Ep 99: Mastering Creative Business Finance
Profit First with Christian Brim
SUMMARY
In this essential episode for creative entrepreneurs, Christian Brim of Core Group breaks down the Profit First methodology specifically for creative businesses. Learn how to implement a five-account system for financial success, master value-based pricing, and transform your creative practice into a profitable enterprise. Perfect for freelancers, agency owners, and creative professionals looking to build sustainable creative businesses in 2025.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
⚡️ The foundation of financial success isn't just tools—it's mindset. Creative professionals must first believe their work deserves profit before any system can work effectively.
⚡️ Financial clarity comes from strategic organization: Using five dedicated bank accounts (Deposit, Profit, Owner's Compensation, Taxes, and Operating Expenses) creates a simple but powerful system for managing creative business finances.
⚡️ Start small with profit: Begin with just 1% in your profit account. After 90 days, you'll be surprised by how much accumulates when you commit to the process.
NOTABLE QUOTES
💬 "Nobody buys what we do... What they're buying is a feeling. And the feeling is financial peace, financial clarity, peace of mind." - Christian Brim
💬 "You can do something you love that fills your soul, that scratches that itch, and make a profit at it." - Christian Brim
💬 "Creative work is generally not emphasized, prioritized, or celebrated as much as the analytical... but that doesn't mean it's not valuable." - Christian Brim
EPISODE RESOURCES
⚡️ Grab Christian Brim's book, "Profit First For Creatives" here
⚡️ Purchase my first book, "Growing Upward: My Lifelong Journey with Mental Health" here
⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here
TRANSCRIPT
Do you find that when the money comes in from your jobs, you have no idea where it goes next or how to make it grow on its own? Today we're going to speak with Profit First Professional Christian Brim of the Core Group to get to the bottom of this issue once and for all.
Welcome to the Creativity Made Easy podcast, I'm your host, Dustin Pied, creative coach and consultant, helping you with your processes. I help creatives know themselves, their process and their teams so they can create greater things together. I'm very excited about today's episode, episode 99.
Before we get into that, I want to remind you that you can follow me on Instagram at Dustin Pied. You can find me online at DustinPied.com. While you're there, click on the tools page, DustinPied.com/tools. There will be many things for you there to peruse and download or link to Amazon and purchase on your own, including the book that we're going to get into today.
**Dustin:** Welcome Christian Brim to the Creativity Made Easy podcast. Christian, so glad to have you here.
**Christian:** Well, thank you for having me, Dustin. I'm excited to be here.
**Dustin:** Today we're gonna dive into this idea of Profit First planning. Should we talk about the Core Group first, or should we talk about what Profit First is?
**Christian:** Let's talk about Profit First. So Profit First was a method and a book published by Mike McCallewitz 11 years ago now, based upon his experience as an entrepreneur and how he had gone through three different iterations of businesses and ended up broke. He was like every entrepreneur - there's got to be a solution to this problem.
It's a fairly simple tool to implement, but I think the linchpin to Profit First is the intention, the mindset behind it. As a matter of fact, I start out in my book discussing that mindset first because the tool is just a tool. It will work or not work based upon what you are trying to do with it. Until you believe that your business should be profitable and that it can be profitable and you're committed to changing your behaviors to make it that way, the tool won't work.
**Dustin:** I love that because I'm reading a book right now that's speaking to the very same thing - that we have to have the right mindset before we can venture into anything with success. What you're saying is so true that we cannot pursue the thing with any level of success unless we can have the right mindset that the success can actually come, right?
**Christian:** Correct. And I think a lot of creatives struggle with that for a couple of reasons. Creative work is generally not emphasized, prioritized, or celebrated as much as the analytical. If you look around education, what do they emphasize? STEM - everything's gotta be science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. What are the first courses they cut? Music, art.
The whole idea of divergent thinking is not celebrated. Everything around the education system is about filling in the appropriate box. It's convergent thinking. So I think a lot of entrepreneurs with creative skill sets come to the table kind of thinking that what they do is not real work.
I think the other thing is it's really hard to grasp value around creative work. If you're doing something very technical like engineering or accounting, it lends itself to a more quantifiable value, but creativity is really hard to measure.
In my book, I use the example of the iPhone. When Steve Jobs created the iPhone, nothing like that ever existed. That was the ultimate in creativity - the idea of having this computer in your pocket that also functioned as a phone. And he was rewarded generously for that. The value of that was in the billions and tens of billions of dollars.
**Dustin:** Let's get practical here. I think at the end of the day, creatives just want someone to tell them what to do. What does revenue planning look like? We have the mindset now that we can profit from our creativity, our art can bring profit, we can have a sustainable and scalable business. What do we do when money starts coming in?
**Christian:** The core of the Profit First model that Mike developed is five bank accounts. You can think about it like how your grandparents used envelopes when payday came - they cashed their paycheck and put money in different envelopes for groceries, rent, etc. When that money was gone, it was gone.
It's a similar concept - you have one bank account that all your money goes into and that's all it's for is to deposit. It's like staging your money. A lot of creatives have project work and it can get uber confusing when they get big chunks of money at different times. The deposit account is your staging area. Then you have four other accounts that you allocate money to for specific purposes.
The four accounts are:
1. Profit Account - Set aside a portion (start with 1%) for profit
2. Owner's Compensation - How you pay yourself to run your family household
3. Tax Account - Set aside money for taxes
4. Operating Expenses (OPEX) - For paying your bills
The purpose of using these buckets is to give you a cash management way of running your business. It doesn't replace an accountant or tell you your annual income, but it allows you to spot red flags - like if you have to move money from your profit account to cover bills.
**Dustin:** For clarity, the profit and tax accounts are savings accounts that earn interest, while the others are checking accounts?
**Christian:** Correct. If you put a large amount in, that 1% of 1000 is more than 1% of 100, so you'll see that grow over time.
[Conversation continues about expense management, growth strategies, and value pricing...]
**Christian's Final Advice:**
Two key things:
1. You can do something you love that fills your soul and make a profit at it. If you're not making the profit you want, are you willing to do what you need to do to change it?
2. Start with that Profit account - put 1% in and wait 13 weeks. There's nothing better to prove a reality than cash in the bank.
Find Christian and Core Group online at CoreGroupUS.com and ChristianBrim.com. His book "Profit First for Creatives" is available in both print and audio formats.