013: How to Manage Your Money as an Entrepreneur with Shannah Compton Game

Kate Kordsmeier 0:00

Hey, hey Hey, welcome back to the Success with Soul podcast. This is Episode 13 and I'm your host Kate Kordsmeier. Today we are chatting with one of my oldest and dearest friends Shannah Compton Game. She's a certified financial planner, an MBA and she's just truly the leading expert for millennials on money. She is host of the popular iTunes podcast millennial money. She has over 500,000 listeners from around the world join her twice a week to tackle their finances. And she is just a wealth of knowledge. She has served as my own personal financial planner and advisor over the years and she's a brilliant writer. She's one of the most creative people I know her work has appeared in dozens of huge publications like Huffington Post and wise bread and bankrate, msn money Yahoo Finance I mean the list goes on and on. Shannah truly is one of the kindest, most genuine sweetest souls I know. And I'm so pumped to be able to share her wisdom with you all today. You may recognize her from the bonus episode we aired back in April about COVID-19. And how to keep a good money mindset during a crisis, how to prep for an emergency. We break down some of the SBA loans and relief options for small businesses and more. So if you haven't listened to that episode, and it's still relevant at the time that this comes out, I highly recommend going back and checking that out. But today, Shauna and I are talking more about how to handle your money as an entrepreneur. we're addressing the age old question of do you need to spend money to make money? How do you know when it's time to hire help, how to budget for business expenses, when and how much to pay yourself. We get into a lot of mindfulness stuff. Shannah bills herself as the money mindfulness expert for dreamers and doers. So obviously she fits right in with all of my Success with Soul listeners and our ethos. And she has an incredible new company called Hello. It's me that just launched this spring. It tackles money mindset. Shauna says one key super secret ingredient to success isn't the actual money tips, but rather your mindset and when you change your mindset, you change your life. So if you're ready to figure out what that means exactly, and how you can do that, keep on listening. You're listening to the Success with Soul podcast with Kate Kordsmeier x journalist turned CEO of a multi six figure blog and online business But it wasn't that long ago that Kate was a struggling entrepreneur who lacked confidence, clarity and let's be honest money. But all those failures, experiments and lessons learned helped Kate create a thriving business that impacts thousands and brings freedom, flexibility and fulfillment to her life. If you're ready to do the same and make something happen with holistic, soulful, step by step strategies from Kate and other experts, you're in the right place. here's your host, writer, educator, Mom, recovering perfectionist, bookworm and sushi connoisseur Kate Kordsmeier. Before we jump into today's episode, I'd love to share another listener spotlight with y'all. This one comes from DNS. I hope I'm saying that right? It might be Diane Yes. She says feels like you are chatting with a friend over coffee. I recently discovered Kate and could not soak up all the information quickly enough. Super excited about This podcast it's as though you are chatting with a friend over coffee. Kate is relatable and upbeat can't wait for more. Congratulations on launching your podcast. Wow, thank you so very much for that kind review. The fact that you took the time to leave your honest feedback means the world to me. In fact, if you're listening now, please send me a DM on Instagram at Kate Kordsmeier. As I've got a special surprise gift I'd like to share with you as a thank you. And if you'd like to be featured in a future listener spotlight, head on over to iTunes Apple podcasts to leave a review. Your reviews are super helpful and motivating to me personally. But beyond that the reviews help with rankings, which helps others find the show and allows me to keep providing you with free content every single week. I hope to feature you on a listener spotlight soon.

Shauna, thank you so much for being here. Again, we had you on earlier this year to talk all about COVID-19. And I'm so glad to have you back.

Shannah Compton Game 5:06

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with you.

Kate Kordsmeier 5:10

Yay. Okay, great. So in the intro, I already let everybody know all about your certifications and degrees and your experience, and you're just such a wealth of knowledge. I mean, we've known each other for over 12 years now or something crazy.

Shannah Compton Game 5:26

Yeah, I don't even remember quite how we met. But yeah, it's been a long time.

Kate Kordsmeier 5:33

It has I remember. I know I was living in LA when we met. But I don't know how we initially got connected. But it was definitely serendipitous because I know you've been such an inspiration and help to me over the years, my money guru. So I'm so glad that we met and I'm so glad I get to share some of your wisdom with my people now.

Shannah Compton Game 5:57

Yeah, I'm just why things mutually back at you, I'm just so impressed it everything that you've created and done in this podcast and you're just such an inspiration to people, and certainly have inspired me to get off my butt and take action and into a few things that I've definitely been dragging my heels around for I am, I am a recovering perfectionist. Absolutely. 100% for sure. And it has kept me from taking action on a lot of things and the things that I do take action on. I'm like, Look, look, it actually worked out. So yes, you've definitely inspired me

Kate Kordsmeier 6:36

now. Well, thank you. So I want to talk a little bit. You have your millennial money podcast, which is so amazing and so helpful to so many people. Why the focus though on millennials. Are you a millennial?

Shannah Compton Game 6:51

You know, I'm in that weird CUSP, right between like millennial and Gen X. So depending on what survey you read, I'm either in the millennial or Out of the millennial but I wrote an article in late 2014, about things that you should do like money steps to follow in your 20s. And then I wrote one about money steps to follow in your, in your 30s. And I put them on Pinterest and like they went crazy, just like viral gangbuster. And I thought, well, this is interesting. So I definitely knew that that was a hot demographic and being kind of on the edge of that I, I really related with the millennial mindset. And so when I started the podcast, I was teaching actually at a university and I asked my students, I'm like, should I do like a YouTube or what should I do? And they're like, No, do a podcast. And I was like, Okay, I don't know anything about podcasting. So in 2015, I was just like, Okay, I'm gonna do a podcast, and I gave myself a one week deadline, which is crazy. I just said, what I want to call it and obviously being humble cunning person, I knew that millennial money has some sort of ring to it. And

Kate Kordsmeier 8:05

I love alliteration.

Shannah Compton Game 8:06

I'm six speaks to a demographic and a lot of corporations were trying to gain the millennial audience. So I thought, well, nobody has this, I'm just going to run with it. So I mean, the idea just kind of came out of seeing that 20 or 30 year old to be we're all serving the same situation as far as money goes. And also that that was the demographic listening to podcasts really driving the podcast movement. So that was really all of the thought that sort of went into it. And just you know what we're that now we say that. Millennials, really, in my mind, it's a state of mind. So you don't have to be in that demographic. We have listeners in their 60s 70s 80s even I've had, I had an 85 year old right into me that she listened to the show. So millennials, just the state of mind, it's looking at things differently. It's thinking about money and life and career and family, all sorts of Looking at it from a different lens to me, I think that's really what millennial encompasses now is that different state of mind. So that's pretty much now where we, where we really focus on the millennial name, if you will.

Kate Kordsmeier 9:13

Yeah. I love that. So let's back up though, give us a little bit more of your story of just how you got started down this path and went from what was once a probably very corporate career to now you're such a entrepreneur and I love you have this focus on dreamers and doers and you are certainly one yourself and so I'd love to hear more about your trajectory.

Unknown Speaker 9:39

Well, I actually think I came out of the birth chute as an entrepreneur. I think that's really where my heart is because I've always come up with crazy ideas for things and my first business actually was when I was in college. I started at the time was the first National Student Film Festival called Hometown Cinema, and I went to school at Indiana University. We ran it for five years. We were written up and tons of publications and books. We had Hollywood guests that came out. The now head CEO of Disney actually was one of our guests and champions. No way. Yeah, we've we've had a lot of really cool, really cool people at film festivals. And I ran it for five years. And I ran it for a year after I graduated and ended up actually selling it to a Hollywood producer, big time Hollywood producer that probably anyone would know if I mentioned his name. No, no, I won't. I won't mention his name. I still am in the you know, I was held by the confidentiality clause, but let's just say that yeah, I mean, it was it was very successful. And I started it you know, 19 like wet behind the ears knew nothing about

Kate Kordsmeier 10:55

amazing

Unknown Speaker 10:56

any of this. We raised a quarter of a million dollars every year. There was myself and three other undergraduates that put together this massive thing for five years. And we had to be experts at PR and marketing and events and everything. And this was right when internet was really starting. So we didn't have any of the tools that we have now.

Shannah Compton Game 11:20

We had the phone, and faxes and like all that dated stuff

so that was something that was really my heart. And really, I think, cut my teeth on it was my real life MBA, if you will. It was also really where I honed this skill of budgeting and thinking about budgeting differently, and thinking about money differently. So I didn't even know I was really cultivating these skills, but my father has been in the financial industry his entire career. So you know, it's not unusual that we had dinnertime conversations about money. So this was already kind of in my blood, if you will. And after I sold hometown cinema, I was like, I don't know what I'm going to do, like, what do I want to do? I have all these weird, I felt my whole life, I have all these weird skills, like, you know, in my toolbox, it's like, I'm not just one thing. And so I went back and got my MBA and did some marketing, consulting. And I just don't know. And when I graduated, my MBA, my dad had left the corporate world and was running his small financial firm, and he said, I'm kind of bored. You want to just come and like, see if we can work together, and I'll teach you everything. And I was like, Okay, why not? So we were working, you know, from day one with people who have like $200 million in assets. And so I really got to see the wide spectrum, you know, working with people who my peers who didn't have a lot of money to people who had a lot of money, and I started to see a lot of like trends emerge. And of course, that creative side of me bubbled up to the surface and so on. started doing what I love, which is speaking and writing and whatever I could do around money, which is really sort of my passion. And so I really only had a blip of a time in actually the like, quote unquote, corporate world, like in a corporate office. I think like six months of my life has been has been there. But the rest of my life really has been this entrepreneur, spirit of figuring out how to take the talents that you have and spin them into something different.

Kate Kordsmeier 13:32

I love that because I think there's so many people that think, well, I'm really good with numbers. And so there's just one path for me. And I love that you have been able to see that no, I have this creative side too. And there's this whole other world you don't just have to go, you know, work at some big financial firm, and sit in a cube for the rest of your life. So I love that you've combined all of your skills and passions And you're so creative and everything you do is just always so impressive. Who is who designed your website? And how did you do this? And oh my gosh, you launch the podcast and now it's like number one on the business and finance page. So just I feel like everything you touch turns to gold.

Shannah Compton Game 14:18

Yeah, it's it's really crazy. I mean, I never knew that I would love podcasting, like I do. It's, it's like a therapy session for me in a weird way. I love talking to people and hearing their stories. So that part is super fun for me and B, I never thought that people would listen to me around the world, like babble on about money. I just, I'd never imagined I'm like, this is gonna be the most dry podcast ever. And here we are, like five years later. And, you know, we just passed the 12 million downloads, I think, about 12 million downloads and we have people listening to us around the world. I'm like, What is someone in like, is the Bible Doing like listened to. So if anything, if anything, I hope that that can resonate with someone listening that if you have an idea or something that you feel in your bones that this is the thing you're supposed to do whatever it is, take action, just try it even if it doesn't work, that's so okay. But those like little hanger rings inside of us have ideas. They are whatever you believe they are divinely planted inside of you. And they're gifts for you to take and run with. And you don't get to know the outcome. You don't get to know what happens. But, you know, use that as as motivation to just try something.

Kate Kordsmeier 15:44

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. So let's shift gears a little bit and talk about money specifically for entrepreneurs. I think one of the biggest, most common questions that I get asked that I have, no matter how much money I make, I always am in that, do I need to spend money to make more money to take myself to that next level? Or do I wait until I have the money in order to, you know, to actually pay the bill? kind of thing? So what's your mentality on something like that?

Shannah Compton Game 16:22

I think it's a balance everything is a balance of figuring out what's best for your situation, I think we can easily get in the trap of thinking that we need to spend all the money to do all the things and that we need to do all at once. And that's really a mindset that's going to keep you trapped and feeling a slave to to spending money. So I think there's definitely a balancing point, I think you really need to, whether it's hiring a business coach, whatever it may be, having a mentor or somebody there that can help you look at your business and say, Okay, what are the tools or what are the things I need to spend more On to get my business to grow. And a lot of times that does mean spending money or hiring somebody on staff or going to a conference. I think as long as those are calculated decisions rather than just an impulsive spend, then you're you're really being the CEO and you're thinking about things. Another thing I would say, that sounds really rudimentary, but most people don't do this. And I have seen this, this is the privilege of working with people who make $200 million or half $200 million in assets and working with people who are just starting out is you see these similarities with money between people and you really understand that we are all far more similar than we are different. And these similar things do not discriminate. No matter what amount of money you make. We all get hung up on the same thing. So most people and even business owners do not know how much money they're spending. And I know that scary gonna sound really like ridiculous like, What are you talking about? Of course, I know how much money I'm spending No, no, no. If I asked you right now, how much money have you spent on this or that most people cannot give you even close to the accurate amount. And it's because in our brains, what we do is the fear of looking at our numbers and adding things up and really calculating and start being strategic with our money. We don't want to go there because money is wrapped with fear and stress and anxiety. And so, if you can move yourself, particularly as a business owner from that place of fear and anxiety, and move it to, you know, if I'm if I know my numbers, if I'm if I'm in my money every day for just a few minutes a day, I'm in the driver's seat, and I'm able to make decisions from a smart, peaceful, logical place, and I don't have to do that impulsive spending where I feel like ah, just got to spend. That's really a transition that when I see people make that When I see people really focus on getting their mind right around money, that is really where things start transforming for people. And I could give you hundreds of examples of this happening. But so I say that all just to understand that there is a balancing act between Yes, you're going to have to spend money at times, absolutely. But there are going to be times when you say, you know what, I need to wait a month or I need to wait six months, I need to wait until I can pay my employees fully before I can spend money on this thing. And, and that's okay. But I think, you know, having that sort of strategic mindset about things is really important.

Kate Kordsmeier 19:38

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Because there's a difference between spending willy nilly and spending because we've really thought something through and you're making a conscious decision to invest in a specific way and there's certain expenses to that feel like they'll pay for themselves or you could track more easily the return on your investment or something like that. I know you mentioned a business coach. And I think, you know, paying for a course or a coach or somebody that can be an advisor or mentor to you, somebody who's already done what you want to do in particular, I think can be really powerful. And I know myself and lots of my friends and peers have this thing where we'll go, Oh, well, I can't afford a coach right now, because I'm not making enough money in my business. And it's like, but the coach is going to help you make more money in your business. And if you there's almost like this, if you wait until you're already making the money, you're not going to need the coach or the course or the training or whatever it might be, but it's going to probably take you a lot longer with a lot more headache and turmoil to get there than if you were had had somebody on your team helping you along the way, rather than just trying to do it yourself.

Shannah Compton Game 21:04

And some of those risks are like you mentioned, I mean, it's worth the risk, it's worth the risk of what's the worst case scenario if, you know if it's the business coach, like, what's the worst case scenario? I'm going to walk away with some good information and maybe, maybe it doesn't help my business Excel, but maybe it's it's a piece of the puzzle that ultimately does propel my business forward. So, you know, absolutely, I think sometimes you have to you have to spend money and as a business owner, those are the decisions that you have to make and a lot of times you have to spend money in the specially in the beginning, long before you make a profit. And that's just the unfortunate side. Now, of course, maybe there are some more strategic ways you could do that. But, but a lot of times that's that's just the reality. Sometimes you have to spend money to get to the next level of your business. And, you know, I think I think I just want to caution people to just just sit down and just Think about it maybe for a few minutes before you make that spend, but I've had to spend dollars, a lot of times in my business when they weren't there. And and it ended up working out great, but it was, it was me really thinking about, okay, what's the downside of this? And what are the positives and the positives, way outweigh the downside, then I'm going for it.

Kate Kordsmeier 22:22

Yeah. And particularly, you know, we speak mostly to people in the online business space. And so our overhead cost is already, essentially nothing to, you know, to run an online business. I mean, other especially if you're a blogger or something, it's like your domain and hosting. I mean, you're, like, less than $100 a year. And so while I think that's great, I think it also gets people into this mentality of Oh, so I don't need to spend anything on my business. Whereas Of course, we're already way ahead of brick and mortar businesses who have Have overhead expenses like rent or mortgage and lots of employees right off the bat. But I've just found that when I've really treated my business like a business and said, I'm gonna have to make some investments, I can't do everything myself, I'm not an expert in every single aspect of running a business. And so I'm going to have to hire some help, I'm gonna have to invest in some advertising or marketing so that people can find me and whether that's hiring somebody, you know, an agency to help me do that, or just trying to figure out Facebook ads for myself and putting some money behind that and yeah, not everything's worked out. But I think to your point that when you really sit down think about it and you know, your numbers and you look at Okay, this is what I have coming in this is kind of makes them projections, that it's this conscious decision and that you're not just like seeing something and saying, Oh, I can or can't afford it that you really know And you may not know what the outcome is going to be, but you at least are making this conscious choice.

Shannah Compton Game 24:07

And sometimes that's such a good point that you mentioned, sometimes you can step into things like if it's an employee we're talking about, maybe you don't hire them full time right out of the gate, but maybe you hire them as a 1099. Freelance, you know, to work with you 10 hours a week or 20 hours a month, or you know, so you step your way into it, that person is helping you grow your business. And then as they help you grow your business, there's more money available that the maybe you could hire them for more hours or whatever it may be. So a lot of times with expenses, you don't have to go all in maybe there's a way you go partially in.

Kate Kordsmeier 24:44

Yeah, so true. That's how I've hired a lot of my employees. They started out as 1099 and then you know, if it worked out and if they could kind of prove their return on investment and employees are a pretty easy way to see like Okay, in order to justify your expense, you need to help me make X number of dollars. And if after six months or whatever time frame you want to give it, I'm not making any more money with your help, then I really can't afford to keep you on but chances are if you hire somebody good, you are going to make more money. And then it's easy to say, Okay, well now not only can I justify that your expense, but let's bring you on for more hours. Exactly. Yep.

Shannah Compton Game 25:27

I think that's such a smart way to do it. Because you're really you're then working together and and you're able to see the money growing and then you realize the value of the employee. So I think that's like such a smart way to do it. Yeah, and

Kate Kordsmeier 25:41

I think too, it incentivizes them, if they're looking to take on more hours, then you know, they're so incentivized to do a really good job and prove their value. Whereas if you just hire somebody, full time right out the gate, not that I mean, most people are still sitting and advise to keep their jobs. But I think there's a different kind of mentality that people go into if they're going, Okay, I might be starting out at five hours a week. But eventually she wants this to grow to 20 or 30 or beyond. So I gotta really do a great job for her. And then,

Shannah Compton Game 26:16

yeah, and as the CEO, also the flip side of that, if you hire the person for 10 hours, or 20 hours or five hours, whatever that is, and they're not helping your business grow, and they're not helping you get further then you have not invested all that time and all that expense in hiring a full time employee, maybe that employee isn't right for your business and you can let that person go and bring on another 1099 or without, you know, too much of a headache, so we can also go the other way.

Kate Kordsmeier 26:45

Yeah, for sure.

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Shannah Compton Game 28:49

Yeah, and I like to throw out the word budget because it has such a negative connotation for people and I've created something that I like to call like the mindful money plan. That's, that's being like really intentional, really mindful about your money. One thing I will say is that if you're a small business owner or sole Prop, most of us are most of us have maybe five or fewer employees, you really need to have a money plan for your personal life, and then a money plan for your business life. And too often we tend to inter twine, those two things, and that can get really messy. So, you know, the first thing is that most people are, I don't want to say most people, what I what I tend to find is that either somebody is really great at their business finances and not graded their personal or vice versa. And what we want to do is we want to move you to be great at both of those. So those two really work together to help you your business, your family, achieve whatever money goals that that you have, but for the business side, you know, when I talk about mindful money, it's really thinking about a lot of what we've already talked about. really thinking about the expenses, if particularly if you have an online business, maybe you have a low overhead, but really thinking about what you're spending your money on, and are those spends really helping grow your business? I think that's something that's, that's really key. And another thing is, we kind of talked about this, when we talk about knowing your numbers. It's really the act of carefully looking at where you're spending your money each month, and I'm talking about every single cent being able to account for put it in a category because when you can look at where your money's going, from a real logical perspective on a piece of paper on an Excel document, whatever it may be, then you're able to see the numbers and able to make any changes. Oh, I spent too much. I'm spending too much in this area, or Oh, maybe I have some extra dollars I can throw in this area. So it's doing this practice, and I do this every week. And the beauty of doing this every week is that you don't have to spend a lot of time on it right. It probably Takes me 15 to 20 minutes. I do it every Sunday afternoon, I look at both my personal and my business expenses and say, okay, what's coming up that I need to plan for next week? Are there any large expenses that I'm thinking about? Or I'm trying to figure out how I can work them into the money plan? What are some of the goals that I'm trying to achieve? Like, what how am I tracking with those goals? And then I'm also looking like, Okay, what didn't go so well? What are maybe some shifts I need to make and it may seem a little overkill to do it every week, but, but when you're in your money like that, you're able to really be in the driver's seat, and you're able to make some of these changes in a more rapid way. And it could be a lot of things we don't think about. Sometimes we have our business or a personal bank account with a bank and they're charging us a monthly fee. You should not be paying a monthly fee. With your credit cards. Maybe you're paying a higher interest rate than you should be paying. Maybe there's a better way to move you on a zero percent credit card. And maybe if you need to make that purchase for a course or whatever it may be, maybe you're doing it at zero percent. So you could pay that off over six months or a year. And you're, you're doing that from a more mindful place. So that's right. That's what I mean by about, about mindful, it's looking at each expense and saying, is there a way I can maybe do this a little bit better. Sometimes it's no expenses, the expense but it's really putting you back in the driver's seat and cultivating this healthy mindset around money where you feel empowered to be in charge of your money in your decisions in both worlds personal and business.

Kate Kordsmeier 32:33

I think that empowerment is so key and if I know so many, especially women like feel that we need to just bury our heads in the sand because it can feel overwhelming or we don't know how to deal with it and what to do and so we just ignore it and that is so disempowering, but that to your point actually going in every week a Yeah, it takes way less time than overall And you're able to catch things that you wouldn't catch when you're looking at a larger picture. Even from an income standpoint, I mean, I think one thing that my team and I have done lately is doing these weekly check ins with our revenue goals. Because sometimes we would set a goal and then the end of the month would come and we go, Oh, we didn't meet it. Well, if we had looked at that, in week, two of the month, we could have reevaluated and said, Oh, look, this area is not doing so well. What could we do to increase revenue here, or readjust our goals instead of finding out at the end of the month, we didn't even come close and we didn't even know it. And then the other thing you said that I found resonated with me was when you can really look at your expenses as a whole. I know as a as a blogger in particular, we have so many tools and software, little things that we pay for and they all owe $10 a month here. $30 a month there, it seems like nothing, right. And then, when I started using QuickBooks and hired a bookkeeper and was really starting to pay attention to this, I realized I was spending over $1,000 a month on all of these little tools. And some of them stayed. I mean, a lot of them were still very important, but a lot of them I had to go, I gotta get rid of this. I mean, this, it adds up. And so I think that's another benefit of really looking at where your money is going. Because sometimes how it feels in our head is very different from the reality.

Shannah Compton Game 34:37

Yeah, and that's a great example of that mindful money plan that I that I talked about, like being mindful and knowing like, wow, on paper, I look at this. And I know I'm spending money on things money's coming in money's coming out, but when you can look at it on paper and then you can make that that decision of, Okay, if thousand bucks for me that's way too much, you know, whatever that is for you. Each reach different, but you can look at it and then the reality is staring you in the face and then you can make decisions that's coming at it from a mindful place because rather than refusing to look at the numbers, and just continuing to add on things, you're you're really saying no, I'm the CEO, I need to look at this from like a good perspective. I mean, I share this story all the time on my podcast. I was the person 15 years ago or so that I never looked at my ATM receipts. I would fold them up, put them in my wallet. I did not want to see if because I'm a money person, I can fixate on numbers and so I was just like, if I don't see it, then it can be any number in the world. Well, that's a really bad, that's a really bad habit to get into. And it took me a long time to just shake that so I feel what everybody feels I'm in the same boat. I've been in the same boat of not wanting to do this process. I can tell you that it's it's hard to do it sometimes but you always feel better after just because you have the knowledge and then you're able to make decisions going forward.

Kate Kordsmeier 36:13

Right? I love that. The other thing that came up for me as you were speaking was an expense that often gets overlooked, which is paying yourself if you're the CEO of your business and even if it's just you, I mean, for many years, it was just me I had no employees. And I know in my first year I felt like well, literally everything I made I just put right back into the business to grow it. And then you know, little by little I started paying myself some but this is I think, an area when I talked to some especially other blogger friends that they'll say, What's paying yourself I haven't made money. You know, my personal bank account hasn't been paid in yours.

Shannah Compton Game 36:56

Yeah, it is important to pay yourself, even if it's just a special Small amount of money in the beginning, because I think it sets the precedent for you really feeling like you're a business owner. And you really feeling like you're a CEO. And maybe it is a small amount in the beginning and then maybe as the business grows you you ramp up to that. But I think there's a really important piece of paying yourself for your mind for you feeling like you're owning this business. I think, particularly as a female we can get in the habit of, well, maybe I'm not worthy of earning money from this yet maybe it's it's not where it should be or where my competitors blog or podcast or whatever it may be is at, but I think there's a real science behind paying yourself and feeling like you have a real true ownership that this is actually a legitimate business. And I mean to start out, like maybe it's 90, it's a small amount, maybe it's 100 bucks a month or whatever it might be, you know, that's where you know Having a CPA or money team in place can help you really make some of those decisions that are right for you or your business. But absolutely, I'm a big fan of paying yourself.

Kate Kordsmeier 38:10

Yeah, it's something that even I personally did not do enough of until 2020. And then this year, I was like, I had this moment where I had to say to myself, why am I doing all of this? Right? And that, yes, there's this impact that I want to be making. I want to help people, I'm serving my audience, and that is the most important thing to me. But when things get crazy and stressful, and you know, I just thought, why am I doing this and I need to I need to have like, some kind of contribution to myself that I can say, because this is the paycheck that I got from this and this is now something I can contribute to my family and feel good about and when I was just putting everything back into The business it was all for the business, the business business and you know, it just kind of got to a point where I'm like, What about me?

Shannah Compton Game 39:07

Yeah, I mean, you wouldn't go work for another company and not get a paycheck. So the same it's the same thing you're you're working for your company, you're running your company and you deserve a paycheck. I mean, there's that's just I feel like the reality of and I think there's a really important piece because then I think you feel you feel more like yeah, like I did this. This is my this is my paycheck and yeah, I'm just a big fan of it. I think it's really important.

Kate Kordsmeier 39:34

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The other thing that's come up for me too, especially last year and the last couple of years where my business was profitable and you know, if you looked at like the gross revenue of my business seemed like wow, you're doing so well. And then I was putting it off They're back into the business or paying my employees. And then I found myself and this is not like a good quality. So I don't I don't say this with pride, but being resentful of my employees, even though it was obviously my choice to pay them and not myself. But I realized I can't do that anymore. If you know I either I've got to change my mindset or I've got to change that I'm going to start paying myself to because can't be resenting my employees or contractors for making money off my business when I'm not when I'm in the driver's seat.

Shannah Compton Game 43:35

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's such a good point. And I mean, you're critical person number one to your business. So if you're not working the business, nobody else is getting a paycheck. So I think that you know, that's an important thing to remember is you're the driver of this thing and as the driver, you are worthy of being compensated for driving. You know, the bus with everybody. In it, and if that means that maybe you're not able to hire that one extra employee, then that's okay. Because you need to still be the driver. You need to be motivated. You need to feel good about getting up every day and running your business and paying yourself is part of that feeling worthy of pushing the business forward. And unfortunately, getting paid and having money in the bank account. I mean, those are really positive motivators. So I mean, that's such a great point to bring up.

Kate Kordsmeier 44:30

Yeah, yeah. Thanks. So you I've seen you Bill yourself as as money mindfulness expert for dreamers and doers, which I absolutely love. Tell me what what does that mean to you?

Shannah Compton Game 44:42

Well, I am dreamer jeweler number one. So I only speak from my own experience. And I just really believe in this idea of mindset and mindfulness with money I have, I maybe didn't understand the vocabulary behind it, but Before working with people for about 10 years, I really saw that when the mindset shifted, everything shifted people who had money and had goals for years and they weren't able to achieve anything. They were just stuck so stuck minute they decided to have a mindset shift. Everything started to change for them. And I live this myself, I went through super expensive tours, where I lost literally everything that I owned, I had a suitcase with some clothes in it. And my car, and that was it. Every other asset that I had worked for was vanished, which is a whole long story in itself, but but I had a moment of shame around that, like how can I be a money expert and have have had this experience like that's so shameful and then I got to the place of like, no, what I'm supposed to do is teach people how, how to get the mindset piece to work for them. How to find how to find In these moments of peace around money, how to strip away some of the anxiety, some of the fear how to really motivate people to understand the power of the mindset when it comes to money, or then that could be anything running a business, whatever it may be. And so it's only through my own experience and my own trial and errors and my own struggle every single day. I you know, I wake up struggling with this myself, that I feel super motivated to help other people because I think this is a in an area where people are really stuck when it comes to money. And I know what can happen when you can get to the other side of it. So it's just a big passion for me.

Kate Kordsmeier 46:37

Yeah. So what are some of the common mindset like limiting beliefs that you see, especially with this category of people in the dreamers and doers?

Shannah Compton Game 46:47

One, I mean, we've talked about a lot of them but it's, it's the number one thing is not feeling worthy of making money, not feeling worthy of success, not feeling that it's possible for you You not feeling like you're enough for it. That is definitely a place where a lot of dreamers doers creatives get stuck. And we can find ourselves in that competition grind, where we look at somebody else, and we say, Oh, look, they're making this amount of money, there's no way that can actually work for me. And so I think really believing that you're enough believing that you have the skills, believing that you are worthy, just like everybody else. In fact, you have a totally different set of skills, which is awesome and, and people need to hear your story and your expertise. I think that's a real place of just getting your mind right on that waking up every day being focused on I have a purpose for today and somebody out there needs to hear what I'm creating or what I'm doing. And if I keep my mind focused on those sorts of things, I'm not going to so easily get trapped in but I'm not good enough. But I don't have her following but I don't have this, but I don't have to You know, all of those things that we get stuck in and so being a creative myself, those are areas where I tend to see myself limit different things that I want to do and so I think really pushing past those barriers is super important.

Kate Kordsmeier 48:14

Yeah, I was gonna ask if you had like any examples are resources that have worked for you to do this work of? How do you you know, because it's easy to say like no you are worthy but how do you really convince yourself of that?

Shannah Compton Game 48:30

I think this is different for every person I can only talk about some of the things that have worked for me. For me it's it's things like because I am a competitor at heart It is a limiting my social media how much I'm on social media if I'm watching someone or if I'm following something on social media and they're really making me feel anxious or nervous, even in my block time for not blocked them, but you know, hide their feed for a little while. Those sort of tricks. I do meditation with an For at least 10 minutes every morning and every night before I go to sleep, whether you I use calm, but I've tried all of them. So, you know, I think you just need to find one that works for you. I'm a driver personality and high level personality or perfectionist personality. And so getting into meditation was took me a little bit of time and I can really feel amped sometimes when I'm listening to it, but then I feel so much better afterwards. Other things just, you know, getting outside in the sun for 10 to 20 minutes a day or taking a walk, you know, these sorts of things we can be so just in our business that we forget that there's an outside world. So, you know, having that perspective that, yes, you need to be in your business, but you're way more you're way more of a person than just your business. And so doing some things like that mantras. I print off saying Sometimes, and I'll pin them on the wall. Lots of different things I actually decided to record because I haven't seen too many of them out there, my own money meditations that I'm going to be releasing soon. So it's a collection of five different meditations that you can do when money anxiety start to bubble up, of just visualize and release some of the things you might be holding on to that you don't even know that you're holding on to. So I have a practice where I've actually recorded some of my own voice, which sounds a little crazy, but I will listen to them sometimes. So, you know, I think you got to do whatever you need to do to try to just clear your mind of some of those, some of that negativity, some of that anxiety because when you are written with anxiety or nerves, whether it's your business or your personal life, you can't make clear decisions. And that's sometimes where maybe you might make those Bad spending decisions or you might, I don't know, they might keep you from doing something in your business. So I think anything that you can do, we can just take some minutes to just breathe, and just relax and calm yourself. It's going to help you focus and it's going to help your mind know like, Okay, I'm not in the firing soon. And then you're able to clearly think through things in like a different way. I at least have found that works for me.

Kate Kordsmeier 51:26

Yeah, me too. Absolutely. I'm so excited about your money, meditations. Now. Is this part of your new company? Hello, it's me.

Shannah Compton Game 51:35

It is part of my new company called Hello, it's me. So I actually already not enough on the table. And in October 2018, I woke up one day and became permanently deaf in my left ear. And I was ironically waiting to go into a yoga class when all of a sudden I lost hearing in my left ear and I grabbed my husband. I'm like, Something's Weird has happened and thought maybe it was earwax or something like that. Well, no turns out I suffered a injury and all of my hearing was gone. And I have 24 seven tinnitus, which is like TV static in my head 24 seven. If I get anxious or stressed out, it gets way, way louder. This side of my head, my left side of my head feels like someone has a brick pushing down on it most of the time. So I'd already been into wellness and mindset and all of these things before that going to acupuncture has already been focused on that. But that really changed my life dramatically and had me really think about like, what do I want the next chapter of my life to be about? And for my husband and I both it was this idea of mindfulness and mindfulness in all areas of your life and not being so stressed out in life, which I was not having so much anxiety and could we create products And all sorts of different stuff around this idea of mindfulness to help people. So we came up with the idea of starting a company called Hello, it's me. And the idea behind Hello, it's me is just, nobody gets to tell your story. But you and you are unique and you are worthy. And that in itself is mindfulness in my book, and we released our first product, which is rooted in a practice I have done for years and years and years called the money mindset journal. And it is a daily practice to take you to a place of ease also to help you be really mindful about your money and help you understand your money story and how that plays into all of the amazing things you want to do in life. So that's just our first product out of the chute. But yeah, it's I'm really excited about it because I just I know the power of mindfulness, and I can't wait to hopefully impact many more lives with this idea.

Kate Kordsmeier 53:57

Yes, well, I'm so excited for you. too, congratulations. That's huge. And I know I'm going to be your number one customer. Because everything you've said so far, I'm like, Yeah, I need that. I need that.

Shannah Compton Game 54:10

Yes. So the medications will definitely be a part of that. to kind of go along with everything, for sure.

Kate Kordsmeier 54:17

Yeah, perfect. So we'll put the links to all of this stuff in the show notes, so y'all can find it easily there. But before we wrap up, we have five questions. It's like a lightning round that we asked everybody and you've already actually kind of answered a couple of them indirectly. So we'll see if it makes sense to ask you to ask you again. But it's just you know, first thing that comes to your mind, don't overthink it. You mentioned a lot of ways that you make time for self care. So that that's one of the questions. The first one is how do you make time for self care running your business? What's your favorite? It sounds like maybe meditating.

Shannah Compton Game 54:55

meditating in yoga would be my favorite and also cooking I love to cook so Whenever I feel stressed out, I just go in the kitchen and make something. That's great.

Kate Kordsmeier 55:05

What is one tool or strategy that you use to help with time management?

Shannah Compton Game 55:10

Who? For me, it's shutting down my email for a couple of hours a day. So I am not burdened by feeling the need to check my email. I would say that's probably like the best thing that keeps me on task.

Kate Kordsmeier 55:24

Yeah, for sure. What's the most powerful business mindset entrepreneurial book you've ever read? Just the one you reference again and again, always come back to Oh, wow.

Shannah Compton Game 55:38

Well, I'm going to actually mention one in the money realm is a book called Happy money. And it is sits on my bedside table. It's one of the best books to read about keeping you in like a healthy mindset around money. So that would probably mind.

Kate Kordsmeier 55:55

Awesome. Okay, I haven't read that. So I'm going to have to get it now. You mentioned that a lot of times You print out like mantras or quotes and affirmations. So what's one of your favorites right now?

Shannah Compton Game 56:07

Wow, I should have been prepared. I don't

know if I have a favorite right now because they change so often, but I literally have on my bathroom mirror mindset is everything written. And that's not particularly a quote, but I look at that every morning and I'm like, okay, that's right. My mindset is everything good or bad. Whatever comes my way in this day. It's how I approach it. That's going to make the difference. So I probably say that's actually the thing I lean on the most.

Kate Kordsmeier 56:36

Yeah, I love it. Okay, last question. What does Success with Soul mean to you?

Shannah Compton Game 56:43

balance so Success with Soul for me means not losing yourself in the process. It's really understanding what is enough for you what is the vision of life that you want to create and cultivate and doing that all with a sense of balance in that way? Losing who you are the process.

Kate Kordsmeier 57:03

Yeah, I love that beautiful. Okay, where can people find you?

Shannah Compton Game 57:09

I'm a little all over the place. You can always find me on my podcast that I host millennial money which is on any podcast player. You can also find out everything about Hello it's me at helloitsme.com and you can find out everything about the money mindset journal there, the meditations, all that good stuff all on that site.

Kate Kordsmeier 57:28

Awesome. Thank you so much for coming back. I loved having you again.

Shannah Compton Game 57:35

Thank you so much such a pleasure.

Kate Kordsmeier 57:42

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