Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Cool Careers in Accounting Ep. 4 - Building a Career from CPA to Finance VP with Tory Bauman
259 Plays3 months ago
Tory Bauman is a CPA and VP of Finance at Zayo, an international fiber optic networking company. Listen to her refreshingly honest perspective about growing her career from a Big 4 firm through a finance position, starting her own firm, and eventually coming back to finance. Learn from her story showcasing the breadth of what is possible with a background in accounting.
Earn CPE by listening to this podcast through a Becker Prime CPE subscription.
Listen to this episode through your Becker LMS platform to complete practice questions, pass the final exam, and earn CPE credit.
Already a Becker Prime CPE customer? Login here.
Have access to Becker CPE through your employer? Earn CPE credit for this podcast however you consume Becker CPE, either through your company’s LMS or via the Becker platform. Not sure where to log in? Check with your CPE admin.
Learn more about CPE Podcasts from Becker: https://www.becker.com/cpe/becker-podcasts
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: Cool Careers in Accounting
00:00:09
Speaker
Okay, Spencer Payne here with Cool Careers in Accounting, Becker Podcasts. This episode is with Tori Bauman, CPA and VP of Finance. Bear with us at the very beginning of the episode, we started chatting before the recording picked up. So all I asked was, can you introduce yourself, your title and what it is that you do? And she says, CPA, VP of Finance at Zayo and then immediately leads in with with more detail when the episode starts.
00:00:35
Speaker
So that's one. And then two, the audio is ah a little bit garbled in a couple spots. We apologize, but the recording was so good and she was so such a great storyteller and there was such an organic give and take that we wanted to maintain this episode. We couldn't recreate it if we tried. So we kept going because the content we wanted to give to you, we thought was so good, even though the audio is ah a little rough in spots. So bear with us because we think this is a great episode and Tori certainly has a cool career in accounting. Thank you.
Zayo's Evolution and Technology
00:01:03
Speaker
um When you think telecommunications, you probably think about AT and&T, Verizon, some of those big kind of cellular wireless carriers. We actually provide the backbone to their networks. So we are the like largest independent fiber network provider in in the US. We also have about 10% of our operations in Europe. um It's a really interesting story. When ah you know the internet was kind of booming, fiber technology was created.
00:01:30
Speaker
There was a lot of small independent fiber networks that were being built throughout cities and metros. And what fiber is, it it's a glass cable that's either in the ground or that runs along the telephone poles that transmits data at the speed of light. So if you send a text message, um it's truly not a wireless handset. You're you're pinging a cell phone tower, which has been connected to fiber in the ground. And that runs to the next cell phone tower to ping whoever you're he so So fun paradox, all this wireless technology is wireless maybe to us, but it is on the backs of a whole bunch of wires that we don't see. but Yeah, there's a lot of wires in wireless. yeah So at that time, Zayo was founded in 2007 and seven and um there was a little bit of a fiber glut. People had overbuilt fiber um for the demand. ah The equipment was getting a lot more efficient.
00:02:25
Speaker
So you know back in the day, you could maybe run one gigabyte of data through a single fiber strand. Now you can run 400 gigabytes of data through a single fiber strand. So it's the same fiber technology, but the equipment that's being put on each end has gotten a lot more efficient.
00:02:41
Speaker
And so there was a lot of fiber companies out there. I'm sorry, real quick, just so I understand. So that's a 400X increase over the amount of data that can run through the exact same fiber. The fiber has not changed. It's more the the the networks around the fiber that have basically allowed the capacity that was already there to be unleashed. Is that accurate? Yeah, that's exactly right. And if you think about you know your home internet, you can get a gig of internet to your house now versus whatever megabits, you know, 60 megabits you had before.
00:03:11
Speaker
The technology that's bringing the internet to your home hasn't necessarily changed, like the fiber cable that but connects your house to you know the world wide web hasn't changed, it's the equipment and the routers that are allowing you to access more capacity.
Financial Strategies and Challenges
00:03:29
Speaker
Wow, and and how did you how did you end up at this company and what is what is your role there and and maybe share a little bit of What are some of the things that you are responsible for delivering as ah as a CPA at this company over say the next 12 months? Yeah, so um um I work in the finance department. We are responsible for all of our budgeting, forecasting. We get pretty technical with a lot of our operational teams, you know helping them determine, um should we invest in this market? What's the returns here? Should we do a deal with this hyperscaler or wireless carrier?
00:04:05
Speaker
um depending on what the partnership looks like or what the demand is in those markets. um So it's a pretty exciting process. We also have two private equity owners that we work really closely with. um Two of the biggest kind of investors in the digital infrastructure space, DigitalBridge and EQT Partners, who are headquartered over in Europe. um So the day-to-day, I mean, right now, we're we just finishing out February. We closed our 2024 budget a few weeks ago. So we're locked and loaded, kind of operationalizing that with the rest of the business.
00:04:35
Speaker
forward-looking, we're trying to figure out what our strategy is going to be from a liquidity and a capital standpoint. We're moving pretty quickly and determining how we're going to go out and replace our debt stack or refinance our debt stack. I think a lot of companies right now, it's top of mind for them. When the current debt structures went into place, rates were really low. If you think about the last three to five years, companies were raising a lot of money, they were locking in some pretty low interest rates. A lot of those debt vehicles are maturing in the next two to five years. um So companies are really trying to figure out how they're going to replace that debt at this way higher cost of capital, you know, what's available and out there. um It's been really interesting getting into the capital market side of things. That's something that I'm a little bit new to.
00:05:29
Speaker
but it's exciting to learn about. We're mostly financed by high yield debt, traditional corporate debt. Right now, we're looking to replace some of that debt with securitized financing. If you think about a mortgage that's securitized financing, your house is the collateral. Zayo has millions of miles of fiber network across North America and Europe. We want to take a subset of that and essentially collateralize some of that fiber and all the cash flow that is generated by that fiber and securitize it and and raise debt from from that. um Typically you can get a little bit better rate. Think about getting a mortgage versus just going and getting a bank loan. you can Mortgages typically have a lower rate. um So that's ah newer to this industry. There's only been a few fiber companies who have done it um and none to our scale and size. It's been, you know, Metro fibers that will only operate in Northern Virginia, for example, or in one city.
00:06:29
Speaker
um No fiber companies have done it that are a nationwide provider. So it's pretty exciting to be talking to some of these banks and lenders um that are basically creating new securities in a new market. And I'm going to make up numbers just to illustrate the point of the change in interest rates from, say, five years ago to next year.
00:06:55
Speaker
because the scale of this is massive. right Just to make up a number, right if you've got a billion dollars of debt rolling over from, say, 5%, 5% of a billion is, what, $50 million? dollars I think we could check me on this, but I think my head. um And if that rolls over at sometimes 2x to 3x now versus what it might have been four years ago,
00:07:20
Speaker
that 50 million is now 100 or ah maybe even probably more realistically, $150 million dollars to service that a year. That's potentially, if you're going from 50 to 150 million, that's $100 million dollars of just interest payment. right That's just gone. And it sounds like as a, hey, how do we reduce this? right Because we have no control over interest rates.
00:07:41
Speaker
there is a project where you're working on something that is genuinely net new of, well, we have all these assets in the ground. Why don't we collateralize these assets and try to reduce that, again, making up numbers, right that $150 million dollars debt burden to maybe you can get that down to 120, 110, again, making up numbers here. yeah So please don't everyone quote this, right? Just making up a illustrative example of what might be possible. um And that work that you're doing in theory, right, that that made up scenario might be worth, again, 30, $40 million dollars of expense reduction in a year. That is a pretty
00:08:17
Speaker
substantial use of one person's time. If you can pull that off at a new structure like and you say, hey, hello, boss. Here's what I did this year. but That is a pretty successful year, even if all you did was that one thing. So is are are any of those numbers out of curiosity, can you share any of those you know ballpark numbers or or even like what might the reduction be that you're trying to get by collateralizing these assets that are that are in the ground all over the country? Are you able to share any any real world stats or examples?
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our EBITDA on an annual basis is about a billion dollars. We have about nine billion dollars in debt right now. So we're about nine times leverage, which is not unusual for a private equity backed company. um Most of that debt was put in place as part of that M and&A transaction. um In 2027, we're going to need to replace seven billion dollars for that debt stack. We think about an interest rate that we locked in in 2020 when we went private.
00:09:13
Speaker
as part of that transaction. um And replacing that at today's rates or next year's rates, it's going to have a significant impact on our cash flow. And all that money is money that we would have reinvested back into the network. If you think about um what the rates are now, and you think a little bit about how much you could earn on your dollar if you invested it in our network, we would much rather invest the dollar in our network than use the dollar to pay down debt.
00:09:41
Speaker
So we think you know we can earn a higher return on our capital than we can save an interest. um So it's it's going to be interesting because we'll we'll have a little bit less cashflow to kind of reinvest the network. um Our other option is to take down additional debt um to be able to reinvest that capital into the network. But it's it's a dilemma that a lot of companies are looking at and they're trying to figure out the sweet spot. you know How much do I really need to invest in growth? How efficient can I get with my capital on that side?
00:10:10
Speaker
And how can I minimize my interest payments as much as possible? Yeah. And and what what is the background that has allowed you to rise to solving such a very large, very macro, very big dollar challenge that is not unique to just your company. So it can just help us understand how like what what has been your path to get to this place where you things like our our task was solving a very large problem. Can you just walk us through, how did you get to this role and what's what's your path been to get into this seat you're you're in right now?
Career Journey and Growth
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. so I studied accounting. um I'm a CPA. I went and worked at a big Ford firm in Denver, KPMG.
00:10:51
Speaker
um While I was at KPMG, you know Denver has a lot of ah telecom media and technology companies um in this geographical region. so A lot of their clients were part of that TMT sector, and that's kind of just what I got thrown into. you know i I knew I wanted to do audit. um i I had no idea what type of companies I wanted i wanted to audit, but once I kind of got into the mix um and had a little bit of experience,
00:11:15
Speaker
I saw this company, Zayo, one of KPMG's clients who was constantly acquiring companies, constantly raising debt. Zayo didn't go out and build 17 million cyber miles. They acquired Metro networks and then connected them by constructing long haul routes between two Metros. So for example, acquiring a company that had a Metro network in Denver and Dallas, Zayo built a ah long haul route that connected the two.
00:11:43
Speaker
um They did 46 acquisitions from 2007 to the Go private in 2020. So it was exciting, you know, auditors get involved in that. um yeah They get to do some of the the diligence. um They get to work on the debt raise documents in order to fund those acquisitions. So I said, Hey, I want to be on that audit. That's way more exciting than what I'm doing over here. You know, happy prior year work paper.
00:12:09
Speaker
And so I was able to be on that audit and then they announced an IPO in 2014. Uh, so I got to work on the S1 as part of the audit team and, uh, stayed on the audit for a little while in 2016 moved into a financial reporting role with they have. Um, so I got to know the management team. I think that's not uncommon to work. And in the accounting firm, big four or not, um, and have a client kind of poach you from the audit team when, uh, when they have a position.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, specifically, already you you already know the business, you know the people, right? It's like they know they know you can do the work, right? It's one of those situations of there's less risk on everybody, right? When you're starting a new job, it's like, yeah.
00:12:49
Speaker
Is this really what I think it's going to be? Are these people, is the role actually what they say it's going to be? And then the same thing on the other side. And when you worked back to back arm and arm with the client for however long that you were doing that for, the risk on both sides is lower. You know, there's trust and and you can kind of, you can start and be productive on day one, as opposed to trying to learn a whole new business right off the bat. In theory, it's ah it's a it's a potentially great option for everybody. Yeah, exactly. And for me, I went from, you know, auditing their 10Ks and 10Qs to preparing the 10Ks and 10Qs.
00:13:20
Speaker
So super familiar with the business. um I was excited to be doing a little bit of SEC reporting. You know, you get to work really closely with executive leaders at the company when you're preparing those types of documents. um I knew I didn't want to do accounting forever. Even when I went to KPMG, yeah you know, I didn't say I'm a life or having me partner. I think I feel like I found a good niche with Zayo is an exciting company. A young company, it kind of feels like very entrepreneurial, kind of techie almost, even though it's a a big telecommunications company. Um, from there I went into operational accounting. I was actually offered a position as the assistant controller for one of our business units. Um, I actually told the CFO who is my boss for that role. I don't want to be an accountant. i I don't know if I want this job. I actually want to be in finance. And he said, well do this role for one year and then we'll see, you know,
00:14:15
Speaker
how this plays out and what's available a year from now. And sure enough, about a year later, we acquired what's called the Spread Network, and they needed a finance director to support that business unit. And he you know was in a meeting with his boss and um his peers, and someone said, hey, I need a finance director to help me with this piece of business. And sure enough, he said, oh, I know someone who's interested in finance. she' She'd be a great fit. um So I always tell people, especially starting their career, just tell people what you want.
00:14:43
Speaker
um Be open and transparent about it because if he didn't know and I didn't tell him that I wanted to be in finance, that would have never crossed his mind in that meeting. um So people will definitely advocate for you if they know kind of where your head's at. um You don't have to know exactly what you want to do, but just be open and honest with people. Definitely. Even if they're in your direct management chain, I find most times, you know, people want you to be where you want to go. You know, they don't and don't want to hold you back or make you do something you don't want to do.
00:15:10
Speaker
Yeah, there's there's two themes I'm already seeing emerge here. One is you are not shy about about knowing what will work. Before you ask for what you want, you need to know what you want, right? And you mentioned early when you saw you were auditing a certain client, then you saw what was going on at Zayo. You asked, hey, can can I be over on that team?
00:15:30
Speaker
And then while it's AO, hey, can I I want to be in finance? How do I get there? And so one thing that seems to be emerging is you kind of had an idea of what you wanted and you knew what you wanted. And another theme that is part of this is to go get that next job. You've got to do your current job well.
00:15:47
Speaker
right They say you never would have hired you directly from the firm if you weren't doing a good job at KPMG for them to say, oh, we we like her. should but We want to be her to be on her team. And your manager never would have suggested you for that finance role had you not been doing a good job already in your old role. So two themes I want to point out there is knowing what you want and asking for it. No one's going to be a bigger proponent of your career than you. And then two, like the best opportunity you have to go to your next job is to do your current job well.
00:16:16
Speaker
At least those are themes that seem to be coming through. Can you expand on on either one of those and and maybe first of all on the asking? um like and Any details? like Did you go into asking, thinking like, should I be asking for this? like did i Do I practice with somebody? like How do I phrase the asking? if It's not a demand, but it's, hey, I'd like to be considered. So can you help us even understand for folks who are, I want to ask for something, but I'm not sure how to go to that partner or how to do that. How did how did you approach that, especially maybe earlier in your career when you're at PMG and you wanted to be app you you asked to be on this other audit that you want to be a part of? Yeah, no, that's a really good ah question. I think it's something that people get a lot of anxiety around approaching.
00:16:57
Speaker
um and that I it's not like I had no anxiety in doing all this. When I, you know, look back at it now, it's really easy for me to talk about, hey, I do this, do that, go ask for what you are. yeah But i I completely agree, you know, you have to be focused and committed to what you're doing. um You can't have kind of one foot in and one foot out, you know, trying to transition. But I think just expressing what you're interested in, it kind of started with hey, what's going on over at Zayo? I'm interested in hearing about what they're doing. you know It sounds really exciting. They've got a new transaction going on almost once a quarter. And the team honestly needed help because of how busy they were. And so just kind of starting to express that interest with either ah a senior or manager, or or maybe if your partner's kind of around in the audit room, um just kind of showing that you're interested and then maybe, you know, hey, if if they need help, you know, I'd be happy to jump over to that team or
00:17:51
Speaker
If I have extra hours, I'd love to learn about what Zeo is doing or pick up you know some of the available hours that but they need during the busy times. Maybe it's during the 10Q or if that you know all of a sudden a transaction pops up, yeah I'll raise my hand. I'd like to do that. um yeah Definitely, you know you don't want to feel like you're abandoning anybody. So you know doing a good job, making sure that all your work on on your previous project is kind of tied up and You're doing well there. That will definitely set you up nicely for them to say, yeah, she's you know doing a good job, responsible, um not leaving any loose ends. We can definitely move Tori over to this project and and feel good about it. I think also finding a mentor and an advocate at whatever company you're at is hugely important. And they don't have to be in your direct chain of management either. I find that you know I've been part of mentor
00:18:45
Speaker
and mentee programs where you get assigned a mentor. Some of those work well, sometimes they don't. Organically works way better. It has to be a good fit. ah You have to you know relate kind of on a personal level. um And so I did that at Zayo. Kevin Mammal, he's been my biggest mentor through my entire career. He's the one that said, hey, I want to hire you into this assistant controller role. And I had known him pretty well. and I just said, you know what? Yeah, this is a career progression for me. You know, i I don't think it's a bad decision, but I want you to know that I don't want to be in accounting forever. I actually want to be in finance. And, you know, I didn't i didn't say, you know, I'm not doing this, put me in finance. um There's a give and take, right? I knew that this assistant controller role wasn't, you know, what I wanted to do forever. I didn't want to be in operational accounting forever. I didn't want to be a controller at a company.
00:19:41
Speaker
Um, but I knew that that would be good experience either way to set me up for wherever I wanted to go next. Um, so I did that for a year. Um, and I didn't complain about it. You know, I actually enjoyed it for the year that I did it. Uh, and then sure enough, you know, things can change quickly. Yes, they opened up. We acquire a company, you know, people leave, um, things can change on a dime. That's, uh, one of the biggest things that I've learned as well. So if you're in a spot that you don't want to be in forever, that's okay. Um,
00:20:10
Speaker
Focus, do a good job, let people know you know maybe what what you want to do next and um you'll you'll land in a good ah good place. 100%. I'd like to come back for mentors for for a quick second and add similar experience. right When you start, there's an audit there's a here's here is your here's your mentor.
00:20:29
Speaker
right And I think in my first year, my my assigned kind of mentor, coach, per local office champion, whatever you want to call it, that person left. And then I signed a new one and then a new one left. And then I was assigned a new one. And I think I had three of those people in like 15 months or something like that.
00:20:47
Speaker
And then finally got to somebody who you know i I had never actually worked with, and I knew just like based on what that person did and where I was trying to play or the the industries and the things I wanted to work on, I knew we'd we'd never actually circle and work together. And then I looked at and thought, well, this probably isn't a helpful. like How can this person really be my advocate if we've we're never going to cross paths and actually work on a project together? And so I just would share, I did the exact same thing at that point, but I've been assigned three people. I'm now on my fourth in whatever, and this person, but we don't even play in the same spheres. I'm going to go i'm goingnna go ask somebody to be my my formal mentor based on that organic, who do I work well with, who's in my office, all that kind of stuff.
00:21:30
Speaker
And so again, it's not something I did right away. I don't know enough to do that right away. And it was something I did with tact, right? It wasn't, Hey, you're not going to help me. I'm going to have this person do this. yeah and Hey, like, you know, you're operating in a field that I don't really play in. Like.
00:21:46
Speaker
Like, weve we've never actually worked together. I'm wondering if, is this normal? I'm wondering if it might be more helpful if this other person who I've actually worked on projects with and work on proposals with might be a better fit. And in that way, it was an easy transition for everybody. It wasn't wasn't confrontational in any way. So anyway, I just share that because the mentor piece is really important for your career and sometimes people wonder How do I find them? How do how how do i how do I do that? um And again, I come back to, first of all, do good work. like Yeah, absolutely. People will fight for you when you do good work for them, and they'll want to help you when you do good work for them. Can you share some other, like, to again, to go from KPMG to Zayo to assistant controller to finance, um that requires not only the relationships aspect we're talking about, but certain skills.
00:22:35
Speaker
right Certain soft skills that seems like you're developing, but also it takes hard skills. ah Maybe it's Excel training, maybe it's technical accounting expertise, maybe it's writing business cases as as if you were a finance person before you're ever on that team. Can you just share along the way what are some of the hard skills you developed? Which ones maybe were corporate training? Which ones did you just take upon yourself to say, hey, if I want to go do this,
00:22:57
Speaker
I'm going to need to learn these skills. Here's how I'm going to go about learning them. Can you kind of talk about skills development to to to help lay the foundation for the next moves that you were trying to make?
Skills for Success in Finance
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, I actually get this question a lot from my team. You know what skills I need to be building to get to the next level. And yeah specifically coming out of school, you know, you hear um you need to be going to excel. um you You need to be able to write clear, concise emails.
00:23:23
Speaker
You need to, you know, communicate well, both laterally and up to upper management. um I think all the things they tell you in school are true, but it's really hard to master that before you start your career. And I like to equate to baseball, you know, you're never going to hit 50s home run until you don't get any at bat, right? So it's really just about getting me at bat. It's about, you know, getting in there, trying, making mistakes. um I've made plenty of mistakes between school, working at TPMG, being in accounting at Zayo and now into finance. And that's really how you learn. um I do think Excel is really important. I do think being able to write clear, concise emails and communicate well is important. um I think specifically, ah if you're interested in and moving from kind of the accounting realm into finance, you already have a huge leg up on a lot of finance professionals. If you understand how Devens and Credits work, which maybe to account seems obvious,
00:24:20
Speaker
um And you understand how those debits and credits really impact ah the cash flow statement. So being able to pull together a a three statement model or understand how all those pieces fit together um is going to give you a huge leg up in finance if you're if you're coming from accounting. um That's probably the single hardest thing that ah finance trained professionals struggle with is that three statement modeling component, especially when you throw in the cash flow statement. Yep. And you mentioned learning from mistakes.
00:24:48
Speaker
Uh, any, any particular mistakes you look back on that, that maybe caused you those butterflies and like, Oh no, what did I just do? And then how did you come back? How did you come back from that? Um, is, does anything strike you right away? And if, if. if ah if we need a moment, I've i've got one ah i'll I'll happily share unless you've got one ready to go um of a mistake you made and and what the feeling was when you made it right because you' there's this feeling of feeling like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I just did that. Am I going to get fired? What's going to happen? like am i Am I not going to get promoted? it like There's a million fears that go on, especially earlier earlier in your career. Do you have any mistakes that come to mind? and Again, how how did you bounce back from them?
00:25:27
Speaker
yeah As you're talking about that, there's one there's one specific time that yeah immediately comes comes to the forefront. um And ah I'll share some of the details, but you you guys can infer um some of the others. It's probably not the most appropriate story for a working professional. But I was in SEC reporting at Zayo. So I had blessed KPMG. and And I'm on the Zayo side. We're really busy around the quarter closed timing, getting that 10Q filed.
00:25:59
Speaker
We're coming down to the end of the quarterly audit review and also the Colorado Avalanche are in the playoffs. So, you know, it's like a Tuesday night. A bunch of my friends are going to the Avalanche game. I decided to take along. We had way too many white claws, which had just come out at the time. It was like the first time that any stadium had a white claw in it and we were pretty excited about it. So I made up for work the next morning. I, uh,
00:26:28
Speaker
Had to leave my car downtown, so I take an Uber into the office, a pretty quick ride. I'm not feeling the best. So I'm just sitting at my desk, like just trying to pretend basically to do something because my brain is just not working. yeah So we're pretty close to the audit. You know, we have most of the stuff wrapped up, so there's not a ah lot of left to do before the filing. We've got like a week to go.
00:26:51
Speaker
And I'm just paging through our cash flow proof, which is basically proving out all your cash inflows and outflows. You supply that to the auditors, you know, they audit all the inflows and outflows. Um, and then they sign off on it. And I'm just like having through left arrow, right arrow, left arrow. And I'm looking at the the top of the document, which starts with net income and you walk it down to cash. And I'm looking at this net income number and I'm like,
00:27:18
Speaker
this could not be right. We did not generate this much income this quarter. And I you know open the cell formula, and it's linked to the prior quarter net income. So the starting point is off. yeah And then I go, OK, well, what's the current quarter net income? And I look at it, and it's $32 million dollars different. And I'm going to go ahead and assume that that is quite material.
00:27:42
Speaker
but It's pretty material. I mean, we we're a billion dollar, even a company. So it's not, you know, the worst mistake in the world, but it's pretty big. $32 million. dollars And cash is overstated. So I have to call my CFO and tell him that we overstated our leverage free cash flow by $30 million. dollars yeah And so I'm sitting there like shaking, basically my heart is pounding. I'm like, I don't know. I remember turning to the girl next to me in like in the cubicle and I told her like, Bryn,
00:28:13
Speaker
I don't know if I'm shaking because I'm hungover or because I'm so nervous to make this phone call. Like I got, I guess I got to call him. So I, I send out an email first, uh, urgent casual error. I send it to our chief accounting officer, our CFO, our SVP of finance. And I say, you know, I, I made this error. We need to update this and all of our filing documents. Um, and a lot of times that number shows up in the NDNA that, which the authors don't actually audit.
00:28:42
Speaker
um They'll do a tie-out, but it's not part of the audited financial statement. And then I call my CFO, and he's a pretty understanding guy. He's like, thank you for you know being upfront about it. I call from the SDP, Kathleen, she's from Dominica, and she's you know ah kind of a fiery personality. And she calls me right after I send an email, and she's like, you know what the expletive, Tori, how did this happen? And you know I tell her, I explain what's going on, and and then she goes,
00:29:11
Speaker
Well, we beat forecast by $30 million dollars and I couldn't figure out why. So this makes a lot more sense. So then I'm sitting there like, why didn't you tell me that it was $30 million dollars better than the forecast? But you know, no one asked questions when you beat forecast. we came up yeah Yeah. Yeah. So everything turned out fine. You know, I was sitting there thinking like, I'm going to get fired today. It was okay. We updated documents. We sent updated numbers to auditors. They got comfortable with it and we moved on and um I learned a lot from that, you know, double check your work. I learned where mistakes might happen and also learned how to, um you know, confront leadership when you don't always like to have the best news. Yeah. um And there's a there's a great quote from Warren Buffett along the lines of
00:29:59
Speaker
You know, good news takes care of itself. But one thing we won't tolerate is when bad news is allowed to fester. We want to hear it right away because then we can do something about it. And we can't do anything about it if it's delayed or if yeah again in that in that moment, I'm sure you're feeling like I don't want to send this email and I don't want to make this phone call. I i don't know what is going to happen next. Yeah, I literally wanted to crawl into a hole at that point. It's never come out.
00:30:25
Speaker
yeah And i have had I have had similar experiences and like sometimes through those, better things happen. um In this case, at least like, all right, nothing not like nothing was already filed. Like everything everything got caught ahead of time. It was obviously an error. You were able to own it. And often oftentimes when you're able to just go own your mistake, here's how I'm going to go you to prevent this next time. Like you earn a lot of trust.
00:30:52
Speaker
um way more so than if you try to hide that for three days and then bring it up meekly and try to try to hide it somewhere else. that now and Now we're talking about maybe getting fired. right um so anyway thank Thank you for sharing that. we've I'm sure we've all been there. I know I've been there and there have been some bad mistakes that have been resulted in actually beneficial things on the backend. um Anyway, to transition away from scary things, so um about how about let's get into um Sounds like you've you've you've called caught a lot of shots but you play a lot of offense in your career i want to go to this plant i want to be in this role and now it sounds like you're doing work that is. Very interesting to you that you enjoy doing and i'd love to just ask within the context of work within the greater context of a kind of life um you know hey.
00:31:39
Speaker
How like are you are you are you genuinely are you generally happy is life good like are you glad you went down this path is work ah ah useful and productive part of your life does it feel like it's something that is. Always a challenger just number one i guess i'd love to understand for for people who are looking at folks who are rising in the ranks and make assumptions potentially of.
00:32:01
Speaker
um that person just works all the time and they they don't like their life. It sounds like you went to an avalanche game and had a great time in spite of a difficult difficult week. But I still understand that, hey, how how does work fit in the context of life? this Does work almost help create a better life? How how how do you think about work as as it relates to all the things that you want to do more as a human being in this in this life?
00:32:22
Speaker
um and And does it serve you, right? You work too much. Have have you worked too much in the past to then set you set you up for a position where you're like, no, work is great right now and I love my life. So I just love to hear some and feedback on that comment of kind of the work-life balance and how you approach that over time and how that feels now.
00:32:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's a really interesting way to frame the question. I feel like it it goes in waves, right? um You'll have busy times. You'll have times that you're not so busy. And it it it also depends on what you want to prioritize. you know I think early in my career, I was definitely prioriti prioritizing work. you know I had big career aspirations. I wanted to be a high achiever. I wanted to keep scaling. um As anyone knows,
00:33:01
Speaker
when you're working at a Big Four, especially those first several years, they can be pretty grinding. The busy season, Zayo, when they were public had a 630 year end. So we were in busy season in July. um But I think, you know, I was committed to kind of learning, understanding the fundamentals of the business. um It hasn't always been like that for me. There's definitely been times where You know, I'm, I'm in the office at eight 39, I'm out by four 30 and I'm going to do fun stuff or I'm taking days off. I love to play golf. So if it's a nice day out, you know, and you, you feel like you're in a good spot getting out to play some golf. I think, um, I'm of the philosophy and I've had a lot of teams that are of the philosophy that if you get your work done, you can go have fun. Um, you know, yeah everyone is an adult in the working world, you know, if you know how to manage your time well.
00:33:49
Speaker
I'm not going to make you sit in a chair for the 40 hours a week right in front of my office, you know, to think that you're doing any work. Um, I think COVID has changed a little bit too. You know, there's a little bit more trust in people to get their work done when they're not stuck to their desk, which I think has been really positive. Um, but, but high achievement doesn't come without hard work. So, um, you also have to accept that, you know, you're you're not going to get there by working 35 hours a week and kind of cruising along.
00:34:18
Speaker
There's definitely really definitely going to be some times where you kind of got to dig in your elbows and put your head down and and do do good work. But um I think the reward feels better when when you do that and when you do that with good teams. When I think back to some of the best times in my career, yeah when we when we finished an acquisition or we finished a debt raise,
00:34:40
Speaker
where we we finished a filing, you know, an S one filing for an IPO, you're just getting crushed in the weeks leading up to that. But yeah once you get that out there and you're done, you get the sign off that like that just feels so good. It's such a big accomplishment. You know, the people who are around you, um you build a stronger bond with them. A lot of those people I still am in touch with today. um we We help each other in our careers. um Some of those people have become mentors to me. um So, you know, it's,
00:35:11
Speaker
It's going to be hard work, but it's going to be fun, too. it You can have both, definitely. um yeah i wouldn't there there's good In my career now, you know those early years of of working hard have definitely paid off. I don't have to grind quite as hard. There's definitely times you know when we're going through this debt refinancing, there's going to be weeks that are tough. but It's definitely giving me more flexibility, more opportunity. I've built trust in the leadership team around me that they know I'm going to me meet a deadline, or they know I'm going to reach out for help ahead of the deadline, I'm not going to wait till it's due and then say, I didn't know how to do this, or you know, I'm i'm behind. um So I think, you know, it cuts both ways. But it's it's ah it's all about hard work and having fun. I think that's, I've realized what makes a good career, honestly.
00:36:02
Speaker
Yeah, and on the having fun, there's there's so many ways to sneak in having fun at work. um ah'll give I'll give an example. There's one one project I was on. was It was ah particularly ah a particularly tough client. just it was It was a lot of work. right it was just it was ah it was ah It was a tough one. Anyway, we went to dinner, my so my small team, the three of us, and then a few people from the client.
00:36:24
Speaker
And before we went to dinner, we created a game of we are going to have our own inside joke at this dinner. And we are going to make as many references to baseball as we possibly can. And we'll keep track of who made the most references. And that person wins yeah dinner or something. I can't remember what. And I remember the the senior manager was I mean, he just went all in at one point and you know someone on the client side said something. and He's like, oh, that sounds like that was about a single.
00:36:49
Speaker
But what do you think, like, if you did this, that might have been a double. But like, what do you think would be a home run? He just, he just like, like, over obvious just went after one of the baseball references. And I remember sitting there, I had to like, pretend to cough, because I was laughing so hard. Because because it was just like, I can't, fool escape he just went so over the top. And the point is, is just like,
00:37:12
Speaker
Like this, this is a lot of hard work and you can manufacture ways to have fun. And that was a dinner that I will always remember, of just like almost losing it in front of the client and like having to pretend to cough and like step away with a bathroom. but So I have to tell you this story just ah this week on Monday and Tuesday, we were out in Vegas at a securitized debt conference, basically announcing to the investment world that we're going to be coming out with a deal offering. And so the structure of those conferences is basically like speed dating. You set up these meetings.
00:37:42
Speaker
they're 20, 30 minutes long, and then you just rotate through. And it's all these investors with huge funds, they're trying to figure out where to put your money. And it's like, ah you're selling to them, you should put it in our bonds, or you should buy our securitized debt. So we're telling the sales story. And, you know, it gets pretty mundane, because they all ask the same questions, you basically said the same thing, we had 22 meetings, so you're saying the same thing 22 times in a row over two days. So we were playing a similar game where, you know, we've come up with little words or phrases that you had to feed into what the next presentation. yeah And I was sitting there, it's just me and my CFO doing this. And one of the phrases was like bread and butter or something. So I'm sitting there talking to these, you know, men, three men sitting across the table who are managing like over $50 billion dollars in assets under management. And they're trying to figure out, you know, should I invest in Zeo? And I said,
00:38:38
Speaker
Yeah, we know where our bread is buttered and just kept and my CFO is sitting there, you know, doing the call thing, like trying not to laugh, but it does, it makes it way more fun and enjoyable, honestly. And the people who are there, you know, yeah, it's a serious conversation, but most people are lighthearted and they want to be having a good time too. You know, they, they want to be personable. And so it's it's always a fun game to play.
00:39:02
Speaker
100%. And and ah you alluded to before that to some, hey, once you get past this deadline or get this debt raise or close this transaction, it feels really good when you're done. Can you share any any specific career highlight moments that you still look back on and and and smile or or things that were just like that was so much fun that group was so great the project was off like anything look back on in your career that you look back on it just still makes you smile and somebody really proud of anything that you could you can think through and and share on that front.
00:39:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think ah the the take private of Zeo probably comes to mind first. There's a ton of work that goes into something like that. These two huge ah digital infrastructure investors in Digital Bridge and EQT, they start showing interest. There's an extensive due diligence process where we're you know, reviewing, uploading thousands of contracts, and you know, answering probably thousands of questions they have about all those documents. And so it really is a grind. And, and there's a small subset of people who can know about it, right, because the broader market, you're not allowed to tell anybody that, hey, you these two companies might buy us. Yeah, that's, that's confidential information. So, you know, you kind of,
00:40:17
Speaker
You come into the circle of trust, and there's only so many people that are in that circle. And so you can only talk to them about it, and you can really only work with them on that project. And so it was definitely growing as a grind. as It's you know a lot of mundane stuff, too. It's not the most exciting thing to um get a ah due diligence list and start providing but these documents. um But at the end of it, you know you create a really good partnership, not only with that team, but the people on the other side of the transaction, too. So we've got great owners in Digital Bridge and EQT.
00:40:47
Speaker
Um, at the go private announcement, that date closing date, you know, we get the champagne out with the whole rest of the organization, um, celebrating meeting our new owners. Um, I think the culmination of that, um, was something that we, we really celebrated it. And, um, it was well deserved too. It was a big accomplishment. Um, we've got again, um, two great backers that know the industry really well. Um, and we've been able to, you know, have success, uh, post acquisition.
00:41:17
Speaker
And hopefully, you know, there's a good exit here in the next two to three years. Yep. Awesome. Um, and maybe on the, on the other side and kind of alluded to this with the, oh my gosh, butterflies moment of that mistake, but maybe, maybe even more broadly, have there been any big fork in the road um kind of moments in your career that you look back and say, I am really glad I raised my hand for this or.
00:41:42
Speaker
I'm glad I proved myself to that person, because that led to X or Y or Z. like are there and As you look back, are there any big fork in the road moments where you know you went right and you wonder, man, I'm i'm so glad I didn't go left? Or maybe I wish I would have went left, because that would be pretty cool too. But yeah, there are there any fork in the road moments you kind of look back on? Because sometimes in our career, we think everything is just kind of you know every every day is similar. We're doing this. But there are oftentimes these moments where if you prepared yourself well, like when that When you acquired that company, you've already prepped that you want to work in finance. OK, we're thinking about Tory right now. There are some of these moments that happen that that are truly kind of you know hockey stick like in personal growth or what the opportunity leads to. um So can you can you think back to any these big fork in the road moments and maybe how you handle them or maybe you didn't even know they were them at the time and you look back and say, actually, that was a really big moment. I'm glad I handled something this way. Does anything strike you? Yes, so I don't think I'm
00:42:41
Speaker
unique in this, but i I definitely don't think a lot of people talk about it.
Navigating Career Uncertainty
00:42:46
Speaker
When I was in ah finance working at Zayo, and you know, the pandemic had come around, we're a private company, um we were about a year into it, it was the end of 2021. And you know, everyone's struggling to work from home kind of make that transition. I'm questioning my whole being in finance and accounting, like, why did I even get this degree?
00:43:10
Speaker
Maybe I should have done marketing. Maybe I should have been a golf professional, like literally having a midlife crisis, like sitting at home in the middle of COVID, looking at my boss or my boss's peers thinking, I don't want any of their jobs. Like what am I doing here? Um, so I left, I left AO. Um, I went to a really small startup. Uh, I was the fourth employee. Um,
00:43:34
Speaker
similar business model today. Oh, ah like a rollup strategy, acquiring a lot of companies, putting them together, but it was over in the, in the pharmaceutical industry. Um, I didn't like that either. So I was there for like, uh, maybe three or four months. And I told the rest of the team, Hey, this isn't long-term for me. And I'm, I'm freaking out, you know, figure out figuring out what I'm trying to do or what I want to do. I actually talked to a, she's a career coach, but it was really like therapy for me, honestly.
00:44:04
Speaker
Um, she gave me a lot of confidence and you know, it's not, it wasn't finance that was bothering me. It's just, um, I needed a little more confidence myself and honestly just doing a little bit of soul searching and having some reassurance. Um, I thought then, okay, I want to build my own consulting business. Basically I want to be my own boss. I don't want to work for a big corporation. I tried the big one would say, Oh, I tried the small one with the startup. I don't like that either. I'm just going to do it on my own.
00:44:34
Speaker
So I told them, Hey, um, this really isn't a long-term fit for me, but I'll continue to consult for you guys on these specific projects and as long as you want, essentially, which was a good first move for me because I didn't, I didn't have zero income and zero clients. I had my first client on the day that I quit my job basically. And that was my old, my old employer. Um, then I, you know, put it out on LinkedIn. You know, I told my friends and you'd be shocked how many people need ah help with like accounting and finance.
00:45:04
Speaker
who don't know where to go, especially smaller businesses. yeah So I gained 10 or 11 clients. I was just doing it myself and and I really enjoyed it. um After about nine months, 10 months, Zayo said, hey, I heard you're consulting. Will you actually consult for us during the budget process? I said, sure. So I picked up Zayo as a client actually. um And and i I did really enjoy that. um the being on my own and kind of managing my own schedule. The one thing that I didn't realize when I started that is that when you have 11 clients, you have 11 bosses. When you work at a company, you have one boss. Yeah. So that was, you know, something I had to work through, but, um, you know, I thought I could do it for awhile, build a business out of it. And, uh, like we said earlier, things tend to turn on a dime. Um, somebody left.
00:46:02
Speaker
zao and It opened up a really good opportunity for me and CFO said, will you just come back? and Honestly, ah i I thought about it. um Just a year ago, you know I was having a complete internal meltdown ah if I even wanted to do finance and here's this um incredible finance role at Zayo back at the old company that you know i I couldn't wait to get out of. Do I take this? and I think over that year I had done a lot of, you know, personal growth. I realized like, actually, I really liked numbers. I really liked finance. um I think managing kind of certain expectations, learning how to work with people better. Just, you know, when people ask you, what do you want to do in five years? Like no one knows the answer to that question. Like if someone tells you an answer, they're lying. Like they don't know. And so I thought I was pretty successful in the first 12 months of building a business. Like,
00:46:55
Speaker
I actually really miss big company culture. um When you're on your own or you're at a startup, it can feel a little bit like you're on an island. you know like There's not good mentorship programs. um If you have a question, oftentimes you're the only person in the company that specializes in that. So if I had a finance question, I couldn't go to like our marketing person and as or you know i couldn't go to um um technical IT person over here. um I was calling old colleagues. like It was a lot harder. You have a lot more resources when you're when you're at a bigger company. And so I missed that. They always had a good culture. People always worked really hard. It was always a good fit. So I said, you know what, I can i can go back to Zayo and do that for you know a few years, see how it goes. And at the end of the day, if I want to restart a consulting business, like I now have the confidence to go do that. um But those were, I guess, two big forks in the road for me. I feel like everyone kind of
00:47:51
Speaker
goes through that, you know, how, why did I get this degree? Like, what am I doing? I hate this. Like I experienced that and I'm back where I was and I love it. I get super energized by what we do here. We provide mission critical services to huge companies across the US and worldwide really. So, you know, don't think that you'll never go through it. You might, but just know that you're lying in the right spot and build those resource pools around you, people to talk to. I definitely had that support, which I am eternally grateful for and and ended up back in a good spot. um um That was awesome. Thank you for sharing that. ah it It sparks up a couple ah couple other questions, if you don't mind. ah One is,
00:48:42
Speaker
you know Oftentimes, when we're in situations, we we tend to some we tend to sometimes only look at the negative side of the situation that we're in and don't appreciate all of the positives of where we are today until potentially we leave. And then we realize, like, oh, well, I miss being around people. I miss being able to get someone on the phone in five minutes to have a technical question in an area that I don't know anything about. I miss only having one person to respond to instead of a let. Like, again, there's the point is there's a yeah There's a million little things like this that you kind of again, you take for granted in a spot and only think about the things that you wish were better until you go change your surroundings and realize I kind of missed some of those things. There's a I have a one and a half year old were reading to him. This is going to sound ridiculous, but it's actually an amazing story. There's a book called Spoon and it's about a spoon that like wishes he was a knife or wishes he was a fork or wishes he was chopsticks because they get to do all this other cool stuff that the spoon can't do. And then it like.
00:49:40
Speaker
gets later to the knife and the fork and the chopsticks. They're like, are you kidding me? Look at all the stuff that you get to do that we never get to do. like we i don't know what I don't know what it's like to be like dipped in ice cream. That looks awesome. um so anyway anyway The point being is like there's oftentimes these things that we don't realize the the the good of the situation that we're in until potentially we we leave it.
00:50:01
Speaker
and um you You got to experience that and then kind of boomerang right back. And it's you you it sounds like you went from this 180 of, I really don't want to be here to, I actually love my role now. What like what changed in that one year? like did de jure Did your mentality change? Did you have a mind shift of how you thought about work? like what What maybe was the biggest thing that that changed from this, sounds like very deep, very personal 180 about work of,
00:50:30
Speaker
I don't want to do this anymore. This isn't where I want to be. to Actually, I love this. I'm having fun. What was the biggest change or what do you attribute that to? Yeah, I think it was a few things. I think honestly, the biggest thing was just establishing more confidence in myself. um Being able to you know, bring on clients. I managed the finances for a band for like a year, which was pretty cool. You know, I got a lot of different new experiences. Um, and I got to try a lot of things to figure out, you know, this is working well. This isn't working well. Um, but I really do feel like the confidence myself to, you know, be able to say, you know, either I belong in this role or I can do this. Um, one thing that I noticed, uh, when I came back to Zayo actually that I, I,
00:51:17
Speaker
I didn't consciously understand at first, but, um, that confidence really helped and improved my ability to communicate with senior leadership. So I remember before leading they are our old CEO and he's a little bit of a scary guy, but you know, he's just the guy I would like shake with like in meetings with him. I had to speak, like I would just like crumble. Like I would forget things I knew, you know, it was,
00:51:45
Speaker
Like psychologically, I think a lot of people go through this too. It's like, you know, you you prepare all this work, you know, it inside out and then you, you get, you get, you know, to the at-bat and you're you're like, Oh my God, I forgot how to swing. Um, but I think over that time, building confidence, working with a lot of different people and really just, in it was more internal, honestly, um, doing the work with myself and with the help of a coach. Um, I do think with life changing for me, um, now coming back into the workplace,
00:52:14
Speaker
a little bit more confident. yeah I find that I interact really well with our leadership team. I'm not afraid to voice my opinion. um I remember a lot more meetings with them. Sounds a little weird, but it's never happened too well. um So it really it really is that confidence piece, feeling like you belong um where you are, having the support system around you. um And I also realized, hey, like, I want to have a successful career.
00:52:43
Speaker
I don't, I can have a successful career in, um, my own consulting business, but I'll be playing kind of like the minor leagues, you know, I'll be picking up smaller clients here and there. Like I want something bigger. That's why I created. I always liked working on the MNA deals at Zayo. I always liked working on those debt raises. Like I was really drawn to the IPO when I was at KPMG. Like I liked those big projects and something like a small consulting business won't allow me to do a billion dollar securitized financing raise. Right. right Um, so it really is kind of digging deep within yourself, figuring out what you want, and then really having the confidence to just do it. Um, if you work hard and, and, um, you believe in yourself, it sounds cheesy, but, um, it can really do wonders.
00:53:30
Speaker
Well, I mean, again, awesome story. And if if you don't mind, maybe separately, I'd love to hear maybe some of the questions or the prompts of of kind of what you worked through, um just because that that might be helpful for for others out there who are who are facing, again, a similar holy jeez moment in their career. And I know I have had three in my career. um So if I have another one, I might want to steal your questions too.
00:53:54
Speaker
but um Couple more quick-hitter questions as we kind of wrap up here. Anything wild, crazy, just weird stories in business that that you can recall? Anything that was just like, I can't believe that. I still remember that eight years ago and I can't believe this person said this in that meeting or that happened. Any weird, wild, just crazy stories throughout your career that you've seen and that you're able to share? um I would say I haven't had too many wild or crazy run-ins in like a professional meeting.
00:54:24
Speaker
um I do remember when I was working at KPMG and you travel to client sites and you go do visits, we were traveling out of state. So we were staying at a hotel and it was one of the hotels where you could write like your breakfast order, like on a thing that hangs on the door and then they come pick up at night and then like you write the time you want it delivered and they deliver it. yeah One of my peers,
00:54:47
Speaker
um filled his out, and ordered everything on the menu, put the earliest time, which was like 6am, and hung it on our senior manager's door. So the senior manager wakes up to someone knocking on the door at 6 in the morning. He's like, what's going on? And then a whole tray of food just keep rolled into his hotel room. So the pranks There were plenty of pranks ah yeah in my career, especially especially at the big four. I feel like accountant must be pranksters because there's no shortage of those stories. Yes, I agree. That's awesome. A couple of other quick hitters. When did you tackle your CPA? Is this something that you did kind of in college, somewhere between school and starting? Did you did you still have some after you started full-time work? how How did you approach the CPA exam and what would you recommend for others?
00:55:37
Speaker
Yes, I studied at the University of Denver. I think a lot of accounting programs have this, but I did their three plus two program where I was, you know, starting my master's classes before I i had completely finished my undergrad. And those five years would get me to enough credits to do my CPA. I worked with my counselor at DU and figured out that if I took a certain class in the fall, I could start my CPA in January before I graduated that May. um So I really wanted to do that because I didn't want to spend my whole summer hunkered down trying to CPA and not doing anything. yeah And I was kind of, you know, I was already in school. I was already in study mode. So I started in January. I basically took one per month. Um, the last one I took right at the beginning of May. Um, but it was tough work. I mean, it's a lot of studying, but I was looking around, you know, people ask, you know, do you think I can pass it? Is the CPA hard? Um, what was your experience like? And,
00:56:33
Speaker
I remember sitting there in January with my first books, like this is pretty daunting, but then looking around at the class ahead of me in accounting and thinking, well, if that person passed and that person passed and that person passed, like I i can pass. If I study enough, I can pass.
00:56:48
Speaker
So it was definitely a cram session basically for four months. I remember, you know, sitting in the library on a beautiful spring day and my friends are all at some Kentucky Derby party, like in downtown Denver. And I'm sitting back like, why the hell am I doing this? Like it's a Saturday. My test was probably on Monday or Tuesday. And I'm just trying to cram as much information as possible. But I am so happy that I finished that as quickly as possible and definitely before I started working.
00:57:17
Speaker
um I know colleagues who try to tried to start it when they started their career and some of them powered through and did it. A lot of them gave up. It's just a lot when you're working. Yeah. And I would be willing to bet that that Kentucky Derby party that you missed, but it was just another party like any others. Like I can think back to so some of those things I thought were so important in college or early years after. I'm like, I can't, I can't miss this for work. This thing is, this is the party of the year. I'm like,
00:57:43
Speaker
I don't remember any of those parties. like I wish I would have done less of them, to be honest with you, because I think back on it now, it probably wasn't even that interesting. Yeah, absolutely. Couple other couple other real quick ones. um What's the number one piece of advice you might give to folks who are or maybe in that last year of ah of an accounting program, maybe they're going to be starting here in the fall, or people who were in their first or second year, early in their careers? What what is the number one piece of advice you might give to those folks or said differently, if you could go back and give the advice to yourself in that same time period, what what would what's something that you would tell yourself? what's What's the most important impactful piece of advice you'd go back and give yourself at that time in life? Yeah. i mean if If you're in your last year of school, finish your CPA. That's the biggest piece of advice I can give you. If you're in your your first or second year of your career, I remember when I was in the first year of my career, I got some pretty impactful advice that didn't seem that impactful at the time, but
00:58:42
Speaker
I was working ah on an audit client and, uh, my senior, so he's just one year ahead of me. Um, you know, we worked till really closely. He's training me a lot of things. He said, just because someone is older than you doesn't mean they're smarter than you. And especially when you get into public accounting or you're working at an accounting firm, there is a hierarchy there. Like you're, you start two years, you're a senior three years, you're a manager, you know, everyone's getting promoted at the same time.
00:59:10
Speaker
regardless really of performance, maybe there's some verity in compensation, but generally you're all moving up the rung at the same time and i I kind of thought that's a really good point. It gave me a lot more confidence you know when I saw something in the audit papers or um you know heard something in a meeting to kind of speak up and say, well, what about this? um Just because you know my senior, and my manager weren't calling it out, that really changed the whole way that I really approached my work, honestly, before it was kind of like, well, I'm just the but junior associate, like, ah I don't know anything, my senior should say something, like, don't figure it out, you know? Like, I'm probably wrong if they didn't touch the same thing. But really, they're one year older than you, like, just because someone is older than you or doesn't mean they're smarter. I've come across that, even now in my career, you know, if someone has 20 years of career experience, and you have 10,
01:00:03
Speaker
that doesn't always mean that they're smarter or they're more successful or they're better. So have the confidence, especially if you're a higher achiever who wants to scale quickly in their career. I think working with that mindset um can really help. Awesome. And any, anything you need from the audience, any expertise, are you, are you hiring? um Is there anything that you would, you would hope maybe the audience can, can, can give to you as anything that that you're looking for?
01:00:30
Speaker
We're always looking for good talent and good people to come work here. So if anyone's interested, definitely send them my way. um I think as far as ah expertise goes, I think really building the accounting profession, honestly, it's tough to find CPAs. There's a lot less going into profession. I love hiring CPAs in finance because they ah they're very sharp. They really understand how business works.
01:00:59
Speaker
And usually that they're really good at finance. oh So just kind of an encouraging profession. if If you go into accounting and you get your CPI, you know, you don't have to be an accountant in a bean counter forever. No offense to anyone who's staying in the accounting. I love accountants, but there's a lot a lot of opportunity out there um outside of the accounting realm.
01:01:22
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. And then any any anything else you you feel like we didn't hit on fun, valuable, useful topic for the audience? Any any last words? um No, just thank you for having me. Really enjoyed the conversation. I think we touched on honestly, ah but the line of questioning, we touched on a lot of really critical, important points in my life. And, and you know, like you said earlier, career paths aren't always linear up and to the right. um There's a lot ups and downs. And I think people don't talk about that as much as the the high successes. So just understanding that it's going to be a little bit above your road, but there'll be times that you're working hard, times that you're having a ton of fun, times that you're struggling a little bit, but it's all it's all worth it. um Part of the journey. Yeah. Well, Tori, ah awesome. Thank you. And thank you for being so candid and sharing some very real world examples, very real personal struggles, because
01:02:20
Speaker
Like you said, that's often that's where that's where the meat is. That's where we we understand that, hey, it's not just me going through this. Other people have done it before. um What can I learn from people who have done it before me? So thank you for sharing your story. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.