Ep 137 Transcript: The Hidden Money Beliefs Keeping Your Business Stuck with Nancy Benet
This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.
Shauna Lynn Simon (01:49.88)
Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today's guest, we've got Nancy Benet. She's a CPA and the founder and the CEO of two businesses, Fix-It Accounting, which provides fractional CFO, controllership, tax, and IRS resolution services to small businesses. And Success Your Way, where she helps entrepreneurs work through the mindset and beliefs that shape their relationship with money.
She's also the co-author of Tame Your Money Monster, which explores where our money fears actually come from and how we move past them. And Nancy's approach blends hard financial expertise with the emotional and psychological side of business ownership, helping entrepreneurs build not just profitable businesses, but ones that actually support the life they want. So, Nancy, welcome to the show.
Nancy Benet (02:39.342)
Thank you, Shauna Lynn. It is so nice to be here. I'm very excited.
Shauna Lynn Simon (02:43.306)
I'm really excited too because anyone who knows me knows that I am a data-driven numbers kind of person, but I also talk a lot about mindset and how important that is for all areas of business, not just centered around money, but mindset in general, because I do truly believe that our inner thoughts really very much shape the decisions that we make, shape how we approach things, and shape the opportunities that are available to us simply by being open to them. So you being a CPA.
Who also talks openly about mindset and beliefs. I really love how those two pair together. Now, was there a specific moment that sort of showed you that, you know, numbers alone aren't going to be the whole they're not the whole problem for your clients? Tell us a little bit about how you decided to marry these two together.
Nancy Benet (03:30.166)
I think it was more of a process because earlier in my life I failed a lot. And I woke up one day.
Shauna Lynn Simon (03:36.79)
Thank for saying that, by the way.
Nancy Benet (03:38.798)
A lot, a total failure actually. And I woke up one day and I realized that every decision that I had made because of my mindset had led me to where I was. And I was basically a victim at that time. And I just decided in that moment to stop being a victim and just and I decided to clean up my mess. So I was 45 years old. I was living with my mother with no job, no income, $100 a week in child support for my four small children. And
$650,000 in debt. And so to be able to come out of something like that takes an incredible giant mindset shift. And I was even, I already had my CPA license and all the things at that time. But really, where you are in life is the result of your mindset. So I realized that. And when I did and changed my mindset and changed the decisions that I made, it led me to a much better place.
Shauna Lynn Simon (04:35.254)
Okay, this is really interesting because the fact that you're a CPA, immediately anyone's first thought is going to be she knows how to manage her money. She clearly knows what she's doing when it comes to managing her money. And I think this is also a bit of a misconception that you can find yourself in a situation where money is tight, cash flow is low, you're facing debt. And it's not necessarily the result of poor money management, which is one of the first things that I also want to state because I think.
A lot of people associate that with, well, I'm just bad with money. And they start telling themselves these things. And the problem is that we end up essentially living what we believe, right? So this is a you know, to be in that kind of state, it doesn't necessarily mean you're making bad decisions. It doesn't mean that you're bad with money. And I don't, you don't need to share the details of what got you to that position in the first place. But I love that you're talking about the shift that you had to make in order to come out of that. And I think.
That is the part that is most valuable for anyone who's here because if you are listening to this, you're saying, Well, I've taken on some debt. Like I talk to clients sometimes, like, I just took on ten thousand dollars worth of debt, and they're stressed about. Don't get me wrong, ten thousand dollars is still a lot of money, but you're saying you were six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in debt. And that's a pretty steep thing to we've had other guests on the show that have shared similar stories, and it sounds just unsurmountable, but nonetheless, here you are to tell the story. So tell us a little bit about
how that shift happened in the first place? What were the things that you were telling yourself? Or how did you change how you were speaking to yourself? Or what what did this look like exactly, this shift?
Nancy Benet (06:12.842)
Well, I grew up with a mindset from my parents that money doesn't grow on trees. It's scarce. It's the root of all evil and it's dirty. You don't want to have that, right? So I think that would contributed in a gigantic way to my debt and where I was. Of course, that was right after the recession or during the recession. And you know, everybody had meltdown during that.
Shauna Lynn Simon (06:35.726)
Sure, there's other factors that are at play here for sure.
Nancy Benet (06:38.508)
Yes. Right. But it still left me holding the bag with all that debt. And I really had to figure something out to do with it. And so I just started taking baby steps, trying to get out of it. It wasn't some giant, it was a giant decision. The decision was there to say, you know what? I'm gonna fix this. I'm not trying to file bankruptcy. I couldn't do that anyway. A lot of the debt was in my mother's name. So I didn't try to get out of it that way. I did I stopped trying to blame somebody else. I just took
really ownership of it and said, This is mine. I'm going to fix it. I can't do it all today. So I'm going to take some baby steps toward what I could do to fix it. And that's when I started the current CPA firm that I have now and started working my way out of it. Yes, Fix-It Accounting. Yes, I had to fix a lot of things. So I did that and the baby steps really helped because there's a lot less pressure with baby steps. Right. We don't feel like we have to take
giant leaps to solve the problem. We could just take a little bit at a time and move forward gently and retrain ourselves into something else. And so I think that's what it started with. But even then I still had these mindset problems from my childhood. And so I remember clearly, Fix-It Accounting was very successful. But all the money that came in, money's dirty. Money doesn't grow on trees. Money is scarce.
Shauna Lynn Simon (08:01.856)
And you're also living with your mother at this time, are you not?
Nancy Benet (08:05.454)
At that time I was still. She helps me raise my kids. She was amazing.
Shauna Lynn Simon (08:10.53)
Which is wonderful. Yeah. But if she's also got that mindset, you're in front of it day by day. And not necessarily her, like literally trying to like drill it into your head, but she might buy something. I my mother is similar. Love you, mom, if you're listening. But but she is kind of similar sometimes in just how she sees things. So you're hearing, like, this is too expensive, or we shouldn't be spending money on this. You're hearing that even if they're not saying money is dirty, money is bad, there's still that exposure to it on a regular basis. So you've got competing.
Messages, I'm sure, going into your brain then. Absolutely.
Nancy Benet (08:41.774)
Absolutely. You are exactly right. I'm glad you said that because it's competing messages. But still, because of that, I had a lot of money coming in, but I reinvested it all. I couldn't hold on to it. I had no idea how to save money or have a cushion. It was in and out. And so I remember having lunch with my friend one day and I said, hey, you know, I'm having a hard time meeting payroll. Money's just so stressful for me. And she just, as any good friend would, she read me the Riot Act.
She's still my friend to this day. I love her so dearly. But she said to me, you can't do that. She said, you have to have a cushion. You've got responsibility for other people. ⁓ I had a big peril. And she said, you just can't live that way anymore. You have to have what's called a new zero. And so she made me, she said, like, you need to make a decision. How much money are you going to have in savings? And you will not go below.
Shauna Lynn Simon (09:12.046)
For better or for worse sometimes, yeah.
Nancy Benet (09:41.186)
So it had always been zero for me. I made this new commitment and it was $30,000. And I thought that's just giant for me. But I gave myself a year to get the money. And so I just started taking my little baby steps. 60 days later, I'm looking at my bank account and I had that money. Wow. I was like, how did that happen? I don't know. Resources came. Once I made the decision and I was pretty relaxed about it, and I kept taking these little baby steps.
Shauna Lynn Simon (09:58.264)
Wow.
Nancy Benet (10:10.284)
And it was just really three things I focused on increasing fees for clients that hadn't been increased in a while, getting new monthly service clients, and cutting unnecessary expenses. Bam, there it was. And so that set me on this path. And I started teaching that. And I taught it. I remember clearly too, my daughter showed up and she's got all this credit card debt and she's telling me how awful it is and how she'll never be able to get out of it. And we used the same method with her. And she was out of that in 90 days.
And so I was like, this is magical.
Shauna Lynn Simon (10:44.098)
Does everybody know about this saving money thing? Does everyone yeah, is this a- no?
Nancy Benet (10:48.97)
No, but I really have helped a lot of people with it. And so that changed my mindset to one of scarcity and lack, to one of abundance.
Shauna Lynn Simon (10:58.07)
Which is amazing though too, because I'm joking when I'm saying, does everyone know about the saving money thing? But the reality is though that we know in theory that we need to save money. And then the bills come in and we prioritize all the bills. And I'm not saying you're not supposed to pay your bills, don't get me wrong, but then we just take a look at what's left and then we figure out what to do with that.
Nancy Benet (11:17.506)
That's the problem with the bowl syndrome. You're dumping it all into one bowl and you're going, here, pay these bills. there's some left. Okay, we're going on this trip and we're going to do this. So it all gets spent and then you're like an emergency. I can't right make the electricity or the washer broke or whatever it is. I need more money. And you just aren't trained to pay yourself first or to save first. That's the whole thing. It's just a a mindset.
Shauna Lynn Simon (11:43.982)
We've talked about it on the show, Mike Michalowicz's Profit First, which really brought a lot of that to light about taking your profit first. And we're not going to get into all the theories of that necessarily. But one of the things that I talk about with my clients when it comes to building up that reserve, because that is a conversation that comes up often. I've got clients that want to hire, for example, but they don't feel comfortable hiring because they don't think that they have the money to do it. And so first thing that we do is we figure out, well, what is your breakeven point? Once we've got their breakeven point each month, as in if you don't take a single job just to keep the lights on, what does it cost you?
To stay in business if you have zero work coming in, which obviously we always want to have work coming in. But if you have zero work coming in, what does it cost to keep the lights on. And then making sure that we have at least three months reserve of that. And three months, I feel, is still a little bit conservative, but if you've got three months worth, you can usually afford to hire another person to help to take some of the load off of you to allow you to bring in more money. So it tends to balance itself out. Now that's the general numbers that I'm using with my clients, but
What is it that you're using with your clients? Like what sort of when you're saying reserve and you're helping your clients build this reserve, you helped your daughter to get out of debt, you helped yourself to find that $30,000. Where does this number come from as to what someone should? I use the word should in quotes because that's always a should be using for identifying like what they want to set up as that reserve.
Nancy Benet (13:53.026)
Yeah, we look at the number of months of expenses, just like what you said. It's so wise what you're talking about with your clients. They are so lucky to have you. And by the way, I highly recommend having a coach, a guide, someone who can help you because business is not intuitive. It's not something that you're born knowing.
And so you need that guidance. And that's something I never had, which is why I failed so many times. But yes, exactly what you said. It's a number of months of expenses, personal expenses and business expenses, which business expenses can be substantial. And so sometimes you have to have a lot of cash. And to have that cash really creates a good buffer for you. So you can hire, you can invest in your business, you can do the things that you need to do to grow.
without all the stress. Growth does not have to be that stressful. And we just perceive that it
Shauna Lynn Simon (14:43.88)
Yeah. And I appreciate what you said about having a coach in your corner. And for the record, no, I did not pay her to say that. I didn't ask her to say that, but I appreciate it. But it is something that I've always invested in coaches, which is one of the reasons why I value the relationship that I have with my clients so much. But the clients who have that reserve of money can dip into it to pay for my coaching. And then we make them that money back in multiples.
So it's an investment that they're making into the business. But if they didn't have that reserve, if they were going paycheck to paycheck and struggling to make payroll, it is a harder thing for them to say, well, now I'm going to invest in a coach. So to your point, and I'm using coaching as just one example. The point is that without that reserve, when it comes time for that rainy day fund, whether it is because you've got to get your team through a slump of low sales or a shift in the economy.
Which hopefully that's not the case, but it could also just be an investment that is or an opportunity that has come up. Maybe it's to buy another business, to invest in a coach, to invest in a new team member. Without that reserve, you can't make those decisions confidently.
Nancy Benet (15:43.79)
Absolutely. And I have seen so many clients who hire too soon because they don't have the reserves for that. And they're like, oops, I don't know, the sales didn't go right. And I'm having to lay this person off, or they keep paying them and they go in deeper and deeper in debt. And it's just not a good business model. You have to do this correctly, like build the reserve first, hire the person second, or make the other investment. Right. And building the reserve is not as hard as we think because we spend money in ways that
are subconscious. And if we stop and undo that and think about it, then we're in much better shape to save first.
Shauna Lynn Simon (16:21.036)
I know my audience. I adore my audience. And my audience is made up of what I love to affectionately refer to as my Accidental CEOs. So these are women who follow more passion than plan. And a lot of them weren't ever taught any sort of financial training, any sort of accounting or bookkeeping. And and hopefully they've got a professional that's helping them out with, you know, some of the behind the scenes stuff. But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be looking at the numbers, that they shouldn't understand them.
The challenge that I get is that a lot of them say to me, but Shauna Lynn I'm just really bad with numbers. I don't get it. I glaze over as soon as someone even starts talking about them. So for a woman who feels like she's, quote, "bad with numbers," where would you actually recommend that she start? what's the first small shift that she can make as opposed to, some 12-step plan? what's that first kind of thing that she can do to start feeling more comfortable with those numbers?
Nancy Benet (17:12.021)
Yeah. Ask her accountant to explain in layman's terms. That's something we are really good at is explaining what this means and what to look for. And so we we try to provide for our clients is just a little one-page bullet points of what we see so that you can help understand. But over time, you do need to think about opening your perception and learning about that because as a business owner, it's important. You're not alone though.
Just is what I would say because everybody has this problem. Most people do not want to look at their financial statements. We love to look at it, but everybody else is like, no, I don't like that at all. Just tell me, or just, you know, do it and tell me how much I owe. That's not effective as a business owner. So you do need to understand where your numbers are so that you can use that information to make better business decisions. And that's where CFO services come in because that's what we do is analyze the numbers to help you make
better choices.
Shauna Lynn Simon (18:11.98)
I love that. Yeah. And I think that's just such an important thing. I think we're often intimidated by our CPAs, our bookkeepers, because they know our books intimately. And there might even be a bit of embarrassment sometimes because they are seeing things behind the scenes, but they are your best resource for understanding what you need to understand. And to your point, you can ask them to make sure that it's something that's being explained to you in clear terms. Like my dad was an accountant and he actually did some bookkeeping for my business. Majority of the bookkeeping when I was first starting out once I incorporated.
He went back to more just doing the expense entries, essentially. And I had someone else doing some of the other work. But he would talk to me about the debits and the credits and well I post this over here, then I have to do this over there. And every time he told me, like I just like zoned out. Like I had such a hard time. Because as much as I'm a numbers person, I'm data driven, that's not my jam. I couldn't care less how you balance everything, Dad. I don't care what account it goes into. I mean, I care to an extent what account it goes into. I want my books to be clean, but I don't like you figure it out kind of thing.
But for me, what I do like understanding is what sort of trends are happening. Am I up or down from previous years, previous months? If there are changes that are happening, why are those changes happening? Like I am someone, give me the data, and I would love to analyze it. And again, I understand that's not necessarily everyone's jam, but I don't know if you ever read any of Rachel Rodgers's books, but she wrote, We Should All Be Millionaires and Millionaire Habits. And one of the things that she talks about as a millionaire habit.
And I highly recommend It's very entertaining. It's a really good book. Very entertaining. And one of the things that I do like is that she also talks about broke habits. So things that we do almost instinctively that we might not realize are actually this idea of money being bad or what, you know, looking at it from like, I've got to save every penny. So you're, I'm not going to spend money on a hotel room. I'm going crash on someone's couch. And so she talks about some of the things that are kind of broke habits versus millionaire habits. But one of the things that she talks about that I really like is she says, look at your money every
single day. And that was a huge shift for me, I'll admit. I was really good. I looked at my money at least once a week and I thought I was doing really well. But when she made the case for looking at it every day, and I'm talking sometimes it's five minutes in a day, sometimes it might be 15 minutes. sometimes it's a bit more, sometimes a bit less. You can do longer, quarterly, or whatever. But it is amazing the things that I see by looking at my money every single day. And that's me.
Shauna Lynn Simon (20:36.952)
Doesn't matter if somebody else in my business, like I've got other people who are responsible for like accounts receivables, making sure that the money's coming in, sending out billing. Like I'm not doing any of that stuff, but I'm still looking at my money every single day. And it's amazing the things that you catch. I will see whether or not I have at that subscription that I thought I canceled for 20 bucks a month. I'm gonna find that because I'm looking at it every day. And if I see even an $8 charge that I don't recognize, I'm immediately figuring out where that eight dollar charge came from.
And it sounds like, well, it's just eight bucks. Yeah, I get it. But trust me, I have caught some pretty big errors in my money by doing it this way.
Nancy Benet (21:14.087)
Yes, absolutely. What great advice. I love it.
Shauna Lynn Simon (21:16.942)
Definitely check it out for sure. But okay, so for women who are bad with numbers, they're gonna have conversation now with their accountant and start understanding a little bit about like where the money's coming in, what the reports look like, bullet points on any sort of, like you said, trends that they're seeing. And like what you're saying too about the one pager, like make sure your accountant knows I don't want more than one page and identify, I think, with your accountant how you want to receive that information. Do you want it in an email? Do you want it in a PDF? Like, where do you want it logged? Do you want to like a
Portal that it's all saved in? Do you want to just have a dashboard set up for you? Whatever that looks like, figure out what's gonna be easiest for you and identify that with your accountant. When it comes to working with you, work with so many entrepreneurs, what's a financial fear or belief that you're seeing repeatedly that they might not even realize is driving their decision?
Nancy Benet (22:06.498)
For us, we see the scarcity mindset over and over and over again. And I think people are really scared of money because they don't know what's going happen in the economy. And so there's a lot of fear around that. I mean, that's just kind of typical. Even people that have a lot of money. Yeah. They still are fearful. I don't know that there's a way for people to stop being so fearful because they keep reading the newspapers and the sky is falling every day.
Shauna Lynn Simon (22:33.966)
Stop reading the newspapers. Honestly.
Nancy Benet (22:36.814)
I tell people that, but then they're like, I don't know. I have to keep up with the latest news. And I'm like, well, I don't know. I don't think that you do, because over time it'll all be okay. There's nothing we can do about it. I focus on the things that I can change in my life, the things that I am able to make better. And I push the rest aside. My husband and I don't even watch television because it can be so negative. And so we really protect our mindset with the positive.
Shauna Lynn Simon (23:03.808)
Okay, I really don't want to gloss over this though, because I think this is a really important conversation to have. I don't know if you follow Dan Sullivan at all. He's an author, he's written some fantastic books, and he talks about, I think it's been about 10 years now, maybe even longer, since he's watched television. Anyone who knows me knows that if you ever say to me, have you seen that show or have you seen that movie, the answer is probably no, because I watched so little of it. I used to be addicted to true crimes. I'll admit, I still have a fascination with it, but I didn't want to consume it.
Any longer. So I try to avoid there. Are still some things I can't help it, I'll admit. It's a bit like you know, driving by the car wreck sometimes. So I'm not perfect at these things, but it's so true. Like even fictional shows on television, they can be so negative, so dramatic. Reality shows are 10 times worse than that. News is even worse than that. So one of the things that I've done is I do allow myself news, but I have specific sources.
That I will get my news from. And that is the only place I will get my news. So I'm not getting it from my Facebook feed, my Instagram. I'm not getting it randomly by turning on the TV because I'm not really turning on the TV. I just don't want to gloss over this point that you're making, the fact that you're not really consuming the news, you're not consuming television. This is not just a lifestyle choice that one or two people are making. This is a movement that is happening, and the people who are doing it can attest to just how valuable.
It is to release yourself from those things. I would like to talk about this for a moment. Cause the number one question that I always get is we don't watch TV. So what do you do?
Nancy Benet (24:38.35)
Yeah, so that's a great question, but my time is full and it's joyful time. I don't sit there and veg out in front of the television. I am engaging in conversation with my husband or my children or my friends. I am on my bicycle riding on the beautiful trails here in Central Florida. I am at my office engaging with my team or playing with my dogs in the backyard. There's plenty to do. We cook.
We cook our meals from scratch. We eat healthy food. We're not picking up something from the fast food because we want to get home and watch our show. It's nothing, my life is nothing like that. And so I just feel like it's so much easier to maintain that positive attitude. And I love that you said that you've you really protect your mindset because it impacts us in ways we don't understand. It's called programming for a reason.
You are programmed by the television and the media that you consume. And I choose to program what I wanna believe with positive books and the things that I do in my life instead of being programmed by someone else's agenda.
Shauna Lynn Simon (25:47.598)
It's so true. And I think that I know that this conversation is intended to be around financial and money and both from accounting side of things as well as the mindset side of things. But that's why I didn't want to ignore this part of the conversation because it is such an important contributor to your mindset, the way that you consume things, the things that you expose your mind to. And so you might not think that one is actually related to the other. I'm not trying to say everyone needs to give up television and you need to give up the news. Otherwise, you're never going to be good with money. That's not what I'm saying here, but
I think that there's some value to this, and I don't think it's being talked about enough, how this translates into not just a better well-being, but being able to approach money from a different perspective. Another thing that you see on television and in movies all the time is people being frivolous with money, people having just this immense wealth and throwing money around. And that can be intimidating. At the other side of it, you might be watching a show.
Where they have no money and they're broke and they're stressed about it. Both of these can play into how you're viewing money as well. So it's not just about what are your parents saying when you're growing up or what is your spouse saying about money. There's so many different ways that we're exposed to that. And we get to control whether or not we want to let that impact us. So if you're saying, Shauna Lynn there's no way I can give up television, I get it, but maybe just take a closer look at some of the shows that you're watching and see.
if some of them are contributing in a negative way. So I think that was a great little tangent that we went on. So thank you for that. How do you personally navigate being, this structured numbers first CPA and then the let's talk about beliefs and alignment coach all in the same week. So do you have clients where you're doing both of these things with them?
Nancy Benet (27:32.204)
Yes. Yes. Okay. Absolutely. I think people are much more open to the mindset issues or beliefs than they used to be. people are becoming much more aware of what's available to them versus, you know, the whole old closed mindset of it's this way, if I can't see it, it doesn't exist, type of a thing. so we're really expanding our horizons as a society, I think. And so people are much more open to that.
And people really appreciate that we offer both, that we can see both, that we're not just looking at numbers and going, ooh, you better blah, blah, blah.
Shauna Lynn Simon (28:10.764)
Tell the difference though between like what's a real financial problem that needs fixing and a mindset story that's kind of making a manageable situation feel like a crisis? Like, how do you identify that with a client?
Nancy Benet (28:21.582)
I think that just comes from years of experience, just being able for me to see it doesn't mean the client can always absorb that and see it. I mean, we can talk to them about it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that anything will change for them because they have to want that. But a lot of people do these days and they believe that they can now. Whereas in the past, people believed that they couldn't. this is just how I am. I can't change. I'm not gonna do anything different. Now people are like, yeah, I can change. It opens.
It's like a flower.
Shauna Lynn Simon (28:51.982)
How do you help them make that shift then from, well no, I can't. Like it's circumstances, life, it's the economy, it's the you know, all the things that are going on in the world. I can't change any of this. How do you get them to shift that mentality, that belief, that mindset?
Nancy Benet (29:06.324)
I don't. So people have to be already in that mindset to be able to shift. And if they are, and you go, hey, if we looked at this a different way, they can absorb that. They can take that in and go, yeah, I see that. If they're not, they're not. And I can't change that. So I just decide I'm not going to. I'm not going to try to change somebody that doesn't want to change. That's not my role. You know? So we just have to choose who we work with.
And I do like that ability because a lot of us in the past have worked with people that, they they're here, they're a client, we're gonna work with them no matter how difficult they are. And that's changed completely. We don't do that anymore. We really only work with people that are kind and nice to be with and listen to us because there's been so many in the past that wouldn't. And so I just can't help somebody like that. So I don't want to take their money.
Shauna Lynn Simon (29:58.804)
And that's totally fair. I guess maybe from a different perspective, what are some of the ways that you changed the way that you thought about money? Like going from that scarcity mindset to more of an abundance mindset? Was it particular phrases that you were would say to yourself that you would try to flip them to be a more positive than a negative? Or was there a mantra? Was it a meditation? Like what was it that you were doing to kind of shift your own mindset out of that scarcity?
Nancy Benet (30:23.672)
Shauna Lynn, I do all of those things. Okay. I think that personal growth that way is a lifestyle. And so once I got to that place where I did the new zero dollar and got that $30,000, that opened my eyes. Like this is not somebody else. This is happening to me. This is happening for me. And I changed my mindset completely. Like life happens for me instead of to me. I have a lot of control. And if I can keep building on that financial foundation that I've
Shauna Lynn Simon (30:26.134)
Yeah.
Nancy Benet (30:52.586)
built with this $30,000, which I have, ⁓ it put me on a savings goal like you wouldn't believe. Upping that number, I'm like, this is so great. And it opened so many new opportunities for me. You can't go back once you've seen that. And so after that, I, you know, I was able to buy an office complex. And my husband and I invested in real estate. And all of these different things became opportunities for me that I now had resources to be able to take advantage of. And once you have that,
You want more because it's so fun. It's life becomes fun again. And when you get to that place, I don't know. You don't ever want to have any of kind of a closed mindset again.
Shauna Lynn Simon (31:33.294)
It can certainly be addicting, I know. And I love what you're saying about, you know, life is happening for you, not to you. And I am someone like I actually I would say that I annoy people with my level of optimism and positivity, and not in a false way, just more in a when bad things happen, I'm gonna take the lesson, figure out what I can control and pivot and figure it out. And you know, everything will work out. And I say that because it always does.
But it's not because I think I've got some sort of like magic secret sauce to anything. I think a lot of it is just that I look for the opportunities as opposed to trying to bury myself in my victim status. But I also know what it's like to be in a really dark place and really struggling. I've watched it in clients, I've had some bad moments with money myself over the years. And it can be all consuming when you're not sure how you're paying your bills.
It can be all consuming. And so it's a really difficult shift to make because I you we can say everything that's happening is happening for you, not to you. And I can hear all the yeah buts that are gonna come my way as soon as I say that to someone's like, Yeah, but you don't understand. This happened and this happened and this happened. And it is really hard sometimes to see beyond that. So was there anything that you did to try to
Like I'm sure as you were working towards this 30,000, you probably had some yeah buts along the way in your own head too. Did you just try to shift them aside or did you have something that you chose to, you know, refocus your energy on as opposed to giving that this any sort of space or real estate in your head?
Nancy Benet (33:09.674)
I really have to put blinders on when I'm in a space like that because the negative thoughts can come in. And I let them come, but then I make them pass through. Like, okay, come on, but then let's get rid of you and move back into a better space. I do a lot of journaling and that's one of the things that has helped me because I can like get all the negative things out of my head onto the paper and then move on and figure out a solution for the problem. But yes, bad things are gonna happen.
But if you reframe them, I think it's very helpful. And if you can put your blinders on to just take baby steps to get through them, that's really powerful.
Shauna Lynn Simon (33:46.606)
Well, I can imagine as a CPA helping your clients when they're navigating some difficult situations in their business to be able to come at it from a non-judgmental point of view. So I think that's the one thing that I mean, I think we've all experienced it when the numbers aren't looking the way that you want them to, you immediately go to that shame factor of like, I should have been able to do this, or I really wish I hadn't made this decision that.
cost me money, which I will say I have made some pretty big decisions that have cost me ⁓ six figures plus. Yeah. That it's easy to regret them. And sometimes you got to just move on from it. It's not I'm oversimplifying it obviously, but if I spent all my time just focusing on what happened, I mean, that's yeah, sure, I regret it. But I don't if I went back with the same information that I had, I probably would have made the same decision. I have new information now that I would make a different decision. But you know, I can't
fault myself for making the decision I made at the time. I've made it based on the information that I had and I and I stand by it still. So I think that's the important thing to remember as well. But I would imagine with your clients, when you're seeing any shifts or trends that are going downward for them, that you're able to help to position it in a way that's more of a solution as opposed to, well, looks like your numbers are going down. What's happening there? Why is that you know so how do you help your clients like I would imagine you probably see some things before they even notice that
Things are moving in a direction that they shouldn't be. How do you address that with your clients?
Nancy Benet (35:13.89)
Well, the first thing is I let them know they're not alone because they all think they're the only one. Nobody ever sees the failures of other people, right? They keep that quiet and you're just seeing their successes. But the truth is everybody that's in a successful position has failed. We've all had the moments. We've all been through bad things. And so I reframe it for them and go, you know what? This is normal. You're early in your business, you're doing this, whatever it is. I really try to make them feel better. You couldn't have seen it.
Whatever that bad decision was, you made the best decision you could at the time, but here's what we're going to do to help you fix it. And so I think that's really helpful because people do feel alone, especially when they're in business. They don't realize the stress and the struggle of other business owners. They think it's just them. And it when they can open their awareness and go, you know what? Everybody's going through this. Everybody, not maybe not that right this second, but everybody who's in a business has.
gone through this, especially if they've been successful, they've had to overcome these challenges, then it gives them a whole new outlook and they can look at things from a different way instead of so negative and shameful, because they're the ones beating themselves up. It's not me beating themselves up. They are beating themselves up.
Shauna Lynn Simon (36:23.764)
Yeah, but I think that's another reason why they're often not actually getting together with their accountant and meeting with them as much as they should be. How frequently do you like your clients to meet with you?
Nancy Benet (36:34.914)
They don't generally meet with me very often, but all of our clients have a dedicated accountant that they can ask questions.
Shauna Lynn Simon (36:41.3)
An accountant then yes. Yeah. How often should they meet with their accountant?
Nancy Benet (36:43.488)
And they don't meet with them on a regular basis. it's open any time that they want that, it's open. But most of them just don't want it. They're busy and they're feeling pressured and stressed. And if they would meet with us once a month, they'd be in a lot better shape. And we always are trying to offer that and push it. But honestly, most people don't want it. Either they're shamed and they don't feel like that they should because their business is down, or
They just are too busy because they're growing so fast that they can't fit it in. And the accounting's the last thing that they want to deal with when they're putting out fires for trying to, ⁓ satisfy their customers. So I think that's ⁓ a catch-22 horrible place to be.
Shauna Lynn Simon (37:26.858)
It really is though, because it's funny, like you said, it's sort of the last thing that we think about because it takes the lowest priority for us. And at the same time, it is the one that is going to fuel our business. I mean, as much as we all all want to say that we're not in business to make money, we need the money to operate the business. It's just a fact of life.
Nancy Benet (37:43.49)
Business is not business without money. It's a nonprofit. You know, it's a charitable charity. We have to make money. And that's our obligation as business owners because that helps all of us. It helps your clients. It helps your customers. It helps your employees. It helps your vendors. It helps your family. Everybody benefits from you being in business and making money.
Shauna Lynn Simon (38:02.828)
That is what everyone needs to hear and what they need to remember from the show is that you are in business to benefit others. So instead of looking at the money that they're paying you as a gift to you, the it's a gift to them. You are giving them the opportunity to get whatever it is that you offer to them, wherever your zone of genius is, whatever it is that you're doing, that has so much value to it. And that's what we need to be looking at.
This is amazing. Nancy, thank you so much. You've got a great offer for our audience. So you've got five actions that you can take to change your mindset instantly. So if you're finding that you're in that negative place and you could use a little bit of an extra boost, check it out. We'll have the link in the show notes, but it's at successyourway.com/free-download.
So check that out. It's five actions you can take to change your mindset instantly. And I know we already left our audience on a little bit of a sound bite right there, Nancy. But going back to the rest of the episode that where we were discussing, we covered so many different topics today. If there's one thing that our audience takes away from today's episode, what do you hope it it is? Maybe what's one action item you would like to see them take today?
Nancy Benet (39:07.716)
Protect your mindset.
Shauna Lynn Simon (39:09.632)
Love it. Amazing. Thank you so much, Nancy. I appreciate you joining us and sharing so much openly, especially with our audience about your own journey and how you help your clients. Thank you.
Nancy Benet (39:19.992)
Thank you, Shauna Lynn. It's great to be here. I've enjoyed our conversation so much.
Shauna Lynn Simon (39:23.95)
Amazing. So listen, if you're listening to this episode and it's resonating with you, I do hope that you will continue to tune in every week for new episodes. We drop them every Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. Eastern time. And of course, don't forget to leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. It really does help the algorithm. And subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform so you know when every new episode is released. But the best way that you can show your support, not only for the show, but for your fellow women entrepreneurs is to share this episode with someone that you know.
could really use this today. And I guarantee that there is someone who came to mind as you are listening to this episode. So please share this episode with them. Only takes a couple of seconds to do it. It helps them out, helps us out. And we truly appreciate it. Until next time, keep thriving.