Helping High Achievers Meet Their Goals with Nicole Coustier

Transcript

Yeah, so, can you share a little bit about your journey first off?
And how did you become a financial coach?
So I started online actually, as a health and fitness, professional.
My children were really small and I always wanted to do my own thing to contribute, financially to the family and have something that I was doing away from being a mother because I chose to be a stay-at-home mom.
And so my journey to being an entrepreneur happened.
Really early back in, I would say, I would say, I really started going gung-ho about 2012 and I got really sucked into the mom’s making six figures at home from their kitchen table.
Working, you know, while their kids napped kind of stories that I ended up turning into a massive workaholic Amy and I tried so many things and I spent hours listening to podcasts like every waking moment and I’m sure our listeners can relate to this.
When you first start a business and all the learning and everything that it takes and what I found out is literally after eight years of doing this and working really hard.
And I did have some success, but I realized that there was this whole other world of, how do I really reach my income goals and create the life that I want with the money that I have in the answer was right in front of me.
I never really even saw it at the time because I’ve always been an expert in finance and I had a bookkeeping business on the side, but I kind of took it for granted.
I didn’t really realize that those skills that I was using with other.
This owners was something that I could then turn around and use on with my online business.
And so I started off as a business owner doing so many things like so many do trying to earn money trying to get the credibility trying to have the brand and build a following and I realized that the answers were in my financial training that I had already had that.
I just took for granted and so when I realized that I Sided to.
Well, I was burned out what the health and fitness realm.
Anyway, it’s very physically exhausting.
And, you know, things change, people change and I decided then to go full-on and helping other entrepreneurs, get control of their money and not make the same mistakes or recover from the stainless.
Same mistakes that I had been making the last eight years as an entrepreneur.
Well, so let me ask you this when someone is considering to start their own business.
What should they know as far as the difference between the W-2 employee being a tubby and to employ and a business center.
The biggest difference is that the most money that you’re going to pay is in taxes?
Because now you’re paying self-employment tax as well as income tax.
Okay, so this is really important when you A W-2 and money is taken out.
Yes, they’re taking out money to pay taxes on your behalf as an employee, but your employer is also paying taxes to have you as an employee.
So, when you now become your own employee, you have your paying both as the employer and the employee.
So, that’s the biggest thing to understand.
Is that judge.
It don’t get into this.
While I’m not making any money at kind of thing because you still have to do a whole lot on the financial end being a business owner and you’re reporting and organizing and keeping track.
And because our number one goal.
We start a business is to be profitable, you know, you got to set up your systems and you have to have your mind in the right place on what you need to do.
So how does a business become a cash eating business versus a business that is actually creating a profit most businesses.
I would say Amy, especially a lot of the clients that come to me are cash eating monster businesses because you the business owner starts off and just works really hard trying to earn money.
And what I love about entrepreneurs is our willingness to invest in ourselves, right?
Our willingness to think, out of the box.
To find Solutions, but we often have this programming where we’re just constantly paying and paying and paying.
And so, what ends up happening is I meet with a lot of clients that realize, they’re over paying their employees, or their contract workers that they’re paying for all of these digital products and all the support ads in.
All this stuff in order to be able to earn the money that they’re earning and then they turn around and they’re like, well, I’m not paying myself regularly.
Lee.
I’m stressed out about paying my employees.
I’m always you know, I’ve got all these lines of credit and that’s what happens is you become you grow this cash, eating monster business and I’ve it doesn’t matter.
It’s not like once you hit six figures or even multiple six figures that magically you’re going to have a bunch of money left over.
In fact, I found that it’s the opposite, the more money that a lot of businesses tend to make the more tends to go out the window and they don’t know how to make it.
Stop.
Well, so what are some of the ways that business owners can invest for their business?
Invest in.
What do you mean as far as you know, how can they invest more in their business than, and actually, you know, get a return or instead of, you know, making it be something that is just taking all of their money at you.
Yeah, so, you know, I’ll answer that by asking you a question Amy.
If your car breaks down, or you going to go onto YouTube and watch you.
And go down to the hardware store and try and fix it.
Actually.
Yeah, I did.
I do do that for the sake of the conversation will say no.
So talented, broke down and I was like, I have no idea what I’m doing and this YouTube video seems pretty straightforward, but I think there’s a lot of information missing and that’s the thing that I On to tell business owners is get a bookkeeper.
Get a CPA and get a money coach that can help and you know, a money coach or actually more like a fractional CFO which are the services that I offer that can help you make sense of what your bookkeeper is doing.
And the information that your CPA is getting to file, your taxes correctly for you.
It’s about understanding, even if you’re not super profitable yet.
What’s happening with your money in?
Past what’s happening now and then how to make decisions in the future so that you don’t grow this cash, eating monster business and you can actually turn that money into a life that you the life that you want.
You know?
Yeah.
So what does it mean to diversify your money away from yourself?
So this is also the biggest thing as a lot of entrepreneurs and I see it even on social media where gurus will preach about, you’ve got to invest in yourself, you got to put back.
Back in your business and I get that but that’s not the whole picture.
You have to pay yourself.
There is to what?
I like to.
Look at it as a me that there’s to use that you need to think about the you now in the future you and as much as we don’t want to think about it.
We are going to get old one of these days and we’re not going to work as much.
And so, diversifying your money away from your business is knowing how much to set aside to be able to hire you.
This coach or renew your Mastermind or you know, put add another team member.
But also to be able to take money out of your business, to contribute to your retirement, to be able, to buy your home, to send your kids, to college to build up savings for yourself, so that you can sleep at night and to do fun things.
Go out to dinner and buy yourself some clothes, and go on vacation and that kind of thing.
So, it’s about taking that Money and putting it in other buckets so that you can protect yourself.
So you can grow your wealth so that you can have that Financial Peace and plenty.
So when we’re thinking about financial success, what are some of the short-term wins and we should focus on and some other long-term.
So a short term win would be knowing whether you’re profitable or not.
And that’s something that you can determine within an hour or maybe even 15 minutes depending And how your setup and if you if you find out that you’re not a profitable business that still a win, right?
Because that’s information.
And that’s really valuable information to understand and to swallow hard and be like, okay, now that I have this knowledge, I can turn my ship around.
It’s like the time that I got on actual scale, not a cheap one, but, you know, a doctor type scale and saw that I was as big as as big as I was after I had, Had my first child.
I knew kind of in my mind that I was, you know, eating a lot and like really having the Oreos and, you know, the baked goods and I knew that I was kind of gaining weight, but to have that information that number in my face it was like, okay this is real now.
So that’s the first win is looking at your business and looking at how profitable or how not profitable, it is and where your money is going.
And where Coming in that way, you can really make decisions based off of there.
And then longer-term winds are going to be in.
This doesn’t sound very sexy.
But I promise you, this is the key to sleeping at night.
It’s better than CBD oil.
It is how it was building up your savings and being debt-free.
I like that.
Definitely.
So what are some of the tips to choose a good CPA for your business?
Yeah.
So CPAs, if the first thing is to understand what it is that they actually do.
Because I believe that a lot of business owners.
They don’t know.
And therefore they have expectations that a CP of a CPA that those people actually don’t do for their business.
And so what I hear from a lot of business owners is they only hear from their CPA, once a year.
And then it’s like pulling teeth to get them to respond.
And then they feel like their CPA is speaking Greek to them and they have no idea what they’re asking them for and they somehow get their tax.
Return, fire filed, whether it’s on time or where they have to do extensions and they just get a bill and that’s it.
And they have no clue, whether that tax return is optimized and what’s actually happening there.
So, if you’re in that boat, what you need to understand, is that Epa’s traditional CPA is a historian, meaning that they take the numbers in the information on what happened in the past and they their job is to make sure that you’re following the law and to check the right boxes in to get the paperwork, correct.
So that the IRS doesn’t come after you.
That’s what their job is.
So it when you’re, when you think about what do I want in a CPA or what?
Do I need in a CPA, do I?
Really under want to understand what this tax return is about.
Then you need to find someone who in the first conversation that you have with them takes more of an educational stance with you and uses real plain English to help you understand and answer your questions.
If you’re in finding yourself in a conversation with a CPA that just keeps throwing the book at you and you can’t understand even if you tell them and you ask them, they’re probably not the right fit for you.
If that’s what you’re looking for.
Another thing too, is Is someone who is going to respond to you who they may have, you know, some CPAs.
Don’t feel obligated to return phone calls or respond to emails because that’s not what you agreed on.
You agreed on them doing a tax return.
So talk to them and hey, does this include Unlimited phone calls or how many hours of talking to you in and getting information and asking questions?
Does this include because there are some that have Business models that allow you to email them and then they will say, hey, my turnaround time is 24 to 48 hours.
And if that is true, are they actually doing it or they not responding to you?
I Amy I can’t stand it.
When people don’t respond back to me right away within, you know, a couple of days.
And so that those are flags for me that I don’t, I don’t want to work with you if you’re going to throw the book at me, number one and make me fit into all your boxes.
Because tax law can be very creative.
Active within the legal Realms.
And if you’re not going to respond to me and help me understand why, then I don’t want to work with you as a CPA.
So, and then there’s other things to consider is, how much do you need?
You also need the bookkeeping part as well.
And would you, it’s almost better if you’re if you have the funds for it because it’s going to be more expensive to work with a CPA that does everything in house because then all of their systems will talk.
And it’ll be a lot more streamlined for you rather than if you have like your mother-in-law or someone you found off Craigslist, doing your bookkeeping and then trying to talk to your CPA and get them that information.
It’s almost like, you know, Android phones and Apple iPhones.
They don’t I can’t talk to anybody who has an Android from my Mac, using the messenger part, you know what I mean?
And so you have to think about that, too.
As how much do you need?
How streamlined you want it?
And how much hand holding do you want and hand-holding is totally fine.
In fact, I think it’s important as a business owner to have a lot of hand-holding and to get a lot of help.
Understanding what’s going on because you’re the business owner.
No one’s going to care more about your money than you.
So what are some of your clients success stories?
So I have a lot of clients that are making great money and but they’re really stressed and confused about what to do with all of it.
And it’s a very different reality for them there.
They’re like, wow, you know, I thought I would never be in this situation where I have all this Surplus.
And so some of the biggest successes that I’ve had with them is just helping them understand what to do with it.
And because it’s, you know, people who are listening, maybe like, oh, that’s such a great problem.
Having it is, but that’s when you pay a lot in taxes.
And that’s when just because you have a surplus of money, doesn’t mean that you are experiencing Financial, Peace, and plenty.
It doesn’t mean that you’re actually getting what you want that you’re taking those profits and translating them into some of vehicle that helps.
You live more of an abundant and free life and so having The Logical knowledge of okay, first we’re Going to portion it out this way.
And then we’re going to do this and then we’re going to do that and like knowing what to do and having those strategic moves is really important.
But then on the flip side, a me, it’s that really healing from the inside out.
Those feelings of of, I do have enough money, and money is a renewable resource and I’m not afraid anymore that it’s going to run out like that because there’s a lot of people that made a lot of money this year in our Doing great.
And having a fantastic beginning of the last quarter, but there’s still this thing deep down inside of them that they have to keep working this way because it may run out.
And if they don’t stop working, then it’s going to stop.
So being able to heal that with a combination of strategy and working with your own energetics is absolutely huge.
And so, and how that translates into tangible.
Real life is being able to buy their first home paid in full Fool, no mortgages.
We don’t give a crap.
If the interest rate is only one or two percent, who cares, you’re still paying hundreds of thousand dollars in interest, but could you imagine being able to maneuver and manage your money in a way that you could nearly pay for it in full or get it paid off?
Super quick, to be debt-free to have a bunch of savings to be able to start funds for college, for their kids to be able to donate to some of their favorite Charities.
And Organizations.
And that’s what they’ve been able to do, because they understand now the comings and goings of their money, how to divide it up, and then they’ve got their energetics under control and are living in a much more.
Abundant faith-filled, State inside.
I like that.
So what do you think has been your truth that has gotten you this far in your journey?
Oh, my truth.
Is that we actually control very Little in this life.
And however, when you think about like an ocean, and if we’re all each individual little drops in the ocean, we make up the ocean and without us.
And without our individual drop moving around and trying to navigate the waves, there wouldn’t be an ocean.
And so it’s this dance of doing, you know, like putting your best foot forward to do what you can.
And completely surrendering and letting go I love that.
It sounds so stress, relieving even that he saying right now.
So if you’re able to give yourself one piece of advice, when you first started out and your journey, what would it be is to not fall into the Trap of if I make x amount of money than everything’s going to be, okay.
Because I spend my wills and I be, like I said, became a workaholic, a lot of strain on my marriage.
My kids were spent a lot of time in front of the TV because I had the belief that if I just made it to six figures or multiple six figures or whatever.
That goal was, that we were going to reach Financial Freedom.
And that was the furthest thing from the truth.
Once I started managing it well and diversifying it, all the things that we talked about.
That’s when the well, Floodgates really started open for me.
I love that.
So Angela, if there are people that are listening on that, it would really love to get a hold of you.
What’s the best way to contact you?
Yeah, go to my website.
Angela Anderson dot life.
You can send me an email through their my email is also Angela at Angela Anderson dot life and you can just message me directly.
I have a little PDF.
It’s wealth-building secrets.
It’s that you can download.
If you go to my website and then I’ll get you on to my email list and I send one email out a day and there’s always an invitation in those emails to reach out to me if you want to talk about working together.
So those are the two ways directly or go to my website and Snoop around and see what you like.
Perfect.
Now, put all those links down below, Angela.
Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your expertise.
Thanks for having me.
Yes, and if you’re listening, you want more information about our podcast and upcoming shows you.
Can visit a call to thrive.com.
Thank you, everyone and have a wonderful week.