Think Bigger, Give Back, Play the Long Game

Coby: Jenny. Want to go get a treat?

Jenny: Yeah, I do.

Coby: All right, let’s do it.

Nicole: Hi, it’s producer Nicole Denson. Today we’re talking with Jenny Groberg, CEO and founder of Book Smarts Accounting and Bookkeeping. Jenny launched Book Smarts in 2008. She was named Utah’s 2024 CEO of the year by a Utah business. She now leads a team of more than 30 women, helping hundreds of clients understand the real impact of their financial decisions. As a mom of five and TBI survivor, Jenny is passionate about helping women grow at every stage of their lives. We’ve got a ton of wisdom to pull from today. Let’s get into it.

Coby: Okay, so what I would really like to know is first, just tell me what’s going on in your business right now. The name of the business. What’s going on right now?

Jenny: Right. Okay, so my business is Booksmarts Accounting.

Coby: Okay.

Jenny: We offer fractional accounting services. So if a company is in need of an accountant or bookkeeper or a CPA, they can come to me and we can formulate a fractional team for them without all the overhead benefits. Yeah. And they’re only paying for the hours that they need. So I can, you know, form a team for them with just bookkeepers or with a few hours of a CPA or a CFO or whatever that might look like. So that’s the business. And right now we are just really trying to focus on growth. And in order to do that I’ve got to hire. So a bit of a hiring blitz right now. So I gotta make my team a little deeper okay. With the hopes that if I bring on more work, it doesn’t exhaust anybody on my team.

Coby: Yes, that’s.

Jenny: That’s ultimately the goal. So I have a few things, you know, that are happening that I probably shouldn’t say, but I think I’m right on that apex where—the cusp—thanks. Right on the cusp of some big growth. And I’m super excited about it.

Coby: That’s cool.

Jenny: Yeah.

Coby: And you’re headquartered in Bountiful.

Jenny: Fruit Heights, Farmington area. Although I have employees, we’re all remote. Yeah, and I have about probably 15 to 20 employees in Utah. Okay. And then I would say maybe 20 outside of Utah.

Coby: I see.

Jenny: And then I have two admins in the Philippines. And then I just hired six people in Africa.

Coby: So tell me about that. Tell me about the hiring people in Africa.

Jenny: Okay. So how deep do you want me to go?

Coby: Let’s go deep. We got some time to South Jordan. Okay.

Jenny: I do. So in the summer, I got a text from a woman by the name of Monica. Okay. She said, Jenny, I’m a distant relative. I am on the board of BYU Pathway, and I’m trying to figure out how to scale. Okay. We have 2000 students on a waitlist for an accounting internship, but we don’t have the capacity to handle all of them. So I guess she woke up and remembered her mother-in-law saying that she has a distant relative in accounting. Okay, so she reached out, and it was just a no-brainer. Like, absolutely. You know, I, I, I’ve told you, I know what it feels like to not be able to help myself and to have resources to get better or to feel better. And so it was a no-brainer when BYU said these people need help. So we started a ten-week course, and each of my well, I asked my staff- I said, is anybody interested in?

Coby: Helping me teach? Yeah.

Jenny: And I had probably half of them say that they would help. Cool. Some can’t. Some are too busy. Sure, family lives don’t match up, so no shade on them. But the rest of the team, you know, there’s about 12 to 15 of us. And we each take a week of this class. So I teach the first week and I talk about financial statements. So the balance sheet P&L, why it matters, and why everything thereafter, every transaction, is building those financial statements. What it means, the business owners, things like that. So we taught our first ten-week course, got our feet wet and then it was, it was time to scale. So I went back to Monica and BYU and said, I think we can triple our efforts. We could start a new cohort at the beginning of every month.

Coby: Okay.

Jenny: And then, essentially triple our efforts. So instead of teaching every two and a half, three months, I was teaching every month, which is awesome. So I teach a course my team does. And then Norm Navarro and Doug Barton were teaching accounting principles. And then I told my staff, you know, if anybody passes both courses and does the QuickBooks certification one and two and the bookkeeping certification, then Booksmart will award them a badge that says they’re bookkeeping certified. Cool. So under my umbrella, I’m able to offer those certifications for free. Okay. So that was super awesome. And then the standouts we could kind of track, you know, who had accomplished all of those things. So BYU finance society had me speak about my journey, my business. You know, some pitfalls, things to do and growing a business. And they said, Sister Jenny, how can we get jobs? And I said, well, you have to be hustlers. You know, find out where events are in your country or your city. Show up. If you have no events, then you know, if there’s a business you’re interested in online, then follow them. Comment on them. You know the business owners will be aware of who you are, I promise. But you have to be hustlers, and you have to be persistent.

Coby: Yes.

Jenny: And that afternoon, I had 300 resumes.

Coby: They all knew where they were going to start.

Jenny: 300 resumes by LinkedIn inbox. And then over the next few months, hundreds more. Yeah. So I had a job posting for a data entry position. I had 700 applicants just for that data entry position. So the demand is there, the need for remote work is there, and a lot of people are struggling.

Coby: Did you feel the emotional weight of, you know, there’s one thing giving advice and people like to like to give advice. They like the notoriety that comes from having somebody, from being somebody whose advice is worth it. You know, there’s a bit of celebrity there, and that’s very attractive for good and probably some bad reasons to lots and lots of people. But the back side of that is an emotional accountability and responsibility to 300 people that you just gave advice to. And now they’re looking at they’re following the advice and they’re looking for some sort of delta in reaching out to you. Was that kind of hard to bear? Was that it? Was that a. Burn?

Jenny: Oh, I think yeah, it was a burden in a way, because I feel this compelling need to help them. And again, I don’t know if I would have this context or this insight without my experience. Right. I mean, I would say I’m a pretty compassionate person, but now I have a way to help them and to do something. So I also, you know, have really been humbled. I have had a lot of years where I cannot lean into my strengths. Right. I would say my memory,

Coby: What, you considered your strengths before the experience?

Jenny: Yeah. What? I considered my strengths.

Coby: Yeah. There’s a big—that’s profound.

Jenny: On my body? Physically. To show up and. And my brain and my education and all these things. Yeah, I could remember things I could study, I could make it happen. So in terms of that celebrity aspect, do I feel that? No. I feel like I can recognize I’m nothing and I’ve been nothing. So this experience was just a motivator to do something to help that. Cool. And then, you know, just those constant emails. His sister Jenny. Do you remember me? I’ve passed all the things. Can I have a job?

Coby: I have a job now.

Jenny: And so what we did was we decided to start a cohort. We hired six of them. Three men and three women. Okay. And, you know, cybersecurity was tough. That took about $15,000 and a month and a half to get that implemented, and maybe two months.

Coby: Anyways, because it was remote in a different country.

Jenny: Yeah. Okay. In Africa, my cyber guy was just like, Jenny, you’re asking me to do the impossible. Yeah. And I said, Mike, you have to figure this out. If you don’t figure it out, I’m going to have to have somebody else that can. So whatever this takes, we have to make this work.

Coby: Well, there’s so many, like, princes that are looking for help with converting their money to US dollars, and they’ll give you. Just kidding. I’m dating myself. That’s an old scam. It was 20 years ago.

Jenny: A lot of it was, but. But essentially. And luckily, these people have had a big vetting process to even get into BYU. Then they had to qualify for the internship, which was another series of steps. Yeah. So these are people that are already hustling. A lot of them are commuting to computer labs just to do their study. Yeah. Wow. You know, this fund of donations is paying their wages in their country to be able to do the internship, which is the coolest thing, because otherwise these people cannot afford to spend ten hours a week on my course and Norm and Doug’s class in order to upskill. They just can’t. And so then they also will help cover their wages for three months. And so, you know, although it was a slow onboarding process, some of that burden was lifted from me because their wages were covered for three months. So anyways, hire them. We’ve been onboarding them. It has been a little bit of a slow roll.

Coby: Yeah.

Jenny: But you know, it’s our first time doing this. We’ve had a lot of different obstacles but—so cute—my directors took each one of them independently and said, I think they need one-on-one mentoring. Yeah. And so each of my directors took one of the pathway hires and is spending time mentoring them.

Coby: So, like, there is a huge investment that you’re making into this program, and I’m sure on a balance sheet. Right. The case for the program, probably, a lot of people might not see it, like, I mean, how did your team react when you said, this is what we’re going to do?

Jenny: Yeah. So I think that question has a few facets. One of my core pillars of my business is giving back and charitable work. So for me, it was a no-brainer. I mean, I am just so blessed that I did not start my business organically. With the intent of scaling or having a multimillion-dollar business, that was not the intent. The intent was to try to get employment that I could do because I have little kids at home. Yeah. So 100%, my focus was just getting my husband through medical school and residency. And then when he finished, we had $250,000 of student loans.

Coby: That’s a lot of student loans.

Jenny: There’s a lot of students, and we got them paid off in two and a half years. Wow. I’m really proud of that. It totally sucks. You know, here we are. We’ve been in school forever. We’ve been in a basement apartment forever. And then we continue living like students. But that was the best thing we ever did financially.

Coby: Yeah. If you don’t learn to live like students when you’re a student, then you’ll live like students for the rest.

Jenny: Of your life. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, my objective was not in getting those student loans paid off. Luckily, my husband has a job and can support our family. With that being said, one of my focuses on my business is trying to give back. So for me, it was a no-brainer. I did have some people in my organization say, this does not make sense financially. This is kind of a stupid idea.

Coby: Yeah.

Jenny: Yeah. So. But I had a lot of people that thought, you know, we also feel strongly about this. We want to help you teach. And I, you know, can show that by the amount of volunteers that I had that were not paid. And there’s a lot of prep work involved. I have my admins monitoring their scores and progress. There’s so much to it. It’s pretty deep. But yeah, we got that off the ground. No problem.

Coby: Wow. So what do you think outside of it? So I understand, a pillar of the brand of your or of your brand being given back. And it’s very easy. I can imagine a reaction would be, well, you know, if my business was doing well enough to put my spouse to pay off my spouse’s quarter-million-dollar student loans in two years, then giving back clearly is a priority. But, you know, part of giving back is doing it maybe before you have that level.

Jenny: See, and I wouldn’t say that it was just my business that paid off as loans at the time. I wasn’t generating that much. Okay. I had profits, but, you know, we were used to living on my husband’s pay, which was 40 grand. As a resident. Gross. So he’s grossing 40,000, you know, my income, I think I was grossing 30,000 during residency. And then, as our income started to increase, we kept our living expenses. So collectively, anything we made additionally just we put towards a loan. So it was him, and it was me working together to get that.

Coby: You know, it’s the power of having a spouse. That’s a count.

Jenny: Yeah. Right. Yeah. My husband has no involvement in the finances, but probably should. But we did decide together. We are not carrying this monkey on our back for the rest of our lives. You know, like a mortgage. We’re not. We’re not doing that because he had seen some of the other physicians that have been paying their loans off over 30 years. Yeah. You know.

Coby: So what? What are you seeing? I mean, clearly you’re able to see opportunities like Tathway. What are you seeing now that you feel nobody else is seeing?

Jenny: I mean, from a personal standpoint, I feel like a lot of people don’t see anything bigger than the box that they’ve placed themselves into.

Coby: Okay.

Jenny: So I would say that absolutely. People need to think bigger. I think they need to try and take some risks. I see it with my own kids. I’m like, hey, go for it. What is the worst thing that’s going to happen? And a lot of that just comes down to confidence. You know, and putting yourself out there to fail.

Coby: Sometimes that box needs to be taken away.

Jenny: Yeah. And sometimes it is taken away.

Coby: And that’s I think probably what happened with you. Yeah. Right.

Jenny: And then I’m left, you know, with nothing. And then fortunately, I started to feel better and get my bearings and that was no small feat. I mean, that that is a series of three years worth of cognitive therapy. Vision therapy. I was in vision therapy for nine months. That’s physical therapy. I’m still in physical therapy. I’ve had three different physical therapists. I’ve been trying to run again, and I still can’t run. But. But it’s showing up every single day and trying. And I think that there’s something to be said about compounding effort and growth. And that’s what I’m saying.

Coby: So, you mentioned that too. I’ve heard you mention that before. So I want to put it this way. Because there’s a lot of meat there. The four, four things that, if you had to choose the top four that you either see now or that you are, that’s part of how you approach life now that maybe you didn’t before the box was taken away. Okay.

Jenny: So one of those is to think bigger. Absolutely.

Coby: Okay.

Jenny: You know, to take risks, you know, since coming back, I’m like, well, I can come back from a brain injury. You know, I, you know, I have a third-grade reading level. Oh, well, like, there are worse things.

Coby: It’s just laughing that one off and getting some ice cream.

Jenny: Like whatever. You know, the. I think that we all have limitations. I think we all have insecurities. And I think you still need to show up.

Coby: You just go for them anyway.

Jenny: Go for it. Yeah, and it’s not easy. And, you know, I do something, and I think, why did I do that? That was not worth my effort. That was way too stressful. I kind of sucked at that. But I do it anyway. And then it leads to something else and then that compounds and then I’m here, you know. Yeah. And I have had people say, well, where did you come from? And they’re surprised to hear that I’ve had my business for 18 years. You know, I had my head down. I was, you know, very happy with 13 team members. Very happy with where we were. I think we were grossing maybe 300,000. That was enough for me. Yeah. I really didn’t have the capacity to do much more. And I think it’s okay. I think it’s okay to have times where you do less or, you know, you’re not pushing. But I can see now that there is a lot that’s possible. Yeah. So. Yeah. So that would be one thing.

Coby: So think bigger.

Jenny: Okay. Another thing would be to help others. Okay. You know, I did have some resistance from my organization saying this is not a good idea financially. Why are we wasting our time on this? It’s diverting our energy and attention off of other things. However, the relationships that I’ve made because of that are far outweighing anything that’s cost. So I already know that that’s one of the big catalysts for my upcoming growth, actually. So, giving back, I think, is imperative. I also can see the power of small gains. Okay. And we kind of touched on that. Yeah. But, you know, showing up and doing things that are hard.

Coby: Again and again and again and again and again and again and again with just incremental, sometimes not even noticeable unless you look back at the path that you’ve trod right at those gains. Yeah.

Jenny: I mean, when I first started physical therapy, it was stretches, pretty much stretches. And then I got on a bike and I couldn’t get my heart rate over 75. That was painful. I mean, not exhaling, leaning over, trying to keep my heart rate low. And I do that for a week before I can advance to 80 beats per minute. It took me about a year to be able to sweat and to, you know, feel like I’ve made some progress on the bike. Wow. So it’s super slow and super painful, but I think some people just give off or think, yeah, this doesn’t really matter. And it matters.

Coby: So, before you get to your fourth, I just got to ask. I mean, growing up was always a, wait till the last second massive maximum effort for a short period of time. Try to get it across the line so that I can, you know, worry about it again for another three months before I get to do it. My son, everybody in my life, all my kids. It’s terrible that I passed it on. All have kind of the same mindset. It’s not just an incremental thing and it is really taken. I didn’t have a brain injury, but the last six years haven’t been the best six years in the whole world. Right. So similarly, the box had to be taken away. Yeah. Everything I thought that I had value around or that I was valuable for, or that I had value to give all of that was stripped from me. And one. And then one of the things that was humbling is I had to start looking at life. I had basically two choices: either give up or start recognizing the small gains and really celebrating. Sometimes just, honestly, just getting up and then deciding that I think I’ll be around tomorrow instead of the alternative. Right. It’s a really humbling place to be. And have you always been that way?

Jenny: You know, I would say I’m very competitive. Yeah, I would say I’m competitive with myself. I would say I’m competitive and I just perhaps it was athletics in high school or, you know, growing up playing soccer, it was just like you just keep pushing and things will move. And the brain injury, regardless of how hard I pushed it, wouldn’t move. There was no, you know, mindset that could get me to the finish line. But, you know, the more I push in a day to make things happen, the worse things will be in the coming days. So I think after two years, I had, you know, a moment where I’m like, I feel pretty good. It was my anniversary and I told my husband, I’m like, the only thing I want to do is run. And I don’t know what made me think that I could do that. But we went to Elephant Rock and I love that run. It’s a great run. And I thought I flew up the mountain because my husband could barely keep up with me. I get to the top and I can literally sell my brain start as well. And I think that my vision goes out and I can’t see the rocks. It was awful. I couldn’t stand up for 30 days after that.

Coby: Oh my gosh.

Jenny: That one run took me out for 30 days and I’m like, that was not worth it. I, you know, I can’t push myself through this. It was really a lesson in scaling back and it’s really hard to celebrate little wins. It’s really hard to be like, okay, I’m going to do even less today, and I’m going to celebrate.

Coby: When it’s hard, when your perception of yourself is somebody that doesn’t have to stoop to celebrate little wins. I could do so much more. I’m so much better than this. And to be shown, no. Yeah, that’s a tough lesson. So I’m here with Jenny Groberg. Hi. Hello. How are you doing? Great. I’m super excited.

Jenny: I know I got a treat today, so I’m even happier. Yeah.

Coby: Yeah. So where are we going?

Jenny: We’re going to go to Nielsen’s Frozen Custard and y.

Coby: Nielsen’s frozen.

Jenny: Custard. Nielsen’s is the best ice cream. Okay. My opinion.

Coby: Okay. Is it ice cream or custard?

Jenny: It’s custard.

Coby: But what’s the difference?

Jenny: It’s thicker. I think it has, like, an egg yolk base.

Coby: Okay. I think it’s equally sweet.

Jenny: Okay. I mean, if I can’t get Nielsen’s, then the second best would be Ben and Jerry’s or Häagen-Dazs.

Coby: It’s that good?

Jenny: Oh, it’s so much better than that.

Coby: Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, so. And what are you going to get at Nielsen’s?

Jenny: I have it depending on how hungry I am or how big of a fatty I’m feeling. They’re going to be a double vanilla scoop cone.

Coby: Or ice cream. If you can do straight vanilla with nothing else, you know it’s quality.

Jenny: The thing is, I’ve never been a vanilla fan, but I have the Tesco Vanilla.

Coby: Wow. It’s that good.

Jenny: It’s incredible.

Coby: I’m going to do vanilla too.

Jenny: I like vanilla the best. If I’m like I’m going to pound it. Then I do concrete—concrete’s kind of hard to manage. I can do it.

Coby: No problem. You can do no wrong.

Jenny: I can, I can do that. But if it’s a lighter day, I do the double scoop.

Coby: Okay. Well, that’s still, I mean, so clearly you’re not.

Jenny: I love ice cream.

Coby: You’re okay. So you and.

Jenny: I love sweets. Like I love candy, I love treats. I can make it down.

Coby: Can you tell me the first time you ever went to Nielsen’s? It’s like, what’s your history?

Jenny: So I grew up in Bountiful. Nielsen’s is a family business. It was founded in Bountiful.

Coby: I didn’t know that.

Jenny: Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah, and they’ve since franchised. But I don’t know that my family went through a ton. I see it once in a while. So I’ve probably had it my whole life.

Coby: But I’ve.

Jenny: Really gained a great appreciation for it as an.

Coby: Adult. Yeah. Well, you know, the things that really matter just. Yeah, I’m the service they do. So do you can you just.

Jenny: Focus.

Coby: On that? Have an appreciation for you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So you’ve you’ve passed it on, you know, not the same mistakes from when you were a kid.

Jenny: No.

Coby: Okay. I like that. Okay. So Nielsen’s vanilla, maybe concrete, maybe a single cup. We’ll see what.

Jenny: Happens. Never a single cup.

Coby: Never.

Jenny: Maybe for you, if you’re a featherweight.

Coby: I just got that. I mean, it adds 15 pounds. I’m already 30 pounds. It’s just terrible. Okay.

Jenny: You can get a single cup.

Coby: And on the way, we’re going to talk about your business. We’re going to talk about your history. We’re going to talk about your sweet take. It’s gonna be super fun. Okay.

Jenny: I’m excited. Let’s do it. Let’s party.

Coby: All right. What is the fourth thing?

Jenny: So the fourth thing is progress over perfection.

Coby: Okay.

Jenny: And that is just showing up. It matters a lot. You know, I like to hold myself to a really high standard, and I want to do awesome work every time. Yeah. And the things that are coming my way are things that I recognize I am not going to be perfect at. And, you know, I tell my kids every day, hey, you don’t have to be perfect. You just show up. If you just give 80%, that’s pretty great. You know, you don’t have to have straight A’s. You know, in your head, you feel like you have to show up and you have to be perfect, but that’s really unattainable. No one is perfect. So just just try to shoot for a B plus. And that’s going to be pretty good. You know that’s a big reframe from when you had to work before. Yeah that that perfection is not actually a thing. Just showing up and doing your best.

Coby: I think it’s interesting that reframing is always a competitive thing, right? I mean, there’s this like before, it’s I for me when I hear you show up and do your best that that reframes it to I, I’m competing against myself. My standard is me. Whereas which has.

Jenny: To be 100% or 150%. And I want to give 150%. You know, and sometimes it’s just impossible.

Coby: It’s just impossible. And yeah. So you clearly have been through a transformational, cathartic event. Still going through it. Probably echoes of it the rest of your life. As all real, real transformational things are right. There you’ve spoken about folks that you’ve helped on other continents. And I’d be interested to learn, you know, somebody who’s watching this, maybe they’ve experienced something that they’re not looking at as cathartic yet. Right? They’re just looking at it as, why me? This sucks. Yeah. Like what? What the hell am I supposed to do now? What advice do you have for them?

Jenny: I think you just have to hang in there. I don’t have any good advice other than just hang in there.

Coby: Hang in there.

Jenny: Yeah. I mean, life is not good. Life is not full of joy. And a lot of times, not full of a lot of hope. But I think you latch on to whatever hope you do have, and you hope that tomorrow will be better. And things do change. You know, I know in your life, you look at where you’re at and think, wow, I’m a completely different person than I was five years ago.

Coby: Yeah.

Jenny: And that is a completely different person than who I was five years before that. And I’m actually really grateful for that.

Coby: Yeah. You know.

Jenny: And I think there’s something to be said about time. And I think it’s hard to see the blessings that come in those times. And I am grateful to be on the other end of that. You know, I wouldn’t say I would actually, you know, hope that I could do anything to change that. And, you know, I’ve said before, I would happily exchange my business for my health, but, you know, if I were to stack up potential problems or other ways that I could learn suffering, I realize that that’s probably not the worst thing.

Coby: Yeah. And pretty gentle, actually, from that framing.

Jenny: Right from that. What can I do with this? You know, and I, I can do a lot actually. And even if it’s, even if it’s not noticed. There’s still a lot that can be done.

Coby: Yeah. So tying that back to accounting and, and ending where we started. Yeah. Right. Your vehicle for driving changes in people’s lives. Both those that work on your team and those that your team works for. That vehicle is financial services. Financial services. So how does this show up in accounting and finance. And I’m going to leave that super open ended however you want to translate that because I’d love to hear where you take the answer.

Jenny: So the thing that I love about accounting is we can hopefully help businesses identify things that they’re not doing well so that they can shift and stay in business. And therefore we’re helping families and communities, because the more businesses there are, the more jobs that are created. And we have to have that to sustain ourselves. Right. So I did a piece called The Final Five with Entrepreneur magazine.

Coby: Okay.

Jenny: And I gave a tip. So in the last five minutes of your day, you should run five financial reports. And then, you know, it’s things like, look at your balance sheet, look at your piano, look at your cash flow. Look at sales by customer summary and by focusing on who’s driving yourselves, what expenses do you have coming up then your decision making and your behavior is based on numerical evidence rather than emotion. Okay. A lot of times, entrepreneurs, business owners, they’re reacting to whatever fires in their face. That’s what gets the attention. And I want to encourage them to base it off of numbers instead of emotion. So if you can focus on the last five minutes of your day and look at those reports, you can make decisions based on fact. So, you know, perhaps you can see that you have a particular customer that’s driving the bulk of your revenue. Well, you need to focus on that customer. If you have some bills that are coming up in the next 30 days, you might need to press the gas on getting more clients to pay your bills. I really want to encourage people to look at their financial statements and compare three time periods. So three years side by side or perhaps it’s three months at a time and look for outliers. And so if you can see that something has shifted or changed, you can hurry and modify your behavior or your decisions in your company. So let’s say all of a sudden you notice that payroll has increased dramatically, but maybe your revenue has stayed stagnant. Yeah. Well, you’ve got to shift something. You either have to increase your prices or you need to reduce, you know, some of the higher pay perhaps you have over time and that triggers a higher. But your numbers will tell you what’s happening in your business. And I want to help my clients to see what things are moving so they can hurry and make better decisions to stay more profitable.

Coby: And to challenge, not to challenge, but to then tie that back to your work with, b-y-u and with pathways. Some of those indicators on the balance sheet. And I’ve been a little bit of a devil’s advocate. Yeah. Some of those indicators on, on, and on the financials would lead you to make the opposite decisions that you’re making. So, you know, how do you reconcile that? Like what?

Jenny: How do you justify the expense?

Coby: Justify the spend.

Jenny: So for me, I feel that even if it is just a spend, that charitable donation, that investment is still worth it to me. I’m helping upskill. And whether these people end up getting jobs with me or someone else. I do think fundamentally that will give them a lift wherever they’re on. With that being said, I have a long game in mind.

Coby: Okay, so this is the key. The long game. The long game.

Jenny: Short the key. Right. The long game in your personal life. The long game business. The long game and strategy. I can see that there is attrition in my company. There’s turnover. We’re constantly hiring. We’re constantly training, and I can see it’s a drain on my team. I notice two things. We have a hiring blitz, typically in April and typically in September. And what that shows me is in Q1, we’re too tired or busy to hire or train.

Coby: Okay.

Jenny: Because we don’t have the resources. You know, it’s the end of year. We’re gearing up for taxes. Our focus is on that, and there’s no ability for my team to have the bandwidth to train additional people. So I see a spike in April. And then, you know, there’s summer. People are on trips and vacations. There’s another spike in September. So I know based on my business, there’s a problem there with training. And we have been understaffed essentially. And so I want to fix that. I want to make sure that we have a system in place that we kind of like pathway that we organize it, that we are training people and that my team can know when it is that they’re going to be training and that we have 1 or 2 people, on the bench to, you know, absorb any new incoming works. Otherwise we’re going to have to turn away from work. So with that long game in mind, I know that these people that I’m hiring through the BYU pathway, I know it’s expensive initially. However, if I can get them trained and if they know how to do their job and their tasks, I think they’re going to be lifers. I hope that they will be with me for a really long time, and that the opportunity cost of not hiring someone in the US will come out okay.

Coby: So, I, I absolutely love that. What I’m hearing is that. You want to solve the long game and what that means for your clients? It could mean legacy business passing it on to your kids. It could mean a liquidity event that is my retirement that pays me. It could mean opening up and growing. You know, without a cap in different geos or in different markets. It could mean lots of different things to different people. But it’s the long game that you’re solving for. And I’m hearing that the way that you can achieve that is to maintain perspective and objectivity on the path, so that you don’t get taken off of that long game or off of the path through a reactionary or emotional business practice. Right.

Jenny: And you have to understand your business well enough to know, like, I know, I, I’ve seen what our attrition is. I can see, based on feedback from my employees, that it’s exhausting to train. So I’m trying to solve multiple problems here. I’m trying to help people in Africa or the South Pacific, or wherever they may be around the world that we end up hiring. I want to help provide employment for them, but the more people that I have that can stay long term, the more stability there is within the company. The more stability there is for the clients. Clients hate it when you know their accounts are being switched or you know there’s any disruptions. So for me, that’s also solving an issue with my clients to stabilize accounts. Make sure that the people working on them, you know, for every client, I have a team trained and they’re cross-trained. So even if I lose someone, other people know how to work on it and I cover the cost of that training. However, I gotta make sure my ice cream doesn’t spill, that’s really important.

Coby: Yes, it is for every save.

Jenny: Everybody here. Anyways, the ultimate goal is even though it’s a little bit expensive upfront, it’s going to be cheaper in the long term, and I’m willing to invest and I have the savings to do that. And I also have the ability to and I think you, you know, can strategize and make calculated risks. I think a lot of times people take on a lot of debt.

Coby: In order to.

Jenny: Do that. I’m not taking on debt in order to make this happen. I’m cash flowing it. Right. So some people will take big risks. Invest in something and it doesn’t pan out. If this doesn’t pan out it’s okay. Yeah.

Coby: You know it’s calculated.

Jenny: It’s calculated.

Coby: Well. I’m really excited to, this isn’t the vanilla, but, it looks even better, this vanilla. Just with lots of stuff. So you didn’t say that before? Like I thought it was flavor.

Jenny: It is vanilla based with just tons of stuff with it.

Coby: I love it. Okay, so what do you end up getting?

Jenny: Vanilla base with cookie dough, almond and brownie.

Coby: Yeah. So when you ordered that, like I was like, okay, this is vanilla.

Jenny: Plus it is not vanilla with all the Austin add-ins. It’s incredible. You got one then.

Coby: I was so freaking good. It’s on us. I didn’t, I didn’t even.

Jenny: Would you go here over Handel’s now?

Coby: Yeah. Yeah. It’s better. I mean, yeah, I like plain vanilla for Menchie’s, though too.

Jenny: Okay, before you go back to.

Coby: Plain, do they have a plain?

Jenny: Well, it’s vanilla.

Coby: What’s plain. Plain is. Yeah. It’s sour.

Jenny: Yeah.

Coby: They don’t like the sour stuff. But yeah, when I saw the lemon, I was like, he I, the flavor of the day lemon. I forgot to even say vanilla. It was like a Greek. I didn’t even.

Jenny: I think I like it.

Coby: Boom. Done it. Done. Yeah. Go. This is really good. You got to grab yourself some lemon. Thank you.

Jenny:. Thanks for having me.

Coby: This was really fun. Yeah, I really liked that. All right, see you.

Nicole: Thanks for coming along for the ride. If you enjoy Sweet Takes, be sure to subscribe and leave us a review. Join us next time. There’s more sweetness ahead.