Thanks for tuning in to CPA Life, where we talk culture and growth with folks that are going against the grain in an industry that has been stuck with a we've always done it that way mindset for far too long. Join host John Randolph and learn how a sustainable, family friendly career in public accounting doesn't have to be the exception to the rule. Welcome to CPA Life. Hey everybody, thank you for joining us for another episode of the CPA Life Podcast.
The podcast where we really spend time connecting with leaders and industry pros who are working tirelessly to build a more people centric profession, a place where people no longer have to sacrifice their life and their family at the altar of their jobs to build a thriving, successful career. And today, we're going to spend some time talking about something that I know I'm passionate about and something I know that our guest is pretty passionate about.
We're going to spend some time talking about things that we need to look at that we're doing right, things that we could be doing better surrounding culture and attracting other talent into the profession. Today I'm talking to Roman Villard. Roman, how are you doing? I'm great, man. I love the focus on life here. I'm excited about this conversation. Thanks so much for having me. Hey, you're more than welcome.
I enjoyed listening to you at the, Bridging the Gap conference and I knew that a lot of that would kind of really dovetail into what it is that, that we spend a lot of time talking about. For those of you that don't know, if you haven't connected with Roman on LinkedIn, he is the co founder of Full Send Finance, which is an accounting finance and data strategy firm that's scalability and growth for small to mid sized business owners. Did I get that close to right?
Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty accurate overview of where we're at today, you know, a lot of details in between, but yeah, well done. That's a 30, 000 foot view, right? Right. They're really high views. So one of the things that obviously I want to dig into is the full send story, your story, need to understand the name of the company, where it came from. But before we kind of get into all of that.
Usually one of the things we spend a few minutes doing at this part of the show is really hearing about your story, where you've come from and how you've moved through your career to get to where you are today. So tell us a little bit about how it all started. Gosh, where should I start? I'm going to go back to my college days where I was a finance major until my senior year in college.
And I remember my accounting professor who I'd Developed a great relationship with he said, Hey, listen, if you do finance, you'll likely be doing a lot of finance work in your career. If you do accounting, you can do anything. And it just struck me in that moment. Like I need to have this as part of my foundational knowledge for success in business. I didn't know where that would take me or how it would end up, but I ended up.
Changing to a double major of accounting and finance and ended up going the public accounting route for about eight years and then have spent some time in various capacities across four total firms before launching Full Send about two and a half years ago.
So it's been kind of a journey through traditional public accounting to kind of where you are today and I'm sure along the way there was a few late night discussion because if I recall right, Your background is on the audit side of public accounting, right? Oh yeah, a lot of late night discussions about auditing, for sure. And probably a lot of late night discussions of, man, there has got to be a better way.
You know, yes, because it was a grind, but it was a time in life where I was able to dedicate that time without too much Yeah. Responsibility inflection. I think in the back of my mind, I thought culturally or firm wise, there's probably another approach that would also be highly successful, but not a lot of time entrepreneurially thinking about how to solve that problem. Where did that kind of mindset start to shift from employee to, man, I think I can do something here.
Yeah, you know, I think it maybe started to shift the more and more I started working with small businesses and the how a small business operates relative to how the majority of accounting firms and large firms operate and just trying to like seeing the dissonance between like what small businesses were doing and how successful they were being by leading with culture, by leading with team relative to maybe a staggeringly different approach that firms are
taking on more of the billable hour realization utilization side of things that Wasn't as conducive to culture. And so along that process, you kind of look back and said, there's some opportunity here, there's some gaps between where we are and where I think we, we could be. So, I mean, you worked for a firm I'm a little bit familiar with, Embark, and Embark's kind of got a mindset that is, you know, more consulting, more advisory.
And even though they're a larger firm today, the culture that they started with, and I can't speak to where it is today, was really a culture that was built to kind of turn the accounting world on its head, so to speak. A hundred percent. You know, when I was coming out of, I was at Crowe Horwath at the time, you know, top ten firm, really large national firm. Just looking at The culture, the branding, the way in which Embark displayed themselves in the market was really attractive.
It was really unique. It was so different. It was people forward and, you know, all these kind of bells and whistles that folks would associate with a great culture. And it was really attractive. And so I just. Kind of applied there. I have, I had a preexisting relationship with somebody who I'd worked with at a past firm. They kind of got me in the door and I applied for a consultant role there. And when I met with the CEO and the woman who was going to be leading the Denver office, they said.
Have you ever thought about business development? And that had never crossed my mind, but it was an opportunity to kind of step into a different career and a different role within a firm, and yeah, man, they gave me an opportunity. It was a really unique place to work.
So I'm assuming that probably was a little bit more of a driver and impetus to let you see not only the numbers side of the business, but also the business development side of a business and give you a little bit more comfort of, if I took this step. Maybe I can make it work. So where did the desire in there come along to finally take the step of entrepreneurialism, being a small to mid sized business owner yourself? Yeah. Where did that kind of switch get flipped?
Yeah, so it's funny, when I took that business development, that sales role, if I look at it with hindsight, I'm like, that was a great decision to make. But at the time, I was like, I have no idea how this is going to go. I've never sold anything. I don't know how to sell. So, it's really intimidating. I'd accepted a 0 base salary. Like, it was kind of nuts. And so, I learned a lot through that role and then carried on a lot of sales expertise into my following role.
But the impetus for launching something didn't come until the last firm that I worked at. I'd left the firm and realized there's a lot of opportunity here just from a demand perspective. And I was in a position where, you The firm that I was at was going up market. And so a lot of the deals and opportunities with prospects that were too small for what I was prospecting, I would send that out to other firms. And I, and this was, you know, 2021, 2022.
And I felt like these firms were either at capacity and they didn't have, you know, Any way to take on new clients, or I didn't think they were that good. And so I, after I had left that firm, I was like, okay, I think there's an opportunity here, and then commenced about a month long discussion with my wife about is this the right move to make for me, for our family, you know, a lot of consideration there.
So what was your wife's initial reaction with, walking in the door going, hey, honey, I've got this idea. Yeah, you know, it's funny. So I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My, my father has run businesses for the last 30 years. And my wife, at one point I had mentioned something to the fact of like, Oh, I always knew you would do that. I was like, how did you know that?
Cause I didn't even know I was planning on doing this until yesterday, but no highly receptive, you know, very, So, we were very, confidence driving, very supportive. Although, we had to make sure early on that we were in a place to be able to accept, you know, the ebbs and flows that come with business ownership and the financial stress that places on a family.
And so, you know, we were very, I don't know, tactical about how to step into that and put very firm lines in the sand of if this happens, then I'll go back and get a job. If this happens, then this is kind of how we'll navigate. And so, you know, it was a journey. Yeah, I think so many times. People don't think about the work that goes into laying the foundation of, it's kind of like bowling. Let's put the guardrails on. We know what we've got to do. There's a plan in place.
Now let's go execute and we'll deal with the exception when it arises, but we've got to have rules in place. So I'm assuming that was a process and not a real quick snap decision. Let's do this. A hundred percent. I mean, it was a full month of dialogue of what are the right lines that we need to draw? How do we need to ensure that our family's taken care of? At that point in time, we had a one year old son come to find out we would have two, and then just so many things happening at once.
And so it was first priority to make sure that Everybody in my family unit was on board with that, and so that was a month long discussion before finally pulling the trigger, and on June 3rd of 2022, incorporating a new business.
You know, it's interesting, Roman, because I had a conversation about six months ago with a young man that reached out, was at a senior manager level with a public accounting firm, and was kicking around the concept and the thought of starting his own firm, and he was 31, 32, 33, somewhere in there, and he thought it was perplexing that my very first question that I asked him, and I knew he was married because we had some conversations over the years.
First question I asked him was, what does your wife think about this? Yeah. He kind of paused for a minute and said, well, I mean, we've talked about it, and I think she's on board, but. Well, why do you ask that? And I said, because when she married you, they'd been married for nine years. I said, when she married you nine years ago, she didn't marry an entrepreneur. She didn't marry a business owner.
She married a guy that worked for a public accounting firm that had a steady job and a steady paycheck. This leap that you're getting ready to make, there's a lot of ramifications to that and you both need to be on the same page and maybe that was the marriage mentor in me that was speaking or you know doing it incorrectly myself a couple of times in life but either way that's a critical thing so I applaud you for doing that. That had to have been a tough conversation.
When I say tough I don't mean hard as in I don't know what she's going to think but just the risk and the scariness We're stepping away from this now. Right, right. You're spot on. I think taking all those considerations into conversation with family is so critical. The challenge there is that it's just unknown. You don't know what direction it's going to take. And it's not just the financial component that impacts a relationship. It's the time.
You know, what I didn't foresee at the time, and I kind of had an idea, but it's like, Hey, I'm going to be up at 5am. I'm going to work until our child wakes up. And then I'll probably be spending time after, you know, maybe you go to bed and spend two, three hours working at night to help get this thing moving. Because in no, no way did I ever believe that I was going to let this die. And, you know, like, that's just, it's a lot, it's a big commitment.
And so you got to make sure that you're aligned on that front before jumping into it. Yep, so how did that daily schedule work for you? Was it that smooth and, you know, coming together pretty easily? No, not at all. So I did say, okay, I'm going to incorporate and then I'm going to spend two months working on internal operations, like set myself up for success to be able to serve clients really well. Because if I don't do that from day one, I'm just, I'm, it's not going to be successful. Right.
The irony of that is I spent two months developing internal operations, setting things up, you know, some light automations, getting the systems involved, spending some capital on getting that stood up, only for most of that to be unwound later once we started to bring some team members on board, but that's a different story. But, you know, I really wanted to make sure that I was capable of delivering a good service from day one.
And so I turned on So, I started this revenue website, you know, forward looking sales activities about two months after I decided to jump in full time. So that was in 22 timeframe, correct? Right. We're two years down the road. Well, before we jump two years down the road, what's the story with the name of the company, Full Send Finance?
I started to think about the industry, and think about generations coming into the industry, what connects with them, what connects with target market that I'd be looking to go after, and I thought, you know, most folks are not really looking at Smith, Jones, and Hughes CPAs down on the corner anymore, it doesn't really excite many people, and not that a name is the driver of that, but you have a significant opportunity with the name of your company to be able to send a message.
And so I had a whiteboard full of a list of names, Shortly before that, I'd gone on a ski trip with a number of great skiers and we were going kind of back country, you know, you ski your tips over the ledge of about a 10, 15 foot drop. I remember one of the leaders of that group was saying, Hey, just send it, go full send.
And it was just, The mantra of like, alright, once you drop in, you're committed, you are all in, and I just loved how that resonated with the thought of working with entrepreneurs, working with startups, working with growing businesses who are committed to making their business a success, and so ended up naming the company Full Send, and seeing that come to life has been a lot of fun. It does indeed resonate with a lot of our target market and potential folks to join the company.
It's been a lot of fun.
I gotta believe that, again, with the market that you're going after, the clients that you're working with, the small to mid sized business owners, they are all They're all folks that resonate, not only with the name of the company, but with the story that you're talking about because it's same story, third chapter, fifth chapter, ninth chapter, every time you interact with one of those people because they've had those discussions, they've had those sleepless nights just like you have. Spot on.
I think the relatability to our target market is quite high because we've got a much smaller distance between, you know, Having taken that leap and knowing what that feels like a small distance between that and then our client service. And so we relate to what our clients are going through. We relate to their problems. We can empathize with them versus in larger firms.
It's just a little bit more difficult to accomplish that because you've got seven, eight layers between the folks that originally started the company, if they're still around. And then where the service level is happening, so 100 percent agree.
Absolutely, I think there just is, I don't know if you want to call it, you know, on the positive side, synergies, or on the not so positive side, the misery loves company, whichever one, but I think there's a lot of value when you get in a room with another person or other people that, like you, Failure's not an option because it's not about a corporation that's not working out.
It's about my family, it's about my life, it's about all of the things that we do in our life are driven by this vehicle, which really kind of speaks to the types of firms that you guys are working with as well. That's right. That's right. You know, I often will relate to things that our clients are going through in the sales process with our current clients and just try to level with them.
Say, Hey, listen, like I, I know what this is like, and here's how we want to help you accomplish building X, Y, or Z or solving this problem. And so Yeah, it's a big part of our journey, our conversations with the clients every day. Well, let's talk a little bit about kind of where you are today. You know, you started the firm two years ago. What does the makeup of the firm look like today in regards to personnel? How many of those are, you know, core employees?
How many of those are contractors? What does that look like? Do you delineate between those two? And how does that drive the culture of Full Send Finance? Yeah, it's a great question. So, I realized early on, I wanted to be very culture forward, and it's a little bit more difficult to accomplish in a 1099 or contractor environment, because not everybody is necessarily rowing in the same direction.
Like, I know you can set up rhythms that enable that, but I wanted to hire full time folks and thought that was really imperative, and so today we have 12 members on the team, 10 of which are on the accounting services side, and 2 of which are on our data services side, all full time with the exception of one on the data side, who will hopefully be coming on full time in the next year, and then we have on our accounting team, we have 6 that are here locally, In Colorado,
and then we have four that we've been developing in our Argentinian office. Okay. We don't have a physical office space down there now, but we want to enable the same culture and same benefits and things like that to our team in Argentina as well. So how did you, I mean, when you mentioned Argentina, how did Argentina become the location of choice? Was it a strategic decision or was it something that just happened that way?
Yeah, so we initially tinkered around with how do we enable scalability while also enabling affordability for our clients, and what's the right model to support that? And so a lot of firms in our space look at the Philippines, look at India, look at South America for options. And so what we wanted to do was identify what's the closest level of. of culture building that we can maintain with ease of communication, with a high degree of service delivery. And so culture is a big part of that.
And we found that many of the folks that we met with and spoke with in Argentina, really shared a lot of the same things that we enjoy doing the same benefits that we have and. I don't know, it just felt like it was a much better connection, so it was kind of more of a gut thing, but that came from interacting with many other firm owners who had also gone that direction and just spoke so highly of their experiences, so that was kind of our impetus for leaning into Argentina specifically.
How would you define the culture of Full Send? You know, I love the phrase that you use, culture forward. I really like that. So, when you talk to people about Full Send, How do you describe the culture? What are some things that you guys have done from an intentionality perspective to make sure that, hey, this is, it's not just who we say we are, it really is who we are? Yeah, that's a great question, because it's a living and breathing thing, it's constantly evolving.
That said, you know, we want to enable an environment where our team can drive success in their personal lives, yet also, See success and grow professionally. And so to the extent possible, we want folks to lean into the things that are full send for them. So it's an interview question that we have. Hey, what's your full send? What's the thing that makes you come alive? And so, you know, we're constantly refining and trying to figure out how to make that happen. And, you know, it's interesting.
One of the biggest challenges that I have is we want to be a culture forward firm. We also want to have branding that speaks life into who we are, what we do, and the type of people that do it. And one of the things that is constantly on my mind is I do not want to create a distance between the experience that our team has and what we're marketing out in public. And that's something that I've constantly been wrestling with of like, how do I ensure that there isn't a widening distance there?
Because in the nature of professional services, It can be hard. You can have a client that's really challenging. You can have, you know, a specific project you're working on that's really tough, that can drive angst and kind of animosity towards your employer or your profession, and so we want to handle those things really delicately. We want to handle them with grace. We want to make sure that we're still putting our team in positions to succeed on the personal and professional front.
So it's a constant kind of battle that I have to make sure that we're not just widening this gap of aspirational culture versus actual culture. Yeah, because I think that if you get going down the road with momentum, so many times, if you let enough time and distance get in there, you lose perspective and you're two, three, four years down the road.
And it's one thing if you're two, three weeks or two, three months down the road and you recognize that we're starting to veer off course and you can hit the brakes real quick and say, Hey, Let's fix some stuff. Yeah. It's a whole other thing to be four years down the road, look up and go, man, we are way off course. And at that point, you can't really hit the brakes because you got a machine that's moving.
So you got to figure out how to change the tires as you're going down the road, 65 miles an hour, which isn't an easy thing to do. So, I mean, what are some things that you've done as a firm leader to ensure that, you know, your thumb is on the pulse of the business as you've gone from zero to 12 FTEs in two years. That's a pretty big step. Yeah, it is, and a lot of change occurs.
I think there's a few tactical things that we've done, and then I'll share another story on top of that, but things like having weekly all hands meetings. Hey, we're all in the same room talking, you know, it may be virtually, we may have some people in the office, but making sure we're all in sync with one another, just from a conversational standpoint of where the firm's going, what's happening, what needs to get done.
But then also on our communication channels, so in Slack, we are constantly in communication with one another. It's so important that we're, you know, rowing the same direction. Then from like a benefits perspective, we established the full send to fund. And so we've allocated dollars to each employee to be able to spend money on things that bring them joy and bring them life.
And so we have to reinforce that sometimes it's easy to forget, but I've seen these transactions come in of like buying a flight or buying a concert ticket or buying trees for a garden that Bring me a lot of joy. And I'm like, yes, like that's it. That said that the story on that is my business partner, Stacey, who came on board in March of last year. She does such a good job of keeping me in check of not being too aspirational.
From the standpoint of like, what can we actually accomplish to not get people really excited about something and then not take action on it? And so she'll like kind of reel me in on that. I like that idea a lot, but like, let's pause until we have a plan that we can actually execute to then deliver to the team to help enable their success. Yeah, I think that sometimes as a visionary leader. You have these ideas of what you want to do and they look great on paper.
They even sound, they, they sound even better in our heads, you know, and we'll talk a little bit about the whole concept of remote, hybrid, in office, whatever. But there's a client we were working with earlier this year, and we're talking about the necessity to embrace some type of a hybrid culture, and his reaction was I, think it's great. We'll start next week. And I had to say, hey, pump the brakes.
Because you don't have systems in place, you don't have processes in place, you don't have technology completely, totally in place. You have no idea how you're going to measure productivity and what's going to happen is Somewhere in this process, people are going to slack off, it's human nature, and when you don't see productivity levels at where you want to be, your reaction is going to be back in the office. Everyone, back in the office.
Now you've taken something away that they weren't fighting for, they wanted, but they weren't fighting for. Now you've taken it away, now you're going to have to deal with turnover. So, I think sometimes it's important to have that person like Stacey in our lives, or like I have in my company where it's the person that says, hey. Let's take a step back. Yeah. Let's figure out how we put this in place. Talk to me about the geography of your team.
You know, you mentioned that you've got a large part of your group that's there in Colorado. Are you guys in office full time? Are you hybrid? Do you look at each individual situation and make it work for that person? How do you structure that? Because it's one of the biggest challenges that I still talk to firm owners about constantly. It's one of the questions that we get a lot of times on the podcast from people is, Hey, how does somebody make this work from a culture perspective?
Yeah, it's interesting because all of our employees locally are within 25 minutes to our Boulder office. So we do have a local office. I think it's tremendously important to have a physical space where you can gather, where you can share ideas, you can whiteboard, you can break bread together. I believe that is so instrumentally important to developing a culture that I couldn't envision an environment without it.
That said, I've seen a lot of firms deploy a really great remote strategy and stay connected with their teams really well. I just like having the in person nature of work accessible. That said, we don't have any like mandated days or times in the office. The team will come in, you know, in a schedule that You know, really meets their needs and their desires and how they work. And so I suspect I would probably like it a lot more than our team would like it.
Cause as our director of accounting is eloquently mentioned at times, I don't actually get any work done when I'm in the office. Because you're distracting me. And that's just, that's on me. That's my problem. Yeah. And I recognize that. And so I'm trying to do better, but I get it. I understand. But the ability to gather is really important. Yeah. I think that I'm with you on the whole concept of breaking bread.
I think that There's, my saying I've had for years is there's a lot of forgiveness and friendship, and that doesn't mean that the people you work with are going to be your best friends, but the more you hang out with people, the more that you have that, that, again, a term that I throw around a lot, that hanging around time, breaking bread together, you learn to look at the person's heart.
You learn to give a little bit more grace in an entire situation that you may be dealing with day in and day out. So, so in the culture that you have right now, it sounds like you've got people that may be in the office two, three days a week, and some people may be in the office one day a week. Somebody may be in the office five days a week, depending on what's going on with their schedule, what's going on at home.
Is that something that, causes any issues with the team, or is it pretty flexible that everybody makes their schedule and other people’s schedule work together? You know, it's worked well just allowing team members to work in the environment and the place that is most suited for their schedule. That said, I do believe it’s really important to gather, but, when you have an established trust with your team, it doesn't really matter where the work is happening from.
And so I believe that's something we've been able to do really well early on is have that type of trusting relationship where we're not sitting there, big brother overlooking the shoulder type, are you getting your time in type thing. Now, of course, there are things that, you know, need to be done and actions that need to be taken. However, I believe that trust is a core consideration of being able to execute that type of strategy.
Another element that I think is important to note that I heard from Intuit's chief commercial officer, he mentioned something to the effect of winners keep score. And when I first, when I heard that, I was like, wait a second, hold on. Like that just feels kind of ick. But then when he elaborated on it, he said, have you watched a basketball game where they don't keep score? Like, yeah. Have you watched a game where they do keep score? Well, yeah.
It's like, well, when they're not keeping score, they're just playing. They're just having fun. When they're keeping score, they're working together. They're working against a clock or another opposing factor or team. And so there's a lot more collaboration and teamwork that comes when you're keeping score. And so that's one thing that we're kind of working on developing internally is how do we ensure that we're keeping the right score?
And we're making sure that The team feels like they're contributing in a manner that makes sense for the role, that we're able to measure that and then drive that professional success through keeping score more intentionally. So I think that's probably another element of remote work that's really important to develop a collaborative team culture.
And I think that, you know, when you look at that whole keepin score concept, it's understanding also that We may have a baseline for what we're going to score, but there may be pieces of what we're tracking score wise that are unique and different or important to each individual person. Because this guy may be great at scoring, this guy may be great at delivering assists, so that the guy that scores can score.
Let's don't hold this guy that's a great assist guy accountable to the scoring numbers that this guy wants to aspire to because he's probably never going to hit it, and if we make him focus on that, he's probably going to leave. yeah, and then you've got rebounds and turnovers, and you've got Caitlin Clark just jamming three pointers from, you know, half court, and it's like, how do you balance all of that?
I think to your point, it's all in the intentionality of how you attribute that to individual success.
Yep, one of the things that I've told my team for years is that The crazy job of me sitting in the chair that I sit in is I've got to create an environment and a culture that is consistent enough across the organization that we can all move forward, but it's also crazy enough and whacked out enough that you believe that this environment is built strictly for you, and when you've got a team of four, eight, or in your case, twelve people, you start to have to be able to have to be
able to have enough differences in there that each individual person is motivated to deliver and score, if you will, or at least keep track of the things that are critical to them, that motivate them, that drive them, to keep them pushing forward on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis. When you look at the makeup of your team, and when you look at, The makeup of most firms that are growing organically, that are moving forward consistently.
You've got teams and organizations that are made up of younger generation. When I say younger generation, I'm not talking necessarily, you know, Gen X, Gen Y, you know, millennial. I'm just talking they're younger. They are people that are a little bit more focused on life outside of the office and how do I balance that with inside of the office.
Talk to me about how you've been able to speak to those things to the audience of not only your current employees, but prospective employees, but also I'm assuming Business owners that you're dealing with as well? Yeah, I think there's two major components that go into messaging as it relates to just generational differences in the accounting sector. One, I think is brand. We hit a little bit on this in the full send story and why brand is important to us.
I believe when you're able to put forward a. Brand and, you know, a website, colors, like all these things that make up brand narrative. When you put forth something that resonates and that just looks and feels different and feels, it feels positive. It feels culture forward. It feels just different, especially in a sector like accounting. I feel like that's a really good entry point for younger generations to latch on to. The other side that I think is.
It's likely more important to some degree, but it's the technology you use. It's how have you articulated a tech stack to enable high degrees of transparency, visibility into the work that's getting done, the communication amongst teams, and making sure that everybody has access to the information they need. Because if you think about generations that are coming up in the last 20, 5, maybe 30 years, the access to information is instant.
You just hop on your phone and you Google something and there's the data that you need. Unlike most traditional accounting firms, it might be really hard to get that information. It's not all centralized and so when somebody goes into an environment where they don't have that same level of access to information, it's really polarizing where in your personal life, you can get that instantaneously, but at work it just feels like a really sticky process.
Yeah. And so I think that's a really big component to bringing in next generation, bringing in younger folks that expect that from their employers.
It's a unique challenge, and I'll talk to firm owners a lot that are, you know, later in their career, close to my age, and one of the things that I'll try to get them to understand is kind of what you're talking about, that the target audience they're going after is There's gathering data instantaneously and speaking to, in terms that hopefully they'll get what I was telling them.
Look, You could have a 13 inch tube TV sitting in your bedroom, and there's a 75 inch, you know 4K TV, ultra high definition in your living room. The movie you're watching It's the same movie. The movie's the same, but how you're consuming that movie, and the feeling that it gives you, and the emotions that it elicits, and the things that it does to you visually and audibly are completely different. The movie itself is the same.
And we're dealing with one, two, three generations in the workforce today that they don't want to watch that movie on a 13 inch black and white TV that I got to get up and walk and, you know, turn and change the channel on. They don't. And firm owners that get that, I think, are winning a little bit more in the talent game, you know, like you're talking about, I mean, the fact that, what's the population of Boulder? Oh, I have no idea.
It ebbs and flows with CU, whether or not, they're in school or not, but I don't know what the numbers are. So, you're in a college town. You're not in a major metropolitan area, Denver, Colorado, but you're able to attract talent into your organization in two years, adding 10 people. We've got clients that can't have two people a year because of the difference in, in what they're selling from a culture standpoint.
Do you find that when you engage with people that have looked into your firm, that there's a little bit more excitement about who you are, what you do, how you do it because of what they've been able to pull from your website or your presence on LinkedIn and. Do you think that's a big difference in how you go about winning that game? One thousand percent. So, we've had more opportunities of potential recruits than we have had potential clients.
Just by nature of people reaching out to our firm, cold. And that's through our website, that's through LinkedIn. And it's interesting, you know, the senior managers from Big Four reaching out, there's staff level associates who are Engaging in podcasts and different media types and learning about their industry that wasn't necessarily accessible for firms 10 years ago. And so we've seen these folks reach out and it's great when we have a specific rec out.
However, we're not always in a position to hire folks in specific states or, you know, there's various reasons why we wouldn't be hiring. But just to have that pipeline, to know that it's resonating with our core recruit audience, I think is important and is testament to the time and effort that it takes to build a brand, to be present on social, to be very active and consistent. It pays dividends on the recruitment side. And the beauty of it too, is it also relates to clients as well.
And so it's a bi directional strategy when you think about that content creation. So if you were talking to an audience of Small to mid sized firm owners, and they said, Hey, Roman, two or three things. What would you suggest that we do as an organization today? Our biggest challenge is staff acquiring and retaining.
What are two or three things that we can do today, right now, that could Impact us in the next three to six months, the flow of people coming in to at least consider being a part of our organization and then holding on to the people that we do have. That's a good question. What are two or three things? So, I would start by looking at brand. I would start by looking at your brand narrative. I would start by looking at things as simple as a logo.
I kid you not, whenever I'm looking for services and I'm looking for a product, that's something that I will notice first. And also the biggest brand marketers in the world, the biggest companies in the world, understand how important brand is. Yet that hasn't really translated down to the accounting segment and they just kind of rest on their laurels and what's next.
Works for the last 50 years and I believe that when you start to refresh that in a more modern, more digestible approach, that work seamlessly when somebody engages with the website and clearly understands your positioning, understands the problems that you solve, the type of people that you hire, that really helps prospective recruits. Put themselves in those shoes. Oh, these are the type of clients you work with. This is the type of team that I'd be working alongside.
Here's the type of service you provide and potential upside opportunity for me at the firm, because you guys do X, Y, or Z by having a cohesive brand narrative and a Like really attractive and easy to use website. It enables a lot more of that connectivity to, the recruit coming onto the page. So I think I'd focus there first to, I would probably start looking at compensation. I'd look at the benefit package.
I'd look at the total salary relative to where the industry is at as a whole, because as you well know, it's getting more competitive, it's getting more demanding. And when you come in at a lower position relative to your peers, you're just not going to get eyeballs. You're not going to get looks on that front. So take a hard look at that.
And then identify unique, ways to support your team, whether that's through things like a full send fund or, you know, team events or ways that you can incorporate people into your rhythms. I think that is something that has really connected with our audiences and has helped us a lot. But I think that's a very personal thing. It's very unique to you. And I think you should need to get a little bit creative about it.
Yeah, I think if people Think outside of the box for lack of a better way to put it without sounding cliche. I think that we've just gotten to a point in the marketplace today where if you try to do the same old thing, the same old way, you're going to get the same old results. And being able to think outside of that box gives people the opportunity. And the beautiful thing about it is that we're not talking about 180 degrees different of what you're doing today.
A lot of it is a twist of the dial here, a pull of the lever there, and some drastic. change can occur when it comes to holding on to your people or getting a better flow of people in the front door to consider your firm as an option. You've obviously done a lot of things right to get you on the track that you're on right now. If there are people out there that are looking to explore better career options, which may include starting your own firm.
Or just finding out more about career options at firms like yours. What's the best way to reach you? What's the best way to get a hold of you and get some direction or advice? Connect with you from that standpoint or if they're a firm owner that is looking at Hey, how can we do things a little bit more effectively or efficiently?
Yeah. I probably spend too much time doing this, but I love spending time with young folks entering the profession, love spending time with young aspirational firm owners that are just trying to take that next step in their career. And so I will take a meeting just to help support and make connections and help people feel like they've got, you know, one step further down the path of doing whatever it is that will bring them joy, whether that's with us or with anybody else.
So LinkedIn is usually the best place to find me. Easy to find, Roman Vilar, CPA. Yeah, send a note. You could also reach out to us via email at howdy at fullsendfinance. com. Outside of that, if you just start to look at the people on LinkedIn who are active, that work at firms, that you think are really interesting and, You know, aspirational for you, perhaps send a note.
There are so many people in this industry that are so generous with their time that I know it's intimidating to send a message of like, Hey, I've been watching you. I hope you're, you know, doing great. Would you mind spending a few minutes answering a few questions? Like that's a cool message to receive for anybody. And so many people like giving backs, like just take that step to send a note. Absolutely. It's funny you say that, Roman, because I was talking to somebody.
I, A young candidate called, gentleman graduating, reached out, was interested in a couple of firms, and I let him know, look, I know the guys that own those firms, they're not client of ours, they do a great job of, you know, their own recruiting internally, would be more than happy to introduce you though. Yeah. And so I sent an introduction to one of them, and he replied back and said, just tell him to send me a message. What's he afraid of?
And I picked the phone up and called him and I said, what he's afraid of is your title on your website is CEO. Yes. And he doesn't know that you're just another guy. You know, that's a goofball like the rest of us. You're the CEO. That's all he sees. Yeah. So you're right. There's a lot of people out there that are doing everything that they can to, blaze a path and let people know, Hey, there's some opportunity here.
And the absolute worst thing that can come out of a cold outreach like that is that somebody. Ignores it or they say no. And if that's the worst thing that happens, like, you'll be alright. So just take that step, get out of the shell. Would recommend. Absolutely. I want to thank you again for being with us today, Roman.
You've shared a lot of information I think that people can pull from, you know, whether it's people in the profession, people looking to get into the profession, or people that are building firms in the profession. So thank you so much for your time. Yeah, appreciate it. Keep doing what you're doing. I love the angle of spending time focused on life and life building activities. So keep putting out great content like this. Appreciate the time, John. Hey, I appreciate it.
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