Clint Murphy

INTRODUCTION
The Uncommon Path

This week, I had the privilege of interviewing someone I admire whose on the journey toward financial freedom. I had the pleasure of meeting him early in my “creator” journey and his drive, consistency, and focus on the goal inspired me.

I was reflecting this week on the common route most people take in life. Getting a degree…starting a career…raising a family…working hard for 40+ years, and hoping have enough to retire.

I followed this path most of my life. That was until I stumbled across the story of someone who took an uncommon path. His name is Pat Flynn.

His employer’s decision to lay him off from his architecture job in 2008, set him on a path toward freedom, a trajectory where he could pursue a passion, something he loved, on his own schedule.

I’m guessing if you’re reading this newsletter, you aspire to this as well.

Whether you’re stuck in a career you hate and want to pursue your passion or you feel like you are missing too much of your kid’s childhood, we all have our whys.

I’m excited to share today’s spotlight interview with Clint Murphy. Clint had a similar aha moment which changed everything for him.

THE INTERVIEW
Clint Murphy

Intro and background

Clint is a husband of 20 years and father to two boys, 15 and 12.

His journey to where he is today started on the “common” path.

He graduated from college, went to work for a Big Four firm, did his master’s in accounting, and grew his career into his current CFO role.

As with nearly everyone, this wasn’t a straight path. At one point, he owned a house, purchased a new house without having sold the first, and ended up in between jobs.

Transition toward financial independence

Clint devoured every Mr. Money Mustache blog post and sought numerous other resources. He discovered his lack of frugality. Facing the challenge of scaling back their lifestyle was difficult. Especially once they grew accustomed to a certain lifestyle.

Instead, he established that lifestyle as the baseline and worked hard not to inflate his lifestyle moving forward.

This freed up resources to invest as he grew his income. He worked in the real estate industry, so he invested in what he knew…real estate.

In 2018, Clint talked with his boss about possibly becoming a shareholder in his company. The answer was no. At this point, Clint realized he needed to do something else for the next chapter. He told his boss he would give him ten years.

Clint decided he wanted to write, podcast, speak publically, consult, and invest in private equity and real estate. He mapped out these five things and made a plan.

Building a personal brand

Clint originally planned to work until 2028 and then pivot. That was until he realized nothing was stopping him from starting in 2020. He launched a podcast in 2021 and started taking Twitter seriously later that year. He leveraged the flywheel concept to continue to feed growth.

I asked Clint what sent him down the path of social media and creating a personal brand since it’s not a common path.

Clint told me, “Anything you want boils down to three things: know what you want, understand what it takes, and do the work day in and day out.” So, he started researching what it would take to achieve the five things.

Clint’s journey to building a personal brand began with a simple realization: the top achievers in any field share one thing: they’ve all built personal brands.

Starting with this insight, he dove into social media, amassing 450k followers across LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. This opened countless doors for him and significantly accelerated his journey toward independence.

His last day as a full-time employee is three days from when this newsletter is sent.

Overcoming challenges and consistency

I asked Clint what he’s done to overcome challenges he’s faced. Exhaustion emerged as the biggest challenge.

Facing exhaustion head-on, Clint shared with me his grueling schedule, waking up at 5 am and creating content until 12:30 am. It was the consistency, the daily grind, that set him apart.

Consistency is key. If you show up daily and stick with with it long enough, you’ll begin to set yourself apart. So many people will give up and quit, but if you’re relentless, you carve out your own space.

You must also be willing to ask for help.

Clint’s employer offered him a significant pay raise. One big enough to replace his wife’s income. At this point, he told his wife he needed help. So he suggested she quit her job and help with content creation.

She did and has helped take much of the load off his plate to focus on some other businesses he’s also building.

Another thing we discussed was knowing when you’re doing to much. It can be easy to want to do it all, but something usually suffers because of this.

For example. As Clint transitions to building a couple businesses and content creation full time, he’s considering scaling back or pausing his podcast. He wants to regain the time and energy required to focus on improving other areas.

There has to be a balance.

Mindset

I asked Clint about his advice to those just starting the journey toward financial freedom. He stressed the importance of not letting ego get in the way…and listening to your wife.

When he was younger, his ego drove him to desire a bigger house, with a backyard, barbeque…all the things. His wife at the time was hesitant.

Had he listened to her, they would have still lived comfortably and he would have likely been in a position to quit when his boss told him he’d never become a shareholder.

However, because of the bigger house and mortgage, he wasn’t free to make that choice.

As he’s launching his new businesses and leaving full-time employment, they are downsizing back into a similar-sized home. It’s a little bit of an ego hit, but the focus and clear goals give him confidence it aligns with the mission.

Boost your income

Clint’s #1 piece of advice for those starting is to increase your earnings. Cutting out Starbucks or avocado toast won’t build wealth in the long run. You have to increase your income.

How do you increase your earnings? Learn rare and valuable skills.

Some examples Clint gave were:

• Improve your writing

• Work on public speaking and presentation skills

• Become comfortable on camera.

These three items will set you apart from the average person, increase your value and open up opportunties.

A side-benefit of podcasting and creating content for social media was it forced Clint to improve these skills to be succesful. And these improvements didn’t just help his creator journey, it helped with his day job as well. Another win for building a personal brand.

He also stressed the importance of knowing your net worth and advised crushing your high-interest debt before investing. When you do start investing, invest in what you know or keep it simple by investing in ETFs.

Teach your kids about money

I don’t think I am alone in saying my parents did not talk about money. I personally didn’t know how much money they made until I was filling out student loan paperwork for college.

Clint’s philosophy on teaching kids about money is straightforward yet profound:

The real takeaway is to talk to your kids about money. Open up dialogues that schools, banks, and credit cards won’t.

KEY LESSONS AND TAKEAWAYS
Increase your earnings

I was hoping to be able to post the audio and video of Clint and I’s interview. Unfortunately, a bad echo with the audio made it unusable.

Reflecting on Clint’s journey, I’m reminded of the power of changing course when society’s common path doesn’t align with our inner calling.

Here are my key takeaways:

• Don’t be afraid to change course. Society often pushes us down the common path. It’s not the only path. As you feel the pull inside you to take a different path, don’t be afraid to take it. You can ease into it by starting something in the mornings/evenings while you work a 9-5.

• Be consistent and set yourself apart. Consistency, Clint taught us, is not just about showing up; it’s about setting our selfs apart day after day. Consistency is discipline applied daily. Most people aren’t disciplined enough to show up every day. Each day you show up, there will be fewer and fewer people standing beside you. For example, when I started on Twitter, I participated in two cohorts with 1000+ people. If 10% of those people are still active, I’d be shocked. Just keep showing up.

• Learn valuable skills. Writing, speaking, and on-camera presence seem pretty basic. But if you do these things well, you will set yourself apart. Practice and hone these skills, and doors will open.

• Increase your income. You’ll never cut your way to wealth.

• Teach your kids about money. The schools aren’t going to do it (or if they do, they won’t do it well). Credit card companies aren’t going to do it. It’s on us as fathers to do this.