The Secret Life Of Accountants Behind Closed Doors!.

all right welcome to podcast mate thank you for everyone yeah yeah yeah yeah give the [ __ ] we'll just interrupt each other the whole way um I am uh Keena have you on because uh you uh a Creator if whether you like it or not but you're also a real businessman and actually um quite different to unusual kids so if you don't mind give a quick intro to the guests and anyone watching what you do and who you are is this straight down the barrel yeah let's go around down the barrel yeah well tell them right there uh my name is Luke kimmies and I run a accounting practice called Next advisory so don't switch this [ __ ] podcast off because I know that it's boring as

[ __ ] but we will make this interesting for you we'll teach you some [ __ ] about tax and my duty in terms of creating content and I also in my spare time create content for a brand slash platform called keep the change which is designed to help everyday kiwis learn more about financial literacy so that they can upskill themselves and learn the things that they probably should have learned at school or throughout their life get rid of the credit card Etc and we can have a better country and a better economy nice love it you practice that one a few times yeah twice this morning um I want to start with the the backstory because I actually don't know your backstory I don't know where you come

from all I know is Danny Burke which I don't even know where that is yeah but um I want to know about the backstory and how you got to where you are now like why next advisory yeah and then I wouldn't mind like been talking about the content Journey because it's not normal for accountants no you know it's very not like not normal at all I'm not normal yeah you're not normal yeah so tell me like tell me the story like how did you get to be here now where did it come from what happened okay so I guess if I look back I think I can kind of now spot some of the things uh both of my well my parents my father and

my stepmother were both top end of town uh in terms of editors for big Publications and I grew up around storytelling probably assumed like everybody else does and dad would tell us stories he would take us places and you know the street would be there's been three murders here and I'm like holy [ __ ] you know and I still drive past them now and I'm like oh that's just you know and some people are like why the [ __ ] would your dad say stuff like that um but that was just what we grew up around and that was you know their craft and their art so I think I picked up some storytelling and then sixth form English for me uh creative writing crushed it yeah fail

and I'm like [ __ ] this I'm awesome at this yeah yeah and so I was really gutted like massive kind of chip on the shoulder that's me for English like I'm done I'm going numbers now I'm doing math calculus statistics economics accounting yeah bit of geography just to balance it out yeah and that's basically like me then I go to UNI I do business um I to be accountant back in those days you had to do four years of uni compulsory to then go on to become a chartered accountant so you do your three-year Business Degree then you do a one-year post grad and something which was a postgrad and drinking more purse which wasn't great but I got relatively good at that and then I

would sort of work part-time during that start paying down my loan and stuff so that was good then basically went into the traditional um accounting setup of trying to you know get a good job and take the boxes and become a chartered accountant and stuff and along that journey I would be like right I'm going to start this business over here yeah I'm going to call this one business and it's somewhere you can come to when you want to start your business and get everything you need yeah then I had a couple mates who were deep into Tech so they'd be like yeah bro I can help you build all of that and then I get to the point to launch it and be like

oh [ __ ] this is really scary I should just stay doing my job another one uh will you which was I'm like man you know kiwisaver's coming through people are going to need kiwis uh a will a lot of kiwis don't have a will don't even know what they are I might if you could come online do one online very simply so I'm like let's build that so build that get it to the point where I get like a couple people riding wheels and I'm you know giving them to them and I'm like sweet you've got your will now and I'm like [ __ ] man I don't really know heaps about this so this could be pretty bad if uh if I haven't done it properly and

so probably that moment I should have reached out to a lawyer and be like hey make me you know make sure that this is clean yeah uh but again it's like oh too much risk just stay down the the job route yeah so I kind of had this entrepreneurial streak this I want to be in business streak for a long time but never um yeah never really kicked on with it I had made t-shirts back in the day to IC Club two inch [ __ ] yeah um it's just like small everyone had a slogan on their backs oh they get big so it's kind of like you're going through that big ego yeah or you know [ __ ] you've got a small dick and I was like

let's make that cool yeah um so we head you know one of the LEDs was very bad that's too good artistic he drew up like uh we had like a rooster as a logo and it was like two inch [ __ ] yeah um and then yeah people had a slogan so I think it was like mine's smaller than yours um yeah Small's thing you'd be like all these different things you know that's a that's a big Tick Tock account now what do I see like two inch the two inch Club really yeah can you try [ __ ] throw it up when we get a shot and keep talking but I've got a couple of old shoes crack up it's like an American like University students wow who

run around and they're like two and I think it's called the two inch uh a two inch Club I've got a couple shirts I might have to start ripping them again um but anyway so I'd like that I dabbled in all these things so I think I was more than just in a an account now I meet heaps of accountants and I'm like you're the you know people talk about the stereotypical accountant they they exist in numbers yeah um and anyway so then I kind of go down my journey of doing more accounting I then get up to Auckland but in this off to the side of this I've started to develop a passion for horse racing yeah and I'm quite into that and I

know it's not very fashionable not everyone's into that [ __ ] but basically we had a Facebook group yeah before Facebook groups were really a thing and people started jumping into this Facebook group and we we closed it off said it was kind of a private one yeah add more people in and it grew from you know five people it was just five mates wanting to tip on us on a Saturday what's your what's your best bet this weekend yeah and then that kind of grew 200 people a thousand two thousand and that was kind of chipping away and I noticed like oh the more you post in here yeah the more you kind of build up engagement and then we hosted an event and I'd sort

of I'd quit my job by the stage so I'll skip out all the boring accounting job [ __ ] and then decided to quit my job and I'll get to that too and I said to the group hey who wants to come to Wellington and let's meet up at this event and 75 people turned up from around the country and you know we'd started doing things like oh [ __ ] Facebook let you go live now like let's just have some beers and go live and things would just happen so yeah yeah I don't really know what was happening I was just probably experimenting but I I when I quit my job the reason I quit my job is because we're going to build out um another business and

it's called School rebate so and we actually did do that but this was a flight down to Palmerston North back to home for me and this guy said oh you're an accountant do you know that you can claim back your school donations that you pay as a parent when I said yep that's the easiest part of our tax legislation he's like [ __ ] it just did mine though so hard you need a receipt you need to staple it and just send this Foreman he's like if there was an electronic version of that it would be so easy and I was like oh interesting uh so I went went you know back to work on that Monday and I'd already gone and dug out the data like

how many people don't claim their their uh their receipts and their donations and said to my now business partner we were working together I said mate like this seems like there's an opportunity here and another so jacked up on like motivational videos and [ __ ] by this stage so I'm like [ __ ] man I'm just gonna quit my job and figure this out and so I never forget like quitting my job job and we we've done like this model of like oh yeah [ __ ] you would be able to make millions doing this yeah and I was like oh man I gotta get out there and start yeah and basically I quit my job and my boss is sort of like dude like what are you gonna do

and I'm like oh I can't really tell you man like uh get some big [ __ ] planned what year was this oh I don't know maybe like 20 oh 17 maybe 18 yeah yeah and I think he's just like [ __ ] yeah maybe this guy is on me but basically I might mate like there's no convincing me yeah I just gotta go like there's all this there's I could just see these opportunities coming from me even the racing space and I was like I just need to I jump off this building yeah I know I've got a parachute on I just don't know when it will open and he's like yeah you are on me [ __ ] [ __ ] you can go yeah so I finish up there and

I think they'd hope that I might come back into some kind of like different role or do some business development and [ __ ] at the time but basically started building up school rebates and so we thought that the reason like this guy said to me on the plane it's really hard to do the reason people don't do it is hard to do realistically people didn't know that they could do it yeah so we built this website we get some media attention I'm like let's have some [ __ ] live chat on the website like every Bell and whistle you can find yeah and we'd blow this thing up over a weekend and we thought not like everyone will come through path a well everyone came through path B

path B didn't collect any details so I couldn't retarget uh or like message any of these people that had come to the website now what actually happened or what the problem was is that people a didn't know that they could do it but then secondly none of them had their receipts anyway so we had to build a database every school in New Zealand yeah and you'd come on fill out your details um Stan here's my kids names these are the years I need the receipts and paying off an email to the school I'm like [ __ ] genius yeah and bang first email goes out phone's ringing like who the [ __ ] are you like we're not sending you receipts you can't ask these ask for these um

so we just pissed off 2500 admin staff around the country like that um but they had to they were legally obliged just slowly started to like win them over yeah I'd have to I'd sit up to like three in the morning sometimes and like reply to this school has been like hey you know you haven't responded to this in my mind I'm thinking like well I now thinking about it I'm like [ __ ] how stupid was I emailing people at two in the morning yeah School saying hey you're sending the receipts you haven't sent them yeah course this looks like a scam yeah but I'm just like oh I gotta grind man someone had said to me yo you remind me of garyvee and I was

like who's there and then I started watching him and I was like [ __ ] this guy's out the gate hits in them at 2AM yeah I've seen some more but now I'm like man now 100 people didn't take it seriously but long story short so School rebates it uh we we refunded kiwi parents a million dollars sure yeah and then thousands of parents came to a website got the information they needed and they then just went off and claimed from the ird but the ird also said to us if this thing gets some traction we're going to build a way bit of software because we've got way deeper pocket scene than you do yeah uh we're gonna build that into our technology and you're not going

to have a business and so we're kind of like okay we've got a short window yeah um but at that same time my business partner had said hey you know what do you think about building an accounting practice from scratch and I'm like [ __ ] let's do it like let's go yeah and so it's just like this perfect [ __ ] storm where I was learning stuff in the horse racing space and playing over there I then started learning about Facebook ads and digital marketing and storytelling and like building a community Through horse racing but then also like you know I was writing to these parents and stuff I feel a little bit bad saying this but I know people do this but um like sometimes I'd respond

to these parents someone said to me dude like you're not a parent they're not going to gel with you I was like oh well we'll introduce Sarah from school rebates like hey Sarah here from school rebates oh my God I love this and now honestly some of my clients do this what they do is they have like uh say like Nelly from accounts and Nelly emails your customers like hey Nelly here we're checking in you haven't made payment and my clients are like [ __ ] they've got no idea it's me yeah yeah but you know you want to put that you know we've got Kevin nice Kevin's house Kevin Kevin's about to come around yeah so I was learning stuff on the horse racing space had

a Facebook group that was growing I'm like man people want to come out of this they want to catch up in person uh and then School rebates I learned all these lessons and then I'm thinking well we just need a [ __ ] building accounting practice like how hard can this be just take all the same listen just go live all the time yeah and people will just be like yeah do my accounts definitely not what happened um but that was kind of like how it started but yeah but also through the horse racing stuff was called boys get paid it's called boys get paid um I put the head around it's like who wants to put 50 bucks in and we'll bet this on behalf of

everyone we went to this event and then I thought well I've gone back to Auckland uh where I now lived and I'm thinking well why don't I just build an online form people can fill that out and they can chuck in 50 100 bucks and we can do that for karaka million which is our favorite race day yep and next thing like 520 people have filled out this form I've got 136k just stacked into my ANZ account and I'm going to the track like bidding it going live on Facebook saying right we've got five grand on this horse and into the Facebook group and we've got a Facebook page by this stage and an Instagram account and kind of like yeah we need all the

different pillars um so just I can try to blast it yeah and then my mate was getting into videography so my mate bring the camera let's make a highlight of the day and so we had 75 people there yeah we had 136 Grand to bet with and that was kind of year one in that horse racing space and then people were like whoa what the [ __ ] just happened and people started talking about it and then so that that sort of has gone on for now uh this is the sixth year that we did it this year yep and we had a million dollars in the pot to start with so a million dollars to gamble on the night unfortunately we lost 500 Grand it's not

a great uh please don't cut this bit out because every other year we never lost yeah and then finally [ __ ] lost like yeah it was a hard yeah I could do a whole yeah and the previous years how much were you up oh one time we like doubled the money it was usually like a forty percent issue yeah yeah yeah but people love just being a part of these big bits and then we built an app in the process so that people could get the notifications faster and like it just kept getting bigger and bigger but we have what we had but they've shut the racetrack at the moment they're doing repairs but the last year we we maxed out this room 850 people in

there yeah see I'm getting sponsors in I've got an emcee yeah we're doing [ __ ] lucky Barrel drawers and like there's a free pink gin from girls get off like and [ __ ] like this it was just like it was all sort of coming together um but yeah people have a great time so we still do that in the horse racing space that's a big go people have loved the punters clubs yeah um and then yeah next advisory and the accounting side of things I just have taken the lessons from all of those and thought no one's doing this in the accounting space but to take it back a step basically in accounting if you're going to go out on your own most people will go to

Old mate down the road or Sally or whoever and be like you're you're going to close your practice I'll buy it off you I'll buy all your clients and they say sweet you probably don't have the money you're like no we don't okay we'll use vendor Finance so you know basically this is your business now but you owe us and it's dollar for dollar so it's turning over a million dollars you owe us a million dollars but that's business is yours and you can pay us off out of the profits and the business over the next 10 years or whatever yeah and they come to some form of agreement and so that's what most people do they build a oh they buy a fee base

yeah and I'm like [ __ ] we don't need to do that I just need to go Lively just build it Facebook live yeah yeah love it surely surely we should start a Facebook group yeah it'd be sweet and so yeah I mean this was now so we just had our fifth birthday last year and yeah we've gone from no clients to just over a million dollars in Revenue yep awesome um at year five yeah yeah and purely built off of basically like just content yeah so I love it yeah we're usually a step ahead of what's happening in well [ __ ] in our industry like easily uh easily but you know we've got 350 podcasts yeah and people are now like we should do a podcast yeah

I'm like oh God here they come here they go um yeah but you know these are ideas that I would have no thank you because you gave us heaps of businesses no I mean it would be like Luke but in my industry and they you know I would have these ideas um back at my job when I was employed and they're like okay we're gonna host an event and we're going to start sending out a monthly newsletter I was like that usually just sucks like it's all about what we do no one gives a [ __ ] like this make it valuable yeah oh mate you don't have a marketing degree I'm like okay whatever yeah and then I could help out with this event um I'm

like I've run them in the Nikki before because my boss in the nephew would just let me do whatever I want on yeah and uh I'll have a crack at that so I learned a heap of [ __ ] down there but they would sort of be like mate [ __ ] off like you don't need to be in this meeting you don't know so now I get to do all the things that I you know suggested or wanted to do but now it's funny because they all start copying yeah um but that's just the the beauty of it but that's basically me mate in a nutshell and then we sort of layer and keep the change which kicked off in lockdown where I would always have conversations with

my parents about how you know we'd be having arguments just well not arguments but discussions about what's happening with personal finances and stuff for people and it would always come back to there's a lack of Education there's a lack of education and my stepmom was like well why don't you do something about it and I'm like okay I feel like I've just been told so yeah like why don't I just start doing some content in the in that space and I'd also started to see like okay I can help business owners but that's all good and well but then like what if their staff uh it's hard for them you know like it's all good enough for business owners to get rich say but then

what if there's another lab but beneath that you can help as well so that one day they could become a business owner or they can achieve their goals or their dreams or whatever it is they want to do or they want to go out on their own and and be self-employed so need to go and solve a bigger problem so that was the okay cool can play over here in business but why not just start helping everyday people with their finances and then eventually like business owners are going to take note too and it's just going to build a bigger funnel and then slowly we'll feed into next advisory what we want yeah and then also there's stuff that comes through it's like well we

can't and won't do that or don't do that but go speak to XYZ and then I know that they end up with a trusted person that will provide value for them because you know I you'd see this too but there's so many old business owners out there and when I was coming through my early accounting stuff it'd be like you know the way to make money in accounting sell succession planning because all these guys and girls have got to get out of business at some stage help them exit their businesses yeah and I'm thinking well [ __ ] like I've got 30 years of doing this [ __ ] why not like let's start teaching the younger people yep now because who's going to do that so that was

sort of the right keep the change can help an everyday person and then I'll just see where that journey goes yeah and so now that's three years of writing every Friday yeah and then I I Knew by then already I was like okay I need to be doing podcasts I was already doing that for bgp for instance and need to have an Instagram Etc and so started cranking content here across different things and then you know Tick Tock took off and I was like [ __ ] you're on another platform like I was pretty yeah probably like content slash platform fatigued by then and I'd seen it and I knew about it and I'd sort of seen it evolve and I just thought nah that's probably I

just I don't you know people say I don't want to go in there and do dancing I knew that that's not what it was but I was just like another platform that I've got to master Yeah by this stage you know I've done Facebook groups Facebook fan pages uh I've done Instagram I've done LinkedIn consistently for I don't know maybe eight years or something now yeah and what you're telling me there's this new shiny object over there yeah so I think part of me it was like lazy and hoping that it would just go away yeah but then I just sort of you know got on there started finding my feet and was like okay I need to just do things the way that I

would do them and then start cranking some content out yeah and yeah obviously that [ __ ] blows up yeah it can blow up yeah and mine is by no means you know as big as you know others you'd come across but I'm like oh this is cool people are you know they want to learn about financial literacy and stuff like that so I just sort of started clipping out things of me with a whiteboard and just doing it in my style of in your face I apologetically you yeah but I've been pretty slack I haven't been on there and I don't really know what that is I just think that when I go on there yeah I like I know how dangerous it is to lose

time on there not for myself but for other people okay and I put content on this sometimes it goes nuts other times it doesn't and it just doesn't feel very consistent for me so then I naturally gravitate back towards Instagram yeah and I find that why my feeling is that Instagram you can sort of build a closer connection with your followers and you can sort of build community and that's what I've built my whole life as around Community whereas Tick Tock I feel like you're just like [ __ ] here's another 100 bucks in a poke machine and like let's see what falls out the bottom and there's people that are [ __ ] throwing things at you and every now and then there's someone's like that was awesome

but there's some weird [ __ ] and you know I posted a video of Joe Rogan no no Joe Rogan um Dana White yeah on an interview and so I've just like screen recorded it off um off of YouTube and it had I got like 70 000 views or something and then I'll win on the next day I was like oh I wonder how many views that thing got and then being a hit refreshing it's like 1.1 million I'm like holy [ __ ] so then I've got all these Americans just yeah you know smacking comments up and I'm like oh my God so I don't know I just have this real weird relationship yeah uh with Tick Tock yeah it's actually really interesting your Instagram almost does better

on average yeah which is like really unheard of these Instagram yeah I've had a lot of fun with this like those whiteboard videos for instance once I kind of found my flow with those um but I haven't actually made many for a while the biggest video that I had that popped off was kind of right down the bottom but I was like shakily filming my big computer screen yeah I remember that one yeah if you haven't um you know if you if you haven't ever searched the unclaimed money register you can go and see if you owed some money and people would commenting like [ __ ] my name's on there I owed money you know my even my mates were messaging me being like bro like

in New Zealand owe me 400 bucks like what the hell and then next thing it's like it's on the news and it's in the here or in Newstalk ZB are doing a story I was going to try and look for mine a because I remember I know I remember I seen that video I didn't realize it was yours yeah I got like half a million views like really quick but for me again like because I've been in the content space for some time I'm like wow you know the tables have turned man you know I'm making a [ __ ] quality video yep front to camera just one take like hey you know have no expectations of it it gets half a million views next thing the

media are like oh yeah bang let's do a story on this and there's a rhythm one there's a video one there's a there's a you know an interview and I'm like [ __ ] man everyone got there got something out of this and yeah and like no one ever come back and was like hey why don't we ask Luke about it yeah yeah yeah yeah but I've seen a number of my videos now actually pop up in news Hub articles and stuff so that obviously the media are now looking at what content creators are doing and then going okay that's popping off we need to sell ads and engagement and [ __ ] so it's uh yeah write about it yeah that's interesting that that was the first time

because I obviously known you from LinkedIn but that was when I realized that you're on these platforms when I saw that and I was like and that one was like 600 000. yeah I think it might have even gone uh yeah more than that is it but on um Instagram it didn't even go that well but Tick Tock it just went yeah Tick Tock it blew up yeah that's basically it so yeah I guess that overarching um you know I grew up in the garyvee era content content content yeah yeah I know that it works I've seen it work um I know how hard it is I know how much energy it takes I watch people come you know I've seen people take the piss

out of me and then start their [ __ ] blog because they finally had this health issue and they're like I'm gonna do a Blog now everyone will care about it I'm like oh I'm sorry to hear about your health thing but um yeah yeah like this is a lifestyle not not just like I can dip in and dip out of it but I think overarching for me man like I love stories I love storytelling and so I find that quite easy and so you know my business partner for instance he finds it really hard and so when you're in a partnership or a relationship you're like what can I bring to this yeah and I'm like this is my responsibility to use my strengths to be

able to create opportunities for us yeah and basically these are just uh ways that I've yeah yeah done that it's [ __ ] awesome I love it um and I love I love your like 2017 2018 uh that time period because how old are you I'm 35 now yeah so we're like a year apart and I was about the same time where I was like yeah hit garyvee on YouTube and then there's all another I'm quitting my hotel career yeah I'll [ __ ] oh I'm [ __ ] I know how to do this yeah I'm [ __ ] all in must be easy started posting content getting three views yeah quit my job especially on LinkedIn I'd write on LinkedIn if you're like [ __ ] mate you're like yeah your 20s yeah like

who cares I guess one interesting thing too is that uh I got this big beer in my Bonnet there we hit covert right and who's closest to business owners accountants but we are so stale and [ __ ] as a brand like overall that people they you know they should be who the media Are Ringing saying hey yeah [ __ ] we're in a um you know in this environment of covert businesses shutting down they're like you know let's get old mate from um walking University the professor to tell us what's going on like seriously or like oh let's get an economist The Economist contracted to the government like probably never built a [ __ ] business in their life and I'm like what the hell so at our Institute I'm

like guys like what are we doing wrong and everyone's sort of like well I don't know but we did a big branding campaign our Institute for a bit about how your accountant could be the front of everything but like the fact that I can't even remember what it was about it would have cost members tens of thousands of dollars and I was like well [ __ ] it like I'll just step into that space yeah and then I just branded myself the people's accountant yeah yeah yeah and like you know years ago I would never have had the confidence to do that now I'm just like well that kind of is it like you can go to the big dogs yeah and they'll you know they've got

massive personalities massive Brands and they've got a lot of cash but that's still not going to be able to speak to the everyday person there and you know I try really hard to but then every now and then people are just like bro this is way too confusing and I'm like [ __ ] okay how do I dumb it down yeah yeah um so I've just tried to like I'm just an ordinary bloke that is like okay if I can help I love helping people if I can help more people and do it at scale through content and dumbing things down to something people can understand then you don't know what people pick up from that and then what it leads to for them yeah exactly no

I love it and I think what I'd like there's so much to unpack here because [ __ ] what a story but to keep the momentum moving like you just talked about Tick Tock and about how crazy it is and the dopamine hits that it gives you and then you talked about the media and all the media attention because it looks like you're getting even more media attention recently like I keep on seeing your name pop up in a [ __ ] news article or you're on TV the few months ago and things like that how has that felt like when you've got that much attention as an accountant as a regular bloke from Denver like yeah yeah how does it feel like to have that amount of attention

on you um sometimes it's fun sometimes it's just blase I guess the the horse racing stuff is is the biggest yeah um in terms of you know we'd have over 10 000 people have got money invested in this pot and they're like bro don't fight this up and it's so hard like you you're gambling yeah um that's I'd be communicating expectations and trying to do everything I can to be like okay let's make sure we don't have the wrong people involved in these things but you know you'd be going live and there'd be you know heaps people commenting and stuff like that or you you're in the street but people will talk to you but yeah it's been cool now if they keep the change

stuff is uh yeah just there was a period where every day I'd go somewhere and someone would want to stop and yeah tell someone that yo like keep a change yeah and I'm like hey yeah yeah um but anything like how many people are seeing you but then don't want to say anything to you yeah but I mean the same for me you know I just came back from the Philippines the other day and I saw these two people off of um Tick Tock that when I first got on the platform and started trying to learn what was going on there's this funnel called Sammy I think oh yeah and then this other bloke [ __ ] knows like what they do but I recognize them then

I saw them at the airport and I was like oh this is two people off Tick Tock yeah so you wonder like how much of that goes on that you'd have yeah no idea about yeah um but yeah the media stuff is always interesting it's I used to think it was a big deal yeah now I'm sort of like hopefully they're not watching but I'd be like yeah yeah I'll come and do that but I'm like [ __ ] this won't lead to anything no um good for a bit of authority yeah but like people's attention spans are so short that you've got to be you know in people's faces for so long and so I think you know traditionally people have wanted to rely on the

media for their reach but um you know you've actually got to do it yourself and I guess interesting story I haven't even do you guys see it um I actually got approached by a largeish media company to take on the keep the change podcast yeah yeah contract in front of me Etc yeah [ __ ] yes I said no to that yeah I was going to say I couldn't imagine you say used to that getting told what to do well that said I was like hmm you know what's gonna and I just yeah part of me is like okay chip on the shoulder yeah I still want to just build this on my own and see where it gets to yeah you can explore that later on

this just feels like more layers for me uh and that I just do things at speed so they keep the change podcast for instance there's 360 episodes not one second or minute of it is edited unless I've come in here and recorded them and they're a lot more professional shout out to the attention seeker crew but my ones I'm like record I'm like [ __ ] I better try mute and get coughing out of there and I'm like oh damn it um and then I just pull the SD card out of the back of the platform flick it to um jade who works at next advisory and I'm like hey Jade can you please punch that out for me it can go straight out yeah I'll schedule

that one for later on uh here's a description I might send like a voice message on a Saturday I'm sorry to you and your partner that I missed you when I say that on Sunday yeah yeah and they're like oh you know we can edit these and we can do all of this and I'm sort of like yeah like you can but it's not really it's not a point yeah so just didn't feel right for me so I didn't say yes but whereas I know a lot of people would be like oh my God media deal and admittedly you know they're like we can get you on radio you can become our guy we can really help blow your profile up and I'm sort of

like well yeah but yeah I guess when you know you can build something yourself yeah part of you is like um you enjoy that process as well yeah so I'm not saying I won't do it I could get to like I really want to I my goal from the start of keep the change I mean there's zero email subscribers zero podcast nothing was if I can help a hundred thousand kiwis yeah get better at financial literacy and have a hundred thousand Advocates like [ __ ] I must have a good life on the back end of that surely surely yeah yeah that was my thinking so then I'm like well yeah they can probably help get me there faster yeah but what I'm doing is already working

so let's just stay on the grind I'm enjoying it yeah there's no rush so yeah there's 30 000 podcast listeners in May yeah um June's looking like it might Land close to uh 35 000. so it's like incrementally growing um but yeah then people are they're saying to me the thing that I'm concerned about is people like man I'm a digital today I'm like whoa you're addicted to the podcast I'm like [ __ ] I don't know how I feel like you swap out that for obsessed baby yeah yeah yeah but yeah I'm like okay hopefully people don't become like too reliant and I often say right make sure you're taking action sometimes I send out an email and say can you please unsubscribe yeah if you

get these and you take no action yeah like you're not it's not gonna matter yeah and people will unsubscribe yeah good but I think it's a bit of reverse psychology yeah yeah like do something yeah but that's my whole thing like I'm not you know I see other content creators in this space being like oh you know just buy one list latte or don't get that Powerade on a Sunday when you're hungover I'm like [ __ ] that man like how do we teach people to make another 10 grand a year yeah and they can have 46 power raids on a Sunday if they need to you know and she out there mates the beers on the Saturday whatever they want to do with it yeah those

are probably not good things to be suggesting but like we've got to teach me right yeah bigger and think differently and put themselves out there yeah like what are you going to learn from having won this coffee a week you're going to think the world's small all the world's like skiers you're not going to think like [ __ ] I should build a profile I should find extra income yeah I need to understand how to add value to the marketplace you're never going to go on a good journey with that so I'm like let them keep pretending that that's good help for people and eventually people get to the bottom of that like the only people that want that content long term yeah are people that don't

want to take any action yeah 100 and they stay there but those they will get huge followings yeah because you do want to sympathize with other people like oh my life's so hard I can't believe this I posted something today and keep the change about you know if you're struggling like if you're struggling with the cost of living crisis perhaps this is not the season to have a pet yeah and then it's like [ __ ] that's good it's so borderline though right yeah and there's I think like four it's got 400 like I put it as a story but and this is also like I put it as a story just wrote it right yeah put it and then I put in different color this season

yeah because I'm trying to teach people like do things that in the season that they work for you um and then I was like oh this is going off on the story because people were replying to me so then I just literally screenshot it pulled it down to ensure all the letters were in there and then like posted it as a Instagram title bang you know to get seen by 10 000 people yeah and there's people commenting you know you've got this one wrong um yeah great point I'm sick of people whinging no they're great for you know mental health issues I'm like I get all of that stuff but the message is if you're complaining about and struggling yeah with the cost of living

then perhaps having a pet is not right right now yeah and most of these things the like I'll do them because I realized that actually listens from me in an earlier life where I was in the Nikki for instance and I'm like [ __ ] I wouldn't mind a cat so you get a cat and then I quit my job and have no income and I'm like to my old song yeah can you look after Gucci now yeah and then she's [ __ ] gets cancer on her leg and and has now only has three legs and I'm like hey I can't put in for the vet bill here because I'm actually not okay so you know and so people will think that I'm having a crack at them

but I might well actually yeah I've done all the experience yeah yeah I've done these things and I can see where they get you to so anyway shout out to Gucci she's still alive yeah I love it um you know what like Connor because Connor's done me wrap up but I actually think we can roll through with these because there's heaps of stuff in here and I'm going to get into Christians anyway and I think just keep in mind at roles sorry guys um no no it's good it's good no it's really good stuff um because I mean it's just so much I want to unpack this media thing too because I love you can check out the media but um how much like on

average in a in a month do you reckon that you get in terms of Impressions across your platform [ __ ] I don't know I would probably we don't even track a day like I don't track but it'd be heaps right like yeah you're probably at least a mil I mean I don't know probably not that much um when you go in full time I know you're not on Tick Tock at the moment but like I suppose if I cost everything yeah especially if I was going like Spotify yeah um Instagram LinkedIn Facebook the email the keep the change next advisory Luke yeah B2B stuff and it's cranking yeah you're probably up there yeah yeah and because I always I always talk about the story like you're

and you're like quite nation in what you do but it's like with like the hour range of contents like everything from my LinkedIn to [ __ ] test Tick Tock so it's a broad range of [ __ ] but I always say that about um media too like oh I'll use them the way you use them real smart is you get on it and then you screenshot or whatever and then you put it on your LinkedIn yeah and that's the smartest way because I'm Boss look at me everywhere yeah so I must be you must you should listen to me I know what I'm talking about the media I think so yeah but you don't really care about the uh audience right because like a lot of their audiences

are not right for you anyway no like this is probably one of my best lessons is um there were some young Lads in the uh in the horse racing space and they they we went to Melbourne and so these young guys worked at the herald yeah and we'd been to Melbourne did this event and these boys wrote a story and the title was like um in an industry that's struggling or you know could be dying there's a a group of young guys coming through that are trying to stop that yeah and it doesn't have a date on it and whenever I post that people like yeah [ __ ] yeah the boys are in the hero this is sick right and so we just every year I'd

like roll it out and it would be you know all the people that have never seen it are like oh [ __ ] I saw you guys were in The Herald I'm like yeah yeah like no that was a year and a bit ago um but also like I've had some interesting run-ins and of the media and I got her I got a massive tune-up from one of my mates who works in the media because I would do a lot of media [ __ ] for the horse racing stuff yeah and then one day um he rang me and he was like bro um I've just had a heads up bgp is in quite a bit of [ __ ] and we were running this competition in basically it it broke

the um the gambling act okay and so not to believe all those details but basically the tall poppy thing yeah dude didn't like us he'd looked it up like oh they shouldn't be doing this um I thought it was sweet I'd actually run it past a lawyer and it's like yeah if you do it this way should be fine basically he's like sweet I'm Gonna Roll this off to um to the The Herald The Herald like oh great [ __ ] we can write a story about this yep so they've got the story ready to go and then someone's like oh man I know a dude that's involved in there I'm just going to give him a heads up out of courtesy so he rigs my mate

my mate Rings me and he's like made um this story is about to come out and he's like he'll probably get a front page it went up front page but it's going to be you know and I'm like oh holy [ __ ] um and I was like well let's go back to them and say you know that's unfair like here's our comment and stuff and he was sort of like well bro when you like with the media if you want to use them to grow your [ __ ] yeah they're gonna [ __ ] use you to grow their [ __ ] yeah when they need to as well so it's like dancing with the devil a little bit you've got to be ready yeah and and that [ __ ] will happen so

are like sweet okay went into how can I control the situation yeah I can't control how people um react to the Herald article Etc but I can control the information so I might give them our quote and our side of it yeah and then I'm like [ __ ] straight to our audience like I post the article to our audience I'm like let's just make it all about this dude that has basically thrown us under the bus and it's like I'm like sorry guys We're not gonna be able to do these comps anymore and the spike was called Stephen Stevens [ __ ] it for you all and everyone's like [ __ ] Stephen like what's he done yeah um and so this thing like blew up you know and we're

like gonna get um we had a big banner at one of the race days was like has anyone seen Stephen just [ __ ] and then you know like this dude Rings me off of a no caller ID yeah I answer it heavy yarn to him he's apologizing so I didn't realize because they they closed down the Facebook group the department of internal affairs closed on the Facebook group [ __ ] yeah so it was quite intense and so then I'm posting the screenshot of like I've just had eight minutes on the phone Stephen yeah um and people like [ __ ] this guy he didn't even ring from his own number and and then he'll do like a Facebook live telling everyone like hey this is what's what's actually happened

and everyone's just like so brought into it and still talks about it yeah but the general public probably like Facebook group got shut down these guys have been you know doing some competition that's illegal they're not going to do it anymore because I've been told not to like who key is yeah who cares and so you're freaking out that's this big thing and I'm like okay how can we actually use this and have some fun with it yeah I love that I I um I was thinking that you know did you watch much of the Balenciaga Scandal over the summer like where they did like the kids wearing like BDSM sort of eye costumes and I saw a bit of this yeah yeah and it's

meant to get canceled and like their whole brand is about doing [ __ ] different to everyone else as soon as that came out they started pointing fingers at other people like that advertising agency and try to blame everyone was that a campaign yeah Oh I thought that was legit they got canceled well they got canceled but they're still [ __ ] they're still going um and but they just did it wrong they like responded with trying to defend themselves and like by pointing to others rather than just going oh that was us [ __ ] you like leaning into the same brand they've always had and going this is why we did it it was like well that's what you did right so it's like yep we did it we're

telling you all we did it yeah that's how we're fixing it [ __ ] you I'm like bang first email straight to the Department of internal affairs hey guys I just found out about this I found out about this through the herald really surprised that I'm not like that I haven't heard from you guys yeah Keen to [ __ ] clean up anything yeah we've never had any intention we thought we're doing the right thing yeah and then I'm like sweet now we've got our you know we've got our ducks in a row to be like well we're not trying to do anything stupid here we never ripped anyone off they never took any money off um it was all all in good fun and it would have been

like the next big thing that would have blown up for bgp too yeah basically all we did is just pulled money and then it was a three two one competition horse wins you get three points two points of second one point for third yeah and then basically who's got the most points at the end of the day bang here's 70 of that money yeah and then 20 and 10 and people are like [ __ ] I've got the chance to win like 70 grand on a Saturday like sick yeah and people were tuning in they were watching them were updating the Live Leaderboard on an Excel sheet Google Live sheet um people like this is [ __ ] amazing I'm like Oh my God we've found yeah best thing

for people to be involved and have so much fun with and some decade has to come along and be like oh no you know yeah and it's like no yeah anyway yeah [ __ ] it I love I love your response to it so so media is like you use it the right way but be willing to oh we'll know that they're gonna [ __ ] you at some point 100 are you ready to respond right right yeah yeah and I have like a 72-hour rule where where it's you're hungover you're worried about what you said the day before yeah um there's a media article about you yeah uh you put up a piece of content and actually hasn't gone the way you thought it was and everyone's like

nah man wrong take all that [ __ ] yeah 72 hours later probably not even that long anymore yeah better forget right yeah yeah um so then tell me I don't even know if I got this answer to you how does it feel with all this attention oh yeah I don't know I'm probably kind of used to it now yeah it's definitely like I don't look at myself as a um you know I go and watch some of the the cool thing is to see some of the rugby Boys Follow keep the changes stuff yeah and I might go talk to them at the end of the game or whatever and I see their lives and I think [ __ ] man that's intense you know signatures all the

time all ages you know everyone wants you to fail on the field off the field no one gives a [ __ ] if your parents have just died on the weekend they wouldn't have a clue they'd just like kicked the goals I can do whatever yeah um and so I'm glad that I'm not that yeah but also well that's the thing I'm like I also know that yeah that you know if I do become like the accountant in the country well yeah everyone's gonna be waiting for a business failure um a [ __ ] you know oh I've had already had like I've seen that guy lose 500 000 of people's money on a Saturday don't take advice from him uh and I'm like yeah gambling yeah so you

know the average people are putting in is like 50 each but anyway those things don't really go that well together right like the gambling guy and then the um yeah yeah I can look after your money in business so yeah I'm kind of you just you just come to accept it a little bit but yeah all the positive stuff outweighs the negative stuff and you're getting messages from people and uh saying like this has helped change my life I just needed a reminder constantly to do these things yeah you're like well this stuff is worth way more yeah than copping a little bit of blowback yeah every now and then has that always been a thing for you because I know like for me it's

the same I I have a similar mindset to you better but like most people I talk to even most creators like they can't handle that like the negativity really [ __ ] gets at them they can't it's that one comment doesn't outweigh like the 100 000 other good comments they get yeah it doesn't outweigh the one bad one like have you just always been like that or have you learned to be like that over doing it for so long well once I learned like psychologically that your brain will focus on the negative more and so that's really normal and natural then you're sort of like ah you can see in yourself like this is why this is happening and sometimes I'll have um you know I might

get up in the morning and I'll go through my normal routine I'm about to go to the gym and then I'm like oh [ __ ] I might just reply to a few deems or whatever and there's like this comment or whatever and then I'm [ __ ] real right up about it yeah I'm like whoa like don't leave this person ruin your entire day and I would get and so much [ __ ] in the horse racing space You shouldn't have backed that horse you should have done this oh he's [ __ ] pocketing everyone's money but this is how stupid these people are like if I was pocketing everyone's money no one would [ __ ] put their money in no but they're so simple that they can't figure out like oh my

argument and negativity doesn't even stack up no because people would be like yeah good point I didn't realize like yeah we never got our money back those other six years um or whatever so you just have to like apply logic to it and go okay your brain is going to want to defend yourself you're going to feel hurt you're going to keep thinking about it yeah but in a week's time you're going to be like oh my God I'd completely forgotten about that yeah and so I think you do have to teach yourself um a little bit but also you know I grew up in the if you ain't got no haters you ain't popping yeah yeah yeah you're like yeah good point 100 yeah

yeah love it love the haters bring them all on yeah so you almost like needs some of that and also I learned I'd only learned this maybe a few years ago was basically like perfect content should sit in the middle yeah you should have half people that are like this is amazing and half people are like no I completely disagree because all it does is create engagement yeah and just pushes it up higher yeah so when I was learning about writing Facebook ad copying [ __ ] it was more like okay write something that is maybe true to you right it's not true to other people and naturally you can stay out of the comments and stuff yeah but I was bad man with skill rebates and

stuff and people be like well this is a waste of money you could do this yourself I'm like yeah but 600 000 people don't you Dickies yeah they're like oh okay edit that one and yeah but I would go back to people sometimes I kill them with positivity yeah but sometimes I couldn't help myself and I'd be like yeah just say dumb [ __ ] yeah yeah I'm the same yeah and I I and I don't like not that I get angry but I just I get passionate about it and I get like one particular client of ours which I probably I've got to stop maybe on this podcast but um whenever I do the Community Management and get back like I get told off but the

social media leads like Stan are you [ __ ] replying to this can you get off the [ __ ] replies let Mel take care of it she knows our boys yeah just get passionate yeah um when you're doing it for yourself you can kind of you know there's no real repercussions but then when you yeah do it for a client they're like oh yeah oh [ __ ] maybe I shouldn't have said uh yeah go [ __ ] your mum um the best ones I see is like when someone's real negative to you used to be able to reply with a video on Facebook oh yeah on ads and stuff and it'd be like oh these guys are a scam you're like hey made it salute from scam advisory yeah yeah yeah

I hope you're having a great day you're not too negative today and [ __ ] and they're like oh what the [ __ ] is a real person sending me a video here yeah they can't handle are they once you actually put a face to it yeah yeah yeah um so we're gonna complete tangent of not even what we wanted this podcast to be about but I [ __ ] couldn't stop here because that was gold and there's so much I want to unpack um this is way better than ah imagine so yeah because all the creditors will hate me for saying it but like when I talk with business people because I I like like we're in the same world like I get it but what I do want to

actually ask you about is that when we do talk to creators on this thing like business the business side of it they a lot of them don't have much knowledge of that they don't know where to go or how to manage their finances or even where to start and a big one always comes up about expenses because they're like what like you know because this is a [ __ ] Tick Tock trend of oh it's a write-off right that's a whole thing from whatever is shit's creek or whatever yeah um tell me about that when it comes to content creation what can they write off like what are some common things that you see people thinking they can but that's not you can't do that yeah the

most common thing people think they can claim that they can't really it normally is is clothing yeah okay so however so if we go back to basics there's a general sort of rule with tax and it is if there is what's called a Nexus which was like a [ __ ] accounting term for relationship or correlation or something between the expense and you generating Revenue then you can potentially claim it and I have to use words like potentially and you may be able to right um but basically say you were doing a photo shoot and you needed to have a specific costume and you had to go out and buy that well I'd say to the ird mate like if I didn't get this costume I couldn't

do that so yes I can claim there and it would be but if you say to someone hey your clothing isn't tax deductible technically that's right but a real estate agent for instance they'll think oh I brought a [ __ ] Gucci suit man three grand to bring my text down it's like bro they don't like I don't know how it works yeah but they will think it is and they will claim it anyway probably yeah yeah but the beauty for Content creators is that you know say like this equipment for instance or even your iPad or maybe you need an uh iPad pencil uh or you know your phone your phone bill you need the internet to be cranking out content you need a ring light

like whatever it is that you do usually you need that [ __ ] to be able to generate income yeah now there's a big difference between people who think they're going to generate income and be a content creator versus somebody who is going to generate it so as an example Luke decides I'm going to do a podcast for keep the change for next advisory I basically know that that income will eventually come yeah and so I'm claiming those expenses and then I have the income and the future to prove well look you know this is what come out of doing this stuff you know old mate who's like I'm going to do one or two podcasts see if I can get a brand deal oh [ __ ] me

like um one NZ never called me this is [ __ ] I'm going to roll this through my tax return so hey come on yeah yeah you know that's probably not going to work so it's yeah I mean it's all the stuff's always a gray area yeah but when you can prove that your income is is derived from some of the expenses that you've got then yes you can so even if we just go through some of the basics like you might take um a Potential Prospect out for a coffee yeah you'd be able to claim a portion of that as an entertainment expense or then they're like well actually can you come to our office you pay for your bus fare to get there whatever um

you might take them out for a meal they might say well can you put a pitch deck together for us then you need a Google subscription to be able to put some slides together and like all of those expenses should be tax deductible because you're spending that money to try and generate income yeah and then your income minus your expenses equals your profit and that's what you pay tax on yeah now the thing like I see this even not just creatives but creatives yeah because most creatives like their brain is um like let's have fun let's just do heaps of [ __ ] they got 64 ideas on the go um 80 of them suck 20 of them make all the money but they're like like now

I want to do all them too and so often they won't actually make that much coin and so then they're like well [ __ ] you know why should I have to pay tax or because they're usually thinking well I had a job and I earned this amount of money and then I paid tax on that so they might not put the pieces together that will actually your income minus your expenses equals your profit and then you've got to pay tax on that so creatives almost like I'll say to them when I see them come through next advisory yeah even in just in just different areas they might be in like packaging or branding or like whatever it is they're doing or even marketing I'm like sweet

but you you to do the creative stuff but you're still going to need some base level support at that financial piece because your brain just isn't going to gravitate towards wanting to understand that and creatives will usually delay as long as they can having to think about finances yeah yeah for sure yeah and so I try and show them like right you don't have to understand all of it yeah all good but just get the right people around you or don't try and understand it all yeah they get some support so that you can keep being creative and doing your thing and then the geeky people can be in the background being like no no you shouldn't have claimed that we'll we'll tidy that up

for you or hey you've got text to pay on this date you know start start preparing for that now um because the longer you bury your head in the sand yeah you know you end up in the [ __ ] yeah yeah I've got a question about cleaning stuff for myself for us so like you you talked about okay if it if it helped if the cost is associated to doing something that then goes and produces Revenue right yeah so let's say I'm like okay we're gonna make a video today about the team getting McDonald's and then I go buy all this McDonald's for everyone can I claim that not as an entertainment thing you may be able to I thought that's what you always do to

my dinners no man that just comes out of my pocket mode um but like yeah like so you're in a very unique position compared to other people yeah yeah yeah like genuinely the people are watching you and then eventually they will have enough like validation to go [ __ ] we should be doing this stuff that you would have a way better argument than someone who's just going and paying for people's dinners but there's no actual business activity going on or potential business activity yeah um so these things are like a little bit Nuance to the specific type of business but so I'd say you'd be more likely to be able to claim it yeah than someone that's just done a photo shoot then I was like

[ __ ] I'm gonna stop at Wendy's on the way home and just buy yeah yeah how many Whoppers or whatever though that's BK that they want and take a couple of photos on the slide on the way out or something and be like wow you know what about like um food reviewers can they claim the whole meal that when they're doing a review if that's the actual income yeah I'd say so because then they're going to be paid to do that the thing to look out for too though is a lot of people get given free [ __ ] yeah now yes that was my next question yeah yeah you got to be careful of that because I tell you what people don't like that they get jealous

yeah and I know from some pretty big dog influences they're like yeah been audited two or three times yeah how come oh you know all it takes is one phone call to the ird oh we don't think that that declaring that as income yeah um so yeah why don't you look into it and next thing they are having to deal with that and again like a Creator I was like [ __ ] I don't want to deal with this I just want to do my craft yeah yeah so how does that work when you get given Saints see let's like you get given let's say it's food let's say you're going your your food reviewer and you get shout at a dinner at some fancy restaurant how

do you claim like how do you put that through your text property like what do you have to look out for effectively like the value of it as a form of income okay um but the ird because it's obviously seeing you space had to start releasing information around this and creating sort of thresholds and different things like that too and they actually have some wording and examples of the things that okay yeah that are Income yep yeah yeah but yeah you want to be careful especially if you're getting stuff regularly and you just think oh well I'm just going there making a video about it yeah you may actually have a basically like a a history of having a form of income through that yeah

okay and so that just takes and that's anyone can just dob you in essentially and the idea we'll have a look into it yeah I mean it's not like really common but usually it is um it's well often a couple will separate and um they have an argument and they're like oh [ __ ] this person yeah honestly yeah that'll usually be it like I know that they're not doing this or they're not paying enough child support or they're keeping income in this or they get paid under the table or yeah yeah that's funny I remember speaking to a private investigator and he's just like oh bro these things are so [ __ ] easy to solve it's like what the hell like I assume this is really hard

he's like Manchester ex-girlfriend that's the first person I rank every time bunny so keep Claire happy yeah [ __ ] me over I already know that like if I clear everyone my life's done she's only got me by the Bulls I'm [ __ ] we've got an engagement ring through well no it's coming yeah sorry yeah it's not text deductible by the way no well actually that was actually my next question like let's get Michael Hill is a client or something so Michael who might not cut it well I was actually going to ask this so like that video of me getting asked to propose to Claire was like four and a half million or something right wow that one particular video is the reason we got the one

indeed contract so that was the reason and so we like I wanna I'm not like I just doesn't I don't need this to be a thing but I was actually wondering like what happens if I make this whole wedding thing a series does the ring become tax deductible is there a portion or like wedding expenses like how does that work like for someone like that because there are creators out there who document their whole life and put their wedding out there how much of that can be done or is it not because that was part of your life anyway well yeah does that make sense yeah I know what you mean yeah again it's like you know I can't give definitive answers yeah like their

accountant but the onus always come back comes back to you as the taxpayer yeah to prove that there was a relationship effectively yeah and I mean look if you then like you've got some evidence to back up that that led to income uh you may then do a series that it keeps popping off and you end up getting some contracts through through Nevada and Sloan or whoever being like that was a [ __ ] ring we've upgraded it for clear for you yeah um and by the way we want you to come and make 10 videos in our store or whatever then you're like holy [ __ ] this yeah it could be completely different yeah and does that then like they're giving you a ring but that's now

income yeah effectively yeah okay interesting um the next question I was going to ask is about like I've heard a lot of creators they use Henry hmm what's your thoughts on that and do you think it's an effective way for them to start off or what are your thoughts on that yeah so Henry is now the biggest accountant in the country yeah I've seen this yeah and I love that because obviously uh that really [ __ ] off a lot of people in my industry whereas for me I just don't really care because I'm not playing I'm not competing with them that's not what I want to be doing and I kind of think well if technology can improve the way that we're doing things like who

are we kidding you know when I first started off in accounting I used to input line by line the transactions off a paper bank statement into a computer system I'd have to type the date that what the transaction was the amount I'd get to the end of the whole page the it wouldn't balance I'm like [ __ ] I've got to go back through and figure out which one was wrong yeah and people were like that's just not valuable that's not smart but I don't have an ego to think that I was valuable it's just been replaced by technology so Henry have gone and basically automated what should have already been automated and make things easy and you know I've literally people will ring me and ask

me hey can you be my accountant I'm like nah you don't need us to go to Henry yeah so now like and that's how you know when something's good right you your competitors are referring you customers like that's unbelievable so I'm a massive fan of what they're doing um and I think it's really good for creators because basically it allows you to be able to send an invoice for somebody to somebody and that can be a stumbling block for a lot of people too like well how do I actually get the money in well and Henry can kind of show you the right you have a minimal understanding of taxes but we'll take most of it off your plate but you can now invoice people

you'll get paid and you'll learn some [ __ ] through that process as well what accountants have been really good at it's like we'll do all of that for you like no you don't worry about that we'll do that so that we can feel important and feel valuable but realistically like technology was always coming to tidy that up anyway yeah so Henry will only do sole Traders though so Soul Trader means me under my ird number you know I might get a speaking gig for instance and I think right well I'm going to use Henry and I can invoice my speaking gigs through that yeah the speaking gig will get paid and that goes to a new bank account that Henry's set up for you through ASB

and then basically it gives me my portion after it's taken some aside for taxes and stuff like that and then you shouldn't have to worry too much about taxes and with Henry you can punch them expenses and say well I had to travel down there to do this can I please claim this expense because if I didn't go I wouldn't have got paid and they'll say yep so now you're five grand speaking gig minus 500 bucks for flights you should only be paying tax on the four and a half thousand not the entire five thousand so yeah it's really good to look at but if you start a company you won't be able to use it to use it what would suit me because I

feel like all of what he was saying manual shares all the [ __ ] I was just asking you literally yesterday yeah yeah I think for for you right now Henry's a great because you've done it all through you you haven't set up a company you're running yeah but even if I do is what's the next step after that if I set up a company yeah so why people set up a company is because it gives you what's called limited liability protection this is where we start to lose everyone but it's like putting a condom it's like putting a condom over the top of your whole self yeah yeah so that if you were to be sued the company slash the condom is like no I can't

Pierce that [ __ ] thing so if you um like Conor's out there and he makes some real raunchy video for somebody in a in a freelance gig and um then someone's like well you should never have said that or you shouldn't use that music or whatever they may sue him they'll sue him individually as a sole Trader but if he was operating under a company and under sort of that condom they would be um attacking the company and the company may not have any assets so you could effectively there are other areas of this where you might have breached your director's duties and things but they may make a claim against the company like well this company doesn't own anything so yeah sorry you're you can't

actually get anything and then you close that company down and then you start another one and you carry on but the whole reason Henry built Henry uh or the Henry people built Henry is because so many people start a company in New Zealand accountants make heaps of cash because they're like oh yeah we'll have to do all that because now the rules are way harder under a company and they they don't actually need a company because the level of risk of what they're doing isn't really there yeah so for you know a lot of people they'll set up a company they'll trade under that which you can do and that's fine but then there's no real risk of what they're doing or it's limited so

they probably don't actually need the company yeah yes I wouldn't need the company you don't think well not right now I don't think you need one but I mean I'm not I'm not an accountant yeah but you know because you only just sort of started but yeah well he got to come in right here ask him some advice yeah yeah well that one sounds cool because it's like safe it sounds safe like if anyone wants to [ __ ] come at you but um even if I was to do Henry like could I just jump in at any time like do I have to bring in all my past stuff from the this financial year or whatever like can you just jump in whenever you want to

start yeah you do if you've had other forms of income then you normally have to tell Henry what those are and they have a bit of an onboarding process and it does get messy when you go from being a sole Trader to a company so when you get out of it so you almost want to do it at the start of a new Financial year so you do all your Henry stuff till 31 March and then you're like right from the 1st of April I'm going to trade under this company um and it's going to be kind of kickass content.com and it's gonna [ __ ] be sent to the moon and we're gonna do it's a weird [ __ ] in there as well and I'm not too

worried about what I own personally because uh people may have a crack at the company rather than myself yeah but it also doesn't mean you'll be a director of that company so it also doesn't mean you could just go around um taking nudes of people through the windows and being like well [ __ ] you know come at me because people might be like hey bro like that's actually illegal as well so you have a duty to do things correctly yeah um so when when do when should creators and creatives think about going to a limited liability company like when does that make sense is it a revenue thing is it like is it just purely about having the limited liability like when do you think's a

good time to start considering yeah it's sort of two parts like ones if you've got some assets that you own personally yeah and you're sort of thinking well you just never know what what could happen or someone may have a crack and you may be playing in a risky space and so you just think well um I probably should have a company as an example like a house yeah you might own home for instance and that's usually what people are trying to protect they're trying to keep their business Affairs separate from their personal affairs and you know bgp for instance uh boys get paid you know when we have host an event and stuff we might get a little bit of the ticket revenue and

whatnot and there's different forms of income that that's a company because you know one stage we had a beer going on like all this different [ __ ] and I I sometimes think you know I'd see in the media um you know this this Tour on a boat came back and then this person fell overboard and now the the tour operators up for investigation I'm like holy [ __ ] you know I never know what could happen at a bgp event and uh really upset family member could be like well you know you didn't have the grandstand roped off so how did they fall off there and you know your brain starts like thinking of these things as things start getting bigger but I'm like well is that my

obligation or is it the race courses obligation or is it just their personal responsibility or yeah you just don't know so I think when your brain starts telling you like like [ __ ] yeah this could be there's some risk here that you want to make sure it's separate yeah um but also you just want to run these things past like other people that are doing similar things and say Hey how do you do it yeah yeah that's exactly what me and my friend were talking about in the weekend is like we need to set up more comps and stuff at the skatepark and then he was saying yeah but we have to make sure that like you haven't got people you know riding across the road

imagine if someone got hit by a car or something are you definitely an insurance going into like all of that stuff and I was like oh yeah [ __ ] see I didn't even think about that yeah yeah insurance will definitely lose all of yours yeah yeah public liability insurance something we all need to think about yeah you'll need you'll definitely want to think about that for you guys but also like you can kind of lean on Henry a little bit because that encouraging people not to have a company and to have a sole Trader so you can jump on their live chat and be like this is what I'm doing do you think I need a company yeah that's good yeah put it back on them

because they'll have other people doing the same thing yeah um and they're not going to want to put people Crook and be like no no you know you know yeah just [ __ ] Cavalier it under your own name but I guess as well for a lot of content producers and younger people were probably at the stage of our life where we don't have a whole heap of assets so you're not really thinking about protecting them yeah because you're not worried about it but all of a sudden when you do get a house or you realize okay you've got some coin and kiwisaver you inherit some money or whatever then you're like oh okay your life sitter changes a little bit and you want to create ways

to to protect those things and keep them separate yeah cool um my last question is we wrap up because we've gone well it's really over um Ash has given me the side eye but um is you talked about side hustles and like it's better to make extra 10 grand a year then save four dollars a weekend yeah um obviously but like a lot of people don't think of that right they just think of the cost Side Of The Ledger rather than the revenue side yeah as content creators what are some opportunities you see that do you see any opportunities in the content creation space that these young kids could do to like really start leveraging that brand that they've got because you know they're not

they're not accountants by trade like you which could jump into a business like that but what could they do yeah some of these guys I just think always stick to what you're good at yeah and I don't know why we don't teach more kiwis this like one thing that I heard we used to say it in a different way when I was getting into business people say stick to your strengths you're like oh yeah cool what the [ __ ] does that mean how do I know what I'm strong at yeah like and so then people showed me how to figure out what your strengths were but this simplified way now is um you know just stick to what you're already good at and I think content

creators will underestimate how valuable it is what they can do and the analogy I often use is for example say you ring up a landscape Gardener and you're thinking right I've looked at my backyard this thing we need to make it look prettier in your head you think okay this is what we could do with it yeah you ring a landscape Gardener and they come in and they're like oh my God brilliant backyard we could put a stream in through here we could put this rock I can import this rock for you it's actually this and you're like holy [ __ ] I didn't even know we could do any of this [ __ ] and then where the landscape Gardener [ __ ] it up is that they go I'm

going to charge you by the hour yeah no no no no you're going to charge for the value you're going to charge for the vision you're going to charge for the creativity you're going to charge for bringing something to life that that person could not bring to life yeah and that is the art of business not going well that'll take me eight hours at you know 100 bucks or eight hundred dollars you know you've literally brought to life something that is there's no way this homeowner could do now there's no difference in that than a content creator where you'll look at something and you'll go instantly when you're creative your brain's like [ __ ] we can do it this way we could do this we are

we'd get this angle the everyday person's just like [ __ ] man I just wanted to post my first Tick Tock yeah like what the hell um so if you've already proven that you can do things and do them well you just have to offer that to the market yeah and then that comes to the second thing that kiwis suck at is saying hey who wants this because we're so scared we're going to get rejected and it's the same thing we're worried about negative comments so we're also worried that no one's going to respond yeah and as an example for my girlfriend I'm like to her if you want to make some extra cash just [ __ ] put on your Instagram story and say hey does anyone need

some help with xero or their bookkeeping Etc and she was like almost in tears of people responding being like Oh you know why are you doing this and what sort of facts are this about you never put anything on Instagram 24 hours later she messages me and she's like [ __ ] I think I just made 12 Grand over the next year and I'm like what the [ __ ] up now yeah Mike was I right was that right yeah [ __ ] sorry but you know I'm like [ __ ] I'm like you've watched me for years in business and you just don't believe me yeah and then you go and do it and you're like oh it's actually as simple as that like black screen your Instagram say hey does anybody

need help with insert what it is that you do yeah and then extra hack Don't say like um you know do you need help say do you know anyone that needs this help because then people are going to think about other people that they know yeah and they're like oh well actually Sally was saying to me that they needed a ham with that yeah they could do that so you've got to get more comfortable putting yourself out there yeah but also you know the people that will be listening to this and content Creation in general it's finally here like people are like the big brands are like [ __ ] this content thing works you know I had a five-year dream run creating content in the accounting

space before it was like oh yeah [ __ ] maybe I should be putting some [ __ ] up on LinkedIn too and I see some of the big four using their Partners to do some of the stuff yeah but we all still suck at it compared to creatives so know that what you've got is very valuable and it's very valuable to Brands so then the next piece is then basically who's got and gonna keep spending and gonna value it yeah and then can you get closer to those people yeah and go and add value to them and people will do this for me they'll say hey I saw you're doing reels this way I've created a couple of examples for you yeah and a couple of times with

Mike Sweet let's talk a bit more yeah um so we've got to do the Outreach piece you've got to think about who would want it yeah but also like don't overthink it action will always Trump the ideas yeah awesome love it yeah all right so go make some more [ __ ] money that's okay [ __ ] money it's okay to make more money too like and the final I think piece is that um blow your thermostat out so you might have you might have started an employment and you might think okay you know I I was like if I could make 100 Grand man [ __ ] I'm retiring I'm gonna kill the accounting game I got towards 80 in Auckland and I was like [ __ ] where's the money yeah

why do I still have a credit card um but I have bad habits as well but then you know I had to teach myself that well I I came out of that 100K thing I was reading about people making a million dollars 10 million I'm like what the hell like how did they how's that happening so whatever you think is a big amount of money is usually amount of money you've gotten close to so you've either earned it before or you've nearly earned it and so then you'll think well that's sort of your ceiling of your thermostat yeah as soon as you get close to that yeah you'll probably find that you'll [ __ ] up deals you won't push us hard yeah you you're just like

okay sweet like well that was a pretty big month but yeah you know I've had to learn that concept and then I've had like I've sent well yeah I've seen invoices that are bigger than basically what I was getting paid in my job like one invoice bigger than my whole year of work yeah and that's it yeah yeah and honestly like your life doesn't change that much like it does it does change but the [ __ ] expenses but yeah I think yeah there's a really good opportunity for Content creators and people that are in this space to just figure out what they're good at replicate it for other people and do it well and just and just don't think New Zealand either go [ __ ] you kiwis

like just go offer it to you in US Dollars and get asked to paying US Dollars and I had a client where one of the first things we did with them in our early days is we're like we're we're customers like oh 90 of them in the us and we're like why do you charge New Zealand dollars and they're like but never thought about it we're like okay from next month let's move to US dollars they flick it to US dollars probably had like a three percent drop off and they're like holy [ __ ] so they just increase their revenue by basically like a hundred and well like by 50 yeah I love that so don't just think New Zealand as well that's something we're all

bad at because we're so far down here but content can be worldwide Global right from day one yeah yeah I love it all right well I'm gonna get told off yeah sorry guys got passionate yeah we've got a bit passionate we'll have to do a part two [ __ ] always the last two have been part twos we need to do part twos um anyway man honestly thank you so much it's been cool watching your journey we we often Look to You for inspiration at the beginning and and even now of what you do because I think you [ __ ] do it really well like really [ __ ] well I really love all your content thanks for being on the show no worries it makes me think [ __ ] I

need to create small content I do need to get back on [ __ ] Tick Tock yeah cheers mate