903 Ruchi Pinniger:

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Ruchi Pinniger:

Schedule some time in your calendar. You know, light a candle, put on some meditative music, grab a notebook and a pen and just sit back and ask yourself, what is it you really want? Think about a year from now and think about what do you want your life to be like? And who are you spending your time with and where are you living and what are you feeling every day? And really just tune into that and those feelings. And what I’d love for you to do is then write a letter to a loved one as if it’s one year from now and all those things have already happened.

Melinda Wittstock:

What do you really want, and can you see yourself, really see yourself, in the specifics of that dream for your future? What you’re doing? How you’re feeling? Who you’re doing it with? And are you dreaming big enough? Ruchi Pinniger is the Founder and CEO of Watch Her Prosper®, helping small business owners and entrepreneurs master their finances and business growth. Today we explore the role of visualization in realizing your future aspirations, and why your financial future depends on blending financial acumen with emotional and spiritual growth. Listen on to hear all her practical tips you can implement right away.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward a five-time serial entrepreneur, so this podcast is all about catalyzing an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other …Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who shares how decades of her own experience on Wall Street and building successful businesses, mentoring other women along the way, led her to understand the recurring patterns that often hinder success for female founders. Ruchi Pinniger is the CEO and Founder of Watch Her Prosper®, and she’s on a mission to help women overcome everything from money mindset issues that often manifest in underpricing, over-planning, and fears around financial management and hiring, growing and scaling a business. Ruchi unpacks it all. We’ll dig into her RIR method—Recognize, Interrupt, and Reframe—to change negative money mindsets, and why a well-rounded life, encompassing well-being, spirituality, and relationships, is crucial for true prosperity, scalable business growth, and financial empowerment.

Ruchi will be here in a moment, and first:

Deep breath. Once again, the glass ceiling did not break for America’s first woman President, an accomplished, charismatic, and more than qualified woman given just 107 days to make her case against a man graded on a totally different curve. That’s an understatement. What it’s like to play on a completely different field, be held to completely different standards. We all know that story because we’ve all experienced it. But Kamala Harris also faced what in retrospect look like impossible headwinds: Post Covid, voters in every democracy in the world have turned against incumbents, and Harris was unable in her short campaign to distance herself sufficiently from her unpopular boss, who let her (or any other possible candidate) down …by not getting out of the race earlier. It’s also clear her message was not making it through to voters in our increasingly fragmented media echo-chambers rife with constant disinformation and misinformation. Turns out blind tests of Trump voters showed more than 90% approved of her policies.  For me, the most gut-wrenching realization this past week is to know that so many American voters rejected the values I’ve strived to meet my whole life, values I’ve taught my kids to live by. Kindness. Honesty. Empathy for others. Generosity. Inclusiveness. Meritocracy. It’s confusing because it’s hard to know how many people really knew what they were voting for. So, what now? We all face a bumpy ride, with many economists now predicting Trump’s tariffs and billionaire tax cuts will cause a recession and big bump in inflation in less than 6 months from now. And we know what his victory means for our reproductive freedoms and much more, including our very democracy and freedoms. So, beyond any shock, sadness, anger and fear you may be feeling right now, there is only one path, and it’s the mission of this podcast – we must stay in our joy and in our power, and support each other in every way we can. Buy from each other, stand for each other, promote each other, mentor each other, invest in each other. We have growing economic power, and our voices are our power. We will be heard.

Melinda Wittstock:

Alright, so let’s talk money and how to grow your business as well as your own financial prosperity. Ruchi Pinniger, Founder and CEO of Watch Her Prosper®, is on a mission to help you master your money mindset and bolster your financial skills, so today we get into her practical tips for game-changing success.

Melinda Wittstock:

Transitioning from Wall Street to entrepreneurship, Ruchi learned crucial lessons she now shares with women in business with a holistic approach that combines financial consulting with mindset and spiritual elements. We’re going to deep dive into all of that, plus her three pillars of prosperity, and why your wealth is more than the number of extra zeroes in your bank account. Plus, the power of visualization and Ruchi’s RIR method—Recognize, Interrupt, Reframe—to transform any limiting beliefs around money so you can know you value and grow the value of your business.

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Ruchi Pinniger and be sure to download the podcast app Podopolo so we can keep the conversation going after the episode.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Ruchi, welcome to Wings.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Thank you so much. It’s so great to be here with you, Melinda, and all of your listeners.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, it’s great to have you. And you know, we like to get into all things numbers and business growth and all the things that women have to do really to grow their businesses. But so much of that, especially when it comes to money, comes down to our money stories and our mindset. How much has that been a focus in your business, you know, as you’ve grown it over the last 10 years?

Ruchi Pinniger:

What a great question. It’s so true, because when I started it, you know, I thought we were just doing numbers, right? I thought I was providing this financial guidance, safe space, the bookkeeping, and, you know, all of the pieces that come around with the finances. What I started to see, though, was how much more there is to the story and how people show up so differently when we, when we look at the numbers and all of those money stories and the baggage that comes with their childhood and you know, how they grew up and how they were raised around money, really starts to come into the picture when we started to meet. And that’s when I realized there needs to be more work around this. So, I started to incorporate mindset and spirituality and this other work into the numbers and really bringing in that holistic approach two, three years ago.

Melinda Wittstock:

If you’ve been in entrepreneurship long enough as an entrepreneur yourself or helping other women, you know, grow their businesses, you start to see these patterns. And so, for instance, everything from, in a sales context, you know, not asking for the sale or being stuck in planning or in the case of accounting or being on your numbers or your cash flow, like being afraid of even looking at your numbers. What, what are some of the most pernicious patterns that you’ve seen with your clients that relate to mindset in terms of how they operate their books, their P&L, their balance sheet and such?

Ruchi Pinniger:

Well, the first was avoidance. And that in many, in many cases is why they end up coming to us, because they realize, okay, I really want to grow this thing. And I realize now that after all these years of operating with ignoring my numbers, I need to pay attention to them, and I need support. So that’s why we create that sort of safe, non-judgmental space at watch or prosper where we give them an opportunity to like, feel all the feelings and share and know that they can have emotion around money. The biggest thing we see, though, is the Language. And this is something that is so important. 61% of women would rather talk about the details of their own death, like dying, than talk about money.

Melinda Wittstock:

They’d rather talk about death than money.

Ruchi Pinniger:

They would rather talk about death than money. And that tells you something right there, right, Melinda? So, for me, that’s, like, one of the biggest frustrations is I know, like. I know, like, I know how capable we are, but how we get in our way. We treat ourselves and talk to ourselves in such a judgmental way, like, not in a way that we’d ever talk to someone else or our best friend. I actually developed this new method. It’s called the RIR method. It’s recognize, interrupt, reframe. And I love to do that with our clients and all the people that I get to talk to and remind them that it’s important to pay attention to the language that we put out there.

Ruchi Pinniger:

So, the idea is, recognize when you’re having a disempowering or negative thought, interrupt yourself, and then reframe it with a more empowering, prosperous thought. Because we’re walking around kind of in our lack and scarcity, and there’s not enough, and there’s never enough money, and there’s all these bills to pay, all the things that we do as humans. And when we do that, we’re putting attention to those things, and we’re basically calling them in from the universe. Right. Because the universe is really operating like a mirror. What you’re putting out is what you’re getting back. I like to work with people to remind them of that language. And that’s something you don’t need money for.

Ruchi Pinniger:

You can do right away. It’s in your control. You just have to pay attention. So really reframing. And we could do, like, an example, you know, think somebody who’s always going around like, oh, there’s never enough money. There’s so much debt. There are so many bills. And just reframing that with how there’s always enough money to pay the bills.

Ruchi Pinniger:

I am prosperous. Just to really put that out there and start that flow of energy and money coming their way.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. So much of this is an inner game, and. And I think as women, you know, we. We Grow up variously with all sorts of experiences, you know, depending on your generation. Like not polite to talk about money. I mean, that was one of mine. Like you just don’t talk about it.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Yeah, yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

So that gets really embedded in there. Like somehow it’s not polite. Or if you’re talking about money, that means you’re somehow like greedy or like if you want money, there’s all of that. Or if you grew up and your parents argued about money and it caused, it caused a problem or. I mean, there’s so many different things. What are some of those patterns that you see most often?

Ruchi Pinniger:

Absolutely. You know, you made me think about a client of ours who would share with me after working with us that she realized her father in high school said to her, you’ never make it without my money. And that was something she didn’t even realize she was carrying around with us. Because 95% of how we show up and how we be every day is based on our subconscious beliefs. Only 5% is conscious. So, she was sort of always in this pattern of like, oh, I can’t do anything without a man, I can’t make enough money. And she was really even struggling to get over the six-figure mark because she always had that in her mind and wasn’t feeling empowered to really like own what she was capable of. And when she realized that after working with our team, you know, she really started to pay attention and really get more empowered to like take ownership of her financial life and her financial security and she, she beyond, you know, she went into multiple six figures at that point and continued to grow from there.

Melinda Wittstock:

It could be something that somebody said, like your father and in that example, or it could be something that you watched in a movie or something a friend said, or it could be anything. How conscious are most of your clients to begin with? About what those, what those things actually. Are they aware of it even? Or is that you help them to that awareness? Like, oh, oh, that’s why, you know.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Most people aren’t really aware until they start to really dig deeper into themselves and really pay attention to the patterns. We’re just, you know, we’re just going about living our days and living our lives in our humanness. So, we’re not always self-reflective and going inside. And it’s really. When you have someone in a safe space to talk to about it, when it starts to open up, or when you actually make a concerted effort to do so and really look at what are the patterns I’m seeing and how I’m spending isn’t. And sort of watch yourself with a non-judgmental view, like I always call it. Like think about you, your prosperity angel, say sitting there on your shoulder in a non-judgmental way and just watching what you’re doing and what you’re saying and being reflective on that.

Melinda Wittstock:

How much of it comes down to how much we actually value ourselves? I mean if there’s any doubt that we have about our own value, it’s hard to build value in a business.

Ruchi Pinniger:

It’s true. I always say stop conflating your pricing with your own self-worth because that’s a big thing. People are worried about what they’re charging because they’re not really feeling whole, they’re not feeling worthy. And that’s coming across. If you think about just in day to day business for those of us who are operating businesses, which I think is most of us here, you think about when somebody’s coming to you with a proposal and they say how much they’re charging you and when they say it really, really confidently and like in their wholeness and knowing how amazing they are, you feel that energy and you’re like, I’m signing up. And you don’t even really question the price. But if someone’s coming to you and not confident and kind of putting a price out there and making you feel in a way that it’s not, you know, there’s something here that I need to pay attention to. You’re not as, you’re not as apt to say, yes, I’m all in.

Ruchi Pinniger:

So, it, you’re, we’re putting out the energy of how we’re feeling inside every day, all day.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, this is, this is true. And it’s hard, you know, in the early stages of a business, right where you’re trying to find, you know, I don’t know, product market fit or you’re trying to figure out, you know, or service market fit, I guess, if you will, right the, you know, the value of your solution and who it, you know, who are your ideal clients and who it solves a problem with. There’s a lot of iteration, you know, on pricing and so it can be hard to necessarily figure that out until you really know what value you’re driving. Like what’s the before and after for you know, your client or your customers? You don’t actually know. So, there’s a lot of iteration in that stage. From the early-stage businesses say that you’ve worked with that are in that kind of realm, how do you guide them through that on the pricing thing in particular?

Ruchi Pinniger:

Great question. So really the one thing I want to encourage people to realize is just because your business in, is in early stage doesn’t mean that your value and what you’re bringing is an early stage. Most people like myself are starting businesses because they have a background in that work. So just because you’re new at starting your business doesn’t mean you’re a newbie at doing that work and making the impact that you’re making. I think that’s really important because that’s a story. This, oh, I’m a new business, I can’t charge that much. That’s a story.

Ruchi Pinniger:

And also, really paying attention. What is the value you’re giving? What is the value that the customer is getting from the work you’re doing, what’s their ROI and paying attention to that. The other thing is for those, and you know, we’re mostly working with service-based businesses. So many service-based businesses charge hourly. And I really encourage our clients to do also what we do at Watch or Prosper, which is really look at your services in a, in a sort of a packaged way and maybe a retainer way. So, there’s recurring revenue and think about what is, you know, what are you doing for the client. Think about what, that, what the cost is, what your profits are around that and create a package that really could fit with the work that you’re doing with them. That, that’s a great way to think about it because I can go on vacation and be, you know, billing the same amount this month than I am next month when I’m working my butt off.

Ruchi Pinniger:

So really finding ways to be creative around your pricing is important.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Well, the point about recurring revenue is critical, but also time and money, that correlation is dangerous. Right? Because it limits the growth of your business. You can’t scale if it’s time based at all. And so how to figure out, okay, so I’m, I’m doing this and I’m bringing not only what I’m doing in that hour.

Melinda Wittstock:

Or you know, in the, in the next 10 hours. But what’s the sum of all my experience and expertise that I’m bringing to Those, to those 10 hours increases the price like significantly, right?

Ruchi Pinniger:

Absolutely. Significantly, the value. And also, you know, you might, you’re probably available to your client outside of that hour. So, thinking about that, you’re there for them throughout, like whatever the project is or the service that you’re providing is something to take into account. And that’s why valuing ourselves and just knowing and starting from a place of knowing that we’re inherently worthy is really key. And making yourself, making it safe to feel worthy, making it safe to charge that value, you know, in your body. Like, you have to feel that.

Ruchi Pinniger:

And that’s the really important thing about all of this, Melinda.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, yes. It’s so true. And so, Ruchi, as you decided you were going to jump into the entrepreneurial space, create your own business, you know, 10 years ago, how much of this were you aware of? Like, did you have to learn this with your own pricing and your own, like, do you know what I mean?

Ruchi Pinniger:

All of it. All of it. See, you know, it’s interesting. I come from a Wall Street background, so before I started watch or prosper, I was in the corporate world. I mean, almost 20 years, most of it on Wall Street. I had a finance background. I had a business degree. I still had to teach myself.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Small business, finances, all of it. All. I mean, I would say, I want to say 100% of it was new. Maybe 99% of it was new to me. So, I had to learn for myself in business and the lessons that I learned for, for my clients. And one of those big lessons was just what I talked about. I used to charge hourly. I was totally undercharging.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Everyone was saying yes. And I was like, there’s a problem here. And I was feeling really burnt out. I was at capacity with clients. I hired someone to help, but I still was. I started to get calls, and I was like, I don’t have the capacity to do this. And I was at six figures, but on the low six figures at the time. And I knew something had to change.

Ruchi Pinniger:

And what I realized in working, you know, with. With amazing people and in my own lessons is, okay, this isn’t working. In order to scale, I need to do something different. And that’s when I actually went to more of a retainer model and really started to realize the value I’m bringing to the table isn’t just data entry and books and like running numbers for you, but it’s actually literally, hopefully people feel. And that’s, you know, the work we do is changing their lives. And that’s why a lot of our clients actually call me their financial therapist because it is life changing. Like, we are helping them to redefine prosperity and see money in a new way and live a Beautiful, prosperous life that they couldn’t even imagine beyond their wildest dreams.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, you also have these three pillars for redefining prosperity. So, so talk me through this because prosperity isn’t just about making money, it’s more than that, right?

Ruchi Pinniger:

Absolutely. But I think when you ask someone what is prosperity? It’s pretty typical that they think about money and financial success. But here at Watch or Prosper and in the work that I do personally is really just thinking about it in a new way. So, there’s three pillars that I talk about that are so important to living a prosperous life. One is well-being, one is spirituality, and the last is our relationships with people and also with money.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes, yes. Because if you’re living the type of life where maybe you are making a lot of money, you figured that out. But you’re kind of living a life that’s completely out of balance. Like you’re burning out, you’re working 12-hour days, you’re working over the weekends, you’re not really having like your health is starting to be challenged. Is that prosperity?

Ruchi Pinniger:

That’s not prosperity. Right. You’re running yourself into the ground. What are you working for? What are you doing all that for? Right. I mean, you know, I actually had a. Literally just yesterday was with a client who just recently got married and is running a successful practice and was planning to take a sabbatical with her new husband. She didn’t take a day off before or after. And I was like, we need to talk about this.

Ruchi Pinniger:

And she said, and I just took, I was going to take the sabbatical, and I just took this project. She’s an architect, she just took this project to help some friends of hers and do a huge project. And she said, oh, I thought it would be really fun to do and exciting and it’s friends and I wanted to do this for them. And I was like, right, so you said yes to them and no to yourself. So, I really had her reflect and think about that decision because it wasn’t too late to sort of come back because they hadn’t gotten started. I said, what about talking to them and really being honest, you know, and just saying like I realized that by saying yes to you, I said no to my own well-being and what I really needed. And you know, I’d love to really help you, but I can’t start until May 1st after I finish these other projects and take my six-month sabbatical.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Or you can tell them that you can help Them find someone else. And she’s like, you’re right. And so that was really amazing because she did. She sent the email, and she said yes to her and realized this is the time in her life where she’s healthy, she has no kids, she’s got an. A new husband and desire to spend time with him and travel. And so, we’ve got to say yes to ourselves in order to also, by the way, walk the walk and talk the talk of what we’re doing for the people that we’re serving.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, it’s. It’s so true. You know, so living really a fulfilled life. I think what can happen with a lot of women who go into business is it starts out really great. I mean, you know, it’s this dream and like this thing and you’re building this vision. You’re aligned, hopefully on, like, you know, mission and purpose.

Melinda Wittstock:

And there’s this joy in sharing, you know, what makes you unique with the rest of the world, all those wonderful things. And it’s hard. Building a business is hard. I mean, there’s all kinds of stuff that comes out of left field, things you can’t control, a whole bunch of different things, you know, and it requires, you know, you know, a lot of, you know, a lot of work. But you can get kind of trapped there easily where you be.

Melinda Wittstock:

You can get trapped in this scenario quite easily where you’re working for your business rather than your business working for you. Like, you can lose sight of, like, why you were doing it in the beginning. Right. Because you get kind of trapped in all of it. But usually, the trap is of your own making. I mean, do you see that quite often as well?

Ruchi Pinniger:

All the time. And I was a victim of that at one point.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean, I think that’s just the entrepreneurial journey, I think almost like, you know, the, you know, the Hero’s Journey. It’s almost like the entrepreneurial hero’s journey that at a certain point that happens. You’re like, look up. Wait a minute. Why am I doing this again?

Ruchi Pinniger:

You know, that’s exactly right. And that’s why we’re doing this work with the redefining prosperity. Because, you know, in the beginning, yeah, you might not be able to do all these things exactly the same way in terms of, you know, not grinding and like, getting new clients. But at some point, you know, you get confident in what you’re doing, the work, and you realize, I need to be charging more for it. And you can also just realize that you don’t have to hustle and grind to make money. You can make money with ease. And that’s part of that work that we do with clients. And, you know, again, going back to the safety in our body and that feeling.

Ruchi Pinniger:

We talk a lot about visualization with. With clients, you know, and with other women that we work with and really visualizing yourself in a way that you want to see yourself because your mind doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagination. So, what is it you want to be seeing for yourself in your life? Try to visualize yourself doing that, and then your body and. And your mind become accustomed to it, and then that’s how you start to show up on a regular basis as well.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Now, let me give you a really good example around visualization and how the mind doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagination. So, there’s so many studies with athletes, with musicians, where they are actually visualizing what they’re doing and then doing the same thing in reality, and their brain activity is the same.

Ruchi Pinniger:

So, think about a baseball player who is sitting there and visualizing themselves at home plate hitting a home run, running the bases, feeling the wind and the breeze, and getting the, you know, the goosebumps on their arms and hearing the roar of the crowd as they run the bases, and they come to home plate. Think about that and their visualization and then that reality, the brain activity is the same. I ask women that I work with to do the same thing for themselves. What is it you want to see for yourself? Start to visualize it. If you want to be up on stage speaking, it feels scary because it’s new and our mind is wired to keep us the same. So that. That gets you out of your comfort zone. So, your mind is trying to keep you the same and push you back to.

Ruchi Pinniger:

No, it’s not safe to be on stages. The really great way to get Started with that is to start to close your eyes and visualize yourself up on big stages, speaking, you know, everything about that, about the seeing the audience, connecting with them, making eye contact, being really dynamic and flowing. And start to feel what it feels like to be up on that stage, feeling it literally in your body, like it’s happening. And then you start to get used to what it’s like. And you can do that with anything, anything that you desire. You can do this type of work for yourself.

Melinda Wittstock:

I know this to be true because way, way, way back. And thank you for the reminder because it’s helpful to me too. I remember, you know, I was a competitive figure skater when I was young, and I remember I was trying to learn my double axel jump, right? Very difficult jump to do. I was kind of working on, like, you know, triple jumps at that stage as well. Must have been about 13 years old.

Melinda Wittstock:

And I was falling on hard ice over and over again, like, just slamming, falling, hurting myself over and over and over again as I was learning this. And one night I dreamt that I landed it, and I felt like it was real in my dream, like. Like the muscle memory was real in my dream. Like, it felt real and in flow, like I could do it. And the next day I went on the ice and just landed it, like, no problem.

Ruchi Pinniger:

I love that story.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, it was really interesting to learn that at age 13. But you have to remind yourself of this, too. If that could be true. In that case, you know, visualize a whole bunch of people, you know, flocking to you, buying, buying your service at the price you want or your best life or, you know what I mean, Being able to give your employees a raise. I don’t know, whatever it is that is exciting to you.

Melinda Wittstock:

Do you know what I mean? It’s a big milestone, but, you know, it’s. You need to be in discipline and be consistent with this, though, right? I mean, otherwise you get patchy results if you’re not consistent in that visualization.

Ruchi Pinniger:

I’ve found that’s right, and I’m glad you said that, because here’s the key. In order to visualize, you need clarity on what you want. So, let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about that. Because so many of us are just like, going, going, going, doing, doing, doing, and, you know, busy, busy, busy. Right? Because we are a society that values busyness and being busy. And we don’t even give ourselves the quiet time to be clear on what it is we really going for? And if we’re not clear on our vision, we’re not clear on what we’re asking for from the universe either.

Ruchi Pinniger:

So, let’s talk about this. How do you get clarity on what your vision is? What I would love to give an exercise, like, what I would love for people to do that, want clarity is just to give themselves, like, some quiet time. Schedule some time in your calendar. You know, light a candle, put on some meditative music, grab a notebook and a pen and just sit back and ask yourself, what is it you really want? Like, think about a year from now and think about what do you want your life to be like? Right. What do you want your life to be like? And who are you spending your time with and where are you living and what are you feeling every day? And really just tune into that and those feelings. And what I’d love for you to do is then write a letter to a loved one. Like, I do this to my mom, who I lost many years ago. Like, I write a letter to her as if it’s one year from now and all those things have already happened.

Ruchi Pinniger:

And I just say, dear mom, you won’t believe everything that’s happened. And then I write all the things that I see in my life as if they’ve already occurred. And I use that vision, really as my North Star. As I’m making decisions and saying yes and no to opportunities, is that aligned to how I want to feel every day? Is that aligned to what I want in my life? Is that aligned to my most prosperous life? And that will help you and guide you as you go along?

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, it’s so true. It really, really helps. I’ve done that many times, too. And it’s. It’s amazing how many of the things actually happen. But you have to be very careful. You have to make sure, like you said, that you’re writing down, like, what it is that you. You actually want.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, when we get into the kind of the nitty gritty of all the stuff that you’re actually doing for your clients as well, I mean, you’re. You’re helping them with their bookkeeping, tax advice, cash flow, I imagine. What are some of the, you know, aside from mindset, just the practicalities of what your service offers.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Yeah. So, what we’re doing right now is really providing these retainer model services where we’re providing that financial guidance, bookkeeping, tax, time readiness, really helping them also get out of their head. And, you know, and really, whatever’s going on in their mind. Like, let’s say that they’re thinking about hiring someone or making a new offering or taking away an offering, because it’s not bringing them joy and it’s just sucking the life out of them. We then can help translate that into numbers for them. So, what does that look like? If you take away this or if you add this, what does that look like? And what’s the investment you’d have to make to be able to do that? Or it’s time to hire. Do we hire an employee? Do we hire a subcontractor? Or do we have the budget for it? So really talking through, but also sometimes they just need a little bit of a pep talk. So sometimes clients will contact us between, you know, meetings.

Ruchi Pinniger:

And the other day, actually, one of our financial guides on the on the Watch for Prosper team got a message from one of our clients and who said, can, you know, do you have a minute? I’ve just been really down about money and like, stressed and could. Could we talk? And so, they had a chat. And the next morning, the client wrote her an email that said, thank you so much for our chat. I’ve been sleeping better since I think it was a few days later. She said, I’ve been sleeping so much better since we talked. So just to be able to do that for someone is. Is really fantastic.

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Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Ruchi Pinniger, Founder and CEO of Watch Her Prosper®.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Melinda Wittstock:

So important, say, if we talk about, like, making the investment to hire someone. I think I’ve seen a lot of women fall into this trap of thinking of a new hire as an expense rather than an investment. And it depends on how you’re hiring that person and how you’re managing that. Like, are you hiring them just to do something, or are you hiring them to, you know, for a measurable return on the investment that you’re putting into creating that position. Like, it frees you up to go get bigger deals or to innovate something or whatever. Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s an investment that’s growing your business. It’s not really an expense because hopefully they’ll bring in, have the impact of bringing in more money than you would have otherwise had. So, they more than pay for themselves. Is that like a mindset kind of issue that you have to work on with a lot of women?

Ruchi Pinniger:

Absolutely. Absolutely. Because it’s, again, going back to the value of your time. What’s the value of your time? As this CEO, you are the one developing business, coming up with innovative ideas, you know, being out there in the public eye and your team, you know, and I, again, I, as you asked earlier, I realized that myself, which is why we’re like, continuing to scale so that I don’t take on all the clients. And we have other amazing financial guides, you know, working in the same way with the same vibe. You need to free, and you need to free up your time to do those things and also, by the way, to do the things we talk about in redefining prosperity, right? To take care of yourself, to tune into your intuition and, you know, your own spirituality and that time you need and to, you know, build the relationships with your loved ones and spend time with them and live that life. Any person you’re hiring is an investment in your life and in your business, in my opinion.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, it’s completely true. There was a guest I had in the early days of this podcast, the first hire she made was literally a personal domestic assistant that would just do all her stuff around the house, like, like everything. Like, that was her first hire, right? Because yes, she could be growing her business or doing the laundry. Like, what’s the most important use of her time? Where is the biggest leverage and whatever that is for you? It depends on really knowing yourself and knowing your own skills. So, if I’m an amazing salesperson, I need to be freed up to be doing that.

Melinda Wittstock:

I shouldn’t be checking links on a website like someone else could be doing that at much less expense than using my time on that because my time is more valuable bringing in big, like, I don’t know, six figure sales, right? Or if you’re not a good salesperson, it’s really. And you’re really great operationally, you know, hire a great salesperson, you know, it’s true.

Ruchi Pinniger:

And here’s the, here’s the thing. The trap, Melinda, is that people think they hire and then everything’s instantly done, right? Are you one of those?

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, you’ve created a new job for yourself. I mean, this is the interesting thing in scaling and transitioning a business, you know, right? Like, I know this one, right? Starts it’s all you and you’re doing everything. Then maybe you have like a virtual assistant, or you have a couple of other people here and there. But when it starts to grow and you have to really hire, you are being a. You have a different job than you had before as a CEO of your company because you have to set up those systems and the onboarding and the accountability for those people, making sure that the training is right, making sure they’re Aligned, you know, all those things. And so that requires your time and your attention.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Yes. So, investing in people is an investment of time and money, not just money. It’s not that you’re going to hire and everything’s going to magically happen. You need to set that person up for success. You need to have patience and know that they’re not just going to come into your business and be able to hit the ground running, not with everything. So that’s really important. And I myself have learned that lesson and a lot of my clients have learned that lesson, putting in those systems, you know, those SOPs, and ensuring that you have a process and that you’re, by the way, spending time with the person, not just a weekly meeting, but like they, they’re going to need hours of your attention. So, block that off and make that a priority.

Ruchi Pinniger:

And that, that again will allow you to be freer in the future. Not in the moment, but in the future.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, 100%. This is such good advice. I want to make sure that everybody knows how to find you, Ruchi, and work with you. I know you work primarily with, like, small businesses, but also more on the service side. So, what’s the best way?

Ruchi Pinniger:

Obviously going to our website, watchherprosper.com they can contact us there if they want to learn about working with us. Join our newsletter. Also, those that are interested in going a little deeper in that redefine prosperity work and having some exercises. I have a free workbook they can download. If they go to I want to prosper.com they can download that workbook. I have an Ask Ruchi column.

Ruchi Pinniger:

If you go to ask Ruchi r u.com and have a small business finance question, you can put it there and you can follow me on Instagram because I love chatting with people and sharing advice and tips, both, you know, from a spiritual mindset perspective and practical tactical financial tips for small businesses. Wonderful.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Ruchi Pinniger:

Thank you so much. It’s been so lovely to be here with you.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Ruchi Pinniger is the Founder and CEO of Watch Her Prosper®.

Melinda Wittstock:

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Melinda Wittstock:

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