CFO Chronicles: The Secrets Behind Success

How This CFO Landed 7 Clients with 30 Instagram Posts - with Jeremy Davila

• James Donovan • Season 2 • Episode 37

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7 clients. 30 posts. One phone.


Jeremy Davila didn’t wait to “feel ready” - he built a client pipeline with raw, consistent content.

In this episode, we break down:

  • The exact content that brought in new clients
  • Why 3 videos outperformed 10 cold emails
  • The $10K mistake most firms make on Instagram
  • How to use social without being “salesy”
  • The easiest way to create 30 days of content in 1 hour

If you’re not creating content, this episode might change your mind and your pipeline.

👉 Press play and steal the playbook.

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Speaker 1:

This morning we are joined by Jeremy Davila from Clivent.

Speaker 1:

I'm so excited for this episode. Jeremy brings a ton of insight on how to put yourself out there on social media, what it means to create organic content and why it is so important, what sort of content you should be making as a professional in the accounting world. And then, most importantly, to make a decision by not making a decision is a decision within itself and why indecision is holding you back. Cannot wait for you to dive into this episode. Let us know your thoughts. Enjoy. Welcome back to another episode of CFO Chronicles. Today we are joined by Jeremy Davila from Clivent. Jeremy, I'm so excited to have you on the show. But before we dive in, I do want to say a special shout out to our sponsors, universal Accounting. Thank you so much for everything you guys do, for sponsoring the show, for hosting an amazing event last week at GrowCon. For any accounting professional who's looking to grow their firm, please make sure you check out Universal Accounting. Thanks so much, jeremy. Welcome to the show. Super pumped to have you here.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, thanks for having me. You're at GrowCon. That's exciting. Get a lot of information there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was really good. Spent a week in Utah First week out there or first time being out there Got my cat here just trying to jump into the screen for those who aren't watching the video. Yeah, really really great week. Got to meet a lot of really cool professionals, some pretty big names in the space, so definitely looking forward to going back next year.

Speaker 2:

Nice, nice. Yeah, excited to hear about that, excited to hear about your journey and how that's going to help me as a business owner.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's dive into yours. I know that you're originally from Texas. You have a new business now in Florida. That you're originally from Texas, you have a new business now in Florida. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing at Clivent, the problems you're solving and who you're solving them for.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we try to work with service-based companies, between one to 5 million, really focusing on those CFO advisory services. So the best way to do that is we work with their bookkeeping, understand their bookkeeping, understand their numbers. So that way it helps us plan, try to keep that vertically integrated. And then from there it's like what are their goals? What do they want to do? What do they want to accomplish? Is it trying to save on taxes? Is it trying to save for their kids? Are they trying to retire, or are they trying to grow and scale?

Speaker 2:

That's kind of our bread and butter is try to grow, to scale your business. Okay, how are we going to do that? And we sit with them, sit with the business owner, to understand how do we get there? And then, do we need to clean up the books? Do we have a fresh set of books that we can layer in our financials and our understanding and our knowledge, or do we have to take a step back, get them to a certain spot and then move forward? So then we're talking about KPIs, cashflow forecasting, budgeting.

Speaker 1:

So then we're talking about KPIs, cash flow forecasting, budgeting and forecasting those types of things. Yeah, cool. What made you want to get into this space, Jeremy, I'm guessing I mean, I could be going off on a limb here but is this something that you always wanted to do as a kid, growing up, like get into the numbers of a business or did this kind of start to take over as you got a little bit older and maybe you're thinking about all right, what do I really want to do now that I'm going to school?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I mean, man taking it all the way back there, I would always have a passion for what is a business at, how does it run, and accounting really tells the story and if you can understand that, you can understand what's going on with the business. So can you take? The whole idea is, can you take a piece of paper and look at it and see a lot of the story that's going on there? And that's what I think accounting does for you and that's kind of exciting. So now you can just you can compare those apples to apples. And that's what you do with a, you know, publicly traded stock, a stock company, and so you're trying to compare those across the board. But it all starts with what's the story of the business and all stems from accounting.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I went to school, got my master's my business administration finance, paired that up, went back and got my master's in accounting, and then I went on to KPMG. I was like, well, let me go figure out where the best place to learn all this stuff is. So you know, figured, that was the place to go. So it's a KPMG and then started doing consulting on the side not consulting on the side, but consulting as a business, a fortune 100 companies, fortune 500 companies, and then recently cause I just started my my business. It was what are these people, these service-based business companies, doing that the big boys are doing? They don't have a back office, they don't have a full accounting department, they don't have a full finance function that can help them. And so that's what I'm trying to bring is I see that kind of gap in the market and so taking the things that I've learned at the Fortune 100, fortune 500 companies and bring that down to a smaller or middle-sized business and help them out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great you mentioned you're a little bit newer into business. We've had the opportunity to work together for a little bit, but tell me what's been some of the most exciting moments of being an entrepreneur or going out on your own in the last handful of months.

Speaker 2:

It's the satisfaction last handful of months. It's the satisfaction it's really cool to see to help them out to. Oh, they didn't know they were losing $10,000 of revenue because they weren't sending out the bills, the invoices and so being able to track what was going on. And $10,000, that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money for any business right, it's a $20 million company. But the appreciation that you have.

Speaker 2:

I used to be an auditor and to be on the other side.

Speaker 2:

Everyone hates the auditor and I hated it too, but you get to learn a lot of stuff by doing that, so thankful for that. But anyways, yeah, just being on the other side of actually helping someone get through that. Or, if I do a due diligence type project, someone's going to buy this business that they're on an E2 visa or they're trying to support their family and they're trying to come to the US and make a living for them and I'm kind of that gut check to see, hey, is this a business that I should buy or not? And they have no idea. They just know they need to make $100,000 and it needs to feed their family and that's why they need to be here and they're putting down a lot of their life savings for it, and so to have that trust and to have just to be a part of that journey for them, that's really cool and I like I put a lot of pride and just value in being out, being people to be able to accomplish their goals.

Speaker 1:

That's so good you are really active on Instagram and social media for promoting your brand, promoting your business. What? What would you say to those who maybe aren't as comfortable about getting in front of the camera or putting themselves out there, and why it's so beneficial to do that for for growing your brand, or maybe or maybe for those who aren't as comfortable doing it, what would be your advice to kind of break through that barrier? And I mean, ultimately, just do it like, get out there. You're trying to run a business, put yourself out there in public.

Speaker 2:

Man, don't do it. Don't do it so I can take over. I mean, there's a space for everyone. But it is tough and you have to have the thick skin. And I'm not saying it's easy, but how else are you going to grow your business? It's 2025. Y'all like, social media is the way to go. The Gary Vaynerchuk like follow his stuff for five minutes. You figure out, like what the future? But how else are you going to grow your business? It's 2025, y'all. Social media is the way to go. The Gary Vaynerchuk, follow his stuff for five minutes. You figure out what the future is going to look like and you just have to get with the times.

Speaker 2:

Ai. You have to get with the times. You have to know what's going on. If you're not doing that, you're falling behind. And it's organic, it's free too. You sucking it up and doing it, and maybe I have a little bit more of a penchant for it. It was a little bit easier and I hopped on it and I'm a little bit more of a creative person. That's a great outlet for me. Again, back to being an entrepreneur. Why I like being an entrepreneur is that I can do what I want to do and being on social media for that reason isn't more of a creative outlet for me. It helps grow my business, but yeah, it is tough. There is so much value on the other side of doing it.

Speaker 1:

Does it just come a little bit more natural to you? That's what it almost sounds like you're saying yeah.

Speaker 2:

I would think I think, like once I I mean I ebb and flow with it, like some months I'll be great at it, some months I'll be like I'm taking a step back. It's trying to find my niche and trying to dial in like what I want to say. But yeah, I think, just like having that creativity, that creative aspect, yeah, I think it definitely comes a little bit more naturally to me, and I was always shooting videos for my friends. I was always shooting content that I'd share with, just like with my inner circle, but it really didn't have a purpose other than for entertainment. And so now it's like oh wait, I learned all that stuff already. I was already dabbling with video editing software and now I can actually use it to help me grow.

Speaker 2:

So I had to jump on a lot of stuff, get getting there. But yeah, it is, it's another, it's another business in and of itself. Like to do all that stuff. So trying to figure out how to that balance, like am I ready to business or is the business running me? Or like, what trade offs are you making?

Speaker 1:

Now minus, you know you knowing how to do the video editing, knowing how to do that, because that's not everyone right and a lot of people, yeah, just probably hire someone to come in on your team. Do that if it's not your skill set. But when it comes to the actual content, what it is you're putting out as the advisor, as the fractional ZFO, the expert in the space, how do you come up with ideas? Or like, what do you film? What do you post? Because I know that question comes up a lot with people like, oh, I can make content, but like, what do I do? How do you approach that?

Speaker 2:

A lot of it is what entertains me in the moment, and then some of it is. Or then a lot of it is like what questions that I'm answering throughout the day, throughout the week. I try to reflect on Mondays like what has happened throughout the week and what content do I need to put out? There's like, oh, someone asked me about how do I do due diligence. Or someone asked me about, uh, like how do I buy a business? That's a piece of content in and of itself, like I can talk about that. I can talk about those things.

Speaker 2:

And I was like, oh, let me just write down that idea and launch it. Like, okay, iterate on that, find out what my hooks are, what I need to say about it. And then shoot, just take your phone it doesn't have to be perfect and just start riffing. And that some of my best videos are just me walk, I go on my morning walks and just like, holding my phone up to my face, not even using the back camera You're supposed to be using the back camera, but just using the front camera so I can see what's going on and then just like riffing on what happened. And that's where my ideas come from.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of in the moment, but then, like paid ads are a completely different story. Like you have to be a lot more um, what's the word like diligent? Or you have to be a lot of what more intentional about those types of videos versus some kind of content? More it's like this is lifestyle branding. Lifestyle branding just like business type content that's what people want to see, just so that you're an authentic person. That's a little bit just more off the cuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. I would almost challenge you a little bit, though that even, yes, I understand the paid ads. There's's money going behind it. You probably want it to look a little bit more professional, a little bit more clean cut, but I do think so many people respond to that raw, you know. First take, I mean, just think about how much reality tv people are consumed by and how many shows are going on netflix.

Speaker 1:

Now it's yes you can make the argument. Some of that stuff scripted and there's probably a couple takes, but it looks pretty organic. So I was at a recent conference not Grocon and there was a lot of conversations with other marketers about that. Just putting kind of the authenticity back into social media, because it's almost gone so far now that it's yeah, it's almost fake or it's all the the highlights. So I love that you're pulling up your phone and just recording whatever happens and posting that, because it does come across super authentic.

Speaker 1:

I see your videos all the time and um, it's probably worth a test running some paid ads where you have your ums and ahs and you know you're stumbling for word to see how it performs when, when accountants or the industry thinks, well, I'm an accountant like I don't, I don't have a lifestyle brand, or like my clients don't care that I'm, you know, at the beach with friends or I'm you know doing whatever. What's your? What would you say to that?

Speaker 2:

I mean, I'm a person too. I it's crazy. I just like, anecdotally, what happens is I'm putting out content. It's in a vacuum. I think it's in a vacuum and you just blast it into the ether. But then when I'm at the beach hanging out with my friends I live in South Florida, so it's Sunday all the time.

Speaker 2:

I try to go play sand volleyball every Saturday and people come up to me or like friends of mine, they're like oh yeah, so you're doing this, like I need help with taxes or I can help as a CPA, and like they start interacting with you because of stuff that you haven't really talked to them about. It's just the businesses Instagram is putting out your stuff. It's wild to. I mean, I'm sure you're like in that space, like getting a little bit more popular because of that. Or people that I haven't talked to in a while. When I see them, I'll go on a trip and I'll be in town and they start talking to me about the business side of stuff. It's like because they're seeing that, so it's like it, your reputation precedes you in that sense, like I don't have to talk to them about that stuff. The platform is doing it for me and so I'm getting a lot more.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, authenticity, but they know what I'm I'm up to. Uh, yeah, just your reputation proceeding. It's just like how many people can you touch, like going to a bni group or going to a chamber of commerce? Yeah, that's like one hit, whereas the algorithm is constantly pumping out my reels, like I keep getting updates on how many, how many hits my reels is done. It's like I'm not doing it. I did, I shot that once and it's done, and now it's working for me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so good, that's so well, said the other. The other thing to that as well is probably to not get bogged down with the metrics too much, because even a video with 200 views or 300 views I believe it was Alex Ramosi who said this but if you're standing on a stage in front of 200 or 300 people of your ideal audience, all of a sudden that's a pretty big audience that you're in front of, instead of maybe 300 views on Instagram, that seems very small. So I always try to encourage people to not get too bogged down with the metrics that they're seeing and just be super consistent, and really what you're talking about is just the consistency, and Instagram, or whatever platform, is constantly just repushing your stuff out. It's getting in front of new people, depending on what day it is or how they're scrolling. So love, love what you're doing there with the content.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, thank you. Yeah, it's a. Sometimes it's like, oh, man, it's that consistent. Going back to the consistency, going back to the gym, you know it's like, oh, do I really want to go today? Like, no, all right, no, just got to keep putting it out there, keep putting out there. And then you see, I understand, stay away from the metrics and don't track it, but the dopamine hits that you get from that it's like, oh, that real did better. Can I, can I do more? Can I do more? And then like you're not, yeah, it's validating in a sense, more than it's like I don't know, you're trying to chase that dopamine hit and that keeps you going. Sure, that's the exciting part.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm not. Yeah, I'm not saying to completely not look at the metrics, but I guess maybe don't let the metrics sway you away from doing it, thinking oh, this post only got a like or it didn't have much engagement, because I know from also doing it for so long and our stuff can be a lot better. But people see it, because I've got on calls last week at grow con people coming up saying hey, I see your stuff everywhere or like whatever it is. It's that omnipresence, so it doesn't matter if your post has you know for me anyways, right now I'm sure there'd be people who disagree who have thousands and thousands of followers and you get tons of engagement. People do see your stuff. If you're hanging out in the right circles, you have your audience. People are going to see your stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. That's the exciting part and like you don't even know who's seeing it yeah, or the audience that's seeing it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's regardless what industry you're in and I think too many people in the accounting world feel that content is not important, but it's just as important as any other industry, and you do a really great job at filming the behind the scenes stuff. That I think is really cool and it's that it's that inside peek at like someone else's life. Right, it's just why it's like watching the sports documentaries and getting to see, like in the locker room and what people are doing in the hallways. So I love that you're doing that and it almost gives potential clients a taste of what it's like to work with you as well. If you're starting to share, hey, this is the onboarding call, or we're getting ready, you know, to file whatever it is, or this is the the strategy we're implementing and, yeah, I just think you do an awesome job with that, so definitely keep that stuff up.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you, I appreciate it. Yeah, sometimes you don't know what you're doing and it's like good to get that validation every once in a while.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely so. What's next for Cliven Jeremy? What's on the horizon for you guys?

Speaker 2:

Really growing and scaling hiring employees. I think that's where we're. The next step is to come to come to fruition. Now it's okay, Can we handle two clients a month, three clients a month, four clients a month and just being able to layer it, Cause then after that it's just, it's just stacking them Then. Then it just becomes a repeatable process like a conveyor belt. So really dialing that in, so understanding what are our SOPs are, what are, what are people doing and then what are their roles and responsibilities.

Speaker 1:

So that's the next step for us. Yeah, I love that. What are you most excited about for the future of your journey being an entrepreneur and for Clivent, or just in general, like you, jeremy Davila, moving forward man.

Speaker 2:

I want to see where I can take this. It's also it's new. It's new, but I feel like I'm in, I'm doing what I want to do, and that's been exciting to just like sit with that for a while. It was a real identity, like I was a W2 employee and then now I'm an entrepreneur and and to be able to say that sometimes, like say that out loud, it took me a couple of months to be like, oh yeah, I'm an entrepreneur, like this is what's going on, this is how I do it. That's exciting, exciting. So sitting with that um man, just like enjoying the process it's not all, it's definitely not rainbows and sunshine all the time or ever, but when you have this question, like, why are you doing it? Like it's exciting, it I don't know what else I'd be doing. That's more exciting right now. So, yeah, just enjoying the journey.

Speaker 1:

Tell me a little bit about, maybe, the harder days, because absolutely I don't think it ever changes. I'm five and a half years in, almost six years in, and still have the really dark days and it's like, yeah, you know what? It'd probably be a lot easier to just pack this all in and not do this at all and just go get a nine to five and when five o'clock hits you don't have to think about anything. And then but I know I probably wouldn't even last until the first break in the morning if I went and did that. Now. How do you handle that when you do have those swings on the roller coaster? Of all right, this is amazing, I'm so happy I'm doing this. And then you're taking that swoop in the valley and you're like, oh my God, why did I ever do this? I'm going to be on a box on the side of the road here by the end of the day and then you go back. How do you manage those emotions?

Speaker 2:

Man, because there's always a fire that needs to be put out, like you can't dwell on it so long, and that just like wipes out your day. You have to move on to the next thing or else the needle doesn't get moved forward, and that's the only way you're gonna get out of that that valley of despair. You have to like push forward to the next step and then someone hits you with like, oh my god, thank you for doing such a good job. You're like elated at that moment and it's like OK, that that was cool. And keep chasing those moments and then being able to just turn it off. That's been a hard part, as well as just turning it off, and I don't think that ever goes away.

Speaker 2:

But having boundaries around you're like kind of like that work life, that work life balance Even as an entrepreneur, I feel like that's even more so important. So, yeah, like I said, I play volleyball on Saturdays. This is my time. I worked hard during the week, I'm going to go do this and I'm literally out there for five, six hours just playing volleyball with my friends, and that's all I'm focused on at that point, that moment. Yeah, so just having those boundaries helps you. You know you forget about it. Then you go back to work on monday like all right, here we go, here we go again.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, do you? Do you find yourself, or how? I guess? How strict are you when it comes to maybe not checking your email on the weekend or not, kind of peeking maybe into your slack channel? Or you see a notification that comes through for work, like are you pretty good at you, don't look at it, or do you let that kind of creep in, you have a look and then you're good at putting it off to the side, like I know that's something I struggle, I still struggle with. I struggle with it a lot more in the past. It comes and goes, but it is hard to turn off, like when you think think, okay, it's five, six, seven at night. I'm going to put my phone away, or at least I'm going to put the apps away that are related to work.

Speaker 2:

I'm curious to hear your take on that. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm bad at that. Like I'll constantly check because I want to be available. I want to be available to my clients and what they have going on. So, yeah, definitely bad about that. It does impact me. I'll be out with friends and then I see an email. It's just like, oh, like something bad just happened. I'm in a funk and I have to like switch switch emotions with them, like I was supposed to be here being present with my friends and my or my family, and then this bad thing is going on in the background. Yeah, I, I don't have good boundaries. Maybe it's a two phone situation. I don't know. Like I have a work phone. I just like put that one away when I leave and don't check on that. I, I don't know. Yeah, I don't have the answer for that one. Okay, no worries, I don't know if anybody does yeah, it's, um, it's tricky.

Speaker 1:

I know I've I've been guilty of that in the past. Uh, especially golfing with friends in the summer. If I'm going out at, say, like two in the afternoon or even four closer to the end of the day, and I'm walking down the course and I'm checking emails or I'm checking slack messages, I'm like I'm not actually present here, I'm not enjoying the thing that I should be out doing. So. I've really tried, at least when I'm doing that, to put my phone in my golf bag or like put the phone in the cart and not look at it, because I was starting to feel guilty of like not being present at all with friends or my game is bad enough, I don't need the distraction of work while playing so, yeah, it's tricky, though it's tricky um, yeah, last go ahead say it.

Speaker 2:

I don't have a. I mean, I have my family, but I don't have a spouse or kids, so I don't need to be all that bright. This is like my friends, which, yeah, I respect that relationship, but I feel like it'd be way harder if I had a spouse. And that's what I'm trying to like build now, so that way I can focus on them in the future and like that's kind of like my why as well is I'm doing this now and grinding hard so that way I don't have to do that in the future. And maybe that's flawed logic, but that's just the way I see it right now. So like I can be present, I can be with my kids, I can take off, you know, the day to go to the baseball game, to go to a school field trip, like that's. That's what pushes me right now. That's cool that's great.

Speaker 1:

Last question for you, jeremy what's the best piece of advice that you've received as an entrepreneur, or or actually I'm gonna, I'm not gonna add in the entrepreneur piece what's the best piece of advice that you've received?

Speaker 2:

my dad. Just I have a problem and a CPA I'm pretty sure like has a problem with like being perfect. He's like just ship it, just make the decision, Cause not making it may not make a decision is a decision and it's just delaying the process. And I tend to waffle with a lot of stuff. He's like just pick, just pick one. And it's been so right so many times I'm like damn it. But yeah, like I need to. I keep like reminding myself. I keep hearing those like words echo in my head like all right, I need to just pick something and go for it that's great advice.

Speaker 1:

What's your dad's name? Mike? Mike doggy low. Shout out to mike for the great advice here. Jeremy, thank you so much for coming on for for sharing all of your insight here around. Mike, mike Davila Shout out to Mike for the great advice here.

Speaker 1:

Jeremy, thank you so much for coming on, for sharing all of your insight here around producing social media content. Just getting out there and pushing through and, like you said, just make the decision, because no decision is also a decision. Again, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. I'm excited for everyone to listen to this. If you're enjoying these episodes, make sure. So much for coming on. I really appreciate it. I'm excited for everyone to listen to this. If you're enjoying these episodes, make sure to subscribe. Comment on the show. Let us know what you want to hear about so we can keep bringing on awesome guests like Jeremy.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success. I hope you found value in today's conversation. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things First. To wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things First, make sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. If you enjoyed today's discussion, please rate and review the show. It helps others discover the insights we share here. Second, if you're ready to take your business to the next level and attract the high-end clients you deserve, head over to accountingleadsnowcom or click the link in the show notes to book your strategy. Call it's time to position yourself as the advisor your clients need. And don't forget you can connect with me on LinkedIn to stay up to date on what's happening in the world of accounting and financial growth. We've got exciting topics coming up, so stay tuned for the next episode of CFO Chronicles. Until then, keep pushing forward. Your growth is just one strategic move away.

Speaker 3:

Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success. We hope today's episode provided valuable strategies to help you attract more high paying clients. Be sure to subscribe, follow and share with fellow professionals. Connect with us on LinkedIn and leave a review or comment to join the conversation. Your feedback helps us bring you the best insights in finance and marketing. Until next time, keep striving for success and unlocking your business's potential.