Latest / The Accounting Leads Now Podcast / The Hidden Strategies: Ralph's Insights on Technology and Success in Accounting

Transcript

The Hidden Strategies: Ralph's Insights on Technology and Success in Accounting · The Accounting Leads Now Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success the go-to podcast for fractional CFOs and accounting firm owners who want to attract more high-paying clients and increase their revenue.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Hosted by James Donovan from Nine Two Media, this podcast dives into marketing strategies specifically designed for lead generation and client acquisition.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: In each episode, you'll hear from industry leaders sharing their success stories and Thank you to your bottom line.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Ralph, super excited to have you on the recording today on the episode from Saggio Management.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: For those who don't know who you are, do you mind giving us a quick introduction about yourself?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Sure, when I get asked that question, I always tell people I'm an accountant, I'm an author, I'm a farmer, I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm a podcast host and an evangelist.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: So that's a list, but that will be kind of where we can take this today.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: But that's when people ask me who I am, that's who I am.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, perfect.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: There's a lot going on, then when do you find time to handle all of this on your plate?
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: That sounds like you're quite busy.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Well, the truth is, I'm organized and I use technology, and that's one of the things we could talk about today is, if you're an accountant or you're a small business or accounting firm owner, you got to learn to use technology and that's what I've really been able to do, so that's one of the things that's really set us apart when we look at other accounting firms and other people in the market say to the firms who maybe are a little bit scared to dive into the tech side of things, and how it will significantly benefit their business.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Well, the truth of the matter is, I think if you don't dive into it, you're going to become a dinosaur and you're going to get trampled, because you either keep up with the technology or you don't.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: And I see it in my own area here.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: I'm in Middletown, delaware, and we've got some other accounting firms around that aren't really utilizing technology, and it makes it a better strategic fit for us because you know one of the main things I hear from clients when I pick up a new client, the first thing they say to me is Ralph, my accountant's not responsive.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: My accountant never tells me where things stand.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: My accountant doesn't let me know what's going on.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: So I guess it's probably been about 10 years ago.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: I set up a relationship with Zendesk.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: It's basically a ticketing system and I use that in my accounting practice and my clients have grown accustomed to.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: They can log in and see where we are with any job.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Anytime they send an email, there's a ticket created.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Anytime we start a tax prep or we do a bank record, we do any kind of work for them we use that Zendesk platform so they can always check and see where things stand.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Because the truth of the matter is, if you don't use technology.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: And here's a great, great example of this James, I'm a one-man band, but I do about 600 tax returns a year and I have about a hundred monthly write-up clients.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: We do about a hundred weekly payrolls.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: I have one support staff person, so I use technology to do that.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: And if you're an accounting professional and you're not using technology, you're falling behind and you're going to get left because people like me and people who are paying attention to technology are going to go out there and grab your clients.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Because here's the thing your client wants to have services that exceed their expectations.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: The only way you're going to do that is if you provide that technology.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: You give them access, one of the things that we do in our practice.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Also, we use a product called Smart Vault, because one of the things I say to new clients is listen, I don't want to be the person to hold your data hostage.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: If it's a Saturday afternoon and you're applying for a mortgage or you need to send a financial to your banker, all of the things that I ever touch for you are right there in the smart vault.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Here's your username, here's your password.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Go grab those things.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Not that I don't want to talk to them.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Don't misunderstand that.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: But I'm giving them access to those things because I'm so strong and so reinforcing my relationship with them that I don't worry about it.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: You know, because here's the thing.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: I've heard a lot of clients say this or a lot of accountants say this.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I don't want to give them too much because they might go somewhere else.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Well, if you think they're going somewhere else, you got a bigger problem.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: You know, you haven't done a good job of building that relationship.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: And I know, james, that's a but.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: If you don't embrace technology, if you're not looking at AI, if you're not looking at the different things that are going on, you're going to get left in the dust.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: That's just a fact.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I love that Having that information readily available for your clients and the updates with the ticketing system is so important, I think, especially for retention.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Clients can only praise you on what they know you're doing and if we've learned this the hard way in the past, we'll do a ton of stuff behind the scenes.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: The clients don't know about it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: They're only looking at, say, one deliverable and if that's the only thing they get updated on, that's the only thing they're going to care about and they feel like, oh, we can dispose of them.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: They're not really doing a whole lot for us when reality is there's a lot happening beyond the scenes to make that one deliverable deliver.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So I love that you guys have a ticketing system in place where people can log in and they can see what is happening the entire time and then there's no confusion, there's no missed expectations and they're not left in the dark wondering what's happening.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: Because the truth is and this is one of the things I talk about I have a podcast, a daily podcast show also, and I talk about this all the time what get measured gets done If you measure it and the clients can see that measurement.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: So, for example, like every month, we send out a ticket that says hey, the September just ended, we're getting ready to start working on your bank reconciliation.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Is there anything we should know?
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: And you're right, because then they see that deliverable and when I send them that monthly invoice they're not wondering well, what did Ralph do to earn this money?
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: This month I don't see anything.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that and I've had a handful of mentors in the past with that same what gets measured, what gets improved?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of different ways to go about it, but it's so important.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: You mentioned a couple softwares you're using Smart Vault, I think, and Zendesk.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Is there anything else that you're using or that you've used in the past that you're like?
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: man, this is incredible.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: This has been a game changer for the business.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: I really like our Zendesk because our telephone system comes into that through what's called talk.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: All of our messaging comes through that.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: So every phone call is recorded, every email that comes in is tagged and it's set up with the ticketing anytime we do any work for them.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: So I'm also a big Intuit person.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: We all of our clients are on QuickBooks online for the most part, so that's one we've used.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: I think I said I just leveraged technology because there's so much out there growing.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: I use a lot of AI tools now because it helps me develop content.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: You know, for example, let's say a client sends me a question, I can go spend three hours doing research or I can go look and do a quick AI query.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Now I'm not going to just shoot out whatever AI dumps right, but nine times out of 10, it's going to give me at least a starting point for a good, congruent answer.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: So that's one of the things I think you got to be looking at is you know what is your AI, you know component to your technology.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: But those are really the big things as I look at my computer screen here.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Like I said, we also use some password managing tools for our clients because we do a lot of stuff with that.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: But that really is the key to the whole thing is just making sure that you're ahead of that technology.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: Now with that comes.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: So here's the thing you got to be really careful.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: If you're if you're an accounting practice owner, you're a sole proprietor.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: Make sure you understand the security impact of all these things, because password one, two, three, four is going to get you in a whole lot of trouble.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: So make sure you're looking at multi-factor authentication.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: You know not just the text message.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: We use a Google, we use Google, we use Duo, we use all this type of thing.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: So I'm just I'm just giving you some background on the things that, because to me you know, that's a sacred trust my clients have made with me.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: They've trusted me with their data, cause I say this to people all the time your relationship with your accountant in some ways is deeper than your relationship with your spouse, and that's just the truth.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: So you got to find somebody you trust.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: You got to find somebody that is responsible for, is responsible to you, because it's all about the relationship.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Give me a great example of that About 15 years ago I hired a marketing person, came into my practice.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: I had left my dad's practice.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: I grew up in accounting.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: I've been doing accounting since I was eight and I started my own practice and my dad did some things that a lot of people say, yeah, you shouldn't have done the same.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to distance myself.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: I hired this marketing guy and he comes in, james, he sits down with me and he says all right, ralph.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: He says what business are you in?
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: I said dude, that's an easy answer I'm in the accounting business.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: He goes wrong answer.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: I said oh okay, I'm in a tax business.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: I do a lot of tax.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Nope, wrong answer.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: I said I got it.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Dude, I'm in the consulting business.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: He says no, you're in the relationship business.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: And the thing is, as accounting professionals or just business professionals in general, we need to realize that our first layer of business is we're in the relationship business.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: We sell a commodity, but what we really sell is a relationship, because there are millions of accountants out there that your client could choose to go to.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: But they go to you because of that relationship.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Just like my daily podcast show, people come to me not because of the content, because my content isn't anything spectacular, but they come to me for that relationship.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: They come to me because they trust me.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: They come because they can relate to me.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: One of the best compliments I ever received from a client was that you make accounting fun.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: You make accounting interesting.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: It's not boring.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: You're not some bean counter.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: I always say, yeah, we're the engineers of personalities.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: That's who accountants are that's not an easy feat either to make accounting fun, so huge compliment.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I love that, though it is so true.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: It is about the relationships and, in our line of work as well, very much about the relationships, and it's not always just about results.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: We've had awesome results for some people.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: We've had really poor results for some people, but the clients that we've had really solid relationships with, they've stayed with us even in the darker months where the results weren't there.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: And then clients maybe we didn't have the best relationship with, but they had a great ROI Well, they're leaving anyways.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: So it's it's so true that you need to have that relationship with your clients, and then I think that's the ultimate hack to retention for a business.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Well, because there are times that I have to tell a client what they don't want to hear.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: It's just a fact.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Like I've got to say to a client you owe a lot in tax, or this is this, is this this.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: And if I have that relationship with them, I can say that not worry about, oh, I guess they're going to fire me, they're going to go find another client.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Because another thing I always say is I like to develop relationships for life.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: And people look at me like life.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, I want to be your go-to person for life.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: And if you look at the people that I work with, my clients, these are the same people that I've known.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: I've seen them get married.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: I've seen them start a family.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I've seen them grow their businesses.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I've seen them retire.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: I've seen them pass away.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, that's the life cycle.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: But retire I've seen them pass away.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, that's the life cycle.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: But when you build that relationship, it's the.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: I always call it the ask Ralph.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: You know well, let me ask Ralph, because that's the first thing that comes to their mind is you know what I got to ask Ralph?
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Ralph, how do you go about finding new clients for your firm?
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: You mentioned there's yourself.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: You have some support in place I think one staff member in place.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: You're doing about 600 tax returns a year.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Where do you find the time to go out and prospect and bring in new business?
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: That's kind of changed a little bit.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you, when I first started, I was all about paper advertising sending out.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: You know that stuff doesn't work.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: It just doesn't work.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: What really works is there.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go back to it again.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: James, it's a relationship, it's that referral, it's that person.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: And then the other thing you know, I kicked up this podcast.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: I restarted it on a daily basis last.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: I keep going back to that.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: I apologize, but it truly is my funnel because it's a way that people can get to know me before they even meet me there.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: I've got over 520 episodes out there now.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: So, let's say you're yeah.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: I mean, because the truth is like I just recorded an episode this morning on how to use your bank as a, as a tool for budgeting, because you've got all these online apps and all that kind of stuff and that appeals to both individuals and business clients.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: They say, well, I listened to a few episodes of Ralph's show.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: And then they're like it's funny, because they'll say to me hey, ralph, you know I listened to your show.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: That's great to hear your wife's a breast cancer survivor.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: You know it's great to hear your son's in the Coast Guard or my other son's a barber.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: And it's a way to solidify those relationships.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Because here's what you and I both know.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: I guarantee you agree with me on this.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: It's all about the referrals.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: You can have the best print advertising, you can pay to do SEO and I've got great websites.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: I work with a company called ClientWise out in California.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: They help me with my website, they generate content, but it doesn't touch that referral that.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Hey, you got to call my guy Ralph, like it's cool.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: I go on to Facebook and on a daily basis somebody will say, hey, I'm looking for an account, I'm looking for a tax guy, I'm looking for a consultant and one of my clients will say hey, you got to call this guy Ralph.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Just go ask Ralphcom.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: You're right there and that's the key to it.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: It's that referral, because you can spend a whole lot of money on advertising.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: You can spend a whole lot of money on Facebook ads and YouTube ads and LinkedIn ads and all those things have their place.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying there's no value in them, I'm just saying that, when it really comes down to it, I would say that probably 80% of my marketing growth comes from somebody telling somebody hey, go see my guy Ralph.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, referrals are, hands down, the best source of a new client, the highest intent, the easiest to convert.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: I will counter and say that a lot of businesses don't have a consistent referral system in place though.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: So they'll say, yeah, we rely on referrals, we rely on word of mouth.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Cool, how many people are you working with?
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Well, nobody.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, cool.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: So you're not getting a lot of word of mouth or referrals because not enough people know about you yet.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: But if you have this structure in place, where you're you're asking your clients to refer you new business or you're giving them incentives to refer business 100%, you're bang on right.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: It's.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: It's a great way to bring in new, new opportunities.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: And then with ads, you can now just get in front of so many more people, bring them on as clients and keep that referral engine in place.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: And I think you have to create the.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: You have to have a mindset of what is my end goal, and you've got to look for opportunities to reinforce those referrals.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: We do that with our monthly newsletter.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: I do that when I send out an email every day about my show.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: It's all about newsletter.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I do that when I send out an email every day about my show.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: It's all about, hey, do you know somebody that's impacted by this?
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Do you have a way?
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: And I've put incentives in place from time to time?
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: Hey, refer us another monthly client and we'll knock 20% off your monthly fee.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: You're right, though, but you've got to invest in those things.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: And then you've got to have a system in place for that marketing program.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Know that marketing program where someone sends you a lead and then you set up a lead magnet for, like.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: I know that's a fancy term, but you know you have a set of email things that go out.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: You know, hey, I know you're interested, and if you don't follow up, but again, we go back to that same thing.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: I said, james, the person that's looking for you generally is not happy with their current provider or their brand new business.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: That happens to, but, I think, nine times out of 10, it's somebody that's leaving a relationship Like I.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Just like.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: That's the thing I hear all the time, james.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: I call my accountant and they don't call me back.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: Or I call my accountant and I've talked to the third person in three months, and that just frustrates people.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: So you've got to have that system built at the front end, like you said, you know, cultivate that referral network.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Have a plan in place, because here's the deal.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: You know this as well as I do, james If you don't have a plan, you will fail.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: It's just a fact.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: You know you're going to fail.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: It's real easy to do accounting work Like what we do isn't rocket science, and that might sound like I'm being silly, but I really believe that it's all about solidifying those relationships, understanding how to cultivate them and then reaching out to the people you're already working with and giving them some reason or some incentive to want to say hey, call my guy Ralph.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, and I think a lot of businesses are scared to make the ask and they say someone else is no for them.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: But if you don't make the ask, the answer is always no.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: If you make the ask and it's someone else is no for them.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: But if you don't make the ask, the answer is always no.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: If you make the ask and it's no, you're no further ahead, you're no further behind.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: But you're going to get a lot of yeses and you'll be surprised.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: So I always encourage our clients say we're going to keep doing our thing for you, but don't stop asking your own clients for referrals.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Don't stop that piece because, like you've mentioned here, it's so important and those are the easiest people to close.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Someone already knows like, someone who you know like and trust has sent you to someone else who they know like and trust.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the thing is for a lot of accountants and small business people, that's not their area expertise and it's very uncomfortable for them.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: You know they understand HVAC or they understand plumbing, but they don't understand that marketing side, and that's why you got to find partners.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: One of the things I talk about all the time is build your dream team.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: Surround yourself with experts.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: You can't be an expert in everything you know, and that's just.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: That's the honest to God truth and I know that's what you're basically saying too, james is that, look, you might not have that skill set to do that email marketing, or you might not have that skill set for SEO or LinkedIn advertising.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: Then that might scare you.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: I get it, but then surround yourself with people who understand it.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: Be willing to pay them to do that and yes, it's expensive, but you get what you pay for.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Ralph, I would love to know, in all of your years of business, what are some of the things that you're most proud of.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: If there is one that stands out, if not, what are some of the things that come top of mind?
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: So I'm a Christian guy, so I'm going to tell you that, first of all, my practice is built on merging two worlds, and that's finance and faith.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: My podcast is about that too.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: So the thing I'm most proud of is people know me because of my character.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: When you come to me, you might not like my answer, but the answer is going to come from a place of character.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: It's going to come from a place of faith.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: It's not going to be some hey, I can look.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Here's the thing, james.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: I can teach people how to be really good scoundrels.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: I have the skills to do that.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: I could do that, like I could make myself very wealthy doing that, and God has richly blessed me.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: So I'm not in this position where I'm, where I'm worried about, but but the truth is I think that's one of the things I bring to the table.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: So that's important to me.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: That's valuable to me when, when a client says to me, you know, ralph, it's not even an accounting question, it's a life question.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: You know, like I'm going through a divorce, or you know a kid that's having issues.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: So that's what makes me proud, james.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: It truly does.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: And the other thing that makes me proud is building those win-win relationships.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: That client that comes to me and says, ralph, I'm working the nine to five I got.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: You know, my life is in a cubicle and I need to get past this.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: I want to start my own business.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: I love it when I see that happen.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: I love it when I see that the spark and that ignite that fire in them and then you know they come right.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: I come right alongside them, I grow with them, and so those are the things that really stick out the most to me.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: And it's seeing those generational things, like when I have a client it's a tax client and then their kids come in to get their taxes done with me, it's like, oh, I remember working with your dad or working with your granddad.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: So those are the things that really step out to me.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: And again, it goes all back to that relationship and I hate to keep harping on that, but that's the truth, james.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: So here's the thing I say in my practice all the time.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: I say this on my podcast it's not about the destination, it's just not, because it's all about the journey and you got to find ways to embrace that journey.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: Two years ago I turned 50 and I've been very financially successful.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: I've had the Corvettes, I've had the Rolex watches, I've had the Breitling watches, I've had the beach house.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: But you know what, james, I felt empty and I said I remember sitting up one night and I said, I said to God, I said what?
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: What is it you want me to do here?
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Like what?
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Because I was empty, I didn't feel full and and and he didn't.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: I wasn't.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Some voice from you will do this.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: But I felt a peace in saying Ralph, your mission field is to go help people be successful, and that success isn't defined in how much is in your bank account, that success, not defining how many cars you have or how many homes you own.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Those things are great.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Listen, I'm a capitalist.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: I think that's fantastic.
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: I want you to be prosper, I want you to be successful.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: But what is your measurement for success?
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: And so the proudest thing I am is I've helped people move beyond it.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: See, the hierarchy needs says at the bottom food, clothing and shelter.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: And as an accountant, I think our job is to get them past that.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: Because if you're still worrying about your next paycheck, or are you going to meet payroll this Friday, or is your firm going to grow, ten things If you can't get past that basic level, you'll never get to that level of self-actualization, You'll never be able to make that what we call in the Christian faith kingdom impact.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: We call in the Christian faith kingdom impact.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: So for me, I'm the most proud of helping people go from that.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what, ralph, I'm paying my bills now.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I've got an emergency fund, I've got a retirement plan.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: I've got these things.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: I've got, you know, a succession plan in order, so my kids are taking over my business.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: Those are the things that I'm most proud of, because at the end of the day, the measurement isn't like I said how much is in your bank account?
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: You know, I went, I remember, I remember when I bought my first rolex watch, dude, I went to the.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: I went to the mall, right, walk into this jewelry store.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: This and I'm not bragging about this, I hope I don't come across as arrogant, I don't mean it at all, but it just puts things in perspective.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: I walk in, I paid 24 000 solid gold rolex watch, right, put it on my wrist.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: And I'm walking down the mall like, look at at me, look at me, I've arrived right.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: And I got home, put it in the jewelry box and said it didn't fill me.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: It didn't fill me.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: And I think that as I've grown older I just turned 52 a week or two ago as I've gotten older, I've realized the measurements of what's important to me in life are not what they were 10 years ago.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: They're definitely not what they were 20 years ago.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: And as I get a little bit more gray on the side you can't really tell in this camera angle, but I realized that what really matters are those relationships.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: It's that impact, it's that helping people get from where they are now to their full potential.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: And I know, James, that's a long answer to a to a simple question, but that's my journey.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: And the thing is I tell all my small business clients don't have a set destination.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, have a plan, have short-term, intermediate, long-term plans, but embrace the journey, because this is a learning experience and what you learn on the journey, that's where the beauty of this is.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: It's those days of you know.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: I remember when I first started my practice I took every client I could take.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Oh, you know, you got if you're alive, you're my client.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: Fantastic Sign here.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: And I tell clients all the time now that they come in to interview me.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: I'm interviewing them because I've gotten to the point in my practice where I really don't have a lot of extra capacity.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: So I'm really picky about who I take on as clients.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: I want to see, I want to see that they have an interest in being successful.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: If they don't want to be successful, I don't want to partner with them.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: And that might sound harsh and I think the problem is a lot of accountants, a lot of small boutique practice accounting firms.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: They're all about.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: Let me see how many clients I can get.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Tax practice is big for this.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Let me see how many tax returns I can do.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: Well, the thing is, you can bring in a volume of tax returns which will be the biggest pain in the rear end for you to deal with.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Seriously, every year I pride myself on firing clients and people say, ralph, you're crazy.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: I say, no, trust me, because it's not worth it.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: It's not worth this person.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: I think it's great if somebody owes me money and doesn't pay me, because then I'm not going to see them again Fantastic.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Going to see him again, fantastic.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: My wife goes Ralph, that doesn't make any sense.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: Why don't you take him to court?
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: I'm like, no, no, you don't understand.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: They owe me money.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to hear from him.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: That's fantastic.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: That's two thumbs up, because then I'll have to deal with them anymore.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: But see, it's so easy to get stuck in that rut of like I got to take all the business.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: I want to grow.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: I want to grow At what cost?
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: So, james, that's what I'm saying.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: Those are my key takeaways.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: So much insight, that's, that's great, ralph.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing all that.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: You're welcome.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: How?
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: How can someone get in touch with you?
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: I'm listening.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: How do they reach out and continue the conversation with you?
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: That's my podcast homepage, but my accounting practice is on there.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: You can book a call with me.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: As an example, you can listen to my audio shows.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: I'm on all the audio platforms.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: I do a daily video show on YouTube and Rumble.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: I'm getting ready to launch a YouTube live and a LinkedIn live, which is going to be a whole nother level of fun.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: So I'm learning a new software called Ecamm live.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: But what I've realized and my show is all about answering questions Every day I have a question from a listener or a client or somebody that said to me hey Ralph, what about this?
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: And what I do is I grab that question and I focus it in on okay, well, what does that mean for our faith?
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: What does that mean for what this person's asking me?
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: And then I just try to mold it together in a story, because I've been doing this for a long time.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: I've seen just about everything.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: So most of the times I can say, oh, I remember that client that went through that and see people love that.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: They're like, they feel heard.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: Because that's the thing.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: We spend a lot of time talking.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: But as a professional accountant, I think you're more effective when you listen.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: But as a professional accountant, I think you're more effective when you listen, because if you listen to what your client is saying to you, listen to what they're telling you, there's a huge amount of opportunity.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: And that's what I do on my show.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: My show is to listen to somebody and then give them my years of experience.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: It's like 30 years now kind of scary.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Like I said, I've been doing this since I was eight.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: My dad has an accounting practice literally eight years old.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: Picture this dude.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: I'm sitting there after school, I'm copying tax returns, I'm stapling tax returns.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: You know, dinner table conversation at my house was debits and credits and can you believe this client did this.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: And yeah, so it was a warped childhood, like it was.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: It was a bit much, right, but, but, but.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: But.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: What that equipped me with is an understanding that there's value in those relationships.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: There's a value in those things you've learned, and that's what I bring to the table.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: So if you're looking for somebody to take your business to the next level, I work with other accounting firms, sometimes helping them with the technology behind it, because it's scary, I get it, but it doesn't have to be that scary.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: Break it down into little pieces and you'll be very successful.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, just askralpcom is really the best way to get in touch with me.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Perfect.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I love the name of the website as well.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: So simple, Ralph.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for coming on, sharing your wisdom, sharing your stories.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: This was awesome and I can't wait to have people go speak with you after this.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: James, I appreciate the opportunity.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: Man, I wish you the best of success in your business as well.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: We hope today's episode provided valuable strategies to help you attract more high paying clients.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe, follow and share with fellow professionals.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Connect with us on LinkedIn and leave a review or comment to join the conversation.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Your feedback helps us bring you the best insights in finance and marketing.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Until next time, keep striving for success and unlocking your business's potential.