Interview with a Bookkeeping Client: Katie Grimes’ Business Journey
Jan 15, 2023
I have my client, Katie Grimes, here today. We’re going to be having a conversation about her business story, and then we'll talk about numbers when it gets to that point.
Katie has built an international relationship coaching business that earned over $350,000 in three years. Now she teaches others how to become a coach and feel confident running a business that makes more money than the full-time job that they're leaving. Between her podcast (Anything For Love), social media, and online coaching programs, Katie helps over 30,000 people learn how to feel their feelings and trust themselves more in love, life, and business.
I'm so excited to have this conversation with Katie. She’s had a lot of pivots throughout her business journey, and business journey stories are what I really like to share, because it lets me show people what that process actually looks like and how it can look different for everybody, even when some of the pieces are the same.
Welcome, Katie!
Katie F: So, Katie, I would love for you to tell the slow story of your business journey and how you ended up where you are now.
Katie G: I’d be happy to! So, firstly, I remember working for an investment management firm right out of college, because I thought that finance was where you made money. However, I really wasn't passionate about the numbers, hence why I hired you later.
Long story short, I always had this passion for moving my body and fitness practices, and my dad said to me, “You're not really making anything at the investment firm. It's really important that you get another job.”
My dad was so sweet. He actually gave me the money to become spinning-certified—spinning was all the rage back then—and I became a spin instructor.
And though that isn’t where I stayed—nor did I stay in the next couple jobs I took—I look back on it now and I'm so glad that was how my business journey went, because every job I took contributed to where I ended up. What I found was that every job I took had a lot of confidence that I could do the job that they were asking me to do, even though there was no one who had ever taken that role before. Even if I didn’t know how to perform that job, I just constantly raised my hand to be picked to do it.
So 2018 comes along, and that’s the year that rocked my entire world. February started out with me going on a ski trip away with people I thought were friends, and while I was there, I was raped and assaulted. I got back from that trip, and I remember feeling like I just had to show up and go to work, but I had visible injuries on my body.
And so I hid. I wore a turtleneck to work that day, and I remember putting on a smiling face and just pretending that everything was fine when I physically couldn't sit and physically couldn't stand. I was really uncomfortable. And that was the part of my business journey where I realized just how personal business really is, and yet we try to hide that. We’re always told that business is impersonal, and it just isn’t true. I personally had something going on that was affecting how I was going to show up at work that day and for the foreseeable future.
Shortly after the assault happened, three people died who I was really, really close with. On top of that, my best friend at the time didn't believe what had happened to me. And I soon realized just how burnt out I was. I was doing so much for so many other people, and I didn't have the emotional capacity, let alone the physical capacity, to keep doing more and more and more—but that’s exactly what my job at the time wanted me to do.
When 2019 came around, I got my bonus for that job. They told me I did a great job despite everything that had happened, because I had to take short-term leave and things like that. But then they told me that they were only going to give me 18% of my bonus instead of 20%. And I remember feeling such fucking rage, Katie, because I was betting on that money.
I asked them why, and they said it was because I didn't exactly hit my numbers, and because I missed a month out of the year since I was on short-term leave. And I remember, once again, realizing that business is personal. Business is so personal.
Within a month, I was put on probation at work. That was when I knew the end was coming. According to them, I wasn’t working to my full potential. They paid my bonus and they let me go on April 12th, 2019, and I started my company that very day. And my business journey has only gone on from there.
Katie F: This is why I love having guests like you on the podcast. I love getting to share all these different versions of the business journey, because my greatest percentage of listeners are accountants, bookkeepers, and aspiring bookkeepers, and I love to bring my clients on so my audience can see what their clients could look like.
The aspiring bookkeepers are often in that earlier stage of their business journey and exiting corporate, so they have very similar fears and goals. And another big fear for the newer bookkeepers is, “Who’s going to work with me? What are they going to be like? Who do I get to work with?” And I love getting to show them that clients come from everywhere and have all kinds of motivations for making their own exits.
The Bookkeeper Part of the Business Journey
Katie G: I'm glad you tied this back to your audience, because I'm sure for people who are bookkeepers, you're often trying to project income. And actually, that's very difficult for a client like me to do.
I don't know how much I'm going to make next week. Well, I do. I know how much income is coming in from private coaching, and those are six-month contracts. But a big thing that you taught me was that it didn’t make much sense to be on monthly contracts; it made a lot more sense to be on three to six month contracts so I had predictable income coming in. That’s one thing that changed when I hired a bookkeeper, and I wish that I’d learned that at the beginning of my business. And now that I do know it, I try to use it as a teaching tool so people can understand what I’ve learned from making my own mistakes.
I also learned that having a bookkeeper isn’t a catch-all. I couldn’t be completely whimsical and hands-off with my money; I also needed to do practical things. I needed to have you on my team, I needed to have my money coach, and I needed my assistant so I had all these people triple-checking my money, but I also needed to keep myself on task. I know at one point I called you and said, “Oh my God, I've had a client who hasn't paid for three months and we're just catching it now.” And at that time, you and my money coach both lovingly said to me, “It's time for you to be a little bit more intimate with your money.” Because if we’re being honest, I am the only one who would've caught that. Not the bookkeeper, not the money coach, it had to be me who noticed, because it was my doing. I messed something up on the back end.
So now, every single day, I go into Stripe and make sure that everyone has paid. It takes me two seconds.
Thanks For Coming, Katie!
I’m so grateful Katie came on to share the story of her business journey today. If you want to hear the full interview, you can listen to Episode 114 of Profits + Prosecco: https://www.katieferro.com/podcast
If you're looking for more tips for bookkeeping, insight on how to become a bookkeeper, and how to say hello to a more confident business model, enroll in Become A Bookkeeper (BABs).
To learn about the program and get a peek behind the curtain, head to www.katieferro.com/6-secrets.
If you have enjoyed this episode, head on over to Instagram, share your IG stories, and tag me: @orderlyaccountingbykatie
WORK WITH KATIE GRIMES:
To have Katie help you grow your confidence as a coach and a business owner, head over to https://www.katiegrimes.com/work-with-me!
If you’re eager to start your own coaching business but don’t know where to start, head over to https://katiegrimes.thrivecart.com/3-easy-steps-to-starting-your-business/.
CONNECT WITH KATIE GRIMES:
Connect with Katie on Instagram: www.instagram.com/kg.katiegrimes
CONNECT WITH KATIE FERRO:
Website: https://www.katieferro.com/
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/orderlyaccountingbykatie
