Meet Rich Jones | CEO, Paychecks & Balances

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rich Jones and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rich, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
When I think about risk, I think about vulnerability. It’s been a challenge for much of my life, and I finally turned it into a superpower. When I’ve played it safe, I’ve gotten safe results. When I’ve taken chances, good things have come my way along with some challenges that presented interesting lessons. I took the risk of leaving New York for a job in California and it turned out to be the best thing for my career. This opened the doors to financial progress and ultimately becoming 100% debt-free.

The vulnerability to put oneself out there and fail (or succeed) holds a lot of people back, and held me back for quite some time. Once I started owning my story and truths, things got easier. The energy around me changed and a lot more abundance started coming my way.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Paychecks & Balances is a multimedia platform dedicated to helping Gen Y+ professionals navigate their finances and careers. It started as a podcast, but has expanded to become so much more. I’ve got a team of writers, a couple virtual assistants, a podcast editor and will soon have a video editor. It hasn’t been easy at all getting here, but I’ve learned so much about what it takes to run a business, my habits, triggers and all sorts of personal cycles. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that I can’t do it all, so I need to hand off as much as possible to my team so I can focus on what I do best: creating authentic content.

I enjoy a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff like website operations, audio and video editing, and so on, but I also accepted these tasks aren’t the best use of my time. I’ve often been the bottleneck in my business, so I’m always looking for ways to extract myself from processes. The less stuff I have to think or worry about, the better.

I’m excited that Paychecks & Balances has already surpassed 2020 revenue, and that I’ve got the space to pursue some new creative ventures. I’ve had ideas for years that I now have the resources and support to convert to action. My mission is to inspire and empower people to create freedom for themselves, and it feels like everyday I’m learning new ways to do it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m in the Bay Area so we’re hitting up Napa Valley, Halfmoon Bay, Santa Cruz and San Francisco for sure. We also gotta have the Top Golf experience since it opened recently in San Jose. I’m all about leisure and a little luxury, so we’d have a premium (but responsible) experience. Reservations at good restaurants, time to chill on a beach and do nothing. If they really wanna push it to the limit, we could even do a hike!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to shout out my leadership coach, Kvon Tucker. Working with him has been one of the best investments in my life portfolio, and really helped me turn things around over the last year. I’m not in a season of abundance without his support, and love that I get to work with a Black male on this level! He would take no credit, but he deserves it.

Website: www.paychecksandbalances.com

Instagram: instagram.com/paybalances, instagram.com/iamrichjones

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

Twitter: twitter.com/paybalances, twitter.com/iamrichjones

Facebook: facebook.com/paychecksandbalances

Youtube: youtube.com/paychecksandbalances

Image Credits
Podcast Movement for speaking photo FinCon Expo for podcasting photo