Thanksgiving Tell All - Christy's Journey to quitting the 9-5 and becoming a CEO

Welcome to the VERY first solo episode of The CEO Wingwoman. Today I take you behind the scenes of mu journey to becoming a business owner by detailing my journey from the corporate world to starting my firm. I also answer some of YOUR questions - including "how do you know it's time to quit your job?" "What should business owners know when starting up" and so much more!

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Episode Transcript

Christy Bowie  00:00

At that point, to me, and to everybody around me, I had achieved the dream, right? This was the dream. This is the life you want to achieve. And I thought that everything from there was going to be fantastic. This was the dream job, the dream career. I was good to go. And unfortunately, it was not.

Hey, CEOs, welcome back to the CEO wingwoman Show. I'm your host, Christy buoy. If you are listening to this in real time, Today is Thanksgiving Day. And I just wanted to start by saying, I am so thankful that this isn't my job. And I get the opportunity to talk to you guys and serve you and provide you with valuable business advice. Every single week. We have a really exciting episode today. This is actually the first solo episode. And I just wanted to take this chance to give back because I am so grateful about this community that I have been able to build. And so to do that, I will be doing a tell all and answering all of your questions. Over the past few weeks, I have been opening up my Instagram to accepting questions about what you want to hear and what you want to know about me or my advice. And a lot of you guys said you wanted to hear about my story. So I have been collecting your questions. And we're going to do a full tell all episode about me and my journey. This is a shameless plug, too. If you have not already, be sure to rate and review the podcast. If you like it, share it with another friend so that I get the opportunity to keep doing this for you guys. I also before we get started, I wanted to share that I recently launched a Geneva community group, where you have the opportunity to let me know what you want to hear have advance notice of the guests I'm talking to so you can weigh in on the questions that I asked. And you can network with other ambitious entrepreneurs just like yourself, my vision for the CEO wingwoman is not just a podcast and videos, but truly the creation of a community where you can feel right at home with others just like you receive mentorship, and friendship and build a community that supports you. This group is just the first of many exciting things to come. Now to get to our episode today. This is our very, very first solo episode. And you guys asked me for this. So I really hope you like it. If you don't honestly just don't tell me. So what I'm doing today is I've collected a list of questions that you guys have asked me. And I am literally just going to read them off today. And answer them. I haven't done any preparation for these. I am straight up doing this on the spot because I wanted you guys to get transparent answers from me. I don't want any of this to feel scripted. And I want to share my authentic self, and a little bit about my authentic journey so that you can understand how if you want you can get to this place, too and hear real answers from someone who's been there. So I am literally just pulling up these questions. And we're going to get started.

So the first question I was asked was, I would love to hear about your background and how you got into working for yourself. So to start this journey we're gonna go back to when I was in college, I really thought that I wanted to be in the medical field and do all these fun things. So in college, my major was pre physical therapy. So I was doing, you know, all the science classes biology, and honestly, biology is the only one I can remember because I could not pass biology. I tried so, so hard. And it came to the realisation that this just wasn't it for me. I was not doing something that I was naturally gifted at, or honestly naturally passionate about. So as I was kind of going through this identity crisis in college, I started taking some classes in the business school because I was kind of like, oh, well, business classes will transfer to anything. Right? That makes sense. So as I started taking classes in the business school and talking to people around me, I was told the idea of okay, you want a secure career, you want to be able to come out of school and have a job. And I was like, Yeah, that makes sense. And people kept telling me time and time again what businesses study, right accounting study, everybody needs accountants. And I think this makes it sound negative. And that I didn't want to be an accountant, which don't get me wrong, I love what I do. But I do feel a little bit bitter towards the fact that I was pushed towards something because it was the safe and secure option. I think that there is definitely something to be said for doing something that is safe, but I think so many of us restrict ourselves into doing something that is safe and not taking risks. But I digress. So when I was really being encouraged to take this safe career, I transferred into the business school, after a long and brutal process, and started taking some accounting classes, where I went to school, it was very normal for you to be in the accounting career, the accounting degree path, and instead of just getting an accounting undergrad, you would get a undergrad in accounting, and then you would get a master's degree, because the number of hours required to sit for your CPA exam was almost equivalent to that of a CPA, it was almost equivalent to that of a master's degree. So really, I was encouraged to take this step and just kind of moved into the path herded like cattle, or sheep, or whatever animals are herded into this realm of being a CPA. So at my school, when you were a CPA, or you were in the accounting degree path, you were basically told that the goal of your entire career is to work for one of the big four firms, you want to work for one of these big firms, and you have to work so hard to get recruited by them and be able to work there. And you get there, you stay there, you make partner. And that's the dream, right? So that was the dream that I was really sold my entire life. So I did this, I did exactly what I was told, I went for the study major, I went for the predictable career path. And I worked my tail off to get this master's degree and to recruit with some of the top employers in the business. So after doing all of this, I did get the offer from one of the top firms and I went to go work for Deloitte right out of school. So at that point, to me, and to everybody around me, I had achieved the dream, right, this was the dream, this is the life you want to achieve. And I thought that everything from there was going to be fantastic. This was the dream job, the dream career, I was good to go. And unfortunately, it was not, I started working there. And while I don't want to talk bad about my experience, that's not what this is about at all. It wasn't what I wanted to be doing. I was working long hours for much too little pay, if you know, you know, in the accounting industry, and I was working towards basically what we call in the tax field compliance. So I was literally sitting there filling out forms that were for the government to work after the fact right after the year had closed, I was just reporting things to the government, things that really had no impact on an individual's life. And I knew there was so much more that you could do with the tax code, you could leverage things to truly make a business owners life better. But what I was doing in that capacity was not that I wanted more client touch, I wanted to be more proactive, and I really wanted to help people and use my degree to make a difference in the world. So after my time, there, I transitioned to a much smaller firm, that focused a lot more on working one on one with business owners, and allowing them to do exactly what I wanted, leverage the tax code, to be able to build a better business, to accumulate wealth, and to really save for retirement their future and their dream life and feel financially secure. So after being there, I really got to see the ins and outs of how successful businesses were run, and how the tax code applied to them. I learned so much, not only from a technical perspective of the tax and financial side, but also this was an opportunity for me to build up my confidence, I was put in the unique position where I was literally allowed to interface with clients. And this was a huge advantage of working at a smaller firm, as opposed to these big firms that you were kind of sold was the dream, you don't have any experience interfacing with clients. So I had never before been in a position where I felt confident enough to pick up the phone and call a client and talk to them. So during my time at this smaller firm, I got that opportunity to really build up my confidence and my knowledge bank of you know how to work with business owners in a more proactive way. So as I was there for a few years, it started to dawn on me that I wasn't really working with the clients that I was most aligned with. In this firm, you were kind of assigned clients to work with and they were all fantastic, but I think there's something to be said about being able to choose your own clients and work with the people that you are most aligned with. So as I started to realize that I realized, you know, maybe this isn't where I want to spend the rest of my life. I decided to take an opportunity and launch my own firm. I decided that that was the time that I really wanted to break out on my own and work for myself in a way that was so much more aligned for me serving Seeing the world in a way that I had always wanted to so using my degree to further others businesses and really provide the support and encouragement and accountability, that a true CFO really should be in a business. So that was kind of my journey from, you know, what I thought I wanted to do in college. And I hope some of you guys are resonating with where you thought you were going to be is not at all where you are right now. And at the end of the day, that is the best thing that I really ever could have imagined, I had no idea as I was going through this whole process that I was going to be able to work for myself someday. And I'm honestly so thankful for everything that happened to me. And that's so cliche, but just getting that opportunity to go through, hey, this isn't where you're meant to be right, you know, forever. But you will take this opportunity and take the things you learned here and bring them with you to the next journey you go on. I think in the business owner world, there's so much hate on corporate jobs. And let me just tell you, my corporate jobs, well, they weren't exactly what I wanted to do, they were the best things that could have happened to me because they allowed me to learn and be backed by people who supported me. And I had mentors and bosses and people I could look up to, and you know what, I couldn't make mistakes on someone else's dime. So I really leveraged those opportunities to figure out when I was working with other people, when I was working in other businesses, to learn how to do these things the proper way. And to kind of bank some ideas in my brain like, Hey, this is what is going on here. I really when I start my own firm, I want to take this different approach, or this is what I see is going wrong here. I'm not going to accept that going forward. I'm going to fix that. And I'm going to change that. So that was just a little bit about my background getting here.

So let's look at see your second question. How did you know it was the right time to quit? This is a great question. Because the answer is I didn't. And there never is, there is never a right time to take the leap. By in my opinion, there's a wrong time, there's a wrong time when you are sitting there and you are thinking about it for so long. And you know, it's what you want, but you aren't prepared to do it. So a couple of the things that I did to make it less of the wrong time, and I'm laughing at this because looking at it was a terrible time on paper, right? I was working to support my family, my husband had gone back to school. So you know, we were supporting our entire family on just my income. And leaving that Job was honestly, that was not a good time to do that. But for me, I just kept thinking, you know, this is where I want to be I had people actually inquiring about like working with me, before I had even officially launched or said anything to people, people heard what I did and what my background was, and they were like you, I want you to help me. And I was missing out on opportunities because I didn't have my own firm and I wasn't able to take my own clients. So I had people kind of coming to me. And I felt that I was in a place where I was losing opportunities and turning down opportunities because of this. So that was a big thing. For me. I also, you know, in terms of finances, I think you do have to prepare yourself financially. For this, most businesses are not going to be in a position where you make money right off the bat, especially the kind of money you need to live. So at this point in time, I had saved about 10 months of expenses. And of course, that was kind of meant to be a backup if my salary wasn't completely supporting my husband and I at that time. But instead, we ended up having to live off of it. So you know, there was a backup plan that I had for myself in terms of, hey, I do have this money to live on. I can support creating a business right now. But the biggest thing for me was knowing that I wasn't in the place, I wanted to be for the rest of my life and just constantly feeling the push to start something new and do something new and feel like I had those opportunities in front of me, and was having to turn them down consistently, because of the fact that I did not have the ability to take on my own clients.

So on the same line, I was kind of asked, you know, how did it feel risking it all going from a secure nine to five to your own business. And I think this is so interesting that we phrase this as risking it all. Because while it does seem like a risk to start your own business, in my opinion, the real risk is sitting in a career that you don't love doing something you don't feel passionate about for the rest of your life. So for me and I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't scary. I probably cried the first time I didn't get a paycheck and had to go through that feeling. But also reminding myself did the bigger risk is wondering what if later in life wondering what if I had started earlier? Where would I be now? What if I had taken the leap when I really really wanted to write so for me, the risk, I guess, of all of it was the risk that I would be stuck. And the rest that I wouldn't live up to my full potential. I know that sounds so cheesy, but really thinking about the fact that you aren't doing everything you are capable of, and are meant to be doing. You know, to me, or to anyone like me, I think that is more terrifying than maybe not getting a paycheck for a couple weeks, or maybe being in a scary financial position. That is something you can come out of, and that is something that you have the ability to change in the future, not living up to your full potential, to me was the scariest thing out there and not making the change that I knew I could make in this world.

The next thing I was asked was, how are you able to gain the confidence to start on your own? And this is a great question because honestly, I am not one of the most competent people in the world, I fully subscribe. And if you've listened to my episode with Kate, you will hear us talking about a personal brand and almost developing kind of a stage persona. That was really something I did kind of step into, hey, you know, I'm Christy but like here is Christy, the business owner, Christy, the business owner does everything from a business perspective, she makes strategic decisions, she doesn't take anything personal, when she gets rejected, that is not going to impact but Christie as a human being. So that was something that was really, really helpful. The second thing was really building my community of mentors and people who could assist me in the process. Obviously, I don't know everything, and nobody who's a business owner knows everything. And to me, that's terrifying. I am such a perfectionist who wants to believe I have all the answers, especially, you know, the tax code is a million pages long, like no accountant could physically know all of that. So I really focused on building up my network of other CPAs who could help me or other business owners who had been through that before, who could really help mentor me, one of the things I was told was that you don't have to know it all, you just have to know you can figure it out. And for me, that was a really pivotal moment, when I knew that I was building the network who could help me figure these things out. It didn't have to be that I knew it all. So that's really where I started to build up my confidence of, hey, this is capable, I am capable of doing these things. I am capable of having my own business. And not only having my own business, helping other business owners arrived at their business. I also looked back on all the work I did previously, I was in a very, very similar career previously, and got to see all of the ways I changed people's lives, how much tax I saved for them how much I helped them put aside for retirement, all the things that people said, I really helped make a difference in their life. And even now when I get messages like that from clients, I screenshot them and I save them in an album on my phone for when I'm having a bad day or when I think that I'm not making a difference, knowing how much of a difference I actually made was so helpful in building up my confidence. And again, it goes back to you know, I'm I'm more confident in the ability in the fact that I'm going to try to put myself out there, because the worst thing for me that could happen is I don't live up to my full potential. And I don't do the things that I was meant to do in this world. And so it was kind of a push to say, you know, you don't you don't have to be confident right now. But you have to know that this is the right first step for you also a little bit more logistically on the other side, as I kind of shared earlier I did, I saved up enough money to make sure that I didn't have to pull pull money out of my business right away. I ran financial forecasts to really figure out what my business could look like in the future. And could that actually support me, and really all the things that I do for my clients right now to try to figure out the longevity of this business. And this if this really had, you know, a place in my future, and if it could support me and after seeing what this business could turn into. That was super motivating for me to continue.

Okay, did I have a non compete? And how did that affect me if I did? This is a really interesting question and probably something that actually impacts a lot of professionals in the field from leaving their business or starting their own. So for me, I did have a non compete, but it wasn't like super strict. I just couldn't take clients from the firm. So that was never something I was intending to do. But it is a question a lot of people ask me, you know, did you take clients with you? Did you start with a client base? No, I literally started from zero. And as I shared earlier, you know, I did have people inquiring with me super interested in working with me, but I didn't really have any official services to market at that point. I didn't have any official sales pitches for them. So no, I literally started out with zero clients. And I just had to trust that I knew exactly what I was doing. I had the ability to gain clients and I had the strength to wait out the right clients for me If that was the biggest thing, you know, yes, my non compete existed. But honestly, the clients that I was working with in my old firm wasn't necessarily the clients that I wanted to work with anyways. So giving myself a fresh start, was probably the best thing I could do for myself, even now, I am very, very deliberate about working with clients that are truly the right client for me. Because if you are building a business that is just making you money, but is also making you miserable, you know, what was the point of leaving that study nine to five, right? If all you're doing it is for a paycheck, then you might as well work a job where you are guaranteed a paycheck, there's so much more to truly building a business than just making money off of it. So for me, it didn't really affect the timing of when I left, I knew I was going to start from ground zero, and I was ready for it and comfortable with it.

The next thing I was asked was, What things should everybody know about money accounting, the economy going into starting a business? This is a great question. And honestly, there's so many answers to this. The first thing I'm going to tell you is that the economy is cyclical. I think right now, a lot of people are very scared and stressed about the economy. But the thing I have to say about that is, you know, we've seen the economy cycle through, you know, recession and thriving, and we've seen the waves of the economy time and time again. So I think a lot of business owners are really stressed out right now thinking, Oh, my gosh, this isn't meant for me. I don't know if I can make it. And while it is absolutely terrifying, working your business, when you are uncertain about the economy, you know, my response to that is just know that it's cyclical, and things will come back. And what you have to focus on is the timing of the economy and how that impacts your cash, right. So just understanding what responses you can make to that to still run a profitable and cash controlled business. That's extremely important. The second thing I would say is specifically about money and accounting, the number one thing you need to be doing is have a bookkeeper or have some way to track the money you're spending. Just like for people in everyday life, sometimes the spending can just kind of get out of control in your business, especially when you have the belief that like, oh my gosh, that's the write off, it's fine. And while it is, it's still cash out the door, right? So making sure you truly have a handle on where all of your money is going, not just for tax purposes, but for planning purposes and to make sure you're actually running the business you think you are. That is definitely one of the most important things.

The next question I was asked was how to have patience as an entrepreneur. This is a hilarious question, because I do not I am the absolute worst, worst person to answer this question. But I understand, you know, this question is really about having the patience for your business to blow up and to be at the point where you want it to be, it's so hard, especially as like visionary people to see where your business could be. And to know that it's not there yet, I think that is, that's a hard thing to face. And what I would say to that is understand the steps it takes to get there and celebrate the small victories along the way. So if your goal is, you know, maybe something that's probably 510 years away, it's gonna be really hard for you to keep feeling like you're working to that goal when you don't have little, you know, micro goals to celebrate along the way. So I would say, you know, model out what you have to do to get to that big goal, and celebrate the wins along the way, one of the things that we are terrible about as business owners is taking time to celebrate our victories. And it's just because we are always so, you know, in the mind of wanting more, what's the next thing to do. And while there is definitely an advantage to that, I think that there is also a negative to having that mindset, when you constantly think you have to strive for the next thing and don't really get to celebrate where you are. So I would say the biggest thing is not even having patience, it's having the celebration of every single step you've taken along the way, because that will truly make you feel like seeing how far you are really come. Because for me to look back and say that, you know, just seven months ago, I did not have my own business. And now I have a thriving business. I have lots of clients who I helped make millions of dollars. I have a podcast, I have all these things. But if I only care about your one goal that may be five years in the future. I don't sit here and say wow, I have come really really far. And I'm really proud of that. And not having that mindset kind of defeats you as a person and says, you know, oh, I'm not doing that much but really, I guarantee you have done so much more than you are giving yourself credit for.

The final question that I'm going to answer for you guys today is how Do we pull back the slingshot to propel forward in our business? So this is a really great question. And I think it really speaks to the fact that businesses don't just take off overnight, right, there are some things we have to do in order to propel our business forward. And I would say one of those things is really preparing for every single step that we are doing in the future. So if you want to make a huge investment to fund growth in the future, making sure that you are prepared to fund that investment, you are prepared to live below your means maybe to keep money in your business. That's another thing that a little bit of a tangent to this, but making sure that as a business owner, you aren't saying oh my gosh, I have a successful business already. I'm going to pull all this money out and live the life I want and honestly like bankrupting your business, that's something that I think is huge for people who have recently achieved success and are thinking, Yes, I get to live this life I always dreamed of now, really making sure that you have a handle on where everything in your business is, and making sure that you have the ability to take that next step. One of the things I shared on social media the other day was the fact that there is a catch 22 in every business, right? When you aren't really ready to take that next step yet, because you probably aren't financially there or you aren't, you know, whatever that is, but you also won't get to that next step until you have achieved that goal. Right. So the biggest way I see this is when people need to hire a really significant employee in their business. So say for example, I wanted to hire you know, a second CFO just like me to take over work, but I am I'm not financially ready to pay them the salary that they deserve yet. However, I will never achieve that level of financial success until I have another member of my team that allows me to free up my own time, right. So this is what I call the catch 22 of businesses really being stuck in a position where you have to you know, pull the slingshot back, make an investment, believe in yourself or do something to propel your business forward before you are in the place to do so. And this is something that I think a lot of business owners are scared of, especially you know, when you want to see consistent income, you want to see that you are ready for this next step. I fully believe that sometimes there are risks you have to take as long as they are informed risks. So taking these risks in an informed capacity when you have looked at the what is going to be the results of these risks and investments. So those are really the biggest things I think are important when you are working on truly propelling your business forward.

And that's going to wrap up at the end of our first solo episode today. I am so excited that I have been able to share with you guys a little bit about me my experience and why I absolutely love what I'm doing. I will continue to do solo episodes. So don't forget we have that Geneva group chat that will be linked in the show notes below. If you want to join that group you want to ask me questions or you want to ask my upcoming guests questions and see what we have for you on the show in the future.

Don't forget to leave a review and share with a friend if you were really enjoying what you're hearing. And again if you are listening to this on release date you're listening to this on Thanksgiving Day so for you hustling CEOs, please make sure to take the time to enjoy time with your family. spend the holidays off and then we get back to work. I can't wait to hear you next week for a new very exciting episode that you won't want to miss. See you then