Money Anxiety We Avoid Naming

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Most people don't talk about it. But money is one of the loudest sources of anxiety in modern life. The bills you are not opening, the numbers you're not looking at, the quiet voice that says, I'll deal with it next month. We talk a lot about mental health on this show. We talk about therapy, breathing, boundaries, sleep, but there is one thing we really need. Sometimes the fastest way to a calmer mind is a clear ledger.

Why Money And Mental Health Connect

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Welcome back to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life. I'm your host, Yusuf, and this is the show where we keep mental wellness real, practical, and grounded in everyday life. My guest today is Albert Butler. Albert is a nationally recognized CPA, author, and strategic advisor with over 25 years of experience in public accounting and executive leadership. He is the creator of the Legacy Alignment System, the author of Life, Truth, Love, Loss, Success, and Failure. And the man behind the phrase I haven't been able to stop thinking about. Accounting is the heartbeat of business. Today, we are going to take that further today. We'll talk about how clarity around money is also one of the quiet pillars of mental health. With that, I welcome my guest Albert to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yusuf, that again is a wonderful, wonderful introduction. And as uh we talk through today, I think that we will be able to find some great things to share with your audience. I think that the topic of mental health, especially from a financial perspective, is one that goes unspoken at times. So today I think it will be great that we can dive into that deeper to give your audience some clarity, some tools, some opportunities to have some things that they can add to their life to give them that clarity.

Founder Stress And Making Payroll

SPEAKER_01 2:13

So, Albert, in all your years of working with founders, families, leaders, what is the one moment in a conversation about money that you find tells you the most about where someone actually is, like mentally and emotionally?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Most of the time that I have conversations with founders that are trying to do something very powerful called making payroll. As you become a founder, you realize there are certain expenses that become the largest expenses on your set of books. And one of those is making payroll for the employees that you have. Another one is the actual pay the lease or for the pay for the building that you're sitting in. So those conversations beget some levels of anxiety because you know you have to perform, you have to produce, you have to give results, and you have to be in position to do the and meet the obligations that you have established, especially if you're trying to be a founder that wants to grow. So a lot of times that isn't a normal conversation, and we walk through trying to find opportunities to build upon that to make it better for them.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah. And Albert there's a real common misconception out there that mental health and money are two separate conversations. You take care of your mind and therapy and you take care of your money with a spreadsheet. So, but from your seat, having sat with thousands of people across both their personal and business numbers, where does that idea actually fall apart?

Choose Purpose Over Money Decisions

SPEAKER_00 3:45

It's funny that you say that because that is a true statement. And I find that people try to separate the two. Because we are in an environment that requires this thing called money to survive. You know, I counsel everyone on what is money really? Money is only a tool. Money is a tool to allow you to generate resources, to sustain yourself and sustain your family, and to help grow yourself and grow your family. So I challenge everyone. Never make decisions based off of money. Never. Make decisions based off of purpose. Purpose is what molds you and it drives you for your next day. It is what helps you look to the future for what you're really trying to accomplish. And when you find that purpose, when you really understand a purpose that's given to you or the purpose that you choose, you have clarity in your mind. Because now you're not doing it for money. You're doing it for purpose. And having that layered clarity inside mind, it gives you that leveling to remove the anxiety of what you're trying to accomplish, to remove the fear of what tomorrow may bring. Because when you walk in purpose, when you work in purpose, when you when you have a field inside your purpose, you're gravitating others to join you with that. So always do things for purpose, never for money.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

And what is something you have watched shift mentally in someone the moment their financial picture became clear?

Financial Clarity Removes Life Chaos

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Oh wow. The biggest thing you see is that their shoulders go down.

unknown 5:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

They can actually think clearly. You know, they can actually make real decisions at that point. A set of financial statements, knowing where your numbers actually are, what it does is it removes chaos inside your life. Because now you have the energy, the mindset, and the and the tool that you need to make those decisions that aligns with your mission, that supports your vision for why you even started to do what you said you wanted to do in the first place. So 100% having those numbers gives you that clarity and it removes chaos from your life.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Yeah, and so many people, so many of us are paying for therapy on Tuesday and avoiding our bank account on Wednesday, not realizing that they are connected. And you are saying that clarity in one quietly heals the other.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Completely, completely. When my clients, I tell them, and I advocate this 100% find you a great CPA, find you someone who is truly a certified person to work with

Scale Yourself Before The Business

SPEAKER_00 6:30

the public from the accounting space. You said it earlier in the introduction, Yusuf. Accounting is the heartbeat of business. But here's the part that people miss. It's also the key to personal finance success. Understanding where your numbers are will lead to your personal finance success. Because at the end of the day, who are you doing it for? Really, you're doing it to work with you on the inside first. Because once you work with yourself on the inside and can scale yourself on the inside, then you have the ability to help scale your family. When you can scale your family, then you can scale a business. It has to be in that order and you have to stay aligned in that order. Here's what people mess up. They start with a business first, but they have chaos in their family. They're working on the business first and they have chaos inside of them. So you have to understand that whatever's inside of you is going to lead into your business. It's going to lead into your family. So you have to make sure you govern yourself first, you lead yourself first, you walk in that purpose first, and then help your family walk in that purpose. Because a lot of people miss this concept as well. When you start a business and you become an entrepreneur, you're taking your family in it with you, even if they don't even know it. So you have to make sure they're prepared for it as well. You're going to work a light, a lot of late hours, you're going to put a lot of energy into it. You're creating something that didn't exist before. What type of collateral damage are you going to leave behind by not considering your family in that process? So you have to make sure you can scale your family first before you scale the business.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

I

Money Stories Inherited From Family

SPEAKER_01 8:19

want to know underneath the avoidance, the shame, the anxious checking, what is actually going on? Like, where do these patterns with money really come from for most people?

SPEAKER_00 8:32

They come from the generation past. Even if a lot of people didn't have parents or others to talk with them or walk with them or work with them to understand what the money cycle really is and how it actually comes together. And that's where a lot of things get off. And that's where a lot of your mindset comes from. It comes from those conversations that happen late at night when you were talking to your father or to your mother. It comes from those conversations when you were talking to a mentor. So you have to find that that real person that you can talk to. And even they can tell you some good things that happened to them and some bad things. You mentioned earlier before, I do have the have a book, and the title of it is Life. But the subtitle is Truth. Tell the truth. Do it in love. There will be some loss in there. There will be success in there. But also there will be failures. Tell me the failures. Because that's where the lessons were really learned in those failures. And don't run away from them. Share them. Share those failures. So that's where it comes from, Yusuf.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

And that is the part nobody warns you about. You think you have a money problem and you actually have a story problem, a purpose problem. Story about whether you deserve peace, whether you are allowed to want more, whether you are allowed to look.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

We all are allowed. We're allowed to have those things that truly align with what we're trying to work toward.

Energy, Chaos, And Inner Alignment

SPEAKER_00 10:12

You know, I I I advocate heavily that Yusuf, 100%. You are a spirit that has a soul that's wrapped in a body. I want to let that sit for a little bit because I want your audience to understand this. You are a spirit. That spirit has a light, has an energy that radiates out from you, that's governed by a soul. Basically, that soul takes in raw data that this avatar of a body brings in. We have five senses, you said hearing, seeing, taste, touch, smell. Those five senses bring in raw data into that soul for governance. And the way that you manage through that, the way that you have designed that is what's going to feed your soul and your spirit. So if you are feeding it purpose, you're going to have purpose energy coming out of you. If you're feeding it chaos, you're going to have chaotic energy coming out of you. People connect with energies. And that energy, if you give enough positive, positive people are going to come to you to work with you. If you give enough chaos, chaos is going to come and connect and give you even more chaos. That is a real thing, and I've seen it many, many, many times. 100%. Realize that you have an energy and a light inside of you. Let your light shine.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Yeah. So when this fear or avoidance with money shows up, what does it actually look like on a regular day in a small business owner, in a family, in a single person checking their phone before but it creates more and more anxiety.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

It creates more and more burnout. It creates more chaos. That's the scary part.

Plan Act Review For Daily Stability

SPEAKER_00 12:10

If we fail the plan, we plan to fail. That's just a reality. So always work with the concept. It's called plan act review. If you can plan out your day, plan out your week, plan out your month, plan out your year, plan the next 10 years, 20, 30, 40 years in the future. Plan these things out. That's going to give you the opportunity to put action into place and move through that action to give you a chance to review those actions. Then you take that review as your own feedback. The biggest piece that people forget is the review stage. You have to review yourself. Because again, reviewing yourself is the monitoring system of self and is a major part of leadership of yourself. So plan act review is a tried and true framework. It works consistently. If anyone can implement that and add it to their toolkit, I promise you, success is right in front of you.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

And I think a lot of people listening just had a moment of recognition. The thing you're describing is not dramatic. It's daily, and it is costing them a lot more than they realize.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Completely, completely. And you know, Yousuf, one one thing that that really resonates consistently is knowing that, to your point, these things are not complicated, but they do require discipline. They require you to make sure that you apply them. And not just apply them once or twice, apply them consistently. So it's tried and true. Discipline with consistency turns into results that lead to your success. And if you can actually do that on a consistent basis, oh my gosh, everyone is going to be in awe of what your next year is going to look like and what your five years are going to look like and what your 10 years are going to look like. And you're going to be in awe when you look back at yourself 10 years ago and realize look at where I came from. And that road was laid in the road of discipline and consistency that you apply Plan Act Review to, and you will beget success.

Tell The Truth And Feel Relief

SPEAKER_01 14:37

What is a calm, practical first step they can take this week?

SPEAKER_00 14:43

Taking this week, what you have to do is rip the band-aid off. Acknowledgement and tell your own truth about where you really are. And it's okay. You're not the first, you're not the second, and you won't be the last. Understand that the tried and truths that when you tell yourself the truth, then you're prepared for truth's next steps. If you continue to lie to yourself, one thing happens, you start to begin your own crap. Because those lies are just going to begat more lies and more lies and more lies. So once today, if you decide that you really want to make a change, if you decide that you want to go to the next level, tell yourself the truth about where you really are. Because once you know your current state, then you can dictate your future state. But if I don't know where I've been, I don't know where I'm going. So know where you are today and tell yourself the truth.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

And and what should they expect to feel after they have taken that step? Because I think people breeze for shame and don't expect what actually shows up.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

You know, it's it's it's interesting that regardless of how bad the truth really is, when you do tell yourself that truth, there's a relaxation inside of you that happens. It's almost automatic. And anxiety and that level of relaxation can't stay in the same place with each other. Because once you tell yourself the truth, anxiety has to leave out the door. So from a mental health perspective, truth begets that level of comfort inside your mind. Because I will tell you, and I have seen in many instances that if you lie to yourself, you create that bad anxiety inside of you. But if you tell yourself the truth, you at least know where you got where you're starting from. And again, that's you know where you're going.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

And that is such an important thing to name. The thing on the other side of the of facing the numbers usually is not the disaster we imagine, it is the relief. And your relief is a mental health outcome.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

100%. That relief gives you the opportunity to make those decisions that you need at that point. Now you know where your numbers

One Word SWOT And Better Self Talk

SPEAKER_00 17:12

are. Now you know you can have some clarity. Now you know what you can present to other people. I have another framework I call the one-word SWOT. The one word SWOT is designed to tell you what you're good at with one word, what you're not so good at with one word, what your opportunity really is with one word, and what that threat to that opportunity can be in just one word. It helps you understand your true current state as well. Because when I can tell you quickly, Yusuf, that I'm I'm good at this particular thing, you know, hey, I'm not so good at that. I can possibly work with this guy. If I know what you're not so good at, I know we need to work on that together, potentially can make it better. If I know what your opportunity really is, maybe we can align on opportunity. And if I know what your threats are, maybe I can help you avoid that threat. So now that helps you in a way to tell your true truth of who you are and what you are and what you bring to the table. And it removes anxiety for your mind as well, too, which is what we all want. We do not want to have doubt and anxiety floating inside of our mind. It's interesting how we can be so judgmental to ourselves. We can have this little voice sitting on our shoulder saying things to us over and over again about what we cannot do, what we're not good enough in, what we are not worth, what we are not supposed to have. Well, at the same token, there should be another voice on your shoulder saying, I can, I will, I am worth it. I deserve this, and I'm good enough for it. And that voice has to be the voice that we listen to. That is your signal. And you don't want to let the noise of the negativity take you away from your signal. So have a high level of signal in everything that you do, and you'll find that that that voice of negative negativity can't even enter inside your mind.

Where To Find Albert And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Albert, for people who want to connect with you or want to learn more about your work, where can you do that?

SPEAKER_00 19:07

100%. You can find me on AlbertButler.com. While at the same time, if you Google Albert Butler CPA, you'll find pages and pages of information about me, the things that I've been working on, the things that I'm doing. I also have the book, it's out on Amazon. Um, it's it's it's available um in ebook form, it's available in audiobook form. Um, for any of those that are interested, you can always go on Amazon and pick that up as well. And if you want to connect, you can directly send me an email as well, too. And then we can have other conversations about where you are and how to help scale you and scale your business.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Perfect. And to everyone's thing, all these links are in the show notes, so just go and check those out. Albert, is there any last message that you want to leave us with?

SPEAKER_00 19:55

The biggest message I always like to leave audiences with is to know that if you tell yourself that you can, you will. If you tell yourself that you can't, you won't. In every aspect of it, you're telling yourself the same truth on both sides. So always remember I can because I will. I will because I can. That alone will put you in position to be successful, and that alone will help your mental health to ensure that you're not having any chaos inside of you.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Here is what I am taking with me from this conversation. That mental health is not only about what is happening in our heads, it is also about what is happening on the page, in the inbox, in the account we have been quietly avoiding. Looking at the numbers is an act of self-respect. It is saying that I'm allowed to know the truth of my own. So if there is one thing this episode invites you to do this we have one small honest look. No shame, no story, just a look. I thank my guest Albert for sharing this time with us on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life. I thank you all for listening, and I'll see you in the next one.