Get the Balance Right. Heather Zeitzwolfe

[00:00:00] Bob Wheeler: Welcome to another episode of money you should ask where everyone has something they can teach you. I’m your host, Bob Wheeler. In this episode, we are going to explore why we do what we do when it comes to money as a CPA for the past 30 years. Wait, let me say 25, because that makes me sound younger. I have seen it all when it comes to money and emotions.

And if you think I’m talking about my. I’m not, I’m talking about myself. My relationship with money has been, and sometimes still is an emotional rollercoaster. Maybe that’s something you’re also familiar with. Good news. You and I are not the only ones. Our next guest is going to share their money, beliefs, money blocks, and life challenges as well.

Buckle your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.

our next guest is Heather zits roof. She has a CPA profitability coach podcast. Host of get the balance rate speaker rebel nerd vegan, cat, mom, feminist active. And in 10 on helping female entrepreneurs take control of their finances. She has funky colored hair, transforms tofu into delicious desserts and geeks out on writing sketch comedy.

Her Myers-Briggs is an E N T J, which describes her pretty well. Frank decisive assumes leadership readily quickly sees illogical and inefficient procedures and policies develop and implement comprehensive systems to solve organizational problems. Enjoys long-term planning and goal setting. Usually well-informed, well-read enjoys expanding their knowledge and passing it on to others today.

I hope I get the balance, right, Heather, welcome

[00:01:59] Heather Zeitzwolfe: to the show. Thank you. Wow. That was quite the intro. That was awesome.

[00:02:03] Bob Wheeler: We do what we can. So Heather, you’re a CPA. And so people often say this to me. You’re a CPA and you’ve got funky colored hair. Like, does that let you have a better ability to do

[00:02:15] Heather Zeitzwolfe: math? You know, my mom, when I told her I was going to go back to school to study accounting, and that was in my forties, I decided to go back to school and study that my mom was.

Why, why in the world did you want to do that? Like, oh, that sounds terrible. She was like, horrible. Oh no. There’s like so many more things that she would have been proud of me to do instead of being a CPA. Like she never quite understood it, but I grew up loving spreadsheets. So to me, the whole thing made sense.

You know, I was one of those kids that I would play math as a child. Like I had a chalkboard and I would like put things on the truck board and. I would play school and had the carbon paper. This was back in the seventies. And so I loved numbers and playing with numbers and all that. So it logically made sense to me.

[00:03:02] Bob Wheeler: Absolutely not. Did you like invoice? Like you got to do the invoicing because you got, gotta

[00:03:06] Heather Zeitzwolfe: get paid. Oh, you know, if you’re talking about, like, when I was a kid, my dad had a business and he, so he had all like the things with the carbon paper. I forget the jeans

[00:03:14] Bob Wheeler: slip and all the, yeah. Oh

[00:03:16] Heather Zeitzwolfe: yeah. And the journal.

And I would just love to just nerd out and just put things in there. I didn’t know what I was. But I was pretending. And if there’s a form, I love to fill it out. Like I get excited about forms. There’s just a weird thing in me. That’s just like, Ooh, a form. And people give me their forms to fill out because well, now I do for living.

Yeah.

[00:03:38] Bob Wheeler: Now what were you doing before? You said I’ve got to be a CPA because there’s nothing better in life. Oh

[00:03:43] Heather Zeitzwolfe: my God. So I started my career. In fashion. I started fashion design right out of high school, worked in that decided that I really liked the business side of things because I thought fashion was going to be about art, but it was really about business.

It was like, how many of these things can we sell at the cheapest price point? All the things. So I got interested in business, went to school for business. I thought what’s the most creative area of business was advertising. So I studied advertising market. But realize that advertising is kind of evil.

And so, as I was studying, and I was like, we’re trying to make people buy things that they don’t even want. Like, this seems really horrible. So I got into market research. So that made sense for me because I liked the analytical part of it. And we, you know, ran reports and looked at percentages and all that kind of stuff.

But my finance classes, my teachers would be like, you just study finance and I’m like, huh? But I always kind of stayed in the back of my mind and I loved my accounting class. And back when I took accounting, we did everything hand journaled, all the kind of stuff. Yeah. Everything. Oh my God. So we did all that stuff.

So I didn’t even use software to do it. It was just that. And then you built a spreadsheet and I just had so much fun geeking out over that. But when I went back to school, you know, things were different. I had to relearn debits and credits and all that stuff, but, okay, so you asked me, how did I get there?

So I was working in market research. I was laid off. It was kind of like everybody’s getting laid off. What do you do? My dad was in hospice. I was taking care of him and I was helping my father like get onto the toilet and everything. He was really late in his life and I’m thinking like, what do I want to do with the rest of my life?

And I’m thinking law school, you know, it’s like all these things. When you see somebody sort of deteriorating eight at the end of your life, am I thinking like, okay, I got to do something where I can kind of grow old with this. So I thought law school knit, too much student debt. I went back to Portland state university where I studied, got my first business degree.

And they’re like, yeah, you take like a year’s worth of credits and then you get another degree. And so I was like, oh, and then I’d have enough credits to sit for the CPA exam and all that. No. Okay. Everything logically seemed like it fit together and it was a job that I could sit a lot and grow old in.

So. That was my decision for all of that.

[00:06:03] Bob Wheeler: And what’s your favorite part about being a CPA when you’re sitting with clients? Because some people will look at me and go, you like to do this? I actually like helping people. I like doing tax strategies. I like seeing people pay less tax when possible. What is it for you?

[00:06:18] Heather Zeitzwolfe: I love connecting with people. So this has been so nice working on my own because I have more contact with a client. And when you start to dig into their business, everything. Touches the finance it’s like, people don’t want to think about the numbers part of it. And I work with a lot of people that are just starting their business.

I work with a lot of women that are later in life I’m in my fifties. So I tend to work with women. Forties fifties. And they have a lot of maybe shame around numbers. They’re kind of afraid they come to me with their heads held down like, oh no, I shouldn’t have sent you out earlier. You know, all these things.

And I love to be able to make them feel comfortable about it. So that’s probably one of the things that I like the best is that people come to me and say, like, I worked for this other accountant. They didn’t have. They talked about my head. I didn’t know what they were saying. I was afraid to ask some questions, so I try to make it as shame-free as possible and make people feel very comfortable.

So I want them to learn more about their business and, you know, once you start to dig in there and see things, and then you can actually change things. And then they’re like, oh my God, I never knew that before, like this aha moment that you can bring to your clients. That’s probably one of my favorite things is that when they finally see.

You know, of getting their books in order. And we start to go through and dig around and look at how do you dig from this quarter to that quarter and what you can change and all of that. Your mind. You’re like, whoa, I had no idea all these things. So I think like helping them blow their mind is probably one of my favorite things.

It’s fun.

[00:07:51] Bob Wheeler: It’s fun. Well, let me ask you this. So one of the things we talk about on this podcast is money, emotions, and part of why I started it was because I felt like there was so much shame around money choices, lack of financial literacy. And would you say that that’s occurs for the majority of your clients, a very small percentage of your clients?

What do you find besides these women coming in that are starting their businesses? Do you find that to be true?

[00:08:20] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Yes. So when I first started my business, I was just like advertising the fact that if you’re afraid of your taxes or if you’re afraid of your business, whatever, I’m here to help, I’m your shoulder to cry on.

Kind of, that was sort of the stick that I was sort of putting out there and I try to make things as fun as possible I have on my website. Like this is a no shame zone. And I worked with men and women and they both have issues around money. And here’s the thing. I mean, you’re a CPA too. And I feel like when I’m looking at somebody’s financials, it’s super intimate.

People do not tell anybody how much money they make, not their preacher, not their mother. That is like something you don’t say, you don’t ask people their way. You don’t ask people how much money they make, but these people have to come to me and trust me with that information. And I took that very, very seriously.

Like we’re going to have a relationship here. People cry sometimes when they’re talking to me, you know, and it’s like, let it all out. It can be very emotional, like talking about your money. And I do coaching with money as well. And we start with money mindset. Let’s get in there and dig in there and fix.

Y you have these feelings that you do about money and try to break free from them. And we all have money blocks, money issues. And I mean, I know about this stuff and I’m still working through some of mine. So I mean, it’s instilled, I grew up with parents that were from the depression era. So that is really ingrained in.

You can’t see my desk, but I’ve got like all kinds of junk that I’ve hoarded because I can’t throw away a pencil that still has a little bit of lead left in it, you know? Cause you might need it one day. You never know when Pence, when all of my pants that I’ve gathered from every conference I’ve gone to has run out of ink.

I will have that little piece. Pencil, but I’ll need to find my sharpener.

[00:10:13] Bob Wheeler: How do you work against that? I laugh because I like to keep six months worth of groceries in my pantry and I got to make sure I get every drop of soup out when it calls for 12 ounces. I got to make sure I got 12 ounces. Right. I can laugh about it, but there is a part of me internally.

That’s very obsessive freaking out. How do you coach yourself? Or how do you work yourself through some of that stuff? It’s

[00:10:39] Heather Zeitzwolfe: been a rough road because I will tell you that I am flat out cheap people say, oh, don’t say that you’re frugal. Well, frugal. Okay. That’s a nice way to, it sounds like French or something.

Frugo but I’m cheap. I’m in, I will not pick up the tab, you know, places like I’ll just wait and see if other people pick up the tab, that sort of thing. I’m very giving of my time and my skills and knowledge and all of that. I’ll be the first one to like chip in and do something. Letting go of my cash is another thing.

So, you know, when you said that you have like six months worth of groceries, I definitely have that. I go to Costco and I stock up on stuff and to the point that it gets rancid, by the time I get around to using it, but at least I have it. And if the stuff hits the fan, I’ve got a bag of Pinto beans that I could be sucking on for the next six months.

So. Maybe 12 months. I don’t know. Like if you can’t heat it, that’s all you’re gonna have to do is suck on the dry beans, I guess so well that if

[00:11:36] Bob Wheeler: you’re out with five friends and you’re going to split the bill and you didn’t have any wine and you didn’t have the dessert, but everybody else did. Are you going to split it evenly?

No,

[00:11:48] Heather Zeitzwolfe: no, no, no. Tip either evenly. No, no, no, no, no. I will actually. I’m the first one when there’s a group and I’ll tell the waitress, like, can we split the tab, especially if they’re start ordering things, you know? But of course, if they want to allow me to have a little bit of their appetizers, I will indulge.

I just won’t give them a cut of I’m not going to chip in any. No, no, no. You ordered the. You invited me to try some of the fries. I’m not paying you a couple of dollars for that fry.

[00:12:19] Bob Wheeler: I feel your pain. I feel your pain. Now you work with a lot of women. Was that intentional? Was that just, how did that come about?

[00:12:27] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Well, you kind of draw in the people that, you know, when you first start a business. So I started my business about my thing is a little over two years, and I know a lot of people like comedy. So I had a lot of committees. Clients, I had people that were in Toastmasters because I’m in that and like just different networks that I had and I’m a vegan, I’m a passionate vegan.

And so I kind of put it out there that it was like the vegan CPA and, but kind of putting all those things out there, you get kind of a mixture of things that don’t really blend together and you want to be able to have some sort of specialization, right? I’m a creative person. I’ve worked in the creative fields before, and I mentioned fashion, but theater and, and all that.

So I definitely want to work with creative people. And so I think those type of people are more attracted to someone with pink hair, if they are bankers or some, you know, I don’t know, they’re not going to be working with me. So the creative people, and then I thought I’m a woman. I want to have more women’s voices out there.

And. Nothing against men. I mean, I have male clients too, but I just think as far as me putting out my group offers, doing more group coaching, I just want it to be a comfortable environment. So I just feel like I can really hone in on the female vibe and do that through my podcast. So my podcast, actually, I started it’s called get the.

When I first started, it was aimed towards creatives, both men and women. And then I felt like, you know what? I want to elevate the female voice, especially in podcasting, it’s male dominated still. And so I decided I’m just going to have female guests. And target my business towards females as well. It’s been kind of this like path.

I still have plenty of male clients. It’s just, I’m trying to weave my way over to that.

[00:14:17] Bob Wheeler: Now, do you treat your meat, eating female clients as generously as your vegan eating clients? I mean, is there, is there any shame involved or do they get.

[00:14:26] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Okay. So here’s my feeling on all that. Yes. I put that out there.

Then I am the vegan CPA. And when I first put that out there, I was attracting people that were like starting different types of businesses. And I mean, that just like runs the gamut of types of businesses. So yes, I do have vegan clients and I do give them a discount because they’re extra awesome. So as long as I know that they’re vegan, they get a discount.

I do take on people that are non vegans, but as long as their business is not. Conflicting with my ethics. So as long as they’re not, I had someone that came to me that was doing like a catering company on their website. It showed meat and I’m like, I can’t, I can’t work with you. So here’s the. When you’re a vegan, there’s like talking about shame.

People shame other people. Like you’re not a vegan, but my feeling is that I’m here to convert people. So I actually want to attract people that are not vegan so that I can steadily give them hints and tips and things like that. So that maybe they will become a vegan or at least a part-time vegan. So think about it or think about it.

So, yes, it’s all a part of my plan to turn the world vegan is to attract non vegans into my.

[00:15:37] Bob Wheeler: Well, that’s cool. The cows. Appreciate it for sure. Oh yeah, they do. Well, let me ask you this. You started to focus on women. Can you tell me some of the things that might surprise men and women? The obstacles that women face that men might take for granted or women might take for granted, but there are things there are real obstacles.

And can you share some.

[00:16:01] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Well, I mean, some of them are, may be super obvious, but now I work with women that are later in life and some of them are coming to being an entrepreneur for the very first time in their life. And it may be because they’ve been driven out of corporate, maybe based on their age.

There’s a lot of things about women getting older and the way the world looks at them and nothing against like millennials and the young people coming in, but gather they’re going to work cheaper. They look like they’re fresh and new and all this kind of stuff. So there’s just that stigma of growing older as a woman now, women getting into entrepreneurship later in life, there’s going to be a few different things.

So there’s, maybe they’ve never really handled the money in their business. Maybe their husband always handled it. Maybe their husband is dead now or they’ve divorced. And so now they have to kind of figure out like, Man. I never really did this side of it. And again, there could be some shame, confusion around all of that aspect of it.

But then the flip side is that they have tons of experience and so they can come into it. And I’ve seen a lot of women have this female empowerment of like, I’m, bad-ass, you know, I’m older, I’ve been around the block. So there’s that, but I mean, you can say that about men as well. I mean the same kind of thing happens, but I do think that there’s a lot of, we got to get over a lot of humps when you’re an older woman.

A guy could be like going out there and doing social media and just like, it look like anything, you know, and be in there. But a woman feels like they have to like put on makeup and do all the things and be more comfortable in their skin. And so like right now I’m doing a 45 day challenge that I made up on Instagram live doing lives because I was like, who would want to see me live?

Even me who I’m animated and fun and all that. I still have these feelings like, oh, wow. These younger kids, they’re like, they’re so attractive and people would rather watch them, you know? And so there is a lot of things. Society kind of like puts all this like weight on women. Like you have to be skinnier, you have to be prettier, you have to this and that.

And I’m like all these things. So it’s tough being a woman. We got periods, we got menopause. There’s a lot of things going on,

[00:18:10] Bob Wheeler: a lot of things. So there are a lot of obstacles. And it’s easy to get discounted as a woman sometimes. Oh, that’s like, let her husband come in and fix that or stuff like that. But you are just also talking about the, in your head, right?

The social media and everything’s going on. How do you quiet the voices that tell you you’re not enough that you’re not young enough? Cause there are a lot of people and a lot of women. Oh, I can’t, I can’t do tick-tock. I can’t do, I can’t step up and be a business I’m too old. It’s too late.

[00:18:42] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Yeah. I mean, there’s so many things that we tell ourselves that we can’t do.

I try to step through my fears and push myself to do things. So that’s why I made up this challenge and challenges are like a big thing right now. People are always like, Hey, take my five day challenge to do this or that. I don’t really care about other people’s challenges. I just wanted to make a challenge for myself.

And I knew that I would stick to my own challenge. So that’s why I did that. But I think it can help some people, you know, if they feel like they need to have. Comradery of other people doing the challenge with them or something. So I think that would help people push through it, but there’s a lot of pressure.

And there’s that whole thing with imposter syndrome. There’s a lot of that imposter syndrome. I think, you know, if you find a team of this is another part of why I wanted to work with women is because when we work together and not be conflicting, like, oh, I’m going to out business unit. Instead, we work together as like, how can I support you?

How can I elevate you? Who can I introduce you to, to help you? I don’t want to stereotype, but women are more apt to kind of be, have a sisterhood and like help each other out rather than pin each other against each other. You know, I mean so much, like when you think about business, you think like the hustle and the I’m going to outperform this other person and really, and like, it’s better if you support each other.

And I think women have a tendency to kind of want to do that with the system. Although you see those stereotypes of like the big kids, like they’re out there to get each other and the cat fights and all that kind of stuff, but really women are not really like that. I mean, at least not the women. I know.

So

[00:20:16] Bob Wheeler: do you think women entrepreneurs might be different than women in corporate? In other words, corporate women might have to be a little bit more, I’m going to take you down kind of thing. I don’t know.

[00:20:27] Heather Zeitzwolfe: I think so. I mean, it always seemed like in corporate, it was sort of that backstabbing. A lot of office politics.

And I mean, that is something I always hate. Just like the thought of that even is just picky and it’s. Yeah. Cause it’s always, I got to keep my job because you might lose your job or you want to get that promotion or whatever it is. Yeah. But if you’re your own entrepreneur, even like, I mean, I know other CPAs and I mean, I’ll toss them work and I want them to succeed.

I think it’s great to have a sisterhood and have people that are, you know, Either, it might be a Facebook group. I have a Facebook group it’s called get the balance right. For female entrepreneurs, but you could join something like that. You could join a mastermind, you could get a group coaching program, all kinds of ways to have that, where you’re not out there doing it yourself, because that’s the other thing about entrepreneurship.

It could get really super lonely unless you’ve got some people that can help support you and you can spit ball ideas and all of that.

[00:21:24] Bob Wheeler: Talking about entrepreneurs. So a lot of times, and I don’t know if this is your experience. A lot of entrepreneurs come in with an amazing idea, super creative. It’s so fun.

It’s fun creating the concepts and then it starts to have success. And now you’ve got to do the numbers. You’ve got to invoice every week. Now you have to do all the nitty gritty where it’s not much fun or as fun for a lot of people. Do you find that people hit that hump where like I’m doing all these things and it’s amazing.

And then all of this. Oh, yeah. That the chores.

[00:21:56] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Oh yeah. Yeah. People are, they have a passion. They want to do these things. And then it’s like, especially when it gets, like, if you really want to grow business, then you have to bring on contractors or employees, and then you start to have to handle all these different intricacies.

You have to have processes in place to have that happen so that you can actually work and be lean and all of these things. Yeah. They get kind of bored with that, especially. You know, I work with creatives and they get to the point where they’re like, no, I don’t really know. That’s not what I want. So I work with a lot of people.

I think that are, I think they call them like lifestyle entrepreneurs, where they’re just like building a lifestyle and they’re not building it to build a business where they can sell later on. And I think with the people that are creative, maybe if there are like a program or something, they could see themselves with all the, I dunno, but yeah, not the people that I work with.

Yeah. That’s not their interest. That’s not their sweet spot. It’s not the

[00:22:49] Bob Wheeler: sweet spot. What were the fears you had when you started your own business?

[00:22:54] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Well, one, where are you going to get clients? And are you going to make enough? We do math. We know like how much it takes to bring in the revenue that you need.

It’s like, where is that going to come from? You know? So those fears have gone away and that’s all entrepreneurs, I think, struggle with that. How am I going to make the money that, oh, actually, you know what, I’ll take that back. I think CPAs think about that. But other people don’t think about like where all the money’s going to come from, they just start their business and they kind of forget that part of it.

Like they don’t plan things out. They don’t, you know, so the other struggle, I would say for me, it has been marketing like, okay, so. Do you want to do free marketing, which means social media, which means taken up a lot of your time, or do you want to pay for ads? And then there’s a lot of stress on that aspect of it, I guess.

But I love to say selling part of it. That’s something that I really enjoy. I think a lot of people getting into business are like, oh, I have to sell. So

[00:23:49] Bob Wheeler: yeah, sometimes yourself, not literally, but figuratively, any financial.

[00:23:57] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Oh, my God. Okay. So let’s, let’s talk. Let’s, let’s get down to it, Bob. So when I was younger and I’ve shared this on my podcast, but when I was younger, I was like, I loved money.

I would kept my money in my piggy bank. I had a toy cash register, you know, I’d play store and all that kind of stuff. So I was really into the whole money thing, but you know, we’re not really taught anything about financial literacy in school. At least when I was going to school in the seventies and the.

They’re still not, it’s still not like they didn’t even teach us like how to write a check. I mean, I know people are like, what’s a check, but that then you get out of school and you’re like, you have to write a check and it’s like, wait a minute. What goes where? And like, you don’t even know as a simplest things.

And I mean, I had a bank book, but it was like, this is back when you’d actually like, write in your money. When your bank book and stuff, then I got a credit card. So I went away to school and I got a credit. I didn’t know anything bad interest, you know? And then I hear people are like, oh, just put it on a credit card.

Oh, okay. So you put her in a credit card and you’re like, okay, just pay the minimum. Like that’s all I got to pay is just a minimum $15. That’s easy. Yeah. And it’s always the department stores. That’ll give you those first credit cards. They’re like, oh, okay. I’m working in fashion. I need to be fashionable.

Go to Saks fifth avenue, just charge it. And then it’s like, oh, I got my Saks fifth avenue card. I might as well just eat lunch there. It’s like, you think this is like free money. Woo. Totally. And then the more you rack up, the more cards that they’ll give you, it’s like, it’s amazing thing. It’s like, oh, just pay the $15 minimum 15.

Well, then if you start to look at the statement a little bit closer, you see like, whoa, wait a minute. What is all this interest that I owe? And then the thing keeps getting larger and larger, and you’ve already reached your max, but it’s like, you can’t keep up with it. So needless to say, I got into some credit card problems as a younger person.

And when you do that, Banks. Aren’t really keen on giving you an account. You can’t get other credit card accounts. You can’t get an apartment if you owe on credit cards because they look at credit scores. I mean, that’s an important thing. Whether we like it or not, they do look at credit scores. Even if like a job, we’ll look at a credit score and see like, oh, should I hire her?

Oh, she’s got credit card problems or whatever. So I had to dig claw my way out of that hole. So that was a problem. And then when you’re not making much and you’re trying to pay down debt. Oh, I don’t need to put money towards a 401k. Like I just need the money now. Oh, that’s a stupid, so, so stupid. I regret having debt and having a clot.

I mean my student loans and all that stuff is paid off, but, and that calling out of that, and then not putting away enough money early on, and then I did put some money away and then I was like, oh, I feel like going back to school, I’ll just cash that in, you know, it was like, oh no, no, no, that’s so bad. So people please don’t do that.

[00:26:51] Bob Wheeler: Live within your means. It’s so difficult. It’s so simple, but it’s so difficult with media pressure friends. They’re going to go have a drink. I’ll put it on a card. It’s so easy to get caught up in the story instead of stopping and actually being intentional.

[00:27:07] Heather Zeitzwolfe: And, you know, what’s really funny. Well, this is not funny.

When you help people with their finances, you kind of see, they look on the outside, like they got it all together. And you’re like, wow, this person’s a really fabulous business coach and oh, wow. Look at all these things. But then when you look at their finances, you see a different side of them and you’re like, wow, this person has a lot of debt.

Like what is going on here? There are shopaholic or something. But there again, it’s that pressure of society. How, oh, if I’m a business coach, I need to look a certain way and I need to present myself, even though I’m putting myself in debt. It’s

[00:27:40] Bob Wheeler: terrible. It’s all about presentation. Sometimes we get caught up in that.

We definitely get caught up.

[00:27:46] Heather Zeitzwolfe: That’s why I wear a hoodie low cost. All right. And you paid cash? Well, it will tell you that I do put things on credit cards because I get points. Right. But I pay everything off every month. Gotta pay it off. I always paid off. But I get my points for, you know, whatever.

Absolutely.

[00:28:05] Bob Wheeler: Well, Heather we’re at the fast five. And so we’re going to jump and change the energy. Fast five is brought to you by acorns, which is where you can invest spare change bank, smarter, safer retirement, and more for more information, you can click on the link in the show notes. So, all right, Heather, we’re going to go fast.

We’re going to do five. Are you ready? Okay, sounds good. All right, here we go. If you could ask your cat one thing, what would.

[00:28:30] Heather Zeitzwolfe: This is a really profound question for me because I love my cats. I would ask them if they understood that I loved them.

[00:28:37] Bob Wheeler: Cool. And you’re hoping they would say yes. Yeah. Yeah. What’s your financial superhero power.

[00:28:44] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Oh, financial superhero power. Well, I would say being frugal, right. Okay. Let’s just say frugal. Okay. So here’s the one thing that I would recommend about the whole frugal superpower. I will cook and have leftovers. So that way I don’t have to make another meal. I don’t spend time doing that, but my superpower is saving money because I think that people just waste money.

They go out to lunch and they spent, I mean, this is COVID. So people aren’t really doing that so much, but when you make food, make leftovers and then you’d have another meal out of it or two or three or

[00:29:19] Bob Wheeler: two or three. Yeah. What’s one thing you prefer not.

[00:29:24] Heather Zeitzwolfe: I don’t think I could live without wifi anymore. I think I’d go crazy.

You go someplace and there’s no wifi and you’re like panic sets in. Like what about my email? Like, okay,

[00:29:34] Bob Wheeler: what’s a deal breaker in a friendship.

[00:29:36] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Oh, deal breaker in a friendship, body odor. I don’t know.

[00:29:42] Bob Wheeler: That could be rough.

Maybe that’s how it works. It works besides possibly taxes. What’s one thing you really don’t like to spend my.

[00:29:53] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Uh, don’t like spending money on tips. Oh, can you just put it in the price? Like I see. Like tips and tax or like the same thing. It’s like a tax on going out. Yeah.

[00:30:05] Bob Wheeler: Yes it is. And it’s getting more expensive.

[00:30:08] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Your employees just pay your employees better. So I don’t have to pay for that

[00:30:11] Bob Wheeler: included in the price. I hear you. All right. Well, we are at the M and M moment of our show that sweet spot money and motivation. So Heather, what is a financial practical tip or a piece of wealth wisdom you can share with our listeners.

That’s worked for you.

[00:30:26] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Okay, this is not financial advice, but I’ve been getting into crypto and just dipping my toe in there. So if you’re crypto curious, just put a little money in there and just kind of try it out. It’s been fun. And I think that just kind of treading into those waters has been good for me to like, have a conversation with my clients, because I think a lot of CPAs are afraid of crypto and you kind of dip your toe in there.

You really don’t know what’s going on. Cause it’s a weird thing.

[00:30:53] Bob Wheeler: I’m not crypto adverse. I’m just not as excited to get in the water because it feels like there’s a lot of sharks and I

[00:30:59] Heather Zeitzwolfe: don’t like sharks. Yup. I’m talking about a few hundred bucks. That’s all. It’s like gambling. It’s like gambling that could work.

[00:31:05] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s a smart way to do it. Just like a little babies throw in a few bucks so that if you lose it, you can afford to continue eating and paying your mortgage

[00:31:14] Heather Zeitzwolfe: or your rent. But if it goes sky high, you’re not like, God, I should’ve been on that.

[00:31:19] Bob Wheeler: Yeah, exactly. Just test the waters.

Well, Heather, so here’s, what’s been fun for me today because I appreciate that you love the creativity. Not all CPAs are left brain rate brain, and some CPAs probably don’t even know what I’m talking about right now. But I think is so important. Working with creatives, I work with a lot of creative folks.

There is so much shame around money and the more that we can make it a shame-free zone, the more we can let people know it’s okay. That they didn’t get the financial down. The more we can help them have their aha moments to actually get excited about something that we both geek out on. I think that’s so important.

And I appreciate that you’re also advocating for women because I do think sometimes they get the short end of the stick and don’t get the opportunities or don’t get the time and energy or the attention to help them build their businesses. So I love that you’re out there doing. You’ve got a podcast out there again, to help have these conversations, which is the whole point of this podcast is having conversations around money to help remove that stigma of shame and to let people know they’re not alone because a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of people in general, when it comes to money, it’s a very isolating thing.

And there’s so much shame if people knew our credit card debt, if they knew we filed bankruptcy, if they knew we didn’t do it perfectly. And so I love that you’re in that place of, I’m not trying to get the bankers, I’m trying to reach the people that actually need us and that you’re actually doing it in a way that’s inviting and lets people feel safe to actually go.

[00:32:52] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And when you were talking about that, it just kind of remind me of a couple that I worked with, that I was doing money coaching with and how they told me, like I saved their marriage. Their marriage was starting to deteriorate because of this whole. And it happens to a lot of couples.

I mean, they get divorced over money. So sometimes we’re like therapist in our job. We

[00:33:15] Bob Wheeler: are, I call it financial therapy. Most of my tax appointments turn into therapy sessions and that’s okay because that’s, what’s needed. That’s what’s needed. Where can people find you on social media online? If they want to get a new CPA, doing their taxes with funky colored hair and your pod.

[00:33:33] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Thank you for asking. So I do offer other things like bookkeeping and profitability, coaching and group programs and all of that. So you can find me on Instagram at zits Wolf. So that’s my last name, but get the balance right. Is the name of my podcast. And if you go on link tree, you can see get the balance, right.

Meetups for female entrepreneurs. I’ve got a Facebook group for female entrepreneurs, and it’s just a fun time. We’ll have guest speakers and all that. And then find me on Instagram. I don’t know when you’re watching this or listening to this, but I’m doing the live challenge. So maybe I’ll still be doing it when this comes out.

So find me there and you hit me up LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn a lot. I don’t look like I’d be on LinkedIn, but I am so Heather’s, I 12 you can find me. DME just don’t try to sell me something off the bat. I can’t stand when people contact me on LinkedIn. And they’re just like, from the get go, they’re trying to sell me something.

It’s like, why would I buy something from you? I don’t even know you.

[00:34:32] Bob Wheeler: I know that’s so crazy. And just be open to vegan. If you’re going to reach out to her, just be open. Not saying you have to, but it’s an invitation. Yeah. Well, Heather, this has been so much fun. I so appreciate it. It’s just been a lot of.

[00:34:46] Heather Zeitzwolfe: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me I’ve loved it. It was really, really fun.

[00:34:57] Bob Wheeler: we hope you enjoyed this episode. Did you learn something new about your relationship to money today? Maybe you have a friend who has some financial blocks or beliefs that are holding them back. Please share this podcast. So they too can get off the roller coaster ride a financial. And journey towards financial freedom to learn how to have a healthy relationship with money, visit the money nerve.com.

That’s nerve not nerd. We’ll be back next week with another perspective on money and the emotions that bind us. .