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Wayne Shelton and Ryan Conn from Shelton & Associates
Episode 6 • 23rd March 2022 • Empowering Entrepreneurs • Glenn Harper
00:00:00 00:44:16

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What a great story behind the changes that have occurred over the last few years at Shelton & Associates!

We have transitioned from a full-service accounting firm where we have historically considered ourselves as a tax factory, and we now specialize in being advisors and relationships with our clients and working with them to just establish their best practices, build a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship where they can reach their financial goals through our expertise, to our advice and through our building with them over time.

Wayne knew he had to change his business model for the company. But he didn't have the right person in place to do that - until Ryan. He was able to take his background in Law Enforcement to drive the company.

We wanted to empower our staff. And so that was a big part of it. They take ownership of their situation. They take ownership of their clients. They get excited. Like, I get to do the bigger work, the bigger stuff, and I'm also getting to see the results as well. The clients love it more because they're doing it's not just Wayne, it's not just Ryan that they can talk to get their answers from.

Wayne talks about how the culture changed in just a short amount of time with the proper leadership and direction.

My office was a train wreck. We had people going 18 different directions. But we've changed all that and we've got a totally different culture, and it pretty much turned over the whole staff in a three year period.

What is it that you actually do that makes you money?

The planning advisory. When we bring somebody on board, they have a situation in their business possibly various disasters going on. And a lot of this impacts their tactical situations. So we come in and we apply that advisory service.

What is your dream now? What what do you see happening now that you look forward?

We've also really branched out into a couple of areas like this business leadership we are doing. We actually look at that as a separate advisory product as well. And we're going up to Minnesota, Wisconsin to teach a firm for two days. They've engaged us to teach for two days on-site at their annual meeting. We're going there to try to get them to put in place a foundation set so they can grow in a similar fashion. And grow better for learning from our mistakes along the way.

Wayne is a Paducah, Kentucky native and has practiced public accounting for 42 years. Wayne is the founder of Shelton & Associates, CPA, PLLC. Wayne specializes in auditing, tax planning and preparation and business consulting. He has also consulted on over 40 forensic cases. He received BS in Accounting from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas in 1974 and his CPA certificate in 1976. Wayne received the Certified Medical Practice Executive (CMPE) designation in 1997 from the Medical Group Management Association. He also received the CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics) credential from the AICPA, the CFA (Certified in Financial Forensics) and the CVA (Certified in Financial Forensics) credentials. When he is not working in the office, he can be found hunting, playing golf, tending to his farm and spending time with his family.

Ryan is from Ann Arbor, Michigan and moved to Paducah, Kentucky in 2006. He partnered with Wayne at Shelton & Associates, CPA, PLLC in 2018. Ryan specializes in high level customized Business Advisory, including leadership, business best practices, and Forensic Accounting. He graduated from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas in 2006 where he obtained his BS in Criminal Justice. Ryan spent just shy of 12 years serving his community as a Paducah Police Officer. He spent over 10 years on the SWAT Team and was the Team Leader. Ryan leads the Forensic Accounting division of Shelton & Associates, CPA, PLLC, and works closely with clients providing consultation to help them improve and achieve their financial goals. Ryan spends his free time with his family and friends playing games and enjoying the outdoors.

Running a business doesn’t have to run your life.

Without a business partner who holds you accountable, it’s easy to be so busy ‘doing’ business that you don’t have the right strategy to grow your business.

Stop letting your business run you. At Harper & Co CPA Plus, we know that you want to be empowered to build the lifestyle you envision. In order to do that you need a clear path to follow for success

Our clients enjoy a proactive partnership with us. Schedule a consultation with us today.

Download our free guide - Entrepreneurial Success Formula: How to Avoid Managing Your Business From Your Bank Account.

Copyright 2024 Glenn Harper

Transcripts

Glenn Harper:

:

Welcome, everyone, this is Glenn Harper.

Glenn Harper:

:

Harper CPA Plus

Julie Smith:

:

And Julie Smith, the Barista,

Glenn Harper:

:

The barista in charge.

Glenn Harper:

:

We got a great guest today.

Glenn Harper:

:

We've got Wayne Shelton and Ryan Conn of Shelton Associates

Glenn Harper:

:

and CS Business Consulting out of Paducah, Kentucky.

Glenn Harper:

:

And my question is, is that near Podunk BFE or where is

Glenn Harper:

:

that at?

Ryan Conn:

:

Well, Paducah, Kentucky, we are Western Kentucky.

Ryan Conn:

:

We are so far west in Kentucky that we actually drive right

Ryan Conn:

:

across the river north into Illinois.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Well, actually, we're about halfway between possum trot and

Wayne Shelton:

:

monkey's eyebrow. I know right

Glenn Harper:

:

Where that is. That's a great place to be.

Glenn Harper:

:

Well, thanks for joining us, guys.

Glenn Harper:

:

I guess the first thing we want to do is kind of share with

Glenn Harper:

:

our guests. What exactly do you guys?

Glenn Harper:

:

What do you guys do? What's your business that you're in as

Glenn Harper:

:

an entrepreneur?

Ryan Conn:

:

Yeah, very question, so we we run an accounting firm, Wayne

Ryan Conn:

:

and I are partners at Sheldon Associates CPA, which is our

Ryan Conn:

:

first love and our primary engagement.

Ryan Conn:

:

We have transitioned from a full service accounting firm

Ryan Conn:

:

where we have historically considered ourselves like a tax

Ryan Conn:

:

factory, and we now specialize in being advisors and

Ryan Conn:

:

relationships with our clients and working with them to

Ryan Conn:

:

just establish their best practices, build a long lasting

Ryan Conn:

:

and mutually beneficial relationship where they can reach

Ryan Conn:

:

their financial goals through our expertise, to our advice

Ryan Conn:

:

and through our building with them over time.

Ryan Conn:

:

And also, we want to reduce their tax footprint, their tax

Ryan Conn:

:

liability,

Wayne Shelton:

:

Make the tax

Ryan Conn:

:

Efficient, tax efficient, write and audit perform while

Ryan Conn:

:

building a long lasting relationship over time and

Ryan Conn:

:

ultimately things like bookkeeping compliance like payroll

Ryan Conn:

:

taxes, sales taxes and the big tax.

Ryan Conn:

:

That's just the five of us having a relationship with

Ryan Conn:

:

forward transition should be an accounting firm like that

Ryan Conn:

:

instead of just breaking out tax returns all the time.

Glenn Harper:

:

That sounds like a horrible business model.

Wayne Shelton:

:

An easier way to make money.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I'll tell you that right?

Ryan Conn:

:

Gotcha. It's definitely a better business model what we came

Ryan Conn:

:

from, which is why we're enjoying it a lot.

Ryan Conn:

:

We're having a lot more fun.

Ryan Conn:

:

I always tell people and even our clients as we bring them

Ryan Conn:

:

on or work with them is that selfishly, this is a lot more

Ryan Conn:

:

fun. I get to watch your success, I get to see your eyes

Ryan Conn:

:

pop on. You realize the impact so this planning has on

Ryan Conn:

:

their situation. And it's selfishly it's very rewarding to

Ryan Conn:

:

watch people grow and succeed and drive their businesses

Ryan Conn:

:

further.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And it's nice for us to have a fairly focused type of

Wayne Shelton:

:

business that we are working in now, rather than trying to

Wayne Shelton:

:

be all things to all people, which is what we did.

Wayne Shelton:

:

People would come in and say, Can you do this here?

Wayne Shelton:

:

We can do that. You know,

Julie Smith:

:

Now you use that, you use that f word fun, you're having fun

Julie Smith:

:

now. It can't possibly be because you met Glenn and I.

Julie Smith:

:

So what are you doing?

Julie Smith:

:

That's so fun? How did you make that transition?

Ryan Conn:

:

Well, you and Glenn would probably be the major

Ryan Conn:

:

contributors, of course.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Well, you know,

Ryan Conn:

:

We made a mental shift, right?

Ryan Conn:

:

We changed our mindset and we decided we don't want to be

Ryan Conn:

:

stuck in the grind anymore.

Ryan Conn:

:

Now, of course, even with the model that we're all there,

Ryan Conn:

:

still, there's still a deadline from the government that

Ryan Conn:

:

these loans have to be accomplished.

Ryan Conn:

:

But we don't have this insane spike for three months in the

Ryan Conn:

:

winter and spring and then a bigger role in the action

Ryan Conn:

:

until we know a couple of deadlines.

Ryan Conn:

:

So we have consistent work all year round that empowers our

Ryan Conn:

:

staff, keeps our clients engaged.

Ryan Conn:

:

And it's just more fun.

Ryan Conn:

:

It's more fun to know that I'm getting more product out of

Ryan Conn:

:

my staff and getting more value into the hands of my

Ryan Conn:

:

clients and ultimately growing the firm and prospering.

Ryan Conn:

:

So, yeah, it's definitely more fun building relationships

Ryan Conn:

:

and helping people succeed.

Julie Smith:

:

Now, Ryan, you have an interesting background, and that's

Julie Smith:

:

probably why you and I hit it off so, so quickly is neither

Julie Smith:

:

one of us have know anything about a 10 key.

Julie Smith:

:

Essentially, do you want to talk a little bit about where

Julie Smith:

:

you were, where you are and kind of how Wayne played a role

Julie Smith:

:

into that?

Ryan Conn:

:

Sure. So I'll give you as much of the Reader's Digest

Ryan Conn:

:

version as I can.

Ryan Conn:

:

But I originally I went to Harvard University down in

Ryan Conn:

:

Arkansas, which is where I met my wife, Natalie, and that

Ryan Conn:

:

is Wade's number.

Ryan Conn:

:

So one thing is my father in law for the viewers or

Ryan Conn:

:

listeners. I didn't know that ahead of time, and I was in

Ryan Conn:

:

law enforcement for 12 years, serving locally at law

Ryan Conn:

:

enforcement. Since I graduated college, I played football.

Ryan Conn:

:

That's where I met Natalie. And then we moved back to Duke

Ryan Conn:

:

and I became a cop and I worked there for 12 years.

Ryan Conn:

:

My job very much graduated into top of priority of the

Ryan Conn:

:

instructor. I mentor a trainer of adults and over 17

Ryan Conn:

:

different disciplines. I was teaching the training law

Ryan Conn:

:

enforcement how to survive, how to best investigate, and I

Ryan Conn:

:

was leading undercover drug units.

Ryan Conn:

:

I was leading a SWAT team firearms training, active shooter

Ryan Conn:

:

training, riot training, some really cool stuff.

Ryan Conn:

:

But ultimately, when Wayne came to me, I had to leave all

Ryan Conn:

:

of that. All the action is taxes.

Ryan Conn:

:

Yeah. And so we we ended up giving me an opportunity to

Ryan Conn:

:

partner up with him. To become a partner at the firm made

Ryan Conn:

:

me an offer I could use, and he was very savvy and he was

Ryan Conn:

:

looking down the road of the future, realize that he was

Ryan Conn:

:

growing his business.

Ryan Conn:

:

He could be more and wanted more as a traditional

Ryan Conn:

:

accountant. He didn't necessarily have the tools to put in

Ryan Conn:

:

lots of his leadership principles and these principles.

Ryan Conn:

:

You know, so many are some workflow, some all kinds of

Ryan Conn:

:

things. That's what I did.

Ryan Conn:

:

I take 12 guys into a house in a critical situation.

Ryan Conn:

:

You all work for the best team.

Ryan Conn:

:

So no one got hurt in.

Ryan Conn:

:

The bad guy gets captured.

Ryan Conn:

:

Well, now that national level, we have to take eight or

Ryan Conn:

:

nine people that are four now 13 and fill that much and get

Ryan Conn:

:

them all the and they all work as a so that don't have a

Ryan Conn:

:

curve balls in the cracks.

Ryan Conn:

:

So Client gets upset.

Ryan Conn:

:

The relationship is good and we've built systems over time

Ryan Conn:

:

and we have actually put that more flow for that process.

Ryan Conn:

:

Put that job responsibility and culture in a place where it

Ryan Conn:

:

really allowed us to just just absolutely explode.

Glenn Harper:

:

I'm just going to say that Wayne had to be one hell of a

Glenn Harper:

:

marketer to lure you away from all that other excitement to

Glenn Harper:

:

the accounting world of excitement.

Glenn Harper:

:

That's impressive, Wayne.

Glenn Harper:

:

How did you how did you put the pressure on him?

Wayne Shelton:

:

It is. It is.

Ryan Conn:

:

It's impressive. I always tell people I sell selling ketchup

Ryan Conn:

:

popsicle to a lady in a white glove on the Fourth of July,

Ryan Conn:

:

so he's good at what he does.

Ryan Conn:

:

Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.

Glenn Harper:

:

When the the one thing you said earlier about the fun, you

Glenn Harper:

:

know, people think, you know, you have to be serious and

Glenn Harper:

:

what you do as an entrepreneur.

Glenn Harper:

:

And it's really important business, especially to deal with

Glenn Harper:

:

people's money, especially, you know.

Glenn Harper:

:

You know, Ryan, back when you're, you know, you got hostile

Glenn Harper:

:

situations, life and death situations.

Glenn Harper:

:

You know, accounting is not quite like that, but we are

Glenn Harper:

:

talking about people's money and that's a big deal, right?

Glenn Harper:

:

So the question is, is how did you recognize that the

Glenn Harper:

:

industry that you're in?

Glenn Harper:

:

I guess that we're all in here, that you had to bring a

Glenn Harper:

:

little bit of levity, a little bit of an excitement, a

Glenn Harper:

:

little bit of fun. And it's not just grind it down to just

Glenn Harper:

:

be so serious all the time, it sounds exhausting.

Glenn Harper:

:

How did how did you make that transition from being like,

Glenn Harper:

:

Hey, we got to make the donuts to, hey, let's make some

Glenn Harper:

:

donuts? How did you do that?

Ryan Conn:

:

Yeah. Well, so again, that carried overall force, one of the

Ryan Conn:

:

things that was great about our local agency was that we

Ryan Conn:

:

believed in training and we believed in preparing the staff

Ryan Conn:

:

and the officers to be the best and that carried over here.

Ryan Conn:

:

We wanted to empower our staff.

Ryan Conn:

:

And so that was a big part of it.

Ryan Conn:

:

And so if the staff is no longer a backdoor person that

Ryan Conn:

:

just gets reports, they go and they have to they enter in

Ryan Conn:

:

compliance all day long in some back room because they're

Ryan Conn:

:

new or young or haven't been on the job for five years to

Ryan Conn:

:

get a shot at a senior position.

Ryan Conn:

:

We start empowering them.

Ryan Conn:

:

They take ownership of their situation.

Ryan Conn:

:

They take ownership of their clients.

Ryan Conn:

:

They get excited. Like, I get to do the bigger work, the

Ryan Conn:

:

bigger stuff, and I'm also getting to see the results as

Ryan Conn:

:

well. The clients love it more because they're doing it's

Ryan Conn:

:

not just white, it's not just riding that they can talk to

Ryan Conn:

:

get their answers from.

Ryan Conn:

:

There's a lot of times, you know, we're going on the phone,

Ryan Conn:

:

we're not available.

Ryan Conn:

:

And so the quickest solution to their answer is to this

Ryan Conn:

:

other person. So by empowering our staff, we made it more

Ryan Conn:

:

fun for them, more fun for us.

Ryan Conn:

:

And again, we're we're pretty big into the relationship.

Ryan Conn:

:

So I actually ask you, I care about, in my words, small

Ryan Conn:

:

impact situations, but I care about the family and

Ryan Conn:

:

assessing business, what type of headaches you're going

Ryan Conn:

:

through and just being a little bit of that counselor that

Ryan Conn:

:

relationship and know we can be kind of a little bit of

Ryan Conn:

:

more than just a number of guys.

Ryan Conn:

:

We obviously literally have a human conversation with them

Ryan Conn:

:

to establish that relationship.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And, you know, one of one of the big differences that I can

Wayne Shelton:

:

see is now that we are focused on a smaller section of

Wayne Shelton:

:

business of what we're trying to do.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We're able to really watch everything that happens.

Wayne Shelton:

:

So if they come up with a new government program which

Wayne Shelton:

:

they, as you guys know, have come up with 10 of them in the

Wayne Shelton:

:

last two years, they change the rules on all of them

Wayne Shelton:

:

multiple times.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But because we are really focusing on the planning part, we

Wayne Shelton:

:

stayed up on top of all that stuff and our clients

Wayne Shelton:

:

appreciate it because they know that they are maximizing

Wayne Shelton:

:

what they can get from the government and doing everything

Wayne Shelton:

:

right on these type programs and is made a huge difference.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And because there's so many other firms that are not doing

Wayne Shelton:

:

anything in regards to those type issues.

Julie Smith:

:

So Ryan talks a lot about team and empowering Wayne before

Julie Smith:

:

you had Ryan and you lured him away from, you know, his day

Julie Smith:

:

job. Did you kind of have the same culture or were you able

Julie Smith:

:

to completely change that culture when when Ryan came in,

Julie Smith:

:

when did you have that aha moment that the team is so

Julie Smith:

:

important?

Wayne Shelton:

:

Probably after about six months, Ryan had been here and, you

Wayne Shelton:

:

know, one of the things that because right, is my son in

Wayne Shelton:

:

law and, you know, I kind of knew the type of training that

Wayne Shelton:

:

he had gone through. And one of the things people do not

Wayne Shelton:

:

realize is police officers are probably the best trained

Wayne Shelton:

:

people in the world.

Wayne Shelton:

:

They're the best vetted when it comes to interviews and

Wayne Shelton:

:

background checks.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I mean, when they do a background check on a potential

Wayne Shelton:

:

officer, they go to his hometown and interview people.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You think we ever do that?

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know? So I guess my point is these people are highly

Wayne Shelton:

:

trained and they are usually highly motivated.

Wayne Shelton:

:

They are the top notch people.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And because of that, and we know that now we've got to what

Wayne Shelton:

:

do we do? Well, one other retired police officers working

Wayne Shelton:

:

with us and two police officers, wives that are working

Wayne Shelton:

:

with us. So, you know, we understand where those people

Wayne Shelton:

:

have been and the type of training and the leadership

Wayne Shelton:

:

training they have, which is far superior to anything we

Wayne Shelton:

:

even have available.

Wayne Shelton:

:

So when Ryan began and brought that into us and we started

Wayne Shelton:

:

converting that over, I mean, my office was a train wreck.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We had people going 18 different directions.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And that's pretty good with only getting people, OK.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But we've changed all that and we've got a totally

Wayne Shelton:

:

different culture, and it pretty much turned over the whole

Wayne Shelton:

:

staff in a three year period.

Glenn Harper:

:

So I'm trying to get my head around.

Glenn Harper:

:

How can you bring in?

Glenn Harper:

:

Are you are you discounting the importance of accountants

Glenn Harper:

:

and suggesting that you don't have to be an accountant to

Glenn Harper:

:

do accounting work and tax work?

Glenn Harper:

:

That's that's insane.

Glenn Harper:

:

How can that possibly be?

Wayne Shelton:

:

It's like magic, I don't know.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But it is really true.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I'll tell you, there are so many principles that carry over

Wayne Shelton:

:

from one job to another.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Job and leadership is a big thing that police officers are

Wayne Shelton:

:

trained and they have a ton of a ton of stuff that they

Wayne Shelton:

:

talk about with leadership training.

Wayne Shelton:

:

How many passes do we have in leadership training?

Wayne Shelton:

:

I think that'd be zero, wouldn't it?

Glenn Harper:

:

Well, you know, it talks you.

Glenn Harper:

:

You know, how do you make a good cocktail?

Glenn Harper:

:

I think I've had that class before.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yeah, that's a different issue.

Julie Smith:

:

Yeah, there you go. All right.

Julie Smith:

:

I can attest that he's probably had negative classes in

Julie Smith:

:

that.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yeah. Yeah.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Well, we're not trying to do that.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, these guys are and it's it's been a real eye

Wayne Shelton:

:

opener for me.

Glenn Harper:

:

Well, it's always good to have like a Dirty Harry on your

Glenn Harper:

:

staff. So that's important because then they can go rogue

Glenn Harper:

:

and that's always exciting.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yeah. What are the safest office in town?

Glenn Harper:

:

That's right. So what?

Glenn Harper:

:

What exactly, you know, everybody has these bad habits that

Glenn Harper:

:

we work for is to make money to go support those bad

Glenn Harper:

:

habits. What is it?

Glenn Harper:

:

Actually, I like asking an entrepreneur, Is this what is it

Glenn Harper:

:

that you actually do that makes you money?

Glenn Harper:

:

What is that thing that you do?

Glenn Harper:

:

Is it is it the task of doing a tax return or is it the

Glenn Harper:

:

task of leading a team?

Glenn Harper:

:

Is it being proactive with your clients?

Glenn Harper:

:

What is the thing you think you do that generates the

Glenn Harper:

:

revenue for your firm?

Ryan Conn:

:

You know, ours is that advisory piece.

Ryan Conn:

:

So we we get

Wayne Shelton:

:

The planning part

Ryan Conn:

:

That playing advisory, we bring people on board or really

Ryan Conn:

:

finish it off our list of existing clients.

Ryan Conn:

:

But when we bring somebody on board on board, they have a

Ryan Conn:

:

situation in business there that it has various disasters

Ryan Conn:

:

going on and a lot of them impact their tactical situations

Ryan Conn:

:

together. So we come in and we apply that advisory service.

Ryan Conn:

:

We usually our average person that comes on board gets four

Ryan Conn:

:

meetings. And so in those formal meetings, we charge a

Ryan Conn:

:

premium price because we're going to basically reset their

Ryan Conn:

:

situation and get that push off in the right direction.

Ryan Conn:

:

That has incredible value for that client, not US dollars,

Ryan Conn:

:

but the stress and anxiety of the time, you know, and just

Ryan Conn:

:

think about onboarding somebody who's payroll and

Ryan Conn:

:

bookkeeping is all just money and crazy, advising how to

Ryan Conn:

:

get better teaching and training them to do it or taking it

Ryan Conn:

:

on ourselves with an advisory component to it.

Ryan Conn:

:

I mean, they just free up a ton of time to go, run their

Ryan Conn:

:

business and make money, you know, building widgets, more

Ryan Conn:

:

construction, mowing lawns, whatever it may be, hotel

Ryan Conn:

:

rooms. And now we're on the financial side of things while

Ryan Conn:

:

giving advice on how to do things better on a daily basis

Ryan Conn:

:

for now. And that's that's what we make our money.

Ryan Conn:

:

The taxpayer that's backwards to make sure that we go for

Ryan Conn:

:

that of advisory is what people want.

Ryan Conn:

:

So if they're asking and begging for and that's where we

Ryan Conn:

:

make our

Wayne Shelton:

:

Out of it, and I'll tell you something in this run, I have

Wayne Shelton:

:

this conversation weekly because we we've been onboarding

Wayne Shelton:

:

since for the last probably two months, two people a week

Wayne Shelton:

:

on advisory maintenance.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But I am amazed at what poor advice professionals are given

Wayne Shelton:

:

out to their clients.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I tell Ryan every week I said, I cannot believe this.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Look at this mess that these people have created.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Supposedly, you know, CPAs that have got many years

Wayne Shelton:

:

experience and people are not, in my opinion.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Trying to work with our clients and help them in the tax

Wayne Shelton:

:

planning area, they're just not doing it, and I feel like

Wayne Shelton:

:

that is a failing of our profession.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, agree.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I think we're fixing it.

Glenn Harper:

:

Well, great. So you're suggesting then that it's not just

Glenn Harper:

:

punching a few numbers in a tax return and that's all the

Glenn Harper:

:

people need. You're suggesting that they need something

Glenn Harper:

:

more than that.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Absolutely, they need and a lot of times they don't even

Wayne Shelton:

:

know that they need.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But what we see is that they do and they don't even know

Wayne Shelton:

:

whether a human being all this money.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, we in the last year, we've probably onboarded 30

Wayne Shelton:

:

clients that had a Schedule C that was very successful and

Wayne Shelton:

:

they were paying $15000 and in self-employment tax when

Wayne Shelton:

:

they could have probably made that 25 percent of that.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And when we tell people that the first thing, some of them,

Wayne Shelton:

:

what they did is they get actually mad, not at us, but they

Wayne Shelton:

:

say I have for the last 10 years, I've been paying $15000

Wayne Shelton:

:

too much. That's I could buy a house for that, you know?

Wayne Shelton:

:

So it's it's kind of nice to see people realize what you're

Wayne Shelton:

:

doing.

Glenn Harper:

:

I think that when that happens, I think for for me, anyway,

Glenn Harper:

:

we have that conversation.

Glenn Harper:

:

It has to focus on, Hey, now now let's not be looking

Glenn Harper:

:

backwards. Let's look forwards.

Glenn Harper:

:

We can't talk about the sins of the past.

Glenn Harper:

:

Let's move forward because it is an emotional gut punch for

Glenn Harper:

:

people when they realize that kind of thing.

Glenn Harper:

:

And so I feel like then you're what you're probably trying

Glenn Harper:

:

to say is that the the the thing you do that makes you guys

Glenn Harper:

:

money and profitable is giving the advice that helps other

Glenn Harper:

:

people become profitable and make money and keep more

Glenn Harper:

:

money. Is that a fair statement?

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yes, sir.

Julie Smith:

:

So, Ryan and Wayne, you've kind of built this successful

Julie Smith:

:

business, you've transitioned your team, you guys have

Julie Smith:

:

transitioned your mindset.

Julie Smith:

:

What is your dream now?

Julie Smith:

:

What what do you see happening now that you look forward,

Julie Smith:

:

as Glenn said, and not at the sins of the past?

Ryan Conn:

:

So we're still going on and a couple of areas we want to we

Ryan Conn:

:

kind of have a needs less vision or maybe Home Office, we

Ryan Conn:

:

grow, we have 13 people now.

Ryan Conn:

:

And that was when I came on board, you know, I made eight

Ryan Conn:

:

and we put the hiring part time first and nine, we went

Ryan Conn:

:

down to eight and now we're up to 13 and grown

Ryan Conn:

:

strategically and we're about to go on building one more

Ryan Conn:

:

person probably make things first, and we may have a need

Ryan Conn:

:

for that. And so that's kind of our dream to grow.

Ryan Conn:

:

I don't want to get too large and I probably don't want to

Ryan Conn:

:

have more fun. People may want to take it for two thousand.

Ryan Conn:

:

I want I want to manage that and also maybe two officers or

Ryan Conn:

:

20 people in the future, I to be more powerful.

Ryan Conn:

:

My forty one, forty two year old Wayne, he's this

Wayne Shelton:

:

Is his ninety four.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Ryan Conn:

:

We know we've also really branched out into a couple of

Ryan Conn:

:

areas like this, this business leadership doing that.

Ryan Conn:

:

We actually look at that as a separate advisory product as

Ryan Conn:

:

well. And we're going up to Minnesota, Wisconsin to teach a

Ryan Conn:

:

firm for two days.

Ryan Conn:

:

You know, they've engaged us to teach for two days on site

Ryan Conn:

:

at their annual meeting

Wayne Shelton:

:

In which there are hundreds and

Ryan Conn:

:

Hundreds. We're going there and really trying to get them

Ryan Conn:

:

put in place in all those lockstep with that foundation set

Ryan Conn:

:

so they can grow in a similar fashion, hopefully better for

Ryan Conn:

:

learning from our mistakes along the way.

Ryan Conn:

:

And you know, that's kind of our next vision is to make

Ryan Conn:

:

even the advisory services of our accounting practice as

Ryan Conn:

:

autonomous as possible.

Ryan Conn:

:

Right. So unless there's a real specialty needs and I could

Ryan Conn:

:

swoop in and maybe solve some of those really, you know,

Ryan Conn:

:

kind of uniform scenarios like, Okay, let's get into this.

Ryan Conn:

:

But other than that, teach and train other people, how

Ryan Conn:

:

business model go around the country, help people with that

Ryan Conn:

:

travel and speak and teach.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And you know, one of the things we've been very fortunate

Wayne Shelton:

:

about is we've hired some outstanding staff and we are

Wayne Shelton:

:

looking at them to take over more of the day to day type

Wayne Shelton:

:

stuff. And we've made a couple of strategic hires just

Wayne Shelton:

:

lately that we're very excited about.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We can already tell that that's working out so.

Wayne Shelton:

:

So that's going to be a really good thing for us.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And I'm like, Ryan, you know how he will probably retire

Wayne Shelton:

:

way before me, but you know, after tax season, I tried it

Wayne Shelton:

:

last year, but it didn't work out too well.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I'm going to try to go four days a week, but we're having

Wayne Shelton:

:

so much fun and you know, the traveling and the teaching,

Wayne Shelton:

:

all that stuff is a lot of fun at us.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We both love to travel, we take all our families and do it.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And so I mean, we're having a good time.

Glenn Harper:

:

So are you.

Glenn Harper:

:

You just said earlier that you don't want to get too big

Glenn Harper:

:

because it's a lot of work to do.

Glenn Harper:

:

And then in the same breath, a typical entrepreneur psychos

Glenn Harper:

:

that we are, you're like, Well, we're going to start these

Glenn Harper:

:

other wings in business and do all this and this and this.

Glenn Harper:

:

So, you know, the the mind of an entrepreneur is a very

Glenn Harper:

:

dangerous place for people to be and and people that aren't

Glenn Harper:

:

aren't one. They that's hard for them to comprehend, so the

Glenn Harper:

:

endgame can't be.

Glenn Harper:

:

I'm going to have the greatest adviser practice ever there.

Glenn Harper:

:

It never ends, does it?

Glenn Harper:

:

I mean, it just doesn't ever stop.

Glenn Harper:

:

You know, when you said you, you might retire.

Glenn Harper:

:

I can't understand why you would retire.

Glenn Harper:

:

You're having too much fun.

Glenn Harper:

:

You're doing things you enjoy now.

Glenn Harper:

:

So is that a true statement that entrepreneurs generally

Glenn Harper:

:

just never really stop?

Wayne Shelton:

:

It is good. I think so.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And we see a lot

Ryan Conn:

:

Of and I say you.

Ryan Conn:

:

I won't have to come in like I said, it will be autonomous

Ryan Conn:

:

so I can free up a lot more travel and play.

Ryan Conn:

:

You know, by that point, my first kid will be in college

Ryan Conn:

:

and so I can I can do the helicopter that a little bit more

Ryan Conn:

:

down there hanging out some of that stuff like that.

Ryan Conn:

:

And again, one thing I've always want to do in life,

Ryan Conn:

:

obviously, if I was a cop on a single salary, you know, my

Ryan Conn:

:

wife is in school and stuff like that, I'm going to travel,

Ryan Conn:

:

I'm going to chase my dreams.

Ryan Conn:

:

I show up to work every day and serve my community.

Ryan Conn:

:

Well, now as an entrepreneur, I control more of my schedule

Ryan Conn:

:

for all of it, except for one reason tells me what to do,

Ryan Conn:

:

which is good. And then we get to do that.

Ryan Conn:

:

So my kids actually had a broader future as there being

Ryan Conn:

:

more culture and travel and things like that go along with

Ryan Conn:

:

me. So that has allowed me to chase not only one option

Ryan Conn:

:

where I can dedicate myself to that well,

Wayne Shelton:

:

And he's got four kids and at least two of them.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, I've worked down here at the office and they help

Wayne Shelton:

:

us and do some stuff like that.

Wayne Shelton:

:

So we're hoping that another generation will fall right in,

Wayne Shelton:

:

you know, after we kind of slow down a little bit.

Glenn Harper:

:

I think one of the the cool things about this podcast is, we

Glenn Harper:

:

call it the empowering the entrepreneurs and what you said

Glenn Harper:

:

a little bit a minute ago, Ryan, was that you feel

Glenn Harper:

:

empowered because you kind of figured out how to do not do

Glenn Harper:

:

business where you're doing the work, but you're building a

Glenn Harper:

:

business. And when you are building a business, you're more

Glenn Harper:

:

and more empowered because you have other people helping

Glenn Harper:

:

you on the team and and you know, from your background and

Glenn Harper:

:

going from a police officer to this.

Glenn Harper:

:

I think that you felt like you had to have that team around

Glenn Harper:

:

you to do that because it's not like you want to tell

Glenn Harper:

:

people what to do. You empower people to make their own

Glenn Harper:

:

decisions, but you're now empowered.

Glenn Harper:

:

And Wayne, I'd say you're probably empowered.

Glenn Harper:

:

And when you have that different mindset, that's a whole

Glenn Harper:

:

different game. How would you respond to that?

Wayne Shelton:

:

I think you're getting on a

Ryan Conn:

:

Really big topic is that a lot of again, you have a certain

Ryan Conn:

:

type of personality that makes up your standard.

Ryan Conn:

:

I would say your stereotypical on majority account, and a

Ryan Conn:

:

lot of that has to be hands on on micromanaging.

Ryan Conn:

:

But there's a lot of control and knowledge that has

Ryan Conn:

:

control, you know, control what I need to make sure I'm in

Ryan Conn:

:

on every decision or what we want to do is we want to again

Ryan Conn:

:

empower people, say, Hey, I've given you the sheet.

Ryan Conn:

:

You literally have a piece of paper that says this is

Ryan Conn:

:

Ryan's brains and beliefs and the way that he wants his

Ryan Conn:

:

directions to be carried out.

Ryan Conn:

:

You don't believe me if you have a critical distinction to

Ryan Conn:

:

be made, I am unavailable.

Ryan Conn:

:

You look at that sheet, you make the decision according to

Ryan Conn:

:

it, and we will never fail.

Ryan Conn:

:

Right. And so we are now empowered.

Ryan Conn:

:

They can have initiative.

Ryan Conn:

:

They can take all the real Cancun.

Ryan Conn:

:

There's a couple of triggers we need to hold accountable

Ryan Conn:

:

and they can now go out and they can move and move and

Ryan Conn:

:

produce without the fear of the boss constantly chopping

Ryan Conn:

:

and trying to figure out exactly what what medication needs

Ryan Conn:

:

to be done like when you go agency, don't you dare do X, Y

Ryan Conn:

:

and Z, and they know that it can be a college and training

Ryan Conn:

:

for lower policy level and leadership documents and things

Ryan Conn:

:

like that. And when we watch our staffers grow up, they

Ryan Conn:

:

just come to me saying, Hey, it's not.

Ryan Conn:

:

It's not. If I ever question something, it's like, Hey, I'm

Ryan Conn:

:

done. Oh no, we're waiting all the time for that piece of

Ryan Conn:

:

information. And then it will be done.

Ryan Conn:

:

This is fantastic. I don't have to hunt everybody down

Ryan Conn:

:

every day in my office or try to track them down or track

Ryan Conn:

:

on the project. And that that has been one of the major

Ryan Conn:

:

gateways.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yeah. And I'll tell you, I can tell kind of a major

Wayne Shelton:

:

breakthrough that we've made in the last two months, in my

Wayne Shelton:

:

opinion, working with the staff.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And we've got some fairly young staff, really good, good

Wayne Shelton:

:

with people, smart and they've been watching us deliver

Wayne Shelton:

:

these advisory and maintenance services for the last year

Wayne Shelton:

:

or two. And they have started kind of taking ownership for

Wayne Shelton:

:

that stuff. And it's really, really nice to see some of the

Wayne Shelton:

:

younger staff prepare.

Wayne Shelton:

:

The planners, get everything ready for a meeting with the

Wayne Shelton:

:

client and for them to have done 80 percent, 90 percent of

Wayne Shelton:

:

the work. That's what we're looking for because we we can't

Wayne Shelton:

:

do all the work. You know, we only have so many hours in

Wayne Shelton:

:

the day. And, you know, if we don't pass this stuff off and

Wayne Shelton:

:

hire some other people to do it, we're we've limited

Wayne Shelton:

:

ourselves. So what we're trying to do is not limit

Wayne Shelton:

:

ourselves.

Julie Smith:

:

So by empowering your staff, you've kind of become a mentor

Julie Smith:

:

and been able to kind of mentor them through this and given

Julie Smith:

:

them the shortcut that Wayne and Ryan, it took you a couple

Julie Smith:

:

of years to kind of get on your feet and do.

Julie Smith:

:

Wayne, I know you probably started this journey long before

Julie Smith:

:

Ryan, but what was that?

Julie Smith:

:

Did you have a mentor when you started or did you find one

Julie Smith:

:

halfway through?

Julie Smith:

:

What did that kind of look like, or did anyone guide you as

Julie Smith:

:

you kind of went through this?

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, probably so, and it was it was probably earlier in

Wayne Shelton:

:

my career I was a partner in two other firms before I

Wayne Shelton:

:

started my own firm. And I think I learned from some of the

Wayne Shelton:

:

older guys and some of them are not even around anymore.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, they've retired or died and but to see how they

Wayne Shelton:

:

work. But I will say that the way that the other firms work

Wayne Shelton:

:

and still some of them still work is what it is.

Wayne Shelton:

:

They are not giving the customer what they really need.

Wayne Shelton:

:

They're giving them what they want to give them.

Wayne Shelton:

:

It's really very unusual to me that our professional has

Wayne Shelton:

:

profession has done that is we have said here is what we're

Wayne Shelton:

:

going to offer you, even though you might not even want it.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And but that has been that way for 30 or 40 years, and I

Wayne Shelton:

:

think it's changing. And I think the wave of the future is

Wayne Shelton:

:

working with clients closely.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And I know you guys do that and let me tell you, that is a

Wayne Shelton:

:

critical thing for your clients.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I hope they do appreciate what it is because it's it is a

Wayne Shelton:

:

different way of working with people and it makes them a

Wayne Shelton:

:

whole lot better for us.

Julie Smith:

:

Now, Ryan, do you think in some way, shape or form?

Julie Smith:

:

Wayne was a mentor to you when you kind of started, you

Julie Smith:

:

kind of came in with a completely different skill set than

Julie Smith:

:

he had, but he had a different skill set than you had and

Julie Smith:

:

you together, you guys were able to kind of.

Julie Smith:

:

Put something special together.

Ryan Conn:

:

Oh, absolutely, yeah, there's there's no doubt about it.

Ryan Conn:

:

You know, I came in and I have a weird background, so as I

Ryan Conn:

:

went to score out math and physics, double major position

Ryan Conn:

:

in the criminal justice, it's all free of numbers.

Ryan Conn:

:

I've always been kind of a pretty big nerdy guy.

Ryan Conn:

:

As far as that stuff goes, and so that didn't scare me, but

Ryan Conn:

:

I I it was going to be taxes.

Ryan Conn:

:

I needed to come out there and do this other stuff because

Ryan Conn:

:

he was seeing a future, a huge food stamp.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But no, I was having a disaster is what I was having.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I didn't see anything like this.

Ryan Conn:

:

It felt like necessity.

Julie Smith:

:

Wayne, take the compliment.

Julie Smith:

:

Run with it.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I think

Ryan Conn:

:

You. And so when I came in here, I had to learn on purpose

Ryan Conn:

:

from the bottom. I said, Hey, I want to do the lowest level

Ryan Conn:

:

grunt work. A person open face not only those little prep

Ryan Conn:

:

work and learn whatever staff is doing all the way up the

Ryan Conn:

:

chain, all at the same time.

Ryan Conn:

:

We've had six to nine months.

Ryan Conn:

:

We've already started our advisory services because we knew

Ryan Conn:

:

we were week, one month, one month to say there's no way we

Ryan Conn:

:

can do this right.

Ryan Conn:

:

And so we started working on making this change and rolled

Ryan Conn:

:

out a giant advising package.

Ryan Conn:

:

And in doing that, I was learning from the top down the

Ryan Conn:

:

highest level advice that make the major changes for the

Ryan Conn:

:

small business that while all the grunt work that happens

Ryan Conn:

:

accounted for my way up, so I was literally education wise,

Ryan Conn:

:

burning the candle from both ends.

Ryan Conn:

:

And that's a lot of time when he was like, Hey, here's

Ryan Conn:

:

what's going to happen? We would go to meetings and we have

Ryan Conn:

:

the topics prepared. We know what this clients looking for.

Ryan Conn:

:

And he would walk me through everything, and I would try to

Ryan Conn:

:

do my best to look it up in the tax manual or some of the

Ryan Conn:

:

resources that have been studied.

Ryan Conn:

:

And I was able to start jumping in and answer the questions.

Ryan Conn:

:

It all makes sense. It just clicked really quickly because

Ryan Conn:

:

it's very much about there might be a on 14 major issues

Ryan Conn:

:

that a business or client is going to have to deal with.

Ryan Conn:

:

And what five or six issues out of the spectrum that this

Ryan Conn:

:

client had what five or six of that don't have?

Ryan Conn:

:

Or you don't have to tackle those primary issues.

Ryan Conn:

:

You can just plug and play from time to time.

Ryan Conn:

:

Only the numbers change.

Ryan Conn:

:

So I can show that to me, I thought everything was going to

Ryan Conn:

:

be very high level, super technical.

Ryan Conn:

:

You know, real down in the weeks off is not going to be

Ryan Conn:

:

oil. Oh my gosh, I think more on it's no.

Ryan Conn:

:

We want a mindset of thinking we're going have to play

Ryan Conn:

:

chess against a Russian grandmaster, right?

Ryan Conn:

:

But reality, these businesses, all genders,

Wayne Shelton:

:

They don't play gender.

Wayne Shelton:

:

That's exactly

Ryan Conn:

:

It. So we went like, Oh my gosh, all these pieces here and

Ryan Conn:

:

put in place of business.

Ryan Conn:

:

And and that's sort of where I learned of the mentorship

Ryan Conn:

:

there. I felt like I was learning like a rocket ship taking

Ryan Conn:

:

off, and they got excited because I learned a lot of

Ryan Conn:

:

learning, but also excited because I was able to capture

Ryan Conn:

:

everything quickly and be able to put it into play.

Glenn Harper:

:

So, you know, weighing the ability for I think I know you

Glenn Harper:

:

well enough. I can say this for the old guy, the Mr.

Glenn Harper:

:

Potter, and it's a Wonderful Life greatest movie of all

Glenn Harper:

:

time to all of a sudden say, Wait a minute, I need to

Glenn Harper:

:

recognize that I have to get the transition team in here.

Glenn Harper:

:

How hard was that for you to say, I'm ready for that?

Glenn Harper:

:

I found somebody to do that and I'm going to empower them

Glenn Harper:

:

to do that and go along with that.

Glenn Harper:

:

Was that a hard decision for you?

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, it wasn't.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yeah, it probably was.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But I was.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I was so unhappy with where we were.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I was really glad to just say, just do something if it's

Wayne Shelton:

:

the wrong thing, you know, because we had we had eight

Wayne Shelton:

:

staff and everybody was going in different directions.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I'm not kidding. I hadn't.

Wayne Shelton:

:

It was really bad. People did not have the same goals.

Wayne Shelton:

:

They didn't even have the same values.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And that is one of the things I think that Brian has made.

Wayne Shelton:

:

The biggest change is the way he interviews people.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, I mean, we we interviewed people not for their,

Wayne Shelton:

:

you know, having a master's in taxation.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We want somebody that can relate to people and wants to

Wayne Shelton:

:

relate to people. And that's a different thing and that is

Wayne Shelton:

:

not really normal in our profession.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know, people usually want to stay behind the scenes.

Wayne Shelton:

:

That's not where the action is.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And so Ryan is just jump right in there with that and help

Wayne Shelton:

:

us get staff that the dream team thing we're trying to do.

Glenn Harper:

:

How how long before you brought Ryan in?

Glenn Harper:

:

Did you know about this?

Glenn Harper:

:

The right way to do business as an advisory firm was that

Glenn Harper:

:

did it happen after Ryan came on board or before?

Wayne Shelton:

:

After the came over, and it was really funny, he brought on

Wayne Shelton:

:

a really large client that wanted a significant tax plan.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And so we said, yeah, if we can do that, like we always

Wayne Shelton:

:

say, we can do whatever we always, do always.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And so then we went about trying to figure out how to do it

Wayne Shelton:

:

and how to deliver it, which was a big problem and we could

Wayne Shelton:

:

have done it. I think we could have, but it would have

Wayne Shelton:

:

taken us a couple of years and we wouldn't have made any

Wayne Shelton:

:

money because that's all we have been doing.

Wayne Shelton:

:

So we hooked up with Thomson Reuters.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We went to one of their meetings and saw the opportunity

Wayne Shelton:

:

that we had to work with Thomson Reuters on this type

Wayne Shelton:

:

thing. And we we immediately signed up for that and we have

Wayne Shelton:

:

not looked back. But Ryan, the nice thing about it is Ryan

Wayne Shelton:

:

was a part of that from day one.

Wayne Shelton:

:

So he gets the whole picture.

Glenn Harper:

:

He wasn't corrupted.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You're right. That's exactly right.

Wayne Shelton:

:

No bad habits.

Glenn Harper:

:

Yep. So what you know, every entrepreneur kind of has this

Glenn Harper:

:

they they, you know, forged to the desert through the arid

Glenn Harper:

:

mountaintop, to the rainforest, just hacking away, trying

Glenn Harper:

:

to figure things out until they finally recognize and

Glenn Harper:

:

discover, I guess, their superpower and like, this is what

Glenn Harper:

:

I was meant to do.

Glenn Harper:

:

When did that happen for each of you?

Ryan Conn:

:

So I guess my story is a little different because I always

Ryan Conn:

:

had a calling, even from when I was like middle school and

Ryan Conn:

:

high school, you know, I did things when I was teaching and

Ryan Conn:

:

coaching people as, you know, like volunteer programs and,

Ryan Conn:

:

you know, old school side projects.

Ryan Conn:

:

And then in college, I even helped out and talked a little

Ryan Conn:

:

bit. But when I went to law course, I was teaching and

Ryan Conn:

:

training people. I had my regular jobs.

Ryan Conn:

:

I felt a knack for presenting, for teaching, imparting

Ryan Conn:

:

information and getting to my passion became, How do I make

Ryan Conn:

:

people better? How make a go around me better?

Ryan Conn:

:

How can I do that? I don't have all the knowledge.

Ryan Conn:

:

I'm not some magical wizard of wisdom.

Ryan Conn:

:

You know, maybe I can engage people and explain things

Ryan Conn:

:

simply enough where they can grasp a hold of it, take it

Ryan Conn:

:

and use it. And so I started that journey.

Ryan Conn:

:

Law enforcement. I was an answer to somebody always had a

Ryan Conn:

:

higher up official permission to try to run training up my

Ryan Conn:

:

programs a certain way.

Ryan Conn:

:

Of course, everyone else got their influence.

Ryan Conn:

:

I was just a man. I had a go period out or when I came

Ryan Conn:

:

here, my passion exploded because now I want to control

Ryan Conn:

:

that

Wayne Shelton:

:

Whatever you want.

Ryan Conn:

:

Wayne, I knew this for me, for the law, for 18, 16 years

Ryan Conn:

:

that he loved people very extroverted, and he loved telling

Ryan Conn:

:

stories, applying that to the real world and getting.

Ryan Conn:

:

He liked doing that already, but unfortunately it was not a

Ryan Conn:

:

formalized way to do it.

Ryan Conn:

:

And so we use the kind of cliche or metaphor in our

Ryan Conn:

:

speeches that we were sprinkling advice on people's

Ryan Conn:

:

situations. It was a formal or the package.

Ryan Conn:

:

There wasn't an A to Z.

Ryan Conn:

:

You know, here's your start. Here's your finish.

Ryan Conn:

:

And it was just kind of happened and it was very

Ryan Conn:

:

reactionary to the client's needs.

Ryan Conn:

:

And so I think I don't want to give too much away, but I

Ryan Conn:

:

think he was fulfilling his passion in a way, but is always

Ryan Conn:

:

truncated because there was there wasn't a pure venue to

Ryan Conn:

:

unload that. And so when we came on here, we created that

Ryan Conn:

:

thing through that platform.

Ryan Conn:

:

We can now hold people for our passion, which is teaching,

Ryan Conn:

:

educating, training and he making that impact on people.

Ryan Conn:

:

So mine started long ago, but really was allowed to just

Ryan Conn:

:

blossom once again.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But but you need to know this is a superpower.

Wayne Shelton:

:

What did they say your superpower was at the police

Wayne Shelton:

:

department?

Ryan Conn:

:

Well, no. My superpower is persistence and annoyance.

Ryan Conn:

:

I will annoy people telling you what I want.

Ryan Conn:

:

There you go. And so we were a superpower, and I'm nice

Ryan Conn:

:

about it. But it's just it's real.

Ryan Conn:

:

Gates agrees a lot of speaking deals.

Glenn Harper:

:

How about you, Wayne?

Wayne Shelton:

:

You know? You know, I think that, believe it or not, I fear

Wayne Shelton:

:

being in this business for forty seven years.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I think I finally about two years ago when I figured out

Wayne Shelton:

:

that this is what we want to do because like Ryan said, we

Wayne Shelton:

:

enjoy both joy teaching.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We've we we've actually done.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I'm the defender security of my church use the degree for

Wayne Shelton:

:

security, his church, and we have actually taught other

Wayne Shelton:

:

churches how to do church security.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We travel around on a bunch of stuff.

Wayne Shelton:

:

We really love doing that stuff.

Wayne Shelton:

:

So I mean, whatever it is, we like to teach.

Ryan Conn:

:

So that was my side business.

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yeah. We had we had fun with that.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And but I think we finally figured it out is to where we

Wayne Shelton:

:

want to go and where we want to be with this.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And, you know, we're really comfortable with and really

Wayne Shelton:

:

happy with.

Glenn Harper:

:

So I guess a point to make this for anybody who might be

Glenn Harper:

:

listening to this podcast is as an entrepreneur, you might

Glenn Harper:

:

not have it all figured out, but you've got to stay

Glenn Harper:

:

committed. You've got to stay focused, you've got to keep

Glenn Harper:

:

struggling, you've got to keep grinding, you've got to meet

Glenn Harper:

:

people, you've got to go out and get mentors.

Glenn Harper:

:

And again, Ryan, you just said something earlier that just

Glenn Harper:

:

cracked me up. But like sharing advice as an accountant is

Glenn Harper:

:

like the anti-Christ.

Glenn Harper:

:

We just never do that.

Glenn Harper:

:

Like, we want to keep all that information proprietary.

Glenn Harper:

:

So the second you start putting that information out there

Glenn Harper:

:

and sharing the knowledge and teaching and empowering,

Glenn Harper:

:

that's when the magic happens.

Glenn Harper:

:

I mean, that's what we found.

Glenn Harper:

:

And I think any entrepreneur that's out there is nobody's

Glenn Harper:

:

you. They can't do what you do.

Glenn Harper:

:

So don't be as scared to put out what you want to do and

Glenn Harper:

:

how you want to do it, because you're going to get some

Glenn Harper:

:

great feedback and you're going to probably get where you

Glenn Harper:

:

want to be quicker than if you were just to hold that all

Glenn Harper:

:

internally.

Ryan Conn:

:

Would you agree with that? Yeah, I kind of actually teach

Ryan Conn:

:

people in the human condition.

Ryan Conn:

:

So one of my my pet peeves in my leadership philosophy is

Ryan Conn:

:

people that for their expertise or their skill set and

Ryan Conn:

:

don't share it or impart it to other people.

Ryan Conn:

:

Right. So that ticks me off what part of the team that you

Ryan Conn:

:

should be sharing your expertise and helping and teaching

Ryan Conn:

:

other people your skill set.

Ryan Conn:

:

And so as a human, we also believe that we are more

Ryan Conn:

:

valuable to others if we hold on that, we have all of that

Ryan Conn:

:

power. But the problem is you're not free of silo and now

Ryan Conn:

:

you're standing alone on an island and you're less valuable

Ryan Conn:

:

than the other side of that coin is that now what we decide

Ryan Conn:

:

to impart my knowledge, my wisdom, my advice, my expertise.

Ryan Conn:

:

We also feel like we have to do that immediately and for

Ryan Conn:

:

free. Well, if you do that immediately and feel free.

Ryan Conn:

:

Hey, I want to help people. I want to get this advice out

Ryan Conn:

:

there. You're effectively Google, right?

Ryan Conn:

:

How much do we value Google?

Ryan Conn:

:

What we know? It's a free search engine.

Ryan Conn:

:

I get all the answers I want.

Ryan Conn:

:

So if we're not building a value package, if we're not

Ryan Conn:

:

reporting that in a systematic way that brings a mutually

Ryan Conn:

:

beneficial relationship, then the client doesn't see us as

Ryan Conn:

:

value. But we may have all the knowledge in the world, but

Ryan Conn:

:

they can just click a button like on Google and then get

Ryan Conn:

:

all the information for their content for free.

Ryan Conn:

:

You have no value. They'll go to the next search engine as

Ryan Conn:

:

soon as you try to change the mark.

Ryan Conn:

:

So you have a partner value that I make clear that that

Ryan Conn:

:

does an exact custom situation for you.

Ryan Conn:

:

And if you want to tap into this resource, I'm actually

Ryan Conn:

:

going to do it for you. I want to build this package, which

Ryan Conn:

:

is valuable. You spent money on me.

Ryan Conn:

:

They're going to look at you like, Hey, I'm paying for this

Ryan Conn:

:

account, which I'm going to pay attention to advice where

Ryan Conn:

:

Google tells me something out here that could be lying to

Ryan Conn:

:

me today. Right now, you're going to pay for that and it's

Ryan Conn:

:

going to be for you. And now you have true value because

Ryan Conn:

:

you cost something that client.

Ryan Conn:

:

Your information is not instantly free and you're not

Ryan Conn:

:

forwarding that information either based on the result,

Ryan Conn:

:

either. So you're to fulfill both sides of that.

Glenn Harper:

:

So the takeaway is is there is anything and you're both of

Glenn Harper:

:

your careers that again, we don't like looking backwards.

Glenn Harper:

:

It's a learning thing you want.

Glenn Harper:

:

You don't want to like Wahler in that.

Glenn Harper:

:

But if you could look back and advice because the

Glenn Harper:

:

perspective of this podcast is to give other entrepreneurs

Glenn Harper:

:

that aha moment to like, Oh my gosh, if I just would do

Glenn Harper:

:

that, like what would you look back and go, Gosh, if I had

Glenn Harper:

:

just known x a long time ago, I would be like money today,

Glenn Harper:

:

right?

Wayne Shelton:

:

Yeah. You know, I think in this profession, the people that

Wayne Shelton:

:

own the firms and there are thousands of small firms like

Wayne Shelton:

:

us around this country, thousands.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But what we don't do is when we run into a problem like I

Wayne Shelton:

:

was run into the problem with leadership and with

Wayne Shelton:

:

management and all that type thing.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And instead of looking out and trying to find a

Wayne Shelton:

:

professional in that area because there are people that are

Wayne Shelton:

:

a lot smarter than me, you know, in some of these areas,

Wayne Shelton:

:

don't try to do it yourself, trying to find somebody that

Wayne Shelton:

:

is an expert in that and take advantage of their abilities.

Wayne Shelton:

:

You can't know everything, you know.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And I was just I was so burnt out with trying to manage the

Wayne Shelton:

:

leadership thing. I was just done with it.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And if I had gotten somebody that was a professional

Wayne Shelton:

:

manager a long time ago, the way it.

Glenn Harper:

:

How about you, Ryan, you're just started off yours to

Glenn Harper:

:

newbies, but

Ryan Conn:

:

Yeah, well, I mean, even from past lives, current life, you

Ryan Conn:

:

know, trying to do it all yourself, right?

Ryan Conn:

:

That is a consistent mouthful.

Ryan Conn:

:

I watched my mentors and leaders law enforcement succeed

Ryan Conn:

:

and fail based on how they were able to delegate based on

Ryan Conn:

:

how they were able to step back and the image of the

Ryan Conn:

:

airplanes flying right and the leaders of fifty thousand

Ryan Conn:

:

four. You can see the whole map and you can make sure that

Ryan Conn:

:

all the things operate underneath.

Ryan Conn:

:

And then, you know, you have the law enforcement.

Ryan Conn:

:

You have, you know, some type of major captain, sergeant

Ryan Conn:

:

and then patrolman patrolman's down there, literally on the

Ryan Conn:

:

ground level, doing everything sergeants, the helicopter,

Ryan Conn:

:

the the captain on that standard plan goes up and down a

Ryan Conn:

:

lot of our business owners.

Ryan Conn:

:

We're trying to get down there on the ground level and do

Ryan Conn:

:

all the ground work. When you can't win a war, you can't

Ryan Conn:

:

run a place like that where you can't run the county, you

Ryan Conn:

:

can't run a retail store.

Ryan Conn:

:

That way, the we've got to get our eyes up an outward

Ryan Conn:

:

looking at running our businesses, it's my business.

Ryan Conn:

:

My advice would have echo what Wayne saying is put the

Ryan Conn:

:

tools in place where those internal tools, where those

Ryan Conn:

:

tools are staff members positioned in the right way, where

Ryan Conn:

:

those tools are marketing and stuff like that on the call

Ryan Conn:

:

people tool for us, I guess, could be the elements in place

Ryan Conn:

:

that you need to make that happen so that you can get your

Ryan Conn:

:

head off and you can get your eyes out in and looking at

Ryan Conn:

:

your business and get out of the weeds.

Ryan Conn:

:

You only need to slow down for a minute if there's a

Ryan Conn:

:

crisis, help resolve the crisis and then get back up to

Ryan Conn:

:

fifty thousand feet.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And I'm still struggling with that.

Ryan Conn:

:

It's a daily shopping. I can't even have routine tasks as an

Ryan Conn:

:

owner or even making stuff available for those people that

Ryan Conn:

:

need that advice. They need that problem solving problem

Ryan Conn:

:

when you've got your set of work that you're going to have

Ryan Conn:

:

to accomplish. But if you get down on it, you're taking

Ryan Conn:

:

yourself away from that set of work and taking yourself

Ryan Conn:

:

away from that knowledge and staff and from handling those

Ryan Conn:

:

processes. And then everything becomes urgent and crises

Ryan Conn:

:

grow. If you're not getting up now.

Julie Smith:

:

So if I could wrap that up in one sentence, I would say

Julie Smith:

:

you're suggesting people should get out of their own way.

Ryan Conn:

:

Yeah, that's a phrase I've heard you guys quite that.

Ryan Conn:

:

It's absolutely right. The owners need to get out of their

Ryan Conn:

:

own steering wheel.

Wayne Shelton:

:

I'm working on that, Jim.

Julie Smith:

:

I know, I know,

Wayne Shelton:

:

And sometimes not very successfully.

Wayne Shelton:

:

But you know, what do you do, right?

Glenn Harper:

:

So I'll throw this one little tidbit of advice for our

Glenn Harper:

:

listeners. And effectively, when you start a business,

Glenn Harper:

:

you've got to recognize that some things are expenses and

Glenn Harper:

:

some some things are investments.

Glenn Harper:

:

And if you have if you're going to start a business and

Glenn Harper:

:

you're not well capitalized, you're going to have to get

Glenn Harper:

:

advice from mentors or you're going to have to go basically

Glenn Harper:

:

invest in that advice.

Glenn Harper:

:

And the sooner you do that on your journey, the more

Glenn Harper:

:

quickly you will recognize the successes that you're

Glenn Harper:

:

looking for. And so that would be my advice.

Glenn Harper:

:

Would you guys agree with that for our listeners?

Wayne Shelton:

:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Wayne Shelton:

:

And you know, there as you're starting out a new business,

Wayne Shelton:

:

there are three or four people that are key, you know,

Wayne Shelton:

:

working with a good CPA that does planning it well, having

Wayne Shelton:

:

a good attorneys, one of them having a good insurance guys,

Wayne Shelton:

:

one of them, those those are very important people for your

Wayne Shelton:

:

business. And if you don't have all those people, you need

Wayne Shelton:

:

to get us grip.

Glenn Harper:

:

Probably a good masseuse, a good banker, good hair guy, all

Glenn Harper:

:

that stuff. Well, hey, thanks.

Glenn Harper:

:

Thanks for dialing in from down in Kentucky and appreciate

Glenn Harper:

:

it your time with us, and I hope our listeners find some

Glenn Harper:

:

value on that. And again, thanks for joining us.

Glenn Harper:

:

This is Glenn Harper signing off.

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