Beyond the Books: Profit, Purpose, and Parenting with Eman of Your Virtual Keeper

In this episode of Raising Hustle, I’m sitting down with Eman, founder of Your Virtual Keeper, to talk about what it really looks like to build a financially strong business while raising a family.

We dive into designing financial systems that create clarity instead of chaos, redefining “enough” in this season of life, and how motherhood shifts the way we think about risk, growth, and success. This conversation is equal parts strategy and heart — because understanding your numbers isn’t just about profit, it’s about peace of mind.

If you’ve ever wanted to feel more confident in your cash flow while staying present at home, this episode will leave you feeling empowered and equipped. 💛

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This episode is sponsored by FM Bookkeeping 💛

FM Bookkeeping exists to empower business owners and give them peace of mind around their finances. We believe you deserve clarity, confidence, and support—without shame, judgment, or overwhelm.

Whether you’re behind, confused, or just tired of carrying the mental load of your numbers, FM Bookkeeping is here to help you feel grounded and in control again.

If you’re ready to stop stressing about your books and start feeling supported, visit:

👉 https://www.fmbookkeeping.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to Raising Hustle, the unfiltered podcast for the moms who are building empires with babies on their hips and grits in their hearts. I'm your host, Mariel Fry, bookkeeper by trade, hustler by nature, and mama by choice. Around here we're raising kids, raising hell, and raising the bar. If you're tired of choosing between nap time and next level dreams, this is your space. Let's redefine what it means to have it all on our own damn terms.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Hey hustlers and mamas, welcome back to Raising Hustle. This episode brings me so much joy. She is my mentor, she is my friend, she is one of the best people I've ever met. As a mompreneur herself, I personally learned from the best, the owner of Your Virtual Keeper, Iman, where she owns a virtual bookkeeping business that helps service-based business owners gain clarity, confidence, and profitability. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by your books or unsure what your numbers are really showing, this episode will give you practical insight into creating financial systems, but also systems and related to motherhood. But really going into cleaning up books, making smarter decisions, and really a way of balancing, quote unquote, surviving in both motherhood and business. Really excited to bring on Iman. Iman, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

I'm so excited to be here. And uh, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm your mentor. I I've learned just as much by you as you've learned from me.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Well, yes, I think our relationship is amazing to quickly kind of go into it. When I was looking into figuring out a business, Iman was one of the first people that really helped me, not the what, but the how. And it's changed my life forever. And so now we pumpkin plan together and we learn from each other. And it doesn't matter where we are in the world, we still keep in touch, we talk all the time. And I'm just really excited to interview her because she is has so much wealth of knowledge. And it's really incredible to see what she's built over the past couple of years. But Iman, first and foremost, one of the things I want to ask you is why a bookkeeping business? Did you start this business before having kids, after kids? And what did that journey look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 2:15

So I think a lot of people, whenever they ask me, as someone who's coming from a non-accounting background, what made me choose this? It really came down to I was pregnant with my daughter. It was a very volatile corporate experience in that it was COVID. We were in the education sector, and there was so much change that keeping up was something I struggled with. So when you asked me when I started it, it was postpartum. I want to say six weeks when I was really struggling with this transition in a very isolating time. And I said, okay, I need something to exercise my brain. Let me combine all of the experiences I have. And of course, fate has it that I watched a YouTube video and the commercial, and I don't know why, I usually skip commercials, was about bookkeeping and sort of like that cheesy make your first $10,000 and 60 days or less. And I was like, what is this true? And because I did have a little bit of finance background and entrepreneur background, I was like, okay, this is it. It wasn't, it was a very spur of the moment. I'm just gonna latch on this. And if it fails, at least I had this tunnel vision on something other than the struggles of postpartum and the postpartum depression I was going through. So that that really is there's like no fluff with the story. It was, I needed something to survive. I stumbled upon a video, I watched a commercial, and then I just said, okay, I'm gonna do this. It's either gonna work or it won't. Hopefully, I'll find something else in the meantime.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

That is so powerful. Thank you for sharing that because I want women to know you can start a business at any point. I started my business before a child, but there's so many women like yourself who are starting businesses after having children. And it's almost like this post-baby clarity. And sometimes I don't want to say we have to go deep down and get to the bottom in order to come up, but you've been able to go through something traumatic and beautiful, but so many different emotions and hormones and changes, and you were able to find something that sparked an interest in you to want to start this business. And I hope for other moms listening to this, maybe there is a sign, maybe there is a commercial, maybe there's a podcast you're listening to, or this one that sparks something within you to want to start a business, you know? So I think sharing this will allow other people to almost have the permission slip, right? To give themselves a shot and to try. And so going through kind of the seeds of having this little baby to growing a business, what were some of the biggest wins? But what were some challenges that you dealt with kind of managing and juggling both? Cause I can imagine a child is a 24-7 ordeal, just as much as a business when you're trying to, especially in the phase of growth, right? In the beginning, it can feel like you want to give it your all to that, but also having a baby as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

I mean, I wish I had this perfect storyline. And I think this is the real essence that I hope mothers take away. Muriel always laughs when I say this, whenever she reaches out. I'm like, fake it until you make it. You're not supposed to know the answer of how do I decide to take a call and do business development while my little one is going through sleep regression, or how am I supposed to balance the laundry and the baking and the meal prep when I have all of these deadlines, or I need to actually put out some marketing content. It is gonna be something that every single day you have to assess, you have to pivot, you have to decide what is gonna be my priority. That means, mamas, sometimes the laundry is going to pile in a corner because depending on where you're at at your business development, what your relationship is with your business, it's gonna be a matter of what is going to help you feel accomplished, what is gonna help you feel whole, what is gonna help you feed your kiddos, you know, what is gonna help you in that current day's challenges overcome them. And my particular relationship at the time that I got started was it was for me my form of therapy. It was my form of self-care. I struggled with um breastfeeding my daughter, I struggled with the pains of an emergency C-section and all of the complications that had come afterwards. So if someone, you know, had to tell me, oh, but why would you pick sitting in front of a computer for four hours, coming up with a new marketing calendar versus the pile of dishes that were there? That just that's how my day went. That's how much mental energy I had. So I really want to advise other women that when you're going into this journey, be very flexible with your schedule. Allow yourself permission that some days you're gonna be super quote unquote productive. And other days productivity is gonna look like laying in bed with your baby, answering emails from your cell phone. That's my biggest piece of advice. It's it's not going to be cookie cutter. There are people who have family support. There are others who may be doing it solo. Adjust to your circumstance, to your mental level, and then pick your priorities because there's no such thing as work-life balance. It's work-life choice. So, what is that choice going to be for the day? Are you okay with it? Is everyone that is affected by your decision on board? And then you move forward.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Um, I freaking love this work-life choice. Yeah. It's so true because and I say this a lot in motherhood and entrepreneurship, because at the end of the day, we don't live a normal nine to five. We don't have structure, quote unquote, in our day. And some days you're gonna be killing it, you're gonna be crushing it, you're gonna have the energy, and some days you're just gonna feel like a blob. And I feel that a lot. I feel that with especially women's hormones and the way that we operate. Yeah, I feel that guilt sometimes where I, if my son's napping for two hours, do I make the choice to cook food or do I work? And I like to work too. I like to work my brain and I'm excited about my business and I'm excited to move forward with that. And to me, I'll get to laundry when I get to it, I'll get to dishes when I get to it. Sometimes I get anxiety about it, sometimes I don't. And it's just the day, the flavor of the day, and and what is the choice? What is the priority? And I try to at least have one to three priorities in a day, and I get to what I can. And so, Mamas, I agree with you, on listening to this. Just allow yourself permission to know, like shit happens. You're not gonna have this perfect day. You're not like like you can think your day is gonna go one way and then it goes completely sideways. And you know what? That's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. So I really just appreciate you sharing that. And now going into it, obviously, many years later, you now have two kids and you've also traveled abroad and you've grown your business. What were some of the growing pains that you had to deal with with growing a business and also growing and raising children? Because I again, I can imagine myself going through this. There's always give and take, like you say, with priorities and making choices. But what has that journey kind of looked like for you? And what were some of the biggest pain points and wins and just revolutions you've gone through?

SPEAKER_00 9:50

So the biggest piece of advice that I have really championed behind whenever I talk about or whenever I talk to newer mother entrepreneurs, work based on your season of life. So when my kiddos were babies and I had my mother-in-law, for example, living with me for six months, that was my hustle time. That was okay, I need to create a plan, accomplish as many things as I can, take like very few breaks in the day where I'll go like see, play with my kids, check in on them, take those long nights. Like I'm just powering through that. That was the support system that I was able to build this around. And then when my mother-in-law leaves the later six months, I am just reaping the bounties of whatever I did the first six months. So a great example is when all of my kids were under the age of three, that meant I was really focusing on a lot of online presence. So for six months, I was being aggressive with online presence, meeting people, networking. There was a marketplace that I was on, and I was always constantly making myself available to discovery calls within their platform, being super on it. And then for the second half of the month, because I spent the second half of the year, because I spent so much time cultivating those relationships, creating the new workflows, creating the new documentations, I was able to do a lot of things from my phone because it didn't require me to sort of sit down in front of a computer and tight things up or have conversations. That was the first that's going to be my first piece of advice that I'm reflecting on uh just within my own journey. The second thing is know what it is that you want from your business. I think as I went through different seasons of life, there were some seasons where I really wanted to have like big financial growths, but the biggest challenge that I faced was how can I multiply myself within my team to be able to accomplish those goals.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

I love what you said in regards to the season of life in regards to having help or not help. I think it depends what you have around you, village-wise or help-wise. I know for me, I have paid help. I have a babysitter one day a week. And with, you know, a second on the way, it will definitely be two days a week. That's how I can get things done. But when my mom came for a few weeks, I grinded and I just had tons of meetings so I can just fill my calendar and get things done. And one of the things you've really taught me is to do my business from my phone. That was something huge because I can delegate a lot. I can get emails, I can forward them to my team and say, hey, can you work on this? Can you work on that? And it allows me time back with my family without having to sacrifice my business. And so I think for anyone who's looking to have a team, I'll say this, and you want to have people on your team, that will be huge. And we, I use Slack. I don't know how you do it with your team, but with me, we communicate through Slack and it just makes things so seamless and smooth. And so I absolutely love that. I want to go into boundaries for a second because as a business owner and a mom, boundaries are really hard. And I know for me, I've struggled with that a lot and I'm trying to get a lot better, but I'm not perfect. And I'm curious how you are putting boundaries in place with both like being a mom and being a business owner, and how are you relaying that to clients and vendors, referral partners? Like, what do boundaries mean to you and what does that look like? And is that even a word in your vocabulary?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah. So when I set out to be an entrepreneur, my end goal was I want to be a present mom who also feels fulfilled. So that means my priority is always going to be motherhood. And that's my particular version. For other working women, it looks different. But in my particular case, because I said family goes first, I make sure that within a given week, I have scheduled time that's my kids' time. Fridays are no meetings, or if you need absolutely to reach me, I'm taking it from a phone call. But I've trained clients from the beginning that my kids will come in and out of the background. I have enough confidence and also the belief that if a client makes a fuss, that I'm a mom and then there's real life happening behind me, that is not a good match. Because I am not in the business of hiding my kids or the noise that they may make. Of course, when there's serious meetings, I will go to a coffee shop, I'll go to the office, I will make sure that there's babysitting involved to make sure that, okay, as an example, when recording podcasts, we love our cartoons and we are quiet and we have predetermined snacks and drinks. And so there's ways that you can balance seriousness and just regular life is happening. I'm still dedicated. I am still the service provider. I know I am to your clients. So I think that is the essence of boundaries for me. It's knowing why I'm in this business, why I even chose to be an entrepreneur. And also, like, let's just not pretend that we're not going to slip up and become go through these seasons of workaholicness, and we are just going to have to reassess. So, one of the things that Muriel and I do, I mean, she talked about pumpkin planning, is we have this accountability partnership once a month. We check in with each other. What's our goal? How did you feel last month went? And part of my self-evaluation at the end of the month is okay, how much time did I spend working versus with my kids? And that is a metric I actively track on a monthly basis. So you will have moments where it is the most busiest time of your business season. Try to set up support and also give yourself grace to say, okay, like two months out of the year, I'm so slammed. I love my kids, but they're eating brown everything. We'll be okay. We'll get through it. I'm allowed to bend my boundaries during that time, but I know how to reel myself back in. So again, like we're not here to shame ourselves and to beat ourselves up because the reality of being a working mom is there's gonna be some days where there feels like more failure than most, but there are gonna be rallying moments when you can redeem yourself and and you know, put yourself back on path on like the right path.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

I agree with everything you're saying. It just has resonated so much with me. And I'm sure other mamas are soon to be mamas listening to this. You're gonna have seasons of life. And the thing I love about entrepreneurship is you can scale back or push forward depending where you are, especially with kids. And I know for me, January for any bookkeeper is our busiest time. It's like our Super Bowl. It's crazy. And I literally told my mom like months before, hey, I really need you these two, three weeks because I know it's gonna be crazy. And I'm really grateful for that time because I had met with all my clients, I gained a few more clients, and it really just paid itself twofold to have her help during that moment.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

And then the rest of the year, for me, it's not it's crazy, but it's not nearly the level of crazy as January is. And so, yes, you're gonna put on TV a little more, maybe you're gonna feed whatever food, but doesn't mean it's forever. To your point, it's a season of life. And I love that you're embracing that, you're giving yourself the permission and you're not gonna let anybody shame you, ridicule you, or make you feel crap about it. So I truly, truly love that. And talking about some of this, the mental load. I think as a mom in general, we all deal with the mental load to some level. But then you add owning a business. And so I almost look at it as like being a mom, being a business owner, and then like managing a house as well. There's so many things to think about. So, how do you handle the mental load between all the capacities? How are you delegating? What does your life look like in managing this so you can find a little bit of self-care, maybe some peace or clarity to feel good about yourself without having extreme burnout?

unknown 18:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

So I'm gonna be very honest. I'm still figuring that out seven years in business, but you know what my buffer is? Therapy. Okay. If there's any mamas listening, therapy is going to be the thing that you are going to thank yourself the most when you are deep in the years of building your business, whether it's a simple side hustle, whether it's you are dreaming for that corporate Fortune 500 company, whatever version it looks like, you need to have therapy. Not to say that there's something wrong with you in this present moment, but that is going to be the, hey, let's check in the mirror, how are we doing? Self-check, pause, reflect with a professional who can help you filter through all of that mom guilt nonsense. It's nonsense, but it is the reality that even if you are a stay-at-home mom, something is going to trigger mom guilt because it's just something that we women face. Like I don't want to get into the conversation of how dads, I don't even know if that even exists in their vocabulary. But for us women, even if you are 100% dedicated to your children, even if you are 100% dedicated to work, there's always going to be some guilt on some side. So the therapy is my self-care, my proactive care, my bumper rails, my guiding star, my check your blood pressure, check your pulse. Are you still beating? Are you still breathing? Because in therapy, you're going to talk about how are you feeding yourself? In therapy, they're going to remind you, what did you do this week? In therapy, there's conversation of how did you celebrate that amazing accomplishment? Even if you walk into the session feeling completely fine. That is time carved out with another woman or a man, whoever your therapist is, that can understand the psyche of us as human beings and help us navigate things that maybe we're suppressing that we're not aware of, or just saying, hey, congratulations. That's amazing. What a great way you calmed yourself down in XYZ situation. And who doesn't want to have that self-assurance or that conversation back to help you feel your own sense of pride or accomplishments? It's we're human beings. We need that reflection. I think it's accountability.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Like when it comes down to it, whether you're a mom and you go to a therapist for accountability, or like I said, we have each other where we mentor with pumpkin planning, it we all could use some kind of accountability. I think for me, having accountability with you on a month-to-month basis to write our financial goals, our marketing goals, our system goals, our financial goals, our employee goals, writing that on a month-to-month basis has leveled me up in a way that I can't even explain to anybody else unless you're doing it because pen to paper writing it down is everything. And as a mom as well, I had a mental health coach when I went through pregnancy anxiety with my first. And it really helped me reframe my thoughts and think about things differently. So don't feel ashamed to hire somebody. It's not you being a failure, it's you empowering yourself and being selfless to take the time out to do this. And so thank you for sharing that and allowing women almost, if they haven't felt this already, to go and get the help that they need, especially the mental help. It's something we all could probably use to some level. We're all burnt out, we're all exhausted. And to have somebody to talk through our feelings and being held accountable and to really think about things a little bit differently. Just makes a world of a difference. And so I love that. I want to go into your business a little bit and I want to talk about kind of your team and how you have grown your business and what were some strategies or what were some things in place to think about growing the business from a client side, but also hiring the right people. I think a lot of times it can be daunting to go from being an employee to then being an owner and then having to hire the right people. I'd love to talk about how you manage your team and how you manage your clients with kids. And I know that you mentioned before you're everybody knows you have kids. But when it comes to kind of the strategic side and kind of within the business, what does that look like? And what, like how do you manage that? How do you delegate? How do you still be a leader both in the home and in your business to kind of, I don't know, just be in both places at the same time, which can feel very daunting.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Absolutely. Number one, and if you only hear this last sentence from my mouth, you will learn through trial and error. And that is the best way to learn. Yes, absolutely. If you, if this is your first time dealing with a team or being in a leadership position or being in a sales position, yes, go out there, take resources, go the YouTube route. Maybe you find a book or a course. But the biggest challenge is this idea of shiny object syndrome that I faced, which was let me buy all of the courses and then help speed up the gap that I had in, okay, I went from being solo to in my first year, I hired one person. In my second year, it went to four. In my third year, it could it went to six. I wanted to fast track it. And while I did purchase a couple of courses to learn, I quickly realized after like the second one, it's sort of like standard information that's repeated and presented to you in a different manner. And of course, there's there's always tidbits that you learn each time from these different programs. But I just decided, okay, make a list of all the tasks that I need to do in front of my client as an example. What are all the tasks that I need to do within the business? Start with delegation. So I'm going to start talking first about the team management aspects and how I grew my team. What's going to be, as a solo entrepreneur, the first thing that you need help with? Executing the service. So your first hire is going to be person number two that can help take off the execution piece. So you're a bookkeeper, you need to find a junior bookkeeper to help you catch and reconcile your client's books. If you're a graphic designer, you need to have a junior graphic designer that's going to help you create the framework and maybe you'll do the tweaks and final review. That's always going to be your first edit, your first hire. The second thing that comes after that, and this came naturally for me, was I need an assistant, whether it's in person or whether it's virtual, to help me maintain all of this incoming questions from client, questions from team, and help me get a little bit more organized so that I don't get bogged down with selling the service, executing the service, organizing myself to know what is my next to-do list. And I and I think if you follow that template first, having a secondary person, then you go to an assistant, what comes after is basically rinse and repeat. Okay, how can I expand my service offerings? Hire another person. Okay, now that you have two people or three people, how can I now outsource or delegate maintaining and managing my team? So then that comes in that operations person, or maybe your executive person moves up and now it becomes more of a business office. So it is literally something that is going to evolve over time and you're gonna try and it's gonna work with one person and you're gonna see a different format as you meet other business owners. That's how I went through it myself. When it comes to growing the client size, I genuinely think it was stumbling more than there was strategy. So it was a lot of, I wish I had this framework of build your network, get people to know who you are, who you are, find key relationships and put all your time into that before you try to chase the clients. Um, Muriel, her story is amazing because she got to take the regret I had in building my business and make that the first thing that she did, which is that relationship side. In the last 18 months, I've recognized the amazing accomplishments that Muriel has had by sort of pausing, searching for clients, and focusing on relationships. So now, seven years plus later, I can tell you, as someone going into it, focus on the relationships because that is going to be the quickest way you can amplify reaching your ideal client. But now you've created this little community that's cheering you on and that's like pushing business towards you, or they're pushing you in front of key introductions, and naturally the business will grow from there. So I was a little bit of a trash can fire at the beginning. Now reflecting, I wish that that was my strategy first. And Muriel, you absolutely should mention what the difference it was for you when you prioritize referral relationships first instead of chasing the clients.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Yeah. And that was something we spoke about very early on when I started my business. And I mentioned my whole thing was I'm going to grow the foundation of referral partners and build relationships. And I network locally in my community. Now, Iman's story is a little different because you travel all over the world and you're a little bit of a nomad in a way. But I think the way you do it, there's nothing wrong with doing digital marketing. I think if you have the resources and the finances to do it, I think the lead gen way is the way to go. It's something I'm your for in my business, and that's the route I'm going a little bit more because I just can't network the way I used to. However, I will say being able to network in your local community, if you're very clear on the problem to solution that you're solving, right? And the business, you can go out. And again, it is fake it till you make it. That's what Iman told me early on. And it was the best thing I ever did because then I sold myself and people got to know me, they got to like me, but more importantly, they got to trust me. And through that, then I built the relationships where then all of these people, I've got clients refer other clients to me, fed referral partners were for clients to me. And it's been such a wonderful experience to go this route. Now it's hard work, you're trading your time a bit. But the time that I gave to dedicate to that for 12 to 18 months was the best thing I could have ever done. And so if you have time or you have a village or you have support to help you get out in your community, get out in your network, find those events and meet with people and see how it goes. But again, there is a point that as I've grown, and now that I have one baby and another baby on the way, I can't just go out the way I used to. My time is very limited. So I do have to think about alternative ways. And so neither way is right or wrong. But Iman, there's so much you you've mentioned in regards to growing your business and the trials and tribulations. And I think a lot of times, to your point, shiny object syndrome is very real. I have it a lot with just buying jewelry. I love jewelry and like random things. But I think we get so sold and sucked into buying the shiniest course or the best education or the best coaching. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And I think for any new business owner, give yourself a shot to try a few if it's worth it. But I would say try to find like really cheap alternative, like Udemy or YouTube or something that's a little bit more affordable. Yeah, just to see if you even like it. And I think that's really important to like dip a toe in before you really go full throttle. So I love that. A few more questions before we kind of wrap up here. First question is when it comes to your partner, I know for my husband and I, we're in a very similar situation. Even if we live countries apart and worlds apart, both of our husbands are entrepreneurs. We're entrepreneurs. So our life looks very different than the average person. It's not like one partner works at W-2, the other one runs a business, or you both have W-2s or whatever it is. When it comes to you and your husband and kind of the balancing act, and I know obviously some of this from knowing you, but in terms of your husband starting his business, you having your business, you're obviously both dealing with businesses and your finances and paying people. But in the same token, you're also both paying into your family and your bills and paying for any help and for your kids, et cetera. How do you both manage kind of your finances and the business and personal and what kind of conversations do you have? And what does that look like from a partnership standpoint? Because this is money's a very vulnerable topic. It's a very awkward conversation, but I'd love to hear how you and your husband handle those conversations and what that looks like. And I'm sure they've changed and shifted over the years, but I'd love to hear it from you in terms of how do you guys manage this or talk about it or have the conversation? Cause it's a really hard conversation, I think, to have.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

I think the what really determines success when two entrepreneurs are married is communication. So for my husband and I, we, when we started this journey, one person went first. If I could recommend to anyone, I would definitely say, even from a financial standpoint, the first one to two years of being an entrepreneur is difficult. It takes investment, it takes testing the market. There's going to be some wins, there's going to be some losses. And so if you're able to stagger when one becomes an entrepreneur versus the other still stays at their W-2, that is going to help significantly in having some sort of financial security. So if that's possible, do so. Have that conversation early on. Like my husband and I, even when we first got together, we always knew that we wanted to be an entrepreneur, but we said, okay, we'll have to like set it up where one of us may still be working, and then another one will start their business. So, like year one of our marriage, that was the setup. And once we sort of tested my husband's businesses and got it to a stable point because I was doing a lot of the admin backend with my additional full-time job. Okay, fantastic. Great. Next is then transitioning me from the W-2 into testing out being an entrepreneur. And so every marriage is different. I particularly have a more traditional marriage with my husband, where he is like the main provider, the main breadwinner. And it's it's it's varied over the years, like some different formations of that. But our decisions are always centered around me being more present with the children, him being out working. And so we were always very aware of even the type of business that I was gonna get in. I wanted it to be something that did not impede on my time with my husband, did not impede on my time with my children. So we always had to have these conversations to go back and forth on, okay, how did we feel this last like quarter, this last three months? Like, is it working for us? Okay, maybe because you're about to enter your busy season, I can just pull back on one aspect of my work, and then you can like hang on to the kids in the afternoon or you deal with bed, just communication every single day. Forget about talking about money, just talk about your schedule first and foremost, because the conversation on money and how you're gonna split bills or how you're gonna handle unexpected costs will naturally lend itself because you're used to communicating and trying to figure out how you're gonna structure your day, who's gonna go first. We love the calendar method. So we have a whiteboard of what our goals are for the current month, what our goal is for the next three months, for the next six months, and just sort of making sure that there is like a seesaw effect of okay, you have a big goal coming up. I'm just gonna like pull back on mine. Okay, you're done. I'm gonna grow a little bit more because I'm on the upbend and you're on the downbend. Everything stems from communication. What my advice and my lifestyle might be maybe completely the opposite of what you even desire from your relationship. But if you talk about it, if you try to figure out the routine, all of the rest of the details will just come up because you have an open line of communication. You guys have your post-kids bedtime pow wow over some popcorn or whatever it looks like. But make sure that piece is there because Muriel can tell you when two entrepreneurs are married, I don't know, you're just walking on tight ropes for different seasons. You're just like, oh my God, what are we gonna literally do? And then we're like, okay, cool, we're just we're gonna do pasta because we got to wait for that marketing budget to actually pay off. Pasta and body.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Yeah, I think it's thriving in chaos. And two things I really love that you said, of course, communication. I think, especially to busy entrepreneurs, you guys have to find time to communicate somewhere in your day, whether it's very similar, my husband and I are a bit traditional too, where he pays for a lot of the bigger bills, I'll help pay for smaller bills, groceries, but I'm at home with our son. And the biggest thing I would say that kind of my husband and I did too, to be honest with you, looking back, staggering our businesses. And my husband and I didn't know we'd be entrepreneurs. We grew up in the New York area, and it was this whole thing of you go to college, you get the W-2, you get the benefits, the 401k, and you're promised this 3% raise and some bonus, and you're supposed to be happy with that. And I always knew I was, I was not meant for that life. But when we moved to where we live in Charleston now, South Carolina, and I got laid off my job, I just told my husband, give me a year, year and a half. Let me have to your point, like it really does take a year or two. I would say two years, to be honest, to really feel like you got groove and skin in the game in your business. And we gave my business a shot and it worked. And my husband, I remember feeling really jealous that I had a business, and he felt like, well, I really want a business too. And then he started his construction business and it's grown tremendously since. And so it is a unique living, it's unique circumstances, but I wouldn't trade it for the world, and I know you wouldn't either. It's just, it's it's thriving in chaos, and you just kind of wing it sometimes. So I very much understand that too. When it comes to, I want to shift for a second as well, going into, of course, you and your husband having this conversation, you building a business to be more at home with the kids. What does your identity look like now? Having two kids and you've traveled and you've built this business and you've done, you've accomplished so much and you've been able to achieve so much. What does your identity feel like now versus even before kids? And how do you just feel about life in general? Because I think it can feel really daunting and hard. But when it comes to your identity and feeling like, is enough enough? Could I be doing more? Could I be doing less? Like, how do you like manage that? How do you think about that?

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Oof, you've caught me on a what I call a relearning myself. So if anyone is listening, feels like they don't know who they are, or they're struggling to just even want to continue being an entrepreneur, or they're feeling, and I'm gonna call this out feeling resentful towards their children deep down inside because they feel like I could be, I it's almost easier for me to make leap and bounds of accomplishments in my business, and I'm totally feeling like a failure with motherhood. I I'm right there. So all I can say to this is, and imagine this is like seven years after. All I really can say to that is I am trying to figure out what parts of my business I'm no longer in love with. And because I've fought really hard this last year to find a community, I had an amazing group of ladies rally around me in December and create a mastermind. And even if you can have one person to sit on the opposite side of the table and just poke at you and poke at your ideas, it really opens your eyes and it almost gives you permission to say, oh, I actually don't want this anymore in my business. And I was scared to say it out loud, but I felt embraced or supported to say that. So I'm literally in the season of I've fallen out of love with certain parts of my business. Like I had to cut my team in half because I wanted a different culture and I felt like they couldn't transition to that. I am burning down my business, so to speak, in certain aspects, so that I could rebuild it drastically because my season of life has also taken a very drastic turn. I've spent the last four years semi-living abroad, with the last two years almost living exclusively abroad in Europe and having a family farm and all of the like different aspects that that has changed me as an individual, like interacting with the people here in the small town that we live. My husband and I have changed like what it is that we actually want from each other in terms of support, in terms of our love language. So I am very much in the thick of figuring that out. Just get a community and Godspeed. Like I'm I'm still like I'm still doing it.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

So it's okay. But that I appreciate this because this is so honest and raw and real and vulnerable. And this is what raising hustle is truly all about is we're hustling and creating life differently. And it just because no is no today, it no doesn't mean no tomorrow. And I love that you're sending this message of you built a business, but you're you're shifting and you're focusing on something different and you're recalibrating and you're going back. And I talk a lot about gray and that being in the gray sometimes. There is a power in the pause to reflect. And being part of that mastermind back in December with you was actually really incredible to see all these other women talk about you and your business and your shift and what you're going through. And I think we all could kind of use that in a weird way. It feels very vulnerable and scary to allow other people to essentially allow them to give you their opinion, but it does help you grow. Sometimes I really believe going three steps back allows you to go 20 steps forward. And the fact that you allowed yourself such permission to let go and to surround yourself with incredible community. We all could use that. I believe in the relationships and the cheerleaders and just the mentors and the people in your life who can lift you up on a day where you just feel so down. So I really appreciate the vulnerability and you sharing that. I kind of wanted two more questions. I will say just very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

She's making me sound very, very well put together. I was burning out and then I found community. So it was like I was smacking my head on the wall, and it was like God put all these signs in front of me. And I was like, oh, oh, oh wow, my vitamin D is very low. And why do I feel faint in parts of the day? Oh, okay. Well, I don't really have a choice because I'm literally hitting a brick wall. That was my let me find community, let me actually like have these hard conversations. It's okay if that, if you as an individual, that's how you receive signs. I wish I was very in touch with myself and I had like better boundaries with my own idea of success. So just putting that out there, you can hit a brick wall and then come to the light. It's not gonna be linear.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

No, and I appreciate that. And I think for any listener listening to this, they can appreciate that too, right? Because I think burnout and motherhood in general is very real, whether you work part-time, full-time, or whatever your situation, or even just being a mom in general, like you're burnt out, you're exhausted, you're tired, and something has to give. And sometimes you need a breakdown for a breakthrough. I really believe I've gone through breakdowns myself. I've gone through massive breakdowns, but they were such breakthroughs for me that have elevated me to the next level. And sometimes we need that in our life, whether it's in our business, personal combination. We need a breakdown. We need to be burned out and exhausted to kind of recalibrate, figure out our next move and not be like afraid or embarrassed of that. So you being so vulnerable and sharing that, it's very real. It's very real. There's no BS around that. That is like the essence of raising hustle in regards to knowing your limit and knowing that you can continue to grow and just recalibrate and adjust and shift. That's part of what I love being about a mompreneur too, is in the season of life, I just spoke about this recently with little kids. Uh you can grow your business, but you don't have to kill yourself and have the like boundaries, quote unquote, in place. But then as kids get older, right, you can then recoup, you can have more time for yourself, and you can then make different decisions. So there's no right or wrong way to do this. It's just doing it. So I love that you've said that. And kind of last few questions here. And one of the questions I love to ask on this podcast is what is your definition of success? I know you mentioned in regards to lifestyle with your kids, but is there anything else related to success that, you know, what is your definition around it? Does your definition mean just being comfortable? Does it mean just paying the bills and then some? Does it mean investing for the future? Does it mean going on nicer vacations? What kind of lifestyle does success mean to you in your life and your business as being a entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Okay, I love that question. So for me, right now, and I know that there'll be some people, like especially when you're from an immigrant family, they're in the background, save money, buy a house, do all the right things. I'm like, okay, well, first of all, that's not my linear path. So right now, because my children are not yet in elementary school, we're starting next year, homeschooling, holding our breath. Right now, for the last three years, it has been to have the ultimate abroad lifestyle connecting with nature. My husband's family comes from a seven generations of farmers in Europe. And I've always dreamed of giving my children that at a young age. I knew that there were going to be like infrastructure pieces that might not be there in a smaller country in the Southeast Balkan area, but that's what I desired. And so I fought to have enough from a US financial standpoint that allowed me to live super lavishly abroad. Now that we're transitioning back to the states more full-time, we'll still definitely be traveling. That's why we're homeschooling. I don't know. Now it's looking more towards shifting my business to focus on more like steady recurring income. Cause normally in the bookkeeping space, you have like these peaks. So now I'm focusing on like one specific number that does not require me to have to block out a lot of my schedule to work because now I'll be homeschooling. And that number is still, it's still changing. I'm still like trying to figure out what that sweet spot is. Is it six figures? Is it five figures a month? Like, what is that number gonna be? Like, what is that number that's gonna like make my heart feel easy and happy and satisfied? Gotta figure out it's been a second since I've lived full-time in the States. So gotta like factor in cost of living and kids are gonna obviously want sports. So it's a lot of things that I'm still figuring out. That's why I told Muriel, like, you caught me at such a transition time in my life that I hope that this is a comfort for other mompreneurs who are also transitioning. Oftentimes we feel like, oh my God, she has been in business for so long. She has it put together. I literally feel like it is day one, year one of business. And like I said, I'm I'm tearing things down to rebuild. So I don't know. I I definitely gonna be focused on my kids to be present with them a lot more, especially with homeschooling, um, but still to still being able to maintain a lot more connection with nature. So maybe not working Fridays, to have park trips on Fridays. I don't know. I'll let you know in like four months what my final plan is.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

But that's okay. And I think again, being a mompreneur, you have this unique flexibility that not many people get to have. And so you're able to homeschool, you're able to adjust how much you want to make based on how hard you want to work or what kind of relationships you have. And I think that's the beauty of this business. Like I love bookkeeping for that reason. I do a lot of retainer clients. I like to have an idea of what my cash flow will be. Yeah. Look, if I lose a client, gain a client, it is what it is. That's just the nature of the beast. But what's nice about our lifestyles is we can grow and scale, we can scale back, we can adjust. And there's nothing wrong with that. And you can be year one in your business or your 10 in your business. It doesn't matter. I knew one woman, I was listening to her at a conference, and her whole identity was being a seven-figure business. Made a million plus dollars, and she's scaling back tremendously so she can live abroad and not, I don't know, have not show as much financials or whatever her situation is, but it was a big adjustment for her. And she was just so happy with the decision because she got to live the life she wanted. And so sometimes there isn't a dollar that can amount to that, but you do need a dollar in regards to knowing how much money you're gonna need, cost of living, things of that nature. And so you being vulnerable and sharing that, I think is incredible. And as we really wrap up here, Iman, I'm so grateful to have you on this podcast. I really appreciate your honesty, your vulnerability, you talking about how you built your business, how you have your kids, how you manage your life, how you started the business, how you do this with a partner. So many great tidbits and tips and just honesty and talking about communication and everything related to this. I have learned from you, you've learned from me. We truly have a great kind of relationship. And I'm internally grateful for you always. But look, even having bookkeeping businesses in our world, it's so much collaboration, not competition. We all do something a little bit different. So I'm even more excited to have another bookkeeper on because I want people to know that I send business to other bookkeepers if they're not a right fit for me. We all work together, we all talk to each other, we all have this like, and I would say the ones that I have a relationship with, we all have this amazing sense of community, but true understanding. And so I'm super grateful Iman kind of brought me into this world and showed me so much. And so, Iman, I'd love for you to plug and share all the places people can find you to connect with you and potentially work with you and your team.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

You are the best. For me, LinkedIn is the best way to contact us. Right now, our biggest pivot is focusing more on partnerships with other CPAs, fractional CFO businesses. We do have limited openings with direct clients, and that's typically because we are focused on full charge services. So if your business is within 10 to 15 employees and you need almost a fully outsourced accounting team, that's our strong suit. We help with accounts payables, receivables. Occasionally, we may touch payroll for the right person. But yes, Muriel absolutely put her finger on it. When you find your community and your tribe, I will go in and I'll like, oh Muriel, you have to see this new, and I'm getting really geeky here, this new standard chart of accounts that I'm using going forward. Take it, use it, tweak it for your clientele. Or the other day, Muriel will tell me, you absolutely need to use the software to have all of your content scheduled four months in advance. It's about collaboration. I, while we both are bookkeepers, I like certain types of clients. She loves another set of clients. And even if we both like the exact same one, I'm too busy. Why not give it to someone else so I can see her thrive and grow and cheer her on the same way that I would want for myself?

SPEAKER_02 51:55

And I've sent clients to Iman too, by the way, because there's clients that have not fit with me. And I think the thing about finding your community and finding your people, especially being so particular. And I tell this to so many of my entrepreneurs. Like, I have one entrepreneur who's an artist, and I'm like, find other artists who are like you because they're gonna think the same way you do. Just like with Iman and I. I remember one of our accountability calls recently. I was telling her, I'm really looking into some LinkedIn lead gen. She's like, I got someone for you. And I ended up signing up with them. And then I referred them to other people because I love the work that they're doing. So I think when you're able to talk to somebody else that's not a wall, you're able to foster new ideas and be innovative and just think outside the box in ways you never thought of. And so, like I said, for me to have Iman in my life is a blessing. And the fact that we have each other and we can communicate with each other and send business back and forth to each other, we are collaborating, we are communicating, and there is definitely no competition. It is just we are both thriving, we're both busy, and we're both successful. And that is what makes this relationship even more special. So I to say I'm grateful for you is an understatement.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

Oh, by the way, we've never met in person, and she is my person. So we've we've talked on camera, we've FaceTime, we have code words for motherhood disasters versus business disasters. Okay, Muriel, we'll talk about my Mayo situation later on. It is very much my person, and we have yet to like physically hug each other. So be open to receiving your person from an online community. You just never know when you'll hit it off. Just, I'm putting it out there. Don't always be so set on that like in-person communication relationship. Sometimes your person's just on the other side of the country. In my case, she's currently on the other side of the world, but we make it, we make it work.

SPEAKER_02 53:47

We always make it work. And I would definitely encourage anybody listening to this too, like, don't be so stuck, I think, thinking in one way and one way only. I think that you will lose yourself as an entrepreneur if you're not adaptable, flexible, shifting, and just thinking outside the box. As an entrepreneur, the biggest thing I've ever done is just really look outside the box and think about connections and relationships in a different way. And yes, Iman and I have never met, but we have been able to build this incredible relationship all online. And just like I said, to say I'm so grateful for her, doesn't matter where you are in the world. You never know where you're gonna find your person. So thank you, Iman, for coming on.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

Thank you for having me. And our friendship is the nearest and dearest thing to my heart. So I'm so glad I could be here for you. And I hope that your listeners truly understand the most amazing podcast that they've stumbled upon and to really like latch onto the gems that you're you're giving them because it's it's gonna be okay. And here's the podcast to tell you so and help you navigate some of those situations.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Amen. This is just the beginning. Subscribe now to Raising Hustle and get ready for raw stories, real talk, and unapologetic ambition. We're showing up messy, loud, and all in because success doesn't wait for quiet. Let's raise our voices, our businesses, and our babies together.