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Balancing Music, Education, and Career Success with Frank Grimaldi · Marci talks money (and life)

• Marci Grossman (00:06) Hello, welcome to Marci Talks Money and Life. I am Money Marci, and if you think you don't have time to do the things you really wanna do, you need to stay for this conversation. I am very fortunate to know interesting people that are willing to share their stories. My guest today is Frank Grimaldi. I met Frank over a decade ago. He was working full-time in maintenance. while going to school to get his associate's degree with plans to go to Walsh College for a degree in accountancy. In addition to that, he was playing and performing with at least three bands, as well as hosting open mic nights at various venues around town. Welcome, Frank. Did I miss anything? Frank (00:45) No, I'm an avid gardener. You missed that, but that's the nicest introduction I've ever had. So thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. Marci Grossman (00:47) ⁓ that's important. Well, I'm so glad to have you. And then since then, of course, since I said I met him over a decade ago, he has since completed all of his schooling. He is an accountant. He is practicing accounting. He's, I don't know how many bands are you in now? Frank (01:06) I'm only in one band full time. So my band's named Slow Foot. But I have another band that I play around with called Fixation with some good players. I host open mic nights still from time to time. And the fun thing about music and like you said, have the honor to know interesting people and when your friends are high caliber musicians. I'm not saying I'm a high caliber musician, but my friends are. I find a lot of fun in just throwing something together with, you know, X drum or Y bass player and a percussionist or whatever. And a lot of fun stuff comes out of that that you might not have had with your practiced group, your rehearsed group. you know, music is the language of love and celebration. And I think that I don't know what I would do without music, you know? I like it almost as much as accounting. Marci Grossman (01:51) Good, I'm glad you threw that in. So I got tired just listening to all the things that I was listing about the things that you were doing when we first met because you were effectively doing at least three full-time jobs. And with your band you were sometimes, touring. I mean, you were playing on different parts of the state. You went over the country. I think at one point in time you even left the country. Frank (02:12) So we never left the country. had a chance. The band I was in at the time was called Dirty Basement Blues, one of them. And that was maybe one of the more successful groups I was ever in. We did a small thing outside of Michigan, nothing major. So we put a record out and it was getting all sorts of airplay and attention in like Germany, the Scandinavian countries. And we had people reaching out and they're like, you guys are played on our FM stations. like you guys over here, like a lot. if you guys can get over here, we'll provide you a back line and book you a tour and all that, you know how life is. If there's six people in a band, you have six sets of schedules, and some of them are married, some have kids, some are going to school, some have jobs, some don't have jobs, so they don't have any money. I mean, it is what it is. was one time, and I'll be brief with this, a lady reach out to us and she was allegedly the Blues Society leader of the Alaskan Blues Society and we were like, wow, that's really cool. And they wanted us to come up and play at the Alaska Blues Festival. we Googled the Alaska Blues Festival. It looked really cool. They had some really great headliners that we had, we had known and some of them we'd even played with. We saw the schedule. Everything looked, everything looked good. And then, so we like signed on to do it. They were gonna fly us up to Alaska. They had like four or five gigs for us to do. We were so excited. It was summertime in Alaska. So it's getting closer and closer and closer and we still don't have a contract. The person that we were doing the booking with kind of went radio silent. So I started going into these Reddit forums, you know, and kind of just poking around, seeing what people were saying. And I finally reached out to, I think it was Devon Allman at the time. He was supposed to be like one of the headliners and I had sang and played with him a few times at a local club called Callahan's in Auburn Hills So I had his number I called him and I was like, hey You're headlining the Alaska Blues Festival. He's like no, dude. That's not real. That's fake They're not really doing it and it turned out that this lady had been raising funds. She I think she'd gotten some grant money and She was like just absconding with it. I don't know whatever happened with all of that, but needless to say, we didn't go to Alaska that summer. Marci Grossman (04:21) No, but you did go to Nashville for a, I don't know what competition, Memphis. Frank (04:25) We went to Memphis. It was ⁓ the International Blues Challenge, IBC. That's a relatively large one. So we did win the Detroit Blues Society Blues Challenge and we got to go down to Memphis. It was a really great time. there was so many great bands and there was just music everywhere. You know, I don't know if you've ever been to Memphis. It's a really cool little town. Great ribs, great barbecue everywhere. We ended up getting bounced out of the contest in the first round, but we were there for like four or five days. We got to rub elbows with some people and we played at the Rum Boogie Cafe in the first round of this contest with the eventual winner. Mr. Sip was the name of the band and they were just lights out. He still tours. Castro Coleman, I think is his name. it was humbling to see like how good a band could be, how tight it could be. there were bands from Australia, there were bands from Korea, there were bands from Japan, all over the world. So it truly was an international contest. it was truly representative of the entire world. It was pretty cool. Marci Grossman (05:25) During all this, you were still going to school and working full time. And you didn't, you didn't. Frank (05:29) Marci, when I was recording our first album, I was sitting there as the band, I was just a singer in this band. I didn't play guitar or anything, but I was sitting there the Sound Shop Studios in Macomb with Josh Ford, Motor City Josh, and he's recording the band putting down bed tracks and I'm sitting there putting together financial statements for a fake sporting goods company. They're all making fun, sitting there doing homework. And I was sitting there for six, seven hours, so I'm just like running through this stuff, you know? And that was at the very beginning. you do with a prepaid expense? Stuff like that. So it was interesting. Marci Grossman (06:03) I mean, at some point, were there times where you said, why am I going to school for accounting? Frank (06:08) I knew why I was going to school for accounting. When I graduated high school, I decided that I was going to go to school for accounting. Ask me why and I'll tell you I have no idea. I think I figured that it was a solid job. It was a steady job. And it was always good at school. I never had to try very hard. And I passed all my classes. I graduated high school with a 3.7. I don't think I really even went senior year. It just kind of came naturally to me. And coming out of school, I was like, I'm just going to go get my degree. You know, I'll be done in four years. I'll go get my CPA and I'll start work as an accountant. So I take one year at OCC and I was so sick of school that I just didn't pay attention. I kind of blew it off. I think I failed two of my first four classes and I was like, you know what? I don't need it. I'm just going to go get a job. I'm just gonna start working. I was working at a go-kart track as a track technician check the oil on the go-karts and Fix the batting cage machine and try not to get hit by a baseball whatever and then I remember when I got my job at temple where I eventually met you. I Like how you said maintenance we call ourselves janitors I think I worked at Temple for about five or six years, moving racks of chairs and tables and building stages and emptying trash. And after a while, I just like, I'm sick of working with my back and I was sick of working as hard as I was working and as much as I was working. And not really, it was a great job, but it wasn't where I wanted to be financially, within my life, personally, anything like that. I think I was 25 or 26 when I decided to go back to school. And I get really excited at the beginnings of things. So I'm going back to school, get all my books and get my supplies ready. And I start going and it's like halfway through the first term at OCC. And I'm really just giving it the old college try. I'm really paying attention. I'm doing the work. I'm paying attention to class, participating. I was like, you know, I think I really can do this. So fast forward five years later, because like you said, I was working full time. By the end of it all, I had been taking two classes a semester, spring, fall, winter, summer for five straight years. I did that. And by the end, I was just so burnt out with everything. Job, school, band. work, whatever, family time, people need things, know, and life goes on. So I guess to cut back to the point, there were plenty of times where I wanted to quit school. There was so many times where I was like, think what's interesting, so my girlfriend, Brittany, her friend, Sarah, was asking me earlier today, just so happens, She goes, you went to Walsh College, didn't you? I said, yeah, I to Walsh College. She goes, I'm thinking about going there. I said, what are you thinking about studying? She goes, I'm going to get my bachelor's in accountancy. And I think that you said this exact same thing to me. Why? And she goes, well, I've been studying for it. And I was like, no, Walsh is a great school. And I kind of just gave her the rundown. I was like, are you doing pretty good at OCC? it's Oakland Community College. for those that aren't in the know. She said, yeah, and I said, well, take your effort and triple it at Walsh. They really beat you up pretty good. You come out knowing your stuff, whether you want to or not, kicking and screaming, you're gonna learn it. And I think back to when I first started at Walsh, and I had to keep a 3.6 or a 3.7 to keep my, I had a scholarship. It covered like 25 % of my tuition. if I kept a B plus average. So I started like B plus average. I can keep a B plus average. My first two tests come back and I think I got like a 67 on them. I was like, and that's with trying, you know? And I'm like, okay, well, well partner, you're gonna have to double down and really dig into it. Like I said, know, school always came naturally to me. I think that was a really character defining moment for myself. kind of getting humbled a little bit and like, all right, dude, you're gonna have to sit down and really get into it. And I just made myself promise that one hour a day, I would study one hour a day, Monday through Sunday, at the very least, I would either do some readings, take some notes, run through some problems, do something every single day. And that's how I graduated college. And I'm so glad that I did. I'm really glad that I stuck to it. Marci Grossman (10:21) that had to be hard because you were the busiest man in showbiz. I mean, you were the hardest working man in Waterford. And if I ran into any musician in Waterford or I'd say something and, yeah, you know Frank? And it's like, yeah, all of a sudden I must be somebody. Frank (10:26) hardest working man in Waterford. Marci Grossman (10:37) You would go and do these open mics and you say, yeah, I'm not as talented or not as skilled as my friends were. And at an open mic, if someone said, hey, want to play, you will you play with me? You would get up there and play. No one told you the song ahead of time. And you're so talented. were just, whether you knew the music or you just heard the notes or whatever it was. mean, truly watching you at these open mic nights was very impressive to see what you did. with the people that weren't your band, just supporting the other musicians that were there. Frank (11:05) You know, it's Songs behave a certain way, chord structures behave a certain way, and after a while, you kind of understand You know what's kind of coming, and you can be ready for it and anticipate it, and that just comes with repetition, time on task, and that's the same for... Anything for accounting for music for digging a ditch for riding a motorcycle I mean if you work on it, you're gonna kind of get the nuances of it my friend and Bass player Dan McCaslin. I think you know Dan anyway He told me one time because he's like worlds above me as far as that goes he doesn't even know the song by the end of the first verse he's got the whole thing I was like, how do you do that? And he goes Because they're just chords, buddy. And that kind of opened my eyes up a lot, you know? Don't be scared, just jump in. I mean, worst thing that's gonna happen is you screw the song up completely and everybody laughs at you. It's not a big deal. Marci Grossman (11:55) But that's huge. So many people are afraid to try new things, are afraid to dig in that way. Because, yes, chords and songs behave a certain way, and after you have enough repetition, but you have to put in the work to get to that repetition. School may have seemed easy, but you were probably doing more work than you realized just by paying attention. Showing up is heart of it. Frank (12:17) You know, that's funny you say that because I always say that the best advice my father ever gave me my entire life was to pay attention to what? To everything, how people are driving, what they're saying, how they're saying it, who's doing what, how they're doing it. You know, just if you pay attention to something and sit back for a second and just kind of take in your surroundings. you'll be way better off moving forward and you can be proactive instead of reactive. I try to be like that in my life. Now, my dad's crazy, so there's that, but he gives good advice sometimes. Very sage wisdom. Marci Grossman (12:55) I don't know how to go from that. But you've got your band, you're still playing with Slow Foot now, right? That's your regular band? Frank (13:02) Yeah, we're playing pretty frequently. So Slow Foot, we're a six-piece band. We have two guitars, a bass guitar, a drummer, Hammond organ, and a percussionist. Is that six people? Yeah, that's six people. So ⁓ we put out... Do the debits match the credits? Yes, they do. ⁓ So... Marci Grossman (13:15) That's the accountancy showing you were able to count the people. Yes! Frank (13:23) We put an album out called Something Good, think two years ago, three years ago. And we put that out at Otis Supply in Ferndale, which has since closed. It was a great music venue and we kind of rode that success for a little bit there. We got on some cool festivals. Even now, we go all around the state in the summertime. Alpina, Marquette. Muskegon, Grand Rapids we play all around the Detroit area so this summer I was like I'm not gonna book us that much the last two or three summers. We've had Five six gigs a week. or at least I have if it's not the full band It's me and another guy or whatever so at least two three gigs a weekend. And it's summertime in Michigan you only get two months of summer in Michigan, you know everybody's on the boat and you're loading up gear and I was like I'm not gonna do that this summer. gonna relax a little bit. So I looked at my calendar the other day and I was like, well, you failed to do that. You have a gig, at least two every week, all summer long. All summer. What are you gonna do? I can't help myself. It's funny because it's not even about money. That's not what it's like. what it is about for me. At certain points it was, but it seems like now that that's not a main focus. Like we're getting paid better than ever and the gigs are better and they're more frequent and when you're not even looking for them is when you get them the most and it's crazy because there was a time where I'd be like hunting for gigs and couldn't find them and then you know it's just funny how life works out that way sometimes. Marci Grossman (15:01) Well, you know, you're probably paid a little bit more for accounting than you were, you know, as a janitor. Frank (15:07) I won best janitor of the year like four years in a row though. Marci Grossman (15:10) But you're the one who gave out the award, so I'm not sure if that counts. Frank (15:13) Yeah, but there were sweet awards. Marci Grossman (15:15) and you probably had a theme song as well. Frank (15:17) No, no theme song. I wanted to have something cued up there. I failed. Marci Grossman (15:21) Ha How did you balance your schedule? Because once you got back on track for school, once you realized how much you had to put into it, you still were working full-time, you were still in the bands, which is more than just performing, because especially if you were working on new music, you had to work on new music. The standards, the stuff you already had in your repertoire didn't require a whole lot of practice because you'd get that just playing the gigs, but you had to spend time there. and you have a girlfriend so you had to spend time on your relationship and you know know kickball is a big part of your life in the summer so Frank (15:56) Huge. I'm officially retired from kickball. My back and knees no longer allow me to play. Maybe once a year we'll dust off the old kickball. Marci Grossman (16:03) Okay, so guess that's one less drain on your time, but I mean, what you're doing and to have a relationship and to do all of these things, that's a lot of time. Frank (16:11) Well, first of all, Google Calendar is a godsend. think without it, I would probably drive into the ocean not knowing where I needed to be. And the ocean's far from here, so that's, I'm saying something. So I make sure that if I book something, I put it in my calendar, I have a shared calendar with all my guys. When I was going to school, I had my set days. for school so say I had Tuesday and Thursday I had class so we would have to practice Wednesday, Monday or Friday something like that if we had gigs you just got to do it but Like I said, one hour a day, one hour a day I would study no matter what. So a lot of times, my lunch break looked like listening to a financial accounting lecture about discount coupons and how to account for them or how to account for a trust tax return. how to do those forms or something like that. You find little pockets of time that you didn't even know you had. There's 24 hours in a day. If you sleep six hours a night and you do this for two hours, you have to budget your time. But I think most of what came out of all that is if you wanna do something, you'll do it. If you wanna do something, if you wanna succeed, you'll find a way to do it. And those two week breaks between Christmas and New Years or whatever you would get were like heaven. You finally get a little time off, but they'd be over, bam, that quick. I'll never forget, there was the last test I had to take, it was an online test, and it was for business technology or something. We had to build a website. It wasn't a hard class at all, but it was my last class. And I had to take the final online between a certain time on like a Saturday. And I go to take this test and my internet's down. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. So I call up my guitar player, Mike. like, hi, I gotta take this exam at your house. He goes, sure, come over. And I'll never forget clicking the last button, the last answer. And I needed like a... a D plus to pass the class or something like that. There was no pressure at all. But I'm like taking this test and I clicked the last answer and it was just like the weight of 10 million suns being lifted off of your shoulders. Like I'm done. I'm done. I'm not going back in three weeks. I'm not, you know, this isn't a small break. It's not summer vacation. I'm done. I'm gonna, damn right, I'm gonna walk across the stage at commencements. I was 28 years old I think when I graduated. It was... Marci Grossman (18:07) Heh. Frank (18:30) like the biggest accomplishment I had ever done in my life and I'm still very, very proud of myself for doing it. Now, going back to get my extra credits and taking my CPA exam, that has eluded me to this point. It's been six, seven years. Marci Grossman (18:44) But at the firm you're in, are you doing public accounting? Do you need the CPA? Do they care if you get it? Frank (18:50) We do do public accounting, we lead our clients. It's almost more like consulting. We do like their whole backend process and then they're all nonprofits. So they're all audited by a third party outside of us. So we help them budget. We help them do their day to day. We have an AP department. We help them work through their grants, how to budget that stuff out. We help them with grant writing. Everything stem to stern through financial statements and budgeting. And then at the end of the year, we have another audit firm come audit us. The CPA wouldn't hurt, but it's not required where I'm at. There's a couple other managers where I work that don't have their CPA. Now, I don't think an extra licensure or extra certifications will ever hurt you. You know, life is a many faceted thing. Who knows what's going to happen in 10 years or whatever. So I think that for me, it was a personal goal when I started going to college. was like, you'll be graduated by 27 or 28 and you could have your CPA by 30. Well, 30 came and went. And I don't know if you feel the same way, but time just flies. Marci Grossman (19:54) Well, 30 went way farther for me. It's way gone. Frank (19:57) faster and faster and it just speeds up every year and I tell this to people all the time if you want time to go by really fast get into an accounting cycle because as soon as you're done closing it's the 15th I'm almost done with my six clients sets of financials so by the time I'm done with all of that presenting everything it'll be time to start again. It was just January like two days ago Marci Grossman (20:02) Yeah. Frank (20:25) It just goes by so quick. Especially when you're working in a repetitious cycle. That's something I talk with my dad about too. He's a mechanic, so we have interesting conversations about accounting sometimes. It's just like, he's like, well, aren't you done? are you gonna finish? And I'm like, there's not really a finish line. There's a finish line every month, but then there's just another month It's not like working on a motor like the car never drives down the road, you know There's just another car that pulls into the shop Marci Grossman (20:54) When I got my CPA, that was before the master's degree was required. I know a lot of people rather than getting a bachelor's in accountancy, just dig right in to go for the master's. So that that's just part of the process, that the CPA is essentially inevitable because you've already done that. But I can understand the thought of going back for a master's, after I graduated. I had thought about it for a lot of different courses. Once upon a time, I had thought about going to law school, but I was like, yeah, I don't really want to go back to school. So I imagine if you don't get your master's right off, it's gotta be hard to go back to school to get your CPA, but there's so many other licensures you can get. I'm not sure if all of them require the CPA to do that. Frank (21:39) So what would be beneficial to me would be like a grant writing class or just further training. You know, there's so much more to accounting than debits and credits. You'll never forget getting out of college and getting your first actual accounting job and realizing that you know nothing. It's like, I did so good in school. Well, guess what? You're not in school. Marci Grossman (21:56) Ha ha ha. Yup. Frank (22:01) I always said there should be a class where you have to answer seven emails and get a financial statement out while your phone is ringing the entire time and your coworker's trying to tell you a joke and you're just like, dude, everybody shut up for one second. Everybody just stop. I remember watching you going through the budget process and it's so funny how everything kind of came full circle because I ended up working for Marci Grossman (22:13) Ha ha! Frank (22:24) in almost the exact same vein and respect that you were working when I met you. You were the controller, no? You were the controller and you were dealing with Razor's Edge and people donating money. The school, the whole temple underwent major construction and renovations. Marci Grossman (22:30) Yep. Frank (22:40) All of that stuff, all the capital ins and outs and restrictions and endowments, people don't understand how in depth that stuff can be. I always, We gravitate towards each other. I think it's just a kindred spirit or musician thing, you know, but also accountants and we're cool. You know, you're cool. I'm cool. We're all cool. So I'll never forget. Marci Grossman (22:57) Totally cool. Frank (23:00) I was in the lunch room and I was like my first accounting, like principles of accounting. And I'm like, well, they spent money and they got supplies and then they use the supplies. So I was like, the asset goes down, but like, what's the debit? And you're like, it's supplies expense. And I was like, no, it's not Marci. They already bought the supplies. And you're like, Frank. Yes. And I was like, Marci Grossman (23:21) You Frank (23:23) and you just kind of click, you know? So I ended up coming to you with a lot of, at the time, for me it was like really difficult stuff and for you, you were probably giggling about it. And I see it come full circle because now I'm working in the capacity at my firm that I'm in and people come to me with questions and I'm like, I remember when that was a problem for me. I remember not understanding that and it's just life, you... you get, I don't wanna say I'm wise, but you gain wisdom and you've seen it a couple times, right? You've been around that block, you've chopped that tree down before and it's not so daunting the second time around. It's easy when you know how Marci Grossman (23:58) Well, and it's that repetition, that muscle memory, that chords are going to do what they're going to do. There's only so many chord structures, and especially if you're in blues, I mean, there's certain blues patterns, but we're not going to all of a sudden throw an augmented seventh Frank (24:14) Unless you're John Lennon. Marci Grossman (24:15) What that's totally different. Frank (24:17) He's just a goofball. The other thing is, so chord progressions might behave a certain way, but so do certain clients. And so I think I was somewhere on a point there where, you know, accounting is not just numbers, debits, and credit. There's so much psychology involved. You have to deal with people, not just your coworkers, but your clients, the CEO. Everybody's different. Not everybody's easygoing. Not everybody accepts mistakes. easily and that's internal and external and people are going to make mistakes. I mean, there's no way around that people are gonna mess up. You have to afford grace to people one way or another. Mistakes are the way that people learn the most and probably the best if they're smart. If you make the same mistake six times in a row you're probably not gonna have a job anymore. You got to learn. And there's just so much to it from a people aspect. I think that being easygoing and just kind of listening to people and understanding where they're coming from and turning them into people, making it not personal. I don't want to say make it personal. That's a bad connotation. But I've worked on clients where their leadership team, They're all tough and everything's yes or no answer and they have all these hard questions and then get them to giggle a little bit or you get them to laugh. You get them and they ease out a little bit. And now you're talking on a personal level and you can get more done that way. You're not gonna get a lot done if everybody's hard-nosed. So again, metaphor for life, maybe just take a step back and relax. And I don't see a lot of accountants with that approach. think I have something kind of unique brewing there. Marci Grossman (25:58) Well, you know, it's hard for me to put the word relax in with you because the things you did to me are anything but relaxing, but you were always, you kind of carried that with you. Okay, we'll get it done. Okay, you know, we'll take care of it. I saw a few of them. ⁓ But we all do, we all have those times where you would see that problem and you were like, I don't. Frank (26:13) I have my freak outs, you know? I have some freakouts every here and there, you now and again. Marci Grossman (26:26) I don't even know. there were a couple of times when you came to me, I was like, okay, that that's fine. It's a real problem. They didn't put this in here just to mess up your head. We all go through that in accounting. and especially as you said, that transition from the class to the real world. And all of a sudden it's a different animal because you don't get it in a nice story problem. You get a box of receipts. You figure out the story. Good luck with that. Frank (26:51) New client implementations are always fun. They're from a different accounting system completely and everything's just a debit and a credit, they're all wash accounts and there's no memos. You're like, what's happening right now? Do you guys have any paper files? No. Marci Grossman (27:06) Anytime you inherit a client you are at the mercy of the quality and the quantity of the prior records that they give you to try and figure out what their real story is. Frank (27:17) I had a client, they were implemented like three or four years ago and they were on Greenbar. It was like they had binders of ledger paper and it was, no. Marci Grossman (27:25) Yes! Frank (27:27) It was a pretty big outfit, you know, and we're like, okay. So we get this client transition. They weren't mine. They weren't my client at all. I think I helped build a payroll import or something and they just, they proved to be a little bit difficult. You know, it was just kind of hard to work with them a little bit. And, they were like chewing through our staff. They chewed through a manager here, chewed through a staff there. And they were like, we need you to go on this client. And I was like, all right, we're gonna make this thing work. And you could see the process breakdowns and where they were and how they were happening. And after a second, I was just like, guys, full stop. We're gonna have a meeting. We're gonna talk about all of this. I can see. where it's going wrong, but we're not gonna point fingers. All we're gonna do is we're all gonna stop, we're all gonna take a breath, and we're gonna fix the processes, and we're gonna make it better moving forward. I said, I guarantee you, every single month, it's gonna get a little bit better, and it's gonna get a little bit quicker, and it's gonna get a little bit cleaner. And I've been on the client for two years now. I've gone through two audits with them and a couple budgets, and the CEO... Who actually I'm pretty close with now at this point. It's funny. She was like you know what you said it You said you were gonna get us turned around and she goes I can't believe how far we've come and how clean and easy everything is all our processes are working. You gotta get them to trust you a little bit. You gotta fix it and don't just treat the symptom. You got to find out where it's coming from I think that that particular client is probably my most memorable professional accomplishment getting them back on the track. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Basket case and you get them back on the track and get them back working. And my firm was impressed. They were impressed and I was impressed. There were times where I wasn't so cool and calm and collected. Marci Grossman (29:16) Well, you know, it all comes down to you put the work in and you spend the time and every month you pull out another loose thread, you untie a knot, you do whatever it is and get it a little bit cleaner. I love that you said, you know, every month we're just going to get a little better. So you gave them the knowledge going in, okay, we're not going to fix this overnight. This is gonna take time. We're gonna invest that time in working together to get from here to there. Frank (29:45) must have told them 35 times. Well, I think that that was the last of the skeletons in the closet. Cause every now and then something comes out and bites you in the ass, you know? You're not doing something right or you find a stack of AR receipts that you didn't know ever happened and they're from three years ago and you're like, are we owed this money? Does anybody know? Marci Grossman (29:51) Hahaha Frank (30:02) But I must have said that 35 different times. And the CEO goes, you know, you've said that like 20 times. I'm like, well, I mean it every time. I don't know else to say. Marci Grossman (30:10) Right, right, you think it's the last one and... Frank (30:14) It's your closet, sister. I don't know nothing. Why you got so many skeletons in there? Marci Grossman (30:17) I tell people when they're starting new at a job, whether it's a new client or a new position totally at the beginning is when you're first going to see a lot of things, but you don't know enough about the whole process to know exactly what you need to do or where you're going from. and it's a process. You see the things as you see them and you deal with them. And each time you pull something out, you see something else. It's nice to start fresh because then you're not married to any of the processes, you're not married to any of the results, so you have a great perspective when you're new at something, but then as you get more familiar, you're able to keep cleaning things up a little bit better. ⁓ Frank (30:58) I think back to the first job that I had like accounting, it was at the roofing company and I didn't know anything about anything. I was working at International Automotive Components as like an intern right out of college. And I got a call from the roofing company and they were like, we can pay you better, you know, come over. I was like, cool. So I go over there and I start working and I immediately realized, I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. And I think back to that stuff now and it's like, wow, I could have done so much more and so much better, but I just didn't know. And there was no one there to ask. I was the accounting department. It was like having a four-year-old watch your two-year-old. Marci Grossman (31:41) Well, that's the problem with anything. Even with an internship, even with whatever, you didn't have the breadth of experience at that point in time to really offer possibly what that position needed and probably added stress to your life. Because you'd come in and you'd know you didn't know what you were doing and you'd be trying to figure it out and you probably did a lot of things well, but you didn't understand how you were doing them or why you were doing them. Frank (32:06) I think what was the biggest step for me at my position now is when I started running financial statements, I had done all of the accounting all month long. I put in all the credit card transactions. I wouldn't do the AP, but I would oversee it, make sure the coding was right. But you start doing financial statements and you start realizing from a higher level you're going, If you put that in here, pops out there. I get it. I see. so I try. I'm like known as like the training guru where I work. I like I'll train you. Come on. I'll show you what's what. And it's funny because I'll just be rambling on making videos and cracking jokes or whatever. But I make people understand what they're doing and more importantly, why you're doing it. What are we doing? Why are we doing what we're doing? What are we trying to get to? What are we trying to accomplish? And then I start getting them immediately. I start running the financial statements with them and make them understand. And I like to do little popcorns and go, well, we're looking at this unrestricted donation account. Where are we going to find that? What statement are we going to find that on? ⁓ it's the p and l. Okay. All right. How do we get there? We need that unearned revenue account. Where's that at? Where are you gonna find that? I'm gonna sit there for a second. Do you not know? It's okay if you don't know. I'm just, know, I'm gonna quiz ya. I'll popcorn ya. And it keeps them on their toes and they learn. But you gotta see it and you gotta do it and you gotta get in there and you gotta make some mistakes. Because people need that. They need to see if you put the quarter in here, where does the quarter pop out? What is the equal and opposite reaction or the action of what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen if I do this? If you don't know, you'll never know. So you gotta get in there. You gotta get in there and that's, you know, school, music, anything. Jump in. I mean, don't just jump out of a plane. You should probably train for that. Don't just, don't just go swimming with sharks. I'm not saying that. I think you need to put a disclaimer on this podcast, but if you wanna do something in life, just do it. Marci Grossman (33:52) Well, I'm glad that you've got some guidelines there. Frank (34:06) You're just gonna be disappointed you didn't do it later. So while you got the time and the energy and the get along, the hitch in your get along, just do it. Learn a language, go to school, fight your bully, do something. Just do something, I think that's good. Marci Grossman (34:19) I think that's good. I think we should probably end it with that unless you've got some other wisdom to part with us, you accountant whisperer, you. Frank (34:26) Well, Make sure you check your prepaid threshold. Don't put a $20 box of bandages in prepaid. It just upsets people. It's not worth the time. Marci Grossman (34:36) ⁓ are you sure you're not gonna, like, depreciate them? Frank (34:39) It's not a capital asset, they're not capital bandages, they're just Spider-Man band-aids. We're not, dude. Marci Grossman (34:45) You've got the Spider-Man Band-Aids? Frank (34:47) No, if I did I'd capitalize them. Nope. Nope, I got nothing else. I'm really glad that you asked me to be on here to ramble. I'll ramble anytime. Marci Grossman (34:49) okay. Okay. Well, I think it's so important to see that, okay, you had this idea, I was gonna go right to school. You started school and says, yeah, I'm not gonna go right to school. And then here you are working and you said, okay, now I'm ready to go to school. And you went and that was really hard because of everything you had going on and you were able to do it and keep everything up there, keep everything moving forward. Here you are. Yes, that's behind you because time passed and you got older. Look at where you've come when we first met. Look where you were and look where you are now. And you put in the time and you put in the effort and you should be hella proud. I mean, it's insane what you did and what you balanced to get there. Frank (35:42) not gonna lie, there are still days where I audibly say out loud, I wish I was still a janitor. But they're few and far between. I wish I was washing windows right now. Marci Grossman (35:52) Well, no, and I get that. I get that because you are the guy who makes the decisions. And there are times it would be nice to come into work, do your job, go home, and not bring it home with you. But there's a lot of opportunities coming from being the guy that makes decisions, from being the guy that spends two years unwinding someone's account because you keep getting those skeleton surprises. and a lot of pride in that as well, I'm sure, being the guy that was able to take care of that when other people got too frustrated and couldn't keep doing it. Frank (36:26) You're absolutely right and I'm so proud of how far I have come. You're absolutely right like nail on the head, you know, I think back to it all the time and I think what spurred this whole thing is somebody had commented on a post where I had just gotten hired at the firm I'm at now and this was a Facebook post. Somebody commented on it or liked it so it popped back up in my feed. And it kind of brought a tear to my eye. I was like 88 days I'd been unemployed and it was tough. it was like, just. heart pounding all the time, or wasn't sleeping. I had literally just bought a house and I had just leased a car and I lost my job. And then COVID happened. I wasn't getting unemployment money because it got messed up and then you couldn't call or contact them. And so was like 88 days. After 88 days, I got hired into the firm I'm at now. And I commented on the post. like, know, and it just so happens I'm celebrating five years at the same company that hired me and nobody realized that the post was from five years ago. I must've gotten 35 phone calls of people asking if I wanted a job and I love that. I appreciated that so much but it was just so funny because I'd have to be like, no, like I've been gainfully employed for five years. I'm happy where I'm at and they're like, well you had that post and I'm like, the post was from 2020. Marci Grossman (37:42) Yeah, no, when I saw it, I did see that, but I was like, my God, get Frank to come on my podcast because he's been through so much. Frank (37:50) Life's Little Wringer. Marci Grossman (37:52) Life's little wringer. Okay, well, Frank, thank you for coming on Marci Talks Money and Life. I am Money Marci. Thank you listeners for tuning in and you got this. See ya.