Hustle with Aloha

This is Hustle with Aloha , A podcast for entrepreneurs who want success without burnout. Here you'll hear real strategies and conversations to help you grow while staying true to yourself. I 'm Alicia Nagel, brand strategist and founder of Alicia Nagel Creative. I've helped over 130 brands stand out with strategy-first marketing and design. Living for years in Hawaii taught me the deeper meaning of aloha- presence, kindness, and connection. In a world that glorifies nonstop hustle culture, Aloha reminds us to pause and appreciate. That's why I created Hustle with Aloha.

After years of building a successful corporate career in finance, Melissa Armstrong found herself at a crossroads. What followed was an unexpected pivot into entrepreneurship, along with a crash course in uncertainty, personal growth, and discovering what really matters.

In this episode of Hustle With Aloha, Melissa shares her journey from corporate leadership to business ownership, the realities of starting a new business in your 40s, and the lessons she's learned along the way. We discuss career transitions, perimenopause, entrepreneurship, financial awareness for business owners, and why growth often requires stepping outside your comfort zone.

Topics discussed include:

• Making the leap from corporate life to entrepreneurship
 • Starting a business in your 40s
 • Navigating career transitions and uncertainty
 • Perimenopause and changing priorities
 • Financial lessons for entrepreneurs
 • How entrepreneurship changes more than just your career
 • Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable


Connect with Melissa Armstrong:

 • Website & Newsletter signup: https://steadyhandaccounting.com/
 • Podcast: https://nosehablataxes.buzzsprout.com
 • Substack: https://nosehablataxes.substack.com/
 • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/armstrongmelissacpa/
 • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steadyhandacct/

Connect with Hustle With Aloha & Alicia:

 • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hustle-with-aloha/id1835465180 
 • Podcast Website: https://www.hustlewithaloha.com/
 • Work with Alicia: https://www.alicianagel.com/
 • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hustlewithaloha 
 • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hustlewithaloha


Creators and Guests

Host
Alicia Nagel
Guest
Melissa Armstrong
Melissa is a CPA and fractional controller who partners with marketing and creative agency founders to bring controller-level insight to businesses ready to grow with intention. With over 20 years of experience, she builds the financial systems, reporting, and rhythms that give business owners financial clarity so they can focus on leading the business. Thanks to Melissa they have clear cash flow, predictable billing, & can feel confident making big financial decisions.

What is Hustle with Aloha?

Hustle With Aloha is an informal interview style podcast full of juicy insider tips and game-changing advice from some of the top entrepreneurial minds in their industry - as well as a glimpse into the founder's journey. To Hustle With Aloha is to be ambitious, not frantic; driven, not grinding. Let's rise up without burning out. Join host Alicia Nagel as she picks the brains of some of the smartest and most interesting people she knows, on topics that impact the success of small businesses.

Alicia: Hello. Welcome to Hustle With Aloha. I am so excited to be here today with Melissa Armstrong. I am your host, Alicia Nagel, with Alicia Nagel Creative, and Melissa is a CPA and fractional controller who's gonna talk to us about money. She partners with marketing and creative agency owners to bring controller level insight to businesses that are ready to grow with intention, which is perfect for this podcast. She's got over 20 years of experience and builds the financial systems, reporting, and rhythms that give business owners financial clarity so we can focus on leading the business. Thanks to Melissa, they have things like clear cashflow, predictable billing, and can feel confident making the big financial decisions.

Melissa, welcome. So glad to have you.

Melissa: Thank you for having me here. Um, also it's very clear who the branding expert is, because you just said that so beautifully, and I can never make it come out like that.

Alicia: Thank you. I receive that. You're so sweet. Thank you.

Um, Um, so many of our listeners are in the thick of that entrepreneurial journey. Would you love to... Would you love to... I would love if you could tell us a little bit about what your background was, why you decided to go on your own, and what it's been like.

Melissa: Um, I was pushed out of the corporate stability environment. But I'm so happy for it. So that happened in July of 2024. And I, you know, my entrepreneurial journey sort of started there, like this stage of it. But if I think about it, it... The past, like, two, three years were kind of leading me here. I was working in public accounting doing the same thing that I do now, but for somebody else.

And at that job, I had a great team. I had a great manager, who is now my friend and is also my mentor. So I had it good, but I was restless. I was feeling that I needed something more, or what I was getting from the job was not enough. And so, back in 2022, I was invited by a client, my biggest client to come join their internal team.

And, you know, it felt like a natural progression of my career. I never wanted to be partner of a big firm. And this job came with a fancy title and money. I'm not gonna lie. And it was a challenge. So I said yes. And then being there, um, man, I, I wasn't happy, Alicia. Like, you know, I had the money, I had the recognition, I had the team.

The work was challenging enough, um, where my brain was stimulated on the daily and I still wasn't happy. And so for reasons that are not relevant for our conversation. Um, they decided to let me go in the summer of 2024. And I took a month to, like, really think about what I wanted to do. I was 44 at the time, and really felt like, okay, this is a pivotal moment in my career because I'm still young and I still have many years left, but I don't have enough youth to be winging it- Mm-hmm

and not be intentional or an active participant in, like, deciding where my career is going. Um, and so, you know, financially, it was a time where I was able to afford pausing from making any decisions for, like, 30 days to figure out what I wanted to do. And the more I thought about it, um, the more I realized that I no longer wanted to do things the way others thought I needed to do them.

Alicia: Wow. What an epiphany. Um, yeah. Thank goodness you had that time, huh?

Melissa: Yeah. And, uh, I posted something on social media the other day because I now am fully aware that I am going through perimenopause, and that has completely changed who- not who I am, but who, how I present myself to the world and how I conduct myself on a day-to-day, and how I need to manage my energy and my, uh, person and my business and all of that.

But I am only aware of this now. I think business ownership has brought it up, like, to a point where, like, I can't hide it. But this was brewing, and that's, that sensation of, like, three years ago where, like, I didn't feel like it was enough, um, that was just the beginnings of it, the stirrings of it, to where now I call this being in my terrible 40s.

Um- ... that translates into being unemployable. And, uh, I am okay with that, you know? I have worked hard for my career. Um, I know damn well what I'm doing. Yeah. So why, why do it, um, how others want me to where, where I can build something for myself and do it- Yes ... in a way that feels true to me.

Alicia: I love that. I'm hearing...

I feel like I'm also hearing things that are not coming out as words, but I wanna make sure that- Mm-hmm ... they're said because- Please. You are not a different person because you're going through perimenopause. Your tolerance for bullshit has diminished.

Melissa: Yes.

Alicia: And What do you think would you say would be one of the biggest mental shifts that an entrepreneur has to make to, like, function and succeed moving from the corporate paycheck world to managing their own business?

Melissa: Um, if I knew how to whistle, I would. Being an entrepreneur is learning to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. Yes. I agree. Being okay with being unbalanced, um, with living in uncertainty. You have to take on and juggle a lot of risk and be okay with it. Um- Yes ... yeah. And you have to stay the course.

Um, I have this friend, she went into business entrepreneurship before I did. Uh, she's a fellow CPA. She's from Puerto Rico as well. Um, right now, shout out to Mara, she just had a baby boy at 46. Oh my gosh. Um, so she's taking a break from all of this. Yes. Um, we love her so much. She had a baby at 41, you said? Forty- Sh- 46, yeah. Aww. Um, so she's taking a break from this, but, um, I do tell her, I do share bits and bits, pieces of my business journey. And I was telling her after a particularly rush ba, rough batch at the end of last year, um, that I felt like I had been skinned alive.

And she says, "Yeah, entrepreneurship is the spiritual work you didn't know you needed." Oh my God. Um- That's so true. It- Nobody talks about that. No. You don't find it out until you're by yourself and you're like, "I can't shut up the radio. Oh, it's in my head." Yeah. "I need to work on my mindset." But it, like, surfaces all of the things that maybe- Like, it, it'll surface, like, good things about you, things that you didn't know, like strengths and abilities that you didn't know you had.

Um, but it'll also surface the things like your shadow self and the things that you didn't wanna look at before, and all of a sudden you have to address all of them, right? Mm-hmm. Yes.

Um, so I'm gonna s- I'm gonna say this, I don't know if I've said it before, but I do not feel comfortable when people put me on a pedestal, and I think it's because it makes me feel a little bit like a fraud. Hmm. Um, if they're only seeing good things about me, um, that's not the whole picture. And, uh, uh, y- yeah, there's a whole, there's a whole bunch of challenges and things that I struggle with, um, on a day-to-day with my business and personally.

Um, and so I get approached constantly by men, but mostly women, asking me, "How did you decide to go solo? I admire you so much. You are so brave. I have heard you are fearless," which is such a lie. Um, y- how, how do you do it? Where did you find your first client? Um, how do you know what, like, what to charge?

What should I charge? Um, where do I go? They say my, my marketing is not working. Um, I can't find anything. And so I, if I am doing this, anybody can do it. Anybody can do it. Um, there's a bunch of people out there who know half the things that you do and are being successful in business because they took a chance.

And what they didn't know, they probably hired somebody to help them learn it so that they can do better, right? Um, and also everybody is struggling with one thing or the other. And so I wanna give back because like you said, I've had opportunities to build networks in person, um, and virtually. It's not that easy either to do it virtually.

Um, I have had opportunities to surround myself with people who have taught me things. Um, I also was in a position of privilege when I went into my business because I came off of a highly compensated job. Um, I had savings. I was paid a severance. Um, but my decision-making would have been completely different if I didn't have these pieces in place, but people deserve to know that, right?

People deserve to know how long it took me to find my first client. Um- Mm ... people deserve- It looks easier from the outside, right? Yeah. Uh, people deserve to know that, like, sure, my business finances are Steady, they are solid, but my personal finances are not. Not anymore. And, uh, that is a reality of launching a business, right?

When you are not gener- generationally wealthy, when you are not independently wealthy, when you... This is- Well, if you're independently wealthy, you might start, like, a fund right? Right. Not a business. Right. Um- A philanthropy thing ... well, but, like, people, people, I feel like people deserve to know not just the glossy version.

Um, and if there's anything that I can do to share the knowledge in my decision-making process and also the mistakes that I have made so that it can feel more accessible and approachable to other people- I love that ... especially women, especially women, s- Yeah ... you know, then why not do it?

Alicia: I love it. That's awesome.

So the name of your Substack is hilarious. It's called No Se Habla Taxes Unfiltered. Yes. Would you mind explaining that? Yes. Um, so I'm sure the funny part is the No Se Habla Taxes. And, uh, um, this is part of my accidental branding.

Melissa: So when I first declared to the world that I was doing this, I always tell this story, and my brother is, like, so embarrassed and says, "I don't do that anymore." Um, he would tell people... He's a big networker. He would tell people, "This is my sister, Melissa. She can help you with your taxes. She just started her business."

And I'd be like, "No, I can't." Um- You're like, maybe technically, but I don't want to, and that is not my focus, right? I can't. I don't have the expertise. Mm. I did taxes at the beginning of my career 20 years ago in Puerto Rico, which was a very- Okay, touche ... niche, right? Um, now it's been too long. It would be a huge lift for me to, um, you know, get current on tax law, and also I don't care to.

There's other- I was gonna say, that's not your flame. Like, that's not your calling. There's other people who do that, and they do it well, and they don't wanna do what I do, and we need each other, so, like, let them do it. But, um, I would get constantly on LinkedIn and even my cellphone, like, DMs, text messages, "Hey, um, I'm looking for somebody to do my taxes.

Can you help me?" I was like, "No, I can't." So I started putting, like- You're like, "No, say Habla taxes." Yeah. So I started putting a tagline that said, "Nope, I don't do tax." Um, still would get those requests, and it sort of morphed, and then I came up with the idea to do a podcast, and I was looking for a name and working with my marketing coach, um, brainstorming, and AI, this name was born, and it just felt so much like me.

It felt like, you know, that bathing suit that you look so hot at, uh, in, right? Yes, I love that analogy. Um, that's how it felt, and so now it's my trademark. I got it trademarked, so. That's so funny. I love it. And I mean, taxes are one of the biggest sources of anxiety for a lot of entrepreneurs, so- Super clear you don't prepare taxes, but you do help prepare clients so that they can, like, have enough money set aside to pay their taxes.

Alicia: Um, do you have any, like, advice for planning for tax season so that it's, the amount due isn't, like, crippling for an entrepreneur?

Melissa: Yeah, of course. Um, you wanna work on your numbers, um, monthly. You don't wanna wait until year-end. And if it's not monthly, at a minimum quarterly, so that you can send them to your tax person every quarter, and they can look at it and tell you how much money you need to be saving, um, for tax time, or if you need to be making quarterly payments.

Alicia: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, speaking of the early days when money is tight, I mean, gosh, entrepreneurs, we, we can experience scarcity mindset, financial shame, um, anxiety. Do you have any advice for people who are listening on how to reduce the overwhelm? Like, are there maybe just, like, a few top numbers or KPIs that entrepreneurs should keep an e- an eye on themselves so that they have an, a lay of the land without pressuring themselves to, like, look at everything in QuickBooks?

Melissa: Yes. Um- I mean, you should always know how much money you have in the bank, but that is not the full story. When you are starting out, you really need to understand how much money you want to make yourself, how much money you wanna pay yourself, and then you have to go up from that and figure out how much money is going to cost you to generate that revenue.

So, like, if you have to pay... For example, I pay an IT team because, um, cybersecurity is a huge risk in my industry, and I need to safeguard my clients' financial information, so I do pay for that. Um, that's an example. If you need help from somebody, um, to help you exec- execute the client work or even the admin work, if you need to pay for software tools to be able to provide the service that you do, you need to understand all of those numbers so that then you can add on top of that to figure out what your true revenue goal is.

Alicia: Do you have any, like, common...

I think a lot of entrepreneurs are, like, nervous about what they don't know they don't know. Are there some common rookie financial mistakes that you see entrepreneurs make that can cause problems down the road that they might not realize at the time? The one that breaks my heart the most is, um, when people don't have a church and state approach to their business finances.

Melissa: Um- Separate ... you can be building a beautiful thing, and your sales numbers could be there, but then you are putting all of your personal expenses on the business credit card, and you're racking up that debt, and you're drawing money from the bank account every time you need to make a big purchase, um, or you have to pay a house bill or something like that.

Um, and there's no strategy or structure. And for a couple of reasons, um, the obvious one being, like, the financial health of your business, um, is not, is never gonna be good if you're doing this. And number two, because you are, um, cutting through the corporate veil.

And so something could happen in your business, and this is...

I mean, it's super important if there is no separation between you and the business, they can go against your personal assets. Everything, yeah. And so now you haven't just lost your business, you've also lost the life that you have built for yourself, the assets and resources- House ... that you have. Kind of thing. Yeah. Correct. That's such a good thing to remind people,

Alicia: Well, Melissa, thank you so much for all of the nuggets of wisdom and awesome personal stories that you've shared today.

It was such a pleasure to have you.

Melissa: Alicia, I am obsessed with you. You know this. Aw. I feel like we became ins- instant besties, um- I know ... when we met at Founders Weekend. Yeah. So thank you for having me. Um-

Alicia: Absolute pleasure. I'll drop, um, in show notes, make sure people know your website, how to follow you on socials.

And make sure they know about the Substack No Se Habla Unfiltered. I love it. It's so funny.

Melissa: Thank you. Aw. All right. Have a wonderful- Have a great one ... day. You too. Bye. Thank you. Bye.