Latest / MaxValue Podcast / Redefining Business Valuation Careers: Remote Work, Flexibility & Family Balance

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Redefining Business Valuation Careers: Remote Work, Flexibility & Family Balance · MaxValue Podcast

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, thanks for joining us today.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Ben Town.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I run Town Advisory, a business valuation and fractional CFO firm, as well as Assurance Advisors and Outsource Resource in India.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today, I'm joined by one of our excellent project managers, Becca Zigga.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh why don't you introduce yourself, please?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I will go into a little bit more about who I am uh further in our discussion, I'm sure.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: But briefly, um, I am a valuation project manager um working um with Ben.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I work remotely.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um I live here in Florida, um and I've been with town for I think three years now.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that sounds about right.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds about right.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I'm grateful to have you uh on the team, and the team the rest of the team is grateful to have you as well.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so today, what we're gonna talk about is basically the labor challenges, the pipeline challenges in business valuation, just kind of writ large.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And what are some of the benefits uh for both sides of the equation to have you know a flexible part-time work environment and in your case, your particular case, a remote work environment as well.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, kind of jumping off on that, I mean, can you talk about your professional background and what you're currently doing here with us?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: So following my undergraduate degree, which now feels like forever ago, um, I worked as a financial analyst for a holding company, and I got lots of exposure to the day-to-day business operations as well as the finance side of the holding company.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, then I got my MBA with a finance focus and really honed in even further on my love of finance.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Worked at a national laboratory for a little while with the renewable energy research department.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that was fascinating and got a little bit more business management experience.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then as we'll discuss in this conversation, I had had one baby at that point.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: I actually started grad school the same month that I had my son, which now feels like crazy, but you just kind of, you know, you roll with things.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um and when I had my second child, I worked for another year and I really felt this pull of, you know, kind of like I even went part-time for for a little bit there.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it wasn't remote and it was, I felt like I was kind of being pulled in two directions.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and eventually decided to uh stay home, which really was, I think, I mean, everybody's different, but for me, that was a really challenging.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I never really anticipated having to to to make a choice there.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: So um yeah, so that was my background.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I came back on um after then I had another one.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um, right about when my youngest was getting kind of in that pipeline towards kindergarten.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: So kind of that four-year-old here was when I started looking, but I knew it had to be something that I could feel really strong in both areas, like I was really contributing on the work side and like I was really contributing um with my kids the way that I wanted to.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so uh I came back and um searched for actually a very long time um until I found this opportunity.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: I know we never, we haven't really talked about that, but I did search for for quite a while um and and and really weighed different kinds of how could this work if I was, you know, if I was full-time, if I was part-time, but I had to be in office and all different things.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, found this and um have been here as evaluation project manager.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what that means is I take a project from start to finish um with the um assistance of our uh analyst team and meeting with Ben um all along the way and um yeah, complete some of our evaluations.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, quite a few of them.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, as as you were bringing up stuff, and you know, as you mentioned, some stuff we haven't even really chatted about before, uh it you know, put me in mind of you know how uh my own family has has uh kind of dealt with some of the same issues.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my my wife, uh Erica, um is a is a is an awesome and um you know very professional uh uh news reporter, uh and but she's now part-time because she's helping with the kids.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and um I don't know what it is about having children that just changes your brain a little bit.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh same same with me.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: We uh I started town advisory.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: The same he uh my my oldest was a year old, or less than a year old, excuse me.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was still very much a baby, and we decided that that was a good idea.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because people do things the hard way, I guess.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it's worked out so far.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for that.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe maybe let's talk a little bit about and just dive in right into the the balancing of the two things, right?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Balancing your caregiving of your family, which is hyper important.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's so important that's not even considered important.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's just primary, it's foundational.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then the important, you know, professional role that you play, you know, with that's obviously important to me, but all you know, important to you for your own self-satisfaction.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So talk about the balance.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, awesome.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: So what that looks like for me is usually I get up around five right now, currently, um, and hit the gym around 5:30, and I'm home around 6.30.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that gives me time to do breakfast and get the kids ready and get myself ready.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: I get the kids off to school, um, and then I come back and I have a second, you know, I can do the little things that we kind of forget we need margin for.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, run the dishwasher, walk the dog, um, any little things like that, you know, make myself a cup of coffee.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then I can sit down and start work.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm starting from a place of not feeling frazzled, you know, we we kind of I had a minute with my kids and I had a minute to kind of get everything where it needs to be.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then yeah, sit down with my cup of coffee and um start work.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I usually work right here where I am in my home office.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but then sometimes I will take my laptop and go sit outside, or I'll, you know, take it and go to a local coffee shop and work on my um work there.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um sprinkled throughout the week, I have lots of little things um like we all do.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And these things are important whether you are working full-time or you're working part-time, or or no matter how you find time for these things, but it for me, it's volunteering at the kids' school or chaperoning their field trips.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have uh a monthly book club I do with some girlfriends, and sometimes I might take a minute to grab lunch or coffee with a friend.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or if you know someone needs a little extra attention, someone's having a hard week, or even if they're not, just to kind of get ahead of things, I will often drop the other two kids off at school and take one to breakfast so I can get some time.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and periodically I'll pull one of them from school.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: They're still little, and we live in Florida and take them to Disney for the day.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Something like that.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the really cool thing is I feel like I have just enough margin to do the things that matter that make life beautiful, deep, meaningful, rich, all those wonderful things.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm able to find that quality focus time with work as well.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I and I can attest to the fact that the time you put into work is quality time, things are not falling off.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I'll say from from uh the job side, the one of the big focuses that we have at Town Advisory is to make sure this sounds like a recruiting pitch, it's not.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but really, in order to make sure that everybody can get what they need out of life and their profession, we really try to make sure that people aren't overloaded at any one time, uh partly because that sucks when that happens, partly because projects go faster when we're able to focus up on you know four or five projects, a handful of projects at a time, get them through the process as well and efficiently as possible, rather than being loaded down with you know double or triple the the projects, which you can do, you can juggle.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've you know, I've done it, everybody's done it.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um But when we're able to allow people to focus on a few things, the velocity of the projects increases, which means the velocity of well, fees increase, which is you know what partly what I'm interested in, obviously.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um Yeah.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I that that's a really interesting uh response.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: I really really like that.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh kind of going stepping through the day because you know, every everybody's day is different.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just came back uh not too long ago from dropping the kids off at school because that's that's kind of one of the things that I do um after uh my wife gets gets usually gets them ready for school.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh then um then some work time and I'll be looking forward to uh taking a little uh uh popping off of work a little earlier, uh you know, getting the kids around uh and then uh going back to work a little bit later, but that's just the way the way I do it, right?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that and everybody has their own their own way.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really cool.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for sharing.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um Okay, so what was you kind of already answered this a little bit, but I mean what was it about you know the part-time role in valuation that was interesting to you in particular?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because you hadn't done valuation before, specifically.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, that's absolutely true.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a few things, um, but no, you're right.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: I hadn't done valuation specifically.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, I have my MBA in finance and I worked in finance and I worked on the business side.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I could kind of understand when you know, when we meet with um, you know, an owner, a CEO of a company, I can understand where they're coming from, you know.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um valuation specifically, I am surprised how much I love valuation as a um as a as a business field.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think the main thing is in general in life, um, the way my brain works, I feel like I'm a very curious person and I love to solve problems.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so and also I'm more on the creative side.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but at the same time, I really enjoy technical stuff too.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I was surprised in way back in college when I um took accounting classes and really enjoyed them, you know, um, and I felt good at it, uh, but I didn't ever consider it as a career field for myself because it it felt a little too um, it lacked that creativity.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that there are those in the accounting profession that can find a creative bent.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um but for me, um valuation specifically, fine finance itself, valuation specifically, feels like in my mind, accounting plus creativity.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's like an art and a science together.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so um and also you toss in this people component.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I really, really enjoy um I enjoy meeting new people.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoy, you know, every time we have a new client, there's this extra component that gets thrown in there, which is um, you know, what what's what does that client think about their business?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Where do they want to take it?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, where are they headed?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um that sort of thing.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I I really feel like business valuation itself is this like creative science.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I really, really enjoy that.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as far as the part-time role, um, I know for me, um most of my friends, and I've shared this with you, but most of my friends locally here um are stay-at-home moms um all the time.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that is so wonderful and so impactful and and it is challenging in and of itself.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, I I needed that use of the problem solving.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't know.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: We can cut that part out.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, no, no, truly though.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the the the problem solving, the analytical part of the brain, the you know, I I totally agree.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to say that without that sounding like, you know, I don't know.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I no, and I don't think I don't think necessarily you have to be putting down anybody to to say that you know you you you have you have a a particular need for you know what your own personal self-satisfaction.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, really.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um makes sense.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: People have different different wants and needs.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, well, like my um my sister-in-law, my my brother's wife, uh Christy, uh she stayed home with their their three kids for for a long time.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and man, she is she's smart as a whip.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like she is very, very smart, um, which is one of the things I love about her.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh you know, she finally she finally went back to work.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we're just happy for her.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's har very hard for her, uh, even though it's uh a remote situation.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, she's she's up to the challenge and it it really just makes her happy from from that point.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, we're we're we're all for it, right?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's right, right.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that was exactly Luke and I's discussion.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, he's always been, you know, we can make it work no matter.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: And even for a little while, I don't know if you this can go in or not, it doesn't matter, but even for a little while, we talked about because I had always planned on having several kids, and I always planned on always working full-time.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was just it hadn't occurred to me that it could be challenging or it would come with it could come with um some trade-offs and you know, that I might feel like I don't know.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, we we considered, you know, what if we were both part time?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, what if I worked full-time and what if he stayed home?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we really considered that's cool.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: The full gamut of what are our options?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let's put them all on the table, you know?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think there's more options now than there were 10 years ago than there were 20 years ago.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and particularly the the remote part of it too.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you we have, I mean, I have access to awesome people around the country from a team standpoint, and vice versa.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're we're working together um literally three hours apart.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and we work with uh our team in India, and they're 12 hours apart.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for me anyway, 12 and a half, and yeah, anyway.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it it definitely um the it's it's it's a whole new uh connected world for the last you know 10 years and particularly the last five years.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing, yeah.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: But one thing that we talked about was, you know, he said, I know that you are happier and more fulfilled when you're working.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I think I think that's true.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And can be true for a lot of people.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Good spouse.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Good spouse.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um Okay, well right, so let's let's take the converse of what we've been talking about.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what what are the challenges uh that you've been you know that you've experienced or maybe were afraid of going in about working in a field that I mean it is often demanding.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's you know, there's deadlines, there's um fortunately for us, not too many uh difficult clients, but that can happen.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um actually, pretty much I love all of our clients.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe with a few exceptions.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the uh the ones on our AR report aren't on my on my good list at the moment.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: But uh but no, in any case, uh, you know, what what are some of the things that have have really kind of hit you as hurdles to get over?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I think for hurdles with valuation specifically, like I talked about earlier, it really is a bit of a science.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: So there, you know, it has been a learning curve.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um no matter no matter if you have a background in valuation, uh it probably and I bet you feel this way too, no matter how long you have worked in this field, every business is different.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so every project's gonna be a challenge.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I was talking to um a potential new hire not too long ago, and she asked what I find challenging.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll probably answer you the same way I answered her, which was everything, um, but not in a bad way.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I really, really enjoy a challenge.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: So from the positive side of things, I feel like every project is a challenge.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um most of the time it's a fun challenge, you know.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times I have to like really, you know, dig in a little.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um at the same time, uh, as far as the remote work, I think sometimes for me, and I've shared this with you before, I think sometimes I miss having, you know, a coworker around the corner that I can just pop over and say, hey, you know, what do you think about this?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Or um even just, you know, the, hey, good morning, how's it going?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: What'd you do this weekend?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just the one minute, two-minute, you know, conversations.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: I will say though, and I've also shared this with you before, is I feel like it's pretty amazing the um culture that we have with everybody working, you know, separate from each other.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think we do have you kind of wonder if it's possible to have in a uh company culture at all.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I I think we have a pretty great one.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So well, thank you.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of always worry about the same thing.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is it really even possible to have culture?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: What can we do about that?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so it's it's it's a fair thing to say that that is a challenge, and you know, one when you we have to actively, you know, get against because you're right, it more naturally happens when you can just pop down the hallway and and say hi and and you know, the water cooler talk, quote unquote, all that stuff.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So in your thinking, what does the part-time role bring to the table to the business in terms of our operations, profitability, anything like that?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I I I really truly feel like the part-time role serves the business extremely well.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think that valuation um itself, the type of work that we're doing, is high concentration work.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: You can't be, I can't really be, you know, listening to a pod, it's not data entry.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's not none of it's mindless.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um I feel like if you were to translate this to a full-time job, could somebody be productive for nine hours a day?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the level of high focus, um, high concentration work, I really think is is really conducive to a part-time role.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I'll get started um in the morning and I'll sit down to work and I will recognize that I'm not really able to super focus right now.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've got some other things on my mind, or you know, maybe, maybe I can focus a little better um oftentimes around midday.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'll kind of shift some of my work that way.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think you say that you focus better um later into the evening.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think we can really harness uh really quality work um with those shorter time segments on a daily basis.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious if you would find if you move from like a part-time role to a full-time role, I don't think you would get double the productivity.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think you might get marginally more productivity, but I I really, really like that when I can clock in my hours, I can feel really good about those hours.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I totally agree.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I don't have a lot to add to that, only that I totally agree.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I do feel like the the quality of hours, and and you know, for for you and not just you, I mean the the whole team, we're able to get the the best focused uh work out of people that that they're able to do because they're able to do it when they when they are able to most capable of of doing that uh kind of thought work.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the the project manager role is a is a especially difficult one given that uh you know half of it is communication with me, with the team, with the client, um as well as then you know having the technical oversight and review and kind of being the technical filter uh from all those places um over to the client and that kind of thing.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: So so it's as with most things.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the the manager level is kind of the toughest.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: You get the you're the the focal point for for all of that effort.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it it is important to have that uh that really focused time.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or you know, uh uh people say, you know, if if you want something done, give it to a busy person.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that kind of really fits, you know, with uh with this thinking here is you don't have time to mess around, so you don't yes, yes.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: You jump in and you say, I've got three hours today, here's my list, you know, what am I gonna tackle right now?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: And none of it, none nothing on the list is is fluff, you know?
• 21:56
  unknown: Right.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas if I think if you were in the office for and I worked remotely.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: For a while for six years, way back when.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I would go into the office, I would not feel like people weren't productive.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: It was more that I was like, wow, I'm really getting a lot done, you know, when I'm at home.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think that's probably applies here as well.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, gosh, during the during the COVID lockdown, I did so much work.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then I and then actually as we were coming out of that and things were normalizing a bit, I realized that I can't do that.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: That that that was a blip in time and and totally unsustainable going forward.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't work that much uh as as I could then because there's just more demands, normal demands on time.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so when those are all taken away, I'm like, great, I can do all of the things I want, including work more.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can work as much as I want, and I'm here with the family.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, there were I know some people would think I'm crazy for saying that, that you know, I can work as much as I want.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's stupid.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: But but also I can work as much as I want.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I'm going to anyway.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, um you know, I I love I love the fact that you know we we can have you know our job satisfaction uh through you know doing good work, valuable work, doing it for good people, doing it with good people, and um then you know taking care of the things that are really, really, really important to us, like our families.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um why might you know a part-time or flexible work model, including remote, how might that help attract, you know, other you know diverse, broader talent to business valuation?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I feel like honestly, our team is super talented.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think a lot of that is because we have this part-time flexible workforce.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: So the way that I'm seeing it is if you are working full-time with you know, a business, a company, your time is 100% there, your experience is 100% there.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: The way that we have it, lots of our team members have other really truly interesting jobs um that are also um flexible in some way, or they are um doing that plus, you know.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we get a lot of really talented and dynamic people that have just enough margin for something like this.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um and they they they bring their outside experiences and their outside work to the table.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: None of our talent is stale.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're not just stuck in turning the wheel and doing the same thing over and over again.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: If I have a problem with um something technical, I might reach out to, you know, uh Edmund.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: If I have a, you know, if I have a question with um a specific type of evaluation, I might reach out to somebody else on the team.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's just they're really um multifaceted, dynamic people.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of that's because this is they have other things going on in their life as well.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, everyone is learning and growing outside of their job here.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, to to be frank, on on our side, internally, the on our side, the our side is our side.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh to be frank, you know, internal to the business operations, it can be a little bit tough to be juggling uh a lot of different people.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: It would be, you know, from one perspective, so easy to just have you know one person to just load things on and overload and have expectations for I've I've both been that person doing the assigning and that person receiving, and neither one of those actually is really great.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, it does lead to overload.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you never you never really can see it coming, particularly because in evaluation uh it's project-based.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so we don't have you know tax returns that come back year after year, so you can't anticipate the workflow.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, you know, the you were mentioning earlier when some you know when one of your kids needs extra uh extra attention.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I feel like I'm one of those kids who just needs extra attention.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, you there is enough margin in there to sometimes, you know, make the make the workflow be the thing that's and you do.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, speaking to that, that's something that I I really when going back to the profitability for the firm.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's really phenomenal.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you have only full-time, you know, people and they all these our projects are, you know, they're not a super long timeline.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: They're not like two and three year projects.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're two months, probably.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you would say the average project is.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Would you say?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh hopefully.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, hopefully they're not they're not just.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, there are those unique cases, you know, where we're we're really working for a long time, things change, or we kind of dive in a little differently.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that happens.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, you may have also repeat clients, and so that's fun too.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes it feels like those projects are are ongoing.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: But um in general, the project timeline is short.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so you really have to have a lot of flexibility with the team to be able to manage the ups and downs.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: So one thing that I love that we do, uh we have a weekly meeting and we kind of go through and kind of cover all the projects that we're working on and where they're at, ask questions uh of each other if we need to.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but we do a little bit of load balancing and it really has, I'm always amazed at how seamless that is.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's kind of easy for me to say, hey, this, I'm feeling overwhelmed.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and um, you know, this is this, this project and this project, and and there's a new one coming in, and I know my next two weeks are gonna be a little bit um nuts.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, who can help?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and it it really, we really do work together as a team really well.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: When a project comes in, um, you know, I say I have extra time, you know, and I know that I have a little bit more um more bandwidth and I can say, hey, I'd love to take that project.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then for you, you know, you get that we're here, you know, when things get really slammed, we kind of fold together as a team.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: And no one feels overburdened, but we can do it, you know.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: We can we can do it, we have a little bit of margin to do a little bit, a little bit more as needed.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if things are slower, um, we can scale back a little bit.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I I will say that that's been something that I've didn't plan for sure, but have discovered over time that having more people, so like six people on a part-time basis instead of two people on a full-time basis, for example, uh allows that flex to happen better, easier.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um so, for example, I mean, if I'm I already work full-time plus, of course.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so when it's a busy week, I can add, you know, 10 hours to my work week and still survive.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: But when it's all of you guys, all all the whole team, and it just happens to be a really busy week for whatever reason, it seems like everybody can plow in five extra hours or even 10 extra hours, and suddenly we're you know 50% more capacity, whereas I can only do 10 more hours personally.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's pretty amazing.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and yeah, that that is a that makes people stretch, uh, but also not kind of beyond the bounds of what they can do, you all can do, and I just and personally I super appreciate it.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh everybody's very willing to to give that when when necessary, as long as as long as it's not every single day or a week.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's yeah, it's wonderful.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: The ebb and flow of the workload just feels very natural with our team.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it does.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: It I that I never ceases to amaze me how kind of easy it is to, and it's not it's never been like a huge cliff, you know, it's a little bit more of a wave.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a wave, for sure.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: So do you see opportunities for growth and advancement here, considering the part-time arrangement?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: So growth, I'm gonna say absolutely.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: So um uh like I mentioned earlier, I think everything is uh in a good way, everything is challenging.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not sure challenging is the right word there, but everything, every project causes you to grow a little bit.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Every client is different, every business is different and has different needs, every industry is different.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, from where their market share is to, you know, it just it every project is totally different.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: So you're constantly growing from that aspect.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Additionally, um, not that long ago, I did my CVA, which is um I'm now a certified valuation analyst.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: So it I've been doing valuation for a while, but just to go a little deeper and and dig in a little further, um, you know, you all supported me in um that process.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: So um there's room to grow that way as well.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as far as advancement, I mean, I think that's a little bit tricky when you are remote.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I think it depends on the size of the business and what its needs are.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: So right now we've got our PMs and then there's you.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so and so I do, we've talked about this before, but I do see the need for, you know, if we could like clone you like four times, I think it would be amazing.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I do see the need for like, you know, deleg a little bit more delegation um on, you know, as time goes on.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, maybe there's potential um there.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then for as far as advancement, the other thing, and I don't know if this counts as advancement, but one thing that I'm really excited about and would like to do in the next year, two years, something like that, is I would really love to um our clients are all over, but I would say I don't know what percentage are in are in California, specifically in the San Jose area.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them, a lot of them.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's kind of an, you know, there's an there's a name there.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: You've worked with people for a while and and a lot of our clients are referrals.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I would love to work with some local businesses.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think that would just be so fun to me and fulfilling.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that feels like an opportunity as well.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: It it absolutely is an opportunity, and and we're we're actually right now putting together that business uh development uh policy and and try trying to make it a little bit more formalized, a little bit more uh on rails of how how to how to get that done.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh because yeah, at the end of the day, it's a service business.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: And in a service business, you have to have the work there to have the people to to do the work.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so yeah, we have to have to go where where the work is.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I yeah, I'm so excited about about this prospect, and I think that's kind of the next evolution of of of our business here is to have people who are also you know generating uh generating work, having getting out there, having those networks, and um you know have having their own brand a little bit, you know, along alongside the uh the business brand.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's great.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I think I've probably taken up enough of your time, but I do have a couple last questions.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything else that you'd like to add about you know balancing career and family?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I would just say that it can be done.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I I feel like you kind of hit, at least for me, uh like I've mentioned, I sort of hit this impasse where I was like, I didn't, I didn't know how hard this was going to be to feel pulled in in several different directions.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um and probably, you know, 10 years ago when I was just having kids, I didn't know if it would be possible to have both a career and the caregiving on the level of my time commitment that I also wanted.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I remember this quote that I can't remember if it was um this might be Cheryl Sandberg, you put the lean-in thing, but it might also be from a friend.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but just the idea that you can have it all, but you can't have it all at the same time.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I, you know, kind of was like, okay.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so I feel like it really was almost like a step of faith to just to to be home for a while.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I am so, so thrilled to say that now I feel like I can have it all.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I kind of can have it all at the same time, but it's it's it's based on the flexible model that that we have.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it looks a little different, maybe than than what you know, we we would have conceptualized you or me or anybody would have conceptualized, like you said, 10 years ago when when we're starting to have kids, because my oldest is just turning 13.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know although, you know, although you you're a mother, uh I'm a father.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: I we have you know, a little bit of a maybe of a different perspective on certain things, I think this is something that's very relevant to me just as much as it is to you, you know, from the standpoint of you know, making sure we're we're active in in the way that we want to be active with our with our families and our kids.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um I just I guess trying to say that this is something that is equally uh a a challenge uh you know on on uh you know on my side, you know, every family goes through this uh and everybody deals with it in a little bit of a different way.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's cool how how you deal with it.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, honestly, you know, I've uh I've I've had the the uh just the the the great uh uh uh experience of meeting you uh uh and your family uh in person.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that was that was a really great day.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, I can tell that your family is a a a close-knit unit that you you know you you you you aren't neither one uh Luke or you are you know ignoring your family in pursuit of career or or vice versa.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's right, right.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Both ways.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: So uh last two questions.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: I have two questions for you.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: What are you reading right now?
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a great question.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, okay.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have a friend that is writing her own novel.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's I I'm reading one of her drafts, and I'm so excited.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that um, but that aside, so that it's not a published book, but it's pretty fun to get to see.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: You'll have to tell me about uh we'll we'll have to talk about that one off camera.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I just read this book.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: What what genre is it?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's just fiction.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, so a fun read.
• 37:19
  unknown: Cool.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm excited for her.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of her own, you know, it's kind of her own kind of she her background, masters, and um what is it in?
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: But it she was English or communications or something like that, right?
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so this is kind of her chance to to kind of come back around um to her career as well.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it's fun to cheer her on.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I just finished another book uh for my book club called The Tell.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that one was fascinating.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: That one is a true story.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then uh yeah, so kind of butchered that question.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Could go a lot of different ways.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay, that's okay.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: I sprung that one on you for sure.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I always I always want to know what people are reading because that's the a we only have, you know, our own perspective most of the time.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to have something new, you know, you have to get it from somewhere.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have to have uh that that input into your brain somewhere.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, and as they say, you know, fear the person of one book, uh, because they don't have any perspective.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I just love the fact that um I think it's you know, fear the man of only one book.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's usually got a religious overtones.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: But at the at but at the end of the day, though, you know, you the the world is big and we want to uh be able to experience a lot of it.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: And books are one one good way of of doing that.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Great, great.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Very last.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: So honestly, I think you've taken all the wind out of the sails of this last question, really, because it's what do you find rewarding about your job?
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think that's sort of what we've been talking about this entire time.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: But just to summarize it, I mean I think I've I've mentioned this before, but if you ask any one of my friends, um they all know that I love my job, you know, and I don't I don't talk about it too too much.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of my friends um don't work.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I I don't I don't talk about it all the time.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: But if you were to ask any of them, they would say, oh, Becca loves her job.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I really do find it fulfilling.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh each client um is part of what's really fulfilling, each individual person you get to meet and work with.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, that wasn't a great, I don't know.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, the thank you.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for wrapping up.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, absolutely.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh, you know, and thank you for wrapping uh wrapping up uh succinctly like that.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: The um all I gotta say at the at the end here is you know that this has ended up being you know a little bit of a uh you know a mutual praise society here, which it wasn't really meant to be, but at the same time I love working with you.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, this is a um I don't know, this is this is meant to meant to really show that it's totally possible for both the employer and employee, contractor, contractee, whatever, side of things.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um both sides have a lot of benefit that can come out of working in a part-time and flexible schedule.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and yeah, I mean it it can it can look like this, and I really, really appreciate you know the uh you know what you bring to the table uh and you know I appreciate you being at the table.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you very much.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Becca.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.