Jim Miller is an entrepreneur, accountant, personal finance expert, author, dad and former-rock star focused on creating things that make the world better.

More about Jim Miller…

I started my first business when I was twelve. It was a lawn mowing business. Before long, I had a group of neighborhood kids with different tasks spanning mowing to trimming. We had a lot of happy customers and made decent money. I have always been a doer and actively preach the importance of creating more than consuming.

Since then I have worked with some amazing companies and I have built some amazing companies. And I have learned a lot along the way. From the dot-com bubble to the pandemic, from startups that failed to startups that sold for $1 billion, I have been a part of all of it.

Today, I am the CEO and founder of Astero Group, a top remote accounting company serving all 50 states. I also own a publishing company that deals in books and media. I have new things coming that you will learn about first if you follow me on Instagram and my email list. I am always moving fast and delivering as much value as I can.

My WHY

My “why” has changed over time and I realize that is not a popular thing to admit. From age 5-25 my why was music and performing. From 25-35 my why was personal growth and ego. At age 35 I became a parent. Everything shifted to my son and creating a legacy for him. That continues to be the case and it also moved me to wanting to create a better world for him when he grows up.

That is now the lens through which I make decisions. Is what I am doing with my valuable time helping to make the world better? If the answer is yes, I do it. If the answer is no, I don’t do it. It’s simple and I am grateful to have that clarity.

As a final comment on that, creating things or implementing change to make the world better doesn’t only mean creating the next propulsion engine. It could mean making people laugh. It could be a useful product. It could be an article that helps people who have kids. It could be writing a book to help people get more money. A new propulsion engine-level goal is always the aim. But if in my final seconds I add up all of the big and little things that I created and the world is better because of them… mission accomplished.

Early life…

I was born and raised in Lake Forest, IL, a small, posh suburb about 25 miles north of Chicago. All of my family was nearby. I have two awesome sisters. My mom was a homemaker and my dad was a teacher. He was a lot more than a teacher, but I think that word is the best word to summarize his many roles. He died suddenly in 2011, the morning after giving a talk in New York. I maintain and oversee his website and his works to this day. 

In late summer of 2002, after graduating college with an Accounting focus, and some strong accounting work experience, I moved to Newport Beach, California. I didn’t much enjoy the cold, grey Chicago weather and wanted to try something new. Newport was fun; maybe a little too much fun. In 2005 I bought a condo a few miles away and, in 2009, I worked my way 30 miles north to Los Angeles. I lived in the Sawtelle neighborhood of West LA for nine years; have been in El Segundo since 2016.

Some fun facts…

• I am hyper organized and love tidying and organizing. Do not enjoy deep-cleaning so much and am happy to outsource that.
• I started drumming at a young age and have created a lot of music. You can learn more about “Ex-Rockstar Jim” here.
• I was a VJ and interviewed famous hard rock/metal bands for Hollywood Music TV from 2003-2008 (I was also their CFO)
• I am a true germaphobe and couldn’t do “the dorm life” during college because of it
• I am very uncomfortable if something with numbers isn’t set to a multiple of five (i.e. – the TV volume, the A/C temperature)
• I rarely watch TV and I don’t watch sports; I do love sit-coms, new and old
• Flying terrifies me, but I am also fascinated with the science of flight and love watching airplanes
• I went to film school for two years after high school before switching schools and starting my business path
• If I am outside, I am happy
• If you want to know about what products I use, here is a live list of some stuff I think is cool

What lies ahead…

If I became a billionaire tomorrow, I wouldn’t move to a castle in Argentina to sip wine for the rest of my life. (Maybe for a week though). Instead I would invest into building more companies. I will never stop creating and working to make the world better and my one goal is to take that as far as the universe allows me.

Please join my newsletter so I can keep you posted. A lot of exciting things to come… some really soon. I’d love for you to be a part of it.