Welcome to the Power of Authority Spotlight. I'm your host, Michelle Prince, founder and CEO of Performance Publishing Group, making a Difference. One story at a time, we'll be shining the light on successful founders, entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders that are getting results and making a difference. We'll talk about how they built their businesses are creating movements and leveraging the power of authority in their. Own lives. Be sure to stick around to the end of the show and we'll reveal how you can be our next guest. Let's get started. Hey everybody, and welcome to the Power of Authority Spotlight, where we shine the light on entrepreneurs, leaders, founders, people that are doing amazing things are making a difference in the world through business and personal life. So I can't wait to tell you about my guest today. He's doing some pretty extraordinary things. But first, this episode is brought to you by Performance Publishing Group. Have you ever thought about writing a book? Has ever anyone ever told you you should write a book? Well, everyone has a story, and especially if you're a business owner, you need to be telling your story to build your authority, your credibility, and make it easy for your prospects to learn more or to discover. If you even have a story to share, go to performance publishing group.com. Grab a free strategy call. That's performance publishing group.com. Well, let me introduce you to my guest today. Rob Rip knows the ups and downs of building something from scratch. As the founder of Intelligent, he spent years helping fellow founders turn their financial chaos into clarity. Rob's no stranger to sleepless nights over cash flow or the rush of landing a new client. I. He's been in the trenches with entrepreneurs who dream big, but sometimes struggle to see how the numbers fit the vision. After working with corporate giants like Colgate, Palm Olive, and Lehman Brothers, Rob realized his passion wasn't in corporate America. It was in helping small businesses thrive. Since launching Thin Inte, he's dedicated himself to guiding growth stage companies through the complex world of finance, giving founders the tools to unlock their companies wealth. Outside of work, Rob identifies most as father, cherishing time with his family, a true explorer. He's traveled to all 50 states, always eager to discover something new, whether by the beach or in his favorite corner of the world. Rob finds inspiration in the journey, Rob's goal to help you see your business the way he does full of potential brimming with opportunity and absolutely worth the effort. Welcome to the show, Rob. Oh, thank you so much for having me, Michelle. I'm excited to be here. I am so excited because we've gone through a journey together over the last couple of months, the journey to becoming an author. And so we're definitely gonna be talking about your book Finance for Founders. But before we do, give a little bit of your background how, how did, yes, you worked for some huge giants, but what made you even wanna go into finance? well, I knew from when I was a kid, I had this long cutting business, you know, just going out and, and back when kids used to do that and I kind of had the sense for, I wanted to kind of make my own way. but I grew up in a family that had corporate people that would work for big companies. And so I kind of went that route thinking that sort I should do, and I went very quickly. That wasn't for me. And so, I got into finance because I just. Like numbers, I like spreadsheets and technology and things that we do with it. And so when I started with intelligent, I realized that there was this market of people, founders that were underserved. They had smaller companies, maybe couldn't afford big fees for some of the larger accounting firms, but really struggled with knowing their numbers. And I had some firsthand experiences knowing how important that is. because, when I left corporate, I was actually a chief financial officer for a smaller company full time. So I, I had done that and I saw what was available to me in that role. I said, well, maybe there's a way where I can offer these types of things to other people. And I did it initially as an independent CFO and then a few years ago, and we decided to scale, hired some staff, brought in some technology, did some other kinds of things, and, and took it from there. Yeah. You know, it's, it's a topic that, all as speaking for myself as a founder. It's a topic we all know we're supposed to give more attention to, but yet it is the one thing I'll, again, speaking for myself, the one thing that it probably gets the least attention or the, the least passion, right? Because we got into business for the, the passion of what we do. So for sure. I love that that's what you identified, that that founders are, are struggling with this. What are some of the things you've seen out there with companies, small businesses, so any. Business, the founders, typically finance is something they get around to. Mm-hmm. And they know it. Yep. And by the time they come to us, they say, Rob, my books are a mess. I, I work too hard to get just basic financial information. I'm catching mistakes that I'm paying other people to find. I'm kind of the last to know. I know there's a better way, but I don't have time for that. Founders are salespeople, they're inventors, so they know their products very well. They know how to bring in new business and they know it's important 'cause they see it in their cash flow. And I'd say the two things I hear most when we first start meeting with prospects, the first is the business is good. Like it's, we're growing, but I'm just not making enough money. Like the economics just really aren't working out for me. and, and the other thing. Is they feel some shame around not knowing this stuff. Like I know what good businesses do, like I see people that really have this thing nailed and I don't know how they do it. I, I, I, I feel ashamed that I'm, I'm embarrassed to tell you about how bad things are in terms of our books. and I tell 'em, well, I'm actually grateful for that because if they were good. People like us wouldn't exist, right? I wouldn't have a business. And because we focus on founders of companies, typically between 2 million and 10 million of annual revenue, they've got something established. There's demand for their product. The market has said we will buy. And our job is to help them get to that next stage of growth. Because all these founders are capitalizing their companies with internal cash flow. They need profit. And so what we try to do is say, stick with the key three objectives. We're gonna help you grow sales. We help you grow profit, help you grow cash flow, but we're gonna do that on an outsourced basis. 'cause you can't afford a full-time team. So true. And, you know, speaking from, for myself again, you know what you said about the shame actually, not just for myself. I've talked to so many other business owners and we all feel that shame of like, oh my gosh, my books are a mess. Or, or I, I should know more or mm-hmm. I'm not quite. We don't really have that expertise to know what's wrong. We just know something's wrong. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, I, I totally see what you're doing and, and the need for it. And, and definitely we're gonna be giving out your information at the end because those of you who are listening, you, you already know you need to be talking to Rob. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, we, we, we do sell financial services, but I think we're really in the business of selling confidence. We want founders to know that there's a resource there that's getting the numbers right. That's delivering accurate financials, but also communicating in a language that founders understand. I'm a founder, so I understand that language, but also within our staff and within our culture, we're really trying to drive home the point that our role is to be a coach and, and coaches find ways to, to help, to advise and to mentor, not to let your or dictate. I've heard too many stories with people that work with financial people that were too much about the numbers, too rigid, and we really kind of have a, a different approach when we work with, the founders that we work with. Awesome. So good. So you and I met a couple months back. It's been almost a year maybe, but we met through an organization called Collective 54. We did, which we are both members of and very happy to be. Absolutely. And I remember hearing this after this happened, I, I believe I was doing a webinar for them and it was about writing a book, building authority, and I think you made a comment to the CEO Greg Alexander. About, you writing a book or something along those lines. Do you remember what that was? I do, I remember that, that program vividly, 'cause I asked a question and I said, I work in finance and accounting and I don't know anybody who would willingly read a book about that, but I think I'm gonna try anyway. And Greg said, I'm gonna stop you right there. He said, if you wrote a book, a good book. About finance and accounting. Everybody on this call would read it because it's that important to founders and he's very encouraging and very supportive. And that's where the idea came from and what confirmed that was in the chat. A number of different founders on that call reached out to me, saying, you know, we need this suggesting names of titles, things like that. And I. Reached out to some of them and talked about my ideas about writing the book, and it was pretty clear that there was some hunger for it. And then I knew I had to write a good book. Yeah. And there was only one person that was gonna be helping me write a good book. And that was you. And so we connected right away and we got things going. I. Yeah. Well, and I just love that because if I have a nickel for every time I heard Yeah. But nobody wants to read a book about this or who, who cares about, you know what I do. But that's not the point. The point is, what you do is, so it's, first of all, it's so needed by every founder. We've already established that. Mm-hmm. But we take for granted a lot of times the information that we know, and you are literally not just managing people's accounting. You are helping them to scale their business, to sell their business, to, we are to really profit from their business. And I know you have so many stories of how you've worked with companies to do that. Could you share some of those? Sure. I, I mean ultimately I think a lot of people choose this journey of being a founder because of the freedom it gives us. And we work a lot of hours and a lot of people that see founders on this journey who be like, that doesn't seem very free to me. 'cause it seems like you're always working, but when you're passionate about something and you have purpose, you're okay putting in the work. And so. The way we help unlock that value is through two things. How do we help the founder generate more income when they own the business? And then we help them maximize their value when they sell it. We wanna work with founders to get a premium valuation at exit, as well as good terms. And so, for example, a couple years ago I was working with a, a, a person that had a consulting company, who knew that her books were a mess. In fact, in my book, she wrote the, the Forward and she knew she had to do more. But again, she didn't quite know how I. And so we went through the journey with her. It took about 18 months of everything from cleaning up the books to putting in a roadmap to success and, and all the analytical tools that we have, as well as advising her on, on how to get to where she wanted to be. And eventually she did identify a buyer. We helped her close the transaction, and she got, you know, that freedom. She had enough money for that kind of freedom that she wanted, and this is the culmination of 20 years worth of effort. And so the financial function activates. You know, certain things to enable that freedom to occur. And you know, they say money can't buy happiness, but it, it can't buy freedom. And freedom makes people happy. And I think that's why a lot of people are on this journey and that's kind of our role in it. My mentor and, and employer, Zig Ziglar years ago I worked with him, used to always say, money's not that important, but it is right up there with oxygen. You just gotta have it. I love it. Right. I love it. That's great. I hadn't heard that before. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Good. So, and I love that, and, and that's the whole point of the, the why, the book, but, but also just to encourage others listening. Whatever you do, you are the expert at it, right? Yes. So. Don't over, you know, don't overthink it. Just putting it out there and, and ultimately it's to help more people. And even someone reads your books and they the book and they never do business with you, you're still helping them. I have a personal goal. I I wanna help one founder a day just in something. It could be a, it could be a, a referral, it could be a sales call, it could be, you know, I have an idea or, or something about it. There's just something about founders that resonates with me. Yeah. Somebody that's willing to kind of take that risk, and, and work hard. They're smart, they're innovative, they're funny. They're a little kooky. I mean, yeah. You know the type and you kind of know how it is. And so it's a community. That I love being a part of, and I couldn't see myself doing anything differently. So to the extent I could contribute to that journey in a meaningful way where people can actually kind of monetize this. 'cause I do think a lot of founders, in fact, pretty much every founder that I've worked with does not get into it for the money. They get into it to pursue a purpose. They want to do X, Y, Z. They want to, they want to help other people. But like you said, money is like oxygen and we do need it. And the fact is we want to help. More people in our businesses. We need to make more money so we can expand and scale and be able to do those things. And, and that's where we help. That's my mission. Absolute. For sure, for sure. Well, let's talk about the book because Yes, I'm super excited about it. And, I, I don't wanna take your, your, your steam here. So tell us what the book is, what it's called, and what it's about. So the book is called Finance for Founders, and it's the journey to unlocking your company's wealth. And, what it does is it tells the story of, of a business owner who tried to sell her company and failed due diligence and was really shaken by that and, and, and her confidence shaken. This is a, a sharp person that thought she had a great business and was rejected. And so she vows. Never to go through that process again by taking a hard look at our financial operations and engaging a team to help show her the path to a very different outcome next time around. And so the book actually, leans on people I've worked with, situations I've been in. So there's a lot of truth in it, but of course it's a story. So, you know, we took. Made it into a story that was interesting. But the things that happen in the book are things that actually happen, and the approach that we adopt is the proven approach that we've seen work. I mean, I have had people, exit, you know, with eight figure valuations. I mean, life changing types of stuff. I've been at the table. I've prepared the payment statements with, you know, the wire transfers and the, and the zeros on it and everything. So I know what it's like and I know where it's from beginning to end. And I'd say the message is. It's actually not that hard. I think we make it harder than it needs to be, but it does require expertise and it does require an investment. And it's not a journey that a founder should go on on their own. I think they need help for sure they do. What would be, obviously we want people to read the book. Yes. but just give us. A snippet of what, what are some lessons that, or what are some things actually that founders might not be thinking about that they should be thinking about, as they're running their business and preparing their works? Sure. When it comes to finance and accounting, there's just so much out there and what we need to do is filter. And the first thing we wanna filter on, what are the three objectives? And in the book we talk about the key three objectives, and it's more sales, more profit, more cash. Now more. Is not an objective. We have to quantify those objectives by using something called a smart goal. And, and that's an acronym for, you know, me measurable, achievable, time bound, you know, all that kind of stuff. So we have to, we have to be very specific about what that is. And then, what we do is in our approach is we look at finance and accounting according to four pillars. and the pillars are accounting. That's just getting your, find your, the four pillars are accounting, that's getting your foundational financial data correct. And people get tripped up in accounting because it's relentless. It, it's always happening. What we try to do is adopt a mindset of your accounting is your data. It's a data flow and a lot of founders love data, so let's talk about it from a data perspective. Let's get it clean and let's get it accurate. From that, we can report on it and not just financial statements. There's more to reporting to that. There's, there's charts and graphs and other ways of presenting data so we can relate it, make it understandable. Then we get to analytics. Analysis is important. It's a roadmap. Here is a monthly plan of your smart goals. The key three objectives, how we're gonna grow, sales, profit, cashflow expressed in what your financial statements. Could look like a year from now, and we kind of roll it. And finally there's advice. What are we gonna do strategically to help you get to where you need to be? What are the things now that we're armed with this data and this reporting and, and these analytics to help you achieve your goals? So we have to have a conversation around what is it you wanna do? What do you see yourself in three or five years? What do you want to get out of this experience that you're having? and I've had conversations with people from anywhere to, I wanna set up a charitable foundation to, you know, I wanna sail around the world, whatever it might be. But if those are your personal goals, and we of course talk about the business goals, we do spend some time trying to marry the two and again, activate it with the sound financial plan, a corporate financial plan to help them achieve their ambitions. So good, so needed and, and, and simple to people like you, but not necessarily to the rest of us, right. Who, who have different passions and have pursued different, businesses. But, I, I have to let the cat out of the bag because I know this is, the book hasn't even officially launched yet. The, we are, we're in, in, in gear to launch it very, very shortly, but Word has already gotten out about this book and it's already hit number one, new release. Which is extraordinary. Congratulations. Well, I, I, I have you to thank for that. I know that the things that we had worked on very hard to promote the book and, and to make it a good book in the first place. I think it had something to do with that. but yeah, we were, we were thrilled. We just found out about it. And, we will, we will take it for as long as we can get it. but, yeah, very, very excited. Well, and I think it's because too, there's just not a lot of information out there that is founder friendly. You know, there's a lot of accounting books and things like that. There is that we don't wanna read. You made this so simple and what I really love about the book is, is the storytelling. Yes. Because it's not just, here's what you need to do, you need to have analytics and reporting and all of those things. It's, it's the weaving of the story throughout it. The story is key to the book and, and key to helping the reader understand because there is an emotional aspect that many people have with money, and we wanted to talk about that. And, and so through the characters we were trying to express some things around fear and anxiety and making big decisions and, and risk and what that impact is. But also with a view towards what it could mean for you when you make the right decisions. And my hope is that when somebody reads the book, a couple things will happen. One is they'll say, I know exactly what I need to get from my financial operation, and two is I'm inspired. I can do this. Like I can see a path where I can maybe finally tackle this thing, this anxiety, whatever it is. This things have been nagging me for so long because I just didn't know. Even what to ask. I'm hopeful that this book will at least equip people with the right questions to ask. So when they figure out how they're gonna improve their financial operations, they at least have a guide, a manual, a book, or something that they can refer to and say, Hey, it looks like it worked here because the book does have an outcome in it. Mm-hmm. Maybe that can work for me as well, and I would hope that everybody who read the book can have the same outcome. That happens in the book. Oh, me too. Absolutely. And just real quick, the, the book is called Finance for Founders, the Journey to Unlocking Your Company's Wealth, and where can they get the book? Rob. Well, certainly right now on your, on your website. Yes. So we have a website, fin for founders.com. So if you just go to fin for founders.com, we have a, a launch team. Now we're inviting people to come in and participate. The book is available on Amazon, so you get kindle paperback and hard cover, and we're planning on releasing an audio book price some time in late June. Yes. Super exciting. So one last question is, somebody reads this book or they listen to this, podcast episode and they, they wanna know more and they, they wanna think, yeah, I don't wanna just read about this though. I need help. Sure. What are, how do you engage with founders and other and companies? We do. So my company Intelligent, does that. And so typically when a founder wants to learn more about us, we have a discovery call and we just kind of get top line what it is they're looking for. but then what we do is when we agree that there's a good fit, we offer something called a finsight analysis. And, my team operates with a great tech stack. We do everything in the cloud. We use QuickBooks online as our general ledger, and so we will take the, the, the, the prospect's data, the person that we're talking to, and we'll plug it into that system. And then based on what we've identified as their criteria for satisfaction, you know, what's a good outcome for them. We'll kind of walk them through. Here's how we see things unfolding. These are the analytics we can do for you using your data. Here's how your financial statements will look. These are the cleanup types of things that we'll do, and it also gives them a taste for them to see what it's like to work with us. And so it's kind of a sample I. and, and it's a way for them to get comfortable that whether they choose to work with us or not, maybe they've gotten just a little bit smarter on something that they've been struggling to get smarter about and we were able to help in that way. Which kinda gets back to my comment earlier about just trying to help one founder a day. I. Oh, I, I, I, and I see you doing that. You're such a Go-Giver, which, you know, it just speaks who you are. Thank you. Thank you. But for those listening, definitely go to fin intelligent.com. And is that the correct, place to do that? That's intelligent.com, correct. Yep. And, and get that finsight analysis, which I love the plan on words on that, by the way. Yeah. Thank you. And, because that's priceless. That is priceless. Just, just to start the conversations. Mm-hmm. And, well go ahead. Well, what I'd also say too, so the term finsight we actually use in the book, we actually have some call outs where we talk about, you know, something specific that the reader should learn, but also within the book there are resources that they can download and use on their own. For example, some companies. Struggle with their chart of accounts. It's a mess. They don't know what a good one looks like. Well, we have those. So if you have a printed book, scan the QR code or just click a link in Kindle and it'll take you to a website. You can download a chart of accounts and, and maybe use it in your, in your practice. We have due diligence checklists. We have, how to calculate various analytical measures like, you know, cost to acquire a customer or things of that nature. So there's a lot of. Tools in the book that are available that you can just take to your company right now and use today if you like, and they're free. Wow. I mean, that really is helping an entrepreneur founder one at a time, one a day at least, because there's so much in there. So definitely take advantage of that. is there anything else thing you wanna say to founders that are listening who know they need to do something with their, their books, they're not really sure where to start or any encouragement you wanna leave? Well, I, I would say if you feel like you're ready, talk to somebody. I would say be prepared to make an investment. It's gonna be an investment of time. It's gonna be an pre, an investment of money. And be clear on what you want, get out of it. Because I think a lot of times people just. Don't know what they want. and by example, there's some people that we work with that maybe had a, a controller or an account or somebody in their office with them and they got very used to being able to kind of go down the hall or whatever and, and talk with them and have them available to work on their schedule. we're outsourcers so we're part of the team, but we are part-time and we are remote. And so one of the things a founder should ask themselves is, how do I actually wanna work with this team? 'cause if I'm used to having somebody nearby something like what we do wouldn't necessarily work. So I, I'd say get clear on that. The next thing I would say for readers who are thinking about reading the book, more than once, is to buy more than one copy. That way you have a copy available anywhere that you wanna read. Yes. Which is just my way of just saying buy more books. 'cause you can read the same cop book again, but you know, and I support you on that, Rob. Yes, exactly. So you know, if you can read more than once, buy a bunch of copies, keep it in your car, you know, your office, your bathroom. So we always have it available whenever you need it. So fun. I love it. Well, Rob, thank you so much for being on the show. I'm, I'm super excited. Congratulations on the book and everything you all you're doing. It's, it's really exciting. Well, thank you for having me. Michelle, would not be here without you. So thank you for your efforts and your team's efforts, and we're super excited about what's next for us. Awesome. Thanks. All right, listeners, you need to get out there and get this book. It is. It's an incredible book. It really is. It's an easy read. If I can, if I can learn from it and grow from it, you can too. So go to fin for founders.com and make sure to really learn all these, the three key objectives. You know, Rob made it super, super simple. It's, it's sales, it's profit, it's cash flow, right? We all know that. But how do we do that? That's, that's all in the book. And learning those four pillars, you know, accounting. Reporting analytics advice. Those are all the, the four components and, and again, all laid out for you in the book. Finance for Founders, get it@finforfounders.com and that is it for the Power of Authority Spotlight. We'll see you next time. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening to the Power of Authority Spotlight. If you are a successful founder, entrepreneur, business owner, or leader that's getting results and making a difference, and you'd like to be on this program, please visit performance publishing group.com/podcast to apply. That's performance publishing group.com/podcast. Also, if you got something else. Of this interview, please share this episode. Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or post it on the socials. If you know someone that would be a great guest, tag them on social media to let them know about the show and include the hashtag, the Power of Authority Spotlight. I love seeing your posts and guest suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content, so make sure you don't miss any episodes by subscribing your thumbs up. Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote. The show and mean a lot to me and my team. Wanna know more? Go to our websites performance publishing group.com or michelle prince.com and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you next time.