Change your money story. Truth bombs and finance tips! Ep 15 Season 2

Have you got a “money story” that you are ashamed of? 

If you think you are the only one who’s messed up, or not done all the right things with your finances, todays episode is for you, because you are not alone.

So many women have shame and guilt attached to their history with finances, and our guest today, Melissa Houston gets really vulnerable by sharing hers to show you that even the experts make mistakes and everyone can bounce back. 

As a finance expert she still found herself over 100k in debt, while hiding her debt and her habits from her husband and spending money she didn’t have.  Melissa knows how easy it is to get into trouble and well as how to reset your habits and break free.

So today we are talking about:

 ·      Resetting your debt mindset and why wealth is possible for anyone

 ·      3 reasons your business needs a reserve of cash

·      Some money management tips for scaling your business

·      Forgiving your own mistakes and building forward 

Here’s a truth bomb from today episode that will set you free.  Money has no emotion – we attach that.  Your financial reports, your finances, even your debts are just feedback on what’s working and what needs to change.  It’s data – that’s all.

Our guest today:  Melissa Houston

Melissa is a CPA and Financial Strategist for CEOs, host of The Business Society podcast and a contributor at Forbes.com. 

 She helps business owners increase their profit margins so they keep more money in their pockets, helps entrepreneurs understand their finances, and start listening to the story their numbers are telling them in their business.

Links for this episode:

The 5-Step Roadmap to Biz Finance Freedom offers business owners the 5-steps they need to cover to get the high level understanding of their business finances. https://melissahoustoncpa.lpages.co/5-step-biz-finance-roadmap

One Step Empire Website:  https://www.shecorporated.com/one-step-empire-podcast

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Transcript

Kristy: [00:00:00] Have you got a money story that you're ashamed of? If you think you're the only one who's messed up or not done all the right things with your finances today's episode is for you because you are not alone. So many women have shame and guilt attached to their history with finances and our guest today, Melissa Houston gets really vulnerable by sharing her story, to show you that even the experts make mistakes and everybody can bounce back. 

As a finance expert, she still found herself in over a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt while hiding her dad and her habits from her husband and spending money. She didn't have, Melissa knows how easy it is to get into trouble, as well as how to reset your habits and break free. So today we're talking about resetting your debt mindset and why wealth is possible for anyone. Three reasons that your business needs a reserve of cash, some money management tips for scaling your business and then forgiving your own mistakes and building forward. 

And here's a truth bomb from today's episode that will set you free. Money has no emotion. We attach that your [00:01:00] financial reports, your finances, even your debts are just feedback on what's working. And what needs to change It's data That's all So let's get into it Well, we have Melissa Houston on the podcast with us today. And Melissa is a CPA and financial strategist for CEO's host of the business society podcast, and a contributor@forbes.com. And she helps business owners increase their profit margins so they can keep more money in their pocket. I like that helps entrepreneurs understand their finances and really start listening to the story.

Their numbers are telling them in their business. So welcome to the podcast, 

Melissa: Melissa. Thank you so much for having me here today. I'm super excited about our talk that we're about to have. 

Kristy: Cited to this is the finances is something that I don't think we talk enough about, but I'm really excited to kind of make it, make it easy and digestible for people to understand and really, really help them kind of move forward with their business.

Now you've been a business financial expert for a long time. Um, stories about mistakes in personal finances and bouncing [00:02:00] back. Can you share a little 

Melissa: bit about your backstory with us? Oh, wow. Yeah. Let's go deep here because I've been a CPA for over 20 years. And so, I mean, I'm well versed in all things, personal finance and business finance.

So I know what you should be doing in your business and personal finances and, you know, I've studied it. I've talked about it. I talked to clients about it and I went and got myself into a hundred thousand dollars worth of debt myself. And that was an absolute, embarrassing mistake that I made. But the reason why I share this story is because I really want people to understand that your mistakes don't define you.

So if someone like me, who is, you know, I know all the things and I still excuse me, managed to go into debt by that huge amount then, and I recovered from it, then anybody can recover from it. So what happened for me was it was. Six or seven years ago now. I mean, it, it all blends in together [00:03:00] at this point, but you know how they say hindsight's 2020?

You know, I was like, at the time I didn't realize this, but I was really dissatisfied with my life. Like in the direction it was going. I mean, I knew something was. But couldn't quite figure out what, because on the surface, you know, my marriage, my kids, my house, my pets, you know, everything like my relationships with my family, everything was fine, but there was still that huge feeling that something was missing.

And instead of dealing with it, I kind of masked how to deal with it or, or even figure out what was going on and stuff with shot. So I would start, it started out innocently enough and you know, it'd be like interrupts with the girlfriends, whatever dropped a couple thousand dollars. It was just still a big expense, but this would happen like, you know, maybe two, three times a year on, you know, shopping trips.

But then it got to be like, okay, I need something to make me feel better. So I would get on online shopping and I would order [00:04:00] things and, and then it would escalate to like, Search Pinterest and all these great things that, you know, I could do with my house and blah, blah, blah. It just got worse and worse.

And the worst part of it is that I hit about 50% of that debt for my husband. And. While I'm hiding this debt. I managed to convince him that we needed a swimming pool. And if anybody's who's installed a swimming pool, you know, that it's super expensive. It's not just about the pool. It's about the landscaping, the shed, the, this, the, that, right.

It all adds up. So everything kind of surf. At the end of the swimming pool thing, right. Where I got busted, I literally blew through all the credit I could possibly blow through without getting his permission on anything. And it got to the point where I owed so much money that, you know, even keeping up.

Cause I mean, a lot of this was on credit card, which is absolutely ridiculous. And I would never suggest anybody do that because you're looking at interest rates of like 20%. So it was getting to the [00:05:00] point where I couldn't even keep up with these patients. And I had to come clean so that we could move some money around and get a little bit of breathing relate from this huge amount of debt that I managed to, to humiliate.

Long story short, my husband found out he was extremely disappointed in me and that was like my rock bottom moment. Right. It wasn't even the fact that I had blown through all that money. It was that I had disappointed him. So that's when I went on the journey to figure out what happened. Like how did I allow myself to do this?

Because while I was doing this, I was fully aware I was doing it and I was choosing to continue. 

Kristy: Thanks for sharing that because I think, I think every 

Melissa: well, 

Kristy: not every, but a lot of women entrepreneurs, they think that they're the only ones that has a money story. I think we all think that, you know, we all just, I think every single person has a money story that they're ashamed of, that they're embarrassed about.

[00:06:00] Um, and we all think we're the only one and whatnot. And you know, when to be, you, you knew. 

Melissa: You knew you knew better and I'd still chose not to sell into it, which is, 

Kristy: is tough. And then you've come out of it, which is great because that's the other side of it is that, you know, we all have a story and, and we can all come out the other side.

And I have, I have a similar story from, you know, when I started my business seven years ago, eight years ago. And I mean, I was homeless with two kids at one point had just had to sell my house because we didn't, we could, I had to pay the bills with the proceeds from the house. So, um, and I've come back to.

So it doesn't 

Melissa: matter who you are 

Kristy: right now. You need, you can, you can, you can get out of it. It's not hopeless and there's, and there's all sorts of things you can do. And we're going to give you some of that today, too. So thanks for sharing that. I 

Melissa: appreciate that, Melissa. Oh, thank you. Yeah. And like I mentioned, the reason why I share it is because I want other people to realize that this is, you know, we're all human and we all have bad behaviors or bad habits that we [00:07:00] should be.

Avoiding or dealing with, I should say, instead of avoiding. And, um, for me, when I started dealing with what it was, in fact that I was missing or feeling that I was missing from my life is when I realized that I wasn't being true to who I am. And I started being true to who I was and these feelings of inadequacy or boredom or insecurity or whatever I was feeling.

Pretty much dissipated because it was replaced with doing what I truly enjoy doing with my life. And for those of you who are wondering, it was my career, that was sort of lacking, right. I felt like I was being. In grateful because I had a great job, but it wasn't satisfying to me. What I really wanted to do was go out on my own and help others.

So once I started doing that and got true to myself, that's when, you know, it's like I had tracked and I felt like things were in place. Everything started clicking. So. That's how I was able [00:08:00] to get out of my, my spending habits, getting out of debt, which is a different story, but the spending habits stopped, but 

Kristy: you know, that's amazing because I always look at something that the toughest times in our life tend to be redirection.

They don't feel like it at the time that they're pointing you towards where you need to go. And if you have. Fallen into that trap to start with because of how you were feeling. I'm sure that experience has made you better at what you do now. Exactly. And able to help more people, which is really what you wanted to do.

It kind of all comes full circle. 

Melissa: I know exactly. And said this before. It's like, it's a mistake. I don't regret. It was a very expensive mistake, a mistake. I don't regret. Right. Because I wouldn't be here today doing what I do. And in fact, you know, most of my clients are like, I'm here because you get it.

Like you've been here, you know, and this is why I want to work with you. So it makes me more relatable. I find because I mean, [00:09:00] Get it. And believe me, I've worked with CPAs, um, who don't get it. And that was a huge part of my fear of, you know, sharing. My story was, oh my God, what are my colleagues going to think?

But then I'm like, you know what? It doesn't matter because I'm not here to help my colleagues. I'm here to help people who want the help and need the help. 

Kristy: That's amazing. So we're going to talk about, um, all sorts of great things. I think, uh, today one is relating to this as resetting your debt mindset and why wealth is possible for anyone, which I think is, is a wonderful thing to talk about, especially for those that are a little overwhelmed right now and thinking, okay, now what.

Um, and then for those starting their businesses, you know, three reasons that your business needs a reserve of cash. We can talk through that. Some money management tips on scaling your business and then just forgiving your own mistakes. And building forward, I think is an important topic as well. So where do we start?

Melissa: Let's start with the money mindset stuff, because that's huge. Right. Um, you know, I always say that money is such an [00:10:00] emotionally charged topic. So as I mentioned earlier, part of my spending habits was because I was avoiding what was really going on within me. Right. But we all carry money stories. So whether you have, you know, you're overspending or you've got some.

You know, money story that's holding you back. It really does affect your business as well. And the reason why I like to talk about money mindset, when I first start working with clients is so we can see if they have those money stories that are keeping them from being the best business owners they can be because money stories can translate into.

How many sales you're bringing in, or how much debt you're carrying in your business or your personal life, or how you're managing your money or avoiding managing your money. Right. So having a positive relationship with money is important as a business owner so that you can optimize that relationship in your business.

Right. 

Kristy: So what's, what is, where do we start with, [00:11:00] with analyzing where we're at with our mindset and improving it, maybe 

Melissa: as the question? Yeah, so like, even for myself, you know, when I first started working, um, as an entrepreneur, I noticed that I was having a lot of difficulty with sales now backstory, my first profession was in social work.

So. In Canada. We know social work most often is a free service for people so that we don't have to ask for money when we're, we're helping them. And then, you know, working as a CPA in corporate and public accounting firms, I was not part of a sales process. Right. So it was always like on the backend helping people.

So when I came to. I have to charge people for my services. A lot of emotions came up and I was like, okay, something's going on here? Like I at least was able to self reflect and be aware enough to know that I had something going on that was causing friction with my sales. But the reason [00:12:00] I share this story is so maybe somebody else can relate to it, right.

Or if you have a similar story, what, what you need to do is be really cognizant of what's going on within you. So for me, a lot of my resistance. Sales was because as a child growing up, all I ever heard in my household between my parents and my grandparents was how, if anybody was trying to sell you something, they were just out to rip you off.

So I carried this story with me, you know, unknowingly for years, decades. And it never really came to surface until I had to start asking for payment from clients and. Thankfully, I went and spoke with the money mindset coach and got that sorted out so that I could get over that. Right. Because just because we carry these money stories doesn't mean that we have to continue carrying them.

Once you're aware of these stories and you get the help that you need to abolish the. You know, tapes or, or messages or what ha like whatever you want to [00:13:00] call it, you know, that are replaying in your mind and you start seeing things differently. Whereas I look at it now where I am helping you. Um, yes, I have to charge for my services because I'm not running a charity.

I'm helping. You know, and it's a fair exchange for my services. So getting into that new mindset and having a better relationship with that money or receiving money has helped me in my business. And it's able to increase my sales as well, because my more in business, you know, we, we want to make money.

You know, we're not running charities. Like you mentioned, right. We have bills to pay. We have things to do, and we shouldn't feel guilty about that. So that sort of. What I always talk about with my clients is be aware. And often what I see too is when I start working with clients and they think they don't have any money mindset issues, and I start seeing them surface and it doesn't take them long.

It really doesn't because all we do when we're working together is talking about money, right. And, you know, start, you know, slowly nudging them [00:14:00] and helping them realize that there's some resistance there. And once they realize there's persistence, they can refer. Deal with it. And part of moving forward from, you know, old money stories and stuff is an action and taking action.

So when you start dealing with your money in the way that, you know, traditional business owners should be dealing with it in a positive way, then you can start shedding a lot of that old behavior as well. Um, 

Kristy: so what are some of the more common ones that you see of the, the money mindset 

Melissa: issues? Um, I definitely see avoidance avoidance is huge.

I would say 99% of my clients that come to me are in that avoidance. They don't want to know what's going on with their members there. They're not taking the emotion out of it. And they're afraid to look at their members because it's going to tell them that they're a failure, even if they're not, it's that fear, that avoidance that, you know, I don't want to know what I don't know, because life is good over a year.

Right. [00:15:00] You know, but my argument is is if you are not doing well and you've got a lot of money leaks in your business and you know, you, it's kind of gone haywire. You need to address this so you can stay in business, right? Avoidance is not going to help you. Avoidance just keeps you, you know, losing the pile of money that you're losing, just keeps growing and growing and growing.

And the thing about numbers is, you know, as a business owner, once you get in a good habit, good financial habits is you will be looking at your numbers each and every month until. You are no longer a business owner, right. And what those numbers are telling you, it's really valuable feedback and that's all it is.

There's no emotion there. There shouldn't be. It's just feedback on what's going well, what may not be going well, what you can fix and. Our businesses are constantly evolving. So we're always going to have issues and problems and, and, um, you know, [00:16:00] nothing ever goes smoothly for entrepreneurs. So knowing that and knowing that you're just looking at the feedback of your numbers and that it's nothing to take personal, and it doesn't mean you're a failure is a good thing.

I love that. 

Kristy: That's I had to point that out that it's we really do internalize it. We, we, and our businesses, they do feel personal, you know, especially when you're, when you're just starting out and you are all the things, but not looking at the numbers is not going to change them. They're still there and they are what they are, but I think 

Melissa: we put 

Kristy: it off.

And then the fear of the unknown is, is often worse than the actual story. 

Melissa: If you look at it, Absolutely the hardest step I found, I find with my clients is taking that first step of looking at their numbers. And once they start looking at them and they create that financial plan and that doesn't take long at all, a couple of hours, they're like, wow, I feel so much better about my business, the relief.

Yeah. Yeah. And if things [00:17:00] are not going well in the business, when they start looking at it, creating that financial plan to ensure that you are course correcting so that things will go well and forecasting that and seeing with your own eyes, the plan and how you're going to sustain that plan. It is such a feeling of.

Just financial relief, right? It's that financial, oh, I can breathe again. I know things may not be great today, but you know, two months from now I can see it turning around or, or, you know, by the end of the year, I'm going to have a boatload of money saved or whatever the goals are. 

Kristy: So the key to resetting there, the money mindset, regardless of what it is, is I guess just really identifying what, what 

the 

Melissa: issue is, right.

Is that where we started to find the issue and take off. Against it. Right. We 

Kristy: talked about reserving, um, some cash for your business. 

Melissa: Yes. Cash cash is such an important part of your business. Cash is [00:18:00] the lifeline of your business. Right. And I always say cash is queen, so you need to have cash coming in your business so that you can pay your financial obligations.

Right. But the thing is going back to what we just discussed earlier is that, you know, And in business, it's not often a smooth line, you know, not everything's going to go as planned emergencies come up or market fluctuations happen, sales, slumps, all sorts of things. Right? So there's some things that are out of our control when it comes to cash management.

So what is in your control is having a backup plan. So the first thing is, you know, you need to save a cash reserve, right. And, you know, Before, COVID a lot of it. A lot of people were saying, you know, you need to save three to six months of your operating expenses. That will keep you going. But my argument now is with the state of the world, I would say in, this is what I do.

Six to 12 months of cash [00:19:00] reserves is more comfortable for me because we don't like, it's just crazy right now. And I'm. On the conservative side. So that's what I choose to do. Now. The other thing too is when things are going really, really well, if you don't have like a line of credit or a bank loan or something set up, this is the time to set it up.

Don't wait until you need. Because when you need it, the bank is likely going to say new, you can not have it. Right. So make sure that you're being proactive and you set these emergency funds up because they are emergency. Like, these are loans, you know, you don't want to touch them unless you absolutely need them.

But making sure that you have them set up for when you need them. A comfortable feeling. Right? So you've got your cash reserves plus you've got your, your emergency loans. And then the, the third thing is just making sure that you're planning six to eight weeks in advance. So you're looking at your cashflow reports mostly.

Accounting softwares. You can [00:20:00] create those. Um, if you can't, you can do it through an Excel sheet, right. And it lists the money that you have coming in versus the money you have going out. And if you have clients that aren't paying on time, like if you're not a point of sale type of. Type of vendor and you have clients on accounts that pay you, you know, whatever, making sure that you're on top of those payments and contacting clients who are in arrears quickly so that there's no money disputes or anything.

And getting that money in the door quicker is really important because you want to make sure. And I have seen people who have had accounts on their books for. And have not even contacted the client for fear of asking for that money. Right. And my argument is you need to do that right at the beginning, you know, when they're a week late, because that's where, if it could be an honest mistake where they just forgot, right.

Or it could be something, you know, where, where you need to work out and figure out what's going on. [00:21:00] But the earlier you address the problem, the more likely you are to collect those funds. Yeah. The longer that 

Kristy: sits out there, the less likely you are to, to 

Melissa: bring that back. Exactly. 

Kristy: Um, and I love that.

That's a great tip as far as, um, getting those line of credit and those emergency kind of money access points set up when things are good. If you 

Melissa: don't think about it, then do you know? You don't know. There was a lot of hard 

Kristy: lessons learned this last couple of 

Melissa: years with what, 

Kristy: what kind of preparedness 

Melissa: we need to have for sure.

Yeah. 

Kristy: as far as scaling goes, you've got some great tips on how to manage your money. As 

Melissa: you're growing as you're scaling. Yeah. And this was definitely my favorite topic because I love this creating a financial plan for your business is important. So what a financial plan is, it's very similar to a budget.

However, you're taking that budget and you're forecasting. Where you want to be in the next 12 months. So if you're a growing [00:22:00] business and let's say, you know, right now you're making $250,000 in revenue, but you know, you want to get to a million dollars in revenue, right? Planning. That 12 month forecast and you, you separated each and every month have that plan of how much revenue you need and how you're going to structure that in your business to ensure that you've got goals that you're working steadily towards an increase in that million dollars of revenue coming in and making sure that your expenses.

You know, because as your revenue grows, your expenses are going to grow to you. So you budget for your expenses to grow as well. And the most important thing is make sure that your profit margins are staying tight or growing with your growth of your business, because what happens is profit margins are, um, they fluctuate over industries, right?

So it just depends on what industry you're in to know. Is healthy for your business. So I'm just going to go with a 20% [00:23:00] average. So if you are operating a business at 20% profit margin, before you started growing, it's important that your profit margin stays at 20% or increases because what that profit margin is telling you is how.

Easy. It is for you to create profit on the revenue that you're bringing in. So if your profit margins shrinks to under 20%, it means that you have to work harder to create more profit. And if it's growing, then you're working. Like it's just easier to bring in profit with the growth of your business. So ensuring that you keep that profit margin tight as you're growing your business is essential for your business success.

And you have to make sure that you're paying yourself a salary. I say this all the time, because so many times I meet entrepreneurs who are paying themselves with what's left over at the end of the day. But you have to make sure that you budget your salary in there and you pay yourself like [00:24:00] the professional that you are and your after expense money.

Which means after you've paid yourself as well, is your profit. And then that profit can be reinvested into your business as you're growing it. Instead of like, you know, so many entrepreneurs take out loans and they want everything at once, and that's just not a sustainable way to grow your business, especially when you're growing and things aren't working out the way you had planned them to you because nothing ever, ever does.

Right. And then, you know, once you've got this plan solidified, you know what your 12 month operating forecast is, it's great to have that plan, but the next most important step you need to take is to measure your progress against that plan. So, because your operating forecast is broken down month by month.

At the end of each month, you're going to look at what you had planned for, for that month. And you're going to look at what actually happened that month and you see the variance. So you see if your [00:25:00] revenues exceeded, came in as target or were less and same with your expenses, and then you figure out if there was bad news, what happened, what went wrong?

And if there's good news, what's going well, that I can capitalize on and make sure that. You know this momentum up. So it's really important. This is the stuff that you need to start looking at for your business, so that you can get that direction in your business. You can grow, you can follow your goals.

You've got that roadmap that outlines you, like what you need to do each and every month, how many sales you need to achieve and stuff, and how to follow up, to see how you're progressing. It gives you accountability in your business. 

Kristy: I've always been a big fan of targets for my own businesses, because I think you, you will find ways that you hadn't thought of before.

If you've got that target in front of you, um, you're going to find ways to reach it. Right. But you're absolutely right. You're going to do all sorts of things, but what's great about this is that it's. [00:26:00] It's giving you all the insight into how you're gonna make that happen on a, on a case-by-case a sale by sale basis and keeping your profit margins in line.

And I think that's an amazing tip. 

Melissa: Yeah. It helps, you know, maintain sustainability in your business. Right. And keeping your, your loans at a minimum, because if you're taking your profit and reinvesting it, that means that you're kind of bootstrapping or you're growing your business as you can afford to grow it.

So that's really important. And it minimizes any debt load that you may carry because debt always includes extra expense because borrowing money is never. Yeah, 

Kristy: absolutely. And another great tip there for anybody who's just starting out as far as paying yourself and what's left over after you pay yourself, is the business prop profit that gets reinvested because I think if you don't look at it like that, you really muddy the waters as to how the business is doing and what money you, you know, you have to grow with.

And. And use and budget for marketing and all the other 

Melissa: things. So that's how you [00:27:00] have a really good point because if you're struggling personally, then you think it's your business, that's struggling. But what, what really happened was you didn't pay yourself. So pay yourself first, have that clear mind to know when you go into your business, what you need to do.

Yeah, 

Kristy: absolutely. And when you're just starting out, I think to figure out what you need, you need to do your personal budget, figure out how much you need to make each month, how much you need to pay yourself, right? What your, your, your business budget, as far as what it takes to operate the business. And you need to be really clear about how those two things, look separately.

So the last thing we were gonna, we were going to touch on and, and, um, I love this as well. And this really ties back to what we talked about at the beginning is just forgiving your own mistakes. You know, we we've all made them. Right. And we're still making them, I'm sure all over the place and really looking at where 

Melissa: you're at and building.

Absolutely. I mean, sharing my debt story, that was a big mistake. Right. But that's not the only mistake that's ever happened to me or ever will. So as an entrepreneur, myself growing my [00:28:00] business, I have made many mistakes. And I mean, I'm not even going to count the mistakes because it would be depressing.

But the important thing is, is for every mistake that I've made, I've learned something from it. I've taken something away from that mistake. So as long as you're not getting stuck in your mistakes, and , as long as you're being resilient and you're getting past those mistakes, you may learn from other people's mistakes. People may share with you, you know, oh, don't do this because this happened to me and this is what happened, blah, blah, blah. But you're going to try something else different and you're going to probably make a mistake there.

So it's okay to make mistakes. As long as you bounce back from. 

Kristy: Yeah and face them, right? I mean, that's, that's where it all goes wrong. It's fixable that the sooner you catch it, the easier it is to 

Melissa: fix. Yeah. I tend to look at mistakes as the data from the financial reports as well. Right.

This is just data it's telling you, what's working and what's not working. And sometimes you just have to, find a new direction, try something different. And maybe that will stick. 

Kristy: So on the [00:29:00] same vein, and it doesn't necessarily have to be related to finances or it could be, we've got a lot of newer women founders that listened to the podcast.

What is your best piece of advice be for new women, founders, maybe something somebody told you or something that you've found in your own expenses. 

Melissa: My own experience in these, this goes back to the mistakes I've made focus on sales at the beginning. You don't need to have shiny websites or invest in, you know, all these sales funnels and stuff like that.

Get your customers, your paying customers in the door and take that money and use it to reinvest into your business. Don't go into debt. I have borrowed money from like myself. 

And that was a big mistake on my part. You don't need that. You just need to start selling and growing your business. 

Kristy: That's the curse of the perfectionism. I think isn't it. We just, we're not ready yet. We're not ready yet. We need to do this thing first and you don't, you learn so 

Melissa: much once you finally just get started.

Yeah, it's so [00:30:00] true. And that's, how you're going to realize what works in your, in your sales process and what doesn't. Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Kristy: Now you have got some great resources for us too. So first of all, I guess let's, let's tell everybody where they can find you and get more information, get in touch with you.

And then you've got a great download for us as well. 

Melissa: Yes, I do. So, you can find me on my website at Melissa Houston, cpa.com. That's my main website. And in fact, the download is on the website. Once you visit it, you'll see it right away. Download the free five step roadmap to biz. Freedom. And that shows you the five step framework, what you need for your financial foundation.

Because as a business owner, you don't need to be an accountant. You don't need to, get into the weeds of things, but you do need that high-level CEO understanding of finances, and that's what the guide is designed for 

Kristy: so we'll put the link for that in the show.

so everybody can click in the show notes and get that. And if you're listening on a platform where you can't see the show notes, I know some of them, you [00:31:00] can't, you can always go to one step empire.com and we've got all the episodes, all the show notes, the link to Melissa's website and all the things there.

So it's one step empire.com. So you can, you can go there and catch up with us and get what you need. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Melissa. This was really fantastic information. I appreciate you sharing your story and being so vulnerable and making us 

Melissa: all feel. We're all in the same boat.

We've all, we're all in the same boat. 

Kristy: And I really appreciate 

Melissa: that. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed this conversation.