Your Money, Your Rules | Money Mindset, Money Management, Abundance Mindset, Budgeting, Spirituality

175 | Avoiding Bookkeeping? Why QuickBooks Triggers the Nervous System

Erin Gray | Wealth Coach, Former CFP and CFO

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Many women entrepreneurs avoid QuickBooks not because they’re bad with money but because their nervous system doesn’t feel safe with numbers.   In this episode we explore why we feel shame, overwhelm and avoidance with bookkeeping software and how to reframe your numbers as neutral data that builds self-trust, clarity, and financial sovereignty. 


In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why avoiding QuickBooks is often a nervous system response, not a mindset failure
  • How to see numbers as neutral information; not a verdict on your worth or success
  • How to choose thoughts that create clarity instead of shame and comparison
  • Ways to reclaim power from financial software and money professionals
  • How to set boundaries when advisors or experts talk down to you
  • Why starting small and zooming out to trends builds confidence over time
  • How to treat QuickBooks as a learnable language with simple, supportive rituals
  • How to design safety and calm before doing money work
  • The role of self-praise, possibility partners, and regulation in better financial decisions
  • Why honoring your intuition is one of the most important financial skills you have as a founder


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From my soul to yours,

Erin

Erin Gray:

Most women that I support avoid their QuickBooks, not because they are bad with money. They typically avoid QuickBooks for several reasons. It could be one of the following or all of them or some of these, not even listed here. Typically, their body does not feel safe looking, right? So there is the way that the body is perceiving the numbers and QuickBooks and what that actually means and how that feels in their body. Andor they don't actually understand what they're looking at. Like no one has actually sat down and taught them how to look at QuickBooks. And so today, what I'm going to talk about is reframing knowing your numbers as an act of self-trust, self-love, and sovereignty in your business. Not another way to judge yourself or to beat yourself up. So let's dive in. Real quick announcement I'm going to be hosting this month's workshop on feminine leadership and play. It's been a theme I'm noticing in some of my clients. So it will be on Thursday, January 15th at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. We're going to be talking about returning back home to yourself, returning back home to your childlike wonder and having more ease and joy in your life and your business. So if you're interested in coming, you can click the link in the show notes and you can learn more about it and register there. So I first want to say that numbers are just information. They're data. They are not the verdict and there is no financial police. I think so often we are brought up and we are taught that there is a right way and a wrong way to do something, and there just isn't. Like that is definitely a mind. Whoever taught us that, I mean, my dad is definitely like he believes in right and wrong. There is a right way and a wrong way. But that's because his dad and he would get in trouble if he did it, and I'm air quoting the wrong way, right? He would get, and like I said, in trouble or punished if my dad did something in not a way that my grandfather thought it was, right? So there that comes from ultimately a safety place, like there is a right or a wrong, because if I do wrong, then what happens? So that's the first thing to start noticing is that numbers are just neutral. They're just data. That's all that they are, right? But the body perceives it probably as like a threat, right? There's a right way and a wrong way, and a certain number and not a certain number is good or bad. And so often we give our power away to so many things and so many people outside of ourselves, you know, abdicate or give away our power for QuickBooks, our bookkeeper, our CPA, you know, and we have so many thoughts and beliefs about ourselves and what we are capable of. You know, we let our minds, if we are not aware of this, we will let our minds run the show versus intentionally choosing how do I want to think about myself? Like before I sit down with QuickBooks, the question you need to be asking yourself, or before you sit down with QuickBooks, who is the woman that is about to sit down with her money? Who is the woman that is about to open her QuickBooks or hop on a call with the bookkeeper or the CPA? QuickBooks is never going to be telling you if you're doing it right or not, right? It just simply is a software program that shows data. It's just like money, right? It just is. Money isn't one way or another. It just is. Now, I do believe money has a consciousness. That's a whole nother podcast topic for another day. But in this specific example that I'm talking about here, it's just data. It's just neutral, right? But what happens is we have so many thoughts, we have so many feelings. Our bodies don't feel safe around money and numbers, you know? And so we've made up all of these stories about ourselves and our business, which most of the time not aren't even true. And they definitely aren't helpful. Like one of the questions I've really started to ask myself is is this actually helpful, Erin? Is what you are thinking right now, is that actually helpful? Is that actually moving you to where you want to go? Is that actually serving you? And if it is not, and if I get an answer and my answer is no, then I immediately start to think, then what isn't a more empowering thought? What is a more loving belief, supportive belief that I can have? So instead of just choosing to look at it from a very neutral place, what so many of us do is we look at it and we make those stories up about it and then we shame ourselves and guilt ourselves versus okay, I'm gonna just start looking at this. Like, just start at the beginning is just looking at it from a neutral place. This is just the numbers. Like one of the things I had to start doing in the beginning was like every human, like when I was just thinking about money, right? Every human deals with money and I'm a human too. Like, what are some more neutral phrases or beliefs that you can start telling yourself to empower yourself to just look at numbers to empower you to see where you want to go instead of the guilt and the shame that you feel when you sit down to look at QuickBooks. The second thing is avoidance will almost always not like, you know, speaking in terms of like extremes, but pretty more often than not, it's going to create because avoidance is an action, it's going to create pressure more than like clarity ever. Well, so when we are avoiding something, that is our opportunity because it is an action. You have to think about what am I feeling that is causing me to avoid this? What am I actually feeling in my body? Take the time to slow down, take the time to pause. Yes, there's a million things that your brain is probably going to tell you you need to do, but nothing is more important than right now. What am I feeling in my body that is creating this avoidance? And when you come from a place of curiosity, there isn't much room for judgment. So you get to experience the curiosity and the the, I want to say understanding of like, hmm, what's going on here? Right? Feel more love for yourselves. Ask yourself, what are you feeling? Like be your best, your biggest advocate. This is a perfect opportunity to do this for yourself. There are specific feelings that drive avoidance. What are they? You have to like, this is when, you know, we want to take a motrin because we're having some pain versus what's actually creating the pain that I'm feeling? Like we've got to go there. That's where we've got to go. So avoidance is a very sneaky way that our ego, our mind, tries to protect us. But what is actually happening behind the scenes is that our nervous system is staying in that fight or flight. We aren't helping calm our nervous system by staying in an avoidance. So we aren't addressing the cause of what is creating the avoidance. So we aren't actually able to move through this, which means we aren't actually able to evolve and to grow. So, in order to gain clarity of what we are feeling, first we need to take some time to do that. Then we can decide, okay, now I have this awareness. I was feeling some shame. I was judging myself, I was comparing myself to someone else, right? So those are all brilliant awarenesses. And then we get to come back and we be like, okay, so now what do I want to do with this information? How do I want to take this? And what do I want to think differently about myself? And how do I want to feel differently about QuickBooks or my numbers? And how do I want to feel when I sit down? Like, I think so often we're just in this looping. We're not even questioning. Like we just the body and Dr. Joe Dispenza talks about this, but the body is so used to being served up certain emotions. So if you're used to feeling shame and guilt when you sit down with your numbers, it's going to take some conscious awareness to be like, okay, two o'clock is on my calendar to sit down with QuickBooks. How do I want to feel? What would I love? Like that's a question I love to ask myself. What would I love? I would love to sit down and have fun. Maybe that's too far of a jump. I would love to sit down and just open up my QuickBooks and see what my numbers are. I'm willing to do that. And I want to say two things here because I feel really passionately. I mean, I feel passionately about both, but like the first one, I let's just use the word passionately, like my um emotion freedom technique. No, not my EFT, emotion release therapist. She calls it pissionate, I think is what she says, which is like pissed off and passionate because that is how I feel. When I hear a client tell me that they have been talked down to by a CPA, or like maybe they're looking at someone working with someone like a CFO or a bookkeeper or you know, attorney, like I recognize the human in me just wants to like be so protective of them because you do not have to tolerate anyone that you work with, any employee, any vendor, any contractor, any attorney, CPA, bookkeeper, you name it, you do not have to tolerate them talking down to you. And again, with the beautiful awareness, if they are talking down to you, there probably is something there vibrationally, whether you're aware of it or not, that is when I say creating it, because I think sometimes we can misinterpret, I'm not saying it's your fault, but I'm saying that there is a vibration there that you are attracting that, right? And so, not from the blame game, but like, hey, what parts of me like does this bring up like, is this the way my dad used to talk to me and I would tolerate it? Is this the way my ex-husband used to talk to me? Like, there's something there. Is this the way my high school boyfriend was? Like, there's something there that when someone is talking down to us and we continue, right? I'm not talking about like, hey, one time it happened and then I told them what's up and it never happens again. I'm saying on a consistent basis, you're working with someone and that that is the type of relationship that it is. There is something there that maybe you don't feel worthy of having someone that treats you with love and care and respect. So that's another area that you can look into. So I just want to say if you are having someone that is not speaking lovingly and kindly and supportive and you know, meeting you where you are, then you 100% get to change. And you don't even have to give reasons, right? I think sometimes we have to give all the reasons. Like, listen, we just are not on the same frequency anymore. So you do not have to tolerate someone speaking poorly to you. Like you are this amazing human, and I want you to value yourself as such. And then the second thing is obviously, this is exactly some of the work that I do with my clients, supporting you from that emotional standpoint while also helping you understand and take the time and hold you and support you and guide you, you know, so that you understand your numbers and your business, so that you can grow in a way that feels good for you. Because when you know your numbers, when you know where your money is circulating in your business, you will feel more empowered and you will create choices for yourself. And that is ultimately what I want for each of you. So the third thing that I would say is that you are allowed to evolve over time. So start somewhere. Like this is also a place where I think a lot of women show their perfectionistic, that's even a word, tendencies, right? You know, we they go into this perfectionist mode. And I want to always, and I do say, like, let's just start somewhere, right? Let's just get moving. Let's just start looking at things, let's start digging into your reports, and then we can make decisions as we go, right? I'm gonna ask you a bunch of questions. You may not know the answers. That's totally okay, right? Like that's what we're gonna find out together, no problem, right? It doesn't have to be this big, heavy doom and gloom thing. So together, we're, you know, we are gonna go through the numbers, we're gonna look together. I'm gonna ask questions, I'm gonna teach you some things about your business and your numbers, and then I'm gonna have them thinking at a higher level so that they consider multiple things, not just what's staring them right in the face with QuickBooks. Zoom out. Like I always want you to be thinking from like a 30,000-foot view. Give yourself some space, right? To learn and to learn the lessons. QuickBooks is a language. And I think so often we just think like, well, I'm a business owner, so I should know all of this. No, you don't. Because if nobody has taught you and you haven't had the time or haven't put aside the time, I should say, not had the time, put aside the time to teach yourself, then where is it supposed to come from? Right. Like I wouldn't sit here and be like, well, you should know how to speak Spanish because you're a human. No, it's the same thing with QuickBooks. So, what matters too, I want you to understand, is who you are being. Do you want to be someone that sits down with herself and her money on a weekly basis? Someone that is learning more and more about her numbers, about finance, about her business. Are you becoming more aware of how your money is circulating? Are you trusting yourself with your intuition even more than you already are? Are you honoring your knowing? You know, I think for some of us, most of us, we we could relax even more. We could have fun even more. We could exhale longer than we're actually inhaling. So give yourself an add a girl. Like I was one of those like hard, never like beat myself up all the time, never gave myself any praise. It doesn't feel good in the body. So give yourself an atta girl on the daily, like multiple times a day. Like praise, praise yourself because you are doing amazing things. You know, we don't need to come in with the doom and gloom because there are plenty of people already in the world that are doing that enough for us. I mean, I was on the phone twice this week with attorneys and clients. And I'm just like, holy smokes, can we actually say one positive thing of what you think like an outcome could be? And yes, we might say that, oh, well, that's their attorney's job. But you know what? When I work with attorneys, I want them to be like, you know what, this is these are the facts. And also, there's also things that we can do to mitigate this or, you know, to to work through this. Like, I don't want somebody who's like the sky is falling and no, no option is going to like that's not who I want to surround myself with. Like, where are the possibility attorneys? Where are the positive thinking growth mindset attorneys? Like, that's who we want to be working with. Okay. And I want to say that you are the endless vessel. You are the founder. You are the one that has this vision and you are the magic. And I can't tell you how often that I mentor women that are quietly, maybe not so quietly, sometimes overtly persuaded against their knowing. And every single time they have gone against their knowing, it has not worked out the way that they have wanted it to. Yes, I believe everything always works out for us. But like when I asked them, like, did you know? Like, did you actually want to do that? And they were like, no. Everyone else was telling me X, Y, Z, and I wanted to do this. And I basically what they tell me is I compromised. And I want you to stop compromising. You are the magic. So please, please, please remember that. Do not let some silly software program or some person that's gotten letters behind their name get you up in arms or allow you to doubt your brilliance and the magic that you possess. All of us are way more than that. And we all deserve to have people on our team that are helping us and supporting us. So I'm gonna leave you with decide who you are as a founder, an owner, and a businesswoman. Like get your pen and paper out, go journal on this and constantly come back to this. And from that place, what does she feel and do on a daily and a weekly and a monthly basis with her money and her QuickBook and her support and her staff and all of it? Okay, that's all I have for you today. Come learn with me on Thursday, January 15th at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. And I'll see you in the next episode.