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Tim Petrey: Building Raving Fans in the Least Sexy Industry · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Tim Petry, CGMACPA and the CEO of HD Growth
0:23
Partners. They are an accounting and
0:26
advisory firm based in Youngstown, OH known for
0:29
offering business solutions that go beyond traditional number
0:33
crunching. They help clients in many
0:35
industries with accounting, tax planning, payroll services
0:39
through White Glove Payroll and strategic consulting.
0:43
Under Tim's guidance, the firm has grown from just a few people
0:46
to over 100 employees with multiple offices and a people
0:50
first culture recognized by Accounting Today and other
0:54
organizations. Tim started at the company in an
0:57
entry level role and quickly rose to a leadership position.
1:01
His background includes overseeing service expansions,
1:05
spearheading private equity partnerships, and building a
1:08
culture centered on innovation and client care.
1:12
Throughout his tenure, he has been part of numerous
1:15
award-winning initiatives, including top workplace
1:18
accolades in Ohio. Tim's passion for helping
1:21
businesses succeed has made him a sought after advisor and
1:25
community leader. Now before we get into all that
1:28
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AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:12
today, the CEO of HD Growth Partners, Tim Petry.
2:16
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:18
Thanks for having me man, looking forward to it.
2:22
OK, so Tim, let's just jump right in.
2:25
I want to figure out how the heck you got to where you are
2:27
today. Maybe let's start with how'd you
2:30
put yourself through college? It's a great, great question.
2:34
I asked myself that pretty much every morning when I jump out of
2:37
bed. How did I get myself in this
2:39
position that I'm in today? I put myself through college,
2:42
Washington semi trucks. I worked at the Blue Beacon
2:44
Truck Wash here in Youngstown, OH.
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Would would work 40-50 hours a week, go to school full time at
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Youngstown State University. Proud alum of of YSU.
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As you can see behind me, I spent a lot of time, you know,
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trying to go back and forth and balance the two of those things.
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Was just really accustomed to a pretty heavy workload, you know,
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working 50 hours a week, going to school full time.
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You know, I was, I was pretty all right with put my head down
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and, and, you know, learning to focus that energy into the right
3:17
thing and which which ultimately helped to really translate into,
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you know, some relative definition of success.
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As I kind of entered the workforce and realized that, you
3:28
know, my, my advantage when I got out of the workforce was
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that I was willing and able to work harder than everybody else.
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Where do you think that work ethic came from?
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I think it's predominantly survival instinct.
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You know, I think it's a combination of things.
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I mean, lost my parents at a young age, was raised, raised
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by, you know, a a variety of different family members,
3:52
predominantly my aunt and uncle. And my uncle was self-employed
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and he owned a motorcycle business where he sold
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motorcycle parts for about 50 years here in our community.
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And I always saw, you know, what it took for him to, you know,
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make a living and and take care of his family.
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You know, it was Sundays when the alarm goes off, he was up
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and out it and, and was going to take care of the building.
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So I realized early on and saw that and it was very evident
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that that's what it takes as you're building your business in
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those early years is that, you know, you got to be willing to
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pour everything into it. And then, you know, being, you
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know, relatively independent in an early age.
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I was, I was working and largely taking care of myself at, you
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know, 16-17 years old. I, I knew at that point in time
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that it was on my shoulders. So there was, there was never a
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feeling that, you know, anybody was going to come bail me out,
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right? So it was, I am the backup plan.
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I am, I am the one that ultimately has to come in at the
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end of the day and, and figure it out.
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I, I have had an amazing support structure in my wife for many
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years. My wife has been, we've been
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together for over 20 years. We've been married for about 12.
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You know, she has been with me along the way and she's always
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been that person that, you know, I felt I couldn't do something
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and she told me I was wrong and would just tell me that, you
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know, there isn't anything that I can't accomplish.
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And she's always pushed me, you know, to get to get the best out
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of whatever situation we're in and make the best out of it.
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And as a result, we've got an amazing life. 2 beautiful
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children nine and six, two boys here in Youngstown, OH,
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Canfield, OH and we got a we had a great thing going.
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So losing your parents at an early age?
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How old were you at the time? I was 4, my brother was 13.
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You still have memories of them. You know, it's hard to tell what
5:53
what memories are actually yours.
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You know, at that age, you know what memories are actually yours
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and what memories are those that people have kind of like planted
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into your brain, right? Of all the stories that you
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heard, all the things that you've been told.
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Luckily, I was raised by all of her siblings, so there was never
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a shortage of understanding who my mother was.
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I have great memories of her being a wonderful, wonderful
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person and a very kind human being.
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Someone that would always do anything for anyone around her,
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you know. So that's, you know, the
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foundation of who who I am and who I was built to be was based
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on the stories that were told of my mother and and how amazing of
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a person she was. Wow.
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And you say her siblings, they took you in.
6:41
They helped to raise you. They helped to care for you.
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Even still, you know, like you said, by the age of 16 or 17,
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you were pretty independent. You were kind of figuring out
6:50
life on your own to a large degree.
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And it seems like, you know, that kind of built a thick skin,
6:56
a thick exterior, kind of made you ready and tough to kind of
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go out there and figure things out, work 50 hours a week while
7:02
going to school full time. You went to school for
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accounting. That's what your undergrad was
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in. And then how did you land at
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your first job in that area? So that, that was an interesting
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story coming out of school, I did internship with a pretty
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large regional firm here in town.
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Didn't get hired, interviewed with just about every other firm
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in town, did not get hired by any of them.
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A few of them went through multiple interviews, still did
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not get hired. And I, I was kind of committed
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to the fact that I was going to have to leave.
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You know, it was O eight, It was O 9.
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I mean, it wasn't it was a the, the Great Recession was going
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on. It was all kinds of challenges
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here in the Youngstown area. So, you know, it, it wasn't just
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about the fact that I was overlooked.
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It was a lot of other things that were going on.
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I had a job lined up out of town and was planning to leave, but
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it wasn't for another eight months down the road.
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So I took kind of like a temp job.
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I got introduced to Harold Davis, who was my original boss,
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original then became my partner and mentor and all these other
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things by one of the guys that I worked with at the interns at
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the internship, the regional CPA firm.
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He took a client from Harold. Harold called him up to get the
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work papers and the transition stuff and then then asked Joe at
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the time said, hey, you know, did do you guys have any good
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interns that you didn't hire or get anybody to be interested in
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coming over and helping me out? Joe is kind enough to pass along
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my name, get introduced to Harold and I started working at
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our firm answering the phones. I was the receptionist.
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I had my accounting degree at the time.
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But you know, when I came there, it was like, man, what do you
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need me to do? I'll do whatever, you know, I
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wasn't really planning on being there long term.
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I thought it was just going to be a kind of a stop gap.
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But you know, I, I worked there for a little while.
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I had fun with it. My, my partner and, and boss and
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eventual mentor, Harold was having a lot of fun with it.
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He was in kind of like the second version of his career and
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we just really had a blast together.
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And that's kind of how it started.
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And, you know, 6-7 months later, when it was time for me to
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leave, I looked at him, he looked at me and I said, I don't
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want to leave. He said, good, I don't want you
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to. And I stuck around.
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So it was really kind of just a right place, right time, you
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know, kind of a situation. But I also think that, you know,
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the story that comes out of that that I tell, you know, at the
9:30
universities is like you, you never know what opportunity is
9:34
coming. You never know what introduction
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is coming. So like showing up as the best
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version of yourself every day is important.
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I mean, it may not translate to success or a job or a client in
9:45
that instance that you think it might.
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But, you know, sometimes just continuing to show up the right
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way leads to those opportunities.
9:55
You know, I like that this story, Tim, because it's
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something that I hear from several of my guests, you know,
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kind of going through a rough spot, need employment, take a
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job that, quote UN quote, is, you know, beneath your skill
10:08
level just because you need something, right?
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And it's better than sitting on the couch and twiddling your
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thumbs and just, you know, looking at Indeed every day.
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And like you said, like you never know what's going to
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happen. You don't know how that's going
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to turn out and what doors are going to open from being out
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there in the world developing relationships.
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And you mentioned that you know, your partner, your became your,
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you know, first your boss, then a mentor, then a partner.
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What What's maybe the biggest lesson that you remember him
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teaching you pretty early on that sticks with you today?
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I mean, I, I've got a laundry list of amazing lessons from
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Harold. I mean, but the I think the main
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one that he was, was always kind of beating into my head was to
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be a good listener. Listening is 85% of the battle,
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you know, and that's, that applies to so much.
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And I didn't realize that at the time.
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I mean, when he was teaching me these lessons, we would go to
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client meetings, we'd go to prospective client meetings,
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we'd go to meetings with potential referral partners or
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whatever. And almost every time we'd get
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back in the car together and we'd leave wherever we were
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meeting these people and head back to the office.
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And he'd say to me, Timmy, do you think I talked too much?
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I think I talked too much. I should have listened more, you
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know, So like in his mind, his brain was programmed to just try
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to listen more. And I saw that on multiple
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occasions where there was an instance where we went to a
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client, we said, Hey, we're good at all these things.
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Here's what we're great at and spreadsheets and taxes and
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accounting and whatever else. And, and then we let the client
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talk, right? And and then then we found out
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what it was that they needed from us.
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And had we started with that, the conversation would have been
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so much easier. You know, we if had we started
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with listening to them to understand what they needed and
12:02
what would have made their life better, then we immediately
12:05
could say, oh, we do that really well.
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Here's an example of that. Here's a case study.
12:11
Here's how we have done that well in the past.
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So he really forced me to change how I communicate and really
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think differently and be very intentional about, you know,
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could just conversations with people.
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And that that led to then realizing, OK, well, this is
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very applicable for clients. And we were growing and we're
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adding clients and we were, you know, finding our own relative
12:36
definition of success there. And then as I was learning how
12:39
to manage people at a larger scale, that came right back into
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it. And we, we really tried to make
12:46
that a premise of how we were running our business was we
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listen to our clients, we listen to our community, we listen to
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our people. And that, that listening to the
12:54
people, actively listening, genuinely listening to our
12:57
people on a regular basis, I believe is the reason that
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we've, we've had so much growth and had so much, you know,
13:04
opportunity for success here in, in our, in our industry.
13:07
You know, getting those types of cultural recognitions year after
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year in a time where being good at culture is not easy, really
13:18
means that we're, we're doing something well.
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And I, I think that we, I can really accredit a a lot of that
13:23
to that foundational lesson that Harold has taught about just
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listen, shut up and listen. So it seems to me that growth
13:31
comes from good sales and marketing, not listening to your
13:36
employees tell me how I'm wrong. Having great employees means
13:43
that they're going to do a great job and if your employees are
13:45
happy with what they're doing on a regular basis and people
13:48
genuinely feel purpose and what they do everyday.
13:51
Accounting isn't the sexiest industry in the world, man.
13:54
You know, it is a largely a pretty boring industry.
13:59
There's a lot of people that are naturally somewhat introverted
14:02
that are in this industry. But at the end of the day, the
14:06
moment that that flips and you see it happen in people's
14:08
careers where they realize I have an opportunity to like make
14:13
a meaningful change in someone's life and I can help them
14:16
alleviate the financial pressures that they have by
14:19
doing a great job at what I'm doing.
14:21
And the minute that people see that and they flip that switch
14:24
from this is my job to this is my career and this is my
14:28
passion, everything changes, right?
14:30
They're happier, they love what they're doing, and then
14:33
ultimately the service that they're giving to a client is
14:37
like nothing they have ever experienced in our industry,
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right. So when you put those two things
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together, what happens is you get then organic referrals of a
14:47
different magnitude because now your clients aren't aren't just
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OK with what you're doing. The average NPS score of the
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public accounting industry is pretty darn low.
14:57
People are not generally raving fans of their accountant, you
15:02
know, But that's always been what we set out to do is create
15:05
raving fans and, and create people that truly love us and
15:09
what we're doing primarily because of that, you know, the
15:13
the purpose that it gives to us every day.
15:15
I mean, that's the fuel that gets us jumping out of bed in
15:17
the morning. That makes a lot of sense.
15:20
You know, the power of the word of mouth referrals is just
15:25
incomparable. You're already coming in as
15:28
somebody who's been validated, trusted.
15:32
Aside from sort of those organic word of mouth referrals, what
15:35
have been some of the big growth levers that you've pulled along
15:38
the way? We've done a lot of unique
15:41
acquisitions. So during that period of time
15:44
that we were growing, we acquired about 13 to 14 really
15:49
small sole, sole proprietor kind of practices we didn't really
15:54
like. Marketing wasn't something that
15:57
we ever did. As we were growing in the early
15:59
years of our business, we didn't have a really recognizable name.
16:03
We didn't have a super recognizable brand.
16:06
You know, we were, you know, building a firm in the shadows
16:09
of some really successful firms in our community that have been
16:12
around for 100 years. And so we needed, we needed to
16:16
kind of do something different. We needed to get an opportunity.
16:18
We needed to get an at bat. And then once we had that at
16:22
bat, then we were able to prove ourselves.
16:24
And as we proved ourselves, then that compounded with the organic
16:27
referral. So we'd go in and we'd buy, you
16:30
know, these really small little practices.
16:31
Maybe a sole proprietor was doing 2 to $300,000 worth of tax
16:35
returns and bookkeeping and stuff like that.
16:38
And they, they'd be at the tail end of their career.
16:41
They'd be looking for, you know, ultimately those people were
16:43
looking for a, a good place for their clients to go to because
16:46
they have very good, you know, relationships to those people.
16:50
So we were able to have some pretty favorable deals put
16:53
together where we don't have to put up a whole lot of money.
16:56
We work together with that person and really create a
16:58
custom retirement plan for them. How many hours do you want to
17:02
work? What clients do you want to work
17:03
on? We'll handle the rest.
17:05
We'll pay on an earn out basis over a period of time as those
17:08
clients stick around. And then, you know, that that
17:11
created a, a bunch of things that I guess I didn't expect.
17:15
I mean #1 you know, that person that stuck around really helped
17:18
train and develop a lot of our people because they had decades
17:22
and decades of great experience. And then those people, the
17:25
clients that they were serving were really happy about the fact
17:29
that their person that took care of them for years was going to
17:32
have a comfortable retirement, that they had a good partner
17:35
that they were able to hand things off to.
17:37
And then they trusted us. So therefore the client trusted
17:41
us. And then as we were able to
17:43
really focus on providing the highest level of service that we
17:46
could to those people, you know, they stuck around.
17:49
Then they became our clients. They were their clients, they
17:52
became our clients. And they would refer their
17:55
friends and family because, you know, we, we were trying to
17:57
create raving fans with everybody that we were working
18:00
with. So at what point were you
18:03
invited to become a partner? So this was an, an interesting
18:09
story. I was, I was about 23.
18:13
So I've been working with the firm for a couple of years
18:17
straight out of school. And my, my partner was, again,
18:22
this was kind of his second act and he was really trying to
18:24
figure out what he wanted to do. He was really into business
18:27
coaching. He was a playwriter, he was a
18:30
great accountant. He was a great harmonica player.
18:32
He had all these things he wanted to do and he was, you
18:35
know, to some degree, going through a midlife crisis, like
18:38
trying to figure out what he wanted to do next.
18:41
And I, I think there was a moment where, you know, he was
18:44
really considering selling the firm to another regional
18:47
practice. And he sat down with me and he's
18:51
like, hey, I'm thinking about doing this.
18:52
What do you think? And I meet my immediate response
18:55
was no way, man, I, I really, I, if there's anything I can do to
18:59
stop that, I will. I'd love to, I'd love the
19:03
opportunity. I'd love how to figure it out.
19:07
And he was kind enough to say, yes, we'll, we'll figure it out.
19:11
I mean, you, we, I'd love to see you buy into the firm, would
19:14
love to see you, you know, figure how to make this happen.
19:17
But ultimately, you know, he had to take a risk on me.
19:20
I had to take a risk on him. I had banked a a couple of years
19:24
of my bonuses that were that I was supposed to get for bringing
19:29
in new business. And I use that to pay for like
19:32
my first maybe 3% of the business and then would continue
19:36
to just kind of I wasn't making much.
19:38
I was making forty 50,000 bucks a year.
19:40
And every time I'd earned a bonus, I'd say keep it.
19:42
I'd just keep it and give me more ownership.
19:45
And then I went to the bank. I went to the bank and 24 years
19:49
old and you were. Young still you were young.
19:53
Still, I went to the bank and I said, hey, I want a loan for
19:57
$300,000. And they looked at me like, all
20:01
right, tell me more. You know, I had a terrible
20:05
personal financial statement. Not terrible, but I didn't have
20:07
anything, right? I had a student debt, I had a
20:09
house with no equity, had a car with barely any equity,
20:12
whatever. And I kind of just, I told him
20:15
the story. I said, hey, this is what I want
20:17
to do. And I've got this guy that's
20:19
really dedicated to sticking around and teaching me.
20:22
They knew him. He had a great reputation in
20:24
town. So that bank took a chance on
20:27
me. That bank gave me that loan.
20:30
And it proved to be the spark that changed everything.
20:35
The, the, the former president of that bank is still one of my
20:38
really close friends. Now he's in retirement and, and
20:41
doing some other things now. And but they, they gave me that
20:46
start. I bought it in the firm at at
20:48
202324 years old and took over as a managing partner right
20:52
after that. 20 around 24 years old.
20:57
What did you use for collateral on the loan?
21:02
Nothing me my personal guarantee.
21:05
Wow. You know, I mean in a way, at
21:07
the end of the day, I mean they had some collateral based on you
21:11
know what, what the business was doing.
21:13
But at that time I was only buying half of the business.
21:17
You know, it was a minority ownership share in a service
21:21
based business. There's no collateral, there's
21:22
no assets, right? There's filing cabinets and old
21:24
tax returns, maybe some accounts receivable, but you know, not,
21:29
not not much, you know, So it was really kind of a testament
21:33
to the fact that, you know, if you go to the bank prepared and
21:36
you've got a good store and you've got good projections, you
21:38
got a good plan, you got a good relationship.
21:40
My credit score was impeccable. I had always taken that very,
21:43
very seriously. The deal cash flowed, everything
21:47
worked. I was willing and, and was
21:49
proving to the bank, hey guys, I can live off of $50,000 a year
21:52
very comfortably. So I will throw any and
21:55
everything at this to make sure that this happens.
21:59
And they, they just had confidence in the fact that I, I
22:02
was going to do what I said I was going to do.
22:03
Plus, you know, they were pretty familiar with Harold and he had
22:06
a pretty good reputation. So from their perspective, it
22:09
wasn't a tremendous amount of risk, you know, absent all the,
22:14
you know, missing pieces of collateral, sure.
22:19
OK. Let's hear in a bit more detail
22:21
about the services that you offer because CPA firm could
22:26
mean anything from accounting to tax returns and beyond.
22:30
Let's kind of hear the full breadth of what you guys do.
22:34
Yeah. So we, we started as primarily
22:36
tax only. We were doing tax returns, tax
22:39
resolution work for people, you know, when they would get behind
22:43
in, in taxes, they'd come to us, we'd help them figure it out.
22:48
And then we started to kind of just add little bits and pieces
22:50
along the way. We, we had some of those
22:53
acquisitions that had some concentrations in different
22:55
areas. We had a lot of, you know, the
22:58
traditional write up work in a test work, compilations,
23:01
reviews, low end audits, payroll was something that we were doing
23:06
a lot of in the early years. And then, you know, as as we got
23:11
more mature, as our business got more mature, we started to
23:13
really think about, you know, how do we smooth out our revenue
23:17
throughout the year? How do we make this where we're
23:19
not making all of our money in the first four months of the
23:21
year and then try not to lose it the remaining 8.
23:25
So did a lot of tax work have been ultimately transition?
23:30
A lot of our tax work and what we call we refer to as tax
23:32
maintenance packages. So we do the tax return, we do
23:36
year round tax planning with our clients.
23:39
They get unlimited e-mail access to our team throughout the year.
23:42
You know, there's so many conversations that are happening
23:44
with ChatGPT and, and Gemini and all these other apps and TikTok
23:49
and all those other reels and whatever people that are coming
23:52
out with finance and tax strategies online.
23:54
It allows for us to have just good engaging conversations with
23:57
our clients throughout the year, be very proactive about the tax
24:00
planning work that we do. So tax, tax planning will always
24:04
be a huge core portion of our business.
24:08
The payroll business has really grown over the years and we can
24:11
get into that in a little bit. But recently over the course of
24:15
the last couple of years, the part of our business it's grown
24:17
the most is our outsourced accounting team.
24:21
So we we have found that there's a substantial pipeline problem
24:24
in the accounting industry overall.
24:26
You know, 75% of Cpas five years ago were at retirement age.
24:32
So in 2020-2021, AICPA did a study and 75% of the active Cpas
24:39
were already at retirement age. So there's like for every five
24:42
people that are coming into the industry, there's one coming in
24:45
the, the math is just bad. So we saw that in our business
24:49
and realized a lot of our clients were going through that
24:51
as well. So we just started, we, we
24:55
started to build what was originally called my Chief and
24:59
it was an, an outsourced CFO platform.
25:03
And what we realized through that kind of evolution was it's
25:06
not just the CFO portion that people need.
25:09
It's full soup to nuts. They need the entire accounting
25:11
department outsourced. They can't hire anybody and
25:14
retain anybody in those positions for the right price.
25:17
So they bring us in. We're very efficient.
25:20
We're very good at what we do. We leverage automation, we
25:23
leverage AI, we leverage global talent.
25:26
So we're able to come in and completely replace an internal
25:30
accounting department. Not only replace it, but instead
25:33
of them getting inconsistent reporting, instead of them
25:38
having to manage that person like an employee, they're
25:42
getting a very high level product.
25:44
They get video reviews of their financial statements.
25:46
We build their budgets with them.
25:48
We do cash flow forecasting and analysis with them.
25:51
We help them with succession planning.
25:54
We're leveraging AI and, and using Agentic AI to help build
25:59
very detailed levels of financial analysis for our
26:02
clients dependent upon their industry.
26:05
And as those models get better and better trained, the quality
26:09
of output and the quality of interactions we have with our
26:11
clients, it's really gone through the roof.
26:14
So we, we really wanted to position ourselves as something
26:18
that, you know, we, we didn't want to just be taxed.
26:21
We didn't want to just be payroll.
26:22
We didn't just want to be the, the traditional service suite.
26:26
We wanted something we could do year round, had good cash flow
26:29
opportunities, was scalable and, and most importantly, put our
26:33
client, put our employees in the position where the work that
26:36
they're doing is purposeful. The work that they're doing is
26:40
something that they're helping someone.
26:41
They see that, they see the impact that they're bringing not
26:44
only that client, but to their community.
26:47
And as a result, we've got more engaged employees, we've got a
26:50
much healthier business. You know, we're not as as
26:54
subject to the crazy cycles and cash flow issues of the
26:58
traditional accounting firm. So.
27:02
That's pretty cool stuff. So did this accounting
27:07
outsourcing, did this come about through one of the acquisitions
27:10
that you made or was this an idea that you guys had and you
27:13
birthed it from the ground up? So it's a, it's a good story.
27:17
It's almost like, you know, I prompted you with this and I,
27:20
and I didn't, but I got a call from a client.
27:23
I was, I was on a fishing trip with another client in southern
27:28
Ohio and I was supposed to be there for the weekend with them.
27:32
And I got a call from a client who was completely distraught.
27:35
He was a good friend, long term client of ours.
27:38
He picks up the phone and he's talking to me and he's telling
27:41
me that his CFO had a tragic accident, passed away in a
27:43
motorcycle accident, completely unexpected.
27:46
He was a young guy. He was just an absolute rock
27:49
star. You know, Brad was somebody
27:52
that, you know, he was always, he was great to work with.
27:55
He was somebody that understood his, his industry and he was
27:58
just, he was spectacular. And I got the call from the
28:02
owner and he said, you know, Brad, Brad passed and, and I
28:05
need some help. And so I told him, I said, I
28:08
will be there. I'm leaving early.
28:09
I'll be there as soon as I can. We'll figure it out.
28:13
And I get there and, and the guy is just beside himself because
28:17
this guy that was his CFO was, was running the show.
28:22
You know, he had complete control of the finances.
28:24
He was great at his job. So the owner didn't worry about
28:27
it, right? There was no checks and
28:28
balances. There was no worry about, you
28:31
know, do I need to know everything that this person is
28:34
doing? And so, you know, we, we work
28:38
together there through that process helped him ultimately
28:43
keep the keep the wheels on the bus.
28:45
I came and I worked that job. I acted as their CFO while, you
28:48
know, still running our business for about 6 months and then
28:53
built a process, hired somebody, trained that new person and then
28:57
stepped out. And then the same thing happened
29:01
another couple of months later with another client.
29:03
They had ACFO controller that didn't pass away, but they just
29:06
abruptly left some there was some big change in their life
29:09
and they left. They took like the the key fobs
29:12
for the bank along with them. You know, it was just like in
29:15
the middle of night, see you later.
29:16
I'm out. And in those two instances, the
29:20
relationship in the bond that I formed with those two clients
29:23
was unlike anything I had ever experienced.
29:25
You know, these these are guys that you know, are running big
29:27
successful businesses. The one guy is running a really
29:31
successful steel business and you know, big strong guy, big
29:34
strong personality. And, you know, I saw the
29:37
vulnerability in him. And then when we fixed it and we
29:41
ultimately got him into a better position, I saw I saw the
29:45
gratitude and the appreciation for the work that we did.
29:47
You know, he called me up. The one of the guys called me up
29:50
and said, Hey, Tim, I got I got an issue.
29:52
I need you to come to the office real quick.
29:54
So I came to the office and this was after we had already kind of
29:57
solved the problem and hired somebody else.
29:59
And he just uses an excuse to get me to come to the office,
30:02
took me back in the conference room and the conference room was
30:05
covered in fly fishing equipment.
30:08
And this, this, this is fly fishing was never really my
30:11
thing. It was the his thing, but I had
30:13
done it with him and I really enjoyed it.
30:15
And actually the fish that's on my wall behind me is from the
30:19
fishing trip that he took me on after this all happened.
30:24
And so, you know, that I see that fish everyday, you know,
30:29
and it reminds me of why I'm doing what I'm doing.
30:32
And you know, when, when I went through that process with him, I
30:35
said, there's something here. I, I, the way that I feel right
30:39
now and the purpose that I feel is very different than when I
30:42
just do a tax return for somebody.
30:45
I love doing tax returns. I love meeting with people.
30:47
But it, it wasn't the same. You know, this was when I see
30:51
this person at the grocery store, they're going to come up
30:53
and shake my hand and give me a hug.
30:55
You know, if they see my kids, they're going to tell them how,
30:58
how much of an impact that I I made in their life.
31:02
So like from a, when you start thinking about like legacy and
31:05
you start thinking about what mark do I want to leave on the
31:08
world? When you have the opportunity to
31:10
do that kind of work and have that kind of impact on people's
31:14
lives, that that was something different.
31:16
So that's really how it all kind of came to fruition.
31:19
And then we, you know, we got better and better in figuring
31:21
out how to deploy it. Yeah, that was it.
31:24
Going to be My follow up question is how exactly are you
31:27
figuring that out since you know your clients aren't the only
31:30
ones having trouble hiring, you know, Cpas and accountants, how
31:35
are you finding them now to, you know, become the outsource team
31:39
for so many of your clients? And So what I realized through
31:42
that process was that most of those CFO jobs are really a lot
31:48
of the work that they're doing is not all CFO level work,
31:52
right? So doesn't require ACPA, doesn't
31:55
require somebody that has intimate tax knowledge or
31:58
intimate accounting knowledge. You know, a lot of that portion
32:01
of the job can be done by, you know, payroll clerks, accounts
32:05
receivable clerks, accounts payable clerks, data entry
32:09
people, people that can just be trained.
32:12
So what we did was we built a scalable system underneath the
32:16
CF OS so that the amount of time that the fractional CF OS need
32:20
to spend with a client is on the best things.
32:23
The amount of time that that fractional CFO is spending with
32:25
their client is they're talking about forecasting, they're
32:27
talking about strategy, they're talking about the plan, but
32:29
they're not doing the actual books, right.
32:32
They're not hard coding any of the numbers in.
32:34
They're not doing any of those types of things when they get
32:38
it. They know that my our process
32:40
has been followed. They know that the books are
32:42
very clean. They know that everything is in
32:44
the right spot. And then they can use that to
32:46
have the strategy conversation with that business owner to help
32:50
them get to where they want to be.
32:52
You know, so that it was much easier to hire those people,
32:55
right? We were focused on hiring people
32:57
with great personalities that were coachable, that were
32:59
trainable, and that would follow a prompt and follow a set of
33:03
instructions that we gave to them.
33:05
And this was actually something that I took from the truck wash
33:09
business. And so I worked for Blue Beacon
33:11
when I was in college, as I mentioned before.
33:14
And they, they had a bunch of a wide variety of people to work
33:18
for them. You know, whether it was
33:20
convicts or whether it was people that had issues in their
33:23
life or it was young kids like me.
33:25
But they had found a way to train people very quickly and
33:28
very efficiently. And I took note of that and I
33:32
saw, OK, well, everything that they do is exactly the same
33:36
every time they do it. There is no go in and figure it
33:39
out yourself. It's you wash this part of the
33:42
truck, you wash this part of the truck.
33:43
This is exactly how you do it. You have a process and a system
33:46
for everything that you follow. So we tried to replicate the
33:49
same thing in the accounting business and create a process
33:53
and a system in an inventory of how we handle everything.
33:56
So that that way as we grew and as we scaled, you know, I could,
34:00
I could put people with, you know, smaller amounts of
34:03
experience and role and they would still be successful
34:06
because they understood they're, they're, they're part of the
34:09
team. They understood their role on
34:10
the team and what they were supposed to be doing.
34:15
So this new branch of the business outsource accounting
34:18
slash fractional CFO. Was this something that you
34:21
mostly started out offering to existing customers or was this
34:26
something where you saw, wow, there's a lot of potential
34:30
outside of the folks that we've been serving in the.
34:34
Past, so I mean it started off with existing customers.
34:39
So to take a step back, I give you another kind of heraldism in
34:44
a lesson learned from Herald along the way was, you know, the
34:47
sales cycle in our industry, as many is know, like trust, you
34:51
know somebody, you eventually like them, you eventually trust
34:54
them. The real magic in the service
34:57
industry happens when your clients trust you, right.
35:00
So, you know, we had an opportunity with with some of
35:03
our clients that said, Hey, I'm not really sure what I'm going
35:06
to do here. I don't want to hire this
35:08
person. And I would come to them and I
35:10
would say, Hey, we'll do it. And they said, what do you mean
35:13
you'll do it? I said, no, no, we'll, we'll
35:14
figure it out. I mean, we, I feel this is
35:16
something that is part of is going to be an opportunity in
35:20
the industry moving forward. You need this service.
35:23
I'm willing to figure out how to do it.
35:25
And you know, we, we basically just took the time to work with
35:29
those clients to, to figure it out for them.
35:33
And then as we figured it out for those clients, as we figured
35:36
it out for the people that already kind of trusted us, then
35:40
we realized we had something that was more marketable
35:43
externally to to places that hadn't known us previously.
35:50
And where did the idea to start the payroll white Glove payroll
35:53
service come from or was that through an acquisition?
35:56
No. So the the payroll business was
35:59
actually as a result of Christmas lights.
36:02
Weird story. So one of the.
36:05
Original Every payroll company get started from Christmas
36:09
lights. One of the original investors in
36:14
paychecks lives about 10 minutes from my house.
36:18
Great human being. He is one of my favorite people
36:22
and he does this amazing Christmas light display every
36:25
year. I mean, it's his whole street.
36:27
He, it takes him months to set it up and my kids are really
36:31
little. I, I took him down there and I
36:33
saw his Christmas lights and it, it just at that time in our
36:37
firm, we were doing some payroll work.
36:39
We had one, one large client that we were doing a lot of
36:41
payroll work for. We weren't great at it, but we
36:44
were good at it. And I realized, you know, we
36:48
needed to do something and that something was either let's sell
36:51
off the payroll to ADP or paychecks and focus on what
36:54
we're best at, or let's start to get serious about it and hire
36:57
more people so that we didn't have just one person doing it.
37:00
Like there was a lot of concentrated risk there because
37:02
it was one client and one person that knew how to do it.
37:05
And so I, I come in the office the next day and I tell my
37:08
partner, I said, hey, man, I think we should think about
37:12
growing the payroll business. And he's like, Timmy, there's
37:16
there's no money to make in payroll.
37:17
You know, the margins are too thin, There's no issue.
37:20
There's too many issues. There's too many compliance,
37:22
this, that or the other. And I said, man, the Christmas
37:24
lights I saw last night beg to differ.
37:26
There's money to make in payroll, right?
37:29
And so, you know, we really put our heads down and started
37:32
taking seriously then and really started to think about the
37:34
opportunities that existed in payroll.
37:37
It allowed for us to have some stickiness with our clients.
37:40
We were in, we were now more engaged with our clients
37:42
throughout the year. So it gave us an opportunity to
37:44
like see what was happening in their business, right?
37:47
One of our payroll people would notice, hey, they lost a key
37:50
employer, they got this new contract and they're really
37:52
busy. They're really hiring up.
37:54
So then we'd be able to take that information and use it to
37:57
do better tax planning and do better advisory services as a
38:00
result of it. So, you know, we started to
38:03
realize that there was more opportunity in payroll than we
38:05
originally thought. And then, you know, we needed to
38:08
find the right software and, and tech stack to do it.
38:11
So we invested quite a few years into exploring that and then
38:15
started to build out the team. And then once, once we had a
38:17
good tech stack there and, you know, good core group of people,
38:20
it really, it really kind of blew up and, and the business is
38:24
doing really well. The the the team is completely
38:27
remote. It it was built on the idea of
38:31
hiring stay at home moms. So we realized that that was an
38:35
underserved part of the labor market and there were some
38:39
really great people that we wanted to continue to employ,
38:44
but they were having kids and go going through some of those
38:47
different changes in their life. So we said, no, the payroll
38:50
business makes a lot of sense because I can scale you down and
38:52
you can do, you know, one or two payrolls from home.
38:56
And then as the kids get older and get into school, then you
38:59
can scale back into it. And you don't have to come to an
39:01
office 9:00 to 5:00, as long as you're responsive to your
39:04
clients. Like that was the whole kind of
39:06
thesis when we started building that business.
39:10
And then again, I kind of realized, oh, well, these people
39:13
love what they do. They're doing a great job, the
39:15
clients are really happy, we have something here.
39:18
And then it started to compound in terms of what we were
39:21
learning from that business. But this grew way beyond sort of
39:27
the Youngstown Northeast Ohio area.
39:29
You, as I understand it, you guys are in 40 plus states.
39:32
How do you grow from, you know, small Rust Belt town in
39:37
Northeast Ohio that you're very proud to be from, rightfully so,
39:40
into being across 40 states with this payroll service?
39:45
I mean, it requires constant effort.
39:47
It, it requires a good leadership team and a good group
39:49
of people that, you know, really, really want to improve
39:52
and really want to grow. You know, it's like you got to
39:57
have a group of people that are comfortable just constantly
39:59
breaking things. Like we are constantly breaking
40:02
things in our process to try to make them better.
40:05
And as a result, it's, it's never any sense of complacency
40:08
around here like it is. We're always going back to the
40:12
team and asking them what can we be doing better?
40:14
We're we're pushing them to challenge us and to say no and
40:17
not just agree with us and say, I need this, we need to be
40:21
looking at this differently. We need this new training, we
40:23
need this new software. So really trying to create that
40:27
mentality of long term success was really where it was at.
40:32
I mean, we weren't, we didn't make money in the payroll
40:34
business for a long time because we were just pouring everything
40:38
back into that business. And so I think that was a huge
40:43
part of it was that, you know, we were truly embracing the leg
40:46
gratification here. We we knew that if we did this
40:50
right long term, it would be a very great business.
40:53
And we also knew what the cost of that was going to be.
40:55
We knew that it was going to require a lot of effort of all
40:57
of us and we knew that it was going to require a lot of
41:00
investment of all of us. And, and we continued to do
41:02
that. Let's continue to you know, show
41:04
the fruits of its labor. But now you know, we are we are
41:08
the only payroll provider on on the Ascend platform of firms,
41:12
which is 21 CPA firms across the country.
41:16
So we now have an opportunity to compound that growth of what
41:20
we've found our firm individually and then, you know,
41:23
offering those services and teaching those firms how to
41:25
offer the similar services even even stronger across the
41:28
country. You mentioned private equity
41:32
partnerships and now you're talking about the Ascend
41:35
platform. Can you speak more about that?
41:37
How did this opportunity come about?
41:38
What exactly is this? Yeah.
41:41
So we've, we've grown to a point where things were tricky, things
41:46
were getting interesting. We had gotten to the point where
41:48
we were doing, you know, 6-7 million in annual revenue and
41:51
it's a great business. We were, you know, finding our
41:53
own semblance of success and profitability and all those
41:56
things. But I realized that we weren't
41:59
going to be able to make it much further on our own.
42:01
We were going to be able to grow, but not not in the growth
42:04
trajectory that I was hoping to move through because I really
42:09
wanted to have and see the opportunity that was given to
42:12
me. I wanted to be able to see that
42:14
same compounding, you know, multiple of 10X return on
42:19
investment to the others that had been building this business
42:23
with me. And I, I needed it was tasked to
42:26
figure out how I was going to accomplish that.
42:29
And we looked around and, and met with a bunch of different
42:32
firms to potentially merge into because it's very common in our
42:35
industries. You get to a certain size and
42:37
you merge into another firm, you take your ownership of your firm
42:41
basically traded for ownership in their firm.
42:44
And then, you know, the compounding larger firm then
42:46
grows at a maybe more exponential rate.
42:49
And I did not love that concept. I didn't love the idea of
42:53
merging in with another firm that was less progressive than
42:57
me, that had a bunch of retiring partners that had a bunch of
43:00
challenges that we're going to slow me down.
43:02
Quite frankly. You know, I was, I was moving
43:05
very quickly and realized that joining a firm like that was
43:09
going to be like paralysis by analysis and we were just going
43:12
to get stuck in that deliberation death cycle, right?
43:14
So I needed something different and really kind of backed off
43:19
the idea of merging in with other firms and started to think
43:22
about, OK, well, what if I just put up my own capital and really
43:25
try to go crazy here and, and go all in again, put all my chips
43:29
on the table again? What if I went and got
43:31
investors? What if I did this, that or the
43:32
other? I could really, you know, grow
43:34
in a more meaningful impact. And then I went to an accounting
43:38
conference and I'm sitting down at the table with one of my
43:40
buddies and I look over and this guy sits down next to me and he
43:45
has a name tag on. And the, and the, the company
43:48
name at the bottom of his name tag was my company.
43:51
They misprinted his, his company name tag and put my company name
43:56
on it. And I look at him, I said, man,
43:58
who are you? Did you get hired without me
44:00
knowing? And why are you here?
44:01
Yadda, yadda. And he said, oh, I made a
44:03
mistake, you know, and, and as a result, that guy that was
44:07
wearing the wrong name tag was working for a private equity
44:10
firm out of San Francisco that was researching the industry and
44:14
they were thinking about making a, a pretty substantial
44:17
investment. He and I became friends.
44:20
He asked me a ton of questions about, you know, what I would
44:24
want in a partner. It was just like weird, perfect
44:26
timing because I had in that moment had just a week prior to
44:31
that had walked away from a pretty substantial merger and,
44:36
you know, realize that I wanted something different.
44:38
Then this guy shows up out of nowhere And, you know, we, we
44:42
talked for about a year. They expressed interest in US
44:47
joining at the very beginning and we, we both kind of looked
44:51
at each other and said, you know, I'm, I'm not really ready
44:53
for this. I don't think you guys are
44:55
really ready for us. Like you should really go get a
44:57
firm that's like more stable. We're really in a different
45:00
growth place. We're figuring a bunch of stuff
45:02
out, you know, and so they did, they went, they went and
45:05
acquired a, a firm, Opsel Dawson Washington as the first firm on
45:10
the Ascend network. And then they went and did a few
45:14
more and then they called me back and said, hey, we'd really
45:16
love to have you come and join the group.
45:18
So I think we were maybe the 4th or 5th firm to join the network.
45:21
But the the concept that Ascend is, which is very unique is the
45:26
opportunity to maintain your own, you know, personal,
45:29
regional brand commitment. But all of the things behind the
45:33
scenes that we're all struggling with in terms of making
45:36
investments, whether it's AI, cybersecurity, talent,
45:40
recruiting, learning and development, M and a capital and
45:44
growth capital. Those are the things that we can
45:47
all now share a combined pot of money essentially at the Ascend
45:51
level and make much, much better, well informed decisions
45:56
about how to deploy that capital as opposed to, you know, my my
46:00
$10 million firm in Cleveland doing it one way and a $20
46:03
million firm in New York City doing it another way.
46:06
We're all kind of chipping into that pot and being able to hire
46:09
the best of the best in all of those categories and just make,
46:12
you know, better decisions related to how we're going to
46:15
handle those kinds of things. So the way that I described, you
46:18
know, the Ascent network to people is, I think is, is like
46:21
an equity alliance where we all have ownership in our own firms
46:25
across the country. We're all incentivized to work
46:27
together. We're all incentivized to share
46:29
best practices and how we're doing things.
46:32
And then we have that supercharged superpower behind
46:34
the scenes at Ascend, where they're making their own great
46:38
decisions about how to deploy capital in those areas that are
46:41
so important to us. Makes you wonder how would life
46:45
be different if that name tag hadn't been misprinted?
46:50
It's a lot of things in this story that how, how different
46:53
life would be had had Joe not made that referral to Harold,
46:57
had we walked away from that M&A, had that Nate.
47:00
Like it's just those are those things that you look back on and
47:04
realize like things happen for a reason.
47:08
You've got to show up and just keep your eyes open to the
47:10
opportunities that come in front of you.
47:11
I mean, there is a, there's a, there's a bigger plan in place
47:14
here. And how long have you been part
47:18
of the Ascend platform? When did that take place?
47:21
Right here. About two, a little over 2 years
47:23
now. OK.
47:25
So this is still relatively new getting off the ground, but it
47:28
sounds like it's growing pretty quickly.
47:30
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's going. And another guest on here a few
47:34
months back, that's part of the platform as well, Gary Fry from
47:39
BGW. Yeah, Gary's Austin.
47:42
Yeah, yeah, he's, he's a great guy.
47:44
I got introduced to him from another guest because we were
47:47
talking about this idea of imposter syndrome and Gary
47:50
actually wrote a book on the imposter syndrome.
47:53
So it kind of brought a lot of things full circle.
47:56
But is there, has there ever been, or do you think there is
47:59
the potential for, you know, these different firms on the
48:03
platform to step on each other's toes?
48:06
Like, you might be talking to a bigger national client and maybe
48:10
they're talking to, you know, somebody else on the Ascend
48:12
platform too. I'm sure there is potential that
48:16
that happens, but at the end of the day, we're we're all in
48:22
ownership of one another's firms, right.
48:24
So it, it allows for us to say if there's an opportunity for a
48:28
client and Gary's firm in the in Carolina is more is better
48:34
suited to work on this client than I am.
48:38
And we both by some chancellor talking to them at the same
48:41
time. I'd be more than happy to flip
48:43
over and say, what can I do to support to make sure that the
48:46
BGW wins that relationship, right?
48:48
Because at the end of the day, all boats rise, right?
48:51
Is this is one of those scenarios where I'm just as much
48:54
excited about when BGW wins or when LMC in New York wins or
49:00
ATKG in San Antonio wins as much as when we win because we all
49:04
win together when that happens. And that's, that's just, that's
49:08
a, you know, I think akin to the, the fact that they
49:10
structure this thing the right way and they made it where, you
49:14
know, we're all finding ways to help one another and finding
49:17
ways to share ideas and, and do things better collectively as a
49:21
group. I think the challenge becomes if
49:24
this if this does continue to grow along the same level of
49:27
magnitude, you know, regionality gets a little bit tricky down
49:30
the road, you know, if you've got firms, platform firms too
49:33
close to one another and what happens with that down the road.
49:35
But right now, I mean, you know, I think that there's still room
49:39
for a lot of continued growth. We have very little of those
49:41
circumstances where firms are really kind of on top of one
49:44
another. And there's, there is an
49:47
opportunity across the country right now.
49:49
I mean, the, what's happening in the public accounting industry
49:53
is, is pretty remarkable. This is a, you know, a core
49:56
pillar business of our society and it's going through a huge
50:01
evolution because there's so many baby boomers that were in
50:05
this industry that are on their way out.
50:07
And there's no great succession plan in place for a lot of these
50:10
traditional firms. So there's a, there's a
50:12
tremendous amount of work out there and available for the
50:16
firms. And, you know, our firms that
50:19
are part of the Ascend network are growing rapidly, are able to
50:23
take on a lot of that new work. And if you talk to your
50:26
traditionally owned, you know, 1 to $2,000,000 regional
50:30
accounting practice, they're struggling to take on any new
50:34
work right now. They're struggling to hire
50:35
people, They're struggling to deal with all those challenges.
50:38
So I, I, I think that the, the likelihood that that becomes an
50:43
issue of any magnitude, I think at this stage is probably pretty
50:46
small. Tim, as you look back over the
50:51
course of your life, what's a big, serious challenge that you
50:54
had to overcome, Personal or professional?
50:57
How did you get through it? Who'd you lean on and what did
51:00
you learn coming through it? I can think of a couple of
51:05
moments. You know, one of those moments
51:09
was in college where I had, I was lucky enough to start
51:15
college early. I leveraged a program called the
51:19
SP140 program and I started going to college when I was in
51:21
high school and they helped pay for my college.
51:25
Once I then got into college, the my GPA that I had gotten in
51:29
college and the GPA that I got in high school got blended
51:31
together and as a result, I had a little bit of scholarship
51:35
money and the scholarship money went away because those two
51:37
things averaged together. So it really forced me to then
51:41
have to work more than I was anticipating and also do things
51:45
that were probably not advisable.
51:47
During my college career, there was multiple times where I would
51:50
schedule classes at the exact same time and I would pick which
51:53
class I could go to because I had to financially, I did not
51:58
have a choice. There was also times where I
52:01
could only take summer classes and as a result of those, I
52:06
could take summer classes during the day.
52:07
So I still needed to work. So I would work the midnight
52:11
shift. I would work from midnight till
52:14
8:00 in the morning. I would give myself a a bath or
52:17
a shower in the sink of the truck wash.
52:19
And then I'd go to class and I would sleep in the parking lot,
52:23
I'd sleep in the study hall and I'd go back to work and I'd do
52:26
that all over again. So I did that for an entire
52:28
summer. I worked the midnight shift at
52:30
the truck wash, slept in my car, slept in study halls and you
52:35
know, just kind of kept the wheels on the bus that way.
52:38
And you know, in, in those moments, that's when I think,
52:42
you know it, I was programmed to understand that there isn't much
52:46
that you can't figure out. You know, I, I was lucky to be
52:51
healthy. I was lucky to have people to
52:53
lean on when I needed them. But at the end of the day, like
52:57
sometimes you have to just find out what you're made of and what
53:00
you're capable of doing on your own.
53:02
And that is like one of those really empowering moments of
53:05
saying there isn't much that I can't accomplish.
53:09
So, you know, I, I learned a lot through that period of time.
53:13
I also learned like there's a, there's a small group of people
53:18
that you have in your life that you can truly rely on.
53:20
And, you know, I, I think that was a valuable lesson early is
53:26
that, you know, I, I, I had my girlfriend at the time, who is
53:29
now my wife, who through this process was my rock again, like
53:34
telling me, you'll figure it out, you will, will help, will
53:38
do whatever. There was a period of time
53:40
shortly after that summer semester where I lived in her
53:43
parents basement. They gave me a place to stay.
53:46
And, you know, during that period of time and they, they
53:49
took me in as their own there, her my wife's family brought me
53:53
in as their own. They treated me like I was one
53:55
of their own. And, and that, you know,
53:58
ultimately changed the trajectory of my life was people
54:01
that gave me that opportunity to say, Hey, we're going to give
54:04
you a warm bed to sleep in. We're going to give you some
54:06
food. We're going to, you know, help
54:07
you out. There's a shower here, so you
54:09
don't have to shower in the sink.
54:11
And, you know, they they ultimately, you know, showed me
54:15
that, you know, people are, are genuinely and inherently good.
54:20
So it was that was the first time I think that I had, you
54:23
know, really gotten comfortable with like relying on someone
54:25
else. And I was very independent and
54:28
was kind of wasn't a good like was didn't thrive in like team
54:34
environments. I thrived in one-on-one
54:36
environments, not so much team environments because I was used
54:39
to being on my own. That was one of those moments
54:43
where I was going through this and realized I can't do this on
54:45
my own. I I need other people around me.
54:48
I need a team of people, which then ultimately was a good
54:52
foundational lesson for, you know, getting into the
54:55
professional world and understanding that you can only,
54:58
you can only go so far on your own.
55:00
You know you can get somewhere fast if you go somewhere on your
55:02
own, But you know if you want to keep going and you want to go
55:06
somewhere really far, you got to do it as a group.
55:09
And I love so many elements of that story, Tim.
55:12
I mean, you showed that resilience, that perseverance,
55:16
you know, that time that you're describing, you work the
55:19
midnight shift, you shower in the sink, you go to class,
55:22
you're sleeping in the parking lot, study halls.
55:25
You know, that's hard stuff. A lot of people throw in the
55:27
towel, you know, when that comes in, or at least throw in the
55:29
towel on part of it. I, I just need to go work.
55:32
I can't, you know, do school. I got to pick one or the other,
55:34
but you push through it. But the other really cool thing
55:37
that you pointed out was, you know, going through that
55:39
experience and having your girlfriend now, wife supports
55:42
you and her family take you in, really highlighted to you the
55:46
importance of togetherness, of being around other people, of
55:50
accepting that support. And, you know, wow, laid the
55:54
foundation for what you're continuing to build today.
55:57
Yeah. Yeah.
56:00
What's your superpower? Oh, you know, I, I've always
56:07
genuinely believed that real superpower is when you can take
56:12
something really complex and make it simple.
56:16
And I think that that's something that I've, I've done a
56:18
decent job of in my career. I am not, you know, your
56:23
classically educated person, you know, that I might be coming
56:27
across a lot of in my industry. You know, Youngstown State
56:31
University is a great college, has a great accounting program,
56:35
you know, but you know, tends to get the sideways look when you
56:39
go up against somebody that went to Ohio State or Notre Dame or
56:42
Harvard or Yale or this that or the other.
56:45
So, you know, my job was always kind of to be gritty in to be in
56:50
a position where I can speak the right language.
56:53
I had I had common sense, I had St. smarts.
56:56
I was able to take something that you know is in the Internal
56:59
Revenue Code, which is about as dry as anything can be in and
57:05
explain it to somebody that you know, welds metal together for a
57:08
living and say why this means something to you.
57:11
Or take their financial statements and take something
57:14
that you see in those financial statements or conversation that
57:16
they have and bring it to their own relatable terminology.
57:21
So I think that if, if I had to pick something that I could call
57:25
a superpower, you know, being able to do that with our
57:29
clients, being able to do that with my team members and explain
57:32
to them, Hey, if you do this, this is what this means for your
57:35
career. And try to help them understand
57:38
and navigate these early years of their career and try to get
57:41
them to understand what it takes to, you know, find the success
57:44
that they, that they want their own relative definition of
57:46
success in their, in their lives.
57:48
So trying to just take that complicated thing and boil it
57:51
down into something that's a little bit more relatable and
57:53
understandable and motivatable as something I, I, I, I think
57:58
I've prided myself on over the over the years.
58:01
It's a powerful skill. 100% agree.
58:04
What's something fun you like to do outside of work, Tim?
58:09
I love the opportunity to coach my kids in sports.
58:15
My 9 year old loves basketball. We go to basketball games
58:19
together. We're big Cavs fans here in
58:21
Northeast Ohio. You know, we, we go to our camps
58:25
together. We, we try to go to as many
58:27
practices as we can together. I've, I've always really found a
58:32
tremendous amount of fulfilment and joy and being able to coach
58:36
kids sports. You know, when it's, when it's
58:39
not the kids, you know, travelling with family is
58:43
something that we'd love to do. My wife is a huge Disney junkie.
58:47
So we, we love to get down to Disney.
58:49
You know, we try to get down once a year for that.
58:53
You know, when it's just me, I love to play a little bit of
58:55
golf and and see some beautiful parts of the country while doing
58:59
it. So I don't get to play a lot of
59:02
golf anymore. But it's really now more like
59:06
quality over quantity. So enjoying, you know, being
59:09
able to see some beautiful places and see some beautiful
59:11
golf courses. That's great, Tim, I've just got
59:17
one more question for you, but before I ask, and I want to take
59:20
care of three things. First of all, anybody who wants
59:22
to get in touch with Tim, you can find him on LinkedIn, Tim
59:26
Petrie PETREY. And you can look for
59:29
hdgrowthpartnersalsoyoucanfindthefirm@hdgrowthpartners.com. And they've got a great
59:36
newsletter that you can sign up there.
59:37
They produce all the content internally themselves.
59:40
And as a reminder for listeners, if you want to get more
59:43
employees access to benefits that won't hurt them financially
59:46
and carries a financial upside for the company, reach out to us
59:49
at Add Back benefits.com. Finally, if you'll take just a
59:53
moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast
59:56
app, you will hold a special place in my heart forever.
59:58
Thank you. So last question for you, Tim.
1:00:01
A year from now, you and I reconnect and you're celebrating
1:00:04
something really big. What's that big thing you hope
1:00:06
to be celebrating one year from today?
1:00:12
I think the big thing that we're hoping to celebrate is that
1:00:17
we've we've both grown our business substantially over that
1:00:22
period of time. But just as importantly in that
1:00:26
period of hyper growth that we're going through, we've
1:00:29
maintained in unbelievable culture compared to everybody
1:00:33
else in the industry. So that's always been our goal
1:00:37
is we we want to grow as much as we can, but we want to maintain
1:00:40
the amazing culture that we have within our practice and within
1:00:43
our business. So hopefully we're celebrating a
1:00:46
year from now another, you know well into the double digit
1:00:48
growth category and also maintaining if not exceeding our
1:00:52
internal NPS scores and all the different measurements of
1:00:55
success that we have for own internal culture.
1:00:59
Tim Petry from HD Growth Partners, I want to be the first
1:01:02
to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us
1:01:05
today. I really appreciate it.
1:01:07
Thanks for having me man, this was fun.
1:01:12
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:01:14
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:01:16
today.