Title: “From Teaching Spanish to Teaching Accounting: Shannon Weinstein’s Journey”
Episode: 199
Do you want some honest and helpful information to help you achieve financial freedom?
We have Shannon Weinstein for today’s episode of Profit First for REI podcast. Shannon is a financial expert, podcast host, and entrepreneur.
She is ready to take complicated subjects and make them very simple. Shannon also talks about reasons why we don’t pay ourselves enough. Learn more about this topic and the psychology behind it.
Enjoy the show!
Key Takeaways:
[01:19] Introducing Shannon Weinstein
[03:22] When Shannon started to help people
[06:32] The Language of Business
[13:02] Leaving her corporate job
[18:46] Why don’t people keep more of what they earn?
[21:26] Shannon’s work as fractional CFO
[29:12] About tax laws
[33:05] Connect with Shannon
Quotes:
[06:45] “When you speak it (language of business)… I forget other people don’t speak it, you don’t have that perspective.”
[18:45] “Why don’t people keep more of what they earn?… The main reason I think is because they are not paying attention to what the number is to tell them.”
[26:15] “You never really gonna be feel ready… you have to start the habit now.”
Connect with Shannon:
Website: https://www.fitnancialsolutions.com/
Tired of living deal to deal?
If you are a real estate investor or business owner who is tired of living deal to deal and want to double your profits, head over here to book your no-obligation discovery call with me. Either myself or someone from my team will hop on a short call with you to get clear on your business goals, remove any obstacles holding you back, and map out a game plan to help you finally start keeping more of the money you work so hard to make. – David
Transcript:
Speaker 1 (00:00):
They’re not paying any attention to what the numbers are trying to tell them. I think that their numbers are basically screaming off that piece of paper, off that p and l and balance sheet, but you are not looking at it and not willing to listen. And it’s okay because we haven’t been taught how to read this stuff. It’s like reading your blood work at the doctor. You’re like, I don’t know if 2.4 is good. What does this mean? They’re arbitrary metrics and you need somebody to interpret them for you to tell you how to apply them in your life or what they’re trying to tell you. And I think when you can equip yourself with either the basic skills to do that or a really good professional who can translate it, it empowers you to the nth degree to take the actions in your business you need to be. But if you’re not looking at your numbers, then you’re kind of operating off of intuition and gut and it’s going to take you a lot longer to get where you want to go.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
If you’re a real estate investor who’s sick and tired of living deal to deal, then welcome home. Hear from everyday real estate investors just like you, and discover how they’ve completely transformed their business by taking a profit First approach. This is the profit first for R e I podcast, where we believe revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. It’s time to start making profit a habit in your business. So here’s your host, David Richter.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
This is another episode that I absolutely love because I know it will provide value to you. I’m having Shannon Weinstein on and she can take complicated subjects and make them very simple. She talks about a lot of reasons why we don’t pay ourselves enough and the psychology behind that and what she’s seen. And honestly, I believe that if you listen to this one, you will come away and you could keep more of what you earn right from this podcast. I’m super excited for this episode. Thank you for listening. Appreciate you. I am super excited for this episode, the Profit First r i podcast. I have Shannon Weinstein here. She is a fellow fractional C F O that runs her own business. She’s incredible. She has a podcast. Keep What You Earn. I absolutely love it. We were on there talking about all the nerdy stuff that you hear from me all the time and from the guests and people, and she’s going to give you some great stuff. She puts things on the bottom shelf, which is incredible because it’s like, I want you to be able to do that, and this is where I want to invite people from other industries and just helping you know that this is a common problem out there. So Shannon, thank you so much for being on here today.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Thank you. And I love the phrasing of putting things on the bottom shelf. That’s such a cool concept. I love it.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah. Well, honestly, I’m a bottom of the shelf person. I’m very simple. People look at me and think, I look smart because of the glasses used to have braces, all that stuff. Same. I part my hair. And then it’s like, well, I need stuff simple too. So that’s why going down this road, but I did, whenever I’ve heard you speak or whenever I’ve ever listened to your podcast, you just make things very simple. I think that’s a gift. That is definitely a gift and a talent and a skill. You can work on it, but it’s something that I think comes very naturally to you because even before this, okay, here, if you’re listening to this, I’m giving you a little bit of sneak peek. Before this, she even was talking about something. I’m like, I love how she phrases things. I just talking about the money and just the things that we were talking about, which I want to explore here on the show. So let’s go into that. So let’s go into how did you even get to have a podcast, keep what you learn into this fractional C F O world. What was the epiphany that I want to help entrepreneurs who struggle with the money?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So it actually dates back to in high school I wanted to be a language teacher, so I wanted to teach Spanish. It was my favorite subject because you know how we’re taught in high school and middle school, what’s your favorite subject? Make that a career. That was the default kind of gift and sign that was like, oh, you’re good at this skill, then you should just do this the rest of your life. Like, oh, okay, I guess that’s what I’ll do then. So I was thinking, oh, I love Spanish. What can I make Spanish into a career for? And I thought teaching, I love to teach. This would be great. So I ended up taking an accounting class on a bet with my dad in high school and he said, and by the way, he’s an accountant, but he said, if you hate it, I’m never going to bug you about your career again.
(04:04):
I’ll let you do whatever you want. You don’t have to be an accountant, you don’t have to do this business, but if you love it, you need to major in it. And I was like, okay, there’s really no not winning here. It’s a win-win. Either he leaves me alone or I get to do what I love. Jokes on you dad. And then lo and behold, joke was on me because I loved it. I majored in it and he had another C p A in the generation. So what ended up happening though, the way he sold it to me, which directly answers your question, is because I have an obsession with teaching and I love teaching language and I happen to choose the language of business. So my dad convinced me to go into accounting because he said, if you want to teach a language han, this is the language that nobody speaks.
(04:48):
This is the language that people should be speaking and if you understand it, you are wasting your gift if you’re not using it. And that really hit me when I was 17. I said, okay, that makes sense. This is the thing I’m uniquely positioned to teach, and I truly believe that. So ever since then, I have just been finding every excuse I can to train, to teach, to develop even the employees who worked beneath me in corporate and in big four. And I’ve just always kind of come from this heart of a teacher. So that’s what drove me into starting my own firm and eventually creating content on a podcast platform, which now we are over two years in 400 episodes in doing five a week. And it’s basically my favorite part of my business, which I thought would not be the case at all when I first started. I was so scared of like, is anyone going to listen to this? Am I going to be able to be consistent? Am I going to dread waking up and getting behind this microphone? It’s a chore. And I don’t know how you feel, David, but I feel like this is one of the things that lights me up the most is actually getting behind the microphone, having conversations like this and getting to interact with entrepreneurs and teach them.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, I a hundred agree. I love being able to come on it and just give that knowledge and being able to help people because we can’t help everyone in your business. You’re not going to be able to reach as many people as if you get behind the microphone and people really want to learn. I mean, then you have that podcast and you’re very consistent and that’s awesome. You said over, did you say over 400 episodes at this point? Yes. There you go. When you know someone is serious, two years, 400 episodes, she loves what she does. I want to go back to what you said though. You said the language of business is the accounting world. Have you found that to be true what your dad said that most people don’t speak it?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Absolutely. Would you agree? I think
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So. Yes. I would definitely agree. I just want to know from your perspective,
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Years. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And here’s the funny thing is when you speak it or when you’ve been speaking it since I was a teenager, then I forget other people don’t speak it. You don’t have that perspective. You kind of go, oh, I learned this when I was 12, 13, 14. I learned about stocks when I was 12 because instead of buying a toy, my dad said, instead of buying that toy you want or that Barbie or whatever, I’m going to buy you a piece of the whole store. And I was like, what? And we went into toys us and he literally said, I’m not going to buy you that thing, but I’m going to buy you a piece of everything in here. And I was like, that sounds awesome. What are you talking about? That’s great. And he got me a share of toys, Rus
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Uhoh, toys R Us.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, yeah, that was in, we will say in the year like 1998 or something. But he got me a share in the company, and that was where I finally learned what a share is, what a stock is, how the stock market works. That’s
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Such great info.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
It is. And I’m like, of course, 37 year old Shannon is like, oh, that’s awesome. And 12 year old Shannon was like, this is bull. This is worse than socks for Christmas. Dad. What the hell are you doing? I want the Barbie. I’m 12. So if you look back and you go, what a blessing and a gift, but also going like that totally sucked in real time. But yeah, it taught me a lot. And I didn’t realize the gift he was truly giving me, which is the gift of education that I could reap the benefits of for decades beyond. So that was huge.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I like what you said also. You said that you forget that other people haven’t learned this, so you were speaking it at an early age and you’ve become a master. When did you start, okay, I’m going to ask you. Do you think it’s always been a gift for you to make things simple? Or did you go through a growth curve of like, oh shoot, I have to scale this back or no one that’s going to know what I’m talking about? I feel like it’s a gift for you.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yes. So I was in a firm, I was always rewarded for sounding smarter than other people, as most of us are in accounting, right? Right. Yes, you are praised for how smart you sound or appear or what kind of aura you give off that you are smart. So what was interesting was I realized that that’s what was rewarded in my career. So I was constantly chasing this way to sound smarter. And then I realized as I was talking to my friends and colleagues that I worked in fitness part-time at night, I worked as a Zumba instructor for 10 years now. And what I realized was back in, we’ll say it’s like 20 13, 20 14, I was thinking they were asking me questions. My instructor friends, I have a 10 99, what does this mean? W 2, 10 99, my taxes, schedule C, all those things. They’re throwing these things at me and they’re saying, how does this actually work?
(09:37):
And again, I accidentally, we’ll say unintentionally made them feel stupid because I was explaining it and I was going, you guys don’t know this stuff. And I wasn’t trying to be judgmental, but it definitely came across that way because I realized it didn’t hit me until that point because I had been surrounded by other smart accountants my whole life and always been the dumbest one in the room that had to humble themselves to ask questions up, but then had to kind of earn their place in the room by trying to say something smart or trying to appear smart to almost justify your existence. So now I’m like, wait a minute, wait a minute. That’s not what’s going to win me relationships. That’s not what is going to win me in these conversations or let me teach anyone anything if they don’t understand it. So I actually had to make an active decision that if I was going to do this as a business, or if I was going to start my own company, I said, wait a minute, I need to go back to how did I learn this when I was 14, when I was 15, when I was 18, whatever it was.
(10:40):
I go, how did I learn this 10, 15 years ago? What were the ways that I conceptualized this? What was in my notebook in high school? How did I think about this back then in simpler terms? And then I just started finding all of these analogies and finding life examples and thinking about how it made me feel to learn it when I got it. And then I had to find parallel principles, parallel examples. I’ll give you one example. What I realized was people were not paying their taxes throughout the year. They were waiting until the April bill to hit. So they have these massive tax bills in April. They did no tax planning, but they were earning money throughout the year. And I said, okay, imagine you’re at a hotel and you’re ordering drinks every single night and you’re putting it on the room, but you don’t check out until next April.
(11:28):
Put it on the room, put it on the room, put it on the room, put it on the room. I go, what you’re doing is now, you’re surprised when that paper comes under the door and it’s like 18 pages long of all the margaritas you ordered over the past year. And it’s like you’re just keep putting it on the room. If you’re not paying it throughout the year or at least setting aside the money, the bill’s going to come. So analogies that make sense to people, like, oh my God, yeah, I’ve totally been there where I checked out of a hotel. And I’m like, who the hell order all these margaritas? Right? Everybody’s been through those experiences. And when you can bring in an experience that’s relatable that isn’t about the money, that’s where it hits home. And people go, oh yeah, now I totally get why that is the way it is. But when you try to explain it with the science and the tax code and the jargon, it doesn’t sink in.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
That makes sense. And man, I could just listen to you and your analogies all day long. This is great. I hope that was awesome. I do want to point out one thing too that you said that if you went down this road the same way you wouldn’t be winning relationships. I think that’s so great because that’s not just in the accounting world, but just in business in general. If you’re not communicating to win relationships, you’re really losing. No matter if you think you’re winning or you think you’re smarter than the other person, it’s not going to end up well. So I thought that was a piece of gold right there. Plus I love that analogy. That was so great of putting it on the room. So I want to ask, when did you make that leap from the Big four and working with all those people to actually owning your business? Why did you take that leap and yeah, just what was the whole story
Speaker 1 (13:02):
There? So many reasons to leave. I feel like there’s no, it’s almost a silly question at this point. Why leave a corporate job where you’re chained to a cubicle for 10 hours a day? What could ever come across your mind that would make you not want that? But yes, I’ll explain what triggered the why then and why. Then in my career too. So I reached a certain point where I was at a firm. I knew I didn’t want to make partner. I did not aspire to not see my family and work these crazy hours and be in the city all the time and be frankly, sucking up to other clients, other partners, and playing the politics game. I didn’t really want to do that. I said, I just want to be respected for what I know. And I was even told at one point that the main reason I was going to be on the partner track was because of my gender, because of quotas. I was the last woman left in a class of 24, 6 years later.
(13:55):
So they kind of looked at me and they were like, you’re going to make partner. And I was like, oh, not for all the work I put in and all the other, the blood, sweat and tears, but because I lasted this long and I happened to have this type of genetic makeup, this is so silly. So I just said, you know what? It’s all too superficial. And not to mention, I got a really short bereavement leave. When my dad died, I really knew where I stood when times were tested with the company. So I said, I know this isn’t for me. I went to a bunch of other corporate jobs, but I realized that all they were ways to make a paycheck and pay a mortgage. I wasn’t deeply connected to them. I didn’t feel the mission. I didn’t feel that I contributed heavily or that I kind of started having these superficial relationships with my companies I worked for where I wouldn’t get too emotionally invested because I got hurt so bad by the first one. So I kind of kept an arm’s length distance and was like, I’m going to do my work. I’m going to make my check, and I’m not going to think about you guys. I’m not going to stress myself out over you guys. And that worked for a while. But then I said, I want fulfillment. I want to be emotionally invested in something. I don’t want to be a vacuum of. Just show up, do your work, go home and try to find fulfillment elsewhere.
(15:07):
So I decided to start my own practice on the side. I started in 2019 and I got really lucky because my whole job went remote in 2020 and the practice took off because 2020 was a massive opportunity year for accountants between P P p idle loans, the uncertainty around the economy, cashflow issues, people were really craving our help at that point. And I kind of struck the right time to be almost a year into building my business, and that just kind of poured the gasoline on the fire and enabled me to build my business virtually. I was sitting there with two laptops every half hour, toggling between my two jobs. And yeah, it was crazy. But I left because I really wanted to find that fulfillment and I wanted to be part of a bigger mission and help real people, real business owners that were the backbone of the economy.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
That’s so good, and it’s so heartbreaking that these corporate monsters basically just in suits don’t understand what’s really going on. I feel, I don’t know, do you feel like in 10 years from now when our generation starts taking more of that over, do you think it’ll change in the corporate real? I feel
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Like I think it has changed. If we’re talking about that conversation around my partner track that happened over 10 years ago,
Speaker 3 (16:33):
I feel like it’s going more that direction, but that’s just still disheartening to hear stories like that, and it’s like
Speaker 1 (16:39):
It’s all too common. But I do think it leaves a scar. So even though it may not be happening, I think it leaves a scar on my generation and now has led us to discourage these types of careers or for us to be badmouthing them or talking about the trauma, and then now people are listening to that and going, oh, that sounds terrible. I don’t want to do that. And yes, I believe it has changed, but I think that there’s still a lot of scars left on it that are hard to erase.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Yeah, well, that’s a really good way to put it, but you’re the queen of doing that. Okay, so let’s talk about the business. Who do you work with? You’re a fractional C F O, so to explain what you do and what type of client that you’re working with and want to work with.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So we work with growth-minded business owners who are focused on their goals and helping their business achieve those goals. So although that sounds like a broad brush, what we’re really trying to do is help business owners who maybe haven’t gotten a ton of exposure to the numbers before in an approachable way. And we want to make sure that much what your business does called simple C F O, we try to bring simplicity into the mix and say, Hey, it’s actually a lot simpler than you think it is, and we’re going to help craft an activity plan or a set of goals that will help you take the actions you need to drive those outcomes. But we focus on service-based, but we have a few product businesses in the mix, but we’re really looking for that founder profile that is coachable, that wants to grow, that is hungry, motivated, and they have a big why. They have to have a really big why beyond. I want to make a profit just to make a profit. My founders, I love that. We have a mission right now for one of my founders to send her daughter to private school, and we have another mission for one of my founders to open a new location so that they can get a second home near where their kid goes to college.
(18:31):
All of these stories, the story that backs it up, I just love those types of stories where we can help a business owner really make a tangible difference in their own life.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
So let’s get into what you really like talking about. Why don’t people keep more of what they earn?
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Oh gosh, why don’t people keep more of what they earn other than tax law? Cite the I R C, the Internal Revenue code. That’s why. But the main reason I think is because they’re not paying any attention to what the numbers are trying to tell them. I think that their numbers are basically screaming off that piece of paper, off that p and l and balance sheet, but you are not looking at it and not willing to listen. And it’s okay because we haven’t been taught how to read this stuff. It’s like reading your blood work at the doctor. You’re like, I don’t know if 2.4 is good. What does this mean? They’re arbitrary metrics and you need somebody to interpret them for you to tell you how to apply them in your life or what they’re trying to tell you. I think when you can equip yourself with either the basic skills to do that or a really good professional who can translate it, it empowers you to the nth degree to take the actions in your business. You need to be. But if you’re not looking at your numbers, then you’re kind of operating off of intuition and gut, and it’s going to take you a lot longer to get where you want to go.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
That’s good. See, isn’t she great? The blood work, that is such a great analogy of,
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I mean, how many times have you gotten your blood work back and you’re like, this is meaningless until I have the interpreter to tell me the legend or the key code of where should it be? What does it mean? What is this chemical name I can’t pronounce? And I got my blood work back. I had to call my doctor, and I was like, and that’s where it comes from, David. I said, now I know how they feel. I sat in that and I said, oh, this is how my founders feel when I give them a p and L.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
And I started to relate to that because I knew I couldn’t relate. Like I said, I came from the number language. I can’t relate to somebody who doesn’t understand p and L at this point, but I can relate to them on a common ground area where I go, well, where do I have that experience elsewhere in my life that I can connect to that emotion? And that’s exactly where I got to. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Oh, that’s so good. It’s like putting yourself in those situations, and then you have the presence of mind and self-awareness to be able to say this is they think. And that’s why I fully endorse Shannon, use her her business, use her services, listen to her podcast. She makes things very, very simple. And she caress. She caress about you as a human being and wants to make sure you get to where you want to be and as a business owner. Okay, so let’s keep going. So you’ve been in this business. How long have you been doing this? The fractional C F O side?
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Fractional C F O game? About four years now.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
About four years. Awesome. So then you’ve worked with multiple owners over that time. Do you also do the bookkeeping taxes, that type of stuff, or you stay away from that? Or do you just do the C F O or do you help people with bookkeeping as
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Well? Yeah, I indulge my inner control freak. We do all of it because I don’t like to roommate on a business. I go, I don’t want a roommate. I want the house to myself. So I basically said, okay, we want to do everything end to end and do it our way and have control over the entire lifecycle and value chain. The last thing I want to do is be passing this baton in a real race going, where’s the bookkeeper? Where’s the bookkeeper? Okay, thank you. Finally, I get the baton. It’s like, oh, I have two days to get this done now. So we have control over the timeline of the project from end to end, and I like that. But yes, we do the bookkeeping all the way through the tax preparation and tax strategy. We are equipped to do all that, but actually what’s exciting is currently in my business, we’ve been using contracted bookkeepers, different people that I know and trust who specialize in different industries, and I’m now moving into an in-house employee model. So we’re bringing in a more permanent team right now as my company grows. I’m really excited about that, that we’re going to have installed a core team that serves all the clients consistently, and we have control over the entire process. So I’m really excited about that change coming up.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Yeah, that’s awesome. And okay, being the business owner, how does your feelings for life in general plus business compared to when you were in the corporate world is a night and day?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Absolutely. I’m a different person now with a outlook on the potential of earning money, how money should be earned, how money should be spent, the meaning, the value of money, totally different. I think when you are a business owner, there’s a lot that has to change in your mindset around how you earn money. Because we were taught, I say as a society and myself included, that the more you work, the more you make, and very true. And then to some degree, we feel guilty when we earn a lot of money we didn’t work for.
(23:22):
It’s not unique to me. I know I felt this way and a lot of other people did too, where it can’t be that easy. It’s not supposed to be easy. We’re supposed to work hard and make money. And those with a really good work ethic typically struggle with the idea of, wait, you’re telling me that I could sell something online or I could charge this much for my services and I just make that much money? And they grapple that, and they’re like, but I only did an hour of work to earn that. Yeah, yeah. Isn’t that awesome? But they have this discomfort and this sense of guilt of, but I didn’t work that hard for it. And even accountants too, who are used to the billable hours to think about that, they’re like, oh, it takes me 15 minutes, so I’m only going to charge a hundred bucks. And I go, but that 15 minutes generates 50 grand in tax savings for your client. So what is the value of what you’re doing versus the value of what you are doing? What is the value of what you’re producing versus what you’re putting in?
Speaker 3 (24:23):
And if you’re listening to this as a real estate investor, I think if you’re wholesaling, you’re right in that category. Like, Hey, I just did my first, oh my gosh, this really works. I made $10,000 and I made a couple phone calls and helped someone out where they had a burned out house, or they’ve got something that wouldn’t sell on the market place. And it’s like, yeah, I can see that in all areas in service-based businesses selling online in the different spaces that is so prevalent of just, oh, man, is this okay? And then, okay, let’s talk about this. So let’s say they make a lot of money. Do they have a hard time paying themselves anymore? Oh,
Speaker 1 (25:01):
All the time. Yeah, all the time. I mean, first of all, profit First exists for a reason. Yep. Profit First exists for a reason. If Mike Michalowicz and then David Richter now have, if we’re putting out books explaining how to do this, it’s because people aren’t doing it. People aren’t paying themselves, and there’s paying yourself and there’s paying yourself first. And I believe wholeheartedly in paying yourself first, because otherwise you will take the scraps leftover and you will justify not paying yourself because of priorities. And it’s a huge issue with business owners that their big why is, let’s say to put their kid through college, but they’re not actually taking any money out of the business. I think they’re perpetually in this sort of state of, well, when I hit this point, I will have made it. It’s almost the same rutt that we get in when we’re trying to quit our job and start our own business.
(25:52):
Like, oh, when I save this much money or when we have this much money, then we’ll talk about having kids. Or when we do this, then we’ll buy the house in Costa Rica. All of these things, we’ll do this when, and I go, there is no, when there is no, you’re not going to wait until you cross that peak. You can do it now. You could do it later, whatever, but you’re never really going to be feel ready, and you’re never really going to feel like you have enough money to pay yourself. So you have to start the habit now of just embedding that in your existing habits, your existing routine of how you run your business.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Yeah, that’s so great. And I love what you said there of pay yourself is different than pay yourself first. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that, but it makes a lot of sense where you can be paying yourself, but then if you aren’t paying yourself first, like you said, you bump yourself off and then you’re a lower priority. Anything you pay above yourself is a bigger priority than you. And it’s like, well, if you go down, what happens to the business? So it’s like, I think that was good. This
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Is good. Yeah, and I’ll add this too. When I brought my employee in, I was setting her salary and I was setting up, again, cashflow forecasting, all the things we use, we use it on myself, and I said, I need to have enough of a reserve to pay her. And I had her salary set, and then I also plugged in my forecast. I said, well, if her salary is X, my salary has to be raised to Y because I did not want to make less than her.
(27:18):
And I said, I’m going to have to level up my salary because I don’t want to feel like I’m paying my employee more than I’m taking home. And that was a big thing for me was I want to make sure that I am one of the heaviest paid employees in the company, or I’m in a position to be because I want to feel like that is what I’m contributing in. I don’t want to take the foot off the gas pedal and be like, well, I’m only making this and she’s making this much money and start resenting the work she’s doing because she’s making more than I am. I didn’t want that to be a factor at all. I said, until I can afford to be paid as much as my employee is, then I can’t afford an employee.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Please listen. Are you listening to this right now? Please, for the love of God, take what Shannon’s saying and run with it. I don’t want you, if you’re feeling like that, like, oh, I need to starve and I need to not do this. And then you’re in that mindset right now. Press rewind, listen to that again. This is so good. Han, this has been awesome. Is there any other parting wisdom that you want to say before my last question?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I will just add one more thing that I had mentioned to you before when we were chatting, and that is the i r s are amazing people. A
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Lot of get people mad on this show for sure.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I know
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Real estate investors.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
I know, right? But I’m talking about the people and there’s a lot of fear around the I r s and a lot of this stigma. They’re this evil organization and this villain in a movie, which is hilarious to me because even though, yeah, even so understand, first of all, our legislative branch, we go back to social studies in fifth grade. Our legislative branch writes the law. The I r s is just there to enforce it. They’re given the book and say, go do this. So they’re not, I go talk to your Congress people if you don’t like the tax laws, number one. But number two is with the I R Ss itself. I have spoken on the phone with them a lot at length, lots of time, lots of time on hold relative to the time I’ve spent on the phone with them. But I’ve been chatting with them and they are the nicest Midwestern sweet family people working from home, just making it work.
(29:32):
And it really does take a lot of stigma out when you realize that they’re kind of on your side. They’re very flexible, they’re very cool to work with and cool to talk to that if you get a letter, if you get anything from the I r S, just know it’s probably some intern or some woman in Utah stuffing an envelope and sent it to you. Don’t put so much weight of fear on that thing. Half the time they’re wrong anyway because the intern sends them. So you really have to take a lot of this pressure off of, oh, the I r s, they really are super, super flexible and nobody’s going to jail. Don’t worry. It’s not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Awesome. Well, that’s encouraging to know that they’re real and they’re nice people behind it. We just, especially this group, if you’re listing, if you’re a real estate investor, I don’t think you can go to a real estate conference or a meetup or whatever without someone slapping the i r s around. So it’s nice to know to hear from someone who actually is talking to them on a regular basis that they’re humans too, and that they’re just forced to. Yeah, I feel like the same group that’s listing now doesn’t like their congressmen either. So I mean, yeah, they definitely sit both sides of the fence there.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Oh yeah, totally. I feel it too. But just know that they’re the same people who work at the D M V be patient. It’s the government agency. They’re just a government employees and they have families too, and they’re normal people. So if you do ever have to interact with them, I just want you to just keep that in mind that they’re human.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Well, let’s go back to what you said before. You said, I knew by having these conversations, I wasn’t winning relationships. Same thing with them. You’re not going to get the outcome you want. If you go in there with your fighting gloves on and you’re about, you’re punching them through the phone, that’s not going to help you. That doesn’t help in any situation. Has that ever helped you as a human being?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
It’s like customer service. You want somebody to do what you want. You have to be really nice to them. And I’m not saying fake nice, but genuinely come in with a smile on your face and say, thank you so much for picking up the phone. I really appreciate your time. How are you doing today? And it goes a long way just to have a little more humanity with everybody.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Yeah, that’s really good, man. We could stay here all day. But Shannon, this has been awesome. I wanted to point out that when in relationships, comment earlier was incredible. I want to make sure that we do that in our business, but then just as human beings, whether that’s an I r S agent or whether that’s a virtual assistant that you get a call from or whatever, just be a human because those are humans there. I like that you work with growth minded business owners that have a big why, making sure that you have that why. And sometimes, I’m sure, Shannon, you even guide people to their why because they don’t even know what they’re wanting. But I love how you had those examples of those people making sure you’re paying attention to the numbers, making sure that if you don’t know something, get around someone like Shannon who knows how to make it simple and can really help you get to where you want to be.
(32:25):
I love what you said. Pay yourself is different than pay yourself first. And it’s like, please, for the love of God, pay yourself first. So you actually get to where you want to be. And then how she close with that. If there’s someone on your team and they’re making more than you, how can you get yourself to be able to be above that right then? Because it’s not bad. It’s not bad for you as an owner to make money and the psychology of like, you can make money and you can make money where you’ve built a business and systems and processes and people or whatever, and you are making money and you don’t have to feel bad. I think you touch on so many things that just hits at people’s core. Hits at my core too. This was incredible. How do people find you? How can they get more of Shannon?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
So more of me. There’s no shortage of that at keep What You Earn, because we are releasing five episodes a week, and I absolutely love it there. So keep what you earn.com or you could just look for, keep what You Earn in any podcast platform. That’s where you can find more of me
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Cool. If they want to work with you, what’s your website?
Speaker 1 (33:21):
You can actually go to keep what you earn cfo.com, and you’ll be able to get to my website where you can find out more about our C F O services about working with us and what we offer.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Awesome. So there you go. I fully endorse Shannon. She’s amazing at what she does. She has the gift of making things simple, and she cares. She cares about you. And as I always end the show, if you want simple C F O in your life because we work with real estate investors, go to simple cfo.com. We can help you keep what you earn as well too. And I just, man, she has inspired me to make things even simpler in my life and how I communicate. So this has been incredible. Thank you so much for being on here. Remember also, if you’re listening to Make Profit a Habit in your business. And then Shannon, thank you again for all the value provided today.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
This episode of The Profit First for R e I podcast is over, but there are plenty more where that came from. Are you ready to learn how David and his team can help implement the Profit First system in your business? Schedule a discovery call@simplecfo.com right now. We’ll see you next time on The Profit First for r e I podcast with David Richter.
