Wayne Shelton and Ryan Conn from Shelton & Associates

Glenn Harper:

Welcome, everyone, this is Glenn Harper.

Glenn Harper:

Harper CPA Plus

Julie Smith:

And Julie Smith, the Barista,

Glenn Harper:

The barista in charge.

Glenn Harper:

We got a great guest today.

Glenn Harper:

We've got Wayne Shelton and Ryan Conn of Shelton Associates

Glenn Harper:

and CS Business Consulting out of Paducah, Kentucky.

Glenn Harper:

And my question is, is that near Podunk BFE or where is

Glenn Harper:

that at?

Ryan Conn:

Well, Paducah, Kentucky, we are Western Kentucky.

Ryan Conn:

We are so far west in Kentucky that we actually drive right

Ryan Conn:

across the river north into Illinois.

Wayne Shelton:

Well, actually, we're about halfway between possum trot and

Wayne Shelton:

monkey's eyebrow. I know right

Glenn Harper:

Where that is. That's a great place to be.

Glenn Harper:

Well, thanks for joining us, guys.

Glenn Harper:

I guess the first thing we want to do is kind of share with

Glenn Harper:

our guests. What exactly do you guys?

Glenn Harper:

What do you guys do? What's your business that you're in as

Glenn Harper:

an entrepreneur?

Ryan Conn:

Yeah, very question, so we we run an accounting firm, Wayne

Ryan Conn:

and I are partners at Sheldon Associates CPA, which is our

Ryan Conn:

first love and our primary engagement.

Ryan Conn:

We have transitioned from a full service accounting firm

Ryan Conn:

where we have historically considered ourselves like a tax

Ryan Conn:

factory, and we now specialize in being advisors and

Ryan Conn:

relationships with our clients and working with them to

Ryan Conn:

just establish their best practices, build a long lasting

Ryan Conn:

and mutually beneficial relationship where they can reach

Ryan Conn:

their financial goals through our expertise, to our advice

Ryan Conn:

and through our building with them over time.

Ryan Conn:

And also, we want to reduce their tax footprint, their tax

Ryan Conn:

liability,

Wayne Shelton:

Make the tax

Ryan Conn:

Efficient, tax efficient, write and audit perform while

Ryan Conn:

building a long lasting relationship over time and

Ryan Conn:

ultimately things like bookkeeping compliance like payroll

Ryan Conn:

taxes, sales taxes and the big tax.

Ryan Conn:

That's just the five of us having a relationship with

Ryan Conn:

forward transition should be an accounting firm like that

Ryan Conn:

instead of just breaking out tax returns all the time.

Glenn Harper:

That sounds like a horrible business model.

Wayne Shelton:

An easier way to make money.

Wayne Shelton:

I'll tell you that right?

Ryan Conn:

Gotcha. It's definitely a better business model what we came

Ryan Conn:

from, which is why we're enjoying it a lot.

Ryan Conn:

We're having a lot more fun.

Ryan Conn:

I always tell people and even our clients as we bring them

Ryan Conn:

on or work with them is that selfishly, this is a lot more

Ryan Conn:

fun. I get to watch your success, I get to see your eyes

Ryan Conn:

pop on. You realize the impact so this planning has on

Ryan Conn:

their situation. And it's selfishly it's very rewarding to

Ryan Conn:

watch people grow and succeed and drive their businesses

Ryan Conn:

further.

Wayne Shelton:

And it's nice for us to have a fairly focused type of

Wayne Shelton:

business that we are working in now, rather than trying to

Wayne Shelton:

be all things to all people, which is what we did.

Wayne Shelton:

People would come in and say, Can you do this here?

Wayne Shelton:

We can do that. You know,

Julie Smith:

Now you use that, you use that f word fun, you're having fun

Julie Smith:

now. It can't possibly be because you met Glenn and I.

Julie Smith:

So what are you doing?

Julie Smith:

That's so fun? How did you make that transition?

Ryan Conn:

Well, you and Glenn would probably be the major

Ryan Conn:

contributors, of course.

Wayne Shelton:

Well, you know,

Ryan Conn:

We made a mental shift, right?

Ryan Conn:

We changed our mindset and we decided we don't want to be

Ryan Conn:

stuck in the grind anymore.

Ryan Conn:

Now, of course, even with the model that we're all there,

Ryan Conn:

still, there's still a deadline from the government that

Ryan Conn:

these loans have to be accomplished.

Ryan Conn:

But we don't have this insane spike for three months in the

Ryan Conn:

winter and spring and then a bigger role in the action

Ryan Conn:

until we know a couple of deadlines.

Ryan Conn:

So we have consistent work all year round that empowers our

Ryan Conn:

staff, keeps our clients engaged.

Ryan Conn:

And it's just more fun.

Ryan Conn:

It's more fun to know that I'm getting more product out of

Ryan Conn:

my staff and getting more value into the hands of my

Ryan Conn:

clients and ultimately growing the firm and prospering.

Ryan Conn:

So, yeah, it's definitely more fun building relationships

Ryan Conn:

and helping people succeed.

Julie Smith:

Now, Ryan, you have an interesting background, and that's

Julie Smith:

probably why you and I hit it off so, so quickly is neither

Julie Smith:

one of us have know anything about a 10 key.

Julie Smith:

Essentially, do you want to talk a little bit about where

Julie Smith:

you were, where you are and kind of how Wayne played a role

Julie Smith:

into that?

Ryan Conn:

Sure. So I'll give you as much of the Reader's Digest

Ryan Conn:

version as I can.

Ryan Conn:

But I originally I went to Harvard University down in

Ryan Conn:

Arkansas, which is where I met my wife, Natalie, and that

Ryan Conn:

is Wade's number.

Ryan Conn:

So one thing is my father in law for the viewers or

Ryan Conn:

listeners. I didn't know that ahead of time, and I was in

Ryan Conn:

law enforcement for 12 years, serving locally at law

Ryan Conn:

enforcement. Since I graduated college, I played football.

Ryan Conn:

That's where I met Natalie. And then we moved back to Duke

Ryan Conn:

and I became a cop and I worked there for 12 years.

Ryan Conn:

My job very much graduated into top of priority of the

Ryan Conn:

instructor. I mentor a trainer of adults and over 17

Ryan Conn:

different disciplines. I was teaching the training law

Ryan Conn:

enforcement how to survive, how to best investigate, and I

Ryan Conn:

was leading undercover drug units.

Ryan Conn:

I was leading a SWAT team firearms training, active shooter

Ryan Conn:

training, riot training, some really cool stuff.

Ryan Conn:

But ultimately, when Wayne came to me, I had to leave all

Ryan Conn:

of that. All the action is taxes.

Ryan Conn:

Yeah. And so we we ended up giving me an opportunity to

Ryan Conn:

partner up with him. To become a partner at the firm made

Ryan Conn:

me an offer I could use, and he was very savvy and he was

Ryan Conn:

looking down the road of the future, realize that he was

Ryan Conn:

growing his business.

Ryan Conn:

He could be more and wanted more as a traditional

Ryan Conn:

accountant. He didn't necessarily have the tools to put in

Ryan Conn:

lots of his leadership principles and these principles.

Ryan Conn:

You know, so many are some workflow, some all kinds of

Ryan Conn:

things. That's what I did.

Ryan Conn:

I take 12 guys into a house in a critical situation.

Ryan Conn:

You all work for the best team.

Ryan Conn:

So no one got hurt in.

Ryan Conn:

The bad guy gets captured.

Ryan Conn:

Well, now that national level, we have to take eight or

Ryan Conn:

nine people that are four now 13 and fill that much and get

Ryan Conn:

them all the and they all work as a so that don't have a

Ryan Conn:

curve balls in the cracks.

Ryan Conn:

So Client gets upset.

Ryan Conn:

The relationship is good and we've built systems over time

Ryan Conn:

and we have actually put that more flow for that process.

Ryan Conn:

Put that job responsibility and culture in a place where it

Ryan Conn:

really allowed us to just just absolutely explode.

Glenn Harper:

I'm just going to say that Wayne had to be one hell of a

Glenn Harper:

marketer to lure you away from all that other excitement to

Glenn Harper:

the accounting world of excitement.

Glenn Harper:

That's impressive, Wayne.

Glenn Harper:

How did you how did you put the pressure on him?

Wayne Shelton:

It is. It is.

Ryan Conn:

It's impressive. I always tell people I sell selling ketchup

Ryan Conn:

popsicle to a lady in a white glove on the Fourth of July,

Ryan Conn:

so he's good at what he does.

Ryan Conn:

Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.

Glenn Harper:

When the the one thing you said earlier about the fun, you

Glenn Harper:

know, people think, you know, you have to be serious and

Glenn Harper:

what you do as an entrepreneur.

Glenn Harper:

And it's really important business, especially to deal with

Glenn Harper:

people's money, especially, you know.

Glenn Harper:

You know, Ryan, back when you're, you know, you got hostile

Glenn Harper:

situations, life and death situations.

Glenn Harper:

You know, accounting is not quite like that, but we are

Glenn Harper:

talking about people's money and that's a big deal, right?

Glenn Harper:

So the question is, is how did you recognize that the

Glenn Harper:

industry that you're in?

Glenn Harper:

I guess that we're all in here, that you had to bring a

Glenn Harper:

little bit of levity, a little bit of an excitement, a

Glenn Harper:

little bit of fun. And it's not just grind it down to just

Glenn Harper:

be so serious all the time, it sounds exhausting.

Glenn Harper:

How did how did you make that transition from being like,

Glenn Harper:

Hey, we got to make the donuts to, hey, let's make some

Glenn Harper:

donuts? How did you do that?

Ryan Conn:

Yeah. Well, so again, that carried overall force, one of the

Ryan Conn:

things that was great about our local agency was that we

Ryan Conn:

believed in training and we believed in preparing the staff

Ryan Conn:

and the officers to be the best and that carried over here.

Ryan Conn:

We wanted to empower our staff.

Ryan Conn:

And so that was a big part of it.

Ryan Conn:

And so if the staff is no longer a backdoor person that

Ryan Conn:

just gets reports, they go and they have to they enter in

Ryan Conn:

compliance all day long in some back room because they're

Ryan Conn:

new or young or haven't been on the job for five years to

Ryan Conn:

get a shot at a senior position.

Ryan Conn:

We start empowering them.

Ryan Conn:

They take ownership of their situation.

Ryan Conn:

They take ownership of their clients.

Ryan Conn:

They get excited. Like, I get to do the bigger work, the

Ryan Conn:

bigger stuff, and I'm also getting to see the results as

Ryan Conn:

well. The clients love it more because they're doing it's

Ryan Conn:

not just white, it's not just riding that they can talk to

Ryan Conn:

get their answers from.

Ryan Conn:

There's a lot of times, you know, we're going on the phone,

Ryan Conn:

we're not available.

Ryan Conn:

And so the quickest solution to their answer is to this

Ryan Conn:

other person. So by empowering our staff, we made it more

Ryan Conn:

fun for them, more fun for us.

Ryan Conn:

And again, we're we're pretty big into the relationship.

Ryan Conn:

So I actually ask you, I care about, in my words, small

Ryan Conn:

impact situations, but I care about the family and

Ryan Conn:

assessing business, what type of headaches you're going

Ryan Conn:

through and just being a little bit of that counselor that

Ryan Conn:

relationship and know we can be kind of a little bit of

Ryan Conn:

more than just a number of guys.

Ryan Conn:

We obviously literally have a human conversation with them

Ryan Conn:

to establish that relationship.

Wayne Shelton:

And, you know, one of one of the big differences that I can

Wayne Shelton:

see is now that we are focused on a smaller section of

Wayne Shelton:

business of what we're trying to do.

Wayne Shelton:

We're able to really watch everything that happens.

Wayne Shelton:

So if they come up with a new government program which

Wayne Shelton:

they, as you guys know, have come up with 10 of them in the

Wayne Shelton:

last two years, they change the rules on all of them

Wayne Shelton:

multiple times.

Wayne Shelton:

But because we are really focusing on the planning part, we

Wayne Shelton:

stayed up on top of all that stuff and our clients

Wayne Shelton:

appreciate it because they know that they are maximizing

Wayne Shelton:

what they can get from the government and doing everything

Wayne Shelton:

right on these type programs and is made a huge difference.

Wayne Shelton:

And because there's so many other firms that are not doing

Wayne Shelton:

anything in regards to those type issues.

Julie Smith:

So Ryan talks a lot about team and empowering Wayne before

Julie Smith:

you had Ryan and you lured him away from, you know, his day

Julie Smith:

job. Did you kind of have the same culture or were you able

Julie Smith:

to completely change that culture when when Ryan came in,

Julie Smith:

when did you have that aha moment that the team is so

Julie Smith:

important?

Wayne Shelton:

Probably after about six months, Ryan had been here and, you

Wayne Shelton:

know, one of the things that because right, is my son in

Wayne Shelton:

law and, you know, I kind of knew the type of training that

Wayne Shelton:

he had gone through. And one of the things people do not

Wayne Shelton:

realize is police officers are probably the best trained

Wayne Shelton:

people in the world.

Wayne Shelton:

They're the best vetted when it comes to interviews and

Wayne Shelton:

background checks.

Wayne Shelton:

I mean, when they do a background check on a potential

Wayne Shelton:

officer, they go to his hometown and interview people.

Wayne Shelton:

You think we ever do that?

Wayne Shelton:

You know? So I guess my point is these people are highly

Wayne Shelton:

trained and they are usually highly motivated.

Wayne Shelton:

They are the top notch people.

Wayne Shelton:

And because of that, and we know that now we've got to what

Wayne Shelton:

do we do? Well, one other retired police officers working

Wayne Shelton:

with us and two police officers, wives that are working

Wayne Shelton:

with us. So, you know, we understand where those people

Wayne Shelton:

have been and the type of training and the leadership

Wayne Shelton:

training they have, which is far superior to anything we

Wayne Shelton:

even have available.

Wayne Shelton:

So when Ryan began and brought that into us and we started

Wayne Shelton:

converting that over, I mean, my office was a train wreck.

Wayne Shelton:

We had people going 18 different directions.

Wayne Shelton:

And that's pretty good with only getting people, OK.

Wayne Shelton:

But we've changed all that and we've got a totally

Wayne Shelton:

different culture, and it pretty much turned over the whole

Wayne Shelton:

staff in a three year period.

Glenn Harper:

So I'm trying to get my head around.

Glenn Harper:

How can you bring in?

Glenn Harper:

Are you are you discounting the importance of accountants

Glenn Harper:

and suggesting that you don't have to be an accountant to

Glenn Harper:

do accounting work and tax work?

Glenn Harper:

That's that's insane.

Glenn Harper:

How can that possibly be?

Wayne Shelton:

It's like magic, I don't know.

Wayne Shelton:

But it is really true.

Wayne Shelton:

I'll tell you, there are so many principles that carry over

Wayne Shelton:

from one job to another.

Wayne Shelton:

Job and leadership is a big thing that police officers are

Wayne Shelton:

trained and they have a ton of a ton of stuff that they

Wayne Shelton:

talk about with leadership training.

Wayne Shelton:

How many passes do we have in leadership training?

Wayne Shelton:

I think that'd be zero, wouldn't it?

Glenn Harper:

Well, you know, it talks you.

Glenn Harper:

You know, how do you make a good cocktail?

Glenn Harper:

I think I've had that class before.

Wayne Shelton:

Yeah, that's a different issue.

Julie Smith:

Yeah, there you go. All right.

Julie Smith:

I can attest that he's probably had negative classes in

Julie Smith:

that.

Wayne Shelton:

Yeah. Yeah.

Wayne Shelton:

Well, we're not trying to do that.

Wayne Shelton:

You know, these guys are and it's it's been a real eye

Wayne Shelton:

opener for me.

Glenn Harper:

Well, it's always good to have like a Dirty Harry on your

Glenn Harper:

staff. So that's important because then they can go rogue

Glenn Harper:

and that's always exciting.

Wayne Shelton:

Yeah. What are the safest office in town?

Glenn Harper:

That's right. So what?

Glenn Harper:

What exactly, you know, everybody has these bad habits that

Glenn Harper:

we work for is to make money to go support those bad

Glenn Harper:

habits. What is it?

Glenn Harper:

Actually, I like asking an entrepreneur, Is this what is it

Glenn Harper:

that you actually do that makes you money?

Glenn Harper:

What is that thing that you do?

Glenn Harper:

Is it is it the task of doing a tax return or is it the

Glenn Harper:

task of leading a team?

Glenn Harper:

Is it being proactive with your clients?

Glenn Harper:

What is the thing you think you do that generates the

Glenn Harper:

revenue for your firm?

Ryan Conn:

You know, ours is that advisory piece.

Ryan Conn:

So we we get

Wayne Shelton:

The planning part

Ryan Conn:

That playing advisory, we bring people on board or really

Ryan Conn:

finish it off our list of existing clients.

Ryan Conn:

But when we bring somebody on board on board, they have a

Ryan Conn:

situation in business there that it has various disasters

Ryan Conn:

going on and a lot of them impact their tactical situations

Ryan Conn:

together. So we come in and we apply that advisory service.

Ryan Conn:

We usually our average person that comes on board gets four

Ryan Conn:

meetings. And so in those formal meetings, we charge a

Ryan Conn:

premium price because we're going to basically reset their

Ryan Conn:

situation and get that push off in the right direction.

Ryan Conn:

That has incredible value for that client, not US dollars,

Ryan Conn:

but the stress and anxiety of the time, you know, and just

Ryan Conn:

think about onboarding somebody who's payroll and

Ryan Conn:

bookkeeping is all just money and crazy, advising how to

Ryan Conn:

get better teaching and training them to do it or taking it

Ryan Conn:

on ourselves with an advisory component to it.

Ryan Conn:

I mean, they just free up a ton of time to go, run their

Ryan Conn:

business and make money, you know, building widgets, more

Ryan Conn:

construction, mowing lawns, whatever it may be, hotel

Ryan Conn:

rooms. And now we're on the financial side of things while

Ryan Conn:

giving advice on how to do things better on a daily basis

Ryan Conn:

for now. And that's that's what we make our money.

Ryan Conn:

The taxpayer that's backwards to make sure that we go for

Ryan Conn:

that of advisory is what people want.

Ryan Conn:

So if they're asking and begging for and that's where we

Ryan Conn:

make our

Wayne Shelton:

Out of it, and I'll tell you something in this run, I have

Wayne Shelton:

this conversation weekly because we we've been onboarding

Wayne Shelton:

since for the last probably two months, two people a week

Wayne Shelton:

on advisory maintenance.

Wayne Shelton:

But I am amazed at what poor advice professionals are given

Wayne Shelton:

out to their clients.

Wayne Shelton:

I tell Ryan every week I said, I cannot believe this.

Wayne Shelton:

Look at this mess that these people have created.

Wayne Shelton:

Supposedly, you know, CPAs that have got many years

Wayne Shelton:

experience and people are not, in my opinion.

Wayne Shelton:

Trying to work with our clients and help them in the tax

Wayne Shelton:

planning area, they're just not doing it, and I feel like

Wayne Shelton:

that is a failing of our profession.

Wayne Shelton:

You know, agree.

Wayne Shelton:

I think we're fixing it.

Glenn Harper:

Well, great. So you're suggesting then that it's not just

Glenn Harper:

punching a few numbers in a tax return and that's all the

Glenn Harper:

people need. You're suggesting that they need something

Glenn Harper:

more than that.

Wayne Shelton:

Absolutely, they need and a lot of times they don't even

Wayne Shelton:

know that they need.

Wayne Shelton:

But what we see is that they do and they don't even know

Wayne Shelton:

whether a human being all this money.

Wayne Shelton:

You know, we in the last year, we've probably onboarded 30

Wayne Shelton:

clients that had a Schedule C that was very successful and

Wayne Shelton:

Wayne Shelton:

they could have probably made that 25 percent of that.

Wayne Shelton:

And when we tell people that the first thing, some of them,

Wayne Shelton:

what they did is they get actually mad, not at us, but they

Wayne Shelton:

Wayne Shelton:

too much. That's I could buy a house for that, you know?

Wayne Shelton:

So it's it's kind of nice to see people realize what you're

Wayne Shelton:

doing.

Glenn Harper:

I think that when that happens, I think for for me, anyway,

Glenn Harper:

we have that conversation.

Glenn Harper:

It has to focus on, Hey, now now let's not be looking

Glenn Harper:

backwards. Let's look forwards.

Glenn Harper:

We can't talk about the sins of the past.

Glenn Harper:

Let's move forward because it is an emotional gut punch for

Glenn Harper:

people when they realize that kind of thing.

Glenn Harper:

And so I feel like then you're what you're probably trying

Glenn Harper:

to say is that the the the thing you do that makes you guys

Glenn Harper:

money and profitable is giving the advice that helps other

Glenn Harper:

people become profitable and make money and keep more

Glenn Harper:

money. Is that a fair statement?

Wayne Shelton:

Yes, sir.

Julie Smith:

So, Ryan and Wayne, you've kind of built this successful

Julie Smith:

business, you've transitioned your team, you guys have

Julie Smith:

transitioned your mindset.

Julie Smith:

What is your dream now?

Julie Smith:

What what do you see happening now that you look forward,

Julie Smith:

as Glenn said, and not at the sins of the past?

Ryan Conn:

So we're still going on and a couple of areas we want to we

Ryan Conn:

kind of have a needs less vision or maybe Home Office, we

Ryan Conn:

grow, we have 13 people now.

Ryan Conn:

And that was when I came on board, you know, I made eight

Ryan Conn:

and we put the hiring part time first and nine, we went

Ryan Conn:

down to eight and now we're up to 13 and grown

Ryan Conn:

strategically and we're about to go on building one more

Ryan Conn:

person probably make things first, and we may have a need

Ryan Conn:

for that. And so that's kind of our dream to grow.

Ryan Conn:

I don't want to get too large and I probably don't want to

Ryan Conn:

have more fun. People may want to take it for two thousand.

Ryan Conn:

I want I want to manage that and also maybe two officers or

Ryan Conn:

20 people in the future, I to be more powerful.

Ryan Conn:

My forty one, forty two year old Wayne, he's this

Wayne Shelton:

Is his ninety four.

Wayne Shelton:

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Ryan Conn:

We know we've also really branched out into a couple of

Ryan Conn:

areas like this, this business leadership doing that.

Ryan Conn:

We actually look at that as a separate advisory product as

Ryan Conn:

well. And we're going up to Minnesota, Wisconsin to teach a

Ryan Conn:

firm for two days.

Ryan Conn:

You know, they've engaged us to teach for two days on site

Ryan Conn:

at their annual meeting

Wayne Shelton:

In which there are hundreds and

Ryan Conn:

Hundreds. We're going there and really trying to get them

Ryan Conn:

put in place in all those lockstep with that foundation set

Ryan Conn:

so they can grow in a similar fashion, hopefully better for

Ryan Conn:

learning from our mistakes along the way.

Ryan Conn:

And you know, that's kind of our next vision is to make

Ryan Conn:

even the advisory services of our accounting practice as

Ryan Conn:

autonomous as possible.

Ryan Conn:

Right. So unless there's a real specialty needs and I could

Ryan Conn:

swoop in and maybe solve some of those really, you know,

Ryan Conn:

kind of uniform scenarios like, Okay, let's get into this.

Ryan Conn:

But other than that, teach and train other people, how

Ryan Conn:

business model go around the country, help people with that

Ryan Conn:

travel and speak and teach.

Wayne Shelton:

And you know, one of the things we've been very fortunate

Wayne Shelton:

about is we've hired some outstanding staff and we are

Wayne Shelton:

looking at them to take over more of the day to day type

Wayne Shelton:

stuff. And we've made a couple of strategic hires just

Wayne Shelton:

lately that we're very excited about.

Wayne Shelton:

We can already tell that that's working out so.

Wayne Shelton:

So that's going to be a really good thing for us.

Wayne Shelton:

And I'm like, Ryan, you know how he will probably retire

Wayne Shelton:

way before me, but you know, after tax season, I tried it

Wayne Shelton:

last year, but it didn't work out too well.

Wayne Shelton:

I'm going to try to go four days a week, but we're having

Wayne Shelton:

so much fun and you know, the traveling and the teaching,

Wayne Shelton:

all that stuff is a lot of fun at us.

Wayne Shelton:

We both love to travel, we take all our families and do it.

Wayne Shelton:

And so I mean, we're having a good time.

Glenn Harper:

So are you.

Glenn Harper:

You just said earlier that you don't want to get too big

Glenn Harper:

because it's a lot of work to do.

Glenn Harper:

And then in the same breath, a typical entrepreneur psychos

Glenn Harper:

that we are, you're like, Well, we're going to start these

Glenn Harper:

other wings in business and do all this and this and this.

Glenn Harper:

So, you know, the the mind of an entrepreneur is a very

Glenn Harper:

dangerous place for people to be and and people that aren't

Glenn Harper:

aren't one. They that's hard for them to comprehend, so the

Glenn Harper:

endgame can't be.

Glenn Harper:

I'm going to have the greatest adviser practice ever there.

Glenn Harper:

It never ends, does it?

Glenn Harper:

I mean, it just doesn't ever stop.

Glenn Harper:

You know, when you said you, you might retire.

Glenn Harper:

I can't understand why you would retire.

Glenn Harper:

You're having too much fun.

Glenn Harper:

You're doing things you enjoy now.

Glenn Harper:

So is that a true statement that entrepreneurs generally

Glenn Harper:

just never really stop?

Wayne Shelton:

It is good. I think so.

Wayne Shelton:

And we see a lot

Ryan Conn:

Of and I say you.

Ryan Conn:

I won't have to come in like I said, it will be autonomous

Ryan Conn:

so I can free up a lot more travel and play.

Ryan Conn:

You know, by that point, my first kid will be in college

Ryan Conn:

and so I can I can do the helicopter that a little bit more

Ryan Conn:

down there hanging out some of that stuff like that.

Ryan Conn:

And again, one thing I've always want to do in life,

Ryan Conn:

obviously, if I was a cop on a single salary, you know, my

Ryan Conn:

wife is in school and stuff like that, I'm going to travel,

Ryan Conn:

I'm going to chase my dreams.

Ryan Conn:

I show up to work every day and serve my community.

Ryan Conn:

Well, now as an entrepreneur, I control more of my schedule

Ryan Conn:

for all of it, except for one reason tells me what to do,

Ryan Conn:

which is good. And then we get to do that.

Ryan Conn:

So my kids actually had a broader future as there being

Ryan Conn:

more culture and travel and things like that go along with

Ryan Conn:

me. So that has allowed me to chase not only one option

Ryan Conn:

where I can dedicate myself to that well,

Wayne Shelton:

And he's got four kids and at least two of them.

Wayne Shelton:

You know, I've worked down here at the office and they help

Wayne Shelton:

us and do some stuff like that.

Wayne Shelton:

So we're hoping that another generation will fall right in,

Wayne Shelton:

you know, after we kind of slow down a little bit.

Glenn Harper:

I think one of the the cool things about this podcast is, we

Glenn Harper:

call it the empowering the entrepreneurs and what you said

Glenn Harper:

a little bit a minute ago, Ryan, was that you feel

Glenn Harper:

empowered because you kind of figured out how to do not do

Glenn Harper:

business where you're doing the work, but you're building a

Glenn Harper:

business. And when you are building a business, you're more

Glenn Harper:

and more empowered because you have other people helping

Glenn Harper:

you on the team and and you know, from your background and

Glenn Harper:

going from a police officer to this.

Glenn Harper:

I think that you felt like you had to have that team around

Glenn Harper:

you to do that because it's not like you want to tell

Glenn Harper:

people what to do. You empower people to make their own

Glenn Harper:

decisions, but you're now empowered.

Glenn Harper:

And Wayne, I'd say you're probably empowered.

Glenn Harper:

And when you have that different mindset, that's a whole

Glenn Harper:

different game. How would you respond to that?

Wayne Shelton:

I think you're getting on a

Ryan Conn:

Really big topic is that a lot of again, you have a certain

Ryan Conn:

type of personality that makes up your standard.

Ryan Conn:

I would say your stereotypical on majority account, and a

Ryan Conn:

lot of that has to be hands on on micromanaging.

Ryan Conn:

But there's a lot of control and knowledge that has

Ryan Conn:

control, you know, control what I need to make sure I'm in

Ryan Conn:

on every decision or what we want to do is we want to again

Ryan Conn:

empower people, say, Hey, I've given you the sheet.

Ryan Conn:

You literally have a piece of paper that says this is

Ryan Conn:

Ryan's brains and beliefs and the way that he wants his

Ryan Conn:

directions to be carried out.

Ryan Conn:

You don't believe me if you have a critical distinction to

Ryan Conn:

be made, I am unavailable.

Ryan Conn:

You look at that sheet, you make the decision according to

Ryan Conn:

it, and we will never fail.

Ryan Conn:

Right. And so we are now empowered.

Ryan Conn:

They can have initiative.

Ryan Conn:

They can take all the real Cancun.

Ryan Conn:

There's a couple of triggers we need to hold accountable

Ryan Conn:

and they can now go out and they can move and move and

Ryan Conn:

produce without the fear of the boss constantly chopping

Ryan Conn:

and trying to figure out exactly what what medication needs

Ryan Conn:

to be done like when you go agency, don't you dare do X, Y

Ryan Conn:

and Z, and they know that it can be a college and training

Ryan Conn:

for lower policy level and leadership documents and things

Ryan Conn:

like that. And when we watch our staffers grow up, they

Ryan Conn:

just come to me saying, Hey, it's not.

Ryan Conn:

It's not. If I ever question something, it's like, Hey, I'm

Ryan Conn:

done. Oh no, we're waiting all the time for that piece of

Ryan Conn:

information. And then it will be done.

Ryan Conn:

This is fantastic. I don't have to hunt everybody down

Ryan Conn:

every day in my office or try to track them down or track

Ryan Conn:

on the project. And that that has been one of the major

Ryan Conn:

gateways.

Wayne Shelton:

Yeah. And I'll tell you, I can tell kind of a major

Wayne Shelton:

breakthrough that we've made in the last two months, in my

Wayne Shelton:

opinion, working with the staff.

Wayne Shelton:

And we've got some fairly young staff, really good, good

Wayne Shelton:

with people, smart and they've been watching us deliver

Wayne Shelton:

these advisory and maintenance services for the last year

Wayne Shelton:

or two. And they have started kind of taking ownership for

Wayne Shelton:

that stuff. And it's really, really nice to see some of the

Wayne Shelton:

younger staff prepare.

Wayne Shelton:

The planners, get everything ready for a meeting with the

Wayne Shelton:

client and for them to have done 80 percent, 90 percent of

Wayne Shelton:

the work. That's what we're looking for because we we can't

Wayne Shelton:

do all the work. You know, we only have so many hours in

Wayne Shelton:

the day. And, you know, if we don't pass this stuff off and

Wayne Shelton:

hire some other people to do it, we're we've limited

Wayne Shelton:

ourselves. So what we're trying to do is not limit

Wayne Shelton:

ourselves.

Julie Smith:

So by empowering your staff, you've kind of become a mentor

Julie Smith:

and been able to kind of mentor them through this and given

Julie Smith:

them the shortcut that Wayne and Ryan, it took you a couple

Julie Smith:

of years to kind of get on your feet and do.

Julie Smith:

Wayne, I know you probably started this journey long before

Julie Smith:

Ryan, but what was that?

Julie Smith:

Did you have a mentor when you started or did you find one

Julie Smith:

halfway through?

Julie Smith:

What did that kind of look like, or did anyone guide you as

Julie Smith:

you kind of went through this?

Wayne Shelton:

You know, probably so, and it was it was probably earlier in

Wayne Shelton:

my career I was a partner in two other firms before I

Wayne Shelton:

started my own firm. And I think I learned from some of the

Wayne Shelton:

older guys and some of them are not even around anymore.

Wayne Shelton:

You know, they've retired or died and but to see how they

Wayne Shelton:

work. But I will say that the way that the other firms work

Wayne Shelton:

and still some of them still work is what it is.

Wayne Shelton:

They are not giving the customer what they really need.

Wayne Shelton:

They're giving them what they want to give them.

Wayne Shelton:

It's really very unusual to me that our professional has

Wayne Shelton:

profession has done that is we have said here is what we're

Wayne Shelton:

going to offer you, even though you might not even want it.

Wayne Shelton:

And but that has been that way for 30 or 40 years, and I

Wayne Shelton:

think it's changing. And I think the wave of the future is

Wayne Shelton:

working with clients closely.

Wayne Shelton:

And I know you guys do that and let me tell you, that is a

Wayne Shelton:

critical thing for your clients.

Wayne Shelton:

I hope they do appreciate what it is because it's it is a

Wayne Shelton:

different way of working with people and it makes them a

Wayne Shelton:

whole lot better for us.

Julie Smith:

Now, Ryan, do you think in some way, shape or form?

Julie Smith:

Wayne was a mentor to you when you kind of started, you

Julie Smith:

kind of came in with a completely different skill set than

Julie Smith:

he had, but he had a different skill set than you had and

Julie Smith:

you together, you guys were able to kind of.

Julie Smith:

Put something special together.

Ryan Conn:

Oh, absolutely, yeah, there's there's no doubt about it.

Ryan Conn:

You know, I came in and I have a weird background, so as I

Ryan Conn:

went to score out math and physics, double major position

Ryan Conn:

in the criminal justice, it's all free of numbers.

Ryan Conn:

I've always been kind of a pretty big nerdy guy.

Ryan Conn:

As far as that stuff goes, and so that didn't scare me, but

Ryan Conn:

I I it was going to be taxes.

Ryan Conn:

I needed to come out there and do this other stuff because

Ryan Conn:

he was seeing a future, a huge food stamp.

Wayne Shelton:

But no, I was having a disaster is what I was having.

Wayne Shelton:

I didn't see anything like this.

Ryan Conn:

It felt like necessity.

Julie Smith:

Wayne, take the compliment.

Julie Smith:

Run with it.

Wayne Shelton:

I think

Ryan Conn:

You. And so when I came in here, I had to learn on purpose

Ryan Conn:

from the bottom. I said, Hey, I want to do the lowest level

Ryan Conn:

grunt work. A person open face not only those little prep

Ryan Conn:

work and learn whatever staff is doing all the way up the

Ryan Conn:

chain, all at the same time.

Ryan Conn:

We've had six to nine months.

Ryan Conn:

We've already started our advisory services because we knew

Ryan Conn:

we were week, one month, one month to say there's no way we

Ryan Conn:

can do this right.

Ryan Conn:

And so we started working on making this change and rolled

Ryan Conn:

out a giant advising package.

Ryan Conn:

And in doing that, I was learning from the top down the

Ryan Conn:

highest level advice that make the major changes for the

Ryan Conn:

small business that while all the grunt work that happens

Ryan Conn:

accounted for my way up, so I was literally education wise,

Ryan Conn:

burning the candle from both ends.

Ryan Conn:

And that's a lot of time when he was like, Hey, here's

Ryan Conn:

what's going to happen? We would go to meetings and we have

Ryan Conn:

the topics prepared. We know what this clients looking for.

Ryan Conn:

And he would walk me through everything, and I would try to

Ryan Conn:

do my best to look it up in the tax manual or some of the

Ryan Conn:

resources that have been studied.

Ryan Conn:

And I was able to start jumping in and answer the questions.

Ryan Conn:

It all makes sense. It just clicked really quickly because

Ryan Conn:

it's very much about there might be a on 14 major issues

Ryan Conn:

that a business or client is going to have to deal with.

Ryan Conn:

And what five or six issues out of the spectrum that this

Ryan Conn:

client had what five or six of that don't have?

Ryan Conn:

Or you don't have to tackle those primary issues.

Ryan Conn:

You can just plug and play from time to time.

Ryan Conn:

Only the numbers change.

Ryan Conn:

So I can show that to me, I thought everything was going to

Ryan Conn:

be very high level, super technical.

Ryan Conn:

You know, real down in the weeks off is not going to be

Ryan Conn:

oil. Oh my gosh, I think more on it's no.

Ryan Conn:

We want a mindset of thinking we're going have to play

Ryan Conn:

chess against a Russian grandmaster, right?

Ryan Conn:

But reality, these businesses, all genders,

Wayne Shelton:

They don't play gender.

Wayne Shelton:

That's exactly

Ryan Conn:

It. So we went like, Oh my gosh, all these pieces here and

Ryan Conn:

put in place of business.

Ryan Conn:

And and that's sort of where I learned of the mentorship

Ryan Conn:

there. I felt like I was learning like a rocket ship taking

Ryan Conn:

off, and they got excited because I learned a lot of

Ryan Conn:

learning, but also excited because I was able to capture

Ryan Conn:

everything quickly and be able to put it into play.

Glenn Harper:

So, you know, weighing the ability for I think I know you

Glenn Harper:

well enough. I can say this for the old guy, the Mr.

Glenn Harper:

Potter, and it's a Wonderful Life greatest movie of all

Glenn Harper:

time to all of a sudden say, Wait a minute, I need to

Glenn Harper:

recognize that I have to get the transition team in here.

Glenn Harper:

How hard was that for you to say, I'm ready for that?

Glenn Harper:

I found somebody to do that and I'm going to empower them

Glenn Harper:

to do that and go along with that.

Glenn Harper:

Was that a hard decision for you?

Wayne Shelton:

You know, it wasn't.

Wayne Shelton:

Yeah, it probably was.

Wayne Shelton:

But I was.

Wayne Shelton:

I was so unhappy with where we were.

Wayne Shelton:

I was really glad to just say, just do something if it's

Wayne Shelton:

the wrong thing, you know, because we had we had eight

Wayne Shelton:

staff and everybody was going in different directions.

Wayne Shelton:

I'm not kidding. I hadn't.

Wayne Shelton:

It was really bad. People did not have the same goals.

Wayne Shelton:

They didn't even have the same values.

Wayne Shelton:

And that is one of the things I think that Brian has made.

Wayne Shelton:

The biggest change is the way he interviews people.

Wayne Shelton:

You know, I mean, we we interviewed people not for their,

Wayne Shelton:

you know, having a master's in taxation.

Wayne Shelton:

We want somebody that can relate to people and wants to

Wayne Shelton:

relate to people. And that's a different thing and that is

Wayne Shelton:

not really normal in our profession.

Wayne Shelton:

You know, people usually want to stay behind the scenes.

Wayne Shelton:

That's not where the action is.

Wayne Shelton:

And so Ryan is just jump right in there with that and help

Wayne Shelton:

us get staff that the dream team thing we're trying to do.

Glenn Harper:

How how long before you brought Ryan in?

Glenn Harper:

Did you know about this?

Glenn Harper:

The right way to do business as an advisory firm was that

Glenn Harper:

did it happen after Ryan came on board or before?

Wayne Shelton:

After the came over, and it was really funny, he brought on

Wayne Shelton:

a really large client that wanted a significant tax plan.

Wayne Shelton:

And so we said, yeah, if we can do that, like we always

Wayne Shelton:

say, we can do whatever we always, do always.

Wayne Shelton:

And so then we went about trying to figure out how to do it

Wayne Shelton:

and how to deliver it, which was a big problem and we could

Wayne Shelton:

have done it. I think we could have, but it would have

Wayne Shelton:

taken us a couple of years and we wouldn't have made any

Wayne Shelton:

money because that's all we have been doing.

Wayne Shelton:

So we hooked up with Thomson Reuters.

Wayne Shelton:

We went to one of their meetings and saw the opportunity

Wayne Shelton:

that we had to work with Thomson Reuters on this type

Wayne Shelton:

thing. And we we immediately signed up for that and we have

Wayne Shelton:

not looked back. But Ryan, the nice thing about it is Ryan

Wayne Shelton:

was a part of that from day one.

Wayne Shelton:

So he gets the whole picture.

Glenn Harper:

He wasn't corrupted.

Wayne Shelton:

You're right. That's exactly right.

Wayne Shelton:

No bad habits.

Glenn Harper:

Yep. So what you know, every entrepreneur kind of has this

Glenn Harper:

they they, you know, forged to the desert through the arid

Glenn Harper:

mountaintop, to the rainforest, just hacking away, trying

Glenn Harper:

to figure things out until they finally recognize and

Glenn Harper:

discover, I guess, their superpower and like, this is what

Glenn Harper:

I was meant to do.

Glenn Harper:

When did that happen for each of you?

Ryan Conn:

So I guess my story is a little different because I always

Ryan Conn:

had a calling, even from when I was like middle school and

Ryan Conn:

high school, you know, I did things when I was teaching and

Ryan Conn:

coaching people as, you know, like volunteer programs and,

Ryan Conn:

you know, old school side projects.

Ryan Conn:

And then in college, I even helped out and talked a little

Ryan Conn:

bit. But when I went to law course, I was teaching and

Ryan Conn:

training people. I had my regular jobs.

Ryan Conn:

I felt a knack for presenting, for teaching, imparting

Ryan Conn:

information and getting to my passion became, How do I make

Ryan Conn:

people better? How make a go around me better?

Ryan Conn:

How can I do that? I don't have all the knowledge.

Ryan Conn:

I'm not some magical wizard of wisdom.

Ryan Conn:

You know, maybe I can engage people and explain things

Ryan Conn:

simply enough where they can grasp a hold of it, take it

Ryan Conn:

and use it. And so I started that journey.

Ryan Conn:

Law enforcement. I was an answer to somebody always had a

Ryan Conn:

higher up official permission to try to run training up my

Ryan Conn:

programs a certain way.

Ryan Conn:

Of course, everyone else got their influence.

Ryan Conn:

I was just a man. I had a go period out or when I came

Ryan Conn:

here, my passion exploded because now I want to control

Ryan Conn:

that

Wayne Shelton:

Whatever you want.

Ryan Conn:

Wayne, I knew this for me, for the law, for 18, 16 years

Ryan Conn:

that he loved people very extroverted, and he loved telling

Ryan Conn:

stories, applying that to the real world and getting.

Ryan Conn:

He liked doing that already, but unfortunately it was not a

Ryan Conn:

formalized way to do it.

Ryan Conn:

And so we use the kind of cliche or metaphor in our

Ryan Conn:

speeches that we were sprinkling advice on people's

Ryan Conn:

situations. It was a formal or the package.

Ryan Conn:

There wasn't an A to Z.

Ryan Conn:

You know, here's your start. Here's your finish.

Ryan Conn:

And it was just kind of happened and it was very

Ryan Conn:

reactionary to the client's needs.

Ryan Conn:

And so I think I don't want to give too much away, but I

Ryan Conn:

think he was fulfilling his passion in a way, but is always

Ryan Conn:

truncated because there was there wasn't a pure venue to

Ryan Conn:

unload that. And so when we came on here, we created that

Ryan Conn:

thing through that platform.

Ryan Conn:

We can now hold people for our passion, which is teaching,

Ryan Conn:

educating, training and he making that impact on people.

Ryan Conn:

So mine started long ago, but really was allowed to just

Ryan Conn:

blossom once again.

Wayne Shelton:

But but you need to know this is a superpower.

Wayne Shelton:

What did they say your superpower was at the police

Wayne Shelton:

department?

Ryan Conn:

Well, no. My superpower is persistence and annoyance.

Ryan Conn:

I will annoy people telling you what I want.

Ryan Conn:

There you go. And so we were a superpower, and I'm nice

Ryan Conn:

about it. But it's just it's real.

Ryan Conn:

Gates agrees a lot of speaking deals.

Glenn Harper:

How about you, Wayne?

Wayne Shelton:

You know? You know, I think that, believe it or not, I fear

Wayne Shelton:

being in this business for forty seven years.

Wayne Shelton:

I think I finally about two years ago when I figured out

Wayne Shelton:

that this is what we want to do because like Ryan said, we

Wayne Shelton:

enjoy both joy teaching.

Wayne Shelton:

We've we we've actually done.

Wayne Shelton:

I'm the defender security of my church use the degree for

Wayne Shelton:

security, his church, and we have actually taught other

Wayne Shelton:

churches how to do church security.

Wayne Shelton:

We travel around on a bunch of stuff.

Wayne Shelton:

We really love doing that stuff.

Wayne Shelton:

So I mean, whatever it is, we like to teach.

Ryan Conn:

So that was my side business.

Wayne Shelton:

Yeah. We had we had fun with that.

Wayne Shelton:

And but I think we finally figured it out is to where we

Wayne Shelton:

want to go and where we want to be with this.

Wayne Shelton:

And, you know, we're really comfortable with and really

Wayne Shelton:

happy with.

Glenn Harper:

So I guess a point to make this for anybody who might be

Glenn Harper:

listening to this podcast is as an entrepreneur, you might

Glenn Harper:

not have it all figured out, but you've got to stay

Glenn Harper:

committed. You've got to stay focused, you've got to keep

Glenn Harper:

struggling, you've got to keep grinding, you've got to meet

Glenn Harper:

people, you've got to go out and get mentors.

Glenn Harper:

And again, Ryan, you just said something earlier that just

Glenn Harper:

cracked me up. But like sharing advice as an accountant is

Glenn Harper:

like the anti-Christ.

Glenn Harper:

We just never do that.

Glenn Harper:

Like, we want to keep all that information proprietary.

Glenn Harper:

So the second you start putting that information out there

Glenn Harper:

and sharing the knowledge and teaching and empowering,

Glenn Harper:

that's when the magic happens.

Glenn Harper:

I mean, that's what we found.

Glenn Harper:

And I think any entrepreneur that's out there is nobody's

Glenn Harper:

you. They can't do what you do.

Glenn Harper:

So don't be as scared to put out what you want to do and

Glenn Harper:

how you want to do it, because you're going to get some

Glenn Harper:

great feedback and you're going to probably get where you

Glenn Harper:

want to be quicker than if you were just to hold that all

Glenn Harper:

internally.

Ryan Conn:

Would you agree with that? Yeah, I kind of actually teach

Ryan Conn:

people in the human condition.

Ryan Conn:

So one of my my pet peeves in my leadership philosophy is

Ryan Conn:

people that for their expertise or their skill set and

Ryan Conn:

don't share it or impart it to other people.

Ryan Conn:

Right. So that ticks me off what part of the team that you

Ryan Conn:

should be sharing your expertise and helping and teaching

Ryan Conn:

other people your skill set.

Ryan Conn:

And so as a human, we also believe that we are more

Ryan Conn:

valuable to others if we hold on that, we have all of that

Ryan Conn:

power. But the problem is you're not free of silo and now

Ryan Conn:

you're standing alone on an island and you're less valuable

Ryan Conn:

than the other side of that coin is that now what we decide

Ryan Conn:

to impart my knowledge, my wisdom, my advice, my expertise.

Ryan Conn:

We also feel like we have to do that immediately and for

Ryan Conn:

free. Well, if you do that immediately and feel free.

Ryan Conn:

Hey, I want to help people. I want to get this advice out

Ryan Conn:

there. You're effectively Google, right?

Ryan Conn:

How much do we value Google?

Ryan Conn:

What we know? It's a free search engine.

Ryan Conn:

I get all the answers I want.

Ryan Conn:

So if we're not building a value package, if we're not

Ryan Conn:

reporting that in a systematic way that brings a mutually

Ryan Conn:

beneficial relationship, then the client doesn't see us as

Ryan Conn:

value. But we may have all the knowledge in the world, but

Ryan Conn:

they can just click a button like on Google and then get

Ryan Conn:

all the information for their content for free.

Ryan Conn:

You have no value. They'll go to the next search engine as

Ryan Conn:

soon as you try to change the mark.

Ryan Conn:

So you have a partner value that I make clear that that

Ryan Conn:

does an exact custom situation for you.

Ryan Conn:

And if you want to tap into this resource, I'm actually

Ryan Conn:

going to do it for you. I want to build this package, which

Ryan Conn:

is valuable. You spent money on me.

Ryan Conn:

They're going to look at you like, Hey, I'm paying for this

Ryan Conn:

account, which I'm going to pay attention to advice where

Ryan Conn:

Google tells me something out here that could be lying to

Ryan Conn:

me today. Right now, you're going to pay for that and it's

Ryan Conn:

going to be for you. And now you have true value because

Ryan Conn:

you cost something that client.

Ryan Conn:

Your information is not instantly free and you're not

Ryan Conn:

forwarding that information either based on the result,

Ryan Conn:

either. So you're to fulfill both sides of that.

Glenn Harper:

So the takeaway is is there is anything and you're both of

Glenn Harper:

your careers that again, we don't like looking backwards.

Glenn Harper:

It's a learning thing you want.

Glenn Harper:

You don't want to like Wahler in that.

Glenn Harper:

But if you could look back and advice because the

Glenn Harper:

perspective of this podcast is to give other entrepreneurs

Glenn Harper:

that aha moment to like, Oh my gosh, if I just would do

Glenn Harper:

that, like what would you look back and go, Gosh, if I had

Glenn Harper:

just known x a long time ago, I would be like money today,

Glenn Harper:

right?

Wayne Shelton:

Yeah. You know, I think in this profession, the people that

Wayne Shelton:

own the firms and there are thousands of small firms like

Wayne Shelton:

us around this country, thousands.

Wayne Shelton:

But what we don't do is when we run into a problem like I

Wayne Shelton:

was run into the problem with leadership and with

Wayne Shelton:

management and all that type thing.

Wayne Shelton:

And instead of looking out and trying to find a

Wayne Shelton:

professional in that area because there are people that are

Wayne Shelton:

a lot smarter than me, you know, in some of these areas,

Wayne Shelton:

don't try to do it yourself, trying to find somebody that

Wayne Shelton:

is an expert in that and take advantage of their abilities.

Wayne Shelton:

You can't know everything, you know.

Wayne Shelton:

And I was just I was so burnt out with trying to manage the

Wayne Shelton:

leadership thing. I was just done with it.

Wayne Shelton:

And if I had gotten somebody that was a professional

Wayne Shelton:

manager a long time ago, the way it.

Glenn Harper:

How about you, Ryan, you're just started off yours to

Glenn Harper:

newbies, but

Ryan Conn:

Yeah, well, I mean, even from past lives, current life, you

Ryan Conn:

know, trying to do it all yourself, right?

Ryan Conn:

That is a consistent mouthful.

Ryan Conn:

I watched my mentors and leaders law enforcement succeed

Ryan Conn:

and fail based on how they were able to delegate based on

Ryan Conn:

how they were able to step back and the image of the

Ryan Conn:

airplanes flying right and the leaders of fifty thousand

Ryan Conn:

four. You can see the whole map and you can make sure that

Ryan Conn:

all the things operate underneath.

Ryan Conn:

And then, you know, you have the law enforcement.

Ryan Conn:

You have, you know, some type of major captain, sergeant

Ryan Conn:

and then patrolman patrolman's down there, literally on the

Ryan Conn:

ground level, doing everything sergeants, the helicopter,

Ryan Conn:

the the captain on that standard plan goes up and down a

Ryan Conn:

lot of our business owners.

Ryan Conn:

We're trying to get down there on the ground level and do

Ryan Conn:

all the ground work. When you can't win a war, you can't

Ryan Conn:

run a place like that where you can't run the county, you

Ryan Conn:

can't run a retail store.

Ryan Conn:

That way, the we've got to get our eyes up an outward

Ryan Conn:

looking at running our businesses, it's my business.

Ryan Conn:

My advice would have echo what Wayne saying is put the

Ryan Conn:

tools in place where those internal tools, where those

Ryan Conn:

tools are staff members positioned in the right way, where

Ryan Conn:

those tools are marketing and stuff like that on the call

Ryan Conn:

people tool for us, I guess, could be the elements in place

Ryan Conn:

that you need to make that happen so that you can get your

Ryan Conn:

head off and you can get your eyes out in and looking at

Ryan Conn:

your business and get out of the weeds.

Ryan Conn:

You only need to slow down for a minute if there's a

Ryan Conn:

crisis, help resolve the crisis and then get back up to

Ryan Conn:

fifty thousand feet.

Wayne Shelton:

And I'm still struggling with that.

Ryan Conn:

It's a daily shopping. I can't even have routine tasks as an

Ryan Conn:

owner or even making stuff available for those people that

Ryan Conn:

need that advice. They need that problem solving problem

Ryan Conn:

when you've got your set of work that you're going to have

Ryan Conn:

to accomplish. But if you get down on it, you're taking

Ryan Conn:

yourself away from that set of work and taking yourself

Ryan Conn:

away from that knowledge and staff and from handling those

Ryan Conn:

processes. And then everything becomes urgent and crises

Ryan Conn:

grow. If you're not getting up now.

Julie Smith:

So if I could wrap that up in one sentence, I would say

Julie Smith:

you're suggesting people should get out of their own way.

Ryan Conn:

Yeah, that's a phrase I've heard you guys quite that.

Ryan Conn:

It's absolutely right. The owners need to get out of their

Ryan Conn:

own steering wheel.

Wayne Shelton:

I'm working on that, Jim.

Julie Smith:

I know, I know,

Wayne Shelton:

And sometimes not very successfully.

Wayne Shelton:

But you know, what do you do, right?

Glenn Harper:

So I'll throw this one little tidbit of advice for our

Glenn Harper:

listeners. And effectively, when you start a business,

Glenn Harper:

you've got to recognize that some things are expenses and

Glenn Harper:

some some things are investments.

Glenn Harper:

And if you have if you're going to start a business and

Glenn Harper:

you're not well capitalized, you're going to have to get

Glenn Harper:

advice from mentors or you're going to have to go basically

Glenn Harper:

invest in that advice.

Glenn Harper:

And the sooner you do that on your journey, the more

Glenn Harper:

quickly you will recognize the successes that you're

Glenn Harper:

looking for. And so that would be my advice.

Glenn Harper:

Would you guys agree with that for our listeners?

Wayne Shelton:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Wayne Shelton:

And you know, there as you're starting out a new business,

Wayne Shelton:

there are three or four people that are key, you know,

Wayne Shelton:

working with a good CPA that does planning it well, having

Wayne Shelton:

a good attorneys, one of them having a good insurance guys,

Wayne Shelton:

one of them, those those are very important people for your

Wayne Shelton:

business. And if you don't have all those people, you need

Wayne Shelton:

to get us grip.

Glenn Harper:

Probably a good masseuse, a good banker, good hair guy, all

Glenn Harper:

that stuff. Well, hey, thanks.

Glenn Harper:

Thanks for dialing in from down in Kentucky and appreciate

Glenn Harper:

it your time with us, and I hope our listeners find some

Glenn Harper:

value on that. And again, thanks for joining us.

Glenn Harper:

This is Glenn Harper signing off.