Turning Layoffs into Opportunities: Cameron Williams on Strategic Financial Growth and Leadership Excellence

Discover how strategic financial growth can revolutionize your business with Cameron Williams, CEO and founder of KynLi Consulting LLC. Cameron shares his inspiring journey from an early fascination with accounting to becoming a powerhouse entrepreneur. Learn how he turned a challenging layoff into an opportunity to help marketing agencies optimize their financial strategies, focusing on growth over cost-cutting. His holistic approach combines bookkeeping, accounting, financial strategy, and tax planning to empower businesses to achieve their financial goals.

Experience the transformative power of proper financial management through real-life success stories. Cameron highlights the value of investing in high-quality accounting services with an eye-opening example of a business owner whose reliance on a low-cost bookkeeper nearly derailed a significant deal. Discover how accurate, up-to-date financials and strategic oversight can prevent pitfalls, enhance your business's valuation, and attract investor bids. This chapter underscores the substantial ROI from professional financial oversight and strategic planning.

In the final segment, we explore continuous learning and leadership development crucial for sustaining business growth. Cameron offers insights into the importance of industry-specific events, ongoing marketing efforts, and systematizing operations. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, Cameron's strategies for financial growth and leadership excellence will equip you with the tools to succeed.

Books Recommended: 

• Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself by Mike Michalowicz.
• 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less by Dan Sullivan and

Ready to Finish 2024 Strong?
Don’t wait until December to address your challenges. There's a few months left in 2024, now is the time to plan for a strong finish! Book a free strategy call with Dr. William Attaway to create a plan for impactful results. 

Transcript

Dr. William Attaway: 0:00

I'm so excited today to have Cameron Williams on the podcast. Cameron is the CEO and founder of KynLi Consulting LLC. He has 11 years of experience within the accounting industry in both private and public accounting, serving tech, card processing, energy, pr and other industries. Over the past five years, he has helped hundreds of marketing agencies and business owners. Has helped hundreds of marketing agencies and business owners save over $600,000 in taxes and make more money while streamlining their finances in the process. Cameron's practical strategies not only clearly communicate the confusing accounting and tax world, but empower business owners to take control of their money so that they can live the life they want and create the company they always imagined strategically. Cameron's on a mission to impact 300 marketing agencies with his financial strategies to grow their impact and their income by 2030. Cameron, I'm so glad you're here. Man, thanks for being on the show.

Cameron Williams: 1:06

No problem, thank you for that awesome tee up right there.

Intro / Outro: 1:12

Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host author and leadership and executive coach, dr William Attaway.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:30

I would love for you to share a little bit of your story with our listeners particularly around your journey and your development as a leader.

Cameron Williams: 1:46

How did you get started? Yeah, because we're. You know, learning to be a leader is a ING process.

Cameron Williams: 1:52

That's right, but a little bit about my journey. I'm born and raised in Atlanta, georgia, married 10 years, 10 and a half years now, three kids from nine to two. So that's been cool. How did I get into accounting? Ironically, my grandma worked for the city of Atlanta in the accounting department and at church I'd help them like count the tithes, money and all that. And then my best friend's parents I thought they had like the best house in the world and I thought they were rich, because every time we go over there they'd have like a bunch of Gatorades in the refrigerator and they'd be like drink as much as you want and I'm like you know. So then I'm like what do they do? And they would have these huge checks on the refrigerator. And I found out both of them were accountants.

Cameron Williams: 2:38

I was good at math. I was in like calculus, I think one back then. Apparently they teach that in like middle school now, but I thought that made me like really good at math. So I said, well, sounds like I need to be an accountant. So I went to school for that, finished in three and a half years with a bachelor's in accounting, another bachelor's in finance, and then went on to do my master's in accounting, so finished that in a year and a half. So there was that.

Cameron Williams: 3:07

Then, of course, before I graduated I already was working at a CPA firm, an accounting firm, public accounting, and I feel like that was super. That's like the best foundational experience. To work in a smaller one no hate against, like the KPMGs, but the smaller ones you get to do some of everything, versus their bigger ones, like you would only be doing tax return or only do audits. So in my case I got to do tax returns, audits, the bookkeeping, meeting clients, all of that and then from there move back up here, worked in private. Private is just like you work for Coke or you work for Pepsi in their accounting department, so kind of jumped around, kept going higher and higher. Then the company that I was at.

Cameron Williams: 3:52

I was a supervisor of the Canadian region, so I had like seven or eight people under me. We were managing like millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars per day, so having to do those daily adjustments and reconciliations and all those different things. And then they did layoffs across my division, so all the supervisors got laid off on the same day for the same exact reason, which you guys know. No way possible. And then from there, we had baby number two and then that next summer which would have been July 2018, started KynLi and just been working hard ever since Used to help everybody, then, ironically, used to try to help recruiters, and then switched over to marketing agencies about three years ago, and it's been fun. I get to learn a lot, which, of course, I get to implement, and we've been able to help a ton of them. That's what most of our roster is made out of. So it's just been fun getting to mix not only the bookkeeping and accounting but some of that financial strategy. I got from that degree in those different jobs and just different types of consulting and then mixing tax strategy all in one to kind of provide this unique service.

Cameron Williams: 5:04

Some people kind of call it fractional CFO, I just call it strategic financial growth, because we're looking at every single piece to push you in that right direction to help you to make more money, because we even had somebody and one of the masterminds that we're in that we're saying is so weird that you always hear accountants talk about cut, cut this, cut that, stop paying for this, stop paying for that. Very rarely, if ever, do you hear one talk about helping you to make more money. And so, for me, that's one of my gripes I have with the accounting industry, and I'm literally thinking about doing this as a series of posts next week. But just how us, as accountants, we're failing the client, we're letting them down because it's so much more than and I use this example all the time like you don't need me to tell you that these are office supplies. You're smart enough to know that that gives you no value. That doesn't help me help you. What does help you is hey, Cameron, I want to hire somebody. Do we have that money to do so? I'm the type of person to be able to use the data to say OK, well, net income is plate numbers. Hey, you're at 20 grand A person at this position on average costs.

Cameron Williams: 6:19

How much. Oh, five grand. Well, 20 minus five, you still have 15 left over. You're super cash heavy. Already. You got 70 grand in the bank. Let's do it. That's one answer. Or is it that you only have six grand every month? The person is going to be five. There's no margin there. So one software renewal, that's annual, and all your profits going for that month, and on top of that you only got 5K in the bank.

Cameron Williams: 6:44

I'm going to tell you that's not the best move. Let's set these new things in position so that way in three months we can revisit. Well, I really feel like I need them. Well, either you can run in the red and pray and hope which I'm all about prayer, but you know, faith without works or so there's so many different things. But that's the nuanced consulting piece, that's the strategic piece which your bookkeeper is not going to be able to tell you because they're going to be like I don't know, do you have the money? And that's it. So hopefully I kind of gave you a little bit of the journey, what we do and kind of how we help.

Dr. William Attaway: 7:24

I absolutely love that. I think the strategic piece is what so many people need and they lean in the wrong direction. They're asking their bookkeeper, like you think I can do this, when they're not equipped. They're not equipped to do that. They don't have that particular skill set. Most of them.

Cameron Williams: 7:41

Yeah, and I tell people like you have to understand that accounting is a world in and of itself, right. So I tell people, because a lot of them will come to us oh, my accountant doesn't do what you do, and I'm like, well, look first off. We try not to slam other accountants because everybody's different, but you have to realize that there are some that only do. These are office supplies.

Cameron Williams: 8:03

There are some that only do tax returns, there are some that only do tax plans, there are some that only do CFO and would never even do the taxes or the bookkeeping. And then you have the unicorns, like me, that kind of do all of it so we can stay in one place and everything goes in the same direction. So you can't pay somebody because you know in the marketing space, you know overseas is very popular, which makes financial sense. But you can't be like I'm going to pay somebody in the Philippines $150 a month to do it, but they don't know anything. They're probably going to get it.

Cameron Williams: 8:41

Yes, these markers and pens are office supplies. I would expect them to. That's basic. You can Google that.

Cameron Williams: 8:47

But then when the challenge comes in, the agency owner starts saying like well, hey, how can I scale? Well, they don't know the answer. Or they just sent me a Google link. Well, that's not what they were trying to do. They don't have the experience, they don't have the degrees. They've never worked up under somebody to get that kind of training on how to think that far in advance and to put things together. So you're asking them to do something that they're not equipped to do and you're frustrated with them, but at the same time, you're making 50 grand a month. It's time for you to thank you so much for helping me get started, but it's time to upgrade this, just like there was a time when you had maybe you were doing all the ads, but you had to hire somebody to take that over for you that had better experience and different milestones in their career. That lets you know that they can do that. It's the same thing, but for whatever reason, in the accounting world, people just think everybody's a bookkeeper. I'm like it's levels to it.

Dr. William Attaway: 9:50

The people who make a million dollars don't need just a bookkeeper, because this is what inevitably will happen, and you don't run a six-figure business the way you ran a five-figure one, and you don't run a seven-figure the way you ran a six-figure one and I like your terminology there of levels. You have to operate in different ways as you grow and if you're not seeking expert opinions or expert advice, particularly around something as important as tax strategy, you're setting yourself up to fail or pay way more than you have to, than you should, and this is where you really add so much expertise with your clients.

Cameron Williams: 10:29

Yeah, and we've seen that especially like, let's say, we sign them in tax season. Those are the ones who really break my heart, because I'm like man, you would have just came two months ago.

Cameron Williams: 10:40

Because, the thing with taxes that people fail to realize is, once December 31st happens and that calendar switches to January 1st, that's it. You can't retroactively have a you know business. It doesn't work that way. So you'll see, even if you follow us on Facebook, like we're saying all the time, this is the time to do tax strategy. This is the time to get clean financials. This is the time to do tax strategy. This is the time to get clean financials. This is the time to have that meeting with your person. Hey, like next month we're posting it's the middle of the year You're not meeting with your accounting professional. That's a problem, because there's six months of important data that's happened. That's there to help you to grow or make adjustments.

Cameron Williams: 11:24

You may have said hey, I want to make a million dollars. Right now you're at 350. It's still attainable. But what do we need to do to get there? Are you not having the proper sales calls closing? Is your team slammed in fulfillment? Do we not have systems? Do we not have operations in place? Are we just hiring people? Because that's what everybody's telling us? Well, maybe we can combine two or three positions in one, which helps us to get off some payroll. We're more efficient, like there are so many different pieces that can help us. Like there's one client.

Cameron Williams: 11:58

We literally just did this, maybe an hour ago, because we're a month in close now, and in the video I say, hey, they're doing great. I mean, they made like 120 grand this month or last month. But I'm like, hey, since we have so much extra cash, instead of spending five grand on ads, what if, for this month, maybe, we spent 10 or 12? Right, especially because they're a seasonal business, so the summer is the perfect time for them. Why not? We have the extra cash flow, we have money in the bank, they're getting paid a salary that's working for them, taxes are already handled.

Cameron Williams: 12:35

Why not roll the dice? Let's double it up and see what happens. Those are the things that you want to get to. But if you wait until December, you're not going to be able to have that. And then, if your financials aren't even there, or you don't even have financials or they haven't been cleaned up in two years because you know, looking at numbers just makes me anxious and makes my chest hurt and gives me heart palpitations like you're missing out on the ability to save yourself money. And I don't know about you, but I'm not trying to pay Uncle Sam an extra $15,000 on something I could have fixed and I can use that to put into the team. Go on vacation, go to the beach, travel, whatever. So yes, we see it.

Dr. William Attaway: 14:52

I've worked with marketing agency owners for a long time and one of the things that I come across is this this hesitancy, this hesitancy to to go and seek out the professional expert advice that they need in certain areas. They're like I'll figure it out, I'll figure it out, I'll figure it. Do you see this around what you do?

Cameron Williams: 15:15

I don't see it as much as they'll figure it out. I see it as they're willing to pay the cheaper option, Like I just had a guy tell me the other day. He's like, oh yeah, well, you know, I know it hasn't been touched since December 2022. And I want to sell my business for over a million dollars. Whoa I do so.

Cameron Williams: 15:38

I'm like, ok, I'm like, well, you need to definitely do from January 2023 to at least June 24. So you'd have something. He's like yeah, and if you know we need to get the books clean, I can go to my guy who did it in the past. I'm like, well, who is this person Like? Why?

Intro / Outro: 15:52

haven't they been?

Cameron Williams: 15:53

doing it. Oh, somebody on Fiverr. He's like let me go see what I paid him. I think he paid him like one hundred and five dollars. I said, well, oh well, you can do that. Let's look at what he last did in twenty twenty two. And there were some big flags there to which he was shocked, like, oh, I didn't know this, I shouldn't be there. I don't even know what that is. I'm like if you were presenting this to an investor to buy it from you and you would have said that you realize that they would have been like yeah, you know, never mind, I'm good, thank you. You have a checking account that's negative 10 grand. But you like I've never had a negative 10 grand checking account. Your financial say you do If you have a loan on here account. Your financials say you do If you have a loan on here and you're like I don't even know what that is, would I want to buy that from you? And you can't even tell me who you owe money to. But what we'll do. Well, no, I'll go to the $105 guy on Fiverr that's going back to. They know this and apparently they must not know this because that's still wrong too. You see what I'm saying so.

Cameron Williams: 17:02

You have to be willing. Just like we try to sell clients as as marketing agencies, you need to spend, you know, five grand on ads and 2k on a management fee. Why? Because we know we're doing and you got to pay for the best seo. All that it's the same thing with your numbers. You have to be willing to say let me go find somebody with higher qualifications that can guide me and give me the decisions I need so I can take emotions out and use the data so I can get that million dollar valuation. So I can get that million dollar valuation so that that investor wants to buy this company, so I can have multiple bids.

Cameron Williams: 17:43

But you can't do that with the current state of things, because nothing is clear, nothing is up to date, you don't have tax returns for them to look at. You're hurting yourself all because, well, I don't necessarily want to pay that much, but I know it needs to be done. I mean, think about how crazy this sounds. Let's just throw easy If I told you, I'll do your January 2023 to June 2024. So that's 18 months of work and I'll do your 2023 S-Corp return plus the personal return. And I'll do your 2023 S-Corp return plus the personal return, get it done in 90 days for $10,000.

Cameron Williams: 18:28

Now some people may originally be like dang for accounting. No, no, not for accounting. The ROI is you're going to pay me 10 grand to get you a million dollar valuation. That's completely different. Not to mention, there's no telling what other things I may find.

Cameron Williams: 18:49

I already know of two or three tax strategies to help him that he didn't implement. He said he was bleeding cash. I already saw what to fix because I saw where the problem was in the diagnostic. So the 10 grand is not just this Like. This is the data I'm going to use. But the 10 grand is not only that, but taking care of it, giving you foresight. Did you even understand that you were doing A, b and C? That's the thing that they're missing from the mindset perspective, because they've been taught or their coach has told them or their buddy has told them yeah, just get you a bookkeeper for 250. And I'm not knocking that because at one point six years ago, that was us. Sure, but I was still doing some of this stuff. I just don't understand how to charge for it back then. But 250, if this is your first year you're making under eight grand 250 is perfect for you, but if you make it $20,000 or more, unacceptable Per month, by the way.

Dr. William Attaway: 19:47

Strategy has an ROI and I think a lot of business owners really struggle to quantify that. Can you think of an example of a client who came to you and you were able to take the investment they made in you and what you do and multiply that for their ROI.

Cameron Williams: 20:10

So two examples I can think of super short. So one client said hey, there's one of his clients he wanted to buy and he was paying us a monthly retainer $1,500 a month. He was like Cam, I want to buy this business, but something is up. I don't know what it is, but I want you to look at the financials first. We go in and I mean we destroyed these financials, not on purpose, but like it was just that bad. So he said look, this is what we're going to do. They're going to pay you to fix it all and then I will buy them.

Cameron Williams: 20:46

So that client's life changed because, hey, we got a cash infusion and all this strategy, so that's going to help the client client company grow. He's happy because now I have a completely different stream of income that's in my niche that I have buy into. And we're happy because now I have a completely different stream of income that's in my niche that I have buy-in to. And we're happy because now I've served my normal client and we just gained a client. We get testimonials from both and we get to help them. So that ROI like and I don't remember exactly what I charged him, but let's just say I charged him the 10 grand Well, 10 grand to him but got his taxes fixed. He now knows how to strategize and plan and who he can hire and tax deductions and how to structure his money and what to pay himself and what are our goals and what is our financial roadmap for each quarter on things we need to hit, do and sell to him. Do and sell to him.

Cameron Williams: 21:45

That's worth it because you set me up to go make 1.5. So if I got to pay you 10, but I got my roadmap and all the strategies and everything, all I have to do is go execute and that's a win for them, right. So that's just one example of how we helped in that ROI coming back. That doesn't even get into how much money we saved. I should probably look it up, but I know for a fact we saved them at the minimum 10 grand, if not more. I just need to find it. But that's what I'm saying. You paid me 10 and we had to do two years of tax returns, so you paid me 10. I probably saved you 10 on each year. So that's double your money back right there and all the other different things. So we try to highlight that.

Dr. William Attaway: 22:27

It seems like a no brainer to get on the proactive side instead of just reacting to whatever's on fire at the moment.

Cameron Williams: 22:36

when it comes to your business's money, it seems like that's just common sense If your coach has taught you to go get you a $200 bookkeeper, or your friend who you think is doing really well, but maybe in a different industry. Or your other marketing agency buddy tells you it's not that important. Or just go find you one over here, 1-800-ACCOUNTING To you.

Cameron Williams: 23:03

Your only schema is this is accounting and I'm mad at you because you're not helping me answer these financial questions when, no, you're operating at the lowest tier of accounting. There's different levels to go to. So now think about what I just said 10 grand to somebody for accounting just for you to go into QuickBooks, like they'll try that one sometimes, just for you to go on QuickBooks and clicks and stuff. I could say the same thing about building a website, right Like I built my website before. I ain't saying it's the best, but my first one I built it in GoDaddy for free because I can do it on my own. But that's not the point. The point is I want to give it to somebody who does this in like the back of their hand in their sleep, so that way it's maximized in the right words and it's flashing and the SEO. That's what you're paying for the professional to do it at that level. That's what you're paying for the professional to do it at that level.

Cameron Williams: 24:06

And I think we get so caught up in. Well, the people I know pay $250 or $350. Well, I'm not them. You compare what we do to almost anybody else. I'm 90% sure, because I'm sure some genius out there haven't met, but I'm like 90% sure you're not going to find too many people that do all that we do and at the level and way that we do it, and that's why we charge. It's not just the county, it's the consulting part, but there has to be some education there. That's what your content is for and all those different things. But what you may think is a no-brainer, everybody else may be like. I just never heard that. I thought it was cheaper and I don't. That's also why you're about to overpay Uncle Sam $30,000.

Dr. William Attaway: 24:50

You get to choose right. You get to choose Cameron. You obviously stay on top of your game as far as learning and I see this when I see the content that you're producing and just in our conversations how on top of things you are. You understand what is happening with your clients. You understand what's happening in the industry. You're constantly learning. How do you stay on top of your game? Your company needs you to lead at a different level today than it did five years ago, and five years from now it's going to need you to lead at an even higher level. Yeah, how do you level up personally?

Cameron Williams: 25:35

What we found has really helped us, especially these past I can say the past three years when we switched to the niche, and it's probably these past, we'll say year and a half is we just decided, like get in the room where your client is. So for us, since it's marketing agencies like we went to Funnel Hacking Live, we went to the GHL yearly conference, like we're going to those sitting in the sessions because, yeah, I'm probably not going to do your SEO build out, but if I can understand the language and terminology and how you think about it, I can talk to you about how to bill it, how to charge it, what you should be including in your package, what's coming down the pipeline. Why are you not doing these two or three services, when I just sat in a room of 50 other agencies and they're all doing it. So for us, being in those environments is huge. We're in a couple of masterminds that are mainly marketing agency oriented, so that way, you're literally getting real-time feedback. You can look at the chat and people are saying hey, anybody know how to get a media buyer. Hey, we want to. We need to make cuts to our team. What should we do and how do we handle that.

Cameron Williams: 26:50

For me that's nothing but content. And of course we take out names and kind of generalize and make stuff in, but if I can understand, ok, letting go of people is this, but they're doing it for these reasons. Who on my client list is a little bloated and may need to have this conversation in order to survive? So I'm always taking those pieces from the accounting standpoint. Accounting doesn't really change at all. Is tax law that changes? And that's just more so. Just staying kind of up to date, being in the loop with other accountants, because we all have our own different specialties. Like real estate has very specific things as opposed to like product-based business versus e-commerce, so everybody kind of has their niche. But give or take 90-ish percent of tax laws going to stay the same. It's just certain little things that may flip, like instead of the 100% deduction for meals it's now going back to 50, something like that. Or the mileage rate every year goes up by a few cents, but at the end of the day, office supplies is always deductible, right.

Cameron Williams: 28:01

Now entertainment was versus now it's not. So that was a big one, but that was pretty much give or take 90% stay the same. For us, it's what are you guys dealing with as agencies and how can we put that into your finances to best help you to continue to stay on track, go, grow, evolve, et cetera.

Dr. William Attaway: 28:23

When you think about KynLi, what is the one thing you want most in your business?

Cameron Williams: 28:31

I would say, to serve as many people as we can with the spirit of excellence, knowing that that won't be a whole bunch of people, but that it'll be the right people.

Dr. William Attaway: 28:45

So what stops you? What are the obstacles that are in your way?

Cameron Williams: 28:50

I would say the same things. That's probably for any business that's growing. You know you have to continue to get out there. You have to be able to speak the knowledge or the language of your target market right, because if you're targeting to $250 agencies, million dollar agencies are going to tune you out. You talk to million dollar agencies. The smaller ones that you could be helping and grow with to that point will tune you out.

Cameron Williams: 29:17

So being able to have the right marketing content, follow-ups, just the normal things in regards to sales and visibility, brand building, all of those are things that constantly have to happen and I think we do a decent job. You can always do better. You know we try to increase the amount of times we post per day. Used to just be one, now we try to get three to five in per day. So just more visibility. Getting on bigger stages I think will help because you get to show your awesomeness to a room of a hundred versus posting and hoping the algorithm does it for you. So I would say that's probably the biggest thing is just continuing to get our name and our brand out there.

Dr. William Attaway: 30:03

It's, I think, easy for somebody to watch you posting, and I mean you have some fantastic content, and if you're not, if you're listening to this and you're not connected with Cameron, you absolutely should. Somebody can watch from the outside, though, and they can see what you're posting and the content and all the stories and the things that you share, and see that as a highlight reel and begin to get a picture of you and say, oh man, cameron, he's just up into the right. He doesn't have any of the same challenges and struggles that I deal with as a business owner. He's not dealing with the same stuff I'm having to deal with as an entrepreneur. His stuff's just up into the right. If they were sitting in front of you and they said that, what would your response be? I'd probably start laughing.

Cameron Williams: 30:52

I can only lead like this just because I've gone through it or I'm learning it, like talking about systems and operations. That's been a huge thing for me, probably the past two months, so I can talk to you about do you have SOPs and training videos and things of that nature, because we just hired somebody new on our team so I had to make sure mine was correct on point. Is it easy to follow? So it made me say, well dang, how many of my clients don't have this? And so then, when they start talking about conversely, hey, we're bleeding money and I see that you're paying so much in salaries. Well, can we like, is your team at capacity? I don't know why. Don't you know?

Cameron Williams: 31:35

All right, what is everybody's task is because you give two things to each person. Well, I'm not sure, because I don't know. They tell me they're maxed out. Well, have they? Have you checked? Like, what's the average time that they're taking to do stuff? When should it be? Those aren't done, or in SOPs, or haven't been trained. Those are just expectations that we have as business owners because we know what it would be for us. I don't even know how to say that, because I'm literally going through the same thing and trying to fix those things now. So I'm learning every single day. I learned something new. I'm going to say every day, but at the least every other day.

Cameron Williams: 32:09

But, as a business owner. We were not taught this in school or in college, so this is probably, outside of parenting, probably one of the few things that you literally learn every day. You get up and put forth your best effort.

Cameron Williams: 32:23

You can have the perfect day mapped out, something can go off track. That's what I thought yesterday. I was like, oh, I'm going to do these things. One meeting went over, which was a good thing, because that client got the help they wanted. This meeting started late. This one, I had to talk. Everything is different every day, so I think we're all learning and we're all trying to help each other. I'm not perfect, so I mean we ask our clients for grace when necessary, but yeah, I'm definitely not perfect. We definitely make mistakes.

Dr. William Attaway: 32:55

So, as you have been on this learning journey, you know continually learning about not just leading your business that's huge but also working with your clients and really helping them to navigate what they're dealing with as well. Is there a book that has made a really big difference in your journey that you would say, man, if you haven't read this book? This was a game changer for me.

Cameron Williams: 33:18

I really like Clockwork, which is by Mike Michalowicz, and I love this book. I've been trying to really move towards this. This is 10x is easier than 2x, and I got this at Funnel Hacking Live last year or, in case you're watching this later, 2023. And I think it just shifts your perspective on how to get the maximum out of yourself, and I say that from the standpoint this book is all about. You need to focus all your focus and attention and greatness on what is the thing that you do that drives the business forward. For most business owners, that thing is sales, sales and marketing your face out there, you getting them in and you closing that deal.

Cameron Williams: 34:05

What moves the business forward is not Cameron doing accounting, so, by default, Cameron shouldn't be spending his time doing accounting. Does that mean you're not going to check on stuff and do reviews? Of course, and based on where you are financially, you may have to be a lot more into it versus. You know, if you're closer to the seven figure mark, you probably worked your way closer out, but that's what this book helped me to do. Okay, what helps me to move the needle? When I go talk to people, when I go to masterminds, when I go to conferences. That's what moves the needle. So, now that I understand that, how can I get my team to support, in my case, the daily accounting for clients? What level do they need to be at? What kind of confidence or training do they need, so that way, if I'm in the airplane where there is no internet, you can still answer a question, instead of just stalling until I always come back. You see what I mean.

Cameron Williams: 35:04

So I think that's what helped frame this for me. Of course, I'm still working on it to try to get in every single area. That's what the SOPs and different things are for. But as we train some of our team, and especially if they're trying to go for leadership positions like manager, this is going to be one of the required readings and, yes, I'm going to want a book report because I want them to understand the importance of their time and where I need them to be, versus just freestyle.

Dr. William Attaway: 35:33

What an excellent recommendation. I love that, Often Cameron, people are going to walk away from an episode like this with one big idea, one big takeaway. If you could define what you want people to walk away with, what would that one thing be?

Cameron Williams: 35:49

All right. So the first one, for finances, I would say everything you need to know is in your financial data, as long as it's accurate. Can I hire somebody? Can I save money? Can I pay myself more? Can we scale? Can I pay more in ads? Can I start ads? Can I outsource this to a different provider? All of those things are already inside of your financials. You just need somebody on your team to make sure that it's accurate and that can spit it out to you in. I like to say regular people, English, not accounting. That would be that one.

Cameron Williams: 36:27

And then, from a personal standpoint, don't live your life always thinking that your stuff is the worst, Because a lot of people, when they get on calls, they're like I know these are going to be the worst numbers you've ever seen and I'm like no, and I have to tell them we don't judge you. You like, oh no, they're to me because I do it all the time. These are just numbers. Like they're not associated with this person as bad and terrible spending habits and why. It's just numbers. So don't go into new situations, especially when you're asking for help, Always thinking you're the worst possible scenario or the worst case. I think you should always focus on the fact that you being willing to ask for help is a positive thing. That shows that you're willing to do what it takes to get the positive result, even if that means I got to humble myself and go to whoever for whatever type of assistance.

Dr. William Attaway: 37:24

Cameron, this has been so insightful. I'm so grateful to you for being so generous today and so transparent with what you've learned so far in your journey. I know people are going to want to stay connected to you and continue to learn from you. What's the best way for them to do that?

Cameron Williams: 37:40

Well, thank you so much for having me first off. The easiest way is probably just connect with me on Facebook. We try to be decently active on there, if nothing else, just for the free content that we post, because we try to just give you value. Of course, we're going to say if you want to work out with us, reach out. But I'm more focused with serving as in like, if I make a post about profitability, like, read the post. I'm literally trying to save you some heartache. Just read it.

Cameron Williams: 38:08

So connect with us on Facebook. Just, Cameron Williams. Of course we have the KynLi Consulting page, but, Cameron Williams, if you want to DM us, of course just hit me up there. We're on LinkedIn. I'm not the biggest fan of LinkedIn anymore, but I say go to Facebook. I'm not the biggest fan of LinkedIn anymore, but I say go to Facebook. You can always go to our website, kynliconsulting. com, where that's just kind of a super brief overview of what we do. Know, every single thing that we do is not on there, of course, but Facebook is probably your best bet.

Dr. William Attaway: 38:39

Cameron. Thank you Again. This has been a fantastic discussion around something that affects every business owner. Thank you for being here.

Cameron Williams: 38:47

No problem, thank you for having me and you know let's run it back for round two whenever you're ready.

Dr. William Attaway: 38:53

Thanks for joining me for this episode today. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, if you don't have a copy of my newest book, catalytic Leadership, I'd love to put a copy in your hands. If you go to catalyticleadershipbookcom, you can get a copy for free. Just pay the shipping so I can get it to you and we'll get one right out.

Dr. William Attaway: 39:29

My goal is to put this into the hands of as many leaders as possible. This book captures principles that I've learned in 20 plus years of coaching leaders in the entrepreneurial space, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church, in business, government, nonprofits, education and the local church. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take a next step with a coach to help you intentionally grow and thrive as a leader, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to catalyticleadershipnet to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, leaders choose to be catalytic.

Intro / Outro: 40:12

Thanks for listening to Catalytic Leadership with Dr William Attaway. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode. Want more? Go to catalyticleadershipnet.