Kristen Deese – Business Coach and Systems Genius

Glenn Harper:

Welcome, everybody.

Glenn Harper:

Or another episode of Harper and Company Empowering

Glenn Harper:

Entrepreneurs. Glen Harper here.

Julie Smith:

Julie Smith.

Glenn Harper:

And we'd like to welcome our guest today, Kristin Deese, a

Glenn Harper:

fellow entrepreneur who is the brains behind multiple

Glenn Harper:

companies. She is a virtual CFO as well as a real CFO for

Glenn Harper:

multiple companies and owner of Gulf Coast business

Glenn Harper:

coaching in sunny Gulf Breeze, Florida.

Glenn Harper:

And in her spare time, she can be found on the beach

Glenn Harper:

throwing mud on ATVs with her family.

Glenn Harper:

Even though she looks like she's all brains and a desk

Glenn Harper:

jockey, she likes to get dirty and experience nature and

Glenn Harper:

manual labor. Thanks to Christian for being part of the

Glenn Harper:

show today.

Kristen Deese:

Thank you for having me.

Glenn Harper:

You're welcome. Well, it's the funniest thing when we get

Glenn Harper:

some guests on here, the we try to have some commonality

Glenn Harper:

and we can make fun of each other.

Glenn Harper:

And knowing that you're an accountant, I mean, we share a

Glenn Harper:

special bond, I think, and a non accountants just don't get

Glenn Harper:

it. Julie doesn't get it.

Glenn Harper:

She has no clue about what that means.

Glenn Harper:

And we're trying to figure out, you know, when you were in

Glenn Harper:

school, I don't know if you really wanted to be an

Glenn Harper:

accountant, but you said somehow you liked it and I just

Glenn Harper:

didn't know if it was, you know, was it the cash versus

Glenn Harper:

accrual accounting amortization of bond premiums or

Glenn Harper:

accounts that just made you have to be the language of

Glenn Harper:

accounting? Which one was it?

Kristen Deese:

Probably none of the above.

Glenn Harper:

What those are, that's sexy, that kind of stuff.

Kristen Deese:

I actually started my college career wanting to be a nurse,

Kristen Deese:

which is completely opposite of accounting, and realized

Kristen Deese:

that in order to do that I had to take biology and

Kristen Deese:

chemistry and they were really hard.

Kristen Deese:

So I jumped ship from that and moved over to accounting,

Kristen Deese:

which is completely opposite spectrum and found.

Kristen Deese:

I always have loved numbers and organization and stuff like

Kristen Deese:

that, but then started really understanding how it worked

Kristen Deese:

from that accounting perspective.

Kristen Deese:

And then I was like, okay, this is kind of cool.

Kristen Deese:

It's just basically like a puzzle.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah, we look at it like, you know, some accounts really

Glenn Harper:

never even get it.

Glenn Harper:

But you're an anomaly, kind of like myself, where at one

Glenn Harper:

point you're sitting there looking at numbers and doing

Glenn Harper:

what you do, and all of a sudden it's like the matrix.

Glenn Harper:

The numbers just roll and they make sense and you're like,

Glenn Harper:

Oh, I can speak this language.

Glenn Harper:

It makes sense, right?

Glenn Harper:

Is that kind of what happened?

Kristen Deese:

Yeah, totally. As a matter of fact, the very first

Kristen Deese:

accounting, one on one class that I took, I failed.

Kristen Deese:

I had to retake it.

Kristen Deese:

But then once it clicked the second time around, then I was

Kristen Deese:

like, Oh, this is all making sense now and then.

Kristen Deese:

Now, even just yesterday, I was working on a complicated

Kristen Deese:

journal entry that was just really I just couldn't get it

Kristen Deese:

to balance. And then when it finally did, it was like, oh.

Glenn Harper:

Are you are you suggesting that you don't just plug a number

Glenn Harper:

and make it bounce or you actually try to find the number?

Kristen Deese:

Oh, no, I can take it.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah, that's great.

Glenn Harper:

So I've been dying to ask this.

Glenn Harper:

Your husband, Justin, does does he think your tractor's

Glenn Harper:

sexy? Do you guys have a tractor because you said you drive

Glenn Harper:

one of those around?

Kristen Deese:

We do have a tractor and a four wheeler and a side by side.

Kristen Deese:

Nice.

Glenn Harper:

So I stalked you a little bit on your online profile and

Glenn Harper:

Kennesaw State University.

Glenn Harper:

How do we detect that?

Glenn Harper:

That's the third largest university in Georgia.

Glenn Harper:

Well, how did you pick that versus the Bulldogs?

Glenn Harper:

What was the reason?

Glenn Harper:

Was it Sturgis the owl or is just because you just want

Glenn Harper:

like the smaller school?

Kristen Deese:

Well, I actually started at Georgia State and transferred to

Kristen Deese:

Kennesaw about halfway through.

Kristen Deese:

I went to high school up in that area, so I was very

Kristen Deese:

familiar with that area.

Kristen Deese:

And when I went to Kennesaw way back in the day, it was

Kristen Deese:

still a commuter school. So it wasn't even close to the

Kristen Deese:

size that it is now.

Kristen Deese:

Now they have dorms and a football team and all kinds of

Kristen Deese:

stuff, and when I was there, none of that was there.

Kristen Deese:

However, they had a fantastic business school and they

Kristen Deese:

still do. And so I wanted to get out of the city and out of

Kristen Deese:

Georgia State. So I transferred up to Kennesaw to finish

Kristen Deese:

out, and I'm very glad I did.

Kristen Deese:

It was it was an excellent school and their business and

Kristen Deese:

accounting program was is pretty good.

Glenn Harper:

How about that? Did you you weren't there when they had

Glenn Harper:

Sturgis, right. I think he came along a little bit later

Glenn Harper:

but yeah.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah, no I wasn't there when when they were there, my

Kristen Deese:

brothers ended up going there for a little while for

Kristen Deese:

engineering several years after I did.

Kristen Deese:

And by the time they went, Sturgis was there.

Kristen Deese:

And the plank and all of the things that they do now.

Glenn Harper:

Do they like have the outgoing attack little animals or is

Glenn Harper:

it just flying around or is it just sit there and look

Glenn Harper:

noble?

Kristen Deese:

I honestly have never been to a Kennesaw football game, so I

Kristen Deese:

couldn't tell you have it.

Glenn Harper:

And my final like warm up question is do you prefer

Glenn Harper:

horseback riding or four wheeling?

Kristen Deese:

Oh, my gosh. I don't know that I could pick.

Kristen Deese:

It is a tough one.

Kristen Deese:

I think probably four wheeling, but only by like a little

Kristen Deese:

smidge of a preference.

Glenn Harper:

Because it's not as dangerous or more fast.

Glenn Harper:

You like to live in dangerous.

Kristen Deese:

I have a little bit more control on four wheeling because

Kristen Deese:

I'm driving as opposed to a horse where you have to you

Kristen Deese:

have some bit of control.

Kristen Deese:

Kristen Deese:

than you do. So.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah. They a moth.

Glenn Harper:

Oh, my God. We're going to die.

Glenn Harper:

Horse jumps straight.

Julie Smith:

Yeah, that's Glenn's last softball question.

Julie Smith:

But the one thing that I read while stalking you like

Julie Smith:

Glenn, was the coffee and wine comments so we can find you

Julie Smith:

in the morning, drinking your coffee and ending your day

Julie Smith:

with wine. And for whatever reason, it wasn't the numbers

Julie Smith:

that connected me with you.

Julie Smith:

It was that.

Kristen Deese:

Yes, like I am a human too.

Julie Smith:

So which one's your favorite?

Julie Smith:

Do you like to the beginning of the day or the end of your

Julie Smith:

day?

Kristen Deese:

Oh, coffee? For sure.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah, for sure. I as a matter of fact, it's mostly cream

Kristen Deese:

with just like a splash of coffee.

Julie Smith:

So I get that as I'm drinking Starbucks dairy's.

Glenn Harper:

Good selection theory.

Glenn Harper:

Well, would you?

Glenn Harper:

You know, for our listeners out there, we always like to

Glenn Harper:

have our our guests kind of just tell a little bit about

Glenn Harper:

what services your companies do and, you know, a little

Glenn Harper:

intro of what you guys do for a living and the why of that.

Glenn Harper:

And then we'll get into some more depth about being an

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneur as a you know, we just want to know a little

Glenn Harper:

bit about what you do so our clients can kind of connect

Glenn Harper:

with connect with you.

Kristen Deese:

Well, we do own a couple of businesses.

Kristen Deese:

We, my husband and I have worked together for 20 years,

Kristen Deese:

give or take. We own a business in Atlanta that installs

Kristen Deese:

kitchen appliances for people who purchase them from Lowe's

Kristen Deese:

and Home Depot. So if you go need a dishwasher and you want

Kristen Deese:

somebody to install it, that's our company that gets

Kristen Deese:

contracted out to do that.

Kristen Deese:

And then we own a company here in the panhandle of Florida

Kristen Deese:

called Paradise Home Services, and it's plumbing, HVAC and

Kristen Deese:

then water and mold remediation.

Kristen Deese:

So I operate as the CFO for both of those companies.

Kristen Deese:

And then what I do with the majority of my time is those

Kristen Deese:

CFO services for other businesses in the trades.

Kristen Deese:

What we find a lot of times in the trades is the owners are

Kristen Deese:

really good technicians, they're really good at what they

Kristen Deese:

do. But running the business part isn't necessarily

Kristen Deese:

something that is a strength for them.

Kristen Deese:

So the coaching and the CFO services help them in that area

Kristen Deese:

of weakness so that they can be more balanced as a

Kristen Deese:

business.

Glenn Harper:

So you work, you coordinate that with their current CPA or

Glenn Harper:

accounting people to get the data.

Glenn Harper:

And then you kind of look at at a high level.

Kristen Deese:

What the owner yeah, I actually work with their in-house

Kristen Deese:

accounting staff.

Kristen Deese:

So a lot of times they'll have like a bookkeeper or an

Kristen Deese:

office manager or somebody who's keeping track of all of

Kristen Deese:

the day to day information expenses and receipts and

Kristen Deese:

payments and deposits and invoices and all that kind of

Kristen Deese:

stuff. And I help them with getting their systems together

Kristen Deese:

and how are they going to collect receipts and where are

Kristen Deese:

they going to store them and how are they going to track

Kristen Deese:

them and how are they going to track to make sure that

Kristen Deese:

they're getting paid on their invoices?

Kristen Deese:

And then I help them put together their financial reports

Kristen Deese:

and reconcile all their statements and do all of those

Kristen Deese:

things. And then when they go to the CPA, they can give

Kristen Deese:

their CPA their completed books.

Kristen Deese:

And their CPA is not having to run around trying to figure

Kristen Deese:

out, you know, trying to do the reconciliations and figure

Kristen Deese:

out where everything is.

Kristen Deese:

They can just take the completed reports and prepare the

Kristen Deese:

taxes and do whatever they need to do with it.

Kristen Deese:

So it's definitely very much a managerial accounting as

Kristen Deese:

opposed to tax prep accounting.

Glenn Harper:

Gotcha. See, you're more of a controller and then you take

Glenn Harper:

that data, hand it off, and then you analyze it with the

Glenn Harper:

owner and tell them what's going on.

Kristen Deese:

Exactly. Yeah. So the we take the the information that goes

Kristen Deese:

to the CPA, they deal with the tax side of things.

Kristen Deese:

And then we take that same information and we sit down with

Kristen Deese:

ownership and we say, okay, let's look at how you did.

Kristen Deese:

Let's look at what your trends are.

Kristen Deese:

Let's look on which departments are making money and which

Kristen Deese:

departments are. Let's look at where your holes in the boat

Kristen Deese:

are basically, and let's figure out how to plug them.

Glenn Harper:

Don't business owners just love getting under the microscope

Glenn Harper:

and getting called out on all of those things?

Glenn Harper:

It's the.

Kristen Deese:

No. It's a really vulnerable situation for business owners

Kristen Deese:

to be in, but it's totally necessary in order to be

Kristen Deese:

successful. There are so many times that, you know, these

Kristen Deese:

people are running around selling, selling, selling.

Kristen Deese:

They're they're working really, really, really hard.

Kristen Deese:

But then they look at their bank account and they're like,

Kristen Deese:

where is the money? What is going on here?

Kristen Deese:

And you have to have that.

Kristen Deese:

You have to be able to analyze the information and know

Kristen Deese:

what you're looking at in order to figure out where it's

Kristen Deese:

going.

Glenn Harper:

It's funny when this whole podcast is empowering

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneurs and it's about helping them get the knowledge

Glenn Harper:

transfer so they understand what it means to run a

Glenn Harper:

business, not just do the business.

Glenn Harper:

And and that is a neat thing that you're doing because that

Glenn Harper:

is something severely lacking for small business owners,

Glenn Harper:

for sure. I find it interesting that, you know.

Glenn Harper:

The responsibility of being the CFO of multiple companies

Glenn Harper:

that are your own, but also then to take that role.

Glenn Harper:

It's an emotional burden because you can't help.

Glenn Harper:

But I'm sure that you feel fully invested helping these

Glenn Harper:

clients and you've got to get you can't just cursory look

Glenn Harper:

at the numbers, you've got to get down into it, down in the

Glenn Harper:

detail. And it's an emotional thing, even though people say

Glenn Harper:

it's not supposed to be. I have to believe it is a little

Glenn Harper:

bit for you. I mean, it is for me when we look at clients

Glenn Harper:

books because you you want them to succeed, you want to

Glenn Harper:

help them, you want to educate them.

Glenn Harper:

But boy, up and down, it's a it's a traumatic experience

Glenn Harper:

for everybody.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah, it's definitely.

Kristen Deese:

You celebrate the wins and then you also mourn the losses

Kristen Deese:

when you're going over that information with those business

Kristen Deese:

centres. But it is also really exciting to be able to see

Kristen Deese:

growth in the business and in the leadership capabilities

Kristen Deese:

of owners when you've spent the time with them to teach

Kristen Deese:

them how to read their numbers and how to look at their

Kristen Deese:

reports and how to use that information to make good

Kristen Deese:

business decisions.

Kristen Deese:

It's it's really neat to see that transformation in the

Kristen Deese:

business owners themselves and that tremendous growth that

Kristen Deese:

can happen.

Glenn Harper:

It for for me and and I think probably all the other staff

Glenn Harper:

that we have on our team and the other accountants, the

Glenn Harper:

ability to coach a client along and have them learn

Glenn Harper:

something and interpret and be able to make decisions on

Glenn Harper:

something they never even understood.

Glenn Harper:

You know, a day ago.

Glenn Harper:

And all of a sudden they they can speak the language.

Glenn Harper:

They know what it means. It's you know, that that mentoring

Glenn Harper:

or just helping them do that is is so powerful because now

Glenn Harper:

that that client or that individual, that company can

Glenn Harper:

literally achieve something greater.

Glenn Harper:

And if we if you do it right, we see they don't even now,

Glenn Harper:

they're not involved in the operations as much as the

Glenn Harper:

business. They're just like a hands off business owner that

Glenn Harper:

just does some things and they can do all the things that

Glenn Harper:

they want to do. And that's the fun part when they realize

Glenn Harper:

they have this opportunity to do other things, not just

Glenn Harper:

grind away at something.

Kristen Deese:

Right. Yeah, we we definitely talk to the business owners a

Kristen Deese:

lot about the difference between strategic tasks and

Kristen Deese:

tactical tasks.

Kristen Deese:

The tactical tasks are the minute things that have to be

Kristen Deese:

done all the time, every day.

Kristen Deese:

The physical labor of the of the business and the strategic

Kristen Deese:

tasks are is that higher level thinking?

Kristen Deese:

And that, you know, let's look at this from a big picture.

Kristen Deese:

Let's step back and see what does the future look like and

Kristen Deese:

where did we where have we been and how do we get to where

Kristen Deese:

we want to go? And being able to pull those business

Kristen Deese:

outers, the business owners out of that tactical mode and

Kristen Deese:

that tactical mindset to be able to look at things

Kristen Deese:

strategically just does.

Kristen Deese:

A total like mindset shift for them that it doesn't we

Kristen Deese:

don't I don't have to be in a truck doing the job and

Kristen Deese:

checking on the sites.

Kristen Deese:

We can set this up so that other people are doing that and

Kristen Deese:

I can focus on the bigger picture of things.

Glenn Harper:

You always have a trick question for clients.

Glenn Harper:

We onboard them and even after we've had them for a while,

Glenn Harper:

it's always ask them, what is it that you do that actually

Glenn Harper:

makes money? Like what do you think your role is?

Glenn Harper:

What? What pays the bills?

Glenn Harper:

Like, what is that thing that you do?

Glenn Harper:

And they always say, Well, it's this task of doing it.

Glenn Harper:

I'm like, That's not where you make your money yet.

Glenn Harper:

Making money is being strategic and planning and putting

Glenn Harper:

your team together. And it's just when they get that aha

Glenn Harper:

moment, they're like, Oh my God, that's right.

Glenn Harper:

What? Why? Just because I am the wizard at fixing a breaker

Glenn Harper:

box doesn't mean I should be doing that.

Glenn Harper:

I mean, they're fun playing black boxes, but that's not

Glenn Harper:

what they should be doing. I mean.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah, there's a lot of times that they don't realize that

Kristen Deese:

they're being the bottleneck in their company until you

Kristen Deese:

pull them back a little bit.

Kristen Deese:

Sometimes you have to pull them back by the collar, pull

Kristen Deese:

them back a little bit and be like, Get out of the way.

Kristen Deese:

Let your business run.

Kristen Deese:

Look at it from the strategic level.

Kristen Deese:

Make the decision from that level and just get out of the

Kristen Deese:

way. And then all of a sudden it's like, Oh, wait, this is

Kristen Deese:

what leverage is. This is how to leverage.

Glenn Harper:

It's kind of like you and me, probably.

Glenn Harper:

We again, we got some affinities that we share a little

Glenn Harper:

bit. And one of those things is, you know, we just dearly

Glenn Harper:

love our ten keys, right?

Glenn Harper:

And but we don't really make money on our ten key.

Glenn Harper:

But dang, now, but I just can't stop using it.

Glenn Harper:

I don't know about you. It's just something fun.

Kristen Deese:

I know it is.

Julie Smith:

He. He used to pack it in his backpack.

Julie Smith:

We'd go away to, like, speak at conferences or whatever,

Julie Smith:

and he'd, like, we'd sit down and he'd go to unzip his

Julie Smith:

backpack. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, is that a ten key in

Julie Smith:

there? He's like, You just don't know.

Julie Smith:

I'm like, Never, ever.

Glenn Harper:

I can't even add one plus one without a ten key anymore.

Glenn Harper:

So it's very important for me.

Kristen Deese:

I mean, it's not efficient to use the numbers along the top

Kristen Deese:

of the keyboard.

Glenn Harper:

Oh, see, you get it.

Julie Smith:

I have a solar calculator at my desk.

Julie Smith:

It works just fine.

Glenn Harper:

It's embarrassing. Totally embarrassing.

Glenn Harper:

It gives us all kinds of bad name.

Glenn Harper:

When did you decide?

Glenn Harper:

You know, it's one thing when you come out of school and

Glenn Harper:

you're doing what you do and you're working for a living,

Glenn Harper:

and then all of a sudden you decide that you're in your

Glenn Harper:

husband or you in a business partner.

Glenn Harper:

Are you on your own? You're going to start a business, you

Glenn Harper:

know, how did you decide to do that?

Glenn Harper:

I mean, that's. Did you have a real job where you're an

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneur as a kid?

Glenn Harper:

What what made you decide that, hey, I'm going to be a

Glenn Harper:

business owner today.

Kristen Deese:

So my my husband made that decision for us a long time ago.

Kristen Deese:

He is.

Kristen Deese:

He always has been our entrepreneur, visionary.

Kristen Deese:

Between the two of us and I have always been the detail

Kristen Deese:

oriented. Let's make sure all of the T's are crossed and

Kristen Deese:

the I's are dotted and the money's where it needs to be and

Kristen Deese:

all that kind of stuff. So when we first started our first

Kristen Deese:

business many moons ago, I kept a real job, quote unquote,

Kristen Deese:

in order to make sure that we could pay the power bill and

Kristen Deese:

eat. And then it got to the point where the business that

Kristen Deese:

he created was getting to be enough that I was working in

Kristen Deese:

the evenings and on the weekends in his business doing all

Kristen Deese:

of the accounting things.

Kristen Deese:

And then I was still trying to keep this job.

Kristen Deese:

And then we had two small children at the time and I was

Kristen Deese:

like, okay, this is too much.

Kristen Deese:

And I made the leap to move over into that business, and we

Kristen Deese:

did that for a long time.

Kristen Deese:

Just the one service company.

Kristen Deese:

We grew it very large.

Kristen Deese:

It was the appliance installation and some plumbing.

Kristen Deese:

We grew it very large.

Kristen Deese:

Kristen Deese:

And like everybody else, we kind of had to reel it all back

Kristen Deese:

in and really cut out a lot of things.

Kristen Deese:

We went from like four or five states and 50 trucks running

Kristen Deese:

down to a very bare minimum just because we were cutting

Kristen Deese:

weight everywhere that we could.

Kristen Deese:

And then when we came out of that, which we did come out of

Kristen Deese:

it barely when we came out of that, then it was kind of

Kristen Deese:

like, All right, we're going to rebuild what we have going

Kristen Deese:

on here and kind of make some shifts.

Kristen Deese:

And as we got comfortable in that position, that's when I

Kristen Deese:

realized that my area, what I really enjoyed doing was the

Kristen Deese:

coaching side of things.

Kristen Deese:

I don't necessarily like being in the day to day, you know,

Kristen Deese:

solving problems and putting out fires and all of those

Kristen Deese:

things. But I do really enjoy working with business owners

Kristen Deese:

and showing them how to get out of that spot.

Kristen Deese:

And so after working with our own business coach for quite

Kristen Deese:

some time and kind of seeing that transformation in us, I

Kristen Deese:

was like, Man, it would be really cool to be able to do

Kristen Deese:

this with other business owners.

Kristen Deese:

So then I started doing coaching in general.

Kristen Deese:

We were I was coaching vision stuff and organizational

Kristen Deese:

charts and systems and marketing and finance and, and

Kristen Deese:

leadership and the whole thing still only really focusing

Kristen Deese:

on the trades because that's where our experience is.

Kristen Deese:

So I can really relate with those business owners and then

Kristen Deese:

ended up just in the last probably two or three years

Kristen Deese:

really whittling it down to the systems, the finance, a

Kristen Deese:

little bit of the vision stuff.

Kristen Deese:

But it's really that organization and that level of detail

Kristen Deese:

that the business owners don't really want to mess with.

Kristen Deese:

They just want it to be done because they kind of feel like

Kristen Deese:

if it's there, it probably would be helpful, but they don't

Kristen Deese:

really necessarily want to put the work in to make it

Kristen Deese:

happen. And then there's all kinds of coaches in in our

Kristen Deese:

space and in in spaces all over that really focus in on

Kristen Deese:

driving sales and leadership, which is amazing and it's

Kristen Deese:

necessary. But if you don't have the foundation and the

Kristen Deese:

details lined out and your systems in place, your sales,

Kristen Deese:

your additional sales that you're getting from these other

Kristen Deese:

training programs are just compounding issues that you

Kristen Deese:

already have. So I try to get a hold of them, help them get

Kristen Deese:

that foundation really strong.

Kristen Deese:

Then when they do ultimately go to sales and leadership

Kristen Deese:

training and coaching and whatever, they're seeing a much

Kristen Deese:

higher return on investment on that because their

Kristen Deese:

foundation is strong.

Glenn Harper:

It seems like everything's is packaged for entrepreneurs

Glenn Harper:

like the literally the two things that are really the most

Glenn Harper:

important in my opinion, other than obviously have to be

Glenn Harper:

good at what they do, whatever the product and service they

Glenn Harper:

do. But they got to understand the tax consequences and

Glenn Harper:

they got to understand their financials to see how they're

Glenn Harper:

performing. And those are literally the two things that

Glenn Harper:

just give the heebie jeebies to everybody.

Glenn Harper:

And I don't know why that stereotype is there, but once

Glenn Harper:

they learn it and understand it, it's actually it takes so

Glenn Harper:

much stress off of them because they're like, oh, that's

Glenn Harper:

all there is to that.

Glenn Harper:

And I don't know why it's so hard.

Glenn Harper:

I don't know if it's because they're watching too much TV.

Glenn Harper:

I don't know if it's a read too many magazines.

Glenn Harper:

I don't know if they just are intimidated by it.

Glenn Harper:

But it is the strangest phenomena.

Glenn Harper:

Would you agree to that? I mean, it's weird.

Kristen Deese:

I do agree and I think honestly that it is a level of

Kristen Deese:

accountability that a lot of people don't want to own up

Kristen Deese:

to. I think that your numbers hold you accountable, and if

Kristen Deese:

you don't look at them, then who is holding you

Kristen Deese:

accountable? So I think that that a lot of times has to do

Kristen Deese:

with the desire to to not look at them or to.

Kristen Deese:

You know, we've got I've got a saying that if you don't pay

Kristen Deese:

attention to your numbers, they're going to get you they're

Kristen Deese:

going to get your attention and probably in a way that you

Kristen Deese:

don't appreciate. And so, you know, you you want to look at

Kristen Deese:

the numbers when they're when it's a good month and you

Kristen Deese:

want to look at the numbers when it's a bad month.

Kristen Deese:

And you need to you need to scrutinize them the same way in

Kristen Deese:

both scenarios, because if it's a bad month, everybody

Kristen Deese:

wants to know where the money went and what happened.

Kristen Deese:

But if it's a good month, you need to know why that

Kristen Deese:

happened as well so that you can repeat it.

Glenn Harper:

It's almost like the.

Glenn Harper:

Actual numbers are real.

Glenn Harper:

And like, it's not an opinion, it's a fact.

Glenn Harper:

And entrepreneurs, again, they like to freewheel a little

Glenn Harper:

bit and they like to do what they feel and think.

Glenn Harper:

And that's why we love entrepreneurs, because they have

Glenn Harper:

that manic thing about them side.

Glenn Harper:

But at some point you've got to get them on point and look

Glenn Harper:

at the real things, make real decisions, and then send them

Glenn Harper:

off to hunt again. Right. And that's that's the fun part.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah.

Julie Smith:

And something you said that, you know, I read your profile

Julie Smith:

is quality over quantity.

Julie Smith:

And I think you've you've hinted around that a lot, but

Julie Smith:

that's definitely the pinpoint of what you're definitely

Julie Smith:

trying to get the owners to do is to get out of their own

Julie Smith:

way in regards to that quality over quantity and having

Julie Smith:

that accountability and having those systems in place in

Julie Smith:

order to have that, if you, in my opinion, you know, that's

Julie Smith:

exactly what you're doing.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah. For sure.

Kristen Deese:

It's that it's it goes back to the, the idea that if you

Kristen Deese:

have problems in your systems and you have problems if

Kristen Deese:

you've got problems when you're small and you throw more

Kristen Deese:

sales on top of it, all you're going to do is have bigger

Kristen Deese:

problems when you're big. So solve them and then dump a

Kristen Deese:

bunch of sales onto it and then it'll flourish.

Glenn Harper:

That's a bunch of poppycock.

Glenn Harper:

That is not true. That is not I don't know who told you

Glenn Harper:

that, but that's simply not true.

Glenn Harper:

You've got more sales.

Glenn Harper:

More sales. So your upbringing, when you're doing work,

Glenn Harper:

doing things on the farm, do you think, you know, a lot of

Glenn Harper:

entrepreneurs have this insatiable appetite to challenge

Glenn Harper:

themselves, do more than it's expected, and just really

Glenn Harper:

can't get enough of what they do.

Glenn Harper:

And that comes, you know, sometimes your program that way,

Glenn Harper:

sometimes you are instilled that work ethic when you're

Glenn Harper:

you're young or you see something with an athlete in the

Glenn Harper:

military, you know, police officer or farmer, just

Glenn Harper:

something where you have to do way more than is expected.

Glenn Harper:

You have to get up early. You've got to do those things

Glenn Harper:

again. Who doesn't love shovel manure?

Glenn Harper:

But I mean, like to be able to do those things.

Glenn Harper:

Do you feel like that gave you a good base to say like, I

Glenn Harper:

can roll up my sleeves and get into this, this isn't a

Glenn Harper:

problem.

Kristen Deese:

Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, it's work ethic was something

Kristen Deese:

that was instilled in me from as early as I can remember.

Kristen Deese:

And I definitely think that there is.

Kristen Deese:

There is that drive in entrepreneurs that isn't found in

Kristen Deese:

everybody, which is a good thing because we don't need

Kristen Deese:

everybody to be entrepreneurs.

Kristen Deese:

We need some people to just roll up their sleeves and do

Kristen Deese:

the work. I know that it like like a lot of people, there

Kristen Deese:

is a tendency to roll up the sleeves and do the work when

Kristen Deese:

you shouldn't be right, when somebody else should be doing

Kristen Deese:

it, or you should be kind of backing out.

Kristen Deese:

But, you know.

Kristen Deese:

Spending the time early on and working hard and seeing what

Kristen Deese:

happens when you do work hard, when you do a good job, you

Kristen Deese:

know, maybe you get the promotion or maybe you see the next

Kristen Deese:

opportunity. It just opens up a whole world of who knows

Kristen Deese:

what could have happened right?

Kristen Deese:

When I was a teenager, I never in a million years would

Kristen Deese:

have thought that we would be running multiple businesses

Kristen Deese:

and, you know, doing coaching and CFO services and

Kristen Deese:

whatever. And here I am doing the things.

Julie Smith:

So when you look back and I know Glenn's, you know, kind of

Julie Smith:

went back on, you know, your childhood, do you think that

Julie Smith:

there is someone from your childhood or maybe someone in

Julie Smith:

college or someone early on, even in your real job that you

Julie Smith:

would consider consider a mentor that had a big impact on

Julie Smith:

your life, even where you are today.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah. I had a mentor in my I had a job in when I was in

Kristen Deese:

college and it was at a hair salon actually, of all places.

Kristen Deese:

And I was kind of like the salon manager and I was very

Kristen Deese:

young, under 21 for sure, because I would have been I was

Kristen Deese:

in college at the time and the business owner was probably

Kristen Deese:

about ten years older than me.

Kristen Deese:

So she wasn't she was still young herself, but she was very

Kristen Deese:

intelligent in the terms of running the business.

Kristen Deese:

And she kind of took me under her wing and taught me a

Kristen Deese:

whole lot about the back end of running a business that

Kristen Deese:

would have taken me quite a bit longer to learn had she not

Kristen Deese:

done that. And that kind of was probably the first time I

Kristen Deese:

really saw numbers and trending and like statistics from a

Kristen Deese:

business standpoint in that way.

Kristen Deese:

And I didn't necessarily realize how much I really how much

Kristen Deese:

I enjoyed it at that point.

Kristen Deese:

A couple of years later, I was like, okay, now I understand

Kristen Deese:

that this is really cool, but I was actually doing that

Kristen Deese:

work several years prior and not even really realizing it.

Kristen Deese:

We were looking at individual stylist sales and creating

Kristen Deese:

commission reports and looking at expenses and how much

Kristen Deese:

does it cost when the shampoo person does two pumps versus

Kristen Deese:

one pump, when they're doing a shampoo, like all of those

Kristen Deese:

kind of things. We were analyzing and I was doing that,

Kristen Deese:

that whole trending in numbers way before I even realized

Kristen Deese:

what I was doing. So there was I think I definitely leaped

Kristen Deese:

forward while I worked there in a way that even though I'm

Kristen Deese:

taking classes in college and I'm learning, I'm learning

Kristen Deese:

about risk and I'm learning about fraud and I'm learning

Kristen Deese:

about all of these big business, very corporate accounting

Kristen Deese:

ideas on the side.

Kristen Deese:

I'm doing like real small business things, and those are

Kristen Deese:

not the type of skills that I would have learned taking the

Kristen Deese:

classes that I was taking in school because I was learning

Kristen Deese:

like the bigger auditing and stuff like that.

Kristen Deese:

So it was it was kind of a neat experience and especially

Kristen Deese:

Kristen Deese:

So you can see when you look back, you're like, Oh, that

Kristen Deese:

really was a very impactful time.

Glenn Harper:

It too. Comments on that.

Glenn Harper:

So hopefully you figured out a way to give the two pumps

Glenn Harper:

and charge an extra $0.20 for the thing because people want

Glenn Harper:

a lot of lather when they go in there.

Glenn Harper:

So that's important to do that and make sure you're making

Glenn Harper:

the money. But that other part too is the ability to it.

Glenn Harper:

When I was in school, I was working a real job and and in

Glenn Harper:

accounting. And it was amazing when you go to class and you

Glenn Harper:

learn a concept, but you have and then you go back to the

Glenn Harper:

office and you actually integrate it, you're like, wow.

Glenn Harper:

It just, you know, you learn by doing you kind of you're

Glenn Harper:

almost teaching to learn.

Glenn Harper:

And it really accelerates how much faster that stuff

Glenn Harper:

resonates with you. Right.

Glenn Harper:

And so I can definitely see where that could have happened

Glenn Harper:

for you.

Julie Smith:

Have you been able to keep that relationship and keep in

Julie Smith:

contact?

Kristen Deese:

For the first several years after I left, we did.

Kristen Deese:

We kind of grew apart a little bit.

Kristen Deese:

And now it's a connection once every couple of years and

Kristen Deese:

it's, oh, my gosh, how have you been?

Kristen Deese:

La la la la. And then a couple more years, we'll do it

Kristen Deese:

again.

Glenn Harper:

Do you find when you are you know, when you're willing to

Glenn Harper:

roll up your sleeves and get dirty and get into the into

Glenn Harper:

the guts of things, do you find that that creates a

Glenn Harper:

situation where you can be a more more of a leader than a

Glenn Harper:

boss? Because you're you show that you're willing to do the

Glenn Harper:

work. You've done it before.

Glenn Harper:

You have. Like, don't try to tell me anyone in this office.

Glenn Harper:

I did everything you guys have done and you can lead by

Glenn Harper:

example versus stand there dictating.

Glenn Harper:

Is that is that something you felt has helped you as well?

Kristen Deese:

Absolutely. And not only has it helped from the leadership

Kristen Deese:

standpoint, but it also helps keep me relevant in the

Kristen Deese:

situations that these business owners and their employees

Kristen Deese:

are going through on a regular basis.

Kristen Deese:

So that's part of why I still enjoy and appreciate doing

Kristen Deese:

the CFO services for the businesses that we own is because

Kristen Deese:

then when I am working with these other business owners,

Kristen Deese:

they're experiencing a lot of the same things that we are

Kristen Deese:

experiencing. So we can kind of almost bounce back and

Kristen Deese:

forth between what what have we tried, what worked, what

Kristen Deese:

didn't work. Here's what we do in our business.

Kristen Deese:

Let me help you implement that into your business.

Kristen Deese:

And so absolutely the trick is finding the balance of

Kristen Deese:

rolling up my sleeves and getting to work and showing

Kristen Deese:

showing the people that I am still willing to do that and

Kristen Deese:

stepping across the line of not delegating when I should,

Kristen Deese:

because we fall into the trap of it's easier to just do it

Kristen Deese:

myself than it would be to train somebody else to do it or

Kristen Deese:

to come up with a system or whatever.

Kristen Deese:

And at that point, it's when you turn into the bottleneck

Kristen Deese:

when you may not necessarily realize it.

Kristen Deese:

So it's definitely striking that line between, Yep, I'm

Kristen Deese:

going to roll up my sleeves and help and stay relevant.

Kristen Deese:

And also let me make sure that this isn't something that

Kristen Deese:

really should be delegated to somebody else.

Glenn Harper:

I feel like there's always somebody watching over my

Glenn Harper:

shoulder making sure that I'll do that because it's really,

Glenn Harper:

really easy because we have all this knowledge on the

Glenn Harper:

wisdom that again, we can look at a problem and we can get

Glenn Harper:

from A to Z in like eight nanoseconds.

Glenn Harper:

And if we hand it off to somebody, it's going to take them

Glenn Harper:

three days. But they've got to struggle.

Glenn Harper:

They got to figure it out.

Glenn Harper:

You've got to coach them along and they'll get there.

Glenn Harper:

Then maybe the fifth time they can do it in a couple of

Glenn Harper:

minutes, you know. But it's hard because you just want that

Glenn Harper:

instant results and get things done.

Kristen Deese:

Yup.

Glenn Harper:

Do you feel like at any point in time, like now you've been

Glenn Harper:

doing this for how many years?

Glenn Harper:

The CFO thing.

Kristen Deese:

The four other companies I've been doing CFO for about two

Kristen Deese:

years.

Glenn Harper:

Two years. And when you were doing the CFO for your current

Glenn Harper:

companies, you've been doing that for a while, right?

Glenn Harper:

That started way back when.

Glenn Harper:

Is there anything way back?

Glenn Harper:

Do you feel like there's a was a point in time where you're

Glenn Harper:

like, Man, if I had just known that, then where would I be

Glenn Harper:

today? Was there.

Glenn Harper:

When you look back, is there that moment where you're like,

Glenn Harper:

when you're sitting here today going, Gosh, if I had just

Glenn Harper:

known that little formula 15 years ago, I'd be a

Glenn Harper:

kajillionaire. Is that does that something that that hits

Glenn Harper:

you? Are you are you already just.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah, I got it. I'm just moving on.

Kristen Deese:

So I think that.

Kristen Deese:

There's probably a couple.

Kristen Deese:

One would be.

Kristen Deese:

When we figured out that when we started separating our our

Kristen Deese:

the company by departments and looking at department

Kristen Deese:

profitability, we started seeing this was like ten years

Kristen Deese:

ago, we started seeing that there was one department or

Kristen Deese:

wing that just really was underperforming.

Kristen Deese:

But that department brought in a lot of sales.

Kristen Deese:

And so we were terrified to let it go because it boosted

Kristen Deese:

the sales number. But when you got all the way down to the

Kristen Deese:

bottom, it was not doing anything for the bottom line.

Kristen Deese:

And so we were really scared to let that go and make that

Kristen Deese:

decision and kind of take that step in it.

Kristen Deese:

You know, looking at the opportunity costs and if if it's

Kristen Deese:

not making any money and we put that energy somewhere else,

Kristen Deese:

what could we be doing instead?

Kristen Deese:

And all of those things.

Kristen Deese:

So if we could have figured that out a little bit earlier,

Kristen Deese:

that would have been cool.

Kristen Deese:

And also it stays on the forefront now when we're looking

Kristen Deese:

at our different departments numbers as in terms of do we

Kristen Deese:

need to continue to provide the service, is it profitable

Kristen Deese:

or do we need to make a change or we need to let it go all

Kristen Deese:

together? I think the other thing that kind of piggybacks

Kristen Deese:

off of that is it took us when I say us, I would say

Kristen Deese:

probably just in.

Kristen Deese:

My husband is a little bit more guilty of this than I am.

Glenn Harper:

But of course, it's as.

Kristen Deese:

Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs want to say yes to

Kristen Deese:

everything, right? Like every opportunity that looks kind

Kristen Deese:

of shiny, they want to say yes, too.

Kristen Deese:

And so I would be on board.

Kristen Deese:

I'd be like, Yeah, yeah, let's do it, let's do it.

Kristen Deese:

Sounds great, whatever.

Kristen Deese:

And then it would completely take us off course of the

Kristen Deese:

vision that we had or it would just kind of we were all

Kristen Deese:

over the place for a little while.

Kristen Deese:

Again, this was years ago, so it took us both a while to be

Kristen Deese:

able to figure out what was something that we should say

Kristen Deese:

yes to versus what was something that we should thank you,

Kristen Deese:

but no thank you. In terms of looking at opportunities and

Kristen Deese:

again, if if that's something that we could have figured

Kristen Deese:

out earlier, then we could have been more dialed in on a

Kristen Deese:

direction and a vision earlier on.

Kristen Deese:

I think that we're we're dialed in now, but it didn't

Kristen Deese:

happen. It took half of the time that we were business

Kristen Deese:

owners for that to happen.

Kristen Deese:

So imagine if we would have been able to do that from the

Kristen Deese:

beginning, what this whole thing would look like.

Kristen Deese:

I think those are probably two of the.

Kristen Deese:

Two of the key.

Kristen Deese:

Had I known now what I knew then.

Glenn Harper:

What it could have showed. The the one thing you mentioned,

Glenn Harper:

and I think that's probably, you know, everybody has a why

Glenn Harper:

they do what they do and it's your why is not that you love

Glenn Harper:

numbers. I mean, obviously you're doing your accountant,

Glenn Harper:

for God's sakes. We love numbers.

Glenn Harper:

But I think it's more of the fact that you want to help.

Glenn Harper:

And when you walk into a client and you understand, we see

Glenn Harper:

this a lot in our business, a lot that, you know, a client

Glenn Harper:

is all driven about their gross sales.

Glenn Harper:

It's not about the gross, it's about the margin.

Glenn Harper:

Right. And, oh, I sold 10 million last year.

Glenn Harper:

Well, how much did you make? You know, ten bucks.

Glenn Harper:

I'm like, Well, I got a guy over here.

Glenn Harper:

Glenn Harper:

Who would you rather be?

Glenn Harper:

Right. So being able to for you kind of understanding that

Glenn Harper:

a ha moment in your own business and now you're out

Glenn Harper:

coaching and teaching other people this, that's got to be

Glenn Harper:

one of the first things you talk about and that has got to

Glenn Harper:

be really, really well received for a client to understand

Glenn Harper:

that it's not about how much I mean, sales are important

Glenn Harper:

and what you sell for, but it's not what you sell it for,

Glenn Harper:

what you make on it. And I feel like that is a very

Glenn Harper:

impactful thing that you're doing for people that again,

Glenn Harper:

you're helping them accelerate and get over that hump, that

Glenn Harper:

it took you a long time to figure it out.

Glenn Harper:

Right.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the idea would be to help them shorten

Kristen Deese:

their learning curve, right?

Kristen Deese:

Like we took we took the long way.

Kristen Deese:

We took the long route there.

Kristen Deese:

But to be able to help them shorten the learning curve and

Kristen Deese:

get to the profitability that they want to be at faster

Kristen Deese:

obviously is the ultimate goal.

Kristen Deese:

There's a lot of times that I talk to business owners who

Kristen Deese:

are just in complete overwhelm.

Kristen Deese:

They're running, they're running ragged, their business is

Kristen Deese:

running them. They've got customers who are beating on the

Kristen Deese:

doors, wanting things, and they have employees that they're

Kristen Deese:

having a hard time dealing with.

Kristen Deese:

And, you know, they don't know their numbers.

Kristen Deese:

They're they're gauging whether or not they're doing well

Kristen Deese:

by the cash that's sitting in the bank and whether or not

Kristen Deese:

they can make their next payroll.

Kristen Deese:

And it's a tough place to be in.

Kristen Deese:

And I know that because I've been there.

Kristen Deese:

And it's it feels like, you know, you go through periods of

Kristen Deese:

time when you're like, what am I even doing this for?

Kristen Deese:

I just seem to throw it all away and go get a job that I

Kristen Deese:

can go to work and I can come home and I can get a paycheck

Kristen Deese:

on Friday, and that's it.

Kristen Deese:

But that's not the entrepreneurial way.

Kristen Deese:

No, it's not. So it's so going in and being like, okay,

Kristen Deese:

cool. I know it's chaotic right now and I have been in

Kristen Deese:

those shoes, so let's get to work on fixing this and then

Kristen Deese:

pulling them out of that and fixing all of the things and

Kristen Deese:

then setting them back out on their little journey.

Kristen Deese:

That is the reason that I do the things, because it just it

Kristen Deese:

hurts my heart to see when they're struggling because we

Kristen Deese:

were there, too. And I can I definitely know I'm living the

Kristen Deese:

example that there is 100% a better way to run your

Kristen Deese:

business.

Glenn Harper:

Don't you feel like entrepreneurs definitely have a screw

Glenn Harper:

loose? I mean, we're definitely a little bit odd because

Glenn Harper:

who who wakes up every day negative and is happy to go

Glenn Harper:

perform and try to turn that into a positive.

Glenn Harper:

And the cool thing is, once entrepreneurs recognize that

Glenn Harper:

they need that help, like you said, you had a coach before

Glenn Harper:

you even as you were doing your business, you had a coach

Glenn Harper:

as entrepreneurs realized that that coach and you're doing

Glenn Harper:

that for these as a CFO, you're basically their coach,

Glenn Harper:

right? It's not about the numbers.

Glenn Harper:

It's really about your mental state.

Glenn Harper:

It's amazing how somebody could be so close to burning out

Glenn Harper:

and just they can't take it anymore, but they really,

Glenn Harper:

really want to do it. And all of a sudden they get this

Glenn Harper:

little key and then, boom, they are off to the races.

Glenn Harper:

And it's it's the greatest feeling ever for me anyway.

Glenn Harper:

That's why I love doing what I do.

Glenn Harper:

But I'd imagine it's very similar for you.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah, for sure.

Julie Smith:

So early on.

Julie Smith:

You know, I know that your husband was the reason you guys

Julie Smith:

kind of went into this and you were kind of doing the real

Julie Smith:

job. But at what point do you think you knew or you and

Julie Smith:

your husband decided to?

Julie Smith:

We need a team and we have to kind of get out of our own

Julie Smith:

way. We have to be able to kind of build this team and

Julie Smith:

delegate. And I just curious at what point you had that

Julie Smith:

moment?

Kristen Deese:

It did not take very long to get to that point from the

Kristen Deese:

technician labor standpoint, because Justin was the only

Kristen Deese:

one doing the technical labor and he was also trying to

Kristen Deese:

answer the phone and he was trying to talk to the stores

Kristen Deese:

and he was trying to do all of these things.

Kristen Deese:

And so it didn't take long for him to be like, this is for

Kristen Deese:

the birds, somebody else.

Kristen Deese:

We need to get somebody else in here to help with the

Kristen Deese:

actual technical part of it, the technical labor part.

Kristen Deese:

And then so there was so we brought in the first

Kristen Deese:

technician, which by the way, is still with us today.

Kristen Deese:

He's our general manager of our business in Atlanta.

Kristen Deese:

So he came in and started helping and then.

Kristen Deese:

I want to say we probably brought in somebody who sat in

Kristen Deese:

like a CSR position, even if it was just from a part time

Kristen Deese:

standpoint to kind of help with some of the administrative

Kristen Deese:

things. But the point where it was like, okay, we need

Kristen Deese:

somebody is the puppet for I am out the door by five

Kristen Deese:

Kristen Deese:

sleeping for a couple of hours and getting up and doing it

Kristen Deese:

all over again. You can only do that for a certain period

Kristen Deese:

of time before you're like, Okay, something's got to give.

Kristen Deese:

And then for from me and the job standpoint, it was a strain

Kristen Deese:

on the relationship.

Kristen Deese:

It was a strain on the House in general to have him gone

Kristen Deese:

all the time. Because then I am doing the pickups at

Kristen Deese:

daycare and I'm going to work and then I'm picking up at

Kristen Deese:

daycare at the end of the day, and then we're doing dinner

Kristen Deese:

and bath and the whole thing, and then I get the hour.

Kristen Deese:

We only had one child at the time, so get him into bed at

Kristen Deese:

eight and from 8 to 11 or 12 at night.

Kristen Deese:

I'm working on sending out invoices and collecting payments

Kristen Deese:

and doing all those things to the point where we were both

Kristen Deese:

working so many hours that we were like, Well, this is kind

Kristen Deese:

of stupid, why are we doing this?

Kristen Deese:

So we had to we had to grow.

Kristen Deese:

We didn't have a choice. We didn't have to grow.

Kristen Deese:

We didn't have the money to do it.

Kristen Deese:

We didn't know how we were going to do it or we didn't know

Kristen Deese:

what the employees are going to look like.

Kristen Deese:

But we like we need some help.

Kristen Deese:

This is getting out of control.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah, definitely say that.

Glenn Harper:

You know, that's not for everybody.

Glenn Harper:

But literally, if you can get through that period, you can

Glenn Harper:

help get that key.

Glenn Harper:

There is light on the other side.

Glenn Harper:

Unless you suck at what you do right, then that doesn't

Glenn Harper:

matter. But if you're if you're if you're good at what you

Glenn Harper:

do and, you know, like and I'd imagine to just and still

Glenn Harper:

wear his tool belt around the house as he walk around

Glenn Harper:

thinking he's all that or is he doesn't even wear one

Glenn Harper:

anymore.

Kristen Deese:

Here does not.

Kristen Deese:

As a matter of fact, there there is we have several go to

Kristen Deese:

contractors for our jobs around the house.

Kristen Deese:

So he is completely embraced, not doing the technical work.

Glenn Harper:

Well, I got to talk to that guy because I feel like he's got

Glenn Harper:

to get shocked in an electrical receptacle at some point

Glenn Harper:

just to make sure it works.

Julie Smith:

I feel like he has defined delegation, you know, to the

Julie Smith:

point of delegation.

Julie Smith:

Right. He's got it down.

Glenn Harper:

Got a doctorate and a doctorate in delegation.

Glenn Harper:

Did you have a you know, I listen to one of your podcasts,

Glenn Harper:

which is which is weird because I don't listen to anything

Glenn Harper:

ever. I'm kidding, of course.

Glenn Harper:

But you had a thing that you talk about clients that you

Glenn Harper:

have you have them do this exercise of of writing their own

Glenn Harper:

little thing.

Glenn Harper:

You know what I'm talking about.

Glenn Harper:

You want to share with that how that works and how is that

Glenn Harper:

received by the clients?

Kristen Deese:

The analogy exercise.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah, I think it's fantastic.

Kristen Deese:

So. So that was an exercise that our business coach had us

Kristen Deese:

do when we were trying to basically find figure out why it

Kristen Deese:

is that we were doing what we were doing.

Kristen Deese:

So there's a couple of different ways that you can get to

Kristen Deese:

that. Some people do the seven layer.

Kristen Deese:

Why? Why are you doing this?

Kristen Deese:

Because of this. Well, why?

Kristen Deese:

Why do you want that? And you just kind of keep asking why

Kristen Deese:

that's impactful. However, I think the eulogy exercise is

Kristen Deese:

more impactful from like an internal soul shaking kind of

Kristen Deese:

way because you you literally write what you want, your

Kristen Deese:

eulogy to read or what you would want somebody to say as

Kristen Deese:

your eulogy at your funeral.

Kristen Deese:

And it kind of.

Kristen Deese:

Makes everything very real, and it really helps you

Kristen Deese:

highlight the handful of things that are ultimately

Kristen Deese:

important. You know, you say that you want to be a business

Kristen Deese:

owner because you want to make more money.

Kristen Deese:

Well, making a bunch of money and dying with a bunch of

Kristen Deese:

money isn't something that you would want necessarily to be

Kristen Deese:

put in your eulogy.

Kristen Deese:

Right. So if you if you work out the exercise, very humbling

Kristen Deese:

exercise of writing your eulogy, then you're really

Kristen Deese:

striking the what do you want to be known for?

Kristen Deese:

What what do you want to die knowing that you've done?

Kristen Deese:

Knowing what kind of person you are.

Kristen Deese:

The characteristics that you have.

Kristen Deese:

And when you can highlight that out of your eulogy, then

Kristen Deese:

going forward and making your vision, it kind of can ground

Kristen Deese:

that vision more deeply than if it was just something that

Kristen Deese:

was superficial. I want to make more money.

Kristen Deese:

So it's definitely a really humbling exercise.

Kristen Deese:

There are.

Kristen Deese:

I've only had a few people push back on that exercise.

Kristen Deese:

Most people will do it and they'll, you know, they'll kind

Kristen Deese:

of like scratch the surface and then we'll go over it.

Kristen Deese:

And then I'd be like, All right, cool.

Kristen Deese:

Take it back and let's dig a little deeper.

Kristen Deese:

And then you can tell when they when they kind of hit the

Kristen Deese:

the core of it.

Kristen Deese:

So it's really a very impactful exercise.

Kristen Deese:

And while it sounds really like morbid, it's got good

Kristen Deese:

purpose.

Glenn Harper:

I think it's genius.

Glenn Harper:

I mean, everybody's got to know the why and what are you

Glenn Harper:

trying to accomplish? Because for you, this is this is like

Glenn Harper:

one of the trick questions.

Glenn Harper:

Not that I haven't given you like 20 of them already, but

Glenn Harper:

this one is what is the end game?

Glenn Harper:

I mean, are you going to try to do this CFO thing for

Glenn Harper:

another 20 companies, 50 companies?

Glenn Harper:

You're going to scale and put other people in.

Glenn Harper:

Are you going to grow your business to be in all 50 states?

Glenn Harper:

Are you going to open up a ton of other businesses?

Glenn Harper:

You're going to milk this thing and just coders in the

Glenn Harper:

sunset. What exactly is Kristen's endgame on this?

Kristen Deese:

My end game is is just my clientele.

Kristen Deese:

I don't plan on bringing on any other coaches or growing

Kristen Deese:

and scaling to that size.

Kristen Deese:

I thoroughly enjoy having a handful of clients at a time

Kristen Deese:

and building really strong, lasting relationships with

Kristen Deese:

these business owners, as opposed to the very low touch

Kristen Deese:

hitting a lot of people at the same time.

Kristen Deese:

Idea. I leave the.

Kristen Deese:

Growing to 50 states and the things that we're doing to

Kristen Deese:

Justin because he's that's where he operates.

Kristen Deese:

Like that's the brain space that he operates in, which is

Kristen Deese:

super amazing.

Kristen Deese:

I don't know if you guys are familiar with the book Rocket

Kristen Deese:

Fuel by Gina Wickman.

Kristen Deese:

So that book is really cool because it highlights the

Kristen Deese:

personalities of the visionary and the integrator and that

Kristen Deese:

how both personalities are necessary in order to have a

Kristen Deese:

successful business. And very rarely is one person, both

Kristen Deese:

personalities in just a nice case.

Kristen Deese:

We are definitely the individuals.

Kristen Deese:

So he is the visionary and I'm in the integrator.

Kristen Deese:

I by doing this virtual CFO, I'm able to scratch the itch

Kristen Deese:

of the integrator for other businesses too, not just my

Kristen Deese:

own. And so, you know, it's not necessarily a desire of

Kristen Deese:

mine to grow this particular arm of what we do into this

Kristen Deese:

ginormous business.

Kristen Deese:

I'm more after, you know, finding the people that that need

Kristen Deese:

me and that want to use me and building that relationship

Kristen Deese:

and making them better and sending them on their way and

Kristen Deese:

then doing that with the next client and just kind of

Kristen Deese:

trucking along until I decide that I want to retire on an

Kristen Deese:

island and Turks and Caicos.

Glenn Harper:

I think that's fantastic.

Glenn Harper:

I have this feeling that Justin's got a split personality.

Glenn Harper:

He really wants to be an integrator, too, but he decides

Glenn Harper:

that that you like that better.

Glenn Harper:

So he's going to step back from that.

Glenn Harper:

That's what I think is going on.

Glenn Harper:

Yeah, I'm kidding. Of course.

Glenn Harper:

Well, is there do you want to give a you want to give a

Glenn Harper:

plug to your company? And so people might be able to look

Glenn Harper:

you up and do something with that.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah. So my website is Kristin Dotcom and the services and

Kristen Deese:

the different things from the virtual CFO standpoint that I

Kristen Deese:

do are on that site.

Kristen Deese:

And one thing that we didn't bring up is that just you and

Kristen Deese:

I are authors. We wrote a book called When Your Business

Kristen Deese:

Partner Is Your Spouse How to Have a Successful Business

Kristen Deese:

and a Happy Marriage.

Kristen Deese:

And that book can be found on my website and on Audible.

Glenn Harper:

Is that under fiction or non-fiction?

Glenn Harper:

I'm kidding. 100% true.

Glenn Harper:

It's a it's an amazing when you get that clarity to make

Glenn Harper:

that work, because it is hard to do that.

Glenn Harper:

And when you figure it out, it is it is going to be very

Glenn Harper:

rewarding. Well, I appreciate your time today.

Glenn Harper:

Thanks for coming on. And hopefully this was rewarding for

Glenn Harper:

you as it was for us.

Glenn Harper:

And I hope our listeners can glean something from this and

Glenn Harper:

say, You know what, that's going to inspire me to be a

Glenn Harper:

better entrepreneur.

Glenn Harper:

This is Glen Harper.

Kristen Deese:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

Glenn Harper:

You're welcome.

Julie Smith:

And Julie Smith,

Julie Smith:

Glenn Harper: Take care.