Meet Melissa Leon

Written by Tom Kelly

Melissa began her career at age 16 as a bank teller and restaurant server as she worked through high school and college. She attended Northern Arizona University with a major in Hotel and Restaurant Management with aspirations of owning a restaurant and bed & breakfast. She discovered her passion for accounting and finance within her first year of post-undergraduate and spent 18 years in luxury hospitality accounting at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Eventually leading the global accounting Shared Services department, Melissa also completed her Master’s in Business Administration and earned a Project Management Professional certification.

During the pandemic, Melissa saw the need for small business financial education and founded Two Sense Consulting, a fractional CFO and bookkeeping firm dedicated to educating and supporting small business owners with the tools they need to build profitable businesses. This remained a passion project as she left the hospitality industry to join IBM as an Account Executive for business process outsourcing and consulting, focusing on finance/accounting, procurement, and payroll transformation.

After four years of growth, in early 2024, Melissa closed her corporate chapter and is now fully dedicated to her clients at Two Sense Consulting. Today, the firm supports over 75 small business owners across the U.S.

Melissa is also the author of the best-selling book and the podcast host of “Efficiency Bitch: How Ambitious Women Can Have It All Without Doing It All.” Melissa is a mother of three young children and knows the transformation from ambitious woman to SuperMom intimately. After fighting hard to ‘have it all,’ she learned valuable lessons to establish harmony between womanhood, motherhood, and professional ambitions.

Tell us a little more about your current role with your organization and how it has impacted the start-up ecosystem here in the greater Phoenix region?

In 2020, as the Payroll Protection Program was starting, I had three friends who were severely behind on their bookkeeping call me for help. At the time, I was in the hotel industry, which was completely shut down, so I had time to help. I quickly realized that small business owners had two options: hiring a bookkeeper or managing their own books. The problem with both options is that no one was helping to educate and analyze the books in a way that would support long-term profitability and cash flow. Most bookkeeping companies just post transacations. Most CPA firms just file taxes. No one was bridging the gap to help educate and empower. That’s where Two Sense Consulting’s sweet spot is.

What Inspires You?

I’m inspired by young adults. I volunteer as a mentor and guest speaker at Grand Canyon University and Arizona State University, and every time, I leave with so much excitement and energy. I stumbled into my career in accounting and love sharing my experience with financial literacy, world travel, raising a family, and building my own dream job with them. I can see their wheels start turning and hope that propels them into building their own awesome careers full of twists and turns.

Advice to Aspiring Entrepreneurs and People Looking for their Passion

I have wanted to be an entrepreneur my whole life. I thought it would be as a restaurant owner, then explored the idea of a few franchises until one day, through the process of Ikigai, I realized “business” is my business and my passion. It didn’t all happen in one day, not even in one year, but little by little, the full vision came together. My advice is to figure out your Ikigai – the crossroads of what you are good at, what the world needs, what you can get paid for, and what you love.

Most Impactful Book?

In all honesty, mine, but only becuase it was the best therapy. I learned so much about myself and who I wanted to be. Everyone should write a book.

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