Money Makeover: Sarah Suzuki's Journey to Financial Empowerment and Freedom Artwork

Cash & Sass

Are you ready to ditch the hush-hush attitude towards money? If you're craving real talk about your finances, you're in the right place. Join me as we kick the money taboo to the curb and dive headfirst into the candid cash-versations you've been dreaming of. I'm Lisa Marie, and this is the Cash and Sass podcast. As the Sassy Wealth Queen and the brains behind the Sassy Wealth Coach, I'm here to take you on a thrilling ride from financial chaos to sassy and sexy money. I've gathered a squad of amazing guests to fearlessly explore everything under the sun about money, money mindset, and money management. No topic is off-limits – consider this podcast your judgment-free zone for all things money. I'm not just your host; I'm a fellow warrior who turned my business from food stamps to six figures. Now, I'm on a mission to share the secrets of sassy and sexy money with as many incredible women as possible. Get ready for an empowering journey where you can finally build a fantastic relationship with your money. If you're eager to break free from the money taboo, and ready for candid cash-versations then buckle up, because the Cash and Sass podcast is here to revolutionize your relationship with money. Let the sassiness and sexiness of your money begin!

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Money Makeover: Sarah Suzuki's Journey to Financial Empowerment and Freedom

February 22, 2024 • Lisa Marie Robinson & Sarah Suzuki • Episode 2

In this episode of the "Cash and Sass" podcast, host Lisa Marie and guest Sarah Suzuki discuss Sarah's journey from a scarcity mindset to financial empowerment. Sarah, a clinical social worker and founder of Chicago Campus Counseling, shares how childhood experiences shaped her views on money, leading to fear-based decisions.

With Lisa's wealth coaching, Sarah transformed her approach to money, resulting in significant business decisions and personal financial confidence. They highlight the importance of professional support and the positive changes in Sarah's business, personal life, and team dynamics, especially during the challenging times of 2020. The episode emphasizes the value of vulnerability and partnership in achieving financial success and well-being.

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Scarcity Mindset (00:02:29) Sarah discusses the childhood imprints and experiences that led to her scarcity mindset and its impact on her financial decisions.

Challenges of Managing Money as an Entrepreneur (00:06:19) Sarah shares her struggles with managing money and her beliefs about her lack of knowledge in financial matters.

Family Influence on Money Mindset (00:09:41) Sarah talks about the disconnect she felt with her family's financial understanding and how her brother's intuitive sense contrasted with her own emotional understanding.

Hiring a Money Coach (00:13:38) Sarah discusses her initial skepticism and the process of hiring a money coach, including her request for a trial period and the eventual positive transformation in her financial management.

Business Expansion (00:20:46) Lisa Marie highlights Sarah's significant business expansion, including signing a long-term lease, as a result of the improved financial management.

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1:00:00

[MUSIC]You're listening to Cash and Sass.I'm Lisa Marie, your go-togal for all things money.As the Sassy Wealth Queen and the brainsbehind the Sassy Wealth Coach,I'm here to take you on a thrilling ridefrom the financial chaos to Sassy andsexy money.Hey, my Sassy friend, welcome back toCash in SaaS podcast.And with me today is my friend andone of my long standingclients, Sarah Suzuki.And I'm gonna, no, I'm not gonna do yourtitles right, but I'm gonna try.I'm going to, a little bit about Sarah.Sarah Suzuki has an LCSW and a CRADC,is a trailblazer inrecovery and behavior change.And as the founder of Chicago CompassCounseling, she champions identityaffirming change thatconfronts systematic racism.Known for herinvitation to accountability.I so love that.Sarah has spurred transformative changein over 60 organizations,including the FBI and major conferences.Alongside Sarah Bueno,did I say that right?- Bueno, yes.- Yay, okay.She co-developed the CERAS,which is a groundbreaking initiative todismantle white supremacy.In her personal life, she finds balancein a nonfiction writing,serving on the board of SISTA, AFACommunity Care and Cross Country Skiing.More than a leader, Sarah is a devotedco-conspirator in systematic liberation.Her primary aim is to center recovery asthe key to equitable andaccessible care for all.And one of the things I'm gonna say aboutSarah is her counseling businessis all about recovery.That's where, that's what their niche is,is all about recovery.So Sarah, what I wannastart with is you mentioned,when I asked you what one of yourlimiting money beliefs were,was it was good tolive in scarcity mindset.And you put becausescarcity keeps you sharp.And I find thatinteresting because of course,our brain immediatelyknows that's not true, yet,that's where yourscarcity mindset stemmed from.Can you go a little bit into that?Oh, yeah. So it, I mean,I'm a therapist, right?So I think a lot of stuff goes back tochildhood imprints and experiences.And for me, I had this experience of, somy mom was a single mom.My dad had a lot of mental illness.And part of his mental illness was notmanaging money very well.And her kind of role was to try to raisemy brother and me and provide for us.And she often would be very worried aboutmoney or worrying about how to paythe bills or we'd go over to his houseand she would be cutting up credit cardoffers that were in his mailbox.And so I started to associate worryingabout money and being scared of moneywith being responsibleand caring and loving.And then in contrast, with my idea thatmy dad just kind of wasn't paying anyattention to money, felt like he couldspend wherever, whatever,being easy going about money wasdangerous, that thatwas a path of slippingtoward insanity. And of course, I'msaying this in thesevery reductive terms,but as a child, that wasreally how I internalized it.My mom had the good mindset. My dad hadthe dangerous, bad mindset.And of course, right,it's very imbalanced.And I know that's not true, but there's ahypervigilance and a fear that I alwaysbrought to money. And it didn't lead tome making good decisions.It really led to me being almost theopposite of what I wanted, more impulsiveor making these likeemotional fear-based decisions.Or like I think this is a classic examplein financial, personal financialliterature. I'd get into credit card debtand then be scared of how much debtthere was and I'd pay it all off at onceto feel better, but then I wouldn't haveany cash flow. So my whole scarcitymindset led to thissort of white knuckledfear when it came to money. So hopefullythat kind of explains it a little bit.It does. And what I find interesting isthat a lot of us have these types ofstories, whether they're different orsome could be the same, but we all havesomething from our childhood that hasstemmed in, that has given us thatimbalance, especially when it comes tomoney mindset and money management.And a lot of times, just like you, whenyou reached out to me and we startedworking, in a lot of ways we don'trealize it. Or if werealize it, we don't knowwhat the hell we're supposed to do aboutit, right? Because we were never taughtbecause it came from our generation andit came from the generation before them.And what I loved about it is, is you saidthat, you know, in some ways you madesome good decisions. However, thescarcity mindsetprevented you from making wisedecisions. And me doing DBT years ago, Iwas like, hey, I know what that meant.Yeah, right. Right. Dialectical behaviortherapy, wise mind where you're bringingin your emotion mind and your, you know,rational, logical mind.Right. Right. So what was one of thehardest parts of managing the money side,the financial side when you decided tobecome an entrepreneur?Well, I mean, pretty much everything,because by the time I became anentrepreneur and also was trained in atherapy, to be atherapist, I had a prettygood idea of my strengths. But anotherreally limiting beliefthat I had is I don'tknow anything about money. I'm clueless.There's no way I can possibly learn it.And just that I have no idea what I'mdoing. And so I would tryto learn about it, but thenanybody who would tell me, oh, well, Iknow more about it, or Ican help you figure it out.I would kind of instantly trust them andthen not really trust myself.So I just kind of felt like, you know, ifI'd read somethinglike, oh, you need to have,you need to have anaccountant who is filing your taxes.I'd be like, okay, yeah, I need to findthat. Oh, you need tomake sure that you've got anaccounting system. Here's a system youcould use. I'm like, allright, let me try that.And so I just kind of trusted any pieceof advice that would come my way.And I ended up with this sort of verykind of chaotic functioning, I think.Because in my mind, right, I can trusteveryone and everythingexcept for myself when it came tomoney. Except then I started having tolike trust myself when I was like, huh,something seems likewrong. Things are not actually adding up.So I don't know if I don'tknow if we want to talk aboutthat part of like ourorigin story, too, you know?Oh, we're going to get into that. We'regoing to get into thatbecause I want and the reason why isbecause which is why I love the fact thatyou're my first guest isbecause I want the listeners,I want my sassy friend to hear and seefor those who watch it onYouTube, to see the transformationthat's actually possible because I thinkas you know, you know, I'mall about sassy money, sassyand sexy money. I say it all the time.And we've talked about it several timesthat I'm about kickingthe money taboo to the curb because it'sa huge taboo just like mentalhealth. We won't get on thatsoapbox today. We'll stay on the moneysoapbox. But money, I want tokick money taboo to the curb.And so I think it's important for peopleto hear, right, where you started andwhere you're at now,because there's a huge transformationthat's come across. And I want mylisteners to realize that wedon't have to stay stuck in that cycle.So my next question was,what was it like with family?Like, I know your brother's a financialadvisor, right? And like your mom and Iremember you telling methat, you know, they would try to showyou things when you were trying to learnit. But there was this,I want to say disconnect. Right, right.No, there was always, there was, it justalways seemed likethere was a disconnect.My mom will even say today, you know,she's like, Oh, all your life, like youtried so hard, likeyou try so hard to likelearn and understand it. My brotheralways seemed to have an intuitive senseabout how to understand money.I was, you know, somebody where if we gotlike a 25 cent allowance, which is wildto think that 25 centswas, could get you somethingback in the day, not long ago. I wasgoing to say, wait a minute, my kidswould be like, what am Isupposed to buy with this?I know, it's a different time. But, youknow, my brother would save it. And Iwould just be like, I'mgoing to get some candy at 7-11.So, you know, anyway, my my mom wouldlike try and give me tips and pointers,and I would try to learnthat and show her my progress.And, and my brother just, it was sointuitive. So he, he has a CFO businessthat they work with different kinds ofmedium sized companies.And, you know, you can certainly look upmore about that. But he, he just alwaysunderstood it. And I think, I think therewas just something deeply intuitive tohim about finances and money.And, and in that way, it was just like,it felt like we were really differentpeople. Like I had this more, I guess,verbal or emotionalkind of understanding.And he had this more financialunderstanding. And of course, the amazingthing now is, I think, a lot of credit tothe work you've done with me.We now have gotten to a point ofrealizing that he and I do the samething. We really do the same thing wherewe are providing this, you know, highlevel consultation to our clients.And we are addressing some of the mostchallenging topics, shame, stigma, fear,things that can bring up so muchvulnerability, but to do it in a way thatgives people skill and illuminates theirunderstanding and helpsthem live better lives.And, you know, that, that's the magic,right? And I feel like as a therapist oras a consultant, that's always felt likesomething where I feelpretty confident doing that.But not so with money. My brother, youknow, recognized that for years. And justa few months ago, we were actually, I washelping out at, he had a stand at one ofthe, the MAPSconference for his business.He was like, wow, this is, it's amazingto hear you talk about business decisionsand strategic investments and financialforecasting with this level of ease that,you know, even just howyou are making big decisions.He's like, you have a level ofsophistication now that would not havebeen possible a few years ago. He's like,you've really transformed.And, you know, of course, for me, Iadmire the journey that he's made in hisown self work, in his own developmentand, you know, being, youknow, doing so much amazing work.So it's kind of like we've met in thisplace of similarity, but we both had toseek out the right supports to get there.I could not teach my brother therapy,right? And he could not teach me finance.Right, right. Yeah. So talk about whatled you, because youeventually hired people to help you.And I remember that when you came to meway back in, what did we determine, 2017?Yes, 2017. Yes, yes, 2017. And Iremember, and I don't normally do this,but for some reason I decided that I wasgoing to, you asked for it.I think it was a trial basis. Yeah. Andtell us what led you to that. Like whathappened? What in the money sphere foryou calls that to happen?Yeah. Well, this is, I don't know if I'veever told you this. I nicknamed thatperiod of time in my life, like thebattle of the accountants, where Iimagined like thislike Colosseum of a man.Colosseum of accountants. And I wastelling people, I'm like, all right, I'mjust going to get people into battle andwhoever emergesvictorious is the winner, right?But the bottom line. And you didn't knowyou were going to end upwith a CFO and a wealth coach.No, no, no, I did not. I did not. When Icame to you, I mean, I can just picturethe email in my mind.I was like so suspicious and so fearfuland so burned. And I felt so betrayed bya lot of really bad advice or guidance. Ipaid for my books, which I had paidsomeone to maintain ormanage my books were a mess.And I'd had, you know, differentaccountants look at it andconfirm, yes, they're a mess.I had errors with the IRS, with filings.Everything was really it just felt like,you know, I'd let the train totallyderail. And when I thought about it, itwas almost like there's a level ofattention that I wasn't paying to thingsbecause I told myselfthat I didn't know anything.So I'm just going to, you know, trustpeople. So I came at you like reallydistrustful or I'm like, OK, I know youdon't offer this, but can we do 90 daysand no obligation to meand we'll just do this.And and I don't know. I don't know whyyou took a chance to me because I camein. I was like really skeptical. But youwant me to tell you what you want me totell you why? Yeah,because you you offered a plan.You didn't come to me and say, I don'twant to do this. I just want to do it.Pay as you go and I'll make a decision.You said, can we do a 90 day trial?You are willing to sign a 90 dayagreement and we do a 90 day trial andthen we relook at it. So youcame with a plan and I'm right.I'm like super, super big on plans. It'sthe analytical brain. I can't help it.And and the other thing is is I rememberyou told me I have abookkeeper and I said, that's fine.I'm not a bookkeeper. If you have abookkeeper, I still need access to yourbooks. What I do is I do money coaching,wealth coaching and I'm a fractional CFO.So I merged those two together because Ibelieve money mindset and moneymanagement go hand in hand and you werelike, OK, look, I've beenburned. Can we do 90 day trial?Yeah. And I was like, because we met andthen you emailed me. We met and I toldyou my my thing and then you emailed me.And so literally you took the lesson. Youtook the 24 hours thing about and youemailed me with your your thing. Andthat's the reason why I said yes, becauseyou had explained that you'd been burned.Right. You weren't trying to takeadvantage. You were trying to ease yournervous system. And you came with a OK, Iknow this isn't a planyou normally do. Right.Right. You know, would you be willing todo this unless we look at it now? Can youtell everybody whathappens 60 days after?Because I mean, go 90 days.Well, like I so like now it feels so feelso far. I am pretty sure. OK. Now I'mlooking back and I'm like, yes, I came. Icame to you with a plan because as afellow professional, right?Because I do see you as a consultant. Inever want to waste someone's time orenergy. Here's the other thing. I just Ijust want to kind of go back to thisbecause it's so commonin the field of therapy.There are there just a lot of people inmy profession where we're sellingnonsense. Right. And so I think that'spart of why I nonsense kinds of coaching.And I don't want to disrespect. I knowlots of amazing coaches who aretherapists. But I think that was anotherthing that I respect people's expertise.And and I was like, you know, like I wasjust I was not trusting myself and andand, you know, but wantingto trust someone. So, yeah.Now, the way I remember it, 60 days in isI'm pretty sure I fired my otheraccountant and we were movingto another arrangement, but.Yeah, your book, your bookkeeper, who wasthe one that had fixed a lot of thingsand you had trusted and you were thatyou'd let go of the other accountant.We were when I was looking at the booksto go over your numbers and look at thestuff, we were finding that there werethings that weremisclassified and we were having fix.And I said, you know, I said, I'm notgoing to do it. I just want to bring thisto your attention because he had told youa couple of times that hewas doing a couple of things.And you had told me and I brought it toyour attention. And I'm not doing that tocall anyone out. My my point of that is,is that when we started and we built andyou could tell people webuilt your own money roadmap.We built you a personalized for yourbusiness money roadmap.And I talk about this a lot.I think traditional budgeting doesn'twork, which is what I told Sarah. Ibelieve that you should have a moneyroadmap that is built specifically foryou, your business and your lifestyle.And when we were doing that in theprocess of doing that and setting up thewhat I call those virtual buckets, yougot really excited because I rememberbecause it made sense to you.We were like, OK, this I can do. Thismakes sense. And we we did. We startedoff with a new a new agreement. Now, canyou share what was that like?I remember what happened, I think, within60 days after us doingthat. You went and saw.You went, by the way, yes, I'm going tosign a six month agreement with you. Oh,and we're moving into a bigger office.Yeah, I signed a seven year massive leaseto rent commercial real estate in primeChicago downtown property. And yeah, andI said, I've got a massive lease.I have to put down a twenty thousanddollar security deposit. I'm borrowingthat money and I don't know how we'regoing to fund the rental.But that's not on you. This is what we'redoing now. Right. And and and then thisis right where I remember you took a lookat everything and you saidthis is going to be tough.There are many times where it's reallytough. You're going to like question ifyou can go on, but we'regoing to get through it.And, you know, eight months from now, youlook back and there will be a pathway.And I remember I warned you that therewere going something was going to likesomething was going to pop up just whenyou thought it was going good.It was going to pop up and it was goingto get tight. It was going to get reallytight. And but then I reminded you thatthat's what my OSHA calls were for.Right. Right. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Now,it was I mean, the timing of of yougetting, you know, becoming really like apartner in our business was so goodbecause I mean, some peoplemight look at it as like, wow,I suddenly had taken on just with thelease alone, not not furnishing, but justlease obligation, thousands of dollars amonth and additional costs.And and, you know, I was investing notjust in a 90 day trial with you, but likea very serious let's go all in, you know,on money coaching, fractional CFO, allthe services, the whole suite.And, you know, I can tell you, like, Ican think of so many ways that I havewasted money in my life, but not a singlepenny was wasted in that guidance,starting from that point, because now,right, we're at the we're at theconclusion of this seven year lease.And my business, it not only exists, butyou know, it's on the map in a way thatwould have beenunfathomable to me back in 2017. Right.And at the end of the day, numbers arethe engine that, you know, shows thestewardship, it drives everything. It'sit's so, so vital. And I guess, you know,I went from kind ofseeing money as this, like,inconvenient thing that I have to thinkabout sometimes and deal with, you know,as a cost of doing business to, you know,being a key to, like, reallyunderstanding what's happening with thebusiness and how to resource differentinitiatives and, and having fun with it.And having fun with it. I never thoughtthat I would have fun thinking about bignumbers or talking about things or evenlike, I mean, right, it's a it's justit's wild to think about how I went frombeing like very, very frightened to eventhink of a single bill to being able tolook at, you know, some like bigdecisions and have fun playing with theways that we could approach it, you know.Yeah, because and that's what I was gonnaask you is like, how, how do you feel nowcompared when it comes to money, comparedto where you were when, you know, in2017, even or to, you know, even even nowcompared to like 2018, when, you know,you basically started almost over,because you you did a you dida clean up is what I call it.Right. Yeah. Right. You did a cleanup.Yeah. I mean, really, yeah, you joined usat a point when the business as anemployee based business because now youknow, we've got 17 therapists and, youknow, all these different, you know,projects that we do with theChicago area and beyond, right.I mean, it's, it's, it's way bigger thanI thought it would be back then. But, butyeah, when I think about how money was,it's like, I, I think I was the kind ofperson where I didn't want to think aboutmoney, but I would be logging into mybusiness bank account to look at it andcheck it multiple times per day.Like, I felt like that was like a healthybehavior, or it was a way to stayinformed. And, um, but you were stressed,you were stressing yourself out, dostressing myself out, right. Because Ihad this idea that that wouldhelp me be more aware somehow.And, um, and, you know, there aredefinitely some, there are definitelysome things you have me do. I appreciateas a behaviorist that, um, that I foundchallenging and you'd say, no, this isactually good for you. And I would belike, all right, I'm going to accept thatbecause this feels really uncomfortable.And I know this is probably good for me,right? So like times where you would say,wow, um, like when first started workingwith you and you're like, okay, how muchare you paying yourself? And I'm like,oh, nothing. And you're like, okay, uh,you've got to pay yourself something.And I'm like, well, I'll just, you know,$50 here or there. I mean, that's, Ireally, I mean, I feel embarrassed to saythat now, but that really was how I wasliving where I'm like, well, once thebusiness is perfect, then I can like paymyself, which again is like, and I, and Ilove that you said that because the factthat you said when the business gets to,cause I think that's the mistake that somany of us make, including me.When the business gets where it, I wantit where it's perfect, I'll then startpaying myself. And the problem with thisis, or the issue with this is asentrepreneurs, the business doesn't everget to where it's perfect because we'regoing to constant work.We're constantly changing it and we're upleveling and no offense, but shithappens. Life happens. And if youwouldn't have started paying yourselfbefore less, well, let's justbring it up. COVID happened.Yeah, right. Right.You know, and everyone has to realizethat we can't wait for it to be perfectfor us to start paying ourselves. Right.So I want to ask you a question because.Will you say that, do you consideryourself more empowered now with yourmoney versus then? Like when you look atyour bank account now, does it stress youout as much or as, yeah, as much as itdid before? And do you feel moreempowered or what's different?Oh, I mean, I feel way more empowered andthe striking difference was so this year,actually my husband and Ibought our first house and.I was going to ask you how it affectedyour personal life too.Yeah, well, right. Yeah. Pre working withyou, right. My husband and I were infinancial couples counseling becauseyeah, I not paying myself had an effecton our marriage. Right. It had an effecton our well-being. It had an effect on,you know, my sanity, to be honest.Well, and both of you.Here's the thing. We as humans,especially women, aren't taught to talkabout money and men will talk about it acertain way. And then when you put a manand a woman to talk about it, we end upbeating heads most of the time. Right.And that becomes an issue. And when youwere telling me, you know, my husband andI were in, we're in financial counselingbecause we need to learn how to talkabout money and we're doing this. And oneof the things that we would discuss is,is your mindset around it so that youcould go in and come from a differentperspective because I was like, okay,well, Sarah, one,you're not paying yourself.And two, in order for the conversation tochange your mindset has to flip.Oh my gosh. It's so true because, becauseI had this, you know, mistaken belieffrom childhood that, you know, beingfearful and stressed out about money is asign of love. I would approach Jack bybeing like, oh my gosh, what are we goingto do about this or this bill?Which, you know, that's not like, that'snot a very relaxing way to start aconversation, right? But no, so, youknow, we were able to buy a house thatwas the right place at the right time andto really execute on that decision.Despite, I think, you know, even somefears that he had about, you know, can wedo it? Does it make sense? Because thesame things that you taught me to do withthe business, I was doing with ourpersonal finances too.And to be honest, I went from being likethis, like scared, worried, I don't know,what are we going to do to, you know, Ido our taxes, I do our financialaccounting, benefits,elections, all that stuff.And, you know, and he gets our groceriesand cooks a lot of our dinners, I cansmell them cooking dinner right now. Andit's wonderful, right? But I can talkwith him in that calm, organized,reasonable way that I'd like to imagineI'd talk to my clients, you know,therapeutically or organizationally,because I actually can look at numberswithout seeing them as a personal attack,see those information that I can use. Andit's just so interesting, Lisa, becauseyou mentioned how my group does this,like, recovery informed work in so manyareas that are stigmatized, but I reallybuilt my own personal brand aroundhelping men moderate their drinking, whoare having problem drinking.And there's so much shame and so muchfear that people have when it comes todrinking and that men have when it comesto talking to a therapist and thencombine that with drinking.And it's this whole thing.And I found it really easy to createthis, like very, you know, I still dothis very safe space to like, look at thenumbers and think about it and thinkabout strategies. And that's definitelyit's the same thing that you do with me.And I was coming from that place of, youknow, just like a lot of my men werethere, like, I don't think I need to goto rehab, but I need something and I needand I don't really know what it is. Andit's just it's so nice to have a partnerand change who can belike, let me take a look.Let's break it down. And unlike my otherbad advisors in the past, you weren'ttrying to dress up orhide tough realities.I basically told you what I was going tosay. That's the sassy part. And I respectthat. I respect people who can say, hey,here's what's going on because businessowners, we don't have timefor people to be damaged.We don't have time for people to bedancing around realities or trying to. Wedo not want peoplehiding tough realities. Right.I remember when you first hired when shefirst started, you told me there'snothing wrong with my mindset. I justdon't trust anyone. And I was like, okay.And then we got to talking and I went,nothing wrong with your mindset.I was like, and then I remember when wewere talking about like, you know, thespending, like where was certain thingsgoing and we were looking at it and Iremember looking at it and I was like,OK, I'm just going to have to tell her.And you know what? I don't know if she'sgoing to fire me or not because I knew Iwasn't going to like pussyfoot around,right? I wasn't going to tiptoe. Right.And and I say that, but I come from Ialways come from love. I always say itwith love. But you're right. I didn'thide it. I said, Sarah, this is what I'mseeing. This is where your money's going.And you need to make it stop.Yep. You know, you've got people doingthis and this. And this is where one ofyour other money leaks are. You've got toyou've got to make it stop.And I mean, that's what that's whatsomebody wants, though. Right. Like Iwant someone who is saying, hey, youknow, check the engine. Here's the thing.Right. And now I mean that I trust peoplewho can tell me the tough realities.And that's one of the hardest things forus to get when we're in right leadershippositions, running our own businesses isto get honest feedbackfrom anyone, you know.Well, and I also think it's really hardbecause, you know, when you're in a direstate or when you're in a rough spot andyou don't have a lot of money investing,a lot of money toinvest in help or whatever.And I remember you telling me, and I wasI think it was a couple of years ago. Soit was in our five year mark that, youknow, you said Ididn't have a lot of money.I didn't have a lot of trust. And I stillinvested. And that's really importantbecause it was time to invest in someonethat would actually have my back.And I think that's really important,whether it's a wealth coach or atherapist or a business coach or amarketing, whatever it may be.I think it's really important to honestlysit and think about it and go, OK, thiswill cost me this now. And what would myoutcome be if I don't wait?Right. Or what would my outcome be if Ido wait? And, you know, I believe thatyour outcome is so muchbetter because you didn't wait.And I'm not tooting my own horn on that.I'm just I'm saying because was it all.And for everyone from my sassy friendsout there, was it all better roses thelast seven years thatwe've worked together?I know. But right. That's and I'm gladthat you are using the the accurate termCFO because that's the thing is you'vebeen in the C suite with me. Right.And when you get into the executivesuite, it's not all like, oh,everything's just like that's it's that'sreal. It's not all roses. Right.We're looking at real big things. But Ithink, you know, again, I don't have anyregrets about the decisionthat I made to bring you on.I think, you know, whenever somebody'slike wondering about whether or not it'sworth it to bring in a CFO or a wealthadvisor, I think I had the same kind ofidea that, oh, well, that's someone whotells me that I can spend five hundreddollars on Facebook ads.I spent too much here or asks for W nineand where they just file some expenses.And that's that's notwhat it is at all. Right.It's like we spend a lot of time doingstrategic operational thinking thatinforms like major decisions. Like I canthink of the major decision points in thelife of the businessover the past seven years.And you've been involved in every singlepoint. I see you smiling, but I'm like,it's, you know, for me, it's a reallystrange thing to say out loud becausewhen I brought you on, I didn't think Ididn't think like, oh, yeah, that'll bewe'll be in this, you know, likeexecutive partnership together.I used to. I used to. You did. You did.Since I was having since I just had atrust problem, you had a huge trustproblem. And then you were like, okay,I'm going to take the chance.But you were still that nervous systemwas still there. Right. Yeah. And I waslike, okay, we're going to have to dobaby steps and we're going to have toease her in. And so I eased you in.And, you know, and I think it's reallyimportant that, you know, when you hire acoach or a therapist or, you know, anadvisor, anybody that there's someonewho's going to get you right.And who's going to take the time to knowyou and your business and your lifestyle.And when I first met her, she was livingin Chicago a year ago. It's not beenquite a year. She informed me she wasmoving somewhere even colder.And I told her she lost her mind. I alsoremember, was it before COVID or afterCOVID that you text me panicking?Because all of us down here in the southand the east coast were experiencing andI think it was a couple of years ago, wehad these big, huge, major hurricanes.And they were popping up everywhere. AndI laugh about it because she texts me andshe goes, oh my gosh, are you okay? Youknow, I just I need to pick you up andjust move you Midwest.And my comment was, no. I was like,there's only one issue with that. And shesaid, what? And I said, you get snow andyou get a lot of snow. I'll take thehurricane and the tornadoes. Thank you.And it was, it was a really bad storm.The winds were, you know, this year we'vehad a couple, but they weren't nearly asbad as what you had had you'd seen thatyear. And it's like it takes turns.But the point is, is we, we got to knoweach other, right? So much so that shewas realizing that something washappening on my end of the world, justlike when something'shappening over there.The one year y'all got like tons offrickin' snow in Chicago. And I'm like,okay, I know y'all are used to snow, butthis looks like a blizzard, you know. AndI text you and I was like, okay, arey'all okay? You know?Because again, that's the point is youwant someone who cares about you, yourbusiness and your lifestyle. And when shetold me she was moving, again, we, Iimmediately went into strategic strategicplanning mode with her.And I said, okay, we need to plan, right?She said, yes. These are the things thatI'm thinking of. These are the issues I'mhaving. What can we do? Andwe sat down and we planned.Yeah.And because we did that, it made the movea lot less stressful and a lot moreseamless so that you andyour husband could buy a house.Yes. No, I mean, I, again, it was, it wasreally just so surprising to experiencehow smooth all that was because, youknow, I was not looking forward to an outof state move. And, you know, it was kindof dreading all of it. Andit ended up being wonderful.But I think it says a lot that I don'tknow if you've ever in any of our calls,like video calls, like seen Jack ortalked to him or said hi. I don't evenknow if he's passed in the background.I actually think one time you did. Youhad him before y'all moved. You had himcome in and say hi to me so that I couldbe introduced because I think it wasduring the time y'all weredoing some of the counseling.And I don't remember what it was I said,but I'd given you some advice and you'relike, oh my gosh, you're right. Okay. Ineed to come from this. And when you didthat, and he said, wait a minute. And youwere like, he was like, wait a minute.Where'd I come from? And he was like, mywealth coach, my chieffinancial officer. Yeah.She was talking in this and he goes andhe got, and you were like, you know what,you need to meet her.Seriously. Well, I mean, it says a lotthat yes, there's that one time, but Jackloves you. Like he, you know, heattributes significant improvements in myconfidence in my well being and just evenlike, he'll look back and think like, ohman, I like, I remember how chaotic, youknow, your approach was to business.And he's like, now you talk about thesedecisions and it's like really informed.And, you know, I think it's, it's just,it's very reassuring to him. But I thinkthat says a lot, you know, that he knowsthe impact that you've had.And, and it's seen that with our teamtoo. I mean, I don't think anyone on myteam has ever gotten to like meet you inperson or talk to you fora prolonged period of time.But people know how important yourguidance is and they'll say, oh yeah,well, you know, like, what would Lisathink about this? Or I'll say, oh yeah,Lisa said we did a great job with this.And they'll say, wow,that's, that's amazing.And if I give like an affirmation,they're so happy because they know thatyou are keeping it real, you know, and,and they really respect how we've beenable to flourish and grow. And even howyou were there for our whole team.And I don't, it's late at night. I'mlike, I don't want to tear up thinkingabout this, but I just think about howyou were there for my team in 2020 whenwe were going through, youknow, just a huge upheaval.And at the time, every one of my staffwas a person of color and we all werejust maxed out with what was happeningwith George Floyd in summer 2020.And I remember reaching out and saying,hey, like, how much can we pay everybodyto just have a week where we don't haveto come into work and we can just haveone meeting and check in with each other.And you were like, I'll do the math rightnow. And you had that figure to me in, Ithink I had that figure to you in acouple of hours because I was going tosay my memory was like 10 minutes.And we talked with my team.Y'all had been working nonstop, doing thevirtual. Y'all been going, I mean, justnonstop because of course your niche, youhad so many people who all of a suddencouldn't go outanywhere, couldn't do anything.And they were going to go back to thosebad habits. And y'all were just, you wereburnt out. We were nowhere near the end.And then you add George Floyd to the topof that and y'all all were feeling it.And you emailed, I thinkyou actually texted me.I think I texted you because it was like,well, I was just in aGoogle chat with my team.And you said, you know, hey, look, I knowit's the middle of theday. What do you think?And I said, I'll run the numbers rightnow. Give me a few minutes. And I think Idid. I think it was within 15 minutesthat I got back to you.Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, and it's like,and to this day, that was one of thedefining aspects ofthe culture of our group.And you have been so patient and kindwith me with other things where I'll belike, oh, I want to begenerous in this kind of way.We're like, okay, this past, you know,like Juneteenth, I'm like, let's giveeverybody the holiday andlet's implement PTO in advance.And I think I want to do it. I've alreadymade the announcement. You're like, okay,well, I'll figure outhow to incorporate that.And you still, you keep my feet plantedon the ground with how to make it work.And I just, I really appreciate thatabout you, that youaccept what's important to me.You know, even if it might notnecessarily be how you would personallygo about with the business, you reallytake time to understand how I want tocreate a culture and a company and what'simportant to my team.And yeah, I mean, that really was, thatwas the thing that really synced it allup for our team and our whole identity.And again, you wereat the center of that.And I could go to my team and say, hey,look, again, everybody's clinicians ofcolor. I'm like, our amazing whiteaccountant, who is our CFO, is settingaside this fund for us so that we cantake a week and we can just like, you know, connect it to the team.We called it a Mental Health Week. Y'allcould connect with each other and youcould just disconnect from everythingelse. We decided we were giving everyonea paid Mental HealthWeek is what we were doing.And I honestly, I--And I hope staff appreciated that. Yeah.And I also believe, though, that that'swhat helped y'all get through the rest of2020 because it was just hitting yourstaff really hard. And I think it's alsoimportant that, you know, not only areyou wanting to make a difference in otherpeople's lives that way, but you speak onstages and you write things like youwrite things to get y'all.She gets grants, okay? She has grantsawarded to her. Like, I've actually toldher that I'm in awe of she can--the stuffthat she writes is amazing. And sheis--she is so--how passionate I am aboutmoney taboo and mental health taboobecause I do have a daughter who hasmental health disorder.She is just as passionate about systemracism and the mental health that shegoes and talks on stages, right? And Imean, she gets big wigs to change howthey're doing things. And she downplaysit. And I just think it's reallyimportant that a lot of the work thatyou've done with your money and yourmoney mindset has beenable to lead you to--To be able to get these grants and get onthese stages so that you can make theimpact that you want to make. Becausewhen I started working with you in 2017,that wasn't something you--you alwayswanted to do something about it, butyou'd never really saw that you weregoing to be on stagemaking those kinds of impact.Right. Well, right. Because as long asthere's this huge area of like fear andshame and, you know, feeling ignorant orfeeling like a fraud, right? I couldn'tput myself out there to talk about like athird real issue like racism, right?And now I can go on stage and I can talkabout things that, you know, are veryaffecting for people. And it is reallyimportant to me to use the platform thatI have to advocate for the world that Iwant, you know, my nieces and theirchildren and their children'schildren to be able to live in.But I wasn't able to do that when I hadall that fear and contraction to protector that I wasn't ready to deal with. Andyeah, it's kind of like, well, if I canbe authentically myself, if there'snothing for me to hide, then I can go ona stage and talk withanyone about anything, you know?So yeah, it's really interesting how Ithink for a long time, you know, I justthought of, you know, money and financesas something kind of separate for me forsomeone else to think about somewhereelse. And I think a lot of usunconsciously do that.And I didn't realize that the feeling oflike increasing mastery and understandingwould be enjoyable, that it wouldactually make me feel agreat sense of enjoyment.Like, I don't obsessively go into, youknow, my business bank account anymore, Ican go into QuickBooks and, you know, runa P&L and understand that and run acomparative analysis. And I, you know,can pull my own like tables of thingsand, you know, different financialforecasting and, and actually have funwith that and then make slides about it.I mean, again, I never would havepictured that I would feel comfortabledoing something like that a long timeago, but yeah. Yeah. So I don't know, Iguess this is like, I know it's kind oflike a love fest, but I'm like reallyglad to, you know, have the, have thechance to like beyour first guest on this.And then also I just think there's somany people, there's so many people likeme, right? Where I had a dream and avision and anywhere I go, I walk intoyour room and I look confident.People say I come across as having someauthority. It seems like I know what I'mdoing, but I had this one thing that Ifelt like I just didn't know anythingabout with money. Thatwas like my big secret.And I, and I just didn't even know how toget started with it. Right. And I thinkthere's just so many people out therewhere that's like, it's like this keythat can unlock the full potential of ourbusiness vision. But we, we just have tohave that partner in change who can seethat vision with us and like be thatco-conspirator like you. You're a badassco-conspirator in change.All right. We're going to wrap up. And soI think from that, what I want my sassyfriends to take away from it is I knowpersonally how hard it can be to ask forhelp and I know Sarah knows as well. And,and I want to encourage you that ifyou're feeling stock, whoever it is,whatever, in your business, if you're a business owner, you just have to be able to say things like, Oh, you know what, I'm going to have to just sit there and have a conversation with you and I'm going to have to come up with some of my friends.whatever in your business, personalfinances, businessfinances, marketing, whatever it is.I promise you the best way to get unstuckis to ask for helpbecause there are people whoare good at it and having a partner incrime. Change a co-conspirator.Because we are right in thecrime of living our dreams.Exactly. To have a co-conspirator to seeyour vision and then beable to help you get there,you're going to get there faster. So aswe sign off, I'm going toalso say that if you are everlooking for a speaker, I'm going to gether website from you.I'm going to make sure it'sin the show notes. Y'all go check her outbecause she is an awesome, awesomespeaker because I'veactually seen it because she sent me arecording of one that she didand she's amazing. And thankyou, thank you, thank you for coming onthe show and sharing yourstory and sharing and beingvulnerable about your journey becausethis is what Cash In SaaSis all about. It's us beingvulnerable and talking all things money.So until next time, seey'all later. Thank you.Thanks for joining us this week on CashIn SaaS. Check us out onsocial media and on our websiteat www.thesasiwelpcoach.com where you candownload my free Money StoryStart Guide. The website againis www.thesasiwelpcoach.com. And asalways, subscribe to theshow to catch every new episodeand leave us a review so we can continueto bring you fresh content. And remember,yes, it is possible to have sassy andsexy money. See you next week.