Remember to Live with Corean Canty
Remember to Live is a podcast born from a simple but profound realization: there is such a thing as too late. Through candid conversations with real people living intentional lives, we explore what happens when we refuse to postpone joy to some distant "someday."
Each episode showcases individuals who are putting the "living" back into "making a living" – people who've chosen presence over endless hustle, who understand that climbing the corporate ladder isn't worth sacrificing health, relationships, and moments that matter.
Inspired by my experience as a caretaker for my mother with dementia, my own burnout, and the eye-opening lessons from "The Five Regrets of the Dying," this podcast offers practical tools and honest insights to help you make small changes that lead to a big life.
Whether through guest conversations or solo episodes, you'll find actionable strategies to create a life with fewer regrets.
Join us on this journey to live a big, full, no-regrets life – because while it's never too late to dream, there absolutely is a "too late" to do.
ABOUT THE HOST:
Corean Canty knows firsthand there is such a thing as "too late." After years of following society's "shoulds" and pursuing titles and salaries at the cost of her health and happiness, her life changed forever when she stepped into the role of caretaker for her mother. This eye-opening experience taught her a simple truth: someday isn't guaranteed.
Instead of postponing joy to a distant future, Corean made the courageous decision to redesign her life on her own terms. Today, as an Idea Catalyst and TEDx speaker & Coach, she helps people find their voice, tell their story, and transform their lives and businesses.
Through the Remember to Live Podcast, Corean creates candid conversations with people who have chosen presence over endless hustle. She invites others to stop waiting for "someday" and start living now – because while it's never too late to dream, there absolutely is a "too late" to do.
Remember to Live with Corean Canty
Entrepreneurship, Empowering Women and Creating a Life You Love with Nicole Barham
Summary
In this episode I'm joined by Nicole Barham, Founder of 5 Minute Bookkeeper.
Nicole shares her journey of finding joy in life and living well. We explore her roots growing up in a rural community in Jamaica, her inspiration for entrepreneurship, her journey as a mother, learning from failure, finding alignment and building a successful business.
Nicole also highlights the value of investing in systems and hiring help to free up time and avoid burnout. She encourages entrepreneurs to take action, iterate, and not be afraid of failure. Nicole's advice is to focus on the present moment, live a stress-free life, and be a light in other people's lives.
takeaways
- Living well means chasing joy in the present moment and finding gratitude and happiness.
- Growing up in a rural community in Jamaica taught Nicole the value of organic living and community support.
- Nicole's entrepreneurial journey was inspired by her grandparents and her passion for accounting and finance.
- She started Five Minute Bookkeeper to help individuals and businesses manage their finances effectively and find fulfillment in entrepreneurship. Know your 'why' and what you truly want in life.
- Invest in systems and hire help to free up time and avoid burnout.
- Take action, iterate, and don't be afraid of failure.
- Focus on the present moment, live a stress-free life, and be a light in other people's lives.
Chapters
00:00 Chasing joy and gratitude despite challenges.
04:46 Craving for a rural, organic, community-oriented upbringing.
08:05 Childhood conversation plants seed for accounting career.
10:26 Parenting is about giving kids better lives.
13:35 Projecting fear of flying onto child. Importance of preparation for special needs.
18:29 Starting a business means facing fears bravely.
21:42 Financial struggle led to idea for budgeting.
25:38 Learning finance crucial for entrepreneurs; passions are diverse.
27:27 Follow inner guidance, build right business path.
30:44 Simple living preferred, less focus on money.
36:03 "Pain gap: Challenges in business growth transition."
38:08 Designing life to avoid end-of-life regrets.
41:45 Brains need breaks for quality output.
46:01 Fear of failure hinders entrepreneurial growth.
48:17 Intentional morning routine with time for relaxation.
52:10 Focusing on health and fitness for longevity.
55:36 Chat, laugh, love - live a peaceful life.
57:22 Appreciation for listening, learning, laughing, and inspiring.
About Nicole Barham
Nicole Barham is the founder and CEO of Design Your Wealth and creator of 5 Minute Bookkeeper showing solo-entrepreneurs how to do a whole year of bookkeeping in an hour or less. She's been featured on Good Morning America and The Breakfast Club and in Time, Essence, Black Enterprise, First for Women and Medium and was a Speaker at the 2024 ROI: The Millionaire Summit.
Connect with Nicole Barham
website: https://www.5minutebookkeeper.com/
Facebook: Nicole Barham
IG: @5minutebookkeeper
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share with a few friends so we can all help each other Remember to Live.
To connect with and learn more about me and how I am Remembering to Live, you can find me on Instagram @coreancanty or at coreancanty.com.
To work with me and explore freebies, check out: https://coreancanty.com/links/
If you are ready to re-imagine, re-claim and re-design your life, book a possibility call today.
Welcome to the Remember to Live podcast, a place where we explore what it means to live a life and live one well. I'm Corinne, your guide on this journey through the art of living. Along the way, we will learn tips and tools to live more fully and ditch those end of life regrets. We'll hear stories from people who have chosen different paths and new ways of living and delve deeper into how we stay human in a world of rapid technological advancement. Life is too short not to show up to it. It's time to do life better. Together let's learn how so get cozy grab your favorite warm drink, and let's dig in. Okay.
Hello. Hello. Hello, Nicole. Welcome to the Remember to Live podcast.
Maureen, thank you so, so much for having me. So happy to be here.
So excited to have you on the podcast. I know we've we've met each other in person a few times. We've been in the same communities online, and I'm just very inspired by your journey in your life, and I can't wait to get into it today.
Awesome. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it.
So I love to start the podcast with the question of what does it mean to live a life and live a life well to
you? So for me, I think living well is about chasing joy. Right? My whole philosophy, no matter what's happening in my life or in my business, I'm like, how can I be joyful in this moment? And, of course, I'm not going to be, like, it's not toxic positivity. I I don't think I think it's more like, what can I find in this moment to be joyful about, to be grateful for, to be happy about? Right? Yeah. They focus on that because lord knows there's so much to be, you know, unhappy about. There's so much going on in the world sometimes in our even in our own families, communities. And so that to me is, you know, chasing joy is one of the things that I I do on a daily basis.
Oh, and I know we're we're kinda programmed to chase everything else. Right? Like, chase titles, chase money, chase whatever society is telling us success looks like. In so many times, like, we forget about the joy or we don't find the joy or we think joy is meant for, like, something in the future. Like, one day we'll earn our joy. So I love that that you love to define living a well life by, like, finding the joy right now. Yeah. Yeah. So I'd love to have you start by sharing a little bit about your background in your childhood because I know that there's a lot you can learn when you've been exposed to different cultures.
And I know that you grew up in a culture that may not be what a lot of people have been exposed to. So to hear a little bit about kind of how that started and how your journey kicked off would be amazing.
Yeah. I'm in the United States, and I've been here over 27 years. But I literally grew up in a deep rural community in Jamaica, the island of Jamaica. And it was very, very different from now. And I I, you know, I always think about how when I, you know, when you're little and you see, like, the bright lights or you hear about the bright lights because we didn't have any TV then. Right? So you hear about the bright lights and and you hear about the things that are happening in the city, they're like, oh my gosh. I cannot wait to go to the city. Right? And so, I grew up in a country in the country where we it was the ultimate farm to table.
Right? Literally grew what we ate. And, recently, I was talking to my husband and I'm like because he grew up in the city, so he's not like a country boy. Right? Yeah. So he recently went to Jamaica, and he went to another area, but it's more rural. Right? And he was fascinated. And he's like, oh, this is, there's a breadfruit tree here. And breadfruit is kind of like, I don't know if you know breadfruit, but it's like, it looks like jackfruit. Okay.
But you have to roast it and it's it's it's like a it's like a carb. It's like a yam. Right? Yeah. And so he's like, oh, we have breadfruit trees and it, oh, we have cane, sugarcane. And I'm like, dude, that is what I grew up. Like, that's literally my life. Right? And so we had all kinds of fruit trees and all kinds of you know, we planted our own food. And so, now that I'm in the city, I'm like, oh my gosh.
I so crave that life where we had our own chickens and our own eggs and, you know, all those things and like, really deep rural and really very, I would say, organic in terms of, you know, family, community. Everyone looked up for each other. Like, you knew all your neighbors. Right? You went outside and you played from morning till night. And so I think about that as one of the blue zones. You know, people talk about blue zones today and how, you know, the air is fresh and the, you know, the peep the way that people live is just really active and they're really, you know, the food doesn't have to be trucked in or flown in from, like, a different country. Right? Right. So that's the kind of, you know, upbringing that I had.
Very it it was also very like, it was very community oriented. Right? So we could talk for each other. And so I kind of honestly, living in the in in the west, kind of, or even living in the states, kind of miss that sometimes. Yeah. Right? Where you have that life where you're just, you know, you just feel like you are in a community of people who, like, uplift you and take care of you and take care of each other. So yeah.
Yeah. And so I'm interested to kind of understand the transition because you had these, like, simple, humble, amazing beginnings. Yeah. And somehow you ended up in a career in accounting and finance and very money based, which is very much what we're all about here in especially in the United States. Yeah. And we'll talk a little bit more about your business now in a moment, but I know that you've been on a journey, an entrepreneurship journey of starting businesses facing what some people may call failure, restarting a business, and having a lot of really important things in your life to drive you to be successful?
Even though I grew up in that kind of community, My grandparents have always been entrepreneurs. Mhmm. So they owned, like, a little corner. Like, here, we would probably call it, like, a bodega. Mhmm. Right? So they had, like, a little corner store. Right? And from a little girl, when I used to visit, I used to be there, like, selling stuff. Right? Measuring out, food, selling people drinks and meat, all kinds of stuff.
So they sold all kinds of stuff. And collecting money and counting money and all of that and seeing how, you know, my grandparents were, like, really savvy business people. Right? Even though it was in the small community, even though we grew, and they did like, my grandfather, I think he did everything. Right? He planted crops. He transported people to and from the airport and to and from, like, different events. My grandmother was at home, so she was in the grocery store. Sometimes he was there. They even had a bar.
Right? So and he, you know, invested in real estate. So there are so many things that he did even today in his nineties. Told you about the blue zone. Right? He's Mhmm. They're both alive in their eighties. My grandma is 86. My grandfather is 94, And still, you know, up and and going. Right? Yes.
And so I saw them, you know, I it's self conscious of course because I'm like, you know, I I wasn't thinking about becoming an entrepreneur or anything like that. But I remember when I was about 6 years old and I was visiting my grandparents, and my grandmother said to me, Nikki, because they call me Nikki as a she said, Nikki, what do you wanna be when you grow up? And, of course, as a little kid, everybody wants to be like a lawyer or a doctor or something. So I said to her, I wanted to be a lawyer. And she was like, I don't think you should become a lawyer. I think you should become an accountant. And so I think a seed was planted at that time, Lauren. I'm not sure if it was, you know, if it's that or if it's just, like, my left brained Virgo self that got into numbers and really loving it. And so I kinda feel like that's where it started, where my my grandmother was like, no.
And the thing about it too is that even though they were entrepreneurs, they worked really hard. Right? I'm an entrepreneur now. I work my brain works hard, but I don't work physically hard. Mhmm. Right? I think for them, they wanted their kids to have careers because, you know, it was more prestigious than, you know, have running a farm or running a grocery store. And so for us, they really didn't encourage us to do that, to do what they did. They wanted us to, like, work in an office job kind of thing.
Yeah. Yeah. Because that's what we were told is the best way. Right? When we were coming up, that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to, like, go get a degree, get a good job, get benefits, get 401 k, and then you'll instantly be happy, which is not always the case.
Good. And and get a good government job, and I did Yes. Job. Right? And so that was kind of the thinking at the time. And then the city looked really attractive, and everybody wanted to go to the city and stuff like that. So, so, yeah, I think that's when the the seed was planted, when she was like, nope. Do not become a lawyer. You can I think you should become an accountant?
Yeah. Which I think is great because I think we need more women, especially women of color. Yes. In finance and teaching people how to manage their money and teaching us how to set ourselves up so we don't have to work really hard our whole lives and not have a chance to fully live it.
Right. Exactly.
And you said something else, that I resonate with very deeply is as parents, as a mother, like, there's so much you want for your kids. We all, like, want our kids to have more than we have, have a better life than we have. I know that was my children were the driver of my entire corporate career because I became a mom very young. And when you have these little people that need you and take care of you and you love so much, sometimes you're doing it more for them than yourself. And I know you as a mother also can relate to that and, you know, a lot of what it means to live our lives is to take on the identity of mother and do the things that we need to do to give our children better lives.
Yeah. Absolutely. I I feel like that is I mean, I'm pretty good at what I do. I love my business. Right? But the driving force right now behind my business is my son, Brandon. So, Brandon is on the autism spectrum, and, you know, it's it it's kinda it can be challenging to get him the best, you know, school, get him into the best home, and getting the best therapies for him. And we've been fortunate enough to well, I've been fortunate enough to run my own business where we can afford to send him to, a school that really focuses on, you know, taking care of him and his needs and, you know, teaching to his ability. Right? And we had some challenges there and we were like, but we had the option.
Right? And it and, you know, I know we haven't come to this part yet, but I feel like my business gives me the freedom to provide for my family in a way that maybe a job wouldn't. Yeah. Yeah. You would we I I get to the point where I can have I can create my income. It's not like a set salary that I get every 2 weeks. It's kind of, you know, okay. This is what we need to bring into our business. How are we gonna do it? And then go to work and and work on those goals.
Right? And so that's what I love about entrepreneurship. There are a lot of there are a lot of, you know, other sides to entrepreneurship. Yes. It's very tough. You know, it can be very tough. It can be, you know, it's 247. It's not like when you leave your job and you're like, oh, let me leave that behind and then deal with that tomorrow. And so, there's all these signs, but then I I say to people all the time, it's there's so many challenges to becoming an entrepreneur.
But, oh my gosh, the rewards are so amazing. Yeah. Right? The feeling of, you know, being so satisfied, you know, with what you're doing and, you know, being able to provide some of the things for for your family that you would not be able to. Right?
Yeah.
And so, Brandon is the driving force behind me having to make sure that this business is successful because he is I want the best life for him. Mhmm. And that's the only way that I'm gonna be able to provide it.
Yeah. And you recently had a big milestone with him recently on your first kind of trip getting on a plane. I remember seeing you post about that. Yeah.
Oh, listen. I definitely projected my fear of flying onto him. After that first experience of him flying, I was like, okay. We have to make sure that he has all the we make all the preparations, and, of course, you should. Right? If you have a child on the spectrum or child with special needs, you have to make sure that you do all the preparation because you just don't know how they're gonna react. Right? The plan is about it's, you know, it's it's, can be claustrophobic if your child has, you know, feel feels like that. And so we, you know, did all the things. We it took us a while to take him on a plane.
And then when we when we were thinking of taking a family vacation, an international vacation, we did, you know, his therapist did social stories. Mhmm. Make sure his you know, we had his iPad. We got his snacks. We got everything, sorted. Right? To make sure that he was going to be prepared, you know, for the for the the airport, you know, the air from the airport all the way to our destination. Right?
Mhmm.
Let me tell you. He did so amazing. Like, we were in the plane. We we brought his, because he has some sensitivities, some soft sensitivities. So we brought his, noise cancelling head headphones. I don't even think we needed it. Oh. Was he sat in the plane and be like, you're going in the plane, and we're showing, like, tons of videos inside of a plane, outside, and the sounds it make, when it's taking off, when it's landing.
So when we actually got onto a plane, he was so excited. They're taking off, and I'm looking at him like, oh my gosh. I wonder if he's going to start, you know, getting, you know, agitated or anything like that. Let me tell you, he was so he's looking through the window. His sister was sitting next to him, my daughter Alexia. She was looking through the window, like, talk telling him, oh, Brandon, look at the sea. Look at the sky. He's pointing, you know, at the sky.
He's looking out the window. We're landing. Easy peasy. He's looking out the window, like, when the plane lands and it kind of, like, shakes when it just hits the ground. And it was like, oh, what's that? But then he, like, goes right back to looking out the window. And it's so funny when we were coming home, same thing, very easy, takeoff was easy. And when we got home, I looked over, he was fast asleep. No.
I've slept through the landing. So I was like, okay. We are we're gonna be traveling all the time now. So that was a huge milestone for for him and for us as a family because we're like, you know how you were very worried about, you know, your children. Like, we all are worried about our kids. Right? And we don't want them we don't want anything them to be affected by anything. So we try to kind of Yeah. Build this wall around them.
And and then just looking at them, I'm like, we did not have to do that. You know? We could have probably Yeah. Before and stuff. So that was kind of a lesson for us, but, also, we're super happy because now he loves traveling. And we had an amazing vacation. He loves the water, and so he spent all his time at the water park.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah.
Oh, that's so beautiful. And I feel like that's a metaphor for life. Right? Not only for, like, a lesson for parents and how we wanna protect our children, but, like, how do we absorb other people's fears Yeah. As they project them onto us that hold us back. Right? What are we taking on that's that are other people's that if we just kind of listen to ourselves and tried and weren't afraid to fail or weren't afraid of something happening unexpected Yeah. Or believing in ourselves that it's gonna be okay. We can handle it. We're prepared.
We will figure it out. It's like such a beautiful metaphor. And what happens?
I learned so much about that week. Even about myself. And I'm like, Nicole, this was all you. And my husband too because he doesn't like why he's so between both of us. We're like, oh, it's gonna be so hard for him. And really, at each other, like, we definitely projected our fears onto him. And so, again, I definitely learned a lesson that that week, and I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna, you know, allow him to fly because we're just kind of like, you know, oh, let's cuddle him a little bit. And he's like, no.
I'm fine. You know?
Yeah. Yeah. And so speaking of fear, like starting your own business can be very scary. Like taking the leap out of what what a lot of people consider is the safe route. Though I think no matter what you choose in life, there's always risks. Nothing is ever guaranteed. There's what you feel comfortable with in life that you wanna live because both can be hard. Having a corporate job can be very hard.
Starting your own business can be very hard. It's really uncovering how you really wanna live your life and the type of life you wanna live. And so tell me a little bit about how you got over the fear of kind of starting a business. And then when the first business that you worked on, when you found yourself in a place of having to start over, being brave enough to, like, not be like, okay, forget this. I tried it. I'm done. Let me go find you a nice, safe corporate job. Like, you still chose the life you wanted to live.
That's something about entrepreneurship. Anybody who is a true entrepreneur cannot ignore their calling. Right? So I, you know, I've always I I think since 2009 or so, I just had this thing about doing something else, like having a side hustle. I was working a corporate job in New York. Things were fine, honestly. Mhmm. And so I, you know, got bit by the entrepreneurship bug and started out like most people, started in network marketing. Right? Mhmm.
I was pretty good at it. I, you know, moved up the bags. Oops. Something in my mouth. Alright. Yeah. So I moved up the ranks, in that company. It was a a health health and nutrition company.
And I loved it because I love the products, and I could see that it was really helping my clients. Right? Mhmm. And so kind of graduated from network marketing to online marketing. Again, something that I really, really loved. I did a lot of advertising on social media, on Facebook. So I've been at this game for quite a while. Yeah. Right? And so, you know, kind of got into that online business and, you know, I I was in accounting.
Right? My background was accounting. So marketing and online marketing, it was a little bit new for me. Mhmm. But I was really successful at it. I built a 6 figure business in, like, a year or a year and a half.
Right? That's great.
But yeah. Of course. But the the problem was that I was not managing my money. Right? I wasn't paying attention. And then when things got a little bit lean, started to depend on credit cards, started to to get into into debt. Right? And it kind of snowballed. And so that's where, you know, built a successful business, but also got to the point where I had to file bankruptcy if that Business kind of, you know, went out of business, basically. Right? And then I'm like, you know what? Gonna go back to a regular job and forget about this entrepreneurship thing.
Right? Like Yeah. What a few people do this. Right? Yeah. Again, as I said, it's a lot of risk. Right? The risk risks are high, the rewards are great, but, again, the risks are high. And so people are not willing to to take those. And so, you know, kind of went back to a corporate job. And, again, like, you know, this thing never it never leaves you.
Like, you know, as soon as you get the get the idea and the thing about entrepreneurs is that we get ideas all the time.
All the ideas.
Even when we're not looking for ideas. Right? Mhmm. And so, I got this idea, like, you know, after I was literally forced to focus on my finances because now we had no credit. We had to live literally live off what we earned. Mhmm. And so had to be tight with the budget, had to keep track, had to make sure that we were not over overdrawing our accounts, all of that. And so being disciplined that way helped me to, you know, just look at my situation and and I'm like, I wonder how many other people are going through this. Right? I wonder how many other people would benefit from, like, seeing their numbers and knowing exactly what's happening in their households.
Exactly. I wasn't even thinking about business finances. I was just thinking about household finances. And then the idea came to me to start, you know, helping people with their finances. And I did that for a little bit and got a few clients, and I really, really loved it, especially when people are looking at their numbers and they're like, oh my gosh. First of all, I did not know I still had that subscription. I don't need it. Or had 2 subscriptions.
You know, like, there's a lot of discovery and a lot of, you know, the things that go into it really changes lives when you're able to help people with their finances. Right? Yeah. Just see how they can, you know, make better decisions, how they can save more, how they can spend less, how they Yeah. You know, stay for for specific things. All all those things. Right?
The things they never taught us in school. Like, the most important things of being an adult that they didn't teach us. Yeah.
Teaches in in at home either. Right? Yeah. Even though sometimes we're, like, wasn't taught in school. There's so much that's not taught in school. But I just feel like, you know, there's some things that you should be taught in your home Yes. About money and but because your parents are, you know, they're paying the bills. They're the one so they should be but then again, I grew up in a household where there was never enough money. Kind of hard to be, like, budget your money, save 10%.
This so it was you know, like, we were literally set up for failure. Right? Just because home wasn't for me, it was not, you know, that place where people spoke about money or spoke positively about money. And then school, nothing about money. Yes. You do accounting. Yes. You manage people's accounts. But it wasn't like you do that do this for yourself as well.
Right? Mhmm. So so yeah. So that was, you know, kind of bitten by that bug again to start doing this. And then when I started to do the personal thing, I'm like, but what about business people? Don't do their finances, or don't do their bookkeeping, and they're scrambling. I used to be one of those people. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Tax deadline, trying to get your numbers together, downloading a 1 year worth of credit card statements and bank statements, and then you're trying to pull up, oh, because you're co mingling now.
Right? Yes. So you're like, oh, my my fast food, transaction is right next to my my website, you know, with the transaction. And so it was a nightmare to do that. And I, you know, I and I said, how about if I created something where they don't have to wait until the tax deadline Mhmm. To, like, scramble and get these altogether. What if I could help them to do this like a simple tool where they can actually do this daily or weekly? Right? Because I used to be be on top of my finances daily. And I'm like, how do I help people to develop this habit? Because it really changed my life, literally. Right? Mhmm.
And so that's where the idea for 5 minute bookkeeper was born, where I'm like, I wanna help people to be on top of their finances because I know how, you know, it could save them from bankruptcy. Mhmm. It could save them from going into debt. It could save them from so much. Yes. Right? And so, that's where the idea for a 5 minute book hero is born. I like it. It would not leave me.
Yeah. And I feel like well, number 1, being an entrepreneur, if I wouldn't have been a chief operating officer in my former role and had to sit and look at p and l and finance sheets and understand it, which that was probably the biggest thing because I grew up in advertising media and marketing, and I was running a big account for most of my career. But when I had to learn the finance piece and sit with the CFO every day when I started my business, I was like, oh, how many people don't get that in their career, in their lifetime to even understand, like, basic finances, especially when you're starting a business. And then how do you, like you said, look at, okay, what's my business doing versus what I'm doing? Because now it's all one thing, right, when when you make these choices. And I think it's so important too that that we hear so much in entrepreneurship. Sometimes it's the story of find something you're really passionate about and go do it. Well, a lot of people don't know what their passions are. They're multi passionate.
Right? Or people are like, this the new hot thing. Do this thing to get rich or jump on the bandwagon. But the advice that I feel has been the best when it comes to someone who wants to start a business is find the need that you can best fill. Right? And most of us become experts by lived experience.
Yeah.
And you found a way to take this lived experience that you had yourself and say, okay. Now I wanna help other people not have this experience. I have this whole tool belt. I have the experience. I've done it myself. And I feel like those are the best fits to build a business that you're gonna really be in it for because it's a journey. Like, nothing is like, oh, wake up tomorrow. I'm a build a business.
Success. It's easy. I have a team. I don't have to you know, like, that's not how it works.
Absolutely not. Like, you literally and and the thing about it is that you have to kind of build a business that is right for you. Right? There's a lot of advice out there about what you should and should not be doing in your business, but I say that, you know, we all we all have this inner guidance. Right? We all have this gut instinct, And so we are the ones who know exactly how we want our business to go. If you're enjoying it, even if you are not, you know, at the revenue level that you wanna be or at the stage where you wanna be. But if you are enjoying the process Yes. Then you're like, okay. I'm on the right path.
And so that's what I one of the measures that I use in my business. Yes. I wanna make money. Yes. I wanna expand my team. Yes. I wanna do all the things. Yeah.
But am I enjoying doing this? Do I wake up every single day wanting to do this? Or is this like, oh my gosh. This big challenge is big burden. Right? Yes. And I feel like that's what's that's what's the difference between a job and your own business. Right? The morning blues, there's there's a there is actually statistics that say that a lot of heart attacks happen on Monday morning. Mhmm. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Wake up and they're like, oh my gosh. I do not wanna do this. I do not wanna go to work. Right? And so you if you don't wake up passionate about what you're doing, that can be, like, a huge, you know, factor in your business just not doing right? You don't wanna do it. You don't feel like doing it. It's not making the kind of money that you want. Because let me tell you. Yeah.
A lot of times, it's not gonna be making the money that you wanted to make. But if you have the pride and the passion for it, then that will that's what will keep you going.
Yeah. I think having a having a clear why.
Yes.
And finding the meaning in it. Whether you're building your own business or you're working for an organization. I think a lot of people feel that way in corporate because they're not aligned. Like, what the company's doing is not necessarily aligned with their why.
Yeah.
And if they're not clear on, okay. Well, some people are really good at compartmentalizing and saying, okay. This job serves a purpose in my life. I know what my bigger why is. So this is how I wanna design my life, and they can do it very well. A lot of us are living the prescribed life. We never, like, took the time to find our why, or we didn't take the risks to fail and learn and uncover those little nuggets. And so we end up with those Monday blues and the burnout and the misery and kinda feeling like we're wasting the years.
Yeah. For sure. And the thing about it too is that when you say find your why, I feel like a lot of people have to feel like it's this profound thing. It doesn't have to your why could be, I just wanna make a lot of money. Right. I wanna make a lot of money because I don't wanna go to, like, a a day job. Right. So that could be it.
You know? It doesn't have to be, you know, it doesn't have to be I wanna take care of my special needs child, you know, like me. Or somebody wants to, you know, buy their parents a house or somebody wants to give to charity or whatever. It doesn't have to be. I feel like a lot of people when they talk about what's your why, what's your big why, they get stuff.
Yeah.
Simple. I just don't wanna get up and drive 3 hours for a trip every single day to a day job. And I think
Yeah. Or, like, a lot everyone doesn't want a lot of money. Some people want a simple life. They want a garden in the backyard. They want a they want a easy, simple, low cost life, and they know that. So they don't feel the pressure of having to have all the things and spend all the money and keep up with the Joneses. They know exactly what they want, and I think that that's such an important thing. And so I think when you came upon the 5 minute bookkeeper, I know so many people who have praised how easy it's made their lives because we are in a community with a lot of entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, and so many people get stuck at the finance part.
Right? And so not only has this been a tool to help so many people actually continue down the path of owning a business and not feeling like they have to give up, but it's also done a lot for your life. Like, finding that alignment, Like, you've been a lot of places now, like, you've gotten you've been on Good Morning America, The Breakfast Club. You've had this whole big shift and leap in your life once you leaned into the thing that was aligned with your lived experience and how you wanted to help people.
Like, a lot of times, those things come when you're, again, you're doing your calling. Right? Mhmm. You're in the, you know, you're in that space where this is what I wanna do. This is what I love to do. This is my passion. And so the opportunities is just started to come. Good Morning America came because I was in a community where I had grown my income to multiple 6 figures in, like, less than 2 years. Right? Yeah.
It's not unheard of. Like, you know, only, like, a small percentage of women entrepreneurs ever achieved that. Right. So, I was on Good Morning America talking about that. I was on The Breakfast Club, again, sharing about 5 Minute Bookkeeper and the journey to building this business and also to helping, entrepreneurs to get on top of their finances. And so, you know, in essence, Black Enterprise, Time, a lot of those, different media because I really wanna get the word out, Orian. Right? I really wanna get the word out to entrepreneurs that it doesn't have to be this difficult, not because you're small. Right? People think about, oh, I'm a small business, so I don't have to do these other things.
But I would say do the things that the bigger corporations are doing because they will definitely help you. Like, I used to work with American Express, and we had a whole team doing just financing.
Right.
Like, spreadsheets and numbers and budgeting and budgets and allocations and all of that. And you can do that in your own small business as well. Right? So that Yeah. Because you're preparing yourself to scale. Right? You're preparing yourself to grow. And then you don't wanna wait until you you grow, until you get bigger, and then you have this wobbly foundation that you're trying to to to fix.
Right? Yes.
So yeah. For sure. I definitely, have been working for years. I'm getting word out that it doesn't have to be difficult, doesn't have to be you know, when some people think about their finances and bookkeeping and they're like they get this, like, visceral reaction to it, And I'm like, I want you to love doing your bookkeeping. And I've accomplished that with so many clients, so many testimonials, and they're like, it's as easy as you said it it it was gonna be, and I literally enjoy doing this. And I'm not sure if I'm supposed to enjoy bookkeeping, but I am.
Yeah. And it's like, we also like, we get these ideas in our head because, like, some people love it. I don't. I don't personally love, like, sitting and working in spreadsheets and doing, like, the admin work. Shout out to everyone who loves that. That's why they're the people who do that all the time. But what I've learned to do is once I understood and had the basic understanding of, like, oh, it's way easier if I just sit down and spend 15 minutes a week. And so I made, like, a money date with myself.
Right? Like Yes. And I'm I'm a little loose, so it's like, oh, let me do it on Thursday or Friday because Thursday is ruled by Jupiter, which is abundance and expansion, and Friday is Venus, which is money and love. So it's like, let me just take some time, set the mood, like, get us like, make it fun. Like, we forget that we can choose to make things more enjoyable. We can set ourselves up and find tools and find people like you who can help us because so many of us try to just like, oh, I gotta do it myself. Or if you're starting a business, you're like, I can't afford to hire anybody or do any tools. I'm just gonna figure it out. And we don't realize, like, our time is money.
Our time is very valuable. So
And I feel like hiring somebody else to help you, like listen. Some people are like, Nicole, even if it takes 5 seconds, I don't wanna do this bookkeeping. Right. Right? And so what we do is we also do the bookkeeping for them. Right? And so, again, if you're if that's not your thing, you don't wanna do that. I want my clients are like, I just wanna be creative. I just wanna do what I love to do. I don't wanna do the numbers, which is totally fine, but hire somebody.
Don't just leave it be. If you don't wanna do it, hire somebody to do it. Don't let it pile up for years. And then now you have to go back and, you know, have it all cleaned up.
Yeah. I call it the pain gap because I think that happens in any size business. Right? Whether an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, or a major corporation. Like, I've worked for several companies and they find themselves in a in a high hyper growth quick scale time frame. Right? And I have this little, for those of who are just listening, it's almost like a little chart where on the top it's shooting up. This is like, oh, money, revenue, clients, going so great, But how you do work stays the same. And so that gap is like the pain gap because you don't think about, let me set myself up when I do have all the clients coming in and I do have all the money coming in. Like you said, how do we set that solid foundation so it's not painful as you scale and you're less likely to quit or stress out your team or create a bad culture at work? Like, there's so many different ways that we can set ourselves up to make the future easier.
Exactly. Exactly. I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs look at the money. They're like, oh, it's it's so expensive. But sometimes investing in that, you know, person or system or what that level is what helps you to scale faster. Right? And so you have to be able to figure out, okay, how is this going to benefit my business? And then make a decision from there. But, definitely, if you're not if you don't wanna do the finances, just hire somebody to do it.
And I think that's, like, in life too. Right? Like, I'm the person who took forever to it took me a long time to hire a coach. It took me a long time to hire a therapist. It even it took me a long time to hire a housekeeper. I'm like, I can do this. Like, why would I pay somebody when I can just do it? And then you realize like, oh, if I've built myself up into a place where I can hire someone, that gives me more time to live. Like, it gives me time back to do things that I wanna enjoy to experience this life. And that's why I'm constantly talking to people about life design and, like, thinking about how you wanna live your days because, like, that's where life really happens.
Right? And so all these things we're talking about are really tools to design a life that we can show up to. To design a life that we can actually live so we don't get to the end of our lives and be a part of this end of life regrets epidemic, because which I really feel like it is because so many people have all the common end of life regrets, or they work 40 or 50 years and they save up and they have all this money in the bank. And then the day they retire, they have a heart attack, or they have something happens and they just don't have the quality of life that they were promised. And they're like, oh, if only I would have took the trip, only I would have spent the time with my kids, if only I would have, you know, took those days off and spent time with my friends. And so investing in ourselves in this Wendy frees up time to make sure we're doing the things that matter.
Yeah. For sure. It's, it's kind of a story. Like, last 2 weeks, you know, we went on vacation for a week. My, my father-in-law passed away. So, you know, it's just for a week. And so we you know, it wasn't like I was working full force and then my, you know, my team actually, like, we were all on a break. And my system still I still made money in my business.
My system still worked because I invested in systems early on in order to do some delivery while even if we're not able to, you know, like, do this one on one delivery. I don't believe in that. I believe we could we have we're able to build systems that even if it's a service based business where you have to be, you know, delivering your your services to the client, But there is there are ways that you can automate some things so that when you're not available, things are still running. Right? Your business is still running. And so that's the other thing too. Think about, okay, if I invest in this thing, how will it free up my time so that I can go on vacation? So I can take time for family emergencies, so I can, like, go sit by the pool. And sometimes that and that's another thing, Corian, is that a lot of us, this guilt about taking a break. Mhmm.
Right? Oh my gosh. I I have it too, and I have to, like, sometimes talk to myself. Like, I I'm, like, you're going on vacation, and you're not going to be working half the time. You know? You're you're you're not gonna feel guilty about taking a day off. Right? Or taking a long weekend or something like that because we feel like this is our business. We're working in our business. It's our responsibility to move on and always be working. But that is recipe for burnout.
Right? And so I say we have to get comfortable with the fact that, you know, it's okay to take a day off. Right? It's okay to clear your calendar. It's okay to spend some time with your family and not be worried or feeling guilty. Right? So, yeah, I thought I I would add that in.
Yeah. Because you you can't get those moments back. Yeah. You can't get the time back. And you also, like, will get to the point where your body's gonna make you take a break. And that's not the kind of break you wanna take. Right? Because then nothing happens. And so, yes, rest in recharging and taking care of yourself is so important.
And I don't know why we ever got to this place in society where we thought we were machines because it's like, you can't run a marathon every day. Like our body can't do it, but yet we're trying to do that mentally as we're working in these knowledge worker jobs. Like we no longer work in factories in industrial revolution. I mean, there's some people who still do manual labor, but now we're trying to take all those old rules
Yeah.
And apply it to our brains where, like, 8 hour shifts were because that's how long our bodies could stand and do gadgets on a line. Our brain our brain can't work for to 8 hours straight. Like, it just doesn't work that way. You're not getting any quality output if you haven't taken any breaks and rest and recharge. Yeah. Yeah. So if for someone who's out there right now and they're you know, they they've had the idea of, like, here's the life I wanna live. They're trying to build their dream.
They're working on their business. And they've hit that point where, like, they're stuck. Like they're at that almost like, I think I should just give up. This is too hard. I didn't do the things I should to set the foundation. Like what advice do you have to someone who's right there on that edge and trying to figure out what to do?
Right? I feel like sometimes we're stuck in analysis. We're just sitting there like, oh, I would really wanna do this. And then what usually happens is we wake up one day and somebody else has is doing our idea that we had 4 years ago. Right? And now they're making all this money, and then we become resentful. Right? Mhmm. Right? And so I would say, just take that first step. Five Minute Bookkeeper now is not Five Minute Bookkeeper 4 years ago. Yeah.
It it was very, like, new and wobbly and, like, you know, what platform do we put it on? What what, we've changed the the the template that we now use. We rebranded. We've done so many things in the meantime, but it meant that we literally started from scratch. Mhmm. Mhmm. Figured out along the way. Let me tell you, if you will figure this out along the way, if you have clients that are that you're working with. Right? Mhmm.
And they're like, oh my gosh, Corian. I love this, service, and I love what it has done for my life. It's life changing. And they start telling other people about it. That's your proof of concept. Right? And I know you have to do a little market research. You don't wanna just jump out there and do something. But if you are talking to people and they're like, oh my gosh.
I need this. And they're paying you money for it. Right? If people are paying you for at least 3 people, I say. If at least people have paid you money for this thing, then you know that, okay. This is a viable business. Mhmm. And then start working on it. And it doesn't have to be perfect.
You just have to keep working on it. And you listen to your clients. Right? Yes. They're saying, this is amazing. And you say to them, what would you change? And they're like, oh, I would add this thing or I would remove and then the same thing keeps coming up. Then you start looking at that tick feedback. It's not that difficult. It's not that difficult.
My grandparents woke up every single day and opened their store, and they people came in, and they sold their items, and then they closed at a certain time in the evenings. Every single day. They did not reinvent the wheel. They didn't start anything over, and so that's what I do. I do not reinvent the wheel. I've been talking about 5 Minute Bookkeeper for 4 years. Mhmm. Every single day, saying the same thing over and over again in a 100 different ways.
Right? Mhmm. Definitely saying the same thing. And so I feel like a lot of people get tired of, like, oh my gosh. I talk about this thing every single day. Yes. Right. Because people don't hear you as much as
you hear yourself. Right? Like, we we could say it a 1,000 times and people might have heard it 3 out of the 1,000 because we are in a society where we're distracted and our attention's pulled in a 1000000 different ways. For sure.
Yeah. The only person who's seeing every post, every ad, every email, all of that. And so you you're tired of yourself? Great. Keep doing it because you're doing something right.
Yes. Just just keep going. Just start and keep going. I love that you brought up the fact of how many of us, like, oh, I had that idea. I could be rich. Right? Like, we see that so much. Right? And Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Big Magic, which is one of my favorite books, she talks about how ideas come to us because they wanna be birthed through us. And if we don't birth them, they will go find someone else who will.
And so I think the execution and the action and just trying, And I know so many people who are on an entrepreneurship journey and they'll try something or they'll do one launch and it didn't work and they scrap it. They're like, oh, that doesn't work. Let me try something new. And they're constantly in that cycle of, that doesn't work. Try something new. And they're never, like, iterating or they're never getting the feedback or they're never trying again because they're so afraid of failure and rejection. But that's where all the good nuggets live.
I've learned in the core marketing that you just connect noes because those noes take you closer to a yes. Right? Yeah. Issues of people saying, oh, I don't want this product or I'm not gonna move forward or work with you, no no problem. And sometimes those people come back later. Like, you cannot hold people responsible. You can't be offended if somebody doesn't wanna buy your product or your service. Right. Right? Right.
Because they might not not you're not for everybody. But the people that you're for, you keep talking to those people every single day. And maybe there's other people that come in that you're like, oh, it's not for that person, but they come in anyway. And that's okay. Don't start talking to only them. Yes. You're talking to your people, right, that you're here to serve, and I promise you, you're gonna build a successful business if you just keep going.
I love that. I love that. So I have a few fun questions I like to wrap up with.
Of course.
So the first one is what's currently the favorite part of your day?
Oh my gosh. Okay. So right now I take my son Brandon to camp in the mornings, and they swim 3 times a week. He loves swimming anytime in the morning because he doesn't wanna go to camp. He just wants to be home and hang out. But anytime I say, oh, Brandon, today is swim day. He is so excited. Right? He's like he gets his swim clothes on.
He's ready. Yeah. I you know? And so I just get so much joy watching how excited he is about things that he loves. Mhmm. Right? And so, and and and I love slow mornings. Right? You know, some people wake up and this is another thing too for entrepreneurs. Don't don't just go to your phone already and stop working and start doing all these things. Amen.
Yes. Take your time and wake up. If you have to work until a little bit later, that's okay. Right? But I feel like just waking your body up in the morning and just, you know, taking your time, getting ready, getting if you have kids, getting the kids ready to go out the door. Maybe if you drink coffee, have a cup of coffee, sit outside in the in, you know, get some fresh air. That's what I'm, like, very intentional about my morning. And so I I really stopped working at maybe, like, 11 in the mornings. Mhmm.
And I go on to, like, 3, 4 o'clock. Right? So it's not like, you know, I I want my mornings to be sacred. I wanted to take my time in the mornings, and that's what that's what I do almost every day.
Oh, that's a perfect word. I teach my clients to set up their sacred bracket, which is the first beginning of your day and end of your day. I'm such an advocate of filling your cup first. It it makes that little little shift makes such a big difference in your life.
Yeah. So So
so important.
And then one of my things that I do, and my sister laughs at me all the time, I because I'm doing this, you know, fresh fruits fresh food. So at least 3 times a week, I go to Whole Foods in the morning when I drop random. So I just go and I get my fruits. I eat my vegetables, and I'm like and I love doing that. That brings me joy. Right? A little things. It's a little. Right? Yeah.
Yeah. Love Okay.
That's awesome. So the next question is, what's your current cozy?
Oh, my current cozy. So I in my living room, I have a Christmas blanket. And anytime I'm watching TV or, you know, whatever, I'm just I just love that blanket. And it has the you know, one side is, like, white and it looks it's quite wooly, but the other side is, like, really, like, soft and
soft.
So I turned it on the wrong side. It's the wrong side. Right? And so when I think of cozy, I think of blankets. Right? And so there's blankets on my bed. There's blanket in my a blanket in my couch when, like, I feel so it just adds this extra coziness Yes. Whatever I'm doing in the living room.
Oh, cozy blankets and warm drinks, like, totally my thing. Like, love it so much.
Yeah.
So do you have a current feel good song?
I don't I'd love to listen to Jamaican dance hall music.
Yes.
Like, loud and very sometimes can be, like, x rated, r rated. But I I'm trying to think if there's a feel good somehow. I I literally love a lot of music, and I would just, listen to whatever is on the radio or whatever is on my playlist. I go to dance hall 19 nineties, and anybody who's Jamaican and was was growing up in the nineties, eighties nineties, they know that that that song was, like, the best.
I think the nineties was the best everything. Right? All the music from the nineties, all the trends. Like, I came up in the nineties too, and I'm like watching my kids and I'm like, did that in the nineties. Yes. So what's one thing that you do now for your 80 year old self?
For my 80 year old self? Mhmm. Oh, it's a good question. I would say exercise. Mhmm. Mhmm. Right? And I've been I have an autoimmune condition. And, even though I've always, you know, exercised, I've always been like, wishy washy with it. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't.
And then, just learning more about this condition and learning more about the things that help to slow down the progress and the things that help to, you know, make things easier on my joints, etcetera. Right? And and so I think that, unfortunately, that's the quote, unquote reason why I focus a lot on the exercising and, you know, eating healthier, stuff like that. But I want to be able to live well beyond my eighties. Yeah. My parents are in their eighties nineties. Right? Mhmm. And so I am like, okay. If I eat the focus on eating healthy, if I focus on moving my body and, you know, making sure that my joints because you don't you literally don't, you can't build muscle after a while.
Right? Right. You like, you lose the there's bone loss. There's all kinds of stuff happening as we age. Even though we don't see or feel it, you know, it's happening. Right? And so, the I think, right now, those are the things that I do to kind of, physically what I do. And then mentally is to live a stress free life. Mhmm. Does not mean I don't have things that stress me out or or
supposed to
stress me out, but I always I'm like, okay. What's happening now? And what do I want know now? I'm not worried about tomorrow, yesterday, what's gonna be happening, all of that. I'm just grounding myself in now. And I feel, again, lowering the stress levels in order to not, like, burn out and to not, you know, just my mental health. Focus a lot on my mental
health. Yeah. Learning to be present is the secret sauce. Like, that we just don't realize how how many things get better when we just focus on, like, what's happening right now.
Yeah.
And I think that movement is critical. Like, I think desk jobs have destroyed our health because we don't move enough, like, a lot like like your parents, when we walk like, the blue zones. A lot of that happened because people actually physically move all day, and then we don't. We just kind of sit and look at the screen.
We literally I don't remember sitting in a car, And we went to a ton of places. We would walk miles and miles. We go to the store, it's at least a mile. You go to the doctors, and we walked everywhere. Now and even in that same area that I grew up, nobody's walking anymore. Mhmm. Now they have, like, tons of cars and and and so it's kind of like, you know, not what it used to be. But I I look at it and I'm like, everybody was so healthy and lived to so such a a much more weight just because they were so active.
Yes. Yes. Okay. Final question is how do you remember to live?
How do I remember to live? Mhmm.
In in the everyday, how do you remember to actually live?
Oh my gosh. I don't know if I if I ever thought about that. I just like I say to people all the time, I am the person that you see. Right? I see I think that I'm a good person. I think that I'm a happy person, and I feel like people love being around me. Mhmm. Like, when I my mom lives a few minutes away from here, And when I go, they're happy to see me. We sit.
We chat. We laugh. And so, I feel like people you know, I love people. People love me, and I feel like that is the kind of life I wanna live. Right? I wanna I wanna be a good person, and I wanna continue to, like, bring the light to people's lives. Right? I'm talking to my my life coach recently on one of our calls, and she's like, you're you're the light. Like, when it when it comes to your business, you're shining a light on this thing that people think is so hard. Right? And then how can I be the light in my life and in other people's lives? So, yeah, I think I live a pretty pretty peaceful life.
Yeah. Pretty pretty happy and peaceful.
Oh, I love that. And you definitely are a light. I love your energy. Every time we are in the same space or in the same environment, it definitely shines through. So tell everyone how they can find you, how they can connect with you, how they can get the 5 minute bookkeeper.
Yeah. So I am on Instagram at 5 minute bookkeeper. I'm also on Facebook. Just look for Nicole Barham. My the end of my, the URL is na barham. I'm also on threads at 5 minute bookkeeper. I'm on all the things. And if they wanna check out 5 minute bookkeeper, they wanna see the demo, they can go to 5 minute bookkeeper.com, the number 5 minute bookkeeper.com.
Awesome. We'll put all of that in the show notes as well.
Thank you.
This has been such a pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. Thanks again for coming and being on the podcast.
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Konya.
00:57:22 - 00:57:40Exclude
Thank you so much for listening. I hope you learned something, laughed a little, and were inspired to remember to live. Share that nugget and this podcast with a friend to inspire them too. And don't forget to like and subscribe so we can all help each other life better.
1x
0:00