Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Daniel Gonzalez on Growing ‘Accounting to Scale’ Through Relationship Driven Sales & Long-Term Trust

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Daniel Gonzalez on Growing ‘Accounting to Scale’ Through Relationship Driven Sales & Long-Term Trust · 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
• 0:16
  idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Kotos Bodi
• 0:20
  and today's guest is Daniel Gonzalez, Director of Business
• 0:23
  Development at Accounting to Scale, a Miami based firm that
• 0:27
  delivers tech enabled bookkeeping, controllership and
• 0:31
  tax services to small and mid sized businesses nationwide.
• 0:35
  The company's mission is to give owners clear, stress free
• 0:39
  financial insight so they can grow with confidence.
• 0:42
  Over the past 10 years, Accounting to Scale has earned a
• 0:45
  sterling five star client rating and has been celebrated in local
• 0:50
  business networks for its commitment to service and
• 0:52
  education. Daniel spends his days forging
• 0:56
  partnerships, guiding new clients and representing the
• 0:59
  firm in groups like BNI, Biscayne Connection and Chamber
• 1:04
  S. Outside the numbers world.
• 1:06
  He even penned a light hearted children's book called Modern
• 1:10
  Dad Gets a Flat, showing his creative side and love for
• 1:14
  family storytelling. Earlier in his career, Daniel
• 1:18
  honed his relationship building skills in sales roles across
• 1:21
  South Florida, experience that now helps him connect quickly
• 1:25
  with entrepreneurs who need financial clarity.
• 1:28
  Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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  back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
• 2:27
  today, the Director of Business Development at Accounting to
• 2:30
  Scale, Daniel Gonzalez. Thank you for making the time.
• 2:33
  Now, thank you, Anthony. I really appreciate the
• 2:35
  opportunity to be here with you. Thank you so much.
• 2:37
  So in the intro we touched on, you know you've had prior to
• 2:41
  accounting to scale number of job responsibilities in sales
• 2:46
  and business development across South Florida.
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  What kind of work were you doing before?
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  Yeah. So the job prior to this, which
• 2:53
  really I think gave me a lot of the tools I needed to in sales
• 2:59
  and, and really life experience was I worked for a roofing
• 3:01
  company, TNS Roofing. They're one of like the largest
• 3:05
  South Florida roofing contractors here in South
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  Florida. They do mostly residential and
• 3:10
  commercial work. And I did sales there for over 9
• 3:14
  years. And that really that position
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  where I was day in and out meeting with home owners and
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  business owners, you know, they face on one of, you know, very
• 3:24
  big large ticket item that's really important to them.
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  Their home really helped me kind of like hone those skills and
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  people skills and conversation and, and sales as well as get me
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  some, some toughness for sure in the sales world.
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  Was it a competitive market? Yeah, roofing down here in South
• 3:42
  Florida is extremely competitive.
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  You know, there's a lot of contractors, you know, a lot of
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  people doing work uninsured and stuff like that.
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  So competing with that and then on the sales side, one of the
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  things that, you know, I feel like that gave me a lot of real
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  world experience was the job was actually Commission only.
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  So living like that as young, I started there at about 24 years
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  old and it really just gave me a lot of life experience working,
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  working a business like that. Were you kind of on your own
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  like Kate, go figure this out, kid, or did you have a good
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  mentor, people that were instructing you on the right way
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  to approach things? Yeah, I know.
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  Well, the owner of the company, his name's Louis Salido,
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  definitely was a mentor, definitely mentor to me.
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  And he would run the sales team, especially when we first started
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  and would get a sales training and they had a pretty decent
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  process that they put in place, you know, and he would bring in
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  sales trainers to help with those skills that you need.
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  But but as far as like the job and making your own schedule,
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  that that was advantageous where it really was make your own
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  schedule. And you know, you have to be a
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  self starter at that, at that job, because if you know, if you
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  didn't get up and go to to your leads, go, you know, follow up,
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  you know, if you didn't close any business, you didn't make
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  any money. So definitely gave you that self
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  starting that you need. What were some of the skills,
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  the approaches, the tactics that you learned in that training?
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  So one of the I think the more most important things I've
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  actually even brought back recently is pre qualifying
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  people and making sure that they're the right buyer for you,
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  that they're the right person that's going to be buying from
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  you. A lot of times in sales or in
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  roofing, you know, a lot of people just they call your the
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  call and you know, they'll get 4 leads, five or four or five
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  companies that are going to come out there and kind of bid the
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  work, which is very common, of course.
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  But the roofing company, TNS Roofing was, you know, very high
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  level roofing company and you know, our prices were not were
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  not the cheapest, right? So, you know, that presents a
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  challenge in itself when you have to talk about more about
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  the quality and the services you're going to be receiving
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  when you work with somebody. And so one of the things that we
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  really had to learn was making sure that the customer was the
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  right customer for the business. And I'm really throughout there
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  and just learning that not every project is is is right for the
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  business to get right. You can't just take anything
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  that comes your way, you know, I think that's something that's
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  very hard to learn in sales. Is that not every sales a good
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  sale? You know, yeah, especially when
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  you're Commission only, right? It's like, oh, here's an
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  opportunity, here's something I could make, you know, I could
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  make some money on. And so how are you pre
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  qualifying? What are the filters that you're
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  using? So I think in pre qualifying,
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  one of the most important things you, you need to do, you know,
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  it's kind of like establish first, you would kind of go on
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  and establish a little bit of respect to on the call between
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  each other, like let them know, you know, that you're a
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  professional. So we would let me kind of get
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  my thoughts together on the pre qualifying.
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  So with the pre qualifying, you want to just make sure that that
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  they're looking to buy from you. You want to kind of set the the
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  ground rules per SE, which the ground rules will be that
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  letting them know the way the conversation will work.
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  So when you get on a call with somebody, the lot of times they
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  don't really know how it's going to work and they're kind of
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  confused. So I first like to let them know
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  that we're going to run through a few questions and you better
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  get to know them better, get to know what their needs will be
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  and then figure out if I'll be able to actually match their
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  needs to to our business and we will be a good fit for them.
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  And letting them know that kind of saying like, I'm not sure if
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  we're a good fit, but we'll find out.
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  And that little kind of question of letting them know that I'm
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  not just bringing on anybody into our business kind of lets
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  them know that that you're serious, you know?
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  Make it feel like they're going to be fortunate to work with
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  you, right? Like this is you're, you're
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  vetting them as much as they're vetting you.
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  Exactly. And so vetting them, you also
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  want to try, if possible, if you could give them like a price
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  range, you know, let them know if you if there is a way of you
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  having an idea of what like the price will be and you're able to
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  give them a range from the beginning.
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  I think that's important because there's times where you can give
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  a range of price that you know, that's where you'll be within.
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  And if that's out of their range, they'll immediately tell
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  you. And I think that if you're able
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  to get to a no faster, it's actually a win in sales.
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  So either getting to yes, getting to no, or even getting
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  to the next step, the clear next step is what what's important.
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  You know, a lot of times in sales you end up just kind of
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  out in limbo and people don't follow up.
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  You know, you get busy, so calling and following up becomes
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  kind of tiring. So getting to a yes or getting
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  to a no within the first call is definitely a big win.
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  So if you get to a no in that first call, it's not the result
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  that you ultimately want, but at least that way you can move on.
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  You're not going to spend time driving out to somebody's
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  location to give them, you know, write up an actual proposal.
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  You get it. Just frees up your schedule to
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  move on to another prospect. Correct.
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  Exactly. So like, you know, if you're
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  able to go through a few questions, you give them the
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  price range and and they're like, no, that's I've gotten
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  three. If they already tell you they've
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  got another prices and the prices are way below you.
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  No, thank you. Then they weren't going to be a
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  customer anyway, right? So, so kind of understanding
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  that this is important, but that that kind of comes through, I
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  think sort of like maturity in sales, like you said, like if
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  you're young and if you're Commission based, a lot of times
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  you just want to take on anything and everything, of
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  course. So I think that through maturity
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  and doing a lot of sales, you kind of learned that, learn that
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  these taking these steps up front save you a lot of time in
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  the back end. Daniel, can you think of 1
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  particularly challenging sales experience during your time
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  doing roofing that you can share with us?
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  Maybe it taught you a lesson that became valuable to you as
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  you. Move forward in your career.
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  Yes, so I definitely can. So you know, like I said when I
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  first when I was working at that company, it was Commission only.
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  And you know, there's times where sales are not great and
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  you just want to close everything.
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  And so our company at that time really focused on I'm more
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  residential and we didn't really do a lot of commercial, but I
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  got a, a great deed that came to me and it came to me in their
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  commercial building. It wasn't very, it didn't seem
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  very complex from, from my perspective at that time.
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  But when we did, you know, and the boss was kind of hesitant,
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  but I kind of pushed it. I was like, hey, we could do it.
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  We could do it. He hesitantly accepted.
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  And then when we did do the job, because of being commercial
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  really wasn't what we do. And that's also something that I
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  think a business needs to know is like, I think it's better to
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  do what you do, right, instead of trying to, to go outside of
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  the box sometimes and do what you, you know, because you end
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  up kind of you can burn the customer, you know, if you end
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  up doing a bad job, you could burn the customer, you could
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  burn your relationship with them.
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  And that's kind of what ended up happening and the job, you know,
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  went poorly and then the company lost money.
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  And because of the lost money, I ended up, I lost that, you know,
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  I didn't get any Commission either.
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  So everybody lost in that, you know, we ended up finishing the
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  roof and ended coming out fine, you know, but there are a lot
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  more mistakes that happened doing something outside of the
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  box of what we the company was typically used to that, you
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  know, they we could have avoided right.
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  And and it probably could have been a better experience for
• 11:56
  everybody. So that was definitely a tough,
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  that's how fun because I I know that I didn't really like to
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  listen. I kind of push the, you know,
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  you push it because you're you want to close the deal for
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  state. But I ended up not being a great
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  experience for everybody, unfortunately.
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  And it's something I definitely learned from for sure.
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  So before we talk about how you came to be a part of accounting
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  to scale, quickly tell us how accounting to scale came into
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  being itself all. Right.
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  So Accounting of Scale was actually founded by my wife
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  Tiffany Gonzales. She's been ACPA now for over 13
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  years and she started the business actually 1111 years ago
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  in September. This past September, I was 11
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  and she was working at another, another firm doing accounting
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  and bookkeeping work. And she was actually let go for
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  some reasons. And you know, she was let go and
• 12:57
  she actually called me crying. I was at that time we were just
• 13:00
  dating. We've been dating I believe for
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  about like 6 months or so. And it was kind of like out of
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  the blue that she was let go. And when she's called me crying,
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  I asked her, I'll never forget to ask her, what are you going
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  to do? And she says, I'm going to start
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  my own business. I'm going to Best Buy right now.
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  And to me, at that point, you know, that was one of the first
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  time they've ever heard someone, you know, say that, that they're
• 13:23
  just going to start their own business out of nowhere.
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  And she had no other backup plan.
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  And she went to Best Buy that day, bought a laptop and the
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  next day started working and literally grew the business from
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  her living from our living room. At that point in time, I, I
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  built her, I built her to, I built many desks my life for
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  this business. And I built her desk and she
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  started working that, that next day.
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  And within five years, she actually, we're already at about
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  5 or 6 employees and, and we're about to have our first child
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  five years later. And that's when she actually
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  asked me to come and join the business.
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  So she asked you to join when she was 5 or 6 years into it and
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  so and she already had five or six employees.
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  So obviously a number of clients.
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  Do you remember? Do you know how she got her
• 14:16
  first client? She also is a good networker in
• 14:22
  her own right for sure. So she had contacts.
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  One of the clients that she brought on early, I will say was
• 14:31
  the roofing company I was working at.
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  He ended up kind of hiring her to come in and do like some like
• 14:38
  kind of consulting and accounting work there.
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  And she really used relationships that she had to
• 14:43
  bring on clients. And I think it was an attorney
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  that she knew from, from her previous job that was looking
• 14:52
  for an accountant. And she ended up hiring her.
• 14:55
  So I think that was her her first client actually.
• 14:58
  OK. So 5 or 6 years and she invites
• 15:01
  you to join because why? So it was on the five, we pretty
• 15:08
  much on the five year mark, we're having our first kid, our
• 15:11
  son rain. And at that point we kind of,
• 15:15
  I've been doing roofing for over 9 years and I kind of did, was
• 15:19
  kind of, you know, interested in doing something else.
• 15:22
  I, you know, I've been ready nine years and getting our roost
• 15:26
  is also a great career, but it's also a little dangerous.
• 15:29
  And so having the first kid, she was like, why don't you come and
• 15:33
  you know, you've done a great job building this other
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  business. Why don't you come join this
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  business and we'll grow it together.
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  And, and then from there, I, I really did see as a great
• 15:43
  opportunity to do more than just sales because at the roofing
• 15:45
  company I was more, you know, I didn't sell them at the
• 15:49
  beginning. Some help with like the
• 15:50
  marketing, but for the most part I was just a sales person and I
• 15:53
  saw this as an opportunity to be more on the creative side and do
• 15:57
  more for and, you know, really build a sales kind of department
• 16:01
  and sales strategies and such. And it was really a great
• 16:05
  opportunity, I think and and exciting to do.
• 16:09
  But it was really based off of our kid and being able to have a
• 16:12
  little bit more free time as well, you know, not free time,
• 16:15
  but flexibility because of the small business and no free time,
• 16:20
  Yeah. So before I I want to dive into
• 16:23
  what you're doing there and in your roles.
• 16:26
  But before we do that, let's dive into what the company does.
• 16:30
  Let's talk very specifically about the services that you guys
• 16:34
  provide. Perfect.
• 16:35
  Yeah. So accounting and scale, like
• 16:38
  you mentioned before, one of the things we specialize in the
• 16:40
  controllership for small businesses.
• 16:43
  So we have plenty of business owners that we work with that we
• 16:47
  handle the entire accounting department for the business
• 16:50
  owner. So we can come into your
• 16:53
  accounting department. We do everything fully, fully
• 16:56
  remote, you know, and we could do everything from data entry to
• 17:01
  accounts receivable, accounts payable, financial reporting,
• 17:05
  delivering financials, payroll execution and sales tax and, and
• 17:11
  really just handle the whole accounting department for a
• 17:13
  small business owner. One of the, you know, it's the
• 17:20
  niche that we fall into is a business owner that is that
• 17:24
  they're tired of doing it themselves.
• 17:26
  Or maybe we have a lot of clients that they have multiple
• 17:28
  businesses that they cannot handle the accounting for.
• 17:32
  And then so we're we fall into that niche before a business
• 17:35
  owner brings in someone maybe full time or business owner has
• 17:40
  a full accounting department in house.
• 17:43
  So a lot of times we'll have owner operator businesses that
• 17:47
  maybe they're typically operating and we're doing the
• 17:50
  books at one point and then now they want to to take that off
• 17:53
  their hands. We also have a lot of turning
• 17:55
  client attorneys. So managing like their trust
• 17:58
  accounting and doing things like that is very important.
• 18:01
  Doing it right when you need professional accounting services
• 18:05
  versus like having a maybe in house bookkeeper that you're
• 18:08
  hoping they're doing the numbers right.
• 18:09
  We're ACPA firm as well and one of the things that really kind
• 18:13
  of sets us apart is that we do mix in the bookkeeping and tax
• 18:18
  strategy throughout the year. So that's one of the things that
• 18:22
  we do, the bookkeeping, you know on a monthly basis where you
• 18:24
  have your meeting, your accounting specialist, reviewing
• 18:26
  financials, but then we have, you know a mid year tax
• 18:30
  rejection, meaning that we vote with our clients.
• 18:33
  So at that point in July, we're like looking at the numbers and
• 18:36
  seeing what we could do to reduce your tax flow.
• 18:38
  And then again quarter for October, November, another tax
• 18:43
  writing planning meeting, So what we could do to reduce your
• 18:45
  tax bill before the year ends. So, so that's one of our really
• 18:50
  kind of big differentiators. So you don't typically see that
• 18:54
  in a a bookkeeping accounting firm where they're offering
• 18:59
  those tax advisory services. Hey, how can we, you know, still
• 19:02
  coloring in the lines, how can we reduce your liability here?
• 19:06
  Correct. That was something that we we've
• 19:08
  really seen and when we look at it because we are working with
• 19:11
  these small business owners, we know that they need like a
• 19:14
  partner that that handles the full suite of of their life on
• 19:17
  the accounting, right. So we're looking out for not
• 19:20
  just their bookkeeping and finances, but also thinking
• 19:23
  about like their personal wealth even right.
• 19:25
  So some of the strategies that we're implementing are like your
• 19:27
  four O 1 KS and Iras and retirement accounts and reducing
• 19:31
  the tax bill through there and looking at their whole financial
• 19:36
  picture, right, because it's business owner does maybe don't
• 19:38
  have time to manage. So we've seen our business
• 19:41
  owners, you know, be able to create some wealth from their
• 19:44
  business, all while saving money because we, like you said, we're
• 19:49
  not every bookkeeper does this. And we kind of forced the
• 19:52
  meeting, to be honest with you that we, we learned that it's
• 19:57
  like our value add. And so we kind of put that
• 20:00
  meeting in place and, and our clients really do love it
• 20:02
  because we used to, you know, previously we used to send out a
• 20:06
  request and they didn't reply, but we learned that putting it
• 20:09
  on their calendar creates the value for them.
• 20:13
  Describe your ideal client, Daniel.
• 20:18
  Ideal client let's say would be a, a great time for us would be
• 20:22
  an attorney practice, maybe like 3 attorneys, three to five
• 20:27
  attorneys with number of paralegals where we are doing
• 20:33
  weekly data entry for them, trust reconciliation on a weekly
• 20:36
  basis of maybe paying the bills and then paying the bills and
• 20:43
  delivering them financial reports.
• 20:46
  The firm probably will be doing between like you know, 3 to
• 20:50
  $7,000,000 in revenue and have usually about you know, 5 to 20
• 20:56
  employees per SE. Also a franchise businesses we
• 21:01
  have like like Barber shops, medical spas are really great
• 21:06
  for us as well. So a medical spa where they're
• 21:09
  doing, you know, like very popular.
• 21:11
  We're from Miami. So there's a lot of a lot of
• 21:13
  those here in Miami where they're doing, you know, Botox
• 21:17
  and let filler and all those. And they need an accountant to
• 21:19
  make sure that everything their finances are, are running well.
• 21:24
  So those kinds of practices are great for us as well.
• 21:29
  And the franchises that you do, are they specifically the Med
• 21:31
  spa and the barbership? And we actually have, we have
• 21:35
  different franchises. So we have daycares, we have a a
• 21:39
  daycare franchise company that we work with as well as another
• 21:43
  that's a pest control company that's been growing as well.
• 21:47
  So it could be anything from the daycare, so to pest control.
• 21:51
  The Barber shops, like I mentioned the franchise work
• 21:55
  with as well. OK.
• 21:57
  All right. So let's talk about how you've
• 22:00
  been able to take the sales in the business development
• 22:02
  experience from roofing industry into the accounting space.
• 22:06
  How, in the time that you've been there, how have you
• 22:09
  approached business development? You know, I would say that in in
• 22:18
  this role, in the business development role at accounting
• 22:20
  skills where I've had to really like develop myself and kind of
• 22:26
  my own, you know, my own strategies per SE, because it
• 22:32
  was more, you know, like I didn't have that mentor or the
• 22:36
  company that was bringing us the leads and such.
• 22:38
  So, you know, I think that one of the things I guess was was B
• 22:44
  and I and the B and I like I that that's mentioned.
• 22:47
  I've been part of it when I was in the roofie company and like
• 22:50
  joined the county of scale also. And they're really kind of, I
• 22:53
  guess cut build off of like the relationship.
• 22:56
  I think everything starts with relationships that you have with
• 22:58
  people and then from there with a business like ours, because
• 23:03
  we're targeting that small business owner, you know,
• 23:06
  they're in the community. So these are the people.
• 23:08
  A lot of our business comes from referrals.
• 23:10
  You're not getting them from, you know, online ads per SE that
• 23:14
  are national. You know, we're a small
• 23:17
  business, so we don't have some huge accounting book marketing
• 23:21
  budget, right? So really about building the
• 23:24
  relationships, building and trust with people in the, in the
• 23:26
  community. And that's the name that I took
• 23:28
  from, from the roofing company that I brought it here and
• 23:33
  continue to develop the the relationships I have.
• 23:36
  And then on the marketing side, learning the consistency that
• 23:40
  they used in the roofing company that would be constant with like
• 23:44
  the different types of advertisements they would do.
• 23:47
  And for us, you know that we do it more organic, but being very
• 23:51
  consistent in our in the way we put out our marketing materials
• 23:56
  as far as like posting on social media or YouTube channel.
• 24:00
  I think that that's something that's important.
• 24:04
  What is BNI and how has that been helpful to you?
• 24:07
  Yeah. So BNI is called is Business
• 24:11
  Networking International and it's a networking group that's
• 24:14
  all over the world. And the way it works is that
• 24:17
  there's different chapters all over, like I mentioned all over
• 24:21
  the world and it's category specific.
• 24:24
  And so you have to basically be accepted into the group.
• 24:26
  You have to have a well, you have to have a seat open and
• 24:28
  then be accepted into the group. And then you meet every single
• 24:32
  week, every single week you get your meet, you get to know these
• 24:36
  people and you have like, we'll usually have at least a 30
• 24:39
  second commercial. And then one of the things that
• 24:42
  makes them different is the tracking.
• 24:44
  They make sure you track the amount of referrals, the amount
• 24:46
  of business that's passed, the amount of 1 to 1.
• 24:51
  So meeting with other members is tracked as well.
• 24:54
  And the whole idea behind the is really building relationships.
• 24:58
  And it's not about selling to the people that's in your room,
• 25:02
  it's about making those people sell for you.
• 25:05
  You know, you want, you know, I'm, I'm part of Biscayne
• 25:08
  Connection, which is the largest chapter in South Florida.
• 25:11
  We have over 63 members. And so every single week we get
• 25:14
  together and get to know each other.
• 25:16
  And, you know, I'm just trying to make sure that when they're
• 25:20
  out, you know, in the street and doing their business and someone
• 25:23
  mentions or talks about accounting or bookkeeping that
• 25:26
  they're going to think of me and put and refer me.
• 25:30
  So it's really about getting to know the people in the room,
• 25:33
  understanding them and and really reciprocity.
• 25:36
  The the biggest idea behind B and I is called is givers game.
• 25:41
  You know, one of their values. And so really want to be able to
• 25:45
  give to the people in the room and you know, you, you know,
• 25:48
  we'll come back to you in the future for sure.
• 25:52
  Can you walk me through an example of the time that you
• 25:54
  were able to refer somebody to one of your BBNI compadres?
• 26:01
  Yeah. So one of the things that
• 26:04
  helped, I have a friend of mine that was actually looking to to
• 26:08
  purchase a business. It was actually a daycare, funny
• 26:12
  enough. But yeah, looking to purchase a
• 26:13
  daycare. And he needed help from a banker
• 26:16
  to get a loan. And we have a great banker in
• 26:19
  our group. His name's Sergio, Sergio Pinto
• 26:22
  and I was able to refer him and the bank was able to come
• 26:26
  through with the SBA loan. It was able to purchase the
• 26:28
  building. That was a pretty big win.
• 26:30
  That was last year, I believe it was that they, they closed on a
• 26:35
  daycare. So that was pretty great for
• 26:37
  both parties. My friend was able to get a
• 26:39
  great you know great raid and help with the loan and my
• 26:43
  friends urgently will close a good deal.
• 26:45
  How about the other way, when some of your colleagues from B
• 26:48
  and I were able to send you some business?
• 26:51
  Yep. So I'd say one of the most
• 26:55
  recent referrals that we had was to a lawyer that he's really
• 27:01
  more of an entrepreneur. He's got a lot of different
• 27:04
  businesses going on. And it was referred to us by a
• 27:07
  business attorney that's helping the gentleman with different
• 27:10
  contracts. I guess.
• 27:12
  I think he had purchased another business.
• 27:14
  It was and then he was looking for a bookkeeper for that
• 27:16
  business. And so our business attorney
• 27:19
  that that did the work referred us over and getting to know this
• 27:24
  gentleman, he's a, we're, we were able to bring out his law
• 27:28
  firm that he has a, he has actually a three person law firm
• 27:31
  as well as he has an import export business as well.
• 27:36
  And then a trust kind of like kind of like a trust that needed
• 27:41
  accounting as well for different real estate properties that he
• 27:43
  has. So it was a really great
• 27:45
  referral because this person has a lot of different things going
• 27:48
  on, but they want all their accounting to be taken care of
• 27:52
  in one space by one person and done professionally.
• 27:57
  You mentioned, Daniel, that you guys use socials, right?
• 28:00
  You're posting there, being active in those channels.
• 28:03
  Are you seeing any business come directly from that?
• 28:06
  You post something, somebody gives you a call.
• 28:09
  Or do you look at it as more of a brand building exercise?
• 28:14
  I think it does two different things.
• 28:16
  I think that there's definitely more in the brand building like
• 28:21
  because the social media posting, you know, there's
• 28:24
  different, different types of posts, right.
• 28:26
  So we have posts that go out on a regular basis.
• 28:29
  Then I do think it's more like the brand recognition and just
• 28:33
  kind of staying in people's faces that those will be a
• 28:35
  little bit more generic posts that might go out.
• 28:38
  That's that those honestly, they don't do that great.
• 28:41
  But that's more brand recognition is just like, oh,
• 28:43
  you'll see accounting and scale. They posted something, you know,
• 28:46
  might have a quote and might have, you know, a team photo,
• 28:50
  but nothing too like not too much accounting information.
• 28:55
  Those kind of just stay in people's face.
• 28:56
  And then our YouTube channel that we've had, we've had it now
• 29:00
  actually for for six years. I see that one as a value add
• 29:05
  and people do call from our YouTube channel.
• 29:07
  And then what it really does is that if people see like, you
• 29:13
  know, we've been putting these videos out for a very long time
• 29:16
  before, they might just go to our channel and see the amount
• 29:19
  of videos that we put out. They see that we've been, you
• 29:22
  know, around for a while. They were serious.
• 29:25
  And then they get to know Tiffany, who's the star, really
• 29:28
  the star of of the YouTube page. You know, they get to know her
• 29:33
  and want to work with her. So it's done that where people
• 29:37
  just get to know you, like you, trust you, and then they want to
• 29:39
  work with you, of course. So seeing, seeing her face,
• 29:43
  seeing her talk, I think adds brings clients that way, brings
• 29:47
  people that way. And then also for us as an
• 29:50
  accounting firm, it's added a lot of value having financial
• 29:55
  information work. Sometimes clients have questions
• 29:57
  and we're able to just redirect them to a YouTube video that
• 30:00
  we've made. And then that's been really
• 30:03
  great as well. And to find this YouTube channel
• 30:07
  folks, just search for accounting to scale.
• 30:10
  Yeah, accounting to scale on YouTube, we have over 5 or 600,
• 30:14
  about 560 videos or so that we've been putting out to a
• 30:18
  week. That's one thing that I, I
• 30:21
  really believe in consistency in everything that you do.
• 30:25
  And so we started the YouTube channel when in 2020, right when
• 30:29
  COVID hit had had joined the company, I didn't really have
• 30:32
  much to do and we decided to buy a camera and I never really had
• 30:37
  a video before, but I Youtubed how to edit videos, how to work
• 30:41
  it and and yeah, we got to making videos.
• 30:45
  At that time there was a lot of content to make because it was
• 30:47
  APPP program and different, you know, COVID information
• 30:52
  regarding taxes. And so everything was changing
• 30:55
  on a day-to-day basis. And really we just started
• 30:57
  putting out content and, you know, it worked this kind, you
• 31:02
  know, relatively, you know, popular.
• 31:04
  But I think, like I said, you just get more value out of out
• 31:08
  of, you know, being able to tell customers, hey, check this out.
• 31:13
  And then a lot of people just get to know you better.
• 31:16
  Let's talk about, because you mentioned this briefly, but we
• 31:20
  didn't really go into any detail.
• 31:22
  You guys are very much focused on remote bookkeeping, remote
• 31:27
  accounting, right? A lot of folks, it's like a
• 31:30
  traditional bookkeeping firm. It's like, oh, I'm just working
• 31:33
  with folks that are kind of in my geographic circle, you know,
• 31:36
  ten, 20-30 miles away from me. But the the tech stack that you
• 31:41
  guys have in place allows you to work with folks anywhere in the
• 31:44
  country. Talk to us about some of those
• 31:47
  innovative solutions that you put in place to enable that.
• 31:51
  Yeah. So one of the the, the soft, the
• 31:54
  main software that we work in is QuickBooks Online.
• 31:57
  You know, they're the the market leader in accounting software,
• 32:01
  you know, and, and now the very robust accounting software.
• 32:05
  And then from there, what were the things that really has
• 32:08
  helped our clients out as we've recently added advanced
• 32:10
  reporting that's tied into QuickBooks and we found that our
• 32:16
  clients really like, you know, typically as an accounting, you
• 32:20
  get like a balance sheet or profit and loss and it's kind of
• 32:23
  numbers on aging, something that we've come to understand.
• 32:26
  It's not every business owner is a professional is an accountant,
• 32:29
  right? Not, not everybody understands
• 32:32
  the numbers. They know what they're doing,
• 32:34
  they're great at what they do, but maybe a balance sheet isn't,
• 32:37
  isn't the best for them. So we've taken, you know, advice
• 32:40
  from our clients and we added a, another software called Keeper
• 32:44
  that gives advanced reporting such as like charts and graphs
• 32:47
  gives different KP is that we could put in there that make it
• 32:50
  easier for business owner to look at, look at, you know, year
• 32:54
  to date or look at previous years of their accounting much
• 32:59
  easier and simpler, you know, as one of those softwares we use on
• 33:05
  the on the tax side, recently implemented new software as
• 33:09
  well. I'll say Anchor.
• 33:12
  That's, that's pretty good. That's been working very well
• 33:14
  for us. What does that do?
• 33:16
  That one is helps us with sending out the proposal payment
• 33:22
  systems as well as when they start uploading their documents
• 33:26
  in. It kind of gives them a
• 33:27
  checklist of, of everything that we need.
• 33:30
  And they're able kind of like check off boxes on, on what is
• 33:34
  that we use that we need for, for the tax preparation.
• 33:37
  Because that's one of the things that it becomes a delay or, or a
• 33:43
  bottleneck really is that sometimes you're waiting on one
• 33:46
  document here and there, the client might not know.
• 33:50
  And with that software, we're able to, for the following year,
• 33:53
  we'll know, hey, we need all these documents again and remind
• 33:57
  them. Because sometimes clients will
• 33:59
  forget document and they hope that their account remembers for
• 34:02
  them. So this helps with that, you
• 34:06
  know, making sure that everybody remembers what's necessary and
• 34:09
  needed. Do you find any resistant from
• 34:13
  new clients to going all digital, going all online with
• 34:18
  the bookkeeping and accounting services?
• 34:20
  So that kind of goes back to actually like the pre
• 34:23
  qualification, right, that mentioned earlier.
• 34:26
  So as a business, you have to know who you are and what you do
• 34:31
  and what what works well and you have to be the expert in it,
• 34:35
  right? So when a client does come to
• 34:37
  you and they're like, no, I want, you know, this is what I
• 34:40
  want to do. For the most part, you have to
• 34:43
  say no and be like, this is the way it works.
• 34:45
  This is the way we work. Because what we've found is that
• 34:49
  if you get off of the track that you run on, that's when you end
• 34:52
  up having having issues. I mean, you can't be super
• 34:56
  rigid. There are some clients like
• 34:59
  let's say we have a few senior citizens that they want to come
• 35:02
  in and drop off their documents and pay will make those.
• 35:06
  Except we honestly would make that exception.
• 35:08
  A lot of times it's an older client client, but if they want
• 35:14
  to drop it off, they still have to drop it off, let's say in
• 35:16
  advance because we always want everything in advance to be able
• 35:18
  to prepare everything. So we'll make that kind of, you
• 35:24
  know, concession, but it is more on like on who I guess who it
• 35:30
  is, but but what the concession really has to be.
• 35:33
  But if they're just very resistant or we find that
• 35:36
  they're, you know, offset that, that we don't want to follow
• 35:39
  their process, a lot of times I'll end up not being our
• 35:43
  customer. You know, as I was growing up,
• 35:47
  I, I don't know if you're familiar with this term, but I
• 35:49
  heard a lot of people say, oh, that guy's such a he's, he's so
• 35:51
  good at sales, he could sell ice to an Eskimo.
• 35:54
  And I always kind of thought like that was the goal.
• 35:57
  And as I've gotten further in life, it's like, no, it's very
• 35:59
  much what you're describing. It's it's very much relationship
• 36:02
  driven, you know, and I hear that carrying over not just from
• 36:05
  the roofing space, but also into what you're doing in, you know,
• 36:10
  accounting to scale. It's very much about right.
• 36:13
  I'm going to pre qualify this person.
• 36:14
  Are they a good fit for us? Tell us more about how you do
• 36:20
  that relationship building. You talk to somebody today, you
• 36:23
  know, they're not going to sign the contract.
• 36:25
  What's your process? How do you keep in touch with
• 36:27
  them? Keep that conversation warm.
• 36:31
  I would say more like the relationship building.
• 36:33
  I I find 1st off understanding like center of influences as
• 36:39
  well with sales. It's it you what you want to
• 36:42
  find, I think is, is people that will be able to refer you more,
• 36:48
  you know, somebody. I think like even like
• 36:51
  mentioning kind of B and I that networking group that's category
• 36:54
  exclusive. You know, I have 60 something
• 36:56
  people in that room, but not everybody's, you know, deals
• 37:00
  with the finances of a business, right, where they might get that
• 37:04
  question posed to them more than one time.
• 37:07
  You know, everybody might have a small business that at one point
• 37:10
  in time might need an account and you'll be able to refer me.
• 37:13
  But really kind of understanding centers of influence and who
• 37:18
  might be over for you. And then, you know, taking those
• 37:21
  people out to coffee, you know, checking on them and having
• 37:25
  genuine interest in people and like, and their lives, I think
• 37:29
  is really important. You know, a lot of, lot of
• 37:33
  times, you know, people ask, you know, how you're doing and they,
• 37:37
  they move on to the next question before that person even
• 37:39
  answers. You know, actually listening to
• 37:43
  people, I think is important. And, and being able to just
• 37:49
  being kind to, to people on, on any, on trying to be that every
• 37:53
  single day. Because you never know when
• 37:55
  people are having bad days and that means a lot to them.
• 37:57
  And you never know when they'll be able to repay that to you.
• 38:01
  So in your work and accounting to scale, who are the centers of
• 38:06
  influence for you? Who are those good connectors?
• 38:09
  A great connector for us is our business attorneys.
• 38:12
  So like I mentioned earlier that that were full that came, you
• 38:16
  know, as a person that's working with somebody maybe buying a
• 38:18
  business, dealing in contracts is really great for us.
• 38:23
  Bankers are really good as well because they, you know, they're
• 38:27
  dealing with money all the time. If a small business trying to
• 38:31
  get a loan, but they don't have financials as a banker reaches
• 38:34
  out to us is great. And then I think something that
• 38:38
  people don't understand is as well as like, yes, there's
• 38:41
  competition, but there can be coopetition where other CPA
• 38:46
  firms and other Cpas refer us all the time as well.
• 38:51
  You know, we don't do everything because I had mentioned earlier
• 38:55
  kind of like staying in your lane and knowing what you do.
• 38:58
  Well, there's a lot of different things within accounting that we
• 39:01
  don't touch. And so I've made relationships
• 39:04
  with accounting firms and people in that world and you know, and
• 39:10
  then that that really helps. And that comes from just kind of
• 39:14
  understanding that that there is a lot of business out there and
• 39:18
  having more of an abundance mindset versus being, you know,
• 39:22
  thinking that that, you know, this person can't refer me or
• 39:25
  they never will. Let's shift gears entirely here,
• 39:30
  Daniel. What inspired you to write the
• 39:33
  children's book Modern Dad Gets a Flat Oh.
• 39:37
  Awesome. So modern dad gets a flat it
• 39:43
  kind of a couple things. So I think that nowadays in, in
• 39:48
  my home in particular, you know, I think that roles have kind of
• 39:53
  switched and changed and it's not the same, the same as
• 39:56
  before. I think growing up, you know,
• 39:58
  everyone thought that the dad went out to work and the mom was
• 40:01
  in the kitchen, they're doing cleaning.
• 40:04
  And you know, in my house, it's not that we, we both, hey, we
• 40:08
  both work. We both work in the business and
• 40:12
  how we do different tasks. You know, within the house and
• 40:16
  you're doing things that are good and, and I think that men
• 40:19
  these days have to understand that it's about your family's
• 40:24
  great or good and doing things that that help your family.
• 40:28
  I also had the idea or not idea, but you know, I feel like a lot
• 40:32
  of people are not doing things with their hands nowadays and
• 40:36
  changing a flat tire. I feel like, you know, this
• 40:38
  younger generation, you know, the younger generation probably
• 40:41
  has never really changed the tire.
• 40:43
  I think it's it's kind of a small skill that is being lost
• 40:47
  or, or important. So in the book itself, you know,
• 40:53
  it's actually my family is myself and I have my kids in the
• 40:55
  book as well. So they have their names and the
• 40:59
  dad, you know, at one point he he walks by the laundry and he
• 41:04
  thinks about his wife working long out like he has like a
• 41:07
  thought bubble and she's like at the desk.
• 41:09
  And so he does laundry in the book.
• 41:12
  And then they are going on a beach day and the mom was making
• 41:16
  breakfast, her dad's making the lunch.
• 41:19
  And then we'd go on a beach day. And then they get a flat tire on
• 41:21
  the way to the beach. And the book itself actually
• 41:24
  goes through the steps that you need.
• 41:27
  So it's kind of an instructional like Hidden Within and the.
• 41:31
  Instructions on how to change a flat tire.
• 41:33
  Correct on how to change a flat tire literally from taking a
• 41:37
  tire out of the trunk to the Jack and and how to work it.
• 41:42
  So kind of a easy way to kind of bring that in and definitely
• 41:47
  like a little bit of a light hearted book.
• 41:48
  But you know, I think it, it kind of has the balance of
• 41:52
  family and, and kind of understanding new family
• 41:55
  dynamics as well as, you know, teaching how to change a flat
• 41:58
  tire. Where can we find this book?
• 42:02
  You find it on Amazon, which Amazon I will say is pretty
• 42:07
  amazing because I, it was, you know, trying to get somebody to
• 42:11
  publish a book is very hard. And you know, I'm not, I don't
• 42:13
  think, I don't think I can get a Pulitzer Prize for my book or
• 42:16
  anything like that. So getting, you know, and, and
• 42:20
  the process of getting a book published is that you literally
• 42:22
  extend it to publishers and you have to hope that they read it
• 42:25
  and reach out to you. But Amazon allows you to kind of
• 42:29
  like upload your book. You know, you format it
• 42:33
  properly, you upload it and they print it for you.
• 42:36
  And then you it lives on their website and they really print
• 42:40
  and mail directly to to whoever buys it.
• 42:44
  This might be a stretch. You'll tell me if it is, but do
• 42:46
  you see any parallels between the lessons in that story and
• 42:49
  your work helping businesses grow?
• 42:59
  I would say we definitely like the parallel more will be for me
• 43:05
  in in like the business life. I think this is like kind of
• 43:09
  like working with my wife is, is a little bit of I think an
• 43:12
  interesting topic to kind of get into and like kind of like
• 43:15
  learning to humble yourself when when working right.
• 43:19
  And like, 'cause our business is accounting firm, you know, my
• 43:23
  wife is the CPA and people want to work with the CPA.
• 43:26
  The YouTube channel is all Tiffany, you know, so she's
• 43:31
  really like the star of the show of, of our business.
• 43:35
  And the challenge for us now is to kind of make other people
• 43:39
  stars. Like we have another tax manager
• 43:41
  that we're making her. But for me as the business
• 43:44
  development person, as a salesperson, you know, sales
• 43:47
  people, you know, usually have big egos and they want want
• 43:50
  recognition, right? But for me, I've had to really
• 43:55
  understand that for the business to kind of grow, you have to
• 43:59
  push this person and then like, and you know, that's what what
• 44:04
  pushes the business world. So we won a number of awards
• 44:08
  that we apply for that I'm the one like applying for them.
• 44:11
  And you're you're applying for for Tiffany and she's won a
• 44:14
  number. You know, she's a 40 under 40
• 44:18
  businesswoman, software Business Journal businesswoman, you know,
• 44:22
  think different, different number of different awards.
• 44:25
  And, you know, I think that the book, you know, teaches you and
• 44:29
  teach the men that you have to humble yourself for the greater
• 44:31
  good of your family. And I think in this role, I've
• 44:35
  had to, you know, humble myself a bit in in for the greater good
• 44:40
  of the business, right? How have you handled that?
• 44:46
  You use the word humbled, you know and and ego there a couple
• 44:49
  of times. It's not always easy to do.
• 44:52
  Yeah, no, it's definitely not easy to do.
• 44:58
  It's yeah. I mean, it's kind of been hard.
• 45:02
  I don't think like I've been told by different people that,
• 45:05
  you know, it probably would be hard for them to handle that,
• 45:10
  especially, you know, I'm working with my wife and you
• 45:13
  know, it's, and at times, you know, people will, you know,
• 45:18
  they people always kind of question like, oh, how was it
• 45:21
  working with your wife? You know, at times it was
• 45:25
  definitely like kind of like challenging, especially at the
• 45:27
  beginning. I'll say it was the most
• 45:30
  challenging was like kind of really learning the roles of, of
• 45:34
  the business and learning the roles where we had to actually
• 45:37
  even hire a business coach to come in and help guide us on how
• 45:42
  to do it. Because when I first joined, I
• 45:45
  mean, the accounting firm was my, my wife's baby, right?
• 45:48
  It's her, She's been there for five years.
• 45:50
  She worked every single day in it.
• 45:53
  And then I come in and join and I'm to be a partner in this
• 45:56
  business and handle the sales which she's been doing.
• 46:00
  So I and I have my own style, she has her style.
• 46:04
  And so it'll be, there's definitely a major clash there,
• 46:08
  but we end up having a higher business function.
• 46:11
  We came in and really helped us align the fact that, you know,
• 46:14
  the accounting. The accounting is one thing, the
• 46:17
  operation is one thing, and the business involvement is another
• 46:21
  and kind of how to create two different lanes and work side by
• 46:26
  side, right. And so that's, that was
• 46:30
  something that was definitely humbling.
• 46:32
  But in that experience of working with a business coach, I
• 46:34
  learned, you know, that that if you want this to work, that
• 46:41
  you'd have to humble yourself and really just do your job.
• 46:47
  You know, do your job, be successful on it, but you know,
• 46:52
  but always keep the eye on the price of growing the business.
• 46:55
  So what was a big structural change that you guys had to make
• 46:59
  or chose to make when you brought that business coach in
• 47:02
  to get everything aligned properly?
• 47:07
  I think that the first thing was just giving me more giving me
• 47:13
  more autonomy and her really kind of like letting go.
• 47:18
  And then I had to realize that I had to, to show up as well,
• 47:24
  right? And do the things that they are
• 47:28
  say or that we agree upon. Because like any relationship,
• 47:33
  if you're not doing your work in it, you can lose trust.
• 47:38
  And it was about making sure we build trust within the business.
• 47:41
  Even though we're married. Working is two different things.
• 47:46
  Working and being married are two different things.
• 47:48
  At home, you know, I'm can do all, you know, take out the
• 47:51
  trash and do all those things that help.
• 47:53
  But at the business, I had to make sure I was following up
• 47:56
  with the leads or putting out the, a good strategy and
• 48:00
  whatnot. Because one of the things I, I
• 48:03
  think when working with your spouse, it's, you know, you, you
• 48:07
  gamble. It's a it's a bigger gamble than
• 48:09
  just, you know, being separate because if something goes wrong
• 48:13
  at at the business, it really does, it's impossible for it to
• 48:17
  not go home, you know, go home with you.
• 48:20
  And if you have some kind of crazy blow up at work or some
• 48:24
  really big issue, you know, your marriage could be definitely on
• 48:28
  the line because of of the work. So, and that could be something
• 48:33
  that's, you know, it's not, it's not common if you work at two
• 48:36
  different environments, it's not the same as when you're seeing
• 48:38
  each other, you know, 24, you know, our offices are pretty
• 48:43
  much right next to each other. Have you guys come up with any?
• 48:48
  Rules. Any guardrails that sort of help
• 48:54
  keep the office stuff at the office and the home stuff at
• 48:57
  home? Or is it just inevitable that
• 48:59
  they sort of bleed into each other?
• 49:01
  I think it's inevitable. I mean, we've tried, you know,
• 49:04
  we respect each other. Like there's been times where I
• 49:07
  like, I personally just don't want to talk about work and she
• 49:10
  does or, and vice versa. So just if, if you know, maybe I
• 49:16
  there's, you know, there's obviously different levels.
• 49:18
  Sometimes I don't want to because she just wants to vent
• 49:20
  and talk to me about it. And you kind of have to
• 49:22
  understand it. But yeah, just kind of it, it's
• 49:28
  almost impossible to, I think, especially as a small business
• 49:31
  owner, right? If, if the business were that
• 49:33
  different level, maybe it would be less.
• 49:36
  But where we're at, you know, I think it's almost impossible.
• 49:41
  You know, any entrepreneur, any well, most entrepreneurs will
• 49:44
  tell you they never really turned it off.
• 49:45
  So it's in, it's kind of a is an ultimate lead through.
• 49:51
  So what is the future of accounting to scale look like,
• 49:53
  Daniel? What's on the horizon?
• 49:56
  I think for us, we want to continue, we do want to continue
• 50:00
  to grow. You know, like I said earlier, I
• 50:04
  think we're, we're looking to hopefully make our first
• 50:07
  purchase of another accounting firm in the near future and
• 50:12
  really continued growth. You know, we're both very young
• 50:17
  and, you know, part of our, I don't think that there's like a,
• 50:22
  a number revenue goal that we have in mind, but I think that
• 50:27
  we want to continue to, to expand how people we have, you
• 50:34
  know, 70 employees that we've gotten to and we're, we do feel
• 50:39
  like we've done good, good and right by them by building good
• 50:42
  culture at the company, the things that we offer to them.
• 50:46
  And and, you know, I think that the more people that we can
• 50:51
  bring onto the team, like I'm a people person and I love the
• 50:55
  team that we have here in office, you know, in our
• 50:57
  company. And so I think that the more
• 51:00
  people we could bring on, I think that will be, you know,
• 51:03
  amazing. I think it's really cool to see
• 51:05
  like the growth within the company that people, you know,
• 51:09
  we have team members that have gotten their degrees here,
• 51:12
  they've gotten their masters here, different certification
• 51:16
  and it's really cool to see that.
• 51:19
  So 17 employees now, are they all on site with you or are some
• 51:24
  of them different parts of the country or world that are able
• 51:26
  to support you guys since you have this remote tech stack in
• 51:29
  place? Yeah.
• 51:30
  So for the most part, they're all here in Miami.
• 51:34
  We do have a few virtual employees as well that are in
• 51:39
  South America and Philippines as well.
• 51:43
  So we have people all over the world as well, but but for the
• 51:48
  most part our our business here and our idea is to continue to
• 51:51
  grow employees here. Yeah.
• 51:55
  And it sounds like the growth strategy is sort of twofold,
• 51:58
  right. It's sort of the traditional
• 52:00
  what you have been doing the the like the building relationships,
• 52:04
  the networking, the referrals, the word of mouth.
• 52:07
  And then you're also potentially on the precipice of your first
• 52:11
  acquisition, which is an exciting way to really grow the
• 52:16
  business quickly all at once. Yeah, exactly.
• 52:20
  You know, this is they said it's new to us, but I think that
• 52:24
  there's a saying that says what got you here is not going to
• 52:27
  take you to the next level, you know.
• 52:29
  So I think that's where like the purchasing of of business comes
• 52:32
  in. But I think that at the end of
• 52:36
  the day, our our business is built on on relationships and
• 52:42
  we're just going to continue to push that for sure.
• 52:44
  But the acquisition is definitely exciting to be able
• 52:49
  to grow that much quickly versus, you know, bring in
• 52:54
  clients one by one. It will definitely be be
• 52:58
  exciting, but that's going to bring its own challenges.
• 53:00
  Now we have to, you know, just 'cause you, you make an
• 53:04
  acquisition doesn't mean that those clients are going to stay
• 53:07
  with you. Everybody has free will.
• 53:08
  So they, you know, those clients find out don't, aren't able to
• 53:12
  make a connection with us, I believe.
• 53:15
  And that'll be my job actually, which I'm kind of excited about
• 53:18
  because it's going to be a new way to, to reach out to clients,
• 53:22
  you know, because they're sort of our client.
• 53:25
  But really the idea is now we have to build trust with them so
• 53:28
  that they stay our client and stay our client long term.
• 53:32
  So that's really an exciting challenge I'm actually looking
• 53:34
  forward to is figure out ways that we can make contact with
• 53:40
  them, let them know who we are and like what makes us different
• 53:44
  and why they should stay. So I'm looking forward to that
• 53:48
  challenge. Yeah.
• 53:49
  You know, Daniel, in my experience, growth often times,
• 53:53
  whether it's personal or professional growth, often comes
• 53:56
  from overcoming big challenges. What's a serious challenge that
• 54:00
  you've overcome in your life and what did you learn going through
• 54:03
  that? So what do you think?
• 54:12
  So I think a serious challenge. I guess I, I left the serious
• 54:17
  challenge a little early, but the, when we first started
• 54:19
  working together was, was incredibly challenging.
• 54:23
  I said, we have you know, those months before we got the
• 54:26
  business coach, right, That wasn't the business coach wasn't
• 54:29
  like we immediately thought that right.
• 54:31
  We had to go through through the challenge of kind of
• 54:34
  understanding, struggling to to make that jump and asking for
• 54:39
  help, right. So a lot of people don't don't
• 54:41
  want to ask for help, but don't and we we didn't luckily and
• 54:47
  definitely helped us out. Yeah.
• 54:50
  So that one's definitely one business challenge for sure.
• 54:56
  Looking back on, on my sales career, one of the biggest
• 54:59
  things that I remember that was a was a challenge for me was the
• 55:05
  mental aspect of sales of, you know, a lot of times in sales
• 55:10
  you have big wins and then you have, you know, bad months.
• 55:13
  And I used to, I used to feel like I used to always ride a
• 55:16
  roller coaster, you know, have a big month, you do really well,
• 55:22
  you get a good paycheck, then you kind of get fat and happy
• 55:25
  and then you have an OK month and then you have a bad month.
• 55:28
  And then I would just then once you have a bad month, you know,
• 55:31
  you could get into a funk. And I'm really learning how to
• 55:36
  control my emotions within sales was probably the biggest
• 55:39
  challenge I, I ever really faced.
• 55:41
  And like trying to, to be even keeled throughout the wins and
• 55:46
  the losses and learning that kind of aspect behind sales was
• 55:50
  really important to me, was not important to me.
• 55:53
  But the biggest change in my life, I think, was understanding
• 55:57
  my emotions and keeping myself really, really just even and,
• 56:05
  and not, not overcome, not let the emotions of a big win or, or
• 56:10
  a big loss, you know, take over. How do you do that, though?
• 56:13
  It's one of those things where you hear somebody say and you're
• 56:16
  like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
• 56:17
  Like, I shouldn't let the highs get too high or the lows get too
• 56:20
  low, but you know, your central nervous system kicks in and it
• 56:24
  sort of seems out of control. Like how do you grab the
• 56:28
  steering wheel? I think for me it was kind of
• 56:33
  when I probably in the sales sort of hit like almost like a
• 56:37
  rock bottom. I feel like I had like 3 months
• 56:39
  in a row of just depressed, like almost depression or just bad
• 56:43
  sales or I couldn't get out of it at that time, you know, I
• 56:48
  really ever going out and couldn't even like afford a
• 56:51
  cheeseburger even though I had a job, I was working a number of
• 56:54
  hours. But it really was the emotion
• 56:57
  behind the sale behind, you know, that would get out.
• 57:01
  And that's why I kind of had mentioned earlier how important
• 57:04
  it is to just be real and be genuine because people pick up
• 57:07
  on that. And if you're doing, if you're
• 57:09
  not doing good in sales, people can pick up on the desperation
• 57:12
  that we kind of go have talked about earlier and, and just like
• 57:18
  kind of hitting that and like just learning that I can't get
• 57:22
  back to there and seeing other people that that would get too
• 57:26
  happy, you know, versus sail. And you just like through life
• 57:29
  experience, learn to, to control your emotions and, and, and
• 57:36
  really the, the practice goes into controlling the happiness
• 57:39
  because this being, you know, sad about something or is, is a
• 57:45
  lot more difficult, but it's, it's harder to control.
• 57:47
  But when you do make that sale, telling yourself, all right,
• 57:51
  this is great, but I have to move on to the next one to keep
• 57:54
  the ball rolling. Is is what's important.
• 57:58
  Daniel, what's your superpower? I think my superpower goes back
• 58:04
  to is authenticity and honesty. You know, sometimes my wife
• 58:10
  tells me I'm too honest and I'm not like a blunt person.
• 58:14
  I'm not like I don't let everything come out per SE, but
• 58:18
  I really just, I'm not someone that can tell a lie.
• 58:22
  I really try to to be honest and, and real with people.
• 58:25
  Like I, I'm OK with maybe not conflict, but I'm OK with being
• 58:29
  direct and being real people. And I think that they value that
• 58:34
  I've gotten, you know, like, and then that even goes back to
• 58:37
  saying no to people and not getting out of your, your lane.
• 58:41
  When you tell someone that I can't do this for you, you know,
• 58:43
  that actually builds trust. You know, they like the fact
• 58:46
  that you're not trying to do something that's going to leave
• 58:49
  them in harm's way. You know, so I think that just
• 58:53
  being authentic and being honest with people is, is my, my
• 58:56
  superpower that's led to building relationships and, and
• 59:01
  just being real people and, and I, you know, get referrals and
• 59:05
  opportunities that come from, from people that you met years
• 59:08
  ago. And that's really been been
• 59:11
  amazing for us. Yeah, those are all really good
• 59:13
  qualities to have. What's your favorite thing to do
• 59:16
  outside of work, Daniel? So I'll set a work.
• 59:21
  I really, I'd worked in restaurants previous to the
• 59:23
  roofing company. And so I got into drinking wine
• 59:26
  when I was younger, like in my early 20s and, and like, yeah.
• 59:31
  And really wine culture and wine tastings, you know, visiting
• 59:36
  wineries is something that that I really like enjoy.
• 59:40
  You know, there's so much that goes into making to making wine,
• 59:43
  you know, comes from the farming, the stories of the
• 59:46
  family, the producers, different regions that go into is really
• 59:51
  amazing to learn about. And then the people that enjoy
• 59:54
  wine a lot of times are are interesting and fun people as
• 59:57
  well. So really that.
• 1:00:00
  And then I also do jiu jitsu as well.
• 1:00:02
  So between little bit of balanced hobbies, I guess with
• 1:00:08
  drinking a little bit of wine and also training jiu jitsu and
• 1:00:11
  that's a very nice. Back-to-back that you do that?
• 1:00:14
  No. No, no.
• 1:00:16
  And the jiu jitsu kind of goes back to being hum, being humble
• 1:00:20
  because, you know, I'm a 40 year old jiu jitsu practitioner,
• 1:00:27
  which means that I'm not that great where I, I used to wrestle
• 1:00:31
  in high school. So I, I have a decent
• 1:00:32
  background, but being 40 compared to a 20 year old,
• 1:00:37
  there's a noticeable difference out there sometimes.
• 1:00:40
  So you know, you know, losing on a regular basis will humble you.
• 1:00:47
  So that that that kind of also helps as well.
• 1:00:52
  Danielle, I've just got one more question for you today.
• 1:00:54
  But before I ask, I want to do 3 quick things for the audience.
• 1:00:57
  First of all, ways to get in touch with Daniel Gonzales in
• 1:01:00
  Accounting to Scale, their website, Accounting to scale.com
• 1:01:04
  and the YouTube channel that he mentioned before.
• 1:01:07
  They've got hundreds of great videos, all kinds of really
• 1:01:10
  helpful free content in there. So if you go to YouTube and you
• 1:01:14
  search for Accounting to Scale, you'll find them.
• 1:01:17
  We'll have a link to that in the show notes.
• 1:01:19
  And if you're enjoying our show today, please take a moment to
• 1:01:22
  subscribe wherever you're listening.
• 1:01:24
  It sends a signal that helps others discover our show.
• 1:01:27
  So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now.
• 1:01:31
  And as a reminder, you can be the hero advisor that helps
• 1:01:34
  clients give their employees access to therapist, doctors and
• 1:01:38
  prescription meds while paradoxically increasing their
• 1:01:42
  net profits. Real gains that can change how a
• 1:01:45
  business is value. Contact us today at
• 1:01:47
  adbackbenefits.com. So last question for you,
• 1:01:50
  Daniel. A year from now, what is 1 very
• 1:01:53
  specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?
• 1:01:56
  I think a year from now I hope to be at 20 employees.
• 1:02:00
  I think that if we're at 20, it means that the business has
• 1:02:05
  grown, you know, obviously in revenue, but in people.
• 1:02:10
  And you know, our business is a people business.
• 1:02:14
  We have to we're, you know, dealing with business owners
• 1:02:18
  like most important thing, but our product is our people and
• 1:02:21
  having, you know, 20, 20 employees would be amazing.
• 1:02:26
  So that would be the the goal being at 20 employees.
• 1:02:29
  Love it. Daniel Gonzalez from accounting
• 1:02:32
  to scale. I want to be the first to thank
• 1:02:34
  you for sharing both your time and your story with us today.
• 1:02:37
  I really appreciate you being here.
• 1:02:38
  Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
• 1:02:40
  It's been great and very thank you.
• 1:02:44
  Just very grateful for this opportunity.
• 1:02:46
  Absolutely, folks. That's a wrap on another episode
• 1:02:48
  of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us.
• 1:02:52
  And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.