Episode 230: You Deserve the Money with Bookkeeper Ashley Chamberlain
We are going deep into your relationship to money. What I love about this interview is the discussion about the confidence, energy, and mindset someone needs to have around money to actually work well with a bookkeeper.
Ashley Chamberlain founded Chamberlain and Good Company, a force for good, championing financial empowerment for small and mid-sized service companies with bookkeeping and fractional CFO services. Her mission is twofold to provide top notch bookkeeping services and to be a beacon of hope for those looking to take control of their financial destinies.
If you've ever hit a plateau where you wonder what is happening? I'm not attracting the right people into the business. I don't know what's off here, but where I want to be and where I am --there's a financial gap. If you've ever thought that you don't deserve the money you're earning or you're about what making "too much" will do to you, this is the episode for you.
Starting the bookkeeping business
Ashley says she started her business to do what she needed at a time in her life when she had no one to help her. She has now spent over 3,000 hours helping more than 300 single mothers get back on their feet financially.
Ashley says most of the time, people just need to talk something out. They might already know the answer, but the process of talking it out helps lift the weight from their shoulders.
“Have a good accountant that you can talk these things through because sometimes you know the answer,” says Ashley. “You just need to be guided to it. That's super empowering to feel like you knew more than you thought you did.”
Bookkeeping is such a necessary part of business and life, and Ashley questions why we aren’t taught. She works to inform others about not only business taxes but personal finances. She strives to be someone her client can ask questions to and bounce ideas off of, so that they can feel confident and comfortable.
Power of delegating
As a young single mom, for a long time, Ashley did all of the things at first out of necessity. Then it became out of obligation because she says she wanted to be a hero. She wanted to be a martyr.
“I wanted to be able to say, ‘Well, I do all of these things myself, and no one helps me.’ Then I quickly learned that is the worst thing you can do for yourself because you get burned out,” says Ashley.
She has since built a team for her bookkeeping business and even outsourced some personal tasks to get more of her personal time back. And it’s important not to default to how that time “should” be spent. Productivity can look different for everybody. It can be going and finishing work if you want, but it can also look like binging your favorite show without the guilt.
This can be difficult for some – women especially – as many have been taught that our value is tied to our productivity.
You deserve the money
When it comes to money, it’s almost like there is a worthiness block. I don’t deserve to make this much money. It’s not okay to make this much. These kinds of beliefs block you from the truth that you deserve money, you deserve to be happy, you deserve to feel abundant in your life.
For Ashley, she says money and worthiness was deeply rooted as someone who grew up in poverty. She was told, if you have a lot of money, you aren't supposed to talk about it. That people who have more money are evil, or money can turn people into evil people.
She also heard “that's too expensive” or “we can't afford that.”
“Growing up with very little money, I had a really weird relationship with it,” says Ashley. “When I needed to learn more about it, there was this hesitation … am I going to become an evil person if I make good money? You're taught it, so it sticks in your brain. It's hard to change that thinking.”
People need to hear it's okay to make good money. It's okay to talk about making good money. There is a way to portray that you make good money and not feel icky about it.
Everyone will have days where they aren’t feeling their best and they might not feel “worthy”. Ashley likes to look to the past and find perspective. The Ashely of 15 years ago, was she worthy of making money? Because she’s the same person and getting better.
“Making $12 an hour then felt like making $100 an hour now, because it was everything I needed at the time, I needed it,” says Ashley. “It's all about mindset and making that first big jump to $20 an hour. ... I thought, okay, well, I'm Beyoncé. First up, $20 an hour. Like, yeah, next up Ferrari.”
In these conversations around business, the most important thing is the energy you bring. If you believe you are not worthy of making a lot of money helping people, you won't make it. If you don't believe in the way that you are creating your services, you're not going to sell them. It's all about mindset and attracting those things that you want to come in.
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