Episode 44- Doing, Knowing, Pivoting, Growing with Lacey Harnar
I often hear from moms who chose to stay home with or homeschool their kids while they were younger say they feel insecure and “behind” when they decide to start their own business.
The truth is, there is no “right” time to start and you have to do what feels right for you and your family. Being a caretaker is not something to regret, because your kids will never need you the way they need you when they are school age (or younger!) but entrepreneurship will always be there.
This week, we hear from Lacey Harnar, a Certified CFO and owner of Pathway CPA Group. She also spent time in network marketing, homeschooling her 3 kids, investing in real estate, and speaking to the masses. In this episode, Lacey speaks with us about pivoting and how she uses numbers to help business owners get unstuck.
Lacey has been assisting small-business owners and real estate investors with tax strategy & planning, tax return preparation, accounting, and bookkeeping, and business success for nearly 20 years.
She tells us how she hired and grew her team so that she could step away from the day to day work of being a tax strategist for businesses and step into her higher calling of helping business owners with mindset and growth.
If you’re interested in learning more about Lacey and her services check out her website and Facebook page.
And if you want to download my list of mindset books that I mention in the episode fill out the form here.
Let’s Connect! I share tons of health tips and more behind the scenes on my social accounts.
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The key is that the more that you are open to pivoting and the more you pivot, the better you get. And it just becomes a little less scary each time. And you just recognize you're ever evolving your life and business is ever evolving and it's okay to pivot. And it's good because that means you're growing.
This is two to nines podcast. I am your host Tiffany Wicks, a mom of seven, who doesn't subscribe to the idea that you have to choose between your family and career. I am on a mission to show the stay at home mom who has lost herself in child care and Cocomelon and the overworked corporate holdout who isn't finding joy and purpose in their career that they can work for themselves making an impact in an income that serves your dreams.
life. After leaving my nursing career to raise our family, I needed more mental stimulation, but didn't want to give up the privilege of raising our legacy. I've been in network marketing now for five years. I know the strategy and mindset it takes to be successful and to live a life aligned with your values and your purpose.
Join me as I share my business tips, marketing mistakes, attitude shifts, you need to space out some time for you. Or. Ditch your nine to five completely and start working for yourself. You have the power to change your life. Let's get started. This is just the beginning. Hey friends. Welcome back to the podcast.
So excited. Guest interviews have probably got to be my favorite, um, podcast episodes of all because I get Talk to other people instead of myself, I get to look at them. I get to hear their story. And more importantly, you get to hear their story and start to invest a lot of your own life into what they're doing and receive encouragement, um, and tactical advice along the way.
So thank you for being here and welcome to my guest today, Ms. Lacey Harner. So I love Lacey because I have, uh, a worked with her in the past and B, uh, we started out at a networking group and it was like boots on the ground, just getting a business launched and then launch. It did. It took off so much so that you were like, Hey, these referrals, we actually can't.
Take in any more referrals until we grow and scale this business. And I thought, wow, what a great problem to have. So, um, because of your evolution and you've started, you know, in a place where a lot of us are like, I'm a homeschool mom and you started as a homeschool mom. So all the way from, um, you know, very rugged beginnings as a mom and a new couple and small houses to larger houses and growing families, take us through.
First off who you are, what you do, what you've done, what you want to do. Um, and take us on a little bit of a journey to understand Lacey and her family and how you've gotten to this big business in a relatively short amount of time. Sure. All right. I'll dive in. You set the stage, go all in. So, um, I'm a wife, I'm a mom of three.
As you mentioned, I've been a homeschool mom. That was about 10 years of my life. fully pouring in as a homeschool mom. And then five years ago, I launched a business. Um, I'm a real estate investor and I'm putting it out here because you said, and what are you going to be doing? I had this seed planted in me a couple of weeks ago, and I'm working on becoming a speaker.
So I'm just going to speak it and get it out there. Um, so that's, that's what I've been up to and where I'm going. I love that speaking is definitely something that is, um, one of my passions and something I'm going to be working on too. So tell us, what is it that you're going to be speaking on? So I have, as you know, as I just shared, I have a few different interests.
And so I'm trying to figure out, I feel multi passionate, which what gets my interest. I think it can be confusing if you're too all over the place, but I feel like at my core, it's helping people get unstuck. So that's what I'm able to do in my business as an accountant. And as a CFO, I can really, um, I can use numbers to help business owners get unstuck.
But really they're the business is them. So business is really just a manifestation of who you are in the marketplace. So I've been able to use numbers to tell a story, to help business owners get unstuck, and then I can do that on an individual level too. So somehow, some way I'm going to be helping people see what they are capable of and help them get unstuck.
Oh, my gosh. I love that. So tell us from a numbers perspective, because, um, I think you're absolutely right. Your business tells a story about where your head is. Um, so tell us what have you learned regarding business, where your head's at and how to get your head right. So that your business grows, because it's not always about the product.
And I've got a great episode actually coming up about how to A lot of that where people have been telling me recently, well, not trying to sell you anything, but if you like this and I'm like, well, why the hell are you not trying to sell it? If you think it's going to solve my problem, why would you just cautiously say that?
Well, if you're not trying to sell it, why are you even messaging me right now? Just gee whiz, like, come on, let's step, let's step into it. Let's get your head out of it and start solving some problems. Cause I've always said sales are nothing but problem solvers. So if it feels gross, it's because you're trying to solve your own problem, not theirs.
So tell us a little bit more about that. I think you nailed it right there. I think a lot of times people are. Not fully confident in who they are or what they're offering. So it's hard to pitch it to the world and myself included. I'm not going to like say that I have it all together. I really struggle in this, which has also helped me be able to recognize it in other people's because I've seen it and had to work through it myself.
Um, but there's just limiting beliefs on what people can accomplish. There's blinders on maybe some of their weaknesses. They are just not. Processing and working through some weaknesses that will allow them to see the growth that they want to see. And then sometimes it's their strengths that they just don't feel the confidence to run and fully embrace their strengths.
And so when they're able to tap into all of those things, then inevitably. It's going to be reflected in their business and their numbers are going to reflect that as well. Okay. So as a, so CFO stands for chief financial officer, correct? So you play with numbers. First off, have you ever, have you always been a numbers girl?
And second, what is it that the numbers tell about a business? I have always been a numbers business money girl. I've loved it since I was little, when I started my business five years ago, I focused on tax strategy because I thought that was the most respected Avenue. Um, and so I really poured into that and I'm a pretty.
Dang good tax expert tax strategist, but that's not really where I was at my best and where that's not what I was most passionate about. So I pivoted a couple of years ago and really started to hone my skills as a CFO. So as a CFO, we're mostly looking at. Where do you want your business to be in one year and five years?
Let's set those targets together and then let's use numbers to help get you there. And so those numbers can just act as a guide to help, help you reach your goals in business. Okay. So legit, I wrote down on my little notes here. Pivot with an exclamation point right before you said, I decided to pivot.
Okay. I've got to dive into that with you a little bit further because I have, I have said it multiple times on our podcast that listen, if something's not working for you, you need to make a pivot. It doesn't mean you need to quit. It doesn't mean you'd be like, I am the worst numbers person ever. I guess I will.
You know, transition my whole life into taking care of stray cats instead. It's like, well, you don't have to do that. You could just pivot slightly what you're doing into something else. So it tax strategy, CFO, I mean, it's all within the same realm. So it wasn't, you know, an offshoot, like, wow, Lacey really went off the reservation with this one's, you know, painting stray cats.
That's interesting. She used to be a tax girl. So I would like to know from your perspective, what did that look like for you when you, when you had that realization, okay, this isn't it. Like you did the it thing for a while. What does a while look like? You know, some people may do it for two years and be like, I don't know.
Have I just not invested enough time? I don't know if you've read. Uh, I think it's called 10 feet from gold. And it's basically like, you just keep going and then you get it. And it's like, okay, but what does that look like? Like to infinity? Because I have pivoted. I have pivoted multiple times and I give myself, you know, I would say an unpretentious determined amount of time, but I just know it when it's like, okay, this is not, this is not hidden for me, but I think people quit instead of pivot.
So tell me what that journey to knowing, like doing, knowing, Pivoting and growing looked like for you. I love that. I'm going to need to lock that in. Doing. Can you say that again real quick? Do you have that memorized? Uh, well, I don't know. Things just come out of my brain. So the, uh, the doing, knowing, pivoting.
I think that anytime you're starting something new, it feels you have safety and security. If you feel like you've got this end goal and end result, and you're just going to get right there. But that's not how life or business works. It's this whole like ups and downs and all over the place until you figure it out.
I'm all about in. And on that note, do you ever figure it out or is it just a constant journey? I think for me, that's where I'm finding the most satisfaction and contentment is knowing it's, it's never ending pivoting. That's what makes it fun is that I don't have it all figured out. I can't see 10 steps in front of me.
I see one step in front of me. So my first step was, I want to launch this business. And here's a skill set that I already have. I already have several years of tax experience. So I know that I can jump in as a business owner and offer tax services. But you asked like, how do you, how do you pivot and what goes into that?
I think a lot of it goes back to it's, it's mindset because, um, It was really hard for me to go from soccer mom, homeschool mom to tax strategist, business owner. And how do I, how do I rebrand myself? How do I make that my identity? It feels really, really scary. And then I felt the same fear when I was going from tax strategist to CFO.
And I think The key is that the more that you are open to pivoting and the more you pivot, the better you get. And it just becomes a little less scary each time. And you just recognize you're ever evolving your life and business is ever evolving and it's okay to pivot. And it's good because that means you're growing.
Oh my gosh. Yes. So I have heard this saying plenty of times, and I've seen that if you are not changing, you're not growing. So I'm curious, what skills did you take from mom life? into your business that w relevant and helped you a I think moms oftentimes t have no marketable skill Proposed wage gap within the marketplace.
I don't think that companies are taking into account the skillset that mothers bring and what they do in their everyday life. So tell us what did you use in your everyday life as a homeschool mom or mom? Otherwise that you found, Holy cow, this has helped me tremendously in launching, scaling, and growing your business.
Yeah. So I'll say first, I didn't see the value that I didn't see the skill set in me when I launched my business. In fact, I felt really insecure and like I was way behind everybody else. My age, other people had started their careers, their business in their twenties and they kept at it and they were 20 years in by the time I came back around to it and started my business.
I felt. So insecure in that and, and actually even had regret for some of my past choices for a little while, because I felt like, man, I wasted this time and I'm thankful that I didn't stay there very long. I was able to see, I didn't waste my time. I gave my time to a very worthy cause. I gave my time to my kids and to my family.
And that's the only season where they were going to be that age and where I had the opportunity to invest in them. So I'm 100 percent thankful that I did that. And then I was able to start extracting. Well, what did I gain from that time? And the biggest thing is that I wasn't a learner and I didn't have a growth mindset before homeschooling my kids.
I was very fearful. I was in a box. I was going to do what everybody else was doing. I couldn't think for myself. I just did what the world and what my community told me to do. And then I worked up the courage to start homeschooling my kids. And every day I spoke into their lives of what you can do and you figure it out.
Like, let's, let's figure out how to do this assignment. Let's figure out how to do this science experiment, whatever it is. And we don't have, we don't have a teacher handing us all of this on a platter and we don't have somebody giving us the a, I mean, I was the person that had to choose, is it an a, is it an F?
And so we just had to go in and figure it out. And. In that process of wanting that so badly for my Children, I figured it out for myself, and I think that that's it. That's what's propelled me forward. It's allowed me to function, um, outside of societal norms, which is homeschooling. That's being an entrepreneur, and it's allowed me the grit and the mindset to persevere and to figure things out.
And all of that is what's going to make us succeed. Successful ENT entrepreneur. Okay. And your older kids. Um, 'cause you still have a minor one in the home working her way through. Like, you have to tell people just how accomplished those guys are because your kids are pretty darn creative and I think incredibly accomplished.
So just brag for a minute because. You were part of that. I get it that they are individual people. They've chosen a lot of their path, but you 100 percent padded the landing and greased the skids for these guys. So just tell us. A little bit about what they have accomplished so far and what they're doing, because I know so many moms are like, oh, they won't get the, there'll be some weird outcast people that are not accomplished if we homeschool and they just feel wholly unqualified for everything when it comes to speaking life into their kids.
Okay, well, if you're, I am the exact same way, Lace, exactly. I was like, okay, I am not okay with you saying. I can't do something like, let's just change that and say, well, how can I do something? Like, how can I solve this problem? How can I come up with a solution rather than I can't? Um, and so, so tell us a, uh, what are your guys doing right now?
And B. Tell us a little bit about how their mindset is because of what you've been able to provide to them, um, both in the homeschool and life setting and how that's transitioned over into what they're doing now, and now they're seeing their mama just crush it in business and walk the walk of everything that she's talked in the past.
Well, I am so proud of each one of them. They are each very unique. So I have a 20 year old, 17 year old, both boys, and then a 14 year old daughter. And. My 20 year old, he is so creative. He likes to invent things. He was, he was born with that. That is part of who he is. And he went to a private school for a couple of years ago.
And I don't want to knock private school or public school. There is a space for each one of those. And there might be different seasons where it might be based on the child or the student. So it's not necessarily that one is better than the other. But for my oldest, when he was in a school, in a traditional setting, Sitting at a desk and doing those worksheets was not tapping in to his truest potential.
It wasn't allowing him to invent and be creative. So I brought him home as a second grader and we started, I actually would buy like history textbooks and just, they would be playing while he was building Legos and he could just. Create an event and there wasn't a, it wasn't rigid and I doubted, I doubted that style.
I, cause I mean, I do have way more security in the worksheets and the tests and the quizzes, but now I get to see what he's up to. He's in college, he's thriving. He's so, he's just really brilliant and also has learned that there's space to be creative. And it's, if you're just one of those cookie cutter students, one of those cookie cutter.
You're going to be stuck in the pile of people not able to get out and really have space for yourself and what you were created to do. So that's my oldest. My second one is a musician. He's headed off to college. He'll be going to Berkeley College of Music in the fall. And again, I think like he, He would stay up till midnight, 1, 2 in the morning, just blaring, playing his guitar, and, um, we'd be in the next room over in our bedroom trying to sleep, and, you know, AirPods in with our own, uh, noisemakers trying to be able to sleep through it, but, um, he got to stay up through the night and play music, and then I would let him sleep in till, um, 10 a.
m. 11 a. m. And then we would get our school work in. So again, he had the space to to function within his specific talents and and skills and really just embrace that. My daughter, she's 14, she's still kind of figuring it out. But, and she's, she out of all three has had the least amount of time as a homeschool student.
She's currently in a private school, but they embrace all of what I love about homeschooling, which is helping people think for themselves and helping them think creatively. And so I definitely see her on that same path. And I'm excited to see what it is that she becomes, who she becomes. Oh my gosh, that's beautiful.
I love it. And, uh, okay. So getting back to, I mean, golly, there's just so much here, right? Going back to, first off, I want to thank you for your honesty. There are not many people that are willing to admit that the thought has crossed their mind. Did I waste my time being home with kids instead of growing a business?
Because I have thought the exact same thing plenty of times. Most people would never admit that. And you know, why am I Why am I doing this? Well, a baby for YouTube. Hey, you see, there's a baby on my lap. I was nursing at one point, but he's decided uninterested in having a nap right now. So we're going to do the best we can.
I am doing life with kids, growing a business with them right alongside me. I am not trying to partition it. And I said, you know what, I'm going to take a lesson from other moms and you're still raising your kid. Your kids are not raised even a 20 year old, you know, although he's independent, he's a college.
You know, doing well, the 17 and 14, they are not raised. I have a 14 year old and she needs just as much attention as an infant does, but in a very different way, right? We are not done. We have decided that there's more parts to us than just 100%. Solely focusing on our offspring, we have more value to give.
So when you decided to step out of the full time role as mom and, you know, CEO of your own household and then CEO of your own business, how quickly did you scale up from tax strategist to CFO and what did you have to eliminate? And what did you have to add to get there? You might be throwing me a curveball on this one.
So, um, my, again, I think it goes back to just taking the one next step. So, being able to start with something. Uh, I. I had to develop better time management skills. I had to develop skills where I could interact with other adults in a professional setting. I had to really work on developing my self confidence for both of those things.
I had to get more intentional with, okay, I do want to be a fully invested mom, and I'm also a fully invested business owner. So how do I do both of those? And intentionality. I, you know, I am still an intentional mom. My kids are off to school now, but when they're home, I want to be present with them. I want to know what they're doing.
I want to be able To pour into them. I so it looks differently now, though. I just took my daughter to a conference this weekend. And so I'm bringing her into my world and my business space and investing in her in that way. And so, yeah, it looks different than when they were home and we were doing school projects together.
But the end result is still. pouring into them so that they can see that they can build anything, do anything. They just need to get started and be willing to pivot all along the way. Okay. I'm actually doing the exact same thing. Uh, next fall is we are graduating our 16 year old, um, because Utah where we're moving, uh, podcasters, everyone knows about the move so far.
Um, they have zero. Homeschooling laws over there. They have, as long as you can write an affidavit saying your child has at least an eighth grade education check, um, you can graduate them. And this guy is not an academic guy. He is dumb. He is not dumb by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, he's quite talented, incredibly charming, has charisma for days.
So I'm like. Sales, sales, I think is where you need to be, um, because he is so dynamic. I'm going to take him to a conference about young business owners, and I'm just going to let him be in the room with people. And I saw that in you when we were in the same networking group together, we were both new to the group.
And I remember you walking up to do a presentation and you had your like PowerPoint, you had your cute little heels on. And by the way, you guys, Lacey is like the most micro mini. Cutest little thing I ever did see it at five, six, I tower over the top of her, but, oh my gosh, the amount of presence you have in a room, you could have just filled the whole space, but you admitted and your neck was a little red and you were like, I'm a little nervous here.
But that to me looked like this might be the very beginning. And that was quite a few years ago of your journey. But then you've moved on from there. So you've been able to, I read something you posted just last week about your husband leaving a growth and development book just around, and eventually the kids will pick it up, especially if you tell them, don't like to not read that book, you can bet your bottom dollar.
By the end of the day, they're going to be buried in their blankets with their book and, um, book in front of them. But your daughter is starting to change and develop and, you know, shift course in her thinking, and it's, it's because you guys have brought her into that world. So when you talk about growing and scaling a business and how you've grown and scaled your life and how you didn't do it, right, you didn't do it at the cost of your family.
You have brought your family along with this journey, which has helped create this new level of education that you just can't get. Anywhere else, right? You've got to have your boots in there. You've got to get your hands dirty. So growing and scaling, I want to know more about your business because I know that that has changed, not just from tax strategist to CFO, but you're very specific.
On who you work with. So tell me what that looked like in deciding who you actually want to work with. Because you guys, I am, when I get messages from people trying to sell me things, I'm like, you had, you did not look at all at who I am, because first off, I would never buy that product. And so. Second, you would know if you'd spent just a few seconds looking into it.
I've got multiple businesses right now. And, uh, I, I'm not saying that they have to say, Oh, you may not be interested in, but if you're going to pitch me a business, you may as well see if it was something that fits into my wheelhouse. Right. How did you get. To know specifically who it is you wanted to work with, because you will not be the first person on this podcast to say, I work with who I want to work with, not just the people that present a lot of Benjamins in front of my face.
You're very specific. And because you've been specific, it has allowed you to work within your zone of genius. It has allowed you to grow, scale and become very successful. So tell us more about that. I would say I want to work with people who are growth minded. That is most business owners, but I want to work specifically with people who are building a business.
So a lot of times people say they're going into business, but they're really solopreneurs, which isn't a bad thing. Um, that is a great fit for some people, but I think when you are a solo solopreneur or you are a technician. It's just out there, boots on the ground. Typically, that's not the best match for me because a lot of times they, they want to level up to get to that point where they're self employed.
So they have, you know, some freedom with their time, but they're, they're then ready to kind of level out. And I'm not a level out kind of person. I want to keep growing and scaling and building. And so feeding off of the energy of those business owners who are doing just that, it makes me come alive and I want to fully support them in that.
So that's going to look typically like somebody who's building a team. That's not always the case. There could be a solopreneur who's we have somebody who is a speaker. We work with lots of different industries and they don't always have huge teams, but oftentimes it's going to be a dentist, a chiropractor, any commerce business.
It's it's a business where they want one. Um, they want to be forward thinking, and they want to be proactive in setting the targets and scaling. And also, they just want more robust accounting services, because for me, I have kind of a narrow focus of what I really love to do. I'm a good tech strategist, as I mentioned before, but that's not really what I'm most passionate about.
But I have team members who are. So when we are able to bring in a larger size business that needs all of the accounting services, then my team can fill most of those services. And then I get to focus in on what I love most, which is Helping you work on your mindset and grow and scale perfection because everybody needs that and not everybody has a life coach and a financial strategist and a CFO and tax strategy all wrapped up in one team.
And it sounds like with you, they 100 percent get that. And I think that's amazing in so many ways. All right, so I wrote down here terms because you used a few terms that I don't know if people are aware the difference between a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, and a self employed. Can you go through who those people are and what that looks like?
Sure, so I would say There's going to be this person who's worked as an employee. They get a W 2 and they're really good at what they do. They're a great accountant or they're a great technician. Maybe they're, I don't know, heat and air guy or something, electrician, whatever it is, they have this skill set, but they work for somebody else and they're just like itching to, have freedom to get to do what they want when they want.
And so they say, you know what? I'm just going to go out and I'm going to do this on my own. And that's going to give me so much freedom. And sometimes it can. And other times you're actually just enslaved far more than you ever were as an employee. And you don't have the stability of income. Oftentimes you don't have the benefits.
Um, there's pros and cons to it. And it's again, it's not necessarily that it's bad, That's actually kind of what I did at first. I just jumped in. I thought, well, I want to help. I want to help provide an opportunity so that my husband can leave his W 2. So I'll step in as this solopreneur. So I'm, it's just me working in this business, acting as a technician, where I'm going to offer tax services.
And then I hated that for myself because I was the only one available to answer the phone. Uh, I was the only one to tend to the client questions. It was all about me. And that felt like too much pressure. And like, I never actually got to step away and have time for the other interests and my other passions in my life.
So I realized within a Few months, I want to start building a team. So hire an admin. And now I'm actually, I set out to build a business instead of being a technician and working solo. So I guess they're, they're solo self employed. I would say in my mind, I haven't really taken the time to define each one of these, but.
Yeah. I would say self employed is probably the same as being a solopreneur. And then there's people who are building businesses. They don't intend to stay in the nitty gritty details long term. They're building out the processes, the people, and the systems. And they're going to build something that far exceeds who they are as an individual.
And it's going to survive. Whether they are there or not, it's going to continue on. Okay, perfect. And I want to pick up on something you mentioned, because you said I don't, and how about that time freedom, right? People get into business and they're like, I'm in business for myself. I've got all this time freedom.
Well, you don't have any time freedom unless you have some help. Uh, because otherwise the buck always stops with you and you're going to be getting the tax calls and texts at 10 PM. And you're like, but. I'm not, I'm trying to be with my family right now. And when you're a business owner and money is on the line, if you don't have very clear boundaries and you don't have a team that you are like, okay, you are on call until this time you are on call until this time, um, business owners don't like to watch dollars go down the drain because their money person was not accessible.
So, um, First off, I picked up on you saying I decided I needed to have a team. All right. I encounter this a lot when talking with other business owners is that they know they've got to expand. They know they have to grow, but they don't know at what point that happens. Like, do I make the money first and then I get the team or do I get the team in place so that I can grow the money?
It's like, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? And I think a lot about that in my mom life and in my business life. Uh, and I did, I made the step. I have a full time, well, she's not full time for me, but I hire her at every month. I pay her and she does work for me. I've actually hired my kids. Have you done that yet?
Of course. Tax writing. Okay, nice. You're like who, what mompreneur? I freaking hate that term. I can't believe I just said it. I'm going to choke myself later for it. But what mom in business hasn't hired her kids? If you are a mom in business and you haven't yet hired your kids to do something, I have one kid that uploads my stuff on my YouTube channel.
I've got another kid who makes Canva images for me. Bet you can guess which kid that is that gets on Canva. She does images for me and carousels and I am paying them. Okay. I am paying them today rather than paying a lawn service, which they need jobs too. But I care more about growing my children and entrepreneurship.
Uh, we picked up some pine straw and I'm going to pay my children to spread it around our area of landscaping rather than paying another company to do it. So we did support a small business by buying it from just this local guy that lives on our road, but I'm going to pay my kids to get out there and get their hands a little dirty and pokey and spread that pine straw around.
So when you decided that you need to build a team, and by the way, my family, like they're part of my team, they are paid members. Of my team and I have another woman who is a paid member of my team Maggie. I've talked about her tons Um, they're paid members and they're valuable members of my team So for you, how did you know you said I need I need more time growth Okay, did you make the monies first to hire the peoples or did you like?
Okay, i've got to hire the peoples in order to make the monies. How did that work for you? Well, right. So there's two resources, time and money, which one is most important to you, which one is most valuable to you in this season. And it's waffled back and forth as I've built my business. So at first it was, I needed to hold on to the money and my husband and I were trying to wear all the hats and do all the things, and then I realized.
quickly within about six to nine months. I, I don't have this amount of time. This is, I'm actually sacrificing more of my time than what I am willing to sacrifice. I don't have the time available to be able to tend to my health, to be able to tend to my kids. So then I got to a place where even though my business Wasn't probably at a point financially where it made sense.
I had to choose what is most important to me right now. And time at that point was the more precious commodity. So I hired somebody and paid them. And I, I think since that point, since I kind of. Made that initial leap. I've tended to go that direction where I'm willing to fork over the money before it really even totally makes sense in the business.
Because every time I do that, it's an investment into somebody else that is going to free up my time so that I can spend my time doing. Things that actually will grow the business instead of, you know, have you heard? Are you working in your business or are you working on your business? So you have to be able to hire the person and get the help so that you have the time to work on the business.
And if you never find that space and time to work on your business, you're going to stay stuck. So most of the time, you just got to take the risk, make the investment. Sacrifice a little bit of the money and go for it. Hire the person, get the help. So I'm feeling that in a very real way when it comes to like us moving to Utah, I have got an inquiry out to a couple of van services about moving us.
Cause I'm like, okay, where is our time and money going to be best spent? And not just that, because like dollars and cents can make certain, you know, make sense in a sort of way, but. Like, what is us getting out there going to look like? Like, are we going to hate every second of this move? Because we are throwing boxes in the back of a truck.
And then Adam's driving a U, U haul. I'm driving this vehicle with all seven kids are Nolan's driving a vehicle. We've got this, you know, freaking caravan going across the country. And we're like, okay, where can we park with a U Haul with the biggest U Haul they've got? Um, and I'm like. Or, or, uh, we can invest a little bit more on the other side of that.
Have somebody else haul everything. Everyone get in one vehicle or two. I haven't totally decided if we're going to sell one, whatever logistics, right? We can get in the car and treat it like a family vacation where we're road tripping across the country. We're going to. Document all of this on my YouTube channel.
It should be a fun little journey. I say fun, but you know Who really thinks having a nine month old baby in a car seat for multiple hours a day is fun? But I think we can make it fun because this is me. I am going to make the most Awful thing enjoyable to the best of my ability because I think you've got to look at life a little bit like that, right?
Like, how can we turn this suck into something that is less and make that a little bit more positive? So I'm feeling that in a very big way. Where is my time and money best spent right now? So which one feels better to you? Like if you were to base it off of feeling, I already know the answer, but which one feels better to you?
Yeah, it feels like it makes more sense because let's be fair. My husband can pick up a green slip in the piloting world and he can make two times what it's going to cost to move us in a four day trip. I mean, we're doing the exact same thing in our home. People, everyone's like, oh, well I can spackle holes in the wall.
Oh. That's easy, but it's, it wasn't ever about being easy. It was about what needs your time and attention, not necessarily what's cheapest. Like what can, what is it that only I can do and that I can do very well. Like I'm not going to hire somebody. To talk to my client, my coaching clients and set their macros forum, talk about their health history, what their objective is for joining the program, how I can help them reach their, you know, weight goals or fitness goals or health goals.
Like I'm not going to hire somebody else to do that because they hired me. I am their coach, which means they actually want to talk to me or they would have hired somebody else, but what can I hire somebody else to do? Well, I can definitely get a handyman in here to spackle holes in my wall, because those holes do not require me.
Neither does the pine straw outside require me, but you know what also does not require us? Is a van to move stuff. We don't have to move our own things. We can hire somebody else to do it If you don't have the financial resources to do that, it might be time to look into your life I talked to a girl recently who's like well We don't have the money for that and i'm like, oh that always like puts a kink in my neck and a And a little bit of irritation in my style because I say well, you know, what is your and I said, what is your husband's?
intention to increase his earning capacity and she just You Stopped and she was like, well, I mean that's as much as he'll make. Yeah. As a line cook, that's as much as he's going to make. What is his intention to increase his earning capacity? I didn't ask you how much more he can make flipping burgers. I asked you what his plan is.
And, uh, there was no plan. Talk to me a little bit about that. What could somebody do financially to help you. Increase the amount of money they're making, um, from a numbers perspective that doesn't require a ton of their time. Because you've done that, right? You've had real estate, you've had a CFO business, you've had, you've done a ton of different stuff.
Can you shed any light on multi passionate peoples and where they have invested some time in, um, to help grow and them to help make more money? Well, I had an answer ready for you until you said, uh, without it costing a bunch of their time. And I think that it does take time if you're going to, so, so you need to develop new skills.
You need to make yourself more valuable so that you can then give that value to the marketplace and you will be compensated. The more value you give to the marketplace, the more you're going to be compensated, no matter what industry you're in. So how do you become more valuable? Well, you develop new skills.
You, you develop things that you can give to the marketplace. And that usually takes again, one or two resources, time or money, but I think mostly time because it's, it's working on you. So, um, now once you have that, then there are ways to earn passive income, which I think is maybe kind of what you were asking is like, how can you get into a place of passive income.
No, I was actually hoping you would answer it the exact same way you did Because I threw out there without investing a ton of their time not as a trick question But because that's what people tell me all the time. I don't want to invest a ton of my time I was like i'm gonna ask her this and I guarantee you she's gonna give you the correct answer and it's bull Shit, you're not gonna do it.
You cannot so I asked the question in a way like is that even possible? And you were like well No, that's the right answer. People that's the right answer. You can not earn more money without investing more time where you spend the time is exactly what we just talked about a few minutes ago. That's debatable where you need to spend your time versus hiring somebody else to do it.
But keep going. I had to just give you all the applause level of realness and honesty right now is something people lack in the entire world. And I'm loving this so much because you're giving everyone exactly. Like the right answer, not the cookie cutter BS answer that you get in your DMS that you're like, Hey creep, there is no possible way.
Would you like to earn this amount of money for only 10 minutes a day? It's like, dude, get the hell up out of my DM. You are lying right now. It is not possible to do that unless you're doing something completely. Shady, scandalous, immoral, or illegal. Okay. And all of those don't exactly jive well within my field of functioning.
So go ahead with that. And then I want to wrap it up and I want to hear more about where people can find you, where they can work with you, hire you, all the things. I will say I do think that you can add more value to yourself to give to the marketplace with very little money, or at least to start, you can do that with very little money and a lot of times people will make excuses.
I don't have the money to go to college. I don't have the money to get this course or to hire this coach. It's on YouTube, guys. It's in, you know, 15 books that you can buy. It's on all the podcasts. People are sharing the information so freely. It's there and available. You have to go and find it. And maybe if you're not working with a coach that's going to hold your hand and guide you through a nice little road map of how you're going to get there, maybe your, maybe your path is going to be a little more windy than if you had that coach.
But guess what? If you just start in, start watching the YouTube videos, start reading the books, You're going to begin to develop a skill set that you can market, you can make a little bit of money, and then you can go hire the coach. And so it's a process to get you there. But I, I want to fully support and, and help people understand that they can do anything.
They can be anything they want to be. But I also have very little patience for people. Who make excuses and say they can't and so I just want to be like, stop and again, like I told, told my kids homeschooling them. Don't tell me you can't tell me how you can. And so if you're making a little bit of effort to show that you're finding the way to figure out how you can.
Then you will, you are going to see that success and it's just a matter of time. You're going to find the right fit. Maybe you do get into the big things where it's passive income and you're not trading your time for money anymore. Hopefully you get to that point. That's my goal for all of my clients.
But you have to start at the very basics, which is. Investing in yourself. So, right. So, right. All right, lady, tell us, where can we find you? Where can people work with you? If they're interested in getting out of their own business and actually having somebody else manage that portion for them so they can work within their zone of genius and help grow and expand.
So self limiters. That's not you keep going, but the people who have a growth mindset, they have growth intended for their business. Um, and I have sort of an one off question, but because you are so growth minded answer this first, do you ever plan to retire? I don't think so. I think that I will shift from, from my accounting business.
I think I'm going to shift out of that at some point. The no, I'm not going to retire. This is where I have finally found true joy and contentment. And it's in the journey it's in the pursuit. So why would I leave that? I'm not going to. Same. I am exactly the same way. People are like, Oh, you're working.
Like, I actually don't even like putting money into a, um, retirement account because I'm like, Oh my gosh, I could be putting that money into something that a vehicle that could continue to grow. So, you know, Adam and I are on very different pages regarding saving for retirement. And I'm like, I don't ever want to retire just so you know, if you want to hang out and work on cars.
Then great, but I'm going to be hired to speak on very big stages to a lot of very important people that need to hear my message of growth and perseverance, because I have a unique story that people need to hear. Lacey has a unique story that people need to hear. One person can hear both of our stories and only one of us likely is going to resonate deeply with them, which is why it is so important that people who feel led to speak and share do that because you can hear the same message 10 times.
That 11th time from that other person is the one that, boom, sets it off. And you're like, I've got it. I've got it. Well, what happened to the 10 other times you heard it? It wasn't the right message. It wasn't the right time. It wasn't the right person. So find people that encourage you and inspire you. Oh, and I'm going to post this on Facebook today is my reading list.
My audio book list. I have like five going right now. You guys, why do I have five different audio books? And I have a paper book that I sit down because I don't like my phone near my baby's head. Um, for all the reasons, but I will typically, if I'm pumping, I'll put my audio book further away because I can hear it.
Um, or if I'm sitting down nursing, I'll have a paper book, but I have five different books going right now because depending on where I'm at, um, maybe even within the month where my head is at, I need a different message from a different person. And I need to look at my life or business in a different way.
So that's how I keep my mind growing and thriving. Um, and I know you've got a whole slew of books behind you and I saw you jot down when I said 10 feet from gold, you were like, okay, something else. I mean, this is where it's at. You guys, if you're on YouTube, watch that again. She looked down and jotted it down because this is a, this is what growth mindset looks like is where can I learn, who can I learn from?
And what new knowledge can I bring into my world? And then. Apply it to my current business to move that out or apply it to my current life and then start expanding the horizons of possibility. All right, Lacey, tell us, please, where can we find you? How can we work with you? Best way is a pathway CPA group, and you can email me directly Lacey at pathway CPA group.
And I am not big on social media right now. It's a 2024 goal, but you can find my personal account on Facebook as well. And, um, I guess be on the lookout for more because soon I'm going to be on different platforms. This happened in 2024. I'll bet you have some teenagers that might be able to do social media management.
I love it so much. All right, Lacey, thank you so much for your time here. I really appreciate it. Um, this interview went just about, As beautifully as I thought it would, in fact, better, um, because of your raw honesty, um, I'm just tired of people with BS, right? Slinging it left and right. And if you want the real stuff, that's why you come to, to the nines podcast, because we keep it real.
We keep it honest and we keep it tactical.