In episode 89 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden interviews Matthew Blumberg, a CPA and independent financial advisor, who shares his journey from New York to Florida and his insights on navigating the financial landscape.
Tune in to gain insights into financial strategies and the role of a CPA in achieving financial success.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:01:13] Financial advising and CPA services.
[00:04:25] Career transition from medicine to business.
[00:10:21] Financial health and life choices.
[00:14:43] AI's impact on financial sector.
[00:16:14] Human element in financial industry.
[00:23:07] Change in American political standards.
[00:24:42] Economic challenges post-COVID.
[00:29:48] Understanding spending habits.
[00:33:34] Career change and personal growth.
[00:38:12] Taking calculated risks in life.
[00:42:35] Navigating industry changes together.
[00:45:23] Market opportunities in changing landscapes.
[00:50:31] Creating a life worth living.
[00:52:30] Business as a slow burn.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Ken Baden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialkenbaden/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialkenbaden
Matthew Blumberg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blumbergmatthew/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MBCPATAX/
WEBSITES:
The Kitchen Table Podcast: https://thekitchentablepodcast.net/
Blue Collar Ballers Union: https://bluecollarballersunion.com/
Matthew Blumberg CPA PLLC: https://www.mbcpatax.com/
Welcome to the Kitchen Table, a podcast about where business is done. So pull up a chair and join your host, Ken Baden.
Welcome back to the kitchen table podcast where business gets done. I am your host, Ken Baden, and we've got a very special guest in studio all the way from Florida, but he's actually a New York transplant to Florida. But my good friend, Matty Ice. What's up, dude? In house. How are you, man? Doing great, Ken. Thanks for having me. Matt is a CPA. I mean, what are all your titles? Rattle all those off, man.
Ken Baden
Well, I have my CPA license in the state of Florida. And I also have my, as of this year, my PFS designation, which is Professional Financial Services, which is similar to a CFP, Certified Financial Planner, and licensed in Florida, Georgia, and Texas to start.
Matthew Blumberg
Certified Financial Planner, is that basically like a financial advisor?
Ken Baden
I am, yes, an independent advisor representative for a registered investment advisor group out of the state of Georgia, Paraclete Financial.
Those are all the technical, I don't know any, all that Spanish to me, dude. Guys, for the layman's out there, it would be essentially you are a CPA, I am your own firm. Yes. And now, uh, you do the point really is Matt. He's got all the money moves going CPA, financial advising, bringing all that under one umbrella. And he's somebody we worked with for a while. So, um, we've been trying to do this for two years. We have? Yeah, I think so. Cause we were trying to do the podcast on zoom and you were going to fly out. And so we've been talking about this for literally two years now. So long time in the making. This is a long time coming, man. And the good thing about, so Matt's known me since this really, this, this inception, I think of this actually, and, We've been working together for a few years now. So what's really cool is if you've listened to the show, you know, we really try to focus on bringing value. That's the whole, that's the whole crux of the show. You know what I mean? It's not some shows are just purely entertainment. Um, this one, I'd love it to be purely entertainment cause it'd probably be more fun talking about, you know, goofy stuff with my brother or whatever. But in reality, like the focus is we're talking about, value-driven, growth-driven, you know what I mean? Whether it's financial, CPA, moves you can make within your business. And we really usually are talking to a lot of entrepreneurs, salespeople, prospective entrepreneurs, high achievers, folks that are looking to better themselves. So we've got a very unique opportunity to pick Matt's brain and provide some value to our folks, dude. I really want to get back to that. You know what I mean? Because I've had a lot of folks on recently where it's like, I don't know, man, a couple million followers or whatever. And that's really cool. But the most important thing is that those guys are able to bring value. Like what do you do and how are you bringing value to our guests? So that's something that's super easy for you, especially in business.
Yeah. I think that's something that I aspire to in general, leaving anywhere you go or whoever you're with a little bit better than they were before.
So before, you know, one of the main things that we typically do, Matt, when we first start this off, cause I know you really well, but the audience doesn't know you from Adam. Tell us a little bit about how you went from New York to Florida. I mean, you can leave out, you can go as detailed or not detailed as you want, but really how'd you get to, you know, where you were? Cause how old are you? 35, 35, young, good looking guy in shape, takes care of himself and an entrepreneur, not an entrepreneur. He's got his own, his own thing. Uh, but that didn't happen overnight. I mean, so for those folks that are looking into being a CPA or a financial advisor and all the classes, I mean, that was stuff I know you were working on when we first started working with you. You know what I mean? So you've grown even since we first started working together. Um, You know, how do you get there? How do you go from where you were to where you are now? Take us through that, that story, if you will.
Sure. So as you mentioned before, I grew up on long Island, New York and graduated, went to state school upstate university at Albany. And I knew I wanted to study business. At first I wanted to be a doctor. Actually, I should backtrack a little in high school. I wanted to be a doctor. I went to this medical forum for high school. And I liked it. I excelled at this forum. It was 10 days at Babson College in Boston. And while we were there, we were really exposed to what's the track like to be through medical school, to be a doctor. And although I loved it, I loved meeting new people from all kinds of backgrounds. It didn't really speak to me as far as the track. So you're not really making money till you're 30, you're in school a long time. And it's funny because I look at it now and I've never stopped learning, right? I was so obsessed with getting out of school and starting the real world that back then I decided I don't want to be a doctor anymore. I want to go to business school. And I thought that was where college would bring me the most value. And that's exactly what I did. And I went to school, I went to college from 2007 to 2011 in New York. That was during the crash there, the little recession. Standard four years on. Yeah. And so that is important to mention is because what was going on in that time, not as bad as it is now, but you know, the Times were hard back then. And so I had some really great family friends, some good guidance telling me, go into accounting. You'll always have a job. There's value there. And you speak the language of business. So you can, you can do so much with an accounting degree. You can venture off into different avenues of finance. Law. Absolutely. Exactly. And so from there, studied accounting, did well with it. I always, the one thing that I can say from in my time of school and then afterwards, there was always somebody there kind of guiding me towards what's next or somebody like at that next level helping me say, this is what you do. This is what you do. While also keeping an extremely open mind and a vigilant perspective towards what do I want out of all of this as well? And what can I bring? After I graduated, I worked for a big four county firm in New York City and Truthfully did not last long there because I at 22 I wasn't ready to work the 80 to 100 hours a week that it gave and so You know, hopefully this can bring some solace to some people I took the route where I'm gonna take it easy I'm gonna figure out where the rest of my life is going from here and Move down to Florida at the ripe age of 22. Did you continue schooling from there or what? Yeah. So I took a year off. I wanted to see, do I want to get my master's in accounting and get my CPA license, which was suggested of me? Um, did I not want to do that? Um, it was, it was a great experience because what I did was got a nice, easy job. I got a place to live, kind of learned how to live outside first and then What that allowed me to do was made me realize that I'm capable of more. And there's a certain way to do that. And the way to do that was go back to school, get my CPA license, and start working your way through and figuring out where is meant for you and kind of having a lot of faith in that too. I should definitely attribute a lot of my story to just having faith that hard work and, you know, getting these attributes, these silly little letters after our name, they mean something. They mean something great. And, um, you know, all of those things allow me to do what I do today, which is, I just want to help people question.
If you had to do all over again, because 30 seemed like, I know exactly how that feels. It's just like, Oh, I'm not going to be making money Tom 30 as a doctor. Do you regret that?
I don't know if regret might be a strong word, but in hindsight, in hindsight, I love science, but no, I actually don't regret it. And it's kind of what you were alluding to now is, um, life is so hard economically these days, I think for a majority of people. And what's great is that I feel as though I'm gaining knowledge. with, you know, I have a vigilant mindset like you. I want to learn. I want to see what's out there. And in doing so, I have learned so much to be able to bring this kind of financial value to really anybody. And so I Joe, I made a joke a couple of weeks ago that through all of this, I feel as though I could become like a wealth doctor and stuff.
Yeah. And still provide value. It's just so you're you're helping people heal. Oh, for sure. And arguably one of the two biggest epidemics in our country, which is as a country, we're the leading country in the entire world or the leading nation in the world and what like heart disease, obesity, all the bad things. So our health overall is terrible. So you could help there, but our economy and our financial health has been worse than it's been in my lifetime. So being able to help there is a big deal. Sadly true. And I brought that up because I thought about that. Like when I first started, Right out of college, I got a job at State Farm, which is ironic now, but, and I was going to be a State Farm agent. Like that was career path set. I was an intern to do that really. And same thing, right? I wasn't going to make money until I was like 30 years old, dude, or I wasn't going to get agency till I was 30 years old. And I was like, I can't wait that long to be 30 years old, man, by the time I'm making any money.
And now I look back, I'm like, I mean, I don't regret it, but. But time goes fast, right? And when you're younger, you think, oh my gosh, three years, five years, 10 years. It's a long time. Do I really want to sacrifice that? Where now, my goodness takes years to build something.
And if so, I guess if you're listening to this and you're in that position, Might be worth thinking about because it happens quick, happens real quick. So if you're, Oh, I'm not going to until, um, you also don't want to find yourself in a position where you're 35, 40 and you're like, damn, you know, 30 sounds pretty good. 10 years ago, 10 years I'd be making about, let me see here. I'd be on like probably halfway, but you know what? I'd still be, I'd still want more and more and more and more. I always want to be doing more, doing more.
And I hate to interject here too, but the way we're talking about time, as far as like a construct to build a life time financially too. I mean, it's never too early to start saving. And I think that, you know, over time, even myself looking back as a financial expert, it's like, man, I wish. Do you know, and I look at regrets, not necessarily regrets, but could I have saved more here, put things here and been in a better financial position today? Absolutely. But that's all part of learning to take what you get. But for those who are younger and they want to spend, it's tough, man. You know, look at what we're doing. Social media, you know, we're out here doing a video podcast and people love looking good instead of being good. And they like spending money.
Looking like they have money instead of having money. Correct. It was a really hard thing to do when you don't have money. You know what I mean? Oh man.
Yeah.
Most of my life I didn't have money, but I was there even for like a small, you know, we started doing halfway decent and you're like, all right, well, I don't know. Get this watch, get this thing. And I was like, whatever, man, this is inconsequential. It's nowhere near as cool, but we have the, we have the, Unfortunate reality of like when those things cuz had I been In my 20s I did have some short term success in sales and I did just completely piss it away. I mean, like I could tell you what I would do cause I did it. I had some, you know, short stints of sobriety cause you know my story, but where I had, that was the number one sales guy, whatever. And I was still just as broke six months later cause I had to put it somewhere and it was never in savings or like a CD or something like that. It was always in this car. or this, I don't know, whatever thing, you know what I mean?
But your experiences can lead you to a point where, you know, I don't want to be like that anymore. And hopefully it have that kind of aha moment happens sooner.
Well, if you're speaking to, you know, where I feel like the gap in our, like our generation and you have Roger here, who is, 22 I think that it's like It's so different dude, it's weird. It's a voice.
It's weird and that's the whole reason why I wanted to take the risk and go off on my own is because Look how exponential technology takes off, right? From when we were in school to when Roger was in school, where we're at now, and now with AI and, you know, soon to be quantum computing be like, oh man, if you don't keep up, you'll get left behind.
Is AI going to impact, I would imagine, the financial and CPA sector significantly?
I mean, significantly, I think AI is going to impact everything significantly. I think there's going to always be a need of the human component when it comes to financial expertise. For instance, a computer can't tell you how much you want to spend on a wedding because that is such a personal opinion. There's emotion there that a computer can't compute. Yeah, that's true. That's a one. you know, one aspect of it, but there is more to life than just numbers on a screen.
I could see like AI being really good at like financial planning or like statistically speaking, this step, this is this high of a propensity for success over this many years, similar stocks that, you know what I mean? Which I guess is probably what you guys are doing.
And, and you know, for instance, in financial planning, a Monte Carlo simulation takes, you know, a huge number of potential possibilities and gives you a, a percentage chance of, of success. Right.
And so Monte Carlo possibility is that an AI thing or just something you guys are already doing?
This is something already been done for a long time. It's not new, but I'm just giving an example of the types of computing that are already done. But, you know, does that computer know your tendencies, right? Like when, when I get to know somebody, like if I was to get to know you, I understand that there are things you prefer to spend money on that others might not. And so understanding that and then taking that into account for creating the financial life that you want and also to make that work, you know, everybody, most, 99.99% of people are so-called balling on a budget, right? And not many people have the money where they don't have to think about whatever they do. I'm talking about Like the way I think of it is like, oh, I would like to buy a building in Southern California, right? Or I want to have homes in Japan and Dubai, or it could just be, I like going to this gym more than the other gym, right? Like I want to go to Lifetime, which is $300 a month versus instead of, you know, $10. Right.
And who cares? Cause I can do that. Passively.
So who cares? It's all relative though, right? So, um, this human component in as far as the financial industry, I think there's always going to be a need for it.
Yeah, I can see that. That's actually a good point. You can't really, I mean, I think AI could pick up on like tendencies or whatever, but they don't know you like, you know, someone you're right. Like that human element. I just don't see maybe it gets better, whatever. But that's my point is like, I think what it really probably more looks like is the human element being really good at integrating AI within their space.
Completely. I think that And with the unfortunate development of technology, what's been happening more and more is that, you know, these lower level jobs are being taken away. I think it would be, you know, silly of us to sit here and not say that how important it is to continue to create value, like to be a valuable person. What does that mean for everybody? It's different, but you know, I'd love to have Assistant follow me around all day, truly. That's like a human element that I need. But from the perspective of what can technology do as far as writing emails, all this other stuff, I mean, what used to be a necessary administrative job is being taken away by something like Microsoft Copilot.
Yeah. I haven't even used a chat GPT.
It's brand new. Yeah.
Just like response to emails for you.
Well, there's, there's incredible amount of technology there, but co-pilot is something that is integrated specifically, specifically with Microsoft, uh, office suite and yeah, absolutely makes things like creating memos or Excel spreadsheets. Yeah. It's, it's,
And we're on the precipice of this type of integration, which would be freaking amazing guys like us. We don't have to do all that. I mean, we were talking about a good, a good assistant, like AI aside, but like a real human person, like a, like for me, I'd like somebody literally here, just like bugging the shit. Cause I need that. Oh yeah. It's not going to AI is not going to do it. Like I need somebody like literally standing in my office, just like hovering over me like, dude, you gotta go. You know what I mean? Like that's what I need, but you may not need that. And so I don't know. I see a lot of value in it. It's worth talking about because it's definitely like obviously the thing right now. But another thing right now is this economy has sucked pretty bad over the last couple of years. I would imagine if you're listening to the show, it'd be worth talking about what your opinion currently is of the last, you know, 2024. It just, you know, we talk about this ad nauseum, but a lot of folks, and I've talked to a lot of people that listen to this show. Some of my mentors, some high level CEOs, business owners, high, high, high level business owners. If you're in this area and I've already spoken to you, like, I know you're feeling it. You know what I mean? Like we've talked about that. So I'd be curious to hear what you think. I know different markets. That's the thing, man, because then I have peers that are in Missouri and Texas that depending on what they do, if it's a storm restoration business and a storm hit that area, well, guess what? They're doing well, right? Like, but for the most part, most of the country has felt, and I think that's, we just saw the results of it. Frankly, politics aside, I think we saw the results and that was a big reason we saw the results we saw. Um, So I'd be curious to see, I'd be curious to hear your opinion over the last year, what your thoughts are of the last year, just from what you've seen, kind of like some of the, I don't know, some of the That's what I'm looking for here. Some of the habits, market habits, I don't know, like some of the things you've seen and then kind of what you expect to sort of happen now during this winter and then next year, right? Like, so what we've gone through, where we're at now, and then knowing what we know, kind of what we can start of. anticipate going into next year?
Sure. So, you know, I'm going to try and keep my own, like, political beliefs aside and also say, Hey, everyone. Also say to that, you know, whatever, whatever you hear, this is not investment advice. I can't be, you know, giving investment advice, you know, through the media, unsolicited investment advice. Right. Yeah. As we just talked about with the advancements in technology, you know, and it making a change, like an exponential change, right? Like technology changes exponentially. It improves exponentially. What I see is that I think as a country, we're starting to understand that the standards that we have in this, they need to be changed because what worked for us back then is not working for us anymore. I think that as a whole, from what happened last week with the results, I think that that's how America feels. I think that they're, they're ready for a change and that what used to work is no longer working and what is it going to take? And I think that they chose that this, this typical political regime was not helping, not whether it's left or right. Yeah. Talking about politics as a whole over the last however many years, it's not working for us anymore. We need to create these efficiencies, like where is our money going, I think. And because I'm in the tax industry, Americans' tax dollars, like I think that people with you know, seeing roads still in crappy. Like what are we paying for dude? And in a state like Maryland where income tax is high here, I live in Florida. It's nice. It's easy and nice to maintain in Florida when you have sunshine, but here, when you have these changes in season, but getting back to it, a high income taxes, are we happy with where our money is going? And I think that people are relatively distraught with the idea of paying tax. For what? Correct. Where's it going? That again, that is completely like my opinion. And as well, I am, you know, I'm a taxpayer, I'm a tax professional and still pay taxes. By the way, I'm not somebody who figures out how to pay zero tax because I earn a nice income and I have to pay tax, a certain amount of tax within the tax code. Getting back to the question though, what do I see? I think that, and I would hope that no matter what side you're on, let's just have some hope here for a better tomorrow is all. I think that COVID really set a lot of people back. Some people got very wealthy and it definitely helped the simple economics of supply and demand. There were industries that were able to excel and succeed during that time. And then there were the opposite and a huge amount of money was, thrust into the economy in different ways. Do I feel it was necessary that I don't have an opinion on that. All I know is what we're working with now with this heavy amount of inflation. Everybody is still figuring out what is this so-called new normal. And where does that line in the sand start? What do we need to simply get by? And just like the American dream says we can have, we want to do more than just get by. Yes. We, that's what we want. Yes. And I think that, you know, my hope from this new regime is to give us a more of an opportunity to do that.
How long do you think that it's going to take for us to see any real, my anticipation is all right. And you know, our strategy, I mean, we're looking, we leaned out and we continue to, you know, lean and prep for winter, whatever that may bring. It's already a slower season. Anyhow, contrary to last winter when we were like, all right, we're going to grow and do all, but we didn't know, I could have never anticipated it being as bad as it was. I knew it was an election year, but just the same. This year we're going and really lean, playing it smart, but we're anticipating a really good 2025 just because in some ways it's like, well, it's got to, right? The market's got to swing back. You think it's going to take, could you put, if you had to, like, eh, it's going to get worse before it gets better. I guess that's kind of what I'm wondering is like, do you suspect? Because that's what I'm wondering is like, eh, he's not in yet. And like, I've seen some things happen. I told you what Rebecca experienced without going into too many detail. Like I've seen things happening already, even though he's not in there in terms of like cuts and stuff like that. Uh, Elon and, and, uh, Vivek are going to be efficiency or government efficiency. Uh, I'd be curious to know your opinions on that, but you think it's going to get worse before it gets better?
Can it get much worse than it is? I think it could have, but a lot for a lot of Americans, you know, I hate to bring this quote in. Like when you don't have money, that's all you think about is how am I going to get by? How am I going to pay my bills and how am I going to feed my family? Like of, you know, like these Maslow hierarchy of needs for shelter and food and the bare minimum essentials. Um, I don't know whether it's going to get worse before it gets better. But, you know, those kinds of results, like, I don't know if that's necessarily like within my control, within really any of our control. There are some things that, again, what we were what were the American people in control of? They were in control of who we would like to see in office so that we can bring some type of change. Um, that occurred. Now we're seeing this, this wide, you know, at least politically, right? Like politically we've completely swayed. It looks like the Republicans have complete control, but, um, Democrat Republican aside, what I really see is that they're trying to change the political platform so that they could put the right kind of people in office to make change change. That isn't swayed by, you know, stakeholders other than the good of the American people as a whole. So I would, you know, for, for the average person economically, is it going to get worse before it gets better? It might, or what everybody can do right now, like, like we just mentioned is how can we bring more value? How can we change what's not working for us? If, if what, we're doing right now isn't working.
That would have been my next question is what would you advise to most of our demographic, I guess, right? Like if, if heading into this winter, if you were to give them any sort of, and again, I know it's not, my wife's an attorney, so I get it like not official advice, but like just your personal opinion, like, Hey,
I can easily give this advice and that is get a hold of what your spending habits are. Like understand them, whether it's you're a spender or you're not. Understand how much money do I make? How much money do I take home? Right. And establishing some type of understanding and expectation for you. Then from there, you can make informed decisions. That's just like running a business. So as a whole, it's just like a business that doesn't take inventory will fail, right? So a business that doesn't run an analysis of how much money they're making versus how much they're spending, you can only last so long, right? So same thing starts in the household too. And You're right, you know, if I think about, you know, from the small business aspect of what this podcast is. try to try to really take a step back. I try to do this. I have a cyclical nature to my business too. And usually at least once or twice a year, I try to take a step back and take a look at what's going on instead of being so in inside of the business, step outside of the business and say, Hey, how, how is it going? How am I doing? Where are we at? Where are things going? And if I can get some of those baseline foundational answers, that's something that I do. But getting back to dollars and cents wise, yeah, simple budget.
Which is probably eluding most people, actually. I guess it would make sense to get back to the basics, the simple, the little things. Back to basics, absolutely.
I say that a lot.
Yeah. Same with even sales.
Without a doubt. And to go further, you know, it's tough. A lot of people, they want to put their head in the sand when it comes to their spending habits.
Or anything that sucks to talk about.
Well, especially when it comes to change. I've never been averse to change. Change is inevitable. And so, but I understand that I'm not like most people who like, they like their status quo. They like their, their spending habits, whatever they are, their trips, their whatever.
They're like comfortable, predictable.
Whatever they find comfort.
Right. Which is relative, but yes. I told this story in the last podcast I was on, but the kid that I have, we just hired, he's starting next week, 28 years old. And we've been much more selective with, the only people we're bringing in over the winter are salespeople. Salespeople can pay for themselves. I mean, they don't really cost. anything, maybe some training pay, right? And the ones that we'll keep over the winter, we'll end up investing in some different trainings and so on. But for the most part, it's relatively inexpensive, more investment of time, effort, and energy. And of course, you have to quantify that stuff. But trying to be more selective on who we bring in. You know all of this, but I'm trying to give them some context. So the young man that just came in, I really wanted because You know, we had the group calls and I knew he had some experience. So it piqued my interest came in 28 years old, uh, had experience doing, you know, doing door to door. Um, but not closing, but still you have experiences doing the door. door-to-door thing, you know what it is. And not many people do it well or want to do it right. It is a very unique, you're either targeting like brand new young folks and bringing them into an industry that they're not familiar with. And that has its own wins and losses and problems to deal with, or you're targeting folks that have done it before. And if they're still doing it, it's kind of an eyebrow raise. Like, why are you still, you should have made it into like closing or like, why do you want to keep doing this? Right. Usually there's some asterisks, like, Problems whether it's sobriety or whatever right legal can't drive who knows but it's just such an interesting It's like that in phones to phone sales like the line of folks like you got like maybe what you would see is like the cliche salesperson like oh, that's exactly who I think would do this and then like Right next to just like the most. Oh, well, I would have never thought that but now that I think about it Yeah, I guess who's lining up to do this, right? So this kid is Uh, sharp as, as a tech, uh, looks the part, just average, not exactly like what I used to hire in terms of like retail had a very distinct. Oh, okay. Cliche sales guy or gal. Look, I don't know what else to say. Cause it plays. I mean, whether I even tried to do that or not, it might've just been like a by-product of what they were applying for. Like, Retail sales high pressure sales tends to attract a certain type of person And then you get in the room of any of those companies and you look around and it's majority those types of folks, right? I don't know. That's just what it is, right? So In our industry, it's kind of a hodgepodge of that. I think you called it a motley crew yesterday, but I mean, it really is. It's an interesting, like, okay, that guy makes sense. And then you see the area, like, okay, nevermind. That guy makes sense too. But it's just this young man, I'm getting way too in the weeds here. The bottom line is sharp kid, currently a computer science engineer, some crap. I may be saying that wrong. Uh, but he's got a good job and makes 120 or whatever as a 28 year old man. Got a house, got a fiance, dog, no kids. Went to school to do that, computer science major. And he said, he's like, this, what I went to school for, what I'm doing, I don't want to do it. I'm not happy. Kind of wanted to quit three years ago. I have to work my ass off and really truly crush it to get any kind of like, Any kind of raise. And then that's it. That's it. That's where I'm going. I'm set for the rest. That's it. I can't succeed anymore for the rest of my life. I want to bet on myself. I'm 28. I knocked doors for a company a few years back. And so I guess that's where he got this idea of, I'm going to go try that again. I want to sell. I want to go into something where I can sell and make my efforts My energy and my strengths will directly impact like what I make. I want to be great. I want to have, I want it to be comfortable. Right. Like in set, I want to be extraordinary. I want to be like, uh, whatever I want to do by a building, right. Or have buildings or homes all across the country or across the world. And I just really just. That's why I had to have them. I'm like, dude, your, your thought process is so perfect for what I'm looking for. And you can do this here. It's not going to be easy at all, but you can do it. I've seen it. You can do it, but you're on the right track, dude. If you're willing to, the fact that just to somebody to sit there and like, I'm willing to leave this comfort behind and just bet all in on myself and go do something that's extraordinarily uncomfortable for 99% of the population in the winter. I don't know. I mean, but watch, watch, watch, watch the end result of that. I bet. Watched in six months or next summer when I'll probably have him come on and I'll say, look at this kid, kicking ass, dude. And he bet on himself. He left the comfort of his, I'm excited to see where that goes. And dude, he's like, Hey, if it doesn't work, I can go back to my degree, my job. I got it. I know they'll take me back. Like I'm good at my job. I got a degree in it. I'll just go back to doing that. It's secure, but I don't want to be secure. I want to be great. I want to bet on myself. I just, I was just so impressed, man. So that's made me think of that, you know, whatever comfort is, a relative comfort, but like, there's always the risk reward, man.
And- Well, taking a calculated risk is really important too. Yeah. Right. And so I can relate to this young man. Um, and for those out there wondering like, Hey, what industries are, you know, needed and do well, I mean, computer science, of course, but also accounting to give you a kind of like a little statistic I heard is over half of the CPAs that are members of the AI CPA will be retired after the next five years. That is just tremendous number over half. Yeah.
There's a huge need for freaking accounts.
Huge. So, you know, when you talk about taking a risk, when I thought about those things and where technology is going, what I already knew and what I was willing to risk, I said, hey, worst case scenario, I get calls for new jobs all the time. All the time. I can find a job making solid money, but I don't want a solid life. I want a great life. We only get one of these things. I might as well make it best I can. But let me tell you, I've, I've definitely torn plenty of hairs out in order to do it. It doesn't come without its, its gripes. No, you can relate to that too. Entrepreneurship is incredibly difficult. But what I, what I admire, I mentioned this to you yesterday, what I admire so much about you and your Motley crew, is how much you guys care. And these accolades here, they are well within reason because of the amount of care that you put in. And the name speaks for itself because of doing the right things, getting out there and serving the people out there that are just like us.
Yeah, 100% man. I mean, I had Nick in the office earlier having an absolute meltdown about something. I was like, buddy, who cares? You know, he's like, what if I, but that's the, but you're right. We care. And it frustrates me to an extent where I'm like, you know, I know no one else is even thinking twice about this, man, especially in our industry. I'm like, why do we do this? Why do we put so, I don't know if it's because my wife is an attorney or because I'm just like, or because of our pursuits, I don't know. We're always thinking profit, risk, profit, risk. But bottom line is the kid's just, he just cares. He just wants, it's like genuinely, but I would much rather have that than not to where it's like, I don't give a crap. This is just a job to me and forget whatever he's just. We've got a good core group of folks that have been here with me for a while. And it's really hard to find that, especially in today's day and age. It is. I'm so pumped. I don't really worry about, I mean, yeah, this year was a very good learning lesson, but I know next year's, I don't know. I have eight years of sobriety. And before that, it was irrelevant to manage, like to try to look and and piece together like statistics or data because I wasn't making any money. And if I was, it was for like six months. But in the last seven and some change, eight years in August, uh, I've always, it's always just been up every year, every year, every year, every year. So I suppose if, if one of those years, like, I don't know, I've got enough data to suggest like whatever, dude, next year will be probably twice as up. You know what I mean? Because I've never even seen You know, and it's not tooting my own horn or anything like that. There's nothing like outlandishly like special about me. I just work hard, but I think the people around me are what's special and you can't help it. Like eventually it connect, right? Like if the market conditions are the market conditions and You figure that out and it's like, all right, well, we have to add a few pieces here. Right. Cause we can't just ignore like, well, we can fight back and you do should, you should fight back. But until then, like you need to add this, you need to add a cashflow mechanism. You need to add, you need to add, you need to add or remove or whatever. You can't just ignore the freaking writer on the wall, which is like, dude, if you're only doing this, it's going to be difficult. Right. Uh, or go here and do that. Cause over here, it's not that difficult, right? I go over here. It's good. But here it's very difficult, dude.
Those are the things like we said before, it changes inevitable. And it seems as though there's been major changes in your industry over the last, and they're not going away either, man. So what we do is we put our heads together and say, Hey, how do we navigate this change? Of course. And those who stick around and, you know, not just fight externally, but fight internally. Right. To come up with solutions. So that's what it's all about. There's gotta be a solution. A hundred percent. Right. Because. Refuse to accept anything. We were just talking about the state of America, right? Like America's old. Look at the infrastructure out there. We were just talking about tax dollars. Where is it? Right. My wife talks about it all the time. Yeah. And so, you know, that's, that's just me. Maybe I'm biased. Cause cause I like it, you know, but. how old is the state of Maryland? How old are some of these homes? And you're going to tell me like, it's, it's necessary out there, a roof, right? It keeps people safe in their homes.
So if something's got to give a hundred percent, a hundred percent, I mean, it can't just be, I mean, it can, but I do believe that the pendulum swing of, uh, the political spectrum, is gonna hold things and organizations and people accountable that didn't get held accountable for. At least I freaking hope so, dude, because it's been like, well, good luck in your plight, pal, if you hope to go up against big X, right? Pharma, insurance, whatever. Like, well, you can try. And there's news and so on. And I think we will and should and everything else, but it's also like, be smart too. Like, okay, well, Perhaps now we get half and if we, if we get half, that's still great. Like, cause they're going to stop doing it or they're going to refuse to ensure that whatever, it's just the landscape changes and we adapt and you must adapt. That's it. There's all there is to it. Like our plans don't change. The goal is the goal. We could do retail entirely if we wanted to. It's a different business model, but you gotta be prepared to just like shift everything over there. Um, you know, and that's why, you know, some of the things we were talking about, but, Reality, man. Calculated risk. 100%. It's what we did. It's what we always do. And so take what we've got and where it makes the most sense to focus your time, effort, energy, and money, and go from there. That's right. Like we were talking about earlier. So I think now, no matter what, no matter who you are, I think you'd agree with this, Matt, but you can give me your thoughts on it. It's a great time to go back to basics, Take a look of what you really have going on, simplify things, lean out and get ready to crush. Cause I truly believe 2025 is going to be a bad-ass year. I really do. I think that the winter is going to open up a lot of market space and a lot of places for a lot of things, uh, for folks that didn't or don't or won't do those preparatory things. But then those are definitely markets that we wouldn't or proper opportunities, area and markets that wouldn't otherwise have been open if it were just even in this industry, right? Like heavily saturated with a bunch of turds that just don't belong. They just don't belong. Do you know what I mean? Just coming in here, just, just turning it up kids, tearing people's roofs up. And that's what we're left to do. And it pisses me off, but it is what it is, man. Like we have to just deal with it, right? Like, whatever, man, we, we have to recognize, okay, I get it. I get it. I get that's what you're up against. I don't think you're any, I think you're worse in fact, really like, like insurance or whatever. Right. Like, but just doing people dirty, but I also don't agree with some idiot kid tearing someone's roof up and looking at a carrier and saying, oh, well this is storm damage. Right. But so I get it. I see it. But again, we just got to react to, okay, well those guys hopefully aren't even going to be here. Um, in six months, because the market's tougher than it was. And that'll kind of open things back up to what I see solar is right now, which is a lot of those companies died off, and now solar is a lot easier to navigate. At least it seems to be, and that's why we're doing it again.
I think the common themes you're bringing up here when it comes to making money, whether in a business, with a company, whatever it is, Patience, persistence, and vigilance are extremely important.
Yes, 1000%. Patience, which I don't think any of us really have a ton of. You might, but you're a CPA. I also know a little bit about you, so you probably don't have a whole lot of patience. No, but
It's tough. Comparison is a heck of a thing. And so if we're going to compare ourselves too much to... Comparing out, yes. I'm assuming. Right. And it's unhealthy comparing ourselves to anything else. But if you can really dial in and you can see where am I at now, What can I do to improve? And in any aspect, whether it's, you know, how you perform at your job, how you perform in your business, how you are making business decisions. Yeah. Calculated risks. That's what it all comes down to.
So we got Maddie here for the next day. And then you're going back to Florida. I think we need to do, we should do like a running or residual, like, quarterly segment where you can bring some value on the CPA or financial side. Probably have to be Zoom sometimes, but we'll get you down here at least once a quarter or something, whatever. Get you in here. I thoroughly enjoy coming back here. Providing value to the folks that are, you know what I mean? Like, especially if there's something like hot right then, like, Hey man, what do you think about this? Or what do you think about, you know, You know, that whole ITC thing we were talking about, like, oh, it doesn't sound right with the solar thing. But, you know, these are things that we could even toss your way and say, hey, take a look at, see what you think, if you're allowed to talk about it or whatever. But genuinely, I think that, I think this would be good, like a long running segment, but Matt, you're on. So first of all, if somebody wants to take you, I know you're trying to be selective of who you do business with. So if you're interested, throw it out there. But where can they find you as a person? or the business or anything about that, whatever you want to promote. How about that?
Sure. So, you know, my website is mbcpatax.com. Um, and my, uh, financial advising firm, I work with, it's called Paraclete financial. Uh, you could look us up online again, relatively selective because, You know, we, we enjoy working with people, getting to know people we don't want to have, uh, you know, I'll speak for myself personally. I, I enjoy relationships. Relationships are probably the most important thing in my life. Um, whatever relationships they are and work. I just care about people, especially when I start working with them. And I can tell their, you know, who they are as a person. And so, because I don't like to spread too thin, I really do try to be more selective with the types of clients that I take on, because I'll know if it's a fit for the both of us, where it's mutually extremely beneficial. Most of the time, I know. And the willingness, too, of the client to really understand, hey, these are things that are investment. You have to have faith in the process. I could take you there, but there's got to be some exchange here.
Yeah. Yes, I could totally see that, especially on the investment side. Really, all of it. What are you looking to? I mean, which I guess what I'm really asking is because I know if somebody is like in a call or whatever, do you want him just to call? I mean, see if it's a good fit. I mean, of course, that's very selective. Yeah. I'm just saying a day at a time.
Yes. You know, lives his life a quarter mile at a time.
No, he's very selective, man. But I like that, because I don't want you clogging up my pipeline.
You know, exactly. I'm 35. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I want to create a life worth living every single day from here on out. That's for anybody. It depends where everyone is. And you know what? If you've got something where, let's say you've got a business and you're building it and your idea is, you know, you can either change the world and stay in it forever. You can, you know, change your world and everybody is around you, or you can create a life worth living. You know, sometimes, What do I mean when I say that? So I had a client and they had a business and the group of them made a lot of money really quickly. And they knew it wasn't sustainable. It wouldn't sustain. So he would, I felt like part life coach, you know, he'd call me up asking about not just financial questions, but also like, Hey, like this is happening. I was like, I know. You got this. You have to persevere, you know, find it in you because I promise one day might not be next month, next year, maybe three years from now, you're going to thank me first for keeping you in it and saying, you got this, keep going.
Those guys are sitting real pretty right now. And they knew it wasn't sustainable, but they hit when they needed it.
Correct. There are different ways. My business, it's a slow burn. It is. I could do my business till the day I die. as long as this thing keeps going. So that's what I plan on doing.
Gotta keep that thing going, you're in trouble if not. Maybe you can hook up some AI into your brain, you might be all right there. Oh man, it's coming. It is. Elon will hook it up, dude. Neuralink? Neuralink, dude. Elon will hook you up, man. Government efficiency, man. Elon's my hero, but I don't know about all that. I can't have, excuse me everybody, I'm over here yawning in New York. I don't know if I can have that. I don't trust the government. That much. I do like where we're going though. Matt, we'll get you on here again soon, dude. We gotta do this segment at least quarterly.
And maybe if there's anything that's- I think at least biannual, I'll come on by.
Yeah, coming by for sure.
I like it here in Maryland.
He's talking a lot of shit about last night. I don't know about it. It was a nasty day yesterday, though.
Things changed this morning when I hit downtown Annapolis, so I'll tell you that. It was nice. I enjoyed myself. I taught some old people how to play pickleball this morning. Did you really?
I did. Where?
In downtown Annapolis? Yeah, I was at Lifetime Fitness. They just renovated. This is not an advertisement. They renovated. Beautiful place. Brand new pickleball courts.
I've never even been there. I know it's right up the street. I know. Yeah. My wife wants to go.
I was thinking, I was like, I got to get Ken over here. It used to be a 24 hour fitness. And I was like, that's what the woman in the sauna told me.
I figure it's the same thing. I don't know.
Yeah. But you never know who you're going to meet. Where are you going to meet him?
Yeah. That's awesome, man. Yeah. I really gold is all gold dirty. And my wife won't go there. She's like, you're going to get a ringworm from there. No. But I'm like, eh, whatever, dude.
You know, what matters is that you're doing something, not just you, but everybody.
I would like to go to Lifetime. It's a little bougie, but I got to make some money. We'll get you there. We will. We will. We're going to bounce back. Last year, I would have been in Lifetime all day, dude. This year, I'm going to be a little bit more responsible. But next year, I'll buy like 10 Lifetime memberships. Whole company's getting Lifetime memberships. Yeah. If we can write it off. I don't know. I got to ask him. We'll see. We'll figure it out. Figure out a way. We'll see. Matt, thank you so much for coming by, man. We will see you hopefully in like six months, something like that. Sounds good. All right, dude. Thank you so much for coming by. Yeah. Thanks for coming by in person, dude. Absolutely. And seeing us lowly serps in Maryland. I know you're a Florida boy, but we'll catch you again here soon. We'll get you back to the warm weather, but we'll see you in about six months.
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