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Cool Careers in Accounting Ep. 7 - Making “Fun” a Core Value with Candus Hinderer & Carrie Ferroukhi
215 Plays1 month ago
Candus Hinderer and Carrie Ferroukhi, two female founders, share how starting their business has helped them strike the balance between career and personal life. With a background of long working hours, they now offer services on the strategic side of private equity to help clients streamline processes that maximize accountants’ time efficiency (and they are always hiring!). Hear advice on career sustainability, surrounding yourself with a great team, and the value of building quality relationships.
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Transcript
Introduction of Guests
00:00:09
Speaker
All right, here we are again, Spencer Payne with Becker and another episode of Cool Careers in Accounting. We're here today with special. We have two guests at the same time. We've got Carrie, we've got Candace. I love if the two of you wouldn't mind just introducing yourselves and what it is that you say to friends and family that that you do for work in this accounting professional years.
00:00:32
Speaker
Well, my name's Candace Hinderer and I'm one of the co-founders of Arcus Advisors. We are an accounting consulting firm based here in Houston, Texas. That's what I say. Yeah, that's pretty much what I say too. And then if I see a little spark of enthusiasm in their eyes, I might go, but that's pretty rare.
00:00:52
Speaker
Um, unless they're in the accounting profession, I was going to say it depends on the audience. Yeah. Well, lucky for you, that sounded great. And we are surrounded by people in the accounting profession.
Founding Arcus Advisors
00:01:02
Speaker
Um, and so maybe how, how did you, what's the, what's the background or the the founding story of Arcus advisors? Would you be willing to share a little bit about how you found each other and how you started this business together?
00:01:14
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So James and I both started our careers in public accounting. She was at Deloitte and I was at Anderson. um I totally just aged myself. but There used to be a firm called Anderson, partner Anderson. Yeah. And um so we sort of had a pretty standard path through public accounting. And we both spent four years, about four years at each of those firms um before going into financial reporting roles in industry.
00:01:42
Speaker
um Eventually, in 2004, with um Sarbanes Oxley coming onto the scene, um you know there were a lot of boutique consulting firms that that came onto the market, um primarily to service the SOX needs and then also to um you know help with the whole and consulting needs of companies where public accounting firms were no longer to but provide those consulting services for their audit clients. So Canis and I actually ended up working for one of those firms here in Houston to together.
00:02:16
Speaker
And so we worked together for 10 years. um My primary role was you know in the field, and client service. um and I served in a lot of chief accounting officer roles um on an interim basis and a lot of private equity backed portfolio companies. And Candace and I actually worked together on several of those clients. um But Candace ultimately ended up going in more of a business development direction. um And I stayed client service um facing our client facing. and um and But we always worked really well together and really wanted to to do the same type of work. um We ended up leaving that firm around the same time. and I went to go be VP of a company um here in Houston, um took them through a huge transformation of their accounting department and um
00:03:07
Speaker
And Candace went over to work for Alvarez and Marsol and they're focused on business development and and developing a business development program over there. Um, but ultimately decided we wanted to go into business together. And, um, yeah, we kept getting calls from our network, um, from all of our contacts, just asking us, Hey, do you remember who did this? And can you help me with the template for this? Can you write a memo? You know, all the things, and we were giving that work away. We were just referring people to other folks and we were like, what are we doing? We can, we can do this.
00:03:41
Speaker
So we made the decision to do that.
Growth and Focus of Arcus Advisors
00:03:44
Speaker
and We were actually supposed to launch in April of 2020. And obviously ah there were some things going on in the world that caused us to take a break there, which we did and ultimately launched in October of 2020 because Being in Houston, we've grown up with the cycles of the oil business. And now we've been in the business world around private equity. And we just knew that there were all kinds of deals out there that we needed our help on, which is ah the basis of our business, which we can go into later. But um yeah, we decided to pull the trigger and we did it in October of 2020. So we're coming up on four years and
00:04:24
Speaker
It's just been great. We've grown from the two of us to 30 consultants. yeah Congratulations. That's fantastic. Thank you. Pretty exciting. and and To flash ahead maybe for the next six to 12 months or or so, um is there any are there any projects, are there anything that you're working on that you're very energized by say over coming up over the next 12 months? and All of it.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, I would like to say so in our last firm, it was very focused on compliance. So the Sarbanes stuff, the internal audit stuff, what Carrie and I were excited by was getting into those private equity backed portfolio companies and helping those companies grow and helping them you know, just optimize their processes and getting them to a better place and really showing the true value of what an accounting function can do when it's working correctly. And the firm we were with did not want to go in that direction. They went in a completely different direction. So we wanted to establish that type of firm and that's what we've done. So we're very excited about what's happened recently around that private equity world.
00:05:36
Speaker
Yeah, in the beginning, Candice and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what our why was. you know Why are we doing this? like Why do we care so much? Why are we so passionate about this business that we're in? And ultimately, it it came it came back to the fact that we have spent our entire careers working a lot of hours, right? I mean, it's just, it's just burn and churn all the time. You're trying to meet deadlines. um You're the, you're the, you're at the end of a process at a company and you don't have, you know, oftentimes those deadlines won't move for you. So, I mean, you're working nights and weekends and around the clock to meet those deadlines. And it was always so frustrating to me personally because
00:06:21
Speaker
A lot of times, it was ah the the hours I was working was a result of bad processes and bad systems and people not understanding why they were doing certain things in a system. And I had to spend a lot of time fixing those things to get the financials to to to be correct. And so that always really frustrated me. And it doesn't have to be that way. So we're just big believers in, you know, you've got to do it, you might as well do it right.
Challenges and Process Improvement
00:06:50
Speaker
And so that is that is what we're trying to do is is get in early in a transaction and get the accounting processes, you know, set up in in a place that you can produce financials and the accounting team can go home at the end of the day to their families at a reasonable hour.
00:07:06
Speaker
That sounds like a industry-wide problem that you are tackling on behalf of hundreds of thousands of CPAs who would like to see the exact same thing happen wherever they are working right now. um Out of curiosity, is is there ah you leave client names out. is Is there a recent success story that you have of something like that? I'm imagining in my head right now of Hey, there's this company we worked with and people had the accounting team at close had to work nights and weekends and every single time. And after we kind of. Looked at the processes, maybe upgraded a system or two. I don't know exactly what the how entails, but the result might be, Hey, close week now means people's go home at six instead of going home at 11. And that's the norm. is Is there any success story like that that you can share as a result of, of the work that that you all do for these companies?
00:07:57
Speaker
I mean, most of them are like that, I would say. Yeah. I mean, that is our goal. That's what, you know, that's what the people who work with us, that's what they love to do is fix things. And so in most cases, you know, we, we like to leave things better than where when we came. And in fact, our goal is to work ourselves out of a job. You know, we are not there to like, just, just keep hanging on at this client. Like, right.
00:08:24
Speaker
The people that we hire get bored with the stay and maintain sort of closed cycles. And um you know so we want to go in there and fix it, make it better, and then get out. Or move on to like maybe they're they're in the middle of a new transaction and we move on to that. So um there's there's ah there's a ton of success stories.
00:08:45
Speaker
and I think well what's giving us a lot of excitement right now is being able to get
Strategic Advising and Work-Life Balance
00:08:51
Speaker
in on the front end of a transaction. yeah So the pre-close phase where we're actually going in and doing a little more due diligence in the accounting group. Like don't forget about accounting. Because that's where so much of your costs come in, especially with a system selection and a system implementation. Make sure you know you're looking at all of those things before you just
00:09:16
Speaker
don't You don't consider it because there's cost around that. So it needs to be considered in your in your purchase price or your sale price. Yeah. Yeah. hundred so or Or the synergy assumptions that you're making or whatever, it whatever it may be, right? The more you can dig into that on the front end, sometimes you can even impact the structure of the deal or the pricing of the deal. Cause you can say, actually, we can save a lot more than we thought we could. If you're able to do that more on the front end and be more of a, I think what you're going is more of a strategic business advisor as opposed to purely a compliance function, uh, where, where you were playing before where you thought like, there's a some more opportunity to play in the strategic side of of the finance and the accounting side.
00:09:51
Speaker
Yeah, and it's so it's just very rewarding to do that. yeah and And you mentioned, again, this this why and this passion around not having to wait for everybody else and b ah beholden to the deadline where the only opportunity is to just work later and more. So on that note, I guess, over these these these careers that you've had, can you speak a little bit to kind of work-life balance and hours and how maybe that's trended over time?
00:10:19
Speaker
and how that feels now, I guess. if there's If there's somebody out there who is working those long hours, they they want a light at the end of the tunnel to stay in their accounting or finance profession. um what what What can you share with them around where that can lead or or where you and your teams are now in terms of trying to find that balance?
00:10:40
Speaker
um I mean, work-life balance over the course of my career has been really tough. I don't know that I've done it very well.
00:10:52
Speaker
um And I think work life, like I just, I think what I've been able to wrap my head around is just sort of giving myself a little more grace around. I'm not going to be able to meet every need and every aspect of my life perfectly. So depending on the season, right, early on in my career, I mean, I just, I just worked a lot. um And then, you know, I had a family.
00:11:15
Speaker
And then I'm working a lot at home and in the office. um But just understanding and that it's just a season and it'll pass, yeah you know, is is how I held on.
00:11:27
Speaker
I mean, I've worked a lot over my entire career and really until starting Arcus, which is crazy to think about, right? Now we're business owners and we're working less now than we ever did. But um I don't know, it's just over my career, same thing. I mean, I hate to say it. I mean, you just, we worked a lot in the beginning and that could be a generational thing too, or like our value is border as our work.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't let a therapy around that. However. Yeah. It's not, it's not the right answer for sure. Yeah. And so it is interesting and it's, you know, we do have folks and, um, folks, we interview folks that work for us are like, Hey, I have to, I have to stop now. This is what I'm doing. And it's like, that's, that's, that's how it should be. There should be boundaries. We did not grow up that way. Um, I was fortunate. My, I did my, I've worked a ton as well. Even when I went into business development, I was thinking, well, then I got out of that one. I wouldn't, but I didn't because I was always building the business.
00:12:29
Speaker
and um But I was fortunate I had a stay-at-home husband, so I was able to do all that work and then had someone who was actually able to also take care of the kiddos and now the boys are gone and here we are building this and working less. So I don't think we have a lot of good advice around that. when you you hit You hit on something that's really interesting, right? Which is that as business owners now for almost four years coming up next month and congratulations, right? As business owners, you now feel like you have more balance than you've ever had in your entire working career.
00:13:06
Speaker
That sounds like the opposite of how anyone would ever assume starting and running a business would operate. How how have you managed to do that? What's the what's the sauce of that? is it Is it as simple as just stating the intention of, we're gonna look, we're going to be great, and we're going to do it without having to work 70 hours a week? like like how How did that come about? Because that's that's not ah that's not a story that I hear often. Oh, I'm a business owner, and I work less. So how have you managed to do that?
Keys to Success and Early Wins
00:13:34
Speaker
The partnership, partnership and the people we hire is huge, right? we We have surrounded ourselves with the most amazing people and and you know making sure we have the right people and enough of them is key. And then Candice and I's partnership works really well together as well. um you know we We have similar careers, but our skillsets are just different enough to where we really can divide and conquer a little bit.
00:14:04
Speaker
And then I think our careers have given us experience in every aspect of business, yeah so that we've just been able to, you know as we've set up our back office, you know we have done it in a way that um we can be efficient and automate.
00:14:25
Speaker
and um you know just pay attention to timing of things. So when it's time to let go of a certain aspect of the back office and outsource it, you know we've just seemed to really pay attention to that and time things really well. and a lot and and And I think most of that comes down to the partnership and the fact that we are always, and we are in constant conversation around what's going on in the business. Like we're extremely deliberate about that.
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah. And I will say that was one of the things when we went into the business was are we, one of the risks was being able to pull Carrie out of the field because she loves it. She loves being out there doing things. So it was like, how are we in it? And the the answer is hire amazing people. That is the answer to every business. Hire amazing people yeah and you pay them what they're worth. Listen to them.
00:15:21
Speaker
And they are not working a ton of hours. I mean, we set pretty good boundaries with our clients as well. um And it's really like, well, do do they really need to be working that much right now? Because we can just bring in another resource. This person does not need to be working this many hours. let's Let's get this, let's make sense of this. who And so.
00:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, we do have a lot of yeah years behind us. So I think that I'm sure that helps. That right to focus yep really does help to give you the confidence to say, Hey, do we really need to do it like that? How about we step back and think about things this way? You know, you're not just like, okay, they said this is what they want or I'm the worst at telling people, oh, you need that? Okay, I'm gonna see you by the end of the day. Well, they didn't really need it by the end of the day, but that's my personal, right? So do you need this? Oh, next week? Oh, let's try that like crazy person. Questions are very powerful. Yes, they are extremely
00:16:19
Speaker
Um, if, uh, if let's say somebody out there is really enjoying what they're hearing. Um, and they say, Oh, that sounds interesting. Where where can they learn more about what, what your work entails? If you're hiring, et cetera, where, where might a person, where might you point someone who likes what they're hearing and says, Oh, I want to learn more about these two. I like the story I'm hearing, but let me do some more research. Do you have any open jobs? Do you have a, where might they learn more about you or anything, anything like that?
00:16:44
Speaker
our Our website, arcusadvisors dot.com. Perfect. We're always hiring. We're always hiring. We're on LinkedIn. That's where you'll see you know a lot of our other folks and what they're doing, case studies, et cetera. Yeah. And on our website, our people are listed there as far as their announcements. Okay. Awesome.
00:17:06
Speaker
um We've been interviewed on another podcast or two. We have our own podcast called the Arcus Arena, which the first the first episode of that kind of tells a little bit about us as well.
00:17:19
Speaker
All right, awesome. and And one more thing, just kind of on the business ownership, ah I just love asking people who have started their own companies, is do you remember your first paying customer, that first dollar of revenue you ever got? Do you remember, you know, you open your own firm, it's October of 2020. That's still a crazy time. October of 2020 is still pretty wild time.
00:17:38
Speaker
Do you remember that first paying customer, that first dollar of revenue and kind of who it was maybe and what that felt like and and what confidence that gave you when that when that finally either was a check that came in the mail or a wire that hit or however it came? I mean, it really was it wasn't even so much as the check that came in the mail as the the engagement letters that we had signed like immediately on our announcement. Like when we, when we announced what we were doing, I think we, I mean, almost immediately had three or four engagements ready to go. I mean, it was incredible. So that right there gave us the confidence that we were on the right path and, and it has not, it's been steady like that ever since it hasn't stopped. Um, and, and that's from,
00:18:24
Speaker
obviously doing good work throughout our careers, but also maintaining relationships throughout our entire career. Back to, I mean, we've got people working for us that Carrie went to college with, you know, and i it's just yeah incredible maintaining those relationships.
00:18:41
Speaker
Yeah. All right. That's awesome. as As you, as you look back now in the last four years, I'm sure have been amazing and congratulations again, as you, as you look back on the entirety of your career and maybe it's the founding of this business, it probably would be if it was me just to see the answer potentially here, but is there any, are there any, is there any one proudest moment you look back on in your career that, that still you think back on and it makes you smile or it lights you up because it was just that.
00:19:08
Speaker
it was just that powerful for you and maybe the team that you were we were you were working on something with. So is there any proudest moments of your career you you look back on that you would you'd be able to share that still kind of makes you feel, makes you feel good and lights you up? I mean, besides the, app all the time at Arcus yeah moments all the time, um but prior to Arcus, like mine,
00:19:36
Speaker
that comes to mind right now, Um, so I had a pretty, pretty tough, um, job at one point where, you know, it was just a complete turnaround of a company of an accounting group. It was hard, hard, hard work. And, um, I assembled a team, um, actually Candace and I assembled them together. We were in the background doing it together, getting, you know, I was telling her what kind of resources we needed and we were working together to get, get
00:20:08
Speaker
me the resources that I needed to accomplish this job. And we spent three years working for really long hours. And um and at the like at the end, and to this day, like that group of people, like we all have a so much fun together and get along so well. yeah And I'm really proud of that because of the amount of just how grueling it was and that we came out of that friends instead of the opposite. And so,
00:20:39
Speaker
That, that just makes me feel really good. Yeah. And to that end, I would say there is nothing like going through the trenches with your team, which I think is lost with a hundred percent remote. I'll be completely honest with you. We do have a hybrid here. Um, so we're in the office, just Carrie and I are just in the office three days a week. Our team is everywhere, but we do work very hard to create a culture and bring us together. But when you're on a project team, we're at a company just getting,
00:21:07
Speaker
through a transition. I mean, there is so much to be said for going through the trenches together in a room, sharing all the same things, a war room is what we used to call it in public accounting. It's incredible. So it just really brings you together and and it allows you to to do the hard stuff and get through it. mom um but That was me commenting on you. So my favorite story of, well, our crew together is and our former firm. Um, we'd gone out to bid, we'd gone out to propose on an engagement. And I was very early on in the business development side and I'd never taken anyone out with me, but to Carrie, cause she was going to be who I was proposing on engagement.
00:21:51
Speaker
And we sat down with this person, super nervous, the CFO, and he needed all these things. And Kerry had had some experience at some of the things, and we were very honest about that. And then at the end I said, well, what are our next steps? And he said, we'll send me an engagement letter and we'll get this thing going. And we were very calm in his office, but as soon as we got outside, we were screaming and high-fiving and yeah.
00:22:13
Speaker
There's nothing like closing a deal, which is why I say this side. Yeah. And so that the close that that first deal and we we closed it together. but Right. Now, looking back on that, it's pretty is even more awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So that was the beginning.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's incredible. and And that was done before you founded Arcus together. So there are the seeds of teamwork before you even actually partner together. Yeah, yeah. That was in 2008? Yeah, that was a long time ago.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah, incredible. And one thing I do want to highlight is, you know, that that carry that story of the, you know, three years turnaround tough, but came out as kind of friends and unified as a result is there's this weird paradox sometimes of sometimes the really hard stuff that when you're in it is like, Oh, I can't wait for this to be over. This is hard. I don't always me. I don't want to do this.
00:23:13
Speaker
those often are the seeds of the greatest wins. And you oftentimes don't have that great satisfaction and sometimes without that tough experience that you have to go through. And you never, you don't want to go through and have every experience be super hard and every three years like, ah but every once in a while, I mean, it is, it is, uh, it is powerful how that transition happens. And speaking one very quick story I'll share being in, uh, my, I started my career in consulting at Deloitte and I will distinctly remember one small team. We had a group of four of us that were kind of shared a table in this little you know room at a client.
00:23:46
Speaker
And they were long they were long hours. It was tough work. But we we tried to have fun, and we did. And I will never forget. I brought a pair of those like funny nose glasses with like the little mustache and the big nose to to the client site one day. It was just us. So there was not in front of the client.
00:24:03
Speaker
And when my boss was, you know, heads down on his computer, sitting at the table across from me, I just slowly took these out so he wouldn't notice, put them on. And then when he looked up and saw, he just burst out laughing. and It was just like, just you just do those little things in a group and you're kind of in it with the the group to just make things fun. And that group of four of us had a lot of fun together in spite of a lot of hard work at the same time. And it was really fun. I look back on that map, like, I'm really glad I went through that. It was a lot of fun. It was hard, but it was also very fun.
00:24:33
Speaker
So that's what you remember, right? I remember on all those engagements, I remember, Oh yeah yeah, I was this client, but me and that team, I remember all those little things. yeah Yeah. So one of our, when we sat down to define our core values and fun is one of them. That was really, really important to get that one in there.
00:24:53
Speaker
um How about i I love these questions that are around kind of like, you know, memorable things throughout your career like are on us on a similar note but maybe tougher right are there any tougher times ah that that you recall in your career that again, at that moment maybe it was This is really hard. I don't know if I want to do this anymore that you're actually glad you went through because maybe it set the seeds up for for something better on the back end or a learning or something else that happened. Are there any any tough times that you can recall and maybe how how you recovered from that or did that set up something greater afterwards?
00:25:28
Speaker
um I mean, for me, it's just it's been my entire career, like just moving through the the career. Every experience has been tough.
00:25:39
Speaker
in one way or another, but it all got me to where I am today. So I'm really appreciative. Like just the work, the learnings, and sometimes like the heart, actually the hardest and points in my career were those where I was maybe mean not very challenged and a little bit bored and not working very much. yeah Those really were the most miserable times.
00:26:08
Speaker
Um, so, um, but it's, it's just been, it's been throughout the my career. There's not one particular thing that I can point to. Yeah. I will say I had a very difficult, um, I moved to Syracuse, New York, which is not the difficulty, believe it or not. Um, it was fabulous up there. I was working for a shell trading at the time.
00:26:32
Speaker
And it was we were opening up a trade shop up there. My background's derivatives and hedging. And um it was a great opportunity and a great office, but it was just very, very difficult. And so I was just ready to quit. And then I got the call from our former firm um about starting in consulting. And I was just like, what? I mean, I can't be a consultant. I don't know everything. Consultants know everything. yeah ah They don't, they just know how to get the information. You know, they're smart people working with the client.
00:27:10
Speaker
figuring out what they need together and then, you know, getting the answers together, putting a plan in place, yada yada, all the things we consultants do today. I don't know that I would have been open to that opportunity had I not had such a difficult situation where I was at. So carry these difficulties lead lead us to where we are now. But really being like, I'll do anything if I don't have to do what I'm doing right now, you know? yeah um But consulting was really interesting. And what's great about consulting is, especially if you've been in public accounting before and then gone into corporate, it brings the two worlds together.
00:27:49
Speaker
You're surrounding yourself with really smart people who want to do more and who want to improve and who are always looking to to do other things, innovation, et cetera. and um But you've also got the business that you're helping to build. So it's just such a great combination. And ah obviously, it's worked for us for a very long time. So you know if I could put a plug in for consulting.
00:28:11
Speaker
i would I would do the same being that that was my my first my first job at a school, like amazing training rounds. And you better learn how to learn, right? you Learn how to learn very, very quickly. um Again, i I can't stress enough congratulations, right? Especially the concept of you founded this business four years ago and you already had you already had clients asking you before you started to go do this. And you already had clients lined up when you started.
00:28:39
Speaker
ah which obviously means you're you've been doing great work um and have had very successful careers. I wonder if you wouldn't mind sharing, if is is there anything that that either of you have done consistently throughout your careers that you're curious why others don't do those same things? like Are there any things that you've done that maybe you you might attribute some of the success that you've had to that maybe you even tell others, like hey, you should probably do this, this, and this consistently. And you're just kind of surprised that they don't do those things. But you do them consistently, and they seem to work for you. Does anything stand out? There's a few things. You've got a whole spreadsheet on it. I do, um which I'll talk about in just a second.
00:29:27
Speaker
i so I mean, I think a couple of things that I do well that have helped me that I try to teach other people um is to you know learn how to manage up. Well, and that's critical.
00:29:42
Speaker
um if If you are working for somebody who can relax because they know that you're going to bring the issues, you're you know you're gonna when there's when there's something that needs to be discussed, you're going to bring it and you're gonna you're going to bring them updates when necessary.
00:30:00
Speaker
That's huge. um And kind of along those same lines, it's just the professionalism of your deliverables, like what you're producing, whether it be a memo or a spreadsheet, like it needs to look really good.
00:30:17
Speaker
Like every one of them needs to look good. So you know just developing a style around your presentation is key um and make it look as professional as possible. I mean, I always ask people to produce and deliverables, assuming that it's going to go to the board. Yeah, you know, I mean, it needs to ah says i have a list of spreadsheet 10 commandments, there's a lot more than 10 on there, you should publish that should be downloadable on our website. I mean, I, would i if I'd love to share, I mean, if if you're willing to share it, I'd love to share it. I mean, just, you know, formatting things and, you know, like,
00:30:59
Speaker
but Do a print preview. Does it all fit on the page? i mean like yeah All kinds of things. Don't take those grid lines off and make sure that the you have frozen rows at the top. So when I scroll down, I still know what the column header is. It's just some very obvious things that I still see people who are 10 years into their careers and they don't do those things. i'm like i Immediately, I'm like, I don't know if I trust you.
00:31:24
Speaker
like That's exactly right. And and it it is a credibility thing. In fact, I was my my son is in in college early on in his college career. And one of the most valuable classes that I took in college was technical writing. Okay, but I didn't take it until my last semester, right, I graduated, and I was a terrible writer.
00:31:47
Speaker
and But once I took that class, it just sort of brought it, I guess it appealed to my analytical nature and it just kind of brought it all together for me. And and so I recommended that he go ahead and take that class now. And so he's in the middle of it right now. And so we were talking just yesterday about the professionalism of, ah it has to look good. And he said, yes, that's exactly what my professor is teaching me.
00:32:12
Speaker
um because it it brings credibility to what you're what the person is looking at. And so, you know depending on who your audience is, um you have to tailor it. So sometimes you're producing something that you actually may not want people to read.
00:32:28
Speaker
yeah in much detail. So an example of that might be a memo that you're giving to your auditors or a spreadsheet that you're giving to your auditors, you know, like make it look good. Because if it doesn't look good, like they're going to dig in even deeper. And, you know, and if and if you are trying to get people to read it, well, that's got to look a certain way, too. It's got to be easily absorbable. And it's got to it's every time it has to look good.
00:32:55
Speaker
So that that is key. And it's and it is something that I think a lot of people don't put enough emphasis on. So that's my soapbox for the day. I mean, it's it's a good one um because I will I will just reiterate. People will if you give a work product to someone, right, especially if they don't necessarily know you. Right.
00:33:23
Speaker
the person who is on the receiving end is going to make assumptions of the quality of your ability to do work for them based on what you present, and they might not tell you.
00:33:36
Speaker
but They might not say, hey, I saw these, you violated five of my 10 Excel commandments. right They might not say that, but they're making assumptions in their head based on, wow, this doesn't have this, or this doesn't call out the source of the data, or this doesn't call out what year I'm low, what mean whatever it may be. right And again, as a as a leader, you you might want to tell them, like hey, this is missing all these things. right But some people don't have great leaders, and those leaders might not tell that person what's missing, and they don't learn, and they don't know.
00:34:05
Speaker
um But this concept of like this professionalism and those Excel 10 commandments, maybe it's 15 now, I don't know. If you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd love to, I'd love to see them because I'm sure they're probably universal things that most people should be doing that many, many, maybe have not been taught. um So yes, thank you very much for sharing that. ah Professionalism and making sure your work products look professional or your simple statement, pretend as if this is going to the board.
00:34:30
Speaker
right? that will That will guide a lot of people very well through their careers. Pretend like this is going to the board, like make sure this looks great. um Awesome. A couple other quick hitter questions here as we keep rolling. when what What would you recommend for folks based on how the CPA kind of exam is structured today?
Advice for Aspiring Professionals
00:34:50
Speaker
And again, you've got you've got this team behind you and you've you've got you can see You can see, I'm sure, the examples of people who maybe have taken it before they start working full time versus those who are working full time and are trying to knock out the CPA too. ah With what you've seen and maybe how you experienced the CPA exam, what would you recommend for folks today who are looking to take the exam of when to take it and how to approach it?
00:35:16
Speaker
I would highly recommend taking it as soon as you can, as soon as you can. Now, when we took it, you know, you had to sit for all four parts at the same time. um So I was fortunate enough to um win a a Becker scholarship in a raffle. I mean, I did have the grades for it too, but I but wanted it a raffle.
00:35:38
Speaker
You would have wanted two ways. Yeah. And um I just went because I went to a session that was just an intro. Like I didn't know what it was. um It wasn't really talked about at my school at the time, but somehow it came across my desk. So anyway, I just went to the session and won the raffle. So it was fortunate enough to have that class. um And it just I.
00:36:03
Speaker
I did it, it was my first year at Deloitte, busy season. So we were working crazy hours, but this class was every Saturday, all day, eight to five. Yeah. And, you know, I just I just had to knock it out right away because I knew once once I got past it, I would never want to go back. And um that's my own recommendation is get it done as soon as you can. Don't wait because your life is going to start rolling and you're going to have lots of things going on. And then women, especially family, once you have kids, it's kind of
00:36:36
Speaker
So and almost incredibly, it's just almost impossible. Yep. Or as early as you can, as early as you can. maybe I know you only have to take one part at a time now, so that has definitely helped, but I would still knock it out just to get it off of your desk.
00:36:51
Speaker
And if you could go back and place yourself knowing what you know now, if you could go back and place yourself kind of in your last year of college or maybe in your first year in the working world, ah what's the number one piece of advice that you might go back and give yourself um based on all the knowledge that you've gained since then? and That's an easy one for me. and I would take some time off.
00:37:19
Speaker
I'm not kidding. Like, I don't know what I was in such a hurry for. But I was, I mean, I was, I was ready to go. And I've just my entire career, I've done that. Like, why am I like, just take a few weeks off, take a month off, take a like right after college, like, I really wish I would have just taken like a gap year and gone and so but I was in a big hurry to get started. So if I could go back, I would do that. Okay.
00:37:48
Speaker
you Candace, anything? Probably not what you wanted to hear. I know. I'm processing that right now how this is going to his audience. I i will i will share. Actually, I did i did something similar. right So after I graduated, I asked to defer my start date by a year. um Or no, it was by six months. I defer i asked to defer for six months because I wanted to go travel internationally because at that time, I had never been outside the country and I'd only been on a plane once in my life when I graduated college.
00:38:16
Speaker
And so I asked to do that. And thankfully, they said yes. And I just backpacked across Europe for three months by myself as my first like, all right, it's it's it's time to go. It's time to go get out of Ohio, Spencer. but Yeah. um And so that's what I asked you. And it was it was it was fantastic. um I like I mean, it's hard to recommend things to others because you don't know where they're coming from. But at that time, that was ah that was a great experience for me, given how little I had been outside of the state of Ohio in my life at that time.
00:38:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly what I wanted to do. Or actually, I didn't want to do it because I didn't know. I didn't even know. I just didn't know that you could do stuff like that. Yeah, so you can. There's a lot of stuff you can do as you can also. You can also found companies and already have customers lined up the day you find them like the day you found them. I didn't know like that's amazing. Yeah, ah that's true. You need some experience first.
00:39:10
Speaker
ah thanks for like ah And anything else that you might, ah anything else do you think is valuable or fun or useful for the audience ah that you'd like to share that maybe didn't come up?
Valuing Relationships in Business
00:39:22
Speaker
Or is there anything that maybe you'd like to restate because it's just that important and and you want to make sure like, hey, like I know I said this already, but I really do think this is really important. Anything you want to leave behind with the audience that's new or kind of highlight something that you already said? I mean, I would just say, going back to one of my original comments, which is relationships. Our whole business is built on relationships. yeah a Again, good work is number one, but number two is really maintaining those relationships and really be asking what you can do for the other person. It's not just, what am I going to get out of this? It's how can you help that person or that company, you know, achieve what they need to achieve? I love talking to like,
00:40:07
Speaker
kids in high school and kids in college, um, on what they can do next or helping them with their resume or how to have an interview prep or all of those conversations, you know, getting people connected. That is what I really love to do is like, Hey, you're you're trying to get a job here. Let us see who we know. We probably know someone or know someone who knows someone, yeah which is and relationships in the network. So I would just say maintain, maintain those, develop new ones,
00:40:35
Speaker
And just because you're talking to somebody for the first time, it doesnt you're not trying to get anything from them. You're really just trying to find out who they are and talk about who you are and you know just start the start start at the bottom and and grow those relationships. That's my biggest piece of advice. That's exactly what I was going to say. Good job.
00:40:57
Speaker
yeah I mean, that even strong even stronger everyone listening, they both have the same answer. right Do good work and make sure you're maintaining those great relationships ah throughout your career and especially without expectation. right like even Even if you're offering first to give with no expectation of getting, like that's sometimes the best things happen when when you kind of come from that place of just like, how can I help?
00:41:23
Speaker
Well, this was awesome. Congratulations on four years. um It's a great story. um Thank you very much for ah for joining us here today with very cool careers in accounting. Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Spencer.