Bringing the Fun to Finance

Today, our guest is Lauren Bahr. Lauren is the VP of Finance with Occupier, which we’ll talk about what Occupier is in a little bit. She is also a podcast host, hosting two different podcasts: the Fully Occupied Podcast that’s put out by Occupier and the Lo Bahr Finance Podcast that is her personal five-minute updates on things. Lauren, welcome to The Unique CPA.

Thank you so much for having me. And I love the emphasis on “Lo Bahr” that you did, already perfect. I think I need you to do my intro for that podcast going forward.

I’m available, but I don’t understand that, ’cause many times people tell me, “Hey, you have a great voice for this.” I like, “I don’t have a great voice for this.” So I don’t know what you’re talking about. But, I appreciate that. Hey, you and I recorded a podcast, oh, I don’t know. It’s close to a month ago, I think now on the Fully Occupied Podcast, which I had a lot of fun. Thanks for doing that. But let’s talk about, I want to talk about a few things today. ‘Cause you and I did a little pre-discussion and came up with a list of things that may make sense. But one of the things is just in general, before we get into it, why don’t you give us a, what is Occupier? What are you doing there? And just the rundown of the company and you.

Yeah, definitely. So a little background on Occupier, we are an end-to-end lease management software company that helps corral everyone throughout the lease lifecycle under one solution. So we have transaction management, lease administration, and also, of course, lease accounting. What’s great about Occupier is that because there is something for everyone, it makes it really easy to get everyone to corral under that one solution, creating that single source of truth. So that’s what makes us a little bit different than other providers out there.

A little bit about me: So I started my career at PwC on the audit side, then transitioned into consulting and it was there that I was lucky, or maybe unlucky depending on how you look at it, but it was awesome. I would like to say extremely lucky that I was forced to work on different startups or companies that were preparing for the IPO, or they were going through their IPO. And it was there that I realized that I just loved working for smaller, high-growth companies because I was able to make way more of an impact there versus my Fortune 100, 500 clients that they were not going to change anything based on what I said.

And so, I really loved my time at PwC, but then really just couldn’t quiet this startup voice in my head. So I went to a consulting firm called CFGI, who has a ton of startups in their clientele, worked on a few as a finance adjunct or technical accounting. And then finally got the courage to jump ship and go to my first startup and really haven’t looked back ever since. And so I’ve been the first finance hire at a few startups now ranging from Series A, even Seed to Series C. And so it’s just really awesome to see how everything grows over time and how the demand shifts for the business and the finance team. It’s been a ride.

Yeah. Well, that, okay, so we discussed this a little beforehand, but I didn’t get the situation of how you ended up here. But the one thing I had mentioned is let’s talk about public accounting a little bit.

Yeah!

Because, you know, we were talking about the profession and things we can do better and attracting people and retaining people. So you are somebody that started your career in public accounting and then left. It sounds like it wasn’t public accounting that made you leave, it was just your passion elsewhere.

Yeah, definitely. I think, and I’ll still say this to people that are studying finance or accounting in a university right now, that public accounting is such a great place to start a career, because you learn so much in the first one to two years, even just things of writing an email on how to present yourself to partners, business leaders, things like that, it’s really unparalleled, I think, versus going to any other job. So you build such a great foundation there. And that was the hardest thing for me leaving PwC, was that I really actually loved what I was doing, and I loved the people that I was working with, and I felt like I was learning so much, but I knew that I wanted to work at startups. And working at PwC and startups don’t always go hand in hand, because PwC is also a Fortune 100 company and I’m sure they have stuff with startups, but it’s not the same. I wanted to get in the chair of folks making these decisions. And so that’s ultimately why I decided to leave, but I couldn’t say anything negative about PwC if I tried. I even found my husband at PwC. So, you know, not a negative thing going on.

Nope. Well, he’ll be glad to hear that then.

I have some negative things to say about him. I’m just kidding.

So, you just hit on one, we didn’t talk about this beforehand, you just hit on one of the two goals that I require all guests to have during the show is one, we laugh. So we got that. And two, we educate and we’re already doing that.

Okay, so I’m thrilled to hear it wasn’t public accounting that burnt you out and spit you out. You learned a lot in what you did there, which I love, and found your passion. Your passion is working with these startups, and the way to do it was to, unfortunately, leave public, but still stay in finance and accounting and follow your passion. And I love when I see people following the things that’s their passion. So, that’s awesome. 

One of the other passions then that I feel that you probably have because you do host two different podcasts is one, speaking, being in front of people, being out there interviewing, but education, because everything you’re doing is all about education. So why don’t you explain that? I assume that’s another passion, and how did this happen?

You know, it’s so funny. I didn’t really kind of put everything together that I loved educating so much, until kind of going into podcast world. Even back in college, I was—so I was a Division I athlete. I also was taking extra courses so that I could get hit the 150 credit hour minimum within four years, because I was totally crazy. I could not go to school next year. I needed to get to PwC faster. And so, even though I was so committed time-wise, I still found time to be an accounting tutor, like two to three hours a week, because I just loved teaching people the basics of accounting. And, I mean, I don’t think I’m a nerd for it, but I just really love that teaching aspect of it and having people connect the dots in front of you, I always saw it as super powerful. 

And so being able to even bring that into PwC and training the younger folks into now, sometimes I think finance, especially in startups, you can feel like you’re on an island, because a lot of times there may be only one of you at the company, maybe two, if you’re lucky. And sometimes you’re all going through the same issues or problems, but you may not know who to reach out to, or, you know, just listen to like, you may not know if other people are going through the same things, if they care, not that they don’t care about you, but like you feel like you’re alone, you’re on this online island, right? 

And so, I created the podcast so that I could connect with people because it’s been amazing, just people reaching out to me would say not only that they’re listening to it, but engaging with me and it’s been really fun that way, but also saying, “Hey, maybe these are things that I’m currently, these are things that I’m doing in my job. You’re probably going through something similar,” because I talk for five minutes or less about things that I’m doing on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. So it’s also a way to kind of educate, but also connect.

Yeah. And the Lo Bahr is where you, or how am I supposed to say it? Lo Bahr. 

Yes, Lo Bahr. You did perfect.

Alright, the Lo Bahr. 

You’re practicing your intro right now.

We can just, I’ll have Justin edit that out, and you can take it. 

The Lo Bahr Podcast is you, just you, right? Five minutes is the goal, and you’re educating on what? Tax, accounting, what are the topics you usually discuss?

Yeah. So it’s kind of a wide range of topics. It could be from financial operations into financial planning, KPIs that I look at, audit preparation. I’ve done a couple of high-level technical accounting areas too, but more around processes, financial operations, and things like that. I haven’t talked about tax yet because as you know, I’m not the best at tax. So I’m going to leave the tax thing to you. One of my listeners made that content for me.

Well, we didn’t hear—I heard before we started recording, you’re going to be writing a blog that is going to include some tax information.

Yes, yes. Mainly because Randy already gave me all the knowledge, so I’m just going to transition that into a nice blog post.

Well, if you have any questions while you’re going through that, let me know. If you want me to take a look at it, I’m more than happy to.

Alright! That’d be great.

Okay. So did that come before the Fully Occupied Podcast then?

So Fully Occupied was actually first. So Fully Occupied has been around for maybe three or four years, and it’s co-hosted with one of the co-founders at Occupier. And from doing more podcasts and webinars and things like that, I actually wanted, so for Fully Occupied, I talk a lot about commercial real estate and leases, lease accounting, 842, and I felt like I liked doing that so much that I wanted to broaden my horizon and talk about things that are going on in my daily life outside of leases. While it’s very enjoyable talking about that, I wanted to talk about other things other than like the discount rate.

See, now you’re losing me. So 842, all that, so if I need help with any of that, I’ll obviously reach out to you.

You know where to go.

And then, so how long is the Fully Occupied Podcast? Three years? Is that what you said?

Yeah, I think three or four years. I should know this, but it’s been a while. Last year, I think we were top 20 business podcast which is pretty exciting.

Wow, that’s pretty cool. 

Yeah.

And you said it’s co-hosted. When you and I talked, it was just you and I. Is it like every other episode you each record or how does that work?

Yeah. So Matt Giffune, one of the co-founders from Occupier certainly does a lot more than I do. I probably do once a month.

Okay. And he does the rest of them. Is it a weekly podcast?

We do once a week, every Wednesday.

Oh, so when’s my episode coming out? Do we know?

I’ll have to check, see what they’re doing.

Alright. So we got a few things already, the whole public accounting, the whole transition, following your passion. You are checking all the marks that I like, the education point, the podcast point. Another, since we’re going down these, checking the marks of the things that I really enjoy, one of the things I love talking about is corporate culture. And you and I touched on it a little bit before, but do you have—I have a hard time, I know as a company, we have a great culture. I have a hard time defining it. Have you ever thought about culture and how you create it and what a good culture means to you personally and to the growth of others?

Yeah, definitely. I think it’s funny when you look at companies, depending on the size, there’s usually a company culture and then there’s a microculture within the finance or marketing or sales or different departments. And ideally, they all align to the corporate culture and the values established by that company, right? But it’s so funny, the difference that even though you may be the youngest person, or maybe the, “I’m only a manager and there are 10 people ahead of me,” the impact of one person, what you actually can do to the finance culture. 

And one of the coolest compliments that I’ve ever received in my years of doing finance and accounting was, I was working at a startup and they would do a survey, like a health check every six months to say, “How are you feeling? How would you rate this? Would you recommend us to your friends?” You know, kind of what’s going on. And every department would get a score and the finance team’s score was like, the lowest of low. It was like half as much as everyone else’s because their happiness was so low. So it was super low, like maybe a 20 out of 100. 

And then I had worked for them for maybe nine months. And so they did this thing again, six months later, took the score and it was now like a 50—still not like great by any mark, but hey, that’s a huge improvement for the finance team. And the VP of Finance reached out to me and said, “Hey, I think it’s because of you, because you came in here, you had a brand-new attitude and you just brought the fun to finance,” which was like definitely the biggest compliment I think I could have ever received. You can do journal entries and you can do reconciliations, but it’s also, you know, the attitude that you bring. And at that point in time, I wasn’t a VP of Finance. I think I was a senior accountant. So, but that was probably one of the coolest things. But the point is that depending on—it doesn’t matter what level you are, you can influence the culture that you want.

Yeah, I think that’s awesome because what you said, “Well, I’m just a staff accountant, I’m just this,” and if you’re thinking that way, you’re not going to do anything. It’s unbelievable the impact every single person in your organization can have on a positive culture. And I’ve got a few stories, and I think I’ve probably said them on this podcast before, so I don’t, well, I’m going to say that again, just because you got to say things multiple times for it to sink in. But one of the things that we do is we just get to know everybody. And you and I talked about this a little before on the podcast. You know, I’m a huge fan of John Garrett and What’s Your “And?” I am required to say John Garrett’s name every episode of the podcast.

Every podcast you’re on, you say his name.

Exactly.

You must be getting some royalties.

I think John is getting tired of me saying his name.

People in the comments just keep coming out of the woodwork to follow me on LinkedIn and read my books.

Exactly. But that’s one of the things we do. We just get to know each other and our Ands and who we are rather than just a tax accountant or an auditor or an admin or whatever our title is. That’s not who we are. And so, for us, I think that’s a big part of how the culture is created.

I recently, after you and I talked, and I don’t remember if we talked about culture last time, but I did a little research and a little collaboration with ChatGPT, and we came up with a definition or at least a way to determine if you have a good culture. And it was the one sentence, and I actually based it on, I asked ChatGPT after 10 minutes of back and forth, you know, to base a definition of corporate culture on Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game, his book. And so, what Chat and I came up with is, and I think this is how it goes: “Poor cultures are based on rules. Great cultures are based on relationships.”

But yeah, I mean, if it’s in accounting, we are dominated by rules. And I think that’s why, like you said, the finance group, maybe the score wasn’t as high or it definitely wasn’t. But it’s because we’re all about the rules and following the rules. And we just have our noses down to the grindstone, this rule, that rule, this rule. In reality, when Lauren comes in and brought the fun to finance, now it was about relationships rather than rules. So, I think that’s a really, at least a good way to explain how you create a good culture. And that’s your new, I’m using that as your tagline right now. You bring the fun to finance.

Good, alright, perfect. That’s going to be the name of this episode, right?

I think it is actually. So we’re going to go with that. I was just thinking that as you said it. So now, you know, that was when you were staff, now you’re a leader in the finance department. I assume you still have the same mantra of bringing fun to finance. Is there anything you do or is it just the personality you have?

The one thing I make sure I do is that everyone feels comfortable and that they’re able to ask questions freely, because in no world do I think it’s good for people to be scared to come to you with problems that you’re going to yell at them. Because then it’s actually going to get worse because they’re not going to come to you when they have a problem. Then it’s going to make it like ten times worse when you find out about it like two weeks, a month later, right? And so, I just try to make sure that everyone is very comfortable around everyone, and that people can share their opinions freely, and I value their opinions and take actions based on that.

And then I think other things too, is just, like you said, it’s all about relationships. And so instead of just going into the week saying, “Okay, this is what we’re going to tackle this week,” asking how your weekend was, “Oh, you went to a wedding, how was the wedding?” “Oh, it was your niece’s birthday, right? How did that go?” And just remembering it, one of my partners at PwC had mentioned that, and this probably is a widely known analogy, that relationships are like a piggy bank. You know, you have to keep feeding it every single day in order for that wealth to accumulate. Because one day you’re probably going to have to break the piggy bank for something. And so you have to keep nurturing that. And if there’s nothing to claim whenever you need that, then there’s going to be nothing for you. So it’s definitely about nurturing that.

Yeah, for sure. And another thing, that guy whose initials are J and G, I can’t say his name again, that would be too many times in one episode. He spoke at our conference and one of the new statistics he had thrown out there that I hadn’t heard him talk about before, which kind of leads to exactly what you just said, was that all it takes is 40 seconds a day of really showing that you care about somebody or that you’re interested in them to make them feel valued at work.

Wow. 

40 seconds, that’s all it takes. And all of a sudden you have a happier person you’re working with and the things that you just said, “Hey, how was the weekend? How was your daughter’s birthday party? You know, how was that concert you went to?” All that kind of stuff. All it takes is a question or two a day to really build strong relationships and make people feel valued. So you didn’t even know those stats and you’re already doing that.

I know, gosh, it’s just my feelings, which is kind of interesting. I’m just here thinking about this stat. Did someone have a timer right there? I’ve been like, “Okay, they feel valued now.” Sometimes I wonder how they get these. 

39 seconds. Nope, did not work. We got to expand that another second. I’ll just test that for a year and see what happens.

Exactly.

Alright, well, I think we’ve already hit the goal of educating on multiple topics. You are a fun guest. We are not finishing. There are a couple of things that I want to pivot to talk about. One, you mentioned it, college athlete. Tell me more about that.

Yeah. So I played ice hockey at Providence College. And so I think I could probably skate before I could walk. So I’ve been playing ice hockey my whole life. Don’t play so much anymore, but …

No, why not? Do you still enjoy it? Would you enjoy it if you went out there?

I do enjoy it. I’ve played in some summer leagues.

Yeah.

That was pretty fun. So I’m just worried about hurting myself. At this point in time, it is fun, but gosh, my back hurts. I’m like, “God, this is hard. How did I ever do this?”

Yeah, I’m 61 years old now. I played basketball forever. I mean, probably at least three days a week into my early fifties, and I feel it now. But I wouldn’t change it. One knee replaced, my feet hurt, my other knee hurts. But man, even just pickup games, just the camaraderie and hanging out and having a good time is so much fun.

Alright, let’s go on to another question. And this is one I ask every guest, and it’s based on the things we were talking about already. I’ll actually, in this situation, use the terminology that John uses. What is your “And”? What is your fun? What do you enjoy? What are your passions outside of work?

Yeah, so my passions, especially right now in the fall and winter, I’m a huge Buffalo Bills fan. So every Sunday you’ll find me watching the Bills. My husband makes amazing Buffalo wings, and that’s what we do. I also have a great golden retriever that I love walking around the park, walking on hikes, just really getting her outside. Maybe I spoil it too, you know. She takes me on walks. And then I love cooking as well. I’m not really that good at it, but someday it’ll happen.

Exactly. Nice. That’s one thing I’m thinking, because I don’t cook a lot. I used to cook a lot when I was young, in my 20s, and now I don’t. And I’m thinking, “Well, maybe that’s one thing, a hobby I’ll take up when I’m retired.” I have plenty of hobbies and all that, but it’s like, “You know, I should really…” Because I enjoy creating things like that. It’s just kind of fun. So, maybe we’ll do that. Well, Lauren, this has been a lot of fun. There were a lot of laughs. We went over our quota of laughs, which is good. So I appreciate that. If anybody wants to find out any more about you or Occupier or the podcast, where would they go?

Yeah, so to learn more about Occupier, you can go to ocupier.com, and we have a ton of amazing resources there. We have a lease accounting hub. If you’re looking for memos, present value calculators, everything you need to get compliant or stay compliant is on ocupier.com. You can find me on LinkedIn. That’s L-O-B-A-H-R, and then my podcast can be found on Spotify, Apple, and same with Fully Occupied.

Nice. And your tagline is “bringing the fun to finance.”

Yes, exactly.

Alright, well, thanks again, Lauren. It was a lot of fun. I appreciate you doing this and hopefully, I’ll see you on the circuit somewhere at some point.

Agreed. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a blast as always.