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[00:01]
A
You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business podcast, where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in.
[00:21]
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I was coaching one of my students recently. She's about two and a half years into her business. And we were coaching on the guilt and shame that she felt around the not being able to support her family and contribute to her family's finances, yet coming from her business income. So her husband is currently supporting more of their family's finances than she is. And she just told me she was feeling, you know, a lot of this guilt and shame from not contributing enough. And, you know, she was also very quick to point out that she knows she's contributing in other ways. She's home more, she gets to spend more time with her kids. She's not paying somebody else to watch them as much. She's present. She. She knows those things matter. But financially, she was failing. And then she told me that she wasn't making any money. And I knew this wasn't true because I've been coaching her for almost a year now. I know factually that she is making money. But she told me that, like, she was reporting the news like it was a fact. And, and I stopped her. I was like, okay, but is that true? Like, are you making money? She goes, yeah, I mean, we are making money. And we started talking about how much money she was making. And turns out she's going to make just as much money this year as she did in her salary job ten years in to having that job. So her two and a half year old business is on track to generate the same as she was making a decade into her career. I want you to think about that. Like, to me, that is pure magic. Like, she built this business from scratch, from thin air, and within two and a half years, generating what took her 10 years to work up to as an employee. That's incredible. But whenever I asked her this, like, she said, well, with or without expenses, and I was like, there it is. That's it. And that is what I see so many business owners do. We create the revenue and. And then before we even let ourselves celebrate it or acknowledge what we've even created, we just start subtracting. We start subtracting all the things we had to spend money on. Like, well, I had to pay for the website, I had to pay for these subscriptions. I paid for coaching, I paid for software. I had Rent I bought, equipment I hired support, all these startup costs, whatever it is. And by the time we're done subtracting everything, now we've also somehow convinced ourselves that what we actually created, the revenue we brought in, doesn't count. So we're like, see, I'm not really making any money. And that's the story that she was telling me. But to me, that's like waking up every morning and like punching yourself in the face over and over. It's like taking evidence of your growth and then using it against yourself to make yourself feel terrible. Like, imagine building your dream home, this gorgeous dream home, and then every single day you walk outside and you look at it and you're like, yeah, but now I have to pay for it. Like, of course you do. There are expenses that come with building and owning a home. It's like we have the mortgage, electricity, water, insurance, maintenance, whatever it costs to build it. Like, those expenses doesn't mean the house doesn't exist, that you didn't build it, that you don't get to enjoy it. So money going out of your business doesn't mean that it isn't working or that it isn't growing. And actually, in many cases, I have found that the things that you're spending money on are part of what is allowing the business to grow. And so I think this is where we really have to stop treating all the money that leaves our business like it's something we're losing. Because that's really not what is always happening. It's like, if I spend money on something that helps me become better at marketing, for example, and then that skill helps me make money for the next 10 years, then I didn't lose that money. That money didn't disappear. That money's going to help me continue to make money for the lifetime of my career. Or if I hire somebody and now they give me the capacity to serve more clients or to get more done, or to, to stay in my zone of genius every day, then that's different than just spending money. They're gonna make me money, right? If I invest in a system that allows my business to operate more efficiently on a day to day basis, then that money is building something too. It's gonna make me money. So I don't always just wanna know, like, how much should I make, how much should I spend? Like, that's a typic, like, what's my profit, what's my loss, how revenue, expenses. But I also want to know, what am I spending and what is it creating? Because I Just think that's a much more powerful way to look at it. Like a growing business does require money to leave the bank account. So again it's not whether money went out, money is going to go out, but it's like what are you creating? What are you building with the money that goes out? So years ago I heard Brooke Castillo from the Life Coach school talk about this, like investing in your business in a way that just completely changed how I view spending money in my business. So she talked about being willing to make $100,000 in your business and break even. So basically being willing to invest $100,000 in order to learn how to make a hundred thousand dollars. And I've just like carried like I took that and ran with it. I've carried that with me for years. Because think about the difference of those two scenarios. Like two different business owners. So one person has never created a hundred thousand dollars in her business and another person earned money, brought in revenue and kept reinvesting up to $100,000 to create $100,000. So their bank accounts could look the exact same at the end of the year. Like it could be zero. But those are not the same businesses. That's not the same business owner at the end of the year. Like one of those business owners knows how to create a six figure business. Like that's huge. One of those business owners learned how to market. One of those business owners learned how to sell. One of them learned how to attract local clients. One of them learned how to solve problems. One of them learned how demand. One of them learned how to sell a hundred thousand dollars worth of their products or services. Like they are now capable of generating six figures and you can't take that away from somebody. Like they've built systems. Maybe they invested in coaching, maybe they spent their money on systems and efficiency websites, invested in ads. Like whatever it is, maybe they learn skills. You can't take those things away from that person now. Now those things are going to make that money, that person money for the lifetime of their business. So yes, the money left her bank account, but the capability, the skill sets, her capacities, like all of that is still there. So once you have figured out how to create the six figure business, you're the person who knows how to do it. You get to do it again and again and maybe the next year you do it faster. Maybe the next time you turn 100k into 200k because you're not starting from zero anymore. You're miles ahead of the person who never created it to begin. With and sometimes we forget that you have to fund the business before the business you want is going to exist. Like for example, you might have to spend money on the website in order for you to even have a business. Now I don't think that is always necessary, but it's like you're gonna have to spend money on things that are required for you to even be in business before you ever even get a client sometimes, right? Like you're gonna have to learn how to market before the marketing produces clients. Like you might have to spend money on a, on booking software before that booking software pays for itself. You might invest in learning a skill before that skill has had time to produce a return. Like that is part of building a business. Like, of course we want the result to come first. Like we want the, the clients coming in first, we want the revenue first, we want all the proof. Because then we have the money and then we're, then we feel comfortable investing. But usually it's the opposite. We have to invest first in order to create the result. So that a lot of times that means the money goes out first so more money can come in. And that doesn't mean that we just blindly throw money at our business. It does mean that we understand what we're investing in and why. Like what return this specific thing that we're spending money on will bring back to the. Bring back to us. Like what is this helping me build? What problem is this solving? What capacity is this expanding for me? What skill am I developing? What's going to be possible in my business because I made this specific investment. I just think that is such a more useful way of thinking around simply number one, spending money. But also when you're just looking at money leaving your account and then making it mean that you're doing something wrong. Because I'm totally fine with seeing money leave my account every month when I know that money is going to make me so much more money. And look, some investments don't have an immediate return or even a fast return. Some returns we may not see for a long time and some returns we actually give us returns for the rest of our career. So very early on, who knows, six years ago probably at this point, I spent $10,000 on a mastermind. And it was a 90 day mastermind. And, and I did not make any money during that mastermind. Not a single client came in during that mastermind. It was very painful and, but I was learning so much in this mastermind and I kept going after the mastermind. I kept putting into practice Everything that I was learning and had learned in that mastermind, to this day, we're talking six years later, I am still using things that I learned in that mastermind. I, I, I mean, it would take me a while to do the math at this point to, to come up with the return that that $10,000 has turned into. But I didn't see any of that return while it was actually happening. So if I spend money learning how to market my business, that's going to change how I market the next 10 years. Even if I don't see the return, like right then, it's going to change everything for the entire lifetime of my business. If I hire somebody who frees up 10 hours of my week, there's going to be a huge return over time from that investment. If I invest something that helps me build a system that I now use for years, there's going to be a huge return there for years to come. So I also like to think like, yes, this money is going out, but how is this also going to pay me back for years after this investment is leaving my account? Because I kept the skill, I kept the knowledge, I kept the system, I kept the person. I became a different business owner because of it. So, yes, track your expenses. Track like, let's care about profitability. But also it's zooming out enough to ask like, what is this return creating? What is this going to allow me to create? And what's possible in my business in the long term? Because I'm making this investment and this is why I'm going to circle back here and this is why this matters so much. Thinking about this student that I was coaching, it really is about who you're being when you're looking at your numbers and looking at your revenue and expenses. Because if every time you make money in your business and you immediately look at everything you spent and then you use all of that to tell yourself, see, I'm not making enough, I'm not contributing enough. I should be further along. This isn't working. Think about how you feel. You feel guilt, you feel shame, you feel behind, you feel discouraged, maybe you start feeling desperate and anxious. And then you try to grow your business from that place. You try to go create clients from that place. You try to market from that place from that energy, you try to sell from there. You try to show up on Instagram from there. You try to email your list from there. You make business decisions from there. So of course, everything feels harder. So that's what I mean when I say it's like every morning you're waking up and starting your day by punching yourself in the face. So it's like, what if instead you could look at the exact same numbers and you can start with, look at what I created. Look at what did not exist. Look at what I created from thin air. Like, that is pure magic. Like my brain created revenue from nothing. I did that with my brain. Whether it's $1,000, your very first a thousand dollars, your first $100, that is pure magic. Whether it's your first $10,000, $50,000, whatever it is, you know how to do that. Now you have that for life. It doesn't mean you don't then look at your expenses. It doesn't mean that you don't care about profit. It doesn't mean that you don't do bookkeeping. Of course we do. But we're not going to use whatever comes out of that number. Even if you reinvest all of doesn't mean that we use that to erase the evidence of what we're capable of creating. We look at the expense and ask, what is this going to allow me to build? Now we look at the revenue and ask, what did I learn about creating this? How do I know I can do this again, but faster now? It's like, what do I know I know how to do now? What can I create next? Because I know I already created this. It's like, if I created $100, I know now I can create $200 even faster. If I created 1000, I know I can create 2000 even faster. If I did 50,000, I know I can create 100,000 even faster now. And can I also become more profitable while doing it? Can I take everything I've learned about creating this revenue to create even more? Absolutely. Because you're never starting over. You have the skills, you have the experience, you have everything that you've ever invested in on your side. You have the proof that you can make money. And that version of you is very powerful. That version of you is going to show up very differently to her business instead of thinking about all the money that went out, everything you spent. So that's the shift that I want you to make, that I can go create money. And the expenses allow me to just go make more even faster. Because what you created is evidence that you are capable of creating it again and again and again. And what you invested is part of the reason that you are capable of creating it. Like you're building something that will hopefully support you and your business for decades. Like, of course there's things to spend money on. Of course there are systems to build. Of course there's things to learn. So the question is, what does the money help you build? And are you allowing yourself to see that every time you do spend the money? And are you letting yourself be in the winning of your growth and not making yourself wrong with it? Because you're probably winning a whole lot more than you've been giving yourself credit for. All right, so go create more and I'll talk to you next week. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information@lesliepressnell.com and I'll see you inside.

Summary7 min read

Podcast Summary: Grow Your Local Business

Episode: Are You Using Your Business Expenses Against Yourself

Host: Leslie Presnall
Date: August 11, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Leslie Presnall, local marketing expert and life coach, dives into the mindset around business expenses and how many entrepreneurs unintentionally use their expenses as evidence against themselves. Leslie challenges listeners to reframe their thinking: to see expenses not as a sign of failure, but as an essential and valuable part of business growth. Through client stories, practical analogies, and mindset shifts, Leslie explores the difference between spending and investing, and how to evaluate the true return on your business expenses.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Emotional Weight of Expenses

Guilt and Shame in Entrepreneurship (00:20):
- Leslie shares a recent coaching session where her student felt deep guilt and shame over not contributing "enough" financially to her family, despite evidence of significant business revenue.
- The student quickly discounted her achievements by focusing on business expenses, effectively minimizing her success.
Debunking the “I’m Not Making Money” Narrative (03:00):
- Leslie confronts the student's belief:
  
  "She told me she wasn’t making any money… I knew factually that she is making money."
- The reality: In 2.5 years, the student’s business matches her 10-year employee salary.
- The catch: She kept asking, “With or without expenses?”—implying profit is the only thing that counts.

2. The Pitfall of Subtracting It All Away

The “Punching Yourself in the Face” Analogy (04:10):
- Leslie says:
  
  "That's like waking up every morning and like punching yourself in the face over and over. It's like taking evidence of your growth and using it against yourself to make yourself feel terrible."
- The act of discounting revenue with expenses can rob business owners of celebrating real achievements and growth.

3. Rethinking Expenses: Investing in Growth

Your Business is Built on Expenses (06:00):
- Leslie compares business-building to constructing a dream home:
  
  "The expenses don’t mean the house doesn’t exist. Money going out of your business doesn’t mean that it isn’t working or growing."
- Many expenses actively contribute to larger capacity, skill development, and future profitability.
From Losing Money to Creating Value
- Spending on marketing, support, software, etc., creates assets and capabilities that “make money for the lifetime of your career.”
- Key mindset shift:
  
  “I don’t always just want to know, like, how much did I make, how much did I spend… I also want to know, what am I spending and what is it creating?” (08:10)

4. The Brooke Castillo $100K Lesson (09:30)

Investing to Learn, Breaking Even as Growth
- Leslie references a concept she learned from Brooke Castillo: being willing to make $100,000 in your business and break even—because you’ve paid to learn to make it.
- Powerful distinction:
  
  "Their bank accounts could look the exact same at the end of the year... But those are not the same businesses. That’s not the same business owner at the end of the year." (10:40)
- One has learned the skill to create six figures—an asset that cannot be lost.

5. Funding the Business You Want

Invest First, Results Later (13:20):
- Leslie reminds listeners that you typically have to invest before seeing results—on websites, skills, systems, or booking software.
- “Usually it’s the opposite. We have to invest first in order to create the result. So… money goes out first so more can come in.”
- It’s not about blind spending but intentional investment:
  
  “What is this helping me build? What problem is this solving? What capacity is this expanding for me? What skill am I developing? What’s going to be possible in my business because I made this specific investment?” (15:30)

6. The Story of the $10K Mastermind (16:50)

Delayed and Exponential Returns:
- Leslie shares her personal story of spending $10,000 on a mastermind and not landing a single client during it.
- The real return came over years, through knowledge and skills that have continued to pay dividends.
  
  “To this day, we’re talking six years later, I am still using things I learned in that mastermind… I kept the skill, I kept the knowledge, I kept the system, I kept the person. I became a different business owner because of it.” (18:40)

7. Expenses, Profitability, and Mindset (20:10)

Zoom Out for the Big Picture:
- Track expenses and care about profitability, but always ask:
  
  “What is this going to allow me to create? And what’s possible in my business in the long term because I’m making this investment?”
- Leslie argues it’s who you are being when looking at your numbers that matters most.
The Energy of Your Thoughts:
- If you use expenses to shame yourself, you’ll operate from a discouraged, desperate place that negatively affects sales, marketing, and growth.
  
  “...every morning you’re waking up and starting your day by punching yourself in the face.”

8. Celebrating Creation Before Counting Costs (23:15)

Let Revenue Be a Win:
- Leslie urges listeners to acknowledge what they have created before focusing on what they spent.
  
  “Look at what I created from thin air. That is pure magic... Whether it’s your first $100, your first $10,000, $50,000, whatever it is, you know how to do that now. You have that for life.”
- Don’t let expenses “erase the evidence of what we’re capable of creating.”

9. Compounding Power and Forward Thinking (24:55)

Skills and Experience Compound:
- Leslie emphasizes the snowball: With every revenue milestone, you move faster and more profitably to the next.
  
  “Because you’re never starting over. You have the skills, you have the experience, you have everything that you’ve ever invested in on your side. You have the proof that you can make money. And that version of you is very powerful…”
The Key Question:
- When spending, ask: “What does the money help you build? And are you allowing yourself to see that every time you do spend the money? Are you letting yourself be in the winning of your growth and not making yourself wrong with it?” (26:50)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On discounting your success:

"That’s like waking up every morning and punching yourself in the face over and over." (04:10) - Leslie
On investing in skill:

"One of those business owners knows how to create a six figure business. That’s huge. And you can’t take that away from somebody." (10:40) - Leslie
On delayed ROI:

"I didn’t see any of that return while it was actually happening… To this day, six years later, I am still using things that I learned in that mastermind." (18:40) - Leslie
On celebrating creation:

"Look at what I created from thin air. That is pure magic. My brain created revenue from nothing. I did that with my brain." (23:15) - Leslie
On the true power of experience:

"You have the skills, you have the experience, you have everything that you’ve ever invested in on your side. You have the proof you can make money. And that version of you is very powerful." (25:10) - Leslie

Structuring Your Own Mindset

Don’t use expenses as evidence against your abilities.
Recognize the capacity, skill, and future income that investments create.
Celebrate every milestone; expenses don’t erase your progress.
Ask not just what you spent, but what it made possible.
Approach finances with grace and generosity towards yourself.

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------| | 00:20 | The story of Leslie’s student’s money guilt | | 04:10 | The “punching yourself in the face” analogy | | 06:00 | Dream home analogy for business expenses | | 09:30 | Brooke Castillo’s $100K break-even story | | 13:20 | Investing before results, not after | | 16:50 | Leslie’s $10K mastermind story | | 20:10 | Shifting your mindset about money leaving | | 23:15 | Celebrating creation before subtracting costs| | 24:55 | Compound growth and skill-building | | 26:50 | The key self-reflection question on expenses |

Closing Thought

Leslie’s central point:
You are probably winning more than you realize. Don’t use the money you spend as a reason to feel behind—see it as evidence of your commitment to growth and the real, lasting assets you’re building for the future.

For more on local business growth and mindset, check out Leslie’s LocalPreneur Academy at lesliepresnall.com.

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Transcript2 lines

[00:01]
A
You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business podcast, where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. All right, let's dive in.
[00:21]
B
I was coaching one of my students recently. She's about two and a half years into her business. And we were coaching on the guilt and shame that she felt around the not being able to support her family and contribute to her family's finances, yet coming from her business income. So her husband is currently supporting more of their family's finances than she is. And she just told me she was feeling, you know, a lot of this guilt and shame from not contributing enough. And, you know, she was also very quick to point out that she knows she's contributing in other ways. She's home more, she gets to spend more time with her kids. She's not paying somebody else to watch them as much. She's present. She. She knows those things matter. But financially, she was failing. And then she told me that she wasn't making any money. And I knew this wasn't true because I've been coaching her for almost a year now. I know factually that she is making money. But she told me that, like, she was reporting the news like it was a fact. And, and I stopped her. I was like, okay, but is that true? Like, are you making money? She goes, yeah, I mean, we are making money. And we started talking about how much money she was making. And turns out she's going to make just as much money this year as she did in her salary job ten years in to having that job. So her two and a half year old business is on track to generate the same as she was making a decade into her career. I want you to think about that. Like, to me, that is pure magic. Like, she built this business from scratch, from thin air, and within two and a half years, generating what took her 10 years to work up to as an employee. That's incredible. But whenever I asked her this, like, she said, well, with or without expenses, and I was like, there it is. That's it. And that is what I see so many business owners do. We create the revenue and. And then before we even let ourselves celebrate it or acknowledge what we've even created, we just start subtracting. We start subtracting all the things we had to spend money on. Like, well, I had to pay for the website, I had to pay for these subscriptions. I paid for coaching, I paid for software. I had Rent I bought, equipment I hired support, all these startup costs, whatever it is. And by the time we're done subtracting everything, now we've also somehow convinced ourselves that what we actually created, the revenue we brought in, doesn't count. So we're like, see, I'm not really making any money. And that's the story that she was telling me. But to me, that's like waking up every morning and like punching yourself in the face over and over. It's like taking evidence of your growth and then using it against yourself to make yourself feel terrible. Like, imagine building your dream home, this gorgeous dream home, and then every single day you walk outside and you look at it and you're like, yeah, but now I have to pay for it. Like, of course you do. There are expenses that come with building and owning a home. It's like we have the mortgage, electricity, water, insurance, maintenance, whatever it costs to build it. Like, those expenses doesn't mean the house doesn't exist, that you didn't build it, that you don't get to enjoy it. So money going out of your business doesn't mean that it isn't working or that it isn't growing. And actually, in many cases, I have found that the things that you're spending money on are part of what is allowing the business to grow. And so I think this is where we really have to stop treating all the money that leaves our business like it's something we're losing. Because that's really not what is always happening. It's like, if I spend money on something that helps me become better at marketing, for example, and then that skill helps me make money for the next 10 years, then I didn't lose that money. That money didn't disappear. That money's going to help me continue to make money for the lifetime of my career. Or if I hire somebody and now they give me the capacity to serve more clients or to get more done, or to, to stay in my zone of genius every day, then that's different than just spending money. They're gonna make me money, right? If I invest in a system that allows my business to operate more efficiently on a day to day basis, then that money is building something too. It's gonna make me money. So I don't always just wanna know, like, how much should I make, how much should I spend? Like, that's a typic, like, what's my profit, what's my loss, how revenue, expenses. But I also want to know, what am I spending and what is it creating? Because I Just think that's a much more powerful way to look at it. Like a growing business does require money to leave the bank account. So again it's not whether money went out, money is going to go out, but it's like what are you creating? What are you building with the money that goes out? So years ago I heard Brooke Castillo from the Life Coach school talk about this, like investing in your business in a way that just completely changed how I view spending money in my business. So she talked about being willing to make $100,000 in your business and break even. So basically being willing to invest $100,000 in order to learn how to make a hundred thousand dollars. And I've just like carried like I took that and ran with it. I've carried that with me for years. Because think about the difference of those two scenarios. Like two different business owners. So one person has never created a hundred thousand dollars in her business and another person earned money, brought in revenue and kept reinvesting up to $100,000 to create $100,000. So their bank accounts could look the exact same at the end of the year. Like it could be zero. But those are not the same businesses. That's not the same business owner at the end of the year. Like one of those business owners knows how to create a six figure business. Like that's huge. One of those business owners learned how to market. One of those business owners learned how to sell. One of them learned how to attract local clients. One of them learned how to solve problems. One of them learned how demand. One of them learned how to sell a hundred thousand dollars worth of their products or services. Like they are now capable of generating six figures and you can't take that away from somebody. Like they've built systems. Maybe they invested in coaching, maybe they spent their money on systems and efficiency websites, invested in ads. Like whatever it is, maybe they learn skills. You can't take those things away from that person now. Now those things are going to make that money, that person money for the lifetime of their business. So yes, the money left her bank account, but the capability, the skill sets, her capacities, like all of that is still there. So once you have figured out how to create the six figure business, you're the person who knows how to do it. You get to do it again and again and maybe the next year you do it faster. Maybe the next time you turn 100k into 200k because you're not starting from zero anymore. You're miles ahead of the person who never created it to begin. With and sometimes we forget that you have to fund the business before the business you want is going to exist. Like for example, you might have to spend money on the website in order for you to even have a business. Now I don't think that is always necessary, but it's like you're gonna have to spend money on things that are required for you to even be in business before you ever even get a client sometimes, right? Like you're gonna have to learn how to market before the marketing produces clients. Like you might have to spend money on a, on booking software before that booking software pays for itself. You might invest in learning a skill before that skill has had time to produce a return. Like that is part of building a business. Like, of course we want the result to come first. Like we want the, the clients coming in first, we want the revenue first, we want all the proof. Because then we have the money and then we're, then we feel comfortable investing. But usually it's the opposite. We have to invest first in order to create the result. So that a lot of times that means the money goes out first so more money can come in. And that doesn't mean that we just blindly throw money at our business. It does mean that we understand what we're investing in and why. Like what return this specific thing that we're spending money on will bring back to the. Bring back to us. Like what is this helping me build? What problem is this solving? What capacity is this expanding for me? What skill am I developing? What's going to be possible in my business because I made this specific investment. I just think that is such a more useful way of thinking around simply number one, spending money. But also when you're just looking at money leaving your account and then making it mean that you're doing something wrong. Because I'm totally fine with seeing money leave my account every month when I know that money is going to make me so much more money. And look, some investments don't have an immediate return or even a fast return. Some returns we may not see for a long time and some returns we actually give us returns for the rest of our career. So very early on, who knows, six years ago probably at this point, I spent $10,000 on a mastermind. And it was a 90 day mastermind. And, and I did not make any money during that mastermind. Not a single client came in during that mastermind. It was very painful and, but I was learning so much in this mastermind and I kept going after the mastermind. I kept putting into practice Everything that I was learning and had learned in that mastermind, to this day, we're talking six years later, I am still using things that I learned in that mastermind. I, I, I mean, it would take me a while to do the math at this point to, to come up with the return that that $10,000 has turned into. But I didn't see any of that return while it was actually happening. So if I spend money learning how to market my business, that's going to change how I market the next 10 years. Even if I don't see the return, like right then, it's going to change everything for the entire lifetime of my business. If I hire somebody who frees up 10 hours of my week, there's going to be a huge return over time from that investment. If I invest something that helps me build a system that I now use for years, there's going to be a huge return there for years to come. So I also like to think like, yes, this money is going out, but how is this also going to pay me back for years after this investment is leaving my account? Because I kept the skill, I kept the knowledge, I kept the system, I kept the person. I became a different business owner because of it. So, yes, track your expenses. Track like, let's care about profitability. But also it's zooming out enough to ask like, what is this return creating? What is this going to allow me to create? And what's possible in my business in the long term? Because I'm making this investment and this is why I'm going to circle back here and this is why this matters so much. Thinking about this student that I was coaching, it really is about who you're being when you're looking at your numbers and looking at your revenue and expenses. Because if every time you make money in your business and you immediately look at everything you spent and then you use all of that to tell yourself, see, I'm not making enough, I'm not contributing enough. I should be further along. This isn't working. Think about how you feel. You feel guilt, you feel shame, you feel behind, you feel discouraged, maybe you start feeling desperate and anxious. And then you try to grow your business from that place. You try to go create clients from that place. You try to market from that place from that energy, you try to sell from there. You try to show up on Instagram from there. You try to email your list from there. You make business decisions from there. So of course, everything feels harder. So that's what I mean when I say it's like every morning you're waking up and starting your day by punching yourself in the face. So it's like, what if instead you could look at the exact same numbers and you can start with, look at what I created. Look at what did not exist. Look at what I created from thin air. Like, that is pure magic. Like my brain created revenue from nothing. I did that with my brain. Whether it's $1,000, your very first a thousand dollars, your first $100, that is pure magic. Whether it's your first $10,000, $50,000, whatever it is, you know how to do that. Now you have that for life. It doesn't mean you don't then look at your expenses. It doesn't mean that you don't care about profit. It doesn't mean that you don't do bookkeeping. Of course we do. But we're not going to use whatever comes out of that number. Even if you reinvest all of doesn't mean that we use that to erase the evidence of what we're capable of creating. We look at the expense and ask, what is this going to allow me to build? Now we look at the revenue and ask, what did I learn about creating this? How do I know I can do this again, but faster now? It's like, what do I know I know how to do now? What can I create next? Because I know I already created this. It's like, if I created $100, I know now I can create $200 even faster. If I created 1000, I know I can create 2000 even faster. If I did 50,000, I know I can create 100,000 even faster now. And can I also become more profitable while doing it? Can I take everything I've learned about creating this revenue to create even more? Absolutely. Because you're never starting over. You have the skills, you have the experience, you have everything that you've ever invested in on your side. You have the proof that you can make money. And that version of you is very powerful. That version of you is going to show up very differently to her business instead of thinking about all the money that went out, everything you spent. So that's the shift that I want you to make, that I can go create money. And the expenses allow me to just go make more even faster. Because what you created is evidence that you are capable of creating it again and again and again. And what you invested is part of the reason that you are capable of creating it. Like you're building something that will hopefully support you and your business for decades. Like, of course there's things to spend money on. Of course there are systems to build. Of course there's things to learn. So the question is, what does the money help you build? And are you allowing yourself to see that every time you do spend the money? And are you letting yourself be in the winning of your growth and not making yourself wrong with it? Because you're probably winning a whole lot more than you've been giving yourself credit for. All right, so go create more and I'll talk to you next week. Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information@lesliepressnell.com and I'll see you inside.