place. So yeah, i I think people just need the right mindset with it. And yeah, so what do you, I guess like,
00:59:55
Speaker
What do you recommend for people that maybe they want to start a business and they, um maybe they got a degree in science and they want to go into something completely different. ah What would you say for those people right now that aren't sure what they want to do after getting a degree and maybe they want to flip flop to something else? Don't be afraid to flip flop, but just try things, right? like
01:00:27
Speaker
I've done a lot of different things like I was in I was in food service and I was a bartender in college and then I went into sales and then I went into construction and um and now I'm you know a consultant and so there's a million different ways but I would say you know try it out like do it as a side gig right I did my consulting thing as a side gig for a few years before going full-time. I think so many people, like they want to just like make the jump. They want to just be a switch that's flipped. And that's just not realistic in the sense that like you you can't just stop your job and then make full-time income overnight with the business. You just can't. Right. um I'm going through that right now, actually.
01:01:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's very difficult, right? It's yeah, it's I mean, the energy is I get banged up every week because I, you know, try to live an active lifestyle too. um Yeah. So yeah. that the energies and The energy waking up is sometimes really, really hard. um I got to slap myself with a little coffee and you know get myself going. and you know that It's just a face in life. and I know that at some point in time, I i won't have 40 hours a week dedicated to one thing.
01:01:44
Speaker
you know so like but I'll probably look on that time when I'm there. I'll probably be like, man, you know, I kind of missed like some days like going as hard as I can, you know, for, you know, those 12 hours, you know, in a day that I had while still working out and also, you know, setting aside time to, to read or, you know, do something beneficial for my self help. I honestly think like, yeah, you're right. Just, you know, don't jump off the ledge necessarily, but, um,
01:02:15
Speaker
I mean, you you have to make sacrifices, you know, and you have to sacrifice the things that aren't as fun in terms of, you know, you can still have a social life, don't get me wrong. but you do have to sacrifice some social aspects of your life to to become you know where you want to get to.
Resilience and Personal Growth
01:02:32
Speaker
um Obviously, you would know because like you know you were living on food stamps at one point. So obviously, I'm sure your social aspect of your life did you know change because you're trying to figure out where you know your next step was going to be and how to navigate your future in that regard. So you know I just think that yeah life life comes and goes in phases. and
01:02:54
Speaker
You just got to be gentle with your with yourself while also kind of going pretty hard ah with your work ethic. So yeah, it's all about balance. I had kids and and when i yeah when I left my abusive relationship, I also left a pretty, I left, what we were in his religion and it's a very,
01:03:17
Speaker
strict religion. So I not only left him, but I had to leave every single human in the state of Colorado that I knew. They don't, they, they I'm shunned now. They don't, they act like I'm dead. right um So yeah, the social aspect of my life.
01:03:34
Speaker
yeah No, for sure. For sure. I'm fine with that now. It was difficult at the time because you know what? I have a lot of time to work out and so I was much leaner than I am now because I worked out a lot. I did 75 hard. I looked amazing. Oh, I did that too. Yeah. I'm like, well, how did I have time for that? And now I'm like, oh yeah, because, you know, things were changing and So I just worked out and, you know, cause I was like so yeah frustrated with everything. I was like, let's just work out. yeah i need I mean, maybe I need more frustration right now. So I can work out. No, no. Well, I mean, like I said, phases in life. So I mean, no someday, some, I'm sure at some point in time, I'll have like an extra, you know, hours due to work out every day. Uh, but I don't, I don't have that now. I got to get it in like within like a 45 to like,
01:04:31
Speaker
hour 30 at most, you know and you know I got to make use of that time. yeah um and make use of like, okay, I'm not going to be as like lean as I was, you know, working out twice a day, uh, doing 75 hard, you know, and and those sorts of things. great And that's okay. Like, cause you know, perception of like what your body looks like is all society standard. It's not even like wedding in a few months. And I a pageant. I'm going to be on an international stage in like three weeks.
01:05:05
Speaker
Oh, I forgot. Yeah, so you do pageants, right? Only I had that 75 hard body right now. I do, yeah, so I'm um i'm currently International Miss Rocky Mountain, and so I'm participating from one we when we are recording this and participating in the International Miss pageant in a few weeks in Orlando, Florida. I do pageants just to show women around the world that um wherever they are is just a starting point, and that and to really take a stand for the and, that you can be a a businesswoman and a mom
01:05:40
Speaker
and a great partner and a great family member. And you can also be a beauty queen and have fun times and and really to highlight my platform of the CEO money school and helping women to own their financial health and to get out of domestic violence and and and to do that through financial freedom. Wow.
01:06:03
Speaker
Yeah, I almost missed the mark on the pageants. I'm glad we circled around. Yeah, I made sure to get it in there. Yeah, no, that's so cool. I didn't realize you were actively competing in a few weeks. Oh, yeah. I got the big crowns. Yeah.
01:06:20
Speaker
That's awesome. So it's Miss Colorado Rocky is what? So Miss Rocky Mountain. Miss Rocky Mountain. The Rocky Mountain region. um Yeah. And I have these phenomenals. We have to do a a regional costume. And so I have these phenomenal gold wings. That's amazing.
01:06:41
Speaker
Hopefully sent out good vibes for me. they of course They were like stuck in Poland for two weeks and now they finally moved and it said that they're in New York. So I'm hoping I'm cautiously optimistic they're going to make it. There you go. That's awesome. So you have, so you have to bring all this stuff like yourself to do. Oh yeah.
Community, Support, and Future Vision
01:06:59
Speaker
Oh yeah. Your whole wardrobe, all the things. And they're so, yeah, they're so. Do you have a team?
01:07:04
Speaker
Oh, I have a pageant coach, and she's amazing. I couldn't do this without her. Are you kidding me? That is so crazy. Yeah. How did you find a pageant coach? Well, I mean, through other pageant people. OK. How long have you been doing pageants?
01:07:17
Speaker
So I did pageants when I was a teen. Okay. So you've been doing it for a long time. Yeah. And then when I was kind of finding myself, so a few years before my divorce, I already knew I wanted to get one. And so I was kind of finding myself and I had decided to go back into pageantry and my ex wouldn't let me, like he said that he's, he said a whole bunch of things about how pageants weren't for married women. But anyways, um, get your mindset. Yeah.
01:07:44
Speaker
Right after I finally was like, no moss to the this life, I went straight back into pageantry. So it's been what, three and a half years now, almost four years that I've been doing pageants again. And I love it. It's my hobby.
01:08:01
Speaker
um It's so fun and I get to meet amazing women who from all around the world who are doing amazing things within their communities and I get to really highlight all the things I want to do. Eventually I want to have my own charity to help women get great lawyers um that can't afford them through domestic in domestic violence situations. So just being able to highlight all those things, it's just a lot of fun. and And why not, right? And then you get to have, where else can you wear giant gold wings? Come on. Yeah. ah Besides like Halloween or maybe Christmas. Yeah. notm yeah not but Okay. Now I'm imagining how you make this work for Christmas. I mean, cause well, they're, they're, they're not angel wings. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Probably not Christmas. Probably just Halloween then. Probably just Halloween. Yeah.
01:08:54
Speaker
thoughts. So and for that yeah that's really cool. And it's cool that you're multifaceted like that. And I think it just goes to show that, you know, iss it's important to do stuff like outside of like what your job is or like, you know, your business even. I know you can eat, sleep and breathe your business. But, you know, we as humans, I think crave community and we also crave um doing multiple things, you know. So it's it's cool that you found that community. And then you also found that ability to express yourself, which yeah, you just have to find that balance and you can do it all. Especially I like the point that you made about being a good partner and a good mom. um I think being able to also do the do those things and to have the right partner ah support you.
01:09:46
Speaker
is crucial. um i think and think having a part I mean, i'm I'm a single guy, so I don't really know the feeling, but I know that from from looking and spectating other people that you know having the right partner really can make or break your success. like It really can't because like they're either going to add stress to your life and then it's going to fuck up your business or fuck up you know whatever um or they're going to enhance your life by not adding stress or adding your adding support to you and then that's when you can like scale even further or take off even further ah because they can like they can outsource some things for you in your day to day that are important. so
01:10:30
Speaker
That's awesome. I'm glad that you have everything you know in place to to just go do your thing. That's really cool. Yeah. Well, I've had the opposite, right? and Yeah. you've You've gone through the trenches. Oh, yeah. The good partner thing is is for real. My fiance is amazing. and like He was the one who actually originally encouraged me to go full-time into consulting. so many so I've only been doing full-time consulting for about three years, and I was kind of at a crossroads because I had just exited in the divorce. like It was finally finalized, and I just exited that company. I had another company.
01:11:10
Speaker
and that through some crazy stuff. and and I had exited that one too. um and So I was kind of like in this place, like, what do I do with my life? And he was like, yeah, you know, he's like, why don't you just do do the fractional CFO thing full time is what you love. And I'm like, Oh, I don't know. He's like, just try it. you You know, you have a couple months saved up, just just do it. And if it doesn't work out, you can always get a job.
01:11:35
Speaker
But why not try? And so obviously it worked out, because three years later, we're doing well. And and and now you know we're we're starting other companies. And we just launched our Blue Collar Wealth Club podcast and all these different things. And really, he's been so encouraging. And you know and now he's finding himself. And I'm encouraging him in that. And we're really finding all these things together. And it's just been amazing. And I'm so excited for.
01:12:05
Speaker
our wedding next year, and then all the things we have to come, you know, with a good partner, the sky's the limit. So it's definitely worth the wait. Yeah. And it's also worth getting into a relationship.
01:12:20
Speaker
So did you get into a relationship with him when you were still building or were you pretty like set with your business? Oh, I had nothing when we met. No, when we met was, um, I was in the middle of my very nasty divorce. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's, uh, but that's still great that like, you didn't have to be put all the way together for him and he probably wasn't put all the way together for you.
01:12:46
Speaker
And that's that's a beautiful thing. I think people don't understand, and I don't mean to go on the dating tangent. That's not the point of this episode, but you know I think people need to understand that your person may not be fully put together, but if you can recognize the potential and the good heart in the person,
01:13:08
Speaker
That's what matters. Everything, the other pieces will come because you know, if he's a fully motivated guy or she's a fully motivated woman, like all it takes is like maybe just like the right push or just like the right thing to say or do for that person and they'll, they'll take off, you know? And yeah, we're like, we're not always going to be fully put together for our partners and our partners aren't going to be fully put together for us.
01:13:35
Speaker
But that's the beautiful thing is like you can work together and and figure that out as you go. Cause that's, that's just life. Like you're just and part of it. like You just figured out where all you go. And honestly, I don't think you're ever, ever fully put together. Like you're always a new, greater version of you, right? And I think we saw in each other, there were certain things that we wanted in another human and we saw that in each other. And then the other stuff was just, it's a work in progress. And together, you know, we really help each other to, to find what's next and to go to that next level. And, and we really, if we fully support one another and, um,
01:14:15
Speaker
in whatever season we're in, and you know now um we've been together over three years, and and he's just, you know, it's, and we communicate. I would say communication is literally number one. If you find someone you can't communicate with, then it's over from from the game. We always look at ourselves like, okay, if we're frustrated or whatever, we say, okay, is this a me thing or is this a them thing? And I would say 90% of the time it's usually a ah me thing.
01:14:44
Speaker
Like on my side when I'm like, ah, and then I'm like, no, it's just, that I'm just, I'm just being brought today. Okay. I need, I need to check myself. but he does Like we we check ourselves first. Then if we're like, this is something we need to discuss, then we like discuss it like adults. Of course. Yeah. That's the thing. We're, we're adults, you know, or at least we should be right. We don't have to have temper trend tantrums. We don't have to fight. We, and we like very, we never fight.
01:15:12
Speaker
That's good. That's good. No, we chat, we talk. yeah ah Yeah, just having a mature conversation. But that not's that's beautiful. you know it's it's it's It's good to have your person in this time of your life um to to go watch you.
01:15:30
Speaker
you know go watch you win. And then obviously with your kids too, that's that's another big focal point in your life too. and And kids can teach you so much. I obviously don't know what that's like, but just spectating. It is it is cool to see for sure. Yeah. And he loves football too. So we have season tickets. good Right. You got the Denver, you got the Broncos. Yes. We love the Broncos. That's awesome. Yeah.
01:15:58
Speaker
um Well, that's all I really got on this end. Did you have any last reflecting moments for the audience today? I mean, I'm just going to go back to the thing I've said like probably three times this episode. Just write down your vision. like Have a moment with yourself to go, where do I want to be? you know and And especially if you're looking for a partner, the biggest thing, and my fiance and I did this independently of one and another way before we ever met.
01:16:25
Speaker
We said to ourselves, okay, what do we really want in a partner? And then we said, okay, now we know we wanted a partner. What does that person want? What would attract them? How do we become that person that our person wants? And I think that's why you know we could see that work in progress with each other. like We knew, yeah, maybe we hadn't arrived and we were still you know going through a lot, but that we were trying to get there. We are trying to heal. We are trying to to become the one that our dream person would want. Mm hmm. Right on. um Plug your socials. Okay. Real quick. Okay. So I am your pocket CFO on all the things. And my podcast is Blue Color Wealth Club. Blue Color Wealth Club.
01:17:21
Speaker
What was the, so can you say the handle one more time? Your pocket CFO. Your pocket CFO. Okay. Yeah. Cause I'm real small. So you can't tell right now if this video, but I'm real tiny. I'm like five one.
01:17:36
Speaker
And so it was like a joke, because I was like, oh, you know, I can fit in your pocket. And then I was like, oh, I'm like, you know, Siri is like, hey, Siri, it's like, hey, Sheena, hey, Sheena, I got a question. So um yeah yeah so I'm your pocket. yeah Your pocket CFO. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah, make sure you give her a follow. Listen to her podcast, get some gems. And yeah, thank you for your time, Sheena. Yeah, thank you for having me.