Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Megan Roberts on What Happens When You Stop Being Yourself at Work and What It Takes to Come Back

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Megan Roberts on What Happens When You Stop Being Yourself at Work and What It Takes to Come Back · 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
0:12
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. As you listen today, let one
0:17
idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotas Bodi,
0:21
and today's guest earned a degree in playwriting.
0:24
Spent time on a factory floor sorting defective parts and
0:29
somehow ended up being one of the most respected operational
0:32
leaders in the accounting profession.
0:34
It is not the path anyone would have drawn on the whiteboard.
0:38
She stepped into a firm still finding its footing and helped
0:41
scale it from 6 million in revenue to nearly 15,000,000 in
0:45
revenue in just three years. The growth was real.
0:48
The harder part was building the kind of culture that actually
0:52
retains team members. Meet Megan Roberts, CEO at HD
0:56
Growth Partners, a Youngstown based accounting and advisory
1:00
firm that has earned recognition as one of Accounting Today's
1:03
Best Firms for Young Accountants and a Best Employer in Ohio.
1:08
She is a Power of Change honoree from the Ohio Society of Cpas
1:13
and a Carbon Certified expert. People often talk about finding
1:17
their voice. Megan built a career out of
1:20
helping entire organizations find theirs.
1:22
But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:21
today, the COO at HD Growth Partners, Megan Roberts.
2:24
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:27
Thanks for having me. So most Coos, Megan, at
2:32
accounting firms in particular, they come up through finance,
2:35
maybe operations. You came up through playwriting.
2:40
I walk me back to the Ohio University version of you.
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What were you thinking? What were you, you know, what
2:46
did you have in mind? What were you trying to build
2:47
back then? Yeah, so I actually started at
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Ohio University for journalism, and this was 2007.
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Heading into 2008, print media actively dying.
3:00
And I love Ohio University. Incredible academics, incredible
3:04
environment. But I felt like that program was
3:07
so intense. And I'm competitive, but I'm not
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intense. So as I was there and studying,
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I thought, what what do I like most about writing?
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I've always been a writer. I've always enjoyed really
3:24
describing things in a way that will resonate with somebody, you
3:27
know, differently than how someone else might explain it.
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So I had the the very great conversation with my parents
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about, you know, halfway toward end of sophomore year.
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Hey, I think instead of this highly coveted journalism
3:42
program that is like top in the nation or to go right, yeah,
3:46
like, can I just go write plays even though nobody's really
3:50
hired A playwright since like 14 hundreds.
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My parents are amazing and they support everything I ever have
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dreamed of doing. So we went, you know, full steam
4:01
down that that path. And what was I think most
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valuable to me out of that playwriting program is taking
4:09
criticism and giving criticism. And when you're in that artistic
4:14
space, you know, you're really putting your heart and soul into
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everything you do. And the feelings are so big and
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the canvases are so big and what you can do with that art.
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But to go back into the really the academic side of it, and
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you're sitting with a group of peers and they're eviscerating
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you on a weekly basis and you're like, this is the best thing
4:35
I've ever made. And they're like, no, here's all
4:38
of the places where it could be so much better.
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So that is really what I took the most from that playwriting
4:45
program was to give constructive criticism appropriately to
4:50
people, you know, mindful of their feelings and then also
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receive it. And I don't know that everyone
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else takes their Fine Arts degree that way, but that's
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that's what I did with it. That's really interesting.
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So give us some tips on each side of that first, from the
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side of what you learned and how to deliver constructive
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criticisms that it's easier for the other person to receive.
5:14
Yeah, I think it has to start with how much trust you have in
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a relationship with that person. It's, you know, I, I've been
5:22
most successful academically in a cohort environment.
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So we were in a cohort, you know, 10-15 of us the whole way
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through college and build you build that trust with each other
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to know, hey, I'm not telling you this because I think I'm
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better than you. I'm telling you this because I
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think you are the best. And here's how I think you can
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be even better. So I mean, the psychological
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safety and trust, I think is a really big factor in the
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relationship side of giving constructive criticism to
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anybody. You don't have that trust.
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No matter how you deliver it, no matter what your framework looks
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like or your outputs, people are going to take it personally
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unless you build up that relationship first.
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So you need to have that relationship foundation in place
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before you start saying, hey, I think you're awesome and here
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are some ways to be awesomer. Right.
6:19
Yes, OK. And then on the other side of
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that table, what have you learned?
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What could you teach us about how to receive that constructive
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feedback? Because it's natural to get
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defensive, right? Yeah, you have to.
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You have to be willing to sit with your feelings more than
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even on a regular basis. I don't care to always like
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really acknowledge the feelings that I have.
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But I think it's a process. And if you're receiving
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constructive criticism, you shouldn't, you shouldn't try to
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take that all in in that moment, you know, like hear everything,
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absorb everything, but set the time aside to reflect on it so
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that you can separate your emotions and your feelings.
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In playwriting, we would always say, like, you have to be
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willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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You just it could be your favorite line, your favorite
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character, your favorite scene. And if everybody else in the
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room is like, it's just not landing, you know, you have to
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be willing to set that aside and say, OK, maybe I use that
7:22
somewhere else. Maybe I come back to it at
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another time. But it's really kind of learning
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how to put your ego in check and just say, I do want to be
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better. This information is coming from
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people that I trust and that I respect.
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They also want me to be better. So that is how you kind of
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emotionally navigate just being a little more objective when
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you're looking at your own work. So I've got a theory here just
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in a few minutes. We're talking together.
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Megan, I think that, and this is going to flesh out as we kind of
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ask the next couple of questions.
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I'm guessing that in the same way that you looked at your Fine
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Arts degree and you know, what are the bigger life lessons that
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I can pull from this? You've probably done that at
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some of these other stops along the way that as we get into some
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of your early career moves, are going to feel a little
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disjointed for where you are now.
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But we're going to start to put the pieces of the puzzle
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together and realize that you're always kind of looking for a way
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to take learnings from one step and push it forward into what
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you do next. You're kind of nodding your head
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yes, OK. Yeah, I I will never waste my
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own time. And I think as soon as I
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accepted that about myself, it's like, you know, I had to pay my
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bills, I had to pay my rent, but I will never waste my own time.
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So what can I learn from this experience and apply forward to
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building a successful career? That's really been my mentality
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about everything. OK.
8:57
So let's see how that applied and the role that you had.
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You were a rework operator at Weatherchem Corporation, so
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you're sorting good parts from bad ones on a line.
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Talk to us about the work you were doing there and how you
9:14
didn't waste your time there. Yeah, So that was riveting.
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That was a riveting job. My my father worked there.
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I was kind of after college, moved home trying to figure out
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what to do. And so they made the spice caps
9:30
like that go on your garlic, your garlic powder, your onion
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powders, these little plastic spice caps.
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And I would get boxes and boxes and boxes dumped out on a table,
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find the bad ones, find the ones that have just like something
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wrong with them, put them aside is all part of quality control,
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you know, production and just making sure standards were
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there. So for one thing, it was 12 hour
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shifts and I had a lot of time to just think and think about
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what I want to do long term, what I really would be attracted
10:05
to in a career. Because at this point, you know,
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I'm done with college. I'm always going to write, but I
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don't know how to translate that to a job in Northeast Ohio in a,
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you know, very less than desirable economy at the time.
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So I I spent a lot of time, you know, observing like this is
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literally a manufacturing environment.
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Everybody has to be doing what they're supposed to be doing at
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the right time. You know, quality checks,
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technical checks and just seeing the way that I think that was
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the first inside peek to a real true operating system for me.
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You know, you, you have to have all of these checks and balances
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and it cannot be dependent on the person.
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Your system really has to be strong enough that regardless of
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the shift or who's on or who's off or who's in or who's out,
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these things still have to happen so that people are safe,
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so that the product is of good quality, so that the consumer is
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happy. And I think operationally, I
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apply that to if I have a great process and someone else steps
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into that process and it starts failing, I didn't have a great
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process. I had a great employee.
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And so that kind of manufacturing insight has always
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let me to think, OK, how do we really scale this?
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How do we make sure it is sustainable?
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And I was able to do that mostly just observationally because I'm
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just there sorting spice caps for 12 hours a night, having a
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great time. So this was your early
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introduction to the value of a great process.
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Yeah, I think so. OK, So you moved from a
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manufacturing floor, then you were at Staples, social media,
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content, wealth management. Let's talk about actually the
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nine years that you spent at W3 Wealth Management, the last four
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specifically as director of operations.
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It's a long time in one place. What what were you building
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there? Tell us about that work.
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Yeah, so I started there, really.
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I applied as a receptionist. And if anyone has caught caught
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your episode with Tim Petry, the CEO at HD Growth Partners, he
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started at HD also as the receptionist.
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So I always felt like that parallel brought us together in
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a strange way. But at W3, you know, applied as
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a receptionist and I just wanted to have a job or I didn't have
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to wear an apron. I didn't have to have, you know,
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non slip shoes anymore for a while, maybe, maybe have
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weekends off. So I was, I was really terrified
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and like, I don't know anything about money or finance or
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investments. I, one of the guys I worked with
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at Staples, actually, he kind of wrote down on a post it note,
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Oh, if you're, you know, if you're interviewing at wealth
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management, here's a bunch of words you should look up before
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you go to your interview. And I still have that post it
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note. I framed it actually at home.
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So I what? Were some of those words do you
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remember? Just like FINRA, IRA, Roth IR,
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like very basic financial terms. But I had to, I had to.
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I did exactly what he said at home.
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I googled every single one. I'm like, they're not going to
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hire me. This is this is so far out of my
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league, but I think what they appreciated in my resume and my
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eclectic background was my willingness to learn and not
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even willingness, but like my requirement.
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I just, I have to keep pushing my understanding of what's going
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on around me and how things affect each other.
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So I started with account services, opening investment
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accounts, doing, you know, check deposits for people if they
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needed a withdrawal out of their retirement account.
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And I learned a lot really quickly there and was started
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doing account reviews, which just seemed so out of place for
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me at the time. Like I'm not a math person.
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I'm a, I'm a writer, I'm a creative.
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And now I'm doing these super analytical investment account
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statements, you know, 50 hours a week, seeing what people have
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going on in their accounts and preparing the advisors and my,
14:27
my thirst for knowledge really fueled me to get FINRIS
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certified. So I have my Series 7
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certification and that I never wanted to be client facing and
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never wanted to be the person in the room advising, you know,
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wealth management clients. But I wanted to understand
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everything about what was going on in those accounts so that I
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could be better at my job operationally.
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And they supported me a lot to just figure out, you know, like,
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how can we, how can we make things, how can we open accounts
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faster? How can we, you know, be sharing
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resources better? So that was really the the
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foundation that got me started there and I never saw it coming
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for wealth management. Well, and I think, you know,
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this is a great part about your story.
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It highlights that as much as we often want to put people often
15:20
times ourselves into a certain box, right?
15:23
Like we can be many things, especially at different phases
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of our lives, right? You like, you went through this,
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you know, thought process out loud where I'm not a numbers
15:32
person, I'm a creative, I got a Fine Arts degree, I'm a
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playwright, you know, like I'm not a but you pushed yourself,
15:39
right? There's like a curiosity in you.
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Yeah, I've, I've did recently a, one of the personality tests,
15:47
the, you know, leading personality indicators.
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And my number one is learning. And I was like, oh, well, that
15:53
makes sense. Yeah, if I, if someone would pay
15:56
me to go to school for the rest of my life, of course I would.
15:59
And the person was like, yeah, that's that's exactly what you
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know, your reports show is just I love learning.
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So let's talk about another interesting element of your
16:08
learning. You got a master's in.
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What was it? Organizational leadership with a
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concentration in change management.
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And you got this degree from a Military Academy?
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Yeah. So Norwich University out of
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Vermont and I, I did not realize the the pomp and circumstance to
16:33
that university when I picked that program.
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I was looking, I knew I wanted to get a master's.
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I knew that there's MBAs out the wazoo and a lot of people that
16:44
know how to manage the PNL, and it seemed like not a lot of
16:47
people knew how to manage organization and the people
16:50
inside of it. So I was very attracted to that
16:54
program specifically because it is so people focused and a bit
17:00
psychology, a bit neuroscience, a bit really change theory and
17:04
how we make a difference in an organization off of the balance
17:08
sheet. So I, you know, went full force
17:13
like I do with everything. And it was a very prominent
17:17
Military Academy. Everybody in my cohort was
17:20
either active military or retired.
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And I show up with my nose ring and my shaved head and I'm like,
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hey, I work in finance and I studied art and I was so
17:33
terrified because I'm like, I don't have anything in common
17:36
with them. They, you know, they're, they're
17:39
in the military. They must have all of this great
17:42
confidence and experience. And I'll never forget we got to
17:45
like our first group project and somebody had to volunteer to
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like be in charge of it. And we're all figuring out how
17:53
to balance full time careers, full time families, full time
17:57
school, and now this huge project.
17:59
And like none of the guys were raising their hand.
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I was like, OK, I guess I'll do it, you know, and set up a
18:06
really good structure for us to work together.
18:10
And we did great on that paper. We did great on that project.
18:14
And we really found our rhythm as a team.
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So we kind of went to the school for the next class.
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They were kind of trying to split us up.
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We were like, no, we're staying together, move other people
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around, you know, we, we want to stay this core group of us
18:28
together. So I just always thought it was
18:30
funny that this weird little kind of punk girl from Ohio took
18:35
charge of these military guys and they're, they're the best
18:39
friends in the world to be now. We we still talk all the time
18:41
and support each other and. You know, the part of the story
18:46
that I, I really latch onto there is this idea of, you know,
18:52
you see people as a certain way, right?
18:55
So you saw these military, you know, I must have a lot of
18:57
confidence, right? They, you know, they've been
18:58
through stuff that you haven't been through.
19:01
You know, they're, they're probably in good shape.
19:03
And, you know, they, you know, they yeah, these guys, they,
19:06
they should be the leaders. And I, you know, I'm just here
19:08
to, to follow along. And boy, that was not the case,
19:12
right? So looks can be deceiving.
19:15
It was, it was really fun. I learned a lot of discipline
19:18
from that group, though. I think I, it was a good balance
19:21
that we brought to each other that, you know, they had this
19:24
like super strict regiment about everything they had to do in the
19:27
day. And I could be more fluid, but
19:31
it was also learning a whole secret language.
19:34
Like they all had this integrated deep, like military
19:39
understanding of things. And I didn't.
19:42
And I remember the first time I was like, I don't even speak the
19:45
same language as these guys. They were talking about
19:47
something that happened when they were at liberty.
19:50
And I'm like, just Googling my life away.
19:52
I'm like, what does this mean? I reached out to one of my
19:55
friends from high school that was in the Army.
19:58
And he's like, oh, that means like they were on leave
20:00
basically. And I was like, oh.
20:02
Why didn't we say it that way? But like, that was that happened
20:06
so early on. And I after that I said, will
20:08
you be my translator? If they keep saying stuff?
20:12
And he's like, I think you can just ask them and they're not
20:14
going to care. So we had like a really open
20:16
conversation about like, hey, sometimes you guys speak about
20:20
things in a way that I can't even grasp onto.
20:23
So we, you know, I think having that conversation to find our
20:28
common language together was also a learning point for me in
20:32
my career, career of I think I'm communicating one way, somebody
20:36
else thinks they're communicating another way.
20:37
And just talking about how we can bridge that gap together was
20:42
a really meaningful lesson. Can you think of a time where
20:45
that lesson then came to play further down in your career,
20:51
where you remembered that in your head and you thought, oh,
20:55
they're probably not speaking the same language I am.
20:58
Let me let me retool this. I think it happens constantly,
21:04
honestly. And even, you know, we're, we're
21:06
in a high growth period at HD was the same thing when I was at
21:10
W 3 of just acquiring other businesses where we do the same
21:15
thing, but we rarely describe it in the same way.
21:19
We're rarely speaking the same language.
21:21
So I would say with, with our most recent merger over here,
21:25
it's like we're asking questions about the work that you do for
21:30
your client and we're, we're both saying the same thing, but
21:33
describing it in completely different terms.
21:36
So it feels like we're worlds apart and just sitting down with
21:40
the partner and having the conversation say, OK, when you
21:43
say this deliverable, and I interpret that internally as
21:48
this whole other process, are we talking about the same thing?
21:52
And the answer is always yes. But just, you know, having those
21:56
conversations up front takes a lot of the takes a lot of the
21:59
guesswork out of it. But you kind of don't know you
22:01
need to have it until you're sitting there like you're
22:04
staring at each other, like we're not understanding one
22:07
another. And I don't know why it's it's
22:10
language barrier between we're in the same field.
22:13
Why, why are we not saying the same words?
22:15
But I think it's more common than people would realize.
22:19
Is there kind of a go to question that you like to ask in
22:22
those situations? I, I've tried to restate like,
22:28
So what I'm hearing you say is XYZ.
22:31
And if I can put it in my own terms and, you know, they're in
22:36
agreement with that, then we can, you know, move forward
22:40
together. But I would say just, I don't
22:43
know why people don't want to seem like they don't understand.
22:48
So they're like, oh, well, I'll just kind of nod along and then
22:52
go back and Google it later or something.
22:54
And yeah, we we can just have those clarifying conversations
22:59
in real time. That's a great lesson.
23:02
So what was behind the decision to leave the wealth management
23:06
firm? Yeah.
23:07
So I mean nine years especially I think in in this day and age
23:12
is a long time to spend that out of career.
23:15
But there's a lot of compliance aspects to that business that
23:21
just, you know, thank goodness there's a lot of compliance to
23:25
that business, but it can be very rigid and it's, it's hard
23:27
to innovate. Or at least for me at the time,
23:30
it felt like it was really hard to innovate.
23:32
So I had just finished this program where I've got a million
23:37
and one ideas about what it really means to lead an
23:41
organization and, you know, be changing things and affecting
23:46
things. And where I was at at the time,
23:50
they were really happy with how things were.
23:53
And I just wanted to get to a place that I could be more
23:58
disruptive and be more, you know, kind of out-of-the-box
24:02
with how we solve things, what we can do together.
24:05
And I was ready to learn from a different leader.
24:09
I, you know, really, really value the relationships I had
24:12
from W3 and still great friends with some of those people today,
24:17
But I was ready to kind of go see what it was like somewhere
24:21
else and just, you know, get to a place that was rapidly going
24:25
to want to evolve. And the, the feeling of I always
24:30
say like complacency feels the same as dying to me.
24:33
Like I just, I want to keep moving.
24:35
And I think if you've, if you've always been in a high change
24:39
environment, you might not understand how crippling
24:43
complacency can feel. So it was important to me to
24:46
just kind of, you know, spread my wings and try something new
24:49
and learn from new people. I wonder is there an element of
24:53
you know, this term gets thrown around I think too much, but
24:55
ADHD there. The 100% yeah.
25:00
And I, I did get like very late life ADHD diagnosis, but it was
25:06
just, yeah, like I checked off all the boxes.
25:08
I, I did everything I could do there.
25:10
And I just want to go, you know, shake it up somewhere else.
25:14
And every day has been an adventure since then.
25:18
Yeah, I I totally get that. Yep, Rolling Stone gathers no
25:22
Moss. And you, you've got to be a
25:24
Rolling Stone. OK, so you, you touched on this.
25:29
We interviewed the the CEO of HD Growth Partners, Tim Petrie, a
25:34
short while ago. Great interview.
25:36
If you haven't seen it, go check it out.
25:38
After you listen, finish listening to this one.
25:41
Megan, tell us about the working relationship that you've got
25:44
with Tim. Yeah.
25:45
So I, I had worked alongside Tim before I got to HD.
25:51
So when I was at W3, you know, I was doing client services, he
25:56
was coming up on the accounting side.
25:58
So we collaborated on clients and would help, you know,
26:02
service their accounts. And he was obviously their tax
26:04
advisor. So I knew him.
26:07
We connected on LinkedIn and I, I liked the content he was
26:11
posting. He's everywhere in our
26:12
community. The, the other driving force for
26:15
me leaving where I was was that, you know, I was an hour commute
26:20
from every single day pretty much.
26:22
We had offices all over the place at my old job and I didn't
26:26
feel like I was connected to my community anymore.
26:28
And my community is really important to me of, you know,
26:31
born and raised in Warren. OH, I'm very proud of that.
26:34
And it got to a point where it's like, I don't know anything
26:37
going on in this town. And Tim is like ultimate
26:41
connection to this community. I, I think he's like, you know,
26:45
Mr. Youngstown, in my opinion. So I thought as I'm approaching
26:50
this change in my career, I want to be somewhere that has strong
26:57
community roots and feels like home to me again.
27:01
So I, I reached out to Tim and I was like, hey, I didn't know if
27:05
he had anything, but he knows everybody.
27:07
So like, if he's not hiring, you know, somebody who is and we
27:12
just hit it off immediately. And I, I came into HD as a
27:17
director of operations, but never for one second did I feel
27:22
like I couldn't speak out about anything going on in the
27:27
business. And we actually shared an office
27:30
like my first four months, I just, there's like a tiny desk
27:33
in his office and he's like, well, you have a lot to learn
27:36
about accounting. So just sitting here with me
27:38
and, and you'll learn it a lot faster.
27:40
I'm like, OK, great. We, we share ideas, we push on
27:44
each other. You know, he's going really,
27:46
really fast and I'm going really, really fast.
27:48
And we have to make sure that we're going in the same
27:51
direction and also not scaring everyone else who's on the bus
27:55
with us as we're going really fast.
27:58
So, yeah, it's, I would say one of the most equitable
28:01
relationships that I've, I've ever had in my life.
28:03
And it's funny because we're, we're both millennials.
28:06
We grew up, you know, similar, similar fashions of just kind of
28:11
having to, you know, provide your own way.
28:14
There's, there's nobody at home saying here's what you do to get
28:17
to the C-Suite. It's like hope you have enough,
28:20
you know, common sense to get yourself home at the end of the
28:23
day and, and provide for yourself.
28:26
So we're, we're so similar in so many ways and we're vastly
28:31
different from each other. So we really complement one
28:34
another. In what ways are you different?
28:39
I think that Tim is a ultimate visionary, like he sees stuff
28:46
that just does not exist in the world and I see how to get
28:52
there. So I don't, I would never say
28:54
I'm like the greatest idea person, but I have I have some
28:59
good ideas. I should say that, but I, I like
29:03
thinking about A-Z, but also A1A2A3B1B2B3, you know, and, and
29:10
he is much more. Yeah, like he'll just, he's
29:13
like, this is where we got to get to.
29:15
I'm like, all right, well, here's the 500 steps it's going
29:17
to take for us to get there. So I think that that we found
29:21
each other at this point in our careers is really, you know,
29:26
just magnificent timing because you can have great ideas all day
29:30
long and he does. But if you don't have somebody
29:33
next to you to help you actually bring them to fruition, you're
29:37
going to stall out. And then same thing for me,
29:39
where I love variety, I love change.
29:42
I love challenge. Having somebody who is a
29:44
constant source of ideas and things that we can do really
29:50
helps me push myself forward and think faster so that we get to
29:56
those end goals, you know, a lot sooner than we would have
29:59
otherwise. So you joined as Director of
30:02
Operations in 2023 and then you were named COO in November 2025,
30:09
just, you know, about 5 or 6 months ago, pretty meaningful
30:13
title change. What shifted in your role and
30:17
what the company needed from you?
30:20
So I think a lot of it has has to do with our our growth right
30:25
now. I mean we are, we're acquiring
30:27
businesses, we're attracting amazing talent and we needed to
30:33
be very intentional about somebody looking at the business
30:37
in whole, not just departmentally.
30:40
So we have, we do tax, we do audit, we do bookkeeping,
30:45
payroll. And when I was Director of
30:49
Operations, I was very much focused on just the accounting
30:54
side of our business. And as we started to grow and
30:58
seeing the opportunity that if I can really zoom up a level
31:02
further and strategize our growth as an organization, I
31:08
think that is what really switched for us to where, you
31:12
know, I needed to move off a seat.
31:13
My team needed to to grow and we needed to be able to really work
31:19
on, you know, building our AI tools, making sure that our text
31:23
stack is tight. And all of that lives, I think
31:27
at the COO level a lot more comfortably, whereas, you know,
31:31
director level and like checking reports to making sure work is
31:34
getting done. COO level on like, are we
31:38
building the right thing so that our team can run as fast as they
31:41
want to, you know, into the future of accounting, which is
31:44
happening rapidly at this point more so than in that nitty
31:48
gritty day-to-day work? What kind of businesses are you
31:52
acquiring? We are always acquiring.
31:56
You know, accounting is at such an interesting point right now
32:01
where most of the Cpas are at retirement age or beyond
32:05
retirement age. So we're, you know, we people
32:10
need a place for their book of business to land.
32:12
And we're, we're a great spot for that because we are, we're
32:16
operationalized, we are a system.
32:18
We have things in place to really capture the knowledge
32:22
that client owners have about their clients and work that
32:26
they've just done out of their head for 30 years, sometimes
32:30
more. Getting that into our system and
32:32
making it so that our team members can service their
32:36
clients. Like you can start actually
32:37
retiring. You can actually go on and like
32:40
live the life and have the quality that you're supposed to
32:43
have because of our infrastructure.
32:46
And we're also acquiring, you know, yet younger people who
32:49
want to be part of building their business on our platform
32:54
and having a, an innovative place to know, hey, you know, I
32:59
want to do this advisory work. I want to do this tax planning
33:04
and and just be this ultimate accountant advisor for my
33:07
clients, but you don't have the infrastructure for that.
33:11
We're a great spot for that, too.
33:13
Say more about that because you're talking about acquiring
33:16
businesses from Cpas that are retiring, but then you're also
33:20
talking about younger people coming in and building what you
33:24
said was their business on your platform.
33:27
So that's a little bit of a different arrangement.
33:29
Yeah. So it's like, you know, we we
33:31
need to have people to take on those clients from the advisors
33:37
that are retiring. But at the same time, how we get
33:40
the work done is so much different than it's ever been in
33:44
the past. So we're we're leveraging AI,
33:47
we're leveraging automation. We're using smarter tools for
33:51
entering the information into the boxes as it were.
33:55
And we're freeing up people earlier in their career to
33:58
really learn how to be advisors, how to have those conversations
34:03
with their clients about why one location of their business is
34:06
failing and another is succeeding.
34:09
Or you know, what analytical observations we can make because
34:12
we have all of their data to make sure that they're really
34:16
making the best decisions for their own business moving
34:19
forward. So it's, it's kind of like, you
34:21
know, we need both sides of it. We, we need these, these
34:25
partners who are ready to exit the business and they've, they
34:28
built up these great relationships.
34:30
We need these younger advisors who want to have the opportunity
34:34
to grow those relationships. And we have to supercharge
34:37
everything in the middle so that we're getting great quality work
34:41
done for our clients at the same time as, you know, building that
34:45
platform for these younger advisors to be able to kind of
34:48
step into their own book of business.
34:50
So structurally behind the scenes, what does that look
34:54
like? The client is the client of HD
34:57
growth partner, but is there's AI don't know a revenue share or
35:02
some sort of a, a partnership on those clients with some of these
35:05
younger advisors coming in. No, I mean, we don't, not
35:09
specifically to a book of business.
35:11
It's just coming in as like a salaried employee and knowing
35:15
that you don't have to go out, you don't have to be spending 40
35:19
hours a week at work and then another 20 away from your family
35:23
doing business development. Like we've got the clients.
35:27
We want to help you build those relationships so that you know
35:32
they work with HD, but they work with you at HD.
35:36
Got it. So this is just a way for these
35:39
young advisors to be able to apply their trade in a great way
35:43
without having to do all the business development, have all
35:47
the HR and you know, all the kind of back office stuff going
35:51
on. You can just focus on delivering
35:53
the service to the clients. And so from a client
35:58
perspective, why do folks choose HD growth partners?
36:02
What sets you guys apart? Yeah, we respond to people and
36:07
it seems so incredibly basic and it kind of is.
36:11
But in those first like four or five months when I was sharing
36:15
an office with Tim, you know, I would hear him on calls with a
36:19
lot of existing clients, new clients.
36:22
And whenever we would be talking to a prospective client, it's
36:26
like, OK, well, why are you looking?
36:28
Why are you looking for a new accountant?
36:29
What's going on with your current relationship?
36:32
And literally 10 out of 10 times people would say, I just never
36:36
hear back from them. And it's like it, it blew my
36:40
mind. I'm like, oh, OK, one person,
36:42
two person, all of them. At HD, we respond to our clients
36:48
and we hold ourselves accountable to that, you know,
36:51
24 to 48 hour response time so that our team can, you know,
36:57
make their schedule, get their work done, but also really
37:00
prioritize. You have to call people back.
37:02
You have to e-mail them back. You have to, you know, that's
37:06
what makes people feel important and feel valued.
37:08
And how do you feel, You know, when you reach out to your
37:12
doctor's office, you know, try to get in the dermatologist, you
37:15
got to wait six months. Like you can't wait six months
37:18
if you have a payroll question. You can't wait six months if
37:21
you've got, you know, a tax issue going on.
37:23
So we respond to people and people care about that.
37:28
It's crazy how many businesses where that's all you need to do
37:32
to set yourself apart from everybody else is just be
37:36
responsive. You talked about, Megan, how the
37:42
delivery of the services that you provide have really been
37:46
changing in a lot of ways. And you mentioned some of the AI
37:50
tools and the tech stacks that you guys are building.
37:53
Can you say more about here we are at the end of March of 2026,
37:58
what that stack looks like, how you guys are using AI, This is
38:02
something people are really interested in.
38:05
Yeah. So we use a closed AI
38:08
environment to provide advanced analytics for our clients.
38:13
And it's really been a process over the last year and a half to
38:18
get our staff comfortable with what AI really means.
38:23
I mean, it's, it's not coming, it's here, it's firmly here.
38:26
And I think one of the great things we did here was we have a
38:29
staff council that is, you know, different levels, kind of almost
38:34
like student council was back in school, but somebody from every
38:38
every levels represented and they worked together on a
38:41
project. So our staff council did a great
38:44
job educating the rest of our firm about how we're already
38:48
using AI and don't even realize it.
38:51
And they did a great presentation on, you know,
38:54
predictive text is AI when you're on your iPhone and your
38:57
Netflix suggestions are AI because of your algorithm and
39:01
helping people understand in their day-to-day life where
39:05
they're already using AI so that they're more comfortable to do
39:09
that in their work environment. So we use it for research a lot,
39:14
but then we also make sure that we're looking at our analytics
39:19
outputs to say, how can my client that owns a business use
39:24
AI? How can I make sure that this
39:27
ATV dealer is matching up against other ATV dealers, you
39:32
know, in the area, in the nation?
39:35
And just providing those, you know, those deeper analytics as
39:38
far as how businesses are performing, getting a little
39:42
more graphic in the outputs that we can give to people.
39:45
Because if you're not an accountant and you're just
39:49
really passionate about the business that you run, probably
39:52
not in love with your PNL every month and you know you're going
39:55
to look at it, but does it mean something to you?
39:58
Or can we visualize that data in a different way and really have
40:01
it stand out and help you see, you know, month over month or
40:04
year over year, how you're performing against yourself?
40:08
So those are the kinds of deliverables that we've been
40:10
playing with and just making sure that we're getting our
40:14
information to our clients a lot faster.
40:17
We try to do a video delivery with most things.
40:20
So instead of having to kind of go back and forth, you know,
40:24
over e-mail several times to schedule a meeting or you leave
40:27
your business or I'll leave my business and we get together.
40:30
We still love doing that. But if I can also just record
40:33
you, you know, 5-10 minute video walking through your entire
40:37
financial life and then send it to you, you can watch it five
40:41
times, you can watch it three times.
40:43
You know, then we can have a really, really productive
40:45
conversation. I think that set us apart quite
40:48
a bit from some of the other firms as far as how we interact
40:52
with our clients. Yeah, video delivery ideas.
40:55
Beautiful. And the, the visualization of
40:58
the data has got to be a huge help too.
41:01
You know, as somebody who's owned businesses for, you know,
41:04
coming up on 30 years, you know, one thing that I've always
41:08
struggled with was, OK, we've got the data now how do we make
41:12
sense of it? Like what can we do with this
41:15
information to drive decision making?
41:18
And it sounds like those are the gaps that you're trying to help
41:21
folks fill by having this video delivery and the the
41:27
visualization of the data and, and some other things.
41:30
Am I right on that? Yeah, and I would say, you know,
41:33
my, my husband owns a mechanic shop and so I I help on the his
41:37
business side there too, of course.
41:39
And one thing that I value like personally is really meeting
41:44
people where they are. And so same thing with his
41:48
financials, with his operation, you know, when we really
41:51
formalize the business, he's like, you run these huge
41:53
companies, you're going to make this so hard that I can't even
41:56
function in it. And I was like, Sir, first of
41:59
all, very good at my job. So so I'm going to meet you
42:02
where you are. I'm not going to make a process
42:06
so difficult that you know you, the person who needs to be in it
42:10
and be successful with it, can't function in it.
42:13
So I would say same things with our deliverables.
42:15
If we know our clients, we know who wants the most nitty gritty
42:21
in depth delivery of something, we're going to give it to them.
42:23
And we know that people who want to know that the nitty gritty is
42:27
there and then also know high level here's what you really
42:31
need to 0 in on and look at. So I feel like that's really
42:34
been our sweet spot as a company is like meeting the needs that
42:39
people have based on their individual preferences.
42:43
But then also for myself operationally, you know, I'm not
42:47
going to, I'm not going to overcomplicate it for the the
42:51
end user. At the end of the day, it has to
42:53
work for the person who's actually going to receive it.
42:56
Makes a lot of sense, Megan. You built something called the
42:59
level up program for career development inside the the firm.
43:05
Tell tell me what that is? Yeah.
43:08
So level up I think is one of the things we're most proud of
43:12
here at HD in not just accounting, but I would say
43:16
professional services, maybe all services, you don't really know
43:21
how to advance. You just hope that your manager
43:25
notices you're working really hard and you get tapped on the
43:28
shoulder to get promoted one day.
43:31
And that's a terrible feeling. I feel like a lot of
43:35
professionals, you know, if I knew what my manager or my
43:40
supervisor wanted me to be focusing on so that I could
43:43
advance my career, that's where I'm going to put my energy
43:47
instead of just hoping, you know, you're spending all of
43:50
this time on something and like they don't even care about it.
43:53
So Tim and I talked a lot about just how that transparency
43:58
doesn't exist anywhere in the world, definitely doesn't exist
44:02
in accounting. And we wanted to make a program
44:05
that people could know. Here is exactly how you get from
44:09
A to B&B to C. And if you want to stay at C for
44:14
five years or 10 years or your whole career, that's great.
44:17
If you want to get to Z as fast as possible, that's great.
44:20
Here's how you do that. So the level up program is a,
44:25
it's a truly step by step. Here is what we expect when
44:30
you're an intern, a junior, a senior, a staff supervisor,
44:35
manager all the way up to partner.
44:37
And we talk about at each of those levels, your attitude
44:41
requirements, your technical abilities, your
44:44
responsibilities, where you start managing people, where you
44:49
need to be in charge of, you know, your own time management,
44:52
your own workload management, where you start owning client
44:56
relationships, where you start being in charge of a book of
44:59
business. So it's very clear as to what
45:03
the expectation is for every level.
45:06
And then we had to pair that with how do people know that
45:10
they are measuring against that? So we have a monthly scorecard
45:14
process for each employee that shows them here's how you're
45:18
tracking on your profitability as a billable staff member.
45:22
Here is your responsiveness. Here is your, you know, how
45:25
often you are meeting your deadlines, how often you are
45:28
contributing to our community. And that scorecard helps them
45:33
kind of gauge throughout the year.
45:35
OK, I'm, I'm, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
45:38
I'm I'm hitting my metrics and then we have an actual
45:42
application process with level up.
45:44
And I think this is really important because you can know
45:48
what the levels are and you can see how you're tracking against
45:52
them. But if it's still the company
45:54
coming to you and saying you're ready for more responsibility,
45:59
that doesn't mean necessarily in your own life that you're ready
46:03
for more responsibility. You could be studying for the
46:05
CPA, you could be planning a wedding, you could be planning
46:08
your family, you know, taking care of your parents.
46:11
There's, there's all sorts of things, all of the most
46:14
important things happen outside of work.
46:18
So we felt like it was important that people apply for that next
46:22
level because it's, it's a combination of saying, I know
46:26
that from a work standpoint, I'm ready and I know personally I'm
46:31
ready to take on this new responsibility.
46:33
So twice a year people apply, they get a letter of
46:37
recommendation from their team lead, they get a letter of
46:40
recommendation from a colleague, and then there's a literal
46:44
application. It's a little feels a little bit
46:47
like college, but kind of short essay questions about how do you
46:53
apply these of our core values? How do you show that you're
46:56
embracing balance? How do you show that you're
46:58
making an impact And then providing some work examples
47:01
that they're proud of. And then all of that goes to
47:05
like the committee, which is, you know, the HR, the department
47:09
director, any, you know, anyone else that would be applicable
47:12
sort of in that department to say, yes, they are ready for the
47:16
next level. They're going to, you know,
47:18
level up at our ceremony. Or if they're not ready, what do
47:22
we do to get them ready the next time so they can apply twice a
47:24
year. And it's really just this, I
47:27
think very supportive environment.
47:30
It's no longer the manager doesn't like me, I didn't get
47:33
the promotion. It's like everyone likes you.
47:36
But that's got basically nothing to do with it.
47:39
So here are the steps that if you're not ready right now, we
47:42
want you to work on to get ready next time.
47:45
This is an incredibly well thought out and detailed
47:48
process. Must have taken an inordinate
47:51
amount of time to put it into place, and I'm going to guess a
47:56
fair bit of time to maintain, like those monthly scorecards.
48:01
Are those filled out manually by somebody or do you have, you
48:05
know, part of your tech stack that's automatically grading
48:08
them on these things? Yes.
48:09
So it used to be manual up until about a month ago.
48:13
My operations team, we would kind of divide and conquer on
48:18
populating these scorecards. All of the data exists within
48:22
our practice management system, which we use carbon, but we had
48:27
to manually extrapolate it, put it in Excel.
48:30
It was very, very painstaking. It would take a week every month
48:34
to make these scorecards for people.
48:36
So thankfully we have a very brilliant a data person on our
48:41
team, Trent Kozar's our CGO, and he was able to automate the
48:45
scorecards through some kind of wizardry that he taught himself
48:51
from ChatGPT. But so the data pulls out
48:54
automatically. They actually update every
48:56
single day now, which is incredible.
48:58
You can you can go on every morning and look at your
49:00
scorecard. I don't recommend it.
49:01
I think once a month is plenty. And so now my operations team
49:06
has a whole week back every month in their lives that they
49:09
can do very, very meaningful work.
49:12
And we have these, you know, sometimes it's an uncomfortable
49:16
scorecard conversation of like, why is my responsiveness so low?
49:20
Or what do you mean? You know, my, my Net Promoter
49:23
score isn't what I thought it would be internally.
49:25
And but just because it's uncomfortable as a conversation
49:30
doesn't mean that we shouldn't have it.
49:32
And again, it brings, you know, closer together at the end of
49:36
the day, kind of goes back to what we were saying with
49:37
playwriting, Like, I trust you. We have this level of trust and
49:41
respect with each other. I want you to do better, you
49:45
know, So let's just coach, coach each other along the way.
49:50
Megan, what's 1 of the hardest things that you've had overcome
49:54
personally in your life and what did it teach you?
49:57
Yeah, that's a great question. I think what I overcame was not
50:07
being my authentic self. I kind of, I got to a point in
50:11
my career where I was like putting on a mask everyday and
50:16
just, oh, this is how I'm supposed to show up.
50:19
This is what I'm supposed to look like.
50:22
These are the things that I'm supposed to care about and was
50:26
getting like further and further away from who I, I actually AM.
50:31
And I had to, I took myself on like a, a solo camping trip and
50:36
it was like, I just have to, I need a notebook.
50:39
I need no Internet. I did have, you know, an actual
50:43
proper, I was just more glamping than camping because I needed,
50:46
you know, plumbing and stuff, But I, I needed to just be with
50:53
myself and really figure out how did I get to that place
50:59
emotionally and how do I get past it?
51:02
And that trip was, it was important to me to figure out,
51:07
OK, it's time to move on from this lengthy career in wealth
51:12
management and really get to a place where I could be myself my
51:17
whole self at work again. So I think, you know, it sounds
51:21
a little bit vague, but I think that's something that probably
51:24
resonates with people, especially when they're like too
51:28
far gone on that burnout cycle of just like, Oh my gosh, well,
51:32
you know, I've already put this much time in, So what am I
51:35
supposed to do now? Just keep spiraling down?
51:39
That was difficult for me. And I did, I think, work myself
51:44
through it and say, OK, here's my priorities.
51:47
Here's how I want to show up at work every day and in my life
51:51
every day and to be able to work through that, come out the other
51:55
side and know, you know, I set my sights on HDI was like, I'm
51:59
going to work at HD or I'm going to do something completely
52:04
different and off the rails and just sort of manifested that
52:09
really big change in my career for myself and it worked out.
52:14
But I would say that that period of just in, you know, not being
52:18
authentic was was horrible. Are you comfortable saying more
52:23
about what that meant in the moment for you to not be
52:27
authentic? Were you compromising
52:30
principles? Were there parts of your
52:32
personality that you felt you had to hide?
52:34
Was it something different? I think it was, yeah, it was
52:38
more my personality. It was just, you know, that
52:42
there's there's a side of wealth management that is very wealthy
52:47
and I wasn't. So it's like, OK, am I, am I
52:51
chasing the cars for the wrong reason?
52:54
Am I? You know, we were going to move,
52:56
we were going to do all of this just very keeping up with the
53:00
Joneses types things because it seemed like, well, that's what
53:05
I'm supposed to do if I want to get to this next point in my
53:09
career. But like, I like where I live.
53:12
I like the car that I have. You know, I we're not lavish
53:16
people. We're very, you know, my
53:19
husband's my best friend and we just would want to we just want
53:23
to hang out together. We don't want to be, you know,
53:25
showing off to show off all the time.
53:28
So I think when once I started to realize that those those
53:34
people around me were not reflective of the things that I
53:39
actually wanted to reflect, I was like, oh, maybe maybe I'm
53:43
not being myself anymore. Maybe.
53:45
And I was just like mad all the time.
53:48
Like I would just go home and just be mad at everything all
53:51
the time. Like that's I'm not a mad
53:53
person. I'm pretty chill.
53:55
I think so sad to kind of step back a little bit and say like,
53:59
you know what's driving at this? So you went on this solo
54:03
glamping trip with plumbing and you were able to disconnect from
54:08
the things you needed to disconnect from and find some
54:10
clarity. Yeah, I had to, I had to write
54:13
about it, had to write a bunch of, you know, poems and not
54:17
quite plays, but just really like kind of creatively attack
54:22
all of my feelings that I had been suppressing.
54:25
And I was like, I don't care what my job title is.
54:28
I want to be proud of the work I do.
54:30
I want to be a really happy with the people that I work with
54:33
every single day and know that at at the end of the day, I'm
54:37
making a difference in my community and I am able to sleep
54:43
at night and I I sleep like a baby now.
54:45
So it's the right thing for sure.
54:48
It's a pretty good move. Speaking of being proud of the
54:50
work that you do, HD Growth Partners joined the Ascend
54:54
platform as a founding partner. Talk to me about what that
54:57
partnership means for you. Yeah, I mean, Ascend is a great
55:01
platform. I think there's, if you're
55:03
really tuned into the accounting space, PE is all of the chatter
55:08
right now. And I'm grateful that we're part
55:11
of Ascend because they don't treat us like we're part of PE,
55:16
or at least the horror stories I've heard from other places.
55:20
It's a, it's an infrastructure of support.
55:22
So I'm growing really quickly at 8, you know, HD is growing and I
55:27
need people who are going to battle for me every single day
55:32
on cybersecurity and on, you know, the, the changes happening
55:37
in data governance and all of that.
55:39
And like, I'm one person and I can't do that all for our
55:43
organization. And so I'm, I'm very grateful to
55:46
have that like infrastructure support.
55:48
They've got a great people team that helps support our HR
55:52
department and we've really were so fortunate to be part of this
55:57
network across the nation where like the the best firms are part
56:02
of Ascend. So I know operations leaders,
56:05
tech leaders, HR leaders as the, the, the lower end, not lower.
56:11
But you know, we also have great tax leaders and accounting
56:15
leaders and CAS leaders everywhere.
56:17
But to have this built in network where we are all
56:20
supporting each other and we can just idea, share and brainstorm.
56:25
And how are you handling this for your firm or how are you
56:28
handling this for your clients? I mean, the, the floodgates have
56:33
opened on the collaboration across the whole network and we
56:38
are independent. We get to make our own choices
56:41
for how we service our clients and, and what we do there.
56:43
But it's just an awesome support system to really know that we
56:48
are, you know, we're growing and we're becoming the best of the
56:51
best alongside these other incredible firms that otherwise,
56:56
you know, maybe we, we would say hi at a conference or something,
56:59
but definitely not have them on speed dial like we do now.
57:02
So it's really fun. I was going to be my follow up
57:04
is how do you access this great network?
57:07
Is there a Slack channel or you just you've got everybody's
57:10
contact info? So we're in a common Microsoft
57:14
environment, so we can teams across the board, but Ascend is
57:18
also working on just different kind of cross pollinating
57:22
communities. There's a great women of Ascend
57:25
group. There's different kind of pod
57:27
situations and then the partners get together, you know, multiple
57:32
times throughout the years, the CE OS meet every month.
57:35
So we're always, I would say, like internally kind of keeping
57:39
an ear out for what does somebody at HD need?
57:43
And then I know or Tim knows, you know, everyone else on our
57:46
leadership team can kind of connect them and say, oh, you
57:49
need to talk at, you know, to this person at this other firm.
57:52
And we'll just sort of match make one off and send an e-mail
57:56
or a a quick Teams message and get connected.
58:01
Megan, as you think about your role at HD Growth Partners, what
58:05
do you most want to be remembered for?
58:12
Making it better, I guess I, I, you know, I, I always say like I
58:16
was, I was a big fan of HD before I got here.
58:20
So it's kind of scary like, you know, do you meet your heroes or
58:23
not? And I would just hope that at
58:28
the end of the day, I've made it better than it was when I came
58:31
here. I, I think we're doing OK.
58:34
We've, we've organized a lot. When I when I first got here, we
58:38
were kind of tripping over ourselves in some ways to
58:43
communicate with each other and communicate with our clients.
58:45
So I hope that our, our communication has improved and
58:50
that at at the end of, you know, the Roberts dynasty, may that
58:55
day never come. People would just say like, wow,
58:58
we really have our stuff together.
59:00
Thanks, Megan. Megan, I've just got one more
59:04
question for you today. But before I ask that, I want to
59:06
do 3 quick things for the audience.
59:09
If you want to get in touch with Megan, Megan Roberts HD Growth
59:13
Partners, you can search for her on LinkedIn.
59:16
We'll have a link to that in the show notes.
59:18
But Megan Roberts HD Growth Partners, if you search it and
59:22
their website, very easy to remember, HD Growth
59:24
partners.com. Again, it'll be in the show
59:27
notes, HD Growth partners.com. And if you're enjoying the show
59:31
today, a quick comment or review on your favorite podcast app
59:35
goes a long way towards helping others discover our podcast.
59:39
So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now.
59:43
And as a reminder, you can be the hero advisor that helps
59:46
clients give their employees access to therapist, doctors and
59:50
prescription meds that counter intuitively increases their net
59:54
profits, real gains that can change how a business is valued.
59:58
Contact us today at AD back benefits.com.
1:00:02
So last question for you, Megan. A year from now, what is 1 very
1:00:05
specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
1:00:09
I hope to be celebrating launching my book.
1:00:13
So I have been writing a book on change management for quite a
1:00:18
while now, like writing it in my head and then now actually
1:00:22
writing it. So that's coming along well and
1:00:26
I'm excited to share that with people.
1:00:28
Hopefully in the next few months get some some pre-orders or
1:00:32
something, you know, at least a newsletter list going.
1:00:35
So, but a year from now that definitely is going to be out in
1:00:39
the world and making an impact. Do you have a working title for
1:00:43
that? I I do, I'm not going to share
1:00:47
it. I don't want to change.
1:00:47
Fair enough. But yeah.
1:00:48
Can you give us a little insight into the things that you might
1:00:52
be sharing in this book? Yeah, so I mean, I care a lot
1:00:57
about how people experience change.
1:01:00
And some of the lessons I've learned through change
1:01:05
management, what has, what has worked for one group of people
1:01:09
will not always work for the very next group of people.
1:01:13
But I'm, I'm pretty big on what I would call a roundabout
1:01:17
theory, which is when you're changing something, you know,
1:01:22
where can you put a stop sign and know that people are going
1:01:25
to roll through the stop sign and it's not the end of the
1:01:27
world. But where do you really need a
1:01:30
roundabout in your change to say you can't skip this, you can't
1:01:34
force it, You can't go through it 100 miles an hour.
1:01:37
You have to really go through it the way that it is designed to
1:01:41
be used to. Talk, talk a lot about that,
1:01:44
talk a lot about different leadership styles of what it
1:01:48
feels like to go fast enough. What, what, when are you going
1:01:52
too fast? When are you barely moving at
1:01:54
all? I, I like cars.
1:01:57
So I think there is a, a bit of a automotive driving, you know,
1:02:03
theme in there so far anyways. But yeah, I'm, I'm really
1:02:07
passionate about making sure people feel safe when they're
1:02:10
experiencing change. And I've learned a lot the hard
1:02:13
way, and I don't want everyone else to have to learn the hard
1:02:16
way too. Can't wait to check that book
1:02:19
out in a year or less from now. Less.
1:02:23
Megan Roberts from HD Growth Partners, I want to be the first
1:02:26
to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us
1:02:29
today. I really appreciate you being
1:02:31
here. Thank you so much, it's a great
1:02:33
time. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:02:36
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:02:38
Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put
1:02:41
that into action today.