Finances can be easy when you know how with Simona John von Freyend

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

Today’s guest on the podcast is a very smart cookie, but she was feeling a little bit out of her league when it came to managing the finances in her business. In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m chatting to one of my students inside the Profit Academy Foundations about how she was able to become really empowered with her business finances by learning the basics and how it has stepped her from a place of feeling overwhelmed and unsure to a place of feeling confident and empowered when it comes to managing the money inside her business. I love this conversation and I’m sure you will too. So let’s dive on in.

 A big warm welcome, Simona. Simona, would you like to introduce yourself to the listeners please? Thank you, Clare. I’m really happy to be here. My name’s Simona [00:01:00] John von Freyend.

I am a scientist by training. I run several businesses. I used to work in university research for quite a long time. But now for the last four years I’ve been running two businesses and also freelancing grant help on the site. The businesses I have are very different. One supports biotech companies with really high level computational modeling, uses a lot of AI works on proteins, gives really detailed help. The interesting thing is I’m not actually doing the work myself. I have contractors. I have a team that are doing that, but I am really, really good in bringing people together, bringing the right people into a room to work on a project and work their magic and make it all better and and give the best results.

So that’s what I really love doing. I love the project based work. I love getting insight into what awesome science is out there. There’s so many cool ideas out there, so that’s always great. The other business is a scientific graphics and [00:02:00] animations business. So we have a team of graphic designers.

It’s me and a codirector. She’s an artist as well. Also a scientist. I cannot draw for the life of me. I, I draw stick figures. I, I have to put that disclaimer and otherwise people think I actually do all this stuff. I. I’ve worked a lot in science communication. I’ve, I’ve worked on an online the conversation.

As an, as an editorial intern, I’m really good in storytelling and it really helps when you develop graphics because you really wanna know who’s the audience and how do you wanna get across what you’re getting across, what’s actually important and what is unnecessary fluff and where do you wanna lead the viewpoint?

And all of that is essentially storytelling, and that’s what I really enjoy. So we’re again. Getting the right people into the room with the right skill sets to actually solve something. And especially now with AI generated images is amazing. How many bad images are there? Oh, yeah. When you look on the [00:03:00] internet and, and it’s, and when you think about molecular level things, there’s so much that’s just plain wrong.

And so, so that’s something that I’m really passionate about and that I really enjoy doing. And then I also do some grant help. So I give workshops on how to write good grants, or I help often scientists, but also companies write really good grants and really targeting what they wanna get across.

And again, it’s in, in, I. At the end of the day, a good grant is a good story. That’s being told in a way that the person who is asked to be the funder actually understands and buys in and goes, yeah, I wanna support this. So, so that’s what I do. Oh, fantastic. And it’s, I love the way that you’ve weaved it all together because there is so much crossover in all of these things that you do, it really is about the ability to tell a story. And I also, something I love about you is that you break things down and make it really simple and straightforward. [00:04:00] I think when you’re talking about a topic as complex as biotech, your website is so beautiful and crystal clear.

Over on your LinkedIn, I’ve seen some of your animations and. It, it all just weaves together so perfectly because you can tell the story in a really clear, succinct way. Yeah, and it’s, it’s interesting because I actually had to do a lot of unlearning there because as scientists you’re always trying to dig deeper and go more into detail and, and you know, you need everything.

And, and don’t forget that bit. And then when you, you sort of try and zoom up and you go, no, no, no, hold on, that’s fluff. We don’t need that. We are not saying anything inaccurate, but we’re really honing in on what’s important and it’s, it’s something that I’ve, I guess I’ve learned over time with the different aspects.

I’ve always been in, really interested in different parts. I’ve always been really interested in, in collaborations and working with others. So yeah, but it, it doesn’t. [00:05:00] Necessarily come natural when you, when you come from a science world to, you know, zoom out. We we’re kind of taught to zoom in. Yeah.

Well, I can relate because when I studied accounting, one of the things that I noticed was that the academics, when you are preparing your papers. They wanted to see big, complex, intelligent words, and so I would write my, you know, assignments, my papers, and then I’d go and get back. Then we didn’t have Google.

I’d go and get the, the source or the dictionary and I would look like, what’s a, a more intelligent way of saying this same thing. Yeah. The irony is I’ve kind of come full circle because I spent all this time at uni learning how can I sound more educated, how can I make this sound more intellectual?

And now what I do is the complete opposite. I take all of the stuff that I learned at uni and I’m like, how can I make this as simple and straightforward as possible without all of the [00:06:00] jargon? Because yeah, a lot of people don’t want that, but. Equally, both you and I have this skillset to also, I can have a conversation with my accountant using all the, the jargon and the text speak, and then bring that back and translate it to someone who’s like, what the hell was that all about?

And I think it’s also a little bit in losing the fear. Yeah. But once you’ve been in that world to kind of go you, you’re not, I I’m not necessarily phased by big world words. Yeah. And like, even if it’s in a, in a expertise that I don’t have, like, say, I don’t speak legalese at all, but by now I’ve kind of learned to ask when I don’t understand something.

Yeah. And it, it’s not something that intimidates me anymore. But also, it’s really interesting that you say writing and using big words. Because have you ever noticed that when you read something that’s exactly in your field, how much easier and faster you read it when it’s actually written well and it [00:07:00] doesn’t use big words?

Yeah, and it’s, it doesn’t make it sound dumb or too low or anything like that. It’s, it’s so helpful. To then get the point across better. So, but yeah, again, I think that kind of training is, is lacking really at universities even quite often because students come in and they, they try to use the big words and you go, well, you know what, just just write it in plain English.

I feel like you and I could go into a huge philosophical debate about the future of university education, how it’s gonna evolve with AI and technology, but let’s not go there. Maybe I need to get you back another day back conversation. I was so up for talking about that. But what we here today to chat about is.

Is money. We’re here to chat about numbers as we go through. I’m just wondering for context, like, you know, a lot of my listeners to my podcast are service-based businesses. You know, I am sure we’ve got some people from a scientific background in tech who are [00:08:00] listening, but a lot of other business owners, what do you think might be a way that you could support, you know, business owners in the, the digital marketing online world, service-based businesses.

Yeah. Well, I think the, the grant writing and the graphics really because having a good graphic is not just the image itself. It’s also, for example, you have some PowerPoints and you you might wanna make that cohesive. And that, again, having a presentation is a story that you’re telling. Tell that in a, in a certain way.

So I could, I could help with that. I could also help businesses in. Writing grants. Writing grants, or better yet, rather than actually doing the writing, the finding the story, working with people together and say, this is how you position yourself. This is, this is the type of funder that you’re looking at here.

This is what’s important to that person. Tell me what you bring. And then sort of working, bringing out the story, like that’s something where that I really enjoy doing and where it could absolutely help. I love that. I’ve had [00:09:00] quite a few of my clients over the years who’ve gone and got business grants and you’ve hit the nail on the head because it’s not about the caliber of the business.

It, it’s really, how good are you at telling the story? I. In the language that the grant writer wants to hear. So that’s ’cause the caliber of the business is important, but they all are good. Mm. But you have to be outstanding in how you get your point across and say, Hey, you need it as a business. Why should you be supported?

Right. Yeah. So, and there’s a lot of competition in this space, so you wanna be able to do it well if you’re going to all the effort of preparing a grant. I think getting some help in that is will be invaluable. So. Awesome. Alright, well let’s go, let’s, let’s go in and talk a little bit about money because.

You maybe if, if we start by sharing how you are in my world at the moment. Yeah. I actually found you via the podcast. Oh, I, I don’t even know when I was, was it maybe three [00:10:00] years ago or So, sort of looking for podcasts in business world and business help and randomly came across your podcast and really liked what I heard there.

And then I did the foundations course that you offer. And that was at a time when I had some issues with my bookkeeper. Basically I wasn’t really across the books. I, I had just taken over the business. Before that I was operations manager and then I took over the business as director and I, I’ve always told myself growing up and, and when I was younger that I’m not good with finances.

That’s just who I am. I don’t do numbers, I don’t do finances. I, I tell stories, I do words. Right. And it was sort of at that point where I realized actually I, I need to, was at a point to a business where I had no idea what was coming, gonna come in. I had no idea what was gonna come out in the next week.

What, what bills we had to pay. Yeah, we were using Xero, but it all seemed in. Intensely complicated and [00:11:00] frightening. And funny enough, my, my husband’s actually an accountant, so he was always laughing at me that I made such a big deal out of that. But yeah, it just, it just seemed really hard and really complicated.

And then I saw your foundations course and I ended up doing it together with my operations manager, and she was, she was in her mid twenties at the time. She hadn’t even, she had refused to touch Excel spreadsheets up to that point. She was like, I can’t do numbers. And I said, do this course with me. We did it together.

We did it in a bit of an e-learning style where we got together, we did e each module together and then talked it through afterwards and it was so good. It it, we have the cashflow spreadsheet now. It helped us really getting across it. And it wasn’t that we had more money available, like cashflow was still erratic at that time, but it was so much less stressful because we knew exactly when we needed what amount to pay the bills.

And, [00:12:00] oh, look at that. There’s a tax bill coming up. Well better call up the ATO now and set up a payment plan. That kind of thing. And it was, it was just so helpful and I, I really think it actually made continuing the business through some hard times possible. I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle the stress levels of just.

Oh, God, there’s another bill. How do I do this every single day? So yeah, that’s, and now I’m in your Profit collective and I’m really enjoying it, the variety of business owners there. And I guess also the, the camaraderie in a way, because we’re all running our own businesses that can get a little bit lonely.

We don’t have big teams around us and I’m I, I like people. So it’s been really nice to exchange stories, hear how others are doing, and, sort of get the boost from like seeing like, oh, they think it’s possible. I, I then I, I can achieve that. So yeah. I love that. Yeah. I mean, the collective is my [00:13:00] mastermind for, for six figure business owners who’ve got big dreams to scale to seven figures.

And one of the things that I’ve loved about being in a mastermind over the years is that when things start to get normalized, because a lot of times you’re like, what’s the point? I’m stuck you. You know, I can never make any more. And then suddenly someone will jump ahead and you are like, well, hang on.

How are they suddenly earning more money? And you’re like, it opens up possibility for you. And also watching the way that people do things, interact. You, you know, you watch someone, they start marketing their business more or doing the uncomfortable thing and then suddenly go, well, hang on. What are they doing?

How are they doing that? How can I learn and leverage off, of that and create the same success myself? So a lot of times what we see is that as the people in the group start to rise, start to earn more money, they’re bringing the other people up as well. I know for me, I, when I first joined my mastermind.

Someone made their first $30,000 a [00:14:00] month and I was like, that’s insane. Like it just seems so huge to me and so bizarre. In the next six months, I hit my first $50,000 a month in business and I totally credit that too. That being cracked open for me. Yeah. By someone I’m like, she’s just like me. Like she’s has good days and bad days, and.

You know, we’ll sometimes have no idea what I’m doing, and then suddenly it all starts to come together. So, yeah, it’s really cool having a, a peer group to normalize success. Exactly. Because so often we’re holding ourselves back. Right. We don’t even, yeah. Like I have all these stories in my head about that’s not possible.

Yeah. And then if I think that, then I won’t try. Yeah. And, and seeing other people achieving that, it’s like, oh wait. It is possible. Maybe I should try, and this is the thing too with this course, like one of the things that [00:15:00] I think is a bit of a, a myth. Is that fi you have to be super, super smart or you have to be financially minded.

Now, I will tell you, when it comes to creative stuff, when it comes to having an artistic eye, I do not have that. And I was a straight A student at school. I went to my art teacher and I said, I’ve got a c plus. It is a disdain on my report card, I need to get an A. And she’s like, you just aren’t ever gonna get an A.

You are just, I can’t teach someone to be creative. You, you know, if you don’t have that skill. Whereas with finances and accounting, I have taken so many creatively minded people and taught them this. I am like, you can learn this. This is a skillset that even if you’re not naturally inclined to love money or to love finances, and [00:16:00] I tell people something, which is that my first subject I ever failed in life was introduction to accounting at university.

I, I, I nearly sunk out of university because of chemistry. That’s my dark secret. Look at me now. There you go. There you go. And so I failed Introduction to accounting. I was mortified straight A student. Me, I went and saw a careers counselor and the careers counselor’s like, you are obviously not good at accounting.

You need to pick a new career. And because I’m one of those look at all the career advice I’d terrible. Stuff you, I’m like, I bloody can do this. So I, I stuck my head out then gone on and got two accounting degrees. But I tell people the reason that I failed Intro to Accounting isn’t that I’m stupid.

It isn’t that I’m not good at it. It’s just that the way that it had been explained to me by this [00:17:00] archaic academic was. Like, it was almost like he was trying to confuse everyone in the room, and this is why I’m so passionate about teaching numbers and accounting in a straightforward, easy way. And so I try and use a different combination.

Like sometimes I’m drawing graphs, sometimes I’m telling stories. I’m I, I am really breaking it down and showing people. It doesn’t have to be that hard, and I do not believe that any business owner can get away with not knowing what is going on with their finances. Would you agree? Completely agree.

Completely agree. Yeah. Especially when you have a super small team. I think at one point when you’re, you know, your big, molten national corporation. Sure. But you still need to have a high level exec exec who sits across the finances and understands everything, but you should at least have an idea of it.

And I, as a small business owner, absolutely, you [00:18:00] have to, and it, it, it’s gonna help you so much. And I actually think the reason why you’re good at teaching this is because it didn’t come easy to you. ’cause you understand that, right? Yes. Because if, if something comes just naturally easy to you. You didn’t have to learn it, it was just there and you can’t explain it.

Yeah. And, and you don’t, you don’t even see the issues that somebody, and that professor of yours was probably somebody like that. And from experience. I worked with a lot of professors. I’ve worked in university a long time. These are incredibly smart people. That doesn’t mean they’re good with finances, that doesn’t mean they’re good with life tasks, doesn’t mean they’re organized in any way.

We all have our strength and our not so strong sides, right? So no, I, I agree. I think. Being able to, to look at the finances means that you can able, you, you’re able to make decisions and you can really drive the business [00:19:00] in a way where you say, well actually look at this, this, this aspect of the business I was really passionate about, but it’s not making us any income at all.

That’s not what we’re gonna focus. Let’s pivot and go into that direction without having the numbers and sort of having the the data really to support that. You are always just going to go with your gut feeling and sort of put your little flag in the wind and it’s, there’s not going to be a direction.

Yeah. So, yeah, I agree. I think it’s super important. Another thing that I would say is that a lot of people think, I’ve got my accountant, I’ve got my finance expert, and they’re like, I don’t have to worry about that. I have changed accountants. Especially my early days of business, quite a lot. And the reason for that is because I was getting told completely incorrect information and it terrifies me how many business owners would end up in a pickle.

I had one accountant who kept [00:20:00] insisting I didn’t need to put any tax aside. ’cause my husband and I both run businesses. We then ended up with an $80,000. Taxed it. Yeah. And I’m like, oh yeah. Doesn’t surprising that we weren’t like that. We weren’t putting an enough aside. Yeah. I’ve also had accountants that have like, made serious mistakes with the numbers and then lied to me and tried to cover up.

And say, oh, no, no, we can just do that. I’m like, you can’t just do that. Like, mm-hmm. And so again, having that knowledge keeps them in check. A couple of years ago, I did a post, I went through and gathered all of the accountants that have stolen money from their clients over the years. And being jailed in Australia and I was like, the list is huge.

Like you are putting your trust in this person. They can go, if you give them access to the wrong things, they can go in, they can be stealing from you. They can literally be milking fleecing you and you wouldn’t even know if you don’t know what you’re looking at when it comes to your numbers. So it’s [00:21:00] incredibly, incredibly important.

And I would say even big, big corporates it’s not an excuse to go, well, my CFO said to do that. You like big CEOs can end up in a jail for doing things that are against the, they have to, you’re financially responsible as a director. Percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. And it’s the same for small businesses.

So you know, you can’t get to, you know, like get a tax bill and say, oh, my accountant never told me about it. The OTO, the tax office doesn’t go, oh, well don’t worry about it then. It’s too bad. You still owe the money.

We’ve been in a similar situation where there were just issues in the books and we didn’t even realize. Yeah. Now I can tell, but I think it’s more than that. I have a fantastic accountant now who I really trust, but I can, one, I can only judge that she’s great. I. Because I look at the numbers and I go, yeah, that makes sense.

Two, she is amazing. She still is not in the [00:22:00] business. She still doesn’t know the business. She still doesn’t know the business strategy. I have to be able to understand the numbers to ask her the right questions, and I’ve actually found that a few times. I was able to say, Hey. What about this one and this aspect was this and isn’t there anything we can do?

And she goes like, oh yeah, we can file that under this. And absolutely you can, you can get a tax reduction on that. But if I hadn’t pointed it out, she wouldn’t have noticed. Yeah, she couldn’t have because she doesn’t know where everything is and what it’s being used for the way, same way I do. Yeah. So I think in that regard, it really helps to be able to make the most of your accountant.

Absolutely. And I have to say, I always thought learning it would be really hard. Like there, there’s this idea of like, oh, you gotta have to an accounting degree and you gotta be super good with numbers and your course is so, it’s gonna sound terrible if I say it’s simple, but I really, it’s not, not in a bad way, in a good way.

It’s so easy to [00:23:00] follow. And it’s so easy to do, and it just sort of gives you the one-on-one and the, the really, the, the good, like the foundations, the basics that it then makes it possible to build up on that. And I mean, I, I still have an accountant. I would not do my own accounts, but I don’t pay for a bookkeeper anymore.

Mm-hmm. Because I actually prefer doing that myself because I find it forces me to look at the books really regularly. Yeah. So. In that regard, it’s also saved me money because I don’t have to pay the bookkeeper anymore. I can do it myself now. Yeah. Well that’s it. And it, I honestly, I’ve had. Students of mine who’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars because, because they now like, look, they go, oh my gosh, I’ve gotta cancel that subscription.

Yeah. Oh, I didn’t follow up that invoice. I didn’t follow up. That potential client and having that visibility really gives you that nudge to take action in the space [00:24:00] of your, of your money. I know for us, you know, my husband and I do this. Every single Monday. The exact spreadsheets, frameworks, everything that I teach in the program is what we do and we’ll off ’cause we’re looking eight to 12 weeks ahead.

We are like, whoa, there’s a gap coming up usually for both of our businesses. Christmas is a really slow time. Yeah. And we then have that visibility. We’re looking ahead going, are we gonna be fine to navigate through that period of time without, you know, having the same level of income? And sometimes it means, okay, well we are gonna need to make some decisions now.

To Yeah. You know, cut back our expenses or put another launch in or get some more sales so that we are gonna be right to navigate through that period of time. So yeah, having that, that visibility, I think is, is really comforting. Yeah. And I love that you are reconciling your own books. That gets me excited.

You know, my operations manager, who was so [00:25:00] afraid of Excel and everything, she gets such a kick out of getting that little message when everything is green and you have everything reconciled. She’s like, I love it. So she, she loves doing that now. It’s really funny. That’s so good. And it’s gonna be really interesting.

One of the things that I’m adding you know, and my past students are, are welcome of course to come and join the, the future rounds, but I’m adding a section all about. Technology, ai, how that’s working in the financial space. But at this point in time, like cashflow forecasting, for example, I am, like, I, I did a, a training with Xero and I asked them, I said, you know, is there a way that you can, and they still are just like, no, we don’t have the tech to do that yet.

Yeah, it’s still doing the process. Going through and manually forecasting is still the, the cutting edge way to do it. Do you know why it’s, it’s the a, a sort of, in the AI world is kind of, [00:26:00] it’s that saying is garbage in, garbage out? Yeah, absolutely. It’s, you have to feed it the right data and the right numbers.

So if you think about a cashflow, like you’re still gonna have to do the input and it can then maybe format it for, you can maybe write the cashflow spreadsheet for you, but it might not necessarily be able to do the forecasting. So unless you train it on 20,000 businesses across Australia, and then maybe it will one day.

But yeah, no, I agree. Same with I’m still, I’m still a little bit skeptical too about, because I know like for example with chat GPT, I’ve asked questions about modeling. Like, I’ll say, can you please tell me what the present value of this is? And it says it’s this. And I’m like, I’m just gonna go and quickly check that.

Yeah, and it’s incorrect and. I’ll be like, you got that wrong. And I’ll say, oh, sorry. And I’m like, no, if you don’t know something, tell me. I don’t know. [00:27:00] Don’t spit out a lie with confidence. Ah, and I mean, it’s, it’s even gotten better, but at the start, I know there were several cases where it even made up sources.

Yeah. Like you’d be asking, and it doesn’t do that anymore, but it, it used to, you’d say, what’s your source? And it refers you to an article. And there was this one case of a journalist in the uk. Who then got an article supposedly written by himself in his voice, which he’d never written. Mm, wow. Just chap GPT just made it up.

And then that’s exactly it. You need to be able to understand enough about a field. To then be able to use it as a tool. Yeah. It’s not just chat pt, it’s a whole lot of other AI programs as well. You need to, if you know nothing, you are just gonna take everything as face value and you can’t do that.

Absolutely. You need to be able to judge what comes out. Mm-hmm. And then it can sort of supplement that, that that’s, yeah. It’s, it’s a tool. It’s, it’s great, but it’s not just gonna. [00:28:00] Make all our own work go away. Yeah. Which I guess is a good thing. Let’s hope, you know, we don’t know the future. I am seeing people who are who are having their content cr like using, for example, creating courses where the whole thing isn’t a real person.

It’s an AI simulation of someone teaching content. Yeah. You can tell and it’s. It’s not, you don’t relate to that. Yeah. It’s, I think there’s a lot of stuff going on now where it’s sort of like when you actually stay authentic, it’s going to differentiate you. Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. So. I wanna come back to the Profit Academy Foundations, the course of mine that you did.

Mm-hmm. And when you were like, leading up to it, because I, I know that we’d had a, a couple of conversations in the emails in the lead up to it. What goes on for you when you are going down the path of thinking, yes, I know I need to work on my money. You know, but there’s a lot of reservations that can [00:29:00] often come up when we’re going to make an investment.

So I’m curious to know if you were just like, yep, I’m all in. Or if you were sort of. You know, having some thoughts, questions in the lead up to it? No, completely. I think so one thing was that I knew something needed to happen. Yeah. But then it’s hard to see, okay, how, like, do I just hire somebody else who solves, solves this for me and I still don’t have to think about it?

Or do I do it myself, but then I have to train myself properly and it’s like, I’m not gonna do another degree. I’ve been in university enough. Years of my life. I’m done with that. Thank you. But it’s, it, yeah. So, so finding the middle ground, something that’s not exorbitantly expensive, but also something that doesn’t over promise.

Because I wasn’t, I wasn’t gonna join something that’s, you know, $50 and then all you get is some advertisements and you don’t actually get value out of it. My big concern was also because it was an [00:30:00] online course. I’m not very, I. Good with consistency when it comes to courses. I’m not sure anybody ever is.

But I, what really helped me was that, and convinced me that I could do it, is that I could bring in my operations manager and we could do it together. Yeah. And that worked really well, sort of with the get business internal accountability buddy in that regard. Yeah. It also, weirdly, for me, justified the expense because I.

Far more easily invest in other people’s trainings, then I invest in expenses that I perceive as something for me. Mm-hmm. And apparently that extends to financial training.

Yeah. So that was sort of me going, yes, this is also part of the mentorship. This is professional development for my employee and this is what we’re doing, and then I’m gonna benefit for it on the side, but that’s not why I’m spending the money. Mm-hmm. That was me. And then also the [00:31:00] fact that the rant that I joined had some live calls on it.

Yeah. And I knew that for me, that was really going to help to say that gave me a deadline. And when I had to finish that particular module by. That really helped, that made it really achievable. And once I had that sort of that, and then also talked to you a little bit and you’re like, okay, is it actually applicable for my business?

Yes, it is. I’m my, I’m a service-based business. I might not be a creative, well, I am with the, the animations business, but this, I purchased originally with the, the biotech support business. But yeah, so, so that was sort of the process that I went through. Yeah, it’s really, I haven’t regretted it. You could tell.

I’m really pleased to hear that. Yeah, it’s, it’s interesting. I know for me it’s, I, I go through the same journey. Like I love to invest in my, my growth, my personal development. But you know, all the stories pop up when you actually go to make the commitments. Like, you know, do I have the cash for this? What if it doesn’t work?

Will this [00:32:00] style of learning serve me? And it’s really funny for me because. I, I really, I love to have the live calls because I think that it gives people the opportunity, but equally, my learning style is that I love to do self-paced because I’m often doing the dishes and listening, but then I’m like, but then I wanna have a live call that I can go along and ask my questions at.

So that’s, that’s literally how I built the course is that the content is available, but then there’s the, the live, the live calls as well so that people can ask questions. And I thought that was really good because yeah, like some bits I was able to skip. Like I kind of skipped over the Excel part because mm-hmm.

I’d worked with Excel so much and that was okay. Mind you, there were still some good tips in there, even, even for me, who’d been using Excel before, but. But yeah. And then other bits you can kind of go slower and work through it and like, oh, the, the zero part, hold on, and then open my own zero and do it right at the same time.

And that, yeah, that wouldn’t have been possible in a, in a live training, I think. Yeah. So, so in that regard, that [00:33:00] was really good, but then Yeah, exactly. And then we had the live calls to answer any questions. I’m gonna go, hold on. That didn’t make sense to me. What, can we, can we go through that bit again?

Yeah. And even something I love when I’m doing my courses is that we end up forming a little community inside, even though it’s only over a couple of months, you know, you see the beautiful smiling faces and you get to know and connect with people inside the the program as well. And I always really love that component of Yeah, it’s almost like a mini mastermind in that regard.

Exactly. It’s everyone’s on the journey together and you know. Supporting each other. And yeah, it’s really, really nice to connect and, and meet people inside the, the programs as well. So one last thing I wanted to ask to wrap up. So having reflected on going on that, you know, how do I make the decision to commit and then coming out the other side, what have been the, the biggest benefits that you would say you’ve taken away from doing foundations?

The cashflow forecast that’s been so [00:34:00] useful. We use that every week and it’s. It’s like, I seriously, I don’t know if this business would still exist without Wow. Having done that step two years ago. So yeah, you can, you can write that down. I love it. I, I hear so much great feedback about that. I’ve had students of mine from, you know, six years ago who are like, I still start every week off with it, and it really does empower them and give them the, the confidence to, to move forward in their business. So I love that. Thank you for sharing. And obviously, as you mentioned earlier, the, the confidence, the empowerment, learning about the different, you know, how to run your profit and loss and how to do a budget and all of the other components that are inside as well. So thank you for coming and sharing.

Now, if the listeners are listening and would love to connect with you, get some help with their grant writing their animations, or heck, maybe we’ve got someone listening who is a scientist. What’s the best way that they can [00:35:00] connect with you? Yeah, absolutely. LinkedIn, always good. Stupidly complicated surname, but if you search for Simona in Melbourne, you’ll probably find me.

There’s not so many. And then I have websites for the businesses as well. So there’s PTNG, scientific stands for protein engineering dot com. That’s the biotech support business. And then we also have bio viera.com. That’s the graphics and animations business. Beautiful. Well, I will put the links in the show notes for today’s episode so you can connect via the link in the show notes for today’s episode.

Simona, a huge thank you for coming along. It’s so wonderful having you inside the Profit Collective, and I really thank you for coming on and sharing your experience of doing the course as well. Thank you. It’s been really fun. Beautiful. Thanks so much.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio