February 14, 2025 • 20 mins
Unlock the secrets to thriving in the financial services industry as we bring you an engaging discussion with Luigi Rosabianca and Matthew Meehan from Shield Advisory Group. With their journey from the high stakes of Wall Street to founding a firm dedicated to supporting small and medium-sized businesses, Luigi and Matt reveal the strategies that have fueled their success. Tune in to discover how their unique partnership has enabled them to provide vital guidance, especially during the turbulent times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hear about their innovative collaborations with CPAs and accounting firms across the U.S., where they offer resources like the ERC tax credit, creating a positive impact for countless small business owners.
Learn how to future-proof your business with proven techniques to maximize growth and diversification. Luigi and Matt stress the importance of a multi-channel marketing strategy to avoid the pitfalls of over-reliance on a single platform. They also share insights into balancing branding efforts with direct consumer interactions. Gain valuable knowledge on cross-selling and upselling services within the accounting sector to enhance client relationships and revenue streams. Conclude your listening journey with powerful strategies to position yourself as a trusted advisor, attracting high-paying clients and unlocking your business's full potential.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and experttactics to help you sign more
lucrative clients and grow yourbusiness.
Tune in and discover actionableinsights to transform your
marketing efforts and boost yourbottom line to your bottom line
(00:47):
.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Today, I'm joined by Luigi Rosa Bianca and Matt
Meehan from Shield Advisors.
Guys, I'm so excited to haveyou on the podcast today.
This is our first time having aduo as guests.
I'm really looking forward togetting into hearing a little
bit more about the services youguys offer your clients, the
level of expertise you bring tothe table and how you grow the
(01:10):
accounts in the clients thatyou're working with.
So, without further ado, mattLuigi, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, what's up, buddy ?
Thank you for having us here.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Thank you, James.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Awesome.
Thank you, james.
Awesome Guys.
For those who maybe aren't asfamiliar with what you guys do
over at Shield Advisors, do youmind giving a quick background
on either yourselves and or thebusiness, no problem, man.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So, essentially, I spent about 17 years on Wall
Street.
I owned an investment bankCirca 2015,.
My partners bought me out and Igot into the private lending
space right.
Everything was going great.
We were lending money toclients, helping clients get
into more traditional financing,right.
And then COVID hit.
All my money was out in thestreet.
I didn't know exactly what Iwas going to do.
(01:59):
There was no money coming in.
People's businesses were shutdown.
They weren't allowed to open up.
People are freaking out.
My clients are calling metelling me they're not going to
pay me.
Government's coming out with allthese programs at this point in
time.
You have PPP at first, Then youhave EIDL and a slew of others
later on.
So at that time I actually Irealized one thing.
(02:21):
A light bulb kind of went off.
It was our clients need morethan just a check.
They need strategic guidance,right.
Anybody can write them a checkand walk away, but when shit
hits the fan like it did inCOVID, at the end of the day
they need somebody that they cancall, get the right information
and rely on them.
A lot of our clients todayactually thought their bankers
were those people, but, truth betold, the bankers didn't know
what was going on.
(02:41):
The first people to get in linewere PPP the large corporations
that actually had the resourcesand the team power right To get
in because they're doing bigbusiness with the banks and
small and medium-sizedbusinesses were pretty much left
behind.
That's when me and Luigistarted Shield Advisory Group
right.
So not only do we get youfinancing, but we put you in a
better position than when youleft us, and our Rolodex becomes
(03:04):
yours because we makeintroductions and we build
relationship capital that youcan actually leverage as one of
our clients.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's so good, that's such a strong offer.
How, how did you and Luigi getpaired up with one another?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Oh, this is all you, though.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
So Matt and I are native New Yorkers.
Matt's from Staten Island, buthe tells everyone he's from New
York.
But we'll let him get away withthat because we love him.
So Matt and I met physically onWall Street.
He was a Wall Street banker, Iwas not.
He was a fancy guy with athree-piece suit.
And Matt and I met socially.
(03:43):
This was back in the day, priorto the current reality.
Back then there was happy hourand you'd go to a bar to have a
drink and the bartenders wouldsay they're busy when times are
good because people come tocelebrate, but they're also busy
when times are bad becausepeople come to commiserate.
And you know, we perfected theart of the happy hour deal and
(04:05):
the liquid lunch and it's nosurprise that today our podcast
is called the Liquid LunchProject as an homage to how we
met back in the canyons of WallStreet.
Years later we startedconversing and we never thought
we'd be working together, but Ican honestly say it's probably
(04:25):
one of the best decisions weboth made.
Matt and I are polar oppositesand I think it works well
together, but the underlyingnature in both of us is that
we're both type A, we're bothaggressive, we both will always
do the right thing by clients,and we're very, very honest with
each other, even though itmeans honesty to a fault.
(04:47):
So I think that's a key to anypartnership, whether it's
business, marriage, friendshipjust transparency.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
That's great, that's really cool.
We've been, we've been doingsome work together getting in
front of other other CPAsaccounting firms, tax
professionals to help you guysgrow your network so that you
guys can tap into their networkand assist their clients, which
will, in turn, help help theCPAs that we're reaching out to.
Can you guys speak a little bitabout where you come in and the
(05:19):
value you're bringing to thetable for the other accounting
firms across the US and how theripple effect helps their
clients out?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Sure, I'll give you a specific example, as I was
talking about the governmentcoming out with programs after
programs, cpas were getting hitup too and they didn't know what
to do.
Now, most CPAs work with theirclients, they deal with the
financials right, but they'renot reading every IRS briefing.
They're not involved in certainsituations.
So when the ERC tax credit cameout, one of our partners was a
(05:49):
CPA as well and we saw howpowerful it could be for small
business owners, right, and westarted promoting it rapidly.
Now this isn't an easy task,because if you're a CPA, you're
a small business owner yourself.
Let's call a spade a spade,right?
So we're in the midst of COVIDright now.
You probably have your staffeither working remote or not,
(06:10):
coming in or trying to figureout the technology stuff, but
people needed money.
So what a lot of CPAs wound updoing was sending us their
clients to get them the ERCfilings right and do the filings
for them.
And it wasn't because theydidn't want to do it, they
didn't know how to do it.
They knew that once they sentthe clients over to us that they
were in good hands, and ourother partner, being a CPA,
(06:33):
helped out a lot because theywere able to hop on the phone
and you know, basically speakthe same lingo to each other.
Overall, right.
And then we also do verygenerous referral splits with
cpas right, it's not even justthe erc tax credit.
We have other tax credits liker&d, which is a specialized
place where, even though you'rea cpa, you just may not
understand how the tax codeworks for that initial credit.
(06:55):
So cpas bring us clients allthe time, especially on the
funding side.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's great.
That's great.
Luigi, are you able to tell usa little bit about maybe a win
that stands out recently witheither a referral partner or a
direct client you guys areworking with, because I know you
do a lot of term loans withconstruction firms and a couple
other industries.
But is there any wins thatstand out as of late where
(07:21):
you're like I'm super proud ofthis one, this one gets me
excited marketing strategies,but one of our blind spots it
was a huge blind spot One of ourblind spots was LinkedIn.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
We never, never leveraged LinkedIn and thanks to
your expertise and your teamand Nine2 Media you guys have
been wonderful We've been ableto leverage LinkedIn and if
current indications continue,we'll double down and grow that
in Q2 and Q3.
Um, right, so I think inbusiness, it's not so much what
should you do, it's more theconversation of what shouldn't
(08:09):
you do.
You kind of have to doeverything moderately and then
if something works, you know,put fuel to that fire, and if
something doesn't work, thenpull back, because you know when
people tell me, oh, I get allmy business from Facebook, that
scares the dickens out of mebecause you're a one trick pony,
right?
So you kind of have to bediversified because you know,
(08:29):
matt and I remember last yearwhen Facebook changed their
emailing and the Google changedtheir emailing algorithm you
know everyone's email marketingfunnels dried up, right.
And the same thing goes for,you know, if you were a huge
networker and you were going tothese chambers of commerce and
go with these in-person meetings, suddenly COVID comes and
(08:50):
you're stuck in your basementand you can't go to meetings
right.
So a little bit of diversityhelps in business.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
That's awesome.
Thanks for the kind words aswell, but what about some other
channels you guys are using, max, I know even before we got
started, you guys have a massiveemail list.
You guys are successful in yourown right, doing a lot of other
things.
Linkedin has been a nice pieceto all of that now, but what are
some other platforms ormarketing strategies that have
(09:18):
worked really well for you guysthat have got you this far?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
You know, email has definitely been the number one
driver in our business.
But, as Luigi said, you know,google and Yahoo and the email
gods always change the algorithmon you, right, and rightly so.
Right, they're a business.
They don't want you.
Email is probably the mostcost-effective way to market.
Okay, no-transcript.
(09:45):
So we were pressed with adecision on what are we gonna do
.
So we decided not just to addon one new marketing channel, we
decided to go heavy on alldifferent marketing channels.
So we also have a I don don'tknow a hundred and something
(10:06):
thousand subscriber newsletterthat goes out once a week to
people.
On top of that, we launched aYouTube channel, we just started
running some Facebook ads andwe're just generating a more
omnipresent everywhere.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Awesome, that's.
That's so important.
Just like you mentioned, luigi,that if you just have facebook,
you're only as good as up untilyour ad account inevitably gets
shut down, or whether that's onfacebook or it's on google.
But if you have multiplechannels, you have your eggs
across a couple differentbaskets.
You don't have it's not as muchstress going into the situation
(10:36):
when that does happen.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So that's awesome, matt and I always joke because
our podcast.
We have two podcasts ournewsletter, the Weekly.
It's a heavy lift.
It requires a lot of resources,it's a lot of energy, it's time
consuming, but I can't tell youhow many times both us and our
(10:58):
advisors will mention hey, bythe way, that guy listened to
that podcast and he reached out,or he read something in the
weekly and they reached out tous and scheduled an appointment,
or they listened to the to,they saw something on the
YouTube channel and submitted aninquiry.
So you never know where thatlead's going to come from.
So it's it's difficult for usto quantify and say, oh, this is
(11:18):
successful, that's notsuccessful.
I think it's more of a holisticapproach where everything
combined works.
Because, don't forget I alwayslike to use the analogy,
especially during this time ofyear you don't pay an exorbitant
amount of money for Super Bowlads because you're going to sell
a product.
You pay that for branding,right?
(11:41):
So a little bit of what you dois direct-to-consumer
interaction, but a little bit isalso branding and sending that
message out.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Who are you guys going for in the Super Bowl?
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Who's playing?
I'm kidding, I'm not a bigfootball.
I probably follow more Canadianfootball, in your honor, than I
do American football.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's a hot take.
I don't think I'll offend toomany people by saying the
Canadian Football League is notthat great Hopefully not.
I'd like to see KC win a thirdin a row.
I think that'd be prettyimpressive.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I don't know the way things are going.
You might be part of the NFLsoon.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Hey look, we've got.
We've got, we've got Canadianteams in the NHL.
Right, we've got baseball teams.
So I think it's, I think it'sonly natural.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Tell me guys a little bit about how how you go ahead
and grow accounts that comeunder.
You know the come into thebusiness because you guys offer
a number of different services.
You help your clients out in somany different ways.
I think a lot of businessowners accounting firms they
struggle with when, when do Istart charging a client more
(12:59):
instead of just they take onmore work and they're not
increasing their pay.
You guys do a great job at yourcross sells, upsells, downsells
if someone's potentiallyleaving.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat your strategy looks like
there and any insight you havefor those listening?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Well, for your accounting firm clients, you may
want to look at it in a coupleof different ways.
Right, the tax return and thebookkeeping side, like the
reconciliations, the monthlybookkeeping, the coordinating
with their POS and credit cardsystems.
(13:39):
It's sort of like a necessaryevil, right?
So there's an administrativetask that needs to be done and
they need to charge for that.
But the market dictates whatthe cost can be for that.
At the end of the day, it's anadministrative task, so you
can't charge an exorbitantamount.
I think the sexy part of thesell for the accounting firm
(14:03):
comes with the tax planningstrategies.
Maybe the client has some realestate, so you do a cost
segregation, matt mentionedearlier.
They may be doing somethinginnovative in their business
practice, so you implement theresearch and development tax
credit.
Maybe you have a lot of W-2employees, so you implement the
WOTC strategy.
(14:23):
So I think for the smallbusiness owner, if you really
want to leverage that client andincrease revenue, you have to.
You have to give value.
You have to give value to thatclient.
And how do you give value?
Well, you have to pay taxes,right?
So I'm going to minimize yourtaxes.
Well, if you get to minimize mytaxes, well, I'll surely pay
(14:46):
for that, right.
But how much can you possiblycharge for a tax return, right?
How much can you possiblycharge for a monthly
reconciliation?
It's still administrative, butwhen you're adding value by
giving a professional service,yeah, then then the numbers get
sexy, I think.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, then the numbers get sexy, I think
Interesting.
That's cool, Matt.
What piece of insight do youhave to add on to that?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Raise your prices every year, every year.
Increase it by 10%, everysingle year.
People will be used to it.
It's really simple, will beused to it.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It's really simple.
There's definitely a lot ofpeople I've spoken with who
there's that constant fear ofyou know people are going to
leave.
Though I bring up my price,people are going to leave.
But what's the I mean the magicrule of thumb?
You may lose a couple people,but X amount are still.
They're going to be happy topay more.
And now you have less clientsyou're working with and you're
(15:50):
making more money.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Right, listen, if let me put it like this If you're
charging me $1,000 a month andyou go to $1,100, it's not going
to change anything.
If you double it and go to$2,000, yeah, we're going to
have a conversation, right?
Also, what phase are you at atyour practice?
Right, that's what these, whatdo your CPAs need to be asking
(16:11):
themselves?
Am I doing this for anotherfive to 10 years or am I looking
to sell in the next five years?
You're looking to sell in thenext five years.
Maybe you want to keep theprices there so you have
consistent revenue.
You don't have to worry aboutthe clients leaving, and then
it's a selling tactic for whenyou're selling your business you
can raise prices.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Moving forward to the client, matt, you know what I'm
going to agree with you in partand disagree with you in part.
I think all service providersshould increase their price,
except for LinkedIn marketers.
They should not increase theirprice, never those guys should
never do it.
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Oh, you guys, you guys are good there.
Hey, this isn't about about.
This isn't about us right now.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
This is about this about you guys and the insight
you're sharing.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Um, okay, last question for you guys what, what
piece of advice would you giveto either aspiring entrepreneurs
or just anyone who's inbusiness now?
You guys are extremelysuccessful.
What's maybe some of the bestadvice you've either got or that
you would give to someone else?
Speaker 4 (17:12):
When you're talking to the client.
Shut off the TV, shut off thephone, turn off your phone,
close the door, close the window, focus on the client and listen
to what the client needs.
The client is going to give youthe path.
He's going to tell you or she'sgoing to tell you what their
pain point is.
So once you listen to them andsometimes it's difficult on the
(17:35):
phone because you lack theintonation, you lack the body
language you don't see ifthey're pushing back or pulling
forward.
So on the telephone it may notbe that clear, so that zoom
helps, but you hear the, the,the, the pitch of their voice.
The intonation may change.
So once you know what they need, then you find the solution to
(17:56):
their pain point.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That's so good.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Matt Mine's simple Again just don't quit.
Keep going Right.
Too many people just quit waytoo soon.
Right, anything good, any don'tquit.
Keep going Right.
Too many people just quit waytoo soon.
Right Anything good.
Any business right, anyprofession.
You got to give yourself atleast two to three years Right
To start really making money andlearn what you're doing.
Right.
Year one you're not going tounderstand fully what you're
(18:21):
doing.
By year two.
Into year three you should bereally decent about what you do
right.
But plan, understand it's notgoing to be all sunshine and
rainbows.
It's going to be a lot of lumps.
You're going to get knockeddown a lot.
Just get back up and keep goingand don't be afraid to take
risk and chances right on things, because you never know what
could work out that's so good.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Thank you so much, guys for coming on sharing,
sharing so much insight, sharingso much knowledge.
Where, where could people getin touch if they want to
continue the conversation,especially accounting firms?
I encourage you guys to reachout, get in touch with matt and
luigi, but what's the best wayfor people to get in touch with
you?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
yeah, we're on.
We're on all the socialsmatthew mehan and luigi rosa
bianca and you can go to ourwebsite, shieldadvisorygroupcom.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Okay, perfect, we'll have that in the show notes so
that people can pick up andcontinue the conversation with
you guys.
Thanks again for coming on.
This has been great.
All right, James Thank youThanks for tuning into this
episode of CFO Chronicles thesecrets behind success.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
(19:29):
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call.
It's time to position yourselfas the advisor your clients need
(19:52):
.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract morehigh-paying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
(20:32):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and experttactics to help you sign more
lucrative clients and grow yourbusiness.
Tune in and discover actionableinsights to transform your
marketing efforts and boost yourbottom line to your bottom line
(00:47):
.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Today, I'm joined by Luigi Rosa Bianca and Matt
Meehan from Shield Advisors.
Guys, I'm so excited to haveyou on the podcast today.
This is our first time having aduo as guests.
I'm really looking forward togetting into hearing a little
bit more about the services youguys offer your clients, the
level of expertise you bring tothe table and how you grow the
(01:10):
accounts in the clients thatyou're working with.
So, without further ado, mattLuigi, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, what's up, buddy ?
Thank you for having us here.
We really appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Thank you, James.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Awesome.
Thank you, james.
Awesome Guys.
For those who maybe aren't asfamiliar with what you guys do
over at Shield Advisors, do youmind giving a quick background
on either yourselves and or thebusiness, no problem, man.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
So, essentially, I spent about 17 years on Wall
Street.
I owned an investment bankCirca 2015,.
My partners bought me out and Igot into the private lending
space right.
Everything was going great.
We were lending money toclients, helping clients get
into more traditional financing,right.
And then COVID hit.
All my money was out in thestreet.
I didn't know exactly what Iwas going to do.
(01:59):
There was no money coming in.
People's businesses were shutdown.
They weren't allowed to open up.
People are freaking out.
My clients are calling metelling me they're not going to
pay me.
Government's coming out with allthese programs at this point in
time.
You have PPP at first, Then youhave EIDL and a slew of others
later on.
So at that time I actually Irealized one thing.
(02:21):
A light bulb kind of went off.
It was our clients need morethan just a check.
They need strategic guidance,right.
Anybody can write them a checkand walk away, but when shit
hits the fan like it did inCOVID, at the end of the day
they need somebody that they cancall, get the right information
and rely on them.
A lot of our clients todayactually thought their bankers
were those people, but, truth betold, the bankers didn't know
what was going on.
(02:41):
The first people to get in linewere PPP the large corporations
that actually had the resourcesand the team power right To get
in because they're doing bigbusiness with the banks and
small and medium-sizedbusinesses were pretty much left
behind.
That's when me and Luigistarted Shield Advisory Group
right.
So not only do we get youfinancing, but we put you in a
better position than when youleft us, and our Rolodex becomes
(03:04):
yours because we makeintroductions and we build
relationship capital that youcan actually leverage as one of
our clients.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's so good, that's such a strong offer.
How, how did you and Luigi getpaired up with one another?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Oh, this is all you, though.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
So Matt and I are native New Yorkers.
Matt's from Staten Island, buthe tells everyone he's from New
York.
But we'll let him get away withthat because we love him.
So Matt and I met physically onWall Street.
He was a Wall Street banker, Iwas not.
He was a fancy guy with athree-piece suit.
And Matt and I met socially.
(03:43):
This was back in the day, priorto the current reality.
Back then there was happy hourand you'd go to a bar to have a
drink and the bartenders wouldsay they're busy when times are
good because people come tocelebrate, but they're also busy
when times are bad becausepeople come to commiserate.
And you know, we perfected theart of the happy hour deal and
(04:05):
the liquid lunch and it's nosurprise that today our podcast
is called the Liquid LunchProject as an homage to how we
met back in the canyons of WallStreet.
Years later we startedconversing and we never thought
we'd be working together, but Ican honestly say it's probably
(04:25):
one of the best decisions weboth made.
Matt and I are polar oppositesand I think it works well
together, but the underlyingnature in both of us is that
we're both type A, we're bothaggressive, we both will always
do the right thing by clients,and we're very, very honest with
each other, even though itmeans honesty to a fault.
(04:47):
So I think that's a key to anypartnership, whether it's
business, marriage, friendshipjust transparency.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
That's great, that's really cool.
We've been, we've been doingsome work together getting in
front of other other CPAsaccounting firms, tax
professionals to help you guysgrow your network so that you
guys can tap into their networkand assist their clients, which
will, in turn, help help theCPAs that we're reaching out to.
Can you guys speak a little bitabout where you come in and the
(05:19):
value you're bringing to thetable for the other accounting
firms across the US and how theripple effect helps their
clients out?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Sure, I'll give you a specific example, as I was
talking about the governmentcoming out with programs after
programs, cpas were getting hitup too and they didn't know what
to do.
Now, most CPAs work with theirclients, they deal with the
financials right, but they'renot reading every IRS briefing.
They're not involved in certainsituations.
So when the ERC tax credit cameout, one of our partners was a
(05:49):
CPA as well and we saw howpowerful it could be for small
business owners, right, and westarted promoting it rapidly.
Now this isn't an easy task,because if you're a CPA, you're
a small business owner yourself.
Let's call a spade a spade,right?
So we're in the midst of COVIDright now.
You probably have your staffeither working remote or not,
(06:10):
coming in or trying to figureout the technology stuff, but
people needed money.
So what a lot of CPAs wound updoing was sending us their
clients to get them the ERCfilings right and do the filings
for them.
And it wasn't because theydidn't want to do it, they
didn't know how to do it.
They knew that once they sentthe clients over to us that they
were in good hands, and ourother partner, being a CPA,
(06:33):
helped out a lot because theywere able to hop on the phone
and you know, basically speakthe same lingo to each other.
Overall, right.
And then we also do verygenerous referral splits with
cpas right, it's not even justthe erc tax credit.
We have other tax credits liker&d, which is a specialized
place where, even though you'rea cpa, you just may not
understand how the tax codeworks for that initial credit.
(06:55):
So cpas bring us clients allthe time, especially on the
funding side.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's great.
That's great.
Luigi, are you able to tell usa little bit about maybe a win
that stands out recently witheither a referral partner or a
direct client you guys areworking with, because I know you
do a lot of term loans withconstruction firms and a couple
other industries.
But is there any wins thatstand out as of late where
(07:21):
you're like I'm super proud ofthis one, this one gets me
excited marketing strategies,but one of our blind spots it
was a huge blind spot One of ourblind spots was LinkedIn.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
We never, never leveraged LinkedIn and thanks to
your expertise and your teamand Nine2 Media you guys have
been wonderful We've been ableto leverage LinkedIn and if
current indications continue,we'll double down and grow that
in Q2 and Q3.
Um, right, so I think inbusiness, it's not so much what
should you do, it's more theconversation of what shouldn't
(08:09):
you do.
You kind of have to doeverything moderately and then
if something works, you know,put fuel to that fire, and if
something doesn't work, thenpull back, because you know when
people tell me, oh, I get allmy business from Facebook, that
scares the dickens out of mebecause you're a one trick pony,
right?
So you kind of have to bediversified because you know,
(08:29):
matt and I remember last yearwhen Facebook changed their
emailing and the Google changedtheir emailing algorithm you
know everyone's email marketingfunnels dried up, right.
And the same thing goes for,you know, if you were a huge
networker and you were going tothese chambers of commerce and
go with these in-person meetings, suddenly COVID comes and
(08:50):
you're stuck in your basementand you can't go to meetings
right.
So a little bit of diversityhelps in business.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
That's awesome.
Thanks for the kind words aswell, but what about some other
channels you guys are using, max, I know even before we got
started, you guys have a massiveemail list.
You guys are successful in yourown right, doing a lot of other
things.
Linkedin has been a nice pieceto all of that now, but what are
some other platforms ormarketing strategies that have
(09:18):
worked really well for you guysthat have got you this far?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
You know, email has definitely been the number one
driver in our business.
But, as Luigi said, you know,google and Yahoo and the email
gods always change the algorithmon you, right, and rightly so.
Right, they're a business.
They don't want you.
Email is probably the mostcost-effective way to market.
Okay, no-transcript.
(09:45):
So we were pressed with adecision on what are we gonna do
.
So we decided not just to addon one new marketing channel, we
decided to go heavy on alldifferent marketing channels.
So we also have a I don don'tknow a hundred and something
(10:06):
thousand subscriber newsletterthat goes out once a week to
people.
On top of that, we launched aYouTube channel, we just started
running some Facebook ads andwe're just generating a more
omnipresent everywhere.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Awesome, that's.
That's so important.
Just like you mentioned, luigi,that if you just have facebook,
you're only as good as up untilyour ad account inevitably gets
shut down, or whether that's onfacebook or it's on google.
But if you have multiplechannels, you have your eggs
across a couple differentbaskets.
You don't have it's not as muchstress going into the situation
(10:36):
when that does happen.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So that's awesome, matt and I always joke because
our podcast.
We have two podcasts ournewsletter, the Weekly.
It's a heavy lift.
It requires a lot of resources,it's a lot of energy, it's time
consuming, but I can't tell youhow many times both us and our
(10:58):
advisors will mention hey, bythe way, that guy listened to
that podcast and he reached out,or he read something in the
weekly and they reached out tous and scheduled an appointment,
or they listened to the to,they saw something on the
YouTube channel and submitted aninquiry.
So you never know where thatlead's going to come from.
So it's it's difficult for usto quantify and say, oh, this is
(11:18):
successful, that's notsuccessful.
I think it's more of a holisticapproach where everything
combined works.
Because, don't forget I alwayslike to use the analogy,
especially during this time ofyear you don't pay an exorbitant
amount of money for Super Bowlads because you're going to sell
a product.
You pay that for branding,right?
(11:41):
So a little bit of what you dois direct-to-consumer
interaction, but a little bit isalso branding and sending that
message out.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Who are you guys going for in the Super Bowl?
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Who's playing?
I'm kidding, I'm not a bigfootball.
I probably follow more Canadianfootball, in your honor, than I
do American football.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's a hot take.
I don't think I'll offend toomany people by saying the
Canadian Football League is notthat great Hopefully not.
I'd like to see KC win a thirdin a row.
I think that'd be prettyimpressive.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
I don't know the way things are going.
You might be part of the NFLsoon.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
Hey look, we've got.
We've got, we've got Canadianteams in the NHL.
Right, we've got baseball teams.
So I think it's, I think it'sonly natural.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Tell me guys a little bit about how how you go ahead
and grow accounts that comeunder.
You know the come into thebusiness because you guys offer
a number of different services.
You help your clients out in somany different ways.
I think a lot of businessowners accounting firms they
struggle with when, when do Istart charging a client more
(12:59):
instead of just they take onmore work and they're not
increasing their pay.
You guys do a great job at yourcross sells, upsells, downsells
if someone's potentiallyleaving.
Can you talk a little bit aboutwhat your strategy looks like
there and any insight you havefor those listening?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Well, for your accounting firm clients, you may
want to look at it in a coupleof different ways.
Right, the tax return and thebookkeeping side, like the
reconciliations, the monthlybookkeeping, the coordinating
with their POS and credit cardsystems.
(13:39):
It's sort of like a necessaryevil, right?
So there's an administrativetask that needs to be done and
they need to charge for that.
But the market dictates whatthe cost can be for that.
At the end of the day, it's anadministrative task, so you
can't charge an exorbitantamount.
I think the sexy part of thesell for the accounting firm
(14:03):
comes with the tax planningstrategies.
Maybe the client has some realestate, so you do a cost
segregation, matt mentionedearlier.
They may be doing somethinginnovative in their business
practice, so you implement theresearch and development tax
credit.
Maybe you have a lot of W-2employees, so you implement the
WOTC strategy.
(14:23):
So I think for the smallbusiness owner, if you really
want to leverage that client andincrease revenue, you have to.
You have to give value.
You have to give value to thatclient.
And how do you give value?
Well, you have to pay taxes,right?
So I'm going to minimize yourtaxes.
Well, if you get to minimize mytaxes, well, I'll surely pay
(14:46):
for that, right.
But how much can you possiblycharge for a tax return, right?
How much can you possiblycharge for a monthly
reconciliation?
It's still administrative, butwhen you're adding value by
giving a professional service,yeah, then then the numbers get
sexy, I think.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, then the numbers get sexy, I think
Interesting.
That's cool, Matt.
What piece of insight do youhave to add on to that?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Raise your prices every year, every year.
Increase it by 10%, everysingle year.
People will be used to it.
It's really simple, will beused to it.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It's really simple.
There's definitely a lot ofpeople I've spoken with who
there's that constant fear ofyou know people are going to
leave.
Though I bring up my price,people are going to leave.
But what's the I mean the magicrule of thumb?
You may lose a couple people,but X amount are still.
They're going to be happy topay more.
And now you have less clientsyou're working with and you're
(15:50):
making more money.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Right, listen, if let me put it like this If you're
charging me $1,000 a month andyou go to $1,100, it's not going
to change anything.
If you double it and go to$2,000, yeah, we're going to
have a conversation, right?
Also, what phase are you at atyour practice?
Right, that's what these, whatdo your CPAs need to be asking
(16:11):
themselves?
Am I doing this for anotherfive to 10 years or am I looking
to sell in the next five years?
You're looking to sell in thenext five years.
Maybe you want to keep theprices there so you have
consistent revenue.
You don't have to worry aboutthe clients leaving, and then
it's a selling tactic for whenyou're selling your business you
can raise prices.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Moving forward to the client, matt, you know what I'm
going to agree with you in partand disagree with you in part.
I think all service providersshould increase their price,
except for LinkedIn marketers.
They should not increase theirprice, never those guys should
never do it.
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Oh, you guys, you guys are good there.
Hey, this isn't about about.
This isn't about us right now.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
This is about this about you guys and the insight
you're sharing.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Um, okay, last question for you guys what, what
piece of advice would you giveto either aspiring entrepreneurs
or just anyone who's inbusiness now?
You guys are extremelysuccessful.
What's maybe some of the bestadvice you've either got or that
you would give to someone else?
Speaker 4 (17:12):
When you're talking to the client.
Shut off the TV, shut off thephone, turn off your phone,
close the door, close the window, focus on the client and listen
to what the client needs.
The client is going to give youthe path.
He's going to tell you or she'sgoing to tell you what their
pain point is.
So once you listen to them andsometimes it's difficult on the
(17:35):
phone because you lack theintonation, you lack the body
language you don't see ifthey're pushing back or pulling
forward.
So on the telephone it may notbe that clear, so that zoom
helps, but you hear the, the,the, the pitch of their voice.
The intonation may change.
So once you know what they need, then you find the solution to
(17:56):
their pain point.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That's so good.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Matt Mine's simple Again just don't quit.
Keep going Right.
Too many people just quit waytoo soon.
Right, anything good, any don'tquit.
Keep going Right.
Too many people just quit waytoo soon.
Right Anything good.
Any business right, anyprofession.
You got to give yourself atleast two to three years Right
To start really making money andlearn what you're doing.
Right.
Year one you're not going tounderstand fully what you're
(18:21):
doing.
By year two.
Into year three you should bereally decent about what you do
right.
But plan, understand it's notgoing to be all sunshine and
rainbows.
It's going to be a lot of lumps.
You're going to get knockeddown a lot.
Just get back up and keep goingand don't be afraid to take
risk and chances right on things, because you never know what
could work out that's so good.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Thank you so much, guys for coming on sharing,
sharing so much insight, sharingso much knowledge.
Where, where could people getin touch if they want to
continue the conversation,especially accounting firms?
I encourage you guys to reachout, get in touch with matt and
luigi, but what's the best wayfor people to get in touch with
you?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
yeah, we're on.
We're on all the socialsmatthew mehan and luigi rosa
bianca and you can go to ourwebsite, shieldadvisorygroupcom.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Okay, perfect, we'll have that in the show notes so
that people can pick up andcontinue the conversation with
you guys.
Thanks again for coming on.
This has been great.
All right, James Thank youThanks for tuning into this
episode of CFO Chronicles thesecrets behind success.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
(19:29):
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call.
It's time to position yourselfas the advisor your clients need
(19:52):
.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract morehigh-paying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
(20:32):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
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