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From High School Dropout to COO and Partner: Layla Ebersole’s Journey at On Call Restaurant Accounting

Layla Ebersole shares how she went from high school dropout to COO and partner at On Call Restaurant Accounting, growing OCRA to 400 clients by closing books weekly and catching…
Host: anthonyvcodispoti
Published: March 30, 2026

πŸŽ™οΈ From High School Dropout to COO and Partner: Layla Ebersole’s Journey Building On Call Restaurant Accounting

Layla Ebersole, Partner and COO at On Call Restaurant Accounting in Denver, shares her journey from a rough upbringing that led her to drop out of high school at 16 and start working full time, through a Craigslist data entry job at a restaurant accounting firm she almost overlooked, to becoming a partner and COO during an acquisition that doubled the firm’s reach to over 400 restaurant clients across the country.

✨ Key Insights You’ll Learn:

  • Started at OCRA in a data entry role posting paper invoices 12 hours a week and learned every piece of the business on the job without formal education or accounting training

  • Domain expertise in restaurants is the firm’s core differentiator because every staff member has some form of hospitality background and understands what operators actually face on the floor

  • Closing books weekly rather than monthly allows clients to catch problems like a contracted vendor quietly raising prices before they snowball into a prime cost disaster months later

  • Prime cost, the combination of food cost and labor, is the single most important number for restaurant operators to control and where most financial problems first appear

  • The fractional CFO service added through the Multiply Group acquisition creates a referral loop where bookkeeping clients get advisory access and CFO clients get clean books to work from

  • Fine dining and quick service are both holding up in early 2026 while the middle tier of casual dining continues to struggle as guests either trade up for the experience or down for value

  • Restaurant 365 is the exclusive software platform OCRA uses because it consolidates bookkeeping, inventory, payroll, scheduling, and vendor integrations into one system that reduces tech stack complexity for clients

  • The most common mistake new clients make is believing that a positive bank balance means the books are fine, while vendor pricing errors and unreported tips quietly erode margins in the background

  • The book Getting to Zero transformed how she handles conflict on her team by helping her distinguish between problems worth addressing and situations that simply are not a good fit

🌟 Layla’s Key Mentors:

  • Father: Raised three kids alone as a single parent while her mother battled addiction, modeling relentless work ethic and doing the best with the tools available under genuinely hard circumstances

  • Mark Rubinstein (Founder and Partner, OCRA): Consistently pushed her toward the next uncomfortable thing, refused to make calls she needed to make herself, and sent a career-defining text before she walked into an imposter syndrome conference session

  • Leadership Certificate Program Peers: Validated her hands-on management style through real comparison and gave her formal language for approaches she had already developed through experience

  • Multiply Group Partners: Built a trusted relationship over time that made the acquisition feel natural rather than forced, expanding OCRA’s capabilities without disrupting its culture

  • 18-Year-Old Friend’s Daughter

πŸ‘‰ Don’t miss this conversation about learning to love education after dropping out, why weekly bookkeeping saves restaurants more than monthly ever could, and how a data entry job on Craigslist became an 11-year journey to partner.

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE

Transcript

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
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 Codispodi and today’s guest is Leila Ebersole, Partner and Chief Operating Officer at On Call Restaurant Accounting in Denver, Colorado. Also known as Okra, they focus only on restaurants, pairing deep accounting skills with real kitchen experience to give owners clear

on-time financials. The team handles bookkeeping, detailed reporting, and high-level advice so operators can keep their eyes on guests rather than spreadsheets. Since joining Okra 11 years ago, Leila has guided almost every part of the company. She moved from a data entry role all the way up to partner and COO during a major acquisition that doubled the firm’s reach. Her leadership

has helped blend the new businesses smoothly. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Adback 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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by introducing this to your clients. See if they qualify today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, COO and partner of On Call Restaurant Accounting, Leila Ebersol. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Layla Ebersole (02:16)
Thank you. Appreciate it.

Anthony Codispoti (02:18)
So what first attracted you to the world of accounting, finance, payroll, et cetera?

Layla Ebersole (02:24)
Yeah, I kind of fell into it, to be honest. ⁓ I was working in a warehouse, an appliance warehouse, and it was an interesting environment to say the least. And I was really looking for change ⁓ with people in a company that I felt, you know, had the same values that I did and ran across a post on Craigslist about an AP data entry. ⁓

position with the restaurants and restaurant accounting firm and yeah, that was and then it kind of unfolded from there. That was with

Anthony Codispoti (03:00)
And so that was with Okra. Like your first entree

into the accounting space was this role with Okra.

Layla Ebersole (03:09)
Pretty much, yeah. My last position, I was doing some data entry and billing for an appliance company. so I had a little bit of background, ⁓ but I really was like, I really like kind of this role in general. And I had worked myself out of that role at the appliance place and I wanted to get back into it. And so, yeah, started kind of looking and I was back when you searched.

Craigslist for a job, was no, LinkedIn wasn’t big, there wasn’t some of the other apps and platforms out there now.

Anthony Codispoti (03:44)
Yeah. And so you started there in a data entry role, right? So this was even like, ⁓ not even bookkeeping quite yet, just, hey, here’s some stuff that needs to be put into a spreadsheet kind of a thing.

Layla Ebersole (03:49)
Yes.

Yep, I mean, we were still getting like paper copies of invoices at that point from the restaurants themselves. I spent easily 12 hours a week posting journal entries for our bookkeepers. Take this data, put it here, cool, plugging away. ⁓ So it wasn’t even bookkeeping yet, but slowly I learned all the pieces and put them all together.

Anthony Codispoti (04:22)
And so this was just all on the job training. Did you ever go and get some outside schooling to advance? No, it was just like, hey, here’s what this is. Here’s what it means. You know, start doing it. yeah, yeah. What I, you know, we had a chance to chat real briefly beforehand. And so something I didn’t know that I think would be interesting to talk about is ⁓ sort of how you previously really didn’t like

Layla Ebersole (04:30)
No.

Yep. Yep. Real time learning. Yep. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (04:52)
education, you didn’t like learning, right? Boring. You know, we’ve both got kids like they feel like school is boring to them. ⁓ In fact, you didn’t even finish high school. Tell us about sort of this arc of yourself.

Layla Ebersole (04:58)
Yeah. Yep.

in it.

Yeah, so I, you know, my childhood was a little off the beaten path. ⁓ And so I, yeah, dropped out of high school, had to start working full time at 16. ⁓ And so I, you know, I started working and ⁓

then didn’t really have a want or a need to go get an education. I actually stopped and got my GED along the way, because I was like, I feel like I should have this. ⁓ And so I did on a whim one week decided to go, I was like, we’re going to sign up. I was like, ⁓ man, they’re studying and training. ⁓ right, school sucks. I forgot I didn’t like this. ⁓

And I realized it wasn’t necessarily the learning part that I didn’t like. was everything else in my life kind of going on. ⁓ And now I’m back in school, but I had great mentors along the way who showed me kind of or helped guide me and showing me that I could do more and I was really smart. And not everyone’s good at the sitting behind the desk part of life. ⁓

And now I’ve gotten better at it, obviously, but yeah, so it was just a little different and that’s kind of where I started.

Anthony Codispoti (06:35)
So kind of

a rough upbringing, like you had to make some different, you know, and difficult decisions. Yep. Step, stepped away from school, started working full time. ⁓ and then there was something inside you that kind of like pulled you and said, you know what? I feel like I should at least have my GED. And so as much as you still hated the studying, you went and you got it. But what’s interesting to me is now you’re voluntarily.

Layla Ebersole (06:39)
Quick test, yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (07:01)
enrolling in outside education. Tell us about the program that you’re working on now.

Layla Ebersole (07:01)
going to college. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so right now I’m in a certificate ⁓ program that focuses on leadership and management. ⁓ And really what I wanted was I’ve had these great mentors who have taught me so much and I’m so grateful ⁓ along the way and I’ve been able to form my own opinion, but I wanted to do that even more, right? Everyone has their own way of management. Everyone has their own way of leadership. ⁓ You know, I’ve always excelled in that way.

⁓ and I just feel like I’m doing the people that I’m leading a disservice if I stop educating myself, because that’s what I would expect of my mentors and pushing themselves forward. ⁓ and so I feel like when we did this acquisition, I really felt, ⁓ a pull to be better, not only for the company, but for the employees we were bringing on, for the clients we were bringing on, ⁓ and to push my staff even further. mean, they’re.

They’re the real superheroes of the show. You know, I’m behind the scenes and I want to make sure that ⁓ I’m giving them back as much as I possibly can because that’s what people did for me when I was coming up, right? They were pushing me forward and I want to be able to do that for other people too.

Anthony Codispoti (08:21)
How far into this new certification program are you?

Layla Ebersole (08:25)
I’m about halfway. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (08:26)
Okay. What’s

one interesting thing that you’ve picked up that maybe you’ve been able to implement already?

Layla Ebersole (08:33)
⁓ I mean, I think it’s, it’s a lot of what I already knew. And so it’s, it’s a little more of a validation is also going through it. it’s like, you should manage this way. And they give you three kinds of examples of being way too hands on and being way too hands off and somewhere in the middle. Right. And, ⁓ you know, I’m writing a discussion post to all my peers where I’m like, I, you know, took this quiz and

I landed, you know, where I’m super hands off and I’m this and it works. And then I’m reading everyone’s posts and everyone’s like, I landed in the middle. I landed in the middle. And I was like, am I managing wrong? ⁓ You know, and I went back to some other people who have been in leadership and management, you know, much longer than me. And I’m like, am I doing this wrong? They’re like, no, you just have real life experience. You can, you can fully say this is the management style that works for me. ⁓ And so it’s been a lot of push and pull where I’m like, you know, I’ve, second guessed myself.

And I’ve also gotten some validation and ⁓ like, yeah, I do know what I’m doing. Okay, got it. I can keep pushing forward. ⁓ So I think that’s been the biggest takeaway of just like, yeah, okay, box checked. I’ve done that or man, I never even thought about doing that. ⁓ So.

Anthony Codispoti (09:46)
Hmm.

I wonder if this rings true to you, because there have been times in my life where I learned something just by doing by experience. And then I have the opportunity to be educated by somebody who’s put language in a more formal structure to some of the things that I just figured out through the school of hard knocks. And it’s validating. It’s like, yeah, like I do that.

I do that, I didn’t even realize that was a thing, but now that there’s a term for it or there’s language around it, like it helps me to formalize in my head what I’ve already been doing. I see you nodding your head. Is this the same for you?

Layla Ebersole (10:21)
Yeah, yeah,

yeah, that’s kind of exactly. I’m like, yeah, well, I’ve done it this, you know, I’m doing this. And then all of a sudden someone’s like, well, you know, here’s an SOP for it. I’m like, ⁓ yeah, okay, I’ve done this. This is great. You know, or it’s like, ⁓ I didn’t even think about doing it that way. ⁓ And so it’s kind of this, you know, every, it’s even when we onboard a client, I’m like, tell me why you do it that way. ⁓ Like even though we do it for 400 plus restaurants at this point,

Like you might open my eyes to something completely different. And so it’s a lot of that. Yeah, a lot of like, I think I know what I’m doing, but show me why you do it that way. And so that, you know, I can learn better or learn a different way or see a different perspective.

Anthony Codispoti (11:00)
Yeah.

See, and I think your story is great because we were talking about this before we went live, like both have kids, they don’t like school, right? It’s boring, it’s dry. And I think back to 100 years ago, when I went to school, I didn’t like it either. I thought it was boring and dry. But now when I find something that I want to learn about, and you’re the same way, Leila, I can tell you’ve already said it, like you’re excited to do it. And like you’re like, you can’t wait to like dive into the next chapter and like, what else am going to learn?

Layla Ebersole (11:14)
No.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (11:33)
Why do you

Layla Ebersole (11:34)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (11:34)
think that is? Why is it so different now?

Layla Ebersole (11:37)
⁓ You know, I think one, I really like to challenge myself. ⁓ It keeps me entertained. I want to better myself. want to, you know, know a little about a lot. ⁓ You know, I think it’s just as you get older and ⁓ out of school where it’s kind of, I don’t want to say forced on your throat, but in a way it’s a non-negotiable. You have to go. You’re a kid. This is it, you know. ⁓ But if you can make that, it’s something that’s true value to you.

⁓ really dig your teeth into it. think it just changes the whole perspective of what you’re learning and what you take away from it.

Anthony Codispoti (12:18)
where you get to choose what you want to learn now, right? And you get to apply it. And I think those are two big differences.

Layla Ebersole (12:20)
Yeah, yeah. Exactly. It’s real, real

life. You know that, you know, I really like science, but I’m never going to be a rocket scientist. You know, but I think it’s cool to do experiments with my kid, you know. ⁓ So it’s kind of a give and take. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (12:38)
Okay, so let’s come back to Okra. We touched on it a little bit in the intro, but kind of plain language, like who do you help and what do you do for them?

Layla Ebersole (12:49)
Yeah, so we do bookkeeping for restaurants and restaurants only. And so we’ve got just over 400 restaurants now that we service in some way. And so what we try to do is truly become your back office support, right? We want to be a part of your team, we want to be hands-on, we want to do as much as we possibly can so that you can focus on.

The restaurants being on the floor, your managers are focusing on what they need to manage. You know, actually being on the floor, not sitting behind a computer, entering invoices, you know, going through inventory changes, making sure the items are right, all of that. So what we try to do is really become a part of your team and your whole back office so that you can do what you started a restaurant to do, you know, and not be stuck behind a computer in the day to day.

Anthony Codispoti (13:44)
So more specifically within the restaurant space, like who’s a good fit for you? Is there specific geography, maybe specific size, either in terms of headcount, revenue, locations, fine dining versus QSR?

Layla Ebersole (14:00)
Yeah, we have a little bit of everything. You know, we’ve got the fine dining groups, we’ve got the, you know, jack in the box, Qdoba, ⁓ Wingstop area as well. ⁓ And so what we really have done is built different teams to focus on different things, right. So if I know that they’re I have a manager who’s really strong with quick service and sees it all the time, we try to pair you with those people. And I think

Honestly, as far as people that fit with us, we really like the six to eight unit groups. ⁓ Odds are you have a little bit of processes in place. You probably have some sort of controller, manager, director on board that can help facilitate some of these processes ⁓ and really get value out of us in taking the data that we’re providing and doing something with it. ⁓

But we’re here for everyone, right? So we can tailor our services to fit kind of any mold, ⁓ which makes us pretty unique and, ⁓ you know, able to push and pull when we need to.

Anthony Codispoti (15:09)
Do you help prepare ⁓ taxes at the end of the year?

Layla Ebersole (15:12)
So we work directly with people’s CPAs. ⁓ So we have a lot, we partner with some CPAs. so most of the time what we’re doing is getting, we have a relationship with your CPA as well as your managers and everything else. So we kind of, we talk to everybody and try to handle as much as possible. ⁓

So yeah, that’s been my life for the last six weeks as we get, as the year has ended. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (15:40)
Yeah, I bet. So bookkeeping,

accounting, inventory, what’s some of the higher level advisory work that you provide for some of your clients?

Layla Ebersole (15:54)
Yeah, so we actually, part of the acquisition now we offer ⁓ fractional CFO ⁓ services, which is exciting and new. ⁓ But high level, know, we’re going through and we’re like, hey, you know, your prime cost is 5 % higher than what we’re seeing. ⁓ You know, I’m giving feedback to, you know, restaurants in New York City where I’m like, hey, just so you know, like, you’re not the only one that had a tough week this week, ⁓ you know, as we’re providing those financials.

Anthony Codispoti (16:19)
Mm-hmm.

Layla Ebersole (16:23)
You know, we have access to so many different parts of the country and niche, you know, restaurants to big restaurants that we can really say like, we know this area is struggling, like you’re not the only one feeling it. And we can provide that feedback of like, your labor is really high or like this tech stack that you have going on right now, like let’s, let’s kibosh it, let’s try again. ⁓ So it’s different, right? We can give feedback.

in so many different areas. ⁓ And all of us have some sort of hospitality background. ⁓ Everyone on staff. at some point somewhere, someone’s worked in a restaurant or hospitality, whether that’s bookkeeping, whether that’s on the line, whether that’s a hostess, whether you’re a server, ⁓ to really understand the struggles, right? There’s a lot of moving different pieces in the restaurant world. So we try to catch what we can when we can.

Anthony Codispoti (17:22)
That’s so great, right? That you guys have such a big client base that you can be able to see those trends and share that, know, anonymous. It’s not like, ⁓ hey, you know, your competitor, Bob across the street, like, look at his numbers. They were terrible this week. No, it’s just more like general, like, hey, you know, we’re seeing similar kinds of things, or we’re seeing something very different, which tells us that either you guys are doing something wrong, or maybe you guys are doing something, you know, really well. And, you know, let’s focus on that.

Layla Ebersole (17:32)
Exactly. Yeah, I’m not sharing anyone’s data. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Something else is wrong.

you

Anthony Codispoti (17:51)
⁓ That’s interesting. So you guys, ⁓ you’re offering fractional CFO services now through a recent acquisition. How recent was this? We’re recording this in February of 26.

Layla Ebersole (18:03)
Yeah,

it just went through in December fully. ⁓ So it’s brand new. Yeah, yeah. So we’re, we’re, fall, we’re, all the pieces have fallen in line. Things have calmed down quite a bit. But yeah, it was newer for us. We’ve had a, you know, a good relationship with the, Multified group, which is who we acquired or their bookkeeping side is what we acquired. ⁓ And so, you know, we’ve been talking over the last year or so, just, you know, more of like,

Anthony Codispoti (18:07)
this is brand spanking now. Okay.

Layla Ebersole (18:34)
How’s it going for you? ⁓ you know, how’s it going for you? Well, you know, and just talking and building that relationship. And finally, we just said, hey, so what do you think about this? And ⁓ it ⁓ was a quick, easy, easy deal and decision to kind of push through.

Anthony Codispoti (18:51)
So I just want to make sure I understand clearly. Did you just acquire the bookkeeping side of their business or have you also taken in the ability to offer CFO services?

Layla Ebersole (19:02)
So we’ve kind of done both. So the fractional CFO work is through the multiply group, ⁓ but we do all of the multiply groups bookkeeping. So that side of their business is what we acquire.

Anthony Codispoti (19:04)
Okay.

Okay.

Got it. And so ⁓ the thinking is sort of the dust settles from integrating their bookkeeping side of the work that you guys will start to go out to your client base and say, hey, here’s something else that we’re able to do for you, the fractional CFO.

Layla Ebersole (19:35)
Yeah,

so it’s a referral back and forth. Yeah. So someone calls them for fractional CFO, someone calls us for bookkeeping, and we can kind of give and take, ⁓ you know, and tailor it even more to what their specific needs are ⁓ as a group. Because, you know, not everyone needs fractional CFO. ⁓ I think everyone needs strong bookkeeping, but it really depends on your business and what’s going to benefit you in the long term.

Anthony Codispoti (19:50)
Yeah.

Gotcha. So what are some of the trends that you’re seeing here in early 2026? Who’s up? Who’s down? What’s working? What’s struggling?

Layla Ebersole (20:14)
Yeah, I think ⁓ you’re seeing less traffic in general. ⁓ A lot of the quick service is up and a lot of the fine dining is up because a lot of people I think are saving these experiences for, you know, they really want to go out and have an experience and save that, know, save the cash of we’re going to go out to a really nice dinner once a quarter instead of going out once a week. ⁓

you see a lot of the quick service up, see a lot of the fine dining up, and then you see this kind of like middle group that seems to struggle through 2025, and we see still kind of struggling in general. And so it’s interesting just the trends that have happened over the last 11 years that I’ve been able to witness and how dramatically things change from season to season.

you know, where our economy is at, how people feel about going out and celebrating and, you know, cash being tight and families ⁓ and that kind of dynamic.

Anthony Codispoti (21:24)
Hmm. I want to shift back into a little bit more of your career trajectory. Started out as data entry. Today, you’re both COO and a partner in the group. ⁓ Tell us how this unfolded.

Layla Ebersole (21:40)
Oof, ⁓ it’s been a ride, yeah. It’s been 11 years, yeah. I can’t picture my life without it, I’ll tell you that much. It’s been fun, it’s been interesting, it’s been hard. There’s been moments of like, I just don’t know if bookkeeping’s for me. It’s easy to get burnt out on. ⁓ And there’s a lot of things. We used to offer payroll services, we don’t anymore.

Anthony Codispoti (21:41)
It’s been a ride, huh? Because what’s this been, 11 years? Yeah. ⁓

Layla Ebersole (22:10)
I worked in payroll for a little bit too. And I was like, yeah, I don’t like payroll. There’s too many pieces to the puzzle and people aren’t looking at it. But it’s been interesting and challenging. We had, I think 70 restaurants when I first joined, there was nine of us. Now there’s a team over 40 people, 400 restaurants. We’re all remote. We used to all be in this tiny little office in the middle of Denver.

Um, and yeah, just along the way it’s been, you know, gaining different knowledge from different people and different trainers and different mentors and different, um, employees and seeing different walks of life and different clients who have taught me just so, so much of, you know, the bookkeeping side, the payroll side, the AP side, operational side, the, you know, um, and so, yeah, it’s been.

It’s been an interesting ride for sure.

Anthony Codispoti (23:11)
Who is someone specific that had a particularly big impact on your?

Layla Ebersole (23:17)
⁓ I’d have to say my, my now partner who used to be my boss, ⁓ Mark Rubinstein, who’s our owner and founder. ⁓ he, you know, our relationship has changed throughout the, throughout the time of me being at Okra. ⁓ but what he’s always done is push me and always challenge me to do the next thing. And like, Hey, we need a new process for this. Can you do it? And I’m like,

I don’t even know the process. And he’s like, that’s the point, you know, and that’s talking to my peers and getting all the different and then being like, okay, this is how we’re going to do this moving forward. ⁓ And so he’s, he’s pushed me to have uncomfortable conversations that I’m like, I don’t want to call that person. He’s like, I’m not calling that person. And really taught me just everything that I know and has taught me a lot ⁓ and has pushed and pulled when he needed to. He’s been

an absolute rock star dealing with my ups and downs and everything else. And it made so much sense of, I don’t wanna do this if you’re not involved. I don’t wanna do this if you’re not involved. Like, okay, well then let’s do this. ⁓ And keep pushing and what’s next and that’s exciting. And yeah, just keep each other entertained. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (24:37)
So how

long ago did you become a partner?

Layla Ebersole (24:41)
just this last year as we started the acquisition. That was kind of the goal. I worked as our director of bookkeeping and then our director of accounts payable and then kind of overall ⁓ and slowly worked my way. I managed the AP team and then I started managing our bookkeeping team and then I started managing our offshore teams and then putting these processes in place that we could do acquisitions.

and that was kind of the growth pattern that we decided to go with this last year of, you know, instead of doing the same thing we’ve always done, let’s, let’s try to bring in other people. Let’s try to, you know, branch off and offer different services and really become that one stop shop. ⁓ and with that, you know, mindset, you know, we decided that that was kind of the next thing for me to take on. Cause I was out, he was like, you’re already doing it, you know.

Just put pen to paper. At that point, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (25:41)
Yeah. So

this is a question that is way too early to ask since you guys have just completed your first acquisition. But is it in your mind that you want to do more of these?

Layla Ebersole (25:53)
Yes, we were actually supposed to do two last year. ⁓ And so we were one obviously fell through and the other one went through and we learned a lot. but we also learned that like, it’s so it’s such an interesting pattern to push because we get different, you know, different relationships from different people ⁓ and see different things.

and are able to kind of configure them into our processes because they are flexible. In the restaurant world, no one process fits all. ⁓ And that’s kind of how we’re seeing with other firms too, as we have more conversations. So yeah, I could see there’s an acquisition in there somewhere for us again. Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (26:46)
Is it the goal to stay specifically within the restaurant space? You’ve got domain expertise. Yeah.

Layla Ebersole (26:50)
Yes, we won’t leave. It’s our specialty. And I think that’s

what makes it so, it’s such a, I don’t want to call it niche, but there’s such a demand for it where, know, bookkeeping is bookkeeping. But when you’re talking restaurants with all the moving pieces, ⁓ I think having a partner that truly, truly understands what you’re doing on the restaurant level is so significant and provides so much more than like,

Yeah, your prime cost is high, but they don’t know what food cost should be right now. know, prime cost is pretty much like your cost of goods sold and your labor and where you should be at within that realm. And so it’s your, if you can tighten that up, then you have margin for everything else, right? ⁓ And so that’s kind of, it’s what we try to focus, try to get our clients to focus on. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (27:21)
What is prime cost? Explain that.

Layla Ebersole (27:45)
when they first start struggling and then everything else is kind of nitty gritty and you you can’t control your rent, but you can control your meat prices ⁓ most of the time.

Anthony Codispoti (27:55)
And so

where’s a healthy place for that prime cost to be?

Layla Ebersole (28:00)
Typically, ⁓ I mean, depends on your restaurant, right? ⁓ You know, I have a cheesesteak place where all they serve is Philly cheesesteaks and chips, and that’s it. ⁓ And so when you’re talking meat prices and you have one menu item, you don’t have a lot of wiggle room in your, you know, 20 to 25 % food cost. And same with labor costs. Are you full service? Are you a coffee shop? you, right? So some of this give and take, so it’s kind of…

not hard to say in general. It depends on where you’re at in the industry.

Anthony Codispoti (28:32)
What about like a yeah,

how about a QSR? Where should they be?

Layla Ebersole (28:36)
QSR, I would say around that 60 to 65%.

Anthony Codispoti (28:41)
Okay. And then how does that compare to like fine dining, just so we get an idea of the range.

Layla Ebersole (28:46)
Fine dining, I mean, I would say you want to be kind of within that same, right? You might be a little higher on your labor because you’ve got so much more or you might be higher on your food costs because you’re providing some extra specialty items. ⁓ But finding that sweet spot really depends on your sales and where

Anthony Codispoti (29:04)
You mentioned earlier that, ⁓ you know, it’s really easy to get burned out on bookkeeping and there were times where you sort of were like, ⁓ I don’t know what this is for me. How did you push through that?

Layla Ebersole (29:16)
⁓ I think it’s, finding something new to challenge myself and finding that next problem to solve. Right. And when you’re going through and you’re like, this is always a pain and I don’t want to do this this week, but why don’t I want to do it? And why is it because I personally don’t want to do it because there’s a better way to do it. ⁓ and it’s taking longer than it should. It’s a, you know, it’s one of those tasks that like,

it should be automated and it should be fine. And it should, and here I am like sitting here trying to pinch pennies and match, you know, spending dollars to chase pennies. I’ve always, I’ve kind of always said this with this business, you know, in general. And so I think it’s, it’s, it’s finding something to be excited about ⁓ and understanding your next step and understanding, you know, is there something more for me? Is there not, is there?

Is there a challenge that I can dig my teeth into to keep me motivated to do more? You know, and so I think I think there’s a lot of it. I do. I do. Yes. I do. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (30:20)
You like being challenged. want to tackle that next problem. You want to come up with the next solution. ⁓

What’s some of the most common accounting mistakes that you see people make when they first come to you?

Layla Ebersole (30:37)
Yeah, I think it’s a lot of, ⁓ but we’ve always done it that way. You know, there’s a lot of that. There’s a lot of, ⁓ I’ll finish the books later. Or, you know, where people really put it to the side because maybe cash flow isn’t that tight and you’re paying your vendors on time and people are getting paid, okay, whatever. I’m good. ⁓ And you’re leaving a lot on the table. ⁓ In general, when you

when you do that. And I think that there’s a big misconception that, you know, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. You know, my bank account is not going negative, so I’m good. ⁓ But having real time financials and bookkeeping at your fingertips, which we really, you know, we’re closing your books weekly. So you’re able to pivot quickly, right? Like, hey, your meat cost, you know, Cisco, you had a contracted price with Cisco.

And they messed it up and all of a sudden now you’re paying $20 more a case. And you’re, if you’re not getting that information, I can go on for months. And then all of a sudden you’re like, wait a second, why is my prime cost 75 %? Why am I, you know, and if you’re not doing your, your books like that, and not getting the data back to you in a timely, efficient manner, you can’t, you can’t make smart, like confident decisions in your business, you know,

when they need to happen. Most of the time this has snowballed so far out of control that you have no idea that it’s been happening.

Anthony Codispoti (32:12)
I love that Cisco beef price example that you gave. What would be another example of some things that you can identify because you’re closing those books on a weekly basis for them?

Layla Ebersole (32:24)
Yeah, I think another one is it’s probably the the labor piece. You know, we had a had a client come on this last year where we’re looking at their payroll reports and we’re looking at their their tips and you know, we’re like, things aren’t quite adding up ⁓ on on your cash flow side. Like where your cash deposits going? We’re like, well, they go to tips, but you guys aren’t reporting any tips. What do mean we’re not reporting any tips? Who’s doing your payroll? And so it’s these like,

if you don’t, you don’t know until you know, right? And so that was that was a big, big example where I was like, yeah, you’re, you’re saying it’s going to tips, but your managers aren’t depositing anything, and now you’re not reporting them. And now you have a, you know, an issue that could turn into a legal situation, where you could get sued for not reporting wages properly. It’s part of the reason we got out of got out of payroll, but we can identify some of these

know, bigger issues that people aren’t necessarily seeing quickly.

Anthony Codispoti (33:26)
So when you got out

of payroll, did you start referring your clients to a particular partner that you like? was it just sort of like, hey, you know, here’s some options, you know, you guys can shop.

Layla Ebersole (33:35)
⁓ yeah, I mean, we have kind of just like a referral list of platforms that we enjoy and like, ⁓ you know, easy reporting, people paying attention, that kind of stuff. I mean, it’s such a, depends on your needs and how big you are and how complex your payroll gets. ⁓ but we have a handful of just different providers that were like, that one’s going to fit best, ⁓ that we really enjoy. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (33:59)
Yeah.

And are they specific to the restaurant industry or payroll’s payroll kind of a thing?

Layla Ebersole (34:05)
Not

kind of on the payroll side. ⁓ We do use Restaurant 365 as our software who does offer payroll services now. ⁓ And so we exclusively work in Restaurant 365. It’s kind of a one-stop shop and keeps the tech stack as low as possible, which is what I kind of shoot for when we pull someone on.

Anthony Codispoti (34:29)
So if a client comes to you and they’re not using that platform, part of what you do is transition them over. And what does this platform do? Is it accounting, bookkeeping, is it the inventory? What all does it touch?

Layla Ebersole (34:35)
Correct. Yep.

It’s everything

at this point. ⁓ is ⁓ inventory, bookkeeping, ⁓ payroll. think they have scheduling now and task management ⁓ and onboarding and all of that. ⁓ So it’s kind of a one-stop shop for restaurants in general. They’re great. We’ve been with them for the last, I think we were their second accounting partner ever. ⁓

And so we’ve been with them kind of from the jump when it was just a, an accounting platform specifically built for the restaurant industry. and now they’re, they’ve really grown as of we, and so they, they really took in all the pieces. ⁓ so it’s a really cool software for restaurants. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (35:28)
Sounds like you’ve got a great relationship with them. It’s nice to have partnerships like that. So you recently wrote about balancing the art and business of restaurants. Can you tell us what you mean by that?

Layla Ebersole (35:30)
We do, yes. Exactly, yeah.

Yeah, it was that was such a fun article to write. It was ⁓ it’s really about how do you keep what makes a restaurant special without, you know, giving away too much for a better financial picture, right? Without having cheaper products without stopping the R &D of your of your restaurant in general, and really honing in on most people start a restaurant because they like to cook food.

and they like to host people and they like being in hospitality. Not a lot of people get it into like, I’m going to make millions because if you’re in the restaurant industry, you know you’re not. Typically, it’s just not how that goes. And so there’s a special like, you’re inspired to do what you came into it to do and now you want to make it profitable as well. Just like all of us business owners do, right? You want to do something you love doing.

while making money. ⁓ And so it was an article kind of balancing, you know, what is going to keep you engaged and what’s going to keep you profitable ⁓ and finding that right balance.

Anthony Codispoti (36:57)
Your insights have also been featured in ⁓ Total Food Service magazine. ⁓ What did you share there?

Layla Ebersole (37:05)
I think that article was published there. And then we also we had I think one came out today, actually. ⁓ But we’ve ⁓ don’t remember. I wrote it a month or month or two ago. So I don’t actually need to go back and look. But ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (37:15)
Hot off the presses, what is this one?

Okay.

Layla Ebersole (37:29)
Yeah, we wrote about four articles with total food and service that have been a ton of fun. And yeah, me and Mark kind of do those together. We wrote one about tech stack. We wrote one about the art and inventory management. So yeah, it’s been a lot of fun.

Anthony Codispoti (37:49)
So let’s talk more about, excuse me, tech stack. You work exclusively with Restaurant 365. What else are you guys using behind the scenes? you leveraging any AI components yet? Anything else that’s helped you drive more efficiency?

Layla Ebersole (38:04)
Yeah,

not quite yet. ⁓ you know, we went to RFDC, which is this huge restaurant conference in Vegas every year. And AI is such a buzzword right now. And it’s, and I can see it having so much good capabilities and help automate everything. ⁓

And restaurant 365 has done a lot to, you know, we have integrations with vendors directly. So invoices are just importing and your sales are importing every morning. so there’s, you know, and your labor can automatically post. And so there’s a lot of, ⁓ advances there. ⁓ you know, we spent some time building out some bots to hopefully automate even more, but it all comes with its own specific set of challenges where.

we’re getting wrapped up in technology more than we are looking at, you know, looking at books and keeping that personal relationship. So it’s a, it’s finding the balance of what’s worth the time and managing the system. ⁓ that’s not going to make us lose our touch because restaurants, I mean, you’ve got kitchen managers who are running around and, know, this invoice falls behind an oven and here’s a stain and I’m going to snap a picture and, know, AI can’t necessarily read that.

as perfect as a human could, right? You have some of that human connection and like, yeah, I can tell that’s an eight or, you know, can make an educated decision on like a bot would. ⁓ And so we’re still, not shut off. you know, I look at different systems every day and different partnerships we can do with different AI companies. We just haven’t found one that’s like, yes, that’s it. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (39:51)
right? Yeah,

the right fit. You know, lot of the groups that I talked to, they are looking at AI as a way to take people away from sort of the monotonous work, and allow them to have more of that direct customer interaction, that more human touch more of the consulting and the advisory work. Is that kind how you guys are like thinking about it hoping to get to?

Layla Ebersole (40:03)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that’s, that’s what we’re hoping to get to. It’s like, it’s like, I don’t want to have to log in a door dash every week to pull that report to post your fees. You know, something should be able to do that. And what you run into is a lot of this like, two factor authentication, or you need a code to get into this to do this to do that. And so there’s certain industry standard, like challenges that we’re facing as far as, you know,

banking and DoorDash and just different sites to get logged in. ⁓ But we’ll keep trying to find a solution. But that’s ultimately the goal, right?

Anthony Codispoti (40:54)
That’s the big picture vision long term. Yeah. So you’ve been in this business for 11 years. A lot of changes had taken place during that time, a lot of trends, ups and downs. What do you think is the biggest change that you’ve witnessed in your 11 years in this space?

Layla Ebersole (40:56)
That’s the big picture vision, yeah.

Um, I think COVID changed a lot. That was like, probably the biggest transition and something that we still see today. Um, of just how people look at restaurants, how people look at eating out, um, how restaurants function, how our world functions, right? We were all in office in 2020. Now we’re all fully remote. Um, which is great because we’ve been able to bring on some

great employees in the last six years that maybe we wouldn’t have been able to if we really had this, you know, like, we only want this area because we want you to come into the office, right? ⁓ And you see a lot of that in the restaurants too, of how things have changed to go platforms, third, you know, ⁓ delivery services, ⁓ different automations and handheld, you know, POS systems, ⁓ AI even ⁓ on inventory counts and that kind of stuff.

⁓ you know, different companies that come in and take your inventory for you. ⁓ and so you’ve seen a lot of different trends and you’ve also seen just trends on how people spend money change drastically. ⁓ which I think is still part of the restaurant world in general.

Anthony Codispoti (42:29)
in

What if I want to go next here with you, Leila? We’ve covered some really good ground today. ⁓ Outside of the acquisition, what has been one of the more effective growth strategies for you guys up to this point?

Layla Ebersole (42:35)
Yeah.

I think it’s really we’ve, you know, I’ve, we’ve restructured how we onboarded clients, ⁓ which helped retain clients better, and drive more referrals in. ⁓ and so that was a big part. ⁓ and just joining different alliances, getting in front of different people where we wouldn’t have normally thought of, you know,

We don’t do a lot of big conferences, but we like being a part of the Colorado Restaurant Association, the New York Hospitality Alliance, and showing up in different ways. Like, let’s go to a happy hour, let’s go here. And it’s hospitality. People want to see people. ⁓ That’s our whole industry. We want to have that personal touch. And so it’s a lot when it’s not like, hey, we’re bookkeepers. ⁓ But no, we’re here. We’re a part of your team. We’re part of the industry.

We care, you your businesses keep us alive. ⁓ And so we want to make sure that we’re giving back as much as we can and being involved and building those relationships in general, face to face.

Anthony Codispoti (44:01)
So

people who are in the restaurant industry, even if they’re not clients of yours, do you feel like you’ve got like pretty good ⁓ like name recognition? People know who Okra is?

Layla Ebersole (44:14)
I think so. I mean, it’s a, I don’t want to call it a small world, but it’s how we do most of our marketing. It’s word of mouth. So and so, no so and so, called so and so, you know. And it’s kind of how we operate too. One of our clients wants to open an ice cream shop. Hey, let me link you with these guys who own an ice cream shop and they can talk you through the challenges that they’ve had that maybe you’re not ready for. ⁓

It’s investors of restaurants where they’re like, you know, ⁓ you’re struggling with bookkeeping and I can’t get a good financial report. You got to call Okra and start your bookkeeping going. ⁓ And same with like the CPA firms that we work with and everything else. It’s that good balance of, you’re struggling in this area and we have a referral. ⁓ So I would say that’s our number one kind of marketing platform is just word of mouth.

Anthony Codispoti (45:10)
Is there anything specific in terms of how you do the books or specific challenges when it comes to franchises?

Layla Ebersole (45:20)
not necessarily other than they need some different reporting, you know, ⁓ or, or they have different guidelines of when you need to submit, ⁓ your books to, or, you know, we just closed books for someone who has an audit every year around this time before they can officially close their books, ⁓ from their investors. So it’s just getting everyone prepped for maybe those audits or.

closing for CPAs or anything like that. But not necessarily. There’s more pieces to the puzzle of franchising, right? You have your royalties and your franchise fees and advertising fees. But it’s nothing that we haven’t seen or done.

Anthony Codispoti (46:05)
You have any recommendations for our listeners? ⁓ courses, podcasts, ⁓ books that have been helpful to you in your development that they might find interesting.

Layla Ebersole (46:17)
Um, you know, I, I just did a, uh, I just read through a book called the middle finger project. It talks about imposter syndrome, um, and overcoming that. And, it’s very straightforward. Um, I absolutely love it. Um, the other book that I read is called getting to zero. Um, and it is about solving conflicts in general, um, and walks you through.

you know, how to handle conflict, how to address it when not to address it, because it’s just maybe not worth the time. ⁓ And that has been such a transformation for me of do I need to give this my energy? No, okay, you know, or when it when it’s really stuck with me and when I when I do really need to give it energy and thought and process. ⁓ And so that one has been

last three years of my life, a very, very ⁓ helpful tool for me. I’ve read it like three times. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (47:20)
interesting. wow. Okay. Give us

some more of the big takeaway. So getting to zero is the name of the book. And basically, the idea is conflict resolution and like teaching you or helping you get to the point where it’s like, wait a minute, is this something I even really need to be spending energy on? Or can I just let it go? Is this a mountain that’s not worth dying?

Layla Ebersole (47:28)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ huh.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah,

exactly. It’s, you know, like, is this bothering me? And why is it bothering me? Is this about me? Or is this about them? You know, ⁓ is that a true conflict that I need to address? Or is it a true like, that client left, and it wasn’t because of me or our services, it just wasn’t a good fit. And I don’t need to take it personally. ⁓ And giving that feedback to my to my team, because they you know, they take it personally too, when

someone’s decided to move on and I want to, it’s like, hey, some of it is our fault. We’re not perfect. ⁓ We’re human just as everyone else. ⁓ And other times it’s like, you know, it just wasn’t a good fit and that conflict wasn’t going to get resolved. And it is what it is. It’s time to move on. There’s better fits out there, ⁓ you know? And so it’s helped a lot, not only with, you know.

myself and keeping my confidence up and knowing what I’m doing and building my team, but also keeping my team strong and you know, like, hey, don’t sweat it, roll it off. Let’s go time to move on. You know, that person was a jerk, you know, let’s, don’t need to respond to that email. ⁓ Exactly. ⁓ so it’s great. I mean, it’s such a, such a helpful tool.

Anthony Codispoti (48:51)
Addition by subtraction.

So the way I heard you talk about it there was more about letting it go, letting the conflict go. That was an angry client email is not a good fit for us. We don’t need to engage and keep that back and forth, angriness going. ⁓ Did you pick up things from it where it’s like, no, this is something we need to engage in. And now that I figured that part out, like here’s a different strategy to approach that conflict.

Layla Ebersole (49:26)
Yeah,

yeah, definitely. I mean, there’s the whole other side, right? It’s like, oof, we did mess that up. That’s a big conflict or, know, this is something that we need to dig our teeth in and understand why it happened and how we prevent it from happening again. ⁓ And really, really sitting with it and understanding our process as, okay, yeah, we messed that up or yeah, there was different ways to approach it. How did we get to where we got and how can we prevent it from happening again?

And how do we take accountability for it? And owning our piece of the puzzle, right? I think right now, especially behind screens, it’s very easy to point fingers back to each other. ⁓ Well, I thought, well, I thought, and it’s like, how do we get those clear guidelines of like, there was no question of who should have done what. ⁓ And that it helps a lot when you go through this, you know, the strategy of how this author describes

you know, resolving conflict and owning our piece and letting go of maybe the pieces that didn’t fit, but how you take accountability and how you move forward and make sure that, you know, you’re doing the best that you can and not making the same mistakes or not creating the same conflict.

Anthony Codispoti (50:43)
Hmm.

Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. ⁓ You know, since we’re on sort of this path of, learning from mistakes and, you know, going through some challenges, I’d like to hear Layla about particularly the big challenge that you’ve overcome in your life, hard time you went through, how you got through it what you learned.

Layla Ebersole (50:48)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think we touched on it kind of in the beginning, you know, I dropped out of high school. I watched my mom battle with addiction for my entire life. And my dad, worked relentlessly trying to raise us, me, my sister and brother, on his own as a single parent. ⁓ And it was one of those where he did the best with the tools he had. ⁓

And overcoming that in general of my own, watching my mom battle with such a hard, difficult thing and watching my dad go through it alone and how that translated to me in, I had to drop out of high school. I had to get a job. I had to move forward and I had to grow up quick and I had to grow up fast. And part of that led into me making

a lot of mistakes in younger years. ⁓ And, you know, I got married young, ⁓ thinking it was the best thing for me. now, know, ⁓ divorced and a single mom and running a business and everything else and on the surface, you know, it looks great and fantastic. And I’ve overcome a lot, ⁓ you know, and I actually just sat down with one of my friend’s kids who’s 18. She’s like, I want to be where you are. And I’m like, stop. No.

you know, relax, go to college, get a job, enjoy. You’re just starting out. Don’t fall in my footsteps. It wasn’t fun to get here. I got here out of desperation and overcoming a lot. I don’t want to picture that for anyone that I love. Made a lot of mistakes along the way. I made a lot of great decisions too. grew myself and knew, you know,

If you focus on drugs and alcohol, you’re not going to be here. You watched what happened with your mom. Don’t do that. And it took a lot of trial and error, especially watching all my friends go off to college and parties. And then here I am married and have a kid and, ⁓ you know, where did my 20s go? ⁓ And so, yeah, it’s been a wild ride. I wouldn’t change it for myself because it got me to where I am.

I do, I love every bit of my life. I love my job, I love my son, I love my dog, you know, have so much fun doing it. ⁓ But I wish someone would have told me to slow down.

Anthony Codispoti (53:37)
Interesting. As you look back over that difficult arc in your life, do you think if you had followed a more traditional path, if you had a more stable home life, went off to college like your friends did, and then from there move into a job, do you think you would be where you are with your career progression?

Layla Ebersole (53:39)
Yeah.

No, I don’t. And I think it motivated me in different ways and it showed me different sides of me ⁓ that I don’t think I would have ever or wouldn’t have seen as early as I did had I had traditional upbringing and education and everything else. I think at the heart of who I am has always been there, but I don’t know if it would have came out the way that it did.

and pushed me as far as it did with that motivation and everything else.

Anthony Codispoti (54:38)
You know, the other book that you mentioned, The Middle Finger Project, which talks about imposter syndrome, a familiar topic on this show. I wonder, do you think any of that, I mean, the fact that you read that suggests to me that that’s something that, you know, imposter syndrome, like a lot of high performers that you deal with. Is that something do you think that maybe is driven by some of those earlier experiences? You know, when you said you had to grow up too fast?

Layla Ebersole (54:46)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

a hundred percent.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, it was, there was a lot of just like, fake it till you make it, walk in the door and be there, be present, you know, and it changed into ⁓ putting myself into rooms that I wanted to be in. I wanted, you know, it’s like going to the gym. I wanted to be fit and I wanted to be healthy. And if I don’t show up in the room, that’s going to make me fit and healthy. I can’t be fit and healthy, even though I might feel

Like I don’t fit in, but I will eventually, you know, and it’s scary to walk in the door. It’s scary to go to the conference. It’s scary to have, be a podcast guest, right? It’s all those things, but putting yourself in the room and pushing yourself forward ⁓ feels very, and, and, postury, ⁓ and feels very, just terrifying. Like, should I be here? Why does someone want to talk to me about my life? Why, why would someone

Listen to me about this ⁓ You know, I actually I went to a conference last year that had a whole breakout session about imposter syndrome And it was watching these I think there was it was for it was an all women’s conference for women sit on stage and say the same things that I felt, know, and I’m like, okay So we all feel the same way got it. I’m not doing I’m not any different than anyone else ⁓ you know and

I think it was right before I walked into that breakout session, my now partner Mark ⁓ sent me very long text about, as you walk in here and think about how you’re an imposter, here’s all the things that you did this last year for our company. ⁓ And so it was really this big trajectory for me and the Middle Finger Project, same thing, where I was like, whew, okay, I can breathe.

It sometimes feels like, sure, I’ll figure that out. No worries. it’s because I will and I can and I have the tools to do it. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (57:06)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I can tell you from experience, Leila on this show, ⁓ imposter syndrome comes up a lot. ⁓ And from people who are wildly successful founder and CEO, know, thousand employee companies and you know, they’ve done tons of press, tons of, you know, speaking and they’ll confide the same thing. Like I was nervous to come on this show. Like who wants to hear my story kind of a thing.

Layla Ebersole (57:14)
I’m sure, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (57:35)
And I had one guest that, ⁓ you know, I think back to this conversation often, who was able to change his relationship with imposter syndrome in a way that I now try to embrace. And I’ll share it with you just in case there’s any value for you to pull out or for our listeners. He actually views ⁓ imposter syndrome as his superpower, because it’s the thing that kicks him in the butt every morning when he’s laying there in bed, like, I don’t want to get up.

kicks him in the rear end to get up out of bed and go do a better job. Because this is nagging down in his head that, right, have I done enough? ⁓ Who am I? And just gets him out of bed to go and prove himself again every day.

Layla Ebersole (58:08)
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s such a great perspective on it. mean, it really, when you look at it, it’s the same reason we like challenges, right? It’s gonna keep me coming back, because it’s gonna nag at me until I do. And so that’s an awesome perspective. I love that.

Anthony Codispoti (58:38)
Yeah.

And since we talked about his superpower, what’s your superpower lately?

Layla Ebersole (58:44)
⁓ You know, I really, think it’s being able to foster relationships the way that they need to be, right? I think it’s accept people as they are and place them accordingly. ⁓ It’s one of the biggest things that I’ve done ⁓ the last three years or so of you’re really good at that. And we’re gonna use that and being able to identify what keeps people going and what

why they show up every day and respecting it, right? I have an employee that I would give her my job tomorrow if she asked me for it, because she’s that good. And she’s like, I just want, my kids are off to college. I just want to sit here and plug away. And I’m like, great, you should do that. And I’m going to respect that. ⁓ And having empathy for people’s situations of, you know, this is where we’re at and this is where you need to be placed. And being honest about it.

And I think that it’s a really good superpower of mine, or, you of being able to lead in that type of direction.

Anthony Codispoti (59:53)
I like that. I’ve just got one more question for you today, Leila. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things. First of all, anybody that wants to get in touch with Leila, two options. One, I’ve got her email address here, leilayla at okra, O C R A dash us.com Leila at okra dash us.com. It’ll be in the show notes as well.

linked to her LinkedIn profile, which is another great way to get in touch with her. If you just look up Layla Ebersole on Call Restaurant Accounting, you will find her. She’s the only one. ⁓ And if you’re listening to the show today and you’re enjoying it, a quick review or on your favorite podcast app will go a long way towards helping others find the show. 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 while paradoxically increasing their net profits. Real gains that can change how a business is valued. Learn more today at addbackbenefits.com. So last question for you, Leila, a year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?

Layla Ebersole (1:01:05)
Man, that’s such a hard question.

Anthony Codispoti (1:01:15)
Could be personal, could be professional, wherever your head goes.

Layla Ebersole (1:01:16)
Really?

Yeah,

I mean, I think I really would love to be celebrating growing our team further and growing Okra further and seeing where we’re at, whether that’s 500 clients or new employees or wherever we might be at. ⁓

But yeah, I mean, I think that’s one what I’m most excited about and seeing, you know, we’ve done it once, can we do it again with an acquisition and see what unfolds from there ⁓ and put my new skills to use. But yeah, I’d really love to be celebrating kind of that growth trajectory that that ochre is headed in right now. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:03)
Yeah, you’re still you’re

always looking for that next challenge. I love it. Yeah.

Layla Ebersole (1:02:07)
Always. Yeah,

I just started golfing too, because I needed something new to learn. it does. It’s humbling. I’ll tell you that. Yeah. Yeah. No, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:14)
And that’s got quite a growth curve to it.

Yeah, yeah, you won’t you won’t ever stop learning with that sport. Good for you. Well, Layla

Ebersol from On Call Restaurant Accounting, 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.

Layla Ebersole (1:02:34)
Yeah, thank you so much. really appreciate it.

Anthony Codispoti (1:02:37)
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.

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