An Interview with Jake Frankel
XPECT, PLLC is pleased to participate in this interview with Authority Magazine.
I don’t know if I have five things but one that pops to mind is the difficulty for a small business or start up to get consistent or reliable service. I have changed some vendors for specific services and was surprised at how challenging it can be to find a service provider (e.g., legal or IT) that will really pay attention to providing services to a small business.
Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their lives. Jeff Bezos worked on Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonalds franchise in his 50s.
How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?
In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.
As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Davidson.
Brian Davidson has done a little bit of everything in his public accounting career. Recognized as an effective trainer and proactive in networking and building professional relationships, Brian steadily built a broad foundation of experience in tax, assurance, risk management, forensic accounting, and client advisory services. His CPA journey has been global in scope — he has worked overseas in Japan and continues to work with subsidiaries of Japanese and other foreign-owned businesses in the United States. Originally from Arkansas, Brian is married and has lived with his wife and two sons in Chicago for almost 20 years.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I grew up in Arkansas. I always loved the outdoors and the small-town environment where I grew up. As a young boy, I enjoyed being outdoors and would ride my dirt bike on trails around our property, go fishing with my brother and friends, and just spend time walking around and playing in the woods near our home. My dream in high school was to own some land and have a home out in the country somewhere where I could hunt, fish, and enjoy the outdoors.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I don’t have a specific quote per se, but I have always treasured the Rudyard Kipling poem “If”. When I graduated from high school, my parents actually gave me a copy of the poem and that was when I first became familiar with the poem. It is basically a poem about one’s personal character and provides a description of a person who reflects a beautiful character. I think this poem helped me to recognize the importance of character in my life and as I have gone through my career, I think I have always tried to consider decisions in terms of how a given decision reflects or may shape my personal character.
You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
From my perspective, I think my top three qualities would be self-motivation, continuous learning, and a desire to serve.
Self-motivation
I think self-motivated individuals just naturally show a willingness to “do more”. In one of my previous roles, I took the initiative to create a seminar series for the firm to offer to clients and prospects and coordinated topics, recruited speakers, and did some of the seminars myself. This is something I voluntarily took on in addition to my normal job responsibilities and was something that I believe had not been done before in that firm.
Continuous learning.
I read constantly. I like to go to the library every two or three weeks and check out 5 or 6 books. At least one of the books will be a recent book focused on some aspect of business, be it pricing, marketing, managing the business, etc. In addition, I read professional articles from sources such as the Harvard Business Review, the AICPA, etc. Finally, I take my CPE requirements seriously and typically create a specific CPE plan each year that focuses on certain areas where I either believe I need to gain more knowledge, or I just want to have a review of current topics in a specific area.
Desire to serve
I have been fortunate over the course of my career to work with businesses of all sizes and across multiple industries but especially with what I would consider small to mid-size companies. Businesses in the range of maybe $10M in annual revenue to $350M. I think this experience has made me aware, in general, of the types of challenges and obstacles these companies face. Part of my motivation to launch my own firm was my desire to create a professional service firm focused on the needs of these types of businesses and providing a good service experience for these types of businesses.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?
I spent two years in Japan after I finished my MBA and my professional accounting career started with a Big 4 firm in Tokyo. Honestly, I didn’t really enjoy it. I came back to the United States and worked with a small consulting firm for a few years but eventually decided that I had to return to public accounting if I was going to make the most of my career. I then started with a regional accounting firm in Dallas, Texas and came to Chicago after a few years in Dallas. I chose the firm in Chicago because they had a Japanese business practice. I stayed there for approximately 14 years and was promoted to the level of Senior Manager before leaving to begin my own firm.
And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?
I don’t think I really “reinvented” myself. I was already pretty entrepreneurial in the firm I was working at prior to leaving to launch my company. The main thing I did was to take the skills I had developed and try to package a market offering that would appeal to the types of businesses I wanted to engage as clients.
Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?
I think there were probably two triggers that made me decide to “take the plunge”. The first was the growing realization that it was now or never. I wasn’t getting younger, and I thought I had built my experience to a level where I felt comfortable going out on my own. The second was encouragement from a former colleague. At the time, there was a plan for the two of us to do the business together. That ultimately did not come to fruition, but my former colleague was helpful in helping get the business launched and I think having that support was helpful for me to make the decision to take that leap of faith.
What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?
I had a career path that was unique. In my previous firm, one of my roles was to build a risk management and governance practice niche for the firm. This experience opened up my thinking and I began to realize that I could generate opportunities and engage with businesses in a meaningful way. So, in short, I think I had “discovered” my skillset before I left my previous firm and just took the natural next step to go my own way.
How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.
Things are going well. I had fewer than 20 clients at the end of 2022, but I am almost at 40 clients today in a little over six months. I have hired my first part-time professional staff. As an example, I noticed that one of my former clients had posted a job for an Accounting Manager not long after I started my business. I contacted them to see if they would consider outsourcing to me. They initially declined but after about a month, they reached out one day and asked if I could temporarily cover this role until they found someone. In summary, I engaged with them in June 2020 and am still engaged with them today as an outsourced controller.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I would say that my mother has been a role model for me in my career. She was not a CPA but a nurse. However, she was a professional and took her job seriously and had a compassion for people who were suffering. As I got older and started my career, I began to relate some of my experiences to what I had seen and heard from my mom. She has always been an inspiration for me in my career.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?
The most interesting thing to me is the fact that most of my revenue comes from my work with Japanese-owned businesses. I expected to be able to engage some clients in this niche area, but I’ve been surprised at the referrals I’ve received and my growth in this area.
Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?
Of course. I think self-doubt is natural and is greater as your perceived risk increases. I think one way I overcame doubt was to not focus on my doubts but to focus instead on “the next step”. The doubts will still surface but I think it certainly helps if you can keep yourself moving forward or feeling like you are making progress. Also, I tried to be very open about what I perceived as the current state of the business with those closest to me and I think this openness about the challenge ahead and the risk involved is helping me face the challenge.
In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?
As I mentioned earlier, I started off working with another professional. This was important to help me get the ball rolling. In addition, I had already developed my professional network before taking the plunge with my business and I found many of these professionals a source of encouragement and inspiration.
Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?
I think my biggest hurdle was overcoming my self-doubt with regard to being able to generate enough income to support my family and stay in business. I did two things to overcome this hurdle. First, I created a “deadline” for myself to begin generating some revenue and opportunities. This was based on the cash I had available to finance the business. The second thing was to take a job with Robert Half that would generate income while I was trying to get the business off the ground.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started” and why?
I don’t know if I have five things but one that pops to mind is the difficulty for a small business or start up to get consistent or reliable service. I have changed some vendors for specific services and was surprised at how challenging it can be to find a service provider (e.g., legal or IT) that will really pay attention to providing services to a small business.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would like to inspire people to read more and to read a mix of newer material and older works. If you have a high ambition, you need to engage with high and noble ideas. I think being well read helps you develop perspective and provides a solid foundation for success in both life and business.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. 🙂
I would like to meet with Troy Aikman, formerly of the Dallas Cowboys. I think he recently launched his own beer company and beer is one of my interests. I would be able to speak with an entrepreneur and also engage my interest in beer.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can visit our website at www.xpectup.com and sign up for our newsletter. You can also follow XPECT on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!