Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / From High School Dropout to COO and Partner: Layla Ebersole's Journey at On Call Restaurant Accounting

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From High School Dropout to COO and Partner: Layla Ebersole's Journey at On Call Restaurant Accounting · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they overcome adversity.
• 0:15
  As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next.
• 0:20
  My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Layla Ebersole,
• 0:24
  Partner and Chief Operating Officer at On Call Restaurant
• 0:28
  Accounting in Denver, Co, also known as Okra.
• 0:32
  They focus only on restaurants, pairing deep accounting skills
• 0:36
  with real kitchen experience to give owners clear on time
• 0:40
  financials. The team handles bookkeeping,
• 0:43
  detailed reporting and high level advice so operators can
• 0:47
  keep their eyes on guests rather than spreadsheets.
• 0:51
  Since joining Okra 11 years ago, Layla has guided almost every
• 0:56
  part of the company. She moved from a data entry role
• 0:59
  all the way up to partner and COO during a major acquisition
• 1:04
  that doubled the firm's reach. Her leadership has helped blend
• 1:08
  the new businesses smoothly. Now, before we get into all that
• 1:12
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  All right, back to our guest today, Co and partner of on Call
• 2:15
  Restaurant Accounting, Layla Ebersol.
• 2:18
  Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
• 2:20
  Thank you. Appreciate it.
• 2:22
  So what first attracted you to the world of accounting,
• 2:25
  finance, payroll, etcetera? Yeah, I kind of fell into it, to
• 2:31
  be honest. I was working in a warehouse, an
• 2:37
  appliance warehouse, and it was an interesting environment to
• 2:40
  say the least. And I was really looking for
• 2:43
  change with people in in a company that I felt, you know,
• 2:49
  had the same values that I did and ran across the post on
• 2:54
  Craigslist about AAP data entry position with the restaurants
• 3:00
  and restaurant accounting firm. And yeah, that was.
• 3:04
  And then it was unfolded from there.
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  That was with Okra. Like your first entree into the
• 3:10
  accounting space was this role with okra.
• 3:13
  Wow. Pretty much, yeah.
• 3:14
  My, my last position I was, I was doing some data entry and
• 3:17
  billing for an appliance company.
• 3:21
  And so I had a little bit of background, but I really was
• 3:25
  like, I really like kind of this role in general.
• 3:28
  And, and I had worked myself out of that role at the appliance
• 3:32
  place and I wanted to get back into it.
• 3:35
  And so, yeah, so we're kind of looking and I was back when you
• 3:39
  searched Craigslist for a job, there was no, LinkedIn wasn't
• 3:43
  big. There wasn't some of the other,
• 3:46
  you know, apps and platforms out there now.
• 3:48
  So yeah. And so you started there in a
• 3:51
  data entry role, right? So this was even like, not even
• 3:55
  bookkeeping quite yet, just hey, here's some stuff that needs to
• 3:59
  be put into a spreadsheet kind of a thing.
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  Yep. I mean, we were still getting
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  like paper copies of invoices at that point from from the
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  restaurants themselves. I spent easily 12 hours a week
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  posting journal entries for, you know, for our bookkeepers, you
• 4:15
  know, take this data, put it here, cool, you know, plug it
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  away. So it wasn't even bookkeeping
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  yet, but slowly. And I learned all the all the
• 4:24
  pieces and put them all together.
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  And so this was just all on the job training.
• 4:29
  Did you ever go and get some outside schooling to advance?
• 4:33
  That was just like, hey, here's what this is, here's what it
• 4:36
  means, you know, start doing it and.
• 4:38
  Yeah, real time learning. Yep.
• 4:40
  Yeah, yeah. What I, you know, we had a
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  chance to chat real briefly beforehand.
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  And so something I didn't know that I think would be
• 4:49
  interesting to talk about is sort of how you previously
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  really didn't like education. You didn't like learning, right?
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  Boring. You know, we've both got kids.
• 5:01
  Like, they feel like school is boring to them.
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  In fact, you didn't even finish high school.
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  Tell us about sort of this art of yourself.
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  Yeah, so I, you know, my childhood was a little off the
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  beaten path. And so I, yeah, dropped out of
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  high school, had to start working full time at, at 16.
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  And so I, you know, I, I started working and then, you know,
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  didn't really have a, a want or a need to go get an education
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  actually. But, you know, stopped and got
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  my GED along the way because I was like, you know, I feel like
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  I should have this. And, and so I, I did on a whim
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  one week decided to go, you know, I was like, we're going to
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  sign up. And I, you know, was like, oh
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  man, they're studying and training and oh, right, school
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  sucks. I forgot he didn't like this.
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  And I realized it wasn't necessarily the learning part
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  that I, I didn't like. It was, you know, it was
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  everything else in my life kind of going on.
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  And now, you know, now I'm back in school.
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  But, you know, I've, I had great mentors along the way who showed
• 6:16
  me kind of or help guide me and showing me that, you know, I I
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  could do more and I was really smart.
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  And not everyone's good at the, you know, sitting behind the
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  desk part of life. And now I've gotten better at
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  it, obviously. But yeah, so it was just a
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  little different and. So kind of a rough upbringing,
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  like you had to make some different, you know, and
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  difficult decisions. Yeah.
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  Step stepped away from school, started working full time.
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  And then there was something inside you that kind of like,
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  pulled you and said, you know what?
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  I feel like I should at least have my GED.
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  And so as much as you still hated the studying, you went and
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  you got it. But what's interesting to me is
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  now you're voluntarily enrolling in outside education.
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  Tell us about the program that you're working on now.
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  Yeah. So right now I'm in a
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  certificate program for that focuses on leadership and
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  management. And really the, what I wanted
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  was I've had these great mentors who have taught me so much and
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  I'm so grateful along the way and I've been able to form my
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  own opinion, but I wanted to do that even more, right?
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  Everyone has their own way of management.
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  Everyone has their own way of leadership.
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  You know, I've, I've always excelled in, in that way.
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  And I just feel like I'm doing the people that I'm leading a
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  disservice if I stop educating myself because that's what I
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  would expect of my mentors and pushing themselves forward.
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  And so I feel like when we did this acquisition, I really felt
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  a pull to be better, not only for the company, but for the
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  employees we were bringing on, for the clients we were bringing
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  on. And to push my staff even
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  further. I mean, they're, they're the
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  real superheroes of the show. You know, I'm behind the scenes
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  and I want to make sure that I'm giving them back as much as I
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  possibly can because it's what people did for me when I was
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  coming up, right? They were pushing me forward.
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  And I want to be able to do that for for other people too.
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  How far into this new certification program are you?
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  I'm about halfway. Yeah, yeah.
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  What's 1 interesting thing that you've picked up that maybe
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  you've been able to implement already?
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  I mean, I think it's, it's a lot of what I already knew.
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  And so it's, it's a little more of validation is also going
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  through. And it's like, you should manage
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  this way. And they give you 3 kind of
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  examples of being way too hands on and being way too hands off
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  and somewhere in the middle, right.
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  And you know, I'm, I'm writing a discussion post to all my, my
• 8:59
  peers where I'm like, I, you know, took this quiz and I
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  landed, you know, where I'm super hands off and I'm this and
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  it works. And then I'm reading everyone's
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  post and everyone's like, I landed in the middle.
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  I landed in the middle. And I was like, yeah, am I
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  managing wrong? You know what I went back to
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  some other people have been in leadership and management, you
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  know, much longer than me. And I'm like, am I doing this
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  wrong? They're like, no, you just have
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  real life experience. You can, you can fully say this
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  is the management style that works for me.
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  And so it's been a lot of push and pull where I'm like, you
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  know, I've I've second guessed myself.
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  And I've also gotten some validation and, and like, Oh
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  yeah, I do know what I'm doing. OK, got it.
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  I can, I can keep pushing forward.
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  So I think that's been the biggest take away of just like,
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  yeah, OK, box checked. You know, I I've done that or
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  man, I never even thought about doing that so.
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  Yeah. I wonder if this rings true to
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  you, because there have been times in my life where I learned
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  something just by doing, by experience.
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  And then I have the opportunity to be educated by somebody who's
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  put language in a more formal structure to some of the things
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  that I just figured out to the school of Hard Knocks.
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  And I, it's validating. It's like, oh, yeah.
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  Like, I do that. I do that.
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  I didn't even realize that was a thing.
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  But now that there's a term for it or there's language around
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  it, like, it helps me to formalize in my head what I've
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  already been doing. I see you nodding your head.
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  Is this the same for you? Yeah, that's kind of exactly.
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  I'm like, yeah, well, I've done it this, you know, I'm doing
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  this. And then all of a sudden
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  someones like, well, you know, here's an SOP for it.
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  I'm like, Oh yeah, okay, I've done this, this is great.
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  You know, or it's like, oh, I didn't even think about doing it
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  that way. And so it's kind of this, you
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  know, every, it's even when we onboard a client, I'm like, tell
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  me why you do it that way. Like even though we do it for
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  400 plus restaurants at this point, like you might open my
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  eyes to something completely different.
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  And so it's, it's a lot of that, yeah, a lot of like, I think I
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  know what I'm doing, but show me why you do it that way.
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  And and so that, you know, I can learn better or learn a
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  different way or see a different perspective.
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  See, and I, I, I think your story is great because we were
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  talking about this before we went live.
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  Like both have kids, they don't like school, right?
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  It's boring, it's dry. And I think back to 100 years
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  ago when I went to school, I didn't like it either.
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  I thought it was boring and dry. But now when I find something
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  that I want to learn about, and you're the same way, Layla, I
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  can tell you've already said it, like you're excited to do it and
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  like you're like, you can't wait to like dive into the next
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  chapter and like, oh, what else am I going to learn?
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  What, why do you think that is? What?
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  Why is it so different now? You know, I think 1, I really
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  like to challenge myself. It keeps me entertained.
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  I want to better myself. I want to, you know, know a
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  little about a lot. You know, I think it's just as
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  you get older and out of school where it's kind of, I don't want
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  to say forced on your throat. And in a way it's a non
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  negotiable, you have to go. You're a kid.
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  This is it, you know, but if you can make that it's something
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  that's true value to you and, you know, really dig your teeth
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  into it. I think it just, it changes the
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  whole perspective of of what you're learning and what you
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  what you take away from it. Well, you get to choose what you
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  want to learn now, right? And you get to apply it.
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  And I think those. Are too big real, real life of,
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  you know, that, you know, I really like science, but I'm
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  never going to be a rocket scientist, you know?
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  But I think it's cool to do experiments with my kid, you
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  know? So it's kind of that give and
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  take, yeah. OK, so let's come back to Okra.
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  We, we touched on it a little bit in the intro, but kind of
• 12:49
  plain language like who do you help and what do you do for
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  them? Yeah.
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  So we do bookkeeping for restaurants and restaurants
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  only. And so we've got just over 400
• 13:03
  restaurants now that we service in some way.
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  And So what we try to do is truly become your back back
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  office support, right? We're a part of, we want to be a
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  part of your team. We want to be hands on.
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  We want to do as much as we possibly can so that you can
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  focus on the restaurants being on the floor.
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  Your managers are focusing on what they're what they need to
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  manage, you know, and actually being on the floor, not just
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  sitting behind a computer, entering invoices, you know,
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  going through inventory changes, making sure the items are right,
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  all of that. So what we try to do is really
• 13:36
  become a part of your team and your whole back office so that
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  you can do what you start at a restaurant to do, you know, and
• 13:44
  and not be stuck behind a, a computer in the day-to-day.
• 13:48
  So more specifically within the restaurant space, like who's a
• 13:52
  good fit for you? Is there specific geography,
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  maybe specific size either in terms of headcount, revenue,
• 14:01
  locations, fine dining versus QSR?
• 14:04
  Yeah, we have a little bit of everything.
• 14:07
  You know, we've got the sign dining groups, we've got the,
• 14:11
  you know, jack-in-the-box, Qdoba Wing stop area as well.
• 14:17
  And So what we really have done is built different teams to
• 14:21
  focus on different things, right.
• 14:23
  So if I know that there I have a manager who's really strong with
• 14:26
  quick service and sees it all the time, we try to pair you
• 14:29
  with those people. And I think honestly, you know,
• 14:34
  as far as people that that fit with us, you know, we really
• 14:37
  like the six to eight unit groups.
• 14:40
  Odds are you had a little bit of processes in place.
• 14:43
  You probably have some sort of controller manager director on
• 14:48
  board that can help facilitate some of these processes and
• 14:53
  really get value out of us and, and taking the data that we're
• 14:57
  providing and doing something with it.
• 15:01
  So we're here for everyone, right?
• 15:02
  So we can tailor our services to fit kind of any mold, which
• 15:06
  makes this pretty unique and, you know, able to push and pull
• 15:11
  when we when we need to do. You help prepare taxes at the
• 15:15
  end of the year. So we work directly with, with
• 15:18
  people's Cpas. So we have a lot, we partner
• 15:21
  with some Cpas, you know, and, and so most of the time what
• 15:28
  we're doing is getting, you know, we have a relationship
• 15:31
  with your CPA as well as your managers and, and everything
• 15:34
  else. So we kind of, we, we talk to
• 15:36
  everybody, yeah. And try to handle as much as
• 15:38
  possible. So, yeah, that's, that's been my
• 15:41
  life for the last six weeks. As we get as the year has ended.
• 15:44
  Yeah, I bet. Yeah.
• 15:46
  So bookkeeping, accounting, what's some inventory?
• 15:51
  What what's some of the like higher level like advisory work
• 15:55
  that you provide for some of your clients?
• 15:58
  Yeah. So we actually a part of the
• 15:59
  acquisition now. We offer fractional CFO
• 16:04
  services, which is exciting and new, but high level, you know,
• 16:08
  we're going through and we're like, hey, you know, your prime
• 16:10
  cost is 5% higher than what we're seeing.
• 16:14
  You know, I'm giving feedback to, you know, restaurants in New
• 16:18
  York City where I'm like, hey, just so you know, like you're
• 16:20
  not the only one that had a tough week this week.
• 16:24
  You know, as we're providing that those financials, you know,
• 16:27
  we have access to so many different parts of the country
• 16:32
  and, and niche, you know, restaurants to big restaurants
• 16:36
  that we can really say like we know this area is struggling,
• 16:39
  like you're not the only one feeling it.
• 16:42
  And we can provide that feedback of like your, your labor is
• 16:45
  really high or like this tech stack that you have going on
• 16:48
  right now, like let's, let's kibosh it, let's try again.
• 16:53
  So it's different, right? We can give feedback in so many
• 16:57
  different areas. And all of us have some sort of
• 17:01
  hospitality background. Everyone on staff, some at some
• 17:06
  point somewhere someone's worked in a restaurant or hospitality,
• 17:10
  whether that's bookkeeping, whether that's on the line,
• 17:12
  whether that's a Hostess, whether you're a server to
• 17:15
  really understand the struggles, right?
• 17:17
  It's a there's a lot of moving different pieces in in the
• 17:21
  restaurant world, so we we try to catch what we can when we
• 17:25
  can. That's so great, right, that you
• 17:28
  guys have such a big client base that you can be able to see
• 17:31
  those trends and share that, you know, anonymous.
• 17:35
  It's not like, oh hey. You know your competitor.
• 17:37
  Bob across the street, like look at his numbers.
• 17:40
  They they were terrible this week.
• 17:41
  No, it's just more like general like, hey, you know, we're
• 17:44
  seeing similar kinds of things or we're seeing something very
• 17:47
  different, which tells us that either you guys doing something
• 17:50
  wrong or maybe you guys are doing something, you know,
• 17:53
  really well. And you know, let's focus on
• 17:55
  that. That's interesting.
• 17:58
  So you guys, you you're offering fractional CFO services now
• 18:04
  through a recent acquisition. How recent was this?
• 18:06
  We're recording this in February of 26.
• 18:08
  Yeah, it just went through in December fully.
• 18:11
  Oh, this is brand spanking. It's brand new.
• 18:13
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 18:14
  So we're we're we're fall. We're all the pieces have fallen
• 18:18
  in line. Things have calmed down quite a
• 18:20
  bit. Yeah, it was newer for us.
• 18:23
  We've had a, you know, a good relationship with the multiply
• 18:26
  group, which is who we acquired or they're, but they're
• 18:29
  bookkeeping side is what we acquired.
• 18:33
  And so, you know, we've been talking over the last year or
• 18:35
  so, just, you know, more of like, how's it going for you?
• 18:39
  Oh, you know, how's it going for you?
• 18:40
  Well, you know, and just talking and building that relationship.
• 18:44
  And finally we just said, hey, So what do you think about this?
• 18:48
  And it was. It was a quick, easy, easy deal
• 18:53
  and decision to kind of push through.
• 18:55
  So I just want to make sure I understand clearly, did you just
• 18:59
  acquire their the bookkeeping side of their business or have
• 19:01
  you also taken in the ability to offer CFO services?
• 19:06
  So we've we've kind of done both.
• 19:08
  So the fractional CFO work is through the multiply group, but
• 19:14
  we do all of the multiply groups bookkeeping so that that that
• 19:19
  side of their business is what we acquired.
• 19:22
  Got it. And so the thinking is, you know
• 19:27
  is sort of the dust settles from integrating their bookkeeping
• 19:30
  side of the work that you guys will start to go out to your
• 19:34
  client base and say, hey, here's something else that we're able
• 19:37
  to do for you, the fractional CFO work.
• 19:40
  So it's a referral back and forth.
• 19:41
  Yeah. So someone, someone calls them
• 19:43
  for fractional CFO, someone calls us for bookkeeping.
• 19:46
  We can kind of give and take, you know it and tailor it even
• 19:51
  more to what their specific needs are as a group.
• 19:56
  Because, you know, not everyone needs fractional CFO.
• 19:59
  I think everyone needs strong bookkeeping, but it really
• 20:02
  depends on your your business and what's going to benefit you
• 20:07
  in the long term. Gotcha.
• 20:09
  So what are some of the trends that you're seeing here in early
• 20:12
  2026? Who's up, who's down?
• 20:15
  What's working? What's struggling?
• 20:18
  Yeah, I think you're seeing less traffic in in general.
• 20:23
  A lot of the quick service is up and a lot of the fine dining's
• 20:28
  up because a lot of people I think are saving these
• 20:30
  experiences for, you know, they really want to go out and, and
• 20:36
  have an experience and save that, you know, save the cash
• 20:40
  of. We're going to go out to a
• 20:41
  really nice dinner once a quarter instead of going out
• 20:45
  once a week to see a lot of the quick service up, see a lot of
• 20:50
  the fine dining up. And then you see this kind of
• 20:52
  like middle group that that seems to, you know, struggle
• 20:56
  through 2025 and we see still kind of struggling in general.
• 21:04
  And so it's a, it's interesting just the trends that have
• 21:07
  happened over the last 11 years that I've been able to witness
• 21:11
  and how dramatically things change from season to season.
• 21:14
  And you know where our economy is at, where how people feel
• 21:19
  about going out and celebrating and, you know, cash being tight
• 21:23
  and families and that kind of dynamic.
• 21:29
  I want to shift back into a little bit more of your career
• 21:33
  trajectory. Started out as data entry.
• 21:36
  Today you're both COO and a partner in the group.
• 21:41
  Tell us how this unfolded. It's been a.
• 21:45
  It's been a ride, huh? Because it's just been 11.
• 21:48
  Years. It's been 11 years, yeah.
• 21:50
  I can't picture my life without it all to me that much.
• 21:54
  It's been fun, it's been interesting.
• 21:57
  It's been hard, you know, there's been moments of like, I
• 22:01
  just don't know if bookkeeping's for me.
• 22:04
  It's easy to get burnt out on. And you know, there's a lot of
• 22:09
  things we used to offer payroll services.
• 22:11
  We don't anymore. But you know, I, I worked in
• 22:15
  payroll for a little bit too and I was like, yeah, I don't, I, I
• 22:19
  don't like payroll. There's two, there's 30 pieces
• 22:22
  to the puzzle and people aren't looking at it.
• 22:25
  But it's been a it, it's been interesting and challenging.
• 22:29
  You know, we had I think 70 restaurants when I first joined.
• 22:33
  There was nine of us. Now there's a team, over 40
• 22:36
  people, 400 restaurants. We're all remote.
• 22:39
  We used to all be in this tiny little office in the middle of
• 22:42
  Denver. And yeah, just along the way,
• 22:47
  it's been, you know, gaining different knowledge from
• 22:52
  different people and different trainers and different mentors
• 22:55
  and different employees and seeing different walks of life
• 22:59
  and different clients who have taught me just so, so much of,
• 23:04
  you know, the bookkeeping side, the payroll side, the AP side,
• 23:07
  the operational side, the, you know, And so, yeah, it's been,
• 23:13
  it's been an interesting ride for sure.
• 23:15
  Who is someone specific that had a particularly big impact on
• 23:19
  your career? I'd have to say my, my now
• 23:24
  partner, who used to be my boss, Mark Rubenstein, who's our, our
• 23:28
  owner and founder. He, you know, our relationship
• 23:34
  has changed throughout the, throughout the time of me being
• 23:37
  at okra. But what he's always done is
• 23:40
  push me and always challenge me to do the next thing and like,
• 23:46
  Hey, we need a new process for this.
• 23:48
  Can you do it? And I'm like, I don't even know
• 23:49
  the process. And he's like, that's the point,
• 23:51
  you know, and that's talking to my peers and getting all the
• 23:54
  different and then being like, OK, this is how we're going to
• 23:57
  do this moving forward. And so he's he's pushed me to
• 24:02
  have uncomfortable conversations and I'm like, I don't want to
• 24:05
  call that person. He's like, I'm not calling that
• 24:06
  person and really taught me just everything that I know and has
• 24:13
  taught me a lot and has pushed and pulled when he needed to.
• 24:17
  He's been an absolute rock star dealing with my ups and downs
• 24:22
  and, you know, everything else. And, you know, this just, it
• 24:26
  made so much sense of, you know, like, I don't want to.
• 24:30
  I don't want to do this if you're not involved.
• 24:31
  I don't want to do this if you're not involved.
• 24:32
  Like, OK, well then let's do this and keep pushing and what's
• 24:37
  next? And that's exciting.
• 24:38
  And yeah, just keep each other entertained.
• 24:42
  Yeah. How?
• 24:43
  Long ago did you become a partner?
• 24:45
  Just this last year as we as we started the acquisition, that
• 24:48
  was kind of the the goal. You know, I worked as our
• 24:53
  Director of bookkeeping and then our Director of accounts payable
• 24:57
  and then kind of, you know, overall and slowly worked my
• 25:02
  way. You know, I managed the AP team
• 25:04
  and then I started managing our bookkeeping team and then I
• 25:07
  started managing our offshore teams.
• 25:08
  And then, you know, putting these processes in place that we
• 25:13
  could do acquisitions. And that was kind of the growth
• 25:16
  pattern that we decided to go with this last year of, you
• 25:20
  know, instead of doing the same thing we've always done, Let's,
• 25:22
  let's try to bring in other people.
• 25:24
  Let's try to, you know, branch off and offer different services
• 25:28
  and really become that one stop shop.
• 25:31
  And with that, you know, mindset, you know, we decided
• 25:36
  that that was kind of the, the next thing for me to, to take on
• 25:40
  cuz I was out. He was like, you're already
• 25:42
  doing it, you know, just put pen to paper.
• 25:45
  Yeah, at. That point so.
• 25:47
  This is a question that is way too early to ask since you guys
• 25:50
  have just completed your first acquisition, but is it in your
• 25:54
  mind that you want to do more of these?
• 25:57
  Yes. We were actually supposed to do
• 25:59
  2 last year. And so we were, one obviously
• 26:04
  fell through and the other one went through and we learned a
• 26:09
  lot. And but we also learned that
• 26:11
  like it's so it's such an interesting pattern to push
• 26:17
  because we get different, you know, different relationships
• 26:22
  from different people and see different things and are able to
• 26:27
  kind of configure, you know, them into our processes because
• 26:31
  they are flexible, you know, in the restaurant world, like no
• 26:35
  one process fits all. And that's kind of how we're
• 26:39
  seeing with other firms too, as we have more conversations.
• 26:42
  So yeah, I could see there's there's an acquisition in there
• 26:46
  somewhere for us again. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:50
  Is it the goal to stay specifically within the
• 26:52
  restaurant space? Yes, you've got domain
• 26:56
  expertise. It's our, it's our, it's our
• 26:57
  specialty. And I think that's what makes it
• 26:59
  so it's, it's such AI don't want to call it niche, but there's
• 27:04
  such a demand for it where, you know, bookkeeping is
• 27:07
  bookkeeping. But when you're talking
• 27:08
  restaurants with all the moving pieces, I think having a partner
• 27:13
  that truly, truly understands what you're doing on the
• 27:16
  restaurant level is so significant and provides so much
• 27:21
  more than like, yeah, your prime cost is high, but they don't
• 27:23
  know what food cost should be right now.
• 27:25
  What is prime cost? Explain.
• 27:26
  That prime cost is the pretty much like your, your cost of
• 27:30
  goods sold and your labor and where you should be at within
• 27:33
  that realm. And so it's, it's your, you can,
• 27:38
  if you can tighten that up, then you have margin for everything
• 27:40
  else, right? And so that's kind of it.
• 27:44
  It's what we try to focus, try to get our clients to focus on
• 27:48
  when they first start struggling.
• 27:50
  And then everything else is kind of nitty gritty.
• 27:52
  And you know, you can't control your rent, but you can control
• 27:55
  your meat prices most of the time.
• 27:59
  And so where's a healthy place for that prime cost to be?
• 28:04
  Typically, I mean, depends on your restaurant, right?
• 28:10
  You know, I have a cheese steak place where all they serve is
• 28:13
  Philly cheese steaks and chips and that's it.
• 28:16
  And so when you're talking meat prices and you have one menu
• 28:20
  item that's you don't have a lot of wiggle room and you're, you
• 28:23
  know, 20 to 25% food cost. And same with labor cost.
• 28:28
  Are you full service? Are you a coffee shop?
• 28:30
  Are you right? So some of this give and take.
• 28:33
  So it's kind of hard to say in general.
• 28:36
  It depends on where you're at in the industry.
• 28:37
  Yeah, how about a QSR? Where should they be?
• 28:40
  QSR, I would say around that 60 to 65%.
• 28:45
  OK. And then how does that compare
• 28:47
  to like fine dining, just so we get an idea of the range?
• 28:50
  Fine dining, I mean, I would say you want to be kind of within
• 28:54
  that same, right? You might be a little higher on
• 28:56
  your labor because you've got so much more or you might be higher
• 28:59
  on your food costs because you're providing some extra
• 29:02
  specialty items. But finding that sweet spot
• 29:05
  really depends on your sales and where you're at.
• 29:08
  You mentioned earlier that, you know, it's really easy to get
• 29:12
  burned out on bookkeeping. And there were times where you
• 29:14
  sort of like, I don't know what this is for me.
• 29:17
  How did you push through that? I think it's it's finding
• 29:22
  something new to challenge myself and and finding that next
• 29:25
  problem to solve, right. And when you're going through
• 29:28
  and you're like, this is always a pain and I don't want to do
• 29:31
  this this week, but why don't I want to do it?
• 29:34
  And why is it because I personally don't want to do it
• 29:38
  because there's a better way to do it and it's taking longer
• 29:43
  than it should. It's a, you know, it's one of
• 29:45
  those tasks that like it should be automated and it should be
• 29:49
  fine and it should. And, and here I am like sitting
• 29:52
  here trying to pinch pennies and, and match, you know,
• 29:55
  spending dollars to chase pennies.
• 29:57
  I've always, I've kind of always said this with this business,
• 30:00
  you know, in general. And so I think it's, it's, it's
• 30:05
  finding something to be excited about and understanding your
• 30:09
  next step and understanding, you know, is there something more
• 30:12
  for me? Is there not, is there, is there
• 30:16
  a challenge that I can dig my teeth into to keep me motivated
• 30:21
  to do more, you know, and so. You like being challenged, you
• 30:25
  want you want to tackle that next.
• 30:27
  Problem you want to come up. With the next solution.
• 30:30
  I do, yeah. Yeah.
• 30:34
  What's some of the most common accounting mistakes that you see
• 30:38
  people make when they first come to you?
• 30:41
  Yeah, I think it's a lot of, but we've always done it that way.
• 30:47
  You know, there, there's a lot of that.
• 30:50
  There's a lot of I'll, I'll finish the books later or, you
• 30:54
  know, where people really put it to the side because maybe cash
• 30:58
  flow isn't that tight and you're, you're paying your
• 31:00
  vendors on time and people are getting paid.
• 31:02
  OK, whatever. I'm good.
• 31:06
  And you're leaving a lot on the table in general when you, when
• 31:10
  you do that. And I think that there's a big
• 31:12
  misconception that, you know, if it's not broken, don't fix it.
• 31:17
  You know, my bank account is not going negative, so I'm good.
• 31:21
  But having real time financials and bookkeeping at your
• 31:26
  fingertips, which we've really, you know, we're closing your
• 31:28
  books weekly so you're able to pivot quickly, right?
• 31:33
  Like, Hey, your meat cost, you know, Cisco, you had a
• 31:36
  contracted price with Cisco and they messed it up and all of a
• 31:40
  sudden now you're paying $20 more a case.
• 31:44
  And you're, if you're not getting that information that
• 31:46
  can go on for months and then all of a sudden you're like,
• 31:48
  wait a second, why is my prime cost 75%?
• 31:52
  Why am I, you know, and if you're not doing your, your
• 31:56
  books like that and you're not getting the data back to you in
• 31:59
  a timely, efficient manner, you can't, you can't make smart like
• 32:04
  confident decisions in your business at, you know, when they
• 32:08
  need to happen. Most of the time this is
• 32:09
  snowballed so far out of control that you have no idea that is
• 32:15
  that it's been happening. I love that Cisco Beef price
• 32:18
  example that you gave. What would be another example of
• 32:22
  some things that you can identify because you're closing
• 32:25
  those books on a weekly basis for them?
• 32:28
  Yeah. I think another one is it's
• 32:31
  probably the the labor piece. You know, we had a, we had a
• 32:35
  client come on this last year where we're, we're looking at
• 32:38
  their payroll reports and we're looking at their, their tips.
• 32:41
  And you know, we're like things aren't quite adding up on, on
• 32:46
  your cash flow side. Like where are your cash
• 32:48
  deposits going? And they're like, well, they go
• 32:50
  to tips, but you guys aren't reporting any tips.
• 32:53
  What do you mean we're not reporting any tips?
• 32:55
  Who's doing your payroll? And so it's these like, if you
• 32:59
  don't, you don't know until you know, right?
• 33:02
  And so that was that was a big, big example where I was like,
• 33:05
  yeah, you're, you're saying it's going to tips, but your managers
• 33:08
  aren't depositing anything and now you're not reporting them.
• 33:11
  And now you have a, you know, an issue that could turn into a
• 33:14
  legal situation where you could get sued for not reporting wages
• 33:19
  properly. It's part of the reason we got
• 33:22
  out of got out of payroll. But we can identify some of
• 33:25
  these, you know, bigger issues that people aren't necessarily
• 33:28
  seeing. So when you got out of payroll,
• 33:31
  did you start referring your clients to a particular partner
• 33:34
  that you like, or was it just sort of like, hey, you know,
• 33:37
  here's some options, you know, you guys can shop around?
• 33:40
  Yeah, I mean we have kind of just like a referral list of of
• 33:43
  platforms that we enjoy and like you know, easy reporting, people
• 33:47
  paying attention, that kind of stuff.
• 33:49
  I mean it's such a depends on your needs and how big you are
• 33:53
  and how complex your your payroll gets.
• 33:57
  But we have a handful of just different providers that we're
• 34:00
  like, that one's going to fit best that we really enjoy, yeah.
• 34:05
  And are they specific to the restaurant industry or payrolls?
• 34:08
  Payroll, not kind of on the payroll side.
• 34:12
  We do use restaurant 365 as our software who does offer payroll
• 34:17
  services now and so we exclusively work in restaurant
• 34:22
  365. It's kind of a one stop shop and
• 34:25
  keeps the the tech stack as as low as possible, which I is what
• 34:29
  I kind of shoot for when we pull someone on.
• 34:32
  So if a client comes to you and they're not using that platform,
• 34:36
  part of what you do is transition them over.
• 34:39
  Correct. Yeah.
• 34:40
  And what does this platform do? Is it accounting, bookkeeping?
• 34:45
  Is it the inventory? Everything at this point it is
• 34:51
  inventory, bookkeeping, payroll, I think they have scheduling now
• 34:58
  and task management and onboarding and all of that.
• 35:03
  So it's it's kind of a one stop shop for restaurants in general.
• 35:07
  They're great. We've been with them for the
• 35:08
  last, I think we were their second accounting partner ever.
• 35:13
  And so we've been with them kind of from the jump when it was
• 35:15
  just a, an accounting platform specifically built for the
• 35:19
  restaurant industry. And now they're, they've really
• 35:24
  grown as have we. And so they, they really took in
• 35:27
  all the pieces. So it's it's a really cool
• 35:31
  software for restaurants, yeah. Sounds like you've got a great
• 35:33
  relationship with. Them we do.
• 35:35
  Yes, it's nice to have partnerships like that.
• 35:37
  Exactly, Yeah. So you recently wrote about
• 35:41
  balancing the art and business of restaurants.
• 35:45
  Can you tell us what you mean by that?
• 35:48
  Yeah, it was. That was such a fun article to
• 35:50
  write. It was.
• 35:52
  It's really about how do you keep what makes a restaurant
• 35:56
  special without, you know, giving away too much for a
• 36:02
  better financial picture, right, Without having cheaper products,
• 36:06
  without stopping the R&D of, of your, of your restaurant in
• 36:12
  general and really honing in on most people start a restaurant
• 36:16
  because they like to cook food and they like to host people and
• 36:19
  they like being in hospitality. Not a lot of people get it into
• 36:24
  like, I'm going to make millions because if you're in the
• 36:26
  restaurant industry, you know, you're not typically, it's just
• 36:30
  not how that goes. And so there's a, there's a
• 36:32
  special like, you know, you're inspired to do what you came
• 36:38
  into it to do and, and now you want to make it profitable as
• 36:41
  well, just like all of U.S. business owners do, right?
• 36:43
  You want to do something you love doing while making money.
• 36:48
  And so it, it was an article kind of balancing, you know
• 36:52
  what, what is going to keep you engaged and what's going to keep
• 36:57
  you profitable and finding and finding that right balance.
• 37:01
  Your insights have also been featured in Total Food Service
• 37:05
  magazine. What did you share there?
• 37:09
  I think that article was published there and then we also
• 37:13
  we had I think one came out today actually hot off the.
• 37:19
  Presses. What is this one?
• 37:23
  I don't remember. I have to.
• 37:25
  I wrote it a month or a month or two ago, so I don't actually
• 37:29
  need to go back and look. But yeah, we wrote about four
• 37:34
  articles with Total Food and Service that have been a ton of
• 37:38
  fun. And yeah, me and Mark kind of do
• 37:42
  those together. We wrote one about tech stack,
• 37:44
  we wrote one about the art and inventory management.
• 37:51
  So yeah, it's been a lot of fun. So let's talk more about, excuse
• 37:54
  me, tech stack. You work exclusively with
• 37:57
  Restaurant 365. What else are you guys using
• 38:01
  behind the scenes? Are you leveraging any AI
• 38:04
  components yet? Anything else that's helped you
• 38:07
  drive more? Efficiency, not quite yet.
• 38:11
  We, you know, we, we went to RFDC, which is this huge
• 38:17
  restaurant conference in Vegas every year.
• 38:21
  And AI is such a buzzword right now and it's, and I can see it
• 38:27
  having so much good capabilities and help automate everything.
• 38:32
  And Restaurant 365 has done a lot to, you know, we have
• 38:36
  integrations with vendors directly.
• 38:38
  So invoices are just importing and your sales are importing
• 38:42
  every morning. And so there's, you know, and
• 38:45
  your labor can automatically post.
• 38:47
  And so there's a lot of advances there.
• 38:51
  You know, we spent some time building out some bots to
• 38:54
  hopefully automate even more, but it all comes with its own
• 38:57
  specific set of challenges where we're getting wrapped up in
• 39:01
  technology more than we are looking at, you know, looking at
• 39:05
  books and keeping that personal relationship.
• 39:07
  So it's it's finding the balance of what's worth the time and
• 39:12
  managing the system that's not going to make us lose our touch.
• 39:16
  Because restaurants, I mean, you've got kitchen managers who
• 39:19
  are running around and, you know, this invoice falls behind
• 39:22
  oven and here's a stain and I'm going to snap a picture.
• 39:25
  And, you know, AI can't necessarily read that as perfect
• 39:30
  as a human could, right? You have some of that human
• 39:33
  connection and like, Oh yeah, I can tell that's an 8 or, you
• 39:37
  know, can make an educated decision on like a bot would.
• 39:41
  And so we're, we're still, we're not, we're not shut off.
• 39:45
  I'm, you know, I, I look at different systems every day and
• 39:48
  different partnerships we can do with different AI companies.
• 39:52
  We just haven't found one that's like, yes, that's that's it.
• 39:56
  Yeah, the right fit. You know, a lot of the groups
• 39:58
  that I talked to, they are looking at AI as a way.
• 40:03
  To take people away from sort of the monotonous work and allow
• 40:08
  them to have more of that direct customer interaction, that more
• 40:11
  human touch, more of the consulting and the advisory
• 40:14
  work. Is that kind of how you guys are
• 40:16
  like thinking about hoping to get to?
• 40:18
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's, that's what we're
• 40:21
  hoping to get to. It's like, it's like I don't
• 40:23
  want to have to log in a DoorDash every week to pull that
• 40:25
  report to post your fees. You know, something should be
• 40:29
  able to do that. And what you run into is a lot
• 40:31
  of this like two factor authentication or you need a
• 40:35
  code to get into this, to do this, to do that.
• 40:39
  And so if there's certain industry standard, like
• 40:44
  challenges that we're facing as far as, you know, banking and
• 40:47
  DoorDash and just different sites to get logged in and we,
• 40:52
  you know, but we'll keep keep trying to find a solution.
• 40:54
  But that's, that's ultimately the the goal, right is.
• 40:58
  That's the big picture vision. That's the big picture vision,
• 41:01
  yeah. So you've been in this business
• 41:04
  for 11 years. A lot of changes have taken
• 41:07
  place during that time, a lot of trends, ups and downs.
• 41:10
  What do you think is the biggest change that you've witnessed in
• 41:13
  your eleven years in the space? I think COVID changed a lot.
• 41:18
  That was like probably the biggest transition and something
• 41:22
  that we still see today of just how people look at restaurants,
• 41:28
  how people look at eating out, how restaurants function, how
• 41:33
  our world functions, right? We were all in office in by in
• 41:37
  2020. Now we're all fully remote,
• 41:40
  which is great because we've been able to bring on some great
• 41:44
  employees in the last six years that maybe we wouldn't have been
• 41:48
  able to if we really had this, you know, like we only want this
• 41:51
  area cuz we want you to come into the office, right?
• 41:53
  And you see a lot of that in the restaurants too, of how things
• 41:57
  have changed to go platforms third, you know, delivery
• 42:02
  services, different automations and handheld, you know, POS
• 42:07
  systems, AI even on inventory counts and that kind of stuff.
• 42:14
  You know, different companies that come in and take your
• 42:18
  inventory for you. And so you've seen a lot of
• 42:21
  different trends and you've also seen trends on how people spend
• 42:25
  money change drastically, which I think is still part of the
• 42:30
  restaurant world in general. What if I want to go next here
• 42:38
  with you, Layla? We've covered some really good
• 42:40
  ground today outside of the acquisition.
• 42:45
  What has been one of the more effective growth strategies for
• 42:48
  you guys up to this point? I think it's really we've, you
• 42:54
  know, I've, we've restructured how we onboarded clients, which
• 43:00
  helped retain clients better and drive more referrals in.
• 43:07
  And so that was a big part and just joining different
• 43:11
  alliances, getting in front of different people where we
• 43:14
  wouldn't have normally thought of.
• 43:16
  You know, we don't do a lot of big conferences, but you know,
• 43:21
  we like being a part of like the Colorado Restaurant Association,
• 43:24
  the New York Hospitality Alliance, the and showing up in
• 43:28
  different ways, like let's go to a happy hour, let's go here and
• 43:32
  you know, it's hospitality. People want to see people.
• 43:36
  That's our whole industry. We want to have that personal
• 43:39
  touch. And so it's changed a lot when
• 43:42
  it's not like, hey, we're bookkeepers, but no, we're here.
• 43:46
  We're part of your team, we're part of the industry.
• 43:48
  We, we care, you know, you're your businesses keep us alive.
• 43:54
  And so we want to make sure that we're giving back as much as we
• 43:57
  can and and being involved in and building those relationships
• 44:02
  in general face to face. So people who are in the
• 44:06
  restaurant industry, even if they're not clients of yours, do
• 44:10
  you feel like you've got like pretty good like name
• 44:15
  recognition people know who okra is?
• 44:18
  I think so, yeah. I mean it.
• 44:20
  It's a, I don't want to call it a small world, but it's how we
• 44:24
  do most of our marketing. It's word of mouth, so and so,
• 44:27
  no so and so who called so and so, you know, and it's kind of
• 44:31
  how we operate too. One of our clients wants to open
• 44:34
  an ice cream shop. Hey, let me link you with these
• 44:37
  guys who own an ice cream shop and they can talk you through
• 44:40
  the challenges that they've had that maybe you're not ready for.
• 44:45
  It's investors of restaurants where they're like, you know,
• 44:49
  oh, you're struggling with bookkeeping and I can't get a
• 44:52
  good financial report. You got to call Okra and start
• 44:55
  your bookkeeping going. And same with like our, the CPA
• 44:59
  firms that we work with and, and everything else.
• 45:01
  That's that, that good balance of, you know, you're, you're
• 45:04
  struggling in this area and we have a, we have a referral.
• 45:08
  So I would say that's our number one kind of marketing platform
• 45:12
  is just word of mouth. Is there anything specific in
• 45:17
  terms of how you do the books or specific challenges when it
• 45:20
  comes to franchises? Not necessarily other than they
• 45:26
  need some different reporting, you know, or, or they have
• 45:31
  different guidelines of when you need to submit your books to or
• 45:38
  you know, we just close books for someone who has an audit
• 45:41
  every year around this time before they can close officially
• 45:44
  close their books from their investors.
• 45:47
  So it's just getting everyone prepped for maybe those audits
• 45:51
  or closing for Cpas or anything like that, but not necessarily.
• 45:57
  There's more pieces to the puzzle of franchising, right?
• 45:59
  You have your royalties and your franchise fees and advertising
• 46:02
  fees, but it's, you know, it's nothing that we haven't seen or
• 46:07
  done. You have any recommendations for
• 46:11
  our listeners courses, podcasts, books that have been helpful to
• 46:17
  you in your development that they might find interesting?
• 46:21
  You know, I I just did AI just read through a book called the
• 46:27
  Middle Finger Project. Talks about imposter syndrome
• 46:31
  and overcoming that and it's very straightforward.
• 46:37
  I absolutely love it. The other book that I read is
• 46:42
  called Getting to 0 and it is about solving conflicts in
• 46:48
  general and walks you through, you know, how to handle
• 46:54
  conflict, how to address it, when not to address it because
• 46:57
  it's just maybe not worth the time.
• 47:00
  And that has been such a transformation for me of do I
• 47:06
  need to give this my energy? No, OK, you know, or when it
• 47:11
  when it's really stuck with me and when I when I do really need
• 47:13
  to give it energy and thought and process.
• 47:17
  And so that one has been the last three years of my life, a
• 47:21
  very, very helpful tool for me. I haven't read it like 3 times.
• 47:26
  Oh wow, okay, give us some more of the big take away.
• 47:29
  So getting to 0 is the name of the book and basically the idea
• 47:33
  is conflict resolution and like teaching you or helping you get
• 47:39
  to the point where it's like, wait a minute, is this something
• 47:41
  I even really need to be spending energy on or can I just
• 47:44
  let it go? Is this a mountain that's not
• 47:47
  worth dying on? Yeah, exactly.
• 47:49
  It's, you know, like, is this bothering me and why is it
• 47:52
  bothering me? Is this about me or is this
• 47:54
  about them? You know, is it a true conflict
• 47:57
  that I need to address or is it a true like that client left and
• 48:02
  it wasn't because of me or our services, it just wasn't a good
• 48:04
  fit. And I don't need to take it
• 48:06
  personally and giving that feedback to my, to my team
• 48:10
  because they, you know, they take it personally too when
• 48:13
  someone's decided to move on. And I want, it's like, hey, some
• 48:16
  of it is our fault. We're not perfect.
• 48:18
  We're human just as everyone else.
• 48:22
  And other times it's like, you know, it just wasn't a good fit
• 48:27
  and that conflict wasn't going to get resolved.
• 48:30
  And it is what it is. It's time to move on.
• 48:32
  There's better fits out there, you know, And so it's helped a
• 48:36
  lot, not only with, you know, my myself and keeping my confidence
• 48:41
  up and knowing what I'm doing and building my team, but also
• 48:44
  keeping my team strong. And, you know, like, hey, don't
• 48:48
  sweat it. Roll it off.
• 48:49
  Let's go. Time to move on.
• 48:50
  You know, that person was a jerk.
• 48:52
  You know, let's we don't need to respond to that e-mail.
• 48:55
  Addition by subtraction. Exactly.
• 48:59
  So it's great. I mean, it's such a such a
• 49:02
  helpful tool. So the way I heard you talk
• 49:05
  about it, there was more about letting it go, letting the
• 49:10
  conflict go. That was an angry client e-mail
• 49:13
  is not a good fit for us. We don't need to engage and keep
• 49:16
  that back and forth angryness going.
• 49:20
  Did you pick up things from it where it's like, no, this is
• 49:23
  something we need to engage in? And now that I figured that part
• 49:27
  out, like here's a different strategy to approach that.
• 49:30
  Concept Yeah, definitely. I mean there's the whole other
• 49:33
  side, right? Of like we did mess that up.
• 49:36
  That's that's a big conflict or you know, this is something that
• 49:40
  we need to dig our teeth and and understand why it happened and
• 49:43
  how we prevent it from happening again and really, really sitting
• 49:47
  with an understanding or processes OK, yeah, we messed
• 49:53
  that up or yeah, there was different ways to approach it.
• 49:56
  How did we get to where we got and how can we prevent it from
• 49:59
  happening again? And how do we take
• 50:01
  accountability for it and owning our piece of of the puzzle,
• 50:06
  right? I think right now it's
• 50:08
  especially behind screens. It's very easy to point fingers
• 50:11
  back to each other. Well, I thought, well, I
• 50:14
  thought, and it's like, how do we get those clear guidelines of
• 50:17
  like, there was no question of who should have done what?
• 50:22
  And that it helps a lot when you go through this, you know, the
• 50:26
  strategy of, of how this author describes, you know, resolving
• 50:32
  conflict and owning our peace and letting go of maybe the
• 50:35
  pieces that didn't fit. But how you take accountability
• 50:39
  and how you move forward and make sure that you know you
• 50:43
  you're doing the best that you can and not making the same
• 50:46
  mistakes or not creating the same conflict.
• 50:49
  No. And I like that.
• 50:51
  I like that a lot. Yeah.
• 50:53
  You know, since we're on sort of this path of, you know, learning
• 50:56
  from mistakes and, you know, going through some challenges,
• 50:59
  I'd like to hear Layla about particularly the big challenge
• 51:02
  that you've overcome in your life, hard time you went
• 51:05
  through, how you got through it and what you learned.
• 51:09
  Yeah, I mean, I think we touched on it kind of in the beginning.
• 51:13
  You know, I dropped out of high school.
• 51:15
  I watched my mom battle with addiction for my entire life.
• 51:19
  And my dad, who worked relentlessly trying to raise us,
• 51:26
  need my sister and brother on his own as a single parent.
• 51:32
  And it was one of those where he did the best with the tools he
• 51:35
  had. And, you know, and coming
• 51:40
  overcoming that in general of my own, you know, watching my mom
• 51:44
  battle with such a hard, difficult thing and watching my
• 51:48
  dad go through it alone and how that translated to me.
• 51:52
  And, you know, I had a drop out of high school.
• 51:56
  I had to get a job. I had to move forward and I had
• 51:58
  to grow up quick and I had to grow up fast.
• 52:02
  And part of that, you know, LED into me making a lot of mistakes
• 52:08
  in younger years. And, you know, I, I got married
• 52:12
  young thinking it was the best thing for me.
• 52:15
  And now, you know, divorced and a single mom and running a
• 52:20
  business and everything else. And on the surface, you know, it
• 52:23
  looks great and fantastic. And I've overcome a lot, you
• 52:29
  know, and I've actually just sat down with one of my friend's
• 52:32
  kids who's 18. She's like, I want to be where
• 52:34
  you are. And I'm like, stop, no, you
• 52:37
  know, relax, go to college, get a job, enjoy.
• 52:41
  You're, you're just starting out.
• 52:44
  Don't fall in my footsteps. It wasn't fun to get here.
• 52:46
  I got here out of desperation and overcoming a lot.
• 52:52
  And I don't, I wouldn't picture, I don't want to picture that for
• 52:55
  anyone that I love. Made a lot of mistakes along the
• 52:58
  way. I made a lot of great decisions
• 53:01
  too. And, and you know, grew myself
• 53:03
  and knew, you know, if if you focus on drugs and alcohol,
• 53:06
  you're not going to be here. You watch what happened with
• 53:08
  your mom. Don't do that.
• 53:11
  And it, it took a lot of, you know, trial and error,
• 53:13
  especially watching all my friends go off to college and
• 53:15
  parties and, and then here I am married and have a kid and, you
• 53:21
  know, where did my 20s go? And so, yeah, it's been a wild
• 53:26
  ride. I wouldn't, I wouldn't change it
• 53:28
  for myself because it got me to where I am.
• 53:30
  And I, I do. I love every bit of my life.
• 53:33
  I love my job. I love my son.
• 53:34
  I love my dog, you know, have so much fun doing it, but I wish
• 53:40
  someone would have told me to slow down.
• 53:42
  Interesting. As you look back over that
• 53:46
  difficult arc in your life, do you think if you had followed a
• 53:52
  more traditional path, you had a more stable home life, went off
• 53:56
  to college like your friends did, and then you know from
• 53:59
  there move into a job? Do you think you would be where
• 54:02
  you are with your career progression?
• 54:06
  No, I don't. And I think it it motivated me
• 54:11
  in different ways and it showed me different sides of me that I
• 54:18
  don't think I would have ever or wouldn't have seen as early as I
• 54:21
  did had I had traditional upbringing and education and
• 54:27
  everything else. I think at the heart of who I am
• 54:30
  is has always been there. But I, I don't know if it would
• 54:33
  have came out the way that it did and pushed me as far as it
• 54:37
  did, you know, with that motivation and everything else.
• 54:42
  You know, the other book that you mentioned, the Middle Finger
• 54:46
  Project, which talks about imposter syndrome, a familiar
• 54:50
  topic on this show. I wonder, do you think any of
• 54:55
  that? I mean, the fact that you read
• 54:56
  that suggests to me that that's something that, you know,
• 54:59
  imposter syndrome, like a lot of high performers that you deal
• 55:01
  with. Yeah.
• 55:03
  Is that something do you think that maybe is driven by some of
• 55:06
  those earlier experiences, you know when you.
• 55:10
  Said you had to grow up too fast.
• 55:12
  Yeah, definitely. I mean, it was there was a lot
• 55:14
  of just like fake it till you make it, walk in the door and be
• 55:19
  there, be present, you know, and it changed into putting myself
• 55:25
  into rooms that I wanted to be in.
• 55:26
  I wanted, you know, it's like going to the gym.
• 55:29
  I wanted to be fit and I wanted to be healthy.
• 55:33
  And if I don't show up in the room, that's going to make me
• 55:35
  fit and healthy. I can't be fit and healthy, even
• 55:38
  though I might feel like I don't fit in, but I will eventually,
• 55:42
  you know, and it's scary to walk in the door.
• 55:45
  It's scary to go to the conference.
• 55:46
  It's scary to have be a podcast guest, right?
• 55:50
  It's, it's all those things, but putting yourself in the room
• 55:54
  and, and pushing yourself forward feels very impostory and
• 56:01
  feels very just terrifying. Like, should I be here?
• 56:05
  Why does someone want to talk to me about my life?
• 56:07
  Why, why would someone listen to me about this?
• 56:12
  You know, I actually, I went to a conference last year that had
• 56:15
  a, a whole breakout session about imposter syndrome and it
• 56:21
  was watching these, I think there was, it was 4 and it was
• 56:25
  an all women's conference. Four women sit on stage and say
• 56:28
  the same things that I felt, you know, and I'm like, OK, so we
• 56:32
  all feel the same way. Got her.
• 56:33
  I'm not doing, I'm not any different than anyone else, you
• 56:37
  know, And I think it was, you know, right before I walked into
• 56:41
  that breakout session, my, my partner, my now partner Mark
• 56:45
  sent me a very long test text about.
• 56:48
  And as you walk in here and think about how you're an
• 56:50
  imposter, here's all the things that you did this last year for
• 56:53
  our company. And so it was really this like
• 56:57
  big trajectory for me and the middle finger project, same
• 56:59
  thing where I was like, OK, I can breathe.
• 57:02
  You know, I'm, it sometimes feels like, yeah, sure, I'll
• 57:06
  figure that out, no worries. And it's because I will and I
• 57:09
  can and I have the tools to do it.
• 57:11
  Yeah. Yeah, I can tell you from
• 57:14
  experience, Layla, on this show, imposter syndrome comes up a lot
• 57:19
  and from people who are wildly successful founder and CEO, you
• 57:24
  know, thousand employee companies and, you know, they've
• 57:29
  done tons of press, tons of, you know, speaking and they'll
• 57:32
  confide the same thing. Like I was nervous to come on
• 57:35
  this show, like who wants to hear my story kind of a thing.
• 57:39
  And I had one guest that, that, you know, I, I think back to
• 57:43
  this conversation often who was able to change his relationship
• 57:48
  with imposter syndrome in a way that I now try to embrace.
• 57:52
  And I'll share it with you just in case there's any value for
• 57:54
  you to pull out or for our listeners.
• 57:56
  He actually views imposter syndrome as his superpower
• 58:02
  because it's the thing that kicks him in the butt every
• 58:05
  morning when he's laying there in bed.
• 58:06
  Like, I don't want to get up, kicks him in the rear end to get
• 58:10
  up out of bed and and go do a better job.
• 58:12
  Yeah. Because it's this, this is
• 58:14
  nagging down in his head that right.
• 58:17
  If I done enough, you know, who am I?
• 58:20
  And just like gets him out of bed to to go and prove himself
• 58:24
  again every day. Yeah.
• 58:26
  That's such a great perspective on it.
• 58:28
  I mean, it really when you look at it, it's the same reason we
• 58:32
  like challenges, right? It's going to keep me, it's
• 58:35
  going to keep me coming back because it's going to nag at me
• 58:37
  until I do. And so that's that's an awesome
• 58:41
  perspective I love. That and since we talked about
• 58:44
  his superpower. What's your superpower, Layla?
• 58:52
  You know, I really I think it's being able to foster
• 58:58
  relationships the way that they need need to be right.
• 59:01
  I think it's accept people as they are in place and
• 59:03
  accordingly. It's one of the biggest things
• 59:06
  that I've I've done the last three years or so of you're
• 59:10
  really good at that. And we're going to we're going
• 59:13
  to use that and being able to identify what keeps people going
• 59:17
  and what why they show up every day and respecting it right.
• 59:22
  I have an employee that I would give her my job tomorrow if she
• 59:26
  asked me for it because she's that good.
• 59:28
  And she's like, I just want my kids are off to college.
• 59:32
  I just want to sit here and plug away.
• 59:34
  And I'm like, great, you should do that.
• 59:37
  And I'm going to respect that. And having empathy for people
• 59:40
  situations of, you know, this is where we're at and this is where
• 59:44
  you need to be placed being honest about it.
• 59:47
  And I think that it's a really good superpower of mine or you
• 59:52
  know, of being able to lead in that, that type of direction.
• 59:56
  Yeah, I like that. I've just got one more question
• 59:59
  for you today, Layla. But before I ask it, I want to
• 1:00:02
  do 3 quick things. First of all, anybody that wants
• 1:00:05
  to get in touch with Layla, two options.
• 1:00:08
  One, I've got her e-mail address here.
• 1:00:10
  Layla Layla at. Okraocra-us.comlayla@okra-us.com
• 1:00:19
  It'll be in the show notes as will link to her LinkedIn
• 1:00:23
  profile, which is another great way to get in touch with her.
• 1:00:25
  You just look up Layla Ebersole on call restaurant accounting,
• 1:00:29
  you will find her. She's the only one.
• 1:00:32
  And if you're listening to the show today and you're enjoying
• 1:00:34
  it, a quick review or on your favorite podcast app will go a
• 1:00:38
  long way towards helping others find the show.
• 1:00:40
  So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now.
• 1:00:44
  And as a reminder, you can be the hero advisor that helps
• 1:00:47
  clients give their employees access to therapists, doctors
• 1:00:51
  and prescription meds while paradoxically increasing their
• 1:00:55
  net profits. Real gains that can change how a
• 1:00:57
  business is valued. Learn more today at AD back
• 1:01:00
  benefits.com. So last question for you, Layla.
• 1:01:03
  A year from now, what is 1 very specific thing that you hope to
• 1:01:07
  be celebrating? Man, that's such a hard
• 1:01:13
  question. Could be personal, could be
• 1:01:20
  professional, wherever your head goes.
• 1:01:23
  Yeah. I mean, I think I really would
• 1:01:27
  love to be celebrating growing our team further and growing
• 1:01:35
  Okra further and seeing where we're at, whether that's 500
• 1:01:39
  clients or new employees or wherever we might be at.
• 1:01:45
  But yeah, I mean, I think that's one what I'm most excited about
• 1:01:48
  and seeing. You know, we've done it once,
• 1:01:51
  can we do it again with an acquisition and see see what
• 1:01:54
  unfolds from there and put my new skills to to use?
• 1:02:01
  Yeah. I'd really love to be
• 1:02:02
  celebrating kind of that, that growth trajectory that that okra
• 1:02:05
  is headed in right now. Yeah, you're still you're always
• 1:02:09
  looking for that next challenge. Always.
• 1:02:11
  Yeah, I just started golfing too, because I I needed, I
• 1:02:15
  needed something new to learn. And that's got quite a growth
• 1:02:19
  curve to it, so. It does.
• 1:02:21
  It's humbling, I'll tell you that.
• 1:02:23
  Yeah. Yeah, you won't.
• 1:02:25
  You won't ever stop learning with that.
• 1:02:26
  Sport. No, Exactly.
• 1:02:28
  Yeah, good for you. Well, Layla Ebersol from On Call
• 1:02:31
  Restaurant Accounting, I wouldn't be the first to thank
• 1:02:33
  you for sharing both your time and your story with us today.
• 1:02:36
  I really appreciate you being here.
• 1:02:38
  Yeah. Thank you so much.
• 1:02:39
  I really appreciate it. Folks, that's a wrap on another
• 1:02:42
  episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
• 1:02:44
  Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put
• 1:02:48
  that into action today.