Gurmeet Judge
Encompass solutions founder and CEO Gurmeet Judge interview successful business leaders as he dives deeps into the world of business to help people like you become successful business leaders!
Gurmeet Judge
The Five Muscles of Enterprise Every Leader Must Develop
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Inner growth, deep convictions, spiritual strength, and relentless effort unlock vast opportunities for business expansion. They cultivate resilience, spark creativity, and fuel consistent execution, enabling leaders to seize markets, overcome hurdles, and scale sustainably for enduring competitive success
In this episode, I’m joined by Albert Butler, CPA, MBA, author of LIFE and a seasoned leader who has spent more than 25 years in accounting and finance industry scaling individuals, and businesses with integrity, strategy, and purpose. As a father of four, youth coach, and servant leader, Albert brings real-world wisdom shaped by personal trials, resilience, faith, and financial discipline. His message is clear: accounting isn’t just numbers—it’s the heartbeat of business and a powerful key to personal financial success.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/butleralbert/
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Business Leadership and Challenges
01:01 The Heartbeat of Business: Accounting's Role
03:35 Five Muscles of Enterprise: A Framework for Success
08:20 Scaling Yourself Before Scaling Your Business
12:57 Planning for Exit: The Importance of Family Conversations
16:16 Understanding Business Valuation and Market Reality
17:44 Transparency in Team Dynamics and Financial Literacy
19:03 Inspiration Behind the Book: Life Lessons for Children
23:20 Navigating the Journey of Entrepreneurship
24:54 The Role of Faith in Business
29:01 Understanding Financial Cycles and Consistency
31:31 The Power of Discipline Over Motivation
33:26 The Importance of Planning, Acting, and Reviewing
38:03 Self-Inventory and Personal SWOT Analysis
Introduction to Business Leadership and Challenges
SPEAKER_01If you step back and you look at it, if you want to be a CEO, if you want to be somebody who wants to have a product to take to market, your leadership skills have to be on point. And you have to make sure that you cultivate that on a daily basis. Anytime when you learn a lesson that you didn't prepare yourself for appropriately, it's called bought sense. But you pay the price to learn a lesson. And hopefully, when you learn that lesson, you pivot and you're able to hold on to it to continue to expand and grow from that. Because if you don't, you're going to pay the price again and pay the price again and pay the price again. When you start to birth the business, it's just that. You're birthing something that didn't exist before. It turns into your baby that you're trying to grow and cultivate and be able to scale and grow. The further part of that is that people forget that the business is just an asset. It's not you. And that asset has to be able to grow, but just be treated that way that one day there will be
The Heartbeat of Business: Accounting's Role
SPEAKER_01an exit that takes place. There will be a liquidation event that takes place. As a professional, as an entrepreneur, as someone who is trying to be better than what they were yesterday, I have a framework that I share with everybody. It's called the Five Muscles of Enterprise. And those five muscles.
SPEAKER_00Hi there. Welcome to Business Leadership Podcast. In this episode, I had a discussion with Albert Butler. Albert is a resident, partnering charge of a national accounting firm where he has led with integrity, strategy, and a purpose for over 25 years. As a father of four, youth coach, and a servant leader, Albert speaks from livid experience, transforming personal trails into a lesson that fuels resilience, faith, and financial discipline. His philosophy is a simple yet powerful accounting, is a heartbeater for business and the key to personal financial success. Now, this was a very interesting discussion. We talked about various different topics on the business and leadership. Hope you enjoyed this discussion as much as I did. Before we go, I have a quick favor to ask. What we recently find is 35% of people who uh watch our content haven't subscribed to our channel. So if you have not subscribed to our channel, please do so. Send us your feedback, share with your friends. Your support is very important to us. Allow us to focus on our right direct discussions to deliver value and help you grow and scale your business. So enjoy this episode. Thank you for time. Please welcome Albert Butlard. Hi guys, welcome to Business Leadership Podcast. Today our guest is Albert Butlard. Albert, you know, you've been you've been working with a lot of business owners. You know, you you know, your book is out. I just recently gone through your book as well. A lot of interesting topic, great book, especially around the family and kids. You know, a lot of wisdom in a book. So I'm looking forward to learning from you, looking forward to a discussion. Thank you so much for time today.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Garmin, thank you so much for the platform and thank you for letting me talk to your audience. You know, I I've I find these um experiences to be just that great experiences to help build my toolkit along the way as well. And hopefully, while we're talking, you know, we'll have some things, some some special little golden nuggets that your audience can can take with them to help build their toolkit out. So I'm very excited.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's the goal. As long as we can help somebody from our discussion, you know, somebody watches the discussion. So listen, I draw a lot of value. I think we we have mission accomplished.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00Good stuff. So so you've been working with a lot of businesses, you've been helping a lot of people. What do you think some of the challenges people are up against? What are you experiencing? What are you hearing from them?
SPEAKER_01You know, Garmin, I've been doing this work for over 25
Five Muscles of Enterprise: A Framework for Success
SPEAKER_01years now. And as a CPA, I have an MBA as well, too. I've worked from some of the with the some of the largest organizations, leaders, founders, families at all different types of levels. And what I have found out to be the most simplest way of putting is that, and very powerful way, is that accounting is truly the heartbeat of business and the key to personal finance success. That is something that I really carry on my chest and I like to share with many, with many people because a lot of times we forget that accounting gives clarity and it helps business owners, it helps decision makers, and most of all, it helps families at the kitchen table make financial decisions that impact the not just the family today, but the family tomorrow and for generations to come. So that's the one thing that I've learned that I want to always like to share that accounting is the heartbeat of business and truly the key to personal finance success.
SPEAKER_00You know, that is such a great point, uh Albert, what you just mentioned. A lot of business owners, especially small businesses, medium businesses, these businesses, you know, we all come from technical background. We don't come from financial background, right? So we are passionate about something on a technical side, whether it's a product or we try and sell the services, we all come from that background and we start building a company. The finance side is something we have to learn along the way, like with the sales, you know, we that this is an area we have to develop skills, we have to learn along the way. And there's so much pain, so many mistakes we make while we're learning and going through this journey. And uh, you know, I think it if if as somebody understands finance and accounting a little bit earlier, I'm sure they will avoid tons of mistakes they make in a business.
SPEAKER_01It's powerful, Garmin. And I'm glad you brought those points up. As a professional, as an entrepreneur, as someone who is trying to be better than what they were yesterday, I have a framework that I share with everybody. It's called the five muscles of enterprise. And those five muscles are leadership, operations, sales, IT infrastructure, and accounting, the heartbeat of it all. And if you step back and you look at it, if you want to be a CEO, if you want to be somebody who wants to have a product to take to market, your leadership skills have to be on point and you have to make sure that you cultivate that on a daily basis. While at the same time, you got to flex these other five muscles where operations are key, sales are key. You know, if I don't know how to take my product to market, nobody's gonna buy it. And then the IT piece, people forget about that as well, too. Well, IT is the data center of it all. We got to make sure it's secure. But in every aspect of it, at the center of it all, it all comes back to accounting. Every decision, every cycle, every transaction, the equivalent exchange of back and forth comes into the center of the accounting department. So reporting can take place back up to the CEO, to the leadership group, to tell the world how great the company, how great the family, how great the individual really is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You know, it's definitely important in every department. Albert Borissi challenge, because I run a technology business and IT side of things, is simply a lot of CEOs I talk to, a lot of uh CFOs I talk to, even, they understand how much it costs, but it they don't understand how much impact is going to make the top line or the bottom line in a business, right? So that translation from technology to business financials, I think a lot of people struggle with that. Oh, or simply they don't have a skill set to even look into that, or they don't want to look into that. And I think that's the biggest mistake I see people make when it comes to technology. Either it has to help you grow more revenue or it gotta make your appearance more precise or more efficient, more competitive in a market. If it's not doing either one of those, then you're wasting money. But a lot of people don't translate that technology piece into business value or trying to understand how financially it impacts a business.
SPEAKER_01Wow. The the powerful word I heard in all of that is wasting money. And that's so, so powerful, Garby, because I have, you know, when I was younger, my sister would tell me anytime when you learn a lesson that you didn't prepare yourself for appropriately, it's called balt sits. Well, you pay the price to learn a lesson. And hopefully, when you learn that lesson, you pivot and you're able to hold on to it to continue to expand and grow from that. Because if you don't, you're gonna pay the price again and pay the price again and pay the price again. And you are 100% right. It's very hard for people to really understand the product or service and how it relates to the actual equilibrium that the accounting needs to take place for it all, and even the data around that and how important that really is. So you are 100% correct. That ball simp piece of it and paying that price to learn that lesson is critical that we all have to go through sometimes. But I'll tell you, the best way to deal with that is to build your team and
Scaling Yourself Before Scaling Your Business
SPEAKER_01have a solid group of folks that you can rely upon and lean on because no one knows it all. No one's expected to know it all. You got to build the team to make sure that you're strong enough to be able to scale.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's the numbers do tell a story. You know, finance is not my strongest background. I'm learning. I sit down with the people who expert at it and learn from it. And recently it got into MA where you know you're buying companies or or or are trying to look for acquisitions. And some of these accountants, some of the CFOs, very, very smart. You know, when you give them a financials, they compile a number in such a story format, and it tells a story about the company you're trying to evaluate. I mean, so number, you know, if a number could tell a story, that's an area where number tells a story, you know, definitely is it, you know, how strong the company is, what are you looking at? What risk are you acquiring? It tells the whole story just by looking at the numbers in a company.
SPEAKER_01Watch this one. I'll give another one. And it's something interesting. I know you you're I know you're in Canada, but here in the US, everybody has to tell another, has to tell a story as well. It's called the story on their 1040 tax return. That's a huge story that every individual has to be able to turn tell. And if you don't tell that story correctly, you're gonna have a lot of extra costs incurred because everybody, you know, one thing is tried and true, death and taxes, you're gonna have to pay them. And because that um requirement is so strong, the one tax that everybody has to pay that requires you to tell the story appropriately is the income tax. So you have to be able to tell that story on that 1040 tax return. And my number, your number, your audience's number, everybody's number is different. The question is how you find your number and to make sure you tell that story consistently. So in the ML, in the MA space, a story's being told with due diligence on your tax return, a story's being tell on the individuality of how you actually made your money. So numbers give clarity and they do tell a true story.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Very interesting. So before we go to the family side, uh Albert, I want to a little bit more, you know, uh dig you know, on a CEO site or business owner side. So somebody started a business, you know, finance, not their background. What can they do? You know, what do they have to look for? They don't have to master every single number, they cannot verify anything, every single number in a in a in a in a in a balance sheet because they don't have a time for that kind of stuff, definitely an ex expert. What can they do to make sure that first of all the number tells a story and numbers are right out and and they can understand and they can make some sense out of it?
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna pull back a little bit with from your question, Garmin, and I'm gonna go back to a little bit what I was saying a second ago because I get this same question with a lot of clients that come in. Okay. I actually take a potential entrepreneur or one who's already started a business, and I don't even talk about the numbers, I talk about the person. Because the one thing that an individual can do is to know thyself, to know who you really are, to understand what's your trajectory and where you're trying to go. And that's the deep dive that you have to take. And as a CPA, we people don't look at a CPA from their perspective because uh it's more of a life coaching experience. Because going to a CPA is like going to a doctor. You got to be completely exposed to tell what's going on and your whys, because your current state is everything that's happened already inside your life that your numbers are already telling. So I ask them a question what are your habits? How do you move? How have your habits cultivated your character? How's your family life? And how is that working out? Because if you decide that you want to go into business, guess who else you're taking into the business? Your family's coming along right along with you. So I always challenge a uh entrepreneur, a founder. I always challenge you. Always scale yourself first to make sure you're strong enough to handle what you're about to walk into. Because once you scale yourself, you have to scale your family. Because when you walk, they're walking with you. And then scale the business. Because there's no possible way that you can actually have a profitable business if you're not profitable at your kitchen table to begin with. So I always challenge you work on self first, scale self first, scale the family second, and then let's scale the business.
SPEAKER_00You know, I wish I had done that. That's such a great advice, Albert. I would avoid tons of mistakes I made in a business early on. I wish somebody had sat down with me and simply said, listen, this is what you're trying to do. You're coming from a corporation, you know, you used to make this much money. You're gonna go, the money is gonna go away, and you gotta replace that with something. So until you get there, this is what you gotta do. But I didn't have a plan. I simply jumped in a business. So I'm I'm
Planning for Exit: The Importance of Family Conversations
SPEAKER_00sure a lot of business owners listening or or are you know watching us on a channel, they've probably gone through the same thing. We all jump to business without planning and without understanding that I gotta scale, as you mentioned, that that that you gotta scale yourself first because the family is coming with you before you scale the business. But a lot of people don't understand, they're so passionate about the product and services to just jump in without any planning, and then then you make a mistake. And it's and and to your point, family suffers because of that, and then you suffer with the family because you didn't plan something, something you didn't look at right.
SPEAKER_01I had a client come in the other day. He said, Man, Albert, I just you know, I got all these things going on, I got this business going. I just I just wish my wife would understand it more and she can help me do some of these things. I said, You ever talk to your wife about it before you got started? Did she even want to do it? And the truth of the matter is a lot of times we don't have those conversations to understand where we've level set our own family to be able to go into this endeavor. Because when you start to birth the business, it's just that you're birthing something that didn't exist before. It turns into your baby that you're trying to grow and cultivate and and and and be able to to to to scale and grow. The further part of that is that people forget that the business is just an asset, is not you. And that asset has to be able to grow, but just be treated that way that one day there will be an exit that takes place, there will be a liquidation event that takes place, if you want it to or not. Walk with me, Grimy, when I when I say this, because a lot of people they a lot of people miss this piece. It's very important to understand that in every relationship you have to walk into that relationship with a beginning and understanding the end. You have to have an exit and know what that really is going to be. What's an exit? Well, an exit can happen in many different ways. An exit can be, well, you know, I sold it. That is an exit. An exit also can be, well, I'm passing it on to my heirs. That's an exit as well. Another exit can be, well, I built the business up so much, I'm passing it on to the executive group that I'm leaving behind, and I'm passing it on to the Here's another exit, the exit of life. When you leave this, when you when you leave this earthly plane, if you leave this earthly plane without a properly plan for that asset that you built up, for that family that you're hoping to hold on to, for that family that you want to scale up with with that asset, you're gonna leave chaos. And that's what I try to counsel individuals on all the time. If you're gonna be a business owner, make sure you've planned the exit and know how you want that exit to be.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, you're tapping into something is very, very important for a lot of companies that are going through in Canada, especially. 93% are small, medium businesses. You know, that that that's uh and out of those 93% businesses, I was looking at the recent bank data, about 82 or 81 percent business, the owners are above age 60.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00So the challenge we have in Canada is these owners are looking for exit very, very fast. Whether it's a you know, the the transaction is gonna happen whether it's to family or or to uh somebody in a company or or consolidating other company. So the transaction has to happen. Banks are sitting, they're looking at that as an opportunity because that's somebody's gonna change hand with the business.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00But the problem the owners have, their family
Understanding Business Valuation and Market Reality
SPEAKER_00members not, they don't have majority of them, they don't have a family member to take over the business. So so that is a challenge with a lot of businesses, about 82% in Canada, especially I think that's the problem is similar in the US, but I'm not sure the this big problem.
SPEAKER_01But in Canada very similar, yes, yes. You know, Garmin, one thing that I think that where we sit at a at a pivot point as a collective group of business owners is that have you had the conversation at the kitchen table to talk to your family about what to do with this asset? And a lot of times we don't. It's so hard that when the exit takes place and we're not prepared for it, because you think that your valuation for your business is, you know, several X of what you or what your EBITDA really is, and come to find out that the market is really not demanding that number, that's a huge, huge, huge impact, not just to the actual ego, but also to the family. So it's always important, and I go back to accounting being the heartbeat of business, that you're constantly checking that heartbeat. You're constantly making sure that is being monitored on a consistent basis. Because if you don't monitor this, if you don't challenge this, if you're not making sure that everything that's falling down to that bottom line and rolling to your retained earnings to grow this business is not solid, you're going to come to find out that your valuation that you thought was going to be X number is really half or a fourth of that
Transparency in Team Dynamics and Financial Literacy
SPEAKER_01number. And now you got a whole nother conversation you have to deal with. That's really, really tragic. So I encourage all the business owners that are listening. I encourage all those founders, all those organizations, all those people who are in the small business space or medium-sized business space, challenge those numbers. Challenge your accountants, challenge, challenge your challenge those who are forecasting for you to really make sure that your heartbeat is strong and your valuation is solid on a consistent basis.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because we work so hard in a business. Of course, our our value, uh, our understanding of evaluation is gonna be a little bit higher than what it should be in a market. Um, because views this is what you did most of your life, right? If you if you spent 40 years just building a business and grinding and taking a business to a certain level, of course you're gonna think of that that is worth a lot more than what it should. Oh, yeah. And I think that's where those difficult conversations come when you come to reality. That's that's not the case most of the time, right?
SPEAKER_01That's exactly right. Exactly right. And it's tried and true. And in some cases, those that don't, that that actually do it, do it the right way. And they have valued and they have looked and they kept it, they kept putting their finger on the pulse. Sometimes their IP alone is is is 10x times what what what they were expecting to be because they built a business that they was ready to sell every single day. Conceptually, think about that.
Inspiration Behind the Book: Life Lessons for Children
SPEAKER_01You're building yourself with processes in place, you're building with a cadence in place, you're you're you're you're flowing and function, functioning in a way that if anybody walked through the door today with an offer, you have the ability to say yes and a very powerful number. You have the I mean very powerful phrase, you have the ability to say no. Because the last thing you want to do is accept something that truly you really shouldn't accept. With and if you don't know your numbers, you don't have the clarity to make that decision.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Very interesting. So numbers do tell a story as we talk about it. You know, if you start with the family and sharing those numbers, hey, listen, this is what we're trying to achieve as a family. It brings everybody on the same page. You know, we talk about, you know, are your families on the same page? If your wife's on the same page, definitely number is is a big part of that. They bring everybody on the same page. Can that be done in a business or corporation environment where you, if you want to bring all the team members on the same page, they want to you want to align them in a similar goals? Can you use the same financial numbers or something similar to bring everybody on the same page and align them in the same direction?
SPEAKER_01100%. Garmin, I tell my team every single day, I'm training you to take my job. That's just the truth. I need to make sure that I give you the level of exposure where you're ready along the way, to make sure that you're being teed up and tuned up to take my job one day. And I'll go one step further. I want you to have the level of experience that you do decide that, hey, you know what? Maybe I'm gonna leave and go do do something else. Competition is always great because in my in my world, anybody who leaves my firm that's been that's been trained by me possibly one day is gonna become a client as well, too. Yeah. So it's critical and important that everybody's being trained up and tuned up and have transparency on how the sausage is being made to have clarity. My department, of course, and have those numbers that everybody needs to reach. Because professionals, what I have found that take it on their chest to make sure that they can meet their numbers. We all want, we all want, we all want to want to meet those numbers. We all want to have that success story. We all we all want to be able to say, hey, look what I did, and then be able to tell, hey, I it was my efforts that made that happen. So, yes, definitely to answer your question, you definitely want to have that level of transparency and exposure with your team.
SPEAKER_00Got it. So let's talk about your book, uh Life, Truth, Love, uh Lost, Success, and Failure.
SPEAKER_01What inspired you to write this book? Wow. Inspiration is probably threefold. Okay. Number one, I started having children. That's all. And number number two and number three is a bit more uh not a well, a lot more personal. My my my both my mom and my dad have passed away. And when those when those triggers took place, it felt I felt more compelled to put my story in on on paper. The book began when I'm when my daughter was born. And I was traveling all over the world at the time. And I will never forget this, flying over the Pacific Ocean, and I'm on this flight, and there's a little turbulence that kicks up and the and the flight starts to shake and all the above. And and I say to myself, what if something was to happen to me? And at the time I had an 18-month-old and a newborn baby. What if something was to happen to me? Who would give my children fatherly advice like I received from my dad and my grandparents and and the alike? Who would give my kids that if something was to happen? So on that flight, I started writing down quotes. I started writing down aphorisms. I started writing down sayings that I had either heard, made up, or or just was impactful for me through throughout life. And by the time I landed, I had about maybe about 10 or 12 of written down. Now, my daughter now is 17 years old, and I released my book last year. So if you conceptually think about that, I had been working on that book for 16, 17 years or so before I got it published and had it ready to go. And I really wanted to give that to my children. I have four. My son's 19, my daughter's 17. I have two twin girls that are 12. And that is the testament of me giving them fatherly advice to help them in their life. And when I published it, here's a special thing that took place, Garmin, that people started to buy it and people started to resonate with it, and people started to extremely
Navigating the Journey of Entrepreneurship
SPEAKER_01write really great reviews. So it's impactful for them as well, too. So that's the genesis, and and really that's that's the purpose uh of it. It gives great advice about life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's easy to read, you know, especially for kids that and there's a lot of wisdom, a lot of a lot of advice. I think you pass on from generation into this book. So you know what it's and easy to relate. You know, there's a lot of uh, lot of uh, you know, you know, the advice, and it's very, very simple to under uh digest as well. So great book. Kudos to you that you you know written a book for your kids. How's the kids like in a book?
SPEAKER_01That's funny. My girls have all read it. My son has only gotten through half of it. But it's it's interesting because I I never wanted to force them. You know, when he got ready to graduate from high school, I made it a purpose to try to rush to try to get the book published. So I was able to give him a copy of as a graduation present and and pick on him all the time. I said, When are you gonna read the book? When are you gonna read the book? When are you gonna read the book? He's like, Dad, I'm gonna read it, I'm gonna read it. So when when I did have a release of the book, and I had a book like a book release, he came up to a group of people while we were in in my office and he did he did the he did a prayer. And after the prayer, he said, Hey, you see this guy over here? Um, this book has a very powerful saying inside of it. It says, I can because I will, I will because I can. And I had wristbands made up that have that saying on them. I can't, you know, I can because I will. And he actually picked up one of the wristbands and you said, Everybody, you see this saying? My dad's been telling me this ever since I was six years old. But to this day, I'm about to go to college now, and every time something gets hard, I think
The Role of Faith in Business
SPEAKER_01to myself, I can because I will, I'm able to push through and able to do it. And when he said that, you know, I felt garment like I actually did something right. And it just made me blush so much on the inside. I think a tear started to come out of my eye. Like, I'm like, hey, I think he's gonna be okay. I think he's gonna be okay. So I'm very proud about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the you know, kids uh when they're young, they may not pay attention to it, but as they get older, they will pay a lot more attention to it. As you know, we did the same thing with our parents as well, right? So, you know, when we're a teenager, anything parents say it's not relevant, right? It's not important, but as you get older and you know, in your 40s and your 50s, definitely you want to pay you want to go and reread the books and over and over time, you know, just to make sure you understand. Very interesting.
SPEAKER_01It's interesting too. When you when you're a teenager, you look at your parents, you're like, How do you guys even survive, man? I don't know anything. I can remember doing it so many times, man.
SPEAKER_00Very interesting. So did you discover something when you writing this book? Did your perspective change on a few things uh when you were going through writing this book, uh, Albert?
SPEAKER_01You know, one of the things that uh that hits home a lot more, some of the things we just talked about a second ago about being an entrepreneur. I'm a CPA, I'm an accountant, I am not a publisher, okay? But I actually set and I published my book through an extra another company that I created personally. Um, I had several different um publishing companies reach out to me to publish the book, and I told them no, because I actually wanted to go through the process to learn every aspect of it. And it took me forever to get it wrapped up. Like I said, I was rushing trying to herb and get it done before my son graduated. It just took from the illustrations, from the front cover, the back cover, the formatting, the proofreading, all those different aspects of things that you just don't think about that had to be done in relation to it. I got to a point I had to hire some professionals just to help me get it all done because it's a lot. It's a lot. And I from that perspective, the concept of building a proper team really hit home in trying to publish that book because I had to build a team to help me publish that book. So that's that's one thing that's critical as an entrepreneur. Make sure you have the right team around you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. You know, being an entrepreneur is is a hard, you know, it's hard to go through the process to build the companies, but there's a lot of hard work, there's a lot of sleepless nights. You know, and you you've gone through that a lot. You you know, so how did that, you know, and I see that from your book as well. The faith is very important in all of those aspects. Yes. Um, if you can talk about it, let's talk about how for important the faith is when you're building a business, when you're trying to uh establish a company and going through it, how did that play a role in it?
SPEAKER_01You know, my family moral starts with foundational in God. And I really have a lot of how should I say this the best way? My father told me when I was a child, he said, son, every night before you go to bed, just read Proverbs. If you can't think of, I'm sorry, reads read Psalms. He said, Read Psalms. If you can't have a prayer, just read Psalms. Psalms is a list of prayers, just pick one and just read it, especially Psalms 91. Very, very powerful. Then he said, every morning, just pick one proverb to read. That's gonna help govern your level of wisdom. If you don't have anything that you can think of, read just read one, one proverb. Very, very powerful advice my dad gave. And I just thank him for it every single day because it was tried and true. There's many excerpts from Psalms and Proverbs that I've included in my book that really just resonates with me personally, that I wanted to make sure my children had as well, too. But I give them that advice too. Make sure you read Proverbs, make sure you read Psalms, and it's gonna help you cultivate a love of wisdom that was gonna help you govern your life. You know, I should I share over and over again, Garmin, and this is gonna be very, very powerful. So I might have to take the stage on this in a little bit. You are a spirit that has a soul that's wrapped up in a body. And that body is that avatar for you to experience
Understanding Financial Cycles and Consistency
SPEAKER_01this worldly space around you. And as you're experiencing it, you are gathering raw data through the five senses that God gave you that comes back to your soul that's based into your level of governance. So that moral value system builds out that soul inside of you to help you navigate this world. So you can make sure that you can one, give praise to God and everything that you do, and then two, share it with your family and your loved ones along the way to build out that moral value system to help govern yourself with all the challenges and all the turbulence that's that that life has to give.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Such a great advice. Great. Um, you know, I I talked to a lot of business business leaders, Albert, you know, and when that tough decision comes, you know, when you have to make a big decision in a business or life, most of the time you're by yourself and you need some sort of strength. And you know, the strength comes from belief systems. So it, you know, a lot of these business I talk to, they have a certain belief system. They have whether it's a faith, whether they have some other uh belief system, they all have that very, very strong belief system. So when they're making decisions, that's what they tap into to get the strength to make those right decisions in a business or or life. So I think the faith plays a great role in that. You know, uh, if you have it, if you're strong enough faith, it it's just gonna make your decision-making process or or deciding something much easier because you have some sort of moral compass to to or any kind of compass to to guide you in the right direction.
SPEAKER_01You know, we don't we don't have all the answers. And I think that's the biggest piece of it, that we just don't have all the answers, and you're not expected to have all the answers. You know, it's lonely at the top when you're when you are that founder or CEO or that that person have to make those decisions. It's very, very lonely. And you a lot of times you sit in in the room just looking in the mirror sometimes and and challenging yourself. Also find, too, that when you meditate on these things and you're quiet long enough, there's a voice that's gonna talk to you about how to how to move in the right direction. And a lot of times that inspiration comes from a certain place that is gonna give you that governance factor to make sure that you can move and walk in those steps that are needed to make the right decision. So you're right, having that having that faith, having that moral compass to lean back on. Because as an entrepreneur, as a leader, as a founder, it's lonely at the top.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the clarity comes from somewhere, right? You you need that clarity to make a decision. What interesting? So let's let's talk about your your you know accounting
The Power of Discipline Over Motivation
SPEAKER_00side of things, the financial side of things. Where you see what's going on in the world at the moment, where you see that you know, any I want to I want to understand from an accounting standpoint. Are we seeing some lights under the tele? Are we gonna get out of this this this mess of what's going on in the world with the financial side, economic side of the financial side?
SPEAKER_01Watch this garment. Okay, there's nothing new that's happening today that has not happened already in the past. I want to make sure that really sets in. There's nothing new that's happening today that has not happened already in the past. I challenge people to one, read your Bible. That's a history book as well. But two, just look back at history. Uh, there's a great book by Ray Dalio called Principles. And in that book, he talks directly about how the credit cycle and how the money cycle actually flows flows and how large hedgermans and small and and how the new world order, how all this stuff kind of rolls and comes together. But what I will tell your audience, your level of discipline, your level of consistency, your level of faith, it has absolutely nothing to do with the world that's happening around you. Stay consistent in what you truly believe in, stay consistent in your purpose and how you govern yourself, understand the accounting inside your life, and be able to give clarity to your family. Because at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, it's about you and your family and how you're gonna be able to scale those pieces. That's what's important right now. You can just monitor all the noise going on around you on a consistent basis because it's just that it's noise. You're not even gonna realize what's really going on. What they put in front of you on television, that's all marketing. What's happening in the background really is you're not gonna see that. So the only thing that you can do is can stay consistent with
The Importance of Planning, Acting, and Reviewing
SPEAKER_01with self and be able to govern yourself accordingly, plan, budget, and be able to move as a family.
SPEAKER_00You mentioned consistency. How does that play with the motivation? You need a motivation and you need a consistency. How do you think of that? I saw that topic in your book as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes, motivation's powerful, but motivation is just that, it doesn't last. Consistency is what lasts. Life is turbulent, life is hard. So your consistent discipline and how you move, no matter what, it's gonna hurt. So get up and just go. You know, I I I I share the the the quote I can because I will, because there are times when you just do need that extra little push, but the biggest push is your consistency. The biggest push is that, and only you can govern that. So keep on pushing, and you're gonna be great.
SPEAKER_00I I heard a quote somewhere, I can't remember who the author is. They're saying the day motivations take off, discipline will catch you through.
SPEAKER_01That's that's exactly right. That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_00So some days you're not just motivated, but your discipline will get you through the whole day.
SPEAKER_01It's gonna get you through. That discipline is always gonna be what's what's gonna win. You know, I I like to coin it back to working out. You you your body is designed to move. And if once it stops moving, it gets stiff, becomes rigid, and that's when you break. But there are days when I don't want to go to the gym. There are days that I just don't want to move off and go. But I know that if I want to be strong enough to play with my grandkids and I want to run away from the cane, I need to get my butt up and go to the gym and do some squats. So that's where that's where discipline really comes in. And there's no motivation in that. I don't want to get up and go. I gotta be disciplined because my north star is hey, you know, I want to be able to play with my grandkids.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know, it's consistency, discipline. I mean, though that's a hard to build. It takes time to build that, but that's what gets you through. I think that's what that's what, you know, and and what rewards in a longer time is a consistency. It's not motivation up and down, it's consistency. You're staying persistent on that on a daily basis. That's what you you know build. That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_01Exactly, exactly right.
SPEAKER_00Good stuff. So let's talk about your story. How do you how do you got involved in uh writing a book? So, you know, if you talk about a story, I saw somewhere you were involved in a football as well. What was he a football coach as well? So if you talk about your story, how do you think you get here?
SPEAKER_01I'll what my story at this point is is is is pretty not not lengthy because I'm not that old or of a guy, but I I was playing sports, of course, as I was coming up, and then as I started having children, I became a youth coach. Very, very important to me to be able to give back to the community at the same time. It helped me spend more time with my children as well, too. But in that, that's where these these these these mantras and these and these these these these frameworks and all those things are molded. You know, there's one that I always would share that's called plan act review. You know, most people they plan, but they take too long to plan. Uh other people they will act, but do they really act consistently? But here's the hard part a lot of people don't ever review what they've done. And if we don't review, how can you ever become better without getting proper feedback and even feedback from yourself to challenge yourself? Like I said earlier about being that founder, it's lonely at the top. So you have to review yourself. So plan, act, review is part of my story. I believe in it so much that I consistently plan with my routine and act up on it to make sure I'm performing in the best way possible, and then go back and do a review stage. I do that every single night. What worked, what didn't work, and how can I make it better? So that's that's hugely, hugely my story that I like to share. And I like to give that to individuals as well too. Plan act review. Um, I call it par, and it really, really helps you be better than what you were yesterday.
SPEAKER_00Very interesting. Yeah, and if you don't review it, how do you make a progress, right? How do you improve something when you didn't review what happened today or the day before?
SPEAKER_01And it's interesting because it doesn't take that long. Does it sit back? Hey, 10 minutes before you go to bed at night. Just go through and just do your little journaling and and go through a self-check and say, how can I be better for tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very, very interesting. So let's just get back to the accounting side of things. You know, in it we're talking about reviewing it. How can business owners who trying to uh get better in a business, they trying to scale companies, trying to build companies, you know, definitely they need to understand the financial side of things. But is it the same process? They gotta review that as well, ongoing basis. You gotta stay tight, you know, keep a pulse on a businesses. Listen, if I don't review it, if I don't get the number from today, and how do I how do I get to the number? How do I achieve
Self-Inventory and Personal SWOT Analysis
SPEAKER_00my objectives with the new number? What I want to get to, right? So it's I think it's a similar approach, what you just mentioned.
SPEAKER_01100%. That's why I said it key to personal finance success. That's part of it. Well, if you if you work on it as an individual, think about these the these types of habits. Plan act review. That's an individual thing and a family thing and a business thing. Those that that sets the stage for those habits that you're going to take into the business. And if you take it into you, if you're setting it for yourself, you're also setting it for your family. So they're going to take it into their schoolwork, they're going to take it into their personal relationships, and they're going to take it into their growth and their business down the road, too. This is a way that actually how they culture for your family. And that culture is really what legacy is really all about. Because a lot of people think that legacy is about financial means and money and all that type of stuff. No, not at all. Legacy is about structure. Legacy is about that culture. Legacy is about those moral values that you instill. Because legacy is really not built on what you leave when you're gone. Legacy is built on what you work on and build today. And that what you build is what's going to lead, that's what's going to last forever. So, of course, in business, personally, you have to plan act review consistently, but in the same token, in doing that, you're building your legacy along the way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if you do it in your business and you teach your teams how to do that, now you build a team culture, right? So everybody started following a similar kind of scenario and they all start doing it in a business. Now you got a great culture and a company as well, because everybody doing the same thing.
SPEAKER_01100%. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And I'll go one step further. When it's time to do your taxes, when it's when it's time for that financial reporting, when it's time for that forecasting to go out the door, if you've done all these things, it becomes fun, it becomes great because your performance is going to really, really show highly because you can tell those stories, you can tell it through numbers, you can report accordingly across the board, and everybody's gonna know how great, not just your business, not just your family, but how great you are because you're the car to make it all work.
SPEAKER_00Very interesting. Good. Any advice you want to leave for business owners who are listening, who are watching us, you know, if they haven't started trying to start you know learning and start paying attention to it, where can they start? If they want to start somewhere small and kind of you know start building upon it, where can they, you know, any any area they can start from?
SPEAKER_01The biggest thing I would tell the individual first, like I mentioned before, this is a tool that you can actually use. Do a personal inventory of yourself. What do you like? What do you don't like, what experiences you want to have going forward, and how you want to make sure you have those experiences. I'm gonna go one step further. I actually take individuals on a journey called doing a one-word SWOT. People do the SWOT analysis on companies all the time, but you ever did a SWOT analysis on yourself? And going even deeper, find the strength, find a weakness, an opportunity, and a threat, but only use one word to describe it. That's where the rubber really meets the road. When you're able to do that in a way that you know what you're good at, you know what you're not so good at, you know what you're working on for an opportunity, and you know what's not gonna stop you. That's when that founder, that's when that entrepreneur, that's when that the that person that's inside that family, that's when the individual finds their own superpower. Because at that point, you find your purpose. And when you find your purpose, you start to walk in your purpose, and it gives you that ability to say yes and the ability to say no for decision making. So 100%, take a self-inventory of yourself and do a one-word SWAT for yourself. All of a sudden you realize how great you really are.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we always do SWAT analysis in the teams or in a business or departments. We never do it ourselves. You know, to your point, if you do it yourself, you very quickly find out what your weakness with your strength is.
SPEAKER_01That's right. That's right. And I'll go one step further before I let you go, Garmin. Uh when you're having conversations like this, you can give someone a SWAT without telling them you're giving a SWAT. And now I know really, really quickly what you're good at, not so good at, what you're doing, and what you're not gonna let stop you. And I can make an assessment if I want to do business with you. So that makes it even more powerful that you can do that in a regular conversation where nobody really knows what you're actually doing because nobody remembers the stuff in the middle. They remember the beginning and they remember the end. So if I was to give you my personal one-word SWAT, it'd sound something similar to this. Hello, Garbage, my name is Albert. One thing about me, I'm extremely relentless. There's the strength. But I do need to get more rest. There's my weakness, because I'm trying to grow in scale. There's my opportunity, but I need support. There's my threat. I gave you that really, really quick, and you know more about me than a lot of people will find out in any long conversation. So I challenge everybody, do a one-word swat for yourself, it's very powerful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you know, it tells a story, you know, you know, just in a few words, you just you know outline tons of stuff, you know, people can go and and they can figure out. Very interesting. But where can people find you? How can they connect with you, uh, Albert?
SPEAKER_01100%. If you just Google Albert Butler CPA, you'll find a whole laundry list of like two pages of stuff on Google. And even more importantly, AlbertButler.com is is is is hot and available for individuals to go to, and they'll find more about my story there. But I'm all over the internet and and very, very, very open about and transparent about what I'm trying to do and just making sure people realize accounting is truly the heartbeat of business and the key to personal finance success.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, very interesting. So, you know, I'm gonna include a link to uh to your book below this video as well, and your LinkedIn people are gonna click a button on, they can reach out to you. Perfect. But you know, when we run a business, is you know, there's so many areas to cover, you know, to grow a company, there's a people, there's a finance side, there's operational, there's so many things, and that's why there's so many blank spots in a Business as well, especially financial side. And this is where we need people like you to you know highlight some of those blind spots and in and uh and guide businesses on the right direction so you don't make a lot of mistakes. You know, we're hard, you know, we can make mistakes and get there in a longer term, or we need a people like you so we can get there much faster. That's true. So, you know, just for our short discussion, I learned terms. You should definitely shared many different perspectives I learned from you. So business owners are watching, business leaders are watching. I definitely encourage you, listen, click a button below, reach out to Albert, have a discussion. Who knows what you're gonna discover and and what kind of conversation, and and now you can take it from there. But but at least reach out, have a discussion. You're gonna uh find out a totally different perspective that that you that you know of.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Garber. That's an amazing, amazing intro. I really appreciate the opportunity. I appreciate the platform, and yes, looking forward to helping any and all who's looking who would love to go to the next level.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just click up for people watching, click a link below and reach out to Albert, have a discussion, and uh who knows what happens from there. So, thank you so much for time, Albert. It was a pleasure talking to you. You too, Garmin. Thank you so much. Thank you. If you enjoyed this discussion, I'm I recommend to check one of these discussions on the top. Um, also don't forget to go back to that channel homepage. There's a playlist created just for you, whether you're looking for business discussion, technology discussion, or process discussion for business growth, all those categories are there, and I'm sure you will find something that you enjoy from those categories as well. So don't forget to send us your feedback, subscribe to this channel for any upcoming videos. Your feedback is very important to us, allow us to focus on the right discussion to deliver value for you on a weekly basis. So enjoy until next time. Thank you for your time.