What a great story behind the changes that have occurred over the last few years at Shelton & Associates!
We have transitioned from a full-service accounting firm where we have historically considered ourselves as a tax factory, and we now specialize in being advisors and relationships with our clients and working with them to just establish their best practices, build a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship where they can reach their financial goals through our expertise, to our advice and through our building with them over time.
Wayne knew he had to change his business model for the company. But he didn’t have the right person in place to do that – until Ryan. He was able to take his background in Law Enforcement to drive the company.
We wanted to empower our staff. And so that was a big part of it. They take ownership of their situation. They take ownership of their clients. They get excited. Like, I get to do the bigger work, the bigger stuff, and I’m also getting to see the results as well. The clients love it more because they’re doing it’s not just Wayne, it’s not just Ryan that they can talk to get their answers from.
Wayne talks about how the culture changed in just a short amount of time with the proper leadership and direction.
My office was a train wreck. We had people going 18 different directions. But we’ve changed all that and we’ve got a totally different culture, and it pretty much turned over the whole staff in a three year period.
What is it that you actually do that makes you money?
The planning advisory. When we bring somebody on board, they have a situation in their business possibly various disasters going on. And a lot of this impacts their tactical situations. So we come in and we apply that advisory service.
What is your dream now? What what do you see happening now that you look forward?
We’ve also really branched out into a couple of areas like this business leadership we are doing. We actually look at that as a separate advisory product as well. And we’re going up to Minnesota, Wisconsin to teach a firm for two days. They’ve engaged us to teach for two days on-site at their annual meeting. We’re going there to try to get them to put in place a foundation set so they can grow in a similar fashion. And grow better for learning from our mistakes along the way.
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Transcript
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Welcome, everyone, this is Glenn Harper.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Harper CPA Plus
Julie Smith:
Speaker:And Julie Smith, the Barista,
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:The barista in charge.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:We got a great guest today.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:We've got Wayne Shelton and Ryan Conn of Shelton Associates
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:and CS Business Consulting out of Paducah, Kentucky.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And my question is, is that near Podunk BFE or where is
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:that at?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Well, Paducah, Kentucky, we are Western Kentucky.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We are so far west in Kentucky that we actually drive right
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:across the river north into Illinois.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Well, actually, we're about halfway between possum trot and
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:monkey's eyebrow. I know right
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Where that is. That's a great place to be.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Well, thanks for joining us, guys.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I guess the first thing we want to do is kind of share with
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:our guests. What exactly do you guys?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:What do you guys do? What's your business that you're in as
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:an entrepreneur?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Yeah, very question, so we we run an accounting firm, Wayne
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and I are partners at Sheldon Associates CPA, which is our
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:first love and our primary engagement.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We have transitioned from a full service accounting firm
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:where we have historically considered ourselves like a tax
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:factory, and we now specialize in being advisors and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:relationships with our clients and working with them to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:just establish their best practices, build a long lasting
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and mutually beneficial relationship where they can reach
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:their financial goals through our expertise, to our advice
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and through our building with them over time.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And also, we want to reduce their tax footprint, their tax
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:liability,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Make the tax
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Efficient, tax efficient, write and audit perform while
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:building a long lasting relationship over time and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:ultimately things like bookkeeping compliance like payroll
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:taxes, sales taxes and the big tax.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:That's just the five of us having a relationship with
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:forward transition should be an accounting firm like that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:instead of just breaking out tax returns all the time.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:That sounds like a horrible business model.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:An easier way to make money.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I'll tell you that right?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Gotcha. It's definitely a better business model what we came
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:from, which is why we're enjoying it a lot.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We're having a lot more fun.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I always tell people and even our clients as we bring them
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:on or work with them is that selfishly, this is a lot more
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:fun. I get to watch your success, I get to see your eyes
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:pop on. You realize the impact so this planning has on
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:their situation. And it's selfishly it's very rewarding to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:watch people grow and succeed and drive their businesses
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:further.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And it's nice for us to have a fairly focused type of
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:business that we are working in now, rather than trying to
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:be all things to all people, which is what we did.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:People would come in and say, Can you do this here?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We can do that. You know,
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Now you use that, you use that f word fun, you're having fun
Julie Smith:
Speaker:now. It can't possibly be because you met Glenn and I.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:So what are you doing?
Julie Smith:
Speaker:That's so fun? How did you make that transition?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Well, you and Glenn would probably be the major
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:contributors, of course.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Well, you know,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We made a mental shift, right?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We changed our mindset and we decided we don't want to be
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:stuck in the grind anymore.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Now, of course, even with the model that we're all there,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:still, there's still a deadline from the government that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:these loans have to be accomplished.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:But we don't have this insane spike for three months in the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:winter and spring and then a bigger role in the action
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:until we know a couple of deadlines.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So we have consistent work all year round that empowers our
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:staff, keeps our clients engaged.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And it's just more fun.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:It's more fun to know that I'm getting more product out of
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:my staff and getting more value into the hands of my
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:clients and ultimately growing the firm and prospering.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So, yeah, it's definitely more fun building relationships
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and helping people succeed.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Now, Ryan, you have an interesting background, and that's
Julie Smith:
Speaker:probably why you and I hit it off so, so quickly is neither
Julie Smith:
Speaker:one of us have know anything about a 10 key.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Essentially, do you want to talk a little bit about where
Julie Smith:
Speaker:you were, where you are and kind of how Wayne played a role
Julie Smith:
Speaker:into that?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Sure. So I'll give you as much of the Reader's Digest
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:version as I can.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:But I originally I went to Harvard University down in
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Arkansas, which is where I met my wife, Natalie, and that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:is Wade's number.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So one thing is my father in law for the viewers or
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:listeners. I didn't know that ahead of time, and I was in
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:law enforcement for 12 years, serving locally at law
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:enforcement. Since I graduated college, I played football.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:That's where I met Natalie. And then we moved back to Duke
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and I became a cop and I worked there for 12 years.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:My job very much graduated into top of priority of the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:instructor. I mentor a trainer of adults and over 17
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:different disciplines. I was teaching the training law
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:enforcement how to survive, how to best investigate, and I
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:was leading undercover drug units.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I was leading a SWAT team firearms training, active shooter
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:training, riot training, some really cool stuff.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:But ultimately, when Wayne came to me, I had to leave all
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:of that. All the action is taxes.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Yeah. And so we we ended up giving me an opportunity to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:partner up with him. To become a partner at the firm made
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:me an offer I could use, and he was very savvy and he was
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:looking down the road of the future, realize that he was
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:growing his business.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:He could be more and wanted more as a traditional
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:accountant. He didn't necessarily have the tools to put in
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:lots of his leadership principles and these principles.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You know, so many are some workflow, some all kinds of
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:things. That's what I did.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I take 12 guys into a house in a critical situation.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You all work for the best team.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So no one got hurt in.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:The bad guy gets captured.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Well, now that national level, we have to take eight or
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:nine people that are four now 13 and fill that much and get
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:them all the and they all work as a so that don't have a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:curve balls in the cracks.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So Client gets upset.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:The relationship is good and we've built systems over time
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and we have actually put that more flow for that process.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Put that job responsibility and culture in a place where it
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:really allowed us to just just absolutely explode.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I'm just going to say that Wayne had to be one hell of a
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:marketer to lure you away from all that other excitement to
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:the accounting world of excitement.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:That's impressive, Wayne.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:How did you how did you put the pressure on him?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:It is. It is.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:It's impressive. I always tell people I sell selling ketchup
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:popsicle to a lady in a white glove on the Fourth of July,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:so he's good at what he does.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:When the the one thing you said earlier about the fun, you
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:know, people think, you know, you have to be serious and
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:what you do as an entrepreneur.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And it's really important business, especially to deal with
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:people's money, especially, you know.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:You know, Ryan, back when you're, you know, you got hostile
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:situations, life and death situations.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:You know, accounting is not quite like that, but we are
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:talking about people's money and that's a big deal, right?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So the question is, is how did you recognize that the
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:industry that you're in?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I guess that we're all in here, that you had to bring a
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:little bit of levity, a little bit of an excitement, a
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:little bit of fun. And it's not just grind it down to just
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:be so serious all the time, it sounds exhausting.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:How did how did you make that transition from being like,
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Hey, we got to make the donuts to, hey, let's make some
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:donuts? How did you do that?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Yeah. Well, so again, that carried overall force, one of the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:things that was great about our local agency was that we
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:believed in training and we believed in preparing the staff
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and the officers to be the best and that carried over here.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We wanted to empower our staff.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And so that was a big part of it.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And so if the staff is no longer a backdoor person that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:just gets reports, they go and they have to they enter in
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:compliance all day long in some back room because they're
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:new or young or haven't been on the job for five years to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:get a shot at a senior position.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We start empowering them.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:They take ownership of their situation.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:They take ownership of their clients.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:They get excited. Like, I get to do the bigger work, the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:bigger stuff, and I'm also getting to see the results as
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:well. The clients love it more because they're doing it's
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:not just white, it's not just riding that they can talk to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:get their answers from.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:There's a lot of times, you know, we're going on the phone,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:we're not available.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And so the quickest solution to their answer is to this
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:other person. So by empowering our staff, we made it more
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:fun for them, more fun for us.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And again, we're we're pretty big into the relationship.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So I actually ask you, I care about, in my words, small
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:impact situations, but I care about the family and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:assessing business, what type of headaches you're going
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:through and just being a little bit of that counselor that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:relationship and know we can be kind of a little bit of
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:more than just a number of guys.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We obviously literally have a human conversation with them
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:to establish that relationship.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And, you know, one of one of the big differences that I can
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:see is now that we are focused on a smaller section of
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:business of what we're trying to do.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We're able to really watch everything that happens.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:So if they come up with a new government program which
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:they, as you guys know, have come up with 10 of them in the
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:last two years, they change the rules on all of them
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:multiple times.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But because we are really focusing on the planning part, we
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:stayed up on top of all that stuff and our clients
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:appreciate it because they know that they are maximizing
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:what they can get from the government and doing everything
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:right on these type programs and is made a huge difference.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And because there's so many other firms that are not doing
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:anything in regards to those type issues.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:So Ryan talks a lot about team and empowering Wayne before
Julie Smith:
Speaker:you had Ryan and you lured him away from, you know, his day
Julie Smith:
Speaker:job. Did you kind of have the same culture or were you able
Julie Smith:
Speaker:to completely change that culture when when Ryan came in,
Julie Smith:
Speaker:when did you have that aha moment that the team is so
Julie Smith:
Speaker:important?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Probably after about six months, Ryan had been here and, you
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:know, one of the things that because right, is my son in
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:law and, you know, I kind of knew the type of training that
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:he had gone through. And one of the things people do not
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:realize is police officers are probably the best trained
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:people in the world.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:They're the best vetted when it comes to interviews and
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:background checks.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I mean, when they do a background check on a potential
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:officer, they go to his hometown and interview people.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You think we ever do that?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know? So I guess my point is these people are highly
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:trained and they are usually highly motivated.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:They are the top notch people.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And because of that, and we know that now we've got to what
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:do we do? Well, one other retired police officers working
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:with us and two police officers, wives that are working
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:with us. So, you know, we understand where those people
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:have been and the type of training and the leadership
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:training they have, which is far superior to anything we
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:even have available.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:So when Ryan began and brought that into us and we started
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:converting that over, I mean, my office was a train wreck.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We had people going 18 different directions.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And that's pretty good with only getting people, OK.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But we've changed all that and we've got a totally
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:different culture, and it pretty much turned over the whole
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:staff in a three year period.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So I'm trying to get my head around.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:How can you bring in?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Are you are you discounting the importance of accountants
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:and suggesting that you don't have to be an accountant to
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:do accounting work and tax work?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:That's that's insane.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:How can that possibly be?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:It's like magic, I don't know.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But it is really true.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I'll tell you, there are so many principles that carry over
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:from one job to another.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Job and leadership is a big thing that police officers are
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:trained and they have a ton of a ton of stuff that they
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:talk about with leadership training.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:How many passes do we have in leadership training?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I think that'd be zero, wouldn't it?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Well, you know, it talks you.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:You know, how do you make a good cocktail?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I think I've had that class before.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yeah, that's a different issue.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Yeah, there you go. All right.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:I can attest that he's probably had negative classes in
Julie Smith:
Speaker:that.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Well, we're not trying to do that.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, these guys are and it's it's been a real eye
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:opener for me.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Well, it's always good to have like a Dirty Harry on your
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:staff. So that's important because then they can go rogue
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:and that's always exciting.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yeah. What are the safest office in town?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:That's right. So what?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:What exactly, you know, everybody has these bad habits that
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:we work for is to make money to go support those bad
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:habits. What is it?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Actually, I like asking an entrepreneur, Is this what is it
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:that you actually do that makes you money?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:What is that thing that you do?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Is it is it the task of doing a tax return or is it the
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:task of leading a team?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Is it being proactive with your clients?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:What is the thing you think you do that generates the
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:revenue for your firm?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You know, ours is that advisory piece.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So we we get
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:The planning part
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:That playing advisory, we bring people on board or really
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:finish it off our list of existing clients.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:But when we bring somebody on board on board, they have a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:situation in business there that it has various disasters
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:going on and a lot of them impact their tactical situations
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:together. So we come in and we apply that advisory service.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We usually our average person that comes on board gets four
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:meetings. And so in those formal meetings, we charge a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:premium price because we're going to basically reset their
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:situation and get that push off in the right direction.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:That has incredible value for that client, not US dollars,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:but the stress and anxiety of the time, you know, and just
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:think about onboarding somebody who's payroll and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:bookkeeping is all just money and crazy, advising how to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:get better teaching and training them to do it or taking it
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:on ourselves with an advisory component to it.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I mean, they just free up a ton of time to go, run their
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:business and make money, you know, building widgets, more
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:construction, mowing lawns, whatever it may be, hotel
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:rooms. And now we're on the financial side of things while
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:giving advice on how to do things better on a daily basis
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:for now. And that's that's what we make our money.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:The taxpayer that's backwards to make sure that we go for
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:that of advisory is what people want.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So if they're asking and begging for and that's where we
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:make our
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Out of it, and I'll tell you something in this run, I have
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:this conversation weekly because we we've been onboarding
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:since for the last probably two months, two people a week
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:on advisory maintenance.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But I am amazed at what poor advice professionals are given
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:out to their clients.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I tell Ryan every week I said, I cannot believe this.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Look at this mess that these people have created.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Supposedly, you know, CPAs that have got many years
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:experience and people are not, in my opinion.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Trying to work with our clients and help them in the tax
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:planning area, they're just not doing it, and I feel like
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:that is a failing of our profession.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, agree.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I think we're fixing it.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Well, great. So you're suggesting then that it's not just
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:punching a few numbers in a tax return and that's all the
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:people need. You're suggesting that they need something
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:more than that.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Absolutely, they need and a lot of times they don't even
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:know that they need.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But what we see is that they do and they don't even know
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:whether a human being all this money.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, we in the last year, we've probably onboarded 30
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:clients that had a Schedule C that was very successful and
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:they were paying $15000 and in self-employment tax when
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:they could have probably made that 25 percent of that.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And when we tell people that the first thing, some of them,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:what they did is they get actually mad, not at us, but they
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:say I have for the last 10 years, I've been paying $15000
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:too much. That's I could buy a house for that, you know?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:So it's it's kind of nice to see people realize what you're
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:doing.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I think that when that happens, I think for for me, anyway,
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:we have that conversation.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:It has to focus on, Hey, now now let's not be looking
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:backwards. Let's look forwards.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:We can't talk about the sins of the past.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Let's move forward because it is an emotional gut punch for
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:people when they realize that kind of thing.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And so I feel like then you're what you're probably trying
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:to say is that the the the thing you do that makes you guys
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:money and profitable is giving the advice that helps other
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:people become profitable and make money and keep more
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:money. Is that a fair statement?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yes, sir.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:So, Ryan and Wayne, you've kind of built this successful
Julie Smith:
Speaker:business, you've transitioned your team, you guys have
Julie Smith:
Speaker:transitioned your mindset.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:What is your dream now?
Julie Smith:
Speaker:What what do you see happening now that you look forward,
Julie Smith:
Speaker:as Glenn said, and not at the sins of the past?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So we're still going on and a couple of areas we want to we
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:kind of have a needs less vision or maybe Home Office, we
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:grow, we have 13 people now.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And that was when I came on board, you know, I made eight
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and we put the hiring part time first and nine, we went
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:down to eight and now we're up to 13 and grown
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:strategically and we're about to go on building one more
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:person probably make things first, and we may have a need
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:for that. And so that's kind of our dream to grow.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I don't want to get too large and I probably don't want to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:have more fun. People may want to take it for two thousand.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I want I want to manage that and also maybe two officers or
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:20 people in the future, I to be more powerful.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:My forty one, forty two year old Wayne, he's this
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Is his ninety four.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We know we've also really branched out into a couple of
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:areas like this, this business leadership doing that.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We actually look at that as a separate advisory product as
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:well. And we're going up to Minnesota, Wisconsin to teach a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:firm for two days.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You know, they've engaged us to teach for two days on site
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:at their annual meeting
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:In which there are hundreds and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Hundreds. We're going there and really trying to get them
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:put in place in all those lockstep with that foundation set
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:so they can grow in a similar fashion, hopefully better for
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:learning from our mistakes along the way.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And you know, that's kind of our next vision is to make
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:even the advisory services of our accounting practice as
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:autonomous as possible.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Right. So unless there's a real specialty needs and I could
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:swoop in and maybe solve some of those really, you know,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:kind of uniform scenarios like, Okay, let's get into this.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:But other than that, teach and train other people, how
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:business model go around the country, help people with that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:travel and speak and teach.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And you know, one of the things we've been very fortunate
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:about is we've hired some outstanding staff and we are
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:looking at them to take over more of the day to day type
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:stuff. And we've made a couple of strategic hires just
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:lately that we're very excited about.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We can already tell that that's working out so.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:So that's going to be a really good thing for us.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And I'm like, Ryan, you know how he will probably retire
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:way before me, but you know, after tax season, I tried it
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:last year, but it didn't work out too well.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I'm going to try to go four days a week, but we're having
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:so much fun and you know, the traveling and the teaching,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:all that stuff is a lot of fun at us.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We both love to travel, we take all our families and do it.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And so I mean, we're having a good time.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So are you.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:You just said earlier that you don't want to get too big
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:because it's a lot of work to do.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And then in the same breath, a typical entrepreneur psychos
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:that we are, you're like, Well, we're going to start these
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:other wings in business and do all this and this and this.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So, you know, the the mind of an entrepreneur is a very
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:dangerous place for people to be and and people that aren't
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:aren't one. They that's hard for them to comprehend, so the
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:endgame can't be.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I'm going to have the greatest adviser practice ever there.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:It never ends, does it?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I mean, it just doesn't ever stop.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:You know, when you said you, you might retire.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I can't understand why you would retire.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:You're having too much fun.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:You're doing things you enjoy now.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So is that a true statement that entrepreneurs generally
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:just never really stop?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:It is good. I think so.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And we see a lot
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Of and I say you.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I won't have to come in like I said, it will be autonomous
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:so I can free up a lot more travel and play.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You know, by that point, my first kid will be in college
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and so I can I can do the helicopter that a little bit more
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:down there hanging out some of that stuff like that.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And again, one thing I've always want to do in life,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:obviously, if I was a cop on a single salary, you know, my
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:wife is in school and stuff like that, I'm going to travel,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I'm going to chase my dreams.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I show up to work every day and serve my community.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Well, now as an entrepreneur, I control more of my schedule
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:for all of it, except for one reason tells me what to do,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:which is good. And then we get to do that.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So my kids actually had a broader future as there being
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:more culture and travel and things like that go along with
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:me. So that has allowed me to chase not only one option
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:where I can dedicate myself to that well,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And he's got four kids and at least two of them.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, I've worked down here at the office and they help
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:us and do some stuff like that.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:So we're hoping that another generation will fall right in,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:you know, after we kind of slow down a little bit.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I think one of the the cool things about this podcast is, we
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:call it the empowering the entrepreneurs and what you said
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:a little bit a minute ago, Ryan, was that you feel
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:empowered because you kind of figured out how to do not do
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:business where you're doing the work, but you're building a
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:business. And when you are building a business, you're more
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:and more empowered because you have other people helping
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:you on the team and and you know, from your background and
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:going from a police officer to this.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I think that you felt like you had to have that team around
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:you to do that because it's not like you want to tell
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:people what to do. You empower people to make their own
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:decisions, but you're now empowered.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And Wayne, I'd say you're probably empowered.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And when you have that different mindset, that's a whole
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:different game. How would you respond to that?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I think you're getting on a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Really big topic is that a lot of again, you have a certain
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:type of personality that makes up your standard.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I would say your stereotypical on majority account, and a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:lot of that has to be hands on on micromanaging.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:But there's a lot of control and knowledge that has
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:control, you know, control what I need to make sure I'm in
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:on every decision or what we want to do is we want to again
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:empower people, say, Hey, I've given you the sheet.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You literally have a piece of paper that says this is
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Ryan's brains and beliefs and the way that he wants his
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:directions to be carried out.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You don't believe me if you have a critical distinction to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:be made, I am unavailable.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You look at that sheet, you make the decision according to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:it, and we will never fail.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Right. And so we are now empowered.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:They can have initiative.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:They can take all the real Cancun.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:There's a couple of triggers we need to hold accountable
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and they can now go out and they can move and move and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:produce without the fear of the boss constantly chopping
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and trying to figure out exactly what what medication needs
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:to be done like when you go agency, don't you dare do X, Y
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and Z, and they know that it can be a college and training
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:for lower policy level and leadership documents and things
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:like that. And when we watch our staffers grow up, they
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:just come to me saying, Hey, it's not.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:It's not. If I ever question something, it's like, Hey, I'm
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:done. Oh no, we're waiting all the time for that piece of
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:information. And then it will be done.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:This is fantastic. I don't have to hunt everybody down
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:every day in my office or try to track them down or track
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:on the project. And that that has been one of the major
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:gateways.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yeah. And I'll tell you, I can tell kind of a major
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:breakthrough that we've made in the last two months, in my
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:opinion, working with the staff.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And we've got some fairly young staff, really good, good
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:with people, smart and they've been watching us deliver
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:these advisory and maintenance services for the last year
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:or two. And they have started kind of taking ownership for
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:that stuff. And it's really, really nice to see some of the
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:younger staff prepare.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:The planners, get everything ready for a meeting with the
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:client and for them to have done 80 percent, 90 percent of
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:the work. That's what we're looking for because we we can't
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:do all the work. You know, we only have so many hours in
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:the day. And, you know, if we don't pass this stuff off and
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:hire some other people to do it, we're we've limited
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:ourselves. So what we're trying to do is not limit
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:ourselves.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:So by empowering your staff, you've kind of become a mentor
Julie Smith:
Speaker:and been able to kind of mentor them through this and given
Julie Smith:
Speaker:them the shortcut that Wayne and Ryan, it took you a couple
Julie Smith:
Speaker:of years to kind of get on your feet and do.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Wayne, I know you probably started this journey long before
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Ryan, but what was that?
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Did you have a mentor when you started or did you find one
Julie Smith:
Speaker:halfway through?
Julie Smith:
Speaker:What did that kind of look like, or did anyone guide you as
Julie Smith:
Speaker:you kind of went through this?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, probably so, and it was it was probably earlier in
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:my career I was a partner in two other firms before I
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:started my own firm. And I think I learned from some of the
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:older guys and some of them are not even around anymore.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, they've retired or died and but to see how they
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:work. But I will say that the way that the other firms work
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:and still some of them still work is what it is.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:They are not giving the customer what they really need.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:They're giving them what they want to give them.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:It's really very unusual to me that our professional has
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:profession has done that is we have said here is what we're
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:going to offer you, even though you might not even want it.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And but that has been that way for 30 or 40 years, and I
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:think it's changing. And I think the wave of the future is
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:working with clients closely.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And I know you guys do that and let me tell you, that is a
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:critical thing for your clients.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I hope they do appreciate what it is because it's it is a
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:different way of working with people and it makes them a
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:whole lot better for us.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Now, Ryan, do you think in some way, shape or form?
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Wayne was a mentor to you when you kind of started, you
Julie Smith:
Speaker:kind of came in with a completely different skill set than
Julie Smith:
Speaker:he had, but he had a different skill set than you had and
Julie Smith:
Speaker:you together, you guys were able to kind of.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Put something special together.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Oh, absolutely, yeah, there's there's no doubt about it.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You know, I came in and I have a weird background, so as I
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:went to score out math and physics, double major position
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:in the criminal justice, it's all free of numbers.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I've always been kind of a pretty big nerdy guy.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:As far as that stuff goes, and so that didn't scare me, but
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I I it was going to be taxes.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I needed to come out there and do this other stuff because
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:he was seeing a future, a huge food stamp.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But no, I was having a disaster is what I was having.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I didn't see anything like this.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:It felt like necessity.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Wayne, take the compliment.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:Run with it.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I think
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You. And so when I came in here, I had to learn on purpose
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:from the bottom. I said, Hey, I want to do the lowest level
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:grunt work. A person open face not only those little prep
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:work and learn whatever staff is doing all the way up the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:chain, all at the same time.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We've had six to nine months.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We've already started our advisory services because we knew
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:we were week, one month, one month to say there's no way we
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:can do this right.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And so we started working on making this change and rolled
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:out a giant advising package.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And in doing that, I was learning from the top down the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:highest level advice that make the major changes for the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:small business that while all the grunt work that happens
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:accounted for my way up, so I was literally education wise,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:burning the candle from both ends.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And that's a lot of time when he was like, Hey, here's
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:what's going to happen? We would go to meetings and we have
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:the topics prepared. We know what this clients looking for.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And he would walk me through everything, and I would try to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:do my best to look it up in the tax manual or some of the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:resources that have been studied.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And I was able to start jumping in and answer the questions.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:It all makes sense. It just clicked really quickly because
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:it's very much about there might be a on 14 major issues
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:that a business or client is going to have to deal with.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And what five or six issues out of the spectrum that this
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:client had what five or six of that don't have?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Or you don't have to tackle those primary issues.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You can just plug and play from time to time.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Only the numbers change.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So I can show that to me, I thought everything was going to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:be very high level, super technical.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You know, real down in the weeks off is not going to be
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:oil. Oh my gosh, I think more on it's no.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We want a mindset of thinking we're going have to play
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:chess against a Russian grandmaster, right?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:But reality, these businesses, all genders,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:They don't play gender.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:That's exactly
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:It. So we went like, Oh my gosh, all these pieces here and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:put in place of business.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And and that's sort of where I learned of the mentorship
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:there. I felt like I was learning like a rocket ship taking
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:off, and they got excited because I learned a lot of
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:learning, but also excited because I was able to capture
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:everything quickly and be able to put it into play.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So, you know, weighing the ability for I think I know you
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:well enough. I can say this for the old guy, the Mr.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Potter, and it's a Wonderful Life greatest movie of all
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:time to all of a sudden say, Wait a minute, I need to
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:recognize that I have to get the transition team in here.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:How hard was that for you to say, I'm ready for that?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I found somebody to do that and I'm going to empower them
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:to do that and go along with that.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Was that a hard decision for you?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, it wasn't.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yeah, it probably was.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But I was.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I was so unhappy with where we were.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I was really glad to just say, just do something if it's
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:the wrong thing, you know, because we had we had eight
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:staff and everybody was going in different directions.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I'm not kidding. I hadn't.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:It was really bad. People did not have the same goals.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:They didn't even have the same values.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And that is one of the things I think that Brian has made.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:The biggest change is the way he interviews people.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, I mean, we we interviewed people not for their,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:you know, having a master's in taxation.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We want somebody that can relate to people and wants to
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:relate to people. And that's a different thing and that is
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:not really normal in our profession.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know, people usually want to stay behind the scenes.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:That's not where the action is.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And so Ryan is just jump right in there with that and help
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:us get staff that the dream team thing we're trying to do.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:How how long before you brought Ryan in?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Did you know about this?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:The right way to do business as an advisory firm was that
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:did it happen after Ryan came on board or before?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:After the came over, and it was really funny, he brought on
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:a really large client that wanted a significant tax plan.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And so we said, yeah, if we can do that, like we always
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:say, we can do whatever we always, do always.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And so then we went about trying to figure out how to do it
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:and how to deliver it, which was a big problem and we could
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:have done it. I think we could have, but it would have
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:taken us a couple of years and we wouldn't have made any
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:money because that's all we have been doing.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:So we hooked up with Thomson Reuters.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We went to one of their meetings and saw the opportunity
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:that we had to work with Thomson Reuters on this type
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:thing. And we we immediately signed up for that and we have
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:not looked back. But Ryan, the nice thing about it is Ryan
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:was a part of that from day one.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:So he gets the whole picture.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:He wasn't corrupted.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You're right. That's exactly right.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:No bad habits.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Yep. So what you know, every entrepreneur kind of has this
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:they they, you know, forged to the desert through the arid
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:mountaintop, to the rainforest, just hacking away, trying
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:to figure things out until they finally recognize and
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:discover, I guess, their superpower and like, this is what
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I was meant to do.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:When did that happen for each of you?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So I guess my story is a little different because I always
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:had a calling, even from when I was like middle school and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:high school, you know, I did things when I was teaching and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:coaching people as, you know, like volunteer programs and,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:you know, old school side projects.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And then in college, I even helped out and talked a little
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:bit. But when I went to law course, I was teaching and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:training people. I had my regular jobs.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I felt a knack for presenting, for teaching, imparting
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:information and getting to my passion became, How do I make
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:people better? How make a go around me better?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:How can I do that? I don't have all the knowledge.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I'm not some magical wizard of wisdom.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You know, maybe I can engage people and explain things
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:simply enough where they can grasp a hold of it, take it
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and use it. And so I started that journey.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Law enforcement. I was an answer to somebody always had a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:higher up official permission to try to run training up my
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:programs a certain way.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Of course, everyone else got their influence.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I was just a man. I had a go period out or when I came
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:here, my passion exploded because now I want to control
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:that
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Whatever you want.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Wayne, I knew this for me, for the law, for 18, 16 years
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:that he loved people very extroverted, and he loved telling
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:stories, applying that to the real world and getting.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:He liked doing that already, but unfortunately it was not a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:formalized way to do it.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And so we use the kind of cliche or metaphor in our
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:speeches that we were sprinkling advice on people's
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:situations. It was a formal or the package.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:There wasn't an A to Z.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You know, here's your start. Here's your finish.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And it was just kind of happened and it was very
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:reactionary to the client's needs.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And so I think I don't want to give too much away, but I
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:think he was fulfilling his passion in a way, but is always
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:truncated because there was there wasn't a pure venue to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:unload that. And so when we came on here, we created that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:thing through that platform.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We can now hold people for our passion, which is teaching,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:educating, training and he making that impact on people.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So mine started long ago, but really was allowed to just
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:blossom once again.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But but you need to know this is a superpower.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:What did they say your superpower was at the police
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:department?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Well, no. My superpower is persistence and annoyance.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I will annoy people telling you what I want.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:There you go. And so we were a superpower, and I'm nice
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:about it. But it's just it's real.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Gates agrees a lot of speaking deals.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:How about you, Wayne?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You know? You know, I think that, believe it or not, I fear
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:being in this business for forty seven years.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I think I finally about two years ago when I figured out
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:that this is what we want to do because like Ryan said, we
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:enjoy both joy teaching.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We've we we've actually done.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I'm the defender security of my church use the degree for
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:security, his church, and we have actually taught other
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:churches how to do church security.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We travel around on a bunch of stuff.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:We really love doing that stuff.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:So I mean, whatever it is, we like to teach.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So that was my side business.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yeah. We had we had fun with that.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And but I think we finally figured it out is to where we
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:want to go and where we want to be with this.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And, you know, we're really comfortable with and really
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:happy with.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So I guess a point to make this for anybody who might be
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:listening to this podcast is as an entrepreneur, you might
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:not have it all figured out, but you've got to stay
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:committed. You've got to stay focused, you've got to keep
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:struggling, you've got to keep grinding, you've got to meet
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:people, you've got to go out and get mentors.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And again, Ryan, you just said something earlier that just
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:cracked me up. But like sharing advice as an accountant is
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:like the anti-Christ.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:We just never do that.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Like, we want to keep all that information proprietary.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So the second you start putting that information out there
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:and sharing the knowledge and teaching and empowering,
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:that's when the magic happens.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:I mean, that's what we found.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And I think any entrepreneur that's out there is nobody's
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:you. They can't do what you do.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So don't be as scared to put out what you want to do and
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:how you want to do it, because you're going to get some
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:great feedback and you're going to probably get where you
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:want to be quicker than if you were just to hold that all
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:internally.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Would you agree with that? Yeah, I kind of actually teach
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:people in the human condition.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So one of my my pet peeves in my leadership philosophy is
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:people that for their expertise or their skill set and
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:don't share it or impart it to other people.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Right. So that ticks me off what part of the team that you
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:should be sharing your expertise and helping and teaching
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:other people your skill set.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And so as a human, we also believe that we are more
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:valuable to others if we hold on that, we have all of that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:power. But the problem is you're not free of silo and now
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:you're standing alone on an island and you're less valuable
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:than the other side of that coin is that now what we decide
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:to impart my knowledge, my wisdom, my advice, my expertise.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We also feel like we have to do that immediately and for
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:free. Well, if you do that immediately and feel free.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Hey, I want to help people. I want to get this advice out
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:there. You're effectively Google, right?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:How much do we value Google?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:What we know? It's a free search engine.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I get all the answers I want.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So if we're not building a value package, if we're not
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:reporting that in a systematic way that brings a mutually
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:beneficial relationship, then the client doesn't see us as
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:value. But we may have all the knowledge in the world, but
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:they can just click a button like on Google and then get
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:all the information for their content for free.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You have no value. They'll go to the next search engine as
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:soon as you try to change the mark.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:So you have a partner value that I make clear that that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:does an exact custom situation for you.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And if you want to tap into this resource, I'm actually
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:going to do it for you. I want to build this package, which
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:is valuable. You spent money on me.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:They're going to look at you like, Hey, I'm paying for this
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:account, which I'm going to pay attention to advice where
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Google tells me something out here that could be lying to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:me today. Right now, you're going to pay for that and it's
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:going to be for you. And now you have true value because
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:you cost something that client.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Your information is not instantly free and you're not
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:forwarding that information either based on the result,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:either. So you're to fulfill both sides of that.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So the takeaway is is there is anything and you're both of
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:your careers that again, we don't like looking backwards.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:It's a learning thing you want.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:You don't want to like Wahler in that.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:But if you could look back and advice because the
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:perspective of this podcast is to give other entrepreneurs
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:that aha moment to like, Oh my gosh, if I just would do
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:that, like what would you look back and go, Gosh, if I had
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:just known x a long time ago, I would be like money today,
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:right?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Yeah. You know, I think in this profession, the people that
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:own the firms and there are thousands of small firms like
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:us around this country, thousands.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But what we don't do is when we run into a problem like I
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:was run into the problem with leadership and with
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:management and all that type thing.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And instead of looking out and trying to find a
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:professional in that area because there are people that are
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:a lot smarter than me, you know, in some of these areas,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:don't try to do it yourself, trying to find somebody that
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:is an expert in that and take advantage of their abilities.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:You can't know everything, you know.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And I was just I was so burnt out with trying to manage the
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:leadership thing. I was just done with it.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And if I had gotten somebody that was a professional
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:manager a long time ago, the way it.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:How about you, Ryan, you're just started off yours to
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:newbies, but
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Yeah, well, I mean, even from past lives, current life, you
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:know, trying to do it all yourself, right?
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:That is a consistent mouthful.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:I watched my mentors and leaders law enforcement succeed
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and fail based on how they were able to delegate based on
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:how they were able to step back and the image of the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:airplanes flying right and the leaders of fifty thousand
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:four. You can see the whole map and you can make sure that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:all the things operate underneath.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:And then, you know, you have the law enforcement.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You have, you know, some type of major captain, sergeant
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:and then patrolman patrolman's down there, literally on the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:ground level, doing everything sergeants, the helicopter,
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:the the captain on that standard plan goes up and down a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:lot of our business owners.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:We're trying to get down there on the ground level and do
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:all the ground work. When you can't win a war, you can't
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:run a place like that where you can't run the county, you
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:can't run a retail store.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:That way, the we've got to get our eyes up an outward
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:looking at running our businesses, it's my business.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:My advice would have echo what Wayne saying is put the
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:tools in place where those internal tools, where those
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:tools are staff members positioned in the right way, where
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:those tools are marketing and stuff like that on the call
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:people tool for us, I guess, could be the elements in place
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:that you need to make that happen so that you can get your
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:head off and you can get your eyes out in and looking at
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:your business and get out of the weeds.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:You only need to slow down for a minute if there's a
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:crisis, help resolve the crisis and then get back up to
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:fifty thousand feet.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And I'm still struggling with that.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:It's a daily shopping. I can't even have routine tasks as an
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:owner or even making stuff available for those people that
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:need that advice. They need that problem solving problem
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:when you've got your set of work that you're going to have
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:to accomplish. But if you get down on it, you're taking
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:yourself away from that set of work and taking yourself
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:away from that knowledge and staff and from handling those
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:processes. And then everything becomes urgent and crises
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:grow. If you're not getting up now.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:So if I could wrap that up in one sentence, I would say
Julie Smith:
Speaker:you're suggesting people should get out of their own way.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:Yeah, that's a phrase I've heard you guys quite that.
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:It's absolutely right. The owners need to get out of their
Ryan Conn:
Speaker:own steering wheel.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:I'm working on that, Jim.
Julie Smith:
Speaker:I know, I know,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And sometimes not very successfully.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:But you know, what do you do, right?
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:So I'll throw this one little tidbit of advice for our
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:listeners. And effectively, when you start a business,
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:you've got to recognize that some things are expenses and
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:some some things are investments.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And if you have if you're going to start a business and
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:you're not well capitalized, you're going to have to get
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:advice from mentors or you're going to have to go basically
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:invest in that advice.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:And the sooner you do that on your journey, the more
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:quickly you will recognize the successes that you're
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:looking for. And so that would be my advice.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Would you guys agree with that for our listeners?
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:Absolutely. Absolutely.
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:And you know, there as you're starting out a new business,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:there are three or four people that are key, you know,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:working with a good CPA that does planning it well, having
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:a good attorneys, one of them having a good insurance guys,
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:one of them, those those are very important people for your
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:business. And if you don't have all those people, you need
Wayne Shelton:
Speaker:to get us grip.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Probably a good masseuse, a good banker, good hair guy, all
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:that stuff. Well, hey, thanks.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:Thanks for dialing in from down in Kentucky and appreciate
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:it your time with us, and I hope our listeners find some
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:value on that. And again, thanks for joining us.
Glenn Harper:
Speaker:This is Glenn Harper signing off.