Creating a Thriving Corporate Culture

Today, our guest is Dan Luthi. Dan is a partner at Ignite Spot Outsourced Accounting. At least that’s the name I wrote down. He’ll correct me if I’m wrong on that. They help, you know, companies throughout the U.S. By improving accounting, reporting, and technology systems. Again, if I got that wrong, Dan will correct it. Dan, welcome to The Unique CPA. 

Hey, thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Randy. And you were completely right. That’s exactly what it is. There’s, it’s a little long, but that’s exactly what it is. You’re totally right. 

Alright. Because when I said that, I thought, oh, I didn’t know if the outsourced was in there or not. So outsourced is in there. There you go. It makes sense. That’s what you do. 

Yeah, well, but, you know, to that same point, it was needed when we first created the name, like 10 years ago, because most small businesses didn’t kind of understand what we were trying to do. And nowadays you really don’t. So we drop it in some spaces, but technically that is the full name for sure.

Alright. Got it. Alright. So I gave the quick intro there. You know, you’ve been in the, uh, the profession for a while doing some things. You want to give us a little more background and. On you and maybe an ignite spot or, or even how you got to where you are now, because we’re going to, one of the discussion points and probably the main discussion point we’re going to have today is talking about corporate culture and the importance of it. So I’m guessing your history may tie into that a little?

Oh, very much so. Yeah, I, um, started actually out working at Ignite Spot, it’s been around for 15 years this year. I started out working in the firm about 13 years ago, and I began as a bookkeeper. I was working part time as I was finishing my undergrad, and that was just interesting to me on all the things that we were doing in the space that we were working in. I’ve always loved small business and always worked with small businesses, or worked in small businesses before. Most of them were manufacturing or construction based jobs and really just kind of fell in love with the direction and the focus and worked my way up throughout the organization over the last, you know, over the years and became a partner at the beginning of 2022 this last year with another member of our team. So there’s 3 total partners now. But yeah, it’s been an exciting journey for us. It’s really been fun to participate in all of it too. 

So when did Ignite Spot actually start? 

So that’s a really good question. So we actually started out as Dashboard Accountants 15 years ago, and that was, it was really more focused around trying to create this presentation for small businesses that we were going to work with, and really the kind of the crux of the, where the company began was, our senior partner was an auditor and working with small businesses and, doing an audit on a small business and found out that the bookkeepers that worked for him had underreported his—or had, yeah, had overreported his cash by $50,000. So he of course had to flag that and communicate that to the client, and the client just completely broke down, you know, seeing that big of a drop in your cash balance when you’re trying to grow is massive, especially 15 years ago when you’re just trying to bootstrap everything. 

And so he just, he felt terrible walking away from that audit and from that experience and felt like there had to be a better way on how to support clients. And so, of course, we started out as Dashboard because we wanted to present that. But we also found over the years that our intent was never just to be a single reporting based solution, it was to be a place to create energy and growth for opportunities for our clients and for our team. And it’s kind of evolved from that over about, I think it’s about 10, 11 years now.

Wow. And so the one thing that you said is you started there while you were still working on your undergrad. So you basically had one company you’ve worked with, one firm you worked with your entire career.

A hundred percent. Yep. Never worked for another accounting firm at all. I actually, I had a really good friend, or my brother had a friend, our neighbor that worked for a regional firm and I went and met with them and, it just wasn’t the field that I was looking for. I didn’t love the environment. It was very, very uptight. And I dress way different now than I did, definitely, when I first started in the industry, you know, we dressed in, you know, button up shirts and things like that, but being virtual, we have a little more control over that, but that was just too stuffy for me. Having to wear a tie every day, it was too much. So found a place that was a very different culture and very different opportunity for me. 

So, I mean, that’s pretty cool. One spot, you don’t see that a lot anymore. And then the fact that we were going to talk about culture today, I’m really interested to see if that from day one, is that why you’ve been there? The culture was just great? Or is this something evolved over time? What would the input on that be from you? 

Definitely. I think a lot of it kind of starts with just who I am as a person individually, you know, I grew up in a very blue collar environment and always had plans to do something like that. And so when I was going to school at the University of Utah, getting my undergrad, we actually had, I went to a Beta Alpha Psi meeting because they told you that you had to do that kind of stuff. And luckily it was the presenters were actually from Skullcandy Headphones. And these guys came in wearing trucker hats and like flannel shirts, I mean, the funny thing is now, of course, that style’s back in style nowadays, but, and they just flat out said, we started our career in public accounting and we found that it wasn’t for us. And they really focused on make sure you find a fit that makes you feel like you’re a part of the company that you’re excited about what you do, that the energy is there.

And like, that extremely stuck with me, like, 100%. And so when I started working at this job, it was at first, it was get some experience. It was like, you know, kind of create some opportunities, learn so you can decide where you want to go after and. I loved the clients that we worked with. I loved the opportunity and like, the service culture that we were trying to focus on. I think we’ve created a different type of culture over the years, but it was really focused around the deliverable, which was exciting to me. And I just loved it. I fell in love with that story and I fell in love with that relationship that we had with clients and I’ve never left because of it. 

Wow, that’s pretty cool. So let’s jump into culture then. Corporate culture, company culture, you know, I don’t know, people experience, client experience, whatever, wherever we go with this. But, so I have this problem with being able to define what a good culture is. I feel, and I think it’s spelled out with the people that work with us, but I feel we have a really good culture. We don’t lose people, people stick around, people tell their friends about, you know, Tri-Merit. They come work with us, relatives come work with us, high school best friends, you know, college roommates, all this stuff. And that it’s around the culture, putting that into words, knowing it exists to put it in words is, is really tough for me. I don’t know. Hey, are you able to define a good culture or what it is that you’re doing at Ignite Spot that is so cool?

You know, I thought about this quite a bit since you and I talked a couple weeks ago and I feel like the culture aspect is just creating an environment where people want to cohesively work together with the same amount of energy and direction. To me, that’s really the framework of it, because there’s some organizations where you get 50 people together that are just like heads down, you know, run forward as fast as you possibly can. Like that’s normal. They love it. They love that excitement. They love that energy. You see it in startups. You see it in, you know, in things like that, but you also see at the same time too, with organizations where people have been around for a really long time, whether it’s more of a family atmosphere and encouragement and things like that, they have a great culture, which is very different than the other organization. And some people say certain things are toxic, but I think it’s also too, like the toxicity may not just be, it may just be because it’s not a best fit for you as an individual, but could be a great culture fit for someone else. 

That’s true. That’s true. So, and again, I am, you know, developing some presentations on this now, that I want to start giving, you know, it actually ties in with me, for me with the mental health presentations I do, because I think that’s a huge part of it. If you’re creating a culture environment where people feel, you know, that they can be themselves and that they can, you know, they aren’t stressed out and they, they understand that, you know, getting their work done is important, but being themselves is important as well. I think that’s great. Is there any specific initiatives you think that you do to make this experience good for the people you work with? 

Yeah, I think for us, I mean, our goal is always to try to be, is to create an opportunity for people to grow and develop. That, I feel like is the culture focus that we’ve always tried to create here, whether it’s growing and developing into, you know, in the organization or growing and developing and creating opportunities for yourself outside the company, we don’t shy away from that at all. So, you know, to your comment you made earlier about, you know, your people stay, and they love it, and they go through that, we have people that leave and we’re excited for where they’re going because it’s a new adventure that’s outside of what we can provide to them. And I love that. I love creating those opportunities. It’s always sad to see people go, but you know, if we can’t take you to that next tier, I hope that someone else or the next opportunity can. 

But to that being said, I mean, we really do put a lot of emphasis and energy on training and teaching and coaching our team and setting up practices so that they can be able to have good quality of life and balance with all of those things. And I think that shows and how people interact with each other and the culture we’ve created for the organization overall. 

Yeah. What you said there, and I think you and I talked about this just as a side note, you and I, we’ve been on group text chats together for a while, but, we literally just met, was it about two weeks ago? 

Two weeks ago, yeah. 

And it was great because it’s nice to, that’s one of the things, just nice to meet the person that, you know, you feel like, you know, already just from text chats or social media or wherever. And so that was so much fun. But one thing you just said there that I agree completely is celebrating, you know, if someone is going to move on and celebrating them going to the next level that you can’t provide for them. And we have a person like that right now. And I may have talked to you about this, but we have somebody, we had somebody, in the last seven years, I think we’ve had maybe two people leave, but we’re at 65 people right now. 

Oh, wow. 

One was because, and she was the spouse of one of, or she is, of one of our partners, and she was working part time with us while, you know, she was, you know, raising the kids and everything, you know, traditional type family unit from that standpoint, but she’s an engineer and decided, you know, it’s time to go back to work full time and got a really great engineering role that she wanted to use those skills. You can use your engineering skills with that. And so that was awesome. I mean, seeing her now going and using these skills that she, you know, developed in college.

We had someone else leave recently that we didn’t want to happen, but they did. And, and that’s fine, but that’s one person that in the last seven years, and now we have somebody that’s going to be leaving at the end of the summer because he decided he wants to go to medical school. 

Oh, wow. 

How awesome is that? I mean, you know, this guy is great. I love him. He does great work. And he, and the thing that I think helps define culture a little bit for me is he decided to tell us in March that this was happening because he had no concerns that we were going to say, okay, you got to leave now. Or he just wants to, he wanted to like, make sure we’re all prepared for him to move on. And so it was like, oh yeah, that’s awesome. And he’d said, I’m staying through, you know, if you’ll have me, I’m going to want to stay through August until school starts or whatever the timing is. And from that standpoint, that helps me understand that there’s a culture. Again, the definition is not there, but like exactly what you said, see them progress, and this is a completely change, but progression is pretty cool. 

Well, we had, I mean, we had an experience a little while ago with one of our, I mean, and working in the CAS space, we have clients who come and go depending on the size and growth or opportunities they have. And we don’t work generally with publicly traded companies or things like that, but we had a client who wanted to go public. And so we, of course, agreed to part ways over time. They actually asked to take one of our employees with them, when they parted ways. And I had a lot of conversations with this employee, and she was amazing. I mean, I wish she was still here today, but she, she and I were talking about just the opportunities that would create for her and the adventures and things like that. It was two years ago, but we’re still good friends. Like we communicate with each other. You know, I applaud the things that she’s doing. They just actually had the opportunity to go public this, you know, within the last 12 months. 

And nothing but excited about those opportunities for people, because that’s not an adventure that we can create for an employee. Like I can’t give her that. But I can give her relationship and values and we can still remain as positive friends. And I had another employee who left us in January and I’ve referred work to her. It’s just clients that we don’t necessarily work in, but are and she did some work for us as she was getting her organization started. I mean, It’s that kind of stuff that I think breeds that connection, whether it’s with staying with it or just remaining connected, that’s really where that culture reigns true after the fact as well, that these people still want to be your friends, they still want to connect and know you, and they have mutual respect for what you’re trying to create in the same process.

And I think that’s another way you can start defining it. I’m working on this. I’m going to take in all your quotes here. I’m going to add that to my definition of culture. Same thing with us. One of our probably first ten hires, I would say he was probably employee number eight. You know, worked with us for a few years doing project management work. He’s an attorney as well. Just had this opportunity to go be, you know, I wasn’t general counsel, but work for, you know, a large corporation in their, you know, general counsel type department. It was like, well, we can’t give you that. And we’re still friends. In fact, after he left, I was at his wedding, which was a really cool event. It’s an Indian wedding. And so, they really do it up and man, it was just cool to be part of that. It was fun, but still to this day, this was 12 years ago probably, we still communicate. We say, so same thing again, trying to define culture more. Are there other things that you see that you can add to my definition? I’m using you for research now. 

Yeah, we’ll just tie it all into ChatGPT, right. But no, truly, I think at the end of the day, it’s the type of experience that you guys create for each other. I really do feel like that’s really the case. And, and if your energy is focused in the same directions, you’re going to go far and people are going to be able to string and connect to it. Also recognizing maybe where your energy is pushed in the wrong direction and making adjustments to it. I mean, there’s times where, and I’m sure you felt this over the years too, where you feel like there’s a focus you have to make in order to make the next leap organizationally to hit a revenue number or to expand capabilities or go into a new market, and you realize that it’s not the right space or time or focus for your team, and your team’s feeling stressed and overworked with it, and it’s the wrong direction. So you have to accept that and make an adjustment and move in a different space, or figure out how to teach them to be able to grow and evolve with the two.

And I’m sure, I mean, you guys deal with credits. I’m sure that’s how it was. You’re kind of thrust in the lion’s den with ERC credits where it was like, hey, we’re figuring this out because it’s an opportunity for us to help people. And I’m sure some people didn’t love it when you first started it because there was so much going on, but now it’s a part of who you are and the service offering you have and the values that you have from the other products carry over to it. And so, I mean, I think this is something that evolves as a part of who you are as an entity. 

Yeah, you really get me thinking here because the same thing when you just said the ERC. So, you know, we obviously were tax credits and incentives. The ERC was just an opportunity. I got addicted to it as soon as the changes happened in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was the end of ’20, which really opened the ERC up. But at the time, it was like, you know, I don’t think we’re going to be able to do this as a service. You know, I’m going to learn it. I started educating people on it just because I was so into it. And but then I thought, well, if we do get opportunities, you know, we can outsource it to someone else. I knew a large CPA firm that was working on that. I’m like, okay, I was talking to them a lot of like, okay, if we get opportunities, we’re gonna outsource it. 

And then one of our newer employees, although somebody I’ve known for 17 years, and that’s the other thing I’ve known this guy for a long time, he came to me and said, Randy, no, we have to do this internally. We have to. This is such a huge opportunity. And so that’s another culture. People feel open to share, feel, to take control. And I told him, I said, I’ll learn this. I’ll educate. I’ll talk about it. I am not going to do the work. I am not going to set up the credit model. I’m not going to, you know, do that. I’ll talk to people about it. If you want to run it and man, he just went with it. He just, he created our first credit model, which has completely changed since then, but he went out and created it. He put together just the whole, you know, talking points for everything. And so that’s another, I think, area where it’s like, if you have an environment of openness, that people feel that their thoughts are going to be heard, their ideas are going to be heard. I think that’s just creates another place where people just like to be part of. 

And the important part of this, we haven’t even said it again. The important part of this whole thing with culture is, you know, our profession is having a hard time attracting and retaining employees. And if you create this culture that like this, you know, that’s just goes, I think above and beyond to create an environment people want to be part of. 

Oh, 100%. And I think too, kind of similar to your context, where you talk about the employees bringing things in and asking about things, we work, of course, with a lot with technology being a virtual firm. And we’ve had virtual employees for almost 10 years. Now, our employees are sometimes, oftentimes, the first person to recognize or recommend an application for us to work on with clients. Well, that’s an important part of who we are as a company is to allow for that type of discovery and opportunity for the team to give recommendations because that may completely change the landscape of what we do and how we do things. 

And it’s funny, our director of accounting services here at Ignite Spot’s been with us for 8 years this year, and he’s recommended some of the greatest apps that we’ve installed and instilled i n our organization that have changed the landscape of the service offerings that we have within our team. And so, I mean, I’m deeply grateful for his willingness to, of course, be open, but also grateful that we created an environment that he was comfortable to be able to say, hey, I like this. Can we learn a little bit more about it? And is it something that can change the way we do work? And it’s been awesome.

So there’s another thing that’s really important that you just said that is, there’s so much fear, it feels like, around being a virtual office. How are you going to create a culture when nobody’s in the same spot? How are you going to get people to be, you know, love being part of this organization? We’re pretty much virtual as well. I mean, we have 65 people. They’re all around the country. We do have an office, but nobody’s ever there. I mean, honestly, we have an inside sales team that does go in probably once a week, they’re just all in one spot. It just helps them because they can share ideas, what they’ve learned, what they’ve seen, um, but they can do that virtually too. They just all happen to be in the Chicago area, so they can get together. Is there any specifics that you do to create this camaraderie around everybody being part of a team, even though they’re not all in the same spot? 

Yeah. So I would say pre-pandemic, we used to have a very, like heavy 50/50 distinction between people who are virtual and a physical office. And we were just finding that it was hard to create that connection for everybody. And so actually, at the tail end of 2018, we had a conversation with our team that said, we kind of like, we want everybody in the same position and whether it’s good or bad, we really want to create the environment or everybody has the same opportunities. And I’m not just going to fire my really great employees in Florida because we have people here in Utah. 

And so we asked our team, you know, what do you want? And the funny thing was every single one of them were like excited to go home. It wasn’t like, I mean, they saw the energy right there at the start that said, yeah, I want the same opportunities they have. And I don’t want to have weird conversations because it’s hard to communicate what we had in the office versus not. And it was encouraging that right before the pandemic, all that happened. So we downsized our office, you know, I think it was truly, we signed the contract in November of 2018 and then of course the pandemic happened and all the rest of us in our office space went home and then we closed it out.

But that is one of the things that I think going all in on that relationship for we want the best quality people in this organization and those are the people we’re willing to invest into. And so everybody has the same experience plus also just trying to create a communication has been big. But I will say this, you know, over the years we’ve evolved it. We used to have more 1-on-1 meetings or more team related meetings. We’re finding that sometimes that was distracting for people who just want to do a really good job. And so we’ve kind of manufactured the way that our, you know, our interactions are. But we’ve also added in some different things. Um, you know, we do a, we were doing a monthly lunch and learn where you get together and learn something from a partner or from a leadership person. We moved that to quarterly to kind of tie into our traction rocks and goals. 

But on the other months we’re actually tying in new company activities. And so we’re using a tool that provides virtual environments with activities to do things together. And so like this next month, it’s a, it’s like an escape room, a virtual escape room. So people can sign up for that. And I think those are the kinds of things that they’re not massively expensive for a virtual organization. But it brings a group of people together and makes them feel like it’s not just work that they’re socializing with, like they can, they can have fun and it’s okay. And they get paid to do it. 

Yeah, we do some of that online virtual, you know, what was the last one we had? It was, bring your pet to the office day, you know, the office at home and everybody would have their, we all, you know, we’re showing off our dogs and cats and lizards or whatever it was and talking about it. And so things like that. But we’re very fortunate twice a year, we all get together in one spot. And I think that just helps have fun, but we can do that virtually as well. 

One of the things that I think is important, and I’m guessing you’re going to agree as well, is that just getting to know the people other than their job title. Their job title is important. You know, what they do is important. But that solely doesn’t define who they are. And so we’re very, very big on, and I think he’s going to get annoyed that I mentioned his name so much, but John Garrett and What’s Your “And”? in fact, I just had a call with John yesterday, John and Jason Staats. Actually, we had a call yesterday and it’s kind of making fun of me how much I

How much you talk about him? 

Yeah! 

That’s funny. 

But, you know, so we, we celebrate people’s “ands”—I never called it that until I met John, but that’s what I call it now. Do you do anything around that? 

Yeah, I feel like, and this is something that, I mean, over the years, as I’ve evolved as a manager and a leader, I’ve realized that the human connection is the most important part of being a leader. So me understanding and knowing who these people are, and understanding their family and their spouse’s job and, you know, pets and things like that is crucial. It’s super important because I think it helps them to understand that you actually care about them as a person and as a human, not just a cog in your organizational wheel. And I think that’s something that’s super significant for us to pay attention to and for us to be, to be open and honest with. And I’ve tried to communicate that as much as possible to my team, that it’s anytime there’s a new leader comes in, the first thing I ask you to do is we’re not changing workflow. We’re not evaluating a thousand things. Know these people, like understand who they are, like understand what’s going on in their life today because the moment they feel that connection with you, they’re going to let you know when they don’t understand something. They’re going to let you know when they need to learn something. 

And I’ll use the example of this. I mean, our director of accounting services, his name’s Corbin right now. He was, he’s been, like I mentioned before, he’s been with us for eight years. Well, there was a period of time where he was a leader before in our organization. And he and I had a conversation where he said, this role doesn’t fit me. It’s not what I want to do. And it doesn’t make me feel like I’m accomplishing things. And I said, okay, great. Like, I respect that. What do you want to do? And he’s like, well, I really like the idea of going into controller services. And we were just starting to kind of tee up a controller level service here at Ignite Spot. So it was like, great, let’s start with you. Let’s, you know, let’s invest in that place. We brought a new director in and we were he did a great job for almost two years working in that role and building it out and building customer expectations and relationships. And when the person left who was the director, I asked him like, are you interested in going down this road? Here’s what’s changed in the role. Here’s what we’re working on. And he was excited to move into it. 

And so it was one of those things where I think like situations like that, you’ll, you’ll never have the opportunity unless you create those relationships where people feel like they can be direct with you either and tell you what they feel like is best for them and not for them.

Yep, and I think, one of the biggest things, and you mentioned leadership there, in my mind, and you know, I’m not perfect, I, you can, anybody can disagree with me, but I think as a leader, you know, being vulnerable, showing empathy, I mean, those things are so important, because, let me give you a quick story. I think I might have told you this. I don’t know. But you know, I do a lot of presentations on mental health and I did one recently for a big firm. And at the end of that presentation, you know, we’re talking about burnout in the profession, which is way too common. And there’s so many things we could do about it. But at the end of this presentation, I mean, in there, I talk about mental illness as well as depression and anxiety and all these things that can develop if we don’t control the stress in our profession. 

And at the end of this presentation, this managing partner comes up, you know, on stage with me and starts thanking me and talking about it and start sharing, being vulnerable, sharing his story, dealing with depression in his family. Obviously he, you know, was getting emotional and you could just see, I’m looking in the audience and I could see that, man, they were just, they felt so like this openness that they can now talk about anything because he’s there sharing this, he’s being vulnerable, he’s showing how important it is to, you know, allow these things to be in the open and not stigmatized or anything. And that vulnerability just, I could tell that, that, that changed, I think, not their environment was bad because they already had me in to talk about something like this, but it just changed the atmosphere. And I’m guessing that made a big difference for the people that work there. So that was pretty cool to see.

Well, that’s the leveling up aspect, right? Like that’s the opportunity. Because I think this is the part that a lot of people miss when they’re trying to figure out how to create a culture. Sometimes they go over the top, right? They look at, well, Google used to do this or Apple does this, or I heard this really great thing about what Randy did on his podcast. And so I want to try that right away. 

Right. Yep.

And the reality of it is, that might not be the best fit for you as an organization to do those things. I mean, we tried the, when we were in person, we tried the beanbag toss and cornhole and ping pong and all that other kind of stuff. And it wasn’t our culture. It wasn’t who we were as a company. The human side was something that was more important, you know, important to us, like connecting with people for their individual natures and things that they love and all that kind of stuff. Like that was much more significant for us as a company. And so, as we dove into it, we 100 percent we’ve become more vulnerable over the time, but we didn’t start being like, hey, here’s my baggage, know who I am. And this is what it’s going to be. It’s a very different environment. 

And I mean, I, one of my people on my team is like, absolutely loves Taylor Swift. And I joke, I joke with her a little bit about it because honestly, I don’t mind her music. I think it’s great. I think she’s a wonderful performer. My daughter loves her too. And so we always joke about it. So when she was in concert, she went to it. Like we chatted for like 10 minutes on Slack about how great the concert was. Like those kinds of things that, you know, I’m this big burly bearded, you know, partner in this firm, like no one wants to have a conversation about Taylor Swift. Like it was just fun to make sure, like to see what kind of experience she had. And I loved that she felt comfortable enough to be able to talk about it. 

And I think those are the simple things. And it’s not, again, it’s not just laying down all these walls that you have as an individual and being open about every part of your life, but vulnerability is important in the process. And I think Brené Brown probably communicates that better than anybody when it comes to the power of that. 

Yeah, I need to follow her more and start reading some of her books cause I keep hearing that. And I know she talks about vulnerability a lot and, and I’ve done a little research on her, but I need to, we need to get her on the podcast there. Yeah, there we go. 

Seriously, she’s amazing. 

Yeah, I need to do that. Alright. I want to say one last thing and I feel like I’m bragging, that’s not the point, um, but you had mentioned this earlier, the, when, when new people start and everything and how you do it. One thing that I do, and I probably surprise people a little bit, maybe I should warn them, but when a new person starts, I get an automatic Teams message that’s, we use Ripley for payroll and it goes through Ripley and it automatically tells me, hey, this person’s starting on this day. And so I try to, as early as possible into their Tri-Merit career, just randomly call them on Teams—that may freak them out. Well, one, they may not even know who I am. Hey, this is Randy. Why is he calling me? 

But I call them and I don’t talk about work at all. It’s just about, hey, just wanted to, you know, welcome to the team, but just wanted to get to know you and, you know, tell me what your passions are, what you enjoy doing, tell me about your family, tell me whatever. And just getting to know the people, I think that it’s, I just thought that this was normal, and our head of HR when she came on, she goes, Randy, that’s amazing. Can you keep doing that with everybody? I said, I do do that with everybody. ’Cause I did it with her and she’s like, okay, yeah. And so that I think is so important just to get, and you had mentioned it, to get to know the people.

Yeah, a hundred percent. That human connection is probably the most, one of the most valuable assets you have as a member of a team is being able to make sure, because those are the moments when you realize that you can push a little bit harder, and support one another. Those are the moments where you feel like you have to push back and, or pull back. And it helps you to feel much more confident and a better workflow overall. 

Well, this conversation helped me a lot in many ways. Any wrap you want to put on, uh, on the conversation we had today? 

Yeah, I think, I think just for me, the, you know, I love the comment you made that about you’re not being perfect. And I think that’s the one, the hardest part about trying to create a good environment for people is that’s the vulnerability that a leader has to have is that you are not perfect in what you do, and you’re going to make mistakes along the way and things you may regret in the future, but just starting and just trying, I think, is some of the most important things that we as a leader can do is just trying to create an environment for people to be successful. And eventually you’ll find that formula that works really, really well for the people who you want to be around too. And it’s, that’s where it has to begin, is you being comfortable accepting that. You’re not perfect and you don’t have all the answers and everything. 

Oh, believe me. I’m far from perfect right now.

Me too.

You and I were talking about a little, I’m a kind of a mess right now, which is not normal for me. But it’s just a busy time of year. And I’ve got, I probably disappointed about four people today that I have to make up for, and that’s not normal, but.

Conference season. 

Exactly. That’s what it is. So, alright, before we close it out and we talked about, you know, the importance of getting to know people, you know, who they are. And so that’s the question for you, you know, hey, you’re doing this work, Ignite Spot, you’re helping companies, but what’s your passions outside of work? What do you enjoy doing? 

Honestly, I always get a huge amount of compliments about the doors that the office doors that are behind me in my picture. 

I was gonna say that, for sure! 

I love woodworking. That’s something I’ve been passionate about my, almost my entire life. My brother is actually a finish carpenter. So I built these by myself and I do a lot of things like that on the side, which I absolutely love. I also love just spending time with my kids, like showing them and learning and helping teach them in that space. And I got four awesome, awesome kids. So those are the probably two of my main passions that I absolutely just love doing things with. 

Yep. And how old are the kids? 

Oh, 15, 12, 11, and 7. 

Alright. You got a lot going on there. And anybody who has kids probably that are under college age, that’s the answer all the time. Now my kids are my passion, but they’re in their late 20s. And so, I love seeing them as much as I can, but yeah, the woodworking, the family, that’s awesome. 

Yeah. Kids are constantly busy. That’s 100 percent the truth on that. 

Oh, I’m sure. And I miss those days actually. So, don’t, you know, I’m sure you, you are well into being part of that whole growing up process, which is so much fun. Alright. And then if anybody wants to find out more about you, Ignite Spot, anything else, where would they get ahold of you? 

Honestly, the best place to do it is on LinkedIn. I’m pretty active on there and watching everything on there and trying to post and be a part of things. And so just, Dan Luthi on LinkedIn. Um, and then Ignite Spot is on LinkedIn or on our website as well, just IgniteSpot.com. Always got some new articles and things that we’re writing and things we’re posting that are helpful to the profession, but also small businesses, throughout the United States.

Alright. Awesome. Well, Dan, I really appreciate you being here. It was a fun conversation and I’m sure we will continue it off air at some point when we run into each other again. 

Definitely. I appreciate it, Randy. Thank you so much for inviting me.