0 (3s):
Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. With great shows like My First Million. Today we are having the December of 2022 income report breakdown coming straight to your ears. Fire Nation, we have a lot of great things to talk about here today. We of course have a tax tip, which is gonna be critical. We also talk about the year in review, some of the biggest highlights from 2022. Of course, we break down all of our revenue and so much more. So stick around cuz we'll be right back after we thank our sponsors. Success story hosted by Scott D. Clarey is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

0 (47s):
The audio destination for business professionals success story features, convos on sales, marketing, startups, and more. A recent episode on how to disrupt an industry is a must. Listen, listen to success story wherever you get your podcast. All right, Fire Nation. We are ready to kick off into December of 2020. Twos income report. Our gross income for December was $152,076. Our total expenses were 19,170 for a net profit of 1 32 9 0 6. An increase of 31,261 over November. Our percentage of net profit, overall gross revenue, 87%.

0 (1m 28s):
Closing it on that 90 percentile number. That is our high watermark goal and we love when we get there. And Fire Nation, as I mentioned, we will be talking about our highlights of 2022 in today's episode. But first we're gonna hand it over to Ron. Mr. CPA on Fire himself. He will be talking about creating clarity through forecasting and budgeting. And I can tell you Fire Nation, this is one of the major reasons why we are financially successful. So tune in and Ron take it away.

1 (1m 57s):
Hello John and hello Fire Nation. This is Ron Parisi with CPA on Fire for your December, 2022 tax and accounting tip. Hey, happy 2023 Fire Nation, always a pleasure being with you. And for this month's tax tip, I thought I would talk a little about creating massive clarity for 2023 and how we're gonna go about doing that. Let's talk a little about forecasting and budgeting and how, you know, this financial method can create massive clarity for you, the entrepreneur and where you spend your energies in 2023.

1 (2m 42s):
So as maybe some of you know, our moonshot at CPA on Fire is to shorten the entrepreneurial growth curve. And what I mean by that is by the time an entrepreneur has an idea, has a product or service, all the processes that go around that, a marketing strategy, a sales process. So where they start and where they want to end up. So some entrepreneurs it's a million dollars, some is 10 million, some is a hundred million and beyond, right? So how do we use at CPA and fire, right? How do we use financial information, financial data points, financial methods to shorten that growth cycle?

1 (3m 28s):
And a big way, at least at CPA and Fire, how we do it is by forecasting and budgeting and by forecast, let me just define it, two terms, right? Forecast really looking longer range, you know, 2, 3, 5, 10 years. Usually I like, I like to see like a three or five year forecast. And then a budget is usually only encapsulates the 12 months, one year budget. And how these, you know, kind of interplay. So the first thing you know, I would say to you guys, Fire Nation, right? Think about where you want to get to right where you are today, what, where do you want to get to on a gross revenue number, where do you think you can make the, a really big impact on this world, right?

1 (4m 11s):
Say that's 20,000,005 years, right? So how I would do it, I would say, okay, what needs to happen between now and then to get to $20 million and map that out year by year. Okay, maybe you're starting at 500,000, right? What's gonna happen between now and the next five years that's gonna get you $20 million? What products, what services, what additional things can you do? What acquisitions potentially can you make? Things like that. What other income streams you can get into to get to 20 million these? Okay? And build a plan that you can feel confident in. Okay? So once you have that forecast and you have that confidence, okay, now turn your energies towards the budget, okay?

1 (4m 54s):
What, what do you need to do in 2023 revenue wise to make sure you're on track for that 20 million path? Okay, so now you know what your revenue needs to be. So you take that revenue, you reverse engineer that revenue number, how are you gonna make that revenue in 2023? What expenses need to make that happen? Okay? Whether that's marketing labor, your personal personnel, it general expenses. How is that, how are you gonna make that number real for 2023 month by month? Okay, I'd like you to break it down month by month this way you know exactly, you know what you need to work on month by month to get to the number that's gonna bring you to the end of 23 that's gonna keep you on budget or on track for that $20 million forecast.

1 (5m 50s):
And I really, that's, that's the, and that's how you create massive clarity on what you need to accomplish day by day in 2023 to get to your 20 million goal. You know, we've been helping entrepreneurs for a long time. There's, you know, real gold in creating a forecast, creating a budget and allowing that to direct your energies in 2023 and give you real clarity on the activities that you need to be doing, you know, throughout the year. So hopefully Fire Nation I've in inspired you to go out, create that forecast, create that budget, get massive clarity for 2023 and go out and crush it.

1 (6m 39s):
And again, this is Ron Parisi with CPA on Fire. Always a pleasure being with you. Let's make 2023 your best year ever. Thanks.

0 (6m 48s):
Thanks Ron and Fire Nation as always. Please visit cpaonfire.com for all of your accounting needs. Or just email Ron directly, ron@cpaonfire.com. He will take care of all of your entrepreneurial business needs in Fire Nation. We have, as I mentioned, a lot to talk about. We're talking about the interview of the month, a year in review and so much more when we get back from thinking ours sponsors,

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0 (9m 18s):
All right, Fire Nation, we are back. And before we move into our year in review, I just wanna highlight our interview of the month. It is how Clay Clark grew, shawholmes.com from 60 million to 160 million. This is about how to 10 x your business. Now Fire Nation, just another incredibly inspiring interview with Clay Clark and the founder of shawholmes.com. We have a fantastic conversation. We talk about how honesty loves accountability, how action is the objective measure of intelligence and how you cannot change the past but you can decide today to have a new future. So check out this interview AT eofire.com.

0 (10m 1s):
Just type in Clay Clark. There's a ton of great interviews with him and hey, it's not too late. At the beginning of February, 2023, the first couple days we are having an amazing conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That is Clay Clark, that is myself. I'll be there in attendance the entire time. I will be speaking multiple times, we'll be interacting, we'll be having fun. Thrivetimesshow.com/eofire. There still are tickets available. Thrivetimesshow.com/eofire. Come join myself, Clay Clark in Tulsa, Oklahoma for what will be the best event you have ever attended when it comes to actionable killer, amazing content, it's gonna be amazing.

0 (10m 51s):
I'm gonna be taking notes personally, I'm telling you the truth. Thrivetimesshow.com/eofire. I hope to see you there in Person Fire Nation. Now let's move on to a year in review and looking back in 2022, we've had a lot happen entrepreneurs on fire. And since this is our last income report of 2022, we thought it would be fun to take a little look back. So I'm gonna bring Katelyn Erickson on to talk about some of the biggest highlights from 2022. Kate, take it away.

2 (11m 25s):
What's up Fire Nation as this goes live? I know we're already in the new year even though we are doing this for December, 2022 but happy New Year. It's 2023 and I know that John and I are both so fired up about what this year will bring and that means sometimes reflecting back, which we're gonna be talking about in the biggest lesson learned this month. But in order to reflect back we thought it would be cool to look back on some of of our biggest highlights from 2022. And I'm gonna go through those right now. So up first, because this actually happened very recently. We launched what we are calling the Torch scholarship at Providence College, which is John's alma mater.

2 (12m 11s):
And the first scholarship was awarded for the fall of 2022. And what's so awesome is that we actually got to meet the recipient in person during our visit to Providence in November, which was such a cool experience. Ha John,

0 (12m 26s):
It was so cool to be on campus and to see our Torch scholarship recipient there smiling, loving her freshman year, like just being in the moment looking at us multiple times and saying, by the way, there's no way I would be here if it wasn't for the tort scholarship. And she's like, I'm going back home to my old high school and like shouting from the rooftop how amazing Providence College is is just such a cool experience.

2 (12m 52s):
Yeah, for sure. And what's very unique about the Torch Scholarship that we've done at Providence College is John, I believe you kind of like guided this decision and told them that the only way you were gonna do this is if the Torch Scholarship was awarded only to recipients people coming from Puerto Rico going to Providence College. So we've not only gotten to meet Yami who was a recipient of this scholarship at Providence College, but we're so excited to get to meet her family and actually hang out with her. They're just one town over from us here in Puerto Rico. And it's really cool to see her excitement, like you said, she said that when she came back to Puerto Rico for the holidays, that she was gonna be going to her high school and letting everybody know how awesome Providence College is.

2 (13m 44s):
And I just think it's really neat that we get to do something like that here on the island also for something that was so meaningful in such a huge part of your life.

0 (13m 53s):
Yeah it was really a cool like full circle moment. Cause I've been trying to figure out for a while like what's something I could do that's really impactful for my alma mater for Providence College, you know, a school that I still have such close ties to and you know have such, you know, great memories of and I wanted to try to combine it like you had mentioned with something to do with our home for the past seven years, which is Puerto Rico and it just made so much sense cuz you know, one thing that Providence College is trying to improve upon rightfully so is diversity. So bringing more Puerto Ricans awareness of Providence College, a tennis at Providence College was a huge goal of mine. And just to spread excitement, you know, throughout the island.

0 (14m 34s):
Like I just have this vision someday they're gonna be like walking around like the Mall of America or something like maybe a couple years from now and there's just gonna be all these kids in like Providence College gear because you know, they've just been hearing about the school, maybe one of their friends is attending, maybe they're attending and it's just kind of like this, this thing that I think can just kind of grow and be very fun and very cool and you know, have them experience a different part of the country. You know a lot of people don't get off the island of Puerto Rico and now they're gonna be going up to the northeast having to deal with the winter and different culture and different this and different that food, et cetera. So I think it's gonna be really fun, really cool and I'm really glad that we're able to bring this opportunity to a lot of our fellow islanders.

2 (15m 16s):
Me too, me too. So that was one of the biggest highlights from 2022. We have a few more that we're excited to share, one of which you have definitely heard me talk about because I've been screaming it from the rooftops ever since it happened. We got married in April and that was such a fun celebration. We got to have our family and our friends 96 to be exact of our closest family and friends down to Puerto Rico. Woo. We worked on that guest list a lot. We really wanted to keep it tight. We wanted to keep it to people who we have super deep relationships with so that we were able to spend quality time with people while they were here.

2 (15m 56s):
We know that the time investment, the financial investment, everything to come here to Puerto Rico to help us celebrate our wedding was so special to us. So we're so grateful for those who came down to celebrate with us and yay for getting married.

0 (16m 13s):
Yay for getting married. It's official, it happened and man, I mean what's the next step? I don't know. We'll see.

2 (16m 19s):
We shall see. Also, John, you signed on as an affiliate coach in 2022, which if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time that you had done something like this. Is that right? I mean I know we partnered up with Jill and Josh for a launch one time, but this was a little bit different in that you were coaching someone through an affiliate launch. Is that right?

0 (16m 44s):
Yeah, this was the first time, I mean basically, you know, we weren't going to personally promote Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi's course for a third year in a row. So I was like taking a step back. But then I had someone reach out to me and say, Hey John, I know you're not promoting that Tony Robbins and Dean Rossio, he's launched this year but I am, you were taught five, two years in a row, will you coach me so I can potentially have similar success to what you've had? And I said, you know what, I would do this for the right person. And after doing some research I did realize that Krista Maho was the right person and I brought her on and she was a great student and I will say that I learned from her along the way as well, which is every great mentor-mentee relationship and we had massive success.

0 (17m 34s):
She was, she was essentially number one for the entire launch and which was a shock because nobody in the, this kind of affiliate world and online entrepreneurial world had heard of Krista before. So like the top 20 were all names everybody knew and expected. And then for her to come out as number one, it was just a complete shock. But she did everything right and we had a lot of fun doing it. And then at the very end number, I think it was number three and number four of the current leaderboard decided to join Powers, which is quite illegal in my opinion. And then they ended up as number one because of that. Otherwise Krista would've been number one in my mind, she still is number one and she absolutely crushed it and came officially quote unquote number two after that shady combo deal.

0 (18m 22s):
But overall it was a great success. We had a lot of fun and she's very excited to grow her business in the right direction going forward.

2 (18m 31s):
Yeah, it was so amazing working with Krista and her team and for me I put this on as a highlight, not only because I'm just so freaking proud for everything that she did for that launch and everything she put together on way super late notice. Like so many people had been planning months and months and months for this launch. Chris is like, I'm gonna do this. Who can I hire to help me who's already done it before? And she just like was an implementation queen again, her team was incredible, it was great fun working with her and getting to know her. And I'm also super excited for her book that's coming out. Stop Snap and Switch, which Fire Nation, if you've been tuning into our recent episodes, you've already heard Krista talk about this on a recent one.

2 (19m 16s):
So you should definitely head over to the episode and check out her upcoming book.

0 (19m 20s):
Yes, it is a fantastic book. I got an advanced copy of it. I interviewed her twice. Both the episodes were gonna be live in January, one towards was already live as you're hearing this and the other one's coming live in a few days. And if you wanna learn more about the book, which you definitely should stop snap switch.com/ pre-order SSS first stop snap switch. So stop snap switch.com/ pre-order s s keep it going Kate,

2 (19m 53s):
Say that name fast 10 times. Alright, our last biggest highlight from 2022 that I wanna share is that Entrepreneurs on Fire turn 10 years old. Wow. Congratulations John. It

0 (20m 9s):
Seems just like yesterday we were having that five year anniversary party but it's obviously been twice that long, now it's 10 years and it's crazy. But 2012, I can still remember that loft studio that I created at our first home we ever lived in together in Portland, Maine. And I have fond memories of interviewing my first few hundred people there and it was definitely a long time ago, bud doesn't feel like it. And now we're 10.

2 (20m 40s):
You know what would be pretty funny is to like look at a progression of your studios over the years. What started out like in the Lofton, Maine, then we moved into a one bedroom apartment and John and I sat side by side at a long desk in our living room. Remember how hot it would get in that living

0 (20m 59s):
Room? Yeah cuz we were in the second floor of two stories. So like the San Diego sun would just beat down. There was no insulation. So I remember like standing on the couch and like at like within like three or four feet of the ceiling was like 15 degrees hotter than like, it was crazy. It was, it was so crazy.

2 (21m 18s):
And then you upgraded to your own desk in the living room of our next apartment, right? And here we are in Puerto Rico, you've got your own room with all the insulation and all the air conditioning you could ever want or need

0 (21m 31s):
Perfection.

2 (21m 32s):
So Fire Nation, there is a lot about our business these days that is the same. And I love looking back again, I'm gonna be talking more about pausing and reflecting in our biggest lesson learned for the month, but what's the truth? And the bottom line is that we found our 80 20 and we have fully focused in on the products and services that make the biggest impact for our audience and for our business. And I'm really proud of that in 2022. I feel like while a lot of it was, you know, slow and steady looking ahead doing what we know was working really, really well, I do feel like towards the end of 2022 we started testing out some new things, new strategies, new offerings.

2 (22m 18s):
And we're very excited to continue testing those things out and to share them with you as we head into 2023.

0 (22m 25s):
It's going to be an absolute blast. I can definitely tell you that 2023, I have a lot to look forward to and I hope you join us on this Venture Fire Nation. And let's get into the December, 2022 income breakdown. Our total journal sales for the month was 173, sold for just under $7,000 81 Freedom Journals, 62 Mastery Journals and 14 podcast journals, podcasters Paradise brought in $11,622. Our podcast sponsorships just under $122,000 affiliate income, 11,500. And that brought our total gross to 1 52 0 76 with our total expenses at 19,001 70 for a net profit of $132,906.

0 (23m 18s):
And as Kate promised, she'll be talking about pausing and reflecting and the biggest lesson learned.

2 (23m 25s):
Now I know not everyone is a super huge fan of the holidays in the new year, but in my opinion, there's no denying that it is such a great time to pause and reflect. I learned this lesson maybe seven, eight years ago. It was after I got into entrepreneurship and as I approached the new year, I'm thinking, oh, I'm gonna set all these goals and it's gonna be amazing. But I had such a hard time coming up with goals. I didn't know how to choose a goal. I didn't know which goal was the right goal to focus on. And in the everyday hustle and bustle, it's so easy to get caught up in our to-dos and where we need to be. And when I took a step back and really thought about like, okay, what is the best strategy to choose a goal for the new year?

2 (24m 9s):
Really the thing that stood out to me that I had never done before is why am I not choosing a goal informed by my reflection of what's been working for me? So as we begin 2023, I think this is a perfect time to take a pause and reflect on what worked really well in 2022, what didn't work so well in 2022, and how we can use these reflections to help propel ourselves moving forward. So Fire Nation, if you haven't taken time out to pause and reflect over the past month or so, we highly encourage that you set aside time to do so.

2 (24m 49s):
Now that might look like an hour on your calendar sometime over the next week. And if you haven't kept track of some of the bigger things going on in your business, like we've done in this income report, we took a look back on some of the bigger things that happened in our business. One thing that you could do is take a look back at your calendar, identify any big launches or conferences that you attended or maybe marketing campaigns that you ran. That's always a good way to identify things that you can reflect on and say, okay, I had this big launch back in March, what worked well, what didn't work so well, and how can I learn from that? And then also, I like to keep a running Google Doc and every single month I, it's, it's so simple, I literally just have headings, you know, 20, 22, January, February, March, April, may, June, July, et cetera.

2 (25m 39s):
Every month I have a reminder set for myself to go into that Google Doc and to document what happened that month, what are some of the big milestones we hit? What are some big contracts that we signed? What were some cool opportunities that we participated in? And then that way at the end of the year when I'm looking back and doing this reflection, which by the way, you don't have to wait till the end of the year to do this. You could be doing this quarterly, monthly, but that running Google Doc makes it really easy for me to look back and truly reflect on all of the big things that happened that year. Cause I get it, you get to December, you're like, I don't even know what happened last week, let alone what I was doing in January and February.

2 (26m 22s):
So there's some really super simple ways that you can start taking note of these milestones, these bigger projects, so that when you do come to the time, like right now, where you can stop, pause, and reflect, you have that reference to go back to now. I trust that you'll find your own processes and ways of doing things and no matter what that might look like, we hope that you'll set aside time on your calendar to pause and reflect as we head into 2023.

0 (26m 48s):
And until next month, Fire Nation, keep your fire burning. Success story hosted by Scott D. Clarey is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network. The audio destination for business professionals success story features, convos on sales, marketing, startups, and more. A recent episode on how to disrupt an industry is a must. Listen, listen to success story wherever you get your podcasts.