We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Duke Alexander Moore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Duke , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I knew I wanted to succeed in life. But my path to finding my purpose was not a straightforward one. It first started with the desire to want to change my current situation. During the early period of starting my business, I experienced homelessness for a couple months. It was very, very tough. I slept on the street two or three times.
Second, I challenged my energy and focused on something I enjoyed doing. I knew that if I was going to be successful in life I needed to become an expert in something. So I started to think about what I was really good at. I enjoyed numbers ever since I was a kid playing with multiplication machines. At an early age, I was self-taught: taxes, bookkeeping and write-offs. I was also familiar with navigating the tax system: because as a teenager I modeled for the Campbell Agency, so I had to file as an independent contractor.
Then I started changing who I surrounded myself with. I knew I needed to start spending time around positive influences that would help propel me forward, not set me back. The real turning point was TikTok. TikTok took me from zero to seven figures. One day I saw this tax video [on TikTok] and I thought I can do that too. So I decided to give it a try. I started with a tax series, replicating some of what I’d seen on the app. But the content wasn’t sticking, and my confidence was low. I was very nervous in front of the camera, very shy. It was so bad. It would take me almost a whole day to record one video. Then I began to take a closer look at the kind of content that was performing well on the app. I was scrolling for inspiration — and found it in the form of someone wearing a bath towel on their head. I followed suit, putting a towel on my own head, and continued to talk about taxes. The unconventional move was incredibly successful. After that point, my account ballooned, growing to three million followers in just a year and a half. Then it took me from zero to seven figures.
The thing that keeps me going everyday is resilience. Once I reached a certain level I was committed to never going backward and I committed myself to always keep moving forward no matter what! Your current situation is not your final destination – I realized once you put your mindset somewhere you can truly achieve your goals.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
About my business – Duke Tax is a membership based tax service that specializes in helping creators, influencers and entrepreneurs save money and alleviate stress around taxes. Duke Tax is solving problems for today’s workforce, who have specific needs and require specialized tax services. Duke Tax is representative of the future of work and it is meeting the demands of a rapidly growing workforce. Duke gained popularity on social media through his creative and viral content that is helping change the narrative around personal finance by making it fun and engaging.
More about me – Duke Alexander Moore, EA is a well-respected tax professional and content creator with well over 3.3 M followers across all social media platforms and has been featured in major publications such as Good Morning America and CNN for his savvy and easy-to-understand tax advice. In 2018, after becoming an EA, he set up his own accounting firm, assisting small business owners and entrepreneurs with taxes and bookkeeping.
In 2020, with the help of TikTok, Duke Tax experienced significant growth and it now services around seven hundred clients. As his business grew, Duke noticed that most CPA firms don’t understand content creator taxes. Being a content creator himself he decided to transform his firm to focus primarily on content creators and entrepreneurs. Duke was recently named AdWeek’s Personal Finance Creator of the Year!!, recently featured on Forbes & Entrepreneur .
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Get started – Getting started is the most important thing. Put one foot down. You have to focus on the small wins. Progress not perfection. Small steps everyday. Never focus on the end result, focus on the progress you are making. Change who you surround yourself with – who you spend the most time with starts rubbing off on you so make sure you surround yourself with people who make you better.
Never give up – Having resilience is really important. Once I reached a certain level I was committed to never going backward and I committed myself to always keep moving forward no matter what!
Your current situation is not your final destination – I realized once you put your mindset somewhere you can truly achieve your goals.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I hate to say this but I don’t feel like there is an obstacle I am facing. I understand that everything I am going through takes time. There’s no such thing as failure or an obstacle in my opinion. Failure to me is feedback and obstacles to me are part of the journey. There are things that need improvement for sure I am not perfect and neither is Duke Tax but as long as we strive to be better than what we were the day before is all that matters.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://duke.tax/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dukelovestaxes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dukelovestaxes/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/duketaxonline/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/flow/login
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChbQb8y_yGS01nvNysJABiA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dukes-tax-service-camp-hill
- Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@dukelovestaxes?lang=en
Image Credits
Duke Tax
