August 19, 2025 • 30 mins
Welcome to Spark & Ignite Your Marketing, the podcast where real conversations meet real strategies. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell, founder and fairy godmother of brand clarity at Wickedly Branded. With over 25 years of experience, I’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs awaken their brand magic, attract the right people, and build businesses that light them up.
What if your financial numbers could tell the story of your business’s future—and rewrite it for the better? In this episode, I sit down with profitability strategist Leslie Taylor to unpack how entrepreneurs can stop ignoring the numbers, ditch financial fear, and finally step into empowered, data-driven decisions. From Leslie’s inspiring pivot from food scientist to founder to her honest take on business seasons, this conversation is filled with financial clarity, mindset reframes, and real-life stories of resilience and revenue.
Three Key Marketing Topics Discussed:
- Using Financial Data to Guide Strategy: Leslie explains how understanding your numbers isn't just about taxes; it helps entrepreneurs make more confident, strategic decisions. Learn about how we can help you with your Marketing Strategy!
- Reframing the Shame Around Money and Visibility: She shares how money mindset and fear of judgment (especially transitioning from corporate to entrepreneurship) can hold back visibility and brand confidence.
- Positioning for Profit and Clarity: Leslie talks about how her business stands out by offering forward-looking, insight-driven financial support, positioning her firm differently from traditional bookkeeping or tax services.
Follow Leslie:
Leslie Taylor | LinkedIn
Leslie Taylor | Instagram
Leslie Taylor | Website
P.S. Take the first step (will only take you 3 minutes) to awaken your brand magic with our personalized Brand Clarity Quiz
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Beverly (00:00):
Did you know that 82% of small businesses fail due to
cash flow issues?
And many of them have no ideauntil it's way too late.
Financial blind spots can costbusiness owners their dreams.
But they don't have to.
I'm your host, Beverly Cornell,founder and fairy
godmother of brand clarity atwickedly branded.
With
over 25 years of helping hundreds of
(00:21):
purpose-driven entrepreneursawaken their brand magic and
boldly bring it to life so thatthey can magnify their impact in
the world.
And today, we are pulling backthe curtain on financial
storytelling, entrepreneurialresilience and profitability
with Leslie Taylor, thepowerhouse behind Leslie Taylor
and Associates businesssolutions from chemical engineer
(00:41):
and food scientist to chiefprofitability strategist Leslie
helps entrepreneurs understandwhat their numbers are really
telling them and how to usethose insights to grow.
Her story is one of courage andclarity and purpose, and I
cannot wait to share it withyou.
Leslie, welcome to the SparkIgnite Your Marketing podcast.
Leslie (00:59):
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Beverly, andthank you for that fabulous
introduction.
I'm excited to be here.
I'm excited to have thisconversation.
Beverly (01:08):
Yes I'm excited to spend some time with you,
learning more about you.
So let's go back to the chemicalengineer thing.
How do you go from chemicalengineer to profitability
strategist
Leslie (01:17):
I'm glad you asked because these are all things
that I'm very passionate about.
So how did all this happen?
It's a question I get often.
It really all started first withhigh school.
In high school I felt thisreally strong calling to
entrepreneurship.
My immediate family, there wereno entrepreneurs, and so I was
focused on what I knew, math andscience.
So math, science, where can Imake good money engineering.
(01:39):
That led me to chemicalengineering.
And while I enjoyed chemicalengineering, I decided to go
back to school and get a degreein food science.
And so for me, putting togetherscience with food and cooking,
which I love to do, I come froma cooking family, my
grandmother, my mother that wassomething that just brought
everything together.
And then I wanna say a littlething.
When I say science, it doesn'tmean we're putting necessarily
(02:01):
weird things in the food.
It just means everything we dois science.
So I got a degree in foodscience and then I minored in
business with a focus onentrepreneurship.
And so I spent close to twodecades in corporate America as
a product developer and atechnical leader.
I developed new products, I ledtechnical teams.
I worked on multimillion dollarbrands.
(02:24):
And one of the things that I wasmost excited about, honestly,
I'm a data nerd.
So using data to help thosecompanies make profitable
decisions, like I lovestatistics, I love the numbers.
So that was where all of thisfits into what I do today.
So that was great.
I was comfortable making greatmoney, but this calling to start
my own business was alwaysthere.
(02:45):
It was just always there.
And later on, life would bringmore clarity.
I got married, I had a son.
And I started to see thisconflict between the path I was
on and the life that I wanted.
I could look into the future andI could see that I needed more
flexibility.
I am a sandwich generationwoman, so my parents are in
(03:06):
their eighties, we have a son,he's 13.
We're both working in corporate,my husband and I.
And I just could see that I'mgonna need more flexibility.
This isn't gonna work for thetype of mom I wanna be, the type
of wife I wanna be, the type ofdaughter I wanna be.
I could see that.
And then there was thisentrepreneur thing.
So quite honestly, the reasonwhy I made the jump, I believe,
was because God was tired of merepeatedly saying, okay, this is
(03:30):
gonna be my last corporate job.
Okay no.
This is gonna be my lastcorporate job.
I kept saying that over andover, and I think he just got
tired.
So in 2017, I was in a corporatejob that was the most
challenging of my workexperience ever.
Not in a good way.
And it took me further away frommy why, which was my family.
I had less time for them.
(03:51):
That was when I knew okay, I'mgonna have to take this step out
on faith and do somethingdifferent.
And as I began that journey andstarted researching, I took a
class in financial accounting.
The one class that I missed whenI did my minor in in
entrepreneurship.
And I loved it.
And I was like, this is awesome.
Numbers tell a story.
And, I'd already done that workin corporate and I just realized
(04:13):
that I could use my datanerdiness to help entrepreneurs
who often struggle with thefinancial side of their
businesses, right?
Everybody starts a business andthey wanna be profitable and
they wanna have a successfulbusiness and they wanna have
enough money to do the thingsthat they want to do, but so
many entrepreneurs are blindwhen it comes to this part of
their business.
So that's how Leslie Taylor andAssociates was born.
(04:36):
And our focus is heavy onhelping our clients, understand
the stories their numbers aretelling.
Beverly (04:42):
There's so many things that you've said that I really
wanna go a little deeper on.
First, the cooking science.
I love to cook.
I grow my own food.
There is always a chemicalreaction that's happening.
There's all kinds of sciencethat happened and there's data
in that too.
I love this idea of thescientist, and I love the idea
of data and the researcher.
I worked in advertising, workedin corporate, I worked for
(05:04):
Chrysler, and I was at theChrysler headquarters in Hills,
Michigan.
And I was in charge of a billiondollar events budget.
Like more zeros than I'd everseen in my life.
And I was like 24 years old.
I remember going home and havingnightmares about decimal being
in the wrong place.
Somehow I would put it in thewrong place and someone would
get way too much money, it'd beall my fault.
(05:24):
I was an advertising girl, like,why are you giving me this
financial responsibility?
At 24?
And as a creative person, I am abranding and digital marketing
agency.
I love all that side, but, I'mgonna be real honest with you.
I probably didn't really careabout my finances, like looking
closely unless I made payroll,which my only thing was look,
what did I owe me?
I don't look at anything forprobably the first five, six
(05:46):
years.
And it wasn't until I got realclear on my numbers, like how
many of my connection calls Ihad to make to get to my first
level of service.
What are my numbers?
What can I project?
What does this look like for me?
Like even for growth for peopleon my team.
Until I got really clear on thatand that wasn't because of me,
that was because I outsourced itto someone else who was way
(06:08):
better at it than I could everbe.
That was the first investment Imade because those numbers are
so important for you to keepgoing and to know how to grow in
the next best steps.
We tell stories all day long.
Marketing, we do that all daylong.
So the fact that you take dataand make a story, I love the
story that.
Data tells me, but I don't likeall the data part.
(06:28):
We're in this process right nowof putting together a growth
flywheel, which is like ourentire customer journey.
And then we have numbers relatedto every step of the journey.
And we can easily know who'saccountable for those particular
steps and whether it's we havebenchmarks and we have minimums
and all kinds of things.
When we do that we then can lookat real easily where we need to
(06:50):
put our goals and our attentionto based on those.
So the numbers now are like soingrained in the story that you
probably can't imagine nothaving those.
Exactly.
So tell me how, what is yourapproach, what is the thing that
makes your firm a littledifferent than a traditional
accounting firm that is reallyall about clients uncovering
their numbers and uncovering thestory?
Leslie (07:10):
Our approach is to really spend a lot of time
understanding the businessitself.
So if I take a step back and Ijust look at the industry as a
whole for small businesses interms of what's available in the
financial space, you find thereare services that will help you
organize your numbers.
And organization is great,right?
We all need to be organized.
(07:31):
We don't wanna be a mess.
There are services that help youwith tax filing and tax
planning, and that's allimportant.
But where we sit is the spacewhere we are spending more time.
We're very high touch, right?
I'm meeting with clients.
We're meeting with clientseither monthly or quarterly.
So we're high touch with ourclients.
(07:51):
That allows us to get anopportunity to understand their
businesses and then best advisethem so we understand their
business.
So it starts in my business withwhat I call a profitability
assessment.
Before we work with any clients,we have to do an assessment.
That assessment isn't just goinginto their QuickBooks and
looking at what's in there orlooking at their bank
statements.
It's understanding theirbusiness.
(08:13):
It's understanding how do theyget paid.
Do you have employees?
How many, how are you payingthem?
Because, some people are justpaying folks by Zelle, then we
need to work on that.
But also how, what's theirvision for the business?
Like why are you in business?
Where are you trying to go?
Because then it also informs howI make recommendations, right?
I'm gonna make a customizedrecommendation for you based on
(08:35):
all these things because you'redifferent than the next client,
than the next client.
So we actually take the time toget to understand the business
and then we can make the bestrecommendations as far as how
they move forward.
I think that's what really setsus apart, is taking the time to
do that, spending the time doingthat.
I would say that's one of thebiggest differentiators for us.
Beverly (08:56):
I know a lot of business owners, myself
included, I'm gonna raise myhand here, are a little
embarrassed about their numbers.
And I've just been trying tofigure it out as I go along.
I was never wanted to be anentrepreneur like you.
I actually went in kicking andscreaming.
Totally accidental.
I married an active duty armyguy and I had to take my show on
the road.
That's really what it came downto.
So I had to figure it out, but Iknew how much work it was gonna
(09:18):
be.
'cause I worked for a techstartup just before I married my
husband, so I had helped grow acompany from, under a million to
10 million.
And I knew how hard that was andI was like, I don't know if I
wanna do this for myself.
But clearly I did.
I just had to figure out somethings.
But I remember just being reallyembarrassed that I didn't know
what I didn't know.
Yes.
And yes, so many people feellike they shouldn't go to
(09:40):
someone because they feel likethey're embarrassed.
Leslie (09:42):
You're absolutely right.
I wanna highlight what you justsaid because it's extremely
common.
Men and women.
But I would say maybe a littlemore so for women, and some of
that is traditionally women arenot steered towards STEM
careers.
So when we talk about math andscience and numbers and things
like that, through school we'reprogrammed this is not for you.
(10:05):
This is not your thing.
You're not really good at this.
So when you have those messagesall those years and then you
become an adult and then you'redealing with financials and
numbers.
it's these messages have toldyou're not good at it or you
shouldn't be doing it.
And that's one part thatespecially affects women.
I just have to say this'causethis is something that I like to
share a lot and it's eyeopeningfor a lot of people.
(10:26):
It's okay that you don'tunderstand this stuff because
there's a lot of shame aroundI'm an entrepreneur, right?
I'm smart, right?
Maybe you went to school, maybeyou didn't, but I'm really smart
and I should understand this.
So I'm embarrassed that I don't,no, you shouldn't understand it.
There's no reason why you shouldunderstand it.
Unless you went to school foraccounting there's no reason for
you to understand it.
There's absolutely no reason.
(10:47):
So don't feel like you shouldunderstand it because you
shouldn't.
Beverly (10:51):
I think I felt extra pressure because I had done all
this budgeting and stuff forChrysler.
Why couldn't I do it for myself?
And I think a lot of that has todo with working in many zeros
versus, a couple of zeros.
It's a whole different mindsetand it really wasn't my money.
So it was easier to sit withinthat very right, left
constrained thing versus thisidea that it was so many
(11:12):
possibilities, so many things tothink about.
And I think the other thing thatwas at play for me, I don't know
if it is for other people.
Was this idea that I was doingeverything else, the accounting
was like the last thing I wantedto do.
So then it doesn't get doneright.
So I had this big box of justreceipts or whatever, and it was
like.
The bane of my existence comeJanuary one.
(11:34):
Yep.
Leslie (11:35):
and it's not your wheelhouse.
Absolutely not.
And it's uncomfortable and it'snot fun.
And you've waited maybe to thelast minute and it's built up
like this is, I mean it's supercommon, which is why generally
in this industry the end of theyear to the first quarter tends
to be the busiest.
Yeah.
Because as tax season rollsaround.
(11:56):
It becomes a bigger stressor andmore focused priority for
entrepreneurs.
So yeah that's why we usuallyhave a surge in new clients
because of that.
That is normal.
Beverly (12:08):
In January, I would say I'm gonna do this every single
week.
I'm not gonna get behind inevery single, like September or
October.
I'm like, oh crap, what have Idone to myself?
It was like this sado masochistcircle that I kept doing to
myself.
So if I could say one thing, andI have not worked with Leslie
specifically, but now is thetime to get your poop in a
group, so that when the end ofthe year comes you are not in my
(12:33):
position where I was stressedout and crazy and right.
Is there any other fears youthink people have related to
finances?
Leslie (12:39):
As I've worked with clients, I've found that there
is, how shall I say, a falsefreedom in not looking at your
numbers, right?
Because you're just spending.
You're just not looking at thetruth.
And so you're just spending.
Just this false freedom thatit's I don't know what it's
doing, so I'm just gonna spend,and I'm just gonna pray and hope
that it all works out.
And, sometimes it doesn't.
And that only works for so longuntil you run outta money.
(13:00):
But but I would say that'sanother one are people are
afraid to look at their numbersbecause they're afraid maybe I'm
not as profitable, maybe I'm notprofitable at all.
Like they're afraid of what theymight see.
And that's where we have theconversation and I say once we
look at it, we'll see the truthand then we can create a plan.
If it's not what you wanna see,then we can create a plan and
you'll feel empowered to take itand fix it to where you want it
(13:22):
to be.
But only until we do that canwe, move forward.
Beverly (13:26):
The reason why I think I took control of my particular
finances in this space, I don'tknow, like six, seven years ago,
was because I wanted to grow andI wanted to scale.
And when you have goals to growand scale, you need capital.
There's just no other wayaround.
You can't pay.
your people out of nothing.
you have to have credit., I gotserious about what I wanted to
(13:46):
see for my business, and thatwas the empowering part, I had a
vision and you talked aboutthat.
You wanna see where the companywants to go..
I had a clear vision and byworking with somebody in this
space, I was able to then takethe next best steps financially.
To get me to the growth that Iwanted.
So talk about a client story orsomeone who, you've helped get
(14:06):
from like where I was that moneymindset piece to full control,
empowerment and growth beyondmaybe what they even thought for
themselves.
Leslie (14:14):
I would say one of my best examples a client that I've
been working with for maybe justbefore the pandemic and this
client is an example of a lot ofclients that we work with who
start off as solopreneurs,right?
You start a business doing athing that you maybe did in your
career, right?
So when we started working withhim, he was still working
(14:38):
full-time in a job, and thenalso part-time on the side.
And he said I want to grow thisand hire people, like I want to
scale this and make it biggerultimately.
So we started working with himinitially just on basic things
like commingling, right?
Don't commingle your businessand personal things together.
(14:59):
We need to keep them separate.
So that we can really see what'sgoing on.
And so legally you're, not inany, potential liabilities,
right?
In case anyone should sue you,heaven forbid.
But, so that we can track howthings are doing.
And what we did with him washelp him clean up, the
commingled finances.
Help him understand when hecould hire people financially.
(15:20):
Because a lot of folks wannahire someone and they just hire
and hope and pray, but thatdoesn't always work out.
We wanna make sure that when wehire people, that we can
continue to keep them on andthat we understand how much we
need to bring in revenue tocontinue to keep them on and all
that kind of good stuff.
And then to be competitive.
We helped him through thepandemic because if you recall
(15:41):
during the pandemic, hiringbecame a challenge, right?
Bringing people on.
He had to be competitive.
I operate in my area, my zone ofgenius, and I recognize that
business owners, they obviouslyhave other needs.
So in his case, he was hiringmultiple employees.
We connected him with afractional HR person.
(16:01):
So that he could stay compliant,stay on top of the laws.
But also, when you've got, 20,30 employees, which is where he
is now, 30 plus.
You need some outside expertisein that area to make sure you're
compliant and covered and doingall the things you need to be
doing.
But we've also worked with himon pricing.
I'm gonna get on my soapbox fora minute on the pricing piece.
(16:23):
Because I've seen businesscoaches and different folks say
things like, just double yourprices or price what you're
worth.
And there's a lot that goes intounderstanding pricing,
understanding your market,understanding your target client
and customer.
That all determines that.
But then also understanding yourown numbers to make sure that
you can cover your expenses.
(16:43):
And so we've worked with him togive him some prompts and say,
Hey, there's nothing else we canreduce in terms of expenses.
You're good.
We need to look at pricing now.
We need to look at how you'repricing.
We need to look at how you'regetting paid in your business at
cashflow.
Yeah.
So helping him with things likecashflow forecasting.
And right now to the point thatyou're speaking this client is
(17:04):
looking for some additionalfunding and making sure that our
clients have the proper reportsthat they need so that they can
get good terms.
When they go for those loans orfunding or whatever, that's
another thing that we help to doas well as be another set of
eyes.
Sure my clients can go in thereand they can probably figure out
(17:25):
how to print some of thesereports, but the benefit of
having us download those reportsand send them is you've got
another set of financial eyes onthat report before you send it
to the bank.
Case in point.
Just this week that was done fora client and as I was looking at
the report, I said, you knowwhat, we're not quite done with
closing June.
If you wait an extra day, thatreport's gonna look better.
(17:49):
Than if we just use this otherreport.
Now, had they gone in anddownloaded themselves, they
probably would've justdownloaded and sent it off.
But having another set of eyes,someone else on your team
looking out for your business tosay, Hey, you know what, if we
wait a day, we'll get this donefor you.
We'll send this one, and morethan likely it will put you in a
more positive light in terms ofbeing able to get that funding.
Beverly (18:09):
Great point.
Leslie (18:10):
So those are the types of things that we do with our
clients to help our clients andget a little more involved than
just the transactional.
Beverly (18:17):
The thing that comes up for me as you're talking is the
fact that, I'm 50 this year.
My husband's retiring from themilitary in the next five years
or so.
What does retirement look likefor us?
And as I scale, the big goal iswhat happens at the end of this
and how is this business aninvestment?
Or what does it look like when Iwant step away?
(18:37):
For anyone who's starting abusiness, there has to be an
exit strategy at some point,whether it's for your children
or whatever it looks like, oryou sell it or you become like a
quiet person in the business,whatever it looks like for you.
But your books have to be inorder to sell
Leslie (18:52):
Exactly.
In order for that to evenhappen.
Beverly (18:55):
And there's things to think about, like reoccurring
revenue and things that makeyour business more attractive.
And somebody like Leslie and herteam is going to be able to help
you focus on those particularaspects of your books, right?
So that you look the mostappealing and you get the most
bang at the end of the day forall this hard work, that blood,
(19:16):
sweat, and tears that you haveput into this business.
Leslie (19:18):
Exactly.
And you bring up a really goodpoint.
We don't do taxes, but I've gotpartners that I work with that
do taxes or, if a client comesto us and they have someone that
does taxes, we work very closelywith them.
But you bring up a really goodpoint around that.
The recommendation, as Imentioned, is customized to your
vision, your goal, and whatyou're trying to do.
And a lot of times when peoplethink about taxes, they think
(19:40):
about minimizing tax liability.
Which, on a p and l statementcan look like you didn't make
any money.
But if you're trying to sell abusiness, if you're trying to
get a loan or get funding,that's not a good look.
You want to look profitable, youwant there to be some money on
the bottom line.
And so again, if I know whatyou're going for, then I can
(20:02):
say, Hey, maybe we do wanna dothis, don't wanna do this.
Those are discussions that wecan then have.
And then you don't find yourselfin a situation where you're
stuck.
Beverly (20:11):
So good.
And I didn't realize that any ofthat before I started to have
this vision of what I wanted, Iwasn't thinking that way.
I was just trying not to pay asmuch taxes as possible.
Legally, of course.
But, using my bookkeeper and myCPA as those resources to make
sure that I was doing things,setting myself up as an S corp
all those things to make surethat I was doing the right
things, not co-mingling all thethings to keep all the taxes,
(20:31):
but when you are minimizing yourtax.
You are making look like youdon't make money.
And that is a big red flag.
So the way that your numbers areshown needs to change if you're
trying to sell your business.
And even if your kids are takingover your business you want them
to see the potential in thebusiness.
So you need to show them whatthis could look like for them in
(20:53):
their lives.
It would be a disservice if youdidn't do that.
So having your books in order isa gift for them not to have to
fumble through.
So we've talked a lot aboutfinancials and the only other
thing I wanna add to this is thething that from a money mindset
issue that I have struggledwith, and I can only imagine
other people have struggled withthis, and I think it's a really
important conversation, is.
What has money meant to yougrowing up?
(21:14):
Like how did your parents talkabout money?
What was money like for you?
For me, what it looked like wasyou work hard for your money.
And I have this intense drive towork myself to death, literally,
Leslie.
Because if I work hard then I'llget the money.
And what I realized is that'snot necessarily, you have to
work hard, don't get me wrong.
But you don't have to workyourself to death or to burnout
(21:36):
or to all those things thatsomehow have been tied up into,
especially for women.
And the thing that I work with alot of entrepreneurs on their
money mindset from a marketingperspective is if you're
creating the business that youwant, what does that really look
like?
So I would challenge ourlisteners to maybe go to chat
and say, Hey, I'm working on mymoney mindset.
Ask me some questions and helpme reframe a few of these
(21:57):
things.
And that reframe and how youthink about money and how you
think about working hard andwhat do you think about success
can be life changing and freeingbusiness.
And it's not something that'sone and done.
I'm constantly tweaking it andworking on it and reminding
myself the reason why I have mybusiness is to be a mom, to be a
good army spouse, to be able togo see my parents.
(22:20):
Yeah.
To be able to do those things.
So remind yourself of why you'rereally doing the work
Leslie (22:25):
yeah.
Beverly (22:26):
Do you work on some of that kind of stuff too?
Leslie (22:27):
It's interesting you bring this topic up, I think
it's a balance and let me tellyou why.
Before I started this business,I did a lot of research.
While I was still working incorporate, I was listening to
podcasts, I was reading books.
I was reading all the things anddo you know, I was doing my
research.
I was trying to understand whattype of business to own and what
this would be like and whatmight be best for me, and.
(22:48):
Yeah, I've been in businessseven years now and there's
some, great entrepreneurs that Ifollow, that have built great
entrepreneurial success.
And what I found veryinteresting that is common among
several of them is once they'vereached a certain level of
success, they've usually gonethrough some type of burnout.
And then at some point they talkabout it and they say when
they're on the other side of I'mjust gonna call it success,
(23:11):
right?
Yeah.
They've built like a certainenterprise thing.
Yeah.
And they say their advice to mesounds like don't do what I did
but my challenge, my issue withthat is, had you not done some
of what you did, you wouldn't bewhere you are.
True.
And so I think it's very much abalance of.
You are gonna have to put in thework.
We can't get around.
(23:32):
There's going to be a periodwhere I think you're going to
feel overworked.
And so it's a balance and you'vegot decisions to make along the
way in terms of how fast you goand how fast you get there.
For instance, for me thissummer, I'm on somewhat of a
summer break.
I'm still working in mybusiness, but some things I just
stopped doing, for the last twomonths.
I've not done much physicalnetworking.
(23:54):
I've not been on social mediavery much.
I've not posted very muchbecause I had to let some stuff
go for a time period so I couldkinda regroup.
You know what I mean?
Fortunately part of thatdecision that was helpful.
I've got clients still coming inand my business model allows
itself to be incremental.
I bring on a client and it justadds this recurring revenue,
that kind of thing.
(24:14):
So it's very much a balance.
What this business has allowedme to do, and I think we share
that in what you just shared, ishave flexibility.
In 2021, I was able to help mymom when she had really bad
symptoms from COVID.
She had blood clots in her lungsand in her legs.
She had a very hard time, likethey were surprised that she
(24:35):
made it okay.
I was there in St.
Louis for about seven weekshelping my parents.
The business allowed me to dothat.
I was still able to work fromtheir dining room.
I set up my computer, I wasworking, I was helping them.
It allowed me that flexibilityto still do both things.
I've been able to go on fieldtrips with my son.
He goes to a Christian schooland my favorite trip, we got to
(24:57):
go to Kentucky.
Did you know there was a giantarc in Kentucky?
Yeah, we went to the arc, we dida caving trip.
So we went inside this cave inTennessee.
Then we did the arc, which wasan awesome thing.
And then we did the creationmuseum.
Beverly (25:11):
Oh yeah,
Leslie (25:11):
I got to do that.
I just felt so fortunate, soblessed to be able to do that.
And then two years ago to beable to help my mom again, my
parents move into a seniorapartments.
It's not assisted, it'sindependent living.
So there's in a seniorcommunity.
But to be able to help them dothat.
And that was after beingdiagnosed and treated for breast
(25:32):
cancer.
Yeah.
All those things, some of thosehappened in a row.
Like I was diagnosed with breastcancer in December of 2021, and
then I had my surgery, then Idid radiation in 22, and then we
helped our parents in 22 move.
And I was sitting there thinkingthere's no way I could have kept
a corporate job with all and notbeen able to show up in the way
(25:55):
that I did because I was therehelping my parents move.
I was there researching, placesfor them to go and getting back.
Like I couldn't have kept acorporate job after those things
back to back.
It wouldn't have happened.
I didn't think about it that wayuntil I was preparing for this
discussion with you and I waslike, wow.
And that was part of the why ofwhy I did this.
(26:15):
But what did it also mean?
It meant during that period, mybusiness didn't grow very fast.
I gotta be honest with that,right?
Because I'm not out doingmarketing, I don't have a huge
team, so the business justwasn't growing.
But, I was able to continue,right?
Beverly (26:29):
It served the season you were in.
Leslie (26:30):
It served the season I was in.
And so now that's behind andwe're in growth mode again.
It was supposed to be that way.
And and I feel really blessed tohave been able to do that.
To be able to still have myparents in their eighties, both
of them, it's a blessing.
And to be able to help them withwhatever they need.
I feel that as a blessing.
That's a blessing to me.
I can't, express it any otherway.
Beverly (26:51):
Nothing in business is linear and like completely from
point A to point b.
I have this goal, I'm gonna gohere.
It doesn't work that way.
Yeah.
Maybe in the 0.0002% i'm justrunning out some random
statistic there.
But that's not how life works.
Life is messy.
Yeah.
I'm a army wife, I'm a mom.
Every three years we've moved.
I have to reestablish my networkevery three years.
I've moved 28 times in my life,Leslie.
(27:13):
Oh my gosh.
I have been an adopted mom, afoster mom, a stepmom.
I have had a very serious injuryin my hip for three and a half
years and had to learn to walkagain.
This is life.
This is the messy middle oflife.
And what I have found is that somany entrepreneurs don't realize
is that you can create abusiness that works within your
(27:33):
life.
Zeke, when he was a baby, he wasfoster.
And he was given to us, I don'tknow, he was two days old, from
the hospital.
So I don't get parental leave, Iown my own business.
That's not how it works.
My husband deployed.
Right after we got him.
So is there anybody to take careof him at night?
No.
Is there anybody to take care ofhim?
No.
It was just me.
I did have a mommy's helper fora little bit who was a neighbor
girl, which was amazing.
(27:54):
But there I was at 3:00 AM withZeke on my shoulder.
I was typing up proposals anddoing the things because that's
when he was awake and needed meand all he wanted to was be
held.
And I was like, I can do thatwhile I do the work.
But it wasn't like nine to fivecorporate.
Perfect.
It was exactly what you said atthe dining room table.
Doing what you can, when youcan, how you can.
It is like survival mode of justwhat can I do to make sure
(28:16):
everybody's still happy.
That's the messy middle.
Hey there, you've just finishedpart one of the Sparking Night,
your marketing episode.
How are you feeling?
Excited, inspired, but we'rejust getting started.
Next Tuesday we're dropping parttwo, and you won't wanna miss
it.
Be sure to subscribe to ournewsletter, so you'll be the
first to know when it goes live.
Until then, take a breather, letthose ideas simmer, and we'll
(28:38):
see you next week.
Did you know that 82% of small businesses fail due to
cash flow issues?
And many of them have no ideauntil it's way too late.
Financial blind spots can costbusiness owners their dreams.
But they don't have to.
I'm your host, Beverly Cornell,founder and fairy
godmother of brand clarity atwickedly branded.
With
over 25 years of helping hundreds of
(00:21):
purpose-driven entrepreneursawaken their brand magic and
boldly bring it to life so thatthey can magnify their impact in
the world.
And today, we are pulling backthe curtain on financial
storytelling, entrepreneurialresilience and profitability
with Leslie Taylor, thepowerhouse behind Leslie Taylor
and Associates businesssolutions from chemical engineer
(00:41):
and food scientist to chiefprofitability strategist Leslie
helps entrepreneurs understandwhat their numbers are really
telling them and how to usethose insights to grow.
Her story is one of courage andclarity and purpose, and I
cannot wait to share it withyou.
Leslie, welcome to the SparkIgnite Your Marketing podcast.
Leslie (00:59):
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Beverly, andthank you for that fabulous
introduction.
I'm excited to be here.
I'm excited to have thisconversation.
Beverly (01:08):
Yes I'm excited to spend some time with you,
learning more about you.
So let's go back to the chemicalengineer thing.
How do you go from chemicalengineer to profitability
strategist
Leslie (01:17):
I'm glad you asked because these are all things
that I'm very passionate about.
So how did all this happen?
It's a question I get often.
It really all started first withhigh school.
In high school I felt thisreally strong calling to
entrepreneurship.
My immediate family, there wereno entrepreneurs, and so I was
focused on what I knew, math andscience.
So math, science, where can Imake good money engineering.
(01:39):
That led me to chemicalengineering.
And while I enjoyed chemicalengineering, I decided to go
back to school and get a degreein food science.
And so for me, putting togetherscience with food and cooking,
which I love to do, I come froma cooking family, my
grandmother, my mother that wassomething that just brought
everything together.
And then I wanna say a littlething.
When I say science, it doesn'tmean we're putting necessarily
(02:01):
weird things in the food.
It just means everything we dois science.
So I got a degree in foodscience and then I minored in
business with a focus onentrepreneurship.
And so I spent close to twodecades in corporate America as
a product developer and atechnical leader.
I developed new products, I ledtechnical teams.
I worked on multimillion dollarbrands.
(02:24):
And one of the things that I wasmost excited about, honestly,
I'm a data nerd.
So using data to help thosecompanies make profitable
decisions, like I lovestatistics, I love the numbers.
So that was where all of thisfits into what I do today.
So that was great.
I was comfortable making greatmoney, but this calling to start
my own business was alwaysthere.
(02:45):
It was just always there.
And later on, life would bringmore clarity.
I got married, I had a son.
And I started to see thisconflict between the path I was
on and the life that I wanted.
I could look into the future andI could see that I needed more
flexibility.
I am a sandwich generationwoman, so my parents are in
(03:06):
their eighties, we have a son,he's 13.
We're both working in corporate,my husband and I.
And I just could see that I'mgonna need more flexibility.
This isn't gonna work for thetype of mom I wanna be, the type
of wife I wanna be, the type ofdaughter I wanna be.
I could see that.
And then there was thisentrepreneur thing.
So quite honestly, the reasonwhy I made the jump, I believe,
was because God was tired of merepeatedly saying, okay, this is
(03:30):
gonna be my last corporate job.
Okay no.
This is gonna be my lastcorporate job.
I kept saying that over andover, and I think he just got
tired.
So in 2017, I was in a corporatejob that was the most
challenging of my workexperience ever.
Not in a good way.
And it took me further away frommy why, which was my family.
I had less time for them.
(03:51):
That was when I knew okay, I'mgonna have to take this step out
on faith and do somethingdifferent.
And as I began that journey andstarted researching, I took a
class in financial accounting.
The one class that I missed whenI did my minor in in
entrepreneurship.
And I loved it.
And I was like, this is awesome.
Numbers tell a story.
And, I'd already done that workin corporate and I just realized
(04:13):
that I could use my datanerdiness to help entrepreneurs
who often struggle with thefinancial side of their
businesses, right?
Everybody starts a business andthey wanna be profitable and
they wanna have a successfulbusiness and they wanna have
enough money to do the thingsthat they want to do, but so
many entrepreneurs are blindwhen it comes to this part of
their business.
So that's how Leslie Taylor andAssociates was born.
(04:36):
And our focus is heavy onhelping our clients, understand
the stories their numbers aretelling.
Beverly (04:42):
There's so many things that you've said that I really
wanna go a little deeper on.
First, the cooking science.
I love to cook.
I grow my own food.
There is always a chemicalreaction that's happening.
There's all kinds of sciencethat happened and there's data
in that too.
I love this idea of thescientist, and I love the idea
of data and the researcher.
I worked in advertising, workedin corporate, I worked for
(05:04):
Chrysler, and I was at theChrysler headquarters in Hills,
Michigan.
And I was in charge of a billiondollar events budget.
Like more zeros than I'd everseen in my life.
And I was like 24 years old.
I remember going home and havingnightmares about decimal being
in the wrong place.
Somehow I would put it in thewrong place and someone would
get way too much money, it'd beall my fault.
(05:24):
I was an advertising girl, like,why are you giving me this
financial responsibility?
At 24?
And as a creative person, I am abranding and digital marketing
agency.
I love all that side, but, I'mgonna be real honest with you.
I probably didn't really careabout my finances, like looking
closely unless I made payroll,which my only thing was look,
what did I owe me?
I don't look at anything forprobably the first five, six
(05:46):
years.
And it wasn't until I got realclear on my numbers, like how
many of my connection calls Ihad to make to get to my first
level of service.
What are my numbers?
What can I project?
What does this look like for me?
Like even for growth for peopleon my team.
Until I got really clear on thatand that wasn't because of me,
that was because I outsourced itto someone else who was way
(06:08):
better at it than I could everbe.
That was the first investment Imade because those numbers are
so important for you to keepgoing and to know how to grow in
the next best steps.
We tell stories all day long.
Marketing, we do that all daylong.
So the fact that you take dataand make a story, I love the
story that.
Data tells me, but I don't likeall the data part.
(06:28):
We're in this process right nowof putting together a growth
flywheel, which is like ourentire customer journey.
And then we have numbers relatedto every step of the journey.
And we can easily know who'saccountable for those particular
steps and whether it's we havebenchmarks and we have minimums
and all kinds of things.
When we do that we then can lookat real easily where we need to
(06:50):
put our goals and our attentionto based on those.
So the numbers now are like soingrained in the story that you
probably can't imagine nothaving those.
Exactly.
So tell me how, what is yourapproach, what is the thing that
makes your firm a littledifferent than a traditional
accounting firm that is reallyall about clients uncovering
their numbers and uncovering thestory?
Leslie (07:10):
Our approach is to really spend a lot of time
understanding the businessitself.
So if I take a step back and Ijust look at the industry as a
whole for small businesses interms of what's available in the
financial space, you find thereare services that will help you
organize your numbers.
And organization is great,right?
We all need to be organized.
(07:31):
We don't wanna be a mess.
There are services that help youwith tax filing and tax
planning, and that's allimportant.
But where we sit is the spacewhere we are spending more time.
We're very high touch, right?
I'm meeting with clients.
We're meeting with clientseither monthly or quarterly.
So we're high touch with ourclients.
(07:51):
That allows us to get anopportunity to understand their
businesses and then best advisethem so we understand their
business.
So it starts in my business withwhat I call a profitability
assessment.
Before we work with any clients,we have to do an assessment.
That assessment isn't just goinginto their QuickBooks and
looking at what's in there orlooking at their bank
statements.
It's understanding theirbusiness.
(08:13):
It's understanding how do theyget paid.
Do you have employees?
How many, how are you payingthem?
Because, some people are justpaying folks by Zelle, then we
need to work on that.
But also how, what's theirvision for the business?
Like why are you in business?
Where are you trying to go?
Because then it also informs howI make recommendations, right?
I'm gonna make a customizedrecommendation for you based on
(08:35):
all these things because you'redifferent than the next client,
than the next client.
So we actually take the time toget to understand the business
and then we can make the bestrecommendations as far as how
they move forward.
I think that's what really setsus apart, is taking the time to
do that, spending the time doingthat.
I would say that's one of thebiggest differentiators for us.
Beverly (08:56):
I know a lot of business owners, myself
included, I'm gonna raise myhand here, are a little
embarrassed about their numbers.
And I've just been trying tofigure it out as I go along.
I was never wanted to be anentrepreneur like you.
I actually went in kicking andscreaming.
Totally accidental.
I married an active duty armyguy and I had to take my show on
the road.
That's really what it came downto.
So I had to figure it out, but Iknew how much work it was gonna
(09:18):
be.
'cause I worked for a techstartup just before I married my
husband, so I had helped grow acompany from, under a million to
10 million.
And I knew how hard that was andI was like, I don't know if I
wanna do this for myself.
But clearly I did.
I just had to figure out somethings.
But I remember just being reallyembarrassed that I didn't know
what I didn't know.
Yes.
And yes, so many people feellike they shouldn't go to
(09:40):
someone because they feel likethey're embarrassed.
Leslie (09:42):
You're absolutely right.
I wanna highlight what you justsaid because it's extremely
common.
Men and women.
But I would say maybe a littlemore so for women, and some of
that is traditionally women arenot steered towards STEM
careers.
So when we talk about math andscience and numbers and things
like that, through school we'reprogrammed this is not for you.
(10:05):
This is not your thing.
You're not really good at this.
So when you have those messagesall those years and then you
become an adult and then you'redealing with financials and
numbers.
it's these messages have toldyou're not good at it or you
shouldn't be doing it.
And that's one part thatespecially affects women.
I just have to say this'causethis is something that I like to
share a lot and it's eyeopeningfor a lot of people.
(10:26):
It's okay that you don'tunderstand this stuff because
there's a lot of shame aroundI'm an entrepreneur, right?
I'm smart, right?
Maybe you went to school, maybeyou didn't, but I'm really smart
and I should understand this.
So I'm embarrassed that I don't,no, you shouldn't understand it.
There's no reason why you shouldunderstand it.
Unless you went to school foraccounting there's no reason for
you to understand it.
There's absolutely no reason.
(10:47):
So don't feel like you shouldunderstand it because you
shouldn't.
Beverly (10:51):
I think I felt extra pressure because I had done all
this budgeting and stuff forChrysler.
Why couldn't I do it for myself?
And I think a lot of that has todo with working in many zeros
versus, a couple of zeros.
It's a whole different mindsetand it really wasn't my money.
So it was easier to sit withinthat very right, left
constrained thing versus thisidea that it was so many
(11:12):
possibilities, so many things tothink about.
And I think the other thing thatwas at play for me, I don't know
if it is for other people.
Was this idea that I was doingeverything else, the accounting
was like the last thing I wantedto do.
So then it doesn't get doneright.
So I had this big box of justreceipts or whatever, and it was
like.
The bane of my existence comeJanuary one.
(11:34):
Yep.
Leslie (11:35):
and it's not your wheelhouse.
Absolutely not.
And it's uncomfortable and it'snot fun.
And you've waited maybe to thelast minute and it's built up
like this is, I mean it's supercommon, which is why generally
in this industry the end of theyear to the first quarter tends
to be the busiest.
Yeah.
Because as tax season rollsaround.
(11:56):
It becomes a bigger stressor andmore focused priority for
entrepreneurs.
So yeah that's why we usuallyhave a surge in new clients
because of that.
That is normal.
Beverly (12:08):
In January, I would say I'm gonna do this every single
week.
I'm not gonna get behind inevery single, like September or
October.
I'm like, oh crap, what have Idone to myself?
It was like this sado masochistcircle that I kept doing to
myself.
So if I could say one thing, andI have not worked with Leslie
specifically, but now is thetime to get your poop in a
group, so that when the end ofthe year comes you are not in my
(12:33):
position where I was stressedout and crazy and right.
Is there any other fears youthink people have related to
finances?
Leslie (12:39):
As I've worked with clients, I've found that there
is, how shall I say, a falsefreedom in not looking at your
numbers, right?
Because you're just spending.
You're just not looking at thetruth.
And so you're just spending.
Just this false freedom thatit's I don't know what it's
doing, so I'm just gonna spend,and I'm just gonna pray and hope
that it all works out.
And, sometimes it doesn't.
And that only works for so longuntil you run outta money.
(13:00):
But but I would say that'sanother one are people are
afraid to look at their numbersbecause they're afraid maybe I'm
not as profitable, maybe I'm notprofitable at all.
Like they're afraid of what theymight see.
And that's where we have theconversation and I say once we
look at it, we'll see the truthand then we can create a plan.
If it's not what you wanna see,then we can create a plan and
you'll feel empowered to take itand fix it to where you want it
(13:22):
to be.
But only until we do that canwe, move forward.
Beverly (13:26):
The reason why I think I took control of my particular
finances in this space, I don'tknow, like six, seven years ago,
was because I wanted to grow andI wanted to scale.
And when you have goals to growand scale, you need capital.
There's just no other wayaround.
You can't pay.
your people out of nothing.
you have to have credit., I gotserious about what I wanted to
(13:46):
see for my business, and thatwas the empowering part, I had a
vision and you talked aboutthat.
You wanna see where the companywants to go..
I had a clear vision and byworking with somebody in this
space, I was able to then takethe next best steps financially.
To get me to the growth that Iwanted.
So talk about a client story orsomeone who, you've helped get
(14:06):
from like where I was that moneymindset piece to full control,
empowerment and growth beyondmaybe what they even thought for
themselves.
Leslie (14:14):
I would say one of my best examples a client that I've
been working with for maybe justbefore the pandemic and this
client is an example of a lot ofclients that we work with who
start off as solopreneurs,right?
You start a business doing athing that you maybe did in your
career, right?
So when we started working withhim, he was still working
(14:38):
full-time in a job, and thenalso part-time on the side.
And he said I want to grow thisand hire people, like I want to
scale this and make it biggerultimately.
So we started working with himinitially just on basic things
like commingling, right?
Don't commingle your businessand personal things together.
(14:59):
We need to keep them separate.
So that we can really see what'sgoing on.
And so legally you're, not inany, potential liabilities,
right?
In case anyone should sue you,heaven forbid.
But, so that we can track howthings are doing.
And what we did with him washelp him clean up, the
commingled finances.
Help him understand when hecould hire people financially.
(15:20):
Because a lot of folks wannahire someone and they just hire
and hope and pray, but thatdoesn't always work out.
We wanna make sure that when wehire people, that we can
continue to keep them on andthat we understand how much we
need to bring in revenue tocontinue to keep them on and all
that kind of good stuff.
And then to be competitive.
We helped him through thepandemic because if you recall
(15:41):
during the pandemic, hiringbecame a challenge, right?
Bringing people on.
He had to be competitive.
I operate in my area, my zone ofgenius, and I recognize that
business owners, they obviouslyhave other needs.
So in his case, he was hiringmultiple employees.
We connected him with afractional HR person.
(16:01):
So that he could stay compliant,stay on top of the laws.
But also, when you've got, 20,30 employees, which is where he
is now, 30 plus.
You need some outside expertisein that area to make sure you're
compliant and covered and doingall the things you need to be
doing.
But we've also worked with himon pricing.
I'm gonna get on my soapbox fora minute on the pricing piece.
(16:23):
Because I've seen businesscoaches and different folks say
things like, just double yourprices or price what you're
worth.
And there's a lot that goes intounderstanding pricing,
understanding your market,understanding your target client
and customer.
That all determines that.
But then also understanding yourown numbers to make sure that
you can cover your expenses.
(16:43):
And so we've worked with him togive him some prompts and say,
Hey, there's nothing else we canreduce in terms of expenses.
You're good.
We need to look at pricing now.
We need to look at how you'repricing.
We need to look at how you'regetting paid in your business at
cashflow.
Yeah.
So helping him with things likecashflow forecasting.
And right now to the point thatyou're speaking this client is
(17:04):
looking for some additionalfunding and making sure that our
clients have the proper reportsthat they need so that they can
get good terms.
When they go for those loans orfunding or whatever, that's
another thing that we help to doas well as be another set of
eyes.
Sure my clients can go in thereand they can probably figure out
(17:25):
how to print some of thesereports, but the benefit of
having us download those reportsand send them is you've got
another set of financial eyes onthat report before you send it
to the bank.
Case in point.
Just this week that was done fora client and as I was looking at
the report, I said, you knowwhat, we're not quite done with
closing June.
If you wait an extra day, thatreport's gonna look better.
(17:49):
Than if we just use this otherreport.
Now, had they gone in anddownloaded themselves, they
probably would've justdownloaded and sent it off.
But having another set of eyes,someone else on your team
looking out for your business tosay, Hey, you know what, if we
wait a day, we'll get this donefor you.
We'll send this one, and morethan likely it will put you in a
more positive light in terms ofbeing able to get that funding.
Beverly (18:09):
Great point.
Leslie (18:10):
So those are the types of things that we do with our
clients to help our clients andget a little more involved than
just the transactional.
Beverly (18:17):
The thing that comes up for me as you're talking is the
fact that, I'm 50 this year.
My husband's retiring from themilitary in the next five years
or so.
What does retirement look likefor us?
And as I scale, the big goal iswhat happens at the end of this
and how is this business aninvestment?
Or what does it look like when Iwant step away?
(18:37):
For anyone who's starting abusiness, there has to be an
exit strategy at some point,whether it's for your children
or whatever it looks like, oryou sell it or you become like a
quiet person in the business,whatever it looks like for you.
But your books have to be inorder to sell
Leslie (18:52):
Exactly.
In order for that to evenhappen.
Beverly (18:55):
And there's things to think about, like reoccurring
revenue and things that makeyour business more attractive.
And somebody like Leslie and herteam is going to be able to help
you focus on those particularaspects of your books, right?
So that you look the mostappealing and you get the most
bang at the end of the day forall this hard work, that blood,
(19:16):
sweat, and tears that you haveput into this business.
Leslie (19:18):
Exactly.
And you bring up a really goodpoint.
We don't do taxes, but I've gotpartners that I work with that
do taxes or, if a client comesto us and they have someone that
does taxes, we work very closelywith them.
But you bring up a really goodpoint around that.
The recommendation, as Imentioned, is customized to your
vision, your goal, and whatyou're trying to do.
And a lot of times when peoplethink about taxes, they think
(19:40):
about minimizing tax liability.
Which, on a p and l statementcan look like you didn't make
any money.
But if you're trying to sell abusiness, if you're trying to
get a loan or get funding,that's not a good look.
You want to look profitable, youwant there to be some money on
the bottom line.
And so again, if I know whatyou're going for, then I can
(20:02):
say, Hey, maybe we do wanna dothis, don't wanna do this.
Those are discussions that wecan then have.
And then you don't find yourselfin a situation where you're
stuck.
Beverly (20:11):
So good.
And I didn't realize that any ofthat before I started to have
this vision of what I wanted, Iwasn't thinking that way.
I was just trying not to pay asmuch taxes as possible.
Legally, of course.
But, using my bookkeeper and myCPA as those resources to make
sure that I was doing things,setting myself up as an S corp
all those things to make surethat I was doing the right
things, not co-mingling all thethings to keep all the taxes,
(20:31):
but when you are minimizing yourtax.
You are making look like youdon't make money.
And that is a big red flag.
So the way that your numbers areshown needs to change if you're
trying to sell your business.
And even if your kids are takingover your business you want them
to see the potential in thebusiness.
So you need to show them whatthis could look like for them in
(20:53):
their lives.
It would be a disservice if youdidn't do that.
So having your books in order isa gift for them not to have to
fumble through.
So we've talked a lot aboutfinancials and the only other
thing I wanna add to this is thething that from a money mindset
issue that I have struggledwith, and I can only imagine
other people have struggled withthis, and I think it's a really
important conversation, is.
What has money meant to yougrowing up?
(21:14):
Like how did your parents talkabout money?
What was money like for you?
For me, what it looked like wasyou work hard for your money.
And I have this intense drive towork myself to death, literally,
Leslie.
Because if I work hard then I'llget the money.
And what I realized is that'snot necessarily, you have to
work hard, don't get me wrong.
But you don't have to workyourself to death or to burnout
(21:36):
or to all those things thatsomehow have been tied up into,
especially for women.
And the thing that I work with alot of entrepreneurs on their
money mindset from a marketingperspective is if you're
creating the business that youwant, what does that really look
like?
So I would challenge ourlisteners to maybe go to chat
and say, Hey, I'm working on mymoney mindset.
Ask me some questions and helpme reframe a few of these
(21:57):
things.
And that reframe and how youthink about money and how you
think about working hard andwhat do you think about success
can be life changing and freeingbusiness.
And it's not something that'sone and done.
I'm constantly tweaking it andworking on it and reminding
myself the reason why I have mybusiness is to be a mom, to be a
good army spouse, to be able togo see my parents.
(22:20):
Yeah.
To be able to do those things.
So remind yourself of why you'rereally doing the work
Leslie (22:25):
yeah.
Beverly (22:26):
Do you work on some of that kind of stuff too?
Leslie (22:27):
It's interesting you bring this topic up, I think
it's a balance and let me tellyou why.
Before I started this business,I did a lot of research.
While I was still working incorporate, I was listening to
podcasts, I was reading books.
I was reading all the things anddo you know, I was doing my
research.
I was trying to understand whattype of business to own and what
this would be like and whatmight be best for me, and.
(22:48):
Yeah, I've been in businessseven years now and there's
some, great entrepreneurs that Ifollow, that have built great
entrepreneurial success.
And what I found veryinteresting that is common among
several of them is once they'vereached a certain level of
success, they've usually gonethrough some type of burnout.
And then at some point they talkabout it and they say when
they're on the other side of I'mjust gonna call it success,
(23:11):
right?
Yeah.
They've built like a certainenterprise thing.
Yeah.
And they say their advice to mesounds like don't do what I did
but my challenge, my issue withthat is, had you not done some
of what you did, you wouldn't bewhere you are.
True.
And so I think it's very much abalance of.
You are gonna have to put in thework.
We can't get around.
(23:32):
There's going to be a periodwhere I think you're going to
feel overworked.
And so it's a balance and you'vegot decisions to make along the
way in terms of how fast you goand how fast you get there.
For instance, for me thissummer, I'm on somewhat of a
summer break.
I'm still working in mybusiness, but some things I just
stopped doing, for the last twomonths.
I've not done much physicalnetworking.
(23:54):
I've not been on social mediavery much.
I've not posted very muchbecause I had to let some stuff
go for a time period so I couldkinda regroup.
You know what I mean?
Fortunately part of thatdecision that was helpful.
I've got clients still coming inand my business model allows
itself to be incremental.
I bring on a client and it justadds this recurring revenue,
that kind of thing.
(24:14):
So it's very much a balance.
What this business has allowedme to do, and I think we share
that in what you just shared, ishave flexibility.
In 2021, I was able to help mymom when she had really bad
symptoms from COVID.
She had blood clots in her lungsand in her legs.
She had a very hard time, likethey were surprised that she
(24:35):
made it okay.
I was there in St.
Louis for about seven weekshelping my parents.
The business allowed me to dothat.
I was still able to work fromtheir dining room.
I set up my computer, I wasworking, I was helping them.
It allowed me that flexibilityto still do both things.
I've been able to go on fieldtrips with my son.
He goes to a Christian schooland my favorite trip, we got to
(24:57):
go to Kentucky.
Did you know there was a giantarc in Kentucky?
Yeah, we went to the arc, we dida caving trip.
So we went inside this cave inTennessee.
Then we did the arc, which wasan awesome thing.
And then we did the creationmuseum.
Beverly (25:11):
Oh yeah,
Leslie (25:11):
I got to do that.
I just felt so fortunate, soblessed to be able to do that.
And then two years ago to beable to help my mom again, my
parents move into a seniorapartments.
It's not assisted, it'sindependent living.
So there's in a seniorcommunity.
But to be able to help them dothat.
And that was after beingdiagnosed and treated for breast
(25:32):
cancer.
Yeah.
All those things, some of thosehappened in a row.
Like I was diagnosed with breastcancer in December of 2021, and
then I had my surgery, then Idid radiation in 22, and then we
helped our parents in 22 move.
And I was sitting there thinkingthere's no way I could have kept
a corporate job with all and notbeen able to show up in the way
(25:55):
that I did because I was therehelping my parents move.
I was there researching, placesfor them to go and getting back.
Like I couldn't have kept acorporate job after those things
back to back.
It wouldn't have happened.
I didn't think about it that wayuntil I was preparing for this
discussion with you and I waslike, wow.
And that was part of the why ofwhy I did this.
(26:15):
But what did it also mean?
It meant during that period, mybusiness didn't grow very fast.
I gotta be honest with that,right?
Because I'm not out doingmarketing, I don't have a huge
team, so the business justwasn't growing.
But, I was able to continue,right?
Beverly (26:29):
It served the season you were in.
Leslie (26:30):
It served the season I was in.
And so now that's behind andwe're in growth mode again.
It was supposed to be that way.
And and I feel really blessed tohave been able to do that.
To be able to still have myparents in their eighties, both
of them, it's a blessing.
And to be able to help them withwhatever they need.
I feel that as a blessing.
That's a blessing to me.
I can't, express it any otherway.
Beverly (26:51):
Nothing in business is linear and like completely from
point A to point b.
I have this goal, I'm gonna gohere.
It doesn't work that way.
Yeah.
Maybe in the 0.0002% i'm justrunning out some random
statistic there.
But that's not how life works.
Life is messy.
Yeah.
I'm a army wife, I'm a mom.
Every three years we've moved.
I have to reestablish my networkevery three years.
I've moved 28 times in my life,Leslie.
(27:13):
Oh my gosh.
I have been an adopted mom, afoster mom, a stepmom.
I have had a very serious injuryin my hip for three and a half
years and had to learn to walkagain.
This is life.
This is the messy middle oflife.
And what I have found is that somany entrepreneurs don't realize
is that you can create abusiness that works within your
(27:33):
life.
Zeke, when he was a baby, he wasfoster.
And he was given to us, I don'tknow, he was two days old, from
the hospital.
So I don't get parental leave, Iown my own business.
That's not how it works.
My husband deployed.
Right after we got him.
So is there anybody to take careof him at night?
No.
Is there anybody to take care ofhim?
No.
It was just me.
I did have a mommy's helper fora little bit who was a neighbor
girl, which was amazing.
(27:54):
But there I was at 3:00 AM withZeke on my shoulder.
I was typing up proposals anddoing the things because that's
when he was awake and needed meand all he wanted to was be
held.
And I was like, I can do thatwhile I do the work.
But it wasn't like nine to fivecorporate.
Perfect.
It was exactly what you said atthe dining room table.
Doing what you can, when youcan, how you can.
It is like survival mode of justwhat can I do to make sure
(28:16):
everybody's still happy.
That's the messy middle.
Hey there, you've just finishedpart one of the Sparking Night,
your marketing episode.
How are you feeling?
Excited, inspired, but we'rejust getting started.
Next Tuesday we're dropping parttwo, and you won't wanna miss
it.
Be sure to subscribe to ournewsletter, so you'll be the
first to know when it goes live.
Until then, take a breather, letthose ideas simmer, and we'll
(28:38):
see you next week.
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