The Emotional Side of Money No One Talks About

The Emotional Side of Agency Finances

We're not opening a spreadsheet in this episode. We're talking about feelings.

After years of sitting across from agency founders and looking at their numbers, one thing is clear: the math is almost never the problem. The feelings about the math — that's where everything gets stuck. The fear that you're not charging enough. The avoidance that keeps you from opening your books for weeks. The pricing decisions made from anxiety instead of data.

In this episode, Melissa gets into the emotional drivers that quietly run the show in your business — and what it actually looks like to move from fear-driven decisions to data-driven ones. Because the data is almost always less scary than the story your brain is telling at midnight.

If any of it feels uncomfortably relatable, that means it landed the way it was supposed to.

No Se Habla Taxes is the podcast for creative agency owners who want to understand the financial side of their business — without drowning in spreadsheets. Hosted by CPA and fractional controller Melissa Armstrong, each episode unpacks real operational finance questions through candid stories and practical insight. Subscribe to the newsletter at steadyhandaccounting.com for episode recaps and financial insights delivered straight to your inbox. 

Not sure if your business is healthy or just busy? No Se Habla Confusion is a $500 financial assessment for creative agencies on QBO doing $300K–$3M. I dig into your numbers, find the gaps, and tell you exactly where you stand. Email info@steadyhandaccounting.com — subject line: No Se Habla Confusion. 

Let's connect!

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armstrongmelissacpa/

Website: https://steadyhandaccounting.com/

Transcript

0:12

Hey, welcome back to No Se Habla Taxes. I'm Melissa Armstrong, CPA and fractional controller, and I am here to talk about the money stuff nobody else wants to say out loud. Today's episode is a little different. We're not going to open a spreadsheet. We're not going to talk about reconciliations or revenue recognition. We are going to talk about feelings. I know, but stick with me. Because what I have learned after years of sitting across from agency founders looking at their numbers is the math, it's almost never the problem. The feelings about the math, oof, that's where everything gets stuck. Can I tell you something I see all the time? A founder will book a $40,000 project, send the invoice, the client pays, and instead of feeling good about it, they immediately start worrying. Oh my gosh, is it enough? Did I charge too little? What if they think it's too much next time? What if the work doesn't land and they ask for a refund? $40,000 just came in the door, and they are stress eating crackers at 11:00 PM wondering if they're about to lose everything. My friend, that's not a cash flow problem. That is a mindset problem, and it is so, so common. I've seen it in clients. I am guilty of it myself. And I never really... And I've never really seen anyone in the financial world talk about it seriously within a business context. So let's you and I talk about it. Here is what I want you to understand. Every financial decision you make as a founder is pretty emotional Of course it is, every single one. How you price your services, whether you hire that next person, whether you say yes to a client who has bad energy but a big budget, whether you look at your P&L or avoid it for three months. These are not purely logical decisions. We wish they would be, but they never were. And the financial industry has done a terrible job of acknowledging that. Have you heard of the saying, "It's business, it's not personal"? Sure, there is some truth to it, but as a founder, your business, it's personal to you. And we just need to honor that. Instead, we hand you a spreadsheet and say, "Here, these are your numbers." And then we wonder why nothing changes. And that is because numbers do not change behavior. Emotions are the ones driving behavior. Numbers are just telling you what has already happened. So what are the emotional drivers that show up the most in agency finances? In my experience, it comes down to a few things. Fear of not being enough, fear of charging too much, fear of being found out. Imposter syndrome, basically, with a budget attached to it. And on the flip side, there's also excitement that overrides judgment. You land a big client, you're riding high, and you say yes to terms you never would've accepted on a normal Tuesday. Both of those are emotional responses running the show, and until you name them, they will keep running the show Now, let's talk about avoidance because it's another thing that I see a lot. Not ignorance, avoidance, and there is a difference. Ignorance is I don't know what contribution margin is. Avoidance is I know I should look at my numbers, I know I should look at my books, and I've had the tab open for six weeks and I just don't click on it. Founders avoid their numbers because looking at the numbers makes it real, and real is scary. If you don't look, you can still believe it might be fine. If you look and it's not fine, well, now you have to deal with it, right? And I get that, truly. I've been there myself. But here's what that avoidance costs you. It costs you the one thing that would actually make you feel better, which is knowing. Really knowing, not best guessing from anxiety. Anxiety fills every single gap. If you don't know your cash position, your brain invents the worst version. If you don't know your profit margins, you assume every project is a disaster. The data is almost always less scary than the story your brain is telling. Almost always. Now, pricing. My favorite topic that none of us want to talk about. Sure, I'll talk about it for your business, but I even have issues talking about it for my own business. I have worked with so many agency founders who are undercharging, not because they don't know the market, not because the work isn't worth more, because they are afraid. Afraid the client will say no, afraid that they will lose the relationship, afraid that they're not worth it. Fear-based pricing looks like this. You do the math, you figure out what you need to charge to actually make money, and then you lower it. Just a little, just to feel safer, just to make sure that they say yes. And then You resent the project. You resent the client. You over-deliver because you feel like you have to justify the number that you already made too small. And I have seen this so many times. It is a cycle, and it starts with an emotional decision, not a logical one. Here's a reframe I wanna offer you. Your price is not a reflection of your worth as a person. It's not. It is a reflection of the value you deliver and the business you need to run sustainably. When you underprice out of fear, you are not being humble. You are making a business decision that will cost you in margin, in capacity, and in the kinds of clients that you attract. Price from your numbers, not from your fear. So what does a healthier relationship with money actually look like in practice? Because I don't want to just diagnose you and leave you there. First, regular exposure. This sounds simple, and I mean it simply. The more often you look at your numbers, the less scary they get. Weekly is ideal, even just ten minutes. Just look. You're not analyzing. You're not fixing. You're just getting used to the fact that the numbers exist and that they are just numbers. Second, and this is a little bit harder, separate the data from the story. Your bank balance is a number. What you tell yourself about that number is a story. Learn to notice when you're in story mode versus data mode. Third, get support that actually fits. For some founders, that's a therapist who understands entrepreneurship. For others, I have that. It's a peer group when you can actually talk about money without pretending everything is fine. For a lot of my clients, it's having a fractional controller/advisor like me who can translate the numbers and sit with them through it. You don't have to do this alone, and you don't have to figure out the emotional stuff before you look at the financial stuff. You can do both at the same time Here's the shift I want for you. From fear-driven decisions to data-driven ones. Fear-driven looks like, "Oh, I'll just take whatever comes in. I'm scared to say no. I don't know my numbers, so I'll just work harder and hope it all evens out." Data-driven looks like, "I know my baseline. I know what I need to break even. I know which clients and which services actually make money. So when I make a decision, I am making it from information, not from a story I invented at midnight." That doesn't mean the emotions go away. They won't. You're still human, and You'll still feel nervous about a big proposal. You'll still have moments of WTF is happening with my cash flow. But when you have the data, you can reality check the emotion. You can say, "Okay, I feel scared, and the numbers actually say I am doing well," or, "I feel fine, but I'm delulu, and the numbers are saying I need to pay attention." The data becomes the thing that anchors you instead of the anxiety. And that, to me, is what financial health actually looks like in a small business. Not having perfect numbers, having a relationship with those numbers. All right. That's it for today. If any of this felt uncomfortably relatable, that means it landed the way I hoped. The emotional side of money is real. It affects your business every single day, and it deserves to be a part of the conversation. If you wanna keep talking about this kind of stuff, subscribe wherever you listen and come to find me on LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm not that hard to find. I'm Melissa Armstrong. No spreadsheet was harmed in the making of this episode. And no se habla taxes