Intro (00:00:00) - Welcome to the Creative Agency Success Show, the go to resource for agency owners looking to scale their business. Join us every week to stay ahead of the curve and position your agency for future success.
Jamie (00:00:15) - Hello everybody! Welcome to the first episode of CFO Deep Dive. So, this is going to be a special podcast that Jody and I are going to do where we talk about some of the things that Jodi and I are either reading or watching or listening to. So, it could be a podcast, a webinar, a book, and it really gives Jodi and I a chance to talk about something interesting. So, I am excited to go into this format. And Jodi and I did a little research for this one. So, it should be a great topic. And I'm excited for this new format. Jodi.
Jody (00:00:47) - Yeah, I'm excited about it. You know, we've been doing the old format for now for three years. And so, this is a nice change of pace We'll see.
Jody (00:00:53) - Hopefully the listeners will get a lot out of this. And you know, this could be the new format going forward.
Jamie (00:00:59) - Yeah, definitely. I think one of the things that is, is a really a staple behind what we do here at, summit, Anders is, is we focus on finding material out there and being constant learners. Right. So, I know both Jody and I are constantly watching material, reading books. And so, this is just a way for us to get that material out there and allow our listeners to kind of find that material, but also get our opinions in that material. So, we're excited for this format. And it's going to be a fun way to, to talk for Jody and me. So, Jody and I are excited about going down this path. So, for our first episode, we did a podcast of one of our old friends, Tracy Barrett. So, she was on the route of all success podcasts with the real Jason Duncan. And so, Jody and I both listened to that over the last week, and it came out about three weeks ago, I believe.
Jamie (00:01:46) - So, it's a new podcast with Tracy and Jason, and Jason did a nice job bringing out Traci's story. I thought so that that was really what I, what I'd like to hear was, I know we've heard Traci's stories several times, both in presentations and in person, but just hearing it from someone else and someone else asking questions, I thought that was a really good, good part of this episode.
Jody (00:02:05) - Yeah, Jason did a great job. I really enjoyed listening to it and how he guided the conversation, and I'm looking forward to listening to more of Jason's podcast. He did a phenomenal job there. One thing I really liked is, is tagline. You know, his mission is to help entrepreneurs live what he calls the exit lifestyle. And I know that's something near and dear to me, of course. And, and obviously as for Tracy and she wrote an entire book about it. And so, it'll be interesting to see your takes on this as we, we go through this podcast.
Jamie (00:02:37) - Yeah. No, that's a great point because, yeah, I'm glad he found Tracy because that's the point of Tracy's book is, is what's next? What's next? After I get out of my, my first business or as I, my first job and stuff like that. And I know you, I know you've been through that, and you've been through some of the true counseling that Tracy talks about. So, hopefully you talk about that as we go through these topics here and what it's like to be in those one on 1 or 1 on two, because I think April did it with you too when you went through the sessions with Traci.
Jody (00:03:06) - Yeah, but don't put on too much weight because that's my number four topic that we're going to talk about there. The okay.
Jamie (00:03:11) - Don't do that a little bit too much. Cool. So yeah, just to remind that, remind the listeners. So, the point of this show is, we have ten topics.
Jamie (00:03:19) - Some are fun, some are very serious, but they're ten topics that we'll pull out when we listen to these podcasts or webinars or read these books. And sometimes we may do all ten, sometimes we may only do a couple of them. So, we'll kind of go through the go through the topics to guide us through a discussion on what we're talking about. So that's kind of how this podcast will work. And so, any other thoughts before we kind of jump into the topics? Jodi?
Jody (00:03:43) - Nope. I'm ready to go.
Jamie (00:03:44) - All right. So, the first topic we're going to talk about is, is what we call the unicorn. So, the unicorn is the most unique thought of the episode. As everybody knows, I'm a basketball guy. when they talk about those unique players, like Porzingis for the Celtics who's, who's a giant player but can play shoot the three and dribble and do everything. They kind of call him a unicorn. So that's kind of where we came up with this.
Jamie (00:04:05) - And so for this topic, we're going to talk about the most unique thought of the episode. So, Jody, what did you find when listening to this podcast as the most unique thought?
Jody (00:04:14) - I'd say the most unique thought hit about the 19-minute marker somewhere in there. And it was when Traci talked about more than just life itself or work than dollars, titles and all that stuff. And that struck me big time because I've never been a person that strove to make a ton of money. You know, of course I love making money, don't get me wrong. But that was never the end goal. The end goal was, you know, you know, how can you be successful? And then she then finds what she thinks success is. And so, I thought that was super unique. Money, fame, promotions really may or may not be it for you.
Jody (00:04:59) - You know, what is success? And I think when she goes into detail about that, I think it's a great unicorn topic.
Jamie (00:05:06) - Let's talk about your role in HGTV and then the transition that you made a few years ago to step out to say as your book title, what if there's more to get out of that, to make that life changing transition from corporate world into being your own boss as an entrepreneur, taking those risks? Tell us about that journey. Just give us a little bit of that journey of that transition.
Traci (00:05:28) - Yeah. So, as you know, I have nothing but great things to say about HGTV. It was such a wonderful ride. I really enjoyed being able to take something from an idea all the way to seeing it into this billion-dollar media empire. And along the way, there were ups and downs and all the great mentors. And, you know, my role grew, and responsibility and it grew and the number of staff I was over.
Traci (00:06:00) - And as an executive, there was just a ton of travel. So, there was a lot of traveling to New York a lot. And, you know, a lot of people don't know that HGTV was originally based in Knoxville, Tennessee. So, there was a lot of, you know, traveling to Knoxville and New York. And then, of course, you know, going on a lot of these trips the executives were expected to take, you know, top clients to the dream home every year or, you know, to some exotic location to wine and dine to make sure that we could keep, you know, the funding and be sure to keep the network scaling and growing, right. But for me, you know, after almost 20 years of doing that nonstop, I started to lose myself a little bit. I started to wonder, okay, is this what I want to do for the next chapters of my life? And is my identity a little too much wrapped up in HGTV? And is there something else out there for me? Is there more? Can I pause and understand what I want and why? And I think, you know, when I looked around in corporate America, what I realized and what I saw were that there were a lot of people like me, you know, kind of you hear about the golden handcuffs and, you know, you're just staying, you know, someplace because that's the way you feel you should and you get on autopilot.
Traci (00:07:19) - And I really wanted to get off autopilot. I felt like anybody in my life was getting the best part of me.
Jamie (00:07:25) - Yeah, no, I agree, and I was with you. I'm a different time stamp there. So, later in the podcast, around the 34 minutes mark, she was asked, like, how do you personally define success? And what Tracy's quote on this was, is, using my God given unique design to have a positive impact on the world around me. And so, she said, this is the sweet spot, right? So, if we are who we are, then we've truly found success. And this is kind of where she goes into, you know, money, fame, title is all great, but you really need to walk into who you are and make sure you're chasing your passion.
Jamie (00:07:57) - So, how do you personally define that term success?
Traci (00:08:03) - Yeah, for me it's really using my God given unique design to have a positive impact on the world around me. That to me is success.
Traci (00:08:15) - And I feel like it's the sweet spot. And if I hold true to that of using my unique talents to really have a positive impact, and then I feel like all those other common metrics, they come in. They just happen. Right? The success by, you know, in the in the being able to, you know, sustain myself financially and to have a position where I can, you know, have a platform or, or any of those things will come if I'm really focused on, on what I should be doing and, and what I'm uniquely designed to do.
Jamie (00:08:55) - And so again, I can really identify with this. You know, I think that I've, as most listeners know, I've had four different real career jobs, since before joining summit. And one of them, I'm going to tell a quick personal story here, and I'm interested in your stories as well. Jody was, you know, I worked for a job where I was, they put me in a financial reporting role, and as anyone knows, that that is not my strength.
Jamie (00:09:21) - I do not want to be sitting behind a desk and just sitting there writing all day. And when I was doing that job, I did it for about six months. And I can tell you, like, my life was different. I was grumpy around the house. I was I was not always a good mood. I was just a different person because I just didn't feel like I was doing what I was meant to do each day, like I was. I was just like forcing myself into the role of doing something I didn't enjoy doing. And so, for me, that really resonated with me because I wanted to be someone that was meeting people, talking to people, helping people. And that's what I do at Anders now, is I get to constantly work with people. And so just my overall mood has been better since I've worked at worked at Anders because of that. And so, I'm sure you have a similar story or a similar path, Jody, where you were in a job that just didn't work out for you?
Jody (00:10:08) - Yeah, I can start from way back in high school if you want.
Jody (00:10:11) - But yeah, there's a lot of jobs. I mean, I think the word job just didn't work out for me, you know, no matter really what you know, what it was, you know, whether it was accounting or whether it was a fast-food restaurant or whether it's selling insurance or selling cars, sewing knives. I've done a ton of different things over my life, and I think it was just simply, yeah, when it comes to it, it was simply working for other people. You know, that was the tough thing for me. And that's why as an entrepreneur, I went the entrepreneur route because it took me a long time to figure that out. And, you know, once I did, then, you know, things just, you know, turned dramatically. And so, I would say, you know, that that that was the, the, the change for me is just simply identifying what was important to me, you know, and what made me feel good. The one to come to work, you know, every day.
Jody (00:10:58) - You know, I would always make reasons why the other jobs didn't work, you know, hey, it didn't work because of this. And it was never my fault. Of course, it was always something else. And then as you kind of reflect, you know, over time. And really, when I became an entrepreneur, I didn't really, I still thought, hey, it was just it was them. It wasn't me. And then I realized, ten, 20 years into it, it was me that was the issue. And not really the issue, but that, you know, it was me that had had to kind of find what worked out well for me. And then, of course, as I, as I go into the, you know, the full circle, you know, and selling, you know, merging into Anders, you know, then it came back dramatically.
Jody (00:11:39) - It's like, wow, you know, that that was the problem. You know, that was the problem I had before. And now I've had 20 years to figure it out. And now I've got another 4 or 5, 6, 7, 10 years to capitalize on it and make it work as an employee because I'm still an owner in the company. But, you know, as now I've got to report to other people, I've got other people that are accountable higher than, higher than me. And so, it's been it's been a journey for sure.
Jamie (00:12:07) - Yeah. And it's, it's funny because I think if you look at the two of us, how we found our sweet spot and how we found our passion, you found it through creating your own thing. I found it because I was lucky enough to meet you and Adam. So, I think that everybody, everybody finds it their own way, which is. Which is great. And so, I think that a lot of people do find it through entrepreneurship and through creating their own thing.
Jamie (00:12:24) - But again, I was lucky enough because I found it through guys that I was very comfortable with doing something that I loved doing. So, I was lucky in that sense. So, what I'm going to do here is give the listeners a little bit of homework. So, I'm going to have you guys pause your podcast after I ask this question and write it down, because at the 37-minute mark, Traci is asked, what was one piece of advice you would give? And she said, write down what you want and why you want it. So, if you're listening to this podcast and you're near a piece of paper, just pause the podcast and just write down your answer. Okay, so hopefully you're back and you've written down your answer. And Jody, I'm curious, for you, as you were thinking about your journey is what you would have written down what you did or is there something that you kind of wish you would have, you would have had there?
Jody (00:13:12) - Yeah, it's funny because that was my number for me, as part of my mic drop moment too.
Jody (00:13:18) - And but with that, you know, with the, the visionary vantage, I guess is what we're talking about right now. You know what you want. Why do you want it. You know, when we created some. And I want to do something completely different, you know, because I, I knew I didn't like public accounting. And here I'm a partner in a public accounting firm. Right. And, you know, with that, you know, I didn't like public accounting for the reason that, you know, every year, every January, my stomach turns, you know, I started getting, you know, sick. And, you know, it was because it was, I was getting into busy season and I knew that that was just a grinded out three and a half, four-month ordeal, which, you know, it was like, you know, that you married work for that, that time frame. And it was like, wow, I didn't I didn't want to go back into that because, you know, and then the other thing was in the corporate world and I worked there, it was one of those things that was just so boring.
Jody (00:14:12) - It was like. It was like Groundhog Day. It was like the same thing repeatedly. I know, Jamie, you've experienced both, so I'm sure you can relate pretty, significantly to that. And I didn't like that. And so, it was like, you know what? What do we what do we do? You know, and, you know, the thing was, you know, hey, I want to create something different than both of those because I was kind of an orphan, orphan accountant, you know? Really, I took I got this accounting degree. Not a great night. I found out I don't like accounting, you know? Wow. That's a great thing to have when you're 20 and trying to develop a career and a family. And what it was is that I wanted to create something different. I wanted to take what I liked about public accounting and what I liked about the corporate world, and kind of combine it.
Jody (00:14:52) - And I think that's what we did, and I hope that's what attracted you to the business. You know, I wanted to create more of an entrepreneurial spirit throughout the entire company, not just at the highest level. And that that was the that was the goal from the beginning, you know, and changing the way that people thought about accounting, that was something that I've held near and dear from the very beginning. And we finally formalized that, you know, Jamie, you and I, we were in a group in San Diego, and we formalized that, that saying. But that's been the mission I had from the beginning. Hey, can we do things differently? Can we change things up, you know, that sort of thing? And, you know, the one thing Tracy did talk about, at about the nine-minute mark is she talked about how HTV, HGTV had the opportunity to pick up Trading Spaces as a, as a show, and they ended up saying no because it didn't meet their values.
Jody (00:15:45) - It didn't meet what they were trying to accomplish. It wasn't, you know, and that show became super successful, you know, so it's not like they, they, they, they turned away a dud, you know, they turned away a what turned out to be a very, very, very, great, great opportunity for another network, you know, and, you know, with that, you know, I look at our journey throughout, you know, we are changing the way. And it was tough, dude. It was super tough, especially the years before you came aboard. It was like we were just grinding it out. You know, here I'm trying to do things differently and things weren't different. You know? I'm working my ass off. It's a lot of hours, time, and effort. And there wasn't a whole lot to show as a result. It wasn't like when we were doing it. We're just making make and bang, you know, making a ton of money because we weren't we we're making a very little amount of money working our butt off trying to get this concept to work.
Jody (00:16:38) - And it was, you know, basically the faith that Adam had in me. That allowed that to happen because he could have got a job anywhere else and made more money quicker. Without a doubt. You know, his buddies all did you know his buddies were in accounting? They're all making all this kind of money. And he reminded me of that consistently. Just so you know. Did you know? You know. The idea was, hey, we're going to figure this out and stick to our mission and plan and make it work. And, you know, and eventually it did, which is the great thing. And now Adam kind of kind of sit back and say, you know, hey, I guess it did pay off. I'm making a lot more money than all my buddies combined, you know, which is a great concept to think about.
Jamie (00:16:57) I’m sure it did.
Jody (00:17:19) - And, you know, that that was a big thing that kind of like, wow, that's great. So, they traded up on something that was very lucrative. I could have done the same thing, could have worked my butt off, and just made a lot of money being a traditional public accountant or in their case, hey, let's stick to what works and what our mission is going forward, and which is what we did. You know, through creating an entrepreneurial type of company, which would attract, you know, individuals like yourself, to join and, and flourish within that company.
Jamie (00:17:46) - Yeah. So, you jumped right into my visionary vantage as well. So, you started. You started in a different place but ended with my visionary vantage. So just for our listeners, the visionary vantage is the piece of advice that leaders should have picked up from the show. So, this is more related to the to the leaders. And I'm with you 100% on the trading space story. You know, I think when you hear Traci talk about it and I'm sure she tells the story over and over again because when I first heard that she was from HDTV, I'm like, oh, Trading spaces is the first place my brain went.
Jamie (00:18:15) - And she the part she says is like, we wanted to sell happy endings. And the point of Trading Spaces was not always about happy endings. Sometimes it was about, okay, you did my living room in green, and I told you I hated green, you know? So, she had to tell that story over and over again. And I think as our listeners, as agencies and other businesses listen to this, this is something that you come across every day, especially in service-based companies. And I know we as a service-based company do this all the time. Sometimes you get that client that just doesn't feel right. It just doesn't feel like they're the ones that are going to, you know, that might be a giant client as well. It might be the biggest contract you've ever had had in front of you. So, you need to sit back and decide is like, is it worth us taking this multi-million-dollar project that will grow our business three times if it's not something we believe in? And so, I think that was a good point.
Jamie (00:19:02) - And I think to me that's as a visionary, as someone that's an owner of a company, this is something you need to think about every day. And I think the second part of that is you need to make sure your team understands it. Right. So, like when your team's selling stuff, when your team's working on a project, if that project started off within the owner's vision and then you're working on it, you're working on and you're working on, about halfway through, you're like, oh, I know more about these guys now. And this is not the type of company we want to work with. How do they know how to react to that? So, I think that's the second part of this that Tracy didn't talk about. But I want you to go on a little bit, Jody, because I know there's something you do a really good job with us here is to make sure everybody in the team knows that if a client is not the type of client you want to work with, that you have to pull the plug because that will ruin your company more than anything.
Jody (00:19:44) - Yeah, I think there's two parts to that: is the client the right client or the team member the right team member on that client? You know, that's what we have to kind of identify, because it could be either or it could be both. It could be neither. You know, who knows really what this shoe is. But if I were a company and said, hey, I've got to fire every client that Jamie doesn't like, I wouldn't be a company because I guarantee you, they're half those clients. Jamie wouldn't like those clients or Bob or whoever might be working on them. So, you've got to define, you know. Hey, is it a client that fits Jamie? You know, because, again, the other thing is, I could bring on Bob, and Bob could love this client. You know, this could be a great client for Bob. And so, I think one of those things is you've got to listen to the team.
Jody (00:20:28) - And then once you identify, hey, it's just not a right fit because the team member doesn't want to work on this client. Let's not poison the water and talk to everybody else about how bad this client is. Let's bring in, you know, Sara, and see how Sara reacts to this client. To Sarah. Make a good relationship. Are their personalities more in line? And if their personalities align, it works out well. Great. You know, moving forward, no issue there. But if you get two strikes where, you know, Sarah's saying the same thing, Jamie or Bob is saying whatever, then you've got an issue, or you've got a bad client and you've got to work on, hey, how can we land this? Not us letting this client go, but how can we land this client somewhere else so that it's a better fit for them? Because. Guaranteed. If our team's not enjoying working with the client, then the client's not going to enjoy working with our team, and it's going to really develop, you know, some, you know, bad, bad blood down the road.
Jody (00:21:18) - And so, I think it's a double-edged sword. As I mentioned, you had to decide, you know, hey, the term hey, is it the client or is it the relationship between the consultant and the client or the accountant and the client, whatever that might be?
Jamie (00:21:29) - And I had a great example of this, and I think it's important to learn from your mistakes. And this is a mistake I made. I think this was recently too. It's probably a couple of years ago where, you know, in me. Yeah. Can you believe that?
Jody (00:21:40) - Oh, Adrian.
Jody (00:21:41) - I'll ever know.
Jamie (00:21:43) - Yeah. Don't tell my wife.
Jody (00:21:44) - Yeah.
Jamie (00:21:45) - So, we were. I was working for a client. And in my role, you know, obviously, I'm overseeing ops, and I'm overseeing a lot of the client relationships. And sometimes you get caught in that world of, we've got to keep this client no matter what. And so, I was I was working on this client, and it was one of our high-level CFOs.
Jamie (00:22:02) - And the client honestly was just not a nice person and not being nice to our team and not being nice to our, our, our work. The work just wasn't fun. And I was trying everything I could to make this client work. I was getting with the CFO. I was doing training. I was teaching them, okay, how do you handle it when the client is yelling at you for five minutes? And I was going down that mark and somehow Jody got, got a briefed of what's going on with this client and talking to the CFO, and like, he called me into his office, his virtual office. I was like, Jamie, why are you trying to keep this client? No matter what? We do not keep clients that are abusing our team. And I'm like, you know, you're right, Jody. Like, why am I working so hard to try to keep this client? So, I had to have that tough conversation with the client and be like, yeah, you know, the way you treat our team is not right.
Jamie (00:22:40) - And we're not going to continue to work with you anymore. But again, I was so caught up in trying to make this work that, Jody kind of had to set me straight and be like, yeah, this is not the type of client we want to work with. So, it was a learning lesson for me. That is like, if the client is that mean and that abusive to our team, we got to pull the plug quickly.
Jody (00:22:58) - Yeah. Because if you don't, you're going to have casualties, right? And we found that out with the client. We had this about a year and a half ago in which, you know, we, you know, the client to me was great, great buddy, you know, hey, we go out for a beer, we'd hang out. We talk to each other and see the individual conferences all the time. Seemed like a great guy. But then behind the scenes, you peel it back.
Jody (00:23:17) - He was abusive to our team. You know, we ended up losing a CFO because of it. We lost a couple of accountants because of it, and it just really poisoned the water. And it's kind of funny because when we love that individual, then poison the water for other clients and, and basically told, you know, stories or whatever and, and kind of a gaslight situation. So, have we stopped that at the beginning? Identify that that was an issue? I think we probably would have resolved all of that. We probably would. We obviously would. We would have left the client on good and good terms because, you know, again, you know, there were no issues at that point. And that client would never have, you know, spread ill will throughout the community and, you know, that sort of thing. And so, yeah, you've got to identify those issues, you know, quickly then act upon them. You know, like I said, you know, is it is an abusive issue, you know, get rid of the client right away, you know, or is it just simply a, a personality issue.
Jody (00:24:08) - And that's when you actually have to figure out, hey, is it the right person?
Jamie (00:24:11) - Definitely.
Jamie (00:24:12) - All right. So, we're going to move on to the next topic here. And I'm going to answer this one first because I want your take on it. And if you have a different answer, I'll that we can talk about that as well. So, the next topic is what we call the ping pong paradigm prize. So, a little bit of play on words there. But if everybody remembers back in the early 2000, which I do, because this is when I was looking for my first job, everybody was putting up ping pong table in their work room because they thought this was the way to build a company culture was to have a ping pong table so your team could have fun. And I'm sure it worked. But we think there's a lot of other ways to build company culture, especially for us as a distribution firm. And so, a virtual firm. So, this is our topic number eight.
Jamie (00:24:49) - And what I loved that Tracy said here is a quote was good relationships fall apart when you become self-centered. and so perfect.
Jody (00:24:58) - You're a loser.
Jamie (00:25:00) - All right. So, we got the same.
Jamie (00:25:00) - Same answer here. I want you to I want you to talk about this because as I've said before, you're one of the most selfless people I've ever worked with, and it makes you easy to work with. And I think this is what we were founded on. So, can you expand upon that a little bit in kind of your beliefs about, you know, serving outward before you serve inward?
Jody (00:25:20) - I don't know, dude, this is a hard one to talk about because it talks about me. You know, in things that I don't know. So, the, you know, you know, it's, you know, always treat people like you, like you want to be treated, I guess, as the old saying.
Jody (00:25:36) - Right. And my personal core value has always been generosity. And from when I can remember, not a recent or manufactured thing, but that's what it's always been. And I didn't realize that until I was on one of the strategic life maps with Tracy, and we'll talk about that later. But it was like, that was pretty obvious, you know, you know that that is my core value, And, you know, with that, I, I've always, you know, you know, I've always had a very transparent, view of life and, and it might transparency actually carried over to business, you know, to the point where I really didn't care if I shared financials with people. I don't really care if I share salary with people. I don't care if even people know each other's salary. Doesn't make any difference. You know? You know, with that, you know, I want to be able to help people and be transparent.
Jody (00:26:26) - And in doing so, and I think that that's always been my mission, you know, to the point where we open our playbook to other accounting firms. Kind of funny. Why would you do that? People ask me, "I had all the time, you guys are so successful, why would you share that success with others?" It's like, why not? You know what's going to hurt, you know? You know, there's the ocean, such a blue ocean out there. You know, my success and what I can share with them may not translate, you know, one for one to somebody else, but they can pick up tidbits, you know, and maybe they can be successful, even more successful than we've done. And then I can learn from them, and the ball can get bigger and bigger, and the ideas can get bigger and bigger. When we started summit way back when, 20 years ago, we created this virtual CFO, CFO service concept, and there wasn't anything like that going on.
Jody (00:27:17) - You know, a lot of things were based on outsourced accounting functions. We were more on the strategy side, hey, we want to meet with clients regularly, teach them strategy, how to look forward and work their business. You know, we couldn't actually do their business, obviously, but we could give them, you know, hey, the roadmap, hey, here's what here's where you might be falling off. Go, go work on it, Mr. Business Owner. You know, that was that was something I thought was super cool. And when we when we did that, we actually, you know, that's how we formed the business. You know, it's like, well, hey, how can we, you know, how can we help business owners be successful? You know, again, that generosity coming in there but then capitalize on it and make a living doing so. And that's what kind of really started everything.
Jody (00:28:00) - You know, that's that was the change in the way people thought about accounting. Again. Let's not talk about accounting, debits, credits, and financials nobody cares about. Let's talk about hey, how we can take those financials that are super important and show them really how to look forward, not in the rearview mirror, but looking forward, you know, through the windshield there and really kind of helping determine their success or helping them carve their success. You know, I look back. We've had clients for a long time. Our clients stay with us a really long time, for the most part, you know. And I was I've got a client that actually just sold his business to his family, you know, which was a kind of a cool thing. You think it's a cool thing, but, you know, a lot of times family, you know, don't succeed in that when you hand it off and their family is doing extremely well.
Jody (00:28:46) - And I moved to Fort Lauderdale about a year ago, and he has a place in Fort Myers, Florida, and he's like, hey, called me up. Hey, you guys want to come over and, you know, and hang out with us for the weekend? And I thought, oh, that's a cool idea. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. And but, you know, with that, it's like, wow, how many, how many clients of yours can you think of that would just simply unsolicited, hey, can you come over for the weekend at my place and, and hang out and, and the cool thing about that is when we took that client over, you know, 20 some years ago that they were not, you know, they were not successful. Line of credit. significant line of credit. They had no cash in the bank. You know, it was paycheck to paycheck.
Jody (00:29:31) - Their margins were dinky. And with that, over time we helped them develop what we brought out, they did the work. You know, let's not let's not exaggerate things. They did the work. They did the hard stuff. Right. We just kind of pointed out the map, right? You know, hey, here's the here's the way to be successful. And it took, it took, you know, a lot of pain points. You know, it took five, six, seven years and tough.
Jamie (00:29:57) - Conversations I'm sure tough.
Jody (00:29:58) - Conversations. Yeah. You know, hey, we're bringing our kids on. Not a good idea. You know. You know, whatever that might be, and they figured it out and listened to it, and they grew their business to, oh, a very successful business.
Jody (00:30:15) - You know, where their profit margin, you know, their profits were in the multi-millions, you know, per year and that with no debt, you know, nothing like that handed it off to their kids. And their kids are continuing that success. You know. And when I look at that I think, wow, you know, I don't look at that and think, wow, can you believe all the money I made on that person over the years that never even comes up, right? I don't even think about that. That's not the thing I'm thinking about. Wow, that was pretty cool. You know what? You know, the advice that we were able to give them, the fact that they listened to at the coaching up throughout the years, really help them and their family grow something to something that may not even be in existence today, you know, to something that's super successful, that they can pass down and that their kids and grandkids and they've got tons of grandkids, believe me, will eventually, you know, you know, have have that success and be able to take it to that next level.
Jody (00:31:07) - You know, that that that to me is generosity and, and, and teaching other CPA firms how to provide that level of service to other folks, to me is like, wow, this is pretty cool. You know, think about Jamie, think about all the, you know, really sit back and think about how many people, not companies that you've impacted. You have impacted, you know, since you've been with summit, you know, not just the exact clients that you work with, but think about all the different seminars that you and I have been to that helped other firms help their clients. You know, it's got to be in the hundreds of thousands of people easily. And to me, that that's the coolest thing about what you know, I've done over the years is developed something that you can give back to the general populace. You know those people.
Jamie (00:31:56) - And I think.
Jamie (00:31:57) - The reason to me, this is a culture thing is because the generosity at the top goes all the way down to the bottom, and then it goes all the way outside.
Jamie (00:32:05) - Right? So, like, you know, when I started at summit at the time, I learned very early on that I didn't have to worry about the small things. And again, small things are different for different people. But like a great example is just last week or two weeks ago, I was in New York City, right. So, I was in New York City for a conference, and Jody couldn't go because he had something else going on. So, I was kind of the lead at this conference. And one of the things we had, we had several clients there, and we had several team members there, and a couple of the team members were there. This was either their second or third conference they've been to. And so, one of the things we did was we went to a Broadway play. It was in New York. And, you know, Broadway tickets aren't cheap. But like, I never had to go to Jodi and be like, hey, I want to take the team and a couple of clients to a Broadway play.
Jamie (00:32:45) - Are you cool with that? Because it is in our culture that generosity is there, that Jodi, would I even have to ask him because I know what he would say. I know he'd say yes, please take him to it and buy them dinner while you're there. You know, that's just always been our culture. So, I've my eight years at summit, I've never had to think about, should I do this for a client, or should I do this for a person? And it's not just money, it's time. It's conversations. It's all that stuff that is part of our culture that just like Jody said, our clients see it, our clients feel it. And so, I think that it has been super important to me as an employee to know that, like, we're taking care of our people, we're taking care of our people, and we're taking care of people that have any type of relationship to this, to this, to this company. And so I think that is why it's such a cultural blessing to have that and to know that that's part of what we do is because it's made it really easy for me to work here because I've never really and again, maybe there's been some times where I spent a little bit too much, but I've never heard from Jody or I've.
Jamie (00:33:39) - I spent a little bit too much time on a phone conversation with the client, really. Just like, you know, probably being a counselor more than a more than a CFO. And I maybe spent half the day talking to them, working through stuff. But that's part of who we are as being generous and creating those long-term relationships with our team members and clients, and what it does for the culture, not just our clients. Do they really want to leave you? If you've had all these experiences with them, and you have all these shared experiences and your friends with them, they don't want to leave you. And same with the team members, the team members at that Broadway show and how much fun we had in New York City are going to remember that. And yeah, they may have a better job offer someday, but that's going to be in the back of their mind is, yeah, I may make $20,000 more salary, but is this client going to treat me the way that summit has? And so, I think that is why this is the ping pong paradigm is because this is really the best thing you can do for your culture is have that culture of generosity.
Jamie (00:34:29) - All right. So that's for that topic. So, we have one more left. And this is going to be one we cover on every episode what we call the mic drop moment. And so this is what we've always asked at the end of every podcast we've done. We've always said, okay, what's your one key takeaway. And so, we want to make sure this is part of every time we do this podcast. So, Jodi, we've talked about a lot of things when it came to this podcast. But once what's the one thing you want the listeners to take away from listening to Traci's podcast?
Jody (00:34:55) - Well, you know, Jamie had mentioned earlier what you want and why you want it. that that was a that was a profound statement because, you know, when I met with Tracy and full transparency, we've known I've known Tracy Boy for probably about ten years. Just shortly after she left, HGTV, she and I met at a conference in Puerto Rico. And we can hang out there and enjoy each other's company.
Jody (00:35:20) - And I met her husband and all that kind of stuff, and she met my wife, and it was it was a great, great experience. But we kind of fast forwarding to, last about double last year or two years ago, we, did what Traci calls a strategic life map. And, you know, it was revolutionary for us. You know, my wife, ran a very, very successful law practice that she, started as an entrepreneur and really kind of build up to where it was, I think about eight people when she had left and she actually merged that into another law firm and, you know, all that kind of good stuff. Well, Traci, through the strategic life map, you know, Traci helped her identify the hey, you know, that's the thing needed to do in the second half of our life, you know? Right. Because, you know, she talks about success after success. And so, you know, hey, the successful parts.
Jody (00:36:13) - Hey we developed this. You know, she developed this, you know, now we need to, you know, to put that behind us and figure out, hey, what's our next successful thing? You know, because the next successful thing I'm hoping for is going to be even more successful than the first. You know, that's the whole game plan, right? The first half of your life, you build something, you sell it as an entrepreneur, whatever. And then you've got the second half. And that could be whether you're a team member or whether, you know, whatever that might be. You know, there's always that second half of your life. And what I didn't want it to do is I didn't want that second half of my life to be sitting in front of the TV, getting fat, watching, you know, sports, watching Jamie's team play on, you know, TV. I didn't want that. I wanted something a lot different.
Jody (00:36:56) - And it was kind of nice spending the two days that we did in Nashville with, with Traco and each day she took one of us, you know, by ourselves and kind of walked us through our entire life history. And it was kind of an amazing thing, the ups and downs of it. And then she would take them, my wife, and do the same thing, the ups and downs of life history. And it was amazing that when the third day when she brought us both back together and she's got all these different, you know, that they love these big, huge sticky notes. They can stick on the wall, and they got these huge sticky notes of my life history and April's life history. And it was kind of ironic, but all of April's ups were my downs, and all of April's downs were my ups. Very, very rarely did we have an up at the exact same time throughout our entire life journey. And it was like, wow, you know that maybe.
Jody (00:37:49) - And maybe that's why we have been together for 35 plus years, you know, because, you know, we were able to help each other out, you know, kind of bring that generosity back in April. Super. You know, April is identical when it comes to generosity, value. And we were able to help each other out. But that that strategic life like life map allowed us to say, you know, hey, here's what we truly want and here's why we want it. And, you know, it, it allowed her to walk away from her business, not to walk away, but to sell it, merge it, you know, whatever you want to call it. So, she can then start that second life, because with my life, the way it works, I travel all the time, as Jamie mentioned, Jamie and I, we're on the road probably 1 to 2 weeks out of the month.
Jody (00:38:35) - You know, basically teaching other folks how to do it, whether if it's in the, the verticals that we work in, you know, the cannabis vertical, digital agency vertical, the transportation or the law, you know, one of those verticals or whether it's just simply a service based companies in general, teaching them how to be profitable or the accounting market, you know, teaching them how to actually provide this level of service. That was one of those roadmaps I wanted to continue doing. We go to all these cool places. Some are outside of the country, some are in the country, you know, some are local, some are virtual. And so, the nice thing about that is that even before, you know, April, my wife couldn't attend majority of those because she had this high stress, high functioning, you know, job that she was trying to or career that she was trying to work as an entrepreneur. And what it did allowed her to step aside.
Jody (00:39:23) - And now she can, you know, join me on this journey, you know, for the next, you know, 2 or 3 or 4 years, whatever that ten years, whatever that, that, that, that amount of time is going to take and decide, you know, hey, what what's that next life going to be, you know, is it you know, we can and we can do it. And through that journey, we can do it together. which is the nice, that nice thing about it. And, and give Traci all the kudos in the world for that, you know, for helping us get to that stage. And we're ready for round two. She's getting ready to schedule us for round two, and we'll go in and probably rehash, I guess, all the mistakes that we'd made. It was nice to hear that she has a master's in psychology. I was I didn't I didn't know.
Jamie (00:40:03) - That made it a little better. Right?
Jody (00:40:04) - But I'm feeling a lot better now. Yeah. For sure. Great.
Jamie (00:40:09) - Yeah. No, that's awesome. And I'm appreciate you sharing your experience with Traci. Like I said, I know you went through it. I know we talked briefly about it and in different conversations, but it's good to hear that story. And the ups and downs are interesting to me because I hadn't heard that before. And I think that's part of any good relationship. So, I think that's a key takeaway from this podcast, especially for you. for me, I had a little bit of a different takeaway, which makes sense is, you know, we talked about this already, but I just want to reiterate it. Like, I think everybody listening to this podcast knows in their gut if what they're doing every day is what they should be doing and is what they're passionate about. And if you're not, don't it do mean you need to stop today what you're doing, but you need to find a path where you're doing something you love every day.
Jamie (00:40:50) - And so I think that's the key to this podcast. And I know I've been in situations where I already told the story. I've been in situations where I wasn't doing what I loved every day in my life, was nowhere near to what it is today. And now I'm in a profession where I love what I do every day. I know I'm making a difference. I get to talk to people. I get to be doing things that I'm passionate about, and it just makes your overall life better. So that's my key takeaway from this podcast is, is think about it. Just take a couple minutes to think, are you doing what you want to be doing and really make sure you're taking those next steps to make sure you're doing that within the next couple of years. If you're not, each day is not as much fun and worth it. And so that's my biggest takeaway from this podcast. And that's almost every time I talk to Traci, I walk away with it like, gosh, I'm glad I am where I am right now and I'm glad I'm not back at those in those offices.
Jamie (00:41:36) - Yeah. They're beautiful. Yeah, I was getting paid a lot of money, but I was sitting there just typing all day long and not talking to people, and that was just not my passion. So, I want to make sure our listeners, you know, walk away with that. So,
Jody (00:41:47) - Jamie, the why there is really the most important thing, right? You know, identifying what that why was it right. And what was your why I mean, what was your what's the reasoning? You know. You know, what was your why there.
Jamie (00:42:00) - You know now my why is and again you look at my disk personality. Everybody knows I'm a I'm a hard ass. I'm a, I'm a big ass. It's all about people and relationships. Like, my life is better. The more people I'm talking to, the more people I'm involved with. And so that that is my why is if I'm. And again, I don't really need to feel like I'm making a difference.
Jamie (00:42:20) - I do feel like I'm making a difference right now, but mine is more about just like how many people I interact with each day and how many relationships in my developing each day. That is my why. That's the root of what I do. Like. Yeah, I coach basketball, as most people know. And but that's yes, it's about the sport and yes, it's about the strategy part of it, but it's more about the people. It's about the people that come into my day, each come into my life each day. That is my why. And so, when I found a job that was 99.9% about people, whether it's clients or whether it's team members, then I found the place where I belong and I found my, my, my right spot. And so again, that that was my why and understanding that really made it easy for me to find my find my forever job. Hopefully. So great. I appreciate you asking that.
Jamie (00:43:03) - That's a good question. All right. So just final notes here. So again, the name of the podcast is the root of all success. And it's by the real Jason Duncan. And like Jodie mentioned earlier on this is a podcast I'm definitely going to add to my playlist and start listening to I think, Jason does a great job, and I love the fact that he is really trying to ask those questions from different people, because people's different people's definition of success is different. So, I appreciate his podcast and, there'll be links to it in the show notes, so you can go listen to that as well as this podcast. But I thought this was a good first draft, a good first try on this new format. Jodie, hopefully you enjoyed it.
Jody (00:43:37) - Oh, it was great. Yeah. Looking forward to the next one.
Jamie (00:43:39) - Yep.
Jamie (00:43:39) - Definitely. Thank you.
Outro (00:43:40) - Enjoy this podcast. Visit our website Summit Connect to get more tips and strategy for achieving business success. We're here to be a resource in this ever-changing industry.
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