Money, Mindset, and Energy with Danetha Doe

Emily Thompson 0:00
The beanbags book is officially available for pre order, and you can buy it wherever books are sold. Let us know that you bought it and we'll send you some goodies. Just go to being boss club slash book for more details.

Kathleen Shannon 0:17
Hello, and welcome to being boss,

Emily Thompson 0:19
a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. I'm Emily Thompson.

Kathleen Shannon 0:23
And I'm Kathleen Shannon.

Danetha Doe 0:25
I'm Denise widow. I'm being bossy.

Emily Thompson 0:31
Today we're talking about money, mindset and energy with denisa Doh. As always, you can find all the tools books and links we reference on the show notes at WWW dot being boss club.

Kathleen Shannon 0:45
bosses, we need to have a talk. So we recently conducted a survey and found that a lot of you are not getting paid what you want or what you deserve. And a big part of this is that you're not staying on top of your money, you're not crunching your numbers and you feel awkward talking about money. And I get it this is not entirely what we signed up to do but we need to get paid. And this is why I love fresh books cloud accounting so much. I've been using fresh books since day one of freelancing because it has helped me I'm an art major you all feel way more comfortable with my money and charging clients when I'm worth. So I want you to get right with your money and get paid faster with fresh books cloud accounting, try fresh books cloud accounting for free by going to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section

Emily Thompson 1:39
denisa doe is known as the money Maven for ambitious women. She is the creator of money and mimosas the number one money mentorship program for women executives and entrepreneurs. denisa has been named a top 40 under 40, accounting professional by CPA practice advisor and next generation accountant for QuickBooks, her work to help women increase their net worth and self worth has been featured in places such as the Huffington Post live, elle cosmopolitan and entrepreneur.

Kathleen Shannon 2:15
denisa Thank you so much for joining us here at being boss, we've got to jump in because there are a lot of bosses who are struggling with their money.

Danetha Doe 2:23
You know, I'm excited to chat with both of you, Kathleen and Emily, thank you so much for the opportunity. And money is one of my favorite topics to talk about, I hope I can give some good information for your community.

Kathleen Shannon 2:36
Well, let's start there as money being a favorite topic because I feel like it's something that has a lot of baggage attached to it. There is a lot of, you know, story and meaning that can go into money and people's personal money stories and money histories. So I want to talk a little bit I mean, I want to get into the practical stuff here on this episode for our listeners. But I also want to get into the emotional side of things. And I feel like so many creative entrepreneurs, and especially women, I'm going to call us out here a little bit are so freaked out about money. So talking about it, asking for it, making it spending it. What do you think is going on here?

Danetha Doe 3:17
I absolutely love that we're starting with the emotional side of money. I truly believe that we can't really get anywhere with the practical side of money until we firm up that foundation. And that comes with a lot of awareness. Like you mentioned about your money story. What does that look like for you? And how's it playing out in your life today and continuing to play out in your business. And until you really get clear on your emotional relationship with money, all of the practical stuff, you won't get anywhere. I mean, I'm sure many of your audience members have been in situations where they feel like they're doing everything right, you're putting away money every time you know, 10% of your income, whatever, you're making money, you're talking to your partner, maybe about retirement accounts, but things just aren't shelling. And so especially if you're in that situation where you feel like you're doing everything right, you're checking off the checklist when it comes to finances and everything you've been taught, but things still aren't moving in the way you want them to. The emotional side is where you'll want to spend some time and I why it's that way. I mean as women we are we're interesting creatures, if you will we pull ideas and thoughts from our upbringing and bring it into everything that's happening into our lives today. And so when it comes to your money story, we all were taught money either consciously or subconsciously and consciously. Some of us were fortunate to have parents that would sit us down at the dinner table and talk about expenses go over maybe their spreadsheets. My parents said that as we were growing up At the same time, though, although, or maybe your parents didn't necessarily do that consciously with you, their habits around money and maybe their stress around money or lack thereof, lack meaning of bringing, or talking about it at the dinner table or talking about it with each other impacts you. And it impacts the way that you approach money today. And, and it's those things that we fall back on. When we're in situations where we are trying to make a decision about money, we fall back to our default settings. And that is where your money story lies. And so getting really clear on that is what's going to help shift your situation.

Emily Thompson 5:41
Oh snap, I love this idea of default settings when it comes to money stories, because that's something I had never really considered, but makes a ton of sense. And I know, you know, for me, it was all very unconscious, I didn't have a whole lot of like conscious Money Talks. And so this is that only the super resonates this idea of just defaulting and you have to rewire yourself and then continually hold that true to yourself, or else you default?

Kathleen Shannon 6:11
Yeah. And I'm going to talk about that a little bit. And, you know, ask your thoughts on this denisa, as far as you know, first off recognizing your money story. And if you have any tips or tactics or tools for really just uncovering what that money story is, and then how can we go about reframing that money story and kind of busting through those limiting beliefs or those stressful attachments that we've placed on money or whatever the story is? So how do we acknowledge the story? How do we see it for what it is what our default setting is? I love that to you. And then how do we reframe it to get into the money mindset of abundance, and you know, all the things that we want, whenever it comes to money,

Danetha Doe 6:50
it's definitely so money sorry, if this is your first time hearing it, it may seem overwhelming. And also maybe something you don't necessarily want to tackle, I mean, who wants to go back to negative times in your life, and really unravel that. So if it's, if that feels overwhelming, this is your first time hearing about this term money story, I say the first step is just become mindful of your reaction to money in little situations. So one great example is one of my girlfriends, whenever something amazing happens in her life, whether she just got promoted, or the sun shining, sometimes it's literally just the sun shining, she wants to go shopping, shopping is not in and of itself a bad thing. But becoming aware of that's how you want to react every time something good happens in your life. And in the case of getting a promotion. If you're making $1 more, but you're spending $1.25 before the money is even gotten into your bank account, you just want to be mindful of Okay, this is how I react when something good happens when I get more money in my life. And I'm continuing to spend more than what I have, Hmm, I need to take a step back and then start peeling back the layers of why is this the case? Did you see your mom do the same thing or your dad potentially? What did you grew up in a situation where money wasn't always there, maybe you went through periods of feast and famine in your household. That was certainly my experience. And so when there is a feast, you want to spend spend, spend, you want to fill up the refrigerator, literally because you don't necessarily know when you'll be able to do that again. And so just become aware of Okay, this is how I act and then peel back the layers in terms of where that came from. And that's how you can start to truly piece together your money story. If you're a little bit more. I don't want to say the word advanced, but maybe you've approached this area of your life before. And so this isn't necessarily a new topic for you. There's still always situations where you're going to become more and more aware of what your money story is and how you're reacting for me personally. I grew up in a household where my dad was the entrepreneur, super creative, and also a spender. He loved the finer things in life. And so my mom could probably had to counterbalance him so could rap. You know, $1 around the neighborhood five times she was always clipping coupons. And I grew up hating the idea of being thrifty, I did not want to be that person that had I want to be like my dad. He's also an entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur, so I gravitated more towards his money habits. And as I became aware of that, and realize that that was something that I needed to counter counteract, I realized that then having more of a budget mindset and approach to money in a more methodical way was something I needed to improve upon. So as you continue to answer your questions directly, Kathleen, just start becoming aware of your choices in the moment, and then take that as an invitation to start peeling back the layers. Have what your money story is.

Kathleen Shannon 10:03
I love this so much. So I think that one of the first times I approached my money story, I realized, and I was like, I don't have any money issues, like, I think that my parents were the kind that had the spreadsheets and got us a checking account early. And I was like, Oh, it's all good. Like, it's fine. But I did find myself hitting some, like upper limit stuff. And, you know, why can I bust through this and realizing, oh, there was this time, whenever I was a teenager, and my dad who was super well, meaning said, Hey, you can do what you love. And you might not make very much money at all, but you're going to be doing what you love. And that's going to be fulfilling, like it's going to be worth it, that's compensation enough. Or you could become a doctor or do something that you don't love, become a pharmacist and make a ton of money. And I think that I had a really internalize that. And so that was peeling that back and saying, okay, hold up, that's not necessarily true. Like even just becoming aware of the story allowed me to go through a line of questioning of whether or not this was true. And then as I became more advanced, and seeing my money stories, it's almost like the opposite of what you were just saying, denisa, I'm starting to find the little triggers, like for me, those little nuances of when I spend, or how I'm behaving around money, like for me that feels more tricky, or more advanced, and takes more consciousness for me. So, for example, I noticed that in times of stress, like if I'm literally feeling kind of depressed or down, I want to go shopping, I'm like, YOLO, what's the point, let's spend it all at least let's look good. Like, I might feel bad, but at least some of you wearing a new outfit. And my husband in times of stress, wants to sock it all away, and just save, save. And we're both coming at this place of, you know, our four year old is driving us crazy. I want to spend all the money, he wants to save all the money. And so this brings me to like the partnership, you're talking about your mom and dad. And I think that there is this thing that happens whenever you're partnering with people who have different money mindsets. And so for me even being in business with Emily, she has a different money mindset and is probably more willing to invest in our business. Like, for example, spending money on Facebook ads, where I'm like, No, we gotta pay ourselves, or, you know, on the flip side, like we just have different styles, and I think that pushes you and makes you grow. So do you have any thoughts on like, money and partnerships and getting aligned whenever it comes to really marrying? Literally or otherwise, like in partnership, your money stories and getting on the same page?

Danetha Doe 12:41
Yes, definitely. This is a juicy area. So my beloved and I have been together. And I'll use a personal story, cuz I think that does help. Better relate. So my beloved and I have been together for seven, maybe eight years now. And our financial upbringings were completely different, he had access to a lot of opportunities, whereas I wasn't on the same didn't have access to the same amount of opportunities. And so when we moved with each other to the Bay Area, which is an expensive area, I immediately wanted the prettiest condo with the most beautiful interior decorating because that wasn't something I hadn't necessarily had growing up. But he had had that he had experienced all that he was fine with sleeping on the floor in some Random House. If he ever hears this, he would not be happy that I said that. Essentially, that's what he was okay with. And what we both had to realize. And this was not immediate, we it took a few years for us, butting heads a number of times and having really tough, tense conversations around money, realize, Oh, we don't have necessarily a healthy relationship together with money individually. We're healthy with our finances. But when we come together, there's a disconnect. And what we realized was that we both hadn't taken the time to sit down and understand what we both value when it comes to money. So for me, money is a representation of self love, and I choose to indulge in self love with with luxury items and just beautiful experiences and memorable experiences. And he loves experience too. But for him money is more of a representation of security. And so he's more like your partner Kathleen, where he wants to sock it away, save it for a rainy day. And I do to accent as well, but we had to realize that okay, this is how we both value money differently and how can we still honor each other's values and still respects our own boundaries. So once we had that conversation, it just became very clear like, okay, we're not arguing about money because it's money. we're arguing about money because We're coming at the situation from a totally different perspective. Now we can honor each other's perspectives and have a conversation about that.

Emily Thompson 15:09
This also makes me think about kids, because your story reminds me even David's parents and how like being able to see both of their money stories and how they deal with it, and how David ended up getting kind of like the best of both of them, because they were completely opposite. And David has this really good mix. And so it makes me think about even how it is that I share my money stories, and Luke and David's with our daughter, Lily, and how that sort of creates this whole new experience. And this idea that, as always, you only want to pass on the best of you. If only if only we could make sure that happened.

Kathleen Shannon 15:50
But you know, I just love that. Who, what, whoever we're talking to, whether it's our partner, or our business, bestie or each other right now, just even having the conversation about money brings these mindsets to awareness. And it's like, oh, there is another perspective. So underneath that you just said money for you is an act of self love, or a kind of represents self love. And I had never thought of that. Like one of the things that we say here a lot is money is energy. And like we're just, you know, kind of unpacking, like what is money? Or what are the stories underneath money. And so I think of money as energy and knowing that if I'm putting energy into something I can expect to get that energy back. And you know, really replacing the word money, no matter what your story is with energy can be a really interesting exercise in seeing what your money mindset is. So for example, if you are saying something like money is the root of all evil, then replace that with energy, then you would be saying energy is the root of all evil. And that's just not true. And so that's kind of how I busted through some of my money, mindset, you know, bullshit. So I'm curious to hear from you. Like if I think money is energy, is there anything you said, self love? But is there anything else that whenever you're thinking about money as a concept, like what it actually is?

Danetha Doe 17:13
Definitely, well, I love that you said that about money is the root of all evil. I say for myself, money is the root of all miracles, that money is whatever you want to bring into the world money is that tool. That's another way that I look at money, energy and tool to manifest whatever you really want to see in the world. And that is one way to start to reframe your money mindset, particularly, particularly if you have a negative connotation with money. So and this translates across socio economic backgrounds, you can come from, perhaps a poor background, or you may come from an affluent background, and still have a negative connotation with money. So it's really about being aware of how you view money in terms of what it can do in the world I feel and what it can do for you within your own life. I know a lot of your audience, probably listening is very passionate about environmental issues. For instance, we care about our Mother Earth, and we care about the beauty that she surrounds us with how she holds us. And there's a lot going on, particularly here in the United States where she's being threatened. And if more of us had the financial resources to lobby against some of those organizations or those regulations that are being put in place, there's so much good that money could be doing, if more of us had the resources and that intention behind the money that we're using. I do want to be clear, though, because I love that connection between money as energy. It's also really important to approach it with clean energy. So if you're if you're open to the idea of chakra healing, let's say for

Kathleen Shannon 19:08
Yes, yes, we are very open go there.

Danetha Doe 19:12
Yes. So, you know, I think, you know, many of us can think of a person where we leave from a conversation with them. We're like, Oh, they have some really good energy, or, or, oh, I don't know what is going on with that person. But I don't really want to be around them. I don't know what it is. I can't put my finger on it. But they're not really someone I want to hang out with. That is the same type of energy that you're bringing to money. So if you're coming to money with this idea that it's dirty, that it's something that only evil people have a lot of and they're pushing evil out into the world. Money is going to recognize that you feel that way about it and you're going to subconsciously push it away from you. Whereas if you start to get really clear about Okay, this is me My money story. This is how I have approached money in the past, I'm going to work through cleaning that up, I'm going to start associating money with good energy, I'm going to start associating it with self love, abundance, creativity, passion, beauty, happiness, light. Everything that we all want in the world, money is going to start to say, Ah, yes, I really love the way Emily's looking at that. I really love the way Kathleen's feeling around me, I want to support her and continue to bring that into her life. So it's really, really important to clear up our energy with money before we start approaching it.

Emily Thompson 20:42
And so, back to shocker is really

Kathleen Shannon 20:45
good. That's what I want you to tell us what you're doing talked

Unknown Speaker 20:48
about clean energy, but let's talk about some chakras. And like how how you clean that energy. Like, let's go in there.

Danetha Doe 20:56
I love it. Oh, my gosh, and I just listened to was it just this past this recent episode of yours or you're going through your routine. So this is definitely something that I'm learning. And I feel like it's just a lifelong journey, that we're all going to fine tune and refine and visit and not visit at certain times. For me, in this stage of my life, I am very focused on my chakra healing, particularly for this month. So each month, I have a different chakra that I'm focused on. And when I focus on a chakra, it's mind body soul for me. So mentally, I think about literally think about what thoughts I have, that are related to that particular chakra. So January was all about my red chakra really grounding myself, and really recognizing when I wasn't present when I was scattered, when I felt distracted, trying not to judge it, because I found that being distracted, actually helped me tap into my creativity a little bit more. And so just being aware of how I was grounding myself in the present moment, and at times when I didn't feel very grounded and how that was serving me. That was January, February, it's been all about my yellow chakra. And really setting clear boundaries with others with my business, sometimes with my partner being open to what his boundaries are, and also really tapping into my personal power. And so it's the the thoughts, the mental peace, my mind piece that I work through, but for the body piece of working through my chakra healing, that is all fiscal activity. So this month, whenever I'm in yoga class, that's my intention that I set with the instructor that, hey, I'm really working on my personal boundaries, right now I voiced that I let her know that that's what I'm working through. And if you could support me in that, that would be great. If not, no worries, but I just for me, I feel the need to voice it. And for my soul work, that's, that's a meditation practice that I do. So every morning, I have a money meditation. And it's me going through each chakra with a heavy focus on my yellow chakra by each of the seven chakras. And then at the end of that healing, that cleansing, then I think about a white light that cleanse me from the top down, and then my yellow chakra for this month from the bottom up. And then I write in my journal about what money means to me why I'm grateful for it, and how it's supporting me in my work and my passion.

Kathleen Shannon 23:46
So are you specifically connecting your yellow chakra to money? Or are you doing like kind of the money journaling for each chakra?

Danetha Doe 23:55
That's a great question. So for me, in my experience, and I feel my journey here on this planet, money as a representation truly of my spiritual growth. That's not everyone's experience. And I'm totally fine with that not being everyone else's experience. In fact, I happy for you if that's not your experience. I've watched a lot of different paths in my life. And money has been a representation of really pivotal points in my spiritual journey. And so when I think about money, it's really broadly speaking representation in my life, but I focus on my money relationship and how that's showing up. So with boundaries, it's in my yellow chakra. It's been really clear with my clients about how I work, when I don't work when I'm going to respond to you, what I need from you in order for me to best serve you as the person that you're hiring. And also setting boundaries in terms of how I want to work with clients even before it gets To the point of them becoming a client, just getting really clear with myself on, okay. This entire year, I'm not taking emails on Fridays. And if a client is adamant about that, we're not a good fit, sorry, but I have to be clear about that with myself first, before expecting someone else, to honor that.

Kathleen Shannon 25:22
This episode is brought to you in part by 2020, where creative minds get authentic real world stock photos. If you're looking to positively inspire your audience on social media or on your blog, you'll want to use engaging fresh photos that are unique. 2020 has crowdsource millions of exclusive photos from a community of over 350,000 photographers, all available under a simple royalty free license. Today, they're offering listeners of being boss a five photo free trial to start yours right now go to 20 twenty.com slash being boss. That's the word 2010 to zero, comm slash being boss to get five free photos. Okay, I've got another question. Because this is something I've been butting up against lately in my own spiritual practice, and especially blending spirituality with business, which is something I'm so interested in. I mean, because it's all the same thing, right? Like, it's all an expression of who we are as souls in these human bodies. And what we do, like our soul doesn't know the difference between like I'm sitting at work versus I'm going for a walk, right. But something I've been coming up against, I'm just curious to hear both of your thoughts around this is, let's say I set an intention of abundance. I kind of this might be kind of dirty energy that I'm bringing, like, I need to clean it up. But I'm like, Oh my gosh, okay, if I set the intention of abundance, or you know, for example, the other day, it was something around. Oh, my intention was family. And of course, that day, my four year old is like losing his mind and testing me like I've never been tested. And so it makes me afraid to set these really positive intentions because I'm like, well, the universe is going to test me then if my intention is abundance, then the universe is going to show me some scarcity and contrast. So maybe I shouldn't go there. Like, do you ever experienced that? either of you? Like are you ever scared, like set positive for you

Emily Thompson 27:20
now?

Kathleen Shannon 27:22
I know I hate even like voicing.

Emily Thompson 27:26
Let's work through this together.

Okay, so my intention for this month is abundance and it's playing off of you, Kathleen, because you and your abundance. That's my

Kathleen Shannon 27:39
word for the year.

Emily Thompson 27:40
I know, I was like, I need to I need to do this for myself for the next month and my fear because I also had a fear, but it was the exact opposite of yours was so much abundance that I can't deal with it.

Kathleen Shannon 27:51
You're like, what if I get crushed by the weight of what a million dollars on my body feels like, drop down from the sky. And

Emily Thompson 27:59
I don't fear that I don't fear that. Um, so that's my, like, counter fear denisa, we're leaving that one to you.

Danetha Doe 28:09
Oh, my gosh, this is a good one. I, I would say, Kathleen, maybe take a second to think about why you feel that you're going to have to why you feel you have to be shown the other side of it before experiencing the good. Like, maybe you've already experienced the other side of it in this life, or in this past life. You don't have to go through that again, you already did that work. Um, that would be my invitation to you. For me, I would say Emily, definitely, I have noticed that I have a fear of success. And for me how that manifests abundance was my word last year, this year, it's self expression, really expressing myself in every possible way. That feels authentic to me. And I've noticed that I've been getting a lot of opportunities where I can express myself just literally the floodgates have opened. And I interpret that internalize that and I start eating a lot so I mindlessly eat, when I feel a lot of things are happening in my life. And so just being it's not related to money, and this is totally, maybe going left field but for me being aware of that's how I react to good things in my life. Just helps me better prepare for that. Be mindful of it and

Emily Thompson 29:31
and fill your house with healthy snacks. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Oh, I love all of that. I love all of that. And I also as you were even saying that and going back to what you were saying about money being self self love to you. One of the things that I've come across lately that's really sort of hit home and even guided a conversation I have with David recently, where the idea of the idea is that money and love vibrate at the same frequency. And they align with your heart chakra. So your heart chakra being green money is green, at least for us. Right go.

Kathleen Shannon 30:12
out there, I've been for our listeners, I've been making this movement a lot, because I've been thinking a lot about heart chakra, that's probably the one I am working on a lot of. And just like, I have been trying to open it. And so I do this, if you're watching on YouTube, like I do this expression where I just basically put my hands at my heart and then shoot them out.

Emily Thompson 30:31
like a crazy person. It's really fantastic. So So I love with this, like with the chakra healing for me, I've been thinking a lot lately, especially as I'm going through it and abundance minds, thinking about how it is that I can open my heart chakra and really like bring it all to center and open myself up for that abundance and been like carrying around some green rocks and those sorts of things. But I think that there's a lot to be said with you and your like, spiritual journey being aligned with money. And the fact that you see money as self love is kind of a really interesting, I don't know, really interesting outcome. I think,

Kathleen Shannon 31:13
also a fun connection is that your heart is you know, creates an electromagnetic field. I could probably be butchering this, I'm reading a lot about it lately too. But if you, you know, like your heart can detect or you a glass of water can detect your heartbeat, for example. And this is like how we feel other people's moods whenever they walk into a room. And so like whenever I'm doing my chakra meditations, I love that this is turned into a chakra conversation. But whenever I'm doing my chakra meditations, I kind of think about and I'm opening my heart, also kind of creating this magnet and attracting what are the feelings that I'm producing. So if I'm producing feelings of abundance from my heart, also creating that vibration, so I can attract more of that in the form of a million dollars coming out of the sky.

Emily Thompson 32:05
What is that vibration? Feel? Like? For sure.

Danetha Doe 32:09
I think it's really important to define it because the universe can be like, Oh, yeah, abundance. So you want more food? You want more clothes? No, I actually I want a million dollars. And so I'm going to define that for universe and that's what I want to attract. I think that's totally fine.

Kathleen Shannon 32:25
I visualize opening my mint account and seeing that 1 million. Like I get that specific. Okay, back to you. denisa. Let's, let's get out of the chakras for our listeners who are like, okay, but I just need to know how to manage my money a little bit better and make more of it and we can we can continue to blend in the chakras. I love that conversation. But do you have any, like, tangible steps that creatives can take to be more financially healthy? So we've gotten into the emotional health of your money by clearing out your chakras?

Danetha Doe 33:01
Yes, what else can we do? Definitely. So one practical but still on the emotional side, the next step I would say is to forgive yourself for any money decisions that you've made in the past. So write down everything that you are holding against yourself, maybe you ran up your credit card, and you still have a huge balance and you're paying it off. Maybe you borrowed money from your husband or your mom or your dad, you haven't paid them back and you feel really ashamed about it. Write all that down, forgive yourself. And if it helps burn it, just really clear out any resentment you're holding against yourself. First and foremost, after you've done some of the healing work, if that resonates with you, then going forward Be mindful about tracking your finances on a regular basis. So I love that you brought up men's men's is a great tool. Personal capital is another one that you can use your bookkeeping program. There's a ton of options out there. I always get asked which bookkeeping program should I use, it doesn't matter. They all do the same thing. Just use it consistently. It's like getting a gym membership. It doesn't matter which gym you go to, but you have to go. So open up a bookkeeping program and have a weekly date with your money. And when I say weekly date, that means reconcile your last week's transactions and reconcile is just a fancy word for putting your transactions in a particular bucket. So say you've got a website that's hosted on squarespace. 20 bucks a month, put in your website bucket if you have a virtual assistant. Maybe you've got an independent contractors bucket in your bookkeeping program, but each week go through the previous week's transactions and just put them in the appropriate bucket. That's what I call your weekly money date. If you do that every week, you are leagues ahead as a business owner. If you want to take it to the next step, start reviewing your financial statements on a regular basis. So you may be in a point in your business where you're working with a tax accountant, which is great. If you're not, you'll get there, don't worry about it right now. But you yourself want to make sure that you're actually looking at these financial statements. A lot of times, as creatives, we can wait until our tax, until it's time to talk to our tax accountant about what we need to what we can write off, where we should be reconciling our transactions for that tax accountant. And your tax accountant is like your dentist, so they see you once or twice a year, they're gonna do a deep cleaning, they're really good at their job. But you've got to brush your teeth every day, you're gonna have a messed up situation, when you see them. Look at your own statements and and just get familiar with how your cash flows I for creative something to think about when it comes to cash flow, which is really the biggest challenge for any entrepreneur. But particularly for creatives who are very project based, there are going to be times that year, when you've got a lot going on a lot of money's coming in and times when it's not. And that's totally cool. It's about how to manage that ebb and flow. For creatives, your slow times are likely going to be August, and possibly December, depending on the type of business that you're in. That is if you go into business, I wish someone had told me that when I went into business, when I was doing more creative work like oh, August is going to be completely dead. Just go ahead and book your vacation. Don't worry about finding any clients just enjoy your time off, go into the year, having that knowledge is really helpful for when you want to start saving, and really just setting yourself up for a smooth year. So just to recap, like tangible steps, forgive yourself, have a weekly money date, find a bookkeeping program, and make sure you review your financial statements on a regular basis. So you have a sense of how money flows in your business.

Emily Thompson 37:13
I want to point out really quick that I can only imagine a probably a healthy 50 to 60% of the people that just heard you say that are freaking out about the idea of looking at their money all the time. What would you say to those people?

Danetha Doe 37:28
Yes. So that is a fair, fair fear. I I totally understand that. I definitely and this isn't, I'm a financial person. And I think a lot of times creatives may feel like Oh, your money is fine. You don't have any feelings when it comes to finances. We are just as scared as financial professionals. When it comes to money as you are especially being an entrepreneur, we face the same challenges use you in terms of trying to find clients trying to make the bills paid and, and just making sure our own cash is flowing correctly. So if you're in that state where you're afraid to open up your bank account, you're consciously avoiding it or not so consciously avoiding it. Go back to your money story. Again, you have to start with the emotions figure out why you're avoiding it Is it because you grew up in a family that didn't talk about money. For women, a lot of times it's crass, quote unquote, to talk about money depending upon the circles that you're in. And or maybe you just didn't come up in a situation a family situation where money was talked about. So you feel you don't feel smart enough to manage it. So really get clear about what it is for you and don't judge it just know that that's where you're coming from, and then start with baby steps. So one of the things I like to do is not put myself in a situation where I actually have to be disciplined, or I have to actually do something, it's kind of just forced upon me. So like with food example, chips ahoy cookies are my biggest downfall. So I just don't buy them. They're not in the kitchen. They're not in our condo. So the same thing can be applied to money, maybe you may be opening up your your bookkeeping program or your mint account is just too much for you to handle. The first thing that you can do is set up an alert from your bank account to get a daily balance. They'll send you a text every morning, you can't avoid it. If you're looking at your phone and we all look at our phones, you're gonna get this text, which is your daily balance. Just knowing where you're at financially is really helpful. And then start working your way up to maybe opening up a bookkeeping program and then doing that weekly date. I love

Emily Thompson 39:47
it. And I also want to throw out here if you want to be a business owner and an entrepreneur, you better get used to knowing your numbers, period.

Danetha Doe 39:56
I love that you just like lay the hammer down on that because that's so much True. I mean business at the end of the day, yes, it's we're all passionate about what we're doing. We want to be creative and just do what we love. But in order to do that, you've got to make money, you've got to be able to support yourself. Otherwise, it really is a hobby, a very expensive hobby. And you're going to be dependent upon someone else, to continue your ability to do this hobby.

Emily Thompson 40:24
All right, excuse me, while I pause this here and let you in on the exciting news. The being boss book is about to hit the shelves of a bookstore near you, Kathleen, and I have taken years of conversations between ourselves and those we've had with experts and industry leaders here on the beam boss podcast, and have distilled them down into what we've found, makes you boss into a book that you can read, hold in your hands and share with a friend.

Kathleen Shannon 40:51
And we'd be lying if we didn't admit that we have a big dream with this book, we wanted to be a best seller. We want every creative in the world to cultivate the confidence it takes to take control of their work, and make money doing what they love. So they can live life on their own terms. That's what our book is here to do. And we need your help to make it happen.

Emily Thompson 41:10
If you want to dive into the core of what it means to be boss and support us while you do it, it's time for you to preorder the book. And once you do that, let us know you bought it and we'll send you some goodies. Just go to being boss club slash book for links to purchase. And for more information on how to claim your swag that's being bought clubs slash book. Now let's get back at it.

Kathleen Shannon 41:38
Are there any money mistakes that you see people making that just make you want to cringe like your friends? Or some of your clients? where you're like, what, why are you doing that or not doing that? What are some money mistakes you see people making?

Danetha Doe 41:51
Yes. So the first one is not checking your money on a regular basis. And I get why you may not want to it may not even be emotional may just be like this is a boring part of my business. And I don't want to do it. But you have to know where you stand, you have to know where you stand on a consistent basis in order to make good decisions. If you want to hire a team, you're going to have payroll at some point, you're gonna want to know how much money is in your bank account so that you can cover payroll like, that's just one example of why you want to know where you're standing financially. The other. The other mistake that I see, which isn't necessarily one that I think a lot of people would know about, I certainly didn't know about it until maybe four or five years ago when I really started looking at my student loans. And so when it comes to paying your student loans, you want to be aware of how much of your monthly payment they're applying to your principal versus your interest I just had, I've had so many conversations with friends, one in particular who had, let's say it was $27,000 on one student loan account that she was paying off and she had made about $12,000 worth of payments, and still had a $25,000 balance.

Kathleen Shannon 43:07
No, that should be illegal.

Danetha Doe 43:09
Yes, it should be. And until it is until it is you have to be mindful about where your money is going. So every month after you make your payment, you want to sign into your student loan account. See how much has been applied to principal and how much has been applied to interest? If the numbers aren't jiving, you've got to call them and have them adjust your payment. And you're gonna have to do this every month because they are assholes. And they will not do it every month. I mean, they they are and so that's just one area of just being mindful of your finances and checking it on a regular basis.

Emily Thompson 43:48
Yeah, you have to be super proactive. I know for me, you know, at Indy, Chapin graphy. And being boss we have, we have my partner David who takes care of all the money, like, we don't have to think about it on the daily basis, we have someone doing it for us. But even then we get in every single month. And I do a CEO day where I run through all of our numbers just to like, make sure everything's super kosher and clean and everything's getting paid. And we have money in the bank and those sorts of things. And I've been doing that now for a couple of years where someone else is handling it on the day late but I'm still checking in. But even as I've started Almanac supply company, I'm going back and doing all my own numbers. Because having that sort of handle on what is going into your business day in and day out is so important for you to understand the health of your business and if you're making the right decisions, all of those things. It's also important for for doing the kind of work that we all do and knowing that your money is going where you think it is because if you're not watching it, it probably isn't.

Danetha Doe 44:52
Right and I think that's a really good point to to highlight that you just made that you both are in a place In your business where you've hired someone where you can, let's say offload that work to and that's every aspect of business, even if you're a content creator, at some point, you're likely gonna hire a writer because you just got to put on more the CEO hat. But now, Emily, that you're starting another business, you are doing that work all the groundwork in order to know how the cash flows within the business. And that's another mistake that I see really often is just hiring a bookkeeper, right out of the gate, a because you don't know how the money's flowing your business. But be bookkeepers are only as good as you're able to train them for your business, they can be technically good at reconciling the numbers, but you want them to understand your unique business. And the only way you're going to be able to communicate that to them is if you've taken the time, at least a year, at least a year to do your own books before handing it over.

Emily Thompson 45:57
Yeah, business is all just a number game. And if you don't know how to play your own game, you're going to lose.

Kathleen Shannon 46:03
You know, one of the things that our friends over at freshbooks, who is a sponsor of the podcast, and we love them so much, but they do a lot of research around money. And one of the things that they say is that whenever people start tracking their money, like in the first year of their business, they generally make a lot more money. And I won't say the exact numbers because I don't know what they are. But it is this idea of you know, coming back to the spirituality of it, and even what you're saying, Emily, and what you're saying to me is that you know where your attention goes, energy flows. And so I have found this in all aspects of my business. And as much as I'm not the money person, I want to know what's going on there, personally and professionally. Even if I have other people kind of counting the numbers for me, because it makes me feel really in touch with my business. It helps me make better decisions. And another thing I've been thinking a lot about lately is how I want to use my money to give back. And this is something that you know, earlier denisa you're talking about? All of us caring about environmentalism is so serendipitous that you said that because literally earlier this week, I told Emily, I said, Listen, I want us to make millions of dollars so that we can clean up the ocean. I literally said that. And so I want to talk about using money to become better activists, and especially if you feel like you're coming from a lack mindset, or you don't have enough money to give back. What do you think about you know, really voting for your dollars or having a voice with your money? Even if you're not making a lot of it?

Danetha Doe 47:34
Yes, well, it's, I'm so glad we're talking about this, because it's incredibly important to be in a financial situation where you can truly affect change. There are and I'll call us out to as women, we feel that we can live in just a karma economy, if I do good, good, it's going to happen. And everyone's going to live in an amazing situation, we can look at the fate of the world. And that's not the case. And it's very clear who has access to the financial resources, because you can tell where the regulations and the just the effort and the energy is going the intentions is directed, directly related to the type of individual who has access to those dollars. When it comes to if you don't have access to the finance resource that you want, right at this moment, and I'll be the first to say that that's always going there's always going to be a next level leveling up, that you may feel like you don't have enough money now you're gonna make 10 times more in whatever time period and at that point, you're also going to feel like you may feel like you don't have enough money then. So always know that you're working with a lot and especially for the majority of our, the people listening who I imagine are mostly in the States, we have access to a lot of opportunities, and I guarantee your financial situation. Even though it may seem dire, you still have the opportunity to help others. If you can't give money. If you are in a place where you have disposable income, maybe you really are using every last dollar to keep your business afloat to make sure your bills are paid. Think about donating your time. A lot of these organizations and a lot of these organizations, yes, they could use financial donations, but they also need help with volunteers. And let's say it's a an organization like dress for success. If you're passionate about women also feeling supported to live their best lives financially. You can attend one of their events and be one of the volunteers at that location. So it doesn't always have to be money that you're giving. If it comes to environmental work. There are organizations that you can donate 25 bucks a month. And it goes a long way especially if you're passionate about ocean research. We know less About the ocean than we do about the face of the moon, and that this is our planet, this is what we're living on. And we're going to places like Mars, which I'm all about space and exploring that our galaxy, but we also have a planet here that we've done a terrible job of taking care of. And so, there, do some research, look at organizations that you can give, even if it's just 25 bucks a month or two. And it is really important to get clear on where you want your money to be going. First, you want to make sure you're taking care of because you can't give what you don't have, make sure you're able to cover your own bills, make sure you're able to thrive, you know, you're able to take vacation to what you need to do to take care of yourself, and then start thinking about how you want your money to be used within the world.

Kathleen Shannon 50:47
What is your best advice for leveraging money whenever you don't have a lot of it? Like how can you like you said your mom can stretch that dollar bill around the block five times? How do you like? Do you have any quick advice on leveraging money when you don't have a lot of it?

Danetha Doe 51:03
Yeah, it depends on how you want to leverage your money. So if we're talking about being a business owner, and you're brand new to the game, there are other business owners that are also brand new to the game that you can do trade work. And I do hesitate when I say trade where because there is going to be a point in your business where you want to cut that out that is a part of setting boundaries and recognizing your worth as an entrepreneur. But in the beginning, it's totally cool to do that you both are building up your portfolios, you can really help each other in that way. If we're talking about lifestyle and wanting to get that I can't imagine what it would be, but you want to be able to truly leverage where you're at at this point in your life. Start thinking about how again, you can valance here to get additional resources to you. I remember when I first started my business, and I wanted to have a one on one session with a potential client. And it was really tight when I was financially when I started my business. And I want to take this potential client out to dinner, and I did it I did not have the resources to be able to cover it. But what I did was go to a restaurant where I lived in that neighborhood. I knew the owner, I knew the manager and said I let them know, I was like, Hey, I'm a new business owner. You see me and hear almost a lot and I have this potential new clients. Would it be okay if you just comp our meal, and they were totally open to it. They understood where I was as a business owner, they want to support the local community. So don't be afraid to ask and don't feel like you have to have everything together. Just know that there are other people that are out there to support you.

Kathleen Shannon 52:50
So good. Okay, we always close out our episodes by asking our guests. What makes you feel most boss so denisa when was a moment where you were like yes, I got this.

Danetha Doe 53:01
Yes, I will. I feel most boss I used to be an NFL cheerleader. So I feel most boss on the dance floor. Like anytime there's Beyonce playing, and I can wear some hot crop top. That's when I feel most boss.

Kathleen Shannon 53:15
Beyonce always makes me feel most boss. Yeah, no joke. Always like I start my days by watching Beyonce videos. Yeah. Like it just gets me in that mindset is the ultimate flair. She's my queen. Okay, so what are you working on? where can our listeners find you? We went to send them your weapon. Well, thanks

Danetha Doe 53:37
so much, Emily and Kathleen for the opportunity. It's been so much fun. You can find me at Money Mo moses.com. We have an awesome In my opinion, awesome newsletter that combines the energy and practical side of money in that we in our weekly posts. And if you sign up, you immediately get access to the simple guide to bookkeeping and other boring stuff for creatives.

Emily Thompson 54:03
Great, thank you so much for coming to talk about money. It's one of those topics that we love talking about our people like hearing about but it's still super difficult for everyone.

Kathleen Shannon 54:13
And I love that we were able to get a little woowoo with it to saying yes. Thanks to me. Hey, bosses, I want to tell you about the CEO day kit. The CEO day kit is 12 months of focus planning for your business in just one day. So Emily and I have packaged up the exact tools that we've been consistently using for years that have helped us grow from baby bosses to the CEOs of our own businesses. gain clarity, find focus, get momentum, prioritize your time, make better decisions and become more self reliant with the CEO day kit. Go to courses that being boss club to learn more and see if it's a fit for you and your business. We'd like to give a shout out to our Our partner fresh books cloud accounting, you can try it for free for 30 days no credit card needed and cancel anytime. Just go to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section? Special thanks to our sponsor 2020 who is offering our being boss listeners a five photo free trial to start yours right now go to 20 twenty.com slash being boss. That's the word 20 then to zero.com slash being boss to get five free photos. Thank you for listening to being boss. Find Articles show notes and downloads at WWW dot being boss club. Thank you so much to our team and sponsors who make being boss possible our sound engineer and web developer Corey winter. Our editorial director and content manager Caitlin brain, our community manager and social media director Sharon lukey. And are being countered David Austin, with support from braid creative and indicia biography,

Emily Thompson 55:57
do the work. Be boss and we'll see you next week.