Not Just Candle Talk: Burn the Rules. Build Your Legacy
This isn’t your average business podcast.
Not Just Candle Talk is the unapologetic, unfiltered audio home for ambitious entrepreneurs, creatives, and side-hustlers ready to do business on their own terms — no fluff, no fake motivation.
Founded on real experience and raw truth, this podcast dives into the real-life challenges behind the candle business and beyond. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling your empire, every episode is packed with lessons, strategies, and mindset shifts to help you build a business and a life you don’t need to escape from.
Hey, I’m Toni, and I know what it’s like to start from scratch.
When I launched my candle business, I had big dreams but limited resources — no investors, no fancy marketing team, just grit, Google, and a lot of trial and error. I built my brand from the ground up, burned out more times than I can count, and learned to pivot, scale, and get smart about what really makes money in this game.
Not Just Candle Talk was born out of my journey — the highs, the hustle, the hard lessons — and the deep desire to have conversations no one else is having in entrepreneurship. The stuff beyond the surface. The why behind the work.
This Podcast Is For You If…
- You’re tired of overnight success stories with no receipts.
- You want to make real money while staying true to yourself.
- You believe business can be both profitable and purposeful.
- You’re building your brand while managing your real life.
Not Just Candle Talk: Burn the Rules. Build Your Legacy
Broke or Bad at Budgeting? The Financial Wake-Up Call Every Entrepreneur Needs
Ever looked at your bank account after a "successful" month and wondered where all the money went? You're not alone. Financial chaos isn't just common among entrepreneurs – it's practically a rite of passage. But it doesn't have to be.
Truth bomb: most entrepreneurs don't have business problems, they have money mismanagement problems. Behind those Instagram-worthy business moments – the invoicing, branding, and fancy coffees – lurks a different reality. You're robbing Peter to pay Paul. Your income swings wildly from month to month. And let's be honest, you probably couldn't name your monthly business expenses if your life depended on it.
The P.A.I.D.S method changed everything for me when I was making more money than ever but somehow ended up nearly broke by year-end. This simple framework (Pay yourself first, Automate your tracking, Invest in expertise, Divide your income strategically, and Set monthly financial goals) provides the financial foundation so many of us were never taught. Combine this with practical tools like Wave for bookkeeping, Google Sheets for budgeting, and weekly money check-ins, and you'll transform your relationship with business finances.
Remember, wealth isn't about how much you make – it's about how much you keep, protect, and multiply. This isn't just about surviving as an entrepreneur; it's about creating true freedom through financial discipline. Download our free financial reset checklist at notjustcandletalk.me and join the conversation about the financial realities we all face. Your future self (and bank account) will thank you.
Collect all free downloadable checklist and access to other items including the featured Stanley on the go tumblers. https://linktr.ee/notjustcandletalk
What's up y'all? This is not just Candle Talk, the raw, unfiltered podcast for creators, small business owners and entrepreneurs who are sick of playing by the rules that no longer serve us. And today we're talking about money. Yeah, that part nobody wants to talk about, but everyone struggles with. This episode is called Broke or Bad at Budgeting the financial wake-up call every entrepreneur needs, because I'm not going to keep it. I'm going to keep it real. Most people don't have business problems. They have a money mismanagement problem. Okay, so we're going to get into it. Let's start here.
Speaker 1:Being a small business owner or contractor looks cute on social media, invoicing, branding, fancy coffee and co-worker spaces, but behind the scenes, what are we doing? You're robbing Peter to pay Paul. You get paid on the 15th and it's gone by the 17th. You're making 5k one month and 500 the next, and, let's be honest, you don't even know what your monthly business expense expenses are. Here's a truth bomb If you don't respect your money, guess what? Your money won't respect you.
Speaker 1:So let me hit you with five financial mistakes I've seen over and over from entrepreneurs. Okay, number one no separation between business and personal. If your business and your personal accounts are the same, your business is already in chaos. So today, or when you get a second or some time whenever, open a separate account. It's vital, it's absolutely vital to have separate accounts. Okay, number two no emergency fund, aka the shit happens funds, if a client bails or if Stripe freezes your account. Do you ask yourself do you have two months of expenses ready to float you? Because most don't. Ok.
Speaker 1:Number three not paying yourself a salary because you deserve a check. Right, stop treating yourself like the unpaid intern in your own company. Ok, find a way to pay yourself. It's important, ok, and it's hard to do. Ok, it's hard to find your, your, your, your little piece of the profit in a small business or doing contract work, but you have to make that a priority for yourself.
Speaker 1:Okay, number four only planning for the good months. Okay, planning your budget around a 6k month is cute until you have a 2k month, all right, build your, build your budget based on your lowest predictable month. Right, I had, I had to learn this the hard way. Okay, I um, always was going big, big, big and finally I realized let me always lower what my budget is At least a couple thousand under what it should be. Right, because it was a bad habit. I always went big, big, big and that's not reality. It's not reality. Especially when you're starting off, you always want to give yourself a little wiggle room, as you will, or when the good revenue starts to pick up, you will eventually see where your money is actually going.
Speaker 1:Okay, number five no financial SOPs. If you don't know your revenue, your expenses, your debt and your profit margin, then you don't run a business, you run chaos. Okay, um, I have a friend, a mentor, a business mentor. She has had a business for over a small business. She she's ran for over 20, 25 years. I always go to her and get her views on these types of things. She's open, she's open and always honest with me. I go to her for this because If you don't know where your debt is, where your expenses are and your profit margin, you can't predict year to year, you can't predict six months, not even six months down the road.
Speaker 1:You can't predict it and you have to have those numbers for a year to year basis, something you can look back on, right, and that's really how you grow. You don't want to. It's nice to look forward, right, but real businesses actually look behind, they do their research, they look what happened the year after, because things change, I mean the year before that. Everything changes year to year, so you always want to go back and see what you did. Uh, what was your numbers looking like? How much debt did you? Because you're going to have debt, right, everyone has debt. You always want to go back and look at that debt, look at that revenue, and then that's really how you plan, that's how you plan for, and then that's really how you plan. That's how you plan for six. I like to plan for myself. I like to plan six months in advance. That's just. That's just a safe, safe haven for me.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you a story real quick. In 2022, I made more money than I ever had more money than I ever had but by Q4, I was damn near broke. No savings, tax bills due, burnt out from overworking just to keep up an image. Right, the candle business. The candle business. You know why? Because I never planned for a back end. I didn't set boundaries. I was making revenue, but not making wealth and wealth.
Speaker 1:That's not about how much you make. It's about how much you keep, protect and then multiply. Okay, it's a learning curve. It's always a learning curve. That's why I do these podcasts, because if you're not learning from your mistakes, it's always going to be chaos, and that's why people give up most of the time.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let me give you a simple blueprint. You can, you can have it today, you can steal it today. I call it the P A I, d, s-d-s method. Okay, I'm going to run down each letter and I repeat it it's called the P-A-I-D-S method. I'm going to break down each letter for you. Okay, here we go. Pay yourself first, even if it's a hundred dollars a month. Build the habit. Okay, that's the p pay yourself first.
Speaker 1:A. Automate your money. Use tools like quickbooks. You can use wave or even a google sheet. Every transaction should be tracked. Okay, I invest in a bookkeeper or a CPA? Okay, uh, if you're not great with numbers, hire someone who is, even if you have to hire them part-time.
Speaker 1:D. Divide your income. So try, try this breakdown, if you will 30% on taxes, 30% expenses, 30% in your savings and 10% in reinvesting in your business. Okay, that was D. Divide your income. S. Set financial goals monthly. Don't just track income. Set actual goals. Okay, so how you do that? You pay off the $500 a debt this month. Then save a thousand dollars toward emergency funds. So set goals, uh, monthly, okay. Um, your business is not a vibe, it's a machine treated like one. Ok, so I want to real talk. Here's what. Here's what helped me. I'm going to give you the tea, ok, as they say. Here's what helped me.
Speaker 1:A few things the wave app is a. It's a free invoicing and bookkeeping app app. It's a free invoicing and bookkeeping app, something called K Capital, that's with a Q Q-A-P-I-T-A capital, l. So auto savings goal. Use those Google Sheets my monthly budget Bible OK, the Google Sheets is my monthly monthly Bible notion finance dashboard. You could track your goals and you could see your, your income, uh, visually. Okay, these are things that I use. Um, these are things that that help me. Um, and then cash stuffing method. If you love visuals, try envelope budgeting digitally or physically, okay, that's. If you like, the, if you like, if you're a visual person, ok, so use these tools that I just and I'll put all this stuff in the show notes Use these tools and you know they will work. They can work, ok.
Speaker 1:So every Sunday, what I did was I spent 30 minutes doing a money meeting with myself. I looked at what came in what went out and then what's next. Okay, so those are just some tips I wanted to to to throw out there because it's important, like a lot of people just don't talk about they're not randomly talking about money, about money, the small business with other entrepreneurs. They're not. They're not doing that Right, they're suffering, and I'm here to try to to to open up conversations about these things because it's needed.
Speaker 1:So if you're listening to this and feeling overwhelmed, broke or even embarrassed, I get it, but don't let shame keep you stuck. You are not bad at business. You just haven't had the right financial foundation and no one taught us this stuff growing up, especially not in our communities, right, but this is your financial wake-up call. Okay, this is it. And I had to do this episode because, like I said, I always say in all of my episodes, I think it's worth talking about, especially this year, especially now. It's worthy of a conversation or two, okay, um.
Speaker 1:So if this episode hits home, share it with someone who needs it, who needs to hear it. You can also leave a review, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to download the? Um, the free financial reset checklist for entrepreneurs, and you can get that I'll put that link in the um on the website of uh www not just candle talk, dot me and you can just download that free uh free download checklist and and use it right. Use it as a reference guide because visually it's important to see these things, not just hearing me talk, but if you see these things, uh and I, it's important to see these things, not just hearing me talk, but if you see these things and it's a few downloads that I have, but looking at these things just for a couple of minutes throughout your week or once a month, have these just to check in with yourself and check in with if you have employees or things like that, to always keep the goal in mind and remember money is not the goal, it's not the goal. Freedom is, and freedom requires discipline. Let's get our, let's get our house in order, so to speak, let's build real wealth and let's talk about the hard stuff so we can actually all win because it's it's doable, right. So, like I said, until next time, keep it raw, keep it real and keep it moving.
Speaker 1:I'm going to end this episode right here and keep it moving. I'm going to end this episode right here. I just wanted to come on and drop a few things on here for you to reference, to use, to help, if you know any way I can, and, of course, if I find some more things that's worth discussing, I will do a part two of this. Maybe I can bring some people on and have these discussions, have a roundtable sort of speak, do a webinar or Zoom, have a Zoom call and we can talk about it because it's worthy of a conversation. So until next time, thank you so much for listening. Until next time. Thank you so much for listening. And uh, and, like I said before, all the downloads I'm putting in the show notes, uh, right at the bottom of the um of the show notes, and you can, and you can, download all of them for free. All of our downloads are free, as as always. And until next time, thank you for listening. Talk to you soon. Bye.