Empowering Entrepreneurs: Roger Knecht's Mission to Educate

Ever wondered how a moment of clarity can redefine your career trajectory? Baz Porter sits down with Roger Knecht, President of Universal Accounting Center, to unravel the transformative journey from young ambition to leadership excellence. Within the candid dialogue, Roger recalls a pivotal point that honed his purpose in the accounting arena, advocating for robust small business education and marking the challenges and opportunities ahead for accounting professionals.

This episode isn't just about crunching numbers; it examines the soul of commerce. As Roger and I dissect the essence of authenticity in business, you'll hear tales of true connection in an increasingly digital world, finding your voice amidst the cacophony, and the monumental impact of accountants who offer insights that empower entrepreneurs. My narrative of becoming a brand's face weaves through our discussion, highlighting the delicate interplay between personal branding and authentic engagement in our social media-dominated landscape.

We conclude with a heart-to-heart on what success really means—beyond balance sheets and income statements. Delving into the interplay of professional achievement, family values, and inner resilience, we share experiences of weathering storms, such as Universal Accounting's bold pivot during the 2008 recession. You'll walk away with a newfound appreciation for the resilience of leadership and the keys to nurturing a thriving business without forsaking personal well-being. Join us for an episode that promises to inspire, challenge, and transform your perspective on leadership and life.

Colorado’s best business coach, Baz Porter, has a new mindset strategy mentoring service to help you unlock new heights of growth, prosperity, happiness, and success. Book your first meeting with the coaching visionary at https://www.ramsbybaz.com/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Good evening morning, wherever you are from, welcome to another episode of Rice and the Ashes. I'm your host, baz Porter, and it is a privilege to have this guest here today. I've known him for quite some time and he's very heavy on LinkedIn. He's an acquaintance, he is a comrade and he helps people, change people's lives. Let me introduce to you the world, roger Connect Roger. Please say hello to everybody and introduce yourself.

Speaker 2: 0:28

First of all, baz, thank you for the opportunity. Roger Connect President Universal Accounting Center. I would like to consider myself a husband, father and son Awesome.

Speaker 1: 0:37

So tell me about how you became doing what you're doing today. You don't have to start at the very beginning. Can you tell me about a story that gave flight to what you're doing today? You don't have to start at the very beginning. Can you tell me about a story that gave flight to what you are doing today?

Speaker 2: 0:51

Yeah, happy to. So one of the things that really was pivotal in my life is I was in a position where and this is years ago, about 30 years ago I was like many people in my circle which were we were in our twenties, we were trying many things and where I'm at, there were a lot of multi-level marketing companies. There were a number of opportunities where we could go out and forge our own destiny and become very successful and clearly there were people around me that were doing very well and earning six, seven figures and it was very impressive and I got to be exposed to those opportunities and I remember distinctly in my oh, this is mid to late 20sM were appealing, they were alluring, they're good people, good opportunities. But it wasn't for me and I bring all that up simply to say that I was ambitious, I had a lot of hands in many different pots and I was trying a lot of things.

Speaker 2: 1:57

It came to the point where in my career this is late 1990s I have a child.

Speaker 2: 2:01

I'm in a position where I need to become a little bit more focused.

Speaker 2: 2:04

I think if I just put all of my eggs in one basket, I might be able to make this work if I actually just hustled for one thing and that was some advice that I think my wife was trying to give me as I was too distracted, I was spread too thin, and so at that point I basically realized I needed to focus, and the opportunity presented itself with Universal Accounting Center. It was this or another company that I could work with and I took it, and it was a leap of faith, but it was something I was enjoying doing. I had some consulting opportunities with the school at the time and literally started in 1999 as a part-time employee, quickly went full-time, and I've been with Universal Accounting ever since, which is an oddity. To consider that I've been with the company now 25 years is something impressive, and many people cannot relate to that. Yeah, lots of stories in there. As your podcast indicates, I've risen from the ashes a number of times in my journey, and that's how it started, if you will.

Speaker 1: 3:00

So what is the most prevalent story for you about overcoming adversity, whether it be in your personal or maybe in your business? Whatever you wish to share.

Speaker 2: 3:11

I could do both, but I'll share one that comes to mind. There was a distinct moment in my career. I had been given the opportunity to become the third president of Universal Accounting Center. So I'd had a successful career, ups and downs along the way, many challenges and such but now I'm president of the school. I'm not a CPA, I'm not an accountant by trade, but I was given the opportunity to run an accounting school and that's something that really put me outside of my comfort zone.

Speaker 2: 3:37

So one of the directions that was given to me by the previous president was to attend a number of conferences go meet the peers, meet our students, understand what's going on in the accounting profession. And I was in the audience at a conference and I heard from the stage and individuals speaking to things that really I recognized. I realized we could do a better job of explaining these principles. I could do a better job on the stage teaching these talking points, and it was an epiphany. It was a realization of whose permission do I need to now give back? Who is it that I'm needing to get a blessing from to say I can actually now contribute and give back to my community?

Speaker 2: 4:18

And that realization was an epiphany. It was something that I realized then. And there I have a voice, I have something to share, I have something to give back. We had already, as an organization, achieved Inc 500, inc 5000, utah 100 type accolades, so clearly we knew what we were doing, but I, for whatever reason, just had this insecurity as to whether or not I had the right to say anything. That's far gone and, as you now know, I'm very prominent within the accounting profession. I'm very vocal as to what I think and say, because I've gained, I found my voice, I got confident.

Speaker 1: 4:53

That's one of the things that I like about you and actually drew me to you when I first met, I first reached out. Was that authenticity, was that voice? Because people people as you've probably experienced are so afraid to speak up, they're so afraid to go this and then speak into it, but in there, from an elevated point of view, not as an argument as such, but what about this view? What about that view? In your experience, through growing your company and being a part of 25 years of growth in Inc 500 and having that achievement of success, is there anything that really stood out to you going this needs to be resolved in the finance world and if so, how did you go about actually resolving that?

Speaker 2: 5:42

That's an excellent question. So in the accounting world there is a problem and it's something that I've maybe I've championed it, but I've definitely encouraged the dialogue about it which is to say, I feel we're failing the small business community as account, as a profession, accounting profession I think we can do a much better job educating our clients as to what it is that the businesses are saying via the accounting information. Accounting is the language of business, and so the financial reports that we use in business are meant to tell a narrative and it's meant to help the business owner make more informed business decisions better informed business decisions. But what we do as a profession is we lack communicating that to the client in a way that it's useful. We give them the financial reports, the income statement, the balance sheet, the cash flow statement and we presume that our work is done, and unfortunately it's not.

Speaker 2: 6:33

We need to be a lot more engaged with our clients and help them understand what we're seeing. We have a perspective, a unique perspective. We're not involved in the day-to-day operations of the business, and yet we have this insight that too many in the accounting profession feel that it's either not their responsibility or right to say anything, or they're just not paid or given the time to do it and therefore they don't speak up, and I'm trying to give voice to the accounting community to say this is something that we should be communicating to our clients. We need to help the economy and this is our role to do so. I've become very emboldened with this.

Speaker 1: 7:07

I love that. I had an experience in my younger days of entrepreneurship. Going through the experience I had, I wasn't told the whole scope of where I was going wrong. I didn't sit down with me and say these numbers don't match what you're doing and we can improve here and here. I had to figure that out myself. In your experience, do you find with your clients that you're doing more one-on-one mentorship in guiding them into where they want to be, or is it just this is what my role is and you stand back and let them do?

Speaker 2: 7:42

it. Wonderful question and, yes, your experience that you just shared is very familiar. Let me answer your question by saying this there are distinct roles in accounting. There's bookkeeping versus accounting, versus CFO, versus advisory, and you get what you pay for. If you're paying for bookkeeping services, it's arguable that you're going to get the bookkeeping and that's all you're going to receive.

Speaker 2: 8:04

But what the bookkeeper is able to do is more accounting, which is analysis and give you perspective, and what you were describing a moment ago as it related to your business is too often, as a company, you've struggled with what's called cashflow, and so you might be doing well, in the sense that you're selling your services, the product is resonating with your customer base, you're obviously having great sales and transactions, but what you're missing is the cashflow needed to either deliver that product or service and do so profitably, and so on the books, from an accrual point of view, you may look successful From a cash point of view, and what you have in the bank to pay the bills, take care of payroll and so forth doesn't appear to be the same, and so it's very confusing for the business owner to understand. Okay, what's going wrong here, and the business model may be broken and the one that can clearly identify that is oftentimes the accountant. And whether it be the accountant or the CFO to come in and say the business model isn't working. You got a great product, you got a great service, but the model isn't working. We need to change something here. We need to change the pricing, we need to change the gap in between payables and receivables.

Speaker 2: 9:12

All of these types of things are essential for the success of the business, but too often the business owner is so involved in the day-to-day operations they can't see what's happening and they need to step back and get that perspective. That's where that coincidental phrase of working on the business becomes so essential. You've got to step back from the day-to-day operations and the accountant enables that conversation. They have the data that can actually provide a good deal of information and wisdom that we're hoping that we'll get through this experience. And yeah, I'm very passionate about entrepreneurs who start their businesses. They have something to offer the community, they have a product or service that clearly needs to be on the market, but they don't have the business sense to be successful. And the accounting profession can bring in, try to improve in business models and assist with that. And so the story, if you will, that I try to bring into the accounting community is the voice to the accountant to say you should be speaking up.

Speaker 1: 12:54

And I think that's great insight for somebody listening now who's going through this transition of I'm in love with my product, I know it works as selling, but the numbers aren't adding up. There's no cash in the bank, there's no forward momentum and I'm not gaining enough finance or cash and you can't spend the profit. There's no forward momentum and I'm not gaining enough finance or cash and you can't spend the profit. There's all of that jazz.

Speaker 2: 13:14

The. Thing.

Speaker 1: 13:14

I like about you is you deliver it in such a way that is receivable, with a story, and you've come from 25 years experience sharing not just your expertise but yourself. Do you find that people gravitate towards you and your business because of that authenticity, because of the thing that gels you together like attracts, like essentially? Do you find that at all.

Speaker 2: 13:41

I do and there's a lot I want to address with this. I'm going to share a little bit of a story here. This was back in the early 2000s. I was in the management of the company. We had a retreat and we were talking as a business as to what we were going to do, moving forward, and it was a very distinct discussion about are we going to be a people-focused business, meaning put out our product and so forth with a face, or were we going to play the logo and be Nike Just not a name, not a face, but just a brand? And we chose at the time a brand.

Speaker 2: 14:12

But when social media came on the scene about five, 10 years ago, it started to be clear that you can't really successfully market a brand. It's too impersonal. And so I had this challenge going on, where I was involved in that conversation and now I'm president of the company Am I really going to be the face of the business? Am I supposed to put myself out there? And I remember in the early days of Facebook, people were posting what they're eating and so forth. I'm doing the laundry. I just don't need to be that kind of individual that's posting all the time about nonsensical things. That's not who I am, and today people would refer to it as being an influencer. I just didn't see that as being me.

Speaker 2: 14:56

But a number of years ago, I came to realize that, in order to represent the business, I had to be approachable. I had to be someone that people could identify with and someone needed to share this message, and I had to be the voice of the company, the ambassador, and that was a hard thing for me. I consider myself to be a private individual. I consider myself to be someone that is more conservative by nature, and I needed to say okay, if I'm going to go public, if I'm going to be out there and have people become aware of me, who am I going to be? Am I going to be an actor and am I going to impersonate something that I think the audience wants to see, or am I going to be me and are they going to be drawn to me? And the first thing I had to recognize is do I like myself? Am I comfortable in my own skin? Do I feel that who I am is someone I'm proud of? And I had to get very clear with myself as to am I someone that I authentically want to go online with whatever medium, and just be me. That was the first thing I had to address for myself. And that's a huge decision, because you've got to look in the mirror and recognize are you comfortable with who you, are you proud of what you stand for? And that's something I had to do personally and professionally. And that brings me into my second thing.

Speaker 2: 16:01

Once I became comfortable with okay, I'm going to record a video, I'm going to take a picture, I'm going to comment on something, say something online to basically be taken by the masses and seen by anyone and everyone. Once I came to that realization, I had to think through okay, I'm going to resonate with certain individuals. My competition is going to resonate with other individuals. And here's what my second point is I had to recognize that Not everyone was going to like me, not everyone was going to resonate with me, Not everyone was going to be drawn to me. They very well may be drawn to my competition. That look, that feel that messaging from someone else may appeal to someone that I'm not connecting with, and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 16:48

I had to realize and this is my third point that there is an abundance of opportunity out there.

Speaker 2: 16:55

I did not have to feel that I was in competition with my competitors that I needed to take from them to be successful. There's enough out there that they can be successful and I can be successful. It wasn't that I was in this contentious relationship and I was hoping for their failure. They're fine. Let them be successful, because I will resonate with those that are drawn to me. Those are the people I want to work with because they're like me and if you go at that idea, I think it's very comfortable. So when I look at what I refer to as influencers people out there that I would argue and I question is that who they are once the screen, the television or the picture screen is turned off, I don't know. I wonder and I see enough reality TV I'm like, really You're saying and doing this is what you're going to do on national television. I think I had to become comfortable with who I am. So long little answer there. But there you go, no, I love that.

Speaker 1: 17:54

I can resonate with what you're saying, because I went through a similar journey and it wasn't about in competition with somebody else, it was the mindset switch of everybody can be successful. And then I went into and I don't want to touch on this briefly is can you define what success is to you? Because that's a personal journey. It's different for everybody. One version of success is something else for another influencer, but for yourself, what is that? Does that look like for you? Is it contentment? Is it family? Is it contributing to the future? What?

Speaker 2: 18:32

is it? What is it?

Speaker 1: 18:33

Success.

Speaker 2: 18:34

Oh, this is a wonderful question. First of all, I've heard it broken down into two phrases Do you want to be rich or do you want to be famous? That's a hard question to answer and, yes, if you had to pick between one or the other, you can pick one. But here's my answer to the question. Responsible is the president of the company, to the first of all, the board.

Speaker 2: 18:49

Clearly, I'm in business to make money, so success is defined as am I doing more year over year? Am I more profitable? Am I making money? That's my job, that's what I'm paid to do, and I'm not embarrassed to say I'm here to make money. That's what the whole purpose of the company is, and if I'm not making money, the lifeblood of the business runs dry and we will close down. So clearly, my job is to make money, but at the same time, I'm also responsible to my family.

Speaker 2: 19:12

I've got to hold my name in good rapport, and what I mean by that is I take honor in being a connect. I remember very young having a conversation with my grandfather and he was honored with who I was. I was doing some things when I was 19 that he was very pleased with, 19 that he was very pleased with and that meant a lot to me. That in his eyes he saw me as someone he was proud of. And when I saw that same pride by my father when I became successful in business, he never saw me as president of the company, by the way, so that's something that he's passed and he never got to see me in this role. But there's a good deal of pride to say that I'm holding my family name up and with honor.

Speaker 2: 19:55

And then I've got my own family as it relates to my spouse and children. I want them to understand that I do what I do for them and there's a number of sacrifices that have been made along the way and travel, being away from the children when they were teenagers just a lot of sacrifice. But at the end of the day I think they understand now that it was all for a reason and there was a good long-term benefit from it. My children are all grown married now and I have phenomenal relationships with them. And why? Because it comes down to a principle I was taught when I was a teenager which is no success outside of the home is worth failure in the home. You can't compensate for that failure. You have to always put forth an effort to maintain and retain relationships with those that matter in your life family and friends. And yes, sacrifices are made, but at the end of the day, I'd like to think that I have good family relations and friends.

Speaker 1: 20:48

I love that and I love the distinction you made there about the sacrificing from family to the home. People get this notion that to be famous or to be rich it makes them happy or they make them successful. It's not the case, and I've been through that. Many people have and they come to a pinnacle and they're like what else is there? They're like what else is there? What you're speaking into is having that balance, but also it's come from a personal perspective of these are my values and, as a president of the company and a family man, these values must be passed on and I love that about you. When we talk about resilience and the distinction between resilience and courage In your words, what are the differences between courage and resilience? How do they match up and how do they show up in your life?

Speaker 2: 21:40

I would say courage is the ability to do something that some people would be reluctant to do. It's the ability to do the uncomfortable. It's the ability and the willingness to do what has to be done. So courage is something that we need to find well within ourselves. Resilience is the stick-to-itiveness, it's the fact that we're going to be persistent, that we're not going to quit, and resilience just says, as things get hard, we realize maybe now is when we double down, and I also think that you learn as you get older that this too shall pass as well.

Speaker 2: 22:14

You can sustain yourself, and I think, whether it be in the military or as an athlete, you realize your body and your mind can do a lot more than I think you give it credit for. And to be resilient in business means that if you've got a clear passion, you've got a clear purpose, you can actually, with your business model, trust the process. If you've got a good, defined business model, you can say, okay, your business model, trust the process. If you've got a good, defined business model, you can say, okay, I can see how this will work and you can see what needs to be tweaked or changed or what modifications need to be made to make the business model work. I'm not saying you just work harder and trust that it'll happen. There's got to be a system that you're developing, but the resilience is the ability to just stick to it.

Speaker 1: 22:54

I like that when you look at mentors or mentorship, who's your real life rock star? Who's really been there for you, not just as a guide but as a light in these dark times?

Speaker 2: 23:08

I can't say that there's any one person, but I'm going to tell you that I've surrounded myself with peers. I have a good friendship with a number of individuals that are business owners, some more successful than me, me more so than a few of them, and what I mean is there's a statement out there that says that we're the sum total of the five people we spend the most time with. I fully believe that, and so I have intentionally surrounded myself with individuals that I see as great fathers, great husbands, great business owners, great business men. And, for example, for 10 years, we've been going up into the mountains to go snowmobiling every winter. We go out and do various activities. I'm going on a cruise in four weeks with them and their families.

Speaker 2: 23:51

Why? Because I want to surround myself by these individuals. I see them as people I want to emulate, and so it's not one particular person, but as a mentor. Yes, I'm a man of faith, I go to church, and so there are individuals there that I esteem that, at a personal level, mean a lot to me In business. There are individuals that I associate with. They matter. Why? Because I'm learning them, I'm trying to observe, I'm trying to take in what I can from what's their excellence and apply it in my life.

Speaker 1: 24:21

Yeah, I like that. Someone once told me if you're not learning, you're not growing, and if you're not growing, you're dying. I've always. I'm the same as you put yourself in difficult situations. Learn from your peers. Surround yourself with good, authentic people that help you grow on that journey. I want to touch on something now that defies something called defying the odds. Is there anything that's happened in your career, or even life, that no one thought you could do, or someone thought it was impossible, and yet, despite that person's view or people's view on that, you overcame, coming into success? Is there anything along those lines that you can share?

Speaker 2: 24:59

Yeah, this is. I'm going to go out on a limb here and I might be a little too open, but we'll give it a shy, we'll see. Here's my hesitation and reluctance. It has to do with universal accounting. When I became president of the school, the challenge that we were facing was around. It was just after 2008 and the business was going through quite a bit of trial and we were struggling only because of the fact that everyone in the economy was struggling.

Speaker 2: 25:23

There was a lot of transition going on and, just to give it some context for the listeners, we were organized as a school back in 1979. As a traditional school, it would be campuses, classrooms, instructors, people going to a school and learning. We had to go through a number of transitions, one of which was in that period of time, and it meant that we had to transition to where we were an independent school, meaning that all of our curriculum was taught online and closed down all the campuses, let all those go. All the brick and mortar was gone. That was a huge change to the business model, how we make money, and I was very involved with that transition and as we reinvented the company, there were a number of individuals that felt that because it was such a dramatic change that drastic change was going to be detrimental to the business. We didn't know that the model was going to work because it was brand new.

Speaker 2: 26:11

Where I want to go with this, just to keep the story short, is the fact that there were a number of people that felt that the company would not survive, and I remember at that time I started to talk to some headhunters. I started to put out my resume and say, if something comes along, that's better. I should be smart and for my family and for my own career entertaining who's to think I'm going to retire and die here. I was younger, it was 15 years ago and nothing said. I had to be here at Universal Accounting for 25 years. I struggled with the business. It was hard. We were changing. The company wasn't what it was, and for it to move forward, I, as the president, needed to put my fingerprint on it and say this is where we're going. We're going to go take that hill. We were going this direction, we're going that direction. Everybody trust me, get on, let's go.

Speaker 2: 27:01

And there were a lot of costly investments that were lost. There were a lot of decisions that were not successful. I fired best friends. I fired colleagues. I fired my spouse. I fired colleagues. I fired my spouse. I fired people that were close to I fired one of the business owners that was one of the principals in the company.

Speaker 2: 27:19

It got ugly and it was all with. The intent of. This is how I feed my family and I have other employees here at the company that feed their families based on our success or failure. And this isn't going to. This ship isn't going down under my watch.

Speaker 2: 27:35

And I at one point had to have that come to Jesus moment with myself to say am I bailing, am I jumping ship or am I going to ride this one out? And I had to look around and see do I have the right people? I had to look around and see am I on the boat that's not going to sink? Can I make this work?

Speaker 2: 27:54

And as ugly as it got, as hard as it got, as many sleepless nights as there were, as many financial challenges that we experienced as we changed our marketing and advertising to try and find what resonated and made us money. It got ugly and we lost money. But through those hard times I have now grown to value and appreciate the successes we're experiencing today. So it's hard to take a business that's been very successful and watch it almost crash and burn. And to be part of that pivoting change was hard and the investors lose faith in you. The investors want to. The rats are bailing out of the darn ship so it got ugly. So, yeah, for me that's one of the rise from the ash moments. I rose from the ashes and I'm proud, happy to say we are where we are today because we're doing very well.

Speaker 1: 28:46

Wouldn't you say that these moments in adversity or challenging decision actually makes or breaks a company, and if you jump ship too early, there's a possibility of never knowing?

Speaker 2: 28:59

You've got to understand as the leader, when you're at the helm, everyone's looking to you. I'm the energizer bunny. If I come in and I'm distraught and I don't have any passion for what's happening, why would I assume anyone else in the organization is excited and happy? Everyone's looking to me to see okay, is there going to be a tomorrow? And I'll just be very candid.

Speaker 2: 29:20

There was a time, with the principles of the business, I was having a weekly meeting every Monday and every Friday as to whether or not the business was going to be in business the next week. We would have discussions Are we letting people go next week? We established a standard. This is the milestone. If we do this, we'll stay in business next week and not let anyone go. We did that for months.

Speaker 2: 29:41

It was so stressful. Twice a week we were assessing Friday. Here's what has to happen in the business with cashflow, with sales, with so many very specific things, very specific things. Monday we met did we meet those things? Okay, we're not going to make these changes.

Speaker 2: 29:57

Sometimes the changes did happen, but so often it was looking around and seeing this. Clearly, people can see things aren't awesome and so, as I'm walking in the door, I've got to be able to say we can get through this. I've got a path, we're going to make it through this. Be able to say we can get through this. I've got a path, we're going to make it through this. And it was me trying to inspire the masses, to help them realize they can't bail ship. I don't want them leaving. I need them on board. I need them to stick around. There were certain key individuals I couldn't lose, and if they thought that I'm bailing and I'm going to leave, why would I expect them to stick around? I needed them to stay.

Speaker 2: 30:33

So it gets to a point where, during those hard times, it was hard to sleep at nights, it was hard to not work long hours, it was hard not to do these things, but I did it because I had a passion, a commitment. There's a sense of loyalty that I bring to my character and to my employment, and when I have investors and employees looking at me, I didn't see it as a job. It wasn't just something I could just quit and go somewhere else. I had something more that was going on here, a legacy and an opportunity If I could put my name on something. And once I figured out I could and I should. I did. This is one of the things.

Speaker 1: 31:06

I love about you because it's the legacy part that I'm so attached to. It's building other people up and leaving the impact for the future. And without going through these journeys, without making these hard decisions and they are hard, we've all had if you're an entrepreneur out there listening to go haven't had a sleepless night you're not an entrepreneur yet. Go back and start again. If you've not fired somebody, you're not an entrepreneur yet. If you've not got that, you've not had these experiences. You're going to have them.

Speaker 1: 31:38

But for those people who can resonate with this and have fired people and they've had no sleep for three days because they're worrying about what to do, I know people who have measured and managed their business three times a day and made similar decisions that you've had, and these are hard conversations to have. They're human beings you're providing value to, whether it be financial value or a job whatever. Can you name five tips for people in high-stakes situations now possibly going through these transitions? We've just had the invention of AI and the transition is still going on. It's changing every day that landscape, coming into the company and leveling things up. People are afraid of losing their jobs through other technology. Can you advise the senior audience now people who are already successful. Five tips of building resilience and sustainability within their companies.

Speaker 1: 32:33

You've done so well with that.

Speaker 2: 32:36

Certainly. I'll give you a few things, first of which is passion. You've got to find what it is you're passionate about as it relates to business, especially for your company. People need to be able to see in you that there's something going on here and they want to be a part of it, and this is contagious to both your customers and your employees. That passion is essential and there's various things that you can do to find or reinvigorate that passion, because it can diminish. One is you need to engage with your community, whether that's conferences, associations. You need to be engaged with your industry and be a leader in there, get engaged and participate, and I think it's from that that you can sustain the passion. I also encourage you, with passion, to really pay attention to what's going on, as to the talking points in your industry. Do you know what's changing and what the opinions are about it, and do you have an opinion? Can you basically articulate what the opposing thoughts are and can you explain why yours is right? And that passion is contagious?

Speaker 2: 33:33

The second thing I would say is you need to have commitment. It's that can do, will do, attitude. You've got to be willing to do anything and everything, and for the entrepreneur, those that are listening. Clearly we've got it. We'll work the long hours, we'll take out the garbage, we're going to do whatever it takes to especially take care of our customers and our employees. But that commitment means sacrifice and there are going to be things that you're going to give up, and you do have to figure out what you're going to prioritize and draw the lines at some time.

Speaker 2: 34:00

One of the things that I learned as a business owner is there is always work to be done. Every day ends with me saying I stop here and it will be there when I get back tomorrow. There's never a day I finished going wow, there's nothing to do. I guess I can just go home early today. No, that never happens. I'm always in a position where there's something else that I can get sucked into and work for another 15, 20 an hour and I just I've got to draw the line in the sand and say, okay, enough's enough, I got to go somewhere else.

Speaker 2: 34:25

The third thing I would say is you need to have quality. You need to have a consistent quality product that stands out from the competition. Why is someone spending money with you? And it comes down to quality. It's the delivery of your product service. I like consistency. Some people sell on the fact that they actually offer a unique customer experience and that's totally fine, but more often a business model is based on I'm building something that is redundant, consistent, something that's sustainable. You've got to be very clear to your customers and to your employees how you do that, and that's procedures and processes. You've got to set expectations, manage those.

Speaker 2: 35:02

The next thing I would say is knowledge of the numbers For everyone listening, especially in the upper esalance of the company, the CEO suites. You have to know the numbers and numbers are your friends. Know them backwards and forwards, know history, know projections and forecasts. You've got to know what the standard is. These key metrics, kpis, are essential to running the business. Never should we be blindsided in our businesses. We were looking at leading indicators that gave us a clear indication of what the lagging indicators will be in business. You have to know your numbers in business.

Speaker 2: 35:37

And the last I'm going to say is personal time. More often than not, I work with a lot of successful individuals and because of what we do, we're passionate and so forth. We're workaholics, we tend to just love what we do. We get sucked into our business and it's not a job, and because of that we're happy to be doing it. We do it beginning to end. We do it on vacations. We think about it all the time. That's wonderful. But personal time you've got to be able to find time for yourself, the relationships that matter, hobbies, interests. You've got to recharge that passion that you have. If you don't recharge it, life passes by way too quickly and you're going to live with too many regrets. You've got to get out there and do things. You don't live to work, you work to live. And if you can keep that perspective, you can be happy.

Speaker 1: 36:21

I love that. Is there anybody, or is there any movement you would actually have in the world if you were to create a movement today? Leave this podcast and go right. I want to create a movement. This is what we're going to do. What would that movement be?

Speaker 2: 36:34

I'm going to give you an answer that you're not expecting. I think God has been removed too much from society. I'm sickened by the fact that so many people are self-focused and selfish, that we're seeing the decay of our society around us, and I do not like the fact that people don't feel accountability to anyone or anything, and because of that, I think people are making horrible decisions. Personally, culturally, societally, I think we're in a position here where we're self-destructing and one of the things that we need to see ourselves as brothers and sisters and we need to see ourselves as a human entity. We are basically fighting ourselves, and this is just sickening. So for me, being a man of faith, I would say it's God. We've got to get to the point where we recognize that we are different than the animals. We are offsprings as gods.

Speaker 2: 37:26

I was taught a phrase when I was in my youth that has resonated with me all of my life, and it's I am a child of God. A prince am I, and I act accordingly. I believe that I've got some divinity, that all of us have divinity within us. We're not just a creation, we are offspring, and what I mean by that is to say we have great potential, and that's very important to me, because I believe that what we're doing is sabotaging ourselves as to happiness, sabotaging ourselves as to what we can do. We've done great things, and it's not to say that society doesn't have a lot of good today. There's lots of wonderful things going on, but at the same time, I just see so many self-destructive things going on, and there's a lot to be proud of, a lot to be grateful for, and I think, as a society, we need to get back to that. There's my answer.

Speaker 1: 38:13

No, I love that answer. I think you're right. In a short, I think that we do need to come back to, as a society, resonation with faith within ourselves and if that takes God, it takes another entity that you believe in. That's your belief, but I believe humanity is losing that perspective within us and it's causing massive destruction on many layers in the world. Thank you for that. Is there any way you would like to send people if they want to get into contact with you?

Speaker 2: 38:46

Most certainly. Clearly, you mentioned earlier LinkedIn. I'm very involved in LinkedIn, so if you want to, you can search my name, connect. Happy to do that, message me, love to start a conversation, happy to do that. The other thing I would invite everyone to go to universalaccountingcom. Universalaccountingcom has a number of free resources for business owners. We've got some eBooks, some courses, just a variety of resources to help business owners be more intentional and deliberate while they work on their business. And if you're interested in some of those insights that you can use in your business, definitely go to there and take advantage of those free resources to work on your company. And then, lastly, it's my podcast. I do have a podcast. I try to address a variety of business principles as it relates to companies, and would invite your listeners, if they're wanting, to listen in on that as well.

Speaker 1: 39:29

Awesome, roger. All of them links will be in the bios and also in the blogs that will go out, so thank you very much for your time. I really do appreciate this conversation and I appreciate your time here with me.

Speaker 2: 39:40

It was a pleasure, Baz. I appreciate this and I hope your listeners got from it some actionable items and, most importantly, remember this if it's about accounting, it is universal.

Speaker 1: 39:49

Of course. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for joining me. This is Roger Connect. Please connect with him. His links are all in the bio. For myself please share the message change someone's life. For myself, I'm Baz Porter. Live with purpose and inspire the legacy. My friends have a great day.