If you've ever sat down to do your bookkeeping, gotten confused ten minutes in, and closed the laptop telling yourself you'd get back to it later… you're not alone. And if “later” turned into weeks, or you found yourself starting all over again because you never really found your rhythm in the first place, I want to share something with you today. It's possible to know your numbers, but sometimes, it just takes a little courage.

I recently listened to an episode of the Inventory Genius podcast, hosted by my friend Ciara Stockeland. The episode featured a conversation with Rebecca, who happens to be a former student of mine. What she shared about her own financial journey was so good, I asked her permission (and Ciara's) to recap it here for you. If you want the full conversation, you can listen to it here. But I wanted to break down the highlights, because I think it's going to help you know your numbers too.

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Where Rebecca Started (And Where You Might Be Right Now)

Rebecca's background has nothing to do with bookkeeping. She spent years working in hospice care and grief therapy. And with a master's degree and years of business experience, she said she felt like she should just KNOW how to do her books. When she didn't, that turned into something she later identified as shame

On top of that, she found herself falling into a trap a lot of business owners fall into: watching her Shopify sales roll in (her husband had the notification sound turned on, so every sale went “ch-ching” on his phone) and feeling like that meant things were going well.

But that top-line number, the total sales before anything gets taken out, doesn't tell you what you're actually keeping. It doesn't account for cost of goods sold (what you paid for the inventory you sold), it doesn't account for taxes, and it doesn't tell you what's actually left over for you. Rebecca called it a vanity number. It feels good. It just isn't the truth.

If any of that sounds familiar, keep reading. Because the way Rebecca moved through it can be summed up in three words….Courage, Consistency, Confidence.

If You Want to Know Your Numbers, Courage Must Come First

A lot of people wait until they have confidence in what they're doing before they'll even start. Rebecca will tell you that's backwards. For her, courage came first, and it showed up in a specific, hard decision. She had an accountant who left her feeling awful every time they met, to the point she'd leave those meetings in tears. But she was afraid to leave, because she didn't think she'd find anyone better, and the accountants she'd interviewed felt outrageously expensive. It took courage to finally walk away and find someone she could trust.

Courage doesn't always have to be that big of a leap though. Sometimes it's simply the courage to put a number into a spreadsheet even when you're not sure it's exactly right. Rebecca said she used to send SO many questions early on. Where does this go? Do I split this expense across twelve months or enter it once? The answer she kept hearing was simple: just put it in. It doesn't have to be perfect. That's courage too, taking imperfect action instead of waiting until you feel ready.

Consistency Builds the Habit

Once Rebecca had the courage to start, the next piece was showing up for it again and again. She built a habit she calls Money Mondays (sound familiar??). Every single Monday, first thing, she sits down with her numbers. She calls this financial hygiene.

Think about it this way: nobody wakes up and debates whether they feel like brushing their teeth. You just do it, because it's part of taking care of yourself. Rebecca treats her numbers the exact same way.

Here's why the timing matters so much. If you wait until Wednesday or Thursday to look at your numbers, everything else in your business has already piled on top of you. But when you look FIRST, before the week gets away from you, you're making decisions from a proactive place instead of a reactive one.

Consistency also taught Rebecca something important: a single month, on its own, is just a snapshot. She had a month where she paid for a large inventory order (her cost of goods sold) but didn't get paid by the client until the following month. Looking at that one month alone, her numbers looked negative. But when she looked at the 60-day view, or the quarterly view, the real story showed up. She was profitable. She just couldn't see it by looking at one isolated month.

Confidence Is a Byproduct, Not a Starting Point

This is the one worth sitting with. Rebecca said most people want confidence to show up first. They want to feel sure before they take the step. But it doesn't work that way. Confidence is a byproduct of action. It shows up because you started, not before.

She didn't feel confident and then begin her Money Mondays. She began doing them, kept showing up, kept pushing through the confusion, and the confidence caught up to her later. Today she's fully debt-free, and she can talk about her numbers without the fear that used to be there.

What It Takes to Finally Know Your Numbers

You don't need to feel ready before you start. You need courage for the first step, whatever that looks like for you (opening QuickBooks, having the hard conversation with your accountant, finally sitting down with your numbers). Then you need consistency to keep showing up. Confidence isn't a prerequisite to know your numbers. It's what's waiting for you on the other side.

If you want a great first step to give you some guidance, you can register for my free masterclass. You'll walk away with the exact framework you can follow in your own “Money Mondays” to start building your own consistent routine. Find your courage to take that first small step and register here.