Finding Your Calling In Business with Adam Markowitz
Release Date: 02/14/2023
Building A Business From Bootstrap To $1 Million with Yong-Soo Chung
Mission Driven Business
Brian chats with Yong-Soo Chung, a serial entrepreneur who founded three e-commerce companies in the span of seven years. With his latest venture, the podcast First Class Founders, Yong-Soo is on a mission to impact entrepreneurs by sharing his lessons on building sustainable businesses from bootstrap to earning more than $1 million in annual revenue. On the episode, Yong-Soo shares his three pillars for a successful business and fulfilling life. He also discusses the importance of listening to your intuition and taking advantage of the opportunities that come your way. Episode Highlights...
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Finding Your Focus with Tuesday Brooks
Mission Driven Business
Brian chats with Tuesday P. Brooks, a business owner, educator, trusted tax and accounting advisor, and U.S. veteran. Her company, AJOY, champions profitability for women-led micro and small businesses. On the episode, Tuesday shares the power of being open to suggestions and how following where you’re led can lead to some incredible outcomes. She also breaks down how prioritizing profitability can help entrepreneurs better support their mission and create impact. Episode Highlights Revenue is a primary focus for mission-driven businesses. Tuesday describes a mission-driven business as one...
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An Expert Guide To Understanding The 1120-S Tax Form
Mission Driven Business
It’s tax season crunch time. In this episode, Brian will walk you through the S-Corporation income tax return to help you better understand what you’re filing and hopefully catch mistakes before it’s too late. He provides a section-by-section analysis of Form 1120-S and highlights key areas that business owners and tax professionals make mistakes. Episode Highlights Part 1: Heading, Income, Deductions, Tax and Payments Most of this information is drawn from your business’s Profit and Loss Statement. Here’s a breakdown of what’s on the first page: Calendar year: The very top of...
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Staying Focused And Authentic with Tristan Schukraft
Mission Driven Business
Brian chats with Tristan Schukraft, president and CEO of MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers discrete access to medication that can help prevent HIV. On the episode, Tristan shares how he started MISTR to help his friends, which led to a business fueled by passion. He also discusses the importance of knowing your market, staying true to your mission, and questioning how to make the status quo better. Episode Highlights Mission-driven businesses make a positive impact on communities. Like other guests on the podcast, Tristan defines a mission-driven business as one that has a higher...
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Building A Bold Business with Ciara Stockeland
Mission Driven Business
Brian chats with Ciara Stockeland, a serial entrepreneur who has owned and operated businesses since she was a teenager. On the episode, Ciara shares her best tips as an inventory and cash flow expert that can help all types of entrepreneurs build better businesses. She also opens up about the lessons she learned the hard way after she built a seven-figure retail business that she felt trapped in. Episode Highlights Mission-driven businesses are bold. Ciara defines a mission-driven business as one that takes initiative in the world. It also allows the people behind it to live intentionally, be...
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Inspiring A Movement of Kindness with Matthew Hoffman
Mission Driven Business
Brian chats with Matthew Hoffman, the founder of You Are Beautiful, a Chicago-based company that uses art to provide kindness, compassion, and community when it’s needed most. On the episode, Matthew shared how he became an accidental entrepreneur and some of the hard lessons he’s learned as a business owner and artist. He also digs deep into using feedback to grow and refine your business. Episode Highlights Mission-driven businesses have a message. When Matthew started making his signature You Are Beautiful stickers that would eventually become a business, he had a clear message that he...
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Finding Your Calling In Business with Adam Markowitz
Mission Driven Business
Brian chats with Adam Markowitz, the owner and operator of people-centric tax firm Luminary Tax Advisors. On the episode, Adam opens up about how he decided to lean into his calling to take over his father’s tax advisory firm and the hurdles he faced to buy the business. He also shares a treasure trove of tips to prepare for the upcoming tax season. Episode Highlights Mission-driven businesses have pillars to support the mission. When Adam took over his father’s company, he rebooted the business, which included coming up with a new name, Luminary Tax Advisors, and a new mission statement,...
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Diversifying The Financial Services Industry with Choir
Mission Driven Business
Brian chats with Sonya Dreizler and Liv Gagnon, the co-founders of Choir, a business dedicated to lifting the voices of people of color, women, and non-binary professionals in industries historically represented by white men. Sonya and Liv share why they started with a focus on the financial services industry. They also discuss how they’ve adapted to meet the needs of their customers while staying true to their company’s mission. Episode Highlights Mission-driven businesses look inward and outward. Like other guests on the podcast, Liv defines a mission-driven business as one that balances...
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Numbers For The New Year
Mission Driven Business
Brian kicks off 2023 with tactical tips to start the new year. Now that you’re hopefully relaxed and ready for a new year, Brian digs into the numbers to give you some targets to aim for over the next few months. He covers revenue, retirement, health savings accounts, and more. Episode Highlights Look for new revenue figures. Because of inflation, many revenue and tax figures have increased quite a bit in 2023, meaning you can make more money and still pay less in total tax. For example, in 2023 single filers with a taxable income of $95,376 - $182,100 will have their last dollar taxed at...
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Your Year-End Checklist
Mission Driven Business
Can you believe it’s already the end of the year? Now is the time to celebrate with friends and family, reflect on the past 12 months, and plan for the new year. To help you out, Brian created a checklist you can use to review 2022 and start 2023 with a clean state. The checklist includes business and personal to-do items as well as links to resources sure to help you out. Business Checklist 1. Review your goals. The end of the year is the perfect time to review the goals you made at the beginning of 2022 and set new ones for 2023. Ask yourself: How did I do this year? What did I accomplish...
info_outlineBrian chats with Adam Markowitz, the owner and operator of people-centric tax firm Luminary Tax Advisors. On the episode, Adam opens up about how he decided to lean into his calling to take over his father’s tax advisory firm and the hurdles he faced to buy the business. He also shares a treasure trove of tips to prepare for the upcoming tax season.
Episode Highlights
Mission-driven businesses have pillars to support the mission.
When Adam took over his father’s company, he rebooted the business, which included coming up with a new name, Luminary Tax Advisors, and a new mission statement, navigating the tax code to shed light on your personal, professional, and financial goals. Equally important to the mission statement are the three pillars that Adam created to support how the business operates internally and outwardly: humanity, accessibility, and humility.
“It’s not just about what you stand for outwardly, but what you stand for inwardly that’s really important,” Adam said.
Overcome imposter syndrome with confidence.
Though accounting runs in the family, Adam did his best to avoid the family business, from skipping business and finance classes in college to pursuing a career as a sports writer after graduation. Even when he eventually did join his father’s company, Adam experienced imposter syndrome. Only after an expert came to Adam for his opinion on a tax law did he realize that he was better at his job than he had first imagined.
“Don’t have imposter syndrome,” Adam told the business owners listening to the podcast. “Own it. Be it. That’s not to say there’s not somebody out there better than you. But, my God, if somebody’s paying you for what you’re doing, you must be pretty darn good at it.”
Keep learning and ask questions.
Adam encourages entrepreneurs to pay attention to the world around them to learn and gain inspiration for their business -- and that learning-oriented mindset can also come in handy at tax time. He recommends that his business owner clients ask or write down their money questions as soon as they think about them (or else they'll forget to ask at tax time).
“There is not a good tax preparer on the planet that does not want you to ask questions of them because that’s how we do our jobs better,” Adam said. ”We need to learn, we need to listen, and we need to better ourselves on a daily basis.”
Resources + Links
About Brian and the Mission Driven Business Podcast
Brian Thompson, JD/CFP, is a tax attorney and certified financial planner who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit.
On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too.