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Join Stuart McLeod as he interviews the world's top accounting leaders to understand their story, how they operate, their goals, mission, and top advice to help you run your accounting firm.
Stuart: 00:00:06.504 Hi, I'm Stuart McLeod, co-founder of Karbon. Welcome to the Accounting Leaders Podcast, the show where I go behind the scenes with the world's top accounting leaders. Today I'm joined by Candy Bellau, CEO and founder of Kramerica Business Solutions, a virtual accounting and advisory firm serving small business clients across the US. A former CFO, Candy started Kramerica because she saw a dire need for business owners to get accurate financials whenever they need. Besides helping her clients, she's also passionate about taking care of her team, her family, the local community, and today we're going to hear some stories that Candy has never shared before. It's quite fascinating. It's my pleasure to welcome to the Accounting Leaders Podcast Candy Bellau. It is lovely to meet you. I've heard a lot about you and everything that you've got going on, but happy to start at the start. How did accounting find you?
Candy: 00:01:07.098 A part-time job when I was 14.
Stuart: 00:01:09.518 14, wow.
Candy: 00:01:11.221 I was answering phones and filing, and I was at a company where my aunt was the bookkeeper and I was bored, so she taught me her job.
Stuart: 00:01:20.612 Where was she a bookkeeper?
Candy: 00:01:22.440 In New York. It was for coin-operated washers and dryers--
Stuart: 00:01:28.292 Oh, wow.
Candy: 00:01:29.223 --that they put into apartment buildings and my mother was the salesperson there. My cousin drove trucks for them, so we had the whole family there. And yeah, so it was pretty cool. When my aunt left, she told them I could do the job. They didn't believe her so they hired someone and that didn't work out. And they messed it up and they asked me to fix it and I did. And then they hired someone and they messed it up and they asked me to fix it and I made them a deal that I would fix it and they could hire me to do the job, pay me that full-time salary, and I was going to save them money because now I was going to answer their phones and file for free. They don't want to use any minimum wage to do that.
Stuart: 00:02:11.058 So it was illegal labor, basically.
Candy: 00:02:13.223 And they agreed. So there I was in high school, getting paid this full-time wage to do manual bookkeeping. These were green ledger sheet days. And when they got a computer, I set it up, because computers were a fad and they weren't going to last.
Stuart: 00:02:25.526 Yeah, yeah. Well, that's turned out to be true.
Candy: 00:02:28.589 Yeah, yeah. And as I was setting it up, I discovered the controller who was my mentor was embezzling.
Stuart: 00:02:34.899 How did you discover that? Let's spend some time with that.
Candy: 00:02:37.490 Sure. So as I was setting up the bill-- so what they did with the coin-operated washers and dryers, they paid the electric bills in the buildings. And at that time, it was the one-entry system, they would write a check and you would write the account numbers on the back of the check. So when I was setting up a computer system, I wanted to make sure everything balanced and everything was right. So as I was going through the account numbers-- and they had hundreds of locations, so I was putting all the account numbers in and there were extras. And I asked the controller what were these extra account numbers for and she told me not to worry about it, so okay.
Stuart: 00:03:19.229 There were extras. Okay, so they were sort of paying one bill that looked like the electricity bill, then another one that looked kind of like the electricity bill.
Candy: 00:03:27.482 Well, they would put the utility account numbers that they were paying and they would list them. And what they were doing is she was paying her bills, her boyfriend's bills, her fiance's bills, and her mother's bills. And she kept telling me not to worry about it.
Stuart: 00:03:42.263 Okay, so they were pre-Trump days, right? That's what Trump was doing with the private school fees.
Candy: 00:03:47.382 It's not acceptable. And I called the electric company, and I told them that we've been paying these bills and I needed to know what locations because I couldn't match them up to my properties.
Stuart: 00:03:57.793 Oh, I get it. I get it. I get it, yeah.
Candy: 00:03:59.119 And then I started discovering lots of other inconsistencies.
Stuart: 00:04:04.745 Oh, wow.
Candy: 00:04:06.268 So essentially, all of her bills, her fiance's bills, her boyfriend's bills, because she had a fiance and a boyfriend.
Stuart: 00:04:11.643 Oh, she was busy.
Candy: 00:04:13.311 And her mother's bills all went through the company and it was going on for years. And at that point, I was a kid, so as much as I was making money-- I needed to make money at that point because I was paying the rent at home. My dad had left and it was a difficult situation. I wasn't ready to turn her in. It just crushed me to the core and so I quit. And she is the only person I have not turned in, prosecuted, put in jail. After that, I vowed I would never stay silent to theft and I've put a number of people in jail. Thanksgiving Day, I passed my final test to be a CFE. So now I'm a certified fraud examiner.
Stuart: 00:04:55.822 Right. Well, congratulations on that.
Candy: 00:04:58.605 Thank you.
Stuart: 00:04:59.613 Now, let's dig into these juicy stories, then. So having the rug massively pulled from under you. You trusted and believed in this person. It turns out that they were not what you wanted them to be and what you thought they were and you resolved or absolved-- resolved to never turn another blind eye. Well, what was next? What happened next that you discovered that this ethical lesson was going to come in handy?
Candy: 00:05:28.405 So it could-- I'm just going to go and throw out a whole lot of real stuff that I don't normally make public.
Stuart: 00:05:34.220 Let's go.
Candy: 00:05:34.691 So my dad was a mathematical genius. He had a very, very high IQ, he could do any kind of math in his head. He kept all of his records in his head. He didn't write things down. He was very persuasive. He did a lot of things, but his motto in life is you don't get ahead by being honest. And he had told me that when I was 16 and I told him I was going to spend my life proving him wrong. My dad had a knack for making money. He made lots of money. And now I'm going to tell you what my dad did. He was a counterfeiter so he made lots of money.
Stuart: 00:06:07.349 Literally.
Candy: 00:06:08.201 Making money, right? He was a bookie and he persuaded people to pay money that was owed to other people. He spoke very softly. He was a very big-- he was a giant of a man, 6'4". He at one point had a pet ocelot that he would walk around the Bronx with a gold chain. Streets parted when my dad walked. Everybody knew who he was. He was not-- you wouldn't disagree with the man, we'll just put it that way. Not if you wanted to see another day. And when I was working this job and paying the bills at home, he was very angry about it. And he wanted my mother to take him back. And he offered me triple my salary in cash if I would leave and come live with him at the beach, so that my mother would have to take him back and she couldn't afford to live on our own and I refused.
Stuart: 00:07:01.524 So he's manipulating the whole situation, right?
Candy: 00:07:03.982 Yeah, so I stayed home working with my mom. I had a brother and sister who chose to live at the beach. I think my brother got an allowance of $100 a day at, I don't know, 11, 12, 13, so it was a very different life they had. But I've always had to work, and I just couldn't fathom sitting home and just taking money for doing nothing. And I'm so grateful to him. I realized I got a lot of his-- I dream of numbers. Numbers just swim in my head. It's crazy. So I realized I got a lot of him in me, except I use my powers for good, and he used it for evil. And so I'm really proud of what I've done, in that every single step of the way, I've done everything so conscientiously to be above board, honest and straight and to do things correctly. I would never take a [samp?] from a company. It was just down to-- I just was so afraid if I went one little bit over, I'd fall to the dark side.
Stuart: 00:08:11.730 Like having one drink, right?
Candy: 00:08:13.884 Right. I just was like, "Never, ever, ever slip in any way because then you'll be like him." And so I give him a lot of credit for who I am today and what I've been, because had he been an awesome dad and not who he was, I mean, maybe I would have been a slacker. Maybe I wouldn't have had to work so hard or do things if my mom hadn't had to push so hard to get us to be okay and to show us we were going to be fine and strong, and you do it. And so I'm really proud of what I've done and I hope to raise my daughter in a way where she's strong and self-sufficient. I'll be able to better provide for her and I made very, very conscientious choices with waiting to get married and waiting to have a child until there would be a suitable partner, father, and that I wouldn't have to worry that she'd ever have to go through those things. So I didn't get married til I was 46 and I didn't have my child until I was 48 because that was finally when things were-- it was going to be good for her. Otherwise, I just decided I would be childless and it was a miracle that I was able to get pregnant at that point. Thank God, so yeah.
Stuart: 00:09:27.793 Did you ever turn your dad in?
Candy: 00:09:29.538 No, which was difficult. He did go to jail for counterfeiting. So he spent time and my mom would get a knock on the door every week with somebody with an envelope full of cash to support her. The story is he was tested-- because he went to the federal penitentiary, he wasn't with murderers. But they tested him and they said he had the highest IQ of anybody there, the highest IQ of anybody they had ever tested. Now, this is going back a while so that might be different. But I think I got my love of reading from my dad. I would sit and-- he and I would just sit there for hours just reading books. That was my escape from life and he was the same way. He could devour books. My sister, she's very, very smart. She would just read encyclopedias because she would be bored. I didn't get that genius like my sister and she would memorize it. I don't have that, for sure, so.
Stuart: 00:10:20.281 Is there anything more with your dad that we should peel back?
Candy: 00:10:24.264 No, I've had therapy for that. Tons and tons and tons of it.
Stuart: 00:10:28.567 I'm here, I'm here. I'm free. This is completely free. Not that I'm qualified, but it is still free. You get what you pay for.
Candy: 00:10:38.510 Lots and lots and lots of therapy. He has passed, so now I feel safe to talk. I might be afraid to say it while he was alive.
Stuart: 00:10:45.284 Especially with-- so would I, at 6 foot 4. And I'm 6'1", so. I can run fast though. It reminded me that there was-- Spotify put together a podcast, sort of a review type thing and they were playing episodes of-- not all Spotify podcasts, but some podcasts that they thought that that episode really resonated and-- I can't remember the name of it. It wouldn't be that hard to find. I'm sure we can put it in the show notes because my producers work hard for me. But this episode was about this son whose dad would constantly pose in as a doctor. He would get jobs, legitimate jobs. He'd work the system so, so thoroughly and understood it so well that he would pose as a GP, as a general practitioner in emergency in community medical centers. And he kept going to jail for it and people had died. But he couldn't help himself. Every time he'd get out of jail and he'd swear off not impersonating a doctor, he would go back and get himself into trouble again. It was quite bizarre. So anyway, your story that no doubt your dad had some kind of compulsion to keep going back to evil ways or not for good ways and couldn't help himself.
Candy: 00:12:13.299 I don't know. I was estranged from him for many, many, many years. And when he was on his deathbed, I decided I was going to take that opportunity to talk to him because I really didn't know him. I figured he left and I had to support myself, what did I need him now that I was okay? I needed him as a kid. And his friend stopped by and while he was in bed and unable to move or do anything to them, they would sit and tell stories and it was just wild. It was really interesting sitting there and my dad like, "No, this is my good kid. You can't talk about those things in front of her."
Stuart: 00:12:50.125 Yeah, leave her out of this.
Candy: 00:12:52.262 I wasn't living in the house, so I didn't see all the debauchery going on. I didn't know what was happening there. So it was really interesting and funny that he was in a predicament that he had to sit and just allow us to sit and talk.
Stuart: 00:13:06.551 I'm going to excuse this one upfront, but that must have killed him.
Candy: 00:13:10.927 At the time, I was dating my now husband, who's from New Orleans, and I was living in New York. And I was going back and forth and I was telling my dad, I was like, "Oh, hey. I just want you to know I'm flying to New Orleans. I got to go," and he was like, "Candy, I don't even want to hear about that right now." He's like, "You're talking about New Orleans. I'm about to go to hell." He said, "I've got a lot of my mind right now, so if you don't mind, I really don't want to hear about New Orleans." I'm like, "Okay, dad." And I didn't argue with him because I would have taken a lot for him to go upstairs. I can't even imagine [him sitting with God?].
Stuart: 00:13:50.221 Well, I mean, I'm glad you took that opportunity to reconnect.
Candy: 00:13:55.366 Oh, totally. It was really-- it was good for me. I think it was healthy and--
Stuart: 00:13:59.572 Yeah, your therapist would have been proud of you, no doubt.
Candy: 00:14:03.717 So here, I'll give you one last thing, and then we can talk accounting, all right?
Stuart: 00:14:06.876 Please.
Candy: 00:14:07.714 So when my parents were splitting up, my mother told my father that was his fault and he needed to explain to us why they were splitting up. And my dad sat us kids down and said, "You like bologna sandwiches, don't you?" And we're like, "Yeah." He's like, "I bet you could eat bologna every day." And we're like, "Yeah." He goes, "You could even eat bologna breakfast, lunch, and dinner, couldn't you?" And we're like, "Yeah, we really like bologna." And he goes, "So do I, I love bologna." And he goes, "But let me ask you something. If you had to have bologna every single day, day after day, week after week, year after year, every once in a while, wouldn't you want to go get a pizza?" And we're like, "Yeah." And he goes, "Well, mom says I can't have pizza." And he left.
Stuart: 00:14:47.093 That was it. That was his moral high ground, was it? That he needs to go and get some pizza.
Candy: 00:14:54.275 And we were so angry at my mother for years that she wouldn't let my dad have pizza. You figure it out when you're older. And she never said anything. She let us believe it was because she wouldn't let him have pizza. It's crazy.
Stuart: 00:15:09.416 And I'm sure his mistresses didn't like being called pizza.
Candy: 00:15:12.620 And his mistresses, he would take us out and convince us they were fairies or angel sort of things. They weren't real. And we would go home and be like, "Oh my gosh, Mom, you will not believe what we've seen today." So silly.
Stuart: 00:15:27.055 So yeah, very silly. Anyway, well, I'd say men can be men, but--
Candy: 00:15:32.452 Not the direction I thought this was going in today.
Stuart: 00:15:36.524 No, well, I think it's fascinating. So we haven't had infidelity before, but we have spent hours talking about the lessons that can be learned from drug running and drug distribution. Sales and marketing, your target market, margin, cost accounting. The lessons in drug distribution are plentiful if you care to just put aside the ethical or moral issues for one.
Candy: 00:16:05.096 Right, [you're going to get different people?]. They have it down.
Stuart: 00:16:08.258 That's right.
Candy: 00:16:09.209 There's no worry about like, "I can't get anybody to work for me. They don't work hard." There are no issues there.
Stuart: 00:16:15.281 I think that's the first infidelity, moral, and ethics we've had. But anyway, look, we can go anywhere you like. I want to hear about the people that-- having been through the first episode with your mentor and being let down and discovered one way of creative accounting. Who was next?
Candy: 00:16:37.357 After that, I had always had a second job. I always had to work a lot. So I had a job, retail. There was a whole scam going on with how they stole from the store and--
Stuart: 00:16:49.570 The employees in the retail store? Yeah, right. What sort of store?
Candy: 00:16:53.089 So they would do bags of clothes that were getting discarded, but they would pick all the stuff they wanted, all the outfits they wanted, and then throw them out and then go back and pick them up at the end of the day. And that was really uncomfortable. I did report that to management when I saw it, and you just feel like you're a rat, right? It's that whole thing of, "Wow, these are my coworkers. I hang out with them. They're awesome." And then they were letting me in on, "Hey, why are you buying stuff? This is how we do it." And you were just like--
Stuart: 00:17:23.066 Yeah, it was jarring to your conscience.
Candy: 00:17:26.170 And I told management and I quit. And then they did whatever they did with it. But I just left because I couldn't be a party to that.
Stuart: 00:17:33.544 Kind of leave yourself little choice. I mean, it's unfortunate, but that's the way it kind of works.
Candy: 00:17:39.403 It's difficult. Any time I saw anything-- I worked for companies for long times. I had a company that I didn't know what it was, but they taught me how to kite funds.
Stuart: 00:17:50.651 Kite funds? As in float them up in the air with the wind?
Candy: 00:17:53.955 Well, kiting funds is fake money.
Stuart: 00:17:57.264 [Stake claim?].
Candy: 00:17:57.394 So you're using the clearing time of banks. You would transfer money that you knew you didn't have, but you knew there was a three-day clearing so you could go put another check in to cover it. And you would do that until you actually had the money to make it all good. And if you opened enough bank accounts, you could float funds for a while until you actually got the funds. And I was a teenager-- I was like 19, and the owners were like, "Oh, this is what you got to do." And the bank called me in and said, "We need to talk because I think they're using you and you don't know what you're doing." And I was like, "What are you talking about?" And they said, "How you're moving funds." I'm like, "I know. Aren't I really good at it? I never miss it. Never bounce anything. I know exact timing of every bank." And she's like, "That's illegal." And I was like, "What do you mean?"
Stuart: 00:18:45.241 Oh, there you go. I've learned something today. Which part of that is illegal? The check part?
Candy: 00:18:51.242 You can't write bad checks. So writing bad checks is--
Stuart: 00:18:54.140 Even if they come good.
Candy: 00:18:55.842 Even if they become good, right? So you're doing that and these people owned a lot of companies, so there was a lot of checkbooks to kind of run and it was all through different companies and it was a very strategic thing. And she said to me, "This is illegal. And they know this, but you don't know this. And you can't be a part of this anymore because you're going to be in a lot of trouble." And it was eye opening to learn these things. There was a situation where they were trying to get a loan and they asked for financials and I gave them financials. And these were before computers, so I'm typing them up, we've got it all. And they said, "No, no, no. Didn't you hear what they said, that we had to have profits of X?" And I was like, "Yeah, I know. These are the profits." She's like, "Well, retype it so we have profits of X." I can't do that. And she's like, "I'll just do it myself then." I was like, "What?" I couldn't get all these things through my head. And I was so young and I just was like, "I can't work here. This is just--" You learn all these crazy things. I learned so much from those people and it was crazy. They really taught me how to rip apart a financial statement and find hidden money because they would buy companies. And to assess it, we'd go through financials and I didn't know what I was doing until they taught me. And then they buy a company. When they buy it, they would say, "Okay, now you're going to run it." And pre-Google, I had to sit at the library to figure out-- I'm 19. I [run?] this company. I don't know. They had a lot of employees and they would just acquire companies. So as a kid, I really got a lot of good breaks in life with really great people around me, whether they taught me shady stuff and I learned not to do it--
Stuart: 00:20:43.034 That's all right.
Candy: 00:20:43.643 --or them trusting me and so I needed to get out of those situations and fortunately, I went to a startup and we built that into an eight-figure company from nothing and it was fun. It was challenging. It was just exciting and there was a lot of trust in me. And I still didn't even have my degree at that point. I was just scrappy. You just learn how to work with duct tape because you have no resources so you learn we got to get it done. We have no resources, how are we going to make it happen? You just have to do it. This company was so above board so I loved it. I really felt great with them. They only did things correctly. Everything had to be done right. My profit margin, if it was off even half a percent, I had better have an explanation on it. So it was so awesome to see it grow and develop and build teams and when we started it was me and the owners and a guy who worked in their warehouse. And then we bought buildings, we built huge teams, sales teams across the United States. It was such an amazing ride but I got really burnt out.
Stuart: 00:21:51.476 Yeah, what sort of industry?
Candy: 00:21:53.487 Wholesale footwear. Yeah, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. And when I got burnt out after 9/11, I gave a year's notice and decided I was going to do something else. I didn't know what, but I was going to do something else. I joined the Peace Corps.
Stuart: 00:22:07.145 Didn't see that coming.
Candy: 00:22:08.072 Yeah, so I moved to Namibia.
Stuart: 00:22:11.082 Wow.
Candy: 00:22:11.985 And I did not stay for the whole commitment. I [stayed there?], I just went through training, and I got sick in-country so I came back to the States. But while I was in Namibia, I learned a tribal language that there's not a lot of people that know it. I did volunteer work with drug rehabs so I had a lot of experience with that, and clearly Namibia and so many countries were having an HIV/AIDS crisis at that point because that was in the early 2000s and I had been working with drug rehabs through the 90s. So I was able to give a presentation in a tribal language to a group of people, which was-- really, that was amazing, but I did quit. I'm a professional quitter. And I came back and I didn't know what I was going to do so I decided I was finally going to get my education. I had my associate's degree at that point so I decided I could take a year off and just do whatever I wanted so I went back to school. Within a year and a half I had gotten my master's, and I was working for a consulting firm in New York City and they were unbelievable to me. They just were sending me out and it was so exciting. It's so much fun all the work I was doing. And when I decided to go on my own after kind of stealing a client without realizing I was doing something wrong, the owner of the consulting firm talked to me about it and said, "You can't do that. This is what I have to go through to get a client and you can't just take a client because they want to work with you. It's still my client." And I was like, "Oh, my gosh, you're right." And we totally made good on it. We had a meeting. We fixed it and he said, "I see you're ready to go on your own. I'm going to help you." And he kind of mentored me to start my own consulting firm. I still talk to him. I still send him referrals. I still talk to all those people except for that shady controller that I didn't turn in. She's the only one I don't speak to.
Candy: 00:24:01.272 But every other person I've ever worked with or for, we're still talking. With employees that I've worked with and mentored, we're still all friends. Some of them came to my wedding and it was many, many years after I worked with them. We just stayed so close. But I started my own practice, and in New York, on vacation, I did meet a cute guy at a bar during Mardi Gras. So I moved to New Orleans. It was a very bumpy road after I got to New Orleans because I had this whole network in New York of support. I'd built this whole thing up and it was doing great and I moved to New Orleans and it kind of really collapsed. And I basically had to start all over and now I have a pretty nice firm. We're a team of seven. I've been able to get the workflow - Karbon helps with that - down so that I don't have to be there full-time. And this is also another first that's being announced publicly is I have started coaching with Woodard. So now I'm coaching with them for firm owners. One of the people I spoke to, they said, "Well, you've had nine lives." Just so much so I really feel like I have so much stuff and a lot of empathy for what people go through and mistakes you make as a firm owner, how difficult it is to build a team and the ups and downs of that. Life gets in the way of plans, situations happen. So right now, it's been a pretty interesting ride. I spend a lot of time talking to Ian.
Stuart: 00:25:32.584 Oh, sorry about that.
Candy: 00:25:33.925 Oh, my goodness. I really didn't know him and we really got to know each other at Appy Camp. It was very cathartic to speak. It was so great. So things are finally feeling like they're all falling into place in a good way.
Stuart: 00:25:48.662 Okay, so the firm now and you've got your fraud examiner's certificate or-- I don't even know how that works.
Candy: 00:25:55.224 I haven't started any fraud work, yeah.
Stuart: 00:25:57.097 What's involved in that? I have no idea. Teach me how one goes about getting that, and then what does it allow you to do?
Candy: 00:26:04.264 So clearly, you could do fraud work without having it because I didn't even know what a CFE was, and I was doing that. My biggest one was I put somebody away for 10 years and--
Stuart: 00:26:15.740 Let's start with that. How did that happen?
Candy: 00:26:18.694 I was brought in-- I used to do turnarounds. I've done a whole lot of different things. So I was brought in as a consultant with a company that was losing money and couldn't figure out what was going on. And part of my rules when I do those things is you can't say no to me about anything. I can talk to anybody. I can see anything, and I can fire whoever I want. So they said, "Okay, there's two people you can't fire," and immediately I knew those were the people that needed to be fired. They didn't know that, but I knew that. And I went in, and it was really quick to extract this information. I got the president of the company to admit that he was trying to sabotage the company and destroy it.
Stuart: 00:26:59.879 Why was he--? That must have been a strange agenda.
Candy: 00:27:03.229 Because they were bringing in partners and they never asked him. So I got him drunk. I wasn't really drinking my drinks. I was pretending to. And he got drunk enough to admit that he was going to show them they made a mistake. And the vice president, who kept yelling at me, "Just go do taxes or something," I just had this hunch and said to her, "So where's the money? Where's the other bank account?" And she was like, "What are you talking about?" And I said, "You know what I'm talking about." There was a whole lot of write-offs right before I showed up. And I called one of the vendors and said, "I just need a copy of that canceled check that you sent. I think it was posted incorrectly. Send it to me." And she sent it to me, and there was another bank account there. And so we uncovered that and so for years and years and years, this woman had opened a bank account with a name similar to the company, was depositing the checks into her account, and then telling them either they returned the goods or they had closed up and went out of business. And so they were losing customers and they were just-- they couldn't figure out why their sales were declining so badly and they were audited every year.
Stuart: 00:28:11.016 What was the auditor doing?
Candy: 00:28:12.286 They would ask her what it was and she would tell them and they believed her and [push on it?]. So there was a number of things that came out of that. The bank had to make good. The auditors had to make good. And she ultimately was given a 10-year sentence for her part in it. And we had to rebuild their accounting department, their team, we got rid of all the people that-- it had gotten a little-- very complacent because the president doesn't care [across the team?]. And there were some people that really cared and so it was really good to point them out. They don't realize who the really good people are sometimes, and they are placing so much value on bad people. And it's really nice to clean that up and have those people come over and just say, "I couldn't say anything. Thank you so much. It's such a nice environment now. There's good people here. You got rid of all the dishonest people." It really feels good. I've done that-- not a whole lot, but I've done it for several companies. And it just feels good to clean house, get the garbage out, and to really highlight and showcase the good people.
Stuart: 00:29:18.979 What's the most rewarding project that you've worked on?
Candy: 00:29:22.235 Lately, it's been the coaching. I mean, I love the turnarounds and seeing people facing devastation going from thinking everything's falling apart and pulling it back together. That feels amazing. But that sucks the life out of me. Because I can't go in a little. It's either all or nothing, and I realize that with a child, my last one, I was very pregnant. And I said, "This is my last one," because I can't imagine. It's almost like you're having-- it's a baby. It's a child that you just want to [go and see?].
Stuart: 00:29:52.920 Do it once.
Candy: 00:29:54.246 So I had to give that part of my career up. And I'm okay with that. Right now, the coaching for Woodard has been unbelievable, unbelievably rewarding. It's fairly new, but down to meeting with somebody and at the end of it, them saying things to me that I'll cry because they're letting me know how much they appreciate and value the conversation. And it just tells me I'm doing the right thing. Hearing my team so happy that I'm so happy right now and just reminding me that they can do the work and they've got it under control and I don't need to worry and that tells me I built a damn good team. Really good people. So it all feels good.
Stuart: 00:30:39.673 And what's next for you and the team?
Candy: 00:30:41.927 I think for me, I definitely want to do more coaching. I'm really, really enjoying that. They're interested in fraud work so we may start seeking that out. We haven't really because it was just a bucket list item for me. I wanted to have my CFE because I've been doing it for years without knowing there was a proper way to do it. Who knew? So I might do some of that stuff. But I love helping the small business, but it's gotten further in bringing these accounting professionals in and mentoring them. They can help more small businesses. And it just became really important to me that my team can support themselves on what they make, and that if they were in a bad home situation, they can afford to leave. I saw what my mom went through. I don't want anybody to feel they're forced into a situation that's not safe or healthy, that they have the means to leave. So that to me was important that my full-time people have a good living wage. And they brought it up to me that they wanted health insurance, which we weren't carrying, small company. And I gave up my health insurance. I took a policy out for my daughter, and I said, "Til we all have health insurance, no one has health insurance." And we strategized. We found out what it was going to cost and how much extra volume we were going to need to bring in and what that was going to mean for the team. And they were like, "Don't worry about it. We got it. That means a lot to us you're bringing it in and we'll carry the workload." And I said, "Okay, well, I don't want you guys killing yourselves working. So let's go through our client list and maybe make some changes."
Candy: 00:32:14.851 And so we've gotten rid of our people where it was more time than the value. We just made some changes and made sure they were taken care of. I don't want any burned bridges, but we've made some really good changes so that my team has time that if there's a sick child, there's going to be somebody on the team that's going to back them up and make sure things are okay. We don't save lives. We do accounting. And I didn't know this until I had a child. I really was a horrible boss until I had a child. I've called and apologized to a number of people that had children that I managed in the past. And they said, "You're thinking you're worse than you were." And I was like, "Yeah, they've been having babies for years [in fields?]. You can't come to work? You didn't make plans for this?" And then I go have a baby and I couldn't manage at all. I fell apart and I felt awful. And so we closed our office down after I had my child. And I said, "From now on, the children are the priority. We have to do a great job to be able to charge what we do, but those kids come first." And so that's what we do at work.
Stuart: 00:33:17.946 Is your team all-female?
Candy: 00:33:19.566 They're all female, yes.
Stuart: 00:33:20.623 Cool.
Candy: 00:33:21.291 And they're all moms. I have one intern that is not a mom, but it just has happened that way. I would hire anybody that's great. We don't advertise. I don't want to rock what we have, because when we've brought the wrong people in it's really messed things up. And I'd rather not grow if it's going to affect my team's mental health. I've got to turn work down. I know that's not the way everybody does it. But at this point in my life, I'm all about my mental health.
Stuart: 00:33:48.520 Yeah. No, the right way is whatever you say it is, right?
Candy: 00:33:53.298 Yeah, so I've said to everybody, "If you guys meet someone that would be a great fit for our team, we will hire them on the spot." I can fill work. I'm not worried about filling work. I just don't want extra pressure in my life. I don't want to micromanage. I don't want to worry about things. I don't want to hear about people not getting along or not carrying their weight. So if we stay where we're at-- and we keep growing, which is weird. So something must be going right. I don't know.
Stuart: 00:34:20.610 So when you think of next year, what comes to mind straight away?
Candy: 00:34:24.730 I think more freedom. That's what I'm looking for for me and the team is that we have the freedom to say yes or no to projects that work with our lives. My goal is not to bring in big projects in the summer because we all have kids home. And I want them to enjoy that time because once those kids grow up, it's over. I want them to have good memories and they work so hard when there's projects and they really do a great job. I don't think anybody on the team works 40 hours. They're very efficient. We work a lot with technology. That's very important to us that we utilize what's out there and we spend a lot of time on continuing education, conferences, learning as much as we can so that we can help the clients and have that knowledge and expertise and that we're efficient, but I want them to have a good quality of life, my team, because they give me a good life. And I don't forget that, that I would not have this freedom if it weren't for the work they were doing.
Stuart: 00:35:20.381 Well, Candy, on behalf of your team, just through our 45 minutes of conversation, I can tell that they appreciate you and all your experience and everything that you've created for them. I imagine that them and your clients are very grateful. And we're grateful as well to be able to have the opportunity to work with you and everything that you do for us. We appreciate it.
Candy: 00:35:41.672 Well, thank you. This has been a great relationship. I'm really enjoying it. The products just really helped us. We went through a lot of software before we landed on Karbon and it just was not working. I was just so frustrated all the time. So it's really nice. And it feels like a partnership. It doesn't feel like we're alone. It feels like you really care about the accounting industry. And I will tell you, the more I'm coaching and speaking to firm owners, it's really awesome to talk to them about their Karbon experiences. And they get kind of excited when I say, "Well, I use it and this is what it's done for my firm." And they can see that I've been able to move the firm in a direction that works for me and my life, and that I don't have to be there all the time, which is weird. Because I was a workaholic for many, many, many years. And to know we've got it together.
Stuart: 00:36:34.177 Yeah. Well, if that ever changes, you text me, right?
Candy: 00:36:38.675 Okay, knock me into shape.
Stuart: 00:36:41.038 Exactly, exactly.
Candy: 00:36:42.046 Okay, got to get back on track.
Stuart: 00:36:44.575 That's it, that's it. Candy, this has been amazing. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us and--
Candy: 00:36:49.993 Yeah, thank you. This has been really great. Thank you for all you do for the accounting industry. Your support and all the shows and being there, it's important and it's valued.
Stuart: 00:37:00.352 And we thank you for saying thank you. We take that role seriously and we obviously have our own agenda. But ideally, it's in the interests of the greater industry and the people that operate within it because you all-- without putting a Texas drawl on it, you all do very important work. And the lives of small business owners depend on your experience and if we can do our bit, we're happy to do it.
Candy: 00:37:26.666 Great. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for having me today. I really, really appreciate it.
Stuart: 00:37:30.613 My pleasure, Candy. You have a great afternoon. Thanks for listening to this episode. If you found this discussion interesting, fun, you'll find lots more to help you run a successful accounting firm at Karbon Magazine. There are more than a thousand free resources there, including guides, articles, templates, webinars, and more. Just head to KarbonHQ.com/resources. I'd also love it if you could leave us a five-star review wherever you listen to this podcast. Let us know you like this session. We'll be able to keep bringing you more guests for you to learn from and get inspired by. Thanks for joining and see you on the next episode of the Accounting Leaders Podcast.