Why You Should Make the Switch to Virtual Bookkeeping

Episode Notes

Transcript

The Legal Toolkit

Why You Should Make the Switch to Virtual Bookkeeping

07/29/2019

 

[Music]

 

Intro: Welcome to Legal Toolkit, bringing you the latest legal trends and business initiatives to help you manage your law firm, with your host Jared Correia. You are listening to Legal Talk Network.

 

[Music]

 

Jared Correia: Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of the award-winning Legal Toolkit podcast, here on the Legal Talk Network. If you are looking for the engine room, it’s at the front of the train.

 

If you are a returning listener, welcome back. If you are a first-time listener, hopefully you will become a longtime listener, and if your name is Willis Jackson, people may regularly be asking you what you’re talking about.

 

As always, I am your show host Jared Correia, and in addition to casting this pod, I am the CEO of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, which offers subscription-based law practice management consulting services for law firms, bar associations and legal vendors. Check us out at redcavelegal.com.

 

I am also the COO of Gideon Software, Inc., which offers chatbots, a first to market Chatbot Builder and predictive analytics created specifically for law firms. Find out more about that at www.gideon.legal.

 

You can listen to my other, other podcast, The Lobby List, a family travel show I host with my dear wife Jessica on iTunes. Subscribe, rate and comment.

 

But here, on The Legal Toolkit, we provide you twice each month now with a new tool to add to your own legal toolkit so that your practices will become more and more like best practices.

 

In this episode, we are going to talk about Virtual Bookkeeping. But before I introduce today’s guest, let’s take a moment to thank our sponsors without whom this podcast would not be possible.

 

Nexa, formerly known as Answer1, is a leading virtual receptionist and answering service provider for law firms. Learn more by giving them a call at 800-267-9371 or online at nexa.com.

 

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TimeSolv is the number one web-based time and billing software for lawyers. Providing solutions since 1999, TimeSolv provides the most comprehensive billing features for law firms, big and small, www.timesolv.com. That’s timesolv.com.

 

My guest today is Louie Balasny, who is the Co-Founder and Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Botkeeper, a virtual bookkeeping service. Louie is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School and a former attorney, just like yours truly, who started his career working as a lawyer at Thomas Brady & Associates.

 

No, not that Tom Brady. There he was regional director of advanced planning and was responsible for strategic development and implementation of advanced planning strategies. He specialized in the execution of estate planning, business planning and insurance placement for individuals, executives and business owners.

 

After several years working there, Louie moved on to become the Relationship Banking Officer at Admirals Bank where he was part of a team that helped bring in over $200 million in deposits.

 

I would give money to Admirals Bank, it sounds really cool.

 

After he did that, he started bought Botkeeper. So Louie, welcome to the big show.

 

Louie Balasny: Hey Jared, glad to be on.

 

Jared Correia: This is long overdue. I feel like we should have done this years ago.

 

Louie Balasny: You are right. But you know what, it’s our time now.

 

Jared Correia: Yes, it’s not time to shine, so let’s do it. Fun fact everyone. I don’t know if I mentioned this on the podcast before, I love American Horror Story. I’m a big fan, I think it’s a great show. I have seen every episode lately when they’ve come out on TV rather than waiting for Netflix. And Louie, my friend, since he has great taste is also an AHS fan.

 

So Louie because you’re the only person I can talk to this about, not my young children, not my wife, what’s your favorite season of American Horror Story? Because I feel that says a lot about a person mind’s asylum, and then what’s your craziest AHS theory for future seasons? And let me just say before we get into this spoiler alerts everyone.

 

Louie Balasny: It’s a great question. I very much loved the show and I love that every season has got its own thing, but I’d have to say my favorite is Cult.

 

Jared Correia: Oh wow. That’s a — that’s a controversial choice my friend. Can you explain yourself?

 

Louie Balasny: I know. I know. I just think the writing that went into it, the dialogue, just the extremes on both sides, I just think it was well done start to finish.

 

Jared Correia: Not bad. I think it was a very underrated season. All right, so can I have your craziest fan theory?

 

Louie Balasny: I think for next season or I mean use two more seasons but there’s going to be some alien talk and some alien stuff going on. So you heard it here first aliens on American Horror Story.

 

Jared Correia: Oh snap. I hope you’re right.

 

Louie Balasny: But I think despite the fact to Asylum but I think with maybe kit and some of that alien stuff going on there I don’t think that’s the last we saw that.

 

(00:05:00)

 

Jared Correia: Oh, that would be great. I loved how Asylum was kind of like American Horror Story crossed with a little bit of x-files, so I hope that does come back.

 

Louie Balasny: I hope so too.

 

Jared Correia: All right, can we talk about legal stuff because that’s what I’m supposed to do and that’s what the sponsors pay us to do.

 

Louie Balasny: Are we supposed to?

 

Jared Correia: I think so. I think so.

 

Louie Balasny: I suppose.

 

Jared Correia: You can drop some Easter eggs in here, here and there.

 

Louie Balasny: All right.

 

Jared Correia: So tell me, you’re an expert in this area, virtual bookkeeping, I don’t think a lot of attorneys are aware of it, what it is, what it means. So can you kind of give me like the background on what virtual bookkeeping is and how a law firm would use it?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah I think in use it really would be no different than hiring your traditional bookkeepers but I think in practice and in outputs it’s just a much more effective and efficient solution from cost, from analytics, from things getting updated, from things you want to look at, it’s just, it’s not only because that’s just kind of where technology is today, it’s just if you look at bookkeeping and how it’s been done, there hasn’t been much change to it, because people have been involved, but the processes and things that even bookkeepers are doing they hate doing.

 

So it’s really only a matter of time and I think any industry can benefit from virtual bookkeeping.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah. So tell me a little bit about the advantages you see flowing from virtual bookkeeping for a law firm as opposed to traditional bookkeeping and maybe you can hit three of them to start with and then we’ll flush this out a little bit.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah, I think not even specific to lawyers, but any business owner didn’t start a business to get into the back office side of things. They wanted to do what they love, so for lawyers, I think it’s solving problems, fixing things proactively versus reacting the things or even like reacting to stuff.

 

But with that comes billing and invoicing and data entry and how am I categorizing your receipt. And I think there’s tons of tools that are out in the market that can help you with one or two or three functions like that, but there’s still other stuff that will fall on your plate and inevitably they get a bookkeeper.

 

And so, I think the sooner someone can start as a business owner, lawyers, accountants, even other bookkeepers with a great virtual framework, the less time they spend on the stuff that’s not going to drive any revenue but still provide them the actual insight that we are on a successful business.

 

Jared Correia: So the notion is that lawyers who are using back office software effectively and back office vendors have more ability to run a better business, more ability to market, more revenue and then once you get more revenue, you can hire more people. I like that theory.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah, that’s I mean you nailed it.

 

Jared Correia: Not bad, right. You guys can use that, that’s right. That’s pretty one.

 

Louie Balasny: All right. All right. Now, I got the blessing here. I’m good.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah, yeah, you’re fine. I know you were in IP Law, but you don’t have to clear any copyrights with me, just go ahead.

 

Louie Balasny: Perfect. I love it. Fun fact I actually used to work for an IP Law firm when I was running for law school.

 

Jared Correia: I know. I saw that on your LinkedIn profile.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah, I’m not smart enough to be an IP lawyer, but I was there.

 

Jared Correia: All right. So let me ask you this then, because I’ve been asking this about every founder I’ve had on the show so far. Why did you decide to leave law practice and start a company?

 

Louie Balasny: This is much against my parents’ notion of what I would be growing up. I just never really wanted to practice. I was always actually really interested on just sort of a legal perspective and how businesses are run and not because I wanted to do contract work or negotiations or anything like that, but more just from a different lens and traditional MBA route.

 

And so when I graduated law school, I never actually practiced. I kind of had these roles that were encompassing kind of the best of the legal world without sort of the stresses and billables and all that.

 

So I never really wanted to do it, and I’ve always just been really kind of keen on building something from the bottom up, and I guess serendipitous is over the years, I tried my hand at a few roles that were sort of traditional, but serendipitously had an opportunity to sync up with my partner Enrico and helped build something from the ground up and I jumped at that opportunity.

 

Jared Correia: Awesome. All right. So we’re going to take a quick break now that our finances are about to be in order and we will be back shortly with more talk about virtual bookkeeping but here are some things in the meantime that you should buy.

 

[Music]

 

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[Music]

 

Jared Correia: All right. Thanks for staying with us through the break. Now that I finished tidying up the living room, let’s get back to Louie Balasny of Botkeeper.

 

We’ve been talking about podcasting about the advantages attending upon bookkeeping services, virtual bookkeeping services.

 

So now the living room is clean, now that my wife’s happy, Louie, let’s talk about machine learning and AI.

 

(00:10:02)

 

Louie Balasny: Let’s do it.

 

Jared Correia: I think — I think these are concepts that a lot of people don’t really understand but are fearful of. So if you can talk everybody off the ledge, how would machine learning and AI be used in a virtual bookkeeping service? Partly in order to save time and money, I’m guessing?

 

Louie Balasny: Totally. I’m going to throw another one out there. I actually think for people who aren’t afraid of it or willing to try it out, I actually think, it allows you to be more human. I think with all the technology.

 

Jared Correia: I like this angle, run with that.

 

Louie Balasny: Thank you, thank you. Yeah, and I think it’s true, right. I think with all the tech and everything that’s come up, everyone’s just been inundated with data. No one knows what to do with it and there’s all this talk about it, and it sounds kind of scary than it is.

 

And in reality AI isn’t Skynet or anything like that, that’s doing all these super overly complex decisions and like taking over the world. In reality it’s used as kind of more process driven, right.

 

So machine learning to use hundreds and hundreds of thousands of data points to help, make a decision that you help kind of provide feedback for robotics process automation, tech things that you do consistently day in and day out, and take it off your plate, so then you can kind of get involved with more. Intellectual software are things that are more stimulating than just looking at, receipt and then logging at as meals or something like that.

 

And so I think its uses is less scary but more helpful, so you as a business owner specifically can get stuck doing the like really mundane rudimentary work that is now off your plate where you can go focus on.

 

Now Relationship management with your clients or things that actually drive more revenue, so its uses are really meant to make you more human.

 

Jared Correia: So that’s helpful for repetitive tasks, that’s helpful for lower-level tasks, and in terms of like a virtual bookkeeping service I imagine that you also have actual human accountants or bookkeepers at some point.

 

Louie Balasny: We do.

 

Jared Correia: If yeah, so it’s a mix is what you’re really talking about.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah, but if you look at it from that human perspective, I mean the cool thing is that bookkeepers can benefit from this, because most of their days are spent doing that same work where they’re trying to find that entry-level talent that is using that role as a stepping-stone. You don’t have to worry about that stress, so if kind of training people who are going to leave in six months or a year and actually use that to stay consistent, but totally, I think it was sort of inevitable for it to get on the bookkeeping space, and I think we’re helping kind of pioneer that.

 

Jared Correia: So you’ve got bookkeepers who are practicing at a higher level than they have before?

 

Louie Balasny: Exactly.

 

Jared Correia: You’ve got attorneys and business owners focusing on what they need to do to run a business and all of that is supported by machine learning?

 

Louie Balasny: Exactly.

 

Jared Correia: Cool, all right. So let’s talk about another advantage I think that’s inherent in virtual bookkeeping services and more and more software generally, the availability to access more reporting tools and the use of dashboards in software systems. So can you talk a little bit about dashboards, how you use them and how they’re more effective than traditional software models?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah I mean, I hate Excel sheets, I’m going to go ahead and assume that you do to, is that correct?

 

Jared Correia: You can say that, yes, yes. Microsoft is not a sponsor, so let’s trash itself for the next 10 minutes.

 

Louie Balasny: I don’t want to trash because I think it’s got some great practical applications for its use, but like trying to dissect numbers into like something meaningful is really tough. So I think with the ability to integrate with different, different softwares and kind of get all that data into one central source, and kind of make sense of it, I think is really key from someone who doesn’t want to spend time in Excel sheet or like decide for all these things.

 

So certain things that we can extract from all those different systems and visualize where it’s just much more digestible right, versus trying to like figure out how to like sum total in Excel sheet for this number which may affect this number, what if we just had in one spot and showed you, yeah green and red, like great trends, terrible trend, here’s are your last quarter, here’s your this quarter, all with clicks of buttons right, way more impactful and just something that didn’t really exist before.

 

Jared Correia: Oh truly. Yeah absolutely and Microsoft if you’re listening, if you would like to throw a lot of money at us for this podcast, I will say very nice things about Excel on a regular basis. Can you give me a couple of examples of a dashboard that would exist in a bookkeeping software that someone might not be aware of like off the top of their head just thinking about this?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah I think expenses are kind of the go-to, like a pie chart around where all my expenses flowing, are they heading towards certain vendors, are they heading towards travel, are they towards employees, seeing visualization around where expenses are flowing is really impactful, people like that, versus just looking at a bank statement and assuming that they have cash.

 

And I think another big one is sure — and I think lawyers sort of fall into this, but maybe outstanding invoices, where’s my current cash flow at.

 

Jared Correia: Absolutely, accounts receivable?

 

Louie Balasny: Totally, and that’s a big pain point and there purely departments dedicated to that.

 

(00:14:55)

 

But I think getting a sense of where your cash is, and what’s still owed, and how long has it been overdue, and adding business owners not just lawyers, but business owners in general are excited to get work and then they get really timid or skittish around asking for money for the work.

 

And I just think it’s like this funny kind of — it’s a human thing for sure, and I could kind of — you and I could rant on your Costanza mindset or Larry David mindsets all day, but it’s just funny that people do the work and then they feel awkward to ask for getting paid for it.

 

And then that affects cash flow, that affects your ability to take another project. So it can spiral out of control, but those are just adding two kind of big examples of where having the reporting and visualization around that is really, really key.

 

Jared Correia: I know that’s a big problem of Vandelay Industries, that’s what I’ve heard.

 

Louie Balasny: Yes, yes.

 

Jared Correia: Among other places.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah I think it’s a — it’s not like tech specific.

 

Jared Correia: On that note, let’s take another break. I don’t know how far we want to go down this rabbit hole.

 

Louie Balasny: Is Vandelay sponsor?

 

Jared Correia: Oh not yet, not yet, but hopefully can you work on that for me?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah, yeah.

 

Jared Correia: We might have another couple of sponsors out of this show, it’s fantastic.

 

Louie Balasny: Part two of 00:16:05 everybody.

 

Jared Correia: That’s right. So we’re going to call this break number two. While I go look for my green flannel pajamas as opposed to the red ones, listen to these additional words from our currently existing sponsors who we love.

 

[Music]

 

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[Music]

 

Jared Correia: Thanks for coming back after yet another break. I hope you’re enjoying the show and the Jack Handey style Deep Thoughts were rolling through here. Let’s get back to our conversation with Louie Balasny, a Botkeeper who’s talking to me about how modern businesses can leverage virtual bookkeeping software. So let’s find out more.

 

Let’s talk about some lawyer specific issues that I know come up in terms of using cloud-based software and using virtual services and bookkeepers. Lawyers are very skittish about putting financial data in the cloud, because it contains clients’ information and lawyers are obligated to protect that client information based on state laws, ethics rules, so they’re rightfully skittish in many ways.

 

Louie Balasny: True.

 

Jared Correia: How can attorneys feel comfortable about this issue when selecting a cloud vendor that offers financial related services?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah, I think if they want to keep it in-house they sort of have to become their own security expert, and then it’s on them to figure out the proper servers, how do we keep everything confidential, who has access to it, to form authentication, all the stuff that they probably don’t want to spend time learning and understanding, that outsource vendors just have to build businesses on that’s inherent, all right, otherwise it wouldn’t be a thing.

 

So I think outsourcing in general has become more and more mainstream and that’s because these companies are building reputable practices on the fact that hey, we understand the space, things need to be secure, let us take care of it for you. So you don’t have to worry about an actual old-school server room that maybe floods or like makes weird beeping sounds and wires that you have to unplug and plug back in just, it’s just, it makes more sense to do it from that manner than trying to juggle yourself, right like it’s just another thing that the business owner has to learn to do and they’re not going to. You know what I mean?

 

Jared Correia: Oh absolutely, and so putting yourself in the shoes of a business owner, like what kind of questions should a business owner be asking a vendor about with respect to data security?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah I think sort of what they’re building things on or if there’s certain verticals that they focus on and why is that the case, I think kind of understanding the story of how the company starts is really critical to make it more human. And then it’s also kind of funny to where if you look at traditional bookkeepers and security there, most people when they’re bringing on a like a part-time bookkeeper in-house aren’t really asking the security questions and I feel like they should. But then I think–

 

Jared Correia: Yeah, they’re not at all, that’s a great point.

 

Louie Balasny: Right, like and I can tell you what questions to ask, but if you don’t understand how it’s working then it’s kind of like an empty question. I think what’s key is maybe getting perspective from existing users.

 

(00:19:58)

 

And so having someone who’s worked with QuarkWorks for the business in the past currently, good and bad, and see how kind of — see how they respond to just actually helping make that introduction to get that perspective, because then I think it’ll be more real from a business owner, business owner versus possibly someone in a sales manner like just talking to you about the stuff that you want to hear.

 

You know what I mean?

 

Jared Correia: Oh totally, yeah, and I think you bring up a great point with like working with a cloud-based vendor versus working like a traditional, let’s say solo person working out of an office, like the security accessible via a human being working in an office as a solo.

 

If you look at the average solo lawyer out there, like there are so many security loopholes available in a situation like that, that just don’t exist when you’re offloading your security to a larger company that has money, and also the motivation to secure the data that they’ve got for you and the ability to do that in a way that it’s totally cloud based.

 

So you’re not getting someone like walking into an office and picking up a document and no one knows what’s on.

 

Louie Balasny: Right, right. I mean I’ve definitely heard of horror stories of that social engineering where it’s – where the room is, how to get access to it and bam, everything is up for grabs.

 

Jared Correia: Oh totally, yeah.

 

Louie Balasny: But I think with more cloud based, especially in the accounting side you’ve got different softwares that are running their own security practices and protocols. And so it’s nice having this sort of division of not all my information is housed in one spot, where’s this one place gets breached, I lose everything, but it might be more scattered and sporadic where sure it’s – I guess inevitable right like people are always going to be hacking.

 

But if there is a breach it’s only a specific segment of data. So that everything up for grabs.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah and I know that lawyers often look to like other industries to draw conclusions about how they should be running their own business, but you’re seeing a rapid uptick of services across industries, right, even industries where there are security protocols that are similar to law firms.

 

Louie Balasny: Oh yeah, 100%.

 

Jared Correia: So let’s talk a little bit about another law firm specific topic, which is trust accounting. I think a lot of lawyers, well I don’t think I know a lot of lawyers don’t do this very well. So I’m an advocate of offloading at least a manual reconciliation part of this to somebody else, and overseeing the process as an attorney, this is ultimately their responsibility.

 

So how would a virtual bookkeeping service managed a specialized account reconciliation process, like what’s required of attorneys in terms of like IOLTA account.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah so IOLTA is always a fun one, and I think the key I understand –

 

Jared Correia: Do you like this question, do you get this a lot?

 

Louie Balasny: I feel like IOLTA is becoming — I mean it’s never not been relevant but now it’s sort of the crypto space and IOTA is the thing. I’m going to see more and more confusion between IOLTA and IOTA, and they’re completely separate. There should be some legal trust token like that’d be kind of fun.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah that would be amazing. Don’t hold your breath.

 

Louie Balasny: I know, I know.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah, so say I’m like — like I’m like your average attorney and I’m like okay how do you how do you handle my IOLTA accounts? What is your response?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah, so I think the key to understand with even that is that it’s still process driven and knowing what the processes are, how it’s been done in the past and sort of what accounts are in play and who’s overseeing it and understanding escrow and that kind of stuff is really, really, really critical and there are firms that understand that and will be able to do that process.

 

And so I think it’s just kind of synching up with a firm or an agency or whomever you’re kind of bringing in that has that experience versus just knowing that it’s a term.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah, that’s true. So matching up with the right people I think and gaining the experience through them essentially. Yeah okay.

 

Louie Balasny: And I think in any good relationship, I think there should be time spent to see how it’s been done, right or wrong, but just to see like here those sort of pitfalls are here’s what held you back or here’s what you didn’t get to and actually work through it and then I think you can start to flush out the advantages of that.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah absolutely. And I think you’re right, I think this is a process driven procedure. I mean it’s relatively straightforward, lawyers are just not good at math, that’s the issue.

 

Louie Balasny: You said it.

 

Jared Correia: I’m happy to say it. All right, let me run you through another issue that I see with law firms adopting virtual software or a cloud-based software. So a lot of lawyers still want a personal touch, I hear this all the time, mostly in the context of talking to people like automating marketing, like I need a personal touch.

 

I think that’s code for I want to continue to use old-school communication methods that I understand. So with lawyers, they could potentially want a bookkeeper who is down the street or across the office. So how do you combat that, like what would you say to a law firm that values that notion and why would they want to switch to a virtual bookkeeping service if that’s their mindset, how would they get over that?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah I think that stuff is the biggest hurdle and I don’t disagree that having a personal touch is a game changer. I think on our end is why we like having tech plus people. But I think if you look at the sort of traditional notion of you know what the people are doing, what are you really reaching out to them for is it just to kind of be able to walk down the hall or bring them in, to see them do work for 30 minutes, that you’re not spot checking or validating anyway like just to feel good.

 

(00:25:06)

 

So I think that’s starting to go away, but I totally get it just from being a human where it is impactful to be able to see someone talk to them whenever you want, but with just all the sort of you know your Skype or Zooms of the world, you can do that and not really — I mean you see it just what kind of companies anyway just creating and evolving kind of remote cultures.

 

It’s still a thing but not as much as it used to be where you have to come in the office to do this work. It’s actually easier to be able to do it at home. You can monitor the tech that they use, you can see what they’re up to all that stuff.

 

Jared Correia: No absolutely, so it’s about managing a distributed workforce as well.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah right and you want to be able to kind of capitalize on lower costs, better outputs, more accuracy all that stuff and it just becomes harder to do when you’re making someone go to the space that they’re not traditionally working out of just because you want to see them do the work.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah and part of this I think is, that’s a big part of it, I think, that it’s a comfort level more than anything else. I know someone’s working because I can see them working and kind of banishing that idea from your head is a difficult thing to do. And part of it is like utilizing new-school communication methods, right, so you mentioned things like Zoom.

 

I don’t know that everybody on who’s listening to this podcast even knows what Zoom is but that’s a video-conferencing software. So part of part of it is that is right not only just adopting like a bookkeeping software that’s virtual, but also being willing to adopt other technology that is more up-to-date in terms of how people communicate like in 2019.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah, and there’s other tools to use. I think Skype is probably your kind of most notable one, first mover, but there’s tons of great uses for it and they also can act as a collaboration tool. I mean fax is another one, but just getting your team to actually be — well almost they could all be remote, but almost all there at the same time working on projects and just crushing it.

 

Jared Correia: I like that but no faxes right, no faxes.

 

Louie Balasny: For those.

 

Jared Correia: All right. Last question, this is a new segment I have on the show. It’s called tweets you forgot about. During this segment, I read back an old tweet of yours and you get to comment on that.

 

Louie Balasny: Nice.

 

Jared Correia: Are you ready?

 

Louie Balasny: I am so ready.

 

Jared Correia: All right, good because that was largely a rhetorical question, but I was going to do this anyway. Here’s your tweet Sir, and I like your Twitter account is awesome by the way.

 

Louie Balasny: Thank you.

 

Jared Correia: So do you want to tell people what your Twitter handle is so people can check this out.

 

Louie Balasny: Guys ready for this, it’s a super unique twist on me, it’s @LouieBalasny.

 

Jared Correia: Nice.

 

Louie Balasny: And it’s Louie with an E, not an S.

 

Jared Correia: I was going to say, yeah let me see if I can spell this right, Louie Balasny.

 

Louie Balasny: Correct.

 

Jared Correia: Yes, all right everybody, all right here’s your tweet ready. December 16^th, 2017, you wrote, “My hair paid for half of Law School”, it’s a quote from someone who’s apparently named SaSe, uppercase Se.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah.

 

Jared Correia: So what I want to know is who is that, is that a nickname that you use for yourself, because you have pretty good letters, right? And then how did he or she or you pay for the other half of Law School?

 

Louie Balasny: Oh man, we can’t think another one only because a good chunk of my Twitter feed is me overhearing people say things that when I write it out in my mind out of context makes no sense.

 

Jared Correia: Which is why I really enjoyed it.

 

Louie Balasny: But yeah and I’ve got a bunch others that have come from that. So I don’t really know the total story around this and I wasn’t in a scenario just kind of be like you know what, let’s stop for a second like what the heck are you talking about. So I can’t really tell you what that’s about, but I heard it during a conversation.

 

Jared Correia: But someone actually said that?

 

Louie Balasny: Someone actually said that.

 

Jared Correia: I’m trying to speculate on why some – how someone could pay for Law School using their hair, did they sell their hair, were they a model, were they hair model, were they hand model like David Duchovny of Zoolander, I don’t know.

 

Louie Balasny: A little envious because it’s like I wish my hair would pay for Law School.

 

Jared Correia: And no, but as I said like you got a good head of hair, you haven’t got nothing to be ashamed about there.

 

Louie Balasny: Thank you, thank you.

 

Jared Correia: So SaSe, if you’re out there please reach out to us at Legal Talk Network and let us know how your hair paid for Law School and then also how the rest of –

 

Louie Balasny: Was that a pun?

 

Jared Correia: Oh it wasn’t supposed to be a pun but I suppose it is.

 

Louie Balasny: Let us know.

 

Jared Correia: Yeah oh look at that, look at that, well played. Thank you for bringing back. So check out Louie’s Twitter feed, it’s delightful and it’s things you ever hear as random people saying in public which is a great way to do Twitter.

 

Louie Balasny: So be careful, I might be around you and you might be tweeted.

 

Jared Correia: Don’t say anything in front of him, just look at his Twitter feed. If you see him, you’ll see his picture on the podcast, walk the other way or be very quiet. On that note, I think we’re going to wrap this baby up.

 

We’ve reached the end of yet another episode of The Legal Toolkit podcast. This was a podcast about virtual bookkeeping and we’ve been talking with Louie Balasny of Botkeeper, who also has a tremendous Twitter feed.

 

Now, I’ll be back on future shows with further insights into My Soul, the Soul of America and the Legal Market.

 

(00:29:58)

 

If you’re feeling nostalgic for my dulcet tones, however, you can check out our entire show archive anytime you want at legaltalknetwork.com. So thanks again to Louie Balasny of Botkeeper for making an appearance as my guest today.

 

Louie is speaking to us live from the Omni Parker House in Boston and hopefully he’s going to get a role later, a Parker House role, or perhaps even a Boston cream pie, the original Boston cream pie coming from the Omni Parker House.

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah. Maybe even some of the peanuts.

 

Jared Correia: Yes, yes. All right Louie, so can you tell everybody how they can find out more information about you and about Botkeeper?

 

Louie Balasny: Yeah. Jared, thanks again for having me on the show. I always enjoy conversations with you and I’m glad we finally did this. So keep me in mind if you want a sequel or a trilogy in the future. I’m more than happy to pop on again. You can check out my Twitter, you can find me on Instagram just look for @LouieBalasny and then I think more importantly you can find more information about Botkeeper at www.botkeeper.com.

 

Jared Correia: And that’s easy, keeping it real. Everybody botkeeper.com. So thanks again, our guest was Louie Balasny of Botkeeper and we’re talking about virtual bookkeeping.

 

Finally, thanks to all of you out there for listening. This has been The Legal Toolkit Podcast, where that just happened. Shake and bake.

 

Louie Balasny: Shake and bake.

 

[Music]

 

Outro: Thanks for listening to Legal Toolkit, produced by the broadcast professionals at Legal Talk Network. Join host Jared Correia for his next podcast covering the current business trends for law firms.

 

If you would like more information about today’s show, please visit legaltalknetwork.com. Subscribe via iTunes and RSS. Find Legal Talk Network on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or download the free app from Legal Talk Network in Google Play and iTunes.

 

[Music]

 

The views expressed by the participants of this program are their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by Legal Talk Network, its officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, shareholders, and subsidiaries. None of the content should be considered legal advice. As always, consult a lawyer.

 

[Music]

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