The Teacher Who Couldn’t Close: How Marc Macdonald Found His Calling in Outsourced Accounting

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Cotaspodi and today’s guest spent years in front of classrooms teaching English and coaching college basketball roles built entirely around motivating people and communicating clearly.

Now, most people in that world stay in that world. Mark MacDonald made a sharp left turn into finance. He moved from lesson plans to financial plans at Northwestern Mutual, then pivoted again into the world of outsourced bookkeeping. Each move looked unconventional from the outside, but from the inside, the thread was always the same. Find the people, earn their trust, and help them see something they couldn’t see before.

So Mark McDonald is the Director of Client Services at Supporting Strategies, Reno Tahoe, part of a national network of roughly 80 franchise locations that handles bookkeeping, payroll, and controller services for small and mid-sized businesses. He joined the leadership team in 2023 and now coaches a remote team of bookkeeping professionals from his base in Newark, Delaware. His story is an argument that the skills which make a great teacher

are the same ones that make a great business leader. But before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency. Listen, if you run a business, you’re likely stuck in the cycle of rising insurance premiums. You’re paying more, but your team is getting less, and many people can’t afford coverage at all. We do things differently. We offer a solution that provides your employees with unlimited access to doctors, therapists, and prescriptions

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Imagine being the advisor that becomes a hero by introducing this to your clients. See if they qualify today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the Director of Client Services of Supporting Strategies, Reno Tahoe, Mark McDonald. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Marc Macdonald (02:44)
Excited to be here. Thanks, Anthony.

Anthony Codispoti (02:46)
So you spent several years teaching English in public schools in Maryland and then at Boys Latin in Philadelphia. Take me back to what was pulling you towards the classroom in the first place. What drew you there?

Marc Macdonald (03:00)
Yeah, so two things. Number one, I was not a great student, especially at the beginning of high school. Skipped a lot of classes, was kind of hard on teachers. So whenever kids were hard on me, I would say, I deserve this. But I had a couple really profound experiences with teachers who kind of brought me out of that. They saw something in me that I didn’t really see in myself. And so that kind of…

drew me toward the classroom. The other part was that I really wanted to coach basketball and all the basketball coaches I knew were teachers. So I was like, well, if I want to be a basketball coach, I guess I should be a teacher. So those were two of the driving forces behind it.

Anthony Codispoti (03:47)
Tell us more about the profound experiences that you had with teachers.

Marc Macdonald (03:52)
Yeah, so the first was ⁓ my junior year. I had ⁓ an English teacher named Mrs. Braxton. ⁓ And on the first day we had to write, you know, the, did you read this summer essay? And I wrote mine. It took me eight minutes or whatever and I handed it in. And she said, I think you can do better than this. And ⁓ she said, but this sentence right here, this is beautiful. So work on that.

And that moment really did kind of turn me on to, okay, I can do better. And what does that look like? ⁓ And so that was a massive experience. The other one was ⁓ my senior year, I had a history teacher who very tough, very buttoned up. ⁓ And on the first day, he put all the names on the board.

And next to that, he was going to give us credit for when we had the highest score on the test. ⁓ And I was very competitive. And so every single time we got a test back, I would see the kid above me get a little tick. And I was just getting more more frustrated. And by the end of the year, he had offered to tutor me, helped me, and gotten me to the point where my name was at the top of that board.

Anthony Codispoti (05:12)
the teacher had offered to tutor you. Did you go to the teacher or the teacher came to you and offered that help?

Marc Macdonald (05:14)
Yeah.

He came to me, he saw, I’m trying to remember exactly how it happened, but I’m pretty sure I got a score back, was maybe a 93 and the highest score was a 95. And I threw it in the garbage and he had seen me do that. And so the next day he pulled me aside and he said, why’d you throw that away? Right, we had that conversation and that interaction. And again, those kinds of experiences, those one-on-one moments with professionals really did kind of.

draw me into the profession and what it can look like.

Anthony Codispoti (05:53)
And that first one that you shared, the teacher saying, I think you can do better and pointed out something really positive, right? Like this sentence here, this is pretty good. You know, spend some time focusing on that. Do you think it was the two parts? Like the, think you can do better. And then also highlighting something that you did well.

Marc Macdonald (06:15)
Definitely, because as much as I didn’t believe that I was at a level that needed to be recognized, ⁓ having somebody recognize something positive in you really can kind of drive you. know, carrot or the stick, I guess I needed the carrot at that point. And she offered that.

Anthony Codispoti (06:35)
⁓

Is that a approach, a strategy that you then used as a teacher yourself?

Marc Macdonald (06:45)
It was. ⁓ I think if you asked my students, they’d say I was maybe the stick more often than the carrot. ⁓ But I can remember times where I would notice that a student was struggling with something and that ⁓ piling onto that struggle wasn’t going to help them. ⁓ And so offering them some kind of encouragement that was based in something that was actual, not just, I think you can do better or.

I know how smart you are, none of the platitudes, but a real honest, this is good. I’ve seen you do this. Those things, those are building blocks, I think, for students.

Anthony Codispoti (07:25)
I like that. I’m not a teacher. I don’t think I ever will be, but I want to use that same idea on my own children. You’ve inspired me to be a better parent this evening. okay, at some point, well, actually, before we go there, you said one of the big reasons you wanted to teach was you wanted to coach basketball. Basketball, big part of your life. I’m assuming you played.

Marc Macdonald (07:48)
I did. I was pretty tall for my age until I just stopped growing. So I was almost six foot at 12 years old. And then I’m almost six foot now at 42. but yeah, I played pretty high level AAU basketball. And then in high school I played, that was pretty much the cap of my ability. I was able to make up for maybe shortcomings in my athleticism.

with some of the stuff between the ears. ⁓ And so that really made me want to be a coach.

Anthony Codispoti (08:25)
Okay. And then at some point you made a decision to leave education entirely and step into financial advising at Northwestern Mutual. Help me bridge the gap there. What was happening in your life at that time? Make that switch happen.

Marc Macdonald (08:40)
Yeah,

a number of things happened. Number one, it was during COVID. ⁓ So that was a struggle in education in general. ⁓ And ⁓ I had met my wife. ⁓ She was not my wife at that time, but I had met a woman and we moved together to Philadelphia. So I left my teaching job in Maryland, took a job at Boys Latin. ⁓ Great experience.

a fully remote experience, which kind of led into some of the things that I did later, the comfort on meetings like this. ⁓ But then she also ⁓ got a job offer in New Mexico. And rather than starting my fourth pension and starting at the bottom of ⁓ a teaching career in a brand new state, brand new environment, I decided it was time to pivot.

And so I looked into EdTech, thought that was a nice bridge and I wasn’t really getting any traction. And then I was, I received some outreach from Northwestern Mutual and they were looking for people who wanted to help others, who were open to learning new things ⁓ and that were driven. And I thought, yeah, I can check all three of those boxes. So I gave it a shot.

Anthony Codispoti (10:03)
Okay, so what skills from your teaching days did you find transferable to the business world?

Marc Macdonald (10:10)
Yeah, I think the most important would be the ⁓ developing personal relationships, ⁓ building trust ⁓ pretty quickly. I think that goes a long way in any kind of environment, whether it’s a business environment, in a classroom, ⁓ meeting friends at a restaurant, whatever it may be. ⁓ And then also ⁓ being extremely organized, ⁓ planning ahead.

but also being able to adjust on the fly to unknown or unexpected variables. Those are some things that I brought from the classroom into a business.

Anthony Codispoti (10:53)
more about the unexpected things that pop up at Northwestern Mutual.

Marc Macdonald (10:58)
Yeah, well, not just at Northwestern really anywhere, but at Northwestern it might be you walk in one day and you have seven meetings on the calendar. You’re so excited because you’re going to meet with these people. You’re going to lead them through, you know, all the ways that you can help them and six of them cancel day of, right? And it happens. Everybody who’s been in business understands that these things happen and there are those days.

So being able to adjust to that, adjust not only ⁓ what my plan for the day was, but also my mindset. What other things can I get done? Who else can I reach out to to fill that time? ⁓ People’s life-changing events while I was working with them, whether it’s, you know, we have this financial plan set in place and then they’re laid off unexpectedly.

And how do we adjust to that? What do we do to make sure they’re getting the most important things taken care of? And how can we help them kind of grow and build to what they really need?

Anthony Codispoti (12:07)
Did you learn anything insightful about how people make decisions under pressure from your time there?

Marc Macdonald (12:14)
I did. ⁓ I came to realize that no matter how smooth ⁓ your pitch was or how ⁓ powerful the idea you were presenting was, people will only make those decisions if they feel that they have the agency to do so. ⁓ So what I see a lot of times in sales is

people trying to drag the person they’re working with along to the decision. ⁓ And instead of that, I learned that asking the right questions will make them want to make the right decision. ⁓ There’s a guy that I followed ⁓ on LinkedIn, Josh Braun, who presents a lot about poking the bear. And…

rather than having the most polished pitch, you can go in and you can and ⁓ through it if you need to, but if you ask the right questions and make them feel heard and understood, that’s really how people make the hard decisions.

Anthony Codispoti (13:29)
So say more about that. What kinds of questions are you asking to help with this process?

Marc Macdonald (13:37)
So if we’re talking about a financial plan, ⁓ do you feel like ⁓ saving money is the most important thing for you? And sometimes people would say, yes, it is. And then you have to ask the follow-up question. What about protecting money? What about protecting the people you care about? Well, that may not be something they had thought about, right? They’re just putting all this money away because they want this retirement down the road.

the bells and whistles in the short term, but what happens if you have an unexpected injury and you can’t work for the next 15 to 20 years? How are you going to build toward that same future in that case? And asking that question will oftentimes get pushback in the short term, but in the long term, we’ll have people understand the importance of maybe protecting ⁓ income and Northwestern.

one of the best companies in the world when it comes to ⁓ insurance and protecting income.

Anthony Codispoti (14:43)
So you were at Northwestern Mutual for just under two years before moving to supporting strategies. Talk me through that transition. What was going on that either wasn’t working or maybe was just pulling you in a different direction?

Marc Macdonald (14:57)
Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ So two things. Number one, I mentioned that I had moved ⁓ a few times already with my wife. She works in college athletics. She’s a fundraiser for university athletics. So she tends to move pretty regularly. And I was based in an office in Albuquerque and I was building a client base in Albuquerque. ⁓ I could see the writing on the wall that we were going to move again in the short term.

And so that was one driving factor. ⁓ Another was I had had a fair amount of success at Northwestern. I would say fair to middling ⁓ success. ⁓ But as much as I really loved the helping people aspect, I was getting worn down by the searching for new people to help and the

the sales process. I’ve never really loved sales, even though I really love persuasion and rhetoric. yeah, yeah, so that’s all mine.

Anthony Codispoti (16:02)
that’s interesting. In what ways did

you like to use persuasion and rhetoric that wasn’t inside of sales?

Marc Macdonald (16:09)
Yeah, so I mean, that’s what I taught English. ⁓ And so working with students on how to craft arguments, it was one of my favorite things to do. Every day I got to teach rhetoric. I was excited. ⁓ And so I really have a passion for that and how people kind of craft arguments, how you can ⁓ shape what you’re saying ⁓ to really make it resonate with others. ⁓ But the sales part, would

I was very comfortable all the way up to the asking for the decision. There was a blockage. don’t know, was a mental or something. So I was struggling with that aspect of it and ⁓ I just wasn’t feeling as drawn to it as I had been at the beginning. ⁓ And then I was just really, really lucky. I met with the actual, the founder of Supporting Strategies. ⁓

And at that time she was actually trying to talk to me about potentially opening a franchise of my own. And within about five minutes I told her, I don’t think I really would like to be a business owner at this point. ⁓ And she said, well then I have somebody that you should talk to who’s looking for a director of client services. And so she referred me over to Jen Elermeyer, who’s my ⁓ boss right now.

And that was the best thing I could have ever.

Anthony Codispoti (17:39)
Why? What’s so good about it?

Marc Macdonald (17:42)
There hasn’t been a day since I left Northwestern and started at Supporting Strategies that I’ve thought, I might have made a mistake. ⁓ And that is not something that I can say. I’m pretty hard on decisions. I’m pretty hard on myself. ⁓ And so I just, I’m really passionate about the work that I get to do right now. ⁓ I feel very valued and appreciated in the office.

I get to work with a really talented group of accountants who teach me things every day because I know nothing about accounting. ⁓ And so really it’s just, it really has been a blessing. ⁓ And then, you know, we did end up moving from Albuquerque all the way back to Delaware. And so even though our office is on Pacific time, Jen was willing to keep me on. ⁓ I just work kind of a flexible schedule. ⁓ So it’s, ⁓ I…

I told her that I’m not planning on leaving unless she asks me to. I’m really happy here.

Anthony Codispoti (18:44)
You’re really happy there.

And you’ve worked at different places, obviously. So it’s not like this was your first job and you just don’t have anything to compare it to. You’ve got other experiences to compare and contrast.

Marc Macdonald (18:57)
Yeah, I was thinking about my work life ⁓ last night in preparation for this and I’ve now been working for over 30 years. So my first job was when I was 12, ⁓ worked as a caddy. I’ve just, never stopped working since then.

Anthony Codispoti (19:17)
So tell us what is supporting strategies do and who do they do it for?

Marc Macdonald (19:23)
Yeah, so we ⁓ were an outsourced accounting firm. We work fully remotely with small to medium sized businesses. ⁓ And we provide all the operational accounting that a typical accounting department would offer. ⁓ And then everything on up to coordinating with their tax accountant, their CPA to get the tax return.

prepped and ready. ⁓ But we really kind of function as their accounting department ⁓ in a remote environment.

Anthony Codispoti (20:03)
Okay. ⁓ What are some of the advantages of the approach that you guys take versus, I don’t know, me working with a local CPA?

Marc Macdonald (20:13)
Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say stability is something that, ⁓ especially in the region in which most of our clients ⁓ reside, can be tough. There’s a relative, or quite a bit of turnover, relatively. ⁓ And so that means every year or two years or three years, they’re hiring and training a brand new person.

trying to fill that gap in the short term. What we can offer is a two person team for each client that will handle their day to day accounting, make sure that proper accounting controls are in place with reviews from a manager, timely financials, which really allow them to make proactive decisions. And then,

we offer the stability. So just like any other business, we will have some turnover, but we can backfill with our existing team members ⁓ and make sure that they have no interruption of services. They don’t need to worry about training a brand new person on all the systems processes that have been developed. So stability is a big one.

Anthony Codispoti (21:31)
Are there specific accounting platforms that you guys work with?

Marc Macdonald (21:36)
Yeah, so I’d say we spend a lot of time in the Intuit ecosystem. So a lot of our clients are on QuickBooks Online. Some are on QuickBooks desktop. But we only hire professional accountants. How we define that is they have a four-year degree. They have at least seven years of experience in accounting prior to joining our team. So they have the ability to adapt to whatever the client brings.

whether that means using Sage or Xero or you name any of the other platforms.

Anthony Codispoti (22:13)
Okay, so you do most of what you do in the Intuit ecosphere, but you’re familiar with and can work in a lot of the other small business accounting.

Marc Macdonald (22:23)
Absolutely.

Anthony Codispoti (22:25)
Who’s a good fit for you, client-wise?

Marc Macdonald (22:28)
Somebody who’s looking to outsource ⁓ all of the operational side. ⁓ Somebody who’s looking for ⁓ an ongoing relationship, ⁓ open communication with the team, ⁓ who finds value in diving into their financials to help them drive their decisions. ⁓ And really the…

The best fit is where we can step in and kind of take over as that accounting department. ⁓ We do work with clients that have an internal team and then our team as well, and we coordinate. But I’d say our best fit clients are the ones where we can kind of step in and run their accounting for them.

Anthony Codispoti (23:14)
any particular industries or size of companies that are a great fit.

Marc Macdonald (23:21)
So I heard ⁓ somebody describe themselves as industry agnostic, and I would say that’s what we are. We work with pretty much every industry you can think of. I would say our two largest industries are like the construction and nonprofit spheres. ⁓ But that is as much due to the region in which we work as it is anything else. ⁓ As far as size,

our smallest might be a sole prop and our largest client might have 125, 150 employees. And as far as revenue, kind of perfect fit would be the two to 10 to 12 million annual revenue. That’s really where we thrive, but we work with some much bigger and some smaller.

Anthony Codispoti (24:19)
and specifically in Reno Tahoe area, right? That’s your geography.

Marc Macdonald (24:24)
Yeah,

yeah. So I’d say most of our clients are in that Northern Nevada and Northern California region. We do have some up into Washington and some down into Southern California.

Anthony Codispoti (24:39)
Okay, so because I know you guys are a franchise of supporting strategies. How the territory is kind of carved out then sounds like you do have some flexibility and kind of crossing over.

Marc Macdonald (24:51)
Yeah, absolutely. So ⁓ almost all of our clients are referral based. They’re from other clients or CPA firms that we work with. And so if we are referred to a client from another region, we can work with that client.

Anthony Codispoti (25:08)
That makes a lot of sense. That’s a smart way to approach it. So what does the onboarding process look like for a client? I hear this pitch. I’m like, I like you guys. Let’s get started. What do we do?

Marc Macdonald (25:21)
Absolutely. we have a pretty substantial sales process. It’s a discovery call, a needs assessment, which is a deep dive into what they’re currently doing and what their paying points are. ⁓ Then we do a review and analysis of their current accounting software. ⁓ And then we put together a proposal tailored to all of their needs, ⁓ as well as what we think we are capable of doing.

⁓ There are times when a client says, want you to take over everything. We say, hey, these things are perfect for us. This one seems to be more on the operational side. It might be better fit to have somebody in office handling this aspect and we’ll coordinate with them, right? So we tailor every proposal to the client. Once that is all set up.

Then we move to the onboarding. We have a kickoff call where we review the scope of services, introduce them to their brand new accounting team. And then from there, they are needing to go over each of the different service buckets that we offer, setting up systems processes, evaluating what is and isn’t working in the current processes. And then usually within,

30 to 60 days. ⁓ They are fully functional, onboarded, and we are providing monthly audit-ready financials.

Anthony Codispoti (26:53)
Okay, so it sounds like the services that you guys are great at, the accounting, the bookkeeping, getting things up to the point where they can be handed off to CPA to do the taxes. Or, you know, working with other advisors to say, okay, here are your books. Let’s take a deep look at these. Now we know that they’re all cleaned up. This can give us some insights on strategies that we could suggest.

So you guys would coordinate with those types of advisors.

Marc Macdonald (27:23)
Absolutely. And then we also, with each client, offer a monthly financial review call ⁓ because if they’re offered the reports that they find most relevant and they can compare to what has been going on previously.

what we can kind of forecast coming up, they can make some of those more strategic decisions throughout the year rather than just waiting for that year end and the tax time to start making some of those strategic decisions.

Anthony Codispoti (27:55)
And so, Mark, what do you specifically do as the Director of Client Services? What does that title mean?

Marc Macdonald (28:02)
It’s an interesting title. So ⁓ I have a pretty substantial role in ⁓ the sales process. So even though I talked about my struggles with sales previously, the sales process, I’m a part of the very first contact or outreach with any potential client.

and I started building and fostering that relationship right then. I walked them through that sales process all the way through to onboarding in conjunction with our managing director, Jen. Once we hand off to the team, I am their go-to for the client for any issues they might have with…

they’re having substantial growth and we need to expand the scope or they had something unforeseen happen and we need to shrink the scope, right? We work with them on that. ⁓ I do quarterly check-ins with all of our clients just to see how everything’s going, collect feedback. ⁓ And then on the more operational side in our office, ⁓ I handle ⁓ some of the recruiting, interviewing and hiring.

of new accountants in conjunction with our corporate talent team. And then I work with Jen really closely to make sure we’re acknowledging staff. Birthdays are recognized, work anniversaries. We have a dedicated channel that we all can chat and kind of build culture by sharing.

Here is my daughter for Halloween. We try and bring that all together. ⁓ On a weekly basis, I do a coffee chat. So 15 minutes every Friday, I log in with a cup of coffee, like the one that I’m drinking right now. And anybody can pop in. It’s kind of that water cooler time that most ⁓ remote offices don’t get. And the only rule is we’ll talk about anything but work.

So come on in, let’s talk about what’s going on in your life and ⁓ try and really build those relationships ⁓ because I know that can be a struggle in a remote.

Anthony Codispoti (30:33)
Yeah. So how effective do you think some of those strategies are at developing or maintaining a company culture?

Marc Macdonald (30:42)
I think they’re huge. I really think that I cannot take credit for the culture that Jen has built. ⁓ She really makes it clear to everybody on staff that she values them. ⁓ And it’s little things. It’s a gift for Employee Appreciation Day. It’s a note when they had something.

really good or really not good happened in their personal life. It’s those things. And I think those things go a really long way. I’ve tried in my role over the last three years to make sure that everybody has that opportunity to have a personal connection and not just feel like they’re working on an island, handling, accounting.

dug into the books only, right? They are a part of something bigger. And that has been something I’m really proud of.

Anthony Codispoti (31:46)
So a lot of business owners, in my experience, they assume that getting their books in better shape mostly just helps them at tax time, right? There’s less work that needs to be done at that point. What’s the thing that you find a lot of clients are surprised to learn that clean financials from working with a group like Supporting Strategies gives them or allows them to do?

Marc Macdonald (32:10)
Yeah, that’s a great question. ⁓ I think as kind of a starting point, I would say that

Someone who is only concerned with tax time is usually not our best fit client. We’re looking for somebody who really does want that partnership on a monthly basis and really does want to have those insights. ⁓ Once we have that and they can see kind of the insights they get, they can make much more strategic decisions, not only right before tax time, but in their planning in the fall for

⁓ end of year planning for capital expenses. They can start doing that. ⁓ We offer ⁓ cash forecasts, so clients that might have cash flow issues. We can work with them on a weekly basis to provide them a cash forecast. And then they can really start to make the better, more informed decisions rather than just always reacting.

and always working in the retrospect.

Anthony Codispoti (33:22)
For people that are listening today, Mark, they’re wondering whether outsourced bookkeeping is a good fit for them, what questions should they be asking themselves?

Marc Macdonald (33:32)
Yeah, that’s I would say the first thing is how is their current system working? That’s the first question, right? Because if what they have is working for them, then they should probably continue with that. But if they’re struggling with aspects of that, ⁓ if they’re looking for more reliability, ⁓ more communication, we do have a number of

people who have come to us and they were working with somebody who they valued, but that person was working with them maybe once a week. ⁓ Our team is in the office working Monday through Friday, eight to five, we’re available to clients during their regular business hours. ⁓ We have multiple ways for them to communicate with us. We designated email address. Every client has.

phone numbers of at least four people that they can reach out to if there’s an urgent issue. ⁓ And so if they’re looking for somebody who can really kind of fill that role of an in-house accountant, but maybe do that in a more streamlined remote environment, maybe they don’t have access to enough professional accountants. ⁓ The market is really tough in some regions.

And so we can offer that. have team members throughout the country and we can service the client with a team member that doesn’t have to live in that region. So that’s a huge advantage.

Anthony Codispoti (35:10)
Mm.

Do you find that most of your clients are of a certain age or lower, like maybe older folks, 60 and up, of old fashioned, like, hey, I want to go see somebody in person kind of a thing, or do you not see that kind of delineation?

Marc Macdonald (35:32)
Not too much. would say ⁓ most of our clients are of the age of most successful business owners at this point. So they’re kind of in the middle age ⁓ bracket. But that said, we have clients who are much older. We have some clients that are much younger. ⁓ Really what I think we spend a lot of time with, and maybe this is where that education background comes in, is

talking to them and teaching them a little bit about what it looks like. So no, you don’t have to keep all your receipts in this box and then we’re gonna come in and we’re gonna write, here’s a new, more efficient, more streamlined way for us to collect that information to get you the information that you need. And clients that are open to that of all ages are the ones that we work with and work really well with.

Anthony Codispoti (36:26)
Tell us about your virtual workflow system called Workplace.

Marc Macdonald (36:31)
Yeah, so that’s an internal practice management system. ⁓ It allows our team members to have a clear image of their workday, their tasks that populate on a recurring basis for each client. ⁓ The client side of that, we do have a designated email address for each client.

that is monitored by not only the team of two accountants, but Jen and myself. So clients can communicate there with our whole team. That’s another nice thing. If one of our team members is out on vacation, there’s no interruption in the workflow. The work continues. ⁓ And so Workplace really helps with that. ⁓ I do know that right now,

⁓ It’s in process. They’re they’re looking to build a client portal as an aspect of that Which will probably streamline some of that communication as well ⁓ But yeah, I really find a lot of value in workplace

Anthony Codispoti (37:40)
How do most of your clients find you or how do you find them? What’s your best source of new business development?

Marc Macdonald (37:48)
⁓ so Jen, ⁓ lives in the region. ⁓ she’s been there for over 20 years. she is pretty well connected. ⁓ it’s a small community, but it really feels like almost all of our clients know Jen in some way, shape or form. ⁓ and the ones who maybe they haven’t met previously, ⁓ they know another client who said, ⁓ you’re struggling with your accounting.

you should call Jen and her team, right? So that’s really where most of our clients come from. We do have other ways. ⁓ We have LinkedIn ⁓ that we’re always monitoring if people are reaching out that way. People can fill out a form online if they’re interested in that. But for the most part, I’d say 95 % of our clients are through referral.

Anthony Codispoti (38:43)
wow. Okay. That says a lot about the quality of work that you do.

Marc Macdonald (38:47)
I appreciate you saying that.

Anthony Codispoti (38:49)
What is the future of your supporting strategies franchise look like? ⁓ Sort of slow and steady growth like you guys have been doing? you, you know, probably not the kind of thing where there’s acquisitions at play or like you guys looking to add new services?

Marc Macdonald (39:07)
We’re always open and we’re always looking ahead at what is going to be needed, right? ⁓ But I would say for the last couple years, ⁓ Jen and I have a number one focus on retention. We’ve built these relationships. We care a lot about these clients and their success, and we want to continue to help them thrive. So retention is number one. Slow and steady growth is always great.

And then ⁓ making sure that we are able to keep a stable professional workforce. ⁓ So our team’s stability and retention is just as important. Those are really our main goals for the past two years. ⁓ And we’ve had a decent amount of success with that.

Anthony Codispoti (39:58)
Talking about your team, I know that you guys are always looking to hire, know, find good folks there. From an experienced accountant’s perspective, they’re weighing whether to join supporting strategies. What’s the honest pitch for what their day to day looks like and why it might be better than the traditional thing they’re doing?

Marc Macdonald (40:23)
Yeah, so ⁓ most people that find us find us because they’re like, I want to work from home. ⁓ So I will say that. And that is a huge benefit. I do love working from home. ⁓ I got used to it during COVID and then kind of have continued that experience for a lot of my professional career. ⁓ That said, I tell anyone who interviews with us the same thing. ⁓ As a teacher, I worked a lot.

I was working all day as a teacher, then grading, then coaching, then rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. ⁓ As a financial advisor, I was working even more, 50, 60 hours a week, really trying to grind and hustle. ⁓ And every office, every company I know says, we offer a work-life balance. We offer a work-life balance. That’s the culture that Jen has built and she really means it. ⁓

And that has been life changing for me. You said you really like your job. I really do. I’ve worked here for three years. ⁓ I can count on a couple fingers how many times I’ve worked more than 40 hours because Jen really does. I can remember my very first week she said, you’ve already worked eight hours, so go ahead and log off. And I was like, yeah, but there’s this and I was thinking about doing this and she’s like, that’ll be there tomorrow morning. It’s okay.

That to me ⁓ really says a lot about the work culture. ⁓ And then the other part is working with a bunch of really strong, intelligent professional accountants ⁓ and being able to bounce ideas, collaborate, but also not being in an office where people are just gonna pop by and take up your time, right? You can just put up a Do Not Disturb on Zoom and…

you’re off to the races. those are some major advantages of this environment.

Anthony Codispoti (42:27)
Marc, what’s one of the hardest things that you’ve ever had to overcome personally and what did that teach you?

Marc Macdonald (42:34)
Yeah, feelings of failure are pretty common. I had a single mom who did an outstanding job raising me, set really high, really, really high bars and expectations. And so, throughout my life, I’ve really struggled with that. And I would say,

the walking away from something that I thought maybe I was just right on the cusp of having success. so Northwestern, that separation, that leaving, ⁓ it really did hurt me. I really felt like I had failed ⁓ and I hated that feeling. ⁓ What I’ve learned through my time is that every failure that I’ve had,

⁓ Once you get through that like kind of ugly mucky part, that’s where the real kind of success and the turnaround comes. So I had to go through that really down time and making that decision to leave and being told it was a mistake and all of that to get to where I am now ⁓ and feeling so much better. And so, yeah.

That was a really tough time, but I haven’t looked back.

Anthony Codispoti (44:13)
Yeah, you know, what you’re saying is such a common theme that oftentimes you’ve got to wade through this really mucky swamp of, you know, in between like one door closes, where’s the next door going to open? And when you’re in that space, you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, right? You don’t know what’s next. The hindsight, you know, looking back now,

Excuse me. You’re like, yeah, like, of course I had to go through that. Now I see the purpose. I see how the dots connect. But for somebody who’s in that mucky swamp right now, what advice do you have for them? What helped you get through that uncertain time?

Marc Macdonald (45:00)
The circle of people around you matters, ⁓ especially when you’re feeling like you’re alone. And so for me, I really do have a great support system between friends, family. My wife is outstanding, ⁓ even when I’m being really difficult, because when you’re in that mucky part, you’re hard on yourself, you’re hard on everyone around you. But having the right support system,

and looking back. So there’s a great book ⁓ called The Gap and the Gain. I think it’s a really important book for high achievers where people are always looking ahead at what’s coming next. And then even when they get there, they move that goalpost a little further and they keep moving and they never look back to what has happened and where the, you know, the gain that they’ve made. ⁓ And so I would say when you’re in that mud,

you got to look back at other times you’ve been in that same muck and what the positives were. Because nobody spends all their time in the muck. There’s peaks and valleys. Everybody has peaks and valleys. And so that really helped me too. I looked back at, I was married very young in my early 20s and that ended very poorly. And at that time I thought that was the worst thing that could ever happen. ⁓

But now in my mid thirties, I met my wife now and what a blessing that was. So really, I mean, you can look back at other struggles you’ve had and how you’ve made your way through them.

Anthony Codispoti (46:41)
So two things there I want to pull out of what you said, because I think they’re really important points for people to hear. The first is make sure you’re giving yourself grace in those moments. Beating yourself up in the midst of a very challenging situation is not really helping anything. It’s making it worse. And so I like the idea of what you talked about. Look back. Give yourself credit for some of the things that you’ve done before.

Because when you’re in that mucky part, you’re just hard on yourself. You’re like, I can’t do anything. I’ve never done anything. I’m not any good. Nobody’s going to hire me. I’m not going to find another business opportunity. And this is where the second part of what you said, I think, is really important, having that circle of people close to you. Because I think that safe human connection is some of the best medicine that we have.

And having those folks with you and near you, those are folks who can challenge those negative viewpoints that you have of yourself. Like, wait a minute, Mark, what you’re saying isn’t accurate. Look at all these things that you’ve done along the way. ⁓ yeah, thank you. kind of, yeah, right? I see you nodding your head and you’re smiling, yeah.

Marc Macdonald (47:47)
Yeah, thanks for the reminder, yeah Yeah,

yeah 100 % I think I think you’re exactly right with that Nobody nobody needs to surround themselves with people that don’t see the best in them And so I think that’s a great way to approach it

Anthony Codispoti (48:12)
What is it you most want to be remembered for in the work that you’re doing now?

Marc Macdonald (48:16)
Yeah, so I really have always loved, I know I’ve referenced a couple books. ⁓ I love reading, I love self-development. I love reading about leadership and exploring that topic. ⁓ When I leave, I want to be remembered as somebody who built ⁓ lasting relationships. ⁓ Not only with…

the team members and the people I’m working with, but the clients, ⁓ somebody who is honest and trustworthy, ⁓ and then most importantly, somebody who is a good leader, ⁓ who really wanted to help others every way he could. So those would be ways that I’d love to be remembered.

Anthony Codispoti (49:09)
Mark, I’ve just got one more question for you today, but before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, for anybody who wants to get in touch with you, Mark, what should they do?

Marc Macdonald (49:20)
⁓ So you can find me, Mark MacDonald on LinkedIn or they can email me at mmacdonald at supportingstrategies.com.

Anthony Codispoti (49:31)
Great. we’ll have links to both of those in the show notes for folks. Speaking of which, if you’re enjoying the show today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you’re listening. It also sends a signal that helps others discover our podcast. So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can be the hero advisor that helps clients give their employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription meds that counter intuitively.

actually increases their net profits, real gains that can change how a business is valued. So contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, Mark, last question for you today. A year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?

Marc Macdonald (50:14)
⁓ so in about two weeks, we’re at our 10th, ⁓ anniversary of supporting strategy. I’d like to, ⁓ supporting strategies, Reno Taho 11th anniversary would be great. and, ⁓ the other part would be. We set a really high bar, a hundred percent retention of both team members and clients a year from now, that would be a heck of a celebration.

Anthony Codispoti (50:43)
Outstanding. Mark McDonald from Supporting Strategies. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Marc Macdonald (50:52)
Thanks so much, Anthony.

Anthony Codispoti (50:54)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.