20. Manage Business Finances and Grow Your Wealth with Money Coach, Erinn Bridgman

We’re so excited to welcome Erinn Bridgman, money management and mindset coach for female entrepreneurs, to this episode of Calligraphy Biz Corner! Erinn brings her expertise in business and personal finance to help you understand how to manage money effectively and start paying yourself consistently as a business owner. She’s passionate about helping calligraphers and creatives make their businesses work for them financially and achieve lasting stability!

In this episode, we discuss essential strategies for building a financially healthy creative business. Erinn dives into... 

• common money mistakes creative entrepreneurs make
• the importance of separating personal and business finances
• how to craft a 12-month revenue plan that aligns with both business and personal goals
• her favorite tools and systems to make financial management easy and actionable
• setting up regular paydays
• and exercises for building a money mindset that supports both business growth and personal well-being

If you’re ready to elevate your financial game, make informed, confident money decisions for your creative business, transform your relationship with money, then this episode is for you! Grab your notebook, as Erinn's financial wisdom and insights will help every creative business owner achieve the financial freedom to thrive in your journey!

🔗 Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with Erinn on Instagram! 
• Learn more about working with Erinn
• Listen to Erinn's Wealthy Woman Podcast
• Download Erinn's free Salary Calculator Tool 

Transcript

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Introduction

alane_7_11-05-2024_144746 0:32

Hello and welcome back to calligraphy biz corner. I'm your host, Elaine,

shaochen_3_11-05-2024_124746 0:36

I'm Xiao Chen.

alane_7_11-05-2024_144746 0:37

and we have a very special guest today. My own business coach, Aaron Bridgman is joining us to talk all things, money, mindset, and management.

shaochen_3_11-05-2024_124746 0:47

I'm so excited that we get to talk to Aaron on this episode after attending some of her webinars and events, and also hearing you talk about her. I also think it's so fitting that we are chatting with your business coach since we just did an episode about investing in education. So we get to hear a little bit of that coaching in action today.

alane_7_11-05-2024_144746 1:08

Yeah. So I'll just give a little bit of background before we jump in just on my connection to Aaron. I had reached out to her at the end of 2021, which was, you know, post 2020, everybody and their mom was getting married again. And I was quite literally just like drowning in my business. I was totally overworked. I was underpaid. I didn't know where any. Money was going. and I knew that I needed help if I wanted to not only keep my business going, but also just revitalize my love for it. Like I was, I was very, very burned out by the end of that year. so I, I think I had come across like Aaron on Instagram somehow. I still don't remember exactly where I found her, but I'm pretty sure it was on Instagram. and I made my way over to her sales page to kind of like see what she was all about. And I remember. Reading through her sales page for her coaching and just being like, that's me. I feel that that's me. Like I was like, she was speaking directly to me. So I booked a consult call with her and the rest, as they say, is history. Um,, we've worked together multiple times. Now, the first time we worked together at the beginning of 2022, we were really diving into not just like the money mindset and management piece of it, but also just like overall business strategy. And like the effects of that work, I'm still feeling today in my business, which is incredible. and then we just worked together again at the beginning of this year. And I've attended her business retreat in January. I'm going to go again this January. I'm just like obsessed with her and I'm super excited for her to bring her wealth of knowledge all about money and, you know, finances, both the management and the mindset piece to today's episode, because I don't think it's something that's talked about often enough in our kind of field.

shaochen_3_11-05-2024_124746 2:57

Yeah, totally. I feel really grateful that we got to chat with her. I would say that probably my favorite takeaway was just this mindset of building a habit towards the wealthy woman or wealthy person that you want to become. And she gives several examples throughout the episode of how you can start building those habits, even if you're like brand spanking new in your business right now. and then towards the end of the episode, we got A little bit deeper on some of the money mindset stuff and digging into my personal money mindset. If you want to hear a little bit about my, my, what I'm working on, um, and working towards when it comes to money mindset.

alane_7_11-05-2024_144746 3:40

Yeah, I feel like that was such a beautiful like moment that I don't think any of us were expecting to happen, but um, Just to kind of hear the way that she also just like helped coach you through that. It was really, I don't know, It was really beautiful to be a part of, I guess.

shaochen_3_11-05-2024_124746 3:54

She also did warn us that every time she speaks about money, someone cries. So maybe that I was that person today. I was definitely feeling the emotions today.

alane_7_11-05-2024_144746 4:07

but I mean, money is that kind of a topic where like it is really personal. And again, it's not something that people talk about very often. And it's one of those like taboo things, right? Like, what do they say? You shouldn't talk about money, sex, or politics. Aren't those like the three things that you're not supposed to talk about? So I feel like because we grow up. That way. And like, at least I feel like our generation was definitely raised that way. And then even digging into like where, you know, your background, your family has come from, like, not just you. I mean, in general, cause I have that as well in my family where it's like, it's just not, it's not talked about the way that we talk about it in today's podcast episode or like, you know, these types of conversations are not necessarily everyday conversations that even you just have with your friends. So I don't, I really enjoyed this whole. Episode, we hope that you guys do too. And again, on top of that, like mindset stuff, she just has some really. Tactical strategies to help you gain better control of your money, regardless of where you're at in your business journey, whether you are, you know, side hustling, or you're looking to transition to full time, or maybe you're a full time parent and your business is, you know, a passion project on the side, whatever the case may be, I feel like she kept talking about like detangling this web is the vision that I have. Just to make sure that you are setting yourself up for ultimate success for whatever your goals are. And I need to take a peek at her salary calculator. We're gonna, Link that in the show notes for you guys, but she has a free tool to help you figure out what your salary is. So make sure you go ahead and grab that as well. Okay. So just a quick bio on Aaron, before we jump in. So as a money and mindset coach, Aaron Bridgman empowers female entrepreneurs to design a business that is not just profitable, but actually grows their personal wealth. Born with an entrepreneurial spirit. Aaron began by scaling her wedding photography business to over six figures and under two years, affording her the capital to begin funding the real estate empire that she and her husband now run ever passionate about supporting women as they uncover their own potential and earning power. Aaron supports creative biz owners to approach numbers with a new power and to release judgment and fear around money in order to build true wealth. When she's not working with clients or finding her next investment property, Erin can likely be found vacationing around the world and spending quality time with friends, her husband, and her two daughters, Ava and Juniper.

shaochen_3_11-05-2024_124746 6:41

And without further ado, let's jump into our conversation

Welcome, Erinn!

shaochen_3_11-05-2024_124746 6:44

with Erin.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 6:48

Welcome, Erin. You and I have known each other since 2021, and this is such an exciting moment for me.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 6:57

I'm so excited to be here. We're going to have fun.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 6:59

It's going to be amazing. So I shared a little bit in the intro about how you and I met, you know, back at the end of 2021, how I've been working with you now on and off for several years, which is. Wild as my business coach. But before we jump into our questions and our conversation, can you just start by sharing a little bit with our listeners? Who you are sharing about your entrepreneurial journey, how you became a, you know, money management and mindset coach. I did

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 7:28

Elaine, thank you for the sweet intro. I'm so grateful to you both for having me on the show to talk about money, which is going to be so fun. We're going to make it a really fun conversation and super tactical. So get ready to take notes. Okay. So I have been an entrepreneur for over a decade, which is weird to say I'm. Starting to get old, I guess, but I started as a wedding photographer back in 2012 so totally identify with the wedding industry and being a creative. I did that for seven years. We scaled it to a six figure brand, maybe like by two years in and I was working in higher education, had become a strength certified coach. I knew I wanted to continue like developing women. And so I went into the lane of business coaching in 2018. And as I was helping creatives figure out how to make more money by doing pricing strategy and offer strategy and sales and data looking, all those things, I realized, Oh my goodness, there's Some massive holes in people's buckets when it comes to money management. So I'm doing a disservice by helping people make more money. And then their money's like, poof, like they're like, where's all my money? And it's not really going to help them build personal wealth. So about. About when you found me, Elaine, maybe a little bit before then, I started really incorporating the money coaching as well as the business coaching. And I still do that, but really, really emphasize the need for us to upgrade the way that we manage our money and think about money. And that really just came from working with my amazing clients and realizing, Oh my goodness, as creatives, many times we get into entrepreneurship. By accident, kind of like we didn't be like, Oh, I want to go be a business owner. We fell in love with the art of photography or calligraphy and somebody decided to pay us. And then they like really started paying us. We're like, Oh my gosh, you can like make a living off of this. And then we have to start wearing all the business hats. And so became really passionate about empowering women with money and yeah. That's my story. That's where I'm at. I live in Indianapolis with my sweet husband, Brent, and my two girls, Ava and Junie, four and two. And they're just a freaking blast this morning. Tuesday mornings are like my girl time. And we were like just blowing bubbles in the backyard and they're like little nightgowns. And I was like, this is the life. This is it. I love it.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 9:50

That's amazing. I love it. I know like we talk so much about living into like the wealthy life that you're dreaming of and you are definitely a testament to that. You know, when you have these moments with your daughters and your family, it's like, So beautiful to see. I also feel like your story is such a good example of, you know, doing something that you enjoy and that you are good at, but then also listening to what the need is from your clients. We also always talk about being a scientist kind of in your business and like experimenting and looking at data and all of these things, and you really did find such a need for that money. Management piece, because yeah, it's like, it's great that we have businesses that can be bringing in money, whether it's a side hustle right now or your full time job, like if you're making money, that's incredible, but what do we do with it when we make it? So that is what we are going to dive. All into today. Cause I feel like it's also not talked about a ton.

Common Financial Mistakes Creative Entrepreneurs Tend to Make

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 10:48

I would love to start this conversation just by hearing, like, what are some of the most common, either misconceptions or mistakes that you tend to see creatives, creative business owners making when it comes to their business finances and setting financial goals for their business.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 11:07

Okay. So if you're listening in and you're hearing that this topic, you're like, Oh gosh, Just know that there's no judgment as I like share the mistakes and you're like, Oh my gosh, you're feeling called out or something like that. This purpose of this conversation is to help you not feel alone and then to also help you feel like you know how to move in the direction of growth. Okay. So some of the major mistakes I see is one, the biggest one that I'm going to talk about, I'm going to harp on over and over again is paying ourselves least last and inconsistently. I have a whole money matrix system, right? All these different tools and spreadsheets and all this. And my goal when I'm working with people is, yeah, I'm going to help you make more money in your business and get it organized. And like the amount of people that come to me and like, okay, I know how to make money, but like, where the heck is it at the end of the year? I don't know where all my money's gone. There's one number that moves in the money business matrix to the money personal matrix of the tools. And that is salary, how much you pay yourself from your business into your personal world. And that number is very powerful because. It's the number that you actually use to build personal wealth, whatever that looks like, whatever that needs to be. And so as I work with people who are, you know, even making six figures, okay. They've been in business for a while. Their salary is low. It's inconsistent. And there's a couple of reasons why this is a problem from a subconscious level. What are we telling ourselves when there's We're the last ones that we pay. We pay everybody else and make sure everyone else is taking care of the software, like the rent, like all of this. And then like, if there's enough left, we'll pay ourselves. So not a great thing for our own mindset. And then when we're, so I work with people on their business that. Person and personal finances. So that's really important. And if you want to build personal wealth, you can't do that. If you don't have consistency because you can't create a plan, you can't create a strategy. You can't decide, okay, I'm going to put 500 on savings every month. And I'm going to do this investing because if it's all over the place, then it's really hard to count on it and to create a plan around it. And so you might be thinking. Well, my money comes in really inconsistently, and that's typically the case for lots of business models, especially in the wedding industry, and I'm someone who's lived the wedding industry. And so I know that I know that there's like high booking times and you know, and then there's low. And so another mistake when it comes to money management in the business side is I teach a 360 view. of understanding and managing your numbers. So many people will have just the profit and loss statement, profit and loss statement, your P and L. And this is necessary. You have to have this to run a business because it's what you file for taxes. So many times you probably end up scrambling doing this at the end of March or April, and it's like the most biggest headache ever and you hate it, but you have to do it. So you do it. The problem is, is that's only half of the picture. So, It's present to past. There's nothing we can do about these numbers other than analyze them, learn from them, see trends, but we can't change them. The money's already been spent. The money's already been brought in. That's it. So what I think is even more important is the other half of the money management, which is present to future. And so this is why it's really important that we are plotting out our revenue. When I work with my clients, we do a 12 month revenue plan. And we do this in a way to understand cash flow. Cash flow being what, where is my bank account balance throughout the month. So, You might have really high months, really low months. So you might look in your bank account in, let's say, January, February is a high booking time. That was for me in the wedding industry with the bridal shows and things I did. So you might be like, Oh, sweet. Like I can take all this money out. Like I can do a, a big, big deal. Draw, but what you're not thinking about is in a couple of months, the expenses and the things, and you're not bringing in a lot of money then. And so your bank account is going to go negative. And so this is why we have to have a more holistic picture of our numbers where we can see further out and see the implications of the cash flow. And once we see that, we can find a really clear number that's healthy for the business to pay us and to pay us consistently. So that means in the high months, you're not overdrawing, and in the low months, you can still pay yourself. So that's really, really key and really important. I can go, I can keep going, but those are the top two things I would say. Paying yourself a really consistent salary, obsessing over that and making it consistent, and then making sure you have a 360 view of your number management.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 16:11

So my question when it comes to salaries is I totally get what you're saying. And you have helped me work through this because I am a full time business owner and my business income is literally what goes towards my personal. Now, I know that not everybody that listens to our podcast is doing their calligraphy business or creative business full time. Some of them, they are, they have another full time job on the side or maybe their full time moms and their businesses. You know, in addition to that, whatever the case may be, their business income may not necessarily even be needed. For personal expenses right now, or maybe they're just saving up to be able to transition to go full time one day,

The Importance of Paying Yourself a Salary

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 16:53

can you talk a little bit about the importance of still paying yourself a salary regardless, and just like how you would kind of strategize that a little bit for somebody who it's not going towards like personal living expenses right now.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 17:07

Yes, I can. Okay. This will be fun. So, okay. What I'm hearing, if I was talking to somebody, I would say, we need to really raise your necessity and we need to get clarity on like, why, why are you running this business? I was just speaking at a conference. Every time I speak, people cry, which just shows that there's deep things around money. And this person wasn't really giving themselves permission to dream and to have vision and to like, think, what do you really want? Where are you really going? And so That's often a self preservation that we're like, okay, this is just like my little hobby. Or maybe sometimes maybe it's not like you haven't fully brought on the identity of being an entrepreneur. And so I would say we need to allow ourself to like have vision to really dream. When I'm doing this with my clients, we look, look one year and you could literally do this. Like think one year from the, when you're listening to this, what do you want your life to be like? And here's the thing, like money. Well, if you don't want to talk about it, whatever, but like, it's literally what runs the world. It's literally like, okay, you want to have your, you want your kids to have like better education. Well, it costs money to have tutors or to go to private schools. You want to have a healthy marriage, healthy partnership. Okay, well, therapy and conferences and dates and babysitting to go on the dates. It's all tied to money. So it's really important to get really clear on where are you going. And I always say piles of green cash are not very inspiring. It's like, Oh, I want more money. That isn't going to motivate you to do much. But if you start to think, let's go down the path of what you said, Elaine, around, maybe you're in business a couple of years, you're starting to get some traction, make some money. And you're actually starting to think like I could leave my job and start doing this full time. Okay. So let's really think about how much money do you need to bring in? from your salary in order to quit your job. And this is the really sexy thing about money and numbers is it's so clear, like it literally will get, you can calculate it. You can say like, okay, instead of it being like, I just need to make more money and someday, someday I can. Quit my job and do this. Well, actually you could figure out exactly how much you spend in your personal world and you could tighten up your budget there and like, okay, here's the deficit between me and my partner that we would have, which often is not your full salary. and once you quit your job, you're gonna have more time to go make more money. So there's a leap there. And then you're like, okay, cool. So like I need to make, well for easy math, like two grand a month, we'll say salary. That's not revenue, that's salary. Okay, so then I would say to somebody, let's, let's get X amount of months into a savings account. So you feel like, and let's see that you've got healthy cash flow that that could like, we can sustain that. So great. Let's do four months, two K. We need eight K in savings. We need to see the business. Oh my gosh. Like how much more likely are you going to now you have a clear goal. I need 8, 000 in savings. That means I can quit my job and I can like be home with my kids. Part time run the business part time or whatever. So getting really clear and looking at the numbers when people like, I want to be debt free. That's a huge thing. Debt has a huge weight on us emotionally. And I work with a lot of entrepreneurs and helping them strategize paying off debt. Okay. You want to be that free? And I'm not, I'm like, let's get right into it. I'm like, okay, how much debt do we have? How many credit cards? How am I? And people will be like, Oh, I think I have like 20, 000. Like, no, you don't. It's never around number. It's never 20, 000. And so log in, look at your account. Okay. It's 23, 480. Now we have a real number and you're actually attached to that number in a different way because you have clarity. And now it's something that we can like reverse engineer in your business. And so I think raising necessity, not being afraid to have vision and to like really think about where, what do I dream and where do I want to go? And then getting very clear on the number. Like if you want to have a house cleaner, if you want to have lifestyle improvements, you want to have a house cleaner, you want to go on more dates, right? There's like a monthly number that you could dial up and figure out and then start to like, Pay for that with your salary. And then another thing, like, so there's that. And then if you're in a place where you're like, well, Aaron, I just like make very little money. This is where I get into human behavior and habit formation. So. What you do with 1, you'll do with 10, 100, 100, 000, right? And so, we want to start creating habit early on. And so, this is where, okay, if you are really early on, then put 50 on salary every month. But this is creating habit. This is creating, showing your priority to yourself. And then assign the 50 a month a task. So the 50 a month is going to pay for what in your personal life. And this is just really important for us on a like behavioral psychology, like human level is starting to develop, to develop this habit even before we're like fully able to pay ourselves a salary is going to help you maintain it once you get to that place where you're increasing the salary. And it's really important to do.

shaochen_1_11-05-2024_110912 22:45

I love that tip. I think that's, that's great and very accessible for anyone at any stage of their business to start doing. Like if it's not 50, maybe it's like 25, right? Just like build that habit. I love that. That's like, that's the key.

Tips for Separating Business & Personal Finances

shaochen_1_11-05-2024_110912 23:00

So let's continue down this path of the interconnectedness between our business lives and our personal lives. Obviously a lot of us as calligraphers are solopreneurs. We don't have like a team working with us and so because of that, often our kind of business and personal finances get tangled up. I know that there's a lot of folks that I chat with that don't have separate bank accounts, separate credit cards. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that and get some of your advice for how you recommend balancing or separating our personal and business finances.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 23:34

so you have to do it. It's going to be a crapshoot if you don't, and this is going to be part of the reason you want to pull your hair out in April when it comes to tax season and all this stuff. So, okay, it feels like a huge thing, but it's really not a huge thing, okay? So you need to set aside a few hours. And you need to go to the bank and you need to open up a business account and I have a whole structure of like the different accounts I want people to have. So we want to make sure that we have like a business checking and at least that in a tax account. Okay. And so you need to open that and then you need to do the work of making sure you, you make ease for yourself. This is again about habit formation. If you're all tangled up, you've created a habit of being all tangled up. And so you're going to need to like make a decision and then we're going to need to like help you not be tangled up in the future. So what I mean by this is if you have things on subscription that are for personal and it's actually in your business, do the work in that few hours to disconnect stuff and put stuff in. The correct way, like personal subscriptions, personal business, business. Um, if you know, you've got default cards for certain things or certain, like just change, just organize that stuff in this time so that when you're on the fly and when it's fast and when life's going, it's set up for you. Also make sure like you have all of your cards on hand. So like you can add them to your Apple wallet, like things like this. You don't be like, Oh crap, I'm out here and I'm buying these supplies or I'm paying for gas or whatever. And like, I just don't have the right card. So I'm just going to put it on this card. Like just eliminate that by setting yourself up for success in this sort of couple hours that you're going to do to like sort things out. And I do this like now. Brands and I are really into like credit card hacking and you have to use the right card to get the right amount of, you know, extra points here and there. And so if you just have all of the cards and you know what you're doing, you know, which ones go to which take the time to set yourself up because then down the road, it'll just be way easier for you to maintain. But we need those to be separate. Or it's going to be a nightmare when it comes to taxes and to actually looking at your numbers.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 25:55

I think that when you are like doing your business on the side of something else, or it doesn't necessarily need to be a full time income or whatever the case may be, we kind of treat it in like the legal and I feel like the financial aspect is more, We treat it as more of a hobby than an actual business. But if you have these bigger picture dreams and goals to do something with it, and you're getting clear on like what I'm using this money for and X, Y, and Z, then like, it doesn't hurt to just start separating things right away, regardless of whether or not it is your full time gig or a side hustle that you're just been doing for six months, but you're making money in it. Right. Like,

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 26:36

It goes back to that, like building the habit now, like build a habit now with, it's easier to build a habit with less going on. Then once you have like a whole empire and you have to start building the habit. And I work with people who are a bit more established. So they're not like brand new generally. And I'm like, man, what if somebody started doing some of these things earlier? For example, what if we started and my goal is anybody who works with me would always have this, but like you just set aside tax payments every single month. And like you do that when you're brand new and then it's easier as you grow and as your profitability grows and your numbers grow, that that's just like an automatic thing that you do in your business. Cause that's really important because you're going to pay more and taxes. As you grow the business if you're growing it correctly because so brett and I we Grew really quickly in photography and we made the mistake of saving our taxes Comparable to the previous year, but Great news. We grew the business a lot. We grew profitability And guess what that also means Our tax bill grew a lot. And so we had set aside whatever amount and I think it was like 12, 000 more that we had to pay in taxes. And I remember being in our old house in the kitchen and just being like, he was in charge of man. I was like, Oh my gosh. And so you really want to build this habit, habit early. Early in light or late and heavy. All this stuff can apply to you, no matter where you're at in your business. If you put on that, the identity of like, this is who I'm becoming. And I want to be that person before I get there. And then, and then we work on building in these micro habits and these things along the way.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 28:33

Yeah, I love that because I also like I feel like it's gonna help you get there so much quicker Like I just let think back on my journey and i'm like if I had only done x y and z Then maybe i'd just be a little bit farther ahead when I like was ready to quit my job or whatever the case may be

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 28:48

Yeah, absolutely.

How to use Business Finances to Support Personal Financial Goals

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 28:50

Okay, so I know we talked about this a little bit before but kind of keeping like in this vein of business and personal, I know this is something that you and I also worked together on because I was really trying to wrap my head around it. So how can we as creative business owners use our business finances strategically to actually support our personal. Financial goals. I feel like you touched on that a little bit. But if you have, if you can expand on it at all, or like, if there are any ways to kind of ensure that our business is like, not just kind of getting by, but it's also contributing to building that life that we are desiring for ourselves.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 29:31

Sure. So let me run you through my five tenets of wealth creation. I think that'll be really helpful. And you can identify and everybody's at a different place in their wealth building journey. But here's the priorities that I teach people that we need to be strategizing around. So number one is debt pay down. If you have high interest debt, which is typically a credit card, You can't out beat it. You can't out invest it. So that needs to be one of our biggest priorities. So debt pay down is, and I'm going to say this in an order and this doesn't mean I'm saying it as like This is the order. Every person has a different sort of conglomeration of these things. Okay, the second is savings. And so, if you have very little money in savings, we need to make sure that we up your savings amount. And it's crazy. Over 50 percent of Americans do not have enough money to cover a 1, 000 emergency and especially with inflation and all the things going on. And so savings is not an investment strategy. I want to say that savings is a Psychological lifestyle important strategy, right? And so we need to have, and everybody's number will be different based on your lifestyle, based on even like your business leverage, all that stuff. But you need to have Savings. First, you're going to want to blitz an emergency savings. So we want to get at least 1, 000. And then we want to strategize several months of your budgeted amount that you spend per month in savings. Of course, you, you can save towards different things as well, but we need to make sure that we have a savings plan. If you have debt and no savings, which is a lot of people, then we're going to titrate between the two. So we're going to make sure that we're working towards that pay down while we also start to create an like an automation of how much we can put into savings because likely you're in debt because you're not managing your personal finance as well. And And that means that you're probably going to have something come up that you didn't plan for, but if you have nothing in savings, you're going to go put it back on debt and we're going to have the cycle keep going. So when I'm working with people, we're kind of working on those two, like a little dance back and forth. Okay. Number three is investing and I am so such a big proponent of investing. Brett and I started investing in real estate back in 2014. And I believe this is the beauty of being an entrepreneur as we are made up with a different DNA. And so we have a different risk tolerance. We have a different ability to different ROI from the, if, if, if I had to invest 1 in my business and can make five, I mean, that's pretty amazing. And then I can then put that money into the stock market or whatever. Here's the thing, as an entrepreneur, you're not given. A 401k match from your employer or a pension or anything like you are the retirement plan and You the biggest most important thing about investing is starting now and staying consistent Because of the power of compound interest and if you've seen different graphs You'll see like a 22 year old versus a 42 year old and they put the same amount of money away like and at the end of when it comes to retirement Person who started at 42 has like 350, 360, 000 in their retirement. The person who started at 22 doing the same amount of 508 percent return has like. I think it's one point something million or it's, it's over a million. Okay. So, and this is only a difference of like less than 200, 000 invested. So that's better to see visually, but I'm just trying to explain how important it is to start investing now because of the power of compound interest. So let's go. Investing. Number four is generosity, and this one is in here because I believe I have the amazing privilege of working and speaking and teaching the most incredibly heart-centered women. And when I get to listen to what they want to do, I hear things like, I wanna be able to have an extra car that I can just give away to a family in need. I wanna be able to give money to the foster care. Organization in my community. And so this can be, the generosity could be a monthly, like you want to start giving monthly in some sort of way, or maybe you're working up to sponsor some large event and need to save towards that. And then the last one is a lifestyle improvements. And lifestyle improvements, again, can be in two different ways. This could be something large that you're saving towards, like a trip, a new home, so a down payment a new car, like something like that. Or this could be more like your day to day lifestyle that you're wanting to, like, Oh, I want to start getting massages every month. And I want to make sure that I can go on an extra day. And so that's more of a number that we work into your monthly budget than like an amount we're saving towards. So, based on where you're at, we want to figure out what is the priority, what is the amount that we need, that we have, like, and I would put this in the container of a time, so I would say, like, in the next year um, I want to pay X amount of debt off. I want to get X amount of savings. I want to invest X amount per month, whatever. But when you would put it into the container of time, it helps us get more clarity. And so then we can strategize that increase on the business side because we know exactly where we want that money to go.

shaochen_1_11-05-2024_110912 35:22

I love that framework. It seems like so comprehensive. Could you just repeat those five tenets for our listeners?

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 35:30

Okay. So we have debt pay down, savings, investing, generosity, and lifestyle improvements. Those are the five.

shaochen_1_11-05-2024_110912 35:38

Amazing.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 35:39

And remember, remember, sometimes. Like if it's not high interest debt, it might be more advantageous to start investing now and slowly paying off the debt. Remember that savings is not investing and you can over save. So some people are like, oh saving it's my thing and then I'm like how much do you have? You have 30k? We don't need to save anymore. Savings actually loses you money. Even if we have it in a high yield savings account that's making four, four and a half percent that stacked against inflation is still losing money and you can over save. So you want to just like really assess where am I and which of these makes the most sense for me. And it could be a combination of some of these things, but what we need to have happen is an exact number in an exact amount of time. And I typically say make a plan for the next year. And if, if this is, if you're not, you don't have to think of a calendar year. Like, if you're listening to this in March, think about from this till next March. One year. What is it?

shaochen_1_11-05-2024_110912 36:43

Okay. So those are some great like levers for us to think through that we can pull and toggle based on our personal needs and where we're at. And you talked a little bit about habits and building those good, healthy financial habits.

Systems & Tools for Managing Your Finances

shaochen_1_11-05-2024_110912 36:57

When we're actually implementing some of your advice, what are some like systems and tools that might help us put these things into practice?

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 37:04

Okay, so let's just go off of some of the stuff I just said in the personal world. So if you have credit card debt, you need to put your payments on auto pay. So take out the human element of forgetting, of, oh my gosh, you don't have, like, put those on auto pay. If you can pay over the minimum payment, that's going to help you in the long run. Or you need to strategize, like, okay, I'm going to pay off this full amount first, that kind of thing. But, regardless, put your Payments on auto. Okay, we need to have two separate bank accounts in the personal world. We need to have like our checking account And this is predominantly when you think about this. This is where money comes out. This is where you spend your money. I teach a two part budget budgeting system So we have monthly Things that we budget for. This is our mortgage or our rent, our utilities, our gas, our personal care, blah, blah, blah, child care, that stuff. It's literally stuff you spend every month. Then the second component is what I call your annual budget. And this is stuff that you still need to save for every month, but you don't necessarily spend every month. And this is not emergencies. As wealthy women, we strategize for things that we know happen, like our car needs new tires and oil change and stuff. Well, like you, that's, that is something you can plan for. This is not an emergency. And so like home repairs, car repairs, travel, gifting, Christmas, Christmas comes every single year. Yeah, and I'm so excited, and I love Christmas, and I love to go all freaking out. You should have a, an idea. Okay, if you know you're gonna spend 3K, that's a large amount of money to just come up with in like a month or two. Put the 300 or whatever it is it would be like 250 or something, quick math, we need to put that aside every single month. Okay, so we create those two budget amounts, which is going to help us eliminate the leaks and the things that we think are emergencies that aren't. And then we have to systematize that. And so we've got the checking account, which is the monthly budget. That's the stuff that just comes out every single month and put as much of that on auto as we can. Okay, and then we have the savings and the annual spending budget, and we want that to be sort of in a different account, and that's money going in versus money coming out, and so it's like a different sort of thought. There. And I want that to go into a high yield savings account. This is one of my big regrets. I'm going to be honest. And it's not like high yield savings accounts are a make or break. It's 4%. And if you only have 5k in there, what it's like, I don't know, a hundred something dollars a year. Part of this is organization, but. As you get more and more money in there, like, I mean, I was making like 25 cents a month. I mean, this is ridiculous. So I literally opened up my high yield savings account this year. I have a podcast episode about that. So I'm with Ally. I love Ally. And one of the reasons I love Ally is because they allow for savings buckets. And so when I'm working with my clients, I want them to put aside their, you know, if we're blitzing savings, you know, you have that and you can have that in your emergency. You can categorize that. You can have a fund for Christmas. I have a fund for Christmas and you put your money in there for Christmas. So it's organized and you can see how much money you have for each thing. I think The person who's already overwhelmed with money. We're not going to have 17, not that you would need 70, but it's 70 different savings accounts. That's not going to work. And so I love ally and that you can put your savings into different buckets.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 40:45

I just opened an ally savings. Thanks to you. After I listened to that episode, I was like, Oh, Brendan, we need this. Already just in like September. I got like eight bucks of interest on it. Whereas like my chase savings is like 2 cents every month. I'm like, excuse me. But I love the buckets too. And then it was super nice too, because I could hook it up to my, like. Chase credit cards. So when we take our, cause we're putting like money away, you know, we love to take our weekend trips and travel. So like all of that, we're doing our monthly savings into ally now. And then when I like do all of our travel spending on my personal credit card, it's hooked up to the ally account. So I can just pay it from there rather than having to like. Shuffle funds around even more. So highly recommend Ally as well.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 41:30

Hey, and we're not even having like, we don't even have like a brand collaboration with these people. So,

shaochen_1_11-05-2024_110912 41:35

I was like, where's the affiliate link?

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 41:37

But yeah, so that's just like, I think some of a way that ways that we can get organization happening. And the goal is I say when I'm working with people, we're building the house, which is a lot of work. It's a lot of work to build a home. Okay. I'm also in real estate and I flipped homes for years. So like this, and now just go with me on this analogy. So it's a lot of work to set up. up. the bank accounts to separate the finances, but then after you know how much you spend and you've set a budget and you know it and you just like maintain it with rocket money, which is what I like to use and what I have my clients get on, then you're just maintaining the house. So, just think of this as two different phases. The building the house, it's a lot of work, okay? We gotta like, build a foundation, put up some walls, drywall, paint, figure out all the finishes. It's a lot. But once the house is built, we just have to like, keep it clean, mow the lawn, you know, a lot less work. And especially when we put in automations and organizations and systems It's a lot easier to maintain the home once it's built. So wherever you're out in your money management journey Remember those pieces and if you're in the building the house It's not going to feel like that forever You aren't going to constantly if you do the work to build the house, then you just maintain it Now if you just don't maintain it It's going to fall apart and you're going to feel like you're rebuilding it again. So maintain it after

Planning for Business Cycles

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 43:00

you build it.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 43:00

I do think that one of the biggest things, and you said yourself, like you have experience with this as well in the wedding industry, is that income, like business revenue fluctuates so much, which makes it really hard. To be paying yourself or to understand where that money is going, things like that. So just, it makes it hard to plan ahead financially. And I know this was something that I personally struggled with a lot before we started working together. So my first question is how far ahead do you think that small business owners should be thinking? Like what is that kind of timeframe? And then what are some of the simple steps that we can take to help us Secure a more financial future, like within that timeframe. Even with that fluctuation that we tend to experience.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 43:50

like people to have a 12 month revenue plan because that's generally like the full cycle. So if we build that again, you build the house and you maintain it, you're going to have, you're going to be able to then sort of like tweak it year to year. You're going to analyze data. So what I like people to do, and this is something that you could do on your own is to export your P and L's from QuickBooks and do it with a month to month breakdown. So a lot of people just look at their annual numbers, but if you break it down and you have it exported and show you side by side months, you're going to see what months have high revenue, what months, what months you went into the red at the bottom red being negative you had more expenses than revenue. That's going to be helpful for you to be like, okay That's the foundation for then you plotting out your, your upcoming year of like, kind of knowing, oh, I have high revenue here, lower revenue here, that kind of thing. one thing I just to say that I've, I've, I have a whole tool and a whole system where you plot out your revenue and your expenses and then you're gonna see like bank account balances and, and it tells you exactly how much to set aside for taxes every month. And now I've just changed it a little bit. I'm always tweaking and. Into like if there is like certain expenses that are not your fixed expenses of running your business So we all have to like, you know pay for our website And pay for software and it's sort of like every month But then there are certain things like maybe you want to invest in a printer or like a camera or something that's larger. And so I have people now sort of plotting out their variable expenses and determining based on higher cash when are we going to spend that money? Because it's oftentimes I'm not having clients who come to me that have like 30k in their bank account, like we're tight in that and we're tight because we haven't done a lot of the management side of things. You don't want to, unless it's like literally to the, like, you can't operate your company or something like that. You want to be strategic of like, okay, if I'm going to make a bigger purchase, when is the best time for me to do this based on the cashflow of my business? But I like a full year. And what happens, this is the beauty. Okay. So what happens when you do this, when I have it in inside of my tool, we have booked and we have like projections and how I like to, to do this is like the projections are, what are we going to manifest that's stretching yet realistic. And when you start to plot out a full year and you're like, Oh, I could do this extra launch, I could. You know, start to offer, like, Christmas calligraphy, like, pop up stuff. And I could, I'll put that on my, my Calendar for November and December, what happens is like, first of all, we already know like when you write things down, you're more likely to, to do them. So we're like making it concrete, but also you're like, we, I teach that you should have a CFO meeting every week. You might do something different within that, but then you're, you're continuing to look ahead. You're continuing to see that. And so you're, you're going to make more money when you do this, because you're going to start doing marketing efforts. It's not going to be like November and you're like, Oh, that'd be fun. I should do some like live Christmas calligraphy. You've had it on the calendar. And so in August, you're reaching out to businesses, you're being proactive and Automatically, you're going to make more money by plotting it out. And now, and also your attachment. Remember I said, like piles of green cash are not inspiring. Well, all of a sudden, if you see like, Oh, if I land these five live events, I can pay myself a bonus of this, which would literally cover my flights to Florida. Okay. Like you're going to do it because now you have really clear motivation. You're going to be connected to making that happen. So that's sort of my whole spiel on revenue planning and why it's important. Sort of a little bit of how to do it.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 47:58

yeah. I love your approach to that because, well, one, I had no idea how to do it before we started working together. But then you just made it really like tactical with your spreadsheets. But like you said, what's really exciting about doing something like that is like. I feel like before I started doing projections in my business. And again, I don't care if like you're full time or side hustling or whatever the case may be. I still think it's important before I started doing that. It would just be like, Oh yay. Like this new job coming in and this new job coming in. Yay. And now it's more like, okay, I know exactly what I need to pay myself. I know exactly how much I need to bring in every single month to cover my business expenses. What is actually on the calendar for this month that's coming in? You know, let's just, I'm just going to use even numbers here as an example. So say I need 10, 000 every single month in my business to cover my business and personal expenses. And I only have 6, 000 coming in this month. Then it's like, okay, where am I going to get this other 4, 000? And then like you said, writing it down, starting to plot it out. Maybe I want to book a live event. Maybe I want to offer. Pet portraits for Christmas. Maybe you want to do this. Maybe I want to do that. Writing it down and trying to see, okay, what is it that I, how can I come up with that extra 4k to make sure I meet it, then it also, like you said, lights the fire under your butt to get out there, to be advertising, to posting on social media, to following up with maybe proposals that are outweighting. I feel like we, like when we were working together, it was even like, Oh, I have money just sitting here that people just haven't responded to a proposal yet. Like. Let me go ping them.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 49:30

Bring that money in, baby. It's sitting there waiting for you.

alane_1_11-05-2024_130913 49:33

I feel like you just start to see so many more opportunities when you are thinking ahead, rather than just kind of letting things flow in.

she-her_1_11-05-2024_130912 49:41

It's moving into the energy of being proactive versus reactive. And this is around that. We were talking about this in business. This is in your personal world as well. Are you being proactive? Are you telling your money where you want it to go? Or are you just reacting? Are you just sort of like, okay, like I don't have any more money for, so I'm just not going to go out to eat. You know, like do you know where your dollars are going? and I, I teach with the personal finances, the energy of alignment versus restriction. So as entrepreneurs, we have two levers. A lot of financial advice is speaking to the nine to five. All you can do is cut expenses in order to create access. Well, for us, we can go make more money as well. Sometimes we need to do both and often we do, but what if we just look at alignment? So one of the largest categories people overspend in is like restaurants, drinking out, dining out. I love it. I'm a foodie. I'm all about it. However, many times it's very mindless. We're just like at the gas station and we get a soda and a snack and we go through the drive through because it's easy and so it's not actually like this super fulfilling like we're spending hundreds of dollars a month and it's like so deeply personal and important to us. It's actually just We need to create different habit. We need to meal plan. We need to have a pantry that's filled with things and so that we don't go through the drive thru. We, you know? It's about alignment, not restriction, and being proactive. You being in the driver's seat. Sometimes people think budgeting, I don't want budgeting. It feels like it's controlling me. Budgeting is you controlling the money. And it actually feels so much better because you're in the driver's seat. You're deciding where stuff gets to go and not go. And what feels best and what serves you best.

shaochen_1_11-05-2024_110912 51:28

I know Elaine loves that because her favorite word is alignment right now, right?

Making Decisions as Your Future Self

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 51:35

So I love that we're kind of switching from this tactical advice into more like money mindset. I feel like that's something I really need to build up. And I love that. One of the questions that you were suggesting, we ask ourselves is like, where do we want to be in a year? Where do we see ourselves? Where do we see our business? And I've also heard on a similar note, the advice of making decisions, like you're already where you want to be in your business, whether that's a year out or. Five years. Like when you're making six figures or booked out or whatever that success looks like to you. but I personally, and I'm sure this is my money mindset. I just find it hard to make like financial or business investment decisions, like I'm my future self already because my bank account belongs to my present self. So I wanted your take on this piece of advice. Like, do you agree with it? Or, and, or like, how am I, I think about applying this piece of advice when I'm in the present.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 52:34

Oh, so good. So How can we from where we are into a desired future without working towards becoming that person? Taking on that identity. I'm gonna get like, tactical a little bit about even this. Obviously, We're entrepreneurs. We're constantly in this journey of evolution, of growing, of if you're stretched, is because you aren't satisfied with where you currently are and you have desire for more. Now, I think that we should be careful. There are seasons of life. Like we shouldn't always be in this state. And sometimes I think it can be like almost like a drug in, the circles I'm at. I remember like a couple of years ago, I was like, I'm at, I feel like really great. And it's almost like weird, like you can't feel great and just like sit in that for a moment because you just need to keep going and going and building and dreaming and what's the point if you never like just stay in the, so it's like having gratitude and being present where you currently are and also understanding where you're going and holding the identity of that as well and doing both, I think. First of all, you need to tap into the vision and tap into the future. And like I said before, a lot of us don't really allow ourselves to do that. And so I think we have to start there. Like who I do a visualization where we go in and we meet your future wealthy self 20 years from now. And who is she? And how does she feel? And all these different things. you may not be able to drop 20k in a mastermind, but what can you do that is in the same energy that is in this, like, that's telling the universe, like, this is where I'm going. And I do care about my own personal development and learning these things. Okay. Maybe it's a course that you're going to purchase that you're going to actually do. Okay. So, you know maybe you can't have the dream home right now, but you can upgrade something in your life. There is something that's ragged. That's has. old energy and you can make the upgrade you can do it in a space that is responsible. One of the things I used to do when I had a group program is we would have different things that we would do each week. And one of them was we had to do like step into our wealthy woman identity. This might not even mean like you go buy something. It could be like, okay, this week I'm using my favorite perfume that I normally only wear on special occasions because you're inadvertently being like, there won't be more of this later. I have to savor it, right? So I'm just going to use that perfume every day I'm not going to wait to open a nice bottle of wine. I'm going to treat myself, have a fire, and know that I can enjoy my wine. I just, guys, I'm trying to paint the picture of this doesn't have to be And I believe that it's small changes over time, in the way that we think, in the way that we do, that creates big, sustainable change. In doing these things, you're embodying it. A different energy than the scarcity fear energy that we often have with money. And why do we have this? Because as people, our brain, number one function is to keep us safe. It's to keep us alive. And as we look, if we look at the evolution of humanity, this used to be very important. We were constantly looking for threats It was like a tiger would eat you, right? Like you, you had to be aware. And so our brain has a natural negative bias our brain is desiring to keep us safe. So you're automatically going to see, especially when it comes to like money and things like that. Like you're going to see the stuff that money that's going out, the fact that like, you might not have enough in the future. Like you're going to see those things. And so we have to train ourselves to step into that new identity of. I am supported. There is enough. I can trust that money will continue to come to me just like it has in the past, like, and so one of the activities I have people do, which I think is like been really powerful to share. So I'd love to just share it for your listeners because it could be something that they can literally start to do is to do abundance tracking. And so, yeah. We naturally see all the problems with money. The bill we didn't think was going to be that much, the unexpected bill, the whatever the case, the person who thought would sign and didn't sign. But there is evidence of money all around us. And we need to elevate that and, and make it more of our focus. What you focus on expands. It's just the same thing of like, if you're driving and all of a sudden you notice this new model of a car, maybe your friend got it or something. And then. It's this really cool shade and really and you're all of a sudden you're like They're everywhere. Like I see this like color of car and it's super cool. And I see it everywhere. It's not like all of a sudden that car is just like driving on the road more. It's just that you became aware of it. so now you're like, brain is looking for it. So same thing when it comes to money. Let's let's strengthen the positive relationship with money. Let's see where it's in your world, where it's supporting you, where it is coming in put emphasis on that because it is coming in. And so when people do this, they're like, Oh my gosh, we'll set a goal. I'm going to manifest 10 K this month. They can't believe like, Oh my gosh, I got a random like for a part of my rent that I didn't even know like this and that. And normally you would maybe just like let that go, but now we're really focusing on seeing the positive with money. And so a way that you can do this, I have, of course, a fun little tool and blah, blah, blah, but you don't need the tool. You can just open a notes app on your phone and make a commitment that you're going to do this for 10 days. You don't even need to 10 days. And you're going to write down all the money that comes into your world, not just through your business. This is like, my friend bought me a coffee, 5. I pulled up to a parking meter, it was prepaid, 6. 50. Whatever. sound silly, but what you're doing from a mindset perspective is collecting evidence emphasizing the way that money is there. It is available to you. It is supporting you. And the more you focus on that, the more You'll continue to be in that energy and do different.

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 59:33

Oh my gosh, Erin, like, can't even tell you how much I needed you to tell me that and how much I needed to hear that. I, from an immigrant family. My parents grew up much at all. the mentality has always been for them and also me growing up to save, save, save, to save that bottle of perfume, that nice perfume, to save the stickers that I get, that I use for special occasions for people on cards. I feel like I'm getting emotional because yeah, it's, It's hard to kick that mindset. My parents are doing much better financially than that point of time. I'm, I'm doing much better too, financially, but that mindset. Is ingrained, you know, it's,

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:00:26

Yeah,

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 1:00:27

in my like upbringing and I just, it's, it's helpful to hear some specific exercises I can do to kind of like grow my money mindset. And one thing I really liked kind of in the beginning of your response was what I heard you say again was starting to build the habit, like stepping into the energy of the future. You is done through baby steps that reflect that mental energy that it's not the 20, 000 mastermind, but it's a smaller investment that's in the same vein that kind of moves you forward to that next step towards the future. You right. And just getting into the habit and building the muscle of acting like where you want to be in the future. So just love that. And thank you for saying that Aaron, I'm going to be the person who cries again, when you're

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:01:24

like, it's so deep, right? It runs so deep. It's your story. It's like, listen to what you just shared. It's like you're from an immigrant family and you had parents who Worked really hard and and but they but there wasn't a lot and so different things were said and done and you inherited that But you said I'm not in that space anymore. So I were coaching you I would say okay what what energy do you want? Like what's your future you what's the you now and what's the future you? Okay, like you give, you give generously, you allow yourself the pampering that you'd really like, but you don't have the money for, but you really do have the money for, you know, like really get clear on, okay, where am I now? Where do I want to be? And, write it out. Like I would have you write it out. And then, okay, What do I start to do now that gets me into the energy of that? One gal, one of her, part of her future vision was like, she got the physical paper every day and she read the paper or every week, she's like, could do that now. And so I would challenge you just like, okay, like am I now? Who, who am I becoming and what are things that I need to give myself permission? What are the things I need to start like saying and doing? different. And, and you'll be aware too of like when you're living in the old identity. Like, Oh, I just said, I can't afford this, or it's really expensive or something like that. And, and you'll catch yourself and you'll be like, Oh, well I have the means. And it's important to me and you know, and so because you have a heightened awareness because of this conversation, you can then do things differently you'll in the next 24 hours, stuff will come

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 1:03:18

I'm already, I'm already thinking of, as you were talking things I could like do for myself and like write down. So thank you. I love that.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:03:26

and it's what you say, like I would say to and this is helpful for everyone listening as well. How are you speaking about money? It's changing your language. I don't like to say my services are expensive cause that has it inherit like, Oh, unattainable too much, blah, blah, blah. So just be even aware of how you talk about money, how you talk about your life, how you, you know,

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 1:03:53

and that's like it, as you're saying that, that also reminds me of how we talk about our own services, not thinking that we're expensive too, right? Like, it's all relative and it's just like a value, right? That you assign to it.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:04:09

it's true. Something that's expensive to one person is cheap to the other. It's, it's all

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 1:04:15

man. Okay. on that note, should we wrap up?

Alane part 2 1:04:21

This is such a beautiful way to end this conversation because I feel like we did do a lot of the tactical stuff and then to end on that more mindset approach, I think was just such a nice like full circle moment for the conversation. So thank you for sharing all that, Aaron. And also thank you, Xiaochen, for just opening up as well about your story and your background. I think that's really important. It's really special.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:04:44

It's really beautiful. And thank you. Your past

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 1:04:48

Yeah.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:04:50

part of your story. There's something in there that's that did serve you. And so I don't like to like, Oh, let's just throw all that out and bring it. It's like, Oh man, like I have a work ethic that served me so well. Yeah. It's telling me I have to work really hard to make good money and that's actually not serving me. So we're going to change that piece. But I'm going to be really grateful for the piece that's like, I know how to work really hard and I'm really proud of that and I'm proud of my parents, you know, so we thank it That's the gratitude part. I talked about we have gratitude while we work towards the expansion just had to say that

Alane part 2 1:05:27

Yeah

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 1:05:27

such a good reminder for sure. I need to keep an abundance journal and a gratitude

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:05:34

they they're what I'm the same So sometimes I have people because I'm working with people and we're working specifically on money. We have to track Finances and the dollar amounts but I also say throw in the gratitudes as well Gratitude is the highest vibration we can be in, and we're always going to make, have beautiful energy coming out of gratitude. So you can do both. On every day, you would either have it, stack it, set it, okay, every time I put my face oil on at night, I'm going to then like go to my journal and do that. Like. Connect it to something you're already doing or is that a timer on your phone with a reminder around a time that you know you can sustain and you can write your gratitudes the money that came in that day.

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 1:06:16

I love that. I'm going to take that away from this conversation.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:06:21

All right, I'll be DMing you in how's that note

shaochen_4_11-05-2024_120446 1:06:27

Give me accountable.

Alane part 2 1:06:28

Well, Erin, thank you so much for sharing all of this with us. I feel like, like I said, people are going to walk away with tactical things, mindset things. And I know that this is going to benefit all of our listeners.

Connect with Erinn!

Alane part 2 1:06:40

So before we wrap up, can you just share Where our listeners can find you, where they can, you know, follow along, learn more about your services. If that is something that they're interested in, give us all the things.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:06:53

Yes, course. hang out with me on Instagram and we'll, we'll link it because my name's spelt weird, but super cool. Aaron with two N's E R I N N underscore Bridgman. Bridge without the E. So that's why we have to link it. So that's my Instagram. And I also have a podcast, the wealthy woman podcast, which is a show where we talk about business strategy and money management and money mindset, both in personal and business. So there's like over 70 episodes there. So come join me in that corner. I think that based on the conversation early on the salary calculator tool would be a great tool. And we can link that. you're going to plug in the numbers and what your bank balance is. And it's going to give you an estimate. estimate of how much you could be paying yourself. So Obviously it's an estimate and, but it gives you a good starting point. And then, yeah, if you feel like you're leaning in and you know that this is the work that you need to do I would love to have a conversation with you. You can go to my website and work with me and I can give the exact link if you guys want. And you just sign up for a chat and we'll see if working together is a good fit. I work with people and high touch one on one coaching where we dive deep into The mindset and habits. So that we can not just make money, but become a wealthy. And so, yeah, I would be honored to chat with you if that's something that's an alignment for you.

Alane part 2 1:08:14

Awesome. Thank you so much, Aaron.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:08:17

Yay. fun. More money in the hands of heart centered women will change the world.

Alane part 2 1:08:22

Amen.

she-her_4_11-05-2024_140446 1:08:23

let's get more

Alane part 2 1:08:23

Yes. Love it.