Stop Winging It and Start Building Systems That Pay You with Kelly Leardon

Tired of winging it in your business? Ready to build systems that actually pay you instead of just keeping you busy? Kelly Leardon, business coach, strategist, and founder of Walk Like Warriors, is here to show you how to stop the chaos and start building a business that works for your actual life.

Kelly helps high-achieving women entrepreneurs stop winging it, reclaim their time, and create systems that protect their profit. In this conversation, she breaks down why margin is the real millionaire move, how to build systems for the mom brain, and why you can have time freedom and money freedom, just not both at massive scale.

Key Learning Points

• Stop Winging It Mentality - Moving from reactive chaos to proactive systems that actually work
• Systems That Pay You - Building processes that protect profit instead of just creating busy work
• Margin vs. Scale - You can have time freedom and money freedom, but not both at massive scale - choose what matters most
• Women vs. Men in Business - Women want both time freedom and money freedom; men often sacrifice time freedom for money freedom
• Systems for "Squirrel Brain" - Creating processes that work for ADHD, perimenopause brain, and mom brain
• The $8,000 VA Story - How hiring the right person and paying them well can save and make you money
• Value-Based Compensation - "A worker is worthy of their wages" - pay people for the value they bring
• Done by 3 PM Goal - Building a business that allows you to be present for what matters most

Guest Information

Kelly Leardon is a business coach, strategist, and founder of Walk Like Warriors. She specializes in helping high-achieving women entrepreneurs stop winging it, reclaim their time, and create systems that protect their profit. After years as a fractional director of operations, she pivoted to serve women who want both time freedom and money freedom, not just one or the other.

Connect with Kelly:

• Website: walklikewarriors.com
• Instagram: @walk_like_warriors (coaches for free Monday-Friday in Stories)

Free Offer: Hyper Efficiency Guide - available through the big pink button at walklikewarriors.com with systems for saving time and protecting profit.

Book your Wealth Alignment Call with Lisa Marie to look at your cash flow, profit leaks, and systems so you can stop feeling busy and start feeling bankable. 

Resources 

• Hyper Efficiency Guide
• Free Wealth Alignment Call with Lisa Marie
• Cash and Sass™ Podcast Newsletter
• Transcendent Wealth Co services
• The Seven Money Pitfalls email series

Follow Lisa Marie on your favorite social platform:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Transcendent Wealth Co. LLC
https://www.transcendentwealthco.com   

Transcript

Lisa: Welcome back to Cash and sas, the podcast where we ditched the shame, talk real numbers, and build bold, bankable wealth without sacrificing who we are. I'm your host, Lisa Marie, the fractional CFO Wealth mentor, and of course, the Sassy Wealth Queen behind Transcendent Wealth Company. And if you're ready to scale with strategy, own your power, and finally feel wealthy in every sense of the word, then you are in the right place.

Today's guest knows exactly how to help you build a business that doesn't just make money. It actually pays you. Kelly Liden is a business coach, strategist, and founder of Walk Like Warriors. She helps high achieving women entrepreneurs stop winging it, reclaim their time, and create systems to protect their profit.

We're diving into what it really means to build margin into your business. Why bus Busy isn't a badge of honor. Amen to that one. And how simple systems can turn chaos into consistent cash flow. So as I say, let's get into it and we're just gonna start. You say [00:01:00] that on your money, money journey, that it could be summed up as margin is the real millionaire move.

And honestly, I love that. I it, that was one of the things that drew me for us to have, , this podcast recording. And so. I'm curious, what does that, what does the margin mean to you and why is it so important for wealth?

Kelly: I've worked with people who had it all. On paper, they had it all and they were miserable. Marriage, falling apart. Kids wouldn't speak to them. And being running in those circles and being around people like that taught me pretty early on that , so much of the business advice comes from men. I think that men approach business very differently than women, and that women are after.

Time freedom and money freedom. Not just money freedom. I see. It's not , like a men versus women thing. It's just, I think the way that we're hardwired is that men don't mind giving up time. Freedom to have money freedom. And so that's where you see a lot of like the cold plunge marketing bros. I wake up at 4:00 [00:02:00] AM and they've got the four hour like morning routine.

Women aren't wired that way. We're more nurturers and we really care about having a life in balance. And so when I left my dream job and I started building my own, I, I first started building my own business. I was a fractional director of operations. So just like your fractional CFOI was a fractional director of ops.

I loved it. I was working mostly with men. , And I started walk like warriors because I didn't really have a place I was showing up online. My business was. I'm sure you know, us fractional folks, we don't need 5,000 clients. We just need a few, , to keep the lights on and have the business be growing.

And then I just started growing through word of mouth, so it really wasn't necessary for me to have a social media presence, but I really wanted one. I thought I'm helping all of these people build their businesses. I'm not really showing up anywhere online, so I. Started this page and what was really interesting to me is I started to sort of stretch my wings and not be so corporatey, not all grays and blues with the colors.

[00:03:00] And I decided I'm just gonna show up as me. And it was a faith-based page at first, but the women that I was drawing tended to be. A DHD midlife female entrepreneurs, and they didn't mind the faith content, but they glommed onto the systems for people with squirrel brain, perimenopause, brain, mom, brain.

And they were just like, how are you building your business when your brain works so differently than the people that are online? And so I started kinda leaning more into that. One thing led to another, someone landed in my dms, well, you do one-on-one coaching with me. And I was like, I don't really know if I coach solopreneurs.

I co like director of ops or. They're small businesses, but they're larger small businesses, right? These are not people like trying to scramble and get a thousand dollars a month. And so I said no. And then someone else reached out and I said no. And then my business coach said, Kelly, why are you saying no to people?

Why don't you just try it? Why don't you just see? And so one thing led to another. Within two months my coaching calendar was full. I had a waiting list. And so I [00:04:00] decided to close the director of operations business and just do full on. Business coaching for female entrepreneurs. And it was very interesting getting back to your question because the first 90 days I was really trying to find my footing.

I knew that the systems to scale that I teach work, especially for people who are wearing all the hats, CFOs, CMO, CCROs, C-O-C-O-O, janitor Marketing Director, right? Like literally all the roles, but. So much of the way I spoke was I realized was so geared toward men, and these women were starting to say things to me like, but I don't wanna work like that.

I only wanna work maybe five hours a day. And I was Lisa Marie. I was like, what? I'm sorry, what? I've never met somebody that will say that out loud, but these women that I was drawing, to me, they were so passionate about, yes, I wanna build the six figures, multi six figures. But not work 80 hours a week.

And so if one comes at the [00:05:00] cost of the other, I'm choosing margin all day long. And so I realize it's just so. Amazing to work with women wired the same way as me. I wanna be done by three, but I wanna have a super successful business. Could I scale to seven figures? Multi seven figures? I'm sure that I could.

I have the know-how at this season of my life with my kids. I actually am willing to say. I don't want that right now. What I want is margin. What I want is for my kid to text me at three in the afternoon, Hey, can I, can we have dinner together? And I just say, yep. And I just get up and go. And so I really believe we can have both, but not both at scale.

Like we can't run a multi seven figure business. And be done by three. I've been in the business world for 20 plus years. I've never seen that done. I know that that's like the carrot we dangle in front of women and then I see them beat the crap out of themselves. 'cause they're like, I don't know what's wrong with me.

I'm working nights. I'm working weekends just to stay caught up. And so what I try to teach is. If in one hand you're holding out your arm and you're kind of stretching, [00:06:00] pulling toward time freedom. The other one is money freedom. I want my girls right in the, in the balance of that feeling like I've got all this income coming in.

It feels good. I feel confident and focused, but you know what? I can just say, I'm taking a four day weekend. I don't care to heck with everything else. And that's what I'm finding more and more women are willing to sort of step into that. Um, the confidence of being able to say, I'm okay with wanting this level of success.

Success to me is not just all the commas in my bank account. Success to me is also really healthy relationships with the people that I love the most.

Lisa: Yeah. Well, I mean, that goes back to how I talk about the wealth codes because. I created the wealth codes because I believe wealth is different than being rich. I think they're two different things. And you said that you say success, but honestly it actually correlates into what I say being wealthy because being wealthy for you and being wealthy for me are gonna, may have some similarities.

And they're gonna [00:07:00] be, they may be somewhat different. Right. You know, to me, I, I, I equate time as being wealthy, as well as freedom and, you know, more, more and more. Some people keep thinking about, like you said, the commas in the bank. Yes. The commas in the bank are important. Okay. Because the more commas that are in the bank, the more impact I can make.

Excuse me. The more changes I can do, you know, and be a part of in the world. And. Freedom and time is just as important. I had kids late in life. I'm 52. I have two girls, one's 14, one's 22, one's autistic, you know, so there's, there's these, all these things, and I wanna be done by three because I wanna go sit in car ride line and go pick up my child. And what I equate freedom to or wealth to is being able to say, Hey, I'm gonna take this day off or take these two days off, and I'm choosing to work the weekend because I'm choosing to. That's, that equates it. And for [00:08:00] some, some people might wanna work five hours a day. There are times where I do, I mean, I have my, my wealthy, me being wealthy and being able to scale to high six figures and, and do the things is me working, you know, with client calls, specific days of the week.

None the other days of the week. Fridays are podcast recording days. It's having a balance. And I say balance very loosely because I have decided there is no such thing. Okay? Because you're gonna be focusing your time and your energy on something. You've gotta understand life is gonna happen. One may pull you in more of a direction.

And us as women, we think we're supposed to be able to still equally give out. And I've, I've. Still practice and still learn that at times something may pull me more so in another direction and that's okay. That doesn't mean I don't still care about my business, love my business, wanna be in my business or my kids.

It's just, okay, there's something that's happened and I need to focus my [00:09:00] attention. And I love how you stand that, you know, success is kind of being in that middle, like you said, the little middle ground. It's kind of a balance, right? But knowing. When you're in the middle and sometimes you shift this way or sometimes you shift, shift that it's still, it's an even kill.

I kind of say, and. I agree. I think you can scale seven figures and you need to understand that that's when you're gonna have more on your team and you're gonna have maybe some more responsibilities. I don't think we have to work every weekend. I don't think we have to work 80 hours a week. I did that in corporate.

I have no desire to do keep doing that. I, I'll gladly give it all up. Just avoid ever having to do that again. Um, and I love the way, um. So many more women are like me and like you, where we're saying, okay, we wanna be successful, we wanna make the money, we wanna make an impact, and we don't want to do it at the.

Deficit of our health, the deficit of our time, the deficit [00:10:00] of spending with our kids, you know, the deficit of being able to travel all those things. And, and that's where those wealth codes come in. You know, spiritual, uh, emotional, mental, physical, and financial. I created those because if we're not, to me, if we're wealthy in all five areas.

Which is aligned to our goals, then we're successful and we're wealthy. Right? And so it, it equates where it's not just all the money. And I think that's really important for us to distinguish. Um, you said, uh, that, I guess my question for you on this is how can entrepreneurs who are starting, or how can they start creating more margin without losing momentum?

Kelly: It's a good question and most entrepreneurs are busy all day. They are flying around ping ponging around their to-do list. Opening up email, oh my goodness, I forgot to send my newsletter. Posting to social media, it's just a million miles an hour all day long. And then when their [00:11:00] head hits the pillow at night, they cannot remember what they were so busy doing.

They feel like their hair was on fire all day, and that it's like they're losing ground, which is one of the things that leads us to often have to work extra days and hours just to try to catch up and it becomes this vicious cycle. And so the main thing that I try to help women do. Is to structure their days in a way where they're following a weekly rhythm.

And so instead of batching tasks, theming their days and batching their days. And so, um, the method that I teach is in relation to that when we are busy all day, but at the end of the day, we're talking to somebody, they're like, oh, what were you so busy doing? And you just are like, I don't know. I just know that I was busy.

I never stopped moving. It's a sign that we're spending time working on the wrong thing. So I teach. Theming our days, having an ordered list of what we do on Mondays, an ordered list of what we do on Tuesdays, and trying to be really [00:12:00] strategic so that the business is holistically healthy. When I'm working with entrepreneurs, what I see is, um, they'll have a part of their business that's super strong like marketing, um, but then other parts of the business are very weak and spindly and barely.

Um, surviving. And that can be things like legally protecting their business or, um, structuring their business in a way that makes sense for future growth. And so when entrepreneurs just feel like they, they are really struggling and they can't seem to get their feet under them, and they have no margin, it really starts with figuring out, just understanding that.

We as, and I'm sure you have male listeners too, but I'm talking especially to the women right now. I wish I came up with this. I didn't. But a, a psychologist came up with this, that men are waffles and women are spaghetti. Men's brains are like waffles, meaning. The little squares when they're doing something, they're doing that one thing and that's what they're doing.

Women's brains are like spaghetti noodles that have been cooked where they're all [00:13:00] tangled up together. So case in point, if you are watching, uh, the Sunday football game with your husband or with whoever you live with, he is watching the game. And while you are watching the game, the dog is crying to go out.

You suddenly realize you forgot to send that slip back in for school. You forgot to respond to the bridal shower invite. Oh my word. I forgot to post that post on social media, and I know it's a good one. I forgot to send that proposal. I said I was gonna do it Friday. It's now Sunday. I still didn't do it.

I'm a terrible business owner. So our brains are like spaghetti. Everything is all tangled up all the time. So we might be watching football and then we're yelling at him like, can't you hear that the baby's crying? And they're like, no, they actually can't. Because when they are in their little waffle sector, they're just in that waffle sector.

So in some ways, that makes them better business owners because when they're going to, for example. Write an email that's gonna go out to their email list. They're actually able to focus and they're writing that email. When we're trying to write that email, we're texting [00:14:00] our sister. We're trying to do the grocery order, like we're doing so many things all at one time.

Even if we're not physically doing it, we're thinking about doing it now. Women make better business owners because everything for us is integrated, so we typically have a lot easier time seeing how all of the things interconnect. We tend to be more relational. Right now in the, in the, um, 2020s, probably well into the 2030s, I believe that success on social media is gonna go to relationships.

And so I think women have the upper hand there, but we have to understand that our brains are not like men's brains, which is why the time management systems that are in Barnes and Noble on Amazon, even the ones with a female's name, it's based on systems developed by men. So time diaries. Keeping a log of your time, 15 minute increments, that gives me a panic attack.

Like I can't

Lisa: I can't do 15 minute, I can't do 15 minute increments. I've tried.

Kelly: can't. You look, you're three minutes behind. Your heart starts pounding faster and you go through the whole day like in this heightened state of anxiousness, and it's like, this is supposed to be helping me. [00:15:00] This is not helping me. So the main thing with margin is ensuring that we're following a flow, we're following a rhythm, a routine to our day and our weeks.

When we sit down to work, we know exactly what to do. We do not realize the high, high cost of context switching, which really goes back to profitability. You can have a lot of. Money coming in, but if you're working a hundred hours a week versus 20 hours a week. The girl working 20 hours a week is way more profitable because she's learned to condense things.

And so, uh, we don't always think about profitability like that. We think like, oh, if I can eliminate the software subscription, if I can do this other thing. But our time is a cost as well. And so we do not realize the incredible amount of time we waste. By Ricocheting through our day, I'm gonna do this social media post.

I'm gonna return this phone call, I'm gonna write this email every time we contact Switch, and there the numbers are all over the place, but in general, it's agreed upon. About 17 minutes are lost every single time we contact Switch like that. When you multiply that times 10, that's 170 [00:16:00] minutes a day. That is almost three hours a day, which is why we can't even remember what we did, because we weren't even doing like with like, we were just ping ponging so fast throughout the day.

And so I really want women to be able to operate in a rhythm and ritual to their week. I don't teach 30 minute blocks, 15 minute blocks, there's no time diaries over here. It's creating themes for each day of our week that makes sense for our business and operating within that flow so that we're, we're sorting like with like, like computer tasks, with computer tasks.

Meetings with meetings like, so you're a podcaster, so recording podcasts in bulk instead of one off. I teach batching of social media. It is so, it's such a waste of time to create one at a time, one at a time. Like statistically speaking, it's one of the most foolish things to do as a business owner. But because no one's taught us a way that works with our squirrel brain, we're like, well, batching doesn't work for me.

Well, research has shown that when you batch your social media content one, and most importantly, you create better content. That should be reason alone. [00:17:00] To do it is like the content that comes out of you is going to be better, but two, you usually save somewhere between 50 and 200% of the time that you would've invested when you batch.

Like you can really compress and condense things when you operate like that. So it's all of these things working together to create more margin for people who feel very overwhelmed.

Lisa: So I think I've actually already started doing that because you're talking about the themes is because I, when I first started doing podcast, my podcast, I would recall. Poured, um, basically every Thursday and Friday, sometimes Wednesdays, and I might have one on Wednesday, and then I'd have like an hour in between on the Fridays and I was like, okay, this has got to stop.

I can't, like, my brain was just, I would in, so now what I do. And I started it and then I got off of it and now I'm going back because I'm like, okay, I ch, I went right back to the scattered of having two here and one here and three here. And I was like, oh, dear God. [00:18:00] Because it's like my, I when I have it on just a Friday and I do one or two Fridays and the goal is to stay on just one Friday a month and I have 'em back.

I have three to four. It's okay. I've done three to four. I'm great. Back to back. Awesome. I'm good to go, and I'm in that mode. It's podcast recording day, whereas if you have a client call and then a guest on, you're a guest on podcast or you're a po, you're doing a pod. And I've done that. My brain has to go from client mode to guest to my own podcast.

And that's what you're talking about is because, and I don't have a DH, D and I, my brain just does not do well with that. It's, it's. Uh, so I can, I understand what you're talking about with a theme, and I'm like, oh, I've actually been okay. I've been trying to, that's what I'm practicing doing because every time, and I say I'm gonna do it, and then I fall off because something happened and I reschedule people and I'm like, okay, I need to fit 'em in because I don't wanna [00:19:00] push 'em out four months.

And then it ends up all over and now my brain, and I'm like, okay, nope. Going back. One to two Fridays, and that is it. Those are podcast recording days. Nothing else happens except that on those days. And I, I can see, and I think that's the reason why I also do client calls just Monday and Tuesdays, because then I have set days for other things.

Because when I was trying to work it in between, it, it just, it gets, it gets to be too much. And you know, and then when I do, I have a cutoff, right? I ha I cut off at three. At least two to three days a week. Me and, uh, um, my girl's godmother, we rotate, but at least two to three days a week, I leave to go and pick up my daughter from high school.

So it's, I'm sitting here and I'm listening and I'm going. Wow, okay. Where were you like nine years ago or five years ago? And it's a cool thing [00:20:00] to be able to recognize, okay, there are things that we can do to, to, to. Change and have more of that margin. And, and I love the idea. I would've never said yes, we need to actually build us, um, social media content, you know, and batch.

But like, I've started doing TikTok and people are like, oh, batch your videos. And I was like, okay, that actually makes sense to me because, uh, there are some people go, oh, I just hit record whenever and then I'll just have a bunch of 'em. I'm like, okay, listen, if you wait for me to say I have time. To record a video, then that is never happening.

It's, it's just not. But scheduling a day, right? Once a week or however, once a month, whatever that allotment of time is gonna be, and batch record. Different things that makes so much more sense to me and is more, it seems more [00:21:00] doable. And how do you get women to be able to, especially women, but entrepreneurs, um, to be able to see, I guess the, the idea of how this will actually, one, it gives them more time and in, and in giving you more time, you actually make more money.

Kelly: That's a great question and I'm so proud of the fact that the graduates of this program, so we do, um, offboarding data collection and on average they are saving eight hours to 17 minutes a week on.

Lisa: Wow.

Kelly: I've had people say that they, it was saving them 32 hours a week. It's pretty incredible. And so when a woman hears that in particular, she's thinking that's like, I wouldn't have to work Fridays anymore.

It's literally giving her an extra day of the week. And so some of them choose to take that time and reinvest it into the business to get more done. The majority of them use that time for more [00:22:00] margin. Um, but the interesting thing about that stat is that they report getting more done. So. Their time in their business is coming down on average eight hours and 17 minutes a week, but they're getting more done and that's what really incentivizes them to embrace this.

And to your listeners, you know, when I was a business coach and I decided, you know what, I'm gonna have my coaching calls. I'm Tuesdays and Thursdays. That was really scary. Because I needed that money. And I'm like, if five people say, you know what? I can't do it. I can't make it work. Not one person said a word about it.

And then when we would have somebody, um, graduate from coaching and we would approach someone on the wait list, it was scary to say, uh, my VA did it. But it was scary to, for me to tell her to say, well, I have Tuesdays at 11:30 AM Eastern, and it didn't matter if somebody was west coast or wherever. They, I never want.

Lisa Marie, never once had someone say, I can't do it. I guess I can't hire you. When somebody wants to work with you or to be on your podcast, guess what? [00:23:00] They make it work. I always compare it to, um, there was this huge, uh, mass that was discovered in my abdomen in the fall of 2024. It was almost the size of a volleyball.

And so there was a cancer specialist, an oncologist in our area that deals with female cancers, and it was like. He has Monday, three weeks from now at 1:20 PM do you think I would've said, oh, I'm sorry. That doesn't work for me. I guess when somebody wants it, they will move mountains to have that time with you, and so that's what I help my girls realize as well, is that.

And men too, but it's like, I think sometimes in entrepreneurship, because we're kind of scrappy at first, we just take whatever is given to us, we make it work. We're so creative and so inventive, but that can actually bleed over into when we start to have some success, we're still letting other people call the shots on our calendar.

And I try to teach them, you come at your day, don't allow your day to come at you. You come at your day. Because when you do that. That's how you can really structure things for the most success. So I want my [00:24:00] Thursdays now to be deep workday inspired by Cal Newport's book. I wanna be head down on a massive project that's gonna move my business forward.

Most business owners don't do that once a year, and I do that once a week. So most business owners

Lisa: I was gonna say, I normally do that. I normally do that once a quarter or twice a year, like every single 'cause. That's where I see it once a week. Oh my gosh. That would be. See, I'm y'all, if you're not hearing this, like I'm already seeing why this is beneficial to me and I, and I am, um, at the time of us recording this, I am celebrating nine years today and walking into 10 years tomorrow.

And I am seeing the things that I could learn and do differently to scale my business and not only scale it to make more money, but also, like you said, have more time. So there's a. You know, my coach says we wanna work smarter, not harder. And I think that that's the key is there's a way that we can work smarter and that's how, and [00:25:00] that works for us.

Not have to work harder and still be successful. It's possible. We just need to learn what that is and not, and understand that we don't have to do it the way that it's always been done. And I think that's really, really important to, to, to, to understand. And I don't wanna say grasp, but hold it and, and, and go with it, honestly.

Because so often we just say, oh, well this is just the way it's gotta be and, and we can't be. We can't do it any other way.

Kelly: Hmm.

Lisa: My next question is, I actually have a trademark called Pay Me First. Pay Me No Space First. It was actually what my one-on-one used to be called when I first started my business.

Now it's, it's a, it's gonna be a program. And one of the things that you teach is paying yourself first. So I, and, and I was like, oh, that's what I like. I'm, I can't tell you how many [00:26:00] entrepreneurs I can, and you'd believe me, um, where they come to me and they're not, they're not paying themselves. They, they're paying themselves by transferring money into an account to pay bills, but they're not, they don't have a system where they're truly paying themselves.

And actually looking at it to pay themselves first before they start, you know? And, and I'm not saying don't invest in coaches and invest in teams. Listen the be the best thing I ever did was get a va. VA was the first one. That was the best thing. I don't do, I, I don't do my emails. My virtual, my VA does.

She's, she's my social media manager now. She's my godsend. Okay. I am not saying not do that because sometimes spending that money actually gives you time back because you're not doing the things that yes, you can do, but you don't enjoy doing, and it gives you focus where you can make money. However, how do, how do you help them see.[00:27:00] 

That paying themselves first is, is is something that should be fixed. Because so many women entrepreneurs, we don't do that. We don't. That's not the first thing we think of.

Kelly: It's so true, and one of the things is that, you know, there's, it's not always binary. Like you need to pay yourself first or pay yourself last. There's uh, there is some ground in the. Middle, there's like a gray area. So once in a while there was somebody who, for example, I coached somebody who was, had a huge, huge sales job.

I mean, she was making multi six figures in corporate. She came to me for coaching. She said, I wanna be a health coach. I wanna step out on my own. So I coached her and um, she's working seven days a week. That's not something that I teach or encourage except for a season. When the end result is within reach and you have a deadline, sure enough, she was able to leave first month doing that.

She had a five figure month, her very first month out of the gate, so she felt [00:28:00] even more comfortable. Same thing goes with once in a while, like I had a month this year where my VA made more than I did. Because I was learning meta ads and I thought I'm taking the profit and I'm reinvesting, but that was for a season.

Um, so I don't wanna ever make it sound like you have to do this or not do this once in a while for strategic reasons. You might choose to make a different decision, but that should never be a long-term thing for your business. You come at a, obviously as a financial expert and strategist, so you know that that's not the way to run a business.

And I also come at it. From that perspective, but also from Har a heart place. I've seen women quit their business. I've seen men quit their business 'cause they're not paying themselves and they think that they're not making money and they are because they're not paying themselves first. So I totally agree with you.

I am, I've seen so many people, I feel like I, I feel like a profit walking this dirt road of abandoned businesses. And when I open up that business, all of them have millions of dollars inside that broken vase. And it crushes me. And so I'm [00:29:00] also on a mission. That's part of why I am a time management guru, is because, especially for creative entrepreneurs, because there's no time management system that works for us.

So that's why I created my own. But I, burnout and overwhelm are a reason that people quit their businesses. A lack feeling like there's a lack of finances flowing through the business is why people abandoned businesses. So I'm pretty passionate about it. But it starts with, so like I, I listened to it one of your podcasts, I, or I think back in September, but it was talking about the book Profit First.

So it's on my bookshelf behind me, and I feel like you've done a good job of that book can get pretty heavy. And I feel like you do a good job of like pulling out the juice for entrepreneurs. 'cause that book is not necessarily

Lisa: That book is, can be very, very overwhelming. I tell people, yes, read it and please take some of it with a grain of salt. And I don't mean that anything bad against him. I love, like I have both versions, new and the old version and, and I have a couple of his other, I I love. I love the whole [00:30:00] concept, and I think it becomes very overwhelming for so many, and it's because they think that it has to be just those accounts and it has to be all of 'em at the same time, and it has to be those percentages.

And what I want to remind everyone is, no, it doesn't. First and foremost, please don't go open all of them at one time. Point blank. If you're not paying yourself or you are just starting out and you're having, you just got enough money to go in the taxes and operating and pay yourself, then you have no business having a profit account right now.

And people can come at me all they want. Okay? I understand profit's important, and if you don't have it yet, don't open that account. You may have some profit, but right now you're putting it back into the business or you're using it to pay yourself, and that's where it needs to go first. Then gradually we, we bring it, I use it, I call, [00:31:00] I call it, I used a profit first method with a sassy twist.

Um.

Kelly: I love it.

Lisa: Because I've added, uh, a, um, eventually, not only do you have the profit account, but you have a wealth account. And then we also make sure that there's a yearly savings. So, and I could go on and on, but I do that because when we break it down into little, uh, I don't know, snippets and buckets, okay, we can actually see where our money is going and we can see, hey, wait, we are doing this.

We are, we are, we are successful, we can pay ourselves. And so I think it's really important to, for us to be able to do that. And a lot of times they'll come to me. I, I don't know if I can pay myself because they have all their money on one account and they're so afraid they're not gonna have enough for taxes and all of that.

And then when we start separating it, they're. Oh wait, I can't. Yes, yes, you can pay yourself and, and we're going, we're gonna figure out what that amount will be. Maybe it's not quite as high as [00:32:00] you would like it to be and we work to get it, to get it up there. Um, and I think that that's really, um. I know it.

I think it's y'all. I don't know, but y'all. But I feel really powerful when I pay myself powerful and empowered and like, you know, like I'm a badass. Okay. I mean, 'cause we we're having a successful business, right? I mean, that's the, and and there's money in the tax savings account to pay the quarterly taxes.

That's like even, um, more empowering to me because, um. That means that I'm, that I'm doing the things I'm gonna do. My last question and, and it's because I'm interested in how you did this. You actually made a bold money move and you started paying your VA like a partner. One. I wanna know why, because I'm like, I read, I read it and I was like, wait, you did what?

And, and, and nothing against the virtual. Uh, like I said, I love my [00:33:00] va. Okay. She's, I've already told her we're gonna move her from hourly to, to a salary because she's just, she, she's the bomb. Um, but what, why, what made you take that leap and how did it change your business? Because obviously it, it did, it did something in a very good way.

Kelly: So. I'm so glad you're asking for this point of clarification, and people might have heard that I, my VA made more than I did one of the months of this year, and I run a really successful business, so that might have been shocking to people. I will say that I think like any industry, like any group of people, one out of a hundred.

Is that warrior, they are that, that killer instinct that a player, you've got maybe 20% of people, they're good. They, they might even be great. You've got 20% that are average. You've got, you know, five to 10%. They're lazy. [00:34:00] They don't do. So I, I worked, I, I started, let me back up. I started as a virtual assistant, um, before virtual assistants were a thing.

This was like in 22,000. I mean, nobody, people were like, you work from home. What is, how are you allowed to work from home? I mean, nobody knew what it was. It was a, I was doing it because the person that hired me, he was a solopreneur and he worked out of his home and he is like, my office is in my bedroom and I feel like it's inappropriate to have you come and work in my bedroom with me.

So I was like, yeah, I don't know that I feel comfortable doing that. So I worked from home back before it was a thing, and, um, after being a virtual assistant, I, I had, you know, I was a project manager, an event manager. I got certified as a director of operations. But I can tell you, in working alongside business owners for 20 plus years, I will say to the end of my days, and I have worked alongside nine figure earners. I have never seen a role that impacts the health of the business and the CEO. The way [00:35:00] that the right hand person to the CEO impacts the business and I would not pay your average va. What I pay my va. What happened was, um, she had started again. I had had to let not let go. They were contractors in full transparency, but I ended their contracts because of poor performance or a, a myriad of issues. And when, and I will also say I have a big thing with never hand, never ever hire family members because I've seen it blow up in people's faces no matter what. And she made me eat my words. So I had let my one va I'd ended her contract and I was about to go into the launch of my group coaching program called The Success Squad.

And I know 'cause like you, Lisa Marie. I, I don't wanna be doing the detailed stuff and the emails, and I'm, like I said, I said, Anna, is there any way, like, I literally need you to help me for four weeks. Like I can't do this. She's about to start nursing school. And she's like, well, I mean, you say you'll never hire a family, but sure I can.

She's real [00:36:00] smart. And, um, I have four kids. She's my youngest daughter. And what happened at week four is I said to my husband, I'm like, I don't know what to do because she's good. Like really good. Like, I don't know. And I've had VAs that were in their forties and I'm like, she's the best VA I've ever had.

So she was in nursing school and I approached her and I was like, Hey, how do you feel about maybe staying with me till the end of the year? And she said, I can do that while I'm in school. I love that I get to work from home. And then two months in, she approached me and she's like, nursing is not for me.

I don't wanna do this. I actually think I might start my own business as a virtual assistant. And so what ended up happening, so that was like piece one is integrity is a big part of my brand. So I really, it's important to me to make sure that I'm very transparent about the details of the way this transpired.

I trained her, taught her everything I knew 'cause I was a VA for many years and we are about to launch again. So my program launches fall in January and it was December and I'll never forget it. I get a Voxer from her and she said. [00:37:00] Hey. So I went into the bounces and I realized that some of the wait list, and she's like telling me all this stuff and I was like, well, what do you mean?

And she said, yeah, so this thing is broken. And I noticed this, and I mean, Lisa Marie. She had gone into the backend of all these systems and called all of these names out, and she's like, yeah, they've not been getting this. And the last time they did, she had seen all this stuff that I, 'cause, like any entrepreneur, I'm like running as fast as I can to keep up with the scaling of the business.

And what happened was it, the program is a $2,000 program. Four people took it that would not have taken it had she not done what she caught. Like we had a huge error in the backend. Something wasn't connecting. I don't even know the details 'cause I don't like the details. I remember thinking to myself, that was worth $8,000 and she did it on her own time.

Like she, she just took it on herself. It it fine. It's totally fine for a VA to be like, yeah, just gimme my list and I'll do my list. But when you can find that one. It's like Lisa Marie, I don't know if you realize this, but [00:38:00] with the launches, I noticed, and so then in January what happened was she said, Hey, this is really weird, but you have that newsletter batching Made Easy course, which is like a $77 course.

And she's like, do you know that almost everybody who buys that course ends up taking the $2,000 course next? And I'm like. What that is a bizarre ascension. I mean an under a hundred dollars course to a $2,000 course. She's like, it's true. I really think we should be thinking about this. We should be doing some targeting, all this stuff.

And I sat her down and I said, you're gonna be my director of ops. This is not a flipping on the switch. It's gonna be a two year process. We're gonna lay out a program for you to be able to do this. Um, but right then and there, I gave her a raise. Uh, it was more than I was making 10 years ago. Um, and I, back when I was like in a more corporate setting, um, she was a little bit stunned by that, but I said, 'cause she just said, well, I would've been happy at the other rate, but I said, I, that doesn't matter to me.

Um, so I'm a faith-based person and there's a verse in the Bible that says A worker is worthy of their wages. So [00:39:00] just because somebody's a housekeeper or a virtual assistant or works at a laundromat, like whatever. We need to be paying people the value that they're bringing into our life. I'm a big believer of that.

And so this might not be everybody's strategy, but I would rather make hundreds or thousands less in order to keep somebody that has revolutionized my personal life first and foremost. I don't have to think about the business as much, Lisa Marie, 'cause she's, she's just doing so much. She's a little fricking butt kicker.

Lisa: that's what I'm stepping into with my virtual

Kelly: So keep her, you never wanna lose them like to me.

Lisa: director, she, they're, they're redoing my systems and, and, and I can see where it's gonna happen. And, and I even told the va, I was like, look, I know you're hourly right now, but you stay with me and I promise you that, that that hourly is gonna switch.

And she's like, I don't, no, it's gonna switch. I want, I, because everything that you've done. And so I think it's, I think it's really important to be able to see, and I love the, I love your [00:40:00] transparency. Um. Because I think the transparency is, is important. And this has been a fire conversation and we could call, I'm gonna ha I'm gonna ask you go ahead and ask you right now.

I would love to have you back because I have like 5 million other questions that I think is really, really important. Um, but we gotta go 'cause you were given the strategy and systems and, and you have SaaS too, which I.

Kelly: Thank you.

Lisa: I have sas and you have it all rolled into one. I would love to know where can listeners connect with you and, and can you share more about your hyper efficiency guide, um, so that they can start saving time and protecting their profit right now. And y'all, I'm gonna tell you right now, you need to jump at this 'cause I know I'm going to, um, matter of fact, I will be like reaching out to her because there's things that I can learn from this as well.

But if you could share it, please.

Kelly: Yes, absolutely. So I coach for free Monday through Friday in Instagram Stories and it's walk like warriors. Um, there's underscores between the words [00:41:00] and it's, I, it's my photo with a bright yellow background. You cannot miss it. The website's walk like warriors.com. There's a big pink button in the top right corner.

It says free or gifts. I don't know it, you'll know it when you see it. It's a big, bright pink button and we've got all kinds of resources in there from batching. Um, it's just still free. I, my heart is to serve business owners, so I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to pour into your audience.

I hope they were able to find a thread that they can pick up and run with, and hopefully make a lot more money and have a lot more free time as well.

Lisa: Absolutely. And for all of you listening, if you're ready to stop winging it and start running your business like the wealthy CEO that I know you are, it's time to book a wealth alignment call. We'll look at your cash flow, your profit leaks, and your systems so that you can stop feeling busy and finally start feeling bankable.

The link is gonna be in the show notes along with the, all the information, um, to get all of Kelly's stuff and, and go find her and just. Like soak up the information because [00:42:00] if she's on there like several days a week, you're gonna be able to get, there's no reason why you can't get tons and tons of information and until next time, remember, confidence and cash are the ultimate power duo.

Go check in with your money and as always, have a fantastic and wealthy day. Bye.