What does it really take to go from feeling stuck and ready to walk away… to building a bookkeeping business with 18 team members and $1.5M in revenue?

In this episode, Sharon sits down with Olivia Story, founder of Gecko Cloud Solutions, for a powerful conversation about growth, leadership, mindset, systems, AI, pricing, and the future of bookkeeping.

Olivia shares how she went from a team of 5 to 18 team members, rebuilt her confidence, strengthened her leadership, and created a business that now supports more clients, more team members, and a much bigger vision.

In this episode we cover:
• What brought Olivia to the point of nearly walking away
• The mindset shift that helped her grow again
• How she went from 5 to 18 team members
• Hitting $1.5M in revenue and what helped that growth compound
• Why leadership can look nurturing, not loud
• How Olivia structures her team with BAS agents and team leaders
• Why systems and checklists are essential for scaling
• The role of apps, automation, and strong processes
• Why AI will change bookkeeping, but not remove the need for trusted advisors
• The future opportunity for bookkeepers who build advisory and relationship skills
• Why undercharging the industry has to stop
• Olivia’s advice for bookkeepers who feel exhausted, overwhelmed, or ready to give up

Key insights:
• Growth starts with mindset, but it needs structure behind it
• You do not need to be a “traditional” leader to lead well
• Systems create freedom for both the owner and the team
• Bookkeepers are already leaders to their clients
• AI will remove some of the manual work, but human review, trust, and advisory still matter
• Pricing needs to reflect the professional value bookkeepers bring
• You are not alone in this industry, and you do not have to grow alone

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

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👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

When you’ve built a business from the ground up, of course it feels personal.

You found the clients.
You did the work.
You took the risks.
You paid the wages.
You carried the responsibility.

So when someone says, “Don’t take it personally,” that advice can feel almost impossible to follow.

In this episode, Sharon explores why business decisions are rarely just practical.

A price increase can bring up fear of rejection.
A marketing post can trigger fear of judgment.
A boundary can feel like risking approval.
Delegating can challenge trust and control.

The numbers may be clear, but the woman behind them still has to find the courage to act.

In this episode we cover:
• Why business feels so deeply personal
• What really sits underneath pricing decisions
• Why visibility can feel uncomfortable, even when you have something valuable to say
• How people-pleasing shows up through overdelivering and weak boundaries
• Why being helpful can become tied to feeling safe, liked, and needed
• The role emotions play in judgment and decision-making
• Why psychological safety matters in leadership
• The four areas your business reflects back to you
• Your relationship with money, visibility, boundaries, and leadership
• How to use emotional reactions as information rather than evidence that something is wrong

Key insights:
• The practical decision is often not the real challenge
• Your business reveals where you feel solid and where you still feel wobbly
• Boundaries are about more than saying no
• Pricing confidence begins with self-trust
• Business does not only grow your income — it grows you

Where is your business feeling more personal than practical right now?

And what might it be trying to show you?

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

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👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

What is the woman behind the business carrying that no one else can see?

Not the brand.
Not the polished website.
Not the smiling photo.

The actual woman making the decisions, holding the money stress, supporting the team, managing the clients, remembering the appointments, organising the family, and trying to keep everything moving.

From the outside, she may look completely capable.

But there is a difference between functioning and feeling free.

In this episode, Sharon unpacks the invisible weight so many successful women carry — and why better time management is not always the answer.

Sometimes the problem is not the diary.

It is the weight of the bag.

In this episode we cover:
• Why successful women can look fine while feeling completely exhausted
• The difference between functioning and feeling free
• Why rest does not always fix the deeper kind of tiredness
• The unpaid and invisible work women often carry
• The four loads behind the successful woman
• The practical load everyone can see
• The mental load of remembering, anticipating, and following up
• The emotional load of keeping everyone calm and supported
• The identity load behind pricing, boundaries, hiring, and saying no
• Why overwhelm is often too many loads sitting in one nervous system
• How to identify what should be shared, systemised, or put down

Key insights:
• Being capable does not mean you should carry everything
• Your business should support you, not swallow you up
• What stays invisible stays heavy
• Boundaries are often about identity, not just behaviour
• The next level may not require more effort — it may require less carrying

What are you carrying that no one else can see?

And what are you finally ready to stop carrying alone?

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

---
👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

Why do humans stay so busy instead of facing what’s actually wrong?

In this episode of The Human Experiment, Sharon unpacks one of the biggest contradictions of modern life: we have more tools, technology, automation, AI, apps, and systems than ever before… yet so many people feel more exhausted, overstimulated, and overwhelmed than ever. 

This episode is about the hidden role busyness plays in our lives and businesses.

Because sometimes busyness is not about productivity.

Sometimes it is protection.

A way to avoid stillness.
 A way to avoid hard truths.
 A way to avoid asking, am I actually happy?

Sharon explores how business owners can hide inside admin, emails, client work, checking, fixing, and overdelivering while the real issues stay untouched: pricing, confidence, boundaries, self-worth, leadership, and difficult conversations. 

In this episode we cover:
• Why humans stay busy instead of facing what feels uncomfortable
• How modern life rewards exhaustion and overcommitment
• Why busyness can become part of your identity
• The difference between productive action and emotional avoidance
• How business owners hide inside admin, emails, and client work
• Why knowing the problem intellectually is not the same as facing it emotionally
• How pricing, boundaries, confidence, and leadership often sit underneath “busy”
• Why stillness can feel confronting when you’re used to proving your worth through doing
• The role of alignment and the 20% that actually creates meaning, growth, and energy
• Sharon’s practical Human Experiment for noticing what busyness may be helping you avoid 

Key insights:
• Busyness can look responsible while quietly hiding what needs attention.
• Productivity and avoidance can look exactly the same from the outside.
• Stillness creates awareness, and awareness can feel confronting.
• Your worth is not measured by how exhausted you are.
• Sometimes the answer is not doing more — it is getting honest about what actually matters. 

Mentioned in this episode:
• Vipassana meditation 

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Facebook
 Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

---
👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

What if getting older wasn’t something to fear… but something to design for?

In this episode, Sharon sits down with Marcus Pearce — author, speaker, mentor, former journalist, and host of 100 Not Out — for a powerful conversation about longevity, purpose, courage, and creating an exceptional life at every age.

Marcus shares why so many people quietly accept the belief that their best years are behind them, and what changes when you start seeing ageing as a privilege rather than a decline.

In this episode we cover:
• What an exceptional life really means
• Why ageing well is about more than living longer
• The eight areas that shape a fulfilling life
• What the Blue Zones teach us about health, purpose, and connection
• Why movement, friendship, family, and meaningful work matter
• How your calendar reflects the life you are actually living
• Why challenge and discomfort help us grow
• The courage required to design life on your own terms
• Why people who age well stay physically, socially, and purposefully engaged
• Marcus’s longevity experiences in Ikaria, Sardinia, and Okinawa

Key insights:
• Getting older is a privilege
• Longevity without quality of life is not the goal
• Your calendar reveals what you truly value
• Courage is often the difference between tolerating life and creating it
• The lowest-scoring area of your life may need the most attention

Links from this episode:
100 Not Out podcast and longevity experiences:
100notout.com

Exceptional Life Quiz:
marcuspearce.com.au

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

---
👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

Why do humans care so much about what other people think?

In this episode of The Human Experiment, Sharon unpacks one of the most human patterns of all: the way outside opinions can shape our confidence, choices, visibility, and self-expression.

Even when we logically know we should back ourselves, something inside us still reacts to judgment, criticism, silence, or feeling left out.

And there’s a reason for that.

Humans are wired for belonging.
We are wired to notice approval.
We are wired to care about social safety.

But when that wiring starts running the show, we can begin to dim ourselves, soften our opinions, hide our ambition, and wait for permission to fully be who we are.

This episode is a grounded look at belonging, visibility, school conditioning, social media, approval, and the quiet ways we abandon ourselves just to feel accepted.

In this episode we cover:
• Why humans care so much about other people’s opinions
• The deep wiring humans have for belonging and social safety
• Why rejection can still hit the nervous system so hard
• How social media amplifies comparison and self-doubt
• Why humans often dim themselves to stay accepted
• The school conditioning many adults still carry unconsciously
• Why visibility naturally creates opinions and projection
• The difference between approval and actual safety
• How people-pleasing quietly shapes identity
• Why confidence is not about never caring — it’s about building self-trust
• What full self-expression really asks of us
• Sharon’s practical Human Experiment for this week

Key insights:
• Humans are deeply wired for belonging, but that wiring can keep us small
• Social media is performance, not reality
• External validation is unstable and cannot hold your identity together
• Confidence is built through repeated moments of self-expression
• The more you trust yourself, the less outside opinions control you
• You do not need permission to become more fully expressed

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Facebook
Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

---
👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

Why do humans hate the way they look on camera so much?

In this episode of The Human Experiment, Sharon unpacks one of the strangest contradictions of modern life: we want growth, visibility, influence, and connection… but we often want all of it without the discomfort of being seen.

This is not really about cameras.

It is about identity, self-worth, fear of judgment, belonging, and the strange psychological mismatch between how we see ourselves and how the world sees us. Sharon explores why humans freeze, overanalyse, re-record, and criticise themselves so harshly on camera — and why women, especially over 40, often carry an even deeper discomfort around visibility. 

Blending personal insight, psychology, behavioural patterns, and practical encouragement, this episode is a warm, honest reminder that confidence usually comes after action, not before. 

In this episode we cover:
• Why humans hate the way they look and sound on camera
• The psychology behind why video can feel emotionally “wrong”
• The mere exposure effect and why unfamiliar versions of ourselves feel uncomfortable
• Why women over 40 often carry deeper discontent around visibility
• The contradiction between wanting growth and avoiding cringe
• How being on camera activates deeper fears around worth, judgment, and belonging
• Why humans were never designed to watch themselves this much
• The subtle ways women apologise for existing before they even speak
• The role of social rejection, tribal wiring, and nervous system fear
• Why authenticity matters more than polish
• The line between helpful AI polish and losing yourself completely
• Why confidence is built through exposure, not perfection
• Sharon’s practical experiment to help you feel better on camera 

Key insights:
• Humans prefer what feels familiar, not necessarily what is true
• Camera discomfort is often about identity and self-worth, not appearance
• Perfectionism quietly kills growth
• People connect more deeply with humanity than polish
• Confidence comes from doing the thing enough times to realise you can survive it
• You do not need to feel ready before you begin 

Mentioned in this episode:
• Tribes by Seth Godin 
• Faada Freddy - Senegalese singer

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Facebook
 Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

---
👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

Why Women Second Guess Themselves Even When They’re Brilliant

Why do so many capable women still question themselves… even when they’re great at what they do?

In this episode, Sharon unpacks something subtle but powerful: the way conditioning, culture, and long-held expectations shape how women show up in business.

From meetings where a woman’s idea lands lightly until someone else repeats it, to the deeper patterns that teach women to be helpful instead of powerful, this conversation explores why second-guessing doesn’t come from lack of skill — it comes from what we’ve learned to believe about our place, our voice, and our value.

This is not about blame.

It’s about noticing what has quietly been shaping us, so we can stop carrying it unconsciously.

In this episode we cover:
• Why women second guess themselves even when they know what they’re doing
• The subtle moments that make women shrink, soften, or hold back
• How repeated cultural patterns stop feeling like choices and start feeling “normal”
• Why conditioning often teaches women to be helpful, not powerful
• The difference between being liked and being respected
• How undercharging, overdelivering, and staying invisible are often connected
• Why this isn’t about capability — it’s about what has been reinforced over time
• The cost of holding back in meetings, conversations, and leadership
• Why noticing these patterns is the first step to changing them

Key insights:
• Second-guessing is often learned, not earned.
• What gets repeated enough starts to feel true, even when it isn’t.
• Many women have been conditioned to be reliable, but not visible.
• Undercharging and overdelivering are often signs of deeper self-doubt, not lack of skill.
• Once you see the pattern, you can stop living inside it.

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Facebook
 Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

---
👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

What happens when life gives you a moment so powerful… you can’t go back to who you were before?

In this deeply moving episode, Sharon sits down with Jessica Ritchie — award-winning brand strategist, keynote speaker, founder of the Transformational Brand Lab, seven-times internationally awarded author, and creator of the MARK methodology: Mindset, Authenticity, Resilience, and Kindness. 

This conversation goes far beyond branding.

It’s about identity, intuition, authenticity, courage, and the life-changing moments that force us to stop hiding and start living in alignment with who we really are.

Jessica shares the pivotal story that changed everything for her, how it led her to integrate deeper healing work into her business, and why so many women stay stuck trying to look successful on the outside while quietly feeling disconnected on the inside. 

In this episode we cover:
• What Jessica really does and why her work goes far beyond traditional branding
• The gap she saw in women’s business growth that had nothing to do with websites or logos
• How she helps women uncover clarity, confidence, and vision from the inside out
• The life-changing moment that became a line in the sand for her
• How intuition, healing, and identity work became part of her business
• Why authenticity can feel scary — and why it changes everything
• The connection between energy, alignment, and being truly seen
• Why women often wait for a major life event before they change
• How the MARK methodology was born
• What confidence really starts with
• Why living true to yourself matters more than what others expect of you
• How to begin if you know something needs to shift in your life or business 

Key insights:
• Real brand clarity starts with identity, not image.
• Big life moments can become catalysts for deep transformation.
• Authenticity is not a branding tactic — it is an energetic alignment.
• Confidence grows when you know who you are at your core.
• You do not need to wait for a boulder when life is already giving you nudges. 

Jessica’s details:
• Website: www.transformationalbrandlab.com
• Book: Clarity to Make Your Mark
• Jessica also mentioned that if listeners would like a signed copy, they can reach out to her through the website. 

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Facebook
 Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

---
👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]

Let’s talk about fear.

Not the big, obvious kind.
The quiet kind.

The kind that sounds like
“I’ll do it later”
“I just need to think about it a bit more”
“Now’s probably not the right time”

And it feels reasonable.

In this episode, we unpack how fear doesn’t stop you in obvious ways. It shows up in small, everyday decisions and over time, those decisions shape your results more than anything else.

This is a grounded look at avoidance, growth, and how to start taking back control without trying to become someone else overnight.

In this episode we cover:
• Why fear rarely shows up in obvious ways
• How avoidance disguises itself as logic and timing
• The subtle decisions that are actually driven by fear
• Why staying where you are can feel like a choice but isn’t
• How avoidance behaviour makes things feel bigger over time
• The difference between something being unsafe and just uncomfortable
• Why growth and fear often sit side by side
• How fear starts shaping your identity and decision making
• The reason confidence never comes before action
• How to start moving without overwhelming yourself

Key insights:
• What you avoid doesn’t disappear, it grows
• Fear often sounds logical, not emotional
• Small decisions driven by fear compound over time
• You don’t need to go big, you just need to move
• Confidence is built after action, not before it

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts
https://www.sharonfrancisco.com/podcast

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Facebook
Questions for the podcast? [email protected]

---
👉  Also: The Entrepreneurial Bookkeeper — grow your business without sacrificing your health: sharonfrancisco.com/program

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook.

Have a question for the podcast? Email [email protected]