The 5 Financial Numbers Every Business Owner Must Track With Bucketlist Bombshells
Release Date: 07/14/2025
Breaking Money Cycles: When Breaking Money Cycles Means Breaking Relationships
It's Not About The Money
I lost one really deep friendship when I started changing my relationship with money - not because I became a different person or got arrogant, but because I stopped being who they needed me to be. What nobody talks about when breaking money cycles is that sometimes the people closest to you have the most invested in keeping you exactly where you are. This is the conversation I've been avoiding since we started this series because it's messy, it's painful, and it doesn't have a tidy solution. But if you've been setting boundaries and healing your relationship with money, you've probably...
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Breaking Money Cycles: Why You Can't Stop Putting Others First With Money
It's Not About The Money
What would happen if you stopped holding all the responsibility with money? If you weren't the rescuer or the provider, the generous one - would people still value you and would you still matter? That may sound like a rather odd question, but right now there are thousands of people searching terms like "Why do I always put others first with money?" and "How do I stop feeling guilty spending money on myself?" because so many of us are trapped in what I refer to as the caretaker money cycle, where your mind and your body have literally learnt that giving money away equals safety, love, and...
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Breaking Money Cycles: Debt, Shame and Forgiveness
It's Not About The Money
If money has been feeling rather heavy for you recently, or maybe you're waking up in the middle of the night worrying about money, I want you to first of all know that you are not alone and there is absolutely nothing wrong with you if you have debts. This episode is specifically about debt and shame, and I'm going to be sharing what happened for me when I was in £35,000 of debt - a story I've rarely told publicly because of the deep shame I carried around it for years. The truth is, debt isn't just about the numbers on a statement; it's about the weight of secrecy, the fear of judgement,...
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Breaking Money Cycles: The Real Reason You Can't Create Consistent Income (It's Not Your Marketing)
It's Not About The Money
What if next month's revenue felt as reliable as your morning coffee? As a financial expert who's helped thousands of business founders to steady their income, I can honestly tell you this: you've already done the hard part - people want what you sell. Let's make the good months stick. Feast and famine cycles aren't personal failures, and it's not even your marketing. It's a pattern that your body and your business have learnt to repeat. Today, I'm going to widen your capacity to receive money, to hold and to give, and pair it with some really simple, practical planning strategies so that...
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Breaking Money Cycles: Why You Make Your Worst Financial Decisions When You're Overwhelmed
It's Not About The Money
Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by a money decision that you've Googled "best savings account," opened 17 tabs, read 18 articles, and ended up way more confused than when you started? Here's the trap we all fall into: when we're stressed about money, we think the answer is more information - one more podcast, one more YouTube video, one more expert opinion that will finally make it all make sense. But that information is actually making the overwhelm worse. Today, as a former financial adviser with 20 years of experience, I'm showing you what's actually happening in your brain when you try...
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Breaking Money Cycles: Why You Hide from Your Numbers (And How to Build Financial Courage)
It's Not About The Money
I've spent the last 10 years trying to find the perfect financial management system for my business and personal finances, and here's what I've discovered: it doesn't matter which system you implement if the one thing avoiding the numbers is you. As a qualified financial advisor and somatic money expert, I can tell you with absolute certainty that financial avoidance has nothing to do with lack of financial education - it's a protection response your body has learned. When you retrain that response, money stops feeling like a threat and starts feeling like simple, neutral information. Today,...
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Breaking Money Cycles: Why You Self-Sabotage When Things Go Well
It's Not About The Money
Have you ever achieved a major financial milestone - landed a big client, hit a revenue goal, or finally built up your savings - only to watch yourself systematically self-sabotage it within weeks? Maybe you suddenly took on underpriced work, made an impulsive expensive purchase, or created some drama that torpedoed your success. If this sounds familiar, I need you to understand something crucial: this isn't weakness, it's not a character flaw, and it's not lack of willpower. This is your nervous system literally treating financial success like a threat to your existence. Right now,...
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Breaking Money Cycles: Financial Trauma - The Hidden Cost of Being the Affordable Option
It's Not About The Money
If you've ever caught yourself saying "I don't want to price myself out of the market" or felt that familiar guilt creeping in when considering raising your prices, you're about to discover why being the affordable option is actually a financial trauma response. The hidden cost of undercharging isn't just the money you're leaving on the table - it's the cycle of resentment, exhaustion, and trauma responses that keep you trapped in patterns of unworthiness. In my book "It's Not About The Money," I explore how under-earning often starts as a trauma response where we overwork to prove ourselves,...
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Breaking Money Cycles: Why You Feel Broke Even When You Have Money (10-Minute Daily Fix)
It's Not About The Money
Have you ever looked at your bank account and thought "this should feel like enough," yet still felt that familiar knot of anxiety in your stomach whenever money came up? You're absolutely not alone in this experience. This week, I'm diving deep into why you can feel broke even when you have money - and it has nothing to do with the actual numbers in your account. The real culprit? Your nervous system and how it's been programmed to recognise what feels "safe" around money. If you grew up hearing "we can't afford that" or witnessed your parents stress about finances, your body has been...
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Breaking Money Cycles: Why Saving More Money Never Makes You Feel Safe
It's Not About The Money
In this deeply personal episode, I explore why having more money often doesn't make us feel safer, and why this isn't actually a money problem - it's a meaning problem. Drawing from my own experience of nearly losing my youngest son Thomas twice in his first five weeks of life, I reveal how our "not enough" programming around money often stems from our deepest fears about being unprepared when someone we love is at risk. Through my three-zone model of receiving, holding, and giving, I break down how these inherited money beliefs create an exhausting cycle where we work harder but can never...
info_outlineIn this episode, I chat with the incredible duo behind Bucket List Bombshells - Cassie and Shay - who met serendipitously in a Mexican coffee shop after both quitting their corporate jobs with one-way tickets. Together, they've built a freedom-based, service-based business generating over £4.5 million in revenue whilst serving thousands of women worldwide. We dive deep into their contrasting money relationships, the power of visionary-integrator partnerships, and the lessons learned from scaling sustainably.
Episode Highlights:
The Coffee Shop Origin Story - 2013
- How both women independently decided corporate wasn't their dream and quit their jobs for one-way tickets to Mexico
- Meeting in a Playa del Carmen coffee shop through a mutual friend
- The early question that shaped everything: "What does the dream life look like for us?"
- Building a business around the life they wanted to live, not the other way around
- How having a mentor with an online business provided a blueprint for possibility
The Contrasting Money Relationships in Partnership
Shay's Journey (The Integrator):
- Fast money growth creating challenges with holding wealth and abundance
- Spending money as quickly as it came in during early success phases
- Shiny object syndrome and following other successful entrepreneurs without understanding their mechanics
- Identity becoming tied to daily revenue numbers and success/failure cycles
- Learning to separate self-worth from business metrics
- Now finding joy in CEO dashboards and empowering clients with financial clarity
Cassie's Journey (The Visionary):
- "Ignore the numbers and work harder" mentality from early conditioning
- Type A personality believing harder work = more money
- Leading to burnout from constantly doing more: more offers, more team, more marketing
- Going from 25 different offers to just one at their simplification point
- Learning that scaling comes from amplifying what works, not adding complexity
Essential Financial Metrics Every Business Owner Should Track
- Lead Generation Numbers: How many leads monthly from each source (word of mouth, Instagram, networking)
- Lead to Sales Call Conversion: Aiming for baseline 50% conversion rate
- Sales Call Conversion Rates: Most entrepreneurs guess these numbers rather than tracking accurately
- Revenue vs. Profit Focus: Focusing on profit margins rather than just revenue figures
- Paying Yourself First: Fixed salary approach rather than percentage-based payments to create stability
The Simplification Revolution - From 25 Offers to 3
- How complexity became the enemy of clarity and growth
- The realisation that confused minds don't buy and confused CEOs don't lead well
- Discovering that more offers don't equal more money
- Learning to say "not right now" to opportunities and creative ideas
- The power of channelling creativity outside the business through art classes and hobbies
Key Business Philosophy Shifts
Business as a Marathon, Not Sprint:
- Recognising different seasons in business and life
- Moving away from "always more" mentality toward sustainable growth
- Understanding that there's never enough when the goal is always more
- Finding peace through stepping back, scaling back, and simplifying
Creative Boundaries for Visionaries:
- Not asking the business to serve all creative needs
- Finding outlets for creativity outside revenue-generating activities
- Understanding the difference between one-time creative pursuits and sustainable business offers
- Focusing on refinement and consistency rather than constant new launches
Partnership Dynamics and Communication
- The importance of communicating when things don't feel aligned
- Learning to trust yourself again after perceived failures
- Not assuming your partner shares the same passion and vision at all times
- The breakthrough that comes from honest communication about misalignment
- How addressing issues strengthens both partnership and connection to vision
Practical Tools and Strategies
The Buyer Persona Deep Dive:
- Going beyond surface-level target audience work
- Understanding dream clients down to what car they drive and podcasts they listen to
- Using real client emails and call language to refine messaging
- Leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT with detailed buyer personas for better content creation
- Using sales call transcripts to analyse money mindset blocks and selling patterns
Financial Stability Creation:
- Creating business financial stability that supports desired lifestyle
- Implementing profit-first principles with fixed salaries
- Quarterly bonus structure similar to traditional employment
- Removing the emotional roller coaster of percentage-based payments
Final Thought
True freedom in business comes not from doing more, but from simplifying and amplifying what works whilst building around the life you actually want to live. Success is sustainable when you understand your natural strengths, communicate openly with partners, and create systems that support both financial growth and personal fulfilment.
Chapters
00:00 Celebrating Milestones and New Beginnings
00:55 The Journey to Entrepreneurship
02:19 The Coffee Shop Connection
05:55 Defining the Dream Life
10:40 Navigating Money Mindset
16:05 Data-Driven Decisions in Business
21:15 Understanding Key Financial Metrics
26:03 Balancing Vision and Numbers
32:49 Advice for Future Entrepreneurs
43:39 Communicating Needs in Partnerships
48:46 Free Resources for Entrepreneurs
Resources:
Get my FREE book 'It's Not About The Money'
Take the Money StoryTypes® Quiz
Sign up to my FREE Newsletter
Become a Certified Financial Coach
Take the Bucketlist Bombshells Buyer Persona & Brand Messaging Questionnaire
Listen to The Future Of Money and AI With Natalie MacNeil podcast episode