Colours of Money

BY DWAYNE RICHARDS, CPA OWNER, THE ENLIGHTENED ACCOUNTANT Accounting tips for the creative business owner

Why pink? WHY NOT?

A spotlightinterview with myclient BrittanyLynn Budd, amindset andbusiness coachwho’s passionateabout helping asmany women aspossible…make 6+ figuresfrom home.

Who is Brittany Budd?

I’m passionate and excited about empowering female entrepreneurs to become exactly who they are meant to be and who they WANT to be! I’m a wife and mother of 3 beautiful children, and I’ve got one sweet child up in Heaven smiling down on us. Trust me when I say, Inot only know how to walk the walk and talk the talk when it comes to mindset, positivity, and attracting what you want to you, but I’ve experienced many situations that caused me to put my teachings into good use!

I have been through some of the darkest of days, like losing a child, and I have come out of that feeling even more sure of my purpose in empowering women.

When did you decide to use the colour pink in the branding of your business?

“I accidentally fell into pink being part of my brand.”

When I was young I remember watching fashion television. It was on Sunday nights with models walking the runways. I remember one of the designers had the girls dye the bottoms of their hair in red or blue dye. I was like Oh mom, you have to let me do this, I want pink. She said no. When I got old enough to not need her permission to dye my hair I started doing some weird things with my hair. Four years ago, I was pregnant and I said let’s do some pink in my hair. I did and everyone said I love your new rebrand. Oh, okay, so I guess I have pink hair for the rest of my life, which I’m totally fine with.

What was one of your early beliefs about money?

“I think for me growing up, the belief was “there wasn’t enough money.”

What is enough?

That’s a great question. What is enough? I think it’s different for everybody. I’m currently reading a book by Rachel Rogers. It’s brand new, and it’s called, We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power. She talks about how six figures really isn’t enough anymore. When I was young, I remember my dad talking about making six figures, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. I had no idea what it meant but I knew that I wanted to make six figures. Today a lot of people can make six figures and it’s not enough, we all should be millionaires.

I think enough is subjective; it’s more of the lifestyle that you want, not being afraid that your bills aren’t going to be paid, or you’re not able to afford groceries until further into the month when you really need milk now. Enough is the comfort and security that everything is taken care of.

Who taught you about money and personal finances?

My background is in investing. My dad was an investment advisor; he still is. I learned a lot from him. I love my dad more than anything in this world but he shows love with money. There were some lessons that I could have learned the harder way and Ididn’t, because my loving father bailed me out. It wasn’t until I got out on my own, got married, bought our first house, and started having kids, that I really opened my eyes. That’s when I started to learn about how to spend money, how to invest money, how to be comfortable holding on to money, what my threshold for spending was, and should be, what amount I should hold on to so I don’t panic, and when I should start spending. We have this desire to start spending it when we have it.

“I learned about personal finances and how I envision my money when I became an entrepreneur.”

What changed for you and your relationship with money?

“One of the biggest shifts for me was investing a lot of money into the business coach that I’ve been with for a year-and-a-half.” I did investing for seven years and I’ve been a business coach for coming up on three years. The early stages of my business were not profitable. Now it is starting to really blow up [in a good way]. I am a manifesting generator. I am a quantum leaper. The way I think about my business, and the way I think about money, is what helped me make a lot of it in a short amount of time. I look at money as a tool. A lot of people look at money, not as a tool but rather a finite thing that they have to hold on to. I look at money as this infinite thing. I can make it anytime I want. I can make as much as I want. I just put in those actions to make it happen. I don’t worry about how I’m going to do it; I just keep working towards doing it. I’m just going to make this work for me. I’m going to invest it properly; I’m going to invest in my business properly. I’m a big researcher. One of the biggest shifts for me was investing a lot of money into the business coach that I’ve been with for a year-and-a-half. That made a huge difference. It forced me out of my little comfort bubble that I had going on. It pushed me to show up in my business differently because I was investing at a higher level. I need to show up as… “Oh, yeah, that girl that makes a lot of money!” Instead of waiting to become her. I need to be her now. Without the money.

When did you decide you could be a coach as a business?

Yeah, that’s such a great question. I was in direct selling for a few years, and I had really hitched my trailer to a woman that was very high up in the company. She started transforming into coaching and I thought, “Oh, my goodness, what a cool life she lives!”

“I could never… but it’s cool that she can.”

She was the one that planted that seed of, why can’t you? You have all of this knowledge, you have an extensive background. You are already coaching your team; you’ve coached other people’s teams, why can’t you do this for money?

I sat on it for nine months in fear before I actually made the decision to step up, because it is scary to go out on your own and say, “Hey, world, I’m going to do this. Don’t tear me to shreds. Don’t judge me.” There was a huge fear of people thinking and saying, “Who does she think she is?” I sat on it. It wasn’t until September—nine months later—that I very awkwardly went live on my personal Facebook page and said, “I’m a coach now. Okay, bye.” I didn’t know what kind of coach I wanted to be; I just thought, “Let’s just try and see what fits?” It’s a good way for people who are unsure about their brand and what they should be doing to do research. The people that follow you already have an idea of what they expect of you. When I was taking on my first clients, they were free coaching clients – we did three months. I just said I’ll do whatever you want to coach on. A lot of them came to me about business and social media marketing. They already knew that this was my thing. I was just blind to it, because I was too close. Once I started checking out some of those free clients, then I realized, “I have to do Business Coaching.” It’ll be three years this fall.

What is the biggest challenge for your clients?

I see two. I see worthiness and I see fear, which kind of go together. But women, in my experience, tend to really struggle with, “Am I worthy of the success that I desire? Am I good enough?” And then the fear of what happens if they publicly fail. Thoseare the biggest blocks they have to overcome and the first step to breaking through those obstacles is understanding that you determine your worthiness; nobody else does that for you.

“You only fail when you quit.”

My (Dwayne Richards) thoughts on pink.

Did you read last month’s article? Last month’s issue looked at the colour red and the Colours of Money article discussed the importance of tracking your expenses. Most of my new tax clients only review their expenses once a year when it is time to file their taxes. Red + Light = Pink By adding light to red we get pink, a more enlightened approach to money and how to manage it. 5 Steps to shift from Red to Pink 1. List three past or current beliefs about money 2. Pick one new habit to start and do it for the next 30 days 3. Create a basic budget 4. Start tracking your spending 5. Schedule a monthly 30 min “Date with your money”