Have you ever looked around your life or career and thought, This doesn’t reflect who I really am or what I’m truly worth?
If you’re a working mom in accounting, chances are you’ve felt the tension between everything you’re doing and how much you feel valued for it. The expectations are high. The standards are relentless. And yet, so many women still find themselves playing small, undercharging, overdelivering, and second-guessing whether they deserve more.
So how do you shift from undervalued to unapologetic? According to CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young, it starts with one essential thing: owning your worth from the inside out.
Value Is Not a Number
First, let’s break the myth. Your value is not your hourly rate. It’s not your title, your billables, or your salary. Mayumi makes a powerful point in this episode: even when someone else appreciates you, it won’t land if you don’t believe in your own worth first.
Owning your value means feeling valuable. Feeling respected, appreciated, and seen in your work, your home, and your relationships.
That feeling isn’t tied to numbers. It’s rooted in how you see yourself and what you tolerate.
You Get What You Tolerate
One of the most practical and life-changing exercises Mayumi shares is this: write down everything you’re currently tolerating. From the unspoken frustrations in your job to the small daily irritations at home, notice where you’ve been silent, accommodating, or resigned.
Then, ask yourself: What have I been allowing that no longer aligns with my worth?
This exercise isn’t about blame. It’s about ownership. Because when you realize you’ve chosen to tolerate certain things, you also realize you have the power to choose differently.
That’s where real transformation begins.
Close the Gap Between Who You Are and What You’re Living
Many women feel a gap between their internal sense of value and their external reality. Maybe you know you’re capable of more, but your compensation doesn’t reflect it. Maybe you crave leadership, but you keep holding back. Maybe you feel underappreciated, even though you’re giving everything.
That gap is painful, but it’s also a clue. It’s a sign that your current environment or mindset isn’t matching your growth.
The first step to closing that gap is awareness. The second is emotional honesty. Mayumi encourages women to use their emotion as fuel, even anger. Especially anger. Because sometimes that’s the energy that finally pushes you into courage.
And courage is the gateway to possibility.
Create a Culture That Honors Your Worth
Whether you’re a firm owner, a solo practitioner, or part of a team, the way you design your work life matters.
In the episode, Mayumi shares how she moved away from traditional hourly billing models and instead compensated her team based on value and results. This shift created a culture of intrapreneurs, team members who owned their role and felt empowered to produce outcomes, not just put in time.
When you lead from a place of self-worth, you naturally create systems and environments that reflect that worth. And when your culture supports your value, you stop having to fight for it.
You Are Not Here to Shrink
You were not meant to shrink to fit systems that weren’t built for you. You were not meant to downplay your skills, mute your voice, or wait for permission to step forward.
You were meant to take up space.
Owning your worth isn’t just about asking for more. It’s about being more: more of yourself, more of your power, more of your truth.
And the more you embody that, the more the world will rise to meet it.
You don’t have to play small anymore. You’re ready for more, and we’re here to help.
Join a powerful network of CPA moms redefining success and stepping into their value: https://cpamoms.com/start