REPLAY: She 4 x her wages by mastering her money

CLARE:

Can you imagine increasing your wage by four times? Well, today’s guest on the podcast, Leah, from the Productivity Queen, has done just that. She has learned to master her money and get right across her cash flow, so she was able to increase the wage that she pays herself many multiples over. I loved recording this episode and I hope you enjoy.

Hello and welcome to the Clare Wood Podcast. This is your weekly dose of all things money, to help you intentionally create a profitable business and a life you love. I have the difficult conversations about money, so you can make more money with ease.

Each week, I share how you can use mindset and the practical foundations of finance to elevate your earnings without sacrificing the things that are important to you, because you can and should be making more money.

Hey, Leah.

LEAH:

Hi, Clare.

CLARE:

Welcome to the Clare Wood Podcast. It’s so exciting to be chatting to you today. Before we dive into the episode, can you take a moment and introduce yourself to the listeners?

LEAH:

I sure can. So, my name is Leah and I run the Productivity Queen, your back pocket OBM, ass-kicker, all around just wanting to help you get shit done, would probably be the quickest and easiest way to describe me.

CLARE:

And we should probably tell the listeners that you are actually my OBM.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

Leah is responsible for making sure that I get this podcast recorded and out on time. She helps facilitate a lot of the projects, at the moment that includes managing the book process. She was a crucial part in planning and organizing my last retreat. And yeah, generally making sure that the business ticks along very well. But we are not here to talk about that today.

LEAH:

No.

CLARE:

Maybe we should do another episode talking about the behind the scenes.

LEAH:

We should. That would probably be an interesting episode.

CLARE:

I think I’m a bit scared to actually share what goes on behind the scenes, but what we’re here to talk about today is your experience inside the Profit Academy: Foundations. So, what we might do before we dive into that, let’s go right back to when and how we first met.

How Leah started investing in her business (with Clare’s help!)

LEAH:

Yes, definitely. So, this would’ve been early 2022?

CLARE:

Yes.

LEAH:

Yes. Oh my God, since COVID, all the years start to look the same, to be honest. So, it’s just a matter of trying to figure out which one I’m actually in. I had been following you for a little while, bit of a fangirl moment.

CLARE:

On Instagram.

LEAH:

On Instagram.

CLARE:

Yes.

LEAH:

@Clare_Wood_Coach. And I found out that you were running a retreat in the Sunshine Coast and I was so, so excited. I had never been to a money mindset retreat before. I knew it was definitely something that I wanted to do, because it was something that was extremely important to me and I was really struggling with it.

And being able to be in close proximity with you three days was also super exciting. So yeah, so that was basically the first time we met. I decided, I think it was two or three weeks before the retreat, I was like, “That’s it. I’m doing it. I’m in.” And yeah, it’s all just history from there, I guess.

CLARE:

And you shared that at the time, that was a massive investment for you, wasn’t it?

LEAH:

Yeah, that was a huge investment. I think up until that point, I think the biggest investment I’d made in my business was maybe $180 on my Canva subscription for the year. So, compared to investing in the retreat, it was a huge jump for me.

I was extremely scared. I was extremely nervous. I didn’t have any huge, I wouldn’t say ROI that I required from it, but it was definitely that moment of, “Okay, I think I’m officially going all in on my business now and this is what I do. This is me leveling up and this is how that I do that moving forward.”

CLARE:

I mean, when you think about the people who were at that retreat, I mean-

LEAH:

Oh my God.

CLARE:

… talk about some heavy hitters who came along. Right? I think you shared with me that nearly every person there, except one, has since worked with you.

LEAH:

Yeah. Correct.

CLARE:

I know that for me, because I didn’t know you before the retreat, and I think that being in your energy, and this is the power of retreats, being in your energy-

LEAH:

So true.

CLARE:

I was like, “Damn she’s good. She knows her stuff.” And that’s when I reached out to you to talk about potentially working together in some capacity. And I know that many of the other retreat attendees have done the same and there’s some pretty amazing people doing really incredible things in their businesses, who were there. So, it’s really cool that that was such a big turning point.

LEAH:

It was amazing. And it really was such a testament to me, to know that I need to put myself out there a little bit more and I need to show my personality. Even up until that point, my Instagram, if you were to see prior to February, was pretty corporate looking, pretty basic. And then, a lot of the women on the retreat were like, “No, you need to show your personality. We love what you are in person. You need to show that online.” So, it definitely has been a complete 180 to how I show up online now.

CLARE:

Oh yeah. Because we were looking at your Insta feed, and this again was something cool about the retreat experience is, because we met you and you love to swear.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

And you’ll call a spade a spade.

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

And I think that’s why I love working with you, because you’ll just be like, “Clare, for God’s sakes.” You’ll just put me in my place, and I love that.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

And I think that looking at your Insta feed, we were like, “You look like you’re this perfect, polished…”

LEAH:

I know, it was awful.

CLARE:

You are. And we’re just like, “Be more you.”

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

And yes, some people aren’t going to like that.

LEAH:

Yeah, exactly.

CLARE:

But this is something that I would say to any of the listeners as well, is it’s like, no matter who you are … People hate Kate Middleton.

LEAH:

I know.

CLARE:

No matter how perfect and polished and everything you are-

LEAH:

Exactly.

CLARE:

… you’re still going to end up with haters. So, it’s like, at least be you and then the right people are going to be magnetized in, and the wrong people are going to go away anyway.

I know that a lot of the stuff that I talk about is really divisive, like talking about money. It’s such a controversial topic.

LEAH:

I know.

CLARE:

And particularly the way that I talk about it, some people are like, “Ooh.” It really hits people in the feels. But I think the more that you can lean into who you are, the more you’ll attract to the right kind of people. God, we’re going on a segue here.

LEAH:

I know right, but I love it. Bring it back, Clare. Bring it back.

CLARE:

Bring it back. But one thing I do want to say, if we are going to be running another retreat this year … When I say we, it’s because, Leah, let’s be honest, does most of the hard work. You ran a lot of the last retreat, but the one that’s coming this year-

LEAH:

Oh my God, I am beyond excited. Every time I talk about it, I get body tingles. I’m so excited.

CLARE:

And it’s a big level up.

LEAH:

It is huge. It’s really huge.

CLARE:

But it’s going to be epic. We’re not going to share the details now.

LEAH:

No.

CLARE:

But trust me, if you’ve ever thought about going on a business retreat, this is going to be epic. I know the caliber of people we’re going to attract is going to be super high vibe. So yeah, stay tuned. More on that later.

LEAH:

Super exciting.

CLARE:

But we digress. Welcome to a bit behind the scenes in our meetings. It’s like what it’s always like.

LEAH:

Pretty much.

CLARE:

We start, and then you’re usually like, “Come on Clare, reign it back in.” Anyway, so you came to the retreat, you became part of the team. You’ve been you operating as my OBM for, gosh, nearly a year now, isn’t it?

LEAH:

No, probably close to about nine months.

CLARE:

Okay. Yeah.

LEAH:

Nine months, I reckon. Yeah.

CLARE:

But as we were planning the launch of my course, the Profit Academy: Foundations, you kept saying to me, time and time again, “I want to be in this course.” And I was like, “All right. Yeah.” And you were like, “This course sounds epic.” I’m like, “This course is epic.” So, let’s talk a little bit about your decision to jump in and actually join the Profit Academy: Foundations.

LEAH:

Definitely And money is becoming less of a trigger, and I think working with you is helping with that, which is amazing. Thank you very much. But I think for me, the biggest part about Foundations was that it was that, it was the foundations of understanding your money. Money has always seemed scary to me. It’s never seemed evil, but it’s always seemed scary and overwhelming. And I’ve always opened up a spreadsheet, never known where to start, looked at bank statements, had chats with my accountant, and honestly just felt completely overwhelmed. And I knew that that was never a problem previously when I’d been an employee, because somebody else took care of that and I never really had to worry about it.

But since becoming a business owner, for me, it has been really important to have a better understanding of what my business is actually doing. So, I knew it was going to be pretty eye-opening and quite confronting and there was going to be a few things that I came across in my business that I knew I had to change very quickly. But for me, it almost felt like a no-brainer. Like, this is the stuff I need to know in order for me to level up as a business owner and become that CEO. I can’t be worried about or focusing on what my dreams are or what I want to manifest, if I don’t really know a foundational plan of getting there. So, it was almost like that step one, this is what I need to do first.

CLARE:

Yeah. And I know that as we were planning it, you were going, “Oh my gosh.” And it was actually really fantastic, because as I was creating the content, you were sharing, you were like from an overwhelmed business owner’s perspective-

LEAH:

100%.

CLARE:

… you were saying, “This is how I feel. This is what’s overwhelming. This is what’s confusing to me.” So, let’s talk about you jumping into the course. So, you paid to come into the course.

LEAH:

Yep. I sure did.

CLARE:

And let’s dive in and talk a little bit about that. Why did you decide to actually pay to join the course?

LEAH:

So, we did have a discussion around how that was going to look, obviously being on the team and if it was something that I could do from a research perspective and having a better understanding of what you do as a business owner. But for me personally, I do feel there’s a huge energetic transaction when it comes to paying for advice, paying for education, and allowing yourself to level up.

So, for me, as much as the offer was there, I knew that in order for me to fully invest and almost peel back those layers of uncomfortable action, I knew that I had to put my money where my mouth was. So, it felt like a no-brainer to pay for it. And I would pay for it again and again. Honestly, I would.

CLARE:

I totally know what you mean. One of my best friends is Steph Taylor and she runs online courses and launching and things like that. And when she launched her program, I said to her, “I want to be part of it.” And she’s like, “Well, maybe we can.” And I was like, “No, I want to pay and I want to pay full price.”

LEAH:

Totally.

CLARE:

Because for me, there’s a different kind of energy. So, another friend of mine gifted me her membership and she’s like, “I want you to join in. I know that you’d love the work in here.” I never once logged in.

LEAH:

And I must admit, I have been in the exact same position.

CLARE:

And it sounds so bad, because what my friend does is fantastic, the work that she does, but I just didn’t value it, if that makes sense?

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

I was there being like, “Oh, it’s free.” Whereas when I pay for things … Like, I showed up to every single one of Steph’s calls.

LEAH:

Yeah. You have more skin in the game.

CLARE:

So much more skin in the game.

LEAH:

And it’s almost like you feel like you need to prove to yourself that the investment was worth it. And you’re going to take as much of the information out of it as you can because you’ve invested in it. You’ve put your money into this program, you want to be able to just reap as many of the rewards as possible.

CLARE:

And for me, the accountant side of my brain, I always like to get a return on my investments.

LEAH:

Yes. Same.

CLARE:

So, I’ll be like, “If I’ve spent this much money on this particular thing, I want to get my money back.”

LEAH:

Totally.

CLARE:

And so, I totally can relate to that. I’m like, “Well, I have to show up. I have to get the return for spending money.” Because that’s money that could have gone to my family. That’s money that could have gone to me, to other parts of my business.

LEAH:

Totally.

CLARE:

And I’m like, “No, I want to get my money back.” So, I can totally relate to that. And it’s funny … Sorry, again. I know I digress. But I think this might be helpful to the listeners. Something else that I actually love to do is do payment plans.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

And even though a lot of time, I have the money to pay for the program, the course, whatever, the reason why I like it is that I joined a manifestation course. I could have paid cash for it, but I took the 12-month pay it off option. And every month when the payment will pop up, I’m like, “I’m logging back into that bloody course.”

LEAH:

I’m exactly the same.

CLARE:

I’m like, “If I’ve got to pay money,” I’m like, “I’m going to jump back in and open a module or do a meditation or work through a workbook.” And I like that there’s that prompt or reminder, because I think sometimes once you’ve paid for a course, it’s like, “Well, the money’s gone now anyway.”

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

I actually like paying. I don’t know if that’s weird.

LEAH:

I’m exactly the same, because to me, it’s almost as if you’ve paid it … Like you said, it’s paid, it’s gone, it’s out of your bank account. You’ve received whatever it is you received, and you don’t feel like there’s any constant reminder. So, I love payment plans in the same fashion, because it’s that constant reminder of, “Remember that thing that you paid for? Remember that help that you needed? Maybe you should go back in and view it again.”

CLARE:

Yes. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, it was really special to me that you chose to invest in it. And from my side, I kept saying to you, “This is going to change your life.” I feel so confident in the program if people are willing to lean in, do the work, follow the process.”

LEAH:

100%.

CLARE:

I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t believe in it so much. And I think that’s why the launch was so successful, is because-

LEAH:

I agree.

CLARE:

… everyone was like … Firstly, this is something that everyone struggles with the finance side. Not everyone, a lot of people really struggle with understanding-

LEAH:

Yeah. But just like the basic understanding, those actual foundations of those things you need to know as a business owner. I think a lot of people, regardless of whether you’ve done it 20 years ago, 10 years ago, or five years ago, it’s something that you need to refresh, because things change, business change. So, I think it’s really important for a lot of business owners, regardless of where you’re at and what stage of business you’re at, to do some sort of reeducation around this, because it’s super important.

CLARE:

And when you say reeducation, I mean, when do people even learn this, right?

LEAH:

I never did.

CLARE:

Yeah, they don’t teach you about numbers at school.

LEAH:

No, not to this extent anyway.

CLARE:

100%. What I want to do is just, if it’s all right with you, just take a moment and backtrack and maybe explain a little bit about the course, because I’ve realized we’ve just doven … Doven, is that a word? Dived?

LEAH:

Dived.

CLARE:

Dived straight into it.

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

Dove straight into it?

LEAH:

Possibly.

CLARE:

So, a little bit about the Profit Academy: Foundations. So, if the listeners don’t know, I’m a qualified accountant by trade. I’m a CPA, which means I’ve gone on, I’ve done my undergraduate qualification with a major in accounting. And then I went and did my postgraduate qualification in accounting. Truthfully, I failed my very first university subject in accounting.

LEAH:

Wow.

CLARE:

I was a straight A student at school. I had never failed anything ever in my life. And I failed intro to accounting. Now, the reason is obviously not because I’m bad with numbers, because I’m not.

LEAH:

No. Very good with numbers.

CLARE:

I was doing advanced maths at school, which I got an A+ in. I’ve gone on to obviously complete multiple qualifications. But what I’ve realized in hindsight was that my lecturer, the person teaching it, was just using all of these complex gobbledygook, like, “Blah, blah, blah, I’m smarter than you are.” And it just so went over my head. And I’m like, I’m an intelligent person. This is what I’ve found again and again and again with the intelligent business owners that I work with, is that their accountant is speaking a different language.

LEAH:

Totally different language.

CLARE:

And they try and make it seem really complex. And the reality is, once I came to understand accounting, I’m like, “It’s actually not that hard when you know how.” And something that I would say is a bit of a superpower of mine is that I’m good at making the overwhelming stuff seem easy. And this is what my clients have said to me over the years is that they’re like, “I just never even understood where to start. And you’ve made it really simple.”

Over my years in being a coach and being a money mentor, I used to always blend together the money mindset and the practical side, which was great. But I think what happened was that a lot of my communication around my courses and my programs was a little bit blurred. And what I wanted to do with the Profit Academy: Foundations, is split out money mindset and just make this course kind of like an Accounting 101.

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

But I don’t want to call it that, because that sucks.

LEAH:

And it was so much more exciting than Accounting 101.

CLARE:

Yeah. But taking my six years of professional qualifications and my many, many years working in large corporates, in finance and accounting, and as a small business owner to say, “Do you know what? There’s actually a lot of shit that I learn at uni, that you don’t need to know.” And that small business owner, you don’t need to know all of the intricacies of it, but there is a lot of basic stuff that you need to know.

And so, I’ve pulled the key things out that I think small business owners need. I’ve pulled out the budgeting process, pulled out cashflow forecasting. You can’t see because we’re on audio here, but Leah’s doing a little prayer position here. And we can talk a little bit more about what each of these terms mean. And then, the basic terms of accounting.

And one of the things that I’ve even done, I’ve even created a little Finance 101 spreadsheet. It’s something you can print out, have next to your desk, and next time that your accountant says something that’s like, “Blah, blah, blah.” What is that? You look at your little cheat sheet and go, “Oh, they mean that in plain English.”

LEAH:

“That’s what it is.”

CLARE:

So, that’s a little bit about what the Profit Academy: Foundations is, but let’s maybe talk a little bit about your experience inside. So, what do you think’s been the best thing that you took out of the course?

LEAH:

The cashflow forecast, without a doubt has honestly been the biggest game changer. As I’ve said before, I’ve always had this fear of money. I’ve always felt overwhelmed not knowing what was coming in, what was going out. I was really okay in my personal finances and I had that down pat, but from a business perspective, things were just coming and going and I just hoped that there was enough money in the business bank account before it came out, was pretty much where I was before I started Foundations.

But the cashflow forecast has actually given me so much more of an empowerment around money. I know it’s not set in stone. I know it’s not the be all and end all, and this is exactly how it’s going to happen, but I’m so much more prepared and I’m so much more aware of what I have control over now. Whereas before, like I said, it was just praying that there was an invoice that was going to be paid or that invoice was going to come in before a subscription was going to come out. Whereas now, I have it all laid out and I normally do about six to eight weeks in advance. For me, that works. And it has honestly been a game changer.

It’s something that I do look at probably two or three times a week. And not because I’m scared or because I’m worried about what’s in there, but my business changes, contracts finish, new contracts come in, subscriptions change. There’s lots of things that go on in your business. So, I think it’s important for me to feel like I’m constantly hands-on with my money as opposed to that set and forget or pray away what potentially might happen. So, I would probably say, yeah, the cashflow forecast has honestly been the biggest game changer of my business.

CLARE:

Yay.

LEAH:

I’m obsessed with it. Absolutely obsessed.

CLARE:

I love that. And this is something that I’ve been using with clients of mine for years. I had a client of mine, I think I worked with her four years ago, and she said to me, “I still do it every single Monday morning.” If you’re listening and you’re thinking, “What the hell is a cashflow forecast? Why the hell do I need one?” Basically your cashflow is different to your profitability.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

So, a business can be profitable and you can still run out of money.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

So, let me share an example of what this looks like. My husband works in recruitment, and maybe you’re not in recruitment, but business have lots of different business models. But the way that my husband’s business works is that he gets paid big lump sums of money, because the way it works, someone starts a job, he often won’t get paid until six weeks later. Sometimes they even need to give four weeks notice for their job. It can be 10 weeks before he gets the cash.

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

So, the way that it works in your financial reporting is that you’ve made the money. Now, we don’t see that cash for six weeks, sometimes. So, you can see an example of how a business can be profitable and cash poor.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

Equally, I work with lots of digital marketing agencies, companies that do project work. I used to work with an artist that would get massive, big lump sums at a time, but it would take her months to do the work. And so, what a cashflow forecast does is it tells you when your cash is coming in and out, and when.

Now, the reason this is so powerful is that it puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to your finances. So, what I was talking to you about as well, Leah, you were such a superstar. She came to all the calls, she was at the Q&A calls. She was asking the questions. And do you know what? I bloody love pupils like that, because they’re the people who are engaged, they’re interested, and they get the most out of it. But you were there asking questions and one of the things that I said is, you’re like, “What if you don’t have enough cash? What if you look at it and you go-“

LEAH:

“Shit.”

CLARE:

“Shit.” Yeah. And I’m like, but that was happening anyway. You were going to run out of cash, but now you know you’re going to run out of cash.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

And what does that mean that you can do now? Now that you’ve gone through, what are some things?

LEAH:

I think the biggest thing for me is now I can actually look at my business and be like, “What are the other opportunities in my business that I can create other income?” Before, I focused so heavily on the services and the offers that I had, that it was like, “Okay. Well, if I don’t sell those, that’s it.” Whereas now it’s looking at other opportunities and being like, “What can I move? What can I pull in? What can I sell more of? What can I create that’s new for my audience, that’s going to allow me to create another stream of income?”

It’s 100% has been that awareness piece. Like you were saying, I was losing money before, but I just didn’t know. I mean, I knew it was happening, but I didn’t know how to deal with it. Whereas, at least with my cashflow forecast, yes, I was still in a position when I first started that I was going to run out of cash, but I then had ways to fix it, and tangible, practical ways. And I think that’s where Foundation has really helped me is that it’s not … And don’t get me wrong, I love money mindset and that is the next step in my journey, and I can’t wait to tackle that. But for me, I’m a very logical, practical person. Don’t give me woo-woo shit if I can just get out a piece of paper and a pen and be able to just put it all together.

I didn’t need anybody to give me that mindset woo-woo stuff. I really needed someone to give me that practical, “Sit down with a pen and paper, write this out, follow these instructions. Do this every week and you’ll get it.” And that’s what I needed because like I said, I’m a logical person. So, being able to follow steps and a process, and you know how much I love a process.

CLARE:

She loves a process.

LEAH:

Really was extremely helpful. It’s not that I didn’t want to have to think about how to do it, but I wanted to be able to just pick it up every week and go, “This is what I need to look at. These are the numbers that I need to worry about. And this is what I need to follow in order to feel more confident about my business and the numbers in my business as well.”

CLARE:

And there were two things that I included in the course, very intentionally, because I didn’t just want it to be like, “Look at your numbers.” And, “Oh, that’s shit.”

LEAH:

Which would’ve been so overwhelming.

CLARE:

Well, that’s what accounting is, quite frankly.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

So, there’s two things that I put in the course which were, okay, let’s say you look at your numbers. Let’s say you look at your profit and loss statement. Let’s say you look at your cashflow forecast and you don’t like what you’re seeing. The final module is all about, “Okay, let’s grow your profit now.”

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

It’s really, really focused on uncovering growing your business in a way that works for you. So, one of the things that we do inside is we talk about, “Okay, you don’t like where things are at? Let’s come up with some ideas.” And there’s also a bonus, which is called 50 Revenue Boosters. And my dream, my vision for that bonus was that if people get to a point where they’re like, “Oh crap.” That you can literally dig it out and you go, “Right. What are some ideas of what I can do?” Some of them aren’t even creating new offers.

LEAH:

No.

CLARE:

It’s literally like, “Here’s how you can move some cash around. Here’s how you can bring something forward. Here’s how you can bring some cash in sooner rather than later.” And it really was intended to give you some ideas of how you can go, “Okay. If I don’t like where things are at, what are some things that I can do.” You can see that I’m really passionate about this program.

LEAH:

I love it. And I think because you were so passionate about it and you were so ecstatic at what was possible for everybody in the program, I could feel that. I would show up to the calls and I would ask my questions and there were no dumb questions. And sometimes I was like, “Look, if I don’t ask it, nobody else is, and maybe somebody else has the same question.” But it was almost like you were wanting us to be as inquisitive as possible when it came to those calls, when it came to the content that was in the program. Because it was really like, and I’ll say this for myself, I can’t say it for everybody else in the program, but I didn’t know any of this stuff. I had no idea what I was walking into. I had no idea what the type of information I was going to learn and how I was even going to be able to comprehend some of the things that were going on.

But it was so well laid out, it was so well put together. And it was almost in a way that was like, “It’s okay if you don’t get it right now, but you will. And these are the tools that are going to help you to have a better understanding of how to move through this uncomfortable feeling when it comes to your money and being really, really intentional with what you do in your business when it comes to money.” And I think that was the biggest thing for me. I didn’t want to feel like I had to know it. I didn’t want to finish the course and be like, “Okay. I now have to be a whiz with numbers. I have to just understand everything.”

I’m still learning and I’m still understanding what some of the stuff in my business is, but I’m now so much more confident and I can ask my accountant questions and I can feel more in control of what’s happening in my business. Whereas before, it was just, let’s just see if I make it to the end of the month and have enough money to pay the rent. Which is never a great place to be in. So yeah, it honestly has been a huge shift for me in my business and even personally feeling more empowered about how I run my business and the control and what I don’t have control of.

CLARE:

Yeah. No, I think that this work is stuff that should be taught at school.

LEAH:

Oh my God. Yes.

CLARE:

And one of the things, I guess, that made me do so well at school was that I’m happy to ask questions. And particularly at my school, that made me really uncool. I was bullied massively. Everyone called me Square Bear was my nickname at school, but I’m like, “I don’t care if I look like an idiot because asking questions is how you actually grow.” And so many people will sit there … There’s a saying, “Ask a question, you look like a fool for a minute. Don’t ask the question, and you’re a fool for life.”

LEAH:

Love that saying. Never heard of that, but I love that saying.

CLARE:

Even now with my accountant, I’m a qualified accountant and I have an accountant, and I’ll ask her questions. And sometimes I’m sure she must think, “Don’t you know this?” But I’m like, I forgot it, or I can’t really remember, or I’m not up-to-date on that legislation or that part of … Particularly tax is-

LEAH:

Oh, gosh.

CLARE:

… it’s still a bit of a minefield for me. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for people that haven’t studied accounting. But I’m always happy to ask a question. I’ll go, “Can you explain that to me again?” Or I’m like, “Does that mean this, this, and this?” And I don’t mind, I don’t care being judged because I’m like, I’d way rather ask the question and then be like, “Oh, I get it now.” Or ask the question again and again and again until I do. Because to me, knowledge is power.

LEAH:

Yeah. Totally agree.

CLARE:

And I love when people are happy to ask the questions. And with the course, this is the thing that I want people to do, is to be able to have the confidence to ask their accountant the questions and also have the confidence to, quite frankly, get rid of your accountant if they’re not the right fit.

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

One of the bonuses inside the course is how to hire the perfect accountant. People always come to me and say, “Who’s your recommendation for an accountant?” I’m like, “But hang on, who my perfect fit is, might not be your perfect fit.”

LEAH:

Exactly.

CLARE:

But I show you some questions to ask. That’s what the bonus is all about. So, what I’m going to do, let’s talk a little bit about some of the bonuses. I’m going to give you a pop quiz.

LEAH:

Oh my Lord.

CLARE:

See if you can remember them all.

LEAH:

This will be interesting. Okay.

CLARE:

So, what were some of the bonuses? And with the bonuses, the way that they work is that basically the earlier you join, I want people to jump in. I don’t want you to sit on the fence. And so I go, “If you come in early, you get the bonuses.”

LEAH:

Yeah. And I knew that, and I even knew what the bonuses were. I didn’t know how I was going to deal with them, but I knew what the bonuses were and I knew that if I jumped in as soon as the doors opened, I was going to get them all. So, I was very excited.

CLARE:

Yes. So, we’ve already mentioned the 50 Revenue Boosters.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

Mentioned how to hire your perfect accountant.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

Can you remember what any of the others were?

LEAH:

Oh my goodness, I probably should.

CLARE:

I’ll give you a hint. One has to do with working with your-

LEAH:

Isn’t it the success framework for a bookkeeper?

CLARE:

Uh-huh.

LEAH:

Yes. Good student.

CLARE:

And that’s another cool one that I created. Again, not everyone’s at the stage to hire a bookkeeper.

LEAH:

Yeah. And I’m not, but it was great to know what to look for when I’m at that stage.

CLARE:

Yeah.

LEAH:

That was, I think, big.

CLARE:

And what to start to offload.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

Because again, I find a lot of the time people have an accountant, bookkeeper, and they’re like, “I don’t even know what to ask them to do.” And so that’s again, something I’m like, “Ask them to do this. Make sure you’re meeting with them and covering this in your meetings.” And I really spell it out because otherwise people are like, “I met with my accountant and I didn’t even know what to ask.” And I’m like, “No, this is exactly what you cover inside.” So, it’s the same with your bookkeeper. Things to offload to them, when to offload it. What support to get. Another one of the bonuses inside is the ROI calculator.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

Now, ROI means return on investment. I freaking, freaking love this tool.

LEAH:

It was something that I’d never really had to focus on before I became a business owner. And I must admit, even when I started my business, it still wasn’t something that I’d really even thought about. And I think it wasn’t until I came into the world of Clare Wood and I was following some of your content, and I was like, “Oh yeah, I probably should know not only what I’m investing in, but what I’m actually getting out of that investment.” So, that has been a pretty cool tool to use as my business.

CLARE:

Yeah. So, do you want to maybe, in your terms, as someone who’s come through, explain what that means?

LEAH:

So, for me, I think return on investment is being able to really sit down and have a look at, one, what you’re investing into, whether it’s a course, a program, a coach, software, whatever that is into your business. And being able to actually sit down and calculate to a certain extent, what your value is in return for investing those particular funds.

So, whether that’s an increase in customers, whether that’s an increase in revenue. Whether that’s an increase in, and this is something that I use, an increase in white space in my calendar is a huge return in investment for me. I know that if I invest in a virtual assistant or if I invest in a bookkeeper, I’m going to create more white space in my calendar, which means I can bring on more clients, I can bring on more services. So, for me, that return on investment is really looking at, what else can I bring into my business that’s going to not only level up my business, but also increase my value and my worth as well?

CLARE:

I love that. And it’s something that I use … I guess that I’ve unconsciously been doing it. So, an example of this is with my book, I’ve spent a lot of money writing this book, a lot.

LEAH:

So excited for it to come out.

CLARE:

It’s going to be amazing. Subtle plug for my book. But one of the things that I did when I was working out, I’m like, “What would I need to do to make this money back?” So, basically like, okay, if I’m going to spend this much money, I need to bring on one new client over six months. And for me, I can then go really easily, “Or, I need to sell this many of my course.”

LEAH:

Correct.

CLARE:

And that’s paid for itself.

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

Give or take tax, obviously. But again, we’ll talk about that. It really empowers people. If you are looking at joining the course, the Profit Academy: Foundations, and you go, “Okay, it’s going to be that much money.” And you can then go, “Okay, what would that need to deliver back to my bottom line?” And obviously, I can’t guarantee people will get a return, but for me, I’m like, it’s kind of a no-brainer.

LEAH:

[inaudible 00:35:38] it’s a no-brainer.

CLARE:

You start to go, “Oh, I could save money in this space.” Or, “I could add extra revenue into my bottom line.” But it’s giving you the tools to make decisions around everything.

LEAH:

Yeah. Like I said, it’s that awareness.

CLARE:

Yeah.

LEAH:

Once you know what you need to do and you have an understanding of where your business finances are at, you can make those informed decisions. And I think it makes it a lot easier to do that when you have a much better understanding of what’s actually happening in your business bank account.

CLARE:

For sure. So, to wrap up, I know this has been a big plug fest, let’s be honest.

LEAH:

But I’m obsessed with it.

CLARE:

Well, the reason I asked you to come on, it was because you talk about how empowered you feel with your finances now. I’ve seen the shift in your confidence, and that’s why I said, “Hey, would you mind coming on and sharing with the listeners what you share with me privately?”

LEAH:

Definitely.

CLARE:

I really appreciate you coming along. But what we might do to wrap up, let’s start with, I’d love for you to share maybe where you were at before you jumped in, and then afterwards we’ll jump to how you feel now. What are the tangible effects that it’s had?

So, let’s backtrack to where you were when you made the big decision to jump in. Again, it must have been another scary investment decision.

LEAH:

Huge investment.

CLARE:

So, let’s talk about, where were you at, at that time? How did you feel about money, numbers, finances?

LEAH:

At that time, I was still extremely uncomfortable with money and finances. It was very much head in the sand. If I don’t look at it or if I don’t know it’s there, then I don’t have to worry about it. I had always, I think, been that way with money for such a long period of time, even personally. It was almost like if I expected something bad to happen, then I could just prepare myself for the bad and then I could deal with it, which obviously is not a very mentally healthy way of dealing with money, but it was something that I’d always done.

“Okay, I know it’s going to blow up, so I’ll just wait for it to blow up and then I’ll fix it, and then I’ll wait for the next blow up.” So, that was pretty much where I was at, even from a personal perspective, but definitely from a business perspective. I hadn’t really thought a lot about the future of my business, because it wasn’t something that I had started intentionally, so to speak. So, for me, it still felt like, well, I’m just continuing what I’m doing, making money, paying the bills, just getting from day to day. So, it was a pretty dire situation, pre-Foundations, and I’m going to be honest, yeah, it wasn’t great, but that was definitely one of the reasons that I wanted to do it, because I knew that I couldn’t continue doing that exact same thing.

CLARE:

Yeah. Expecting a different outcome.

LEAH:

Totally.

CLARE:

Yeah. That’s a whole other episode.

LEAH:

Oh my God, it is.

CLARE:

About how we repeat the same thing and go, “I wonder why this keeps happening?” It’s like, “Because you keep doing the same thing again and again.” Anyway, that’s more going down the mindset route. So, let’s chat about where you’re at now, and not just in terms of confidence, I think, but has there been any translation into either your profitability or your cashflow position?

LEAH:

100%. So, if we take confidence with numbers and a better understanding completely off the table, I have managed to, since I joined Foundation to 4X my weekly income that I pay myself.

CLARE:

4X?

LEAH:

4X, people, 4X.

CLARE:

Wow.

LEAH:

It has been an absolute game changer, purely because I know what I’m doing now. I mean, that sounds really cocky, but I have so much more of an understanding and I’m so much more confident about paying myself what I’m worth.

CLARE:

Sure.

LEAH:

And I think that is a huge part of it. I never thought I was worth paying myself a wage. And when I say 4X my wage, this is play money to me. So, this is outside of investments or expenses. This is just money that I actually get to live the life that I’m trying to create for myself. So, being able to do that and not freak out at the same time, wondering if it’s possible, is it worth it? Has been huge.

And I changed it in my cashflow forecast, and it’s something that I’ve updated for the next six to eight weeks, and I’ll continue updating as I move forward. And sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down, depending on what my cashflow looks like. But knowing that that’s my base and where I sit and knowing that I have been able to do that, has been huge. I never thought that I would be able to confidently increase what I pay myself, without freaking out and putting the money back in the account, I think has been huge for me.

CLARE:

Yeah. And that’s one of the things that we spoke about, was about wages, profit, how they all connect to each other. Because that’s what we’re in business for, right?

LEAH:

Mm-hmm.

CLARE:

It’s to be able to go, “I want to be able to pay myself more. Can I? Can I not?” If I do want to pay myself more-

LEAH:

What does that look like?

CLARE:

Yeah. What does it look like? And I don’t think a lot of people necessarily make that connection.

LEAH:

No.

CLARE:

They’re just winging it and going, “Oh gosh, I hope this all comes together.” And yeah, I love that. That’s a massive, massive win.

LEAH:

It was huge. And I think the day that I messaged you to say that I’d done it, I was shaking as I was sending you the message. I transferred it first into my account, and then I was like, “Oh my God, this is actually happening.” I dreamt of the day that I would be able to pay myself that much money each week, and it’s fucking here.

CLARE:

And it just gets to keep on getting better.

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

I mean, this is the cool thing about this work is that once you know what to do … And it doesn’t mean that things don’t go up and down.

LEAH:

Exactly.

CLARE:

They do. But you’re in the driver’s seat.

LEAH:

100%.

CLARE:

If things aren’t going the way you want it to, you go, “Cool. Okay. I know what levers I need to pull.”

LEAH:

Yeah.

CLARE:

Yeah. And I’m really excited for you. You deserve every success. I know I say this to you all the time, but-

LEAH:

Thank you.

CLARE:

… publicly as well. You absolutely deserve it. And everyone listening, same. You deserve to be out of the cycle of bloody feast and famine.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

And the best way that I can encourage you to do that, obviously the mindset work, and I am creating a program as well, to help in that space. That is massive. But in terms of the actual practical-

LEAH:

Couldn’t agree more.

CLARE:

… like the practical, practical money stuff, it’s so empowering.

LEAH:

It is.

CLARE:

And I hear this again and again and again from people that they’re like, “Oh my gosh, now I feel so much more in the driver’s seat of my business.” And whether you join the course or not, do this work. Go and learn your finances. Go and learn how to do forecasting, because once you have a better handle on it, honestly, it’ll increase your confidence and it will increase your bank balance.

LEAH:

And I love the fact that it is increasing my bank balance.

CLARE:

Money. Money, money, money.

LEAH:

I mean, if that’s the worst thing that can happen with you from joining Foundations, I’m pretty sure there’s other things you can be worried about.

CLARE:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so, so much for coming on and sharing your experience.

LEAH:

Thank you.

CLARE:

I’m incredibly grateful that you invested in the program and that you paid full price for it as well.

LEAH:

Yes.

CLARE:

And I’m incredibly grateful for everything that you do for me and my business.

LEAH:

Thank you.

CLARE:

Leah, the Productivity Queen. I will put the links for Leah’s … She’s got programs. I’ll put the link to go and follow her on Instagram and to reach out and connect with her, if you want help with your systems, with your productivity, or if you just want your ass kicked. I would say that’s definitely a-

LEAH:

It’s one of my favorite services that I offer.

CLARE:

Yeah. It’s funny. She’s like, “I can’t believe people pay me to yell at them to get things done.” And I’m like, “But that’s what your forte is.”

LEAH:

Yeah. It is effective. It is effective.

CLARE:

It’s very effective. It’s one of my favorite things that we do together is that you get on and you’re like, “Clare, where’s this?” I ignore you. You then chase me again, and then I get things done. And that’s your slogan, isn’t it? “Get shit done.”

LEAH:

Yeah. Just get shit done.

CLARE:

So, I’ll pop all of Leah’s links in the show notes for today’s episode.

LEAH:

Thank you, Clare. It has been amazing, as always.

CLARE:

Listeners, thank you for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode, and I might see you inside a course. Chat next week.

I hope you are feeling inspired and excited about what is possible for you when it comes to money. It takes a lot of time and energy to create a podcast. So, I’d be very grateful if you could take the time to hit subscribe, write me a review, and share any of your favorite episodes with your audience on social media. The more people that we can reach, the more people we can empower to earn more in their business, because you can and should be earning more money.