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Mama Bear Money Management with Erin Reece · We Built This Brand

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  Part of the Aught community is that we
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  are collaboration over competition, right?
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  So let's, let's all embody that a little more and remember
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  that the person who's being treated as a cog is still a person.
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  Welcome to We Built this brand, the podcast where we talk to the
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  creators and collaborators behind brands, and provide you with
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  practical insights that you can use in growing your own business.
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  Today we're talking with Erin Reece.
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  The founder of Bear Financial Solutions.
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  Her company is a cloud based outsourced accounting firm
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  with a focus on the business owner, as well as the business.
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  As you'll see in this interview, Erin really
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  does think about the business owner first.
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  We talk a lot about how she got the business
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  started and how her brand came to be.
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  We also do a deep dive into the challenges with
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  financial anxiety and where having someone like Bear
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  Financial Solutions can be a huge help to entrepreneurs.
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  Also, just before we dive in, just a quick reminder to go ahead
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  and hit that follow button on your podcast player or subscribe on
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  YouTube to make sure you're kept up to date on the latest episodes.
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  So, without further ado, here's my conversation
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  with Erin Reece of Bear Financial Services.
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  Well, welcome everybody.
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  Erin, it is a pleasure to have you with us today.
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  Thanks so much for having me.
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  I'm excited to be here.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm here today to talk to you about your company, Bear Financial Solutions.
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  Yep.
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  And I'm really just excited to learn more about what you do, what you provide.
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  And honestly, I'm really curious about the branding, the
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  motif, the design, everything that you've done there.
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  So let's just dive into it.
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  Tell me, tell me where you got your start.
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  Yeah.
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  Back in 2019, I was just saying before we started recording
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  that this is, as we're recording this, it's May in 2024,
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  so we are celebrating five years in business this year.
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  Woo-hoo!
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  So in May of 2019, I was sitting at my kitchen
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  table panicking about going to work on Monday.
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  I had sort of surpassed the "Sunday Scaries" to I was physically ill.
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  Getting ready to go to work on Mondays.
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  And I worked from home, so it's silly even saying
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  it, but my work environment was just so unhealthy.
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  And I just, I was like, I have to do something different.
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  So I sat at my kitchen table, my husband and I, and
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  we, uh, we formed an LLC and, and here we are today.
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  And so it really was born out of necessity, but I saw an opportunity
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  to build something that was healthier for myself and for my clients.
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  Yeah, I can, I can understand.
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  I mean, part of how I got into entrepreneurship was working for
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  other people and being like, I don't want to do this anymore.
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  This is making me sick.
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  It's making me tired.
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  It's stressing me out.
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  So yeah, it's good that you recognize that
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  and we're able to take that next step.
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  Yeah.
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  And my, my daughter at the time was young and we didn't even have the
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  twins, but it was like, I knew I was missing out on so much with her.
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  And like I said, even though it was working
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  from home, I was still working 60+ hours a week.
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  It just was, yeah, it was a lot.
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  And I knew, I just, I knew it was not sustainable.
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  Yeah.
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  And you were an accountant at the time, is that right?
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  Right.
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  In the industry of accounting, there's some understanding that your right
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  of passage comes from paying your dues in the early years of accounting.
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  So you will work.
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  You know, if you, if you work in public accounting,
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  you will work 70, 80 hours a week in busy season.
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  Not only will you work those long hours, but that is just
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  the, the, like, minimum, like that is the expectation.
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  There is no discussion about work life balance period for young accountants
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  and in the industry, in the accounting industry in particular, there's a lot
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  of discussions now where we are seeing as an industry, we're hurting people.
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  Incoming accountants, we are harming the current
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  CPAs and accountants that we have in industry.
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  We've really got to do better.
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  So I'm grateful to be part of that part of the story that we are, we're creating
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  environments where we can do work that we love because accountants oftentimes
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  are very passionate about their work, but it's not killing us in the process.
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  Yeah.
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  I, one of my early internships in college, even though
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  I was a marketing major, was at an accounting firm and I
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  was helping with their marketing department and things.
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  And I remember it being like hazing almost what the new people went through.
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  And I was like, well, I don't think I want to be an accountant.
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  I'm glad I chose marketing.
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  Yeah.
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  It's not, it's not an attractive field for sure.
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  Particularly not for women.
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  So.
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  What really got me interested in accounting, just from a business
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  side though, was taking some financial reporting classes and stuff.
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  And I realized, Oh, this is what accounting does.
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  This is where it's fun, so...
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  Yep!
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  Yep!
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  There are some cool things.
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  You know, there's like, people are like, "Oh, the bookkeeping.
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  That's like not the sexiest part of accounting.
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  I want to read my P&L.
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  I want to read my balance sheet."
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  Well, okay, but you have to do some of these other things to, to
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  produce those like charts and graphs and things we'd love to look at.
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  There's some foundational work we have to do to get there.
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  So, but that is for me, that's the fun part.
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  That's why I like, I like to produce the statements.
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  It's fun to be able to look at and to have deeper
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  understanding of your business at the same time.
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  Yeah, and it's, it's one of those things.
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  I think it's a learned practice, right?
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  So you don't love it at first.
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  In fact, in the beginning a lot of people hate it.
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  Yeah.
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  Like, "I don't want to I don't want to look at my statements every month."
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  But you learn and you get better and it starts to be something you enjoy.
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  Even to this day I still have anxiety sometimes looking at the bank account
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  and going through my finances because it's just, it's nerve wracking.
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  It's like well, do I have what I need in there?
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  You know you do intellectually, but there's just always that fear.
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  Something's gone wrong.
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  You hadn't expected something.
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  So yeah, learning, learning to make it more of a habit
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  to be better financial stuff is something I'm on a
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  personal quest for just outside of even this conversation.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Always.
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  We should, we're always in progress.
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  We are.
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  So Bear Financial Services.
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  So you started the business, you created
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  the LLC, I assume bear financial services.
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  Was that the name when you started the company?
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  So, originally the company was called Bear Accounting and Financial Solutions.
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  Okay.
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  In 2022, I dropped accounting from the name for a couple
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  reasons, but I knew I was going to move out of tax practice.
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  And when people hear accountant, they think, "That person could do my taxes."
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  And that coupled with just our other offerings, we just do
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  so much, and I felt like accounting was really siloing us.
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  And again, associating it with the accounting industry as
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  a whole hurt the brand because, because we see it that way.
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  It was hard for me to hire.
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  I couldn't find good talent because I was like, I, I don't want them to think
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  they're coming into a hard, you know, a hard, public accounting environment.
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  Right.
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  So I dropped it, I dropped accounting from the name, but the, but there,
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  so when my husband and I started working on the, the name, we were,
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  I sat down to form the LLC, and I was like, what should we call it?
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  And my husband and I, before we were married, our initials were E-B-A-R.
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  When we moved and had all of our boxes and things, we had
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  multiple things in the house, uh, that were, that were coming
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  to our new house and some of the things that were going to stay.
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  So, so everything that was ours said Bear on it,
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  because those were, you know, our initials at the time.
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  That's kind of where the name started from.
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  And then, you know, it just became as,
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  especially because I'm a mom, I have three girls.
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  And so I kind of have taken on this very mama bear
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  persona as a business owner and it's just really stuck.
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  And I, yeah, I love it.
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  I'm, I, I mean, obviously I can't look into the future,
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  but I, I can't imagine that I would ever change it.
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  It's really become part of how we show up, and of course,
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  this is kind of how people, how they recognize us now.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, what I like about it is it's not just a, I mean, it's very personal,
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  which I like, I like that there's that very personal touch to it,
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  but it's also like, it's East Tennessee without being East Tennessee.
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  Yeah, exactly.
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  You know what I'm saying?
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  Well, and that is the other thing too, is that
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  it, yes, of course, like the Black Bear, right?
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  Like we're in Tennessee.
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  We love the Smoky Mountains.
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  And then the other thing was, you know, accounting, accounting
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  firms, legal firms, typically you see the owner's last names.
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  Every accounting firm, every legal firm you know of, it's,
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  it's the partner's last names, and I knew I was not doing that.
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  You know, I was not going to put my last name on it.
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  Because that would, again, moving away from that traditional model.
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  Uh, but you're right.
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  It is very East Tennessee without being East Tennessee, but
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  it is very personal and does incorporate our family's names.
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  So, I love that.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  And then, so the design itself for the logo and
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  the branding, like I'm, I'm also a big fan of that.
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  And I just want to know how that came to be because like,
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  When I see the logo, it's for those who haven't seen it yet.
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  Although if you're listening or watching, you've probably seen some graphics.
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  It is a bear.
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  It's a cute bear with glasses on that look exactly like yours.
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  Yes.
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  Yeah.
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  Originally I, so when we started and I had to have
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  a logo, like right away, I bought one on Fiverr.
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  I just got like a, it was just, I'll, I'll have to show it to you so
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  you can show it, but it's a, I'll be sharing it a lot now as I talk
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  about our journey to five years, but it was just, you know, simple.
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  Very basic.
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  Had a, it had a bare outline and it said bear on it, but it was like not.
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  And so probably, I guess it was two years in, I started thinking
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  like, I really want to decide what the branding is going to look like.
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  And it was, the original branding was pretty
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  masculine, very straight lines, very dark colors.
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  Uh, and I was like, I'm not really sure if I like this.
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  I actually sat down with Victory at The Social Brand
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  and I kind of told her, I didn't even have an idea.
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  I had no idea what I wanted to look like.
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  I just, I just thought maybe I wanted more.
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  I wanted it to be a little more feminine.
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  And she came back to me originally with some amazing, these like, she just
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  really envisioned this like hand drawn, illustrated kind of bear, uh, persona.
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  And it just, I mean, it was so cute.
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  So the first one that she, the first kind of iteration that she sent me, we
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  sort of modeled it after the Charmin bear, you know, from the toilet paper?
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  The mom, the mom bear, because the, the first bear kind of image that
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  she and I worked on together was really round in the face and like, just,
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  it almost did have like a masculine, so I sent her a picture of the mom
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  Charmin bear and it was pull her face in give her this more feminine look.
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  So, I mean, we spent some time and she had, you know, she just did a
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  great job capturing the sort of whimsical idea that I had for this.
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  That was like, I want people to take it seriously,
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  but I want it to have this kind of feminine flair.
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  And it obviously, like, it just says, home run, it's perfect.
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  You know, again, something I can't imagine I would ever change.
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  That's really cool.
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  So you mentioned being your fifth year.
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  Yes.
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  So what, what lessons have you learned along the way?
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  I mean, this is, we built this brand.
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  Yeah.
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  So from a branding perspective, it has, I've learned
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  a tremendous amount, you know, things like your fonts.
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  Like you just, I just don't know that I ever
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  thought, "This font is really going to matter."
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  And it really does.
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  And as a consumer of content, I recognize like when I see certain
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  fonts, I can absolutely associate that font with a certain brand.
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  So things like that, as we kind of went along, and we
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  developed the current branding that we have with the
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  flourishes and the, and the right fonts and things.
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  It was like all of a sudden it started to come together that
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  people could associate us with these colors, with these fonts.
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  Things I just never really thought about because I'm an accountant, right?
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  I'm not a marketer.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  Um, and so I learned how to have more sticky associative branding that I had.
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  I just, that is just not anything I knew anything about.
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  You know, and I had, somewhere along the
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  journey, we just, I had to make a change.
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  We had orig- in the beginning days, I was
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  really in an effort to protect my business.
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  And we talked about this just briefly, but early
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  on, when I started my business, I got sued.
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  Oh.
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  And that was the least fun thing I've ever done.
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  But in the beginning, because that was happening,
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  I, I really felt like I needed to lay low.
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  I was trying to just like get through it.
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  I, I was very hesitant to even have any type of branding cause
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  I almost didn't I didn't even want to be associated with.
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  Like I was just trying to figure out my way through that.
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  And that took three years.
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  And so...
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  Golly.
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  You know, it was like for a long time, I just was like,
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  I don't even want to learn anything about branding.
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  I just, you know, I just need to insulate this, but as I sort of got
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  past the fear of that and moved through it and did things, it started
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  to be something where I would go to the Women in Entrepreneurship
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  Networking Group and, and I wouldn't necessarily know everyone there,
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  but they would see my cup or my name badge and they'd be like, "Oh!
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  Oh, that's that Bear girl!"
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  You know, like they started to, and I thought, "Okay, well
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  maybe this is like working," you know, this is kind of
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  making sense how the branding incorporates the whole thing.
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  And of course, we, we have been in business for five years.
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  So like ask me the lessons I've learned.
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  I could talk for days of all the lessons I have learned about how
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  to, how to be in business and how to stay in business for five years.
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  There's definitely some, some learning curves,
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  uh, at every level, at every step, I would say.
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  What would you say are some of those top things you've
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  learned in the last five years about your business?
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, the first thing is I would say I always wanted to start my
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  organization and run my organization as a people first organization.
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  So whether that's client facing or internal with
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  my employees, like that's just what I am about.
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  And even as a practitioner, when I'm working with someone, I really, really, I
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  want to see them as a whole person and their business as an extension of them.
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  In the beginning, it was like I had come from a corporate environment.
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  So, I would say my beginning stages, I ran it like that,
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  even though I wanted to do differently, that's what I knew.
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  But I learned how to slow down.
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  I learned how to do it better.
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  You know, our tagline in business is that, "We help
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  businesses build healthy financial foundations".
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  So if I'm not, I really have over multiple iterations of
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  the business, kind of taking it down to the foundation,
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  where are we at today and how do we build it better?
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  And I think that's something we as entrepreneurs do a lot.
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  We have to look at the whole picture.
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  We have to look at the foundation and the pieces.
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  Is it, is it where we want it?
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  So I learned how to definitely do that over and over, a constant reiteration.
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  And I think when I started, when I think about year
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  one versus year five, I think when I would, if you had
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  asked me in year one, "Where will you be at year five?"
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  I obviously could, like, not be here.
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  I would not say this is where I was at.
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  I would have thought.
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  I, maybe because of just like the online world or whatever,
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  but I would have thought by year five, I would have like 50
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  employees and I was running a multi million dollar business.
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  And I think I had this idea that I was just going to like
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  kick it off and go and it was going to be so successful.
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  And it's not that that's not the case, but it's, it's just, it's not like that.
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  It's not how it looks when we look at
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  someone's highlight reel of their business.
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  And I, I of course, serve.
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  clients who are entrepreneurs.
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  So the more that I learned about other businesses
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  as well as my own, I was like, yeah, this is not it.
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  You know, I'm looking at this, these things online and I'm either
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  one, these people are lying or they're just super lucky, you know,
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  but the people that I actually work with on a day to day basis who are
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  building their businesses are in the trenches, learning the financial
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  statements, learning how to, how to do it better, do it healthy.
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  And it's a process.
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  Everything is a process.
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  It's not just like all of a sudden you're good at it.
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  And so I learned how to, I learned how to always be in progress.
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  Yes.
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  And I think, I think that's a very important skill to,
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  to learn is to be like, whatever I decide today doesn't
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  mean it's going to be where I'm going to be in five years.
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  Right.
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  And I think, yes, you're right.
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  You could, you could set goals for yourself say in January or set your goals
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  for the year and you get to December and you're like, "I'm nowhere near.
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  I thought I would be in January," but in reality it's
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  just, it's, it's just going with the flow of the thing.
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  Right.
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  Let it be what it is and help it.
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  The business has its own kind of persona.
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  We help it along.
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  Personally, in my business, I follow like the true North model.
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  So I have this, I want this in 30 years for my business.
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  How am I going to get there within the next year?
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  And when it doesn't work, I go back and
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  say, what didn't work and how can I improve?
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  So very, very true.
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  I think it's, you know, the true North or, you know, a lot
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  of people will say, "Are you rooted in your why statement?
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  What is the purpose?
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  What was the reason you came to this?"
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  For me, it comes a lot from, uh, parental freedom, right?
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  So I have three children who are young, and I don't want to miss.
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  that.
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  I don't want to miss them being young.
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  And that's, this is the constant struggle.
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  "Are you a, are you a working parent?"
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  "Are you a, are you a stay at home parent?"
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  You know, like, "Are you, are you one or the other?"
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  Can you not be both?
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  My gosh.
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  Um, you know, this is 2024, but it's like, okay, yes, I have my true north.
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  I have my why that I'm always pointing to.
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  Well, I've gotten to this stage of my business and I don't know
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  that this iteration of the business is pointing back to my "why."
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  So then I go back to the drawing board, see where changes
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  need to be made, and recenter on that why or the true north.
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  You know, I'm heading in the direction I want to go
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  Right.
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  On a macro level.
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  Uh, even though along the way, of course, there's just movements.
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  Right.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Some things you can't control, like a global pandemic that comes along.
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  Exactly, right?
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  Right after you start your business.
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  Right, right.
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  I mean, that, yeah, 2020 was wild, right?
• 16:30
  And for us, it was, you know, Really, that was a thriving
• 16:32
  year for us because of course we were helping with PPP.
• 16:35
  You know, some things that the IRS were doing needed interpretation.
• 16:38
  They needed content put out so people could understand.
• 16:42
  And we were all not understanding either.
• 16:44
  You know, it was just like constantly trying.
• 16:45
  So it's just a, it's always in progress.
• 16:47
  You know, we are, and our businesses are always in progress and learning.
• 16:51
  Absolutely.
• 16:51
  Yeah.
• 16:52
  So you mentioned getting sued.
• 16:53
  Yeah.
• 16:54
  And I think you wanted to talk about that, correct?
• 16:56
  Yeah.
• 16:56
  Okay.
• 16:56
  Just making sure.
• 16:57
  Yeah.
• 16:58
  Yeah.
• 16:58
  I mean, you know, obviously it is what it is.
• 17:01
  And obviously I'm very grateful today as, as we're
• 17:05
  recording this, we have just recently, the U.S.
• 17:08
  has banned non-compete
• 17:09
  Right.
• 17:09
  agreements in the United States for non, obviously non-executive level people.
• 17:12
  And I'm so here for that, right?
• 17:15
  Like let's not prevent people from doing
• 17:17
  the thing that they're good at or that they.
• 17:20
  Or whatever.
• 17:21
  Let's not tell them they can't do it just
• 17:22
  because we want to hoard them for ourselves.
• 17:24
  So it really, especially, you know, in accounting, it's like
• 17:27
  this, and there are other industries, tech is a big one too,
• 17:29
  that's like this, where the people who do the functions of the,
• 17:34
  you know, I would even consider them like cogs in the wheel.
• 17:36
  They're treated like cogs.
• 17:38
  Not only are they are people.
• 17:39
  Disposable, but also you can't do anything else.
• 17:43
  Like, we, we want the right to throw you away, but we
• 17:46
  don't want you to be able to make that choice on your own.
• 17:49
  No thank you.
• 17:50
  You know, like, no.
• 17:52
  Let's not keep people from doing the thing that they're good at.
• 17:56
  And let's not tell them that they can't.
• 17:58
  Thrive in their environment, whatever that means.
• 18:01
  And of course we, we're, as we're recording this at the OTT location, part
• 18:04
  of the OTT community is that we are collaboration over competition, right?
• 18:08
  So let's, let's all embody that a little more.
• 18:10
  And remember that the person who's being treated as a cog is still a person.
• 18:14
  Even if you're in a service based business where that is what
• 18:17
  brings your product to market, they're still humans, they're
• 18:21
  still people, and that just is, I'm grateful that the U.S.
• 18:26
  has decided that and that, you know, businesses
• 18:28
  moving forward are going to have to coalesce.
• 18:30
  Yeah.
• 18:30
  I mean, it'll definitely make a shift, I think, for some
• 18:33
  businesses that have kept people for too long in tough
• 18:35
  environments that want to get out there and do other things.
• 18:37
  Well, and it's going to hopefully eliminate
• 18:40
  some of the fear that those employees
• 18:41
  Right.
• 18:41
  have of like, okay, well, if I go and try to do something else,
• 18:44
  even if they want to do like, even if they don't want to go
• 18:47
  out on their own as an entrepreneur, if they want to go work
• 18:49
  somewhere else, are they going to risk the pursuit of, of that?
• 18:54
  And where are they going to, are they going to risk their
• 18:55
  livelihood just to get out of a situation that's not good for them?
• 18:59
  You know, like, yeah, um, good job, good job.
• 19:02
  We're coming into the right era of getting rid of that.
• 19:06
  Yeah.
• 19:06
  Yeah.
• 19:07
  I'm sure the being sued part of it for you was probably a big challenge.
• 19:10
  Like you mentioned, like the challenge of getting over that
• 19:12
  hurdle of like, "Oh gosh, I'm, I don't even know what I can do,
• 19:16
  what I can't say, like where I'm in trouble," and all that stuff.
• 19:19
  Yeah.
• 19:19
  And, and, you know, It's, it is what it is, uh, it is.
• 19:23
  It was lengthy and expensive.
• 19:25
  I essentially took on a massive expenditure for the
• 19:31
  business in the first three years that I wasn't planning on.
• 19:33
  All of that is just like part of the challenge, but I will say as I sit
• 19:36
  here today, like I'm not grateful for the experience, but it has taught
• 19:39
  me some things and it actually has allowed me to serve my clients better.
• 19:44
  Having been through that, I think I have just a deeper empathy
• 19:46
  for some of the struggles that we, that we do, that we go through.
• 19:49
  Yeah, cause there are entrepreneurs out there that may decide
• 19:52
  to leave and be caught in some messy, like, gray area situation.
• 19:56
  Even though these non compete things are happening,
• 19:58
  Right.
• 19:58
  you still don't know how
• 19:59
  Yeah.
• 19:59
  all that's gonna shake out
• 20:00
  Right.
• 20:00
  at the state level.
• 20:01
  Right.
• 20:01
  And so there could be all kinds of interesting things
• 20:03
  Yep.
• 20:03
  Still to play so,
• 20:05
  Yep.
• 20:05
  it's good that you've had the experience with this.
• 20:07
  Yes.
• 20:07
  For better or worse.
• 20:08
  And maybe eventually I'll be grateful for it.
• 20:09
  That day is not today.
• 20:12
  Understood.
• 20:13
  Understood.
• 20:13
  So you mentioned that was the first three years of your business.
• 20:16
  There was a lot going on at that time as well.
• 20:17
  You were growing.
• 20:18
  When was that moment of like validation in the business
• 20:22
  where you were like, yes, this is a real thing.
• 20:25
  It's not just something I'm doing until I find another job.
• 20:28
  I'm really glad that you asked that.
• 20:29
  I'm going to share an example and the person I'm going
• 20:32
  to talk about, I, she knows I'm going to share this
• 20:34
  story, but I'm I had a client who had a tax emergency.
• 20:38
  The first time I ever spoke to this person was like on April 14th.
• 20:41
  She was panicking.
• 20:42
  She had, she needed her taxes done, you know, like the next
• 20:44
  day it was, it was a thing and, and mutual connection of ours.
• 20:47
  Gave her my phone number.
• 20:48
  She called me and I remember talking to her
• 20:50
  like while I was doing laundry and stuff.
• 20:51
  I was like, okay, we'll get this figured out.
• 20:52
  We'll get it figured out tomorrow.
• 20:53
  And I had an opportunity within that same week to sit down with her
• 20:57
  and talk, and she sat down across from me and she said, "I overdrafted
• 21:00
  my bank account today, and I've never told anyone that before."
• 21:03
  And she, of course, you know started to cry as she was sitting with me and I
• 21:09
  think in that moment I was like "Okay, this is like what I was born to do."
• 21:14
  To allow this space for this person to have this very normal human
• 21:18
  feeling that's going on, particularly around finances, and give
• 21:21
  them an opportunity to, to work through it and, and like thrive.
• 21:25
  So I think for me, That seems like a, really?
• 21:29
  That's the story?
• 21:30
  Um, but it was, I think, I always knew from a
• 21:33
  very young age I wanted to be an accountant.
• 21:35
  Like, which is a silly thing to say too, but I
• 21:37
  always knew I was going to work in finance, always.
• 21:40
  And I never wavered from that.
• 21:41
  Like, I was like, this is what I'm doing.
• 21:43
  I did a budget project in the seventh grade and that, that was it for me.
• 21:47
  My, my teacher was like, "I think you would like to be an accountant."
• 21:50
  I was like, "Great, that's what I'm going to do."
• 21:51
  And here we are today.
• 21:53
  So having all of that knowing, and knowing my whole young adult
• 21:56
  life, my adult life, like, I'm gonna be an accountant is what I'm
• 21:58
  doing and never really wavering from that, and knowing that I was
• 22:01
  so passionate about that side, that's a very left brain thing.
• 22:05
  Numbers, black and white, very, very like factual
• 22:08
  things I get to deal with on a regular basis.
• 22:10
  All the spreadsheets, stuff I really thrive in.
• 22:12
  But I found as I started working with more clients, like
• 22:15
  there was also this really human piece of all of that.
• 22:20
  There is this finance, there is this black and white, very emotionless part.
• 22:25
  Alongside of that is the human being who has to create
• 22:28
  that, and so I found in my business growth, once that
• 22:33
  happened, I was like, "Okay, maybe this is like my thing."
• 22:36
  Maybe I can help people with not only their spreadsheets and their
• 22:39
  finance, but maybe I can help them emotionally be healthy with this too.
• 22:43
  Yeah.
• 22:43
  That's where we are today.
• 22:44
  That led me down the path that I am on, which is to financial therapy.
• 22:48
  So this is an offering, we're just offering,
• 22:50
  for the first time this year, in 2024.
• 22:52
  Officially.
• 22:53
  I think unofficially I've been offering financial therapy for a long time.
• 22:56
  But, uh, officially I am working on the certification
• 22:59
  to become a certified financial therapist
• 23:02
  Oh that's a thing?
• 23:02
  that specializes...
• 23:03
  it's a thing.
• 23:04
  Absolutely.
• 23:04
  Okay.
• 23:04
  It's a thing.
• 23:05
  And it has a title, like it's a thing.
• 23:07
  Mm-Hmm.
• 23:08
  , Wow.
• 23:08
  You know, I'm working on that credential, but, uh, it, it really is...
• 23:13
  People who are like, "Oh, I don't have financial abuse and trauma."
• 23:16
  You probably do.
• 23:17
  Even if it's not, it's almost like everyone, everyone, everywhere has
• 23:20
  trauma of some kind, you know, there's not like anyone who's exempt from it.
• 23:23
  Cause
• 23:23
  Right.
• 23:24
  that's a human condition.
• 23:25
  Financially we do, and especially entrepreneurs, right?
• 23:28
  Like we live and breathe by it because we have to make it work.
• 23:30
  And.
• 23:31
  You're often running parallels.
• 23:32
  Your, your, your life and your business finances are both happening.
• 23:37
  And so how we bring that on onto one platform and do
• 23:40
  it well and do it healthy is like, this is my thing.
• 23:44
  So, I think that that moment was a real turning point for me when
• 23:47
  I realized I probably could bring both of these things together.
• 23:52
  I think I knew, even when I was in public accounting,
• 23:54
  I was like, something is just missing here.
• 23:55
  We're just not This is just not whole.
• 23:58
  Um, and so as that happened, and of course, I've had such a, and
• 24:03
  I, this is something I say all the time in all of my content, but
• 24:07
  I'm always so, so grateful when someone sits down with me and says
• 24:10
  something like that, or trusts me with that kind of information
• 24:13
  of I, I can't, I'm not sure what to do now, but here's how I feel.
• 24:19
  And so I've had such a, it's been such a pleasure.
• 24:22
  And I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have those moments with other
• 24:26
  entrepreneurs who just, they just want to do it better, but they don't know how.
• 24:32
  And the first step is just, I just got to say something out loud.
• 24:35
  So I love to serve as that place for them.
• 24:37
  And I think that's when it started to really click for me.
• 24:40
  Like this is, there's not only a need for this, but this
• 24:42
  is like something I can bring into the market really well.
• 24:47
  I, that, I mean, to me, that makes a lot of sense.
• 24:50
  Cause I feel like a lot of times the people I
• 24:52
  run my mouth to the most are my bookkeepers.
• 24:54
  Yeah.
• 24:55
  Yeah.
• 24:56
  They're like, "What's the story behind this purchase?
• 24:58
  Why did you do this?"
• 24:59
  And I feel like I have to give an explanation for it.
• 25:01
  Yep.
• 25:02
  Obviously when things are tight, there's the
• 25:04
  conversation around, "Hey, can you help me?"
• 25:06
  Like,
• 25:06
  Yeah.
• 25:07
  Make sure I got enough money for this
• 25:09
  Yep.
• 25:09
  or that.
• 25:09
  Yep.
• 25:09
  And like, yeah, I mean it's all, I have so many thoughts going through my
• 25:13
  head because even down to like the core level of financial management of
• 25:16
  Yeah.
• 25:16
  like, you know, one of the number one reasons for divorce in America
• 25:19
  Yep.
• 25:20
  is money.
• 25:20
  Yeah
• 25:20
  So yeah, we all have a very interesting relationship with money that I
• 25:24
  Yeah.
• 25:24
  don't think we address quite often.
• 25:26
  Yeah.
• 25:26
  So.
• 25:26
  I mean, yes, it's, it is.
• 25:29
  Yes, whether you think you do or you don't, you have a
• 25:31
  relationship with money that is healthy or unhealthy.
• 25:34
  And you might not even know that it's unhealthy.
• 25:36
  You know, sometimes it shows up in behaviors like compulsive spending
• 25:38
  and you're like, "Oh, well, I have money so I'm not compulsive spending."
• 25:41
  You are.
• 25:42
  It's just that you have money so you think it's not a big deal, but in
• 25:45
  reality, there's still some probably underlying thing here with the spending.
• 25:50
  Um, and you know, in business it shows up all kinds of ways, but if someone
• 25:56
  is anxious about sitting down with their P&L once a month in the beginning,
• 26:00
  you know, it's a very, like, we just have to take one step at a time.
• 26:03
  You and I are just going to sit down for 30
• 26:04
  minutes and we're just going to talk about this.
• 26:05
  We're going to address what comes up, but we, this is important.
• 26:09
  We have to be able to move past this step to get to the next step.
• 26:12
  I think it's just.
• 26:14
  Accepting it for what it is and saying, okay, I'm going to address my
• 26:19
  relationship with money because my business can't survive if I don't.
• 26:22
  And you know, you said, you mentioned marriages, you know,
• 26:25
  falling apart because of, of money, but businesses, same thing.
• 26:27
  Oh yeah.
• 26:28
  Many, many more than half of businesses will fail in their first five years.
• 26:31
  Uh, and a big, a big problem is, is finances.
• 26:33
  Yeah.
• 26:34
  Yeah.
• 26:34
  Someone gets greedy.
• 26:35
  Someone makes a mistake, overspends, all kinds of things.
• 26:38
  Yep.
• 26:38
  Yep.
• 26:38
  So yeah.
• 26:39
  There's definitely some issues, and, and you know, it's,
• 26:41
  it's like, a very special type of relationship, right?
• 26:46
  So you have your business finance relationship, you have your
• 26:48
  personal financial relationship, and they're not always the same.
• 26:51
  Learning how to, again, bring it whole, make it whole, and let
• 26:54
  it be instead of siloing it off as this thing you have to do.
• 26:58
  Let it be part of the process.
• 27:00
  Yeah.
• 27:00
  Yeah.
• 27:01
  And I think it speaks like to you as a business.
• 27:03
  I think it's really cool cause it brings that side of
• 27:06
  it that's not just the calculated mathematical side.
• 27:09
  It's also the, the mama bear.
• 27:11
  Yeah.
• 27:11
  Yeah.
• 27:11
  in a way you're protecting your clients
• 27:13
  Yeah.
• 27:13
  or that maternal aspect
• 27:14
  Yeah.
• 27:15
  Of like, I'm just trying to look out for you and take care of you too.
• 27:17
  Yeah.
• 27:17
  Yeah.
• 27:17
  I think that's really cool.
• 27:18
  And that's just like, Me as a person and, and, you know, my
• 27:21
  staff, like this is something we really, as part of our culture.
• 27:25
  So we didn't talk about this before in the lessons, but one, um, you
• 27:28
  know, when I started my business, I had my core values and they were,
• 27:31
  we were going to be intentional, kind, excellent, and authentic.
• 27:33
  Spells "IKEA," in case any of you are like into that kind of thing.
• 27:37
  I was really proud of it when I, when I put it all together.
• 27:40
  But then in 2023, I actually changed, uh, "intentional" to "purposeful."
• 27:45
  I found that intention wasn't it.
• 27:47
  It wasn't like, "Oh, I'm going to approach this client meeting with intention."
• 27:51
  Nope.
• 27:51
  It's got to be with purpose.
• 27:52
  This is like, not just a plan and what
• 27:55
  we're doing, but what you were made to do.
• 27:57
  We show up in our client engagements like we were made to do it.
• 28:02
  Like my clients, it's, I am, I am an over helper.
• 28:06
  I'm like, I really care so deeply about what they're
• 28:09
  doing and what they're bringing to the world.
• 28:11
  And, and I just can't, that's just like what I am as a person,
• 28:14
  and so I love that my brand has sort of embodied that as well.
• 28:17
  That this is just how we show up in this part of the market.
• 28:20
  That, that it's not just bookkeeping for us, right?
• 28:22
  It's not just these numbers or this.
• 28:24
  It is, it is all.
• 28:26
  I love it.
• 28:26
  Yeah.
• 28:27
  I, I think, I think it's a really neat business model too.
• 28:29
  I, I like what you're going for and
• 28:31
  Yeah.
• 28:31
  the more I'm learning about it here today, this is, this is really neat.
• 28:34
  Yeah.
• 28:34
  Great.
• 28:35
  Well, Erin, as always, at the end of a
• 28:37
  conversation, I love to ask this question.
• 28:39
  What is the brand that you're crushing on right now?
• 28:42
  Yeah, so I'm really, honestly, I'm really loving Stitch Fix right now.
• 28:45
  I got this blazer there and all of my blazers and they're so soft
• 28:48
  and I just, they all, they come in all the right colors and it's
• 28:52
  just, I've just been really vibing with, with Stitch Fix lately.
• 28:55
  Yeah.
• 28:55
  Okay.
• 28:55
  Yeah.
• 28:55
  Okay.
• 28:56
  And that's a, I guess, obviously a clothing, clothing company.
• 28:58
  Yeah.
• 28:59
  Yeah.
• 28:59
  I think I've heard the name.
• 28:59
  They have like, yeah, I think it's funny they
• 29:01
  call it a fix because you can, you get like a box.
• 29:04
  And someone, a stylist, picks the pieces for you.
• 29:06
  Oh.
• 29:07
  And so then you get to choose.
• 29:08
  And then, so then once you have like a kind of a style
• 29:11
  profile, then you can go on and shop and like pick pieces.
• 29:13
  So I picked my blazers, but only because a stylist sent me
• 29:17
  my first blazer that I just love so much, I bought them all.
• 29:19
  So, did you actually have a consulting session with a stylist?
• 29:22
  So, no, it's all like on the app.
• 29:24
  Just fill out the questions and then yeah, the
• 29:26
  stylists, they, you don't have to meet with them.
• 29:28
  It's all like kind of generally like a surprise.
• 29:31
  Oh, cool.
• 29:31
  Yeah.
• 29:32
  Cool.
• 29:32
  So I guess I, do they do that for men too?
• 29:34
  They do.
• 29:34
  Okay.
• 29:35
  There's men and children.
• 29:36
  Okay.
• 29:36
  All right.
• 29:37
  Well, I will have to check that out then.
• 29:38
  That sounds really neat.
• 29:39
  Yeah.
• 29:39
  Awesome.
• 29:40
  Well, Erin, thank you so much for coming on today.
• 29:43
  Where can people find more about you?
• 29:44
  Where can people find more out about Bear Financial Solutions?
• 29:48
  Yep.
• 29:49
  Yeah, you can find us on Instagram.
• 29:50
  We are at Bear Financial Solutions, and you can find
• 29:52
  us on our website, bear financial solutions.com.
• 29:55
  That is someplace you can find us, but we, we really hang out on Instagram.
• 29:58
  That's where we interact with our audience,
• 29:59
  so we'd love to, love to chat with you there.
• 30:02
  Alrighty.
• 30:02
  Well, Erin, thank you so much for your time.
• 30:03
  Thank you.
• 30:04
  Thanks for having me.
• 30:05
  Alrighty.
• 30:07
  Thanks for checking out this episode of We Build This Brand.
• 30:10
  Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe on your player of choice.
• 30:14
  You can also keep up with the podcasts on our website at WeBuildThisBrand.com.
• 30:18
  If you liked this episode, please give the podcast a five star review and
• 30:23
  make sure to tell all your friends so we can continue to build this brand.