Meet Joey Arnold

We were lucky to catch up with Joey Arnold recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Joey, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

I am one of the lucky people in this world who was born with amazing parents. They loved and supported me in everything I did. Having that kind of love your whole life really helps you love yourself, or at least give you the tools to do that.

But I think that parents are just 1 piece of the puzzle. Getting that same love from your peers is just as important and I’m so lucky to have that too. I grew up on the same street as 4 of my best friends. We have gone through so much of life together and we really care about each other deeply because of that. Having friends that you know care so much about you makes it so much easier to love yourself.

But even with all of these things the most important part is making the decision to be proud of yourself. And I do think that’s a decision you make. You can make it easier by doing things that you can be proud of and focusing on positive self talk.

But ultimately I think having the friends and parents I have has made that so much easier to do, which I am very grateful for.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I help people become CPAs! That is always my main goal with everything I do.

After I passed the exams a few years ago I realized how tough it was, but also how much I learned in the process. So I decided to start posting content online about the exam and giving people advice based on what I had learned.

It has just grown from there and I now have my own CPA review supplement that is built to be exactly what I needed when I was studying for the exams.

I’m so happy to have that out there to be helping students and I am planning to expand it even more in 2025.

But the thing I am most proud of is the community of current and future CPAs that I’ve been able to get in touch with. People have been more receptive to my content than I ever could have hoped and it’s so awesome to see people commenting and letting me know my content is actually making a difference in the lives. It does make me feel like there is a bit of pressure because people seem to be deciding things about their careers based on some of my advice, but I’m so happy to be able to help give people some clarity or advice, no matter how big or small.

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?

1. Bravery- for me it was scary to upload content, especially when I started putting my face in the videos. But I am so proud of myself for taking that leap of faith and I also see how silly it was to be scared of that. Like at the end of the day does it really matter if people I know see the content? If they are going to think differently about me then they weren’t that important to begin with. And most of the time people will either be impressed or not care. I don’t think many people would think poorly of someone who is trying something new and intimidating.

2. Self belief. This is something I actually still struggle with but I know the power of it. I preach it on my CPA exam content all the time. You will never achieve anything big until you truly believe you’re capable of it. You need to believe you can pass the exams before you actually can. If you doubt yourself, even subconsciously, that is going to hold you back from accomplishing your goals. This is something I still need to improve on.

I think the best way to work on this is meditation and manifestation practices.

3. You need to take action. I was always someone who loved to read books (and I still do) but I would read books about starting a business, or a side hustle, etc, and I told myself I was learning and this was good and I was doing the right thing, but then one day I realized that at some point you have to put down the books and actually do it, and ironically that’s when I learned the most. By actually doing stuff, not reading about it.

An ounce of action is worth 100 tons of theory.

You have to take action. Theory will get you nowhere. That is my biggest piece of advice.

And obviously with everything I say here I want to caveat by saying I’m no expert. I still have a very long way to go. But thankfully I am further along than I was 2 years ago.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

The one challenge I face the most is my own mind.

I am always caught between feeling like I am not working hard, not doing enough, and never going to achieve my goals and feeling like I’m working too hard or I need to relax and enjoy life more.

It’s really tough bc I believe both to be true and it causes me stress.

I think I’m very lucky to have fiancé who I can talk to about these things. Becuase she can tell me the things I need to hear and she lets me vent to her, which is all I need sometimes.

I just need to find the right balance, which can be hard but I’m working on it

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