The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

02 ⎸ Time & Money Mindset with Laura Watson

June 30, 2021 Serena Shoup, CPA Episode 2
The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast
02 ⎸ Time & Money Mindset with Laura Watson
Show Notes Transcript

This interview with Laura, the Numbers Nomad was recorded as a Facebook Live inside my Ambitious Bookkeeper Community. We are chatting about creating a healthier mindset around time & money as accountants. We also answered a few questions at the end from community members watching live. 

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Laura:

And so having, you know, the skillset of being a bookkeeper and you're not. Scaring your clients and like making them more fearful, like they're coming to you to feel more grounded and stable. And so in that they also need to feel inspired to. And so that's what money mindset, and then time as well, and how you are feel about your worthiness as it relates to time is a big deal in you being able to serve your clients really well, Hey, and welcome to the ambitious bookkeeper podcast. I'm Serena Shoup I'm a CPA mom of three and running a virtual bookkeeping business from my home. You're in the right place. If you're a bookkeeper accountant or an accounting student, and you know, your purpose is bigger than sitting in a cubicle. If you're ready to learn some actionable tips and strategies to help you start and grow a bookkeeping or accounting business of your own stick around. Welcome back to the ambitious bookkeeper podcast you tuned in for the second episode, I'm super thrilled. You're here. So a little background. This interview is with Laura, the number's nomad and was court recorded as a Facebook live inside of my ambitious bookkeeper community. And we're chatting today about creating a healthier mindset around time and money. As accountants. We also answered a few questions at the end, from the community members watching live. But before we jump into the interview, I wanted to introduce you to Laura. Since we don't really go into too much detail on Laura's background on the interview, as most of the community, uh, was pretty familiar with her. She's actually one of my very first students in the bookkeeping business accelerator program. And has recently pivoted from serving bookkeeping. To serving other women in finance, through human design and mindset work. You can check her out on her website and book a human design reading. If you'd like, uh, and her website is the numbers, nomad.com or you can connect with her on Instagram at the numbers nomad let's get started.

Serena:

Today we have Ms. Laura Watson also known as the numbers nomad. So we're just going to get right into it today. I wanted to talk with Laura about time and money mindset, which is like, I know a lot of people here are probably familiar with the money mindset of things, but time mindset is also a thing, which I just started learning about not that long ago. And then Laura, you and I were like, Just like mind blown about it together. We have to dig into this. I'm excited that you are have that you've pivoted into this new realm of helping best accountants and bookkeepers and CPAs with time and money mindset, because I think it's such important work that isn't really being talked about in our industry. Hmm. And I was, I was in another group just a few days ago and we were talking about I was talking about like, I was with other business owners, but I was talking about how, like, we, as accountants, we have this like skepticism and scarcity mindset almost brainwashed into us in school. Right. And they were like, what really? That, like you talked about that in school. And I'm like, yeah. It's like in textbooks to be skeptical and to. It doesn't say to have scarcity thinking, but it says conservative and things like that, like to think conservatively. And I think that there's a time and a place for it, for sure. But I think that prevents us as entrepreneurs and business owners ourselves. To really reap the benefits and the rewards that we could because of that whole mindset. And it's really hard to like switch off. Right. So now that you're like really excited and talking about it, so I'm going to let you take over.

Laura:

Yeah, no, that's such a good. Point and segue into it because that's what happened to me. So I, I found you around the same time that I've found my coach and kind of learned about scarcity mindset and money mindset. And then you and I, you kind of told me about like the James Wedmore, more podcasts, about time mindset. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is totally, those are the thing that like everyone, including myself have struggled with at a time and a place in this, in this industry. So. The, the whole idea of like being kind of brought up in school, like you become an accountant because you kind of have the like knack for certain things and you kind of already have that embedded in you. Like a lot of us are type a. A lot of us are introverts and we're super skeptical and that just keeps happening. Like I remember even getting, you know, a quarterly or annual review from a boss and they were like, you need to keep your professional skepticism. Right. Like it's always ingrained. And I was like, I just feel like I'm doing my job, but apparently I wasn't skeptical enough. Right. And so. What I learned was that as I was going through this work earlier this year, I was like, this is something that if more accountants bookkeepers, CPAs know about this, then like how many more people can we help our clients and stuff, because there's a lot of scarcity in the world right now, even. And so having, you know, the skillset of being a bookkeeper and you're not. Scaring your clients and like making them more fearful, like they're coming to you to feel more grounded and stable. And so in that they also need to feel inspired to. And so that's what money mindset, and then time as well, and how you are feel about your worthiness as it relates to time is a big deal in you being able to serve your clients really well, or even in your, in your corporate jobs or whatever you're doing on a day to day.

Serena:

So let's dig in a little bit more to like the time mindset and what I mean by that. So it's, it's kind of similar to the money mindset, like the scarcity thing, like it's, it's like a badge of honor to be busy, especially in Corp corporate to just be like running around, running around, being busy. I remember like when I was in corporate. The staff and senior level, I was always like looking at the managers, being like penny, they just like sit in their office all day. Like, what are they even doing? And so then whenever I got into like, cause I didn't feel like they had, they weren't rolling up their sleeves, doing the work with us. Which now I totally get it. But back then, I remember feeling that way and feeling like we're all so busy and he's just sitting in his room in his office, like brainstorming strategy, like must be nice type of thing. And we're rushing to do like a three-day close and blah, blah, blah. So then whenever I got into that management role and then became controller, I was always Very conscientious about like making sure my team knew that I was working really hard and that I was always busy because I didn't ever want them to feel that way about me. Which interesting. Interesting to see what you have to say about that, because I think a lot of it is tied to worthiness in that respect too. Like, am I worthy of having that role without like always being busy or appearing busy? So I would take all that strategy stuff that I should have been working on during the day. And do it at night at home because I didn't have time to do it at work because I was too busy doing things that I should have been delegating.

Laura:

Yeah. I've definitely been there in, you know, in corporate, I like grew from like a two man team to now. I think there was five by the time I left and I re, and even just in the company, the whole, like, as the accounting department, we kinda like took on this role that. We needed to be busy all the time. We needed to show that like, we were super stressed and like, you couldn't put any more work on us. We couldn't take any more. And you know, and we wanted everyone to know it too. Right. Like when we worked on the weekends, even subconsciously and. So a lot of it has to do with like being able to prioritize too and delegate, and even just say like, Hey, this isn't working for me, like with a boss, cause you don't want to show any sort of like weakness. Right. So, and even in, in public accounting, I worked at, you know, it was a pretty large regional firm and we always made fun of the people that didn't have enough work. Like, it was almost like the worst thing possible was if you didn't have enough work that you weren't worthy of getting any more and you were bad and like, that was kind of your life.

Serena:

Yeah. You're not a rock star. You can't

Laura:

handle it. So it was, yeah. So again, badge of, honor of. Having a lot of work. And so you always want to be like, you'd be, you could look at other people's schedules and see how busy they were. And like, it was kind of this like comparison trap thing. Cause you're like, wow, they're really busy. Like how can I be like them? And you have this same sort of like shuffle of well. I don't want to be this busy either. Right. And so, but my environment is making me feel like I'm not worthy of even getting paid the amount I'm getting paid, which is a lot of times crap wages anyway, in public accounting. But there's, you know, like that aspect of it, like, I can't even ask for a raise or ask for anything else, unless I'm totally busy. And the only way to leave this place is if I'm burnt out. Right. That's when I've succeeded. And so that's, well, there's a whole

Serena:

culture, there's a whole culture and public accounting. That's either you up or out basically. Like if you don't, if you aren't moving up, then you're out. Because like, yeah. So how, how do you get into that position of being really busy? It's by saying yes. To all sorts of extra shit. Right, right, right,

Laura:

right. Yeah. Everything. Yeah. Yeah. And so when I was tell like my clients too, is that it's either like really decide whether you want to be doing that work, you know, like incorporate it. It's a little bit hard to be like, no, I'm not doing that, but if you're a good employee and you're just busy in general, because you get work put on you all the time, like sit down and really think about one, like, is this stuff really? I enjoy doing like, what is your trajectory here? And should I be, should I be saying yes or should I say not now, but later, but like, that's really powerful too. Just being able to say, to say those things. Yeah.

Serena:

I wish I had had somebody like, like you, or like, I wish I knew about the whole coaching world while I was in corporate, because I think it would have prevented me from getting to that like burnout stage where like I finally was like, okay, I'm going to have kids and I'm never coming back. I already have one kid, but yeah, I was like, I'm I, this is my ticket out. And I'm going to make it work no matter what, like I'm going to start my own business at this point. But I could have had a little bit of a happier career if I had like, known about this whole world and all that stuff. And I remember there was one guy on my team and I used to he was, he was an employee that I hired and I used to get so frustrated because he was really good at boundaries. Like he was the only one on our team at any damn boundaries. And he would take his time doing his work. And he didn't take on anything extra and less like unless he really wanted to. And he like only worked his nine to five and didn't take stuff home usually. I mean, occasionally he would, if I asked him, like, we have this deadline that we have to hit, like you have to do whatever it takes. I, you know, like I'll roll up my sleeves and help too. But. If you like peacefully, it was like, if you ever want to get promoted, but but I was secretly, like, he was good at his job. He was accurate, but he didn't have that like ambition and drive that of like, yeah, I'll take work home with me. I'll do whatever it takes, which is what gets you promoted. Yeah, and I was so jealous about it. Like I was so jealous of it that I didn't have those boundaries that like, if he, if he didn't do it, like it still fell on me because I was his manager. So like I always ended up jumping in at the ninth hour. You know what I mean? Or left whatever they say, the 11th hour for

Laura:

hour later. 11th hours, correct? Yeah. 11. Okay.

Serena:

Every screw up those things. But anyway, like I would always jump in because I would see it like wasn't done and I don't know if he was going to end up doing it or not, but I didn't want to, you know, be the one, but I was also relieved. That's

Laura:

true. Yeah.

Serena:

Yeah. I was just secretly jealous of his boundaries because I had no,

Laura:

but yeah, I didn't start setting any boundaries at my nine to five until I had made the decision that I was quitting and I had a very long process of actually leaving, but. It was so helpful. And also I had to do a lot of inner work about my worthiness while doing that, because I would tell people, no, I just started saying no, or like, no, I'm, don't do that anymore. This person does it. Or, Nope, I'm not taking on any more work. Like you're going to have to figure that out or whatever it was. And, and, you know, some of them might like scoff or like be like, okay, you know, but ultimately it was only a reflection of what I was thinking about myself. And I was not used to setting those boundaries. So even though I was getting in the habit of doing it, I still wasn't like fully there of like the inner work of what I was making my job mean about me. If I said no to something. So what are you making it mean about yourself? If you say no. Are

Serena:

you saying it's not? You're lazy. Yeah. You're not, it's not that you're lazy. It's that like you have enough on your plate. And like there's only so much time in the day. Right. But yeah, so that brings me to that whole mindset of like, there's only so much time in the day. So what do you like now that we've kind of talked about the worthiness or whatever, but like, what about. There really is only so much time in the day. So how can you have like a different non scarcity mindset about time and how much you have to do to fill that too, right? Yeah.

Laura:

Well, I think the first thing is noticing that like a lot of the stuff you do every day actually does not have to get done. Like you just have this idea in your head, but like all of it has to get done or. You should, there's a lot of sheds in our world, right? Like I should be doing this. I should be doing this to the client, like all of that kind of stuff. And so what I've started doing is like brain dumping, all the things, all the sheds that I think I should do for that day. And then I will go and star the ones that are deadline driven. Like I have to get this done today to meet a deadline. Okay. And then, and a lot of, because there's like, actually the deadline is, you know, I can make a small move to get to that deadline. I don't need to like, get it all done that day, but it helps at least set like the prioritization right. Of something that has a deadline and then I'll go through and I will put a heart next to the things that like I would like to do today. And some days that is some days that's like cleaning my house. And other days it is, you know, like I want to do something creative or I want to make an improvement on like my website or whatever it is. And I will put a heart next to that. And then. Some days I want to do like live with someone and like that's enough, right? I'm feeling that inspiration. And that's where those line items are. The ones where like, you can take an actual, like, listen to what you want to do that day. We have so many to-do lists of the things that everyone else is telling us what we should be doing. There's too many voices. And like this allows me to get back into my own head and be like, what is, what does Laura want to do today? What do I want to do today? So. Then I also go through and I put an X next to the things that I absolutely do not want to do, or like have some sort of thing that's blocking me from doing them, whether it's like a fear or you know, how it's going to turn out or I'm nervous about it, or I don't feel like I can complete the task and I'll kind of start trying to dive into why it is that I'm having trouble doing that thing.

Serena:

Hm. So like anything that would be like that you're procrastinating on figuring out why, why am I procrastinating on this one that has a deadline? Like it's a deadline next week, but like, I'm not going to pick it up until right before it's due. Why?

Laura:

Yeah. Why is it? And sometimes it's actually on those things, right. You will always use the amount of time you have. So if you have three hours to complete something, you're going to complete it. Like I'm talking to accountants right now. We're all really good at getting stuff done. There's just like, that's our personality, but we'll use the time allowed to do it. And so a lot of us have issues because it doesn't feel good to us to wait till the last minute. And everyone else is telling us, like, you shouldn't be waiting till the last minute. And so it's more of the deciding of like, Is that a task you actually want to be doing right. Then do you need to delegate more eliminate automate or I've added reframe, like maybe you're just thinking about it the wrong way.

Serena:

Yeah. So instead of being like not okay that like, cause I am a master procrastinator, like there's just certain things that I know I won't do it until, until, and unless I have a deadline. So And it usually deadline, isn't just an arbitrary deadline that I set. It's like a commitment to something outside of me. So like, I'm going to get like really transparent. My course, my workshops, my, everything that I've put out there, I've only delivered on it because I've sold it and committed to other people that I'm putting out there because I've been sitting on it for like over a year. You know what I mean? Like I had to put it out there and actually take money for it before I would actually create it, but that got me to create it. So you're saying that it's like, that's the reframing right. Being okay with procrastinating on something or waiting until the last minute, because you know, you work better under pressure

Laura:

and be, yeah. And just like letting that, releasing that and saying like, It's okay. That I do that. The only reason why I'm making it seem bad is because we have this stigma against procrastination, but Procrit, like, what is that? Like you can get it done really early and you could still procrastinate on another thing. Like we also don't think about all the things that we get done really quickly. And why is that? Why do we get them done so quickly? And sometimes they can be really easy things and sometimes they could be really difficult things, but we don't give ourselves credit for that because we're too busy, worried about the one thing that we procrastinate on. Yeah.

Serena:

I like that. That's because I don't I don't necessarily feel bad about myself for procrastinating, for some things I do. And I think that's when it comes back to like figuring out why you're procrastinating on certain things, because sometimes you might be procrastinating on it because you actually don't want to do it and you don't enjoy doing it. Cause I have a lot of those too. The the like creating the course and all that kind of stuff. I really wanted to do it. I didn't necessarily consider it procrastination though. I considered it, like, there was other things on my, my plate and other commitments that took priority. And so it, it needed me putting them in like prioritizing them. And my way of prioritizing was putting it out there and selling it. Otherwise I never would have prioritized it. So like I still had all the other stuff on my plate. I just managed to like rearrange some things. But it's interesting, like paying attention to the language that you use around something. So like, I, like I said, I didn't consider that a procrastination. I mean, maybe a little bit, cause I was afraid of putting myself out there in the beginning, but but I consider other things procrastinations. In a more like negative sense because I don't want to do them. It's really interesting. I'm like word vomiting right now.

Laura:

Like, no, it's good. It's like our own little coaching session right now. Yeah, but. And that's all fine. Like it's just the, and that's a great reframe for the, you know, how you did the course and like why you waited until the last minute. And like, I took it right. I was there when you were making the course, I was one of the original people. And so like, I never noticed that you waited until the last minute. I only knew because you told me that. Like, yeah.

Serena:

Cause I didn't want to, like in case something happened like worst case scenario, like this is this is one of the reasons why I. Like think of procrastination in a, sort of a negative way, because there've been times where I've procrastinated, procrastinated, procrastinated on something. And then I finally go to do it and then I get sick or something. And then I can't like, I literally can't. So that's the, that's why I was transparent about it. Cause I'm like, what if something happened? I'm like, yeah, I literally can't complete it.

Laura:

And that's that's a good point too, because I think there's a lot of us too, where we have like a whole year of bookkeeping to do, or like we knew we had to clean up this client and we waited on it and we waited and we waited until there was a deadline and then something happens. So all of that is to me is like, yes, it might suck going through it. Right. It might not calling the client or telling, you know, your student, like, Hey, that module is not coming out today. I'm sick, but like the it information that you're getting from that, like, it does not feel good to be in this state. So I either need to figure out how to get this done sooner and reframe it for myself or figure out another way to get it done. Like whether it's having someone else do it and investing that time or stop doing it, like, don't do it anymore. Don't offer it know. So.

Serena:

Yeah, that's interesting. All right. We have a comment. I'm procrastinating on my website now. I don't enjoy doing it. It's hard when I don't have a deadline to deliver something, to deliver to someone and you have to follow your own deadline. I keep pushing it. Yeah. So. Do you need an accountability partner? We'll hold you accountable on here. I'll come in here. Like, let me know what your what deadline you want to hit. Like, do you want to have it ready by the new year? That's 90 days you have time or a little less than 90 days. I'm always, I'm big on like, Big things like that. Like a website's a big thing. So when it's a big project, that to me deserves like a big deadline, like a 90 day, like this is a 90 day project and then chunk it down or something. But what do you think Laura?

Laura:

Well, I was just going to say, like, I know we've talked about it before. Like I have a website and it's something that I built and I had all the copy for when I was going to be a bookkeeper. And then I had to take it all out because I pivoted and I decided I didn't want to do it anymore. And. Like creating. It was fine. But what I found with website copy for me was that like, it was difficult riding the car hoppy, unless it came from an inspired place. Cause there's a specific way I wanted to do it. So I'd also ask yourself, like what about creating the website? Cause it could be the design. It could be not knowing what to write. It could be actually that you're not sure if you should post your prices or not. So it's probably not. In fact, the website itself, that's hard. It's, whatever's underlying that what the website means for you and your business that you're struggling with. So I'd say dive in a little more.

Serena:

Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Let us know if you're still watching which one of those is actually hanging you up. Is it actually that you need a deadline or is it like one of those. Little things that, that you're holding off on, because if it's just one thing, do the rest of it and come back to the other one thing later or work through it with someone else, find a buddy to like sit down with you for an hour and hash it all out. It's really powerful, especially if it comes to the copy and stuff to actually just sit down with somebody and talk about it. Maybe just voice record yourself or whatever, if you don't have someone to talk about it with, but some of those things are really good to brainstorm out. So yeah,

Laura:

and also think too about like, you're, you know, you're kind of like non-negotiables for your business. Like what do you want people to know about you and what you can. Do right. Like, why are you here in the first place? And then you can kind of let that trickle in to everything on your website, which was kind of what I did.

Serena:

Yeah. And another thing that people get hung up on too, is it is hard to write about yourself. So I would say don't write about yourself, make it about your customer or your ideal client, like talk to your ideal client, tell them like how you can help them, how you work with people. What it's like to work with you. So it's not really like your bio really isn't about you. It's about them and how you can help them. So maybe that helps a little bit too. But yeah So, what are some of the things like I know for me to, to reframe like my time scarcity mindset like we kind of touched on it before, like you'll fill the time that you have to, to do something.

Laura:

Are we good?

Serena:

So like, say if you have an hour to work on something, if you only let me reframe that, if you only give yourself an hour to work on something, You are most likely going to fill that that whole hour, but you will probably get it done. Whereas if you're just like, okay, today I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. And I'm going to give myself the whole day. You'll probably get no. Yeah, right. So that was my big mind shift that I had to make recently because I was, I had this limiting belief that time-blocking didn't work for me. And I was looking at time walking the wrong way. Cause I was looking at it as I have to block my time, my day out into little chunks, but I can't, because I don't know when my kids are going to need me and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So what I do instead is I don't actually really block my calendar off. I just, when my kids are occupied, I go and I get my phone and I set my timer for 30 minutes because usually they're okay for 30 minutes. And then I have. On Sunday or Saturday, I have sat down already and put in my planner the non-negotiables that I have to get done this week or deadlines. And then and then like, I have a secondary list of like lower priority stuff, but things that I could work on if, if the other things are completed. And so then I look at that, I sit down at my desk with my 30 minute timer and I just go down on my priority list and I tackle things. And I only give myself 30 minutes.

Laura:

That Pomodoro time two, I think you've used it as well, but I think there's probably some science behind it too. I'm not sure, but like that is like the appropriate amount of time for you to like do something and then take a break because you find yourself like having that, like. 25 30 minutes. You can get a lot done in that time when you're really focused. But if you're like, oh yeah, I'm going to give myself two hours to do, like, it feels almost like draining to, to like, think about it in that way for me. And so I had to stop doing that.

Serena:

And I also, once I started setting the timer on myself yeah, I guess that's not necessarily time blocking. It is like the Pomodoro sessions, but. I noticed how much once I started doing that, I realized how much time I was actually wasting that I could have been working because like I would be in front of the computer all day. Like, and the kids would be fine for like hours on end, but I didn't realize it was hours on end because I wasn't very focused. So. Now I'm able to see like exactly how much time I was wasting and not really getting stuff done. And now I feel a lot better about it. When I do sit down, I feel way less guilty. Cause I'm like, it's only 30 minutes and then I'm going to go play with them again. And then I'm going to come back for 30 minutes, like in an hour and do some more work. And it feels a lot better. And then another thing that I've been doing is like, kind of. Almost like money affirmations, but time affirmations and being like, I have exactly the amount of time I need to complete this. Like when I sit down, that's the first thing that goes through my mind when I set that timer, I'm like, okay, I look at my list. I'm like, all right, I have exactly enough time to complete whatever it is I'm working on. And I like, I'll say it out loud sometimes, but most of the time it's in my head. Yeah. Yeah. And that's been a game changer. So if any of you guys are struggling with time blocking or feeling like super overwhelmed with your to-do list, just take it like piece by piece. And like, I love the brain dump idea too. It was something that I. Was going to start doing too. Cause I recently heard about that too. Maybe it was from you talking about it actually on

Laura:

Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of my, like, you know, things that now that I'm doing my business full time and I don't have a nine to five that I need to be sitting at my desk all day. I was feeling, I was trying to add too much stuff into my. Into my calendar because I wanted to feel like I was busy or that I was worth being paid. And, you know, we can have a whole, you can have a whole time and money conversation too, because a lot of it has to do with plenty busy or else. I shouldn't be paid for this. Yeah, I hear that from bookkeepers a lot, actually, that they feel that way. And so I would just ask you like to do the exercise that I said and like, really think about like, does this have to get done, like, or am I making this more about something else? And I'm just. I'm just like putting up a facade on it with like, oh, well, I, this is for my client and I just, I can't get paid unless I am busy. And I'm doing this stuff. Yeah.

Serena:

Another note about that too, is like, I've noticed myself, I've done things for clients that either one, they don't even know I'm doing. So like, why the hell am I doing it to like, maybe they've asked for something, but then then they end up not needing it or not utilizing it. So when that happens, like it's really important to have a conversation with your client and be like the, to keep checking in on things and actually show them everything that you prepared for them so that they one know that you've actually done it because they might not even know like really spelled it out. But then, then literally asking them like, is this valuable to you? If, as I don't, you know, I don't want to spend time on it if you're not going to use it. That's, that's something that like I've, I've had one client that will ask for things and then he'll completely change his whole. For deck trajectory, really hard word for me right now and ended up not needing it, but never communicated to me. And so I'm still like working on this thing and then I gave it to him and he's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like that might be cool for you, but I'm not an employee. So I didn't really get paid for all of that. And that's a shift to shifting out of that, like employee mindset of like. Working eight hours and just doing work to fill the hours versus like everything that I like for me, everything that I work on, it's very important that my clients see it, acknowledge it and use it. Otherwise, I'm not going to do it anymore. Yeah.

Laura:

Do you want to touch on, I know we've had conversations in the group about this like deliverables and what you do deliver and how, and like integrating those questions into, you know, that conversation with your client. Cause I, I talked about how I deliver a PDF that shows them it's just QuickBooks reports, but then I also do. Some KPIs just quickly on an Excel. And it's funny because I know we've talked about doing reporting like KP as a giraffe and different things then like, I don't have a huge client base. And so I was like thinking to myself again, like thinking I needed to get live plan or something. And I was like, Why don't I just put this in an Excel document, like it doesn't need to be this big thing. And so again, adding things to my, my workload, which is more of a value add, I'm not getting paid more to put it into something. Sometimes they're not even asking me for these things. I'm just providing them as part of my service. But we think we have to have all of these systems. And like, you really have to look at yourself and be like, why do I, why do I feel like I need these things and why who told me I needed this else? Tell

Serena:

me, yeah, that's a good point because I think if you're interested in offering like advisory services and you want to be able to scale it, then it becomes important to use a system that is uniform. So like the good thing about using a system like giraffe or live plant or whatever is, especially if you have multiple bookkeeping systems, like if you do QBO Euro, maybe something else, and they all import into that one system, then all your clients get the same reports you're used to going over the same KPIs for all your clients. Then it makes sense. If you have one client that you're doing this for, and this is what I'm up against right now, because I thought I was going to scale that side. And now I have. Decided to pivot and just maintain focusing on bookkeeping. So I ha I did invest in one of the, I invested in life plan and I using it for two clients and one plan I'm getting ready to off-board. So it ended up not being a wise investment, but a great, great learning experience. And then really realizing like, these are all things I know how to calculate. So. It really only made sense to invest in in, in that software, if I did want to scale it and have uniformity across all my clients, but here's the other thing I'm also switching away from QBO. So I'll be on one software. If I just design all my reports, the same templates and zero, then I, I also don't need that. I can import everything into an Excel document, plus like, I think you and I had this conversation before They're like live plan has, like, you can't do your own KPIs. It has the ones that are built in and that's it other systems you can customize. But the thing about KPIs is they're different across every industry. Like there are some standard ones, but the ones that really matter to businesses are specific to their industry. So yeah.

Laura:

So that's like,

Serena:

hello. So that's something to take into consideration too. Oh, she ans she, or he, I'm not sure because I don't see a name, but I'm not a creative at all. So the designing part takes me a while, but it's also the content of what services will I offer in description the about me connecting everything to my calendar CRM. So many steps. I want to start from more marketing, but feel I need to have the website ready. So that's holding me up. Do you want to go into that?

Laura:

lots of things to say, oh my gosh, don't let

Serena:

your website level do that. You don't need a website. It's nice to have, especially when you start getting more leads and stuff, having somewhere to direct people to get information. But if you if you have the time to just do a discovery call with someone that's gonna, that's going to sell your services way easier than a website. Well,

Laura:

so yeah, I don't, I think I've gotten, I think when I was doing bookkeeping solely, I had probably very minimal website. Because it's traffic. Cause I wasn't sending anyone there. Like a lot of them were on my, I was meeting them through referrals or Instagram or different things. And like, it didn't matter because all I wanted to do was hop on the phone with them. And so I didn't have to do in there. Yeah. And that's ultimately for me, what I wanted to do and I wanted them to go through the discovery call checklist and like yeah. That information. That's what it was really important for me. And I'm even at the point now where I'm. I have a website, but it's one of those things that I'm like, do I even do I feel like I need this for my business? And right now it doesn't really feel aligned for me to like redo it or get it all set up. And so I would say like, stop putting the pressure on yourself to do that. And a lot of what you really want is to get people on the phone. So I'd say like, you want to set up your Calendly or whatever, like get that done. And then. Like give them the ability to schedule with you and then figure out is the, is the website really just like a facade for not wanting? Like, do you feel like you have have it before you can even have a client?

Serena:

Yeah. Is it like a worthiness thing? Like, am I even really a bookkeeper if I don't have a web presence?

Laura:

So I've been going through that.

Serena:

Yeah. Or am I even a business if I don't have a website? And really like, like you said, think about what the end goal is. Like, if you want to just get them on a phone call, then you should just focus on setting up your calendar and doing an intake questionnaire, linking it if you can. And if not, you just do the questionnaire on your phone calls and make your phone calls a little longer than normal. I just have the questionnaire set up so that I get that information before we hop on a call. So I can have a more pointed discussion and not be talking about transaction numbers and all that kind of stuff. And then also have a good idea of what industry they're in, because sometimes I do a little research and I'll be, and I'll look up what their industry KPIs are and be like, are you even looking at this and stuff like that?

Laura:

A great way, like from a boundary standpoint, to have those questionnaires, I feel like, because I can, you can immediately go through and without, before even going on the call know, like if it's someone that's jiving with what you want to be working with, and if they're not. You know, I'll still take the call. Right. I still take all the calls when people want to set up something with me. And I just tell them, I say, Hey, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm kind of pivoting right now. I have a different business plan, but I know plenty of bookkeepers and that other accountants. So I'd love to hear more about your business. So I can like send me some names your way. And that was a really good service because. Like, I mean, I, that just feels like really aligned for me and integrity to not just be like, oh, sorry, I don't do that any more. But some people that might be theirs and it's fine.

Serena:

Yeah, and I I'm the same way. Like, no matter what they fill out on that questionnaire, I still take the call. It just might be a shorter call. And yeah, that's what I do. I just, I try to connect them with the right resource. And a lot of times too, it ends up being like, they're not even ready for a bookkeeper yet. So I'm just upfront about that. You know, like you're not ready for a bookkeeper yet you can do this on your own. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. So you feel like that you need to have the website ready, so that's holding you up. Yeah, I would just look at why you think you really need a website. You can always continue to work on it on the background, but I think right now it's more important for you to just put yourself out there and get a couple of clients. And then you can do an even better job on your work, on your website with your copy and really connecting with your true ideal client. After you've worked with a few, because. Some of the copy on my website is outdated, like from the beginning, because I didn't really know who I wanted to work with. So that's all going to get a facelift in the next few months, but

Laura:

yeah. I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh,

Serena:

I was going to say, and with websites, like driving traffic too, like if you want to end up having like traffic going to your website and stuff and a blog and things like that, then it might make sense. But if it's really just a place for people to, to find you, or like to list out your services, it doesn't need to be complicated. You can do a one pager and, and that's it.

Laura:

And my coach taught us to me. And it's something that I'm continually working on, but it's like the website is not the reason why someone won't work will or will not work with you. Like you have to believe that like your ideal client will, there's nothing that you can or cannot say to keep them from working with you. And if you hold that belief and if you're clear on. What type of person you want to be working with if you're not niched down, but any kind of industry, just knowing that we'll go through your ICA stuff, but knowing that you can take the pressure off of all of the practical website type stuff, being in the energy of knowing that, like I am the ideal bookkeeper for my ideal client and the website doesn't matter.

Serena:

Right, but I will say you can't just sit there and manifest it. You still have to put yourself out there. No, like it's totally, yeah. The practical,

Laura:

like worrying about the words on your website, for example, what colors it is, are not going to keep your ideal client from working with you.

Serena:

That's true. That is true. For sure. And some, some people, I think when it gets to the point of them looking at your website, they've probably. Already made the decision. They need a bookkeeper. So now it's up to you to be able to connect with them. And are the colors and the pictures on your website really going to do justice, or would it be better for them to talk to you on the phone? I actually already have several clients that I got as a freelancer that have come to me without a website. But now that I have my LLC as a business, I feel like they actually Google you to see if you were legit. But I do well on the calls with them. Perfect. It's just so my business professional. Yeah. Then I would just like, still take the pressure off yourself, do it as you have time. And as you want to work on it and maybe one day you'll be super inspired to get it all done and it won't be a big deal.

Laura:

Yeah. That's how I do not. How I think mine got created was one day. I just like, it was a Sunday afternoon and I said, today is the day I want to finish my website. Cause I'm feeling inspired by all these. Ideas that I had and that's when it got done, but it sat there for months, but I didn't necessarily put the pressure on myself, like, because I was procrastinating. Right. And let it be

Serena:

inspired. Yeah. So for me, I'm kind of opposite. Like she, she, I think it's a, she, I need to look to see actually who's commenting. I keep meaning to, but You said that you're not creative at all. And I want to challenge that because everybody has some sort of creativity. Oh, Hey Marcella. Okay. Yeah. I am opposite though. I will use something like a website or like. Other creative outlet to procrastinate from doing something I don't like. And I think that's how my website got done, because I was like, I have a big thing that I need to work on, but this seems more fun. It's called procrastinate

Laura:

branding procrastination. Nice. Yeah.

Serena:

But that's okay. Like, I wouldn't say you're not creative at all. I think that accountants are. Some of the, like, they're the people that think they're not creative, but I think we, we actually are like, a lot of us are. And maybe it's because like, I don't know, accounting kind of is black and white. Like until you get into the really high level stuff, it's pretty black and white. So people automatically think that if they are drawn to that, they're not creative. And that's like an identity shift that I've had to make because I grew up. Being like the creative artists, musician type of thing. And I felt very out of alignment with my career choice. And I always felt like I was in the wrong career, but it came so easy to me. So like, why? Like, why am I here? Why is this so easy for me? I'm creative. And then I think that just goes to show that it doesn't have any bearing on. On it, you know what I mean? Like you can choose a non-creative career or a creative career and be opposite if that makes sense. And I know a lot of like graphic designers that don't, that don't consider themselves artists.

Laura:

Yeah. And I'm just like, what is creative? You know? Like it can be any number of things that can be like spoken word. It could be course creation. It can be websites. Music, whatever it is, you know? Cause I've, I've felt the same way, but I definitely didn't grow up like creative, but I also was really passionate about not being a typical accountant too, which I think most of us in this group feel that way. Right. Yeah.

Serena:

But something interesting that I heard someone say not that long ago regarding this like. Creative versus not creative and people talking about how they don't think they're creative. And I I want to know like, is it because your parents never told you that you were good fun? I always, I'm such a great artist. You're so creative, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're so musical. I got all that when I was growing up. So like, I've heard that it didn't like maybe you, maybe you were told you're so good at math. You're like such a scientist or something like that. You're so logical.

Laura:

Yeah, actually that makes a lot of sense because my AirPods are gonna die. Cause I don't think my parents ever told me I was creative. I actually so never. And they never like harness that in me either. Like I was never a part of. The arts, like I was in sports all the time. That's what I did. Yeah.

Serena:

And that's probably because that's where your parents were more like it's interesting. I'm just like, I'm noticing that kind of stuff a lot more now because my partner is very athletic and didn't grow up with like, Creative arts and all that kind of stuff. So we're very opposite. So I think our kids are going to be really well-rounded again, because we're both going to be like, you're such an athlete. You're such a creative, like you can literally do whatever you want.

Laura:

Yeah. Yeah. I'd say my husband's more creative actually. So. He has more of that. Like I would say even just like, you know, cause there's creative and like analytical and there's also like energy masculine, feminine energy. And so accountants are typically have more of a masculine type energy where we're so like analytical, but I will say that being. I'm able to tap into more of the feminine side of the energy and be more creative in my business for the first time. What feels like in my life, I feel way more balanced just internally. So,

Serena:

yeah, that's interesting. It's interesting that you say that, cause I definitely feel more balanced in those respects now, too, because I'm allowing myself to like have the creative time and like with the business, but also like there's definitely some creative outlets and not, but I've been really. Like this year I've been really good actually about playing my instruments and picking them up, even if it's just for five minutes. Cause I used to be like, oh, if I don't have a whole hour or if I don't have a whole afternoon, cause I I'm that type of person that like lights the project to finish it. And so I would not even pick it up because I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it, but now I'm just like, it's okay. If it gets left on finished, it's okay. If I don't spend a whole afternoon writing a song, like I can just. Pick up my ukulele and piddle around with it. Like I don't have to like, accomplish something.

Laura:

And I was listening to Bernay Browns unlocking us podcast. And it was talking about, she was interviewing two sisters that wrote a book about burnout and they said one of the things that fat to end the burnout cycle, the fastest is getting creative. Wow.

Serena:

Yeah, that's kind of the same as like, the way to get creative is to like disconnect. So like to end the burnout, like you have to like disconnect and then allow yourself some creative time. That's really awesome. Yeah.

Laura:

I'd encourage it for everyone. I'm still working on it too. And what even creative means for me. Cause I like what you said and now I probably, I probably have a story about how I'm not for you too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah,

Serena:

it's crazy. Like, I feel bad because I'm not like trying to like, make people feel like their parents did them into service, but it's not that like, it was done on purpose. It's just that like, if, if your parents were more athletic focused, that's what they were going to focus on. You know what I mean? It's nothing like nothing wrong with them. Yeah. But yeah, my mom was a musician, so she definitely encouraged

Laura:

that. Yeah. Yeah, but awesome. She's Marcella

Serena:

says actually my passion growing up was dancing, singing, and acting. So I guess I have art. Yes, you are creative.

Laura:

Yeah.

Serena:

Lighting's not your thing. That's fine. But yeah, I want to challenge everybody. Like once they watch this too. Think about what you enjoy doing when you were like between 10 and 15 years old. And if you haven't done whatever it was back then that let you up, like try it because it'll

Laura:

yeah. Yes. There's your homework.

Serena:

Yup. There's your homework at least to like rediscover something you used to be passionate about. So Marcella, like maybe just like dance or something with your kids. I don't know. Yeah. But yeah.

Laura:

Bit, but yeah, I did a just real quick, I've been doing like a retreat, an online retreat with other women that were going through like the Hindu goddesses and the chakra system. And so one of last week we had a challenge where we had a dance every day. On a live stream and post it on the Facebook page and

Serena:

your face. That's crazy. You have a dance on your lap. Was it like a private live stream?

Laura:

Yeah. Private. No, it's not on my, like, yeah, no, it was private to the group, but still like, it was funny to like, feel through that. And I think now after this conversation, I was like, I used to love to dance. Why. And so anyway, that's my, that might be homework is to tap more into that, but we had a dance.

Serena:

Yeah. Even like bringing your partner into it. Like maybe you can't go take lessons right now, but I took salsa. I don't know, like 10 years ago. And I had, I took it with one of my coworkers and it was so much fun and it was so much fun. It was just a super fun thing to do. So like, I can't wait for things to start like really opening back up and. Be able to do stuff like that. But before there was some kind of online course or like someone you can follow on YouTube that teaches couples dancing or something, but yeah.

Laura:

Travis from Boyd CPA, he does like, he used to do like maybe, you know,

Serena:

someone. Yeah. Maybe we can get him to teach us like.

Laura:

Accountants get creative.

Serena:

Yes. Wow. You're on something there, like once a month, like we just do some kind of like, all right, this person's going to teach us whatever it is in their creative zone. I mean

Laura:

cooking to even yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Serena:

Love it, doodling, whatever. Awesome. Well, thank you everyone. Who came live. And again, if you watch the replay, like go ahead and play along comment. You can ask questions in this thread. We'll come back and answer them. Laura's in the group, obviously. Cause she's from round one, still here.

Laura:

Yeah.

Serena:

Thank you so much, Laura. I really appreciate your time. It's always fun. Chatting with you.

Laura:

Yes, you too. This is

Serena:

awesome. I've linked. And you guys, aren't following Laura, follow her at the numbers nomad on Instagram. And I put your website up there, yeah. Awesome. Cool. Well, thank you so much again, and we'll see you guys later.

Laura:

All right. You guys. Thank you.

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