Cash is King with Shelby Ashley

Episode 89 • 7th June 2023 • Construction Disruption • Isaiah Industries

Intro/Outro:

Welcome to the Construction Disruption podcast, where we uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.

Todd Miller:

I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building materials. Today, my co-host is Ryan Bell. Ryan, all going well today for you?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:00:28

It is. It is great today, the sun is shining. It's the last day of school, which means kids are going to be home fighting all summer.

Todd Miller:

: 00:00:39

Can't imagine that.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:00:42

They went to school and I said a little prayer that today was the longest, slowest day ever. I'm just kidding. We're looking forward to having them home and having some fun together this summer.

Todd Miller:

: 00:00:55

Very cool. Well, as a reminder to our audience, we are doing challenge words this episode. So that means both Ryan and I, plus our guest, all have a word that we have, well, we've kind of traded words giving each other words. So we're each given a word that we're challenged to work into the conversation as seamlessly as possible. So our audience is encouraged to kind of listen, see if you can pick up on what our challenge words are. And at the end, we will announce whether we were successful individually with working in our challenge words or not. So one of the things that we do here on Construction Disruption sometimes is we kind of talk, sometimes talk about products that have been game changers for us may be something that we personally have run into that has really, you know, maybe not life changing, but at least a game changer for us. And so this week, Ryan, I have a product to bring to everyone, and it's a little bit weird, to be honest. So, I don't know if anyone remembers when you were a kid, you would see an old person's feet and you would see these calluses on their heels or maybe their toes. And you would just kind of think to yourself, Man, how in the world does that happen? That's not what my feet look like. And oh, I hope that never happens to me. Well, guess what? I'm an old person and have been for a few years. So I have developed these calluses, I mean, not just on my heels, but on my toes. And so I've been trying to figure out what to do about this. And I've been using, like, lotions and stuff. And so finally I broke down and bought a couple of things that really have been life changing. I don't think they're particularly new, but one is, you know, like a pumice stone, a thing that so you're in the shower and you, you know, rub these calluses off. So I got that. And then I thought, well, I'll use this lotion I have. Well, then I discovered something. This has kind of been a game changer, and I had never heard about it. Maybe old hat to everybody else, something called urea cream, which is kind of a disgusting name. U-R-E-A, urea cream. It just doesn't sound like something in your house.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:03:17

I don't know whose idea that was.

Todd Miller:

: 00:03:21

So after I use my little pumice and I get out of the shower, I put urea cream on these calloused areas and I'm saying literally within like doing this two or three times my calluses were almost gone. I mean, it is just really, really weird. So this is something strictly for the old people out there who are willing to have something called urea cream in their house. This was kind of a game changer for me, as you know, when you're 60 years old. I'm sorry Ryan, this is as exciting as it gets.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:03:58

No, I'm actually glad you mentioned that. My wife has problems with her feet and she actually uses this, this is so off topic from what we're going to be talking about. But it's like a sander, like an electric battery powered sander.

Todd Miller:

: 00:04:14

Oh yeah.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:04:15

On her feet and she she will do it for hours, too. She probably loves that I've mentioned that and shared it with everyone. So maybe we will have urea cream in our house now too.

Todd Miller:

: 00:04:29

I think you ought to try it. I just, I just do a quick buff with the pumic stone, put my urea cream on it, I am good and my feet, actually they actually feel good. Anyway.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:04:41

Is this show brought to you by urea cream now?

Todd Miller:

: 00:04:43

It is not, but you never know. We're always kind of hoping that can happen somehow Shelby, but you just never know. So anyway, let's go on with the show. Enough, enough of that. So I'm very excited. Today's guest is Shelby Ashley, she is the founder and CEO of Optimized Financial Solutions with an MBA and also an undergraduate degree in corporate finance from the University of Alabama. Shelby's passion is to help business owners understand their financials and to convert that understanding into actionable business decisions. So they are what's called a fractional CFO firm that can cover things from monthly reports to management consulting. In that process, they help business owners understand where their business is today and then fill the gap between where they are today and where they want to be down the road. So, Shelby, welcome to Construction Disruption. It's a real privilege to have you here today.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:05:45

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here.

Todd Miller:

: 00:05:47

Very good. I can hear a twinge of Alabama there also, and I love that.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:05:52

Just a twinge, huh?

Todd Miller:

: 00:05:56

Just a twinge. That is awesome. So we've oh, gosh, we've had guests from Australia and Ireland and those are always fun.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:06:04

Oh, yeah.

Todd Miller:

: 00:06:04

Not necessarily comparing you to Australia or Ireland, but it's good to have you here today. I am just I'm just going to move on. Does that sound good, Ryan?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:06:14

Let's do it.

Todd Miller:

: 00:06:17

Okay. So I'm curious, You know, you end up with an MBA and also your corporate finance undergrad degree. And so out of all the things that you could have done with those degrees, creating an outsourced CFO, Chief Financial Officer firm seems very, very specific to me. So I'm curious what kind of drove your passion to start Optimized Financial Solutions?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:06:44

Well, what I do now is, like you said, pretty specific, but up till now I've kind of done all the things when it comes to numbers. I started as an accountant after college and just kind of worked my way up to being a financial analyst. And during that time, I found that I was producing, you know, all the reports for management. And then if if the executives had a question for me, I was the one that answered because I made the reports and it just dawned on me, why am I doing this for one business when I could be doing this for a whole slew of businesses?

Todd Miller:

: 00:07:16

Wow.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:07:16

And so that's what led me to start my own firm. And I recognize that there is a need among small businesses. And when I say small businesses, I mean between the half a million a year to up to five or six million a year range in that they don't have that kind of business advisor with them because they can't at that point really afford a full time CFO or they don't know what a CFO is yet. And so those are the kind of businesses that I help.

Todd Miller:

: 00:07:48

Very good. Well, tell us a little bit more detail about, you know, is there any particular industry you're working with in the type of businesses and business owners you work with? And, you know, maybe give us a little bit of a review of the range of services? To me, I kind of understand it kind of seems like you somewhat tailor things based upon the client. Just kind of curious what that whole range looks like for you.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:08:13

Yeah, absolutely. So right now I've got businesses in a couple of different areas. I've got a marketing agency, I've got a landscape company, and then I've got a couple of construction businesses. And I the industry that I love helping the most is the the building or just the skilled labor industry in general, because the education around numbers and how to look at these financial reports just is not there in the building industry or the skilled labor industry. And so I find that that's kind of the sweet spot when it comes to my clientele and as far as my product offering. So I offer, I can put together like a monthly package that includes like a dashboard custom to what you as the business owner want to see, how you want to see it. I love doing that. I could spend all day in Microsoft Excel, so I offer that and then my CFO service specifically is I have this financial model that I use for all my companies and each month I'll plug in your numbers and I'll issue you a score based on how you're doing against targets that you and I would have already set up. And so each month I forecast based on how your actual performance is going. And then I tell you what we need to do, what we need to tweak that month in order to get back on track.

Todd Miller:

: 00:09:37

Very interesting. So what is it that you like about construction businesses or, you know, the ones using skilled labor? It is it, you know, sort of a job costing and helping people understand that? Or what is it that you especially like about that end of things?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:09:52

It's the fact that they appreciate that they don't really know what they're looking at because the income statement and the balance sheet and the statement of cash flows, all of these financial statements are tailored towards the accountant. They're not tailored towards the business owner. And especially in that industry, I find a lot of clients here are just like, just you do the numbers. I don't wanna look at the numbers. I get a headache, I just check my bank balance once a day and that's it. And so when I'm going through and I'm translating what all of this means, it's like an aha moment. And when a business owner has been struggling and something's not working in their business and they just can't figure out why, and I'm able to bring that to their attention and they're able to see what's going on. It's really a great feeling, feeling like you've helped somebody in their business.

Todd Miller:

: 00:10:37

You know, one of the things you mentioned there was the dashboard. And, you know, I have seen a lot more use of those in businesses in the last few years. But, you know, one of the areas I've seen that really used well is with nonprofits, because a lot of times nonprofits have board members that are not particularly financially savvy, but yet that's part of their responsibility is to be the financial stewards. And so some of the boards I serve on have been really good at developing those dashboard reports that they give to their board members and just very, very helpful. So is most of what you do I assume long distance. Are you ever going to visit your clients or what does that look like?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:11:23

So all of my work right now is remote. I meet with my clients monthly over Zoom. I'm doing all the work behind the scenes prior to our meeting and yeah, we just meet over Zoom. I haven't traveled to see a client yet. I don't have anything booked yet. But yeah, it's very easy. I just pull up my financial models and we just go through it together on Zoom.

Todd Miller:

: 00:11:47

So you can tell I'm sixty years old. I use the term long distance. I think remote is the new word.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:11:55

Definitely the new term for it, Todd.

Todd Miller:

: 00:11:59

Well, you know, so I'm curious. So a client comes to you, you know, what's typically their state of mind? I mean, do they realize that they need you or sometimes they come to you and they don't even realize it yet?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:12:15

Yeah, that's kind of how it happens. Yeah. I meet most of my prospects in person and I just kind of ask them what it is they do and kind of poke and prod here and there, and then they'll ask me what I do and I just say, you know, I help small business owners with their profitability and their cash flow. And at that point, it's like a tell me more kind of situation. And then it's at that point that they kind of realize that that's what they've been needing. So when I first meet with clients, they're a little overwhelmed. They're not really willing, of course, to divulge exactly what's what the problem is. And so it takes a minute to break down that wall and kind of get them to to admit that there is a problem and that they don't know what it is and that they need help.

Todd Miller:

: 00:13:00

You know, that's interesting, because I do think that there's kind of this thing as a business owner, you're supposed to know it all and it's kind of embarrassing a little bit those times when you gotta admit, you know, I really don't. And you're right, that can be a wall to break down. I remember several years ago I was speaking with a small business owner. He was in the construction industry. And, you know, he he described his accounting is like, well, money goes in this pocket and money and I pay bills out of the other pocket and I keep whatever's left over. And, you know, now I will share, too. By the way, he bankrupted a couple of years after that conversation. What can you tell us about, you know, what a CFO does for a business and you know why businesses need them?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:13:45

A CFO is, the simplest way I can put it is like the therapist for your business. So you've got your bookkeeper and you've got your CPA. Well, they're paid to keep up with the past numbers and they're paid to keep you in compliance. They're paid to convey what your numbers are to you, but they're not paid to help you improve those numbers. And that's what a CFO does. And so when I mean, with small business owners, you know, they're in the point where they can't talk to their bookkeeper or CPA about the issues because, like I said, they don't get paid to improve anything, just to convey it. You know, they they can't really regurgitate all this to them, their employees, because their employees, if they say since something is wrong, they're going to jump ship and their friends don't understand and their spouse is probably tired of hearing about it. So that's where I come in. You know, if they're the problem, we're going to work through what it is and we're going to sort it out and fix it.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:14:39

So what you do and where you come along with your, the current clients you have is in addition to them having like a local account CPA.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:14:49

Yeah, Yeah. Because I take what the bookkeeper or the CPA has prepared already, and I use that for my forecast.

Todd Miller:

: 00:14:56

So sometimes you're getting them when they get to the point and they say, Shelby, I can't even afford a chimichanga for lunch anymore. Can't you please help me through this?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:15:07

Yeah, it's not the you know, it's not business owners don't lie awake at night and think, Gee, I hope my balance sheet is in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. No, they lie awake and they think, How am I going to make payroll this week?

Todd Miller:

: 00:15:19

Absolutely.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:15:21

Those are the kind of things that that haunt business owners. And, you know, like you said a minute ago, it is embarrassing and it shouldn't be because when you've worked with so many clients and you've seen so many businesses, everybody is struggling in one area or another. I mean, of course, we all want to, you know, present that our business is doing great and things are going awesome, but that's not the truth. And and so that's what I'm here for, is to take where you are now and bridge the gap between where you want to be.

Todd Miller:

: 00:15:51

Fantastic. Well, what are some of you know, in your opinion, what are some of the key metrics that businesses should be tracking and watching? And do you find that a lot of your clients are not tuned in at all to those key metrics when they first come to you?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:16:07

So what you absolutely need to be tracking are, number one, of course, your revenue. And then beyond that, certain expenses such as your marketing, your payroll expenses, your overhead expenses. So all these things combined give you your net profit. And so many business owners and even accountants, they stop there. Okay, here's your net profit. Here's what you turned last month or last quarter. But beyond your net profit, you also need to be tracking your Day Sales Outstanding. So how long is it taking you to collect on an invoice? Your Days Payable Outstanding. How long are you waiting to pay invoices? Days Inventory Outstanding. Your owner distributions. All these things that directly affect cash flow that business owners do not track because they don't know how.

Todd Miller:

: 00:16:52

That's very interesting. I'm curious, are there any trends that you've seen, you know, coming out of COVID in terms of folks having more issues with AR?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:17:05

Absolutely. So the trend that I see most is I made such-and-such profit last year or last month. Where is it? Where is the cash and all going? And I'll take a look and I'll see that it's still all sitting in accounts receivable. And so I'll point that out and say, you know, your Day Sales Outstanding is like 70. So what's going on there? And I'll find that many business owners, especially if they use like QuickBooks Online or something, they don't have a process in place to go and chase down those invoices. They just rely on QuickBooks to send out its automatic reminders and that's it. And so a lot of the time the business owner is reluctant to go after those outstanding invoices because they don't want to tarnish that client relationship. But in that case, I say, you know, you're not the bank. You're not cruel for doing this. You know, it makes you look weak if you're just letting people buy from you and then just not pay you. So that is number one, probably the biggest trend that I see.

Todd Miller:

: 00:18:02

Wow. You know, I think a lot of businesses, too, during COVID, you know, really had inventory hit them hard, too, with supply chain issues.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:18:12

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Todd Miller:

: 00:18:13

Suddenly, suddenly, oh, I got way too much of this inventory and not enough of this. I've certainly seen, I know in our industry that's been pretty rampant.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:18:23

Absolutely. And another thing too, with COVID and all the the assistance programs that came about to small businesses, I saw where a lot of businesses were taking on debt with these new loan programs that were all of a sudden available. And so they've got the cash because they've taken on this new debt, but now they've got to pay that debt back because they didn't use it for things that they should have used it for, such as growing the company or having a cash reserve. They used it for their expenses, their payroll, just frivolous things that debt should not be used for. So that's something that I saw as as a direct result of COVID as well.

Todd Miller:

: 00:19:03

Mm hmm. I'm curious, in your client relationships, are a lot of those long term? I mean, where they say, you know, Gee whiz, Shelby's helping us so much that, you know, we're just going to continue to work with her? Or do some of them be shorter term where they say, okay, Shelby, you know, helped us put these things in place and now we're watching the right stuff and, you know, maybe we're going to give this a try on our own? Or a little bit of both maybe?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:19:29

So the way my engagements are set up is to be long term. So I'm going to work with you until either A, you get so big that you need to hire a full time CFO or B, you're ready to sell your business.

Todd Miller:

: 00:19:41

Okay. Mm hmm. That's a good outlook, I would say. Very interesting.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:19:46

So. I've, I have to admit something. I was giving Todd a little bit of not a hard time, but I was joking around about me being bored during this podcast because I'm a creative person and anything talking about financials or accounting or anything like that doesn't really hold my interest. But with that said, there's a book that I've had on my Amazon list for a while now, which is Profit First, which I'm assuming is a book that you are familiar with.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:20:16

Mm hmm. Yeah.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:20:18

And I've actually had it for a while and just started reading it this past week. So knowing that, you know, this is in your realm and it's held my interest unbelievably well, it started out great. I'm not very far. Can you maybe explain kind of that methodology? Because this is a very popular book and very popular topic for small business owners. Can you maybe break that down a little bit and explain the methodology behind that and kind of what your thoughts are on it?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:20:47

Absolutely. So Profit First is a great book as it relates to cash management because it emphasizes doing exactly what the title says, putting aside your profit first. So like if you're the business owner that you know, when we all get started out, all of our money is just going into the business and we're not paying ourselves anything. And then we say, Oh, when I hit six figures gross, I'll start paying myself. And no, you're not. And so what Profit First says to do is immediately take aside one percent or I can't remember what the percentage it gives, like a bracket based on your industry and kind of how you're performing and open a bank account. And that is going to be your profit. And each month, twice a month, you're going to transfer that percentage into this bank account. And that is set aside strictly for you. And it's got it mapped out the whole way to do this. You've got your profit bank account, you've got your tax bank account so that you're automatically setting aside those taxes so you're not hit with any surprises. And that's really all it is, is a cash management system. And it's great for business owners who aren't great at managing their cash, which is most of them. But the fault that I see in Profit First is it doesn't account for growth in that it helps business owners with where they are at right now. It doesn't say anything about how to move forward in the future because if you're planning on expanding and you need to buy a whole bunch of equipment or a new warehouse or whatever, you're going to be putting aside cash for that. You're going to be cashflow negative for a few months or a couple of years in order to make that happen. And Profit First doesn't really guide business owners on how to do that. And moreover, when it gives you the matrix of how much you should pay yourself based on how much your business is making and what industry you're in, if you'll notice in one of the brackets, when you jump from X amount a year to this amount per year, the owner's salary goes down in his bracket. So it's like de-incentivizing people to to grow their company because they say, Oh, well, my business is making more money, but now I'm being advised to take a pay cut. So that part's a little a little confusing to me. But overall, as a cash management system, I think it's great. But it's got its shortcomings here and there.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:23:09

That makes sense. Is there a good resource or part two that would come well after, you know, learning this Profit First system? Like is there a book?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:23:21

Not that I have found.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:23:24

Not that you have found.

Todd Miller:

: 00:23:25

Work with Shelby. That's your best bet.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:23:26

Call me for part two.

Todd Miller:

: 00:23:28

Maybe you need a book, Profit First part two.

Todd Miller:

: 00:23:34

Well you kind of touch on Oh, yeah, we use these words both cash and profit. So, you know, help us to understand which is more important. Everyone tends to focus on that profit number. But yet I'm thinking here, maybe that isn't the most important thing to be thinking about.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:23:53

Cash is the absolute most important. Cash is the north star of your business. You can have all the profit in the world, but if you're not converting that profit to cash, your business is going to go nosedive real quickly. Like Amazon, I think went, I think it was either five or seven years, their first when they were first starting out without a single profit. So it's like, well, they didn't have profit, how'd they stay in business? They had cash. You cannot stay in business if you don't have cash. You can stay in business if you don't have a profit.

Todd Miller:

: 00:24:22

I remember a CPA telling me years ago when I was starting in business, Todd, cash is king and there ain't no queen.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:24:31

That's right.

Todd Miller:

: 00:24:32

That's kinda stuck with me my whole life.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:24:35

I think we have a title for this episode now.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:24:39

Yeah, I like that, it's cute.

Todd Miller:

: 00:24:43

So, you know, we touched on this earlier, but in the construction industry, estimating and then tracking project costs is so critical. And then you have to build and manage cash flow during the project because a construction project can, you know, possibly stretch out for even months. Can you talk about that some and maybe some of the strategies you help your clients with for for planning and being able to deal with that process?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:25:10

Absolutely. I actually just wrote a blog, I think, this past week on cost estimating when it comes to the different projects. So that's when you're analyzing job profitability. Estimating those costs is going to be the first step. If you miss something or you don't estimate correctly, you're going to be hard pressed to find somewhere along the life of a project where you can make up for that error. So absolutely, project estimating is paramount to making sure that that project is going to be profitable. And so when you're going through the estimation process, you need to be very, very diligent that you are analyzing past trends. If you've done something like this before, you're keeping up with all of your stakeholders on where different costs might come in, you know, your architects, your engineers, etc. You need to be using technology as best that you can and you need to be you just need to be forecasting very, very conservatively on what what these projects are going to cost. Because like I said, if you miss an estimation or you don't budget enough, you're not going to be able to make that up later on in the project's life very easily.

Todd Miller:

: 00:26:23

I know one of the things, you know, there has been a lot of new technology in construction to help with capturing those job costs in real time. And, you know, but you still you got to have the discipline to do it. You can have the most wonderful app in the world, but your whole team still has to be committed to actually.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:26:43

Exactly. You can have all the technology in the world, but if you're not going to use it. It's no good to you.

Todd Miller:

: 00:26:47

Yeah. So if perhaps we have a listener out there or someone else who thinks they might need a CFO and, you know, fractional outsourced CFO seems appropriate to them. Other than coming to you, but, you know, what should they be looking for in that relationship? Or maybe as they interview potential CFOs.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:27:09

They need to be looking for someone who has a background in finances, of course, and really most importantly, somebody who cares about what they have to say and doesn't just treat them as another number, another client to sign onto their books. If your CFO doesn't care about you and what your personal goals are like, the whole reason that you even went into business to begin with, it's not going to be a great relationship. So I would say definitely when you're out, you know, seeking out this type of person and they're not super easy to find, the the outsourced to the fractional CFO is not a a huge population, but definitely just somebody that you vibe with, somebody that you can tell cares about, about what your goals are and what your business goals are.

Todd Miller:

: 00:27:58

Very good. And to our listeners, vibe is not one of our challenge words, but it may be in another episode, I like that. Good stuff, wow. Anyway, all these words you young kids are coming up with now.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:28:10

Yeah, I appreciate that. I'll be 31 in a couple months.

Todd Miller:

: 00:28:15

So do you have any stories you could share with us of clients, you know, who've really made significant changes and improvements to their life or business after they started paying more attention to the finances of things?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:28:29

Yeah, absolutely. So one of the first clients that I started working with, he had turned a 12% profit the prior year and he had done -80 grand in cash flow for that year and he had no idea. And so I pointed this out to him and again, it was like I was mentioned earlier. It was all in accounts receivable. And we went through and we developed a plan in order to collect on these invoices. And then I think by month three of me working with him, he had recouped about 13 grand of that 80 grand that he lost. And so now he's on track to do positive 20 grand in cash this this year. And we'll just keep growing it from there.

Todd Miller:

: 00:29:13

That's great. Now, that is significant change. And yeah, you're right. I mean, yeah, especially in business, you you can feel like and and kind of fool yourself into this false sense of everything's okay and yet, you know, all of your cash is ending up in air or in inventory or, you know, and then all of a sudden it starts to the proverbial stuff starts to hit the fan at some point.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:29:38

Yes. Yes.

Todd Miller:

: 00:29:41

Well, Shelby, thank you so much. This has been great. We're close to wrapping up the business end of things. Is there anything we haven't covered today that you'd also like to share with our audience?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:29:52

Not that I can think of.

Todd Miller:

: 00:29:54

Very good. Well, I do have to ask you something.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:29:57

Ok.

Todd Miller:

: 00:29:58

Before we wrap up, a lot of times here on the show, okay, pretty much every show we do something we call rapid fire questions. And so these are seven questions that we ask you. They may range from serious to silly. All you have to do is give a short answer for each one. And our audience needs to understand, if Shelby agrees this, she has no idea about that. So are you up to the challenge of rapid fire?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:30:24

Sure.

Todd Miller:

: 00:30:26

Awesome. Well, let's do this. We'll alternate questions. Ryan, you want to start with first question?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:30:32

Sure, I would love to. I'm actually going to throw a little curve ball with this question, so you may be flabbergasted by how I ask this Todd, and I will explain a little bit afterwards. But what would you like your last meal to be?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:30:48

Oh, my gosh, I have such low standards when it comes to food. I eat everything. So probably some variation of seafood, probably a whole mess of crab legs or something, some fish.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:31:02

That sounds good, actually. So the reason I asked that is my stepson is 12 and he must have learned about or heard about from his friends about the last meals that prisoners get when they're on death row. And he asked me what I would have when he came home from school the other day. And he just kept going on and on about how he thought it was so cool that they got to pick their last meal.

Todd Miller:

: 00:31:31

Oh my.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:31:32

And I was like, Buddy, I think you're missing the point here. You know, he's just focused on they get to pick whatever they want to eat. And he just went on and on about it. So that's my reason for switching it up, really. Favorite meal was the question Todd had down to ask.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:31:51

I like last meal.

Todd Miller:

: 00:31:52

That was good. Well, I'm actually gonna switch it up too Ryan, I'm going to change question number two. So you heard me speak earlier, Shelby, about, you know, this sort of game changing product for me, the urea cream. Anything you've bought recently that has been a game changer for you in terms of a new product or something?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:32:16

I don't really buy much.

Todd Miller:

: 00:32:21

You sound like my son. He buys nothing.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:32:24

Yeah, I was at Target the other day and I hesitated before buying $17 flip flops. I bought some. I bought a new computer monitor.

Todd Miller:

: 00:32:35

Oh, did you? Is it like, curved or anything?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:32:39

No, it's not. It's absolutely not anything special at all. I just needed a new monitor and I went and bought one from Walmart and now I have it and I'm pleased, so.

Todd Miller:

: 00:32:48

Well, it was somewhat a game changer sounds like compared to the old monitor.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:32:51

It was, it was. I definitely needed it.

Todd Miller:

: 00:32:54

Very good. Okay, question number three, Ryan.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:32:58

What would you like to be remembered for?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:33:01

Gosh, this is hard because if you're asking like my child, I'll have an answer, but if you're asking like, my friends, I'd have a different answer. Oh, this is tough. I guess making, this is gonna sound so cheeseball, but just making a positive influence on on my family's lives and my friends and just anybody that came into contact with.

Todd Miller:

: 00:33:27

Awesome. That's not cheeseball at all. That's good.

Todd Miller:

: 00:33:30

Okay, next question. Okay, I'll ask this question. I think I mentioned earlier to you, if, you, no, maybe I didn't. If you had to eat a crayon, what color of crayon would you choose to eat?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:33:45

Probably purple, because grape is my favorite flavor and I feel like purple would probably taste like a grape.

Todd Miller:

: 00:33:50

Yeah, trust me, it won't. But that's a good thought.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:33:54

They all taste the same. We have some that smell incredible. They're like, they're really smooth. Like, I don't know what they're called. They're some incredible crayons, and they smell amazing.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:34:07

Oh, interesting.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:34:09

Maybe we can have a live taste testing one time.

Todd Miller:

: 00:34:12

We will do that. For our 100th anniversary episode, we will do that. We will eat crayons. We will eat crayons and bagels.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:34:22

Who is your favorite person to travel with?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:34:27

Definitely my husband.

Todd Miller:

: 00:34:28

Very cool.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:34:29

Yeah.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:34:30

Yeah, that's good.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:34:33

Yeah, we have a good time.

Todd Miller:

: 00:34:36

Okay, next question. Now, I may have to explain this. What old person thing do you like to do? So is there anything you enjoy doing that would normally be associated with someone older?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:34:50

My absolute favorite thing to do is be in bed before 9:00.

Todd Miller:

: 00:34:54

That is a little old-person.

Todd Miller:

: 00:34:56

Oh my goodness, you got even me beat on that.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:35:00

I can't even get the kids in bed by 9:00.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:35:05

So we have a two year old little boy and he goes down sometime between seven and eight most nights. So come 9:00, we're done, we're beat.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:35:12

Yeah, yeah.

Todd Miller:

: 00:35:13

Yeah.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:35:14

So he's almost he's about to the age, though, where he's really going to learn how to draw out bedtime.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:35:20

Oh he already knows.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:35:23

He already knows. Hopefully for you it doesn't but my youngest eight and she, it takes about an hour to get her to bed.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:35:30

Oh yeah.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:35:31

Every night.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:35:33

Everything in the room has to be put up that he never cared about during the day and yeah.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:35:39

Okay. This is the final question. What is your favorite magical or mythical creature?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:35:46

Mythical creature? I really like, I really want to go see that Sphinx over in in Egypt. So I'll say that, the Sphinx.

Todd Miller:

: 00:35:57

Awesome. Isn't that the thing that's losing its nose or something? I think every year a little bit of the nose is kind of.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:36:01

Is it?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:36:03

I think it might be.

Todd Miller:

: 00:36:05

Kind of eroding away. Very interesting. So it's been a great episode, Shelby, thank you so much.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:36:12

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Todd Miller:

: 00:36:13

I think we were all successful with our challenge words, weren't we?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:36:16

I think we were, yeah. I thought I was going to burst out laughing when I said mine, but I didn't. So I'm glad.

Todd Miller:

: 00:36:21

And I'm really bad about that. I have a horrible tell. So, you know, any more now that we're doing video, people can always tell my reaction when we use the word. So your word, Shelby, was?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:36:34

Regurgitate.

Todd Miller:

: 00:36:34

Regurgitate, which you worked in very well. I used Chimichanga, which I did not work in so well. I mean, it was in there.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:36:42

No, I disagree. I thought it was great.

Ryan Bell:

: 00:36:44

I thought it was perfect, Todd.

Todd Miller:

: 00:36:48

And Ryan, your word was?

Ryan Bell:

: 00:36:50

Flabbergasted.

Todd Miller:

: 00:36:51

And you worked it in there as well. Good job, congratulations. Well, again, thank you so much for being with us today, Shelby. It's just been a pleasure and very informative. So if folks want to get in touch with you or your business, what are some of the easy ways for them to do that?

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:37:09

The easiest way would be to email me at info@optimizedfinancialsolutions.com or you can go to my website. It's just www.optimizedfinancialsolutions.com and I've got a booking link you can get on my calendar and when I meet with new clients we do like a 20 or 30 minute consultation and that's completely free. So if you just need to chat, definitely head over to my website or send me an email.

Todd Miller:

: 00:37:36

I saw that on your website. It looked very easy to, you know, kind of sign up for that sort of discovery call, consultation-type thing. And yeah, folks can figure out if you're right for them that way. That's good stuff.

Shelby Ashley:

: 00:37:48

Absolutely.

Todd Miller:

: 00:37:49

Well, this has been great. Thank you so much. And I also thank our audience for tuning into this episode of Construction Disruption with Shelby Ashley of Optimized Financial Solutions. Look for her contact information also in the show notes. Now please watch for future episodes of our podcast. We're always blessed with great guests. Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. Until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting, looking for things to shake stuff up out there and push stuff to the next level. And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter, make them smile. Very simple thing you can do, yet something that changes the world for the person that you interact with. So God bless and take care. This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode of Construction Disruption.

Todd Miller:

: 00:38:38

Intro/Outro: This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building products.

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