Cultivating Superfans: Tyler Stillman's Strategy for Financial Revival Through Relationship Building

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Tyler Stillman is a dedicated professional with a background

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in accounting and consulting.

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Starting his career in high school under

the guidance of an inspiring teacher, he

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excelled in future business leadership

and went on to pursue a Bachelor's

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degree in Accounting from A.S.U.

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Tyler's journey led him to a company

specializing in communications,

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where he encountered challenges

with contractor relations.

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Through his initiative and leadership,

Tyler transformed the company's approach

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to contractor management, prioritizing

fair treatment and timely payments.

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His strategic changes not only

improved contractor satisfaction

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but also contributed to a positive

impact on the company's bottom line.

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Tyler's focus on building strong

relationships with contractors and

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customers alike has been key to his

success in turning around businesses

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and positioning them for growth.

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Good morning, Tyler Stillman.

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Welcome to the business superfans podcast!

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How are you today?

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Tyler Stllman: Hey, I'm doing fine.

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How about you?

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Freddy D: I'm doing excellent.

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I'm doing excellent.

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Tell us a little bit about yourself,

how you got started into accounting

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and moved into accounting consulting.

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Tyler Stllman: Yes.

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So as I'm an accountant and

a accounting consultant.

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Basically, I started all the

way back in high school where

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I had an amazing teacher.

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His name was Mr.

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Giddings really brought out myself

and really helped me start my career.

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So basically along with that

in high school, I was a part of

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future business leaders of America.

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Really?

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Wow.

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And I ended up going to the

national competition that.

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For FBLA.

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Freddy D: Wow.

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That's amazing.

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Tyler Stllman: Needless to say I

had huge aspirations after that.

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So I went and got my Bachelor's of Science

in Accounting from ASU, and pretty much

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almost immediately after I got my degree,

I got hired by a company that uses

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specialized contractors in communications.

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Freddy D: Really?

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So tell us about that.

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Tyler Stllman: It was very

rough to say the least.

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When I got in there there

was a lot of weird stuff with

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the books, just, it was off.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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Tyler Stllman: And I noticed

that these contractors weren't

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the happiest with the company.

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Freddy D: Really?

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So let's talk about that.

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Because as

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Tyler Stllman: independent contractors

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Freddy D: are also the face of a

business and if they're not happy,

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they're not really promoting the

business and in fact, it's the opposite.

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They're, probably talking neutral

at best of that particular business.

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So let's talk about, what did you do to,

get that turned around at that company?

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Tyler Stllman: Yes.

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So in terms of the contractors,

what I didn't really start

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initiating until around a year in.

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To start treating them better because

the owners were very steadfast in

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their approach and I was completely

brand new to the accounting world.

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But then I started growing a

backbone and I created a a document

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to at least put into writing how

we should treat our contractors.

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Freddy D: I think that's important.

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I don't think that, having that organized

and put into a process, a systemized

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process is very important because

otherwise you're just winging it.

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And winging it doesn't work in the long

time, in the long game, I should say.

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Tyler Stllman: Also, word gets

around because these are very

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specialized contractors, word gets

around in their community that

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you aren't doing good by them.

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So one of the very first things that I

needed to realize to make their lives

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better is to give them a little leeway.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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Tyler Stllman: Basically, if something

is out of everyone's control, the

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way that the company used to do it is

that contractor would take the hit.

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Freddy D: that's a short view of the

business because you're not creating

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superfans out of those contractors.

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More importantly, you've got the mindset

that you're doing them a favor versus

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them helping build your business.

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Tyler Stllman: Exactly, and when I

realized that, I realized we need to

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give these contractors a little grace.

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Freddy D: That's huge because these

people are going, one to contributing

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to the business because if you didn't

have these particular contractors

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providing the services that they

provide because of their uniqueness,

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that business is out of business.

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Tyler Stllman: Exactly.

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Freddy D: So the contractors is really

the front of the business and is the

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business, so they should be number one in

the business's eyes as we got to take care

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of our team because no team, no business,

especially in that type of a business,

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which is language communications.

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Tyler Stllman: Yes, very much

beforehand It was always company

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first, contractors, second.

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The viewpoint was we would always try

to pay ourselves before we paid them,

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and I realized after half a year to

a year after I created the documents

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that things needed to change even more.

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They need it because the documents were a

step in the right direction, but then we

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needed to actually make even more changes.

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Freddy D: And what were

some of those changes?

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What were the outcomes of

implementing those changes?

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Tyler Stllman: One of the very first

things that we did was we started

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to pay the interpreters more.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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Tyler Stllman: It originally started

it originally started out in a weird

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way where we would pay them a month

after the assignment essentially.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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Tyler Stllman: So essentially you

do the first two weeks of the month,

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you'll get paid in the first week of

the next month, that kind of thing

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and while people enjoyed getting paid

more, but there were still contractors

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that we didn't use often that were

still waiting a month to get paid.

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Freddy D: Yeah that's a long time

when, you know, especially independent

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contractors, a few hundred dollars in

today's economy is really important.

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Tyler Stllman: Absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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Freddy D: So how did you start converting

these guys into superfans of you, and

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the services that you were providing to

those contractors, and in turn changing

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the bottom line for that company?

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Tyler Stllman: I became much more involved

and talked to the interpreters myself.

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I subsequently, also started

to do some tech stuff.

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To actually get in the

field with interpreters.

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One of the very last things that I did

for the company before I left was I went

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to a interpretation function and actually

got to see interpretation being done live.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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So you started building relationships

with those contractors that

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started to build trust in, in you

in being able to take care of them.

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And so in turn, they became superfans

of not necessarily the company, but

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of you because you had their back.

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Tyler Stllman: Yes, and I always made

sure to let the independent contractors

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know, I know that things were done

differently in the past, but I am

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stopping the bad stuff now going forward.

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I have your back.

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I'm doing my best for you.

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Freddy D: That made a big transformation

into how the contractors related to you

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and started transforming the image that

the contractors had about the company.

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Because now, the company was more

pro contractors and making , and

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had the mind, and the mindset was

changing that this is our front line.

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We need to take care of the front line

versus be grateful we're giving you a job.

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Tyler Stllman: Exactly, and very

much that improved our bottom line,

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because we had more people willing

to do work, and we had more people

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that wanted to do work with us.

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Freddy D: That's huge right there,

that's monster, because again, they're

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independent contractors, so they

don't have to work for that particular

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company because they can sell their

services to anybody else, but if you

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start treating them like you did.

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With respect and appreciation, if they

get two calls and this is company A and

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this is your company, they're going to

say, you know what, Tyler takes care

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of me, he's got my back, I'm going

to do Tyler, I'm going to go for the

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project that his company's requesting.

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Tyler Stllman: Yes, and one thing I

actually did realize after we made the

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change in pay is we needed to be better.

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We needed to break the mold of

the type of business we was in.

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I decided, you know what these contractors

need to be paid every two weeks and that

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affected our bottom line for a little

bit, because when I decided that we needed

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to make this change, I made it pretty

much immediately with the approval of

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my manager, of course, because we needed

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Freddy D: Sure, and how was that received

by the, these independent contractors?

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Tyler Stllman: We had an independent

contractor actually leave us

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when she found out she would have

to wait a month for her money.

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I got in contact with her saying,

Hey, we actually changed everything.

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Would you be willing to come back to us?

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She said yes, of course I would.

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Essentially you're treating

me like a human now, and so

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she came back to work with us.

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Freddy D: That's important.

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So kudos to you for, bringing

back an independent contractor

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back to that company.

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It's right because employees

were paid bi weekly.

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But you're, you had these independent

contractors, That are dependent

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upon being paid timely, because

again, they're not getting a salary.

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They're getting hourly

wage but, for assignment.

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It's paramount that they get paid timely.

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Tyler Stllman: Exactly, and, of course,

along with that, I made a few minor

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changes, like just changing everyone

to be paid at a minimum of two hours.

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Even if their previous stuff was an hour

minimum for on site stuff, and everyone

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started getting happier with the company.

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Freddy D: You started changing the

culture of the independent contractors.

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In the sense that you were, turning

them into superfans for the company

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because now the company was in turn

respecting them and showing appreciation

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and gratitude by, at a minimum, paying

them timely on a regular basis and

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creating a regularness for the payments.

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Tyler Stllman: Absolutely.

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Freddy D: So how did that affect

the bottom line of the company?

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Let's talk about that.

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Those payments to those independent

contractors affect the bottom

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line compared to when you started

working with that company?

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Where was the bottom line at?

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Tyler Stllman: When I started working at

the company, the bottom line was through

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the floor we had really bad years.

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The prior like three years.

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Freddy D: Negative income,

not positive income.

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Tyler Stllman: Yes.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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Tyler Stllman: When we started making

these changes with our workforce,

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our contractors one of the very

first noticeable changes was one, we

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were getting more assignments done.

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So more assignments meant more money

and more money meant more profit and

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more profit It means, went straight up.

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Freddy D: So, let me rephrase that in a

sense that, because now that you started

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paying the contractors on a regular basis,

the contractors were more willing to do

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assignments versus saying, Oh no, I'm not

available and whatever the excuses that

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they had to say, yeah, I'm willing to do

this and the company was able to fulfill

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more assignments, which in turn started

to affect the bottom line from a negative

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net income to, in the time that you were

there to becoming a positive net income.

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Tyler Stllman: Absolutely.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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Now, what are the other things that you

did that you found in the books that, also

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affected the income because of the fact

that things were not properly categorized?

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Tyler Stllman: Yes.

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So stuff wasn't properly

categorized, stuff wasn't properly

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done in the proper months.

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So basically we were working

on information that was

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false during, 2022, 2023.

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I made the decision to go through the

books and change as much as I could to

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be more accurate to the proper timelines.

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Freddy D: So by doing that, that

also revealed what the company

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was really doing in revenue.

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In some cases, it was negative, but

overall, once it got fixed, the efforts

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that you put in to fix the books, that's

when all of a sudden you could tell

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and track the income starting to go up.

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Because of the fact of the things that

you put into place, the relationships

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you were building with the contractors,

and more importantly, having

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accurate data, and so how important

is accurate data in tracking that?

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Tyler Stllman: Oh, goodness.

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Accurate data is very important.

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Essentially, you want the books

to tell a story, and when I got

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in there, the books were a choose

your own adventure book backwards.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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Tyler Stllman: Essentially and basically,

I went in and edited the books.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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So talk about that.

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So what were some of the things that you

did as a accounting consultant ? What

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are some of the things that you found?

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You don't have to get into all the

details, but what's some of the things

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that you found that were miscategorized

that a small business may do because

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they don't know any better, and that in

turn affects their bottom line, their

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financial statements and everything else.

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And what is it that you would

do or recommend a small business

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to do to make sure that their

financials are properly classified?

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Tyler Stllman: I would review invoices,

mostly invoices and bills, one of the

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main sticking points that I found when

doing my review process, is this bill,

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it was dated, say, February 15th, or

something that was done back in January.

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Basically, a simple way to fix that, so

that it could be categorized properly,

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is to change the date of the invoice

to be in January, while also keeping

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the original due date for the invoice.

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Freddy D: So Tyler, tell us how a

small or entrepreneur type business

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can make sure that their books are

correct and provide a clear picture

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of where their business is at?

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Tyler Stllman: When I was fixing the books

for this company one of the major things

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that I found was that 80 to 90 percent of

the problems were in invoices and billing,

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mostly with having to do with dates.

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Freddy D: So help us understand dates.

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I don't get it.

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What's so important about dates?

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Tyler Stllman: So when, especially in

accrual basis, which is how you track how

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your business is doing one of the major

things is if you accrue your income in

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January, but your say accounting software

recognizes the income being done in

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February, that's not being accurate to

when you realistically got the revenue.

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Of the things that you can

do is backdate an invoice.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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And talk more about that.

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And how does that impact the books?

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Tyler Stllman: Basically, let's say that

you have a thousand dollar invoice that

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you originally recognized in February.

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For income that was generated in

Jan, by backdating the invoice, what

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you accomplish is you recognize that

income in January rather than February.

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What that does is it helps with

the accuracy of your business.

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It helps you recognize this

is when I gained this revenue.

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This is when I gained this bill.

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This is when I gained everything.

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All in the same month.

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Freddy D: So, in turn, properly invoicing

and making sure that the dates match

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when the service was provided, the

books are going to present a much more

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accurate picture of where the business

is at, where it's going, and that can

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have a profound impact for the business.

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Knowing that the data.

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Is accurate, and then it gives them an

idea of, okay I'm doing really good,

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or, wow, I need to make some changes

because I'm going in the wrong direction.

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Tyler Stllman: Absolutely.

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Freddy D: Let's discuss other things that

you did to turned that company from a

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negative income to a positive net income.

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Tyler Stllman: Another thing that I

did was get to know our customers,

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at the very least, their accounting

departments because one, one of the

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major things that the company wasn't

doing correctly was collections.

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Freddy D: Did they have any invoices

that were beyond 30, 60 days?

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Tyler Stllman: They had many invoices.

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Freddy D: So how far, what was the

furthest one that was out there?

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Tyler Stllman: I think that there

was, when I joined, one from: 2020

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Freddy D: Wow.

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So you're talking several years.

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Tyler Stllman: Yes.

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Freddy D: So how'd you rectify that?

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Tyler Stllman: Unfortunately, the

reality of the situation is if it

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is 90 days or over, you're most

likely not getting that money.

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It is entirely possible that you can,

but a lot changes in a year to begin

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with, not to mention three years.

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You need to thoroughly examine

your AR aging and determine

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what's collectible, what's not.

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And then you just need to write it off.

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Because if you're not going, if a lot

of stuff over 90 days is uncollectible,

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not to mention stuff over three years

old, you don't want to carry that,

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you don't want to carry that weight.

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Freddy D: So from a tax basis, it

probably would be better off to just

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write off the stuff that it's okay.

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Anything beyond, let's just say,

six months and there's no chance

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of getting collections after

you've reached out to the company,

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sent letters and everything else.

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You're probably better off from a tax

perspective to write that as bad debt.

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Tyler Stllman: Absolutely.

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Freddy D: So that in turn

makes your books look better.

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Tyler Stllman: Yeah, absolutely.

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Freddy D: Not immediately, but, over

time, it clears them up, I would think.

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Tyler Stllman: Yeah.

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The main issue is, essentially,

you have a blemish, and

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you're not getting rid of it..

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Get rid of the blemishes.

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Freddy D: So what would be a cutoff

time for a small business to say,

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okay, this isn't gonna go on?

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Would you say six months is a fair number?

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Tyler Stllman: Yeah, absolutely.

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Of course it is on a case by case basis

because you can have some customers

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that, that are contractually obligated,

that are still paying different stuff..

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They can pay this one, it's

just that they haven't gone

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through their processes properly.

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So it depends.

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But six months is a good cutoff.

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Freddy D: Okay, now let's go back to,

creating superfans from customers.

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How does that, how does

accounting play into that role?

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Tyler Stllman: Like I said, with

contractors need to be willing to extend

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a little grace to your customers as well.

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Everyone you are dealing with

is human and they make mistakes.

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Freddy D: Okay.

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Tyler Stllman: You need to be willing

to let late fees go, away and you need

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to be willing to let bygones be bygones.

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What that in turn does Is it

shows that your company is

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willing to work with the customer,

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Freddy D: Right.

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: 00:20:47

That's the important statement right

there because customers can have

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things come up unexpectedly issues that

they've got and they get sidetracked.

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And the fact that you're willing to

work with them because you understand,

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they're a business and you have as

a business have things that come up.

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So the fact that you're

willing to work with them.

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Creates a partnership, which in turn leads

them to start becoming, a brand advocate

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or, as I call them business superfans.

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These guys are okay.

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They're willing to work with us while

we're going through this challenge.

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They start telling other businesses

that, this is a great company and

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you should deal with this company.

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: 00:21:30

And that's how you start

getting word of mouth going.

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: 00:21:33

Tyler Stllman: Yes, basically, every

single department needs to work together

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to give the customer the best experience.

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That includes the accounting department.

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Freddy D: It's the same

thing with the contractors.

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If the contractor is being well taken

care of and they're being paid timely,

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as we talked earlier, they start telling

other contractors within that industry,

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that, Hey, this is a great company.

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They take They really take care of us and

so they, that company starts attracting

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: 00:22:00

more contractors willing to provide their

services for that particular company.

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: 00:22:05

Tyler Stllman: I, on that same thought,

I do remember hearing a story of

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how we use specialized contractors,

but even within those specialized

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contractors, there is a more like

specialized version of those contractors.

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And the more specialized contractors we

treated the exact same way originally.

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When those changes were made, one

of the big things I remember hearing

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is, hey you guys were originally in

bad faith with these specialized

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contractors, but I've been advocating.

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To let those, to let everyone

know that you have changed.

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There is new management and we

are being treated properly now.

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Freddy D: And that's huge because

that, that in turn is a super fan.

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That's starting to get everybody

else to change the mindset and their

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Thoughts about that particular company.

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And so they start looking at being

more open to dealing with that company.

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: 00:23:05

It's same thing with a contractor

going to do a particular project

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and they're happy with the company.

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So they're becoming a super fan

saying, Oh yes, I'm with this company.

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It's a great company.

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It provided great service and I'm excited.

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So now they're promoting the company.

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: 00:23:24

So you've got the independent

contractors becoming your sales force.

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: 00:23:28

Because they're out there telling, the

client that they're dealing with, oh

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yeah, I love the company, great company

and so now the client feels even better

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: 00:23:38

that they picked the right company to

provide them the service, and it starts

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: 00:23:42

to snowball and that's what, as you,

as you alluded to, is that changed the

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net income from a negative income to a

much more positive income, which in turn

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: 00:23:54

change the whole dynamics of the business.

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: 00:23:56

Tyler Stllman: Yes, absolutely,

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: 00:23:58

Freddy D: So Tyler, we've talked

about, how you changed the contractors

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pay to in turn, to create them into

superfans, which got them to be willing

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: 00:24:06

to do more projects for the company.

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: 00:24:08

More importantly talk positively to

customers, which then reinforced customers

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: 00:24:13

that they made the right decisions

to request that company services.

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: 00:24:17

And you've also talked about building

relationship with existing customers to

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: 00:24:23

turn them into superfans in the sense that

you're willing to work with them through

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: 00:24:27

their challenges and being flexible.

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: 00:24:30

So how did this impact the overall

bottom line for the company?

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: 00:24:34

And what was, where did that lead to?

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: 00:24:36

Tyler Stllman: So, we ended up

positioning the company in: 2023

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: 00:24:41

a positive net income for the first

time in three years, which ended up

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: 00:24:48

positioning the company for sale.

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: 00:24:50

In 2024, the company was bought

and subsequently my job was done.

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: 00:24:57

We met our goals, and so I have

gone on to a new venture with

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: 00:25:01

a new company to help them.

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: 00:25:03

Freddy D: So that's pretty powerful

statement there that you basically in a

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: 00:25:06

three year period you turned around a

company with negative income into having

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: 00:25:11

positive income, which in turn positioned

it to be bought by another company.

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: 00:25:15

That's, it doesn't happen every day.

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: 00:25:18

So that's a great accomplishment on

your part, of being able to take a mess,

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: 00:25:26

in a sense, from what you described,

and turning it into something that was

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: 00:25:30

attractive to somebody else to acquire.

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: 00:25:33

Tyler Stllman: What can I say?

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: 00:25:34

I used to work as a

janitor at a grocery store.

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: 00:25:36

I'm used to turning messes

into attractiveness.

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: 00:25:43

Freddy D: That's a great way

to end the show, man, Tyler.

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: 00:25:46

Pleasure having you on the

Business Superfans Podcast.

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: 00:25:49

Great advice to businesses.

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: 00:25:50

So to sum it up, basically a making

sure that your invoices are properly

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: 00:25:57

invoiced and on the dates paying attention

with billing, same thing with billing,

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: 00:26:02

making sure that you're billing timely.

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: 00:26:05

More importantly, making sure that

if you got contractors, you take care

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: 00:26:09

of them as part of your team, because

they are your team, as well as your

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: 00:26:13

customers, because no customers,

no business, no team, no business.

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: 00:26:19

Tyler, Thank you very much for being on

the show, and we'll look forward to having

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: 00:26:23

you on another episode down the road.

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: 00:26:25

Tyler Stllman: Hey, thank

you for having me on.