The secret shame of business owners

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

I’ve been a business coach for over 10 years, and over that time I’ve had front row seat to what really goes on behind the glossy scenes of business ownership. I’ve worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of business owners, and today I wanna peel back the curtain of the secret shame that a lot of business owners hold that they don’t really talk about.

And I wanna let you know, if you’ve ever felt this, you are not alone. So with no further ado, let’s dive into today’s episode of the podcast.

Welcome to the Intentional Money Show, where we talk business growth, profitability, mindset, and building a wildly successful creative or digital business without sacrificing your life in the process. I’m Clare Wood, business profit coach, speaker, author, and unapologetic believer that you can build wealth and freedom doing work you genuinely love.

Each week on the podcast, we dive into the strategies and honest conversations that will help you scale sustainably, increase your profit, and build a business that actually feels good to run. Let’s grow your profit.

If you’re not happy with how your business profit has been for the first six months of the year, now is the time to turn it around. If you want some tools to help you do that, come and join me for the EOFY Profit reset. This is a free live training that I am teaching, and inside I’ll take you through the six step profit reset framework.

I’ll also teach you my simple money management system that takes as little as 15 minutes a week. And plus you’ll learn the five key shifts to get you over that meh feeling and get you feeling excited about business again. To join the free masterclass, click on the link in the show notes for today’s episode.

I wanna open today’s episode with what I believe is the biggest lie in the online business world. And that is the lie that everyone else has it all together.

Where I want to start is having a look at what we see versus what’s really happening. Now, I know that a lot of my clients, a lot of the people that I’ve worked with over the years are comparing themselves to other people online. “Oh my gosh, she’s killing it,” or, “They just opened a new showroom or a new studio.

Why aren’t I performing like that?” Here’s the thing, we never really actually know how someone’s business is performing. What we see online, someone’s followers, what they’re posting on Instagram, that isn’t really telling you how someone is actually performing in their business. Even revenue, when people are posting about their revenue, their million dollar a year or a $50,000 a month, you don’t know how much of that is actually profit.

Some people are posting about awards that they’re winning or the size of their team. Even this isn’t telling us the whole story. Because trust me, I have seen the books of a lot of business owners, and there are plenty of people who have no online presence and incredibly financially successful businesses.

There are seven figure businesses who are struggling with cash flow and barely making ends meet. There are business owners who do have a fully booked thriving business, but are completely miserable and burnt out. There are people who are confidently showing up online, but struggling with crippling self-doubt.

And there are people who, their business is successful on paper, but actually they are miserable in real life. And this is what I want to talk about, is this shame that a lot of entrepreneurs hold. A lot of people are feeling unhappy because they are comparing themself to something that might not even be reality, or simply they don’t actually know what’s going on in their business.

I’ve worked with a lot of people and I say, “How much revenue did you make last year? How much profit did you make last quarter?” And I’d say over 90, 95% of the time people don’t actually know, or they kinda know but not exactly, not in a way that gives them confidence and clarity. So what I this is the patterns that I’ve seen. A lot of people know roughly how much money is coming in and approximately, how much their payroll bill is or what their, roughly what their outgoings are, but they don’t truly understand the numbers.

But they don’t truly understand their numbers. And maybe this is resonating for you. Do you know your profit? Do you know how much you owe in tax? Do you know current cash position? Do you know which of your products or services have the largest profit margin? Do you know if any of your products or services are actually running at a loss?

Do you know how much you’re paying yourself? Here’s the things

 now regardless of what’s going on with your finances, the shame that I see isn’t usually the actual numbers themself. It’s the story that you are telling yourself. And maybe some of these might resonate ’cause these are things that I heard again and again. “I should know this by now.” “I’m so embarrassed to sit down and share my numbers with you.”

“I’ve been in business way too long to not know this stuff.” “Everyone else understands this.” “Why are all those other people so confident?” “I thought I’d be more successful by now.” “What’s wrong with me?” And here’s the thing, we are creating these shame cycles by the stories that we are telling ourselves. And specifically when it comes to your finances, what I’ve noticed is that the bigger that the shame is, the less likely you are to actually wanna pull the hood up and have a look at what’s going on.

It’s a bit of a vicious cycle. So here’s some signs that this might be you. If you have ever had a sleepless night feeling sick about money, wondering have you got enough to pay your team, when your next tax bill is due. Maybe you are struggling with stress and the mental load. You’re lying awake at night unable to go to sleep because you’re just so worried about it.

Maybe you avoid social events because you’re paralyzed by the shame and anxiety. So here’s some signs that maybe, there’s some work that needs to be done in this area on a practical sense as well. So an example might be that you’ve got to pay your team’s wages and just sitting there thinking, “Oh my gosh, I hope that invoice gets paid so that I’ve actually got enough cash to be able to pay these.”

Maybe a tax bill lands and you’ve completely forgotten that you’ve got to pay tax, and so you haven’t put the tax aside. Maybe you keep transferring money between accounts, like you’re like, “Okay, I’ll just borrow that from there or put it on the credit card.” Maybe when the accountant emails, you just avoid their emails because you are just like, “I cannot deal with this right now.

It makes me feel sick.” Maybe you feel like stuck between this rock and a hard place because you know you need to invest in your business, but at the same time you also feel stressed about cash flow. And so you’re like, “I don’t know whether I need to be investing or cutting back. Gosh, I feel like I, I don’t know what the right thing to do is.”

And look, if you’re feeling that sense of shame and, embarrassment, you might be feeling really lonely because when you look online on Instagram, it looks like everyone else is killing it, and you feel like you’re failing. You feel like it might be easier just to go and get a job. So a couple of things that I want to share with you.

Firstly, you don’t need to feel ashamed of this. When you sign up and get your ABN and first set up your business, no one hands you a manual and teaches you how to manage your cash flow and forecast and tax planning. You’re just left to somehow figure it all out on its- on your own. This isn’t a failure.

It’s just simply a skills gap. So here’s three things that I want you to know and take away from today’s episode of the podcast. Okay. Number one, you are not alone. This sense of shame, this sense of I should be doing better, I should be further ahead, all of those things, this is far more common than most business owners realise.

And I’ve seen it in businesses of all sizes. Six-figure businesses, seven-figure businesses. I know that you might think when I get to that next level, this is all gonna go away. I can assure you it doesn’t. It just changes. Number two, the second thing I want you to know. You’re not stupid You are not lazy, you’re not irresponsible, you’re not bad at business, and you are certainly not an idiot.

You are smart and capable. You just simply haven’t been given the tools and support that you need to thrive. And the last thing, number three thing that I want you to know is that this can change. Shame isn’t permanent and stress isn’t permanent. But you need to make a decision to break the cycle, otherwise you will stay in your shame cycle.

So how do we actually break the cycle? Okay, the first part of it is mindset. Because shame is internally created. It’s the meaning that you are attaching to the situation. So learning how to navigate and ask the right questions and how to emotionally support your nervous system through challenging times.

Because let’s face it, challenging times are a normal part of business And then the second part of this is that you do need to change your strategy. You will find that the closer that you get to your numbers and the more that you have a clear marketing strategy that you are executing, the more you understand your sales processes, your profit, your cashflow, the more empowered you will be.

You’ll stop being scared of numbers, and you’ll start feeling empowered around how you can create real growth. So if anything in today’s episode is resonating with you and you’re thinking yes, I need some help,” I would love to invite you along to my free training happening this week, which is called the End of Financial Year Profit Reset.

Inside, I’m gonna help you. It’s a live training, and I’ll help you to get across the profit levers and importantly understand the six steps that you need to take to make more profit. We’re not gonna be sitting down and just looking through financial reports. This is really about a holistic approach to business.

It’s about feeling confident, in control, and having some clear tools to actually help you move forward with clarity. If this sounds like what you need, there is a link in the show notes for today’s episode for the End of Financial Year Profit Reset, ’cause it’s happening on Thursday. And I also have a huge bonus, which is free for anyone who attends live, which is 50 revenue boosters.

That’s 50 epic ideas that you can execute to add more sales into your business ASAP. But you only get that if you come along live, so I really encourage you to be there live on Thursday. Join up via the link in the show notes for today’s episode. Because your shame isn’t necessarily because of what’s going on.

It’s because of how you are feeling about what’s going on and because you aren’t taking steps to move you towards the profit position that you want to be in. And if today’s episode has taught you anything, I hope it’s this: you need more support to create different outcomes. And all you need to do is acknowledge that and start to take steps to create different outcomes.

Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode of The Intentional Money Show, and I look forward to chatting to you again next week. Adios.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode of the Intentional Money Show. If you’re ready for more profit, come find me on Instagram at clare_wood_coach. Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast, and I’ll chat to you again next week

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