What You Need To Know With Joe: A Father & Son Chat About Business, Part Two
Brent Priola : I would not be anywhere where I'm close to today without your help Dad, I mean you're my father…I love you very much but I'm very fortunate to have you as a businessman as a father and caring about what I do.
Joe Prioa: So, I know you like sports, I know you follow sports…so most games have a half time.
Brent: Yes!
Joe: Right! Our monthly meetings are like a half time and so we're looking at what happened and we're adjusting.
Brent: Yep!
Joe: That's what every team does right?
Brent: Absolutely!
Joe: The problem is when you never take the time to adjust you're caught in a loop.
Brent: Right!
Joe: You're playing a game some things work…some things don’t work and then you have to take a time out and say okay, this is working well, we need to focus on this and make those adjustments. That's what those meetings are about.
Brent: Right!
Joe: This is a big part of it…we try to educate you.
Brent: Yes!
Joe: We're trying to make you financially literate.
Brent: Right!
Joe: The same thing I was trying to do to you when you were 17 or 18 years old.
Brent: Yeah!
Joe: So this is a funny story when they, Brent and his brother, were younger and they were spending their money and they didn't know where they're spending it. I said you need to use Quicken so you can track where you're spending your money.
Brent: Right!
Joe: Because I want you to be able to save money for a house.
Brent: Yeah!
Joe: And get out of my house that's what I wanted.
Brent: Many kids get PlayStations and Xboxes for Christmas…Christmas morning my brother and I come downstairs and what do we open…we think it's a video game, it's a subscription to Quicken.
Joe: That's right
Brent: And we're like Dad what is this? And you're like you will thank me for this down the road and to be honest with you we hated it. My brother and I used to have weekly or monthly meetings with my Dad to review everything and they almost gave me panic attacks because I'm a…I'm not dumb, but I am a typical teenager, young 20 person, where I'm going out spending money on stuff I probably shouldn't spend it on and then I knew I had to have that meeting with Dad once a month where it'd be like “Hey! What is this? Why are you spending your money here and there?” But, you know, looking back at it 10-15 years later, learning that stuff at a young age, it helps formulate decisions moving forward.
Joe: We're just at another level.
Brent: Exactly…now you're looking at it as a business sense and one thing you always told me that has stuck in the back of my brain is “you need to work on your business and not in your business.” Many business owners are working in their business because it's what they know. It's hard for a business owner to give away some projects and some responsibilities because, as a business owner, you feel that no one knows your business better than you. I have said this to you personally, I've said this to you around your team, I would not be anywhere where I'm close to today without your help Dad. I mean you're my father, I love you very much but I'm very fortunate to have you as a businessman as a father and caring about what I do.
Joe: That's lovely to hear but'm not the only person working with.
Brent: I know but I'm just saying your team, you've built a great team around you…you are the leader of the team, you've got the ethic, you teach them the culture and based on that…your team follows and it's just…it's been a great fit for us.
Joe: I feel good that I'm helping you do this.
Brent: Yes!
Joe: When I go to bed at night I don't worry about what tomorrow brings for you because we're working on it, and we're planning it. How do you feel about that?
Brent: I feel the exact same way as a business owner, I mean we're always feeling like we're tiptoeing the line and…you know what the next day is going to bring but knowing that we have a plan in place, knowing I have an end goal in sight. You help me connect those dots, you've put me in a place, and you've helped me get to a place…where
Joe: We can pivot.
Brent: Exactly!
Joe: That's cool! If you were to say to another owner one or two things...if you were them trying to be successful, only knowing some things really well but others you don’t. What would you tell them?
Brent: I think any company, whether it's big or a small company, needs to utilize Coveted Financial Services because you guys do so much more than your typical CFO. You know what works and you try and push that knowledge on to your client. So I would tell any company, “you need to work with Coveted because you're getting an entire team of people that are devoted to you, devoted to your team, devoted to your success.” I have a small company…I've got five or six people working for me, but I feel like I have an army of 30 or 40 people with Coveted. I feel like I am undercharged for the amount of service and value I get out of your services.
Joe: That's it exactly.
Brent: It's more than the monthly meetings…there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff. You really care about business owners, you care about their success, you care about the people that work there and because of that…that helps companies be successful. Thank you Dad, I appreciate all that you and your team do and thank you for having me today.
Joe: You're very welcome son…love you.
Brent: Love you too Dad.