January 5, 2026 • 51 mins
Kick off 2026 the right way with the first Count Me In episode of the year! Adam Larson sits down with Tim Naddy, VP of Finance for the famous Savannah Bananas, professor, and passionate accounting advocate, for a lively conversation that blends humor, real talk, and fresh perspective on what it means to build a career in accounting.
From stories about melting copy machines during internships to reimagining how the next generation of accountants should be prepared, Tim shares why traditional education isn’t enough for today’s workforce, breaks down the challenges of first-year shock, and highlights the importance of mentorship and hands-on experience.
Hear how Tim is bringing creativity, energy, and storytelling into accounting education and why these skills are more essential than ever. Whether you’re a seasoned pro, new to the field, or just want a peek into what it takes to keep the wild Savannah Bananas thriving, this episode is the perfect way to set an inspired tone for the new year. Dive into a conversation that will motivate, inform, and maybe even make you laugh as you start 2026!
BILL is a leading financial operations platform for startups to established brands. Headquartered in San Jose, California, we’re a trusted partner of leading US financial institutions, accounting firms, and accounting software providers. We empower business owners, CFOs, controllers, and accountants to save time and take control of their payables, receivables, spend, and expense management. For more information, visit bill.com.
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Adam Larson (00:20):
Welcome to the first episode of twenty twenty
six here on Count Me In. I'mAdam Larson, and I can't think
of a better way of starting offthis year than sitting down with
Tim Naddy, the VP of finance forthe Savannah Bananas. In this
episode, you'll hear Tim sharehis story from earning a CPA at
the University of Florida,experiencing that first year
shock in the big four, andultimately finding his place
leading the financial side ofone of most innovative teams in
(00:42):
sports entertainment. Tim ispassionate about preparing the
next generation of accountants,and you'll get to hear his
thoughts of why mentorship,storytelling, and practical
experience are crucial fortoday's students and young
professionals. So whether you'rejust starting your accounting
journey, looking to grow as amentor, or hoping to inject some
fresh energy into your career in2026, this episode was packed
with insight and inspiration.
So let's start the year offright together. Here's my
(01:04):
conversation with Tim from theSavannah Bananas. Tim, thank you
so much for coming on Count MeIn. We're very excited to have
you. You and I met when you werein Scottsdale for IMA's
accounting conference, and I Ichatted with you because I was
like, I wanna chat with you andbring you on the podcast.
(01:25):
There's so many different thingswe could talk about, but
something that you're really,passionate about is, like, the
next generation of accountantscoming on. And so kinda what
what inspired you to kinda say,hey. I wanna make sure that the
next the next generation isready to go when they get into
the workforce.
Tim Naddy (01:39):
That's a loaded question, my friend. It's going
have to go all the way back tonineteen ninety nine, two
thousand when I got out ofschool. And I will make this a
TLDR. Right? So when I came outof school, I went to the
University of Florida, graduatedwith a master's degree, got my
CPA license.
I don't say that to say, like,pat on the back. That's just
what at the time, that's whatthat's what everybody just did.
(02:00):
Right? So if you were coming outof any of the top 10, top five
accounting programs, you thatwas that was their pick of the
litter, cream of the crop of thebusiness world. Right?
And so I got my job at PricewoodIsles Coopers. I had done an
internship, which I mean, let'sbe real. It was spreadsheet
stuff, it was it was makingcopies. I was working for the
investment investment house Bankof America investment team in
(02:21):
out of Charlotte, NorthCarolina. And I think I actually
Actually, I think I might havemelted one of their copy
machines.
I was working It was It had ithad like this It was beige, and
then over the night, could youcould smell it, and that wasn't
toner, but then there was brownthat was coming out, I'm like,
oh my gosh. Inside this thing issmoking. So if they're asking
(02:43):
for reparations, I'm not givingit to them. You sent me to do
the copies. Dutifully, finishedthat.
But when I got out of school,one of the things I noticed is
that okay. It's really importantto understand that everybody
that was graduating at the timehad all of those accolades. And
so we had an internship underour belt. We all had the
master's degree. We all had theCPA license before we were even
(03:05):
getting into in fact, before weeven get in our senior year.
And so by the time senior yearrolls around, we're we're just
basically everybody's like,where are you going to work?
Where are you going to work?Everybody had a job. Everybody
had a job. And so when you getdown to PwC and, again, it's not
a PwC thing.
This this isn't a Deloittething. It's an Anderson thing at
the time. It's a KPMG, Ernst andYoung. I mean, you pick one of
the big five, big 20, big 100,does not matter. It happens
(03:29):
everywhere you go.
And what ends up happening isyou step through the doors and
all of a sudden, all of thatknowledge that's in your head I
should say this, should pointthe finger in, all the knowledge
that's in my head was like,okay, I've got I know how to I
think I know that I know how Ishould say this. I know what to
do, I don't know how to do it.So I have all the knowledge of
(03:49):
what a cash reconciliation is,what a bank statement is, all
this stuff. Agree, foot, allthese little buzzwords that you
learn, and they actually meansomething in the real world.
Whereas, I don't know, you justcan't prepare people like that
inside school, I should saythis, in a traditional way.
Way that it was being taught,it's like, here's an audit,
here's It's the Dermaceuticalsaudit. Probably a lot of kids
(04:10):
are still using it today. Here'sthe same audit that they've been
doing for the last twenty fiveyears. Now, if I went back and
did that audit, I'd be able tocrush it, but I also have twenty
three years, twenty five yearsof experience there. When you
first come into the industry,you're in the headlights.
I wrote a dissertation on this.This is the reason why I got
(04:31):
into being a professor, was thatI looked around and saw my
class, they were getting fired.They were quitting. I'm looking
at this going, Dude, these guysare really smart people. Where
are they going?
They were just like, I think Imade a mistake. This is the
wrong career for me. Woah, woah,woah, woah, woah, tap the
(04:52):
brakes. These people are amazingpeople. They're very smart
people.
They're on their toes. I mean,they're working for the big
four, Right? And were like, theywere falling out, boom, boom,
boom, And so and of course, afew of them, I think a couple of
them maybe got fired because,you know, they were a little bit
too much of the fraternity guyfor the business world. But it
(05:14):
was one of those things where Iwas just kind of I was very
rattled. And so it ended uphaving a I had a conversation
with my former audit professor,Doctor.
Robert Neckle out of Universityof Florida. I got the
opportunity. We were talkingabout ice hockey before you
record. Got the opportunity. Weused to have PwC had the the
client had the Ice Palace, whichat the time was the Saint Pete
(05:35):
Ice Forum.
I don't know what it's callednow, but it's, but the that's
where the Tampa Bay Lightningplay. And at the time, Tampa Bay
Lightning were just hot, man.They had the they had the rookie
of the year, Vincent LeCavier,they had it was awesome. It was
what was actually my first hintof getting into sports. I was
like, this is pretty cool.
I like this vibe. So, anyway, sothe guys walk around. I remember
(05:56):
this it was a seminal that wastalking about. Was like, hey,
anybody here a gator? And it'slike, you wanna go to the game
tonight?
And I I peek out from my cubicleat a groundhog. Yeah. I'm a
gator. It's like, hey, yeah.There's some some some Gator
accounting professor is gonna bein the box tonight.
You you you wanna go and and andhang with him? I was like, oh,
yeah. So I got to go into the XOclub, which was awesome. Right?
(06:17):
Never been there before as astaff for PwC, and I'm thinking,
man, right, pulling out.
I see Doctor. Neckle there. Theydidn't tell me who it was. I saw
Doctor. Neckle there.
Now Neckle and I had a pretty,pretty good relationship when I
was in school. In fact, God'shonest truth, I showed up to his
Audit two exam, which was thefinal exam that I took at
University of Florida. A littlebit tipsy because we went to the
(06:38):
swamp before. It was our lastchest our last test, and I
already had an a in the class.And and I took his test.
I was a little I was you know,looking back, I was probably
pretty I was probably prettyloud. I would have given me a b
two. But I came as I came down,he goes, how do you think you
did? And I was like, I wasliquid cursed. It's like, I dare
you to give me anything lessthan an A.
He gave me a B. So had a bone topick with this guy, right? I
(07:00):
walk up to him, I'm like, Hey,Neckl, what's going on? Give him
a hug, whatever. And thenfinally, after he had had a
couple drinks, I wasn't able todrink that night, but I was just
like, I got to ask him thisquestion.
I said, I want to know why youdidn't prepare me for the real
world. And he just kind of looksat me with this look, and it was
I'll never forget it because itwas it was like he knew
(07:21):
something that I didn't, and Ididn't like that. So, he ended
up starting to explain, Natty,there's there's no time to
prepare you guys for what thereal world really needs. And I
was like, I'm like, that soundslike a bunch of cockamamie BS.
Right?
I was like, what? That doesn'tmake sense at all. You have me
for, in this case, three years,you know, with all the different
(07:42):
curricula, like the two yearsgeneral ed, and then, you know,
three years of of just pureaccounting instruction. Three
years is a lot of time toprepare somebody for, I don't
know, coming out of the gates atleast crawling. And so, the way
that he said so I told him, Iwas like, it was that night.
It was that night I go, I'mgonna go back, I'm gonna get my
PhD, and I'm gonna I'm gonnabuild a curriculum that can
(08:05):
actually do this. And so and helooks at me and he says, okay,
listen, I can see that you'reupset. I was like, you you think
I'm upset. I'm like, I can'tbelieve I just said this to,
like, my former professors.Like, he's gonna go back.
He was at the time, he was a PwCemeritus professor, so I was
like, oh, man, he's gonna goback to a partner, say this,
that, and the other. But henever did. And he said, here's
what's gonna happen. You'regonna go into your pro you're
(08:26):
gonna go into your program, and,all of the idealism that you
have right now, everything thatyou wanna fix, they are going to
turn you inside out, upside downto where you will be singing
their tune before you leave. AndI said, I don't I don't agree.
And he said, best of luck toyou. And so I went back and got
my doctorate. And and as doctorof administration with an
accounting concentration, andwith this one in particular, I
(08:49):
wrote my dissertationspecifically on first year
shock. So first year shock, tokind of give you a real quick
real quick analysis is, itreally was coined by a woman out
of the out of the night aroundthe 1970s out of the nursing
industry. And she wanted toknow, why are all these new
nurses who are coming out, whyare they burning out so fast?
What she found is that there isa scale of competency. And now,
(09:12):
if you look up the five stagesof learning on the internet,
they basically have embracedthat and turned it into the
stages of learning as opposed tothe stages of competency. But if
you say stages of learning forsomebody moving up the channel
and then stages of competency,you just flip it over, it's the
stages of competency looking theother way. And, what ends up
happening is that in the very,very beginning, you don't know
what you don't know. So it'sokay.
(09:33):
I mean, you're a neophyte,nobody nobody expects you to
know anything. In fact, in thebig four, when you looked at and
you don't find this out untillater, when you when you have
when they come in and they say,hey, here's your bill. You look
at the interns and you look atthe first year staff. A first
year staff at the time when Iwas coming out was $180 an hour,
but they would discount it downto $90 an hour. And you're like,
why would they do that?
It's because the staff don'tknow what they're doing, and the
(09:54):
and the firm knows it. And whatthey do is they say, Hey, we're
going put a couple staff overhere, we're going to train over
here. You cool with that? We'lldo it half price. If that's what
the mentality is at the top ofthe organization, how do you
think they feel when it goestop?
It goes partner, senior manager,manager, senior, staff. Staff
are already considered half off,right? And everybody up here
(10:16):
knows it, so it's like, what arewe going to do to actually make
them a full fledged staffaccountant? Well, you don't
become that until you become asenior. That's like you're
granted into or you're pulledinto the club.
Now, you can't be sued yet. Gotthree more years for that, but
the whole goal was is like, thegame is I've got to get past two
busy seasons so I can be asenior, so I can actually
(10:36):
understand what I'm doing. Well,shoot, how am I going to do that
if I don't even know how to putthis knowledge that I got out
the university and apply it intothe actual functions of what we
need to be doing? It drove meabsolutely mad. So what I did,
fast forward to 2012, and I toldyou, there's story.
Fast forward to 2012, I createda curriculum. I was working at
(10:58):
Shore University, finished myDBA, got a got a nod to go work
at Shore University. And whilethere, I was able to go talk it
was, like, 2014. I created thiscurriculum based on busy
seasons. Business season one,busy season two, busy season
three.
And real, real in fact, I'mtalking to Denise about this
right now, and Mike DiPrisco atthe IMA I'm sorry, Denise
(11:19):
Froeming of the Cal CPAs. Andalso Mike, our illustrious
leader, about this curriculum,because this is how I think it
needs to be taught, because I'vebeen there. I know what it's
like. So I create thiscurriculum, and it's based off
busy What does that mean? Itmeans when you're a staff and
you come out into the realworld, there are certain things
that you are 100% absolutelygoing to do, and if you think
(11:41):
it's inventory, you might countsomething, but you're not going
to do the inventory in the back.
That is a senior level exercise,because it's not just counting
things, right? They'll So sendyou out there to do the physical
inventory, you're gonna screw itup. Everybody knows you're gonna
screw it up, so they'll fix iton the back end in the numbers.
That's just part and parcel ofthe whole thing. Know you're
gonna do things wrong, so theyfix it on the back end.
(12:03):
So, mine, you come in, you docash, and you do a little you do
a handful of the audit that youwould normally be taking on. You
get really good at doing thosethree things. You're only there
for like a quarter end or asemester. Right? Moving to the
busy season two.
Busy season two, you have someof the things that a second year
would do, but to teach you someof the social, political, and
economic things that aresqueezing down upon you as the
(12:26):
now second year, you are alsoresponsible for training the
first year. That is part of yourgrade. Well, why would you do
that? It's because if engagementfails, the whole thing fails,
right? So the business seasonthree, now you're the senior,
right?
And now you have two people thatyou're overseeing, that's part
of your is how is how well theydo in their in their stuff.
(12:46):
Yeah. Oh, yeah. You have toteach. And then, you also take
this standpoint of now you're incharge of the budget, because
even though the manager's there,the senior's really in charge of
the budget.
And now, you have the politicalramifications of what if you get
squeezed by your manager, getsqueezed by the staff. Senior is
one of the worst jobs on theplanet. And you're there for
three years, you get to makemanager, and finally, it used to
be in Anderson, you get like agolf club membership. Joking,
(13:09):
but it was like, you've arrived,right?
Adam Larson (13:12):
Yeah. Yeah.
Tim Naddy (13:13):
It's a grind. So, and so what would what had happening
is that that I I would I broughtthis to the American Accounting
Association, and this is where Iknew I was onto something.
Talking about this curriculum, Ialmost almost won the Mark Chain
Award, which is for for the bestcurriculum. They said it was
very professor specific though.Like, they need they would need
me to So, teach I was like,okay, maybe that's not the right
(13:35):
time.
But I was teaching on this in abreakout session, and I had I
would have I I rememberspecifically one woman who had
thirty five years of teachingexperience. She did she did five
to seven years in publicaccounting, and then she moved
over to being a professor, hadher PhD and everything. And she
came up to me and she says, Iremember the day that I felt
(13:58):
like I wasn't good enough foraccounting. And and I started
asking these questions around,like because the dissertation
said one thing, and I was like,yeah, this is this is pretty
spectacular. Took anywherebetween six to almost twenty
four months for people toactually settle into their role.
Yeah. And when were they gettingfired? Around month 13. They're
(14:19):
like, woah, they're not theyhaven't even they're so don't
give up on them. They've alreadybeen weeded out.
They made through the weed outsin high in in in university
level. They're here. They'resmart. Bring them along. Bring
them along.
Do better management is whatyou're doing. And so I would
have stories from all over theplace of people coming in and
saying, I I remember this. Iremember having that first year
(14:40):
shock, and it was devastating.
Adam Larson (14:41):
Yeah.
Tim Naddy (14:42):
Yep. And so that led me kind of on my crusade. I was
like, okay, I've got to figurethis out. Well, then twenty five
years happened, and I started,you know, doing my own thing.
Well, now that I'm back at nowthat I'm back in the
entertainment industry with theSavannah Bananas, I got one foot
in the bananas.
I got one foot at SCAD, SavannahCollege of Art and Design. And
now I'm working with creativeswho don't want to learn
(15:03):
accounting at all, but they haveto because they have a bunch of
intellectual property with theirpaintings, sculptors, their
video games, everything thattheir fashion, right? They're
they're gonna have intellectualproperty put out there, and I
basically tell them, like, look,on this side of heaven, we need
money. So you're either gonna gowork for somebody else who's
gonna take that intellectualproperty and make a bunch more
money on it than you are, or youcan go hang your own shingle and
(15:26):
do it yourself. If you're goingto do it yourself, let me show
you how not to get screwed inbusiness.
Right? So basically, it's calledstrategic financial management,
three big words, but basicallysays, I'm going teach you how to
how to own your IP and make surethat you know how the
fundamentals of running abusiness. And so that's where I
am right now, and that's why I'mextremely passionate about it to
(15:48):
of further that to one morefifteen more seconds. There was
no book. I was using the case onWeigandt cost accounting book,
400 pages thick, hard to cover.
You know what I'm talking about.All taken We've all like thrown
it across the room now. Youknow, sometimes people sit on it
in their cars now to reach thepedals. But there is no book
that can explain accounting in away that is not threatening.
(16:12):
Threatening in the sense thatit's extremely technical, and if
your brain doesn't work likethat, it's Even for business and
accounting majors, it's verytechnical.
It's very boring. It's very meh.So, I set out to write a book. I
finished it. And so I'm talkingto publishers right now to get
this thing out there so that wecan just I just want to I want
(16:32):
to make accounting moreappealing to people so that they
don't look at it and go, I don'tlike don't like it when kids
come into the into the room andthey're like, oh, I have to I
have to take accounting.
It's like, I want them to comeand say, dude, I've heard about
your course. I can't wait to seewhat we figure out what I figure
out about my life, you know? AndI wanna do accounting. I wanna
do finance. I want to do thesethings as opposed to, you know,
my mom and dad, you know, I I'man I'm an athlete.
(16:53):
I have to I have to take thisstuff. I want them to to really
appreciate the discipline. Theway I the way that I do and the
way that you do and everybodyelse around us does, I think
that accounting is such abeautiful discipline. And it
one, we should stop weedingpeople out at the very
beginning, but we shouldprobably give them a better a
better intro into into thefamily and then say, hey,
(17:14):
listen. If you don't look.
You wanna come into accounting?You don't have to be a CPA. I
mean, but if you got anaccounting degree, why wouldn't
you wanna be a CPA? But it'sokay if you're not. There's also
the management accountant route,and it's not like it's not like
the CMA is is not as not asworthy as the CPA.
CPAs, you guys just you take adifferent a different route.
(17:34):
It's now, the CPA is stillconsidered the crown jewel of
our our discipline. Okay. That'sfine. But you don't have to go
do public accounting in order tohave a really nice and and
wonderful career in accounting.
In fact, I worked for theSavannah Bananas. I got an
accounting degree. I worked forthe craziest, you know,
traveling circus, if you will.Yeah. And and that's one of the
(17:56):
things that I really wannaimpress upon these young kids.
I'm sorry, students. They're allyounger than me, is that a
career in accounting, aneducation in accounting opens up
so many doors for for theseindividuals who maybe they just
don't know what they wanna do,but I can guarantee you, if you
go to school and you have noidea, get the accounting degree,
(18:16):
you will have options. And andthey're options that when people
talk to you, they don't theydon't kind of they listen to
your opinion because you knowwhat's red and what's black. You
know you know what's revenue,you know what's expenses. Right?
You know those things. And, atthe end of the day, look at
politics, look at social media,look at everything. It all comes
down it all comes down todollars and cents. And if you
(18:37):
understand, you understand thebottom line, top line, gross
margin, bottom line, thosethings, you are gonna go way
further than somebody whodoesn't understand those things,
and has to basically give begiven a budget and be told, hey,
you you went over your budget.Sorry.
Sorry. You get to actually makethe budgets, you know?
Adam Larson (18:55):
I love your story because it kinda shows how
everybody's journey is sodifferent, and, like, the way
you got to where you are is isyour journey, and it's amazing
to hear that story. And I thinkabout how every stew like, a
student who might be listeningto this or somebody who's in
their first couple years beinglike, man, I wish I had had his
class. Or, like and and I guess,how do you kinda close that gap
(19:17):
to make to get to get to theaccounting students who are
coming in there? Because noteverybody can go to can be near
Savannah and take that class andand and take your class and take
that curriculum. So, you know,how do we close that gap for
accounting students?
Tim Naddy (19:30):
Well, I I appreciate this question, Adam. So what I
was talking in fact, I think Iwill be, with you guys in when
is your student leadershipprogram? It's in November. Yep.
I think I'm gonna be I thinkthat's the I was talking to
Leanne and Mike, and, we'llwe'll probably be in front of,
what, four to five studentleaders.
Right? Yeah. Think the way we dothis is, one, it's it's it's
(19:52):
it's gotta be bigger than me. II mean, I have a pretty loud
voice. I have a pretty prettystout platform, but people don't
look at the bananas as anaccounting organization.
They look at it as anentertainment organization.
Right? But for the time that Ihave here at this at this
particular platform, people,some for whatever reason, they
find me interesting. Right? It'sit's one of the reasons why
we're having this conversationright now.
(20:12):
It's like, if I wasn't with thebananas, you'd be like, hey.
It's just another CPA. The Iunderstand. I understand. But
what I'm thinking is that sowith this book that I've written
And by the way, is not a ploy tosell books.
What it is, it's a ploy to havepeople look at a new text and
look at the way that it's beingcommunicated to people, and that
if people start If it startsresonating, if like the it's a
(20:36):
cost accounting book. Here'swhat I'd say. It's a cost
accounting book with anentrepreneurial jacket. I mean
by that is storytelling. I don'thave to give you a lot of
numbers, and I know that peoplesay, Oh, accounting is just
math.
It's not just math. It is notjust math. It is not just math.
It is a language. We just happento use numbers in order to
(20:56):
communicate what we're trying tosay, and a lot of us, I would
say a majority of us, are notvery good at communicating what
we're trying to say.
We just basically, hey, here'sthe numbers, and someone looks
at it and goes, so what am Isaying here? What are you
saying? It's like, you're notgoing go out of business next
year. Great. Can you give meanything else?
Audit fee will be X. No, no, no.That's not how you do it. I
(21:18):
think that we need to do a lotmore on the on the side of of
communicating, like, thestorytelling aspect of what we
do. And and really getting intoforget about forget about
business communication.
Everybody knows how to write anemail. Everybody knows how to
text. I mean, some people are,know, emojis are back. So, we're
all the way back to theNeanderthal days of writing on
caves and people understandingthose things. Of course,
(21:39):
context, different differentsituations.
But the but what I see here isthat if we can if we can
introduce, like, seriouslyintroduce storytelling to the
accounting curriculum, I thinkwhat would happen two things.
You would have people thatfinally can understand how to
how to actually create an arc.Beginning, journey, ending,
(22:03):
denouement, oh, what happened?You know, like the crescendo,
bang, what happened? All of asudden, you'll have people that
can discuss financial things ina way that actually can tie in
relevant information, can tie incurrent information, can tie in
the fact that the person mighthave some other things outside
the office that they'restruggling with.
Hey, work that into theconversation so as, hey, while
(22:24):
this is really important, thisis not important. This is not
that urgent right now. You canwait a couple weeks until
everything's done. The clientsjust want to know that you that
you're listening, that they andthat they're seen, right? This
whole scene thing.
And that's all that stuff is isaccomplished inside what we call
storytelling. I mean, we've beendoing it for eons. Yeah.
(22:44):
Bonfire, wood, people around,people looking over in the
windows, what's the old guy withthe big old beard and the
naughty staff saying? He needsto spit in a yarn, man.
We need to be better at doingthat, taking technical
information and turning ittangible. The instant we start
doing that, we're going to startpulling people to our discipline
because it's going to becomeit's not going be so nerdy
(23:06):
anymore, it's going be fun. AndI mean, the basis of accounting,
I have fun with accounting. Imean, sure, there's those days
you grind, but the the realityof it is that we just need to do
something different in ourcurriculum in order to make it
to make it work. And this iswhere I think when you say
bridging the gap, I think if youhave that storytelling element,
if we if we if we teach them howto how to run a business first.
(23:29):
Right? I just don't care aboutthe financial reporting side as
much as I used to, becausefinancial reporting goes the CPA
route. And while I have a I'm aCPA myself. I just don't I think
that there's a broader base herethat we need to be speaking
with, and and it's thataccounting in and of itself is
(23:50):
such a is such a vibrant andelastic career that everybody
everybody needs to be able totell the tell a good story. And
that's not embellishing.
That's just taking facts andweaving them into a way that
actually makes sense to someoneon the other side who has no
idea how to interpret financialinformation. And now watching
Fox News Business, they'rewatching MSNBC, or whatever
(24:12):
they're called these days, allthese different things, and
they're trying gain all theseinsights, and these people, they
don't really know what they'retalking about. So, the most
trusted advisor that's going bein that room, their accountant,
needs to be better atcommunicating the stuff that
they know inherently. It comesback to those stages of
competency. You're really goodat what you do, there's a level
(24:34):
where you go, it's likeunconscious, then you go to
conscious uncompetency, and thenyou go to unconscious
competency, then consciouscompetency.
And it's up at the very top,it's called reflexive
competency. This is the onethat's very dangerous, so at the
top of the period. Why is itdangerous? Because you know it
so well, you can't even teachit. This is the moment where
(24:55):
partners come in, or just c CFOor someone comes in, you know,
like, hey, I'd like you to dothis, and they get that look.
Like, what? Like, you know what?Don't worry about it. I think it
it'll take me fifteen minutes.It'll take you three days.
Just move aside, I'll just goahead and do it. You know?
That's not what we need to do.Now, get that there's sometimes
there's deadlines Yeah. Butthat's the reason why people are
(25:17):
leaving the leaving theprofession.
Because when we we already knowthat we're not we're we're
getting, I don't want saybroken, but let's say they're
not finished vessels yet, right?And they still need the little
ear put on mug so it doesn'thurt, it's not too hot and you
could, you know, drink thecoffee out of it. So they're not
finished yet. They don't getfinished, and we know they don't
(25:38):
get finished till at least twoyears into their actually
getting real experience, and ifthat's the case, the worst thing
we can do is decide not to usethem, is decide not to teach
them, because now it falls onus, and that's where that's
where kind of everything fallsinto place to where there's two
two things we need to do. Weneed to we need to help them
learn how to storytell.
(25:59):
We need to need to learn like,bridge that gap so that when
they get here, they know theythey they can move down that
move down that, learning curvemuch faster. Secondly, when
they're moving down a learningcurve, we we, you and me, the
seniors in the in the in theroom, we need to be good enough
to know that if they're treadingwater to be like, hey, let's
(26:20):
throw them a lifeline. Let's notjust say, oh, just go, you know,
work it work it out. You'regonna you're gonna get it. You
gotta get it on your own.
No. We're a team. Pick them up,show them how to do it, go back,
let them see if they did right.If they did it right, slap them
on the back. Hey, you did it.
Let's give you some morecomplicated stuff. Did it wrong?
Fix it. Make them do it again onanother engagement. It's
(26:42):
training, it's mentoring, it'snot giving them to fish, it's
teaching them how to fish.
And that helps us up the linebecause in five, seven years,
that's gonna be the personthat's gonna be coming up the
ranks so that you can retire,you know? So I think it's one of
those things where I go back andI say, What's more important,
your dinner plans or yoursuccession plans? Because if
(27:03):
it's your dinner plans, youdon't have succession plans. So
you might want stay at theoffice a little bit later and
help that first, second, thirdyear staff actually be
productive. Because they'regonna look at you later on and
be like, there are five peoplethat I know that helped me out,
and that person, this is theperson that taught me this, and
they'll never forget it.
(27:24):
So I think that's how we bridgethe gap. Better better education
on the on the university side,but also we have to have to have
to on the inside, mentorship, wehave to be able to turn around
and pull them into our circlesand not think that we're just,
I'm just too busy to train. No.Because at one point in your
career, they thought the samething about you, but they moved
(27:44):
their schedule aside and broughtyou into the fold. So we we just
had to remember what it was liketo be them.
Adam Larson (27:51):
Yeah. Well, and that takes a little bit of
putting aside our own egos andsaying, okay, let me let me put
aside, like, yes, I did thistwenty years ago, this new
person needs me to do it. Andit's saying, let me let me step
down and say, I will help you,young paddle one, you know?
Tim Naddy (28:05):
You know, it's actually one of those things.
Was talking about a woman theother day, she's homeschooling
her kids, and she was surprised.I said, oh, yeah, we
homeschooled our kids too, andshe goes, oh, gosh. So what was
the worst part? I was like,honestly, the worst part is
relearning the stuff that Ilearned years ago, thinking that
I still knew it, and thenrealize, oh, I forgot all that
stuff.
I think one of the reasons why alot of mentors don't want to get
(28:27):
into the nitty gritty is becauseI think they've literally
forgotten how to do things.Because technology Okay. You
want to talk about AI? AI comingin, there was an article the
other day about KPMG wants tobring people out, and within
three years, they're going bemanagers. They're not even going
to train them as staff auditorsanymore.
Like, hold the phone. One,lawsuits, lawsuit, lawsuit. If I
(28:48):
was a client and had those kids,yours telling me that my audit's
being done by AI, I'm not payingI'm not going to his thing. If
AI's going to do it, I don'tknow, 10 times faster, a 100
times faster, does my fee godown by a 100 times? Right?
But secondly, these kids don'teven know what they're doing on
cash accounts, and you're goingto accelerate them into running,
(29:12):
like dealing with management,and being the face for the
client, and dealing withutilization, realization on
jobs, and then, and by the way,you still have to deal with the
people underneath you who alsodon't know what the heck they're
doing. You know, it's like, whatare you doing? It's like, if
there was a vice, you have justput them in it, and so what's
gonna happen? You might as wellhave AI just do the entire first
(29:32):
five years of accounting becausethose people are gonna wash out
and be like, screw big four. I'mgonna go work in a private
company where I can actuallylearn something.
It's it it'll be it'll be veryinteresting what happens. I I I
think it's a lot of bluster. Ithink that because private
equity is starting to get in themix, they're like, oh, profit,
profit, profit, so you gottapush down. But what we're gonna
see is we're gonna see peopleare gonna get really smart.
(29:53):
They're gonna take their talentsescrow, or they'll they'll
create their own firms with,like like, CPA Club is doing out
there in California.
They're gonna do a valuepricing, and they're gonna take
over all the work from the bigfour. They'll they'll just
they'll siphon it off a littlebit here, little bit here until
the big four are not the bigfour anymore. There's just the
four. And they're they're doingit themselves, man. Doing it to
(30:14):
themselves.
Adam Larson (30:15):
Yeah. Well, it sounds like it would need a
whole culture change inorganizations in order to do the
things you're saying. Not allorganizations are set up to have
that culture of teaching, ofmentoring.
Tim Naddy (30:25):
Actually, I disagree with that, because I think I
that they're just think thatthey they don't emphasize it.
They were because the knowledgebase is there. There there are
people in all firms who who arethere are some people who are
who are a little bit better withpeople. Yeah. There's some
people you don't want aroundother people.
Like, just go in the closetcrank, right? And and that's
okay. That's what's great aboutaccounting. No matter which side
(30:48):
of the introvert extrovertspectrum you're on, you can can
be in a closet and crank andmake a really good living.
Right?
But for those who areextroverted, who actually who
actually enjoy being aroundpeople and numbers, I think it's
there. I think this comes downto, again, the pricing side. Why
would you sacrifice a couplehours of training when you could
(31:10):
be billing those couple hoursbecause that's what your value
is to the firm? Your value ishow many billable hours you're
pushing in there, and it's like,I don't have time, so what you
do is you push it down to thesenior manager. You push it down
to the manager.
You think they have more time?Heck no. You might have these
things stacking up inside yourenvironment. You're on your
desk, you have all these workpapers everywhere, and you're
like, oh my gosh, look how busyI am. It's like, you wouldn't be
(31:32):
that busy if you trained thepeople underneath you how to do
some of this stuff, and thenyou're just basically reviewing.
But they've lost It's a lostart. I think I think personally,
I think every I would saypartners are tough, BIM, but
partners have enough time. Theyhave enough time. They say that
they don't, but they do. I mean,I've looked up I've looked into
(31:54):
partners' offices one before,and it's like, yeah, they're not
doing anything.
I'm busting my butt over here.They're not doing anything. I
think every partner, before youmake partner, should actually go
and teach adjunct at a communitycollege or or or the one of the
intro years. You learn veryquickly how much how much do we
(32:15):
really need to be purposeful inour in our instruction. And it's
not they're not dumb questions.
They're just they're questionswe used to ask. We just we know
them now, so we think they'redumb. Right?
Adam Larson (32:25):
Yeah.
Tim Naddy (32:25):
So I think that having that insight of going and
actually seeing the frustrationon a student's face, they look,
they want to do it. They want toget it. And they want to be
successful just like they theylook at you, I want be like you
someday. Okay. How do I getthere?
This you gotta do x y z. Andthen when they get there,
they're like, this is not thisI've been sold a bill of goods.
Like, I feel I feel depressed. Ifeel dejected. I I picked the
(32:47):
wrong why am I even here?
And then that one person comesin and goes, hey, come here. Let
me show you how to do this. Andthen their their world
completely changes. Like, thescales drop from their eyes.
There's a light in them, andthey do the same thing for
everybody behind them and aroundthem.
So I think there's theproclivity there to get it done.
(33:10):
I just think that firms need tomake it a priority, just as just
as billable hours in busy seasonare a priority.
Adam Larson (33:18):
Sure.
Tim Naddy (33:19):
In my humble opinion.
Adam Larson (33:21):
Well, and I've always I've always looked at it,
you know, when somebody comesinto an organization, especially
if you come in very high in anorganization, I always feel like
that person should go down andanswer phones for, like, a week.
Hear what the customers aresaying. Be at the front lines
where your customer serviceperson is is answering those
questions, and hear what thequestions are from the people
that you're actually serving.And then understand, oh, maybe
(33:44):
this is how I can do my jobbetter because I'm understanding
what the it's like at the frontlines. Because otherwise, you're
in ethereal theoretical world,and you're not actually hearing
what the what's that thecustomer is actually saying.
Tim Naddy (33:54):
Yeah. That that's a very wise statement. And and I I
agree with you. I think thatthere's a lot there's a lot to
be said about having that thatbeing disconnected from the from
the actual grind that's gettingyou to where you want to go. And
but but it happens over time.
And and now, it's okay to saythis. As you move up the ladder,
(34:14):
your skill set changes. Right?You're you're less in the reach,
you're more overview, and so youhave to have really good people
underneath. You got to make surethat that that stays that stays
stout.
But your job now is to look outacross the horizon and say,
okay. Well, there there might bea new client. How can I service
them? How can I sell more work?And again, I'm just talking
about public accounting.
But in the private sector, it'svery similar. As you start
moving up, now you're not reallydealing in the in the weeds of
(34:37):
the AP and the AR and thosethings. You're Now looking at
budgets, you're looking atperformance, you're looking at
FP and A, right? And people relyon your research and your
analysis in order to makedecisions. Like, they're
literally in a private company.
If you get an assumption wrong,is it going to blow up the
company? Well, I mean, sometimessometimes it will. But but but
(34:57):
no. I mean, it's not like we'redoctors and, like, you make a
mistake and and someone's gonnableed out and you lost your
patient. It's like, at the endof the day, yeah, we might might
lose a few dollars.
Might lose a few billiondollars. But the the thought is
like, no one is gonna gonna diebecause of because of your your
wrong assumption on unearnedwhat is it? Just just pick a
management estimate. Right? Sobut the thought here is is that
(35:21):
as you start working your waythrough these things, you will
eventually come with your ownknowledge so that now you're a
functional unit of the of themanagement team.
Right? You're you're you'remanaging people underneath you,
and then you're also you're alsoreporting up, and you know now
you have a little bit more as asto what you understand what your
job is inherently as far astechnically, and now it's a
(35:43):
matter of how how do you,incorporate this. And I think
that's what takes those peopleto the next level is that once
you understand that piece, nowyou start selling business, you
start getting asked to come tothe rotaries and the and all
those different things wherethere's the business mixers and
what have you. Now you're in themix and people wanna do business
with you. They could care lessabout your your company.
(36:03):
They wanna they say, hey, I likethat person. I know what they're
about. I would like to dobusiness with them. They're part
of a firm. Oh, they're this.
Oh, they work here. So the skillsets change as we go up, but,
yeah, getting back to what wewere talking about earlier, as
we move up, a lot of us startshedding some of the stuff that,
you know, our branches don'twant to hold onto, and so we
have to we have to come backdown, and and like, get on one
(36:27):
knee, just like you would at abaseball game, get down on one
knee Yeah. Pull pull up thetrousers, and say, hey, what's
going on? Like, I could justsee, like, there's a little tea
right here, a little kid. He's,kinda crying.
Like, hey, man. What's up? JustYeah. Get the ball off the tee,
man, and then run. That's kindawhat we need to be doing.
But I think people are afraid todo it for a a couple of reasons.
I think that there's that thereis that productivity marker that
(36:50):
in realization, how much are yourealizing in your budgets,
again, public accounting wise.But from the private side is,
hey. Did you close? Did youclose in three three days?
Like, well, no. What were youdoing? I was I was training my
staff. Well, we don't have timefor that. Woah.
We do have time for that. Youknow? So Yeah. It's it's it's a
lot of push and pull, and Ithink that at the end of the
(37:12):
day, the the I think theorganizations that are gonna be
successful have a culture ofinternal training where where I
mean, people just aren't afraidto have people who are working
for them who are smarter thanthem. And and and some of it's
that too.
You know? People don't wannatrain really smart people
(37:33):
because they're like, oh mygosh. They might they might take
my job. Like, yeah, you gottaget out of that. So, anyway.
Adam Larson (37:39):
Well, you I mean, you talk to some certain
leadership gurus, and they'lltell you you should be training
everybody to raise up to come upbehind you so they will take
your job because you're the onemoving up because you're
bringing up everybody aroundyou, and that's the mark of a
great leader.
Tim Naddy (37:53):
Well, and and and so I agree with that. And so the
and so when it comes down towhen people are not training,
the question is, is it becausethey distrust management?
Because do they have a contract?Do they not have a contract? If
you have a contract in place,it's so much easier to train
people underneath you because,like, you're not going anywhere.
Right? If But you don't have acontract, you're right you're
right to work for hire. It'skinda like, well, gosh, if I
(38:14):
train them and they could takeover my job, I mean, now I'm now
I'm super expensive. They couldeasily have a a boon by just,
see you. We don't we don't needyour stuff anymore.
Like, there was this there was athere was a thing on LinkedIn
the other day that I thought wasreally fascinating. They were
they were talking about when aCFO steps away. Right? I'm using
CFO as an example. When a CFOsteps away, that that it's not
(38:35):
just the accounting that'sthat's actually there's not any
not just upheaval in accounting.
There's not people in the in thein the human resource section.
Because CFOs bring more thanjust a a strategy, a number
reader to the table. They'reusually they're usually the the
person that a lot of people goto because they don't want to
look dumb in front of the boss.And the CFO, I would say the CFO
(38:58):
and finance controller, whathave you, they're usually the
ones that say, hey. Let mebounce this off you.
What do you think about this?Right? And you'll have marketing
people. You have you'll haveyou'll have HR people come and
ask questions. And and whatbecause they wanna know, one,
the finance people, they theyshoot us straight.
Give me some facts. I'll shootus straight. Right? And, also,
we're very busy people. So ifwe're gonna take our time and
just sit there and talk to you,it's gonna we're gonna give you
(39:19):
a good answer so that you don'tcome back.
It's like, we're gonna give youthe information you want. But
the but the thought was is thatif someone if someone in a in a
valuable position like the CFOor the controller or senior
manager, what have you, were toleave, the company actually
loses a lot more than justaccounting talent. They lose a
person who has been a confidantfor many, many employees. And,
(39:42):
like, a consigliere to a lot ofa lot of other executives and
and maybe even board members,CFOs, and I would say just in
the finance and accounting, Ikeep saying CFOs, but really the
finance and accounting world. Weknow a lot about what's going on
in organizations because the,you know, the legal bills come
through, the invoices comethrough.
We know we know everythingthat's happening.
Adam Larson (40:02):
Yeah.
Tim Naddy (40:03):
But the and so and so then to have that that added
ability because people come tous because they trust us. We're
very trustworthy. I mean,accountants are very trustworthy
people. And and as long as wedon't abuse that trust, people
will continue to ask for ouropinions, what have you. And so
we tend to know things.
Know know things more than whatHR does because people don't
even wanna complain to HRanymore. HR is like, yeah. I
(40:23):
don't need it. Just toss yourway. It seems to be finance and
accounting is starting to bethat that or that internal sub
HR function where people say, Ijust I just want a real answer.
Like, don't don't give me anydrama. Like, what what are you
seeing? What are the tea leavessaying? And they're they're
taking that information andmoving with it because we're the
we're the strategists. Right?
(40:43):
We we know where this thesethings are held. So Yeah. Also
puts the onus on us to be verycautious in how we advise.
Right? I don't wanna do anythingto to create negativity or what
have you.
But the but the thought is,though, is that if we are if
we're out there and providingthese kinds of services, then
when someone from a finance andaccounting role leaves the
(41:05):
organization, it's it's not justripping off a Band Aid. You're
you're you're getting someyou're getting some skin, a scab
with That's really gross. Butthe it hurts is what I'm saying.
Yeah. It's not it's not justyou're just replacing a number
person.
You're replacing somebody whopeople really rely on
professionally and personally.So I think that I think these
roles are vital. I think thatwhen you talk about students
(41:27):
getting into these roles, it's ait's a fun place to be because
every I would say, for the mostpart, everybody respects you for
the knowledge base that you haveand how you apply it and and how
you can get things done.Everybody looks to the finance
people like, those people arereally smart folks. But
secondly, it can also beincredibly rewarding because
(41:48):
when people start coming to youand asking you questions about
other things besides, you know,without a dollar sign on it,
you're now in a position of ofit says position of intimacy.
I know that's a weird weird wordto use in a business context,
but you know what I mean, wherepeople don't mind opening up to
you and asking you about itbecause they know that you're
gonna be objective with what'shappening. And be and by
(42:11):
default, people that work infinance and accounting, they
know that confidentiality meanssomething. And so a lot of
times, people in finance andaccounting, they just they just
don't talk about that stuff. Soit's like, you you talk you come
up here, you talk. It's like,okay.
Hey. You got anything else inyour mind? Okay. You good?
Alright.
Let me know if any if if we cando anything for you. I get back
to work. They feel better. It'sit kind of works. And it works
(42:33):
like that everywhere.
It's not just the bananas. Itworks like that everywhere. So
Yeah. Not sure how we got onthat rabbit trail, but I liked
it.
Adam Larson (42:41):
That was a good rabbit trail. It's funny when I
when I talk to when folks hearI'm talking to somebody from,
like, a different industry,like, you know, the Savannah
Bananas, they always want tohear the question, like, what's
it like working in thatdifferent industry? And it's
funny because most answers tothe question are like, well,
accounting is accounting nomatter what industry you're in.
And so I wanted to kinda flipthat question around and say, is
there something new you've hadto learn because you're working
(43:03):
for the Savannah Bananas in yourrole as the CFO?
Tim Naddy (43:06):
That's fair. So one of the things that, when I first
came in, I had never worked fora sports team. Right? I've
always wanted to work for asports team. So when I came in,
it was actually one of thosethings where I had a
conversation with the president,and he's like, look.
I get it. I I get it that you'venever done this before, but your
body of work speaks to it's notthat difficult to learn. Right?
One of the things I did learn,which I thought was really cool,
is that KPIs really do matter,and matter in the sense that,
(43:29):
but they're they'rehyperspecific to the
organization and the industry.When I when I teach about KPIs,
whether it's SCAD or shorter orwherever I was, I I don't really
I don't really spend a lot oftime on ratios per se because
ratios, in my opinion, and Iwill say in my opinion, they're
they're not really fruitful inin the analysis of the
(43:51):
organization.
I mean, day of day salesoutstanding, all of these all
these traditional ones that youlearn in accounting school and
in finance school. I think it'sthey're more of talking points
than anything else. I mean,again, you can go to Fox
Business, you can go look at MadMoney, that's what they chirp
about. Right? But then again,they they they put an algorithm
out there, and all of a sudden,the algorithm is supposed to
speak to, like, the health of myworking environment.
(44:12):
That's all BS. So it's justYeah. It's a number that an
analyst can look at and go, ohmy god. Is the stock gonna go up
by 2¢, or is it gonna go down by3¢? Right?
The so I don't really focus onratios, but I've I've come
around to KPIs. And what I meanby that is that, like,
specifically in the baseballindustry, or really just the
sports industry, we have what'scalled a per cap, per capita.
(44:33):
And a per cap, you can use a percap very similar to it's getting
really nerdy. We're about to getnerdy. When you look at vertical
analysis versus horizontalanalysis, okay?
And what I mean by that is youtake an income statement or P
and L and you say it, or abalance sheet, but we'll stay on
the P and L, and you're saying,Hey, I want to compare two
companies, right? A companythat's a $5,000,000,000 company
and a $5,000,000 company. Well,how in the world are you going
(44:54):
to do that in the context oflike, that company's way too
big. They have so many otherprocesses, blah blah blah blah
blah. Well, then you do what youhave what's you have what's
called comparable statements.
Right? The but the yeah.Comparable statements. So you
take it and you say, okay, let'stake the percentage of the
revenues. And so that's a 100%.
And as we start moving down,cost of goods sold, gross
margin, and now you get downinto SG and A and all your fixed
costs, it's a percentage ofsales. Right? So now, all of a
(45:17):
sudden, this $5,000,000,000company and this $5,000,000
company, you can look at themand go, oh, look at that. Their
cost of goods sold is 36% minus34%. It's like, oh, man, I beat
I'm beating the the industrygiant.
Right? Now, where do get thatinformation? A lot of these guys
are public. Right? So you canactually look at those things.
But if you wanted to identifyhow to look at your organization
(45:38):
versus a bigger organization,you can in that manner. Well,
per caps are very similar tothat in that it's like a
universal metric across all of,I mean, you could say all of
entertainment, but let's justkeep it inside sports because
sports is a little bit morelike, I could say Broadway and
things like that, but food andbeverage and Broadway is
probably a little bit different.But the number basically, it's
(45:59):
the number of people that comein. So let's say let's say you
sell let's let's keep it simple.Let's say you sell 10,000
tickets.
Right? And in 10,000 tickets,let's say 9,000 people come.
Right? So you're at a 90% re inthis case, realization rate for
us, but it's a 90% scanned rate.So your redemption's at 90%.
Alright? So when you make whenlet's say you have let's say you
(46:22):
have you sell $2,727,000 dollarsworth of merchandise. Well,
$27,000 I'm sorry, $270,000 ofmerchandise, and you have 99,000
people in the building. Right,you don't use 10,000 because
there's thousand people thataren't there. You take that
9,000, you take the $2.70,divide it by nine, and all of a
sudden, you're at what'sconsidered a $30 per cap, which
(46:43):
means that on average, those9,000 people spent $30 at your
merchandise tables.
Right? Now, is that did didevery single person spend 30 no.
Some people spend a 180. Somepeople spend 5, whatever it is,
but the average comes out toabout $30. Why why you can take
(47:04):
that?
Now you can do that you can dothat with merchandise. You can
do that with food and beverage.Right? Why is that important?
Because now you're getting downto the per person cost.
So I could say if someone ifsomeone spent $30, average $30,
how much average cost were thewere the things that they
purchased? Right? If averagecost is anywhere between if it's
(47:24):
like $15, I'm at a 50% marginjust on materials alone. I
haven't I haven't I haven'tincluded the labor or the
overhead or logistics of evengetting that stuff out there
yet. So I have, $30 and $15?
Woah. Woah. What what what's gotwhat's happening? Or if it's
down to, like, maybe, like, a 10or a $9 cost, like, woah. We're
we're, like, down underneath34%.
(47:46):
Hey. Good job, team. So thesethese are there are all these
little things that can canreally shortcut the analysis on
how well an an organization isdoing at a not only a particular
event, but also across, a seriesof events, so like a weekend or
whether it's a month or aseason. And those become the
(48:08):
little canaries in the coal minethat go, okay. What promotion
did we do on this one night thatthat led people to buy more
hats?
Right? And okay. So let let'slet's really find that out.
Because a lot of times, peoplejust need to know how their
marketing is actuallytranslating into their numbers,
(48:29):
specifically from an from anaccounting standpoint. And so
that per cap can help.
So one of the things that one ofthe things that I found is that
not not necessarily KPIs per se,but but the I'm sorry. Not
necessarily ratios, but certainKPIs for for certain industries.
And and again, it it becomesvery, very specific. Once you
(48:51):
understand how that rolls intothe overarching operation, you
can then start moving intooperating off of percentages.
Instant you're able to theinstant you're able to move away
from dollars and move intopercentages is the day that you
own your environment to wheresomeone you can look at it.
In fact, you can you should youprobably get this. There are
(49:13):
those people that and it used toit used to befall me. Was like,
that guy's looking at a a p andl, he's, like, telling me all
the things wrong with thisorganization. All the things
good is and, like, how in theworld are you doing that?
Because in his head, he's like,editor going, This this this
this balance sheet versus this pand l, that doesn't match.
And he's like, and so you lookat that and go, how did he just
(49:33):
do that? Well, it's because overtime, you get good at this, but
also, you know what to look for.You know you know where the
warning signs are. You knowwhere people are gonna if
they're going to do it, wherethey're gonna hide it hide it.
And I think that's one of thethings that when you start
looking at when you startgetting into accounting is
accounting is accounting,specifically to my industry
inside, again, baseball, bananaball, what have you, per cap's a
(49:56):
big deal.
And if and if I understand whatthose per caps are, after every
game, I can look at those percaps and go, is it above? Is it
below? Is it a triple a game? Isit a Major League Baseball game?
Is it an NFL game?
A football turned baseball? Andall of those have different per
caps. And if we're within thatthreshold that I that I think we
got, then I feel good. If weblow through that threshold,
(50:19):
what in the world do we do? It'snot it's not gonna I I don't
just give myself a high five.
I'm like, oh my gosh. We did it.It's like, what happened? What
did we do here? And then also onthe flip side, if it goes below
that per cap, it's like, oh, didwere were the lines too long?
Was was something not pricedcorrectly? Did did we not do we
do we, like, fail on one of thesales? Did did we just give away
(50:41):
some stuff for free and itdidn't it didn't come in? So
lots of different things you canlearn from those those little
things. I would say I don't Ijust don't spend a lot of time
with with ratio analysis, butKPIs are important.
Adam Larson (50:53):
Yeah. That's awesome. Well, Tim, I truly
appreciate you coming on thepodcast, sharing your insights,
sharing your story a little bitwith our audience. It's been a
great conversation. I justreally wanna thank you for
coming on.
Announcer (51:06):
This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast, providing
you with the latest perspectivesof thought leaders from the
accounting and financeprofession. If you like what you
heard and you'd like to becounted in for more relevant
accounting and financeeducation, visit IMA's website
at www.imanet.org.
Welcome to the first episode of twenty twenty
six here on Count Me In. I'mAdam Larson, and I can't think
of a better way of starting offthis year than sitting down with
Tim Naddy, the VP of finance forthe Savannah Bananas. In this
episode, you'll hear Tim sharehis story from earning a CPA at
the University of Florida,experiencing that first year
shock in the big four, andultimately finding his place
leading the financial side ofone of most innovative teams in
(00:42):
sports entertainment. Tim ispassionate about preparing the
next generation of accountants,and you'll get to hear his
thoughts of why mentorship,storytelling, and practical
experience are crucial fortoday's students and young
professionals. So whether you'rejust starting your accounting
journey, looking to grow as amentor, or hoping to inject some
fresh energy into your career in2026, this episode was packed
with insight and inspiration.
So let's start the year offright together. Here's my
(01:04):
conversation with Tim from theSavannah Bananas. Tim, thank you
so much for coming on Count MeIn. We're very excited to have
you. You and I met when you werein Scottsdale for IMA's
accounting conference, and I Ichatted with you because I was
like, I wanna chat with you andbring you on the podcast.
(01:25):
There's so many different thingswe could talk about, but
something that you're really,passionate about is, like, the
next generation of accountantscoming on. And so kinda what
what inspired you to kinda say,hey. I wanna make sure that the
next the next generation isready to go when they get into
the workforce.
Tim Naddy (01:39):
That's a loaded question, my friend. It's going
have to go all the way back tonineteen ninety nine, two
thousand when I got out ofschool. And I will make this a
TLDR. Right? So when I came outof school, I went to the
University of Florida, graduatedwith a master's degree, got my
CPA license.
I don't say that to say, like,pat on the back. That's just
what at the time, that's whatthat's what everybody just did.
(02:00):
Right? So if you were coming outof any of the top 10, top five
accounting programs, you thatwas that was their pick of the
litter, cream of the crop of thebusiness world. Right?
And so I got my job at PricewoodIsles Coopers. I had done an
internship, which I mean, let'sbe real. It was spreadsheet
stuff, it was it was makingcopies. I was working for the
investment investment house Bankof America investment team in
(02:21):
out of Charlotte, NorthCarolina. And I think I actually
Actually, I think I might havemelted one of their copy
machines.
I was working It was It had ithad like this It was beige, and
then over the night, could youcould smell it, and that wasn't
toner, but then there was brownthat was coming out, I'm like,
oh my gosh. Inside this thing issmoking. So if they're asking
(02:43):
for reparations, I'm not givingit to them. You sent me to do
the copies. Dutifully, finishedthat.
But when I got out of school,one of the things I noticed is
that okay. It's really importantto understand that everybody
that was graduating at the timehad all of those accolades. And
so we had an internship underour belt. We all had the
master's degree. We all had theCPA license before we were even
(03:05):
getting into in fact, before weeven get in our senior year.
And so by the time senior yearrolls around, we're we're just
basically everybody's like,where are you going to work?
Where are you going to work?Everybody had a job. Everybody
had a job. And so when you getdown to PwC and, again, it's not
a PwC thing.
This this isn't a Deloittething. It's an Anderson thing at
the time. It's a KPMG, Ernst andYoung. I mean, you pick one of
the big five, big 20, big 100,does not matter. It happens
(03:29):
everywhere you go.
And what ends up happening isyou step through the doors and
all of a sudden, all of thatknowledge that's in your head I
should say this, should pointthe finger in, all the knowledge
that's in my head was like,okay, I've got I know how to I
think I know that I know how Ishould say this. I know what to
do, I don't know how to do it.So I have all the knowledge of
(03:49):
what a cash reconciliation is,what a bank statement is, all
this stuff. Agree, foot, allthese little buzzwords that you
learn, and they actually meansomething in the real world.
Whereas, I don't know, you justcan't prepare people like that
inside school, I should saythis, in a traditional way.
Way that it was being taught,it's like, here's an audit,
here's It's the Dermaceuticalsaudit. Probably a lot of kids
(04:10):
are still using it today. Here'sthe same audit that they've been
doing for the last twenty fiveyears. Now, if I went back and
did that audit, I'd be able tocrush it, but I also have twenty
three years, twenty five yearsof experience there. When you
first come into the industry,you're in the headlights.
I wrote a dissertation on this.This is the reason why I got
(04:31):
into being a professor, was thatI looked around and saw my
class, they were getting fired.They were quitting. I'm looking
at this going, Dude, these guysare really smart people. Where
are they going?
They were just like, I think Imade a mistake. This is the
wrong career for me. Woah, woah,woah, woah, woah, tap the
(04:52):
brakes. These people are amazingpeople. They're very smart
people.
They're on their toes. I mean,they're working for the big
four, Right? And were like, theywere falling out, boom, boom,
boom, And so and of course, afew of them, I think a couple of
them maybe got fired because,you know, they were a little bit
too much of the fraternity guyfor the business world. But it
(05:14):
was one of those things where Iwas just kind of I was very
rattled. And so it ended uphaving a I had a conversation
with my former audit professor,Doctor.
Robert Neckle out of Universityof Florida. I got the
opportunity. We were talkingabout ice hockey before you
record. Got the opportunity. Weused to have PwC had the the
client had the Ice Palace, whichat the time was the Saint Pete
(05:35):
Ice Forum.
I don't know what it's callednow, but it's, but the that's
where the Tampa Bay Lightningplay. And at the time, Tampa Bay
Lightning were just hot, man.They had the they had the rookie
of the year, Vincent LeCavier,they had it was awesome. It was
what was actually my first hintof getting into sports. I was
like, this is pretty cool.
I like this vibe. So, anyway, sothe guys walk around. I remember
(05:56):
this it was a seminal that wastalking about. Was like, hey,
anybody here a gator? And it'slike, you wanna go to the game
tonight?
And I I peek out from my cubicleat a groundhog. Yeah. I'm a
gator. It's like, hey, yeah.There's some some some Gator
accounting professor is gonna bein the box tonight.
You you you wanna go and and andhang with him? I was like, oh,
yeah. So I got to go into the XOclub, which was awesome. Right?
(06:17):
Never been there before as astaff for PwC, and I'm thinking,
man, right, pulling out.
I see Doctor. Neckle there. Theydidn't tell me who it was. I saw
Doctor. Neckle there.
Now Neckle and I had a pretty,pretty good relationship when I
was in school. In fact, God'shonest truth, I showed up to his
Audit two exam, which was thefinal exam that I took at
University of Florida. A littlebit tipsy because we went to the
(06:38):
swamp before. It was our lastchest our last test, and I
already had an a in the class.And and I took his test.
I was a little I was you know,looking back, I was probably
pretty I was probably prettyloud. I would have given me a b
two. But I came as I came down,he goes, how do you think you
did? And I was like, I wasliquid cursed. It's like, I dare
you to give me anything lessthan an A.
He gave me a B. So had a bone topick with this guy, right? I
(07:00):
walk up to him, I'm like, Hey,Neckl, what's going on? Give him
a hug, whatever. And thenfinally, after he had had a
couple drinks, I wasn't able todrink that night, but I was just
like, I got to ask him thisquestion.
I said, I want to know why youdidn't prepare me for the real
world. And he just kind of looksat me with this look, and it was
I'll never forget it because itwas it was like he knew
(07:21):
something that I didn't, and Ididn't like that. So, he ended
up starting to explain, Natty,there's there's no time to
prepare you guys for what thereal world really needs. And I
was like, I'm like, that soundslike a bunch of cockamamie BS.
Right?
I was like, what? That doesn'tmake sense at all. You have me
for, in this case, three years,you know, with all the different
(07:42):
curricula, like the two yearsgeneral ed, and then, you know,
three years of of just pureaccounting instruction. Three
years is a lot of time toprepare somebody for, I don't
know, coming out of the gates atleast crawling. And so, the way
that he said so I told him, Iwas like, it was that night.
It was that night I go, I'mgonna go back, I'm gonna get my
PhD, and I'm gonna I'm gonnabuild a curriculum that can
(08:05):
actually do this. And so and helooks at me and he says, okay,
listen, I can see that you'reupset. I was like, you you think
I'm upset. I'm like, I can'tbelieve I just said this to,
like, my former professors.Like, he's gonna go back.
He was at the time, he was a PwCemeritus professor, so I was
like, oh, man, he's gonna goback to a partner, say this,
that, and the other. But henever did. And he said, here's
what's gonna happen. You'regonna go into your pro you're
(08:26):
gonna go into your program, and,all of the idealism that you
have right now, everything thatyou wanna fix, they are going to
turn you inside out, upside downto where you will be singing
their tune before you leave. AndI said, I don't I don't agree.
And he said, best of luck toyou. And so I went back and got
my doctorate. And and as doctorof administration with an
accounting concentration, andwith this one in particular, I
(08:49):
wrote my dissertationspecifically on first year
shock. So first year shock, tokind of give you a real quick
real quick analysis is, itreally was coined by a woman out
of the out of the night aroundthe 1970s out of the nursing
industry. And she wanted toknow, why are all these new
nurses who are coming out, whyare they burning out so fast?
What she found is that there isa scale of competency. And now,
(09:12):
if you look up the five stagesof learning on the internet,
they basically have embracedthat and turned it into the
stages of learning as opposed tothe stages of competency. But if
you say stages of learning forsomebody moving up the channel
and then stages of competency,you just flip it over, it's the
stages of competency looking theother way. And, what ends up
happening is that in the very,very beginning, you don't know
what you don't know. So it'sokay.
(09:33):
I mean, you're a neophyte,nobody nobody expects you to
know anything. In fact, in thebig four, when you looked at and
you don't find this out untillater, when you when you have
when they come in and they say,hey, here's your bill. You look
at the interns and you look atthe first year staff. A first
year staff at the time when Iwas coming out was $180 an hour,
but they would discount it downto $90 an hour. And you're like,
why would they do that?
It's because the staff don'tknow what they're doing, and the
(09:54):
and the firm knows it. And whatthey do is they say, Hey, we're
going put a couple staff overhere, we're going to train over
here. You cool with that? We'lldo it half price. If that's what
the mentality is at the top ofthe organization, how do you
think they feel when it goestop?
It goes partner, senior manager,manager, senior, staff. Staff
are already considered half off,right? And everybody up here
(10:16):
knows it, so it's like, what arewe going to do to actually make
them a full fledged staffaccountant? Well, you don't
become that until you become asenior. That's like you're
granted into or you're pulledinto the club.
Now, you can't be sued yet. Gotthree more years for that, but
the whole goal was is like, thegame is I've got to get past two
busy seasons so I can be asenior, so I can actually
(10:36):
understand what I'm doing. Well,shoot, how am I going to do that
if I don't even know how to putthis knowledge that I got out
the university and apply it intothe actual functions of what we
need to be doing? It drove meabsolutely mad. So what I did,
fast forward to 2012, and I toldyou, there's story.
Fast forward to 2012, I createda curriculum. I was working at
(10:58):
Shore University, finished myDBA, got a got a nod to go work
at Shore University. And whilethere, I was able to go talk it
was, like, 2014. I created thiscurriculum based on busy
seasons. Business season one,busy season two, busy season
three.
And real, real in fact, I'mtalking to Denise about this
right now, and Mike DiPrisco atthe IMA I'm sorry, Denise
(11:19):
Froeming of the Cal CPAs. Andalso Mike, our illustrious
leader, about this curriculum,because this is how I think it
needs to be taught, because I'vebeen there. I know what it's
like. So I create thiscurriculum, and it's based off
busy What does that mean? Itmeans when you're a staff and
you come out into the realworld, there are certain things
that you are 100% absolutelygoing to do, and if you think
(11:41):
it's inventory, you might countsomething, but you're not going
to do the inventory in the back.
That is a senior level exercise,because it's not just counting
things, right? They'll So sendyou out there to do the physical
inventory, you're gonna screw itup. Everybody knows you're gonna
screw it up, so they'll fix iton the back end in the numbers.
That's just part and parcel ofthe whole thing. Know you're
gonna do things wrong, so theyfix it on the back end.
(12:03):
So, mine, you come in, you docash, and you do a little you do
a handful of the audit that youwould normally be taking on. You
get really good at doing thosethree things. You're only there
for like a quarter end or asemester. Right? Moving to the
busy season two.
Busy season two, you have someof the things that a second year
would do, but to teach you someof the social, political, and
economic things that aresqueezing down upon you as the
(12:26):
now second year, you are alsoresponsible for training the
first year. That is part of yourgrade. Well, why would you do
that? It's because if engagementfails, the whole thing fails,
right? So the business seasonthree, now you're the senior,
right?
And now you have two people thatyou're overseeing, that's part
of your is how is how well theydo in their in their stuff.
(12:46):
Yeah. Oh, yeah. You have toteach. And then, you also take
this standpoint of now you're incharge of the budget, because
even though the manager's there,the senior's really in charge of
the budget.
And now, you have the politicalramifications of what if you get
squeezed by your manager, getsqueezed by the staff. Senior is
one of the worst jobs on theplanet. And you're there for
three years, you get to makemanager, and finally, it used to
be in Anderson, you get like agolf club membership. Joking,
(13:09):
but it was like, you've arrived,right?
Adam Larson (13:12):
Yeah. Yeah.
Tim Naddy (13:13):
It's a grind. So, and so what would what had happening
is that that I I would I broughtthis to the American Accounting
Association, and this is where Iknew I was onto something.
Talking about this curriculum, Ialmost almost won the Mark Chain
Award, which is for for the bestcurriculum. They said it was
very professor specific though.Like, they need they would need
me to So, teach I was like,okay, maybe that's not the right
(13:35):
time.
But I was teaching on this in abreakout session, and I had I
would have I I rememberspecifically one woman who had
thirty five years of teachingexperience. She did she did five
to seven years in publicaccounting, and then she moved
over to being a professor, hadher PhD and everything. And she
came up to me and she says, Iremember the day that I felt
(13:58):
like I wasn't good enough foraccounting. And and I started
asking these questions around,like because the dissertation
said one thing, and I was like,yeah, this is this is pretty
spectacular. Took anywherebetween six to almost twenty
four months for people toactually settle into their role.
Yeah. And when were they gettingfired? Around month 13. They're
(14:19):
like, woah, they're not theyhaven't even they're so don't
give up on them. They've alreadybeen weeded out.
They made through the weed outsin high in in in university
level. They're here. They'resmart. Bring them along. Bring
them along.
Do better management is whatyou're doing. And so I would
have stories from all over theplace of people coming in and
saying, I I remember this. Iremember having that first year
(14:40):
shock, and it was devastating.
Adam Larson (14:41):
Yeah.
Tim Naddy (14:42):
Yep. And so that led me kind of on my crusade. I was
like, okay, I've got to figurethis out. Well, then twenty five
years happened, and I started,you know, doing my own thing.
Well, now that I'm back at nowthat I'm back in the
entertainment industry with theSavannah Bananas, I got one foot
in the bananas.
I got one foot at SCAD, SavannahCollege of Art and Design. And
now I'm working with creativeswho don't want to learn
(15:03):
accounting at all, but they haveto because they have a bunch of
intellectual property with theirpaintings, sculptors, their
video games, everything thattheir fashion, right? They're
they're gonna have intellectualproperty put out there, and I
basically tell them, like, look,on this side of heaven, we need
money. So you're either gonna gowork for somebody else who's
gonna take that intellectualproperty and make a bunch more
money on it than you are, or youcan go hang your own shingle and
(15:26):
do it yourself. If you're goingto do it yourself, let me show
you how not to get screwed inbusiness.
Right? So basically, it's calledstrategic financial management,
three big words, but basicallysays, I'm going teach you how to
how to own your IP and make surethat you know how the
fundamentals of running abusiness. And so that's where I
am right now, and that's why I'mextremely passionate about it to
(15:48):
of further that to one morefifteen more seconds. There was
no book. I was using the case onWeigandt cost accounting book,
400 pages thick, hard to cover.
You know what I'm talking about.All taken We've all like thrown
it across the room now. Youknow, sometimes people sit on it
in their cars now to reach thepedals. But there is no book
that can explain accounting in away that is not threatening.
(16:12):
Threatening in the sense thatit's extremely technical, and if
your brain doesn't work likethat, it's Even for business and
accounting majors, it's verytechnical.
It's very boring. It's very meh.So, I set out to write a book. I
finished it. And so I'm talkingto publishers right now to get
this thing out there so that wecan just I just want to I want
(16:32):
to make accounting moreappealing to people so that they
don't look at it and go, I don'tlike don't like it when kids
come into the into the room andthey're like, oh, I have to I
have to take accounting.
It's like, I want them to comeand say, dude, I've heard about
your course. I can't wait to seewhat we figure out what I figure
out about my life, you know? AndI wanna do accounting. I wanna
do finance. I want to do thesethings as opposed to, you know,
my mom and dad, you know, I I'man I'm an athlete.
(16:53):
I have to I have to take thisstuff. I want them to to really
appreciate the discipline. Theway I the way that I do and the
way that you do and everybodyelse around us does, I think
that accounting is such abeautiful discipline. And it
one, we should stop weedingpeople out at the very
beginning, but we shouldprobably give them a better a
better intro into into thefamily and then say, hey,
(17:14):
listen. If you don't look.
You wanna come into accounting?You don't have to be a CPA. I
mean, but if you got anaccounting degree, why wouldn't
you wanna be a CPA? But it'sokay if you're not. There's also
the management accountant route,and it's not like it's not like
the CMA is is not as not asworthy as the CPA.
CPAs, you guys just you take adifferent a different route.
(17:34):
It's now, the CPA is stillconsidered the crown jewel of
our our discipline. Okay. That'sfine. But you don't have to go
do public accounting in order tohave a really nice and and
wonderful career in accounting.
In fact, I worked for theSavannah Bananas. I got an
accounting degree. I worked forthe craziest, you know,
traveling circus, if you will.Yeah. And and that's one of the
(17:56):
things that I really wannaimpress upon these young kids.
I'm sorry, students. They're allyounger than me, is that a
career in accounting, aneducation in accounting opens up
so many doors for for theseindividuals who maybe they just
don't know what they wanna do,but I can guarantee you, if you
go to school and you have noidea, get the accounting degree,
(18:16):
you will have options. And andthey're options that when people
talk to you, they don't theydon't kind of they listen to
your opinion because you knowwhat's red and what's black. You
know you know what's revenue,you know what's expenses. Right?
You know those things. And, atthe end of the day, look at
politics, look at social media,look at everything. It all comes
down it all comes down todollars and cents. And if you
(18:37):
understand, you understand thebottom line, top line, gross
margin, bottom line, thosethings, you are gonna go way
further than somebody whodoesn't understand those things,
and has to basically give begiven a budget and be told, hey,
you you went over your budget.Sorry.
Sorry. You get to actually makethe budgets, you know?
Adam Larson (18:55):
I love your story because it kinda shows how
everybody's journey is sodifferent, and, like, the way
you got to where you are is isyour journey, and it's amazing
to hear that story. And I thinkabout how every stew like, a
student who might be listeningto this or somebody who's in
their first couple years beinglike, man, I wish I had had his
class. Or, like and and I guess,how do you kinda close that gap
(19:17):
to make to get to get to theaccounting students who are
coming in there? Because noteverybody can go to can be near
Savannah and take that class andand and take your class and take
that curriculum. So, you know,how do we close that gap for
accounting students?
Tim Naddy (19:30):
Well, I I appreciate this question, Adam. So what I
was talking in fact, I think Iwill be, with you guys in when
is your student leadershipprogram? It's in November. Yep.
I think I'm gonna be I thinkthat's the I was talking to
Leanne and Mike, and, we'llwe'll probably be in front of,
what, four to five studentleaders.
Right? Yeah. Think the way we dothis is, one, it's it's it's
(19:52):
it's gotta be bigger than me. II mean, I have a pretty loud
voice. I have a pretty prettystout platform, but people don't
look at the bananas as anaccounting organization.
They look at it as anentertainment organization.
Right? But for the time that Ihave here at this at this
particular platform, people,some for whatever reason, they
find me interesting. Right? It'sit's one of the reasons why
we're having this conversationright now.
(20:12):
It's like, if I wasn't with thebananas, you'd be like, hey.
It's just another CPA. The Iunderstand. I understand. But
what I'm thinking is that sowith this book that I've written
And by the way, is not a ploy tosell books.
What it is, it's a ploy to havepeople look at a new text and
look at the way that it's beingcommunicated to people, and that
if people start If it startsresonating, if like the it's a
(20:36):
cost accounting book. Here'swhat I'd say. It's a cost
accounting book with anentrepreneurial jacket. I mean
by that is storytelling. I don'thave to give you a lot of
numbers, and I know that peoplesay, Oh, accounting is just
math.
It's not just math. It is notjust math. It is not just math.
It is a language. We just happento use numbers in order to
(20:56):
communicate what we're trying tosay, and a lot of us, I would
say a majority of us, are notvery good at communicating what
we're trying to say.
We just basically, hey, here'sthe numbers, and someone looks
at it and goes, so what am Isaying here? What are you
saying? It's like, you're notgoing go out of business next
year. Great. Can you give meanything else?
Audit fee will be X. No, no, no.That's not how you do it. I
(21:18):
think that we need to do a lotmore on the on the side of of
communicating, like, thestorytelling aspect of what we
do. And and really getting intoforget about forget about
business communication.
Everybody knows how to write anemail. Everybody knows how to
text. I mean, some people are,know, emojis are back. So, we're
all the way back to theNeanderthal days of writing on
caves and people understandingthose things. Of course,
(21:39):
context, different differentsituations.
But the but what I see here isthat if we can if we can
introduce, like, seriouslyintroduce storytelling to the
accounting curriculum, I thinkwhat would happen two things.
You would have people thatfinally can understand how to
how to actually create an arc.Beginning, journey, ending,
(22:03):
denouement, oh, what happened?You know, like the crescendo,
bang, what happened? All of asudden, you'll have people that
can discuss financial things ina way that actually can tie in
relevant information, can tie incurrent information, can tie in
the fact that the person mighthave some other things outside
the office that they'restruggling with.
Hey, work that into theconversation so as, hey, while
(22:24):
this is really important, thisis not important. This is not
that urgent right now. You canwait a couple weeks until
everything's done. The clientsjust want to know that you that
you're listening, that they andthat they're seen, right? This
whole scene thing.
And that's all that stuff is isaccomplished inside what we call
storytelling. I mean, we've beendoing it for eons. Yeah.
(22:44):
Bonfire, wood, people around,people looking over in the
windows, what's the old guy withthe big old beard and the
naughty staff saying? He needsto spit in a yarn, man.
We need to be better at doingthat, taking technical
information and turning ittangible. The instant we start
doing that, we're going to startpulling people to our discipline
because it's going to becomeit's not going be so nerdy
(23:06):
anymore, it's going be fun. AndI mean, the basis of accounting,
I have fun with accounting. Imean, sure, there's those days
you grind, but the the realityof it is that we just need to do
something different in ourcurriculum in order to make it
to make it work. And this iswhere I think when you say
bridging the gap, I think if youhave that storytelling element,
if we if we if we teach them howto how to run a business first.
(23:29):
Right? I just don't care aboutthe financial reporting side as
much as I used to, becausefinancial reporting goes the CPA
route. And while I have a I'm aCPA myself. I just don't I think
that there's a broader base herethat we need to be speaking
with, and and it's thataccounting in and of itself is
(23:50):
such a is such a vibrant andelastic career that everybody
everybody needs to be able totell the tell a good story. And
that's not embellishing.
That's just taking facts andweaving them into a way that
actually makes sense to someoneon the other side who has no
idea how to interpret financialinformation. And now watching
Fox News Business, they'rewatching MSNBC, or whatever
(24:12):
they're called these days, allthese different things, and
they're trying gain all theseinsights, and these people, they
don't really know what they'retalking about. So, the most
trusted advisor that's going bein that room, their accountant,
needs to be better atcommunicating the stuff that
they know inherently. It comesback to those stages of
competency. You're really goodat what you do, there's a level
(24:34):
where you go, it's likeunconscious, then you go to
conscious uncompetency, and thenyou go to unconscious
competency, then consciouscompetency.
And it's up at the very top,it's called reflexive
competency. This is the onethat's very dangerous, so at the
top of the period. Why is itdangerous? Because you know it
so well, you can't even teachit. This is the moment where
(24:55):
partners come in, or just c CFOor someone comes in, you know,
like, hey, I'd like you to dothis, and they get that look.
Like, what? Like, you know what?Don't worry about it. I think it
it'll take me fifteen minutes.It'll take you three days.
Just move aside, I'll just goahead and do it. You know?
That's not what we need to do.Now, get that there's sometimes
there's deadlines Yeah. Butthat's the reason why people are
(25:17):
leaving the leaving theprofession.
Because when we we already knowthat we're not we're we're
getting, I don't want saybroken, but let's say they're
not finished vessels yet, right?And they still need the little
ear put on mug so it doesn'thurt, it's not too hot and you
could, you know, drink thecoffee out of it. So they're not
finished yet. They don't getfinished, and we know they don't
(25:38):
get finished till at least twoyears into their actually
getting real experience, and ifthat's the case, the worst thing
we can do is decide not to usethem, is decide not to teach
them, because now it falls onus, and that's where that's
where kind of everything fallsinto place to where there's two
two things we need to do. Weneed to we need to help them
learn how to storytell.
(25:59):
We need to need to learn like,bridge that gap so that when
they get here, they know theythey they can move down that
move down that, learning curvemuch faster. Secondly, when
they're moving down a learningcurve, we we, you and me, the
seniors in the in the in theroom, we need to be good enough
to know that if they're treadingwater to be like, hey, let's
(26:20):
throw them a lifeline. Let's notjust say, oh, just go, you know,
work it work it out. You'regonna you're gonna get it. You
gotta get it on your own.
No. We're a team. Pick them up,show them how to do it, go back,
let them see if they did right.If they did it right, slap them
on the back. Hey, you did it.
Let's give you some morecomplicated stuff. Did it wrong?
Fix it. Make them do it again onanother engagement. It's
(26:42):
training, it's mentoring, it'snot giving them to fish, it's
teaching them how to fish.
And that helps us up the linebecause in five, seven years,
that's gonna be the personthat's gonna be coming up the
ranks so that you can retire,you know? So I think it's one of
those things where I go back andI say, What's more important,
your dinner plans or yoursuccession plans? Because if
(27:03):
it's your dinner plans, youdon't have succession plans. So
you might want stay at theoffice a little bit later and
help that first, second, thirdyear staff actually be
productive. Because they'regonna look at you later on and
be like, there are five peoplethat I know that helped me out,
and that person, this is theperson that taught me this, and
they'll never forget it.
(27:24):
So I think that's how we bridgethe gap. Better better education
on the on the university side,but also we have to have to have
to on the inside, mentorship, wehave to be able to turn around
and pull them into our circlesand not think that we're just,
I'm just too busy to train. No.Because at one point in your
career, they thought the samething about you, but they moved
(27:44):
their schedule aside and broughtyou into the fold. So we we just
had to remember what it was liketo be them.
Adam Larson (27:51):
Yeah. Well, and that takes a little bit of
putting aside our own egos andsaying, okay, let me let me put
aside, like, yes, I did thistwenty years ago, this new
person needs me to do it. Andit's saying, let me let me step
down and say, I will help you,young paddle one, you know?
Tim Naddy (28:05):
You know, it's actually one of those things.
Was talking about a woman theother day, she's homeschooling
her kids, and she was surprised.I said, oh, yeah, we
homeschooled our kids too, andshe goes, oh, gosh. So what was
the worst part? I was like,honestly, the worst part is
relearning the stuff that Ilearned years ago, thinking that
I still knew it, and thenrealize, oh, I forgot all that
stuff.
I think one of the reasons why alot of mentors don't want to get
(28:27):
into the nitty gritty is becauseI think they've literally
forgotten how to do things.Because technology Okay. You
want to talk about AI? AI comingin, there was an article the
other day about KPMG wants tobring people out, and within
three years, they're going bemanagers. They're not even going
to train them as staff auditorsanymore.
Like, hold the phone. One,lawsuits, lawsuit, lawsuit. If I
(28:48):
was a client and had those kids,yours telling me that my audit's
being done by AI, I'm not payingI'm not going to his thing. If
AI's going to do it, I don'tknow, 10 times faster, a 100
times faster, does my fee godown by a 100 times? Right?
But secondly, these kids don'teven know what they're doing on
cash accounts, and you're goingto accelerate them into running,
(29:12):
like dealing with management,and being the face for the
client, and dealing withutilization, realization on
jobs, and then, and by the way,you still have to deal with the
people underneath you who alsodon't know what the heck they're
doing. You know, it's like, whatare you doing? It's like, if
there was a vice, you have justput them in it, and so what's
gonna happen? You might as wellhave AI just do the entire first
(29:32):
five years of accounting becausethose people are gonna wash out
and be like, screw big four. I'mgonna go work in a private
company where I can actuallylearn something.
It's it it'll be it'll be veryinteresting what happens. I I I
think it's a lot of bluster. Ithink that because private
equity is starting to get in themix, they're like, oh, profit,
profit, profit, so you gottapush down. But what we're gonna
see is we're gonna see peopleare gonna get really smart.
(29:53):
They're gonna take their talentsescrow, or they'll they'll
create their own firms with,like like, CPA Club is doing out
there in California.
They're gonna do a valuepricing, and they're gonna take
over all the work from the bigfour. They'll they'll just
they'll siphon it off a littlebit here, little bit here until
the big four are not the bigfour anymore. There's just the
four. And they're they're doingit themselves, man. Doing it to
(30:14):
themselves.
Adam Larson (30:15):
Yeah. Well, it sounds like it would need a
whole culture change inorganizations in order to do the
things you're saying. Not allorganizations are set up to have
that culture of teaching, ofmentoring.
Tim Naddy (30:25):
Actually, I disagree with that, because I think I
that they're just think thatthey they don't emphasize it.
They were because the knowledgebase is there. There there are
people in all firms who who arethere are some people who are
who are a little bit better withpeople. Yeah. There's some
people you don't want aroundother people.
Like, just go in the closetcrank, right? And and that's
okay. That's what's great aboutaccounting. No matter which side
(30:48):
of the introvert extrovertspectrum you're on, you can can
be in a closet and crank andmake a really good living.
Right?
But for those who areextroverted, who actually who
actually enjoy being aroundpeople and numbers, I think it's
there. I think this comes downto, again, the pricing side. Why
would you sacrifice a couplehours of training when you could
(31:10):
be billing those couple hoursbecause that's what your value
is to the firm? Your value ishow many billable hours you're
pushing in there, and it's like,I don't have time, so what you
do is you push it down to thesenior manager. You push it down
to the manager.
You think they have more time?Heck no. You might have these
things stacking up inside yourenvironment. You're on your
desk, you have all these workpapers everywhere, and you're
like, oh my gosh, look how busyI am. It's like, you wouldn't be
(31:32):
that busy if you trained thepeople underneath you how to do
some of this stuff, and thenyou're just basically reviewing.
But they've lost It's a lostart. I think I think personally,
I think every I would saypartners are tough, BIM, but
partners have enough time. Theyhave enough time. They say that
they don't, but they do. I mean,I've looked up I've looked into
(31:54):
partners' offices one before,and it's like, yeah, they're not
doing anything.
I'm busting my butt over here.They're not doing anything. I
think every partner, before youmake partner, should actually go
and teach adjunct at a communitycollege or or or the one of the
intro years. You learn veryquickly how much how much do we
(32:15):
really need to be purposeful inour in our instruction. And it's
not they're not dumb questions.
They're just they're questionswe used to ask. We just we know
them now, so we think they'redumb. Right?
Adam Larson (32:25):
Yeah.
Tim Naddy (32:25):
So I think that having that insight of going and
actually seeing the frustrationon a student's face, they look,
they want to do it. They want toget it. And they want to be
successful just like they theylook at you, I want be like you
someday. Okay. How do I getthere?
This you gotta do x y z. Andthen when they get there,
they're like, this is not thisI've been sold a bill of goods.
Like, I feel I feel depressed. Ifeel dejected. I I picked the
(32:47):
wrong why am I even here?
And then that one person comesin and goes, hey, come here. Let
me show you how to do this. Andthen their their world
completely changes. Like, thescales drop from their eyes.
There's a light in them, andthey do the same thing for
everybody behind them and aroundthem.
So I think there's theproclivity there to get it done.
(33:10):
I just think that firms need tomake it a priority, just as just
as billable hours in busy seasonare a priority.
Adam Larson (33:18):
Sure.
Tim Naddy (33:19):
In my humble opinion.
Adam Larson (33:21):
Well, and I've always I've always looked at it,
you know, when somebody comesinto an organization, especially
if you come in very high in anorganization, I always feel like
that person should go down andanswer phones for, like, a week.
Hear what the customers aresaying. Be at the front lines
where your customer serviceperson is is answering those
questions, and hear what thequestions are from the people
that you're actually serving.And then understand, oh, maybe
(33:44):
this is how I can do my jobbetter because I'm understanding
what the it's like at the frontlines. Because otherwise, you're
in ethereal theoretical world,and you're not actually hearing
what the what's that thecustomer is actually saying.
Tim Naddy (33:54):
Yeah. That that's a very wise statement. And and I I
agree with you. I think thatthere's a lot there's a lot to
be said about having that thatbeing disconnected from the from
the actual grind that's gettingyou to where you want to go. And
but but it happens over time.
And and now, it's okay to saythis. As you move up the ladder,
(34:14):
your skill set changes. Right?You're you're less in the reach,
you're more overview, and so youhave to have really good people
underneath. You got to make surethat that that stays that stays
stout.
But your job now is to look outacross the horizon and say,
okay. Well, there there might bea new client. How can I service
them? How can I sell more work?And again, I'm just talking
about public accounting.
But in the private sector, it'svery similar. As you start
moving up, now you're not reallydealing in the in the weeds of
(34:37):
the AP and the AR and thosethings. You're Now looking at
budgets, you're looking atperformance, you're looking at
FP and A, right? And people relyon your research and your
analysis in order to makedecisions. Like, they're
literally in a private company.
If you get an assumption wrong,is it going to blow up the
company? Well, I mean, sometimessometimes it will. But but but
(34:57):
no. I mean, it's not like we'redoctors and, like, you make a
mistake and and someone's gonnableed out and you lost your
patient. It's like, at the endof the day, yeah, we might might
lose a few dollars.
Might lose a few billiondollars. But the the thought is
like, no one is gonna gonna diebecause of because of your your
wrong assumption on unearnedwhat is it? Just just pick a
management estimate. Right? Sobut the thought here is is that
(35:21):
as you start working your waythrough these things, you will
eventually come with your ownknowledge so that now you're a
functional unit of the of themanagement team.
Right? You're you're you'remanaging people underneath you,
and then you're also you're alsoreporting up, and you know now
you have a little bit more as asto what you understand what your
job is inherently as far astechnically, and now it's a
(35:43):
matter of how how do you,incorporate this. And I think
that's what takes those peopleto the next level is that once
you understand that piece, nowyou start selling business, you
start getting asked to come tothe rotaries and the and all
those different things wherethere's the business mixers and
what have you. Now you're in themix and people wanna do business
with you. They could care lessabout your your company.
(36:03):
They wanna they say, hey, I likethat person. I know what they're
about. I would like to dobusiness with them. They're part
of a firm. Oh, they're this.
Oh, they work here. So the skillsets change as we go up, but,
yeah, getting back to what wewere talking about earlier, as
we move up, a lot of us startshedding some of the stuff that,
you know, our branches don'twant to hold onto, and so we
have to we have to come backdown, and and like, get on one
(36:27):
knee, just like you would at abaseball game, get down on one
knee Yeah. Pull pull up thetrousers, and say, hey, what's
going on? Like, I could justsee, like, there's a little tea
right here, a little kid. He's,kinda crying.
Like, hey, man. What's up? JustYeah. Get the ball off the tee,
man, and then run. That's kindawhat we need to be doing.
But I think people are afraid todo it for a a couple of reasons.
I think that there's that thereis that productivity marker that
(36:50):
in realization, how much are yourealizing in your budgets,
again, public accounting wise.But from the private side is,
hey. Did you close? Did youclose in three three days?
Like, well, no. What were youdoing? I was I was training my
staff. Well, we don't have timefor that. Woah.
We do have time for that. Youknow? So Yeah. It's it's it's a
lot of push and pull, and Ithink that at the end of the
(37:12):
day, the the I think theorganizations that are gonna be
successful have a culture ofinternal training where where I
mean, people just aren't afraidto have people who are working
for them who are smarter thanthem. And and and some of it's
that too.
You know? People don't wannatrain really smart people
(37:33):
because they're like, oh mygosh. They might they might take
my job. Like, yeah, you gottaget out of that. So, anyway.
Adam Larson (37:39):
Well, you I mean, you talk to some certain
leadership gurus, and they'lltell you you should be training
everybody to raise up to come upbehind you so they will take
your job because you're the onemoving up because you're
bringing up everybody aroundyou, and that's the mark of a
great leader.
Tim Naddy (37:53):
Well, and and and so I agree with that. And so the
and so when it comes down towhen people are not training,
the question is, is it becausethey distrust management?
Because do they have a contract?Do they not have a contract? If
you have a contract in place,it's so much easier to train
people underneath you because,like, you're not going anywhere.
Right? If But you don't have acontract, you're right you're
right to work for hire. It'skinda like, well, gosh, if I
(38:14):
train them and they could takeover my job, I mean, now I'm now
I'm super expensive. They couldeasily have a a boon by just,
see you. We don't we don't needyour stuff anymore.
Like, there was this there was athere was a thing on LinkedIn
the other day that I thought wasreally fascinating. They were
they were talking about when aCFO steps away. Right? I'm using
CFO as an example. When a CFOsteps away, that that it's not
(38:35):
just the accounting that'sthat's actually there's not any
not just upheaval in accounting.
There's not people in the in thein the human resource section.
Because CFOs bring more thanjust a a strategy, a number
reader to the table. They'reusually they're usually the the
person that a lot of people goto because they don't want to
look dumb in front of the boss.And the CFO, I would say the CFO
(38:58):
and finance controller, whathave you, they're usually the
ones that say, hey. Let mebounce this off you.
What do you think about this?Right? And you'll have marketing
people. You have you'll haveyou'll have HR people come and
ask questions. And and whatbecause they wanna know, one,
the finance people, they theyshoot us straight.
Give me some facts. I'll shootus straight. Right? And, also,
we're very busy people. So ifwe're gonna take our time and
just sit there and talk to you,it's gonna we're gonna give you
(39:19):
a good answer so that you don'tcome back.
It's like, we're gonna give youthe information you want. But
the but the thought was is thatif someone if someone in a in a
valuable position like the CFOor the controller or senior
manager, what have you, were toleave, the company actually
loses a lot more than justaccounting talent. They lose a
person who has been a confidantfor many, many employees. And,
(39:42):
like, a consigliere to a lot ofa lot of other executives and
and maybe even board members,CFOs, and I would say just in
the finance and accounting, Ikeep saying CFOs, but really the
finance and accounting world. Weknow a lot about what's going on
in organizations because the,you know, the legal bills come
through, the invoices comethrough.
We know we know everythingthat's happening.
Adam Larson (40:02):
Yeah.
Tim Naddy (40:03):
But the and so and so then to have that that added
ability because people come tous because they trust us. We're
very trustworthy. I mean,accountants are very trustworthy
people. And and as long as wedon't abuse that trust, people
will continue to ask for ouropinions, what have you. And so
we tend to know things.
Know know things more than whatHR does because people don't
even wanna complain to HRanymore. HR is like, yeah. I
(40:23):
don't need it. Just toss yourway. It seems to be finance and
accounting is starting to bethat that or that internal sub
HR function where people say, Ijust I just want a real answer.
Like, don't don't give me anydrama. Like, what what are you
seeing? What are the tea leavessaying? And they're they're
taking that information andmoving with it because we're the
we're the strategists. Right?
(40:43):
We we know where this thesethings are held. So Yeah. Also
puts the onus on us to be verycautious in how we advise.
Right? I don't wanna do anythingto to create negativity or what
have you.
But the but the thought is,though, is that if we are if
we're out there and providingthese kinds of services, then
when someone from a finance andaccounting role leaves the
(41:05):
organization, it's it's not justripping off a Band Aid. You're
you're you're getting someyou're getting some skin, a scab
with That's really gross. Butthe it hurts is what I'm saying.
Yeah. It's not it's not justyou're just replacing a number
person.
You're replacing somebody whopeople really rely on
professionally and personally.So I think that I think these
roles are vital. I think thatwhen you talk about students
(41:27):
getting into these roles, it's ait's a fun place to be because
every I would say, for the mostpart, everybody respects you for
the knowledge base that you haveand how you apply it and and how
you can get things done.Everybody looks to the finance
people like, those people arereally smart folks. But
secondly, it can also beincredibly rewarding because
(41:48):
when people start coming to youand asking you questions about
other things besides, you know,without a dollar sign on it,
you're now in a position of ofit says position of intimacy.
I know that's a weird weird wordto use in a business context,
but you know what I mean, wherepeople don't mind opening up to
you and asking you about itbecause they know that you're
gonna be objective with what'shappening. And be and by
(42:11):
default, people that work infinance and accounting, they
know that confidentiality meanssomething. And so a lot of
times, people in finance andaccounting, they just they just
don't talk about that stuff. Soit's like, you you talk you come
up here, you talk. It's like,okay.
Hey. You got anything else inyour mind? Okay. You good?
Alright.
Let me know if any if if we cando anything for you. I get back
to work. They feel better. It'sit kind of works. And it works
(42:33):
like that everywhere.
It's not just the bananas. Itworks like that everywhere. So
Yeah. Not sure how we got onthat rabbit trail, but I liked
it.
Adam Larson (42:41):
That was a good rabbit trail. It's funny when I
when I talk to when folks hearI'm talking to somebody from,
like, a different industry,like, you know, the Savannah
Bananas, they always want tohear the question, like, what's
it like working in thatdifferent industry? And it's
funny because most answers tothe question are like, well,
accounting is accounting nomatter what industry you're in.
And so I wanted to kinda flipthat question around and say, is
there something new you've hadto learn because you're working
(43:03):
for the Savannah Bananas in yourrole as the CFO?
Tim Naddy (43:06):
That's fair. So one of the things that, when I first
came in, I had never worked fora sports team. Right? I've
always wanted to work for asports team. So when I came in,
it was actually one of thosethings where I had a
conversation with the president,and he's like, look.
I get it. I I get it that you'venever done this before, but your
body of work speaks to it's notthat difficult to learn. Right?
One of the things I did learn,which I thought was really cool,
is that KPIs really do matter,and matter in the sense that,
(43:29):
but they're they'rehyperspecific to the
organization and the industry.When I when I teach about KPIs,
whether it's SCAD or shorter orwherever I was, I I don't really
I don't really spend a lot oftime on ratios per se because
ratios, in my opinion, and Iwill say in my opinion, they're
they're not really fruitful inin the analysis of the
(43:51):
organization.
I mean, day of day salesoutstanding, all of these all
these traditional ones that youlearn in accounting school and
in finance school. I think it'sthey're more of talking points
than anything else. I mean,again, you can go to Fox
Business, you can go look at MadMoney, that's what they chirp
about. Right? But then again,they they they put an algorithm
out there, and all of a sudden,the algorithm is supposed to
speak to, like, the health of myworking environment.
(44:12):
That's all BS. So it's justYeah. It's a number that an
analyst can look at and go, ohmy god. Is the stock gonna go up
by 2¢, or is it gonna go down by3¢? Right?
The so I don't really focus onratios, but I've I've come
around to KPIs. And what I meanby that is that, like,
specifically in the baseballindustry, or really just the
sports industry, we have what'scalled a per cap, per capita.
(44:33):
And a per cap, you can use a percap very similar to it's getting
really nerdy. We're about to getnerdy. When you look at vertical
analysis versus horizontalanalysis, okay?
And what I mean by that is youtake an income statement or P
and L and you say it, or abalance sheet, but we'll stay on
the P and L, and you're saying,Hey, I want to compare two
companies, right? A companythat's a $5,000,000,000 company
and a $5,000,000 company. Well,how in the world are you going
(44:54):
to do that in the context oflike, that company's way too
big. They have so many otherprocesses, blah blah blah blah
blah. Well, then you do what youhave what's you have what's
called comparable statements.
Right? The but the yeah.Comparable statements. So you
take it and you say, okay, let'stake the percentage of the
revenues. And so that's a 100%.
And as we start moving down,cost of goods sold, gross
margin, and now you get downinto SG and A and all your fixed
costs, it's a percentage ofsales. Right? So now, all of a
(45:17):
sudden, this $5,000,000,000company and this $5,000,000
company, you can look at themand go, oh, look at that. Their
cost of goods sold is 36% minus34%. It's like, oh, man, I beat
I'm beating the the industrygiant.
Right? Now, where do get thatinformation? A lot of these guys
are public. Right? So you canactually look at those things.
But if you wanted to identifyhow to look at your organization
(45:38):
versus a bigger organization,you can in that manner. Well,
per caps are very similar tothat in that it's like a
universal metric across all of,I mean, you could say all of
entertainment, but let's justkeep it inside sports because
sports is a little bit morelike, I could say Broadway and
things like that, but food andbeverage and Broadway is
probably a little bit different.But the number basically, it's
(45:59):
the number of people that comein. So let's say let's say you
sell let's let's keep it simple.Let's say you sell 10,000
tickets.
Right? And in 10,000 tickets,let's say 9,000 people come.
Right? So you're at a 90% re inthis case, realization rate for
us, but it's a 90% scanned rate.So your redemption's at 90%.
Alright? So when you make whenlet's say you have let's say you
(46:22):
have you sell $2,727,000 dollarsworth of merchandise. Well,
$27,000 I'm sorry, $270,000 ofmerchandise, and you have 99,000
people in the building. Right,you don't use 10,000 because
there's thousand people thataren't there. You take that
9,000, you take the $2.70,divide it by nine, and all of a
sudden, you're at what'sconsidered a $30 per cap, which
(46:43):
means that on average, those9,000 people spent $30 at your
merchandise tables.
Right? Now, is that did didevery single person spend 30 no.
Some people spend a 180. Somepeople spend 5, whatever it is,
but the average comes out toabout $30. Why why you can take
(47:04):
that?
Now you can do that you can dothat with merchandise. You can
do that with food and beverage.Right? Why is that important?
Because now you're getting downto the per person cost.
So I could say if someone ifsomeone spent $30, average $30,
how much average cost were thewere the things that they
purchased? Right? If averagecost is anywhere between if it's
(47:24):
like $15, I'm at a 50% marginjust on materials alone. I
haven't I haven't I haven'tincluded the labor or the
overhead or logistics of evengetting that stuff out there
yet. So I have, $30 and $15?
Woah. Woah. What what what's gotwhat's happening? Or if it's
down to, like, maybe, like, a 10or a $9 cost, like, woah. We're
we're, like, down underneath34%.
(47:46):
Hey. Good job, team. So thesethese are there are all these
little things that can canreally shortcut the analysis on
how well an an organization isdoing at a not only a particular
event, but also across, a seriesof events, so like a weekend or
whether it's a month or aseason. And those become the
(48:08):
little canaries in the coal minethat go, okay. What promotion
did we do on this one night thatthat led people to buy more
hats?
Right? And okay. So let let'slet's really find that out.
Because a lot of times, peoplejust need to know how their
marketing is actuallytranslating into their numbers,
(48:29):
specifically from an from anaccounting standpoint. And so
that per cap can help.
So one of the things that one ofthe things that I found is that
not not necessarily KPIs per se,but but the I'm sorry. Not
necessarily ratios, but certainKPIs for for certain industries.
And and again, it it becomesvery, very specific. Once you
(48:51):
understand how that rolls intothe overarching operation, you
can then start moving intooperating off of percentages.
Instant you're able to theinstant you're able to move away
from dollars and move intopercentages is the day that you
own your environment to wheresomeone you can look at it.
In fact, you can you should youprobably get this. There are
(49:13):
those people that and it used toit used to befall me. Was like,
that guy's looking at a a p andl, he's, like, telling me all
the things wrong with thisorganization. All the things
good is and, like, how in theworld are you doing that?
Because in his head, he's like,editor going, This this this
this balance sheet versus this pand l, that doesn't match.
And he's like, and so you lookat that and go, how did he just
(49:33):
do that? Well, it's because overtime, you get good at this, but
also, you know what to look for.You know you know where the
warning signs are. You knowwhere people are gonna if
they're going to do it, wherethey're gonna hide it hide it.
And I think that's one of thethings that when you start
looking at when you startgetting into accounting is
accounting is accounting,specifically to my industry
inside, again, baseball, bananaball, what have you, per cap's a
(49:56):
big deal.
And if and if I understand whatthose per caps are, after every
game, I can look at those percaps and go, is it above? Is it
below? Is it a triple a game? Isit a Major League Baseball game?
Is it an NFL game?
A football turned baseball? Andall of those have different per
caps. And if we're within thatthreshold that I that I think we
got, then I feel good. If weblow through that threshold,
(50:19):
what in the world do we do? It'snot it's not gonna I I don't
just give myself a high five.
I'm like, oh my gosh. We did it.It's like, what happened? What
did we do here? And then also onthe flip side, if it goes below
that per cap, it's like, oh, didwere were the lines too long?
Was was something not pricedcorrectly? Did did we not do we
do we, like, fail on one of thesales? Did did we just give away
(50:41):
some stuff for free and itdidn't it didn't come in? So
lots of different things you canlearn from those those little
things. I would say I don't Ijust don't spend a lot of time
with with ratio analysis, butKPIs are important.
Adam Larson (50:53):
Yeah. That's awesome. Well, Tim, I truly
appreciate you coming on thepodcast, sharing your insights,
sharing your story a little bitwith our audience. It's been a
great conversation. I justreally wanna thank you for
coming on.
Announcer (51:06):
This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast, providing
you with the latest perspectivesof thought leaders from the
accounting and financeprofession. If you like what you
heard and you'd like to becounted in for more relevant
accounting and financeeducation, visit IMA's website
at www.imanet.org.
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