Comma or Decimal Person: The Money Mindset Shift You Need to Make

Years ago I watched someone proudly share that they'd saved $74 on a subscription plan. And I watched the CEO of that company stop everything and ask one question that I still think about at least once a week.

Are you a comma person or a decimal person?

This episode is about that question, and honestly, it's about the moment I had to ask it of myself all over again when my laptop screen shattered and my first instinct was to go hunt for a deal on Facebook Marketplace. Fear is sneaky. It shows up dressed like responsibility. And if you're not paying attention, you'll spend 20 minutes debating a $9 tool while the real money sits right there waiting for you to go get it.

Transcript

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Today, I want to tell you about a moment I witnessed years ago that completely changed how I think about time, money, and what it actually means to run a business. And I think it's going to stick with you the same way it stuck with me. Years ago, I worked at Story Brand. And if you're not familiar, Storybrand is a company built around helping businesses clarify their message so their customers actually listen. They're really well known now, but I was there for the scrappy startup days, and I'm genuinely so impressed with everything they've built since then. I learned a lot about being an entrepreneur during my time there and what it takes to actually build a business and how to put together marketing plans for your customers that actually work. But I think out of everything I learned at Story Brand, watching Donald Miller build Story Brand and make decisions around the team, around budgets and having to make hard calls on where to invest and where not to invest, what products to build and what to walk away from, those were some of the things that stuck with me as I began to scale loss in-house and look at some of the decisions I wanted to make for my future long term. I want to tell you today about one of those moments that has always stuck with me. It was probably a two-minute conversation that I'm sure Don doesn't remember, and maybe the rest of the team doesn't remember, but I think about it at least once a week as I'm making decisions. One of the things we did was a weekly all hands meeting. Everyone would stand in a circle, give updates, celebrate wins, we'd do shout-outs. For example, shout out to Cheyenne for going above and beyond on the workbook edits, that kind of thing. It was a real team culture kind of environment for trying to call out people for their wins and trying to make sure that everybody felt recognized. One day, one of the leaders stood up and said they'd a win to share. They said we had saved something like $74.52 by switching subscription plans. And they were really proud of it. They wanted the team to know that they were watching out for the company. And honestly, that's a good instinct. But the CEO, Don, stopped everything and he asked one question. He said, Are you going to be a comma person or a decimal person? And I can't stress the kind of collective pause that happened in the room. It was an awkward moment. It was a tense moment. And it's something I've really respected about Don is that he wasn't afraid to say the hard things when they happened, right? He wasn't afraid to call things out in the moment. He said something along the lines of, I'm not that worried about saving $74. What I am thinking about is how do we make a thousand? And if I have to spend $74 to make a thousand, I would do it every single time. So the time and energy we're trying to spend to shave off dollars from a subscription plan, that's time and energy that's not going towards revenue. And that landed with me in a way I wasn't expecting. Because how many of us do this? How many of us spend 20 minutes researching whether we should pay $9 a month for a tool that would save us two hours a week? How many of us just say, I don't want one more subscription when we're talking about something that costs less than lunch? How many of us are so focused on protecting what we have that we stop investing on what we could build? We stop betting on ourselves. We don't take risks. We don't look at this might work. This might bring me more leads. And instead we say, but I saved $74. I had a moment the other day where I had to remind myself that I'm a comma person, not a decimal person all over again. I was laying in bed. I had my laptop. I put it out on the floor next to me and I went to go get out of bed, brush my teeth. I didn't realize that my phone was on my pillow in a weird way. And when I got up, it popped off the bed, landed on my laptop screen, and shattered it. My MacBook Pro, this thing was like my Honda, right? It's gonna run forever. I've got tons of mileage left in it. I don't have to do any crazy graphic design. I was like, this thing is gonna last me forever. I'm gonna send my daughter with it to college. Like I was just like, this thing is gonna, it's a tank. And in a matter of seconds, with something so dumb, it was worthless to me. And I was so sad about it. And my first instinct was, it's fine. I'll find a really good deal and I'll make this all right. I'll go on Facebook Marketplace and I'll find some kind of cheap computer, or I'll wait and just like find something scrappy. Maybe your dad has one in the basement. Like I just started to go down all these rabbit holes. Now, all of these things take a lot of time. Even if I found a really good deal on one on Facebook Marketplace, like driving down there, making sure it works, like trying to meet up with this person, like that all takes time. And my husband stopped me and he was like, This is a big, this is a good moment. This is when you're like, I'm a comma person, not a decimal person. You need to just order the order a new MacBook. You invest in yourself. Your business doesn't have a ton of overhead right now, and you've already built a six-figure business again. You need to just decide this is kind of the only thing I need to run my business. I need to just order it, get it here fast, and make sure that I can keep things running smoothly. He's right. That moment of defaulting to the cheapest option or feeling like I'm gonna find the best deal and that makes me a smarter business owner, that's fear talking. It's not the CEO of a six-figure business making a decision. It's someone who has not fully stepped into what they've built. One of the best investments you can make is in yourself and in your time. Not because you're entitled to nice things, not because money doesn't matter. It's all fake, right? But because you know yourself and you know what you're capable of. You know that if you have time back, if you have the right tools and you're not nickel and diming every decision and every option, you will make more money. That's a return on investment. For years, I had a sticky note that I would keep on my desk that said, if I have more time, I will make more money. And so when I was afraid to invest in lead generation, when I was afraid to make that next hire, I had to remind myself that I was working towards something a lot bigger than just this monthly revenue. I was working towards annual revenue, towards future passive revenue. And that is what I kept in my line of sight, not trying to make sure that I was saving dollars and cents along the way. Now, I'm not telling you to sign up for every shiny new tool that hits your inbox. That's not the point. The point is to get honest with yourself about what's driving your decisions. When you are hesitating over a $9 subscription or a new piece of equipment or a service that could genuinely move your business forward, I want you to ask yourself one question. Am I making this decision from a place of strategy? If this tool saves you time and your time is worth real money, then that is strategy. If this new hire is going to help you show up better for your clients and close more deals, that's strategy. If you're just afraid to spend money because spending money feels risky, that's fear. And fear is not a business plan. Be a comma person, stay focused on where the real growth is, and trust that when you invest in yourself and your business with intention, the return is there. If this hits home for you and you are ready to stop playing small and start thinking like the CEO you actually are, I would love to work with you. You can book a call with me at susiecoli.com. We'll look at where you are and where you want to go and what is actually going to get you there. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, sell well.