Nicole Laino
Hello and welcome to the limitless entrepreneur podcast. I’m your host, Nicole Laino. And I am here with a special guest. Today I am here with Amy liberty. She is a trusted profitability advisor to six and seven figure business owners who are tired of being behind their books behind them their books and are ready to uncover blind spots course correct, and ultimately get more profitable. She’s a Certified Life and money coach, and she works with business owners who seek greater confidence and unwavering drive to attract and build wealth in their businesses and their lives. I love that. Hello, Amy. How are you?

Aimee LaLiberte
I’m good. How are you? Nicole,

Nicole Laino
I am wonderful. Welcome to the show.

Aimee LaLiberte
Thanks for having me. It’s so great to be here.

Nicole Laino
It is wonderful to have you here. And what I love is all the angles that you come at this from, because I think that people often separate these, I love that you went life coach, you’re certified from The Life Coach School, which everybody I’m sure is listening to the show probably is a Brooke Castillo fan. And you are a CFO, you are a financial coach or financial expert. And then you are a money mindset. You come from the money mindset perspective as well. And then you are also becoming certified in the tell me what that is, again, I always screw it up. So you please do

Aimee LaLiberte
rapid transformational therapy, which is from Marissa Pierre.

Nicole Laino
I knew what it was, but I was like, I’m gonna screw this up, I’m gonna kick this over to her to say it, which which combines, which combines EFT and hypnosis is that sort of,

Aimee LaLiberte
yeah. So it starts with the baseline of hypnosis. So you know, what we, what we often see is that when we are trying to do things that are unfamiliar to us, we have the resistance, because our brains are so wired to be efficient. So typically, what happens is if we have experienced anything in our life, whether it’s like a lack of confidence, if you know we have weight loss issues, so it’s spans all the things, there’s usually an origin story. And what rapid transformational therapy does is it takes you into a state of relaxation, calms your nervous system. And it then allows you to see your brain sees, like, where did the origin story of whatever this thought, or belief paradigm that you have? Where does it come from. And typically, it’s just from when you are from your childhood, and it can be something just super innocent, it can be trauma, but it’s really understanding and then reprogramming the story behind it in order to release you from the shackles of the thoughts and the beliefs that no longer serve you. And then take you into a new sense of whole self concept in order to then take the action that you want and to create the life that you that you desire.

Nicole Laino
So I’m curious why I love that, because I think that that is obviously that speaks to me with with what I do with the Rapid Relief method. And like I’m with you there. I’m curious why you added this after you know, you you have a successful financial businesses as a virtual CFO, you are a certified life coach, why are you adding this particular modality to your toolbox?

Aimee LaLiberte
So So if we look at you know, the what I do from like a financial perspective, so things like bookkeeping, profit, first analysis, like pricing strategy, how to scale all of those, those are very much like a line things for the Life Coach School people, it’s, it’s action based efforts, right? But there’s always like the thoughts and the feelings that are driving those actions that are creating the results. And so, you know, we know that circumstances are neutral, we know that thoughts are what create the feelings. And what I have found is that you can you can do the coaching, you can do all of the reflection on the thoughts and the feelings. But if there is all of the roots of a belief system that you cannot see, and you don’t know their origin, what I found is that RTT is that really unique modality that helps you get to the source faster. Because what we want to do is we want to break down this belief structure this paradigm and we want to rebuild one, and we can do that just a lot faster and make the progress that we want if we’re able to just Access the route in the subconscious mind.

Nicole Laino
So let’s talk a little bit about what you experience with people. You work with six and seven figure entrepreneurs, these are people who have success, you know, relatively speaking, I think what a lot of people would consider, like successful businesses, what do you see come up that you were like, I need to add this because I need them to be able to see the story I need to what is it that you see with some of the behavior, you see that maybe somebody who’s listening could say, like, Oh, I do that? Or because a lot of times we’re not, we’re not even aware of the patterns that we are, we are perpetually in. And it’s just our way of life. So until somebody points it out, or says like, you know, do you do this thing? Or do you think this way? Or do you notice this about yourself? And we don’t really know that it’s there. So So can you give some examples of things that you’ve experienced with your clients? Yeah, so I think that

Aimee LaLiberte
for some of them, it comes down to they have money stories that are rooted, they may have have faced with some sort of, of money, trauma, lowercase t, that they might have a successful business, but they might have issues with overspending. And they might have issues of the framing to charge, the price that they should be charging, and, and that when they hit these major financial milestones, they find themselves not believing and their capacity to recreate it. So there’s all of this mindset that happens, and they think it’s Oh, I’m going to keep hustling. And I’ll keep creating it. But we you and I both know that there’s only so much hustle one can do before they hit the stages of burnout, they are faced with some some medical issues that that is going to just stop them in their tracks from being able to continue to pursue. And so that’s where the the coaching and the mindset work comes in. Because when I do my financial reviews, I mean, I started out doing the finance stuff. And then I would just listen to everything like they would say, and the words that they would use. And having been someone who was in self coaching scholars who their Life Coach School and understanding the mindset. I knew that their mind, like what they thought I was creating some of the feelings that are like the scarcity, the negative emotions, rather than coming from a place of empowerment to make decisions, they were coming from negative space. And I knew that if I was able to, to, to get the certifications, and then to really understand and study how it all works, that I can marry them together. Because I think it is a duality thing. I think that finance, I think there’s a lot of books out there. And just experts that talk about like making money and these concepts of like short sell, Do this, do that. But really what it boils down to is like that’s all logic based strategy, which is important. 100% important. But what’s more important, is that money is really emotional money is energy. And if we can really attach into what that is, then like the logic, we’ve got the logic in place. But the emotional piece, once we have that dialed in, there’s just this rapid transformation that happens as a result of it.

Nicole Laino
It’s like the shackles get let off. And you’re you’re able to be and you’re able to receive because a lot of times it’s like, you know, you keep calling in money, but you’ve got the door shut is sort of how I envision a money block. It’s like literally blocking and open the door. But it’s easier said than done. Because a lot of us we might say, we might say something like, I know when that I hear come up, and I have sought this myself as and I catch myself when I have these thoughts now because I’m in tune with it. And I’ve worked on myself, but in the beginning, I didn’t know what to do with a thought like this. I didn’t know what to do with a thought like, well, if I make more, I’ll pay more in taxes, and it’ll just leveled off to what I’m doing now. So why bother? It’s kind of an upper limit problem is what because if you end up with why bother, then what if you play out an entire scenario and then end up with but then I just stay where I am. So why bother? It’s not worth the trouble. It’s not worth the expense. It’s not worth so so what do you take somebody through when you identify a belief like that?

Aimee LaLiberte
Yeah, so I mean, the first thing is I try to to base it from like a logic perspective. And the first thing is, is that if you if you’re making more and you have stronger profits, then you are going to pay more tax. And I want to get to the root of what why that’s a problem. Right? So like we start to like release hard to define that. But then the other piece of it too is that it becomes, I think there’s a lot of this, like, Oh, you have to make all the money, but you keep the money. But when you decide to play small, you’re blocking yourself from serving people who are waiting and yearning and need, the thing that you have to offer. So if at the end of the day, you’re able to grow and expand and do it in a way that’s aligned with what your values are, and to, you know, because I think the other piece also is that it’s not about like, let’s make all this money and spend all this time making all this money and not be able to live the lives that we want to find. It’s how do you take a holistic approach and make it all work and no, you know, I’m going to make money. And I’ve, I’ve just decided that I’m going to use Profit First, and I’m going to put 15% of my income aside. And that’s just my money. That’s the money that I’m collecting that I’m going to send off to the IRS to the state to whatever government entity, you know, throughout the world that you’re that you pay tax to, and that it’s not a problem.

Nicole Laino
And that’s, that’s taking ownership over it rather than it owning you is kind of what kind of comes up for me when I hear that it’s, it’s, it makes some of us feel like we are at the mercy of our money. And at the mercy of the numbers, so we choose not to look at them. And so I’d like to, you know, you talk about, and I love how you put this separating your self worth, from your bottom line, like you, you aren’t your numbers. And can you just talk and expand a little bit on that? Thought?

Aimee LaLiberte
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So when we think about when we think about our numbers, they’re just, they’re just that they’re numbers, it’s the thoughts that we attach to those numbers that then start to shape our mind, right. But the other piece of it too, is that everyone, it doesn’t matter who you are, or anything, everyone, every human being is, is inherently worthy. You’re born with all the confidence, all the worth everything. And then what happens between the time that you arrive through birth, to the time that you leave the Earth, you have all these experiences, and those begin to shape you but you always have your worth, you always have confidence, your brain just simply forgot that it was there. And so when we turn around, and we we decide that we’re going to go on this entrepreneurial journey, and we’re going to make money, that when we look at our financials, financials, they are just a number that shows you just how things are going. And there’s recommendations for percentages and all that. But that has nothing to do with you ever, ever. It can be negative, it can be positive. What that is, it’s just a barometer of like, what do I need to change in the business to make this hit the marks that I, I want them to hit, I desire this, this is what I want to create? How do I do that. And then you can get into the strategy for that. But at no point ever is that link to yourself worth it’s just not has nothing to do with it. It’s just a number.

Nicole Laino
Right? And, and the numbers tell a story. The numbers tell a story. And if you’re willing to read that story, and analyze it, you know, data is your friend, data is actually going to tell you exactly how to get out of it more so than the and I have like a pet peeve with these. But like the $37 product that popped up in your Facebook ad and your Facebook ads in your feed that the solution is already in front of you somehow you’re just not looking at it. And I think one of the things that comes into play is if the answer is in the data, and you resist looking at the data, you need to look at that resistance and see what’s going on there that’s keeping you from because again, it’s already there for you that the solution is there.

Aimee LaLiberte
Right? Well and it’s really interesting because when you know people want to scale themselves out of a loss or scale in general. They want to improve their cash flow. It’s it comes down to three different strategies. Number one, you increase your income number To you decrease your expenses, number three, you do a combination of both. And I recommend the third one, because typically it’s going to require both. But I see time and time again through my work with profit. First is that a lot of businesses are over extended in operating expenses, they have lots of things, there’s lots of, of of weight on that expense side of their financial statement. And it’s largely because some of it is they’ve totally forgot that they subscribe to this software, and they’re like, Oh, I’m still paying for that. So there’s just lack of awareness. So back to your point about avoiding the numbers, you’re spending money that you have brought into your business through your offer. And you’re just letting it go back out without consciously deciding that you’d like the reasons for it to go out. Right. So that and I think the other thing is, is that I remember a few years ago, I was working with a client, and they, they said to me, we are the best at what we do. And I believed them. Because I work. You know, my clients are among the best in their industries. Like I know that, like I can feel that I choose my clients, they choose me, right. And so I’m listening to them. And they said, Yeah, so we’re gonna raise our prices. 3%. And I just was like, what? Well, that’s what everybody else is doing. And I said, but you’re, you’re the, you’re the best. And they said, Yeah, I said, Well, then why are you charging what everyone else is charging? I said, Do you believe in the service that you provide? Do you believe in the experience that you extend to your clients? And they said, 100%? And they said, well, then that needs to be reflected in the prices? And they said, Well, what do you think, and I wanted to tell them one number, but I knew that that was just going to be well outside their comfort zone. So I said to them, you need to raise your prices 10%. And they were like, floored. And and I said, Listen, I’m not asking for you to do it today. But I am asking that you consider it. And they did. Now that was in I believe it was in either 2018 or 2019. There, they were doing about 2.5 million in revenue. And so that one shift right there created a $250,000 elevation in their revenue, just by making that one little adjustment. And did they lose anyone? No. Like, did they did they did? Was there a mass exodus? No, because what we realized was that one of their their core products, the difference, a 10% increase was $10. They were having hind over $10. As soon as they figured that out, they were like, oh, yeah, we should totally do that. So I think it’s really about like, getting it down to a very simple way to kind of get your brain to say, Oh, I got that. But I think the problem that many business owners face is they are so they see that any sort of risk in their business will have a direct impact on their personal lives. And I think that last year, going through the pandemic, if you were a business that had to be closed down, I think that that became like that felt really real.

Nicole Laino
For sure, for sure. I mean, I think this this rock people’s worlds, some in a fabulous way. Like I know, myself and a lot of other entrepreneurs I know online had the best years we’ve ever had. And and then some people weren’t so lucky, if you had a brick and mortar, if you had something that was a little was location dependent, travel, you know, lots of lots and lots of industries were just really hurt really badly. But I’m curious, where do you start with somebody? What are the things that you’re looking at when you come on and you come on with a client, and you’re trying to get to know the story beneath the numbers? Because there’s always a story underneath? I think that’s kind of what we’re getting to is that that we are driving the car. And so it’s the driver and not the vehicle necessarily. So what are you looking for underneath in that story of you know, what the data is telling you?

Aimee LaLiberte
So the first thing is, is that, you know, I’m going to start with like, I have to look at the numbers and I have to create the story, because the story that I create is the one that I’m going to tell the client because when I am brought on board for the first time, those my clients haven’t had a very holistic observation or story told the about their numbers, they look at them as you know, they want to know like their revenue number, their profit number. And, and that’s really and maybe their expense number, but they’re coming into it with like they’re really smart, intelligent, very successful people, but they just don’t have they don’t believe that they have the business acumen in terms of the finances, they didn’t get into business to have to be the person running the numbers, right? So we start to paint the picture for that. And then we start to start to examine like, Okay, where do we want to go? Where do you want to go revenue wise? Where do you want to go? Profit wise, and we and we looked at the strategy of like, what are you trying to create? What are you trying to achieve? Do you want to add team? Do you want to get your weekends back? Like, what are the goals that we want, okay, this is what we need to do. And then we start shaping the numbers in order to make that happen. If it’s paying down debt, like we have to get really clear on what the priorities are. And I recommend no more than three goals. And one overarching goal, that’s the one that’s like we’re going all in on and then two sub goals. Because what we’re going to do is we’re going to just start driving ourselves towards that. And then every month, there’s a reflection of okay, what happened? How much closer are we what changes do we have to make, but there’s constant pivoting and changing because when we set goals, we set them based on the information that we have. And then we have to make some, some shifts and changes based on the information that we received. As we get further down. It’s kind of like Google Maps, you know, if you’re making a long journey, and then you find out that there’s an accident, and that there’s a way there’s an alternative way to go, then you’re going to take the alternative way, because you just want to get to the destination as fast as possible. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re taking the information we have, we’re making the shift, and we’re doing that. But it’s about I think one of the things that people they want, there’s a rush energy, there’s a hurry energy, they just want to get there, right? And what, when I sense that, that’s when it’s like, okay, why are we in such a hurry? Why do we need to get there, what is happening here and come to find out, it’s just that they’re feeling that discomfort. And it’s because they know that their shifts and everything, and they’re feeling like a loss of control. Because they are making these adjustments, they’re afraid they there’s all of the work coming up, like all of the feelings are coming up. And that’s where, like, if you’re able to really confront the feelings and let them just be and then like, dissipate through your body. It really then avails especially for women, I think we are constantly containers, like, like, people ask us to carry all their stuff. And when we’re just allowed to like, and and allow ourselves to release all of that. We then find the space to do the shifting that needs to happen.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, and I guess what I was, because it all comes down to the thoughts that we’re having. And you know, like what you were saying before our circumstances are neutral, it’s just the thoughts and the feelings that we attach to the circumstance that are driving the greater action. So they just kept coming back to me while you were talking about that. Because it’s the discomfort, it’s the feeling, it’s the it’s the meaning that we’re attaching to the thing. And I think what we do as humans is, it’s, we want it to come fast, because it will validate all of the things, the things we’re doing the things we’re feeling, the thing that we want that we want to bring in, we can say like I okay, it’s okay for me to have this now. And it almost allows us to not do the deeper work, if the thing would just come, then I don’t have to deal with all of this stuff, because I will be more comfortable. But what actually really ends up happening is we just create the same situation again. And that’s the pattern. Do you look for patterns as well? Are you looking for evidence of a pattern taking place?

Aimee LaLiberte
Yeah. So yeah. What tends to happen is a few things. When my clients, like when we were all traveling and attending conferences, and all of that, and I would always see them come back with, Oh, my God, we purchased this thing. It’s going to be so great. It’s going to help us with this, this and this. And so seeing if somebody does that, and if somebody just likes to consume content, and consume education, that’s one of those areas where it’s like, we have to examine that and understand that. You know, you’re welcome to do whatever it is that you want to do. But if this is truly is the reminder of like, this is the destination that we’re getting to. You’re going to take a pitstop to do Do this. And if you like your reasons, let’s do it. But if if this is really, if this is just a distraction, then let’s just not do that. And let’s keep going. And so like, you know, for some of my clients, it’s anything over a certain amount of money, there’s a pause, and they have to talk, they have to talk to them, whether it’s me or, or somebody else, not, because I’m like the person that grants permission. But because it slows down the buying decision, it gets them outside of the frenzy of having to have feeling like there’s this rush energy of like, I have to have this in the, in the impulsivity, especially if we’re, if I’m working with someone from profit first. And there’s a lot of course correcting that has to get done with the operating expenses, if we’re strategically trying to take someone from 75%, operating expense to 50%. Like, we need to be very strategic on how like we are making buying decisions with that money, because we are trying to create maximum profitability and how we’re doing that, we need to put some constraint on it. So it’s really about the constraint,

Nicole Laino
which is an exercise personally as well, because sometimes we’re filling a void and us we think it’s the external thing that we need. And really, it’s, it’s, we need to it’s an internal, we’re looking for an external solution to an internal problem. And so I think that that’s something that a lot of entrepreneurs do, because it’s scary being out there on your own or seemingly on your own. Even if you have a small company, if you’re at the top of it, it can feel very lonely. And, you know, there’s a lot riding on the decisions that you make. So the thought that this thing could be the answer to getting whatever it is that you’re looking to achieve, you know, that’s very enticing, and you know, quite seductive. Absolutely. So, I love this conversation. And I love I love how holistically, you look at finances, and you look at the business itself, I think that that’s something that, you know, we’re obviously big proponents of here on this show, which is that all of this stuff is connected, your money is connected, your life is connected, the stories, who you are when and the things you experienced when you were five years old, are driving the decisions that you make today, whether you realize that or not. And I love how you incorporate all of that into your work. Because I think that that’s so important to truly have success and longevity and sustainability in your business. I think that that’s really, really important. So thank you for sharing all of that. You’re welcome. Thank you. And is there anything that you would like to leave the listeners with any last Any final thoughts, please tell them where they can keep in touch with you. Because this was such an interesting conversation. And I know that this is work that that all entrepreneurs need. They need more focus on their books, on running their business, like a business and getting past that muscle mentality of hustle, hustle, hustle. Because that’ll get you probably to where you on right now. And if you’re having trouble and you’ve plateaued, you need something new and you need to be more strategic. And that’s exactly the work that we’re talking right now. But right now about. So where can they stay in touch with you?

Aimee LaLiberte
Yeah, so my website, my virtual C F o.co Is my online home. And I hang out on Instagram at my virtual CFO. And if you go to my website, my virtual cfo.co forward slash Facebook, I have a link to a Facebook group where I do weekly lives on all things money. And what I am moving towards talking about on that particular platform is I believe that women more women should be CEOs of their own businesses, I believe that working the nine to five is not the pathway for all. And for those who want to make that shift, and want to do so in a very intentional way. That’s a great Facebook group for you to hang out in. Because it’s not about like launching the business. It’s about creating a very thoughtful meaning exit strategy that addresses all of the drama, that if you’ve ever left the nine to five to start your own business, you’re going to confront things like how do I how do I feel secure when I don’t have a steady paycheck? How do I release the identity of the academic degrees that I’ve amassed in order to get to this point? How do I foster the relationships that I have with It’s my partner, my kids, my coworkers, because I’m looking to transition out of this, this corporate life. So if you go there, we’re going to talk about that too.

Nicole Laino
I think that that’s, I love that you bring that up. And I love that you’re having that conversation, because I’ve talked about it on this show, and I talk about it as well, because it’s so important when because I left corporate. And it’s, it’s strange, and I think almost every woman I’ve talked to, I’m not gonna say everyone, because there’s probably some exception to every there’s an exception to every rule, but had this shift and this difficulty that I don’t, I haven’t seen men have as much or as regularly, were going from the paycheck to going from I get paid for the time for punching a clock, to I create money. With my worth. I haven’t like most women that I know have struggled with that transition. And I, so I

Aimee LaLiberte
completely Yeah, no, I completely agree. I’m someone else who has done that, and then also just transitioning, and then like, the worry and the scarcity, not like you could be completely fine with like the decision, right, and you know, that you’ve got a plan, you’ve gotten yourself where you are in the nine to five, you’re gonna be able to do that. And then some, right, like, it’s not, this is not a problem. But it’s the people around you. If you are in a if your community is a community, and I mean, like family community, and like friends and everything are people who are not entrepreneurs, that that is the very definition of like, risk, and that is so out there. You know, that’s the type of stuff it’s like, you’ve you’ve made this, almost like you’ve reconciled and come to terms with it, and you’re in your own belief that it’s possible for you, but then having to manage everyone else’s thoughts about it. You know, I think that there’s a lot to navigate through there and how you navigate is, I think, one of the, like, hardest parts of making the transition.

Nicole Laino
Definitely, and it right, because you’re, I think women to where there’s a different shake up, that happens in the family, when mom decides to do something for herself, where the hours aren’t necessarily as lined out. And, and a belief that comes up for a lot of women is you know, if I’m really successful, I won’t be there for my family, I’ll be abandoning my family I and and that can be put on us by ourselves, or it can be put on us by the people that are living around us. And you know, and that changes for everybody. So I love that you’re having that conversation. I highly, highly recommend that. If you’re listening to this podcast right now, and you listened all the way to the end of this episode, you will definitely it means that you love what we were sharing. And you should absolutely join Amy’s group, because having a conversation. And this is your opportunity to be around like minded people, this is your opportunity to be surrounding yourself with the type of people who will help you rise rather than the ones who would like to hold you back. Not necessarily intentionally, but because they’re projecting their own stuff, you’re triggering them. And they’re projecting their stuff onto you. And that’s holding you back. So I love that you are creating that space online. I’m gonna go join myself actually, because I like to be around people like that. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing everything that that you shared with us your knowledge and just your perspective, I think is just so needed and so refreshing. Thank you so much. And if you are listening still to the end of this episode, I thank you for staying to the end. I thank you for being here with us. And remember, you are only limited by the limitations that you accept. And when you stop accepting those limitations. That is when you become a limitless entrepreneur. It’s that easy. We’ll see you in the next episode.