138. 4 Reasons Community is the Secret to Success

In this episode of the 'Keep More Money' podcast, Kimberly emphasizes the importance of community for women business owners aiming to stay on top of their finances and grow their business. Kimberly shares insights from her own recent mastermind retreat and shares personal stories to illustrate that being part of a community can save time and money, provide accountability, create opportunities, and help think bigger. 

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Transcript

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welcome to Keep More Money. The podcasts are profitable women business owners, who are tired of overpaying in taxes and tired of chasing down their CPA, deferring to someone else for every financial decision and getting hit with surprise tax bills every April. If you've ever felt like you'll never truly get on top of your business finances, this show is for you. I'm Kimberly Tara, CPA certified tax coach, multi-business owner, and Mama four Littles. With over a decade of experience and more than 15 million saved for my clients, my mission is to educate and empower women just like you to keep more of their money, reduce financial stress, and create lasting wealth. Taxes suck, but they don't have to hold you back. I'll show you how to make tax strategies simple, fun and easy to understand. You've worked hard for your success and now it's time to keep more of it. Let's dive in. Welcome back to the Keep More Money podcast. I just got back from an in-person mastermind and let me tell you. Every single time I put myself in a room like that, I walk away with clarity, ideas, and connections that I never could have created on my own. I'm reminded just how worth it it is to be away from the kids and coordinate extra childcare, be away from the work tasks on my never ending to-do list, and invest the extra funds needed to be in the Mastermind and travel. And it reminded me of something else really important. I had this thought while I was there. Wealthy women, which I don't think wealthy just means financial. I think it also means emotional wealth, physical wealth, health, right? All the things. Wealthy women don't try to do it all alone. They know that community is the shortcut to success. And community can take on many forms and fashions. But the bottom line is when you isolate yourself, everything takes longer. And I really believe that there is a difference between being in just a boxer group, being on just a group zoom call. It's just not the same. And so I really believe that you're wasting time and money trying to find answers that are already in this room with the other women who are also building, growing, and learning alongside you. And so maybe some are ahead of you. Maybe some are. Just in the same space as you. And sometimes I think we get this little naag nagging feeling like, Ooh, I'm behind. I, I don't deserve to be in that room. But I promise you that is so not true. Everyone is ahead or behind in certain aspects of life and business. And when you put yourself in this room, I promise that is when you start to move faster. It's also when you. Stop feeling like you're the only one, like you're the only. Woman, business owner out there facing challenges, you realize you're not the only one behind on your taxes. You realize you're not the only one afraid to be visible and show up on social media because when you're in the room, like actually in the room, shoulder to shoulder with other women, you realize you're not behind, you're not broken, and you're most definitely not alone. In the majority of your feelings, you see that other women are facing the same struggles. And what's so cool is you get to borrow their wisdom, their encouragement, and sometimes even their shortcuts. And that's why today I wanna share with you four reasons community. Is the shortcut to success. And so by the end of this episode, you'll know exactly why putting yourself in the right rooms can change everything. And it does change everything from saving you time and money to creating opportunities you never could have planned for. I wanna start by taking you inside the room. I just came from. This was a five figure mastermind I invested in. Yes. Another one. If you happen to be, keep keeping track. And here's what blows me away when I walk into those spaces and it is the conversations, it's the power that comes from like looking into their eyes, like face to face like human bodies. And I heard women talking about. What's working well in their business? I heard how they structure their teams, what investments are paying off and which ones aren't even how they're approaching things like money, mindset, personal growth, mornings at home as moms with kids. It's, and within the first few hours, I already had ideas I had. Solidarity, Things that I couldn't have gotten if I didn't get in the room. we actually did an exercise that was like really an aha moment for me. And while there were tons of ahas over the three days, there's really one that sticks out to be the most and. I'm not sure. I can't remember if I was tagged in it, but Becca saw it and she was like, oh my gosh, you're crying on Instagram. And I was like, well, I didn't post that. But she knows that I'm not a big crier. And one of the things that I learned on this retreat, we, a lot of us learned that crying is okay. Crying is a form of release. It's, it's an okay emotion. To have, and I'm having to rewrite some stories that I tell myself about, you gotta be tough, Kimberly, no crying. You know, you're in a man's world kind of thing. And instead really sitting with those emotions and those feelings. And so when this happened, we were sitting outside and we were doing this exercise called, I see you, I acknowledge you, We started going around and the point was to say something that you feel you are not acknowledged for and you want to be acknowledged for. And so as the women were sharing, I think I was like number eight outta 12 ish. Just hearing them and supporting them, the emotions were starting to build up. And then by the time it was my turn, the emotions were there I said I want to be acknowledged for how much I care about everyone and everything, sometimes too much. I care so much about my clients. Their businesses, their success, their experience with us, the results we get for them. I care so much about my team, my business, my family, my kids, my husband, my friends, my family. I care so much and I go to such great lengths to try and also show that, and I feel like it is not acknowledged, much less reciprocated. And then what happens is. Everyone else in the circle in the room says, I acknowledge that you care so much, right? And they're supposed to sort of repeat your words back to you so that you can feel that. But what also happened is because we had already been together for two days, these incredible women added in more like the proof. That they, they weren't just saying the words back to me. They were inc. Unknowingly, including the proof that, validated that. Yeah, gosh. Like I'm not making this up in my head how much I care. And they've seen it and experienced it in just two days. that was just one aha moment for me. But I've had others. I had, of course I had others on this mastermind retreat and then I've had others in, in other rooms as well. But there's just so many aha moments. another one that kind of comes to mind is we were riding in the bus and my new friend Anna said she was from Birmingham. And I was like, oh my goodness, this could go one of two ways. This could go one of two ways. And if you're from the South, you know where I'm about to go with this. And so I was like, all right, we're Eagle. And she looked at me ice big and said, we're Eagle. And you know, if you're familiar with the Alabama Auburn rivalry, it was, it was gonna go one of two ways. And so thankfully it went. Well in my direction. And I was like, when were you there? And and so come to find out, she was a year behind me. She was in a different sorority and I don't know. I mean, maybe that would've come out at some point in a Zoom room, in a Voxer chat, but I'm honestly not sure. I'm not sure. And how cool is that? And so then. Anna and I were the last two in the Delta terminal sitting together because you have to take a ferry back and so other, some other ladies had an earlier flight and so we were just sitting there for pretty much like three hours. And so we were just kind of, like decompressing, winding down, processing all of the things that had just happened over the previous three days and in an hour. I don't even know if it was that much sitting there. Just kind of like we were processing, okay. What, what are the next things that we need to do? How do we slow down? How do we give ourselves more rest? And essentially sitting in the Delta terminal with her people all around us, I was like, you know what? I think I'm gonna pause some stuff. I ran the numbers I had done like a quick, quick analysis of like our monthly recurring revenue, our monthly recurring expenses. And I was like, we can, we can totally do this. We won't have a lot left over. But we have enough, we don't have to sign one new client. And that's a really cool feeling. And she was like, yeah, you need to pause. And I was like, yes, I need to pause. And she was like, okay, so what are, like, what are the steps that you need to take to pause, to get stuff off your back, to delegate, to and it happened, it happened, this brand new person, but who got me, who was doing the same work that I was doing? And that's why I say community changes the way you see yourself. When you're isolated, do you think the problems you're facing mean that you're behind or you're broken? And Anna was sitting there basically like different niche, different set of problems but neither of us were behind or broken. Our problems were normal. They were solvable, and they were shared. And that's why community is the shortcut to success because the truth is. You don't need to learn everything the hard way. You don't need to sit alone second guessing yourself. You need to be in a room where women are willing to share what they've learned and cheer you on while you take your next step and sit there and blist out the 10 things that you're gonna do in order to take that next step. And so that's exactly why I wanna share these four reasons with you today. Reason one community saves you time and money. When you're in the right room, you skip so much trial and error. You work through your feelings and emotions faster. Instead of spending months trying to figure something out on your own, you could get the answer in maybe five minutes from someone who's already done it or a coach who can walk you through something. And so instead of wasting money, testing the wrong strategy instead of wasting money because time is money. You learn from someone else's possible mistake or insight that they have. And so that's a shortcut that wealthy women take all the time. They don't waste years reinventing the wheel. This makes me think of when I was thinking about this one, I was thinking about Melissa in the Make Money Moves Mastermind. She, our other mastermind member Veronica, had posted asking me a question about. Rental real estate and some things like that. And before I could even answer, Melissa chimed in and be like, Ooh. It was like, Ooh, I, I wanna know about this too. That's something I'm interested in. And so two things happened here. I learned something new about Melissa and her goals that she hadn't yet mentioned. And Melissa got insight ahead of time about rental properties and what that could look like for her. And that absolutely never would've happened if. They weren't in the same community together. And so that's gonna save Melissa so much time and money right there, And so that's why I say community always saves you time and money. Reason number two is that community gives you accountability. I think that it's easier to hide when you're alone sitting in your office, your home office. Yet, like it's it's easier to hide, it's easier to feel embarrassed about your numbers or avoiding something in your business when no one knows. But when you're in a room where other women are being vulnerable, they're facing the same challenges and talking about them openly. You're more likely to share your challenges, to be vulnerable and then follow through on the things that you need to do to take action. And so I believe that accountability protects your profit. When you're surrounded by women who normalize paying attention to money, who normalize, asking hard questions, making smart moves, you start doing it too. this makes me think of our client, Nicole, who she kept rescheduling her call and because our clients have multiple calls with us throughout the year, but she kept rescheduling, rescheduling, rescheduling. And so finally she showed up and, she told Becca, she was like. I didn't know that this was gonna be a therapy session. Okay. You can sit with me v's. Here with us today, because fun fact, I hit, didn't hit record the first time I recorded this episode, so now she's awake. but our client, was like, I feel so much better. And she was like, this isn't. Hard. This isn't something I should have been scared to talk about, like I feel so good, so energized after this 25 minute call. I'm so grateful that you held me accountable to continue reminding me to, to book it and not just letting me off the hook, and so community. Gives you accountability. Reason number three, community creates opportunities. Some of the best opportunities don't come from cold outreach or ads. They come from conversations, referrals, collaborations. Someone you met in a room says your name in another room, and so one connection can mean thousands of dollars in revenue. And the right connection can completely change the trajectory of your business. my friend Amanda, who asked me to sponsor Boss Vision Con, we had met, somebody had introduced us two or three years prior, and so it just felt aligned for us to sponsor her event. And then she asked me to also speak on a panel and she had ho she was hosting an attendee call. one, like one week before the event, it was like a Zoom virtual attendee call before everybody would meet in person. And then right after that attendee call, we had a speaker call. I didn't, I couldn't make the attendee call'cause I was at the doctor with Beckett, but I hopped on the speaker call just a few minutes late and she told me, she was like, oh my gosh. Hey Kimberly, I just said your name on the attendee call. And so many women like either knew you or knew of you and they were singing your praises and they are so excited to meet you in person and to hear you. And I was just like. Wow. I didn't say that out loud on the call, but I like, I thought to myself, I was like, whoa, whoa. People know my name. People are talking about me, and they're saying good things, right? Like it's just, that's, that is the result three years, the last three years of putting myself into rooms, putting myself in uncomfortable situations, leaving my kids and going and getting in these rooms. Because it does create opportunity, and it may not be instant, but it will happen. Reason number four is that community helps you think bigger when you're by yourself. Your goals are based on what you know, what you've heard, what you've experienced, but when you're surrounded by women ahead of you who maybe aren't even ahead of you. In totality, but in one area. Even women who aren't ahead of you, but they're dreaming bigger and they're taking bold action for those dreams, it shifts what you see as possible. And I fully believe that being in the room elevates your standards. It pulls you forward. It gives you permission to want more. Whatever more looks like.'cause more doesn't always have to mean more revenue. More could mean more peace in your life. And usually it's gonna give you the tools to achieve it too, right? And so it's weird because I always try and think about what are the takeaways? Like what did I walk away with? And a lot of times when I'm in a room or I go to an event, I'll walk away with the typical let's launch this new ad campaign. Let's rewrite this offer page, let's tweak this. SOP, this, we need to change this in our org chart. But I didn't have any of that from this. Particular experience. it's more of like a permission to pause, kind of how I was telling you with Anna, right? Like it's it was a permission to pause. It was a permission to hold boundaries to say to remind myself that I'm good, like I'm, my firm is sustaining. And just because, Other people are hustling, doing more, growing bigger, super fast, that that doesn't have to be me. And so it, it was a, it was something that I absolutely needed, sort of like a reset. But again, it definitely helped me think bigger, just in a different way from what I'm used to. And that's why honestly I kind of joke about oh, another mastermind. But they all serve a different purpose, right? One is more of that tactical, like how do I think bigger from the marketing perspective. I'm in other communities where it's let's just be here together, like just supporting one another. And then I have this one where it's like, how do I hold, have more capacity to hold, more, to grow and to grow myself? Because as I grow myself as a person and a CEO, Everything else comes behind that, right? Falls into place because of that. And so the big reframe that I want you to walk with today is that success doesn't happen in isolation.. And again, like I wanna reiterate that being in com, virtual communities, getting on Zoom calls, having coffee chats, being in boxer groups, all of those things, they're really great, but it's not the same as like physically rubbing shoulders with people. And Sam even said that in. Our Voxer group.'cause I had said while we were there, I was like, y'all.'cause I was the only one who had really been to other in-person retreats out of this group of 12 ladies. And I was like, the Voxer group is gonna change. Like you're gonna feel it, it's gonna be so different for the remainder of the five months that we have in this container together. And Sam said that two days after we had all gotten home, she was like, Kimberly was spot on with. The vibe, the fact that the vibe in the Voxer group was gonna change for the better, but the women who keep more money, who build wealth, who grow their businesses faster, they're not doing it all alone behind their laptop. They are putting themselves in the right rooms. They're surrounding themselves with the right people and letting community pull them forward. They're making the investment in themselves and their future. so I just want you to imagine for one minute if you could close your eyes if you're not driving or doing something. want you to imagine that you've been in this mastermind group, you've been chatting with these women. You've had one zoom call, you're in a boxer group, but you've just arrived to the room where you're about to walk in and meet them all in person for the first time. You pause before you walk through that door because you have a twinge of nerves. You have a few butterflies in your stomach, and so you're like, Ugh, that that moment momentary pause, and then it happens. You cross the threshold, you're welcomed with open arms, and within less than an hour, you're sitting on the couches with these ladies and you feel like you've known them for ages. You don't have to explain yourself. You don't have to explain your business. You don't have to prove that your goals are valid. You don't have to validate your why. You don't have to share why you're worthy. Everyone there understands the challenges and the winds of building a profitable business. They get you. They get all of you, and more importantly, they're cheering you on and suddenly the light bulb turns on and you breathe deeply as you embody someone who is no longer alone. Imagine how much later you'd feel knowing other women. Are asking the same questions about money, boundaries, team growth, visibility. Imagine being able to borrow their courage, their strategies, and their lessons so you don't have to figure out everything by yourself. And now I want you to take it a step further. I want you to picture what happens after you leave that room. You don't just feel inspired. You're clear. You feel seen. You feel heard. You have ideas, solutions that are gonna save you months of trial and error. You've had personalized coaching that is gonna save you thousands of dollars. You've got new accountability partners who are gonna check in on you and keep you moving forward. And maybe just maybe. You've built connections that will turn into collaborations, clients, or opportunities that you couldn't have planned for if you tried. You have friends, friends who get exactly who you are, where you are in this season of business and life, what you're trying to accomplish. Because this entrepreneur stuff, man, it hits different and it hits different again when you're also a wife, mom, caretaker. It's a lot. But one thing wealthy women know is that community isn't optional. It's actually part of the strategy.'cause when you're surrounded by the right people, you think bigger, you move faster, and you have the strategies to do it. And that's what I want for you. And so if you've been listening today thinking, I wanna be in rooms like that, rooms that stretch me, support me, and help me grow, that's exactly why I created the Make Money Moves Mastermind. And this is your invitation. It's your time to get in the room where growth actually happens because the Make Money Moves Mastermind is where strategy meets support. It's designed for women entrepreneurs who are ready to keep more of their money, build real wealth and step fully into the role as a confident CEO. I created this mastermind because. There are some incredible business ones out there, but none of them start with money and finances. That part is always a byproduct of the Mastermind, but what if you got intentional with your money, finances, and tax strategy as a profitable business owner first before anything else? And so inside the Mastermind, you get access to the kind of strategy that's gonna change everything, right? Personalized tax and business support, mentorship, accountability, and a community that understands what you're going through. You'll be surrounded by women who are also scaling investing and leading boldly, and so they get it. If you've ever felt like something is missing from the rooms you're already in, or you are not having the strategic money conversations that you know are the next step to unlocking true wealth building and financial success, if you're craving more access to my million dollar brain, as everyone calls it, this is your moment. This is your moment, your invitation, so don't wait. Don't keep wasting more time. Send me a DM on Instagram. I'm at Kimberly Terra cpa so we can chat and see if you're qualified for a limited spot in the Make Money Moves Mastermind. I wanna chat with you and if it's not a good fit, I'll be honest with you, and maybe it's just, it's not a no, it's a not right now. Not quite yet. And so as we close out today's episode, I really want your takeaway to be that you don't have to do this alone. No, let me say that again. You shouldn't do this alone. Period. Wealthy women. And remember, I consider a wealthy woman to not just be financially wealthy, but emotionally wealthy, physically wealthy, mentally wealthy. They know that community is the shortcut to success, and now you know it too. And so it's your turn to step into the room and watch how quickly things can start to change once you do that. And so that's it for today's episode of Keep More Money. I can't wait to chat with you over on Instagram and welcome you into a room that is ready and waiting for you and the next evolution of yourself.