Meet Aly G & Lethal Lee | All In from Day One

Welcome to the very first episode of She Means Biz, the podcast where bold moves meet big wins, hosted by your resident straight shooters: Aly G and Lethal Lee.

We’re kicking things off with a peek behind the scenes, who we are, why we started this podcast, and what happens when two award-winning accountants decide they’re so done with boring biz talk and ready to build something that actually hits.

Aly G is the go-to voice for biz owners who want real talk, not recycled advice. Lethal Lee? She’s the strategy sniper, always three steps ahead with systems and smarts. Together, we’re here to bring you a podcast that cuts through the noise, no jargon, no sugar-coating, just real talk for real biz owners.

This episode is part origin story, part manifesto, and all heart. If you're building a biz and want insight with impact (plus a few laughs along the way), you're in exactly the right place.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to the She Means Biz podcast with Ally G, which is me, and Lethal Leigh. That's me. This podcast is about bold moves, big wins, and women leading the way. We really want to go through the full life cycle of a small business from the spark of an idea to sustainable growth, all through the lens of to award-winning. That's us, tech savvy, straight talking, very proud accountants who also happen to be women, mum leaders and founders. But this episode is really all about us, why we're here and what you'll get. And I really just want to launch straight off the bat with getting to know you, Lee. Now, obviously, we've worked together for some time, over 10 years. I love it when we call you my work wife. But tell the listeners a little bit about you.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Uh, I was actually thinking about this this morning and I was like, oh, it's my 20th year. Oh my gosh. Yes. So 20 years of being an accountant. Um and also 17 years of being a mum. Wow. So I've been doing both kind of together most of my life. Um so yeah, it started out 20 years ago in a small firm in the country, and I've moved my way up to being here at Oregon. And this is now eight years old. So um love what I do, love working with businesses, love um numbers. It seems to come naturally. So this is where I landed. We've had a lot of success along the way, learnt a lot of things. Um, but yeah, it comes back to just loving helping people understand their businesses and helping them achieve their goals. Um that's sort of where it all lands back.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

And um, you did win an award, accountant of the year. Back in the day. It feels like a long time ago now. It wasn't that long.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Oh, it wasn't nearly eight.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

I think it was before all it was just before all in, you're right. Yeah. And just a little bit of a heads up around how Lee and I actually met. Uh, we met in a mid-tier firm um over ten years ago. And Lee was an accountant there, and I came in as a director. It was um quite a stoic traditional firm.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Put it this way, Ali was the first female director I ever worked with. Before that, I'd only worked with male directors. And she was the first female director I'd ever, well, first female director, but also the first director I'd ever worked with, who balanced working part-time with having children. So she was a bit of a like hero to the females around us because we didn't realise that that could be done. We'd never seen that. So she was a real pioneer and a role model.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Oh, thank you. And I remember the first time I met Lee, she was sitting in my office, and I just thought, oh my god, she's just brilliant. And your technical ability just stood out to me, but your ability to somehow explain that at a lower level and the way that you and I've seen this even at all in, you have this innate ability to train people to understand what they're doing and and why they're doing it, and that is extraordinary because it doesn't happen very much, and it's a skill that I have greatly admired. And the wonderful thing about, and um, I managed very quickly to get Lee as my manager, did some manoeuvring, did some well manoeuvring, and um when I well, really, I'd had Livy and um was heading back from maternity leave, and um you had a little knock-knock on my door.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

It was Valentine's Day. I came to your house for a cute Valentine's Day lunch.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

And you said, you've got a year, or I'm out, and I'm leaving. Which is how all in was born. Um, and we decided very quickly that we both loved the tech side and we both saw that there was opportunity to kind of do things differently, and our skill sets are wildly different, and so we're kind of the yin and the yang. And so good cop, bad cop. It was very good cop, bad cop. I was a bad cop for a long time, although you've taken over that role in like in most recent times. Um and really we we set it up very, very quickly. Like we had that, like, I think was it how long we were initially saying?

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Well, so the the meeting was Valentine's Day when the initial thing was floated, and our start date was October 16th. Yeah. But initially we were like, we'll go till one July the following year. Yes. So we were gonna give ourselves like 12 months. Um, and then it just kept snowballing, and we're like, we can't wait that long. We got people lined up to join we got clients lined up ready to join. We need to we need to hustle.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

And I remember the feeling of feeling like I was living a double life, yes, and I couldn't do it, and that's when I realized like kudos to people that have multiple partners and wives all at the same time, but I can't do it. And like paranoia and the gill.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

I remember someone saying something once about leaving, and I was like, What do you know? And there was a conversation about our chairs or something about our offices, and I was like, Why, why are you asking?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

You know, and I was cleaning out my office, and you're like, Ali, stop, everyone's gonna know. And I'm like, they won't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

And no one did, surprisingly enough, no one caught on to anything.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

No, and so all in, I guess that's a really good opportunity to talk about all in and currently where we're at. So we are a team of, I think, you know, around nine or ten, we kind of fluctuate around that. Um, and we hit our budgets fairly early, we hit over a meal a few years ago. Um we have some team in the Philippines through TOA, and we have some Aussie team here, and we do a mixture of I guess our ideal client lands in some transactional bookkeeping where we do the BAS and IAS and end of month, and then we do some quarterly advisory or monthly advisory, depending upon the client, which lands into the keep you out of jail, compliance, tax return stuff. Um, and yeah, as I mentioned before, the advisory. So we're really a full kit, but we're very niche.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Yeah, we I guess a bit more involved day to day. Very partnership based. Yeah, is more where we're at. We work best with people that are looking to partner with us. We don't really want to check in once a year, tick a box, and and send it out.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

And also not small tax returns.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

No, and we love to get on the journey with the clients. I think that's where we work best, where we can really help them grow and grow with them and and just watch them succeed. And we kind of go to the because it's us, we're we're all over the socials with them, we're all over and we watch their achievements and we celebrate their achievements. They probably don't realise how excited we get internally when they do good things and when they when they hit their goals, and yeah, we really are um, I guess, heart-led.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Yeah, absolutely heart and purpose led.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Which sometimes gets your heart broken. Yeah. Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

But yeah, we're very particular on what clients we bring in and they have to have a certain personality type. Um that we hit we have to be aligned with them, otherwise we don't want to work with them.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah, when when you're invested in as much as we invest in them emotionally, um, I think you haven't to it has to be the right person.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

And when we set up, I remember the way that I described it is we started with a big bang. I mean, I had quite a few clients that, you know, came along on the journey with us, and we started out with you and me, uh, plus another, um, and we grew very quickly. But what the aim was was to kind of, and I've spoken about this a million times, but we had this strategy of you know, eliminate what you can, automate what you can delegate, you know, systems and processes and the do bit. Um, but we really had that tech focus focus and that integration of all of the products kind of working together. Can you kind of talk through to the listeners you're you had a massive role in that? Like that was pretty much you.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

That was my baby.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, that was your baby. Talk to us around how you did that and why you did that. And obviously, we won some awards from that. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Um, I had so I'd spent a lot of time looking at it um before all in any way. I'd been doing a proposal to change some of the systems at the firm we were at. Um, and I was just so excited to be able to choose everything from scratch. It was like just a really one-off rare opportunity to do everything right from the beginning. Yeah. So I um had already been to probably four XeroCons. I was one of, I kind of had started going to XeroCon. So if anyone doesn't know, XeroCon for us is like a big um back in the day it was like a big festival.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

They call it the coacheller of accounting.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

The coacheller of accounting. And I I started going when it was quite small. Um, and it it just showcases all the um software and technology and innovation around um accounting. And I had been going for quite some time, just absolutely soaking in every stand, every person that would talk to me, I would talk to them. And I I knew all the stuff back then. I don't now because it's so much bigger and there's so much more available. But back then, and I had worked out who linked with who the best and and who was working together really well. So it kind of we knew the zero piece, the hero piece was zero, yeah, had to all connect to that, and then I had I'd got to know the the people that owned the software. Um, and again, I think we've spoken about this in the past, but I chose some of the software, not necessarily on it being the best software or the price, or the price. Um, I chose it on the people.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Um and that's honestly one of the best decisions we've made.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah, and the I guess it was a bit of a vibe.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Yeah, do I like them?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, have I a different? Do I like them? Um will they help me? And and they did, and they all they've been all so helpful and go out of their way. Like there's some like owners that will still um like the account keep Paul Murray so the world from account can be, but even like you know, Ron and Daniel from BGS. If you've got a problem, they'll just answer it sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Sandignation, like all of the really core products that we've had for so long.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

And they've grown, but they've they've still stayed true to their values. Yeah, so that was how it worked. It needed everything had to connect. Um, I didn't want to be updating 73 different spots and databases, and I didn't want manual processes and I didn't want us to be going and doing workarounds um and building little cheats and making up your own system. Everyone had to be doing the same thing the same way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Um and those first few years were hard because I remember obviously getting the tech onboarded, utilizing to its full extent, getting the integrations, but the systems and the processes you have to build behind it so that you get that consistent flow and then trying to make people follow that consistent flow and not do the oh geez, it's a little bit broken. I'll just you know use my own little way. Um, and always guiding them back to that system and process.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

It's not a set and forget. No. Um, and that's the hard part when you're in startup phase with um minimal resources and you're doing a thousand different jobs, you don't necessarily get to go back and check how people are doing it. And we've been caught out a number of times where I You could just step back in. Yeah, and I've assumed, um, and you know the old saying about assuming I've assumed that someone's doing what I told them to do, yeah, and they're not. Um and it takes, you know, six months for the problem. I always say it takes six months for a problem to come to light.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

And it generally does, and then six months later Or when somebody's going away for a long service leave or maternity leave. Or yeah, or they've left, or or for whatever reason I've had to step in and cover something and I discover what's going on, and then I have to spend another three months fixing it all, and then I, you know, go on a bit of a rant and I write a policy and I record a I record some sort of um thing about how to do it properly, and then we reset, and then I have to go back and do all my other jobs, and then I come back and look at it another six months and it's gone haywire again. So it is hard. Um, and I think as all people that own businesses and all people that run businesses know it's hard to get staff to do things the way you do it, and you have to let go sometimes, but and they're not as invested maybe as I am in it. Um that's a lesson. That was a that's a very big lesson they've had that they're not gonna do it how I want it done. Yeah. Um, have to let that go sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Um now this is a good spot because we do have a sponsor, um, Ignition. Thank you so much, Ignition, and we do use them. Um so we're gonna uh put our little sponsor promo in and we'll come back to you in just a minute. This episode is sponsored by Ignition, the software built for accountants by an accountant. Simplify proposals, automate billing and collections, and streamline your workflows. Save time, make money, get Ignition. So Lee, you um just guiding us back to I guess this podcast, it was your bright idea um to bring us together and have a little, you know, have these combos. Talk to me about what that mindset was and why did we get here?

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Um, I was out running, I think. You're a bit of a runner. Well, I have not been. Um You have you have my mind. Yeah, I'm not I'm on my I'm on at the minute, so you know I'm all about the running right now. Um next week, can't be sure. So I was out and I like to think, I'm a thinker, I was thinking, and I'm also a person that looks on I guess I follow a lot of different things on social media and I keep tabs on many a different thing just to where can we get some clients or what are the topics that people are talking about? And I had noticed that there were a lot of people, mainly women, I guess, that were asking the same kind of question over and over again, and they're the same questions we get asked here, and this is on Facebook groups, I guess. And if anyone's been on a Facebook group, you can't always rely on the answers. No, and I thought I should just go through this and write down like the 10 questions I see the most, and we should answer them.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

And it's really for business owners, right? And yeah. Taking away the complexity and just really dumbing this stuff down.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

I guess as a business owner, you we call it the silos. You feel so um isolated sometimes, and we feel that in the accounting industry, and we've got a little group of fellow accounting firm owners that get together and just discuss some of the issues you have because you are you're running a little bit of a silo. Your family doesn't always necessarily understand the stress and the struggles because if they've never run a business and they're only employees, it's so foreign some of the um issues that you're going through and some of the stress and some of the thoughts. And I guess I was so you join these communities, and you get to realise from my perspective, with the amount of people that I talk to, that everyone's really the same. Oh, yeah. It's the same issue in a little bit of a different light. Um and we'd had a lot of success getting our clients together and running little workshops to to showcase some of the issues, and from the conversations they were having with each other, we'd learned that everyone was kind of basically.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah, it's powerful when you see the clients talk to each other and see that there's that connection.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

And not only that, the issues they were facing were the same issues we were facing in our business. As our business was growing with their business, it was it was the same.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

And we've been so open with our clients about that too. Yeah. About our wins and our struggles.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

And and so I thought, well, and Ali has other podcasts she's experienced in podcasts, and I thought, well, this and we'd kind of across the years gone, we'd love to do something together. Yeah. Uh and I thought, I think this is it. I think this is our thing where we can the conversations we have with our clients and the conversations we have with each other. I think there's value in that.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Oh, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Um, and so how do we get that out to the to the community? And even if no one listens, it's content. It's content for us to to give out to our clients when they ask a question. We can say, Well, listen to this. This is this is the answer. And because we have a lot of blog content on it, but not everyone resonates with reading. And so that that different um medium for people to understand and to try to talk about it in a way that people can understand it, I think is really important. Because the other feedback we've had a lot from clients that we win is their accountant has talked down to them or confused them. Yeah. Um, so these uh one of our main goals is to talk to people in a way that is relatable, understandable, educate, to educate, um, but not make them feel silly, not make them feel like they should have known that. It's just be understanding and and guide them in a way that works for them.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

And I think I'm gonna call out the elephant in the room. We're also also also we're also two women who have I've got three children, you've got two. Um there is also enormous amount of mental load that we carry outside of work. And we've built a firm that yes is flexible and um allows us to have that balance. But you know, it is a balancing act, and sometimes we get it right and and sometimes we don't. But we basically have two jobs, right? You clock on at home, you clock off at home, you clock on at work, you clock off, and it it's well, you never really clock on and often either, though.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

They follow you around.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Well, at some jobs you do. At some jobs you do have to clock on and off.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

But you know, I think being women in business, there are things that we have had to traverse um and things that we live with on a daily basis that we have to work through that potentially others don't. Um, and so you know, layer that on top of everything else. And I think we can give an honest perspective of how it feels when we've got it right and when we haven't. And that's the one thing that we're very good at is just being honest. Calling it spade a spade.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

No, no, no secrets around here.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Now, what I've realized is that I didn't give money um You didn't ignore it. Everybody knows how no, not at all. We just assume everyone knows alleys. Not at all, not at all. So I've got about 30 plus years of experience. My dad was an accountant, I always wanted to be an accountant. I've loved every single second and minute of it. I'm just I was born one, right? Um and so I started in very small firms, moved, which then merged with larger firms, and then I then I jumped out after 13 years to go to a big four where I was a director and I worked for my first female partner back then, and gosh, it changed me as a person. And I hope we can get into that episode as to how that changes you. 100% because you can't be what you can't see. And so um that I I spent about seven years there, and then I jumped out into another mid-tier firm where I was, yes, the only female director. Um, and I knew that I was there for that specific purpose, but also wanted to bring them into the technology um universe, which is where I met Lee, uh, where we spent about another seven.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Uh I was there six years. Yeah, so maybe I must have been five.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Oh, I spent five, I reckon. And then um, yes, we jumped out into all in. So, and I have many, many passions um outside of that. So, I've got a 20-year-old now, a 16-year-old, and an eight-year-old. I go to F45 every day. I'm an absolute fitness fanatic and I'm very structured around my food and drink. But um I am not. We are the opposite. And this is the thing, we are the opposite in some things. Um, but you know, that's just what makes us gel. So hopefully that's a little bit about me. Um, you know, Google me, you'll find a whole lot more. Um, I sit on the Zero Partner Advisory Council and also the Ignition Council. I'm very heavily involved in the community. And I also have another podcast, Aline Andrews All Aussie Accounting Adventures. So um, and I I do love uh a Zero Con on a Roadshow. So uh you'll usually find me at those types of places. But um I hope that gives you a little bit of an idea of who we are, what we want to achieve through this podcast. Is there anything else, Lee, that you kind of wanted to let us know?

SPEAKER_01 21:56

No, I don't think so. I think we're just excited to get into the content.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

It's like birthing a baby. And we've been there done that.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Yeah, we're gonna grow the series so that you can go with it. So we're gonna start from the start and move through the life cycle of uh the business and and grow it to the end.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

Yep, let's do that. So thanks so much for listening to our first episode ever. It's always a little bit nerve-wracking to get the first one out there. Um, but we're super excited to have you on the journey. So thanks so much, and we'll see you in the next one.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

And that's a wrap on today's episode, everyone. Thanks for hanging out with us. We're very aware you could have been scrolling, snacking, or ignoring emails instead. So we appreciate you choosing us. If this episode gave you a light bulb moment, a laugh, or a quiet, oh wow, same, do us a favour and hit follow, leave a review and rate the podcast. It helps other brilliant people find us and makes the algorithm gods very happy. So share it with a mate, a bizbesti, or that friend who's building something big and pretending they're not stressed. Until next time, use bold moves, chase the big wins, and lead the way.