Episode 59: She Reads, She Leads — How Women Entrepreneurs Are Rewriting Their Money Story with Jennifer Kornoely

Your Financial Maven® Podcast with Samantha Mittman-Besnoff, CPA

What if the thing standing between you and financial confidence wasn’t a spreadsheet — but a book club? In this episode of Your Financial Maven®, I sat down with Jennifer “Jen” Kornoely, real estate photographer turned founder of the She Reads, She Leads Book Club. Jen built a community of women entrepreneurs who read, discuss, and implement what they learn together — covering everything from personal finance to mindset to running a business.

This was a warm, honest conversation about leaving corporate, learning what nobody taught us about money, and the quiet power of women learning out loud, together. Here are the highlights.

What Is Money? Access and Freedom.

I open every episode with the same question, and Jen’s answer was beautifully direct: money is a tool — and what it really gives you is access. Access to better food. To livable cities. To the option to leave a toxic job or a toxic relationship. Money isn’t the goal. It’s what the goal runs on.

The Corporate Breaking Point

Jen’s path out of corporate wasn’t a tidy transition plan. She worked for someone who, as she put it, had no ability or desire to work with women who had opinions — and she has plenty. She was exceeding her metrics. She was good at her job. And she still got pushed out.

That moment cracked something open. As a single mom with a kid in middle school, she suddenly had to look hard at what she actually wanted her life to look like. Being gone from 8 to 6 every day, putting her kid in after-school care, asking permission as a grown woman to take a longer lunch when her kid had something at school — none of it was working. So she leaned into her photography skills, started a real estate photography business, and built a schedule around her family instead of around someone else’s insecurities.

I related to this hard. Part of why I went out on my own was that my younger son lives with a rare migraine disease, and I needed to be there for my kids in ways the public accounting world wasn’t going to let me be. The flexibility piece isn’t a luxury — for a lot of women, it’s the whole reason we’re doing this.

“Wealth Is for a Different Type of Person” — and Why That’s a Lie

Once Jen was running her own business, she ran into the wall a lot of us hit: she was great at her craft, and she knew almost nothing about marketing, scaling, finance, or growth. So she did what entrepreneurs do — she started reading.

Her starting point was a belief she had to unlearn first: wealth is for a different type of person. Investing is for a different type of person. Tax knowledge is for a different type of person. It scared her to think she might just toil away for pennies forever. There had to be a better way.

So she started consuming personal finance books. Audiobooks while she photographed empty houses. Audiobooks on dog walks. And slowly the belief shifted: this isn’t for someone else. This is for me.

Why a Book Club?

Jen started listening to financial advice from women, for women — because women carry a different load. We’re often the ones figuring out how to make it work as single parents, the ones holding the family’s financial reality together, the ones who weren’t handed the playbook. She wanted that perspective.

And then she went one step further: she built a community around it.

Here’s the part that stuck with me — Jen explained the learning pyramid:

•        Reading a book on your own → you retain about 10–20%

•        Talking about it with others → up to 50%

•        Implementing what you learned → about 70%

•        Teaching it → roughly 90%

That’s why a book club hits different than just reading alone. You’re not just consuming information; you’re metabolizing it. And as Jen pointed out, women have always existed in community. We’ve always learned and supported in groups. The book club is just bringing that back on purpose.

How She Reads, She Leads Actually Works

The group launched in October 2024 and has now worked through 14 or 15 books. The model is simple and intentional:

•        Members vote on the next month’s book from a shared pool of suggestions

•        Everyone reads on their own time

•        A Facebook group hosts ongoing conversation between meetings

•        Once a month, the group meets on Zoom for the full discussion

It’s stayed on Zoom on purpose — Jen didn’t want the group limited to her bubble in Boise. Members come from photography, medicine, banking, design, all over the country. Different industries means different “nuggets” pulled from the same book, which makes the conversations richer.

The first book was The E-Myth, which Jen thought was the perfect launch — a book about the actual difference between being good at your craft and running a business around it. Spoiler: being the worker bee is not the same as being the queen bee.

Networking Without the “Smarmy Business Card” Energy

One thing I appreciated: Jen called out the awkward side of traditional networking — the rooms full of people pressing business cards into your hand. The book club is a different model. You’re not pitching. You’re talking about ideas, struggles, and what you’re trying to implement. The connections that come out of it are real because they have to be.

She gave an example: a recent call drifted into a conversation about personal branding and SEO. One member happened to be a web designer. Another member realized mid-conversation, “I actually need your services.” That’s organic. That’s know-like-and-trust built without performance.

The Money Myths That Came Up

When I asked Jen what money myths kept showing up among the women in the group, two hit hard:

•        “I’m not good with money.” A default a lot of women fall into because nobody taught us, and money conversations didn’t happen at home growing up.

•        “I don’t deserve money.” Rarely said out loud — but it’s underneath “I’ll just charge less,” “I let my husband handle it,” and “I’m not really a numbers person.”

That second one is the one I see in my practice all the time. When women undercharge or hand the financial reins entirely to a spouse, the consequences show up later — divorce, death of a partner, a business closure — and suddenly someone is stuck. I’ve spent years helping women get unstuck, and a huge part of that work is unwinding the shame they’ve been carrying.

The fix isn’t a finance course. It starts with a community of women saying out loud: no, you don’t have to apologize for your prices, your business model, or wanting more.

Profit First — and “Eat the Chicken, Spit Out the Bones”

The group recently finished Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, and Jen and I both had thoughts. The concept — pay yourself first, set aside taxes and savings, then run the business on what’s left — is the opposite of how most of us were taught to think about business cash flow. As a CPA, I’ll be honest: I didn’t follow the system to the letter, but the mindset shift is genuinely valuable.

That conversation also surfaced a phrase I loved, from a guest on one of their calls, James Rich: “Eat the chicken, spit out the bones.” Not every idea in every book is for you. Take what’s useful. Leave the rest. You don’t have to wholesale adopt anyone’s system to grow.

And here’s what I really loved: at the end of that Profit First call, the group did something new — they each named a specific action item. Out loud. On the recording. So they could be held accountable to it later. That’s the implementation layer of the learning pyramid in action.

The Mattress Store Problem (and How to Stop Competing on Price)

We also talked about Alex Hormozi’s $100M Offers and the trap of commodifying yourself. Jen used the mattress store analogy: you walk in, one mattress is $1,000, another is $1,200, and you have no idea why. The brands are different, the language is different — you literally can’t compare them. That’s the point. When your offer is genuinely distinct, you stop competing on price.

I shared something I’ve learned the hard way: when I started 12+ years ago, I priced too low. Now I’m clear with new clients about what I charge — not because I’m being greedy, but because my experience deserves to be compensated for what it is. Your value isn’t your hourly rate. It’s your problem-solving.

What Women Need

I asked Jen what she’d most want listeners to walk away with, and she didn’t hesitate: women need community. Religious community, hobby community, professional community — whatever shape it takes. We need rooms where we can be helped and be willing to help. Where we can be vulnerable, fall apart for a second, and then, as Jen put it, “build a bridge to walk over it.”

Confidence in young girls gets knocked down early, and rebuilding it as adults takes real work. Other women in your corner makes that work possible.

Where to Find Jen

•        Website: SheReadsSheLeads.com

•        Join the book club: Use promo code SHELEADS30 (all caps) for a free first month

•        Free resource: A downloadable list of must-read books — the top three across six categories including personal finance, wealth building, networking, and outsourcing. A great starting point if you don’t know where to begin.

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This podcast is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only and is not a substitute for advice from your CPA, tax, or financial professional.

Samantha M. Besnoff is a Certified Public Accountant, Independent Life Insurance Agent, and Financial Education Consultant. She has been a part of the accounting world for over 30 years spending time in most areas of the field. Her experience is vast and she loves to share her knowledge with you! Delving into the podcast world has been amazing and she has enjoyed the last three years sharing with her listeners.