Industry Forward: Sam Metcalf’s Passion for M&D
Sam Metcalf, Managing Principal of Industry, has built an impressive career on a lifetime passion for the M&D industry. She explains how market segments are screaming for highly specialized professionals, and she has some profoundly helpful insights for those who want to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities this offers. One of her most fascinating tips? Be inquisitive and don’t hold back any of your questions.
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Transcript
Sam Metcalf, Managing Principal of Industry, has built an impressive career on a lifetime passion for the M&D industry. She explains how market segments are screaming for highly specialized professionals, and she has some profoundly helpful insights for those who want to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities this offers. One of her most fascinating tips? Be inquisitive and don’t hold back any of your questions.
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Narrator: John Richter takes a moment to catch up with Sam Metcalf who’s built an impressive career on a lifetime passion for the M&D industry. She explains the need for highly specialized professionals, and shares her helpful insights for those who want to take advantage of new and exciting opportunities. One tip? Be inquisitive… ask questions. Industry Forward starts now .
Music up…
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John: Hello, CLA family. Welcome to the Industry Forward podcast, the podcast designed to tell you the stories behind the CLA promise and the careers that have been inspired because of industry specialization. We create opportunities when we live the CLA culture and fulfill the CLA promise.
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We act as leaders, owners, entrepreneurs. At the center of this CLA promise is our purpose, our why: to create opportunities, to wake up each morning and ask ourselves, for whom will we create an opportunity today? If we did that, if we act in accordance with that belief, it would be a different firm. Imagine a firm where every morning, every person wakes up asking themselves, “Who am I going to create opportunities for today?”
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Well, today, we’re going to hear about an individual who had a multitude of opportunities created, mostly through the industry of manufacturing and distribution. Samantha Metcalf, welcome to the microphone. Would you tell us a little bit about your career?
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Sam: Sure. Well, I don’t know if you know this, but I came from Cleveland, Minnesota, population 600 people. Graduated with 40 kids in my class and was from a very rural community. My dad was the sales director of a manufacturing and distribution company. They manufactured passenger elevators, and so I grew up following my dad around, riding on top of elevators, meeting individuals on the manufacturing floor.
My first job was babysitting the owner’s kids, and then I transitioned into working for the manufacturing company. I ran parts. I drove these very large vehicles all over the state of Minnesota and Iowa delivering manufactured parts to the customers.
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John: I’m trying to imagine Sam Metcalf driving a big truck, but let’s go with it.
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Sam: It was dangerous, let’s just put it that way. So, it was fun. It was great. But it gave me a passion for the industry; it gave me a passion for the people. And so I went to college, went to St. Mary’s University and got an accounting degree. And mainly, that was because my mom was an accountant, and not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, I thought, you know, she was very good at her job; I would follow in her footsteps.
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So, started with a small public accounting firm. And I did a bit of everything. I served non-profits, I did 1099s, I did manufacturing companies. And I found that I was losing passion for what I was doing, and I really missed the manufacturing and distribution environment. So I had a choice to make: I was either going to leave public accounting and go work for a manufacturing company in their finance department, or I was going to go find a firm that I could really focus on manufacturing.
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And it happened to be right around that timeframe, I happened to be at a networking event and met two individuals from CLA within the manufacturing and distribution group. That was–that was pretty good luck. So, met Eric Skie and Brent Terharr, and their passion and energy for the industry gave me the bug. And I actually reached out to them and asked them if I could join CLA about six months later.
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John: Oh, you did. So, a networking event and found their story inspiring. What was inspiring or intriguing to you?
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Sam: What was so special to me with those two individuals is one, again, if you know those individuals, very high-energy. A lot of passion for what they do. But in observing them, because they were close to our booth–we were set up in booths–but what I noticed about them was, they were having very different conversations with the business owners that they were talking to.
It wasn’t about audit or tax or the compliance work. They were actually talking about the business. And again, it just–it connected with me, and it was something that I wanted to do. It just–it was like a lightbulb going off, if that makes sense.
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John: Ah, very good. So you joined CLA.
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Sam: I did.
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John: This was how many years ago?
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Sam: I’ve been with CLA for about 13 years, a little over 13 years.
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John: Yeah, fantastic. And you started working on all kinds of enterprises?
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Sam: I really got to focus on manufacturing companies, and I primarily did insurance and tax work. So I started out as a generalist within our manufacturing and distribution team. The unique opportunity I got, though, was when I first started in Minneapolis, there wasn’t a lot of work for me to do, and so I was able to spend time in Philadelphia working for that manufacturing and distribution group, helping them serve clients.
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John: Mm, so your career at CLA was really quite focused in the manufacturing realm.
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Sam: Absolutely.
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John: Was there any particular segment of the industry that you spent more time than others?
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Sam: You know, Minneapolis has a focus on some market segments just based on what the client base looks like. I really focused on precision metal forming and machining. Metal forming, bending, and printing–those were really the market segments that I focused on. But at that point in time, I wouldn’t say that I had a focus.
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John: Mm. And when you joined us, you were at what–in what role? You were a–
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Sam: I was a senior.
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John: Okay, a senior…
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Sam: Yup, yup.
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John: When you joined us. Okay, so take us forward now. When did you become a principal with CLA?
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Sam: Oh, jeez. I became a principal probably four, five years ago–six, I don’t know. Time flies.
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John: Yeah, I think it was further [indistinct] than that.
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Sam: Was it?!
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John: Yeah, but that’s okay.
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Sam: I lose track of time. But yeah, I became a principal, but I would tell you the journey to get there was an absolute blast, and I think, you know, I changed–I changed paths many times to get where I was today. I woke up knowing that I wanted to serve manufacturing clients, but I–it took me a while to figure out in which way I wanted to serve them, if that makes sense.
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John: Terrific. So can we–today you serve as the managing principal of our manufacturing and distribution group, and you’ve been in that role for just shy of two years.
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Sam: Yep.
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John: And during the period of time, you learned a great deal of lessons. Before we probe those, can you describe for us, at a high level, what is manufacturing and distribution at CLA?
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Sam: At CLA. Well, manufacturing and distribution at CLA–we have 7,[000 manufacturing clients across the country in all different types of segments. We serve privately-held businesses. Just a fun fact about U.S. manufacturing: there’s about 252,[000 manufacturing companies across the country. All but 4,[000 have less than 3[00 employees. And three quarters of that, John, has less than 20.
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So we have 7,[000 clients in CLA, but we have about 248,[000 clients that we have the opportunity to meet and connect with in the marketplace. So it’s a tremendous opportunity.
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John: So if my math is anywhere close, we have about a 3% market share of manufacturers in the United States.
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Sam: Yes.
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John: And the vast majority of manufacturers in the United States fall into our sweet spot…
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Sam: Absolutely.
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John: Of a hundred or employees.
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Sam: Absolutely. Privately held.
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John: And they’re owned by private industry.
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Sam: Yes.
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John: So some of them are family-owned. Many of them now are private equity owned. But the point is, they’re right in our sweet spot.
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Sam: Absolutely.
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John: So, what’s the opportunity? Does it go beyond that? It’s just lots of clients?
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Sam: No, I mean, I think the real opportunity–the market’s changing, John. And I think–and this has been the history of CLA within our industry specialization, is, you know, traditionally we really focused from a community perspective with the manufacturing and distribution. But expectations are changing. The markets are changing. Our clients’ needs are changing. And so, they expect us to have a higher level of specialization.
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And so what that means is, within manufacturing and distribution, we need to separate it and become subject matter experts in certain market segments, because again, each one of those market segments have different needs. They process things differently. And our clients are asking us to help them, so we need to understand it at that level.
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John: So could you profile one of those market segments for us, those industry segments? I understand it, but I want to make sure those listening understand that.
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Sam: Absolutely, absolutely. Let’s take printing, for example. It’s a great market segment. We have a concentration in the Midwest. They have a lot of pain points as it relates to leverage–managing working capital, expectations of their customers.
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John: And it’s a business in total transition.
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Sam: It is.
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John: People are not printing, so what are–what do they sell?
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Sam: They’re moving towards digital marketing. They are changing their brand to say, “We’re no longer a printer. We’re a marketer. We will help you go to market with your brand.”
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John: And those that aren’t transitioning are being left behind.
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Sam: They’re consolidating.
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John: So our job is to stay in the game with them or help them stay in the game.
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Sam: And it’s a unique skill set and expertise that they are looking for. They’re looking for that help, which is why, along our journey with industry specialization, CLA has gone from a community-based approach with our industry to now really needing to get focused on a market segment.
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John: Yeah, and those industry segments, I can see where that would be, if you didn’t have that in–that depth of knowledge, you couldn’t bring a solution their way. And that’s built, of course, around career. So can we probe your personal story…
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Sam: Sure.
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John: …for a little bit more? I want to go back in time. I was struck, because you joined CLA as a senior associate, but when you were with a smaller firm, you were already at a networking event… at a networking event with just a few years of experience. Tell me about that, and what that felt like, and why you were asked to do that.
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Sam: Well, I mean, being a part of a smaller firm, I think being in the market was really critical. I think it’s just as critical within CLA as it relates to creating a market brand, helping people understand what we can do. But I’ll tell you the feeling that I had was, you know, excitement, a little bit of anxiety, and a little bit of vulnerability, because I would walk into these rooms at networking events, and I would be the youngest person in the room, and I would in most cases be the only female.
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John: So in the manufact–I would imagine in the manufacturing field, that would have been a bit of an anomaly, especially even as recent as–that was ten years ago.
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Sam: But I saw it as a challenge, John, because again, I didn’t go to those events and feel like people looked down at me or looked at me differently. I actually felt like they wanted to help. So these business owners and people that I was engaged with, I was so afraid to go and talk to them, but once you struck up that conversation, they were more than willing to help you. So what turned into a scary situation turned into a huge education for me. Every event that I went to, I learned something different.
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John: Hmm. So your career was built on experiences with manufacturers. It was built on these networking events. How else did you accumulate the experience and knowledge you have?
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Sam: Well, I love to read. I love to read, so anytime I could get my hands on a book–a podcast now–an article, I would read it. I absorbed as much as I could about the external market so I could teach myself. I surrounded myself with– again, clients were great teachers, because they were always willing to teach. And then there was a lot of mentors over my career in different ways that I believe have really helped craft the career that I have today.
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So I just–honestly, I was hungry for anything I could get my hands on, and some of the best experiences were those experiences that were through an inventory observation or an audit or a tax return. You know, I hear some of staff sometimes com–you know, being frustrated because they have to go do the observation. “Why can’t we send an intern?” And I always say, “If you don’t want to go, send me,” because every time I went there, I learned something, I saw how something was made, and I was able to make that connection, then, to the financial statements.
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So again, I took every opportunity, ugly or pretty, and just tried to learn from it.
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John: If you’re trying to learn, I would imagine you were asking questions that you…
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Sam: A few. You know me, a few.
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John: To which you didn’t know the answers.
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Sam: Again, I just–the community that we work in, that’s part of why I’m with CLA, and that’s part of why I have such a passion for the clients that we serve. I have never, not once in the 17 years that I’ve been practicing, ever had someone say, “That’s a stupid question” or “I don’t understand why you’re asking that.” I have never had that happen to me. In fact, I have had an overw–I mean, I’ve asked stupid questions, believe me.
But it’s always come back a really educational, “let me help you,” “let’s go look at this,” “do you understand how this connects to this?” And again, that’s the only way that I was able to learn.
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John: Hmm. So if you were going to look back now and give someone a checklist, if you will, or a strategic plan on how to build their industry-specialized, inspired career, what would you say to them?
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Sam: I would say, find a passion, pick an industry, then pick a segment–I’m just getting really tactical here, find a mentor, trust CLA, and don’t be afraid to take the journey. Because again, I believe CLA gives you these bumpers, and I think that it’s really up to all of us and up to you as a young person to just try to find your way and your unique role to add value within CLA and to our clients. Does that make sense?
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John: It does. So, Sam, if I were to summarize it, it would… become a learner.
Not one who always has the answer. You know, that’s a–that’s insightful, because as financial advisors, as practitioners, as CPAs, as experts in our field, we often want to be the one who has the answer, and we’re afraid to be wrong. But what you’re saying is, that’s the point. The point is actually not to know the answer and to be inquisitive, particularly in the early years.
Yeah, that’s, um… I gotta believe that’s helpful to someone who’s listening to us right now. Well, CLA, and Sam, I just have one final question, and maybe it was embodied in the last one, but I want you to imagine right now, in your mind’s eye, a senior associate who’s looking ahead at their career options. They’re making the thoughtful decision of whether they want to be on the principal path or on the director path, or maybe even the alumni path, and they’re looking ahead.
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And they’re also being asked at that simultaneous to make a selection on the industry in which they’re going to pursue, and they aren’t quite sure and maybe don’t even have the passion you’re suggesting, ’cause it hasn’t yet emerged. What advice would you have for them?
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Sam: Wow, that’s a really good question, John. I think my advice to them in that situation would be to really just be courageous. If there’s someone that they really find a passion for, or if there’s a mentor or someone that they connect with and they feel like they can learn a lot from, I may follow that person and the maybe the industry that they’re following.
Because again, over time, I think that mentor or individual that they get a lot from will help them find the way for themselves. It might not be in that industry. It could be in a completely different service line. But I believe good leadership and good mentorship will help you find your way. So, that would be my advice, right, wrong, or different, but I just was lucky enough to find the industry that I wanted to serve early on.
I know that that’s not the case for everybody else, so I would–I would follow a person that gets me excited to come to work every day.
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John: Hmm, great advice from a great leader. Thank you, Sam, for coming and joining us today. That’s quite a story and a testament to CLA and our desire to inspire careers. Those of you who are listening, look ahead. Choose your path. Find the mentor that Sam is suggesting. And if you’re unsure about what path you want to follow, follow the leader you trust, and that passion, that future, will emerge.
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Industry specialization is not about joining a group. It’s not about a designation. It’s about building and inspiring career, and it layers right on top of the outstanding opportunities for career development that come with our career paths. CLA, we are CLA, and we create opportunities.
Music out…
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John is chief industry officer for CLA, and firm-wide leader for the private industries. He is a passionate ambassador for the CLA Promise. CLA exists to create opportunities – for our CLA team, our clients, the industries we serve and our communities. CLA is successful when we fulfill the CLA Promise – we promise to know you and to help you. As a member of the leadership team, he is also an enthusiastic promoter of our position as a professional services firm delivering seamlessly integrated wealth advisory, outsourcing, and public accounting capabilities.
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