56 | Confused to Confident Accounting with Kristian Latta, Owner of GLOW CFO

Ever feel like you're doing everything "right" in your business—but your bank account and burnout say otherwise? You’re not alone— there’s a better way.

In this episode of Woman-Owned Wallet: The Podcast, Amanda Dare sits down with Kristian Latta—CFO of WOW, founder of Glow CFO. Once a burnt-out corporate accountant, Kristian now helps creative entrepreneurs find financial freedom without sacrificing well-being.

A self-proclaimed money mindset magician, Kristian shares how childhood beliefs shaped her fear of financial success: “I have this negative feeling towards making money... that I have to sacrifice my well-being, my time with family and friends.”

With her blend of accounting smarts and bestie energy—“A good bestie tells you when you’re being a little ratchet”—Kristian reminds us: financial clarity can feel good.

💸 Hit play and explore Kristian’s Creative Cashflow Studio at glowcfo.com.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Kristian Latta, WOW's CFO
• 4:16 Kristian's Journey from Corporate to Entrepreneurship
• 8:25 Childhood Money Lessons and Burnout Culture
• 14:01 Self-Worth Beyond Bank Account Numbers
• 19:30 Breaking Money Mindset Blocks
• 30:00 Common QuickBooks Mistakes and Solutions
• 39:57 Creative Cashflow Studio and CFO Services
• 47:54 Closing Thoughts and Community Support

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey friends, welcome to Woman-Owned Wallet the podcast. I'm your host, amanda Dare, a serial entrepreneur who has already made all of the money mistakes, so you don't have to Now. I'm working on my money mindset, expanding my companies and having open conversations with women around a subject that shouldn't be so taboo money. My company, woman-owned Wallet, and I are determined to help you foster a more positive relationship with your wallet and help you create a life that makes you say wow, hey moneymakers, welcome back to another episode of Woman Owned Wallet the podcast. It's your girl, amanda Dare, and on today's episode now I have got the girl for y'all to meet.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Christian Lada is the powerhouse CFO here at Woman Owned Wallet. She is a total money mindset, like magician y'all. It's crazy. She has helped me so much and I cannot wait to introduce her to y'all. So on today's episode, this one is like for every woman who's ever thought I did everything right in my business, but I'm like I'm so broke and I'm burnt out Like what gives, oh goodness. Well, christian has left the corporate world and that CPA burnout that she had to build a life and a business that actually pays her well, and now she teaches other women how to do the same. Oh, she's taught me so much y'all, it's crazy. So we're diving into what it really takes to break up with broke, to stop glorifying the struggle and to build that business that gives you the freedom and the funds. And, yes, her new coaching program y'all, I'm already enrolled, let's get into it. Thank you so much for coming to the podcast. Christian Lana, the Glow CFO Hi.

Speaker 2: 1:57

Amanda, I'm so happy to be here. It's so amazing being able to work with one of your best friends.

Speaker 1: 2:04

So, yeah, I can't wait to get into it. Oh my gosh, I'm blushing over here. Best friends, y'all know that I'm obsessed with my sisterhood, obsessed with working with them, with loving on them and paying them as much as possible, which is difficult sometimes, as we all know. So I just love to kind of get started Christian and tell people how we met, which I literally do not know the first moment we met each other, but I do know it's been like 15 years.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Yeah, I don't recall the moment we met either, but we're part of a mutual friend group and I know we met through mutual friends at some point from college. So Amanda and I went to college together and, yeah, that's how we met. We've been in the same friend group since then and kept in touch over the years and I've just always seen you do so many amazing things with your businesses and it's always been so inspiring Even you having a boutique when we were in college. I just thought that was the coolest thing. So it's so cool to be full circle here, and now you have WOW, and we both have our own businesses now and, yeah, we can support each other and work together.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Oh, I love that. I mean I do see our friends posting in our group chat just being like, look at this picture of me and Christian from back in the day when you guys were just flyers and cheerleaders and just amazing athletes for University of Louisville, and so maybe you've been looking at me with a little hard eyes, but, girly, I've been looking right back. I think every cutie girly like myself needs a baddie girly in her life, like you. So I'm just happy to be here too. Well, thank you. Well, Christian, your story. It's so powerful because you literally walked away from like a stable quote job into something that felt more aligned for you. So what finally pushed you to leave your corporate job? And those fears that I feel like they always pop up when you have to walk away from something that's just not feeling right for you anymore.

Speaker 2: 4:18

Yeah, so I guess I'll start a little bit from the beginning. I love it. After college I went to the University of Louisville, by the way, go Cards. So I came back to California, where I'm from, and I started my accounting career. I started in a traditional way, started as an auditor at a public accounting firm. Hated it, wanted to get back into fashion, so I still was doing accounting, but made my way over to working in the fashion industry and even then, although I did gain more self-expression like working in the fashion field versus the corporate environment, the corporate mindset is still pretty common. Even in creative fields like that, there's still a lot of restriction.

Speaker 2: 5:07

And yeah, so I wanted to create my own business because as an accountant I couldn't really access my creativity and it was really hard to find a career that fit me perfectly because I'm very left and right brained, which not a lot of people are that way. So I'm in a super analytical and serious career. So it's just was not giving me joy. I was super burned out.

Speaker 2: 5:33

Everyone knows accountants work crazy, insane hours and that's just normal and expected, and their personal lives take a back seat. Their health and wellness takes a back seat. So for me, I think I kind of had an awareness early on that it wasn't what I wanted to continue to do, but I had no idea what I wanted to do, which was really the biggest problem. It's like I know this isn't it, but I don't know what else is it. So that was a big obstacle and mindset shift I had to work through and mindset shift I had to work through. And then also, I think that being in the creative environment really awakened my creativity and viewing myself more as an artist, which I never did before, and I just realized I don't fit in a box and I'm never going to fit in a box and the only way I'm going to be happy is to go out and do things on my own terms.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Absolutely Fitting into a box is literally for no one. I know I cannot fit into one and I can't imagine you fitting into one either. I'm curious. You took it far back for us, which I'm obsessed with. Well, I'm going to take it even further back. So I'm curious, what prompted you to study accounting? But also I'm curious a little bit about those first money moments. For me, it was always putting money into a piggy bank, which is so much of the branding for WOW. So, thinking back to your childhood, was there any moments where you're like oh man, my parents said this about money or my family always had this mindset about it that led you into where you are now and maybe even led you into accounting? I'm just curious.

Speaker 2: 7:18

Yeah. So I ended up getting an accounting degree because I wanted to get a business degree, to be more practical, I guess, and I just was super good at accounting. It was very natural to me. But it was my second choice. I wanted to go to fashion school. I wanted to go to FIDM, which was a big school in LA back in my day which I tell myself I'm not old enough to say back in my day, I don't know why I'm even saying it, but yeah, I wanted to go to fashion school but I was a competitive cheerleader and that was really my first love and I wanted to be a Louisville cheerleader. So I decided to choose that path instead of fashion school and Louisville didn't have any fashion programs. So I decided to do business because I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur someday. And I chose accounting because I did some research and I found that it's one of the most transitional degrees of the business degrees to go into different fields. So that's why I selected it and I've been able to transition with the degree. For a brief moment, I went into merchandise planning at Guess, which is more working with the product, which was really fun and interesting. So, yeah, I've seen the proof of that. I've also seen the proof of the stability that my career gave me during the pandemic. So it did do exactly what I planned and hoped for it to do, which was super rewarding.

Speaker 2: 8:39

But I think, in terms of back to childhood, I think the money lesson I learned the most is that it's hard to make money and you have to work really, really hard. And I think on the surface that sounds like a positive thing because my dad is a very, very hard worker, super overachiever, highest performer ever, always outdoing everyone, and that does have some good qualities to it. But I think from that I threw myself into that workaholic mode a little bit, especially with the field I was in. That was normal and required to succeed and it did bring me some success. But it also brought me burnout and it brought me health problems physical pain, emotional pain. I was depressed most of the beginning of my career, the first five years of my career, because of it and I didn't have time for myself, I didn't work out, I didn't have a boyfriend, I didn't have time for friends or social things. It was just constantly work and I was just very unhappy.

Speaker 2: 9:42

So I think from my father I learned that, yes, hard work is important and it will bring you success to some extent.

Speaker 2: 9:49

But I think now how that carries through is I've had that realization like, oh, making money feels hard to me and it feels a little miserable in a sense and I feel like I haven't made or reached my potential financially because it feels so I have this negative feeling towards making money.

Speaker 2: 10:12

I have to sacrifice my well-being, my time with my family and friends. And so it took me and I actually that's a very recent revelation that I've had in the last few months that that was the resistance I was feeling internally with pursuing my different things entrepreneurially and professionally is that negative feeling of like I have to sacrifice so much of myself to make money and be successful. So I think now my goal is I think my view of success is just very different financially, and while I want to obviously make money and lots of it who doesn't? I want to do it in a way that I don't have to sacrifice my personal well-being to get there and to have fun and not overwork essentially. So my goal is to build a business that is fluid with my lifestyle and maybe not as rigid as the nine to five society we all grew up and live in.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Oh, my goodness, so many beautiful nuggets in there. I'm obsessed, of course, the resistance and actually thinking about your money mindset and really diving deep into that. And I agree with you, money can feel really difficult to earn and to understand and sometimes I just feel confused and really it's frustrating when you're in that place of I'm working all the time, even if it is. I've been an entrepreneur for 16 years and you could say that the entire time I've been working in my passion, to your point. I went to UofL and then discovered I wanted to be a fashion designer and there is no fashion degree. So I totally understand that frustration in that moment of why can't I have this creative life from the beginning and have the ease that it takes, you know, to live in that creative space and be able to creatively just problem solve every business issue that pops up at the same time. Why can't it be so easy, like goodness, and and it's not even that, like I agree with you Like hard work is runs in my family. I'm not scared of it. I don't mind working every day most of the time, because it is something where I can work based on my own flow, based on my own health issues that day I can cancel or reschedule, and I'm not saying there's no repercussions, but there's a lot of understanding with the people that I choose to work with all the time, with the women that come to me and they're like, hey, I need to reschedule and maybe I don't have childcare or I need to take a mental health day, and I'm like, girly, I got you. So it's really nice to actually be able to feel that alignment within your sisterhood, being able to talk to one another and you're kind of circulating that money within a group of women, that we really are utilizing each other's strengths to better our understanding of the world, our understanding of money. And I just really appreciate that from you so much because I mean, for me, watching Shark Tank and just being like, know your numbers, know them, and it's like if you don't, you're the worst entrepreneur that ever existed. And I'm like I have been trying to get my numbers right for years and years and years and we have finally completed I just have to tell y'all so much cleanup of my QuickBooks. Over the last I mean, it's been like a year already that we've been deep diving into this kind of CFO position together, so it's been really interesting to know that WOW is going to be more safe and more secure, more stable, because my cleanup of my QuickBooks has actually been, I don't know, not as scary because I didn't have to do it alone, that I had Christian by my side to ask questions to, and she has that background.

Speaker 1: 14:09

But she never judged me for Well, maybe she did in private, who knows. I think she would do it to my face, since we're friends, so don't worry y'all, she never judged me. On if maybe I needed to buy a bubble machine, that's a random purchase that maybe somebody who is more strict with what a business should or shouldn't be, that's out of the creative world, wouldn't understand how that purchase is necessary or normal to purchase as a creative business. But I'm like, well, when I wear Penny, the piggy bank, sometimes you need a bubble machine to walk around with, because I'm basically a kid's character and now we're developing a kid's book for her. So there's so much that she has really helped me with.

Speaker 1: 14:55

And again, I feel like knowing your numbers is one thing, but knowing your worth and what's worth it to you. I really hate this. Like you have to define your worth and then add tax yeah, cool, but I feel like understanding that we have worth inherently and that maybe our worth hasn't always been equated to something that's valuable by a dollar amount, because it's a soft skill or it's a creative skill, or it is hard to put a dollar amount because it's a soft skill or it's a creative skill, or like it is hard to put a dollar amount on creativity. So I'm really just kind of curious, like what's maybe like a practice that we can use to kind of stay grounded, stay maybe in control of our money, maybe on those hard days, like how can we kind of know our numbers, but maybe also understand that our worthiness isn't directly tied to them?

Speaker 2: 15:49

Okay. So for habits, I would say, when things don't feel great financially and you're still trying to figure it out, to me what's most important is taking care of yourself, like your mental and your physical wellbeing. So for me, I also deal with anxiety sometimes and depression sometimes, and the things that help me the most are, at the beginning of my week, scheduling out my wellness activities. I learned this in some type of free planning class. But they say you put your fun and your self-care in your calendar first. So I always do that. I always make sure I put my hot yoga workouts in. I put my dance classes I'm planning to go to in. If I'm going to do a happy hour with a friend or I have a little date, that goes in my calendar first. Then, after I put that in the calendar, then I go through and put in all of my work tasks and in terms of money, I would say, when I feel overwhelmed, I try to just take it one week at a time.

Speaker 2: 16:55

If you have bills coming in and you know you don't have enough money, just what's a priority, what needs to be paid these next few days, and think of ways you can make money towards paying one of those things off. I think breaking things into pieces. You need to break it down to the smallest piece it needs to be for you to not feel overwhelmed. So I mean, it depends. Not everyone needs to break things into super bite-sized chunks. But if you can't think about tomorrow, that's fine. Just think about today. What's due today? What money do I have coming in today? If I don't have money coming in today, what action can I take today to make sure I have money coming in relatively soon? So, thinking about taking care of yourself and this is another thing too, amanda, that I had to learn is I didn't feel like I could rest or take a break unless I accomplished X, y, z during the day. And if I didn't have a productive day, then it's really hard for me to get to bed at a decent time, because then I pull out my laptop and I work on the couch and try to get things done because I feel like I failed and didn't have a good day. But really, at the end of the day, if I do that and I stay up till 3am, what am I doing? I'm going to crash my whole next day and that's not helpful either. So I think, giving yourself grace when you might have an off day and you didn't get as much done, and that's okay, but you have to take care of yourself.

Speaker 2: 18:18

And I did want to touch on what you said about self-worth being tied to the money in your bank account, because I think that's something we're all conditioned to do, just with how our society is, how modern society is, how our society is, how modern society is.

Speaker 2: 18:38

And I felt something similar to that when I left my very first job and I didn't have a job for a little while I think it was about three or four months and I felt like I didn't have an identity or I wasn't successful because I wasn't an auditor anymore, I didn't have this cool job title and it's like no, your self-worth isn't tied to your job title. It's not tied to your business and the money in your bank account. You are worthy just for existing and being your awesome self and giving your personality and your love and your joy to the world. That's a really hard thing to own and accept, but it is important to separate the material things or the physical things in our world and our reality from our intrinsic value as people, especially when it comes to money, I could not agree more.

Speaker 1: 19:24

I think the majority of my 20s were spent connecting my self-worth to what was in my bank account, and I mean I really wasn't equipped the majority of times when I started my six businesses. It's definitely something where it grows as you do it and you learn those things. You learn what you don't like and that's what your 20s are really for, I guess. But it's still something I talk about in therapy is just really separating that, and I think, anytime that you can get creative and that, if that's where your heart lies, if you're a creative business owner and you're just like, oh my gosh, I don't know, the kind of temptation I have is to create, it is to go do something. Maybe it's when I had my fashion brand, instead of making another dress. Maybe it's when I had my fashion brand, instead of making another dress, I would paint something, or I would write some music lyrics, or I would go on a walk and get some sunshine, and I mean I've had some of my hardest financial days recently and I thought that I had already hit rock bottom a couple times, and having someone that I can talk to about that, like yourself, christian, is something that sometimes I'll hole up and I'll get a little embarrassed and I'm like this is difficult, but it's the lifestyle I chose. It's the puzzle I love to work on every day. It's the challenge I have accepted and being able to openly talk to someone like yourself about it. When I'm like too nervous to tell other people I'm like, well, she's already seen my bank account, so I can, I can talk to Christian, it's fine, she won't judge me, she'll just be there for me and help me understand. You know the numbers and know, like, how bad is it? Did I catastrophize it? Did I? You know? Is it better than I think? Or is it really this bad? And maybe we do need to make some difficult decisions? I've talked to her through multiple times, y'all Multiple times where I was making big decisions for a while and I couldn't be more happy to have somebody by my side that I get to call my friend but also my CFO, to help me make those decisions from a financial standpoint and help me feel more stable. It really helps me get my two feet under me. So I think having all of these things kind of combined and utilizing whatever works for you in that moment is going to be really, really helpful.

Speaker 1: 21:48

So I kind of want to switch gears a little bit because I do feel like, especially as women, we're thinking of ourselves as this mindset of we're broke. Maybe you have a broke belief system, so what can we do to unlearn, or maybe it's even like replace these words that are making us feel worse than we really need to? I think of it as broke belief or maybe, oh, I saw this book the other day, y'all it was called Broke, not Broken, and I was like bitch, that's so good, it was so good. So are there any kind of switches we can make with our language to help us understand that it's not? Oh man, maybe get us out of that catastrophizing mode or anything that you can kind of suggest as a mindset shift for us when it feels really hard.

Speaker 2: 22:42

Yeah, I definitely would say. The things that help me shift my mindset the most are different personal development podcasts I listen to. Different personal finance podcasts I listen to different personal finance podcasts I listen to If it's business related. I try to find a podcast for my audience or my topic that I'm trying to improve upon. I've always been really big on personal development. So, especially as an entrepreneur, I'm literally listening to an entrepreneurial podcast every single morning or every single long commute to LA to utilize my time wisely.

Speaker 2: 23:21

But I think two books come to mind that really, really helped me. Oh, my gosh, I can't think of one. One of them is like a millionaire mindset type of book, but that seems a little far-fetched. But really reading or listening to those millionaire mindset books is mind-blowing. You will learn things and think of money in a different way. And even if you're just starting as a creative entrepreneur yeah, you might just be starting and that's cool. But just the shifts to even wrap your mind around how people who have achieved that level of success think those are things you can do now that can help you get to a more successful level.

Speaker 1: 24:02

And I'll think are you thinking of we should all be millionaires?

Speaker 2: 24:06

no, I, I can't think of it, but I will, I will, I will find it and I will let you know so you can listen we will put it in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 24:17

Yes, girly, you've got all the links, but the other book would be how or I think it's I'm a Badass at Making Money or no, it's you Are a Badass at Making Money, and I think her name is Jen Sincero is the author and she has a whole line of books called you Are a Badass, about different topics, but this one is totally for the girlies. It has all the girl lingo. It's not over your head. And the thing that there's an exercise in there about writing down your money story that you grew up with and then writing out all the negative thoughts you have about money and rewriting and reframing each negative thought so that when those thoughts come up you stop yourself and you read the affirmation of the new thought. It's like, instead of I suck at money or I suck at making money, it's just I haven't learned how to make money well yet or to reframe it in a more positive light, and so I've done that and written all my negative money thoughts out and reframed them, and that has helped me a lot.

Speaker 2: 25:24

I think, of all the money books, the first millionaire one I read, I think the key thing that stuck out to me is that millionaires think they have a growth mindset and an abundance mindset, so they think in and not, or. So they don't think in terms of like oh, if I want this, I have to sacrifice that. They're more like if I want this and I want that, what could I do to make that happen or make that a reality? And then you just kind of go down this curious path of asking yourself how to make what you truly want be a reality, versus accepting society's beliefs on what's not possible. So I think that's the biggest mindset shift I got from that book. And then the reframing the bad money thoughts is from the. You Are a Badass at Making Money.

Speaker 1: 26:11

I love that book. I have listened to and read all of Jen Sincero's books and I'm obsessed with her. So great suggestion. We sometimes have them available at the wild shop just like shameless plug, no big deal. I was thinking about it as you were talking about how you are a dancer and you were this cheerleader at UofL and all of the competitive parts of it. But you've also been coached a lot throughout your life and I'm wondering if that coaching that you've received and participated in through movement has really transitioned over to how you want to coach women about money and if you find that having that background of understanding the hard work that it takes and the dedication and the perseverance of being an athlete and listening to your coaches all the time, if that really comes over into your coaching programs a little bit. I'm just kind of curious if it translates.

Speaker 2: 27:11

That's such a good question. I never thought of it that way. Yeah, I think I definitely have gotten positive things from. Of course there's good and bad coaches. Some are mean and they yell and they're a little verbally abusive and we don't want that.

Speaker 2: 27:28

But from my college cheer coach I would say what I learned from her is she always her name was Misty, she always had such grace and composure and she never yelled, never cussed, but she was able to extract the absolute eliteness out of every one of us and it was just kind of this calm standard that we knew that she required and she would just look at us and have a little notepad and writing stuff down as we're tumbling or stunting. And you never want to mess up and then see her put her head down and write on her notepad because that was not good news for you. But I think what I learned from her is like she was able to push us to our absolute brink, but not in an unhealthy way, in a positive way, to like pull more out of yourself, but while also still being very like, supportive and nurturing. So I think, yeah, that's kind of how I view my students and the girls that I work with is. I want to be their supporter. I want them to feel like you. I want you to feel comfortable telling me your absolute, deepest, darkest money secrets, all the bad mistakes you've made. That's what we need. You have to pull all the skeletons out of the closet. We have to go through all the financial tea or we can't make progress. It's kind of like your therapist If you lie to your therapist, they're not even going to be able to really help you. They can only help you with the amount that you're willing to be vulnerable and open. So I kind of view it like that.

Speaker 2: 29:05

I want my clients to feel comfortable. I'm their peer in a sense of like we're besties. You can tell me anything and everything, but a good bestie is also going to tell you when you're being a little ratchet right. Your good friend is going to tell you when you're tripping a little bit or like girl, you should not have done that. That was not the move right, but it's out of love was not the move right, but it's out of love, you know. So it's kind of I want to have that interaction and that's how I am. So I'm very like, approachable and we're besties. But also I'm going to tell you the tea and when we need to make some changes. Of course because that's what you're looking for in a coach is you want them to help you progress, but you want to also feel comfortable telling them what you need to tell them. So that's kind of my approach.

Speaker 1: 29:55

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Speaker 3: 31:22

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Speaker 3: 31:33

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Speaker 1: 32:05

I love that you said spilling the financial tea, because y'all, I've had a lot of accountants over the years and never once, never once, did one I mean ever just like meet me where I was at. And I think, as you know, as you kind of get to know Christian and as you understand, that her Glow CFO brand is all about that and it's really I mean, I'm glowing just thinking about her. So I think it's really cool to actually have those little moments where you can laugh and you can say, like girl, you are being ratchet and the amount of time she's like, yeah, maybe you shouldn't have done that. I'm like you know what, you're right, You're so right. Those moments are so special to me and I think are invaluable, and not only those moments, because, trust me, we've done so much in my QuickBooks. It is crazy and there's so much to learn.

Speaker 1: 32:58

I feel like within QuickBooks and as an entrepreneur who's been doing it for 16 years, that started making headbands in my dorm room and selling them to consignment shops and then, yeah, open my own shop. Like you said earlier, while I was still in college. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing and I wish I had had you in that spot all along because even though we knew each other, we weren't there yet and I'm so glad we're there now. But I feel like if you could spill some I don't know, maybe some of the most common little QuickBooks mistakes or something, I feel like we have to spill a little bit of financial tea when it comes to QuickBooks because y'all mine were ratchet. She's so fucking right, they're so bad. But I needed that understanding and, as you said earlier, you're reframing it.

Speaker 1: 33:56

I'm not bad at money. I don't have the skill set. So either I grow the skill set and I understand how to manage it or I hire in someone to help me. But usually you need a little bit of both. You want to be able to understand your numbers and understand your financial forecasting for the future in a creative business, or not. You want to have that backing behind you. So I feel like Christian. What are some I don't know silly little things that people keep doing in their QuickBooks, or just even one that just makes you be like okay. So I have an accounting background and I got to get this fixed right away and we got you, we got your back. Spill that financial tea for me when it comes to QuickBooks.

Speaker 2: 34:40

Sure, let's have a quick chat about QuickBooks, okay. So, first of all, quickbooks is made for non-accountants. I'll start there. That's how the platform is made, which is good for an entrepreneur to be able to do their bookkeeping on their own. However, it doesn't come with training and they kind of just give you the platform and it's like here you can use it. So, unless you go like deep down the YouTube rabbit hole or you buy like an online course to learn how to use it properly, you're 100% not using it properly. But that's okay.

Speaker 2: 35:16

Because I blame QuickBooks because they should have a training for the non-accounting creatives out there who want to jump on, and I think that's wild that they don't. I think they do, but it's really expensive. Most creatives aren't probably going to pay for that, but I just feel like they should have some built-in training, at least the basics. So I'll start there. So, anyways, it's not your fault. In my opinion, it's QuickBooks' fault, but that's okay, we're going to work on it. So I would say, because of that, I think in your chart of accounts you'll see these accounts right, and sometimes I find that people will just create accounts because they're just like oh, I don't see a place for this. So I'm going to make an account.

Speaker 2: 36:00

Well, the problem with that is not everything necessarily should be an account that shows up on your financial statements and most people when they do that, they don't realize that's actually going to show up on my financial statement. So that's usually a quick mistake someone might make. And then I would say and we learned about this one, amanda, we just talked about this one where sometimes you're creating a bill and that's good because you were invoiced by a vendor. So you make a bill, but then you forget to match it to your bank transaction. So what happens is then it goes into your system twice because you have the bill in your system and you have the bank transaction that went through your system and deducted the money from your bank account. So what that will do, it'll make it look like you spent double the money that you actually spent.

Speaker 2: 36:48

So there's what I call closing the loop, is you have to understand how to close the loop for every process. In QuickBooks that's kind of how it works on the sales side and the expense side. But unless you're taught that that's how things kind of get out of hand really quickly, is not understanding how the bank transactions work and how they link to the other transactions. And as an accountant, we all know this that it's called two-way entry and what that means is you have reality, right, and that's the money coming in and out of your bank account, but then what's in QuickBooks is not actually reality. It's you keeping record of the reality. So it's kind of like two things in tandem that you have to constantly match together. And if you don't understand that, that's how you get a bunch of duplicates, or then things are missing, and that's when things get real crazy. But all of it can be fixed. So it's okay. It doesn't matter how behind you are, it doesn't matter how effed up it is, it can be fixed.

Speaker 1: 37:53

That's absolutely. What I learned is that it can be fixed. And that is one of the best parts, for sure is that by joining you know me in the program that Christian is launching, which I'll happily have her talk a little bit more about. But joining me with that, you can literally get so much of what I've gone through a year with Christian and I still want to learn it again. I want to learn it more, I want to deepen my understanding. I want to be able to fully talk to everybody about QuickBooks anytime they have a question or whatever, and mostly just talk to myself so I can put my head on my pillow at night and feel great about it. And I've already come so far and learned those things.

Speaker 1: 38:34

But, like she just said, I did just learn about bills today because it did take a long time to clean up my QuickBooks. So if you started from a place, or maybe you are like I just want to start getting into QuickBooks, this would be a great time to join. I would think, because you get to start getting into QuickBooks, this would be a great time to join. I would think, because you get to start really fresh. Or if your QuickBooks are already going but you're like I didn't realize I had to do the two-way entry or I had to close the loop, like I didn't. And you're like why do I have all these duplicates? She's already answered some of that for you.

Speaker 1: 39:05

So imagine how much more she has to teach us and how much more community we can be with each other so I can be like girly I didn't know what to do with that either and then I learned this and then we can double check with Christian and make sure I'm not being a silly goose and telling you the wrong thing. But I feel like you should talk a little bit about their coaching and your program coming up, because I know it's something that you want to have multiple times throughout the year, but it's also something that maybe they're not ready this time for the coaching. Tell us about your services a little bit, and the way I like to say this is how can they put money into your wallet? So tell us a little bit about that program and how you're going to help us from just being silly goose little girlies like me into really confident about our books and knowing our numbers. And then, what are your other services that you offer, christian? Tell all the girlies.

Speaker 2: 39:58

Okay, absolutely. So. I do have my signature Creative Cashflow Studio coaching program coming out. That's for all my creative girlies. You have until May 31st to sign up for this first round, but the program will be repeating throughout the year and future years. So you can just check out wwwglowcfocom for the upcoming dates, if you do happen to listen to this podcast after May 31st. And what will be in that program is it's an eight-week program for my creative women who have their own businesses and need help understanding their finance and accounting. So it's a blended program that teaches about money mindset, but also just the practical steps of what you need to do to not only set up your finances correctly but also to understand, as a CEO, what the numbers mean.

Speaker 2: 40:56

I mean, there's this trope. I guess you can say that creative minds just aren't for understanding numbers. Your brain's not wired that way. But I argue that you just haven't been taught it the proper way that your creative mind learns, and to me as a CEO it's important. Especially a creative CEO, it's important to have some type of understanding of your finances as a business owner to protect yourself, because so often you'll pass off your finances to an accountant or a financial professional or whatever, and sometimes people get taken advantage of. Now, I'm not saying that all accountants are bad or anything like that. There definitely are good ones out there that you can trust. But how many times have we heard someone say the accountant stole money and they had no idea for this amount of time because they are blindly trusting and handing over the responsibility of their finances to another person? So while, yes, you want to delegate that, because it's not your wheelhouse and it's not your strength, you still should have the knowledge to periodically review your finances and spot check what they're doing to make sure that everything is being done correctly. So this is the only program of its kind that I'm aware of that not only goes into the finance and accounting essentials that you should know that most creatives never learn because they didn't go to business school, like I did, or they don't have that background but also gives you, like, the practical steps of how to get back on the track if you're off the rails, or how to get started and build your foundation if you haven't started. So that's the main thing going on now, but let's just say you're not able to hop into that right away.

Speaker 2: 42:37

I also offer accounting services, so we have an accounting reset service where, if things are not looking good but you need someone to come in and clean up, we do that. We also offer a monthly accounting service to keep your books clean and tidy on a consistent basis. And then we also have an accounting setup service where, if you haven't gotten started you're not on a QuickBooks platform maybe it's all in the spreadsheets, maybe it's just in notebooks, or maybe you haven't started at all but you've had some transactions we can help you get set up on the QuickBooks system and give you some tools and resources to know how to run the system on your own, if you can't afford an accountant just yet. So we have that. And then we also have our creative CFO service, which is what Amanda and I do together is I'm her CFO and I pop in and we touch base periodically throughout the months and that's a more strategic level service.

Speaker 2: 43:34

If you think you need some forecasting or budgeting where you have a pretty stable business but you're not really looking too much in the future, you're just in survival mode and we want to get you out of survival mode and into thriving, and we can only do that if your books are clean and we're able to give you budgeting and forecasting for the future so we can actually achieve whatever goals you have as a business owner. So that's what we've got going on right now and, yeah, so I'm excited to work with more of you ladies.

Speaker 1: 44:06

I am so happy that you explained every option because I feel like one of those options is going to be perfect for anyone listening that's interested in either starting a business or getting their books cleaned up. That's where we kind of started was in that cleanup phase, and, as I told you, it takes a little bit longer. And I mean, don't get me wrong y'all I had multiple businesses and, oh my gosh, like 10, 20 accounts. At one point it was crazy because, yeah, I got led down a path by an accountant that I have now learned had previously kind of sabotaged a few other businesses or suing them. Now Things happen, and especially in the financial world, where I was unaware of it and I was taken advantage of and y'all know that I don't bring anybody on this podcast that I don't trust, I don't bring anybody to the forefront that I'm not all about and knowing Christian spending time with her traveling, being friends for such a long time, hanging out in our girlfriend's pool during the summer because it's the best pool ever, just kind of taking all of those little moments where we've had that time to connect, I really wanted to show you that it is possible. It's possible to trust someone. It's possible to have some help without that judgment and it's possible to get those books cleaned up. It's possible to understand your numbers and even having her help me understand my profit and loss or my balance sheet, or how can I really grow well, to be the massive brand that it wants to be, how can I really do that? And understanding my financials is a major, major part of it.

Speaker 1: 45:53

So I just want y'all to check it out and, again, I'm going to join the coaching program. I'm already in. She said I'm in there. Right, girly, I am so ready for just all the cash flow info, because cash flow is one of the most difficult parts of running my business and I'm sure it's one of the most difficult parts of yours too. So I'm just so excited that you're hopefully going to be joining me along with Christian in her program.

Speaker 1: 46:21

And, yeah, you have until the end of May to get signed up for that, but don't worry, if you ever need a check-in or you ever need info about it, christian is my girlie so I can get you connected with her anytime. But, christian, why don't you say that website for them one more time, or maybe how they can follow you on social media because I want to make sure that they're putting money into your wallet, because you have put so much money back into my wallet and helped me so much that I could not imagine wow without you, and I couldn't imagine life without you either. Oh, you're so sweet.

Speaker 2: 46:56

Yeah, I can't wait to have you in the program as well. So we've already got our number one girly in there, so you got to come join. It'll be so much fun. I can't wait to just learn about everyone's creative business and create this community amongst you guys, because me myself, as an entrepreneur, I feel out here alone on an island.

Speaker 2: 47:16

I feel like that's one of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is it's great to have your own thing, but it's like then you kind of miss the work, happy hours and you kind of miss the social aspects of working for a company. So that's part of the reason why I want to do group coaching, so that I can kind of start creating this community amongst us women entrepreneurs. So if you're looking for me, you can find me at Glow CFO on Instagram and TikTok and then the website is wwwglowcfocom. And also I have a little treat for all the moneymakers I'm going to be releasing a creative financial checklist for all my creative women. So you just know all the steps, from zero to a hundred, of setting up your financial foundation, and you can get that at wwwblowcfo slash checklist.

Speaker 1: 48:10

We all need a checklist. I mean, I feel like that helps my brain stay on task. I love to write down a task and then check it off right after, so I think that's an amazing little freebie. Thank you, girl. We love that and I'm so excited to have y'all here and joining me soon.

Speaker 1: 48:30

I agree with you the community aspect of this is just above and beyond. I'm so happy to be in community with other women always, but especially ones that I can talk to about my finances and really open up that QuickBooks and understand how to know my numbers more so that we can grow together. I really really appreciate that aspect of this coaching program too. So I just wanted to thank you so much, Christian, for coming on Women of Will at the Podcast. I can't believe how far we've come and I'm so happy to really see your growth, see mine doing it with each other. It's just the best. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast and until next time moneymakers go out there and make that money.

Speaker 1: 49:25

If you want to put more money into the wallets of women, like we do, then check out our website, thewomanownedwalletcom, and we can't wait to continue the conversation on our social media. So definitely follow us on our Instagram, at womanownedwallet, and on TikTok at womanownedwallet. You can support us by following our podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify, and don't forget to leave us a review. Thank you for listening to Woman Owned Wallet and Spotify and don't forget to leave us a review. Thank you for listening to Woman-Owned Wallet, the podcast.