Episode Transcript
Paden Squires 0:04
We talked about becoming self aware, it's, I try to be like a third party observer of like my life, you know, as much as possible. You're almost like taking that view or you're looking down at the situation and not necessarily that person that's in the middle of the fight or the situation, or whatever. It's pulling yourself back as much as possible to catch yourself. It's just becoming self aware. So you can get a little more control over your daily actions, right.
Monica Pitts 0:35
You're on a mission, and you just need more people to know about it. And whether you're brand new to marketing or a seasoned pro. We are all looking for answers to make marketing decisions with purpose. I'm Monica Pitts, a techie crafty business owner, mom and aerial dancer who solves communication challenges through technology. This podcast is all about digging in and going digital. I'll share my marketing know how and business experience from almost 20 years of misadventures, I'll be your backup dancer. So you can stop doubting, and get moving towards marketing with purpose. So Hello, again. And welcome back to marketing with purpose. My name is Monica Pitts. And today we're going to talk about change again. Yeah, I know, we've had a couple episodes about it this year, but we are bringing it back. Because over the past 18 years change is one of the only things that has remained constant in my business. And I know that some people love it, and other people really do not love it. And that's why we talk about it on this podcast so much. Because in order to make marketing and business decisions with purpose, we have to be able to embrace the idea that things will change, and then figure out what the heck needs to change and then make a plan to pull it all together. And so with me today to talk about change again, and share his story about the evolution and success of his business as a person who's actually helped my company evolve along the way. And while doing so his company has actually evolved just as much. So I would like to introduce you to Paden Squires. Paden, why don't you start us off by introducing yourself and telling us a little bit about your business like where it is now?
Paden Squires 2:15
Sure. Yeah. Thank you, Monica. Yeah, you know, I've enjoyed working with your company over a handful of years. And it's been good. So yeah, where I'm at currently, I've been through a ton of change in the last few years to my business and 2023. I've had my own CPA firm for about a decade. And in 2023, I merged that business or kind of merged maybe maybe a strong word but came together join forces with a with a wealth management company. So my my business squire CPA has turned into a new company, which is WR tax planners, we work here in town directly with WR wealth planners, really, our strategy there is to bring wealth and tax consulting really all under one roof, for the synergies that come along with that, and really trying to put the client at the center of all that, where you're not necessarily having all this conflicting advice for advisors that maybe even don't like each other or to work well together and get conflicting advice, and the client gets stuck and doesn't know what to do. So that's what we're really trying to build, build out a model there. You know, I have a lot of other smaller ventures going on. I launched my podcast this this year, just a couple weeks ago, behind their success, which I'm really excited about. I really love doing things like this. Just kind of spread knowledge talking networking with other entrepreneurs, just this stuff really lights me up. Not that I don't enjoy strategizing with clients on the other side, but this is this is new and exciting to me. For sure. When it comes to you know, life side, you know, I'm kind of normal guy married. We've been married for 12 years this year. My wife Devon, she's a medical professional here here at the university. We got three small kids, seven year old six year old four year old, crazy busy with life as you can imagine, activities school, so day to day like finding time that's dang near impossible. So that's kind of me in a nutshell where I've where I'm at now.
Monica Pitts 4:28
Well, I appreciate you combining those two things together. Because there are so many times where, you know, we're sitting down with our financial consultants. And we're like, well, we're gonna have to just check with Paden, the guy we don't know, like, because they're like, I mean, I think maybe you can do that. But you can't because just like you we have multiple ventures between rental properties and other businesses. And it's, yeah, I just want to make sure that I'm not blowing myself up at the end of the year and giving all the money back to the government. I have no problem paying taxes. I understand that. how the universe works. I just also would like my energy to come back to me as well, in the form of money, so I can do things like add, and I will send my kids to college, it's a small thing I'm looking for. So, you, when you have three kids, did you start your business before you got married? And have kids? Or was that something that you started after?
Paden Squires 5:24
Yeah, it was, it was actually before, which, you know, probably made that a little easier. Right? So yeah, you know, I started my business, I came out of college 2010, I graduated with my bachelor's degree, economy was terrible. I didn't know what to do, I got a job working at a bank. And I was like, You know what, I should just go get my master's degree, why not? I don't want to make student loan payments, let's push that off. I'm in grad school. So I did, I went got an MBA, you know, I worked in, worked in jobs, worked at a bank eventually worked at a massive fortune 500 company in their finance department. This was around 2004 1314. You know, my job at that massive company, I was bored out of my mind, I had probably, they probably kept me busy with eight to 10 hours of work to do. And you know, then I had to set it in a cubicle for the other 30 hours. So I, the cool thing is I actually, I guess was smart enough at the time to use that to my advantage. That's when I decided you know what, I don't really want to work here long term, I don't see anybody like anybody's job that I want. So I started studying for the CPA exam, I sat there at my desk, nobody cared what I was doing. Because I got the tiny amount of work done, I was supposed to get done every week. And I sat there and listened to audio nonstop CPA audio. If you know anything about the CPA exam, it's it's one of the harder certifications to get. There's four different exams, you get a pass, and all of them have like a less than 50% pass rate. So more people fail each exam that didn't actually pass it. You gotta pass all four of those. And I had all the time in the world. So I studied non stop and passed all four of them, and eight months. And the funny thing is, I didn't tell my boss or anybody at work that I was doing that until I had already passed three of them. And I was like, oh, I should probably tell him what I'm doing at this point. I think I was just trying to, I mean, I knew I wasn't gonna be there. And I guess I was just afraid to tell them or what have you. But from there, I guess I was brave enough to quit my job. It was, you know, it was probably, I don't even know if it was the right logical move at the time. But I quit my job. And I was like, You know what, I'm going to prep taxes. And I had never, never done that before. You know, I had some of the education and background but I had never been, you know, I've never had never done that. And I quit my job opened up my office in my living room and Fayette, tiny little town. And kind of the rest is history, which is slowly grow from there. Moved to Columbia, and really, you know, that's where a lot of the business was, and just kind of blown up from there.
Monica Pitts 8:06
What did those conversations with your wife sound like when you were like, Hey, honey, you know, that cush job that I have that I only actually have to work eight hours a week at? I'm going to quit that. And I'm going to do taxes in the living room. Out of the bat, go, I mean, obviously, you're probably the numbers guy of the two of you. I feel like every relationship, every business, every family has to have a numbers human, right. Like, I've got Stacey, I've got Mike, thank God for both of them. And the fact that they can add, I now have a 13 year old who can also do math in her head. It's like magic in my life. But what are those conversations sound like? Yeah,
Paden Squires 8:43
you know, it was, it was just, it was kind of amazing timing, you know, my wife, near the same time was finishing, she has multiple bachelor's degree, but she was finishing her second one, so she could get her. She was getting her nursing degree. So we were used to only living on my income. So at the time, she was coming online and make money and I'm like, You know what, I'm gonna jump offline. And we're really in the same spot. And whatever money I make is almost just like more money than we had before. Right. So that the timing of that was was good. Yeah. And, you know, my wife's always super supportive. She, you often, you know, my, my profile, I guess, to some degree kind of gets raised in the area. And, you know, without her, like, she's doing a whole lot of the work in the background that that maybe no one sees, right or she gets credit for. So she was always supportive. You know, she kind of saw the vision with me and we talked about the vision and we were both brave enough to do
Monica Pitts 9:47
or you guys both like future pacing people or are you like the people that like to look, I mean, I feel like you have to be future pacing, which is really interesting for a CPA because that's not like, usually they're like trying True. This is what worked based on facts, logic. And so the future pacing thing is where like, I think that their businesses probably have a hard time growing and evolving, because it's just not comfortable change isn't super comfortable for a person who's that good at logic? Yeah, he is both future thinkers then.
Paden Squires 10:18
Yeah, yeah. 100%. And honestly, you know, we're big, you know, I've taken a lot of personal personalities. So one of the things I really tried to do, and biggest piece of advice I give to anybody is like, you need to become as self aware as possible, like, what's your strengths, what's your weaknesses? Know those, so you know, how to interact in the world. But oh, if you know anything about culture index, that's one, that's one that we use a lot of personality exams. I mean, we do that on anybody that we're considering hiring through any of our companies, but my wife, she's actually more forward thinking than me, and actually more of a driver, like a high a type driving person than I am, amazingly enough. So it's, we kind of got to high driving people. So you know, that can cause you know, constant cause some conflict. But yeah, if you're totally correct about the industry, with accountants, they're very high detail, very low social ability, generally, that you find any high detail person like that. So yeah, the industry has a lot of issues, it's because no one is really willing to innovate or do anything any different. Because the model just kind of works. And there's not enough accounts to go out there. So everybody just easily gets business and nobody ever thinks of ways to make things better. It's certainly certainly struggle, but yet future facing that, you know, I'm not your typical accountant, you know, you'll find me and T shirts from time to time, you know, I drink, I dress, you know, the part when I need to, but at the same time, you know, I certainly like to have my, you know, show my personality. Well,
Monica Pitts 12:03
the fact that your future thinking is probably why you have been able to evolve your business so much since 2014. So I'm wondering, like, there's these moments where people get really uncomfortable in their businesses. And that's usually the thing that forces change. And some people just stay uncomfortable. And then other people, like really push, some people do like the slight, they like do a shift, you know, shifting weight from one foot to the other to, you know, adapt, and then other people are just like, I'm actually going to just levitate and see how this goes. So tell me about what, what kind of maybe uncomfortable moment or shift in your business made you decide to change what was working, because it was working, you had lots of clients, doing all the normal things that accountants do, and then you shifted, and you're like, actually, I'm not going to do payroll anymore. Sorry, guys. Actually, I'm not going to do this this thing anymore. So what happened? What made you do that?
Paden Squires 13:05
Maybe a bit of burnout, honestly, like, I've, you know, my practice has always been me and a few, maybe no more than a couple employees, right. So I wear every hat all the time, everybody wanted to talk to me all the time. So I didn't have a business, I had a job, I created myself a job in a good job, you know, in a job where I got to call the shots, but a job nonetheless. Right? Not not a business owner at all. There's a huge difference between somebody that's self employed, and somebody that owns a business. So it was a lot of that. And, you know, knowing knowing a little bit about your business, I see that you were further along in those areas than than I was, you know, having a CFO and all these different things. So it was being around different people in networking and a mastermind group I man, but just being around other successful business owners, I'm like, Yeah, I could do this a whole lot easier. Yeah, this works. But why are you beating your head against the wall, like make some changes, make it make it better, and actually build something that doesn't require you for everything. So you can actually start leveraging leveraging it a little more. Yeah,
Monica Pitts 14:21
we have this thing around the office, because we've been pushing efficiency for I would say, it's been like on the top of our goals and mantras for the last three years. And it's like, if it makes you feel bored, tedious, annoyed, like it's taking forever, then there's a better way to do it. Like just straight up, there's 100% there's a better way to do it. And I feel like you know, some of my staff members are always looking for the next way because that's like, like you they're like for future pacing, right. And then others of them are very much like critical thinking problem solving human beings. They're developers. as they like to do it the same way that they've done it before. And so I always have to remind them, I'm like, there's, there's another way. And so if you're pissed about it, you should probably just like chat to everybody, I'm annoyed with this. And one of us probably knows another way you can do it, because like, you don't have to do it that way. And so it's good that you like, saw that and recognize that. So tell me about, like, some of the things that you let go of in this change, and then and how you decided that was okay. Because I know that Stacey comes up with some massive spreadsheets for us before we, before we make changes, like the ones that you just made in your business. So what are the some of the things that you let go of? And what are the things that you did? To prep to make sure that that was an okay decision? Yeah, yeah.
Paden Squires 15:47
And, you know, it comes down to knowing yourself, like, like, with everything, but, you know, I'm a higher detail person, just, you know, being an accountant, and CFP, and all those things. But I'm actually lower detail than probably most accountants, obviously, you know, I have some other different skills. In knowing my personality, it's, if you look at my culture, index personality, they'll say right in there saying, you know, he will not delegate stuff to people, unless he feels like you're, you know, they're as competent as you know, I think I am writing, man, I think the culture index is flat out and, like, read my mail, it's me, yeah. So that's why I love you use it. But it's, it's, it's, so it's hard for me to let go of things. And, and it stresses me out. And, and that's something you know, even as an entrepreneur that like, I mean, that's not always, that's never 100% going to go away, you're always going to deal with that. And you're always going to have to be willing to just step in the middle of it, and let go and be willing to say, you know, whatever happens, I gotta be willing to just deal with it. But you know, to be able to do that, it's just reminding yourself that, like, you've dealt with everything that's ever happened in your life before, right? You're still alive. You know, you've, you've survived every day you've ever lived. And whatever happens, you know, you're an adaptable human being, you can figure it out, you have no choice, you will figure it out. So it's having that faith, and then also, you know, deciding what to let go of like me, it's totally does it give me energy or not give me energy? And do I do a lot of things that still don't give me energy? Yeah. But I know, those are the things that I'm trying to get away from, and get off my plate and give it to people that like to do that stuff. And only focus on things that give me energy. And the cool thing is you only do those things, man, you can run and run and run. And you'll feel great. And you'll Wolf, you know, fly down towards your goals. And you want to feel like you're working hard.
Monica Pitts 18:05
Yeah, I mean, like, I can design all day long. I don't even like I don't care, I can do it for 12 hours. I don't care. Like I love it. I love designing. I like art directing. And I love building pages and websites. Now when it comes to like writing all the blog posts that we have on our website are like reading everybody's text for their websites, and then like advising them on how it's blown up. And I'm like, I really want to do all that. But I do it, you know, and, and hey, my biggest claim this this last month is that I made it so when people sign up to be guests on my podcast, Zapier automatically creates a folder for you in my Google Drive in the right place, names it with your name, creates a notes document and adds a link to the notes document into the calendar invite the Calendly Thank you. That saved me 15 minutes per episode. That was it wasn't really fun to do it. But I was really tired of making slurs and linking things that was like 17 steps. Like, that's just you know, demotivated me so bad every time I'm like, I want to talk to these guests, but I don't want to make their stupid notes documents or link them for places. And I do it every time. And then Nikki can't find anything. And then she's like, where is this? And I'm like, oh, poop and put it in there. It's not in the right place. Yeah, it doesn't serve me.
Paden Squires 19:44
Yeah. And it's like that's an investment. Right? You had to do all those things to get that all set up. And that was a one time cost. But the thing is, that's a future looking action because you're buying your time back right in the future, right? So it's why it sucks in the beginning. And that's the same thing when you're like letting go of stuff at work or delegating stuff at work. 90% of the time, it's like, well, I can do this in two minutes, why am I going to take the time to, Hey, come here, employee, let's discuss all this and talk all this, I just knock it out. The problem is, it's like you're not investing in your future. You know, when you do that?
Monica Pitts 20:22
Yeah, I went to a management training class. Back in the day, I think I was five years into running my business. And I had no idea how to manage people. I was like, I'm a mess, like, I know how to teach people, but I don't know how to manage them, like on a day to day. And so I went to this management class, and the teacher like, did, like they did this big exam, like intake thing, kind of like this culture, that personality assessment thing that you're talking about. And so every time that I came into class, which was once a week, I had to sit down and write down 10 times at the top of my notebook, I will trust my team. Every single week, I'm telling you, now I'm like, You know what, I'm gonna delegate it. And when it's not, right, I'm gonna give it back. And then I'm gonna do it again. And I'm like, I'm not gonna, I just, I have to trust my team, right? And I have to trust them to fail. And I have to trust myself also to check their work and make sure that it's right. It's like a give and take, but hey, if you have trust issues, I was a great, I was a great forced builder. For me. After 10 years of doing, you know, entrepreneurs are likely to delegate.
Paden Squires 21:36
Yeah, and you know, entrepreneurship, and I think that's the, it's such a great like, self development tool, because it forces you to like, you get instant feedback from your business your customers all the time, right? The market gives you constant feedback. So, if you're doing great, you'll know, you're doing terrible. Yeah, you'll know and your opinion about it doesn't really matter. It's just whatever comes your way. Right? So, you know, you can argue that it's not right or whatever. But, you know, ultimately, it is what it is, and you got to deal with it. So it's, I love entrepreneurship for that reason, and you know, talking with people about it. It's really cool.
Monica Pitts 22:19
Now, that is a different, like thought process, I feel like then some people have, I believe the same thing, like you're serving your customers first. And what they expect of you is what you should be delivering or else you will not have those customers in the future, right? Because that's just how it works. It doesn't matter if it worked in the past, if it doesn't work now just doesn't work because it doesn't meet their expectations. And one of the things that I noticed when looking at your your new website is it does not feel like a CPA website at all. One of the things that I see a lot on CPA website is like people shaking hands, people who are not them across desks from one another like in suits with like glowing white backgrounds and big buildings in the background. I'm describing stock photos. And if anybody has listened to this podcast before you know that I am not a fan of these things, because they do not represent you and you should be authentically representing yourself. Okay, off my off of my soapbox. You have really different pictures on your website. So one question I have for you is like, why did you decide to do that? Because they're not their friends. You should go out and check out Paden's website paid and tell me the web address right now.
Unknown Speaker 23:29
It's Padensquires.com. Okay,
Monica Pitts 23:32
and you should go check it out, because there are no stock photos, but also he's not even wearing a suit. Okay, so how what made you decide to do that? And then what kind of gut check did you have to do with yourself if any before you allowed yourself to even put those out on your marketing? Yeah,
Paden Squires 23:51
that's, that's, that's a great point. You know it? Yeah, you I'm in T shirts, hoodies what have you and to be honest with you, that's I've always been a bit of a contrarian, which I think you have to be and I what I know about you, Monica, you are quite yourself. So I've always been a contrarian and I think you got to be that to a degree to be a successful entrepreneur like you you have to be different. If you want anything different, you know, you want your business to be different or massively successful, or whatever that goal is. You gotta be different than the crowd or you're gonna get the average result. Yeah, so it is brave. Like I It does make me uncomfortable to show. You know, to a degree, right, like, once again, going back to knowing my personality, I'm a very high social person, which is rare for more rare for like an accountant. And part of the reason why I've been fairly successful as I'm pretty good at communicating with people. It is tough to put yourself out there because as a high social person, you're you're actually way more in tune to that What if you really care about what other people think? Right? And you get the imposter syndrome, all those things that come with that. But it's, you know, putting myself out there, you know, that, that that website is really my personal brand and me trying to be me, and, you know, authentically me, you know, I have my other websites for my businesses, and those are great. And those are probably a little more standard, right? You're, I mean, you're not going to get a picture of me on there with a suit behind like a big old mahogany desk or anything, because that's just not me. But no, as I've moved my brand, from just me to a bigger company, I, you know, I do know, I need to be more of a team player there, I guess. But still, you know, you'll still find me on social media being me and talking about what I like and being authentic. But yeah, it doesn't, you know, there's a lot of social pressures out there, that even that you make up in your own head. You just gotta be brave enough, put yourself out there, and people see it, people, people are attracted to anything that's real and authentic, like you look at, you go to the food aisle, and you'll see on the cover of like, every box, it'll say, like real cheese or real whatever, right? You know, in a world of all this kind of like, fake half baked stuff, and people just want something real.
Monica Pitts 26:25
So what was it that was like, I am going to do these? Like, was it a podcast? Was it like, advice from someone? What what I mean, because it's not the normal thing. Right?
Paden Squires 26:38
Yeah, it's like with everything, it's no singular moment. It's a slow transition, right? moving, moving. But it's, it's, it was being around people seen other people do it ahead of me. You know, I have friends that have podcasts that are doing massive things, you know, on their podcast, and getting crazy famous people and seeing that and be like, Wow, that guy is really not much different than me. We're friends. Like, if he can do it, I can do it kind of thing. And it is and it's just constantly feeding myself with feeding myself good stuff. I you know, I read books on audible constantly. I listen to podcasts constantly. I've just, I've gone so far down the self development rabbit holes, that like, if I'm not like working on my job, or spending time with my family, and like, if I'm awake, that's like I'm listening learning something.
Monica Pitts 27:36
Yeah, it sounds like based on the number of bachelor's degrees and other higher degrees that you and your wife hold as a couple you guys definitely value education. Mostly one of your core values. Yeah,
Paden Squires 27:51
and more importantly, self education. You know, regular normal education certifications, you know, I, like you said, our family has a ton of those. And that's, they're fantastic. But to me, they're not near as valuable as learning everything you can about yourself. Yes, yeah, just I think becoming as self aware as possible is a huge superpower in the world, you'll be able to run circles around everybody. If you're self aware.
Monica Pitts 28:20
That is 100%. True. And I love that you said that, because I just did like a communications training with my staff the other day, and I was explaining that, like people who are young, in their self awareness, they're like, they just, they're not as effective because they don't understand their strengths and weaknesses. And then once you understand yourself, then you can lean into the things that might make you feel uncomfortable, but you know, are going to be effective in your communication patterns. And avoid the potential like cliff jumping. That happens occasionally. When you're just being oblivious to yourself, right. So yeah, I love that you said that. That's really, really true. So my next question for you is success. So everybody defines it differently, right? I was just on a podcast the other day, and they were like, Do you have a four day work week? Couldn't you make more money if you worked five days a week, every week? And I'm like, Yeah, but that's not my version of success. So tell me what your version of success is like right now. And also if there's a time that you felt it change in your career, and like how you dealt with that. So what is it now? And when is it changed?
Paden Squires 29:38
Yeah, it's, it's certainly changed. Now, I think success is being able to do what I want with who I want when I want and in doing that, and service of something bigger than me, right? Whether that's serving people through my job or serving my, you know, serving people through my podcasts, with education and in different things like that. I think that is ultimate success is working really hard towards some goal and making progress on it. That that, is that bigger than you, right? That serves a bigger purpose that's going to keep you motivated. And that's, that's kind of how I define success is, am I making progress towards these North Stars that I've set? Like, am I moving in the right direction? You know, over up amount of time, right? Because you're not gonna get there immediately. But yes, am I moving in the right direction? To be quite honest, like, it used to just be money. You know, I come from a single mom background, we weren't like, you know, insanely poor or anything, but like, you know, there were times where we certainly had less than others. And, you know, as a kid, I was aware of that. So much money has always been motivation. And that's probably what pushed me into all the different fields that I, that I'm in, because I was like, hey, you know, I don't want to be poor. That was honestly my driver until I got a little more mature, you know, kind of in my self awareness journey, but that was always my biggest driver. And the funny thing is, once you start having certain levels of success, and the fear of being poor, I guess, becomes less of a reality. You realize you're still not any happier than you ever before, necessarily, like that, in of itself is,
Monica Pitts 31:33
is stuffy isn't? Yeah,
Paden Squires 31:37
like, nice, things are great. And, you know, there's a lot of conveniences, and things that that you can that you can purchase with that, but man, it's not gonna fill any hole that you are trying to feel like, wherever you go, you got to take you with you. making yourself happy along the journey, like accomplishing something, you know, the goal itself is not going to make you any happier. So I want
Monica Pitts 32:04
to be your own best passenger.
Paden Squires 32:09
I think it's a success can really be found when, like, we talked about becoming self aware, it's, it's, I try to be like a third party observer of like, my life, you know, as much as possible is, is, you know, like, you're almost like taking that view, or you're looking down at the situation and not not necessarily that person that's in the middle of the fight or the situation or whatever, it's pulling yourself back as much as possible to catch yourself of, well, I did this or reacted that way that you, it's just becoming self aware. So you can get a little more control over your daily actions, right? Do
Monica Pitts 32:48
you journal to keep yourself like in that, like, third party mentality, I know, whenever I'm, like really freaking out about something, I just have to write it down. I think it because it makes my brain slow down. And it pulls it out of the loop. You know, the continuous, like, repeat loop of drama. But then also it like puts me as an observer of what happened. And it's like, easier to handle with so is that something? Is that a tool you use? Or are there other tools? Or any mantras? You used to do that?
Paden Squires 33:19
Yeah, so journaling. I haven't I just I haven't been great at journaling specifically. But ya know, every every entrepreneur has that, you know, you're laying there in bed, and your head is just running 100 miles an hour, and you're like, Oh, crap it and send that email or what, you know, whatever it is, right? That's, that's so normal. You know, I've stuff that's really helped me the tools I've used, it really helped me, I've gotten really into fitness, and working out peace, you know, your body, your physical health is so tied to your mental health, you know, science is proving that more and more every day. So that really helps me mentally to show up and be my best self. You know, it helps confidence, everything that goes along with that. And that and, you know, I, I'm part of the mastermind group, I mean, I'm part of the group that has 4050 Guys, across the contrary, that all have wildly successful businesses. So being able to be in a community to relate to, you know, often as you're growing the business, you know, the everyday person necessarily, they can't relate, right, they just don't know necessarily what you're going to going through. So having people that have been there, maybe few steps further along the line than you are that that is a huge tool I use, you know, my network is, you know, say the network is your net worth it. 100% true. It's like, and I've said this before, it's like you could take everything I have and if like I still have my relationships, it's probably not that long before I kind of build a lot of it, but that makes sense.
Monica Pitts 34:57
Now, one question I have for you like back to that success, thought. So a lot of people who are young in their business or even like young in their lives and young in their careers, they're striving for the version of success that you and I have, which is like freedom and a greater good. And like the the person have experience, the mom and mentor in me is like, Yeah, but we got to eat first friends. And we got to work hard. Freedom is something that you earn, it's not a right that you have. That's what I always tell my kids and my employees too. I'm like, if if I trust you, if you've earned this freedom, you get it. Like, I don't care, I really don't care. You can, if you can get your job done 30 hours a week, be my guest, like, you are awesome. Like, I don't care. I'd love to get your thoughts on that. Because I love the idea of freedom, and working towards the greater good. And I also feel like, we worked really hard to allow our version of success to shift from money to this freedom and greater good mentality. Like I'm not working paycheck to paycheck anymore. So what comes first? It's like Maslow's hierarchy. Yeah. And can you do it all together? I don't know. Like, when I was young, I wasn't doing it all together, I was just working 70 hours a week and paying my bills, you know, what it was? Yeah,
Paden Squires 36:19
I think it is a slow transition, kind of, like you said, you know, we talk about even in our mastermind group of like, how we go from the warrior stage where you're kind of like, just in the fighting, right is fighting and getting after it. And then you're transitioning to more of like, in our groups called gathering the Kings, but like, transitioning the king stage where you're like, you're you're you're, you're you know, you're up here with all the levers and pull, you know, the helping design everything where you're not in the middle of the battles, necessarily on a day to day basis.
Monica Pitts 36:52
That is smart paid, and I love it. So what you're telling me and what I'm hearing is that you can still have the same version of success of freedom and working towards the greater good. It's just there's different stages that you're gonna go through to get it for the warrior. And then you're the king and everybody's got to be the warrior. And even as I am like, opening this new office, people, I'm the one who cleans my floors and my toilets. Okay. Some days I want to like on a Friday, like when I'm not supposed to be working, because we're doing the four day workweek, sometimes I like want to put on a video camera to show you the stupid crap I do in my own office. I'm like, and here I am ordering toilet paper. But it's okay.
Paden Squires 37:34
Part of your continued success is that you stay humble like that, right? You are well, even still as, as the king or what, you know, whatever analogy or imagery you want to use for that. It's, it's, you know, the king is still willing to go do the work when it needs to be done. Right? Yes, that's not your day to day job. But, man, you'll jump right in there and and show people how to lead right.
Monica Pitts 38:00
So it's take out my own trash? Yeah.
Paden Squires 38:04
Absolutely. And that's, you know, that's why you have a great team, because they know they have a leader. And it's like, well, you know, they're, they're here with us, right?
Monica Pitts 38:11
Yeah. Yeah. Now my kids are actually they're transitioning into the Warriors stage of their journey, because they're like, well, we want to have these really fancy cars when we turned 16. And that was like, well, here's your budget for a car. This is all I'm saving for you for a car, and I know what you want cost twice as much, you've got three years to get there. And so Ellis is like, I'm gonna clean the floors, I'm gonna clean the toilets, I'm gonna do it all like, I have got to earn this money, I'm going to be an intern for you. I'm going to do all the grunt tasks. She's like, it's, it's happening. And I'm like, great. And so she comes in and does it? And I'm like, yeah, no, I don't have to clean my floors, because my kid is doing it for me. And, and then she can buy her own car, which I hope she doesn't crash. Because she'll own it. You
Paden Squires 38:58
know, there's one other point, you know, I kind of like to make on that. It's like, I was listening to a podcast this morning, which at my last podcast, which amazing if, you know, he's, it's one of the big biggest podcasts out there. But they were he was interviewing a guy and talking about how they really don't like how entrepreneurship is like marketed you know, kind of on the internet like it's especially to males, whereas it's like all these big fancy cars, women, whatever it is, right? And that it really doesn't show the side of like, yeah, no, this is probably gonna suck for five plus years. You're gonna get your head kicked in repeatedly. And you just have to stand there and take it and do it over and over and over. And then maybe you can have the cars maybe
Monica Pitts 39:45
or choose not to have the cars so that way you can do other things. Money which is our family's plan. Yeah. To really be rusted through, and I'm like, You're like the millionaire that lives next door that you would have no idea that he's a millionaire that That's my husband. That's rusted out truck.
Paden Squires 40:04
And you know, and I think everybody falls in the trap to a certain degree, when they start getting a little bit of success. Maybe they start buying a few of those things. And they're like, Wait, this is, I mean, it's nice, and it's fine. But once again, it doesn't make me any more happy. What you know. And then it's just constantly redefining of like, what are your goals are and getting as specific as possible, and then using those resources to move towards move towards those ends? Yeah,
Monica Pitts 40:32
I definitely I agree with that. Because I think it's a values thing. And there's nothing I always tell my daughter, there's nothing wrong with wanting to have a nice car, like one of my best friend's drives a really nice car, but she also has to drive like an hour to get to work every single day. And so that's the spot that she sits for two hours every day where she unwinds and has her me time because that's where she gets it. And so I'm like, good, good for you, you deserve this car, you're making the sacrifice of your time to feed your family to have this job. And then for me, I'm like, I drive 15 minutes into town. I think my car gets me there. And so I'm good. But I get both sides of it. And so I feel like you're right, you just have to look at your goals, and then figure out what are the sacrifices that you're willing to make that fit within your values that will help you get to those goals? Which leads me to my last question for you. What's your next chapter? Like? What do you what do you think? Where do you Where are you going? I want to know, so that way I can watch you get there. Yeah,
Paden Squires 41:28
um, you know, I really want to do more and more stuff like this. You know, growing communities and networking. I've met in the last 24 minutes, or 24 months, I've met so many, like amazing people, even across the country. So it's I, you know, I really don't know. And actually, here's the kicker, I'm in the middle of a, like an eight week course, which is very impressive guy like this guy. This guy is the mental coach for the University of Texas largest athletic department in the country, for all their head coaches, and all their athletes have to take his course. So in the middle of that, and that thing is really, the whole thing is geared to is getting as granular and specific as possible as to what your values are, what your goals are, and how you're going to get there. And you read that to yourself every single day. And keeping that in front of you. So your brain is constantly looking for ways to accomplish those goals. So I'm really working through that process. You know, you think, you know, I've, I've, you know, I've had different levels of success and stuff. But even me, it's like, I gotta get better at that.
Monica Pitts 42:45
Well, you know, Stacy, the other day, we did our goals training with our staff. And she was like, Well, I just feel like I've been at the right place at the right time. And I was like, Well, yes, but you put yourself in that place. And so sometimes I feel like it's not like sometimes you have to make a decision not to make a decision and just to make the decision to be present, and see all the doors around you and understand which ones you can go through. So maybe your goal right now is just that you're going to find your next move. And that's a fine goal to have, especially since you're already working towards it. And then you're presently ready and active to see that door when it opens so that way you can walk through it. Because like of all people, I do not think that Stacy's should be discounting herself for all of her accomplishments because she's such a rock star. But it was like, it's not just that like the doors open. It's that you saw them and knew it was the right opportunity for you. You know, maybe that's where you're at.
Paden Squires 43:41
In the another point on that is like yeah, you're not you say you're in the right place, right time. And yes, we all do get lucky. But you can't get lucky if you don't just show you've got to show up every day. Right if you show up every day luck, Wolf. Yeah, you know, I'm the same way like showed up every day got a Don't people took pity on me and use me services or whatever. But like, you know, you get lucky and then you get people that want to help. Yeah, and yeah, which you can't get lucky and you show up.
Monica Pitts 44:10
You got to show up. You got to show up. Well, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. This was awesome. I feel really jazzed spot. My next interview is going to be like what happened to this girl she's turbocharged. It's because of Paden. He's, he turbocharged me today. So Paden tell people how they can get a hold of you. Okay, so first I want you to tell them about your podcast. And then like, you know, your your services. How do they go to hold you for that? Yeah,
Paden Squires 44:38
yeah. So I'm all over social media. You can go to Paden squires.com That's, you know, that's kind of you're gonna see all my personal brand and the cool thing in social media, you know, we share we share a lot of we share some financial tips and different things because that's my expertise but a lot of it's mindset, entrepreneur growth, self development kind of stuff, because that's really what I'm passionate about. yeah and you know my services you know my businesses WR wealth and WR tax planners. You know, you can Google is online you'll find us there. We you know, we were we really try to serve people and give them really high level financial advice. For sure. But yeah, connect with me on social media that's that's great. You know, I'm on most of the major platforms, just search by name and love to interact.
Monica Pitts 45:25
So spelling your name for us because there's for sale, Paden. I keep spelling it with a why, because we used to have an employee. That was a why, Paden? Yeah, you are not a white Paden?
Paden Squires 45:35
No, my name has been misspelled my entire life. And I just get called Peyton
Monica Pitts 45:42
with with a T, which doesn't even make any sense because you got a D, so spell it out.
Paden Squires 45:46
Pa d e n. So it came from a PA D E N came from a 80s Western movie that my parents really liked. Called Silverado. I've seen my name used by a handful of times, and it's all males my age.
Monica Pitts 46:02
So PA, d e n, s quire s, can find them on social media also.com. And also friends like the show notes for this podcast and the outline for it. They're going to be on May create.com, which is Ma y e CR ea t.com. So you can just click on stuff over there. Like if you don't want to write stuff down, like if you in your car. Don't get into a wreck. I tell you that all the time. I'm bombing you. I know. I know. It's because you're important and we need you on this earth. So stay safe. All right, friends. Well, thank you so much for hanging out with us. If you enjoyed this episode today or if you learned a thing or two, you can subscribe. And then I will come back to you with more friends and more advice every week. Every week you can hang out with me. So thank you so much for listening and until next time, go forth and mark it was purpose
