Awarepreneurs Interview with Brian Thompson

Welcome to AwarePreneurs, the world's longest running social entrepreneur podcast. I'm Paul Zelizer, your host. If you could take a moment and hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, it helps our guests help more social entrepreneurs. Thank you so much. Today our guest is Brian Thompson and our topic is leaning in rather than leaning out. Brian is the founder and financial planner of Brian Thompson Financial LLC where he helps LGBTQ and mission driven entrepreneurs build profitable businesses that reflect who they are and support the impact they want to make. As a financial advisor, business strategist, and host of the Mission Driven Business podcast, Brian works with service based founders who are building more than just a business. They're building movements, communities and legacies.

He helps them bring clarity and structure to their finances so they can grow with confidence and stay rooted in their purpose. Before launching his firm, Brian spent nearly a decade as a tax attorney. That background, paired with his own entrepreneurial experiences, informs a planning approach that's inclusive, strategic and grounded in real life. As a black queer financial advisor, Brian is especially passionate about creating space for diverse voices in business and finance and showing the profit and purpose driven. You don't have to be mutually exclusive. Brian Thompson, welcome to AwarePreneurs.

Thanks Paul. Happy to be here. Excited to talk with you.

You've been doing awesome work and as we were talking before we hit record, this isn't the easiest time in the spaces that you and your clients work with. So just thank you for being here. I've got so many questions, but to start with Brian, give me the origin story. How did you get into doing this work and before opening your own firm, you spent almost a decade as a tax attorney. How does that background influence the foundations of the work that you do?

Yeah, so it actually started back in law school. My second year of law school, I took a tax class and just fell in love with it. Something about how the tax system works, the rules, the exceptions, the exceptions to exceptions, that just really flowed with my mind. So I knew that this is something that I wanted to do. I wanted to deal with finances, I wanted to deal with tax. I almost quit law school because I thought I was going to just quit and become an accountant. And then an advisor told me, no, you can do tax as a lawyer. So I stuck with it.

And also during that time, my dad had just died and so he left my mom a lot of money and she had a financial advisor in quotes who ended up taking a lot of money from her and putting her in a bad place. So because also that's the way that my mind works. I stepped in and tried to help out the best that I could and really fell in love with personal finance. So fast forPaul Zelizerto my law career. I found a great tax firm. I, I loved the work, but it was always stressful. Right? Everybody came to me in trouble. Everybody had the IRS breathing down their neck.

So while I liked work, I didn't like the stress. And I, I did it for a while. And then I realized I could help people be more proactive rather than reactive. I could set up my own financial planning firm where I could help people really build something that was helped with both impact and profit, but also wasn't as stressful and really helped them flourish and thrive rather than just deal with stressful situations. So I started Brian Thompson Financial in 2016, and I first focused on LGBTQ couples because at that time, marriage equality was coming to pass, and it was a really big thing for us. And I knew that I wanted to help people with the 1100 benefits that they were going to get. But then I realized that I was just too spread out. There was doing too many things, working with too many different clients.

And there were a lot of businesses coming to me because of my tax background. I represented businesses, small businesses, and individuals before the irs. So they knew that I had this background, and they knew that I had the knowledge to help them build something. And so the more business clients that I took on, the more fun it got. I loved the, the puzzle piece of trying to put everything together and getting things organized. Like, it just fits my personality. So 2020, I sort of leaned in, was like, all right, so this is, this is my client base. This is what I want to do.

And really just went from there and built the mission driven business aspect from there.

Nice. My dad was a CPA and a tax account growing up, and, yeah, we didn't see him a whole lot from about January to the end of April, you know, so I can, I'm kind of smiling, like, yeah, I kind of have a sense of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It gets busy and I try to make sure that I'm not just doing tax preparation. Right. We're doing tax consulting and tax advisory, making sure that people are prepared for the things that could come. So I, I, it's, I still am busy March through April, but also like, like to spread up my time during the year to make sure that people are prepared and, and ready for whatever's to come.

So mission driven businesses and LGBTQ plus focus. Right now, we were talking. Brian, this isn't the easiest time for impact businesses. I do a lot of work in clean tech and in the US the federal government is CL money that was already allocated, let alone cancel things. There's research and programmatic grants that have been, you know, disproportionately affecting the kind of communities that you and I care about. Like what are you seeing in these times for mission driven businesses, particularly those serving underrepresented communities and what kind of suggestions do you have for them?

Yeah, it is a wild time, right? I feel like this is something that I've never experienced before, this type of, of dissension and really vitriol towards our community. And clients are scared, right? I'm hearing from clients who are experiencing the same thing that you're talking about. They've lost funding because they're working with government or government agencies. They feel like they're being watched. The language on their website is being watched and guarded for DEI or racial tensions, you know, and, and people who are trans clients who feel like they are under attack, like they are, their physical safety is actually at risk. So I'm hearing a lot of these stories and especially when it first happened, the government turned over, people were calling and freaking out, understandably. Right. And so I wanted to make sure that I could, number one, hold a safe space for them and say, I understand your fear, I understand what's going on and it's a scary time.

And in this together, right, we are not alone. There's still a group of us who feel the way that we do and want to make sure that everyone feels safe and included and can be the, the types of people that they want to be and have the businesses that they tell that they want to be, that they want to have. Sorry. And so as soon as we get to that point of saying, yes, your fears are valid, we can then start planning. And I tell people your, who you are is an asset, not a liability. Especially when you're trying to build a business. You can't serve everyone. So you being able to really lean in on who you want to serve, who you want to be in the business that you type want to build is especially important right now because people are watching, right? We've seen people and companies capitulate and clients are watching, donors are watching, the, the community at large is watching.

And we know who those people are and they have lost respect, they have lost money because they are capitulating and going and wavering from who they said they were. So to me, it's a time to really lean in to who you are and what you do and who you want to serve and really focusing on that. So when clients are scared, I say, yes, we're scared, but we're going to lean in. So who are we serving? What are we doing? Going back to the mission, vision, and values of things. So starting with that and making sure that our business is on solid ground to keep going through this tough time.

What does that look like? I love what you're saying. It sounds great in theory, Brian. Lean in and who you are as an asset, not a lot. I agree with you. And if I'm a listener, I'm like, all right, Brian, that sounds nice, but what does that look like?

Well, we always start with mission, vision, and values. So I go through a couple clients with a couple exercises with my clients. We talk about the ideal business that they want to build, right? Their vision around what they're trying to build, the impact that they're trying to have and who they're trying to serve. We talk about your values and go through a values exercise with clients making sure that they have a good set of five to seven values that really reflect the business that they want to build and who they are. It's a fun exercise because I feel like people have done versions of it before, but never really said, I need to get 5 right. I need to have 5 to 7 values written down so I can go back to them and use them as guides. In a time when times like this, when you. Your values are tested, and you have to go back and say, all right, so this is what I said.

I. This is what I said I stand for. Is this really true? So this is especially an important time to go back to the values and then the mission. Like, what. What are you trying to do? Who are you trying to serve? So making sure that you go. For my clients, we go through exercises to make sure that you have this written down, you have it thought out, and you have it clear to me. Clarity and alignment are key to making sure that you're building a solid foundation for your business. And then once you get that written out and really set on paper, then you can then start building a business and talking about the strategic things like cash flow, like taxes, like making sure that you have a good emergency fund.

And so it's building that foundation first and then building on top of that is how we do it.

Love that, Brian. And many entrepreneurs who have a real mission focus, they, like you said, probably thought a little bit about mission, probably thought a little bit about values. But particularly in this kind of turbulent, maybe not always familiar time that we're in that tension between impact and profit. Right? You need to make. If you are a business, you need to make a certain amount of profit to survive. Most of the people listening to this podcast have long ago put aside any tension that you can have both impact and profit. But getting both at high degrees in very turbulent waters has been difficult. I'm getting inbound from people all over the world, not just in the US that that's not as simple as maybe it was five years ago.

Right. So once you have your values, your vision, your mission, that's clear. I love what you're saying. Let's start there. How do you help people start to build in such a way that they're optimizing both for impact or purpose and for profitability to make this, you know, you were talking about stress. Talk about being a stressed entrepreneur, somebody who, you know, making big impact, but they're not sure they're going to survive because the finances are just not solid right now. How do you do both in this economy?

I think it starts with making sure you're managing your cash flow. I'm a big proponent of the profit first model. Making sure that you have specific percentages for your revenue size of your business. So having a specific amount of your revenue for a profit, having a specific amount for owners comp. Having a specific amount for taxes and then operating expenses, making sure that you have a good set percentage for what each of those are help you also get an understanding of where you can pull if you need to. I also think this is one of the things that I find that entrepreneurs think of the least is marketing. Right. And being able to really lean into your client base.

Especially if getting clients has been easy for you and it's not now really having to figure out how do I get clients. I was talking with a client yesterday who lost a client for the first time and said, I now am not freaking out, not panicking, because I know that I can do this, I know that I can get more clients because we've had a solid foundation of marketing and pitching to the. The people that you want to have pitching to your ideal client. So setting up cash flow and then getting to marketing, making sure that you are getting your name out there, who you are, what you do. Again, like we talked about, leaning into who you are because that's going to attract the people that you want to attract and those are going to attract your ideal clients, which will help increase your revenue. I've heard you talk about before, right These. Even in scary times, it may be a little bit harder. But if you have a good sense of your ideal client, you are able to really hone in and serve those clients in a way that they're not getting served otherwise.

And that will also help building your business.

And you and I don't know each other. I should. Full disclosure, I totally enjoyed meeting you and doing the research about your work. And as I'm researching you, you know, I got a pitch from one of your PR folks to say, hey, Brian, on the show. You also have your own podcast. When you're talking about marketing, I can see that you. You. You know, you've thought a little bit about this, but, you know, I think some of our colleagues, you know, it's newer, like you said.

I've seen people rinse and repeat. I'm thinking of clients I've been working with. They've been in business 20 years and have gotten. They're just really good at what they do. The impact story is compelling. And historically, they have not had challenge getting clients at all. Their website looks like it was built 15 years ago because it was built 15 years ago. Right.

They're on very little social media. They create very little content, don't really do a newsletter because they didn't have to. Right? Right. And now it's like, oh, oh, we are in a new time. Right. So. So what. What would you say? Somebody who's done the work to kind of mission and vision and values, and they have.

They have a very viable. The business is great, but they have a. They have almost 30 employees. They're rocking and rolling along, and suddenly getting their clients isn't as easy as it was. And they have to think about marketing for maybe the 20 years of history. What would you suggest to somebody who might be in that kind of position?

I. I always start with, you built something, right? You've built something that's great. You built something that you love, and you know how to do this now. You've done it before. And this is an opportunity to really shift and change when you have to. If. If building a business was easy, everyone would do it. And if you've had experience building a business, you know how hard it is.

And this is one of those hard times. Right. This is a time that you have to really go back to the fundamentals and what you're trying to build and make sure that you are continuing to survive. I heard you say survive. Like, I really want people to thrive in this economy despite the chaos, despite the uncertainty, despite the fear. I Still think you can thrive. And I've seen clients do it right. We had some clients lean in and have gotten more funding than they ever had before in their entire history because they are leaning into who they are and saying we're not, we are scared and we're fighting anyway.

And being able to really put yourself out there, that's going to be the most important part. People need to know you exist. You can have the best product in the world, but if people don't know that you exist, best product or service people don't know that you exist, it's going to be useless. So you got to put your name out there, you got to find different ways and different methods that work for you. I understand that there are many aspects of marketing, right. I, I do the podcast because I love it. I love talking with people like you. I love being able to really reflect and show other entrepreneurs who look like me and have my same experience and say I've done it.

You can do it too. To me, that sharing of experience, strength and hope to other entrepreneurs is a part of my impact. Yes, it's a type of marketing, but it's also going to be a part of the impact that I want to have. So being able to figure out what's going to work best for your business and try it out, see how it works. As you probably know, like there are some marketing methods that I've tried that haven't worked. But you keep trying, you keep iterating to make sure that you are building the business that you want, having the.

Impact that you want and it changes. When I first started, I got on Twitter when this is, I'm showing my all these gray hair. I launched my business in 2008 and back in the day, the social entrepreneur community on Twitter was amazing. Absolutely. It was small, but very mighty. I mean, very mighty. Some of the world's best leaders were very easily accessible. Follow the hashtag social entrepreneurship.

And suddenly I was talking to the best social. I was a nobody. I was a burnt out social worker who moved into social entrepreneurship and, you know, training in business coaching. But I had no experience, very few paying clients and people talk to me like I was another person that, you know, was worthy and, and valuable and they mentored me and shared resources because it was just a small community. And I showed up, right? Yeah. Now I'm not sure that I don't spend a lot of time on Twitter, a lot of time on LinkedIn. Right. In between there was some time on Facebook.

I just share that to say that it's not one and done conversation for most of the folks I know who've been at this sometime and have stayed successful. Not a quick peek and then kind of like I've seen peaks and valleys. Some people have had big success but couldn't maintain it because they couldn't kind of flow with the changes both in the marketing platforms but also in the changes in the sort of economy and zeitgeist as a whole that we've been talking about. So yeah, just thinking social media alone, you know, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, you know, about 15 year span, 7, 18 year span. Right. And then blogging, podcasting, things have shifted in my business. What's getting returns for the people. Also who I've wanted to connect with.

At the beginning I did a lot of work with early stage social entrepreneurs and now I'm working with people, you know, $30 million a year, companies with, you know, employees and things like that. So. So these things want to be fluid. That's been one of the things I've learned. But the general principles of mission, values, storytelling, who I want to help, what I help them with. A lot of that has stayed pretty consistent over the 18 years. Have you seen changes like that in your own business and in your clients?

Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's a great point. Right. Things change. It's not a one and done thing. Things are, are always iterating. I'm a big fan of the lean startup method of build, measure, learn, build, measure, learn, build, measure, learn.

And you're going to have to keep continuing to do that as a business owner the entire time that you have a business. And I think that's also been the great part about what building a business has taught me. I'm a very type a person. I love tracking, I love spreadsheets. So it was very hard for me at the beginning to live in this gray of uncertainty of when am I going to get a next client. Knowing that having a podcast doesn't automatically mean clients, or having a blog doesn't automatically mean clients. It's a long tail to build and to grow and to plant seeds. And so I, I've had to learn how to live in this gray of uncertainty and trying things, right, trying things and see how they work.

And that's just going to be a part of building a successful business and being ready for change and being okay with change. I'm also a person that hates change. I like routine, I like things to be the same. But as you point out, right, nothing is, it's not one and done and so being changing that mindset around what it's, what it means to build a business. I remember also showing my age, like blogs were a thing for a long time.

10 years I blogged.

Right.

Right.

I love reading blogs and, and then it became podcast and social media and like things change and now is one of those changing times. And I, I try to look at them as opportunities, opportunities to grow and succeed and express myself in a different way rather than a challenge.

Right.

Even though it is a challenge and having, having to learn and try things and having to do them over again. But I will say this to all entrepreneurs out there. You've done it before, right? Or you've done a version of this before. So having that confidence that you can do this, you can. My client was saying yesterday, find your clients that you want, find the clients that you need, and also that you can live in the gray of uncertainty and still keep moving. That's going to be the important part for me.

One of the things, thank you so much for that. Brian feels just so true. It's like, were you listening to the session I had? I'm pretty sure you were listening. One of the things that I think can help people navigate change and uncertainty and even fearful moments like what we're in right now is having a community, having an ecosystem, not being an isolated impact entrepreneur. I just had a conversation with somebody yesterday who was very involved in clean tech and climate tech in other networks. But when he moved to New Mexico, he got into a more traditional job in a more traditional agency and he sector and he's not loving it and he wants back in, but he doesn't know the people here that he would need to know to get things done. And we were strategizing. How does he get back into being more plugged in as opposed to less plugged in? Is that something you've seen, that having a network helps you, you know, navigate turbulence, changes in the market, and even, you know, direct pushback about communities that our listeners might, might care about?

Yeah, I, absolutely. And I feel like not only in just building a business, but also life. Right. We are social, connective creatures. We want to feel supported and feel connected and feel like we have community. And it's especially important in times like this to know that you're not alone. What I was saying at the beginning, reminding my clients that you're not by yourself. You know, I've actually had clients talk about moving out of the country.

And to me, I want to be in a place like Chicago where I live. I want to be In a place like LA or New York, where there's lots of us, right? There's lots of us, and we can band together, we can build something together. And also an important purpose of my podcast, making sure that you can see other people who look like you. I. I love knowing that there are other people out there that are doing this type of work. When I found you and met you, I was like, oh, wow, this is so heartening and invigorating to know that Paul is out here doing the work and we're all in this together, right? We're all one piece of the puzzle. And I feel like if I can lean in and do what's in my golden threads or, you know, my zone of genius to help people build a better world, a better community, that will have a ripple effect. And I imagine you, you feel like you do.

You can do the same.

Absolutely. Yeah. Tomorrow. I'm super excited and super grateful to be interviewing John Clark. He's the head of the New Mexico State Investment Council. And here in New Mexico, you might have heard if you. I'm pretty excited. We're pretty excited.

We have one of the largest per capita sovereign wealth funds that the world has ever seen. We're now up at about $67 billion, not million billion dollars. Wow. And the title of our episode is New Mexico is Building Americas Sovereign Wealth Fund. Because we're just about to pass Alaska, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the United States. And it's attracting worldwide attention. And I've been in New Mexico since 1993. New Mexico is the first minority majority state, in other words, who lives here? Very large Hispanic population, second largest native population, only behind Alaska.

So we are the first state that is majority people of color in the United States. We look like where the world is is and where the United States is going. And we have this asset that is unprecedented in a state of our size. We're only 2.1 million people and who been economically historically incredibly anemic. We kind of. The joke is, thank God for Mississippi and Alabama because bus are are always one of us is always at the bottom. But it's not you in terms of economic indicators. But it isn't always New Mexico because we're we.

But suddenly things are changing because our leadership has been investing mostly oil and gas revenues into this asset. And I've been here since 93 doing community work in my first career as a social worker, now doing social entrepreneur work. And I'm now directly in conversations with the people who are making decisions, state representatives, our VCs the gentleman who runs the 11 person board who's making decisions about our $67 billion sovereign wealth fund. I get it. About people leaving. And it's easier to be. I'm grateful. I live in New Mexico.

I'm very, very grateful. The values and who lives here and how we relate to each other fit to. I am and I'm super grateful to be here. I totally understand leaving. But I tell that story. If I were to leave from a distance. I can't have the same kind of leadership role and be in the conversations that I'm currently being invited into where people are making decisions in a caring way, in a values based way that our leaders are doing it. That if I was somewhere else I'd have to start all over again in 1993 was a long time ago.

I'm curious too. Like I. I want to pin that point. I, I can see the excitement on your face. I can see how energetic you talk about what you're doing and who you're serving and the people that you're communicating with. I'm curious if you back in 1993 had any idea that you would be doing.

No idea that I'd be doing this. I knew I'd be doing community work because I'm a social innovator and I care. I see suffering and I, I want to help in some meaningful way. That's how I'm wired.

Yeah.

Been a social entrepreneur before I knew what that was. You know. I, I started out in social work because that. I knew that I didn't understand that people could lever business in the way that you and I now can have this conversation. It took me a while and I saw the challenges when you don't have a big enough lever of trying to do it through a traditional social work. I just felt like I was constantly underwhelmed by the horsepower that was available for the size of the problems. And I was like I need a bigger lever. What? Okay.

Business. Like the biggest lever on our planet. How do we use that? Right. That's how I got here. But the care of wanting to make a difference in hard problems. I've been thinking about that since I can. I've never not been thinking about that. Yeah.

But I had no idea that I'd be as in the middle of these. In these conversations. Talk about horsepower. We are having some of the most exciting, dynamic conversations about positive change that I've ever been a part of. And some of them are as exciting as anything happening on the planet. And I'm right here in the middle of it. I had no idea in zero that that would happen. And the only reason that's happened is because of.

I've spent a lot of time cultivating a network and trying to listen. It's not about me, it's about us. It's how I try to approach the work. And that has gotten me invited into circles I didn't even know existed. And I never knew I'd be sitting.

It's not about me, it's about us. I love that. And I think that's also the inspiring part of having your own business. Right. I talk all the time about people. A lot of people get into this for the money. They know that you can make a lot of money as a business owner, which, again, there's nothing inherently bad about making money.

They're right. This is the. If you're looking for legacy wealth, this is the most. This is the best way to do it. That not just you and I are saying it, but Harvard and Stanford and all mit, all the researchers say if you want to create legacy wealth, being an entrepreneur is the best way that anybody has ever found to do that.

Yeah. And it's the quickest way to close the racial wealth gap. Right. I feel like this is also why I got into the business. The racial wealth gap is 1 to 11 if you're an individual W2 earner. It's 1 to 3 if you're an entrepreneur. So it makes a big difference. But it's not just about the money.

It's about the freedom. It's about the impact, it's about the flexibility. It's about being in situations that you never thought you were going to be in and having conversations that you never thought you were going to have that experience. Talking. I have clients that I never would have imagined that I could connect with. Right. In the wide. My wildest dreams.

But they're my clients and I'm connecting with them and I'm helping them have the impact that they want to have. That, to me, is one of the most unexpected benefits of having my own business, that I'm really living a life that I didn't even. Couldn't even imagine before.

Absolutely. Okay. There's so much more I want to ask you. I want to ask you about some of your successes, some of your failures, and what you learned from them. And also advice going forward. Once we breathe and connect into those values and we look at this moment, there's opportunities here, not just challenges we've talked about. So I want to talk about the opportunities and how you're encouraging people to lean into them. Before we do that, I just want to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor.

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So welcome back everybody. I'm here with Brian Thompson and as you might be able to tell from my voice, I'm pretty excited about the conversation we're having. Lean in rather than leaning out. And Brian, right before the break we're talking about, this is some, you know, pretty unprecedented times, right? I got a few gray hairs. I burned YouTube. I've seen a few things. Right, you've seen a few things. You got a few gray hairs there.

We didn't start this yesterday. And one of the things like when you think of the successes you've had, the failures you and your clients have had, what can those lessons teach you about this moment, that and the opportunity there? Entrepreneurs always see entre, always see opportunities, always hired that way. There are opportunities right now, even in the midst of all these challenges. What are some of them and how have your failures, your successes helping you see those opportunities?

I think it's the mindset shift, mindset shift that I was talking about before of looking at these really what felt before like roadblocks as stepping stones, right? They're, they're not going to impede me from continuing to make and try to build a successful business. They're an opportunity to really lean into what I need to lean into to create a better business. And it's running into these. These, I call them challenges. Right, Right. In the first few years of building my business and that. But each of these stumbling blocks were a stepping stone for me to build a better business. And as we talked about with my clients, like, these moments like this where you're challenged, you're challenged to build, you're challenged to really lean in on your ideal client and build a marketing funnel that is going to help you succeed.

Those types of things are going to benefit you long beyond this moment. So taking them as an opportunity and saying, all right, so this is a challenge. I need to learn how to do this. I need to lean into my mission, vision, and values. I need to lean into my community. I need to really make some effort into making sure that this is going to continue to be a thriving business. And I think it's automatically always begins with that mind shift of saying, this is an opportunity, not a roadblock, and building from there.

I love that this is an opportunity and not a roadblock, while also not minimizing. This is hard, right? We are in hard moment. Like, yeah, this is hard. I've never seen anything like it. And people in communities I care about are really struggling. Right. And I'm sure you see that as well. So to me, it's important to say, like, sometimes entrepreneur vice feels when somebody is from a community that's really struggling, that dismissive.

Maybe I'd even use the word right. Like, sometimes if, like, this is a. This is a, you know, step up, not a roadblock. And there's that moment that the social worker, you know, counselor, community mental health was my master's degree. Like, I want to be able to just say, ouch, this hurts. Right? Yeah. You're listening and you're like, this is really hard. Honestly, I agree with what you're saying.

And I also just want to make room for anyone who's just feeling like, this is heavy, this is hard, this is scary, this is big. And I am feeling all the feels about that. And this is an opportunity. There's a step here, not a roadblock here. When you are providing strong leadership and powerful vision to a community that's not seeing that the traction you can get is like rocket ship, right? Like, exactly. There's a lot of deer in the headlights. Are you seeing that? Like, a lot of the community I care about, leadership feels like they're just either turtling or deer in the headlights or some combination of both. Yeah, it's.

And it's because of that Fear, it's because the anxiety of like, what if I make the wrong move, right? And what if I do thing that is, is detrimental to my business or to my community? And I. It's what we've been talking about. Knowing that you're not alone and being able to acknowledge that fear and that anxiety and saying, yes, this is a rough time. I think the really valuable part of having our gray hairs is that we've been here before, right? We. I remember the crash of 2008, 2009.

I started my business in 2000. Oh, no way.

Yikes, yikes, yikes, right? And so we've been here before. We've been through Covid. I remember going to grocery stores during COVID and thinking is this, is this it? Is this the end of the world, right? There are no, there's no food on the shelves. Getting through those moments, I think it's important to really reflect and know that you've been here before and you've gotten through hard times before. And I also remind clients, like every meeting that we go through with clients, I talk about successes and challenges so we have something to go back to. When you're first building that business, all the successes and challenges that you had and all the fears and anxieties that you had have changed and become different because you, you've eclipsed those and then found something else, right? So being able to have that history and that, that mark of knowing I can get through this and it is a tough time, I, I really could not emphasize any more what you said about being able to acknowledge that and being able to know that it's okay to be scared, it's okay to be anxious, it's okay to not know what's going to happen and move anyway and do it and keep trying, keep iterating, keep building, measure and learning until you find something that, that fits and helps you succeed. Because that will again help you way, way down the road than this moment.

So the lever you've really lean into helping mission driven entrepreneurs around the financial part of things, that's really, at least just initially when somebody's going to reach out. Like why Brian? Why would I reach out to Brian if I'm an impact entrepreneur, if I'm a social entrepreneur, how is this time? Like, like how have you modified the kinds of suggestions or have you modified the suggestions you're making? Financial planning wise, tax wise, in this moment where there's more uncertainty and some of the communities that you and I both care about are, you know, certainly not as resourced and in some cases, as you said, are under outright attack. Right. How can impact entrepreneurs be as skillful as humanly possible on a financial level in this climate?

Yeah. And I don't, I don't feel like I have changed my advice. I feel like it just sinks in a bit more now when I talk about having three to six months of an emergency fund, making sure that you can get through two quarters of no income and figuring out how to build that if we need to. Right. Making sure that you are splitting your profit and your emergency fund every quarter to build that emergency fund. Making sure that you have a good sense of your cash flow. Making sure you have a good understanding of what's coming in, what's going out. I always say you can't, I guess I love mantras, right.

You can't change what you don't track. And so being making sure that your books are clean, making sure that you're reconciling every month, making sure that you have a good balance sheet. Right. Nobody ever looks at their balance sheet. Sheet. It's really the fundamentals that I preached and preached and preached that really shine through in this moment because they're needed. Right. You need to know, especially if you have a lean budget, what's coming in, what's coming out, what you can change, what you can modify.

I always say that there are two levers. There's the income lever and there's expense lever. And a lot of times you need to, to wiggle both. But it really depends on your business which one is going to have the priority at the moment. So knowing which one that is, if you have clean books, you have a good sense of your cash flow, you have an emergency fund will help you through those times. And they're all fundamental things that I've been talking about ever since I started advising mission driven businesses.

Beautiful. I was thinking as you were talking, my parents live in Florida. I'm leaving on Friday for a visit. And Florida has seen a more robust hurricane season. Although this year, thank God, it hasn't been. But they've, they've seen, you know, way more storms. And you're talking about foundations, right? Like, like sometimes you don't know if the foundations are strong until a storm hits and. Right.

It's really unfortunate to find out, oops, we weren't paying attention to the foundation and the storm just like let us know that in a very robust way and ouch. And that's going to be really expensive if your foundations are not solid. And a big storm comes and I was just Thinking sometimes I think in analogies. And as you were talking, I was thinking of like, if you build it solid for a hundred year storm, there's a really good chance that you're going to weather this better than somebody who just slapped it together but kind of cheated and then got caught, you know? Yeah. This foundation is not meant for the kind of storms we get in this environment.

And, and we've all been there. Right. We've all built a business in a different way. And like we talked about before, some people have built a business that didn't need any marketing. Right. They for some reason were really good or really known for what they do. So they didn't need to figure out a marketing funnel or the best marketing method for them or they had already a lot of cash. Right.

They came up with a, they came into the business with a lot of cash. They didn't feel like they needed to look at their books as, as much or as with, as. With as much intent as you actually do. Right. And so we've all been there, we've all made mistakes. And this again is an opportunity for you to look at your business and figure out what you need to do to build a better foundation to make sure that you can weather the storms that are coming, that are going to come. Right. This is not the last storm.

It's a big one, but it's not going to be the last one.

You're talking to department guys on the co founder of Anim Climate. Yeah. Yup. This is, this is not the last.

Just the beginning.

Right. If you believe that climate change is a thing that we have maybe changed some things on planet Earth and I have. The science tells us that it has.

Yeah.

Then yeah, we are not in our last storm. No matter where you live, you are gonna see disruption. That's just the way it's going to be. This is our new normal. And how do we make peace with that? And then like I love what you said about planning and being extra thoughtful of those foundational practices in business. Right. Love what you're saying. Yeah.

And I will. I've just emphasized the foundations again. Right. Mission, vision and values. Those are the foundations of your business and making sure that you were headed in the right direction. But then it's cash flow, it's taxes, it's making sure that you have a big emergency fund or a substantial emergency fund to weather the thing, the ups and downs that are coming and making sure you're tracking the right things. Right. Tracking your income and expenses, tracking your clients.

You need to Track the types of clients that you have, the, the range of clients that you have, whether they are an ideal client. I usually have clients. Usually people rank clients one to five. What is a five client for you? Making sure that you have the foundational information that you can then make intentional changes is really important.

So, Brian, if you look ahead five years, let's say. Right, so we're coming to the end of 2025, let's say coming to the end of 2030. Right. Like what's changed for you in these past five years? The work you're doing with clients, who you're working with, and how you're showing up in the mission driven space.

Yeah, it's really hard for me to envision five years from now because of this moment, because it's so scary and chaotic and uncertain. It's really hard for me to envision five years from now. But I, I do hope that I'm still on the right. I feel so aligned and clear about what I want to do and who I want to serve. So I hope I just get deeper and more involved in that. I'm already as you are, in rooms that I never thought I would be in and making sure that those people can have the, the impact that they want to have in the future. It's really just honing in and refining what I've already built. I'm so happy and proud of what I built and the life that it affords me.

Right. I'm a big fan of Sahil Bloom's book the Five Types of Wealth. And they talk about you need financial stability, but you also need social, mental, physical. I forgot what the other one is, but it's. It's really about balance to me and I feel very balanced. I feel very grateful to have this business and to be able to show other people that they can have it to other people that look like me, other people that felt like they didn't have a voice or they didn't have power and they couldn't get in these rooms that you can do it and helping them build. And I'm excited to see what happens five years from now because where I'm now has been so unexpected. But I feel like if I keep aligned and keep clear on the direction that I want to go and the impact that I want to have, amazing things will happen.

I'm really excited to see too, Brian. I want to know what your 2030 looks like.

I'm excited for yours too. I love that we've connected because I love your energy. I love the impact that you have. And it's really inspiring. Like I said, I get energized talking to people like you because I know we are a team. It's. It's us. Us, not me.

Right. I'm going to take that away from our conversation.

Steal it, please. It's not that. That's just standing on the shoulders of the wonderful Native, you know, communities I've had an opportunity to work on and work with in. In community challenges and building economies here in New Mexico. Just so many wonderful Native leaders who. Yeah, it's. It's always us. They always start with us.

Yeah. And they just look at kind of American individualism. Like, what. What is this?

Yeah.

Is that I've been here since 93. I've literally lived here longer than any other place in my life. So I'm not a New Mexican, but I certainly feel a part of things here in a way that I haven't in other places in the U.S. for that reason, there's a care and a valuing of creating belonging that I've only experienced in a few places in the world. And I feel so grateful to be in a place where people are better than average at practicing that. I just. I love that I. I'm a different human when I'm in those kind of circles.

Exactly.

Yeah. So, Brian, if there was something you were hoping we were going to get to today and we haven't touched on it because I know you're busy and I know our listeners are busy. If there was something that. Yeah. You were hoping we were going to talk about on this topic of really leaning in and doing good work in turbulent times, or there's something you want to leave our listeners with as we start to say goodbye. What would that be?

I. I think we've hit most of things. I really love this conversation. I probably just want to emphasize, again, it's about the fundamentals at this moment. It's about using the fundamentals that you have to really get you through this time. And it's mission, vision and values. The bookkeeping, cash flow, taxes. Right.

Being able to build a great foundation to weather the storm and think of it as an opportunity. It may be hard, it may be stressful, it may be scary, but this is an opportunity to really build your business in a way that's going to help you thrive in the future. And I want that for all these listeners who are. Who are in this moment of fear know that they are being targeted. You can still do this. You are not alone. It's scary, but we can do this together.

Cool. Brian, if somebody wants to get a hold of you or listen to your podcast, how would they do that? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, my website is BT financial.com you can find the podcast there. Again, my podcast is mission driven business. You can get that on anywhere that you get your. Your podcast. And I have a specific episode, episode 97 on sort of leaning in to what you want to be and who you want to build and how you. How you want to do that. If you go to Bitly btftracker, you can get a good sense of the foundational principles around client building and making sure that you have the clients that you want and the clients that will help you build a better business.

And I'm on social media as well, Instagram and LinkedIn, so find me there. I really, really enjoy connecting with people and hearing stories. So please reach out.

Great. We'll put all the links to all those things in the show notes. Brian, just thank you for the work you're doing and thanks for sharing it with us today.

Yeah, thank you for the conversation. It's been really inspiring. I appreciate it.

Brian, thanks for joining us and for the courage to challenge some really deeply held assumptions in challenging times. This conversation is just so on point for many of the clients that I'm working with. Listeners, if this stirred something in you, please share it. You know someone who can benefit from Brian's message and that's how his platform grows. That's how this podcast goes, that's how we build this community. Lastly, if you're ready to develop a bold strategy for your impact business, whether you're navigating uncertainty or stepping into something new, you can learn more about my strategy sessions@paul zelizer.com and until next time, please keep working for positive impact and letting your values guide your business.