In this incredibly practical episode, Kristen Ricupero, Personal Financial Coach and CEO of Financial Fitness Coaching, shares how she went from having a decent job and no money to helping business owners make more profit than they could ever have imagined.
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello, and welcome once again to yet another episode of the secrets of the high demand coach podcast and I’m here with yet another high demand coach. That is Kristen Ricupero. Now Kristen is fueled by her passion to help others succeed and become financially free. Kristen’s a professional financial coach and a Profit First certified coach who specializes in helping small business owners, entrepreneurs, and driven professionals to develop and strengthen their money management skills, eliminate that and create cash flow systems to maximize profit and ultimately build wealth. By developing specific action plans that are tailored to each client’s needs, values and goals. It allows them to live and retire in ways that they only could dream of. Kristen, I love to dive into that there’s so much to talk about there. And I mean, I just love what you do. I love, love, love what you do. Before we get any of that though. First off, welcome to the show, and why don’t we just start with your story? How did you get into what you do? And why?
Kristen Ricupero
Yeah, okay, so thank you so much. Again, thank you for having me, Scott. So it’s always a long story, right. And I’ll try to keep it as concise as possible. But, you know, back in 2013, my husband and I were not married, I was single, I was making a good income, I was a standard w two worker. And I had no money to show for it, I had nothing to show for it. I was in debt, I was overwhelmed, I was stressed out by finances, all of the things. So I went through my own personal finance journey at that time 20,000 22,013 Roughly to 14 getting out of debt, learning how to manage my money, that it wasn’t just that theoretical, oh, I have enough there should be money leftover, I should be able to save do all these things. And there was never any money left over. So you can fast forward into 2016 when I had my son, I knew that I was made for more than I was doing for other people. So I had gone to college for a restaurant institutional management. Penn State grad, was doing a lot of great things. But I wasn’t fulfilled whatsoever. And I knew evoked all of these emotions in me as a mother, I’m like, Okay, I have to do more. My husband also has a small business, and it was kind of go to work for him or come out on my own and do something. And really, I didn’t see anybody talking about personal finances. Honestly, I didn’t know if I could make money doing this. How do you charge people to help them with their money, right? There were a lot of hurdles to get over a lot of mindset hurdles there. But that’s how it all started. I was like, I think I can do this. So I started helping family and friends and just kind of started seeing if it was a thing, and they’re like, oh my gosh, is so amazing. You have to talk to XYZ. And it kind of went on from there until I left my job then in 2018 and went full time in my business.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. So I love that you’re just bring for like, Hey, this is my journey. How can this journey help other people? It’s just the it’s a classic coach story. But it’s an important one, right? Because it’s not just coming from, you know, hey, I want to make money off of this, Hey, I want to make an impact in people’s lives. And here’s how it goes. So you brought up an interesting point. And I actually saw this on your website ahead of time, but I’d love to pick your brain on it. Folks who are struggling with money, right, you’ve got an interesting conundrum in your profession. And that is, the ones who would pay you money are the ones who are struggling with money. So how do you how do you help people get through that? You know, why would I pay someone to help with money when I don’t have any money in the first place? Or at least that’s how it feels?
Kristen Ricupero
Sure, well, you hit that nail on the head a lot of time, a lot of times not all the time, it’s how it feels. The truth is that we spend money on things we value. And so a lot of times it’s just in those conversations with clients and about what they’re doing, what their dreams are, I know that I can help them achieve their dreams and goals a lot faster. I know that if I had somebody beside me and walking along that I probably could have done it and half the time. And obviously now we’re having worked with hundreds of clients, I’ve seen the difference where they’ve struggled for years on end, and then they decide that they finally need to reach out for help. And we start making progress within the first two to three months. So you know, there’s a lot there, but really talking to somebody and seeing what their lifestyles like because most of my clients to be honest, if they’re not a small business owner, they’re making a pretty good income. A lot of them are classified as high income earners and they’re making over 250,000 a year. So they may not feel like they have money, but we can dive into finding it. This is something they value and they want to get ahead further and faster in life so that they can get out of that hole and that feeling, then it’s something that they’re ready to make that leap on.
Scott Ritzheimer
Oh, yeah, the so there’s this common misconception that I’ve bumped into a lot with especially in small business owners. It doesn’t necessarily go away but there’s this idea that like You can sell your way out of financial trouble, right? Like if I can just get the business bigger if I can close this next deal or if I can, right? So what do you say to that person who who’s coming in? And you know that they’re in that mode of just they’re hustling and grinding? Because they’re trying to sell their way to the success, if you will?
Kristen Ricupero
Yes. Well, number one, I hear that over and over, that is the classic client that I work with, right? It’s like, they may have started out at six figures and like, Well, I figured when I got to XYZ, right, I got to 150,000 or 200,000, that would be awesome, be gravy, but they find themselves in that same boat. Because of the business lifestyle creep, the more revenue we take on, the more clients we take on, we find that we need the more support. And we’re not if we’re never sure about where our numbers are, what we’re doing, we’re never sure where to start limiting it. So, you know, what I want to let them know is that it can be better. Honestly, the biggest thing about what I do is designing your life around your business, rather than your business around your life. Because that is classic business owner, we get into business for the freedom that it will give us right the freedom we can help with our families with our future with travel. But then we actually end up feeling so much more tied down and restricted. And we’re working nights and there’s a classic meme out there, I quit my nine to five to work 24/7. And I think that’s true for so many business owners. But when we know our numbers, when we can reverse engineer how many clients we need to hit these goals. When we know what that bottom line profitability or what our pricing needs to be, we can take a step back and pause and say, Okay, I mentally I have enough financially to do what I need to do. Is this where I want to be. And that can be really freeing.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, it’s so true. So because I think a lot of folks approach their business as the as the income side of things, right. But I find it interesting in the work that you use and everything but this idea of profit first, right? So wait a second, I thought profit was at the bottom right, the bottom line of the organization of profit loss. So tell us a little bit about, you know, how do you end up with profit? First, what does that look like for business owner?
Kristen Ricupero
Sure. So the idea behind profit versus that we’re flipping the script. So instead of taking our sales, which is a bit you don’t have a business if you don’t have sales, so we need that, but taking our sales minus our expenses, and taking what’s leftover equals our profit, the idea behind profit versus that we’re flipping the script. And we’re really looking at our sales minus that profit kicking some money aside, making sure that we’re prioritizing extra choices, life, paying ourselves, because I mean, that can get really deep as far as when we talk profit, if we’re talking classic, you know, what kind of structure are you. But we want to make sure that our operating expenses are what’s leftover. And it’s the same in our personal life to even out that the idea of paying yourself first is that put money into your 401 K, put it into your savings, do these things that are important for your future for yourself for building wealth, and then live on what’s leftover. And so we want to live our business on what’s leftover, rather than making those decisions from haste about what we need, quote, unquote, to grow. There are so many times when we spend money in a business, and there are expenses in their investments, and there can be a fine line between those things. We want to make sure that we’re making investments in our business so that it can help us grow. And really be asking ourselves a questions instead of, you know, do I need a new desk or a new chair? You know, what can I level up in my looks going backwards and saying, What can I level up so I can have more time, may I invest in a coach a system a process, it might be a thing that is going to help you get that time or a better client experience. But those are the things we want to be investing into where we’re getting a return on that in the revenue area as well.
Scott Ritzheimer
So if you were to kind of take the whole, you’ve worked with lots of folks now many of them business owners, and presumably they’re all struggling with this not having the profitability that they want out of their organs. So what do you find are some of the, you know, the easiest things to solve for because you’ve been able to produce some rapid results for folks? What do you find are some of the easiest wins for business leaders in particular?
Kristen Ricupero
So that’s a really good question. Um, one of the easiest ones or the easiest things that people can do is just starting out by using some of those extra accounts. That’s the main premise behind Profit First, specifically is that we’re using extra accounts to leverage Parkinson’s Law, so that rather than seeing 50,000 or 100,000 in a bank account at one time and wondering and thinking we can go live high on the hog and do all of the things, we’re separating them out so that we see that maybe we have 20,000, to be able to pay ourselves and 10,000 and the operating and so much in the profit. So even just starting out by implementing one or two additional accounts, so that you can cut down the size of what you’re looking at, can be a huge, rewarding win to begin with, and just getting it separated. Another one is getting the personal expenses separated from the business. And truthfully, I deal on this on every level, it’s from the solopreneur, up to my clients who are running four and $5 million dollar businesses where they still if they never learned how to separate that, and the business always kind of paid for things, getting that separated so that we can truly decide and figure out what it takes to operate their life, what it takes to operate their business, we not only help them become more profitable as a business, but we also start to position them in a better place to be able to be to sell to be sellable, because that’s going to be a huge part about some buddy coming in to look at that and saying, Well, what’s in it for me. So we start to position them to really look at their generational legacies and their wealth building tools and their future.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. Because there’s a progression that happens. Yeah, it’s, it’s almost a little funny how it happens. And it was a conversation I was just having with a client today. But the focus early on is profit, right? If you don’t have profit, then things not worth it in the first place. So you’ve got to sell to get profit, you got to etcetera, etcetera. So there’s this drive, profit, profit, profit, and then all of a sudden tax time comes. It’s like, Whoa, hang on a second. So there’s lots of folks out there who specialize in tax reduction strategies right now. What I found, though, is that if we’re not careful, we can start to apply tax reduction strategies that are profit reduction strategies. So how do you help folks kind of navigate like it will, you know, the reason I bring my mind right here is a lot of times people will use the kind of personal expenses of the business as a textbook. Right, right. Yeah, wrongfully. But what do you say to the person who’s struggling of like, do I choose the tax thing? Or do I choose the profit thing?
Kristen Ricupero
Yes. So a lot of times I help facilitate these conversations also between the business owners and their accountants, because not there’s not a lot of people who help with the cash flow piece. And if we’re not careful, the accountant come December can take that cash and deplete it from the business and maybe the business owner, like I work with a lot of field service, that January, February is not their high time. And so they need to preserve some level of cash in order to survive without going back into debt, net vert, that vicious cycle again. So I do help facilitate that conversation quite a bit with the accountants and what we’re looking at. But we never want to make a decision based on taxes. We want to take every tax strategy available to us. But there are a ton that aren’t necessarily about reducing all of that cashflow. With that being said, when we take that owners account into play, we do move things that are realistic, like if they’re paying their health insurance, and it’s realistic for their accountant to be having that come out of the business. Absolutely, we’re going to make that a business expense. And so it really it’s a case by case, per person, per business per strategy and their accountants risk level of what we’re looking at. But we never want to make that decision is let’s say the old standard, go buy a car in order to save the taxes, and you don’t need a car. And it has nothing to do with your business. And there’s a lot of other things you could do. So what I like to drive people towards is thinking about, is there something we can do that is going to benefit your future? Do you already have a 401k? A simple IRA, a solo 401, or something of that level in your business, that you can actually put more money to yourself, and not the government? So it’s a win win for a lot of people? Are you you know, do you have children? And are you maximizing those savings? And is your accountant on board for that? Or do you actually use them in the business? Can you hire them? And so I try to talk to them about some of these other strategies that can be used, that can be a win win for them, but not deplete the cash flow?
Scott Ritzheimer
Got it? Got it? Yeah, I love that now. So having the opportunity to work with both business owners and high income individuals, new employees, I’d be interested to know, what would you say is different about those two groups? What are the financial challenges or advantages, either one that business owners have that are unique to that environment and not shared by others?
Kristen Ricupero
Well, I think that I mean, business owners have the potential for unlimited income, right? We business owners have a ton more tax advantages and tax strategies available to them. You can take a high income earner and a family who’s making three four or 500,000 and they can’t use the some of the same tax. strategies as somebody who owns a business. So, you know, one of the accountants that I work with, she’s like, just don’t even send them for tax strategy. If they don’t have a side hustle a business a something that we can’t use, because it won’t be as effective. So that definitely is one pro or con any way you want to look at it. On the other hand, though, so many business owners don’t know how to pay themselves on a regular basis, a consistent basis. So they can be envious of even their own employees who they’re paying and paying well, and they’re over here, kind of taking what’s leftover, see if there’s profits at the end of the year, and then trying to work with that for the rest of their year or a six month process. So I think it depends that on for some people, the grass is always greener on the other side. But we can take those business owners and really make we can teach them how to pay themselves consistently how to grow that how to do all those things, if they’re willing to make sometimes a few changes.
Scott Ritzheimer
So an interesting question that I have for you is, who do you think needs a financial coach? Is it everybody is that you know, people in a specific challenge or circumstance, I’d love to know who Who do you think needs a financial coach?
Kristen Ricupero
Yeah. So I mean, quite honestly, when I first started, I just thought it was people who who were in debt. That was my scenario, that was who was coming to me at that time. And that’s who I think I spoke to. But the longer I’ve been at this game, the more people I’ve worked with an all levels. I mean, almost everyone, I work with financial professionals in my life. We don’t know it all, I think there’s so much because of what a financial coach will do, is to help you learn to think differently, help you think outside the box, help you get to different answers, rather than just what we know. Now, there’s definitely people who are highly skilled read it ton are very into personal growth and development. And if they’re into that in the financial areas, well, that’s great. But I honestly, I think that everyone in almost every level, because we’re talking about different life events and changes, there’s so many challenges changes and growth opportunities that somebody can benefit from.
Scott Ritzheimer
Alright, so here’s the moment I’ve been waiting for. We both are and that is I’d love for you to share. What’s the biggest secret that you want to share today? What’s that one thing that you wish every founder, leader, business person, high income earner that was listening today knew?
Kristen Ricupero
Honestly, it’s gonna sound really simple, but it said, it doesn’t have to be that hard. Money can be incredibly freeing. And it’s so often that we look at thinking we have to make more, to have more to do more to be more. And it can be so freeing when you know your numbers. And it sounds cheesy. And it sounds simple, but it’s just not. You know, a lot of people and I work a lot of clients, and we get through asking for a raise and getting a raise. And so they may go from 6000 a month to 10 or 12 or more. And they instantly we see it right away. They get caught up in that. That lifestyle like oh, okay, oh, back back up. Now, Sally. So I think the biggest secret is just knowing that it doesn’t have to be so hard, you can really get into it. You can somewhat set it and forget it. Once you dig into it. It’s a process you might take 4-6 months setting things up and really learning. But automating your finances and being financially free, whatever that means to you is amazing.
Scott Ritzheimer
Then there’s something I want folks to really grasp this because I mean, I ran a bookkeeping firm CPAs are wonderful people. But a lot of times folks can go to the CPA and think that’s it from the financial side, right. And oftentimes, what you see is a pretty big rift between how a CPA sees the world and how a visionary entrepreneur sees the world, right. And it’s just really challenging and frustrating. And one of the biggest aha moments for me as a business owner was recognizing the difference between financial accounting and managerial accounting, right, by preparing your taxes and your p&l for the taxman versus making high quality decisions for the health of your organization. And so much of the financial world if we’re not careful that we kind of know and intuitively tap into, doesn’t have this profit first. It’s not about how we make decisions. It’s about reporting on what has already happened. And I think that’s a point of frustration, and quite honestly, confusion for a lot of folks because they look at a p&l like I can’t, I don’t understand this thing, right. But I love the way that that you know, folks like yourself, break it down and your your point of it doesn’t have to be hard, right? It really can be simple, is something that most people would not hear from a financial professional, right? Most people Oh, it’s complicated. There’s tax strategies. There’s all this so I love that you went there, I think it’s so important. And I love the work that you do, and hope that folks can really hear that because there’s something special about it. Yeah. Now, in that vein, I’d love to shift gears actually a little bit with us, I’m gonna have you take off your advisor hat, your coach hat, have you put on your CEO hat and talk to us a little bit, you’re gonna get down in the ring with the rest of us and talk about what the next phase of growth looks like for you, your business, and what challenges you think you’ll have to overcome to get there?
Kristen Ricupero
Sure. So I’m really excited about this, I actually have been through the process the last six months of hiring my first financial coach. So going from solopreneur, to I have an incredible vision, my business is 100%, about impact, it’s the number one core value. And it’s about impact in not just what I can do, but in those business owners lives in what their businesses that make impact in their communities, what kind of impact that leads for future generations, what that impacts in their families once they get their money straight. So it’s such this trickle down effect that I was being very selfish. And this came out by my own coach that in saying that, well, I just want to stick to being a solopreneur. And just doing what I do, and I’m very content with the life that I have in the business I have. So I have a new coach, her name is Christie, and she’s in week two of training right now. So she is going to be doing all personal finance to get started, she has been 10 years in as a a financial counselor, actually. So it’s a little bit of a switch of a role. But she’s got so much great experience. And it’s just I’m so excited to bring her to the table. And what that’s going to allow me to do is to serve our business owners really well and continue to do that. But I’m looking forward to creating some new programs, a few more long term group coaching programs so that I can serve the smaller business owners as well as those medium, to larger size small, there’s, you know, small is a relative word, we all know that. But I want to be able to serve more people in more ways. And so my year is going to be able to be continued to focus on growing her. And then development of new programs. And I do see more than just Christie on board and the future. So challenges. I mean, they’re already proving to be all ever true. I’ve learned all these systems, I put these things in place, but some of them were in my head, Scott, I had to get them all out into boards and training programs. And I’m still like, oh, man, I didn’t do that yet. You know, just changing those systems to be a single user to a multi user. So many technology challenges that I’m coming up against specifically right now, but I know that there’s going to be more than that.
Scott Ritzheimer
Oh, my goodness, it’s, it’s hard that first hire is a tough one, right? There’s a lot riding on it, you’re typically not very good at hiring because it’s your first hire, you know, and, and, and so it’s this whole swirl and you can see it and just the way you’re describing it, like wonderful. I don’t have to be the one doing all this anymore. And terrible. I gotta manage the person who’s doing all of this. Right? Yeah, there’s, there’s so much more work before there’s less work. So it’s fun seeing that come to life. And I’m excited for for you and that opportunity. Now, as we’re talking, I’m sitting here thinking like there are folks listening that just absolutely absolutely need help here. So someone is saying, hey, I want to lead a more profitable business. We’re recording this around the end of the year, it’s going to air a little bit later. But it’s the time of year when folks really started thinking of like, how profitable were we oh, shoot, now we have to pay taxes. And it’s just front of everyone’s mind. So how can folks find more about what you do? And in your work?
Kristen Ricupero
Absolutely. So my website financialfitnesscoaching.com is you know, filled with tons of resources, more information. If you’re interested in Profit First, specifically, as part of your cash flow processes, you can download the first couple chapters absolutely free, set up a call, we can talk about it more and what that would look like specifically in your business. But just to learn more, and get grass and little money tips and stuff like that, I’m super active on Instagram. I have all the other channels, but you’re not gonna find me as active as I am over there.
Scott Ritzheimer
Excellent. Well, check out Kristen’s content both on her website, and also in its financialfitnesscoaching.com. Is that right? I remember correctly. Yep. Yeah, financialfitnesscoaching.com. We’ll edit the notes for anyone who wants to pick up more and find her on Instagram that’ll be fantastic. So Kristen, thanks so much for being here. It’s just an absolute pleasure having you on the show.
Kristen Ricupero
I appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me. Scott. been great to talk with you.
Scott Ritzheimer
Of course. And for everyone listening. Thanks for being here. We just love the opportunity to spend time with you. I can’t wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Kristen Ricupero
Fueled by her passion to help others succeed and become financially free, Kristen is a Personal Financial Coach & Profit First Certified Coach who specializes in helping small business owners, entrepreneurs and driven professionals develop and strengthen their money management skills, eliminate debt, and create cash flow systems to maximize profit and ultimately build wealth. By developing specific action plans that are tailored to each client’s needs, values and goals, it allows them to live and retire in ways they only thought they could dream.
Want to learn more about Kristen’s work at Financial Fitness Coaching? Check out her website at www.financialfitnesscoaching.com.
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