How Alex Tenorio Turned His CPA Skillset Into An Agency That Helps Businesses Scale

What's up, guys? Andre Haeckel Jr. Here, back with another student Spotlight interview for the Client Ascension community, here with a good friend of mine, Alex Tenorio, who I haven't had a lot of students on this segment that I've been able to hang out with in real life, but Alex was one of those. And, dude, that was such a blast in Tampa a few months ago.

Yeah, dude, that was a, that was a great weekend. Yeah.

Alex, I don't know what, I don't know, like, what the deal was, but you're, like, carrying around this backpack that kept, like, lighting up, and I was just like, this is, this is strange, but no technology or something or.

Yeah, I got the nuclear codes in there, bro. No, it was so funny. I, I, it just so. Well, we had the cigar night at the lounge, and we went right from the meeting, so I had been out all day, so I had my backpack, and then, so I had to take it to the club. And then the next day, we were all going out to watch the hockey game, and I had, I think I had a bottle from the club that I was like, somehow you finagled away into, like, being able to take the bottle. And I just had a, do you want this back? And so I brought it, and then I realized, oh, I'm going to a bar. This is a horrible idea, bro.

That was so much fun, man. And Bailey was there. Bailey was great to meet up with in person too. So I just love the community. But for the audience out there, let's dive into more about you and your story. So, like, who are you and what do you work on? Like, what do you do for work inside of Client ascension?

Sure. Yeah. So my name is Alex Dinoro. I am a CPA E comm expert. I've ran and helped streamline and scale agencies, small businesses, even anything down to, like, a financial lending company. I got my start in public accounting. So I'm from Los Angeles. I grew up in California, played baseball my whole life. Played in high school and college up in the Bay Area. And I went to school. It's a small private school called Menlo College. And, you know, that is kind of where I got my, you know, the itch to scratch in terms of entrepreneurship. I was surrounded by Facebook, YouTube, you know, all the Silicon Valley companies. Sorry, I'm just getting blown up by text right now.

And you're on the soonest Spotlight interview. They're like, oh, my God.

Yeah, exactly. So I, I, I had a chance to go pro, actually, with baseball.

Oh, wow.

What? What Position. I was a pitcher and a first baseman.

Wow. Dude.

So I, I, I hit really well. I was a really good hitter, but I was a good, crafty lefty pitcher. I didn't throw very hard.

But what was your, what was.

My change up? Was my change up lights out?

Yeah, it was dirty.

It was dirty. Yeah, I just had a lot of movement. I was crafty. And so I, I noticed my teammates were getting these interviews and internships and job offers before they were seniors in college with big four accounting firms. And, and you know, like at the time I was like, look, if I'm not gonna make it in baseball, um, I'm, I want to set myself up. So I just did everything that they, you know, kind of recommended and did to get their job offers and landed an internship and a job offer with a large accounting firm. They were like, I think seventh or something in the world. And I ended up going that route after I graduated, so got my cpa. I was auditing a bunch of companies, going around Los Angeles and ultimately like the traffic, brutal. The time, the hours, studying for the cpa, like great experiences, learned a lot, was able to learn from the ground up, like how to structure a business, how to operate it, how to manage compliance and legal and, you know, all the financial aspects of the companies. But I found that I was starting to get sucked into entrepreneurship. And I think, like, everybody probably has mentioned this and has had a similar experience, but like, like we all kind of in some way shape or form, probably either thought about it or dove into dropshipping.

Yep.

Like as their first project. Right. And so I did the same thing and I literally quit right after I got my CPA and just went all in. I had no plan. I moved to New York City like within six months after quitting. I wasn't even that profitable yet with the store. I just kind of, I just really went all in and just decided, okay, like I now can work where I want, do what I want. And so it just so happened that, like, timing and everything, I just was like, screw it, let's go, let's go move to New York. So I scaled that business and actually I was able to scale it to seven figures within 12 months. And that's kind of where I started to learn how to really automate a lot of the operations and the financials for E Commerce and that actually the company got acquired in 2019. And from there I jumped into like a lot of different consulting roles. I had a pretty long stint with a eight figure bookkeeping service company where I Came in as basically a COO and a CFO kind of hand in hand to help streamline their fulfillment and their processes. And that was right about the time when Covid happened. So very quickly, almost overnight, we basically started pivoting to helping businesses get access to Covid loans. And so I was on the phones literally 10 hours a day talking to 200, 300 plus businesses and ultimately helped a hundred, over 100 businesses get funding. And a lot of those companies were able to avoid bankruptcy, which was, yeah, that was a nice like opportunity and humbling experience for sure. And it, and it was very enjoyable. So I took all that experience and you know, over time and jumping into different high ticket sales offers, I was doing a lot of closing as well. I just, I had all these tools in my tool belt and figured, okay, let's, let's actually craft my own offer. So worked with you, worked with Daniel, worked with the other amazing team members and coaches, Christian, Dan, to help build out my fractional CFO offer. So now my company stacks. I help streamline and automate the financials and manage, you know, gaining clarity and streamlining everything with regards to taxes, bookkeeping, cash flow forecasting, automating processes, anything that, you know, a typical CFO would do, but do so in the lens of, hey, how can we actually, you know, free up time, free up space, free up additional capital to help them scale further and just kind of be that guiding hand as they scale and help them through the exit process? Because I went through that and it was, it was a lot and there's a lot that comes into play in terms of finances and getting a company ready to, to be acquired. So long story short, that's, that's kind of where I am today. And it's been a really exciting, exciting time building this and you know, being a part of client century.

Awesome, bro. What a story, man. I didn't even know most that stuff about you. Even though we've, you know, had the privilege to spend some time together in person, I think it's cool how like with each next iteration of what you've done in your career, you've used pieces from the previous experiences. And so like what you're doing now with stocks is like you're helping these guys basically set up their financials in a way that is attractive for an exit or if they're not on track for an exit because you've exited yourself, you can kind of let them know where they're making mistakes and how to course correct. I just think there's so much Value in those experiences. I guess a side question that isn't part of like the plan questions I had before, but I'm just curious and I think the audience would get value from this is like in client ascension, there's a lot of newer agency owners that the last thing they're thinking about is finances and LLCs and just having the proper structure. Like at what point do you think makes sense for them to start to look at that? Because I feel like in the beginning it's like they're not making revenue or they're making a couple thousand dollars here and there. It's not consistent. Like where do you see your type of work really make an impact on a growth trajectory?

I mean, in a sense you, there is a bit of perspective looking inputs you want to, you want to catch problems before they become expensive. So that's a big, that's a big part of it. When you're starting a business, there's, you know, there's, there's costs that go into it. If you're going to be investing money, why would you not have a company set up when you could be able to take advantage of writing those costs off to reduce your taxable income? So like just high level, conceptually, like it makes, it's common sense, you want to be able to take advantage of those deductions. I think more, I would say more of the higher level strategies come into play. Once your existing processes and your existing business is profitable, you've probably reached at least six figures in rev, maybe even seven figures. But it's important to get the foundations in place. Anything down to the business credit card selection, where you're going to be banking, what entity and where is that entity going to be located? Those are all questions you want to answer. And also, you know, if you are at a point where you're just starting out or you're just starting to get momentum, the last thing you want to be doing is spending a ton of time either at the end of the month or last minute when you have to then catch up on all your bookkeeping and deal with your taxes. You know, I, I can guarantee a lot of you guys, a lot of agency owners are still working off of a Google sheet with kind of, you know, hey, here's, here's a good amount of my expenses and revenue. It's not perfect, which is fine. But you know, ultimately like you're running a business and especially when it comes to say if you ever need capital, if you ever need a loan, if you ever want to sell the business if you ever want to look into even investing in like additional coaching or additional masterminds, these things are going to come into play. When you look at your cash and go, can I afford this? Is this a good expense right now? Or what about my profit margins for each client? Like what's the variable cost and how can I increase my margins or where am I wasting spend and how can I reduce and forecast my cash 13 weeks out, for example? So there's a lot that goes into it, but you don't have to have everything down on day one. You know, I think it, there's an aspect where it's, it's definitely important to just you're so early on focus on, you know, revenue generating activities. You don't need to have a full bookkeeping service team right off the bat. But it's something to look forward to. It's something that you need to take seriously. And having a financial partner that's there with you guiding you can help a lot of costly mistakes be avoided. Which when I was starting certainly I ran into.

Yeah, I feel like all of us did. And I like what you said. It's like it's something to look forward to. It's not something to be like, oh, when I get there, I have to now figure this out. It's like when you figure it out, you're going to get insights into where to save money, what the common sense practices are for deductions and really how to scale the company using the assets it has. And so yeah, I feel like it gets a negative reputation or it's just one of those things that is not super exciting. Like maybe marketing and sales is, but it's such a big driver for growth.

It is. And it's also, I think what makes my, what I do unique is that I'm not here as a nuisance and I'm not here to tell you you're spending too much money. I'm actually here specifically to generate more revenue and unlock additional profit opportunities and growth strategies. Like just like a CRO does for your ad campaigns I'm doing for your business as a whole. And I think seeing that more as an opportunity versus a cost and a nuisance is something that I try to educate and get through to a lot of young business owners.

Love that dude. Love that. So you join Client Ascension, you probably see us somewhere on Twitter and really your goal going into the program is hey, like I have all this experience, I have all these skill sets. I want to figure out how do I package it together into an offer and so I guess what's the biggest problem or the biggest focus going into the program that you look for our help with and how do you go about solving that?

The first big roadblock I faced was actually the structure of my offer, which was initially I actually was so I could go on with stories. But just to get to my point of what I'm trying to make here, there was a point where I had one of my biggest clients which I still help to this day. It's a financial lending company. I also had a full time remote job with a healthcare tech company that was soon to go public and I was in charge of managing all of the incoming revenue and they're well over a billion dollar per year company. So I was doing a lot and I was trying to delegate and have teams help manage both sides. And so my initial offer was, hey, can I actually have a team come in to your business and set up your own internal bookkeeping team and I'll just sell that as a service and help guide that process. But day one I talked to Daniel and he was like, why don't, why don't you just do all of that for them and basically increase your LTV and be able to have a more streamlined approach to help provide better fulfillment. And you know, so in a way there's going to be things that you don't know, what you don't know when you're first starting out, but you know, everything is there and is purposeful to within client ascension to help you where you are and help give you the most actionable, practical, realistic inputs that are going to help you get from one step to the next. So like you want to be able to focus on getting help from people that are a few steps ahead of you versus 100. You know, talking to a billionaire might not be actionable today, but talking to Andre, Christian, Daniel, Dan, you know, you guys are obviously very successful, but you're not so far beyond. I think most people that are working with existing businesses that are new to client ascension. So sales, copywriting, response, handling, operations, offer structure, every component of your business, there's going to be somebody there for you. And I think having that in place and trying to manage every aspect of it on my own while also trying to service clients, existing clients, it's tough. And so I think the simplification of having people help you with that from day one is, is incredibly valuable.

Huge. Huge.

Yeah.

I love what you said about like us not being too far ahead. Right. Because I feel like we've all been to coaching Programs or even events where it almost feels like the person there is a celebrity. I even feel this, like, going to a Gary Vee event, like, he's so far ahead that, like, I'm sitting there about to ask him a question. I'm like, I don't really know what to ask him. Like, I can't really relate to where he's at and vice versa. Whereas, like, our events, it almost feels like we're all kind of trying to figure it out together. Like you said, obviously, we've had our success with the program, but there's more of a collaborative vibe, which I think is why people really love the community. So I think that's cool. You mentioned that.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's just the events in person are huge.

Yeah, we're gonna do a lot more, bro. We're gonna do a lot more of those.

We excited? I'm very excited.

So much fun. Try to hit more cities. Maybe we'll come out to la. Christian and I have been talking about doing a golf specific, like, tournament. That would be cool.

That would be cool. That would be awesome. Right?

We could do, like, a big prize. We'll do, like, foursomes. We'll have to do it by handicap or something to make it fair, but that would be. That would be a fun trip.

A lot of those are fun. You can have, like, an installment or something going on at each tee box for each hole or.

Oh, dude. Where you get creative with it things.

Yeah. Know, prizes, all that stuff.

I'm thinking we run out, like, a huge Airbnb in, like, Scottdale or something and just do a tournament.

Be cool.

Everyone stay there. I know. And then we're, like, masterminding, like, the night before, after. It'd be so much fun, man.

Absolutely.

But, like, that's the community. Right? Like, we could do stuff like that. Because you've seen some of the guys in person. Like, that's kind of the vibe. Like, we're all about that sort of stuff. So that's what makes it fun. In regards to, like, I get. One thing that I love to ask guys like you is, like, you've been through client ascension. I've seen you, you know, go. Go to help or go to Daniel for help. And, like, you use the program a lot more than the average student. And so what's one piece of advice you'd have for other students that just aren't getting the value? Like, they're in the community, but they just don't. They see guys like you or people posting in the WINS channel And they're like, why are they getting results from this community? And I'm not like, what's a couple pieces of advice there?

I would say, you know, one, you're, you're never, it's never going to suit you or serve you if you're playing the comparison game that I think that's one. Like every, every person in every business has its own unique path. There's different bottlenecks. It's not a one to one. I think finding a way to continuously remind yourself that there's actually somebody there that knows the answer to this and can help you shortcut the result. I have to remind myself of that a lot. There's things that I will dwell on or overthink and I think that we need to remind ourselves that there's somebody there that can do it. So whenever you find yourself maybe stewing within a problem for too long, I think getting quicker at just realizing like I can just go to this Slack channel, I can just message somebody. I can reach out to my student success coach for anything and everything. I think Eamon does a really good job at this. He's asking so many questions. I think like that's what's gonna help you learn. Like don't, like don't feel like your question is stupid. Leverage everybody and show up to the calls. I think if you are able to find a structure where you can work out, work your, you know, your daily life around the calls, just look at, just think about in being able to leverage all these years of experience for each coach and for six to 12 months you just absorb everything and be open. You're going to be shortcutting three years into one. So I think showing up to the calls are important, engaging with people and honestly just asking questions. And I will say lastly, probably try to deliver as much value as possible and do so in a way where you're always not trying to assume that you already know the answer. Like be a student, love that idea.

And just show up. Like you said, there's not like, I feel like people over complicate it and they try to figure it out on their own. But like simply putting yourself out there, asking questions, showing up in the community, you're like, people are going to tend to that. And so I just think, I think it's really cool. Eamon's a great example. Like I would probably in an earlier version of myself have insecurity to ask that many questions because I feel bad or like I'm asking for too much. But like that's not at all how it's viewed. It's like this guy Eamon is looked at as like a star student because of how active and resourceful and useful he is in the community. And so definitely want to encourage people.

To be like, realize like you. You paid for access to this, I paid for your expertise. So like if I bug you, let me know if it gets ridiculous. But yeah, I'm gonna bug you. I need to know these answers. I paid for this.

Exactly, exactly. And I, I don't get the psychology behind it, but some like people just feel. And I'm like, dude, this is, please let me. Because I feel bad that you're paying me and not like using my expertise. And so yeah, there's things we're trying to do like student success coaches and holding students more accountable. But I love that's, that's great advice. And what you started with is so important. I haven't heard that on this type of interview series I've done yet, which is like, don't compare yourself to other. But also don't, you know, let this information sit and not be put to good use. So really good there. Last question is like what advice would you have for someone not in Client Ascension that is starting an agency or is in the agency space? And obviously one of the recommendations would be to join Client Ascension, so that's not allowed as an answer. So other than joining client Ascension, what information would you have for new agency owners or just people coming up with their own offers like you did?

I, I would answer this, I would answer this in terms of like my previous like personal experience. Like I have made, I have tried and failed so many times with different businesses, you know that I actually have a good amount. I have a fairly in depth kind of life event and story that is going to connect all this that I'll. I'm kind of crafting and looking to figure out how I can share it. But you know, you're going to make mistakes. But I do think one of the biggest pieces that you should always try to remember is do not try to shortcut things for the sake of, you know, taking the easy way out, doing it right. And doing it right means choosing something that you genuinely have motivation over and an interest in far beyond what you think is going to make you money. Do not try to think about. Because I saw 10 people doing this and they're doing 20,000, 30,000, 50,000amonth that I have to too because I've had some similar experience in this aspect. No, do what some do. It's such an age old kind of piece of advice, but it's so true. Because the motivation and the longevity you need for something like this. I probably work over 12 hours a day and I do not call it work. I like what I do, I love what I do. And it's because I chose something that wasn't initially fully tied to, hey, I can get to this number. So I think realizing like this is a long term game, you know you're going to be, if you're 22, 23, 24, even, even 30, whatever, like I just turned 30, we're still babies, man. And the long game two years from now is absolutely nothing. Is absolutely nothing. So find something you have a passion around, find something that you have experience around and focus on learning and listening to what the market has to say. Don't just jump into everything thinking you have it all figured out. Take feedback from the market because ultimately if you are trying to sell what you think is going to be best, you're going to probably fall in your face versus going to the market and having them tell you what their pain points and their problems are and then craft around that. So that's what I would say.

Dude, that's so good. That's so good, Brian. I always hear Patrick Bet David talk about this too, where he's like, lengthen your time horizon. And he's like, instead of thinking in two or three or five year terms, think in 20 year terms. And that's hard to conceptualize especially if you're like 20, in your 20s or even 30, like you're so young. Like you've only had one year run, you know, like even you as a 30 year old, bro, you've only had one 20 year run. Like and not even really like since 10, like you weren't doing, you haven't even had your, your 20 year run in entrepreneurship and business, which is like, it's so crazy to think about how much time you have and how much can happen in that time if you show up and do you know, things with good intent and leading with value every single day. So that was, that was gold, bro.

Yeah. You could do this for the next five years and you wouldn't have even gotten started yet. I mean it's like, yeah, patience, patience, brother. Yeah.

I love it. I love it. Dude, you're, you're super wise, bro. We gotta, we gotta talk more. There's so many people in this community, it's like I, I lose track. But these interviews are, I love doing these interviews. It's really selfish of me. To do these because I just get the opportunity to. To connect, get content out of it of course as well.

But also it's not selfish. You're being self. And so Tom, I've been, you know. Do you know the CEO of Impact Theory, Tom Bilyeu?

Yeah, of course.

So I saw.

He's really cool.

I got to go to his house. I got. Yeah, I was a part of a mastermind a few years ago and we, we. He knew the. My mentor, one of my mentors. He knows Tom. And so we got to go to his house, got to sit in on a live recording of Impact Theory and he talked about being selfish. And one of his points on this was. And for you as well, you just said selfish. But you're not being selfish. You're being selfish in the service of others. And that is something that is outside of your control. If people are going to think you're being selfish, you're actually doing a very quality service of being able to use your platform to help others.

Yeah. And it's like fun. It's like I'm not, I'm not doing this like oh, just to help you. It's like this is fun for me too. So that's where I think that comes from.

Which this, this is, this is great. Yeah, I love what you're doing. I love doing these too. I could talk all day.

Yeah, me too bro. We gotta bring you back to Tampa and do a stick talk episode to get the, the full length content.

Would love to, would love to be.

That would be great. But for the time being that's all I have in terms of questions. The last one though is just where could our audience find you, follow you and learn more what it's like to work with you?

Yeah, absolutely. So my website is stackscfo.com my Twitter you can probably link down here. It's AlexTenorio2X's I think YouTube. YouTube.com AlexTenorio and you know any, any other links I'm sure we can throw in there in the description. But yeah, that website will show you, you know, what more about what I do and how I can help your business. Whether it's a small business agency, ecom brand or any other really real industry. Everybody needs accountants. Absolutely. But the door's always open. Feel free to DM me. And you know I'm always happy to answer questions for sure.

And I always like to say too is like a lot of client ascension students watch this. So the easiest way probably too would be slack.

DN slack. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's great.

Awesome, man. Thanks so much. Alex, this was great to learn more about your story, how you got started, what client ascension has helped you with, and your advice for the students and just agency owners in general is some of the best I've heard. So I just appreciate. Appreciate you sharing that with us.

Oh, I appreciate that, man. That means a lot. Yeah, this has been awesome. It's been really cool, and I look forward to, like, just connecting with you guys, and it's been just, honestly, such a. A positive event for my life to be a part of this, so.

Hell, yeah.

Exciting. So appreciate it.

Thanks, bro. Appreciate you.

Good. Shouting.