Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / The Teacher Who Couldn’t Close: How Marc Macdonald Found His Calling in Outsourced Accounting

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The Teacher Who Couldn’t Close: How Marc Macdonald Found His Calling in Outsourced Accounting · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:12
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:15
  adversity. As you listen today, let one
• 0:18
  idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
• 0:22
  and today's guest spent years in front of classrooms teaching
• 0:26
  English and coaching college basketball, roles built entirely
• 0:31
  around motivating people and communicating clearly.
• 0:34
  Now, most people in that world stay in that world.
• 0:38
  Mark McDonald made a sharp left turn into finance.
• 0:42
  He moved from lesson plans to financial plans at Northwestern
• 0:46
  Mutual, then pivoted again into the world of outsourced
• 0:50
  bookkeeping. Each move looked unconventional
• 0:54
  from the outside, but from the inside, the thread was always
• 0:58
  the same. Find the people, earn their
• 1:01
  trust, and help them see something they couldn't see
• 1:04
  before. So Mark McDonald is the Director
• 1:07
  of Client Services at Supporting Strategies Reno Tahoe, part of a
• 1:11
  national network of roughly 80 franchise locations that handles
• 1:16
  bookkeeping, payroll and controller services for small
• 1:20
  and mid sized businesses. He joined the leadership team in
• 1:23
  2023 and now coaches a remote team of bookkeeping
• 1:27
  professionals from his base in Newark, DE.
• 1:31
  His story is an argument that the skills which make a great
• 1:34
  teacher are the same ones that make a great business leader.
• 1:38
  But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
• 1:41
  brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency.
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  Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
• 2:39
  today, the Director of Client Services of Supporting
• 2:42
  Strategies, Reno Tahoe, Mark McDonnell.
• 2:45
  Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
• 2:47
  I'm excited to be here. Thanks, Anthony.
• 2:50
  So you spent several years teaching English in public
• 2:53
  schools in Maryland and then at Boys Latin in Philadelphia.
• 2:57
  Take me back to what was pulling you towards the classroom in the
• 3:01
  1st place. What drew you there?
• 3:03
  Yeah, so two things #1 I was not a great student, especially at
• 3:09
  the beginning of high school, skipped a lot of classes, was
• 3:13
  kind of hard on teachers. So whenever kids were hard on
• 3:16
  me, I would say I deserve this. But but I had a couple really
• 3:22
  profound experiences with teachers who kind of brought me
• 3:26
  out of that. They saw something in me that I
• 3:28
  didn't really see in myself. And so that kind of drew me
• 3:33
  toward the classroom. The other part was that I really
• 3:36
  wanted to coach basketball. And all the basketball coaches I
• 3:40
  knew were teachers. So I was like, well, if I want
• 3:43
  to be a basketball coach, I guess I should be a teacher.
• 3:45
  So that's where those were two of the driving forces behind it.
• 3:50
  Tell us more about the profound experiences that you had with
• 3:54
  teachers. Yeah, so the first was my junior
• 4:00
  year. I had an English teacher named
• 4:03
  Missus Braxton. And on the first day we had to
• 4:07
  write, you know, the what did you read this summer essay?
• 4:11
  And I wrote mine. It took me, you know, 8 minutes
• 4:14
  or whatever. And I handed it in and she said,
• 4:16
  I think you can do better than this.
• 4:18
  And she said, but this sentence right here, this is beautiful.
• 4:23
  So work on that. And that moment really did kind
• 4:26
  of turn me on to, OK, I can do better and, and what does that
• 4:32
  look like? And so that was a that was a
• 4:35
  massive experience. The other one was my senior
• 4:38
  year, I had a history teacher who very tough, very buttoned
• 4:43
  up. And on the first day, he put all
• 4:47
  the names on the board. And next to that, he was going
• 4:51
  to give us credit for when we were had the highest score on
• 4:55
  the test. And I was very competitive.
• 4:58
  And so every single time we got a test back, I would see the kid
• 5:02
  above me get a little tick and I was just getting more and more
• 5:05
  frustrated. And by the end of the year, he
• 5:08
  had offered to tutor me, helped me and got me to the point where
• 5:12
  my name was at the top of that board.
• 5:14
  So. The teacher had offered to tutor
• 5:18
  you. Did you go to the teacher or the
• 5:20
  teacher came to you and offered that help?
• 5:22
  He came to me, he saw I, I'm trying to remember exactly how
• 5:27
  it happened, but I'm pretty sure I got a the score back.
• 5:30
  It is maybe a 93 and the highest scores is a 95.
• 5:34
  And I threw it in the garbage. And he had seen me do that until
• 5:38
  the next day he pulled me aside. He said, why'd you throw that
• 5:40
  away? Right.
• 5:41
  We had that conversation and that interaction and again,
• 5:45
  those kind of experiences, those one-on-one moments with
• 5:49
  professionals really did kind of draw me into the profession and
• 5:54
  what it can look like. And that first one that you
• 5:57
  shared, the teacher saying I think you can do better and
• 6:02
  pointed out something really positive, right?
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  Like this sentence here, this is pretty good.
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  You know, spend some time focusing on that.
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  Do you think it was the two parts like the I think you can
• 6:13
  do better and then also highlighting something that you
• 6:16
  did well? Definitely because as much as I
• 6:23
  didn't believe that I was at a level that needed to be
• 6:27
  recognized, having somebody recognize something positive in
• 6:31
  you really can kind of drive you.
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  So you know, carrot or the stick.
• 6:37
  I guess I needed the the carrot at that point and she she
• 6:40
  offered that. Is that a approach, a strategy
• 6:45
  that you then used as a teacher yourself?
• 6:48
  It was I, I think if you asked my students, they'd say I was
• 6:53
  maybe the stick more often than the carrot.
• 6:54
  But but I can remember times where I would notice that a
• 7:00
  student was struggling with something and that piling on to
• 7:04
  that struggle wasn't going to help them.
• 7:07
  And so offering them some kind of encouragement that was based
• 7:11
  in something that was actual, not just I think you can do
• 7:14
  better or I know how smart you are, right?
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  None of the platitudes, but a real honest, this is good.
• 7:22
  I've seen you do this right. Those things, those are building
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  blocks, I think, for students. I like that.
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  I'm not a teacher. I don't think I ever will be,
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  but I want to use that same idea on my own children.
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  You've inspired me to be a better parent this evening.
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  So, OK, at some point, well, actually before we go there, you
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  said one of the big reasons you wanted to teach was wanted to
• 7:47
  coach basketball. Basketball, big part of your
• 7:49
  life. You I'm assuming you played.
• 7:51
  I did. I I was pretty tall from my age
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  until I just stopped growing. So I was almost 6 foot at 12
• 8:01
  years old and then I'm almost 6 foot now at 42.
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  So but but yeah, I played pretty high level AAU basketball and
• 8:10
  then in high school I played. That was pretty much the cap of
• 8:15
  my ability. I was able to make up for maybe
• 8:19
  shortcomings in my athleticism with some of the stuff between
• 8:23
  the ears. And so that really made me want
• 8:26
  to be a coach. OK.
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  And then at some point, you made a decision to leave education
• 8:33
  entirely and step into financial advising at Northwestern Mutual.
• 8:39
  Help me bridge the gap there. What was happening in your life
• 8:42
  at that time? Make that.
• 8:43
  Yeah. So, so a number of things
• 8:45
  happened. Number one, it was during COVID.
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  So that was a struggle in education in general.
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  And I had met my wife. She was not my wife at that
• 8:59
  time, but I had met a woman and we moved together to
• 9:03
  Philadelphia. So I left my teaching job in
• 9:05
  Maryland, took a job at Boys Latin.
• 9:08
  Great experience, fully remote experience, which kind of led
• 9:13
  into some of the things that I did later, the comfort on
• 9:17
  meetings like this. But but then she also got a job
• 9:25
  offer in New Mexico. And rather than starting my 4th
• 9:29
  pension and starting at the bottom of a, a teaching career
• 9:33
  in a brand new state, brand new environment, I decided it was
• 9:37
  time to pivot. And so I looked into Ed tech,
• 9:41
  thought that was a nice bridge and I wasn't really getting any
• 9:44
  traction. And then I was, I received some
• 9:48
  outreach from Northwestern Mutual and they were looking for
• 9:52
  people who wanted to help others who were open to learning new
• 9:57
  things and, and that were driven.
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  And I thought, yeah, I can check all three of those boxes.
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  So I gave it a shot. OK.
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  So what skills from your teaching days that you find
• 10:11
  transferable to the business world?
• 10:13
  Yeah, I think the the most important would be the
• 10:18
  developing personal relationships, building trust
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  pretty quickly. I think that goes a long way in
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  any kind of environment, whether it's a business environment, in
• 10:31
  a classroom, meeting friends at a restaurant, whatever it may
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  be. And then also being extremely
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  organized, planning ahead, but also being able to adjust on the
• 10:45
  fly to unknown or unexpected variables.
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  Those are some things that I brought from the classroom into
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  a business. Say more about the unexpected
• 10:58
  things that pop up at Northwestern Mutual.
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  Yeah, well, not just at Northwestern, really anywhere,
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  but at Northwestern it might be. You walk in one day and you have
• 11:10
  7 meetings on the calendar. You're so excited because you're
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  going to meet with these people. You're going to lead them
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  through, you know, all the ways that you can help then.
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  And six of them cancel day of, right?
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  And it happens. Everybody who's been in business
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  understands that these things happen and there are those days.
• 11:28
  So being able to adjust to that, adjust not only what my plan for
• 11:33
  the day was, but also my mindset.
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  What other things can I get done?
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  Who else can I reach out to to fill that time?
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  People's life changing events while I was working with them,
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  whether it's, you know, we have this financial plan set in place
• 11:53
  and then they're laid off unexpectedly.
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  And how do we adjust to that? What do we do to make sure
• 11:59
  they're getting the the most important things taken care of
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  and and how can we help them kind of grow and build to what
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  they really need? Did you learn anything
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  insightful about how people make decisions under pressure from
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  your time there? I did, I, I came to realize that
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  no matter how smooth your, your pitch was or, or how powerful
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  the idea you were presenting was, people will only make those
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  decisions if they feel that they have the agency to do so.
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  So what I see a lot of times in sales is people trying to drag
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  the, the, the person they're working with along to the
• 12:55
  decision. And instead of that, I learned
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  that asking the right questions will make them want to make the
• 13:02
  right decision. There's a guy that I followed on
• 13:07
  LinkedIn, Josh Braun, who who presents a lot about poking the
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  bear. And rather than having the most
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  polished pitch, you can go in and you can on on through it if
• 13:21
  you need to. But if you ask the right
• 13:23
  questions and make them feel heard and understood, that's
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  really how people make the the hard decisions.
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  So say more about that. What kinds of questions are you
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  asking to help with this process?
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  So if we're we're talking about a financial plan, do you feel
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  like saving money is the most important thing for you?
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  And sometimes people would say, yes, it is.
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  And then you have to ask the follow up question, what about
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  protecting money? What about protecting the people
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  you care about? Well, that that may not be
• 14:03
  something they had thought about, right?
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  They're, they're just putting all this money away because they
• 14:07
  want this retirement down the road.
• 14:09
  They want the the bells and whistles in short term.
• 14:13
  But what happens if you have an unexpected injury and you can't
• 14:18
  work for the next 15 to 20 years?
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  But how, how are you going to build toward that same future in
• 14:23
  that case? And asking that question will
• 14:27
  often times get pushed back in the short term.
• 14:31
  But in the long term, we'll have people understand the importance
• 14:33
  of maybe protecting income. And you know, Northwestern, one
• 14:38
  of the best companies in the world when it comes to insurance
• 14:43
  and and protecting income. So you were at Northwestern
• 14:48
  Mutual for just under 2 years before moving to supporting
• 14:52
  strategies. Talk me through that transition.
• 14:55
  What was going on that either wasn't working or maybe was just
• 14:58
  pulling you in a different direction?
• 15:00
  Yeah, absolutely. So two things.
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  Number one, I mentioned that I had moved a few times already
• 15:07
  with my wife. She works in college athletics.
• 15:10
  She's a fundraiser for university athletics.
• 15:13
  So she tends to move pretty regularly.
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  And I was based in an office in Albuquerque and I was building a
• 15:20
  client base in Albuquerque. I could see the writing on the
• 15:23
  wall that we were going to move again in the short term.
• 15:28
  And so that was one driving factor.
• 15:32
  Another was I had had a fair amount of success in
• 15:38
  Northwestern. I would say fair to middling
• 15:42
  success. But as much as I really loved
• 15:46
  the helping people aspect, I I was getting worn down by the
• 15:54
  searching for new people to help and be the sales process.
• 16:00
  I've never really loved sales, even though I really love
• 16:03
  persuasion and rhetoric. But that's interesting.
• 16:07
  Yeah, yeah. So.
• 16:08
  That way, did you like to use persuasion and rhetoric that
• 16:11
  wasn't inside of sales? Yeah, so I mean, that's what I
• 16:14
  taught English. And so working with students on
• 16:19
  how to craft arguments, it was one of my favorite things to do
• 16:23
  every day. I got to teach rhetoric.
• 16:25
  I was excited. And and so I really have a
• 16:29
  passion for that and how people kind of craft arguments, how you
• 16:33
  can shape what you're saying to really make it resonate with
• 16:39
  others. But the sales part I would, I
• 16:42
  was very comfortable all the way up to the asking for the
• 16:46
  decision that was that there was a blockage.
• 16:50
  I don't know, it was a, a mental or something.
• 16:52
  So I was struggling with that aspect of it and I just wasn't
• 16:58
  feeling as drawn to it as I had been at the beginning.
• 17:01
  And then I was just really, really lucky.
• 17:05
  I met with the actual the founder of Supporting Strategies
• 17:11
  and at that time she was actually trying to talk to me
• 17:14
  about potentially opening a franchise of my own.
• 17:18
  And within about 5 minutes I told her I don't, I don't think
• 17:21
  I really would like to be a business owner at this point.
• 17:26
  And she said, oh, well then I have somebody to that you should
• 17:29
  talk to who's looking for a director of client services.
• 17:33
  And so she referred me over to Jen Ellermeyer, who's my my boss
• 17:38
  right now. And that was the best thing that
• 17:41
  could have ever happened. Why?
• 17:43
  What's so good about it? There hasn't been a day since I
• 17:48
  left Northwestern and started at supporting strategies that I've
• 17:51
  thought might have made a mistake.
• 17:55
  And that is not something that I can say I'm I'm pretty hard on
• 17:58
  decisions. I'm pretty hard on myself.
• 18:01
  And so I just, I'm really passionate about the work that I
• 18:05
  get to do right now. I feel very valued and
• 18:09
  appreciated in the office. I get to work with a really
• 18:13
  talented group of accountants who teach me things every day
• 18:16
  because I know nothing about accounting.
• 18:19
  And, and so really it's just, it really has been a blessing.
• 18:24
  And then, you know, we did end up moving from Albuquerque all
• 18:28
  the way back to Delaware. And so even though our office is
• 18:31
  on Pacific Time, Jen was willing to keep me on.
• 18:35
  I just work kind of a flexible schedule.
• 18:38
  So it's I I told her that I'm I'm not planning on leaving
• 18:44
  unless she asked me to. You're really happy there.
• 18:49
  I'm I'm really happy here. And you've worked at different
• 18:52
  places, obviously, so it's not like this was your first job and
• 18:55
  you just don't have anything to compare it to.
• 18:57
  You've got other experiences to compare and contrast.
• 19:01
  Yeah, I was thinking about my, my work life last night in
• 19:07
  preparation for this. And I've now been working for
• 19:09
  over 30 years. So my first job was when I was
• 19:12
  12 worked as a a caddy that I've just I've never stopped working
• 19:19
  since then. So tell us what is supporting
• 19:22
  strategies do and who do they do it for?
• 19:26
  Yeah. So we, we're an outsourced
• 19:30
  accounting firm. We work fully remotely with
• 19:35
  small to medium sized businesses and we provide all the
• 19:41
  operational accounting that a typical accounting department
• 19:45
  would would offer and then everything on up to coordinating
• 19:51
  with their tax account and their CPA to get the tax return
• 19:56
  prepped and ready. But we we really kind of
• 20:01
  function as their accounting department in a remote
• 20:04
  environment. OK.
• 20:07
  What are some of the advantages of the approach that you guys
• 20:11
  take versus, I don't know, me working with a local CPA?
• 20:16
  Yeah. That's, that's a great question.
• 20:20
  I would say stability is something that especially in the
• 20:26
  region in which most of our clients reside can be tough.
• 20:31
  There's a relative or quite a bit of turnover relatively.
• 20:38
  And so that means every year or two years or three years they're
• 20:43
  hiring and training a brand new person trying to to fill that
• 20:48
  gap. In the short term, what we can
• 20:50
  offer is a two person team for each client that will handle
• 20:56
  their day-to-day accounting, make sure that proper accounting
• 20:59
  controls are in place with reviews from a manager, timely
• 21:05
  financials which really allow them to make proactive decisions
• 21:11
  and then we offer the stability. So just like any other business,
• 21:15
  we will have some turnover, but we can backfill with our
• 21:20
  existing team members and make sure that they have no
• 21:24
  interruption of services. They don't need to worry about
• 21:27
  training a brand new person on all the systems processes that
• 21:30
  have been developed. So stability is a big one.
• 21:34
  Are there specific accounting platforms that you guys work
• 21:38
  with? Yeah.
• 21:40
  So I'd say we spend a lot of time in the Intuit ecosystem.
• 21:47
  So a lot of our clients are on QuickBooks Online, some are on
• 21:51
  QuickBooks Desktop, but we only hire professional accountants.
• 21:56
  How we define that is they have a four year degree, they have at
• 21:59
  least seven years of experience in accounting Prior to joining
• 22:02
  our team. So they have the ability to
• 22:06
  adapt to whatever the client brings, whether that means using
• 22:11
  Sage or 0 or you name any of the other platforms.
• 22:16
  OK, so you do most of what you do in the Intuit ecosphere, but
• 22:21
  you're familiar with and can work in a lot of the other small
• 22:24
  business accounting platforms? Absolutely.
• 22:28
  Who's a good fit for you client wise?
• 22:31
  Somebody who's looking to outsource all of the operational
• 22:35
  side, somebody who's looking for an ongoing relationship, open
• 22:44
  communication with the team, who finds value in, in diving into
• 22:50
  their financials to help them drive their decisions.
• 22:55
  And really the the best fit is where we can step in and kind of
• 23:00
  take over as that accounting department.
• 23:03
  We do work with clients that have an internal team and then
• 23:07
  our team as well and we coordinate, but I'd say our best
• 23:11
  fit clients are the ones where we can kind of step in and and
• 23:15
  run their accounting for them. Any particular industries or
• 23:20
  size of companies that are a great fit?
• 23:24
  So I heard somebody describe themselves as industry agnostic
• 23:30
  and I would say that's what we are.
• 23:32
  We, we work with pretty much every industry you can think of.
• 23:38
  I would say our two largest industries are like the
• 23:42
  construction and nonprofit spheres, but that is as much due
• 23:48
  to the region in which we work as it is anything else.
• 23:52
  As far as size, our our smallest might be a sole prop and our
• 23:59
  largest client might have 100 and 25150 employees.
• 24:05
  And then as far as revenue, we kind of perfect fit would be the
• 24:12
  two to 10 to 12 million annual revenue.
• 24:16
  That's really where we thrive. But we we work with some much
• 24:20
  bigger and some smaller. And specifically in Reno Tahoe
• 24:26
  area, right, That's your geography?
• 24:29
  Yeah. So I'd say most of our clients
• 24:33
  are in that Northern Nevada and Northern California region.
• 24:36
  We do have some up into Washington and some down into
• 24:40
  Southern California. OK.
• 24:43
  So because I know you guys are a franchise of supporting
• 24:46
  strategies out of the territories kind of carved out,
• 24:50
  then sounds like you do have some flexibility and kind of
• 24:53
  crossing. Over, yeah, absolutely.
• 24:55
  So almost all of our clients are referral based.
• 25:00
  They're from other clients or CPA firms that we work with.
• 25:04
  And so if we are referred to a client from another region, we
• 25:10
  can work with that client. That makes a lot of sense.
• 25:12
  That's a smart way to approach it.
• 25:14
  So what does the onboarding process look like for a client?
• 25:19
  I hear this pitch. I'm like, I like you guys, let's
• 25:22
  get started. What do we do?
• 25:25
  Absolutely. So we we have a pretty
• 25:28
  substantial sales process. It's discovery call, a needs
• 25:33
  assessment, which is a deep dive into what they're currently
• 25:35
  doing and what their pain points are.
• 25:38
  Then we do a review and analysis of their current accounting
• 25:42
  software and then we put together a proposal tailored to
• 25:48
  all of their needs as well as what we think we are capable of
• 25:54
  doing. There are times when a client
• 25:56
  says, we want you to take over everything.
• 25:58
  We say, hey, these things are perfect for us.
• 26:02
  This one seems to be more on the operational side.
• 26:05
  It might be better fit to have somebody in office handling this
• 26:09
  aspect and we'll coordinate with them, right?
• 26:12
  So we tailor every proposal to the client.
• 26:15
  Once that is all set up, then we move to the onboarding.
• 26:21
  We have a kick off call where we review the scope of services,
• 26:25
  introduce them to their brand new accounting team and then
• 26:29
  from there they are meeting to go over each of the different
• 26:34
  service buckets that we offer, setting up systems, processes,
• 26:40
  evaluating what is and isn't working in the current
• 26:42
  processes. And then you know, usually
• 26:46
  within 30 to 60 days they are fully functional on boarded and
• 26:52
  we are providing monthly audit ready financials.
• 26:56
  OK. So it sounds like the services
• 26:59
  that you guys are great at the accounting, the bookkeeping,
• 27:03
  getting things up to the point where they can be handed off to
• 27:07
  CPA to, to the taxes. Absolutely.
• 27:11
  Or you know, working with other advisors to say, OK, here are
• 27:15
  your books. Let's take a deep look at these.
• 27:17
  Now we know that they're all cleaned up.
• 27:19
  This can give us some insights on strategies that we could
• 27:22
  suggest. So you guys would coordinate
• 27:24
  with those types of advisors? Absolutely.
• 27:27
  And then we also with each client, we offer a monthly
• 27:31
  financial review call because if they're offered the reports that
• 27:38
  they find most relevant and they can compare to what has been
• 27:43
  going on previously, what we can kind of forecast coming up, they
• 27:48
  can make some of those more strategic decisions throughout
• 27:51
  the year rather than just waiting for that year end and
• 27:54
  the tax time to start making some of those strategic
• 27:56
  decisions. And so, Mark, what do you
• 28:01
  specifically do as the director of Client Services?
• 28:03
  What does that title mean? It's an interesting title.
• 28:09
  So I I have a pretty substantial role in the sales process.
• 28:19
  So even though I talked about my struggles with sales previously,
• 28:25
  the sales process, I'm a part of the very first contact or
• 28:30
  outreach with any potential client and I started building
• 28:34
  and fostering that relationship right then.
• 28:37
  I walked them through that sales process all the way through to
• 28:41
  onboarding in conjunction with our Managing Director Jen.
• 28:47
  Once we hand off to the team, I am their go to for any for the
• 28:54
  client for any issues they might have with they're having
• 29:01
  substantial growth and we need to expand the scope or they had
• 29:06
  something unforeseen happen and we need to shrink the scope,
• 29:09
  right. We work with them on that.
• 29:11
  I do quarterly check insurance with all of our clients just to
• 29:14
  see how everything's going, collect feedback.
• 29:19
  And then on the more operational side in our office, I handle
• 29:26
  some of the recruiting, interviewing and hiring of new
• 29:31
  accountants in conjunction with our corporate talent team.
• 29:37
  And then I work with with Jen really closely to make sure
• 29:42
  we're acknowledging staff birthdays are recognized work
• 29:48
  anniversaries. We have a dedicated channel that
• 29:53
  we all can chat and kind of build culture by, you know,
• 29:56
  sharing here was my daughter for Halloween.
• 30:00
  And you know, we just we try and bring that all together on a
• 30:05
  weekly basis. I do a coffee chat, so 15
• 30:09
  minutes every Friday I log in with a cup of coffee like the
• 30:13
  one that I'm drinking right now and anybody can pop in.
• 30:16
  It's kind of that water cooler time.
• 30:18
  But most remote offices don't get.
• 30:22
  And the only rule is we'll talk about anything but work.
• 30:24
  So come on in, let's talk about what's going on in your life and
• 30:30
  and try and really build those relationships because I know
• 30:34
  that can be a struggle in a remote environment.
• 30:37
  Yeah. So how effective do you think
• 30:38
  some of those strategies are at developing or maintaining a
• 30:44
  company culture? I think they're huge.
• 30:47
  I, I really think that I cannot take credit for the, the culture
• 30:56
  that Jen has built. She really makes it clear to
• 31:00
  everybody on staff that she values them and it's little
• 31:04
  things. It's a a gift for employee
• 31:07
  appreciation day. It's a a note when they, you
• 31:11
  know, had something really good or really not good happened in
• 31:16
  their personal life. It's it's those things.
• 31:19
  And I think those things go really long way.
• 31:24
  I've tried in my role over the last three years to make sure
• 31:30
  that everybody has that opportunity to have a personal
• 31:33
  connection and not just feel like they're working on an
• 31:36
  island, handling accounting, dug into the books only right.
• 31:41
  They are a part of something bigger and that has been
• 31:46
  something I'm really proud of. So a lot of business owners, in
• 31:51
  my experience, they assume that getting their books in better
• 31:54
  shape mostly just helps them at tax time, right?
• 31:58
  There's less work that needs to be done at that point.
• 32:01
  What's the thing that you find a lot of clients are surprised to
• 32:05
  learn that clean financials from working with a group like
• 32:10
  Supporting strategies gives them or allows them to do.
• 32:14
  Yeah, that's a great question. I think as kind of a a starting
• 32:19
  point, I would say that someone who is only concerned with tax
• 32:27
  time is usually not our best fit client.
• 32:29
  We're looking for somebody who really does want that
• 32:31
  partnership on a monthly basis and really does want to have
• 32:35
  those insights. Once we have that and they can
• 32:39
  see kind of the insights they get, they can make much more
• 32:43
  strategic decisions not only right before tax time, but in
• 32:49
  their planning in the fall for you know end of year planning
• 32:55
  for capital expenses. They can they can start doing
• 32:57
  that. We offer cash forecasts.
• 33:02
  So clients that might have cash flow issues, we can work with
• 33:07
  them on a weekly basis to provide them a cash forecast and
• 33:11
  then they can really start to make the the better more
• 33:16
  informed decisions rather than just always reacting and always
• 33:21
  working in the retrospective for.
• 33:26
  People that are listening today, Mark, and they're wondering
• 33:29
  whether outsourced bookkeeping is a good fit for them.
• 33:32
  What questions should they be asking themselves?
• 33:35
  Yeah, that's great. I would say the first thing is
• 33:42
  how is their current system working?
• 33:45
  That's the first question, right?
• 33:46
  Because because if what they have is working for them, then
• 33:50
  they should probably continue with that.
• 33:52
  But if they're struggling with aspects of that, if they're
• 33:57
  looking for more reliability, more communication, we do have a
• 34:03
  number of people who have come to us and they were working with
• 34:07
  somebody who they valued, but that person was, you know,
• 34:11
  working with them maybe once a week.
• 34:14
  Our team is in the office working Monday through Friday,
• 34:17
  8:00 to 5:00. We're available to clients
• 34:20
  during their regular business hours.
• 34:23
  We have multiple ways for them to communicate with us.
• 34:27
  We have designated e-mail address.
• 34:29
  Every client has the phone numbers of at least four people
• 34:34
  that they can reach out to if there's an urgent issue.
• 34:38
  And so if they're looking for somebody who can really kind of
• 34:43
  fill that role of an in house accountant, but maybe do that in
• 34:49
  a more streamlined remote environment, maybe they don't
• 34:54
  have access to enough professional accountants.
• 34:58
  The market is really tough in some regions.
• 35:02
  And so we can offer that. We have team members throughout
• 35:04
  the country and we can service the client with a team member
• 35:11
  that doesn't have to live in that region.
• 35:15
  So that's a that's a huge advantage.
• 35:17
  Do you find that most of your clients are of a certain age or
• 35:22
  lower, like maybe older folks, you know, 60 and up sort of old
• 35:27
  fashioned like hey, I want to you know, go see somebody in
• 35:30
  person kind of a thing or does it you not see that kind of
• 35:33
  delineation? Not too much.
• 35:36
  I would say most of our clients are of the age of most
• 35:43
  successful business owners at this point.
• 35:45
  So they're kind of in the middle age bracket.
• 35:50
  But that said, we have clients who are much older.
• 35:53
  We have some clients that are much younger.
• 35:56
  Really what I think we spend a lot of time with, and maybe this
• 36:00
  is where that education background comes in, is, is
• 36:04
  talking to them and teaching them a little bit about what it
• 36:07
  looks like. So no, you don't have to keep
• 36:09
  all your receipts in this box. And then we're going to come in
• 36:12
  and we're going to write here's, here's a new, more efficient,
• 36:16
  more streamlined way for us to collect that information to get
• 36:19
  you the information that you need.
• 36:22
  And and clients that are open to that of all ages are are the
• 36:26
  ones that we work with and work really well with.
• 36:29
  Tell us about your virtual workflow system called
• 36:33
  Workplace. Yeah.
• 36:35
  So that's a internal practice management system.
• 36:39
  It allows our team members to have a clear image of their work
• 36:46
  day, their tasks that populate on a recurring basis for each
• 36:50
  client. The the client side of that, we
• 36:56
  do have a designated e-mail address for each client that is
• 37:00
  monitored by not only the team of two accountants, but Jen and
• 37:04
  myself, so clients can communicate there with our whole
• 37:09
  team. That's another nice thing if, if
• 37:13
  one of our team members is out on vacation, there's no
• 37:17
  interruption in the workflow, the work continues.
• 37:21
  And so Workplace really helps with that.
• 37:24
  I do know that right now it's in process.
• 37:28
  They're, they're looking to build a client portal as an
• 37:31
  aspect of that, which will probably streamline some of that
• 37:35
  communication as well. But yeah, I, I really find a lot
• 37:41
  of value in workplace. How?
• 37:44
  Do most of your clients find you, or how do you find them?
• 37:47
  What's your best source of new business development?
• 37:52
  So Jen lives in the region. She's been there for over 20
• 37:58
  years. She is pretty well connected.
• 38:03
  It's a small community, but it really feels like almost all of
• 38:07
  our clients know Jen in some way, shape or form.
• 38:12
  And the ones who maybe they haven't met previously, they
• 38:16
  know another client who said, oh, you're struggling with your
• 38:20
  accounting, you should call Jen and her team, right?
• 38:23
  So, so that's really where most of our clients come from.
• 38:26
  We do have other ways, you know, we have a LinkedIn that, you
• 38:33
  know, we're always monitoring if people are reaching out that way
• 38:37
  people can fill out a form online if they're interested in
• 38:40
  that. But for the most part, I'd say
• 38:42
  95% of our clients are through referral.
• 38:46
  Oh wow, OK, that says a lot about the quality of work that
• 38:49
  you do. I appreciate you saying that.
• 38:52
  What is the future of your supporting strategies franchise
• 38:57
  Look like sort of slow and steady growth like you guys have
• 39:00
  been doing. Are, you know, probably not the
• 39:03
  kind of thing where there's acquisitions at play or like you
• 39:07
  guys looking to add new services?
• 39:11
  We're always open and we're always looking ahead at what is
• 39:14
  going to be needed, right? But I would say for the last
• 39:20
  couple years, Jen and I have a number one focus on retention.
• 39:27
  We've built these relationships. We care a lot about these
• 39:30
  clients and their success, and we want to continue to help them
• 39:34
  thrive. So retention is #1 slow and
• 39:38
  steady growth is always great. And then making sure that we are
• 39:44
  able to keep a stable professional workforce.
• 39:49
  So our team's stability and retention is just as important.
• 39:54
  Those are really our main goals for the past two years and we've
• 39:58
  had a decent amount of success with that.
• 40:01
  Talking about your team, I know that you guys are always looking
• 40:06
  to hire, you know, find good folks there.
• 40:09
  From an experienced accountant's perspective, they're weighing
• 40:14
  whether to join supporting strategies, what's the honest
• 40:18
  pitch for what their day-to-day looks like, and why it might be
• 40:22
  better than the traditional thing they're doing now.
• 40:26
  Yeah. So most people that find us,
• 40:29
  find us because they're like, I want to work from home.
• 40:32
  So I will say that, and that is a huge benefit.
• 40:35
  I do love working from home. I got used to it during COVID
• 40:40
  and then kind of have continued that experience for a lot of my
• 40:43
  professional career. That said, I I tell anyone who
• 40:48
  interviews with us the same thing as a teacher.
• 40:53
  I worked a lot. I was, I was working all day as
• 40:56
  a teacher, then grading, then coaching that rinse and repeat,
• 41:01
  rinse and repeat. As a financial advisor, I was
• 41:04
  working even more 50-60 hours a week, really trying to grind and
• 41:09
  hustle. And every office, every company
• 41:14
  I know says we offer a work life balance.
• 41:17
  We offer a work life balance. That's the culture that Jen has
• 41:21
  built and she really means it. And that has been life changing
• 41:26
  for me. You said you, you really like
• 41:28
  your job. I really do.
• 41:30
  I've worked here for three years.
• 41:33
  I can count on a couple fingers how many times I've worked more
• 41:37
  than 40 hours because Jen really does.
• 41:41
  I can remember my very first week, she said, you've already
• 41:45
  worked 8 hours, so go ahead and log off.
• 41:47
  And I was like, yeah, but but there's this.
• 41:49
  And I, I was thinking about doing this and she's like, but
• 41:52
  that'll be there tomorrow morning.
• 41:53
  It's OK. That to me really says a lot
• 41:57
  about the the work culture. And then the other part is
• 42:04
  working with a bunch of really strong, intelligent,
• 42:09
  professional accountants and being able to bounce ideas,
• 42:13
  collaborate, but also not being in an office where people are
• 42:18
  just going to pop by and take up your time, right?
• 42:21
  You can just put up a do not disturb on Zoom and you're off
• 42:24
  to the races. So those are those are some
• 42:27
  major advantages of this environment.
• 42:30
  Mark, what's 1 of the hardest things that you've ever had to
• 42:33
  overcome personally, and what did that teach you?
• 42:38
  Yeah, so feelings of failure are, are pretty common.
• 42:46
  I, I had a single mom who did an outstanding job raising me, set
• 42:54
  really high, really, really high bars and expectations.
• 42:59
  And so throughout my life I've really struggled with that.
• 43:05
  And I would say The Walking away from something that I thought
• 43:12
  maybe I was just right on the cusp of having success.
• 43:16
  And so Northwestern, that separation, that leaving it
• 43:21
  really did hurt me. I, I really felt like I had
• 43:24
  failed and I hated that feeling. What I've learned through my my
• 43:33
  time is that every failure that I've had, once you get through
• 43:40
  that like kind of ugly mucky part, that's where the real kind
• 43:45
  of success and, and the turn around comes.
• 43:48
  So I had to go through that really down time and making that
• 43:54
  decision to leave and being told it was a mistake and all of that
• 43:59
  to get to where I am now and feeling so much better.
• 44:05
  And so, yeah, that was a, that was a really, that was a really
• 44:10
  tough time, but I haven't looked back.
• 44:16
  Yeah, You know, what you're saying is such a a common theme
• 44:19
  that often times you've got to wade through this really mucky
• 44:25
  swamp of, you know, in between like 1 door closes, where's the
• 44:30
  next door going to open? And when you're in that space,
• 44:36
  you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, right?
• 44:39
  You don't know what's next. The hindsight, you know, looking
• 44:43
  back now, excuse me, You're like, yeah, like, of course I
• 44:48
  had to go through that. Now I see the purpose.
• 44:51
  I see how the dots connect. But for somebody who's in that
• 44:55
  mucky swamp right now, what advice do you have for them?
• 44:59
  What helped you get through that uncertain time?
• 45:03
  The circle of people around you matters, especially when you're
• 45:09
  feeling like you're alone. And so for me, I, I really do
• 45:14
  have a great support system between friends, family, my wife
• 45:18
  is outstanding, even when I'm being really difficult because
• 45:23
  when you're in that mucky part, you're, you're hard on yourself,
• 45:26
  you're hard on everyone around you.
• 45:29
  But having the right support system and looking back.
• 45:33
  So there's a great book called the gap in the game.
• 45:37
  I think it, it's a really important book for high
• 45:40
  achievers where people are always looking ahead at what's
• 45:44
  coming next. And then even when they get
• 45:47
  there, they move that goal post a little for they keep moving
• 45:50
  and they never look back to what has happened and where they, you
• 45:53
  know, the gain that they've made.
• 45:56
  And so I'll tell you when you're in that muck, you got to look
• 46:00
  back at other times you've been in that same muck and, and what
• 46:05
  the positives were because nobody spends all their time in
• 46:08
  the luck. No, right.
• 46:11
  There's there's peaks and valleys.
• 46:12
  Everybody has peaks and valleys. And so that really helped me
• 46:16
  too. Like I looked back at, you know,
• 46:19
  I would, I was married very young, in my early 20s, and that
• 46:23
  ended very poorly. And at that time, I thought that
• 46:26
  was the worst thing that could ever happen.
• 46:29
  But now in my mid 30s, I met my wife now and what a blessing
• 46:36
  that was. So really, I mean, you can look
• 46:39
  back at other struggles you've had and how you've made your way
• 46:42
  through. So two things there I want to
• 46:46
  pull out of what you said because I think they're really
• 46:49
  important points for people to hear.
• 46:51
  You know, the 1st is make sure you're giving yourself grace in
• 46:54
  those moments, right? Beating yourself up in the midst
• 46:58
  of a very challenging situation is not really helping anything.
• 47:02
  It's making it worse. And so I like the idea of what
• 47:05
  you talked about. Look back, give yourself credit
• 47:09
  for some of the things that you've done before, right?
• 47:12
  Because when you're in that mucky part, you're just hard on
• 47:14
  yourself. You're like, I can't do
• 47:15
  anything. I've never done anything.
• 47:17
  I'm not any good. Nobody's going to hire me.
• 47:19
  I'm not going to find another business opportunity, right?
• 47:22
  And hat this is where the second part of what you said I think is
• 47:26
  really important. Having that circle of people
• 47:29
  close to you, right? Because I think that safe human
• 47:32
  connection is some of the best medicine that we have.
• 47:36
  And having those folks with you and near you, those are folks
• 47:39
  who can challenge those negative viewpoints that you have of
• 47:42
  yourself. Like, wait a minute, Mark, what
• 47:45
  you're saying is inaccurate. Look at all these things that
• 47:47
  you've done along the way. Oh, yeah.
• 47:50
  Thank you. Yeah.
• 47:51
  Thanks for the reminder. Yeah.
• 47:53
  Right. I see you nodding your head and
• 47:55
  you're smiling. Yeah.
• 47:56
  Yeah, 100%. I think, I think you're exactly
• 48:00
  right with that. Nobody, nobody needs to surround
• 48:05
  themselves with people that don't see the best in them.
• 48:09
  And so I think that's a great way to approach it.
• 48:15
  What is? It you most want to be
• 48:16
  remembered for and the work that you're doing now.
• 48:20
  Yeah, so I, I really have always loved.
• 48:25
  I know I've referenced a couple books.
• 48:28
  I, I love reading, love self development.
• 48:30
  I love reading about leadership and exploring that topic when I
• 48:38
  leave. I want to be remembered as
• 48:40
  somebody who built lasting relationships, not only with,
• 48:46
  you know, the team members and the people I'm working with, but
• 48:49
  the clients. Somebody who is honest and
• 48:54
  trustworthy, and then most importantly, somebody who's a
• 48:57
  good leader who who really wanted to help others every way
• 49:07
  he could. So those would be ways that I'd
• 49:10
  love to be remember. I'm like that, Mark, I've just
• 49:13
  got one more question for you today.
• 49:15
  But before I ask it, I want to do 3 quick things for the
• 49:18
  audience. First of all, for anybody who
• 49:20
  wants to get in touch with you, Mark, what should they do?
• 49:24
  So you can find me Mark McDonald on LinkedIn or they can e-mail
• 49:30
  me at m.macdonald@supportingstrategies.com.
• 49:34
  Great. And we'll have links to both of
• 49:35
  those in the show notes for folks.
• 49:38
  Speaking of which, if you're enjoying the show today, please
• 49:40
  take a moment to subscribe wherever you're listening.
• 49:43
  It also sends a signal that helps others discover our
• 49:47
  podcast. So thank you for taking a quick
• 49:49
  moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can be
• 49:53
  the Hero advisor that helps clients give their employees
• 49:56
  access to therapists, doctors and prescription meds that
• 50:00
  counter intuitively, actually increases their net profits,
• 50:04
  real gains that can change how a business is valued.
• 50:07
  So contact us today at AD back benefits.com.
• 50:10
  All right. Mark, last question for you.
• 50:12
  Today. A year from now, what is 1 very
• 50:14
  specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
• 50:18
  So in about two weeks, we're at our 10th anniversary of
• 50:26
  supporting strategy. So I'd like to supporting
• 50:29
  strategies. Reno Tahoe 11th anniversary
• 50:31
  would be great. And the other part would be we
• 50:36
  set a really high bar, 100% retention of both team members
• 50:41
  and clients a year from now. That would be a heck of a
• 50:45
  celebration. Outstanding Mark McDonald from
• 50:48
  Supporting Strategies. I wouldn't be the first to thank
• 50:51
  you for sharing both your time and your story with us today.
• 50:54
  I really appreciate you being here.
• 50:56
  Thanks so much, Anthony. Folks, that's a wrap on another
• 50:59
  episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
• 51:02
  Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put
• 51:05
  that into action today.