Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / From Big Corporate to Back of House: Amy Spandau’s Case for Building Small Businesses Right

Transcript

From Big Corporate to Back of House: Amy Spandau’s Case for Building Small Businesses Right · 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've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:17
and today's guest spent nearly six years as CFO of a growing
0:21
energy startup, helping take it from early stage chaos to the
0:25
edge of something real. And then watch the company wind
0:29
down anyway. That kind of experience changes
0:32
how you see numbers. It stops being about
0:35
spreadsheets and starts being about survival.
0:38
She carried that lesson through a corporate detour at a
0:42
satellite communications giant, then walked away from a CFO seat
0:46
to build something she could fully own.
0:48
What she built punches well above its weight.
0:52
Her name is Amy Spandau. She is the founder and
0:54
fractional CFO of Ablaze Financial, a boutique advisory
0:58
firm she launched in January 2022 that brought enterprise
1:03
grade financial discipline to the founders who need it most.
1:07
A dual license CPA with experience banning BIG4,
1:10
Biotech, SAS and Global Media, Amy has spent 25 years solving
1:17
problems that most small business owners don't even know
1:20
they have. She is proof that the best
1:22
financial advisors are the ones who have already been in the
1:25
room where everything almost fell apart.
1:29
But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:32
brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency.
1:35
Listen, if you run a business, you're likely stuck in the cycle
1:38
of rising insurance premiums. You're paying more, but your
1:41
team is getting less, and many people can't afford coverage at
1:44
all. So we do things differently.
1:47
We offer a solution that provides your employees with
1:50
unlimited access to doctors, therapists, and prescriptions
1:54
that's always free for them to use.
1:56
But here's the part that really surprises most people.
1:59
Unlike every other employee benefit out there, our program
2:02
puts more money into your company's bank account.
2:06
As an example, we recently helped a client increase net
2:09
profits by $900 per employee per year.
2:13
Results vary, but gains like that can change how a business
2:16
is valued. And the consultation is free.
2:19
So imagine being the advisor that becomes a hero by
2:22
introducing this to your clients.
2:24
See if they qualify today at AD back benefits.com.
2:26
All right, back to our guest, the CEO of Ablaze Financial, Amy
2:31
Spandau. Thanks for making the time to
2:33
Share your story today. Thank you so much for having me,
2:36
I'm looking forward to the conversation.
2:39
So you started at a company called Tendril.
2:41
You were a controller, stayed there nearly seven years,
2:44
eventually becoming the CFO. Walk me back to the moment you
2:48
realize the company was not going to make it.
2:50
What was going through your mind?
2:52
So it that actually happened at the beginning.
2:55
So I was hired. I was hired to take the company
2:58
public. So this was back in 2000,
3:03
11:00-ish. And so this was when we've made
3:08
it out of the 2008 financial crisis startups and we're really
3:14
having big ticket starting to have big ticket exits again.
3:18
And my background in audit and then controller ship at a big
3:24
billion dollar public company really positioned me to take
3:28
another company public. And so that's why I was
3:31
recruited and within that first six months, the team, the
3:36
executive team, which I was part of realized that there wasn't
3:40
any there there. So we had a lot of clients.
3:43
We had a software platform. We were being courted by Wall
3:48
Street to do the go public, but there wasn't any real recurring
3:54
business there. So I was part of the team that
3:57
looked at that figured out how to restructure the business.
4:01
The CFO at the time, this will make sense of why I went to the
4:05
satellite company leader. He was a he was courted to come
4:08
in and take in public as a CFO. And when we realized that there
4:12
wasn't any there there, he said, you know what, you need to
4:15
promote her. She's ready to be promoted to
4:18
CFO. I'm going to go back to Echo
4:21
Star. This will come back later.
4:24
And and we restructured the business, SO50 clients to 15,
4:31
about 200 employees to 65 / 2 reductions.
4:36
And then we focused on rebuilding the software
4:38
platform. So that six years that I was
4:42
there is the work that we did the first six months was to
4:46
realize the business needed to be restructured.
4:48
We weren't ready to go public. And then myself, the CEO and the
4:52
CEO transformed the business. General ended up being renamed
4:56
up white and they did a double exit to private equity.
5:01
And so the CEOCOO and I were the ones that rebuilt that company
5:06
and got it ready and so. So you thought you were walking
5:10
into one thing. Turns out you were walking into
5:13
a rebuild, right? Kind of a tear down and rebuild,
5:16
right? You're, you know, losing
5:18
clients, you're letting staff go.
5:19
You're kind of reimagining like what the company become, what a
5:23
powerful set of lessons that you must have learned in that seven
5:26
years. Yes, and I'll never forget it.
5:28
We did this, the really large reduction in force on December
5:32
6th, 2012 and we, the 65 people that stayed right, all of us,
5:40
the executives, we fired, people that we had never worked with.
5:43
It was horrible. It was one of those days in your
5:46
career that you'll never forget. We had to then move into a
5:49
smaller part of our real estate. So, you know, the 65 people we
5:53
moved into the what was effectively the kitchen and
5:55
break room and we put all of our desks together.
5:59
It was a fire hazard. I mean, we had cords everywhere.
6:03
It was, it was so sad because we had to move from one building to
6:06
this small space in another. But if we didn't do that, we
6:11
wouldn't have made it right? So is.
6:14
Talk to me about December 6th, you know, having to let all
6:17
those people go. You know, I just talked about
6:19
this in a recent interview. You know, for folks who have
6:22
never had to let somebody go, it is one of the hardest things.
6:25
It's one of the hardest experiences, I think, in life.
6:30
And for you to have to do that not just for one person, but for
6:34
dozens of them takes a real toll on you.
6:38
It and it was, it had to be very coordinated.
6:41
There's a lot of rules when you're doing a significant
6:43
reduction in force. So we had security on site just
6:47
in case. Then there was everybody had a
6:51
list of people. So obviously you let go of the
6:54
people on your team first, but then you there was just not
6:57
enough leadership to the number of people that had to be
7:00
reduced. So then you just you had to work
7:03
a list. So you're letting go even though
7:04
you know the person, they work in a different department, but
7:07
we're you're all working together to do it.
7:10
You know, a script and then once that's all done, and then then
7:15
you have a group of people that get to stay that don't really
7:18
understand what just happened. So you have to communicate
7:21
through that. And then what I remember is
7:23
literally pushing my chair with my monitor on it.
7:27
I don't remember what was on my chair, but literally had to push
7:30
my chair because I was on the third floor of building #1 down
7:34
the elevator across to the new place, you know, the the
7:39
kitchen, what was effectively the kitchen and cafeteria and
7:43
setting, setting up my desk in the corner.
7:47
As you look back, obviously that December 6th, a painful day,
7:50
something I hope to never have to repeat.
7:52
But as you look back at the work that came in, the months and
7:55
years that followed, how do you feel about that, what you guys
7:59
were able to do? Pride because we worked really
8:06
hard at it. We were perfect by any stretch
8:09
of the imagination. But we anchored on one concept,
8:14
which was do the right thing. So the, the head of HR who was
8:20
also the executive assistant to the CEO, we, her and I sat in a
8:23
room and we were like, what are our values going to be?
8:27
And we came up with five of them.
8:29
And as an executive team, we LED with those.
8:33
And the first one is do the right thing and do the right
8:36
thing is still my core value. That integrity still drives
8:39
every decision that I make. And I think that while we made a
8:43
lot of mistakes, that wasn't one of them.
8:48
And, and it was just a pivotal time in my life.
8:54
Going from controller to CFO is very difficult.
8:58
Only 15% of accounting and finance profession, very few
9:02
accountants make it to the CFO role.
9:04
Most, most CFOs come from a finance background.
9:08
So I was in a very small minority and was very lucky that
9:13
the CEO plus the board backed that transition.
9:16
I had never done an investor call.
9:18
I had never done a budget. I had never done so many things
9:23
that were required for my role. And so to do that and have the
9:27
financial stewardship while you're going through a very
9:31
difficult transition, right. It wasn't, you know, our
9:34
investors supported us, but we really had to work it and we
9:42
raised several rounds of very tough capital.
9:46
And I've never done any of that before, right.
9:49
I remember the CEO is like do your board slides.
9:53
I had done accounting board slides.
9:55
That's not the same thing as the finance and operational board
9:58
slides. And I remember, I don't remember
10:02
how many it was in the first deck.
10:04
He threw out every single one of them so.
10:08
How were you learning? Who was kind of shepherding you
10:11
through all of this? And the, I had one of the, one
10:15
of the independent board members.
10:17
I'm also very smart, but I had just never done these things,
10:20
some of these things before. So I probably worked three times
10:24
as hard as everybody else. But I it was a really, you know,
10:27
really pivotal experience and I had a great board, great
10:32
investors was hard was don't get me wrong, it was really hard.
10:36
But I looked back and and realized what support I really
10:39
did have. So talk to me about the
10:42
transition that happened from tendril into echostar.
10:46
OK, so the CFO at Echo Star was the CFO at Tendril and he went
10:52
back to Echo Star and he had had me come to help him do some
10:57
transformational work inside of Echo Star.
11:00
So I had really, I didn't know where Tenderal was ultimately
11:03
going to make it. I had done pretty much
11:06
everything that I could do. And he kept asking, he asked me
11:10
every six months, will you come work for me?
11:12
Will you come work for me? Will you come work for me?
11:14
And, and I eventually just said yes.
11:17
And so I went to be his, you know, global controller and
11:22
effectively chief accounting officer.
11:25
And I, I worked there for a couple of years to really help
11:28
him do some stuff there that he hadn't been able to accomplish
11:31
yet. It was really hard.
11:35
Talk to me about something that was really hard there and what
11:37
it taught you. So Echo Star is owned by Dish
11:41
Corporation. They were, they were sister
11:43
companies. They used to be 1 and then they
11:45
were split. They're owned by a billionaire,
11:48
Charlie Ergen, who is known for being one of the most awful
11:54
people in business. Billionaires that that make it
11:59
to be billionaires from starting their businesses and their
12:02
garages or the back of their trucks.
12:04
I've worked for two of them are very difficult.
12:07
And So what made it really difficult was it was very hard
12:12
for people to stand up to Charlie.
12:14
And so for example, I had to spend half of my time about a 45
12:20
minutes north of DCI was not allowed to travel during
12:23
business hours. So I had to spend every other
12:27
week going back and forth between Denver and DC.
12:31
Effectively, it would have been easier if it was in DC.
12:34
That would have been easier, but it was north of DC.
12:37
So I I left every Sunday and came home late late Friday night
12:43
every other week. That was really, really awful.
12:47
You weren't permitted to travel during office hours, OK, Because
12:53
they didn't. They thought you were wasting
12:56
the company's time. I mean, that was like a policy
12:58
for the entire company, right? And it's just, it was policies
13:02
like that, changes that need to do, need, needed to be made that
13:09
that weren't made because for lots of different reasons.
13:12
And so I'm a change agent. And while I was brought in to
13:15
make changes, those changes were fought.
13:20
And so it just, it was really, really difficult.
13:24
And it was, it was also an environment of yelling.
13:27
So Charlie Ergen would yell so loud in the boardroom.
13:31
I was 5 off, I don't know, four or five offices down in my
13:34
windows would shake. And so like my, they would
13:38
rattle right, the outside windows.
13:40
And and so that was also really challenging.
13:44
And it's really made me realize how much trauma exists in the
13:50
corporate world and how, you know, we talk, we talk a lot
13:54
about relationships and abuse and trauma and, and that's all
13:59
the new buzzwords today. And while I've been really lucky
14:02
in my personal life that I haven't experienced a ton of
14:05
that, I have in corporate, I have in the business world.
14:10
And so I realized that, you know, when I left Echostar to go
14:14
to media kind part of that was I just didn't want to work in a
14:17
relation in, in situations like that.
14:19
We get to choose where we work. And even though I worked with
14:22
someone I cared about a lot, I just couldn't.
14:25
I'm too sensitive. Maybe I that was just too hard
14:29
for me. So when you talk about trauma in
14:32
the workplace, you're talking about these kinds of, you know,
14:35
very difficult Co workers or in your case, you know, the
14:38
ultimate the the boss, the founder, loud, I don't know what
14:44
you put it, category of verbal abuse.
14:46
Yeah, absolutely. So you decide, go ahead, you
14:52
have more you want to say there. Yeah, just yes, it's, it's abuse
14:58
of power. And I look, I love people.
15:01
I love the man that I've worked with and for, you know, I'm not,
15:06
I don't believe that everyone is is treated that way.
15:09
But I do believe that there are certain people and they get away
15:13
with it the more power that they have.
15:15
People get used to it. And just like a bully, I mean,
15:19
Charlie was effectively a bully, and you have enough power, then
15:26
your only choice is to walk away.
15:29
What you did and you joined Media Kind, you were CFO, but
15:34
only for eight months and then it was over.
15:36
What happened there? So the CEO and I decided to
15:41
leave. At the same time we wanted to
15:44
make changes that the investors didn't want to make.
15:47
And so this happens. A lot of people don't talk about
15:51
it, but the company had some real financial issues, but it
15:56
had been a spin out, a spin out from a larger company and a lot
16:01
of the our infrastructure needed to do accounting and finance
16:04
wasn't done. That made managing a global
16:08
operation hard. And instead of fixing, really
16:12
making some really significant decisions that would have
16:16
positively benefited the organization, the investors
16:21
wanted to kind of play it safe. And so we had a choice.
16:25
Did we want to stay in that environment or move on?
16:28
And the CEO and I decided to move on.
16:30
And this, this happens a lot more than people think.
16:34
If there's just a not a meeting of the minds between the
16:36
investors and the board and the executives, then you have to
16:40
find a better solution. And so we just were change
16:43
agents. And so we wanted to make
16:45
changes. And if that wasn't possible,
16:46
then the most of the right thing to do was move on.
16:50
I think that, you know, what we thought was going to happen,
16:52
happened. We, Matt and I still stay in
16:55
communication. But at the end of the day,
16:58
really what it was, was the universe or God, whatever you
17:01
believe in was like girlfriend, like you're not supposed to be
17:04
in corporate anymore. We've given you 2 really hard
17:07
things back-to-back and are you going to listen and do what
17:11
you're being called to do, which is build your own business.
17:14
So here I am. So for you, there wasn't any
17:18
thought of maybe I just I sort of bend to the board and you
17:23
know, I follow the path that they want to be.
17:25
Capable of doing that to my to my own detriment, right?
17:30
I have a I have a very like specific I'm going to call it in
17:35
my integrity, my dividing mod like like I can't.
17:38
If if something is not do the right thing, then I can't bend
17:42
to it. I'm not your person that can toe
17:46
the line if I I just can't. I've always been that way.
17:51
Never a consideration for you when you got to the point where
17:54
you're. Like over a child to raise,
17:56
Yeah. When you got to the point where
17:58
it was clear that you were butting hedge with the board,
18:00
you're like, I'm out, I'm gonna go do my Did you know that when
18:04
you left there, you were gonna go do your own thing or.
18:06
Did no. I mean, it was really painful.
18:08
It was really, really painful. It was.
18:11
I knew it was gonna happen. You know, we agreed so that like
18:15
that we would leave together. But it was really painful,
18:18
right? It was we didn't that and I
18:21
didn't agree that it was the right thing they did.
18:24
We didn't right, And and it was just it was it was awful.
18:29
I wouldn't I wouldn't go back. I wouldn't I wouldn't wish that
18:35
kind of thing on my worst enemy. It's really painful.
18:40
And so because when you see what the right thing is and you can't
18:45
get other people there, that's really hard, right?
18:49
And so I wouldn't wish that on my worst end to be.
18:54
So what point did you come up with the idea for Ablaze
18:58
Financial? So I had the first idea for a
19:03
business that could help founders in 2015.
19:06
So one of the massive things you do in startups is cash flow
19:11
management and there's lots of different names for it, but you
19:15
have a down scenario forecast which basically it, it marches
19:20
week by week what your cash flows are.
19:22
And so I had you, I had developed a tool when I was at a
19:27
Ray Biopharma and then continued edit tendril and I had a friend
19:33
that was like, can you help me? I can't figure this out.
19:36
So she did my she used my tool for the first time and I was
19:40
like, do I have a business here? What specifically couldn't she
19:44
figure out what her? Cash flows were Her cash flows
19:47
had gotten too complicated. She had debt balances that she
19:51
she wanted to start paying off. She was investing in her
19:55
coaching business and there was just too many INS and outs for
19:59
her to figure out on a spreadsheet.
20:01
And so my cash flow tool was something that I was like, well,
20:06
why don't we try this for you? This is how I managed my
20:08
personal finances. This is how I managed the
20:11
business finances. Let's try it.
20:14
Let's see if it'll work for you. And it did.
20:17
And then I did it for a couple other people in my life.
20:19
And I was like, hey, I, I will do this for you.
20:22
I just want to see if it works. And so we did it.
20:25
And I, I literally at that point could have started a coaching
20:28
business, but we were in the middle of an upswing at tendril
20:32
and I just couldn't. It just wasn't the right time.
20:35
And when you say this tool worked for them, be more
20:39
specific. What did it do?
20:40
What were they able to accomplish?
20:42
It gave them clarity on the cash they had today, how long it
20:46
would last, and how they could pay off the obligations that
20:51
they owed. So for the first time in their
20:54
life, it's like a mini budget in a way.
20:57
It helped them understand where they were at and how to make
21:01
changes and also help them understand oh if I reduce this
21:06
line item it helps my cash flows X if I I always use the example
21:13
if I trade in my Corolla for a Range Rover, oh crap I run out
21:17
of money in four weeks. Got it.
21:20
OK, super helpful. Yeah.
21:23
So you could have had a Oh, sorry, go ahead.
21:27
No, I and so it helped them do that.
21:29
And I said, you know, man, can I do a coaching business here?
21:33
And I, I, I rode out a coaching strategy and I named a Blaze.
21:40
And there was a group of us at Tendril that we met every
21:44
Wednesday night, a couple of us, and we were working on our
21:48
little side hustles. And I was like, this is going to
21:50
be my side hustle. And one of them was in creative,
21:53
one was in marketing. And the marketing gal and I are
21:57
still working together today. She's building her business
22:00
finally. And just like I'm building a
22:03
blaze, but the Ablaze logo comes out of that.
22:06
That work in 20. I was like 20/15/2016.
22:10
And the name we named it at that point, and then it just sat on
22:14
the shelf. What was behind the name?
22:19
It really helps you launch yourself where you're going to
22:21
go, like you want to be on fire in the best way possible.
22:26
So sort of the the bones of it you put together in 2015, then
22:30
it set on the shelf as you know, you had some other corporate
22:34
stops along the way. And then when you're at
22:36
Mediacind and you're finally like, I'm out, this isn't
22:39
working. Did you know, hey, this is what
22:42
I'm doing next? I'm going to take a blaze back
22:44
off the shelf. No, because my corporate
22:46
identity was a huge part of my life.
22:50
I you know, and I was like, OK, God, this is not where I'm
22:54
supposed to be. I'm listening.
22:56
It's very clear. And it took me a couple of
23:00
months. I had gotten, I had separated
23:04
from my husband during that time.
23:08
I, I had a house in Denver. I spent the summer, you know, I
23:12
spent time in California just kind of checking things out.
23:16
So it was just this huge time of transition for me and I was
23:19
figuring out what I wanted to do.
23:21
And I was like, you know, I kept getting this in like this just
23:25
high level, just interest people are like, you need to go out on
23:28
your own. You need to build something.
23:31
And I was like, OK, and in January of 2022, I was at the
23:35
Langham in Pasadena, which is a a nice hotel.
23:38
And I said, what the hell, let's just do it.
23:42
And I wrote my engagement letter.
23:44
I wrote my first pitch deck. And I was like, OK, I'm going to
23:49
offer boutique bookkeeping, cash flow management and fractional
23:52
CFO services. And how did you get that first
23:57
client? Right.
23:58
And then I went back to Denver and and that my first client
24:02
came from a woman that bought some stuff I was selling on
24:06
Craigslist and I was loading it into her car and she was and I
24:10
was like, what do you do? And she said I'm an interior
24:13
designer. And I said, well, if you ever
24:16
need finance help, just let me know.
24:18
And she became my first client. She called me a week later.
24:22
How much of a conversation did you have about what you could do
24:25
when she was there loading up her car with this Craigslist?
24:28
I just told you what it was. That was the extent.
24:30
For coffee, we went out for coffee.
24:33
And then my second client was a real estate agent who I had
24:39
reached out to to sell my house. And she's like, and she's
24:44
sitting at my dining room table and we're talking about selling
24:46
my house. And I was like, I was like, if
24:48
you ever need help with accounting and finance, just let
24:50
me know. She's like, I actually need
24:52
that. And, and so I think really when,
24:56
when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, you get
24:59
these little magical Easter eggs.
25:01
Those Easter eggs, are they the clients just start to show up.
25:06
Interesting. OK, so tell me what Ablaze looks
25:09
like in practice today. What are you doing for founders
25:13
that maybe they're not getting from their accountant or their
25:16
bookkeeper? Yep.
25:17
So we, we are about ready to do a regrant.
25:21
We're dropping the word financial actually just to be
25:24
Ablaze Inc. The legal name is already
25:26
changed. We haven't changed the rest of
25:28
it and that's because we offer a full suite of back of house
25:31
services. Accounting and finance is
25:34
critical to every founder. But one of the interesting
25:38
things I ran into Anthony was that no one understands what any
25:43
of the back of house is. So much so that most of my
25:47
clients, I didn't understand that.
25:50
Like I've spent 30 years doing this and luckily my clients all
25:55
raised their hand and they're like, we have no idea what
25:58
you're talking about. What are you talking about?
26:01
What do you mean by back of house?
26:03
So back of house. So if you think that everybody
26:05
knows front of house, front of house is sales, marketing and
26:08
operations, client operations, back of house is everything
26:12
else. So it's your accounting,
26:14
finance, tax, legal, HR, insurance and then making sure
26:19
the bathroom gets cleaned right. Like you know, back of house
26:22
does everything else. It might be office management,
26:25
it just depends on the business, but back of house.
26:27
So you're. Cleaning your clients bathrooms.
26:31
Even if they really need it, we are remote so you know, we're at
26:33
least cleaning ours. But but the idea is, is back of
26:38
the house is really everything that's not sales, marketing and
26:41
client success. And for businesses that are in
26:46
the process of scaling, that usually typically falls to the
26:49
founder and then they realize they can't do something, so they
26:53
start outsourcing it in piece parts.
26:57
But that's the reason why I came out with boutique bookkeeping,
27:01
cash flows and fractional CFOI thought that everybody knew what
27:04
that was. And over the course of the last
27:07
four years, we realized that we had to put together all of those
27:11
services and we had to put them together in one place.
27:15
And for me to feel confident as a CFOI needed to make sure that
27:20
all of that infrastructure was there because this, this was the
27:24
massive problem I saw. Bookkeeping doesn't do it
27:28
because bookkeeping is probably only 50% of accounting.
27:33
Tax doesn't just do it. Tax is just a small piece of
27:36
compliance and if I don't have really good accounting, then I
27:42
need finance because finance is what gives you the
27:44
infrastructure to make decisions.
27:46
I had to put it all together and then I started to see that they
27:49
had problems with their teams and how to compensate them.
27:53
They had problems with insurance and they were taking on all this
27:56
unnecessary risk. And so my services evolved over
28:00
time to be staged and then to cover all of those things,
28:06
because without all of those things, then the front of house
28:10
is going to fall over because you're going to grow to a point.
28:13
And if you don't have that infrastructure built, and if
28:16
that infrastructure isn't built when you're small, it's very,
28:20
very hard. Because I looked back at my
28:23
career and I said, why have you been hired all those times?
28:26
And I was always hired to make significant changes when it was
28:31
already too late, right? And then no one's happy, right?
28:37
Because you can't get the data. Like basically when you the
28:42
plane is flying and I got to change out the engines.
28:45
That is not an easy feat. So I've built my practice to
28:49
build all that infrastructure when it's small so that it can
28:53
scale. Good infrastructure should stand
28:56
for 10 to 15 years. And so, so which allows a lot of
29:03
change and a lot of growth, right?
29:05
And so I've built a firm so that you can build it right the first
29:08
time. So as you start expanding these
29:11
services, Amy, you're kind of branching out into areas that
29:14
you know, you understand, but maybe aren't your specific areas
29:17
of expertise, you know, HR, you know, maybe insurance.
29:23
And so as you're moving into those areas, how did you level
29:26
up so that you could be the expert that your clients needed?
29:31
So I partner with the X. So depending on what the area
29:34
is, I partner with experts. So in accounting and finance I
29:38
am an expert right? Not tax, which always is so
29:42
interesting to my clients, is no accounting and includes tax.
29:47
And it would be the same thing as having your brain surgeon do
29:51
your foot surgery or your podiatrist doing your open heart
29:54
surgery. They're all doctors.
29:56
They're just a different expertise.
29:57
My expertise is financial reporting, accounting and
30:01
financial reporting. There's always a tax team and so
30:05
there's a lot of education there.
30:06
But what I do is I partner with really like.
30:09
So on the HR side, I've done a lot of people management as a
30:13
CFO you do because what what people are looking for in back
30:18
of house is not how do I necessarily deal with employee
30:23
that's using drugs or are dealing with an executive that's
30:27
sleeping with the intern like HR.
30:30
What what they need is team structure, design compensation.
30:36
And compensation would be how do you how do you do base comp?
30:40
And then how do you structure incentive compensation, whether
30:43
it be a bonus Commission, equity program.
30:46
And I've done a tremendous amount of work in that area.
30:49
And so the HR is really about team structure and design and
30:54
compensation. And if we need HR, then I
30:57
partner with typically partner with PEO is another HR experts
31:01
on the legal side. We always have really great
31:05
legal counsel. But The thing is, is that most
31:08
founders don't know how to talk to their lawyer, right?
31:11
And a CFO talking to a lawyer, we speak a different language
31:17
than most of our founders. And the founders really need
31:19
kind of someone that I can translate that information.
31:25
And I would say the biggest thing that I do, and you're
31:28
going to laugh, but I'm going to show you this is I help you
31:30
prioritize. They caught alligators closest
31:33
to the boat. So my team got me an alligator
31:35
and a boat. But the idea is this is a
31:38
founder. There's so many alligators in
31:40
the swamp. Someone needs to help you figure
31:43
out which one we need to kill today, right?
31:46
Which one is crawling into the boat.
31:48
Just because you can see it doesn't mean we're going to deal
31:50
with it today. So really what I do as the as
31:53
leadership to my clients is what are the priorities?
31:57
Where are we going to focus? And then who are the experts we
32:00
need to bring on that are not inside my team to coordinate
32:04
those services for you. And so the service coordination
32:07
for us is really with who's your financial providers, who's your
32:12
payroll company and PEO, who is your insurance broker and then
32:17
who are your lawyers And, and then we coordinate those
32:20
services and are really the bridge for our founders so that
32:24
they know how to interact with them.
32:26
Most of our founders just want to not worry about it anymore.
32:31
They want to focus on the thing that they built their business
32:34
for. The product or the service that
32:36
you know, they're passionate about delivering is the the
32:39
business model that you have. Amy, they're at a blaze.
32:43
Is it typical? Are there a lot of other
32:45
companies that provide this breadth of services?
32:48
I don't believe so. And the the services, a lot of
32:52
them are in the different pillars and some will do
32:57
accounting and tax, some will do accounting, tax and finance, but
33:02
I don't run into many that do the rest of the coordination.
33:06
Now that said, a lot of fractional CFOs will do the do
33:10
some of the coordination. But the gap that I've walked
33:14
into is that the fractional CFOs, if there's a bookkeeper
33:21
that really is not a strong dynamic because you're a
33:24
fractional and that's why I won't do it.
33:27
I ran into that, I tried that doesn't work.
33:30
What doesn't work? Specifically a fractional CFO
33:34
paired with a bookkeeper. And the reason being is because
33:38
there's too much ancillary work that needs to be done for me to
33:42
be powerful as a CFOI need to make sure the books are closed
33:46
timely and accurately, and I have the financial models that I
33:50
need. A bookkeeper is not sufficient
33:53
to give a CFO truly what they need.
33:57
There's a lot of gaps in the middle.
34:00
So what ends up happening is the CFO is forced to step down and
34:04
do more roles like accounting manager, controller, financial
34:09
analyst. And once you do that, once an
34:13
executive comes down that far, then you can see seeing things
34:18
at the 30,000 foot view. You can.
34:21
It's harder to be strategic. I'm not saying that there aren't
34:24
ones that are successful. The most successful CF OS that
34:29
are fractional bring in a controller with them.
34:32
They bring in a high level accounting person so they don't
34:34
have to worry about the numbers. They also then bring in a junior
34:38
financial analyst so that they don't have to do the numbers,
34:41
but that's more expensive. And So what I've been really
34:45
pushing for and, and my team is working to build is how can I
34:49
build a cost efficient model still more expensive than most
34:53
of my competitors. We are a boutique service.
34:55
We are more expensive, but still how can I use tools to bring the
34:59
cost of service down while providing the highest level of
35:02
value that we can? So we're still what?
35:05
Kind of tools are we talking about?
35:07
Software tools mostly, yeah, but to be clear, you know what I
35:10
mean. I'm a firm supporter of AII,
35:13
love technology, working at Tendril, really embedded in me
35:17
software and technology and how it can move things forward.
35:21
But there is really a human element to back of house that
35:25
can't be replaced. That said, there are things that
35:29
we're working to automate. How can we use best in class
35:32
processes? How can I train the most junior
35:36
staff to punch above their weight?
35:40
Can you give me a specific example of how you're working to
35:43
use AI in a way that's going to free your folks up for more of
35:48
that human touch component? And it's not just AI, it's just
35:52
it, it's software tools. So for example, what we're doing
35:56
right now is, is we're we're practicing with tools that exist
36:01
inside of QuickBooks automation tools rules so that more
36:07
transactions go clear, clear the banking feed more accurately.
36:14
Now where most accounting firms get it wrong is letting the
36:18
software do that without human intervention.
36:21
And we are we are figuring out the human intervention.
36:24
We are also standardizing processes and procedures across
36:28
our client base. What is the best in class way to
36:32
manage AR invoicing and collections and how much of that
36:36
can be automated? But to be clear, the software
36:40
tools, we're really leveraging our project management tools,
36:44
things like video like Loom, looking at video, looking at
36:49
training technology to make our staff faster at what they do.
36:56
But one of the things I'm really proud of is my junior staff are
37:00
all college kids. Why are you really proud of
37:06
that? Tell us.
37:07
Because I think so many people, so many people that are our age,
37:10
Anthony, say that the younger generation aren't hard workers,
37:17
they're not worth investing in. And I think part of my French,
37:21
that's absolute fucking bullshit that my college kids are amazing
37:27
and that's where I'm going to be investing.
37:30
And so I, you know, part of my business model is investing in
37:35
them and building a services firm that is competitive with
37:39
BIG4, right? Where they can get that much
37:42
experience. Because if you graduate and go
37:45
into BIG4 accounting, you will accelerate to your other
37:50
students 2X. So like if two people graduate
37:55
and one goes into Big four and one just goes to work at
37:57
Coca-Cola, this one will will get promoted twice as fast.
38:02
So in the same amount of time, they're going to come out at a
38:05
much higher level and skill set. And that's what we're working to
38:09
build. And I, you know, and then I want
38:11
my younger generation to be here in the US.
38:16
Amy, describe the ideal client for a Blaze.
38:21
OK. So our ideal client has made it
38:24
to $1,000,000 of revenue. There's somewhere between 1 and
38:27
5 million of revenue. So they've made it to that first
38:31
major revenue milestone, that's one.
38:35
And the revenue milestones for small business is 0 to 1/1 to
38:40
2/2 to 3/3 to five and five to 10.
38:44
So you're somewhere between 1:00 and 5:00, but most of our
38:47
clients come in between 1:00 and 3:00 and they have a desire to
38:52
run a successful business. Now, what does that mean?
38:57
That means that they don't just want to have a practice, they
39:01
want to establish a business that will eventually run without
39:04
them. Now, not everybody at a million
39:08
knows that. Most people at a million haven't
39:10
figured out that language. But most people that want to
39:13
make it is an entrepreneur. That's what they want to do.
39:17
They want to go from idea to exit and we want to take them
39:22
through the messy middle of not being appropriately capitalized,
39:27
not being profitable and creating a sustainable business.
39:34
Now that's going to happen somewhere between 3 and 5
39:37
million hopefully, because you want to build a business that's
39:42
it's not. And when I use the word
39:44
sustainable that it has the right metrics, it's generating
39:47
20% net income profit and it's paying the founder at least 250
39:55
a year. And those metrics for us come
39:59
from when you're going from 1:00 to 5:00, it's really hard.
40:05
You've probably put everything that you have in the business,
40:09
you have commingled your business and personal finances,
40:13
you have used your personal credit and we work with our
40:18
clients to untangle all of that another.
40:22
So in addition, there are two critical differentiators that we
40:26
have found in the market is we do personal books for all of our
40:29
clients. So in addition to doing their
40:32
business books, we take care of their personal finances as well
40:35
because they typically come to us all commingled.
40:39
They've also leveraged their personal credit because when
40:43
you're a new business, it's very hard to get business credit and
40:46
we work with them. There's a path to go from
40:48
leveraged personally and to leveraged in the business.
40:51
So we work through that difficult transition and then we
40:55
work with them on building the infrastructure and their
40:57
business to stabilize the business and drive towards 20%
41:01
profitability. And so, but they come to us with
41:06
a desire for it to be better, a desire to build a business that
41:10
will eventually exit. And they're at $1,000,000.
41:13
We predominantly do services companies, but we in our intake
41:18
process, we'll look at everyone. So the thing that strikes me
41:22
here, Amy, is given the experience that you've had in
41:26
corporate America, bigger companies and the kinds of
41:30
things that you were doing there, I had expected that the
41:33
types of clients that you'd be servicing would be a lot bigger.
41:37
It seems to me that these smaller companies, you know this
41:42
one to three, one to $5,000,000, they don't typically get to work
41:46
with an Amy Spandau, you know, somebody of your level of
41:52
expertise. Why did you focus on this part
41:56
of the market? Because this is where I was led.
42:01
These are the ones I'm in love with and passionate about.
42:05
And I think really what my purpose is is using that big
42:09
company structure and process and experience to build better
42:15
businesses sooner and to make more people independent of of
42:22
the bigger machine. Because it's really hard for
42:26
people right now. And if you work for someone else
42:29
and that someone else isn't does not have financial stewardship,
42:34
that's really scary. So the more financial
42:38
independence I can create for business owners by building
42:41
strong small businesses. This country runs on small
42:44
business. There's literally hundreds of
42:48
thousands and millions of businesses that we don't even
42:51
know exist and I just want to make more of them successful.
42:55
And so that's one. And then the second thing is
42:58
when you get above 10 million, you're placing your first in
43:01
house team and by 20 million you have your first full time CFO.
43:05
Sometime between 10 and 20 you have a full time CFO.
43:09
And So what, what's really hard in the 10 to 20 space, if I'm
43:14
not careful, I can only serve two or three of them.
43:17
And I want to serve more of them when they're smaller to help
43:21
them grow. Now, Anthony, I have so many
43:25
challenges. I've learned so many things
43:28
about these businesses and how to serve them.
43:30
And what is the it's not even demographics, the personality
43:34
types and the archetypes of the founders that we actually really
43:37
can help. It's not easy.
43:40
It's not easy to serve this market.
43:43
However, I'm really passionate about this market and I I say my
43:47
clients are humans, my humans have companies, and my job is to
43:51
make those humans as financially independent as I can.
43:55
Yeah, it is. I'm just thinking about the size
43:57
of groups that you're working with.
43:58
Like these are the types of companies in, in my experience,
44:01
and maybe this is narrow minded, they're, they're traditionally
44:04
not getting access to this level of expertise.
44:07
You know, they're, they've got a, a bookkeeper, you know,
44:10
they've got an account, they've got CP, they've got somebody
44:12
that, you know, files their taxes for them.
44:14
But they don't have this strategic level of thinking
44:18
that's also helping them with, you know, a lot of these other
44:21
back office components. It's, it's quite a suite of
44:25
services to be able to offer to, you know, businesses of this
44:28
size. And that's that's where we feel
44:32
our niches and we continue refining our service offering to
44:37
bring as much value day one as possible.
44:41
The hardest part of my job is they don't understand the back
44:47
of house, they don't know what good looks like.
44:50
They're just in pain. And so we are constantly
44:56
evolving our model, constantly evolving our communication
44:59
strategies so that we can meet them where they are day one,
45:04
which is, I know it's really hard, I'm really sorry, right?
45:09
We are here to help you and give you the medicine that you need
45:14
to build this business that you're truly passionate about
45:17
and stand with you as you build it.
45:20
And that is that is the biggest challenge the, the this market
45:26
has been underserved because there's so much price pressure
45:32
below 5 million. The founders probably not taking
45:36
out an out of adequate amount of compensation.
45:41
Adequate kind of starts at 2:50 to be worth it.
45:45
Once my clients get to 250, the temperatures come down at 500,
45:51
they start to breathe. And that might sound like a lot
45:56
to to those of you that are listening, that might work for
45:59
other people. But the and it and it's not that
46:02
founders work harder than people that work for other people
46:05
necessarily, but there is so much difficulty in being a
46:10
founder and bringing your purpose to life that somewhere
46:13
between 2:50 and 3:50 they start, you know, 2:50 and 5:00,
46:17
they start to breathe. Well, there's a lot more risk
46:20
for a founder. Right.
46:22
You've made investments, Yep. And you've got, you know, folks
46:26
that depend on you for making payroll every week and just a
46:30
lot of, a lot of extra pressure and, and extra financial risk.
46:33
So and family pressure, friend pressure.
46:36
No one understands what you're doing unless they're a founder.
46:40
One of the first questions I ask when I start working with
46:43
clients is who's supporting you? Who do you have that's in your
46:46
corner? What do people typically tell
46:50
you? Who do they have?
46:51
They don't. Have anybody?
46:53
Yeah. Yeah, I hear that.
46:56
I, I hear it a lot too. And I hear the other side.
46:59
I hear, you know, a lot of founders who have, you know,
47:02
found a support group of types, you know, like a mastermind or
47:06
like AI. Forget some of the, the
47:10
professional networking groups, you know, where they get to
47:13
meet, you know, once a month and everybody takes a turn kind of
47:16
talking about that. And there's support in that, you
47:18
know, other people who are going through similar things and, you
47:21
know, their own businesses. Totally, and and that's that's
47:28
the hardest part about it. But what I tell people is if you
47:31
are blessed enough to be called into a purpose to bring
47:34
something into the world, there's like I never worry when
47:39
I wake up that I'm not doing the right thing.
47:41
Like I know that my part, like I never worry about that.
47:44
I never know how it's going to all work.
47:47
But I had, you know, that's a beautiful thing to not worry why
47:51
you're on the planet. You know, so Speaking of
47:54
challenges, Amy, what is one of the hardest things personally
47:58
that you've had to overcome and what did it teach you?
48:01
So probably the biggest thing in business was I bought a ranch in
48:07
2009 and I did business with a crook.
48:10
So I bought a very large piece of property in Northern
48:15
Colorado, a beautiful 340 contiguous acres.
48:19
I should have bought something smaller with the amount of money
48:23
that I had, but I fell in love with this huge piece of property
48:27
and the owner did an owner carry loan on it.
48:31
And for those of you that don't know what that is, it means that
48:33
the owner carries the promissory note instead of the bank.
48:37
And what I didn't realize is he had sold this property to
48:41
several people before me using the same structure.
48:46
He had a long standing relationship with a ranch
48:49
manager who I was bound to keep on and the ranch manager, it
48:55
took me a long time everyone like this was 2009.
48:59
So it's what 2026 a long time ago.
49:03
So I have had a lot of hindsight, a lot of
49:06
conversations, a lot of a lot of things.
49:08
But but there was a balloon payment due the ranch manager
49:14
managed. So we did boarding operations
49:16
and hay production. So the boarding operations, we
49:19
boarded 100 horses at capacity. We grew 20,000 bales of hay a
49:24
year. Most of that hay went into the
49:27
horse operations. But what the ranch manager would
49:29
do is when we would lose someone, he just wouldn't tell
49:34
anybody that called for new boarding, that we had openings
49:37
so slowly, just because there's just normal attrition as people
49:40
move and stuff like that. And I made some mistakes.
49:43
I wanted to change some stuff. I, I, I was not perfect in this
49:47
either. I, he managed the boarding down
49:51
so that our revenue matched the debt payment and plus payroll
49:55
and no more. And so I drained my savings
49:59
accounts. I drained my retirement accounts
50:01
trying to keep it. I, I begged the owner when the
50:06
balloon, 2 year balloon came up. I said, can you extend it a
50:09
year? He said yes.
50:11
Typical to the men yelling at me like Charlie Ergen.
50:17
I had to meet with him at least monthly and there would be times
50:21
and we would meet at a restaurant in town and he would
50:23
just yell at me and tell me how stupid I was and how I was
50:27
ruining his investment. And he was so helpful and he was
50:30
so benevolent. And I was the young.
50:35
I was the young woman that was an idiot.
50:40
At the same time I managed 3 ditch companies.
50:43
I knew nothing about water rights but I overhauled 3 ditch
50:46
companies and changed them from unprofitable to profitable.
50:50
I was on a Larimer County board to rezone horse regulations like
50:55
I This was my dream. I loved this property.
50:58
I wanted to shepherd it. I wanted to protect it.
51:01
It was in a conservation easement.
51:03
I wanted to own it for like the entirety of my life and live
51:06
there and like, and it was and, and, and granted, I made
51:11
mistakes. Don't get me wrong, business
51:12
owners always make mistakes. But I was treated very unfairly.
51:16
And so the, the extension on the balloon came up.
51:21
I negotiated with him. I tried really hard to extend
51:25
it. And I was like, OK, in order for
51:27
us to keep it, we need to do this.
51:29
He said no. But the, the, the, the, the, the
51:33
worst part about it is I had found an investor was one of the
51:37
other board members to pay the balloon payment.
51:40
And I wanted this person to manage the day-to-day operations
51:44
with a ranch manager because I knew that something was wrong.
51:47
I didn't fully know, but I knew something was wrong.
51:50
We had it. We were about ready to sign.
51:52
It had been papered. We were about ready to sign the
51:54
agreement. And then the investor
51:56
disappeared. Lo and behold, the owner went to
51:59
the investor and said, I'll just give it to you.
52:04
I'll just give you the property. Yeah, you can buy the property
52:07
direct from me. She's going to default.
52:09
You can have it, right at better terms.
52:13
And so he disappeared. And so he comes to me and he
52:16
says, you know, he said I'm not going to extend it, you need to
52:20
figure it out. And I said you can have it.
52:22
And I walked away and I lost everything.
52:26
I was several $100,000 in debt by the time I was done.
52:30
I had to go back into my parents house because I had nowhere else
52:33
to go. And in it was single handedly
52:38
still the most painful thing that I've ever experienced
52:41
because it was everything I had ever wanted.
52:45
I made mistakes but I didn't do anything that wrong and I was
52:50
just swindled. And later people in town came
52:54
and told me that I was number 45 that this had happened to, was
52:59
predominantly women it had happened to.
53:01
The investor tried to buy it, he took it away from him.
53:06
So I was just doing business with someone that just really
53:10
was a terrible person. So these other people that he
53:13
was swindling, he was doing it to one person at a time that
53:18
wasn't multiple people that thought that they owned the
53:20
property at the same time and he just, he had.
53:23
Serial and and you're so devastated, everybody moves away
53:28
right so. Wow.
53:31
And so I mean, there, yeah, there's multiple levels to this,
53:35
right? You lose your home, you lose
53:36
this property, you lose this business that you were, you
53:39
know, you really thought that you could make work.
53:41
You have to move back in with your parents.
53:43
You're in financial debt. Like there's just so many parts
53:46
of this that are just a giant gut punch.
53:50
How are you getting through this emotionally?
53:52
Like where's your support coming from?
53:55
So OK then like let's back up the train.
53:57
So like that happened. I started at tendril in July of
54:03
2011. At the same time, I know that
54:07
something's happening. I like, I, I just like it
54:10
intuitively. I know that something's
54:12
happening at the ranch, right? And, and, and so, so yeah, 2011,
54:20
yeah. And sorry, it's just like it's a
54:24
long time ago. But and then I meet the, I mean,
54:28
the CFO at Ecostar and he's the CFO at Tendril, right?
54:31
It took us some time and you know, and then I move in with my
54:35
parents, right? And, and then ten months later
54:40
we do the reduction at, at, at Tendril and I get promoted to
54:43
CFO. So, you know, I was heartsick.
54:47
I mean, I was heartsick, like I can't even express it.
54:51
I was a walking zombie. I was so devastated.
54:55
And like to any of you that ride horses, like I couldn't ride my
54:58
horse. I was so stressed out and so
55:01
depressed. I I could only like groom him
55:04
because he was a performance horse.
55:06
And any nervous energy in me goes right through their spine
55:10
and into them. And I couldn't ride.
55:13
I didn't want to ride. I didn't want to see anyone.
55:16
So it was just, it was it was awful.
55:18
It's truly awful. And like the universe is funny.
55:21
Like I take my horse to a barn. And if I had met the owner of
55:26
that barn before buying the ranch, I would have never bought
55:30
the ranch. I would have just boarded with
55:31
her. She was so great.
55:34
And you know, you just taken in another direction.
55:37
And so I really believe that that whole experience taught me
55:43
how to be financially resilient. I used all my tools to get out
55:47
of Ted. I can look at a founder and say
55:50
I understand. I put down businesses as much as
55:54
I grow them, and I can sit with them and say I understand.
56:00
I understand how hard it is. I understand if it's the worst
56:05
because I've had the worst. The only thing that would have
56:08
been worse is if I had to declare bankruptcy.
56:12
Luckily I was able to keep working and I didn't have to, so
56:16
I was instructed that I could have.
56:18
At what point did you feel like the cloud started to lift?
56:23
Probably like 2014, 2015, it took a while.
56:30
And how did you get from point A to point B?
56:34
What was something helpful that you did along the way?
56:37
I want listeners to kind of have a take away from this.
56:40
You know, maybe they're in their pit of despair right now and
56:44
they're like, how? Like, I see no light at the end
56:46
of the tunnel. I don't know what to do.
56:49
So I was lucky that my partner at the time was very supportive.
56:53
My parents were very supportive, and the people at work were very
56:57
supportive, right? And the CFO said to me, Amy,
57:03
it's not the last time you're going to lose money.
57:05
It's just the first one. And the first one is always
57:07
really, really painful. And I was able to throw myself
57:13
into my work and then have success in that work.
57:17
And so one of the things that I tell people is you have to have
57:21
action towards a result. The best thing that I've done
57:27
with my depression is create an action plan and actually make
57:34
action. It doesn't towards that whatever
57:37
that desired result is. And that's really hard when
57:41
you're depressed, it's really hard to move, but you have to
57:47
take small steps towards that desired outcome.
57:51
And, and that's what helped me through.
57:55
And, and I, you know, and the other thing is, is you have to
57:58
build a robust life. It's not that like work is a
58:02
huge part of my life. Don't get me wrong, I'm a
58:04
workaholic. I work on that all the time, but
58:07
work is also a solace for me. And so for me to continue my
58:13
work was really an important part of that process.
58:17
And, but, but if you're in a very, very dark place, there are
58:23
people that are there to help you find them.
58:26
And then every day do a handful of actions towards the life that
58:30
you want. I love that even though you
58:33
don't want to and you're never going to want to.
58:35
I wish, I wish I, I tell people, if I ran the world, if I was, if
58:41
I run the world, the first thing I would change is that we would
58:45
want to do the things that would help us feel better.
58:50
That would be the one universal law that I would change.
58:55
Just do it anyway. I love it.
58:58
Amy, I've just got one more question for you today.
59:00
But before I ask that, I want to do 3 quick things for the
59:03
audience. Anybody who wants to get in
59:05
touch with Amy Spandau, you can find her on LinkedIn.
59:09
We'll have that in the show notes on Instagram too.
59:11
Also will be in the show notes, ablazefinancial.com.
59:15
In case you're traveling right now.
59:16
Just easy to remember. Ablaze Financial.
59:19
You want to be on fire. She wants to help you, you know,
59:22
find your fire. Ablaze financial.com.
59:25
And if you're enjoying the show today, a quick comment or review
59:28
on your favorite podcast app goes a long way towards helping
59:31
others discover our show. So thanks for taking a quick
59:33
moment to do that right now. Also, as a reminder, you can be
59:37
the hero advisor that helps give clients their employees access
59:42
to doctors, therapists, and prescription meds that counter
59:45
intuitively, actually increases their net profits.
59:48
Real gains that can change how a business is valued.
59:50
So contact us today at adbackbenefits.com.
59:54
Last question for you, Amy, a year from today, what is 1 very
59:58
specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
1:00:03
I have been in the trenches of my business for four years now.
1:00:08
My business operates because of me.
1:00:12
Now. I have a wonderful team.
1:00:13
Everyone but every founder goes through this.
1:00:16
What I want to celebrate, so I turned 51 in a couple of weeks,
1:00:20
so on my 52nd birthday, what I want to be celebrating is that I
1:00:26
am not as directly involved with client services.
1:00:30
I am today. So every founder goes through
1:00:34
this. I'm working.
1:00:35
You want to work on your business, not in your business.
1:00:38
But for early founders, we work in our business every minute of
1:00:42
every day. And so I want 50% of my time a
1:00:46
year from now to be on my business, not in it.
1:00:50
And So what are you putting in place today to help make that
1:00:53
bridge possible? The first is the team that's
1:00:56
around me. So I really have my first true
1:00:59
leadership team. I have a head of finance, I have
1:01:02
a head of accounting and I have a head of clients operations and
1:01:07
I have a head of internal operations.
1:01:09
So I have four people who's basically taking myself and
1:01:13
splitting myself out into 4. I am taking myself partially out
1:01:20
of client operations to focus on sales and marketing.
1:01:23
So we have grown to the size that we are today.
1:01:27
So we are over 1,000,000 in revenue with 0 marketing.
1:01:32
Anthony, I haven't. I, I have not.
1:01:36
Everything has been inbound. I am so blessed.
1:01:39
But to get to 2 and then to three, I have to focus on sales
1:01:42
and marketing. So that's actually one of the
1:01:44
reasons why I'm saying yes to things like this.
1:01:47
And so I'm gonna take half my time for sales and marketing,
1:01:50
half my time for client operations.
1:01:53
And a year from now, I want it to be 2525 S 25% client
1:01:59
operations, 25% sales and marketing and 50% really being
1:02:03
ACEO working on strategic partnerships.
1:02:06
And what's next for Ablaze? Well, Amy Spandau from Ablaze
1:02:10
Financial, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing
1:02:12
both your time and your story with us today.
1:02:15
I really appreciate you being here.
1:02:16
I really appreciate being here. Thank you.
1:02:19
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:02:22
podcast. Thanks for learning with us.
1:02:24
And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.