40: Are You Proactive or Reactive in Your Business and Life?

Behind Their Success: Ep 40

Admira Adovic: [00:00:00] If you really think about growing this business, and making money, you really have to up your game when it comes to finance. 

Paden Squires: Welcome to Behind Their Success. This podcast is for people who are feeling stuck on their entrepreneur journey or in their careers. It's for people who want to scale and grow their businesses, learn about the power of mindset, or they just know there's more out there and they want to start making changes.

Paden Squires: I'm Paden Squires, the host of the podcast. I was never cut out to be an employee, and when I was an employee, I was bored out of my mind. So I made a plan. I studied and passed the CPA exam in eight months while working, all with the end goal in mind of quitting my job and starting my own business. I did that in 2014, and it has been an amazing wild ride since.

Paden Squires: So now let's hear from other entrepreneurs, and what mindsets, and probably more important, what actions they have taken that have created and led to their success.

Paden Squires: Welcome back to Behind Their Success Podcast. I'm Paden Squires, [00:01:00] the host, and today we have on Amira Adovic. She is an award winning CFO and business advisor. Her journey into the business world includes three degrees and 14 years of experience and expertise across all areas of finance and business.

Paden Squires: She's worked with global institutions, strategically advised, multimillion dollar CEOs and directed deals always with a view for healthy profits and growth. Good morning. Welcome on the podcast. tell us a little bit about yourself, what you're currently doing, in your business.

Admira Adovic: Yeah. Oh God, it's been, we're celebrating fifth year this year. As a matter of fact, November will be five years in business, which in itself it's mind blowing. but I come from a family of entrepreneurs myself. So I thought going into this, I got it down. I was like, I know how to do this.

Admira Adovic: Entrepreneurship is what I've been doing from very early. And it's been quite a learning curve. [00:02:00] It's been quite a lot of learning lessons. I don't like to call them mistakes because I feel like if I haven't experienced it, I would have not learned what to do or not to do. so it's been quite a ride.

Admira Adovic: And honestly, with. all the headaches and stresses and struggles and everything else in between. I would not have wanted to have it any differently. because I feel like I, in the last five years, at least as a professional, have personally grown a lot, which is great, but what's new in our business?

Admira Adovic: Not much. We focus on finances. So we're working with a lot of entrepreneurs. Lately we've been working with a lot of the construction industry. 

Admira Adovic: so a lot more companies are focusing on. No, no, let's have processes in place. We do need to know our numbers. We need to like to manage the risk piece. And I'm like, yes, please.

Admira Adovic: So that's been an exciting piece, uh, to see and, and witness. And other than that, it's just been the typical growth, still training [00:03:00] people, making sure our team is professionally developed. It's not necessarily like, oh, you got a degree and it's done. Nope. We do have professional development. We focus a lot with our team.

Admira Adovic: Our internal operations and processes. Like it's always keeping an eye over the overview and over the things and making sure that things they don't really need to work well, like an oil machine per se, but let's make sure that we do change the oil every 3000 miles kind of situation, not just leave it there.

Admira Adovic: that's really cool. So, you 

Paden Squires: know, and Mira, Provides a lot of outsourced CFO services is what she does. And we're, you know, working with a lot of different entrepreneurs and we actually have a few mutual clients as well. So it's, it's awesome to talk, to somebody in the same industry or passionate about the same things I am, you know, around.

Paden Squires: Numbers and, I'm sure you can agree with this. It, like you can be shocked at the size of businesses you can come into, like from just pure revenue size, like multimillion dollar businesses. And you come in and the financials in the financial area are just. A disaster as in, or there's just no [00:04:00] processes, no nothing.

Paden Squires: they got the office manager trying to do the books or what have you. And it's, it's a mess.People like her help fix all that.

Admira Adovic: yes, we both have seen our fair share of challenges. No, there, there was a point of time that we started calling ourselves detectives.because when you walk in, things are so out of shape that we start discovering things from, and it's all from digging. My partner, Heather, handles the accounting side of things.

Admira Adovic: And she's really good at digging and she will look like, she likes to say that I need to make the math, and if the math doesn't math. Like she needs to figure out where it is. And next thing you know, she's going down the rabbit holes of figuring out things that happened three years, five years.

Admira Adovic: And I'm like, Oh my God. So it's impressive. And at the same time, sad to be honest, because a lot of times I look at these businesses and I'm like, [00:05:00] you're working so hard. So hard being an entrepreneur is not easy. So we work so hard yet. If you just pay attention a little bit to the numbers, you wouldn't have to chase after so much revenue.

Admira Adovic: You would have so much more in the bottom line. And so people don't tend to think about that. The interview is as long as I get the revenue, everything else works. I'm like, the way I like to describe it, it's only part of the equation.

Admira Adovic: Keep pouring water in. Are you going to fill up the bucket? Probably not. You've got to keep pouring in that rather than focus on fixing the holes. Again, for granted, I'm not necessarily saying fix all of them, but majority of them so that bucket can fill up. 

Paden Squires: it's interesting, us being accountants and analytical, type data type people.

Paden Squires: the entrepreneur, the typical entrepreneur is not that they're the vision casting, the big picture, like your typical entrepreneur is going to be your big picture person. And that's why. Big revenue or chasing that revenue is probably the more attractive piece or the piece they're always focusing on and you're right.

Paden Squires: if you have that big [00:06:00] vision personality, you probably aren't super strong in the detail and that's why your bucket is full of holes.

Admira Adovic: I've said this a million times before as entrepreneurs, there is this expectation that we should just know everything. Okay. We need to know everything. There's this, I don't know where this expectation came from, but it's an expectation that you know, need to know everything. And I have a different view on that.

Admira Adovic: I'm like, I need to know a little bit of everything, but I don't need to know everything. I don't need to know marketing. I need to understand what marketing is and how it works and pay attention of like how, what my team comes up with, content, review the content, know what's out there. So I should not be surprised what's been written on behalf of my company, but I don't need to know like exactly how the SEO works, exactly how, direct marketing, like I still don't know exactly how all of that works, but that's why I've hired professionals.

Admira Adovic: That specialize in that, not a VA, not an office manager who should be doing everything, [00:07:00] but specifically as professional, who exactly focuses on this area, then they can take you to that next level. So I take an approach of if I can have a strong team next to me, then I don't need to know everything.

Admira Adovic: I need to know a little bit of everything, but not everything. And with finances specifically, there's a lot of shame around numbers. That also I do not know where it came from, but it probably is cultural. And a lot of people choose or entrepreneurs specifically choose to, you know what? I just don't want to like, I do not want to look at this.

Admira Adovic: I don't like numbers. I don't like spreadsheets. And so as long as there's money in the bank, we're fine. Okay, but no, let's not do that. So that fact, I'm like, I'm just going to hire an office, especially in the construction industry, right? Oh my gosh, horrible.

Admira Adovic: In the construction specifically. Yes. but in any industry, it's a horrible idea because I always say there's a reason why there's degrees in accounting. We have all the way to PhD in accounting. [00:08:00] That goes to tell you that there is a need for specialization on this. That not everyone can do. Sure, anyone can do categorization of transactions.

Admira Adovic: Fine. Okay. Even that though. I've seen, yeah, 

Paden Squires: you say that, but, maybe

Admira Adovic: I'm trying to give the benefit of a doubt, but I've, we've seen like that and to a lot of times I've seen lately where there is rules that somebody created in QuickBooks. And the next thing, you know, robot is categorizing your stuff. And I'm like, I'm all for technology.

Admira Adovic: I have a technology background, but there's the right way to do technology and the wrong way to do technology. And the fact is having accurate numbers does not replace it with anything. It doesn't. It doesn't from running your business properly. It doesn't from having your taxes done properly. you can talk about that piece a lot.

Admira Adovic: Like how many people just do not take advantage of all the tax strategies? This 

Paden Squires: conversation I have with clients quite a bit is [00:09:00] we really specialize in kind of high level tax planning and I can't do any of that if I don't have numbers that are real. I can't, we cannot strategize, we cannot go to higher levels if that foundation's not there, right?

Paden Squires: Like you, you have to have the foundation of real financials and then man, the whole world opens up to you of all kinds of different options and strategies and you can do all those things because. You know what you're actually looking at.

Admira Adovic: I'm getting chills by you just saying that. Cause I'm like, Oh my God, somebody understands. yes. And there's, there have been a lot of people in my profession, specifically CFOs, accountants as well. The ones that work on strategies, the CPAs that just do tax returns. I think we don't hear this from them.

Admira Adovic: but the ones that work on strategies, which is the CPAs I partner with, because as a CFO, I always look at. How can we maximize wealth? That's my bottom line. Like, how do we make sure we run a business efficiently, do what we need to do to run this business, like a well oiled machine, but at the same time, [00:10:00] not waste money on areas where we shouldn't be wasting taxes is one of them, there's so many tax strategies out there.

Admira Adovic: That government wrote these laws for us to take advantage of and so many companies don't. 

Paden Squires: They won't get their processes in place and get to a position and, It almost sounds like I'm attacking, but me and you just see these areas so many times. And it's I have so many businesses come in here or talk to so many different entrepreneurs where they're like, Hey, I want, I don't feel like my accountant's doing this stuff for me.

Paden Squires: And I understand. Yeah. The, as the industry, a lot of CPAs and they,they are just compliance focused and they're just doing tax returns and pumping out tax returns. But to be fair, you show up on April 10th with a mess of a, thing and then wonder why no one's planning or, doing strategy with you, right?

Paden Squires: but. It's impossible to do that at that point. So there, there's responsibility on both sides. I'd say, 

Admira Adovic: absolutely. the responsibility of the entrepreneur is have the foundation in place, have numbers that somebody [00:11:00] can do something with. When clients come to me with a cash basis books, the first thing I say, I'm like, I'm sorry, I can't do anything for you.what do you want me to tell you?

Admira Adovic: How much cash you have in the bank? Because other than that, I can't do budgets. I can't do cashflow. I can't look at your receivables and payables and see what processes you have in place because you don't have them. So how would you like me to, what would you like me to advise you on? Or the best yet, when they tell me I need to look at my pricing strategies, I'm like, okay, so let's look at your cost of sale or cost of service.

Admira Adovic: And that doesn't exist. And I'm like, so how do you want me to advise you on pricing? It's impossible. So foundation is a must. A must. And when I say foundation, I truly mean have appropriate accounting done following general accepted accounting principles, not bookkeeping. Bookkeeping will get you so far.

Admira Adovic: And I always say clients that are less than a million dollars bookkeeping. Okay, fine. that's as much as you need for now. [00:12:00] But the minute you pass it more million dollar mark, you have to upgrade if you really think about growing this business, and making money, you really have to up your game when it comes to finance.

Admira Adovic: And it's not a cost. And everybody looks at that finance department. No, it's just a cost department. no. that's what you might be thinking. Cause we don't bring revenue, but we do bring profits. We do feel that bottom line. And if you don't have that department steady, you can bring as much revenue as you want.

Admira Adovic: It's you're still going to be not having enough money at the end of the day. So I know people look at it, it's a cost department. I am like more as. No, it's more like an investment department. if you don't have this department, you're just wasting money. that's really what's happening.

Admira Adovic: We focus how to get your business to operate properly, not how you can get your taxes. The minute that I hear a client that comes in, just get me tax ready. That's just, they're just not necessarily 

Paden Squires: a fit for you. Or they're looking for a totally different service, right? 

Admira Adovic: it's more reactive and I'm looking [00:13:00] for clients who are more, Okay, fine. Reactive is the best one I have, but I need a change. I need to start, stop thinking actively and more proactively. Those are the clients that are ready to really take it to that next level. And those are the clients I love working with.

Admira Adovic: Cause I'm like, great. I'll tell you all the things you need to know and we'll bring all the professionals we need to bring on the side. There's only so much, like for example, tax we don't do. That's what we defer to you be like, you come in and help us with tax strategies here, or, some clients need, even on their personal side of things, some planning, then we'll bring a financial advisor who specifically focuses on that.

Admira Adovic: okay, can you help? Figure out how to build their own personal wealth. but that's all proactive. That's all looking ahead and planning ahead. If you don't have the mindset. And I'm 

Paden Squires: right there with you. there'll be clients that are still, I would characterize as like, nah, they're kind of a mess.

Paden Squires: But if they have the mindset and if they have the mindset of Hey, I know I've got a problem. I want [00:14:00] what you're telling me that you can provide for me. So let's fix all these things. I can work with that, right? It's like I can, a person like that, I can walk along, hold their hand and Hey, let's go do this.

Paden Squires: But if it's, it's got to be, they got to have that mindset, right? 

 Are you looking for a new tax experience? Looking for an advisor that actually brings you high level ideas and proactively plans so you aren't overpaying your taxes? Or how about one that even just responds and communicates in a timely fashion? If any of that resonates with you, you probably just have a tax preparer and not a tax planner.

Paden Squires: And it is through the tax planning process where all the value is found. I'm Peyton Squires. I'm a CPA and owner of WR Tax Planners. We work alongside entrepreneurs and high income earners, helping them pay the least amount of income taxes, both legally and ethically. We have saved our clients hundreds of thousands of dollars through specific strategies, and we guarantee we can find multiple tax saving strategies that your current tax preparer hasn't told you about.

Paden Squires: [00:15:00] If that interests you, head on over to the contact page at paydensquires. com. There you can fill out a contact form and get a call book to see what it would look like to have WR tax planners on your team.

Paden Squires: So, and Mira, I want to kind of change the conversation here, redirect the conversation. So you told me you grew up as a entrepreneur as a, as a kid or around that, As a kid, tell us a little bit about your story there.

Admira Adovic: Yeah. So I was born and raised in Montenegro. used to be foreign Yugoslavia before it all separated. And then in 2006, Montenegro got its independence. So now we're our own country, super small country across, from Italy, and its borders with Albania, Serbia, and Croatia. Really small, but it's a gem.

Admira Adovic: if you've never been to Montenegro, it should be in your bucket list. It's it's beautiful country with beautiful nature, beautiful people and culture. It's just, we spent summers there. And to this day, I still. It [00:16:00] can't, we cannot pass the summer without us being there. So love the place. So my parents were entrepreneurs.

Admira Adovic: actually even my grandparents were entrepreneurs. It started from my grandparents and my parents continued it. and, we had a grocery store. In the middle of the city, that was my parents first business that they themselves, bought. And it was hard work because before that they used to cultivate fruits and vegetables, sell them in the market, and that's how they made the money.

Admira Adovic: and then with money they made, they finally bought their first store. So it was a huge accomplishment for them. And, So it's, started with my mom and dad doing the work and then soon it became a family business because all of our kids started working in the store and I started working in there when I was nine and I started working alongside my dad.

Admira Adovic: and in front of the store we had, and you'll see on my website, I have a picture. There's a, like a white fridge in front of the store. but. I love, I have a sweet tooth. I love anything sweet to this day. I still [00:17:00] do.

Admira Adovic: And so when I started working, so of course I was eating ice cream all the time and my dad made me recipes, but he used to be like, this is just not good for you. So he couldn't tell me, he didn't have the heart to tell me to stop eating ice cream. So instead he would say things like, let's treat this like a business.

Admira Adovic: So this is your business, this little business. Now you need to know how to run this business. You need to know your gross margins and cashflow. And he would use these words that I'm like, but I just learned how to multiply and divide. What are you talking about? And he would be like, okay, here's how you, and we didn't have registers.

Admira Adovic: So everything was by hand. So if somebody gives you 20 and that something costs 5, this is how you give change. So he would teach me cashflow. And then after that, he used to say, do you know gross margin? and it'd be like, No, and he was, he wouldn't tell me the formula, of course, because I would have not have understand it, but he said, eat less, sell more And by nature, I was always a very competitive kid. [00:18:00] And my dad knew that very well about me. And he was really good at knowing our strengths as kids. to the point that he always played with each one of our strengths. So for me, it was, I was always a kid that loved the challenges, loved to prove somebody that I can do things.

Admira Adovic: And so he would tell me eat less, sell more. And I was like, I can do that. Next thing you know, I was, eating less ice cream and selling more because I wanted to improve my margins. But that's when I started my entrepreneurial journey. That's when I started learning about finance. by age 12, I ran my parents store.

Admira Adovic: and then by age 15, I did everything from inventory implementation to new, new, register system. Time started changing and we had to have more digital, registers. Yeah. let's just say that I learned a 

Admira Adovic: whole lot of lessons. I'm sure. I learned a lot of lessons. I learned, I am a big observer. I observe a lot and 

Admira Adovic: but yeah, that's where my journey started. And then because we lived in a [00:19:00] small country, opportunities were very limited for us.

Admira Adovic: plus we were ethical minorities, so double that. Plus a girl, which girls were, it was predominantly a male ran country. but my dad, had three girls. So I'm one of three and my dad, from very early on, didn't want us to be one of the statistics. And statistics was, you finish your high school, you get married, you become a housewife, nothing wrong with that at all, whoever chose to go that route, but my dad wanted it to be a choice, not.

Admira Adovic: Just this is just what you do and so because I knew the opportunity was limited I figured out that in order to get to college or register collegeOne you either had to one have one of the montenegrin last names, which I didn't have Or know somebody high enough to allow you to get into college because there was only 500 students registered in college in a particular year So then I somehow I got my first computer when I was 13 years [00:20:00] old and I put it to good use because somehow I figured out that there's an exchange program where you can come to us as a high school student Exchange high school student finish high school here and get a US high school diploma and with that diploma I could register in any college I wanted without acceptance exams of course, I went to my parents and I said I figured this out You have to let me do it.

Admira Adovic: And of course it took more convincing for my dad specifically, but he allowed me to come to us. So I got my degree. And then after that, my goal was to go back. but my dad, bless his heart. He said, since you're there, you might as well finish college there. And it started with one degree and then the second degree and then the third degree.

Admira Adovic: And, that's all 

Paden Squires: 19 

Admira Adovic: years later. So your 

Paden Squires: story, a few things to stay on your story. number one is like you're. I think one of your main skills there is or throughout that whole story is you're constantly trying to figure things out. And that is such a, a characteristic I see of [00:21:00] successful people where it is.

Paden Squires: you're constantly in a state of trying to figure things out. most people aren't trying to do that, right? Like you're not, you're constantly trying to learn, constantly trying to grow. Yeah. That's not normal, really. the stats around like a, the amount of people that have read a book since college, like it's something like 30%.

Paden Squires: That even read one book since they've left college. and the stats like that for, or just crazy, but like, that is such a key,a key differentiator between people that get things done that don't are ones that are just willing to learn. And you have that tenacity where you don't let go, I like to say having a student mentality is Not just in business, but in life in general. and, just as an example, like I'm big into health. I see quite a lot of people in my community, people around me, people that are dear to me that get sick from one disease to another.

Admira Adovic: And I started thinking like, what in the world is happening? Like I've had, I've [00:22:00] never heard so many things. So so many people getting sick, And that's when I started thinking like, something to look into. if you hear all of these things going around you, the key thing is the paying attention.

Admira Adovic: Actually, the paying attention piece came to me when I first moved to us, Oprah still had a show and 

Admira Adovic: after school I would watch TV and it was Oprah show and I'll never forget her last show, which was just her talking and there was this one thing that she said, and it's stuck with me. I'm talking, this is 20 years now. It's stuck with me.

Admira Adovic: And she said, pay attention to the signs because God will give you signs. Time and time again, if you don't see them, he'll then throw a brick at you and hit that, then he'll have a wall in front of you and that stuck with me for ages. So now what I try to do a lot, and I'm not perfect at this, trust me, I've hit some bricks.

Admira Adovic: Maybe some walls too, but I try my best to pay attention to [00:23:00] surroundings. Let that be business. Let that be personal. Let that be family. and try to see what is happening around us. What can I learn from this? And is there something that I should look further into? and I do this even on behalf of my clients. Like I work with my clients and I start seeing their behaviors. I pay attention a lot, how they behave, how they talk, do they stress about something or not? Like sometimes they just don't tell me. And then after a call, I'll just ping them and be like, you didn't seem like your normal self.

Admira Adovic: You want to talk? do you want to chat a bit? Let's see what's happening. And then they'll share something. It's business related. Most of the times I'm like, okay, yeah. So let's, let me help you figure this out. Maybe I don't have an answer, but I'll go to my network and figure out who can help me with this.

Admira Adovic: And so again, if we don't have that student mentality, I feel like we are just disservicing ourselves, our community, our family, our clients, because things change. I didn't have to worry about food when I was [00:24:00] living in Montenegro. To this day, you still don't have to worry about food in Montenegro. And when I, it's not even a joke, I go to the market, I buy strawberries.

Admira Adovic: If I don't need them within two days, those strawberries are already molded. In the U. S., you go buy strawberries, two weeks later, still strawberries pretty good. pay attention to that. Like, why? Why would strawberries here last so much longer than they would in Montenegro? should I be eating these kind of strawberries or should I look for something more natural?

Admira Adovic: Let me look further into that. What does this do to our bodies? My children's bodies. So again, have that curiosity. I think that's pretty much what it boils down to. I got a good friend that's in my 

Paden Squires: mastermind group and he's an executive coach, business coach, and he, that's his whole thing is, get more curious is literally his website.

Paden Squires: and it's always about, His kind of whole deal is like one great question can change your life. So get more curious, ask better questions. the quality of your life is directly related to the questions you ask. and, I love that story. [00:25:00] You're talking about you're almost like a counselor to some of your clients.

Paden Squires: And it's paying attention to Okay, let me step back here and watch this client and see how they act, see their habits, see their emotions, all those things. and the only way you can really do that is being, as the advisor, the, the person helping a client is that you need to be self aware, right?

Paden Squires: Like you need to be as self aware as possible. cause that's going to allow you to come in, give third party perspectives. to any situation to help somebody because, your client is just trapped in the situation and they have these emotions and they don't know what's going on. And you can come in from this outside perspective and be like, just do that or whatever.

Paden Squires: And fix that situation.

Admira Adovic: Absolutely. And I'll give you very briefly an example. This happened a couple of months ago. I don't attend every single client call. but I do know what's happening with every single client. So we have Monday meetings with my team where we go through every single client and I get briefed into what's happening with every client.

Admira Adovic: And there's this particular client, my team member, Boyana comes in. She's Hey, I had a call with her. this [00:26:00] is what we discussed. And I looked at the numbers and the numbers didn't really translate to exactly what we expected that was happening. and then she, when it tells me something that happened on a call that I noticed that she said, and I'm like, I need to book a call with her, with the client.

Admira Adovic: And so I reached out to her and I said, Hey, I know I wasn't able to join the call. but. Can we and you meet? And we did, we met and then we're talking and the amount of stress that is coming out of her breath, out of her mouth, I could feel it through Zoom. And then I said to her, okay, let's take a step back, take a breather.

Admira Adovic: Let's hop on another call. So in this particular case, what has happened is that the revenue streams that we anticipated to happen were not coming through. I was digging a little further into understanding why. and then realized that, this particular sector that she was focusing on, there was a lot of funding taken back, which meant no extra money for her business to do [00:27:00] deliver services.

Admira Adovic: So I encouraged her to, instead of stressing about this, let's be smart and let's shift. And I tasked her to figure out different revenue streams she could possibly think about That could help her not to be dependent On this funding and she was prepared to go on vacation and she's like, I don't feel like going on vacation I'm like, no, no, no go on vacation.

Admira Adovic: You need to go on vacation. It's not even a luxury for you right now It's a must You need to step away from the business. You need to take a minute back so you can come back with clear head. She came back, she had three pages of ideas of all things that she could do, that she would be in control of.

Admira Adovic: perspective. Again, I'm getting chills by thinking about it. Cause I'm like, I didn't really do the work. I don't even want to take credit for it. But I asked her a question. I was like, see her. I know she can do this, but [00:28:00] she's right now stuck a bit. And it happens to all of us. It happens to me as an entrepreneur.

Admira Adovic: And I go to my, girls that I'm, I talk to all the time. my friends, Alina and Corina, I said like, I'm stuck. I'm stressing about this. And sometimes I'm, I tell them, like, can you guys help me snap out of this? And then Alina would come, I was like, okay, let's see what's exactly happening.

Admira Adovic: So we can help you get out of that. It happens to all of us, either we like to admit it or we don't. But if. You as an advisor, as a consultant are able to see them for impact you can make it's beyond any, like the impact you can make is even for me, it's beyond any numbers. So it's really important to be curious.

Admira Adovic: It's really important to pay attention to people. I think we, a lot, we have lost, we have gotten lost in the people sector, especially with technology around us. Everything is text. Everything is email. And I'm like, can we move into voice messages and loom videos? And that's how I communicate for the most part with my clients.

Admira Adovic: And I encourage [00:29:00] them to do the same. 

Paden Squires: I had a call with a client just the other day or last week or whatever it was, but, they weren't on camera and we were doing like a team's type meeting or whatever. they weren't on camera and I was like, I couldn't. Connect with them. Like at all. You know what I mean? Like it was so hard to I'm talking, they're not really saying much.

Paden Squires: I can't see them. I can't even tell how this conversation's going. and it's yeah, the emotion and yes. and just typing words, you can read a sentence five different ways, right? there's no emotion in it. No body language, no context. it can mean a myriad of different things. Just the pure words on the page.

Paden Squires: so yeah, communication, that causes, Almost every problem.

Admira Adovic: Oh, yes. Yes. and for me, it's important that people are being seen and heard. And cause it, the entrepreneurial world, you've heard this so many times. It's such a lonely place to be. Such a lonely place and you're left with spreadsheets and emotions and translations and operations and p [00:30:00] and then you're like I don't I just want to yeah You 

Paden Squires: say it's a lonely place and I 100 agree there's very few people in your daily life your normal circle that you can just Talk to about I'm running this multimillion dollar business.

Paden Squires: I can't go talk to my father in law about it. or, you know,and I'm not saying me specifically, but just in general,it's like your father in law is they don't know. Like,Like it's so hard to find somebody that can actually connect with and share the burdens that can understand what you're going through.

Paden Squires: And that's, what's been so huge for me. As in the last couple of years is getting involved in a mastermind group and it's full of, 50 ish people that are doing pretty much the same type. I mean, we're all in different industries and whatever, and all around the country, but we have all the same experiences and dealing with the same junk and like overhead and payroll and like, how do I do this?

Paden Squires: How do I mark? I mean, just all the junk that comes along with entrepreneurship, but we can lean on each other and we know that I can put a message out there into this network and [00:31:00] like, Between all of us, we'll have a solution.

Admira Adovic: Yes, it is. So important to find that. I will say that a lot of entrepreneurs do not consider a mastermind as something that is that I was part of a mastermind, last year. And it was the same thing. And you show up in there and a lot of times it was business, but there were times where I had a newborn at a time and I'm like, can somebody please tell me how to, like, how do you run a business that is still new?

Admira Adovic: Pretty still a child per se. And I have a newborn and a six year old. And I feel like, and at a time I had, my partner was going through some health issues. So my husband was like, already said, it was so overwhelming that I feel like had I not had the mastermind and people be like, we hear you, we've been there.

Admira Adovic: Here are a few things for you to consider. It's not as if we weren't talking at each other or telling each other what to do, but more sharing experiences. [00:32:00] And. After that call, I'll be like, okay, so I don't really feel alone. Like it feels like other people have gone through this and the encouragement that it will be okay.

Admira Adovic: It is okay. You are in the midst of it right now, but it will be okay. It's just such a relief. exactly. Yeah, you will figure it out. You might look overwhelming right now, but you will figure it out. it is so helpful. and I know that a lot of my clients don't have those masterminds.

Admira Adovic: So I, when I work with them, I try to give them a little bit of, you're not alone in this. Like I'm here to help you. Yes. I'm your CFO. I get it. I'm supposed to just deal numbers, but I'm more than numbers. 

Paden Squires: everything is like behavioral habits, and the numbers ultimately come out of that,and as consultants and really any aspect, We're helping the entrepreneur as like a person, right?

Paden Squires: because like, yes, we can talk about numbers and strategies and tax stuff and all these things, but they are the thing that has to change. And we have to help them make the decisions to, to change. and that's what [00:33:00] plays out in the numbers, right? Like you said,it's helping the person.

Admira Adovic: Yes. I always say it's a story behind the numbers. I can look at the numbers. I can tell you the story behind them and I can look at the numbers from month to month and tell you if something is off with my client or not.It will play out in the numbers all the time, and people look at like, oh, it's just numbers.

Admira Adovic: I'm like, The right advisor let it be a CPA. Let that be a CFO. Let that be a controller or an accountant who does just books. If if they know the story behind the numbers, if they can read the story behind the numbers, they will tell you that it's not just numbers.

Admira Adovic: So we don't, I don't send spreadsheets to my clients. We have a mandatory once a month call, period, full stop. I don't even want to hear any objections around it. And the idea here is so we can review those spreadsheets so we can review the numbers, so they understand the story behind the numbers.

Admira Adovic: Please. What's happening so [00:34:00] we can unwheel things and that's when I feel like the magic happens. 

Paden Squires: So going back, what piece of advice would you give your younger self? Say you're coming to the United States and you could tell her one thing.

Paden Squires: What would it be?

Admira Adovic: Oh, boy, that's, Oh, that's a tough one. What would be one thing be? okay. It's almost sound like a sad story because, when I came to us, I was very much, very driven and very focused. I almost had blinds on, I'm here to get my education and I'm going to work hard and that's it. What that translated into is not a lot of time with family, not a lot of time with friends, not a lot of time enjoying self, thinking that I have a whole life ahead of me to do all of that stuff.

Admira Adovic: And unfortunately, my last semester in college, I lost my dad and that's when. It hit me. That's a big wall. That's that wall per se, because I didn't see the [00:35:00] sign. There's the wall and this wall unfortunately was not reversible. And that's when I said I wish I would have taken five years to finish college than four.

Admira Adovic: I wish I didn't take summer classes. And would have been in Montenegro and spend time with family. I wish So if I were to tell one thing to my younger self is ambition sure success sure but Do not forget that we're humans and therefore take the time to spend time with people you care so much about that's 

Paden Squires: been a focus of myself this year of Enjoying the ride, right?

Paden Squires: Because in many ways, I've been similar to the story you described there of just like hard driving blinders on,almost like anxiously striving all the time, right? and that's not as much fun as life can be, right? Like, when that's your 100 percent focus, right? the whole point is also to have fun.

Paden Squires: Enjoy the ride. Have fun. yes, go [00:36:00] do everything you want to do and be passionate about it. But don't beat yourself up all the time. And entrepreneurs, the hard driving ones,that's a real fault, right? Where youaren't having a lot of fun.

Admira Adovic: It's chasing after that next thing, chasing. And this is one thing I do with my entrepreneurs all the time. I try to understand what are you trying to accomplish? Where are you going? And nine out of ten times, everyone responds with something family related. And that's when I have to say to them, okay, in this case, Sure.

Admira Adovic: Business. Yes. Work hard. Yes. I have a rule in my own organization. Saturday, Sundays, there's no work. don't get me wrong. If something is urgent and I will jump in, but other than that, no. Saturdays it's my, sister days. So my sister looks only 15 minutes from here. So our kids get together, me and her get together.

Admira Adovic: If she comes over or I go over and then Sundays. It's my family days, meaning my husband is off. Like my husband doesn't work on Sundays. it took a long time to make him have Sundays off, but it's a family day. It's like, look, we [00:37:00] work hard five days a week. Like we barely see each other. Weekends is for us.

Admira Adovic: because tomorrow is not guaranteed. Yeah. At the end of the day, we don't take anything with us. 

Paden Squires: the success and money and all that stuff, that's all as temporary as all get out and can be taken from you.

Paden Squires: Right.but the experiences and the, having great relationships or yeah. That's what it's about. So Amir, great conversation. What is the best way people connect with you? connect with your business or whatever you got going on. 

Admira Adovic: yeah. So I'm very active on LinkedIn so you can find me on LinkedIn. Name is pretty unique. I'm pretty sure you cannot confuse me with anyone else. but on LinkedIn it is the easiest. We do have a website, www.karecfo.com  That's where you can read more about my story, my team's story. They are on the website as well.

Admira Adovic: Cause I do have a team that works with me. and a little bit about how we help clients. there's some case studies there as well. 

Paden Squires: listeners, we will catch you next time.

Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate, review, and share it. That is the [00:38:00] best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs. You can follow us on social media by searching for me, Payton Squires, or going to www.padensquires.com  on the website and social media, we're always sharing tips of personal growth, and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.