I'm Val! Coach for creatives
like you who are ready to be healthier, happier and more empowered women who love the business you run, the people you serve and the life you live!
007: My Journey to Building a Profit First Business ft. Kiana Anderson
Financial literacy isn’t built into our brains—most of us actually hate it because we don’t understand it. In today’s conversation, my friend Kiana Anderson interviews me about my own story, how I pivoted my business, and the impact that Profit First has made in my life. If you’ve ever wondered how someone who wasn’t good at math to become a coach and educator on business, finances, and money, this is the story!
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this episode is brought to you by my Define Your Success worksheet.
If you’re ready to finally stop chasing someone else’s version of success + want to live the life and business that was meant for you, you need this worksheet!
For industry meetups, do you prefer morning coffee or cocktail hour? Morning coffee.
AirPods or Over-the-head Boze Headphones? AirPods
Email Inbox at Zero or Letting Them Hang Out? Inbox zero is my happy place, but that doesn’t happen.
Barefoot or shoes? Socks, slippers, or shoes—I feel better when I’m wearing shoes.
Work from Desk or Bed/Couch? Desk.
Binge watch or no distractions while working? No distractions.
How many bottles of liquid are on your desk at once? 1 or 2
Does date night include business talk or not? Yes
While I’ve never shared this online, I want to be super transparent with my podcast audience. I have had to be super detailed and aware of my cashflow for the past year, because generally I have not made the consistent sales I needed in order to always pay myself. I’ve been working on m course and using cash reserves to focus on that, which has come down to the wire to making it work for what I’m marketing in business.
Right now, I feel like I have a very real understanding of what to do when you’re down to the wire in your finances for business.
While I definitely started early with my entrepreneurial career, I believe a lot of it started from my childhood. My dad was in sales while owning his own business—he essentially coached others. This is interesting to look at what I now do in my own business. At that point though, I didn’t look at photography or coaching as a business I could build.
My mom helped manage the finances at home while she was a stay at home mom.
Ironically, when I look back on my childhood and time in school, I cried the most about math homework, I avoided it, and I also got my first C in math. I spent most of my life avoiding numbers and math. While I did learn how to manage money, it wasn’t a strength. Now I’ve found a way to love managing money and teach others how to as well.
I learned photography through a job as a photographer at a newspaper my freshman year of college. The actually teach you how to use a camera in the simplest manner, then send you out on assignment. In that job, I knew I loved photography. When I started my photography journey in college, I started to see the opportunity of building a business and never considered anything else.
Ultimately, I had to take a full-time job right out of college while my husband finished college (as he did the same for me my senior year). While I loved the people that worked there and the company itself, I hated working for someone else. This started a season of discontent and frustration in my career. I was ready to go full-time in my business.
In the first five years, I had a hopeful naivety where I didn’t realize how much time I was putting in for how little I was making. Out of necessity, I started paying attention to my numbers. I had misunderstood how to charge and pay sales tax. We hired an accountant who SAVED us. I had to learn how to manage cashflow, which led me to develop the first Client Job Expense Log, which is exclusive to my course students.
My husband, Mark, handled our personal budget back then and helped me tackle this head first to get my business numbers right.
Between photography and coaching, I did have a part-time job as I was pivoting. When I quit my job, and was just figuring out what my business would be, I got a Facebook ad for becoming a business coach.
About 6 months after I took the course for becoming a business coach, I read Profit First. Mark’s boss actually had him read Profit First and he told me I needed to read it too. Mark helped translate a lot of the caveats that didn’t necessarily make sense to me beyond the concept.
That next month, I started paying myself $500/month and began creating my different bank accounts. Profit First simply made sense in what we were doing. We started building spreadsheets to solve every question we ran into.
Now, I’ve pivoted my business to align with helping others explore their finances and build a business that works for them. We as business owners are so much more capable than we think we are—sometimes we just need guidance on how to get there.
After I started Profit First, I had two children and maternity leaves, quadrupled my income, and never took a pay cut. Profit First gave me the clarity in my finances that helped me build a better, more sustainable business that supports my family.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Connect with Val
Instagram: @val_marlene_creative
Val: Guys, I am so excited for you to meet one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, Kiana. She actually was a client of mine a few years ago and then just quickly became a close friend and.
Just one of my favorite biz besties in the whole world. So what’s fun about this conversation today is, I have no idea what’s going to happen. Really. There’s like a few little things I know, but the point here is just to give you guys a window into my soul and my story. And really my hope and what I told Kiana is I want you all to feel like.
I am just a very normal, not good at math person. Maybe the, you know, you wouldn’t necessarily expect me to be teaching what I’m teaching because I want you to feel like you can do it too because it’s relatable and just real life. So, we’re just gonna get to know me and I’m gonna hand it off to Kiana.
She’s gonna, she’s gonna, uh, Ask me juicy questions and we’re just going to tell it all.
Kiana Anderson: Yes. Okay. I love this. Hello, everyone. okay. So I am going to just start by just a quick rapid fire. This person who comes to your mind, these are not hard questions. This is just like for fun. Okay. So kind of this or that. So if there was an industry meetup, I think I know your answer to this. Actually, I don’t basically know your answer.
So I should not say that. Um, if there was like an industry meetup, would you prefer like a morning coffee or like an evening cocktail hour in the
Val: Morning coffee for sure. I do not like the taste of alcohol. Like I don’t think alcohol in and of itself is bad, but I just don’t like it.
Kiana Anderson: Me neither. I’m like, give me a Coke. That sounds
Val: Yes.
Kiana Anderson: Okay. Uh, AirPods or over the head Bose speakers?
Val: Airpods. I, it just like messes with my head, you know?
Kiana Anderson: Yes. The hair, your hair’s always perfect. So that makes sense. Okay. Do you prefer a, like email inbox to be at zero or do you let it like Emails that you need to pay attention to and haven’t responded to for a while, like, archive, and like, hang out in your inbox.
Okay!
Val: Well, there’s a difference between what it is currently and where I want it to be. Um, Inbox zero is my happy place. I have not been at inbox zero for a very long time because
Kiana Anderson: I think that gives us
Val: the way that my life is right now.
Kiana Anderson: okay. There’s no shame in that answer. Okay, are you usually barefoot while working, or do you have to have, like, socks or slippers or something? Give us the status of your feet. Oh,
Val: socks or slippers. But I feel better about working and more alive if I’m wearing shoes.
Kiana Anderson: this is so interesting! Okay, I didn’t know that about
Val: I mean, it’s just kind of like, you know,
Kiana Anderson: like getting ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Okay. I’m a big slipper scale too. Okay. Are you a work from desk exclusively or will you sometimes work from a bed or couch? Or do you have a preference?
For
Val: I, it was very much a, like, I just how I’m feeling. And especially during that time of the month, I was probably working from the couch at some point, but now I’m almost exclusively from my desk.
And part of that is I have a big monitor now that it just makes life so much easier. And so I don’t really love just being on my laptop anymore.
Kiana Anderson: Totally, totally. okay. Do you binge watch things while you’re working or are you like, I have to shut off all distractions?
Val: Oh, I can’t handle anything
Kiana Anderson: I feel like everyone who follows you would
Val: well, my, my work, I tell people like my work is brain work. So I literally like your brain actually is incapable of multitasking. That’s not a real thing. Um, and so it’s just. I don’t have any work that I can have something on in the background except for music.
Kiana Anderson: Okay, how many bottles of liquid are usually on your desk at one time?
Val: Uh, usually only one or two.
Kiana Anderson: Hmm, nice. That’s very cle clever of you.
Val: well, okay. Part of it is because, after COVID, when I lost my taste, I no longer like pop, soda, pop is what
Kiana Anderson: Like, you still? Right.
Val: No, it still tastes disgusting to me. Coke used to be my favorite thing in the world
Kiana Anderson: You heard me say earlier I love Coke.
Val: Yes. Yes.
Kiana Anderson: sad. Okay. Okay, last one. When you guys go on a date night, you and Mark, do you talk about business or are you like, no, we’re gonna like, no, no business at all?
Val: Oh, we totally talk about business because it’s fun for him. Like he really likes talking about it and, but if I’m having a hard business week, I’ll be like, I don’t want to talk about it.
Kiana Anderson: Yeah, yeah, totally. Okay, so that’s the end of our this or that operation. Okay, we’re gonna start out super juicy here because I think this is really interesting. What is something, if you’re willing to share about you or maybe your life, business, whatever, that you’ve never shared on the internet before?
Val: Yeah. So, this is juicy and like recent. So here we go.
Kiana Anderson: Oh my word!
Val: Um,
Kiana Anderson: to the pod, people!
Val: yes. So I have had to be super, super detailed and aware of my cashflow
Kiana Anderson: Mm
Val: because, Generally, I just have not made like the sales that I really need to consistently. And part of that is in launching a course, my focus has gone solely to the course.
And so the way that I’ve been able to pay myself, like I haven’t taken, even though I’ve made way less money this past year. Then previous years, I was able to keep paying myself because of how many different cash reserves I had. And so even so, like, right now, I think I’m, I’m in, like, the last couple months of those cash reserves and like, really just kind of down to the wire of like, we just got to.
Just got to figure out how to make it work with the change in what I’m marketing and you know capacity for that. So, so I feel like, I have just a very like real on your level understanding of like what to do when you are down to the wire with your cash. And that’s where, I mean, I wasn’t intending to make a plug for this, but I’m serious guys, my financial snapshot is my literal lifesaver peace of mind.
That is
Kiana Anderson: Game changer.
Val: year.
Kiana Anderson: 100%. I’m literally living off that right now, too.
Val: Yeah. Mm.
Kiana Anderson: an exact symbol. Can’t attest. Okay, thanks for sharing that. I know it’s vulnerable to talk about those terms. okay, so bring me back to kind of the beginning. I was going to say like the beginning of your entrepreneurial career, but like, really I want to go like childhood.
Like, tell me about what in your childhood Maybe. When you look back, you’re like, Oh, it makes sense that I ended up either doing what I’m doing or it actually doesn’t make sense that I ended up doing what I’m doing. But like, you know, what you were like as a kid, but also just like your family dynamic.
And did you know about being an entrepreneur? Kind of give me that.
Val: Yeah. So my dad has always owned his own business. He, he was a, a sales guy for a variety of products, but it was still his own business. So it’s a little bit different than like. You know, he wasn’t creating the product necessarily. But he was selling it and, but he did create, he essentially was coaching other people in his field.
Like he had a whole, like multiple week training. So what’s funny is. You know, I, I didn’t even really identify, honestly, till maybe right now that like he was coaching people. So like that was just a part of, I don’t know how I was like grew up around it, but I didn’t even, at that point, I for sure had no idea that coaching was a thing.
And even I didn’t really know that you could do a photography business and. as a job. Like it wasn’t even an option in my mind until college, I think. So, but photography, so anyone who doesn’t know, I started out as a photographer and I started my business in college. And, that makes perfect sense because I was, I was always taking pictures.
I literally remember my first camera. It was like this really thin rectangle teal. camera. And I literally would take my friends, like we would go to my tree house and to trees. Why is it trees? Like, why do we always,
Kiana Anderson: treats or a log pile.
Val: yes, yes. And so I have pictures where we were like, quote, modeling. And, but here’s the best part.
We were wearing bandanas because That was cool. Right? Like, Oh my word. These photos are incredible. They’re so hilarious. So, so that makes sense. It like the creative bent, absolutely makes sense. The business side. I mean, I’ve, I’ve always been, Like somewhat organized. I definitely have like clear memories of, I got to use my dad’s really super old, like super, like two inch thick laptop, as a toy essentially.
And, but get this, I started a newsletter. Called the Allen Cannon News, Allen is my maiden name. Canon was the brand of the computer.
Kiana Anderson: Oh my
Val: I literally produced this newsletter and sent it out to like our extended family.
Kiana Anderson: I bet your family actually loves that. Like, think of now, if like your niece did that, like you’d be like, Oh, I’m absolutely reading every word of this.
Val: yes hundred percent. I’m man. I wish I could like find some old. I wonder if we have them I don’t know. My mom saves a lot of stuff Anyway, so there’s a lot of things that I think it makes sense that I’m an entrepreneur The one thing that makes zero sense is that it’s about money and finances
Kiana Anderson: Yeah. Tell me more about that.
Val: So I, um, got my first C in school in math and I cried the most about math homework and I avoided it like the plague.
I took, a college statistics class while in high school. just so I wouldn’t have to take math in college.
Kiana Anderson: okay. I did that exact thing. That’s super funny.
Val: That is amazing. So like my most of my life was literally like avoiding numbers and math, not necessarily money in general. I mean, that was something that I, I did have to learn how to like manage my own bank account, you know, things like that. But it, but it was never a strength. And so it’s just really funny that No, this is what I’m doing.
Kiana Anderson: Yeah. I mean, it’s interesting when you think about like the way that school happens, like we love to think through the lens of like, Oh, just learn what’s going to be applicable to you later. But it is, it’s proof that like, There is such beauty to, like, the all encompassing, even just, like, the idea of, like, a liberal arts, you know, college or whatever, like, you’re getting, like, this all encompassing education so that, you know, even if, you know, math wasn’t your strength, like being able to handle money and like what that produces for people’s lives and like the coaching bit of that, that’s super cool.
That’s so interesting that you are so bad at math. I think that is just hilarious because I feel like you’ve taught me everything I know about managing my money.
Val: Yeah. But with formulas and spreadsheets, they’re doing the math for me.
Kiana Anderson: well, but that’s proof that it doesn’t really matter what the math,
Val: Exactly.
Kiana Anderson: you know, no, totally. Will you tell me what your mom did? Was she home with you?
Val: Yeah. She stayed home with us and then she was, um, she helped my dad, I think with some of, Some of the finance stuff, but not
Kiana Anderson: Okay.
Val: I don’t even know what I should pay the bills.
Kiana Anderson: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The classic wife to the entrepreneur. That was literally my childhood.
Val: Yeah. Yeah.
Kiana Anderson: too funny. Okay. So fast forward, then you mentioned you started photography business in college. What made you choose to like go that route instead of like, you know, cause you graduate from college.
Val: Yeah. Mm hmm.
Kiana Anderson: Okay, what made you choose to like, work for yourself and do that versus like, get a job with someone else?
Val: Yeah. So I, the way that I learned photography, like legit photography was I, I took a Just applied for a photographer job at our newspaper because they don’t require any experience like they teach you. And, um, well, and they literally taught me in five minutes, I’m not kidding, who explained the main settings to
Kiana Anderson: And now
Val: and literally sent me on my first assignment.
I am not kidding. And that photo was printed in the paper
Kiana Anderson: Oh my goodness, that’s so funny.
Val: And it was one of those like massive, the big square DSLRs, like Oh wow. Yeah. So anyway. I honestly, I think I just fell in love with photography. And I didn’t really consider anything else because that was my freshman year. Like the fall of my freshman year, I think is when I got that job. And so like all throughout all of college, I was just developing that and getting more into it and seeing, just being exposed even to what the world of photography looked like.
And so I never really even considered anything else after that. It was like,
Kiana Anderson: did you ever
consider, did you ever consider not finishing college?
Val: No. Oddly enough. I don’t know. That wasn’t really, uh, I don’t think that was quite as common yet
Kiana Anderson: Right, right. Yeah, that’s fair. Okay, so then kind of give me, walk me through like the initial years of your photography Maybe give me, like, a temp check on, like, the health of yourself and your business and, yeah.
Val: Yeah. So I feel like the first, probably the first five years were like, I definitely had that hopeful, naive, like I can do this photographer attitude. And just, I don’t think I realized. Like I didn’t know at that point, like how much time I was putting in for how little I was making and really how hard, honestly, it was going to be and how long it was going to take.
And so, but I did end up, I had to take a day job. I had to do a full time job right out of college, because my husband and I essentially flip flopped. We got married my senior year in the fall. So I skipped, I just. didn’t do that semester, because I had enough credits to graduate still in the spring.
But so he worked that year. And didn’t continue school that year while I finished. And then I worked while he finished his degree.
Kiana Anderson: I didn’t
Val: I had to do a day job and, and I hated, I hated it. It was a really great, really great place to work. Like people, especially now, like everybody wants to work there. Great culture and all of that.
And honestly, I feel like. There, there are even things about that job that I think really set me up for where I ended up going in my business. Like it was, I had to do a lot with numbers and spreadsheets and, and teaching. Like I was literally teaching this program to our clients. And
Kiana Anderson: Yeah. What was your degree in again?
Val: journalism.
Kiana Anderson: Okay. Okay. I know where you’re at.
Val: not not related. Yeah. So it was just like, There was a lot of just being naive, but then once I had that day job, I was just like, get me out of here. Like, all I want to do is be my own boss and do photography. And so that started, I would say, a not great season of just discontent and, just frustration with where I was at.
Kiana Anderson: Yeah, so what, tell me then, was it when you, okay, I’m thinking through the lens of like when profit first made its way into your life. Tell me, was that during when you were a photographer or was that when you were, when you had already pivoted?
Val: Um,
Kiana Anderson: Because if it’s after,
Val: same time that I pivoted.
Kiana Anderson: Oh, wow, okay, really interesting.
Okay, so then,
Val: yeah, there’s a lot of like, I had to learn a lot of things while I was still a photographer. It’s like first iterations of my spreadsheets happened actually before Profit First. Um, so
Kiana Anderson: out of necessity or did somebody like tell you you need this?
Val: No, out of necessity because bad things happened. So
Kiana Anderson: more!
Val: yes, essentially there was, I owed, I got a letter from the IRS where they said I owed like 7, 000 in, in taxes.
And I think actually, I think it was sales tax. So maybe it wasn’t the IRS. It was like the revenue department of revenue. So I didn’t realize I was supposed to be charging sales tax. Their estimate was, you know, a high estimate, but it was still a bunch of money I didn’t have. And,
Kiana Anderson: Were you saving for taxes at all, or this was just like more than what you had saved?
Val: I don’t think I, I don’t think I was.
Kiana Anderson: Yeah.
Val: Yeah. Cause I, I only had the one bank account. I think I just had like a checking and a savings. Maybe. I don’t even
Kiana Anderson: Which, like, normally when you have that, oh my goodness, that’s so classic. That’s so, like, everyone, that’s how everyone starts. That’s literally
how it is,
Val: we all start there. So I, that was a big kick in the pants. That was when we finally stopped doing our taxes ourselves. We got a tax accountant. He ended up, this is a total God thing. He ended up redoing our taxes for us for the past, like three years and got us about the same amount of money back as I had owed.
Yeah. Yeah.
Kiana Anderson: Bless the captains! Right.
Val: is a special course only spreadsheet. the client job expense log that first iteration came when I didn’t have the money for the album. And I was like, okay, I need to have a list of all of my clients and how much money I’m going to need to spend in the future so that I don’t spend that money.
Okay,
Kiana Anderson: how much do you feel like Mark played into the, I want to say like chutzpah behind like the idea of like we have this problem, let’s actually like find a solution and not just like go pay for it somewhere or, or hire someone, but like, let’s like literally make a spreadsheet for you to like make this better in the future.
Val: so this is where I’m going to sound really old. Either I was unaware, or there truly was just less out there as far as resources. And especially if we’re talking spreadsheets,
Kiana Anderson: that was not it. Yeah.
Val: there, I don’t know anybody who was, you know, Doing spreadsheets, financial spreadsheets at that point. And like the, I think this is like still kind of somewhat early days of Instagram.
Kiana Anderson: Well, I was just gonna say, yeah, even on Instagram, it wasn’t an educator like phenom like it is now.
Val: It’s a completely different world. So I didn’t even think to look for something because that wasn’t a thing.
Kiana Anderson: Yeah.
Val: It was just, okay, well, what can we do
Kiana Anderson: Yeah.
Val: to make this happen? There were, there were educators, but it was mostly like you went to a conference. Or a workshop in person or something. And so, yeah, it was just different.
So he
Kiana Anderson: Was he, was he a part of that, like, conversation of, like, let’s find a solution? Or were you, like, I’m kind of, he’s doing his own thing, and I’m, like, struggling figuring this, like, business problem out myself? Mm
Val: I, to be completely honest, do not remember, but what I know of us is we’ve always just like tackled everything together. Like we’re very much a team and how we deal with things. I seem to have like some memory in my head of creating that spreadsheet on my own, but the like conversation around it, he was definitely involved in.
And he definitely was the one that like did our personal budget back then and was just better at that stuff. So yeah, I’m pretty sure he was a part of it, but I think. That very first spreadsheet. I was the one who put it together. And I mean, it was not pretty.
Kiana Anderson: No, right, right, right. Well, it’s just even interesting, like, I think, just the sweet reminder always of, like, The season of you having to face the reality of not having money for an album that somebody already paid for, like that is freaking hard. Like that is a stressful, probably, I’m going to guess a top 10, like hardest moment of like owning a business.
But then to think that like, God used that for you to like, out of necessity, make something that is now like literally what you make your living doing. Like what a gift of that season. And just the idea that like, none of it is wasted. It’s all, yeah, that’s so just, mmm.
Val: Yeah.
Kiana Anderson: you, God. So cool. What led you to wanting to pivot at all?
Cause you went from photography to business coaching. Is that right? You didn’t have anything in between. What made you want to pivot?
Val: Actually, I guess technically I did have some things in between. It’s a really funny story. so there’s a couple of things here. First, I was not like wildly successful in my photography business. I was, I did okay. Like generally somewhat known in my local industry. I
Kiana Anderson: It’s mostly weddings. Okay.
Val: mostly weddings.
I think the most weddings I had in a year was. 17, I think,
Kiana Anderson: mean, that’s a lot of weddings.
Val: yeah, but I mean, you hear about people who like did 30 weddings their second year and you’re like, I worked so hard to get to 17, but anyway, it was just not, it really just wasn’t fulfilling. And I think like what I’ve boiled it down to is I don’t think it was using enough of my strengths.
And so it felt like I was spending so much time, like there was such a small percentage of the work that I really enjoyed and was energized by
Kiana Anderson: Yep.
Val: that. I was just burning out. I was like, this is just, it’s, it’s just gonna put me in a bad place. Like I have to change something. And so, um, So I, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
Kiana Anderson: Right. That’s always the key.
Val: yeah. So here’s the really like unsexy process of me even going full time in my business. This is all happening at the same time. So I, I decide that photography. Is not it, but I don’t know what is and at the same time, I go to a part time job instead of full time we had like worked our budget around, like allowing me to work less, like make less.
So I did a part time job that was like, I think I did it for maybe a year. And then I scaled back to a even less hours, more flexibility, part time job.
Kiana Anderson: Okay.
Val: And all this time, we are just cutting our budget back and Mark was starting to make a little bit more money, but it wasn’t, so it wasn’t that I was super wildly successful, that is why I went full time in my business.
Kiana Anderson: Yep, that’s gold for everyone to listen to, because that is huge. I think everybody assumes everybody else, like, strikes gold immediately,
Val: right, no, and even that like going full time doesn’t necessarily mean that
Kiana Anderson: making a huge salary. That’s great. Thank you.
Val: yeah. So I quit that, like the final part time job I quit and was just like self employed. in December and then the following, like within, within a month or two of me quitting that job, I got a Facebook ad for becoming a business coach.
Like it just
Kiana Anderson: When you quit, you were like, I’m just gonna be an entrepreneur, like, what did you, where were you even gonna, how are you gonna make money? Did you have any ideas?
Val: I still had like some weddings that hadn’t happened yet, but we were just planning to live off of Mark’s income
Kiana Anderson: While you figured it out.
Val: while I figured it out.
Kiana Anderson: Okay. Wow, that’s like, mind blowing. It’s actually great. I feel like you like to know what’s ahead.
Val: Oh, oh, oh yeah. Yeah. So, so I didn’t know. And during that year, I tried a bunch of different things. I did some graphic design. I did some kind of VA type work. I planned a couple weddings. I did floral. I’m not kidding you. Like I dabbled into floral a little bit. Like I was just like, what am I doing?
What do I want to do?
Kiana Anderson: my oyster. Yeah.
Val: Um, but none of them were it, like they just weren’t it. And so then when I got that Facebook ad, like this is interesting. Cause I, this, I’m kind of making it sound like I couldn’t, you know, make my business work. And so I became a coach. Like I was able to
Kiana Anderson: you were doing it.
Val: yes, to make it work for what it was.
And I had been actually helping other people in more of like mentorships of in the, just like functioning and surviving as a wedding photographer. And so there wasn’t a lot of money involved in that. It was more like client experience and work life balance type of thing. so it was like, photography was my in with people and the industry, but I didn’t want to keep doing the photography piece.
I just wanted to coach the people. So, so I didn’t, I thought of. Being a photography educator as like Caitlin James, I did not think at that point or know about anyone really, who was just a coach
Kiana Anderson: Right
for like things that aren’t like learning how to use your camera.
Val: right, I thought I would have to do both, like be kind of be both. So then when I got this Facebook ad. It was just like, Oh, this is interesting. And we’re just, we’re just, I’m just going to tell you guys, I spent 4, 000 on this coaching program to become a coach.
Kiana Anderson: Whoa.
Val: I look, man, I look at that now. And I think about like what was provided to me.
There was a lot of like, there was good feedback and like, Some hands on stuff, but like the the quality level of even like the PDFs and things. I’m like man People have a hard time paying four thousand now for way better
Kiana Anderson: Wow. That’s so, but also the market was less saturated,
Val: yes. Oh
Kiana Anderson: know? So that’s probably a big piece of it. Okay. So give me a little bit more introduction into like, when did profit first become like, not just spreadsheets, but like the way you handled your money in your business?
Val: Yeah, so okay So that so I was just saying I quit and went full time in December January. I Learned about the coaching that like January February had my first coaching session in February I June or July is when I read Prophet first. So
Kiana Anderson: you read the book first
Val: yeah,
Kiana Anderson: and did you, does somebody like give it to you or did you just like find it? Or how did that happen?
Val: so
Kiana Anderson: on your nightstand?
Val: Mark’s boss at the time who, so Mark works at our church and his, his boss was, he was a pastor in our church, but he also had a side business, um, completely unrelated. And he was told about the book and I think he like started to read it or something but didn’t really have time and also he just always asked Mark to read books and tell him what they said.
Um, because Mark loves to do that. So he told us about it and then Mark read it and it was like, you need to read this. I read it. And then we just started doing it. Like we just implemented it like right away. So I started paying myself that July 500 a month.
Kiana Anderson: Wow.
Val: And that was, at that point, there was some photography work left, but it was mostly one on one coaching.
Kiana Anderson: Wow. Did you, was anyone else in your life, like, I think about people who are like, maybe like, starting to learn about profit first for the first time and like, Maybe their spouse or their accountant or their best friend are like, or industry peers like that’s like a lot and like you can do something else similar and get the same results.
So called, you know, what was that the case for you? Or was it just like, the fact that you and Mark were both on page with it that I was like, let’s just do this. Or did you have any negative, like, voices with that transition?
Val: I really didn’t. And part of it is that I don’t know that we really asked anybody.
Kiana Anderson: Right?
Val: I mean, because we were on the same page and we’re like, this just makes sense. Like, why
Kiana Anderson: mean, your spouse being on the same page is like, that’s, that’s probably where most people like, that’s the first person that’s like, meh, that
Val: Mm hmm.
Kiana Anderson: whatever.
Val: And I, I do remember the bank accounts. Like the bank being like, what? But we’re just the type of people that we’re kind of just maybe, maybe sometimes overly confident. And I was like, it’s fine. I don’t care that you don’t understand this book says it, so I’m going to do it.
Kiana Anderson: Oh, my goodness. And was it rocky at the beginning for you as far as like, figuring out how to make it function within your specific business? Because like, as we all know, hence why you exist in all of our lives, it’s not set up perfectly for creatives for you to like, understand, like, was that a rocky, like, translating it to how it would apply to your business?
Val: Yeah. So this is where Mark comes in a lot more. Like he definitely was a huge part of translating for
Kiana Anderson: Yeah. Okay. All right.
Val: overall the, the concept in general did just make sense to me. Um, but then it was over the course of the next, you know, five years that I started to create more of the spreadsheets and some of which Mark actually created.
And then I just made them pretty, for as specific issues came up. So the annual estimator, where you’re looking at what it would take for a full year to make the money you need to cover your bases. That was like, we were just trying to plan ahead and understand like, okay, how many clients do I need in order to keep paying myself this salary?
And so we built it, you know, it was essentially, there would be a question mark and we would create a spreadsheet.
Kiana Anderson: Yeah. That’s, I mean, I feel like that’s the goal and even just, I don’t know. I love to like, think about people. It’s like, what led somebody to even have the thought process to even try that? And I, I don’t know, like I asked you about your childhood and like, you probably don’t think it’s that big of a deal that like you grew up in a family that was like doing it.
But like, I have realized so much of my own life, how much that has affected the way that I approach a problem in life or business where I’m like, now I’m going to find like a way to do it. Cause I’m used to, I have been shown that there is a way to solve the problem. And I could be the one to solve it.
And I think that’s a gift that like, if you have as an entrepreneur, it brings you so far in life, but in business ownership as well. and I’ve been finding that that’s a gift from my childhood that not everybody got, and it feels like you have the same
Val: Yeah.
Kiana Anderson: really sweet.
Val: Yeah, that’s true. I don’t think I’ve thought about it that way I’ve definitely acknowledged that I have more of the abundance mindset with money and the like I’ll just I’ll be able to make, make it work, find a way to make the money. Like I’ve just always believed, well, if that happens, well, I’ll get this other job or I’ll do this other thing.
And, but there is definitely a, you figure it out
Kiana Anderson: Totally, totally. Yeah, I, yeah. Okay, I feel like there’s a lot of years then between when you pivoted and up until now that we didn’t even get to touch on, but I, I just, um, yeah, I feel I’m feeling inspired by this. I don’t know all the hard things being like the reason why you ended up doing what you’re doing now.
That’s like so awesome. okay, before we finish, will you just tell me like, maybe first thing comes to my mind, your mind, but like, tell me something that you’re really proud of. That’s
Val: Mmm.
Kiana Anderson: Yes,
Val: I think I’m just really proud of the fact that I don’t come by any of this naturally, but created it all out of necessity and just like found a way. And like, I’m proud of my non math brain for doing that, you know? And also, I would say a part of that is I’m proud of myself for not writing myself off.
You know, like I think a, a, a big problem in this specific conversation for people is they just say, I can’t, and they, like, they say, I’m a creative, so creatives don’t do that. Creatives don’t do numbers. My brain is incapable, and I think that’s just the biggest lie. It’s going to be harder. That’s true.
There, you’re going to need different levels of help or different kinds of interpretation, but we are just so much more capable than we think we are, and we’re really just kind of making it harder on ourselves by assuming we’re not.
Kiana Anderson: it’s so much more satisfactory at the end when we’re like, you can look back and be like, This would have been a totally different feeling if I had a math brain and I created all these spreadsheets for everyone and they were just using them because it makes sense. But now you can look back and be like, I worked really hard and like, I had some really hard things happen.
That made this like a need and I know it’s a need for other people because it was a need for me and I was doing the same thing and I was them. Like I actually was these students that are struggling and now I use that like within me to get to the point where having a solution is possible and it’s there for other people too.
That’s so special. okay, I have 800 more questions but I feel like we’ve really landed the plane here nicely. Is there anything else you want to touch in on I
Val: that I have put out there or followed me for any amount of time, I think you’ve probably heard just kind of the, what we didn’t really get to was the three years of started profit first and that then it was like a year or two later that then I was pregnant and I ended up having two maternity leaves in two years, the second one being unexpected.
And so just like those types of things, like that is a true story. I started profit first, started paying myself 500 a month over the course of three years, quadrupled that Had two four month maternity leaves, never took a pay cut, like was paid through those maternity leaves and continued to get raises.
Like with each child I got a raise because it was like, well, we’ve got more expenses.
Kiana Anderson: yeah,
yeah. And you did those things not guessing. I think that’s the biggest thing that’s like, I feel like I have been hearing people talk about is like, how do you just like know, like, it’s not possible to know what you’re gonna, but, but it is possible. Like it’s, it is possible to know.
Val: I think that we, I think especially in with parenthood and honestly, I would say parenthood and entrepreneurship. There’s a lot of things that when we don’t know them, we just don’t know where to go to figure them out. And I’m not sure. I’m honestly not sure how much of this is just like some personality thing in me, but I’m just like, there is an answer and I will find it. And, and so even like, I utilize Google and I just ask questions. I just ask people questions. Like I talked to moms and I’m like, how much did you spend on this? How much did you spend on this? Was this worth it? Like, I never had a diaper pail. We just walked up the stairs and took our diapers to the trash can.
And we took our trash out regularly. And There’s so many things that, like, I just ask the questions. And, and used that to get me the data that would help me to feel at peace about how much I needed to make and what it was going to take to survive and to do what we wanted. And so I think there’s something to be said for just believe that you can find the answer and just keep asking and trying,
Kiana Anderson: I mean, you wouldn’t be an entrepreneur at all if you didn’t have that in you. So like, just recognizing that that is in you, like, if you can get to where you are now, like, you can keep going. And if you feel like you can’t keep going, this is where Val is great. She’s got more answers for you. Uh,
Val: Yeah. Sometimes we just need. We just need someone to come alongside and help us. And I just happened to be very blessed that my husband was able to be that interpreter for me.
Kiana Anderson: my goodness.
Val: and there’s just no shame in that. There’s no shame in reading Prophet first and being like, what,
Kiana Anderson: Yeah,
totally. Yeah. No, that’s priceless. And I think like being able to say, Hey, there are resources because people like learned the hard way for you and did the translation that you didn’t want to do that would take you three years to finally get through, or never finish it, you know, so I just wanted to say thank you for just your heart behind being like a actual legitimate vulnerable human that has gone through the things and isn’t like, this was all roses and now here’s my perfect solution for you to also have your life be all roses. I just think there’s a lot of, like, muddy water on the internet of confusion about who’s real and who’s not, and being someone that has gotten to, like, witness your life, real life, like, behind the scenes and public is, um, I can just, yeah, attest to your heart and your genuine desire for people to see and experience the life that you have been blessed with and gotten to get to through hard things.
So anyways, I just want to say thanks for sharing that and sharing your heart. And asking me to be here. It’s super fun. Tell everyone how you how they can work with you. Like what does it look like to work with you right now?
Val: yeah, so the main, the main two ways to work with me. If you feel like you’re able to like read profit first to kind of implement it on your own. My spreadsheets are all available in my shop on my website, Val Marlene. com slash shop. And then creative income cure is my self paced course where I teach you how to do profit first and then build on that.
So I, it’s a much deeper look at how Really implementing it into your real life and how to tweak it for you. And even down to like, there’s like a document that I have you create, that tells you exactly what finance tasks to do and when. And so it’s just like every step of the process to implement profit first and to have a really strong grasp on your money and your cash.
So that is creative income cure. valmarlyne. com. And there’s monthly office hours and a community. And so like that is the best place for you to really
Kiana Anderson: creatives need
honestly
Val: Yes, exactly. Yep.
Kiana Anderson: Amazing. Okay. If this is your slower season, anyone listening, I know a lot of creatives that are service industry. This is a slower season. This is a prime time to like jump in and take advantage of Val’s knowledge and wisdom. It is worth every single penny.
Val: Thank you so much. This is so fun. I hope you guys had fun listening to. This is just how we are. This is how Kiana and I chat. Except it can go on forever.
Kiana Anderson: Yeah, exactly.
Val: all right. Thank you so much, Kiana.
Kiana Anderson: You’re so welcome. Love you, friend.
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