Spencer Sheinin

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: It's VanCoovers Podcast on the Canada's Podcast Network.
[00:26] SPEAKER_00: As an entrepreneur, you started your business to follow your passion and not to spend your evenings doing bookkeeping.
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[01:12] SPEAKER_00: Hello, this is Robert Smigel, coming to today with VanCoovers Podcast on the Canada's Podcast Network.
[01:16] SPEAKER_00: Where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen here in British Columbia.
[01:20] SPEAKER_00: Spencer Shenan, a CPA CA, has unique background with over 15 years as an entrepreneur combined with extensive financial experience as an investment banker.
[01:33] SPEAKER_00: He is the founder and CEO of Shift Financial Insights, providing ridiculously simple accounting and financial insights for businesses on the rise.
[01:44] SPEAKER_00: Spencer has previously owned businesses and manufacturing construction, cold storage and real estate.
[01:51] SPEAKER_00: He has also been recognized as winner of the Business In VanCoovers Top 40 Under 40 Awards and a finalist for the Surrey Business Excellence Awards.
[02:03] SPEAKER_00: Well Spencer, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking the time today to be here for all our listeners.
[02:09] SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much, I'm excited to be here.
[02:11] SPEAKER_00: Great, okay, I want you to tell us a little bit more about yourself, where you're from and give us the details on your current business.
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: Sure, I'm a Vancouver boy, Vancouver boy, born and raised. I've lived here my whole life except for a stint in Ontario for university.
[02:29] SPEAKER_01: And I'm also the only other guy in Vancouver that doesn't drink coffee, so to find a guy from Vancouver who doesn't drink coffee is I think I'm one of three in the last survey.
[02:38] SPEAKER_00: Well I do, I do D-Caff, I'm from Vancouver and I do D-Caff, I guess we're in St. Bo right?
[02:43] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly, exactly. So you want Simon and Starbucks too often.
[02:48] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, so as you said, I did my CA back in 1996 or 97, I think I got it and went on and had a few businesses after that.
[02:58] SPEAKER_01: The main one was a manufacturing business, we manufactured skincare products.
[03:04] SPEAKER_01: So sunscreens, creams, lotions, anything topical that went on the body, had that business actually for 15 years.
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: And at the same time, I had a partner in that business who also had a construction business and he invited me into that business as well.
[03:18] SPEAKER_01: And really with the goal that I was going to help process eyes him out of the day to day of the business so that we could look for other opportunities together.
[03:26] SPEAKER_01: Interestingly on that case, he really was the advantage, the strategic advantage of that business.
[03:32] SPEAKER_01: So time to process the creative genius out of a business. I learned kind of a, over a few year period was a fairly few tile efforts.
[03:41] SPEAKER_01: And the other business, the other main business I had was a cold storage business.
[03:46] SPEAKER_01: We had four facilities in Washington state and just kind of for scope and to understand the size of the businesses and aggregate those businesses had around 300 employees.
[03:56] SPEAKER_01: So each of them were relatively substantial and the own rate they ranged from the small of 40 to up to 100 employees per business.
[04:05] SPEAKER_01: And so that was over about a 15 year period and it was quite interesting learning how to deal with each of those independently while having them at the same time.
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: So essentially I ran the skincare business, my partner ran the construction business and we had a professional management team running the cold storage business.
[04:26] SPEAKER_01: And about I'm going to say five or six years ago I started exiting all of those I really learned I wasn't passionate about them.
[04:34] SPEAKER_01: It wasn't what I loved.
[04:35] SPEAKER_01: And so I took a few years to kind of work my way out of all of them and actually found myself at a somewhere around the age of 40 saying what am I going to do with my life now.
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: And I spent the better part of a year to working with startups in an advisory capacity and something really interesting happened which transitioned into what I'm doing today.
[04:57] SPEAKER_01: I kept because I'm a CA and because of my background that the startups I was working with kept asking if I could be their CFO and I'd kind of begrudgingly accept it because that's not what I really wanted to do.
[05:09] SPEAKER_01: I was really more interested in the strategic but you know I could always look through a financial lens.
[05:16] SPEAKER_01: And the same thing happened a couple of times or a few times where either they'd hand me a stack of receipts and expect me to deal with it.
[05:24] SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, yeah, I'm your CFO. I'm not your bookkeeper.
[05:28] SPEAKER_01: And or the other thing which was actually more common is I as CFO couldn't get the most profoundly simple information.
[05:35] SPEAKER_01: I needed from the bookkeeping team in order to give good strategic financial advice.
[05:41] SPEAKER_01: And I kept seeing that over and over and over and and kind of had a bit of an a homoment one day and really the birth of shift came.
[05:48] SPEAKER_01: I was talking to my old director of sales from the skincare company and I was kind of complaining about the situation turn.
[05:54] SPEAKER_01: I said, you know, if I only had had an Anna who was my old controller said if I only had an Anna I could put her into all these businesses.
[06:01] SPEAKER_01: She could clean them all up and then I could do what I need to do from the strategic perspective.
[06:05] SPEAKER_01: And of course her answer to me was have you talked to Anna and I said no she says Anna isn't happy.
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: So I called Anna I kind of gave her my pitch and I said don't put your day job.
[06:16] SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm thinking and she called me two days later and said well I quit my day job.
[06:20] SPEAKER_01: So that's actually how she just started it kind of it wasn't.
[06:24] SPEAKER_01: It's kind of the baby had to be pushed out of the nest and learned to fly on its own.
[06:29] SPEAKER_01: So that's how we started that a couple of years ago.
[06:31] SPEAKER_01: And it's really evolved and my thinking has evolved where I believe there's a huge gap.
[06:37] SPEAKER_01: And I believe accountants have done a terrible disservice to entrepreneurs particularly emerging entrepreneurs by making the financial side of the business very complicated.
[06:48] SPEAKER_01: They expect the entrepreneurs to be able to understand and read financial statements.
[06:51] SPEAKER_01: Whereas most entrepreneurs almost half of entrepreneurs surveyed actually find finance and accounting the worst part of their job.
[07:00] SPEAKER_01: So I'm on a mission. So I believe entrepreneurs can change the world.
[07:05] SPEAKER_01: And it's my job to help them through their financial blind spot.
[07:08] SPEAKER_01: So it's shift.
[07:09] SPEAKER_01: We do everything from the bookkeeping the controller function and the CFO.
[07:14] SPEAKER_01: And most importantly our our job is to put a lens on it that entrepreneurs understand stop having the entrepreneurs go to the accountants.
[07:23] SPEAKER_01: To understand the books and start having the accountants go to the entrepreneurs with information that the entrepreneurs need.
[07:29] SPEAKER_01: So that's what the reporting.
[07:31] SPEAKER_01: It's a different reporting the reporting that exists now in standards financials to me that most entrepreneurs don't understand how to interpret those.
[07:39] SPEAKER_01: They don't really understand the subtleties and the stories in there.
[07:42] SPEAKER_01: And so my mission in life and my goal in life is I want to change how accounting is delivered for entrepreneurs everywhere.
[07:49] SPEAKER_01: Whether shift does or not. I don't care.
[07:51] SPEAKER_01: I just want to change so that entrepreneurs have a higher likelihood of being able to change the world.
[07:57] SPEAKER_01: That's my passion right now.
[07:59] SPEAKER_00: Okay. Now did you need financing to start your company and how are you currently making money in your business now?
[08:05] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. So we've bootstrapped everything.
[08:08] SPEAKER_01: So the nice thing about the model is it is a cash model where we do charge for we have two services piece of mind and insights that's kind of the accounting and then the financial intelligence that goes with it.
[08:21] SPEAKER_01: And so we charge on monthly retainer.
[08:23] Speaker UNKNOWN: So I'm going to talk about the software.
[08:23] SPEAKER_01: It's a flat fee type of such scenario.
[08:26] SPEAKER_01: I've also invested in some technology that we're building and I'm about to release the first version, which is really some controller automation software.
[08:34] SPEAKER_01: There's so much really good bookkeeping software automation out there that I don't want to play in that game.
[08:39] SPEAKER_01: There's no need for me to reinvent that wheel.
[08:42] SPEAKER_01: But I haven't found really good controller automation.
[08:44] SPEAKER_01: So I'm investing in that.
[08:45] SPEAKER_01: So I'm just fortunate that I have some resources that I can use to put to that software development, but it's all being either my own investment or cash flow out of the business by charging a monthly, monthly fleet or clients.
[08:57] SPEAKER_00: Okay. Now what is the long term vision and what will your company look like in the future?
[09:03] SPEAKER_00: Do you see the company expanding into other areas and where beyond Vancouver BC or even Canada?
[09:08] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're already outside of BC.
[09:11] SPEAKER_01: We have clients in Alberta and we're, you know, if we had this conversation about a month, I would say in Ontario and even the Maritimes.
[09:22] SPEAKER_01: So we are expanding.
[09:23] SPEAKER_01: I do see it going at least North American, if not wider.
[09:26] SPEAKER_01: So I have kind of two competing visions.
[09:29] SPEAKER_01: One is, of course, I want to grow and scale the business and I believe we can do that with the model we have.
[09:34] SPEAKER_01: And I want to scale beyond that.
[09:36] SPEAKER_01: And if you're familiar with Vern Harnesh, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, he has a model where he basically goes out.
[09:43] SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of seminars, gives a way, a bunch of free tools.
[09:45] SPEAKER_01: You know, there's going to be some people that are going to want help implementing it.
[09:48] SPEAKER_01: And of course, he has his, his stable of coaches, etc.
[09:52] SPEAKER_01: That can help do that.
[09:53] SPEAKER_01: And if people want to implement it on their own, I'm happy with that.
[09:57] SPEAKER_01: Go for it.
[09:58] SPEAKER_01: You know, as long as I've helped you, I've done my job.
[10:00] SPEAKER_01: And so I want to grow a scale in my business, but I actually want to scale beyond my own business.
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: I literally want to change how it's counting as delivered to entrepreneurs everywhere.
[10:09] SPEAKER_01: I want other accountants to start adopting how we do things.
[10:12] SPEAKER_01: I want other bankers to insist that people use financial insights rather than just the basic hygiene and the basic reporting that exists now.
[10:20] SPEAKER_00: Okay. Well, we've learned a little bit about you and we've learned a bit about shift.
[10:24] SPEAKER_00: Now we want to talk about doing business in Vancouver and what that looks like for you.
[10:28] SPEAKER_00: What are the, what are the biggest benefits for you and being an entrepreneur here in Vancouver, BC?
[10:33] SPEAKER_00: I want you to give us some of the good points about starting a company here,
[10:37] SPEAKER_00: but I also want you to give us some of the tough things or challenges for our listeners so they can keep it out for them.
[10:42] SPEAKER_01: Sure. And one of the things we've done, and as I said, I was born and raised in Vancouver, and I never intend to leave.
[10:49] SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that we're, we're building shift is a completely virtual office.
[10:54] SPEAKER_01: So we have staff here in Vancouver, but we also have staff in other jurisdictions as well.
[11:00] SPEAKER_01: Our accountants all come from the jurisdictions on where our clients are.
[11:04] SPEAKER_01: So we've actually created a flexibility.
[11:07] SPEAKER_01: So from a Vancouver standpoint, I think it really attracts a type of person who likes the culture here, who likes, you know,
[11:15] SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at it a beautiful sunset right now, who likes what Vancouver has to offer as a city.
[11:19] SPEAKER_01: And I think that lends itself to having individuals who also have a social focus to their entrepreneurial or their business goals.
[11:28] SPEAKER_01: So for us wanting to change how accounting is delivered to actually create a difference in the world.
[11:34] SPEAKER_01: I think there's a, we have a lot of people to draw from who just, who resonate with stories like that or other stories of compelling business models that also have a social opportunity to them.
[11:46] SPEAKER_01: I think that's one of the best things aside from just Vancouver such an amazing place to live and the people who live here get outside and enjoy et cetera, et cetera.
[11:54] SPEAKER_01: Back to me is, is the best. I also do think there's a pretty strong entrepreneurial community here in Vancouver.
[12:01] SPEAKER_01: It's, it's growing. I think there's a really strong tech startup community.
[12:05] SPEAKER_01: I think there's a strong entrepreneur community in general.
[12:07] SPEAKER_01: So I personally don't ever see myself moving out of Vancouver, although I do enjoy traveling in January and February.
[12:15] SPEAKER_01: It can't get a bit rough at times, which is one of the negatives. But the bigger negative to me really is the cost of living and the ability to access quality talent at a reasonable price.
[12:27] SPEAKER_01: You know, if you, if you look in Colona, or you look in Calgary, or you're looking some of the other cities, not so much Toronto, the cost of living there is comparable.
[12:34] SPEAKER_01: There's definitely some expensive cost of living there as well.
[12:36] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, actually finding talent who can afford a reasonable wage as opposed to a Vancouver adjusted wage is a real challenge for sure.
[12:48] SPEAKER_01: I think that's probably in my mind that the toughest one and when I talk to other entrepreneurs finding good talent is always the, if you look, if you ask across the board in Vancouver, I'd be surprised that the first overall is to find access to a really strong talent.
[13:04] SPEAKER_00: Okay, now we do some of our best work outside the office. Is there a place in the lower mainland close to where you liver work, where you like to go recharge or get inspired or just think about your business?
[13:15] SPEAKER_00: And does it change with the season, considering all the rain we get here?
[13:19] SPEAKER_01: You know, it's, it's changed more over the last year just because I've had a physical injury.
[13:25] SPEAKER_01: I'm, I, people often wonder, but I've run a number of ultra marathons. And so I spend a ton of time in the trails, particularly on the North Shore, often most of my Saturday and half of my Sunday goes to running on the trails.
[13:39] SPEAKER_01: So, for me, the recharge is also a bit of a beat up, but it is getting on the trails. There's nothing. I mean, it's, I've been on trails in a lot of places and, you know, ours are equal to any trail system anywhere I've ever been.
[13:53] SPEAKER_01: So, to me, I would say the outside is a critical part of my existence, my, how I approach life, kind of my, my Zen, if you will.
[14:05] SPEAKER_01: And, which has actually been really difficult over the last year as I've been injured. It's, it's been a lot more difficult to get that time outside.
[14:12] SPEAKER_01: And I've, I've actually found it impacting my, my state of mind and my mental health is just, and it's just coming back now, but it's, it's, it's such a critical piece.
[14:23] SPEAKER_00: So, I, I really appreciate that question. Okay. Now, we have a lot of international listeners that dial in and tune into our podcast. So, this next question, I want you to speak to them.
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: Sure.
[14:35] SPEAKER_00: If you were to start all over again and you just moved here to Vancouver, but this time you don't know anyone knowing what you know now, what would you do? How would you go about starting all over again as an entrepreneur?
[14:48] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I do the opposite of, or the same thing I should say is when I'm traveling abroad. So, I'm a member of the entrepreneurs organization.
[14:57] SPEAKER_01: It's, I joined it about 13 years ago. It's a volunteer organization and it's a group of entrepreneurs in Vancouver and it's a global organization.
[15:06] SPEAKER_01: We have 13,000 members worldwide. I would, if I was a member of that, and, or if I was an entrepreneur, I would look to join that right away because there's already a community of entrepreneurs that there's, there's an openness.
[15:20] SPEAKER_01: People will open their homes. They will open their hearts. They will open everything to you from entrepreneur to entrepreneur. We're all equal members. We're all volunteer leaders, boards and whatnot.
[15:32] SPEAKER_01: And when I'm traveling, I'm going to be in Halifax next week. I already have three meetings set up with people in Halifax because I'm a member of the yo.
[15:40] SPEAKER_01: So, I've already got a community wherever I go around the world. So, that would be the first thing I would do absolutely. And there is a million dollar qualification app that a business doing a million dollars or more to join.
[15:52] SPEAKER_01: If I couldn't join yo, I would look to join a similar type organization. There's entrepreneur groups all over the place. Get with the like-minded people. And, you know, there's, there's the old saying, you know, if you want to know your net worth, take the average net worth of your five closest friends.
[16:09] SPEAKER_01: So, find five friends in that new community are that who are like-minded and want to create what you want to create. It's not all about net worth, but it's about the mindset.
[16:18] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's talk a little bit about your routine. What does the first hour look like for you when you get up in the morning? Do you have a specific routine or a ritual that helps you get motivated to start your day?
[16:28] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm actually pretty religious about a routine. And, you know, the intention is to set your mind for success for the day. So, mine looks like get up.
[16:37] SPEAKER_01: But first 10 minutes is appreciations. And I admit I don't always get 10 minutes in, but I actually write down at a minimum three things I'm appreciative. I'm sure you've talked on this podcast a bunch about just the mindset of appreciation and gratitude.
[16:52] SPEAKER_01: So, three gratitude. Then I think about what's the number one thing in my business I can do today to move the needle. That's not already on my to do list.
[17:00] SPEAKER_01: So, whatever is something that I'm dissatisfied about in my business, how can I actually start to make a change in the moment? And it's often make a phone call or connect with somebody.
[17:11] SPEAKER_01: And I do the same thing personally. What's happening in my life that I'd like to move the needle on it and make that shift.
[17:18] SPEAKER_01: Excuse me. It could be something as simple as you know. I haven't been out with friends for a while. So, you know, organize a card night with my friends or a games night or whatever.
[17:27] SPEAKER_01: So, that's the first 10 minutes as gratitude. And the one thing the second 10 minutes is reading. I'll read something generally uplifting and inspiring. It could be a business book, but I like some that's more story and inspired that gets me a bit pumped up.
[17:41] SPEAKER_01: And the third 10 minutes, which I'm probably not as religious about, is the reflection where I just sort of think about what the gratitude was and what I might have learned in the book.
[17:51] SPEAKER_01: Or what's what I've just resonated in terms of what's happening in my life in terms of what cycles of my am, what am I doing over and over that I don't want to do or what have I changed about myself that I really like.
[18:04] SPEAKER_01: And so, that's a half hour in the morning that I really try and do every time after that it's kind of game on and you know, the day goes from there.
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: Do you think entrepreneurs have to be weird or unique in a positive way or wired differently?
[18:20] SPEAKER_01: You know, there's, I think there's a real huge band of entrepreneurs. I spend a lot of time with entrepreneurs and there's ones that are super unique and weird.
[18:32] SPEAKER_01: This people would actually say I'm fairly quote unquote normal if you will. I don't think I'm normal, but a lot of people think so from the outside.
[18:41] SPEAKER_01: So, unique and weird. I'm not sure I think it, I think there's such a broad range and I like to kind of think that an entrepreneur can, can come from anywhere.
[18:52] SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't have to come from unique and weird place. And to me, the definition of an entrepreneur is someone who creates value before they take it and someone who creates a value around them and creates a community around them that didn't exist before.
[19:06] SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that requires unique or weird.
[19:09] SPEAKER_00: What books do you're reading now and why or even audiobooks and can you recommend any books for our listeners who are also aspiring entrepreneurs?
[19:18] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like, I love Audible. So I listen to books right now. I'm listening to Shudog by Phil Knight. So it's the Nike story. And I'm really enjoying that. That's, I've been sort of using that as my.
[19:33] SPEAKER_01: And then I'm also, I like to also physically read a book and this was recommended to me recently, discover your true North. And that's by Bill George.
[19:43] SPEAKER_01: And I'm not very far into that. So I can't speak to that one. I'm literally just part way through chapter one. And essentially that one's about finding your passion and following your passion and business and essentially that your true North, what you're guiding.
[19:56] SPEAKER_01: What you're guiding vision. So I'm looking forward to getting into that that deeper. In terms of a recommendation for entrepreneurs, I always fall back to mastering the Rockefeller habits by Vern Harnesh.
[20:08] SPEAKER_01: It's, I think it's a really beautiful approach to just the how to organize and run a business. And I think it takes a lot of the complexity out of business by bringing it down to fairly simple.
[20:20] SPEAKER_01: So I really like that when scaling up as his second book. That's kind of the more updated version of the one that I focused on. And in fact, what Vern created with Rockefeller habits was also part of my inspiration with shift is finances complicated and I've created essentially the.
[20:36] SPEAKER_01: The Rockefeller habits specifically for finance that to try and take the complexity out of finance for entrepreneurs. So that's why I love that book is it's so succinct and it's it really brings simplicity to an otherwise complex topic.
[20:49] SPEAKER_00: What online or offline tools do you use on a daily basis?
[20:55] SPEAKER_01: I mentioned the audible I love audible I use it pretty much every day. The other thing I'm relatively simple I would say and I literally have no feeds coming to my phone other than email and text and WhatsApp and communication tools for work.
[21:11] SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't have any news feeds. I don't have anything like that. I try and stay clear of of as much clutter. So the tools that I would use actually are any tools to make email more efficient.
[21:22] SPEAKER_01: I've got a bit of a love hate relationship with email like I'm sure all of us do. So I do have a it's really a system more than a tool with my assistant and I have a.
[21:33] SPEAKER_01: You know a file for her a file for me that's urgent and and procrastinate file and both her and I is where my email will put anything that's not urgent in the procrastinate file because if I if I see it I will deal with it right then which is a super inefficient way of dealing with email.
[21:48] SPEAKER_01: So just organizing it that way and honestly I use notes on my phone all the time. So for me it's that I've created systems around how I use simple tools like email or simple tools like the notes function on my phone rather than the latest and greatest tool.
[22:07] SPEAKER_01: I've tried 100 apps and I just keep coming back to notes and I know that once a week I review them and I put them in a to do list and I put them on my priority list and it just keeps my life simple.
[22:18] SPEAKER_00: Okay, well this next question you touched on earlier about how beautiful BC is and Vancouver is a city to live. How do you balance work and how do you relax and not think about working?
[22:29] SPEAKER_00: And what are your favorite activities to do here in BC? Do you ski? Do you bike kayak golf hike or simply go for a drive?
[22:36] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I try not to be in the car if I can. I'm definitely you could classify me as the outdoorsy type.
[22:42] SPEAKER_01: I mentioned before I'm an ultra runner. I love skiing. I love cross country skiing. So if I can the more I can experience the outdoors backpacking backcountry camping that type of thing.
[22:55] SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love all that stuff and I'm sorry and this is the first part of your question other than just like you where do you like go like to do things in BC?
[23:04] SPEAKER_00: Like you're on the North Shore Mount. So obviously skiing biking kayak like describe like what do you like to do other than the running?
[23:12] SPEAKER_00: If you were to check out say for a weekend, where would you go and what would you do?
[23:15] SPEAKER_01: The best check I have is I have a group of friends and we've been going camping pretty much a week a year for the last.
[23:23] SPEAKER_01: It's got to be 15 to 20 years now and we always pick up somewhere in BC. It's always in BC and it's always somewhere remote in BC and our goal is to basically go away for a week and go camping where we won't see anybody else.
[23:35] SPEAKER_01: And to me that the recharge comes from not having the availability of my phone, not having the availability of email because I'm terrible if I'm on vacation, I can't help myself but to check.
[23:45] SPEAKER_01: So when I put myself in a position where I can't that to me is the recharge.
[23:51] SPEAKER_00: If you weren't doing what you do now, what would you like to do for a profession?
[23:55] SPEAKER_01: If I wasn't doing what I'm doing now, you know, I always had a bit of a secret goal to be like a surf instructor somewhere on a beach somewhere.
[24:06] SPEAKER_01: I don't know that I'm wired that way and I probably couldn't but you know just floating at the ocean. I love time in the ocean. I love surfing even though I'm terrible at it.
[24:14] SPEAKER_01: And I would definitely want to do something surf related or guiding related or back entry guide related type of activity.
[24:23] SPEAKER_01: It would be it wouldn't be a standard job because I think I'm unemployable as I'm sure most entrepreneurs would describe themselves.
[24:31] SPEAKER_00: Now what do you mean unemployable?
[24:34] SPEAKER_01: You know, I guess the best way I could reflect is back in the day when I was doing my CA when I was an investment banker, I literally drove to work nauseous every day.
[24:44] SPEAKER_01: I was physically second heading into work because I just didn't lock. I couldn't handle the structure of it and I couldn't handle the requiring to follow their rules.
[24:57] SPEAKER_01: I like creating the rules. I like starting things. I suck at finishing them, but I'm pretty good at starting them. So, you know, I have bring I bring people on to the team that are good at maintaining and finishing.
[25:09] SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it was the inability to create my own destiny that I think is why I'm unemployable.
[25:17] SPEAKER_00: Okay. What kind of a job would you not like to do? Couldn't do it.
[25:24] SPEAKER_01: I've always said my number one worst job is like if you go into parking lot and there's a parking lot attendant and they're sitting inside a parking lot underground in a three foot by three foot booth for what I'm assuming is eight plus hours a day.
[25:39] SPEAKER_01: I would absolutely lose my mind not having access to natural light being in the underground with the exhaust and being in a tiny box where you can't stand even even as we've been doing this podcast interview.
[25:53] SPEAKER_01: I probably paste that I don't know for the whole time. I don't sit still well. So any job that requires me to not move is not a good fit in business.
[26:02] SPEAKER_00: What is your favorite word quote or sentence that you like to use?
[26:09] SPEAKER_01: I think more recently particularly in shift is people ask me questions, you know, can I do this? Can I do this?
[26:17] SPEAKER_01: It's not a it's not an exact phrase I apologize, but it usually comes out something like I trust you to make the best decisions in the best interest of all of us.
[26:25] SPEAKER_01: There's nothing you can do that's going to be so damaging that you'll break the company so go ahead and try it if it doesn't work.
[26:32] SPEAKER_01: We'll figure it out together after, but it's really about empowering people to just make the decisions and be their own entrepreneur within the company and support them and stand behind them whether it's a good decision or not.
[26:44] SPEAKER_00: What is your least favorite word or sentence you do not like to hear?
[26:50] SPEAKER_01: I guess it's tied to that is I don't like to hear people asking is this okay is this okay? Just go do it. Just go do it. Go try it and we'll figure it out.
[27:04] SPEAKER_00: If you had to pick one or two words to describe yourself, what would it be and why?
[27:11] SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's a stump for me. One or two words to describe myself. I would say passionate, particularly about what I'm focused on in the moment, passionate and adventurous.
[27:30] SPEAKER_00: What keeps you up at night if anything?
[27:34] SPEAKER_01: When I'm losing sleep, it's usually because I feel like I'm letting somebody down, particularly a customer. If I think we're not crushing it at the level that I think we can, I personally start to lose sleep.
[27:49] SPEAKER_01: Generally, I can sleep through most other things. It's really on the let down side.
[27:55] SPEAKER_00: I want you to give us the top three things on your inspired lifeless. This could be a bucket list of any sort whether you want to travel some more, whether you want to write a book, whether you want to do a TEDx talk, philanthropy, anything like that.
[28:08] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the one and there is some question marks around if this was going to happen. I was moving along towards it.
[28:14] SPEAKER_01: I've always wanted to run the Grand Slam of Ultra running. It's the four oldest, sort of most famous, ultra marathon in a single season, 100 mile marathon. So that's all my list still I haven't given up hope, but certainly being injured for the last year certainly didn't help.
[28:31] SPEAKER_01: The second one which you mentioned is the next kind of on my list is to write a book. Another way to kind of get my message out is by putting an imprint and making it available to anybody who has access to it.
[28:43] SPEAKER_01: So that's number two for me. And the third one is it's a bit of an extended local bucket list item as I want to visit every province, every territory and every state in the United States.
[28:57] SPEAKER_01: At least once in my life. And I so far, this I'm a tiny bit over halfway on all of those.
[29:05] SPEAKER_00: Okay, do you have any advice that you may have received that you can pass on to entrepreneurs throughout BC?
[29:13] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, two things spring to mind. The first is I was fortunate enough to watch Steve wind speaking these of the wind casino hotels in Vegas. He is one of the guys that essentially built the strip into what it is today.
[29:26] SPEAKER_01: And it was one of the most interesting talks I've ever seen and somebody asked a question, which is what should I tell my children. So not that the entrepreneurs are my children, but in the same spirit.
[29:36] SPEAKER_01: He answered in in a half a second of find your passion, find your passion, find your passion. And that's been the biggest change in my life, which has happened over the last few years is finding my passion has put a completely different spin on how I approach business and how I approach my life in general.
[29:54] SPEAKER_01: That's the first one. And if I can offer a second one, it actually funnily enough comes from alter running. And if you can picture being 20 hours into a race and getting to an aid station, you know, obviously very tired can be sore can be whatever it's it's could be the middle of the night.
[30:10] SPEAKER_01: And a piece of advice I got from actually a local professional alter runner is when you come into that aid station, if you come dragging your ass in because you're tired or because you don't feel good or your stomach is upset.
[30:21] SPEAKER_01: You're going to get that reflected back at you by the people working at the aid station. So they're going to see a moping in and they're going to come over.
[30:37] SPEAKER_01: And you're going to get that same energy reflected back. And it's amazing the difference when people respond back with that high level of energy as opposed to the mopingness that you know I could be putting out in the world.
[30:52] SPEAKER_01: So I'm always aware whether it's even the clerk checking out at the grocery store or a friend or whoever to really make an effort to come into the proverbial aid station smiling and in a good mood.
[31:06] SPEAKER_00: Okay, Spencer, you ready to have some fun? Let's do it.
[31:10] SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, as you know entrepreneurs are always connected. We're always on our smartphones, tablets, computers, we've got staff, we've got clients, you name it, we're always in connection.
[31:20] SPEAKER_00: We're going to take you away from that. There's a small tropical island just off Fiji that only has one phone booth there and there is no internet. This place does exist.
[31:29] SPEAKER_00: We're going to drop you off there. You won't have us to computer or smartphone or tablet. You can use the phone booth located there any time to call the boat.
[31:35] SPEAKER_00: We'll come pick you up. How long would you last before you made that call? What would you do while you were there?
[31:43] SPEAKER_01: That sounds pretty awesome to me. I love places where I don't have phone access and email access in particular.
[31:49] SPEAKER_01: I probably would last anywhere between 10 days and two weeks. That's kind of my tolerance for.
[31:57] SPEAKER_01: We'll call it unplugged beach vacation type thing and since I'm on a beautiful beach and I'm I'm I'm get to make up my own story here.
[32:05] SPEAKER_01: I mentioned before I love surfing. I would actually spend those 10 weekdays the two weeks actually trying to become a decent surfer from a terrible surfer and really just getting into that vibe.
[32:19] SPEAKER_01: Because there's a phone booth I'm assuming there's going to be some level of a restaurant or whatever to enjoy. I would just totally unplug for that and commit to unplugging for again.
[32:30] SPEAKER_01: I'm going to say 10 days to two weeks and at that point I'll be ready for the next part of the journey.
[32:37] SPEAKER_00: Great. We're going to wrap things up here. How can our listeners get whole of you and is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today?
[32:43] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks. The easiest way is probably despite my comments about email Spencer at shift financial dot co. Again, that's Spencer at shift financial dot co not dot com dot co.
[32:58] SPEAKER_01: I think the only thing I leave the group with is I shared a couple times with my my passion is my vision is to change how entrepreneurs experience accounting and if there's anybody that is inspired by that or thinks they have some ideas that can help or want to talk about it further.
[33:15] SPEAKER_01: This is a topic I never get tired about talking about so please reach out.
[33:19] SPEAKER_00: Great. Okay Spencer. Thanks for coming on the show. I've learned a lot about you and I'm sure our listeners have as well.
[33:25] SPEAKER_01: Very good. Well, thanks so much for your time. I enjoyed it. Great. Okay. We'll see you next time. Very good.
[33:30] SPEAKER_00: Hey there. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to Vancouver's podcast on the Canada's podcast network. We hope you enjoyed this show today.
[33:38] SPEAKER_00: Make sure you sign up for our new letters and write a review for us on iTunes. Then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at Canada's podcast.
[33:47] SPEAKER_00: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country. See you next time.