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Hiring, Firing, 6-figure Tax Bill and an Inheritance in a Week · All In with Allie

0:00
Hello, Hello. In this episode, I am going to share with you
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what has happened in the span of about one week. Okay. First,
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my team member quit on me. Okay, so I've talked a lot about
0:13
my ninja. My girl Sarah, she quit. She doesn't want to work
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with me anymore. We're going to talk about it. I had to fire
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my CPA, I received a six figure tax bill, I obviously need to
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hire new people on my team. And I got an unexpected inheritance. Okay,
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we have a lot to discuss. Buckle up. Welcome to Aline with
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Ali, the podcast for online business owners and entrepreneurs who are ready to create
0:49
the life and business of their dreams. Oof. Oof, your al's been
0:58
tested. Okay, so man, I've allowed to share. So okay.
1:06
I am a big fan of prayer. I consider myself to be very spiritual,
1:14
and lately I've been trying. I haven't been trying. I have been
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getting more into my spiritual practices again. I've been meditating again, which we
1:26
will talk about, if not in this episode another episode. Because I have
1:30
a really cool idea for the direction of this podcast. In twenty twenty four,
1:36
we'll put a pin in that we'll get to it. But I've been
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meditating more. I've been just spending more time in prayer and getting back to
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being more conscious and aware of my thoughts how I'm feeling. Am I overall
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belief in the power of the universe. The universe does have your back,
2:01
my back, all of our backs, if you believe it. Right,
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It's all about how you decide to look at life. The filter through which
2:08
you look at situations in your life through is often what you're going to experience.
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So again, I've been a lot more conscious about this because you know,
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it's different seasons of life you go in and out. So anyway,
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I prayed recently. I don't know where I heard this. I mean,
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we've all heard this one way or another, but I heard that you can
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you know, you can ask for anything. And one of the things that
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you can pray to God or whomever you pray to, is to remove anybody
2:43
or anything from your life that is not there for your highest good or the
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highest good of all, or however you want to say that. Right,
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you can pray like, if there's any anything, anybody that is attached to
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me that should not be for whatever reason, get him out of here,
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right, I've prayed this. I've prayed this before, and for whatever reason,
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I felt the need to pray this again and there wasn't any And I
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want to be clear on that. It wasn't like I was hoping that like
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somebody would but you know, get removed or anything like that. It just
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I don't know. I just felt called that that was probably a good idea,
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like why not? And also that's kind of a scary thing to pray,
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because holy like, what if Chris Reeves isn't supposed to be my life
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for whatever reason? Right, And that's not what I want. But anyway,
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if you pray for it, you better be ready for a response.
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And when I tell you, I got a response big time, and when
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it came fast and with a vengeance. Okay. So, like I said
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at the top of the episode, in one week, two people on my
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team that I can sit I've been working with four years are now exiting.
4:04
One quit, one had to be fired. Okay. So I'm referring to
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Sarah, who I have talked to many times on this podcast, and I'm
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also referring to my CPA, who I am not going to name for a
4:19
few reasons. And you know, we'll get into it. And it happened
4:27
fast, right, and it was so interesting because as it was happening,
4:34
I mean, it came like each situation came with its own share of feelings
4:40
and emotions and frustrations. But as it was happening, through the feelings and
4:45
the frustration, I also had this deep sense of peace. I knew.
4:54
Oh, I prayed for this. Okay, I asked for this, and
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it is being delivered. And I want to be clear here. I'm well,
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let's talk about Sarah first, because I want to I don't want to
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like leave this hanging and have anybody get any wrong impression of our relationship and
5:15
that situation because it's very important to me that and I'm obviously just sharing my
5:20
point of view, but I want to give a fair I guess perspective from
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my end regarding Sarah. This is very important to me because she is important
5:31
to me. So when I say that, I prayed that, like anybody
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who is not meant to be in my life, get him out of here.
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When I say that, I don't mean like she's not good for my
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life just because she's one of the people. You know. She quit And
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I'll tell you why she quit. But this goes both ways, right,
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Like that prayer is saying, like anybody who's not meant to be in my
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life, it's for both of our benefit, right, It's not like this
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is it's only for me, Like she's a person and she had to go.
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That's I don't believe that at all. I believe like our relationship,
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our time together played the core like the it's up, you know, the
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time's up. We came into our lives each other's lives for a reason,
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and some relationships are not meant to last forever, obviously, So I just
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have that deep sense of peace, and I feel like she does as well,
6:29
especially since she was the one who may ultimately made the decision before I
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did so. And let's talk about it and the reason why I want to
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be clear about this too. The reason why I'm even sharing this on this
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podcast is because I took you all with me on the journey of hiring Sarah
6:47
and when I found her, and I've mentioned her many times on this podcast.
6:51
She's been on my team now for two years. She was an employee
6:56
of mine for one year and then we shifted, which we'll talk about.
7:00
And I think it's important that if I talk about how we brought her in,
7:04
then we need to close the loop. Let's talk about how she's exiting
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and why. Because I've learned a ton from this situation, and anybody who
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also has a team and or is going to be eventually hiring a team,
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which I hope that's all of you listening, then I have some powerful what
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I think are powerful wisdom nuggets that you can take with you on your journey
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because I've learned a lot through working with Sarah and things I definitely will be
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doing differently moving forward with whoever does ultimately fill her position, which is going
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to be multiple people, because this woman carried my business. She wore so
7:49
many hats, and that's actually one of the things that I learned that I
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will be doing differently moving forward. So why did she what happened? Well,
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as I just kind of alluded to Sarah when she came on, she
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came on kind of as like a COO position, But like, what does
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that even mean? Right? So that's all around operations, and that's ultimately
8:20
what I wanted to hire somebody for. Or that's okay, that's one of
8:22
the things that I wanted to hire somebody for I needed somebody to come in
8:26
and create operations and systems in my business because they were non existent. So
8:31
what I wanted was if I were to hire somebody else, or if she
8:37
needed to quit or you know, move on to something else, then we
8:41
would have these systems and operations in place and we wouldn't have to reinvent the
8:46
wheel, right, So like I needed her for that. Obviously, operations
8:52
make your business run smoother, and she definitely did that, and she ended
9:01
up adopting kind of like a catch all role. So in my business,
9:05
I have contractors for different things. So I have a CPA and a bookkeeper.
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I have my podcast team Caitlin and Phillip, and I have like a
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you know, I work with a couple of other contractors for other things that
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I need. And then there's Sarah and she again just naturally it was one
9:30
of those things. It was like, Okay, you're you're going to be
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taking on a lot of responsibility, and she loved it. That's what she
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wanted to do. She's super organized, she's super fast. She's a projector
9:41
in human design, so she's really good at working and you know, in
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short spurts and getting a ton done in a short amount of time, and
9:52
this made sense. So when I first hired her, we did a ninety
9:58
day trial and then and she knew that if it worked out, if we
10:01
both liked working with each other, she would then move into and transition as
10:07
a full time employee for my business, which is what happened. So in
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twenty twenty two, she yeah, twenty twenty two, she transitioned as a
10:16
full time employee and it worked out really well. Now, a couple of
10:24
things that were I won't say red flag, but things that came up that
10:33
were addressed that I might do a little differently next time. First when I
10:41
hired this position, and I've learned this. This is actually something that I
10:45
learned from working with other people. Before I found Sarah, I had worked
10:50
with other people who had aspirations of being business owners and who wanted to do
10:56
what I wanted to do, and I would hire them and you know,
11:01
like they it wasn't that they were bad at their job, but they were
11:03
like wanting to see the back end of my business to learn how to ultimately
11:09
do the same thing, which I ain't mad at it. But also I'm
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not trying to hire somebody and train somebody and pay somebody just to turn around
11:20
quit and become my competition. Right. So, like when I hired Sarah
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and I was doing all of those interviews, one of the things that I
11:31
asked, I was so adamant about this. I asked, what is your
11:35
vision for your for your life? Right like, like past the point of
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this position, what do you what do you want to do? Like what's
11:43
a dream role for you? You know, in five years, where do
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you see yourself? Do you see yourself as a business owner, as a
11:52
coach, as an entrepreneur or do you like being in a supportive role?
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And anybody who answered like I want to do what you do or I want
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to be a podcaster, I want da da da da. I was like
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Matt out and Sarah was very clear, I want to be in a supportive
12:09
role. Great, okay, So we hired Sarah and anyways, she so
12:15
she became full time employee and it was gravy. Now what we learned was
12:24
while she was wearing many different hats, and what I mean by that is
12:30
she was my customer service person. She was my kujabi person. Right like,
12:37
anytime I created an offer and needed to you know, like wanted to
12:43
create, like a a new product or new whatever. She would go,
12:46
she would create it and Kujabi, she'd get all the ducks in a row
12:50
and I would just have to share out the link, right, So like
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she became my tech person in that regard. She also took on the role
13:00
of I don't know, I don't even know what you call this, but
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maybe like customer experience where when I did group calls or mastermind calls or master
13:11
classes, she would sitting on. She would sit in on the calls and
13:13
support us if we needed links or you know, she would take on hosts
13:18
of the call so I wouldn't worry about having to let people in and out
13:20
of the group. And so I'm she I mean, there's many things that
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she took on, like client you know, client experience, where if we
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needed to send out gifts or curate gifts for the mastermind or the membership,
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she would take that on. You know, there were many and a lot
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of smaller things mixed in there too, but it was a very broad role.
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Now, with my particular business, there are some weeks where we're very
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busy. There's a lot going on. I'm launching things, I'm hosting things.
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There's just there's a lot to be done, and then there are other
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weeks where there's very little to be done, right so to me, and
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I was very clear about that in the beginning too, like, hey,
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there are gonna be some weeks I'm gonna need extra support from you, and
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then there are gonna be other weeks where you're gonna be basically chilling because it's
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just a slower week and I'm not you know, I'm not creating, I'm
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not launching whatever. Anyway, what I liked about that, and what I
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thought was cool about that was I was paying her as a full time employee,
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which means, regardless of what the week looks like, you are getting
14:35
paid full time, right, You're getting paid no matter what. So be
14:39
on call, be there, but just know you're gonna have a pretty chill
14:45
schedule some weeks and other weeks it's gonna be a little bit busier. Perfect.
14:50
So that that was our agreement, and we did bonuses, we did
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like all these really cool things, and that worked out well well midway through
15:03
there. And by the way, again, I'm sharing this because one it's
15:07
what happened, but also it's pertinent to the story and things that I learned.
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And I'm not sharing this from like she's wrong or I'm wrong, or
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she's right or I'm right. It's just actually what happened, and I'm just
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going to share my perspective. So part of the way through, you know,
15:26
she started to see, oh, look I have I have all this
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time on my hands part of the time, and she wanted to do more
15:33
work, which I love. But instead of finding things to do like in
15:39
my business as a full time employee, you know, like trying to think
15:43
of like, oh maybe I could create whatever, you know, just things
15:46
to like help me make more money, she wanted to take on her own
15:52
clients. She saw like, oh, like, I'm really good at this
15:54
VA type role. Maybe I start my own thing and and I can take
16:03
you know, like and the time was there, right and I and I
16:07
fully believed that she could do both of these things. So she came to
16:12
me. We had that discussion, but it didn't feel right because the reason
16:18
why I hired her as an employee, which which was it was an intentional
16:23
decision obviously, right, you don't just like go through the emotions of hiring
16:27
an employee on accident. I hired her as an employee specifically and paid her
16:33
full time specifically, because I didn't want to compete with other people. I
16:40
didn't want like if I the way that I operate as a main agent,
16:45
there are again, there are some weeks where there's very little going on,
16:48
and then all of a sudden, I might get inspired and I might want
16:51
to launch three things. Right like, I just I don't know when I'm
16:53
going to get an idea. So I need and desire somebody on the team
16:59
who I understands that and who has my back end that way, which is
17:03
why we set up her position specifically in that way, so full time and
17:08
play. She came to me she had this idea, what if you know
17:11
I on the side, I do these things. She wanted to do direct
17:17
sales, and she wanted to take on other clients the direct sales. I
17:21
was like, you know, what do you I don't care what you do,
17:22
Like if you want to do the direct sales on the side, I'm
17:26
not going to stop you. But taking on other clients while I'm paying you
17:32
full time does not feel good. That feels if I don't love that.
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So what we did instead is we came up with this solution. And I
17:42
actually got this idea from my coach Melanie, because they do this and in
17:47
her business. But we came up with this idea that she could create like
17:52
a subfacet in my business, so it would all be under Ali I Reeves,
17:59
and she created like a VA vertical basically under my business where she would
18:06
she could help. She could create these additional services, the things that she
18:08
wanted to do, and she could offer them to my clients. Right like,
18:15
I have this very large group of women who are already working in my
18:22
business, you know, through the membership, through my mastermind, through different
18:26
programs. Everybody needs VA services. So the agreement was, this will be
18:33
under my business. You can create whatever services you want. You don't have
18:37
to market yourself. You get to market and promote yourself through my clients.
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I will promote you. I've promoted her on the podcast, I've promoted her
18:48
behind the scenes to all of my clients. In exchange, we do a
18:53
fifty to fifty split, so you can charge whatever you want and keep that
18:57
in mind as you're making these prices. Charge whatever you want. But if
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I'm paying you full time and these are my clients and you don't have to
19:04
market yourself and you're going to be under my brand, operating as somebody that
19:11
I co sign. Then it's going to be a fifty to fifty split.
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And we agreed to this. Okay, cool, it's happening. So this
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worked for a while. We did this until the end of twenty twenty two,
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and then the beginning of twenty twenty three, she came to me and
19:30
this she wasn't happy. Again, this isn't what she wanted. She felt
19:34
this call in this poll that she wanted more. She didn't, you know,
19:40
she wanted to still wanted to start her own business. She had these
19:42
ideas. Came to me with this solution of like, Okay, here's how
19:48
I can support you. I promise you it like you will notice no other
19:53
difference. I'm going to have a team. I'm going to build a team
19:57
you like. There will be no difference except I will not be your full
20:00
time employee. I'm going to take on other clients and you even get to
20:06
pay me less. So at that point, this is where I made the
20:08
mistake. Okay, this was my bad. At that point, my heart
20:17
was like no, I didn't want to do it for a myriad of reasons.
20:26
Right, because I was already clear, we already had this system in
20:29
place. I didn't want to do that. That's not why I brought her
20:33
on. And at the same exact time, I also did not want to
20:38
rehire somebody else. This was like, again the beginning of twenty twenty three,
20:41
I just had a baby, just lost my mom. You know,
20:45
there was like, oh, you know, I, I've dropped all this
20:48
momentum in my business. I need to be picking up the momentum and like
20:52
getting things up and going again. The last thing that I wanted to do
20:56
was to have to fire her and hire somebody else in that point of time.
21:03
So while my heart was saying this isn't what you want and you know
21:07
this isn't what you want, my logical rational brain was like, just do
21:12
it. It'll be easier this way. Who am I to keep somebody from
21:18
starting it, like starting a business? Who wants to be an entrepreneur?
21:22
Like this is literally why I do what I do. Who am I to
21:25
tell somebody that you can't do that or keep her playing smaller than what she
21:30
wants to play, you know? So I talked myself into it. I
21:34
said, okay, you know what, Okay, let's try it. Let's
21:38
try it. You say it won't affect our current situation, you'll be happier.
21:45
I assume I'll be just as happy because things are going to stay the
21:48
same. Let's give it a shot. Why not. And I can't remember.
21:53
That was sometime like the beginning of twenty twenty three, and for the
22:00
most part, things were going well okay, But and I take full responsibility
22:10
for this. I have really high standards, like when it comes to things
22:17
visually in my business and processes and things like, there's some things that I
22:21
don't and I could care less about, but there are certain things like anything
22:26
that is front facing, any kind of communication that comes from my business.
22:32
They're just things that I have really high standards for. And there were things
22:37
that started falling through the cracks, which, by the way, no matter
22:41
what the situation is, that's normal. Mistakes are going to happen. And
22:47
I do think and I think Sarah would agree with this. When it comes
22:51
to random mistakes, even big ones, which there were a few really big
22:56
mistakes that were made over the course of the past year, I'm pretty chill
23:00
about it. It's going to happen, right like when you're running a fast
23:06
paced business, and especially me being the type of business owner that I am
23:11
who gets an idea and I want something done fast, and she is a
23:15
pro at that right, like she is I call her in Ninja for a
23:18
reason. She's so freaking amazing at what she does. But like, mistakes
23:23
are going to happen, and I fully, fully understand that. But again,
23:27
I was putting too much on her plate. So when she would do
23:33
these things really fast for me, there were mistakes that were made that I
23:37
let go and I really didn't say much about or I made here's another mistake
23:44
that I made. I would go back behind and like double check things and
23:48
just redo things, and I might mention it or I might not. But
23:52
instead of nipping it in the bud fast and being honest, I didn't say
24:00
what I wanted to say when I wanted to say it. So what ended
24:03
up happening was kind of like this culmination of a little bit of resentment,
24:10
right And by the way, I could feel it from her too, like
24:14
we both we both were like annoyed with each other or I'm not gonna put
24:17
words in her mouth, but I felt it from her too, you know,
24:19
And I could just tell like some things are different. Things are just
24:25
different. And there was one point where I got frustrated and I expressed my
24:30
frustration and in a respectful way. But it was just like after that point,
24:40
after that point, it was just it was pretty it was pretty clear
24:44
like this isn't this isn't a good fit anymore. So I had, you
24:49
know, I was facing or really contemplating, like what do we do here?
24:53
What you know, we're coming up on the end of the year.
24:56
This things have changed, you know, she now has like from the beginning
25:03
of this role and what I initially wanted, which is still what I want,
25:06
which is somebody who's dedicated to this business, a lifer, somebody who's
25:10
going to grow with me, somebody who's going to be dedicated to my mission
25:14
and want to grow with the business in all ways, that just wasn't the
25:19
case anymore. Right, She had started this business, she even started a
25:23
podcast, which is incredible, like she and as she should. But it's
25:30
just different, right, It's just different. So as I was kind of
25:34
contemplating what do we do here? Do I do? Do I bring up
25:41
the conversation? I don't know, it was kind of like put in a
25:45
weird place. She ended up reaching out to me and quit in like the
25:51
most loving way possible, right, She was like, I love getting to
25:56
work with you, blah blah blah. I've heard your plans for next year,
25:59
and me and my team don't think that we're down for its actually you
26:03
know, like, well, I'm not gonna argue with that, like meaning
26:08
like if you say that you can't handle it or don't want And by the
26:11
way, I know she said that not because they can't handle it, but
26:15
because like it's ran its course, right, our relationship has ran its course.
26:22
So there's that. And she was so gracious and she offered to support
26:26
me through the rest of December, which is very cool because we've still got
26:30
things going and I desperately need her help as much as I can. And
26:36
I'm in the process of hiring a couple of new people, so I've learned
26:40
my lesson because I'm not going to hire another Sarah. I'm hiring currently.
26:45
I'm hiring somebody solely focused on customer service and customer experience, and I'm also
26:52
going to be hiring a Jabi expert and probably somebody to have more of like
26:57
a a general assistant role. So I'm working on it. But the big
27:04
lessons that I learned here, and before I get to that, I just
27:07
want to say again, she because I've led many people to work with Sarah,
27:15
not that she needed that. If that's just what happened, She's freaking
27:18
incredible. So if you're still working with her, or if you want,
27:22
like if you need a VA, go hire her in her team, especially
27:26
anything related to Kujabi. I think she also trains vas and teaches other people
27:34
how to be VA. So if this is something that you want to do
27:37
as a side hustle, like, go work with her. She's freaking incredible.
27:41
It's just our relationship and what I had pictured it just changed, right,
27:48
Just like any relationship, you've got to be able to grow and evolve
27:52
with each other. But unfortunately she and I grew and evolved in opposite directions,
27:56
in a direction that didn't necessarily work for me and it didn't work for
28:00
her. And a big lesson that I've learned from this, in addition to
28:04
the other ones that I've already shared, is I consider myself a fiercely loyal
28:11
person. I've always been this way with friends, with partners, with family,
28:18
Like I'm if I'm in your corner. I am in your corner,
28:23
and it's very hard to get rid of me, like you have to do
28:26
something really really bad. If we have history and I love you, I'm
28:34
a lifer. This is who I am, and I think that this is
28:38
it's a great quality to have. I'm not mad about it, but I
28:42
definitely can see how this has not served me in certain relationships and instances,
28:49
like unhealthy relationships in the past, or unhealthy friendships or you know, lack
28:56
of boundaries with family members. Right, this is definitely something that I've been
29:02
working on, and I saw this kind of came back like this kind of
29:06
felt like another cycle of this with my relationship with Sarah, because in that
29:11
moment this year where she was like, hey, I want this and it's
29:15
not what I wanted. I think it would have been the best thing for
29:19
both of us if I had been honest with her and just said, you
29:23
know, I'm so happy for you. I support everything that you do,
29:30
and I think it's best that we part ways. I think it just I
29:36
mean, we can't change it, we can't go back. So I'm sure
29:38
it all happened exactly how it was meant to, but I can see how
29:44
my quote unquote fierce loyalty it just carried. I think the shadow side of
29:52
that is I can hold on to things a little too long when it's already
29:56
played its course. You know, there are people who come into you life
30:00
forever and some who are just meant to be a lesson or whatever. So
30:07
that is the Sarah situation. Sarah, if you're listening, I freaking love
30:11
you. I'm thankful for you, and you're a freaking rock star, and
30:15
I'm very excited to see what comes next for you. And I'm excited to
30:21
see who can fill your massive shoes because it's gonna be a doozy Okay,
30:27
anyway, she's probably gonna record a podcast be like she was a fucking nightmare.
30:33
We'll wait for that anyway. So that's that story. What what?
30:41
Oh God? Okay, moving on to my mother fn CPA. Oh Okay,
30:49
I gotta be careful what I say. I can't even tell you.
30:53
I can't even tell you why. I can't say everything I want to say,
31:00
but I know one day I will. I will. Okay, here's
31:03
what I can tell you so far. Okay, this is gonna be a
31:07
podcast full of wisdom. And lessons. Here's the biggie for you. Number
31:12
one, pay your quarterly taxes? Okay, do it? Number two?
31:22
Oh so mad? Keep an eye on your freaking CPA. Anybody who handles
31:33
anything money related, you keep an eye on them. Okay, you keep
31:37
an eye on them. This is another area where my fierce loyalty got the
31:41
best of my freaking business in situation. Ooh, I'm so mad. Okay,
31:48
I hired my CPA. When was it, I want to say it
31:53
was like twenty twenty. Okay. They were referred by a mutual colleague of
32:00
mine who I don't even speak to anymore, who don't well, I'm not
32:05
gonna talk about that anymore either, Okay. So I get introduced to this
32:09
CPA. Apparently they're really good, especially when it comes to online business.
32:14
I was like, cool, let me talk to him. I talked to
32:16
them. They were great. Hired them. They were fan fantastic. Okay.
32:22
I've worked with them now for three years. First two years wonderful for
32:29
the most part. Okay, maybe even like year and a half. And
32:34
I hate to say that because it's like obviously the next thing I'm about to
32:37
say is for the last year to year and a half. It hasn't been
32:42
great, and a normal logical person would be like, hey, dumbass,
32:49
why are you still working with them? I'm getting to it, Okay,
32:52
let me explain. Let me explain. It's hard. Running a business is
32:55
hard. So here's what's Here's what happened. They came up, like a
33:07
year and a half working with them, they came to me with these fancy
33:13
options as a client that I could choose from. They said, Hey,
33:16
here's like these tiers of levels of service that you can choose. You can
33:22
choose any tier you want, and each level of service comes with a or
33:28
each option comes with a different level of support and service. Right Like with
33:34
the top tier you get more, you get like all of your p and
33:38
ls every quarter, and you get more TEX strategy planning, and you can
33:45
call and talk to anybody at any time, and you know, it comes
33:49
like a level of they essentially do everything, and the bottom tier just is
33:53
like basic tax filing. Right. Let me tell you something. I'm not
34:01
afraid to invest in things that I don't want to handle, right in hiring
34:07
people to do something well that I don't want to do, I'm all about
34:12
it. I am an outsourcing Cowen, right, so you better believe.
34:17
I responded that day and I said, you give me that top tier service,
34:22
baby, I see that price point. I'm happy. Like if it
34:25
includes all of that, give it to me. That's beautiful. If I
34:30
don't have to lift a finger when it comes to my taxes, that is
34:36
so worth it to me because I know the time it's gonna save me.
34:38
I know the stress it's gonna save me. You're gonna strategize with me.
34:45
Ooh that sounds hot, let's do it. So sign on for this top
34:51
tier service. And that's when the wheels fell off. Okay, because what
35:01
happened was I received like none of it, like none of it, okay,
35:09
just to give you like one small This is a silly example at this
35:14
point because what they have done is so ridiculous and wrong and borderline well probably
35:20
illegal, which I'll tell you. But like, for example, one of
35:24
the things is they pay for your quick books, right, Like I pay
35:27
for quick books, which is like thirty dollars a month. But they're like,
35:30
we'll pay for it because they manage it all and that you know,
35:34
they never reached out, never whatever. And then there was like two moments
35:37
in the past. Let's just say a year. Let's just keep it clean
35:40
the past year where I was like, hey, you know, it's kind
35:45
of hard to get hold of y'all. Uh, still paying for quick books.
35:51
I haven't received any p and ls, certainly haven't received any strategies.
36:00
Can I receive that? Right? So, like, there were probably two,
36:04
maybe even three times that I gently prompted and brought this up to them
36:12
and then full on complained like, hey, this is the third time we're
36:15
having this conversation. What's going on? You know? And I'm also running
36:21
a business, right, There's there's a ton going on, which is no
36:24
freaking excuse. But basically I allowed them to full on steal from me essentially,
36:30
right, I'm paying every single month for this top tier service that they
36:37
are not providing, and your girl is just taking it up the freaking butt
36:40
right, Like straight up, I'm just like, maybe one day they'll get
36:44
their stuff together. I don't know. Well they didn't, so let me
36:52
let me just tell you what these rat bastards did. Oh I'm mad.
36:58
So it's tax season right, twenty twenty three, and I don't pay or
37:05
I didn't. I this is changing in twenty twenty four, big, big
37:07
lesson. I wasn't paying quarterly taxes. Here's why. By the way,
37:12
if you don't do this, you do get penalized. So and I knew
37:15
this, but here's why. Because you're paying based on the amount of revenue
37:21
coming in, but you also have a certain amount of expenses, so like
37:27
you end up basically overpaying and then you'll receive money back. But like,
37:32
I don't want to overpay each quarter. To me, it makes more sense.
37:37
Just tell me what I freaking out, and I'll pay you exactly that,
37:40
Uncle Sam. I'm not gonna get started on Uncle Sam. So anyway,
37:49
uh, it was time for twenty twenty two, well twenty you know,
37:52
to do the twenty twenty two taxes, right, So we're reaching out
37:57
to them. We're like, hey, and by the way, we file
37:59
an extent. We've just done that the past few years. I don't know
38:01
why, we just do and we know that like here soon this is I'm
38:07
speaking like a few weeks ago. We knew that we'd have a tax bill,
38:13
right, and one of the things that we've always asked them is,
38:16
hey, let's have a conversation in advance, plenty in advance. So we
38:23
know what to expect, so we know what like what we're going to be
38:30
paying to the irs, so we're not hit with this crazy tax bill.
38:35
Right, So, as we're leading up to this state which we know is
38:38
coming and inn it we're reaching. Can we get a phone call with so
38:43
and so? Can we get a phone call with so and so? No
38:45
response, no response? Or yeah, when we book a call and then
38:50
they have quote unquote network issues or so and so is out of town or
38:55
what the fricking yeah, there's a family emergency. The amount of times we've
38:58
got family emergency as an excuse, it's it's comical. And anyway, long
39:06
story, freaking long. The day comes up, the taxes are due.
39:12
They said, here's your tax but you know, here's here's your bundle.
39:15
Here, we got it done for you. And when I tell you these,
39:22
you know what, try and tell me that we have a six figure
39:28
tax bill. Six figures. Let that sink in. When I tell you,
39:36
my sweet angel husband went white and I thought I had lost him for
39:40
a minute. I thought, either he's he's dying in front of my eyes
39:45
or he's divorcing me in front of my eyes. Right, big tax bill,
39:52
Now my business is great, it's doing great. Two was a good
40:00
year, Very thankful for that. And I also knew I had more expenses
40:07
than I've ever had as a business owner in twenty twenty two. Okay,
40:12
I already knew this. I kind of like did rough calculations in my mind
40:15
because I'm not a freaking idiot, and I knew that, like, yes,
40:21
we did great. And also your girl was spending a lot of money
40:25
on the business too, So I knew this. And we get this bill
40:30
and I'm looking at I'm like this, there's no way, absolutely no way
40:36
this can be correct. And sure enough we look into it and they basically
40:45
got my expenses wrong by over six figures, almost two hundred thousand dollars in
40:52
expenses they miscategorized. Okay, so we said, hey, we need to
41:00
fix that. Freaking nutjobs like hello, and by the way, you don't
41:07
reach out to us, you don't ask like, hey, you know,
41:09
I know this is due today, but does this look right? Do you
41:12
want to take a little gander at these expenses? It looks like you paid
41:15
yourself a freaking insane amount of money. Is that true? You're like no,
41:20
not, no, no, So these people what it looks like is
41:22
they for like something's going on? Right? And they took ten whole minutes,
41:29
ran my numbers, ran my quick books, didn't ask if anything was
41:32
categorized right or wrong. Nothing. But before you say, Ali, you
41:37
should be looking at yourself in categorizing. This is what I pay for.
41:40
Okay, this is the tear like that that you know, like they handle
41:45
everything and we're supposed to be having these conversations and they never happened. Okay,
41:49
what I should have done was fire them months ago, and that's where
41:52
I screwed up. So anyway, Hey, we need to get on a
41:57
call. Let's get on a call. Let's whatever. We booked three there
42:00
were three meetings that were booked. Every single one. The day of the
42:06
meeting was canceled and moved days later, right like we could not could not
42:12
get a call with my CBA. By the way, we're not even she
42:15
won't respond to emails. She is. I don't even know if she's a
42:20
live or dead right now, like genuinely because she I haven't heard from her
42:22
in months, upwards of six months, maybe even more than that. We've
42:27
just been communicating with the poor secretary of this company who I've apologized profusely.
42:36
I'm like, I know this is not your fault, you're just the messenger,
42:37
but what the hell is going on? Anyway? I ended up just
42:45
I know, this is like probably very boring. I don't know. Hopefully
42:49
this is my hope by sharing this story is that you guys won't make the
42:52
mistake that I did. But I ended up having to. I said,
42:55
you know what, screw this, because Chris is like, bless his heart,
43:00
He's like, listen, just play it nice, you know, don't
43:04
don't burn the bridge because we need all these forms from them, they have
43:07
to amend the taxes, like we still need them to do all these things.
43:09
Be nice. And I'm like, oh no, no, no,
43:12
no, we are past no, absolutely not like I'm waking up in the
43:15
middle of the night sweating angry over this. This is It just felt like
43:19
such a violation. They were stealing from me essentially, So finally I was
43:24
like, no, f that, I'm done. I'm done. So I
43:27
go I do a Google search of local CPAs in our area. There was
43:30
one with amazing reviews. I went and met with them that day and they
43:36
had it all sorted within a week. Y'all within a week they had this
43:44
that they're doing the amendment now fixed fixed everything, everything in a week,
43:52
and I'm like, we did not, okay, So again this is where
43:57
my stupid loyalty nipped me and like totally, just it's a problem, right,
44:02
I should have I should have canned them months ago. So it's like,
44:07
well, a lot of its laziness too, because I just I didn't
44:09
want to deal with it. But now dealing with this stress, just the
44:15
past month, the stress, the stress that this is put on Chris and
44:19
I because I knew it was wrong, but also it's like, what do
44:22
we have to do? What does this mean? Are we gonna get in
44:24
trouble? Are we gonna get auditor? When all I had to do if
44:30
I had just fired them at the first sight of incompetence and freaking fraud,
44:38
we could have had it all sorted. I didn't think. I thought it
44:40
would be a much larger headache to fire them. In my head, it
44:45
was like it made sense, like, just let them finish out this tax
44:47
season and then we'll move forward with somebody new for twenty twenty four. No,
44:52
so if you are dealing with a CPA or a bookkeeper who ain't it
44:58
fire them immediate. There are so many other people out there who will do
45:01
right by you and by your business, and nobody deserves, especially to be
45:07
touching your freaking money. Who is going to play you like that? So
45:12
anyway, oh okay, so let me let me just close this down,
45:17
the big tax spell right. Oh my god, I have the coolest story
45:22
about this. This is insane. Okay, this is insane. This has
45:29
never happened to me before. This is where the inheritance comes in. Freaking
45:34
crazy. So as I record this, yesterday, we went and sat down
45:39
with our new guy, tax Daddy, and we're having a conversation. He
45:45
said, this is what you owe and the number that he told us,
45:49
Oh my god, I could have cried. I could have cried. We
45:52
owed something. But it sure wasn't six figures. Okay. I was like,
45:57
thank you, tax Daddy. That's more like it. That that's that's
46:00
facts right there. So we got it fixed and we have like it's it's
46:08
still a bill, right, it's still like you know, So we're driving
46:15
home, we're like, okay, how are we going to pay for this?
46:19
Because it's it's it's certainly not six figures, but it's also like,
46:22
you know, we don't just have it like chillin' in, you know,
46:24
in my savings account. So it was like, okay, what what are
46:30
our options? Let's talk about this. Where are we going to do?
46:32
You know what? Can we move around whatever? And it was like it
46:37
was good news, but also like, okay, we we got to move
46:40
some things around. Fine, So we get home work a little bit.
46:46
Chris goes and he gets the mail and I after that there's like the end
46:52
of the day, it doesn't matter. But anyway, I walk in and
46:54
I see this mail on the counter, and I see an envelope from Fidelity,
46:59
which is like a investment company, right, you've heard of Fidelity.
47:05
I'm like, that's weird, and it's it's addressed to me regarding my grandfather's
47:13
IRA or something. I was like, wait a freaking second. So backstory,
47:23
my grandfather, one of my favorite people on the planet, passed away
47:30
in twenty twenty two. And a few things about him. He was the
47:36
most frugal person on the planet, the most fiscally responsible person on the planet.
47:43
To give you an idea of this man, when I turned eighteen and
47:47
I graduated high school, he came in from Colorado to Tennessee and he made
47:52
me sit through an hour long presentation that he made me with like a whiteboard
47:58
and everything, explaining to me how to save my money, how much money
48:02
I spend on coffee every single day. Like the most old school Dave Ramsey
48:09
could never lecture on saving money, right, oh, because he had like
48:16
started me this ira and he like, here's don't you know, don't withdraw
48:20
this money. Here's you know, like explain to me how many works,
48:22
which, by the way, nobody had ever done. So thank thank God
48:25
for him. So that's when I turned eighteen, when Chris and I got
48:30
married. This man his gift to us, his gift to us, by
48:35
the way. We went and we visited him the very first time he ever
48:37
met Chris. I was pregnant with Cruz, and he brought Chris into his
48:43
office and for two hours sat him down and talked to him about like what
48:49
investments we had, what we're doing with this, what we're doing with that,
48:53
and like giving him his advice on how to manage our finances. To
48:59
my husband, who was I mean, he Chris ate it up. Okay,
49:02
It's like he's like my grandfather. Million years later, but anyway,
49:08
so then and then for a wedding present, he gifted us the full Dave
49:15
Ramsey like money University savings, University on disc like, it was like fifteen
49:21
discs, this huge box that was our wedding gift. If that tells you
49:24
anything about my grandfather, right, So anyway, I knew, because he
49:30
had talked to me about this, that when he passed, I would be
49:34
getting some sort of inheritance, which I've never received inheritance in my life.
49:37
That's not like a thing in my family. Right. But again, he
49:40
was very physically responsible and he wanted to set everybody up. But we had
49:45
talked about this years ago, and he passed in twenty twenty two, and
49:50
I just didn't, you know, my Grandma's still alive, So I'm not
49:53
worried about it, right, like I whatever. Anyway, I get this
50:00
envelope and it's regarding my grandfather, and I'm like, er, hmm,
50:07
let's just take a gander at that, right, So I open it up,
50:10
and sure enough, it's like, hey, uh, you have something
50:15
from your grandfather reach out to us and whatever, and sure is shit,
50:21
it's my inheritance from my grandfather. And so I'm on the phone with them,
50:29
and they're explaining to me, like here's what you need to do,
50:31
blah blahlah blah. And I was like, so I can't see like the
50:36
amount until like in a few days when it clears my account. I was
50:38
like, what what's the what's the amount? Like? Can you can you
50:40
give me anything? I'm dying here, Like am I am? I a
50:45
millionaire? Like what's going on here? And by the way, I knew,
50:47
I knew that that wasn't the case. And I knew I had an
50:51
idea about what this would be. So they told me, and all that
50:54
they could tell me was like the full amount and then that amount is divided
51:00
did by I guess, like all the grand kids or whatever. And they
51:04
were like, you're getting six percent of this figure. So I was like,
51:07
oh, okay, cool, nice. So I got phone, I
51:10
do the math. Six percent of this figure. When I tell you this
51:19
number was within a hundred no, like three hundred dollars of our tax number
51:30
the little actually no, no, no, that's wrong, that's wrong,
51:34
that's wrong. That was wrong. It was a few thousand over that's what
51:37
it was. This number was a few thousand dollars more than what we owe
51:43
in taxes. Right, So I was like, oh my god, that's
51:47
crazy. And I showed Chris and I was like, dude, can you
51:52
believe And even he and he's not. I'm I miss like signs in the
51:55
universe, and the universe has your back, and I'm always like looking at
51:59
things through a spirit lens, you know. And he is, you know,
52:01
he's religious and he he gets it, but like he's he doesn't look
52:07
at he's not as as soul as I am on the magic of the things.
52:12
But even he was like, that's insane. Like tell me, explain
52:15
to me. It gets by the way, it gets weirder. Explain to
52:20
me how this man passed in twenty twenty two, okay, And I haven't
52:25
heard anything about this. And the day that I open the letter regarding this
52:30
inheritance was the day that we get this tax bill. And it's that similar,
52:38
like just a couple of a few thousand off from the number, like
52:43
more than what we need, a little bit more than what we need,
52:45
you know. And we both were like, that's insane, that's freaking insane.
52:51
And you hear about stuff like this, right, you hear about like
52:53
people having all of a sudden, you know, they have these expenses or
52:57
they want to start a business and then they get this like random check in
53:00
the mail. And I was like, dude, that who who gets random
53:02
checks in the mail? This was my time? Okay, So anyway,
53:07
we're sitting there like that's freaking crazy. He was like, well, it's
53:09
actually put in a wroth, so we don't want to take that money out
53:15
because there's like a ten percent what is it called penalty, So if you
53:22
take it out, you have to take ten percent off plus taxes or whatever.
53:24
And I was like, oh really, and he was like yeah.
53:28
So I was like that's interesting. I wonder what that amount will be.
53:30
So I took ten percent off of this figure, and it was within fifty
53:37
dollars of what we needed. It was still the exact Like now it's like
53:42
the exact amount of what we need. So the amount, by the way,
53:45
we're not taking it out of the wroth, by the way, so
53:49
calm down. But if we did, it was the exact freaking amount of
53:55
our tax bill. So regardless, Like, isn't that insane? Isn't that
54:04
I just cannot believe? I mean I can, but also, nothing like
54:07
this has happened to me of all days, of all days, of all
54:12
numbers, of all things. It was just kind of like this little,
54:15
this little moi from the universe. And of course shout out to my grandpa
54:20
for for doing life the way that he did and hooking us up in this
54:24
way, because wow, but that's never happened to me before. And I
54:30
just wanted to share that with you, like, damn, damn, we're
54:37
good, you know, like you gotta you gotta believe that. And like
54:39
I said at the beginning of this episode, this is something that I've been
54:43
working on, shifting my focus again, shifting my lens again, looking for
54:47
the ways that that like, it's working out. It's always working out,
54:52
even when you pray for for something to change. When things rearrange, it
55:00
often like chaos. You hear a lot of people talking about that, right
55:02
it feels like, Oh my god, my team member just quit. Who's
55:06
going to fill this position? Oh my god, our CPA is freaking fraudulent.
55:12
Now I have to deal with that. Oh my god, our tax
55:14
bill is crazy, now I have to deal with that. Like, but
55:16
things are just rearranging. That's not the end of the story. So I
55:21
think obviously, Like I gave you many, many nuggets of what I think
55:25
is wisdom. You know, if you're hiring somebody, or you're currently in
55:31
a relationship or a situation that you know isn't right, but you're holding on
55:36
because you're lazy, or or you're you're scared to make a change. I've
55:40
given you a lot of that. But I want to end the episode with
55:44
this, if whatever season you're in right now, whatever situation you're in,
55:51
if it feels like chaos, the story's not done right. Like the best
55:55
stories that you hear that we've all heard, there is that moment, there's
56:00
that peak chaotic moment where you're like, what the hell is gonna happen?
56:05
That's insane? Holy crap? Is he gonna make it? Is she gonna
56:08
make it? Like? How is this gonna go? And then the dust
56:14
settles and you're left with, nine times out of ten, a really badass
56:19
story. And if it's not, like eventually it turns into something that is
56:23
a good story, you just can't see it at the time. Right in
56:27
hindsight, the dots connect, it makes sense. So it was a little
56:35
rocky there for a little bit. I certainly was questioning things, and I
56:37
was confused, and I was frustrated. I was a little panicky. But
56:42
things are working out right. We're obviously meant to grow and evolve, and
56:50
that's with our relationships too. And if you are in a situation where you
56:53
feel like you're holding somebody back, or if somebody is holding you back,
56:58
you owe it to each other to cut ties and move on. I owed
57:04
it to my CPA to cut ties and move on months ago, because now
57:07
they our story is not done, Sarah, and I'm I'm thankful for all
57:16
the time that I had with her, but like you know, who,
57:21
who's to know? Who I who? Who I could have found in the
57:23
meantime, and and the things she could have done in the meantime versus like
57:27
trying to make this thing work that neither one of us really wanted to do
57:31
for a while, you know. So anyway, that's my situation, and
57:38
life's good. So I appreciate. Oh my gosh, I have I have
57:44
things to tell you too. I'm doing a giveaway for this podcast. So
57:47
do you remember a couple of episodes ago where I was talking about, uh,
57:54
what was the title of that episode? Hold on, I'll find it
57:58
Okay. So the episode was titled one of the Easiest Most Potent Manifestation Hacks,
58:04
and I talked about the power of being Delulu. How like the most
58:08
powerful people who have created the most insane things, like how they got there
58:14
was there. They had to have a level of delusion in them. You
58:16
know that that was their superpower. Like we all need to have that moment
58:20
where everybody kind of thinks we're crazy because we're playing that big And I was
58:23
like, I need I'm going to make a hat that says de Lulu.
58:27
Well guess what, I'm going to make a hat that says Delulu. A
58:30
few of y'all reached out. You love the idea. I love the idea.
58:34
I'm going to do it, and I'm going to do a giveaway with
58:37
this. So here's how this is going to work, because, like I
58:40
said in twenty twenty four, I have some new ideas for this podcast.
58:44
Actually, let's just talk about that real quick. It'll take just a couple
58:47
of minutes, So hang tight. I want to do this thing where I
58:52
test out different things, whether it be strategies, whether it be self care
59:00
routines, drugs. Hold on, I'll tell you why and I want to
59:06
talk, I want to podcast about it, right So, like I'm it's
59:08
kind of under the vibe of I'm trying this first, so you don't have
59:14
to or to so you can decide if you want to do it too.
59:17
So for example, right now, I'm testing out meditating for for thirty days
59:25
in a row, right, like, no matter what. And I've talked,
59:30
I've talked relentlessly about how I hate meditating. I can't sit still.
59:36
I'm just not that person. But I refuse to limit myself in that way.
59:40
So I'm forcing myself to sit down and do this for thirty days,
59:44
and I'm going to report back to you. And also I already have like
59:47
some pretty crazy insights and some really cool things that's happened from doing this,
59:52
So I want to I want to do that. I want to do ayahuasca
59:55
eventually. I want to. I'm already planning on microdosing mushrooms right So I'm
1:00:01
going to be doing these things through the lens of like I'm testing this to
1:00:07
see how it works for me, to see what comes of it. But
1:00:10
I'm going to share all of the nitty gritty details with you, and you
1:00:16
get to also request things that I try. So if there's like a self
1:00:21
care something or like some sort of retreat or some sort of practice or some
1:00:25
sort of strategy that you're kind of like, Ooh, I kind of want
1:00:30
to do that, but you're nervous, or you'd rather hear about somebody else
1:00:35
do it first, so you can decide if you want to. I'm your
1:00:38
girl. Doesn't that sound fun? And I realize there are a lot of
1:00:43
other podcasts that like, I'm not the first person who will be doing ayahuasca,
1:00:47
And that's just one idea, by the way, but like, if
1:00:52
you listen to this podcast, it makes it like what you know, I
1:00:55
might have it. Everybody has different experiences. So anyway, anyway, the
1:01:01
point of me sharing that is to prep for that. Let's get new people
1:01:07
here, right, let's get let's push this podcast out there into the world.
1:01:13
And one of the ways that you get to do that is by leaving
1:01:15
reviews. So if you get an influx of reviews and downloads, it promotes
1:01:22
you out to new people. Much like Instagram algorithm, you get seen by
1:01:27
more people. So here's the giveaway. Here's where this comes in. If
1:01:31
you would like a Delulu hat, all you gotta do is leave us a
1:01:37
review on iTunes, screenshot it, send it to me on either Instagram at
1:01:45
alii Reeves or email it to us at assistant at Aliireeves dot com obviously,
1:01:52
so we can have your name and your information, and I will do a
1:01:57
drawing at the end of the year. Around the end of the year,
1:02:00
and we're gonna be giving away I don't know, at least five hats,
1:02:04
maybe even ten. And full disclosure, I have not made these hats yet,
1:02:07
so I'm in the process of I'm finding the designer. We're gonna get
1:02:12
them made, so you're not going to get them immediately, but you will.
1:02:15
I'm going to eventually sell these hats and you could win one for free,
1:02:20
so we're gonna be giving away multiple of them. So anyway, if
1:02:23
you listen to the show, if you enjoy the show, it would mean
1:02:27
the world to me. If you took two minutes, left us a five
1:02:30
star review or an honest review, screenshot it, send it to me on
1:02:36
Instagram or assistant at Alireeves dot com, and you will be put into the
1:02:40
hat for a giveaway of the Delulu hat. And it's gonna be cute.
1:02:45
Obviously, all right, anything else I need to share with you, I
1:02:51
think that's pretty much. Oh I have. I also got hit with this
1:02:55
crazy a bunch of really fun to offer ideas all of a sudden, I've
1:03:00
been kind of quiet with my offers and I got three really fun ideas and
1:03:07
I think I'm just gonna launch them all because I'm a man agen and why
1:03:10
not. So some of them are like they're actually they include close proximity and
1:03:17
you know, they're like eight week containers. And then another one is a
1:03:21
program that goes on for a month and also includes some coaching. So anyway,
1:03:23
if you're interested in those, just check out my Instagram. It'll all
1:03:27
be there. And that's all I got for you today. I love you.
1:03:31
I'll see you here next week. Bye.