174 – Building Generational Wealth with Simone Craig

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 174.

Intro 0:06
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl, stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:24
Hello there. I’m your host, Karen Yankovich. And this is Episode 174 of the good girls get rich podcast. And this podcast is brought to you by she’s linked up where we teach simple relationship and heart based LinkedIn marketing to women that gets them on the phone consistently with people that can change their business, their lives and their bank accounts for ever. We create wealthy women of influence here in our she’s linked up family. So if you’ve listened before, or if you love what you hear today, you know, we’d love to hear from you. So please be sure to subscribe to this show. Wherever you’re listening. If you’re feeling it, leave us a review. Leave us a rating get helps me understand what episodes you’re loving. And I can do more of that right? I’d love for you to share this episode on social media, use the hashtag good girls get rich or tag me at Karen Yankovich. Tag, Simone will put all of her links in the show notes as well, because we will then share your posts with our audiences. And then we all get more visibility that way right? in the show notes. There’s a link for speakpipe you can leave us an audio message you can leave us a review, you can tell us who you think we should have on the show. Maybe a topic you’d love for me to talk about on the show, I love getting your audio messages, and I can reply back your audio. So just go to Karen Yankovich comm slash 174. And you’ll see the blog for this episode, you’ll see the link for speakpipe. And you’ll see all the things that we’re talking about on this show. I’m really excited about this show. And this is a little bit longer than usual. But there’s just so much to cover, because Simone Craig, who’s our guest this week, and I we we are our lives and our businesses are intertwined in so many ways. And I really want to do that I really wanted you to get the best of all the different places in that little spiderweb. That’s more than I have created in our lives and our businesses. So I hope you love her as much as I do. Check it out. Here’s Simone. I am here today with Simone Craig. And Simone is a wealth expert on a mission to close the wealth gap one woman at a time. She is known as the angel CFO Simone advises women business owners to make savvy and wise financial decisions for maximize business profitability, increase personal wealth, and joyful living. She’s best skilled and gifted to help women business owners to feel confident and at ease with their business finances, to create miracles for their bottom line and to partner with them to create generational wealth. She’s the founder of abundant school for generational wealth, the first learning platform for women of its kind. What I love the most about Simone is that she’s got the left brain stuff, right, she’s got the Bachelor of Science degree in accounting, she’s got 25 years in the financial industry, including big four companies, KPMG, as well as the private sector. But she’s also got the right brain expertise. She’s a law of attraction and manifestation expert. And combining those things together, I think is what helps people like me create a thriving accounting. What I love about all of this is that it helps people like me understand that there’s energy around the money, but also, she’s not raking my bank account. She’s giving me like big account advice. And here’s the deal, Simone is my CFO and is a student in my program. So you’re gonna get like all sides of this relationship here today, which is why I’m so excited to have Simone here. Simone. This is so fun. Thanks for being here.

Simone Craige 3:30
Thank you, Karen. I’m really excited to be here. Thanks for having me again.

Karen Yankovich 3:34
Yeah. So schmoes, I will link to the episode Simone was in a few years ago. Interesting. I haven’t listened to it in a while be interesting to see how, how the growth has been, right, since that last episode. And here’s the deal. So someone and I have known each other for years, probably since like, 2012. I think we met. Yeah. And, and, you know, we’ve been like that. Do you remember I remember very specifically, like, we just I think you reached out to me, or I reached out to you. I don’t even remember saying like, how’s everything going? And then we had lunch at the mountville in Yeah, I remember that. And that was like the beginning of this next chapter. You know, cuz I was like, wait, what I love that that’s a program you’re like it is has a program. I like you know, my brain never stops, your brain never stops and it just hasn’t stopped since then. So and you know what’s wrong? Like, as I’ve read your bio, I mean, I hope everybody listening heard things like, you know, miracles for your bottom line, partnering with them to create generational wealth. Those are the kinds of things that we want, but we don’t even know or I will speak for myself. I don’t even I don’t even know. Like that was there for me. Right? Yes. So tell everybody a little bit about what brought you to this place here and then we’ll dive into some of the some of the juicy stuff.

Simone Craige 4:45
Yeah, wow. Well, it’s definitely been a journey, for sure. I started out with a very, very traditional accounting background. Interestingly enough, and I started working in a very kind of stuffy corporate environment, which was completely opposite of my personality, and what would would make me happy. But I did that. And I and I don’t regret that time, I thought, some real solid accounting and financial analysis skills there, which I still take with me today used today and helps my clients. So that’s awesome. But I was working in a kind of a very stuffy financial corporate environment. And I was miserable. And so I decided to try to figure out what do I want to do what, you know what, what really lights me up? What am I What am I passionate about? Right? And, and that took me on that took me on quite a journey, um, I ended up it was maybe, maybe it was 2006, around 2006. I had just moved back from California, I decided that I was going to try out being a singer, songwriter, and an actress. So I did that for a few years out in California. And that was cool. But I came back, you know, totally broken, had to build my life back up. And I had a corporate job, I went back to corporate. And maybe about six months later, I had finally had enough, I was doing the work of like three people’s jobs. And I said, You know what, if I’m gonna work this hard, I might as well work do this for myself. And that was it. I went and I started a bookkeeping business. And really, from there, it’s like, I grew with my clients, right? So we got their books together. But then what they needed after that was really like some coaching, right? some financial coaching, now that my books are together now, what do I do? And I was like, Well, I don’t know. I’m an accountant. So I know how to do that. I’m not sure what you do next. And so that took me on the dirt journey to becoming a financial coach. And I was learning more about mindset, and what actually will help people to move the needle when it comes to their finances in their business. Right? And then that took me on the next step. And then as my clients grew, it was like, hmm, but what about taxes? How do I, how do I make sure that I’m profitable? You right, then that took me on the next step of learning about tax planning and how to be profitable. And so is really, I grew as a person and as a business owner, as I saw my clients growing. And then, about five years ago, I took to Periscope. And I decided to just start talking about everything that I knew, and that I had learned in the financial space just in my own personal life and as a business owner. And then that’s what really sparked me to start really talking about what I knew and what I was passionate about, about abundance and mindset, and how they play together. And then the next step was much more personally, was about two years ago. Yeah, I guess it’s about two years ago, now. My mom passed away. And I had no idea the condition that my parents finances are in. And I had in there were some things that I just so to be very straightforward, right? One of the big things one of the hugest vehicles you can use to build generational wealth we can get to that is life insurance, whole life insurance. And what I discovered was that, because I saw, you know, I saw my mom’s finances like she was paying for life insurance policy. But we had no evidence of a life insurance policy. We couldn’t see it, couldn’t find it. And then come to find out that she was paying for my dad’s life insurance policy. Now, she had been sick for a year. Right? She was still paying this insurance policy, but she wasn’t paying for her. She was paying for my dad. And that’s when I said, Okay, I’ve had enough. Yeah, this is ridiculous. Yeah, I never I didn’t I never knew any of that. Yes. And and that is what sparked me to say, really eff this like that was theirs. You could never tell me that a man would do that. There’s no way in the world that that is a decision you… He might have been paying for his wife’s policy. Sure, but he definitely would have been paying for his own as well. Not I’m gonna pay for my wife but not mine. Yeah. One woman thing to do. Sorry if anyone’s offended by that. Sorry, not sorry. Wow. It’s just an I just there’s the you know, it just Seems so wrong, like you have this woman who’s lived this incredible life, who had given so much to so many people. And, and that she, she’s get sick, she is dying, and then come to find out that this life insurance policy that she’s paying for wasn’t even paying for her own. And so, and that’s why I said, Okay, well, now I’m going to learn more about these generational wealth vehicles, I’m going to learn about the insurance I’m going to because I didn’t, I didn’t learn any of those things. Right? Right. And I’m going to make sure that my life is set up in a way that supports my daughter of when I’m not here anymore, and supports her now while I am here, and then also really honors me and and, and where I’m taking care of myself on here as well. And so, um, yes, it’s not willing to be the sacrificial lamb anymore, that this has been the generational pattern for women in my family. I said, it stops here with me. And as soon as I got clear on that, that is when the kind of the the heavens opened up, if you could say, I got a download. And it became, it was communicated very clearly with me that I am here to close the wealth gap for women. And ever since I got clear on that, that’s when things started to fall in place, things started to be that things started to flow to me with much more ease. You know, literally, I can remember, I can remember the moment when you when you reached out to me and you were like, Simone, I want you to be my CFO,

Karen Yankovich 11:39
I remember that moment.

Simone Craige 11:40
Yeah, I will never forget it. Because literally, I think really Karen, um, maybe a month before I had said, I’m going to close the wealth gap room, and I’m going to start with offering CFO services. And then you been you reached out

Karen Yankovich 11:55
well, and you know, so let’s hold let’s so let me look at this. Let me take this from my point of view. So when I when I was doing is I’m running this business. Yeah. And you know, listen, I’m an entrepreneur, like anyone who tells you there’s there’s no ladder to success as an entrepreneur, the maybe a ladder to success in the corporate world, but it’s a roller coaster, when you’re an entrepreneur, right? I’m having 50k months, 8k a month, 2k months, like I was like, all over the place. And I was like, I don’t know what to do. Like, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to do this. But most importantly, I wasn’t confident to do the things I needed to be able to do. I am like, I have a crazy math head. Like I have a crazy math head if we’re all like you guys are listening, if we’re ever out to lunch, and somebody says what’s the tip, if I throw a number out? Just say yes, because I’m never wrong about that. I have a calculator in my head for stupid things. So I thought I should be doing this myself. And I thought because I’m good at math, I should do my my own money. But it’s so not true. I mean, come on, I was just I’m like, and this like, I look back, and I was so I was I’m I am. So single mom, I was a single my kids are grown now. But I’m a single mom, I had four kids, I was the queen of creative financing. Somehow the roof stayed over their head. And we always had food and everybody had what they needed, and then went to private high schools and all the millions of dollars worth of things that I had to do, but it was always in this chaos. And I just like I just had to and now like there’s no reason for chaos anymore. But that’s all I knew. Right? There was no reason for chaos anymore. So I just was looking at, like my stuff and going I don’t want to do this anymore this way. Like, I don’t want to do this anymore. So I called up I’m like, what would it look like for you to just do this for me, you know, and here’s the thing, and I knew in my heart of hearts that it was it, I needed a little bit of courage to make that call because I know I was going to be here I am with this business with fluctuating income. And now I’m afraid to hire I was at the time like afraid to hire a VA, but I’m going to hire a CFO, right? But if I don’t hire a CFO, I’m never gonna be able to have the team that I need to have. Because I don’t know how to. I don’t I don’t have that skill. So I was just like, I’m just going to do it on whatever it is I’m going to say yes to, and I’ll somehow the money will come You know, sometime I’ll find the money. So I was cut. But here’s what I knew then, and it is proven to be true. I knew that if somebody else was managing this for me, it would pay for itself. It’s just that I had to have the courage to get from here to there, right to say yes to that, because it has absolutely proven to be true. Right? So as an entrepreneur and my business was growing and by the way within the first six months, we doubled our revenues right i mean in six months, because it freed me to do all of the all of the things that I just wasn’t doing right that I just wasn’t doing. So but here’s what I love about you because this is why I love you have that whole right brain left brain thing going. I mean, I joked a little bit about we’re not raking my bank account, but like I’m a Reiki Master. Most people know that if you don’t know that you do now, so I’m not knocking Reiki I but I wanted the strategy but I Love that there’s also the mindset work around it because I needed to learn how to be a CEO, I needed to learn how to have that mindset of the CEO. And you know, just the other day, we made a decision that I was like, really? And you were like, yes, do it. If you have confidence in me, I can do it right. But every single time we do it, it happens the way we need it to happen. And I’ve completely confidence that it will happen again. But if you are not on my team, I don’t know that I would have made I obviously didn’t make that decision. I wanted to make that decision. But it wasn’t until I talked to you. And I’m like, here’s what I’ve been thinking about. What do you think? You were like? Yes, 100%? You need to do that. Right. So. So first of all, thank you. Thank you. But second of all, like, I also want to thank you for your commitment to helping women like me. I mean, if it wasn’t for this piece of it, I don’t know that I’d be running the business I have right now I’d still be struggling a little bit with what am I doing? And am I doing too? I mean, I listen, I’m an entrepreneur, I’m always like doing too much myself and things like that. But but at the same time our growth has been exponential. You know, and I think a lot of that is, you know, because I have I have I can trust you to help me make some of these financial decisions that have really helped us grow.

Simone Craige 16:17
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun.

Karen Yankovich 16:22
It definitely has been fun. Is it a little a little nerve racking, sometimes? It’s a wild ride. You know, I just said the other day, because we just hired another we hired a PR coach for our she’s linked up society, our back end mastermind. And I don’t know why. But for some reason, it was like, when I hit that extra, I added her to our email account. I was like, I can’t believe how many people have an email. Like, it just gave me like a, like, I needed a personal mindset, like, Oh my god, how many people do I have working on for me now like that have a Karen Yankovich? Or she’s linked up email address, right? Um, but you know what, we’ve made such smart we made so many so many smart decisions. So I want to about one more thing where I’m concerned, but then I want to and I only because I think it would help other people to help to make decisions because I, I want you listening to be able to make the big decisions that will take your business to that multiple six figure level, right? Like I you know, I talked to somebody the other day, Simone who said that they’re there, they’re making about like, they’re they want to make about, like, their first goal was about $200,000. And I was like, Huh, well, $200,000 at that tax bracket. And I started to rattle off all the things I’m like, we need to get you to $300,000 or $400,000. Because a $200,000, you are paying too many taxes for that, for that amount of money. We’re gonna get you higher than that. Right? So I want you thinking like that, to like so many people I talked with, I want a six figure business, I’m like, go ahead, go work at McDonald’s done. Because by the time you pay for your VA, and your taxes, and you know, all your email addresses and ontraport and all the things you have, you’re not making six figures personally, right? So to make six figures personal, you have to think bigger, right? So So I want you listening to understand that when you make a decision to bring somebody like Simone into your business. It’s a complete game changer, because it allows you to have the freedom to think about what does a half a million dollar business look like? Right, which is so cool. But here’s the here’s the benefit that I didn’t know I would I needed because when I hired you, it was not 2020. But 2020 rolls around. And now all of a sudden, there’s all this, like small business SBA money. I was like I wouldn’t in a million years have never applied for any of it. Because I didn’t have the courage and the confidence in my books. I mean, I wasn’t cooking books or anything like that. But I was like, I don’t know, if I’m doing this, right? You don’t even I don’t know if I’m allocating these things, right. I don’t know what I’m doing right? And then I would take my half assed books to my accountant at the end of the year, who would trust that everything was calculated in the categories that I said they were in, right, and there wasn’t anybody really whose eyes were on it. But with you. I just said to her, like, just last week, the other day I woke up, I’m like, Simone, the SBA fairy came, you know what I mean? $1,000. Like, it was grants, it’s grant money. You know, like, this is money that has helped us grow our business to get through these times. So I never would have had the courage to do that. Never, ever, ever what I would have been like thinking I was doing something, because because I don’t didn’t know what I was doing. I would have been thinking, can I am I? Is this really a yes. What if it’s a no. And I’m swearing it’s a Yes, I’m going to jail. Right? Like, what is that? Right, so. So anyway, I’m telling you all of this because this has been an absolute game changer in my business. But I also want to talk about how you help women besides me, because in addition to the CEO, CFO services you offer you definitely still you you you know there’s there’s a path right to get from where you are now, which many of you are probably at maybe even still doing your own bookkeeping to having a CFO So tell me, tell me about that path and how you help people that are looking to move across that path.

Simone Craige 20:04
Right. So So yeah, usually, if there is someone who needs bookkeeping, right, that usually means you are probably making maybe around five to $7,000 a month in your business up to 10. And you’re starting to feel a little bit of the crunch, you’re starting to feel, you probably are looking at wanting to bring on a team member, maybe a VA, right. And you’re starting to recognize that you really do need to focus more on the high value activities in your business, like marketing and doing interviews like this, right. And you also probably recognize that even though what you were doing with the books before was okay, you probably need someone who’s better at it than you and can get it done quicker than you and can have it done in a way that is accurate. And hot, make sure that your books, so so to know that tax time doesn’t have to be stressful, it doesn’t have to turn into a whole new thing and project that you have to get done at the end of the year, it can literally just be about Okay. Here’s my profit and loss statement for the full year that I’m ready to hand over to my accountant. And I’m good. Right? So that’s usually where people come to me or their books are a mess, and they need clean up. Right? So usually, or there’s pain involved, there’s there’s you that your books are a mess, you need them to not be any more unique. Or maybe you need a financing or you’re looking to get a business loan, but you can’t produce any good financial statements that you feel competent about. So usually, that’s where people come to me is they need a books cleanup, or they know they’d rather spend time on the business side of things instead of doing their books. And so that’s where where we start. So usually that’s a business owner that’s you know, making about about 777 a month to about 10. Okay, okay, then when your books are cleaned up, you feel good about your books, you’re clear on your numbers, you’re getting financial reports, every month, we’re having our meetings, then you start to get to a point to say, Okay, okay, am I profitable? Right? how profitable? Am I making sure that I’m categorizing things in my books for the best tax deductions? What are my options when it comes to tax savings, this is huge. Because there is an assumption that your accountant is looking for ways to save you money, they are not. And it’s not because they’re a bad person. It’s just that’s not their job, right? Their job is to make sure that you are whatever information you give them, that you are in compliance with tax law, which means they file a tax return, that is of integrity, and they let you know, if you pay or if you get a refund. And that’s it. That’s all your accountant is doing. And that’s okay, up to a certain point. But if you are wanting to be more profitable in your business, if you think it’s probably a good idea, for instead of overpaying taxes to the IRS, you’d rather have that money either back in your business or into a retirement account or to pay down debt or for savings. You’d rather instead of paying it to the IRS, you’d have their habit for you and your business, then that’s the time to start really asking your accountant some really important questions. Are you looking for tax saving strategies this year? tax law changes every year? This is what’s going on in my business. When will I be read? If Is it okay that I’m still an LLC, maybe I should become an escort. Like all of these questions become really important right now. Sometimes your accountant is going to be annoyed by those questions. And if they are, it’s time to get a new accountant. Right, right. But either way, maybe they’re not annoyed by the questions, but they’re not necessarily looking for tax savings. Then you want to find somebody like me, like us, a fractional CFO, like someone who’s aware of tax planning strategies, who can look at your books, look at your business, look at where you want to go. Also take into consideration tax law, and come up with a tax plan for you for tax savings. And then you can take that tax plan and take it to your accountant if you want to say with your accountant.

Right, so that’s usually where you want and then also your financial advisor because a lot of times in the tax plan, there will be tax planning strategies that relate to your retirement as well. So you can take your tax plan, go to your financial advisor, right, but here, the next step is you Want a thriving, viable business that most likely most entrepreneurs want to scale? And to do that, you have to have good books, you have to be clear on your numbers, you have to have a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet. And you have to be profitable. The other thing, because you know, Karen, you know, I’m a big thing about this is you have to pay yourself.

Karen Yankovich 25:23
I was just thinking we skipped over that whole thing when we’re talking about this. Yep. Yeah, you’re right. You’re so right. I had an accountant. And you know, this, but I, an accountant A few years ago, who said to me just pay everything out of your business, and we’ll sell a little at the end of the year. And I always felt like I never had any money. Because it was always because all the money was in my business account. You know? And, and, yes, it we did settle it, at the end of the year, I paid taxes on the money that was that, you know, if I went to Macy’s and went shopping, you know, I pay taxes on that money at the end of the year, but it was just energetically, it just was terrible. For me, it was terrible for me, and you are the one and you know what’s wrong? You know, it’s so funny, you know, I’m gonna say this, because you know, this happens. Whenever we get to the point where like, now, you know, well, things a little bit different now than the beginning. But in the beginning, I would just be like, whenever we wouldn’t pay me, let me just say this, whenever we would have we would we were struggling a little bit with how we were going to make ends meet. Yes, you would say to me, we’re not paying you. That’s why this is happening. I’m like, not paying me. We can’t pay me we I pay this, this and this? And you’re like, no, we’re paying you. And a minute, we made sure that I was consistently paid. There was always money for everything else. Yeah. So that’s where like the error and I know that, you know, that might sound some moody woowoo to some of you. And obviously, at the end of the day, we have to be the things we had to pay. Right. But it was the energy of not paying me was always always always a detriment to my business.

Simone Craige 26:48
Absolutely. Yes. You have to you have to make yourself the priority in your business and in your life. And that includes financially.

Karen Yankovich 26:58
Well, and that’s what I love about what you do, too, because we didn’t really talk about this much but you don’t just help me and your clients with their business finances. You we you know, you want me to be a wealthy woman. Right and have generational wealth for my kids. Right? So it’s it is it is much more than a service for my business. Oh, yeah. It’s it’s a service for me. And it’s just win win win win win win win all the way around. Because of that,

Simone Craige 27:27
that’s it that is that is it is that your business? is really the entry point into wealth. Right? Not likely that you work a nine to five job and become wealthy? Not likely. Okay, does happen, you know, so there are the stories of the guy who started working out in the mailroom and is now CEO, you of course you have but most likely a nine to five job that is not your your that’s not your windhorse to well, winners to wealth, is you have a business. And the idea, though, and I got caught up in this too, which is why I can speak about it is that it became all about my business, it became All right, yes, you can, yes. All about, okay, get the next thing get the next invest in next program, but I was sacrificing my own personal needs. Yeah. And to a certain point, that it’s not to say that as business owners, we don’t sacrifice we do, of course we have to. But I’m talking about some basic stuff, like I have things to pay for, and take care of, and that I have to have in order to live a certain quality of life. And my business is supposed to pay for that. Right? Right. Bottom line. And so for me when I started to to really do that, and to choose to, first of all stop commingling funds, separate my business account from my personal account, and start to actually pay myself. You know, from a bookkeeping business, I can remember I think the first amount of money I paid myself was like, you know, it was like, maybe $67 $7. But it was, uh, but I remember that number. And it was a it was that $67 turned into $670,000. Right, right. Right, because exactly right, because because I chose to put myself first, financially first and it’s really important. Okay, and that’s so that’s, that’s the energetic, right, the emotional piece of why it’s so important. Also, let’s talk about practically speaking, why it’s important for you to begin paying yourself from your business consistently and well. So one of the things that I Talk about on the personal finance journey to generational wealth, the first step is earning and protecting your income. Because that’s really what a CFO role is in a woman’s business is to mitigate risk, right, help her mitigate risk on the business side and help her mitigate risk on on the personal side, and so that nothing I never know about was the that there are protection vehicles in place for you, not just as a person, but as a business owner to protect your income. Wow.

Karen Yankovich 30:38
Imagine that, imagine that, right?

Simone Craige 30:40
Oh, cool. Because guess what that protection vehicle is going to be based on how much your business is paying you. So if you and it will generally protect you up to about 60%. So if your business and I’m saying these numbers, to make it easy if if the business is paying you not the business is making, if your business is paying you whether it’s a salary, or whether it’s a draw $100,000 a year, and you go and you get an A disability insurance policy. Now, again, I’m not a financial advisor, okay, I’m giving you info I’m not, I’m giving you information about what you can do to protect your income, you talk to your financial advisor about what the best options are for you. However, what I’m aware of is that there is a thing called a disability insurance policies. So if, if God forbid, the the undesirable happens, and you can’t work anymore, or can’t work for a time, and you have a disability insurance policy in place set up, that disability insurance policy will say, Okay, we’ll cover you up to 60% of what you’re currently earning. So if something happens, you can now be covered up to $60,000. If you have to stop working. So yes, it’s a drop from 100. But it’s not protected,

Karen Yankovich 32:13
not zero, right? It’s not zero. And as an entrepreneur, that’s what we worry about. Yeah.

Simone Craige 32:17
Right. So so so that right there very practically speaking of. And again, you start where you start, I started with $67 my business was paying me Right, right. But we start and and you’ll find that it’s not so much about this is you know, Mike mccalla wits, says this in profit first, it’s not even so much about the amount. It’s about the actual practice of paying yourself, right. It’s the daily or the weekly or the monthly practice of choosing to pay yourself. And and that is huge.

Karen Yankovich 32:54
I love that. I love that. So you’ve also got a webinar that you’re doing, you’ve got So tell us a little bit about all of that. And then we’re not done because I have another whole topic to talk about.

Simone Craige 33:05
Okay, yes. So I have a I created a step by step method called the epic method that helps women entrepreneurs to achieve whatever personal wealth goal that they desire. And so I have a webinar called create your estate. It’s for the heads of households out there. women business owners, who, generally you’re making about $10,000 a month in your business, that’s when this this information really comes to life for you. And you most likely are a mom, you, you have a legacy that you want to leave them. And usually legacies most often aren’t necessarily about money, but money certainly can support them.

Karen Yankovich 33:52
Right? And it certainly it certainly helps, right?

Simone Craige 33:55
It certainly helps, right? Or maybe there’s a philanthropic effort that you want to make sure it’s taken care of when you’re no longer here, but whatever it is, this step by step method helps to get you there. So I talked about that on on my webinar. And then and then also on that webinar, I am very straightforward about the fact that I am inviting people into my flagship program abundance accelerator. That gives you a specific roadmap, the roadmap for you to create generational wealth.

Karen Yankovich 34:29
Awesome. So we can we’ll put links in the show notes to how to find all of this information about Simone. But I told you earlier on that, this is a big circle, right. So I am Simone’s client, but Simone is also my client. Yeah. And you know, I love to show I love to brag about my clients so small and how do you get a lot of your clients? Oh,

Simone Craige 34:51
LinkedIn.

Karen Yankovich 34:54
How do you find your CFO, your clients, your your smart, successful women that need a CFO

Simone Craige 35:00
They are on LinkedIn, they are on LinkedIn, truly the best decision I made, one of the best decisions that I made, was deciding to become more active on LinkedIn. Having a presence there, making sure my profile was tight, you know, what you helped me with. And also, my mindset around LinkedIn is very different. When I first started than it is now of really believing in myself as an expert. And as someone who’s bringing value in a very unique way, and having the confidence to reach out to my ideal clients, talk to them, build relationships with them, first and foremost, come from a mindset of how can I be of service? You know, how can I make you or your business better? And then naturally from that relationships are built clients clients come or referrals come? It’s also a really like, I love now before I would ask for referrals, anytime I ask for referrals for testimonials, it’s always please write me a LinkedIn recommendation. Yes, I did on LinkedIn.

Karen Yankovich 36:15
Yes, yes, it’s Yeah. And do people ever say no, no. So most people want to do something nice for you. Especially if they’re saying something nice to you, like, Samoan, thank you so much. This has been great, blah, blah, blah. What’s the next words out of your mouth is I’m so glad I’m happy when you’re happy. Here’s what really helped me, would you mind popping over to LinkedIn and writing that down as a LinkedIn recommendation for me? And I had a 10 times they wish they thought of it, right. But all of those things helps you with the credibility, right? When you’re talking to people about your services on LinkedIn. Right? Like, I can’t even tell you I can think of at least three times, there’s maybe more where you called me and said, Karen, like I had this I had, I just got a new client. And it was just somebody that reached out to me on LinkedIn, or somebody that somebody on LinkedIn referred to me or, and every time you do that, I’m like, Yeah, why are you still surprised by this? You know, but but it’s but because but here’s the thing, like when you like, think about this, you know, new that’s listening, if you if you hear this whole conversation, and you know, you’re like Simone’s awesome, I want to check her out, and you go check out her LinkedIn profile, and it’s empty, doesn’t mean you’re never gonna hire her. But it’s certainly not doing her any favors, right. But if the next thing that happens is you check her out on LinkedIn, and we’re certainly gonna put her LinkedIn profile in our, in our show notes. And you please connect with her and connect with her and you see all the cool things that she’s doing. And all the amazing testimonials that she’s got, it helps you decide if you want to take the next step towards working with somebody like Simone. Right? And but I want you to flip that and think about, that’s the same for you. Right? It’s the same for you. And that’s why it’s like, so can we talk a little bit about your most recent win?

Simone Craige 37:59
I’m so happy to.

Karen Yankovich 38:01
Okay, please do though have to.

Simone Craige 38:03
Okay, so there was a hero, which you also talked about, learn from you. And this was the from working with you a few years ago, I can remember when you were talking about the help a reporter out

Karen Yankovich 38:18
now, but now that you’re a member of our she’s linked up society, which is our back end program, which really we don’t talk about a lot, because you have to kind of go through the she’s linked up program to even get there. But what we’re doing in that society is we’re actually sending you pitches opportunities to to reach out to we have a you have a PR assistant that we give you right? to to to be following up on these things. So we so we sent you this, I think about a month ago, right? Yeah, this arrow request. Yeah. Yep. So then what happened after

Simone Craige 38:46
that? So cool. So yep. So Karen works fast. Because, yep, I signed up for the society. And then I got an email like, you should have been for this. So I was like, okay, so I applied for it. I sent my email and you know, and the thing that was key was, I can remember, Karen’s sage advice that you don’t just let it stop there. You

Karen Yankovich 39:12
really take a step back first, and for people that are listening that don’t know what this is, Oh, so you got an email that there was a journalist that was looking for a source. Right, so let’s talk a little bit about break it

Simone Craige 39:22
down. So I Yes, I got it. I got an email saying you should apply for this herro request here will help a reporter out. It’s an email that comes out a few times a day. And you can you can scan everything that a reporter is looking for in terms of they want to connect with an expert, and you can pitch what you would say based off of what their request was perfect. So this specific request actually was Have you helped business owners or have you as your own business owner, people with relief, lending, right the relief lending That was coming out, you know, what are your thoughts about that? So I was like, I’m sure I can, I can definitely talk about that I helped my clients with it. I also received really blending. So absolutely. So I responded to the email. And and there’s specific, you know, ways you want to make sure that you respond to it in a certain way. And so I did that. And I looked back at my notes of how they said to respond, I respond. And then the next thing that I did was I went and I connected with her on LinkedIn. I found her. Yeah, it’s a term, I reached out very simple note, I just said, Hey, you know, I just responded to your harrower request. I’d love to connect with you here. A few days later, she, she reached out to me. And she said, Oh, yeah, you know, I’m actually working on that right now. Thank you so much. And as a matter of fact, there’s some other let’s get on the phone on a call soon, because there may be some other opportunities for you to besides this article, to continue to work with us and provide content for us. Oh, wow. Cool, you know? Sure, absolutely. So when I went, and before I reached out to her when I went to the site, I think I can say it was business.org. So I went to the site. And I was like, okay, you know, cuz I’ve never really heard of it before, and get heard of, maybe business calm, but not org. So I was like, Alright, that looks good. You know, the very professional, they had everything, you know, going on, right, but this didn’t seem like you just saw I had reached out to Karen and was like, Hey, you know, I just want to let you know, I connected with this woman, just how you suggested and it looks like they want me to, to provide some more content. So so cool. But you know, I don’t know how big of a deal this this website is. But you know, it’s it’s a nice relationship to connect with. So then in the meantime, Now, mind you, she didn’t actually end up I don’t think using much she didn’t my content for for what I reached out to her for. But her and I are still chatting on LinkedIn. So we finally we had our call just a few days ago, and it was great. She was she said, how she she asked me to talk about my brand. And, you know, what am I looking to get out of writing for biz.org. And I told her, it was totally in alignment. And it was great. And she was like, Okay, I’m gonna put you in touch with our editorial team, send us a few pitches and send us some topic ideas of what you what you want to talk about. Do you have any other questions, we chalked it up a little bit? It was great. We got on very well. And then we got off the call. And she followed up and said, um, so you know, was great to talk with you. Let’s stay in touch. And then I said, You know what, I’m going to ask her how many hits does she get on this website? I didn’t ask that. But just, you know, I just let’s just, you know, see, you know how many she hits she’s getting? So I email I’m like, Hey, you know, so what, how many views a month? She said, oh, we’re only we’re only getting 200,000 views a month? Only. So, and she’s a get and they’ve actually decreased in the past few months, because the Google algorithm has changed. So but we’re gonna work on that. But yeah, in the next 12 months, I see we will easily hit 5 million views. I was like,

Karen Yankovich 43:33
How cool is that? So now, you are potentially a contributor to this country? Yes. Right. Based on and and, you know, I’m looking, I’m listening for the things that I remember you saying? Did you not when you talk to her, though, yeah. You she met you with your LinkedIn profile? are you connected with her on LinkedIn? So have you not done all of those things? Right, like, if you didn’t look worthy of her time, much of this might not have happened, right?

Simone Craige 44:02
True. Because as a matter of fact, you’re right. When she introduced me to the editorial team, because she’s she’s a marketing expert. She’s like a marketing SEO guru, which obviously, right, right, right. So um, she was like, I’m gonna, you know, she in the email, she said, I want to introduce you. This is Simone. And she literally quoted my LinkedIn profile. This is Simone. She is a champion for women entrepreneurs, helping them to increase profitability, you know, increased joy generation, well, literally from my profile, and then she linked to my LinkedIn profile.

Karen Yankovich 44:41
Oh my gosh, so cool. So cool. And you know what salon like, I love I’d love to sit here and say, Look how hard you worked for that. And you do work hard, but this is how easy this stuff happens. Right? Like it’s it when you position yourself properly. All this stuff happens and here’s the thing too. smelled like some people say, and this has actually come up a lot in my programs in the last couple of weeks. And that is, I just need to, I need to build my email list, I need to do this, I need more views, I need this. And like, I’m like, it makes my eyes roll into the back of my head a little bit. Because I’m like, I don’t know, you know, here’s how I know how to grow your email list. And here’s how I know how to get more people on your LinkedIn group or your Facebook group get more publicity, you know, you can pay a million dollars for Facebook ads, or you can land some publicity, use LinkedIn to build relationships with journalists, so that you can get seen by more people. And at the end, how do we find you? Well, I’ve got this Facebook group, how do we find you? Well, I’ve got this free webinar, you know, like, that is how you do this. And it’s so much more fun, right? than like, torturing people to get to build your email list with all these other crazy ways. Right?

Simone Craige 45:48
Yeah, or cold emails or, you know, on the DNS and hope. Right? Aaron, what gets Of course, you of course, we were business owners, we work hard, no doubt about it. But that that process was easy. And it was a joy. Because the other thing about it was because of my LinkedIn profile. She was asking me obligatory questions, but she already knew the answer. She knows who I am. Yes. What about she knows how I contribute? She even Oh, she even said, because she did her homework online. So I don’t know if she saw some stuff from my profile, or she googled me a bit. She was like, Oh, I see you’ve done some things for some other people you’ve written here you’ve written there, like, so. If you made it easy for her, to easily say yes, to do more to work with you. And, and we ended up not that, you know, I’m going to necessarily, it’s going to be Kismet with everyone I connect with. But we really did have a nice connection. It’s really the beginning of a nice relationship. And I just love that about that. And I really think it speaks to your genius, Karen, really, because if I had not been in your program, if I did not know those LinkedIn, LinkedIn strategies, I would not have reached out to you wouldn’t because that’s that’s like, that’s not my, that’s not my zone of genius. Like that’s not my wheelhouse. I would have never thought to just reach out to her on LinkedIn and connect with her wouldn’t happen. And because I chose to do that. Now. Now we’re here. And I’m going to be contributor to a website that specifically speaking to my ideal clients, right, not to some random gem. Right, right, specifically speaking to my ideal client. And there is currently 200,000 people a month looking at that website, and in the next year, probably 5 million. I mean, that’s that’s huge.

Karen Yankovich 47:40
That it is, it is huge. We’re Simone we’ve been talking like, for so long, this is probably the longest episode I’ve had and like forever, but I wanted to get I wanted to get on the set. I wanted to get all this and I am so like, one of the reasons that I want you to that I want you the listener to meet people like Simone that have gone through this program is because I want you to see how simple it can be. Right? And it is it is it is like it’s 2021 man, word where the noise is deafening online, we need to cut through all the noise and go back to go back to building relationships with people, because that’s where the money is. That’s where the money is. And the the I mean, I I love seeing what you’re doing. And I can tell you like, right at the time that we’re recording this, someone just came back from a two week vacation, like a two week vacation, like a two week vacation when they’re an entrepreneur, right. But she’s been able to build a business that she’s absolutely able to do that. And I am so proud of everything that you’re doing and so grateful for you in my life, because you’ve helped me do so many things that I never thought I was gonna be able to do. So the mutual admiration society here. Yeah. So Simone, tell us again, how people can find you. And then of course, I’ll put all your links in your show in the show notes.

Simone Craige 48:51
Yeah, well, the best place to find me right now is on LinkedIn. Simone Craig there. Also my website is Simone craig.com. And yes, that’s the best way to reach out to me. But

Karen Yankovich 49:05
someone if somebody wants to know what it’s like to work with you can I just messaged you on LinkedIn and say, Hey, can we get on the phone?

Simone Craige 49:10
Yeah, I’m just messing messaged me on LinkedIn, we would likely have a get to know you call as we actually if we you know, we’re a good fit if I can actually help.

Karen Yankovich 49:22
I am a huge revenue reference for you guys. I’m telling you. I’m huge reference for Simone. So if you have been going at it yourself, and your business is you know, starting to grow or maybe stuck in a plateau because you just can’t get everything done. Get on the phone with someone. I’m not kidding. You need to do this. Absolutely. Alright, Simone, we got to wrap this. Thank you so much for being here today. And I can’t wait to see what’s next for you. Okay, so I know that was a long one. But I hope you understand why I wanted to cover so many different topics because I hope you all have somebody like Simone in your life, somebody that you work with in your business and maybe they you work with them on their business and you really support each other in in so many ways because it’s just it’s amazing how much things change when you think bigger and you have people in your corner like I have someone in my corner and she has me and her so right so it goes both ways. So Simone’s journey to success started with our free masterclass which you can check out at Karen Yankovich comm slash masterclass. That’s where her journey started. And if you’re interested in learning a little bit about how you might be able to have some of the kinds of successes that Simone is having, check it out and all sorts of the masterclass we’re not selling anything on that masterclass. We just I just want you to understand some of the energetic shifts that if you make them as you’re using this amazing tool called LinkedIn, you can really start to change change your own business and take start to take control of your own destiny. right because you’re going to be the kind of woman that thinks bigger lands wins grows money doing what you were born to do, right and we want to help you get there and it all starts with a masterclass Karen Yankovich calm slash masterclass. So with that little links in the show notes for that as well. So a rising tide lifts all boats, right, I do this podcast to support you and now I’ve got this free masterclass to support you. All of these are the first things to help you with your success. Let’s lift each other up, right help me help you share this podcast. Take a quick screenshot of this episode on your phone. Share that on social media. Be sure to tag me Be sure to tag Simone. Let us know what you love what distinctions you got from this episode. And we will of course, then share it with our audiences and get use of visibility. The bottom line is this can be simple, not easy, but it can be simple. I’ll see you back here again next week with another episode of the good girls get rich podcast.