Reflections (Episode 100)

[00:00:00] You need somebody in your corner, in your circle,

[00:00:01] that's gonna help motivate you and push you to go through

[00:00:05] and hold you accountable to go through those rough patches

[00:00:08] because they are gonna come.

[00:00:11] They are gonna come, it's a part of the process.

[00:00:14] Welcome to our podcast, It's About Payroll.

[00:00:17] We're your hosts, Brian Escobar

[00:00:20] and Walter William Duncan III.

[00:00:22] Whether you're new to the payroll game

[00:00:24] or a seasoned veteran, we have something for you.

[00:01:24] And we'll talk a little bit about that later in the safe talk topic. We'll get into it, Matt, and discuss those things.

[00:01:27] But I'm just happy, bro.

[00:01:29] How are you feeling?

[00:01:30] I'm good, man.

[00:01:31] I'm making sure my headphones, you feel me all right?

[00:01:34] Yeah, you're good.

[00:01:34] A little volume thing, clicking on the side of my view meter.

[00:01:37] But all right, good. We good.

[00:01:39] Yeah.

[00:01:40] Man, same, bro.

[00:01:42] What's that stat you told me, and we've talked about it.

[00:01:45] Oh.

[00:01:46] The past few years, what, oh wow. And then other folks and then other folks, and it was just, man, I want to say tomorrow, I'm gonna get emotional. Then, man, like, we should feel the emotion, those emotions are good. We should be proud of ourselves. We had, we passed some wonderful guests from Geron Hall to Christina Valor,

[00:03:01] Franzioli, Adrian, and every guest that we've ever had on.

[00:03:05] Melissa, how about the bride? feedback, thanks to our sponsors. Time Track Go. Shout out to Time Track Go. Just believing in us and partnering with us on growth. They're building something new. We're building something new. It was amazing. Time Track as a company has been around for 40 years. You got to reinvent. You got to rebrand.

[00:04:20] They have such a legacy to build on.

[00:04:22] That good old wooden time clock.

[00:04:24] That good old wooden time clock that they was first using.

[00:04:26] It wasn't him though, but they bought. started watching this, we were in this dark and we thought it was amazing. Right. Yeah. That dark purple background. And it was cool for us. It was great. We just we went to video right with fruit. Well, first of all, back up when we first started, it was audio only. Yeah. You didn't see this at all. And that was like for the first 40 something episodes. And then we went to video and then it's been an evolution from there.

[00:05:43] We used to use Zoom as a team up and going in just minutes. Find out what a simply better solution can do for your business.

[00:07:02] To learn more and sign up for your 14-day free trial, and point to it, because I think recruiters need to look at this. And if they haven't already, and if they haven't had any information from the field like that from young people, I think it has a wealth of knowledge in there. So yeah, man. So what are we doing for the 100? What are we doing for the 100 episode? We had to do something nice. Chris from Time Track was like, what are you guys going to do?

[00:08:21] And I was like, he asked me months ago too, right?

[00:08:23] And I was like, I don't know.

[00:08:24] We don't know yet.

[00:08:25] We can't think.

[00:08:26] We did.

[00:08:26] We talked from it. What a cheat sheet it'll be. We wanted to give folks, we wanted to give folks something short of giving everybody $100. Well, there's $100 worth of information in this document.

[00:09:42] Absolutely, absolutely.

[00:09:43] And it'll be out very shortly this week,

[00:09:46] the week following this episode airing, Absolutely. Thank you for that. I almost forgot. So mine comes out of a company called payroll integrations. And this one is dear to my heart because I've been spending so much time working on payroll 401k cleanup and just really honing my expertise on 401k for a while. It was needed.

[00:11:02] And it is what it is. It is as a payroll professional, as an HR professional, you stretch and grow, you got to be uncomfortable to grow. This article really hit home for me because it's about 401k process. Now, a little quick nugget about payroll integrations. That's the name of the company. And they're a technology company that's reimagining how employers support employees' financial well-being through benefit automation. This is also a trending topic as we move through the space right

[00:12:23] now in payroll and benefits that folks are worrying about employees' financial and piece them together because the company has built integrations with the largest and most widely used payroll companies and benefit providers in the US including ADP, QuickBooks, Empower, Transamerica. These CPAs can obtain accurate data reports for year-end compliance testing at any time. Now why

[00:13:41] that I can tell you firsthand why that is a game-ch is because we have to go back and forth and we do not have this tool. That is a lot of them. So that just hit them. I was like, oh my God, this is a game changer. You know what it is. So Payroll Integrations is that company. If you're involved in this process, look out and go see if you can use them

[00:15:00] because they're doing some big things.

[00:15:02] Thanks, WOLE.

[00:15:03] Nice, man.

[00:15:04] That's a great article.

[00:15:05] That is big, big.

[00:15:07] Game changer, yeah. dollars that that is going to cause them to replace them. It's so, it's so I realized that if you're in a industry or a business that had high turnover, put that into focus for you. Yep. So number two, global economic impact companies lost $1 trillion

[00:16:22] voluntary turnover in 2019, emphasizing a substantial salary because the person has to go through hiring, onboarding, and they have to learn the job. Yup. You know what I'm saying? If I'm going, I'm not there to train them. Like they have to learn everything that I've done. And you know, so that you have to take that into consideration. Number staff member. Yes. Showcasing the long term impact of turnover and productivity. Again, that new hire that you brought in has to learn everything, especially if they're high performing. The person who left is a high performer. The person that replaces them can take up to two years according to this statistic.

[00:19:04] And that's crazy, in those type of environments. And, you know, go ahead. No, yeah, but that specifically sales and customer service, I could speak to sales for sure, because I was in an environment at one point where the sales folks, they brought in new sales folks and they had a, they already had a predetermined amount

[00:21:40] that they were willing to spend on this salesperson in salary.

[00:21:43] So it was like three months of salary.

[00:21:45] If they didn't produce in those first three months, losing a salaried employee can often be six to nine months of salary on average, indicating a comprehensive financial impact of turnover. So for salary folks, six to nine months of their salary on average, think about that. Man, that's, that's a lot. Yeah. So number 13, which is the last point, and then

[00:23:03] I'll go to the conclusion. Now we could get into the fun stuff right now. Let's get it to him, man. Our favorite episodes, Waltz gonna start it off and talk about his, we got week, eight pick five of our favorite. Yeah, we should pick five. All right. Not even favorite, it's just something that really

[00:24:22] stood out. Yeah. And you know, something, right? Like it's a

[00:24:25] really good takeaway from the hundred. Now, again, you're to get this done, how he was changing employee information, going in and like posting the payroll, and then going back and changing this information and like banking system or whatever. It was crazy stuff that he was doing. So please go check it out. It was one of my favorite episodes, the very first true payroll crime story that we did. I loved that one. Another episode that we did was episode number 18,

[00:25:41] HR and payroll, two sides of the same coin.

[00:25:44] I particularly loved this one They were in court still, sentencing, pending. So we're going to try to follow up on some of this and see if there's any updated information. So I just looked real quick, my bad, but yeah, that was such a fun episode and I say it loosely. Every time I say fun with the true payroll crime, I cringe myself because I'm like, oh, that's not what I mean.

[00:27:00] It's not fun for them.

[00:27:01] Man, it is fun, man, or whatever.

[00:27:03] It is fun.

[00:27:04] It's fun for us because we get to do the research.

[00:27:07] That's consumers.

[00:27:08] Yeah. is going to be up over 300% over. Crazy. So that was the, again, true payroll crime. I mean, awesome stuff. It's great to, it's a great part of the show, I think. And then the second one with, the second one you talk about with two sides of the same coin. Yup. Say that all the time with HR and payroll. And this is like one of the first companies

[00:28:22] or one of the only companies that I've been at where

[00:28:25] it's not's it. Yeah. Yeah, man. Thanks for that, bro. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Number three for me, episode 40, global payroll with Melissa Bissioso. I believe that this was our first global payroll episode. Yeah. And Melissa, Melissa came in and she just, she was a rock star.

[00:29:41] We'd love to have her back on.

[00:29:42] She big times me now.

[00:29:43] She's just, she's a big time coming down.

[00:29:45] I'm painting her down.

[00:29:47] What's going on with her?

[00:29:48] She's big time. sports payroll that she used to do for NBA team and told us a whole nother different discipline. That was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is awesome. Awesome man. Yeah. All right. Number four, episode 36, how to navigate bankruptcy from the business and payroll point of view, Franzi Oli.

[00:31:01] Yeah.

[00:31:02] The Franzi Oli is another guru when it's in payroll. Want to add anything to add before I go to my last one? No, she's in my standouts as well. Fran, you come out twice in this. She was been on the show at least two times. She's a confidant that for me, and we've helped each other in just day-to-day stuff. She's a powerhouse rock star in payroll, man,

[00:32:22] and actually thought about her for something recently.

[00:32:25] Yeah, Fran, we're of us have our certification, but we're wildly successful in the things that we do in payroll. But some companies that look for that require that or prefer that in their job postings, right? So it was a fascinating discussion.

[00:33:41] And we talked about the benefits and the drawbacks

[00:33:44] of either having it or not having it

[00:33:47] in the payroll expert. She's been a confidant for us. Yes having those talk mentor even This is man like just give helping us and stuff now One of the things that she mentioned that I take with me now as a professional is called stakeholder management Yes, and stakeholder management is crucial in payroll transformations

[00:37:24] 51 best practices with Franzi again a standout again She's just then we did the first one right and we talked about the bankruptcy piece. Oh, by the way

[00:37:30] That's what I wanted to say about that. She is

[00:37:33] Last time I talked to which is not to it was only a few months ago

[00:37:36] She was still dealing with cleanup stuff at that bank

[00:37:38] Wow, the bankruptcy was back in 22 and she knew a year later

[00:37:42] She was gonna still need to do something as she sure enough

[00:38:44] at that new position and see what kind of what she's learned, what she's able to apply, things like that. There's her experience there. That's dope. That would

[00:38:48] be dope. We're gonna have you back on, Fran, if you'll have us. But this episode 51,

[00:38:53] she went in to, she said, stay open and learning from others. Maintain clear and

[00:38:59] accessible documentation practices. Collaborate effectively with your team.

[00:39:04] Leverage technology to optimize payroll processes and remember that continuous ever implement a new system, you might implement one or two. Implementing more than one in a career is, whoa, wow. You've been really exposed. So she said, how? What's up? I remember you always showing the book in the episodes. You referenced it a lot in different episodes. Yes. It's all been like a highlight of having the flags. I still do.

[00:40:21] That book, How to Select Your Next Payroll.

[00:40:23] Yep.

[00:40:24] You see it better now because we don't have that green screen.

[00:40:27] So you can see it's water cultivated and grows. It's so nice. You see how nice? Because when it's bad, it's called garbage in, garbage out. That's the problem. When it's nice, that's what Walt said. Ooh, it's so nice. But when you ain't doing it right, garbage in, garbage out. So that was our takeaway from Anita Latank, Global Payroll Conversations, episode 55.

[00:41:43] She's already agreed to come back on the show.

[00:41:45] So I'm just, let's start doing that. Let's be more intentional. Let's do that. We took Adrian's episode, and we put it into four parts because it was just so long. But so that's, it's episode 58 through 61, is there his episode. The major takeaway for him is that payroll is life. Payroll is life.

[00:43:00] And I'm like, when I went,

[00:43:01] cause he leads with it,

[00:43:02] it's like on his LinkedIn and everything.

[00:43:04] And I'm like, so beforehand, I was like, all right, man.

[00:43:07] I think, I don't know, you exaggerate.

[00:43:08] This is exaggerating a bit, in payroll, powerhouse, rockstar over across the pond, in payroll. And his big takeaway there was payroll is difficult. Why aren't we saying that loud enough? Why aren't payrollers saying this loud enough? Payroll is difficult. Stop trying to make it look easy. It's not easy. Just because you make it look easy doesn't mean it's easy.

[00:44:20] One thing about Ian, to your point about

[00:44:24] why aren't we speaking up?

[00:44:25] And I'm really glad in the episode Just pay rollers not that we're gonna stop doing that folks. Please believe but We can have a payroll conversation with anyone cuz guess what in America you're either getting a check So either way We're gonna have a conversation and tap tap what got me started as I saw Tabitha on earn your leisure

[00:45:41] And she said she told them this is the first time Tabitha started talking about finances, right? Because we get caught up on chasing the dollar and chasing the money. And you just posted something recently that money's a tool, right? Oh, money's not the goal. Freedom is. That's what you said. Money is a tool. Money's not the goal. Freedom is the goal. Freedom is the goal. And that's right. And she is free. She is free and it's

[00:47:02] gonna be the chills, man. I'm so proud of her. And of course, it's, but not more than us. And that was a great way to just close this show, and or this segment rather. And I'm so happy to share these moments and look out for the 100 episode summary. That thing is just, I'm so excited about that document and putting that out there for everyone to have,

[00:48:20] for reference.

[00:48:21] And it's been such a cool exercise and project for me

[00:48:24] and Walt to go through to just comb back through

[00:48:27] these 100 episodes.

[00:49:29] about quitting. I don't start it off, man. Yeah, I'll be honest. There were moments where life, and I remember conversations we had, and it was just, I was going through a hard

[00:49:34] time and a past relationship. I was going through financial struggles and like the economy,

[00:49:40] everything was happening. Work stuff was hard. Everything was just like coming in. I was

[00:49:44] just like, man, we're doing the app. right? That was one of the things that helped us. Like at one point we would just doing once a week, few hours, and that was it. And then once things started to get a little heavy and a lot of things were going on, we were like, okay, wait, we need to meet like twice during the week, even if it's just for 15, 30 minutes,

[00:52:03] It may be rough right now, but don't quit. I know it feels like the weight of the world

[00:52:05] is on your shoulders, but you push through, don't give up.

[00:52:08] That stat that you shared at the beginning of the episode,

[00:52:11] that most podcasts end after three episodes

[00:52:17] because they quit, because they don't get a following.

[00:52:19] They only get one.

[00:52:21] I didn't get 100,000 listeners.

[00:52:23] Think about how we started.

[00:52:24] Bro, we didn't have that many listens in the beginning,

[00:52:26] but we didn't have that many downloads. Let's go. You know what I'm saying? You need somebody in your corner, in your circle that's going to help motivate you and push you to go through and hold you accountable to go through those rough patches because they are going to come. They are going to come. It's a part of the process. Yeah. Yeah, man. I think that's how we say keep going, keep growing, keep growing, keep learning, but

[00:53:44] most of all, keep going.