How can we use money as a conduit for creating the life of our dreams? In today’s episode, I have the honor of introducing you to Bridgette Boucha. Entrepreneur and author of Money Queen: A Simple Financial Framework For Soulful Entrepreneurs To Run A Profitable Business While Living A Fuller Life. Bridgette is diving into her framework for defining your financial success, boosting your revenue, and creating healthy habits with your money.
On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.
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Review The Show Notes:
The Emotion Behind Money (2:35)
Breaking Generational Patterns (8:00)
Identifying Our Financial Success (14:45)
What To Prioritize In Our Money Goals (24:41)
Where To Get Started With Boosting Revenue (32:07)
Growing Your Business Through A Money Management Team (40:16)
Healthy Money Habits (46:55)
Key Tip From Bridgette (54:52)
Connect With Bridgette:
Review the Transcript:
Quianna Marie
Is money the root of all evil? Or can money feel abundant safe, set us financially free and actually be a tool instead of a headache? Personally, I’ve had a love hate relationship with money. Thankfully, I’ve always barely had enough to get by. But I noticed I’ve always had a fear of making more money only to pay more in taxes. Or the more money I make, the more I spend. So am I really getting ahead?
If we’re being really honest, today, I’m tired of the struggle. I hate how money controls my life, my emotions and my moods, depending on what’s in my bank account. If you’re in a season of self reflection, thinking, it’s time for a change, just like me, this episode is for you. I have the honor of introducing a friend that makes talking about money, feel safe, and understanding with the action steps to help us rewrite our money stories.
To heal this wound of feeling like we never have enough. Or maybe if you’re in a financial place that you’re really proud of. We’ll also be breaking down ways to scale and to make more money for you. I’m so excited to introduce you to my new and forever friend Bridgette.
Bridget Boucha is a speaker, author and fractional CFO who advises from her lived experiences as an entrepreneur. Her soulful approach to money, mentorship, and personal empowerment has helped hundreds of business owners simplify their money, build confidence in their numbers and map out their money Queen model. She believes you deserve to run a profitable business while living a fuller life. With a warm welcome.
Please welcome Bridgette Boucha!
Welcome to Quianna Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins big or small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams. You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode at Kiana murray.com/podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready? Let’s GO! Hey, hey, hey, welcome to the party. Bridgette, I’m so honored you can be here today.
Bridgette Boucha
Thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited for the conversation.
Quianna Marie
Yes, this could not come at a better time. I feel like now, in the present moment is always the best time to really look into our finances and just take control of our money. And I would love to know, Bridgette, why does money really make us stressed out? What is the root of this fear of money?
Bridgette Boucha
Whoo, juicy. Let’s dig right in. Yeah, so for anybody listening, it’s likely that you have your own money relationship. We all do. It’s been in our lives since we’ve known really what it was. And, you know, I think the thing about money that can cause so much emotions, it’s not that money is the problem. It’s the meaning we assigned to it.
When you think about something like a tool, like money that has been in our lives in some shape, or form, whether it was a scarcity mindset, whether it was hey, we were told, maybe growing up. We can’t afford something or maybe money was just a material thing, it was something that represented love to you, you know, on the other side of the pendulum is growing up as, hey, I received gifts, therefore I am worthy. We develop this money stories really early.
For many of us in our adult lives, whether you’re an entrepreneur, a business builder, however, your audience this finds you today, this message is for you, because money’s in your life no matter what, whether you run a business, whether you run your own household.
It’s really up to us to identify some of those stories and those narratives that we tie to money so that as we get older, and as we develop a new relationship with money or try to improve our relationship, we understand our baseline. And so that’s the really important thing about it is basically saying, what is the narrative that I have around money? What is the meaning that I assigned to money?
Is it serving me because if it’s a story that is not serving you, it’s only going to be amplified, as an entrepreneur, as many of us are, and I’m sure some of your audience members can relate to that as well. So that’s really where it routes from, we assign a deep, meaning usually around worthiness to money. And in the end, it’s just a tool. It’s just it’s love, just it’s the conduit to your blessings. It’s not the source.
Quianna Marie
Wow, that is so powerful. I’m so happy that we’re just getting into this and digging deeper and deeper. And I’ve always been a huge believer that money is energy and money is an amplifier, right? So if you’re, if you’re thinking of money, like money is bad, money is evil, and those who have money are greedy, like, yeah, if you’re that type of business owner that steps on people that lies, like that’s just going to be amplified. But if you have a really generous heart and you’re trying to make an impact, like imagine how much better the world can be when you had more money.
Bridgette Boucha
It’s so true. You know, it is an amplifier, I call it in my book, I say it’s like tofu. And I’m not a big fan of tofu, but I know enough about it that it takes on the flavor of the dish. And money takes on your flavor. And so if you ever have a fear of not wanting to turn into some sort of person, because money has changed you, that’s a narrative, you’re telling yourself, that’s a limitation that you’re telling yourself, because money allows us to do good in the world, money gives us choices.
If you choose poorly, that’s up to you, right. But you do have that choice. And I can assure you that if those stories are kind of flooding your brain a little bit about, you’ve seen that person who you never want to become you’ve seen actions, you’ve seen the results of somebody who has come into money and maybe not done positive things in the world with it, I invite you to look at the flip side. Where is that proven to be not true?
Where are the philanthropists out there? Where are the people that are really doing good with money and time and investing and researching for cures, and you know, all of those things, those people exist as well, we focus on what we want to see. So I would invite you to shift that and say, Where is this narrative? Not true. Because those stories are there. And then that is where you get the fuel from? That is where you say, oh, my gosh, how empowering.
Oh, amazing is this resource that I could potentially use? For something that matters to me, whether it’s my personal growth, my family taking care of my family, breaking generational wealth patterns. I mentioned philanthropy, you know, donated money goes a lot further than donated time.
Quianna Marie
Wow! Yes, absolutely. I love that you’re bringing this up where it’s generational, right? So one of the things that I really wanted to kind of kick off this conversation with is a thought that it’s okay, that we are like sucky at money.
Meaning that break because, you know, I forget which book it was, I need to quote it correctly. But talking about how money really hasn’t been along, like for very long like investing, I mean, it’s only been a couple 100 years, it’s only been like a few generations since we’ve been bartering and exchanging.
I would love to make this clear for anyone that’s listening. And this is a gentle reminder for myself, that if you are in a financial, sticky situation, or you don’t feel like you have all the answers, like it’s okay, like you’re safe, you’re loved.
We’re gonna get through this, but I would love to chat Bridgette like a little bit more about the the way that our generations have actually impacted our money stories and our money beliefs. Because if you don’t have it figured out now, like, so for example, I’m just so excited. All these stories are flooding. Like, you know, I used to get so angry at my mother for these money traumas and these things, and I’m just realizing, Wait a second, she’s learning this to like work, like we’re going through, like breaking these chains and breaking these patterns together.
I’d love to kind of, like dive a little bit deeper into that, where the whole idea of investing and and the actual way money works is still really new. Like in our DNA, like I remember having, like my great grandmother, she went through the Depression through the Depression, and we had hard boiled eggs in our spaghetti like, that’s it. That’s a core memory of me being Sicilian. Right? So can we chat more about that? Like, look, the history of money?
Bridgette Boucha
Yeah, it’s so interesting, because, you know, first of all, I want to reiterate something that kind of said about this is a safe space. So wherever you find yourself today listening to this, whether you’re on a walk or on a drive, you’re just kind of doing dishes as we multitask and, or you’re watching this live, I want you to know that we’re meeting you where you are, because we’re all navigating this journey. You know, as she said, the the history of money. Sure. It’s been around in different forms, like the bartering and different things like that for a long time. And now we’re into Bitcoin.
I mean, there’s all kinds of modalities of money, right? But at the core of it, there are certain things that are fairly new, I want to I want to give you I’m gonna, I’m not gonna get the year correct. But it wasn’t till like around the 1960s or 70s, okay, 60s or 70s Think disco era think, you know, hippie to be that women couldn’t even get a bank account without a husband signature.
So if you weren’t married, no bank account, no credit card, those kinds of things like that was not that long ago. Some of you own furniture in your home, that are older that’s older than that. So put that in perspective of we’re still learning, we’re still growing. I mean, think the Internet came around, you know, like, things are ever evolving. And so give yourself the permission to be able to say, Huh, so if my ancestors had a certain relationship with it, that was likely passed down to my parents, which was likely then almost like osmosis, right?
In my household is how money was spoken about how it was treated. You know, there’s kind of two sides, extreme sides of the pendulum, if you will of handling money you know, Does it burn a hole in your pocket and you got to just spend it as soon as you have it, or are you kind of hoarding it and, and saving it for a rainy day. And there’s somewhere in between that is peace, right? So you think about your upbringing, so I’ll use myself as an example.
So my grandparents on my dad’s side, okay, so this is one generation up. My grandmother, full Native American grew up on the reservation, not a lot of abundance, as far as money goes there, but community food, right, a lot of culture and pride. So there’s different levels of abundance, money wasn’t really one of them. My grandfather, her husband, was illiterate. I mean, he had to oral he got pulled over, I remember when he was in his 80s, they’re both passed now.
But when he was in his 80s, he got pulled over. And they discovered in this tiny little town in northern Minnesota, that he didn’t have his driver’s license, and you had to take it verbally. And we’re talking, these are my grandparents. These aren’t great, great, great, great, great grandparents. My dad was a published author, I’m a published author. And yet my grandfather was illiterate.
Not that far away, guys. So we I’m, I’m certain that as you think about your story, you can go back a generation or two, or four, or whatever it is, and start to identify some things where you’ve already broken the mold. Like, how cool is that? Take that to the bank. Right.
So it doesn’t have to be that, you know, it’s, you know, whatever it is for you celebrate it. Because we’re giving ourselves we’re kind of cutting ourselves short. When we put ourselves in that box, when we say, hey, you know what, my family just wasn’t ever good with money, we never really had anything, so therefore, I’m gonna carry that torch on Hell, no.
Now, you get to choose, you get to decide today, how you’re going to show up because people are watching you. And even if you’re not a parent, you have people that are watching you, whether it’s family members, neighbors, siblings, your friends, your community. And I would invite you to also take a little inventory of the people that you are hanging around, and you do spend time with to see how their narrative is about money.
Because it’s going to be likely that you’re taking on a little bit of that flavor as well, even if you don’t intend to. So breaking generational patterns, nobody needs a permission slip to do that. It just requires action. It requires intention. And certainly the proximity rule of who you’re hanging around the fact that you’re listening to this podcast, bravo, bravo, here we are two women to entrepreneurs. We’ve all been through it. We’re on the journey. And here we are having a really empowering, vulnerable, honest conversation about money. Like, go us Yay!
Quianna Marie
I’m so happy. We’re here to chat about this. Yes, and I love that we’re going there, right, like feeling that acceptance and that love to know that it’s possible to change your money story. I love that. I love that you mentioned that, you know, money isn’t abundance, like or money isn’t the only form of abundance, right? And you know, and it’s funny you say that about your grandmother being Native.
I grew up in a household where my mom always told us, we may not be rich in money, but we’re rich in love. And that was our narrative, right? It was, doesn’t really matter how much money you make. It’s how you make people feel. And and I love that narrative like that, that truly is like rooted in how I do business and all these things which, which this is why I always say I need to make a t shirt that says, I will never be broke because I work too hard.
But I will never be rich, because I’m too generous. Like that’s like my slogan, right? But I want to change that right. And so one thing that I love, when I got to hear you speak at the Felicia Romero’s six figure circle, and I just totally fell in love with you, Bridget, and your mindset about soulful money and soulful business. And I really resonated when you started talking about the like our money stories, how we can change it, and actually identifying our own money success, right?
What does it truly mean? Because I know there are, there’s someone listening here that maybe they just need to make an extra $20,000 a year to help support their family, send their kids off to dance class, buy those do soccer cleats. Maybe there are some powerful women listening here that really are trying to clear and extra $200,000 Because they have their eyes set on this big project. Right. And I think that’s beautiful because we need to actually be rooted in what defines our success. So can you help us kind of break us down into some tips or tricks to identify that success and to really truly start narrating and writing our own money stories?
Bridgette Boucha
Yeah. Oh gosh, this one, this one and lands real, real deep with me. And I’ll give you a little background because the best way that I know how to teach is through story. And so for those of you that don’t know me, I’m a fractional CFO.
I serve soulful entrepreneurs who are scaling their businesses. And that means I’m part time basically. So I get the opportunity to work with so many incredible people. But it didn’t start that way. You know, we teach because we’ve solved our own problems we teach because we’ve learned. And so the story for me is I grew up in corporate America, I did the very traditional career path, went to college, got my accounting degree, got my CPA license, I became a corporate CFO for 15 years. That was my story.
That was my identity. And it was everything that I ever wanted. Because again, I was about breaking generational patterns. None of my family had ever done anything like that. And I was like, Well, fuck, I’m gonna do it, right. And I did it. And it was amazing. And I was very proud of it. And I’m still very proud of it. And at some point, success no longer felt like success. And for anybody that’s listening, that’s ever really gone for it and achieved a milestone rang, the bell reached the top of the ladder, however you define it, only to find out that it no longer feels like the triumph that you want, saw it as then you know that it can be very confusing.
You start to doubt yourself and say, Well, I thought this is what I wanted. I put all the blood sweat and tears into it. I rang the bell. Why the hell is it no longer enough. And what I want to assure you is is that is very normal. That is part of my story. I became a corporate CFO, I rang the bell, I was very proud for many years, before I started to feel a little disconnected.
At the time, I didn’t really have language for it. I just knew that something felt off, and that if I was going to work this hard in life, this certainly could not be it. It was it was not resembling the happiness that I had once envisioned for myself or even once felt.
I allowed myself the permission to make a change, it was a very untraditional decision to throw away, you know, everything I’d work for my degree, everybody was so proud of me, I had my title. And I had to really redefine success. But in order to do that, I had to kind of wipe my slate clean, and I realized not everybody has the opportunity to just you know, quit their corporate job and silence their environment and figure it out.
But I’m I’m betting that for those of you that are listening, you’ve been in a situation before where you have felt that misalignment. And then maybe posed with the challenge or challenging yourself to make a change, even though it’s not the most popular decision, and people might not understand it. But somewhere within you in the depths of your soul, you know what’s right for you. And you’ve got to figure it out. And so that part of my story allows me to share what I’m about to share about redefining success and figuring out exactly what that means to you.
There are way too many examples out there for us to try to emulate. I call it in my book, one of the four R’s is the rainbow, the rainbow, what I love so much about it. First of all, it’s a beautiful symbol that represents so many things, diversity, equality, joy, the pot of gold lock, I mean, just so many amazing things. But what science will also tell you about a rainbow is that no two people see the same one, right? Because it’s based on where you’re standing, where you’re routed the angle, where the sun shining.
The reason I chose rainbow as a symbol of your fuller life, is because no two people see the same one. And when you allow yourself to look at your life through that lens, there’s a there’s a an element of freedom and playfulness that you get to choose because I can look on social media all day long and be like, gosh, that’d be nice look at that. I can go to Netflix and watch a show. I can even see a good friend of mine and have envy, right for what they have.
But in the end, what lights me up, you know, what really matters to me? What do I want my calendar to look like? When I look at my week coming up? How do I want to feel, and it doesn’t happen overnight. But with some intention and some clarity, you get the chance to be able to say I use two tools in the book, personal core values, what really matters to me, you know, mine’s like, you know, fun and curiousness and connection and adventure.
These are some of my personal core values that I get to route back towards and say, Okay, that’s kind of how it drives my decisions. And the other one is feel my best list and what makes me feel good. I love to be outside.
I actually enjoy my own company more than I ever did before. Certainly when I left corporate and I was on my own for the first time ever. It was very lonely. I realized how much that corporate title defined me. I felt as though my confidence went with my resignation. And it was a very dark place for a while because I didn’t enjoy my own company. I was like well damn, leave me alone with my old thoughts there me and those bitches are not here to pump me up. I was really just figuring out how to internally like self validate and find the joy in this new version of myself.
So when you think about the feel my best list, those are some things that I would use the personal core values and how what things feel your best to be able to create your week, which then in turn creates not just weeks, but months, and years of joy. And then you build your business around that. So that is really important that you get the clarity.
First, because so many of us can build a business, so many of us can buy a book about financial strategies, scaling your business, it fails to take one very important thing into consideration. You if you’re going to completely flip your world upside down like I did, you better build it back the way you want it. Yes.
Quianna Marie
And we each have those opportunities to choose. And I as just like you, I’m a huge visual learner, I love stories. That’s how I connect. And I’m such an analogy person. So the fact that you brought up the rainbow, and this has been one of your four R’s. And one of the ways that you totally identify with success, like I love that visualization of the rainbow, because, yes, not only does it have so many different meanings, but even the actual colors are different, right?
We like not just the shape and the direction. Is it a double rainbow like, oh, it looks like the rainbow was landing right on our house today. Really, if you’re driving on the freeway coming home, like oh, that’s my house, it’s landing, right? That’s where the pot of gold is like, we can make these references. But just the idea that each of us individually, have our own needs, have our own desires, we get to actually root our business in that first and then have our business work for us.
Bridgette Boucha
Yes, if you if you’re all out there, and you’re saying oh my gosh, I’m making a career transition, or hey, I have these skill set. But I’m the pivot is such a buzzword, right. But I’m pivoting, I want to tell you something that I really want you to hear everything Prime’s you for the next step. So when you think about your experience, and you think you’re pivoting, bring everything with you every piece of your soul.
Every experience that you’ve had, because what makes you credible, is not what makes you incredible. So when you think about credibility, you’re thinking about the letters behind your name, your work, experience your resume, you know what you put on LinkedIn.
That’s what makes you credible. And that’s what makes a ton of other people the same level of credibility. What makes you incredible, are those personal experiences are those life experiences that you think are not even related to what you’re doing now. But I’m going to tell you right now, it’s part of you your uniqueness. It’s your style, your voice, the way you solve a problem, how you make people feel back to count as life story.
Those are the things that really make you incredible. And in order to stand out and stand in your full truth, you’ve got to bring it all to the table. I was so anti CFO when I left corporate because I thought in my mind, I associated it with burnout, or nothing to do with it.
Then a couple years later, as I was doing fractional work and doing different things in dabbling, I was like, Oh, I don’t have to abandon my skill set. I just get to repackage it, and put it out into the world in a way that feels more me. And so I started shifting my language, I started talking about money as energy.
Being soulful, I started talking about the entrepreneur, entrepreneurial journey from the standpoint of, you know, the cry in the bathroom floor moments, the fact that people weren’t on board with what I was doing the fact that I didn’t want anything to do with CFO and I was wanting to walk dogs for the rest of my life. Like there was a journey all. And when you start to speak from that authentic truth, it becomes relatable. And there’s no research involved could guess what you just get to tell your story.
Then what happens? People find you, not just people, but your people. If you do not speak in that authentic voice, if you don’t shut those layers and break down those barriers and, and speak from a place of your truth. How else will your people find you?
Quianna Marie
Yeah, and how amazing that is that these, these clients and these customers are begging to want to work with you. Right? Like they like they you’re not just offering this problem or this service or something that, you know, just needs to be done or checked off their list, but they’re seeking you and they’re begging to work with you. I think that that is beautiful, and I loved your analogy to have the credible versus incredible.
Let’s focus on the incredible right. Now. One thing that I’ve always said Bridgette always is like and then when another t shirt, I need to have come up with some merch here. But another t shirt is like I cannot do God’s work with a broke ass bank account. Right?
So I would love to kind of kind of circle back here. So now that we are kind of listing out our best days our best yeses and identifying what that rainbow is for how we want to live our days. I really want to dig into the money mindset about things. And I would I would love for you to share. In your opinion in today’s economy. What should we prioritize? Is it a matter of making more money? Or is it a matter of truly making our money work for us? How do we kind of play with those different roles?
Bridgette Boucha
Oh, yeah, that’s a great question. So, you know, I’m very fortunate to work with such high performing entrepreneurs. So I get a little bit of, I start to identify some patterns across the board, because every entrepreneur is different, every business owner is different, and therefore the strategy can can alter. And you know, as we all know, the economy has been all up and down interest rates are this, oh, my gosh, should we invest in Bitcoin, and then, oh, there’s gonna be a recession, and just you name it, right? There’s a lot of noise out there.
My approach is probably going to sound a little bit like a hybrid, because there’s, there’s usually not a one size fits all solution, but I can give you a couple of different scenarios, depending on what season you’re in. Um, first of all, I’ll start with I’m of the mindset that you create your own economy. And, you know, in the end, if you have a solution for something, there’s likely a demand for it. And as long as there’s a demand for it, you should be fine. Because there is enough, there is enough for everybody out there
There are some people, several people, in fact, that are not really impacted by an account a dip in the economy. And so depending on what your skill set is, what your solution is, and where the demand lies, you might change how you do it, the delivery method, the solutions, the one on one versus coaching, whatever it is groups, masterminds in person, all that stuff. But if the solution is still there, and the demand is there, I think you can go ahead and just continue on. And I’ve seen that happen with my clients, we had a very little recession rate, as far as we’ve had very little turnover with clients. And I think that’s a testament to a couple different things.
You know, I think that a lot of them are doubling down on the things that are working, right success leaves clues, but not every clue because the consumers are changing how they buy when they buy when they’re feeling price sensitive. And so it’s getting the data, it’s putting some information out there and basically being able to say, what’s my feedback? And what do I do with this?
Part of being a fractional CFO, is that financial strategy piece? So we start with and I’ll kind of circle back to the four hours, to be honest, is, you know, we have to start with a revenue. You have to be generating revenue in order to save it in order to spend it right. So it’s got to start there. So the second are the first hours Rambo the second RS revenue.
You know, what, what are you going to market with? Who works with you? And why? And what is making them say hell yes. And how do you then expand upon that, and there’s so many different strategies, pricing otherwise, that are in the book, but revenue has got to be the source, because it’s the inflow, it’s the money that gives you the choice, you have to have the money in the first place in order to manage the money. Okay, so focus on your solutions, your revenues, also called offers, to be able to figure out where that’s coming from.
Now, if you’re not an entrepreneur, and you have a W two, and you’re working for someone else, that’s your revenue. Okay? So you can figure out exactly if you want to go ahead and try to optimize that take on a different responsibility, get promoted, or do a side hustle, whatever it is different sources of income. Those are really important to be able to do so then once you have the revenue, then you have the choice that Kiana was saying is, do I save it? Do I invest it? How do I basically do this, and I’m gonna give you two scenarios. A lot of times for entrepreneurs, specifically, I’m going to talk about you’re in either a building season or like a booming season.
So what does that mean a building season is, I’m still kind of figuring it out, I’m getting my business off the ground, kind of solopreneur thing, really, you know, trying to move the needle, create some recurring revenue, and a booming season is, hey, I figured it out. Now let’s boom, it, let’s make it scale. And how you invest your money is going to differ depending on that season.
If you’re in a building season, and you’re still getting clarity, and you’re getting the data and you’re putting things out there, you’re developing new packages and new offers, you’re getting in networking rooms, you’re doing all the things to really, you know, create brand awareness and loyal customers, you’re going to invest time and money in a way that’s going to generate money, right? It’s going to generate the revenue so that you can turn around and build, you know, this foundation.
If you’re in a booming season, you’re going to invest time and money in order to create more time, meaning you’re going to hire a team, you’re going to do some scalable strategies, you’re going to get creative with cash flow, maybe with payment terms, recurring revenue, you’re going to automate, you’re going to delegate. They’re just different seasons to be in. And depending on which one you’re in, you get the choice to be able to do that. Right?
It wouldn’t make sense to illustrate further, if you just started your business, and you’re just getting some offers out there to hire a big team. It just wouldn’t make sense, right? It wouldn’t be the best use of your resources, in this case, money. And likewise, if you’re in a building season, or blooming season, I’m sorry.
And you’re like, I’ve got it figured out like I would consider our business in that we have money mapping. We have CFO and bookkeeping services. Now it’s like okay, scale, how do we help more people? So we’re hiring team. But it wouldn’t make sense for me to not hire a team because I’m only one person. I can only CFO for so many people.
That’s why I do things like write books that are legacy pieces that I can get into people’s hands no matter where you are. That’s why I go on podcasts. That’s why I’m on stages. Anyway, so that’s why I do that because I can only help so many people one on one. But my book can be in more rooms than I can be in. My Podcasts can reach more ears than I can reach, and the stages and the events and the community and the connection.
That is something that I’m really excited about doing so much more of this year because the message needs to get out there. You know, Kiana reached out to me, we wanted to talk about this topic, because there’s a need for it. Whoever is out there listening, you deserve to feel good about your money. You deserve it. Not, you should do it. You could do it. It’s you deserve it.
Making that mind shift and putting in some practices and tools and surrounding yourself with people that believe it to just going to help you because guess what? Money is not going anywhere. Thanks.
Quianna Marie
Yes, I love the way you like literally map this out for us. And, and I feel like I really love to dig a little bit deeper into the building mode, right? Because it truly is a hot topic right now that I feel like everyone and their sister are pivoting right? We were like a whole bunch of Ross’s cramming the sofa upstairs, right, like a staircase, pivot pivot pivot. Right. And, you know, and it’s so funny, because if you’re a friend’s band, right, and it’s like, I don’t think Monica was there, right?
They were like, We need Monica, we need muscle and they brought Chandler you know? And they’re like, No, we need Monica! I would love to talk about like, who can the Monica be in your business? Like when it comes to, you know, doing the heavy lifting and, and really monetizing our niche. Right. So let’s say we are experiencing this pivot, do you have any advice for really getting digging into the numbers to see Wait, like what’s actually making me money?
Because I feel like a lot of business owners, and I’m speaking for myself as a multi passionate business owner, that I just have so many ideas. And I know that a lot of things that I’m offering, I’m like, Oh my gosh, like, people need this, like photographers need to invest in this. And I wish every entrepreneur would buy this because oh my god, it would change their life. Like I feel really scattered about all this stuff.
So I need like, in your best opinion, where should we get started with monetizing our niche? And actually boosting that revenue? Like, let’s go full gas, like let’s go pedal to the metal on that cash flow.
Bridgette Boucha
Okay, I love this so much, because she just talked herself into the answer in a certain way. So see this is this. In the simplest forms, I will say it’s having conversations like this, you’ve got somebody in your life that has either accomplished what they’ve what you want to accomplish, or is on the same trajectory, or can be a good sounding board.
A lot of times we can talk ourselves through some of these things. So I’m going to I’m going to pull out some of the really key things that Kenneth said in her question that really can help answer her own question. And so part of that is, you know, you said, how do you go full steam and get the revenue generated and different things like that when you feel kind of scattered visionary. That’s like my summary of it. You know, the good news is that we need visionary, we need to be innovative, we need to be able to have a lot of ideas and see solutions where other people don’t.
We also need to be able to focus, because you have to be able to give something a certain amount of attention and a certain length of time or runway in order to see how it’s landing and how it’s working. So I like 90 day sprints, you can call them blitzes, you can call them, we call them, you know, the 90 day focus initiatives, whatever it is just come up with some clever that lands with you. But to be able to say, Okay, so let’s use pianos real life business, hey, for the next 90 days, so we’re recording this in February, what am I offering? How can people work with me in the next 90 days?
How does my content support that? How are my resources set up to support that? It simplifies it for you because you know exactly what you’re talking about. When you give people too many call to actions, they get confused.
They don’t know. I’ve seen people do something so specific, like, you know, for for accounting was say, hey, especially the severe, hey, are your books complete shit, you haven’t looked at them all year long, and they’re not reconciled. They’re not ready for tax and you are so sick of scrambling. How many people can see themselves in that story. It’s very timely. It’s funny, it just thinking about it invokes a little bit of emotion.
That’s from the accounting standpoint, you know, right. And from county standpoint, it can be like, I can do something so specific, like, Alright, who is who hasn’t had their website updated in the last year? What are you, you know, here’s another, what are you offering in 2024? And does your website and your content support that? It’s likely that you’ve changed your business strategy in 2024 and your content needs to match that. So here I am offering this one day strategy session or two day whatever, photo op or whatever it is.
I think that you can always create the vision for somebody to be able to see themselves in it. So for example, like you want people to be able to place you so for me, I do financial strategy, business side money, mentors, I like all of those things, but money is at the core of it.
When you think of money, I want you to think of Bridgette, who che. Kiana is a creative that she’s, you know, amazing with the camera, right? She’s she’s got all these ideas and different things into it’s coming up with, where do I want people to place me for the next 90 days, and I have to be able to talk about it, I want it on my content, I want it on my stories I want it on on my podcast.
Anywhere that I’m talking about things, I am driving people to me, I have a marketing team that does a real challenge. So I started with them, I had never done a real in my life, and they broke it down. So specific, here’s a 90 day real challenge, we’re going to do, you know, 10 or 20 a month, and I thought, I’m not gonna do that on my own.
Now they’re my full time marketing team, right, like, and so there are things that you can do to really speak to somebody, and it’s going to take a little bit of attention and time and patience, which none of us have, right, let’s be honest. But it’s gonna take a little bit of patience to be able to say, How do I want to serve people in these next 90 days, and go all in on that you have to simplify in order to scale, you simplify, you really just hone in all the marketing all the resources all the time, all the content in on those offers, and then watch your world change. Nobody’s going to be confused, including you.
Quianna Marie
Yes, I literally feel like a collective breath of fresh air with that concept of just simplify to amplify simplify to scale, like, just find that focus. And, and I think I think you know, and I love this conversation so much, Bridgette because as a projector, in human design, I really truly have this eagle eye like I get so caught up in the big picture. I literally thinking generations ahead, right?
I’m trying to, like on this timeline of my life, right? I’m healing generational traumas in the past. I’m trying to be present and build the life that I love right now, which I’m very proud of I worked really hard. But then I’m also projecting generations ahead, right, like, right, like I literally I just told them on yesterday, before I officially move out to start my family with Mike, my new boyfriend, I want to pay off our $200,000 home like that’s what’s left in our new build here in Arizona. We’ve been here for about four years.
It sounds crazy when I look at my finances, and I think, Okay, well where’s that going to happen? So sir, but my head is so far ahead. And so I feel like this, this clarity that you are providing with us today is like, just like make it simple, stupid, let’s go to the go to the playbook and just take those baby steps and focus. When someone mentions what you’re offering, you need to be the top of mind. And that, like, oh my gosh, like this is not new news. This is just just so much clarity. So thank you, Bridget.
Bridgette Boucha
Yeah, and you know, I really want for those of you that aren’t watching us and can hear it, I’m sure you can hear it as well. But she just lit up talking about all of those phases, I call them the the money cells, so your past money self, your current myself and your future money self. And that’s essentially what she’s talking about, right, I’m going to heal the past money. So I’m going to focus on the current with the 90 day plan, and then my future myself is going to be set up, right.
When you think about it in those, just like time has a past, present and future. Think about it that way, but allow that version of you to play because me watching you let light up about the future, I would never then advise that you don’t think about the future.
So just just create spaces for yourself to say, Okay, I’m going to actually think in the future self of me today. Because that’s fun for you. that lights you up, it doesn’t mean that it takes away from your 90 day plan. You’re just allowing yourself the space to really dream about it. And then when you do come back to the present, and you say here’s my 90 days, my calendar aligns with my offers, all of my things are in place the conversations I’m having, it’s on point. I know where I’m going, because my future self is like, Come on girl. Yeah.
Quianna Marie
She’s mentioned somewhere she’s ready.
Bridgette Boucha
Being present doesn’t mean that you don’t pay attention to those other versions of yourself. And I think that that rigidity is where people get stuck. It’s fun to dream. It’s fun to think about the future. And then you get to come back and say okay, is my decision making ability is my calendar getting me closer to that? So it’s not an all one size fits all. It’s not to do this not that it’s more of the and version, right?
We get to do that she mentioned she’s a multi passionate entrepreneur, as many of us are. And I think that not allowing ourselves to play in those different spaces is an injustice. It does not foster the joy that you’re seeking. If you don’t do that
Quianna Marie
Oh my gosh. So let’s speaking of timelines. And speaking of generations here, I love to kind of fast forward. And so let’s pretend that we’re on this business journey together. And we are focused on these 90 days or this like 12 week plan, right? I just finished the 12 weeks in a year kind of thing. Let’s fast forward to say, okay, the cash money is coming in.
What is your advice for like, before we actually invest in a bookkeeper or an accountant or really outsource some of these financial jobs for us? What is like? What’s some basic understanding that we should have about our business budgets? Or our business finances?
Bridgette Boucha
Yeah, oh, this is a really great question. First of all, nobody’s trying to make anybody an accountant that has a very specific skill set, we are a rare breed now. But just as a business owner, you need to know your numbers, you don’t need to do your numbers. So a bookkeeper would be the base level to be able to get everything organized, get everything categorized, get, if you use whatever financial system, QuickBooks or otherwise, to make sure that it’s current, and that you have the information that you need to look at it. That’s at a basic level.
As your business becomes bigger than you, you’re going to want more guidance, you’re going to want an elevated level of advisory, which is typically when a CFO like me comes in, it’s taking your numbers, it’s showing you what it’s telling you about your business. It’s allowing you to see capacity levers that you can play with, and planning more for the future, as well as showing you the potential of your business, right. It’s more of a forward thinking, whereas your bookkeeping and your financials are more of, hey, this has already happened, right? But then it’s like, what do I do with this information.
So you should, you know, always start with bookkeeping, depending on the season, if you’re in that building season, just to make sure that you’re current, you have the information, the CPA, everybody is going to need a CPA, especially in business, if you want to take advantage of certain tax strategies, especially depending on what state you’re in and get your taxes filed.
Especially as entrepreneurs to be able to make sure that you’re compliant. A CPA is more of your tax specialists, typically file your annual tax returns, but aren’t always in the day to day but should be at least have one to two conversations strategically throughout the year to see where your business is going. And then a financial advisors on the personal side, that’s a CFA sort of Certified Financial Advisor.
We work with a lot of business owners, sort of financial advisors, because it’s more on the personal wealth side. So when your business is optimized, we help you do that. So you can take more out of your business to fund your life. Your financial advisor says, Well, okay, what are he on his big goal? Does she want real estate investment? Is she looking to retire early? Is she planning for a family? What kind of things can we put in place to be able to help her achieve that?
So when you look at your financial success team, it’s really going to be your CFO, bookkeeper, business side of your finances, your CPA on the tax side and your personal financial advisor on the personal side. Now, which order you do those in is probably going to start with the business because the business funds your life, then under the tax, and then the personal financial advisor. And guess what, all of a sudden, you’re ready to rock?
Quianna Marie
Oh, my gosh, that sounds amazing. Everybody needs to invest in you and to to find that money management team, right? Because nobody wants to I call it being Selena, right? Like nobody wants to, you know, to be embezzled or to be taken advantage of. But oftentimes, I think we put the fear in releasing those responsibilities. Because we think we can do it best. But in most situations, no, actually, we don’t. Like
Bridgette Boucha
free yourself and yourself.
Quianna Marie
I love that you use the word guidance, because I feel like that is a really good green flag or kind of like the permission slip to find investments for your business and your finances because it can’t be scary. Sharing your bank statements with people like that could be nerve racking, and maybe even embarrassing, right? Like, if you look at my bank statements, I’m not even kidding. It’s going to look like a diary of what I eat. Like, it’s just food and gas. Like that’s literally what I paid for.
I don’t pay for like frivolous things. In fact, it’s time for me to get a new sweater like I need to make a whole reel of like how many times I’ve worn this sweater and different photoshoots and different events and just around my daily life, right? Like this could be like a costume or if I was a cartoon character, this is what I look like, right?
It’s your emoji. Emoji and I don’t spend money on myself, I always goes back into my business. So having or you know, just to live just to barely get by. When you’re in a position to scale, I can see the importance of investing in a financial advisor. Someone that knows and that truly has your best interest in not just your day to day business, but also the forecast of your future and, and having that aligned because I know from the past I’ve had CPAs that aren’t really actually managing my investments right and So they’re not familiar, like so having a team that can kind of combine those. So you’re all kind of just like all going for wheel drive in your car, I think would be amazing.
Bridgette Boucha
Yeah and for a visionary like yourself, which is a lot of, we don’t work with just females, but we have a good bit of female founders out there. And, you know, that’s what they want. They want people looking at it from all different specific expertise for specific lenses to be able to say, okay, in the beginning, when we strategize, this is what you said you wanted out of the year, does this still align with that? And that’s where the guidance comes in. Here to tell you you can spend money or you don’t spend money, it’s Hey, have you considered this? What is the ROI? How do you measure success?
If you’re going to invest this money, this money in XYZ? And you know, again, does this still align with your goals? And if it does, great, we’re there to be able to support you we’ve been called the financial fairy godmothers. And when I say we, I’m talking about my business partner, Amanda, who is on the operation side of the business and finance and strategy, I’m the front of the house, she’s the back of the house that she says, but it’s the same house.
Quianna Marie
I’d love that well, and okay, so chatting more about analogies and just like the way my brain grasp things with stories, I love the analogy of minding your money, just like you would mind your body, right, like making healthy choices. And, you know, truly loving yourself, right?
Just like you mentioned before, we deserve to have money feel good, like we deserve to understand our finances, and to truly live our best life. And I feel that way. Same thing with nutrition and exercise, like it’s an actual practice. And it’s, it’s kind of like flexing those, just like you would flex those muscles. Like we just saw Miley Cyrus like rocking those Pilates arms, and she just want her first Grammy like, you know, it’s a muscle that needs to be exercised when it comes to money in our money mindset. So I’d love for you, if you could maybe share some tips to practice these actually good money. Just like healthy routines.
Bridgette Boucha
Yeah, it’s really I love this so much, because it kind of rounds out, we’ll we’ll finish out the four hours. For those of you that were making note, the first star was rainbow, which represents your fuller life, the second hours revenue, which is what you need to run your business and be able to have the choices that you can make with money. The third one is resources. So this is where you get to optimize your resources, which is basically what Ken is talking about. And then we’ll get into the practices but it’s it’s optimizing your resources, time, people, money and energy.
There’s, there’s all kinds of tools and tips in the in the book that can help you walk through some exercises to be able to do that. But that’s what’s going to generate profit, your revenue is one thing, but your optimizing your resources is going to generate the profit side of it. And then to take it to answer your question on to round out the fourth RS rituals.
If you think about it, your financials are just your results. So if you change your rituals, you can change your results. And so some of the tips that I have, you know, one of them is a monthly money date, like everybody should do, this doesn’t have to be the first of the month, because you might not have your bank statements and different things.
It’s sometime early in the month, look at the last month and be able to say, Okay, where was I last month? Where did my revenue come from? What felt good, what expenses that I have, what investments did I make, really looking at your numbers will allow you to develop a new relationship with them, because if you’re avoiding them right now, that’s not really allowing you to foster a relationship. But really, like, you know, like any relationship in your life, your money deserves your attention.
I want to take you from that avoidance to that abundance. But there’s, there’s a gap in there, right. And that takes time that takes practice, that takes familiarity intention. And in this case, I call it a monthly money date. And I invite you to say, like any date, I’m gonna light a candle, I’m gonna pour a beverage of my choice, I’m gonna play some music. I actually have a Spotify playlist called monthly money date, if you want to download it.
Then there’s a guide, you know, that I’ve got on my website at Bridgette bucha.com for the monthly money date, and it just allows you to be able to say, What am I looking at? What what kind of questions do I need to ask myself during this this date? Do I involve somebody else? If it’s my significant other or whatnot, that’s your choice, depending on how you split your finances are combined.
That’s one practice. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, it’s the same thing. Right? It may be that you include your CFO on that, which is what we do for our clients. You know, we go through all the financials, all the numbers, all the 90 day focus areas, all the KPIs all the business things every month, and then of course, interim support as needed, because business happens between financial calls.
When you think about your rituals, I would invite you to say first of all, do I have any rituals around money? And are they serving me? And if I don’t, or if they aren’t serving me, how can I implement this monthly money date to really familiarize myself with it can be weekly as well. It just depends on the nature of your business and the frequency with your transactions. If, and I would start to really build that relationship with money identifying that money story, you know, what kind of thoughts do I have around money? And where do they come from? Are they even mine to carry?
Is it something that just really I’ve just drudged through generation after generation, decade after decade, and it’s time for me to look at the narrative and say, that’s just not true? Is it time for me to take the reins and say, not only is it not true, but I’m actually an example of why it’s not. And I’m gonna continue to go forward in that, you know, I love mantras and manifestations and affirmations and different things like that. But I also believe that and that action behind it, those rituals behind it are what’s really going to make the difference, I think they go in combination.
I would invite you to start there, I would invite you to set schedule a monthly money date with yourself, even if right now I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Go to my website, get the one pager, tell exactly how to do it, and start to familiarize yourself with money, one step at a time. And guess what if you experience discomfort, shame, if it brings up some emotions from your childhood, or otherwise, that’s okay, it’s normal, guess what happens when you when you bring that to the surface?
That’s the only time you can start to change it, you got to shed light on places that feel dark, but they’re just going to stay dark if you keep them down there. So experiencing some sort of emotion when you’re trying to change your rituals around money and your narrative, and your story is normal.
If you didn’t have them, you’d already be there. Otter, I’m just like any feeling, I don’t remember who said it, it was like, like a feeling like a cloud. And you see it, and it kind of slowly moves by. Right. And so there’s a lot of tools out there that are, you know, money’s the modality with which I serve. But there’s a lot of tools that apply across the board. You mentioned health, spirituality, mindset, a lot of these same tools can apply to different different resources, money included. You know, there’s a there’s a softer side of money. Bind it.
Quianna Marie
Yeah. I love this so much. And as always, I love to mention I’m such a visual person. And you know, what’s crazy, Bridgette is I actually just kind of got this aha moment as you were sharing about this kind of date, your money, like create this kind of experience. And I actually have such a crappy experience with money in the past. I’m healing it, I’m working on it.
The thought that’s coming through my mind right now is like, almost like two separate things. Like I am separate from my money issues like AI. And what’s interesting is it kind of reminds me of a dusty ex boyfriend where it’s like, okay, like you’re trying to like kick them out to the curb, right?
That’s the visual I got with those money wounds. And those money traumas is like, okay, kick those thoughts to the side, like you said, like, feel them, experience them, and then release them just like you would an ex boyfriend that’s no longer serving you. And at the core root of your money story, it’s us, like, it’s our, it’s inherently who we are, and what we can provide, like, only we have the choice, and the opportunities to change that money story.
Just like you would and this is like, this is just where my brain works. Just like you would go through like a really ugly breakup, even though you know, it wasn’t serving you and you know, it was not alignment and alignment with you and your future. Let it go. And then date yourself just like you would date your money, right? Like actually like that candle like you said, play that music.
Get yourself out of your office like take your notebook outside take your go for a walk with your dogs and sit by the creek and just breathe and and let that money story start with you. Because like you’re the only one that is in control. And like you said before, you deserve that. So I love this kind of aha moment that I’m experienced is like it’s not a duality thing. Like it’s not this like icky.
I heard on Felicia his podcast like It’s like this ugly monster. Like, let’s make it pretty, like let’s make it nice, right? But I don’t know. am I sounding crazy with this? Or is this making sense? Oh,
Bridgette Boucha
sounds so good. Give you guys a clue on that money. So we always say you know, if you’re avoiding money, it’s look the Money Monster in the face, and then make her prettier over time. And the thing that I love so much about this aha moment is we all get to have our own. So this is Quianna has real life experience that she’s now coming into, you know, and you’re likely having your own right, you can associate it to whatever story whatever analogy, whatever metaphor or whatever feels right to you, but it’s yours to own.
It’s yours to own and that’s a beautiful thing about it is it starts with you. It ends with you. It’s always going to be you. Nobody’s coming to save us. We get to do it for ourselves. And then no one can take it away from you.
Quianna Marie
Amazing. Oh my gosh, thank you so much. Bridgette, I feel like I can just keep picking your brain and asking for these aha moments and sharing stories all day. In closing, I would love to ask I always love to ask guests. What is your biggest key tip something that you wish you knew? Sooner when it came to money and finances,
Bridgette Boucha
you know, I think I’m going to speak to something that’s in this current season for me, and it’s really community. But you know, when I first started my entrepreneurial journey, it was very isolating. And it took me a couple years to really put myself in spaces and rooms and get around people that felt like they were rising, and I could rise with them.
That has been single handedly one of the most transformational pieces of this journey is to have the people that you can pick up the phone and call that can celebrate you that can support you that can listen that help you feel seen. And so whoever that is, I’m not even saying it’s a fractional CFO can be a peer, it can be a business bestie it can be somebody, a mentor, whatever that is. Find those people and watch your world change. It’s quite incredible.
Coming from corporate America, I didn’t have those people. I can tell a distinct difference between how I operate my outlook. And also just my belief system, I think around everything, worthiness, or otherwise, total result of community and that’s how I met, Quianna as we were in a space together.
So there’s there’s a gift that keeps on giving. So if you’re in a season, where you’re seeking community, and advisory and support and friendship, and all those things, a container or a mastermind might be the right season for you to be able to do that. Because it is like some of my best friends have come out of experiences like that. Priceless.
Quianna Marie
Yes. And then we can talk about our money problems together, we can talk about how we’ve been we all have these messy stories, you don’t feel isolated. You’re right. And it’s crazy. The fact that there are so many high achieving entrepreneurs that and you didn’t mention this in your speech at Felicia is that, you know, you you bring up money and everybody goes, Oh,
Bridgette Boucha
it does not discriminate. And you know, one of the things we talked about with the rainbows, there’s so many different examples out there of people that we feel like have it all together. And if there’s one message that I can lead with, leave anybody with is nobody has it all together.
I might have a little bit more together in this area than this person, but they have it way more together in this area than I do. And let’s let’s kind of neutralize a little bit of that and know that we belong here. We deserve it. And we should be able to go forward feeling supported and excited and empowered and really just owning taking full ownership of this amazing life that we get to live.
Quianna Marie
I love this. So Bridget, please tell us how can we connect? How can we get our hands on the money? Quaid? I’m showing it right here dancing across my screen. You are a published and best selling author. So how can we connect with you? How can we dive into just learning from you and soaking up these new money mindset plans?
Bridgette Boucha
Yeah, thank you so much. Very exciting to add that to the list. Everything is by my name. So BridgetteBoucha.com is the website Bridgette Boucha on Instagram, have several speaking engagements coming up across the US so you can find those speaking engagements. And then McQueen on Amazon, if you’d like a signed copy, you can DM me and I will get your information to be able to send that over to you if you have communities.
Those are a great place to be able to get these into your your VIP hands or attendees hands. You know it’s great. Yeah, I guess Exactly. So yes, thank you. I look forward to connecting with many of you. So thank you so much for this platform Quianna!
Quianna Marie
Thank you all I hope you have a beautiful day and I cannot wait to chat soon and share my success story. I feel like right now I’m in the messy middle during this pivot and I just I’m just so grateful for you Bridget being that girl crown up. Let’s go crowns are passing out everywhere.
Thank you!!
Wow, wasn’t that a good one? I’m over here taking notes and excited to plan my own money date to work on my own finances. Just thinking about the candles, a glass of iced water because let’s be honest, if I’m sipping wine, it’ll put me right to sleep.
I’m actually excited to know my numbers and to prioritize this beast that used to give me a headache and to make the fear of money flow easier with more abundance. Your Bridget is out there babe. She’s sipping coffee journaling early in the morning walking her new pups in her neighborhood, expanding her business, traveling the country to step on stage and even making time to sign and share her published book Money Queen
Thank you so much for joining the conversation today. I hope you picked up what you needed. And together we can heal these money wounds and build financial freedom by rewriting our own money stories. I can’t wait to continue introducing you to my real life friends. mentors and soul sisters. If you found this episode educational or inspirational, and you already have a friend in mind that you know needs to hear this, please share.
We believe everyone deserves financial stability and I’m a firm believer that when women have more money, we can truly change the world. Let’s crown up a go good, bad, bad. See you next week and keep on dancing baby. Love you. Bye. That’s a wrap on another episode of Kiana Murray weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at Kiana murray.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing!
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