E100 - From Hobby to Recession-Proof Business: Finance Tips Every Entrepreneur Needs (feat. Stephen Lott)

• Are you really running a business—or just funding a glorified hobby?
•  Wondering how to recession-proof your entrepreneurial dreams?
•  Curious about what it takes to build a business that won’t crumble during economic shifts?

In this milestone 100th episode of the Kitchen Table Dreams podcast, Kimberly Houston is joined by the brilliant Stephen Lott (aka @StevetheFinanceGuy), a financial strategist and professor who keeps it real about what it takes to build a business with staying power. 

This episode is a masterclass in cash flow, pricing, risk management, and why your business needs an investment strategy—even if you're not a millionaire yet.

Stephen and Kimberly unpack:

• The power of a PESTLE analysis for entrepreneurs
• What most business owners get wrong about pricing
• How to build your investment portfolio before hitting 7 figures
• Why “building the plane in the air” is costing you more than you think
• And how to move from hustle to sustainability (Kimberly shares her real journey after an unexpected injury forced her to pivot)

This episode is packed with raw insight, mindset shifts, and practical strategies to help you run your business like the CEO you actually are.

🎧 LISTEN NOW and take notes—you’re gonna need them.

🔗 Want more support?
 Learn more about the Baking My Way to 6 Figures Mastermind: https://www.teachmehowtobake.com/mastermind

📲 Connect with Stephen: @SteveFinanceGuy on Instagram

💬 Leave a comment and tell us: what’s one money move you’re making after this episode?

Visit https://nutrimill.com/KTD for $20.00 off your next purchase of a Bosch mixer or Nutrigrain Flour Mill

Transcript

Kimberly Houston (00:01.118)
Hello friends and welcome to the 100th episode of the Kitchen Table Dreams podcast. I am super excited that you guys are here. I know you're going to be excited because today we have a special guest. We will be talking to Steve, the finance guy, and we are getting into all things finance and entrepreneurship. So y'all know me, y'all know how we roll. You might as well have your notebook and your pen out because I guarantee you're going to need to take some notes. So Steve, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?

Stephen Lott (00:29.294)
I'm excited. I'm excited for you, right? you know, happy 100th, right? know, the episode, such a big deal. Like, people quit after three.

Kimberly Houston (00:36.17)
Thank you.

Kimberly Houston (00:40.489)
It's, they do. It is a lot. It is a lot. And when I was realizing this was going to be 100, I was like, oh, this couldn't be more perfect. It just, could not be more perfect to talk about the things nobody wants to talk about. When it comes to entrepreneurship and as a coach and as a business strategist, that's the first thing people ask me. And I'm like, well.

let's look at the numbers, but people don't ever want to look at the numbers and look at what the data is telling them. And it becomes emotional. It becomes personal. And I'm like, this is not emotional guys. Let's look at the numbers. You could be doing something in your business you don't need to. So I'm super excited that we can have this conversation, chatting with entrepreneurs and kind of like helping them understand, particularly in this climate under this administration.

How do you move? How do you move forward? And make sure that your business actually succeeds, right? And so one of the things that I remember from 2020 when COVID hit was the pivot. Like that word, I was like, if y'all don't stop saying this, but it was, everybody needed to pivot. And I was like in the height of my business in 2020.

the day that we went into quarantine that I will never forget Friday, March 13th, my business plan was approved to open this destination bakery in Atlanta. And I'm talking bells and whistles like trains going around the top of the bakery. It was going to be all the things. And that is the day it was approved. And then the next day we went into quarantine. And I was like, I don't.

I don't know that this is going to happen. don't think it's going to happen. And in the pivot, it didn't happen, but that's okay. In the pivot of all of that was when I tapped into my strengths and I was like, I'm an educator and I like to teach. And so everything just went online for me. So instead of, like I tried the whole Uber eats of it all, like people could still place orders for cookies and I just left them on their porch.

Stephen Lott (02:45.773)
Yes.

Kimberly Houston (03:03.37)
That was fun because I didn't have to talk to people, but it wasn't sustainable, right? And so over the last five years, I have created multiple iterations of what the baking industry could look like on the digital landscape. And I'm like, people can't pay me to go back into a kitchen to do anything now. Once I realized I had transferable skills, right?

Stephen Lott (03:06.68)
Sure, sure, sure.

Stephen Lott (03:20.28)
Sure.

Kimberly Houston (03:32.956)
And one piece of the transferable skills was learning how to look at money and not feel a certain type of way about it. And that was hard. I did, and it took a minute to get there, right? But I don't want to, one of my things as a coach is I want to make it easier for other people. I don't want it to take people five years to get to the point of being okay with looking at their money.

Stephen Lott (03:32.974)
Absolutely.

Stephen Lott (03:40.492)
Yes.

Stephen Lott (03:44.76)
You got it though, you got it.

Stephen Lott (03:55.022)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Houston (04:02.076)
So I definitely want us to have that conversation on as an entrepreneur. I guess we'll start here. What would be your thoughts on how to effectively manage cashflow in your business, particularly when we're looking at like tariffs and we're looking at the cost of eggs and like, you know, just the rising cost of life in general.

What would be your thoughts on how entrepreneurs can successfully navigate this climate?

Stephen Lott (04:37.464)
That's a great first question. It's like hit them hard. Hit them hard early.

It's important to know where your business fits in the current landscape of economy.

with like at all, right? Where do you fit in economy? So if you are a baker for say, right? How does food costs affect economy? How does that affect you? And then how does that affect your customers? Understanding who your target audience is, right? How much money do they make? So then if your target audience is broke people, then the economy is going to affect them first, right?

Kimberly Houston (05:23.498)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (05:25.149)
If you're a target, if you are selling a luxury product, then you may be the first to go out of someone's budget. So it's really just really and we and what in the analysis that's perfect for that is called a Pestil analysis. So if you ever heard of a Pestil, those are, know, that's what I tell people all the time. Right. I want, you know, we have to know what the external factors and how that impact us. Right. Internally. Right. What are the

Kimberly Houston (05:32.959)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (05:54.358)
current external factors, right? So what is a P? P stands for political. E stands for economics. then, you know, within P, what laws are coming, what tariffs are coming, right? So you have to really be aware of the external factors. it's not to say that it won't happen, but what happens in business is that we don't even take things in consideration.

So we don't even ask the question. So you may be safe, but you need to know how safe are you.

Kimberly Houston (06:27.796)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (06:29.192)
Right. Right. So, you know, that's risk mitigation. Those are things that right that we have to, you know, economic, the social climate, what is it to take to technology climate, meaning what's going on in the world? How is AI affecting your business? Right. You know, all the different things like that. So I think I think a pest analysis was my favorite tool that I did that I didn't even learn until I got to my MBA program. And I was like, man, what is this? You know, this is.

Kimberly Houston (06:54.889)
Good.

Stephen Lott (06:55.47)
This seems like the most important thing in the world, right? But these are things that I'm sure that 90 % of people just don't know. And you take a second and you go through those things, right? So yeah, that's kind of what I would, you I will put that analysis in and then be able to then answer those questions. Each acronym, right, right? Each letter, right? Which is P, I mean, I'll say it if you guys need it, but know, say, we'll be taking notes.

Kimberly Houston (07:22.302)
Yes, we do. Please lay it out. Lay it all out.

Stephen Lott (07:25.134)
They should be taking notes right now. I'm teasing. But no, so a pastel, right? It is P. P-E-S-T-L-E, right? And so P stands for political, E stands for economic, S stands for social, T stands for technology or whatever. then, you know.

L is legal, which can kind of blend with political sometimes. And then E is like environmental. like, and you know, people get kind of confused with environmental, but it's really pretty much like what atmosphere changes, right, could impact the business relationship. You know what mean? Is anything going on outside, right? Meaning environmental says, if I'm a landscaping business,

doing business in the Midwest, right, should be a factor because there's more snow than it is, So are there external environmental factors that affect should I open this business or not or should I be doing this or not? So those are examples and stuff like that.

Kimberly Houston (08:36.306)
No, I love that. And this will be in your show notes. I promise. There will be a link down below because listen, Educators Unite. I am all for people being fully engaged and aware in what it looks like to be a business owner and not a glorified hobbyist. And that was one of the hardest things to learn. I took an entrepreneurship course at Cornell and on the first day,

Stephen Lott (08:42.478)
is

Kimberly Houston (09:05.066)
Our professor was like, so if you get hurt in your business tomorrow, who's going run it?

And we were like, what? And she was like, if the answer is nobody, you have a very expensive.

Stephen Lott (09:18.05)
You have a hustle. You have a job.

Kimberly Houston (09:20.006)
She was like, that is not a business. And I was like, that, okay. It is hard. And that was like, I think the first time that it like clicked in my brain, I had been in business for like 10 years at this point. And it clicked in my brain that it was like, hold on. Like, no, for real, if I get hurt, what's going to happen? And lo and behold, eight weeks later, I got hurt. It had to close my business.

Stephen Lott (09:24.906)
It'll It'll hurt. Absolutely.

Kimberly Houston (09:47.24)
But because she said that to me, there was a backup plan already in place where if anything were to happen, I had already put the succession planning in place. And so I actually ended up making more money when I did get injured because I already had a plan in place, right? But I'm like, most people don't. Like most people, when we think about risk management or risk mitigation as entrepreneurs, we're thinking money.

Stephen Lott (10:01.24)
Good?

Kimberly Houston (10:17.502)
We're thinking, do I have enough savings to get things done and not necessarily, what is the cost of your body while you're doing this? Like my hands don't work the way that they should. I have 30 % strength in my hands. It will never be more than that, right? And I'm like, as a chef, yeah, I need my hands. I can't cut it. you know, like this isn't, okay, this isn't gonna work, right? So you make that pivot into what you can do.

Stephen Lott (10:31.692)
Right.

Stephen Lott (10:38.062)
at least 50.

Kimberly Houston (10:46.89)
And I think that we wait until something like that happens that forces you out. And then you go back and you look at your money and you're like, man, there are other things I should have been doing in order to prepare for this financially. So if we're looking at, and like we just gonna keep it a book. We're looking at this climate and it is tanking right now, right? Economically.

It feels like you're doing it on purpose. And so when we look at this, it's like, OK, how do you as a small business owner not freak out? Right? Because if we operate out of fear, we get scary results. So how do we not freak out? And how do we begin to look at very concrete evidence of where we are in business when it comes to finances? What are things we should be doing?

Stephen Lott (11:22.676)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Houston (11:41.584)
right now because we never know. Like every day there's a new executive order, right? Like at this point we have no idea what we're going to wake up to. And so like what's the advice you would give a small business owner who, one, the people who are just ignoring it and they're just like business as usual and they're going to wait until it's no longer business as usual versus the people who may be overly anxious.

about and you're thinking about everything like what's the most important things we should be focused on right now.

Stephen Lott (12:13.934)
man. So I would say talk. I would say understanding, really understanding who your target audience is. Right. Because now because business, we're in the business of sales. So business business of sales. So then so then you have to protect the money you make. Right. Protect the money you make. And you do that by understanding who the really diving in, like especially right now. Right. Who could

Kimberly Houston (12:28.287)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (12:42.85)
the who could all of these new executive orders, who could they really impact? Right? And if it's your customers in any way, then you got to figure out how to offer something else. You have to figure out how to, you know, maybe pivot to something else. You want to, reason why COVID really affected a lot of people is because of lack of financial analysts, right? That's why they have financial analysts and business analysts in jobs.

because our job as an analyst is to look at, is to be predictors of the future. So based off of current climate, based off past data, based off of where the world is going. So we have to be able to come in and say, hey, this is what's going on. And so obviously as entrepreneurs, we don't have those. So then you've got to be that. But you've got to know you have to be that. You have to know you have to spend time taking that.

taking that day and be like, what is going on in the world? I would definitely say at this point, we need to put away a certain percentage. I always tell my clients is that your business, a certain percentage of your business should go into saving, but then with that saving, you use that to invest. So the best business is invest in other businesses.

Kimberly Houston (14:05.45)
you

Stephen Lott (14:06.082)
So then if you don't want to be a victim of the market, then you need to be a part of the market. So then part of your revenue has to go into the market. If the market is crashing, then your revenue will be right in it. You know, hitting that button to hit down so you can be making money as the market crashes too.

You don't want to fall with it. You want to be on it. And so those are the smartest businesses, the ones that invest in other businesses and invest in the ones that we anticipate that's going to increase and the ones that's going to drop. So those are things. Those are strategies that I look at is where I'm challenging my business owners to be more understand economics a little bit more.

Kimberly Houston (14:57.438)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (14:58.688)
understand how your business fits within the, you know, within the economy and really like have a vulnerable conversation with yourself because this is not emotional, right? It's going to happen, right? Or something's going to happen and you just got to just be prepared. And I think COVID, COVID, if COVID didn't teach us anything that we need to ensure that we are more prepared, right? For any, for any type of natural disaster, right?

Kimberly Houston (15:10.792)
If

Stephen Lott (15:25.97)
no matter what's going on in the administration, your business needs to be almost recession proof, if you will, right, for that, for that. So yeah, absolutely. I hope that helped.

Kimberly Houston (15:36.828)
It does help. That is the first time I've even, that anyone has even said that to me. Like I'm thinking about all the conversations I've had with coaches in the past. Nobody has ever told me to take a part of a percentage of my business earnings and invest it into others. That always felt like something you do when you hit like millionaire status, that you become an investor of others. And so to hear you say that, I was like, wait, what?

Stephen Lott (15:39.182)
Thank

Stephen Lott (16:05.73)
No, your business should have an investment portfolio. just think about how you want to grow your... Another segment of your revenue should be growing profit from your revenue. Don't just rely on sales. The sales is too fidgety, is too much, people have down months, people are up and down. You can't rely on sales. So you want to take a percentage of that money and invest in something that you...

as you feel more confident relying in. So now you have different revenue streams. where one revenue, we're just saying, hey, these are my direct sales. This is my indirect revenue, right? To where you're watching cash kind of grow and ask money. And the reason why business are best positioned to do so, because most business owners get paid more often than regular people. So business owners are more positioned to make those investments than...

regular person and their money should grow exponentially faster than the normal people because they gotta wait every two weeks.

Kimberly Houston (17:11.498)
That's incredible and now I'm sitting here like, right, so we're gonna start building out our investment portfolio because what? No one's literally ever said that to me. And it's one of the things that's on my bucket list of things to do. Or I'm like, no, I'm gonna become a millionaire and then I'm gonna invest.

Clearly, it's indefinitely

Stephen Lott (17:33.55)
Yeah, I promise you, it isn't like mind blowing. It's a strategy, right? And so what happens is in business is that we don't associate ourselves with big businesses. See, this is the real issue is that our corporations don't, we don't associate ourselves with large corporations, but it's the same thing. Everything is just scaled. Money is scaled. What I do with $1, I do the same with a million dollars. It's the same thing. You know what mean? So it's this principle, right?

Kimberly Houston (17:58.026)
Yeah.

Stephen Lott (18:02.158)
is percentage based. 10 % of your dollar is say, I'm to invest 10 cents into this instead of a thousand, right? But the strategies remain the same.

Kimberly Houston (18:14.282)
That's clearly going to be another conversation. Or if you decide you're going to have another rant on Instagram about this, make sure you tag me so I can make sure I share it with my people because that's good. Look, I love me learning on the podcast. I tell you, this is lovely for me. That is wild. I literally would have never thought it. OK, so while we're on the percentage of what this revenue could look like, right?

Stephen Lott (18:22.766)
I guess.

Stephen Lott (18:31.128)
Yeah.

Kimberly Houston (18:43.306)
What would your thoughts be on how people can make their money make sense? One, if you're like, there's no way I could do that. I need every single dollar that comes in to pay my bills. your prices. That's the bare minimum. Raise your prices. And I remember it used to be such a badge of honor. This was a past version of me that was like, I live cake to cake. We're not doing that.

Stephen Lott (19:13.198)
First off, you shouldn't be living to the cake in no capacity, right? So I would, I'm gonna jump right in. All right.

Kimberly Houston (19:19.306)
Yeah.

Kimberly Houston (19:23.018)
Go. Have it.

Stephen Lott (19:27.122)
I literally just spoke about this in my rant, because I'm a victim of this, right? So this is not even something that I think I'm better than anybody, but culturally, we don't do a good job of preparing for business, right? So we put ourselves in situations to where now we're saying we have to do something. And so what we like to call that is building planes in the air.

Kimberly Houston (19:50.398)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (19:55.854)
Right? so, so we build, most of us, we get an idea and we feel really excited about it. And we, people love our stuff. They love our food. They love what we're doing. Say, hey, you should just start a business. I will start a business. All right. All right. know what? Yep. Yep. I'm gonna start. And as soon as we, it will, and the way that we'll start is we will, you know, come up with a name.

We feel really good about it. We will share our plates. We'll go out. We'll sell some things. We'll do a couple of vendor tables. And then sales start coming in. And at that moment, sales start coming in. Then we start thinking, now we have a business. Then we'll start going from there. And in most cases, what I'm learning in my doctorate program is most cases, it's not what we're doing that's wrong. It's the sequencing that makes the most sense. So it's the sequencing.

of what we're doing. So meaning we don't start researching until we're actually in the business. Where in most businesses, large corporations, the research and development is the number one thing. So meaning these are people that won't start their business for like a year or two years until the MVP, right, the minimum value of product is done. So that's what I've all my research because what you want to do is protect your baby.

Kimberly Houston (21:02.367)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (21:09.728)
Right. You want to protect if it's so good, protect it. Right. Do all the research first. Do all do your pest analysis. Do your swats. Do your right. Do everything you can do enough studies. Talk to a few people. Right. So if this is what you want to do and you feel confident about it, do everything you can to ensure to increase your confidence level that this is what I'm supposed to do. Instead, instead of instead of going for it and then saying

Kimberly Houston (21:30.942)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (21:39.17)
Because I'm here, this is what I have to do.

Stephen Lott (21:44.736)
Right? And the majority of us do the latter.

Kimberly Houston (21:45.353)
Yeah.

Stephen Lott (21:50.038)
Right. And we put ourselves in these positions. So I'm not sure if that answers your question. Like I went on like a little rant, but I'm saying like, have to figure out how to, if we want to raise prices, don't put yourself in a position where raising prices is the solution. Right. We raise prices for a reason. We raise prices because the market does raise prices. We raise prices because, not because your rent is due.

You know what saying? And you have money, right? You know I'm saying? Because you have to service the customer, right? And so if you're gonna raise prices, then figure out the value you're gonna give them so the customer can feel good about the price range, right? So they're not insulted or feel like they have to choose between you and somebody else because of price range, right? So build our plane, planes fly better when they're built on the ground.

Kimberly Houston (22:26.868)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Houston (22:51.476)
They do.

Stephen Lott (22:52.558)
They fly higher, they go further, right? When they're building down first. So yeah, so that's, you know, that's kind of where I love us though, because I'm learning too. Like this is all, everything I'm telling you, is, I'm speaking to myself. Like, so this is not even like, yeah.

Kimberly Houston (22:56.201)
Yeah.

Kimberly Houston (23:09.608)
Yeah, I'm like, I wish somebody would have told me this 13 years ago when I started, because that's literally how my bakery started, was I could not afford gifts for my kids' teachers. They had like 12 teachers between the two of them one year. And I was like, I'm supposed to buy 12 teacher gifts? I don't know how we're gonna afford that. And so I made platters of cakes and cookies.

Stephen Lott (23:37.934)
you

Kimberly Houston (23:38.002)
And not even they got whole, they got slices of cake and drop cookies, right? And it was crazy to drop these off and deliver them at the school, because it looked all super professional or whatever. They were in baskets. It was cute. And then when the kids got back to school, those teachers were like, our family loved this. How do we get in contact? How do we order? I didn't have a business. I was like, I just made this so y'all had a Christmas gift.

Stephen Lott (23:46.574)
Thanks

Stephen Lott (24:01.486)
That's it.

Kimberly Houston (24:07.464)
I don't know. And so I very quickly, I feel like that time was escalated in researching how to farm an LLC. What were the rules and regulations in Georgia?

Stephen Lott (24:17.198)
I can't look crazy. gotta yeah people people yeah, I gotta look the part I gotta look the part or they I'm gonna miss this sale like I'm

Kimberly Houston (24:25.802)
Right within 30 days I had a whole business and what's crazy is I was like well I know how to bake but I don't know how to decorate so I'm gonna go take classes. The classes were only $25 at Michael's and I could not afford them and Caroline paid for my class. She paid the $25 for my class and I was like you're the first investor in my business.

Stephen Lott (24:46.574)
Come on,

Kimberly Houston (24:54.186)
This is how we got here and we literally like when you're like building a plane in the air I'm like, yeah, we used to sit in my kitchen table. That's kitchen table drinks. We used to sit in my kitchen table mapping out what holidays were coming and like when I needed to do promotions and how to like what wedding shows that we need to be at like

Stephen Lott (25:18.464)
remind me to write a book called, We're In The Air, Now What?

Kimberly Houston (25:22.602)
Please, because...

Stephen Lott (25:23.724)
Okay, I was just thinking about it. Yeah, my way.

Kimberly Houston (25:26.634)
It was, when I think about all of the things that I went through as a new entrepreneur, I'm like, I don't even know how we made it. Couldn't tell you. Couldn't tell you. Like, it was, definitely hustle hard. And after I had to close in 2020 and my hands stopped working, and I spent six months in physical therapy, I was like, there's no way I can continue to hustle hard.

Stephen Lott (25:35.842)
I'm ready. Got you.

Stephen Lott (25:54.766)
Hmm.

Kimberly Houston (25:55.294)
I was like, I physically can't do that anymore. And I had to learn how to build a business with ease. And that to me was harder than the go, go, go of a hustle mentality. I physically couldn't go, go, go. I couldn't even write my name for six months.

Stephen Lott (26:14.4)
It doesn't lie to see, and the thing is like, it's so hard because, and I can understand, I feel like I'm an empath sometimes, right? But I can, because I can understand why people do the things they do, right? There are so many factors, right? That play into, you know, I would say, you know, social media, right? The way that we, you know,

Kimberly Houston (26:29.203)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (26:43.424)
interact with social media, how they tell you to just go, right? How everything tells you to just go for it, how everything tells you to just go for it. But I think the missing part of going for it, in which I do agree, go for it. But I think the sequencing of the way that we go for it is critical. People don't understand that research and development is a part of the business that's going, that's walking. It doesn't mean it's not an idle move.

Right? Like it's that's going forward, right? That's the, that's the, that's the, that's the start. And so, and so it's for a lot of people, they don't, for the majority of people don't have a research development, right? Right. Right. But then there's no value in it. Right. So they don't understand, right. That I need the reason, the point of a board of directors is to, is to, or board of advisors, right. Is to, is to

is to get five people and say, hey, I'm starting this business. I need somebody to just help me along the way. You've done it. You've done it. You've done it. You've done it. Right. And that's to, you know, to help guide me in my, because entrepreneurship is all about decision making. Right. And so you have to put yourself in every position possible to be able to create the most profitable decision for your company. Your business requires it.

Kimberly Houston (27:45.066)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Houston (28:04.041)
Yeah.

Stephen Lott (28:05.654)
Right? It can't run off your mind. Your mind isn't qualified. It isn't capable. Meaning there's very limited experiences for your mind to be able to produce the output that is the desired output for yourself. Right? So if you want to make a million dollars, and you never made a million dollars before, right? Then you need to put yourself in a position to...

Kimberly Houston (28:11.86)
Mm-hmm.

Kimberly Houston (28:30.239)
Yes.

Stephen Lott (28:33.518)
to be able to make the proper decisions to be able to scale this business appropriately, right? So I know that I'm starting here and then there's a benchmark I'm trying to reach. So I'm doing certain things just to get here. And then once I get here, then my next goal is to go here. Once I go here, then I go right, you know what mean? So there are literally things that you need to put in place before you just go. And unfortunately, when we just go, we put ourselves in very vulnerable and compromising positions.

Kimberly Houston (29:01.32)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (29:03.502)
to where our job is not responsible for funding my life. And that's an unfair position for the business to be put in.

Kimberly Houston (29:14.666)
love the way you put that because it is. I feel like previous versions of me was like, we should go building until you learn. And like last summer, I remember being on TikTok and I said, I'm going to make a million dollars in a year. And I just said it on TikTok. And then I got DMs from people who were like, that's really brave of you to say that. And I was like, why?

Stephen Lott (29:23.598)
I'm with you. Absolutely.

Kimberly Houston (29:43.516)
Right. And I was like, well, okay, that's interesting that people are like obsessed with me saying I'm going to be a millionaire. And I was like, well, I'm going to use this TikTok account for like accountability of things that I'm doing. And one of the very first things I thought about was the people that you're around, your community are going to dictate where you go. Right. And I was like, well, if I want to make a million dollars, I clearly need to be hanging around some millionaires. And I went on this track of being like,

Stephen Lott (30:08.287)
yeah? Okay.

Kimberly Houston (30:12.498)
Okay, so no one in my current circle has made a million dollars, which means I need to find more, I need to be in other rooms where I'm not the smartest in the room. I realized I was the smartest in the room. And I was like, that's great as a coach, but that doesn't help me scale my business. Cause I don't know what I'm doing. And so then I had to like go figure that out. So I started reading books by people who have made a million dollars and like, what's their secret sauce.

It's not really a secret. They all say the same thing. And I was like, one product, one offering, like, what do you mean? And so then I joined a coaching program that literally teaches you how to scale a business to a million dollars. And I was like, it's probably one of the most expensive investments in my life. However, I have learned more strategy in the last six months than in the last 13 years as an entrepreneur.

Stephen Lott (31:10.146)
I'm so happy for you.

Kimberly Houston (31:11.612)
And it's crazy that I wasn't running a very profitable bakery without a strategy.

And like now I can't fathom attempting to do that without like, no, here's a sequence of events that need to happen. I'm not just saying yes to every opportunity. Like what's the value in that yes for me? You know, like all those types of things. And I was like, so many people don't realize, or they're just like, you know, I'm just really good at this. But if you want to build the business and you want it to be sustainable.

Stephen Lott (31:25.054)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Stephen Lott (31:35.534)
agree

Stephen Lott (31:44.824)
Sure.

That's my target.

Kimberly Houston (31:50.12)
No, you're fine. And you want it to be sustainable. It's like, have you looked into the sustainability practices of the business? Like, do you know?

Stephen Lott (31:58.606)
Man.

Stephen Lott (32:02.178)
The best source of future success is past success. Right? So what we have to realize is that nothing that we're doing is special. Right? So then we have to get out of our head that we have something special. Now, there may be some unique products that we create because we're very unique. There may be a unique way that we

Kimberly Houston (32:06.248)
Yes!

Stephen Lott (32:29.774)
that we do this, that we make these cakes that's different than anybody else, right? We're supposed to stand out. That's our value proposition, right? We're supposed to be different. That's what makes people come to us versus somebody else. But the motto is the motto, right? And so you have to be able to answer, what's your revenue model, right? What is it? What are you doing? And I agree with you.

Stephen Lott (32:59.726)
It's not easy to do this when you don't have direction. Have you ever heard? iron, you'd appreciate this. Iron sharpens iron, right? Okay. What's interesting about iron sharpens iron is that it's the original term comes from the culinary space, right?

in the sense of, and this is why we have to be intentional, because what's gonna happen is that you're one knife, right? So imagine as your knife, you are the knife. And so when you cut into something, that's you doing your work, right? And so the reason why they sharpen their irons, right? It's because I need my, when I cut, I need it to be as sharp, swift, smooth, fast, whatever, right, as possible.

Kimberly Houston (33:44.298)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (33:58.402)
but it won't work unless I sharpen with another iron, with another knife. And what's interesting about that is that if you don't though, see the alternative is that if you don't, then the knife itself becomes dull, right? But what you cut into, right? What you cut into is not even sharp. what you're even, the output that you're putting out is not even a good.

Kimberly Houston (34:01.066)
you.

Kimberly Houston (34:15.763)
Yes.

Stephen Lott (34:28.278)
a good output. So if you don't intentionally put yourself in position to sharpen your knife with another knife, then what you do out there, you're not even going to do at the best quality, the best, you're not even the best version of yourself because you're not intentionally sharpening your knife, right?

Kimberly Houston (34:49.273)
Man!

No, for real, because, and that's like, when you go to culinary school, the first six weeks are all about knife skills. And so I remember the very first day of school when we, everybody opened up their knife kits. I was the only person in the class that didn't cut my hand. Because our knives were so sharp, right? Like when we first get it, because somebody else in the past knew we needed to start at a particular level.

Stephen Lott (34:59.286)
Okay.

Stephen Lott (35:08.59)
Mmm.

Kimberly Houston (35:18.762)
They just had boxes of band-aids out in the room when we walked in. And I was like, what in the world? Like, what is this? But they knew that as soon as we start pulling stuff out, people are going start cutting themselves, right? And so that was when they took the opportunity to explain to us that if we're ever in the kitchen working with a dull knife, you increase the risk of getting hurt. They're like, people are always afraid of sharp knives because they're like, it'll cut me. And our

Chefs were like, if you have a dull knife and you attempt to cut something, the more pressure and the more force you're putting on it with a dull knife, not only are you not gonna get the intended outcome, you're going to hurt yourself in the process.

Stephen Lott (35:58.542)
Translate it. You just said it translated in the business. It's the same thing. Oh, so Same thing when you don't intentionally sharpen your knife with another if you don't intentionally talk to me Kimberly Before if you have this idea and you love it and you think it's great if you don't call me and say hey I want to run this by you Or or you know, I have this thought I have this idea poke holes in it for me If you don't do that, but the moment you're going out there you have a dull knife

Kimberly Houston (36:01.638)
It's the same thing!

Kimberly Houston (36:09.3)
Right?

Kimberly Houston (36:16.233)
Yeah.

Kimberly Houston (36:24.606)
Yes.

Stephen Lott (36:25.398)
Right? And then you're going to, you're going to then put yourself at risk, right? At risk, your risk increases of, of going out there through an experience in trial and error. And as entrepreneurs, trial and error costs too much money. It costs too much to be wrong.

Kimberly Houston (36:32.104)
increases.

Kimberly Houston (36:40.362)
It does, particularly when the evidence is there, right?

Stephen Lott (36:46.514)
Or even if it's not there, you have to go out your way to see what you don't see. Because what happens is a lot of times the evidence isn't there. Or it's there, but it's not there for you to see. Because for a multitude of reasons, you're optimistic. You're so happy about this. You see the natural, everything's green right now. So it's there, to your point, you're absolutely right, it's there. But then greed blinds you from analyzing risk.

Right? So you see dollar signs, but you're missing things in front. So you got to put yourself in position to say, Steve, I got this idea. I'm here for you to specifically poke holes in it. What am I not seeing? Because I'm too happy right now. Right. I'm incapable right now of having that type of discernment. know what I mean? So yeah.

Kimberly Houston (37:17.535)
Yeah.

Kimberly Houston (37:31.21)
Yeah.

Kimberly Houston (37:36.042)
Yeah.

Kimberly Houston (37:43.182)
my God, the last couple of episodes of the podcast have been about the servant, intuition and trusting yourself as an entrepreneur. And like, these are not things I thought about 13 years ago when I started as an entrepreneur, right? Like this is stuff I've learned since like post pandemic. I've learned a lot, right? About business and not just business within the culinary industry, just business in general. And how are companies successful?

Stephen Lott (37:54.558)
huh.

Stephen Lott (38:00.984)
for.

Kimberly Houston (38:12.732)
And why are companies not successful, right? Like everything isn't about money. Most of this is about strategy and how are you releasing things? How are you doing things? And then mindset, right? Like you have to sometimes overpower your nervous system. And be like, I'm safe. I'm okay. If I don't take this order, if I don't do this thing, or if you get this feeling like, well, should I? I'm like, if you have to ask that question.

You probably shouldn't. Like, my email signature is, if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. Like, I don't need the second guess. Things, you know, because if it's a hell yes, I'ma show up. And I'ma show up as my best self. As opposed to, well, I guess this is something I gotta do now, because it's on my calendar. I don't live my life like that no more. I used to.

Stephen Lott (38:48.032)
I like that.

Stephen Lott (39:05.902)
I like to know more though. Like like that's the growth. You mean I like that like the growth no more. Absolutely

Kimberly Houston (39:10.128)
Yes.

Like I just, don't. And I think that that helps me see things in people's businesses that they can't see. Like if I ask, if I'm asking a client a question and they hesitate, I'm like, yeah, you don't want to this. And they're like, but it's a great idea. That doesn't mean it's a great idea for you.

Like it just it doesn't mean that like it could be a great idea. You could just be an idea generator. It doesn't mean that you're supposed to execute these things. And so I feel like when people get to the point of understanding that creativity plays its place in your business, and I absolutely think you need it. I'm a shift. You absolutely need creativity in the space. But if you don't marry that creativity with strategy or with

Stephen Lott (39:33.752)
it.

Kimberly Houston (40:02.148)
Having a board of directors and I have mine and it quit to be like don't do that. What gave you this idea? Are you sure that's gonna work? Do you actually even want to do that or is this a money grab? Like You need those people that's gonna ask you those questions and I have those people and they'd be like, mmm I don't I don't know if that's good I mean you can try it for 30 days and see if that works, but I don't think it's gonna work anytime somebody on my

Stephen Lott (40:08.158)
Yeah. Yeah!

Kimberly Houston (40:30.954)
trusted advisory board says that. I'm like, no, thank you.

Stephen Lott (40:33.304)
That's it. That's it.

And I, you know, for people listening, it only has to be like as deep as like it sounds, right? Just find people who you trust that has experience in the space. Most people that are in the space are willing to do this because they understand, right, gravity. So, you know, they're okay with a 10 minute phone call a month, right? Or, you know, a quarter, right? To just be able to say, hey, can I run this by you? Right? Most people are, you know, like, especially if they enjoy the idea or they just like you enough.

Kimberly Houston (40:43.016)
You're a bestie.

Kimberly Houston (40:56.968)
Wait.

Kimberly Houston (41:05.748)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (41:06.529)
So, so, so there is a phase where, you know, you do have to almost prove yourself to be able to, you know, to have that. Cause you know, you do have a idea that's worth my time. You know, and you can't be an asshole. Right. You know what I mean? So, so yeah, for sure, for sure. But no, it's just grab, I will say three to five people who, know, for anybody listening, grab three to five people and ask them, Hey, this is the business that I have.

Kimberly Houston (41:20.083)
Every week.

Stephen Lott (41:31.554)
you have experienced in this area, I would love for you to be on an advisory board where I can just call you and get that in. Absolutely.

Kimberly Houston (41:42.024)
Yeah, and it wasn't, I remember when I did that, I didn't even necessarily, I think I did talk to maybe one or two bakers, but the person that gave me the most advice on the tea shop.

It was still culinary. She still needed all the same things that I needed, but she was super successful and very intentional about what she carried, what she was going to do. She wasn't really driven by like the customer was placing an order and this is what we're going to do. And I was like, I want to be able to like live my life like this. And I was like, I like how you live your life in general. Right. And I'm like, don't just look at people cause they're good in business.

Stephen Lott (42:04.846)
there.

Kimberly Houston (42:22.278)
What does their life look like? Because not everybody who is at the top of their game in business at the top of their game in their life.

Stephen Lott (42:29.102)
We call that good fruit, right? So meaning every tree produces fruit. But you want to be around people that produce good fruit, right? So it's the things they produce. What is the output of what they're doing, right? You want to be the fountain, not the drain, right? So what is the output, right? What's the good fruit that's being pruned?

Kimberly Houston (42:34.878)
Mm-hmm.

Stephen Lott (42:58.638)
produce from this. And so you say, your business is thriving. What does a good fruit look like? Your employees are happy to be there. Your floors are clean. All the minimalistic things, right? That's good fruit. And so it's not about the business, right? Everybody has a business, but everybody doesn't do it the same for a reason, right? So everybody's results aren't the same for a reason. So then that's the good fruit. So you want to look at, how did you produce this? Right?

Kimberly Houston (43:26.324)
Yes.

Stephen Lott (43:27.022)
How did you produce this? That's what I want to know, right? I know how to make myself, but how did you produce the good food that comes from this? Because I'm, so yeah.

Kimberly Houston (43:35.178)
Yes. I love that. I literally just went and wrote down, are you the founder of the journey of your finances in your business? Listen, that right there, that was gold. I was like, oh.

Stephen Lott (43:47.886)
you

Kimberly Houston (43:50.12)
Yes, yes I did.

Stephen Lott (43:52.43)
Beat a fountain, not the drain.

Kimberly Houston (43:54.272)
my God. Okay, listen, that was so good. And I feel like at that point we gonna let these people go on about their day because we done stepped all on their necks. We have stepped also next on this 100th episode of podcast. Thank you so much for joining me.

Stephen Lott (44:02.446)
That was perfect.

Stephen Lott (44:09.102)
Yeah, I hope I was able to bring value. hope this was a good 100 episode. hope.

Kimberly Houston (44:17.226)
Incredible. Listen, we didn't even get through all the questions that I got over here on the second monitor. That's okay. Because, such a great episode. I am so grateful. And I really, really appreciate you taking time to talk to me today, to talk to the audience. Definitely want you back. There's more. I still got like 20 more questions over here. We need to talk to Professor Steve and listen.

Stephen Lott (44:33.272)
We do this. We do it.

Stephen Lott (44:38.414)
Thank you.

Stephen Lott (44:46.008)
It's our

Kimberly Houston (44:46.95)
If y'all are a student of his at Georgia State, you better be in class every day.

Stephen Lott (44:50.952)
Every, listen, I be, don't play, they lock in, absolutely.

Kimberly Houston (44:55.004)
I can't imagine if I were to sit in your class and you'd be saying stuff to me like this and I'd be like, sir, this is, my hands stopped working. I can't take any more notes. Like, can I just voice record everything that you're doing right now in class?

Stephen Lott (45:07.886)
Right, right. I'd needing it because I forget half the stuff that I said immediately. 100%.

Kimberly Houston (45:15.538)
I understand. This has been absolutely incredible. Definitely, definitely want to have you back to talk more about entrepreneurs and finances. We can talk about accounting as we move close to Eon. We're in tax season. How do you set yourself up for success? Things of the sort. I will definitely make sure I reach back out. I promise y'all he'll be back. I promise. We already talked about it. He'll be back.

Thank you so much. So you guys, I'm going to tag him down in our show notes and there'll be a full blog post that also links to other things about this episode. But if you want to go and follow Steve, you can find him at Steve, finance guy on Instagram. Make sure you let him know that you heard him on the kitchen table dreams podcast. Thank you so, much for joining me on this episode.

Stephen Lott (46:04.59)
Have a good one.

Kimberly Houston (46:05.854)
Thank you.