RSM in the Ecosystem and as a Strategic Partner to LXCouncil/Strategic Growth Council

Having to join Peer advisory groups is one of the best recommendations you get as these groups provide unique insights and support for your business growth. Additionally, it can assist you in developing your leadership abilities because some of your peers are expert leaders in their respective fields and will impart knowledge and insight to you that isn't found in business books.

In this episode, Kit welcomes Todd Russell, a partner at RSM, a full-service professional services company that offers tax audit consulting and M&A-related services to the middle market. Kit and Todd talk about the value of participating in peer advisory groups and the advantages of working with RSM as a business partner. Todd also highlights RSM's unique characteristics and its place in the middle market environment.
If you're interested in learning more about organic growth, growth by acquisition, or the increase of capitalization of your company, this will be interesting and useful for you.

Key Takeaways

The core meaning of doing Peer Advisory Councils
Benefits of partnering with RSM
Where RSM fits in the ecosystem of the middle market
Benefits of joining peer advisory councils
What separates RSM from its rivals

Quotes

"The peer advisory council is a safe environment for business professionals to share their problems and ideas. This is an environment where they don't have to worry about a competitor." - Todd

"We strive to stand out among our customers by truly earning those deep loyal relationships by understanding them, understanding their needs, and understanding their business from all angles." - Todd

Featured on this Episode

Christopher Lisle
Growth strategy advisor for the ecosystem of investors, IBanks, and the companies they work with (middle market).
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kit-lisle
Websites: Acclaropartners.com / http://strategicgrowthcouncil.com/
Contact: [e-mail] / 703-867-7269

Todd Russell
Partners at RSM
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-russell-1796259
Company Website: https://rsmus.com/

Words from our Sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors Acclaro Growth Partners, a strategic consulting firm serving middle-market mergers and acquisitions. You can visit acclaropartners.com. Our other sponsor, of course, is Strategic Growth Council, not the podcast, but the Peer Advisory Council slash virtual roundtable slash mastermind group for senior execs and business owners. Contemplating what an acquisition, a sale, or just strategic growth? Strategic Growth Council collaborates with participants in the M&A ecosystem, such as private equity groups, lenders, investment banks, and relevant service providers. Visit strategicgrowthcouncil.com to learn more.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:57 Todd's background
03:11 Defining Peer Advisory Councils
05:44 Support and trust vulnerability
10:22 Benefits in partnership with RSM
14:11 Where does RSM fits in the ecosystem of the middle market
17:34 Significant topics Todd learned over the years
19:37 Benefits of participating in peer advisory council
21:24 The difference between RSM to others
25:36 Thoughts on offering peer advisory council
26:37 Todd's next journey

Produced by Heartcast Media
https://www.heartcastmedia.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Welcome to Strategic Growth Council. I'mkit Lyle. Thanks for being here.
This is a podcast about strategic growthand mergers and acquisitions for the middle market.
Now. Strategic Growth Council is apeer advisory roundtable that meets virtually on
a monthly basis. We focus onsolving members cases or business dilemmas as a

(00:34):
group, intentionally, consistently and asa dedicated support team for one another.
And I'm the moderator. Contact meto learn more at Strategic Growth Council dot
com. And this is our podcast. So if you're interested in learning more
about organic growth, growth by acquisitionor potentially the sale of your company,

(00:56):
this show will be interesting or usefulfor you. Thank you to our sponsor,
a Claro Growth Partners, a strategyconsulting firms serving the middle market.
You can visit a Claro Partners dotcom. And every episode I interview an
expert or at least a participant inthe world of strategy growth or M and
A. And today I'm joined byTodd Russell of RSM, a broadline professional

(01:21):
services firm serving the middle market withtax, audit consulting, M and A
related services. Todd, Welcome,Thanks kid, I was glad. I'm
glad to be here. I appreciateyou having me on. Yeah, I'm
excited about our conversation for a lotof reasons, not only as your insight
in perspective interesting and useful for us, but you're also affiliated with a member

(01:46):
of a peer advisory council, andso we're excited to hear your perspective on
basically on both fronts. So whydon't you give us thirty to sixty seconds
of background on yourself? Sure?Absolutely so. I am a partner with
RSM and I sit in the firm'sTampa office. I am the Tampa audit
practice leader for the Tampa market,and I've been in public accounting since nineteen

(02:12):
ninety four, have worked for inthe middle market my entire career for either
large, local, regional, andnow a national firm you know, focused
on the middle market. I've beenwith RSM since two thousand and seven and
originally started in our Orlando, Floridaoffice and relocated to Tampa to be part

(02:34):
of the team that built and grewour office here in the Tampa Bay market.
So it's been an exciting time thelast six years, and I focus
as I mentioned on the middle market. I work a lot in the private
equity space, so see a lotof mergers and acquisitions. I've primarily worked
with portfolio companies, helping them,you know, with their financial statement audit

(02:55):
needs as well as you know,being cognizant of other other lines of service
that we can offer them. Awesome, So don't meet too many people that
have been an accountant since nineteen ninetyfour. That's a long time. Yeah,
so you know your stuff. Buttax law changes. So peer advisory

(03:15):
councils people call these different things.I'm going to kind of take a shot
at it, and I'd love yourhelp and sort of defining for our audience,
our listeners, our viewers what we'retalking about. So we've got mastermind
groups, we've got industry roundtables,CEO forums, peer advisory councils. I

(03:36):
sort of mix them all up andsort of referred to them almost interchangeably.
But essentially, it's a group thatgets together for intentional, dedicated purpose,
and the purpose varies depending on sortof who leads the group. Some groups

(03:57):
are focused on education and insights,some groups are focused on networking. Um
at AT Strategic Growth Council, we'remore focused on solving cases. As I
said in the beginning, kind ofstrategic support for partners. So everybody comes
within a with with what I calla case each meeting or just prepared to
weigh in on, um, howto solve that case? UM. So

(04:24):
in you in your own words,you know, how do you define what
a pure advisory council is? That? Do you? Would you dispute what
I just said or anything you couldadd there? Yeah, no, I
think, um, I mean,I think you kind of hit the nail
on the head for sure. Youknow. One thing I would add is
that it's to me, a peeradvisory council is really a safe environment for

(04:44):
its members to be able to share, you know, business problems, strategy
thoughts, bouncing things around that theycan do in an environment where they don't
have to worry about a competitor sittingin there per se, you know,
because a lot of times it's it'speople across you know, it's a cross
section of industries, and that's donefrom an intentional perspective too. And there's

(05:05):
a confidentiality agreement that's signed and it'sthere's a very um structured process about what
is shared stays in the room andis not shared outside of the room.
UM. That's sort of a numberof disciplines and processes that are very intentional.
I shall always say yeah absolutely.And UM, So I like what

(05:28):
you said about UM, you know, trust and UM support vulnerability. UM.
Can you give us an example ofhow that that comes into play or
UM, any experiences that you've hadwhere that comes into play. Yeah,
you know it's interesting. UM.The group that I'm involved with here in
Tampa, I don't typically sit inon their UM on the meetings. It's

(05:51):
more of a sponsorship and might haveconnectivity at the beginning of the meeting,
but obviously from that confidentiality perspective,UM, you know, the group meets
after, you know, I'll kindof step out and they meet for the
you know, the remainder of theday that that we're together. UM.
But we we did a kind ofa mock meeting per se to try to

(06:13):
you know, kind of look atmaybe recruiting some new members to the group
and that sort of thing. Andso UM and and the group leader here
locally in Tampa wanted us to sitin on it as well, just to
get a flavor for it. AndI was really impressed with the quickly.
Um. You know, it seemedthat trust was gained within that group,

(06:35):
and uh there were people sharing youknow, different challenges that they had and
then you know seeking the um theadvice of the group or whatever, and
just the idea exchange was was phenomenal. So UM, you know that's that
was one of my more recent experiences. And UM, you know really came
out of there um encouraged and andum and and you know, excited about

(06:58):
what we were doing. Yeah,that's a good point. I'm gonna I'm
gonna circle back to that. There'sthere's sort of two hesitate to call them
tests, but you know, membershave to be of a certain size,
and they have to be of acertain level in their organization, you know,
partner in a professional services firm ora C level executive in a in
a company, and the company needsto be you know, generating you know

(07:20):
somewhere above a million or perhaps twomillion dollars of EBITDA typically UM. But
there's also a test that's more ofa person. Hesitate to use the word
personality test because it's it's not literal, but to give our our audience an
example of of of an individual whowould probably not pass that test. Is

(07:43):
a CEO who was receiving some feedbackfrom a consulting firm and and sort of
jumped in and said, well,you're wrong. And the consulting firm said,
well, here's the here's what thecustomer said, here's what the distributor
said, here's what the competitors aretalking about. So there's a lot of
evidence. You know, it's possibleto that you're not, you know,
completely seeing that whole picture. Andhe said, nope, nope, you're

(08:03):
wrong. I'm right, and ifI'm wrong, it will be the first
time this decade that I've been wrongabout anything. And so everybody chuckled nervously
except him. He was he wasdead serious. That individual would not be
a good fit because he would notmake himself vulnerable in a meeting like this.
So what you described was, youknow, a mock meeting. So

(08:26):
people coming in sort of experimenting withthe concept of being a part of a
peer advisory council. It sounds likethey were all well suited to be to
be involved because they were comfortable enoughopening up and sharing their dilemmas and weighing
in. So you have to benot only willing to make yourself vulnerable,
but also um willing to receive feedbackthat sometimes is controversial and might make some

(08:52):
people defensive. So yeah, yeah, I think self awareness and and you
know, openness to growing are twovery key components for somebody to be in
a group like that. Yep,yep. And I should say a lot
of there are a lot of industryround tables which which are quite different because

(09:15):
as you said, as you pointedout, there's a benefit in diversity and
there's a benefit in sort of crosspollinating. So we don't want all CFOs,
we don't want all people who aremanufacturing, because there's you know,
benefits from cross pollination that happens whenyou combine people from different industries that are

(09:35):
tackling the same sort of issue.So it's a very different purpose than the
the intent that an industry specific roundtablewould have. So brand awareness, awareness
of the value of a client's needs, prospects, needs, credibility, trusted

(09:58):
advisor status. I guess where whereI'm going, Todd is in your role
as a we'll call it a sponsorof a peer advisory group in the Tampa
area, what is what is theprimary benefit for you or for your organization.
Is it brand awareness? Is itthe opportunity to provide learning and insights?

(10:20):
Is it something else? I thinkit's a mix of kind of all
those things really, UM. Youknow, certainly, one of our biggest
um UH goals as as as afirm, and when we started this office
was to build you know, thebrand awareness of RSM in the market.
UM And and certainly by participating ingroups like this, networking groups, other

(10:43):
things and being out in the market. That's that's an important thing. UM.
But I think it's really you know, it is a great place to
UM build you know, valuable relationshipswith the group that I'm with there and
they're all you know, generally ceoor business owners. And even if UM

(11:03):
you know, that doesn't necessarily turninto immediate client work or or whatever,
you know, because it is along sales cycle and and you have to
to build those relationships, but it, you know, it does help also
with um UH. You know,lending some credibility to myself or our firm
or my colleagues that I you know, bring in front of the group and

(11:24):
UM can help even you know,with them referring other relationships or introducing us
to other folks around too, soUM, and and we have um actually
generated some work, you know,some some engagement projects with certain members of
the group and the group that I'mwith, we have varying you know sizes,
and some are on strategy for us, some are not. But um

(11:48):
uh within our finance transformation practice.UM, we've had a couple of folks
that have really that's resonated with themand it has led to some opportunities for
us. So so you know,it's it's just a general overall I think
a combination of all those. Andthen also our group leader is a very

(12:09):
influential and well connected person and heand I have really developed a great relationship,
not only as partners in this butin some of his other organizations that
he's involved with, along with justgreat mentorship because he has really been around,
owned a lot of business, hasbeen CEO, been CFO, you
know, done a lot of differentthings. And he's a great mentor to

(12:30):
me as well. So that's fantastic. So I apologize if I've missed this,
But so when you were talking aboutthe not on point or not on
strategy, I just wanted to circleback to that. Do you invite clients
your clients to participate in the council. You know, we have actually as

(12:52):
part of our agreement with the council, we were able to you know,
refer or elect some of our clientsinto the group. Um, I've I've
got one that I think will ultimatelyparticipate and become a member. Some of
the other ones I had reached outto, UM, you know, may

(13:13):
have already been involved in a similargroup, but a different you know,
a different different sponsor or whatever.So um. But yeah, I mean,
were certainly can invite clients and andthat mock you know, strategy session
or mock meeting that I mentioned,we had a couple of clients at that,
So awesome, that makes sense.So UM, why don't we talk

(13:35):
a little bit about your UM,your firm RSUM, and where RSM fits
into the what I call the ecosystemof middle market mergers and acquisitions. So,
you know, some of the peoplewho are involved in the council are
probably either acquirers or contemplating a saleor you know, involved in uh in

(14:01):
UM areas that are very relevant probablyfrom a tax and audit standpoint for RSM.
But maybe just share with us,share with our audience a little bit
more about RSM services and for themiddle market. Sure absolutely M So you
know M and A UH is sucha there's such a wide breadth of services
that that really encompass you know,all of it. And UM, you

(14:24):
know RSM we we actually serve UM. We really are a you know,
a private equity leader in the market. In the marketplace, we serve UM
just so many not only funds butalso portfolio companies and and have a very
very well organized um you know,uh national practice around private equity. So

(14:46):
within that though, you know,I mean certainly we have the portfolio company
audits, we have fund audits UMthat we do out of certain some of
our offices where there there's more concentrationof those. But when you think about
U really the things that go onand happen before an acquisition, UM,
you know, you've got acquisition readiness, you've got valuations sometimes, you know,

(15:09):
and we in fact, I recentlywas approached by a prospect that's looking
to sell their business and they wantevaluation done and um just to get some
ideas of what their companies worked,you know, due diligence services are another
huge, huge part of our practicethrough our transaction services team. And that
can be financial due diligence, Itcan be tax due diligence. A combination

(15:33):
of both can impact. You know, it can be buy side or sell
side. So if if you know, if we have a client that is
looking to potentially sell or have atransaction and they will engage us on the
sell side because they don't you know, they want us to uncover the the
issues or any potential issues or anythinglike that and deal with it before you

(15:54):
know they're at a negotiating table witha private equity fund or an institutional you
know, buyer or that sort ofthing. And then you know, and
then beyond the transaction, we haveconsultants that help all out with integration and
financial integration, people integration, operationalintegration system it you know, RP design,

(16:18):
selection, implementation, those sort ofthings. So, um, you
know, there's there's a really widebreadth of services that we provide across the
board to private equity in EM andA that's great, Um, I appreciate
that I learned a little bit theremyself. We do a lot of work
with private equity so that it's alwaysinteresting to hear how other service providers play

(16:40):
in in the in the private equityspace. Um. You know, I've
also heard a lot of examples ofthe types of cases that are solved in
peer advisory councils. Two years ago, it was Hey, what's PPP money?
And how do I get that?Today it's what's going on with the
supply chain? Or when are wegoing to officially go into recession? And

(17:03):
when are we going to head outof recession? How long is this going
to last? Right? And Andthat's a good topic that that might be
discussed in a meeting. Not thatnecessarily the the answer would come out,
but there's a lot of food forthought and fodder that would would come out
of the conversation, particularly as itrelates to maybe other issues like human capital,
how do you retain people today?Or the supply chain disruptions, any

(17:26):
any other significant AHA moments that you'vewitnessed, or topics that you've you've learned
or heard about over the years.You know, I mean I I think,
um, when it gets down tojust you know, basic issues perhaps
maybe within the business HR tip thinor something, you know, some of
those things and how did you handleit? Um? Definitely, but more

(17:48):
you know, more global uh typethings like the economy and um and just
the general state of you know wherewe're at right now, you know,
UM, like or constraints and Imean we're all dealing with it. You
know, we're all dealing with thesame things. And it's how do you
how do you do more with lessand still keep your customers happy and uh,

(18:10):
you know, still provide a highlevel of service and all those kind
of things. So UM, Imean we see it in our industry just
as much as as as we seeit with our clients. And you know,
to me, these days, itjust seems to take longer to get
things done than it should or thanit used to. And a lot of
it's you know, lack of resourceconstraints or CYA or you know, bureaucracy

(18:33):
or whatever. But you know,we're all dealing with those challenges. So
back to the peer advisory council concept. Um. You know, from my
advantage point, I hear a lotabout time time, not only time,
from the same point of I don'tthink I have time to be going to

(18:53):
a round table, even a virtualone, for three or four hours every
month, or two or three hoursevery month. And yet the number one
benefit that I hear about from peoplewho participate in peer advisory councils is that
they solve problems more efficiently and thereforesave a lot of time. And at

(19:15):
the end of a year, peoplewere surveyed about their major benefits and it
was time savings. Interestingly enough,from your perspective, you know, what
do you see members most excited aboutor what do they appreciate most? Is
a learning and insights? Is itconnections and networking? Is it solving problems?

(19:36):
Is it something else? Yeah,I mean I think it's I think
it's learning and insights. I thinkit's solving problems. I think it's personal
growth, you know, being ableto kind of add to the to their
tool bag, you know, forlack of a better analogy, but you
know, really just because you know, it's not just like the group gets

(19:57):
together and UM just talks about theirtheir business problems or whatever that you know,
they are UM there are intentionally there'sbooks that they read. There's uh
self you know, self analyzes anddifferent things like that, that theory.
So it's UM you know, Ibut I yeah, I mean I think
they're excited about just the personal growthas well as being able to learn from

(20:18):
each other and UM and then bounceideals around too if if if they don't,
you know, have have an outletfor that. Yeah. Yeah,
It's something I hear a lot aswell, is that it's not just business.
It's you know, insights, feedback, perspectives, advice on family,
just general life stuff. So it'snot just purely constrained to the business world.

(20:41):
So that's good. So, Todd, I've got a couple of questions
for you. Take them in whateverorder you'd like, or or make up
a new question if you don't likeeither one of them. Okay, great.
How does your firm differentiate? Howdoes RSM differentiate? And secondly,
when I when I sort of lookat the world of tax and audit and
accounting firms as I referenced earlier,I see this odd mix of other services

(21:06):
that have gotten bolted on, youknow, consulting and transaction advisory and in
some cases investment, banking and lawand so forth. Um, what's what's
going on there? So, um, how does your firm differentiate? And
what's going on with the definition ofaccounting? Right? Well, so you
know we've always said one thing withour sim you know, in our our

(21:30):
like mantra is the power being understood, and we really seek to differentiate ourselves
with our clients by really truly gainingthat that deep loyal relationship, understanding them,
understanding their needs, understanding their businessfrom all angles. UM. And
it's not about just sitting there tellingyou how great we are what we know,
but it's more about listening and beingconsultative, you know, in that

(21:53):
process, in that relationship. Andwe do that UM through you know,
UM really being intentional about spending timewith our clients on a regular basis,
not just when we're you know frommy from my prostration, like not when
I'm just out performing the audit orwhatever. UM, really trying to understand
the needs around their timing, theirgrowth, their strategies and helping them prepare

(22:15):
for that and so UM. Atthe end of the day, like I
mentioned earlier, it's it's you know, are to be that first choice advisor,
to be in with our clients onmultiple levels, not just one line
of service, create that that stickyyou know relationship and UM. And that's
you know, the type of folksthat we hire and within our culture,

(22:36):
it's it's very much ingrained and youknow, is really that that client delivery
experience um. But you know theother side of that is making sure that
our people are taken care of andthat they're well trained and that they're um
excited about what they're doing so thatthey do deliver that you know, that
client experience and so so we verymuch focused on our people experience in our

(23:00):
client experience where those converge to toreally you know, build those long,
deep relationships with our clients. UMSo now yea, yeah, so with
you know, what you're what's goingon and why are accounting firms you know,
adding different service lines or different thingslike that. I mean, I
think it's a lot of it's justdriven by the demand of our client base

(23:23):
and you know, and what we'reseeing in the market. UM. So
you know, our consulting practice isyou know, the fastest growing part of
our business and has been for manyyears. And it's you know, as
we just continue to see more andmore opportunities in the market for for various
services. UM. You know,we we seek to to try to fill

(23:45):
those um again, to to beable to bring that to our client and
um you know, I mean butfrom our perspective too, I mean,
you always have to think about umprofessional you know, independence and the independence
rules that we're subject to and so. Um. So obviously we have an
extremely robust independence system and process tomake sure that you know, a service

(24:07):
that's being provided by somebody that's sitting, uh, you know, a thousand
miles away or whatever is not goingto impair our independence from you know,
from an audit perspective, as wellas internationally and through our through our RSM
International Group. Yep, yeah,that makes sense. Good. Um.

(24:29):
So, just you know, selfishquestion. I guess from my own personal
interest and curiosity, I've been talkingto firms like yours about what I'll call
a white label service. In otherwords, a service that would be offered
by a big accounting firm or abig consulting firm or a big investment bank
to its clients under its own brand, you know, not necessarily talking about

(24:52):
RSM, but just broadly, um. And then that firm offering the concept
of a pure advisory counsel to itsclients, and the clients can choose to
join or not join, and thecost could be partially deferred or what's the
what's the right word, uh,subsisted on subsidized, Yeah, exactly,

(25:15):
subsidized by the professional services firm ornot. It could just be charged to
the client. UM. Not everyclient, as we discussed, would be
a good fit, right, Somemight be too small, some might not
have the right personality. Any reactionto that that concept good idea, bad
idea? Why? Yeah, Imean I think it's a good idea.

(25:40):
I think it definitely has some value. And UM, you know, again,
when you look at just creating avalue in your relationship with your clients,
to be able to, you know, offer something like that to them,
I think would be UM, wouldbe useful. And it's also a
great way to to you know,maintain that connectivity you know, on regular

(26:03):
basis throughout the year and and bringthem, uh, you know, relevant
information to UM, you know,on a timely basis. Yeah, I
mean that's what That's what I thoughtthat My my thinking was, you get
to know that much more about yourclients, and you get to learn what
their needs are that much better andinterests. And then obviously the communication goes
both ways. You get to communicatemore about you know, your own services.

(26:26):
So that makes sense. Good.How about yourself, UM, goals,
hopes, dreams. You've been inthe accounting profession since nineteen ninety four,
So, um, what are yougonna do next? Yeah? Well,
um, you know, I Iturned to fifty last year and so
I've got about twelve years or so, um, you know left in the

(26:47):
accounting profession at least. But Ium, you know, personally, I
mean I want to get into somesome more kind of local office leader or
regional type leadership roles um And becausewhat you know, the two things that
really energized me and that I enjoythe most about what I do well are
the people aspect of the business umand and the growth aspect of the business

(27:11):
you know, and that's that's somethingthat to me is is uh, I'm
passionate about it. It's fun.Um you know, I love meeting people,
dealing with people, UM, leadingpeople, you know that sort of
thing. And so I'm I youknow, I'm hoping down the road that
I'll be um, you know,more focused in that aspect of the business
and the strategy and really you know, the operations of the firm, not

(27:33):
just the the client service aspect ofit. Um. But you know,
I've got five kids and uh one'sabout to graduate from college, and I've
got shell Shill graduate next year andthen I have two that are be seniors
in high school, so I gotto get them through college. And then
I've got two that are middle schooland and one's a freshman high school.

(27:53):
So um, you know, personallyjust getting them, getting them through college
and helping them be successful humans.Uh, you know, is a is
a big is a big hope anddream as well. So, um,
but I imagine you're busy on weekends, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah,
definitely, definitely, that's great.That's great. So our our listeners,

(28:15):
how how can they contact you?You know, how how can they
support you? Um? What?What? What? What do you recommend?
What best way to well? Imean probably uh, you know,
via email or or um, youknow, or my phone number. That's
probably the best way to get ahold of me. And I can share

(28:37):
that if you want. Um.So, my email is W dot Todd,
t O, D D dot Russell, r U, S S E,
L l AT R S m USdot com um and my office line
is eight one three three one sixtwo two six six. So if you

(28:59):
got any aud in the Tampa marketor even not in the Tampa market,
I've got you know, a networkall over the country. So happy to
help if we can. Beautiful partof the country for sure. I love
Tampa St. Pete, So thankyou Todd. This has been really good
and really informational and interesting for me. I learned a little bit myself,

(29:19):
and I appreciate your taking the timeto meet with us and share your perspective.
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(29:41):
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