Financial Planning for Entrepreneurs to Avoid Surprise Tax Bills

**[00:00:00]** Hello everyone, my name is Armando Perez-Carreno and welcome to the Web Talk Show. Today with us is Rebecca Irey, founder and CEO of Blue Skye Financial. How are you Rebecca? I'm very well Armando. Thank you so much for having me. It is a pleasure. This topic is going to be very interesting for our listeners. Both for those of you who have small businesses or are just listening for the sake of seeing what you can do regarding financial independence, legacy, wealth, planning. I these are all amazing things that we all should know and sometimes we think it's only for that rich, right? And so I think that this will be very helpful for everyone listening. But before we get into it, Rebecca, can you give us a little bit of insights from how you got to where you are and what drove you to start Blue Skye Financial? Well, um, I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. So, that is I I don't think I've had a quote unquote real job since like 1991 or something like long time ago. I'm I have to for those of your audience who are business owner-minded, we we are the worst Indians. We're good chiefs. We're good chiefs. Um but I started in finance right out of college. Um met my husband there. Um we had seven children together and during that time I was in the corporate world. So I was a CFO um consultant for those 20 years. And then um my husband became critically ill in 2017 and I came back to the consumer business side of finance helping entrepreneurs families to um really prepare for things when you're suddenly living a story that you didn't think you were going to you didn't think you were writing that story. My husband went from, "Hey, I don't feel so good." to 6 hours later a doctor looking at me saying, "Figure your life out. He's not checking out." And I was still homeschooling six kids at the time. So, life can turn **[00:02:00]** on a dime. And I think, you know, as people, we think we have time, but especially as business owners, you know, business owners, if I could just be completely transparent with you, entrepreneurs are the worst planners for our financial future. We really are because we plow everything into our business, right? We reinvest in the business and we work hard and we don't think about the day the universe pivots the story for us. And we don't think about the day that we just don't feel like hustling anymore. Like I'm done hustling now. I'm tired. I want to live. You know, we make money. We're rain makers. That's what we do. And so we count on that. So we don't we don't plan. And people who work jobs like that it's inherent, right? you put money in your 401k, you do these things. And for us as business owners, we we don't have that structure that protects us in the end. And so when life got real for me, and I I wasn't yet 45 years old when that happened. I thought I had lots of time to figure those things out and I just didn't. So we founded Blue Skye 3 years later and uh really focus heavily on tax advisory, business services and really retirement income planning so that if you're working, if you're an entrepreneur and you're working, you're working because you love it, not because you simply have no other choice. You're going to hustle till the day you drop because you just didn't plan well. It's not hard to plan, but it takes focus and intention, and that's what we help people do. I have seen many people go through the latter side of getting to when they're 60, 70 and have had that same mindset of like keeping going until now they're tired and there was no plan. So I I really appreciate **[00:04:00]** what you're doing because it is real and tangible especially nowadays it doesn't have to be sort of at the end of your productive period which of course you could go to 80 if you want 90 working if you want and and you have the energy but how things are shifting now you could have an amazing business and then the next day the industry completely changed. changes and if you didn't plan properly then it can get messy and then for the family for for everyone right so that's that's great what is the thing that you focus the most on what do you hear the most every day from incoming clients what is the the main issue that people are facing that you see dayto-day two things Um I hear I I I'm paying too much in taxes like what is with the tax bill and again bringing about to entrepreneurs right so you get to the end of the tax year and your CPA says this is how much you owe in taxes and because you have plowed everything back in the business you're like you've got to be kidding me I don't have that kind of money I don't have that because you put it back into your business thinking that that would protect you from the tax liability and it does Not. It does not. So, but CPAs, God loves CPAs, they they're backwardslooking professionals. Like that is their job to look at your past year and say this is what you have done and here's the bill. They do not for the most part say and if you do something different in the year going forward, it will be better for you. Right? So, a CPA is a is a tax preparer. A tax advisor is someone who says, "Oh, hey, I see what you **[00:06:00]** did. If we do these things differently next year, things will be different for you. We we can mitigate now. You have to pay your taxes. You know, I value my license. Please pay your taxes." You don't have to leave a tip, right? I have to like the service isn't that good. Quite frankly, the government is not super responsible. They're not fiscally responsible. I I don't personally think that's my own bias. Maybe some people are loving it, but I'm not the $40 trillion in debt doesn't speak to me of fiscal responsibility. So, first and foremost, I hear like, how do I how do I mitigate this tax bill because I'm getting a bill and I don't know how to pay it. So, what can I do about that? But then, honestly, the second thing I I hear is, well, I I should have done this years ago. I could have. I would have, but I didn't know. And now what do I do now? Am I just stuck? Do I just have to like, okay, I just have to pay and pay and pay? Like, what is the story? So, future planning, it's never too late. That I I say that all we can always get to where you want to go from here, but it's going to take some intention and some guard rails and some real planning and road mapping. And most financial advisors, if I could say, and and maybe people in your audience can resonate with this. Most financial adviserss will say, "Don't worry about it. Just let me manage your money. You're going to be Speaking as a woman, do not pat me on my pretty little head and tell me I'm going to be fine. Don't do that. Don't do that. Like, show me what what you have put into place so that I know I'm going to be fine. When the government does something ridiculous or the stock market turns upside down, how am I going to be fine then? Am I still going to be fine? And how do you know? I don't want to just trust someone. I want to understand. I'm a woman. I need control. Right? Are you a married man, Armando? Do you know that women need control? **[00:08:00]** We We need control. And those are the two things. The boss in my opinion, at least in the household, for sure. Well, happy wife, happy life. This is a big deal. If you know that line, you'll be married a nice long time. I I'm very glad that you brought this part up because this week, like literally yesterday, I had two separate clients talk about the huge tax bill they just received. And and these are entrepreneurs and they might be doing well, which is the reason for the tax bill. But like you said, some people have the proper planning in place and the proper structure and accountants and bookkeepers and maybe they even have a family. We had someone about talking about family office uh many months ago and uh it was very interesting because of all this strategy because you have all the people in the same room and you're you're helping people to plan ahead instead of looking back like you just said. But that's not accessible for most people. whole family office is not is not a reasonable thing for most people. Most people don't even know what it is. And so the fact that you're helping people do this and not not just that looking back but like planning is is super helpful because it and we'll we'll talk about this a little later but it comes into the whole depth stage as well because you might be doing well but then you get this tax bill then you go into debt and then you have to get out of it but then you have this other tax bill and like you just go into this cycle which could have been avoided if you had planned When people talk about legacy wealth, right, tax-free retirement, again, we hear this, but mostly about wealthy people. And it might it might look far for for most. It's it's just like what? **[00:10:00]** I don't like I barely can pay the bills or right and how am I if you're in that mindset going to think about wealth and planning if if you're trying to make ends meet. And mind you, there's people who are trying to make ends meet. They could still be doing six figures a year, seven figures even, and be trying to make ends meet. And for for a lot of people, this is very confusing, like how you're making a lot of money. Well, yeah, but they probably owe a lot of money or they just didn't plan properly. So, all this to say, having this sort of support is super important. Well, I think it it matters what you want to create. You know, you see gurus and and we we live in an age of gurus, do we not? We live in an age where there's always somebody on YouTube or Instagram saying what you need to do is always do a Roth conversion or never do a Roth conversion or always. Okay. All of that is like in in American colloquialism, right? It's just they're just shilling something. They want to sell you something. Um so and never don't fit. you you your family not like my family probably don't have seven kids probably don't live in the great state of Texas probably like we are different humans so I think first and foremost I'm going to say anytime you hear a guru or an influencer say always do this or never do this it's probably a lie because you are not like the next person you are you and you are not a square peg in a square hole you are you a very special person with a very special so when we talk about legacy see wealth. What does that mean to you? And that's where we have to start, right? As an example, I have a dear friend of mine who very traditional gentleman, you know, really **[00:12:00]** buys into kind of the he who dies with the most toys wins, right? I want a plane and I want a boat and I want a big house and I want blah blah blah blah blah. Okay, cool. Now we can engineer that. Or you have someone like me. I've I've done that and I am very much in a own nothing, be happy. I don't want to own anything. I want to know people like my friend, right? Because he's gonna have all the toys and I can play with them. Yay. But I don't want to own them. I don't want to maintain them. I do not want to pay for them. I So wealth for me looks really dramatically different than it does for him, right? or generational wealth may look really different for me at my age with seven children, six versus somebody who just had one child. And and what what is the legacy that you are empowered to leave to one human? And what do you want? How how do you want to do that versus me with my whole tribe? You know, I got the first line of the hockey team working on the second and now we got the grandkids coming in. So you are different. So find a financial advisor that helps you. What you did in your past is neither good nor bad. I always say Armando and this is probably politically incorrect but I'm from Texas. That's how we do it. When I was pregnant with my oh god I lose track probably fourth child. I had gained a lot of weight. Like when you gain 20 lbs a kid and you don't lose it, it's a lot. And I'm a I'm a vertically challenged girl. I didn't want to step on the scale anymore, right? Cuz I was I was embarrassed. And I had a doctor sit down with me and say, basically what he said is, "Get on the scale, fat girl." But what he said was much gentler. He said, "Honey, the number on the scale is not good nor bad. It just is what it is. What is good or bad is what you do when you leave my office. Are you going to go get ice cream or are you going to go for a walk?" **[00:14:00]** And so many of us feel that way about our finances, right? We we're embarrassed. We we we took out a loan to cover our taxes with an exorbitant interest rate and now we're stuck in that stupid cycle and now the next tax bill is coming and how are we going to and it looks like we're successful but are we really and we it's like a deep dark secret. Get on the scale fat girl. It's not bad. It's neither bad nor good. It just is what you it is what it is. Where we go proactively and coordinated from here that is where the power is. Knowledge is not power. Execution is power. Execution is power. So when we can take those things and say here's what you want to create. Yeah, we did that. Okay. All right. Fine. Now we're going to coordinate and have control moving forward to create whatever you That's where power lies. And we can all do that, right? We can all do that. But we have to get on the scale. That means you have to call a financial adviser and just lay it on the table. Don't don't don't try to justify. Just say, "Well, here's the mess I've created. Help me figure it out." And that's okay. That's brilliant. It's It's just a snapshot in time where you go from here. like you said where what you do after going to the doctor's office is really what matters. I something that resonated with me a lot I I don't remember if it was Hermosi Alex Hermosi who said it or or Gary Vee one of them they say they they talked about you know when as an entrepreneur you suddenly have to whatever happened and you need to come up with a bunch of money because you have to do payroll and something crazy happened and you like no way out for whatever reason you figure it out and suddenly you come up with like thousands **[00:16:00]** of dollars to be able to do that and just barely cover it. Why? Like how did you magic that money into creation? And that's sort of the entrepreneurial spirit and and the drive. And so in part they were saying like if you can do that because it very likely has happened to to a lot of people, why can't you do it constantly or find reasons to do it? And that comes into the planning step. If you actually put the numbers down and you see what you need to do, well, think of it as an emergency, get to work, but with a goal in mind. And that's where the advisor comes in, right? They will actually help you determine where to put whatever you are creating. Is that accurate? You it? Absolutely. Absolutely. A helps getting clarity, right? First, we need to know our metrics. One thing Alex Hermosia says that I just love. He says, "We need to learn to pull the future forward faster." I love that. That is what every entrepreneur wants to do, right? We want to pull the future forward faster. Yes, please. Step one, know your numbers. Know if you don't if you don't know your metrics, you have a really expensive hobby. You don't have a business. Like, sorry. You You got to know this is this is my cost of doing business. This is what I put into marketing. This is what I bring home. this. You have to know those things. This is what it costs me to acquire a client. And then you have to have a vision like what does it mean when I get there? And sometimes that's just a stop. Like how do I know when I get there? I don't know, but it'll probably change when I get there. You know, have you heard that um Matthew McConnA does a beautiful speech about being asked who his hero is? Oh yeah. And he's like, "My hero is myself 10 years." And then did you meet your hero? And it's always like myself in a year, myself in 5 years. I I love that because it really acknowledges that if I were to tell you if I would have told you 10 **[00:18:00]** years ago what my goals were, they're completely different today. And sometimes it's the universe pivoting us like my husband getting sick, right? And all of a sudden like life is whoa, okay, now my goals are dramatically different. And sometimes it's just like okay, I got there. I got that and now I now so your financial plan has to have that flexibility of and here's who I am today because we're constantly evolving as people and it's beautiful and exciting and also a financial planning challenge just a little we can and it's fun but we have to acknowledge the difference. one of our guests that was talking about your advisors for different things. He was talking about how even with coaches, he gave the analogy with coaching. I think he played hockey. He was saying like it's not the same. the I may have had an amazing coach when I was in high school, a brilliant coach, but then when I became pro, I could no longer use that same coach. I need another coach that now knows what to look for in the pro circuit and what to do and how to challenge me in that way. And so he was talking about how like you're saying the advisors will help you get there and you'll have a plan but then you'll get to a point where it's like okay now I need some other type of advice based on where I am now because it evolves and where you might have thought I want to make $500,000 that's my dream and then a few years later you're like oo I want to make $2 million that's my dream now I want to make a hundred mill like it's it will it will change. And maybe it's not monetary, but it's it's a goalpost that keeps moving **[00:20:00]** forward. And if you're guided by people who have done it before and understand all the repercussions and things that happen around decisions, then you can you can pull the future forward. like you were saying, it's it's um you don't have to do it alone, I think is what I'm what I'm trying to I love the coaching analogy. I love that so much because the rules are different for for each game that you play, right? And if you don't know the rules, you can't win the game. Like I was raised I wasn't raised in Texas. I was raised in South Dakota. Um four generations of my family on the same ranch, but I was raised in the time of farmade. I don't know if you remember that. You might be too young for that. But Willie Nelson was singing for the family farm, right? To try to help us survive because the atmosphere for family farms, for small family farms like mine, not great. Well, my dad knew crops and cattle. He did not know the rules. He didn't. And and we lost the after four generations, we lost the ranch, right? So, that was kind of my first impetus of if you if you don't know the rules, you can't win the game. But we're not all playing the same game. As an example, when you're when you're growing wealth, right? If you have a job or or you're or you're growing your business, right, and you're you're planting the seeds of wealth, you're growing wealth, you need a certain kind of advisor, right, to say, "Hey, you're focused on what you're focused on. Let's allocate this amount of money so that I can grow it for you." There are rules, right? If you're 30 and you're growing wealth, then it is a very true statement when your financial adviser says, "Hey, when the market goes down, everything's on sale. Don't worry about it. It's fine because you're 30." Right. You remember being 30. I I kind of a little bit vaguely remember being 30, right? But when you're 55, the **[00:22:00]** game is different. You don't have the same runway. You need a different coach to teach you the rules of harvesting wealth instead of growing wealth because we don't use the same tools to plant as we do to harvest. We don't use the same rules to the game to grow as we do to harvest. They're different games. So, I I love that idea of a coach and entrepreneurs as well. If you have a if you have a job, well, okay, you have some some basic structure. You probably have a 401k. You probably have some things going on that you can just participate in. As an entrepreneur, you need to kind of put up your own sandbox. You got to Pinterest that deal and put the thing together and road map it out. Okay. Well, that's a different that's a different game you're playing. You have a lot more power, but not if you never not if you never ask the questions. Not if you never pull the the blueprint and say, "How do I build this thing for myself?" Right. I agree. What I fear is a lot of people listen to this and think, "Yeah, that makes plenty of sense." But I can't afford a financial planner. It we still see it as a like we just talking in general, right? If you have not had the experience, then it might seem like something that's expensive or something that you you you can't afford to to like put side money into it because you're paying all these other things. And so, can you help us understand the implications of hiring or considering hiring a financial advisor? And is that someone most people I mean something most people could do? Is it is it out of reach for a lot of people? Like speaking of maybe business owners, etc., how does **[00:24:00]** one get over that hump of like not even trying to do that and then by consequence losing out? So here's the thing about financial planners is they all charge differently. So we get intimidated, right? Thinking that we know what people are going to charge, but actually different financial planners have different rules. So the first recommendation I'm going to make is find a financial firm that is educationbased. So many financial advisors will say, "I'm not going to talk to you unless you can pay me a certain fee to create your financial plan, or I'm not going to talk to you unless you have a certain amount in assets, a million dollars or $5 million." And if you're an entrepreneur, you might be like, I I I just need to know a plan to try to get to where I'm going. I I don't I don't have $5 million yet. I'm going to I we all know, right? We're going to have and but but we're not there yet. So, find a firm that's um and they're they're everywhere. Blue Skye is one, just as a note. Blue Skye does that. Um who will sit down with you and say on a on a free complimentary basis, what can you tell me? Now, here's what what they're going to do is they're going to take a bunch of information from you and they're going to give you some really guidance, right? what we would recommend you do is X, Y, or Z as an example. Set up a self-directed 401k or a a SE IRA. Really general. Now if then then they will say if you want us to do a deeper level of guidance for you we'll create an entire financial plan and they will tell you at that point this is what our fees are right so do that but there are three rules for hiring a financial adviser and I think um I I do this this advice and sometimes I talk myself out of a job but if you're looking for a financial adviser **[00:26:00]** this is what you need to look for Look for someone who's independent, right? Um, nothing wrong with Wells Fargo advisors or Fidelity advisors. They're all they're all good people. They are, but they have a responsibility to someone before you. So, independent financial adviser is going to put you first. I have no obligation to anyone but you. And I can look at the entire financial tool chest to create a solution for you that someone else couldn't create. Next, make sure they're a certified financial fiduciary. Now, everyone with a license is going to say they're a fiduciary. Um, that means I have a license. I passed a test. I can sell you something. A certified financial fiduciary um has an obligation to do what's best for you. Um, as an example, I bet if you have relatively decent credit, you might be able to qualify for 10 credit cards with $10,000 limits. You could qualify for that. Would that be the best thing for your financial situation? Probably not. Probably. But you qualify The third thing is make sure that the relationship feels good. If you feel like the person across the screen, if they're a virtual advisor or across the desk, if they're in person, is condescending or talking down to you or patting you on like as a lady, don't pat me on my head. Don't tell me everything's going to be okay. No, don't do that. Please don't do that. I need to know. I need to understand and treat me as such. It's your job to bring me up to speed on my own finances. Make sure that it's someone you actually look forward to talking to. Like if you wouldn't have a glass of wine with that person, probably not the right person for you because if you can't be completely they're not going to be able to serve you well. Right? If if we go back to the step on the scale, fat girl, right? If if I don't trust you enough to tell you about the six Twinkies I just ate before our our visit, you can't help me. You're just like, "Your **[00:28:00]** blood sugar's off the charts. I don't know why." I don't know why either. I just eat cucumbers. You have to have that someone who you feel good enough that you can be authentic and transparent with them because they're not going to be able to serve you best without that. So, those are the three rules of hiring a financial advisor. The last one is important. It's the most important. An independent financial adviser can help you create whatever you want to create. But you have to have a good relationship with them where you can be transparent about what you want. Even if you think it's embarrassing, even if it's like, I want to be richer than Alex Ramosi. Okay. Well, that's that's a that's a what did they call it back in the day? A big hairy audacious goal. That is a big one right there. That's a that's a big one. He's amazing. But you have to be able to say that so that your financial advisor can say, "Okay, well, let's take stock of the metrics of your business right now and how do we move towards that goal?" But don't don't disqualify your own self, right? Don't disqualify your own And and people do that. We we disqualify ourselves. No, you got something. You're you're special and you need counsel. you deserve it. That that's a great way to answer that. I think the last one is is very commonly overlooked. And people go to someone whether it's an adviser or the bank or whoever and they sit down and they they feel like a little defensive because the other person's not being also transparent and it's and the other there's no there's no proper chemistry there and you're like it **[00:30:00]** feels awkward. a very weird relationship and but people still go through it because it's the person that someone recommended me or it's the one the bank gave me or whatever. And so you're in this sort of adversarial relationship with your advisor versus uh like a friendship uh or or or even coaching type engagement which makes for bad decisions. I expect it. It means we can't that the adviser is being hindered because you're not going to be transparent. But but I think as as humans, but especially as women, we need to learn to trust ourselves. And if there's something in your gut that says, I should trust this person because look at all their qualifications and and Betty said they were good and Joe said they were good, but I don't I'm not feeling it. We need to learn to trust and say there's something here that is not a doesn't mean they're a bad adviser. It just means they might not be a good fit for you and that's okay. That's okay. Find someone where you can be completely yourself completely. They might not be your best friend. Like we're not going to be bros drinking beers together. But if you need to have enough transparency with that advisor to say, "This is really what I want to create." And as women, we feel like we should know. This is the thing. I I I I feel like I should know more than I do. I had a great conversation the other day with a soil conservationist from Hawaii. She spent 40 years soil conservationist in Hawaii. And she said, "I just feel like I should know more. like I should have been better. I should have paid more attention. This should be And I and I said to her, I said, "Jennifer, why why would you feel that way? Who who taught you to to handle finances? Who taught you to prepare for retirement? Who taught you the rules of the game?" I said, "It would be akin to sitting me **[00:32:00]** down in Hawaii and saying, "Conserve the dirt, Rebecca." And she looked at me and she said, "It's not dirt, it's soil." And I I don't even know the right first word to say. I already screwed it up. How would I know that? I wouldn't because you have spent 40 years of your life doing it. And I have spent my career doing this. So here we go. We can link arms together. I can coach you on this. We can get there from here. And if I need some dirt, soil help, I will call you and it will be great. But we feel a pressure to to we should know. Well, I should know this. I should Well, how the heck would you know it exactly? Who's teaching you the rules to the game? Cuz the banks are not going to be be giving you a half a percent on your savings account if you actually knew the rules to the game, right? They couldn't get away with it, That is that is very important. I think people don't know the rules to many of these games and as such we can make very unfounded decisions because it's like oh maybe I should pay this is another topic I wanted to get into debt elimination right like maybe I should pay this thing because it has the highest interest rate which might be a very good sound thing to do but then if you don't look at the whole picture or have someone actually helping you, then you might be blindsided and just focusing on one thing because you know of one parameter that might affect things. But if you see the whole picture, they might say, "No, no, do this, this, this, this, and this, and then it will in conjunction do better for getting you out or increasing your credit score or whatever that may **[00:34:00]** Is that Yeah. I I think it's dangerous to say I love that you brought up de debt elimination. I just had a conversation with someone the other day who comes from an environment of never have any debt. All debt is bad. All ne never have a credit card. Never never always pay cash for everything. Which on the surface sounds really good, right? Oh, I don't ever want to have debt. I don't ever want to be, you know, in a in a financial crunch where I can't pay my bills. And if I don't have debt, I'll never be in that place. Right? Except for then like and she she was a mom of many like myself. And she said, "I taught my kids that way until my oldest tried to rent an apartment and she couldn't because she had no she was a nothing financially. She they they couldn't verify her." And I'm like, "Well, yeah, because not all tools are bad, right? You need to use the tools appropriately. Ride the donkey. Don't let the donkey ride you. Right? So debt is a very powerful tool and and it has to be used responsibly just as so many things in adulting. We have to we have to drive our cars responsibly. We have to eat responsibly. We have to like this is the thing. But it doesn't mean just because people I mean it would be akin to saying just because people can be overweight all food is bad. Well no it's not. That's ridiculous. But people say that about debt and vice versa as entrepreneurs because we are rain makers. Like how many I wonder how many people in your audience have and I I probably have 10 a day people calling me on my cell phone going do you need financing for your business? Do you need financing for your business? Do you need financing? And the interest rates are like 40%. I mean more than I thought was legal to charge. How many of us as rain makers get into a position where we're like, well, if I took that loan, then I could do **[00:36:00]** X, Y, or Z and it will for sure for sure work and then I'll be able to pay that off no problem. But we don't know our metrics. We haven't stepped on the scale. And now we find ourselves in a position where debt we we used a tool inappropriately and now we're paying the price for that. So having an advisor who is a little outside, right? We don't. Sometimes we get a little high on our own supply. We buy our own hype, right? I I for sure it's going to work. If I just do this marketing thing, it's going to be magic, Or maybe not. So to have someone outside say, "Okay, well, this is the pro and the con. Let's look at it. Take all the hype out of it and let's look at it and now make a logical decision." It's really helpful from a coaching standpoint to a grow your business and b grow your wealth. Yeah. And there's there's the other side too of the way wealthy people use debt because it is a tool. So if you have assets then financial institutions will lend you on those assets and you don't pay taxes depending on the structure. And so they use it very wisely and in those cases it's better to use it but it's not that they owe money but it's it's just a different way of doing it. Of course they owe it back but the way it's structured it's actually a very good tool to plan right and to leverage and people who and to leverage and and if you're like I'm fully cashbased and you you can't do that at all. That's right. And you get taxed on everything. So yeah, there's but that's where where you come in, right? Like helping people understand these things so that they can make better decisions. Can this is this is a question for for all the listeners to hear. I want to I want to listen to your response. Can someone who's deeply in **[00:38:00]** debt, right, because they they're running their business, they had to take out extra loans, they have credit cards, they had to because they wanted to keep payroll going and now they're doing good again, but but it's eating them up. It's like taking most of their profits or all of the profits in some cases, but entrepreneurs want to keep keep the team going, right? Is there a way out? Are there avenues that they can do where they can structure it in a way that they can get a breath of air and actually get through it? There's always a way. There's always a way. Now, there's always a way. It doesn't mean there's always a comfortable way or there's an easy way or there's a way where you can still have every you can have everything you ever wanted. You just can't have it all right now. Honest to God, you can have everything. take it from like I used to think when I was a young mom that I should be able to run multiple businesses, homeschool my children, have a clean house, cook every meal from scratch, and also like, you know, have a happy marriage. And I can do all of those things, probably not all at once. So, yes, getting real about the fin. I had a lady come to me the other day, sweet girl named Sophia, and she is an entrepreneur, just started her business. She I I asked her to give me her credit cards and by the time she gave me the whole list of credit cards, I was like she's like, "Have I frightened you?" And I'm like, "Well, that's a lot. That's a lot. You need to stop." But we started with her on a like, let's figure out the highest interest rate debt and we're going to put 20 bucks a month. Like, let's just that. Okay. Is that comfortable? No. Does it feel like we're making a whole ton of progress really fast? No. Sometimes it's a long obedience in the same direction. It requires selfdiscipline. Can you get there? Yes, you can. **[00:40:00]** Will it be comfortable or fast? Maybe not. Will it be worth it? You bet. Absolutely be worth. Let's do it. I'm I'm game for the I'm game for the long run as long as I don't actually have to run cuz I had seven children. So, no. we don't run. That's great advice. Also, it's I think there's a lot of fear in the well, my credit score went to the ground and how am I going to get it up? And and talking about the game rules, like you were saying, if you don't work in the space, you don't know how credit works. It's like just this magic black box. But at the end of the day, if you put in the right triggers, it'll go up pretty quickly if you're being consistent and and all that. So, so I I really wanted people to hear this because there's always a way out. And I think as as animals, right, so we're humans, but we're we're we're species, right, on this planet. from however we were created originally. We have these like fightor-flight responses and different biological things that happen in our bodies. And I think sometimes the pressure of something in business or or triggers some of those responses in our bodies and it feels like you have the weight on the world in and it actually physically feels and people have a very hard time coping through that and then make worse decisions. And so I I always like people to to try to step out of that and and think like really what's the worst that's going to happen? Like how's your health? How's your family? Like if this extremely bad thing happened unrelated to this, would you stop everything you're doing and go and and attend that? If yes, then it's it's probably going to be fine. It's just trying to separate that that sort of biological response and be like nothing. Like literally **[00:42:00]** right now you could be working being efficient to get yourself out of it. But if you get into this cycle of of of feeding into that response, you don't get anything done. And so how are you going to get I think you know it it is not every financial planner that will talk about these things but managing your nervous matters. It matters in business. It matters in your finances. It you can feel your and it's not a logical thing. It is your nervous system going and and you just you you can't and and I watch this all the and not everyone and I think it's fair to address Armando that not everyone has had a good relationship with finances and or financial planners, right? Like as an example, I talk to people all the time who are, you know, they get to retirement and they they have a huge tax bill. Like they kicked a big can and now it's the IRS is going to come calling and we talk about various products to help them out of that. Here here's a road map and here's a road map and and I will watch them have visceral like I could never do that. My dad did that. It was terrible. Like financial products 40 years ago are not they may have the same name but they don't work the same way. Like I would never have you ever heard this? I would never have a life insurance policy that is not term insurance. That's just an easy one. I would never do that because you're just paying the insurance companies. And okay, are you using the tool or is the tool using you? That's a very valid tool. not for everyone but in certain circumstances can be extraordinarily We **[00:44:00]** have I would never invest in international equities because all other companies are unstable if it's not But it's it's not logic based. It is our nervous system saying, "I saw, I experienced, I witnessed, and I'm now and learning to guide people through. Okay, let's just exhale. Let's just let's just acknowledge that what you just said is your nervous system freaking out. Just take a breath. Look at the actual facts of the tools that we're looking at. What does that actually mean? And and I think that we can be so rightrained in in the finance atmosphere that we forget there's a whole another side to us and and authentic planning will take into account both. Not just the the black and white paper, but how do we feel about this? How how confident do I how good do I feel? Do I feel like this? Oh god, I have to meet with my financial planner. Or, oh, hey, I have this issue and this problem and this and this and this happened and that was awesome. Is that the conversation or is it like, oh god, yeah, I have an hour and a half booked with George. Okay. Well, it could be either, but one way is going to get you further down the path and other is just going to, you know, give you an ulcer. Yes, I like that. It it sounds like you have a more holistic approach to this which is usually a black and white type Nothing is black and white. Nothing is in this world. It's all See, here's my here's my confession to you and and I don't know how many may there's probably another financial planner like me. My midlife crisis **[00:46:00]** was to get my PhD in integral knowetic science. I have been in finance my whole life. Finance my husband was in medical like this is this is what I so my midlife crisis was to get my PhD in integral noetic science which it has science in the title but it's basically comparative religion and So I did I did all the crazy things. Um, but it really helped me in my in my job to witness people and be able to hold space for I see that you're freaking out about this thing that I've just said and that's it's okay. Let's just have a moment of freak out. It's okay. And then we're going to come back to the table. We're going to take a breath and we're going to look again. It's okay. And most financial advisors are going to be charts and graphs and black and white and pluses and minuses. And that is all true and valid. You know, I I ask my clients frequently, especially my clients coming into retirement, if I asked you if you wanted safety and security or you wanted growth, which would you pick? And some will say security and some will say growth. And I'll say, "You know enough about me now to know that I have a very strong inner fat girl. Here's what Rebecca would say. Both. Yes, my answer is yes. I want both and I want my cake and eat it too. I want all the things. Yes, please. Yes. I do not want to have to pick. But that means acknowledging my need for both. And finding an adviser who can say the numbers are the numbers and this is what they say. And also, I'm looking at your face and I'm feeling you going h how do we come back to the table? like what do we need to like let's link arms together. It's not me and my client. It's us and and I have this experience and **[00:48:00]** they have theirs and we come to the table together to create the f to to design the future that they want for their business or their retirement or their kids or their whatever. It's kind of it's kind of fun actually. I dig it. This is brilliant. Rebecca, if people want to learn more about all this, if they want to educate themselves more and they resonate with what you've been talking about because this is this is not the typical side of financial planning, right? So, h how do people learn more about this? Do you have any like can they find videos blog posts or where should they go to learn more about both Blue Skye and everything you've been kind enough to share today? Um website blueskyefinancial.com blues sky ye cuz I had to be special. Uh financial.com um there is a tax bill analyzer on our website that is super cool. So you can calculate your lifetime tax bill right on our site. Super cool. Um, I do a lot on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn. I think my director of client services just told me we actually have a Tik Tok. I used to say I do. I do not Tik Tok, but I guess I am I think I do now. I I'm not really sure. I think I do. But here's what I'm going to say. If you really have a question, just email me and and I I I promise I will I answer everyone. Like this is I have the privilege of doing what I love. I love it. I love what I do. I have very strong opinions about everything. I'm a Texan and I'm a woman. Just ask me. I have strong opinions about everything. I promise I will. Hit me rebecca blue skyfinancial.com. I will answer you or or grab a time on my calendar. I I think I I think what I do is super fun. It is a game to me and I love helping people win it. It's fantastic. **[00:50:00]** Amazing. I'll put all that in the show notes as well. Thank you everyone for listening to the show today and make sure if you haven't already like and subscribed so that you're aware whenever we release new episodes like this amazing one with Rebecca. Rebecca, thank you so much for sharing all this with us today and I hope we'll talk again soon. So too. Thank you for having me.