EP #42 | Mental Health and Taxes with Christy Taylor
Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald, interior designer, mama and CEO of a thriving interior design business, built on authentic word of mouth referrals. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate architecture job to build my own dream, one that would allow me more time with the people that I love, the ability to serve my clients at the highest level, and to make a great living. It wasn't always easy, and I've made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today, and I've learned a thing or two. This podcast is for you - the inspired, creative, ambitious, and let's admit it, occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives by transforming homes. Join me and my guests each week as we walk through practical ways to build an interior design business you love, and helps you transform your clients' lives. You can do this.
Kate Bendewald
Well, hello there and welcome to today's episode, I am just going to say that if you are a longtime listener of the podcast, you will be able to tell immediately that today's episode is a little different. In a good way, in a good way. This episode is different because there is a there's a sort of unpolished and filtered conversation that I have with what I would consider to be a new friend Christy Taylor, who is a CPA, but she is not your everyday CPA. This was literally the very first time I ever talked with her and met her. We hadn't even emailed my team had taken care of getting her on as a guest. But there was this I felt like I had just sat down with somebody who I had known for so long. Prior to getting onto record with her, of course, I was doing some research just trying to understand about her philosophy and who she is and all of this and in getting to try to learn more about her, I just felt this connection with her before we even got on the phone, I was like oh my gosh, she just seems like a kindred spirit. And, and that was so true. And so usually the way these things go is that I will you know, I just hit record. And, you know, we have a moment to sort of talk and get warmed up and kind of get acquainted before we actually start and on the podcast. And that's usually how I do it. And it didn't work out that way in the best way possible. We just, you know, did my regular thing hit record, and the conversation just instantly started flowing. We talked about mental health and the fact that she and I both are ADD and ADHD respectively, and what it's like being a professional and running your own business dealing with this condition, and how both of us now view this as one of our assets and is one of our super powers. But for a really long time. That wasn't the case. So you know, we talk a little bit about taxes, but it's just, I don't know, I feel I hope that you get the feeling to that when you listen to today's episode you feel like you're you know, sitting at lunch gabbing with some girlfriends who just really care about you know, being a good entrepreneur showing up for your clients doing a good job with the work that you're doing. While also caring for yourself and for your mental health. I think you'll find this a really refreshing episode and you think you're really gonna enjoy hearing from Christy little note to listeners, I'm pretty sure I dropped the F bomb at some point in this episode. So if you've got little ones in the car and you're listening to this button, pop your earbuds in. Alright, that's it. Let's let's listen to this chat that I had earlier today with Christie. We thought we were coming here to talk about taxes, but really you may not get to that so
Christy Taylor
we're just gonna fan girl out Are you like me great.
Kate Bendewald
In my attempts to do a little like prepare preparations and come up with some questions, I also happen to notice on your Instagram, you talk about two things that I? Well, I wouldn't say that I've talked about a lot. But there are two things that are really close to my heart. One of them is mental health. And the other one is
Christy Taylor
community over collaboration. That's my vibes.
Kate Bendewald
Because see this community over collaboration, advocacy was one of them, you get this whole section in your highlights about the advocacy work that is near and dear to your heart that are, you know, also issues that are near and dear to my heart as well. So
Christy Taylor
I'm wondering if you would be okay, I Okay. I have ADD I clearly anybody that might, if this, and this gets to be a part of that guest. You will know, you can put it in, I
Kate Bendewald
took my very, very last or second to last pill that I take to help me with aid. And I remembered that I needed to call it in and this whole deal and I was talking to God, it's horrible about your Do you got this? Listen, I was just talking about being a business owner with ADD because yeah, out it. And I remember as a kid feeling a lot of shame around having ADD and feeling like I was on another planet for her that width. Now I know and love that I'm in Enneagram seven. So I'm into all the things all the time, and there must be relationship there. But yeah, so I've sort of come into my own with it. And I don't view it anymore as this like, weird thing, although it is a frustrating thing to deal with sometimes. But how do you hate this condition of having ATD or ADHD and making that work as a business owner?
Christy Taylor
Yeah, I mean, so I have several conditions. I have anxiety, depression, complex, PTSD and ADHD. So it's a good, you know, alphabet soup going on. But yeah, part of the reason that I decided to go into business for myself is just my brain does not function in typical corporate America, I've tried it so many times, and it just wasn't working. And it was, it's a seed that I think my therapists have been planting, like, in my head for a while, like, maybe you should go into business for yourself. And so I think I say a lot of times, you know, there's kind of two sides of the coin, like, there are some struggles. And I acknowledge that sometimes those struggles, end up impacting my clients. And I think as a result of my struggles, they really make me the person that I am today. I always hear different things. One was like in Japanese culture, when you like break ceramics or something that they like, basically glue it back together with gold to make it like more beautiful, or my therapist once gave me this. Like, I think it was like a slam poem or something. But one of the things that they say is that the broken pieces of your life, like reflect light, far more brightly than they ever could when the glass was whole. And like you are a stained glass cathedral. And so I don't you love that. It's like one of my favorite line service. She's incredible. Yeah, if you want me to send you that, it's, it's definitely it's a it's a, you know, trigger warnings in the thing, but it's just something that's like really stuck with me. And just really kind of acknowledging that, yes, there are negative aspects to this. And it's made me who I am today. And, you know, I have clients that struggle with similar things. And I think just that there's so much stigma around, you know, you were speaking about your time in school, I actually wasn't diagnosed until college. And it was because I was that typical college kid that was like, oh, I need to get something done. And I like took one of my friends pills. And then I was like, I feel like a normal heat. Like, it's just people feel like all the time. And so for me growing up, it was really hard, because I was always considered, you know, like a gifted kid and whatnot. And I got good grades. And I struggled so hard through those because they were just the little things I remember, like seventh grade, it used to be like, you know, if you turn in all your assignments, you got like a pizza party at the end of the quarter. And I would get A's in every class, but I would always miss at least one if not like multiple assignments. And so it's just this thing that I think growing up, we just haven't really spoken on too much. And so for me, I've just always made it, you know, in corporate America and and now especially, I've just communicated it and it's gotten to a point where some people don't get it and that's cool. And those aren't my people. And I don't think that you know, there's anything wrong with that a few weeks ago, probably like a month ago or so now. I was really struggling When I told everyone I was like, you know, like, I want you to stick with me, I think it's worth it. And I also think there's something to be said, for your own mental health and setting your own boundaries. And so I think that's an important thing to acknowledge too, is that, you know, everyone has their own struggles. And it sometimes, you know, you need to set boundaries, and like, I'm not the right person, and like, that's okay. But I really just try and communicate like where I'm at as much as possible. And I feel like sometimes it's easier said than done. And then I really have just focused a lot on trying to work with my ADHD now, that's been my big push. Lately, I have an ADHD coach who's fabulous. Yeah, I didn't know that was a thing until recently found her through Instagram, I lost the love Instagram, but really just kind of acknowledging that my brain works different, and allowing that to be okay. And when I kind of set the structure of, I don't need it to be this nine to five, you know, like sitting at my desk ball law, like, there are some days when I like crank out so much more work than an average human being could possibly, and I see you nodding your head, so I'm sure you understand. And then the next day, I could just be like, dead. And I'm like, Okay, so like my rested, like recovery kind of sessions look different than I think like a neurotypical person where if I'm going with the flow, I'm going to keep going with it, I'm not going to tell myself, you know, like, Oh, I've, I mean, sometimes I'm like, I've done enough for the day. But I try and allow those kind of like energy bursts that I get to like, like, match what kind of work I'm doing and things like that. So yeah, it's definitely a struggle. And I've found so much more good to come out of it than bad. Even just growing up. I've always just been a big advocate for mental health. And, you know, I'd post my own stories online and do things and the number of times that people have reached out to me and was like, I had no idea like, I've been going through X, Y, and Z, like, Thank you for making me feel less alone. Like I've had people tell me that they were, you know, in a bad place, let's say, and I helped keep them going for another day. So it's something. Yeah, it's something that's really hard. I think I posted like, I don't know, if it's on my Instagram still, where it's like, it's really easy, I think, to say you're an advocate and like, talk about, you know, the struggles. And then there are times that like, you know, I think a lot of times people are willing to give you like the benefit of the doubt until it stops becoming convenient for them. And it makes an impact. And I think those are kind of the hardest parts. Again, like I said, like, I understand for certain people, if it's really just not something that you can handle, but I think a lot of times, you know, people just aren't willing to deal with 10 seconds of discomfort to kind of come out on the other side. And it's hard because everyone like I said, everyone is usually at this point knock on wood. I've surrounded myself with like good people who support it. But I think it's important to like acknowledge that sometimes we say we support it. And maybe we're not going as far as you might think you are in helping these people. So that's, that's really
Kate Bendewald
okay, I'm just gonna say I don't know if we're going to talk about taxes today. We might I don't know we'll just see there are sweeping through all of the things that you just talked about that I want to kind of take a minute and I mean, we're recording I'll check in with you just to make sure I do whatever I like what's okay to talk about one of my favorite podcast listen to is inherent and being add right now a doctor that's fine armchair expert, and, oh, I
Christy Taylor
haven't listened but it was
Kate Bendewald
recording with somebody and one of his guests like, Wait, are we recording? He was like, Yeah, ABR always be recording. And I was like, you know, like, that's conversations happen in that
Christy Taylor
like pre Yeah, like were you just like getting settled?
Kate Bendewald
Okay, there were so many things I wanted to touch on, just talked about, but one of the things that I just felt from you. I feel like collectively, especially in the entrepreneurial world, in the creative service based provider world, there is this sort of renaissance of this feminine energy that is so different from the like, corporate, robotic, masculine black or white world that I don't know how old you are, but I know I was raised with and that I was expected to sort of conform to and younger me to the corporate world didn't work. I ditched the corporate world after I had my first child, mostly because I was experiencing. I didn't have the words for it at the time, but it was extreme sleep deprivation. And it was just I would not function. And so that's what led me down this path. But I realized now what gift this is to be able to work for myself be be able to work from home. And if I'm having those moments, like you just said, I learned how to work with it. And, and I've been able to do that because I've had to go through periods of time. For example, when I was pregnant when I was nursing when I couldn't take medication to help me focus.
Christy Taylor
That's my biggest fear. You know what's doable,
Kate Bendewald
though, and, and there are medications that are safe. And yeah, if there's anybody listening who's thinking about this, talk to her talk to your your medical adviser, because there are options. But needless to say, I have learned how to work with add in my own ways, and one of those is like, there's a really good goodwill by my house that I love to pop into, because we live really close to this extremely affluent neighborhoods with all of the like, oh, gosh, like Broncos live there, and all of the like professional sports athletes from Denver live. I'm not saying their stuff that goodwill, but that's the that's the,
Christy Taylor
that's the vibe. Yeah.
Kate Bendewald
The closest one, so there's always good stuff. So whatever, I'm just like, I cannot concentrate, I'm not feeling it, I'm not in the vibing. And I, whatever, I will pop over there, grab some lunch nearby, and then just put my head into Goodwill for like 20 minutes. And then, and then I can come sit back down. I've given myself the brain break that I needed, I bought something that I absolutely didn't need. And I feel like that's just one of the
Christy Taylor
nine, it's the ADHD tax, that's what I would call it
Kate Bendewald
trapped in this life, corporate, of needing to be at my desk. And speaking of the people who are advocates for certain topics, and then when the rubber hits the road, they're often not the I experienced that to where it's like, oh, we say we're pro mom, or pro family and all these things. And there's your breastfeeding room as proof. But there, there are so many ways that typical corporate environments don't support people who are experiencing an array of mental health challenges. So I just want to say thank you so much for your willingness to not just you're doing more than just talk about it, you're mean you're talking about it, but you're talking about it in a way that is inviting the conversation and normalizing it, and just saying this is who I am. And if this isn't going to work for you, that's okay. I think it probably does, because I also get some empathic tendencies from you. I don't know if that resonates. But I would imagine that your clientele your client base are also people who need a CPA who understands maybe they have a fragile Money Story, maybe they have something going on, that makes dealing with their finances really difficult. Maybe they haven't done the work. And so having somebody who can show up with compassion, and brains and get it figured out in a way that isn't scary, and makes it feel approachable. You are that person to those people. And yeah, who needs more CPAs like that. So
Christy Taylor
that mean, that is 100% like the kind of business that I'm trying to create the number of times that I have somebody come to me you are that I have created. I have good. Alright, that I have created. You know, I talk a lot about community in like collaboration over like, chin, I truly believe you know that there's plenty of people to go around. And we just need to find those people and match them like with the right person, like just because you're not the right person. For me, that's fine. Like, let me help you get, you know, do do what I can with, like, you know, while protecting like my own mental health and in my own boundaries. But like all that being said, like yes, that resonates with me so hard. So many of my clients and I always say I don't know if it's like the self fulfilling prophecy or if it's truly just like creative people just function different. I think it's a little bit of both. But so often I have people come to me that are like, oh, like, I'm just really dumb about money or like, oh, I have no idea what I'm doing or blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, nobody just bothered to teach you. Like there is so many little things like yes, maybe you're never going to be a CPA and you don't need to be a CPA, because that doesn't bring you joy and there's other people that will do that. But we can still get you like at a you know, a basic level of understanding and that's always what I want for my clients to feel you know that they can ask those quote stupid questions the number of times I say there's no stupid questions and you know, can get that, I guess, like support that they need. I think that's so much more of my job that yes, I prepare tax returns. but so much more of it is just having a client, like feel comfortable to just come to me with a question. I recently made a Slack community for my clients, which I freaking love, we talked about, like everything under the sun. The other day, we were talking about, like our childhood, like celebrity crushes, oh my god, so much fun. But one of the channels that I have in there is like attacks Chalk Talk channel. So that's like, the other thing that I really try and do is it's like, if you have this question, somebody else probably does, too. So let's put it in this environment where you can go and read these questions and get those answers. Because I just feel like money and finance in general is just not talked about even now, and especially with women. And they have, I mean, I have these incredible woman with these huge ideas that are making great money, and, you know, just don't have that financial literacy. Because not because they don't want to know it, but because they don't know where to go. And I think that's a huge gap in our society right now is just helping people understand money and doing it in a way that doesn't make them feel dumb. Because they're not, it's just not information that's readily available. So we're working on it. I can't wait to see where all my clients go.
Kate Bendewald
Yes. Oh, my gosh, and you're doing such an amazing job in this world? You're absolutely right. And it is true. You mentioned, you know, for women, specifically, I, it has been my experience, I know, this isn't everyone's experience, but it wasn't that long ago. So that, you know, women have very different expectations for their lives and what they were going to do with themselves. And looking at my own history, you know, my, my mother was one of four kids, three, three girls and a son. And if you just look at this as like a, as a sampling of kind of the society at large, and this was, you know, in the 40s 50s 60s. Yep. All three of her, she and her sisters were expected to be cute, get married, get married, marry rich, right? Marry, well, there was no there was no expectation, necessarily to go to college or to understand finances, or to have any sort of relationship with money. But you look at their brother and his expectation, he was taught about money, he was taught about how to save, earn, invest, his expectation was to go to college, and you look at how their lives turned out so differently, and how the women have, you know, found themselves in their adulthood.
Christy Taylor
Really, less freedom really, you know,
Kate Bendewald
reliant on on, on other, you know, that they lost their autonomy. And in so many ways. They weren't given the tool they weren't taught. And their expectations were not the same as their male counterpart. And so you can imagine what they were taught their kids compared to what he got his kids, and how that story was so different. And so yes, from a societal level, you know, I hope to god this is shifting, I know that I'm trying with I have two daughters and trying to teach them about money in a way that makes sense. By the way, green light is so cool. Anybody that has kids, we have a green light account, bank account, they have their own debit card, they have, they get paid back, there's an app. So when they get chores, they get the earn their money, and they can spend, save and earn their money, how they want their debit card. It's really, really cool. So this is one of the tools but the point is like we when it comes to taxes, anytime we're talking to to a community of interior designers, we are by nature creative, and there are plenty. I mean, there's our smart people that are in this community. And a lot of them have their own money, stories and money and finances and business math isn't always so natural to them. Many of them it is a lot of them come from business backgrounds, and so they have extra advantage. That's awesome, but those who don't. My point is, what do you work with your relationship with money and I had to do I worked with Jenny Carlson. She's been a guest on here financials for creatives. She's an amazing person to know. She was my money coach for a little while and she really really helped me to earn that money story for myself so that I have a better relationship with money. I had no problem earning money, but I also didn't have a problem spending story the other day and this guy I don't know that I was I was probably like, wasting time doing something. But yeah, guy was like, Can I help you find something? And I was like, No, I don't have a problem finding things to buy or pushing. Yeah, that's
Christy Taylor
the whole problem. Please don't What's avoid certain stores?
Kate Bendewald
Let's okay, it's about the time. By the time this this episode gets live, you know, we'll be around tax season so, but this year, we may be past the time to get to work with you. But I think it's really important that we start talking about these things very early. So thinking about what you might be experiencing right now as it relates to your taxes and preparing them and planning for them. It's now let's start planning now for 2020. Whatever it's going to be for.
Christy Taylor
Now, it will be 2023. Taxes. Yeah, in 2024. It's so it's a very confusing thing to be in taxes. I never know what year I'm talking about, like 2022 taxes. I keep forgetting it's 2023.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah. Oh my gosh. And nevermind the fact that we've all been in a time warp for the last couple of years. Oh, my gosh,
Christy Taylor
yeah. What still 2019.
Kate Bendewald
Okay, before we get into that, how did you get into this work of not just being a CPA, but you specifically have a heart for creatives and for women? And how did how did you find yourself in this role?
Christy Taylor
Um, so as far as just like accounting, I don't want to say like, I fell into it. I was always, you know, like, when we played Monopoly, I was always like the banker, any kind of like games like that. So I've definitely always been like money inclined. But when I went into college, in my mind, I was not going to do accounting, I think I wanted to major in marketing, because I wanted kind of that creative outlook and that I think I was looking at like a Graphic Design Minor. And so like, my first semester, I took a couple of business courses, and I took like an art course. And I was like, I hate all of it. And so I stuck out with my business major. My second semester of freshman year, I took my first accounting course. And it was kind of one of those classes that everyone moaned about that nobody wanted to do that everyone failed. And I was like, I love this. This is so easy, blah, blah, blah. And so I was like, Ooh, this is this is interesting. And so I really just kind of went with my gut, I always say, I think my decisions are like 80%, like overthinking Pro, conning everything out. And then at the very end, I just go with my gut. And it's been that way, you know, for picking my college or picking my major, or picking my job out of school, where, you know, you get to a point you need to think things through and then I really just kind of follow what my heart saying. So that's kind of what happened with accounting. I worked for a big firm outside of like, as soon as I graduated, did that for a couple of years, and then I got married. And what, uh, yeah, it was great. And you know, haha, my husband's not the hero of this story. It's actually my wedding videographer. And so her and I like through the course of me hiring her and just kind of like, I'm an Instagram girl through and through, like, I don't know why, but I just I connect with people on social media. And so I like, became her biggest fan, we always joke that anyone who follows her probably thinks we're childhood friends. But no, I did not know this woman until I hired her to work with me. But shortly after, so I got married in December of 2021. And she reached out and was like, she had just gone full time. She's like, Hey, can you help me with my taxes? And I was like, you know, this isn't the type of tax that I usually do. But like, let me let me look into it. See how hard it would be like, I know the basics. And long story short, we ended up filing her return I had so much fun doing. And it was kind of nice, that I realized, we're Christina. You know what, it's so funny the number of times that people come up to me and are like, I'm so excited to file my taxes. And I'm like, Yes, this is what we're going like, nobody's ever really going to have fun, but we're going to try and have as much fun as we can with it. But yeah, I just I spend a lot of time like talking to clients, probably more than I actually for, but I just get really personally invested in them and their business and I just see all the cool things they do and like feel very strongly about wanting them to succeed. And so when I went through this whole process with Jody I was her name. She was like, you should be doing this like full time and you know, I had switched over Yeah, I'd switched over it was so funny because I get I was like, Oh no, you don't need to pay me and so she started secretly taking some of my like video footage from the wedding and like putting together you know, things that I didn't pay for and she paid me for my services so it's really cute. Yeah, I got a lot of extra wedding footage out of that so that was a really cute and and that's just kind of like the vibes you know, I go for it. This point. I actually do need to make real money. So I do charge people. But I just love kind of support with my clients in any way I can whether, you know, I have one girl that sells crystals, and I've now gotten way too into crystals and can't not join her Instagram lives anymore because I spend way too much money. Or you know, I have a painter that I bought one of her like custom paintings for. And so like I said, I just I really enjoy the people I work with. And so I just kind of went with that where I was like, you know, I'll do a discovery call. I'm like, Alan, make sure we vibe. And those are the people that I hang out with. And, you know, I always, like I said, every time I'm kind of very much of if you don't feel it with me, that's fine. I'll help you whatever way I can and wish you the best of luck. And that's really kind of how I've approached things. And it's really helped me build like, such a fun community of women who have such cool ideas in their head. And I'm just so grateful that I get to help, you know, move along their success, and I can't wait to see what big things they do.
Kate Bendewald
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Kate Bendewald
Oh my gosh, I'm obsessed. And you know, we talked about this a lot, you know, how important it is to have the alignment with the kind of clients that you want to work with. And your work is so personal to like, being inside somebody's money. Intimate, it's vulnerable,
Christy Taylor
very vulnerable,
Kate Bendewald
right? People on the outside might not understand that interior design can be that way too.
Christy Taylor
I feel I can imagine I do have a very personal relationship
Kate Bendewald
with my clients who I adore. But it's like you're in their homes, which is one of the most intimate, yeah, intimate you could like, and then you're asked to sort of shape and form these spaces, obviously, I'm talking to residential designers, but then you're in their money too, right? Because you're with lots of money that is spent on something that may or may not be a necessity, right, a lot of times the work that we do is, you know, on the on the luxurious side of life, which is fun, right? I love it. And then you're also in their marriages, and you're talking about their kids and their families. And so it is a very, I'm totally derailing here, but the idea, I love it. There See you this is reinforcing this notion that how important it is to align yourself with the kind of people that you want to work with. And it's the same industries too, you know, it's not like, you know, without an electrician here, he's, by the way, he's great. He's very, he's very attuned to details and he's really considerate of how I want things to be when the renovation is done. But, you know, they'll be working together for a few weeks then we're done like, it's fine if you know, jiving
Christy Taylor
besties Yeah. We're about
Kate Bendewald
like I don't we don't I don't need to be his ice. I just need him to fix my my, my door. But when you're in this type of work, where a it's long term relationships, it's you're dealing with people's intimate aspects of their life. It is important that you're you're aligning yourself with the kind of People that you can enjoy him. So I love that you're reinforcing that. Yeah, I'm not gonna talk about taxes today.
Christy Taylor
It's fine. Well, we'll throw we'll throw a couple of things. And at the end, I have some freebies on my website if people need more information on it too, because
Kate Bendewald
I do want to I do, okay, don't talk about taxes. I want to talk about all the other things. But I but I want you because that's what you came here for. That's you're talking about whatever. I'm asking you a personal question. And you make a final answer. This is on the spot. But it has been suggested to me that I might consider switching from an LLC to a C Corp, can you? And this is a question that I've had a lot of questions around for myself on I don't know, as for CPA, do you? Do you? What's the difference? And do you ever make recommendations for your clients if they come to you with a question like that?
Christy Taylor
Yeah, so first of all, they they start an LLC to a C Corp, not an S corp.
Kate Bendewald
S Corp. Yep. See, this is why I'm not. Uh huh.
Christy Taylor
Yeah, we can talk about all of that. There's a lot of different pros and cons to like all of the different business structures. So like, by default, if you're just hanging out on your own, you're not doing anything for tax purposes, you're a sole proprietor, this basically just means you have your money. If you form an LLC, and you're the only owner for tax purposes, default, you stick with a sole proprietor, it's just for legal purposes that you then kind of get that liability protection. an S corp, I feel like, Yeah, go for it.
Kate Bendewald
So and the benefit when you speak to a lot of designers who are just starting their business, and they might have some more of those notational questions, but the reason why you would form an LLC is to protect your personal assets, like your home and car. So if you were to happen in somebody were to sue you, God forbid, your personal assets are protected. But your your business assets would be Yeah, at risk. Okay, so that helps you.
Christy Taylor
So yeah, from a tax perspective, they're the same. It's truly just a legal. And so I tell people, I'm not a lawyer, I can tell you the bare bones of it. You know, if you are an LLC, one of the most important things is to make sure that all of your business stuff, especially your business, finances are completely separate. Because if they're not, you could risk that liability protection, they could still come after your personal assets. But again, if we're just looking at it from tax perspective, a lot of people seem to think that like you need an LLC, in order to take these business deductions you don't, there's literally no difference. from a tax perspective, if you have an LLC or not, it is just a legal classification. That being said, so again, if you're on your own your sole proprietor, if you have partners with you, you're a partnership. And it doesn't matter whether or not you have that LLC classification, until you decide if you want to become an S corp. This is where I think it's a huge buzzword. And a lot of times, especially lately, people, I think, become this S corp sooner than they probably should. So what an S corp does is the way that you're currently taxed. So if we're going to take you want to be my example here, if we're saying that you right now, let's say you make $100,000, that you're taxed on, you're taxed in two different ways. The first way is your income taxes. And the second way is your self employment taxes. So as a self employed person, since you don't get that w two, you have to pay the Medicare and the Social Security taxes that would be taken out of your paycheck. And again, because you're self employed, you have to play pay the employer piece, and the employee piece, both of those together. So on that $100,000, that we're saying, that's how much you made this year, you pay 15.3%. So that's $15,000, just on the self employment taxes, we haven't even gotten into the income taxes. What an S corp allows you to do is it kind of takes it a little bit more separate, where it's not saying all of your money is coming from you like providing these services, that there's some other things that create value in your company. And as such, you are required to pay yourself what's called a reasonable compensation. That is the tax terminology. And it's basically just a fancy way of saying, if you were to hire somebody to your business, how much would you have to pay them for them to do all of the jobs that you're doing now? Or Flipside? If you decided to go work for somebody else, like how much would you have to be paid in order to be willing to like go and do that job. So let's say for instance, we decide that your reasonable salary is $50,000 a year, you now have to take that 50,000 And you become an employee of your own business. So you'd get your own w two, and through that w two we'd be paying those ployment taxes that would otherwise be self employment taxes, when you aren't an S corp. So now we have $50,000, that is a W two, that will go on to your return as w two income. And then we have the other $50,000. Because remember, we made $100,000, that's ultimately going to again, go onto your return. So from a income tax perspective, we are still paying the $100,000, it's just where do those mounts go on the return, we're just splitting it up into two rather than all having it all on one line. But that second $50,000, we're not paying any of those employment taxes on. So in this example, when I was saying, okay, only 50,000 instead of 100,000 is employment that you have to pay those employment taxes on that $7,500 That you're saving right there. The reason I think a lot of people tend to jump the gun on this is because there are some other like costs that kind of get associated with it, you have to put yourself on payroll. So usually, that requires working with a payroll company of some kind, depending on who you're working with minimum $25 a month, usually it's 45. If you're an S corp, you have to file a separate tax return that you wouldn't have to do. That's usually on my end, I find about an extra $1,000 A year right there. I also highly, highly recommend that people do a reasonable compensation study. Because if you were to get audited by the IRS, that is number one, the first thing that they're going to check. And if they decide that your reasonable salary isn't reasonable, then you could owe back taxes, you could owe penalties, that could just be a whole mess. So I always say like, you need to be in a spot where you are prepared to pay yourself a reasonable salary. And usually that ends up anywhere between, I've had people if you're only working like 10 hours a week for your business be somewhere like 15, or 20k, all the way up to people that have a PhD and are doing like very sophisticated work that are over $100,000. And I feel like there are a lot of like these fake rules out there on the internet that it's like, oh, just pay yourself half. And that's just not something that the IRS will allow. And so that's always a big thing for me that you really, really need to be working with somebody who understands the implications with your business, and making sure that it makes sense to you. You can terminate an election as an S corp, but it really kind of screws you over like long term. So I tend to for my clients, at least I do that reasonable compensation study with them. I'm like, here's where it's coming out. Do we think we can pay this? How much money are you making each year? Okay, let's do a comparison. Does it makes sense to do this now. And sometimes I always say to it's funny, because I'm an accountant. That money isn't the only like value in my decision making. Like maybe you just don't want to spend all of this extra time keeping up with the maintenance that goes along with an S corp. And maybe you know, you'd save an extra couple $100, maybe $1,000. But okay, if I don't have to think about all of these things all year long. Maybe that's worth it to me. So I like to take a very holistic approach when doing an escort. But that being said, on the flip side, I have lots of clients that I'm like, I really wish we had elected to be an escort earlier, because we're spending so much extra money on these taxes. So it's really just something that you need to like, talk through with with somebody who knows well, but yeah, they they are definitely very big buzzword right now.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah, well, at least in my algorithm, some advertisements that yeah, that are promoting this idea of like that, you know, the knee jerk reaction is like, Oh, my God, I'm spending all this unnecessary money on taxes, because I'm an LLC, or an S corp. And so I I brought this up with with my CPA recently. And she said that we would look into it, right. Like, we haven't had the chance to do that yet. But yeah, so that's kind of the the like, the reaction is, oh, my gosh, I'm spending all this extra money on taxes that I wouldn't necessarily need to but what I'm hearing from you is, let's look at this with a little bit more granular detail on your specific situation in terms of what and so it sounds like it's driven primarily by level of income, but some other factors as well. Yeah. To determine whether you're kind of at that threshold. Yeah. Okay. Now's about the time that it would be smart to switch. Okay. Can I Can I ask you some other kind of frequently asked questions that come up for designers in our group. Okay. One of the big questions is like, how do I budget for paying my taxes. And I don't know how familiar you are with the interior design business model. But for a lot of designers, there's big influxes of income. And a lot of times it shows up as a liability in forms of like retainer money that gets drawn out over time. And so, you know, for us, it's very important to kind of look at your money more in quarters, versus month over month. So all of this can make planning for paying your taxes, we'll get to how to pay your taxes in a minute, if you could touch on that. But how does someone start the process of planning and saving for their tax liabilities? Yeah,
Christy Taylor
that's a really good question. And a really good point that I have one new interior designer client, but I actually haven't gone through her return yet. But it definitely makes sense that you guys would kind of have that back in flow, I definitely have a lot that are kind of like seasonal, you know, wedding professionals and things like that. So that's very common that I see. too, to answer your question, there's kind of two pieces that are coming to my mind. First off, for the most part, anyone that's going to be paying their taxes is going to be what's called a cash basis, taxpayer. And that's just a fancy way of saying that you pay taxes as the money comes in, and you get the deductions as you spend the money. So, whereas yes, that retainer is 100% a liability like bookkeeping purposes, you're doing it right. For tax purposes, if you have that money, they want it. So yeah, it's great. It's good fun. So that's just something to keep in mind. And you know, going a little bit off the rails, that's something to consider, especially like, if you get into December, that if somebody's paying you a retainer in December, like can they wait until January 1, because you're not going to be paying taxes on that. If you wait until the next year? Or flipside, if you have certain expenses that you want to be you know, you're about to spend in January, can we get those a week earlier, and take the deduction for it now. So there's definitely ways that you can kind of get around those things. Would that be true? If you're on an accrual basis? That would not be true if you were on an accrual basis? Are you on an accrual basis?
Kate Bendewald
So I don't I have to ask every time we have this conversation, I'm like, Wait, what am I doing? Yeah, right. In fact, I just told the story recently, in an episode where we're talking about money with Richard or it's, you know, years ago, I ran into this issue where I had accepted retainer money in December, my aunt and I, but it didn't, excuse me, I invoiced them. I did not, yeah, use a retainer. And so it was on my books at the end of the year as 50 grand and extra Yeah. And then that money didn't come out of the bank account until January. So there was, you know, from an income liability perspective, I was taxed on that extra income. And so we had to, you know, it all came out in the wash. But
Christy Taylor
these are, it does, it's all timing, but you know, if you can play the timing game to your benefit, sometimes, you know, that's nice. But to me, yeah, you are right, that it's going to be either this year or next year. It's not like you're avoiding the tax, it's just when you're paying it. But all that being said, the other kind of important piece to know, are kind of how estimated taxes work. So if you are going to owe more than $1,000 in taxes come April, you are supposed to pay in quarterly estimated taxes. There's kind of two different ways that I tell clients, they can usually go. The first is there's what's called a quote, Safe Harbor, which basically just means as long as you're paying this much, you're not gonna have penalties and interest, even if you owe taxes come April, there's not going to be that extra kind of penalty. That's just 100% of what you owed last year. So if you owed $10,000, in taxes last year, we divide that by four and we paid $2,500 Each month each quarter, excuse me. That's usually just what I tell people. Just make sure you're paying in at least that much. If you want to avoid like those penalties and interest. I also have people that are like, I didn't pay any estimated taxes. And I'm always like, it's okay. Don't stress about it. Most people have no idea again, nobody just tells you that you need to do these things. And so I had a client, for instance, that just owed like $30,000 in taxes. And I think her penalties were like $700 So I mean, you know, like they they aren't super big. But that's usually where I'm like, let's try and get into a habit of paying at least in 100% of last year's tax. So that's kind of piece number one. and usually from there,
Kate Bendewald
he's number one is to go ahead and estimate and just pay something. Every Yes. Even if you don't know that it's correct. You got it. Okay. Yeah, so
Christy Taylor
pay in based on last year. So like I said, if you're looking at how much you owed last year was $10,000. And that's like before your payments. So whatever your total taxes is paying that much to get yourself protected from those penalties and interest, it's not a huge deal if you don't, but that's kind of like best practice. The other side is people very often are like, how much should I like be setting aside and there's kind of two pieces to this. A lot of times if you work with a CPA, they can do estimated tax calculations. I personally, I might be in the minority. I personally think most people don't need them. If you're working with a bookkeeper. I feel like it's just an extra way for CPAs to get bored, buddy, I don't know. I do. You know, I'm not going to spend your money if if I don't think it's worth it. But usually, if you're looking at where you come out, at the end of the month, in your bookkeeping, on your income statement, if you're saving, it depends, again, like what structure you are, if you're an S corp, whatever, usually 30 ish percent is kind of like a safe amount to put aside. And I'll have people put those in a different bank account, just kind of acknowledge them as like this is set aside for taxes, some people want to go ahead and pay it in and go for it. I don't think there's anything wrong with that unless you're going to be like investing that money somewhere to make way more money. But that's usually kind of how I tell people is let's go ahead and pay and your minimums based on how much you had last year. And then let's set aside 30% based on like how your bookkeeping is looking up, I personally will go through and kind of do like a little gut check, make sure that everything's kind of looking good with my clients that they're not doing someone real bizarre. But like, if you're looking at working with a bookkeeper, like they nine out of 10 times will kind of help you along with that. And then again, I usually just try and be a sounding board if somebody has questions, or if something weird is going on. And they're like, Hey, how does this impact? That's kind of where I'd like to come in, rather than every quarter kind of going through and being like, you have to pay this much. I just, I don't see the value add there. It takes a lot of my time. And as a result, it takes a lot of your money. And I don't want to do that unless it makes sense.
Kate Bendewald
easier way to do it that makes a lot of Yeah, yeah. When I was, you know, doing regular client work, one of my, my money habits that I had to build in it. I didn't in the early days, but it really Yeah, once I did was do two things. Well, okay, three things, I'll see if I can remember all of this, by the time I get this, one of them. One is, when I'm putting together a proposal, there is always in the back of my mind, a little bit of like, there's some tax on top of this, right? This is not all money that goes into your pocket. So think about that number, you might just start adding on a little bit more to your proposals to account for the taxes. And, you know, yes, that money has to be taxed, too. But that is, if you're trying to meet certain financial goals, this can be something to consider, yeah, second, every retainer or invoice for services or goods, whatever the case may be that gets provided to you. The habit that I always had was, let's take a little bit of this and push it over this account. So every time there was a little bit of money, you know, going sometimes, but forgot, I took a big chunk and just push it over here, there was not a lot of times, but it works,
Christy Taylor
you try your best. That's not what most people are doing.
Kate Bendewald
And I'm gonna restate this again, I'm a prophet first practitioner, but not to the nth degree, I practice that a little loosely, I do keep multiple bank accounts. And if those who are listening, if this is new to you, Profit First the model is to pay yourself first and whatever's left over. That's how much money you have to run your business on. But the three bank accounts that I have as a checking account for operations expenses, a checking account for I call it a trust account. And so that's for client purchasing. So if a client gives me money or company money to buy product on their behalf, that money goes into that account, and that's separate, and then I have a savings account, and that is for taxes. That is for income taxes, sales tax stays in that trust account, because that's all kind of spurred monthly. Yeah, you know, sort of Yeah. So anyway, that's how visually in my mind, I keep that money organized as the savings account is for taxes. So if every time you get paid, you put just a little bit of money towards that. You could start to one just feel more secure that you've got money in there and so Well, even if it is a little more, you're not starting with nothing. Right, and you can pay the difference. But it's just a good habit to get into.
Christy Taylor
Yeah, I do have like, two thoughts as you were saying that one as it relates to taxes, I also always tell people, I feel like people get really, really scared to like file their taxes, they're like, I'm going to owe so much money and like tend to avoid it. There's, first of all, there's two different penalties. One is for a failure to file and one's for failure to pay. So like you can avoid extra penalties, even if you don't pay anything just by filing. And kind of on a related note for that, I think a lot of people are like terrified that they're just like, gonna go bankrupt from paying their taxes that they don't have money for. The IRS does like a lot of work with that, you can get an installment plan, if you're really just kind of screwed. They do these things called offers and compromise where you could potentially like settle for less. These are all things that I don't really do too much of it. But like CPA specializes in these kinds of things. So I always tell people like Just don't be afraid, I think the IRS is bark is worth it's in their bite, mainly because they kind of have to live on like this fear tactic, because they are so underfunded, that that's the only way to get anyone to do anything. But if you aren't afraid of them, and you kind of come at it from a perspective of you know, finding a solution rather than like, fearing like Big Brother coming down on you, which by the way, the IRS cannot send you to jail. A number of people that have been like, I think the IRS is gonna do them, like know that. But anyways, that's kind of like a really important thing to me that I'm like, whatever you think your financial situation is, it's probably not nearly as bad as you think it is. Just find somebody that you trust, you know, it might take some time, it might take some money, it might suck. But it's it's not as bad as you probably think it is. So that's piece number one, he's number two, and you were just kind of talking about pricing is another thing that I feel like very strongly about, of people just like not either feeling guilty for charging, like high prices, or like not charging enough. Either way, it's like I had a client. She's the painter, and she like made, I don't know, just a tiny little canvas. And she's like, Oh, I'll send you one. I was like, all into sweet like, you don't need to she's like, Oh, no, it's fine. It took me like five minutes, just like don't tell, don't tell my customers. And I'm like, Girl, it took you five minutes. But it took you 25 years to learn how to paint that in five minutes. And so I'm a very strong believer, one of my favorite phrases is know your worth, then add tax. So it was just really funny that you and you were talking about pricing that you were saying add a little bit on top of that. Because I truly believe that you know, the other thing with pricing too, sometimes we're afraid to do it because we're like, we'll get less work. And I'm like, well, if I'm doing less work for more money, then I'm getting the same amount of money. For least work. Oh, yeah. So it's okay, the name of the game isn't to get all of the customers, it's to get the right customers for you that value the pricing that you're setting for them. I have people tell me all the time, like, oh, I can't afford that. I'm like, totally understand. Here's some other options. I wish you the best of luck. I very much am not for like trying to convince people of my value. So yeah, when you're setting those prices, consider your taxes and be cool with it. You worked hard to charge that amount.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and let's be clear, we're never selling our services. We're never trying to convince somebody, we're simply trying to convey the value that we bring. Yeah,
Christy Taylor
that's a good point. And,
Kate Bendewald
and ensuring that it's an alignment with the person that you're talking to. And and you you would want to be in a relationship with somebody who is in alignment anyway. Otherwise, it's just going to be a struggle, if your work doesn't value you. And I've been there I I've worked with people in the past, who you know, once you're into the relationship, and like, it's really interesting where this dynamic is shaking out. So I thought we could talk about so much. I want to ask one sort of tax related question. And then I'd love it probably the most important question of the day. But we'll save that for the end. So when it comes to write offs, there, there are many of them. In fact, you have a download available, and we're going to make sure that we provide the link so that people can go to your website and can get that. What's the name of of it, the one about right off.
Christy Taylor
I think it's 75 Plus write offs somewhere like that. There's a couple of them. I haven't really great marketing agency that makes them I cannot take credit. But it is a good it's a good freebie.
Kate Bendewald
I love it. So are there a couple that you might speak to that are maybe little known right offs or underutilized or maybe something that you might that business owners might be surprised to know Oh, that's a write off?
Unknown Speaker
Um, yes and no, I
Kate Bendewald
think that is it something that they might be writing off that you like, oh, I don't think we can hawks this year.
Speaker 1
Oh my gosh, it yeah, there, there are some interesting things. So I will speak to I guess a couple things. First of all, one of the biggest things that I often see are personal expenses. So there's, in terms of things that like you can't write off, for instance, pretty much everything is potentially write off a bowl Ha, unless the IRS specifically says otherwise, it's kind of the first moral to that story. And one of the things that the IRS very distinctly says otherwise about are some of these kind of like, personal expenses that we could like, say, so for instance, personal grooming. So like, if you're, you know, doing these podcasts, and you're like, Oh, well, this is a business expense, because I need to look good, or, you know, haven't getting your manicures done, because they're in your Instagram reels or whatever the IRS explicitly says no, to those I know, it kills me because every time I'm like, come on, but their argument, same thing, I have a lot of people that will try and like right off clothes, and be like, Oh, I needed this clothes for the business, if it's something that you can, like, reasonably have for like everyday use, like you're not, you know, wearing these, like 10 inch nails that are specific for some, I don't know, like music video, or God knows what. They're not right off the ball. And I feel like a lot of times people try and do like little things like that, that are definitely like some workarounds. So like, for instance, with the clothes if you put your logo on it, okay, now that becomes an advertising expense or something like that. So, but that's the biggest one that I think I tend to see. All that being said, as far as like what you can write off? It always depends on your situation. I feel like it's a very stereotypical accounting answer to say, quote, It depends. But that's the truth of it. Is it really, you know, the IRS is definition is what is reasonable and ordinary. And those are very vague definitions that courts over time have allowed a lot of different things. So one of my favorite examples that was allowed for the taxpayer to take a deduction for was cat food. And if you think about that, you're like, why can you get a deduction for cat food? But when I tell you in the context of this was a like junkyard, and they use the cats to keep away other animals, okay, now that cat becomes a business deduction. So all that Yeah. Can you imagine a business, a business? I just imagined it and its little suit like getting ready for war. Yes. So yes, but if like anyone else was going to try and do that the IRS would be like, No way. So I usually just say, again, work with your accountant. And also a little bit of it depends on like your risk tolerance. So for instance, with that cat food deduction, like clearly on like face value, this does not seem like a reasonable deduction. And so they had to go to court over that. And so that's something that you need to consider too, like, is this like, going to be a huge expense that, you know, the IRS might question and like you're gonna have to fight for is it really worth it? And sometimes I think it is, I have a client who's a home Baker, and they're in the middle of a kitchen remodel. And so I'm looking into ways with them that like, okay, usually you can't just write off your kitchen remodel as business expense. But if I say she's spending 80% of the time in that kitchen, doing business work, like Okay, let's see what we can do there. So there's a lot of like, normal things that, you know, if you're using this for business, I always tell people or my clients that I would rather you send me more information and if I'm like, What on earth is this, we can kind of talk about it. But there's a lot more than you think, you know, like your home, you can write off a portion if you're sitting there sitting at your desk like I am right now, that's a home office deduction, and I can get things like rent, house cleaning, we have a cleaner that comes once a month utilities all those things can become partial business expenses, same with your phone. I'm trying to think if there's anything else off the top of my head, but yeah, I mean, anything that is truly like related to your business, you need documentation behind it. That's that's the key thing here. But I would rather somebody be like, Well, what about this, then not tell me because I want you to pay less in taxes. All the rich people out there are paying less in taxes. So let's take advantage of the rules. is always my opinion, my approach on it, where we're going to do this legally, we're going to do things that make sense. One of the other things that I love doing is telling people to hire their spouse or hire their children. Um, because if you're hiring your spouse, and you guys go out to eat and you are genuinely I don't know, if you're like me, I talked to my husband about my business all the time. He does little like things. He works in like operations. So he'll help me with some of the behind the scenes things. And then when we go out to dinner for date night to like, talk about that I write that off as a business expense. And that is a valid business expense, it absolutely is. Same thing with your kids.
Kate Bendewald
No, finish the kids when because I know. Okay, my kids are gonna be 10 this week. I'm like, How old?
Christy Taylor
No, yeah, they can be do it. So I want to say it's about $13,000. Now that if you're paying your kids, I mean, again, need to go through the process of doing it legitimately. But they Pay Zero Taxes on that $13,000. So that's called income shifting, where you're just taking your case $26,000 off of your income, giving it to them, and now we're not paying any taxes on it. So there are things that you can do that are legitimate and benefit you. But I think a lot of times people don't go about those types of things in the right way. Again, like we need that documentation, you can't just say that you're paying your husband pay him like one time 20 bucks and say every dinner from here on out is now a tax deduction. So that's kind of like the line of you know, really planning and thinking about things from like a tax perspective, can help save you money. And it's hard to like, get into that mindset, without having somebody to kind of feed off of those, like, what about this? So
Kate Bendewald
you know, one of the things that I'm always surprised that people don't realize is a tax write off, but education is specific to your designers always says, If you have ever if you've joined the membership, if you've ever purchased any of our templates, those are all business expenses that Yep, that you can write off. So that's, you know, and I'm, I'm always taught that business development Yeah, anymore. But here's I've taken so many courses and had coaching. Those are, are considered business expenses.
Christy Taylor
The challenge is to keep keep your documentation. Oh, well, look, you know, we talked about taxes.
Christy Taylor
We talked about some good stuff in taxes, man, you got me to talk about my cat story. I love that.
Kate Bendewald
This is fine. Okay. But the most important thing I have to ask, I noticed that and this is why I was like, Okay, I just want to be best friends with her. Like Taylor Swift Fan. Yes.
Christy Taylor
This is where we're going. Oh, my God. Oh, I'm going I'm going to three different cuts. Yeah. So I don't I actually I was like a sociopath. I was like, literally spent two days buying up as many tickets as I could for like different people. Because I was weirdly good. I don't know what it is about, like online sales, but I'm like on it. So I got like 20 Different tickets. I gave a bunch away at like face value to people who didn't get them or like my friends or things like that. So yeah, it was it brought me it brought me so much joy. I was just very angry at the fact that like other people weren't getting tickets. But I digress. So my main concert is in Boston, that's where I'm located. I have like floor seats, like, you know the little like diamond shape that she has coming out if you've seen like the stage. I'm like, literally front row right by the diamond. So I could cry. But you're like, I could cry to see her cuticles. Okay. I hope so. i That's. Yeah, no, I'm actually like, I've never seen her lie. Which is insane. Because anybody who knows me knows that I'm obsessed with her. Like my husband put her lyrics in our wedding vows like lover was our first dance like I have. I have Taylor Swift obsession. That's actually Jody. So again, going all the way back through. Yeah.
Kate Bendewald
I haven't actually engaged engaged to me, but you're supposed to be with a paper ring. One of my favorite songs.
Christy Taylor
Yeah, that's so yeah. No, I have
Kate Bendewald
any was impatient and so it we were having like a cute date night and he really wanted to propose me to jump the research. He showed me the love. Originally,
Christy Taylor
I was like, Are you amazing? Amazing. Like, mentally? It was supposed to be Yeah. Yeah. So actually, Jody, who is my wedding videographer that got me into doing these types of taxes and then my wedding planner was all we were all huge Swifties and there is an amazing video of the three of us. like dancing to bad blood at my wedding. And I was so sad because my wedding planner just did Jodi just got married less than a month ago, I was invited and I just couldn't swing it. And we were like, Oh, we're gonna do it again. So yeah, I find that Taylor Swift is like the universal connector. Like, if you can at least respect Taylor Swift will be cool. So the Taylor haters that have to be like, I got my eye on you. But yeah, so I'm going in Boston. And then one of my best friends just had a baby. I actually talked about this all the time, because it's really funny. Going back to taxes I used to joke to her baby was due I think, January 5, and if you know anything about taxes, whatever exists on like, December 31, whether it'd be marriage or baby that counts for the whole year. So it was like, you need your baby to be born before the new year so we can get the tax credits. I'm not kidding. This baby was born at 6pm on December 31.
Christy Taylor
No, she was not induced. And we were just sitting there like, I cannot I cannot she texted me the next morning. I was like, No way. No way. This is real. I was joking about it for literally months. But anyways, so my birthday, they're in Atlanta. And she's in South Carolina. So that's closest, so I'm flying down there to go see her. She was She decided that she couldn't leave the baby. So her mom and the baby are gonna come and stay in a separate hotel room while we concert, which I'm so excited about. And then I happened to be in Chicago for a family wedding.
Christy Taylor
She's like, I know, priorities straight.
Christy Taylor
The important things. No, it was so funny. Because we were looking to it, like where the breastfeeding room was. And she's like, Oh, my God, it's like, right next door section. It was like meant to be we're gonna drink mocktails on a it's gonna be great. So yeah, I'm excited about that. And then Chicago for a family wedding. So I'm going that's the one that my husband's going to, to actually the Boston when he was supposed to come with me too. And that was another one that was like the day that everyone was freaking out. And it was another random person that through a Facebook group that I met in that was like, Please help me. I was like, well, if it's just you, you take my husband's ticket. So we're now best friends. Her name's Julia, and she
Kate Bendewald
always comes back at we'll have so much fun at all three, you're Taylor. I haven't checked back with one of my clients. The day that tickets went on sale. She was we had a meeting and she could hardly like focus on the meeting. Yeah, one eye on the computer screen.
Christy Taylor
You know, people were asking me left and right. And I tried as hard as I could to spread the wealth. But that was a disaster of a day.
Kate Bendewald
You got a talent there too. So next, ticket sales might just yeah, you know, and it was definitely different. And I love that about I love you. I feel like I said any friend, I want to Big shout out to Jackie for introducing us. Okay, before we go, where can people find you online and on Instagram. And by the way, you're so good, you're gonna go follow her.
Christy Taylor
Again, perks, props to my marketing company. They're phenomenal. But my Instagram is Christy Taylor, CPA, and saying My website is Christy Taylor cpa.com Yeah, I've just really into Instagram and all that stuff. I've actually been trying to avoid it because I need to get people's returns done. But by the end, probably by the time this comes out, I'll like be more hype on Instagram, I usually say like, my feed is very like professional. And then if you go into my stories, you'll it will be an adventure of what shows up in there. Sometimes their tax topics and sometimes you're gonna hear about Taylor Swift. You never know what you're gonna get, like a box of chocolates.
Kate Bendewald
You are such a light and I'm just so grateful. Found that you are in alignment with not only the work that you're supposed to be doing, but with the people you're supposed to be helping people like you. So I appreciate it. I think this is gonna be a popular episode. And I'm so thrilled let our listeners have had the chance to listen and hear. So go get your download, go go check out her download about deductions, then go follow her on Instagram. And then if you're a CPA or need some help with an area, reach out to her start with a discovery call. Whatever your process is for getting started. I'm sure you've got it all laid out on your beautiful website.
Kate Bendewald
I would love to have you back. Oh, well, Godspeed for the rest of this tax season. And I'll see you on the
Christy Taylor
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Have a great rest of your day.
Kate Bendewald
Thank you so much for letting me spend part of this day with you. If you're loving this podcast, please share it with a friend who you think might also love it. Or perhaps you can take just 30 seconds to open your podcast. First app and leave us a five star rating. And if you have just an extra minute, go ahead and leave a review. This helps me so much and it helps other designers like you to find the podcast. It also adds fuel to my motivation to keep making great episodes just for you. However you choose to help. Please know I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time.
