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The Young CPA Success Show: Episode 10
Hannah and Joey discuss New Year's resolutions and goal setting. They share their personal experiences and struggles with maintaining resolutions and setting realistic goals before introducing Robert Shenefelt. Best known as Coach Bob, he is a visionary, founder of iMatter, and best-selling author. Coach Bob introduces his life operating system, iMatter, designed to help individuals clarify their purpose. The conversation also covers the importance of being present, learning from mistakes, and creating a meaningful life. They discuss the concept of being a visionary and the importance of prioritizing happiness and fulfillment.
Intro (00:00:00) - Welcome to the young CPA Success Show. If you're a young accounting professional, this podcast is your ultimate guide to navigating your early career. Join us as we share valuable insights, expert advice, and practical tips to help you kickstart your path to success and excel in the accounting industry. Let's embark on this exciting accounting journey together.
Joey (00:00:23) - So, Hannah, are you are you big on New Year's resolutions?
Hannah (00:00:27) - So I am. However, I can't think of a New Year's resolution if we're just being completely transparent and honest here that I've actually kept all the way to the end of the year. So like I start out and I'm like, yes, I'm gonna do it. This is going to be the year I'm going to stick to it. And then yeah, hashtag new year, new me. That's totally me. But I don't know by summer of life has happened. And maybe it's a me being. I should probably be more realistic with the goals that I've set. But yeah, yeah, I do. I do try to set them.
Hannah (00:01:03) - What about you?
Joey (00:01:05) - I don't. I'm maybe I'm just a bit of a Grinch. Or maybe I'm just. I don't know, want to be too like rebellious and counterculture, but I've always been of the opinion where it's like, I'm going to go to bed on New Year's Eve and I'm going to wake up the next morning and it's I'm basically going to feel the same with a little bit of a headache, possibly, maybe, depending on how much fun we had the night before. And so I've never really been one to sit there and say, I'm going to specifically set goals at the beginning of the year for myself, but I probably should do that. And. Maybe this is something that, you know, to your point about being more realistic. Like not just sitting there and saying, like, I'm going to go to the gym every day in 2024, because let's be real, I'm not. Maybe what I will do is go like three times a week. That would be a realistic goal and be a good goal to to try to achieve.
Joey (00:01:55) - But. Every time we get to this time of year, I start thinking a little bit more about goal setting and like what it is mentally about us that makes us be like, oh, we've we've turned the page on a new year, which mentally means it's a new opportunity to do something different. I think as humans, that's something we really like, right? You know, it's a chance to have a blank slate for a new year and like all the stuff that was like in 2023 that maybe we want to do differently, we now have a chance to do it. So I totally get and understand, like why some people are like really into New Year's and, and goal setting and those types of things. Do you have one in particular that you can think of where you were like, I had like the best intentions and it just didn't work out for me.
Hannah (00:02:37) - Yeah. So this past year I set a goal. I was like, I'm gonna read five pages a day of a professional development or self-help, just personal growth book.
Hannah (00:02:47) - And maybe, maybe it has averaged to that, like because I have read some over the year, it definitely wasn't like five pages a day though. So I had really good intentions with it though. It was like, that'll be a good cadence, good consistency. And then like I said, life happened and I can't even remember, like when I when I fell off track with it. But I had good intentions and I love a good goal. Like I love I love a good goal, I love working towards goal. I'm a firm believer that you, you know, you can't get to where you're going if you don't know where you're going. So that is all in. You know, my mindset on why I love setting goals is because at least want to have a target, even if I don't hit it. At least I've walked a little bit further towards it. But yeah, I need to I need to really evaluate that for myself this year. And, and really, I could probably use some evaluating that for my life, which is really what Coach Bob talks about today in the episode with you and Jody.
Hannah (00:03:48) - I was really excited to take a listen to that because I do love goal setting so much. And, um, what what was your biggest takeaway from that conversation with him?
Joey (00:03:57) - Yeah, it was a really fun conversation. And we had it, um, you know, about a month before we recorded this. We're recording this today. So it was about it's about a month old and I've spent a good amount of time. Well, the first thing I did was I went to Coach Bob's website, imatter.com, and I took like what he calls the life ladder assessment, which is sort of like where you are like in the hierarchy. It almost feels a little bit like the hierarchy of needs, right? Where you're like, you're taking care of the baseline needs. But like he's trying to assess like where you are on that journey and it. It made sense where I was in terms of like, you know, I'm still very much like in the middle of my career. I'm still in a role where I'm doing an awful lot of the doing.
Joey (00:04:39) - I'm doing a lot of the nuts and bolts work, and while I'm pretty good at it, I've kind of reached a point in my career where that's not exactly where I want to be spending as much of my time, and that's sort of what was reflected in that assessment that I took was like, oh, man. Like. I'm good. Like, I've, I've handled a lot of the really good stuff that like I need to do for my life, like from a happiness perspective. But. There's still a whole lot more that I can do in terms of like, how do I reach the next phase of the journey? And Coach Bob loves mountains, and we kind of bonded over that at the end of the episode because I too, love a good mountain. Um, and I kind of have been envisioning my journey up there and it's, you know, it's been there's some peaks and some valleys, but it's all kind of been moving up. And that was sort of my big takeaway was, was that a goal for me for 2024 was to kind of re-envision a little bit about where I want to go, because I am not a great visionary.
Joey (00:05:38) - I'm not really good at like visualizing something different for myself in my life. I'm very comfortable with where I've gone. I'm not as comfortable charting an uncharted, you know, an unknown, you know, done path and figuring out exactly where I want to go. And that's sort of, you know, as we're getting into the last few weeks of the year, that's where a lot of my headspace has been is like, what do I want the next one, three and five years of my life to look like? And I really appreciated, you know, Coach Bob's thoughts on that in terms of kind of how to pull some of those pieces together. I mean, especially early in your career too, as you're trying to like it's really hard to like get out of if you're especially if you're in the muck and you're like needing to pull back out and be like, okay, what's the big picture here? I really enjoyed talking to to coach Bob about those types of things.
Hannah (00:06:29) - Have you ever made a vision board before, like for your life, like or for the year or anything like that?
Joey (00:06:35) - I've done a couple.
Joey (00:06:36) - We did one where like we kind of have this this again, back to the mountain theme, right? We've got this big goal of ours that we've been working on for about five years, which is to kind of start manifesting a space for ourselves in the wilderness, like a little, a little cabin here in New Mexico, not too far from here, about two and a half to three hours away from where I'm sitting right here. And that is the one thing, as we've been kind of. And Pinterest is so good for this because you can like create a digital board. Maybe that's what what we need to do is....
Hannah (00:07:06) - Totally, that's exactly what I was thinking.
Joey (00:07:07) - Get out of the digital space and make a physical vision board. Um, that is something that we do a lot of in terms of like trying to, to manifest these types of things. It's we're just still we still feel like we're very good at it.
Hannah (00:07:24) - I know, so that is one thing in thinking back in a I haven't I didn't do one last year, but the year before I did do one.
Hannah (00:07:32) - And in reflecting in that at the beginning of last year, there were many things that actually did happen for me on that vision board that I genuinely, genuinely believe that had I not set my sights on that early in the year, and at least to some degree, because I even kept it as my, um, phones, um, lock screen for a while,
Joey (00:07:51) - You're just seeing it.
Hannah (00:07:52) - Like I was literally seeing it every single day. So that way it was forefront of my mind. Like that to me was probably the most had most success I'd had with like, setting those, like specific goals of what I wanted for myself for the year, not necessarily calling them like a new Year's resolution. So I love that maybe our listeners can listen to this episode and then go, especially as we are here at the beginning of the year, go create a vision board for themselves and really manifest and look at and set goals for what you want out of the next year, out of the next three years, and out of the next five years.
Hannah (00:08:26) - That way you can at least make small steps. Even if you don't get there. That's okay. Keep setting it for yourself. Keep working towards it, because at least you're going to be heading in that trajectory, in that direction. So, I love that Coach Bob gives you a tool also to like tie that in with like your happiness and your contentment and finding that earlier in your career, I think is invaluable.
Joey (00:08:48) - Yeah. And there's there's two things I wanted to to mention off of that. Number one, you hit the exact idea of why I wanted to start talking about New Year's resolutions, because the challenge, I think, and as we've all faced it, is how do you turn this thing that, like, is a fad in January into something that's actually real, right. How do you make it to where this wasn't just another New Year's resolution that didn't happen? Oh, well, like, you know, life happened. Whatever. I think a vision board's a really great way to kind of tie that in and make sure that you're doing this and you're doing this type of exercise all the way through the year.
Joey (00:09:24) - Don't just do it at the end of the year, set it at the beginning and then check in and evaluate and modify and adjust and do all of those things that you need to do. Make it a dynamic process and not a static process. I think a vision board is a great way to do that. The second thing I wanted to mention is for all those who do make vision boards, please tag us on social media so we can see it. Yeah, we would love to see what you're doing, why you're doing it, how you're doing it, where you're doing it. All of the things we want to see what your goals are. So let us know in the comments of this and the YouTube channel. Let us know in the stuff. You know, if you, you know, reach out to us on LinkedIn or whatever, we would love to see. I mean, you're welcome to follow my Twitter page. It is horrible.
Hannah (00:10:05) - It's just roasted it prior to this conversation.
Joey (00:10:07) - You probably don't want to do my Twitter feed, but if you find me on Twitter, you're welcome to tweet me to. I'm not going to give the handle out. You got to do a little bit of work here. Um, but let us know kind of what you're doing and how you're doing it. We'd love to to interact with you. And maybe if we get a little bit lucky, we'll share ours, too. Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Virtual CPA Success Show. I'm your host today, Joey Kinney, joined by Jody Grunden in his always present Hawaiian shirt. Jody, good to be with you today.
Jody (00:10:34) - Yeah. He was. Well, Joey, it's a relief not having a Jamie on the show. Joey. So, it's good to see you.
Joey (00:10:40) - I tried to do my best Jamie impersonation there. Our guest today is Coach Bob. Coach Bob, how are you today?
Coach Bob (00:10:47) - I'm fantastic. I wear Hawaiian shirts 70% of the time, and I. I'm just making Jody look good today, but.
Jody (00:10:54) - I appreciate that.
Joey (00:10:56) - I appreciate that, you know, to put, you know, a date on the date of recording here. I have included several Hawaiian shirts on my Christmas list this year because I really need to fit in a little bit better on this podcast with Jody, because he always.
Coach Bob (00:11:10) - That's gonna be one of our topics. So yeah, we'll get to that.
Joey (00:11:13) - Coach Bob, for the audience, would you mind doing just a quick introduction and letting everybody know who you are and sort of, you know, what you're doing with your time?
Coach Bob (00:11:23) - Sure. Thank you. So, I went through life kind of going through the motions, looking to be successful. Went to college, party law, graduated, got a job. Okay, fine. And probably at 30ish I accomplished pretty much everything I set out to do. And I walked into my dream house, and I remember as a Tuesday morning it was sunny, feeling pretty good, and open up the door and looked at the great room with the last piece of artwork on the wall and the couch.
Coach Bob (00:11:52) - That was really expensive that I wasn't allowed to sit on because it might wreck or spill on it. And I got really sad. And we were growing, going through exponential growth. I'm an entrepreneur. I had a distribution company that we were Inc magazine's 26 fastest growing company, and we were growing out of control. And so it was a combination of putting in a business operating system, and it allowed me to be a visionary. So to really kind of work on the business rather than in the business. And I realized I had to work start, not had to I it was time for me to choose to work on my life and be me, rather than doing things I should have been doing or was supposed to do. So I hit the delete button and pretty much everything in my life, and started fresh on really realizing what matters most. Clarifying who I am and following my Northstar. So really, my why one and how in life. And so with iOS is a business operating system.
Coach Bob (00:12:47) - One of my best friends created it. I was one of his first clients. It changed my life to figure out a process for business, and I used to avoid processes and realize that if there's processes around what and who matters most, there's opportunity to be spontaneous and then intuition and the magic within it. And so as I learned, that was with business, my wife and I realized, well, what about for my life? I'm a visionary, so I'm kind of all over the place, which I like and I'm proud of. And yet often that I hit the ceiling of complexity either in business or in life. And so we created a thing called I matter, which is a life operating system. So I'm here as I'm Coach Bob. I've been known as Coach Bob since my kids were born, Coaching them in a lot of different softball, baseball, football, all those things. And even a lot of the parents would call me Coach Bob because I love to just cheerlead and help people to reach their potential.
Coach Bob (00:13:44) - So it's you know, in life, I'm a walking example of not being perfect but figuring out my why, what and how and sharing it and helping others to do the same, and just being human and really tapping in and experiencing love and working through the pain, if that makes sense. So I mainly work with visionary entrepreneurs and their leadership teams and then also visionaries on an individual basis as well.
Joey (00:14:11) - Well, I think it's as and Jody, I think I can correctly identify you as the visionary as well, which makes a lot of sense about why the two of you seem to get along so well as the non-visionary on the call here. What is and what makes you a visionary? And what about that when you were in your early 30s, was the kind of the driving force, not just to, because I really love this idea of being a visionary of your own life. It's something my wife and I in our mid 30s are trying to solve, and we're really struggling with it because we're not.
Coach Bob (00:14:51) - We'll talk about that. Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry.
Joey (00:14:53) - No, no it's a how did you start that process of like trying to figure that out. If you're someone like me who's not a visionary and struggles with creating that path.
Coach Bob (00:15:05) - Well, a couple of things. One is I met my wife 27 years ago. We got married 24 years ago. And I was a hard driving doer in business and a bit of a work of not a workaholic. And as Doctor Doug Brackman writes in Driven, there's about 8% of us that have a different gene that we're just driven and we're busy and, and we're we want to be productive. And a lot of it's based on imposter syndrome. Yeah. I'm trying to prove that I have, you know, that I Jody, you know, tell me I'm amazing. Look at what I've done. And my wife, you know, hug me and say I'm amazing. And so, you know, realizing that and then my wife saying, well, that's not what it's all about.
Coach Bob (00:15:45) - It's about being. And so when we first met and I had again hit the delete button in the previous areas of my life, and we moved to Colorado and tapped into the mountain, and the spirit of the mountain and the whole be do have concept. So instead of, you know, doing these things and then you know, to then submit, you have to o have these things then to do these things, then I'll be happy, we realize, to be in the moment and be present and be tapped in and be, you know, a support for you. Then the natural progression and the universal law is that then I start to do the things that I love, and I'm great, and I start to have the things that I desire. And so my wife and I kind of figure that out. We, we were kind of out in the mountains for a couple of years, kind of recreating our life. It was amazing. And then fast forward a little bit and I recreated a lot of that same shit that got in the way.
Coach Bob (00:16:41) - And I realized that when I'm stressed, I have a hard time being. So, then we created I matter, which is our life operating system. You know, a big fan of operating systems, which isn't typical for most visionaries but that if I can do it in business, I can do it in life. So my wife and I created I matter and that's un scattered the chatter is is the name of the book, and there's a lot of chatter coming in from the outside that I need to be like. You and I should be wearing a Hawaiian shirt every day. And wait a minute. Jody has more money, and I'm a failure to what really matters most. And I can always think so. We have tools and principles and practices in our book, and we have training tools and videos and whatnot. And there's a thousands of life operating systems out there. I happen to like ours because we wrote it, but it helped me to figure out my why, what and how and not to be doing things.
Coach Bob (00:17:35) - Because I think you want me to do something which may not be who I am, or I need to be like Jody and tell him what he wants to hear, so he'll like me. It's, you know, learning to act like I matter, be who I am, and work through the pain in life. And that's the learning opportunity. And so long winded. It's you know, pick. You know, we say in business, pick an operating system in life, pick an operating system. And so we have one. And then to create a group where you can share. So first of all to create it with your wife or your partner or whatever it might be. And you know, it's like I'm like, well, here's our core values. And Cheryl, my wife is like, well, no, those are yours. Okay. Well, what are our core values? What's our why? And so we spend a lot of our time on that. And, you know, we talk about self-mastery is our definition is commitment clarity and confidence.
Coach Bob (00:18:25) - So commitment that I'm looking to learn and grow, who I am, who we are as a couple, who we are as a family, who we are as a business and then to have so the commitment to that. So spending time asking myself questions, sharing, slowing down, slowing down with my wife. And so we literally came up with a plan which is a little bit less so structured yet otherwise I hit the ceiling of complexity in my life. So for us to think about those things, act on the things that matter most. And then I do have. So the stressful situations are actually the most beneficial learning opportunities. And then the last thing we talk about right now is you know, to imagine a great future. So I'm looking forward to the future. So what do you know, hey, when I'm 60, here's what I'd like to have. Okay, cool. And what about with your wife? And then to kind of what does that look like in three years and one year? And what can I do today to get there? And ultimately, you know to be committed to that.
Coach Bob (00:19:24) - So I'm thinking about those things and I'm acting on the most important things. And then being in the moment and all kind of works, it's magical. And we're in a different time in the world right now. I mean, it used to be a very 3D linear world. It's changed and I'm loving it and so to, you know, be able to slow down and hear the messages from above or here or here or from the two of you. That's how we learn and grow and connect and collaborate and have a great time.
Jody (00:19:53) - Yeah. Gooch. Bob, I can listen. You probably talk for the entire episode and really, really get a lot. I like the.
Coach Bob (00:20:00) - I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Jody (00:20:01) - Yeah, I know visionaries. We definitely like to talk, especially about what we do and stuff and, you know, just kind of adding to that with me when I realized that, well, I didn't realize I was a visionary for a long time, you know, I didn't even know that was even a term.
Jody (00:20:19) - I didn't know what that even was. And so I was a doer initially. So I worked in a couple of public accounting firms beforehand. Work in the hours, grinding away. Never feeling that I was super fulfilled, you know, it was like, wow, this this kind of sucks. I didn't like it. I was good at it, but I didn't like it. And it was like, wow, I can't imagine doing this for, you know, another 40 years. I mean, that just wasn't something I thought. And I thought, you know, maybe it's the profession. And so I love public accounting, went to the corporate world and thought, you know, hey, this is probably more my pace. It's slower. But then I mastered it so quickly and I was like, wow, now it's boring. And I was like, you know, wow, not now. What did I just do? I kicked myself in the butt because I've got this great accounting degree and I don't like either way.
Jody (00:21:06) - I don't like the jobs that were out there. And it wasn't until I thought, you know what, let's create something that is different that I do like, that I do enjoy. And, you know, with that, you know, that's when we started Summit. You know, summit was founded upon that idea, hey, we're going to do something completely different than public accounting and corp. We're going to combine the two and see what happens. Now, the best of both worlds, you know, that that type of thing. And then then once I started doing that, getting in there, I realized, man, here, now I'm doing it, I'm doing I'm a doer again. You know, I'm a doer. My own company. And I had to I had to kind of get out of that and separate that out and really learn how to delegate, really learn how to, you know, not abdicate responsibility. So that's never good. But to delegate it, you know, create processes that, that you can actually, you know, review and make sure that they're right and improve on and constantly realize that, hey, just because I'm really good at something doesn't mean the person that is going to fill that, you know, fill that mold here in the next month or two months or a year is going to be equally as good and understand exactly what I, what I did and what I mean by that is that, you know, I would go into, you know, we created this weekly cadence, we created a monthly cadence with clients, you know, going through their CFO stuff.
Jody (00:22:21) - I could come into any meeting unprepared, ask questions. The client would love it. We would get a lot out of it, and it'd be a really great, you know, high five when we never coming with a silver bullet in any meeting, never really doing a ton of background stuff going into that meeting. And it was just natural for me. And with that, you know, we had our first CFO, which was Jake and Jake. It wasn't natural for. And so it was like it was like, wow, what's wrong with Jake? You know, I can't Jake do that, you know? And so it was one of those things that we had to then, you know, you know, get the process to set up so that, you know, there is set meeting cadences. Here's what you talk about in the meetings. Here's when you talk about it and just kind of get, you know, about 80% of IT process and 20% of it, you know, that's the old saying, you know, snowflake, you where he can kind of add him and create himself and, and that that really was an eye opener for me that, you know, not everybody's like me, you know, and I just assumed everybody was like that.
Jody (00:23:19) - Assumed everybody was the, you know, the person that didn't want to be the doer. And that was a wrong thing to assume because, you know, I think there's maybe I don't know what the percentage is. There's probably what 20% are in that visionary mode. I'm guessing I.
Coach Bob (00:23:37) - I heard eight, but yeah, it's not half that's for sure.
Jody (00:23:40) - Yeah real small amount. Yeah. And so yeah. So that's kind of kind of where that led to all the way to the point. Now we merged with another accounting firm, grew it to where we wanted to be, you know, a $10 million mark. You know, 50 people stateside, another 15 offshore, nearshore. And then we added now we're part of a bigger company. Now I'm back in the role of the not the entrepreneur anymore. I'm kind of the doer again in a bigger organization. but given the freedom to be kind of that entrepreneur, giving a lot of freedom is really important for entrepreneurs or visionaries.
Jody (00:24:16) - They gotta have freedom. Otherwise, you know, they won't, they won't survive, in my opinion. And so now that's kind of the second stage. And the second stage is, you know, hey, over these next five, ten years, how can we grow this and how can I enjoy this, this process, you know, of building something, you know, much bigger than what I could, you know, all by myself. And so that's kind of my journey there and the kind of a long, long winded answer to your question.
Joey (00:24:42) - Well, I think there's, there's a there's a couple of things I. Oh, please do, please do.
Coach Bob (00:24:46) - Because I didn't finish my one thought, sorry. Then I'll be quiet for a second so I talked about imagining this great future. So my conscious and unconscious and subconscious is thinking about, oh my gosh, what is that going to look like? And so then I'm starting to share that.
Coach Bob (00:24:59) - And then and then I'm not worried about it because, well, the future looks bright then I don't regret the past. I'm learning. So I'm improving on the past. Then I'm implementing a system like and I matter so I can impact this moment right now. And so, you know, my kids are 22 and 18 and I don't I wouldn't call them visionaries. And so again, I don't only want to work with visionaries, I want to help to be a walking example of it's okay to have vision, it's okay to dream. It's okay to make. Mistakes. I mean, that's all part of it. And that's how we learn. So, you know, to come back to your question, it's, you know, it's not just for visionaries. So my daughter wanted to go to the University of Michigan and be in the marching band and be an engineer. And she's three years in and she's like, I want to help kids know they matter. And she switched to elementary education, and that's not what she should have done.
Coach Bob (00:25:49) - And I was kind of like, oh my God, you know, you could go make all this money and suffer through the next couple of years and then figure out what you want to do. And she's like, this makes me happy. And I'm looking at my book going, oh, practice what you preach. And so she avoided a midlife crisis. And then my son is a very good baseball player saying, I want to go somewhere warm and fun and play baseball and maybe go to class once in a while to then realizing, okay, education and connections might be an answer, and a school where he can play competitive baseball and do it. And so he gets an offer from Princeton and he's realizing, okay, maybe that matters most. And so they're having visions of their lives and sharing it with us. And I don't have all the answers, but then they're like, all right, what's it going to take to get there? My son's got to go work out and get his speed down to this.
Coach Bob (00:26:37) - And sure enough, he achieved what he went to go do. So it can be for anyone. It's not just for visionaries.
Jody (00:26:43) - Well, you know, how do you recognize a visionary? I mean, you mentioned both your kids may or may not be that. I was wondering about that stuff with my kids. You know, they're both young. They're both, you know, out there exploring. I'm gonna pick that up, I guess, because I didn't know myself. I look, I appreciate that.
Coach Bob (00:26:59) - It's fun because I think we're going to go this whole time, Jody, and not let Joey speak.
Joey (00:27:06) - Do it. Do it.
Coach Bob (00:27:07) - It's basically someone who, you know, believes there's more, believes that you know that we like to dream. We're coming up with ideas. And Gina Wickman, the creator of EOS, has done studies, and he feels about 5% of the people are visionaries and integrators.
Coach Bob (00:27:25) - And Doctor Doug Brackman, who I recommend, who I mentioned earlier, thinks about 8% of us are visionaries. So it's kind of that scattered. That's one of the reasons we came up with the name of our book, because that's a way to describe a lot of visionaries. It's like, yeah, you know, and I struggled in school because I'm not necessarily a rule follower. I'm not good at the doing of things. You know, and Colby, we talk about a high quick start you know, and so it's inspiration, energy, big problem solver. It's just not great to follow through are some of the typical things. And again, I once I became a visionary, I started to use it as an excuse to say, well, I don't have to do that because I'm a visionary. Well, I still need to change the diaper and I still need to, you know, pick up milk on the way home. So it's not an excuse, but it's, you know, so and again, it doesn't matter if we're I don't want to label people and that's where.
Coach Bob (00:28:15) - And you know, you started the show, Joey to say you like to be I have to have vision for your life. That's what we're talking about. So it's rather than labeling it, you know, again, they may or may not be visionaries, but they are taking committed to figuring out like who are they and why are they here and what do they want to do, and how do they want to be remembered?
Joey (00:28:35) - Well, it's and there's something that I love about both of your answers that's, you know, kind of the throughput there from, from my perspective is you both have reached a level of self-actualization that I think is admirable. I mean, I was sitting there listening to both of you talk, and I was like, well, there's year three of therapy right there. Getting to the point of saying like, well, what is really important to me, and I think especially for younger generations, mine in particular, you know with kind of the that crew that was graduating high school from like 1995 to 2010, 2015.
Joey (00:29:12) - Right. There was a very marked change in how we viewed things like going to college and these types of things where when I graduated in 2006, it's not, are you going? It's, where are you going? And not only where are you going? Did you get the scores to get there? So a lot of us in my generation are really struggling with, well, this is what I was told to do. I was told you do exactly what you did, Coach Bob, which is exactly what I did. You go to college, you grind. You grind until you can't grind anymore. And then you look around and say, like, where did the last 20 years of my life go? And that's something when I think about the audience that we talked to on our sister podcast, the Young CPA Success Show is trying to get them to learn from these lessons that we've learned and say, hey, no, no, don't, don't do that. Take the approach that your kids are doing and say, what are the things that are going to make me happy and fulfilled and avoid the midlife crisis that my wife and I are going through in our mid 30s?
Coach Bob (00:30:12) - Yeah, yeah. No, I agree, it's a great time to be alive. I know there's a lot of divisiveness and anger and fear. And to me, I call this the wisdom age. And a lot of people are like, well, there's not a lot of wise things happening out there. But as Jim Collins talks about in Good to Great, the enemy of good is an enemy, a great is good. And we had it really good in society. And now it's not so good in a lot of ways. And now people are saying, well, we need to change, but I don't want to go to good, I want to go to great. And that's where there's a lot of visionaries who are kind of figuring stuff out, and we're the walking example and inspiring the people around us to say, you know what? And I did a blog the other day called it, life is Just a game, you know? And as Prince says in the controversy song, as life is just a game.
Coach Bob (00:30:57) - Do you want to play? You know, we get so stressed out and worried and regretting. And so I'm working in the future, in the past. So let's be present. And that to me is where now, you know, 8% of us are that way. And then nine, ten, 11 and that swing society over to say, you know what? I do want to be collaborative, and I don't want to be separate, and I don't want to be afraid to live. And that's where a lot of us visionaries, and that's another way to kind of find out, is we jump and we don't we would rather beg for forgiveness than ask permission. And it's like, okay, so I learned, you know, and some people, oh my gosh, we screwed up. It's like, all right, what are we what did we learn from? And so even in, you know, picking your job or your career or hopefully knowing I mentioned I was previously married, I had no idea who I was and I thought I wanted the season tickets and that great house, and you do this and I got there and like, that's not what it was.
Coach Bob (00:31:53) - And it's it wasn't her fault. I didn't know who I was. So then as I met Sheryl and I really started to know more who I am. And we're our hobby is personal growth, relationship growth and spiritual growth. And that's a lot of what I matter is. And so we're pushing and pulling and believe me, it's not always pretty and fun when she'll be a mirror and say, here's what I see. And I'm like, well, screw that, what are we doing? And so but she just wants the best for me and we're mirrors for each other. And that's where Doctor Bill Isaacs says he wrote a book called dialogue, and he talks about the art of learning together. So I may or may not convince you or but I if it's a safe space, I can have it create a safe space for you to hear what you're thinking and get it out there, and a safe space to think. And I can like. Huh, I never really thought about that.
Coach Bob (00:32:42) - And as I get the chatter out of here and share it with you, I'm like, that's not really what I think. And that's how we evolve in our society is evolving. It's a great time to be alive.
Joey (00:32:51) - Okay, Jody, I have a question for you. Thinking about the business world and our two audiences that we tend to target with our podcast the folks who are owning, running, operating a business, probably using iOS or a similar type of operating system for their business. And our younger CPAs and other folks who are trying to kind of navigate the early years in their career. As someone who's a visionary, how do you work with somebody who's maybe in my role, who is in that dual role and maybe wants more for their life out of that? Because right now, that person, that do or person in the role is in the business, in the grind, doing the work. And I think as a business owner, we would love to keep our good people.
Joey (00:33:37) - So how do we create a space for those individuals in the business to rise and self-actualize and not lose them as an asset to the company in the future?
Jody (00:33:48) - Yeah, great question. And that's something I kind of struggled with when I first created summit, because the reason that I left public accounting wasn't because I didn't enjoy the work, because I did. I enjoyed going back and forth working with 20 different companies at one time, helping them out in different areas. What I didn't enjoy was 80 hours a week. 80 hours a week tracking time, you know, and I'm all those things that and charging time, you know, all that kind of stuff that just really wasn't that in the corporate world. What I did like about it is it was process where I was. I worked for $150 million manufacturing company, super process oriented. You had to do XYZ. I got it, I understood it, but then it was, you know, it just was just too slow for me.
Jody (00:34:35) - And so when I, when I created summit, the idea was that I wanted to create something that that joy you would enjoy working for. It wasn't me enjoy working for because I'm working for myself. I that's the fun part. For me to succeed is to grow to a certain level, have high. I have high satisfaction. My wife and you know, my wife and my kids, you know, everything. But for me, it was, hey, how can I get it so that that you would come into an environment that you enjoy working for. You know, we're working with a company and we've always said that, hey, we're a company for or people first, for people first, for people first. What does people first mean? Well, it means that when we do things, we do it based on, you know, every, every process we have. We think about the people and how that impacts them. So, you know, you know, do we do we do.
Jody (00:35:22) - We say, you know, hey, you're required to work, you know, 60, 70, 80 hours a week. No. Absolutely not. I actually frown upon that. You know, if you're working that many hours, you're doing something wrong. We need to figure it out and help you out. So it's contrary to a traditional public accounting firm, a traditional public accounting firm. You know, you just continue to work. You know, you don't look to innovate. You just continue to work. And you build upon mistakes, on mistakes and mistakes because that's how you get your money back. You know, with the way that we structured ours, is that I'm going to force you, the doer, to think outside the box. I don't want you doing something day by day, by day by day, the same way, because you've done it forever that way. I want you to look for different ways and start using that creative mindset that you have in your head in order to get that 20 hour week, you know, task I just gave you into five hour week task or a two hour week task that can be repeated over and over again.
Jody (00:36:17) - And so the idea was, is that I didn't want to put robots in places. I wanted to create an environment where it allowed you to be an innovator within that environment, to keep your creative juices flowing, because again, that mundane thing is just wasn't fulfilling for me. And I knew it wasn't for filling for a lot of folks. And it was one of those things I had to create something different, have a different experience. And, you know, employee first or people first doesn't mean that, hey, you get everything in the world, you know, that doesn't that's not what we mean by that. It just means that the focus is on you to make sure that you are happy within what you're doing and actually are productive in that process. And so then the second stage is, is that how do I how do I convey that message or that idea that's in my head to you? Because that message with me, it's in the head. It's going around and around.
Jody (00:37:14) - I'm thinking about it day and night, believe me, when, when it, when a when a visionary has a hard time turning it off. When they go, when they head at night. And I'm thinking of it. Yeah, I sleep on it. I wake up thinking about it. It's just a constant thing in my head that's continuously going. And so a lot of times I forget that I didn't tell you because I've thought about it a zillion times. I've thought about it, I've re-enacted it in my head. I've, you know, really, you know, to me, oh, it's the world's problems are solved because I just did it in my head. And so what I have to do is I have to consciously remember that, you know, hey, I've got to break this down so it doesn't scare you. The person that doesn't, like, change, the person that's afraid to take risks, you know, that sort of thing. I have to break it down and explain that y to you, even more so than what it would take to convince me. And so that that's the biggest thing or the biggest challenge that I, as a visionary, have, is explaining that why and making sure that why it's so crystal clear that you will then follow me on our adventure together to create this, you know, this bigger than better, you know, company.
Joey (00:38:15) - Coach Bob, what are your what are your thoughts on that?
Coach Bob (00:38:19) - Echoing a lot of what Jody said. And again, to have a business system like an EOS and to know your core values. And then we talk about right people, right seat. But also it's it is the why what and how will the business and how does it align with me the visionary. So you know, so if the culture is me and a big part of one of our jobs is to be that energy and that vibe and to be walking the talk. And so to be clear on expectations, I used to not want to delegate because why do I give this to Joey? This sucks to do Excel worksheets.And Joey's like, I love it and I'm great at it. So to really define, you know, what are you great and love at. And Dan Sullivan calls it unique ability and I matter. We call it great gift. So Jody, what's your great gift. What do you love to do and what are you great at? What gives you energy. And so it. Usually starts with the leader. So as I started to figure it out and then my team protected me around, you know the why, what and how. And then we started to figure out, okay, what seats do we need. So if you're, you know, excited about our why and we're clear on it, then that is, you know, that's what really drives people and inspires people is the why. Not just that we are a great distribution company. You know, we our culture was called the Bare Necessities and we had fun with it. We were a polar bear and that represented who we are. We were almost extinct, but we were cute and cuddly and we were ferocious in a lot of ways. And people really rallied around that. And so when I started to delegate to people that were better at things that I liked and I gave them permission we have a thing called the Six Habits of a Great Effing Visionary, and so it's like not only for me, but how people can get the most out of me. And that was a huge shift. So when I took a couple months off and came back and I'm like, hey, I'm back and I'm ready to go, they're like, we're glad you're back. We don't want you doing the stuff that you were maybe even good at, but didn't like, but especially things you're not good at and don't like. But I felt guilty. So to get rid of that guilt and to ask, to say, you know, Joey, you know, what do you think? And to trust, I've got with one of my companies, a few of our clients are saying, we want to improve this, so when can we have a meeting, Bob? And I'm like, you know what, I trust you. You guys have a meeting and present to what you want to do. And I'm like, I love it. I don't have all the answers. I'll answer things if there's not an it's a suggestion. But so yeah, our job is to make sure that we're sharing that why and walking the talk and trusting people the really you know if you want something done, ask a busy person or a productive person because they'll figure it out. And it's like, dude. And you know, so I'm like, well, I don't want to burden Joey with this. Like, Joey, you're great at this. What do you think? And all right, can you take that on? Oh my gosh, she's dropping. And then, you know you're trusted and then you're going to elevate. And we would lose some good people if it wasn't a perfect fit. But while they were there, they made a huge difference. And they would come back, you know, if they wanted it, you know? So it was just a I think culture is key. The why the life of the leader. and so if I'm confused on that and it's confusing message, it's just a job. You know, to me, there's a a job, a career, and I call it a craft, you know, and a craft is something that I'm learning and teaching. And so and I'm being, you know, open and honest and vulnerable with my employees, with my clients, with my vendors.
Coach Bob (00:41:37) - I'm not perfect. I'm learning every day. And so that inspires some people and it doesn't others. And that's okay. And it's okay if you don't like working here. But if you are, let's kick ass, man. And so to be really open and honest is a big key.
Joey (00:41:50) - Well, and the open and honesty leads to trust, which is, I think, the thing that's hardest for younger generations or folks who are working their way up in the organization is to feel the trust and Jody, that's where for most people. Yeah, no, I think Jody, that's where you and Adam did a really lovely job of building summit is, you know, I feel very confident that if I needed to make a career change for family or for whatever reason, if I went to Jody and said, hey, the onboarding CFO role is great, but I need to be, you know, doing this or, you know, making this amount of money or whatever it happens to be. If I'm proactive in that conversation, I trust that Jody is going to do whatever he can to make it happen, and that is how you self-actualize as an organization and as individuals within that.
Joey (00:42:34) - So I love the open and honest because that's key.
Coach Bob (00:42:38) - And we talk about in our book we have seven lifetime expanders in the first is to create and use great relationships. So I'm practicing with you on how to have a great relationship. And so we call it the rules of engagement. And it's you know, being aware of our verbiage and creating a safe space. And so then as I'm practicing with you, then when I have a more volatile relationship or, you know, more intimate relationship with my spouse, my kids, a client, whatever it might be, I'm learning how to create that safe space to ultimately. And here's the answer to the first question you asked Joey, is to improve the greatest relationship in my life, which is with myself. and that's the language in here, because it's the ego is trying to protect ourselves, to say, if I'm vulnerable with Joey, he may not like me or he may make fun of me.
Coach Bob (00:43:29) - But if I'm, you know, speaking of, you know, being open and honest and allowing you to speak and to truly respect you and be present, people are like, wow, this is you know, no one's ever really taken me seriously. I feel seen and I feel heard. And that's I mean, that takes even the productive people. I feel like the good, productive employees are about 60% as effective as they could be. When I trust them and empower them, and they go to 80 or 90, you know, that's amazing. And you get rid of the ones who are 20 or 30 who don't want to learn and grow, you know.
Joey (00:44:02) - Right.
Joey (00:44:02) - Well, before we wrap up with our fun question, I want to make sure that everybody knows where to not only find out more about you, Coach Bob, but also find links to the book. And I did take the assessment, that is on the website. We didn't get to that today, but there is an assessment there that I took that I found very interesting and enlightening. So Coach, Coach Bob, where can we find out more about you and I matter?
Coach Bob (00:44:26) - Yeah. So, imatter.com and I matter is. It may sound selfish and I'd like kind of that, that double edge, you know, wording and whatnot. And so yeah, it might seem selfish, but it's kind of like the oxygen mask. The more I act like I matter and take care of myself. Not in a, you know, in a disruptive way, but when I'm healthy and I'm present, I can help more people. And so and then that's, that's been the key. So imatter.com and that's where you can get our books. We have a self-study tool. There's some free videos out there. And so much of it is about just, scattering the chatter. And we've had so many people that are like by just by being a part of that conversation up there and shifting it from me to I am, is huge, so I matter.
Coach Bob (00:45:13) - As for I matter, and also for I am. So imatter.com. Check it out. And we're excited to create and have great conversations.
Joey (00:45:22) - Well, speaking of taking care of yourself, you've got a lovely pillow above your right shoulder, says, go to the mountains. And that happens to be when I need to unplug and recharge. I go to the mountains. And so I wanted to hear from you, Coach Bob, where your mountain is and what you enjoy most about it.
Coach Bob (00:45:40) - Well, I appreciate that. I mean, physically, my wife and I moved to Boulder and then so we would go up into the mountains from there, and we were in the foothills and so we could walk and hike from there, which is amazing. And when I was on top of the mountain, I just I was above all the fray. And, you know, and to think about the important things, not the urgent things, there's so many distractions and the phones going off and whatnot.
Coach Bob (00:46:04) - That's the virus is I mean, this helps me, but it's distracting. Yeah. So when I'm on top of the mountain and I could just look down and it's the energy and it's just, it's magical. And so by I take people to the mountain and then but it's not even just the mountain. It's a mantra and it's a mindset. So I've got a stone that I give to people. It's almost like an AA token or stone that.
Coach Bob (00:46:27) - So it's like.
Coach Bob (00:46:28) - Stressed out and a client's unhappy and so I can freak out and be in urgent and fight or flight and or slow down, take a deep breath. It's all going to be okay. And if I was on top of the mountain, how would I feel and what would be my choice? And so it is a, you know, we're running hard, we're on this rat race. And it's like, what is that for? So to slow down and listen. So the mountain is wherever you are. We also own a domain called A Place to Be.
Coach Bob (00:46:56) - And we used to think that was going to be just a physical place. So an organic cafe and wellness studio, which we'll get there. , but it's really a place to be, is wherever you are. So rather than waiting until I go to the mountain, which, believe me, going there, it's in my mind, it's in my heart, it's in my soul. I go off the grid for a couple days, I tap in, it's amazing. So and there is literally a vortex around the mountains and the oceans, and it's a different energy. And so to take a break and I live in Detroit, we don't have any mountains around here. But to get out and, and, you know, hear the water, you know, take my dog for a walk with my wife and hear the water and just slow down and everything's okay. Take a deep breath.
Joey (00:47:38) - I love that. Jody. Do you have a place that that maybe is your mountain that you like to when you when you need to escape?
Jody (00:47:45) - You know, it's kind of funny because you know, Coach Bob mentioned that it's not really a necessarily a destination.
Jody (00:47:51) - It's just simply the more so the journey there. And what I mean by that is that, you know, I enjoy going off the grid a little bit, you know, where the phone's gone, just like you're saying. But it it's not fulfilling for me unless I have my wife with me. Right. And so it's one of those things that, you know, everybody says, you know, hey, you're traveling all over the place. You're vacationing. No, I'm speaking in hotels. They just happen to be a nice places. I'm eating at restaurants. Happened to me again. My.
Jody (00:48:19) - Yeah, but you don't get to.
Jody (00:48:21) - Enjoy the nice place, you know, because you're aren't you're always, you know, you're always got to be 100% on all the time. You know, you can't really be yourself. You have to really watch what you say. Especially in today's world. You've got you know, just there's it's very emotionally draining at a certain point.
Jody (00:48:40) - And so, so I guess my point is, my point is, hey, being with my wife, be with my kids somewhere where we can just kind of relax and enjoy each other's company and, you know, maybe grill a hamburger or something like that on a grill versus going to a fancy steak restaurant.
Coach Bob (00:48:58) - Love it. Yeah.
Joey (00:49:01) - Well, Coach Bob, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm excited to learn more about you and read the book and dive in a little bit more to what the test results said about me, and maybe where some of my growth opportunities are, into the future. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Coach Bob (00:49:18) - I appreciate you, and I had fun. And however I can help, let me know.
Joey (00:49:24) - Thank you.
Outro (00:49:25) - If you're a young CPA looking to develop in their careers, we're always looking for great people. Visit our website for remote work opportunities with Summit Virtual CFO, or find all our open positions at Andrews CPAs and advisors.
