Financial Modeler's Corner
00:10:18 · Paul Barnhurst
Because I said, I could share my views on this, but there's already a million people that are better than me at Excel sharing their views. And I remember I paused one day and said, what's easier? Building a business talking about Excel or building a business talking about FP and A software as far as a brand? Not so much a business, the thoughts that entered my mind, but more of a kind of a brand in the sense of helping me with job, helping me with awareness. And as I continued to build, I started to realize, hey. This might turn into something. And in one month in December '21, three vendors reached out to me in a week in the FP and A software space. Two tried to hire me. One wanted to do a big collaboration. A friend... An acquaintance, I should say, the time, now he's a close friend, asked me if I could build some training on Excel, and someone else had a fifteen hour part time job. So one night, went to my wife, and I'm like, I think that I can turn this into a business. I might have had 5,000 followers at the time on LinkedIn, and I had a commitment for a $150 in revenue. That was it. My wife kinda looked at me like, wait. You think you could turn this into a business? I'm like, yeah. And I talked about the different things, and she was pretty nervous as rightfully so. And so we talked about it. I go, I'm not doing a business till you're a 100% comfortable. And then kinda out of the blue is about six weeks later, it's February one morning, she goes, I'm comfortable. I go, are you sure? She's like, yes. I trust you. I know you do a great job. I'm like, so I'm gonna put in my notice today. And I did. I put in my notice that morning, got out of there four months later, and here I am today. So that's kind of the backstory. There are other things in there, but that's the one that I think most people kinda enjoy.
00:11:49 · Giles Male, Paul Barnhurst
[00:11:49] S1: Yeah. I think one of the things, the stories that you've told me that I really liked as well, bearing in mind, in general, I think LinkedIn is a cesspit of nonsense. You you posted every day for almost two years. Right? [00:12:01] S0: Yes. [00:12:02] S1: And again, the observation I have about you is, like, I I value what you post, and that... That's a hell of a commitment to to stick to where you're actually sharing things that I think, certainly from what I saw, were useful to people. It wasn't just endless cheat sheets. Why did you stop? It was it was two years enough? I'm guessing it was.
00:12:21 · Paul Barnhurst
[00:12:21] S0: What I realized... So I started at 5,000. I ended up at 60 something thousand at the end of the two years. And there were days it was garbage. There were days, really simple post of, I gotta get something out there. Yo. And I threw out a meme. I can't say all five hundred days by any means were great content. They were not. So I'm just gonna put that out there. But when I stopped, what happened is I realized I was just continuing to post every day to keep my goal going, not that I needed to. And I said, is this really the best use of my time? Are there days where it'd just be better to take a day off? And I realized, yes. I'm still gonna post a lot on LinkedIn. It's still a key part of my business growth, but I realized it wasn't necessary. So I said, what's the point of keeping a goal going for the sake of a goal if you're... If it doesn't make sense? That's really what it came down to. It was just that moment where I was like, it's reached the point where this is kinda dumb to just keep the goal going for the sake of the goal. Every great modeler on this show says the same thing. Simplicity is a key skill. The AFM, the advanced financial modeler, is built around exactly that discipline. Clean structure, sound logic, defensible work. Join me in becoming an AFM. Go to fminstitute.com/podcast. That is fminstitute.com/podcast, and use code podcast for 15% off.
00:13:50 · Giles Male, Paul Barnhurst
[00:13:50] S1: Just pivoting slightly again, I I asked you how it started for you, you know, the the beginning of The FP and A Guy. Conscious, we're on the Financial Modeler's Corner. So my question to you is, what advice would you have to anyone watching? May... Maybe maybe at the start of their career, but actually maybe for people that were in a similar situation to you or that I was and many other people were where you're in a job, you know there's something within you that you want to maybe take a bit of a risk on, whether that's freelancing, starting a business. In 2026, do you have any advice for that person now? So there's a [00:14:25] S0: couple things. The biggest thing I'll say is everybody's like, it's so much more risky. It's really not. You can get laid off by any job tomorrow. At least you control things to a certain extent. You may not be successful, but you're gonna learn a lot. So when I started, I looked at it... [00:14:43] S1: Oh, your camera's gone. Okay. Camera's gone. It's Paul Barnhurst [00:14:46] S0: coming...... Closet. Alright. We'll be back in a second after a brief... We're back after a brief camera malfunction. So if they leave that in. It wasn't a wardrobe malfunction like some celebrities. [00:14:58] S1: Do you want me do you want me to re ask the question? [00:15:01] S0: Sure. Go ahead. [00:15:02] S1: Does that help? [00:15:03] S0: Yeah. That way they can find it up however they want. [00:15:06] S1: I've got to remember what I said now. [00:15:09] S0: The question... Starting business, I think it was.
00:15:09 · Paul Barnhurst, Giles Male
[00:15:09] S0: The question... Starting business, I think it was. [00:15:12] S1: Yeah. So, my question post technical camera issue was, what advice would you have to anybody that was kind of in the position that you and I and others would have been in? Me, it's a real gut feeling, right, that you're sat in a job, you just know that there is something you want to try, but you sometimes don't know how to make those steps. Would you have any advice to that person?
00:15:35 · Paul Barnhurst
[00:15:35] S0: So the thing I say to people, I think the most common thing people worry about is they feel like it's a big risk to start your own business. The reality is it's a different risk. I would argue in some ways it's less of a risk than continuing to work for somebody. You can't control whether they lay you off. You can't control what happens when you're in your mid fifties, and then there's age discrimination. You can't find another job, and you're at a really high level. There's a lot of things you can control when you start your own business. Does that mean you're gonna be successful? No. I'd say you won't. But will you learn a lot along the way? For me, I looked at it and said, okay. I'm trying to create this brand of being the FP and A Guy, being known as, you know, somebody who provides educational content and having connections all over the place in the field. After doing a bunch of training, having, you know, all those connections, if I can't find a job if this fails, the problem's me. It's kind of the way I looked at it. And I said, I had a big enough runway with one of the deals I had early that I... And savings and everything. I had at least an eighteen month runway. So I'm like, yeah. Let's go for it. And I would tell people, give it a try. Now don't be stupid. You need to think, be smart, have some money saved, think about how long you have, make sure you go into an area that there can be enough of a market to build a business. If it's something that nobody's interested in but you love, keep it as a hobby because, you know, you still have to provide for yourself. So be smart about it, but don't fear the idea of, but I won't have a stable paycheck. That was the hardest part for me at first was getting used to the idea I could work all day and and earn no actual money that day. Like, I was so used to being on a clock. Now there could be a week go by and I might think about it once for a couple seconds going, oh, I didn't earn any money this week. I guess I better do something.