Episode Transcript
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:00
Hello everyone. Welcome to another edition, the Empowering Pontrepers podcast. I’m Glenn Harper.
Julie Bonness [: 00:00:05
Julie Smith.
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:06
Why do you I always bumble that.
Julie Smith [: 00:00:07
Intro for some reason it’s the intro and outro. Maybe we need to change the name for you.
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:11
Maybe you should do the intro.
Julie Smith [: 00:00:12
Oh well, let’s not get carried away.
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:14
Then we can see who’s making fun of who. Well, what’s going on today? It’s a big day today.
Julie Smith [: 00:00:19
Why is it big?
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:20
Almost America’s birthday.
Julie Bonness [: 00:00:22
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julie Smith [: 00:00:23
Well you know, for people like us we’re just continue continuously working so well.
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:28
Yeah, but that’s the greatest holiday there is really without that one.
Julie Smith [: 00:00:32
True.
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:33
It would be tough out there.
Julie Smith [: 00:00:34
There would be no holidays.
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:36
No, it wouldn’t be. Well, we have a great guest lined up today and we are lucky that we.
Julie Smith [: 00:00:42
She’s going to be great because we share the same first name.
Glenn Harper [: 00:00:45
This is true. And we already have some prior history. We know her pretty well. So this should be a very fun conversation. So I’d like to introduce Julie Banas, a revenue enthusiast, strategy strategic new revenue stream leadership, a thought leader and an absolute get in the dirt and get blankety blank done kind of person. Her skill set is to find a niche mark that is underserved, do some recon and drop a GB57 a B MOP bunker buster on that industry. She has a passion for determining what the needs are in an organization that are trying to grow. Julie knows what it.
Glenn Harper [: 00:01:19
What it. Julie knows that it starts with talent. The ability to help companies scale with high performing strategic sales team and is her sweet spot. Julie does not take this role lightly. Her experience in all facets of the accounting and tax industry has made her an expert on the supply chain of talent acquisition and training. Is it too much to ask for results when you’re trusted from your trusted consultant? I think not. Please sit back and enjoy the rides. We deliver into the lifeline of Julie B.
Glenn Harper [: 00:01:44
Julie. It’s a joy to have in the show. What’s going on?
Julie Bonness [: 00:01:47
Delightful. Thank you so much. It’s always a pleasure to be here. And let’s say there’s something about the Julies. Julie’s are get it done people. You know that from your firm.
Glenn Harper [: 00:01:57
It’s like hey Julie. Julie. Julie. Roger over unger. All the people know the airplane reference but Julie, Julie. We got to be specific to who we’re talking to. It’s Julie. Oh yeah, I think we’ll know, we’ll know, we’ll know.
Glenn Harper [: 00:02:11
Well you know it’s you are. I’VE probably in our almost 100 episodes, I’ve probably had only three guests that I’ve not been able to stalk to get some good nuggets. You are locked up out there. That’s impressive. You must have hired somebody to do that.
Julie Smith [: 00:02:29
I, he, she hires good people.
Glenn Harper [: 00:02:31
So that’s probably why you must be highly coveted on the other side of it. So it says you. I, I found that you grew up in Sioux Falls, S.D. is that correct? No, I’m totally kidding. I’m making that up because I had nowhere else to look. We, we like to get.
Julie Bonness [: 00:02:47
I’d be happy to be happy to share a little bit about my growth, my growing up journey.
Glenn Harper [: 00:02:51
Yeah. Where’d you grow up?
Julie Bonness [: 00:02:52
Let’s start, let’s go way back. I grew up in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
Glenn Harper [: 00:02:56
Where’s that?
Julie Bonness [: 00:02:56
So I in Brookfield, Wisconsin, which is west of Milwaukee. So I am a Midwestern girl through and through. Came from a very large family. At least these days it is seven kids, mom and dad. So there were nine of us. We grew up on a little bit of a hobby farm. We had horses and we had two cows at one time and two sheep at one time and a chicken coop. You know, it was really that environment of you get things done.
Julie Bonness [: 00:03:25
You don’t sleep in on Saturdays because there’s too much to get done. And it really built a discipline for working, a discipline for, you know, not slacking off on your work, putting things together in process and get it done. And let’s say a little bit of negotiating because remember, with those seven siblings, actually six siblings, there’s six girls and one boy.
Glenn Harper [: 00:03:48
Oh, my God.
Julie Bonness [: 00:03:48
There’s a little bit of negotiation skills in the process as well.
Glenn Harper [: 00:03:52
You know, that’s funny. When you grow up on a farm, we both have a similar thing like that. It’s just a whole different world. City kids, they go to practice and that’s all they do. Country kids got to do their chores, figure out how to get to practice, do practice, figure out how to get home and do chores again. Like we got to do 10x of what a normal person would have to do living in the city. Isn’t that the damnedest thing?
Julie Bonness [: 00:04:16
Isn’t that the truth? And you know, I probably moaned and groaned when I was younger. I am so grateful for that upbringing.
Julie Smith [: 00:04:24
But you know what I really have, you know, what I took out of that is she grew up with all sisters and one brother. You were the only brother with all sisters.
Glenn Harper [: 00:04:36
Yes. So that’s why I’m sorry, you can relate that’s why I’m sensitive. Yes. Because I had to broker those deals of being the only boy. Yeah, I think we had all female animals, too. It was crazy. So you’re sitting there on the farm. Did you.
Glenn Harper [: 00:04:55
That’s where you were born and raised? Or did your parents move there from the city? How did that start all off?
Julie Bonness [: 00:05:01
I was 6 months old when my parents moved there, but my dad had a. He was involved in concrete paving. He had a paving company. And, you know, like you said, there’s always your side hustle, right? So he had an Angus beef farm in addition to his concrete farm. And that was just the side hustle. That was the fun, right? So we were. I was six months old then when we moved to Brookfield and had this hobby farm. So that’s truly how I grew up.
Julie Bonness [: 00:05:28
I’m number five in line. Some. Some of my sisters grew up a little bit more, I would say suburban. Never really, really city, Cushy.
Glenn Harper [: 00:05:37
So your dad, he had his own company, right? He had his real business. And then your mom, did she. Did she work or she had to take care of all you guys?
Julie Bonness [: 00:05:44
Let’s just say God bless her. She was a schoolteacher until she started having children. And then she went back to a substitute teaching after we were grown, after we were no longer in the sandbox and out in the woods playing.
Glenn Harper [: 00:05:57
And, I mean, I can’t comprehend trying to get six kids, girls, hair done in the morning before school. I mean, that had to take hours.
Julie Bonness [: 00:06:06
So, Glenn, I say the same thing. And you know what? She tells me it was the most fabulous time of her life. Awesome, right? And she said, julie, we didn’t have cell phones, we didn’t have computers. We didn’t have all those distractions to get more. We got done a lot during the day, but we didn’t have the distractions that pulled us to get more done. And I say, no, mom, that was a moment of insanity, controlled insanity.
Glenn Harper [: 00:06:32
Now, did you guys. Did you. Did each kid have, like, our family all had a specific chores for whatever the animal was. We had to do all the things A to Z for that particular animal. Did you guys have that broken down as kids? Did you guys, like, you took care of a horse, you took care of the chickens? Like, how did you guys break that down? And what age was that when you started the chores?
Julie Bonness [: 00:06:53
Yeah, it was. It was truly a group effort because by the time some of the kids started having their own horse, then it was, yes, they were fully responsible. I think my dad always had this underlying responsibility for everything as you can expect. Because somebody’s got to make sure it’s getting done. When you’re trying to teach children, right? That boy, that’s going to come back in our future. Trying to teach others, you’ve got to watch it and nurture it. Anyway, I remember I was fifth in line, as I told you. So I almost talk about how we had two families, right? And I was the leader of the younger kids, meaning I got to the chores early.
Julie Bonness [: 00:07:30
But I think there’s also that you want to, you see what mom and dad have put on the table for you and you want to be able to help. And so I think I was very, very young. Probably kindergarten was when we started really being responsible. And let’s face it, that responsibility might be going out and getting the squash from the garden. My mom did not know what the appropriate size of a squash was until we all got older because do you remember how big summer squash or not Summer zucchini squash, million of them. I mean that, that would feed a family.
Glenn Harper [: 00:08:04
You know, it’s, it’s funny that when you look back like today, like just to have a kid in kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth, fifth grade, do anything, clean the dishes off the table is impossible. But here, you know, farm kids are like managing livestock and all the things. And it’s not even a big thing. Like truly, when you give a kid something to do, if you have high expectations, they’ll step up and do it. If you have low expectations, they’ll fall way below it.
Julie Bonness [: 00:08:32
Absolutely.
Julie Smith [: 00:08:33
Isn’t that true in life though?
Glenn Harper [: 00:08:34
Yes, that’s what I mean. It’s a life lesson. That’s what’s happening kids on, you know, when we, you know, interview people. I have clients that worked on farms or were heavy into the trades. They’re just hard working folks. They, they don’t. There’s not a time clock that gets punched. They just get the job done.
Glenn Harper [: 00:08:48
That’s one of the cool things.
Julie Smith [: 00:08:50
But Julie B. Do you think that that’s, do you think kindergarten is when it started, that you understood how to hire, teach, delegate, manage, corral, follow up?
Julie Bonness [: 00:09:03
Boy, my mom and dad will tell you I was large and in charge at a very, very young age. I remember mom and dad went on a trip.
Julie Smith [: 00:09:09
How did I know?
Glenn Harper [: 00:09:10
Yes.
Julie Bonness [: 00:09:10
Yeah, I saw. You know, it’s the good and it’s the evil, right? Sometimes I’d like to step away from everything. I remember my mom and dad went on a trip. I think they went. I don’t know where they went, but I think I was like in third grade and they hired a woman to come stay with this family of seven kids. Her name was, I’m going to use the name because it’s really funny. Her name was Mrs. Pengborn and of course we called her Ping pong ball and Mrs.
Julie Bonness [: 00:09:37
Pengborn used me as her resource. Julie, where is this? Julie, where are the scissors? Julie, where? Julie knew where everything was. So yes, I must have had that in charge. But also I think it’s because I watched some of my older sisters like, are you, are you serious? Can you not manage this? We got it. So I probably learned from their lessons as well.
Julie Smith [: 00:09:58
Do you think you are the most outspoken? You definitely got the leadership gene, maybe even the teaching gene from your mom. Or what do your other siblings do now? Just curious.
Julie Bonness [: 00:10:11
Yep. Okay. This is really an interesting question because certainly I am the one that’s most vocal in the family, representing the family when there’s weddings, when there’s funerals. Julie, can you speak? Speak? So I certainly have a niche to be able to do that. But we have a very successful family and I think that has a lot to do with hard work and a really passionate mom. Dad was type A, mom was more type B. And that still is. They’re 87 years old now and they’re still type A and mom’s type B.
Julie Bonness [: 00:10:42
But when you look at my siblings, my oldest sister was really smart, education wise. She went on and got a law degree. The second in line is a plastic surgeon. And she just, she originally started thinking she wanted to be a veterinarian. And then when she realized how much school had to be entailed in vet, she’s like, well I might as well do this with humans. And she’s always been very artistic. So then she went into plastics. So again, very successful.
Julie Bonness [: 00:11:11
My third sister had five kids. She did go to college, graduated with hospitality, worked in Disney for a while and then when she started having kids, she was an at home mom. Later in her life she started up her own business with property management. The fourth one is an accountant. How do you like that? She’s a controller for a large public organization. I’m number five and I have been involved in sales and sales leadership in helping develop really strong sophisticated teams. And I have four kids. There’s going to be a conversation about grandkids here in a minute.
Julie Bonness [: 00:11:51
Overall there’s 24. The sixth in line is the boy and he took on after my father and he has a highway paving company as well, focusing in on concrete. And then the baby of the Family number seven, she is a registered nurse turned real estate agent. She doesn’t really ever want to take care of another human being. I think we all can understand that.
Glenn Harper [: 00:12:16
Yes. You know what’s cool is your dad must have been very successful at his, quote, real job, his paving company, concrete company, to be able to. You don’t get to raise horses. They’re not cheap. And you don’t get to have a farm and do all those things unless you have enough cash flow from somewhere else. So he must have realized that his whatever calling was having a successful company, but then help others achieve something great. And he did that by putting the family farm and making you guys do all these things, which is high five to that guy. I mean, that’s.
Glenn Harper [: 00:12:56
He could have just taken the easier out and just milked his cash flow and just chilled out, let you guys grow up like normal kids. But he’s like, nah, let’s make this a little harder. That’s pretty.
Julie Bonness [: 00:13:04
Absolutely.Glenn Harper [: 00:13:06
And that’s probably where you got yours from, right? Your. Your passion from.
Julie Bonness [: 00:13:09
Yeah, there’s a lot to be said about that. But I will have to say again and again, my mom was the glue. My mom was the one that was with us the most. Because you can imagine my father running around the country trying to manage the concrete paving company. I mean, sure, he had great staff and all that, but as you all know, when your name is on it, you’re responsible for it. But mom was the one that was at home and trying to keep the chaos together. And you’re right, there was a lot of us walking to school, walking to basketball practice, but we had a lot of fun along the way.
Julie Smith [: 00:13:44
Is the farm still in the family?
Julie Bonness [: 00:13:47
So here’s what happened. Mom and dad turned 65 and got an offer to buy the property. And guess what? They took that offer and they bought their condo down in Florida. So now they are snowbirds in Florida, have their home in Brookfield. And so the house is still, still there with quite a bit of property around it, but they have built that out. My sister deanne has taken on the farm family. So deanne is the only one left in the family that still has horses.
Glenn Harper [: 00:14:17
That’s funny. When I went off to college, all the slave labor is gone. The farm ceased to exist in all the operations. So the same thing, right? Once all the kids leave, who’s going to do the work? So we’re done. That’s funny how that works. So here.
Julie Bonness [: 00:14:34
And as. As they’ve gone to college, it would be. That would be the Sacrifice. Then you had to sell the horse. Because now you’re moving on in your life. And that would also help pay for a little bit of college. Right.
Glenn Harper [: 00:14:44
And let me tell you something. That’s hard when you’re attached to an animal. And then you got to get rid of it, whether. Whatever that looks like. It’s very hard. I don’t. I want to say it toughens you up, but it does. It makes life real that you have to make hard decisions.
Glenn Harper [: 00:14:59
And that’s what you have to do to move on. So again, I pledge your dad and you guys and your mom to make that happen. Because I think that’s a great story. So here you are, sitting at home, going to school, doing your thing, and you’re like, hey, you know what? I think I need to go to college. How did you pick? I think we got you going to University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. BA in Organizational Communications, then University of Phoenix, degree in Mayom. Masters of Arts, Organizational Management. Talk to me.
Glenn Harper [: 00:15:26
What does that mean?
Julie Bonness [: 00:15:27
Yeah. Yeah. So there’s a funny little story in our family. My mom is the one that has been really successful with telling her children where she thinks they’ll be in life. I kid you not. My mom looked at me one day and she said, you know what? You should get involved in sales and marketing. She looked at my sister deanne, which I’m using her name, and says, I think you should be an accountant. And it just.
Julie Bonness [: 00:15:51
For some reason, she saw the skill set and she guided and it fit. It worked really, really well. And so I always knew that, yes, I wanted to be involved in leadership and sales was really natural for me because there’s a lot of common sense built into sales. I’m just here to help. I see that you have a problem. I understand your problem, and I have a solution. And if I don’t have a solution, we’re going to work together to coordinate a solution because I’m going to get that problem solved. And so I knew.
Glenn Harper [: 00:16:23
Go ahead, I was gonna say. But it’s so funny. People are terrified of sales. They’re terrified. Like it’s like public speaking. They just, oh my God, I gotta go market myself or my cervix. Like, it takes a special person to be a salesperson, you know, a natural. You can train people, right? But the natural ones, they just have it.
Glenn Harper [: 00:16:41
But everybody else, it’s impossible to sell.
Julie Bonness [: 00:16:43
Yeah, I think that’s. Cause they’re overthinking it. Glenn.
Glenn Harper [: 00:16:45
I agree.
Julie Bonness [: 00:16:46
Julie B. Would you. Or Julie S. Would you agree with that as well? They overthink it.
Julie Smith [: 00:16:50
Yeah, but, I mean, I don’t think I’m great at sales.
Glenn Harper [: 00:16:52
E. But you don’t need to sell. You can just be yourself and people will buy.Julie Smith [: 00:16:56
And I guess that’s where it’s simple, right? Like, if I’m just myself, then it just is what it is. But I think, like, if I had to go, I don’t know, what do kids do now? Sell knives door to door like you and do that.
Julie Bonness [: 00:17:07
I would.
Julie Smith [: 00:17:08
I would fail at miserable.
Glenn Harper [: 00:17:10
You would say, I have knives, but you can’t buy them. And then they would come and buy them from. That’s how you sell it. Scarcity.
Julie Bonness [: 00:17:17
You know, there’s a lot to be said of not overthinking it. There’s a lot to be said of just, you’re just there to help. You’re just there to solve problems. And maybe because I was fifth in line and I saw a variety of things that needed to be done, I would figure out what the solutions were and again, going back to that common sense. So for me, I don’t even look at it as selling. I look at it as helping.
Glenn Harper [: 00:17:40
Did you go away to school or did you live at home and go to school for a few years and then go away? How did you do that?
Julie Bonness [: 00:17:46
So for my undergrad, I was at home and I kind of had to be at home. This is when mom. The kids were all getting older and mom and dad were starting to travel, but there’s still two younger ones. So I. And I also was very important for me to pay for my own college. You know, when you think of my sisters and some of their degrees, very expensive, Very, very expensive schooling. And I, in my heart, I felt it doesn’t really matter where I go to school, but it is important that I have a degree and communications was my thing. So I started out in communications and started out at a community college, which was a offshoot of the University of Wisconsin.
Julie Bonness [: 00:18:25
Did that for two years, paid for my own college, then did not physically move, but went to a larger college, the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where I finished. So there was a lot of commuting back and forth, but still trying to keep a hand on the homeland so mom and dad could do what they wanted as their kids were growing up. And they were growing up. Right. And then when I finally moved was when I graduated with my undergraduate degree and I had this boyfriend, and this boyfriend had moved to Arizona. And so after I finished my degree, I knew I wanted to go and be with my boyfriend. Right. Because he Was going, he’s my, my lifelong.
Julie Bonness [: 00:19:04
And that’s when I moved to Arizona and I saw what was happening. I took on a job at that time getting involved with Fintech Deluxe Corporation was a large organization out of Minnesota. And, and I went to work for them. And at that same time I realized kids are not coming out of school with just their undergraduate. And so I said, giddy up, we’re going to go back while I was working. So my employer at that time supported my education and I got my master’s degree and I was always a planner. So I was three months pregnant, married and pregnant with my first child when I graduated with my master’s.
Glenn Harper [: 00:19:45
So that was a good choice to follow the boyfriend that gets 50. 50. That might work out. That might not work out. But it seemed like it worked out okay, huh?
Julie Bonness [: 00:19:53
It did for a while. You know, there might be more to that story.
Glenn Harper [: 00:19:56
Oh yes. Well, you know, it’s. The other thing is, you know, we always converse, you know, how people end up where they end up. And your dad, his own company. Did you work for him at all or did you only do the farm thing?
Julie Bonness [: 00:20:12
So life was different in construction companies then. You’ll get a laugh out of this. How I worked for him was by going and cleaning his office. Yeah, so my brother did a little bit of work for him, but my dad wouldn’t let the daughters close to those construction sites at that time.
Glenn Harper [: 00:20:31
He’s probably smart.
Julie Bonness [: 00:20:31
Life was different then.
Glenn Harper [: 00:20:32
Probably smart. He didn’t need to have that kind of interaction, we’ll call it. And so what’s funny is that you witnessed somebody being self employed. You’re basically self employed on the farm. You were doing your thing, going through school and then you’re like my best choice do I go start my own company or do I go to megacorp? And then you go, you went massive company, you went to megacorp and you have a lot of megacorp on your resume. Right. On your experience. And we always debate the pros and cons of working for megacorp versus hanging your own shop.
Glenn Harper [: 00:21:06
But it sounds like the experience you gained from Megacorp was invaluable. Like the amount you learned and how the whole thing works probably is what shaped you to get you more focused on what you do today, correct?
Julie Bonness [: 00:21:19
Absolutely. Without a doubt. There is no doubt in my mind. I look back even to every part time job that I might have had when I was growing up. You gain something from all of those experiences, good, bad or indifferent, you gain something. And so my mega corporation background is every Two years I was promoted into something different and that kept me going, that kept me driving. And then there was a point of time where I was very versed in sales, very versed in business development. But I needed more operations.
Julie Bonness [: 00:21:54
And so I went to my company and I said, you know, I’m on a three legged stool here. I’ve got my sales, my business development, marketing’s very comfortable, but I need to better understand the operations if I’m ever going to be of real value to this organization or any others. So that’s when I helped them build out a 350 center call center for at that time, Deluxe Corporation being involved in financial services. We built out a call center and that was my operational background and that was also a time where I was off the road a little bit so I could have my second and third child.
Glenn Harper [: 00:22:31
I mean that’s a, I mean way to plan that. Way to jump into a greater than 300 person facility and build it ground up to learn operations, that’s a pretty big jump, don’t you think? For most people, certainly.
Julie Bonness [: 00:22:45
But you do it with great leaders. I was not alone. It was with a team and that’s what Mega Corporation can offer. And I think, you know, I look back on Mega Corporation, I was ready to get out when I was, when I got out, there’s no doubt, but it brought a lot of value and it gave me the skill set to kind of go on and do my own thing, to be able to develop. I jumped into, after being involved with a very large global organization selling tax audit and accounting software, I was able to jump into a startup. And that was a lot of fun. But with startups there’s twists and turns and maybe there’s some more development that needed to be done in that situation. But it led me to where I am today, focusing on the most critical business issue within the profession that I serve.
Julie Bonness [: 00:23:31
And that’s talent.
Julie Smith [: 00:23:32
So wait, I want to pivot on that. Hard pivot back. So you’re building this operations center and I know it’s megacorp, but something we like to talk about is hiring and scaling, right? Which is exactly what you were doing when you wanted that operations experience. Looking back on that hiring, putting the infrastructure in all those things. And again, I know you had a mega team to be able to do all of that, but how do you think hiring and scaling has changed from then till now?
Julie Bonness [: 00:24:06
Wow, Julie, that is powerful. That is really, really powerful. Because what was in the past is no longer relevant in today’s hiring world. We weren’t a global organization at that time. So it was a lot of local using things like. I don’t know if it was indeed at that time. Oh my gosh, let me throw you back. How about paper job postings in the new, remember the newspaper?
Julie Smith [: 00:24:35
But what about, did you go to like the colleges, you know, and you could like rip off the tabs, like, I’m going to take you way back.
Julie Bonness [: 00:24:42
Yes, you’re right. And the colleges are still very vitally important today as they were in years past. Now they’ve become a little bit more digital. Right. So they’re offering more support to their students. But yes, it was paper job postings, it was community events. It was a lot of word of mouth. As you know, when a big company comes in and is going to take 350 people, that’s, you know, the client or the employee referral program that worked.
Julie Smith [: 00:25:13
But what do you again, like, what do you see as far as when you were doing something like that? And again, it was a lot of in person, obviously the touches were so different. But in regards to the workforce then and now.
Julie Bonness [: 00:25:31
Yeah.
Julie Smith [: 00:25:33
What are the differences that you’re observing?
Julie Bonness [: 00:25:37
Well, let’s start with the fact that they wanted to work.
Julie Smith [: 00:25:42
Can we just pause a moment and do a mic drop moment?
Glenn Harper [: 00:25:45
Listen, all of our listeners are weighted with baiting breath because they all have their list of the problems and the differences. So they’re going to be checking them off as you rattle them off and hopefully we’ll find something.
Julie Smith [: 00:25:56
Well, I just think this topic is so relevant in today’s world and, you know, not to age us, but like I remember, like when there was demand and supply and there was a line to interview and you, you were up against some really tough competitions and you practiced interviewing and you wanted to set yourself apart and all those things. And now I look at like today and it’s just so different.
Julie Bonness [: 00:26:26
It is very, very different. Do you remember being worried about the weight or the bond of the paper.Glenn Harper [: 00:26:31
Yes.
Julie Bonness [: 00:26:32
That you used on your resume.
Glenn Harper [: 00:26:34
Gotta make some good noise when it crinkles.
Julie Smith [: 00:26:36
Well, we couldn’t even just order it from Amazon. Like you had to make a special trip to go get that special paper at Kinko’s.
Glenn Harper [: 00:26:42
If you remember, that’s the place you live.
Julie Bonness [: 00:26:45
Okay. We’re all aging ourselves now. Yes. But things were absolutely very, very, very different. And we had a whole different pool of individuals that, that truly wanted to work and wanted to make a difference. And this is not being disrespectful to our youth because I’m really Excited about how our youth, our millennials, our zillennials have shaped our organization. They brought in a lot of technology and thoughts. And how about this? Wellness and family, work, life balance.
Julie Bonness [: 00:27:14
I really applaud them for bringing that back. And why did they bring that back? Because what they saw all of us doing now, I was really happy. I love to work. I loved my job. I love the people that I work with. But that’s not always the case. But I think now what we’re focusing on is we have a lot of people that want to do their own thing and can or expect the results as quickly as a snap of a finger because of how our technology and our culture has been so quick to, you know, to provide. Right.
Julie Bonness [: 00:27:50
Whether it’s a validation on what I’m going to wear to school or whether it is a Amazon showing up at your door when you were up at 10:15 last night ordering what you needed for tomorrow, there’s not that preparation that goes into thought these days. And I think that’s a challenge in my. In. One of the reasons focusing on the most critical business issue within the profession is being able to go into a global situation. All of this technology that has grown has afforded us the opportunity to look bigger, better, and wider. So maybe we’re just at a standstill or a slowdown within the United States as it relates to the typical modern worker. Maybe that’s going to change in a few years. I mean, look at how it’s changed over the years.
Julie Bonness [: 00:28:37
Let’s hope that we have more changes. But what’s really important is we now have the opportunity to open our scope into a global environment and find that talent and pick that talent where before we only had the small group. Yeah, it might have been monumental, but it was. We just picked with what came to us, what we went out and sought after. Now that’s opened up tremendously, and I think more and more organizations are seeing that and understanding that value.
Julie Smith [: 00:29:08
Yeah. How do you think you’ve been able to overcome the messaging of the global, opening it up to the global. Because that has changed, obviously, over the years. But I still feel like there’s still that roadblock out there.
Julie Bonness [: 00:29:24
There is. There certainly is. And I think that takes a lot of discussion and conversation and also realization of why the jobs are where they are and. And what organizations and what firms in the United States built these jobs. So if I can. If I can offer a little bit of an example, within my profession, I focus on the accounting, the tax, audit and accounting profession. As we know, in The United States, we have a significant challenge. We don’t have enough students going into the profession.
Julie Bonness [: 00:29:54
And those that are in the profession are leaving to go to corporate or go private because there’s a bigger, there’s, there’s a better work life balance and also because there’s usually a bigger paycheck. So that really has put a lot of stress on the profession not having as many students go into the accounting profession. We had an organization early on, and I don’t know if I want to use that name, but there was a very large US CPA firm that identified the future challenges. And 23 years ago, they went global and they put their, their flag in the ground into a country called India, a country that really shares a lot of the same values as the United States. In fact, because it was a growing country, they used a lot of the stabilizers from the United States to build their country. That’s a really interesting thought. They’re really a mini usa. And when you have this large USA company, that firm put their stake in the ground, said, I see this population, I see this ferocious thought or feeling of education, this ferocious willingness to want to achieve in a very, very large population.
Julie Bonness [: 00:31:11
And 22 years ago, they started building out the universities, building out the colleges, building out the education, building out the speech and language training to support this country. And when you think about it, manufacturing started with offshore staffing. They were the very first to start with that. And then things grew. We had development, we had technology. And then with the technology and introducing the Internet in the 1990s, the financial services organizations went over and said, I’ve got something that’s going to fill my void with customer service. I’m going to suggest that wasn’t the best introduction to Indian workers.
Glenn Harper [: 00:31:52
Nope.
Julie Bonness [: 00:31:54
And as a result, Julie, going back to your question, that’s what I’m still fighting. That’s what people think. And that’s not where we are today, 22 years later. We have dedicated skilled talent out there because we, the United States, have developed them. We have so many organizations that have said, I can’t find my talent in the United States, I want my talent in the United States. I can’t find them. So I’ve got to go overseas. I’ve got to look at the global pool and for the accounting profession in the United States, thankfully, that it was built by US CPA firms.
Glenn Harper [: 00:32:30
Well, I think this is the key to the whole thing. I don’t know if it’s marketing, it’s just information, it’s education. But company here the fear of client backlash for somebody not based here or a cultural disconnect or language barrier. It sounds like most of those things have been addressed, but it’s not been put down to the companies that are wanting to go acquire those. That talent. Right. They just. We just don’t know.
Glenn Harper [: 00:33:05
And we, and we as a profession and pretty much any industries, it’s hard to communicate that to your, to your clients. What that looks like. I mean, there’s. Is it confidential? Is a data secure? All those things. We’re already doing all the things. It’s just not that one thing. Right. Everything else is global.
Glenn Harper [: 00:33:21
It’s just this one thing. And we did the message. How do you get the message out there to your clients who then can tell their clients that it’s okay?
Julie Bonness [: 00:33:32
Yeah, well, and I think it is. It’s ongoing. Right. It’s that grassroots level. I think when I. Let me tell you a little story about how I got to where I am today, again, being part of that global organization. Organization selling tax audit and accounting software. There was one thing that we couldn’t solve for, and that was talent.
Julie Bonness [: 00:33:48
So when I realized that, I’m going after the talent challenge because every time I’m with a CPA firm, they’re saying the same thing. Hey, Julie, do you know anybody? Can you help me out? I’d really be appreciative if you could, you know, keep your eyes peeled at other firms for client, for potential future employees. I’m like, I don’t play that game. But anyway, when I was in that profession and saw. Saw this need, I then went out and I vetted companies that were offshore. And I feel like coming to the table with the experience and expertise that I had within the profession gave me the courage to say, you know what? You’re not even vetable. So I vetted out seven vetable companies and some of the table stakes. You’ll hear me use that term a lot, table stakes.
Julie Bonness [: 00:34:32
The minimum level to get into the game is that security and that technology. Many firms don’t realize the security that my organization has is. Will far outweigh the security that they have within their own firms. And I don’t think that they realize that. So once we start talking about the table stakes, it’s like, okay, all right. So I focus on these seven firms. Table stakes got them out of the way. Then it was more about alignment.
Julie Bonness [: 00:35:00
How are they willing to show up differently in the United States? Do they have US based associates that can help and support their messaging? That helps a lot. When I can Sit down across from a firm and talk to them about my journey and why I’m here and how I’m just trying to help they feel more comfortable and confident. It’s also about communicating. It’s okay to have different cultures. I love learning about different cultures. And now my clients are learning about different cultures. I sat down with a client this weekend and. And he said, I’m trying to learn different languages because I want to relate more.
Julie Bonness [: 00:35:37
So a lot of our employees speak about three or four languages. English is the international business language, and they all speak that. I don’t know about you.
Glenn Harper [: 00:35:47
I speak one language and not very well. I don’t.
Julie Smith [: 00:35:50
I need chat GBT to proofread.
Glenn Harper [: 00:35:53
Julie’s. Like, she’s picking up cricket now. Like, it’s the dandy thing. So.
Julie Bonness [: 00:35:57
Oh, I love that. Yes. And that’s being relevant, right? That’s being relevant to your customer. You want to be able to build that relationship. And I really think that’s what it comes down to.
Julie Smith [: 00:36:07
So I want to just take a step back, because I think one of the biggest roadblocks or misconceptions. And again, Julie, you and I have worked together, you know, on different things, but one of the things that I think continuously comes up that has to be overcome is that security. But what I find the most ironic in that conversation is things that they’re willing to hold a global employee to is not something that they’re even willing to hold their employees in the office to. And I find that conversation sometimes to be like, I have chills thinking about it, but like, that conversation to be like, well, do you do that here? Well, do you have that agreement here? We’ll do the. And then by asking those questions, you get them to quickly realize they’re kind of being, you know, maybe a little absurd, but I just don’t think people realize the standard that is set there that is far greater than here.
Julie Bonness [: 00:37:10
Julie, I think that is so astute of you. I really do agree with that. It’s. And. And I equate that to trust. In the end, people want to work with people that they trust and that are know they’re going to enhance their professional reputation. It’s trust. So maybe was it fear or is it trust? Maybe a combination of both.
Julie Bonness [: 00:37:29
But I think people need to over. To talk, to listen. So by asking some of those questions that you’re asking, Julie, they can go through their own thought process. When they come to their own realization, you just guided them there. When they come to their own realization of, oh, yeah, I Don’t. They don’t turn around and say, but now I’m going to. I’m going to have those expectations. They don’t.
Julie Bonness [: 00:37:51
And they realize that it’s looking at the global talent and looking at the skill set. So oftentimes what we’ll do is we’ll introduce potential new employees and they meet on a basis of interviews and questions. But now what we’re trying to do is let’s blow it out of the water with a skills test. Let’s really see the difference in competencies with a skill test. And that talks numbers to a CPA or an accountant or an EA that.
Glenn Harper [: 00:38:26
Is so stereotypical of accountants. I love it, but I want to jump in it. So it seems like in this industry specifically, you got to speak the accountant’s language, and the accountant language says we have some sort of checklist, some Excel spreadsheet that says these are the things that are important to us. These are our concerns for going global. Right. These are our concerns. Seems like you probably have an overlay that goes over top of that, or they can merge in there to say, well, all these concerns, here’s 57 reasons why this concern is alleviated. There’s 47 for these.
Glenn Harper [: 00:39:00
This one’s one to one, whatever. And as an accountant, you look at that and go, oh, it’s like 100x better than I was expecting. Like, I assume you have that somewhere that you show them.
Julie Bonness [: 00:39:11
Absolutely. But you know what? It still is a guide, and it’s a process because they come to the table with those 57 different checklist items and they’re ready to. They’re ready to, like, prove you wrong. Yeah, yeah. They’ve got their thumb, their, their fists up and they’re ready. And as you start working through, it’s almost like, oh, well, we already addressed that one up there. So this one’s no longer applicable. This one’s no longer applicable.
Julie Bonness [: 00:39:37
But in the end, they’ve got to experience and feel comfortable with that. And just like I talked about years ago, how employee referral and, or client referral is so very important. Client referral. If one of you were to tell, talk to another firm and say, hey, this is what we’re doing and this is how we’re doing it. And then let me tell you our numbers and how we’ve grown our business and how we scaled or how we’ve taken on a specific niche. They’re listening to you. Well, you’re listening.
Glenn Harper [: 00:40:08
You got two problems with that. I’m just being, I’m being joking. Here. But the two problems are, number one, you know, you’re assuming accountants want to change, which is very hard, very stereotypical. But the second is you assume accountants talk to other accountants.
Julie Bonness [: 00:40:22
They don’t.
Glenn Harper [: 00:40:23
They don’t. You know who talks? The operations people talk to other operations. But accountants, unless we’re real friendly, we don’t want to share any secrets. You might get a competitive edge on me. Like you might do something like where.
Julie Smith [: 00:40:34
The thing that’s crazy Julie and I have in common, amongst many other things, is we’re sitting at a round table here. But Julie and I believe everyone. There’s a seat for everybody.
Julie Bonness [: 00:40:45
Everyone.
Glenn Harper [: 00:40:45
I don’t disagree with you. I’m just saying that is.
Julie Smith [: 00:40:47
I know, but I’m saying like that.
Glenn Harper [: 00:40:48
Stereotype, if we can capture that to like it’s a benefit for the whole industry. Right. Because now we’re all not struggling. We’re all together are recognizing, like, we have a computer now. Let’s do something cool with that. Everybody should have a computer. Right. It’s the same concept.
Glenn Harper [: 00:41:06
And again that it’s okay to evolve and change. Oh, you’re doing that too. Oh, okay. I guess it’s okay. We’re all comfortable with everybody changing. So I think that’s just the place. From my perspective, I think that’s probably a big piece of getting firms to adapt to this global thing.
Julie Bonness [: 00:41:22
Yes, yes, I think that is. That’s very wise. We keep informing that it’s the CPA that’s the buyer. And you’re right, most of the time it’s their team, it’s the firm administrators, it’s those that are begging, you know, I really want to continue to work here. I can’t do this. And yet you have big goals. You’re not hitting your goals. And it’s almost, you know, like even when we went from on prem software to cloud based software.
Julie Bonness [: 00:41:50
And think about the firms that still haven’t made that change. They’re not. They’re making a choice. They’re making a choice in life. And the choice is that they thrive or they die. And it’s their choice.
Glenn Harper [: 00:42:05
They’re going to go down with the ship. And that’s okay because that’s how they want to do it. And entrepreneurs, some of them are very stubborn. And this industry, I mean, we’re not stubborn at all. I mean, just kidding, of course.
Julie Bonness [: 00:42:16
But no, and no judgment. I mean, I’m here to help. I will work with people and offer guidance. But in the end, if they want to go down with their ship, that’s their choice. And no judgment.
Glenn Harper [: 00:42:31
Nope. It’s just the key is how do you get somebody that’s willing to listen just to entertain it? Because once they listen, they generally go all the way in. They go for it. Right. In my experience. But just listening is like, can’t do that, can’t do that. But once they listen, I think it’s in.
Julie Smith [: 00:42:49
Well, I think the thing in today’s world is, you know, it was the big four, the big eight were doing this in this industry per se. Big eight, Final four, Final four, whatever they are.
Julie Bonness [: 00:43:01
Oh, I like that.
Julie Smith [: 00:43:04
But I think it’s starting, the trickle down effect. Right. So now you’re seeing the big regional firms implementing this, you’re starting to see the small to mid size firms implementing. And again, it’s all about, I mean, for me, I think it’s all about education, like getting the glens of the world to listen, to hear what has to be said, what problems there are, what solutions that you have. And I think that’s the biggest thing is it’s starting. I’ve watched it. I think we’ve been ahead of the curve in regards to it. And people like yourself are able to communicate it effectively and be able to solve the problem, not create the problem.
Julie Bonness [: 00:43:45
Yeah, I think that’s really a nice and interesting way to look at it because I wholeheartedly agree with that. But that’s kind of my bubble. Right. But let’s also talk about some of the external factors that came in that all add to this. First of all, we know firms like to look up, right? They look up to their bigger firm, the bigger firms look up to the big four. Right. And there’s also some external factors. So Covid, Covid taught a lot of firms that you can work remotely.
Julie Bonness [: 00:44:13
Independently. That you can work remotely. Right. Or you can do a hybrid. And there’s been the pros and the cons with that. Now AI is involved, but more importantly, look what PE is doing. Look what private equity is bringing into our market. And I, we’re in the process of starting up an entity.
Julie Bonness [: 00:44:31
One of the great things about my company, Unison Globus, is we can work with the small firm, the solopractic, all the way up to a very large firm. And larger firms are looking at, they want to remain independent. And they know that the only way that they’ll remain independent is if they have the ability to stabilize their workforce. So we’re building out entities in India for these firms that are looking for workforce stabilization so that they can compete because they’re not going to be able to compete in their own region or in their own country.
Glenn Harper [: 00:45:02
Again, this is one of those crazy things. The industry is changing so fast. I mean, all of industries, but this one in particular is moving the speed of light. It’s crazy. I mean, from five years ago, what I was doing 35 years ago, to what I’m doing today is light years different. It’s crazy.
Julie Bonness [: 00:45:20
You bet.
Julie Smith [: 00:45:21
So I have my famous last two questions for you, Julie. What is Julie Bonasta’s superpower?
Julie Bonness [: 00:45:32
I. I would like to even take a moment to think about it. I don’t have to.
Julie Smith [: 00:45:36
I think you’ve talked about it.
Julie Bonness [: 00:45:38
I’d like to be like, oh, what would that be? My superpower is connecting. There’s not a doubt in my mind that I am a connector. Bringing businesses together, connecting people. My, my superpower is helping. I don’t want to call it sales. It’s. It’s connecting with people, understanding their situations and connecting them with the right solution, connecting them with the right business. Whether it’s somebody looking for a job, whether it’s a business that has a big problem, whether it’s a family situation.
Julie Bonness [: 00:46:09
I want to be that connector, to bring everyone together for a solution.
Glenn Harper [: 00:46:13
I love that she’s the catalyst. Yep.
Julie Smith [: 00:46:16
So one last question, and this might make you pause. What is your end game?
Julie Bonness [: 00:46:23
Okay. Love it. My end game. So there’s, there’s, there’s a whole different side of me that you don’t really know yet of how I want to give back to very specific individuals within our con, within the world. And so I have an end game of continuing to do what I do to help firms, to connect firms with other organizations, to help them be profitable, to. To relieve the US Based burden of not having enough talent. But then when I’m done solving for this problem, there’s another problem that I want to solve for. And I’m very grateful with the background and the talent that my education with the family.
Julie Bonness [: 00:47:10
There’s a lot of people that women specifically, that find themselves in their lives at a standstill where they need to end a relationship for the health of their family. And that, that came to me back in my early days. And I was so thankful and so blessed that I could pick up and manage at that time. I had three kids pick up and manage, move on and support these kids and take them through college or through high school and some of those that went to college. But there’s a lot of women out there in particular that when they find themselves in those types of situations, they don’t know what to do. They don’t have the means behind them, they don’t have the education behind them. And I really one day see myself as helping that population, building them up so that when they find themselves in a pretty traumatic situation, they can pick themselves up with guidance and move on as well. Life is too short.
Julie Smith [: 00:48:06
I love that answer, too.
Glenn Harper [: 00:48:08
Good answer.
Julie Bonness [: 00:48:08
That was a twist for you, huh? I don’t know.
Julie Smith [: 00:48:10
I don’t know if that was a twist.
Glenn Harper [: 00:48:12
Right on track.
Julie Smith [: 00:48:12
I knew you wouldn’t have an end game because you want to help and provide solutions. Which industry or how you extend that? I think could go. Could have went either way and you just picked the either way.
Julie Bonness [: 00:48:26
Yeah, you hit the button.
Glenn Harper [: 00:48:28
You know too much to just stop. And it might not be in the industry specific, but it’s going to be somewhere else. You’re going to take your same superpower and apply it somewhere else. And why would you stop helping help facilitating. Why would you stop doing that? So, yeah, trick question. You passed.
Julie Bonness [: 00:48:50
And if you see me on a beach doing that specific job or if you see me on a beach, know that I’m doing that specific job.
Glenn Harper [: 00:48:58
Are you a beach? Are you a beach ocean or a beach freshwater lake up in Wisconsin?
Julie Bonness [: 00:49:04
That’s a good question. I am beach. Gulf of America.
Glenn Harper [: 00:49:08
There you go. Love it. Love it. Well, Julie, that was a hoot having you on here. Appreciate you taking some time out and spending some time with us. I hope our listeners are going to find some great value in that. Would you want to give a plug to your entity that you represent and see if anybody might feel like that?
Julie Bonness [: 00:49:25
Sure. Unison Globus, we are an organization that is trying to support the workforce stabilization, supporting the tax audit and accounting profession. We’re a full service organization, have been around the base of Unison Globus has been around for 22 years and we have over 500 employees. And again, we’re just here to solve those big problems that will only help firms grow and scale and also balance life a little bit.
Glenn Harper [: 00:49:56
Fantastic. Well, another great episode of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. I’m Glenn Harper.
Julie Smith [: 00:50:02
Julie Smith.
