Replacing a 6 figure salary working 20 hour weeks with Jodi Facy

We all have stories when it comes to money. And perhaps one of the stories that you have around why you don’t want to earn more money is because you believe that earning more means you have to work more. Today’s guest on the podcast, Jodi, proves that that is not a truth, because Jodi has been able to replace her six figure corporate salary working in her own business and only doing about 20 hours a week. I know you are going to love this episode, so let’s dive in.

 Hello and welcome to The Clare Wood Podcast, where myself and incredible guests share about money mindset, financial successes, and how to manage your money in a fun and practical way to create wealth and abundance in both your business and your life. I’m your host, Clare Wood. I’m a business coach and a money mentor. I strongly believe that money has the power to positively change the world.

I can’t wait to help you transform your mindset around money, create a love of numbers, and build the business of your dreams so you can live a life of financial freedom, giving, and global impact. Doors are now open to my course Million Dollar Money Management. Inside this course, I will teach you the mindset hacks that I use myself and with my six and seven figure clients to help them break through those old money stories that are holding them back.

Inside the course, we also talk about managing that extra money that you make. So not only are you growing your sales, but you are actually making more profit inside your business as well. This course marries together mindset and money management to help you stop building your million dollar business no matter what stage you’re at in business. If you want to find out more, you can click on the link in the show notes for today’s episode. I would love to help you stop building your million dollar business.

Clare:

Welcome to the podcast, Jodi. Jodi is a virtual CFO, a business coach and mentor, and she specializes in finance and strategy, which you guys will know some of my favorite areas. Jodi from Facy & Co. It’s wonderful to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.

Jodi:                

Thank you, Clare. Thank you so much for inviting me to be on your podcast. I have probably listened to every episode I would say and some of them multiple times. And if you spoke to any of my clients, you would know that it’s very common for them to get a little message from me during the week saying, “You have to listen to this episode.”

Clare:              

Oh, how wonderful!

Jodi:                

So for me to be on here is really exciting. I can’t wait to send clients this one and say, “Listen to this. Surprise! It’s me.”

Clare:              

Oh, I love that. I love that. Well, the reason I invited you to come on the podcast today was to share a little bit about your story, because I think it’s really cool and it’s really exciting and inspirational. Maybe if we start back at the beginning, do you want to share a little bit about how you came to start your own business supporting people in the space of finance and strategy? How did you actually come to start your own business?

How Jodi came to start her own business

Jodi:                

Thanks, Clare. I would probably say it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. It has been even probably 10, 15 years ago, I’ve always inside of me felt like one day I would love to start my own business. And along that journey, I’ve just constantly thought I have to come up with something amazing. I have to invent something or come up with some amazing product and that’s how I’ll be able to start a business. I suppose you probably would… I just kind of got stuck in a rut.

I was in a job that I really enjoyed and I loved working there for about eight, nine years when I first moved to Adelaide. During that time, I had two little kids, maternity leave, and it was just really comfy for me to stay in that role. But I knew that it just wasn’t what I wanted to be doing in the long-term. I liked working there, and I thought, look, I think what I need to do to move to the next level is go and get a new job that gives me a bigger promotion and more responsibility.

 A role came up that I thought, this is where I want to be. This is my dream job. It sort of forced me to quit my comfy, cozy little role and start this new role. And within the first day of starting my new job, I knew in might gut I felt sick. It was not good. I just knew it was a toxic workplace, and it was just not exactly what I thought that it was going to be. I think I lost it about four months there. By the end of that, I was like, I’m done and I’ll just quit. It’ll be really easy for me to get a new job.

And two weeks later, COVID lockdown. March 2020. And I thought, well, you know what? This is a good opportunity for me to rethink what I want to do. I took some time off. I was home with the kids. And then during those few months, I just couldn’t get out of my mind that this is my opportunity. This is what I need to be doing going forward. There’s no jobs that I really want, and I just couldn’t see me being happy being an employee anymore, because I knew this was my time that I could start my business.

And then after speaking to my husband and friends, I realized I don’t need to invent something. I have 20 years of experience that people would find super valuable. And why can’t I be the product? Why can’t I sell my skills and experience? And as soon as I realized that and as soon as I got past the mindset of going, “No one will pay me. I’m not good enough. I’m not experienced enough,” as soon as I went, you know what? I have almost 20 years of experience at a senior level in big organizations.

Why can’t I do this? My husband was just like, “You’re doing it. You’re literally not applying for any new jobs. This is happening.” And so I did. That’s how it was started. To be honest, to start off with, I thought, maybe I’ll just do some bad statements or some bookkeeping. And then my husband was like, “Why would you do those things? You’re not a bookkeeper, you’re a CPA, and you’ve got all this experience.”

It’s kind of evolved from that to very quickly realizing that the space that I just love, I thrive in is helping people understand how business finance affects the profitability, the success of their business. Yeah, I love it. I just love working people. I love their stories, and I love seeing them succeed.

Clare:              

Wonderful! I’m so excited that you took that leap because it’s a very similar journey to, I guess, my own story, which is that I always knew I was meant to be doing something else, but I just never quite had the courage to leap. And then once you do, you don’t look back, right? You stepped in. You were working as a virtual CFO helping business owners to learn to love their numbers and really be a little bit more strategic with their business.

And at some point, you decided to jump into my course, Million Dollar Money Management. How did that sort of come about that you decided to come and join a course?

Why Jodi decided to join Million Dollar Money

Jodi:                

Well, I think part of it was, as I was saying before, I stumbled across your podcast. I think I saw someone on Instagram shared an episode on their stories or something, and I thought, gee, that looks like something I’d be interested in listening to. And then suddenly, I got in this 10 episode spiral. And I was like, “Wow! This is awesome.” I just felt I really resonated with you because I felt like we have quite similar backgrounds and the service that we offer people are quite similar as well.

 A lot of the advice I was given was find people who do what you do in a way that you aspire to be. And I think you talk about it a lot in your courses and in the mastermind is when you find people that help you elevate and help you take you to that next level, it’s really important even if you have to pay to be in that space. When I saw the Million Dollar Money Management course, I was like, “Ooh, that sounds good.”

It’s not too much of a commitment that I’m going to freak my accountant brain out, that I’m spending all this money. It was a totally affordable amount of money. And I just thought if this is a good entry into just working with Clare and working with another group of people, and I also missed having that community around me of being in an office where you can spin your chair around.

 I always use that analogy if like spinning the old chair around in your open plain office and talking to the person beside you or next to you in your little cubicles and getting advice. I miss that. I’m just in my kid’s toy room/office and there is no one here to spin my chair around to. I realized that to be able to create that community, even if it’s virtually and it’s just part of a course, then I think that’s totally worthwhile.

Clare:              

Oh, amazing! Well, I’m really glad you joined in obviously. When you were about to jump in, did you have any hesitations or fears before you sort of took that first step?

The fears that came up before taking the first steps to join

Jodi:                

Yes, absolutely. I mean, you’re talking to an accountant here. I have… You know what I’m talking about. I suppose a lot of the work that I’ve done in the later part of my career has been working in really big organizations with a really massive focus on like cost cutting and reducing overheads and increasing revenues. It’s all about that bottom line.

And for me, it was really hard for me to go, “Well, why would I spend $1,200 or $1,000 on something that I don’t know if I’m going to benefit from it, when I could just keep that sitting in my account doing nothing, or pay it to myself and then I could go and buy groceries with it or something like.” It was that big mindset shift of…

 I think because it was not expensive enough for me to have to overthink it that much, but it was enough for me to take the plunge and see how it made me feel when I did invest in myself.

Clare:              

Yeah, awesome! What were the key things that you were hoping to get out of the program? Why did you decide to jump in? Because obviously you’ve got the money management side down pat. What were the key things that you were hoping to get out of the course?

The key takeaways Jodi took away from Million Dollar Management

Jodi:                

Yeah, I think probably the main things were more about the mindset space, because I think it was over the Christmas period where I binge read all of Denise Duffield-Thomas’ books. There was one particular one, Chillpreneur, that I bloody loved. That just resonated with me so deeply, particularly where she talks a lot about society’s view of talking about money and the feelings that are brought up when people talk about money and how your history and your mindset and your thoughts and fears around money can totally impact your ability to create momentum in your life and your business through investing or spending or earning.

When I started taking some of your content and listening to the podcast, it was a good intro for my accounting brain to be like, okay, this is really practical, and it’s not like full woo-woo where people are just not really thinking about the practicalities of money. But it’s also linked in with enough of that mindset stuff that I hadn’t really thought about that much up until this point was what’s the psychology around money that impacts the way that I act, behave, and live my life.

And then how can I use that to make the way that I work with my clients deeper and able to connect with them on that deeper level, because that to me is where all of the stalling happens when it comes to the money mindset.

Clare:              

Yeah, I love that. You jumped on in. It was wonderful to have you in the last round of the course. What were some of the key takeaways that you took out of doing Million Dollar Money Management?

Jodi:                

I’d say probably the key things were just constantly being aware of my thoughts when it comes to money and investing, and then also being able to apply those strategies as well when I’m speaking with my clients. It was amazing for me to learn all of these new things around limiting beliefs. I’ve kind of always known what your mindset affects your momentum and how you live your life.

But just that concept of that limiting belief where it’s like there are things that you think that maybe aren’t even true, they’re stories that you tell yourself that really limit the way that you live your life and the decisions that you make. A lot of my clients and even myself have this sort of scarcity mindset, which is I can’t say no to this opportunity because that’ll be the last opportunity that comes my way. If I increase my prices, all of my clients will say no and they’ll leave me.

If I charge too much, no one will ever work with me. And kind of that mindset of going, well, even if I earn $10,000 this month, next month I may earn $0. It’s just that mindset. And that’s a mindset I would say 100% of the clients I work with are operating on this level of fear that everything will disappear tomorrow, or if they make any change to their business at all when it comes to charging, pricing, packaging, no one will work with them ever again.

You can see how that totally impacts the decisions you make that can make you go to that next level. For me, that scarcity mindset, recognizing that in myself and being able to make decisions in my life that are like, okay, well, I will get a cleaner. I will spend money to get meal delivery, even though I know that I could cop it for a fraction of the price, but I know it will save me five hours a week that I could be doing things that are more valuable with my time.

I think it just comes down to valuing yourself as well, valuing yourself and your time.

Clare:              

It’s a lot of work. I guess that once you start doing the mindset work, you suddenly start to realize how many stories that we have and particularly how it impacts on the outcomes that you achieve in life. I’m really proud of you for making that leap, because I know especially the accountants, it’s totally the opposite to the way that we’re trained, right? It’s like don’t spend money. Keep the cost slow.

When you start to do this work, you actually realize how a lot of those thoughts can actually be what holds you back. You had some really cool shifts in your mindset from doing the course. Did you see any actual changes in terms of your bottom line, in terms of the sales and profit that you’re making in your business?

The mindset shifts that helped increase profits and gain new clients

Jodi:                

Yeah, absolutely. I think that was a real key for me to think about raising my prices again. And even probably since when I joined Million Dollar Money Management, which is at the start of the year, I think I was billing around five, $6,000 a month or something like that. But I think I got to the point where I had four clients and I was pretty busy and I was earning enough that I was like, I’m happy with this.

And then when I started doing the Million Dollar Money Management course, I recognized in myself that I was saying, I’m not going to try and get any new clients because I’m already earning enough money and I already am working enough. And if I try and get more clients, I’m going to be too stressed or too busy, and I don’t need more money. But I think what happened was during the course of that process, and we talked about stuff like marketing and just the limiting beliefs about you’d have to work your ass off to earn more money.

When I realized that we kept talking about that each week, I realized, you know what? I am holding myself back here. I’m not doing anything to try and get new clients. In fact, I had put on my social media in November last year, two months after I started, I’m booked out, guys. I’m done. I actually posted that because I was like I’m too busy now. I was scared, because I was scared of going back into that hustle and stress mode of that corporate role that I was in prior to starting my business.

I think I messaged you actually. The Million Dollar Money Management course finished… I can’t even remember when it finished, but I did it for a couple of months. And during that process was like, I am totally limiting myself here. I don’t need to stop getting new clients. I’m going to actually do a thing to try and get new clients. I think I put some posts on social media and I got two inquiries overnight as soon as I decided, hey, I’m cool about getting new clients.

I got two new inquiries overnight. I think I messaged you. I was like, “Clare, guess what? I literally just got two new discovery calls booked. They turned into clients, and all I did was decide that I would be happy to get new clients. And since then, I’ve actually gotten like seven, six new clients. I think my highest month was in June. I billed $14,000. Do you know what? I’m actually not even working harder. I’ve just increased my prices and the services that I’m providing are high value and low…

It’s not me spending 15 hours a month with the client. The services I’m providing are that more one-on-one capacity, which means that I’m probably working… Probably the busiest week that I’ve had since I started my business, I think I worked like 28 hours and some weeks I literally worked 14 hours. Over school holidays, I was doing maybe 10 hour weeks. I have recurring revenue, so my income stays the same if I’m working 15 hours or 25 hours. It was just that mindset.

I was like, I’m cool with getting new clients, and I’m not going to have to work way harder if I decide to accept new clients.

Clare:             

I love that. I remember when you sent me that message. And it’s funny because quite often clients or people who have come through one of my programs will send me this message and they’re like, “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! You’re not going to believe this.” And I’m like, yeah. This is what I’m talking about. Of course, I’m really happy for people, but I can’t say I’m surprised, because I’ve seen so many of these kinds of stories where even just energetically saying, “I am now open to new opportunities,” things just open up.

It’s really hard to explain until it’s happened to you, especially if you’ve got kind of a bit of a linear brain. But then once you start to really see these things and open yourself up for them, it’s just amazing what magic happens.

Jodi:                

So true.

Clare:              

I remember one week I was like, oh, I’d really like to get more international clients. And I kid you not, in 24 hours, I’d had someone from the UK and someone from the US reach out to me. I did nothing different. I took no physical action. It was just setting the intention that I wanted to call more international clients in. There you go.

Jodi:                

I was saying last week, I woke up last week. I wake up early. I couldn’t get back to sleep, and I was laying in bed and I thought, I want to go on a podcast. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but I was just like, I really want to go on a podcast. I think that’s what I want to do next. I wonder how I can get on a podcast? I was kind of laying in bed for like 45 minutes, and I was thinking, right, how do I go about this? Drop the kids at school, go back in the car, email on my phone.

It was from Sally, your VA, saying, “Would you be interested in going on Clare’s podcast?” And I was like, what? Is this real? Did this really happen?

Clare:              

I love it. I love it. You totally manifested that. I know especially when you come from a finance background, hearing stuff like that you sort of go, that’s a coincidence. And then when you start to look for these things, coincidences happen a lot when you start setting the energetic intention around them. Well, it’s great to have you here. I’m glad you said yes.

 If people are listening and wondering, is it worth investing to learn about all this woo-woo mindset stuff, is it not just something I can figure out on my own, what would be your thoughts or advice to those people?

How investing changed Jodi’s view on how she manages money in her business

Jodi:                

Yeah. I think it’s definitely a worthwhile investment. I mean, I think even when you’re doing anything that means that you’re putting aside a specific set time per week or fortnight to sit down and work on yourself and work on your business and do things that are creating momentum in your business or your life, I think that’s always worthwhile. Because as soon as you’re saying, “I’m worth it. I’m going to put my time and energy in something,” then you’re always going to get repaid for that in spades.

I’ve now gone on to join the mastermind, which February me would have literally melted into the floor and died at that investment. But obviously for me to have taken that journey in the last six months of going, “I’m not even going to send $25 a month on zero, because why would I,” which is ridiculous, to then investing in a course that has made me completely change my view on how I manage my money and how I invest and the value in using my money to grow myself and my business, rather than just sitting in a bank account.

That’s obviously has completely changed me and just the way that I go about all of the decisions I make in my life and my business. I definitely recommend it.

Clare:              

Oh, fantastic! Well, thank you so much. I love being part of people’s transformation and being able to have programs to support people in that journey. But the truth is, is ultimately the change happens within. I know that it’s really challenging to do this work a lot of the time. I’m really excited that you’ve made the commitment to yourself, and you’ve been doing the work. And it’s just wonderful watching the results that’s coming for you. Jodi, if people are listening, they’re loving your vibe, how can you help them and how can people connect with you?

Jodi:                

Yeah, okay. Probably the best way is via my Instagram. That’s kind of where I do most of my connecting, and I put lots of interesting stories and videos and tips online just about practical ways that people can improve their cash and profitability in their business. That’s @facyandco and that’s F-A-C-Yandco. What I do is I work one-on-one with clients and that’s for three to six months usually, or even longer. Some of my clients…

I actually haven’t had a client leave me yet, so some of my clients, we’re coming up to our 12 month plus anniversary. What that looks like is we worked together one-on-one and I can help keep them accountable when it comes to the decisions they’re making in their life and their business to make their business more profitable, reduce their stress levels, and ideally work less, outsource more, understand their value and their worth, and try and earn more money and be more profitable is the outcome and without sending themselves nuts.

Clare:              

Yeah, I love that. I mean, the concept of having a virtual CFO or a business strategist is brilliant because these roles are very high paid roles in corporate organizations, and often small businesses are lacking these skill sets. It really is so important to be right across your numbers if you are wanting to scale your business. I’ll put the links for Jodi in the show notes for today’s episode. Thank you so much for joining, Jodi.

It’s been really wonderful sharing your experience going through Million Dollar Money Management and wonderful hearing about the transformation that its delivered for you and your business. If you’re listening to this and you would like to join Million Dollar Money Management, doors are now open. You can join the course via the link in the show notes for today. I would love to welcome you in to these next round of the course. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jodi, and I’ll chat to you soon.

Jodi:                

Thanks, Clare.

Clare:              

Thanks so much for listening. If you loved this episode, please share it with your audience. And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @clare_wood_coach. And also make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Have an abundant week and I look forward to talking to you again next week.