76: How to Handle Life, Business, and Even AI as Modern-Day Entrepreneurs

Beth: [00:00:00] somebody told me the other day that in this next year, 2025, we are going to evolve faster than we have in the past 10 years, in just one year. so as a business owner. You have to be able to be resilient, to have, backup plans and contingency plans in place to navigate through these times of uncertainty.

Paden: Hello everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. I am Paden Squires, the host, and this morning we have on Beth Rohani. Beth is a first generation Iranian immigrant to the United States. She is the president and CEO of Ameritech Movers based in both Houston and Dallas, Texas. Over the last few years, she and I have been in a mastermind group. And she always brings a ton of value, so I'm super excited to have her on the show. Beth, welcome on Behind Their Success.

Beth: Hi, Paden. I'm so excited to finally be on the show. We've known each other for a while and [00:01:00] certainly something I'm looking for.

Paden: Yeah, I've been trying to get you pinned down to get on here, but I know you got a, uh, a busy schedule yourself.

I was kind of saying there, Beth and I have, um. Really got to know each other pretty well over

the last couple years. And our, our mastermind group, uh, gathering the Kings, which Beth is so

bold, she was the first queen to come in there. And that, that probably gives you a little insight

into, her personality and strength that she brings.

So, Beth, like, tell us a little bit about your businesses, um, down there in Texas.

Beth: Perfect. Well, you know, it's one of those things that how you and I, we crossed paths was

definitely not anything that was intended in my life. and certainly being an entrepreneur was

nothing that I ever intended in my life either.

For me, I was a communication journalism major, so I was aspiring to go into the news media.

When I moved to Houston in 2000, right after college, it was more, you know, just to get in into

the industry. I had gotten a job at [00:02:00] Fox 26 as an assignments editor, no college

degree, but because of the network and the people that I had met and while I was doing my

internship.

The news director in Dallas was able to see the skills and the qualities and a lot of maybe even

core values that I was able to display for him to feel confident enough to give the referral. Um,

and you know, I was given the referral on a Monday. I went in on an interview for Thursday, and

by the following Monday, you know, I had the job.

And so that's how my journey in Houston started. And simultaneously, my mom in Dallas had

started a moving company. She had been a nurse. Um, at Cook Children's in Fort Worth for

quite some time and was, you know, just wanting to become an entrepreneur and be her own

boss. So she started her moving company in Dallas in 2000 where, um, you know, during that

time, uh, I was in a relationship and my partner and I were like, let's earn some extra money for

books and tuition.

We'll open up this moving [00:03:00] company in the living room of our two bedroom apartment.

And from there, you know, we'll just pay our way through school. Um, and it was interesting

because it was something that I didn't expect You know, through the first couple of years it was

definitely challenging because obviously as business owners, especially in your early twenties

who never have been given the roadmap of how to run a business, you know, you always have

this entrepreneur, spirit, but you don't really necessarily have the knowhow, and that know-how

comes with experience.

And so little by little we started experiencing things and one of the first. Mottoes we embraced

was, Einstein's insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So

the focus was like, okay, we know we're not perfect. We know we're gonna make mistakes, but

how do we grow and how do we improve as a result of that?

And through that, people see our commitment and people start to earn trust. And little by little

that started to happen and we started building our [00:04:00] customer base. And it was

somewhere around 2004. I was just unhappy in the politics of media and didn't wanna really

work for anybody anymore. Yeah. But I was scared because making a transition from corporate

into entrepreneurship is intimidating.

You have to depend on your own, you know, successes or your own losses, and. it was a

commitment that I was willing to make and I did. And you know, as soon as I came on board, my

focus primarily became, process and systems and, people ask, what's one advice that you give

today after 20 plus years of doing business?

Um, versus, you know, if you were to start day one again, and it would really be to put the

systems and processes in place. and you don't know that when you're starting a business. Yeah.

You just dive right into it. And that's what we did. And of course, little by, and obviously the focus

is

mm-hmm.

Generating revenue and you don't [00:05:00] really care about the infrastructure, but that

infrastructure is, is so critical.

Paden: Yeah. And how Knowing you over the last few years, I know you're kind of the, the

process queen, right? And that that's really, you know, where we're kind of your superpower or

at least one of 'em, right?

and yeah, that's totally my experience too, Beth, opened up my own business in the living room

too, of, me and my wife's, you know, first house Yeah, I had no processes whatsoever. It was

just me. And it was like, well, why do you need process? You're just trying to generate revenue,

right?

but the problem is, right, uh, if you don't start implementing processes, you're going to create

one heck of a chaotic environment for you, and it's gonna stop growth. I.

Beth: For sure. I had one employee that I would come into the office, we had one employee

when we first started out, and I would come into the office and he wouldn't be at his desk.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this guy's left this office by itself. And I would go to sit at

the desk and he would have laid out like furniture pads underneath the desk and was like

napping, you know, because the phones weren't ringing. And you're like, oh my gosh, I need a

standard operating [00:06:00] procedure for.

Not to take naps during knew. I had to explain that there's all these things. Right. All these things

that are common sense that you would think would be normal, but again, that guidance, that

structure is like your company's playbook on how, you know, you set the standards and how you

set the expectations.

And you know, as small business owners, we may think, and this is kind of where I want the

audience to take away from this, is, you know, we may think that. We're always gonna be the

ones that are doing it all. And we have all of this knowledge of process in our brains. And you

know, as you're building it, if you can put it on paper, especially these days, it's so much easier

with that GPT and everything else that if you can put those ideas to paper and just start building,

you know, some sort of directory or you know, playbook that allows you to be able to.

Build on it, you know, and then bring in team members who then you can simply just give that as

a training tool or source or guide, then it definitely helps. And that's where I'm [00:07:00] at now.

You know, my journey, there was a lot of obstacles. There was a lot of challenges over the 20

plus years.

one was, uh, very early on Yellow Pages, you know, that was the full advertis.

Yes, it was a very thick, heavy book. Um, and. One time we had a customer that had an entire

wardrobe box full of yellow pages that they wanted us to move to the third floor. And we're like,

are you kidding me? I mean, we're like, looks this big. but nonetheless, we advertised in the

Yellow Pages and Google wasn't even around.

And, one of our competitors went and, went to all of our customers and said, Hey, eRx is doing,

you know this, I'm gonna do this. And. You know, overnight it did impact our business. And our

business did change. And you know, I had to adapt. And so, you know, that's really when I

understood the power of networking and the power of building relationships.

And so one of our key focuses, in the evolution of our business was the relationships. And,

[00:08:00] interestingly, I just went to a conference for the National Speakers Association, and I

learned this one thing, and I've been telling everybody, I, they said, you have your contacts, uh,

but you want to convert your contacts into contracts.

And the only difference is the letter r. Which that difference is relationships, you know, and how

you make those relationships with those contacts could potentially convert those into those

contracts for you because people build trust. And that's what I've learned is in the moving

industry, it is the third most stressful thing people have to go through in their lifetime.

It's, I mean, I own it and I hate it, you know? And so definitely it's terrible, but nonetheless. You

know, how can you make that experience a better experience for someone whose lives are

impacting and we learn by our core values? Yeah. Yeah. And

Paden: I think, um, you know, that's, that's something that drives me and, and my business

really too, is, is that, you know, something that we really focus on is relationships.

it's always about [00:09:00] thinking about, okay, how is the customer. experience this, you

know, just totally experience and, you know, whether it's tax prep or you know, whatever else

we're doing for 'em. And it's, it's always our focus. It's like, Hey, let's make sure they're having a

good experience and like the work and everything else.

Yeah, we do a good job on that and, you know, we need to do a good job on that, but really it's

how do you make the people feel? that is the main, main thing, right.

Beth: Absolutely, and just think how frustrated you get by going through, you know, a series of

phone calls and getting hung up on, or not getting answers and getting the run around.

It's definitely not how business is done these days anymore. You know, maybe in the olden

days, you know, it was, that's how I feel whenever, um, one of this little girl just recently came up

to me and she's like, were you born in the 19 hundreds? And I'm absolutely like, oh yes, I was

actually, I actually was.

Um, but nonetheless, you know, during my time it was a different. Mindset when it came to

customer [00:10:00] service and the customer experience and, you know, and, and so for us,

our company's vision is human helping humans. And so with humans helping humans. With AI

coming into play, you know, how do you balance, still being able to, as an entrepreneur,

leverage all the technology and innovation that's there to help create efficiency and better

systems and better processes, but not take away from the human element.

Yeah, I think

Paden: that's gonna be a, that's gonna be interesting. You know, I don't know next five, 10 years

how that kind of melts together. Right. Like, I, I can't imagine, you know, you're right. AI's insane.

It's gonna do insane amounts of good for the world. but you know, there's some potential

downsides there.

Right? and the important thing is, yeah, as entrepreneurs using that tool, that amazing tool, um,

but, but not losing, yeah, the human touch there. Um, because it. I don't know. I don't know how

that's gonna play out. I mean, at some point the AI's gonna be [00:11:00] so good that it's gonna

feel like human touch, and it's just kind of, it's hard to me to even wrap my brain around how

we're even gonna handle all that or how it's even gonna play out.

Right.

Beth: Oh, yeah. somebody told me the other day that in this next year, 2025, we are going to

evolve faster than we have in the past 10 years, in just one year. so it's exciting to be able to see

and be a part of, you know, and when you say, ai. Right now we're starting to look at mm-hmm.

Chat bot agents.

and, you know, there's one that, you know, a, a moving company, software developer has

created, and her name is Lauren. And Lauren is like, so empathetic, you know, and she is so

proper. She says, thank you and yes, ma'am. And you know, it's just, and it's very natural and it's

very real. And it's scary in a way because again, I look back at Covid, obviously as business

owners, we have [00:12:00] challenges and obstacles that we have to face, and one of those

was covid. Besides, any of the, in Houston, you know, we have hurricanes that we have to deal

with. We had the, you know, economic crash in 2007, 2008, that we had to deal with inflation.

And so as a business owner. You have to be able to be resilient, to have, you know, backup

plans and contingency plans in place to navigate through these times of uncertainty. But, during

Covid, within three months, I had 98% of my workforce quit. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 'cause the

stimulus checks were unemployment too, right.

Than actual getting up. Coming to work. Yes. And so, after being in business for 20 something

years and now going down to one and a half employees in your office and you're back to

answering the phones again and, you know, dispatching and doing everything else, I. You, you

stand back and you look and you say, well, what are some tough [00:13:00] decisions that I

have to make as a business owner that when I am confronted with situations like this, I can be

able to navigate through it.

And so in some ways, you know, society maybe has even brought it on themselves, you know,

with how the, the situations have been treated, where business owners have had to adapt in

ways to be able to. just survive.

Paden: technology is changing us quickly and, and at an ever rapid rate.

yeah, we're gonna grow more this year than we did in the last 10 years. That's kind of that

compounding effect, right? Each year it's even crazier than it was before. And like you're talking

about AI box and stuff earlier, and, you know, I listened to a few, you know, different podcasts

and stuff about that and said the technology is.

Like almost there. Like you can still kind of trip up the bots a little bit by asking it questions real

fast and whatnot, but like, they're, like, within a year that thing's gonna perfect it and you're not

really Yeah. Going to be sure who you're talking to, whether it's AI or, an actual person. But the

[00:14:00] implications of that can be just endless.

the ability to clone yourself. Yeah. And multiply yourself and, and give people seamless,

consistent experiences. I think of the next decade is gonna be the people that leverage the heck

outta AI in their business.

Beth: And, you know, I do have team members that are concerned and they say, oh, well

Lauren, what, what, what's gonna happen to us?

You know, when something like a Lauren comes? And, you know, I think at this point, if the

audience members are in a position, you know, where maybe they feel like. They might be at

risk because AI or technology is coming into their infrastructure. It's learn how to give the

commands. I. You know, don't be that person who's the command taker that can be replaced by

the robots, but start to learn it.

Don't be intimidated by it. Because I remember again, when 1999 Y 2K was happening, we're all

like, what is this worldwide web? You know? And we were all fearful because again, [00:15:00]

anxiety stems from the uncertainty. And so how can you learn it to where that unknown becomes

the known for you and you can start gaining the confidence and then at, ultimately end up

leveraging yourself, like said.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Paden: And it's, you know, in, in my space, in the professional services space, this is the first

time a robot's coming from my job, right? Like, it, you know, in the past, machines couldn't

communicate with people and, do you know anything like what I do? but now chat, chat, GPT

and all the other tools.

They're pretty solid staff accountants. Like, you ask them questions and they give you great

answers and probably better answers. Oh, yeah. Than maybe even your accountant that you

work with.

Beth: and to even add the empathy on top of that, you know, like there are places where I will

call and they're just like, what do you want?

Why are you bothering me? Why are you calling? You know, like, like they're inconvenienced,

you know, that I'm calling. And so like that, just that, That sound of someone on the other line

who cares. You know? Especially if, let's say people again are [00:16:00] going through some of

the tough things in their life, going through divorce or going through death, or going through, you

know, moving, you know, those are the top three most stressful things people have to deal with.

Health, you know, right now. Uh, you know, I'm, knock on wood, I'm a relatively healthy person

and I've gotten on this 2025 thing where I'm like, oh, I have insurance. I'm gonna go get myself

checked up, head to toe, payden. It has been so

Paden: difficult. Your primary care physician, right?

Beth: Like they're telling me September, and it's March, by the way.

Exactly. And then on top of that you do get in and it's like, oh, well we have to go through this

protocol and that protocol and. where's that a human, you know, element of caring about a

person who's not feeling well or going through something. And thankfully I'm not, you know,

going through something, but I am sympathetic to those that are.

And so, yeah, I mean, life is changing and you know, the world is changing and how we have to

adapt to [00:17:00] it is gonna have to change. And having that mindset, and I say, you know.

When you ask about my journey through this time, you know, now that I've seen, A couple of

decades worth of evolution, And the mindset has always been, if you're not evolving, then you're

going to be dissolving. You know,

Paden: And I think, you know, like you said with, with changes happening so much more rapidly,

evolving is even more important. but even before, you know, the current level of technologies, I

mean, like, businesses don't last forever and it's because they don't evolve.

Right. that's been the case for, right. And, you know, businesses that were in the Dow Jones

Industrial average, you know, a hundred years ago, like almost all of them are gone. They don't

even exist anymore. so that's always been the case, but now it's even more so, right? Like you,

you know, one piece of technology can come in and wipe out your whole business model.

Um, you know, that really wasn't the case a hundred years ago, right? Like, you know,

businesses generally kind of lasted a long time because their business model didn't ever really

break because there wasn't this rapid change in technology [00:18:00] all the time. yeah.

Busters. Yeah. And you know, it comes down to like, Darwin, right?

Like Darwin, people kind of misquote him and say, you know, it's like survival of the fittest. It's

not really what, like his point he was making, it's, it's the most adaptable animals that survive,

right? Yeah. And humans not the biggest, strongest, you know, I guess we are the smartest, but

like, we're the most adaptable and that's why we're hard to kill and can, you know what I mean?

And survive,

Beth: Yeah. I would also add resiliency to that too. I think between adaptability and resiliency,

you know, those are definitely two key fundamentals that a entrepreneur has to have in order to

be able to, just go throughout the years. And I would also add, you know, sticking to your true

core values and, I mean, I had a competitor of mine in 2000 and.

12, we were getting our nails done together and she asked me two questions that changed my

life. she asked me, what are your core values and what's your passion? And I didn't, you know, I

[00:19:00] didn't have an answer. It was so weird. 'cause I love to talk and I'm like, you know, the

communication person, but I, I didn't have the words to articulate who I was.

I knew that I was a good person and you know, there were these things that my parents taught

me, but I started just to kind of figure it out for myself, and it was 2018. We had hired an

executive for my company and she had taken us through a, uh, core values exercise for us here

in our company to determine what our core values are.

And at that point I realized that, you know, mine was accountability. Where my partner, who was

also my. Husband at that time was the farthest thing from accountability. And you know, at that

point it was very clear to me that, you know, when you say that how we treat and the impact that

we create for our customers.

It's also for who we work with on a daily basis and the people that we [00:20:00] impact, that is

our team member. Or, you know, in our, in mine, in his case, we were married. And so how do

you create this dynamic? Especially if you are out there, you know, a husband and wife team

who's trying to run a small business together.

You know, and I guess in just kind of learning my core values, I really learned to set, again,

those clear expectations, those clear KPIs, even if it's, you know, a husband and wife team. Mm-

hmm. You know, what's your role clearly? What are your responsibilities? What are you, you

know, held accountable for? So when you do get home, then that tension or that.

anger or frustration or whatever you carry home with you, you know, because the other one

hasn't fulfilled that commitment, you know, and it's five dysfunctions of a team, right? You know,

it's not just related to how you perform at work, but it's also how you perform at home, you know,

and how do you build the trust to be able to get the results and the [00:21:00] commitment.

And so my, case was a little bit unique because I was in that situation, but one of the toughest

decisions I had to make was. Making that separation from my partner, you know, to then go into.

Answering the second question that she asked me, which was, what's my passion? And now

I've realized my passion is bringing value to others.

And that's through my experiences because now I am seeing new business owners who are

going through the same. You know, challenges that I was. And so now I get to say like, Hey, this

is how you can push past the learning curve, or don't reinvent the wheel. The wheel is already

created for you. You know, just make it unique to yourself.

Yeah. And that's

Paden: great. And I think. from my perspective of everything you just kind of said there was, you

really started diving into yourself, right? Diving into yourself a lot more and, and understanding

what's important to you, who Beth is, and only once. that work is done, can you then get really

clear about, you know, [00:22:00] your business and your life and your core values and, and that

kind of thing.

I don't think you would've been able to get that clear without doing that work on yourself.

Beth: Not at all. And I would say that, knowing you, you know, we both go through the same

struggles and challenges and with our mastermind group, it has been something of self

discovery. and. as entrepreneurs we're self-sacrificing, we neglect ourselves, number one, you

know, Hey, I, I need to go and write that last, you know, bid, or I need to go in and write, you

know, do this last thing.

And it's always, you know, you sacrificing yourself and, being the one that eats last and,

Paden: leaders eat last. Right? and that's a great concept, great book by the way, by Simon. I

think that's Simon Sinek.

But, the hustle and the grind and all that stuff. And I'm very much a, a hard worker, hustler, all

that kind of stuff. But now I'm, I think I'm just a little more wiser about it. Right, where it's like, oh

yeah, I'm not afraid of hard work.

I got a last decade of just, proof of that. [00:23:00] Um, but it's, but it's, it's now, it's being smarter

about it and realizing that, rest and recovery is actually better for you and you get better

performance out of it instead of just draining yourself.

Beth: You do. And I'll tell you the one word that you said that I want the audience members to

take away was experience.

So, when I started my business, I was in my early twenties. Yeah. I didn't have any experience.

So I didn't know any better. And it's interesting because when I sit down, let's say with my dad,

um, it was about. 20 years ago, I was lifting really heavy boxes and I was carrying them and he

saw my grip and he stopped me and he said, Hey, you shouldn't put so much strain on your

hands because as you get older, it weakens and it deteriorates and you know you are abusing it

and again, you have this thing that you wanna prove, right. But there's, you don't need to prove

it, you know, because now [00:24:00] that I am 47, I'm like, now my fingers,

Paden: I think it's, it, it, you see that a lot.

It's, you know, it's really, it's really hard for people in their twenties to, figure a lot of that stuff out

because you, you really are, you're, you're performing. A lot, most people are performing to

other people's expectations and not necessarily their own. really smart people start to figure that

out somewhat in their thirties, but most people, it's, it's in their forties or fifties before they really,

start living their lives on their own terms and not necessarily what other people expect them to

do.

Beth: but you know what that is, that's the realization of time and it was, August 25th, 2022.

When that time was realized for me, you know, it was the date of the third mediation that I was

going through with my ex-husband. my best friend of 38 years. It was my very first friend when I

came to America.

She was from El Salvador, I was from Iran. Neither one of [00:25:00] us knew how to speak

English and we were in ESL together. And you know, just that common bond of not being able to

speak. The, you know, the language was enough for us to feel comfortable with each other. And,

it was, you know, just out of the blue.

She went to sleep at, you know, 11 o'clock one day because she wasn't feeling good and she

had a brain AIRism and just didn't wake back up. And. You know, she was in her early forties. I'd

known her for 38 years, but you know, it was just, there's a day where I could not go to her

funeral because I'm dealing with my third mediation.

I. And I am now also fighting for this moving company, for this business that I've spent all these

years. And you know, my mom would be impacted because she owned the Dallas location. And

so how do you navigate through making these tough decisions in your life while you're still

keeping your business, while you're coming out of COVID, and trying to, uh, have your mindset

get diminished because so many other people are [00:26:00] depending on you and.

it was August 25th where I realized, you know, that that time is nothing that I'm ever gonna be

able to get back. and so how I treat it and how I see it and how I value it, it's a critical part. And,

after that it became something where literally two or three days later, I became a member of the

Master Mastermind group and.

it was one of those things where I was ready to explore and I was ready to take a chance on

myself. And, I had always been a, in a relationship, a codependency, you know, all my twenties,

all my thirties, half of my forties. And it's scary, you know, if there are women out there that are

going through divorces, or even men that are going through divorces, you know, to be by

yourself and to make decisions on your own, it's very, very scary.

And so. what my advice would be would be, to believe in yourself and to put yourself in

environments where people can help you grow and give you the support that you need. Um, and

it might be in just such an indirect [00:27:00] way that you don't really even realize that I was,

with gathering the Kings, it was like, huh, why are there all these men here?

Where are the women, you know?

Well, and I'm sure all the questions that I've posed to the group has also taken a special kind of

woman, but nonetheless, you know, we were at one of our mastermind groups and we were

asked to write a word on a piece of paper. Do you remember Uhhuh In Atlanta, we had this huge

bonfire. How, how tall was that?

Paden: 2025 street or so?

Beth: They had brought out a crane for that thing and they lit that fire. And the one word that I

had written, because I was just post my divorce, my best friend had died and I was going

through, you know, this experience and I wrote the word guilt. And, because I didn't wanna feel

guilty for my divorce, I didn't want my divorce, you know, but I had to make that decision for me

for the first time, you know, and say, I am gonna live for myself and I am gonna be that person

that's gonna start, [00:28:00] you know, believing in myself and giving myself credit and the

benefit, of what, you know, I've always given others the credit and the benefit for, which is hard,

you know, because again.

If you are in an environment where there are people you know, you wanna give others because

you work as a team, but ultimately. As entrepreneurs, there's a weight that you carry on your

shoulder, you know, and I didn't want that weight to let me have any type of regrets for any of

the decisions. And I would even say to this day, whether I'm, you know, making decisions in my

business or my personal life, it's how.

Am I gonna impact that other person? And, you know, my decisions. And so through my divorce,

I was kind to my ex-husband, you know, I, I made sure that I did what I needed to do because

again, nobody wants to go through that. It's already a stressful time to have to deal with. So why

not, you know, try to get yourself out of a situation, you know, the easiest way possible.

[00:29:00] So. I would say, just as you're going through life, you know, just know that things are

gonna come at you unexpectedly. but always sticking to what you inherently believe in, you

know, what you feel like it's right. and just having that peace of mind and knowing that you've,

done your best at the end of the day is all I can tell myself at this point.

You know, because I'm so hard on myself. You can see all these trophies. Mm-hmm. I love

winning, you know, I love it. And for me, there are times that I have to now accept that, Hey,

Beth, you're doing the best that you can. And that's all you can do.

Paden: Like, literally, that's all you can do. And, it's focusing once again on the process, right?

And, and, and on focusing on your actions and not results, right? results come from actions, but

like, to some degree, all we can control are just the actions, right? and doing that and being

content and happy in that and that alone, and not, not necessarily driven by the results. That's

really where you can find some [00:30:00] contentment and peace.

at least in my experience, even though I am very far for perfect.

Beth: Well, and fulfilling other people's expectations, like you said, Peyton, you know, and really

becoming a champion of your own mind. And, enriching yourself in different books and different

groups and different environments that can lift you and maybe not give you necessarily the

answers, but give you different perspectives.

you know, I'm 47 and I'm still learning. There is not a day where I do not learn something new.

And I love that so much because, with. Knowledge comes power, and that experience comes

from knowledge, you know, and so ultimately you gain that wisdom and if you are not at maybe

an age where you do have the experience, I encourage you to get involved and get into groups

that can give you that elevated perspective of thinking or maybe even asking yourself the hard

questions that you're not willing to ask yourself.

Paden: [00:31:00] is very important to have outside perspective because we as humans are

very good at like lying to ourselves and believing it, right? Or, you know, finding external every

reason but ourselves to fix the problem, right?

I mean, we're, we're all really good at that. So having that outside perspective is, invaluable.

Are you looking for a new tax experience, looking for an advisor that actually brings you high

level ideas and proactively plan so you aren't overpaying your taxes? Or how about one that

even just responds and communicates in a timely fashion? If any of that resonates with you, you

probably just have a tax preparer and not a tax planner.

Speaker: And it is through the tax planning process where all the value is found. And when Tax

Planning's done right, it has a positive return on investment. I'm Payden Squires, I'm a CPA and

owner of Squires Tax Planning. We work alongside entrepreneurs and high income earners,

helping them pay the least amount of income taxes, both legally and ethically.

We have saved our clients [00:32:00] hundreds of thousands of dollars through specific

strategies, and we guarantee we can find multiple tax strategies that your current tax preparer

hasn't told you about. If that interests you, head over to squire's tax planning.com. There you

can take our free assessment to see how likely it is that you are overpaying on your income

taxes.

From there, you can also book a free tax discovery call with our team to see what it would look

like to have us working for you.

Paden: Got a good question here for you. So I want. To know, how do you define success today

and how maybe has that altered or changed? you know, over the last 20 ish years or so of, of

you running your business,

Beth: I have now determined that success is not a monetary thing or a status thing, or I. even

what others maybe see of you, you know, [00:33:00] because a lot of people live their life on

how they wanna be perceived mm-hmm. In the eyes of others. And, I drive a 2013 car with one

headlight out and, you know, wear Yeah.

Wear the same jeans every day. You know, Adidas tennis shoes have my, you know. Anex,

expensive condo paid off that, you know, again, peace of mind I think is really what determines

success for me. you live life worrying about everything that's out of your control. And one person

said to me at one point, 99% of the things that we worry about never happen.

Don't even, yeah. Never happen. Develop. And so we sit there and all this time I've sat here and

worried and just like had this anxiety and this stress and, you know, felt like I was successful

because I was, financially maybe, you know, comfortable. Yeah. The outside world

Paden: said, oh, about [00:34:00] successful, right.

Beth: well, yeah, and that's why, I mean, I decided to go on my social. Platform personally,

because I wanted to tell my own story because people do perceive me as, you know, the

successful entrepreneur that had a great marriage and great family and granted most of it is I'm

blessed for it, but I'm also not perfect, you know?

And so how can you tell your own story and embrace your own story, but ultimately, you know,

that comes with accepting yourself and having that peace within. And knowing that, you are true

to your core values. Once you know, you start to learn yourself and again, not be so worried

about judgment of others or, you know, be so critical or hard on yourself, then I think that's

where you are successful in really appreciating like.

This moment here with you Payden. You know, like you and I are shooting a podcast and this is

subconscious [00:35:00] behavior that we're doing. It's 95% of how most people live their lives,

but that 5% that lets me really be able to like look at that smile on your face, that. Connection

time is so valuable in just anything that you do. Like I'm about to drink this tea and when I drink

it, just like the feeling that it goes down my throat. Not just because I'm drinking it, because it's a

habit of doing this, but like what, even when you're in the shower and that water is trickling on

your head and feeling, being present.

Mm-hmm. Being in the moment defines success for me in life. Yeah.

Paden: And, and I've said this on this podcast before, it's like being, being in the present is the

only thing that's real. you got your future, which you've completely made up, right? Like you've

just made up and projected this whole story out, and your past is mostly made up too.

Um, we have all these memories, but they're so, There's not real. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, our

memories in our head, like objectively are almost way off from what actually occurred in

[00:36:00] reality. And every time we remember something, we change the story a little bit. We

don't even realize it. And you know, 20 years later a story is way different.

It was, you know, and we believe it. Yeah. We don't think we're making it up or whatever, but it's,

our past and our future is mostly made up. And the present is really all we have. And the, the

only thing that is real that's where life happens and connection happens and, peace and, all

those things is, really just being where you're at.

Beth: Yeah. And that's why they call it a gift. Yeah. Because it's the present. there's the past,

there's the future, but the present. if you look at it, it's really a gift. And so, in my case I've had a

challenging past, and the obstacles and the challenges, but I would go back to, again, the

resiliency component of it and the adaptability and just the willingness to, yeah.

Not give up.

Paden: Yeah, that's great stuff, Beth. Well, this has been a great convo. I always appreciate

talking to you. Beth, what's the best way [00:37:00] people can connect with you, you know,

follow you? I know you got, uh, you're pretty active on social media out there. Uh, what's the

best way people can connect with you and just, just learn more from you or move, move their

stuff in Dallas and Houston?

Beth: Yeah, well we're licensed in the state of Texas, but location wise, Houston and Dallas, my

mom ultimately retired in 2023, so I did take over her location. but nonetheless, they can find

me, amerit text movers.com. That's our handle. Anywhere that you search, you'll be able to find

me there. And then personally, it's Beth Rohani.

I'm on Instagram and all other social media platforms. So thank you so much, Payden, for this

opportunity.

Paden: check her out. She's always, um, putting a lot of different videos and stuff out there, just,

you know, her perspective and stories and she's got a lot of experience, you know, and, and I.

while you say moving company, she's built a heck of a moving company. Um, so it, it's not some

small business. so, but she's, you know, an impressive person, great person to follow, and, and

somebody I've really gained a lot of respect for over the last few years as I've, uh, got to know

her and [00:38:00] spent a lot of time with her in a lot of different places around the country,

which is, which is really cool.

Beth, anything else you wanna leave, uh, the listeners before we go?

Beth: Yeah, my motto is, do it and prove it. And so every day just wake up and prove it to

yourself that you can do it.

Paden: We'll check you next time.

Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate,

review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're

trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs.

You can follow us on social media by searching for me Peyton Squires.

Or going to padensquires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of

personal growth and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.