FI Minded - Financial Independence, Early Retirement & Lifestyle Design

Over the last decade of my career, I've found there is a subset of skills that can be a multiplier for your career growth. One of those super skills is effective communication. I’ve seen those that possess this skill take off leading projects, presenting at important meetings, and getting promotions.

Being an average communicator versus an effective communicator can be really subtle. Sometimes it's the word choice, the framing of the conversation, or the preparation done beforehand. If you work towards mastering the nuance of this skill, you’re going to be the person people turn to in important situations.

Brenden Kumarasamy, a good friend of our show, is back to discuss this nuance and give you a framework you can use today to level up your communication at work. We talked about team meetings, presentations, 1 on 1 connects. I hammered him with questions and he fired back with so much good tactical advice. This guy really knows his stuff.

Brenden’s background includes coaching ambitious executives and entrepreneurs to be more effective communicators and he also has a popular YouTube channel called MasterTalk with the goal of providing free access to communication tools for everyone in the world. Brenden is really making an impact in this space and I feel so blessed that he spending time with you and me to level up our communication.

If you’re a listener of the show and haven’t left us a rating and review, we’d really appreciate it if you did. And if you’re new, welcome, sit back, relax, and let’s learn something new.

Alright, let’s get into it. I hope you enjoy my conversation with the former accounting major, Justin Bieber fanatic, and Mr. MasterTalk himself…Brenden Kumarasamy.

Key Takeaways:

• How to get the confidence to speak up at your team meetings
• How to speak in pyramids vs circles
• Best practices for cross-functional departments
• How to win the meeting before it even begins
• How to climb the corporate ladder
• How to overcome stage fright
• Setting the tone in a presentation
• How to prepare and craft a great presentation
• The secret to not being boring when you speak
• Tools to enhance your communication style
• How to level up your 1 on 1 networking
• Using 80/20 questions to get more clarity with your life

Mentions:

Brenden’s 1st appearance on TSIR: Public Speaking Best Practices, Passion is Bogus, and Pitching a CEO l E16 Brenden Kumarasamy

More of Brenden:

Website: http://rockstarcommunicator.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MasterTalks

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendenkumarasamy/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masteryourtalk/

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

Aside from corporate holidays and one-week vacations, we are going to have to wait until 65 for a total sense of freedom and choice.

But do we? What if retirement was closer than that? Maybe in your 50s, your 40s, even your 30s.

This might seem like a pipe dream but there is an entire movement all with this goal in mind. And it’s called FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early.

In this episode, we are going to talk about the FIRE movement, how it’s redefining retirement, and how you can get on board.

Key Takeaways:

• How to use the 4% rule to calculate your FI number
• How the FIRE Movement got started
• 3 lessons you can learn from the FIRE Movement
• How you can get started on your FIRE journey

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

It’s fun to talk about success especially when it comes to entrepreneurship. We are all hoping for this grand journey where we start from the bottom but quickly make it to the top.

That happened to my good friend, Chuck Cooper. His first business was wildly successful, until it wasn’t. All of a sudden, he found himself in shame never thinking he would have failed. It all seemed too easy.

Luckily, Chuck is resourceful and found support to build himself back up and to build a new business in the making.

In this conversation, Chuck and I talk about the ups and downs of being a business owner, the fundamental skills to be successful, let it be entrepreneurship or your traditional career path, and we throw in some baseball talk both as an analogy and my predictions about my beloved St. Louis Cardinals.

Key Takeaways:

• What makes mentors want to invest in certain people
• Effective networking practices
• How to build your business by creating relationships
• What are employers looking for in their young talent?
• A key sales strategy: picking up the phone
• Rules you can set in place for better work life balance
• Why to consider a change in living
• How the game of baseball could give you comfort as a 20-something

More of Chuck:

Website: https://whitewaterconsulting.net/

Unprecedented: Building a Multi-Generational Business on Trust, Respect and the Valuing of People: https://www.amazon.com/Unprecedented-Building-Multi-Generational-Business-Respect-ebook/dp/B09YWR5Z1G

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

You’ve been doing a great job taking part of your paycheck and investing that money every month. You check your balance and you feel like “I’m not making as much progress as I thought I would.”

Of course, the stock market performance plays a huge role in your return but that’s out of our control. If you’re properly diversifying, you’re doing what you can and the rest is fairly unpredictable.

But you know what factor affects your portfolio’s performance that you can have a direct impact on? Fees.

And luckily, with just a little bit of education and proper blueprint, you can minimize the fees you’re paying to maintain your investment portfolio. In this episode, we are going to be discussing 3 common investing fees, how to figure out if you’re paying them, and what you can do to reduce your cost.

Key Takeaways:

• How a 2% fee can dramatically affect your investment returns
• 3 common investing fees
• How to figure out if you’re paying investments fees
• How to reduce the costs of your investment fees

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

I’m turning 30 next month and I’ve been unsure how I’ve felt about that. I’ve had countless conversations with guests that shared with me how silly it was to think they needed to “make something of themselves” by 30. Yet here I am, wondering if I’ve done enough to really make my 20-year-old self proud how I’ve spent the last decade.

That 20-year-old Justin had high expectations about where he was going to be at 30. I’ve learned over the last decade that you can set your sights on something but life has a whole lot of serendipity. And I don’t know, that’s kind of the fun of it right? I mean, at 20, I would have never predicted podcasting would be such a significant aspect of my life.

So here’s to me for letting go of any expectations, being proud of everything I have accomplished, and excited for what’s to come in this new decade.

I’m done with my poetic monologue but it does set up my conversation with my friend, Paul Angone.

Paul spent most of his 20s thinking he was a failure. Working at dead-end jobs to support his real dream of becoming a best-selling author, Paul grinded and hustled any moment he had - lunch breaks, late evenings, weekends - with the hope of creating something that sparked a fire.

Sure enough, it eventually happened (although much longer than expected) and Paul has gone on to author best-selling books including 101 Secrets for Your Twenties, 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties, and 25 Lies Twentysomethings Need to Stop Believing. His newest book, Listen to Your Day: The Life Changing Practice of Paying Attention, is out today and I recommend picking it up.

Paul has spent so much time researching and understanding the unique struggles of being in your 20s. We get into a whole lot of conversation about these struggles including finding your purpose, feeling like a failure, and when to make sacrifices vs when to move on. You’re really going to like this one.

100 reviews before our 100th episode (consider it an early birthday present). If you’re a listener of the show and haven’t left us a rating and review, we’d really appreciate it if you did. And if you’re new, welcome, sit back, relax, and let’s learn something new.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with…”20-something failure” turned 5-time author…Paul Angone. 

Key Takeaways:

• Why to consider sacrificing spending for time
• When to keep going and when to give up a dream
• How to find your “signature sauce”
• Defining yourself in multiple ways
• A lesson learned from the Mayor of Starbucks
• How to find your significance by embracing failure
• The possibility of greatness and embarrassment in the same space
• Why you can’t label something a failure or success too early
• How to listen to the small details of your day to find the answers you’re looking for

Mentions:

Searching for Sugar Man: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125608/

More of Paul:

Website: www.AllGroanUp.com

Listen to Your Day: https://allgroanup.com/books-2/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulangone/

Signature Sauce course: https://signaturesauce.com/

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

So you messed up and need to apologize to someone? It was an honest mistake, you feel terrible, and you want to say sorry. How do you do that in a heartfelt, genuine way?

A proper apology can quickly repair a relationship and lift a weight off of the givers shoulders but a bad apology…that can be disastrous and lead to even more hurt.

Between politicians, CEOs, and celebrities, we have seen our fair share of examples of those bad apologies where blame was shifted and responsibility wasn’t taken.

Luckily we have Jonathan Miller, a communication coach, to share with us a framework and give us an example of a good apology. This is a replay from an episode way back in the vault, episode 15, so I’m guessing you haven’t heard this one before and it was too good not to resurface.

Jonathan shares a ton of great insight on how to have mindful communication like how to resolve conflict or how to compassionately deny an invite to a party. This episode is a great reminder that our words have impact and if you’re mindful about them, communication can be your superpower.

If you’re a listener of the show and haven’t left us a rating and review, we’d really appreciate it if you did. And if you’re new, nothing for you to do, sit back, relax, and let’s learn something new.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with…the rock climbing, mediating, nomadic traveler…Jonathan Miller.

Key Takeaways:

• The same words can be interpreted multiple ways
• How to minimize conflict from miscommunication
• Instead of good or bad, consider what works or doesn’t work
• Denying responsibility through our language
• Impact of our words
• Why conflict isn’t inherently bad
• How to give a heartfelt apology

More of Jonathan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/millerdjonathan/

Website: https://www.level7.is/

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

In today's conversation, I went down this incredible, unplanned rabbit hole with my friend Megan Miller.

We both have a mutual love for journaling and I spent the first half of this conversation asking a lot of questions around her specific practice. It really made me realize how much of an impact my simple journaling practice has left on me.

I’m hoping this gives you some inspiration on how you could get started journaling and what benefits you can expect by doing so.

Aside from being a journaling enthusiast, Megan is a coach centered around helping high achievers detox off the drug of achievement. We discuss the potentially negative impact of relying on our career for validation. I don’t think getting validation from my career is inherently bad but whenever I find that is the only area I’m relying on, this creates a major imbalance with my life.

And surprise, surprise I kind of feel like I’m itching towards that right now and I’m curious for solutions so ask Megan questions about this subject too.

Key Takeaways:

• How to make sure you start your day off the right way
• Create a journal practice that works for you
• How journaling can remind you of all the progress you’ve made
• Detoxing off the drug of achievement
• The Gap and The Gain: high achievers guide to success
• Finding validation in other drawers of life

Mentions:

The Gap and The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy: https://www.amazon.com/Gap-Gain-Achievers-Happiness-Confidence/dp/1401964362

More of Megan:

Website: https://www.megan-miller.com/

Megan’s microstep journal: https://www.megan-miller.com/microstep-journal

https://www.amazon.com/Voices-21st-Century-Women-Transforming-ebook

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

Have you felt like you’ve been burning the candle at both ends? Are you trying to do too many things and feeling burnout?

Maybe you need a Selfish Sunday.

Cara Hays initially introduced me to this concept of Selfish Sundays. It’s pretty simple - she spends Sunday doing things for herself and she doesn’t judge herself for it. She might meal prep, do laundry, or just binge watch a TV show. Whatever she needs from herself on Sundays is what she does.

I loved the idea so much that I stole it for myself, and it has really helped me with burnout. I was recently on my friend Anastasia Barbuzzi’s podcast, $HMoney Radio, talking about my Selfish Sundays. I wanted to share this with you in case you were looking for some inspiration and ideas on how you could overcome burnout.

Key Takeaway:

• How Selfish Sunday’s might help you avoid burnout

More of Anastasia Barbuzzi:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shmoneyradio/

Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/shmoneyradio

Website: https://www.shmoney.club/

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

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We all dread it but that day eventually comes. It might be a cough that won’t go away, a potential sprained ankle, or you’re questioning a weird bump on your arm. We have no other option. We have to go see a doctor.

How do I book an appointment again? Where’s my insurance card? How much is this going to cost me?

Healthcare is confusing, frustrating, and overly complex. I do my best to avoid having to see a doctor but sometimes it is just unavoidable. I have to put on my big boy pants and figure it all out.

This is the unglamorous part of being an adult. But with a little help, we can do this.

And our help today is Dr. Judson Brandeis who is here to give us some insight on how the healthcare industry works.

My favorite takeaway was how to better prepare for your next doctor’s visit. Apparently the average doctor’s visit is 16 minutes 14 seconds so if you come prepared with the right notes and documentation, not only will you be able to make the most of your time but these busy professionals will take you seriously too.

Dr. Brandeis has an extensive list of credentials including being named Top Urologist in San Francisco, a national leader in technology and innovations in sexual medicine, the author of The 21st Century Man. Aside from some healthcare 101, we spend the second half of this conversation discussing how to be healthier than 90% of people and what your 20-something self can do to help out future you.

Key Takeaways:

• How to better prepare for your doctor's visit 
• How to find a primary care physician
• How to be healthier than 90% of people
• Using the ABC method to build your body for life
• Why you should consider limiting your alcohol intake
• How drinking leads to being overweight
• The single most important factor to your longevity
• What you can do in your 20s to prevent erectile dysfunction 
• Performance enhancing drugs and penis health

More of Dr. Judson Brandeis:

The 21st Century Man (book): https://thetwentyfirstcenturyman.com/

Judson’s E-Books: https://brandeismd.com/ebooks/

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

LeBron James recently broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record. It was an amazing moment to watch and an impressive feat.

But reading about this achievement, I uncovered an even more impressive LeBron record.

What was the record and what did I learn from it? Tune in to find out.

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/