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January 2024
HANSON HEADLINES
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Kickstart 2024 With a Focus on Financial Wellness Why January Is the Perfect Time to Plan Your Finances (and Taxes)
As January unfolds, many of us embark on resolutions and fresh starts, and there’s no better time to prioritize financial wellness. The month itself is National Financial Wellness Month, and I’m sure we all understand why with the aftermath of holiday splurges. Start the year right by making it a priority to assess and realign your specific financial goals. For me, financial wellness means knowing where I am in my finances, where I want to be, my defined goals, and how I’m going to reach them. Are you currently going in the right direction for your financial goals? This is what you need to ask yourself in 2024!
I can’t exaggerate just how often I tell others about the importance of financial wellness in January. It sets the tone for the rest of the year, offering an opportunity to create a sustainable budget, manage debts, and establish savings goals. Addressing financial health early in the year can alleviate stress and lay the foundation for a more secure future. I know the real challenge for most is actually sitting down and doing it! Not only is it not exactly the most enthralling task, but it can be confusing for many. But when you work with a tax professional, you can at least know that you are meeting all your tax obligations and even optimizing your tax payments to save yourself money, now and in the long run. It can be helpful to have both tax advisors and financial planners to keep you on the right track. While we work in separate areas, tax professionals and financial planners work toward the same goal: to help you reach and maintain financial wellness. In fact, I often get calls from financial advisors whenever a client has any changes in their retirement plans in order for us to readjust. This guidance and support can help you comfortably know that when the time comes to retire, you have the money to live easily
and perhaps even with a substantial contingency fund! We all want that sense of security, that it’s all going to be okay, and financial wellness can get you there. It takes out the guesswork and shows you precisely what you must do to have the future you want. Financial planning, including retirement funds and investments, can all feel overwhelming if you’re unsure what to do next. I know full well that our education never offered financial literacy to students in high school or even college if you weren’t studying in that field. Most times, even our parents didn’t teach us these things! If you’re not sure you have the time (or patience) to study up on financial essentials, the good news is that you don’t have to navigate it alone. We can help you create a tax plan for the year ahead; that way, you can be prepared for the deadlines ahead and rest assured that your finances are cared for. It’s never too late to start planning for the future.
Plan your finances for 2024 and the years ahead. Future “you” will thank you!
–Craig Hanson
Have tax problems? Unsure what to do? Our Free video reveals what you should and should NOT do when you receive the dreaded letter from the IRS. CraigHansonCPATaxResolution.com
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How is the “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2010 also a genius businessman? Ryan Reynolds has appeared in countless movies and, even more recently, advertisements from his own business ventures. From gin brands to sports teams, Reynolds has made billion-dollar deals and has no plans of slowing down. If he wanted to, the actor wouldn’t need to get in front of the camera ever again! However, while his star power definitely has an impact on his marketing, it’s his strategy that gets people talking and buying. Reynolds co-founded his advertising agency, Maximum Effort, in 2018 and has been churning out some powerfully effective advertising. How? A little technique called “fastvertising.” Reynolds’ Success With Fastvertising Fastvertising involves utilizing rapid-speed news outlets and social media platforms. To be successful with this type of marketing, you need to be quick on your feet, and we mean quick. Once something goes viral and becomes part of the cultural zeitgeist, it’s time to join the conversation and swiftly create an ad that plays into this trend. Reynolds has become an expert at fastvertising and showed everyone how it’s done when he released his Aviation Gin commercial. Do you remember that disastrous Peloton holiday commercial from 2019? The commercial had everyone talking — for all the wrong reasons, as many criticized the ad as sexist. The Peloton commercial featured an already thin woman receiving a Peloton exercise bike from her husband, encouraging her to lose weight. The woman then devotes herself to daily workouts and thanks her husband. It’s a scene seemingly pulled straight out of the 1950s! Everyone was talking about the poorly made commercial all over the internet, with headlines pointing out the ridiculousness, one after the other. To ride the wave of frenzy this ad caused, Reynolds and his agency pushed out a sequel to the saga. Starring the same Peloton ad actress, Monica Ruiz, Reynolds’ commercial features the woman drinking martinis with her friends, obviously upset over her marriage. Of course, the martinis are made with Aviation Gin! How to Keep Your Marketing Relevant in Record Time BUSINESS LESSONS FROM RYAN REYNOLDS
actor’s new ad garnered over 10 million views on X (formerly Twitter) and more than 6 million views on Aviation’s YouTube channel. It’s clear that the advertisement’s success directly led to his $610 million deal selling Aviation to Diageo. But Reynolds wasn’t done just yet. He teamed up with fellow actor Rob McElhenney to purchase a fifth-tier Welsh soccer team, Wrexham AFC, for $2.5 million. The sports team seemed a complete waste of time and money, but the two knew they could revive the forgotten team. Surprisingly, they did! Reynolds used his studio to create a docuseries highlighting the team’s history and the inspiring process of resurrecting the team. As a result, the team gained a massive following, countless sponsorship deals, and increased ticket sales. The Essentials of Fastvertising Clearly, the key to succeeding at fastvertising is releasing content as quickly as possible. You need to be able to plan, produce, and release an on-topic commercial in less than three days. Any longer, and the trend loses its virality, and your ad loses its relevancy. But before you move at lightning speed, you need to actually be in the know. Follow trending hashtags, videos, news headlines, and whatever other new sensation hits the cultural scene. Once you spot something that everyone is talking about, it’s time to get started. It seems like we can all learn a few things from Ryan Reynolds!
Maximum Effort was able to conceptualize the ad’s plot, hire Ruiz, produce the video, and release it to the world in only 72 hours. As a result, the topic was still hot, and the gin commercial went viral. The “Deadpool”
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This company didn’t look into Henderson’s background and offered her the job. Unfortunately, the work would prove more difficult than Henderson anticipated. She messed up continually but was aware of her mistakes and decided to come in early and stay late to learn the job and improve. This helped her immensely, and before she knew it, she had earned an operations manager position with the same company. Over time, she learned that becoming an owner-operator would net a much higher salary, so she learned how to dispatch and started doing it on her own time. After she raised enough funds, she decided to buy a
Henderson’s fleet consists of 116 trucks and has brought in more than $100 million. Because Henderson’s business has reached new levels of success, she’s branching out to help other entrepreneurs make their mark in the trucking industry. In 2021, she launched The Truckin’ Millionaires Tour, where she offered training and coaching to educate people on self-sufficiency in the trucking industry. She even hosted a huge convention in Dallas in October 2023 called the TTG Fest, featuring over 13 guest speakers who discussed trucking, the transportation industry, and entrepreneurship.
Henderson’s story proves your past does not determine your future. Even if you dropped out of school, made mistakes, and found yourself in legal trouble, you can still turn it around, find a new passion, and reach
truck and partner with a trucking company to bring in more money. One truck became two trucks, and two trucks quickly became four. She kept adding to her fleet, obtaining exclusive government and major corporation contracts. Now,
new levels of success. Don’t let any obstacle block your progress!
HAVE A Laugh
Beauty and fashion trends come and go throughout the years, and some even make a comeback. The ancient Mayans also sought to be beautiful, but their practices were different compared to modern standards. Let’s take a look at what beauty meant to the Mayans. • Mayans shaped and filed their teeth to sharp points and drilled holes through the center of their teeth to insert gems. • Mayans carved into the skin to create 3D tattoos. • Mayan families bound the heads of their infant children between two boards while the skull was growing to achieve a long and narrow cranial structure, resembling their most prized crop, corn. • Mayans attempted to create crossed eyes because they considered them beautiful. They put a band around the heads of children with a bead suspended right in front of their eyes until the children were permanently cross-eyed. • Mayans added specially designed artificial nose bridges that were often multicolored and decorated with gems to achieve larger noses, which emulated their avian gods. Beauty is influenced by cultural values, and the Mayans invested a lot of time, energy, and creativity to achieve their vision of beauty, even if that vastly differs from today’s standards. WHAT DID MAYANS CONSIDER TO BE ‘MODEL’ LOOKS?
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905 James Ave. NE • Jamestown, ND 58401 (701) 252-6190 • CraigHansonCPA.com Inside This Edition 1. Prioritize Financial Wellness for a Prosperous Year Ahead 2. Ryan Reynolds’ Secret to Viral Marketing 3. Mayan ‘Model’ Looks 4. The Remarkable Rise of Kierra Henderson, the Trucking Guru
Have tax problems? Unsure what to do? Our Free video reveals what you should and should NOT do when you receive the dreaded letter from the IRS. CraigHansonCPATaxResolution.com
For years, many people have wondered if education is vital to achieve business success. You might think education and experience are necessary to succeed in a particular industry, but that’s not always the case. Many entrepreneurs without formal education have left a mark on their respective industries and started businesses such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Virgin Group. And Kierra Henderson, better known as the Trucking Guru, has recently added her name to the list of prominent successful entrepreneurs who never finished high school. Henderson was born in Dallas, Texas, the oldest of eight children. She faced adversity countless times during her youth, ultimately leading her to drop out of high school. But the odds continued to stack up against Henderson as she became a teen mom and found herself in trouble with the law, earning herself a felony. To give herself and her daughter a chance at a better future, Henderson turned her life around and started working at an AT&T location in Dallas. AT&T proved to be a good fit for Henderson, as she won several awards and regularly earned her management team’s recognition. However, the company outsourced her job overseas, leaving Henderson scrambling to find something new. A friend told her to get into the trucking industry. She knew nothing about trucking but figured it was worth a shot. She did research, found a local trucking company that was hiring, and applied to be a transportation planner. KEEP ON TRUCKING How Kierra Henderson Built Her Multimillion-Dollar Empire
This company wanted someone with experience and a bachelor’s degree, two things Henderson did not possess. So, what did she do to overcome this obstacle? She lied, claiming to have a degree and even making up a former employer to make herself more hireable.
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