The Accounting Podcast

Attention: This is a machine-generated transcript. As such, there may be spelling, grammar, and accuracy errors throughout. Thank you!

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:00:00] Where I think the industry is going is where advisory and tech clash. Right. So it's that convenience, it's Uber, it's Lyft, it's DoorDash, It's it's Uber eats. You know, accounting can really intersect in that way where we're bringing technology to small business owners, right. Being the subject matter experts in that set technology and advising them based on the technology in how to run their business more effectively.

Blake Oliver: [00:00:39] This episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast was recorded in person at Xerocon in New Orleans in August of 2022. To learn more about Xerocon visit Xerocon.com. That's X-E-R-O-C-O-N.com. And now on to the episode. Welcome to a special episode of The Cloud Accounting Podcast. We are coming to you from New Orleans at Xerocon. I'm Blake Oliver.

David Leary: [00:01:11] I'm David Leary and it stopped raining again. But it could rain before the interview is over. It's hit and miss. Listen to this episodes. We have another guest. You know what is like I like to see we go to these conferences and I'm like, I don't know that person.

Blake Oliver: [00:01:24] Let's talk to them.

David Leary: [00:01:25] Let's talk to them.

Blake Oliver: [00:01:25] See if they'll be on.

David Leary: [00:01:26] Our podcast and.

Blake Oliver: [00:01:27] Random accounting podcast.

David Leary: [00:01:29] So one of the accountants that Xero had on stage today this morning was Miguel Otchere-Marshall, That's your last name, right?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:01:37] Perfect. Perfect.

David Leary: [00:01:38] And he has this firm Nelopy. Did I say that right?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:01:41] Nelopy.

David Leary: [00:01:41] Nelopy. Oh, horrible. We can edit that and fix it. Maybe, maybe not, maybe not. So why were you on stage at Xero? Like, how did you get here? Like, what's the story? Why did you even start an accounting firm? Like, we don't know about you? And actually, before that, let's preference. This is his first podcast.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:01:55] Yes. Yes. And I'm a huge podcast fan. So being on, you know, having this experience is pretty cool.

Blake Oliver: [00:02:01] Oh, awesome. Well, thanks for joining us. Yeah, so glad we can have you.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:02:04] And I was at the event yesterday. You guys are quite the celebrities, I will say.

Blake Oliver: [00:02:09] Oh, wow. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

David Leary: [00:02:12] Yeah, yeah. You just came out. Free T-shirts and stickers. People will come close to you.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:02:15] Yeah. Yeah. It was cool to see. So.

Blake Oliver: [00:02:18] Yeah. Tell us about your journey getting here. Yeah.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:02:20] So how far we want to go back?

David Leary: [00:02:23] Well, when people told you you didn't have any experience.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:02:26] Yes. Okay. Okay. So, you know, I went through the corporate shuffle, as they call it, you know.

Blake Oliver: [00:02:33] Where did you study Accounting?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:02:35] Yes, yes, yes. I went to Hofstra University in Long Island, got my bachelor's in accounting in 2010. And, you know, did the work in New York City, worked at a couple of firms, working at a couple of small businesses, was a bookkeeper, etc.. And I was kind of trying to go in the public space to beg for space. But I kept getting the same response, which was, you have no experience, you have no experience, you have no experience. So at some point, you know, in this is a real crazy story, right? Walking into work one day. I don't know if you guys know who Nipsey Hussle is. He's an entertainer who passed away. Rest in peace. So I was listening to his album. It was a real motivational album, right? I'm walking into work, taking a train from New Jersey to Grand Central Station in New York, and I'm listening to this album and he's like, He has his message and I feel like he's speaking to me directly, right? And I literally walked into my boss's office that day and said, You know, I think I'm done. You know, I know I'm doing this the wrong way. I didn't give it two weeks, but I think I'm I'm good here. And one of the things she said to me was, you shouldn't do it this way because you're going to need references one day. And my response to her was, where I'm going, I don't think I will. And I haven't. I've been on my own since then. That was 2018.

David Leary: [00:04:00] So then you quit work and then you're like, I'm going to start an accounting and bookkeeping firm. Or was that the next step?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:04:07] Well, I was doing taxes at the time, like neighborhood type, you know, type of operation, friends, family, aunt, uncle. So, you know, I had a good book of business, maybe a hundred clients. So I was making some good money, but it was on the side. And, you know, I had about maybe $17,000 saved at the time. And I was like, you know, I'm going to turn this what? I have these hundred clients into something that can be maybe a monthly return retainer type of model. So I worked on that, and that's where Zero came in to play. Right around 2018, doing research, I researched a whole bunch of different softwares, you know, and I wanted to target the younger entrepreneur, right? The younger business owner who works from their phone, works from their tablet, works from their iPad, you know, on the go right once thing is the generation of Uber and Lyft, right? We're not hailing taxis down where.

David Leary: [00:05:07] They don't have desktop computers.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:05:08] Right. Right. We don't even know what that is. So I was targeting that entrepreneur. And when I did research on QuickBooks, it just wasn't the feel that I wanted, right? Nothing against QuickBooks, but it just wasn't the feel that I was looking for to offer to my clientele. And then, you know, just doing research, Xero just popped out of nowhere. You know, I don't think at the time they were as big as they are now, especially in the States and did research, love the the capabilities that it had loved the look, loved the feel of the app. Love the App Store. And I'm like, I can really be in a space where I can introduce technology to the small business space, right? It's more than just providing financial statements, right? It's kind of making life as an entrepreneur that much easier. So that's what I take pride in that technology piece.

Blake Oliver: [00:06:02] And you're serving clients everywhere, but you're in Atlanta.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:06:05] Yeah, Yeah. Predominantly Atlanta, 30 clients now, but predominantly Atlanta. But it's all over the place.

Blake Oliver: [00:06:13] And tell me about your clients. Like you mentioned, these are entrepreneurs who are on the go. Correct. Like, what kind of entrepreneurs are we talking about?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:06:21] You know, anywhere from where I'm really big in Atlanta is a hospitality space. So I have a lot of, you know, Atlanta's really known for their, you know, hospitality, restaurants, nightclubs, hookah lounges, etc.. So I would probably say 40 to 50% of my clientele comes from that space. So and then, you know, it's it's there's actually someone who is a trading card company. I have a marketing company. Who else? I have promoters who are in that nightclub space. They have their own side, separate companies. I have doctors offices, private doctor offices. One is a mobile doctor's office located in Atlanta. I have a art gallery, so it really ranges. But it's a lot in the hospitality space, a lot.

Blake Oliver: [00:07:14] Of variety there. Yeah, a lot of variety. That that to me, you know, when I had when I when I had my firm and I was doing bookkeeping, like that's what kept me going was I was always learning about new businesses.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:07:23] It's the fun part. The fun part is the small business part. Right? Accounting is not that thrilling, right, as we know. But like learning these new industries.

Blake Oliver: [00:07:32] And the.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:07:33] Intricacies of these new industries, I think that's where like, that's really what I love. I love business. I love small business.

Blake Oliver: [00:07:39] And you mentioned that you have an app stack that you like to use. You name some of them in the keynote. What are the apps that you use for this, these hospitality clients? What are you a fan of?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:07:52] You know, Bill.com is a lifesaver, you know, so when you you really don't take into consideration how many people don't use technology for their businesses, right? So I'll go into a hospitality venue and they're still doing checks. So we know all the things that can happen with checks to signature's not right. It bounce back. The person's bank is, you know, whatever. So when I bring Bill.com to the table, it really, really, really structures their cash flow because with a check you have no clue when this person is going to cash it. So this person could literally hold two or three checks for a couple of weeks and then go and cast a check. And then you're not even expecting that. Where when in Bill.com, I use Slack as a support system, you know. So what I do is for the for the week, if we're paying everything through Bill.com, I'll let out send a snapshot of what's going out for this week so they know. All right, 28,000 is coming out. Send the 28,000 out. So it's kind of a. Better manage of cash flow. Like, All right, so this what's left is ours to do what we need to do. Not expecting someone to. So, you know, Bill.com is definitely a huge ask. Probably number one.

Blake Oliver: [00:09:09] Well, so what you said there is something that I agree with. I think a lot of business owners, they manage their money based on the balance in their bank account. Yeah. And so by not having checks floating, you're actually helping them. Like some people would make the argument, Oh, you're better off having checks out there because you can have more money in the bank, but and get the float a few days. But I feel like it's not worth it. No, it's too confusing.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:09:33] The surprise of. Yeah, you know.

David Leary: [00:09:35] I forgot I had that check. I didn't get cashed yet.

Blake Oliver: [00:09:38] Yeah, Yeah, exactly. You wrote a check, you forgot about it. Exactly. And then suddenly somebody cashes it.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:09:43] And if you have a staff of 40 people, like you're not tracking everybody's check coming out, you know, so. And there are some people who don't who save their checks.

David Leary: [00:09:52] Yeah. It's it's interesting because I made a note on this because I wanted you to elaborate, but I think you just did and answered this for me already now But you made a comment that how using zero and ATP and Bill.com and Stripe you know these apps that actually lets you do advisory work but I think I've just now heard you it's really what you're doing is you're just stabilizing their cash flow and indirectly you're doing advisory that throws that trust.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:10:14] On you for sure. For sure. I think that bettering someone's business allows them to trust you, right? You know, a lot of what we do is trust. You know, you're letting me into your accounts. You're letting me into, you know, because so so it really starts at that piece, right, Bill? Pay invoicing, just really structuring and building processes around technology. Right. And then that allows, you know, for like there's a club or a nightlife venue in Atlanta who we are now structuring a $1.2 million investment into their club. And that came from that structure that I offered, you know, initially. And they really kind of brought me in really closely very quickly.

David Leary: [00:11:03] I love how your you're framing this because I do feel like the message is always out there, like use apps so you have time to it'll save you time so you can do advisory and you're saying no use apps to prove you know what you're talking about. Exactly. And then they'll trust you to do advisory. Exactly. A complete reframe like nobody's really ever said it that way. And I've listened to lots of people yammer about being an advisor, so.

Blake Oliver: [00:11:22] Well, you're using Slack with your clients. And to me, what better way to be more in touch with your clients day to day than chatting with them? Exactly. They don't want to send you an email. Exactly. Exactly. On their phone.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:11:37] Exactly. It's like it's like you're texting me right now. And then we can have whoever your top level people are at your company all in one Slack channel and, you know, kind of handle business exchange documents or whatever have you.

Blake Oliver: [00:11:50] Now, does that get overwhelming for you? You said you have 30 clients. Yeah. So I know from my personal experience that was my breaking point. Yeah. I couldn't keep tabs on more than that.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:12:01] So so I think it will get there. But right now, depending on what level of of service you need comes with the Slack channel. So not all 30. Got it. Have this like channel. Some are kind of beginner so prop companies one person elses who really don't need that they just want their you know monthly meeting and they want their financials right. They don't really they're not doing any bill pay, they're not paying anybody. So they don't really need that level of communication. But the people who do so. So to answer your question, I do it can get there right as 40, 50, 60 as this thing really grows. And then that's where, you know, a team kind of kind of comes into place, which is my next goal is kind of getting people to, you know, now you have a support specialist who's just in Slack, just answering these individuals and, you know, routing whatever request that they have to the prospective bookkeepers and then just building that process that way.

Blake Oliver: [00:13:03] Is it is it nice are the perks of having nightlife clients? You know, I think.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:13:09] It's very yes. So I'm I'm the person when a friend comes to Atlanta, I'm the first.

Blake Oliver: [00:13:13] Call.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:13:15] Because they're always taken care of. That's great. Yeah.

David Leary: [00:13:19] So I happened to run into your former partner manager or account manager, What do they call them at? Zero. Your account rep, your account manager or partner? Manager. I'm making these numbers up, but I happen to have a drink with her last night, and she was telling me about, like, kind of discovering you. And just so I just wondering like where how is obviously you've view zero the software, but how zero as a partner helped you on this journey you've taken?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:13:43] Oh, tremendously. I attribute, you know, a good portion of my growth to zero, embracing me as a person. And me as a business, right? So when my website was created, you know, Xero provided and marketing dollars for that, right? You know, a lot of the things that I learned about the software were from the certifications. So, you know, just speaking, just having that person that you could just shoot an email, shoot a call, schedule a meeting, you know, to kind of walk you through these intricacies of the system and then invest in you in ways of me even being here and being a speaker. So and.

David Leary: [00:14:27] Being on The Cloud Accounting Podcast being.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:14:28] On The Cloud Accounting Podcast Right. So it goes from the smallest of details to now, you know, being on my first podcast, you know, and you know, yeah, they've helped me tremendously for sure.

Blake Oliver: [00:14:43] So it sounds like you have plans to grow. What's your dream?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:14:48] Hey, that's a good question. My first goal is 100 clients. I'm taking it step by step. My first goal is to get to 100 clients. I know what that looks like financially. I know what that mapped out looks like. You know, I know what type of lifestyle I can live. So that's my first goal. There's 100 clients I do want to get into tech eventually, which is why so So my company was called VP Marshall at first, right? I changed it to so so that's my mother's full name, Varnell, Penelope Marshall.

Blake Oliver: [00:15:23] And thus an LLP and.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:15:24] Now an LLP.

Blake Oliver: [00:15:25] For Penelope.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:15:26] Penelope. Okay, Right. So I wanted a more catchy and softer name because VP Marshall at the time sounded like, you know, some CPA firm or something just super serious in New York or something like that. Marshall and Marshall, you know, you know, associates or whatever. So I changed it to an LLP because I got really into accounting tech. I got really, really into business tech, small business, tech. So, you know, that's another goal of mine down the line as my client base grows to 203 hundred, because that's definitely a goal is to get to the hundreds and the thousands, etc.. And then I want to do I haven't really figured it out yet. I have a couple of things on my board, but I want to invest in technology to kind of, you know, just even do what Xero's doing, just making small business owners lives easier.

Blake Oliver: [00:16:24] So you want to build technology for them for Xero? Well, for for your client, For the.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:16:30] Clients, Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So. So LLP using that name was with that in mind, you know, just kind of having that, that techie feel to the company, which is why I was so intrigued by Xero is because they had that feel.

David Leary: [00:16:46] Yeah, one thing that I thought was interesting your because you were on stage and one of your clients was on stage with you and she made a comment that because you know all the nooks and crannies of Xero that it's easier for her to believe you and know that they should trust you because you just, you know, the details. And I thought that was just a kind of a really strong statement. Yeah.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:17:07] Yeah. You know, I think being a subject matter expert has its it's trust factors. You know, if you go to a doctor and he tells you you to your ACL, you believe that the doctor you know that Utah your ACL like you don't think he's kind of gaming you here. So I think it's kind of the same thing for you know knowing software people hire people just for their knowledge of software all the time. So like like one of the things that that a legacy system. Are you guys familiar with dynamics.

Blake Oliver: [00:17:42] Microsoft.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:17:43] Dynamics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I worked at a place in the city, a marketing firm in the city, because I knew Microsoft dynamics, right? So it's kind of one of those things where, you know, that's being a subject matter. Expert, doctor, lawyer, accountant just kind of gives the client that comfort. Like this person is telling me like she wanted a CRM. And we went in a Xero app store and we went through all the different apps that they have, the all the different CRMs they have. And we landed on HubSpot and I told her the benefits of HubSpot and why you should get HubSpot and why this will grow your business. And she just trusted it, you know, because there were other levels of trust.

Blake Oliver: [00:18:23] Yeah, and that's, that's true advisory work right there. Exactly. Connected to apps, helping somebody build a back office. What not even back office CRMs like customer facing exactly stuff. So.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:18:34] Exactly. And now she's in love with it. It's an everyday use for her now, you know?

Blake Oliver: [00:18:40] So I'm a big HubSpot nerd. I used it for years. Yeah. Actually, we have my my firm. We use HubSpot as our website, our CRM, all that. So do you guys.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:18:48] Have guests ask you questions?

Blake Oliver: [00:18:50] Go ahead if you like it, please. Again.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:18:52] Let's dig in. So.

Blake Oliver: [00:18:53] So turn the tables.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:18:55] Yeah. Let's turn this around. Everyone's readjusting.

David Leary: [00:18:58] Seats.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:19:00] So, Blake, you mentioned a couple of times you're at your company, and I'm sure your listeners kind of know the back story, but I would love to hear that.

Blake Oliver: [00:19:08] Well, it was kind of similar to you in that. Well, so I was a musician and I couldn't get a job after I graduated. A Great Recession. And so it was this this was in 2008. Okay. Yeah. So I started freelancing.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:19:23] Oh, that was that was like the recession of.

Blake Oliver: [00:19:25] The recessions of recessions. The greatest one. Yes. Couldn't get work. And so, yeah, I started bookkeeping and tutoring, and that's how I got into accounting and doing a lot of well, I ended up getting into a lot of what you're doing right, helping clients with, you know, their reconciliations, their bill, pay their payroll, just helping it all, doing what an in-house bookkeeper would do, but from anywhere. Yeah. So it's it's I love I love I'm looking at your website. I love what you're doing because I love how simple it is, the way I present it to them. Yeah, right. And that's that. I always felt that was my advantage was somebody could come and they could see Oh, very simple. Here's the price I'm going to sign up. Yeah. And there's so much potential.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:20:07] Yeah. No, it's. That was definitely I'm glad you say that, because that was a real big sticking point because, again, my my target audience is first time business. You know, business with one or two employees, three employees, five employees. So, you know, if you overwork them, they're just like and even just overpricing them, it's just like I don't I don't really understand the investment yet here. So it's hard to kind of so if you really have a nice soft entry price and, you know, we can build that from there. Mm hmm. Yeah, we will flip it to the left.

Blake Oliver: [00:20:44] You can ask David a question.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:20:45] Yes. David? David. David. So we spoke a little last night. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, the Cloud Accounting podcast for celebrities at this at this bar that we had that we were at last night for his ignition event. So what was your introduction? You know, and then what kind of led I'm kind of trying to circle it to what led this Arizona union.

David Leary: [00:21:10] I mean, I went to school and was not a good student, but took a lot accounting classes and a lot of tech classes. And I fell into a job, actually. I used to work at the mall selling software rooms and boxes.

Blake Oliver: [00:21:24] And we have.

David Leary: [00:21:25] Babbage's. Babbage's Yes. This is in Arizona. No, it was nationwide. It was like physical box software. And I actually remember selling Peachtree off the shelves, which is really now Sage 100 Or.

Blake Oliver: [00:21:36] You were in a a Tucson mall.

David Leary: [00:21:38] Well, it was in malls in Phenix to Phenix. Phenix in Tucson, different malls. And I remember when Quick Quicken used to be Intuit's first product, and they're selling Quicken to everybody. Then people start using Quicken for their businesses. And then QuickBooks released their first version of QuickBooks DOS 1.0. And right around that time, Best Buy came to market, and Best Buy just started selling everything like $1 above cost. And it just companies like Babbage's and Software, ET Cetera and Charge Boutique, all those in the mall software stores all basically went under. So they declared bankruptcy. I literally had like a can of beans and something else. And I was like, Well, it's not going to hurt to have Intuit on the resume. And I get a job doing tech support for QuickBooks. So I spent the next 22 years at QuickBooks. Wow. And then Blake and I crossed paths at Expensify as events in 2016. We should do a podcast together. And then April of 2018, we did a podcast together. And in the same sense, we've.

Blake Oliver: [00:22:31] Been doing it for.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:22:32] Four years and here we.

David Leary: [00:22:33] Are. Yeah, yeah. So, So Blake is a CPA. He came through the Zero world and I'm more of the tech guy that came up through the QuickBooks world. So it's a pretty imagine. Wow.

Blake Oliver: [00:22:42] And I make David do the bookkeeping and Xero.

David Leary: [00:22:45] Yes. So we use the podcast. You do it? Yeah. Yeah. You like it. He actually enjoys fine. I can't get by. I can do I can actually have both open at same time and I think.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:22:55] That is really a good thing to point out about Xero. You don't have to be an accountant to really understand it. Yeah, yeah, I think that's really cool.

David Leary: [00:23:04] But even if you have 20 years of looking at QuickBooks, you can just jump in and still do it. That's not.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:23:10] That definitely.

David Leary: [00:23:10] Helps. Like it's not going to make you go blind. You can do it, but.

Blake Oliver: [00:23:13] People in our profession do really have a resistance to learning new tech.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:23:17] It's very true.

Blake Oliver: [00:23:18] I mean, even I don't think Hector would mind if I said this, but Dave and I were having a chat with Hector Garcia, who's like the expert at QuickBooks and has a very popular YouTube channel, and his reason for not wanting to, like, do anything other than QuickBooks is basically I don't want to learn new software, but that's that's like most of most accountants don't want to learn new software. Right? Right. I think, David, you found a post somebody asked their accountant about.

David Leary: [00:23:44] Oh, this is crazy. And this is I posted on Twitter and LinkedIn. It was because, you know, with the podcast each week, record the news and you have these news feeds we. I was in articles and there's this post on a bulletin board. I know what service this is, but some guy was like, Hey, QuickBooks Desktop, and apparently he's using QuickBooks Desktop 2011. Oh my God. And he was complaining that the PC was so slow. It took forever to do anything. And then he said, And for the last two years, I physically carried the PC into my accountant's office so they could do things. And then at the very end of this post, as it goes on, he's like, Do I need a new accountant? It's like, Yes, yes. Like, how could you like, how did the accountant enable this for this?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:24:28] Oh, my God.

David Leary: [00:24:29] The risk of something going wrong, like when that's you're carrying that PC in the hard drive, like in the car, It's just bananas. Like, when do you see this? This is. This is this week I posted on LinkedIn. It has like 15,000 views. It's it's on one of the my second biggest LinkedIn post ever. Oh, it's on fire this week.

Blake Oliver: [00:24:46] And that's I think it's because that's pretty common. You know if it's not broke don't fix it is kind of the engine.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:24:53] That's that is that's the definition of broken.

Blake Oliver: [00:24:57] Well, we have I guess we have different definitions, right, versus that accountant there.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:25:01] Yeah. No, that's that's that's that's true.

David Leary: [00:25:03] That's true. But those are not the clients you're going for. These young hip tech people aren't using your desktop computer.

Blake Oliver: [00:25:08] So here's what's different between that person, that accountant, and what you're doing is you're building this from the client perspective, Correct? You're thinking about how do I. You said at the beginning something about like you picked zero because it's it's something your clients would correct. Like the vibe. Correct would work. Right. And this is the opposite of that. This is I'm going to have my client use this software because it's convenient for me.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:25:32] Correct.

Blake Oliver: [00:25:32] And they can bring it physically into my office. Right. And that's the difference. We talk about this a lot on the show, David. Customer experience is such an opportunity for us.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:25:41] Yeah. And what that accountant will know is once their client sees something different, that is more like, Wait, what do you mean I don't have to leave my home for us to, you know, it's going to probably more than less be a termination of their, you know, relationship.

Blake Oliver: [00:26:01] On that note, like more broadly, you know, what do you think about the future of accounting and our profession?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:26:08] I think that's a really good question.

Blake Oliver: [00:26:09] Where do you do you think?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:26:11] I think I think I said this on the stage earlier. You know, the accounting industry for the companies in accounting, we all offer the very similar services more, more so. So we're not reinventing the wheel. Where I think the industry is going is where advisory and tech clash. Right. So it's that convenient. It's Uber, it's Lyft, it's DoorDash, It's it's Uber eats. You know, accounting can really intersect in that way where we're bringing technology to small business owners, right, being the subject matter experts in that said technology and advising them based on the technology in how to run their business more effectively.

Blake Oliver: [00:27:00] So you're saying when you say Uber eats DoorDash, you're talking about making it that easy for them? Convenience, convenience, convenience.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:27:08] I don't have to I don't want to leave my house, you know, And that's where really COVID kind of really gave me that shift. Right. How can this whole operation, that's where Slack was kind of used and and Cat Lindley and, you know, all these different apps that just say, you know, it's not, hey, when are you free? I'm free at four. I'm free at three. Oh, no, I'm not good for three. Can you do three? That's six emails when I could just send you a link and you can just pick whatever time works for you that's available. So it's really just about making the experience like Amazon. We all love Amazon. Amazon, you order it, you get the the product. If you have a problem, you can contact.

Blake Oliver: [00:27:56] Support, support.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:27:57] It'll get you, you know, either a refund or send you something new or give you instructions on getting it back. It's convenience. That's where people are. So that's what I see the accounting industry kind of flowing.

David Leary: [00:28:08] And it's customer focused.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:28:10] Ultimately customer focus.

Blake Oliver: [00:28:11] I couldn't agree more. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Miguel, thank you so much for your time.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:28:15] No, thank you, guys. This is my first accounting experience. This was.

David Leary: [00:28:18] Awesome. So now a bunch of people are going to want you on their podcast. So how do people get ahold of you and find you?

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:28:23] Okay, so I'm not the biggest social media guru, but I do have Instagram CEO Mickey Marshall. That's my nickname, and I'm on LinkedIn. Miguel Autry, Oatcake Ferry, Dash Marshall, My email, Miguel Marshall and App.com Reach out. I'm open to talk. I'm open to getting to know people, and I'm also open to hearing what ideas other people have. You know.

David Leary: [00:28:50] We're going to get you on to Twitter.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:28:52] Yes, I do. This conference kind. It told me I need to I need to kind of get it together on a social side, maybe get a Tic TAC or something.

David Leary: [00:28:58] It's great. Thanks so much for joining us, this great conversation. Thanks. I really enjoyed your unique new perspective on things.

Miguel Otchere-Marshall: [00:29:04] Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.

Blake Oliver: [00:29:06] Thank you.