GYAT Episode #103

Kelly Reynolds  

Welcome to the Get your act together podcast. I am your host, and today I have another guest on our agency series. And I am super excited about this. Welcome, Luisa. 

 

Luisa Alberto  

Hello, Kelly. I'm so excited to be here. 

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Luisa and I just met very recently, because a past guest, Rachel Pereira introduced us, and we got on a coffee chat. And we hit it off so much that then we wanted to do a podcast interview because we just want to keep talking to each other. So Luisa, tell everyone all about you. What do you do? Where are you?

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah, totally. So I'm in San Francisco, California. So the other side of the country from where Kelly is, but I am the CEO of People First finance. And we are a financial services agency by women for women. So our special sauce is handling all things finance. So from bookkeeping, accounting, tax, and advisory services for agency owners and service providers who are basically at that $250,000 in annual revenue mark, and scaling to seven figures plus. So we're really an outsourced solution for folks at that stage. Because we all know, or some of us know how wild that stage of growth that messy middle is. And so we come in and try to sort of make sense of the chaos. And I think that's why we're kindred spirits, Kelly. 

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yes, we make we make sense of different kinds of chaos. But yes, very much the same. Right?

 

Luisa Alberto  

Exactly. There's a lot of overlap there for sure. 

 

Kelly Reynolds  

And I love this idea of you working with women agencies, obviously, we're very agency focused here. But I, I love that because women are usually told, they don't know anything about anything. Number one, but they don't definitely know anything about money. me with my background in Wall Street, like I obviously didn't know enough as or as much as the boys knew. So I love that this is like a focus place where you can explain things and show them things and they don't feel dumb, because so many people are scared of numbers, and they're scared of feeling dumb. Yeah, well, that's funny, because I don't have a traditional accounting background. And so I think that's really what sets me and my agency apart is that, you know, I grew up also being told like, you're an artist, my mother is an artist, I gravitated towards like English and art, that just felt easy. But then I have this like memory in the back of my head, actually, of a middle school chemistry. And like, I actually applied myself for once, like studying for this test, and like, tried to figure it out. Because I was like, wait a minute, can this be that hard, and I aced it. And that like sticks with me, I'm like, I shouldn't follow that path. Because that felt really good. But anyway, the world was like you're an artist. And I think my guidance counselor said you should be a physical therapist. I was like, What are you talking about? Because I do sports. Like, I was just like, wild messaging. And so I went to Boston College, and I studied philosophy, and I really loved philosophy. And, but there was also the business track. And you know, the way that Boston College is set up, there's all these like, very specific, and all the finance major, you know, people in the finance school were like, men, you know, who were top students who got really good grades, like there were very few women. I remember thinking in that school, and it really, it really struck me. But I didn't identify with it. Right. Like at that time, I personally didn't identify with it, I felt like I was doing the right thing. So to come now full circle and be in the world of finance is just like it's been a wild ride honestly.  it's so funny and I came from like Wall Street back or not accounting background. So like I was trading, I was doing operations, that kind of thing. So I can't pick your 401k. Like, everyone asks me like, I've no idea. I avoided that like the like, but like having that background, and then coming into this online world. And I would talk about numbers, because you know, it's super important to know what's going on and know if you're making money and all that stuff. And the people that I would talk to they would make this face like a pain face. Like, please don't talk about numbers, please, please, please stop being like, please, I don't want to know about it. And I was like, Oh, we don't talk about numbers. Yes, it's so scary. So I love that. I love that this is your focus. And I think you are doing great work.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Thank you. I like to see if we can just get more women to understand sort of the value of investing in building the skill of financial literacy. And as business owners, there's just a basic foundational knowledge that you must acquire in order to build and grow a sustainable, profitable business. And I think the sooner we all accept that, the sooner we can make decisions to educate ourselves and put ourselves within the care of service providers who are more educators and less sort of like demanding prescriptive experts. You know?

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yeah, cuz I think some people just think it's super complicated. And it's just scary because of that. So having someone like walking them through it, I also find a lot. Because I am, I will talk about numbers all day, I will talk about much make over Christmas dinner Much to my husband's chagrin, like, it doesn't bother me whatsoever. You don't need to love it. Yeah, like my grandmother. And I'm like talking about like, you know, revenue numbers for the month. And she's so proud of me. And he's like, really? And I'm wondering, do you run into a lot of just the mindset of like, I shouldn't make money, like, it's not if I'm not, I'm not a good person, if I make money, even though I'm in business, which is the whole point is to make money. Like, I feel like I run it as Is that a thing you see a lot. 

 

Luisa Alberto  

I see it in people who have that subconscious belief. So it's not at the forefront. But it shows up in things like, concern about taxes, and having this connection between if I make more money, I pay more in taxes. So I don't want to make more money, because I don't want to pay more in taxes. Like, there's this weird subconscious thinking we have. And really what we need to be thinking is, and then there's the other flip side of the coin, which is like, if you're making a lot of money, you're paying a lot in taxes that success, and it's like, I kind of think there's a middle ground, you can be really strategic and smart about how you leverage your money. That's really where I commanded what my passion is, in helping people to manage, like, be really thoughtful stewards of the money that comes into our lives, because we're out there searching for more and more and more and more and more. And then we have all of these Yeah, messages around more being, you know, bad. And so we we struggle in that. And it's like, well, the messaging doesn't necessarily need to relate to more, it's the how is the how are you taking care of what you have? How are you making what you have enough? How are you setting yourself up? So that what you have last longer? Those sorts of ways of thinking about money, I think are more are more like, feminine energy ways to think about money, like not to be gender specific, but it's a softer way of thinking about money.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yeah, I love that. I mean, I think that I always think, what would we do if a whole bunch of good people had tons of money? Like, what are the wonderful things that could be accomplished? Right? So like, knowing what you can do with that money, you can save all the puppies you wanted, you don't even need like, you could go all the dog foods, every shelter in the world, right? Like, would it be wonderful, you could do everything you wanted, or whatever you want it, you know. And then learning how to be self sufficient. I think for a lot of women, being able to take care of themselves and their children is a huge thing. It was when I was a kid, my mom was a single mom, like, that was always a worry. So like being able to learn how to do things and be able to take care of yourself and then build this business. And, like, that's pretty rockin, like, you

 

Luisa Alberto  

know, really well, totally. And actually part of my story and why I even was motivated to learn about personal finance, business finance, was because I was I was found myself in a very difficult situation, when I was pregnant with my daughter to live in San Francisco, I have rent control, I've been in the same apartment, this beautiful three bedroom apartment, and like the heart of the Mission District for the past, wow, you know, 15 years, and I was pregnant with my daughter and the building orders. Were like, hey, you know, we're sorry to say this, but I think we, you know, we're gonna move a family member into your unit, we wanted to give you a heads up, but we're gonna, you know, that's an eventual thing that's going to happen. And I freaked out because I didn't have the financial resources to move into another apartment at that time. But I really wanted to stay put. And so it was the scary moment where I was like, wow, would we say you really need to get your act together? Like you really need to figure out this finance thing, because the stress of that situation could have been completely avoided. If I had a financial foundation that gave me options, and I didn't have that. And I was like, Okay, put that on the to do list, right? Like, we need to get that. That really lit a fire under my butt to go on this journey that's really led me to this place.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Kind of funny how those things like those things in life are though usually seem awful at the time, but they're like they are this catapult to get you where you are. You know, they're miserable at the time. But then you look back you're like, Oh, all right now I get it. I get it. Alright, so let's talk agency a little bit. Tell me why an agency. Why are you not just, Luisa?

 

Luisa Alberto  

I love this question. So when I started my business, I was doing one to one finance coaching and consulting. And I was doing it all locally. So it was traveling to people's offices to people's living rooms, talking with them, helping them with their finances. And right before the pandemic hit, I had the sound I was like this is not sustainable. I can't keep going around to Pete like there's only one of me I can only go so many places. How do I scale this up? And so I actually right before everything shut down for the pandemic decided to take, I know, this is why Oh guys, they're like serendipity of this is wild, but decided to take a course that helps you transition your business onto into the online world. Because as we know, there are lots of different rules, strategies, tactics, things that you need to learn about when you run a business, virtual business. And I thought that that would enable me to reach more people throughout the country. And so I started doing that invested in that class, started doing more coaching online. And then realize, like, I have a cap on hours, this is really depleting. Holding space for people is wonderful. But I'm not one of those people who then walks away and feels energized by it, I walk away and feel completely depleted. And I, you know, so I was like, this is not scalable either, right? So I just kept like, hitting the ceiling on scalability on my time on those resources required to deliver these services. And then I was like, I know I'll do a membership. So I launched this wonderful membership, had like 30 people join. And that was really taxing because it was just me showing up delivering content coming up with ways to leave the community. I was like, I gotta shut this down. That's what I made the pivot to the done for you service agency, because I realized that through all of those conversations, my membership, everything, what was really missing with somebody to do the thing. And I'm one of those people who's like, okay, just give it to me, just give it to me, I'll do it, like, just handed over, like, let me You're messing it up, let me do it, you know, like, let me just go with that and take that to the end. And that really looks like an agency model. So that's how that was my windy road.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

I think that though, I love that you're telling everyone about the windy road? Because I think sometimes, especially in social, it seems like oh, well, you know, we have agencies and we've, we're successful, and that's good. But like getting here is never a straight line, right? Like figuring it out. You're the second person in two days. It said I tried to course I tried this. I tried that. And now I'm in an agency, like, that's, you kind of have to try. And then I've had other people tell me like I tried an agency. And that wasn't for me. And then I went to a course and then I went you know, like kind of figuring out what you want to do. Because you can't always figure out what you're going to do from the outside.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah, well, I think I think the first step for any one in a similar position to us is like proving to yourself that you can make money. Like first you have to prove that you can make money yourself deliver your product or service, you can make it reliably consistently, you know how to, like, get in front of people make a sale, deliver your product right. Now, the question I'm asking myself, as my agency is evolving, is, how do I want to make money? I know that I can make money, right? But how do I want to continue to make money into the future? And I feel like, day over day, month over month, you have to, like consistently decide to keep going right? Like you have to very consciously and intentionally decide like, Yep, I'm gonna do this today. Yep, I'm gonna keep going. Yep, I'm gonna hire that person. Yep, I'm gonna build. So you're constantly having to, like, say yes to your business. And the second, it feels hard to say yes to your business. I think you really owe it to yourself to sit down and go like, what's happening? Why am I not loving this? Why is it this feeling? Right? Because it is a marathon. It is if there's no end. So every day, if you feel good deciding to keep going, you know, is a good day. And then the second it doesn't feel right. I really think that like, you've got to ask yourself some really difficult questions. So I've been asking myself so difficult questions that I keep deciding, yes, this is right. This is right, up, up, up, up, up, up.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yeah, that all like I hear from so many people, like they think a business is a destination, like, Oh, I'm gonna get clients and then it's going to be a paycheck. And then that's it. And that's not how it works. Or they think I'm doing something wrong. If things change, no, the world changes, life changes, business changes, like I am rebuilding a whole bunch of stuff in my business. I'm almost seven years, six and a half years in, and I'm rebuilding a ton of stuff right now. It's terrifying. It's a lot of work. It's never really like coasting through. Or even if you build that like miraculous passive income business that only exists in myths and legends, there's like unicorns running through it. You get that like, passive income thing, and it's just giving you paychecks every day. But even even if that happens, which it doesn't, you still have to like, get to a place where the market changes, like all the sudden Facebook ads changed or launching is changing, or just different things are changing. It's not the same. So you have to adapt. And I think that for people that are really entrepreneurial, that is exciting. I am thrilled about it. Am I terrified? Absolutely. Most of the time I want to throw up, but it's so friggin exciting, right? Like I've had the same clients for forever for longtime listeners, or at least less six months. They know that a large client of mine got bought, I'm phasing out, it's a whole big change. It's a terrifying Yeah. But it's so exciting, like, what am I gonna get to do? What? Overall all the things I'm gonna have time for? What am I going to build? Now we have this pilot program going, what about, but you don't even like all that stuff. And that is super exciting. And I feel like the people, a lot of people that got into COVID, or into business during COVID, they were looking for a different kind of paycheck, not a business. And when you get there, and all of a sudden, you have to have those hard conversations with yourself. And you're like, I don't really like being in business. And that's okay, like, you can not, if this isn't for you, it's totally cool. Because you are having to go through those iterations. And you're, it's constantly moving. And it's scary. And you have to have those hard, hard conversations, you know?

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah, well, and I think you're so right. And I was having this conversation the other day where I was, like, we're at a point where, you know, the businesses that sort of made it through or coasted through, or are the business owners who were inspired by what was happening during the pandemic, whether it was like, you know, this crazy, awesome evolution of coaching, and sort of seeing what's possible when people went that direction, you know, people who are really successful in their corporate lives, sort of becoming their own bosses and coaching others in how to be successful at x, y, and z like that took off. But now we're going to really find out who the true entrepreneurs are. Because as the market shifts, and sort of stress tests, your business, stress tests, the business owner, right, like eat, there are going to be two kinds of people, the kind of person you described, which is I can totally relate to that the excitement, of opportunity and, and freshness and the evolution of just you know, how this journey works. And that being exciting, versus the person who was writing a market trend, and now all of a sudden, is confronted with the hard truth that, you know, persons are not, you know, raising your prices, and double your prices and charging your worth. And all of that does not a sound to business make necessarily. And so, I think that there are going to be people who are starting to question themselves and find themselves, you know, scrolling through indeed a bit more to think like, what to your point, I really do want a consistent paycheck, maybe I just want it to be bigger. Or maybe I wanted to work remote. So it was a great shake up. And I also think it's I think, everybody at some point, if you have it, if you have a curiosity within you to become an entrepreneur, or be a self employed person, or freelancer or business owner, like, I think it's such a wonderful thing for people to do to try to do to see what it really entails and requires, because you're gonna go on a journey of self exploration and improvement. By default. Yeah, you're running your own show, right? But like, it's true,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

that you will never go through more like self help books in your life, like there is never a time there, like you will never work on yourself more than when you start a business. Because there's so much mind fuckery that goes on through everything. There's so much learning you have to do about how to work like, how do you get out of bed every day when no one is making you like little things like that, like all of that stuff. If there was a bookshelf full of books over here about it, you know what I mean? Like, but that's why you go on this journey of discovery, not just because the business owner, but like totally who you are as a person, especially in those times when it's really rough. You know, I'm hearing a lot about recession talk right now, which it's in the ether, really, you could argue about all the sides of it and all that kind of stuff. But what I hear from the entrepreneurs that I'm talking is hearing speak on the podcast and all that they are very much when you're an entrepreneur, a recession, is it time to invest a recession is a time to get going. That is when you buy that is when you invent that is when you get going. And that has been my favorite thing. I think I'm not listening to the news, because the news sucks. I'm listening to like these, these entrepreneur podcasts for Castillo just did a big one about it. There's a bunch of them that are just saying, like, this is our time to get going. These are our opportunities. And it's a great reminder that these are these are opportunities, like let's go figure something out. Let's do something fun. Yeah.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah. And, and, and again, like it's a certain kind of person who thrives in times of uncertainty, right. And like, like, as an agency owner, I'll say to speaking specifically to agency owners, you know, you're hiring contractors, you're hiring employees, that's the nature of agency work, right? You're providing different services. And so you need a team of people to help you deliver those services. And so you'll get a lot of hiring firing people shifting like that's something that I've really experienced over the last year is like this three steps forward, two steps back kind of thing because my team is just shifting, sort of figuring out who goes where making the switch from the balance of employees and sort of realizing that I'm more on to having employees and building a team and building out that culture and having that consistency. And I just feel like you really have to, again, decide every day that that's the direction you want to go. And, you know, for agency owners, in general, that never ends, right like that never ends. There's never a moment where you're like, I have my team, I have all the clients I'm gonna have forever perfect. Everything's perfect. There may be fleeting, you know, moments like that which you should relish, right? I, every time, I have a feeling like that I have a really good day. I slack my team, and I say, today was a really good day. Here's why. Like, I saw this come through, we did this for a client, I got this feedback, I spent my time doing this, I saw that you did that. Like, I tried to love those moments. And really make sure that everybody knows, like, this is what success looks like, because they're fleeting. And so I want to be able to go back and remember what that day looked like, because the team will shift and our clients will shift but that, that feeling is what we're constantly seeking, not the, you know, seven, figure agency, it's that feeling of this is working, this feels successful, this feels good. You know,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

I love that because I suck at doing that. I, I get told this all the time, I hit a milestone, my best friend's like, and you didn't hit like 100 grand more or like, no matter. It's never good enough in my head, I never stopped to celebrate. And I'm trying my best to do that more. Because everyone's gonna suck at it. So yeah, like, I love that idea of like putting it in Slack. Because you could have just like a whole record of it and flip back through and be like, Oh, look at all the stuff we've done. Like, that's amazing. And I feel like that's so great for like agency base, especially with teams. Having that culture of like celebrating all those wins. And knowing that they're part of that team that is accomplished this really cool thing. I love that.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah, our weekly wins channel in Slack is our most like popular channel. Alright, I'm ready. So every week, this, you'll take this, whoever you are out there and take this idea. So we have a weekly winds channeled slack. And I set up a recurring reminder for like Thursdays at 1pm or something because our work week is heaviest Monday through Thursday, where it just sends out a notification to the entire channel, you know, it's time to celebrate drop, anything that you made you feel good milestones, goals, personal business, it doesn't matter. We want to celebrate it with you. So people flood that channel with pictures and my kids and this client and this work felt good and done it out of that. And so anytime I've ever like Lisa isn't working, like, are we doing this? Do we want to keep doing this? I go back to that week, we went to channel and I just look at the emojis and the pictures and the support and the positivity. And it's like, yes, of course this is working like more of this, let's keep going. So still that idea. It's a good one.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

I love this, because I am always looking for ways, especially when you're online, to have a team looking for ways to like, you know, have that culture, right, because a lot of the people on my team don't work together very often, they are handling a client, they're handing a client, this one's working on my stuff or whatever. They don't, we're not doing a lot of projects together. So they all know each other from you know, seeing each other on their we had a holiday party last year where they got to see each other's face, you know, for the first time, but it's not the same as like checking in and hanging out and like you know, so I love that.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Well, and so on that point, because I think this is really important because I know there are a lot of virtual agencies out there. And this is a this is something that comes up for people, I'm sure. But what really I think brings my team culture together is this idea of us having a shared mission. This idea of us all wanting to support women owned businesses, because we are women business owners, this idea of us wanting accounting work to matter because we know it does. And so seeing that it does see when clients feel good or clear or reach their goals and milestones and sharing that as well. We also have a quiet wins channel. So any little screenshot or text or message I get, I throw that in there too. Because what's most important, I think in an in an agency where you're gonna have siloed people doing different things, is that everybody within that agency can take their work and track it back to the bigger mission of the company. And it doesn't have to be this like life changing mission, right? It could just be like doing good work, building relationships, happy clients, like it doesn't need to be saving the world. But I do think that it's really important and what brings a team together is having a very, very clear mission like we're all doing, we're all together here in this business. Get moving towards this and tracking our success is really about whether or not we're moving closer to helping more women achieve by financial autonomy like that's our Mission is helping more women, business owners achieve financial autonomy by building these, like businesses that are bigger than they ever could have imagined. Because we make the finance side easier and clear the path clear for them. So even like the bookkeeper who's just categorizing transactions, knows that her work is helping that happen so that the world has more women, like you said, with economic power, who are, you know, creating these awesome products and building these services and these businesses that really do give back and have an impact. I

 

Kelly Reynolds  

love all of this. Because a lot of people come to me and they're like, they have problems with the team, right? And they have turnover. And they always think they need to pay people more. And I was like, a lot of people want to belong to something that matters. If you get paid to build a thing, and then throw it in the trash. And your brain will be like, Why the hell am I doing this, even if you get paid to do that, people want to have things to do work that matters. And I think that bringing that back around to that mission that you have, and showing them that they are the part in this whole puzzle, instead of just somebody typing in numbers, like they know, they're building something. And that I think, is a huge draw for anybody as for their own work, you know what I mean? So being able to tie that into your agency, I think is fantastic. And then like the just like, there's simple Slack channels, right? But like being able to see that and show all of that coming together. That is the stuff people want to see for.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Totally, and, and because of that I've attracted these really incredible experts, these these people who are really good at what they do. And they're also really excited to show up to do more than maybe I'm even asking them to do, because they're not doing it for me, and they're not doing it for the paycheck. They're doing it to contribute, contribute to this thing that's bigger than all of us. Yeah. And you're right, at the end of the day as human beings, like that's all we want to do is really be a part of something that's bigger than us, you know, because we are so like, if our everyday reflects that. Great every day, I'm gonna be excited to show up and do the work, you know.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yeah, I mean, we've all had those jobs. But like, it doesn't matter what I'm doing. I had a client that you're talking about yesterday, and I hope I didn't just tell this whole story on the podcast yesterday. But it was one of those things where like, I would show up, and we would have a plan, and I would build the thing, I'd build the systems, I do the thing. And then three months later, the plan would change completely. And I literally take everything I did and just throw it in the trash. And I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it anymore. And I was like, I gotta get out of here. Because I want the work, I want to accomplish something I want it to mean, something I want to have, you know, and I parted ways I couldn't do it. It was like it does, it's the money wasn't the thing, guess we all want to be paid. And, you know, kids like to eat and all that. But like, they really eat a lot all the time, like every day. Like, that isn't the thing is gonna take a lot less to have more meaning.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Well, and to your point to as a virtual team, if you're an agency owner who's running a virtual team, I don't care if you have contractors or employees, my contractors are as devoted as my employees. And I know that that's tough, because we're like, well, we can only so much and they have all these clients that their surveys, but if you're the client, with the most like groggy TAs, they will be excited to show up for you. And they will raise the bar of their standards of expectations for clients that they work with. And I think that that raises the bar for everybody.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yes, I try my best to have be the their favorite client. Yeah, I want them to know, I love them. I'm going to support them if they need anything in their own businesses, all that kind of stuff. I want to be their favorite client. Yes, because they and I want to also support them so that they know that this is the way you should be treated, because we've all had clients who treated us like crap. And in the beginning, sometimes we don't know any better or where we need the cash, and we just have to deal with it. And then if I can show them that we can get treated better than they will know that they're not going to work with those other crappy people anymore. Right. I love Exactly. Raziel. 

 

Luisa Alberto  

And everybody who works with you on your team is an ambassador of your brand, right? Oh, yeah, every single person, like they're seeing the inner workings of your business. So if there's anybody who anyone will trust, to reflect back whether or not your brand your service is worth a shit. It's the people who work in your business, who work with you who work with your team, who see the products and services that you deliver, to understand what your values are, what your mission is, how you're tracking against that whether you're all talk or your words match your actions. And so we've also got to think about contractors that way I think like their brand ambassadors, they will go out there and talk to people in there where every single human I come in contact with is a brand ambassador or potential brand ambassador for me. And so that's how I operate. But especially with your internal team with people who were there's a financial exchange and expectations, I think that that's, that's as important to relationship as your client relationships. Yeah,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

I gotta tell you, like, my team has been, I have a lot of long term people on my team, we all work together, I love them to death. Like, there's not a ton of turnover. And just from a pure like, profit standpoint, like a profit, like money, having to hire people, and train them over and over again, because they leave, it's an enormous time suck. It takes an enormous amount of time, brainpower, my personal time to find what we need to hire for, then hire that person, then train them that all of that stuff, and yes, there, I can preach systems all day. But there, it doesn't mean that it doesn't take any time to hire someone. Now, you know what I mean. And then if they leave, because they don't like it here, that is a, it's such a waste of money and time when you could just take care of the people you have, give them really great expectations. So they know what's expected of them, they know what's going on. And then they can do great work. And then you all happy, you don't have to keep doing this every month.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Exactly. And some, you know, team members will have to go in, that's just the nature of work. Sometimes. I've had to deal with that a lot over the past year. And but how I approach that is there's this, there's this letting go as the agency owner, where, you know, we have set up a culture where people document their work, record videos, you know, documenting their processes, I invest in operations heavily, so that I have systems and you know, a way for anybody who comes into my business to find their way around and be oriented and understand how internal communications work. Like, I've done all of that very deliberately, because I want my agency to be an easy place to work. And I think that that has really served us because I've had contractors go for personal reasons, and then come back. And they already know my business. And they can jump right in. And we have mutual respect. And they will go above and beyond not for me again, not for me, it's not about me. It's going above and beyond for the mission, which is to do good work for our clients. Because that feels good. It feels good to do good work, right? It feels good for people to go, Oh my gosh, that was incredible. Thank you so much. It changed my life. Like, if I can hear that every day, I'd be like, good job, Luisa. You know, like Shaq. And that's really the measure of success. And so it shifts also what you're investing in. I don't have you know, a lot invested in marketing and sales gen, like I are marketing in lead generation and sales. I just handle all of that because I'm like, I need to make sure my house is ready for guests. That's really where my head is. And then I can move to the place where, okay, we're marketing to pull more people in because I know we're ready. Like the bed is made. candles are lit. Come on in. So it's just a different perspective. Instead of like getting a bunch of clients and being like, Oh, shit, I need to make sure my house is clean. That doesn't work.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

It doesn't work. My God, I literally just the today's podcast, this week's podcast is like, you can't scale a broken business. Like the whole idea of everyone thinks lead gen is the only thing you need. And I'm like, yeah, and then you got 30 People that come out of the door and they give you a credit card and everything is a disaster. Everyone badmouth you and yeah, yeah. Love that. Well, I love of course, you know, I love hearing it. You have like systems and videos and things like that, because, you know, that's my thing. But what? How do you set up your business? Like how do you onboard people? How do you bring people in? How do you hire people? Like, do you have those systems just like, are you well oiled machine at this point? Are you still sitting there figuring that out?

 

Luisa Alberto  

So we've had different iterations of that. So I've always prioritized it. So yeah, we have a way that we bring people in, we have a process documented, we use clickup, for all managing our business, really. And so we have a process for getting people set up on the tools, my ops, my VA helps to make sure that that all happens appropriately. There's a lot especially the world of finance of like access and passwords and documentation and contracts and making sure everything is cool and secure. And so I have support to help us make sure that that happens appropriately. That access makes sense. I mean, we have access to people's bank accounts and things like that. So like we have to have all of that on lock honestly, like maybe in other types of businesses where you're not dealing with So much sensitive financial information, he can be a little bit more willy nilly in the beginning. But really from the beginning, we had to be very, very clear on how that was going to work. So we do have a process, we have a client journey, we have a, we have a cloud journey, we have a team journey that we're that I'm working to refine right now with my Director of Operations, Rachel. So that's really what we're working on right now is just what that process looks like, and getting a system in place so that that process is repeatable, you know, by our VA. So it doesn't take a lot of brainpower. We're not reinventing the wheel every single time we bring somebody new on, we're really documenting everything as we go. So we always have some draft or some version of the experience that we can refine and optimize over time. 

 

Kelly Reynolds  

All right, so tell me, I love all of that, by the way. And Rachel, I'm sure is doing a fantastic job.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Absolutely.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

So tell me about what you do for clients. I know, like we talked about a little bit like you help them with their finances. But what does that mean? And like, what kind of things do you run into, like, what I feel like there's certain things you probably run into all the time. And I would love to know it too, because I'm getting to a place where, though I have different questions than I did two years ago, you know, like, that's where Epson and DAX, like all these kinds of things like, so? How are you helping them? And what are the things that are coming up?

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah, so how we help them as we have sort of the core of our services is really excellent bookkeeping and accounting. So I always say that's sort of like the foundation. So if you're not properly, accurately, and in a timely way, accounting for all of the cash that comes in, through and out of your business, that's step number one, like without that, I can't help you on the tax front financial advising strategy, any of that. So that's really the core of our services is helping to get people's books accurate, up to date and optimized for visibility. So that's our core service. From there, of course, there's all of the tax piece, which is compliance. So just knowing like, if you're in California, for example, do you have a city tax estate tax, the county tax, and other than other than the payroll tax, the whole shebang? There are lots of different laws that are really difficult. This comes up a lot for clients, it's just difficult to navigate. I feel like a lot of clients come to us and they're like, I just want to do the right thing. Can you tell me yeah, when this is due what it is and how much to pay? Who I pay it to? Do I need a voucher does that just tell me what to do. And so when it comes to tax compliance, that's exactly what we do. We tell our clients, these are your tax liabilities, we do an assessment. And then we help them monitor what they're required to report on, and what payments they're required to make throughout the year. So that's a big piece, that if you're the CEO of your company, at that 250 k plus mark, there's likely no one else doing that for you, right, like your tax account, you file your taxes every years, every year isn't gonna take the time to understand what your other tax liabilities are, and, and plot a path forward for you, right? They're not even going to use creativity, necessarily, to think about what tax credits or you may qualify for different tax strategies you may employ related to your retirement contributions, etc, right? There's a whole web of strategy in the really proactive and intentional with your money. That is just tax just the tax piece, right? So accounting, accurate accounting informs the tax piece, we help with compliance. And then there's also this another thing that people struggle with is having visibility in their business. So it's like, cool, I look at my Profit Loss report maybe every month, and I have an idea of how my business is performing. But that information isn't necessarily that helpful in telling you what to expect over the next six to 12 months, right? Yes. So this is a big missing piece for people who have like a bookkeeper that they work with me being an accountant that they work with for annual tax filing. So what we do is we come in, we sort of connect the dots from where you are to where you want to be by running a cash flow projection, that really gives you the insight you need to make the business decisions today that are going to impact your cash and bottom line down the road. And that's really like such a huge missing piece. And it's a skill. And it's a tool that business owners need that I feel like it's just really missing for business owners who are like great at selling and bringing in all this money, but like how do I decide who to hire and how much to pay them and when to hire them and what I should invest in it I hired this marketing to and they're just sort of like making these decisions, and then freaking out, because they see that they're making these investments and watching maybe their cash balances go down or their debt increase with no visibility into what their expectation standard and standard should be for six to 12 months from now when these investments should pay off right? So they're not holding themselves account. trouble to Well, I'm gonna make this investment. And I have six months for it to, you know, produce this return, for example, and track and check in actually be like, Okay, it's six months from now from then, like has this given me a return or not we're not doing that we're not you know a lot of visitors that come to us aren't giving themselves that, that accountability and that checks that check and balance because it's just them. So that's really what we do is we handle compliance. We provide accountability and visibility for business owners in scaling agencies and services. 

 

Kelly Reynolds  

I love that. And I think that that that last missing piece is so vitally important. Yeah, the bookkeeping. Yeah. All that tax is super hard, like, all of them are very hard. And we need help, right. And as my business has grown, I have realized, like the holes there, I mean, I'm a numbers person and the fact that I like numbers. But I wasn't an accountant. I was on Wall Street, like I was trading numbers. You don't I mean, like, it was a different skill, I do not have those kind of forecasting skills that I wish I had. So I but at the same time, I think, well, I can do this stuff myself, because I know numbers more than most business owners, right. But I still fall down in those ways. Like, especially, especially if you're rebuilding a business, like, the next six months are going to look so different than the last six months. So trying to look at it and go, Well, we have this trailing six or trailing 12, you don't, you know, whatever it was, or even worse, some people are like, well, this is what I did in 2021. I'm like, that was like 10 years ago. Like in online days, like choose 2021 was 10 years ago, like in Wall Street, we had like the trailing 12, as last 12 months of revenue, it was how you it was how you got aggressive contracts and stuff as a broker, like what was your last 12 months. But even that, even the last six months for me is going to be so different than next year, like next year is going to look so different. And that is the kind of stuff how to know what is going to happen? What are we going to plan for, if we know that everything is going to blow up? Or there's going to be a recession? Or whatever the thing is, right? How are we going to plan for that? And how are we going to do things now so that in six months, we're not completely screwed?

 

Luisa Alberto  

Right? Well, and it gives you agency over that. No pun intended, but it gives you agency, right? Because a lot of people are like, I have no idea what my sales are gonna be like three months, we're gonna like, well, if you don't, you can be damn well, sure no one else does. Yep. So you better decide what your sales are gonna be right and go for it, and have a strategy and know what to do to get there. Exactly, exactly. And know what that will cost. You know what investments you need to make, plot those where they go in a projection and understand what your forecasted cash and revenue and profitability looks like.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

And I think there's, so many people are like, I don't want to spend any money. It's any money, right? Instead of or I find this a lot of agency talk is that this is the way you build an agency, you do this, you make this hire Ba ba ba. And you will get here like It's like some formula that everyone will follow. But I feel like I have made specific decisions to not grow as much as fast maybe because I wanted to spend more time at home with my son, or I wanted to keep some work. I didn't give all the work away, like some people preach like, Oh, you're not an agency owner, if you don't give it all away, like but I kept that because it was extremely profitable. And I could keep that cash in and then take that cash and pay for coaching or pay for infrastructure or pay for whatever, pay for this pretty little monitor I'm looking at right now you don't need me, like I've made those kinds of decisions. And I think that that kind of decision making is what makes you so valuable is helping people to see what they want to do for the goals that they have. Instead of just, this is the thing that they said I should do. I have like I get on calls with people. And they tell me how an agency should be built. They don't have an agency yet, but they've heard how it should be built. And this is what it's supposed to be. And I'm like, but what if that's not what you want? Right? So like making those conscious decisions to like, pick this, do that pick this, you know, that I think is so valuable.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah. And I think that, you know, a lot of our clients who come to us, they're visual people, they need to be able to see sort of, you know, what the impact is they need to be able to, to, yeah, just see have a perspective of their business that puts them up here because another problem or challenge that we have is that we're so close to our businesses, they're like right here like he is just like every day, and so it's really hard to see the bigger picture when that's how would that's your relationship with your business. And so to have somebody else Those come in and sort of help you pull back and get more perspective. And then be held accountable for the, to the goals that you have, not to what success is defined from an agency perspective or the outside world, but literally, to be held accountable to your own vision and goals for your business. It's like coaching on steroids, because the coaches are going to come in and also handle your accounting and your bookkeeping and your tax compliance. So by me, I'm like, it's like a wild, I'm like, very, it's a no brainer to work with a service provider that can sort of combine both worlds. And so part of our next challenge is articulating that value, because a lot of people who I talked to her are very concerned about making the investment and I'm like, I need to get better at at explaining how this will change your life in ways that you can't even imagine.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

And how your life will look in six months if you don't do this. Yeah, that I always feel like, there's when you're taking the series seven, which is your, the the license, you have to get to trade stocks and Wall Street, there's a whole thing there's like, I don't know, there's a whole bunch of different kinds of costs, and one of them is opportunity cost. And that was the only one that ever stuck in my head. This the, you didn't choose that you chose a instead of B, what is that cost gonna be? Now if b goes up in a dozen, or you know what I mean? Like that kind of thing. And I feel like that is very much like, you are an opportunity costs that, like you are the part like if you don't, if you do not hire Luisa, your businesses can be a massive six months. But if you do, then you're gonna be great. Like, you know, like in my head, that's what I think of

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah, well, there's a lot of stuckness when we invest when we're afraid to, you know, when we operate out of fear, really, of losing what we have. There's a lot of stuckness. And my philosophy on life is like, the clock is ticking too fast for me to feel stuck. I want things that propelled me forward that helped me see new opportunities that help me live life the way that I want to to its fullest. I don't want to feel stuck. So I only want to work with people who have that same desire within them, like ambitious people who are like, I don't want to stay stuck. I willing to invest in myself and my business. And you know, to be able to move forward into this fuller version. Or like, I don't want to spend my day convincing people on sales calls, that they're worth making an investment in themselves. That's not where my energy is, I think that there are lots of resources. If you're in that mindset, and you're stuck there. But once you turn over and you're like, wait a minute, like I see this bigger picture for myself, or my business, holy shit, I need help or holy shit, like, what do I do next? Or that's the person that I'm like, Okay, let's do this, like, you're ready to go, like, let's do this. And I, you know, I, I learned that about myself, because I want to help everybody. You know, when you're starting out, you're like, I know so many things, I can help, I can help you, I can help you, I can help you, I can help you. Yep. And it's like, that's just such a big disservice to really how big I can go to keep myself small and dispersed instead of focused and, you know, with more magnitude.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Yeah, I feel like it's one of those things like, you can't see it. Sometimes when you're in it. It's like that terrible boyfriend you had that. Years later, you're like, What the hell was I thinking? Everyone you know, is like, Yeah, we all tried to tell you, but like, you don't even like you need to see it for yourself sometimes. And then you're ready to get a different boyfriend or you know, like, you have to be in it, you have to want it you like you Luisa cannot want it more than the client wants it.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Eggs, Kelly, It's so wild that you just said that, because that's literally what the voice that's been going through my mind as I'm having because we're in a period of having lots of sales calls. And we're closing our doors on November 18. And it's like, so we can get ready for the end of the year and build things out and then another. And so I've been talking to a lot of people. And that's literally what goes through my head. It's like I'm not a pushy salesperson. But it's not because I don't want the sale. It's not because I'm lazy. It's because I can't want it more than these people want it. Which is just like it's an evolution in my thinking, because three to four months ago, I was like, oh, I'll just help you. Like, let me just do it. I don't That's okay. I'll want it more than you until you want it. You know, that kind of thing. And it's like, that's that wasn't working too. Well. You know,

 

Kelly Reynolds  

I've been there. Yeah. I've been like, let me run this thing better. Give let me do these things. Now. I don't really care. And I didn't believe them. I thought they care. They just, they just have it. They don't understand how cool it could be. And then I do things and they didn't care and they just massively I'm like, why am I here? You can't want your business more than me. Right? I mean, I can't want it. Like I have to work my business. I have to be the propulsion. I don't know that's not the word I was looking for. But like oh Whatever the jet propulsion, let's go with that. To move this forward, and then everyone can help, but like I have to want it.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Yeah. Yeah. I love your analogy is great.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

It's just how I explain things to clients. I make analogies. I'm really good sports analogy sometimes because that's very helpful. She spent a long time on Wall Street. Good to talk to boys. That was when I first started online world I was like, Well, I know how to talk to boys who don't listen. Right. So I was like, that should be my ideal client. And then I worked with them. And then I was like, this is this is. Boys do listen Great. Boys adult Listen, like I've had I had a whole career of that. Like, I don't I don't need to keep doing this. Yeah. Okay. So I have, we are hitting the top of the hour. So I don't want to keep you. Where can everyone find you so that they can go hire you before November 18. So that their whole business is way better in the next six months.

 

Luisa Alberto  

I love you. So you can find me at www.peoplefirstfinance.com

 

Kelly Reynolds  

 I love giving that preface because it's so old school, like my grandmother.

 

Luisa Alberto  

We don't need to say that anymore. Right? But people first signups.com And then I'm really active on Instagram. So you can find me there at people first, finance. And yeah, it's just a really good time of year I'll give this plug in PSA. I don't know whether this podcast is going to this episode is going to air but getting your act together before the end of the year before tax season is advisable. Because the really, really best accountants and bookkeepers shut, do shut their doors and don't take on new clients after a certain point. So if you want to get in with those folks, now's the time the clock is ticking.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

And if you need to do something, like get expenses for write offs, or things like that, you need to do it before the end of the year. Don't come to Luisa March 31 and say I need to get all these taxes off my plate. She could do that. Yeah, to an IRA but that's about it. Like I don't think that works, but

 

Luisa Alberto  

I think we didn't even get into like s corpse and all that stuff. We're gonna get

 

Kelly Reynolds  

there. We're gonna just gonna have you're gonna have to come back like a Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden like once a month. We'll come in we'll have a little financial talk from Luisa so she can explain what the hell's going on in the world. All right, well, I will put everything in the show notes so you guys can find Elisa and do so awesome having you here. Thank you so much. This was a fantastic conversation, and I look forward to talking to you soon.

 

Luisa Alberto  

Awesome. Kelly, thank you so much for having me.

 

Kelly Reynolds  

Thank you so much for joining me this week. If you have an agency or want to create one, come join my facebook community. Get your agency together, where we talk all the things growing and scaling your agency for shownotes more info and all the things head over to Reynolds obm.com Follow me on Instagram and Facebook at Reynolds OBM. And finally, if you enjoy this podcast, I would love for you to give us a review on iTunes.