22. Wendy Brookhouse: Helping Women Entrepreneurs Build Valuable Businesses
EPISODE 22
In this episode of "Figure Eight," Julie converses with Wendy Brookhouse, an independent financial advisor specializing in women entrepreneurs. Wendy discusses her journey, the challenges of starting her own practice, and her unique approach to financial advising. Wendy also highlights the necessity of having a clear financial plan and the right team to support business growth. This conversation provides valuable insights into entrepreneurship, emphasizing mindset shifts and strategic planning for long-term success.
Catch the Conversation
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For more than a decade, Wendy has helped people get to their financial goals faster and easier. Since earning her first ten cents, and leveraging every penny (back when there were pennies) she realized how to make the most of it. Her dime-savvy mentality has been put to great use as the founder of Black Star Wealth, as she's learned how to build a business from the ground up while simultaneously creating powerful financial tools such as the One Number SolutionTM and One Number Solution for BusinessTM.
You can connect with Wendy via email at wendy@blackstarwealth.com. -
Julie and Wendy discuss...
Wendy's Independent Journey and Decision-Making Frameworks (00:01:24) Wendy discusses the challenges and advantages of starting her business independently and the importance of viewing one's business as an asset rather than a personal endeavour.CEO Mindset and Building Business Habits (00:07:08) Wendy emphasizes the transition to a CEO mindset, focusing on strategic thinking. The conversation also shifts to discussing personal legacy and its impact on financial planning.
Freedom Through Delegation (00:14:24) Wendy emphasizes how delegating tasks leads to greater freedom for strategic focus, the importance of balancing work pace, and conducting post-mortems after time off to improve business processes.
The Importance of End Goals (00:21:06) Wendy discusses the significance of having a clear end game for business valuation and the importance of knowing your financial needs post-retirement to avoid holding on too long.
The Power of Financial Awareness (00:27:26) Understanding financial needs empowers entrepreneurs to make informed decisions about their businesses. Julie and Wendy talk about the challenge of recognizing when to move on from outdated business relationships.
Launching Fixed Fee Advising (00:32:47) Wendy reveals her new program designed to provide transparent pricing for financial advising services.
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Julie 00:00:04 Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you are in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them, and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur, and a growth in leadership coach who co-founded, grew, and exited an eight figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things. And that led to my book, Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes, and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going. Hello and welcome to this episode of figure eight. Today I am in conversation with Wendy Brookhouse and Wendy is a financial advisor, an independent financial advisor who went out on her own from the very beginning, and that made her path to entrepreneurship a little bit more difficult than it might have been if she had gone with a big firm.
Julie 00:01:24 But because she was independent, she was always working for her clients, and I'm so interested to chat with her about that today because she has created a thriving and vibrant business, and she, as has also created a niche for herself as a as a an advisor to women entrepreneurs in particular, and talking about why we should all be growing bigger businesses to get what we really want in life. So welcome, Wendy.
Wendy 00:01:53 Thank you so much for having me. Julie.
Julie 00:01:55 Oh, it's so great to have you today. and I'm so curious about, you know, the beginning of when you started your business and what that was like, and where you've gotten to.
Wendy 00:02:08 Perfect. Well, I think when I first started, as you mentioned, I came in as an independent, which had it's had its challenges and hurdles, but I've come to look at it as actually the thing that's made me stand out in the field a bit more, because all along there was no one telling me how it was done. So I got to use a lot of basic self-reference criteria about, well, here's what I'd want from an advisor.
Wendy 00:02:33 Here's the stuff where I would want some help and, you know, and and how do I actually deliver on that in a way that clarifies and simplifies to that everybody can amplify, if you know what I mean. Yeah. So you know, again, hard at first, easier as you went along. And I still feel to some degree even today, that I'm forging some new paths that people haven't gone on yet. Or not, many have. where I look at. Does this make sense? Yeah, it doesn't make sense anymore to me, so I gotta change that.
Julie 00:03:08 that's so interesting. Well, and it's probably giving you, like, a framework to be more in touch with that in assessing it.
Wendy 00:03:15 Yeah. Well, and I think also having been a business owner or sold businesses myself and things of that nature, I come into the relationship with entrepreneurs different. Right. And I have been in many coaching programs. So I've learned from other entrepreneurs. I've earned learned from other great entrepreneurial coaches, and I bring all of that to the table.
Wendy 00:03:37 So they get they get the financial planning aspect, but they also get business acumen. And they also get this almost like coaching mentality around money, business growth, etc. that is I think vastly different.
Julie 00:03:54 Well. And that kind of aligns with, you know, your, your sort of position that, you know, your business is an asset. It is not a baby. No. And I think, you know, it's very easy. We start businesses because we see a need in the world. You know, I think inevitably that's the common answer I find from people, you know, they see a need in the world. And so your people are very passionate about meeting that need.
Wendy 00:04:19 Absolutely. And I think, I look at that kind of as a bit of our. Why. Right. So that's our purpose, which really is one part of the whole of the whole puzzle of that piece. Right? So when you think about, do you want to stay a solopreneur, do you want to grow something? Obviously, if you can grow something, you can have more impact.
Wendy 00:04:41 You become that drop of water that then goes and out and out and out. You have to let go of some stuff to do that. Though you cannot be the center of everything, you cannot become the bottleneck. You really recognize where are my unique abilities? How am I applying that? And then how do I build team to test?
Julie 00:05:02 Yeah. And I think it falls into those categories of things no one teaches you. And I've got a whole I did a whole series of blog posts on this, like decision making, how you make decisions, especially as your business grows and it feels like, you know, so many more people are depending on you for their paycheck. The weight of the decisions and making the wrong ones starts to just feel quite heavy. And so finding the frameworks and the methods to help you make good decisions is really important. But nobody ever walks into your office and sits down and says, so how are you making decisions these days? Is it working for you? Do you need some ideas about frameworks that could help you? Like there's no magic person that shows up to ask that.
Wendy 00:05:49 Or even someone who goes, you're making that decision, are you? Are you making that from the right place? Right. Because I find I check myself all the time in terms of, well, you've been a bit tired lately. Are you making this decision because you're tired, or do you just need to go have a nap and then come back to this?
Julie 00:06:10 Yeah. Or are you stuck in the sprint mentality? And so you're just like trying to rhyme through things. And that's not actually helping either, because you're not taking into consideration all of the things you need to to make a good, solid decision.
Wendy 00:06:26 You know, I love when people talk about the difference between a reaction and a response, right. And I think what you're alluding to is giving yourself space so that you, you know, running, running, running and getting stuff done isn't helpful if you're not doing the right things. Yeah.
Julie 00:06:46 It's so true.
Wendy 00:06:47 Yeah. And I think that a lot of times, you know, the role that I can play, I think you play to is we're actually helping people.
Wendy 00:06:55 Hey, let's get up to the 30,000 foot view and just make sure you're in the right forest, you know, then we can go back down to the ground and decide what you're doing in there. But, you know, are you doing the right things?
Julie 00:07:08 Yeah, yeah. And that's where someone really starts coming into their own as the CEO of their business.
Wendy 00:07:15 Absolutely. It's having that space, that freedom to think. Right. And I think that's vastly overrated. I think in our society sometimes, you know, if you're not frantically doing something well, then you're lazy or you're not productive or what have you. But that time to read, to just sit and think, that's when the answers, the really good answers appear.
Julie 00:07:38 It's true, it's true. And I agree with you that I think we don't value it. and depending on your personality as an entrepreneur, it can be easy to minimize it. I know you know, I've got a one of my co-founders who's a very good friend.
Julie 00:07:56 She doesn't need to schedule thinking and reading, and it's an integral part of who she is. But for me, if it's, you know, I needed to feel start to feel okay with putting it in my calendar and actually doing it.
Wendy 00:08:09 Good for you. You know? And I feel like there's these little things going back to things people don't tell you, when you're when you are busy and you have a lot on the go, there's the day to day, but then there's the projects, the project, the things that are going to get you further ahead and maybe, you know, free you from stuff. And if you're not careful, those become side of the desk activities as opposed to focus. And I feel like, it's so funny. I had this epiphany and it's just so basic, so simple. Julie. Like, it's almost ridiculous. It's like, if you want those projects to move forward, Wendy, you're going to have to put time in your calendar to do it.
Julie 00:08:53 And when the calendar opens up and says that's what you're doing, you also need to actually do that work.
Wendy 00:08:59 Fair enough Julie, there's two parts to that. Yeah. But when I started doing that, I started getting further ahead because project work is different than day to day. It is. It's a little bit more contemplative. It's a bit more building foundational pieces or infrastructure pieces that are going to really, you know, help you amplify.
Julie 00:09:24 No, I think that makes sense. and just thinking about so you provide a lot of counsel to your clients. And one of the things, that I know you do is, you know, you talk about with entrepreneurs what it is they want because we all have our money, you know, in terms of legacy, right? What do they want in terms of legacy? Because we all come into this with our own money hang ups that we, you know, got as kids from our parents or have created in our own, you know, lives as we've progressed. And so how do you work with people?
Wendy 00:10:03 So there's a couple of things I like to try and build, habits.
Wendy 00:10:09 So when I look at it from that perspective, like when we go through a financial plan, the first step is what is your ideal life today? And then let's figure out what that costs from a money perspective. Now let's go back and figure out what your business has to do to do that. And then we'll break it down into bite sized pieces so that it doesn't seem too overwhelming. Right. And then automate your pay to yourself, because I the number of of entrepreneurs I know who own like oh that builds do I guess I better pay myself something as opposed to having a system and an automation of the money coming in and going over and then having a whole plan of how you're going to deploy that personally. And when it comes to the end game, like we have to think about that too. So end game as we started talking about legacy is a couple of things. Right? So it's the money you might leave behind, whether that's in the form of life insurance or assets or maybe even your business is something you want to transition down to the to your family.
Wendy 00:11:10 But thinking about it from a legacy active like if you're someone who the work you do is solving a problem, transforming lives, then you are already. That's part of your legacy, right? The work you're doing even today. Because when you change somebody and make their life better, then that has a ripple effect in their life. And so that impact is increasing and your legacy is increasing. But if you look at how you're running your business, if you look at your business as an opportunity to make even greater impact. Well, what are you doing to make sure that that business will outlive you? Right. Because then that is going to also compound your impact, right? So if you look at, you've you've developed some unique ways of doing things. You've tackled the problem. So let's make intentional and deliberately build out your business in a way that it can continue on after you, whether that is something that you're going to, you know, sell down generations, sell it to your employees or to a third party, right.
Wendy 00:12:14 Like thinking about all those options. But, knowing that that's what you're going to do with legacy can be so transformative in terms of how you look at your business. And it also kind of helps it grow up from being your baby. Right? It becomes an instrument of change.
Julie 00:12:33 Yeah. Well, and I think it also, you know, from a personal perspective puts the CEO in the place of I need to be replaceable. Because in all of those scenarios you talked about employees, a sale or a passing to family. All of those, you know, really mean that you have to be replaceable. And so how do you start extracting yourself out of all of those things where it's like, well, no one can do this but me?
Wendy 00:13:04 Yeah. It requires a little bit of, being ready with the ego Jack to some degree. And I think that when we start our businesses, we do have to be the face of our business for the most part, because that's how we're attracting our clients and making our world.
Wendy 00:13:20 But there comes this time when it has to transfer over that, that, that if that aura has to be able to go to the business as opposed to you personally, right. And so when you think about it from that way, it's just being deliberate about, okay, I'm going to start out here. And then slowly but surely it's going to be less windy, more black staff, you know what I'm saying? So that's the, the, the the process that you have to think about. But definitely you, you start out as the figurehead for the most part, and then you just have to work your way through that. And here's the thing that's kind of contrarian, I think, truly is the more you do that, the more freedom you have. Right? now you're dealing with the meaty strategic issues as opposed to the day to day detail. And that can be tremendously freeing for a person in the sense of now, okay, someone else is going to handle all that. I'm just going to deal with the big thing and help them figure out the strategy they will implement.
Wendy 00:14:24 And you know, that freedom piece is super duper good, you know? And whether you actually intend to build something that will transition, if you do the work to free yourself, your business will be more valuable and more supple.
Julie 00:14:39 And that's where I know I talk a lot with people about the, you know, sprinting pace versus marathon pace. And that's where you really, really settle into the long distance pace, right? Where you're managing your time, you're managing your stress, you're relying on others to do their jobs and you're holding them accountable for it. And that's where you really reach this like place within the business of like everybody's doing the right role for where the business is.
Wendy 00:15:08 Well, and I think that there's a couple ways you can just to measure whether where you are on that. So the first one would be, can you take a week or two off and not look at your email? Okay. What I see a lot, a lot of times, and I said this the other day in a to a crowd and you could just see all the heads nodding.
Wendy 00:15:29 And it was is a vacation just moving your office to somewhere nicer.
Julie 00:15:35 For a lot of people, that's exactly what it is. Some of it is, I think, control, but some of it's also just this habit we have that we can't put our devices down.
Wendy 00:15:46 Yeah. Well, and you know, there are strategies like, have have a different phone for the weekend. Could go old school on that sucker. Don't even get email on it. Do you know what I mean? Like, so you're not put out of office saying, hey, I'm away for the weekend, I won't deal, I will deal with this on Monday, you know, and and start conditioning and training the people in your work life that you have boundaries and that they are to be respected. I know that when I'm dealing with someone and they're clear with their boundaries, I'm like, okay, no problem versus you know what I mean? So people don't fence to that. I think you worry about that. Oh, what do you mean you're not available Saturday at three to respond to my email.
Wendy 00:16:30 That could wait another week to deal with. Yeah.
Julie 00:16:33 I know I got to a point when I was a leader with the team where I would put one person in charge. Yeah, and direct everybody to that person and then, you know, say to the person on the last day, if it all hits the fan, text me. Yeah. And they never would, but it made me feel better. But, you know, that's the like that was my last thing that, you know, needed I needed to let go of, but I couldn't quite.
Wendy 00:16:59 Yeah. We, we actually had a special Facebook account for when we vacationed and because we didn't have it on our names and we said, if you need us, post there.
Julie 00:17:11 Right.
Wendy 00:17:13 So that, you know, if we were still looking at Facebook or whatever, we could go and go, oh, they need us versus even checking our phone for anything. So that was good. Yeah, it's so funny.
Julie 00:17:23 But it's true.
Julie 00:17:24 You've got to you've got to figure these things out, both for your own long term health and for the health of the business.
Wendy 00:17:31 Well, and I think if we're dealing with women entrepreneurs, too, if you think about it, can you take a real mat leave?
Julie 00:17:41 Oh, yes. Actually, in one of my episodes with Erica MacKay, we had a long conversation about that because she was about to have her second child.
Wendy 00:17:49 Yeah. And so if you were to, you know, I think it's a baby step approach. So it might be first, you take a week off and don't check see what happens. Maybe it's two and then start stretching that out more and more to just see how they, how people do come back, do a post mortem. What went wrong? What what process do I need to explain or have more, better documented? How do you need to have a thinking, matrix for how to deal with this type of a problem? And how can how can I teach my corporate values or my company values to you to use as a guideline to make decisions so that I'm not necessarily always needed because you'll if you use my values, you'll you will end up probably at the same decision I would have made.
Julie 00:18:42 Right.
Wendy 00:18:43 Yeah. So it's training right. So come back post mortem, come back post mortem. And I also think that there's another word in there as well that we have to deal with. And that's the guilt word.
Julie 00:18:59 Yes. Because as women were very good at guilt.
Wendy 00:19:02 Are excellent at it. So I have to deal with this all the time, even with myself, because I feel like the majority of us were brought up in this industrial economy of we work 9 to 5 and that's how it works. So when we hire people and they work 9 to 5, if I'm not in the office with them, I have to be okay with that. And that requires me overcoming some societal programming I've had since a childhood, right? So even thinking about that piece, it's also coming to realize that when we are entrepreneurs, we are not rewarded for effort and time. We are rewarded for results only. The universe does not care.
Wendy 00:19:51 How long we try, how hard we tried does not care.
Wendy 00:19:55 And so you know, it's different. Our employees get rewarded for how hard they tried. we only get rewarded if it works. So turning that that on its head a little bit, you know, effort is tied to the time and your paycheck versus you only get paid when you're rewarded or when you have an effort and something happened versus. Yeah. So it's an interesting mindset shift that make as an entrepreneur because we're not in an industrial economy when we are the entrepreneur.
Julie 00:20:31 How has this work and this sort of coaching piece to what you do, helped you grow your own business?
Wendy 00:20:40 Well, it it shows me when I'm on the right track and when I'm on the wrong track for sure. You know, and even if you know what you need to be doing some, you're still stray at times. So it's really having that ability to recognize when you're off track and being able to kind of reset. Have a have a mulligan, if you will. I always think of the staples button, you know, as a as a visual of that.
Wendy 00:21:06 Got to start over again. But I think that having the end game in mind has been so helpful for me. So when I started doing training and I have my back end now for helping people with the value of their business, it was fascinating for me because I took the assessment that I have. So I have a 13 minute assessment that will actually tell you what the value of your business. Okay. So I did all of that. And then of course I go, this is where I want my value to be in the next five years. So now I can go back and re-engineer and go, okay, in order to do that, I need to answer the following questions in a different way. So then that sets my strategic plan in motion in terms of what are the things I can do that will make this business better, more sellable, more valuable, which in turn actually frees me up. So it's kind of an interesting, beautiful place to get to. But it's the reverse engineering and starting to think big picture like that.
Wendy 00:22:04 So many of us get into it day to day to day, and we're in or we're in the trenches. So, you know, and you start making profit and now your business is going well. But, well then what? That becomes the process to start thinking. But that's a really great inflection point to start that process. and it's fascinating, too, because a lot of people get a little bit bored along the way once the business is is functioning very effectively. So that might be a trigger point to say, yeah, it may be time for you to bring in management and go on to something else or to sell and activate that. In particular, I think about so many entrepreneurs have some level of ADHD, which can actually mean that they are even more susceptible than the average entrepreneur to shiny, blingy things. So, you know, having the skill set to be able to build a valuable business going, okay, I'm ready for the next thing. You can sell it. So you're actually getting all the value of the time and effort you've put into that business.
Wendy 00:23:04 It's kind of an interesting way to look at it. So, you know, having this training, having this, this system has really sharpened my focus on being able to know what I need to build in order to maximize the value I may never execute, and that's okay. But I know that, everything, every step I take will increase my cash flow and will increase, how I feel about my business in a positive way.
Julie 00:23:35 Do you think you built that system because you yourself needed it?
Wendy 00:23:42 Oh, maybe. And maybe that was hidden in, like, all the entrepreneurs I deal with. And we're looking at, you know, kind of starting to do financial planning. And we're looking ahead. And I often I like to do a measurement of net worth. That's kind of our progress chart. How's your net worth doing. Because it can because it can be in a different a bunch of different places. So it's a great kind of, marker. There comes a time when your business becomes your most valuable asset.
Wendy 00:24:14 And yet we have zero idea what it's worth. We had zero idea how to maximize the worth of that. We have no idea what it means. Like, you know, when you do sell or transition your business, how much of that is going to end up in your pocket versus, you know, have you structured yourself correctly? Have you employed the right team? You know what I mean? CRA partner and business and life every step of the way. So how do you make sure they're happy but not too happy? that type of stuff. So that requires thought. And it usually requires if you're going to be intentional about it, you need to start at usually 3 to 5 years before you want to execute.
Julie 00:24:54 Yeah, definitely. Well, and it is interesting because it's this place that entrepreneurs end up where they have an asset that is pretty illiquid. You know, there's not a lot of options. You got to sell it in some way to get your money off the table. And you know, often it is in place of, you know, pensions, retirement And savings at the level that you might have.
Julie 00:25:21 So although it seems like a windfall to sell the business and actually extract that money, yeah, the more you lose to taxes, the more like all of the things that are important to ensuring that the amount that comes out to you is going to actually be able to, you know, fund the retirement that you're going to have and those kinds of things because it seems like a huge amount of money. But, you know, often it isn't as quite as rosy as it seems.
Wendy 00:25:49 Yeah. You sell for X, but you get Y.
Julie 00:25:53 Exactly. You pay all of those people that need to help you, all of those experts, you, you know, pay the tax man. And then, you know, you kind of have, you know, some peace left to work with, which may seem like a lot of money. Yeah. but whether it serves your needs or not is a different question.
Wendy 00:26:11 Well, which leads me to my next point. My next point is when it comes to end game, Do you know what you want your life to be like after work? You know, I say that after work you could have a slowdown strategy.
Wendy 00:26:25 You could have whatever. But usually there is a point where it stops. Like it might be 75 for you, it might be 80. Whatever it is, it still comes a time sometimes. But where I see a mistake that can be made is not knowing how much you need that pile of money to be to fund that. And so what I have seen happen is people hold on to their business too long. Hustle, hustle hustle, hustle. Not knowing they've already passed that line. You know what I mean? Like, so there's there's an and there's a mindset shift that can happen if you know that you have more than enough money to fund your life for the rest of your life, you're going to show up different. You are going to be different. You are there's going to be this confidence that probably oozes from you. That's different than if you're like, okay, I need to make this so I can make payroll, right? Yeah.
Julie 00:27:23 Those are two very, very different places to approach.
Wendy 00:27:26 Right. And so when I say that I want people to actually do the work, because here's what I see all the time in the media about retirement, you're going to need x percent of your pre-retirement income. Okay. Now I will tell you that the majority of entrepreneurs, if I ask them exactly how much money they make and how it comes out to them, they don't know. I actually have to give them to give me their tax returns. That's how I figured out a lot of the times, because some of its dividends, some of its salary, maybe it's a bonus. So how it all adds up and how it's going to work is tough. And, knowing that number really does free you up. And it also tells you where you need to get that business to and how much of a how much of that business value do you need to capture to fund that? And then that can then that helps with your reverse engineering. Yeah.
Julie 00:28:30 Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. And I think that it is true.
Julie 00:28:36 The more information you have, the more choice you have, and the more you realize what levers you can pull on to get to where you want to go.
Wendy 00:28:44 Well, and again, we'll go back to that anti hustle. I had a client who had offers on this business and he kept saying I'm going to work another year or two so I can get the value up. Another 100, another 200. And he's already tired right. And I'm like but do you need to. But he did. You know what I mean. But he didn't want to do the work to figure out what he needed. It's hard to look at that sometimes. You have to be prepared to be vulnerable with people and you have to be open and and, non-judgmental of any decisions you made in the past, because that's in the past.
Julie 00:29:20 Yeah, it really is one of those circumstances where information is power and it gives you the choice to make. because I think sometimes when you lay it out all on the table, you say, yeah, it's not I'm not incrementally getting where I want to in the next five years.
Julie 00:29:37 So it should end now.
Wendy 00:29:39 Yeah. That can be tough.
Julie 00:29:42 Very tough. But at least with information you can have the view and make those decisions.
Wendy 00:29:51 Yeah, exactly. I mean, without information, you know, and to get granular, I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs aren't necessarily got their accounting in a way that gives them the information to make decisions. And I think that's because when we start out, we go and get a bookkeeper. They go, oh, here's a chart of accounts track stuff, but it's not necessarily tracking the things you need to track, right? You know, do you know what your true cost of goods sold are? Do you know what your customer acquisition costs are? Do you know those things? And if they're buried in 500 different line items, you're not going to do the work to go find it?
Julie 00:30:32 No. It's true. Yeah. Having the right people around you. And, you know, sometimes it can be very hard to know whether you do or not.
Julie 00:30:41 Let me rephrase that. It can be hard to know if you don't have the right person around you. I think once you get the right people around you, you do know. but there can be that zone. And I remember a point in my business where one of our advisors said to me, Julie, with all due respect, your accountant is not doing his job. And it was like someone turned a light bulb on above my head. You know, I had not wanted to think that. And as soon as he said it to me, I was like, you're 100% right. And that led to, you know, a change in accountant. And it led to a very different path. at a key point in the business, when it made a lot of difference for us to have somebody at the table that was the right person.
Wendy 00:31:26 It's so interesting. I think, I look at accountants in two levels, like there's a different level in your bookkeeping that's a different story. But when it comes to our accountants that we work with, I think through either transactional or strategic.
Wendy 00:31:41 I think when we start out, it's okay if it's transactional, you know, you're smaller, but as soon as you start growing, you need the strategy accountant. And they are not inexpensive. But man, do they make a difference. Huge difference in a different way of looking at things. They've seen multiple, multiple companies do what you do so that they can understand and say, hey here, I've seen people do X, I've seen them do Y. Here's the pros and cons. Which way do you want to go?
Julie 00:32:10 Yeah. No, I think it's an it's really, really important to get those people around you and to, you know, do the things that are right for your business because we get attached to our relationships, too, and it's hard to move on sometimes, you know, even though, you know, it may be the right thing. So it's also doing the hard stuff.
Wendy 00:32:26 It's super hard recognizing that you may have outgrown somebody in your organization, and you need a different skill set and a different approach to get to the next level.
Wendy 00:32:36 Because obviously, I'm sure you teach this, what you got you here isn't going to get you there. Yep.
Julie 00:32:41 It's so true. It's so true. And so what's next for you, Wendy, with your business.
Wendy 00:32:47 So in light of the kind of way out there. So I have, I have a program where I teach entrepreneurs how to increase the value of their business. I have a whole program where we help them figure out that number and all the pieces along the way that they need to achieve to get there. And now, what I'm launching at some point soon is I'm going to call it fixed fee advising. And so right now, when people say, oh, my fee for service advisor, chances are it's a percentage of your assets. And so where I was getting the cognitive dissonance, Julie was around, hey, if you have $1 million, you're probably paying about ten grand a year for fees or more, depending on what you're invested in. And then, you get $22 million.
Wendy 00:33:39 Now it's costing you 20 just for your advisor, not for any of the management of the fees of that stuff. I'm like, are you getting double the value? And that's where I started having the cognitive dissonance that even though my industry is set up that way, it might not be the best way. And so now what I want to do is say, here is the suite of services and what we promise to do. Here's the price for that. And we don't care how many assets you have.
Julie 00:34:06 That is going to shake the ground.
Wendy 00:34:10 And no one ever likes the idea when I run it by other advisers.
Julie 00:34:13 And and so there's there's Wendy, the entrepreneur coming to the table right there.
Julie 00:34:21 Well, I look forward to hearing how that how that plays out. And you're right, because it's an industry shifter and there will be people who are very opposed to it.
Wendy 00:34:30 Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, well.
Julie 00:34:33 I know again, spoken like an entrepreneur.
Julie 00:34:38 Well, thank you so much for joining me to for this conversation today.
Julie 00:34:41 I really enjoyed it. And I love your intersection between, entrepreneur yourself and also advising entrepreneurs about their wealth and their finances and how to get the right people around them. So thank you.
Wendy 00:34:54 Thank you Julie. It was awesome to be here. Great conversation. Okay.
Julie 00:34:58 Take care. Okay. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you won't miss any episodes. Figure Eight isn't just a podcast, it's a way of seeing the big, gorgeous goals of women entrepreneurs coming to life. If you're interested in learning more, you can find my book, Big Gorgeous Goals on Amazon anywhere you might live. For more about my growth and leadership training programs, visit www.julieellis.ca to see how we might work together. Read my blog or sign up to get your free diagnostic. Are you ready for growth? Once again, that's www.julieellis.ca When we work together, we all win. See you again soon for another episode of Figure Eight.