0 (2s):
Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire’s December 2021 Income Reports December's gross. Income was $217,486. Our total expenses were $20,238 for a total net profit for December of $197,248 for an increase of just under $15,000 from December and November. And our percentage of net profit overall gross revenue was 91%.

0 (42s):
We just have continued to dial in our expenses at such an awesome rates. I'm loving this, and I hope a Fire Nation that you are seeing the value of keeping the money you make. You can make all the money in the world by the end of the day. It's what you keep. And we're going to be talking about a lot of cool things. Today, we have our CPAOnFire, Ron Parisi in the house. He's gonna be talking about what to consider when selling your business or your podcasts. There's some cool things there that I'm definitely taking notes on. We'll also be talking about what went down in the second six months of 2021. We'll break down each month from July all the way to December.

0 (1m 24s):
We talk about a lot of cool things, plus let's not forget Kate's Takeaway at the end of every episode, which is her biggest lesson learned, and this one's a great one. So stick around for that. And so much more. When we get back from thanking our sponsors, have you ever thought about what it takes to make you profit by selling content online? Then you need to join amplify with Thinkific. This free event features 30 plus expert creators who will show you how to make revenue selling content online. Visit thinkific.com/amplify to RSVP for free. The My First Million podcast features famous guests, discusses how companies made their first million and brainstorms new business ideas based on the hottest trends and opportunities in the marketplace.

0 (2m 7s):
One recent app was all about how venture capitalists make money. Listen to My First Million, wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Fire Nation. We are ready to kick into things this month. And again, we're going to start with Ron of CPAOnFire for his tax tip, what to consider when selling your business or podcast, Ron, take it away.

1 (2m 29s):
Oh, Fire Nation for our December, 2021 tax and accounting tip, we are going to be diving into business sales, exit strategies and taking on investors. I'm Ron Parisi with CPAOnFire. We always appreciate being invited to talk about accounting tax and regulatory issues for entrepreneurs with the Fire Nation. Today, we're tackling a question that came in from the podcasters paradise live Q and a. Let me read the question. It's a very important topic and it has to do with your exit strategy. Yeah, I know Fire Nation.

1 (3m 9s):
You guys probably have a lot of different, or you're in different points in your business cycle, whether you're just starting up, whether you've been doing this for a while, but I always think it's very important. It's a good business strategy to always be open, to always be cognizant to your exit strategy, whether that's one day you wake up and decide you no longer want to do what you're doing, or maybe somebody comes along with just a super super offer that you need to contemplate. So I always think it's, it's a good idea to put yourself in a potential buyer shoes, a potential investors shoes with, with how you run your business.

1 (3m 51s):
So let's get into the question. The question is if you were to list EOFire’s podcast assets, what would that look like? How about this brand? Number one, audience, number two, sponsors, number three, email list, number four and episode library. Number five, you know, this is, this is a very interesting take on, you know, looking to potentially, you know, have the assets, you know, recorded for a potential buyer, but let's just take a step back for a second.

1 (4m 33s):
And let's just talk about the two most important financial statements of the business of your business is your balance sheet and your profit and loss statement. And just, you know, let's just, just looking at basics. I always like to start there, right? Your balance sheet is your, your photo, your flash in time, right? Your picture in time. So as of 1231, 2021, what were your assets? What were your liabilities and what was owner's equity as of that date, where your prof, you know, your profit and loss statement looks at periods of time, whether that's the last month, last quarter, last year. So those are two, you know, distinguishing factors of your balance sheet and your profit and loss.

1 (5m 17s):
When I, when I think about how businesses used to be valued, they used to look, you know, business valuation person would come in, that would be working with the buyer and they would look at, okay, what are the assets of the business and how are they valued? But if I look at maybe the last two years of the transactions that we've dealt with with our clients, it's actually flipped, it's flipped from the balance sheet over to the profit and loss statement. And most importantly, that's revenue and there's a term out there called quality of revenue. And what they mean by that is they look at your reoccurring revenue, they look at your contracts with your customers, they look at your contracts with maybe your sponsors with your relationships.

1 (6m 5s):
They want to see that there's going to be an ongoing revenue stream, you know, post-sale. And when I, so looking at looking from that lens, right, from the revenue lens, you almost have to back into your assets and how do your assets of your business contribute to that quality of revenue? Right? So if you look at your brand, your audience, your sponsors. So, you know, when I think of importance, I look at, okay, what's the most important asset of my business. That's contributing to my revenues and that's how I would prioritize it. And whenever, you know, we talk about selling a business, you really do sort of want to tell a story.

1 (6m 50s):
So, I mean, frame, you know, the revenue, the assets to generate that revenue with your story about your business, super important. Again, I think, you know, wherever you are in your business cycle to really think about, you know, that ultimate sale. And I think that a lot of things on how you make everyday business decisions, you know, that should be one of your filters, as far as you know, on the exit strategy. You know, how, how would a perspective buyer, you know, we've done a lot of VC deals. How does a prospective investor come in? What are they going to look at? And I think that helps, you know, entrepreneurs sort of get out of the day-to-day business issues and sort of get to another level of how they make the business decisions, how they treat their business.

1 (7m 41s):
Obviously this is just one area of the exit strategy and planning potentially for a potential sale. But I think it's, it's a great place to start. And maybe we'll touch upon some of the other topics on the exit strategy and potential sales of your business. But again, this is Ron Parisi with CPAOnFire. Really appreciate it. Wish the best of luck to you, John, and for a prosperous and healthy 2022. And those of you in Fire Nation entrepreneurs and business owners that are looking to upgrade your financial operations going into 2022, stop by our website, check out some of the super results we've been able to get with our current clients.

1 (8m 25s):
We're looking for a few more clients to add in 2020 to book a call. Let's talk about your goals and let's see what's possible.

0 (8m 34s):
All right, Ron, thank you for those kind words as promised I was taking notes really interesting and important stuff for anybody who's thinking about doing either of those things. Now we're going to bring the lovely Caitlin Ericsson onto the mic now where we're going to go over the second half of 2021. If you miss last Income Reports, we actually talked about the first half, January through June. Today, we'll be going through July through December, just kind of giving the highlights of each month. So without any further ado, Kate, what's going on.

2 (9m 7s):
Hi, John, what's up Fire Nation and yay. Happy new year happy 2022,

0 (9m 13s):
Happy 2022. I did realize when I was writing some things down here about the 2021 December Income Reports is the last time that I'll actually write those months for a podcast. That was pretty crazy.

2 (9m 25s):
Yeah. And we're celebrating our 100th Income Reports. This is Income Reports number 100. Wow.

0 (9m 34s):
100. Wow. That is amazing stuff. And I think we're doing something pretty cool. I'm liking this kind of recap thing last episode, by the way, for the Income Reports, Fire Nation, as I mentioned was about the first six months. So go listen to that. If you want to learn some more, and this is about the second half of the year, so what do we got?

2 (9m 51s):
Yeah, I mean, I would, speaking of writing down months and years when I was doing this Income Reports, and even when I was updating, you know, the counter and tracker and the income page on our website, it was, I was in 2022. So thinking, okay, don't mess up and write 2021, but then realizing that I am still writing about 20, 21. So forgive me of any hiccups that you might come across. I think I caught all of them, but yeah, I'm excited to recap the second half of the year, starting in July, 2021, which was a big travel month for us. We actually went back to Maine to visit your family. John, we enjoyed some RNR there. And then we really spent the last part of the month, just making sure that we were all set and ready for podcast movement in August.

2 (10m 38s):
So I feel like we kicked off the second half of the year with some back-to-back trips

0 (10m 42s):
He did. And we can't forget to mention, we took an amazing trip to bah Haba up in the down east of Maine. We got to hike Cadillac mountain going to a cat, Katie national park, do some biking, of course have some seafood on the ocean and some ice cream. And you know, we got to do it with my niece and nephew and sister and brother-in-law. So that was a great trip.

2 (11m 5s):
Yeah, that was such a great trip. I loved bar Harbor is such a cute little town. I feel like we had a great spot that end that we stayed at was really just like quintessential. I mean, if I were to imagine the type of place that you would stay in, when you go to bar Harbor, that was it.

0 (11m 22s):
Do you think our next trip and something like that though, we're going to have to go further up the coast. I mean, you know, bar Harbor is an example of something. When I was growing up, it was like this quaint undiscovered town and it's not undiscovered anymore. People know about it. And wow. Was there a lot of humans in bar Harbor, which can not hold a lot of humans by the way. So I think next, next time we go back up to Maine and we're looking for a little trip. We're going to keep on going up the coast and find the next Baba.

2 (11m 50s):
I like it. And what was that? That hike that we did that one day we did Cadillac mountain, but then we also did, was it called the beehive?

0 (11m 57s):
That's right. Yeah. Part of the hike was called the beehive. I don't remember what the actual trail was called, but it was a pretty crazy section where you actually have to hold on to some like rot iron handles that they've hammered into the mountain because if you did fall, which is not like super risky, but if you did fall, like you're not making it. So, I mean, you, you were hugging the side as you were kind of going along the mountain and it was, it was quite a fun trip and a beautiful view from above.

2 (12m 26s):
I would actually say it was quite risky, but your niece rocked it and did such an awesome job on that hike.

0 (12m 35s):
Yeah, almost, almost to carefree. We had to be like Casey, one step at a time. We don't want you to stumble over your feet or anything, but overall July was a great month and we had a blast. Maine was great. And the biggest lesson learned that you shared that month was putting in the reps so people can go back and listen to that in full. And what happened in August,

2 (12m 56s):
August with podcasts and movement. That's when I got to give the opening keynote at podcast movement, that was really cool. And that was really our first back to in-person event that we've been to since a really long time. Wow. That was such a cool event. I mean, we got to meet a lot of our fellow co-hosts in the HubSpot podcast network. We got to hang with our, I guess, hostess, if you will, Allana who is our go-to in the HubSpot podcast network, she's really kind of like the heartbeat of the network. So it was really cool to engage and hang out with the other hosts in the network. You got to speak on stage with one of them, Sam Parr from the podcast, My First Million.

2 (13m 39s):
And you guys had a really great back and forth kind of like open Q and a session, man. I don't know. It felt great to be back at an in-person conference. What do you say, John?

0 (13m 49s):
We are back amongst the people. It was definitely a blast. I loved the venue as well. I'm in Nashville. What was the name of the actual place again?

2 (13m 58s):
Oh, the Gaylord. That was such a cool hotel.

0 (14m 2s):
Yeah. That was really neat. And that actually kind of leads us into September. I won't spoil it right now, but a little spoiler for what we're going to talk about. But the biggest lesson learned in August was open and honest conversations, which we definitely had a lot of those at podcast movement. So anything in August before we move on Kate,

2 (14m 21s):
Actually, you know what? I didn't include it here, but the biggest lesson learned cued me into it. This is the month that I launched my new podcast with my girlfriend, Nicole called Nicole and Kate can relate, which is all about having open and honest conversations together. So Fire Nation, if you are interested in checking that out, head over to your favorite podcast app and search for Nicole and Kate.

0 (14m 43s):
Yes they can. And Fire Nation. I hope you can relate to what went down in September. When we get back from thanking our sponsors, your customer's experiences, everything. When it comes to building and scaling your business and with multiple customers onboard your marketing team likely has conflicting priorities to juggle. Unfortunately, this means that customer oriented tasks can often fall through the cracks. But what if you had a system that allowed you to bring your customer's experiences to the forefront so that your marketing team isn't stuck in the weeds of operations and can instead focus on building targeted, meaningful campaigns, start giving your customers what they deserve. Campaigns built in a scalable way with responsive designs and a little extra TLC with a HubSpot CRM platform, a HubSpot CRM platform helps you tackle the most challenging part of creating content scalability with intuitive visual workflows and bot builders.

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0 (16m 22s):
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0 (17m 4s):
I mean the amount of money that they put into this event is unbelievable. The stage the, I got to be one of the main stage speakers alongside of Tony Robbins. And I've actually, I actually posted videos of my entrance into the stage and into an onto the stage and in front of the 3000 live people in one room that were just going crazy because, you know, they had had that same cooped up feeling that we all had and people just were just excited to be around humans once again. And the event was amazing. Funnel hacking live is one of my favorite conferences. Definitely my favorite individual speaking events I've ever done. It was just so much fun.

0 (17m 46s):
And yeah, I'm actually looking that we actually also highlighted our 18 month old golden doodle Gus that month, which he's now a few months older obviously, and just getting more mature and more perfect with every single day. And that was kind of one of the biggest lessons that we learned in September was celebrating milestones. And I think that's kind of one cool thing about having a dog. Cause you do kinda start to celebrate milestones because you're going through like this evolution of this dog, where there are just like this puppy who you just literally want to be like, why did I get a puppy? And then they just start to kind of grow and get bigger and more mature before your eyes. And at the same time they still, they still do dog things, which is great.

0 (18m 26s):
And you still get to go through that and celebrate those milestones. And as Gus is actually approaching his second year on this planet, that'll definitely be another milestone to celebrate. So what else do you want to add about September Kate?

2 (18m 42s):
That was also the month that we celebrated nine years in business. Right? Very exciting. Lots of milestones to celebrate in September and yes, I totally agree. Gus is getting better and better every day. We've done a lot of training with him and yeah, when he just flops over on his back, can't help, but smile and want to give him a good, good little pat down. But yeah, as you said, also, funnel hacking live, looked so amazing. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there in person because every, the way that you talked about it, the videos I saw, the pictures, everything looked excellent. And moving on into October and October, John, you launched a new podcast called NFTs on fire, more of a fun side project for you, but NFTs and crypto have been something that you are getting quite into to say the least, why don't you give us a little Intel on

0 (19m 38s):
Yeah. I'll even actually add a third word there, which is metaverse slash web three. So definitely NFTs crypto metaverse and just the overall web three is there's something that's definitely been taking up a lot, a lot of my time recently, which luckily I have a lot of time. So it's been, it's been a nice little way to spend that time and yeah, I think, and if she's on fire is a great example of something that I talk about a lot where, you know, you need to follow your passions. And I had this passion for NFTs and I launched this whole podcast round. It did four episodes, it was a blast. But then I was like, you know what? I actually don't want to keep doing the same thing with NFTs that I launched this show for, which was like studying projects that haven't launched yet getting on their white list, you know, minting at their launch, which basically means buying their NFT budget when it launches.

0 (20m 28s):
I just kind of saw that, like, that was a great learning experience for me to go through that for a month or two, but then the long run, it was not something I wanted to spend my time on. So I've let NFTs on fire after the four episodes, which by the way, are very helpful for anybody. That's looking to learn more about NFTs kind of wither on the vine a little bit. But I have been thinking a little more over the past few weeks that I may be shifting that show and to a metaverse show, which I think has a little more longevity for me. So we'll see what happens there, but it was a lot of fun. And you know, I think there's a lot of people that, you know, look at maybe what I've done with Entrepreneurs On Fire. And they're just like, well, that's, you know, I could just never launch because I don't have, John's like a mentality and drive and focus and, and that may or may not be true in certain areas, but like I definitely launched and have teas on fire with the intention of this being a pretty big show that I was going to do on a weekly or even bi-weekly basis.

0 (21m 25s):
And just decided after, you know, basically a few weeks and maybe a month that, Hey, this is just something that I don't want to spend my time anymore. I had very little to no guilt or any shame and just kind of putting it on pause and, and maybe never going back to it. And I think that's important for people to say, Hey, I'm going to try something and if it doesn't work and by the way, it might not work as I love what Seth Godin's famous for saying, this might not work. It's so true. And when it doesn't then pull back and spend your time elsewhere on something that might work and the biggest lesson that you shared and that month Kate was if it's not broke, improve it. And it kind of goes against what I was just sharing because you know, basically my podcast wasn't broke and I just didn't want to improve it because I had the passion was kind of seeping out of that.

0 (22m 15s):
But I will say on that kind of quote, the Kate shared, you know, if it is broke or if it's not broke and you still have the passion for it, that always iterate on it always improve it. Always look to take it to the next level. So before we move into November Kate, anything you want to add? I'm

2 (22m 31s):
So curious what your metaverse podcast is going to be called.

0 (22m 34s):
Yeah. I've actually given us some thoughts and I don't think it's going to be metaverse on fire for different reasons. Yeah. So that's to be determined, but we'll say

2 (22m 46s):
Yeah, exciting. I'm excited to see what comes of that. I know you've just been, yeah, I've been soaking up knowledge via you just hearing your conversations and kind of asking you what's been going on in that whole world. Very interesting. We actually have a couple of girls in the community too, who are getting quite into NFTs and I'm excited to see what they come up with as well.

0 (23m 9s):
Totally. So let's move into November, which is recapping and reflection. So let's talk about that month. Anything you want to add there. And I actually will add my 2 cents after you're done

2 (23m 24s):
For anyone who wasn't able to tune into last month's Income Reports for November, or you weren't able to check out the posts. We recap the first six months of the year. So definitely some great learnings. Again, the biggest lesson learned recapping and reflection. You can head over to that Income Reports EOFire.com/99. If you missed that.

0 (23m 47s):
Perfect. Then let's talk about December, which is really the month of this Income Reports is where we're recapping the second six months. And I will just kind of give you a little kind call-out here. You do still have of 2022 and the Income Reports, which I'm sure will be changed by the time people listen. So you guys won't see it, but I'm seeing it right now. And the biggest lesson learned for December is looking ahead and visioning. So we're not going to get to talk about that yet, cause we're going to give, give people the full Kate's biggest, less alert at the end here, but anything you want to mention about December before we move into the income breakdown,

2 (24m 22s):
I really thought that I caught all of them updates to

0 (24m 26s):
So Fire Nation, we are going to give you the December 2021 income rate down right now. And I will say that December was a great way to close the year. Our product service income was $193,514. We did over 10 K in journal sales, 76 freedoms 63 master Rees, masteries, and 156 podcast journals, which almost doubled wait did, did double did double the second close over doubled the freedom journal, which is number two. So that was cool. We did $17,000 for podcasters paradise podcast.

0 (25m 8s):
Sponsorships just crushing it $165,000. That's a theme that's going to continue Fire Nation. You know, we will talk in a future episode Income Reports about the longterm sponsors that we now have, which is a fantastic place that we've built over the first nine plus years. Our affiliate income was 23, almost 24 K 19,000 of that being click funnels. And then our total gross income brought us to 2 17, 4 86 and a total expense of $20,238 for a net profit of a hundred and ninety seven, two hundred and forty $8. It's like our second month in either the last two or three months where we've been just under 200 K, but no one's complaining.

0 (25m 55s):
And 200 K is just a number. So I'm pretty thrilled with where we're at. And as I mentioned, the intro, our 91% net profit gross revenue is absolutely fantastic. So Kate, take us home with the biggest lesson learned, looking ahead, envisioning.

2 (26m 12s):
Yeah. So for December to wrap up 2021, I've thought that especially given last month in November, we talked about recapping and reflection and the importance of that, I think just as important is to learn lessons from what has already taken place. And also being able to look ahead and envision what it is you want for the future. So I thought since last month we did some reflection this month, we will do some looking ahead. And I know that sometimes it can kind of just feel a bit too big or overwhelming to sit and ask yourself the question of like, what do I want for my future? There's a lot that could go into that, right? But I think with a couple of simple questions, you can pretty quickly get to a place where you feel maybe a little more grounded and aligned with where you want to go.

2 (27m 3s):
And we had a couple of our friends who were actually just on the podcast, Jill and Josh Stanton visit us for new year's. We had a great new year celebration with them here in Puerto Rico. And I was chatting with Joe one day and she asked me, and I'm going to flip and ask you Fire Nation, a couple of questions to help again with that kind of looking forward and visioning. One of those questions was what are you looking to leave behind in 2021, which I think is a great way to just kind of shed anything that you are looking to move on from. And number two, what are you wanting to call in for 2022, which again is kind of this visioning and how you want to show up what you want to focus on.

2 (27m 48s):
And I think this alone sets a tone for what, what you're ready to move on from again, and also what you want to focus on in the new year. In addition, I love choosing a word or it could be two or three words to help guide my mindset going into a new year. This is something that I picked up from Chris Brogan many years ago. He always selects words for the year and choosing a word for the year has helped me so many times if I find myself distracted or overwhelmed or like I'm starting to sway. And I just kind of feel a little bit lost in what I'm supposed to be focusing on, what I should be directing my attention to. I really feel like reminding yourself what type of focus you want to have throughout the year is an easy way to get back on track.

2 (28m 34s):
And it's just a simple word that you can keep by your computer and your office, and that word can really help guide you in those moments for 2022, my word is presence and that's because I want everything I do to focus on being present in the moment and enjoying that, not feeling like I have to be 10 steps ahead, or like I need deep reliving the past for me, presence creates fulfillment. And that's really what I'm looking for in 2022. So Fire Nation, I encourage you and urge you to give it a try for yourself. Just ask yourself the questions that we shared here. What are you looking to leave behind in 2021?

2 (29m 16s):
What are you looking to call in for 2022? And then also giving that I think what is a word or maybe two or three words that you want to help guide you and your 2020

0 (29m 28s):
And Fire Nation as always we'll catch you on the flip side. Have you ever thought about what it takes to make you profit by selling content online? Then you need to join amplify with Thinkific. This free features, 30 plus expert creators who will show you how to make revenue selling content online, visit thinkific.com/amplify to RSVP for free. The My First Million podcast features famous guests, discusses how companies made their first million and brainstorm new business ideas based on the hottest trends and opportunities in the marketplace. One recent app was all about how venture capitalists make money. Listen to My First Million, wherever you get your podcasts.