The Art of Succession

00:00:00.000 — 00:00:21.360 · Speaker 1
One year in public accounting is five years in industry. You get a chance to get on the engagement and see everything, and you have to make an assessment relatively quickly to come up with a solution relatively quickly and to get that solution to action. And that's the hard part. It made me decide I wanted to leave public accounting at the time again.

Yes, I left again. And when I did, I.

00:00:22.600 — 00:00:37.680 · Speaker 2
Albert Butler, CPA, MBA partner at a national CPA firm with over 25 years of experience in accounting and risk. He's a generational wealth strategist and author of Life Helping Leaders and Families Turn Financial Discipline into Lasting Legacy.

00:00:37.760 — 00:00:44.520 · Speaker 3
How do you get somebody to buy into the legacy? To see what you guys are doing is more than just a paycheck.

00:00:44.560 — 00:01:11.650 · Speaker 1
I tell them the truth. I don't give jobs. I grow careers, and I grow. Your legacy. If you're frustrated with not having a real opportunity. Come try this. And if you try this and you don't like it, we can shake hands, but you're going to learn something in the process. I think your audience will get a chance to hear from two veterans that have been around the block, built the block, broke the block down, came back, built it again, and ready to pass the torch for the next generation.

00:01:11.650 — 00:01:12.169 · Speaker 4
So

00:01:13.410 — 00:01:53.410 · Speaker 4
as you've been listening to this guest, you're probably starting to ask your questions. How do I apply this to our own situation, our own succession story at the company that I'm working in now at GWC, we have built a custom GPT that you can find linked down in the description below on our website. We have loaded this GPT up with all of our knowledge about public accounting and tax preparation around succession planning.

We've also included the insights from the guests from the past two years of interviews at the artistic session. You can find all of that at the custom GPT use at any time of day. Start to apply it to your situation. Ask it the questions that are keeping you awake at night. I want to thank you for listening so far and let's get back to the episode.

00:01:53.810 — 00:02:08.649 · Speaker 5
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.

00:02:08.690 — 00:02:33.650 · Speaker 6
My name is Barry Young and this is the Art of succession podcast. My guest today is Albert Butler, fellow CPA and resident partner of the Atlanta office of a national CPA firm with offices in four states. Albert brings experience stepping into an established leadership position in an established firm, respecting the legacy that came before him, while also setting it up for future success.

Albert, welcome to the Art of succession.

00:02:33.970 — 00:02:50.610 · Speaker 7
I think that might be one of the best intros I've had on the mini podcast that I've actually been on. It's interesting too, because your audience is like us, we're CPA, we've ran this race, we've talked this talk, we walk this walk. And it's exciting because we get opportunity to share stories that we can.

00:02:50.610 — 00:02:53.370 · Speaker 1
Resonate with each other and that can resonate with your audience.

00:02:53.410 — 00:03:14.860 · Speaker 6
I mean, I'm writing this intro and I'm like, oh, this is my intro. It's just a different, different state, different legacy. Right? Right. Um, I mean, you kind of already got into it, but one of the first questions I always lead with guests is like, what brings you to the art of succession? What what's exciting for you to share with our audience?

What do you really want our listeners to take away from this conversation we're going to have today?

00:03:14.900 — 00:04:06.740 · Speaker 1
You know, very it's interesting that the runway for unfortunately, when I started my career was called Chasing the Carrot. Becoming a partner is the holy grail of what we do, and the energy that's put behind all the skills that we learned. So when I was introduced to you and I said, I saw your profile pop up and it was it was something like, hey, you know what?

This is somebody who can actually listen, understand, and we can have a conversation that goes a little bit deeper than the surface level. So when I tell you I've been excited about this one, I've been really excited because I think your audience will get a chance to hear from two veterans that have been around the block built the block, broke the block down, came back, go to the again and ready to pass the torch for the next generation.

So I'm excited about that piece of it.

00:04:06.780 — 00:04:50.580 · Speaker 6
Awesome. Well, I'm always excited when a guest is another CPA when we get to talk shop. Might not understand this just because I do have a lot of different industries, but there are unique succession challenges in professional services in a relationship business, like a CPA firm that I do. I would have loved this podcast.

You would have loved this podcast when we got into this. Just that you think it's just like, oh, I'm just going to take this over and continue on as normal. But I am excited to bring these kind of stories so that people can learn from our lessons. So let's get started with like your your history in the career field.

Like, did you know you wanted to be a partner when you got in? When did you get into accounting, tax, become a CPA, all that kind of stuff. Just take me back to the beginning of your career.

00:04:50.620 — 00:05:17.510 · Speaker 1
Let me answer your question as you take you back? Hell no. Haha, same. All right. Cool. No, no, not at all. Not at all. I'm gonna. I'm gonna take you way back to, um, a story. When I was in college, when I honestly went to school, and back then it was, oh, everybody needs to do computer science. So when I first got on campus, my major was computer science for one whole day.

All right. That's why that.

00:05:17.510 — 00:05:17.830 · Speaker 6
Teacher.

00:05:17.830 — 00:07:34.640 · Speaker 1
Was that bad. Oh, it's interesting because, um, as I was venturing around, I. I ran into an old friend of mine, and and, uh, she and I began to talk about what majors were and, and and what opportunities were going to be there. And I share with her I really know what I really wanted to do from that perspective.

She told me, he said, why don't you just mention the county in the College of Business major in the College of Business? You, you you come from a business minded family. So this would be very, very ideal for somebody like like you love analytics and you love numbers. So it actually might connect the dots and you're like okay, okay, well that's that's fine.

So maybe I'll just major in, uh, business management. Just do business management and and see how that goes. And I made that switch, went back, talk to my parents about it. It went to dinner and I said, hey, you know, mom, dad, I'm I'm going to go ahead and do the business route and see how it goes. They said, okay, that's awesome.

They applauded me and and and routed me on. Fast forward a little bit, I, I'm in the College of Business and I, I, um, take my first accounting class. It was terrible. I'd say I take the other disciplines. They were just okay. I ran into another young lady who was an old friend of mine, and she was getting ready to graduate in accounting, and she told me how she said, hey, Auburn, I already have a job lined up and it's going to be great.

I'm going to be moving out to Texas and it's going to be great. And and I've been recruited out of here. They travel and take me all over the place and their corporate office. I'm all lock up, ready to go. And I'm sitting here like, wow, that's awesome. That's just sounds amazing. And I'm, I'm thinking like, I'm I'm smarter than what she is.

Like, if she if she can do it, I definitely can do it. I went back to my parents again. We had another dinner, had a conversation, and ironically enough, my my mother and my father, they they owned a home health agency. In that process, they had just went through a certification where they had to hire specialists who just happened to be a CPA, to give them an audit for, for that certification that they needed.

I just happened to see how much they had to pay him done. Right. And I said, hey, guys, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and go this accounting route. They were like, are you sure? Like, yeah, but then my mom's like, oh, this isn't even like your accounting classes. I was like, well, I think I can do it. She's like, okay, well awesome.

Go ahead and resubmit. You go ahead and do it. Get back into it. Take my intermediate two class. It was terrible. But and yeah.

00:07:35.480 — 00:07:37.920 · Speaker 6
The defining moment for most of us definitely.

00:07:37.960 — 00:07:50.450 · Speaker 1
Definitely. And it's funny enough that I've been in this game for 26 years now. Okay, I still have my intermediate book. It's almost like a trophy that sits on my desk.

00:07:51.530 — 00:08:37.289 · Speaker 1
Because it's it's it's the journey that you learn from along the way that this is where you actually had to cut your teeth, peel back, and really understand what the hell you were doing. It's really that intermediate one, intermediate two class that really actually kicks that off for most. So finished up, graduated, got an opportunity in one of the big four.

And kind of the rest is history when I got there. And truth be told while I was there I didn't understand. I was in Texas at the time. I did not know the type of clients I was working on, did not understand all patch whatsoever. And you know, it just was a struggle. So I would tell you that I am one of those veterans that did not expect to ever be a partner.

I'm also one of those veterans that I look at those partners and be like, man, I would never want your job because you work way too much.

00:08:37.490 — 00:09:10.050 · Speaker 6
Yeah, yeah, you're a cog in the wheel. You don't see the bigger picture in the big four environment. And it is another defining moment. It's like, are you even going to stay in this profession? And you look at the peers you have ahead of you and you're like, no, I don't think so. I'm going to get out and take that experience and go find something else.

Uh, you said entrepreneurial background or like you're watching your parents. Was it always the home based business or did they have multiple businesses? Did you see yourself other than not in a big for an accounting firm? Did you always see yourself as a business owner along that way?

00:09:10.090 — 00:11:47.710 · Speaker 1
Yeah, I'm gonna say yes. My parents always felt like I need to go work for someone else to really understand how the sausage is being made somewhere else. But my dad did an amazing job with myself and my sisters. He made it a purpose to make business more not about the external side of business, but he made it about the internal side of business and in the household.

And he ran our house, and he and my mother ran the house like it was a business. And he would always say something. You have to realize that a marriage is a business relationship because it is a contract. I do what I do Well, your mom does what she does well. And when we come together, we have synergies that we can actually make things happen for the family.

So he would literally walk me through the family budget every single month. He would open the checkbook and and show me the money coming in and the money going out and say, hey, I want you to understand this because one, you need to understand and appreciate all the efforts that your mother and I do for you and your sisters.

And two, one day you're going to have to do this too, for your family. And I don't want you to come going into any situation blind from that regard. I commend him for that lesson because it stuck with me. I will go one step further. Multiple businesses were that my parents actually ran. The most successful one was the home health agency.

When I was my sophomore junior year in college, um, my mother decided to open up a uniform store, and she decided to kind of give me that bath by fire and said, hey, it's a small investment, but it can be a big investment. She was a very strong woman of discernment and saw things from a different perspective.

As I'm from Louisiana and at the time, school uniforms were becoming a coming mandated for all the public schools. And she saw that as a business opportunity. And she put me right in the mix of it, from purchasing of inventory to opening and closing the store to even, um, getting a storefront and and getting in and doing the the build out of the storefront, identifying upon our sales system.

Uh, I'm doing the accounting for it. I even incorporated it on my own. So it was a lot, and it was moderately successful in the process. But I would say one of the biggest lessons I learned about inventory is that you don't buy stuff that people don't want. Definitely did that a few times as well too. So I commend them in putting that entrepreneurial spirit inside of me as a, as a young boy, and then even having the wherewithal to take a small investment and give me a chance to really not just learn something in school from a theory perspective, but to learn it in the real world perspective, The wins and the losses associated to it made me a lot better person from a business owner stressed.

Especially today.

00:11:47.750 — 00:12:46.000 · Speaker 6
Gotcha. Nice. All right. It's good to have that background. I do find a lot of entrepreneurs have that in that modeled for them by an uncle or parent or something like that. Good to know. We're picking those lessons up. I didn't know I wanted to be a CPA. My parents were both accountants. I didn't I want nothing to do with that when I enlisted.

But then at the old age of 22, I said, maybe my dad's not as dorky as I thought, as I think he is, right? He might know something about actually like job security and stuff like that. So, um, but but I always knew I wanted to own whatever, whatever I was going to be doing. It was going to be a business owner kind of thing.

So you're at the big four now. You're in Texas. You don't want that partner track, did you? I mean, were you looking at getting out of the profession? Were you looking at moving out to a local or like a regional kind of thing. Walk me through that decision for you and the phase that you were in. You'd already become a CPA at that point.

Like, talk me through that.

00:12:46.000 — 00:13:50.760 · Speaker 1
Let's really get deep into it. To answer your last question or comment. No, it's not a CPA then. And it was a mandate requirement that you had to take the exam every time it was offered. And my first time getting ready to take the exam was just a tragedy. I was in Houston, Texas. The exam was offered in Galveston, Texas, which is no more than about 3040 miles apart from each other from where I was living at the time.

So I found myself to go ahead and go out to Galveston maybe a couple days early. As I got ramping up from all my studies. As I was out there the night before the first day of the exam, my truck broke down and my starter switch went out and sat inside my truck. Mind you, I'm 21 at the time and this happens and I'm by myself.

I'm trying to figure it out. My whole energy just went through. Down, up, down the pipe. And I went to go take that test. And it was far. Was the first test. And no, not far, not far. It was um, I believe either the law audit at the time was the first test.

00:13:50.800 — 00:13:52.400 · Speaker 6
Because this is pre Enron. Oh yeah.

00:13:52.680 — 00:13:53.520 · Speaker 1
This is. Yeah man.

00:13:53.520 — 00:13:59.040 · Speaker 6
This is breaking the exam into four sections. All that kind of stuff. This was two days all at once.

00:13:59.080 — 00:14:12.160 · Speaker 1
Yes 1999 1999. Gotcha 1999. And um, I go to go take my first test. And as soon as I crack it open, I'm reading the first question, like, what in the hell is this?

00:14:14.280 — 00:14:14.720 · Speaker 1
I didn't.

00:14:14.720 — 00:14:15.080 · Speaker 8
Study my.

00:14:15.440 — 00:14:17.360 · Speaker 6
Brain dump on everything.

00:14:17.400 — 00:14:51.210 · Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. It was terrible. It was terrible, and I, I bombed it. I, I truly, truly bombed it. The whole vehicle situation has made it even worse. So that transpires. Don't pass. Of course. I don't even remember those grades. It was so bad the second. On the third time I took the exam, I passed two that I studied for.

I think it was the I, I, I passed the audit test and I passed the, the law exam. Those are two actually studied for I luckily passed the reg exam and got a and got a 75 on it. I got a 48 on financial.

00:14:52.250 — 00:14:59.370 · Speaker 1
And if you get less than a 50 you can condition. And I lost all of it.

00:14:59.690 — 00:15:03.650 · Speaker 6
Yeah. Which condition means you get to carry the ones that you passed.

00:15:03.690 — 00:15:04.970 · Speaker 1
That's right, that's right.

00:15:05.130 — 00:15:11.210 · Speaker 6
You have to retake the ones you got over. That's between 50 to 75 on. Yeah. So. So you lost all four of them?

00:15:11.210 — 00:15:34.100 · Speaker 1
I lost it all. I called and I petitioned and I paid money to get my my exam regraded. And I got my exam re graded six weeks later. And it said your grade was accurate. You don't pass at this point. I'm like, you know what? I don't even like accounting. I don't even like this stuff. I don't even like my job. I'm going to go coach football.

That's what.

00:15:34.340 — 00:15:35.140 · Speaker 8
I'm going to.

00:15:35.140 — 00:16:25.300 · Speaker 1
Do. I didn't take the exam again until I was up for manager and I got I got passed over for manager, um, because I hadn't passed the exam. And to me to get, you know, I I'll be very transparent. I was always a pretty high performer. And to get passed over for promotion because of an exam that I just couldn't pass at the time.

Um, it really hit like a lot more at home. And I actually left and I got a job at another company in the, in industry that was a pay me roughly about the same money, but it was a lot less stressful, you know, in public accounting in a large public for you work in like, you know, 60, 70 hours a week. And and that's just the way it is.

I had this other job and, and truly, you know, truly, I passed the exam within the first, gosh, the first six months at the other job.

00:16:25.340 — 00:16:34.900 · Speaker 6
At the other job. So you went you went into industry that values the CPA designation. It was still an option for you then That's remarkable to see. That's not usually the case. No it's.

00:16:34.900 — 00:18:05.070 · Speaker 1
Not. So it's not it's not. And and so when I, when I did that and I passed. Here's the unfortunate curveball that, you know, I had to get my brain examined about. I was bored after I passed the exam. I was so bored. And I was literally getting my whole week's worth of work done within the first day and a half for two days.

And I'm just sitting there trying to find and and go reach out to other people for something to do. And I end up, I quit it and I wouldn't jump right back in public accounting. I was free, I was free, but yet here I go. I'll jump right back in because I honestly enjoyed the challenge for what he do. I really do. I get to help people and I think that's that's the biggest win for me is because being at a large, large company, fortune 500 company and you get in the mix of just doing stuff for the company and is doing stuff for the stockholders and just do it.

That's your whole focus, focus, focus. Well, I help regular, everyday people and I get such a joy from somebody having a problem with their taxes, someone having a problem with their bookkeeping, somebody having a problem. They need an audit, a review, a compilation to be done. And I can give them a solution.

Oh my gosh, that is like the best, the best experience. So anybody who's out there who's thinking about doing public accounting or are in this mix and they're frustrated immensely, just think about the fact you actually help people.

00:18:05.110 — 00:19:39.440 · Speaker 6
I mean, I joked at the beginning, I didn't realize how close our stories were together, but I left. I left public accounting for almost six years, and I started my own company, and I was like, you, I, I was doing accounting, not tax. I was doing regular accounting for small businesses. But like you, I was getting bored from just the amount of free time.

And what I love about public, what I always point people to is, like you said, you're you're not involved in a fortune 500. But I wasn't either. My clients weren't fortune 500, but it was the same repetitive task month after month, week after week kind of thing with those clients. And I do enjoy that aspect of public accounting, and I don't think most people in our profession see it as that benefit of the rotation, the exposure I'm dealing with, you know, 50, 60 clients on a regular basis, dealing, getting into their issues, digging deep into those kind of things rather than one company that you're focused on 12 months out of the year.

So, um, it, it that is the appeal to me. It's as a visionary or ADHD or whatever I want to call it the, the, the chance to try something new with all of the clients that come to us bringing those problems. Like you said, it's the problems. It's like, cool, this is something new. This is going to keep me engaged.

This is, um, something I'm going to be able to speak into and solve a real problem, be the go to expert on this thing and really help them with their with their solution. Make it less confusing. You know, break it down for them. Get that aha moment from them, which is just so cool, so rewarding.

00:19:39.440 — 00:20:20.200 · Speaker 1
And it's it's interesting because it probably sounds like we're a bunch of business nerds, but guess what? I am in yesteryear. You know, one year in public accounting is five years in industry. And it's for the exact reason that you just gave a second ago. You get a chance to get on the engagement and see everything, and you have to make an assessment relatively quickly to come up with a solution relatively quickly and to get that solution to action.

If the solution works, great, if it doesn't, you have an opportunity to go back to the drawing board really, really quickly and then applied and apply another solution to it. Again, you get to learn so much, so fast, with so many different companies that you become a mastermind of this stuff.

00:20:20.240 — 00:20:55.090 · Speaker 6
I don't recall that saying, but I, I agree with it. Yes, that's what kept me personally out of going to the big four, going straight into industry, out of school. It's like, I don't want to become the HR clerk who's really good at collections, like I want to get exposed. I grew up in small firm. My first firm had nine people in it.

I got I want to get exposed to everything that a small business needs and then be able to pick what I enjoy from there. So you're jumping back into public accounting now? Was it with the firm that you're at now, or was it a stepping stone? What did that look like for you?

00:20:55.090 — 00:21:02.210 · Speaker 1
It was a stepping stone. I didn't want to go back in the big four. I didn't want to go to a really small firm. So I went to like, a mid-major. I felt like.

00:21:02.370 — 00:21:03.490 · Speaker 6
What's that mean?

00:21:03.530 — 00:21:04.210 · Speaker 1
Um, so.

00:21:04.250 — 00:21:05.010 · Speaker 6
Employee size.

00:21:05.010 — 00:21:12.410 · Speaker 1
I call it like the global six. You got the big four, then you got, then you got Grant Thornton, BDO. So I got the global six. I couple.

00:21:12.730 — 00:21:14.930 · Speaker 6
Tens of thousands of CPAs still kind of.

00:21:14.930 — 00:22:09.850 · Speaker 1
Yeah. You get the bigger clients. You get the smaller clients, you get the C. You still get to see the same the same litany. You know, I, I always give like a, like a chart graph of the type of things you work on, depending on the size of the firm issue at. You know, if you're at a large big four firm, you're going to work on these large public companies and it's controls, controls, controls, controls, controls, gotta be strong controls.

Everything got to be right. And you test controls like crazy. But the people only work in small little silos of this little. You work on cash, you work on they. Or you may be an inventory specialist. You know, you're you're a rhetoric guy. You know, that's what you do. You're a tax guy. You just that's what you do.

And the smaller the the smaller the firm you go to, it kind of evolves and changes where if you are at a smaller firm, you're going to learn how to get books and records, right? Because your clients are going to be you're going to be a mess.

00:22:11.450 — 00:23:01.140 · Speaker 1
The accounting is is if it exists, it's going to be a mess. The charter account's going to be all wrong. You're going to have missing documentation. You're going to have to go back and and and clean things up with so many journal entries, you become a very, very, very good accountant. You become a very, very, very good business consultant to get them right.

Then you can actually do in doing audit the majors, you kind of get the both of the same in both worlds. You have a large public company and you have a midsize, mid-tier type of probably mom and pop company as well too. And you kind of get to get a nice flavor of both. So for for me, I went over to the mid-major and had a pretty, pretty good time.

And I, I enjoyed it greatly. I was the firm I was with, was there for over seven years, so it was a very, very good run. But I got trapped in PCAOB hell at the time.

00:23:01.140 — 00:23:10.100 · Speaker 6
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board for those listening, it's you're auditing the you're doing quarterly. You're doing all that kind of stuff on public companies.

00:23:10.140 — 00:23:29.340 · Speaker 1
The scary part of it was that, and this is just my opinion. No. And you can say this is purely Albert's butler's opinion in this case, the PCAOB, although a great organization, it's checking the checker at a level of checking the checker that makes the checker apprehensive about being the one to use judgment.

00:23:29.340 — 00:23:31.740 · Speaker 6
Because judgment gets you sued.

00:23:31.780 — 00:25:49.200 · Speaker 1
So right. And in every aspect of my training, it was always beat inside of me. Document, document, document. And if you document your judgment based on sound guidance that's baked in accounting literature, no one can say anything or challenge that. But yet here you are. And that's the hard part. It made me decide I wanted to leave public accounting at the time.

It really did. Again? Yes, I left again. Okay, I left again. And when I did, I, I went, I went to a public company and I was there chief art executive for a while. I was there for, gosh, four years or so. And unfortunately I was let go and a major, uh, cost reduction. And I found myself looking for an opportunity that took me about 18 months of doing, uh, private consulting for different projects.

Oh, all over everywhere. Until I found a new spot for me to call home. And at the time, it was a company that that does insurance across the board. And I was their enterprise risk. VP of enterprise risk Management for them. So fast forward a little bit. The, um, a buddy of mine was from this firm, and he came to me and, and let me know that they had a major need for somebody with my background to come in and become a partner.

And, um, because, again, becoming a partner, I'm a I'm a corporate executive at this point. I'm I'm good. I'm, I'm, I'm I'm good. You know, I'm and I'm, I'm traveling all over the world and doing risk assessments and all that good fun stuff. And he's like, look, Albert, um, you know, we we really need your background.

We really need somebody like you. You know, we have we've we've we've had a major loss inside the firm. and somebody like you could actually step in and really, really help us continue on legacy and move the needle inside the firm's legacy that your background is ideal, ideal for. And I was like, yeah, nah, I don't want to do that.

Sorry, sorry. And you know, he we talked again a couple a few more times and he was like, you know, Tommy might not be exactly right for you right now, but keep it in the back of your mind because I think that you would really enjoy coming on board with us. And being a part of what we're trying to build.

00:25:49.240 — 00:25:52.640 · Speaker 6
Is, is he a partner in the firm at that time or. Yes. Okay.

00:25:52.680 — 00:26:36.880 · Speaker 1
Yes, yes. You know, he twisted my arm a little bit and, um, he made me and I drank the Kool-Aid and I, I started to see the vision and, um, being a part of what this firm has been able to do is, um, very, very humbling, very exciting. It has a very strong resonance inside of me That I get to be a part of something that was built before me, that allows me to put my knowledge base, skill set, and my network of all experiences that I've had and bring it all together to help take this firm to another generation and not just the firm, but also the accounting profession as a whole,

00:26:37.920 — 00:27:21.690 · Speaker 1
where we're seeing a lot, a lot of changes in the way things are being done. But Barrett, I'll tell you, I was driving home late one night and I said, accounting is always going to be here. It is truly true, the heartbeat of business. And because of the heartbeat of business, that heartbeat has to pump a certain way.

Well, we're not just talking about the function of how to do it. We're talking about the vitality of what it really is, its true balance, its true equilibrium. It is the perfect equivalent exchange of transactions that talks to numbers across the board and you just have to love it for that. It's and it makes me excited because that balance is universal.

00:27:21.730 — 00:27:32.770 · Speaker 6
I mean, can you talk just a little bit riff on that, what you mean by the vitality or the balance there? Because I think I have an idea of what you're talking about. But I want to hear in your own words what you mean when you say something like that.

00:27:32.770 — 00:29:37.980 · Speaker 1
So think. Think about it from this respect, if you take the human body and all decisions, actions and ways about achieving certain mission, goals and visions are developed by the mind. The mind is the leadership. Well, this mind wants to wants this body to go and do something that's going to send a signal down and say, body, we want you to walk.

That walk is operational. So we're moving through that operation to walk the mind. It's going to say, hey, you know what? We need it. We need to make sure we can sell. We can do. So let's give it. Let's give what we got to the world. So those arms are going to be the sales of giving it to the world. So watch this.

That signal. That message, that clarity. Has to go through the entire system. It has to come to the heart. The heart is the accounting of it all. That's the balance of it all. Because everything that mine says is going to go down into the heart, that message and the count is going to count for it and send it on down to where it needs to go.

It's going to come back up to get back up to the head, through the heart, in every aspect, every transaction, every cycle, every decision goes to the accounting department the exact same way. It is truly the balancing of any environment. It's the balancing of who you are as, as, as people. It's the balancing of our own natural environment that we're in.

It's the balancing of the whole, of the whole universe. That's what makes it beautiful, because it has to balance. If it doesn't balance, you know something's wrong. It's the perfect way to as an indicator that we have a problem. That's why you do flux analysis. Because it's it. It tells you so much just from a simple flux.

Something doesn't balance. Something change. Something's off. The system is out of balance. We gotta get it right. Barrett. Accounting does that for you. So I tell everybody. Accounting is the heartbeat of business. And when you understand a heartbeat, you find clarity in everything that you do.

00:29:38.020 — 00:30:33.110 · Speaker 6
Okay. Slightly different than what I was thinking. I was, you know, there's in my mind the vitality aspect of it is, you can be exact on something, but then choke out the life of the business, the momentum of the business too. And that's always been my focus on it, is numbers need to be timely. We can spend, you know, two years dialing into the penny to get something right.

But if I put something in front of a client and it's three months old and it's like, oh, I'm already past that, I there's nothing here. I can I can make decisions. And that's in my mind. Accounting balanced with vitality is yes, it needs to be accurate. But if we actually believe business owners need our numbers in order to make decisions, they need to have those numbers when they need to make the decisions, not 2 or 3 months later when it's when they've already made the decisions based off their checkbook balance or their, you know, their statement balance or something like that.

So that's where I thought you were going. But you're right. I mean.

00:30:33.150 — 00:31:58.950 · Speaker 1
I'm going there to Barrett. I won't stay there a little bit. I was reading an article and the, the, the author of the article was, was he was doing a comparison between accounting and finance. And as he went through his comparison of what the roles actually are, there was a middle section that talked about the people who would actually take on these roles and on both sides of it accounting said CPA, finance, said CPA.

So when you step back, you realize that accounting is not, um, just talking about the past accounting talks about the present, and it talks about the future. If you look at a real CFOs role, what is their real job? Your job is to be a messenger, a messenger that tells the past through financial reporting and taxes, a messenger that tells the present to the Treasury function, and a messenger that tells the future the fact that is the cfo's role, that is real accounting, that is, the actual connections that are actually taking place from that balancing that I was referring to above.

So you you are 100% right. If it's not timely, you're choking it out. If it's not timely, you're talking about something that doesn't matter anymore. If it's not timely, I've already made decisions and I'm already focused on where the company's got to go. So it has to be timely across the board.

00:31:58.950 — 00:32:46.840 · Speaker 6
And I think we gladly our profession gladly allows itself to get relegated to that past performance. I mean, we were joking before we recorded how one tax season ends and the next one begins and a supposedly there's an off season there, but our profession is so easily like I'm still working on December 2024 financial statements or tax return or something like that.

It's like, don't ask me questions about 2025. I'll deal with that in 2026. To really provide value to our businesses and to command the higher fees and actually be something that they're glad to pay, they're willing to pay, they're excited to pay. You have to bring that past and say, this is why you're going to make better decisions.

This is how you're going to be better positioned to grow your value as your company based off of these numbers. So awesome.

00:32:46.880 — 00:32:58.000 · Speaker 1
It doesn't change too, because past performance does dictate future future ability. It does. It tells you what you're good at, and it tells you what you're not so good at. And it gives you opportunity to make corrective actions or get you across the board.

00:32:58.040 — 00:33:43.720 · Speaker 6
Yeah. I mean, without that past performance, you're not going to cut things off when they need to be cut off. You're just going to keep going into oblivion and then waiting two years later to finally see how to do you know how how did it produce so. Yeah. Good. Tell me about. I mean, you're a slightly larger firm than I am.

Tell me about that process. I mean, I bought in there were two partners that I bought into here, and one of them was within, you know, a couple of years of retirement. So I knew who my 5050 partner was going to be. Talk to me. Your buddy finally convinces you. You see the vision of the company. Talk to me about that process of stepping into, what, six, seven, eight partners at your firm?

Did you have to come in as an employee? Did you come in to become a partner? Like, what's that look like?

00:33:43.760 — 00:34:18.169 · Speaker 1
So that was that was a part of it. It was it was a lot of debate about when you were opening up your business in that way, where you're making someone a business owner and you're letting in that you allow somebody to make a huge investment to you into the business. You're becoming part of the family and being a part of the family.

You have to be able to get a level of discernment about the about the person that you're about to open an open up to. So it was a process. I would tell you that my interview process was well over. Oh gosh, I want to say six months, but it might have been close to a year. So I think it's kind of again, it became a blur.

00:34:18.450 — 00:34:19.610 · Speaker 6
Still as an outsider.

00:34:19.970 — 00:34:21.210 · Speaker 1
Still as an outsider.

00:34:21.210 — 00:34:23.370 · Speaker 6
So you you bought in from day one? Yes.

00:34:23.649 — 00:34:43.370 · Speaker 1
Yes I did, I bought it, I bought it from day one. Um, just just full transparency the way that it normally works. And normally any partnership is that you the buy it is pretty hefty. Um, so you, the firm can either get you a loan or you go out and get your own loan to come to the table with to be able to buy in. You're basically buying equity in a business just like any other business.

00:34:43.850 — 00:35:02.370 · Speaker 6
So you're six months to a year through this process, not in the daily operations of the company, not seeing it from the employee perspective, but just still doing the due diligence to to step in. Are you still employed at the in the industry position during this process. Okay.

00:35:02.410 — 00:36:15.620 · Speaker 1
Got you I was I was it's a marriage. You know you're dating. They're dating me I'm dating them. And we try to make sure this is going to make sense on both sides of the coin. And it's a conditional relationship, of course, because those conditions have to line up perfectly for both parties. And it has to make we have to make residence sense.

And my, my, my biggest advisor, of course, was my wife, who consistently turned the thought process of what we doing because it is a we you know, my wife and I, we, we make sure those decisions that are being made for our future, our governed, um, pretty much the way that, you know, we were reared very similar as children.

So we we want to make sure those decisions are not a unilateral decision as a family decision. And when we got to the point where the family was ready to make the decision, the firm is ready to make the decision about me as well to and, um, it's very exciting, very, very scary. It was scary. I'll be honest. It was it was it was scary.

But I have, um, joined a partnership. Brothers and sisters who, you know, care about the development and growth of all of us. Across the board, they realize we all got skin in the game. And with that skin in the game, we have to make decisions collectively that makes sense for us to make sure we can overall be successful.

That's what second place, that's that's definitely what it's taking place.

00:36:15.660 — 00:36:35.140 · Speaker 6
You talked about that process of, you know, he's convincing you and you start to see the vision. How how did that phase go from. You're no longer seeing his vision for your role in the company to you're seeing the managing partner or all of the partners. Like how did that decision start to transform in your mind?

00:36:35.140 — 00:37:45.710 · Speaker 1
When I went to dinner with one of the founding partners, that's when the decision really moved me to realize I was joining a family and knowing the story of a firm that grew from basically nothing to the history that it was, that it laid into and was and I was beginning to get a chance to be a part of. It energized me and got me extremely excited.

Also humbled me as well to coming from my background and it made me want to join in. Sleeves rolled up, ready to get things going and put my spin on things. But before I did learn the actual runway that I'm getting ready to run down based off the passive formats of the runway that had already been established.

That was the biggest piece of it. That was the biggest piece. I call it finding the bathroom. You know, when you it takes you time to find the bathroom. And when you find the bathroom, then you can finally really, really get comfortable. You can finally get comfortable. And then once I was finally able to get to get comfortable and I can bring my network to to the firm, it's been great ever since.

00:37:45.750 — 00:38:21.910 · Speaker 6
Gotcha. Okay, cool. Um, I know traditionally in our firm, the model is you're basically just running, in your case, eight different companies under one roof or with similar processes, shared staff. How do I mean you got your guys are spread across four states. You're the resident partner, I believe now of Atlanta.

Is it like a succession for each branch has one on the way out, one on the way in kind of a thing. How much did you feel uncomfortable, like outsourcing guidance over that firm to seven other people that are not in Atlanta, like talk through that with me.

00:38:21.950 — 00:38:30.990 · Speaker 1
Yo. So so know this very, very good question is uh, and a very valid point. So to answer your question quickly. Yes. So.

00:38:33.150 — 00:40:22.480 · Speaker 1
It was, it was um, we we are from a PCs. And that type of structure sets you up where you are truly trying to not just learn the business as a whole, but also learning your market as well too. I maybe I didn't mention, but I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So my, my original stomping grounds from Louisiana, where my early professional stomping grounds was in Houston, Texas.

Where? Where now? I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. So the markets, although kind of similar, they're different. And the networking, although kind of similar, is is different. And building that network was really what I was really focused on when I, when I first joined that I can actually expand that part of the network.

Um, especially for the, the talent that was already in chair for what we can actually bring to the table as a firm and be able to connect. You know, I was, you know, used to large public companies in the past too. So can we do a large public company? Yes we can. Will it be something that's going to run us very, very thin?

Yes it will. So is that really the best use of resources? Maybe not too much of a concentration risk because it doesn't really make sense to do that. So no it's not. So it has asked me, let me understand the clientele, that that firm actually has already established the relationships that's already been established and really cut my teeth there first and then expand with my network and my full background.

That's pretty much kind of what we are right now. I'm being in that expansion space, but at the same time, we have a solid niche of clients that have been so historical and so, so relatable, such a long relationship, that it gives us the opportunity to take on new opportunities that might be in the marketplace.

00:40:22.520 — 00:40:34.320 · Speaker 6
Gotcha. Okay. And what why? Atlanta? I mean, is that where your buddy was at and you joined up with his division? Did you guys start that one? Was it just that was where out of the four states you got to pick one. How did that go?

00:40:34.360 — 00:40:53.610 · Speaker 1
So I was living in Atlanta when I left from the previous public accounting firm, and I got my opportunity as a as a chief executive at a public company. It was a move to Atlanta. So I had been in Atlanta for some years before I finally came and joined the firm here. So. No, it just was. The opportunity was available in Atlanta.

00:40:53.650 — 00:41:12.290 · Speaker 6
Okay. Gotcha. And was your buddy the partner in Atlanta? Am I right on that assumption? That's how you got that connection. Talk to me. Just like something that surprised you or something that you didn't catch in due diligence. Like a, like a big surprise stepping into that role and being like, oh, well, no turning back now.

Got to make the best of it.

00:41:12.290 — 00:41:18.730 · Speaker 1
I would say the biggest surprise was the difficulty in staffing.

00:41:19.850 — 00:41:35.210 · Speaker 1
I have never had a real difficult time finding the right staff. Um, because I had such a a notable name that I was recruiting with to get people who was coming to me for opportunities. Well, now the kind is kind of flipped.

00:41:35.210 — 00:41:41.730 · Speaker 6
Prior to this company, prior to hiring for a fortune 500 or a big four. Top six. Easy.

00:41:41.770 — 00:41:43.250 · Speaker 1
Not easy. Yes, yes.

00:41:43.290 — 00:41:48.260 · Speaker 6
Recruiting campuses, all that kind of whole pipeline built in basically. Yeah.

00:41:48.260 — 00:42:14.540 · Speaker 1
But when you are on the other side of it and you had a smaller, smaller firm, you're actually doing a lot more of that heavy lift, um, to try to get that the, the right talent that you can actually, um, use to, to leverage your firm off of. And I'm sure you have felt this pain to bear, but the senior position is like it doesn't exist.

It's hard to find senior to the unicorns. Oh my gosh.

00:42:15.220 — 00:42:18.300 · Speaker 6
They're still staying in this profession. Amazing, right?

00:42:18.340 — 00:42:57.020 · Speaker 1
Grab them up, grab them up, grab them up. Because that is that role is the most important role in public accounting guys. It's the most important. Um, because they they're the ones who run the job. You run the job, and if you cannot keep them, you're going to have a hard time finding them. So you better make sure that you grow them with your early staff people to find those ones that are going to be the that actually have the, the ability to, to step up.

And that's what we had to do. We had to grow our seniors. Because trying to find them just in the marketplace one, they're way too expensive. Two using a recruiter to get them. You want to be in a being endowed to have to.

00:42:57.020 — 00:42:59.580 · Speaker 6
Pay a year's compensation in.

00:42:59.580 — 00:43:37.660 · Speaker 1
Relation to it so that that doesn't work. And then three, you wind up getting somebody, you know, off the market and they're not what you thought they were going to be. And now you, you you've still lost money because you're losing time. So it's just better to try to grow them because at least if you are getting someone fresh out of school, they are hungry.

They want to learn. They they're they're looking to be fed into. And those people can sprout up for you to actually be the ones that can actually one day step up into that senior role. And then, you know, if they go past the exam, they become managers and they can be your your true pipeline for your future partners.

00:43:38.060 — 00:43:53.830 · Speaker 6
Mm. What's I mean, how have you guys seen that work. What are you what are you guys doing that's so effective on that? I'm asking as a fellow homeowner, but taking somebody who's got four years experience to accelerate them to 14 years experiences is tough.

00:43:54.190 — 00:43:55.110 · Speaker 1
So it's very tough.

00:43:55.110 — 00:44:05.670 · Speaker 6
Bear and not burn him out and not scare him out of the profession too, because that's I mean, effectively, that's what the big four are trying to do, is accelerate you as fast as possible and see who's who doesn't break cream.

00:44:05.670 — 00:45:55.040 · Speaker 1
Rise to the top or it cracks along the way. So I think, um, the the true success factors is really great. I would say it's really, really, really great because you have to spend time with the right energy and that's part of it. Is it kind of be pretty difficult? I'm a long recruiter, so when I actually find someone, I'm build relationships from mentoring perspective to tell them what this podcast, if it was available when I was younger, would have told me.

So I spent time with younger professionals through different organizations and really tell them the truth. That the truth I open up, I'll go under the hood for real and answer their questions and give them and give them questions to ask me that they might not even be thinking about. Because as you go down your runway for opportunity, you need to be able to be properly equipped to understand what you're getting into and what you can say no to and not be.

And I feel like you're only making decisions based off of money. I really shoot down making decisions based off of money, because money is purely just a tool, and it's a tool to gain resources. Well, one of the biggest resources that you can gain is business ownership. One of the best opportunities to become a business owner is public accounting.

So if I'm telling you that that's something that's an opportunity for you and it's one of the best resources that you can actually gain, why would you put money on the table? Let's put opportunity on the table. Let's put mentorship on the table. Let's put risk reward on the table. Let's put the things on the table that people are not going to tell you about.

Let's talk about that, because I'm trying to help individuals grow into this legacy that we're trying to build. And that's the real, real, real carrot, if you want to call it that. That's out there to chase.

00:45:55.240 — 00:46:20.480 · Speaker 6
How do you get somebody to buy into the legacy to see what you guys are doing is more than just a paycheck to see it as I don't even like you and me. I don't even want to be in this career. I'm just kind of waiting for a better opportunity, you know? How how do you guide them? How do you lead them? How do you inspire them?

And without it sounding like, you know, sunshine and rainbows or hypocritical or whatever? You know, we all deal with.

00:46:20.600 — 00:47:54.450 · Speaker 1
I tell them the truth, all right. I tell them they're going to work a lot. I tell them that it's not about you. I tell them that I'm a I'm a spiritual man, Barrett. I will tell them. Proverbs 1322. I will tell them that a good man leaves an inheritance for his for children's children. What are you going to do to leave that inheritance?

What decisions are you going to make to leave that inheritance? How are you going to govern yourself? To leave that inheritance? How do you work on yourself? How have you worked on your physical intelligence, your mental intelligence, your emotional intelligence, and your spiritual intelligence?

I'm not talking about working for a company I don't believe in. I don't give jobs. I don't do that. I grow careers, and I grow. Your legacy. No one's going to tell you that. But I'm going to tell you the truth. I got skin in the game, too. My job is to pour into you because I want to retire one day. And I need to give everything inside of my brain down into you.

If you're ready to receive it, if you want to be excited about it, if you. If you're frustrated with not having a real opportunity, come try this. And if you try this and you don't like it, we can shake hands, but you're going to have learned something in the process. What if you do like it? What if you gain from it?

What if it is the one thing that allows you to bust through the glass ceiling when no one else told you the truth? That's what I offer. And when you talk to them that way and you treat them like professionals, they get excited. They're ready and they're motivated. And then you tell me they have to work 75 hours a week and they're like, you're crazy.

Oh.

00:47:58.650 — 00:48:00.730 · Speaker 6
Just pay your dues. Eventually, it'll come to you.

00:48:00.770 — 00:48:24.170 · Speaker 1
Right. I'll tell you. No, but it's the journey. We learn so much. I wouldn't give my story up for anything. I've appreciated every up, every down, every left, every right. I've appreciated because it was a journey. And I can look back on all the people who pissed me off the most. And those people who pissed me off the most and made me to be the person that's sitting here today.

And I appreciate them. And I shake their hand today.

00:48:24.370 — 00:48:52.780 · Speaker 6
Okay, so that's great. If somebody sees themself in that role or sees themself on the partner track, how do you deal with the team members that are like, I don't want that, I just want to I want to show up and do this. Do what's necessary. Stop talking to me about the future. Stop talking to me about, you know, calling and vocation and legacy and everything like that.

How do you still keep them engaged in their work and say, there's a minimum level here that you have to buy into, even if partner is not in your future?

00:48:53.020 — 00:51:15.070 · Speaker 1
Because I am going to be working extensively to pour into you. And if I'm pouring something into you and giving you my all, and you're not going to give me your all, we're not equally yoked. So you can be a prone position. But don't get upset when the rays don't look like you, like you thought it was going to.

Don't get upset when the person that's below you is your boss one day. Don't get upset because then it's going to be like, well, why? Why am I here? You have to have your own idea of what you really want inside of you, because an environment as fast paced as ours, how could you want to sit in that? How could you want that?

How would you want to be just that person that just doesn't want to want to. Want to want to develop and grow? I have to go out to the market. How hard is it going to the market to sell business? It's difficult. It is so hard. It is so, so hard. And the same acquisition story that I'm giving you about staff is the same acquisition story I give my clients.

It's the same thing because we have people who have decided they want to be entrepreneurs. That's my biggest client base. They want to be entrepreneurs and they have to learn the five muscles of enterprise. Barret, what's those muscles? Just like I gave with the human body set of leadership, operations, sales, IT infrastructure and accounting.

The heartbeat of all of it. You have to have some remnants of those type of things that have to be a good entrepreneur, but you can't do them all yourself. You have to have a team around you. Make me part of your team. Make me the person that's responsible for that accounting piece. I will be the one to help. May help you make better decisions along the way.

I will consult with you. I will give you that. That information. I have a duty to tell you the truth. And I'm not going to. I'm not going to lie and blow smoke up, up your butt like other people might. I don't have the too close to the elephant experience. I'm always far away. Looking above you to see where we're going.

And I'm going to give you that information. It's the same, same story. So if you believe in this, if you want to run with this, if this something that's exciting for you, if you want to develop and you want to grow, you want to scale, let's do it. If you don't get out the way.

00:51:15.110 — 00:51:33.120 · Speaker 6
I got you. So you're not necessarily saying partner is the track for everybody, but you've got to buy into the role that you're in. And and if you're not, if you're just, you know, marking time, cashing the paycheck kind of thing, eventually other people are going to surpass you and you're going to want to leave.

If we don't remove you.

00:51:33.160 — 00:52:24.720 · Speaker 1
You don't want to get steamrolled right on over. And another piece that we do is we we we are we form people out to clients as well too. So if you've been working for the firm and you decided that, hey, you know what? This is not for me. I don't want to. I don't want to do this, Albert. I'm like, hey, let's find an opportunity for something that you really do want to do.

If this just might not be for you, and that's okay. It's not for everybody. But let's find out what you truly like, what you truly love, and let's talk about your real desires. Because again, it's still you still come here for a reason. You still have a working for a reason. And a lot of times it's for your family.

So why would you do something for so many hours in the day? And you're exhausted and you're tired and you don't like it? Let's go do something you like instead. I will support you. We. Let's do it. Yeah, yeah.

00:52:24.760 — 00:53:05.280 · Speaker 6
I mean, that's always been. My approach is you're. This is more than half of your awake life. Why are you going to spend it doing something you absolutely loathe? There are there are other options out there, and we do the same thing. We've helped former team members. We've placed them into large clients.

We've placed them into, you know, a spin off on their own and take a bookkeeping, you know, some bookkeeping, clients, things like that. It's just it's having that conversation because if you're not happy, we can feel it. And everybody's going to be better if we, you know, if we bring this out into the open as you're talking about.

So. Oh, man, Albert, I mean, this conversation could go into a second episode. I know where.

00:53:05.280 — 00:53:07.480 · Speaker 1
We go to the bar. Let's go get some drinks, man.

00:53:07.680 — 00:53:08.560 · Speaker 6
Yeah, right.

00:53:09.200 — 00:53:12.800 · Speaker 9
I know where I'm going when I'm. Next time I'm down in Atlanta. Um,

00:53:14.360 — 00:53:15.880 · Speaker 9
um, we do need.

00:53:15.880 — 00:53:51.530 · Speaker 6
To wrap this one up, though. I would love a follow up episode. Um, just because I could ask, I could go into a whole conversation about being a part of a, you know, 50 person national firm prospects for future growth, all that kind of stuff that, you know, I'm in a small firm, 14, 15 people. Um, looking at what does the future hold for us?

I've got so many questions that I want to ask, but we do have to wrap this on up, unfortunately, before we before we wrap up the episode, get into our lightning round and anything. Is there anything that I haven't asked or anything I haven't covered that you want to that you want to tag on at the end?

00:53:51.530 — 00:55:18.050 · Speaker 1
Here I like to share a something that my father gave me when I was younger as well too. But it came in. It came out of a a disappointing type conversation. Um, my dad told me once when we were trying to, when I was in public accounting, and I hated it, and I was in the, in the, in the curse of, hey, you know what, dad?

I don't want to do this no more. How about you and I? Let's go get a dump truck and we're going to go in this. Just get, get, get dump truck loads and rent a truck out around the city. And he was like, you know what, son? That sounds great, but I can't do that. And for my hero to say I can't do it through me, for me, I'm I'm like 20, 23, 24 years old at the time.

And I say, you know what? Um, okay. Dad and I walk away. And from that conversation, it it left for residents of I can and it was a term, a quote that I made up in that moment called I can't because I will, I will because I can. I don't say can't because I can. I am a champion. I train like a champion. I practice like a champion.

I work like a champion. Therefore I will win like a champion. Nobody can beat me but me. So everybody in your audience, if you're going through something that's hard, if you're struggling and you feel like you just can't keep going, I always remember that you were a champion and you came because you will.

And nobody can ever stop you but you as long as you don't stop going. So keep on pushing through.

00:55:18.090 — 00:57:56.230 · Speaker 6
Business ownership starts with mindset in my mind, and I've talked to so many of our clients Prospective clients are like, I would love to pass this business off to somebody someday. But none of my employees see themselves as business owners. So like, that's my biggest focus with this podcast, with our it, with our material and everything is trying to get them to shift in the mindset to you, you can do this.

You can be a business owner. None of us were, you know, special. None of us went to a our business school didn't teach us how to be business owners. It taught us how to be analysis analysts within a, you know, a tiny cog in a big machine kind of thing. Um, but it is that saying, it's like whether you if you say you can or you can't.

You're right that that's what is behind that. Uh, behind that. There. It's so funny you say dump truck, though, because I'm like my my back of my mind. Like, if I could give it all up one day. It was like landscape, uh, landscaping company, you know, building waterfalls, building, um, you know, flowerbeds, all that kind of stuff has always been in the back of my mind.

So. Nice. Awesome. Well, um, thank you for sharing that one. It is mindset. It is saying, you know, your your mindset is going to be the limiting factor on all this. And, and you know, as someone I'll just throw this on at the end as someone who struggles with, you know, um, just mental stuff. I mean, I think all entrepreneurs, we have moments where we are like, I am the champion, and then one's moments that are like, why does anybody come to me for anything?

I am such an idiot. I know nothing, I, you know, the the highs and the lows there. It is hard sometimes to say. There's what my brain is telling me right now and there's what I already know, like past proven track record or, you know, reading, uh, Theodore Roosevelt's man in the arena one more time just to, like, be like, on my best days.

This is what I know about myself. And so it's not saying every single moment you're that way, but, you know, coming back to this is my identity. This is what I've got. Um, even when you get kicked in the teeth and everything wants to say. You are terrible. You suck at what you do. Saying nope, this is a this is a failure.

This is an you know, this is an experiment. It didn't work. We're going to recover from this and I'm going to move forward. Um, it's a little bit of that crazy optimism that we all kind of need as business owners, too, so. Awesome. Well, um, I don't want to take up too much more of your time, but, uh, I really appreciate the conversation.

This one has been exactly what I was hoping for and expect. And if you're ready, we can jump into the lightning round and bring this one to a close. Coffee or tea? And how do you like it prepared out there?

00:57:56.270 — 00:58:01.190 · Speaker 1
Oh, coffee. And I'm drinking something right now with Coke, with coconut milk and honey.

00:58:01.230 — 00:58:05.390 · Speaker 6
All right. Awesome. Um, pie or cake? And do you have a favorite kind?

00:58:05.670 — 00:58:13.950 · Speaker 1
It's 100% cake. Yellow cake with chocolate icing. Um, that is the. It is the one thing that will is my. Is my Kryptonite.

00:58:13.990 — 00:58:16.230 · Speaker 6
Do you have a favorite holiday and why?

00:58:16.270 — 00:58:29.240 · Speaker 1
Favorite holiday, I would say used to be Christmas. Now my I would say my favorite holidays, 4th of July. It is is just the time that my wife and I have have had a just a wonderful time together.

00:58:29.240 — 00:58:30.440 · Speaker 6
Why did it shift?

00:58:30.480 — 00:58:40.640 · Speaker 1
My father's birthday was on December 24th. Um, he's no longer with us, and it's just it just it's it's just hard. Yeah, it's just hard. Yeah.

00:58:40.680 — 00:58:46.920 · Speaker 6
Do you consider yourself a morning person or a night person? And do you have a favorite routine you look forward to in one of those night person?

00:58:46.960 — 00:59:05.920 · Speaker 1
Um, I don't I don't sleep, so routine wise, just getting behind the curtain a little bit. When I leave from work, I go in roughly around 830 9:00. I sometimes I'll come home till ten, 1030, sometimes late, very late, uh, 11:00 at night. And my wind down is a hot bath and watching anime.

00:59:05.960 — 00:59:09.600 · Speaker 6
What is a common belief among entrepreneurs that you would want to challenge?

00:59:09.640 — 00:59:30.440 · Speaker 1
I would tell you that entrepreneurs get in their own way, trying to do too many things without understanding the investment that it takes to do it. So those five muscles of enterprise is the is the belief that you need to have some remnants of knowing some things, but at the same time, you need to hire the right people to do those jobs, and you should do them yourself.

00:59:31.320 — 00:59:48.360 · Speaker 6
Yeah. It's like that trap that you fall into of, like my labors free because, you know, whatever. I don't pay somebody else I get to keep for myself. But it's like it's not free if it's wiping you out, if it's exhausting you, and it's not what you're looking forward to doing or it's letting you fall behind.

00:59:48.400 — 00:59:50.920 · Speaker 1
Opportunity cost is a real thing. Yeah.

00:59:51.560 — 00:59:59.760 · Speaker 6
Yeah yeah. Awesome. Love it. Um, what is one thing that you would want your successor to remember you for? Um.

00:59:59.800 — 01:00:19.570 · Speaker 1
Remember me for my diligence in what I gave you. I believe in lifting while I climb is the organizational part of that director logo pulls and pushes at the same time. So as I'm pulling you up, I expect you to push me up as well. To. And I treat you like a professional and treat others the same way. Treat people like professionals that they are.

01:00:19.610 — 01:00:21.690 · Speaker 6
Is that napa's models? Is that the one?

01:00:21.970 — 01:00:22.210 · Speaker 1
Yes it.

01:00:22.210 — 01:00:26.610 · Speaker 6
Is. Where are you finding creativity right now? Albert. AI AI AI.

01:00:29.130 — 01:00:31.210 · Speaker 6
Well, there's our second episode right there.

01:00:31.250 — 01:00:50.730 · Speaker 1
Right. The young people there, there are. They're growing up in a space that we did not. So their minds are geared towards something that we can't do. And that is the biggest creativity opportunity for for us to bring them on board and at the same time, creativity, opportunity for us to embrace.

01:00:51.170 — 01:01:18.180 · Speaker 6
Yeah. And I think, you know, just personally, I think you and I are gap are playing the middle road here is uniquely positioned to make it show the reality, the business case for it, show how it actually is profitable, and then also talk that language to the newer professionals, the ones that are freaked out, the ones that are coming in here and like, why should I even get into accounting?

And it's not going to exist in five years. And it's like I've been hearing that since, you know.

01:01:18.220 — 01:01:18.460 · Speaker 1
Day.

01:01:18.460 — 01:01:19.380 · Speaker 6
1000.

01:01:19.420 — 01:01:19.900 · Speaker 1
Day one.

01:01:19.900 — 01:01:23.380 · Speaker 6
Remember, since day one. Yep. Excel was going to replace everybody.

01:01:23.420 — 01:01:28.820 · Speaker 1
So what Y2K was going to replace everybody man.

01:01:28.860 — 01:01:51.860 · Speaker 6
Yeah. Right. Yeah. So but I think we do have that unique position where we've got enough maturity, we've got enough experience, enough clout in the profession to say AI has a real use case, and here's how we're actually using it and still be able to adapt quickly and be responsive and engage the engage our younger team members.

And it.

01:01:51.860 — 01:01:52.380 · Speaker 1
Is, I will.

01:01:52.380 — 01:01:59.860 · Speaker 6
Say, and show them how. Yes, this is more than just creating images and stuff like that. This is how you can actually use it to do your work.

01:01:59.900 — 01:02:25.140 · Speaker 1
It's not a it's not a toy. I think that's the biggest piece. It's not a toy. And I will also tell you that 100% is going to be able to increase functionality Like I was talking earlier. The function of being able to get things functionally done and change. The mindset of the vitality of the thinking, the creativity, the mindset to be able to do more in our mental space is the exciting piece of it to me.

01:02:26.260 — 01:02:57.140 · Speaker 6
Yeah, I've I've unlocked so many, so many creative avenues through AI over the past two years that would have just been logjams or would have just gone nowhere. Yes. Without it. So yeah, it's fantastic. I'm more I mean, anybody who's used it and really invested into it would say that they, I think would say that they're more creative with AI than, than without it.

That's right. Awesome. Love it. Um, what do you have coming up in, uh, next year that's got you excited?

01:02:57.140 — 01:03:56.430 · Speaker 1
Albert I am very, very big on I make, um, I don't make New Year's resolutions. I said New Year's missions. Um, last year, my mission was to get my first book published. I actually did that. Got it published and the audiobook just came out recently as well too. So that was a big, big accomplishment. The name of the book is life.

I didn't even mention it. Um, and I should have. My wife's going to going to tell me you got on the podcast and you mentioned the book. So, yes, I published the book. The name of the book is life, truth, love, loss, success and Failure. All the things we've talked about on here, Barrett, is it's it's it's in the book.

So I think if anyone in your audience was excited to go pick it up, they would truly enjoy it. But the next one that I'm working on right now is called the Legacy Alignment System. That book is, I got it set to have my first draft done by mid-March, and hopefully it'll be ready to be published by Labor Day. And I'm just very, very excited about that.

It's going to be the the first book I wrote was the The Big how this book is right here. It's going to be more so in the Y.

01:03:56.470 — 01:04:10.830 · Speaker 6
I mean, that should be within about a month of this episode coming out, so that'd be awesome. I mean, this is why I give you this spot. The last question I've got is where can people go to find out more about you? So plug your books. We'll put those links down in the description too. But where can people go?

01:04:10.870 — 01:04:36.270 · Speaker 1
Abbott I'm 100% if you just Google. Albert Butler, CPA. It's going to light up like three pages of stuff. Um, I'm all over Instagram. I'm all over Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn. I post articles on LinkedIn all the time. Albert Butler Comm is active as well too. You can definitely find me there as well. And of course, the book is on Amazon right now that you can, um, definitely search for it and grab a copy.

01:04:36.310 — 01:04:45.950 · Speaker 6
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Albert. I knew this would be a good conversation. You you've followed through on that awesome promise, and I really appreciate you being on the Art of succession.

01:04:45.990 — 01:04:57.310 · Speaker 1
Sure. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Your platform is amazing. The conversation was amazing. I think the back and forth 100%. I hopefully one day we do get a chance to do this again and who knows, one day we could possibly do it in person.

01:04:57.350 — 01:04:58.550 · Speaker 6
Awesome. Looking forward to that.

01:04:59.070 — 01:05:00.270 · Speaker 1
Thank you sir. Bye bye.

01:05:00.910 — 01:05:01.470 · Speaker 6
Bye.