Is Money Trauma Making Your Business Decisions with Brittney Ashley

Last week I sat on a proposal because I was scared of what they might say.

Oh, what happens if I'm not good enough?

Or what happens if that's too high?

Or what if?

The great Mark Cuban once said, business happens over years and years.

Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more.

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Let's do it.

Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.

And now your expert expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Hello and welcome to episode 359 of the Business Development Podcast.

Today it is my absolute pleasure to welcome to our stage Brittany Ashley.

Hi.

Brittany is a growth strategist, certified business coach, trauma of money, certified practitioner and imposter syndrome coach practitioner who is asking a powerful question.

What is really driving the decisions behind your business?

Through her work, Brittany explores how money stories, self worth and imposter syndrome quietly influence everything from pricing and boundaries to leadership and growth, often without entrepreneurs even realizing it.

She is the founder of Creative Dynamics Virtual Services, a growth strategy company helping service based founders stop white knuckling their way through entrepreneurship and start building businesses that can actually hold themselves up.

Brittany is also the host of Breaking Norms, Building Dreams, a neurodivergent entrepreneur and a proud Metis mom of two who believes that business should support your life, not consume it.

Because sometimes the biggest thing holding your business back isn't your strategy, it's the story you still believe about yourself.

Brittany, it is an honor and a privilege to have you on the show today.

Thanks so much for having me.

Like sometimes when I hear my bios now, I'm like, oh, could live through that.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's the best part about any show, right?

Is wow, is that me?

Mine just keeps going on and on because I'm homeless.

Well, that just means that you're doing stuff.

No.

Super cool.

I've been looking forward to this conversation with you.

The first time we chatted it was an absolute ton of fun.

And then we started talking about money trauma and I was like, oh my goodness, that is something we absolutely need to have on this show because I think so many entrepreneurs are struggling with money trauma and don't even realize it, it's like stuff from their childhood, stuff from their parents that's affecting us today.

And I think, you know, I'm included in that.

I don't think I, I am by any means out of the woods on that one.

How did you end up on this path?

Feel like I always joke that I was.

I'm a hippie.

It took me a hundred years to get here.

I have my background in so many different industries.

It's not just a clear cut decision.

I, I've been in tourism, hospitality management.

I've been in the tech industry, marketing, like all the things like I feel like, but that's just kind of helped me build curve dynamics and where it is today.

Um, but yeah, I've really navigated through so many different industries which I absolutely love because it really helps me shed light in different areas than just just one funnel.

I've been doing this now for 9ish years, which is crazy.

I started this business to help moms work from home.

I started this with my eight at the time, which is now, she's now eight.

But I was kind of like doing things always on the side hustle.

But I was really, I realized that when I had my daughter that unfortunately there's not a lot of flexible jobs out there.

Even though they like to say they are, they are not.

I'll restate that for any employers who are saying that you're flexible.

Prove it to me.

Um, yeah, I've really found out really fast after having my kiddo that it really isn't as flexible as I, I would like it to be as a parent.

As a parent, we really want to work those flexible lifestyles because we have doctor's appointments, we have sometimes daycare.

I have had a nightmare with daycare.

Like I feel like my girlfriends and family members are all like, you're cursed.

Like I feel like it.

Anything that can possibly go wrong with a daycare system, I feel like I have experienced it.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's kind of my journey, starting with my daughter.

And now I have two kids, so one's eight and one's five now.

So I've been doing this since I feel like you, when you have two small kids, you kind of forget life a little bit because you're just kind of in that hyper state mode of keep going.

But the one thing that I know for sure is, is that we as parents, it doesn't care if you're just a mom, a dad, caregiver, you need to really have that flexible lifestyle.

So that's kind of that's true passion of why I do what I do because I want business owners to really mold into that lifestyle of I want to take vacation and I want my business to operate without me there.

Wait, that's possible?

Yes, yes.

Listen, Brittany, we're talking about real things on this show.

Okay, I know.

And everyone, when I talk about this, like, I'm not, I'm perfect.

I'm not perfect.

Like, I'm not a perfectionist on the way that I'm doing this all the time.

Like, I'm still learning as I go too.

Like I'm not the perfect person and I can speak to this and all the things and as firsthand.

As a perfectionist, I know how hard it is to let go of things.

I get it.

I totally get it.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it's.

I'm five years.

Well, a little almost closing in on my sixth year on in entrepreneurship for myself.

I also have two very small boys.

My oldest boy is two and a half.

My youngest is turning one next month.

So yeah, I have an incredible, incredible partner.

Shout out to Shelby.

I.

There's no way I could do what I do without her.

Yes.

Like my husband, like we were really lucky for where he works too.

It's pretty flexible for a 9 to 5.

So it's.

We've been pretty lucky that he can help me out if needed and all the things in between too, because I didn't get mat leave with the second.

The first.

It was kind of like playing and really mapping some things out and figuring out where to go.

Like I wasn't doing work.

You're not supposed to work when you're on maternity leave.

But I just really, really was mapping and making sure I had a game plan.

So once that started like that was removed, I was like hit the ground running.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So tell me, tell me about your leap into creative dynamics.

What made you choose entrepreneurship?

It was kind of going back to the flexibility thing.

But the biggest kicker for me was that my stepdad passed away in 2019.

And it just made me realize, like, life is too short.

Like, why are we working for people to the ground when we're almost on the burnt out state and the employers really don't really care, sometimes you're just another number depending on the kind of corporation or business that you work in.

And so when I realize like life is like, you know, that life is too short.

But when, until you have that kind of like in your moment experience of a loved one passing away, suddenly you're like, oh my goodness, it really truly is life is too short.

So I'd rather be super happy sometimes.

Pay to paycheck to paycheck if I have to, but at least I know I'm fulfilling my dreams.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm sorry about your.

That's.

That's tough.

That's tough.

I actually also just lost.

Not a step parent per se.

My mom remarried when I was quite a bit older, but he passed away a couple months ago.

And that's been.

It's been challenging.

You don't realize, I think, how important people are in your life until they're no longer there.

Absolutely.

And I swear, like, that was like the pushing moment.

And entrepreneurship, there's no straight line.

It is like a roller coaster.

And every now and then I'm like, oh my goodness, if you're up there and hearing me right now, like, I'm not even joking.

This is the one time I almost gave up on all the things.

And I was like, why am I even doing this?

This is ridiculous.

I should just go back to nine to five, I'm going to go to a coffee shop and the next person, the drive thru better buy me that coffee or I'm giving up.

I'm not even joking.

Someone bought me a coffee.

I'm like, if this is the universe telling me to keep going, I don't know what is.

Oh my goodness.

Okay, let's talk about the universe for a second because this one's fun.

This one's fun because it feels like every time that I'm in a tough spot as well, something just falls out of the sky.

And it's been incredible.

One of the stories that I like to share, I ended up, I was working for a client doing retainer business development services.

And I woke up one morning, it's like 8 o', clock, a text rolls in.

Kelly, you know, we're having to wind this down.

You know, we can't really afford the ext extra help at the moment.

We appreciate your help, but this will be the last month.

And I'm thinking like, oh God, what do I do?

Right?

I go down.

I had two big interviews today.

Like two of the biggest interviews I'd ever had on the bdp and they were back to back.

And so I'm like, oh my gosh, like the worst day ever to get this news.

I'm heading into these two big interviews.

I'm already nervous.

So anyways, I end up in those.

I get past the first one.

I look at my phone, I had a text basically saying like, hey, we're actually interested in in bringing on your service, something.

I'm like, okay, that's good.

I have the second interview.

By the time I come up from that, they're already sending me an offer proposal.

That's amazing.

To take on the next project.

Yeah.

And it was just like, thank you, God.

I really believe sometimes some things get removed from your life for a reason.

Make room for more in your life sometimes.

I know some people are like, oh, my goodness, what are like, spiritual and all the things.

And I'm.

I'd say I'm stepping more into that side of the things.

But it's just if it's how you manifest out the positive energy too.

It's just kind of like if you hang out with the very toxic people, even toxic people in your workplace, you become toxic.

And I'm full.

Like, I can raise my hand to that because I never realized how I would fall into the funnel when I worked in a very toxic work environment that I was stuck there until I got pushed out.

And I'm looking back and I'm like, well, that's.

I'm.

That's not me.

That's not my personality.

So sometimes you get kind of in that bubble.

So it's like the true essence of bringing up your vibration.

So bring me into that.

Bring me into toxic workplaces.

Right.

You've obviously had a little bit of experience in one.

Tell us what happened.

Oh, my goodness.

I can go on forever on that.

But I definitely have ptsd.

Like, even phone calls, like, I can't even.

Everyone's like, let's get on phone call.

I'm like, do.

Like, let's do some zooms, like, PTSD towards it.

Definitely, like, working still through it.

Like, even when I was.

Before I even fully jumped into working into the entrepreneur side, I had an interview and the phone started ringing, and they wanted to give me the job, and I felt like that was a sign.

Like, run away as fast as you can.

They called you.

Oh, no, just go.

Just leave it.

Um, but it was very, like a very male dominant work environment in the industry.

And sometimes you.

You kind of show.

This is kind of going into, like, the imposter syndrome bets too.

Like, you try to.

You have all these degrees, you have all these things, and you try to show up in an industry sometimes that is male dominant as a woman, and you're trying to bring up to the next level, but you keep getting pushed down.

So it's like, I've had to work through so much imposter syndrome.

I've learned as a neurodivergent Sometimes we have more imposter syndrome than we can even know of.

But I've.

Through the last nine years of my life of just doing entrepreneurship, I've worked on myself on imposter syndrome and trauma, and we'll dig more in the trauma.

Money parts, but just trauma in essence.

Like, there's a lot of trauma sometimes that we don't realize when we step into that full entrepreneurial life, it starts to.

It's kind of a reality check of like, hey, deal with this or else you're never going to walk through to the other side.

So, yeah, I feel the last few years, too, is me stepping into my own personal development of doing, like, the business coaching, imposter syndrome coaching, trauma coaching.

Like, instead of seeing a counselor, I've just been working myself doing all these inner coaching works with everyone else.

Yes.

Yeah, no, I totally feel you.

Episode three.

I've talked about it plenty of times on this show, but episode three was almost the end of this show.

And honestly, there was nothing wrong with it.

If you go back and you listen to episode three, it was just a new podcaster still just trying to learn how to do this whole thing.

It's no different than probably any of the first 50 episodes if you really want to go back.

But I was feeling.

I was so in my head, I was so in my head, I'm thinking, what am I doing?

Who am I to talk about business development?

Who am I to share my entrepreneurship journey?

Right?

Like, it was a lot.

But in that moment, I said, you know what?

It's not perfect, but it's not supposed to be perfect.

At three, just come back and do four.

And I did it.

And then five, and we started getting feedback coming in, like, thank you for doing this.

And I was like, okay, all right, we're on a path.

But like, I, to this day, I think, still struggle with entrepreneurship.

There's still moments where you question, like, why are we doing this?

Or, like, is this still the right path?

Like, there's just.

Or, you know, stages.

Stages is something that still freaks me out.

Like, there's.

It's an ongoing journey.

Let's just call it that.

Imposter syndrome is an ongoing journey.

And it kind of doesn't matter how long you are on the path.

You just get maybe a little better at wet weathering it.

Exactly.

Like, I'm in that stage right now, I would say, for like July and August.

And I was like, you know what?

Maybe these are the months to.

And it's okay to give yourself one grace as an entrepreneur, I think it's really important.

But two, giving yourself sometimes the space and breathing room to really reflect and pause, and it's okay.

But I think as an entrepreneur, sometimes if you look in society and like, what the pretty things are on social media, it's like, oh, that person's like, scaling to 6Ks, 10Ks.

And I hate, like, saying things like that because I'm.

I'm all about, like, how can we scale you?

That makes a sense to you organically.

Yeah.

But for me, like, it's constantly, like, right now too.

Is this okay?

It's a little slow now.

What else can I elevate or fix?

I. I know my gaps like no other, but I'm so busy fixing everybody else's gaps, so I decided the next two months is just kind of like, reflect.

And that's hard for me.

I'm like the go, go, go do 600 things.

Like, I just finished a course.

I think I told you, but I just did an AI course with Harvard.

And then I just right after went into an AI course with ethics.

And I'm addicted to courses.

That's the one thing you need to know about me.

If I am quiet for some time, I'm probably doing some kind of course.

You're learning.

You're learning what's next?

What's next?

But I was like, you know what, Maybe this is like the calm before the storm.

That's like.

And sometimes we need to think of that too.

When things move or adjust, there's a reason.

And so let's take that moment to reflect, adjust, and then get ready for the next step.

And it takes a little bit of space for that thing that you've been trying to understand or learn to show up for you.

I'm gonna give a really great example of this, actually.

So Shelby was just at a women's retreat over the weekend.

And so I had the boys, but I also had some time, which is, like, very interesting.

Sometimes you just kind of like sit back and think.

And I was waiting for her at this woman's retreat.

And that was the point at which I realized, holy crap, you can put links on things on Instagram.

Like, not in the post, but actually on the image.

And like, it was such a game changing moment that I would not have figured out.

And I know I'm late to the party.

Thanks, everyone.

But anyways, I was late to the party, but I realized you could put links.

And I was like, holy crap, this is going to change everything.

And it took that tiny bit of space for me to play with something.

To realize a better way.

Exactly.

Sometimes if we're in a state of just doing.

And like, we're just in the state of react, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.

We're in the state of react mode.

And sometimes we don't.

We just jump in full feet without really processing it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, the other thing that you mentioned, too, is that you get so busy doing your other things.

Right.

There's a lot of learning that I want to do, but I struggle to do it.

Not because I don't want to do it, but because I do find myself either working on client things or producing the next episode or thinking about the next show when it's like, there's, like, courses I want to take.

And finding the time to do those courses as an entrepreneur is tough.

Is tough.

It is, yeah.

And you need to.

And when you have kids, too, or you could be maybe a caregiver.

Like, I'm getting to the state where my parents are getting older, and I'm starting to see, like, oh, now I might have to be a caregiver too, on that side.

I thought I was just seeing the day of light with both kids finally being in elementary school.

Now I'm like, oh, now.

Now it's different a little bit.

But life is always throwing something at you.

So it's just how we perceive and take a moment to kind of stop.

If we're in, like, the state of the nervous system.

Right.

If we were in this state of always, it comes back to the nervous system I'm finding and going into, like, the money trauma pieces.

Like, it's.

Sometimes we get so scared of certain areas that we don't even know that we freeze up.

Like, there's a free spot where we just don't want to do anything.

We fawn.

I'm a fawner.

I don't like.

I don't like angry people.

I don't.

I'm like, oh, let's just brush it under there and just keep on going.

So there's different stages and everybody falls into, like, a different category.

And it's just how we.

It's more.

More or less a nice way of saying of calling out your own self and being like, hey, you're doing it again.

Just like with imposter syndrome or any kind of trauma.

So you can re.

Pivot, pause, reflect, and repivot.

Let's head into traumas.

Obviously, you went through some trauma and it led you down a path now where you help entrepreneurs with trauma, which I think is really cool, by the way.

Bring us into this though.

You've worked with quite a few different entrepreneurs, you've worked with leaders.

What are some of the challenges specifically in trauma and imposter syndrome that you see coming up over and over and over again?

Yeah, so that's a big one because I've seen a range.

Um, I'll just kind of talk about myself a little bit.

Um.

Cause there might be somebody listening and they're like, oh, that's me too.

But I've been through a lot of different kind of traumas on like the work side trauma or there's been deep rooted parent trauma and.

Or just like going into the money.

Like I don't prime example.

Last week I sat on a proposal because I was scared of what they might say.

Even though I've worked out my numbers, I've worked out all these things.

But the inner part of me is like, oh, what happens if I'm not good enough or what happens if that's too high or what if.

And then you get in the what if cycle kind of start going.

But the one thing I found when I did trauma with money with Tom, if you ever wanted to look into it, it's a great company that did the certification with.

So we've really had to sit there for three hours.

And what they like to say is you can't just, they want you to work on yourself.

Because I can't work with you, myself and others without going through my own stuff.

It's so true.

To get to the other side, I need to work over my own trauma.

And so when I did the course, I cried almost every single time I went in there.

I, I went into this program thinking I'm going to go help my clients.

I'm going to do this because I've seen clients not pay their bills on time, avoiding things, fawning, all these different mechanisms that we can see with trauma to protect ourselves.

So as a natural coach, I got more curious.

So that's why I did do the trauma with money.

But I realized I had my own trauma with just life in itself.

And I kid you not, I cried almost every single class because I realized there's a lot of deep rooted trauma with the.

On the parent side of things.

Like I felt like I.

That's why I have struggled with my pricing.

So sometimes I feel like I need to be that people pleaser.

I need to people please people and go a cheaper route even though I know I'm worth more.

So you kind of need to like ask yourself why you're doing certain things and get more uncomfortable with the uncomfortable to make your mind be like, oh, you know what?

No, I am worthy to charge this.

Yeah.

Worth this.

So let's talk about money trauma.

Because that's something that actually has never come up on this show.

Which is very interesting.

350 Plus episodes and it is not once showed up on the show.

Britney, what is money trauma?

Well, money trauma.

I kind of.

I wrote down six little pillars so we can inherit the money trauma.

So it could be inherited from family members.

Scarcity mindset that we can't live without it.

Shame.

There could be some kind of shame around the money trauma.

Systematic.

We can see it within our systems.

Like no so ever betrayal.

Maybe you have bankruptcy, fraud or anything like that.

And going back to my stepdad, we did have some.

I'm scared of the CRA because my stepdad.

Yeah, I didn't do anything wrong.

He unfortunately didn't write.

He was an entrepreneur and he didn't run his business like he should have and did proper taxing and from.

I don't know the full stories by any means, but I just know that he went and bought a car, for example, and showed up with this nice car.

Took my other car and said, here's your car.

Not realizing he didn't pay for it.

So I literally had to take the car a few months after and just drop it off at the dealership and throw the keys into it.

So like those are like it doesn't matter.

Each person can experience trauma in different levels.

So that to me was a state of one part trauma.

So there could be.

Everyone can consider something that could be traumatic differently and then success guilt.

So we sometimes we look at success looks different for everybody and everybody has a different flag on it.

So trauma could.

With the money piece going back to the money.

Maybe success means that you need to be a multimillion person and everybody has like these different funnels of what we can kind of really see.

And then we can kind of.

The trauma bits kind of come up.

I like to kind of look at Matt Mazzle hierarchy of needs.

Right.

Those different pillars of safety.

And we all go through it and if you think about it deeply, you can see how money kind of touches each pillar in different levels.

I forget I was talking to you inside Catalyst Club the other day, but we were.

We were chatting about money and there was a conversation that ended up coming up where one person was like, well, you don't necessarily need.

Need the money to be okay, but it sure makes everything easier and one of our members piped up and said, I've been poor, Kelly, and I've been extremely wealthy.

I'll take extremely wealthy every time.

And what does wealthy mean to them though?

Yeah, well, he meant financially wealthy.

He, he was a millionaire.

So I feel like that was the path that he was taking.

And it makes sense, you know, I mean, the reality is I have always been more peaceful when I had lots of money in the bank account.

Well, I have a state.

Like I was talking, I was doing EFT tapping.

I don't know if anyone ever heard of eft tapping.

It's tapping the different medium points of your temples and things like that.

And you reiterate affirmations to kind of move your nervous system in a natural state.

There's those mechanisms to kind of ease when you go in the state of trauma bits, there's eft and then breathing exercises.

So I've been practicing the two to see which helps my nervous system.

But I'm a stressful person.

I'm always like always on the state of stress sometimes.

So I have to do all the things.

But the eft tapping I've realized and talking through like the different mediums of like the bank account.

Like I know when I start to get really anxious when the bank account falls under a certain line point, like I just go and like my bookkeeper, who's also my sister in law, love her, she's like, Brittany, we need to move some things and put into savings.

I was like, no, you can't touch it.

Yeah, I know that well.

And so like me, I was practicing on myself.

Go.

After doing all trauma with money, I was like, okay, where is this coming from?

It's because I was, I'm in this state sometimes I feel like I can live off of this set amount of money for a year if I touch it, then I'm, I'm.

I'm going to be homeless kind of thing.

So.

Yeah, yeah, like it's, it's just like a line in the sand.

And it's good or it's really bad.

Exactly.

So it's just really being mindful of where these pieces come in.

For us as individual because we're all unique.

I'm not gonna, my trauma is not gonna be the same compared to anyone else.

So it's how.

And even that trauma for me might not even affect that person else that could be considered trauma.

So it's just being mindful and trying to dig a little bit deeper.

And this is where like counseling or therapy could be really good sometimes.

You can do a combination of working with a coach that works with a counselor.

So there's different mechanisms.

Cause I know those words can be thrown around of like, oh, I'm working with a coach.

What does a coach mean?

What does a therapy mean?

Like, it's really digging deeper, but it's really important to really make sure you have the support system to dig in sometimes a little bit deeper.

And sometimes we do need a therapist to go a little deep rooted with.

When you work with me, for example, it would be coaching looking at the goal of where we're trying to get to.

I challenge you to really think about your money stories and write them down and really, really think of like, what was the first trigger for money trauma for you?

Yeah, I love that.

So I want to share something with you as well.

My, my father went through bankruptcy a couple of times in our life.

I was very little, so I didn't actually understand it.

The only thing that I understood was that we couldn't afford it.

Right.

So I think like I was under 12 years old, I had no idea what was going on, just that there were things that we could get and we couldn't get.

And I was just like, oh, just the way it was.

Right.

But it's funny because I think that scarcity as a kid has affected the choices I've made as an adult.

And I'm right there with you.

There's a dollar amount where if my bank account goes below that, I immediately go into an anxiety mode.

So I, I totally understand that.

And I had another experience in my very early 20s where as a dumb young 20 year old racked up a credit card and got super lucky by the way.

Let me just like throw this out there.

Got a really good job, got bonuses, was able to pay off that credit card debt and realized that I dodged a total bullet.

And since that point have always been like very careful with my credit.

Yeah, it can go either way and so there's no shame.

And I think that's the biggest thing to reiterate to everyone out there because I think money and just systematic society, there's a lot of shame around it, unfortunately, because it's either really good or really good and then, or really bad.

So I think it's like, it's important for us to talk more about it and make sure that whoever's willing to talk about it that we cultivate a safe space because no one's perfect.

And if we cultivate those safe spaces, it's just like talking about imposter syndrome and that's why I love to talk about imposter syndrome.

Because the more we can talk about it and cultivate these safe spaces, more people in the work environment probably will come up to that top tier leader and ask for more help than just sit there and spiral.

Well, and I think, you know, we have to speak to the reality.

We both live in Canada.

You're in Victoria, I believe.

Victoria, B.C.

Yes, the most beautiful place in Canada.

Pretty darn close, if not the most.

I'm in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

And I would say as a Canadian, I think we are paying the most we have ever paid for anything ever in the history of this country.

I mean, we are a family of five.

It is not uncommon for us to spend $1,000 a week on food or, sorry, a family of seven, I should say five kids.

It's insane out there.

And so the expectation too to make money has never been higher.

Exactly, absolutely.

And two, like for us Canadian business owners, we have to pay a pretty penny too for the exchange rate.

Like, I was just, I'm gonna work with somebody over in, they're coming in with me and we're going to map out some more strategies for myself and I was just looking at the exchange rate and I was like, ugh, it's like $600, which is, I'm like, okay, that's not bad.

But really, if you put the exchange rate, I'm almost paying over a thousand.

And I'm like, ugh, my heart.

Yeah, well, and, and you're talking about U.S. exchange.

Like, let's get real, it's bad right here at home.

Like the cost of things is just absolutely insane.

You can't go to a grocery store and not spend a hundred dollars on a handful items these days.

If you want anything bigger, like, you know, new laptops, things like that.

Holy crap.

Right?

Like it is everything at this point is money, money, money.

And so it's kind of like it's one of those situations where even if you were good before, even if you had good revenues before, those revenues don't buy you what they used to.

And so that anxiety is just creeping up.

And I think that's true for almost every Canadian.

I'm sure, I'm sure a lot of our American listeners as well, I can.

See it right now.

This 2026 has been a wild ride.

Like a wild ride.

I think last year was.

But this is like this takes the cake.

I feel like I see so many more people.

So on this state of stress, cutting things out because you're, there's AI Now, Right.

That is.

Feels like it's just taken over the world.

It's just that, if anything, though, we just have more access to it than anything.

So I feel like everyone's just in a state of chaos, state of stress.

And so our nervous system is just in a state of, like, react.

And sometimes we're not thinking correctly, sometimes when we're needing to action on something.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So obviously we've been talking a lot about money trauma.

What are some of the symptoms?

Like, maybe, like I said, this isn't something that's really come up on the show all that much.

What are some of the symptoms to say?

Oh, yeah, I think I might be struggling with money trauma.

Everyone's different.

But the one thing that I've been seeing, like, I'll just kind of go more on the trend side that I've been seeing with some of the business owners that I've been working with is not pay, like, really struggling with keeping the.

The books clean, like, from the organization state to paying bills on time and all the things.

That's a big thing I've been seeing.

Um, and so that's like.

So a lot of us, too, we don't want to admit that we're not paying things on time.

And I feel like that's a big kind of sign of like, oh, there's maybe more here that I need to unravel a little bit and really dig a little bit deeper why I'm not doing me.

I pay my things on time.

Like, I just messaged my subcontractor.

I was like, you.

We did year end.

I got.

You got to fill.

Yeah.

Like, but this is.

This is another piece for me for trauma, because I'm scared of the cra.

So.

Yeah.

Don't want to mess that up.

No, you don't want to miss those bills.

So good or bad.

Right.

Yeah.

The other state, I've seen it where a lot it.

This can be probably related to a lot of women entrepreneurs who are listening on the pricing.

Really struggling with pricing.

The number one thing that I get asked about all the time is what should I price?

How should.

Is this enough?

That's not enough.

Just go in these cycles, like I just mentioned earlier, like, I was sitting on a proposal for an extra day because I was like, ugh.

Like, it felt like I don't like asking for money.

And the thing is, it's like, I'm not asking for money.

So it's like how we switch the narratives in our head of it's not asking.

So it's like being mindful of how those mechanisms and you're starting to feel, like, uneasy or there's maybe a state of anxiety, like, what is that trigger?

And then peel back more of the onions of like, okay, where's this coming from?

Let's talk a little bit about pricing because obviously that's something like you said, almost every entrepreneur is struggling with most of us, if not all of us, are undercharging.

How you know, when you're giving advice to your clients on how to set pricing models, what advice do you give them to get them out of their own head?

Let's start with the market research, because that kind of helps a little bit if you start to see more numbers.

So like, I found this place where there's like a database where it shows you what subcontractors should pay at and all the things and it breaks it down in a nice space.

So it's.

I find like sometimes when you see the numbers of like, okay, this is what the market's doing, it helps a little bit.

Sometimes we need those.

Then we write down of.

I'll just use one of my clients as an example.

Won't say their name.

But what we're doing, we did a market research, but now we're like, okay, what's your bottom line and where would you like to go?

And so they were definitely undercharging.

But since I've started working with them and you don't, I'm not saying let's hike it up 70% right now.

Sometimes we need like module little steps.

So I've been working with this individual for five years.

After two, I kind of stopped counting.

But since then, I want to say we've raised the rate at least $10 a year since we've been working.

And it can just be those slight little movements up.

Right.

And before you know it, you're going to be like the next person that comes in to do look at the proposal.

You're like a hundred dollars up.

It's just like changing your mind frame of I am worthy for that rate.

But sometimes there's a little piece.

There's pieces of us holding us back.

It could be imposter syndrome, which, by the way, is that I like to break it down.

Imposter syndrome is that we're just not feeling competent enough to do something.

So why are you feeling like you're not competent to bill that or do that service?

Agreed.

I think the other problem with many entrepreneurs is that they came here from employment.

Yes.

And so there's like a complete Frame shift that nobody taught them that has to happen in order for them to disengage from hourly to.

I deliver an outcome.

Absolutely.

The transformation.

Yeah, let's.

Let's talk about that a little bit.

Do you see that quite a bit in your practice?

Absolutely, yeah.

And I know I still struggle with this today.

And that's what I said.

Like, I'm not perfect.

Like, I know I talk about it, but, like, you have to start somewhere to get to the other side.

So, like, retainer packages are really nice, like, for.

Because we do have virtual assistants.

Right.

So a lot of people come to us on hourly and I'm like, no, no, no, we don't do hourly anymore.

But sometimes I get sucked back into it.

Yes.

And I'm like, no, no, no, no, I don't want to.

But it's like figuring out the retainer package that makes sure that you're not just paycheck to paycheck and that you can also there's that transformation for the client and what that looks like, everyone's different.

For example, could be like a retainer package.

We do full marketing, like digital marketing, for example.

So we set up a retaining piece of like, this is what you're for sure getting on social media, like, no matter what, every month, this is what you're getting.

But then we're also coming in to support you on all other marketing aspects, whatever you need.

So it's like you're just merely pinpointing for sure the true, like the few things for sure they're always going to get and then the big full transformation piece too.

But everybody's really different on what it looks like.

But I would say retainer packages are the biggest thing than anything than keeping to the hourly.

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

Like, I would say I learned that far too late.

But we did figure that out eventually.

I still, like, I like I say I still sometimes fall into the hourly thing.

I know that some of my clients are on retainer, but sometimes I get like those old grandfather clients that come back and I'm like, oh, but we're trying to do it over here.

But then I know you've been with me for like eight plus years.

I'm okay to do hourly as long as you know.

Yeah, yeah.

As long as you know, there's conditions.

No, it's.

It's interesting though, right?

But I think ultimately it's a frame shift and it's, it's an easy one once you understand.

Right.

Your customer doesn't actually care how many hours you spend on anything at all as long as you deliver the outcome.

The reason that they come to you for hourly is, once again, that's the only way they understand how to get that outcome.

So if you can confidently show up and say, I'm going to get you your outcome, but here's the retainer cost, that's going to get you up to this amount of time to do that.

But we're going to deliver on it.

They're going to be okay with it.

But you have to be confident enough to say, I can get you the outcome this way.

Absolutely, yeah.

And I don't like hourly.

The more we probably spend more time hourly than we need to.

Like, sometimes even justifying, like, what did you do this hour?

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, it's right here.

And then explaining more time on top of the hourly that we just did.

I'm going to give a little fun shout out to my other show.

I used to work there, where we actually just had a guest come on.

It'll be on a future episode.

Come on and say that they had a customer that they worked with, a client who used to have a stopwatch running and would track their hours.

Nothing like working for that person.

And I really think sometimes even once you switch into the entrepreneur mode, because I. I know I do that I've actually had to set my out of office on to say, give me two business days because what I'm trying to work not in my inbox 24 7.

I think I'm addicted to that since I worked a 9 to 5 because I felt like I had to respond right away.

So, like, that's.

Those are like little mechanisms.

There's different mechanisms that can support us as an entrepreneur.

And if you're not sure, you can always ask Claude and see that.

That's right.

That's right.

My gosh.

You know, it's funny, I. I work harder as an entrepreneur than I ever did as an employee.

And I am not afraid to say that I could actually work 9 to 9 and it wouldn't even affect me.

Brittany.

I love what I do.

Whether it's, you know, podcast production or coaching or business development stuff, I love doing what I do.

So my problem now is actually the opposite.

It's setting set end times and actually honoring them.

Yeah, well, I would bring my work home.

I remember when I worked in the tech industry.

I remember one of my colleagues would be like, you don't need to bring it home.

They're not gonna care.

And I was like, I.

Like, I need to.

And this is why I always Say, I don't like to classify people as millennials or whichever like that, because everybody will have their different values and different upbringings.

So I remember one day when I worked in this place, they're like, oh, millennials.

They want to leave and go do off wherever they want.

It's like, no, no, no.

We just want something stable.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're growing up in probably one of the hardest times ever to be a human.

Yeah.

We would like a little stability, please.

Oh, goodness.

Okay, well, let's take a little bit of a pivot here, Brittany, into creative, dynamic virtual services.

Tell us a little bit about your company.

We're almost on nine years, which is crazy to me.

Time goes by super fast with two young kids that keep you on your toes.

Um, but Creative Dynamics started with.

By.

I was thinking I wanted to do virtual services, virtual assisting, but I soon realized that I was advising business owners so much more at looking at your full ecosystem.

So that's what we do.

We look at the full business ecosystem from your admin, marketing, SEO, like, all the things doing, like, a full business audit, and then we take that audit, and then we implement.

If you need a team member for admin marketing, and I have team members to come in to do it, or you can take that huge audit and do it yourself.

Everyone's completely different, but that's what I.

That's what Creative Dynamics does.

But then myself, I.

Along that journey, I became a certified business coach, imposter syndrome coach, trauma with money practitioner, because let's just get all of the certifications underneath myself.

But it's a lot of growth and development.

And so I come on the other side of the mindset work and how we can build the.

It can be like an accountability partner or anything that you might need.

Sometimes as an entrepreneur that we kind of get stagnant in.

So it's looking at the.

When I say full ecosystem, it's like mindset and, like, the business.

Amazing.

Amazing.

And then obviously, you're also a highly, highly successful podcast host.

Bring us into breaking norms, building dreams.

Well, the one thing you need to know about me is when I don't like something, I'll do it myself.

So on my journey to become a certified coach, like I.

Like we mentioned, I do have adhd, but I also have dyslexia.

So I'm.

I'm all about advocacy on human rights and also, like, making sure that we have a solid workplace environment for individuals to thrive, no matter what their strengths or weaknesses are.

And so when I was doing my journey, I Felt like it was really hard to get my certification to be certified because they weren't giving me extra time.

And so at this point, I was just fired up, and I was on randomly on a radio doing, like, my own, like, little conversation with Adriana, and I asked her if I can do my own show.

And it's all about how we look and talk about our dreams, and then we also look and talk about societal norms.

So talking about adhd, neur, neurodiversity, all the things I've had human traffickers on the show talk to parents about what we need to look out in the world.

Because I love having, like, such a dynamic.

See, this is why Creative Dynamics works like that.

Like, the dynamic flows over here, too.

The dynamicness of individuals just coming to share their knowledge.

But then we break down societal norm topics that a lot of people don't like to dig into.

This could be taboo.

Or we don't talk about that here.

And I'm like, why not?

And sometimes it's uncomfortable for me, but I push myself sometimes out of the comfort zone because I think it.

We need to normalize having these conversations in society today.

I love that.

And actually, if.

If we talk briefly about.

I used to work there.

My goal with the show was to provide a space for people to talk about the shit that actually happens at work.

Right?

The stuff that we don't talk about.

We wanted to create a space where people could come in and actually talk about the wild things that happen at work.

So it was kind of that taboo side for me, too, that I just wanted to be like, you know what?

I'm sick of us protecting all of this stuff.

I know we can't name them, but we can sure as hell tell the story.

And I think that's important because when I started this business, too, like, the amount of people that came to me, that they're like, I'm leaving because I worked in a toxic work environment, and it just blows my mind that it's even allowed.

Like, I have zero tolerance.

Like, if somebody talks to me and we're doing Discovery Call, and it's like a red flag to me.

I'm like, nope, sorry, not.

You're not the right fit.

I wish you luck.

And some people are, like, taken back by that.

Yeah, yeah.

But, yeah, absolutely.

I think we've lived in a world where people have been conditioned to be afraid to talk about things that happen to them at work.

Right?

And it's like, wait a second.

That's messed up a lot of things.

Like the stories I've heard nor the stories I've been through.

Like, it's just like, wow.

That's why I'm like, I want to build my own business.

Hopefully like something that is something for my kids to kind of like.

I feel like my daughter is going to be like me, like a true entrepreneur.

I think my son will probably be like, maybe in trades.

You never know.

I'm sure someone looked at me and said, that kid's going to be in the trades.

And here we are.

Someone gave him a mic.

They can do whatever they want.

At the end of the day, I want them to, like, advocate for themselves because we live in a world that sometimes it feels weird to advocate for ourselves.

And I feel like we need to see more of that.

So I'm excited to kind of see what they do.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Well, if you enjoy this show, you will absolutely enjoy Breaking Norms, Building Dreams.

Go check it out.

Highly successful show.

Brittany, this has been incredible.

What's the best way for people to find your show and get in touch with you?

You can find it on the United Public Radio Network.

It's live every Monday.

Or you can connect with me on LinkedIn and it's also connected to my website, Creative Dynamics.

VA.com.

Perfect.

Perfect.

We will have all of the links down in the show notes.

Brittany, this was incredible.

Thank you so much for your time.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Kelly.

Until next time, you've been listening to the business development Podcast.

I'm Kelly Kennedy and we'll catch you on the flip side.

This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.

For more we invite invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca.

See you next time on the business development Podcast.