March 11, 2025 • 33 mins
Are you profitable or are you just making money?
Danielle Hayden, CPA and founder of Kickstart Accounting Inc., joins us to dismantle the dangerous money myths circulating in the online business world.
From shady financial "experts" on IG to manipulative marketing tactics that prey on business owner fears, Danielle calls it out.
We dive into the real role of a bookkeeper, who you need on your financial team, and how to recognize legit professionals. We uncover the truth around emotional spending in business, and the reality check your "money mindset" needs -- whether you're just starting out or scaling past six figures.
GUEST BIO:
Danielle Hayden is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kickstart Accounting, Inc. a bookkeeping and accounting firm that is on a mission to coach six figure (+ beyond) female entrepreneurs so they can better understand their numbers through bookkeeping, financial analysis, and support so they can grow profitable, sustainable and enjoyable businesses.
With over 15 years experience in the world of finance, Danielle has worked her way from accounting firm intern to the Co-Founder of Kickstart Accounting. She understands how complex business finances can be, and she knows that entrepreneurs need more than just a bookkeeper; they need real financial analysis and support in order to get the confidence required to create the sustainable wealth they deserve. Danielle brings a unique perspective when it comes to providing business owners with “the total package” as it relates to their finances.
She has been a guest on multiple top-rated shows including, Winning On Main Street, The How of Business and Female emPOWERED: Winning in Business & Life. She is also the host of the Business By the books podcast.
Connect with Danielle:
- Website: kickstartaccountinginc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kickstartaccounting/
- Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-hayden-kickstartaccounting/
- Business by the Books Podcast: https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/businessbythebooks/
- Your Free Gift: https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/gift/
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The Business Blasphemy Podcast is sponsored by Corporate Rehab® Strategic Consulting.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast,
where we question the sacredtruths of the online business
space and the reverence withwhich they're held.
I'm your host, sarah Khanspeaker, strategic consultant
and BS busting badass.
Join me each week as wechallenge the norms, trends and
overall bullshit status quo ofentrepreneurship to uncover what
it really takes to build thebusiness that you want to build
(00:23):
in a way that honors you, yourlife and your vision for what's
possible, and maybe piss off afew gurus along the way.
So if you're ready to commitbusiness blasphemy, let's do it.
Hello, hello blasphemers,welcome back.
I am very excited to have thisconversation because, as you
know, bullshit does not fly withme.
(00:44):
So we're going to address someof the common rhetoric, the
common mantras, the commongaslighting that sometimes
happens in the space ofinvestments and money and all
good things.
Today I'm very excited towelcome my guest, danielle
Hayden.
She's here.
Please introduce yourself tothe group.
Thank you so much for havingguest Danielle Hayden.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
She's here.
Please introduce yourself tothe group.
Thank you so much for having me.
Danielle Hayden, I am thefounder of Kickstarter County
Inc.
Been in business for 10 yearsworking with entrepreneurs
across different online spaces,seen a lot of stories and really
excited to blast some BS today.
(01:25):
I told you before we hit record, I'm here for all of that.
There's lots in my space aroundmoney and tax and bookkeeping
and we could do this all day, sosuper excited.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Amazing.
And yeah, money is the thing.
Right, I had a conversation theother day it was around this
idea of oh well, the reason wehave to lead our marketing with
you want to make money isbecause of you know, this is
everybody wants to make money.
That's kind of the ground floorreason why we're in business,
right, exactly.
(01:57):
So it's a little bit dumb to methat that should be the
motivating factor for people toinvest in stuff.
But you know what?
We're just going to jump rightin.
How do you feel, like what goesthrough your mind when you see
people who are like promisingyou go through my program, you
work with me, I'm going to makeyou more money?
I mean, the potential is alwaysthere.
But, like, what are you seeingin your industry right now?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Or like what are you seeing from your perspective as
somebody who's in the financialspace?
That kind of makes your redflags go up.
So we work with a lot ofbusiness owners who were often
our clients' first hires somaybe a contractor, a copywriter
, something like that but we'reoften one of the first people
that our clients will work with.
And so we work with a lot ofsolopreneurs with.
And so we work with a lot ofsolopreneurs, people who are
striving to hit a hundredthousand $500,000 in revenue.
(02:54):
And what I see at this stage isthat we don't have our
confidence in ourselves yet.
And we're really good at thatthing.
Right, that other thing,whatever it might be, the reason
you came into entrepreneurship,you are good at that craft, but
you're not necessarily great atall the other business stuff.
It might be mindset, it mightbe money, it might be
bookkeeping, it might bemarketing, writing copy,
(03:15):
whatever it might be.
You don't have that confidenceas a well-rounded entrepreneur
and a well-rounded CEO.
Yet well-rounded entrepreneurand a well-rounded CEO, yet you
probably actually don't even seeyourself as a CEO.
And at this stage we're lookingfor other people to validate us
and to give us permission, andwe're looking and searching for
(03:39):
the tools outside of ourselves.
Now, there are times where thisis required because you're
never going to be an expert, soI use I'll use bookkeeping as an
example that that's what we doand I, I, you know bookkeeping
attacks and legal are kind ofthe core people who I went
through to school for like sevenyears.
(04:01):
I worked my ass off of my CPA.
Okay, like my team has so muchvery specific training legal,
your attorney has very specifictraining.
So when you start to hire,you're buying back your time and
so you're buying back the timethrough experts.
(04:22):
However, we're also trying tobuy learning and training and
we're searching outside ofourselves to give ourselves
permission to jump intoentrepreneurship, to exceed and
to be successful.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Now I'm really glad that you qualified.
The fact that you are a CPALike this is not just something
that you've learned in a weekendcourse or a 90 day program and
you're now peddling.
How do you feel, Cause I have afew friends that are in this
space and I know how they feelwhen they see people who have
done, you know, courses orcertifications or programs and
they're offering financialadvice.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, I got.
Um, I have to.
I need to get it off myInstagram algorithm because it's
pissing me off.
So there's these, these peopleon Instagram that I guess are
like tax influencers I don'tknow, and they're.
It's a thing that's weird andof course they're targeting me,
but I will watch these reels andthey are talking about add your
(05:24):
husband or your spouse and yourkids and your aunt or uncle to
your board of directors and then, when you go on vacation,
you're really having a boardmeeting and it's paying for your
board meeting, and now you getthe tax write-off.
Stop the bullshit here.
Okay, that's a vacation, andhow about you start taking
(05:46):
yourself half serious as abusiness owner and form a real
board of directors?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yes.
So if you are a business ownerwho is taking themselves serious
, right, you're taking yourselfserious, you're stepping into
your power as a CEO, you'rebuilding a business that you
want to create a life, healthy,sustainable, profitable business
.
You have to have healthy,sustainable and you have to be
profitable.
You can't be spending all ofyour business money on vacations
(06:15):
and then be like, well, why ismy business not profitable?
I can't get a loan, I can't buya house, I can't sell my
business, but I took my familyon vacation every year.
But if you had a real board ofdirectors, you might've grown
your business.
If you were profitable, youmight've gotten the loan.
So to me, kind of long-windedanswer I don't pay much
attention to the bookkeepers whoare out there, who are the
(06:39):
neighbor, the aunt, the cousinright, they did a course
somewhere because they don'ttake themselves serious.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Right, like they're not a competitor to me, like it
bothers me that they're outthere and they're hurting
business owners, like I trulybelieve they're hurting somebody
and that pains me, but like Idon't see them as interfering in
my space.
But I feel bad for the businessowners who are to come across
them and trust them.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Well, I've often said , are you running a business or
are you play acting at being abusiness owner?
Because I think there's a verydistinct difference.
And for you who are in thisspace and you have the
credentials and you have, youknow, the knowledge and the
insights, you may not see themas competitors or even anyone to
really kind of give energy to,but for entrepreneurs who are
(07:28):
maybe starting out, maybe not asprofitable as they need to be,
I can see the attraction,because they're often people who
are peddling solutions thatfeel sexy, they feel easy and,
let's be honest, they're oftennot charging the kind of rates
that professionals charge, right, and so that's the attraction.
So if you've got anentrepreneur out there who is
(07:50):
looking to hire an accountant ora bookkeeper or anyone in the
financial space, do they need tobe looking for a certification,
do they need to be looking forsome kind of credential, or are
there kind of boxes that theycan check to make sure that
they're getting somebody whoactually is not going to be like
steering them towards doingsomething that's not quite
ethical, maybe even bordering onillegal?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So I'm going to talk about the four people I think
you believe that I believe thatyou need on your money team, and
then who I would qualify forthose people to be.
When I started Kickstarteraccounting nine years ago, I was
very intentional with startinga bookkeeping firm, because you
can't file a tax return, createa budget, make a business plan,
(08:29):
put it together a strategy,without knowing bookkeeping
first.
Everything starts withbookkeeping.
You have to have accurate,organized numbers on a regular
basis, provided to you as a CEOvia a CEO dashboard every single
month.
So bookkeeping bookkeeper isthe first person that you need.
(08:52):
Now I am a CPA.
My background is as a CFO, so Iworked as a chief financial
officer before starting my firm.
If you find somebody who has atax background, that's going to
be their focus.
So you really need to decidewhat's most important to you.
Are you running your businessto show a loss and not pay taxes
(09:13):
and have a tax write-off?
Because that's the thing Somepeople are just like.
I'll be able to write off myhome office, my car, my gas, my
meals, and so my business islike a nice write-off cushion
for me to save money on my taxes.
If that's your goal, thenfinding a bookkeeper that works
with your CPA or really isn'tsending you financial reports
(09:36):
isn't helping you in anymeaningful way.
That their focus is on tax,that's fine, because that's the
goal of your business.
If the goal of your business isto Fine, because that's the
goal of your business.
If the goal of your business isto scale, if the goal of your
business is to grow, is to stepinto being a CEO and leaving a
legacy, then you want to find apartner that aligns with that.
(09:58):
So for us, we are sending ourclients a CEO dashboard that we
call the snapshot, every monthso that it's easy for them to
read.
We offer ongoing calls foraccountability.
So you want to find the rightpartner in a bookkeeper of like
what is your focus?
So that's team number one.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, absolutely.
Next is your CPA or tax advisor.
So their only job really is toprepare your tax return.
(10:20):
Most tax accounts are onlydoing the bookkeeping to file
the tax return and their adviceis tax focused, not business
focused.
I had a client who was planningon opening up a brick and mortar
location In December.
Her CPA said you have too muchprofit, you need to take a bonus
(10:43):
.
Pay your team a bonus.
You got to get rid of thisprofit before you have to pay
taxes on it.
She listened to him.
This poor woman has been in acycle for three years because
she spent a hundred thousanddollars that December.
In March she opened up herbrick and mortar location.
What the CPA didn't take intoconsideration is the fact that
(11:05):
she needed that money to open itup.
Should she have thought of iton her own, I don't know, maybe,
but she was working on theadvice of her CPA, which so many
of us do.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
That's why we hire professionals, because we aren't
experts in everything.
We don't know the ins and outsof everything.
Right, that's wow.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Exactly.
So you trust.
So you trust.
Now she's been in a debt cyclebecause she had to take on all
this debt to actually open thestore.
Okay, I derail.
The second person is your taxpreparer.
They will have a qualificationof an EA or a CPA.
Not every tax preparer has tohave a CPA.
If you want them to have that,then you'll want to find a firm
who has who is ran by by CPAs.
They have a team of preparersand EAs and non-CPAs who who
(11:49):
work for them, but it's ran by aCPA.
So at my firm we have our ourour tax team who who prepares
the tax return, but they'reworking with the bookkeeping
team to give advice so that it'snot tax focused.
It is business and tax focused.
(12:10):
So when you're looking forsomebody, you just have to know
what's important to you.
There's two more people I wanton your team.
The third person is a financialadvisor, and financial advisor
is somebody who takes in the bigpicture.
It's totally differentqualification than a CPA.
They are looking at yourretirement, your IRA, your
(12:32):
personal and your business.
So we need that third person onyour team looking at the whole
picture.
The fourth person is a CFO or abusiness coach.
When we work with our clientsas their CFO, we are walking
them through a goal settingprocess, looking forward, so
bookkeeping is going backwards,cfo is going forward and so
(12:52):
we're looking at the goals ofthe individual and the business
and setting the budget to getthem to those goals.
So you want all four people andthey're all four different
qualifications.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So when you're a solo let's say you're a solopreneur
you're just starting out, you'rein your first five years,
because we all know and I'vetalked about this before you're
not really going to start makingany kind of meaningful profit
in those first few years, likeit's.
It's, you've really got tobuild it up.
But if you're in those firstfew years, who is the?
(13:22):
I guess, like, if you canreally only afford to pay, you
know one fractional team memberor have someone in part-time or
even full-time who's the firstperson, who's the first
financial investment you shouldbe making?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
The bookkeeper, because you can't do any of the
other things without abookkeeper.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Heard it here first, bookkeeper you have to have a
bookkeeper.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Now, this is most people here.
I need a CPA because I have tofile my taxes.
How's your CPA going to fileyour taxes without bookkeeping?
They can't.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
What about?
Like your QuickBooks and you'redoing it on your own?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I mean you could.
Here's the hardest conversationI've ever had.
We had a client who came to uslast year and she was so
confident that her books wereright.
She had been doing it herselffor years and we had found that
she was overstating her income.
Expenses were duplicated.
This poor woman had to amendfour years of her taxes.
She had a giant tax bill.
(14:20):
You are not a bookkeeper.
You cannot do it on your own.
I can't do what you do, right,Like we all have a specialty, a
zone of genius, and bookkeepingis so serious.
You can't file taxes withincorrect bookkeeping.
You can't do a budget andprojections without accurate
bookkeeping.
(14:40):
And you can find a firm likeour prices started $150 a month,
right, Like you, you find afirm that helps you where you
are.
So if you're, if you have ahundred thousand dollars a year
in revenue, we have prices thatmatch that.
So you find a firm I'm notsaying that we're your firm, but
like go find a firm that haspricing that matches that so
that you can grow within that.
(15:02):
So you'll need a bookkeeper.
And then I'd actually ratheryou file your own tax return
than I would your bookkeeping.
Yeah, cause you could, I meanyou want the numbers to be
accurate, right?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, yeah, amazing, okay.
So before we go into thequestion that I really want to
ask, tell me a little bit aboutyour villain origin story.
How did you come?
Because you said you were a cfobefore.
How did you come to beentrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I feel like it's been in my, my blood for forever.
Um, I had that nice rollercoaster ride.
I'm a creative at heart, so Iactually started my career as a
hairdresser I did cosmetology inhigh school.
Oh my God, so did I, did youreally, and I hated every minute
of it.
Oh see, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I'm not creative enough to cut someone's hair
Like I'm just going to say thatright now, yeah, it's there's so
much fear, so much fear anyway.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh my gosh, I love it .
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I love it, so I I did .
I worked behind the chair for along time.
I love doing like there wasnothing more fun than coloring
somebody's hair and then doingthis fun haircut to accentuate
the color, whatever.
But what happened during thattime is that I was helping the
girls in the salon because Ikept on hitting the goals.
The salon said that you gotmore commission for each tier
(16:12):
that you brought in and I justknew how to maximize it and I
played the game with money, andso I was teaching the girls in
the salon how to play the gamewith money and how to hit their
goals and how to understandtheir paycheck.
Then I went, and then I decidedto go back to school and when I
went into corporate, I wasdoing the same thing.
(16:34):
I was teaching the CEOs, theboard of directors, the
investors the game of money andI was showing them.
Here's what just happened.
Here's where we're going.
How do we use this data to makebusiness decisions?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I played that game of money with them.
Now I'll never forget.
I had a business owner who hadasked me to help them put
together a budget.
And I'm like you can't puttogether a budget without the
bookkeeping.
I'm like I can't.
What do you want me to?
How do you want me to budgetyou?
You don't know where you were.
I can't tell you where you'regoing.
And I had this epiphany momentand I was like, oh my God,
(17:11):
that's the problem.
Business owners are skippingthis whole step.
They're not taking the time tolook at where they went, what
worked, what didn't work, whatthey should keep doing, what
should they stop doing in thebookkeeping.
And then they're trying tocreate a business plan, go get a
loan, find an investor.
I want to hit $100,000 in sales.
I want to hit a million dollarsin sales.
(17:31):
But they don't know where theyjust were.
How are you going to get there?
You don't know what you justdid.
So I had this light bulb momentsitting in the boardroom after
a board meeting and I said, ohmy God, every single business
owner needs the same thing.
I don't care how big you are, Idon't care how small you are.
I want you, the business ownerwho's aiming for a hundred
thousand dollars, to have accessto the same information as the
(17:53):
guy or gal who's making amillion dollars in revenue or $5
million in revenue, and sothat's when I created Kickstart
and now every single one of ourclients.
We're with thousands ofbusiness owners now and every
single one of them gets asnapshot.
It is a financial review CEOdashboard that I created back
(18:16):
when I was in corporate that weuse for every single one of our
clients so that business ownershave access to that information.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I love that and you touch on such an important point
.
Like I worked as a CEO for avery, very long time, so I've
been on the back end ofbusinesses and I've done the
operations piece, and the numberone thing that I think most
business owners have in commonis, for some reason, this fear
of actually looking at thenumbers, like the number of
people who have, you know, liketo be able to do operations in a
(18:46):
business.
I need to know what the budgetlooks like, I need to know what
the finances look like.
And the number of people I'veworked with who don't want to do
it, they procrastinate on thebookkeeping, they procrastinate
on the receipts because theydon't want to know what the
numbers are.
And my very educated guess isit's probably because they're
spending willy-nilly and they'rejust, you know, they're not
really keeping track of stuffand they're afraid to see all of
(19:07):
those investments they made onfear and on FOMO and because the
marketing was fancy and there'sa lot of like shame tied around
that, which I get.
But also get over yourself.
It's a business.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
But if we're not taking ourselves serious as a
business, we don't see it thatway, absolutely Right.
We we see it as we can.
We can make those investmentsbecause we're not taking
ourselves serious as a as abusiness owner.
Yeah, I do find that we have afew personality types.
We have our savers, but we alsohave our keepers.
So some people are spendingwilly-nilly, like you were
(19:44):
saying, like there's a lot ofemotional spending, there's a
lot of quick start spending.
I want it.
I want it now.
I call those our free spenders.
So, our free spenders are thepeople who they're not thinking
about their financials and theygo out and they're spending,
spend the money.
We also have our keepers, andour keepers are the people who
it never feels like enough.
So I also have just as manyclients who will come on and
(20:06):
they'll come into a client callLike we'll have a call with them
, and like their shoulders areall tense and like they like
shrug their shoulders.
They're like okay, like braced,tell me where to cut back.
And I'm like cut back, like youdidn't spend anything.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Loosen my strings.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, I'm like, what is all this cash sitting here
doing?
Well, I'm investing in thebusiness.
I said, investing in what?
Like well in the business.
I said, no, you're letting thecash pile up.
That's not investing in thebusiness.
You're just keeping it andsaving it.
Like well, yeah, you're justkeeping it and saving it.
Like well, it's invested.
So we have two different moneytypes.
Right, Our free spenders,they're going to go spend there.
They're the ones attracted tothat type of of of marketing and
(20:43):
other people are keeping it.
One other thing you know we havethis report card effect.
I call it the report cardeffect.
If you were to tell me like I,I wasn't a great student, I was
just I had other things to do.
I remember like carrying aroundbooks.
I was like reading books andtalking and my conversation was
more important.
So the report card would comeout and it would literally be
(21:07):
like you know, won't stoptalking, let's try again.
And then my parents, I would gohome and they ground me.
I'm like, well, like thatdidn't work last quarter, but
sure, let's try again thisquarter.
So how many of us have thatexperience as business owners?
I'm not the only one thattalked too much.
No-transcript.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And we forget that it doesn't work like that.
You don't fail.
You don't fail entrepreneurshipLike you failed eighth grade or
ninth grade.
You know, like you don't fail,you're not going to fail this
class, yeah, and so I thinkthat's created a lot of the
shame around.
I'm going to look at thisreport.
Somebody's going to tell me I'mnot good enough.
Now, I never should have beenan entrepreneur.
I knew it wasn't going to workout.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, well, I mean a lot of our, a lot of our culture
, I think is just really basedon a comparison and assessment
right.
You're either failing or you'rewinning.
You're either good or you'renot good.
There's no area for gray,there's no nuance, there's, you
know, none of that.
This actually kind of leadsinto the big question that I
(22:16):
want to kind of well, the bigthing that I want to talk about,
and it's this idea aroundemotional or fear-based spending
.
I mean, there's so much rhetoric, particularly from higher
ticket coaches, high pressurecoaches, high performance
coaches I'll put that in airquotes.
If you're not watching the, ifyou're not watching the YouTubes
, I air quoted that.
But there's this I'm sureeveryone has heard it at some
(22:40):
point that if you believe inyourself, you'll spend the money
.
And it's not rooted in thepragmatism of investing right,
looking at your goals, lookingat your strategy.
It's like if you believe inyourself, I have been told
personally to my face by coachesif you don't invest, you don't
believe you're going to be,you're capable of making that
(23:00):
money back.
And thank God I've got a littlebit more of a bullshit meter,
like I just I don't you know,but the number of people that I
have seen be harmed by that kindof rhetoric I would love for
you to speak to that.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
We all have to spend money in business.
We all have a goal for thisyear and we need to spend some
type of money to hit that goal.
We were seeing clients spend 50, 60, 70% of their income on
professional development andcoaches.
That is so much money, you guys.
Every dollar that's coming inis going back out in coaches,
(23:41):
investing with somebody, andit's not the best use of funds.
We can invest in advertising,marketing.
There's other places that wecan be investing those dollars
and I really only want anybusiness owner to spend between
five to 6% of your sales ontraining.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
That includes yeah, can we say that again?
Like I want you to listen tothat because I know a lot of you
if you kind of come from thesame spaces that I did the whole
profit first thing and you knowall of your operations
shouldn't be more than X percent.
I think it's 30 or 40%, yeah.
And then we lump training intothat and like five to six
(24:19):
percent.
Ok, so five or six dollars forevery hundred that you're making
.
I want you to think about thatand then think about the last
coach you paid and how much youpaid them and what you got out
of it.
Sorry, carry on.
Five to six percent, what doesthat look like?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, five to 6%.
What does that look like?
Yeah, five to 6%.
I mean I, I'm glad you, I meanthere's um in this healthy
percentages document that I'llshare.
You know we have needs,attention and high.
So for like nine, 10%, we juststart paying attention to that.
Like what are we doing?
And I also believe there's anarea that's too low, right?
If you're spending less than 3%of your sales, then I do
(24:55):
encourage you to go to aconference this year.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Buy an Audible book, right Like we do need some type
of training.
There are other types ofprofessional development that
don't all involve being coachedyes, one-to-one.
Yeah, or groups.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I don't sign up for any of those, I'm not a
participant in it, but we wehave a lot of clients who are
coaches and and clients who havepurchased with these coaches.
So I do understand it and, look, there's no shame in it.
If you spent the money and youdid buy into that, there's no
(25:29):
shame and hopefully you did getsomething out of it.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
You know like.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Hopefully you are able to look back on those
dollars and that time and beable to pull out the gratitude
of it and let's learn from it.
Pass or fail, let's learn fromit.
What are we going to dodifferently next year?
You have an opportunity thisyear to not purchase those, to
believe in yourself that you cando it without a coach and
(25:58):
without the accountabilitypartner and without spending
that money.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Do you feel like it's necessary to take a break from
that kind of thing?
Because I mean, personally, Iwill say that I do believe that
accountability is a necessity,but I will qualify that by
saying that a lot of theaccountability in the online
space is wishy-washyaccountability.
(26:22):
It's like oh, you get two callswith me per month, or you get
access through Vox.
That's not accountability,right?
That's micromanaging, that'swhatever you want to call it.
To me, accountability is verymuch someone who's going to hold
your feet to the fire and holdyou accountable.
To call it.
To me, accountability is verymuch someone who's going to hold
your feet to the fire and holdyou accountable to the
commitments you've made toyourself, and that is something
that's very, very rare, I think,in the online space,
(26:44):
particularly in the coachingspace.
But that's my personal belief.
I think that you are morepowerful when you have the right
kind of accountability, but,again, that doesn't necessarily
mean you have to invest in it.
It can be a best friend, it canbe a spouse or a partner or,
you know, a group of whatever,but I do think the
accountability needs to be there.
I think that we just need to besmarter about what that looks
(27:05):
like for us and where we'regetting it from.
Just because you've signed upwith a high ticket coach does
not necessarily mean thatthey're going to keep you
accountable.
Yeah Right.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I'll speak to this in two ways.
So we all need different thingsat different times in our
business.
So early on in my business andI heard this from a lot of other
business owners early on itmight be your first time being
your own boss.
It might be your first timeworking from home.
It might be your first timefeeling like I got this laundry
(27:36):
list of things that I need to do.
I am every role in my business.
How am I ever going to beeverything to everyone and every
client?
So there's a time early in yourbusiness that you might need
more accountability in terms oftasks and where your business is
going.
As you mature in your businessand you have other team members
(27:58):
you have built maybe a team whatyou need from outside coaches
is going to change right,absolutely.
Yeah, I run my business on EOS,so EOS is Entrepreneur Operating
System.
I meet with my leadership teamevery Tuesday, like if I don't
get shit done, they're going tobe pissed.
I'm setting a very bad example.
(28:21):
So I have a lot ofaccountability in my business
because I have, I've and we didhave an EOS implementer for a
long time.
So we did pay somebody to helpus implement this.
We're self-implementing now andso we're not spending those
dollars, and I have createdaccountability within my
business, so as you mature inyour business, you might find
(28:42):
accountability to other throughother mechanisms.
We provide accountability toour clients, so that's something
that we talk about with ourwith our clients is that if you
don't open the Snapchat email,we're not going to track you
down and say, hey, you didn'topen our email, although I would
really freaking like to like, Iwould love a read, receipt and
(29:03):
then resend to people who didn'topen it.
But passive, aggressive, butthat's okay, but we're going to
show up in your inbox everymonth and that's going to hold
you accountable.
So, whether whether youresponded to our email with the
statement or not, whether youwant to hear from me or not,
whether or not you did, if youhit your revenue goal last month
(29:23):
or not, we're going to show upin your inbox with your snapshot
and with your financials, andthat creates accountability.
So it's just what do you needat this season.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, but I also think it's a bit funny that,
like, if you, if you've investedin something like this and the
purpose is to be heldaccountable in some way, and
then you actively go out of yourway to avoid it, you know that
doesn't really make sense, butthere are again a lot of people
who do that because, yeah, so Imean my, my, my off likein-cheek
(29:54):
comment about being apassive-aggressive it's not,
it's 100% something I would do.
It's like listen, you paid mefor this information.
What are you doing with it?
You know so, absolutely.
I love how direct you are aboutlike look, stop pissing around.
This is your money and you needto be accountable to it and for
it.
And here are the ways to do it.
(30:16):
Where can people find you andlearn more about, like, what you
do, how you support clients andjust generally kind of be in
your, in your space, causeyou're kind of fun?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
I like you.
Well, thank you, kickstarterCounty Inc.
The website.
You could book a call, talk tous directly there.
We have our podcast business bythe books, talk about how to
use your numbers to run yourbusiness, every single week on
there.
So that's me personally talking.
You know, we, we, my team, andI believe that the minute you
(30:44):
start a business, you areresponsible, absolutely.
Yeah, you need to put your biggirl pants on, your big boy
pants on and and do the work,and I appreciate your, your show
and what you're doing, and welove to partner with business
owners to help you do the workright, like step into your CEO,
be the you know, take yourbusiness seriously, and we're
(31:08):
going to arm you with all theinformation you need in order to
be able to do that.
So, kickstarter County Inc.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I love that.
We'll have all the all thelinks in the show notes, as we
always do.
Any last words before we kindof sign off for the week.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Go, take some action.
All of this, you know, I listento podcasts all the time, and
if you don't do something withthe information, what are we
doing?
Right, like what did you justspend the last half hour
listening to us for?
So, whatever it might be, maybeit's you read your financial
statements from your bookkeeper.
Maybe it's you finally open upa business checking account.
You look at your numbers.
(31:42):
For the first time, you book acall with a bookkeeper, even if
it's not me.
But take some type of action,otherwise, what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
What are we doing Exactly, honestly?
All right.
So there you have it.
You have your homework for theweek.
Go and do a thing, because youknow what.
That's what this is all about.
2025 is the year of takingdecisive action.
Stop fucking around.
This is your business.
Let's make it worth something.
Let's fucking go.
Thank you very much for beinghere.
I appreciate you and, as always, my friends, you can have
(32:12):
success without the BS.
Just get out of your own damnway.
I'll talk to you next week.
That's it for this week.
Thanks for listening to theBusiness Blasphemy Podcast.
We'll be back next week with anew episode, but in the meantime
, help a sister out bysubscribing and, if you're
feeling extra sassy, rating thispodcast no-transcript.
Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast,
where we question the sacredtruths of the online business
space and the reverence withwhich they're held.
I'm your host, sarah Khanspeaker, strategic consultant
and BS busting badass.
Join me each week as wechallenge the norms, trends and
overall bullshit status quo ofentrepreneurship to uncover what
it really takes to build thebusiness that you want to build
(00:23):
in a way that honors you, yourlife and your vision for what's
possible, and maybe piss off afew gurus along the way.
So if you're ready to commitbusiness blasphemy, let's do it.
Hello, hello blasphemers,welcome back.
I am very excited to have thisconversation because, as you
know, bullshit does not fly withme.
(00:44):
So we're going to address someof the common rhetoric, the
common mantras, the commongaslighting that sometimes
happens in the space ofinvestments and money and all
good things.
Today I'm very excited towelcome my guest, danielle
Hayden.
She's here.
Please introduce yourself tothe group.
Thank you so much for havingguest Danielle Hayden.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
She's here.
Please introduce yourself tothe group.
Thank you so much for having me.
Danielle Hayden, I am thefounder of Kickstarter County
Inc.
Been in business for 10 yearsworking with entrepreneurs
across different online spaces,seen a lot of stories and really
excited to blast some BS today.
(01:25):
I told you before we hit record, I'm here for all of that.
There's lots in my space aroundmoney and tax and bookkeeping
and we could do this all day, sosuper excited.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Amazing.
And yeah, money is the thing.
Right, I had a conversation theother day it was around this
idea of oh well, the reason wehave to lead our marketing with
you want to make money isbecause of you know, this is
everybody wants to make money.
That's kind of the ground floorreason why we're in business,
right, exactly.
(01:57):
So it's a little bit dumb to methat that should be the
motivating factor for people toinvest in stuff.
But you know what?
We're just going to jump rightin.
How do you feel, like what goesthrough your mind when you see
people who are like promisingyou go through my program, you
work with me, I'm going to makeyou more money?
I mean, the potential is alwaysthere.
But, like, what are you seeingin your industry right now?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Or like what are you seeing from your perspective as
somebody who's in the financialspace?
That kind of makes your redflags go up.
So we work with a lot ofbusiness owners who were often
our clients' first hires somaybe a contractor, a copywriter
, something like that but we'reoften one of the first people
that our clients will work with.
And so we work with a lot ofsolopreneurs with.
And so we work with a lot ofsolopreneurs, people who are
striving to hit a hundredthousand $500,000 in revenue.
(02:54):
And what I see at this stage isthat we don't have our
confidence in ourselves yet.
And we're really good at thatthing.
Right, that other thing,whatever it might be, the reason
you came into entrepreneurship,you are good at that craft, but
you're not necessarily great atall the other business stuff.
It might be mindset, it mightbe money, it might be
bookkeeping, it might bemarketing, writing copy,
(03:15):
whatever it might be.
You don't have that confidenceas a well-rounded entrepreneur
and a well-rounded CEO.
Yet well-rounded entrepreneurand a well-rounded CEO, yet you
probably actually don't even seeyourself as a CEO.
And at this stage we're lookingfor other people to validate us
and to give us permission, andwe're looking and searching for
(03:39):
the tools outside of ourselves.
Now, there are times where thisis required because you're
never going to be an expert, soI use I'll use bookkeeping as an
example that that's what we doand I, I, you know bookkeeping
attacks and legal are kind ofthe core people who I went
through to school for like sevenyears.
(04:01):
I worked my ass off of my CPA.
Okay, like my team has so muchvery specific training legal,
your attorney has very specifictraining.
So when you start to hire,you're buying back your time and
so you're buying back the timethrough experts.
(04:22):
However, we're also trying tobuy learning and training and
we're searching outside ofourselves to give ourselves
permission to jump intoentrepreneurship, to exceed and
to be successful.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Now I'm really glad that you qualified.
The fact that you are a CPALike this is not just something
that you've learned in a weekendcourse or a 90 day program and
you're now peddling.
How do you feel, Cause I have afew friends that are in this
space and I know how they feelwhen they see people who have
done, you know, courses orcertifications or programs and
they're offering financialadvice.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, I got.
Um, I have to.
I need to get it off myInstagram algorithm because it's
pissing me off.
So there's these, these peopleon Instagram that I guess are
like tax influencers I don'tknow, and they're.
It's a thing that's weird andof course they're targeting me,
but I will watch these reels andthey are talking about add your
(05:24):
husband or your spouse and yourkids and your aunt or uncle to
your board of directors and then, when you go on vacation,
you're really having a boardmeeting and it's paying for your
board meeting, and now you getthe tax write-off.
Stop the bullshit here.
Okay, that's a vacation, andhow about you start taking
(05:46):
yourself half serious as abusiness owner and form a real
board of directors?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yes.
So if you are a business ownerwho is taking themselves serious
, right, you're taking yourselfserious, you're stepping into
your power as a CEO, you'rebuilding a business that you
want to create a life, healthy,sustainable, profitable business
.
You have to have healthy,sustainable and you have to be
profitable.
You can't be spending all ofyour business money on vacations
(06:15):
and then be like, well, why ismy business not profitable?
I can't get a loan, I can't buya house, I can't sell my
business, but I took my familyon vacation every year.
But if you had a real board ofdirectors, you might've grown
your business.
If you were profitable, youmight've gotten the loan.
So to me, kind of long-windedanswer I don't pay much
attention to the bookkeepers whoare out there, who are the
(06:39):
neighbor, the aunt, the cousinright, they did a course
somewhere because they don'ttake themselves serious.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Right, like they're not a competitor to me, like it
bothers me that they're outthere and they're hurting
business owners, like I trulybelieve they're hurting somebody
and that pains me, but like Idon't see them as interfering in
my space.
But I feel bad for the businessowners who are to come across
them and trust them.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Well, I've often said , are you running a business or
are you play acting at being abusiness owner?
Because I think there's a verydistinct difference.
And for you who are in thisspace and you have the
credentials and you have, youknow, the knowledge and the
insights, you may not see themas competitors or even anyone to
really kind of give energy to,but for entrepreneurs who are
(07:28):
maybe starting out, maybe not asprofitable as they need to be,
I can see the attraction,because they're often people who
are peddling solutions thatfeel sexy, they feel easy and,
let's be honest, they're oftennot charging the kind of rates
that professionals charge, right, and so that's the attraction.
So if you've got anentrepreneur out there who is
(07:50):
looking to hire an accountant ora bookkeeper or anyone in the
financial space, do they need tobe looking for a certification,
do they need to be looking forsome kind of credential, or are
there kind of boxes that theycan check to make sure that
they're getting somebody whoactually is not going to be like
steering them towards doingsomething that's not quite
ethical, maybe even bordering onillegal?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So I'm going to talk about the four people I think
you believe that I believe thatyou need on your money team, and
then who I would qualify forthose people to be.
When I started Kickstarteraccounting nine years ago, I was
very intentional with startinga bookkeeping firm, because you
can't file a tax return, createa budget, make a business plan,
(08:29):
put it together a strategy,without knowing bookkeeping
first.
Everything starts withbookkeeping.
You have to have accurate,organized numbers on a regular
basis, provided to you as a CEOvia a CEO dashboard every single
month.
So bookkeeping bookkeeper isthe first person that you need.
(08:52):
Now I am a CPA.
My background is as a CFO, so Iworked as a chief financial
officer before starting my firm.
If you find somebody who has atax background, that's going to
be their focus.
So you really need to decidewhat's most important to you.
Are you running your businessto show a loss and not pay taxes
(09:13):
and have a tax write-off?
Because that's the thing Somepeople are just like.
I'll be able to write off myhome office, my car, my gas, my
meals, and so my business islike a nice write-off cushion
for me to save money on my taxes.
If that's your goal, thenfinding a bookkeeper that works
with your CPA or really isn'tsending you financial reports
(09:36):
isn't helping you in anymeaningful way.
That their focus is on tax,that's fine, because that's the
goal of your business.
If the goal of your business isto Fine, because that's the
goal of your business.
If the goal of your business isto scale, if the goal of your
business is to grow, is to stepinto being a CEO and leaving a
legacy, then you want to find apartner that aligns with that.
(09:58):
So for us, we are sending ourclients a CEO dashboard that we
call the snapshot, every monthso that it's easy for them to
read.
We offer ongoing calls foraccountability.
So you want to find the rightpartner in a bookkeeper of like
what is your focus?
So that's team number one.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, absolutely.
Next is your CPA or tax advisor.
So their only job really is toprepare your tax return.
(10:20):
Most tax accounts are onlydoing the bookkeeping to file
the tax return and their adviceis tax focused, not business
focused.
I had a client who was planningon opening up a brick and mortar
location In December.
Her CPA said you have too muchprofit, you need to take a bonus
(10:43):
.
Pay your team a bonus.
You got to get rid of thisprofit before you have to pay
taxes on it.
She listened to him.
This poor woman has been in acycle for three years because
she spent a hundred thousanddollars that December.
In March she opened up herbrick and mortar location.
What the CPA didn't take intoconsideration is the fact that
(11:05):
she needed that money to open itup.
Should she have thought of iton her own, I don't know, maybe,
but she was working on theadvice of her CPA, which so many
of us do.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
That's why we hire professionals, because we aren't
experts in everything.
We don't know the ins and outsof everything.
Right, that's wow.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Exactly.
So you trust.
So you trust.
Now she's been in a debt cyclebecause she had to take on all
this debt to actually open thestore.
Okay, I derail.
The second person is your taxpreparer.
They will have a qualificationof an EA or a CPA.
Not every tax preparer has tohave a CPA.
If you want them to have that,then you'll want to find a firm
who has who is ran by by CPAs.
They have a team of preparersand EAs and non-CPAs who who
(11:49):
work for them, but it's ran by aCPA.
So at my firm we have our ourour tax team who who prepares
the tax return, but they'reworking with the bookkeeping
team to give advice so that it'snot tax focused.
It is business and tax focused.
(12:10):
So when you're looking forsomebody, you just have to know
what's important to you.
There's two more people I wanton your team.
The third person is a financialadvisor, and financial advisor
is somebody who takes in the bigpicture.
It's totally differentqualification than a CPA.
They are looking at yourretirement, your IRA, your
(12:32):
personal and your business.
So we need that third person onyour team looking at the whole
picture.
The fourth person is a CFO or abusiness coach.
When we work with our clientsas their CFO, we are walking
them through a goal settingprocess, looking forward, so
bookkeeping is going backwards,cfo is going forward and so
(12:52):
we're looking at the goals ofthe individual and the business
and setting the budget to getthem to those goals.
So you want all four people andthey're all four different
qualifications.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So when you're a solo let's say you're a solopreneur
you're just starting out, you'rein your first five years,
because we all know and I'vetalked about this before you're
not really going to start makingany kind of meaningful profit
in those first few years, likeit's.
It's, you've really got tobuild it up.
But if you're in those firstfew years, who is the?
(13:22):
I guess, like, if you canreally only afford to pay, you
know one fractional team memberor have someone in part-time or
even full-time who's the firstperson, who's the first
financial investment you shouldbe making?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
The bookkeeper, because you can't do any of the
other things without abookkeeper.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Heard it here first, bookkeeper you have to have a
bookkeeper.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Now, this is most people here.
I need a CPA because I have tofile my taxes.
How's your CPA going to fileyour taxes without bookkeeping?
They can't.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
What about?
Like your QuickBooks and you'redoing it on your own?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I mean you could.
Here's the hardest conversationI've ever had.
We had a client who came to uslast year and she was so
confident that her books wereright.
She had been doing it herselffor years and we had found that
she was overstating her income.
Expenses were duplicated.
This poor woman had to amendfour years of her taxes.
She had a giant tax bill.
(14:20):
You are not a bookkeeper.
You cannot do it on your own.
I can't do what you do, right,Like we all have a specialty, a
zone of genius, and bookkeepingis so serious.
You can't file taxes withincorrect bookkeeping.
You can't do a budget andprojections without accurate
bookkeeping.
(14:40):
And you can find a firm likeour prices started $150 a month,
right, Like you, you find afirm that helps you where you
are.
So if you're, if you have ahundred thousand dollars a year
in revenue, we have prices thatmatch that.
So you find a firm I'm notsaying that we're your firm, but
like go find a firm that haspricing that matches that so
that you can grow within that.
(15:02):
So you'll need a bookkeeper.
And then I'd actually ratheryou file your own tax return
than I would your bookkeeping.
Yeah, cause you could, I meanyou want the numbers to be
accurate, right?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, yeah, amazing, okay.
So before we go into thequestion that I really want to
ask, tell me a little bit aboutyour villain origin story.
How did you come?
Because you said you were a cfobefore.
How did you come to beentrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I feel like it's been in my, my blood for forever.
Um, I had that nice rollercoaster ride.
I'm a creative at heart, so Iactually started my career as a
hairdresser I did cosmetology inhigh school.
Oh my God, so did I, did youreally, and I hated every minute
of it.
Oh see, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
I loved it.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I'm not creative enough to cut someone's hair
Like I'm just going to say thatright now, yeah, it's there's so
much fear, so much fear anyway.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh my gosh, I love it .
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I love it, so I I did .
I worked behind the chair for along time.
I love doing like there wasnothing more fun than coloring
somebody's hair and then doingthis fun haircut to accentuate
the color, whatever.
But what happened during thattime is that I was helping the
girls in the salon because Ikept on hitting the goals.
The salon said that you gotmore commission for each tier
(16:12):
that you brought in and I justknew how to maximize it and I
played the game with money, andso I was teaching the girls in
the salon how to play the gamewith money and how to hit their
goals and how to understandtheir paycheck.
Then I went, and then I decidedto go back to school and when I
went into corporate, I wasdoing the same thing.
(16:34):
I was teaching the CEOs, theboard of directors, the
investors the game of money andI was showing them.
Here's what just happened.
Here's where we're going.
How do we use this data to makebusiness decisions?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I played that game of money with them.
Now I'll never forget.
I had a business owner who hadasked me to help them put
together a budget.
And I'm like you can't puttogether a budget without the
bookkeeping.
I'm like I can't.
What do you want me to?
How do you want me to budgetyou?
You don't know where you were.
I can't tell you where you'regoing.
And I had this epiphany momentand I was like, oh my God,
(17:11):
that's the problem.
Business owners are skippingthis whole step.
They're not taking the time tolook at where they went, what
worked, what didn't work, whatthey should keep doing, what
should they stop doing in thebookkeeping.
And then they're trying tocreate a business plan, go get a
loan, find an investor.
I want to hit $100,000 in sales.
I want to hit a million dollarsin sales.
(17:31):
But they don't know where theyjust were.
How are you going to get there?
You don't know what you justdid.
So I had this light bulb momentsitting in the boardroom after
a board meeting and I said, ohmy God, every single business
owner needs the same thing.
I don't care how big you are, Idon't care how small you are.
I want you, the business ownerwho's aiming for a hundred
thousand dollars, to have accessto the same information as the
(17:53):
guy or gal who's making amillion dollars in revenue or $5
million in revenue, and sothat's when I created Kickstart
and now every single one of ourclients.
We're with thousands ofbusiness owners now and every
single one of them gets asnapshot.
It is a financial review CEOdashboard that I created back
(18:16):
when I was in corporate that weuse for every single one of our
clients so that business ownershave access to that information.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I love that and you touch on such an important point
.
Like I worked as a CEO for avery, very long time, so I've
been on the back end ofbusinesses and I've done the
operations piece, and the numberone thing that I think most
business owners have in commonis, for some reason, this fear
of actually looking at thenumbers, like the number of
people who have, you know, liketo be able to do operations in a
(18:46):
business.
I need to know what the budgetlooks like, I need to know what
the finances look like.
And the number of people I'veworked with who don't want to do
it, they procrastinate on thebookkeeping, they procrastinate
on the receipts because theydon't want to know what the
numbers are.
And my very educated guess isit's probably because they're
spending willy-nilly and they'rejust, you know, they're not
really keeping track of stuffand they're afraid to see all of
(19:07):
those investments they made onfear and on FOMO and because the
marketing was fancy and there'sa lot of like shame tied around
that, which I get.
But also get over yourself.
It's a business.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
But if we're not taking ourselves serious as a
business, we don't see it thatway, absolutely Right.
We we see it as we can.
We can make those investmentsbecause we're not taking
ourselves serious as a as abusiness owner.
Yeah, I do find that we have afew personality types.
We have our savers, but we alsohave our keepers.
So some people are spendingwilly-nilly, like you were
(19:44):
saying, like there's a lot ofemotional spending, there's a
lot of quick start spending.
I want it.
I want it now.
I call those our free spenders.
So, our free spenders are thepeople who they're not thinking
about their financials and theygo out and they're spending,
spend the money.
We also have our keepers, andour keepers are the people who
it never feels like enough.
So I also have just as manyclients who will come on and
(20:06):
they'll come into a client callLike we'll have a call with them
, and like their shoulders areall tense and like they like
shrug their shoulders.
They're like okay, like braced,tell me where to cut back.
And I'm like cut back, like youdidn't spend anything.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Loosen my strings.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, I'm like, what is all this cash sitting here
doing?
Well, I'm investing in thebusiness.
I said, investing in what?
Like well in the business.
I said, no, you're letting thecash pile up.
That's not investing in thebusiness.
You're just keeping it andsaving it.
Like well, yeah, you're justkeeping it and saving it.
Like well, it's invested.
So we have two different moneytypes.
Right, Our free spenders,they're going to go spend there.
They're the ones attracted tothat type of of of marketing and
(20:43):
other people are keeping it.
One other thing you know we havethis report card effect.
I call it the report cardeffect.
If you were to tell me like I,I wasn't a great student, I was
just I had other things to do.
I remember like carrying aroundbooks.
I was like reading books andtalking and my conversation was
more important.
So the report card would comeout and it would literally be
(21:07):
like you know, won't stoptalking, let's try again.
And then my parents, I would gohome and they ground me.
I'm like, well, like thatdidn't work last quarter, but
sure, let's try again thisquarter.
So how many of us have thatexperience as business owners?
I'm not the only one thattalked too much.
No-transcript.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And we forget that it doesn't work like that.
You don't fail.
You don't fail entrepreneurshipLike you failed eighth grade or
ninth grade.
You know, like you don't fail,you're not going to fail this
class, yeah, and so I thinkthat's created a lot of the
shame around.
I'm going to look at thisreport.
Somebody's going to tell me I'mnot good enough.
Now, I never should have beenan entrepreneur.
I knew it wasn't going to workout.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, well, I mean a lot of our, a lot of our culture
, I think is just really basedon a comparison and assessment
right.
You're either failing or you'rewinning.
You're either good or you'renot good.
There's no area for gray,there's no nuance, there's, you
know, none of that.
This actually kind of leadsinto the big question that I
(22:16):
want to kind of well, the bigthing that I want to talk about,
and it's this idea aroundemotional or fear-based spending
.
I mean, there's so much rhetoric, particularly from higher
ticket coaches, high pressurecoaches, high performance
coaches I'll put that in airquotes.
If you're not watching the, ifyou're not watching the YouTubes
, I air quoted that.
But there's this I'm sureeveryone has heard it at some
(22:40):
point that if you believe inyourself, you'll spend the money
.
And it's not rooted in thepragmatism of investing right,
looking at your goals, lookingat your strategy.
It's like if you believe inyourself, I have been told
personally to my face by coachesif you don't invest, you don't
believe you're going to be,you're capable of making that
(23:00):
money back.
And thank God I've got a littlebit more of a bullshit meter,
like I just I don't you know,but the number of people that I
have seen be harmed by that kindof rhetoric I would love for
you to speak to that.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
We all have to spend money in business.
We all have a goal for thisyear and we need to spend some
type of money to hit that goal.
We were seeing clients spend 50, 60, 70% of their income on
professional development andcoaches.
That is so much money, you guys.
Every dollar that's coming inis going back out in coaches,
(23:41):
investing with somebody, andit's not the best use of funds.
We can invest in advertising,marketing.
There's other places that wecan be investing those dollars
and I really only want anybusiness owner to spend between
five to 6% of your sales ontraining.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
That includes yeah, can we say that again?
Like I want you to listen tothat because I know a lot of you
if you kind of come from thesame spaces that I did the whole
profit first thing and you knowall of your operations
shouldn't be more than X percent.
I think it's 30 or 40%, yeah.
And then we lump training intothat and like five to six
(24:19):
percent.
Ok, so five or six dollars forevery hundred that you're making
.
I want you to think about thatand then think about the last
coach you paid and how much youpaid them and what you got out
of it.
Sorry, carry on.
Five to six percent, what doesthat look like?
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, five to 6%.
What does that look like?
Yeah, five to 6%.
I mean I, I'm glad you, I meanthere's um in this healthy
percentages document that I'llshare.
You know we have needs,attention and high.
So for like nine, 10%, we juststart paying attention to that.
Like what are we doing?
And I also believe there's anarea that's too low, right?
If you're spending less than 3%of your sales, then I do
(24:55):
encourage you to go to aconference this year.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Buy an Audible book, right Like we do need some type
of training.
There are other types ofprofessional development that
don't all involve being coachedyes, one-to-one.
Yeah, or groups.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I don't sign up for any of those, I'm not a
participant in it, but we wehave a lot of clients who are
coaches and and clients who havepurchased with these coaches.
So I do understand it and, look, there's no shame in it.
If you spent the money and youdid buy into that, there's no
(25:29):
shame and hopefully you did getsomething out of it.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
You know like.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Hopefully you are able to look back on those
dollars and that time and beable to pull out the gratitude
of it and let's learn from it.
Pass or fail, let's learn fromit.
What are we going to dodifferently next year?
You have an opportunity thisyear to not purchase those, to
believe in yourself that you cando it without a coach and
(25:58):
without the accountabilitypartner and without spending
that money.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Do you feel like it's necessary to take a break from
that kind of thing?
Because I mean, personally, Iwill say that I do believe that
accountability is a necessity,but I will qualify that by
saying that a lot of theaccountability in the online
space is wishy-washyaccountability.
(26:22):
It's like oh, you get two callswith me per month, or you get
access through Vox.
That's not accountability,right?
That's micromanaging, that'swhatever you want to call it.
To me, accountability is verymuch someone who's going to hold
your feet to the fire and holdyou accountable.
To call it.
To me, accountability is verymuch someone who's going to hold
your feet to the fire and holdyou accountable to the
commitments you've made toyourself, and that is something
that's very, very rare, I think,in the online space,
(26:44):
particularly in the coachingspace.
But that's my personal belief.
I think that you are morepowerful when you have the right
kind of accountability, but,again, that doesn't necessarily
mean you have to invest in it.
It can be a best friend, it canbe a spouse or a partner or,
you know, a group of whatever,but I do think the
accountability needs to be there.
I think that we just need to besmarter about what that looks
(27:05):
like for us and where we'regetting it from.
Just because you've signed upwith a high ticket coach does
not necessarily mean thatthey're going to keep you
accountable.
Yeah Right.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
I'll speak to this in two ways.
So we all need different thingsat different times in our
business.
So early on in my business andI heard this from a lot of other
business owners early on itmight be your first time being
your own boss.
It might be your first timeworking from home.
It might be your first timefeeling like I got this laundry
(27:36):
list of things that I need to do.
I am every role in my business.
How am I ever going to beeverything to everyone and every
client?
So there's a time early in yourbusiness that you might need
more accountability in terms oftasks and where your business is
going.
As you mature in your businessand you have other team members
(27:58):
you have built maybe a team whatyou need from outside coaches
is going to change right,absolutely.
Yeah, I run my business on EOS,so EOS is Entrepreneur Operating
System.
I meet with my leadership teamevery Tuesday, like if I don't
get shit done, they're going tobe pissed.
I'm setting a very bad example.
(28:21):
So I have a lot ofaccountability in my business
because I have, I've and we didhave an EOS implementer for a
long time.
So we did pay somebody to helpus implement this.
We're self-implementing now andso we're not spending those
dollars, and I have createdaccountability within my
business, so as you mature inyour business, you might find
(28:42):
accountability to other throughother mechanisms.
We provide accountability toour clients, so that's something
that we talk about with ourwith our clients is that if you
don't open the Snapchat email,we're not going to track you
down and say, hey, you didn'topen our email, although I would
really freaking like to like, Iwould love a read, receipt and
(29:03):
then resend to people who didn'topen it.
But passive, aggressive, butthat's okay, but we're going to
show up in your inbox everymonth and that's going to hold
you accountable.
So, whether whether youresponded to our email with the
statement or not, whether youwant to hear from me or not,
whether or not you did, if youhit your revenue goal last month
(29:23):
or not, we're going to show upin your inbox with your snapshot
and with your financials, andthat creates accountability.
So it's just what do you needat this season.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, but I also think it's a bit funny that,
like, if you, if you've investedin something like this and the
purpose is to be heldaccountable in some way, and
then you actively go out of yourway to avoid it, you know that
doesn't really make sense, butthere are again a lot of people
who do that because, yeah, so Imean my, my, my off likein-cheek
(29:54):
comment about being apassive-aggressive it's not,
it's 100% something I would do.
It's like listen, you paid mefor this information.
What are you doing with it?
You know so, absolutely.
I love how direct you are aboutlike look, stop pissing around.
This is your money and you needto be accountable to it and for
it.
And here are the ways to do it.
(30:16):
Where can people find you andlearn more about, like, what you
do, how you support clients andjust generally kind of be in
your, in your space, causeyou're kind of fun?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
I like you.
Well, thank you, kickstarterCounty Inc.
The website.
You could book a call, talk tous directly there.
We have our podcast business bythe books, talk about how to
use your numbers to run yourbusiness, every single week on
there.
So that's me personally talking.
You know, we, we, my team, andI believe that the minute you
(30:44):
start a business, you areresponsible, absolutely.
Yeah, you need to put your biggirl pants on, your big boy
pants on and and do the work,and I appreciate your, your show
and what you're doing, and welove to partner with business
owners to help you do the workright, like step into your CEO,
be the you know, take yourbusiness seriously, and we're
(31:08):
going to arm you with all theinformation you need in order to
be able to do that.
So, kickstarter County Inc.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I love that.
We'll have all the all thelinks in the show notes, as we
always do.
Any last words before we kindof sign off for the week.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Go, take some action.
All of this, you know, I listento podcasts all the time, and
if you don't do something withthe information, what are we
doing?
Right, like what did you justspend the last half hour
listening to us for?
So, whatever it might be, maybeit's you read your financial
statements from your bookkeeper.
Maybe it's you finally open upa business checking account.
You look at your numbers.
(31:42):
For the first time, you book acall with a bookkeeper, even if
it's not me.
But take some type of action,otherwise, what are we doing?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
What are we doing Exactly, honestly?
All right.
So there you have it.
You have your homework for theweek.
Go and do a thing, because youknow what.
That's what this is all about.
2025 is the year of takingdecisive action.
Stop fucking around.
This is your business.
Let's make it worth something.
Let's fucking go.
Thank you very much for beinghere.
I appreciate you and, as always, my friends, you can have
(32:12):
success without the BS.
Just get out of your own damnway.
I'll talk to you next week.
That's it for this week.
Thanks for listening to theBusiness Blasphemy Podcast.
We'll be back next week with anew episode, but in the meantime
, help a sister out bysubscribing and, if you're
feeling extra sassy, rating thispodcast no-transcript.
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