Michelle at MR Books

As we say often, every decision is a brand decision. Brand-minded people often shudder when money is brought up (as you'll see in these videos), and likewise, financial-minded folk often don't understand what their brand team does. Today we've pulled together a conversation to unpack the interplay between the two worlds, and how to shape the story money is telling you so that it's working for your organization's mission. We learned a lot from Michelle and are excited to share this with you.

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MR Books Advisory - part 1

Get ready to gain a new perspective on numbers! We'll cover a few foundation points here:

• You can't grow if you can't create systems, and you can't create systems if you don't have numbers telling you where those systems need to go. Scaling, growing, creating is all made more possible by understanding the story your numbers is telling you.
• Numbers are not bad—they are a tool that can be used for or against your intended purposes.
• Sooner than later is always best. If you're a start up, don't wait on tracking your numbers— start understanding the story your numbers are telling you as soon as possible.

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MR Books Advisory - part 2

This video walks us through a few of the deeper pain points that lay behind the symptoms of financial strain:

• Lack of clarity. This manifests as overwhelm, anxiety, stress, confusion. For example, you might think your organization has a problem with book keeping, but your deeper challenge is likely a lack of clarity around where you want to be as a an organization, or knowing where you want to be and wondering why you can't get there.
• Inefficiencies. Broken systems, broken team interactions, and broken chains of delegation can cause a lot of problems that lead to symptoms of financial strain.
• Personality-Driven Leadership Style. Sometimes leaders can contribute to their financial challenges. Are you risk-averse, or prone to too big of risks? Are you prone to shiny-object syndrome, desiring to always try the next cool new platform instead of fixing the real systems problem? Are your decisions fear-based? Try to identify some ways that your personality may be affecting your leadership style and challenge yourself to discern if you should try to balance that out.

MR Books Advisory - part 3

Here we'll hit on a few more practical tips as you think about shaping the story you want your finances to tell:

• Don't be a victim to money. When you don't track your numbers at all, or when you let he numbers tell the only story, you are powerless to the numbers. But when you take ownership of your financials, and let that become a tool, you can intentionally drive the story you want told.
• Cash flow management is about making your money work for you. Give it a job, and let it guide you to where you want to be.
• It's okay to talk about money! It shouldn't be ignored, shameful or embarrassing.

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MR Books Advisory - part 4

Lastly, we'll wrap by unpacking a few ways that your finances are an important part of your brand:

• Understanding how brand and numbers relate. You are hurting your brand when you minimize the importance of brand. Likewise, you are hurting your growth potential when you minimize the importance of hearing and shaping the story of your numbers.
• When your budgets are really tight, people often try to cut their investment expenses first. But really it's overhead expenses that need to be cut first. Investment expenses give you the return you need to get back on track.
• Small businesses and ministries may not be able to afford experts in everything, so they need to outsource things like payroll, HR, marketing, sales, etc. It's critical to find professionals that are willing to collaborate together, understand the bigger picture together to best serve your organization.