Biz Talk (Aired 01-31-2025) : Mastering Client Acquisition: Sales, Marketing and Leadership

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sa. [00:00:25] Speaker B: Hi, welcome to Biz Talk. I am your host, Emily Galindo and we are excited you're here. Today At Biz Talk, we talk about all things business related. We bring on experts in their field to help you, the business owner, the entrepreneur, have the best information, the best resources at your disposal to make your life a little bit easier and a little bit more efficient, being able to run that business. And today we are extremely happy to have our guest today. He is a leadership expert, keynote speaker, executive consultant, and owns an executive coaching company, WSS Solutions. So to get all things executive going on, please welcome our guest, Shawn Barnes. [00:01:04] Speaker C: Such a pleasure to be here. Looking forward to this conversation. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Hey, thanks, Sean. We are excited to have you. Because it's not easy being a business owner. [00:01:11] Speaker C: No, no, not at all. [00:01:14] Speaker B: You know that because you are one. [00:01:15] Speaker C: I am. [00:01:16] Speaker B: And then you also work with businesses for every day, all day, and learn their struggles and what they've got going on. What do you think is the hardest thing for any business owner? [00:01:30] Speaker C: Oh, man. You know, honestly, it's probably the going through the lonely chapter whenever you start. [00:01:36] Speaker B: Okay. [00:01:36] Speaker C: Because it is extremely difficult to go out there and try to start something from scratch, to put your dent in the universe. Just betting on yourself not knowing if it's ever going to pay off or not. That's probably the most challenging aspect of it because you have to learn everything. Whereas maybe you transition from corporate America, you were an IT professional or HR professional or in sales, and you knew your domain, you knew what to do there. But whenever you start a business, all of a sudden you have to learn sales and marketing and branding and service execution and on and on. And then leadership. I mean, all of a sudden, the thing that drove you away from your corporate job of not having control in order to scale your business, you have to let go of control and let your people build. [00:02:26] Speaker B: That is a lot of. I'm stressed hearing you say all of that because I do also know the struggle. But I'm with you. I've consulted with a lot of businesses myself. They love their thing, they love their widget. That's why. And they go into it because that's what they know. But they don't teach you business in dental school. They don't teach you business in plumbing school. They don't teach you how to do all of those other things. And the other thing I've learned is that people open their doors and they just expect customers to come. Is that how it works? [00:02:59] Speaker C: That's not how it works, but it's how we all think it's going to work. I'm guilty of this as well. Whenever I started my business, I had a pretty substantial following and network that I had built up over the years. And I had this idea of, oh, cool, I'm doing my own thing. Now all of a sudden, customers are going to rain from the heavens. And it didn't happen. [00:03:19] Speaker B: It didn't happen. So what do we do? How do we. What we call client acquisition, right, Increase, like bringing in new customers. How do we do that? It's not just opening our doors. We've all had, I think, the experience of your friends and family, and they know you as Sean. They don't know you as the executive coach. Right. So if opening our doors isn't it, then what is? [00:03:43] Speaker C: You know, I've come to realize that there is no silver bullet whenever it comes to client acquisition. It's more like a thousand golden BBs. Because you have to build your brand because nobody knows who you are, what you're about. Yes, friends and family do, but the likelihood that friends and family need exactly what you're offering, when you need to sell it so that you can make payroll is pretty slim. So you have to focus on building your brand and putting yourself out there. Whether it's social media, advertising, you have to get everyone to understand who you are and what you're about. So that's one component. Going to networking events and communities. Another vitally important aspect of it, meeting people in person so that they can build trust and understanding of who you are and what you're about. But once you meet people, once they recognize that you offer a service that they could benefit from or that they need, then all of a sudden you have to get them in the door. You have to onboard them as an official customer, move them through the process. And so whenever I think of client acquisition, there's marketing, there's branding, there's sales, there's all of these components. But once you close the deal, how are you moving them through the process? Are you welcoming them in, sending them an email or picking up the phone and calling them, hey, this is what we're about. This is what the next steps are going to look like, and then staying in touch with them along the way until the project is completed. So that's a whole process that you're not taught in dental school, that you're not taught at many trade schools. And so this is another area where you just have to learn things as you go. And it's like jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down type of thing. [00:05:26] Speaker B: It really is. I mean, and I think that a lot of us, right, are focused on getting. Getting the client or getting the customer. Some of us are. I mean, you can trip into that and be successful at it, but then, I mean, even in our own business, like systematizing now what to do and how many things get dropped along the way, like they didn't get the welcome email, or I didn't prioritize making the phone call, or, you know, your team member wasn't aware that these next step checklist things need to be done to create the experience that you want your customer to have that you have in your head, but it is not actually delivered on a consistent basis. Because what ends up happening, I think at the back end of that is either your customer had a good experience and they refer you, which is how we grow, or they have a bad experience, and. And it breaks down your brand. Right? [00:06:15] Speaker C: Yeah. And, you know, service delivery is an important component to all of this. You can have the best sales team in the world, but if you can't consistently deliver a product that people want to buy again and again, then you're gonna lose these customers. And if you're losing customers just as fast or faster than you bring them in, this churn this occurs, it can just be purgatory for a business owner and very difficult to break out of. And so understanding the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and how to combat those weaknesses is a key skill that any entrepreneur who's starting up or just building a business, you have got to know. I'm good at this thing, and the members of my team are good at this thing. How do we bring these together without butting heads and destroying each other so that we can keep moving things forward and delivering our product or service in a meaningful way that our customers want to come back? [00:07:16] Speaker B: Right. And you had, you had touched on this in terms of delegating and the control aspect of running the business. I think we don't do enough delegation. Right. In terms of, I know I'm not good at bookkeeping, and I would rather pay somebody to do it so that it's done well, it's done effectively, efficiently, that it's correct, and get them to do it for me, because I know I'm not good at that and your business will actually run a lot smoother instead of trying to learn it or. [00:07:44] Speaker C: Yeah. But you're also balancing cash flow in the beginning, like, can I afford to offload this stuff? And so one of the things that I encourage business owners to do is just spend a little bit of time documenting where you spend your time. If you're spending four hours a day just doing back office function, ask yourself, is this directly generating revenue? If not, how can you offload some of that back office function so that you can go out and sell, so that you can go out and do more work or deliver your product or service? So it's about understanding the highest leverage use of your time while also balancing cash flow. Can I afford to do this? But an interesting unlock occurs when you do bite the bullet and delegate and then you spend even more time selling. You're going to see the top line start to increase and that's how you move the needle. But that is a scary idea for people to say, oh, well, I have to pay this other person and what if they don't do it as good as I do? Well, you spend time coaching them, you spend time teaching them how it needs to be done. [00:08:54] Speaker B: And so when it comes to client acquisition in that process, so when you're working with a client and you're trying to unpack how they're getting their customers or what area are you focusing on, is it the fulfillment side and the onboarding side or is it more of marketing and client acquisition on that front end side of the funnel? [00:09:12] Speaker C: Well, I think each business is unique. And while there's obviously common themes, whenever you think of client acquisition, we can think of big buckets. There's going to be the prospecting and the outreach side side of it. And there's this big push to create content across social media. And yes, that is important for brand awareness of who you are, what you're all about. But that doesn't close deals. That's really more of a lead nurture avenue. So you can do cold outreach, warm outreach. You can start running paid ads, you can do affiliates, which is a little bit more challenging to kind of navigate through, but figuring out which avenue makes the most sense. And let's just say you start running paid ads, which is another scary thought, like, what if I pay all this money and nobody clicks on the link? Well, you're going to learn what they do or don't engage with. But once they click on the link, all of a sudden somebody comes into your CRM or however you're tracking or managing these leads, and then you pick up the phone and call them, hey, you just submitted a request on this how can I support you? Type of a thing. So once you have that first contact, picking up the phone, calling them, warm and inviting, making sure they Connect with you on a human level that kind of warms them up and kind of gets you to start moving through the process of it. But having all those systems, you know, I just mentioned a CRM. Paid ads, these are things that a lot of entrepreneurs, business owners, they're not familiar with and anything we're not familiar with can tend to be a little bit scary at times. But I mean, that's what you got to do. You got to start exploring, you got. [00:10:46] Speaker B: To start learning and hopefully and have somebody like you at WSS Solutions to help us kind of guide that so that it's not quite. While you say yes, cash flow is an issue on the front end, I can assure you learning some of those mistakes, especially in paid ads, can become a more expensive lesson to learn than it would be hiring somebody like you on the front end and getting the expertise up the front so that I don't have to learn the expensive lesson. [00:11:11] Speaker C: Yeah, and you know, that's the thing that's very challenging about this is you can throw a stick at whatever city you're in and find somebody who's a marketing expert. But do they really know what to do, what levers to pull, how to attract, how to capture their attention and get them flowing through the system? That's an unknown variable for a lot of business owners to try to figure out. Okay, well this is a great salesperson, but do they actually know what they're doing? And I've heard countless horror stories from entrepreneurs. We paid this marketing firm thousands of dollars over six months and all they kept saying is give it time, give it time, give it time. Anybody that you work with, they should have a pretty good grasp on how to identify key metrics like what you want to look for, what are your click through rates, what are the conversion rates? They should be able to track those metrics and tell you bi weekly, weekly, month over month, this is what's working well, this is what's not working well. If they tell you give it time, you probably want to start searching for someone else to help you in that space. [00:12:18] Speaker B: Alright, well that's some great feedback right now in terms of what to look for. We would stick around with us and come right back. We'll see. Hear more from Shawn on what to do and not to do and learning to bring in new customers. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Biz Talk. I'm your host Emily Galindo and if you're just now joining us, we've got our guest, Sean Barnes with us, executive coach, KeyNote speaker, with WSS Solutions, who's here to help us learn more about leadership and how to be better leaders in our organizations. Welcome back, Sean. [00:13:03] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:13:04] Speaker B: You are welcome. I want to transition. We were just talking a little bit about client acquisition and creating processes and having funnels and all of those. And we even talked a little bit about delegating. Part of delegating, that scary leap that you mentioned was, what if they aren't good at it? What if we can't do. What if they don't do the job as good as I can? [00:13:25] Speaker C: What. [00:13:25] Speaker B: Which then requires me to provide some coaching that might be a little uncomfortable. How do we help. How can we help our viewers understand how to have what we call uncomfortable conversations? [00:13:35] Speaker C: Well, I want to correct you a little bit. It can be a lot uncomfortable. [00:13:39] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:13:40] Speaker C: Yeah. To be clear, because as we move through high school and college, we're not always taught skills around having uncomfortable conversations. We're taught a trade or a skill or a craft. But effective communication and how to have these crucial conversations isn't always taught to us. And so we have to kind of fumble our way through it and do a little bit of trial by error. But one of the biggest things that I've learned is starting to understand that there are levels of escalation, and a lot of times we try to avoid the uncomfortable conversation, and then it builds and builds and builds, and then we just snap on somebody. And then, you know, the poor member of the team's like, whoa, whoa. Just happened to me. And if the first time or few times something goes wrong, you just have a conversation. Hey, Emily, what happened here? You know, I thought we talked about this. Oh, well, I didn't know about this. Oh, okay, cool. Well, let's do this, this, this. And then if it happens again. Oh, okay. Well, hold on a second. You know, we talked about this a few times type of a thing. So you have levels of escalation. And when you do that, you. You will come to realize that it's much easier to have that uncomfortable conversation when the problem first starts, as opposed to letting your frustration build and build and build. And that's the biggest hack that I can share with people is as soon as you start to see the issue as challenging as it's going to be, just have the conversation. Because that first conversation is going to be much easier than the uncomfortable conversation of you waiting months or. Or even years and letting something build until you eventually snap. [00:15:21] Speaker B: So what I'm hearing you say is it's magically not just gonna go away. [00:15:24] Speaker C: No, it will not. No. All of the challenges that you are worried about unfolding or happening, they're right on the side of the uncomfortable conversation. So, like, if you just have the conversation right up front, it's going to be much easier for all parties involved. But again, that's a big step. And the first time you take that step, then you realize that's not so bad. I'll just do that more and more and it becomes this flywheel effect where you just get better and better at it. [00:15:58] Speaker B: Do you think that crucial conversations, like if we start like the smaller level one, that's maybe a possible mistake? Right. And so does that require it to have this formal, we gotta sit down, come into my office, shut the door and make it like that sort of thing, or can it be done in a casual. Or does that, does that undermine our authority? [00:16:19] Speaker C: No, I think you start off in more of a casual environment. And a lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs, they have the types of relationships with the members of the team. Well, they'll go grab lunch together or breakfast, or, you know, some of them go have drinks or something like that. Broaching the topic in an informal way is a way to raise awareness of the issue or challenge in a non threatening way. Now, you also touched on something that is important in that sometimes the employee doesn't understand the gravity of the situation when you do it in a casual setting. So making sure that as you have those levels of escalation, eventually you want to pull them into your office and have the really uncomfortable conversation of, we talked about this at lunch, we talked about this in the hallway, now we're talking about this in my office. This is something that we really have to figure out, and I want to figure this out together. How can I best support you in it? And when you approach the conversation in a way of genuinely wanting to support them and help them, just kindness and candor, that goes a very long way. And it kind of helps lower their guard and their walls so they can see, oh, Shawn really does want to help me and I probably need to do this a little bit better. But if you go straight for the hammer, it's just going to create friction and tension and it's going to tear down the trust that exists between you and the members of your team. And we want to avoid that at all costs. [00:17:47] Speaker B: Okay, so how do we marry that? Or at least it feels like this is an arm of what we call accountability. Right. And so what would you say is the framework of accountability where the crucial conversation finally comes into, into play here. [00:18:01] Speaker C: Yeah. And so there are processes called progressive discipline processes. And I'm sure everybody that's watching this knows if you do bad things, you're going to get written up or you're going to be put on a performance improvement plan. Now, not all businesses actually have formal processes around it and it doesn't have to be this rigid, structured, step by step process. But having something as a guide, we're going to have a verbal conversation and if that doesn't go well, maybe a second one. If that doesn't go well, we're going to have a write up and then having a process documented so that you can work through that. But then there's the soft skills side of it around just communicating to the people on your team. And this can be a little bit of an art in my experience, where you want to lean into kindness and candor. You have to be brutally honest and transparent. Emily, you're messing this stuff up. Like, we have to work through this together. How can I support you? But again, if you come with the hammer, Emily, you are messing this up. All you're gonna do is shut down. And we don't want that because ultimately we want what's best for the people on our team, which ultimately ends up being better for the entire business and our ability to support our customers. So there's the, the written process side of it, but then there's the soft skills, communication side of it. So that whenever you marry those two things together, then you're able to kind of approach accountability in more of a structured way without blowing up the trust on your team. [00:19:38] Speaker B: Right. And I would correct me if I'm wrong because you're the expert. I mean, the part, part of the communication on the front end of accountability is the expectations. You as the business owner are responsible and accountable to setting the right expectations for your team. In my experience, I have found that that is a challenge for some business owners because they don't either know how to deliver the expectation or they don't even know what the expectation should be. And it's in their head and then somebody disappoints them and that's when we end up with this back and forth thing. [00:20:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I think one of the best tricks that I've come to realize is usually if you are the business owner or the leader on a team, you should have some sort of an idea of what it should look like or what an ideal outcome will look like. Whenever you take the time to let the employee set the expectation, say, hey, we have to get this done in the next two weeks. When can you have it done? Then all of a sudden you put the ownership on the employee of, oh, well, you know what? I can actually get it done by this Thursday. Will that work? Will you tell me if you can get it on by Thursday? That's amazing. All of a sudden the employee has set the expectation and it falls within the confines or expectations of what yours were to get it done in the next two weeks. That also makes the conversation, if they don't deliver on Thursday a little bit easier because, hey, you said that you'd have this done by Thursday. What happened? Is there something I could have done differently, something I could have done better? But when you offload the expectation to them while still making sure it aligns with what your expectations are, it shifts the conversation in a different way and makes it a little bit easier to have so that you're not this overbearing boss. [00:21:25] Speaker B: I think that's a really great tip in terms. I mean, that's a really great coaching piece of letting them come up with the expectation to be able to fall back on. You said you were going to do it. This has nothing to do with me. Right. You also asked a really great question. What could I have done differently to help support you to getting it done? I don't know if a lot of our viewers ask that to themselves. We've talked about this on the other show. But asking yourself, what have I done? How have I contributed to the way people are responding to us in this organization? Right. So in terms of accountability, self accountability as the. Either the owner or the middle management, what should they be holding themselves accountable to in terms of leadership of their team? [00:22:14] Speaker C: I think they need to set the standard. And if you look around and see that expectations and accountability are low, that is a beautiful opportunity for you to shine, for you to elevate the rest of the team. And it's not going to be fun. Whenever you step up and you take ownership and you start taking accountability for everything, even if it's not your responsibility. But when you take accountability, even for the failures of others, everyone is going to take notes and eventually more and more people are going to step up and like, oh, wow, look at that. I want to be a part of that. I want to be like that. And it's going to inspire and influence. And if it doesn't, because you're always going to have bad apples if it doesn't, it's a way for people to kind of opt themselves out. And then you have a different and Uncomfortable conversation with is this the right fit for the team? But a lot of times entrepreneurs and business owners, you know, they co found a business with somebody and that person ends up being toxic and the problem and it's very difficult to say, hey, this isn't really aligned anymore. We need to figure something out. And you know, that's a different conversation for another day. But ultimately, I think if we set the bar for where we want to be and where we want our team. [00:23:39] Speaker B: To be, that's a great place to leave it. I think that that's impeccable advice. Right. All leadership, Leadership, leadership. It starts at the top 100%. So if people wanted to have you come in either for a keynote or to come in and consult with them to help their, their teams level up in leadership, how can we, how can our viewers get ahold of you? [00:23:57] Speaker C: Yeah, you can actually just go to SeanBarns.com or go to our consulting business, WSS Solutions. Either one will be able to work with you guys. [00:24:04] Speaker B: Fantastic. So we would love for you to get some help and support from Sean. He's an amazing expert in all things leadership. We are happy to have you today. If you stay tuned, we'll be right back with our next guest. [00:24:33] Speaker D: Hey, folks, welcome back to another episode of Biz Talks. My name is Rick Gutierrez. I am your host and your business advocate in case you are just now tuning in. We are having a great time having conversations with business professionals, business owners. They're showcasing their expertise and, you know, educating all of us on all of the ins and out of business. They've been in it for quite some time, so they know what they're talking about. But before we get started with our next guest, I also want to thank my co host, Ms. Emma Emily Glendo, for being on the show and taking on the first half of this segment. This episode, actually, where she was interviewing Sean Barnes. And so it was a great segment. And so we hope that you guys enjoy that as well. But let's get into it. We want to talk to the person who is probably the busiest, the most during this time of the year, and that is nothing but a tax expert. That is Ms. Nora with Nora's books. Welcome back to the show, ma'am. [00:25:27] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you for having me, Rick. [00:25:30] Speaker D: Absolutely. Zoe's. You know, we know that you are super busy during this time of the year, and we just are grateful that you're taking a few minutes to continue to be on the show, to continue to be a supporter of the show and furthermore educating all of us and all of our viewers and listeners, because we all need this type of education because it is that time of the year. We all need to get busy in clearing up our books and filing taxes and all those great things. So tell me about the busy time of the year for you right now. You guys must be swamped right now, right? [00:26:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So a lot of deadlines coming up. So now for business owners, if you need to do 1099 W2s, the deadline is no January 30th. So a lot of people coming right now, like they want to do their 1099 W2 and W2s for their employees and contractors. And also like a lot of people getting ready for tax season. So those who did not do the monthly bookkeeping, they're not taking care of their bookkeeping during the years now they want to clean up everything to make sure they have good tax refund, good tax season, good an accurate tax return. [00:26:43] Speaker B: So. [00:26:43] Speaker A: Because if you don't do that, they usually don't have an accurate return. And this is also the time where we review everything with our clients because if you're familiar with accounting, like we, we cannot close the month until it has passed. And we have the financial, the statements, the bank statements, the credit cards, all these nice source documents. So we finalize that within January and we review them. My team, we review them together and then we review it with our client to make sure everything is done correctly for the entire year to make sure we have an accurate tax returns for them. And a lot of people started coming to do their business taxes as well, and personal taxes. But I know a lot of people still waiting for those W9 W2s and 1099s. So. But yeah, it's gonna get even busier. But it's always fun to be here in the show because one of our core value at Norris Box, education. And we believe that if the person, if the taxpayer knows what to expect, knows what they have to do, they will select, they will select the right tax professional to work with them. They will also know what to expect and what to have in place so they can be well prepared so they get the accurate tax returns. Stand for that. [00:28:07] Speaker D: Absolutely. And I think, you know, I'm just so grateful for people like you and people in your industry because not everyone, I mean, taxes and numbers are not for everyone. Right. And we can just. What we are good at is doing business and, you know, leveraging our business and getting business where it needs to be. But then we need to hire those experts to be able to help Us get things done, especially around this time of the year. I want to focus on, on those folks because you know, there's many viewers, listeners that are, that are watching this right now that are in business and have started business for many years and been in business. So they're probably accustomed to what happens during this time of the year. But let's talk directly to those business owners that started their business in 2024. They filed for their LLC or their S Corp, C Corp. And this is their first, first time that they're going to file their taxes for their business. So what do they need to do? What do they need to get ready for? What do they need to provide their, their, their cpa, their tax advisor so that they can start working on that. [00:29:14] Speaker A: Awesome. So first they need to make sure they are filing the correct return. So if they are a partnership and or S Corp, their tax deadline will be March 15th every year but for this year, because March 15th is in the weekend. So the deadline is March 17th. First thing I would tell them, do not wait until the deadline. You want to do it as fast as possible. Just right now. If you did not connect with your tax professional or you didn't find someone to work with, make sure you do that right now because you would be too late. And it's okay. If you need to do an extension, you can do an extension because that will give you an extra time. Even though this is not my favorite, because you want to focus on the current year. But it's better to have an extension to make sure things are correctly done than just do something wrong. Because whatever you do with your business return, it's going to reflect and it's going to affect your business return. Now if we're talking about llc, that is that is done. If you are the sole member, that is that is done with your personal return. So that deadline is April 15th. So you don't have to worry about have it having that done in March because you are a single member llc. Now if you are a multi member llc, meaning that you have a partner with you, that means you have to do your taxes as a partnership, meaning that your deadline is still March 17th for this year. So it's two separate tax returns you need to be doing. And whether you have any activities last year in 2024 or not, you still have to file your tax return. Don't listen to any advice that's going to tell you you don't need to do it unless you have income or you don't need to do it unless you have activities? No. Once you register a business, you must file taxes every year. The thing with bath through entity, it's best through entity. It's due bas through your tax return, individual tax return. Now IRS wants you to do that as an informational return. They you don't pay taxes on the entity level. You pay it on your personal level based on the entire situation. But you still have to file your tax return. This is very important to know. I see a lot of people, they do not file because they get the wrong advice. Because a lot of tax professionals, they do not study tax law and they apply the individual tax law to the business tax law. Because if you did not have an income during the year, you do not have to file unless you meet the standard deduction. Now whether you I recommend to file or not, like that's a different topic. But you're not required. So if you did not file, then it will be fine. But in a business level it's totally different. You should file. So these are two different things. You want to make sure you take care of it. Make sure you, you, you actually file it. Now the, the last thing that you mentioned was the C Corporation. Now for those who have a C Corporation that's not a pass through entity, meaning you are totally different than that entity. The deadline is April 15th. Just like your personal return. You as an owner, you, you probably get like dividends that you will get it before you will get it, you should get it by now or you get the W2. So that's how you get taxed in a new personal level. So the deadline for C Corporation and for your personal return are the same. So this is the difference, the differences that you want to pay attention to. You want to make sure if you did not do bookkeeping, to do bookkeeping. Bookkeeping. If you are not there yet, maybe like you just started later, you didn't have so many transactions. It's okay, you don't, you don't need to do bookkeeping yet, but at least organize everything. All the expenses, all the income, if any, everything. Make sure you organize everything and make sure to answer your accountant questionnaire. Most of the accountants, who knows what they're doing, they should have a process. They should have organizers questions that they ask you. Because if you do not answer the questions, if you do not have all the documents that your accountant needs to have, they will miss information. And also I want to point out like even if you've been filing with the same professional, for example, who does, who does your personal returns, want to make sure if you got any changes happen during the year, make sure you let your tax professional know they have those organizers or questionnaires. Make sure to answer to put those information in. Because I've seen a lot of people missing a child because missing a child on the return because they just had a child, for example, and there are so many other mistakes. So you want to, it's your responsibility to provide the full information because it's your tax return. You're signing off on those, but your tax professional responsibility is really to ask you the question, to have a good process. But at the same, you know, at the end you are signing off on those and you will be responsible for anything. [00:34:49] Speaker D: And there's nothing like being well aware that you are signing off on those and you are personally liable for all of that information, which should be all the correct information and it's going to be all of the right information when and if you hire experts like Nora to be able to guide you in the direction that you need to go. Nora, we've got a couple of minutes left left on this particular segment. We know that we can file an extension and if you can just keep it brief and then we'll continue the conversation at another segment. But what are the pros and cons in filing extension if needed? [00:35:25] Speaker A: So the problem with the extension is really like this is an extension to file, not extension to base. So if you owe taxes and you did not pay those taxes, you will end up paying interest on them and penalty because you didn't pay. And this is, so this is the biggest issue. Most of the time, people, when they file an extension, they don't pay their taxes because they simply don't know how much they will have to pay, especially if they were not doing bookkeeping. Now the other consequences, like in my opinion, like you cannot focus on the current year, so you will lose another year just because you did not organize the year before. So if you do it as, you know, as fast as possible, it's better to not to have extension. And if you had to have an extension, it's fine. Just do it as soon as possible. Don't let it until, don't let it until the end of the six month pass. [00:36:18] Speaker D: Gotcha. Okay, great information. We certainly do appreciate you being here and educating us on all these important topics because we are in that time of the year to where we need, need to focus on some of those things that are important to continue to drive business forward. So really quick, Nora, I mean, how can our viewers, you know, get in touch with you what's the best way? [00:36:38] Speaker A: The best way is really to book a call with my team. Nora's books.com contact you just go to contact us on noticebooks and you'll just book a time that works for you. And my team will get on a call with you and help you, direct you so we can onboard you to take to do your taxes. [00:36:58] Speaker D: Fantastic. All right, Nora, thank you once again for being on the show. We look forward to seeing you again on future segments. So thank you again for being here. [00:37:05] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. [00:37:07] Speaker D: All right, folks, thank you so much for tuning in. We are going to take a quick commercial break. We are going to be back with another subject matter expert. So stay right there. We'll be right back. [00:37:21] Speaker C: Foreign. [00:37:31] Speaker D: Hey, folks, welcome back to BizTalk. We are excited that you are staying tuned in and still here with us. We are excited for our next guest who has been on the show before, but he has got something specific that he wants to talk about today and I am excited to have him back back on the show because it's a topic that does not get talked about a lot. And so it's, it's, you know, necessary that we talk or touch this subject. And so I want to bring back Mr. Mark Lampleu back to the show. Welcome back, sir. [00:38:01] Speaker E: Thanks for having me back. [00:38:03] Speaker D: Absolutely. It's always great to have you great conversations. And I know that there is a topic that, like I said, it's not talked about a lot. But we do definitely want to give a shout out and our thanks to all of our first responders that are out there taking care of people 24, 7. And so we're happy that we have such people that are dedicated to helping others at all times. So the topic for today, Mark, it has to do with enhancing mental health and support for first responders, which I think, as I mentioned, it's a topic that it's not talked about a lot. But I think it's important that we have this segment and you are an expert in this segment field. And so let's talk a little bit about, you know, the unique or let's go this way. What let me ask you this. What are the unique mental health challenges that first responders face and how does that, you know, affect, you know, how they go about their every day to day process? [00:39:03] Speaker E: Sure. Yeah. So, you know, first responder mental health is, you know, where I kind of got my start with marketing. I was very involved with helping programs and nonprofits that specifically treated or helped first responders struggling with mental health Issues, suicide, PTSD and things like that. I come from a long line of firefighters and police officers. I was. I'm a fourth generation firefighter. My grandfather was a fire chief. My dad is the president of the fire department now. I was a captain. My great grandfather, they name an award after him and give it every year to the top firefighter for the year. It's called the JTL award. So I kind of grew up around the fire service, so to speak. So when I started doing marketing, I started helping these programs. And, you know, many people don't realize, you know, the. And some do some of the struggles that first responders have, you know, because of all the trauma, they say, and all the death and car accidents and overdoses and murder and all those things take a toll on an individual psyche. Even, you know, first responders who are trained to, you know, handle those situations, it still becomes, you know, a little more than some can handle. And, you know, they need to reach out for help, but many do not because of the stigma attached to mental health and ptsd. And, you know, the suicide rates for police officers and firefighters are much more prevalent and frequent than it is in the general population. There's many programs out there that are helping now first responders who have those issues. [00:40:57] Speaker D: Yeah, it's. It's incredible that, you know, there are so many things that happen in a first responder's life, especially while they are on duty. They could potentially not see anything from a flip of a switch. They can potentially see some of the most, you know, horrific things. And they. Those are things that they have to try to work with and try to work around and process and all of those great things. So we never think about these things. But, you know, it could potentially affect. It affects people in different ways. Right. And some get used to it, some never don't, and some need some, you know, assistance in processing that. So we appreciate you having that knowledge and thank you for your service, you know, while you were a firefighter and your families as well. So have you seen or how has the perception of mental health care for first responders evolved in the recent years? Have you seen something happening that. Where it's a little bit more in everyone's eyes nowadays? [00:41:55] Speaker E: Yeah, so I would say it's definitely being handled on a department level much more than it was, say, 20 years ago. I would say the start of it kind of really happened around Oklahoma city. And then 9, 11 after those kind of tragedies, they started seeing lots of suicides and people PTSD and started kind of saying Wait a minute. Something doesn't seem right here. And now there's lots of programs and resources that departments provide peer support. There's foundations they can go to. There's programs. To give you an example, when I was creating the first responder program in Florida back in 2010, you know, there might have been two or three programs in the whole United States that specifically dealt with first responders. Now there's probably three or 400. You know, they're just starting to come up. Private treatment centers are starting to carve out, like, you know, niches and little tracks for first responders because, you know, they have a lot different issues than the standard population would have in these type of facilities. So for them to feel comfortable talking about some of the things that they've seen or done, it helps for them to be around peers that have also been experiencing those same things. So there is a. There's a big change. I think it's being a lot more accepted, but I think there's still a ways to go. [00:43:28] Speaker D: Yeah, there's. There's always improvements. Right. And some innovations that could potentially happen. As a matter of fact, I'm glad you touched on this, because that leads me to my next question that I have for you. What innovative therapies or programs have you implemented or that you have seen that have improved the outcomes for, you know, first responders? [00:43:49] Speaker E: So a lot of what they're doing with PTSD is a therapy called emdr. That's kind of one of the newer modalities that they're using to treat this, the peer support systems that they're starting at different agencies. There's some nonprofits out there, like Blue Help or First Help, which is for suicide and first responders. It's a nonprofit based out in the Northeast. The National Fall Firefighters has programs, the Life Safety initiatives. The National Volunteer Fire Council has a program called Share the Load that is a free service for firefighters and their families that they can call. There's a outfit out in Colorado called First Responder Trauma Counselors. They have dozens of programs available that help treat first responders with suicide, ptsd, other mental health issues. You know, so there's. There's a lot of them. [00:44:54] Speaker D: Yeah, I imagine that there is many different programs that. [00:44:58] Speaker B: That. [00:44:58] Speaker D: That are available, but there's got to be a. A way for these folks that don't know for them to be able to get access to them. Is there a way or a local resource where most folks can either make a phone call and. Or get the assistance that they need? [00:45:16] Speaker E: Yeah, I would I would say if you just go to Google and look up first responder or firefighter share to load program, all the information for that will come up blue. Firsthealth.org is a website you can go to. If you search first responder trauma counselors, you'll find their information. The National Fallen Firefighter foundation, which I think is nff.org, you know, they have a bunch of programs there that you can find and search and, and then you know, obviously the suicide helpline if, if you can't find anything there. But like I said, you do a little simple search now on Google for what you're looking for. And a lot of those resources that come up are very good. [00:46:01] Speaker D: Yeah, fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. Now one of my, my last question for you, Mark, before we, we ran out of time, how do you collaborate with local organizations and or agencies in your area to extend the support first responders? [00:46:19] Speaker E: So we would offer, we would go into departments and I have done this personally myself is offer like a stress support training for first responders. Usually lasts like an hour or two and then after the training's over, you, you leave your information that way there. If that somebody needs help, they can reach out and call. You know, some states have the peer support networks. California has a really established peer support foundation with every department having members involved. They get reoccurring training every year and then there's trainings at a lot of the conferences like fdic, which is in Indianapolis every year. [00:46:58] Speaker D: Yeah, that's fantastic. So I want to thank you for sharing that knowledge. I know that that's your background and that is what you've been in, in the space, you've been there for quite some time. But I also do want to conclude, congratulate you because I understand that you are moving out west and you are starting a new venture with Tim Moran Automotive Group. And so tell us a little bit about that. [00:47:22] Speaker E: Yeah, so when I was a firefighter back in the 2000s, I actually used to sell cars because I had a lot of time off in between. So I do have experience in the automotive industry. So I seen a post that they were looking for a new CMO Chief Marketing Officer and I applied, I interviewed and you know, they accepted me. So I'm going to go out, help them grow their sales out in the Southern California market. They have three dealerships now and they're looking to expand. [00:47:54] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. And I think with your background in being able to determine, you know, human behavior and your background in other knowledges, you're going to be successful in your new venture. So congratulations on that and we're happy for you. [00:48:08] Speaker E: Thank you. [00:48:09] Speaker D: Yeah, So I want to thank you for being on the show once again, you know, showcasing your expertise. And I know a lot of viewers, a lot of listeners are going to want to maybe have an additional conversation with you. How would they be able to get in touch with you? [00:48:22] Speaker E: Go to my website, marklamplieu.com. [00:48:26] Speaker D: Fantastic. And they've got all the information there. They can just submit a form and be able to get in touch with you. So thanks again, Mark. We appreciate you. Thank you for all that you do. And we look forward to additional conversations and additional shows. [00:48:41] Speaker E: Thank you. [00:48:42] Speaker D: All right. We appreciate you. All right, folks, we have come to the end of this particular show. We appreciate you sticking with us and tuning in and learning all about business. So we look forward to seeing you and tuning in again on the next shows. Until next time, take care of each other. [00:49:01] Speaker C: This has been a NOW Media Networks feature presentation. All rights reserved.