People always assume I am so deeply passionate and stoked about finance. Like I jump out of bed and get excited about interest rates. That's not exactly true. I am super stoked and passionate about helping people, feeling like my work matters and having autonomy over it. So when people ask me why I started The Hell Yeah Group, the answer is often that, " I looked inside of my tool box of skills and realized I had some sharp tools that all pertained to bookkeeping, running a small business and personal financial planning.” As much as I wanted to create a cool company that had nothing to do with finance, I had constraints: I needed to earn money and there was no denying the skills I had, no matter how uncool I thought it was. Not exactly visions of grandeur, more like shining a turd.
But I’ve really grown to love how my work makes me feel, regardless of it’s non-passion status. I want to share the industry-specific things I’ve learned and observed over the years that I think everyone should know.
Read MoreWhat do we want? Gratification!
When do we want it? Instantly!
We live in a world saturated in instant gratification. We can contact our friends through multiple channels at any time of day, from anywhere in the world. We can have the city’s best sushi or a even just single lime delivered to our front door. The amount of entertainment we have access to at our fingertips is a number that my brain cannot actually comprehend. And we can generate a rush of dopamine in the time it takes to write a caption for a photo.
It’s no wonder why we give up on the things that require more than a few minutes of focus. We have so many other ways to feel instantly good and to distract us from the real work we could be doing. But real work takes, well - real work.
Read MoreI’m just going to come out of the closet and say this: I actually hate budgeting. And I think so many of us have sucked at it because it actually inherently sucks. A budget is the harsh fluorescent light the morning after, revealing all of our past personal mistakes. Not being able to stick to a budget highlights just how out of control we are in our daily lives, like how we are powerless to marketing that connects with us emotionally or how the market or an employer dictates what we can afford and ultimately, how we live our lives. On the surface, a budget is a bunch of numbers, but at it’s core, it forces us to confront ourselves.
Read MoreWritten by Luke Frye
Okay, this is going to sound extremely biased... but, as an accountant, I strongly recommend hiring a professional to file your business’s tax returns.
Sure, you’ll have to part with some of your hard earned cash in the short term. But I guarantee it will save you time and headaches. And if it helps you avoid making costly errors on your tax return (y’know, the ones that result in IRS fines), it’ll also save you money in the long run.
That said, I’m aware that it’s not always possible to hire a pro. So, if you’re doing your own tax return this year, here are some common mistakes to avoid.
Read MoreWhen you’re at a bar at 1am; you’re not drunk, but not not sober, surrounded by a bunch of friends, the last thing you want to do is load several heavy, oddly shaped items into a car only to have to unload them shortly after. This is the worst part about playing in a local band; you have to do everything yourself… but it’s just part of it. It comes with the territory.
To my freelancer friends and small business buddies who hate selling or pitching or talking about the money part of things. I get it, it sucks, but too bad. It’s the trade off for being able to spend your working life building something you believe in. It’s the cost of mostly being in charge of your life. Talking about money doesn’t have to suck. You can stop hating it, but you have to do some work to change your own perspective on it.
Here are some ways I think about selling. I hope some of it will light up your brain and help you power past some of your limiting beliefs around selling and talking to customers about money.
Read MorePeople talk about opportunities like they’re a nebulous, disembodied thing. Like they’re floating around and will land on your shoulder and boom, your life is changed forever. Let’s say they are. Imagine opportunities are all floating around in form of balloons. Every balloon is connected to a string. And at the end of the string, even though you might not be able to see it, there is a person holding the string.
You see, opportunities are not standalone. They’re always connected to a person.
This article is all about understanding who you serve. Who is your ideal customer, target market and what’s your niche?
Read MorePicture this. You’re back in 5th grade. You’re standing in a line with your fellow classmates, facing an open field. And you’re all about to be humiliated because you’ll now be ranked by your kickball skills.
There are two team captains and they’re staring you all down and sizing you up. The first picks start and of course, the kids with the most kickball skills are picked first. Then the kids with the moderate skills are picked. They don’t even need hard kickball skills, they can have skills like morale building, being a team player or not getting in the way of the star players. And then the last picks are the kids who might not only lack skills; they might be a liability. On the dusty field, it’s not about feelings or friendships, it’s all about skills. After all, it’s not called friendship ball.
Read MoreI got clocked in the head about 200 times in a recent boxing sessions with my trainer. I don’t remember how many hits I took to the body because it was really the face punches that stood out to me that day. He wasn’t even hitting me hard, there were just so many. It was very disorienting. Ask someone to lightly slap you all over your face 200 times and you’ll see what I mean.
Read MoreBefore we begin, I’d like to introduce you to the pyramid of financial awesome.
The pyramid of financial awesomeness, lays out everything you need to do to get your personal financial life together. You start at bottom and then progress upward.
In this post, I’m going to walk you through the three things you can do to build a solid foundation.
Read More"We are what we repeatedly do.” - Aristotle
There was a time in my life where I was running about six miles a day, nearly every day. I didn’t become that annoying person overnight.
The first time I went out on a run, it was on a track at a community college near my childhood house. The loop was one-quarter mile, so I had to run around it four times to complete a mile. The first time I went out, I couldn’t run around the loop once without stopping. I only ran/walk a mile that day.
Then the next day, I woke up and ran/walk another mile. I slowly progressed, but before I realized it, I could run a mile without stopping. And eventually I could easily run six.
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