The Art of Succession

welcome to the Art of Succession podcast

with Barrett Young join us as we explore

the strategies stories and insights that

shape the journey of leadership

transitions and business success no

matter where you find yourself along the

journey this is the podcast where you'll

find the tools to make it happen my name

is Barrett Young and this is the Art of

Succession podcast welcome to the season

2 rap episode and the one-year

anniversary of the Art of Succession in

this episode today I'm going to talk

through some of the experiments uh that

I ran in season two i'm also going to

talk through my plans for season three

and beyond for the show and as part of

those changes I'm actually going to dig

deeper into our own succession journey

here at GWCPA bringing you our listeners

behind the scenes in the actual

transition process of a

multigenerational business so first

let's get into recapping season two so

season two 12 guests per season so far

to date uh the season runs from January

until June season 3 will be launching

with the first Tuesday in July um

launched the season strong with my

friend my mentor and my partner here at

GWCPA Samantha Bowling uh that was the

first episode um I try to feature a

special guest with the premiere episode

of a season um just to bring attention

to them and kick off the season strongly

uh that was a really fun episode we

talked about Sam's journey here uh

starting here in the early 90s the the

struggle the frustration that she had in

this very traditional CPA firm making

her mark as a female uh being told she

wasn't going to become partner and then

proving them wrong and then taking over

as managing partner two years ago uh

here in the company um I really loved

that episode it was just fun to be able

to talk in public with Sam and that's

also kind of what's spurring um this

move that I'm making in season 3 for the

show so that was a great way to kick it

off um had a handful of other CPAs and

accountants um I think I'm running out

of friends uh so if you're bored by

those episodes you don't find those

interesting um just stay tuned i've got

a great source for interviews coming up

here uh and so I'm not going to have to

tap so strongly into that peer network

but I do have some of those friends that

I do want to check in on uh with future

episodes so after Sam u we had uh Monisa

Nadig uh crossber tax expert we talked

about her uh buying her into her firm

and then moving into specialization

let's see we also had um my friends

Nisha Pie and Adam Sheay had both of

them on adam sold his firm um a couple

years ago nisha considered selling her

firm last year and and walked away from

that choice uh and then I also had a new

guest another CPA but not somebody that

I knew previously uh Charles Reid uh he

walked us through in his episode about

uh splitting his firm selling off the

tax practice and focusing exclusively on

payroll uh so those were all um really

fun to talk shop with a fellow

professional in the space uh in here in

season 2 some of the other great

conversations I had this season uh Tom

Gladill uh worked in an uh an IT company

and ended up selling that and now works

in the succession planning exit planning

space also Nick Goff who watched his dad

sell the firm not get the amount that he

wanted and now Nick is working in

financial planning working with business

owners to make sure that they make up

that income gap uh that they need in

retirement by other plans uh and not

just betting the entire farm on the

family farm on the family business so

those were great episodes i really

appreciated those uh Mike Ritzma was

another guest a new introduction for me

uh he talked us through buying and then

running his IT company in the dotcom

bubble and then two additional uh

economic downturns and the pandemic and

how he's shifted his firm from hardware

installs into managed managed services

and now cyber security uh so that was a

great episode as well i also had my

buddy Joe Bogden on a retired Air Force

career and he shared with us just the

lessons that we could learn in

leadership change leadership transition

uh with the military and how quickly

they move from one duty station to

another and you have to pick up while

the engine is already moving and find

your spot find that cadence uh and then

walk away after a couple years and and

leave it for somebody else so I really

appreciated that conversation with Joe

that was a lot of fun and of course one

of the hardest episodes this season um

was my interview with Garrett Noak uh

Garrett talked about at 25 years old

having to step into the family

manufacturing uh plant and take over

after his dad lost his third fight with

cancer that was a really hard uh episode

i appreciate Garrett being open and

honest and sharing that for the value of

the listeners um but it just kind of

talks about how succession is not

something you always are able to plan

for and it never goes as planned but it

is always something that you should be

keeping in mind even if your succession

journey is not for another 20 30 years

down the road you don't know what life

has in store for you and so every

business owner needs an exit plan every

succession every business needs a

succession plan that will put your

employees at ease that will put your

family at ease when they have to pick up

the pieces uh if something unfortunately

uh if something unfortunate were to

happen to you uh and it's really

important it's not something we want to

think about but it is something that we

need to consider you know personally in

my own life I was brought uh to bear

with this this past April um my dad had

a stroke uh that he turned 70 uh this

coming December um and he's a tax

preparer and an accountant and right the

weekend of tax season's deadline April

13th I think was the date he had a

stroke uh in the middle of the night and

he's doing fine mentally the stroke did

not affect him physically it did um so

he's having to learn how to walk again

unassisted um you know the day before

the stroke two days before the stroke he

was on the ski slopes and and mowing the

lawn uh out in California but just

confronted with the reality of our

mortality and the need he's a soloreneur

he's works by himself and my mom's had

to jump in and help him continue to work

for his existing clients um just the

reality of

the frailty of life and needing a plan

whether you're by yourself whether you

have a succession idea in your head you

need to put that down on paper so I'm

going to have a lot more content about

that uh in the future on the YouTube

channel because unexpected succession is

a real speed bump to businesses and

something that every business owner

needs to be talking through planning for

and hoping that it never has to come in

come to play uh but it does

unfortunately so fairly successful over

the years uh not as much as I would have

liked to have been uh but I found out

later on

20 years later when I finally hired a

marketing person that I couldn't market

my way out of a paper bag

and but you do have to adapt you need to

grow and continuous adapt so where do

you find the balance in that to me I

think it's in what you what your

foundation is in and your values as a

person and also your organizational

values what is the what is the value the

organization value and be able to look

at that and determine okay what is what

is it that we accept and what is it that

we don't accept this is part of why I

got into the career shift that I got

into because I saw firsthand the stress

of an entrepreneur who spent 15 years

building two businesses and was betting

everything on the sale getting the team

to the right hours and and and the right

deadlines and the right stress level

balance whatever that is and eventually

getting that right is going to bring us

the right customers

and then allow us to concentrate what we

need to concentrate and also again work

less hours but we're going to providing

more value so you know it's not about

the time and the hours it's about the

value all right so that was season 2's

episodes um some of the experiments that

I tried in season two so one of the

biggest ones you saw is if you watch

this show on YouTube you saw that all of

our episodes were split originally I was

planning to launch those on Tuesdays and

Thursdays one part on Tuesday and then

the follow-up part on Thursday um as I

was doing that I did see that there

wasn't a lot of pickup on Thursday with

that second episode and when I would

announce it on LinkedIn it felt like

didn't I just do this for part one and

then also personally on my side I don't

like when streaming services split their

seasons and release them in waves disney

Plus is the biggest offender of this but

Netflix has even started doing it with

uh like Cobra Kai's last season they

split it into three groups just give it

to me the whole thing and let me binge

through it so I started doing that with

the YouTube episode both parts are

released simultaneously on Tuesday

morning you can watch both parts in a

row you could split it up however you

want to um that has been successful as

far as YouTube goes i still have very

few listeners that listen all the way

through but where it used to be when it

was an hourong episode retention would

be under 10% for the entire episode

meaning not even 10% of the listeners

would listen through the entire thing uh

by splitting the episode in half um I'm

having a higher retention on the first

episode over 20 30% for the first

episode and I'm getting fewer views on

the second episode but the retention is

even higher on the second which means

that the listeners that go from that

first episode to the second episode are

intent on finishing the episode and

listening through the entire thing so

that's really interesting to see i love

data um I love that this experiment is

giving me kind of the expected result uh

that I was looking for um and I'm going

to continue that in season three so

YouTube is going to continue to be two

parts uh I am keeping that around 28 to

33ish

minutes for each part over there uh and

you can still find the entire uncut

episode in one audio file through all

the streaming services so I host the

episode through Transistor you can find

the link for that down in the

description and it will take you any

podcast player that you like um I think

I'm using Overcast right now personally

but of course you can find us on Spotify

and Apple uh that the audio podcast is

growing which I'm happy to see obviously

after a year of working on this um and I

think YouTube is like in podcasting

video casting world YouTube is like the

discovery platform and then a lot of

people when they find you on YouTube if

they want to continue to subscribe to

you they want to continue to listen to

you they also go and subscribe on audio

and that allows them to pause that

allows them to pick up later uh get the

episodes released in their in their

subscription feed and not be distracted

by everything on YouTube still

personally I love YouTube Premium i

watch podcast episodes if I listen to an

audio one if I find one on audio and

then I find out that they have video I

actually specifically go over there for

video but I will admit it's hard to hear

it's hard to know you've caught every

episode of a podcast on the YouTube

channel because there's so much video

there um podcasts like mine also release

other kinds of content uh and so it's a

little bit harder to keep up with i

still do have about two to three

podcasts that I watch exclusively uh and

I catch every episode that I can i'll

even go back in their video feed and see

if I've missed one and catch up on it if

I if I did miss it so happy to see that

happening though in the audio um

interested to always hear how my guests

are digesting the content if you are on

YouTube go ahead and leave a comment on

the video um if you listen via audio

you're free to send me an email um I did

put a feedback link in the podcast so

you can leave feedback for the show in

the description whether it's audio or

video uh and then another change that I

made for uh in midway through season 2

was I launched a LinkedIn page since

that's the primary uh place where all of

my guests have LinkedIn profiles that's

where I tag them and announce that the

episode is live on Tuesdays i went ahead

and created a separate page for the Art

of Succession podcast on LinkedIn uh and

so that's growing as well and what I'm

really hoping to see is that gives us a

place to have conversation around the

episode youtube comments

followup is very difficult on YouTube so

you can leave a comment for me I will

respond to you but conversation back and

forth unless you're tagging every single

comment you're not it's going to be hard

for you to go back to previous videos

and see if your comment ever got a

response so for that purpose as far you

uh LinkedIn page uh so you can find us

over there the biggest change for 2025

and I shared this at this the season

finale of season 1 is booking guests was

very difficult and the number one thing

that scared me most about doing an

interview show i have to say I resolved

that well that was resolved for me so

it's actually the last week of March so

if you know anything about taxes the

worst time for me to be stressing about

a podcast um I didn't have a guest for

that first episode in uh April uh Tom

Gladill ended up being that episode i

didn't have a guest i was reaching out

to my networks trying to find somebody

who could come on the show i had less

than two weeks to go until the episode

debuted um and I was in my Facebook

groups where I had used to post and ask

for guests and I met somebody i was

going to be a guest on her show and she

directed me to a matching site called

Pod Match um and spoke very highly of it

i'd tried a couple of these like podcast

dating services last summer i hadn't

tried Pod Match yet but I got set up in

there and immediately started matching

with guests and looking specifically at

acquisition making sure I'm not just

matching with anybody who's an

entrepreneur uh and I was immediately

able to book guests so Tom came from

that and Mike Ritzma came from that um

almost everybody in season 2 from April

on came through Pod Match and because of

Pod Match I've already recorded and got

episodes in the can almost through the

end of season 3 all the way through

December i've actually had to pause on

matching and interviewing because I've

had so much content uh in the queue and

I don't want to have a guest on and say

"Well your episode's not going to come

out until next January." So that has

been phenomenal i'm actually going to

have the founder of Pod Match Alex San

Falippo so you'll see that in just a

couple weeks here he has acquired other

podcasting companies in growing Pod

Match but he's completely bootstrapped

the uh the entire thing no outside

funding um just him and his wife and a

small team uh and like I said a a couple

other acquisitions of of podcasting

space companies and he's going to talk

through that so that's really exciting

one of the things that I was

contemplating was do I want this to

become a weekly podcast and I talked

about this with a couple friends i

talked about this with my marketing

coach talked about this just within the

company and really slept on it for a

couple weeks just going back and forth

weekly not weekly to go from 24 episodes

to 52 episodes is a big jump and I was

conf I'm confident that Pod Match would

give me the guests uh necessary to fill

up an entire year but I'm not ready to

do that yet for the podcast i'm not 100%

satisfied with the format of the show um

I do want to get the editing tighter i

do want to explore new ways of bringing

value to you guys as my listeners when

we do have a guest on making sure we get

to the point and we find the stuff

that's actually valuable for um for you

to implement within your business um so

I'm not 100% on the editing yet of the

show to just double the amount of output

that we do the other piece of that is

because this is a succession business

because GW uh is a generational company

and because I will not be podcasting for

the rest of my life i'm also considering

like how much of what I do at the Art of

Succession is replicatable by somebody

else within the company how much of this

has been systematized how much of this

depends entirely on me and I'm thinking

about just the YouTube channel um our

web page our email marketing everything

that I do as the marketing partner here

at GW I have to keep an eye on six years

from now when Sam retires and I move

into the marketing uh sorry when I move

into the managing partner role can

someone else step into the marketing

engine that I've built here at GW and

pick up and continue to run with it and

I think as much as I've loved

interviewing um guests I think doubling

the content and then throwing that

expectation of a weekly episode on

somebody who does not have the depth of

experience running a company uh the

inquisitorial mind uh that I bring the

curiosity that I bring to the episodes

uh that's going to take a special host

if I ever do eventually pass this off uh

but throwing the expectation of 52

episodes a year on them uh five six

years from now down the road uh kind of

defeats the purpose of what is the

purpose of the art of succession

bringing value to the listeners but also

bringing attention to GW uh we want this

to be a business driver for the uh for

the CPA firm we wanted to showcase our

expertise and bring value to our guests

and our listeners at the same time and

so as I was considering that it was me

again ADHD visionary mindset losing

sight of the ball losing sight of the

purpose here and possibly getting

distracted so that's probably the

biggest decision I've walked away from

for season 3 is I'm not going to become

a weekly episode it is going to be

continue to be a twice monthly episode

that said I do have some changes some

things that I'm going to add in season 3

that I'm really excited about uh the

first one I did record an awesome

episode and it's going to be released as

a bonus episode we haven't done bonus

episodes before but I had a conversation

with a husband and wife team and that

conversation went for over an hour and a

half um and they started a skincare

business and then it moved online in

about 2010 and they actually took their

nine kids uh the mom was homeschooling

at the time that she launched this thing

took their nine kids through that

business and taught them how to be

entrepreneurs and that was an amazing

conversation um as much as we recorded I

think I had another same amount in

followup after we stopped recording just

because I started asking personal

questions about raising two teenagers um

who are still unsure what they want to

do with their life uh so that's a super

valuable episode i'm going to release

that one in July um July actually has

three uh it has five Tuesdays and so we

would have a gap there so you can find

that one coming out the last Tuesday of

July as a bonus episode um so I'm

looking forward to bringing you that one

as I already said in the intro as I

already said uh just hinting here the

biggest change to season 3 I'm going to

try is quarterly updates for where we

are in our succession journey here at GW

um

we are an 80-year-old CPA firm i'm the

ninth partner in charge sam is the

eighth partner in charge the first

female partner the first female managing

partner um we have one other CPA right

now who is in talks to be in the

pipeline um but we deal with a lot of

the same struggles that our guests deal

with we deal with a lot of the same

struggles that you our listeners deal

with as a multigenerational not a family

company in the sense that we all have

the same last name um we have had

partners who are related um but we are

very familial i mean we're 15 people

strong right now and uh we've taken some

some blows and it's been tough and we've

hired a lot of friends or a lot of

people that are related you know that

that goes on in a small firm and so we

we struggle with a lot of those things

trying to remain relevant trying to

bring value to our customers and also

shift to stay relevant within the

broader ecosystem we can't just stay the

way that we've always done taxes and the

way we've always done accounting and

expect there to be a valuable firm here

in the future for somebody else to buy

and so that's what these episodes are

going to shift to um my season finales

in June and December are going to be

this quarterly update but then also the

the last episode of March and the last

episode of September I'm also going to

bring this quarterly update of what's

going on at GW so hopefully this is

valuable to you um I don't want the

focus to be 100% on me but I do want to

show you as the listener the actual

progress that can be slow but steady and

purposeful that is made in a

multi-generational business in order to

get it to where it needs to be seeing

her grow is one of the most rewarding

things and none of my staff had

insurance experience

so just seeing seeing people like come

in and flourish was um my goal as I'm

walking into radiation across the

hospital courtyard get hit by a FedEx

truck literally

literally get hit by a FedEx truck my

body no broken bones thank God but I'm

like things come in threes

that was my third and I said thank you

and you know what you know what my

anchor was this whole time my anchor was

my firm Barrett

my anchor was my firm if I did not have

my firm I would have I would have I

would have gone into a deep spiral

depression so I don't think I really

realized that I was burned out or that

everything I was dealing with i mean I

was stressed out but like I don't think

I really realized it until after I'd

actually like sold the business and the

adrenaline rode wore off and I kind of

dusted myself off and and kind of did

some reflection it was a difficult time

for everyone

but everyone kind of stood on each

other's shoulders the you know immediate

month after his passing was um

you know let's let's make dad proud and

let's keep you know doing the things I

need to get done so we're going to get

into that right now um as I stated

pipeline is a big issue in our

profession uh also in our firm as well

um private equity is buying up CPA firms

there are very few firms it seems we get

emails every single week from private

private equity companies that want to

buy us sam and I are intent on staying

independent in intent on saying GW is

not for sale but that is also dependent

on us identifying leadership in the next

generation and training them to be able

to run a firm bringing them in and

having them care so much about GW and

about our clients that they want to

continue doing this here and they would

feel better off buying GW and continuing

with what we're already doing than going

out on their own and starting their own

thing i will say that's been difficult

for us in the past year since about May

24 um we've lost three intermediate

accountants we had one that had we have

had two of them that have been with us

for uh four to five years um and we had

one that came to us for a year and then

put in his resignation the Monday after

his one-year anniversary these are

people who've got five plus years of

experience in the field um in one case

it was a CPA in all three cases they

were they were heading in that direction

um in two of the cases out of the three

they walked away from public accounting

entirely so even with the changes that

we're making here at GW trying to make

tax season better for the profession and

not such a strain um just the patience

the the work that goes into that the

endurance to push through uh

private companies accounting departments

they just they appeal to a certain type

of people if you are not cut out for

public accounting

you're just going to find something more

attractive over there and so we've we've

had job positions open we've not been

satisfied with the with the contacts we

know that that's a reflection on us and

our in-person regional um emphasis up to

this point and so that's something that

we know we need to solve in the future

and then just also the amount of

workload the amount of um pressure and

accountability that is on every single

person in a small firm is a lot and so

you know one of the values one of one of

the things that brings value to a

company and says this company is worth X

number of dollars and you should buy it

is the only thing that brings value to

that it's not us being an 80-year-old

CPA firm it's not us having clients that

have been with us for 30 or 40 years

that value is only

contingent on the ability of this

company to continue making money in the

future and so if I'm going to invest a

half a million dollars into a company I

need to know that the value the income

that's going to be generated from that

company in the future is going to be

greater than than that investment this

is what we struggle with with our

clients who think that because they have

XYZ in place because they have been

around for a long time or because they

have a kid who's grown up in the company

that there's inherent value in there

value in a company is only in so much as

you are able to walk away from the

company if you can't take a vacation in

your company then your company doesn't

have value that anybody else should buy

that company is going to crumble as soon

as you walk away from it it's going to

be very hard to transition clients if

all they know is you we've had a number

of preparers retire over the past couple

years we're on in the process right now

of retiring two CPAs who have combined

almost a hundred years of experience in

tax preparation

um we've we've heard from clients in the

past I didn't know anybody else who

worked there i only ever worked with

this person my entire time I've been

working with GW that's not a recipe for

success for long-term longevity within a

public a professional services firm and

that's the kind of thing that you guys

our listeners struggle with that's the

kind of things that our guests struggle

with is transitioning that relationship

and building a process within the

company so that our clients no longer

say I work with Barrett or I work with

Sam but they say I work with GW and GW

is consistent in what it does who it

does it for and what it delivers um and

so that's that's the struggle sam and I

have been working on that for the past

couple years since she took over

managing partner we have a brand we have

a website we are focusing our offerings

we are cutting out services and we're

cutting out clients that don't fit with

where we're going in the future because

we have to make sure that there is

something here that when another CPA

buys into this company that they can

continue sailing that ship in the

direction that it's already heading and

the revenue will continue to come in

there's a lot of uncertainty around that

and so the more we can systematize that

the more we can test that the more we

can push against that the more value

we're going to be able to create within

this company so again as I shared

that this podcast is not my endgame um

that's kind of one of the ideas behind

that is my marketing as a marketing

partner this needs to be a system that

somebody else can step into as a tax

partner building a system for partner

reviews manager reviews staff

preparation what's expected at all of

these levels so that anyone within 6

months or a year of getting trained on

our system should be able to step in and

be productive and produce results uh

within that business marketing shouldn't

be so that they get on the phone with

Barrett and I'm able to talk them in to

a sale it's got to be this is what

happens this is how we approach clients

this is the kind of pricing that we do

these are the services that we offer and

this is when we decide to walk away or

when we decide to fire clients we have

got to create systems around all of that

i am not a systems person um I am a

visionary if you are familiar at all

with traction uh the visionary

integrator model there um I am an ideas

guy i come up with a million ideas every

single month and I keep most of them to

myself to the surprise of my partner and

my wife they would be shocked to know

that I don't tell them half the ideas I

come up with um Sam though is an

integrator she loves systems she loves

processes uh this new CPA that we've

brought in who's possibly in the

pipeline she's also a systems or an

integrator type we have to systematize

our ability to build systems it can't be

dependent on Sam being there with all

her fingers in the different pieces of

this machine keeping it running and con

and consistent and delivery happening so

this is one of the struggles that we're

dealing with here in 2020 25 uh hiring

as as we've said that's been a struggle

we've got to systematize hiring for

there to be value here we have to have a

method by which people want to come here

are offered jobs here and continue to

grow as accountants in our company um if

we lose three people in one year that

means that part of the system is our

responsibility and is broken and so that

is something that we need to do uh to

continue

so that when Sam steps away and all of

these hires are personal relationships

that she's developed over 101 15 years

of mentoring in the profession Sam

stepping away

we're going to lose that source of

employee referrals and so that's a

system that we need to build as well

another thing that's on our radar um

communication is a big one uh that's

always a complaint within CPA firms

we've seen that strained and broken as

the partners step away from being the

primary contact with our clients

communication might be coming from two

or three different people within the

company and we need to make sure that we

are capturing that that we have a a

place where anybody at any time can log

in and see what's been said what's been

promised what hasn't been delivered yet

to the clients uh that's going to be a

big piece of it as well one of the other

pieces that we're working on is

projectbased profitability rather than

time sheets that's just a shift within

the profession um that I've been a part

of in the past my previous company I I

didn't track time everything was priced

with a fixed price upfront um that's a

lot easier to do when you're one person

or you know one and a half people

working within a company than it is to

do with uh 15 people or more so that's

something that we have to that we're

continuing to work on our pricing how we

deliver that and how we provide that

value how we show that value to our

clients with something other than it

took us 12 hours to complete this and so

you owe us for 12 hours of time um

that's something that Sam and I are

intent on figuring out before she moves

out of the managing partner role and

retires we're planning on doing I'm

planning on doing these quarterly

updates here in season 3 my timeline to

step into managing partner is 2031 and

so I've got six years ahead of me to

continue to grow to be the leader that I

need to be to lead GW that I've got Sam

working on it with me to systematize

everything so that there is a company

here of value uh that I will receive

when she retires um and that there's

also a company here of value that

someone else will be in that pipeline

and want to purchase in want to buy into

it uh because my retirement is 19 years

into the future uh this was actually my

19th tax season and I've got 19 more to

go until I hit 60 where we have

mandatory retirement in our firm so I'm

halfway done um it seems like a long

time but as you know if you're trying to

change and shift a large archaic uh

organization 19 years can disappear very

quickly i've been here eight years

already and it seems in some cases to

have have gone has have been overnight

other days in the day-to-day stuff it

seems like a week can last a year but

when you zoom out you're like "Wow a

year's passed already." And that's just

going to happen so all right 2025 let's

give an update on on some of the things

that we tested this tax season so we

went into the tax season for the first

time ever with engagement letters for

every single tax return that we were

preparing we sent out those engagement

letters December 1st we had to follow up

with a lot of clients consistently over

and over and over again i don't I don't

think we had signed engagement letters

for every single tax engagement until

almost the end of March so we are mo we

are working on moving that up this next

coming tax season engagement letters

will be going out uh beginning of

November this year and hopefully by it

being the second year for a lot of our

clients that'll be a smoother process um

so that's something that we tested this

year we also had payment arrangements

upfront so payment method was attached

to that engagement letter and we did an

increase we did a price increase 15 to

20% across the board uh depending on the

client um we did see some clients drop

off but overall profit uh revenue was

was greater because of the price

increase i think we ended up losing

about 10% of our client list mostly in

individual tax 1040 only um but overall

revenue was up because of that

experiment so that was a successful

experiment we do need to pair down our

1040on

uh engagements even more just where the

profession is where tax law is there's

not as much value that we can provide to

a 1040on tax client um and so because of

our focus on succession planning working

with businesses through

multi-generations we're obviously going

to always be doing individual tax

because the business flows through to

the individual but we no longer take on

individual tax preparation we no longer

take on uh small super small like

lifestyle business tax preparation and

so we're going to continue to free up

capacity within our client list um by

firing or escorting some of these

1040only clients to another preparer

who's going to be a better fit for their

needs another change that we did this is

our intention uh to fix some of the

problems in our profession another

change that we did this year with our

engagement letters was we told all of

our clients that you are going on

extension this year we extended almost

100% of our clients in tax season before

we even began the work on them so that

meant that March 15th April 15th was not

such a uh flatout sprint all the way to

the deadline uh and then screech to a

halt and extend whatever you didn't get

done we've consistently kept working

past those deadlines that's been a

struggle that's been something we're not

used to where we are used to slamming on

the brakes and then taking a month off

and then picking it up and getting back

to work again some of us have been doing

this for 20 25 30 or more tax seasons

the staff and the younger generations

are not used to that and that has led to

a lot of burnout across the profession

and so Sam and I are intent on changing

that when we are working with our

business owner clients throughout the

year tax projections are happening

quarterly and so when it comes to the

actual filing all we have is we've got a

small overpayment that we apply to the

next year and we just keep on going our

business owner clients who have worked

with us to fully integrate this into

their rhythm their practice they've

appreciated it because they are no

longer worried about is it done by this

date they're just continuing to run

their business and we're going over tax

projections on a regular basis and so

they know every quarter how much they've

paid in and then the tax returns get

finished when the tax returns get

finished um another change we made

that's a big one for us you know in a

traditional CPA firm model Sam would

have her clients I would have my clients

our other partners they would have their

clients um like I said there it created

a silo effect so that somebody only

knows the partner maybe the manager and

maybe the staff accountant that works on

their stuff but typically the partner

and they might meet the manager we

instituted a tax partner role in our

firm for the first time ever partially

did it last year uh last tax season but

fully did it this year so I am the tax

partner here at GWCPA that means that

100% of the entity tax returns that we

prepare go through me um another small

change that we did we did bring in a

part-time reviewer this is a CPA who's

now working in private industry but

still misses tax review just a little

bit there are some of us crazy people

out there like that she worked for us 10

hours a week uh especially through the

busiest part of that tax season March

April and May reviewing tax returns and

then passing them off to me for a final

review uh before they go into processing

so that's been very effective and with

that Sam is uh managing partner of the

company and she's also the accounting

partner she's also in charge of all of

our financial statements sam's

background is audit my background has

been tax primarily and so her

responsibility is all of our financial

statements the monthly closes the

quarterly meetings with our clients

talking about projections talking about

profitability all that kind of stuff

that all flows uh through her and so

that's another way that we're trying to

systematize how we do things here at GW

i no longer have to be an expert in tax

and in the accounting statements and in

valuation and in exit planning we're

starting to define some of these key

roles and say our clients are going to

work with two or three different CPAs

depending on what the needs are of their

business it brings a better product to

our clients a better value to them so

that they are not constrained by oh crap

I didn't read the latest update on this

tax law but if you would have been Sam's

client she would have caught it or vice

versa so I'm working in my strengths as

tax partner sam's working in her

strengths as accounting partners and our

clients benefit by getting access to

both of us depending on what the the

project is the the difference is when

you own when you're a business owner

you're on the inside looking out all

right most business owners have the

shades drawn they can't see out they

don't know what's going on out there too

busy working to go talk to other people

and Exactly i was on the inside looking

out and then I was on the outside

looking in uh well I've got a lot

invested in this business financially

and uh emotionally or or uh relationally

so to let go is very difficult and we

hired a coach to help us with that um I

embrace paradoxes i talk to people about

that it's both and you know oftenimes

either or you have to let go you have to

let go well you know it's not that easy

by the way I have a clue i've seen some

stuff and I'm not going to let that

happen so it's it's a paradox of

business and life i would say just spend

the money to be able to delegate even if

you're not making any because then you

can actually focus on how to make your

money and grow your business now moving

forward what do we have looking for next

tax season here in the rest of 2025 some

of the changes that we've got coming up

so I've already talked about um

communication has been difficult

communication's been a struggle as we

have more people talking to a client you

know Sam's talking to them about their

financial statement i'm talking to them

about their tax preparation uh their tax

projections uh managers are talking to

them staff is you know h has turnover we

need to get this down better and so we

are changing our project management

system we're moving from Thompson

Reuters a 15 plus year old system that

we have um that we've made work and

we've worked around for about 12 10

years or so since we put it in place um

we are moving to carbon fully

cloud-based it's also about 10 years old

um but it's we're we're trusting that

it's going to be well positioned and

built around email inbox and shared

email inboxes um and being able to see

across the team where work is how long

it's been here and is it getting out the

door so that's an implementation we're

in the middle of right now we're going

live with that before the end of the

year uh and ready to go into next tax

season that is going to have a little

bit of an impact on the client side

because they're going to be able to get

checklists of documents that are

requested if they so desire they could

actually create a portal and log in and

see the status of their various returns

uh that they have with us um so there's

going to be a little bit more insight

into that a lot more communication we're

not going to have to CC each other on

all of our emails we're going to be able

to see them all there in one common area

that's just a tool that doesn't solve

the cultural issue and so one of the

things that Sam and I are talking about

is finally implementing EOS this the

rest through the rest of this year over

the next year um EOS if you're not

familiar with it is the entrepreneurial

operating system uh Gino Wickham Wickman

Gino Wickman uh created this about 10 20

years ago I think 15 20 years ago he

implemented uh created this EOS program

um it's something Sam and I have been

familiar with we both read traction

about 10 years ago that's where the

language for integrator and visionary

comes from that's Gino's other book

called Rocket Fuel um so you'll you'll

hear that a lot on my episodes we've

decided we need to we need to become

purposeful on this we need full

implementation we can't halfass it

anymore it's time to whole ass this

thing so we are work we are going to be

identifying and working with an EOS

implement and bringing this to the

entire team again so that it's not just

something that Sam and Barrett do

internally in our strategy but that it's

kind of the kind of language that the

entire team starts to adopt with the

quarterly rocks and the three-year plan

and the 10-year vision and the various

uh pieces there of EOS

so that's going to be a big push for us

over the next year and then the next

thing that we've got coming up 2026

about a year from now June 2026 is our

next strategic retreat for the team so

we started this it's something we plan

on doing an offsite every 3 years uh

this next one in June we're going to be

going to Rahobath for a couple days

rahobath Beach Delaware we're going to

be going there for a couple days and

it's where we share the vision with the

team and we get them on board and we

talk about okay now that you know where

we're going what are the strategic plans

that you need to put in place to get us

to this place 3 years from now so we're

going to talk about that three-year

vision we're going to break that down

into by this time next year 2027 this

needs to be done this needs to be done

what are those things for you as a team

member who's rowing in the same

direction on this ship uh and then how

do you break that down into your

quarterly rocks so that you can make

progress on that every quarter

throughout the year that's also the

incentive here why in season 3 I'm

planning on doing quarterly updates

because I am sticking to my own

quarterly rocks in that um and so I

wanted to share my quarterly rocks so

with my dad's stroke one of the big

concerns for me has been my own health

uh taking over as managing partner here

in six years while being the size that I

am while being as unhealthy as I am uh

is not a good plan and so my number one

quarterly rock for this quarter is

getting back in the habit of lifting on

a regular basis possibly picking up

running again

my fitness has always been something

that I struggle with about 10 years ago

uh going into my 30s I started doing

CrossFit then I went from there into

powerlifting and I went from there into

strongman um about five years ago right

before COVID I got burned out on doing

strongman all the time and coaching and

running competitions and everything and

then COVID happened and I just never had

much incentive to get back into the gym

my dad's stroke my father-in-law had a

couple stints put into his heart a few

years ago that caused me to start taking

up running again i did a sprint

triathlon personally um but I've not

been consistent i've done enough

training to get me to the next contest

and then the contest drops off and I

stop so my quarterly rock for the third

quarter 2025

uh is my gym habit um working out

regularly so far it's been three times a

week i've been consistent with that uh

that's my big quarterly rock second one

is this carbon implementation this

project management that's me heading it

up working with about six people on the

team from various aspects of the team

getting that uh implemented so that's my

big quarterly rock that has to be done

uh as much as we can get it done by the

end of September so that we can go live

with the rest of the company

uh another big one for me the certified

valuation analyst so this is a test that

I took last summer and I've been buying

extensions to finish the case study on

this thing uh certified valuation when

we started talking about succession

planning this is something that I knew

would be valuable to our target clients

uh knowing what brings value to a

company why a company is worth what it's

worth uh I sat and took the exam and I

passed it but there's a case study

component of that for me to actually

become uh certified as a valuation

analyst so I just need to finish that

last piece i've had lots of reasons why

I've not done it over the past year but

ultimately uh if I don't finish it by

the end of July that's the end of that

designation i'd have to take the exam

again i can't get any more extensions on

the case study so I got to finish that

by the end of July as well that is a

writing a full valuation for a company

from scratch so it's a big lift uh and I

just I need to continue to focus on it

uh throughout this entire quarter one of

the interesting things uh last month Sam

and I at the beginning of May we

actually went to exit planning summit

down in Florida so this is kind of

related to certified valuation analyst

uh SEPA certified exit planning advisor

is another designation that is owned by

the exit planning institute they do an

annual summit called the exit planning

summit that was very motivating for us

at the beginning of May so we went

together I think we signed up for it

last year and we decided we were going

to go to this thing not knowing what to

expect i mean then the title of the

summit is the exit planning summit and

in our minds exit means walk away from

the business and don't care what happens

with it we talk more about succession

planning because you've built this thing

and you want to see it continue uh after

you walk away from it uh but we went

down there and we were just completely

blown away the conference is not all

about exit planning it's about value

acceleration

um Scott Snyder and Chris Snyder the

founders or the the current owners of

the Exit Planning Institute chris Snyder

wrote a book called the value

acceleration method and it is all about

what makes a company valuable how do you

increase the value of that company and

if you get it to that level then you're

going to be in a better position to

determine

do I continue working in it do I sell it

do I have something here that somebody

else in the company can step into or

somebody else in that next generation

would want to take over we loved that

conference i'm going back again next

year it's going to be in Nashville uh

next April going back to it again going

to start taking team members to it uh it

was just rejuvenating it was

invigorating

it was um confirmation for Sam and

myself that we are on the right track

with what we're doing here at GW and so

I just can't give enough props to that

conference looking forward to doing more

there i need to get the certified

valuation analyst out of the way

complete that designation then I plan on

going uh and becoming a SEIPA Ca

uh as well and and just seeing how much

we can learn to bring more value to our

clients one of the things that I really

loved about that conference especially

it's geared towards mostly financial

planners CFPs and insurance agents you

know your Edward Jones kind of uh

brokers um

and there were a few CPAs there a few

attorneys i would say like maybe 10% of

the audience but split between those two

other professions a lot of business

owners who sold their company and are

now doing similar work for other people

as a consultant um it was very

collaborative and I really appreciated

that about the conference it was you are

not the professional that's going to be

able to do everything for this company

to usher it through its exit its

transition to the next generation you

need to be like the quarterback model or

the general contractor model you need to

bring in the professionals that are

going to be able to step into this role

and provide their expertise and so as

we're working with clients through that

it's going to be you know one of five

advisors who are all doing their piece

to make sure that this business

continues to succeed through its

transition so I really appreciated that

about the exit plan summit like I said

it was re rejuvenating for us got Sam

and I on the same page on a lot of stuff

that's where our renewed interest in EOS

came from because EOS and the value

acceleration method they were very

closely tied through that in entire

conference so

so that's kind of renewed our focus for

26 um hopefully this has been beneficial

for you again I want to give these

quarterly updates uh throughout the

regular season of the artist succession

so you'll be able to hear uh in

September how I've accomplished those

rocks what we've done in GW uh leaving

the summer and looking forward to the

next tax season um if this is helpful

for you I'd love some feedback uh again

you can find a form down in the uh

description below where you can leave

feedback for the show uh you know just

congratulate me on a year uh three uh

two two seasons in the in the bag for

the Art of Succession i love this show

i've been really enjoying it i've really

valued having a solid referral network

through Pod Match for guests like I said

I've got most of 20 25 already booked up

uh looking forward to continuing those

those conversations and booking up

through next tax season and getting into

next spring even um as we go so I want

to thank you for being along for the

journey for listening whether this is

your very first episode or you've been

here for all 24 I want to thank you for

being a listener i want to thank you for

watching on the YouTube channel and I

look forward to hearing from you and I

look forward to bringing you season 3

thank you so much you've been listening

to the Art of Succession podcast with

your host Barrett Young twice a month

we'll bring you interviews sharing the

successes and challenges from business

owners with their own succession stories

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