Episode 4: Mills Bender

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Power Up Your Life podcast. I am Kelly Resendez. And I'm Mandy McAllister. And we are so excited to have our new friend, Mills Bender here with us.

She is the founder of Mills Knows Bills. So she's somebody that's really just mastered her personal money story and decided to help other people do the same thing through financial coaching. What she didn't expect though along this journey was that she would end up becoming the founder of this amazing mills knows bills platform that offers fractional CFO services for multiple companies.

She's helped businesses with over $40,000,000 in revenue and really just helps them make more and work less. I mean, who doesn't wanna do that? So just to get us kicked off, give us a little bit of your background just professionally and personally.

Sure. So let's start on the personal side. I've been married for about seven years. I have two beautiful kiddos. One's two. One's eight months. I'm really excited to be here today. I know I've connected with both of you individually, and what really sparked our conversation today was our synergies in the professional side.

And so on the professional side, I own a company of fractional CFOs where we partner with small businesses, typically in the blue collar space, to help them manage their business finances. A lot of times people ask me how I found this career, and the short part of it is it found me. I did not go out seeking for it, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Yeah. Man, my parents were in a blue collar business. And let me tell you, like, seven years after they, like, put it to bed, I was like, oh, praise Jesus. The I IRS did not come because once I dug in, I was like, they needed your fractional CFO services because I think so many people in that industry believe, like, oh, if I cut corners, it's not a big deal.

But then once the IRS comes in, man, it is a big deal. So Yeah. Yeah. And even just not the IRS. You're you're hurting yourself in the long run too, especially if you wanna sell your business. If you're cutting corners, you're cutting on your valuation in the future too. So it's it's a whole double edged sword.

Yeah. Absolutely. So one thing, Mills, that we always love for our audience to hear about is, you know, we we see the success on the outside. Right? You you built this business, but I'm sure there were a lot of challenges or periods of time that you probably just asked yourself, like, is this for me? I wanna give up. I don't I don't wanna do this anymore. I'm feeling stuck.

Like, what what has been that experience for you on getting through that messy part in your business? Like, what actionable steps do you take when when you find yourself in that situation or you have in the past?

That's that's a great question. And it's actually funny because all of last year, there was probably more days that I wanted to close my doors than there were days that I wanted to keep them open. Last year, it was just a really tough year. I was postpartum with my first, newly pregnant with my second. Like, the hormonal changes were one thing, but then trying to scale a business because you get to the point where you have the demand and you have to scale, that's a whole other beast.

And so one thing that I have really I've really made sure to make an effort of when I have those negative thought processes is not necessarily the actions I take, but the actions I don't take. Mhmm. And so whenever I'm in that position and whenever I'm feeling like that, I'm not allowed to make any big decisions at least for a couple days. And so my thought process is this is a temporary feeling. I can sit in it. I can acknowledge it, but I'm not going to make decisions based off of it. Let me revisit this issue in two or three days when things have cleared and settled down.

And I I try to make a point when I'm in more of that positive mindset to reflect back when things were more difficult and think, wow, I thought that that was difficult. Like, I'm on the other side, and it's only been a few days. Like, what was I thinking? And so it's it's the actions I don't take at that point.

I love that idea of finding objectivity by detaching yourself from those team lengths. Recognizing that you're in the feeling and then looking at it objectively and and kind of putting the time out on yourself to not make any big decisions. That's that's absolutely brilliant. Yeah. Thank you, TJ.

It sounds like that is kind of an unconventional strategy, a strategy that everyone might not, like, obviously turn to. But I'm curious if you have others. Are there are there other unconventional strategies that you have that people might disagree with in terms of, you know, family or business or scaling?

Yeah. I mean, I also I don't seek out advice from people who are not in a position where I wanna be in. Mhmm. And so when I have those those struggles or those, you know, hardships, I go to the person who I know has been in that situation before. My buddy, Scott Kelly, I actually introduced you to to him this morning. He's somebody that I go to a lot because he's about two years ahead of where I'm at. And so it's still very fresh in his mind, the struggles that I encounter on a day to day basis. And so I'll get his advice, not somebody who's ten years ahead ahead of me and certainly not somebody who's behind me in my business life cycle. And so it makes it a little bit more applicable. Somebody can understand the chaos too, and you don't feel as crazy.

And then if it just becomes really overwhelming, I go for a run. I I I physically get out of my office. I close my laptop. I give myself some space because there's nothing a little fresh air and sun can't fix. So that's my those are really my three things I tend to do. That's amazing. I love that.

One thing, you probably always haven't been a business owner. What was that transition for you moving? Because we have a lot of people that wanna power up their life. Like, that's really the premise of this is how do we get to that next level.

How did you move from being in that employment role to now running this employment role to now running this super successful fractional CFO company that you do?

How personal do you want me to get? Let's go. Girl. Let's go. Okay. So I actually never wanted to be a business owner. I had taken so many professional quizzes when I graduated from college because I didn't know what I wanted to do, and they all came back with entrepreneur or business owner, and I it was wrong. Every single test was wrong. Right? So I refused it.

And it wasn't until I was down in Miami, I was working at a small print shop, and I was kind of their internal analyst slash CFO of sorts that I realized that there was a very big need for financial services for small business owners. And so I began my company strictly as a YouTube channel. I had no intention of taking it full time for about five years, but five months in, COVID happened and I lost that role. And so when I say that fractional CFO services found me rather than me seeking it, it really was that door was shut, and I was kinda shoved through the next one.

Now Mills Knows Bills was not at the point where it could be self sustaining, And so I did end up finding an additional role while I was building my company, and that role was very similar. It was an administrative slash CFO role, very, very small gym. And where the personal side comes in was it was not a great work environment. It was very toxic, and I ended up having to go through therapy to heal from some things.

And through therapy, I realized that I was keeping myself in that role and not taking the leap of entrepreneurship fully because I was self sabotaging. And I was not believing that I was it was good enough, honestly. And so it was very interesting, the timeline of me hiring this therapist, and it was maybe six weeks in that I was like, you know what? I've already see that she can help me overcome some of these other traumatic things from my past, let me just take a leap of faith.

And so through therapy and through valuing myself personally was when I decided I was able to value myself professionally. And that's where everything changed for MKB. I went full time. I hit 6 figures within the first year. It was I made my first hire. Like, I started growing at a rate that I never dreamed

possible simply because I healed the personal side first. I love that. I we say a lot that you can only grow your business as far as you've grown yourself. I agree.

I've got I've got to imagine that people listening to this see the success that that you've created, Nils, and think it's crazy that you've, you feel self sabotage or that you feel not enough in some cases. That you don't realize that that's a problem and it it poof goes away like magic. Right? Those feelings continue to creep in.

Tell me a couple actionable steps. When you recognize that stuff is coming in, what do you do to make sure that you're continuing on the growth path and and really put those feelings to bed?

Absolutely. Well, faith is a is a huge piece for me. And so in my structure of my day, you know, it's very difficult for entrepreneurs to not have a given structure. And so I make sure I have that structure where I work out, I have my quality time within my faith, and then I get started on the day.

And so I have four f's in my life, faith, family, fitness, finance, and they're in that order for a reason. So I start my day with my faith. I make sure I get something in for my fitness. I spend quality time with my family, and then the finance comes as a result.

And so I find that whenever I feel misaligned, it's because those four f's are out of alignment. And so it's a matter of me being intentional of restructuring my day, making sure I'm putting the things that are of utmost importance first, and then everything will fall into place.

Wow. That's so great.

Thank you. I think it's really brilliant that this idea of having your principles. Ray Dalio wrote a great book called Principles that's about, you know, seven inches thick, which, you know, the thing my primary takeaway of that book was, you know, just have your own set of principles. And if you ever feel wobbly, go back to what you have decided for yourself. I absolutely love the four f's.

Thank you. Thank you. I have a lot of friends who have their own version of their four f's, and it's it's nice to see how if you're able to have that as your compass of sorts, it makes the difficulties of entrepreneurship feel a little bit more manageable.

Absolutely. And Mandy Mandy, you know, nailed it for us is that we have these conversations when people are thinking about powering up their life that, you know, who you're being is just as important as what you're doing. And that it is success is faith driven too and and start my day putting, you know, that that prioritization there.

So for a lot of people, they don't feel like that's possible. So one of the greatest abundance challenges or ways that I see people self sabotage is that they believe they don't have time to be able to prioritize their family, their fitness, their faith because they're so in it right now. Like, their business is struggling. You know, they're worried about their finances. So talk to that audience a little bit. Like, tell me, like, what you would what advice that you would give them because you may have been in that same situation before as well.

And when you tap into abundance and you're like, oh, I get to choose how I live my life, then we all look like we've got it figured out. And to the person that does it, they don't really like us sometimes. Let's be honest. That's that's true. Like, oh, yeah. I don't like you. Like, that's not possible

You know, I was there, and, I always felt like I had to be doing and grinding in my business. And I felt like if I wanted to take a vacation, that meant I had to work extra just to deserve that vacation coming up.

And at the end of the day, it's just money. And I know I work with money, but, like, it it's a piece of paper that we've assigned value to it. And so what is more important on your deathbed? A relationship with your family or holding on to a slip of paper? And it's a bit of a drastic thought process, but every decision I make is around that thought process.

And I found that by taking time to be with my family, spend time in my faith, spend time on my fitness. I'm more productive in my business.

Yeah.

And having that rest, a lot of people think that rest is laziness. Rest is actually production. It's allowing you to refill your cup so you can be more efficient. And so every time I question whether or not I should take that vacation or spend that time with my family, I never regret it, and I always find that it comes back tenfold.

The second I step away from my business is the second I get clarity on that issue that's been racking my brain for months. It's the second that I find opportunities that I would have never been exposed to if I had not stepped out of my day to day.

And so it might feel a bit foreign when you're in the grind every single day, But I would encourage the listener who feels like that to block off an hour for lunch each day. Block off time with your kids in the morning or time with your spouse in the evening and see what happens. You're gonna find ways to be more efficient with your time, and you're gonna be able to enjoy your time with your family a little bit more.

And it's it's not gonna be perfect, but if you're able to do it consistently Mhmm. You'll start breeding a new habit for yourself to where then the grind every single minute of every single day feels foreign.

That's Parkinson's law. Right? Like, you'll fill up every amount of time that you allow yourself. If you get a week to clean your house, gonna take you a week. If it if it's gonna take you an hour, it's gonna take you an hour. So just I love that. Just make the decision. Do the the big rocks first. Do the things that fill up your life first and then everything else will fall into place.

You know, talking about clarity, talking about big decisions, you know, what are some things when you have that big decision that you are lacking clarity? What what do you do? What is the strategy, that you employ to figure out what to do next when you're lacking that clarity?

I'm a pen and paper gal, and so I have these giant sheets of paper where I will just brain dump everything. And then I'll take different colored markers, and I will I'll I'll find the pieces that maybe connect, cross out the ones that are important. And what I try to do is hone in on the one thing that will solve the rest of the problems.

And so if I'm able to focus my efforts every single day on one thing that will solve 90% of the problems, then I'm being effective. All the other items can either be delegated or postponed. It's as simple as that. And so brain dump, figure out that one thing, take action on that one thing, get rid of the rest in some capacity.

That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. So one of the things I've noticed about the growth of your business is that not only do you have a business, but you also have really become kind of a an authority figure in talking about bills. And, you know, you've got an amazing podcast. I would love to hear a little bit more about how you've really used that in order to grow your business.

We have people here that that are definitely wanting to accelerate the growth of their business, and they look at, you know, well, I can do lead gen. I can do referral. I can go to events. I can do these other things. But talk a little bit about how that's helped you build that authority and and value that you give to everyone that's out there.

Absolutely. I mean, finance is a very personal thing. And so in order for me to grow my business, people need to know, like, and trust the brand. And so I need to lead with the brand.

I use my podcast to build relationships either with strategic referral partners or prospects. If they have questions that they want answered, it's kind of like a try before you buy. And that is then converted into content that can live evergreen.

So while I have one on one conversations with individuals, they can find me online on Instagram or my podcast, and then they get to continue getting to know me. So it's like my sales process is still working. They're still getting to know the brand, the personality, while I'm also actively doing the work.

So we have this passive long term strategy, which is all of our content, while also the active shorter term strategy where we do networking and building relationships directly.

Wow. That's absolutely incredible. And I I think for some people, it seems daunting just, you know, to be able to to have these one on one conversations with people while you're doing this, but it sounds like it's a it's a super great recipe for success for you.

I mean, hear me say that I'm always nervous. I'm nervous before every single speaking engagement workshop podcast, whether I'm leading my own podcast, I'm always nervous. But it's not about, you know, sitting in that. It's about doing it anyway.

I feel like there's this misconception that entrepreneurs just have no fear. No. No. No. No. No. We have fear. We just do it anyway because there's something great on the other end of it.

And so if you need to step into an alter ego and, you know, give yourself that mentality, well, this person has already figured it out, so I'm going to step into that personality. Do whatever you need to do. Just make sure it gets done.

Making it about the message or the impact instead of about me is absolutely the thing that gets me out. I used to I physically shook when I defended my master's thesis, but then I took improv comedy classes, and it was about the the message. It was about supporting exactly like you're saying.

I love that, Mills. Is that why you're so funny, Mandy? I mean, I I mean, come on. I identify as funny. I mean

I still can. Exactly. Sometimes I try to be as funny as Mandy. But Mills oh my god. Number one, like, I just wish I could have a cup of coffee with you right now because you're just you are our people. You are absolutely, like, wonderful, and there's so many things.

Like, I wanna start just unpack a little bit of this for our listeners because we want them to power up their lives wherever they are in in their business growth, in potentially looking at leaving a w two and moving onto doing something that's more fulfilling them. So, you know, some of the some of the magic that I've heard today is that you really need to put yourself first and and that faith, that fitness, getting your priorities in order. You know, you you talked a little bit about self sabotage. You've talked to, two two major things on the self sabotage is that even if you're afraid you do it anyway. So, you know, fear of failure and fear of success are paralyzing for so many people. So many people.

And so you really did the work, right, to be able to get to that next level and and recognizing that, you know, you had you had all the signs that you should be an entrepreneur, but you just, you know, you had that little bit of I'm not enough going on. And and I think one thing that we see a lot in GoBundance women is that we see this trajectory of not enough or too much. Like, I was with some ladies here in Austin, Texas last night, and one of them is just loud, Kelly Cochran, which is amazing. Awesome. Of her book is loud. Lily Moly. And she's like, everyone told me I was too much, but it was because she wasn't in the right environment. Yes. And and when you get into that right environment, you're like, oh, I'm just right. Like, yeah. I get a little nervous, but I'm still gonna do it anyway.

And then the other things is really become that authority figure in in your business so that you can be that super attractor. And you are a master networker. I know just since Yeah. Since I've met you, you've made all sorts of introductions. And these are selfless introductions. And for most of us, you know, we hear that adage that your network, you know, is your net worth. And when you think about it, it is just, like, constantly, we are we are trading people that are gonna add value.

And when you look for that opportunity, opportunity, and this is what I want people to look at, to power up your life, you know, we need to magnetize ourselves not only for opportunity for ourselves, but for the people that are in our circle. And so that's one thing that we always wanna do in GoBundance Women and on the Power of Your Life podcast is make those life changing introductions. And so what would be one, you know, either your avatar for your business maybe that's listening today or just a life changing introduction or resource that's gonna change the ballgame for you?

Somebody that I would want an an introduction to? Mhmm. Yeah. Oh, I've not been asked this before. I I know that you and I talked about this, and this is just the first thing that comes to mind, but Cody Sanchez. Because we work with a very similar

Mhmm. Demographic.

And I think that would be really cool because she's an amazing powerhouse. If nothing else, I just wanna I just wanna have coffee with her.

That's awesome. Well, she's here in Austin. Yeah. We have to get you to Austin, number one. And, you know, Cody just launched her book for anybody listening out there. It just went live yesterday. I I know this is gonna be a little bit delayed too.

So, you know, I always tell people, like, you wanna help you wanna get to know somebody, start helping them already. Like Yeah. It you know, take a look at her book. Check it out. I definitely know that we can make that introduction to, to her for you. So That's exciting. That's amazing.

And we started this with Mandy saying that you and Cody look like long lost sisters. You do. So we're gonna have to, you know, take a photo here and and be able to share with us. Absolutely.

But before we sign off, Mills, tell us that anybody who wants to find more information on you, how do they get a hold of you or find your stuff?

Millsknows bills.com. It's the best way to get access to everything, podcast, social media, you name it.

That is such an amazing, like, catchy catchy name for your business as well. So, Mills, just incredibly grateful that you have spent your time with us here today, and just congratulations on all your success And more importantly, and being brave and courageous in pushing past the fears, pushing past that, you know, not feeling enough and doing it anyway. Like, you have powered up your life, girl.

So absolutely impressed. Impressed. Can't wait to spend more time with you in person. And Likewise. Absolutely grateful. Thank you guys so much, ma'am. Everyone. Catch you on the next episode of Power Up Your Life.