The Mark Perlberg CPA Podcast
The Mark Perlberg CPA Podcast
EP 79 - How to Have an Edge Over the Competition
This episode explores essential strategies for tax practitioners to elevate their practices through continuous learning, mentorship, and client-focused service. We discuss the importance of dedicated study, finding coaches, and the impact of empowering others to achieve collective success.
• Discussing the importance of continuous learning
• Outlining the significance of mentorship and coaching
• Emphasizing community engagement for professional growth
• Highlighting the value of providing exceptional client service
• Addressing the impact of leadership and empowering others
If you want to learn more and you want to maybe be one of our clients and see how some of these concepts can help you as a client, as always, go to prosperalcpacom slash apply and we are looking for great talent nonstop. Send us some smart, brilliant tax people. Please go to prosperocpacom slash recruiting. Have a wonderful day. We've got more great content coming your way.
Your tax savings is going to give you all your down payment back. The rest is just profit coming in. It's like you're investing in real estate for free. He was a limited partner, so there was zero risk and he really liked you. This was one of our more risk adverse clients. All right, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:I always love nerding out with experts in the world of money and finance. I want to share with you guys how I, as a tax practitioner, and our firm, prosperal CPA, has gained an edge over the competition. Now this is going to be applicable for you as a tax accountant or CPA firm, but also any entrepreneur out there really looking to get to the next level and if you're kind of stuck with the masses or you've kind of reached a wall, these are some key concepts that you can apply to your life and business to help you get an edge over your competition and get to that next level. So in our profession and tax accountants are really well known for working hard we all work hard, right? So hard work and persistence, all that stuff you probably already have that here. Let's say, you hit a wall here. You're already working your butt off, you're already doing everything you should be doing and you just find yourself going in circles. So this is how we can kind of take it to the next level here. One of the things I want us to think about here is having a dedicated study, where you're deliberately setting aside time to work on your craft and get better on your craft.
Speaker 1:Especially in the world of tax accounting, I find so many backwards CPA firms and accountants doing the same thing year after year after year. They never take the time to learn about how they can be better practitioners, how they can add more value to their clients, how they can drive profit. They're all doing for their continuing ed is just the minimum requirements for the licensing. It's a joke what some of these people are doing, but keep it going All right, it's a joke out some of these folks are just doing the same thing year after year, complaining about the results of their profession and not doing anything to fix this, not looking out what other answers are out there. So one of the things that I do in my mornings is, before the day gets started, I carve out usually 30 minutes to an hour of just dedicated practice and studying, and you're going to find that the highest performing people out there are still studying and learning and mastering their crafts. Tom Brady is still watching film in his 40s. You're going to find that all these people are still continuously learning and striving and practicing to hone their craft.
Speaker 1:The tax code is infinite and any profession or occupation that you guys have, there's endless things that you can get better at. Just in the world of marketing alone, there's so many different concepts. So if you're just throwing mud at the wall and hoping that your sporadic emails to your mailing list or social media posts will deliver value and they aren't, you're getting frustrated. It's probably your lack of results is probably the result of you not really understanding your craft well enough. In the marketing side or whatever you're doing, whether you're a physician, whatever there's always endless things you can learn to give you a chance to level up. And if you're not doing that bare minimum of finding those educational resources to study and sit by yourself and really grow and learn year after year, you're going to start slipping.
Speaker 1:And you know one of the things I really valued here when we were starting off and I started my company in the first years, I would spend hours and hours and hours just in deliberate study, combing through the tax code, really making sure I had a thorough understanding of these concepts and really becoming fascinated and obsessed with the tax code as it applied to my clients. Now, I wasn't bringing a lot of business in at first and if I was working at a corporation I would probably have really low realization rates and productivity rates. But I ran the show. So I had the opportunity to carve out that time and spend hours and hours and hours combing through the tax law and eventually that created future dividends when I was able to find loopholes and exceptions to the rules and tax planning opportunities and protect my clients and our practice from inaccuracies or reporting complications here by understanding the laws applied to my clients. What I found was very soon I was able to serve as a leader and mentor for other tax practitioners because, unlike other folks who would just get the business and plug it into the return and never really take the time to understand the law as it applied to their situations, I had that opportunity to really invest into the best resources.
Speaker 1:I joined the American Institute of Certified Tax Planners and obsessed over the material. I would even pause the recordings and Google what all the words meant when I was just starting off to really make sure I could really internalize that content and that has created such an incredible outcome and value and has allowed me to become a public speaker and really go on all these podcasts and educate hundreds of people and thousands of people because of that deliberate study and it doesn't stop and now that I have more money and I have a little more success, I can invest in more specialized trainings, which leads to my next topic is find a coach. Find someone who can really interact with you and give you the answers faster. It allows you to collapse the time on how fast you can learn these topics. So you know when I was I mean your first, when you're just starting off.
Speaker 1:I really see it as there's several levels to this. As far as how you can acquire information and resources. Number one is just books and YouTube, all those, maybe free resources and articles, that deliberate study, which we still continue to do. Next level up is a structured course that is specifically designed to give you that material in a structured manner, with exercise. That's going to kind of be like the next level up. But then the highest level of getting that information, that wisdom, that insight to really learn as fast as you possibly can and effectively is to have direct access from and to the source. So if you can have a conversation with the author of that book or the creator of the course and they can give you answers based on your specific situation, you're going to find those answers a lot faster and more personalized. You're going to have a deeper insight from those conversations, from that dialogue. So find yourself a coach as soon as you can afford it and I still have coaches to this day.
Speaker 1:I have weekly calls with a tax specialist, tom Grzynski. He's amazing. He gives us all these insights. He has saved us hundreds of hours of research by investing into his insight. I've also had lots of other coaches along the way, like my buddy, chuck Bauer. I've also had lots of other coaches along the way, like my buddy, chuck Bauer, who's taught us incredible insights on maintaining boundaries, creating structure, having disciplined process and really protected us from some boneheaded mistakes we probably would have made if we didn't have him. In fact, I see people this day. There are so many times I meet these other practitioners who are cheap and don't want to invest into other resources and I keep on saying, man, if these guys only met Chuck Bauer, they wouldn't be making these stupid mistakes. Chuck taught us to keep our phones on silent and have a closed door policy, and when I did that early on, I was fortunate enough to see the value in this early on and we had that closed door policy. And then I meet these people who've been in business for 30 years answering sporadic calls from their clients, not getting anything done. It's just so silly how they can't concentrate because they're being just pulled around and dragged all over the place by their clients and not controlling the relationship. It's because they don't have the insight that we gained from Chuck Bauer and also from Jackie Meyer at the Tax Concierge with her course, which was really fantastic, especially when we were starting off.
Speaker 1:But even to some of you guys who are long-term tax practitioner owners, if you never went through some coaching for practice management, really go through their stuff. I mean really just one or two of the sessions and there's like 18 of them, but one of two of them will really transform your practice, learning things like time blocking and maintaining boundaries and also selling strategies. So those things have really been foundational. And when I was starting off I didn't really have a lot of money. I used credit card debt to pay it off, maybe multiple credit cards to invest into their stuff, and I really appreciate the long-term impact it's had. It's really created ripples. In fact, I joined the mastermind Some groups, for instance, a group called Genius Network, which was amazing, by the way, and very transformational but a lot of these incredible speakers are coming out there and teaching us about inbox zero and all these concepts. I'm like dude. I learned that three years ago in the tax concierge program and now I'm paying $25,000 a year and now $35,000 a year to be in a group that is. You know, we're hearing these concepts that I heard in a course that was a fraction of that several years ago. I mean, I learned a lot of other great things, but it's just amazing what you can gain from that course and other things that are tailored to your profession when you're with the right people.
Speaker 1:You know there's a great book out there called Tax Cuts. I mean Short Cuts. Sorry, I was thinking about the tax cut in job exactly when I said cuts, short Cuts, short Clips. I'll have to put them in the short notes, but anyways, smart Cuts I don't remember, but anyways, the concept here. It is a really great book, but it is that all these amazing thinkers and leaders all had someone ahead of them who they modeled themselves after and they could learn from. So even Steve Jobs was invited to the Hewlett Packard offices, I think. Or it was Bill Gates. They all had mentors, people who they looked up to and could learn from. Even Mike Tyson had the classic coach custom motto really shaped his style.
Speaker 1:So if you don't have some sort of mentor or coach and it's really hard to do this as an entrepreneur, because a lot of you guys are serving as a coach and mentor find that source of wisdom. And if you can get direct access, it's amazing what that'll do for you. So if you're hitting a wall, find someone who teaches you how to overcome that wall. And another topic here and this is kind of a line is find some sort of model. So you know, and if you're doing the same thing over and over again and you're hitting a wall, maybe you need to find and model yourself after some sort of source or resource or business owner who's doing it properly. And there's another great book Steal Like an Artist. You can find this. Find role models or people doing things at the level you want to get at and see what they're doing, that you're not, and it's very simple to observe this. Want to get at and see what they're doing, that you're not, and it's very simple to observe this.
Speaker 1:One really amazing takeaway we had in Breakthrough was, you know, actually through the Genius Network, I became pals with someone who coaches people on roofing businesses completely unrelated to taxes, but what I did was I went through his sales process on his membership site, signed in as though I owned a roofing company, went through the whole sales funnel and wow, they do things totally different and they were awesome at his follow through and lead nurturing. So we modeled ourselves after this roofing coaching business and it was a major game changer in our delivery and sales and assessment of prospective clients. They really enjoy the journey. Lots of transparency. Assessment of prospective clients they really enjoy the journey, lots of transparency. And then also, I even found one of the books that was inspirational to their model, modeled myself after the book as well.
Speaker 1:So back to reading. Books are great, but also make sure you're not just passively listening. Find books that you can make SOPs out of standard operating procedures, sops out standard operating procedures. If you can make procedures and protocols and while you're doing this, that's really gonna. Those are really the books that are gonna have an impact. So don't just be one of those people who just goes through books all day and doesn't take action. What I like to use is use my phone right here and we will send reminders of key action items that I and when I have an idea from these books and some of these action items have allowed us to find new opportunities of tax savings, new ways to communicate the tax savings with client. But, for instance, one of the things that we're doing now to have a career connection is we've assigned main points of contacts between our advisors and clients and that main point of contact advisor will go live for 30 minutes every week. So now, if you want to have a conversation I know we're hard to reach because we're busy accountants you know that this account is going live every week for 30 minutes and you're gonna have the opportunity to connect.
Speaker 1:Another thing I want you to think about here is finding a community that intimidates you. Get out of your shell, get out of your own mind, your own head, and maybe you've outgrown your network and really be around those people who are smarter and more successful and just doing things at a higher level than you and really tap into those insights, you're going to be amazed at what kind of ideas are going to help you really find an edge over your competitors, who are maybe stuck thinking through and going through the same thought process that you guys are all going through here. And you know, obviously we do this by joining the Genius Network and also American Institute of Certified Tax Players, which is incredible, and we really learned how to do this in a way that is compliant, where we can save our clients tens of millions in taxes. We're members of the Professional Association of Small Business Accountants as well All sorts. You know, just having that high mind of other people in your field doing things at a high level has been fantastic for us. People in your field doing things at a high level has been fantastic for us.
Speaker 1:Now, this next concept here is now, you know, we have all these resources, we get all these ideas. We have the books, the courses, the coaches, the communities all giving us these wonderful ideas and insights and obviously we want to take action. But you know I'm going to draw from something I learned from my boxing coach when I was in high school. He said you want to take action. But you know I'm going to draw from something I learned from my boxing coach when I was in high school. He said you want to do what everybody else is doing. You want to work just as hard as he can work.
Speaker 1:And then you get to the point where your opponent is tired and that's when you really get to work. So he would teach us to really take our opponents into the inferno, like put your head in the chest and the chest and beat away at the body. Maybe you take some hits when you take it to that level of intensity where you know you can hear him panting and wanting to give up. Then, when he starts giving up and maybe you start to really feel the intensity of the action, that's where you can really make a difference and go above and beyond and really reach that point of separation. Now you know boxing is a pretty dangerous activity.
Speaker 1:But I thought how can we apply this as entrepreneurs? And you know everybody's already working their tails off. We see so many in our profession who are already working, you know seven day work weeks, so outworking the competition may be impossible. We're probably, if anything, working too much to the point as entrepreneurs where is gonna be really hard to put in more hours without compromising our productivity and our health. So what else can we do here to to go past that point of separation? Besides, you know, gulping down coffee at two in the morning to pull all the nyers and just destroying our health. So here's other ways we can do this here.
Speaker 1:Where is that point of separation where you can go past in the form of discomfort? Where is it that other people you know they're afraid to do something that might, where, if you do something that other people are afraid of doing, you doing it is going to give you that edge? And then another thing here is maybe connecting to that person that intimidates you. Maybe you call that guy who you'd always want to meet or know or connect with. Maybe you have the courage to make those connections and ask and join these groups and whatever it is that you know your competitors probably would say, ah, maybe I'm not good enough. Maybe you should develop a greater sense of audacity and ability to step into those roles. Now another thing here is you should always be thinking about and you know to think about this and how we've gone above and beyond here.
Speaker 1:So you know we've invested heavily into our educational resources again, even from day one, where maybe it didn't make a lot of sense, you know, based on you know, the Dave Ramsey's of the world would have really disapproved of some of my earlier financial decisions of investing so heavily into our training and education. But again, tax concierge and Chuck and CTC, those all became foundational to our future success. I mean, when I joined American Institute of Certified Tax Planners, I was still an employee. I had to finance it with a PayPal account because I just bought my house. I was like about the point of having to go to the Coinstar machine to join this organization. That legitimately changed my life.
Speaker 1:So I took a risk there, a financial risk that really paid off, you know and then discomfort of performing these videos. You can watch some of my old videos. I mean, some of them were not so hot and some of them I was stuttering and maybe I wasn't the greatest content creator, but just having the ability to step outside my comfort zone and just go for it and really tap into those things and being creative and some of the things that we do as a firm combining different strategies and coming up with different ways to add value. For instance, how can we add workshops, always brainstorming. So we're doing a workshop on hiring your family, like a deep dive. Deep dive into the Augusta rule, turning hobbies into tax-deductible events, coming up with always new ideas and insights and ways we can add value for our clients by thinking outside of the box. And then again, joining elite communities of people doing things better than us, meeting eight and nine figure entrepreneurs who are so far ahead of us.
Speaker 1:I think another thing you want to think about, you know there's all these ideas here. Another thing you want to think about, you know, and there's all these ideas here. Now, where's your energy? What is the one thing that's going to give you the highest return on investment? Continually think, and it's going to change throughout time. Sometimes it's going to be maybe I got to get better at my craft, and you always do, but maybe at this point we got to get better at recruiting. This time we got to get better at marketing. So really zeroing in and just being cognizant, and the answer is going to change. What's the one thing that's going to move us forward? There's a great book called the One Thing that really helps you think about this and not being too distracted and really setting aside time Now, when we think about this, you know right now, and I would say the one thing for us is leadership.
Speaker 1:Because when you have an organization, especially once you hit that seven-figure mark, what you're going to find is the most valuable skill set and impact you're ever going to have in your business and in your clients and customers and communities your ability to empower other people. Your shift of focus goes from how can I be great at what I do and the actual work product that I do to how can I empower other people to further this work product and further productivity and be a leader who facilitates other people to do things, because you can only do so much on your own, but if you can empower a group of 10, 15, 100, thousands of people, those are the real movers and shakers, and all the great thinkers, all the people who have had an incredible impact, were those who could empower other people. So Steve Jobs he didn't do it all on his own. He leveraged other great thinkers and innovators to make those products come to life. You know, jeff Bezos doesn't know every code in Amazon. They all have leveraged large organizations. Obviously they were the visionaries, but what they knew was going to be their greatest return on investment was the ability to create ways to empower others to further the momentum of their endeavors.
Speaker 1:And you know another thing here. Here's another thing that I think is just missed is just be a little more systematic and deliberate in your relationships. You meet people. Instead of just saying a great meeting you to all the business cards you captured at some event, really be strategic in actually creating action items from these people. Schedule a call, put them on a mailing list, make a mailing list for your referrals and reference. Really go through this list and be deliberate and that should be about everything Socializing. Really make sure that these people you meet, you actually turn this into something that's actionable and is a value creation for you and those people you meet, instead of having these half-hearted, surface-level conversations that go nowhere. Don't waste your time anymore with that. We're all about relationships. If you're a business owner, really making the most of those relationships. That's just something I see a lot of people miss here. Um, trying to think about a good book about that as well, uh, I have to think about that. But you know, really put put all the relationships into some form of a crm and um, you know always.
Speaker 1:Another thing here is just always be giving more than you can receive. You know there's a great book Life Gives to the Giver and there's a lot of great books out there. But really, you know, if you're not moving forward enough, you're wondering why no one really wants to do business with you or you're not. You know things aren't going the direction you want in your business. A lot of the times it's because you're not giving enough value. Your marketing isn't giving enough value. You're not giving enough value to your staff. You know your recruiting initiatives aren't showing enough value. You're not giving enough value to your clients to get referrals or to rise prices and have more profit. So always be giving in excess of what you're taking.
Speaker 1:And what we've done to this is, you know, obviously we can only put so much time into our client relationships. So in order to maximize value, we created a video library with recorded workshops. Again, we can. We can maximize the value by having these recorded workshops talking about foundational tax deductions and resources and investment strategies and tax deductions and resources and investment strategies and tax advantage investment strategies and how to evaluate those things, and this gives our clients access to tons of exclusive, really well curated content where we don't have to spend in, you know, hours and hours with each individual. They can access this at their own time and gain additional insight and wisdom. So this is this on top of our open calls and everything else, we're giving and giving and giving more and more value to our clients, and that has allowed us to thrive and get more referrals and have happy clients that continue with us. So I hope this gives you some ideas on how maybe you can apply some of these concepts.
Speaker 1:And to summarize this you know, have a dedicated time for studying. Find a coach model yourself after someone doing it better than you, even if they're in a different industry. Join a community. Go beyond what everybody else is doing, whether that's through discomfort, risk, creativity, connection, because everybody's working hard as an entrepreneur, without working, the competition isn't going to get you where you want to go. You also want to identify that one topic that's going to help you overcome that.
Speaker 1:On a side note, I heard a really good conversation and there's a really great quote that stuck with me, which is that everything is figureoutable. So if you're at a wall where you can't hire a recruiter, don't give up, say, oh, there's no good talent out there, can't hire a good staff member. You know there is a solution out there. You just haven't found it yet. You really want to develop that attitude, so everything is figureoutable. You know. Use your own resources, test and try, take it to the lab, find a solution there, have a dedicated study Said that.
Speaker 1:And also be systematic in your relationships because and now really give you an edge you'd be amazed if you were actually, if you treated your relationships and the people you met in your life as you treated percent potential prospect of clients and you know we're really systematic on your follow-up and how you could deliver value. Be amazed on the outcomes you can create there and give more than you can receive. All right, I hope one of these ideas are going to help you out today and these are really have been amazing ideas for our firm and our success and continued growth. So if you want to learn more and you want to maybe be one of our clients and see how some of these concepts can help you as a client, as always, go to prosperalcpacom slash apply and we are looking for great talent nonstop. Send us some smart, brilliant tax people. Please go to prosperocpacom slash recruiting. Have a wonderful day. We've got more great content coming your way.