Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Freedom, Money Management, Abundance Mindset, Budgeting, Financial Planning

121 | Why Financial Literacy is a Must if You Want to Lead Your Business Like a CEO (with Liz Hansen)

• Erin Gray | Spiritual Wealth Coach, Former Certified Financial Planner and CFO

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What happens when you stop outsourcing your power and start learning your numbers? In this episode, I’m joined by Liz Hansen—photographer and founder of Chicago Boudoir Photography—who shares how learning QuickBooks and taxes transformed her relationship with money, her business, and herself.

We explore the deeper mindset shift that happens when you move from financial avoidance to financial empowerment, and why financial literacy isn’t just about numbers—it’s about ownership.

In this episode we discuss:

  • Why outsourcing without understanding creates disempowerment
  • How financial literacy builds true confidence as a business owner
  • The identity shift from “side hustle” to CEO
  • What it really takes to feel secure as an entrepreneur

You can connect with Liz here:

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From my soul to yours,

Erin

Liz Hansen:

But learning how my books worked, how I could run reports and QuickBooks, how things got itemized, changed my relationship with my business, because then what it meant was every day I could wake up, look at my QuickBooks, see how things were going, see where my money was going, and make changes in my business based on that information. So I had so much more control and power with that knowledge.

Erin Gray:

I had such a fun conversation with Liz Hanson on the podcast this week. Liz is the owner and photographer behind Chicago Boudoir Photography, a boutique studio that helps women feel confident in their bodies, their relationships and their lives. We talked about the identity shifts that come with being a business owner, taking full responsibility for your money and the kind of support that mentorship can offer along the way. You know my intention with every guest that I bring onto this podcast is that you hear something that makes you feel less alone and reminds you that if another woman can move through it, so can you. I think you're going to find pieces of yourself in this episode. I'm going to include all of Liz's info in the show notes for you if you want to connect with her.

Erin Gray:

Okay, so let's dive into today's episode. Thanks, Liz, for joining us. Hey, thanks so much for having me. It's good to be here, yeah, so let's talk a little bit about because I think your story is really helpful and impactful to other women and I want to kind of dive into when you were starting out, when you had said about outsourcing some of your tasks before you were ready. If you talk, if you want to share that, what, what feels good to share, Because I always encourage clients to yes, we can outsource, but not before we're ready, Like we know the things to outsource.

Liz Hansen:

Absolutely so. I run a photo studio. I'm a photographer, and there's when you're a small business owner, you have to wear a lot of hats, and anyone who's started something or worked in a small business you know this right. So it feels like my job a lot of times is like 5% taking pictures and 95% running a business, right.

Liz Hansen:

So there's, a lot of other things I have to do. I've got to do marketing, I've got to network, I've got to keep track of my books, I've got to do invoicing, I've got to do I have some employees, I got to pay them, I got to do taxes, like there's all kinds of things Right. And when I was first starting my business, I was overwhelmed by all the things and, of course, I reached out for help, which I think is a good thing to do. One of the things I did was I hired someone to help me with my bookkeeping and my accounting, and that was good. I needed help and I also handed everything over and just said I don't know, take care of it, without really knowing what the tasks that needed to be done were and what the bookkeeper and the accounting were doing for me.

Liz Hansen:

And a few years into that, I, I, what, what. What prompted making a change in that was? I was meeting with some people and they were asking me questions like what percentage of your revenue are you spending on labor? What percentage of your business goes to printing albums and products for your clients? And I was like I have no idea. I have no idea, I can't tell you the answers to these questions.

Liz Hansen:

So, and that bothered me Like I wanted to know my business well enough to answer any kind of question, and so I asked my bookkeeper can I sit down with you a few hours and you just show me, walk me through my QuickBooks, walk me through the tasks you're doing, teach me how to do this? And that was so empowering and so impactful in my business. I paid the bookkeeper for their time to do that. I wasn't just asking for a favor, but learning how my books worked, how I could run reports and QuickBooks, how things got itemized, changed my relationship with my business, because then what it meant was every day I could wake up, look at my QuickBooks, see how things were going, see where my money was going and make changes in my business based on that information. So I had so much more control and power with that knowledge. So is outsourcing good and necessary? Absolutely. But is outsourcing to a point that you don't know what's going on in your business good? It wasn't for me.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, did you have any knowledge with QuickBooks before you got started in your business?

Liz Hansen:

No, so my background I'm actually was a teacher. I was an ESL teacher English is a second language and then I picked up a camera and became a photographer and then I opened a studio. I was really, really didn't know what I was doing. I was in over my head. But I thought I'll figure this out. And I have figured it out, but I've made a lot of mistakes along the way. I had no understanding of bookkeeping or accounting, no experience with that. I'd actually never filed my own taxes before I started my business, because I'd always had either my dad or my husband or someone doing it for me. I just didn't know. Here's how naive I was. I didn't know that businesses had to file quarterly taxes. I thought everyone just filed their taxes in April. I didn't know there was such thing as quarterly taxes, little things like that. I had to learn along the way and I made some mistakes. But running and running and keeping a business running has been like the best education of my life.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, and self-development. I think you know, with a lot of women, a lot of people that have not grown up in the entrepreneurial space, right, unless you have been a bookkeeper or you went to school for bookkeeping. I mean, I got a degree in finance and the way that I learned QuickBooks was our bookkeeper quit on payroll day, like I'm leaving today and done you know. And so my dad and I literally did payroll till like midnight. We ordered pizza. We did payroll. Like I learned QuickBooks the fire hose way and, like you, right, I, you know, ended up paying for support. But it was such a like now I can look at reports for clients, I can look at my own. It's such a valuable thing to have and I agree with you, right, we do want to outsource it.

Erin Gray:

But if you don't know what you're looking at, if you don't know how long things take when you're getting proposals from people you have no idea to know, like is that even legit or is this, you know? So I think it's so and I think you know the word I wrote down was like how quickly we abdicate responsibility. How quickly we abdicate responsibility Like we think we, we, we think that we're doing and I'm air quoting. You know like we think we're doing a good job by saying like, oh, we're going to have someone because that's what we hear, right, a lot of business gurus talk about. Well, you know, delegate. But if you don't know and you don't, you haven't done what you are delegating. It's hard to teach someone something, it's hard to sit with someone and and walk through reports and, like you said, I love that. You're like hey, just I'll pay you.

Erin Gray:

I remember same thing. It was franchise tax, which is something that happens in Texas I don't think it happens very often with other states and I came in and I started to learn about franchise tax and how much we were actually overpaying, because I took the time to sit down and see what was above the line, what was below the line. And I mean I remember getting like a I don't know a $5,000 bill or something like that from the CPA and my dad was like what is this? And I was like, listen, you buy tools with your hands, right For your hands, like my tool is my brain and you know probably $50,000, $70,000, I probably saved understanding how that worked and so it pays to, I think. I think the initial thought is like I don't have time for that or I don't want to do that, but you have to think about your business as this long standing thing that's going to happen and what the foundation and the time that you are putting in now is going to pay dividends down the road.

Liz Hansen:

Yeah, and I want to emphasize the outsourcing isn't inherently bad. When you're a business owner, you do not have to do everything yourself, and in fact it's really impossible in some kinds of businesses to do everything yourself. But as a business owner, the buck stops with you. The decisions come to you. So the more knowledge you can have, the more tools you can have, the better decision maker you will become. So I actually still pay a bookkeeper and a CPA. I still have help, but I understand so much better now what it is they are doing and why so that I can understand their emails and what they're asking me and when problems arise, I see them first in the QuickBooks. So it's not that I don't believe in outsourcing, but that I believe in having, like, better partnerships with the people that you outsource to, when you better understand what it is that you need from them.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, I just actually recorded or I was editing a podcast episode about like our team is not the boss of us. You know, like we are, we are the quarterback. Like we have to look at it Like we're the quarterback, we're the ones that ultimately make the decision and you work with your CPA and your financial planner and your attorney and you know just your bookkeeper and all of these people help and support you from the lens of you're the one. Like you said, the buck stops I use that term all the time. The buck stops with us. Right, we're the ones that get to decide and if you don't understand something, it's okay, because you're probably one in millions that don't understand it. I mean, I'm like you, I learned through hard knocks and like, wait what, how does this work? What does this look like? Like teach me all the things and once you have that knowledge, you get to use that forever and how. That is actually helpful and impactful for you and your business and I think it helps to improve your financial confidence.

Liz Hansen:

Yeah, this is the good news and the bad news about being a business owner, right. So the good news about being a business owner is that you have some freedom and you get to be in charge and you get to make decisions. The bad news you're in charge, you got to make the decisions right. So I think a lot of people start a business thinking, wow, the freedom this will give me. I won't have to answer to a boss, I get to leave the corporate rat race or whatever.

Liz Hansen:

Whatever your reason for starting business, I don't think most people start a small business because they're like, wow, I really want to do accounting and books, like that's not why you started your business. I'm guessing you started your business because you love making candles or you love taking photos, or you love helping people or you love being outdoors or whatever it is that you do in your small business. But, no matter what, if you're running a business, you need to do accounting and taxes right. Even if you're a nonprofit, you've got to do accounting, you've got taxes right. So you need to understand, as a small business owner, that while you can have help, while you're going to delegate, while that's going to help you, the more you can pull in-house.

Erin Gray:

The more you can pull in house, the more you can understand in your own brain, the more empowered you will be, the happier you'll be running your own business. Yeah, and I also think that this comes back to identity, like I think a lot of us I know when I first started the first go around, it was very much so, probably from an ego place and from lack of like doing my business, and this is going to make me feel a certain way versus this time around of like, so much time off and self-development work for lack of a better word and like, really like coming from a sufficient and abundant place. Like what am I capable of? Not making things mean anything about me. And I think a lot of us maybe I don't want to say haven't spent the time but we may not be aware of actually like, have we changed and really thought about who we are as a person and then we have our business and separating those two and really feeling good about ourselves and who we are as a human and then building a business from there.

Liz Hansen:

It's interesting. When I first started my business I had a really hard time putting on sort of that title of business owner or entrepreneur. I would have people say like, oh, you're an entrepreneur. And I'd be like, no, I'm not, I just started a business. And I think it can be hard, especially for a lot of women, to take on the I'm, I'm in charge, I am doing this, I'm an entrepreneur.

Liz Hansen:

There's some kind of resistance sometimes, I think, to those titles and a desire to say, oh, I'm just doing this little thing out of my garage, oh, I'm just starting this little side hustle and to diminish it.

Liz Hansen:

I don't know if that's because we're socialized sometimes to play small or because it feels scary to say out loud that you're trying to do a big and bold thing. But once I embraced that I am a small business owner, I am an entrepreneur, I serve people and because I serve people and provide a product that they want, I deserve to get the knowledge I need. I deserve to hire the people that can help me. I deserve to go into networking circles and stand up and say what I need. I deserve to hire the people that can help me. I deserve to go into networking circles and stand up and say what I do. But that took some time for me, that personal identity. That did not happen for me overnight. I didn't open, get a lease at my studio, open the door and suddenly feel like I had the, that power that I deserve to be there.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, I the same way I wrote down, like baby belief.

Erin Gray:

I think sometimes, like, depending on where you are, I know that there have been certain things.

Erin Gray:

For me, for sure, business has been that way too of like, even though I've had the knowledge, it's like there has been something within me that feels like I'm different, and so that has been something that I've really had to work on of, um, I think there's two parts of it.

Erin Gray:

I think there's when you are working towards something where you haven't fully embodied it yet, being very, um, differentiating, I guess, or very specific on who you want to tell what you're doing, because you are in this such special I don't like to use the word fragile, but just a very delicate space, and so keeping, or or the people that you do let in to tell about what you are starting or what you want to do, or where you are going, making sure that those are people in your life that just support you and just want, you know, to give you all the added girls and help you.

Erin Gray:

Um, so there's that part, and then there's also the part of really like you're saying, liz, of like working into that identity, and I think beliefs can be changed overnight, and I do think that there are some things depending on how deeply seated you are in one belief. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time and continuing to cultivate that from a place of love and compassion versus being hard on yourself or beating yourself up when you kind of, you know, fall back into your previous identity. Yeah, it's interesting when you talk about who you share your dreams with.

Liz Hansen:

I, you know, think back to like some. It's interesting when you talk about who you share your dreams with, I you know, think back to like some of your earliest memories when you were told, like make a wish and blow out your birthday candles but don't tell anyone because it won't come true. Or, um, you know, I think a lot of times we're told, if you talk about your dreams or your goals, that that's a bad thing. Like, oh, she's talking so big or why does she always have these big, unachievable dreams, right, like, at least I know for me, I felt in my heart that sometimes it was bad to share big goals or to say them out loud, and I think that's like how you were talking about. You have to know who you're talking to and who that audience is. Is that someone who's going to support you in your big goal and maybe point you to a resource or at least just say I'm in your corner? Or is that someone who's going to say don't do that, don't take that risk? Why would you put your family through that? Why? Why would you quit your job? Why just do the easy? Or like path of least resistance? Like, why would you start that hard thing, you know. So if you don't have someone in your life or circle in your life that's going to support you, I would always recommend trying to find that Like is there a community online? Is there a coaching group? Is there a Facebook group? Is there? Are there some people that you can find?

Liz Hansen:

I know I had to seek that out because I didn't have a lot of that in my own real life circle People who wanted to support me in starting my photo studio. In fact, almost everyone besides my husband, who I told I was starting a photo studio, was like don't do that. That sounds like a bad idea. That sounds like you're going to lose money. No one makes money in photography. Everyone has iPhones. You can't ever make money as a photographer. That's what I heard over and over. So I closed rank right, like I didn't tell people what I was doing. I told very few people that I was opening a photo studio. I didn't post about it on my social media. But I joined a mastermind online of photographers who were running studios and that's where I found the support. That's where I found I could ask questions. That's where I could talk about my dreams and that made a huge difference for me early on in running my business.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, I think masterminds are, you know, groups being around people. I think we were saying the same thing. It's like there are definitely people that I did not tell in the beginning because I knew what their answer would be. So it was like I'm not even going to, so like what Liz is saying is like being around people and also paying to be in the room.

Erin Gray:

I want to go back real quick and say, when people tell you things like that, like oh, they're not going to, you're not going to make money, or it's not a good idea, they are always showing you their beliefs. Right, it has nothing to do with us. It has to do with what they believe about themselves, who they are, what they're capable of. And for a long time I didn't recognize that that's what it was, so I always made it mean something. Here we go back to making it mean something about me, versus if they're actually just showing you who they are, so just recognizing. Like when people say things, it's coming from their perception, not anything to do with, to do with us, um, and so paying, you know, remember as you're running your business too, you will have some people, even like potential clients, tell you like you're too expensive or your product.

Liz Hansen:

There will always be people who will tell you that what you're doing isn't right, and that's something you have to kind of put up with and remember just because someone is not giving you money and telling you that they don't like your product, that doesn't mean that their criticism is valid or useful. Maybe it is like feedback can be a gift. I'm not saying it's not, but sometimes it's just. You just have to disregard what people say, because they aren't giving you money, they're not your client, they don't know what it is that you provide.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, so you want to talk about being in the room Cause I think that's so important. I think that tell me if other friends of yours that are in business have like. I have always paid because that has been something. Paying for business support was something that was always so easy for me because that is what I saw outside of you know what happened in my family, but paying for things for me to have fun that had no attachment to business, that has been some of my work of like. I just am going to go on vacation by myself because I can like I didn't earn it. There was a lot of earning to have that I had to deconstruct and change.

Liz Hansen:

I mean absolutely. I agree with you so much, erin. So two things here. Number one paying for business support. I think there can be some resistance around that. Some people say like, well, I can figure this out, I can YouTube it, and you can. There is a lot of free advice out there and there's a lot of, and you should take advantage of it. Listen to podcasts, you should watch the YouTubes.

Liz Hansen:

But sometimes when you pay for a mastermind or a course or a coach, the fact that you paid for it, not only will you probably get higher quality information, but you personally will be more invested in getting a return on your investment right. So you've paid, I don't know, a thousand, 2000, 5,000, whatever. You've paid for some kind of course or event or whatever, you will probably in your heart think I'm not going to skip this, I paid for this, I'm not going to not do the assignment, I paid for this Right, and so the act of paying for it helps you get results Right. And then the other thing you said you were talking about feeling resistance towards spending on fun. I mean, I absolutely can relate to that.

Liz Hansen:

I grew up in a family that was pretty scarcity mindset. We weren't poor, but there was always this idea that we should do the cheapest thing and that we shouldn't waste money. And, of course, like we don't want to waste money, we do want to be frugal, we do want to be good with our money. But, like you, the idea of just splurging on something, or that I, as myself, deserved a vacation or a nice item or something that frivolous a vacation or a nice item or something that frivolous that was really hard to accept.

Liz Hansen:

Because there's some worthiness, there's some value judgments about what I deserve. Do I deserve to rest? Do I deserve to have nice things? Do I deserve to take a break? Do I deserve to enjoy something just for the sake of enjoying it? That comes down to what you believe about yourself, and when you dig deep, it can be uncomfortable to realize that you do you really believe that you don't deserve to rest? Like, do you really believe you have to work all the time? Like? That is to me something that we've been fed a lot. Right, the work, work, work, hustle culture and you'll burn out.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, with the masterminds, you know, I, I, I think that there's knowledge which I think that you can get anywhere, and then there's that application and embodiment and, like what Liz is saying, is like the when you pay, you are able to actually apply it and use it and take it into your body and become that person that I mean, that's most of the time why you are joining some type of mastermind or some type of you know group is to, ultimately, is to elevate your consciousness and your state of being. And we can read all the books that we want and watch all the YouTubes, but until we actually take action from the place of the person that has the thing that we want there's, I mean, you know, knowledge. Knowledge only takes you so far. And so taking action and here we go back to worthiness, right, worthiness of having what you want, worthiness of taking the action so that you can enjoy your time off and your rest, like a lot of us were brought up I know my clients have shared this with me very similar of like you have to earn things, you know, earning, earning love from grades or earning rest, like I mean, there were three reasons why I didn't get to go to school.

Erin Gray:

Either I was throwing up or I had like 105 fever or I think I was dead, like those were the three things that my mom said, you know, and obviously she's changed, but that's something that she probably carried down from her parents, you know. So a lot of us have been parented and from the way that you know our grandparents were to our parents and so really, really reparenting ourselves and giving our inner child and ourselves the things that we are worthy and deserving of having.

Liz Hansen:

Yeah, back to masterminds real quick. I think it can be really hard to be what you can't see Like. I've heard that and just being around other people who are doing what you want to do not in and of itself is worth paying for. I have seen that over and over people. You just it's hard to step in a role where you've never seen someone like you do, especially if you're a woman who's never seen another female business owner Like. When I started my business, I didn't know any other female business owners, so for me to step into that role felt really uncomfortable. As soon as I joined a mastermind and saw other women doing exactly what I wanted to do, it suddenly gave me a template, it suddenly gave me a path. It suddenly felt achievable because I was in the room with other people doing it.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, they always say, like more is caught than taught, you know, and so it's like just being around. You know people that are doing that and and they are I mean because they are at a different level, they are thinking differently, and so you get to, you just get to be around that and absorb that by being in the present. And also it feels good. It feels good to be with people that are like thinking big picture, big vision, making good money and how they're using and circulating their money. Like that feels, at least for me. Like that feels really fun and exciting and good.

Liz Hansen:

So I, um, I would like to talk a little bit about risk. I've always thought of myself as quote unquote risk averse. You know I didn't. I don't like roller coasters, I don't want to learn how to ski, I don't like to do not an adrenaline junkie, right, I'm someone who I wake up and I like to have a routine. I like things that are the same, I don't like risky things, and so starting a business felt very risky and I don't know if any of your listeners will kind of agree with or feel that they've felt that.

Liz Hansen:

But taking risks is a necessary step in a business and I've really had to kind of acclimate myself to risk a little bit and say I'm going to take a step into the dark and I'm going to try this thing that I've never tried before, and I've made mistakes and I've had to kind of get comfortable with failure and mistakes in a way that I didn't have to when I had a job or when I was doing other things.

Liz Hansen:

Because as a business owner, there's just if you, if you don't kind of, you won't grow without taking some of those hard, risky steps. Now, I didn't ever like risk. My whole house I, you know I didn't mortgage my whole house so that we didn't have anything to eat or place to live. I'm not talking about that, but even just putting stuff out there on social media, letting myself be authentic, letting myself be seen trying new things in my studio and I didn't know if they're going to work introducing new products and seeing if my audience likes them, I've really had to get used to the idea that risk is okay, mistakes are okay, failure is going to be okay. We're going to make it through this, even if this doesn't work out. I'm going to try this step, even if I don't make money from it, because that's, I feel like, where a lot of the personal growth for me has happened in business is being willing to tolerate the uncertainty, the failure and the risk that inherently comes with being a business owner.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, window of tolerance is what comes to mind for me, and it's like we can only go as quickly as we feel safe to do so, and I think that there is a very fine line and you have to tap into your body to know is this fear of why I'm saying no, or is this just a little bit outside my comfort zone? And or do I actually just not want to do this thing? Because I do think that there are things in business where we have been taught you need to do it. Like for me, I realized, like I don't really enjoy being on social media, like it's not something that I'm like yes, now podcasting. Yes, all day, every day, right, and so you have to really get clear of like, what are you doing?

Erin Gray:

Why are you doing it? And is it coming from that fear window of tolerance? This is outside my comfort zone, or is this like a true like I actually don't have any desire to do this and I am coaching myself into doing it because someone else is successful doing it this way, or? And so really tapping into your body, slowing down and asking yourself these questions and always be on that when that, if it is a yes, that window of tolerance, of, like I look at our nervous systems like a rubber band right, like how can we stretch it just a little bit more? Like when you get a new rubber band and you try to expand it all the way, it goes completely back, right. But if you're used to expanding the rubber band a little bit at a time, it will get bigger over time. And so what are the things that I, that you can do that are nourishing to your nervous system but still putting you a little bit outside that comfort zone and taking action so that you can move forward to where you want to go?

Liz Hansen:

Yeah, I mean fear can be a good thing, like you said you need to tap into. Is this truly? Am I truly stopping myself from doing this Cause the fear is rational and I should not do this crazy thing? Or am I stopping myself from doing it because I'm unable to step even one inch outside my comfort zone? And discerning that can be difficult, and that's where a trusted community can really help you, I think, is. Sometimes you can go to your trusted community, to your mastermind, to the people who you know understand you and your business a little bit, and say I want to do this thing. Am I crazy or am I? Is this actually? Could this actually be helpful to me? And if you can't discern that for yourself, yeah.

Erin Gray:

I also want to go back to risk. I had a conversation with a banker yesterday. I was learning about SBA loans and I told my husband I'm like you know, the world does not actually prep you. Like, if you have a job I mean I came from a nine to five ish my husband has as well and there's something there that the 3d world has created like, oh, you have a paycheck, so you're secure, but you could literally get fired in any moment, and so this fake idea that we have, you know, like I was asking about, we were talking about investments and or something, and and I'm just like that amount of money is already there. Like you could see, this is I'm a, I'm a certain thing. Here's this money and how much they put on. You know, because if you're, you know loan or something of that sort and you're newer in business, like they look at that very differently than if you have a paycheck.

Erin Gray:

And it's just so fascinating to me to just look at the rules that we have created as a society of what equals safety, what equals security and I really encourage my clients, listeners and anyone in my sphere is like the certainty is within you, you know, like creating certainty within yourself that no matter I mean in several ways right, like no matter what I can feel, any emotion, I'm going to be okay.

Erin Gray:

And also the certainty of like I am highly resourceful, I will figure this out so kind of certainty that we need to to develop and to cultivate um as business owners. And when that doubt creeps in, like it will, because we all have a human brain is like just paying attention to and focusing on. I think that there is that part that we do need to give it some love, because sometimes that is like that little kid within us that feels scared. So it's not just a total push away, but once you have tended to your little child, okay. But we're moving on and you know we're focusing on where we're going and that's where we're going to spend our brain space and our you know feelings and our actions moving in that direction.

Liz Hansen:

I felt this really strongly when we bought a house a few years ago and I am a small business owner, so I don't have a W-2 in the same way that I would if I had a 9-to-5. And getting a mortgage with a small business they act like you're not as secure as if you had a 9-to-5. But, like you said, it's not actually a whole lot less secure. I mean, like you said, you can get fired.

Erin Gray:

I think it's more secure. At least we know what. Like you, create it right, like I don't know.

Liz Hansen:

That's my thoughts, but yeah, so we do have this idea that, like, people with a nine to five are secure and following the plan and doing the right thing, small business owners they've gone rogue. You know they're out there doing their own thing. We can't trust them with a mortgage, right? So I mean, I definitely came into owning a business with that mindset as well, like that, somehow having a nine to five is more normal, more prestigious or something than being a small business owner. I've totally flipped my idea on that. Now I have such high respect for small business owners, people who start their own thing, those are the real go-getters, those are the people who are waking up every day and making it happen. Yeah, but I think a lot of people don't understand or if they haven't been around that like I mean, it can be a whole new world to understand the difference between a 95 and a small business owner and what that means for how people perceive you and your finances.

Erin Gray:

Yeah, yeah, and I think also of like how much I was recognizing around, how I grew up, of like if you have money and if you have certain types of assets, that's actually more valuable than other types. So just I just am saying this to call awareness, like if you notice, of where you are like it's okay. Like just that awareness versus, I think, going so quick to judgment, because when I say the 3D world, I mean obviously the material plane. But if you actually look at how banks work and how the stock market works, it's not what we have actually been told, and how the stock market works it's not what we have actually been told. And so just how much we have been sold a bill of goods that may not actually be factual. And so just having that going back to that certainty within you, within yourself, what you can create.

Erin Gray:

Going back to the SBA, I was asking him some questions and I said this this sounds very much like how the mortgage bailout is. And he's like well, not exactly to that extent, but yeah, and I'm like okay, but so it's just really interesting to. I mean, it's just interesting to really get into the nitty gritty of like we I think a lot of us are like oh, it's a bank or it's the stock market, it's our investments and it's just like this. Has this, like you were saying prestige to it, versus really getting clear on, like, what's actually happening behind the scenes and like giving ourselves the the um attagirls for like no going, going for what you want, like that takes courage and fortitude. And to keep with something and to make it, you know, to create it and to make it work, like that is something to be very, very proud of.

Liz Hansen:

And something to put on a resume if you decide to go back to the 95. So often I think people think, well, I, you know, I did this small business. I decided, for whatever reason, to close it and go back to nine to five. Like what am I going to do? Listen, if you ran a business for a couple of years, that is a fantastic credential yeah and uh should be downplayed. I mean, running a business, you learn so many aspects of life interpersonal communication, finances, sales, marketing, that, um, I mean, like we said at the top of the interview, it's the best self-development course there is.

Erin Gray:

In my opinion yeah, you don't. You don't get that. You don't get that anywhere else. And it really allows you, if you're willing, to really see who you are and who you think you are and what you're capable of. And I think it really, if you will allow it, to expand who you actually think you are and can be. Thank you so much, liz, for coming on and sharing your time with us. Where can people find out about you, learn more about you, follow you, all the things?

Liz Hansen:

Well, thanks so much for having me, erin. It's just been really fun to chat with you. Uh, the best place to go is my website, which is chicagoboudoircom, where I can be a tricky word to spell, it's b-o-u-d-o-i-rcom. If you go there, you can find a free ebook that I've got and get in touch. I'd love to hear from you. Okay, okay, thank you.