The 15-Minute Money Habit Most Creators Avoid

Speaker A00:00:00

Most content creators lose thousands of dollars a year because they avoid one 15 minute meeting.And later in this episode, I'm going to show you the one question inside that meeting that instantly tells you whether your creator business is actually profitable.

Speaker A00:00:34

I'm Ralph Estep Jr. I'm a licensed accountant with over 30 years of experience, and I'm also a working creator.Many people know me as the content creators accountant, and I work with creators in all 50 states and all over the world. In today's episode, I'm going to show you a few things. First, I'm going to tell you about the 15 minute weekly money meeting.And then I'm going to talk about the three things you review every single week during that meeting. And then we're going to talk about the mistakes creators make with money and how this habit removes most financial stress that creators feel.Here's the problem. Money comes in. It comes in from Stripe, PayPal, AdSense brand deals, affiliate payouts. But you never stop long enough to see the whole picture.So spending becomes reactive, taxes sneak up on you, and in the back of your mind, there's always that quiet question, am I actually doing okay financially? Let's now talk about the meeting that most creators avoid. Creators have meetings with everyone.We've got meetings with our sponsors and our editors, our team members, our collaborators. But so many of us skip that one meeting. And that's the meeting with their money. Now, traditional businesses.I work in traditional businesses every day in my accounting practice. They review numbers constantly, weekly, sometimes daily. But creators, we're moving too fast for that.We're uploading, we're editing, we're posting, we're answering emails. We're managing sponsors, solving those tech problems. And so money becomes something you react to instead of something you manage. Well, guess what?The weekly money meeting fixes that. Let's talk about what happens in that meeting. I'm going to tell you right now, it's not complicated.Not some big giant spreadsheet, no accounting jargon, just three simple questions. Here's the first question. What money came in last week?Look at your stripe payouts, your PayPal deposits, any of those AdSense revenue dollars, the brand deals, your affiliate income, those membership payments, Patreon Substack and then you simply ask what actually came in during the week. That's the first question. Here's question 2. What money went out? Did you spend money on editors? On those software tools? Those video subscriptions?Hey, those AI platforms we've got too many of? How about some gear purchases? Maybe you did some traveling, or maybe you spent some money on advertising. Just ask yourself, where did the money go?And here's question number three. What needs attention? Is it those taxes? Maybe you've got some upcoming bills? Maybe you've got some sponsors that haven't paid you yet?Got to get on that. Maybe you've got some contractors that are waiting to be paid. And anything else unusual. Well, that's the meeting. Just three questions.Fifteen minutes, once a week. Now, in a moment, I'm going to show you the one question that reveals whether your creator business is financially healthy.But before we get there, there's one mistake almost every creator makes that hides the truth. Let's talk about those now. And I see this all the time when I'm working with creators.Creators often rely on their bank balance, but that's dangerous because the bank balance is not profit. Here's another problem. Creators upgrade their gear after a strong month and software without removing old tools.You're paying for stuff you're not even using. And don't even get me started on ignoring taxes until April. And then you hire help without knowing their real margins.Now, I'm not saying any of this is intentional. It just creates that creator chaos. Let me give you an example. I was working with a YouTuber that came to me, a strong audience.They were making about $10,000 a month in revenue. But even with that level of income and you. And I'd be saying, well, I'd be loving to make that much.Even with that level income, they constantly felt stressed. Why? Because they never reviewed their numbers. They just watched that bank balance move.And so I introduced that weekly money main with them and their stress dropped immediately. No, their income didn't change, but the visibility did. And listen, if you need visibility for your numbers, it's a great time to mention it.I'll do a free discovery call with you. You can get to that call by going to content creators accountant.com help me.And I'll put that in the show notes, but I'm gonna give it to you again because I would really like to talk to you. It's contentcreatorsaccountant.com helpme. Let's get on a call together and let me help you get some visibility. Right away.Well, now, let's talk about what the numbers reveal. I want to talk about a simple example. Let's say you're a creator that has a great month. You had $12,000 come in the door.You had some brand deals, land some ad revenue, maybe some affiliate payouts, and you're feeling fantastic. But during that weekly money meeting, you notice some expenses. Yeah, you paid that editor $2,000.Your software heads up to $600 now, $1,200 in travel, and you spent $1500 on gear. Well, now your real profit isn't at $12,000, is it? It's $6,700 and taxes. Hey, that's another $2,000 off the top.Well, that weekly money meeting completely changes how you think about spending that money. Let me tell you about a podcast I worked with recently. They thought their business was extremely profitable.Of course they did, because the revenue looked great. But they had software everywhere. I'm talking about you talk about subscriptions. They had subscriptions everywhere. Hosting tools, editing tools.I think they had every editing software there was. Analytical tools. And yeah, don't get me started on the AI subscriptions. They had about a dozen of those.In fact, we discovered over $900 a month in unused software. They might be saying, Ralph, $900. Yeah, but you know what that means. That's $10,000 a year just sitting there going out the door. Well, guess what?That weekly money meaning revealed it immediately. All right, well, now let me give you the answer to that question I mentioned earlier.That question that instantly shows whether your creator business is financially healthy. Here it is. Here's the question. Are you ready? What was my real profit this month? That's the secret. I'm not talking about revenue.I'm not talking about your payouts. I'm certainly not talking about your views. I'm talking about profit.The money that's left after the editors, after the software, after the gear, after the travel, and yes, after the taxes. And here's the problem. Most creators can't answer that question without guessing. Well, that weekly money meeting makes that answer obvious.So if you only do one thing after today's episode, I'm going to stress this with you. Schedule a 15 minute money meeting with your business every Friday. Put it on your calendar. Treat it like a sponsor call. Don't ever let that go past.Because, listen, financially it's more important than anything else you do. Well, now let's get into the details. What do you do during that weekly money meeting?Somebody reach out to me and said, ralph, I really like the idea, but what do you do? Here's what you do. Open your bank account and look at what's coming in the door. Well, look at what your deposits are, the, the incoming revenue.Look at what's going out. And check your tax reserve. And write down just one financial decision for next week. You don't have to spend an hour, just 15 minutes.You will be amazed at how much clarity that restores in your business. All right, well, let's recap quickly. Most creators don't have a money problem. They have a visibility problem. And the weekly money meeting fixes that.Remember three questions. What came in, what went out, and what needs attention? If you do that weekly and your finances will become dramatically clearer.And if you want help building a real creator money system, I can help you do that. And we can start as soon as today. Go to content creators. Accountant.com Help me again. We'll put that in the show notes. You can click right on it.But I want to talk to you content creators. Accountant.com helpme. We'll talk about your situation.We'll talk about your income streams and your tax strategy and whether working together makes sense. Not about pressure, just clarity. Creator income is unpredictable. It's just the nature of what we do. But your financial system doesn't need to be.Spend that 15 minutes a week. It will change everything. I'm Ralph Estep Jr. And I am the content creator's accountant. And I'll see you in the next episode.