From Number Cruncher to FinTech Innovator

I am one of your hosts, David Gilliland. We have the privilege of having Shania Wilson with us from Full of Financial. We're just so delighted to have you on the call from Jersey. Welcome.

Welcome, Shania. Having me super excited to be joining this conversation. Well, we just love talking with owners of seven-figure businesses, and we want to hear a bit of your story. Could you just tell us briefly, how did you get started?

and where are you at now in your business? Yes. So fun fact, I always had love for math, for numbers. And I thought that I would be like an actuary or a mathematician.

But then I went to college and started to take business classes and realized that my love was for the numbers of business. So I switched my studies into doing accounting. So after leaving college, I actually started my career off at a big four accounting firm. I was at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where I was in their technology, media, and telecommunications department.

Because I had all four parts of my CPA exam started before I got to the big four accounting firm, I was placed on a special type of audit, which they call it a carve-out audit, where you're auditing a company for the past three years all in one audit season. So this typically happens when a company is getting purchased or a merger is happening. So I learned so much, so much. I was doing the work of a first year, second year, all in just one year while I was at PwC.

So during that time, I always had a passion for academia. I was, you know, your typical A student, graduated magna cum laude from my alma mater. And I just didn't want to let my love for academia die. I also met someone who struck the interest in my mind of taking my knowledge as a CPA and using it to work with small businesses.

So I'm like, OK, rather than just jumping into full entrepreneurship, let me get my feet wet and start building a practice. So I did start the business in 2017. But in 2018, I did start a Ph.D.

program at Rutgers University where I was studying accounting information systems. Because I was in technology at the big four firm, I definitely wanted to join a research program where I was at the forefront of the future of accounting and how the industry was going to change. So during the PhD program, I was, you know, your typical PhD student, going to school, teaching accounting classes, but also building my clientele. So I had a few bookkeeping clients, which, no, you know, I actually got a couple of them starting from Fiverr.

There's that. Like, it wasn't, no, let me go and start off. I did use Fiverr, got a couple of clients. And then from there, people just started to see what I was doing.

I did a bunch of education courses online. And then the business was growing before I knew it. So two years and a half into the PhD program, I actually got asked to be featured as an accountant for an article with the New York Times. And that article, of course, you know, a lot of academics read the New York Times.

So someone from the program discovered that I was doing my business. And then long story short, I was asked to choose in between finishing the PhD program or continuing to run my business. And someone who is an overachiever, like you never want to hear like it's either this or this because it's like I can do both. What you're talking about?

I've been doing both under your noses for two years. But we can talk about that. So a little bit, you know, very, very sad and disappointed because my goal was to like have a doctorate before. I turned 30, which I would have had my degree in last year.

I'm still 29. I mean, there's no hope for that anymore, but it'll come in the future. But I had to have a deep talk with myself. The thing about the PHG is that it's always going to be there.

The thing about a growing business that is showing a great market demand is that may not always be there. So I obviously chose to go full throttle with my business, and I've been full-time since 2021. And it's been great. Of course it started off as just me and my first hire was admin and now our team is the size of 11 which ate our full-time staff here and um the remaining of them are part-time contractors that are located both domestically and also internationally wow uh i like for for the listeners on the podcast you might not be able to see her face but i'm sure you can hear the energy in her and what she's doing which you're like a cpa really a cpa's got this much energy this is That's kind of unique.

I love entrepreneurs. I love seeing what you guys have done and what I guess what I've done, what we've all been doing. I love the energy behind it. In this journey, and especially here recently, as you've been a seven figure business owner now for a bit.

What have you been learning? What are the things that have stuck out to you? Like, this has changed the game for me. Yes.

Oh, my gosh. The importance of data. And then maybe also being in the PhD program again, like I don't regret changing nothing because being in a research program, you learn how important data is. And then now being able to carry that mindset, which is how important data is, was definitely a game changer for me in business.

So when I'm talking about data, it's from different perspectives. Number one, it's about like your time management and what you do as a CEO and how that impacts the growth of your business. A lot of times when you're starting off, you keep your head down and you're doing the work. But then you have to think about the time that you also need to have the bird's eye view and figure out how can we move things forward.

Then it's the data that you get from your customers. That's customer success, right? Asking for feedback. What can I do to improve the business?

Did you like the service? Our online process, is it seamless for you? Was it difficult? So that I can crank out those issues.

It's the data from the team. How you guys feel? You know, we get through tax season. I worked out a big four.

I promised myself and my team that we would never, ever get to the point where we're working 80 hours a week, you know for a tax season And you know by the grace of God we I mean I can say it never happened However because you know you got to do what you got to do sometimes These last two weeks have definitely pushed us. However, it's not part of our culture to like, you know, overwork ourselves because I also realized through data and feedback from my actual staff that, and also interactions from the clients, you know, clients feel when the staff are happy, when they're working with them.

So how you keep your staff happy is by also helping them manage their work-life balance. So then also the data comes from the market trends, where's the industry going? How do you stay on top of offering your clients advice? So I definitely would say what changed the game is data and understanding the importance of utilizing information to help you make better business decisions as a business owner, whether that data is financial, whether it's qualitative, whether it's about time, but it's so, so important.

Can you give us one specific example of like, yeah, the data showed me this. I didn't see that. The data taught me this. We acted on it.

Now the data is saying this and we're on track. Yes. Oh, my gosh. So many examples.

So one that's recent is I wasn't before tracking the quality of the output of our returns. And I used to get frustrated because, you know, sometimes when the returns are difficult, I'll do a review. And I'm like, why is the team making the same mistakes over and over again? If I'm correcting the same mistakes over and over again, that means that I'm wasting my time.

But I realized the issue was I wasn't properly even documenting what those mistakes were. So I started, I created this evaluation metric scale, which is helpful for myself, but also for the tax preparer, because they're always looking for feedback. So rather than saying, OK, you did 100 returns, it's you did 100 returns with 85 percent accuracy or 85 percent completeness. And I realize a lot of CPA firms don't do that.

This is why I coach them. However, once I did that, now the team members also had a benchmark to exceed. Okay, well, if I did, you know, 50 returns with 85% quality, my next, you know, my next goal is to get to 95%. Of course, mistakes may happen.

And when I say quality, it's not just about putting the data in. It's about did you also take time to optimize the client's tax return? Because, of course, people come to us because they just don't want a data entry specialist. They want a tax strategist that can give them further advice on what happened in the past year, but also how can they use what happened last year to allow them to propel in the future.

So I definitely would say just properly figuring out how to track the staff performance based upon their roles and what they do. Because what I created for the tax team is going to be different for what I do create for the accounting team, which would be different for what I create for our people who do business formation. but having having this type of information allows me to be a better coach to my staff number one but also um because i do you know like to employ people who are just you know overachievers just like me and just want to self-improve i also have actual data to give them back and not just okay you did good this quarter because i like you it's no here are your metrics you know here's what you I love that.

Podcasts are funny. People listen to them wherever they can. I just want to make a note to whenever you listen to this. This is the leader of a small CPA firm, tax planning, tax processing.

Today is April 11th, and she took time to do a podcast, and she could take time to. So in three years of running her business, she's got systems and processes in place that her team is able to crank it out. And though they have to pull some late nighters, they're doing pretty well with having a solid life already because she's been using the data as part of that. Getting clear and getting the data to the right people at the right time so they can learn, they can grow and make decisions.

That's just fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you. It's a great question.

So, so what's your, what's your next thing? What are you working on now? And, and if you, if you could ask for one bit of help, one little thing to help you become who you want to become or move this business forward, what's, what's on your mind? Yes.

So the next thing that we're working on actually is, and again, that's why I say everything happens for a reason. As I mentioned earlier, I did start a PG program in accounting information systems. So now I'm tapping further even back into just where I was with that and getting into creating our own FinTech, which is going to be aimed to service our clients throughout the year, which I got the idea from listening to client feedback. A lot of them are like, how do I stay organized before I get to you guys that year end?

But more importantly, it's not about the organization. I want to create a tool. We're creating a tool that will also be able to help clients set goals and actually track their progress towards whatever their wealth building journey is. And also creating a marketplace for people to come and find great accountants.

As mentioned, you know, a lot of our people who work with us, some of them are contractors. at this point in business to get to seven figures. Sometimes you do have to just think about what will be the most efficient way for you to structure your business. For me, that answer was finding other accounting firms that need clients, but creating an agreement to where we work together to serve as clients.

To scale, to be a unicorn, the goal is to reach a billion. I need to reach millions of people. To do that, it's going to be hard to just do it when you're just one service firm. I mean, it's definitely possible, but it'll take longer.

But then we have technology. So our goal is to be pretty much the world's first platform to where it's the AI-powered marketplace to where you not only get assistance with your wealth goals, but you also get to connect with the professionals that will provide the support to help you get there So I super excited We been in production over the last two years Things obviously do take time Our goal is to have our MVP launched by the end of this year And in regards to what I would like to know is now tapping into a different space, which again, for us, that's technology, but also just getting into the point where we're back to scaling quite aggressively.

how would a CEO find communities where people there are like-minded and are on the same like growth track or have a business that is of similar size or maybe again a step or two ahead to where we can kind of communicate with each other and share different insights providing each other with a more unique perspective in regards to how can we solve our common business problems. So you're trying to say, hey, I'm growing so fast. I can't just do it from my own head. I need to find the right people who are at or beyond maybe a step and a half beyond where I am.

They can draw me forward. People I can learn from who have been there. And how do you find that community? How do you go?

How do you become that? First of all, I mean, the wisdom in your question is awesome and amazing. And many times we think we have to do it ourselves. And I just haven't heard you talk that way since we've gotten to know each other.

You know, you're always like, no, it's about the other people. I can't lift this on my own. I need all the right people around me and we're going to make this happen. We can live together.

What a great question. If you're okay, let me unpack it just a little bit more and ask a few more follow-up questions on there. Who do you use right now? And any of the listeners can kind of think to themselves, who do they use?

Who do you use right now? Who do you turn to for that kind of advice? What are your current sources? Yes.

So my current sources are my mentors. I have a few mentors that are CPA firm owners or they're like ex-partners at, you know, big firms. However, they have a tap into the technology space. So they're great in regards to like, help me grow the firm, grow the business.

But now it's about, okay, now since I want to go this direction, like where do I source? The second is books. Whenever I have an issue or feel like I don't know something, I'll just turn to finding a book on it. So in regards to just like operations and management structures, I've been reading The Effective Executive, which I heard a video clip of the CEO of Dropbox, he mentioned that book.

I'm like, let me get that book then. So definitely people who are in my industry that are way more experienced and then definitely books. I love it. I love it.

Let me share a few things I've seen others do and that we've tapped into and potentially a couple of resources that you might think about. Number one, most small businesses fail to utilize a board, either a board of directors or a board of advisors, and how to organize those and pull that together well. Probably because it's something that's not taught. They just exist.

We're taught how they interact, but not how do I form one that can really help boost me and move me forward fast. So let's talk a little bit about how to form one. So this is one side. And then if we don't get to it, I'll just say the other side.

The other side are there are mastermind groups. There are organizations that come together and learn and that have various industries. And so you have people from services to SaaS, from construction to manufacturing. But these leaders that are driving forward and building.

And because they're in industries that aren't like yours, you get new insights you never would have gotten. Like what's what sort of old hand old school to them is almost breaking ground, new frontier in your industry. Right. And so that's really cool is to learn across in some of those mastermind groups.

So finding good mastermind group like that elite entrepreneurs has one. There's other great ones out there, but we could certainly talk about that more. But let's get to this. The board have again, it's unused.

very few have it. I should ask first, Sinead, do you have a board of directors in place? No, I would say again, I have individuals, but not a structure. Yeah, that's because you didn't really need it yet.

But we're about to do something you've never done before. And you have a story of what you want to do. You just mentioned, I know you talked about unicorn billions and this and that. Do you have a purpose beyond just, I want to be really big.

Yes. The purpose is to create this platform so that people, when I say people, I mean individuals around the world, have a place to go to that's trusted with better professionals to help them along the wealth building journey. Obviously, I told you I'm from the Bronx, New York, so I grew up surrounded by poverty and seeing how it affected individuals, not just financially, but mentally and physically. And then there's so many people around the world who also struggle with reaching heights as an individual due to financial constraints.

And if you try to like get resources, you don't know if it's like proper or if you try to get a service provider, it may be super expensive or some people just don't even know where to start. A lot of individuals aren't aware of the power of AI and how it can even help you creating a wealth journey for yourself. So really the bigger purpose is, and I always tell like people ask like, what makes you guys different from other firms? and I say that we care here.

That is it. That's the tagline. We care here. It's more so about helping people because if we can further impact economic mobility, I do see a future where we can create a brighter world where individuals can, rather than worrying about their finances they can work more on their purpose and things that they want to be more impactful about I feel like finances ends ends up being just again this constraint that a lot of people can break through So I want to create that platform that people can come to if they want to achieve that breakthrough Nice.

So as you get clear about that, and you are, you're clear about what your purpose is, purpose beyond anything else. Like just like, I want this kind of impact. And you've got one of your values. We care.

This matters. There are a few other values. And I'm going to just say some I've heard you talk about. Crazy driven to grow.

And I don't mean just revenues. I mean, as a person, Sinead would never be happy working with someone who didn't always want to learn more and do more and learn more and figure it out and dive in. Right. So there's there's just like this craving for I want to learn more.

I want to grasp it. And you want to be surrounded with people like that. Right. So that was another, so you've got this care, you've got this drive, this, this hunger for just the, you know, the skies are the limits and no one could say no.

Maybe that's another one. Uh, no, isn't part of our vocabulary. It's, we're going to figure it out. You know, you, you've got a few, you've got a few values in there and there's, there may be one or two others.

When we get this purpose and these values really nailed, then we'll get this mission of, um, you 10 million served, 10 million freed kind of thing by 2028. 10 million freed by 2028. Maybe this is our mission. I'm just making that.

I love the way that sounds. It's my eyes. So we got this 10 million freed by 2028. And you're going to have revenue marks and profits and all of that.

And you'll have your software. That's how they do it. You'll get your ICP there. All of that clear.

that message now i want you to take it to some of the leaders out there the people who are talking in this space that you turn to that you're like that's someone i want to emulate a little bit i want you to begin sharing it with some big influencers some of them are going to be in a fintech space because you want some industry knowledge in there some are going to be in a like um uh i'd almost say like a like a ramsey or something else who are trying to free you know that they're in a cause space, but knowing the finance area, right?

Others, they're going to be in different ways and spaces. Some may be in a recruiting because they're looking like you're going to have to be able to grow this and grow this well. You know, I mean, so just think key roles that you would hire as executives. Instead, you're building a board of the best advisors.

And you're selling them on your purpose. You're selling them on your values. You're selling them on your mission. We call that your vision.

So those three together is that vision. When you find the ones who align with you in that, and you just share that story and you say, who do you know? Who do you know? Right?

Who do you know? And you just work and work and work and you find the people in those spaces to get them to be part of your board. Even if it means like if you got, you know, three years you're serving on the board, you know, there's different ways to organize it. There's lots of ways to organize a board.

We can talk about that, but there's some legal things. But effectively-wise, they need to know we're doing the following. You're here to help us achieve this. And we're meeting to solve this problem this quarter or this problem this month, right, on how fast you're moving.

But build a board of people who are way up there. Think big and go for big. Bring them in. I think this will be one of the keys to help you grow and grow fast.

they're really good at helping you find funding they're really good at helping you figure out how to organize it but if you get a board of super bright people who are misaligned with your vision they're really good at tearing you apart find the people who are perfectly aligned with your vision i don't care how smart they are they're not aligned with the vision tell them goodbye so that would be that would be my first little bit of advice i think that's probably enough for this call this this podcast today but begin building a board advisors at first those look like new mentors at the next level just ask ask ask and then and then you may take them to director level and that's where you're like compensating and doing something so you can decide that as you move to it but a lot of them will just advise because of your passion because of where you came from because of who you are you are going to do amazing things and they'll get behind you and support you so thank you that was so valuable I'm glad it could be.

I am so excited to see where Full of Financial goes to and where you take it with your team, Shania. Thank you so much, David. How can people get in touch with you if they're like, I want something like that helping me with my books or I know somebody who should be on her board. How should they contact you if they want to follow up?

Yep. So I am on LinkedIn. So you can find me at Shanae Wilson on LinkedIn. I am also on Instagram at The People CPA, which is my brand name.

It's The People CPA. And I also have my personal website, which is the peoplescpa.me. You can also find me just through the contact page at Fola Financial.

That website is folafinancial.com. And we also have an Instagram page, which is at Fola Financial. And the tech company doesn't have Instagram too.

Not a lot of posts there, but it's going to be at Follify.io. So hope to connect with some of the listeners. And I hope that you learn from me, but also learned from David about creating a board, because I'm definitely going to take that and implement it.

So thank you so much, David, for having me. Oh, absolutely delighted to have you on. That wraps up today's episode of the Seven Figure Journey podcast, where we explore the ins and outs of the seven figure journey.