“the perspective of a non-accountant is imperative.”
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transformation talks
with donny shimamoto
center for accounting transformation
glen harper, cpa, says businesses should be willing to reinvent themselves and that diverse perspectives can be a valuable asset. the owner of harper & company cpas should know: he’s had to embrace both philosophies to become successful.
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in a recent episode of transformation talks, harper tells host donny shimamoto, cpa, citp, cgma, who is also the founder and managing director of intraprise techknowlogies llc and the founder of the center for accounting transformation, that a good advisor can help you see your business from a different perspective and identify opportunities that you may have missed. he said after some self-reflection, he needed what his successful clients already had–a ceo.
enter julie smith.
when she first started, julie smith, mba, observed that each partner seemed to have their own way of performing jobs and tasks, and nothing was a formalized process, which kept team members working in their own silos and doing their jobs their own way, which was inefficient for the team and, because it kept everyone working apart, it also hurt the business culture at the firm. smith suggested starting at the beginning: defining the firm’s purpose and mission and, building around that, making sure leadership is all on the same page.
“as you go to execute change inside a firm, if there’s any cracks, any negativity, anything like that, the team just latches on to that,” she explained. “but if there is nothing but positivity, and you’re leading from a place of you know, moving forward, and this is what we’re doing, it’s very clear and very defined.”
harper said the transformation didn’t come without pain points.
“it’s really hard to say, ‘let’s blow this up,” harper said. “once you recognize that to be to adapt and overcome…those obstacles and to be a better firm, you got to rip some things apart and rebuild it. and you just have to have an open mind.”
harper said smith’s insights underscore the significance of multidisciplinary thinking. by bringing in views that are not steeped in numbers and balance sheets, businesses can tap into holistic strategies that cater to diverse clientele and market needs.
harper summarized, “the perspective of a non-accountant is imperative.”
13 more takeaways from harper & company cpas:
- start with your purpose. create your culture. culture is so important. thinking about the firm culture and purpose helps open the opportunity to execute change
- a changed mindset can help with the fresh perspective needed to help your firm transform
- small incremental changes can help drive transformation
- finding your passion or what you are passionate about can help transform what you are doing.
- most accountants run their practice in a way that is more focused on just doing compliance work rather than running it like a business. set yourself apart.
- bringing people together to work toward a common goal will help change an approach from being reactive to becoming proactive.
- it’s important that the firm owners do not put themselves above the firm but rather draw from the strengths of the whole, leading from a place of positivity.
- to become a better firm, sometimes it is necessary to rip things apart and rebuild them. but in doing so, it is important to maintain an open mindset, or the transformation will not be possible.
- you can’t change someone that doesn’t want to change
- when you’re looking for a coo or an operations manager, you do not want them to be accountants. the perspective of a non-accountant is imperative in a small-firm transformation because they are not looking at it like an accountant.
- communication can be challenging with different personalities. learning how to “speak the same language” and communicate effectively with different personality types can bring about a better business culture and opportunities for change. communicating more effectively can change the whole dynamic. conversation creates a great culture when you empower and engage every person.
- firm owners need to understand that “it’s not my way. it’s the firm way and what’s best for the whole team.” everyone in the firm doing things the same way and with purpose. this will open the opportunity to create a culture with a teamwork aspect, and leadership can then listen while engaging staff in driving change.
- it doesn’t have to be the firm owner always solving problems and creating new ideas/opportunities. listening offers the ability to constantly be able to pivot, evolve, and change inside the firm because you are more open-minded to having conversations.
about glen harper
a cpa since 1994, harper is the owner of harper & company cpas plus, an entrepreneur, public speaker, and co-host on the podcast empowering entrepreneurs. he decided in 2017 to expand the firm beyond the traditional tax compliance focus to a firm committed to delivering advisory and consulting services to the clients they serve. at his core, harper loves to make a difference in people’s lives by helping them understand and manage their tax, accounting, and business strategies. as an entrepreneur himself, he believes every entrepreneur deserves to enjoy the journey. he is passionate about teaching other entrepreneurs how to build financial and operational excellence into their businesses and scale to create the lifestyle they love. harper was named to accounting today’s 2022 mp elite as one of the top 10 managing partners in the country, and his firm, harper & company cpas plus, was the 2021 winner of the prestigious luca award.
about julie smith
julie smith, mba, is the practice manager for harper & company cpas plus, an entrepreneur and co-host of the podcast empowering entrepreneurs. smith joined harper & co. in november of 2013 and brings a strategic approach to running the practice. empowering others to develop into their best professional selves is her passion. her superpower is teaching leaders how to get out of their own way so they can successfully execute change, build positive cultures, and move their businesses forward. with expertise in the business of public accounting, smith also speaks nationwide and enjoys inspiring others in the profession to take action, evolve, and grow. she was named cpa.com’s 2021 innovative practitioner of the year and was honored to accept the luca award on behalf of the firm from thomson reuters in 2021.
transcript
(transcripts are made available as soon as possible. they are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.)
donny shimamoto
hello, and welcome to transformation talks. i’m your host, donny shimamoto, the inspiration architect for the center for accounting transformation. during these episodes, we’ll be visiting with a spectrum of firm practitioners who are successfully helping their firms navigate the transformation of the accounting profession. today with me are glen and julie, from harper and co. and they will share with us some of the transformations their firm has gone through. and glenn and julie, welcome.
julie smith
thank you for having us on. we’re really excited.
glen harper
thanks for having us on, donny. appreciate it.
donny shimamoto
i actually am thankful that you came on because i was listening to your podcast and i was like, oh, i like this advice that they’re giving. and then i heard you guys talking about what you’ve done in your firm, and how you’ve changed stuff up. and it was like, oh, this is perfect. so come help share that. because part of what we i think don’t hear enough is firms that are successfully doing everything that all the consultants and our and thought leaders and you know, thought leaders and everett’s calling them. and that’s part of what we’re trying to do through this podcast is really helps show the advice works. you need to do it. and so actually with that, let’s let’s kind of go back, can you tell us a little bit about your cert yourselves your role, your firm and tell us a little about your firm too, because i like that you guys are a smaller firm. so i think a lot of firms think, oh, this is for big firms stuff. so tell us a little bit about yourselves & your firm.
glen harper 01:33
so i start with me because i you know, i was just a skosh older. so i’ve been doing this a little bit longer. but you know, i came out of college and i had, you know, bright eyes to be a be a partner in the big eight, because that’s when i was around. and i got that inspiration from a guy worked for i was his landscaper, he was a managing partner of a firm in cleveland, one of the big aides and i’m like, man, i don’t know what you do for a living. but that’s what i want to do. and i didn’t know what an accountant did, i was a farm kid. and so i went to school, and this is what i want to be. but apparently you need this thing like a 4.0 to get in a grade point average to get into a firm like that. so while i was in college i worked for a guy had just started a firm, and i came on board while i was in school working for him. i’m like, wow, this is pretty cool. and so by the time i got out of college, i’m like, you know, this is going pretty well didn’t have the grades to get into the big eight at the time. so we kind of started this thing off and we went we’re just a compliance firm didn’t even know what that meant. but we basically, people would call up and we do work for them, right, just build by the hour or the project, whatever it was, and just started from zero, and just made this thing kind of go pretty good. and then ultimately, i got the cpa became a partner. and we kind of just kept grinding it out and grinding out and doing the work doing the work. and then at some point, i’m like, this is crazy, i’m working way too hard. i’m kind of feel like i’m in this own little silo, you know, building all this work working many hours. and i’m like, there’s got to be a better way. and and then i looked, i took a an in perspective, and i looked at well, what are my clients doing? what are they doing that is making them successful. and then i realized that most of my successful, you know, midsize firms, meaning greater than eight people working for them, they all had one thing that was really cool that they had a practice manager or a ceo of some sort that basically helped did operations and had the glue to help the workers as a support team kind of hold that together and help deliver that message to the client. i’m like, that’s what i need. so i put the word out, you know, we call them assistants at the time and you’re like, that’s not what i need. i need somebody who can take ownership in this. and so ultimately, you know, i kept asking around, does anybody know anybody, anybody know anybody. and you know, julie came to the door. and i knew i couldn’t sell it for my partner because he didn’t think we needed that. but i knew we needed it. so i said, look, i’m going to hire, quote my assistant. but i told you, i said, look, you’re ultimately going to be the practice manager. but right now i got to do it this way. and so that’s what i did. and that just started down the path of you know, julie brought to the attention some education and training of how to transform a firm from a, you know, a transactional firm to more of a relationship and value billing firm and really help solve clients problems proactively versus just being, you know, attack sweatshop. and so, you know, i’ll let julie take over from there to say what had happened, and then i’ll chime in again.
julie smith
yeah, so my experience is a little bit different. so, i had that corporate america leadership experience. and, you know, i had kind of decided after having, you know, my first child that i wanted to take a step back and wanted to really, you know, how can i create some balance? and, you know, glen, somehow met glen through, you know, a different colleague, and, you know, we didn’t agree on all the things in that first interview or views were very, very different was way different.
glen smith
i’m like, look, the two things are most important means you gotta be to work on time.
julie smith 04:59
and that’s the number one thing i’m never going to do. for whatever reason that’s like,
a whole different podcasts, but and so ultimately decided, you know, to come on board and see see what we could do together. and i think as we went through this, and i could see, you know, think the second day, i closed the door and was like what is going on in here? this is not a business, you know what, what’s happening. and i, as my experience has grown through this, you know, there’s a lot of firms, there’s more firms doing, what glen was doing than what we’re doing now. and i think as we’ve went through this, this passion, you know, we always talk about on our podcast, how you find your passion, and it’s in the most unlikely way, is, you know, i’ve seen that how firms are running their firms and how they can just tweak some things and change their mindset and be a little bit more open minded and hire maybe this position, and really be able to transform what they’re doing, and maybe not do what glen did for 25 years. and so that’s really where i came in and kind of had that fresh perspective of this is what i know works, how can we change that our firm is only 12 people. and so how can we really, you know, make these small, incremental changes and be very strategic about what we’re doing to really change and drive that difference?
glen harper 06:15
so for me, it was like, i’m like, hallelujah, this is it high five, because i knew that i was just,
julie smith
it wasn’t that easy.
glen harper
just it was clear, i knew what i needed.
glen harper 06:25
i just didn’t know how it worked. and we put it together. and it was a lot of tough conversations. but i recognize that most accountants run their practice of just doing compliance, and they don’t run like a business. and your advising account is advising their hundreds of 1000s of clients, hundreds and 1000s of clients on how to run their business and build a business and be the best they can be, how to set it up how to read the taxes, how to solve conflicts, and put in management in teams. and we do it for all our clients. we never do it for ourselves. and so, because we just don’t think we need to write, which is absolutely asinine, because of course, we need to do it. and so once you recognize that as a firm owner, as a as a cpa firm, like wait a minute, where we are not a sweatshop, we’re better than that we bring more value in that we know too much. we want to help our clients more. but to do that, we can’t do it unless you’re running a business. and that’s we need systems or processes.
julie smith 07:22
i think to paint the picture of what i kind of walked into it. and it’s, i think it’s come in a lot of firms were three silos, there were literally one company running three different companies with three different expectations, three different ways of doing things. you know, the admin team was very confused on, you know, whose expectation really ruled who what was the priority? how do we do things? there was zero culture going on internally. and if anything, you know, it was kind of a toxic culture, if i could be, you know, as blunt as saying that. and so, that happens in a lot of firms. and so how are you able to kind of bring everything together to for everyone to work for a common goal. and i think you see burnout a lot. i think you see a lot of people, a lot of high turnover, when you have that inside of firm. and so it’s how are you able to kind of go in and change that. so that it’s a proactive approach, rather than a reactive, you know, if you interview a lot of firm owners, they’re just drinking from a firehose, all day long. they don’t know how to turn the lever to be able to control that and set different expectations. and so that’s really our journey and what we kind of set out to do, and i think we’ve been pretty successful in doing that. and so you know, now it’s, you know, how do we share that shortcut with the world?
donny shimamoto 08:36
nice, nice, i got, i totally agree with you, too. i feel like we’re always firms are always accomplished children, right? like, we tell all our clients to do stuff, and then we never do it. even my friend, we recognized that we were doing that, too. so we’re now we’re in the process of actually optimizing our own internal way that we operate. and going through a lot of that change as well. julie, you mentioned the three different ways of doing things is that effectively three partners or three different partners in the way that they wanted stuff?
julie smith 09:05
you know, when i started, glenn had another partner. and then there was another, you know, what i would call an accountant in charge who had been there for a while, who had her own way, right. and so it was literally three separate silos of people who had figured out a way that worked for them. and no one had ever had come together and had a conversation of like, okay, well, if we take your strength and we take this strength, will no one’s weaknesses ever exposed.
glen harper 09:32
and the point of that is, is that we each were kind of doing things our own way. and we put ourselves each of us above the firm, and we cannot be success. a cpa cannot be successful on their own in. in this environment. you can be a sole practitioner and do just great, right? you’re going to be busy but to achieve your greatness, you have to you have to delegate tasks and things that you shouldn’t be doing the things that bring you value, and you’ll figure that out as a business owner anyway. but as an accountant, you can’t do it on your own. and if you’re not, you have to rely on your team. and to do that, you have to put the firm above you. and you have to put the well needs of all your staff at all. and the only way you can do that is they have to be the same message doing the same thing for all the clients the same way. so the client gets a better experience, you know, what a client would call and they would get you a date, the same answer, but it would be three different ways, and it would be a different spin, we’re gonna get the probably the same result, we’re just going to get there differently. and then if the client calls up two days later and talk to somebody else, they’re like, well, they said to do it this way, we’re still getting the same result. it’s just a different path. and that was confusing for everybody in the admin team. again, they were they were lost because they didn’t know which way to go.
julie smith 10:45
so, donny, to speak to kind of glen’s you know, comment earlier, is there was no purpose in the firm, no one had been able to define what was the vision? what was the mission? what are the core values when it comes to decision making? what where are we our purpose? you know, where are we going? what are our goals. and so i think once you know, you’re able to kind of sit down and define those and communicate those very transparently to your team, and everyone can understand how they fit into something bigger than themselves, you’re gonna see your culture shift, because now everybody understands where you’re going, what you’re doing, and how they fit into it. and again, it takes time, and it’s tough conversations. i mean, i can, i can assure you gonna get along just great. but there were times behind closed doors where we didn’t agree. but i can assure you that as soon as we open the door, and we walked out, we were a very united front, whether or not, we were, you know, using some resemblance of what both of us believed or one of us had been able to compromise, whatever that was, we were a very united front, because as you go to execute change inside a firm, if there’s any cracks, any negativity, anything like that, the team just latches on to that. but if there is nothing but positivity, and you’re leading from a place of you know, moving forward, and this is what we’re doing, it’s very clear and very defined. people want to hook up their wagon and go, and the people that don’t, that’s okay. and i think that’s a really hard thing for, for whatever reason, this industry to understand that you don’t necessarily look at your firm today, and it’s the firm you want. and that’s okay, you just have to be able to make progress towards that.
glen harper 12:25
accountants, you know, we’re just a different breed. i mean, we are just programmed differently, not as bad as engineers, but we are, we are bizarre individuals. because, again, we care so much about our clients, and we want to do too good, we want to do well for them, we want to help them. and we really never think about our firm, we don’t think about ourselves, because we’re so busy trying to service that client and in the clients getting tremendous effort and value and passion. and we care almost too much as an accountant. because we know everything we want to help. it’s just, it’s in our nature. but you really can’t do that if everybody isn’t on board. and as an accountant, we the change to change something, it’s like, well, what do we do? well, we’ll be due last year, that’s what we’re doing this year, it’s really hard to say, let’s blow this up. and even just change one degree. like, i mean, we’re, you know, act of congress, we gotta move, move glaciers with that, it’s really hard to do that. but once you recognize that to be to adapt and overcome that those those obstacles and to be a better firm, you got to rip some things apart and rebuild it. and you just have to have an open mind. because literally every account out there, we do this on a daily basis for probably five to 10 clients a day. um, this is what we do all day long. why can’t we do it for ourselves? and that that was the whole impetus of this change of like, i know, we can better do better than this. why aren’t we and we needed a couple of those tweaks. and you know, when julie came along that really helped make that happen.
donny shimamoto 13:51
nice. nice. yeah, i totally agree with you. because you know, we do a lot of business transformation consulting, and a big piece of what we do is, you know, what, start with a blank sheet of paper. if you were creating the firm today, what would it look like? don’t think about what you’re doing. now, if you created the firm today, what would the firm look like? and then we use that as the basis for let’s create this vision and move you along that vision. now, the the i think the interesting thing that julie brought up on this, though, is this whole need for purpose, because that’s not also not something that we talk about with this, like, why are we here? we’re here? are we here to just do tax returns and deliver financials and eric, glen kind of alluded to it, too. so what do you guys see? like how did you guys figure out this purpose for your firm?
julie smith 14:36
i mean, i definitely think the purpose came to fruition about you know, just having the conversations transparently and honestly, and glenn hit the nail on the head. he wanted to help people. and so how do you help people it’s through relationships. how do you create a firm that’s solely based on relationships and service and move away from that transactional? relationship almost right? it’s a value driven relationship. and so that’s really where it all started.
glen harper 15:07
and, you know, the part that gives us great perspective, when we go talk to other firms about doing this is that, you know, in the firm i was with with a partner and different accounts in charge and doing whatever we were doing, you know, i had a different value proposition of how i was billing and what i was doing for clients, and everybody in the firm was doing something totally different. well, how can we give something away with one person, but yet i’m charging, or, and then it’s not being equitable, and the clients basically using and abusing the accountant, and the other owner, right, and they don’t even realize it? and i’m like, standing in the back and wait, wait, wait, no, no, we should do this different. but you can’t get people to come with because at the time, i didn’t have the glue to put that together, and how to work that. so when we go and talk to other firms, usually there’s the partners are on different tracks, we got the old school and we got the young person or whatever we have, and it’s just different. and bridging that communication gap to say, look, if you’re the older partner, things are changing fast, and you can adapt to and if you don’t want to lose everybody, you better adapt. and the younger partner you’re looking at is another situation where how do you recognize and be, i don’t wanna say empathetic, but sympathetic to, hey, this is, this is the guy that are the guy or the gal that started everything, and they’ve been through the trenches for 3040 years, you got to give them a little grace and help work through them. but they got to recognize that they want to change as well, you know, that the older partner to get to that work, and if not, guess what, it’s gonna blow up anyway. so the sooner you can recognize it, the better off you are. but it’s, again, account is so hard to change. i mean, it’s that we don’t like confrontation, we don’t like change. i mean, it’s, it’s so the stereotypes are are real. i mean, if i had a pocket protector here, you’d be like high five, glenn,
julie smith
but he’s got a 10-key his backpack.
glen harper
right over here. i’m ready. okay.
julie smith 16:59
but i but i think that’s where this kind of role comes into play of really trying to, there’s no necessary emotion. and i know that sounds so harsh, and so cold, but we just want to run a really good business, and we want everyone to come with, and we want everyone to understand where we’re going. and so to be able to bridge that gap of communication and empathize a little bit and to help control and make people accountable to those items, is really, really important in order to gain traction.
glen harper 17:31
and into that point, you know, we have this awareness as as the as the owner, like, i know, there’s a better way to do this, but again, meant you get the you get the decoder ring, and you’re like, oh, wow, that sounds awesome. can i know, well, how the heck do i do it, i don’t have time for this, i don’t have a skill set for that. so when you locate we call her the julie, right. now you have somebody that can bridge the communication gap, she got some of that understands the operations a little bit, you know, way better, and they can be the above, it’s the scope, and then they can have the ability to be the buffer. so i don’t have to be in a position where i’m talking to staff. and i’m just not trained in that. that’s just not what i do. so she can decode what i’m saying and what they’re saying and make it so we can communicate. and it was like alright, i see what’s going on here. and then oh, and this is how we’re going to do it. and i can take everything in my head dump it out into a process that was like getting hooked up to the machine and the princess bride would they just sucked everything out of my head. and, and put it in a process because it was all up here. it wasn’t where the rest of the firm could see it. and that process. that was that was tedious. i gotta tell you, but once it was out there, i’m like, why am i hoarding this knowledge? why can’t i share this with the whole firm and make everybody better, so they don’t come talk to me all the time. so so the julie helps facilitate that change or input that new system in place where i don’t have to be the one doing it. and that and i mean, that was life changing for that.
donny shimamoto 18:59
there’s a lot in there, i want to i want to call it three specific things, because i think there’s so important one, glenn, you talked about this need, especially this, this split kind of between the i’m gonna call them the veteran person in the firm and newer person in the firm that wants to do things, the new and different way versus the, quote traditional way. and i often i heard i heard you first started going down that path. i was like, oh, please don’t sit them against each other because i hate i hate it when people do that. they’re like, oh, this generation wants that. and that generation want that. and these are separate, but i heard you say they actually need to meet in the middle and understand where each other is coming from. and i totally agree with you at that, in fact that i think i wrote an article on 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 about that, like this need to meet in the middle and understand the value of each other’s perspectives. and i totally agree with you to that. it’s part of the you can’t you can’t change someone that doesn’t want to change. so there needs to be that understanding that, hey, we’re we’re gonna go through this change. and both of you said earlier, maybe that’s a discussion argument. whatever behind closed doors, but once we’ve got an agreement on, this is the way we’re moving. this is the way we’re going to move.
glen harper 20:07
donny, to that point, the key thing that the younger person forgets, and that’s why i said you have to do it with grace is because there is so much wisdom in the elder partner, because they’ve been through it all. they’ve seen the crazy situations that the young person hasn’t experienced yet. it’s not that we can’t figure it out. but when i gotta go look up and take three days to figure out and hope it works, right? because i’m going, i gotta reinvent it. the other the elder partner goes, you just do this, this and this are like, oh, my god, that’s genius, right. so what you don’t want, you don’t want that, that wisdom to walk out the door. so it’s important that you do put that together. and the the energizing and the passion of the younger person that hasn’t been beat down for 40 years, right, and just get destroyed the abuse cpa, the older one needs to tap into that energy. so they can live out the last few years and glory as they fade off in the sunset instead of having it to be ugly. and you just don’t want that. but it’s sometimes it happens. but to your point, it’s about the wisdom you don’t everybody has something to offer you don’t let either one walk away.
donny shimamoto 21:15
yep. so so important, completely agree with you. and then the second thing you mentioned was the introducing the julie or the coo or the practice manager, whatever they want for even firm administrator and a lot of people use that. but i think the julie role is a little different than kind of a traditional firm administrator. right. so i think like you said, that’s super, that’s a super important one to my firm, we’re 14 people. and actually, even when we were eight people, we still had our julie… our person, actually, her name is elisa. so she was kind of my counterpoint to a lot more structured, a lot more operations focus a lot more direct. also, i think i heard you kind of say that. and that’s really you need that, because that’s the person that kind of puts all the glue together that says, hey, this is what has to happen and keeps things going, which allows us as the partner to kind of do what we need to do work with the clients work with the staff, be that more creative individual that’s like, okay, this is how we’re going to approach everything or this is what has to happen because of the wisdom that we have and actually experienced in delivering the services.
glen harper 22:24
i think you’re that that julie roll again, historically, you would just call the firm administrator, whatever, but they never were given from…
julie smith
i thought it should be called the barista.
glen harper
i mean, you can you do, you’re actually you don’t even make coffee. so i don’t know if that would work. but it comes down to the firm administrator is somebody that you assigning tasks to, but you’ve not empowered them and trusted them, to own it. that catalyst of change, and to be the go to person and take the that ownership because it’s so hard to delegate something if you still control it. so once you empower and delegate and trust, then you can forget that forget about it, but it’s not, it’s not on my plate anymore. and that’s what i think most firms were lacking. because it can’t just we can’t give up control. god forbid, you know, we don’t we’re not have our hands and everything. well, it’s very enlightening and empowering. when you do do that. because then that take that role, and they go with it. because all you’re doing is still you still have the same job and you’re holding somebody back from being the best they can be, well, how does that help you? it doesn’t.
julie smith 23:29
what i want to know is how many, you know, firm owners have went to conferences and been so energized by what they see. and they’re going to do it, they’re gung ho, and they get back. and they’re just dragged down by the tasks that have to be done. and so i think the difference is, is this person isn’t necessarily, you know, bogged down by those tasks by the fire hose, whatever you want to call it, and can just integrate what needs to be done. and they’re doing it that is their purpose. and they’re doing the purpose of the firm owner, the firm, and they just, everyone’s holding everybody accountable. right. and so it’s putting everybody up for success.
glen harper 24:11
and don’t forget, the accountants are just guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
julie smith
glen loves stereotypes.
glen harper
because they’re so true! it’s like we’ll take and we’ll hire, you know, a receptionist and eventually we’ll say, hey, can you do this one little task and oh, hey, by the way, can you run some payrolls and hey, can you just do some basic bookkeeping just type this data in and get me some things? and next thing you know, you got somebody who got hired in to do x is now doing y and then all of a sudden you’re like, hey, would you be my practice manager? they didn’t want that. and and furthermore, it’s sometimes you might take an accountant and make them a practice. that’s not what they do. so the julie and julie, like you, i get very i bought her a 10-key for birthday one year and she still hasn’t opened it up like she is adamantly no numbers, no accounting. you know, tax work and i’m like, come on here.
julie smith 25:03
but, but isn’t that offensive that i got a 10-key for a birthday gift?
donny shimamoto 25:07
in my head i said, oh my gosh, poor julie!
glen harper 25:09
i think that was a great gift!
julie smith
he was so proud of himself, and i’m like…
glen harper 25:12
i go to her desk and i had to, she’d ask a question, and she has this little solar calculator, i’m like, i’m ready to throw that thing out the window. so i got you a nice 10 key, so i can use it when i show up your desk. but the the perspective of a non-accountant is imperative because they’re not looking at it like an account or looking at like as a practice manager or a coo. and that’s a whole different skill set. so when you search for your julie, or that that operations person, you don’t want it to be an accountant because that’s not going to work for you.
donny shimamoto 25:42
yeah, i completely agree with you on that. so we like we use berkman personality assessments as part of our hiring process. and in berkman terms, the julie is a yellow person, it’s someone that’s very structured, which actually is usually an accountant. but it’s a different type of skill set as well in it. so it’s an it’s in berkman, it’s a mix of yellow, and red, red is like action and things happen. and that’s what that is compared to us as accountants where normally kind of yellow bluish– blues is a lot of ideas and things. and most of us that our firm orders that actually true entrepreneurs are more in that blue, yellow, rather than the red, yellow. so
glen harper 27:00
i wonder what i am.
julie smith 26:20
we haven’t taken that one. but we’ve taken several because i think the other thing that people have trouble with–or is a roadblock–is these two people communicating in the
glen harper
julie and the owner… yeah, yeah.
julie smith
and so i was, you know, i’m, like, running with all kinds of people. and i know, you know, i know how to speak the speak. and one day, we were just having conversation, and it may have been a discussion rather than a conversation. and i said, i need you to go online and take this test. because i, i don’t know how to communicate with you, we are not speaking the same language, like, whatever you’re saying, i’m not hearing; what i’m saying, you’re not hearing…
glen harper 27:00
and all i hear is oh, here’s blah, blah, blah, blah.
julie smith 27:02
he’s like, i don’t need to take a personality test. i’m like, i’m not having this conversation until you do so. and so he does it, he comes out, puts it on my desk, you know, i’m like, oh, this makes so much sense.
glen harper 27:13
i still don’t know what it really means when i took the test. but it made sense to her. so, she knows how to communicate.
julie smith 27:18
and so then i was like, okay, so i came back, and i’m like, okay, i’m gonna approach this from a different angle here. and we’ve been, i mean, we still have our discussions. but it’s interesting how, once you’re able to kind of put your finger on that and communicate effectively back and forth. it changes the whole dynamic,
donny shimamoto 27:35
completely, completely. i mean, we’ve met whether it’s myers briggs, like disc, kind of pick your poison on that one. but just make sure they do that comparative, because that’s what i know disc and berkman does this where you can actually compare and say, okay, how do you cut as a person a communicate with person b, and house person b, communicate with person a, and you need to adjust your language on that. but that’s so important to have kind of that data, to also give accountants be that data and that understanding because we also need to do that with clients. that i think is really important to recognize what type of communication your client needs, and then that’s how you adjust the message to really help get them to the right decisions.
glen harper 28:17
but you know, what’s funny about that, and again, stereotypes are great, as an as an accountant talking to a client, i know instantly how to communicate with them. i just know how they roll, like we just consented. but when we look at our own firm, and our people in our firm, we don’t look at it like that. we’re like, hey, this is how we do it. and that’s not the case. so again, the life changing aha moment is when you recognize that you’re applying one thing one way, but you’re not doing it the other way. and that is actually holding you back.
donny shimamoto 28:49
oh, important. and yes. before i forget, the third thing that i want to really pull in is you mentioned this host, and we actually came up really early standardization and the need to actually look at stuff. so we’ve done research in the past on how do you actually do automation and outsourcing and the key to automation, one of the keys that we actually identified eight keys, but one of the keys is standardization of processes. and in general, you mentioned a lot of that’s in your head and early on, it came out like we had three different people with three different processes that were driving, you know what the staff did, and it kind of drive drove them crazy. so how did you guys approach kind of this whole standardization? because i do think that that is one of the keys and you know, my firm does it, but not everyone will hire us to do it. how did you guys go through it? is there a technique or advice that you can share?
julie smith 29:40
well, i wouldn’t start with glen. no, no. i think the for us and i think i found it to hold true and most firms, the admin staff are the most likely to buy into that really fast. and so you start with one thing. so when i started we had zero so i started with one thing and i empowered one in person to document how they did that process. and then i empowered another person in the firm that was going to own getting these processes standardized and put them in a shared place. and then i had that person that created the first one present it in a staff meeting to the rest of the team. and so it became now that person is the go to for whatever that is, right? they’re going to own that. and so we literally started it, and it was like a fire hose. right? as soon as you start one, they just start going. the hardest people to get to document what they do the accountants. interesting, right?
glen harper
so stereotypical.
julie smith
but you have to hold them accountable. and i think the great thing about doing this is, you know, we would take one accountant and say, hey, can you build the chart of accounts, that would be the perfect chart of accounts for harper & company, and you’re gonna present that on monday at the staff meeting? what it did is it created conversation, too. so they would get up there and present it. and there’d be, you know, 12, 12 of us total in this room having this conversation, including the admin, because i think it’s really important that everyone understands everyone’s role. and so the conversation would start with, well, what about this? and did you think about that? and why didn’t you do that? and it was everyone’s different perspective coming together. and then you empower that person to go take kind of everyone’s perspective and tweak it, to make it the harper and company way. and so i think that the conversation creates great culture. and it also creates everybody thinking, oh, you’re right. why did not why? why haven’t we been doing that shortcut all together. so, the conversations that are created are invaluable, like the value in those are incredible. but now that person is in charge of changing the chart of accounts for heartburn company, if we so choose. and so it takes all of that out of the firm owners responsibility, and now i’ve spread it evenly amongst the team. and it’s documented. so when you go to hire, how much easier is that process?
glen harper 32:01
and i think that goes to the thing, which was the hardest part is, you know, ultimately, you know, the firm kind of split up and partner and other one had go their own separate ways. because again, either, you know, you can’t make somebody do something that they don’t want to do, because you believe it to be a certain way. and they believe that is another way. at some point, it’s better to do it sooner than later, and just say, look, this, this isn’t going to work. and it’s okay. so you take your ball and you go over there, i’m gonna take my ball and go over here, and we’re going to do it we’re going to do and either people are on board or they’re not. and that’s the hardest thing for an accountant, because we think that everybody should do it our way. right? and it’s really not like that, right? it’s, it’s, what’s the firm way we’re going to do it? it’s not my way, it’s what’s the firm way, what’s the best for the whole team. and then you can’t have a squeaky wheel, you can’t have somebody’s not doing it, right. and if everybody’s doing it the same way with purpose, we’re going to be just fine. but you’re gonna lose some along the way. and that’s just, and that’s okay. because it’s, again, it’s better to know sooner than to find out later. and so you put those people in, put those things in place, as soon as you can, because then you know, quicker.
donny shimamoto 33:13
i love it. i love it. i love that you talked about empowering and getting the staff to actually drive the change. we believe in that too. we believe in high stakeholder involvement where everyone kind of gets the same. maybe one person has a leader and other persons to leave, but everyone starts to get a say, because the traditional thinking is, well. it’s glenn’s firm isn’t glen gonna tell us how he wants it done. right? or even there’s a julie, julie is going to tell us what we need to do. which then when there’s problems are like, well, julie said, we got to do it this way. or glenn said, we got to do it this way. so i’m not going to raise the issue because that’s what they said. and but by getting everyone in, it also empowers everyone to say, hey, there’s a problem, or we have this new situation, how do we adjust this right and create that conversation.
julie smith 33:56
and i think that drives culture, which is something that i’m, you know, fiercely protective of inside of our firm. but it creates a culture where there’s a teamwork aspect to that. and glenn and i are just leadership, we are not bosses, we don’t dictate, we don’t ever want to be in that position. we want to listen. and i think when you stop and listen to what everybody on your team is saying, you’re going to be able to create something way bigger than the firm owner.
glen harper 34:26
and remember, as the owner, you know, the way i did it way back when i had green bar paper, i had the foldout depreciation schedules and slide rules…
julie smith
you’re dating yourself.
glen harper
but i’m just saying, that’s how i used to do it. well, i’m not doing that work anymore. somebody else is. so the way i did it is not the best way to do it. and i have to be willing to accept that somebody is in the trenches doing it. their opinion on how that works or should work is probably valid. and then we just got to get a consensus to all the people doing the similar work, which is the best way but it isn’t the way i did it because it’s not like that anymore?
julie smith 35:00
well, and i think, you know, you think, okay, i don’t even know how many i lost track of how many processes we have documented now internally, but going around and listening and having conversations with people, you know, i say i spend the majority of my day listening. we’re now going through and redoing some of those processes because they’ve changed, they’ve evolved, where the firm’s changed, the industry is changed, the software’s changed, whatever that is, it’s changed. and it’s so interesting to sit down and listen to though, you know, there’ll be like, you know, i think i read this, and i just think it’s changed. and, you know, and i’m like, i’m all ears, i’m open to whatever change you think is good, we just have to make sure it’s good for the whole firm. and so when you go through that, and you listen, and you change, you know, i feel like we are constantly able to pivot, evolve, and change inside of our firm, because we’re very open minded in regards to having those conversations,
glen harper 35:53
you know, how great it is, as the owner to not be responsible for every single new change in the tax code, or system or process or program, or whatever. and instead, your team is bringing you… you’re not bringing me… i always said, you know, the hardest part about being a leader, the owner is people always bring your problems, right. i don’t want any more problems. i want people bringing these solutions. so you identify the problem, bring me some solutions that bring me two or three solutions. and i hope you pick the best one, but just don’t dump the problem on my desk. how’s that help me? right? so this, this,
julie smith
i don’t even think you see problems.
glen harper
and it’s fantastic. but no, i mean, ultimately, if it gets to my desk, it’s a real thing. but but but the goal of of having that julie and running it that way is to make people be engaged in a way that they can make an impact. and they are going to held accountable. because now that guess what you might get lucky in your new thing you thought of and that solution is adopted for the whole firm. so now, it’s their reputation. so now they got to make sure it’s right. and it doesn’t have to be me every time. and that and that that is incredibly empowering for everybody.
donny shimamoto 37:05
so important. i completely agree with you on that. definitely. yeah, they need to own it. it’s then there’s accountability. and i love that you brought in that reputation. i hadn’t thought about that, that now there’s a reputational impact for the person that’s doing that. and so it creates, again, kind of that ownership and i’m going to make sure that this is done, right. love it.
glen harper 37:24
your pro your process was wrong. haha, right? like, nobody wants to hear that, especially in account we want to be right, right. and, and so we have to research and salmon in in to take us, you can never learn anything until you’re in a position to even though we never say fail, but you’re in a position where it could be wrong. and then you gotta go face the music. and that’s how you learn and evolve, and then you learn how to do it better the next time. but if you don’t have to take the risk, and you’re not gonna be held accountable for it, you will never take the chance and you’ll never be you’ll never amount to anything, because you’re never going to try and you got to be able to try.
donny shimamoto 37:59
love it. alright, well, we’ve we’ve talked through so many different things. and i know you guys actually help other firms through this. so can you tell us a little bit of how you guys do that?
julie smith 38:10
yeah. so you know, you find your passion and very unlikely way, like i said, and so you know, i started in pet we started empower cpa, which is the shortcut of how to operate your firm more efficiently, how to execute change, how to maybe put this person into play inside your firm? and what does that playbook look like? and so, again, this all started, because when we started doing it, i kept saying, glen, who are the people i talk to? are there groups that i can lean into? are there masterminds, you know, consult, can you go to a conference for the firm owner, and i can go and learn, you know, what i should be doing. and so just kind of took all of our knowledge over the last six or seven years and kind of created this, you know, the course that can help people go through it, and hopefully provide, you know, value so that you don’t have to do some of the things that we did and provide those shortcuts.
donny shimamoto 38:58
and what was it called? sorry?
julie smith 38:59
empower cpa,
donny shimamoto 39:01
thank you, empower cpa, and then the, because we touched on it earlier, and i want to make sure, i don’t want to misrepresent it, you also have the podcast that everyone can listen to as well, which is, as i enjoyed it. so you want to tell us a little bit about the podcast?
julie smith 39:17
so it’s empowering entrepreneurs. and so we just again, had this idea that we wanted to bring our sense of community around entrepreneurs. and it’s a lonely world sometimes out there as we could probably all relate to. and so just talking through everybody’s journey, and you know, what it looks like and how what did they learn and what shortcuts can they provide for maybe someone out there listening as well.
glen harper 39:36
we’ve seen you know, doing this for 33 years, you get to see so many clients, friends, customers, whatever that go through the struggle of and there’s no resource for them again, they’re just isolated. and so it was a great idea to say you know, what, why don’t we do something where we can share this knowledge because it’s it’s not only fun, but it’s really great to see you want entrepreneurs to succeed, and if they can get that one nugget that will help them keep going. because, you know, a lot of people give up and they just open that next door, but they just don’t have any more gas in the tank and open that next door and go, oh my god, that’s the shortcut, then that’s it. so that that was the whole reason behind that. and it’s been a just a wonderful listen to people’s stories, because they’re all very similar, and what everybody has to go through. but they don’t know that if they don’t listen, or try to acquire that knowledge.
donny shimamoto 40:29
yeah, and i like to that you guys, you guys highlighted business problems. so even as i listened to different episodes on your podcast, i got to hear a little bit about your firm, which is what made me want to bring you on to the podcast here. but i also got to hear other things. and if i kept a covid mind and go, there’s a parallel to that to the way that i’m running my firm or what’s happening in my firm. so yeah, i loved your guys podcasts on that. if they want to get in touch with either of you to ask you questions about anything that you’ve discussed. how would we get in touch with you guys?
julie smith 40:56
yeah, so we’re on linkedin, at harper cpa. plus.com is our cpa firm, empowering entrepreneurs.com is the podcast and empower cpa.io is for the empower cpa modules.
donny shimamoto 41:11
awesome. well, thank you again, i really have enjoyed this. and i, i love that you guys weave everything back, i heard you guys keep coming back to culture, culture, culture. and that is so important right now. so hopefully, if anything, i mean, there’s so many takeaways, people just kind of go, i need to think about my firm’s purpose and culture, because that’s where we started. and i believe, as i believe you guys believe that’s the starting point. because if you create something later, you can’t go back and say, well, we’re gonna change our purpose. and now we’re gonna change everything else to start with purpose, create the culture. and then we gave a lot of tactics today on like, what are some of the things you need to look at?
julie smith
absolutely.
donny shimamoto
so thanks, everyone out there for joining us for this edition of transformation talks. and thank you, glen and julie for sharing your transformation success and your own sounds like you even have individually some transformation journeys as you went through that. so i encourage everyone out there if you’re watching or listening today, visit us at the center for accounting transformation, because we provide a lot of education and information about small firms small businesses going through these transformational changes and that website is www.improvetheworld.net thanks again for joining us and hope to see you on the next transformation talks.