Ep. #1037 - Managing Your Finances

00:00.00
Lauren Conaway
And we are back. Thank you for joining us for yet another episode of the Startup Hustle podcast I’m your host Lauren Conaway, founder and CEO of InnovateHER KC. And I have to tell you about today’s episode sponsor folks. You know that we love Full Scale around here.

00:19.37
Lauren Conaway
Today’s episode of Startup Hustle is powered by fullscale.io. Hiring software developers is difficult. We know that Full Scale can help you build a software team quickly and affordably. And they have the platform to help you manage that team visit fullscale.io to learn more. All right? So what else are we going to be learning more about today?

I’m super excited to have this guest on the show because we’re going to be talking about some topics that I love delving into. You know I think longtime listeners of the show know that my episodes like we love to talk about inequity and breaking down barriers. And how we can empower people to become entrepreneurs. You know, regardless of background and circumstance remove unconscious bias like all of these very big topics we like to dive deep into. And well today we have with us Shiloh Johnson Shiloh is the founder and CEO of ComplYant. They serve the fintech industry. And I’m just really thrilled because we’re gonna be talking about some things that I love to hate talking about. But I love that we actually have some of the hard and the interesting and the nuanced discussions.

So Shiloh, welcome to the show my friend. I’m so glad to have you. So let’s just jump right in. And I’m going to tell you I’m really interested to hear. Tell us about your journey.

01:36.10
Shiloh Johnson
Thank you for having me.

01:47.12
Shiloh Johnson
Oh yeah, broad question. I’ve been with the mountain and back to the gutters and back. But.

01:51.42
Lauren Conaway
But yeah, that’s very legally deliberately open-ended question.

01:59.99
Shiloh Johnson
For sure. Yeah, so current days I am managing a tax platform that helps small businesses manage their entire tax landscape. So everything from sales tax to licenses and permits to business personal property tax and income tax and all the in-between I got into that because of my background for the last fifteen years I have spent supporting tax teams at various large corporations. So I have an undergrad degree in accounting I have a master’s degree in taxation and. I have just the general passion for finding the puzzles and solving the puzzle which is what taxes to me. It’s like ah a puzzle that you know you find a way to solve I got into that because I was a young mom so I had my first daughter when I was 17.

02:41.56
Lauren Conaway
Um, gaba.

02:50.80
Shiloh Johnson
And when that’s your life you find ways to be very pragmatic when you think about your career and how you earn money and so early days I was working at a company in the mail like thetaxtaxmaildepartmentandihadamentor@thetime and she’s like you should go into tax.

02:55.60
Lauren Conaway
Your.

03:09.50
Shiloh Johnson
Like you’ll never have to worry about having a job you can make the kind of salary. You need to support your kids and I was like tag somebody likes and then I realized I sort of doing it sampling it. They started putting me on returns and teaching me how to do stuff and I was like oh yeah I can do this.

03:20.41
Lauren Conaway
Um, yeah.

03:24.64
Shiloh Johnson
And yeah I don’t know 1000000 years in blood sweating tears later here. We are.

03:27.59
Lauren Conaway
Now I love that and to be perfectly honest, like so so I am not an accounting tax person. That’s just it’s not my journey but I appreciate other people who have that talent and that skill.

03:36.65
Shiloh Johnson
Think me.

03:42.86
Lauren Conaway
But one of the things that I find really fascinating about how you you frame? what you do. It’s very entrepreneurial. You know you’re talking about being a you like to solve problems and you like to you know, dig deep and it’s It’s really interesting because whenever I try to do my own to I don’t try I don’t I Actually don’t try to do my own tactics anymore.

03:48.58
Shiloh Johnson
Um, and then.

04:02.30
Lauren Conaway
But once upon a time I did and I just remember being struck by how many nuances and like you know there are all kinds like backdoors and things like terminology that I don’t understand and so so what I find interesting about your your journey and your start is you know you.

04:02.96
Shiloh Johnson
For she.

04:21.37
Lauren Conaway
Framed What a lot of people probably think of as very dry you know, but you framed it as something really exciting. You know I and I love that you were able to you know, find that passion and find that hook. Ah so so talk to us a little bit about that I’m really I’m really interested to hear more about how your mind works.

04:23.27
Shiloh Johnson
That then.

04:32.39
Shiloh Johnson
And.

04:37.84
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, oh goodness yeah, very logically so interestingly enough early days when I was sort of working in tax departments and trying to figure out what this work was.

04:39.54
Lauren Conaway
Around what you do.

04:51.61
Shiloh Johnson
I am if you can’t tell by my voice I’m a minority woman and so in how I grew up in my community money is very much a taboo topic. So we don’t spend a lot of time at the family dinner plate talking about investments or budgeting or savings accounts. The first time you even understand how to pay a bill You’re probably well into your twenty s like it’s It’s not as common in minority culture at least in my culture to talk about money and so as I started to get in the weeds of the county I realized what I had culturally was a superpower I didn’t go to lunch with folks and just like would. Shoot the breeze about you know, investment strategies. It was very much like people were just trying to figure out how to survive or stay steady and so I felt like I could take and elevate groups of people that I was connecting with and bring them into this new way of trying to think about their money because for a lot of people money is so traumatic. And that’s where I feel like is my superpower because I help folks work through the trauma of understanding dollars and then how to basically simplify understand and then break down so that they can find ways to sort of work through the hard parts which is to me the brilliant thing about what I do. I think people here accounting and they think paperwork and numbers but truly accounting and tax is sort of code. It’s understanding. It’s legal and then it’s information right? communication. It’s service. It’s connecting it’s understanding what you do? How you do it and then me telling you how you can best do that.

06:01.41
Lauren Conaway
Yeah.

06:07.95
Lauren Conaway
Um, yeah.

06:17.81
Shiloh Johnson
Thing and navigate this code so that you can benefit the most to me that’s like the superpower and then.

06:21.48
Lauren Conaway
Yeah, no I Love that it again. You’ve you’ve framed it so beautifully and what I find really interesting. Is you kind of have this concurrent thread that that runs through what you’ve been doing and it’s a thread of.

06:29.80
Shiloh Johnson
A.

06:38.93
Lauren Conaway
You know, support and and knowledge share. You know as you’re starting out, you’re talking to communities. You’re you’re sharing information and then you’re creating access. You’re making numbers and accounting and tax more accessible to folks who might not otherwise.

06:40.12
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, yeah. There. The.

06:54.69
Lauren Conaway
Have that have the access to that kind of education. So you’re doing that on the 1 hand and then you have compliant and it’s a it’s a platform that again like it. It provides information it provides access. It makes things more accessible. Yeah, you do you did you.

07:03.72
Shiloh Johnson
That yeah.

07:09.81
Lauren Conaway
Were you aware of that like common thread I’m sure you were yeah.

07:14.81
Shiloh Johnson
That’s really my bread and butter I I could be just like everybody else right? and sort of gate keep the information so that you have to pay me loads of money so that I can do this service for you I could do that or I can.

07:22.47
Lauren Conaway
Um, yeah.

07:27.48
Shiloh Johnson
Open up the opportunity for folks who don’t have the revenue or the money to pay for my services and knowledge share open that up simplify the language around it and then throw it out to as many people as possible. The logic to me there is like the more business owners understand the simple parts of organizing. Accounting tax bookkeeping the things you need to operate your business. The more folks that understand that the better it is for the economy as a whole right? It’s much better to have 10 people who can do you know it’s much better to have a hundred people who can do good business than ten who can do good business right? so.

07:51.39
Lauren Conaway
Yeah.

07:58.62
Lauren Conaway
Right.

08:01.40
Shiloh Johnson
To me. It’s let’s grow it. Let’s open up the opportunities for more people to get into business then it becomes less scary people get to go into business more they stay in business longer. It becomes less of a sort of trick.

08:10.81
Lauren Conaway
Um.

08:13.82
Shiloh Johnson
Bag where you have to try and like who you know who knows somebody who then can like connect you to the the thing that then you get the information and access. No, it should be much much much broader so that then we can open up access and opportunity and to me that’s where we win as a whole as a country.

08:27.70
Lauren Conaway
Absolutely well and I mean you know the the piece that you know we’re we’re talking about and we’re talking around is the fact that you know not only are we seeing Micro and macro economic benefit of people being able to open businesses and keep them open longer. You know we we see great benefit from that but we also see the opportunity to build generational wealth especially for communities who have historically been excluded from that that access and that opportunity and so so one of the things that I love about folks who make.

08:49.21
Shiloh Johnson
Okay, okay. Fish to be.

09:01.81
Lauren Conaway
That financial piece like really really accessible for for communities like you you had your daughter young but you you said that you were very pragmatic in your like what? what do I want to do with my life. Well, you had a daughter and you know and so you had to make decisions with that in mind.

09:07.39
Shiloh Johnson
I did.

09:13.38
Shiloh Johnson
Here and.

09:19.10
Lauren Conaway
But you are now creating opportunities for yourself to create that generational wealth create a legacy for your children while at the same time empowering others to do it. That’s amazing. How does that feel.

09:20.13
Shiloh Johnson
Or get.

09:30.19
Shiloh Johnson
Exactly Oh gosh I don’t know if we have enough time. Ah, thank you? Thank you? It is amazing. Yeah, anytime you can sort of crawl out of the gutter.

09:35.71
Lauren Conaway
I I will say that like you have a beautiful smile on your face. So I’m assuming that it feels pretty good.

09:48.17
Shiloh Johnson
And then not just stand up straight but stand up straight in the sunlight. Um, that’s a powerful thing right for people to be able to see and emulate and watch and then also for you to honor yourself by honoring your dreams and living them I wish I had better words for it. It’s undescribable.

09:49.90
Lauren Conaway
Um, for sure. Yeah.

10:03.12
Lauren Conaway
Absolutely Well So let me ask you this I want to hear more about compliant and and talk to us about the process that led to the origin and the inspiration for compliant and then talk to us a little bit about what compliant does I Kind of.

10:15.63
Shiloh Johnson
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, so I’ll take you back to my corporate accounting days. So I used to work in-house for large corporations in a tax.

10:19.72
Lauren Conaway
You know, gave a few vague bullet points. But yeah I’d like to really drill down into that.

10:33.35
Shiloh Johnson
Team that would manage all the complexities for large organizations. So think about companies that are across the country across the world and they have all of these sub entities and they have various lines of business. So every time they would open up a new line of business or get into some new you know opportunity.

10:41.99
Lauren Conaway
Yeah.

10:49.61
Shiloh Johnson
They Then would come to our tax team and essentially me and I would have to scour all the tax code across the entire country at the federal state and the local levels to determine how that line of business was going to be Taxed. So if they were going to open up a new brand of shoes in some you know area you know and in. 20 states I would have to determine what they had to pay where they had to pay it how often they had to pay it and then I would have to apply for those accounts and then maintain them and so when I left that environment. Ah it was very fun. It’s like ah it’s like a you know seek and find right? So you’re like okay.

11:16.62
Lauren Conaway
It sounds like that sounds exhausting by the way.

11:25.22
Lauren Conaway
You are very different people but I love it though. Like I mean you you clearly landed somewhere where you you you can be really really passionate and and I don’t know too.

11:27.17
Shiloh Johnson
But I know it’s I have a very weird personality I do I it’s It’s so.

11:39.20
Shiloh Johnson
Air.

11:42.98
Lauren Conaway
Many of people with like cpa backgrounds and accounting. You know who were who were so excited about you What you do I Love it I Want to give you a big hug right? Continue Continue I digress.

11:49.26
Shiloh Johnson
Um.

11:52.42
Shiloh Johnson
so um so I I took that experience in doing sort of that process and when I left corporate and I started my own tax practice I was getting sort of bombarded with all these small businesses and I started to think through and ask them like how who is doing that process for you. Who is scouring tax code to help you understand what pieces of this text landscape or this pie that you are responsible for so that you’re not having to pay all these fees by the time they’re coming to me. They’re two or three years behind they’ve got. They’ve racked up a ton of late penalties and interest payments and I’m just like so how did you even figure out. How you’re supposed to like what tax is or what you’re supposed to do and unanimously every time it was like shoulder shrug. Um I don’t know Google I don’t know I Don still don’t know I just got this notice and I don’t know what to do with that? Yeah that’s that’s exactly right? so.

12:35.74
Lauren Conaway
I Mean for me I like I click the button and then pray I was like oh.

12:46.62
Shiloh Johnson
I said Okay, ah, we’ve got to fix that there’s no way that businesses can continue to operate um at at least with the ease of anxiety without having some starting point right? like their starting points. The legal side of things. There’s even like a starting point you know for marketing or operations. But there’s no true starting point for tax people are just kind of like you know and by the time it’s a problem. It’s already ah a financial whole and so I was like okay I’m going to build something that makes that process for what I was doing corporate I Want to productize that process.

13:11.42
Lauren Conaway
Right.

13:21.43
Shiloh Johnson
And then offer it to as many small businesses and new businesses as I possibly can so that’s what I did I took my twelveishsh at the time 12 issue years of experience and basically trenched it down to what’s called the tax calendar which in a tax world. That’s basically like every tax type. Deadlines due dates notes about that tax type how to pay when to pay tax code related to type. So it’s this massive spreadsheet of data and I took that data and basically found an engineer and said help me productize this data here’s what I wanted to do so as a result ah top of twenty twenty I then was able to basically. Have some version or what I call version 1 of what was compliant which is basically a small business logging onto the platform and entering some data about what they do and how they do it and where and then the tool returns back to them all of the tax types that apply to their line of business and then it calendars those text types out for the entire year. by state by city by County and including federal government so that they have 1 knowledge base for all the things they’re responsible for and then from there we built some additional products on top of this so we helped them with budgeting we helped them with savings now we’re getting into filing and payment. So the goal really is to complete your entire tax process. We call it just a few clicks to compliance. That’s us. Thank you.

14:35.21
Lauren Conaway
Just a few clicks to compliance. First of all, that’s a fabulous tagline by the way. Yeah, well and I mean honestly like as you’re talking I just have this dawning realization that like I need to have this in my life where it’s compliant for me. Ah, but no that that’s that’s incredible. So so you get reminders like that’s one of the things that I’m worst at like knowing just even knowing when to pull the lever. You know what? I mean. So so that’s incredible. What has the customer feedback been thus far.

14:57.11
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, yeah, Thank you! We have lots of please build this thing next and we would love it if you could do nextus Tracking. We would love it if you could do suppose. Everyone inact usually has very isolated scenarios and so what they want is some custom thing built for that isolated Scenario. So they’re like hey can you help me I have this thing so we spend a lot of time time to determine.

15:24.64
Lauren Conaway
Gotcha.

15:28.80
Shiloh Johnson
If that one problem is the problem that the masses probably have and then should we build around it. We also spend a lot of time helping people understand what they do versus what’s actually required because there’s a huge like knowledge disconnect right? So if you think about what you were saying with knowledge share. There is assumed knowledge then there’s actual knowledge and a lot of people like.

15:41.67
Lauren Conaway
Um, yeah.

15:48.20
Shiloh Johnson
Nationally like culturally we assume that people just understand the process of bookkeeping in tax. But the the true knowledge is people don’t so we spend a lot of time educating people will ask questions like what is this? How do I do this? How do I know I’m supposed to do this and so we spend a lot of time educating a lot of time providing like support to the education and then. Offering this service so that tends to be the balance of feedbackets like education and then please build more things.

16:10.83
Lauren Conaway
Well and so so that’s really interesting to me because you’re talking about iterative process. So I’m actually really curious like talk about some of the the innovations or even the disruptions that you have built into this product I mean I know that each.

16:16.39
Shiloh Johnson
Exactly. Yes.

16:28.96
Lauren Conaway
Business is like ah a fingerprint like you can’t You’re not going to be able to come up with custom solutions for everybody but what’s so what are some of the biggies. What are some of the the decisions that you made along the way to to increase. Ah your offerings or add functionality.

16:29.50
Shiloh Johnson
Ah, yep.

16:45.96
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, ah one of them is something we call tax at a glance. So what we were hearing early days was okay, great now I know what I’m supposed to pay how much do I pay. So if you think about tax like a pie. Each piece is a different tax type.

16:59.56
Lauren Conaway
Um, and.

17:02.90
Shiloh Johnson
And there are technically 10 types of business tax. So once you understand what pieces you’re responsible for it’s figuring out how much of those pieces you actually have to choose so we then launched a product we call tax at a glance which basically takes the income. From the business and then it using some logic and some sort of tax code logic. We then help them understand by quarter here’s how much you’re going to be responsible for for this piece. So your income tax piece is probably going to be somewhere around $1000 this quarter your sales tax piece is going to be another $200 and then you’ve got an annual report. Do this. Sort which is gonna be $400 so we think about it in the way of like here’s your whole pie and then here’s how much we think you’re gonna be in charge of eating and then everyone is like oh my gosh. It’s the number 1 thing we were getting feedback around once we launched the initial calendar project was like how much do I pay. So then we that’s how. Was our version of productizing that and then on the advertising side. We took a version of that and we also show them if you don’t track and and do this the right way here’s how much this is going to cost you so here are the penalties and interests you can expect to pay if you don’t stay on top of these things and we allow them to make the judgment like do I really want to file this sales tax. I don’t have to I tell my clients I tell the business owners that lock onto the platform all the time you don’t have to do anything. You can do whatever you want. But if you don’t do it here’s what it’s going to cost to and so we we sort of give them arm them with the tools to be able to to make an intelligent business decision for themselves.

18:20.35
Lauren Conaway
There.

18:31.39
Lauren Conaway
Well and and so so you’re you’re attacking a problem on several fronts like that knowledge share you know, creating creating that access. But also there’s a really tactical piece there like I would imagine.

18:45.20
Shiloh Johnson
Then oh.

18:46.23
Lauren Conaway
And I please correct me if I’m wrong, but I would imagine that having like more knowledge leads to more profit like you say you save money by filing your taxes the correct way and optimizing. You know all of your like optimizing your deductions like all of those things that are very elusive.

18:55.44
Shiloh Johnson
Ah, yep.

19:01.62
Shiloh Johnson
Um, yep, are there.

19:04.97
Lauren Conaway
To a lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs and I mean the fact is like when we think about entrepreneurs most of us are not financial people. We got into entrepreneurship because we saw a problem we figured out how we wanted to solve it. You know and and often where we talk about the fact around startup puzzle that often we’re put into positions and we’re asked to do things that are. Way way outside of our comfort zone is that your target customer like someone who you know has a pretty firm understanding of their business basics but doesn’t have that deep deep knowledge.

19:26.80
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah.

19:38.41
Lauren Conaway
Of you know, taxes and finance ah of those those pieces like would you say that that’s your target customer.

19:42.80
Shiloh Johnson
Exactly right? and we love the super new business. The very small business I just started it. You know in my room side hustle type of business. It’s all those folks that are just heads down in the weeds of doing what they’re trying to do whether it’s.

19:55.82
Lauren Conaway
Yeah, yeah.

19:58.51
Shiloh Johnson
You know, build a bakery or a food truck or you know launch a clothing brand or a hair care product or whatever. It’s those people that just are like I just want to do the thing that I care about but you have to do the things that you have to do so that you can continue to do the things that you care about and so we want to live in that hard place with.

20:07.61
Lauren Conaway
Yeah.

20:17.10
Shiloh Johnson
Those business owners to really support them getting through that. So but they can continue to do the things that they’re passionate about that passion is short lived. Yeah yeah.

20:19.99
Lauren Conaway
Yeah, do the thing that you love me the thing that you’re best at while you know, yeah around the startup hustle hallway is we we always love tools and tips and tricks and best practices that can help entrepreneurs do what they do better one of those tools that we talk about a lot is is full scale. Finding expert software developers doesn’t have to be difficult, especially when you visit fullscale io where you can build a software team quickly and affordably use the full scale platform to define your technical needs and then see what available developers testers and leaders are ready to join your team visit fullscale io to learn more. So so shilo we we’re with Shiloh Johnson Ceo and founder of compliant we’re we’re talking about taxes which I got to tell you folks like generally I don’t smile as much as I am and I don’t laugh as much as I am right now when talking about like the deep finance topics. Ah, so you know hey shiloh thanks for that. Ah, but you know I do want to ask you and I’m I’m going to I’m going to ask you to indulge me because I’m going to switch directions a little bit. 1 of the things that is just so fascinating to me about you specifically.

21:21.68
Shiloh Johnson
Doesn’t fish here.

21:26.65
Shiloh Johnson
Sure.

21:36.45
Lauren Conaway
Is either As as mentioned, you’re you’re a woman of color and you are operating in a space that is absolutely not built for you? Um, you know and and one of the things that you’ve been really successful at is raising raising funding raising capital and so so talk to us Can you talk to us a little bit about.

21:37.60
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah. And.

21:54.14
Lauren Conaway
That like I I don’t want to you know I don’t want you to like step on toes or violate ndas or anything but can you talk to us a little bit about that because I just I love that piece of your story.

21:59.20
Shiloh Johnson
First group. Absolutely I’ll start with some statistics a little no fact, if maybe you’re hit. You’ve heard it. Maybe you haven’t but there are less than less than 180 black women that have ever raised more than $1000000 like a hundred and eighty we all know each other and we’re all in a group we chat regularly.

22:18.76
Lauren Conaway
Um, yeah, when you you look at when you look at the well I you know what I imagine I can’t I I would love to be a fly on the wall like I totally understand I believe I believe in exclusive spaces and the importance of like safe places.

22:28.24
Shiloh Johnson
A.

22:33.54
Shiloh Johnson
For sure we do We do It is and I wanted to start What was that met.

22:35.60
Lauren Conaway
But at the same time like I bet you’all have some fun and really really frustrating conversations. Yeah, ah is it well say real quick just just a point of context for our listeners and I think we’ve we’ve talked about this on the show before but in the venture capital space. I think the last study they pulled was like 2021 and 2.2% of female founders had raised or a light I’m sorry only 2.2% of Venture Capital funding went to women and then when you when you talk about intersectional identity.

23:04.10
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah.

23:10.25
Lauren Conaway
Women of color received it it. This is ridiculous and I hate that I have to say it but it was point zero zero zero six percent or something ridiculous like that and when you’re looking at you know 50% of the damn population that is a deep inequity. It is a problem. So.

23:15.38
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, masses.

23:28.24
Lauren Conaway
I Just wanted to to point that out kind of give a ah little bit of context around the landscape but please continue shylo.

23:31.63
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, yeah, So when you think about those numbers. There’s 2 things that has to Happen. You have to make a very clear decision as the person driving the little driven bus like you have to make a clear decision that says even though that’s what this is. I Have to ignore it and plow through because if you start to allow those numbers to like be your identity or your marker of Success. It weighs you down because then you think you have to speak for the entire culture you have to speak for all women you have to like stand in this gap and hold up the Space. You don’t The only thing you have to do is be present.

23:59.64
Lauren Conaway
Um, yep.

24:09.62
Shiloh Johnson
And and be you know, ethical and show up and do what you are you know making best effort to do and so I had to do two things I had to get super educated about what raising venture capital was and that education by way of reaching out to you know network understanding how to build a network. Understanding the process of fundraising understanding how to get to a yes I think there is this sort of weird dance that happens in fundraising where it isn’t as logical as people may think like I present a business you invest in it. That’s actually not how it works. It’s. I present a business I build trust I show effort I show that I can do it I show metrics I show subject matter expertise and then I keep building this relationship and over time you have no choice but to invest in me because I have become so undeniable. And that’s the pattern you have to create over and over and over I think sometimes the mistake we make is we expect the same results that our counterparts might get so if a white male were to go and present an idea to people he doesn’t know the likelihood that they’ll invest is really high off of 1 conversation because what they have is inherent trust what we do not have.

25:16.37
Lauren Conaway
Right.

25:19.68
Shiloh Johnson
Is that same inherent trust so we have to now create a space where we can build it. It sounds horrible because you’re like why am I responsible for building this but is how else are we going to get there right? If they’re not going to give us the space we have to create it and then.

25:27.63
Lauren Conaway
Um, yeah, but exactly.

25:34.66
Shiloh Johnson
I In my in my space. It was how can I be so absolutely undeniable that you have no choice but to invest in me and I just but exactly right exactly right? yeah.

25:39.69
Lauren Conaway
It would be an embarrassment not to invest. Yeah well it and so you’ve got a couple of you’ve got a couple of really salient points in there and so so first things first I just want to. Acknowledge and honor the fact that you know when you talk about like the preparation and things like that like as per the goddamn always um, you know as a woman and specifically a woman of color you had to do 10 times the work to see you know the same result.

26:03.36
Shiloh Johnson
Yep Vanna get yeah there there.

26:08.69
Lauren Conaway
And that is that is a story that we hear time and time again in this space. The other thing that I want to talk I Want to address that inequity just just a little bit and I’m going to give you an example. So so so this is for you listeners at home like if you ever want to spark a conversation ah around the the water cooler.

26:15.38
Shiloh Johnson
Um, sure.

26:26.67
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah.

26:28.80
Lauren Conaway
This is how you can attack it so we have a landscape where historically we have not seen a lot of investment in black owned business or you know latin x owned business or even to a lesser extent women owned business. We have we have this culture. And what? what often seems to happen is an investor will come to you and they’re trying to vet you and see like how committed you are and 1 of the things that they’ll ask is hey did you do a friends and family round and in that in and of itself it it is a marker of success to most venture capitalists. And it is a huge barrier to historically excluded communities because if you come from a if your friends and family group doesn’t have the money to give then you don’t have a friends and family round like you could’ve tried and you could’ve knocked on doors and walked down streets and. You’re just not going to be able to to build a bridge to cross that that river you know is that like would you agree Shiloh I’m just kind of checking my my understanding here.

27:33.87
Shiloh Johnson
100% 100%

27:37.71
Lauren Conaway
Yeah, so so these are really really important things to think about and talk about um you know so so you’ve raised raised a significant sum and I think what I have seen is is five point five million I don’t know if that’s accurate, but our producers are pretty good.

27:51.76
Shiloh Johnson
It is not. It’s not and it’s not accurate only because I didn’t announce our last round I’ve actually risked 12 point eight.

27:57.41
Lauren Conaway
Ok, holy shit. Sorry whoa, That’s amazing. Yes, yeah, incidentally we do put the explicit warning label on episode that said a puzzletle and it’s mostly because of me. Ah.

28:05.28
Shiloh Johnson
Ah, thank you? Thank you.

28:13.81
Lauren Conaway
Because I have absolutely no poker face Poker voice and none of that you just said that it freaked me out. That’s ah, not significant. Ah what an achievement and you know as you you alluded to it earlier. The fact that you know as a a woman of color and I myself as a woman have experienced this as well. Like if you’re an only.

28:19.23
Shiloh Johnson
Thank you.

28:31.24
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, a yeah and.

28:32.76
Lauren Conaway
Or 1 of few you you become like symbolic symbolic of things and you have a lot of pressure to perform and and make sure but there is a flip side of that coin you also become representation. You know you become a.

28:44.70
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah.

28:48.60
Lauren Conaway
Roadmap and a blueprint to success for other people who look think and act like you and even people who don’t look think and act like you. Um, and that that’s that’s a really powerful thing that you are Shiloh I’m going to ask you? How does that feel.

28:56.19
Shiloh Johnson
Crochet.

29:02.55
Shiloh Johnson
Ah, ah, most days I try not to think you try to focus on the business I don’t know that I could continue being you know that if if I allow it to overwhelm me. So.

29:13.42
Lauren Conaway
So well. So so how about this I will thank you I will appreciate and respect your position totally get all right? Let’s talk about the business. So so I’m going to ask you to share a little bit of your wisdom if you don’t mind.

29:20.15
Shiloh Johnson
Fisher.

29:24.16
Shiloh Johnson
Everything shows. 2 2.

29:32.46
Lauren Conaway
Um, you know a little earlier in the conversation before the jump we were talking a lot about like taxes and financial empowerment and things like that. So our listeners at home. You know they’re They’re not all going to start their own tax platform but they’re all going to file taxes I would imagine hopefully.

29:39.86
Shiloh Johnson
Um, yeah.

29:44.64
Shiloh Johnson
2

29:50.90
Lauren Conaway
Your taxes please pay pay your taxes just a little psa from Startup hospital. But but tell us this shiilo. What are some some tips tricks best practices things that our listeners at home can implement tomorrow. To to make the whole process easier and.

30:07.74
Shiloh Johnson
A simple one is to be present start paying attention to your money I think the easiest thing for us to do in a managing our emotional and mental health is to ignore the things that cause us anxiety. So. The first thing you can do is start paying attention. Check into your accounts if you’re not doing bookkeeping for your small business start doing bookkeeping connecting your bank accounts and credit cards if you are doing all of your personal and business spending lump together in 1 account separate that spending out again, pay attention to your money if this sheer thought of money makes you panic start to look into getting some. Some support a coach. Maybe a financial therapist that can help you work through the parts of the financial trauma that keeps you from moving forward with some of your money anxiety and then most importantly, be kind to yourself like we weren’t born understanding. These complexities and our education system unfortunately doesn’t set us up so that we can move into our adult lives understanding these complexities and so just be kind to yourself. You don’t need to know everything and you’ll make mistakes and that’s okay, mistakes are a part of learning but most importantly, pay attention.

31:19.56
Lauren Conaway
Yeah, well, all very very wisdomous pieces of advice I would add you know hey if you are struggling with calendaring if you are struggling with with pieces of the tax journey trying to figure out like how you should file maybe compliant.

31:19.90
Shiloh Johnson
Don’t ignore it.

31:38.42
Lauren Conaway
Is is an option for you just throwing that out there as a piece of advice. Well so so what is what’s the what does the future of compliance look like.

31:43.23
Shiloh Johnson
Trache.

31:49.46
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, um, so I mentioned it a bit earlier. Our northstar is a few click clicks to compliance. We think a lot about how can we make it easy for you to oblige either file pay submit. Whatever the obligation is how can we make it the absolute easiest for you to do it. If we did that then that would increase the number of folks that actually did it right? If all you had to do was respond to a text that says yes, please file. Yes, please pay and that’s all you had to do for to pay to get your sales tax done and in a quarter you do it 10 times out of 10 right? It saves you.

32:17.98
Lauren Conaway
Um, right.

32:21.57
Shiloh Johnson
Time. But when you think about following your sales text Now you’re like I got to go pull this report I don’t know if it’s accurate and then uploaded some numbers in here and then maybe you calculate some numbers over here and double check this thing and I’m not even sure what I’m looking at and then maybe it’s right I don’t know and then you’re trembling as you hit submit because you’re not sure and you don’t want the government to come at you. So Our goal is to take that entire like. Angst and frustration around the process and to just completely subdue it so that we have taken so much off your plate that all you have to do is just agree and that’s what we’re aiming towards is just a few clicks to compliance. Yeah.

32:50.54
Lauren Conaway
Um, we have taken so much off your plate. You just have to agree that is a beautiful mission statement because man does it does it reflect your customer journey.

32:58.26
Shiloh Johnson
That’s it.

33:03.55
Shiloh Johnson
And.

33:05.86
Lauren Conaway
You know how can we make this whole process as easy as possible note that that’s super um, well no that that is very very cool. Um, so so talk to us talk to us a little bit more about.

33:08.90
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, yeah, thank you.

33:25.13
Lauren Conaway
About compliant in the customer experience I’m I’m very curious about this. So so do you have a is it like a web platform is it an app you know, talk to us a little bit about what the user interface is like.

33:33.41
Shiloh Johnson
Um, miss.

33:36.60
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, it’s fully a web platform actually version. One of the tool was a mobile app and the very first feedback I got was like I don’t want to do my taxes on my phone. Oh that’s smart So of your bo.

33:48.34
Lauren Conaway
And there’s that there’s an iterative process again like that customer feedback cycle. Very very, very nice.

33:55.71
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah I will say speak into that. Um, that has been part and parcel of our journey from day one even early days before we even had a product I used to trade my time for the business owners time I would say I’ll give you hour you know free cpa time for an hour of your business owner time. So you me feedback about your tax process. I did that 200 times that was how I figured out how to build something that people could engage with because there is again my understanding of tags and then the the world’s assumed a knowledge of tax and I had to find a way to bridge that so in order for me to continue that process I just had to keep asking questions and how are you doing your tax and what do you know about tax and when you even think about sales tax Where do you go.

34:23.44
Lauren Conaway
Right.

34:33.33
Shiloh Johnson
And so asking those questions over and over allowed me to even get to point one. But so we scratched that that mobile app when we went to a webbased platform and yep, we’re on a website compliant Dot C O C O N P Why Why for you? The business owner and T that Seo and then you enter some. Answer some questions about your business and how you’re doing business and what you’re doing for business and the rest is Voila magic.

34:58.60
Lauren Conaway
Walla You know you say all of these like very complex sounding things and then you’re like it’s like magic. Yeah I don’t know if magic is the word I would use. Um, yeah, well so so that is.

35:02.70
Shiloh Johnson
Like gunatic.

35:10.90
Shiloh Johnson
Preserve.

35:15.16
Lauren Conaway
Really interesting and I and I do I do just adore ah your your approach. Um, certainly so talk to us about the fintech space as a whole I’m very curious to hear your thoughts on on where technologies like yours are going.

35:25.25
Shiloh Johnson
Yes.

35:34.51
Lauren Conaway
Um, you know I think that often we we have a lot of of folks in the market trying to create kind of one-stop shops all in 1 platforms to create ease of use but can you talk to us about some other tools and some other things that our listeners might be able to turn to. If they’re confused about their taxes.

35:51.44
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, so unfortunately there is not much hence why raising money wasn’t There isn’t much if you think about so fintech is a really broad term. We consider ourselves more like the tax.

35:55.10
Lauren Conaway
Which is why you’re such an innovator in space.

36:07.00
Shiloh Johnson
Tech version of fintech because when you think of fintech you think of like digital banking you think of payments and lending and we are not either of those things so we lend ourselves in like the compliance governmental municipal space and so we call ourselves more of like the tax tech arm of fintech and in that space. There’s really only a few players. You’re either going to file something pay something and that’s it those are really the only sort of options and you really are only doing that on 2 platforms two two. Well-known platforms. There’s like a turbotax as everybody is familiar with if you’re a w two filer they they tend to be the leader in that space and then there’s you know. Tax star if. You’ve heard of them or some other sort of smaller versions of a tax jar which is a sales tax filing tool the rest of it is like shrug your shoulders. We don’t know. Um so there isn’t a ton of things you could probably use in the tag.

36:53.76
Lauren Conaway
Um, well that’s disheartening but all right.

36:57.75
Shiloh Johnson
Right? But there are what I what I found on the other side of tax. It’s like the bookkeeping accounting space. They tend to be quite a few book I’ve seen lots of bookkeeping platforms that have popped up and different ways to get your bookkeeping done. And if you’re curious how bookkeeping plays into tax just if you’ve never done it before bookkeeping is the process to organize your transactions so that you can prepare to file a form. That’s the process of bookkeeping. It’s also used for like. You know reporting and all the other others jazz but the most important concept is how do I organize the transaction so that they then can populate a form and so that organized process. There are lots of tech products that lend itself in that you know quickbook 0 fresh books. All of these things do the same thing help you sort of. Collect payments and then help you organize those expenses and so that’s basically the landscape. But yeah.

37:45.86
Lauren Conaway
All right? Well you know real quick where where can people find compliant.

37:51.11
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, we are all over the inter webs all on social a compliant app and then our website is compliant Dot ceo compliant with a why.

37:59.42
Lauren Conaway
Okay, and we folks we will make sure to put that info in the show notes you should be able to click and find out more and now I want to ask the human question and I want to find out more about Shiloh Johnson so so shilo the question that I have come up with.

38:12.29
Shiloh Johnson
Tear right.

38:18.27
Lauren Conaway
We’ve talked a lot about um you know, kind of your journey. We’ve talked about knowledge share but 1 of the things that we talked about in pre-show prep was a beautiful piece of artwork that you have over your ah your your right shoulder and so so I’m really intrigued talk to us about.

38:29.90
Shiloh Johnson
Um, um, there.

38:37.46
Lauren Conaway
Your favorite. Do you have favorite artists. Do you have favorite pieces of art I’d love to hear more.

38:43.10
Shiloh Johnson
Oh gosh. Um I am in the early stages of our collecting I have not entered this space where I know enough about names that I can rattle off I just have been scouring. The like world of the internet to figure out like who’s making art and if it’s art I like and I cared deeply about the artist whether it’s a woman like every piece of art in my house was either made by a minority or a woman. Um because I care about.

39:00.33
Lauren Conaway
At all.

39:08.91
Lauren Conaway
Same we have so we have that in common. Yes.

39:13.58
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah I just care a lot about supporting the arts I’ve literally been the throes of Tiktok just looking at people’s work and if there’s just some random person that’s like splashing pain on something I buy it even if it’s like twenty bucks I don’t care it to me I’m not looking for like necessarily the value and the investment I’m more looking for.

39:28.48
Lauren Conaway
Yeah.

39:32.10
Shiloh Johnson
Just the energy I want to embody which is cultivating the arts for minorities and.

39:33.79
Lauren Conaway
You and I are actually very similar in that I say my Instagram I have like a whole saved gallery of artists. But I just like you know and every now and again I’ll get a little like hair at my butt and I’ll be like oh time to buy smart. Yeah, so yeah, no I just I love that.

39:40.79
Shiloh Johnson
See and.

39:52.12
Shiloh Johnson
And.

39:53.97
Lauren Conaway
And I do find that there’s a little bit of ironic and you having like said yeah I mean so y’all can’t see this painting but it’s very striking. Um, you know, but you have this love of beauty and art and you you see you have that creative side and that creative joy and then you have this very like practice.

40:12.70
Lauren Conaway
Pragmatic-like process systems thinking side. That’s really cool. Well, will I got to tell you, you are also really cool. And I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us.

40:15.33
Shiloh Johnson
Yeah, thank you, Thank you.

40:26.27
Lauren Conaway
We’ve got a lot of listeners and I’m sure that your insights on taxes have made them feel not quite so terrified all the time. Because I’m going to admit, I’m terrified half the time but I feel better having talked to you.

40:40.00
Shiloh Johnson
Very welcome. My pleasure.

40:42.90
Lauren Conaway
All right? Well friends, another thing that we are very grateful for in addition to Shiloh Johnson of ComplYant. We’re very grateful for Full Scale, today’s episode sponsor. Finding software developers does not have to be difficult. Full Scale can help. They have the people and the platform to help you build and manage a team of experts. When you visit fullscale.io, all you need to do is answer a few questions and then let the platform match you up with fully vetted, highly experienced software engineers testers and leaders a whole team. At Full Scale, they specialize in building long-term teams that work only for you. Learn more when you visit fullscale.io.

Now friends, another thing that I am going to mention for you about Startup Hustle, we have some pretty cool experts to interview guests and share founders’ stories. I’m to point you to Andrew Morgan’s episodes drop, I believe, on Tuesdays. Don’t quote me on that though. But he’s all about ecommerce in Amazon and helping you optimize your pipelines, make more sales, make more money and I know that we could all use a little bit more of that. So definitely tune in to Andrew’s episodes and keep tuning in to Startup Hustle. We are very grateful that you come back to us and listen week after week. Please continue doing so. Let us know how we’re doing and we will catch you next time.