254: Six Money Lessons That Help Your Business Keep More of What You Earn

Money is one of the most misunderstood and emotionally charged topics in business. Thinking differently about how money moves through your business and life involves more than just looking at spreadsheets, creating formulas, or trying to find quick fixes. It’s about redefining your relationship with money as a reflection of your leadership, energy, and meaning.

In the final episode of our 5th anniversary series on She Thinks Big, you’ll learn six essential money lessons that have shaped my coaching practice and my clients’ growth. I’ll show you that money doesn’t create safety (clarity does) and how every financial decision is an opportunity to lead intentionally.

What’s Covered in This Episode on Money Lessons That Help Your Business Keep More of What You Earn

2:18 – The question every female entrepreneur asks about money 

3:36 – The four (or five) distinct money skills that every CEO needs to have a handle on

4:55 – Why giving every dollar a job transforms how you think about growth

6:03 – Why money is energy, not just numbers

6:53 – Why money is often the hardest struggle for most businesswomen

7:49 – The metrics and meaning of money

9:04 – An emotional moment of celebration and appreciation 

11:34 – Your assignment for this week

12:37 – What I’ve learned about money these past five years and after doing over 250 episodes 

Mentioned In Six Money Lessons That Help Your Business Keep More of What You Earn

Five Leaps in Five Minutes

You Need a Budget (YNAB)

Activator Intensive

Ascension Collective

Silent Saboteur Audit

She Thinks Big by Andrea Liebross

Book a Call With Andrea

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Get the clarity and capacity to lead differently and ascend to your next level. Learn how and join us at andrealiebross.com/ascension

Quotes from the Episode

“When every dollar has a job, you stop wondering where it went and you start knowing what it’s doing.” – Andrea Liebross

“Money flows toward focus and confidence. When you invest your money in a coach, a hire, or a retreat, you’re saying, ‘I trust myself to make this multiply.’” – Andrea Liebross

“Your profit and loss statement isn’t a moral statement. Your cash flow isn’t a character test. It’s all just data.” – Andrea Liebross

“Money is communication. It really reflects what we value and how we think.” – Andrea Liebross

Links to other episodes

250: How I Shifted My Priorities to Build a Business That Aligns With My Life

251: Belief Is the Blueprint for Everything You Build in Your Business

252: How I Stopped Managing Tasks and Started Leading a Team

253: Four Systems That Let You Step Away and Still Grow Your Business

53: How to Manage Money Better with Kendall Hamilton

68: Four Simple Rules for Wealth Without Stress

130: 5 Steps to Being a More Cash Confident CEO with Melissa Houston

164: Top 3 Cash Flow Pain Points to Get Past & Get What You Want Out of Your Business with Nicole Cooley

182: Fall in Love With Your Numbers By Starting Small with Ciara Stockeland

248: Are You Spending or Investing in Business Growth?

Read The Transcript

Welcome to the She Thinks Big podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross, coach, speaker, life balance architect, and strategic thought partner for high-achieving women who want to think differently, lead confidently, and create success on their own terms.

As an entrepreneur myself and the bestselling author of She Thinks Big, here's what I know: You've been at this for a while, but somehow you can still feel stuck in the day-to-day. And running your business like a to-do list does not fulfill the vision.

So around here, we're not about more hustle, we're about smarter strategy, bolder thinking, and leading a business that fits your life. Each week, you'll hear the mindset shifts, real-world tools, and CEO-level conversations that help you reclaim your time, grow with intention, and elevate your leadership. Now, let's dive in.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the final episode in this special five-part series celebrating five years and more than 250 episodes of She Thinks Big, in really eight years of my coaching practice. So I am doing this episode. I'm going to call it “done is better than perfect.” I am trying to get it recorded before I head out of town for pretty much, I'm out of town every week for the next four weeks.

So I wanted to get this recorded before I go. So I just plopped down here into my podcast studio, and we are going to do it. Over the last few weeks, we have talked about priorities and beliefs, team, and systems—four of the themes that I have found over the last five years are very relevant to my listeners and clients, and me. So today, we're going to close the loop with one of the most, I'm going to call it complex and transformational parts of business, and that is money.

Because money isn't just numbers, it is energy and metrics and meaning. So here is a question that I hear from women business owners all the time: “Where did all my money go?” I sometimes ask this, and it's usually asked with frustration or guilt or confusion, because it's not that the business isn't making money. It's that somehow our brain thinks it never seems to stay.

I've been there too. I hear this from you listeners and from my clients. Also, shout out wherever you're listening from—send me an Instagram DM and tell me, is it the car? Is it the carpool line? Is it a walk? Is it emptying the dishwasher? So back to the topic here. Early in my business, I'd look at what came in and think, "Wait, how did this much revenue turn into so little cash?"

That question, “Where did all the money go?” was the wake-up call that made me stop guessing and start leading financially like a CEO. So I'm going to give you six lessons here today that I want you to start to apply to your business when it comes to money.

Lesson one is that money has layers. Money isn't one skill. I actually think money is four skills. There's the skill of bookkeeping, which is recording what already happened. There's the skill of financial planning, which charts where you're going to go. There's a skill around cash flow that tracks how much money moves in and out day to day. Then there are the taxes that keep you compliant and grounded.

Maybe I'd add a fifth here, which is invoicing. Are you getting your money? So these are all distinct disciplines. As CEO, you need a handle on all of them. Bookkeeping tells the past. Cash flow manages the present. Financial planning creates the future. Taxes keep the foundation steady. Invoicing keeps the money coming.

When you see those as distinct things, you are going to stop asking, “Where did my money go?” and start deciding, “Where is it going next?” Now, I have so many episodes on money, and it comes up in coaching all the time. I will clue you in that those are my least listened-to episodes—the money ones—but probably it is the most coached-upon topic. So that's just a little behind-the-scenes there for you.

All right. Lesson two. Every dollar needs a job. This is based off of one of the core principles from You Need a Budget. I do have an episode on this that we can link. I think this is one of the simplest and most freeing money lessons that I ever learned. Every dollar does need a job. When I learned it, it completely shifted how I think about money. I probably learned this about two years in.

So every dollar that comes in should already have an assignment—whether it's paying your team, saving for taxes, investing in growth, or paying yourself. When every dollar has a job, you stop wondering where it went and you start knowing what it's doing. You move from reactive to proactive, from hope to intentional control. That's how CEOs really think. So you've got to get this lesson down.

Remember, all of these lessons are documented at andrealiebross.com/five, the “Five Leaps in Five Minutes” document you can get with all of these lessons, which brings me to lesson three: Money is energy.

Money doesn't create safety. I think clarity creates safety. But what money does is it creates energy. It flows toward focus and confidence. When you invest your money in a coach, in a hire, or in a retreat, you're saying, "I trust myself to make this multiply."

That's why I talk so often about cost versus investment. A cost drains your energy, but an investment really expands it. Money moves where belief leads. So if you want to know more about cost versus investment, I've got an episode on that too that we will link in the show notes.

Lesson number four. Money is where women struggle most. Honestly, after coaching hundreds of women entrepreneurs, I can say this: money is the hardest thing for most women to understand and talk about, and fully own. It really is where we hold our deepest fears and our strongest conditioning. What's too much money? What's selfish? What's secure? We've got opinions.

I think it's also where we carry guilt and hesitation and a lot of embarrassment. Interestingly, because of these feelings that we have around money, this is the exact conversation that we need more of because money honestly touches everything—your pricing, your hiring, your systems, your rest, and your growth.

Because lesson number five: money is metrics. Money gives you feedback. It really doesn't give you judgment. It just gives you feedback. Your profit and loss statement isn't a moral statement. Your cash flow isn't a character test. It's all just data.

When you look at money as metrics, not morals, you lead with clarity instead of emotion. Metrics tell the truth if you're brave enough to listen.

Which leads me to the last lesson: Money is meaning. Money holds meaning. Every dollar represents a choice—the freedom to say yes to what matters. It's really not about saying no to what doesn't. It's about saying yes to what does.

It's not about more money. It's about meaningful money—money that reflects your values, supports your team, funds your dreams, and builds your legacy. When you give every dollar a job, you give every decision a purpose.

So before we close, I want to take a moment to celebrate something big together. Since this series marks five years of She Thinks Big and 250-plus episodes I shared with you, it means that it represents more than 250 conversations I've had with you about what it means to think and lead and live bigger.

We've recorded from closets, from hotel rooms, from a walk, from my office, from my awesome podcast room. I've had incredible guests. I've had solo reflections. I've had client stories, and I've even had episodes with my kids. But what means the most isn't the number of episodes or the people that have listened. It's the ripple effect.

Every download, every share, every message that says, “I needed that episode today”—that's the real impact. Every time one of these episodes prompts you to take massive action, I smile. So whether this episode is your first episode—I could actually cry, you guys, honestly. 250 episodes is a lot of episodes to record. It's really just hitting me as I'm reading this final piece of the outline here for this episode. I am not a crier.

Okay, so whether this is your first episode or your 250th, I really thank you. Thank you for being part of this community of women who are rewriting what success looks like. Thanks for showing up. Thanks for thinking big. Thank you for growing with me.

I've grown so much over these last 250 episodes, and I can promise you that growth hasn't ended. We are just getting started. So your Think Big homework for this week—and the final assignment of this five-part series: Number one, answer, “Where did it go?” The “Where did it go?” question. Look back at your last 90 days of spending, personal and business, and notice what aligned with your priorities and what didn’t.

Next, give every dollar a job. Even if you're not using You Need a Budget software, assign a purpose to every dollar that comes in next month.

Number three, identify your money gaps. Do you need better bookkeeping or cash flow systems, or a financial plan? Name it. Name what you need and name those gaps.

Then, most importantly, replace that judgment with curiosity. When guilt or fear comes up, ask yourself, “What is this teaching me about how I lead?” Because that clarity also creates calm, and the calm creates growth.

So here's what I know. I know that five years ago, I thought money was complicated. Now I know that money is communication. It really reflects what we value and how we think.

When you understand your numbers and give every dollar a job, you stop chasing the money. You start directing the money. You stop asking, “Where did it go?” and you start saying, “Here is where it's headed.”

When you lead with your money, when you lead your money with meaning, it stops being stressful. I mean, for me, this is so, so true. It stopped being stressful and it starts being strategic.

So as always, if you're ready to feel confident about your money—not confused by it, not guilty about it—this is exactly what we do inside my coaching programs. Inside Activator, we build systems, decision systems for how you think about money and move money so that your brain really feels calmer and your plan feels clearer.

Then inside Ascension Collective, we refine your business. We refine your business model and systems so that money really becomes a reflection of your growth and not of your stress. So please come join us.

If you've listened to these episodes, if you've listened to five or 250 and we're not working together, I invite you to book a call with me. The link’s in the show notes—andrealiebross.com/consult. Money is more than math. It's leadership. Everybody knows that you are an amazing leader. I'd love to help you lead even better.

So with that, we close this five-part series, and we're going to celebrate the five incredible years of She Thinks Big. Here is what I've learned after 250 episodes: when you align your priorities, anchor your beliefs, lead your team, trust your systems, and steward your money, you stop running your business from effort and you really start leading it from belief.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for growing with me. Thank you for thinking big for yourself and your business, and your life. Here's to the next five years and everything that's still possible. Okay, friends, until next time, keep thinking big.

Thanks for listening to She Thinks Big. I know you’re committed to yourself and your businesses because you listened all the way to the end of this episode. But this isn’t really the end. It could be the beginning of your next power move.

If today’s episode gave you clarity, courage, or just a much-needed breath of fresh air, take that as your sign to take the next steps. So do it. Visit andreaslinks.com to take my Silent Saboteur Quiz and to discover our next steps in getting you to take action and achieve the success and freedom you crave.

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