Latest / The Accounting Leads Now Podcast / The $3M IRS Fix You’ll Never Hear About on TikTok - With Brandon Adjei

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The $3M IRS Fix You’ll Never Hear About on TikTok - With Brandon Adjei · The Accounting Leads Now Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to another episode of CFO Chronicles, the podcast that reveals the secrets behind success in the world of fractional CFOs and accounting firm owners.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Our guest today is Brandon Ajay, a CPA with a passion for solving IRS and business related problems for owners and individuals.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: He believes that failure is just a stepping stone to growth and has helped countless individuals achieve their goals.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Get ready to be inspired and challenged as Brandon shares his insights on entrepreneurship, IRS resolution, and the power of learning from mistakes.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Brandon, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: I've been looking forward to this one for a while.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: We had the chance to connect here a few months ago in Utah.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: We hit it off there.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: We've rescheduled this one a few times, so it's long overdue.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: How are you doing, man?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Man, you know, good, good.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh Friday Eve and uh here in uh Houston, Texas, and uh definitely looking forward to uh getting this going.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, look, let's dive right into things here.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Can you tell us about, you know, a bit about your background and how you became a CPA specializing in solving IRS and business related problems.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm guessing dealing with the IRS is not something you maybe thought you'd be doing growing up as a young boy.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh great, great question.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So background was more finance.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was an intern at Merrill Lynch.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh doing uh finance undergrad.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: It just what happened is a lot of the folks that I would work with in the wealth management were were high high net worth individuals, but they made their money different ways.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of them had about 40% of them had started in public accounting.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I never really got the idea of that until I got the understanding from a wise person that said, you know, accounting is a language of business.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to become fluent in that language, you need to work at a place uh where you can speak it and learn what to do to keep more of your money that you make, you know, while you're making it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that made a lot of sense.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I went back, got a master's in uh accounting, went to start with Deloitte, uh, and got a chance to on an audit background, on the audit side, that's where I began.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then the recession happened.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I gotten a chance to get a lot more exposure to taxes.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so that corporate tax environment and resolution side, I was able to see in the big firms.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Finished my career at PwC, ended up going into consulting.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the consulting, I started seeing a lot more of that as well and advisory.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, it just happenstance, right?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's like some things are just meant to be.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I got a chance to uh uh, you know, see how I could do this and apply it to folks that maybe aren't big corporate entities, but you know, individuals or people that's within my circle, you know, and that's my circle has grown since then.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, awesome.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I gotta ask, when you were growing up in in school, like grade school, middle school, even high school, what did you what did you want to be or what did you think you might be when you were when you were an adult and all grown up?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Got you.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: A thoracic surgeon, a heart surgeon.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I even when I started college, I began as a biochemistry undergrad.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I spent a lot of my time from elementary through middle and high school, primary school and all that, uh, in the sciences.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was even uh I did a lot of different science experiences.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was really like uh like Urkel or something with what people would probably you know adventure.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I was all about the sciences, and then it's just like life happened, dude.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up going into the business route.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, for me, it seemed like a lot of things in business were were like science because there's this trend, a lot of transactional elements in chemistry um and biology, and and you just kind of see that.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So business kind of came easy for me.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said, I wanted to be a heart surgeon, I wanted to work with either Michael DeBakey or Dr.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Denton Cooley.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I ended up, funny enough, still working with Dr.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Denton Cooley uh going going the business route.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I worked with him until he passed away.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and uh that ended up you know being a phenomenal experience, even though I wasn't a heart surgeon.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I but I worked with a lot of folks in that field of heart surgery.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's so cool.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: And and I'm I'm guessing this is a really bad attempt at a joke, but you're probably saving a lot of heartache helping people out with the IRS.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good way to put it.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I like the fun.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, dude.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Probably just lost like all of the all of the few listeners we have on the podcast with that joke.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: The funny thing is this year we probably we saved clients in excess of two million dollars this year, uh on the resolution side, on the resolution side, and then a tax strategy side, probably another right at a million one.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so just just this year, as far as like on the strategy and planning side, and then that's the prospective aspect, and then the retrospective aspect of the resolution side, uh, over two million dollars we we we saved.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's it's been a phenomenal journey.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: This yeah.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, your clients must just put you on a pedestal and and view you like the the authority you must be able to bring to the room after either showing them what this plan looks like or the strategy or delivering that news of hey, we're able to save this much and put essentially this much back in your pocket.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, tell me a little bit like what's that like, that relationship with your clients, just I guess the their reaction to you.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to hear what what's that's like from your side.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll give you uh a couple of examples.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you an example on the uh prospective side on the on the planning portion, and I'll give you a uh a perspective on the resolution side on the resolving issue for somebody.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: On the prospective side, on the planning portion, there's a client that we had when we met on.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we met him, this guy had paid the IRS uh over$300,000.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I was like, wow, how did that even happen?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then so, you know, we we got a chance to look at his situation.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: We had to get to know him, we had to get to know whatever the him and his wife's uh uh risk tolerances were and what they're open to because whatever plan we put together, we can come up with you know 10, 15 different things that can work, but these people might only be interested in three or four.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's cool and it's fluid in that way, but we tailor plans for for folks is risk tolerance, their interests, and what they're you know, accustomed to, whatever whatever they can have a taste for.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So when we show them, you know, we're gonna save you half a million dollars this year, they were floored and they couldn't understand how this happened.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of it, a lot of it comes from lack of knowledge, a lot of it comes from lack of knowledge, or you know, this famous saying, if you fail to if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail, like that too.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people talk about Amazon not paying all these taxes, but Amazon made a plan like in the late 90s, early 2000s that is you they're seeing the fruits of their labor, you know, this decade and last decade.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh because they because they it just it took time and they pay taxes in other ways anyway.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Just you know, that they're the biggest customer of USPS, which is the postal service here in the US.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, but you know, it's just being able to show them where you know the gaps can be bridged for them and it opens up their eyes.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can see the lights coming on, they love it, and then they're like wanting to fire whoever they're working with, or they have a really strong conversation with whoever they're working with.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how did you not know this?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and it's just the thing is that's the funny thing about the tax world.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've used a lot of audit experience to go look at the internal revenue code, different elements, and then I'm working with other colleagues who work in this profession on the resolution side or the prospective planning side, and we we glean off of each other, right?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: We sharpen each other's teeth, you know, sharpen iron, iron sharpened iron.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that gives us a chance to you know see what else is happening.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even like last month or in July, really, the BBB just occurred, uh, which really emphasize a lot of changes that's going to be taking care uh occurrence here in the US.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, a lot of modifications have taken place, new tax laws, new things.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're researching that, we're digesting that, and we're trying to see what's what's relevant for our clients.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, and we we help each other in that regard as well.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: But on the fact that we have uh that prospective side, that's great.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now balance that against the resolution side, people that owe the IRS money.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: There was a lady that we worked with in another state, uh, she had owed unfortunately about a million bucks to the IRS on taxes on taxes.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then yeah, my God, I was looking at it myself, like, wow, you know, you really owe that money.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, and but penalties and interest, it brought up to like another two,$300,000.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I think$1.3 million, she was on to the IRS.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: But when we and at first, I didn't even want to take it on, but we went ahead and took it on, uh, did a lot of research, and we saw that the what the root cause, and that's part of these types of things, is finding identifying the root cause.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: We found that her business partner had actually um bamboozled her and did a lot of things in her name that resulted in the resolution, that resulted in the issue being presented for resolution.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we were able to identify that, and we were able to like go through the IRS and it's you know, different departments when you're dealing with that level of of money.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's all kind of legalities and things in that regard, but we were able to uh absolve the majority of that from her, uh, like over two-thirds, over two thirds.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So she ended up, I think, owing maybe uh God, I don't even think it was 300,000.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was like less than uh, well, it was about 300,000.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then we were able to get a lot of the penalties knocked off.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it ended up being like a less than$150,000.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: She ended up on the IRS.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: So like a tenth of what she owed when we when she met us versus what she actually paid.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: But again, it's it's that's where the audit background comes in because we're like, hey, how did this even happen?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: We, you know, the forensic accounting aspect, you know, incorporating those skills that I got from the big firms into things like this and applying it, it gives us a unique perspective and a lens to help things make be clear for the client.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, like, like we're like, like she loves me now.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like we we we've helped her so much, her life is different, her stress.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no kidding.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And like her time, like her time, like she feels like she's gotten her time back, you know.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, she looks younger even.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because this took about a year and a half to even make happen, but she's looked like she's de-aged, if that's even possible, with different distress.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Benjamin Button.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, you you help someone save like nine hundred and some thousand dollars of taxes.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um I would hope they would they would have some uh some joy for you.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: So my god.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's a that's a huge win.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure you and your team are like thrilled with that one.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: How from like a business growth perspective, how do you guys find clients?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: How do clients find you?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, walk us through how the firm's growing for client acquisition.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Great question, great question.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we work with uh so most of everything word of mouth.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh like a lot of things are straight word of mouth with us.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we we haven't never really done like a commercial or anything like that.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but and we don't like, oh, we go fight the IRS.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the situation.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: We we liaise with the with the IRS and we have relationships that's that you know, we we attend conferences, we we do a lot of things where we're engaging with the IRS regularly on a weekly basis, honestly.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we get familiar with a lot of the terminology, we get familiar with a lot of uh the plus we work with a lot of tax attorneys as well.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so so so that being in that space, we're able to gauge a lot of the temperature.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it helps us be able to know what we're talking about, be educated, not on whatever happened in the past, but the current events and regulatory impact, and and and speak to it in a comfortable way conversationally.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they can see, you know what, you know, these people aren't messing around because we can quote IRC code, quack, chapter, and verse and all that, but you know, it's not who you're trying to impress, nobody.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we just want to be able to find, you know, a lot of things with the IRS because of the way their budgets have been with different administrations this this this century, everybody's cut it, you know.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they're trying to, they make up their their a lot of their uh budget by penalties and interest, and and and they've gotten really sophisticated about how they approach that.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: They want to see what they can collect.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they don't want to just have things long-standing receivables from taxpayers.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if they can find a way to resolve something, man, they'll do it.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be surprised.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: The IRS is really accommodating, but then you do catch folks that you know are are definitely uh antagonistic and all the rest, and then you can you definitely got to opt that you gotta deal with, but that's where the code and burst comes in when you say, Oh, we know the lingo, we're not, you know, we can, you know, it's a lot of things.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, but word of mouth, long story short, and then at the same time, we have, and the word of mouth obviously comes from clients that we've helped.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: They have, you know, brother with the feather plot together, they tell us about their friends or their business partners.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and then we we've worked with strategic alliances, strategic relationships, like like some CPAs who are in different places who maybe they do all they do is taxes.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: They wake up and thank God for taxes.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you got people who just wait, wake up and happy about gap, you know, uh general account accepted accounted principles.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you know, we're if they see that, hey, you know, they do resolution, you know, we can refer.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have strategic relationships, word of mouth.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, and also like financial planners.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of financial planners who uh, you know, refer for people to us as well.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that and that happens.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like some financial planners deal with a lot of high net worth individuals.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I used to work in that space, like I said.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was you know, intern of Merrill Lynch and whatnot before the all the golden parachutes and all that era.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So uh uh, you know, I mean, I still keep in touch with people in that dynamic.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just, you know, but now we're looking at at actually advertising and things that have variety.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're exploring the social media aspect, maybe doing generating content, because there are a lot of people out here on social media or on different platforms that are saying things that may or may not necessarily be true, or they're they're they're they're good to say, but they're not the right thing to apply, you know.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: It just and people are taking it, you know, verbatim like like like vitamins, like Tylenol, I guess, and uh and sitting up here, you know, and and applying it to life and they find themselves in situations and then knocking on our door, hey, we got this issue, you know, can you help us?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, how'd you what how'd you how'd this happen?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was watching this video or this, that, and the other, and it's like, oh man.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm I'm happy to hear you say that you're looking into other forms of advertising because um I guess our seat as a marketing company who works with accounting firms, I gotta say the the word of mouth might be a little controversial or a hot take for me, but the word of mouth relying on other people to grow the business, I wouldn't say it's it's not necessarily a strategy, it's a great to have.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: And if you guys are doing awesome work, amazing that people send it over.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: But does that ever stress you out at all where you're like, I wonder if someone else is out there telling someone about us to and our phone's gonna ring?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you know what?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing about being an entrepreneur, the roller road, the roller coaster income.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I you know, I I I listen to Jim Rohn a lot still to this day, and Miles Monroe and other people, and I hear different sayings that they have.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I some of these things stick with me.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not the hours, it's not the hours you put in, it's what you put into those hours, right?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so we we we look at, you know, you know, value is always gonna be out, you know, value and quality are gonna speak for themselves, you know, but it's good to have advertisement because like when you're starting out, you know, roller coaster income, those roller coaster months, it is difficult.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is really difficult.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so you gotta find a way to to to you know diversify your way to communicate, get the word out there about yourself.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And diversity is is definitely a great thing to do.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so that's why I'm saying, like, what we we've had a lot of success, and honestly, because we've kind of gotten over the roller coaster hump.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Over the hump, yeah.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: But but even though they're I mean, but uh but truth be told, anybody running a practice, they're gonna have a time of pruning of clients, you're gonna have time to grow the business, and you're gonna have a time to kind of like shrink the business level.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like you just saw Elon Musk this month.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: How many losses did Tesla have?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Billions.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Elon went and bought over a billion dollars worth of stock back himself, right?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Cause the value to go back up and erase a lot of those losses.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So he's in a position to do that.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody's in a position to do that if you're having you know losses and things of that variety, but it's just you got to see which clients are wasting my time.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's and that's the thing.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: You got to see how you value your time.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, having a cognizant, you know, uh application and definition of time to you, that's one thing we all get.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what part of the world you are and how much is in your bank account, everybody gets the same amount of time.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how you value your time, uh, you know, is gonna determine what who you're gonna become and what you're gonna accomplish.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: So uh anything that can help you become efficient with time, you know, do it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I highly recommend it.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like like AI, things of that variety, incorporating technology, incorporating other people that can help you just because you have all the knowledge, you got to be able to share it, maybe teach somebody else, mentor somebody else.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And those people are gonna come back for relationships, you know.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, but I but I definitely am getting into the uh I've probably been a little bit shy on the on the uh social media aspect.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm we're breaking out of that.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Probably I'm gonna I'm removing that roadblock because you in order to get somewhere you've never been, you got to do something you never done.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's awesome.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, hey, one of one of those steps coming on this show, and we're gonna make sure this gets pushed out and and people know more people know about you.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Brendan, you you talked about a massive win earlier, um, saving a client you know almost a million dollars in in um uh overdue tax or a bill to the IRS.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me about a time that was really hard in the business.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like you talked about the roller coasters.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: What about one where you're really low on the roller coaster?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: You felt like the walls are closing in, you pushed through, and it's been transformational for you as a as a as an individual, a business owner for the firm.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what was what stands out where you're like, man, I almost gave up.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: All right, great.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: So there was there was uh uh I'll give you an example.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: When I first started the business, had an office, had had everything, had client files, and all the kind of stuff.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we had this big hurricane that hit Houston called Hurricane Harvey, pretty much destroyed the city.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh everything was underwater.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I lost my office.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and and I I mean, I they have FEMA, which is basically they help out, you know, individuals and businesses from the government grants, you know, whatnot.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they usually do.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had, you know, had my office destroyed from from FEMA, uh, from the hurricane.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw I reached out to FEMA, I reached out, you know, to the SBA, all this other stuff.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And man, you know, the landlord was still on a rent, insurance company was still on insurance, they were filing a claim.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I got ended up getting denied on my FEMA claim.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: There were no customers coming in because I didn't have a facility and all of this.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh what I ended up doing, I needed, I was really low.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was no money coming in.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was behind rent, I was behind on anything that I could ever, you could ever imagine I was behind on, even where I was living.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it ended up happening.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know what, I'm gonna volunteer.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I got a call from the IRS, some the IRS liaison stakeholder when the stakeholder liaison, she had called me because she knew about me and said, Hey, we're here at the uh the FEMA DRC, which is the disaster relief center.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: We need somebody to help uh help uh people who have uh haven't gotten their taxes filed or haven't you know gotten an issue resolved with the IRS.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna be doing it a pro bono, but we need it because that's the only way they can they can get a FEMA grant or or they can get a SBA loan.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And at first I was kind of taking it back because the place is pretty far from my house, but I ended up going and I volunteered, I thought it was gonna be like two or three weeks, and we did a lot of tax returns, people, people who had needed installment agreements, people who had IRS issues, we were helping get those resolved, and this is all pro bono.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm putting gas on my credit card to drive, you know, 40 plus miles away one way, and I'm helping all these people, and it was really tough for me because you know, I wasn't against, like I said, I wasn't getting any money, but what ended up happening, I felt like intrinsically really good about what I was doing.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And uh there was one client that we were working on, she had owed IRS$80,000.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: This was like a profit for profit client, actual customer.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: We were still working with her issue, and we were able to get her issue resolved, which gave me like proof that man, we can do this, no problem.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: She got had an$80,000 balance, we got it resolved 100%.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: She didn't owe the RS any more money, and that was going on at the same time we were dealing with doing all this pro bono work.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: But that pro bono work ended up a few months later, resulted in people coming to us to get their taxes done or other uh uh services that you know we weren't even expecting.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I wasn't trying to be like HBHR block and all these other, you know, tax prep people.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't trying to do that, I was just really focused on resolution, but doing that volunteerism, doing that that going going deeper than what your ditch, your your your your your valley is, you got to go deeper, outdo your your the depth inside of yourself, not just your your environment, because you because you're gonna be you know dealing with a lot of valleys and hills in your career, but that gave me the uh there's like an inner strength, a second wind that came in, dude.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that tax practice for for just doing tax preparation, dude, that that came out of nowhere, and that's really been consistent throughout all these years.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we we we or organically grew a tax practice, but it came out of basically giving away.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: So so basically we had to die to ourselves and and and give up, let go of whatever we were trying to do so hard, and but it made room for something new to come through, and that's a mentality thing, that's a spiritual thing that's that's just you know, life thing, right?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Life lesson.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, like again, our office got destroyed.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I ended up having to move locations, a lot of stuff.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: I got my my own FEMA claim was denied, my own SBA loan was denied.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the I'm helping other people get theirs, and then you know, at the same time, I'm still working for people for a person who you know she trusted us, I think January of that year, and we were still working on this thing.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: It took a year to get the$80,000 removed, but we still had a win for her.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: That that really felt good.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was like a because it ended in December or November or something like that for her.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just that year, 2017 was like pretty tough.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was a pretty tough year, it was our first year, and uh, but then in 2018 with the with the tax people, I didn't had no idea that she was gonna be coming to me to get their taxes done.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's the guy I made at the FEMA DRC, he's the one who helped us out.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and man, that just you know, you got a bunch of people coming to pay you for taxes to get prep.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Wow, you know, that's not something I plan on doing, but I'll be open to it.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the other thing, being open.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I when I started the business, dude, I was I was doing whatever people needed, not just you know, resolution.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I mean that's what I wanted to do, but I was but if again, roller coaster to combat it, you gotta be flexible, right?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody needs to go to the DMV and get a title change, yeah, I'll go do that for you.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I would just whatever you needed, but but it's just you know, you you gotta have a focus.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can't be like a a dog in a hubcat factory and getting shiny objects in there.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta have a focus, otherwise you lose your purpose.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: So so yeah, that's amazing.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: That congratulations on on like going through that.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's and getting onto the other side and facing that adversity, because that would be yeah, I mean that's that's really impressive.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: You uh one thing I'll say is as your enemy will help define who you are as the hero.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta be you're there's a story being told.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are you the hero of the villain?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's your story.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: What who do you want to be?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh Anakin Skywalker became Dog Veda.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he was a hero at first, he became a villain.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's just who do you want your story?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want to be told?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody gets time, you know.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta what happens in time is gonna define who you are, who you become.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you have goals and things, but what you do at your time matters.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta have proper time management.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: I I follow Alex Hermozzi a lot, and uh he speaks he speaks a lot about um you know having to go through all those hard times and like going through the the darkness and the the depths because if you were to go watch a movie and just right away the person never dealt with any adversity and just life was amazing, wouldn't be much of a movie to watch.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: You wouldn't be cheering the person on, but you cheer on the the main character, the hero who has to go through all the dips and learns and keeps growing and then all of a sudden achieves the goal.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: So that's something I try to remind myself of when things get really hard.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, look, this is just it's redefining and we're just gonna keep moving forward.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Man, you're so right.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, Al Tremose.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna check, I'm gonna check them out.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: He's got some amazing stuff, he's got some some really good stuff.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Always look for you know, room for growth, always improve, you know.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, so uh I I glean from anything like that.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people we learn from, you know, they've already lived life, you know, they've probably passed away, or they got a video or a book or something.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I try to glean, and obviously you meet people in time who are on that journey with you.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna find as you go through life, you know, when you have a certain um, I guess this is one way to put it, like the more real you get, the more unreal life can get.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so so once as you're on that journey, you got mentality, you're gonna you're gonna find other people that are maybe on that journey in an unspoken way, and y'all just gravitate to each other, you find each other in this life, you know, in this universe, whatnot, and and you're gonna find a collective effort.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, maybe y'all can help each other again, sharpen iron sharp as iron, and and and you know, help helping each other like grow more, get off the milk, get on to the meat.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so you know, it just as you begin to take those steps, you know, you know, a thousand mile journey starts with the first step, you know.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: So as you begin to take those steps, you're gonna find other people on that journey with you, and you you're gonna get help when you need it, when you least expect it, I guess.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: When you least expect it.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: And and being open again to receiving that help.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I think a lot of people they're they they they're closed off, they don't want help, they wear it as uh it yeah.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: So being open to being receptive to to help.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Two more questions for you, Brandon.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if if I could wave a magic wand at your business and help you with anything going on, what would that be?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's that's I guess content production, uh help helping uh outreach, market, marketing, marketing, some marketing, um, and and and just like because it could help me get the message out, like people let people know that we exist.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then you know, if you need any help or or or anything we can do, let us know.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not just from a from a resolution standpoint, RS business standpoint, uh standpoint, but even just as a friend, uh mentor, I think everybody should have a mentor and everybody should have a mentee.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh that's one thing I've also observed that that helps people because you get caught up in so much of whatever the humdrum of whatever you're doing, but if you don't have a vision, um you're gonna lose the love of it, right?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a mentor that's guiding you, keeping you humble, you're able to do the same with somebody else.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when you invest in somebody else, it gives you room to outpour whatever comes in you, but you can also receive more from another source.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So uh you can't just keep it all you know inside.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you gotta, if you look at it, anything that's living tries to be to do do its best potential, except for human beings.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like a tree is gonna grow as you know high as it can grow, uh, a fish is gonna swim as much as they can swim.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, uh it just mountain is gonna be as strong and bold as it can be, uh depending on what what the mountain was inside that mountain.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just you know, you gotta you gotta like you gotta do your best.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a choice too.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a choice if you want to be your best.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, you don't have to be your best, but you know, it's highly recommended.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you have gifts and qualities, you gotta use them.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh you gotta use them.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: So otherwise they become stale and sour.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's so insightful.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: So this is a great segue.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, last question for you.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: You've already you've already listed so much, but I'm just curious if there's anything else that comes off the top, like the best piece of advice you've ever received.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's most comforting is uh you are enough.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's still sometimes, dude, it's kind of hard to believe.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: But but if but if but somebody said I am enough, like like you are enough.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I you it sounds very common and basic, but it the realization of it is the actualization, the acceptance of it, you know, that's it's sometimes can be hard to swallow because you're always trying to improve and do this and the other.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, man, you know, uh, but but you like man, I am enough.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you have that in your mind and your concept, I think it's a very freeing, a freeing uh uh concept.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you are you know it's it's it it sounds so calm, and it's so simple.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's a nice reminder.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate you sharing that.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: Brandon, thank you so much for for coming on, sharing all of your insight.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: This has been amazing.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: Where can everyone get in touch with you if they want to continue the conversation with you?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: They need your help with um any of the services you offer, the the partnerships, the the joint ventures.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: How can people get in touch with you?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha, gotcha, got you.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm on LinkedIn.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my name Brandon Ajay, uh CPA, I'm on LinkedIn, but we have a website that we're working on right now.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be Bar Graph Solutions.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, we call ourselves BGS, but but Bargraph Solutions uh bar is just like sound like it sounds like a bar graph.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then solutionsplural uh.com.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're working on that that's not up right now.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: The current website that we have is uh cpa-asap uh.com.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a https secure website, uh, but but that one is kind of like the current one, but but we're but bar graph solutions is coming up.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm on LinkedIn and if anybody emails info in F O at bargraphsolutions.com, they can get us as well.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: We'll make sure that's in the show notes if people can get in touch with you.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Brandon, I I can't thank you enough.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's been it was long overdue, but I'm I'm so glad we did it.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks again.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Worth the way, man.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: You it was worth the way to talk with you, man.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely appreciate you.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Felt great with this and uh just great questions.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And just, you know, thank you for letting us come on your platform.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of CFO Chronicles, the secrets behind success.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: I hope you found value in today's conversation.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things.
• 31:41
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• 31:45
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• 31:49
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• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: Second, if you're ready to take your business to the next level and attract the high-end clients you deserve, head over to accountingleadsnow.com or click the link in the show notes to book your strategy call.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's time to position yourself as the advisor your clients need.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: And don't forget, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to stay up to date on what's happening in the world of accounting and financial growth.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: We've got exciting topics coming up, so stay tuned for the next episode of CFO Chronicles.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: Until then, keep pushing forward.
• 32:19
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• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles, the secrets behind success.
• 32:28
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• 32:34
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• 32:39
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• 32:43
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• 32:48
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