EP 155: Riding the Financial Waves with MicKallyn Elis

really be tricky. And when it comes to financial planning, almost all of the Guru's who are out there are talking about people who are making a paycheck that comes in every other week. So in today's conversation with MicKallyn, she is giving us really solid advice for how you can plan for all of life's expenses, the big ones, the little ones, the fun ones, the surprise bad ones, even when your income is totally different month to month, and she's got some really amazing strategies.

But before I cue the music, I want to remind those of you who may not know that I do offer a course that addresses exactly this issue, not so much the financial planning part, but the stabilizing your income part. It's called revenue on repeat, and it's about setting up a membership. In your portrait photography business. I converted my most of my family clients into a membership back

in 2019. And when the pandemic hit in 2020, what happened was all of my photographer friends essentially had their income grind to a halt, whereas mine just kept rolling in month after month. And the membership has really freed up a lot of my marketing stress. It has made my schedule a lot more predictable. And it's been really great for my clients as well. Many of my family clients had aspirations to get family photos done each

year. But until the membership model became an option for them, they didn't really stick to that plan that was just kind of a hope instead of a plan. So I would love to teach you how to do that you can learn more about the course at this can't be that hard.com/revenue. And with that, I will turn it over to my conversation with MicKallyn. Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken and I help photographers run profitable, sustainable

businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it. And I can show you how MacAllan Welcome to this can't be that hard. It's so great to have you on the show today. How are you?

And I'm really excited. I would love to have you just kind of introduce yourself I love the your about page on your website and how you talk about your, your focus. So I'm gonna I'm gonna shut my mouth and let you do a little introducing of yourself.

manage their money. And so I took the leap five years ago into starting our business fine. personal finances has actually been something since I can remember like 12 years old that I just loved and consumed. I loved making money. I loved managing money I enjoy During the process of paying down debt. So early on in our my I got

married. And early on in our marriage, I feel like one thing that has been able to help me as a financial coach, help clients is really, personally being able to identify it, like, what are our values, like what is important to us, because you can find a lot of blog posts out there of you know, trying to organize your money. There's, you know, endless resources. But really, what set us apart was understanding like, where did we want to spend our money? Like, how do we take the money that

comes in? And how do we put it out in a way that serves us? So I took my experience as a banker, as a mortgage lender, as my personal passion, since I think I was like, 12. And then understanding like, what our values were, and how I could educate others on how to better manage and feel more competent around their money.

is kind of step one. Right? I love what you say, in in your about, about the fact that you're on a mission to help 1000 driven professionals to reach their first $100,000 in net worth, when I was so to give you a little background about me, I got forced in 2017 I got married quite young. And then I got

divorced 17. And from the time, I guess, when I before I got married, before I was in that relationship I was I didn't have I mean, money management was basically like, take everything you make, put it in your bank account and cover your you know, your basic expenses, there was not much to it, it was pretty straightforward. Um, and then my ex husband had sort of been at the helm of our finances during

my marriage. And so when we got divorced, I was to say that I was overwhelmed and like, had a giant amount of fear about like, how I was going to handle all this is a an understatement, but but one of the things that was really frustrating for me at that point, because when we split, unfortunately, I found out that the money management was not in wasn't in very good shape. And so I was I didn't have a lot of money, and trying to get help with that was so

difficult. Like, you were like, come back to me when you have a bunch of money. And I was like, No, the problem is I can't get there. So I love the fact that you are targeting people who are in that phase. Yeah,

happening. I mean, this should be grade school, middle school, high school, college, and just keep building on it. So there's that but I work with a lot of adults with, obviously, with their finances, and I think there's something to indicate when it comes to financial literacy versus financial coaching. Okay. So, again, financial literacy is amazing. And there needs to be focus, but helping adults, especially solopreneurs. With their money. This is where, again, coaching

comes into place. So with money, what you experienced personally, money being the number one cause of stress in the United States. financial coaching, in my humble opinion, is the solution. It's actually not financial literacy at this point. And as adults, and you're probably going like, wait, what? Why are you saying like, why are you saying that, again, financial literacy is needed, but you can Google anything you can google Any financial question, but how do

you? How do you tie that into your personal financial journey of like where you're at? How do you put it into action? So the difference between financial literacy and what I do as a financial coach is financial coaching is all about taking the knowledge. And applying it. Applying a part is the hard part, right? So financial coaching, is all about taking action, and no longer being passive in the information that you're taking financial

coaching. A good financial coach is not putting you into a cookie cutter plan, right? That you might be reading that you might be Googling, right, everyone, everyone's plan, all of my clients plans are all different, and they should be different. We're all in different places in our journey. We all have different goals. Everything's different. A financial coach for US financial literacy, financial coaching helps you create

strategies. It focuses on your behaviors, it focuses on your habits, that help you be proactive and sustainable with your finances. And financial coaching also puts you in control of your money, so you can make decisions with confidence. So that is the difference, in my opinion, on like what a financial coach does. And going back to that gap that you were talking about that you experienced that I hope financial coaches are starting to

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And one of the things that I think is really hard as a solopreneur, in the line of business that I'm in and that probably most of the people listening are in unless my mom is listening, she's not a photographer, but she just like to listen sometimes is, is the fact that our income can be pretty wildly different from season to season, month to month, like when I was then five years ago, or six years ago, whenever it was trying to self educate about a lot of this

stuff. Almost everything out there that is written and all that is like it's written for people who get a paycheck. And at the time I did I wasn't writing a paycheck to myself. Now I'm better about that. But but the but it was hard to budget, it was hard to estimate expenses. I mean, I guess the expenses part was a little bit easier to to, to know, but planning for paying for those got complicated because of the variable income thing. I assume I know you work with a lot of

solopreneurs. We can't Yes. ographers? aren't the only people who have variable income How? How do you kind of manage that with your with your clients that don't get a paycheck.

into three categories. We are understanding our reoccurring expenses, your mortgage, your rent, your utilities, the little subscriptions, the larger subscriptions, minimum debt payments. The second category that we got to get organized in is your day to day spending. So this is where the money leaks happen. This is a part that people really have a hard time understanding where their money is going and then to how to manage it. So this is your Starbucks at your targets. Nothing's wrong with these

expenses. We just need clarity and a system on how to like better manage it. And then the third category that we get organized in is your real non reoccurring expenses or your random expenses. So this can look like your annual payments that you have so your car insurance, car registration. Amazon says, you know, annual subscriptions to classes or courses or whatever it may be

personal grooming, right? You can get your hair done and it can be like 200 bucks or I've clients like you know, Botox is important that happens every three to four, three to four months and it's three to $400 Like how do you how do you

manage that right? That's how we get organized is the first step once and if if your listeners Want a cheat sheet on how to kind of start organizing this, they can head over to the cash coach pro COMM And there will be a little pop up that comes up stop winging your finances create a budget that actually works. And that can help them start getting organized in those three steps. So step number one for my solopreneurs with a variable income is we still have to focus on the personal

expenses. Step number two is what you do actually a really great job with of like, educating your clients and educating your listeners on knowing your numbers, right. So we, the next step would be understanding what have you historically made in the past? And like breaking that down month by month? So we are trying to understand what is the patterns? What are the trends when it comes to your past income. And then we then come up with a game plan of taking that

historical information. And out of just the bare minimum, what you like need, what's your average, I do love that you teach on really focusing on like, what you want to make, I think there is like what you want to make and what you need to make sort of thing. We're still in the stage of what do you need to make, right? So knowing your numbers is that second step, what comes with knowing your numbers, is it creates empowerment, you're more motivated when you know your

numbers. I had a client who just told me that their business, she was a lactation specialist, her business that she's been in for three years now it feels more like a real business because she's gaining clarity around her numbers. She's like welcoming the boundaries that she's kind of starting to put in place with her finances ends with saying yes, to certain gigs and certain clients. Right. Yeah, that aligns to what's important to her and I think your listeners can really probably relate to

that. And she's excited for the goals. So that would be like step number two,

up the like, I hate numbers. I hate money, which is a strange thing since we all ultimately need it and and transact with it all the time. But yeah, but there is the the like a lot of people have these very big defense mechanisms put in place that like have it almost contributes to how they see themselves like their personal

identity as like oh well. I'm not really into money when when you actually get down to it and finally have that like come to Jesus about like, Nope, you actually have to know these

numbers. It really is just this fear that once they know them they're gonna like the whole thing is gonna fall apart when in fact they get to know their numbers and even if their numbers are a total disaster that does empower them with this ability to like plug absolutely in in place to get it straightened out and then once it is in in you know order and they have this like my pricing is set my systems are set then they're like on you know there's no stopping them they're kind of

on the on the highway so So yeah, that part always I love watching that transformation

do that. The first thing when putting your system together is I highly encourage that everyone has at least one personal checking account. One personal safe savings account, one business account when business

savings accounts, okay? From there, we want all of the income that they make to be going into their business account we are we have to stop the commingling, we got to clean that up no more commingling any expenses that are in the business account that are really personal, like if they truly are, like, separate them out. So that's step number one, then it comes to the

paycheck system. So we want to stop the madness of multiple transfers coming out of your purse, your business account to pay for your business, or excuse me, we want to like stop the transfers from your business account, going into your personal account, right, we want to just like a paycheck going in there. And with that brings

competence, right? So I've never really met a client who feels in control of their money, when I see that they have 15 debits coming out of their business account moving over to their personal checking account to cover transactions, it's like they're consistently always, like on edge, always putting out little fires, they just simply don't feel like they have

control. So once we know, your personal, what you need to make from a personal standpoint, and then the Step two was knowing your numbers, business numbers, we ultimately come up, what is this paycheck going to be like, and this paycheck should happen on the first or the 15th, or the 15th to the 31st. And it happens automatically, no more manually doing it. You want to set up

your systems. So the you know, the goal with understanding your money is that how do you make it easier, you're setting up the automations and the systems just like you do within your business. Now we're taking those same ideas and putting it into your personal finances.

expense in the business. But a lot of solopreneurs a lot of photographers that I know will sort of not take money out of their business, they'll reinvest it in their business all the time, which is it is a choice, that is a fine choice. But I think it is important to earmark that money as like, Okay, fine. You're making that choice from your personal. Yeah, you know, because you have that room in your personal life, but I think it's good.

the actual math behind it. And so why with like clients, and here I'm like, continuing to say it is about the system is because you are addressing the psychology part of money by knowing your numbers, having the system in place, regardless of you know, what it is covering or how much you are paying yourself, right know what the money is for.

that paycheck. We want to fund that the savings account consistently, you know, two times a month, what these savings buckets are for, or what they look like, is let's tack on a personal standpoint, we have a savings account that allows us to have virtual buckets underneath it. They're also called sinking funds if you've heard that terminology, but ideally, a financial institution

called Ally Bank, a ll. Vi, it does an awesome job at allowing us to do this is opening up one savings account, and having virtual buckets that you nickname. And you were consistently putting money into these virtual buckets. So you were always putting $200 towards a vacation bucket, you are always putting $100 towards your personal grooming bucket, you are always putting $100 towards

auto expenses. So when life's moments happen, expected or unexpected, we are not trying to be like, Oh, well, my paycheck doesn't like cover this anymore. You have this buffer. It's incredibly powerful. So now we like bring this into business. We have one savings account that has buckets, the buckets could be taxes. But that should definitely be happening where you're allocating money towards. Yep, every single paycheck. There's a percentage going into that tax bucket. Retirement,

right? Like we are every paycheck, putting money into a retirement bucket if we aren't sure exactly where it's going at the moment, or we're doing it at the end of the year, for many different reasons. Another one, like you mentioned, lenses, right? The equipment's? Well, what if every paycheck, you put a percentage of like what you made either for the month, or just a annual like 5% 10% 15% towards equipments. What if there was a bucket for PTO,

right, we don't get paid. I like a lot of my solopreneurs are women in the service industry. So we are exchanging our time. And oftentimes our time for money? Well, when we are on vacation, we aren't making anything. So we have a bucket for PTO time. So you can, you can continue to pay yourself that consistent paycheck and not feel guilty about taking time off, right. Another buckets could be marketing or education

or courses. So that is how I coach on using savings buckets, both personally and from a solopreneur standpoint,

ad that they saw. And they ended up you know, buying something, because it was like bright, shiny object syndrome. And we are all we all do that from time to time. Sometimes those are good things. Sometimes they're not but but if you are proactive about your budgeting, and you're planning, if you say at the beginning of the year, when you're not looking at some ad on Instagram or whatever, I'm going to allocate 10% of my income this year is going to go to marketing, and I'm pulling

numbers up. I mean, that's totally not. I'm not trying to make recommendations on that. But basically, if you're pulling that from a clear headed place, then when you do have that ad that pops up and you're like, Oh, I think this is going to be a really fun thing to buy. Then you go like check your budget, your bucket, as it were. And you say like, oh yeah, I can't afford this right now. And so you make that decision, even though it's reactive in the

moment a little bit. You have proactively accommodated for that in the overall budget. And that for me was really that aha moment was like, Oh, I can actually do this and stick to it if I'm if I'm putting those systems in place. So that's awesome.

back and 15 days from now. And then you go like, Okay, I have the money, and then you go, Wait, this isn't really as exciting as I thought it was right, right. Like, I'm no longer excited for this purchase. So it also kind of gives you like those those guardrails of like, can I afford it? Can I not afford it?

Sometimes it makes you pause on the transaction, I loved that you use the words proactive and reactive, because that is a lot about what financial coaching is all about with understanding the emotions behind spending.

allowed. But um, and I feel kind of weird asking this, but I am just wondering, I'm, you know, I have all these things I need to, I feel like I need to spend money on for my business. But I don't want to, you know, I'm worried that if my business fails, it's going to, you know, hurt my family that I will have spent all this money do most photographers spent, you know, take out loans to start their businesses? Or are they sort of

bootstrapping it as they go? Can you give me any sense as to what the right amount is to spend at the beginning? And, and I responded, and I was like, I'm just so grateful that you asked this question, because this is just in general, I feel like in lots of artistic communities, it's like this dirty little secret. Like, we don't talk about money, we don't talk about how much money we make, we don't talk about how we make it or you

know, whatever. And bad things grow in the dark, like you, you should shine some light on these things. So I really appreciate you taking the time to come and shed some light on this somewhat tricky subject for a lot of people, tell everybody where they can connect with you, I know you've got this freebie for my listeners that I'm going to put in the shownotes. So that's going to be awesome. But But where can they find you,

to where you're headed. It's like having a map so much more it is so much more confidence than just trying to like find your way fail your way forward, so to speak,

My they would say Yeah, it's really expensive though and my my response was always what you spend on this is going to come back to you. You know if you hire a good planner, it will probably save you money over time because you won't be making mistakes that you would make if you were trying to do it on your

own. You'll they have like better deals for you and can lead you there and I have just found there is that sort of scarcity mindset, especially when the budget is small and you're, you can feel that acutely, but but sometimes thinking forward to the fact that certain kinds of investments will pay for themselves and then some Yeah, so having,

money, right. And now you're wanting me to pay for financial coaching. And it's about the value. It's about, like, what are you getting in return from from that you're getting the guidance, you're taking the stress out of money? You're talking about your scenario, right. And so Absolutely,