The Confidence Curve
The Confidence Curve is a podcast that explores the dynamic journeys of successful professionals who have scaled organizations and left lasting legacies. Hosted by Ashley and Rick Bowers, each episode delves into the challenges, victories, and lessons learned. Through engaging conversations with leaders across industries, this podcast offers listeners valuable insights, practical advice, and inspiration to confidently navigate their paths—whether in business, leadership, or personal growth. Join us as we uncover strategies that build successful careers and impactful legacies.
The Confidence Curve
What Drives Real Financial Impact?
What does it take to scale a business to 150+ locations through 28 acquisitions? For Ira, CFO of GO Car Wash and a recent CFO of the Year, it starts with culture. With over 30 years of experience, Ira shares how transparency, structure, and people-first leadership have fueled Go Car Wash’s growth from day one.
In this episode, Ira breaks down why culture matters more than cost savings in acquisitions, how finance teams can become true business partners, and why being "controller-ready" opens new career paths. Plus, you’ll hear how custom sneakers and open board decks help keep teams aligned and engaged.
Tune in to The Confidence Curve for a refreshing take on scaling, culture, and financial leadership—delivered with insight and just a touch of stand-up comedy.
Welcome to the Confidence Curve with Ashley and Rick Bowers, where personal and professional journeys define the art of scaling with confidence. Whether you're a business leader navigating change or someone seeking personal growth, this podcast offers insights and actionable advice to help you thrive. Now let's dive into today's conversation with our incredible guest.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Confidence Curve with Apex GTS Advisors. My name is Ashley Bowers and my co-host, rick Bowers. We are here today with Ira. He is the CFO of Go Car Wash and we are so excited to have you with us today on the podcast. We can't wait to get to know a little bit more about you and, specifically, the amazing culture that you're building and scaling inside that business. But why don't you kick us off? Give us a little bit of your background and what you're doing these days with Go Car Wash.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. You know I'm on my 30th year in accounting and finance and mostly work for high growth companies. I started I like to tell people I started my career in banking but I lost interest. But I did start in banking and then quickly moved to public companies. I worked for Republic Services and United Rentals. After a little bit of time moved sort of in the private company and then with Isagenix and moved over to private equity where I really found a home with American Vision Partners and currently I'm with Go Car Wash. American Vision Partners was a roll-up, so a little bit of taste of integration etc. And the last six years was is Go Car Wash, where it was a startup in 2019.
Speaker 4:Awesome. So what's your favorite from the different things? Do you like from the startup and the growth that you've done, or were one of the other ones kind of fit better?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think from a startup perspective it's great because you get to do everything from the beginning and it's yours, and so there's a little bit of benefit there. I do like that you can build it the right way as opposed to having to re-engineer things.
Speaker 3:It's sometimes even harder, but you do take a lot for granted. You know when you start up there's no infrastructure. You know the computers go down and you don't have a computer guy. You are the computer guy and so there's a lot of those challenges. But I think sometimes, when you don't have to rebuild and you can just set it from the beginning, you could set the strategy. For us at Go it was huge to be able to set the culture, as you mentioned, and from the beginning and really set the tone for how you want the company to run, whereas if it's already sort of an established company, it takes a little bit of different management to be able to do those things management to be able to do those things From startup to over 150 locations in a pretty quick time frame.
Speaker 2:What are some of those lessons that you learned that you might want to share with some other entrepreneurs out there that are doing the whole startup and scale phase of their business? You?
Speaker 3:know you do take a lot for granted. That that's the first thing, but I think the biggest thing with a startup and when you want to be able to scale big sizes, you have to have standard processes, especially multi-site. So you have to have the same processes, you have to you send them down to train up everybody the same way and then you just manage the variation. So that's the first thing. The second thing is you really have to build an infrastructure that is set up for bigger than what you think you need, and to do it earlier. It doesn't mean it's going to be more money, it's just the way you set things up to be able to be at scale. And so being able to do that from the beginning was super helpful. We were able to.
Speaker 3:You know we're not at 500 car washes, but that was sort of the thing in our mind was build it for 500. And that helps you in a lot of different areas. So those, those were some of the biggest things. And then you know the communication cadence is so important, both on operations and finance and sales, because when you are smaller, the need doesn't feel you important at that point. If you have 10 sites, you know everybody there you've talked to them all the time. The key is to set those cadences up, whether it's teams meetings on a regular basis, slack to be able to communicate, because then, as you say, you know, quickly add sites, you're able to scale and not lose anything. But it's setting up that cadence when maybe you don't feel like it's necessary because you can talk to everyone.
Speaker 2:Do you think it's helped? You put a focus on that, because you're here in Arizona and you guys don't actually have sites in Arizona, right, and so you've kind of had to deal with that gap right from the beginning, whereas sometimes people start a new business, it's in one place and then they go to other locations and now it's like wait, how do we duplicate the culture in other states and other cities? 100% agree, okay.
Speaker 3:Yes, and the fact that you know we started in Kansas City with sites and we knew this would be a field facing business, that we knew we had criteria for what markets we want, and this goes with any business that you might be acquiring You'll have criteria that fit your acquisition pipeline, but you don't know always where they'll be, and so for us it was really important to set those up, because we had Kansas City locations, then we had Vegas locations, texas locations, and so right from the beginning it was a field-facing, remote business, and so that definitely helped facilitate that cadence that we set up and make sure that once we added other sites, it just became part of our regular operations. It's just what we did, sure.
Speaker 4:Sometimes, in certain companies that we've talked to or worked with, you ask about mission and vision and they'll be able to rattle it off right off the top of their head. Some companies, um, it's like, yeah, we have it, we don't really focus on it too much. When I mentioned that in our conversation earlier this week, you're like, yeah, this is something that we really focus on. So with, in the spirit of transparent communication and communication, all these locations and, would you say, 1900 employees.
Speaker 4:How do you make sure everybody is bought in and a part of the mission and vision of Go Car Wash?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So you know I get pretty excited about it, as I mentioned with our shoes. So you know we have Go Car Wash customized shoes for award winners and socks and things. And we get pretty excited about our mission, vision, values. And it's one thing to just say it and then there, pretty excited about our mission, vision, values. And it's one thing to just say it, and then there's another thing to do it. So some of the things that we've done is it starts with hiring. So you have to hire. You don't have to hire like people, but you have to hire people that fit your culture and that will help and integrate other businesses into your organization. But you have to hire people that fit your culture.
Speaker 3:Things we do to keep the culture is we have team-wide calls, like a town hall type call, where we try to be transparent with where we're looking, things we're interested in things, we're building resources, we're adding. We also want them to understand where else in the country we're at. You know, one of the things we have an employee base of 1,900, is that they could work anywhere in the country. Almost we have 10 different states we're in, so there's a lot of opportunity. So we share this. On calls like go-big call, and we try to share as much.
Speaker 3:Now, transparency is really huge because it builds trust and it builds confidence in the direction that you're going. So we want these people to know what we're thinking. Obviously, there's a few things we can't share, but for the most part, we want them to know what we know and where we're going and we want to get their thoughts and feedback on it. So it's been a big thing for us, and where the culture has really been important is we had 28 transactions for 100 sites and as you bring on new teammates, the culture is so important. Some of the teammates don't fit the culture and they just self-select themselves out, but the majority of the teammates are looking for something bigger than just a three car wash chain in our example, and so they're looking for a culture and then they fit right in and it just it makes the integration and trans, you know, much easier for us, and so that's where it really really pays off.
Speaker 2:How have you really looked at scaling the financial systems, obviously having the financial background where they're supportive of the growth and everything that you're trying to achieve, and at the same time don't kind of push and break the whole operation? I mean, that type of acquisitive growth can obviously put strains on an operational model as well as a financial model. And so what have been some of your tips and tricks and maybe some things that didn't go so well, as you were integrating in the sites and scaling the financial systems at the same time?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think from a financial perspective in our group in particular and it could be in any businesses you want to hire people with the skill and the will and you want to hire people with talent. Obviously, everybody's going to say that, but a lot of times when you start you think you don't need that kind of talent at that time. And I take a different approach. It's incrementally a little bit more maybe, but the rewards are much bigger and that person will scale with you. And so number one is get the best talent. Number two culture that talent. And so these people are learning what you know and they're evolving and developing.
Speaker 3:And with a system perspective, just like I mentioned with the field standards, you build standards within your accounting organization. So standard checklist, standard procedures, and as you get systems integrated, you make sure that your accounting system talks to your other systems. That's so huge. And then you'll add some automation and that will free up a lot of time for you actually to be business partners. Because you're freeing up, you know administrative, you know tasks and you can be more of a business partner. So we tried to put in some automation. We have systems that integrate and then we train up people to be able to do everything, and I think that's allowed us to have people who can do multiple things and that's allowed us to be able to continue to keep up with the growth.
Speaker 4:So, as mentioned before, 28 acquisitions, what are some of the myths or misconceptions that people have about kind of that?
Speaker 3:process. Well, you know, first thing they think is this acquisition does business like us and so the integration will be a little more seamless. That's not true. Everybody's business is slightly different and, even if they do it, very similar, which could be great for the culture and the fit. The integration is not necessarily easier unless you have the cadence of communication and the culture set up and you're well established in terms of those things. The other thing people think is, when they acquire someone smaller, that they're going to save a ton of money in the cost structure. And that's actually not always the case either. Often you will provide more than maybe what the smaller company was, for example benefits for employees. What the smaller company was, for example Benefits for employees, you might have. That you might insure for more. Because you're bigger, you might have richer recognition plans. So the cost doesn't necessarily go down. But there are areas where now you're bulk purchasing and so you could save some money there, and then where the real bang for the buck is is on the top line.
Speaker 3:You know you're able to put in some investments that can then draw, you know, higher returns on the top line, which then trickle through. So I think one of the misconceptions is you know we can do it cheaper, and that's not always the case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did a handful of acquisitions during my years in real estate and I almost felt like the ones that had the most synergy from culture and just thought process and everything were actually the hardest integrations, because every time you turn you're like, oh, that's like a really good idea, right? And so then you're second guessing yourself constantly. Well, wait, should, should we bring them into?
Speaker 2:how we do it, or maybe should we do it the way they do it, and I feel like the best success is when we had a little bit of mix of both. We learned from each other and we made some improvements, and it seemed like the teams came together a little bit more in those instances as well, just because they didn't feel like it was only one sided.
Speaker 3:I think we've evolved throughout. Right, we've taken best practices from all the different acquisitions. We think we had a good basis on how to run car washes or ophthalmology, whatever it was, but, you know, getting a lot of smart systems, different processes and integrated into our system, so, no, they're huge. I mean, as we acquired these businesses, they are successful for a reason and so we can learn from them as well. So, yeah, no, we definitely took on a lot and, you know, made us better as a company.
Speaker 2:It seems like you've worked with some pretty amazing leadership teams throughout your career. You know, sometimes I know that financial executives can find themselves kind of put into a box a little bit and not always brought up to the strategic table for all the different decisions. What do you think the most underrated skill of a CFO is today? What's kind of overlooked?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think business partnering is a huge, huge skill that a lot of CFOs may. If they do have it, they're very successful. If they don't, then maybe not as successful. And for me and my career I started at, you know, republic Services. In terms of my, the biggest partnerships that I had was where I was a controller for maybe five locations and I had general managers at those locations. And so every day you're working with these folks, you're building relationships. You understand what it takes to get what you need done, but also get what you know, help them get what they need done.
Speaker 3:And I think you know we we sat in a room once. It was, uh, you know, the general manager and I, we were with the districts and the district said you know, ira, we never gotten an expense report from you. Up here, who's signing off on your expense report? And I said, well, john's my general manager, he's my business partner, he's signing them. So they said John, you know, we've never gotten an expense report from you. He said, well, ira's my controller, he's my business partner, he's signing them, or he's my business partner, he's signing them. And they said no more, no more. But you know, that's the kind of business partnering that you have and, lucky for me, that that's sort of the structure that they had, and so that was where I was able to learn.
Speaker 3:Guys like James Culver and Mark Klatt back in the Republic days really were great role models for me on how they were able to acclimate to whether it's sales or ops or any department, so I was able to just learn from them a little bit and then, you know, learn the skill.
Speaker 3:A great example would be and I know a lot of people probably, especially in accounting and finance was the Sarbanes-Oxley timeframe, was the Sarbanes-Oxley timeframe, which was very hard for accountants but equally as hard for ops because it was an internal control thing and they weren't used to that and while we're used to it, we weren't quite at that level and so those and then that was when I was at Republic Services and so embracing that and not running from it and then relying on those relationships with operations made us really successful to be able to then implement these internal controls that were, you know, big public company like that has to pass, and so you know it's it's. That's just one example, but the whole business partnering is really an underappreciated skill that I think has been huge for me in my career is there something in that that you've been able to pass along to your team?
Speaker 4:Can they kind of learn and grow from that specific skill that you've been talking about?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah for sure. So one thing that I'm a firm believer in is and obviously it's about people. But as we develop people, we want them to be. I always say I want you to be controller ready. Okay, so my accountants have to be controller ready, which means that they're not only booking entries, they're doing P&L reviews themselves, so they're financial analysts. And then, one step further, they're the ones conducting P&L reviews with field management and going through those P&Ls as a business, sort of pushing them in the direction of a business partner, and so they're conducting those calls and building those relationships with operations. And so that's sort of how we do it.
Speaker 3:I think if you don't want to be a controller, that's totally fine, but I think it should be your choice and not that you lack the skill or experience, and so we're trying to get everybody to be control or ready. And then also, I think typically people will stay a lot longer with you because they're developing, they're getting these other skills. We try to rotate tasks to enrich people on different things. Somebody might be sick of it, the other person's excited to do it, and so we try to do a little bit of that and I think that creates some tenure with your team in a good way, and so I think in becoming controller ready business, partnering with ops are some of the things we do to try to keep that within our little mini culture in accounting and finance.
Speaker 2:Let's brag on you a little bit. So you were recently named CFO of the Year. Obviously, that comes with a lot of support and nomination from your teams and your leaders and your community. You know the people who work with you and around you. So what does that mean to you and how did your team help make that possible?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was very humbling because you look around the room and there's a ton of really talented, hardworking people.
Speaker 3:It's a good crowd, it's a good crowd to be in for sure, and so it was really humbling. This is a team award and I was telling my team and we all say we won and it's great because we won you know it wasn't me, we won. You have eight players performing. It's a team award, right? If they're not developing and being able to do these things, we can't provide other things outside of accounting and finance. So that was really great, that it truly felt like it was a team award, which was great. And then what personally was great about it is it was I have a daughter in law school now and a son just finishing second year at ASU, and it was great for them to see that the sacrifice that I've made over the years is being recognized.
Speaker 3:And it's just great for them in their development and as they start to think about how hard they want to work or things they want to accomplish, to be able to see that, and so that was great. And then, lastly, just as you know from a CFO and accounting mindset, it was great to have the recognition to see that there's a lot of great work being done by controllers, staff, accountants and CFOs that largely will get unrecognized. And this was a night that we could recognize all that hard work. And even the people that didn't win, they were recognized for what they've accomplished and the hard work they've done, and their teams know that they're sitting there because of the contributions they've made. So it was really great for just sort of the accounting and finance field in general. So that was really cool.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's kind of exciting. It gives some encouragement to the team, like there are things out there that you can strive for, and it's kind of what are those things you want to be known for? And kind of, how do you build a strategy, set goals to kind of get to that point and really bring it in as a piece of your culture as well?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just a great reinforcement to, you know, the team concept of you know, if we, some of our, our, our values are caring, continuous improvement, fun, and so you know these, this, the fact that we care about each other and we're supporting each other, that these kind of things could be recognized, so it just reinforces what we're trying to do. It it was, it was a great night and, uh, you know, back back to work the next day yeah, never ends right.
Speaker 2:That's why we do it. So, okay, you've mentioned the shoes a little bit, um, but tell us a little bit more about the culture and the Go-Getter Awards. And you've mentioned Go Shine. What's all that about?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So our vision is to be the most admired car wash company, and we say while enriching the lives of our teammates and customers. And we say teammates first because we feel like if we enrich our teammates, they'll, in turn, enrich our customers. And we say teammates first because we feel like if we enrich our teammates, they'll, in turn, enrich our customers. And so some of the things we try to do is to recognize some of the people in the field for the day in and day out of work they're doing. We have some of the hardest working people in the industry and so to be able to recognize them on a call with the entire company, to be able to say, hey, you're nominated for a Go-Getter Award, and then you have a chance to win some sneakers that are, you know, customized for Go Car Wash. These are the kinds of things that just reinforce the culture that we have.
Speaker 3:And the Go Shine, you know, we like to say it's your time to go shine, and it's really to shine for the customer. Right, this is your time. We enriched you to now do this for your customers, because these are the folks that are seeing people every day and washing cars every single day, and so we want them to carry that sort of customer service torch, and so let them go now and enrich the customers. So it's been great. We have a lot of different swag, different things we're trying to incorporate. We had a trade show just recently where we brought some of the winners and able to celebrate them sort of at a trade show, which was great Some of them never been and for them to be recognized.
Speaker 4:And we're going to continue to do that because I think you know if you want to become the most admired company, regardless, you know you have to enrich the teammates, and so we're going to continue to do that, okay, so one of the things that we talked about too is is maybe, maybe in a lessons learned or a maturity in your career kind of a thing, but catering to, not catering to the sweet seat, maybe in a lessons learned or a maturity in your career kind of a thing, but catering to, not catering to the C-suite. Say that easy was something that you learned and it really ties back to a culture piece, I think as well, where the people that are doing the work are as important or more important than making sure the C-suite is happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, it's so hard when you're a young manager learning how to manage people. Where should your emphasis be on? Whether it should be on upper management or people who report to you, and how do you balance it and how do you navigate? And there's no real lessons to be learned is the way to do it.
Speaker 3:And so I think early in my career I might have pandered to the C-suite a little bit too much, or upper management, so don't pander to the C-suite, but I think it goes a little bit past. That is, it's also the perception more so than the reality, but I think it's just equally as important. And so a couple of things that I learned was you can create a culture within your organization that's consistent with the bigger organization, and so, no matter what the noise is, maybe on the peripheral, but you also have your own culture within accounting and finance, and I think that really puts the focus back on your team and people who report to you. And so it takes a little while, and I think early in my career, you know, I might have been too focused on pleasing upper management and not quite managing the team the way I should, but growing pains way I should, but growing pains and you know it's a great lesson to be learned because I think it takes on a lot of different facets besides just listening to your team.
Speaker 4:It's so much bigger than that and once you can sort of understand that and balance those priorities, you're so much better at your job and it's so much more enjoyable, really is I had a uh a meeting earlier today and it was with one of my high potential coaching clients, so helping them kind of understand the people, skills and the things that they need to kind of move into that next level up.
Speaker 4:And one of the things we talked about today was was grit or grittiness? And I said to him I said what does that mean to you? And he, well, making sure I do the things that need to be done and show people that I can do these things, versus having to tell somebody and I said so, the people that do things and when the boss is around, and then when the boss isn't around, they're standing in the corner. He's like, yeah, not that. And so it's like helping the younger people understand that it's like it's important to do the things when nobody's watching, and so I think that's just something that that that level of team needs to understand is that you never know who's kind of seeing it, from where, whatever angle, but that's kind of that mentality that you just build into you know one of our values.
Speaker 3:Is integrity right and it's uh, it's. It goes beyond just. You know right and it goes beyond just. You know right from wrong it's. Are you doing the right things when no one's looking? And you know, a lot of times no one's looking right, especially if you have some trust built up amongst your supervisors. And so we always say that you know the results that we have at the end of the month are not due to anything we did at the end of the month. The results that we have at the end of the month are not due to anything we did at the end of the month.
Speaker 3:This is doing something every single day. Whether it's accounting recons, you know accounts payable, making sure things are coded right. Or, if it's on the operations side, you know making sure the equipment's running, making sure you're providing the best customer service, sales, making sure that you give the right pitch because you think that package is the best package for those folks, and so you're doing this every day. Often nobody's looking, but if you can do the right things when no one's looking, you're going to do the right things when they are.
Speaker 2:So good habits. So you mentioned transparency a few times today Obviously a big believer in that and the value that it brings into the organization a few times today Obviously a big believer in that and the value that it brings into the organization. How do you practice and demonstrate that transparency on a regular basis? Because there takes a little bit of vulnerability right in order to do that. Lots of trust to be completely transparent. But what does that look like? How does that show up for you in your day to day interactions with your team?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think first you got to be authentic, right, and I think that resonates with people.
Speaker 3:What we do and what I think is important is we have a weekly call, whether it be Echo Car Wash or American Vision Partners, wherever I've been, and now it's teams and you're on camera. But what we do is we go through board decks. Now, if I have to take a few out because I can't share, I'll do it, but for the most part I'll take them through the board deck, or I'll take them through a presentation I did, or I'll take them through the management package that month because their piece is a part of it, right, but they may not other than see because they've contributed to it. They may not see some of the schedules. So we usually take, you know, either one week a month or sometimes two, depending on work is to share that with them. So they'll always see the board deck and they'll often see something different. You know, every other week for them to see what's going on and whatever I can share, I think it's other week for them to see what's going on and whatever I can share. I think it's important for them like mentioned
Speaker 3:to build confidence and trust in what we're doing and for them to see this is what we're telling other people or this is what other people are seeing of your product, and so that's a lot what we do and I think the team enjoys it do, and I think the team, the team enjoys it.
Speaker 3:We we've had, we've been fortunate to have, really, I always say and and skill and will are like the most important thing in a teammate and we've had some really good promotions within the organization and, for example, there's one that was accounts payable specialist, finishing his degree and recently promoted to staff accountant, and I said to him wasn't that great that I showed you how the cash flow statement worked when you were in accounts payable? Because my accounts payable team are more than people just paying bills. These are business people. These people are running projects, they're running programs like card programs, and they're doing a lot more to develop themselves. And my accountants, as we mentioned earlier, are financial analysts and business partners. So we try to share that kind of thing. So you know, joked a little bit about you know, wasn't it good that you saw that? Because you never know when you might utilize something.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of truth in that, though. I mean part of what we do through Apex is I facilitate peer advisory groups, and so CFO, CEO, HR groups, key executives and what we started all hearing amongst those 14 groups of the facilitators through Arizona Growth Advisors, and everyone was saying there's this gap right on there for mid-level management. They just don't have people that are ready to promote. Culture is there, the will is there, but skill development they've grown up in the organization and one of the biggest things was the finance basics and understanding, you know, and P&L versus a balance sheet, versus a cash flow statement, and we actually kicked off next level leadership and this month we're doing finance basics for managers from the Harvard business review and taking them through and having them do a balance sheet on their personal life and, and you know, do a cashflow statement on your personal life.
Speaker 2:And so I hate to see that on mine but like, the numbers mean something right, you know sometimes, depending on the size of the organization, there's so many zeros that it's hard for people to really connect with it emotionally. So those numbers in your own bank account definitely have a connection, regardless of what they are and so but it is. It's just that development is so critical for people and you know everyone's always worried. You know well, we develop people and they leave. You know what happens is like well, if you don't and they stay, you know what happens there too. So I know I didn't get that quote exactly right, but we all know the quote so yeah.
Speaker 3:So what happens if they don't leave right, if they don't develop? And they don't leave, and they stay?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do we do then? So a question I always like to ask is what advice would you give your younger self?
Speaker 3:You know, I think patience is super important. Early in my career I wasn't sure what way I was going to go. I started in banking and I wasn't sure if I'd stay in banking or sort of move into financial analysis and controllership. But what I told people I was just at WP Carey speaking and I told the students there look, don't latch on to something so early meaning in my career I went back and forth between financial analyst and controllership, depending on the need of the company that I worked for, and I think that flexibility really helped me. So that's the advice that I give to people now For myself really was patience. Just, you know, sometimes I don't have the most patient outlook, but you know, just really be patient, continue to learn and that will work out if you've got the will and the skill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4:So we had talked a little bit about your staff accountants and kind of why it's important to give them more training than just doing the basic accounting. So what have been some of the successes of your accountants as they move into different roles in the organization?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I mean you develop folks and hopefully you're able to evolve their careers within your organization. We've had several people that were in accounts payable I mentioned one and we've had a promotion to all the way up to senior now, and so we've been able to progress careers. Assistant Controller was a staff accountant at one point. We have had people leave the organization. For example, we had our VP of Finance Corporate Controller leave to be a CFO, and so that was a celebration. I mean, she was ready, she put in the time, she was amazing and that was the right thing. And so when we talked about it, you want people to feel free to talk to you about opportunities, and I thought that was a great opportunity for her. Other people have left to become assistant controllers, other roles.
Speaker 3:It's like in the NFL where they show these coaching trees, where the Bill Walshes of the world had all these head coaches all over, or Belichick, or you know some of these head coaching. They talk about the coaching tree and so for me, I don't want to lose people. Hopefully I can keep their careers going, but at the end of the day, we need to keep evolving people. I would want that Just the same, that they would want that, and so I'm as proud to know hey, there's this many controllers that are, you know, floating around the accounting and finance profession that I actually got a chance to be a part of their career. Maybe good, maybe bad, maybe they learn not to do things certain ways, but you know, just the coaching tree the coaching tree.
Speaker 3:So I think it's great and hopefully, with changing up, you know responsibilities and tasks, that you keep enriching people to keep learning, and I say don't switch jobs if you're still learning. You know, be patient, make sure you're ready. You got all the tools in your toolkit before you're ready for the next jump, but at some point you know that's the logical next step and we should be celebrating something like that versus you know being disappointed, and you should have relationships with people once they leave the organization. And that's just my outlook.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think that's why communication and transparency and the culture is so important, because then these things are being discussed, as opposed to all of a sudden. It's a shock, and are you going to get a full two weeks and a person in those kind of roles? I mean, sometimes you need a month, you need longer than that.
Speaker 3:You guys probably see this in your business all the time.
Speaker 4:It shouldn't be a shock.
Speaker 3:If you have the culture in place and you have the communication channels in place and people trust each other, then it shouldn't be a shock in those and they come tell you that they have an opportunity that they fought off for six to eight months and finally listen to it and you they think it's a great opportunity. You, you probably should be thinking, yeah, I'm surprised it's lasted this long yeah right, my like, proudest, like leadership moments.
Speaker 2:I had my controller come to me and he sat down and he's like I hate accounting, like what? And he's like I hate accounting, I don't want to do it anymore. I'm like are you resigning? And he goes well, I hope not.
Speaker 2:And I just looked at him in that moment. You just know you must have an immense amount of trust between the two of you because, hey, you have the and that was the top level position in the organization for finance at the time, and so so you must have some trust there, right? And I'm like what do you want to do? And he's like I want to be a developer. I was like oh, I'm like I didn't even know you knew how to code. He's like I don't, and I was just literally scratching my head. And he's like I want to learn. I know I'm going to have to take a step back, but this is what I want about this. And he's like she knows, she doesn't know I'm having this conversation today, and so I was like go have the conversation and then come back and we'll figure out. You know what's what I was like, but this is like there's a lot of risk in all of this, you have the keys to the kingdom. It has to be done right.
Speaker 3:Like you know, we're going to have to really work together on this and we together on this and we did, and I mean, he's still at that organization like 10 years later, um, in the developer, rather that, yeah, you have a good teammate, that is a skill and a will, and they want to switch roles but still be with you, yeah, yeah and have the trust like he just as easily could have.
Speaker 2:Feels comfortable, yeah talking about it yeah, just as easily could have gone outside, so it was pretty awesome. You know, I think one of the most rewarding things in all of our careers is when we get to different points where we can give back in some significant ways, and we know that there's something that you've been working on in that capacity. So why don't you tell us a little bit about the scholarship that you're doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we're really excited, Kristen and I, both graduates of ASU, and my daughter graduated and she's at the law school at ASU and my son in his second year. So four devils. And you know, other than the sports that we love, we're also just big fans of the school and what they've done.
Speaker 3:And you know for me in particular, wp Carey what they've done to the business school and how I was afforded some great opportunities.
Speaker 3:When I came out I really thought the rigor that I had as an undergrad and I did my MBA there too but was really good and it set me up to be able to learn quickly once I started working.
Speaker 3:And I appreciated that even then because I knew there were others that didn't have that rigor or experience that that business school put me through. And so we also know it's important to be able to provide opportunities for others in the community to get a quality education and culture, that innovation that our school is all about. And so, kristen and I, this year we set up it's called the Future Leader Scholarship Fund, and so it's going to be available for scholarships to the WP Carey School. People can reach out to the ASU Foundation. It'll start in the fall and it'll be a four-year scholarship and we're going to continue it indefinitely, so we're super excited that we can do that. People at ASU have been amazing and so we're looking forward to they'll make the decisions, but we'll be able to meet the candidates and the people who get the scholarships, and so we're just super excited to be able to provide that for the community some resources and opportunities for others.
Speaker 3:So it's just something we're super passionate about. It's exciting.
Speaker 2:Absolutely amazing. That's wonderful and congratulations on that milestone. It's huge.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's exciting to be a part of ASU. I mean you and I met on the alumni board and council. It's been a lot of fun. There's so many things that ASU does that most people don't know about, with the different scholarship programs and all of that. And they have the Alumni Leadership Institute every year, which is growing all the time.
Speaker 4:They just had the Sun Devil 100, which is the top 100-led businesses by Sun Devil alum, which is a pretty cool program. The numbers in that program, like how many people are employed by Sun Devil-led companies and how much revenue they generate, and all of it, it's phenomenal and ASU being the largest university in the country, those kinds of things. It's just people don't realize what's happened out here and how it's grown over the last long time since I graduated.
Speaker 4:Yeah, same, here same here Are we going to date you at this point and they continue to do great work right.
Speaker 3:They're not satisfied at any point. You know, crow himself has been there longer than most school presidents normally are, but he brings the energy like it's his second day on the job. And then of course, that's part of culture and you see these folks and when we're there for board meetings etc. You can't fight the energy. It's just amazing how you just get energized every time you're there what they're doing. And it's just amazing how you, you, just you just get energized every time you're there what they're doing. And, um, it's really exciting like last night.
Speaker 4:The board of regents put on a an event last night at the sun devil stadium in the santan board club with over 200 people there. It was a leadership panel on grit and it was just amazing to kind of see the, the energy in the room and the things that the panel talked about. So it's a it fun like I said, fun thing to be a part of.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Stereotypically, we don't usually connect comics, comedians and accountants. However, we would be a huge miss if we didn't turn it over to you, just for a little bit, for a little bit of CFO humor.
Speaker 3:Thank you for encouraging what my wife is embarrassed about. No, I was. Just recently someone was asking me about inflation. They think because you're in finance, that you're up. You know, you know all about everything going on in the world. And so I just said inflation is so out of control. I said a picture's only now worth 100 words.
Speaker 3:Ceos, you know, budgets are so tight they're playing miniature golf. You know, you got companies like ExxonMobil. Things are so bad over there they had to let 25 congressmen go. So put my money in Fidelity. I lost 25%, but it's better than my buddy. He went in fidelity. He's down 50, so, uh, anyway, um, just you know, look, I think I manage through humor and I think it's a great way to just to move through, to be able to have some humor, humility and just just enjoy people. And so you know I use it as, um, you know, a cornerstone to make introductions and just get to know people. And so it's been a big part of my life and, um, it's done some stand-up from time to time, but you know those days are mostly over Busy, running car washes.
Speaker 2:I think it keeps to the transparency topic though. We're human, we're all real, we're all people and just makes people more approachable if they can see different sides of us especially sides that aren't so serious too, Shows some vulnerability, which a lot of people struggle to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's nothing more vulnerable than going on a stage and telling a joke and not knowing if it's going to work or not. So, and they don't all work, yeah, absolutely Well.
Speaker 2:we've really enjoyed having you as part of the podcast. Appreciate your time, your energy, your insights. It's been amazing. If people that are listening want to get ahold of you, how can they reach out?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they can reach me out on. Linkedin is a great place. I'm active on there, so feel free to reach out. With regards to scholarship, the ASU Foundation can point them in the right direction, and, yeah, that would be great. I love connecting with people. You know, seems like every couple weeks I'm having coffee with somebody to get to know them and I just enjoy, you know, seeing what other people are doing and getting to know other people that you know might not be in your bubble of your work or where you live, and so I look forward to getting to know more people.
Speaker 2:Great, awesome. Thanks for having me. Absolutely Thanks, rick. Thank you again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to the Confidence Curve. We hope today's episode left you inspired and ready to embrace your journey confidently. Remember whether you're leading a team, growing your business or pursuing personal growth, each step forward builds your curve. If you enjoyed today's conversation, don't forget to subscribe, share and leave us a review For more insights and resources. Visit us at apexgtscom. Until next time, keep climbing the curve.