Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / The Networking Accountant: How Brandon Thornton Built Thornton Tax on Relationships Over Transactions

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The Networking Accountant: How Brandon Thornton Built Thornton Tax on Relationships Over Transactions · 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. As you listen today, let one
0:17
idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:21
and today's guest inherited something most people never get
0:24
to touch, A business that has been in his family since 1952.
0:29
With clients now in their third and 4th generations of working
0:33
with the same firm. That kind of continuity is rare
0:37
and it comes with a weight that no MBA program prepares you for.
0:42
Taking over a legacy business is not the same as Building 1.
0:45
The expectations are baked in, the relationships are decades
0:49
old, and the pressure to honor what came before while still
0:52
moving forward can pull you in two directions at once.
0:57
Brandon Thornton is the owner, president and strategic tax
1:00
consultant at Thornton Tax and Financial Services in Hurst, TX.
1:05
As an enrolled agent, a credential held by fewer than 3%
1:09
of tax professionals, he is authorized to represent clients
1:12
before the IRS in all 50 states. His firm serves small businesses
1:18
and individuals across a wide range of industries, from
1:21
architects to contractors to medical professionals, often
1:26
functioning as their outsourced CFO.
1:28
Some people build a legacy. Brandon stepped into one and
1:32
learned how to make it his own. But before we get into all that
1:35
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All right, back to our guest today, partner of Thornton Tax
2:35
and Financial Services, Brandon Thornton.
2:37
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:39
I'm happy to be here, thank you for having me.
2:41
So before Thornton Tax and Financial Services, your degree
2:45
was actually in kinesiology and health promotion.
2:50
Help us connect the dots. How did you get from here to
2:52
there? Yeah, it's a little bit of a
2:55
different story from most that end up in accounting for sure.
2:59
Was studying kinesiology and then got a minor in health
3:02
promotion and psychology. And it was around the 2008
3:08
timeline. So it was when discretionary
3:11
spending kind of took a little bit of a a hit.
3:14
So when I was working while I was in school, I was operating
3:17
as a personal trainer, which, you know, if you have the option
3:20
to pay a personal trainer or pay your bills, then it's a pretty
3:23
easy choice to make. So the, the opportunities there
3:26
were slowly starting to diminish.
3:28
So I went into physical therapy work because it was backed by
3:32
insurance. And it would make sense to apply
3:35
what I was learning in the same fashion that I was doing it as a
3:38
personal trainer, but do it in another industry that was, you
3:41
know, equally applicable. And then along the way I've met
3:45
my first boss when I went into working actually in oil and gas
3:51
was one of my patients. And then from there, you know,
3:54
spend some time in oil and gas and we found out we were having
3:59
our first daughter and my my brother was a Lieutenant Colonel
4:04
in the Air Force and flew F sixteens and was deployed
4:08
numerous times and missed a lot of his girls lives.
4:10
So given that I had a choice, I decided to come home.
4:14
And when I came home, the we also had two family friends that
4:19
passed unexpectedly that had businesses that were also
4:22
clients and friends that didn't have a plan.
4:25
So we wanted to put something in place that would take care of
4:27
the continuation of a business that that point was 65 years
4:31
old. And I enrolled in fire Academy
4:35
because that's what I was going to do before I got an offer for
4:37
oil and gas. Literally had to have a
4:40
conversation with my first boss about, you know, you can do this
4:43
and have a 30% chance of being hired or you can show up on
4:46
Monday and have a paycheck on Friday.
4:48
So I was there on Monday and left 5 1/2 years later, but came
4:52
home, enrolled in fire Academy. And then in the 15 weeks I was
4:54
in fire Academy, the portion of the business that was to take
4:57
care of my wife and I went from 5 clients to 35.
5:00
And then from there, we just kind of put in some focus and
5:03
grew it. Wait, I want to understand this.
5:06
You you came back home because you're going to have your first
5:08
child and you're going to work in the family business as well
5:14
as be a fireman, is that right? Yeah, because the initial
5:17
thought was that they worked at that time before they changed
5:19
scheduling around. It was every 3rd day.
5:21
So, you know, on the two days off or even one day of the
5:25
three, then I could spend it in the office working and work on
5:30
getting my license and then make a decision about whether it was
5:33
it made sense to continue with that career or focus on
5:38
accounting. But it was a position that would
5:40
give me benefits, retirement, you know, and a workable
5:46
schedule if I wanted to build a business.
5:48
And prior to stepping into that role, had your previous work
5:52
prepared you for this, or were you stepping into something that
5:56
was completely foreign to you? I grew up with my mom and my dad
6:01
are both accountants. So between grandma and grandpa
6:05
and my dad and my mom and my stepmom, it was always around
6:07
and I was always exposed to it. So I had a a loose working
6:10
knowledge of it. And then I did small sets of
6:13
books in college just to kind of make extra money and help my mom
6:15
out. So it wasn't completely alien.
6:18
It was a completely different approach to go from being W2 to
6:22
being now a business owner and trying to, you know, steer the
6:26
ship as well as mend the sails. And it was a bit of a shift, but
6:32
my mom used to always make fun of me and say where was I when
6:35
she was doing this by herself for 35 years?
6:39
And I told her I was swinging a hammer and building appreciation
6:42
for this type of work. I love that.
6:47
Yeah. My dad had some of us work at
6:50
one of his manufacturing companies growing up because for
6:53
a very similar reason, want us to stay in school, get a job,
6:57
Had this be a, you know, a good motivation.
7:01
And so, OK, so you come back, you're doing the fire Academy,
7:05
the part of the business that you were going to be working in.
7:07
Had five clients and then very quickly went from 5.
7:11
Did you say 35? What happened there?
7:15
Just put the word out to the clients that we were already
7:17
working with that we were looking for additional clients
7:19
as well as went and was trying to be as specific as possible
7:23
with who I connected with to try and get in front of more clients
7:27
which carried forward into my networking today.
7:30
So I was focused on, you know, bankers, attorneys, estate
7:34
planners, wealth advisors that worked with the clients that
7:40
needed our services the most and I wasn't direct competition for
7:43
them. So you went to referral partners
7:49
and said, hey, here's what we're doing.
7:51
Can we help any of the folks that you know, and that's how
7:55
you guys grew very quickly from 5:00 to 35 and you realize I
8:00
don't have time to also be a fireman, is that right?
8:03
Well, it gave us a choice at that point 'cause I was coming
8:05
out of a job that the industry in general is a high risk
8:09
industry and dangerous and to go back into another dangerous
8:15
position. Given that I had the opportunity
8:16
at that point to decide if I wanted to or I did not.
8:20
I'd rather have the additional time with my family and focus on
8:23
being exceptionally good at what I do in one industry.
8:27
So decided to stick with the business.
8:29
I still have an affinity for for firefighting and appreciate
8:33
everything that they do, but it just it made more sense for me
8:37
to focus on this track more than trying to split it.
8:41
And you said that the part of the business that you were
8:44
focusing on went from 5:00 to 35.
8:46
What were the different parts of the business and what was the
8:48
one that you were focusing on at the time?
8:53
Originally, the part of the business that was to take care
8:55
of my wife and I was a bookkeeping portion and the tax,
8:58
since I wasn't licensed at that time, took care of my mom.
9:01
So she did all of the tax work. We did all of the bookkeeping
9:04
and other support work with her and we just basically put a line
9:08
down the middle. Well, over time as I built more
9:11
ability and then became licensed and things like that, then I
9:14
took over that portion of the business as well and it all
9:17
rolled into supporting my wife and I.
9:20
And we went from, you know, when we started as ownership, we had
9:26
probably 5 bookkeeping clients and we're probably filing 300
9:29
returns now. We probably have any on any
9:31
given month we have between 75 and 100 bookkeeping clients and
9:35
we file about 1300 tax returns a year.
9:38
So over the course of ten years we've kind of exponentially
9:41
grown it. And then with the addition of
9:44
the new service offerings, we have an advisory service and
9:47
strategic tax planning. It's allowed for us to take
9:50
another big step forward into not only the value that we can
9:55
provide, but what it can do for us as well.
9:58
OK. So bookkeeping, tax services,
10:01
these were there early on. Tell us more about some of the
10:04
new advisory services that you guys have been offering.
10:08
Traditionally, what most people have come to expect from an
10:12
accountant is the the once a year drop off your paperwork.
10:17
Bad news, you owe the IRS kind of relationship.
10:21
And what we focused on is trying to break that mold.
10:24
Remove the typical professional silos between your legal
10:29
counsel, your wealth advisor, your accountant, your banker and
10:33
more. Make it more of a team based,
10:35
proactive model. I learned a lot about virtual
10:40
family office service through some of the groups that I've
10:44
worked with over time. And what it's turned into is
10:47
that a lot of the clients that think they're being underserved
10:52
or that they know there's more options out there, but there's
10:56
too much to sift through on their own without a certain
11:00
level of knowledge that it is capable of being brought down to
11:05
a reasonable level. And it's not just specifically
11:07
reserved for the ultra elite. And it can bring tremendous
11:12
value in addition to what your professionals are already doing.
11:16
And when they want that all in one place or they want that as a
11:19
compliment to people that they're already working with.
11:21
And that's where we kind of show up and show them the difference
11:24
that we can make. But it's the difference between,
11:27
you know, someone being told that they need to make an S Corp
11:29
election, or that they need to pay their kids through their
11:32
business or write off their mileage.
11:35
Or use the Augusta rule to specific strategies that are
11:39
bent around what the client's overall long term plan is.
11:45
And can usually carry a heavier influence of anywhere from a 2X
11:49
to 1010X or more multiple as a first year deduction or
11:54
deferral. Wow.
11:56
Is it possible just to help us wrap our heads around what it is
12:01
that you guys at Thornton Tax and Financial Services can do
12:04
differently? Give us a specific example,
12:07
leave out the names, but walk us through what you were able to do
12:10
for somebody. Absolutely.
12:12
We had a client last year that had a a really good year with
12:18
their business and netted a large amount of income that was
12:21
going to throw off over $1,000,000 in tax liability
12:24
between self-employment and federal income tax.
12:27
So that's a, that's over $1,000,000 check that they were
12:29
going to have to write to the government because they didn't
12:32
have any other options at that point.
12:35
And we sat down and we looked through some strategy options
12:37
and decided on one that was about a 6X multiple.
12:40
And what they ended up doing is writing, you know, a 400 and or
12:47
$400,000 or so check to the strategy, which actually
12:52
purchased them an asset and is revenue generating for them.
12:57
So it diversified them, it produced another income
13:00
producing asset and they got a bonus depreciation deduction in
13:08
the first year that wiped out the income and they actually got
13:11
a refund. Hang on a second.
13:14
Let me see if I understood this because I think my brain
13:17
misconnected things here. It sounds impossible.
13:20
So they were going to have $1,000,000 tax liability, right?
13:23
You came in for $400,000. They acquire an asset of some
13:28
kind. And because of the way that this
13:31
all got tied together, they didn't owe that $1,000,000 check
13:37
to to the different governments, and in fact, they got some money
13:41
back that they had already paid. Correct.
13:45
And that's that's the part that a lot of people don't realize is
13:48
available and a lot of it's because the there's a lot that's
13:53
offered through private offering.
13:56
So there's initial entry points as far as what you have to have
14:02
or how you have to qualify in order to get access to them
14:05
initially. And then you have to find them.
14:08
And what we've tried to do is put a collection of them
14:12
essentially together for the clients to sift through with us
14:15
helping them to find what's the best use case for them.
14:19
And part of that is done through direct partnership with people
14:24
that are offering those. And then a lot of it comes from
14:27
I was invited to join the largest independent peer review
14:31
group in the country that specifically built around tax
14:35
strategy. So you have to have a license in
14:38
either as ACPA, an attorney, an enrolled agent, or as a licensed
14:43
tax preparer in order to be invited into it.
14:46
And it is for no other purpose than to poke holes in every tax
14:51
strategy we can get our hands on.
14:52
The ones that make it through that are easy to understand,
14:56
easy to implement, risk is mitigated.
14:59
All the fun things that everybody likes to know about,
15:01
we do all the due diligence on it upfront so that the only
15:05
thing that's left at that point it's to check the applicability
15:08
of it for that specific client and make sure that it will work
15:11
for them. Are these tax strategies part of
15:18
intellectual property? Is probably not the right word,
15:21
but I'm curious how comfortable you are saying more about the
15:25
details of just one of these things.
15:28
I mean, there's a number of ways that they work.
15:31
There's ones that are leveraged either through leases or loans
15:35
and that's how you get the greater multiple because you're
15:37
at risk. And then based on how the asset
15:40
is structured or how it functions, then it throws you
15:43
into qualification based on the IRS Rex.
15:48
There's ones that are specifically for charitable
15:50
giving. There's ones that are for not
15:53
only the types of assets that you have, but where they're held
15:56
and how your entities are structured so that the cash flow
16:00
and tax flow is optimized from each of them.
16:05
So, you know, you can have a business or several businesses
16:10
and then slapping up a management company over the top
16:12
of it, or you can say, OK, well this business owns this one and
16:17
the main entity that it goes that owns the parent company,
16:21
that actually feeds into a family management company that's
16:25
only by a trust or a single member LLC.
16:27
So there's tax advantages along the way as well as control over
16:31
the tax flow or this cash flow. OK.
16:35
And so this is one of many things that you guys are experts
16:39
in. So I want to sort of cover a
16:43
little bit of the ground sort of in between how you got from, you
16:47
know, where you started to where you are.
16:50
When you were coming into this family firm that been around for
16:54
decades. Was there a weight on your
16:57
shoulders? Was there a like, oh, I, I, I've
17:00
got a reputation to live up to or, or did you just feel
17:04
naturally about stepping into this?
17:05
Role. I think anytime you take over a
17:10
business or start a business, there's always that imposter
17:13
syndrome that creeps in. For sure.
17:17
For me, it was a lot of that. And then there was also a lot
17:19
of, you know, in the interim when I purchased the business
17:24
until I got my license and built some ability there, there was
17:28
the great concern of, oh, well, can I do this if something were
17:31
to happen unexpectedly and it weighs on you?
17:35
I mean it's it's troublesome for sure, but as I've become more
17:40
confident in my ability and built more knowledge and built a
17:43
stronger team around me, then those pressures seem to lighten
17:48
up or at least be held up by a team rather than on one set of
17:54
shoulders. Anything you had to unlearn
17:57
about yourself as you went into that role?
18:02
Reprogram about yourself. I was always one that if I
18:07
failed at something because I always want to do everything I
18:09
can do exceptionally will. That failure happens in business
18:13
whether you want it to or not. It's not always you.
18:16
You can't focus on the losses. You need to just blow it off and
18:21
move forward to the next one because if it didn't bankrupt
18:25
you or kill you, you can go replace it tomorrow.
18:29
I like that and I really appreciate you bringing up the
18:32
imposter syndrome because this is something that I think most
18:36
people listening would be surprised to hear.
18:39
The number of very high performers, very successful
18:41
people that even with where they are today and the confidence
18:46
that they mostly have in themselves and their work, still
18:49
experience on a regular basis, right?
18:51
To the contrary of evidence that says you've done it, you can do
18:55
it again, There's still a part of your brain that's like, I
18:58
don't know. Oh, I mean, it's I, I grew up
19:02
with my family owned businesses and being in accounting.
19:05
And you know, I also was when I was independent as a young
19:11
adult, I was also the one that was opening, you know, Christmas
19:13
and birthday cards to pay bills. So I mean, it's, I've been on
19:16
both ends of it and to go from that to where I am now is a
19:23
pretty, pretty hard swing as far as where we went and the
19:29
direction we're going now, because with the direction we're
19:33
going now, I know that we're we're secure and stable and now
19:36
growth is the main objective. So we're actually looking to
19:39
acquire more and grow from there.
19:41
So it's going to be really interesting to see what happens
19:44
when we take on another one that I didn't have access to
19:47
initially. That's somebody else's legacy or
19:49
your baby. That'll be interesting.
19:52
Let's come back to that. But I want to hear about the
19:55
transition of when you took over the firm first, how did that
19:58
take about? When I initially took over, my
20:03
mom is very much a pen and paper person, so she was carrying
20:07
around her workload for the week on a three by five note card and
20:11
was taking her appointments and reamed paper agenda.
20:18
So the very first thing we did was modernize.
20:22
So we set up business emails, websites, started using
20:28
collaborative platforms for scheduling, ways to track our
20:32
clients, all kinds of fun little bits and pieces that went into
20:37
it. And then over time, we just
20:39
slowly built into building operating procedures, processes,
20:47
adding additional platforms to it that have allowed us to
20:51
better serve the clients at a greater degree and expedite
20:55
delivery while also maintaining the quality of what we're doing.
20:59
And now that we're focused on the direction that we're going
21:02
with advisory service, connecting with the clients with
21:09
the best not only tax preparation services that we can
21:13
provide, but the best services that we can also find for them
21:15
in other areas. So if they don't have a wealth
21:19
advisor or they're not getting the service they need from them,
21:23
having a, you know, essentially a pool of them that based on
21:26
what they're telling us and what they're looking for, we can draw
21:29
from to put them in front of the right people.
21:32
It's really opened up new opportunities for us for not
21:34
only being able to bring more value to our clients, but also
21:38
to get exposure to other professionals and what else
21:42
might be possible for the clients.
21:44
And you know, it's also reciprocal.
21:47
So it comes back to us in different ways, either through
21:50
referral or whatever it it ends up being from the partners that
21:54
we work with. Are you a natural networker?
21:57
Because I'm seeing this pattern of it how you first grew the
22:00
bookkeeping side of the business coming in, going out to the
22:02
referral partners. And now as you guys look forward
22:05
on the advisory side of things IT it's the same kind of, OK,
22:09
let's go out and find the best in class partners to work with
22:12
in different areas. Yes, I'm naturally social and
22:19
when I found a way, the way I describe it to people is that I
22:23
found a way to monetize my ADHD is essentially the way it works
22:28
for me. You know, my mom and my wife are
22:32
very much introverts. I'm very much the extroverted 1.
22:34
So when they got invites to events or parties or anything
22:38
like that, they would, you know, go stay there allotted 15 to 20
22:42
minutes, thank their host and get out as quickly as they could
22:45
and as quietly as they could. I'm the one that prefers to
22:49
state of the end and then ask where we're going afterwards.
22:51
And you know, I usually come back with cards or clients or
22:55
both. And it's just, it comes
22:58
naturally to me because I, I naturally want to bring value to
23:03
those around me as well as provide them with the
23:09
connections that make that value possible.
23:12
So if even if it's not something where I'm directly going to
23:15
benefit from it, I would rather rather that somebody I've
23:17
connected with know that I can put them in touch with the
23:20
people that need, they need when they need them and the the work
23:24
will come back to me later. Like that?
23:29
So 2022 you earned your Enrolled Agent credential.
23:36
What's the reason that you did that?
23:39
What changed for you once you had it?
23:41
Well, number one, I could sign tax returns as a preparer, so
23:45
they all moved over under me officially.
23:49
But comparatively to ACPA license, we can practice in all
23:52
50 states. Cpas can as well, but they all
23:55
have to register with each individual state board.
23:57
So less oversight gives me the professional credential I need
24:01
in order to represent and put the final piece of the
24:06
continuity plan in place. That at the very least, even if
24:09
I had support to help me, I could still run the firm, sign
24:12
the returns and do the work. If it fall.
24:17
It fell apart at the the hinges here.
24:21
Which doesn't sound like it's happening.
24:23
We're going to get back to the growth trajectory that you guys
24:26
are on here in a second. But you mentioned something a
24:28
little bit ago that I wanted to come back to Virtual Family
24:32
Office service, say more about that.
24:34
What is that? Everyone's heard of the
24:39
Zuckerbergs and the Musks and JP Morgan, everything else where
24:48
they don't pay tax. And that's what they compare
24:50
themselves to. And typically it's because what
24:52
they have is what's called a family office, where if they
24:55
need an attorney or something specialized for their family,
24:58
they go hire the attorney and they work for the family.
25:01
And over time they get a collection of specialists and
25:06
professionals that work specifically for the family.
25:08
And that's called, that's a like traditional family office.
25:13
And in certain instances that still make sense, but in a lot
25:19
of cases it doesn't and it seems unreachable by most.
25:24
So what virtual family office does is it creates a modern
25:31
virtual multifamily option where a collection of professionals or
25:36
a specific company can provide an an all-encompassing approach
25:42
for the clients. But the barrier of air of entry
25:46
comes way down because now they're doing it with multiple
25:48
families that can also it's. A shared service, right?
25:51
I don't have to pay for that entire office and that staff
25:54
myself. Yes, you're not, you're not
25:56
staffing the professionals, but you're working with them at a
25:59
higher level than just the traditional, you know, set up my
26:03
will or help me with my estate plan type attorney.
26:06
You're working with somebody that has things change for you
26:08
or you wire new things or, or get into and out of businesses
26:12
that it requires ongoing communication to be both
26:17
proactive and preventative with how those professionals are
26:22
putting things in front of you, including tax.
26:26
You know, someone that's getting ready for a business exit.
26:29
If they have a business consultant that's prepping them
26:31
for the sale, then they're going to work on getting the most that
26:35
they can get for it for the client.
26:37
But then beyond that, their portions pretty much done.
26:40
And if they were working with a traditional accountant that
26:44
isn't forward thinking then they wouldn't be prepped for the tax
26:48
implications of it and or would just be left with no other
26:51
option just to to pay the tax on it.
26:53
If you plan effectively, then you can mitigate it or defer it.
26:58
What kind of a client is a good fit for Thornton?
27:01
Tax and financial services? Size, Industry.
27:06
Geography. Give us the rundown.
27:10
For the strategic planning portion of it then it's usually
27:13
someone that's got AI hate the term high net worth, but that's
27:17
essentially what it is is that their their income's high enough
27:20
to the point where they're in a higher tax bracket and are
27:26
limited by either options or access to the strategies that
27:31
would most benefit them. Most of the ones that we work
27:34
with on strategy are also business owners because they
27:36
didn't give them an additional option of do you do it through
27:39
your business or do you do it individually or both.
27:44
But we're not a niched firm, so industry doesn't really prevent
27:51
us from one client to the next. And if they feel like they're in
27:57
a position where they want to look into strategy and it makes
28:00
sense for them, then we sit down and initially look at it with
28:03
them from a projection and application standpoint.
28:09
And if it doesn't make sense, I will be the first person to tell
28:11
them that right now you're spending X dollars to save X
28:14
dollars. And it doesn't make sense to do
28:17
that when you could just do this piece that wouldn't require all
28:22
of these extra, put all these extra requirements on you to
28:28
participate in a strategy and essentially get you closer to
28:33
where you want to be. And then for the ones that it
28:36
does make sense for them, we can sit down and and have the
28:39
initial discussion, make sure that it's applicable for them.
28:41
And then if they decide to move forward at that point, we start
28:44
doing the fun part, which is playing with the numbers and
28:47
running projection and giving options.
28:49
So it becomes really interesting really quick.
28:52
Yeah, it does sound fun. The other fun thing that's going
28:55
on is October of 2025, just about 6-7 months ago, you guys
29:01
took on some partners. Walk us through that.
29:06
It was the value over volume equation all over again because
29:10
you know, eventually it, when I initially started, I started in
29:13
books and then I worked into more advanced books.
29:17
And then that's LED into bigger questions about what they could
29:20
learn from it from projection and analytic standpoint.
29:25
And then LED into some Comptroller work and then some
29:28
fractional CFO work. And then when I got my tax
29:30
license, it kind of started the process over again where I
29:33
started fairly basic with the tax and then got into more
29:36
complex tax situations. And the question started to grow
29:39
bigger and bigger, which is what initially led me into virtual
29:43
family office service because I was looking for a way to
29:46
facilitate those additional needs for the clients without
29:50
just beating the street. And, you know, meaning, you
29:53
know, 150 different wealth advisors and 100 different
29:56
attorneys and trying to find the right ones.
29:58
It was essentially practice built and intentional when I
30:03
first got into the, the company that I started that with.
30:09
And then when we reached a certain point, it was do we
30:14
continue just to pump in more or do we focus on the value?
30:18
And if I'm going to focus on the value, am I capable of doing
30:21
that while also spinning all the plates and wearing all the hats?
30:25
And in some cases, that's not the case.
30:30
In my case, it wasn't. So I went and found people that
30:32
were partnered were willing to partner with me, that I had a
30:38
close connection with, that I understood the value of what
30:41
they brought as well as what it would do together.
30:45
And as we start looking at doing some of these acquisitions, it
30:49
gives us the ability that instead of me coming in as a
30:52
single individual with industry knowledge and experience to
30:57
partner with somebody on a firm or to to acquire my own, it
31:01
gives me a team to work with that outside of what I do.
31:05
One partner is a sales executive leader, coaching consultant with
31:11
Sandler and has been doing that for a long time.
31:14
He's excellent and teaches people how to sell, how to, how
31:20
to build other leaders. And then the other partner is
31:25
fractional CMO. So marketing.
31:29
She's also done operational change management.
31:32
She's managed large teams, multiple facilities.
31:35
As we go into this model where we're potentially going to have
31:37
multiple locations and additional team members and
31:39
things like that, then she brings that experience to the
31:43
table as well. And now that if we go partner
31:47
with somebody to acquire a firm or we acquire on our own,
31:49
instead of me going in by myself, it's the team goes in
31:54
and they have their strengths as far as how that will play into
31:57
the plan. And I have mine and everybody
32:00
works together that way. But if we go in with partners,
32:04
it also opens up a larger equity position opportunity for us
32:08
because then we're not only just handling the traditional service
32:12
and the accounting and the operations, we're also handling
32:15
marketing, team development, growth, operational change
32:19
management, operating procedure, all the fun bits and pieces that
32:22
tend to be problematic. OK.
32:24
So I just connected the dots on all this.
32:28
I thought you're bringing in somebody from sales and somebody
32:31
from marketing just to help you bring in additional clients.
32:35
All right, let's put some marketing campaigns and let's
32:38
train some sales people to go out and how to talk about our
32:40
product. But now I get it.
32:41
These are services that you want to offer to your client base
32:45
because you go in and from a financial perspective and people
32:49
outside of business maybe don't get this.
32:51
The finance people, they get operations really well, right,
32:54
because they get the operations and they can see how the numbers
32:57
are affecting what's going on. And so that big part of, you
33:01
know, pulling levers to help, you know, firms get to the
33:04
growth that they want, sales, marketing, right?
33:08
And so now you've got those expertise in house that you can
33:12
offer to your clients. We can do that.
33:15
And then also from the standpoint that if we go into an
33:17
acquisition and any of those areas are lacking because
33:22
accountants as a whole are typically not social
33:26
individuals. I hate to generalize like that,
33:31
but just, you know, I tend to think of myself as one of the
33:35
exceptions. I've met others that are, but
33:38
for the most part, they like the work.
33:39
They like what they do, but they don't they.
33:42
Don't market. A lot they do well that and they
33:44
do a lot of organic growth more so than marketing and old
33:50
outreach or any of that piece. And then they develop from
33:56
within and by basically finding more of more professionals that
34:01
are like them. And sometimes it takes coaching
34:07
or consulting to kind of build people into stronger team
34:10
members and to be able to go into an acquisition or to
34:14
partner with somebody to help them with their firm and bring
34:18
those components in From 1:00, Central team is much more
34:24
valuable than trying to piece meal it all together.
34:28
So your plan in 2026 and beyond is let's do some acquisitions?
34:34
And. What are you looking for?
34:38
Right now we're focusing on accounting firms, so other
34:41
accounting firms that have a good amount of tax, business and
34:45
individual tax, especially ones that may or may not already be
34:49
offering strategic planning or strategy to their clients.
34:55
But the idea would be that over time, as we acquire more and add
35:02
it to what we're doing, my office was our initial case
35:06
study. We didn't change the name.
35:09
We didn't, you know, come through and lay waste to all the
35:14
staff. We are still true to the legacy
35:18
of what was built here. And we want to do that with
35:19
additional firms. So somebody that spent twenty,
35:22
2540 years building another firm and doesn't want to just hand it
35:27
over to private equity or you know, somebody who just wants it
35:31
as an asset to be able to come in and tell them that we
35:34
understand it. This is kind of the background
35:36
that we came from. All we want to do is a, you
35:39
know, a soft rebrand, rebuild the website a little bit, maybe
35:41
change the logo and keep the name and then move forward from
35:45
there. Then it makes it a lot easier
35:47
conversation to have because we want to be true to what they've
35:50
built for so long rather than coming in and make their firm
35:54
fit our mold. Is it important for these new
35:58
acquisitions to be geographically close to you?
36:02
The first few, yes, we're going to focus in kind of the North
36:06
Texas area initially. And then from there, I mean
36:10
based on availability and the market, then we're going to
36:14
start slowly reaching out further and further.
36:15
But the plan for us is we want to do at least 25 in the next
36:19
five years and then we're going to keep pushing until we hit a
36:26
pretty high valuation and then a pretty high top line revenue of
36:31
about 150 million. So we're pushing hard and we
36:35
understand that that'll come with its own challenges, but the
36:39
idea being that we want to take what we've done to create a
36:47
different space in the industry and increase the availability of
36:51
it. Say more about the different
36:54
space that you want to create, right?
36:56
Because there are other folks that you know clearly accounting
36:59
firms or acquiring other accounting firms, but what's
37:02
different about your model and your approach?
37:04
It's not transactional, it's more relationship focused.
37:08
You know, for us, we prefer to have relationships with our
37:10
clients. And I can tell when someone's
37:12
walking in from the parking lot who they are then waiting for
37:16
them to get in and hand us paperwork to figure out who
37:18
we're talking to, you know, and not from the acquisition side,
37:23
not treating it as something to be put into a portfolio so that
37:26
it can be turned out for a markup later like private equity
37:32
tends to do. And that the plan for us is just
37:38
to grow. We want to grow across the
37:39
board. We're not going to focus on
37:42
acquiring the clients or acquiring, acquiring the contact
37:45
list and then, you know, tell everybody that their last days
37:49
on Friday and move it over to something that we're already
37:52
maintaining. We want to keep it going the way
37:54
that it is, keep the team, keep the location if possible.
38:00
If not, then find something that's relatively close to it
38:05
and you'll go from there. But the idea would be that we
38:08
stay true to what it's been for so long for a lot of people that
38:11
have built it. And that's where the reality of
38:16
the situation is that we're we're coming up on a probably a
38:20
10 to 15 year span here where there's going to be a large
38:24
number of the people that are practicing in the industry
38:26
retiring or just aging out. And they're not going to want to
38:30
just let it go. But they also don't want to turn
38:33
something that they've built for the last 20 or more years over
38:37
to somebody who's just pumping A checkbook and going to put it in
38:40
a folder and add it to a portfolio to turn around and
38:43
sell it to somebody else who doesn't want to run it true to
38:45
their background. What's the plan to fund these
38:49
acquisitions, Brandon? We've looked at a number of
38:52
different options. After the first, probably two or
38:55
three, we'll probably be self funded.
38:58
But on the first two or three we're either going to do it
39:00
through funding, partner traditional lending or non
39:03
traditional lending. But we've looked at pretty much
39:05
everything across the board. We looked at you're doing 0
39:09
coupon bonds, preferred shares, convertible shares, traditional
39:12
lending, investor lending, capital raise.
39:17
We've done a lot of research on that front.
39:19
So we're prepared for whichever direction it needs us to go in
39:24
order to make it happen. But after the idea being that
39:28
with the difference that it's made here between October and
39:31
now, we took about a 20% increase between the end of
39:34
October through the end of December last year. 20% increase
39:39
in your revenues because you were able to offer these
39:43
additional services. And because I wasn't trying to
39:45
spin all the plates so I have people that I could trust and
39:50
rely on step into certain roles in the office that allowed me to
39:55
go out and do what I was best at, which was the strategy in
39:57
the development portion of it. And it led to a lot of growth
40:01
for us. That equated to about a 20% bump
40:05
in this, what should have been the slowest part of our year.
40:08
And then between the beginning of January to the end of
40:13
February, we had about 40% of what we made all year last year
40:16
already on the books. Wow.
40:19
OK, so the kind of answer is the question that's been rattling
40:22
around in my brain. Is it weird when an accounting
40:25
and tax firm goes to the clients and says we can help you with
40:28
sales and marketing too? Apparently the answer is no.
40:33
Not really from the standpoint that, like you said earlier, the
40:37
financial portion of it can tell you where the pain points are,
40:41
but it can't give you the solutions.
40:43
So to have someone that's capable of stepping in when you
40:46
realize that your margins are good on the ones that you are
40:50
selling, you just need to sell more.
40:52
Oh, by the way, here's someone who can teach you how to sell
40:54
better or help you find someone that's capable of selling this
40:57
for you and train them. Then it brings that much more
41:03
value to them because now we're not just pointing out all the
41:06
red dots on the on the financials about where the
41:09
problems are, where there's misalignment or they're
41:11
overspending or it's not profitable for them and we're
41:15
providing solutions as well. That's brilliant.
41:21
You kind of touched on this. You know, lots of growth
41:24
anticipated here in the next few years and there's going to be
41:28
pain points to that growth, right?
41:30
You've seen it, you know, from your own clients, right?
41:32
There's different companies go through growth the the way that
41:36
you did things before is, you know, not going to be, you know,
41:39
what gets you to the next level. You have to kind of reinvent
41:43
yourself. And so I'm curious how you guys
41:46
are thinking about the tech platform that you've got in
41:49
place as you're making these acquisitions.
41:53
First Jack geographically close to you, but then later you know,
41:57
more dispersed and how you can be able to centralized and sort
42:02
of keep your arms wrapped around the inner workings of what's
42:05
going on. We've gone the route of
42:09
augmentation, not replacement, so giving the staff the ability
42:14
to expedite delivery work more efficiently through the systems
42:19
that we use on both tax prep, bookkeeping, client
42:23
communications, tracking, standard operating procedure
42:27
stuff. So we've created a model where
42:32
we've essentially cut out the fluff and took away the pieces
42:36
that were not necessary or redundant and kind of built out
42:41
a model to where we can either acquire new licenses and fold
42:44
them into what we already have or acquire new versions of the
42:50
software for each firm that we do and then retain access to
42:53
each of them. But it gives us my big things
42:57
oversight. I don't want to have to come
43:00
look over someone's shoulder just to figure out where they
43:02
are in a project. I'd rather have it in a If
43:04
that's the case, then it needs to be in a system where as
43:07
they're incrementally working through the pieces of it, that
43:10
we can just look at the system and know where they are And give
43:15
them, you know, not necessarily autonomy, but give them less
43:19
micromanaging and more focus on what they do best with the
43:23
ability to just reach out and, you know, go across the hall for
43:26
help. But for us, the, the tech stack
43:31
is we use ultra Tack. So some firms still use Lucert.
43:36
My dad still uses Lucert, which is an Intuit product which has
43:41
mixed emotions in the, the industry because Intuit loves to
43:45
buy everything. But you know, we've built into a
43:50
model where on essentially on 10:40 work, we can streamline
43:56
the process and we cut it down from about on average about an
44:00
hour and a half per client to about 25 minutes.
44:04
And same quality of products, same ability to provide
44:08
completed work to a client, just vastly faster and more
44:12
effective. Which means that opens up the
44:15
additional time to be either for staff development, additional
44:20
new clients or strategic planning clients.
44:23
So it gives us, rather than letting go of anything or having
44:28
to turn clients out or anything like that, we can still take on
44:31
new clients every day and not reach the same pain point
44:34
because it's just a matter of leaning harder on the tools that
44:37
are meant to help us work more efficiently than it is putting
44:41
additional pressure on anyone or multiple staff members.
44:45
How do you think about AI in your practice today?
44:50
That's been a big focus for me for the last two or three years
44:56
and a lot of it was built around finding solutions for the
45:04
mundane repetitive process. And I think that's going to be
45:09
the first thing that probably goes in our industry, which is
45:14
in probably the next 5 to 10 years, the baseline data entry
45:17
clerk will essentially be non existent.
45:21
Not to say that they can't still be utilized, but it means that
45:24
you get to skill up your staff if you do it properly.
45:27
Because then who was going to be doing data entry can now be
45:31
trained to do a review. And the one that was doing a
45:33
review can now do higher level service with additional clients
45:37
for analytics or projection or profitability and become more of
45:44
that trusted advisor, consultant, accountant than just
45:50
the data entry. Here's your financial statement
45:53
type relationship. So I can see it scaling up
45:56
everyone in the industry as long as they embrace it.
45:59
The ones that fight it, I think you're going to get walked over
46:01
the top of. Is it too early to be thinking
46:06
about leveling those folks up? Never.
46:11
Even even with where it sits right now, where it's strong in
46:16
some areas and still weak in others, it would be better to
46:19
get in front of it comparatively to waiting for it to get until
46:24
everyone's singing praises and then trying to figure it out.
46:30
So if someone's listening and they are that person that is
46:35
concerned about being replaced, what should they do?
46:39
What's their first step to leveling up?
46:43
Learn how to use it. I'm actually, oddly enough, I'm
46:48
actually going through a platform called Corsive right
46:51
now that you can register for it.
46:55
There's certain there's modules that are industry specific.
46:58
So there's AI and accounting. You know how to use Gemini or
47:03
Claude or ChatGPT or some of the others that are available and
47:09
what it's strong with, what it's good at doing and where it has
47:12
its strengths and where it has its weaknesses and what others
47:14
are best AT. And then how to comparatively
47:16
look at them. And then also how to tie them
47:18
together to make them all efficiently work together.
47:23
And being able to do that is going to be a difference maker
47:26
between being able to skill up because now you have the ability
47:29
to not only create your own tools, but your own work flows
47:32
and expedite your own work that you instantly become more
47:37
valuable that way. Tell us about True Capital
47:42
Partners and better biz advisors.
47:45
True Capital Partners was a secondary pursuit for me when I
47:49
initially got into family office service.
47:50
I partnered with a wealth advisor that the big restriction
47:56
on that is that you can't. If I'm not licensed in any
48:02
series licenses, I can't partake in anything on that side of the
48:06
strategy. Likewise, if he's not tax
48:09
license, he can't partake in anything on the tax strategy or
48:12
engagement side. So that just kind of brought the
48:14
wall down for us because we were working heavily together at the
48:16
time. It's still a secondary project
48:19
for me, but not my main focus. And then Better Biz advisors is
48:28
when I was doing the fractional CFO and controller work, I was
48:32
being asked to do things that I didn't consider in the
48:34
accounting realm. And it gave me a secondary
48:40
platform to keep it out of the tax firm because it wasn't
48:42
focused on tax or accounting and still help the clients with
48:46
certain things like tech stack or systems or deployment or
48:52
integrations, things like that, that were more it was kind of a,
48:56
a tech nerd side project for me essentially.
49:01
And now, oddly enough, that's with how I, I've repurposed it
49:05
for other uses, given that we've had our partnership now.
49:08
So it has its own use case now for me outside of that.
49:13
But yeah, I'm a giant tech nerd. So when it comes to fintech or
49:17
software or tools or something that can streamline workflow or
49:21
process, not only in my industry but just in business in general,
49:24
again, that's where I learned to monetize my ADHD because I can
49:29
do a deep dive on it, learn it, catalog it in my mind, and then
49:32
when it presents itself as an opportunity in the future, pull
49:34
it out and present it to a client.
49:37
What are your favorite AI tools or platforms right now?
49:40
I'm a big fan of Claude. We have G Suite through our
49:44
office, so we do a lot with Jim and I, but as far as industry
49:48
specific things, we're using platforms that are meant to
49:54
speed up and automate the process that was typically a lot
49:57
of repetitive questions or is client specific.
50:01
So we're using a platform for retrieval and delivery where
50:08
instead of calling the accountant and saying, Hey,
50:11
what, what forms do I need to provide you?
50:12
Or you know, what was on last year's tax return, it
50:15
specifically asks by document type and company name what was
50:21
on last year's tax return to retrieve it.
50:24
And then we have a secondary system that helps with speeding
50:27
up the process on preparation by reading standardized documents.
50:33
So any W 2/10/99 consolidation reports from your wealth firm, K
50:41
ones, things like that. It can read it and pre populate
50:43
it so that we we jump from not having to do the key entry to
50:48
doing more high level review and working on it with the client
50:51
faster. And then on the delivery side,
50:53
it literally walks them through the tax return, helps them make
50:57
a payment to us, helps them make a payment to the government.
51:00
They can set up reminders for their their estimate payment
51:07
vouchers and it's all automated through a platform that
51:12
otherwise they would be calling us and asking for those.
51:16
What's the reliability? We haven't had any problems with
51:20
the reliability up to this point.
51:22
They've got about a 99.9% up time from what we've seen and
51:26
what they've told me when we initially investigated it.
51:30
And in terms of accuracy, no issues there.
51:35
I mean it's still there's. It has its strengths and
51:38
weaknesses. It can't read non formal or non
51:44
traditional documents. So if somebody gives you an
51:47
Excel spreadsheet with business income expense that's not from a
51:50
set of books. So then it can't be just pulled
51:52
directly in. It wants you to clarify where
51:54
it's supposed to go and then just little bits and pieces.
51:58
But other than that, it it does about 85 to 90% of what we want
52:03
it. To do.
52:04
And that it does speed up the process because I mean, we put
52:11
60 returns into it on a Monday and by Thursday they were back
52:14
to us. OK, that's impressive and it's
52:18
still early days. It's going to get better and.
52:20
Faster. It's only going to improve.
52:21
And that's The thing is that they're always adding additional
52:24
modules or tools or abilities to it.
52:27
And I'd rather start embracing it now knowing that it can still
52:33
get 90% of the way there and that we've got to finish off
52:35
that last 10% and then do all our quality checks and review.
52:40
And with the anticipation that it'll be great, it'll grow into
52:42
a greater use tool for us over time.
52:46
But if it doesn't, then it's also the Wild West right now as
52:49
far as AI is concerned. So who's to say there's not
52:53
going to be a better tool tomorrow?
52:55
No. 'Cause you know.
52:57
Go ahead. I was going to say I listened to
52:59
an AI specialist that I'm friends with present recently,
53:03
and the way he put it was that when the everybody was riding
53:06
around horse and buggy and cars came out, there were no
53:11
mechanics. There's not really any such
53:14
thing as an AI expert right now because it changes so much so
53:19
often, and there's so many new things every day that who knows
53:24
what it's going to turn. Into yeah.
53:26
And I think the key lesson from what we were talking about here
53:30
for those who are listening is if you're not already jumping in
53:33
with two feet to become comfortable with the tools that
53:36
exist. No time like the present.
53:39
Today's the day that you jump in, roll up your sleeves, Start
53:42
learning it. Because, you know, the refrain I
53:45
keep hearing from a lot of really smart folks is that AI
53:48
may or may not replace your role, but the person who
53:52
understands AI is going to be the person who replaces your
53:56
role because you without the assistance of AI is, is going to
54:04
become a thing of the past pretty quickly.
54:07
Well, that in our industry specifically, it's, there's a
54:11
lot of relationship factors there that AI might be capable
54:17
of doing the work. But as far as the interpretation
54:21
of what it can tell you and the decision making process and your
54:27
own personal aversions or preferences, it, it would take a
54:35
lot to build something that was capable of understanding and
54:38
incorporating all of those into it.
54:41
So I don't know that that portion of the business was ever
54:44
capable of being replaced because it's too personalized
54:48
and too fluid. No, that's a great point.
54:51
I like that. Brandon, what's 1 of the hardest
54:54
things you've ever had to overcome personally?
54:57
And what did it teach you? For me, it was, it's probably, I
55:07
would say there's probably 2 that are equally as difficult or
55:10
that number one was coming home and starting over and you know,
55:16
I switched industries, I moved home.
55:20
I was going to be a first time dad, first time business owner.
55:27
I think the best thing that it ever taught me was patience
55:31
because there is such thing as too big, too fast and the other
55:39
would be knowing when to ask for help.
55:44
My partnership would be a prime example of that is that the
55:47
business was growing and we were being very successful, but it
55:50
was also growing to the extent that it was either going to take
55:57
the time that I was trying to gain or start to have a a turn
56:04
in the wrong direction based on how focused I would have to be
56:08
in so many different areas to make it work right.
56:11
That even if it was a consultant, bringing someone in
56:15
to help in certain areas would have been massively beneficial.
56:20
I was just fortunate enough that I found people that wanted to
56:21
partner with me to go forward with the growth aspect of it and
56:26
understood what I was trying to do and wanted to be a part of
56:27
it. But don't be afraid to ask for
56:32
help. It's the biggest part, you know,
56:33
don't think that there's not someone out there that's gone
56:37
through it just like you are right now and found a solution
56:41
and are willing to share those solutions.
56:43
You just have to find them. How did you find them?
56:48
Me being me, I, I went through networking.
56:50
So for me it was, you know, networking with other accounting
56:54
professionals and talking with them about what are you doing
56:57
when you run into this? You know, if you have a problem
57:00
with this part of the workflow or how are you handling these
57:02
types of objections or networking is a key component,
57:10
especially if you do it right. If you're intentional with it
57:12
and you're looking for those types of connections instead of
57:16
just walking in the room and throwing cards at everybody and
57:20
hoping that they come do business with you.
57:22
Then if you network and it truly is networking where they want to
57:26
know about you, want to know how they can help you, how they can
57:29
bring value to you, as well as how they and their clients or
57:33
customers could potentially work with you.
57:35
That's true networking. So it's not sitting down at a
57:39
table and handing around a stack of cards and telling everybody
57:42
to call you no. I think actually that would be
57:50
helpful to hear a little bit more about how you approach
57:52
networking, right? Because you love going to these
57:54
events. Your mom, Nope, she's just going
57:57
for the 15 minutes to check the box and say that she, she did
58:00
her thing. So how do you approach it,
58:03
right? Like you said, you're not
58:04
sitting down at a table seeing how many cards you can just hand
58:07
out. You know, those aren't little
58:08
bulletin boards where somebody's going to actually take it and
58:12
call you if you didn't make a real connection with them.
58:17
For me, it's #1 how many people are going to be there and is IT
58:23
industry specific and focused in an area where I feel like what
58:27
we do would bring value to them? So I've done a lot with
58:30
attorneys. I've done a lot with larger
58:33
networking groups that focus with professionals and different
58:36
groups, real estate or business brokers or extra strategy
58:42
specialists where what I do acts as a compliment to what they do.
58:47
So for me to get into a room full of a collection of a lot of
58:50
the people that are working in that industry is massively
58:53
beneficial for me. So it's a matter of just finding
58:56
the right rooms to get into, to be intentional with it to where
59:01
I'm not going in there to sell them.
59:03
I'm going in there to sell how I'm good at what I do and how it
59:07
would benefit what they're already pursuing with their
59:09
clients and be a compliment to what they're already doing.
59:13
There's no competition that way. There's no threat and it's all
59:19
relationship based at that point.
59:20
So it's just do they like me more than the other accountant
59:23
they're already working with, or am I providing something unique
59:25
that the other client hasn't brought up?
59:28
And I like to think that in most cases, I'm unique enough that
59:31
that is the case. But if it's not, then I want to
59:34
meet the other accountant. I want to know the pieces that I
59:35
don't have. So it gives another opportunity
59:39
to get in from another professional to learn more and
59:41
grow more professionally and potentially add more into the
59:46
box for us. I really like that.
59:48
So you go in with. How can I provide value and I
59:51
able to deliver something that somebody similar isn't already
59:55
offering to you and wait your your accountant does what that I
59:59
don't do OK, rather than feel scared or threatened, that is
1:00:04
somebody I would love to talk to.
1:00:06
Yeah, The biggest thing I tell people when I network with them
1:00:08
is I don't believe in professional competition.
1:00:13
I don't care who it is. I'm not competing with anybody.
1:00:17
I'm trying to do the best I can for everybody I meet and work
1:00:19
with. And if you approach it from that
1:00:22
standpoint, then the opposition that you feel when you're
1:00:29
networking with other professionals kind of fades away
1:00:34
and everyone's an opportunity. A plumber can be an opportunity
1:00:37
for a wealth advisor. You know it just it's a matter
1:00:41
of where does the value lie for those two to work together.
1:00:47
Let's go back to the other challenge that you mentioned.
1:00:50
Coming back home, starting all over again, becoming a business
1:00:54
owner in a new field, becoming a dad for the first time.
1:00:58
That is a whole lot of big life changes all at once.
1:01:02
How are you working through that?
1:01:04
Where'd you go for support? My wife is my best friend.
1:01:10
So, you know, I got to go home and get my my interim therapy
1:01:15
sessions with her for the longest time because what also
1:01:20
happened in the middle of all of it was COVID.
1:01:23
So there was about a year and a half there where even if I
1:01:26
wanted to network with people, all I could do is stare at them
1:01:28
on a screen. But I also in that period of
1:01:32
time, it was when our oldest was going to be going into education
1:01:37
and she's fortunate enough that she got a double dose of ADHD
1:01:42
from me and her mom. So telling a 5 year old with,
1:01:47
you know, high level ADHD that she's going to sit still, wear a
1:01:50
mask and not touch or talk to her friends all day was not
1:01:52
going to work. So kept her home.
1:01:57
And then at the end of it, we had our second daughter.
1:02:01
So, you know, COVID ended and then we had a, an infant that
1:02:06
was taking time. So when she got old enough,
1:02:10
that's where I went out to be very specific with it.
1:02:12
And I ended up joining a group that's specifically AB to B
1:02:15
focused networking group. That is very much what I was
1:02:19
just talking about. It's intentional.
1:02:22
It's a collection of other professionals that are looking
1:02:25
for opportunities to bring value to each other as well as their
1:02:28
clients and the other professionals clients.
1:02:32
So it's more of a collaborative collection of professionals that
1:02:37
are always looking to give first.
1:02:42
And that's where my happy place is because when I have a pain
1:02:47
point or I have a, an operational deficiency
1:02:52
somewhere, I'm probably friends with somebody who's really,
1:02:55
really, really good at that. And I can just go say, hey, but
1:02:57
let's go to lunch and I need to ask you a couple of questions
1:03:01
and I can get the answers I'm looking for.
1:03:04
What's the name of that group? Brandon.
1:03:06
Success Champions not working or SCN for short, but I had.
1:03:12
I joined in February of 24. By April I was asked to start a
1:03:19
group and by June we had started a group in South Lake called
1:03:25
Coffee as Foreclosures. That, oddly enough, is how I was
1:03:28
initially introduced to my now partners as well as one of our
1:03:31
staff members here. So we've recently made some
1:03:36
changes to the group so that we can kind of spread out a little
1:03:38
bit and increase our footprint because we had four people of
1:03:42
the five on the leadership team that we're all working in the
1:03:44
same office every day after we did the partnership.
1:03:47
So we're slowly kind of breaking up the band a little bit as far
1:03:50
as that goes, but we're still in the same group, in the same
1:03:52
community. But it's been really fun.
1:03:57
I mean, it's national so I've met people from all over the
1:04:00
country that specialize in one area or another.
1:04:05
And it's not it's not restrictive like some places are
1:04:09
where it's seat specific so there can't be 5 accountants in
1:04:15
the room unless all of them are in agreeance that none of them
1:04:18
do the same thing. But when you join, you also get
1:04:23
the opportunity to go guest in any of the groups that you want
1:04:25
to go to, as long as you have the time to do it for no
1:04:29
additional fee or time. Anywhere in the country.
1:04:33
The well, it's all one hour virtually based once a week.
1:04:38
So it makes it incredibly easy to get the net, get in, get the
1:04:40
net working across. Town and find parking.
1:04:43
Exactly. And then you can have a national
1:04:46
group where you get like we've got in the group that we run.
1:04:49
We have somebody in New York, we have somebody in Florida, we
1:04:53
have people that are scattered all over Texas that the ones
1:04:57
that are more localized. When we run in person events,
1:04:59
which are usually mixer events or dinners or things like that,
1:05:04
then they can tend to make it. But we also have a national
1:05:07
summit once a year where 4 or 500 of us will get together and
1:05:10
it's 3 full days of just pouring into each other with presenters
1:05:16
and opportunities to learn how to network better, how to sell
1:05:20
better, how to grow better as a business professional,
1:05:24
regardless of what industry you're in.
1:05:26
So it's been my happy place for a long time.
1:05:29
I was going to say, I can fully appreciate how it is your happy
1:05:33
place as you think about the work that you're doing, Brandon,
1:05:38
what is it that you most want to be remembered for?
1:05:42
The value that we've brought to clients, more so than the work
1:05:45
we've done, the way I heard somebody put it recently was I
1:05:54
don't want to be remembered. I want to be unforgettable and
1:05:59
to be. Unforgettable by.
1:06:01
The only way that you can be unforgettable as an accountant
1:06:04
is to bring value I. Want that?
1:06:07
Brandon, I just got one more question for you today.
1:06:09
But before I ask it, I want to do 3 quick things for the
1:06:12
audience. First of all, to get in touch
1:06:14
with Brandon Thornton. Got a few options?
1:06:16
Their website is thorntontfs.com.
1:06:21
His e-mail address is brandon@thorntontfs.com.
1:06:25
Their phone number is 817-282-2411, 817-282-2411, and
1:06:32
we'll have that in the show notes for everybody.
1:06:36
Speaking of the show, if you're enjoying it today, please take a
1:06:39
moment to subscribe wherever you're listening.
1:06:41
It also sends a signal that helps others discover our
1:06:44
podcast. So thank you for taking a quick
1:06:46
moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can be
1:06:50
the hero advisor that helps clients give their employees
1:06:53
access to therapists, doctors and prescription meds that
1:06:57
counter intuitively increases their net profits, real gains
1:07:01
that can change how a business is valued.
1:07:03
Imagine being the hero advisor that introduces this to your
1:07:07
clients. So contact us today at AD back
1:07:09
benefits.com. So last question, a year from
1:07:12
now, Brandon, what is 1 very specific thing that you hope to
1:07:15
be celebrated? Whatever acquisition we're just
1:07:20
completing, cause again, everything for me has always
1:07:23
been family focused from the beginning.
1:07:26
So the whole purpose of why my partners and I are doing
1:07:28
acquisitions is that we want to build a family compound where
1:07:30
everybody gets to go play and hang out and move.
1:07:33
And all we need is a really good Internet connection and we can
1:07:36
do what we do from anywhere. A family compound.
1:07:38
Say more about that that sounds. Fun.
1:07:40
The idea is to go by acreage wherever we want to go, and
1:07:45
everybody gets to pick out their little plot and we have communal
1:07:48
space and every other than that, we've just got plenty of room to
1:07:51
run around and cause trouble without people bothering us or
1:07:56
anything like that. So bring our families out, bring
1:08:00
their families out, and everybody just gets to do their
1:08:03
thing. Well, that does sound like a lot
1:08:05
of fun. Oh yeah.
1:08:06
What's, what's the timeline on that so we know when to schedule
1:08:09
the follow up interview? As soon as possible I'll let you
1:08:12
know for sure. It's one of those things where
1:08:14
there won't, I won't come out and tell it, but there'll be
1:08:17
signs you'll start. My social pages will just slowly
1:08:20
transition to me in the woods doing all kinds of fun things
1:08:24
more and more. But yeah, that's the whole
1:08:29
pursuit. We want to do that sooner rather
1:08:30
than later. So as soon as we feel like it's
1:08:32
in the realm of possibility, we're going to start start going
1:08:35
for it. Love it.
1:08:37
Brandon Thornton from Thornton Tax and Financial Services.
1:08:40
I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
1:08:42
and your story with us today, and I really appreciate you
1:08:45
being here. No problem, it was a blast.
1:08:47
Thank you again. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:08:50
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:08:52
Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put
1:08:55
that into action today.