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The CEO Confidence Loop: How Better Decisions Create Better Financial Results · Profit Points Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, glad you're here.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is Profit Points, and I'm Megan Schwant, your accounting sidekick and certified Profit First Professional and Fix the Snext Advisor.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a small business owner who wants to actually understand what is happening in your business financially, not just survive it, but genuinely get it, you're in the right place.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Every episode covers one concept, uses real numbers, and ends with something you can actually do.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's the deal.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about today's topic.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about mindset, we've talked about money, we've talked about the numbers that tell you the truth about your business when your feelings are trying to tell you something different.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And today I want to show you how all of it works together.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because mindset, money, and leadership aren't three separate conversations.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're one conversation.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when you finally see them as a loop, a cycle that either builds you up or drains you down, everything changes.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Profit Points Podcast.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Megan Schwann, your accounting sidekick, and today's episode is one that I've been building toward for a while because it's the one where everything we've been talking about really starts to connect.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Today's topic is what I call the CEO confidence loop.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's built on three things decisions, data, and discipline.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And my argument is that the thing I want you to walk away believing is that confidence is not something you feel before you act.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's something you build by acting repeatedly, intentionally, over time.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hype, it's not a mindset shift you have in the shower one morning.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a practice.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And by the end of this episode, you're gonna have a very clear picture of exactly what that practice needs to look like for you.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let me start with where most business owners are stuck.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I say this with full compassion because I've seen it, I have lived it so many times.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Most business owners are operating in what I call the operator trap.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: You may have heard of this as being an employee of your business instead of the owner of your business.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: They are basically deep in the work of your business or of their business.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're serving clients, they're creating deliverables, they're answering emails, they're solving problems, and they're really, really good at it.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not the issue.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: The issue is that they're running a business, but then they're running it primarily from that level.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: And from that level, when you're in the weeds, you can't see the whole picture.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And think of it a lot like being on the field during a football game.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: My boys all play football.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: If they're on the field, they can see what's right in front of them and they can react to what's happening in real time, but they cannot see the full field.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot see where the gaps are, where the opportunities are, or what play should come next.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's the view from the sidelines, or better yet, from the booth.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the CEO view, the decision maker view.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: So when we're talking about the shift from operator to decision maker, it's not really about doing less, it's about creating the space to think strategically about your business, not just inside of it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most powerful ways to access that strategic view is through your numbers.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've probably brought it up before, but one of my absolute favorite from a distant mentor, although I did get to talk to him one time, um, is Marcus Lamonis.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And his most popular saying for me, anyways, is that if you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And really that's because your financial data is the map of your business.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: It shows where you've been, where you are, and if you know how to read it, where you're headed.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when you look at your PL every month, hopefully you're doing that, you're not just reviewing history, but you're also identifying patterns.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're seeing which decisions created, which outcomes, and that perspective, that ability to look at the cause and effect in your own business is what decision makers are made of.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about this so much over the years because that this is the part so many people miss.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: We can also can combine that with a cash management system like profit first, and now you make strategic planning and money tangible and usable so that you can really be that CEO.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: So putting it into practice, this is how it looks.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: An operator asks, so if you're being the operator, not the CEO, you will ask, did I make enough money this month this month to cover my expenses?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: A decision maker would ask, is my profit margin moving me towards my goal?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if not, what specifically needs to change?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: An operator reacts to a slow month by working harder.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: A decision maker looks at the data, identifies whether it's a pipeline problem, a pricing problem, or a capacity problem, and addresses the root cause.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really a lot about being instead of being reactive or being proactive, right?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Same business, completely different leadership postures.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that posture, that CEO posture, is something you build deliberately, not something you arrive to by accident.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: That was a lot of great nuggets.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you caught all of those.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I want to address something I see on the other side of this because there's a ditch on both sides of the road, right?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about business owners who avoid their numbers entirely, who run on gut feeling and bank balance checks.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but there's another group, and maybe you've been there as well.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones that look at their numbers and let them become a source of anxiety instead of a source of information.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Where every dip in revenue feels like evidence that something is fundamentally wrong, where a bad month triggers a spiral that makes decision making worse, not better.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been there, this is your reframe.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, your numbers are not a report card, they are a dashboard.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that one again.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Your numbers are not a report card, they are a dashboard.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's a critical difference between these two things.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: A report card judges you.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had that?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you passed or failed as a child was bringing home your report cards a good event or a stressful event, you're trying, you're keeping that going.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, it's not the grade.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: It the grade when you're on, when you can treat it as a report card, that grade carries something about your worth, right?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: A dashboard in comparison informs you, it tells you the current state of a system so that you can make adjustments.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's neutral, it's useful, it doesn't define you, but it does guide you.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: When you look at your financials from this dashboard perspective, a slow revenue month, it's simply data, it's a signal to investigate.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Was it a pipeline issue, a seasonality pattern, a pricing decision, a delivery bottleneck?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: You ask questions, you look for causes, and you make an adjustment.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: You don't spiral, you don't catastrophize, you don't decide the business is failing because Q1 was softer than Q4.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, concrete example.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Revenue was$14,500, and that was down from$19,000 in January.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Your first instinct might be to panic, but you look deeper at your numbers instead of panicking, and you see that January included a one-time project that was worth$5,000 and it won't recur.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Adjusted for that, February's recurring revenue was actually$14,500 versus January's revenue, which was$14,000.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So your revenue, recurring revenue actually grew slightly.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: The margin held, your owner pay was made in full by dashboard standards.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: February was a solid month.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: It just didn't look that way at first glance.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: See where that changes, the shift is that's the skill.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Learning to read your data in context.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the more you do this, the more you're going to be able to really dig in.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're not comparing a one-off month to a normal one and drawing conclusions about that trajectory.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking at those trends over six, 12 months, looking at the right numbers, not just revenue, but margin, owner pay, cash reserve receivables, those KPIs that you need to track.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: When you develop that skill, the numbers stop being scary and start being genuinely useful.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that shift from fear-based avoidance to curiosity-based engagement is a foundational piece of the CEO confidence loop.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Helpful?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully it is.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now let me walk you through the loop itself because I want you to see how those three elements, decision, data, and discipline, how those work together to build something that accumulates over time.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with a decision, not a perfect decision, just an intentional one.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't life so much of those though?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't have to do things perfectly.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to do things, right?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: You decide in this scenario, let's say you decide to set a profit target, you decide to raise your price on a specific service, you decide to stop taking certain types of clients.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you, that can be super freeing as well.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you decide to pay yourself a consistent amount every month, non-negotiable.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You decide to work with Megan.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of get profit first in your business.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: These are CEO decisions.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're not made from the gut, they're made from a clear understanding of where you are and where you want to go.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: The decision, first step.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: The first time you make one of these decisions, it might feel uncomfortable.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's normal.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Understand the confidence might not be there yet, but you're building it and you need to trust the process.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: That happens so often when I start working with people implementing profit first because it's a process, it's setting up a system that can be really scary because we're making some changes and adjustments.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I always tell my clients, trust the process.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And time after time they do, and it pays off enormously.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: The decision then leads to data.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Once you've made an intentional decision, your numbers tell you what happened.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, not typically immediately, although we can get some pretty immediate results.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: But over time, for example, if you raise your price, you will begin to notice did your conversion rates hold?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Did they stay the same?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: You may have set a profit target.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Are you hitting it?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: You stopped taking a certain type of client.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Did that improve your margins?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did your energy improve?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's not always financial.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: The data gives you feedback, it closes the loop between the decision you made and the outcome it created.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And crucially, this is the part most business owners skip.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: You actually look at the data, you review it, you ask, did this decision move me toward my goal or away from it?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this part.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: The data in asking those questions is really important.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: From there, the data builds discipline, not the rigid willpower, draining kind of discipline, the quiet, consistent kind that actually is super important for us as business owners.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: The kind that says I review my numbers every month because I've seen what happens when I do, or I trust the pro I'm trusting the process.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's because we often, as owners, don't have anybody to hold us accountable.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have anybody to motivate us.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: We have to grow that discipline from inside of ourselves, from your own track record of making intentional decisions and seeing those things work.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that just helps to reinforce it.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Discipline from there creates more confidence, confidence to make the next decision.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the loop.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Decisions create data, data builds discipline, discipline deepens confidence, and confidence leads us back to better decisions.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Around and around, each cycle building on the last, it compounds over time into the kind of financial leadership that doesn't waver when your revenue dips or a client church or an unexpected expense hits.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is because you've built a foundation, you know your numbers, you know your patterns, you've made hard decisions before and seen them pay off.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that accumulated track record of showing up intentionally for your business is what real CEO confidence looks like.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: So let me put some numbers on this to help make it a little bit more tangible.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Say you commit to monthly dates and start tracking your profit margin.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Month one, your margin is 12%.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: You make a decision.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to raise your prices on new clients by 15%.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or it doesn't even have to be that high.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's like 3%.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you also stop discounting on renewals.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: So month three, your margin is now 17%.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Month six is now 22%.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Month 12, 28.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's not magic.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's the loop.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Decision, price increase, data, margin improvement, discipline, holding the new rate under pressure.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then now you have confidence.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: So now you have 12 months of evidence that this pricing works, that it's increased, that you now have better clients, that you're more happy about your work.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: The next time you increase your prices, guess what?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna feel a lot less scary.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: The next boundary feels more natural.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now you understand the why and the how and the what happens.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: The CEO posture now becomes your default.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I actually love this conversation because I've been in business for over 12 years now.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, I have lived this.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: I have lived this and experienced the loop.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and you can too.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you probably already have in some capacity, but really adding in this piece is gonna take you just another level up.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I always like the action step.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your action step this week is to start that loop, to reflect, start a new loop.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean literally pick one place to enter it, just one.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: You have three options.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a loop.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to pick one at one place, one place to the it's not a step ladder, it's a loop.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you can pick one of those.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So option one is to make a decision.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe pick one financial decision that you've been putting off.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a price increase, maybe it's a boundary with a client, maybe it's paying yourself a consistent amount.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, just maybe, it's having a conversation with me about profit first or about how we might be able to help you get into this loop and make things more successful financially.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I want you to make a decision and make it this week.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Write it down, put it on a post-it note where you can see it all the time, and then commit to it.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't wait till you feel ready, because that usually doesn't happen.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Make the decision and then let the data tell you what happens.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Option two is to look at your data.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Pull up the last three months of your PL, identify one trend, whether whether it's positive or negative, that you have, and maybe you haven't fully acknowledged it, and then name it and ask what decision would address this if it's a problem, or amplify it if it's working.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Option three is to add one act of discipline.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's scheduling your monthly money date right now.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that in the past.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or maybe it's to set up your tax savings account and transfer, set up a transfer as an automatic rule, or put your owner pay on a recal recurrent calendar reminder so that it happens without you having to decide each month.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to do all three of these.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one, pick one that fits where you are right now.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: The loop doesn't care where you enter, it really just cares that you do.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: You enter it.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to close this episode and this sector of content by saying something I mean wholeheartedly.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: You already have what it takes to run your business with real financial confidence.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: The talent is there.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're already, you've already made it.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: The comp commitment is already there, the care is there.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: What sometimes needs to be built in is the loop, the consistent practice of making intentional decisions, looking honestly at the data they create and building the discipline that comes from seeing your own track record.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Mindset, money, and leadership are not three separate mountains to climb, they're one path.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And every time you review your numbers without flinching, every time you hold a price under pressure, every time you pay yourself what you promised, you're walking it.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're walking that path, you're building the loop.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And over time, that loop builds something that no pitch deck or affirmation or motivational reel can give you.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you evidence, evidence that you are, in fact, exactly the CEO or business needs.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you're ready to build a CEO confidence loop with a team in your corner, people that will help you look at your numbers clearly, make sense of the patterns, and translate the data into decisions.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what we do at Sidekick Accounting.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to encourage you to book a call with me.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely no pressure, and usually you're walking away with these same kind of nuggets, but applicable to your specific business and situation.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: So go to chatwithmeg.com.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if this episode connected the dots for you, share it with a business owner who's maybe ready to make that shift from operator to decision maker.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: This was a lot of great stuff, and hopefully you're walking away with some great insights and encouragement.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: I am Megan.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Profit Points Cunt Podcast, your accounting sidekick, helping you connect the internal to the external, the mindset to the money, the decisions to the data.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I will see you next week.
• 21:45
  unknown: Bye.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's your episode this time.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget your action step.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to actually do it, not just add it to the list.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: If this episode was helpful, share it with a fellow business owner who needs to hear it.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're ready to go deeper on your specific numbers, book a strategy call with Sidekick Accounting.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Go to chatwithmeg.com, and I'll see you next time on Profit Points.