Episode 59: She Reads, She Leads — How Women Entrepreneurs Are Rewriting Their Money Story with Jennifer Kornoely

In this episode of Your Financial Maven®, host Samantha Mittman-Besnoff, CPA, sits down with Jennifer Kornoely, founder of the She Reads, She Leads book club — a community for women entrepreneurs to build financial literacy and business skills through reading and discussion. Jen shares how losing a corporate job became the catalyst for launching her own real estate photography business and, eventually, a thriving monthly book club that connects women across the country. Together, they dive into common money myths holding women back, the power of learning in community, and key insights from books like Profit First and The E-Myth. If you're a woman in business looking for connection, accountability, and a smarter approach to money, this episode is for you.

You can find Jennifer here: https://www.shereadssheleads.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to Your Financial Maven, where we talk all about understanding your money. I'm so glad you're here. I'm Samantha Mitman-Besnoff, certified public accountant. I've been in the accounting field for over 30 years, and I absolutely love sharing my knowledge all about your financial empowerment. Enjoy the podcast. Welcome to the latest episode of Your Financial Maven. I am so excited today. With me, I have Jen Cornoli, I did say that right, with me to talk about money, talk about books, actually. Jen started out in the corporate world, and around 2015, you went out on your own to be a real estate photographer, which I think is wonderful. I think it's so cool. I actually did photography in high school, and I wish I kept up with it because, you know, and I'm sure you did this too, sitting in the dark room, back to back with a friend, trying to get the canisters, trying to figure out how to load it correctly, and doing it from the process, from film, right? Not just not the digital stuff nowadays, but I love photography. But you say actually in your bio that you're very skilled in the photography area, but it was the finances, the marketing, the growing of the business that you didn't really have insight on what to do. And so you read books, you went to mastermind groups, and you developed that. And from that, you actually decided it kind of, I guess it was a light bulb moment. You developed the She Reads, She Leads Book Club, which is a space for women in the professional area, in the entrepreneur area to learn personal development and business skills, also being able to connect with others, and of course, sharing what you've learned and tried. So, Jen, welcome to your financial meeting.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. That was such a thorough introduction. That's so nice. Thank you. I try.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

I try. I don't always get it right. But I try. Thank you. Thank you. So before I really get into kind of that, you were in corporate world, you went out on your own part. I want to know from your aspect, what is money?

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Money is access and freedom. It's a tool to be leveraged for hopefully better and to do good things with, but it is a tool.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

It is. It is. I love it. I love it. And you know, in the three years almost of doing this podcast, I have learned so much about what people think about money, you know, whether it's in the personal space, in the business space. And a lot of times it's a tool. A lot of it is about freedom and that space to utilize it. So I don't get tired of people telling me it's a tool because they view it as a tool. The way they're utilizing that tool is different compared to what they're doing, compared to what I'm doing. So I love that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

I just look at it as money, it gives you access that you otherwise wouldn't have. Yeah, it allows you to buy better quality foods, to live in desirable cities, to leave toxic jobs or relationships. It just allows you to do anything, essentially. Hopefully, you're doing good things. But yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

This is true. We we want to point out that we want to do good things and legal things with our money. No judgment, but you know, no judgment, I promise. So I want to kind of know your story of like being in the corporate world and how you finally decided, you know what, I'm going out on my own. I have this photography skill. I can provide that, you know, for you know, a space in the real estate area. Kind of what was, I guess, you know, the straw that broke the camel's back, so to say, with the corporate world.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

When I worked in corporate, I worked for a company that shall not be named. And I worked for a man child. He had no ability or desire to work with women who had a voice or a thought or an opinion. And I have all of those things very loudly. So it's it's very difficult to have a symbiotic working relationship. And he was the owner's pet and he got me fired. And it was it was horrible because I was really good at my job, I was exceeding all my metrics. So there was no actual reason to lose my job. So it was a real light bulb moment because it told me that when you work in corporate or when you work for someone who does not know how to manage people, you are at the whim of anything.

unknown 4:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

They don't like you, you you could be out of a job. You worked there too long and now your salary's too high, you could very easily be out of a job. And I don't want my money messed with, especially not on someone else's insecurities or whims. I like money. I want to be able to have a lot of it and use it for my benefit and my family's benefit. So losing that job allowed me to shift my priorities because I was a single mom at the time. I had a kid who was in middle school and it allowed me to suddenly make decisions that would work better for my family. I now didn't have to be gone from eight to six every day, having my kid in after-school care. I could create a schedule that worked for my family.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yeah. Which I think for women in particular and just people in general, you know, being able to have that flexibility. And don't get me wrong, right? You work for yourself, I'm a solopreneur. We're still working, right? It's still there. Being able to set those boundaries and say, you know what? My kid's sick today, and yes, I have some things to do, but I gotta do this first. And and nobody's gonna tell me that I can't do this. I mean, part of the reasons why I went out on my own, I held a variety of accounting jobs. I've been in the public accounting world, and again, that expectation of what you're supposed to do, and if you buck that system, well, too bad, even though you might get your work done, kind of a thing. But you know, I had two young kids. My youngest suffers from a rare migraine disease. So, like, you know, my older son was going into fifth or sixth grade, my younger son was going into third or fourth. I can't remember, you know, year-wise. And I'm like, I need to be there more for them. So I agree with you, that flexibility. Now, I have my husband who's had his job for over 30 years, right? We had that stability. So me kind of going out on my own didn't hurt us per se. But it again, it's that taking that next step, right? And I'm sure it was very scary for you.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Of course. I mean, especially, you know, when you live in Southern California, rent is an entity unto itself. So I can only imagine that always has to be in your decision-making skills. But it's it's just strange when as a 40-year-old woman, you need to ask permission to, you know, take an hour and a half lunch instead of an hour because your kid has a thing at school. And it's like, I'm grown, I know how to do my job. You need to be able to trust me to do my job rather than being treated like a child. It's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, and and don't get me wrong, corporate world is for some people, corporate world isn't for everybody, right? They're not bashing corporate world. It's just if we find that ability to kind of move out of corporate world, you know, why not? So, from that aspect of then your business, you know, now you're creating this real estate, you know, photography business and reading different things, doing mastermind groups. What is it that kind of finally said, hey, I, you know, reading these books and learning this knowledge about how to run a business from marketing, from the accounting, the finance side of it, the growth side, you know, the scaling side, kind of what sparked you to then create this, you know, women's book club for women in the entrepreneurial space?

SPEAKER_02 7:42

I suddenly realized I knew nothing about personal finance because it all started there. Growing up, my thought was wealth is for a different type of person. Investing is for a different type of person. Knowledge about loopholes when you file your taxes, that's for a different type of person. That's full of.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Although I will tell you the knowledge on taxes, that's where like someone like me comes in as a CPA and a tax professional. Because to be honest, the the tax code's like 700 plus pages long. I don't think there's, I don't believe there's anybody out there now, except for Chat GPT or AI, that would know, right, that that loophole. But it's the idea of where do you go to research it, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Yeah, and it scared me that like am I destined to work and just toll away for pennies for the rest of my life? It's like there's gotta be a better way. So I started listening to books about personal finance. And I started with Dave Ramsey, and I have since grown to realize not my cup of tea at all.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

And there's nothing wrong with that, right? It's he does have a very valuable insight on things, but it it might not be the way it works for you, and there's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

And I really wanted to hear financial advice from women for women, because women have a very different perspective on how finances work in the family. Women are the ones who are going to be the single parents figuring out how to make ends meet without child support coming in, things like that. So I started consuming personal finance books. You know, I'd be photographing a house. I'm in these houses by myself, anyways. So I'd have my headphones on listening to an audiobook. I'd take the dogs for a walk, listening to an audiobook, things like that. And I started to realize this isn't for someone else, this is for me. And I just need to have my mind open and be willing to ask, what don't I know? Right. Who does know? And be willing to be like, I never want to be the smartest person in the room. I want to be in a room full of brilliant people and glom off of them. What can you teach me?

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Right. And I think you make a very valid point there that I think people don't realize, and especially women, and if they don't talk about it, right? That's kind of why I'm doing the podcast too, trying to do more women education, financial literacy, and why you're doing what you're doing is we have something in common, or if we don't know, maybe somebody else knows that. So that's why we need to have these conversations. We have to have the conversations to encourage and build that confidence. And then no, I'm not the only one that like is bringing in money, but like I don't see the profit at the end of the day because I've got to spend so much to get myself to move forward, kind of.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Yeah. And operating in community is like the cornerstone of why I wanted to have a book club because I mean, for a few reasons, like women throughout history have never existed as solo. We've always existed as community and helping each other and supporting each other. That's historically how women have always been a part of every tribe. And even when it just comes to like reading a book, there's this thing called the learning pyramid. And if you know you picture a pyramid and it's got the wide bottom and the narrow top, when you read a book, regardless of the topic, it could be business, finance, it could be fiction, you're only retaining 10 to 20% of that content. As soon as you start talking about it and having conversations about the content, you're retaining about 50% of that content. So you get another little level of your triangle. And then when you start implementing it, it goes up to 70%. And then when you start teaching it, you're retaining like 90% of the content. So learning in community, it not just feeds that, you know, social beast that we all need to feed, but it's even just on the selfish side, helping you retain all your information.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Yeah. And I don't think that that actually is selfish. I think it is just the way we should be learning.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Right? I mean, that that absorption. So how did you like your very first one that you did? Was it online? Did you get a group of girlfriends together? Like, what did you do to kind of say, I'm doing this and I'm getting out there and we're gonna talk to women and we're gonna do this?

SPEAKER_02 12:08

I had joined a sort of mastermind group, and it was a coach who had a membership teaching people how to build memberships. And I'm like, that sounds like exactly the type of business model I want to evolve out of photography into. I want something that is a subscription-based business model. And I was like, okay, what can I talk endlessly about? Plants and books. And I'm thinking, books have the power to change the world. So let's talk about books. And I'm already consuming all these business books. So I just started reaching out to women on LinkedIn, women in my networking groups. And I'm like, who out there wants to read, wants to improve, wants to be a part of a community, who wants to mentor and be a mentee? And I got a lot of people saying, Yeah, that sounds great. Let's let's do that. That's awesome. Once I had half a dozen women, it just lit the fire and we put it all together. And our we started with our very first book, October of 24. And we started with the myth, which I thought was the perfect way to launch into a discussion about entrepreneurialism is to read a book about it.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah. Yeah. I I love it. I mean, I'll be very honest. I am not a great book reader. I mean, I do listen more to books on tape. I think it's that finding something that is of interest to me, but also finding that time, right? Because we're running our own businesses. It can be very stressful. But I don't know. Part of me is like, oh, when I get off the call here with you, I might just say, ooh, I'm signing up because, you know, I've been in business for 12 and a half years. I've been in the accounting world for over 30. I have a different set of understanding of running businesses from that aspect. But the marketing, the growth, the scaling is not necessarily my forte. So having these conversations with other women, I think is fabulous. And so from that networking aspect, and you kind of talked about it a little bit, but maybe we can delve a little more in. You know, I network in my local chambers here in Pennsylvania and I do things online with the CPA forum groups and things like that. But what do you feel, or how do you see reading the books, discussing the books, kind of having that interaction as a different way of networking? Like what are you finding as you're doing this?

SPEAKER_02 14:26

In our group, we have all different types of women in different professions. We have people who are creatives, we have people in the medical field, we have people who are in banking. And because of that, everyone is taking different little nuggets of wisdom from the book. And, you know, what the person in banking takes is going to be very different than probably what the photographer takes out of the book. And so that conversation lets a lot of layering happen, like, oh, I hadn't thought about that, or I know a little bit about this topic, but I don't know about this topic. And so it's forming these friendships within the group of people who could one have great conversations together, and two, benefit from each other's knowledge and also services. We had a call a couple months back where the conversation just kind of led to personal branding and SEO and your website and how you present yourself. And one of the ladies in the group was a web designer. And so the conversation naturally flowed to she was saying, Well, when I have my clients, I coach them this way, I coach them this way. And the other person was like, Oh, I kind of need your services. So it just is an organic way to network without the smarmy, salesman-y, here's my business card side of it. It allows for that natural.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

There is a lot of that, right? There really is. There is a lot of that. Yeah, it's interesting. Like I have been to some networking events and I'm just like, ooh. And like the thing that I do enjoy, especially with my chambers that I'm involved in, they do have women in networking events, right? So they do try to take that element out. But but it is different when you are walking around a room wanting to talk about your business, handing a business card, and then you're here, you're talking about the book and kind of how does it relate to you as the business person in your business and relate to other people. I think that's so fascinating.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

It helps to build a feeling of know, like, and trust. Because I know if you are, first of all, I know you're a real human. We're on Zoom, I see your face, we're having this conversation, but also just seeing that yes, you are struggling with a thing makes you relatable. If you came across as superhuman and knew how to do everything, is that really someone you're gonna want to always do business with? If you don't feel like you can identify with them, like you want to see a little bit of yourself in the people you choose to give your money to.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Yeah, I I agree. I mean, I think it's interesting. So is this in every month or every quarter? How often are you guys reading your books and having these discussions?

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Well, we meet every month on Zoom. So what we do is we vote on a book. You can add your book selections, like say you got a great recommendation about a book. You add your book selections at, oh, I'd like to read this as a group. And then we go in and vote. And the winning book is what we choose for the next month. Everyone goes, reads it on their own. We have a Facebook group. So that way if you have questions or want to um rant a little bit at whether you liked it or didn't like it, it's a great place to have conversation with each other's sort of impromptu. And then we come together once a month on Zoom to have these discussions. We intentionally keep it on Zoom so that way we are not limited to you know our little bubble here in Boise. Right. When we can get, you know, a more of a variety of locations and industries and types of women, that's when we're gonna have more learning opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, it is interesting. And I think, you know, living in all parts of the country and then being able to come because, you know, each state has some different regulations when it comes to running your business or what whether you register or not, things like that. And I've come across, like I said, in the last 12 and a half years, I really have been focusing, I'd say in the last five years, small business owners, entrepreneurs, trying to focus more on women because I think there is that need out there. And people who come to me that just don't realize X, Y, Z from an accounting standpoint. But I'm like, there's not everything that I know. So you should talk to a lawyer about this. You should talk, you know, like there are things that are important um in that regard. So what, you know, having that conversation being a powerful learning tool, what do you find? You know, have the women been pretty consistent? Are you finding that it's pretty much the same group or people are coming going because of time too? But like what they're taking out of this?

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Um, obviously, not everyone comes to every Zoom because, you know, life. Right. But um there are definitely a few people in the group who are more consistent and more attentive. And that I mean, but that's in every aspect of life. There's just people who show up differently for different roles in their day, and that's fine. The content is still out there for the people who aren't as active and they're still a part of the Facebook group. They're still seeing my posts and my videos talking about you know the nuts and bolts of a book.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

Because I mean, you said you've been doing this since about 2024, so you probably have gone through what, about 12 books now?

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Yeah, I think we're on 14 or 15 right now. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

So yeah, and it's been a nice variety too. Is there ever anybody that says, I want to go back and read this particular book and I want to have, you know, put that in the books to be voted on for the next month? Because if you guys started a year, year and a half ago and you're learning different things, do you find that they tend to want to go back to see where's that growth, right? From reading a book, you know, you talk about that interaction of a book over, you know, just going and doing the work or meeting somebody in person. Like, can you even see that growth if they're saying, I want to go back to this book because this book had XYZ kind of a thing?

SPEAKER_02 20:11

So far, it's not come up yet about revisiting a particular book because thankfully there are so many great things. There are about all the things we're interested in. And someone asked me the other day, do you ever worry about that you're gonna run out of books? Never, never. Not in this space.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

I I agree with you. In the entrepreneurial business space, in the accounting, marketing space, I don't think you're gonna run out of books. I think for some of those books, it's relevancy of the timing, right? Yeah. And and how does all that play, especially with more technology, especially with AI?

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Like, how does all that, you know, we will definitely kind of revisit the topics of a book, like just through natural conversation. Um, we read a book very early on in Book Club called Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud. He gave the analogy of a rose bush and how sometimes you have to prune away the buds to let the other ones flower to their best ability. And meaning, like, sometimes you have to let go of the things in life or the people in your life that aren't serving you the best so that you can make room for the things that will be amazing. And we read this book probably a year ago, and then just maybe two or three months ago, one of the ladies in book club, um, we were at an event, and she comes up to me and she goes, Do you remember that book about the rosebush? She goes, I did it, I implemented, I pruned. And she was telling me all about how you know she had removed someone from her life who was very negative. And so the conversations definitely come full circle down the road. Yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

I just think it's so neat that you've got women coming from different industries, different areas of the country. As you guys are talking, is there one business or money myth that you have seen yourself kind of the question coming through from the women? What would that myth be? You know, holding women back and Kind of what was the discovery from that myth of what the women and you were all like, oh wait, you know, that is really a myth.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

A really big one was a couple months ago, we read, oh, it was Denise Duffield Thomas. She's a money mindset coach from Australia. The book was a little more on the woo-woo side, and it was all about your mindset. And I was really surprised. The common trope that came through was it first started out, I'm not good with money, which I think is just a mindset that a lot of women will default to because we are not taught about money and those conversations are not existing at home when we're kids. Another mindset was I don't deserve money. And while that was never blatantly said, there's always kind of that underlying tone of, oh, I'm just not good with it. I let my husband handle it. Right. I I'm just gonna offer my services for cheaper. So those mindsets definitely changed when conversations started happening. When you know someone came in and was like, Oh, I'm just gonna offer my services for dirt cheap. Well, then you're a commodity and that's all you will ever be judged on is your price. You know, so having other women in your corner who've maybe been through the thing before who've had experience with it, who can lend words of wisdom to other women newer in business is a huge mindset shift.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

It is. And and you know, there are people that are going, oh, the whole mindset, the whole mindset thing, but it really is a mindset. Oh, it's it really is talking about not apologizing for why you set your prices, why you run your business the way you do, because it's your business. It might not be the norm, right? I don't do things that a normal accounting firm would do as it relates to working with my clients. Nothing wrong with that. I just I have a different approach. And a lot of accounting firms are starting to realize that actually working with your clients, it you know, the concept of not throwing out all these accounting terms and just saying, but I got this, right? Having that conversation, bringing them into it. But it is true that it's those myths of I'm not good enough with money, I'm gonna let my husband handle it. Well, the problem with that is if your spouse leaves you, your spouse passes away, then women are stuck. And I know this because I have been working with women trying to help them get unstuck. And then the shame that comes with that. And so I think reading these books, reading and understanding that from a business perspective and personal, right? There's some personal finance in there as well. Oh, sure. It it sounds like you're, you know, the women in your group, you're you're all kind of like agreeing and growing and and holding each other accountable too. I'm sure there's a lot of that.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

That was a big part of our call last week. We finished up the book Profit First last week. Okay. And um it was very new to a lot, the concept of it was very new to a lot of the women because it's it's opposite of how we are ever taught about money. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

100%. And it and here's the interesting thing. I really I got through halfway through the book because I, again, my brain with the being accountant, but the concepts of it are actually truly amazing to a degree. Yeah. Now, I don't follow it as strictly as as the book said or or the author said, and and I actually somebody was talking about it at a um business networking event that was in Philadelphia, the small business expo. But it is intriguing, even from an accountant standpoint, of huh, hadn't even thought of it that way.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah. Well, and then that goes with a lot of the books too. And um, we had a guest on the call, his name is James Rich. Him and his wife have a um money coaching business, and he said this great phrase, and it applies to all the books eat the chicken, spit out the bones. Not everything needs to apply to you all the time. Take the good, take the useful, and if it doesn't apply, or if it's not your jam, or you don't align with that with your values, leave that to the side. That's fine. It's not always a hundred percent gonna be for you. Right. But it it was really great because at the end of that call, talking about profit first, it was the first time we said, okay, what are our action items? And everybody stepped up and said, Okay, over the next two weeks, this is what I'm going to do. And it was all very specific lists of tasks, and it was different for everyone, you know, depending on where we are with our business and our financial literacy. But it was great because having that specific thing that is said out loud, it makes it real when you say it out loud. It does. You know, when there's the recording lives, and we can go back and hold each other accountable and be like, hey, did you do that thing? Oh no, I didn't, but I really need to. Yes, you do. Yeah. Having a group of women to hold you accountable to do the good thing. 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

And and I agree. And and I can say from the profit first model, you know, especially for entrepreneurs and business owners, the concept is really intriguing when it's saying basically pay yourself first and save, put money away for saving, investing, and then you cover all your expenses. And that's an overview. I mean, there's a whole process and a formula and and all that. But it is intriguing for people in the business world that aren't financially up to par, like myself as an accountant, would have things, but to go, wow, like I would have never thought about that, right? I would, you know, I've got to make sure I'm bringing in the money to pay my bills. Well, yeah, you do, but what about you?

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Because that's again, it's a mindset thing. When you see you have $100,000 in your bank account, you're thinking, oh, that's amazing. I have $100,000 to spend on product or advertising or whatever. No, you don't. You still have to pay yourself, you still have to come up with money for taxes. Yeah. And then the last thing should be I've got instead of a hundred thousand dollars to spend my money on, okay, no, I've got thirty thousand dollars. When you look at a smaller plate, you're naturally going to restrain and budget to accommodate that smaller plate.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

100%.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

100%. It's the same thing with when uh people who are like nutritionists are telling you the trick to losing weight is to use smaller dinner wear. You know, it's it's the exact same concept.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Right, right. It it it is it is actually, yeah. I think about it, it probably would be pretty similar. Um, are there any books that had besides you know, you talk about you just did Profit First and this other book, but is there any particular book that has really stood out for you as a business owner that has helped you and that maybe you have read it or you guys are still putting it in the pool to be read?

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Sure. There's there's been a couple. There was The Wealth of Connection by Vincent Puglusi, and he's actually the one who I was mentioning who had the membership teaching memberships. Oh, nice. And he talks all about forming genuine connections with people and opening up and having conversations rather than being the smarmy salesman with your business card out. But once you have those conversations and you build a network of real life people that you genuinely like and who like you and understand what you do, the money will come later, the clients will come later. You first have to build those real life connections. And it's so true. Like think about when you go to these networking events and you see people you know and you know a little bit about them, those are the people you're gravitating towards, not the guy with the stack of business cards in his hand. The emyth, again, that was a business definer book, um, all about how a lot of people will leave a corporate job. And it was my mindset too, like, I know how to do a thing. Great, I'm gonna go do that thing. Well, that's very different from owning a business. 100%. Being the worker bee is not the same as 100% being the queen bee.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Right. And and and it's interesting you bring that up because that is something through this podcast. And also I've been working on and creating consultations and workshops for small business owners, for women to have these conversations of it's great you want you have something you want to do, a business, and you want to do whatever it is you're talented in and your expertise, but there's this business to it. Like you can't just go out and shoot pictures, you've got to figure out the marketing. How do you get the wording out, the pricing? And that, you know, that area with pricing can be very scary, I think, for anybody going out on their own.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Because our natural reaction is to commodify ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Yeah. And and I'll be honest, when I first started 12 and a half years ago, I was very low in my pricing.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

And I have gotten to a point now, you know, my clients that I've had for 12 years, they've slowly been increasing. Because I, you know, I'm not gonna like say, oh, now you owe me like another $500 a year. Like I'm I'm really cognizant of my clients who've been with me for years. But anybody that's new, I'm like, this is my price.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

And it's not because I'm trying to be greedy, it's because of that experience, right? That learned experience of I should be my experience of you know, being a photographer, doing what you do, I should be compensated for that and not your ability to problem solve.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

A great person that talks about that was a hundred million dollar offers by Alex Hermozzi. Okay. And he talks about creating an offer where you are not competing on price, you are not even in the same ballpark as your competitors. You're offering something so unique that you can't compare same for same. Like, have you ever gone to a mattress store? Yeah. Yes, I have. That was about four years ago. So yes. This one is $1,000, but this one is twelve hundred dollars. Why is it different? You can never compare apples to apples because the language they use is different, the brand names are different. So it's sort of that same kind of concept. Like when you can't compare just on price, you're setting yourselves apart and you're creating something that has real tangible value.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

Right. It's the value proposition of your business. What you know, what is it that you can offer uh in that regard? So is there anything else you'd love to share with my listeners about what you have really learned or transformed since you started this, you know, the book club and working with women, you know, all over the United States?

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Women need community. 100%. 1000% we need community. And in different aspects, whether it's you're a religious person and you need you need a religious community, that's one thing. Or you need uh other women that you have similar hobbies and crafts and things like that with. But we all need a community where we become better people, where we help and where we are willing to be helped. When we can form those communities of learning and growth and self-improvement, women will do amazing things. I agree. For themselves, for other women, for the community at large. When women have access to those types of resources, there's literally just no limit as to what we can accomplish.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

I 100% agree. I'm I'm part of a group of women accountants. We meet once a month and we talk different uh topics, and we have somebody that leads the program. And it is amazing. We come from all walks of life, how we got into accounting, where we're at now, and that support. It's not reading a book per se. We're doing workbooks, but we're not reading about businesses. But I think, you know, through what you have been able to provide, gives women just that sense of, you know, um confidence and and no shame and like we're all welcome in in that regard.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

It's essential for building confidence. I agree. It's unfortunately something that it seems like is really knocked down in young girls is confidence. And it it does not get better easily. You really have to put in the legwork to build your confidence up. You know, forget being a normal level, but to get your confidence to be working for you, it's a lot of work. And when you have other women uplifting you and teaching you, it's so much easier.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

And you find that through these books and through this, that that that whole world is it's elevated, I guess, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Yeah, it is. And when you can be vulnerable with your group, it's life-changing. Um, we did that money mindset book we did a few months ago. We were having our Zoom call, and a lot of women really opened up about some personal, you know, baggage that they were carrying and tears were shed. But after, you know, okay, let's have our moment to cry ore, but then let's build a bridge to walk over it.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

Yeah, yeah. I love it. I love it. Is there anything else you'd like to share? And also any call to action and how we can find you.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

On the website, SheReadsSheLeads.com. Obviously, you can join book club from there. Uh, and I will even happily give a free complimentary first month when you sign up with a promo code SheLeads30, all in caps. Okay, and I'll have that all in the in the you know description. On the website, there's a place where you can go and download a list of must-read books. It's the top three books across six different categories. So things like personal finance, these are the books you need to read, wealth building, networking, um, outsourcing, all the building blocks of being an entrepreneur, but also just the essentials of being a smart woman and having intelligent conversations with other women. Yeah. Yeah. You need to start from a base because if you don't go out and seek this knowledge, it's not just gonna suddenly magically be in your head. Right. So um, and that it's a it's a free guide and it's a great, great place to start.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Well, I will have to to to get myself back into the like I said, it's not that I don't want to read. I just, you know, right now it's tax season. I'm crazy, I'm busy, but you know, having an audio book to listen, uh, and and I work out of my house now, so I'm not driving to my office anymore. I I gave up the office I had after six years, and so I'm home. So I'm not leaving the house as much.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

But also, it's it's helpful to realize that some of the books are hard to digest. Yeah, some of them are mathy, and like when when I was listening to um Prophet First, there was I listened to the audiobook, and there's a part where he's talking about XL spreadsheets and XL D3 and C2, and I'm I'm like, I I can't visualize what that means. Right. So sometimes you're not gonna absorb everything, you're just gonna listen to it. Yes, sometimes some of them are repetitive, sometimes it could have been a pamphlet, and that's fine, right? But get the gist of it. I love it. It could have been women to talk to them about.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Right, right. But this has been wonderful. I mean, it just has opened up a whole nother level of networking and connection and helping women understand that there are those of us out here, right? We we have a lot of entrepreneurs who are women in the space that have either gone through what you are probably going through now, or maybe they haven't gone through something that you're going through now that that kind of can give that advice. So, Jen, this has been wonderful. I really love having you on your financial meeting.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Thank you so much for having me. This has been so fun. I love talking with other women about all things money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

It's great, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 37:15

It really is. We do amazing amazing things when we have money. 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not meant to resolve your specific financial needs or situations. Please consult with your CPA, tax, or financial professionals.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Your financial Maven is hosted and produced by Samantha M. Besnov, CPA, and your Financial Maven LLC. Editing is done by Chris Starnock of KMZen Creative. Music is written, composed, and performed by Daniel Shore.