Adam Larson: 00:05

Welcome to another episode of Count Me In. I'm your host, Adam Larson, and today, we're joined by Tevia Hoalst, the founder of Tekota Accounting. Tevia shares her inspiring journey from leaving the toxic corporate environment to creating a company centered on exceptional workplace culture. In our chat, we explore the current state of the accounting industry's culture, the challenges of maintaining a healthy work environment, and the innovative strategies Tevye uses to foster a thriving remote team. From virtual offices to annual retreats, Tevye explains how these initiatives build trust and community.

Adam Larson: 00:39

We also chat about what it takes to win an Inc 5 1,000 Culture Award and why it's a testament to our team's dedication. So stay tuned for an enlightening conversation that you won't wanna miss. Tevye, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We're really excited to have you here, and we're gonna be talking about company culture. And I figured to start off the conversation, we could just talk a little bit about your background, how you came to Dakota Accounting.

Tevia Hoalst: 01:07

Sure. Absolutely. I actually started like many others. I had a corporate job, and it just wasn't getting done for me. So after many years of kinda soul searching and and knowing that I had more to give but wasn't really sure where to give it, I landed on business ownership.

Tevia Hoalst: 01:26

And when the time was right, I stepped away from corporate. It was incredibly toxic where I was at. And the basis of my company before I ever picked a product or service was we're gonna have the most phenomenal culture. If there is nothing else that I win at, it will be everyone that works for me will feel valued. And so it started with that, and then I just had to figure out, you know, what is my background?

Tevia Hoalst: 01:53

What will people pay me to do until I have a team that does it better? And that's kinda where it went from there.

Adam Larson: 02:00

I think that's a great story, and I it's a lot of times you talk to people who are entrepreneurs. They they saw what was the problem, and they're like, I'm gonna start something and help fix that problem. And it sounds like you've been able to do that.

Tevia Hoalst: 02:12

Yes. It's kinda twofold, and I totally I've heard that before. I agree with it. I think the entrepreneurs that had a pain point, and my pain point was culture, but I also I was working in small business also at a side job, and I just saw that there's not enough really great support for small business. And and customer service, unfortunately, is kind of dead in a lot of areas of our world now, and so we really champion high, high, high service and, you know, having the best people to provide that service so that our clients win.

Adam Larson: 02:45

So one of the things I mentioned that we're gonna be talking about is culture. You know? And I love the story of how you came to your business, but you wanted to fix something culturally. And what would you feel the state of you know, let's let's just talk about the accounting industry because that's what you're in. What's the state of the accounting industry culturally right now?

Tevia Hoalst: 03:02

I have seen myself a a wide variety. There are some firms that are trying to raise the bar and trying to change that, you know, accountants are working 80, 90, a 100 hours a week during tax time. But, generally, business is gonna be business, and it's about the dollar and not about the human, unfortunately. And so I have seen many, many, many people that I have met that have left big 4, big 10 firms because of the treatment. And that still today, the bar you know?

Tevia Hoalst: 03:37

And I'm not saying the money is not there, maybe even the benefits are there, but the culture internally is not being corrected. And I think that's for a couple of reasons. When it's more important about the bottom dollar than taking care of the client or taking care of the employee, there is a different culture that comes from that. You know, when private equity or stockholders, shareholders are involved, there is a certain amount of margin that you must create to have the cash flow to kick back to them, and that creates a certain culture where you must squeeze the client and the team to have as many clients as much as you can. And so that just kinda breeds, you know, something that's unhealthy.

Adam Larson: 04:22

It really does. And a lot of times when you're talking about culture or talking about businesses, people always try to say and try to remind you, like, hey. HR isn't your friend. Their main their main, goal is to help support the business. You know, your boss isn't your friend.

Adam Larson: 04:35

Their main goal is to support the business. And so what you just described is what many people experience, especially in some sort of corporate environment. So maybe we could talk a little bit about why a culture is so important and why does it really matter to have it sounds like a healthy culture because you can have so many different types of culture, but it sounds like we wanna have a healthy and kinda thriving culture.

Tevia Hoalst: 04:54

Sure. And I this is the perfect question because I am a business owner first and foremost. So I also have to have services, you know, from other people, other vendors. So it is a very relative question to say, why do I care that those who are gonna serve me has a good culture? What does that matter?

Tevia Hoalst: 05:13

Is it just gonna increase my, you know, dollar and my expenses? The reality is that, first and foremost, when we have a healthy culture that we invest in our people, they're more consistent. They are there for a reason. They want to be there. They want to serve you.

Tevia Hoalst: 05:30

They wanna be with the company they're with. These are all positives that bring the end user better quality, more consistency, someone who cares, you know, like, particular to our culture. We really push our team to not just turn out good financials, but to actually move the needle for the clients and to send proactive information that they may or may not be paying attention to. So in our company, particularly, there is, support for them to constantly be kind of, like, reaching a higher bar than just the bare minimum. And if the employees are unhappy and don't like where they're at, they're not gonna stretch for that the way that they will when they're happy.

Tevia Hoalst: 06:12

So it does very much matter to the business owner. And I look for vendors that have a similar culture so that they will provide to us, you know, in that same way.

Adam Larson: 06:22

Yeah. It's almost like you have to add in a section to the r, the, the RDP that you're you're creating for your new vendor and saying, hey. How's your company culture? Because that's because how you interact with those people and those salespeople, it says a lasting impression around how are you going to connect with the people after the salespeople, people implementing or the vendors, you know, how you're working with them? It's it's it's a lot.

Adam Larson: 06:46

I I think there's so many meetings that we're like, hey, this person gives me the best price. Let's jump with them. But then you start working with them and you realize that was a bad decision. You know, how do you avoid that?

Tevia Hoalst: 06:55

Well, I think it is vetting the partner and seeing what is it they're bringing to the table. What is their transparency? Is it super sales y? You know? Okay.

Tevia Hoalst: 07:05

Can you really trust that? Are you talking to the person that you're actually gonna be working with, or do you have an introduction with these people? It's before you make the investment, before you decide. Am I going with the lowest cost estimate? Am I going with the best estimate?

Tevia Hoalst: 07:21

You know, which is it? Doing that due diligence ahead of time to just make sure that your investment is the highest quality it can be. Because as we all know, the worst thing we can have happen is have turnover, and you feel like you're telling to people 10 times over the same thing or the quality drops because they don't know what's going on or they missed something. Those are very costly for companies, and you may not calculate that in the front end, but you do see it all the way through.

Adam Larson: 07:51

So once you've created a culture that seems to be healthy and thriving, how can you make it last? Because, you know, the things you're mentioning, a lot of times people have really good highs in the midst of their company culture, and then suddenly things start going downhill for them because of different you know, so many different environmental factors. But then there start being turnover and all those different things. How do you kind of keep that going? How do you keep that energy up?

Tevia Hoalst: 08:14

We talk about this all the time that at any size, you know, how are we gonna ensure that we're delivering to our team? And the baseline is communication. Everything about our employees is understanding who they are, and who they are is gonna change. And it's having that communication, what's important to you, what are you looking for, what changes have you had in your life, and how does that align with the company, and where do we find that Apex that we can step in and, you know, iterate on our benefits, iterate on what we have for you, and ensure that we are in as much camaraderie of that as possible.

Adam Larson: 08:54

What do you say to the cynics in your team? Because I'm sure there's people who are like, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Adam Larson: 08:59

I'm not drinking the Kool Aid. What do you what would you say to that person?

Tevia Hoalst: 09:03

Well, I mean, that's kind of a twofold answer. We have had those people before, and the fact of the matter is they don't stay with us. So it's really about we lead from our values. And if we are in value alignment with our employees, then they want what we have to offer and vice versa. And so to a certain extent different levels, but to a certain extent, we all do drink the Kool Aid.

Tevia Hoalst: 09:27

And if we do have one that isn't matching that energy, well, you're only as strong as your weakest link. So we have separated from employees before because they're just not valuing what we're bringing, or maybe they don't have the mindset to have appreciation for what that is. And we we, you know, have crazy opportunity before where they can go find that right fit.

Adam Larson: 09:51

That that seems that sounds like a healthy way to kind of break ties with somebody who doesn't isn't really meshing with things. Are there other challenges you've had to face as kind of maintaining that culture, and how have you kinda overcome those?

Tevia Hoalst: 10:03

For sure. We there's always challenges. The main one I would say is we are fully remote. We're all US based, but we allow our team to work from home. And we are also not micromanagers.

Tevia Hoalst: 10:14

We do have very clear, crisp processes and deadlines that must be met, but our team, for the most part, works at the hours that they want, and, you know, they can use the systems that they want. We do have a IT, outsourced company that provides security for everything that we do, so it all has to be approved. But, you know, the biggest thing I would say is we we do a couple of things. We have a virtual office that we all work in every single day, whatever times they're working, and it's it's really about the nucleus of the community. So how we come over those challenges is supporting each other, and everyone is available.

Tevia Hoalst: 10:53

They can come to me. They can come to my partner. They can go to each other and discuss what they need, give support where they need. So that virtual environment's super important because I'll be the 1st to raise my hand and say, there is no replacement for in person. And so we, replace that as much as we can to give the face to face, but there isn't any.

Tevia Hoalst: 11:15

So that leads into the other thing of how do we overcome the challenges. We do a fully paid company retreat every year, and we bring everyone together. And I cannot tell you the level of value in connection we bring from that because everyone gets to see each other, hug each other. We play games. Last year, we went on a cruise.

Tevia Hoalst: 11:36

This year, we're taking everybody to Disney, and we're staying in a Harry Potter Airbnb. And we're just having all kinds of, like, weird moments that you wouldn't otherwise have that create connection. And then they go out the rest of the year, and they live off of that. You know? And that that breeds a lot of help when you come up with challenges.

Adam Larson: 11:55

Now what kind of you mentioned that you have, like, a virtual office. Is there, like, a place where everybody logs into that you can easily chat with each other?

Tevia Hoalst: 12:02

Yeah. So we've been through many. The one we're currently using that supports us the best is called Kumospace, and it has a lot of functionality. And, you know, we can even, like, design our offices and have little parties and have balloons. And, you know, so they've done a really good job, and it makes a huge difference because there's a video aspect of it where when we have meetings, you know, we're always on video, and it just we we even when we have team meetings, there's a conference room that we all collectively sit in the conference room together.

Tevia Hoalst: 12:34

And when we first started, you know, there wasn't enough chairs built in, so we would laugh that some people were standing on the table. You know? And, so we we just have fun with it.

Adam Larson: 12:45

I love that. I love that that connection that it's it's almost like that's that's a need, a necessity, that kind of virtual office that was created during the COVID era where everybody was suddenly working from home virtual, and people didn't really know how to do this, like, video thing, how to talk to people. You know, I worked from home for many years, and I had a lot of trouble for the all the people in the office every day turning on a camera. I'm like, well, I'm afraid you'll see me. I'm like, well, if I was in the office, I'd be looking at you.

Adam Larson: 13:09

So just turn your camera on. It's okay. So I like that you guys have been able to find a a software that's been able to help you create that community environment.

Tevia Hoalst: 13:18

Yes. People need community, and COVID is a perfect example of the really, glaring siren that was people had community taken away. And even the people that are generally our hires, which are, like, typically lower social people, you know, that wanna do the transactional work, wanna work alone, wanna work from home, they still want community. So Yeah. We are low on that in the United States.

Tevia Hoalst: 13:43

There's all kinds of data, you know, that shows that and supports that. And so we're here to up community for our people, for our clients, and and try to bring more of that around.

Adam Larson: 13:55

And thinking about community, a lot of times when we're talking about our our organizations, we fail to recognize or even acknowledge, hey. There's things happening outside of organizations that affect the employees who are helping run organizations, whether it's something political, whether it's a cultural movement, whether it's something within your local community or your town. It could be something bigger within the country that you're in. But but how do you kind of support your team? And all those things are seem to be more overwhelming than, hey.

Adam Larson: 14:22

I need to help this person with their numbers today.

Tevia Hoalst: 14:25

I think it leads mainly from really a place of empathy, and it's it's a microcosm of where the United States could go, should go, you know, which is I can it's okay that you have different beliefs than I do. If we are coming from a place of mutual respect and, things are affecting you or you have things even just going on in your personal life, we have a lot of leniency for our team in trying to make sure that their lives work with their work. And whether it is a global thing going on or whatnot, again, we just open that community, have conversations, support each other. We try to come from a place of nonjudgment. And, really, that at the end, we want the same goal, and we might not have the same path or beliefs that get us there, but that doesn't mean that we have to have confrontation that's negative.

Adam Larson: 15:18

And that's extremely important, especially as we're recording this. We're leading up to election year in the United States, And there can be a lot of, you know, butting of heads when it comes to certain political issues. And I think what a lot of both sides of the political coin forget is that, hey, we're all still human. We all still bleed. We all still hurt.

Adam Larson: 15:37

Our feelings get hurt. You know, things offend us, and it's not just as simple as, well, you don't believe in this cause or that cause. It's it's never so black and white.

Tevia Hoalst: 15:46

Never. Anytime I've ever made a snap judgment and then have had the chance to go back and have more education, more context, almost always, I realize I did not have the awareness to make that judgment. And so, personally, I work to go through life in that if I have not experienced what you're going through, I'm in a neutral position. I am not gonna proactively, like, judge what's happening because the one thing I know is I don't know. You know?

Adam Larson: 16:19

I I love that point of view, and that's something as I've kind of grown in my life, I've come to that same kind of status. It was like, I'm not going to make an assumption or whatever just because of what other people have said. I've not walked in your shoes. Who am I to say one thing or another about how you feel? And I think that helps us to kinda get that empathy you were talking about.

Tevia Hoalst: 16:39

Well and I think it's a good marker too to, like, pivot to talking a little bit into, like, psychology and how that comes into culture. Because so in our firm, we really believe in, there you know, there's different personality tests that happen. There's a particular one that is statistically, so accurate that you can use it for hiring, which I believe there's only 2. And I am such a psychology buff. I love, love, love it.

Tevia Hoalst: 17:07

It is a quick way for us to understand our people, and, of course, we wanna know them off the paper and we get to know them deeper. But quickly, we can see, in general, who someone is before you know them, and it allows us to mold ourselves in our management style around what did they need from us and what are they coming in with in their context. And that goes to exactly what you're talking about with the whole, you know, even United States is understanding people come with different psychology, and you have to have the open mindedness to be a little bit adaptable to what is it you're needing from me, what is the ask, what do I need from you, and and the willingness to balance that.

Adam Larson: 17:48

It sounds like you've kind of really done a great job at building the trust that is needed to have a good culture. Can we maybe talk a little bit about how you build up that trust? Because it's not an easy thing. It's something that's built over time. And especially when organizations like a lot of worse if you just read the headlines, you know, this company had to lay off 15%.

Adam Larson: 18:06

How do you rebuild trust after something like that?

Tevia Hoalst: 18:09

Where we come in and do that is one of our values. And for a very long time, we went around one of our values as candor, which to us is honesty. Right? However, we do have, especially the leadership, myself included, if we go back to that psychology profile, myself and my partner have a profile where, you know, we're not afraid of confrontation. We we aren't gonna necessarily go looking for it, but we're not afraid of it.

Tevia Hoalst: 18:36

And so that makes candor easy for us where maybe it's harder for other people on our team that don't have that confrontational, you know, trait. So where that matters is we come in and we made our value respectful candor because I think it's too easy for bullies in the world to say mean things and say, well, I'm just being honest. You know? And that is not the culture we want. So we very thoughtfully made it respectful candor, and we harness that every single week.

Tevia Hoalst: 19:09

We're talking about that with our team. And and it the trust comes from really trust by doing. You know? We, to each other, are constantly giving respectful, positive, and sometimes constructive feedback so that they can trust. When you're in a room with each other, we're safe.

Tevia Hoalst: 19:29

And if we do need to talk about something, it's not gonna be a secret. And so there's no question of, well, are we in a good place? Are we not? You know, it's it's very open and honest, and I think it takes time and example to build that trust.

Adam Larson: 19:44

Yeah. It really does. So, you know, if somebody's joining your organization, they have to kind of slowly drink the Kool Aid, if you will. Yeah. To use a bad example, but it's it's one of those things where it has to be built over time, and it's not something you can just jump into and automatically say, I'm I'm a part of this.

Tevia Hoalst: 20:00

Almost every employee, we always do, like, a check on how everybody's doing 3 months, 6 months, you know, all that. And almost throughout the entire, corporation, they will come back and they will say, I thought it was too good to be true. You know? Like, the original post and the interview, the way we do the interview process, and even how friendly everybody was, and we have them meet multiple people. And even the initial, you know, team meetings, which are are are always the same meetings, you know, they were like, it just couldn't be true whether they've had trauma in the past from work or it just seemed too good to be true, which because usually that is the case.

Tevia Hoalst: 20:37

And they then report back over time just the appreciation for it's real. I mean, you guys consistently are delivering on this message that we matter and that you put us first and, you know, we spend money on our team and all the things. And and so we are consistently hearing, like, gosh, in the beginning, you know, could this be real? And then they come back around and they're like, it's incredible. You know?

Tevia Hoalst: 21:05

So it it's not that hard to get them to drink the Kool Aid. We just have to prove it.

Adam Larson: 21:09

Yeah. You have to kinda prove it. I love that. I love it's it's encouraging to hear that that's out there because a lot of times in a lot of organizations that you hear about, you talk to your friends about, that you've seen. And, we've all been a part of those organizations where you're like, I don't know where this is going, especially with all the turmoil that's going in and the economy and everything and so many people being laid off.

Adam Larson: 21:30

There's a lot of uncertainty, and so it's hard to be up for drinking the Kool Aid if you're not unsure what's going on in the organization. So you have to kind of obviously, you have to balance that in yourself. But as an organization, it's it's kind of building that. Like, hey. We're all here for each other.

Adam Larson: 21:44

We all still recognize that you have a heart and that it's more than just the the work you do on your computer every day.

Tevia Hoalst: 21:51

A 100%. Yes. And it doesn't hurt when, you know, I'm extremely proud that we've just won an Inc 5,000 culture award. And so those things are incredibly important because it's kind of proof before you have the pudding, if you will. And that allows us to say, you know, we didn't get this on accident.

Tevia Hoalst: 22:12

So it almost buys in a certain level of trust before having to take as much time as we would have in the future, which we appreciate because, you know, we do put our money and our time and our energy where our mouth is. So, we're happy to have that kind of back us up and and give us a little bit more, you know, what's the word, legitimacy, if you will. Mhmm.

Adam Larson: 22:37

Yeah. So how does one get that award? Does it do do they, do they pull the employees? Does everybody have to go in, like, a small booth and fill out a card about you?

Tevia Hoalst: 22:45

Yeah. They do send surveys to the employees. They also there's a whole, like, sheet. You know? First of all, to even be, recommended for it, you have to meet certain requirements.

Tevia Hoalst: 22:57

You have to have so many employees. You have to be providing certain benefits. So you can't even play if you're not doing certain things. And then it's kind of a scorecard. They do the survey.

Tevia Hoalst: 23:08

They check what it is you are providing and the culture and everything they're getting of answers, and then they score everybody and and they put you in a list. Yeah.

Adam Larson: 23:18

Wow. Well, congratulations on the award. That is very exciting. And

Tevia Hoalst: 23:22

Thank you.

Adam Larson: 23:22

And it's and it's a and it's a testament to the work you've done. And I think that's the biggest part of what you're saying is it's a huge testament that, hey. We've been doing the work and look. It shows because of this award.

Tevia Hoalst: 23:32

Yes. And it's a 100% a team effort. You know? Mhmm. Every like, you were saying, everybody kinda buy in.

Tevia Hoalst: 23:38

It's so true. If you have one bad apple, it brings us down. And so we're very adamant that everyone bring their best and everyone give to each other everything they have because, otherwise, it it won't be as elevated and it won't be the same experience. So not one person. I do lead the culture in the company, but every single person really elevates it higher than what any individual could do for sure.

Adam Larson: 24:03

Mhmm. Yeah. Definitely. So where do you envision your company culture evolving in the next years? Because, obviously, you just won this award.

Adam Larson: 24:10

Now you have this standard to live up to. That's a bit of a pressure, isn't it?

Tevia Hoalst: 24:14

I know. Are we gonna get it every year? I can only hope. It's all about earning. I it goes back to the conversation we had before.

Tevia Hoalst: 24:23

I I have been asked. I do these meetings called 1 ups with our team, and they can bring in we we post certain questions that they answer ahead of time, and then I can speak to those questions to them. And then one of the questions that came up recently was, what is the long term plan for the culture? Because inevitably, it will shift and mold and change. And my honest answer, because I always try to be super transparent, is I don't know what it looks like when we're a team of 500, but what I can promise you is the core of the intention.

Tevia Hoalst: 24:57

We will give as much effort to it then as we do now. And coming from a corporate environment, and I'll be the first to say, that corporation had pockets and departments that ran great, and people were very happy. It just happened to be the one that I came from, you know, had a very toxic leader. So it's so on leadership to make sure that the lower management that ends up being in charge of the team, go really believes the culture, lives the values, and doesn't kinda sidestep that. It like you were saying, the cynical employee before.

Tevia Hoalst: 25:32

We have to be so diligent and have a process of how to ensure that we really buy that in. Do I believe that at a big scale, everyone will have the same elevation? No. I'm not a lunatic. However, I do think that we can encourage that.

Tevia Hoalst: 25:48

There are large corporations that do get culture awards, so there are ways to do it, and there are ways to make people feel heard. And and it goes back to listening to them. What is it you need right now? Are you getting it? Can we do better?

Tevia Hoalst: 26:02

And and actually implementing that stuff. So it'll look different, but if the intention is there in the effort, I think we'll nail it.

Adam Larson: 26:10

Definitely. Well and I was just thinking as you're talking about the the cynic example, a lot of times if you actually sit down and listen to what the cynic is saying, there's something you can learn out of it. But, also, you have to kinda, hey hey, cynic. Can we talk about this in a healthy manner first? And then once you get to that point of the conversation, you can actually learn and grow as an organization because there is some truth behind the stuff that they're saying.

Tevia Hoalst: 26:32

Always. Yeah. I mean, it's just like they say comedy. There's always a line of truth, you know, in any sarcasm or comedy. So I think it's the balance.

Tevia Hoalst: 26:42

You know, let's focus on what we're doing wrong, but let's also cheer on our wins. And business, you know, feels like a very lonely endeavor for a lot of people, and it's just about finding community or for yourself or your company. It's okay to celebrate wins, but also listen to the growth opportunities for sure.

Adam Larson: 27:04

Well, Tavia, this has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much for sharing, your company's, your culture and what you've done to grow, and I just think I hope everybody has learned a lot and has really benefited from this conversation.

Tevia Hoalst: 27:16

Yeah. Thank you so much, Adam, for having me. It's been so fun chatting with you.

Announcer: 27:23

This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders from the accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting and finance education, visit IMA's website at www.ima net.org.