4:00

What are the elements that we

4:02

should be speaking to? I understand

4:04

it's the outcome, but can you

4:06

give me more detail on that?

4:09

Sure. When I hear accountants maybe

4:11

present their offering, they will talk

4:13

about, we're going to get your

4:16

tax return done. We're going to

4:18

get your bookkeeping done. It's very

4:20

deliverables and features focus. And then

4:22

as a sidebar, they might say,

4:25

and I'll meet with you every

4:27

month or every quarter. But the

4:29

funny thing is, you know, getting

4:32

the data is the laborious part

4:34

that takes, you know, that is,

4:36

that can be time intensive, right?

4:39

To get the data accurate, to

4:41

get the compliance work done. But

4:43

there's massive, massive value in that

4:45

insightful conversation that's much more efficient

4:48

and much less time, right? And

4:50

I think that's, that's like a

4:52

huge, it's a huge thing. Your

4:55

value is not based on your

4:57

time, but when you are, you

4:59

know, building that relationship with that

5:02

client, when you have that conversation

5:04

with that client, You can understand

5:06

more about what their goals are,

5:08

what their challenges are, and help

5:11

them get there, not just by

5:13

telling them and giving them insights,

5:15

but asking powerful questions. Okay, so

5:18

I get that. Now, a lot

5:20

of our listeners are newer or

5:22

smaller firms. You talk about the

5:25

additional advice that they could give

5:27

after they do the compliance. What

5:29

if they don't have that experience?

5:31

I mean the only thing that

5:34

they're really somewhat teaching right in

5:36

college and you know these courses

5:38

is how to do the accounting

5:41

not how to interpret the accounting

5:43

and so to move a business

5:45

forward. So how does a newer

5:48

person actually learn how to become

5:50

an advisor? Yeah. I think that's

5:52

a fantastic question. I think all

5:54

of us in here have had

5:57

some level. of imposter syndrome at

5:59

one time or another, right? Where

6:01

I don't know if I'm good

6:04

enough, right? I know when I

6:06

started consulting in 2018, I was

6:08

like, who the hell am I to tell

6:10

people, you know, educate people to tell people

6:12

what to do to, you know, to

6:14

be a coach or a consultant or whatever.

6:17

I was sweating through my shirt on social

6:19

media, you know, doing live streams. And I

6:21

was nervous as hell. I didn't know how

6:23

to market. I didn't know how to do my

6:26

first sales call. But really, It's not

6:28

just necessarily about reading a textbook,

6:30

right? When I think about, you

6:32

know, building that confidence up,

6:34

it really comes down to two pieces,

6:36

two key pieces. Number one is having

6:38

faith, right? Faith that it's possible.

6:41

And you get faith by, you know, if

6:43

you're religious, of course, you know, from

6:45

above, right? But there's also faith

6:47

from surrounding yourself with the right

6:49

environment, with the people that have

6:51

done it before, right? With a

6:53

great mentor that can help guide

6:56

you and empower you. And that helps

6:58

you to get started, to go from

7:00

zero to one. Now, once we've started

7:02

to get that momentum started,

7:04

we start to build the

7:07

second part, which is evidence,

7:09

where we're actually getting positive

7:11

feedback, positive results from

7:13

clients. And ultimately, when

7:15

we have clients tell us that

7:17

we're doing the great things and

7:20

the wins and the awesome things,

7:22

that helps to build confidence.

7:24

So it's really those two components in

7:26

my experience that have been everything

7:29

and we can't go into this. You

7:31

can't go in expecting 10 out of

7:33

10 confidence. You know, I think that's

7:35

what I would say. No, I love

7:37

it. I mean, community mentorship, right?

7:40

And that's where you're building your

7:42

evidence. I like that word as

7:44

well, too. It's building the confidence

7:46

and also, you know, giving yourself

7:48

a little bit of a learning

7:50

curve to get there. Yeah. Charlie,

7:52

one thing I was thinking

7:54

about is that old, I don't

7:56

know if it's really an analogy,

7:59

but story. Someone has a leaky

8:01

toilet they call the plumber and the

8:03

first plumber can't fix it. He calls

8:05

another plumber and says, oh, I know exactly

8:07

what the problem is. The other plumber

8:09

is changing pipes, he wants work and

8:11

can't fix it. Then the new plumber

8:13

comes and he looks at the wall

8:15

for about three seconds, takes a hammer

8:17

and slowly taps the wall and the leak

8:20

stops. And then he goes, that's $500. And

8:22

the customer's like, it took you three

8:24

seconds. And then his response is it took

8:26

me a lifetime to figure out where to

8:28

tap the hammer. There is still

8:30

the perception of the customer

8:32

related to time, and I don't

8:35

think they value our expertise.

8:37

How do you navigate that

8:39

when the customer says, yeah, but

8:41

it only took you so long? Yeah,

8:43

I think that's a great question,

8:46

Mike. I think when we make this

8:48

pivot to starting to think

8:50

about value-added services, we think

8:52

about our years of expertise

8:55

as the driver, right? But

8:57

honestly, I don't even think

8:59

our clients care about that

9:01

to a certain extent. What they

9:03

care about most is, is this

9:05

person going to help me solve

9:08

my painful problem? So it's really

9:10

about, first of all, asking the

9:12

right questions to understand

9:14

what those challenges and

9:16

what those goals are. Maybe

9:18

not just in the. not just in the

9:21

weeds of like, I'm not happy with my accounting

9:23

system, but maybe it's, hey, I want to retire

9:25

in five years and maybe understanding just big picture.

9:27

I want to be able to retire my

9:29

spouse. You know, those are things that

9:31

I don't think we generally are uncovering

9:34

in our traditional accounting sales process, where

9:36

it's how many transactions do you have,

9:38

you know, software? Yeah. You know, it doesn't,

9:41

you generally, you don't figure out right

9:43

away what those high level goals are.

9:45

And when, but when we do know

9:47

that, and we know with the high

9:49

picture, the high challenges, high. high level

9:51

challenges are, then we can share in

9:53

more detail how we don't just

9:55

compile the data and do the

9:57

compliance work, but how we can

12:00

put in and our team puts

12:02

in for the data, the compliance

12:04

work and getting the data accurate.

12:06

But we don't necessarily understand the

12:08

value of that 10 minute phone

12:11

call that we had with that

12:13

client that changed the game for

12:15

them. Right? Yeah. How often should,

12:17

you know, accountants or bookkeepers be

12:19

communicating or having conversations with their

12:22

customers? I mean, I've seen, you

12:24

know, with CFO and advisory services,

12:26

which is, you know, basically what

12:28

we're helping to craft here. Some

12:30

people like to do quarterly advisory

12:33

meetings. I actually, I think in

12:35

the world that we live in

12:37

today, life changes so fast, especially

12:39

as an entrepreneur and a business

12:41

owner, that if you meet every

12:44

quarter and find out what's going

12:46

on, you're going to hear profit,

12:48

probably a completely different story every

12:50

quarter. Things can change very quickly.

12:52

So I'm a big fan of

12:55

monthly, monthly touch points at the

12:57

very least. just to keep that

12:59

consistency going and to keep that

13:01

consistent progress going. Yeah, probably I'm

13:03

thinking when it comes to communicating

13:06

value in your services, there's certain

13:08

customers that may not be receptive

13:10

to it. They're the commodity purchaser

13:12

and the accountant's accountant. Do you

13:14

have a way to vet those

13:17

folks out or is there a

13:19

way to convert them from commodity

13:21

thinking to value thinking? Well, I

13:23

think you know, there's always a

13:25

way to educate people, right? One

13:28

of my mentors used to say

13:30

like leads aren't found, they're created,

13:32

right? So, or prospects aren't found,

13:34

they're created. And I think that

13:36

comes to mind in, you know,

13:39

we can leverage pre-sales assets or

13:41

assets or structured conversations in our

13:43

sales process to educate them on,

13:45

you know, how, we can provide

13:47

value not just with the tax

13:50

return and the commoditized services, but

13:52

getting clear on, hey, we're not

13:54

just a cookie cutter, a Joe

13:56

Schmo down the street, like every

13:58

other CPA firm. and

22:00

LinkedIn as well. Awesome, guys. We'll

22:02

have that in the show notes. Charlie,

22:04

thank you so much for joining us

22:07

today. It's an honor, guys. And just

22:09

again, I'm so grateful for you

22:11

guys and the incredible work that you

22:13

guys are doing for the industry. No,

22:16

thanks, Charlie. Listeners, reach out to

22:18

Charlie. Tell him Ron and Mike said

22:20

hello. Tell him you heard him on

22:22

GMAP and see how he can help

22:25

you get to these higher billings

22:27

and more lucrative customers. And Mike, let's

22:29

jam out sometime, man, okay? Dude, I

22:31

am so in for that. I am

22:34

so in for that. All right,

22:36

let's do it. All right, brother. Be

22:38

well. All right, thanks, Sean. All right,

22:40

Ron, we got to recap what we

22:43

learned. You also have an OB

22:45

run. I got a GMAP. We're not

22:47

doing a trippy question today, because Liz

22:49

ain't here with us. But why

22:51

don't you share, what was your big

22:54

takeaways from Charlie? Yeah, you know, the

22:56

equation that he gave us early on,

22:58

that the effort in labor equals

23:00

value. That's the world is flat, Mike.

23:03

Much like sales minus expenses equal profit.

23:05

And so I'm sitting here going, holy

23:07

crap. Yeah. So value is in

23:09

the results, much like, you know, the

23:12

real formula is sales minus profit equal

23:14

expenses. Yeah. Yeah. One of my favorite

23:16

things was you talked about having

23:18

faith and either from the community you're

23:21

involved or a religious aspect, but what

23:23

I heard kind of over overarching

23:25

theme is the energy. If you surround

23:27

yourself with an energy that's not supportive

23:30

of this move to a new standard,

23:32

billing practice, it's going to be

23:34

really hard or probably impossible. You are

23:36

who you surround yourself with and I

23:39

thought that was kind of cool that

23:41

he brought that up, but that

23:43

was something I didn't expect. As well

23:45

as you're building your evidence you're building

23:48

for the new folks out there

23:50

each customer You're building your story. You're

23:52

building your marketing. You're building your success

23:54

your evidence if you will Love it.

23:57

All right, Ron. You got that

23:59

weapon of yours I got it, everybody.

24:01

You actually got it right there. If

24:03

you're watching on camera, he's pulled out

24:06

a lightsaber that literally lights up.

24:08

You can't hear because of the

24:10

microphone, but we can't hear it.

24:13

If you're listening to podcast, Ron

24:15

just took the lightsaber and put

24:17

it against his headset. Mike basically

24:20

looked like he was trying to

24:22

suck down or. sword. Easy. Easy.

24:24

Easy. Easy. All right, guys. All

24:27

right. Value starts at hello,

24:29

everybody. If you want to

24:31

demonstrate a better type of. customer,

24:33

then you have to ask better

24:35

questions, right? And so Profit First

24:38

Professionals has created a whole framework

24:40

that positions you to be more

24:42

of the consultative expert. The authority,

24:44

as Charlie says, when you become

24:46

the authority, you get to share,

24:48

you get to dictate. And so

24:50

if anybody is interested in value

24:52

starts at hello, that framework, all

24:54

you have to do is email

24:56

me at Ron at profitfirstprofessionals.com. Hey,

24:58

Ron, send me value starts at

25:00

hello. I will personally email it

25:02

to you. I love that run.

25:05

I can hear explosions going off

25:07

everywhere. I got one last tip

25:09

for you is the GMAP Nowtask.

25:11

If you do this, you will

25:13

see results. I call it the

25:15

invisible upgrade. There are services I

25:17

guarantee within your accounting or

25:19

bookkeeping or coaching practice that

25:21

you provide without telling the

25:24

client. You double check your work.

25:26

You use a third party that's

25:28

validating something you've researched. You have

25:30

a compendium of knowledge you pile

25:32

through. But you don't tell the customer, is

25:35

this de facto? I'm telling you, make

25:37

that invisible offering now visible. Tell

25:39

the customer about it and adjust

25:41

your pricing accordingly, because that is

25:44

your value. So now you have more awareness

25:46

from your customer, a higher price

25:48

point, and no extra work. That's the

25:50

invisible upgrade. Well, if you're listening to

25:52

this, I just dropped the mic. Okay, so

25:54

we're going to watch. All right, Ron, we

25:57

got to get out of here. We're going

25:59

to transition to... Hold on, hold on,

26:01

hold on. We're not quite done just

26:03

yet, guys. OK. Thank you, Charlie.

26:05

Thank you, listeners. Don't forget to review

26:08

and subscribe to Grow My Academy

26:10

Practice Podcast so you never miss a

26:12

wonderful episode of us. Ron, thank

26:14

you for doing that. And I want

26:16

to insist for our listeners, check

26:18

out profitfirstprofessionals.com. Have a conversation with Ron.

26:21

Have a conversation with another team

26:23

member here. But let's see if Profit

26:25

First Professionals is a fit for you

26:27

in 2025. This is the year

26:29

that everything changes for you for

26:31

more profitability. Again, Proffirstprofessional.com, you'll see

26:34

the application button there waiting for

26:36

you. All right, Ron, we can

26:38

get out of here. Bye, guys.