Get to Know The Immigration Guy Ft. Adam Beckman

Kyle sits down with Adam Beckman, CEO of Financial Synergy, Controller for Farmer Law PC, and childhood best friend of Kyle. They talk about childhood, what makes Kyle an expert in immigration, some challenges of working in the industry, and much more! Check out the full length video on YouTube here.

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**The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available are for general informational purposes only. Listeners of this podcast should contact their attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal matter.  No reader, user, or browser of this site should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information on this site without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction.  Only your individual attorney can provide assurances that the information contained herein – and your interpretation of it – is applicable or appropriate to your particular situation.  Use of, and access to, this podcast or any of the links or resources contained within the description do not create an attorney-client relationship between the listener and Kyle Farmer. **

Produced & Edited By: Drew Tattam

Transcript

Do, should I talk into the camera? Hello. Welcome back to The Immigration Guy. Happy freaking Wednesday. This is Adam Beckman. He has been my friend since I was like four-ish, about yeh high. Yeah. And Adam was that tall through high school? I was, yeah. I never really grew. Uh, he also happens to be, uh, our, he runs all of our accounting functions for all of our businesses and, uh, does a fantastic job, so we're just happy to have him on the podcast and get to talk to him today. Hey y'all, this is The Immigration Guy with Kyle.

Thank you, Kyle. 

Welcome, Adam. 

Thank you very much. Happy to be here. Yes, we're definitely happy to have you. Welcome to your first podcast ever. This is an honor. Yeah. To be with, you know, a childhood best friend. We're my best friends and yeah, pop my cherry. I know. Exactly.

Gotta love it. Drew's good. Hey, cut. Cut.

No, we don't actually cut. Okay, cool. Yeah. Well, um, I guess this one's gonna run a little bit differently. Adam is here to ask me questions for which I have not been prepared. So, Drew is prepared to cut extensively. Should I say stupid things? Yeah, we're we're, this is a little impromptu too, you know. I like it.

We're just gonna go for it. I like it. Cool. 

Well, I appreciate you having me on, Kyle. Thank you very much. You know, I like the listeners to know a little bit more about you, you know, obviously I know a lot about you, so Yeah, we're probably not gonna go that deep. 

Yeah, we won't go that deep. We'll keep it a little more surface.

But kind of the first question is, you know, tell the listeners a little bit about yourself, kind of how you got to this point, what you were like as a kid, um, and just kind of your background. 

Sure, sure. Uh, let's start with what I was like as a kid. Yes, please. Actually, I think that we should both have input on this.

You're right. I can give a lot of input on this. I'll call you out on your BS. Yes. I appreciate that. Uh, so as a kid, things that I was, uh, Had tons of energy. I loved sports. I, uh, did not like school, obviously. Nope. Um, because it was boring and, and it was, uh, and I liked doing all things outdoors. Uh, I liked eating Pop-Tarts, but I never have 'em in my house cuz you kept stealing them.

That's so true. I ate all the Pop-Tarts every single day. Uh, I was, yeah. So, I wasn't very. Academic really until high school and, and then during the financial crisis, we had a lot of trouble as a family. So made me care a lot more about my education, started to actually get good grades, which was, I did not think was actually a possibility.

You know, it was one of those things where my parents would say things like, you know, you could actually get good grades if you tried. And I was like, I don't know. I've been to school every day this year. My grades still suck. A lot of efforts going in. Mom, I'm showing up. 

I know. She's like, let me see your nose.

Like, oh, have those, what do you want me to do? Uh, aren't you, aren't you supposed to read? Aren't you supposed to read? Yeah. What is this? Oh my gosh, I didn't know I was in bootcamp. Uh, but then it started trying and, and, uh, kind of towards the end of high school. Went end into college. Worked a lot in college.

Uh, didn't do anything fun in college. That was not my college experience. So, listeners, where'd you go to college? Uh, Texas A&M. Ever heard of it? It's a small squad. 

I don't really know it. I'm more of a UT guy. Oh God. Get out. Cut.

Uh, yeah. So, I went to A&M. While at A&M, I did just basically work the whole time and, uh, went to school and actually studied somewhat. I still look, look, school was still not my thing. My grades were fine. Right. But they weren't great. Uh, they were, they were, they were tolerable. Yeah. Uh, you were getting through it.

I was getting through it, and I got through it within four years. 

Better than me. Much better than me. 

I thought you were gonna have a Ph.D. when you graduated. 

You know, I took a scenic route. You did. You did. There were a few detours in there. Uh, but yeah, so I, uh, I started to, the only thing that I actually really liked in school was the LSAT.

Mm. Started studying for the LSAT. Did really well on it and also taught it, so, mm, I started to excel there. Uh, and then I was teaching the LSAT and SAT and ACT and all sorts of standardized tests. I actually learned my co, my, my junior year of college that the only test I'm good at are multiple-choice tests.

Mm. And you would think you should not learn what kind of testing you're good at when you're 23. Yes. A little late. 

Better late than never, though. That's true. And I switched my major from like a, an essay or from a, a multiple choice intensive to essay intensive, and my grades went straight down from there.

Yeah, I can imagine. I, I, I stuck it out, but I never put it together. Like maybe it has something to do with the type of test I'm taking. Uh, but anyway, so. Did well there. Uh, went, went to, started out at Baylor, uh, still working, uh, part-time and just going to school and then I ended up transferring to Vanderbilt and then went with my wife to Iowa.

We met in law school. Met, uh, we went to Iowa to work for her dad's company. Basically, she wanted to work for her dad's company. I didn't. But, uh, I wanted to help anywhere I could. Mm-hmm. I continued to look for legal jobs, though, like in Des Moines and, uh, just, just around. And I never found another job, but I was helping him with his immigration work.

More people started asking me for help there, then people started asking me for, man, I would really like to do one of these programs, but I can't find people. So, we started being able to find, like, we started building a recruitment network in Mexico. Uh, and it kind of, everything just kind of grew from there.

Basically. The whole thing has been, if our client has a problem, we try to find a solution to that problem and then see who else needs that type of solution. 

So yeah, it's fascinating. How did you get hooked up with Mexico? What, what made you like get roots there and, and start that process? Yeah, um, that's a great question.

So, the, the first thing was just how prolific it is in these different immigration programs. And so, it's just the, the people that you meet, you know, my, my father-in-law's company, all those guys came from Mexico. Mm-hmm. Uh, so you started to get to know them, and you get to know just other people in Mexico.

Ne never went to Mexico. Not doing that. Come on Cancun’s calling. No sir, I don't have a passport. I would passport.

Uh, yeah. People always think that's so ironic, but I'm like, no, dude, I'm trying to get people here. Right. I'm not trying to get people to leave here. That is pretty ironic. Uh, but yeah, so we started to build it in Mexico like that, and it's just. Kind of grown. And then, and then clients started asking for help in other countries like South Africa.

And so, we started helping in South Africa and mm-hmm. Guatemala, helping Guatemala, Brazil, all, all over. That's wonderful. Yeah. Just a big problem solving, you know? Yeah. Clients have the problems, and you find the solutions. Yeah. Yeah. Which is the, that's the fun thing, that, that's actually why I like my job.

Right? Like, I don't, one of the things that we talk about in interviews with people is they're like, they, they're like, what makes you so passionate about immigration? Right. And I'm like, you know, I'm not actually that passionate about immigration. Yeah. Like immigration is a concept is not that fascinating to me.

Right. But the immigration's like the tool that we get to use to solve our clients' problems. Mm-hmm. And to, and you know, to, to help a lot of these people, like these people are actually having a life-changing experience. Yeah, definitely. But just the tool. Right. I don't care about the hammer. I care about the, the structure.

Yeah. I care about the, the output. Exactly. And so, it's kind of, kind of cool. But no, don't really care that much about immigration. Just love it as a tool, because it's very useful. Yeah. Well, that leads me to my next question. It's kind of hit me with it. What are you, would you say your passions in life are, you know, like what really fuels you?

And then how does that transfer over to your work and your career? I mean, you're kind of touching on that, but 

Yeah. Yeah. I've, you know, I've, I've always wanted to, uh, be able to be in a position to have, I guess the first thing that fueled me was wanting to have just a stable job myself. Yeah. Uh, I'd be able to provide for my family, for my kids, you know, the, the whole shebang.

Mm-hmm. But one thing that I've received a tremendous amount of value for. Uh, since then is being able to provide others that same opportunity, being able to provide others stable jobs where you're not gonna to worry about, you know, if you're doing your job, you don't have to worry in tomorrow if you're gonna have a job.

Yep. And I think that that is the coolest thing ever. That, and we're able to do this. I, if you think about like our business structure, it's really cool cause we're able to do this with the hundred or so people that we have. But we're also able to do it with the thousands of people that we bring in here.

Absolutely. And so, it's pretty, it's a pretty unique position to be motivated by the idea of stable job opportunities for people and just economic stability for people. And then from the company perspective, being able to solve a real problem with a, with a solution that actually works. Mm-hmm. It's really cool.

Yeah. You know, like, I don't, I don't, clients don't tend to, uh, worry too much about what they pay us at the end of the day because they look at it and they're like, oh, look how much more money I made from having them on my side. Yep. And for me, that's what it's all about. Like just being a good, good resource for the clients and, uh, providing all these opportunities with people.

Yeah. Well, I can speak on that. I mean, you, you helped pull me outta public accounting. Yes. And you know, that's kind of how I got my start with. The, my company and, and so I owe a great deal to you for that. Yeah, cool. And so, you know, I, I really appreciate everything you do for me and everybody in this company.

Yeah. And, and everybody that you bring up. So, it's really cool. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm definitely glad you got out of public accounting too. Yeah. Because I would be screwed right now without you then. 

I probably would be too. Can you imagine if some regular accountant had to deal with me? I'll be like, hey, I love what you're doing.

I wanna do everything completely differently. Like, whoa, that's a grenade. All right, lemme jump on. 

Okay, that sounds good. Yeah, it's been a pleasure though. We've had so much fun working to get. Yeah, definitely. Lemme see what else I got for you. Well, you know, you're talking a little bit about the business and stuff like that, you know, being a business owner.

You know, and, and feeling that responsibility for employing people, giving them sturdy financial jobs, you know, the challenges that come being a business owner, like, how has that been your journey as being a business owner from like, I'm sure you're really, really involved in the business at first, and as you've grown, you've taken different roles.

So yeah, tell people a little bit about that journey. Yeah. So, whenever you first start, you're doing everything like you're doing, man. I would have like daily, well, and I'm probably not daily cause I didn't have enough clients to go anywhere daily, but I would've trips regularly to the UPS store to ship stuff.

I was the one printing, making copies. Yeah. You know, scanning everything. Doing all the invoicing, like I was just doing all that. Right. One-man show. Yeah. Uh, taking on the clients and do sitting out engagement letters, you name it. I did it. Mm-hmm. Uh, it wasn't that hard. I didn't have that many clients. So, start out small, worked pretty easy.

You know, once every six months you gotta send an engagement letter, you'll be okay. Yeah. Uh, but no, as we started to grow, I think that one of the things that we've, that we've done pretty well is that we have seen the areas where other people could. Uh, help us the most. And a lot of times the people that are doing, doing the work now are better than I ever was at it.

Mm-hmm. Like, I don't know if you know this, but you're way better at QuickBooks than me. You're like, I 

did know that actually. You're, you're like, way better. I hope I am. I went to school for a long time, boy. 

Yes. Yeah. You dig over a long time. Uh, but yeah, no, it, uh, it, it's, so, it is just a, a matter of prioritizing the things that you're trying to hire, and I think that it's easiest to first hire the things that.

Uh, are you're doing that don't maximize the value of what you're actually producing. Mm-hmm. So, like for me, my clients did not see value in me printing checks. Yeah. Or in me being the one to mail documents. Exactly. My clients saw value in me coming up with the legal strategy and executing the legal strategy.

That's all I cared about. So, the other subs, what we hired first? Yeah. And then as you kind of continue to grow that the scope of that also increases. And so, you have to have kind of a mindset shift. It's really easy to hire someone who's good or good at the things you're bad at, because identifying the things that you're bad at and why you're bad at them is not that tough of a task.

Mm-hmm. If I'm playing basketball, which has happened, which has Adam, we've played a lot of basketball. We've played a lot of basketball together. We have both got hurt a lot of times, played a lot of basketball together. Uh, you know, if, if I'm playing basketball and I'm a terrible three-point shooter, which is not the case, no, by the way, lights out, Mr.

Lights out. If, if I'm playing basketball and I'm a terrible three-point shooter, I know that the person I need on my team is a good three-point shooter. Yep. Not that hard. Right now, what's a lot harder is as you continue to grow and to scale your businesses, to identify the things that you are good at, and then hire people that are also good at those things, and maybe even better than you at those things to allow you to grow a lot more.

Mm-hmm. And that one also takes a lot of an ego check. Mm-hmm. Because it's like, man, you can't, you've gotta really, uh, be okay with the fact that you're constantly in a process of replacing yourself. Yeah. And it, but at the end of the day, it makes a better business for your people. It makes a better business for, more importantly, for your clients.

Uh, and so it, it ends up working out well. But that, that's kind of the process that I've gone through. Yeah. And, and I've done that with almost everything. And so, yeah, I've done all that stuff now. Now a lot of the stuff that I do is related to. Legal strategy and then, um, growth strategies. Mm-hmm. Which are still two of my favorite things, so.

Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun. 

Yeah. Cool. And then another question is kind of adapting to the new times. So Covid hits remote work comes online, everyone wants these remote jobs. It's like a remote work culture. I know that, you know, the law firm is shifting into some of the hybrid model. Like what are your thoughts on remote work and kind of that new economy that's coming out and, and what that looks like for the future.

Yeah. Um, I think that, so remote work can be a very valuable thing just from a dollar perspective. Mm-hmm. Look, if you have, uh, you're paying $10,000 a month in rent, and you don't have to pay $10,000 a month in rent because you've got good, efficient remote employees, then that's great. Yeah. The, the problem with remote work is the checks that are in place to ensure that you don't lose efficiency in having remote employees.

Right. Now some of that comes down to the maturity of the employees that you're hiring, uh, the drive of the employees that you're hiring. And in an ideal world, you don't need. Anything set up to hold 'em accountable cuz they're self-accountable. Mm-hmm. They, they know the job they have to get done and they care about getting it done as much as you care about getting done.

Right. Uh, but that's not the reality that we live in. No. And so an important thing to have set up for all of your people whenever you're moving to a hybrid or a remote type of work, is KPIs very clear. Objectives. Are you doing your job or not? You can tell based off of if you completed these objective KPIs.

It's not anything subjective, it's just. Is it work being done or not? If not, there's not really excuses to be made. Yeah. Now one of the things that we benefited from, and I don't, you know, since I've never had a fully remote company, I don't know how people would do this otherwise, is we were able to establish what our baseline standards were by in-office work.

Mm-hmm. So, we knew how much time a particular task should take. Based off of how much time it did take when they were in the office. And so that should translate directly to when they're remote. Absolutely. Uh, now I don't know how people handle that otherwise. Yeah. That is tough. I don't know. I'd probably figured out if I screwed it up a few times.

Problem we found a solution. Exactly. Exactly. 

Yeah. Right. Well, and, and kind of the last thing on that is the culture. You know, as you continue to grow, I know culture's something very important to you in this firm, and yeah, this firm has a great culture. I can speak to that, but you as the leader of this organization, and people look up to you for that culture, you know, how have you kind of embraced that with the remote with.

The scaling, all this stuff, you know, what, for you as a business owner, 

how does that look? Yeah. Uh, so yeah, culture has always been an important thing for us. You know, we, even in our hiring process, we have what we call a culture committee where we're hiring people, trying to make sure it's consistent with our culture and our core values.

Uh, and we do that by people that are, that are. The prospective employees not reporting to those, the people that are in that. It's just other coworkers. If you fail a culture committee, you don't get hired. That's how it works here. So that's great. Yeah. And, and, and it, it works because it gives everyone else accountability to saying that was good culture fit too.

Yeah. And I, and I, I like that. Uh, now how do you make sure that it stays, Good moving forward. Uh, you've gotta still have some like, cultural-related events. You know, I, I, there's some really cool stuff that you can do online if you're a fully virtual company. Mm-hmm. Uh, like you can host, I, I saw this one company that was doing like a magic show.

Like a virtual magic show. And it was so funny too. And they do like virtual comedy shows and like all these things and what, and there's companies are set up specifically for this purpose. And so, you'll have like the person that's doing it and you'll see everyone else's faces on there. And usually, these people are really good at engaging the audience.

Uhhuh. And since you already have a good relationship with these people, you, it's funnier. Yeah. Like if there's a comedy show, and someone is ripping on you. I will think it's so funny. I would think that's hilarious too. I, I wanna be a part of that. I wanna too, but it is, uh, yeah. And so, I, you know, you gotta, you gotta actually actively think about your culture, care about your culture, um, and then also don't make excuses for people that aren't fitting your culture.

Yeah. If it's not fitting your culture, that's a good reason to get rid of, get rid of someone. Right. Just because, uh, you know, you. A bad apple just can ruin a lot more than you realize until you get it out. So, yeah, absolutely. 

Well, you've done a good job with it. I will say that. Thank you. Yeah, so good work on that.

Well, kind of shifting into a little bit more immigration-related questions now, kind of all right, let's go.

Talk quiz, baby. Let me, let me get you off of this. So, the first is just kind of what advice do you have for businesses or individuals seeking immigration in the United States, you know, with any recent changes or anything like that.

Just overall, any advice that you could give any listeners about If you're a business and you want to bring some workers in. Yeah. So, if you're a business and you wanna bring some workers in, my advice is obviously just call us. Just call us. Step one. Call farmer law. Exactly. Uh, no. It, so I guess the, the first thing to think about is like, why?

Yeah. Why do I want to do this? And I, that's a lot deeper question than a lot of people realize, because it's like, okay, why do I want to bring in 50 people to do this particular job? Mm-hmm. Is it because I want to continue to grow my business? Is it because I'm concerned about my reputation? Is it because I don't, I actually have already have a contract on this job and I better figure out how to do it or else I'm screwed?

Uh, you've gotta really think about why, to make sure that immigration's the right option for you. Because, you know, some people might be at a stage in their life where they say, I need to get 50 people because I've always had this number of people. Uh, during this time of year and I can't find those people now, so I guess I'm going to immigration.

Yeah. But they might be at a time in their life where they don't want to continue to operate their business at that level. Yeah. They don't want to go through that trouble. And so, they're fine with just reducing the size of their business and living life, how they wanna live life. Uh, but then there's a lot of other business owners that are not okay with that.

They wanna make sure that they can continue to either grow their business mm-hmm. Or, uh, operate the business at the same scale that they were, and they don't have any other options. And so, I think that your first step is evaluating that. And if you realize, okay, I, I do want these people, uh, the most important thing is actually to reach out to someone that actually knows what they're doing and not just like, what is this area of law?

It's let me learn about your business, and then I'll tell you which, if any of these areas of law actually apply to you. Mm-hmm. That's kind of the, that's the, the much better approach, because otherwise if you're just calling someone, you have to go through the process of. Figuring out, okay, what are these different areas of law?

And it, it's not worth it. Right? That's what the, that's what the lawyer's for. So yeah. Absolutely. That's, and that's one of the things I like the most. So, I, I, I recommend that people go through that evaluation process and then, uh, yeah, work with someone that's actually done this before, uh, and is that actually cares about your business, cares about the results as much or more than you do.

Mm-hmm. And have you run into any, like misconceptions about immigration law and stuff like that? Like from your clients that they call you and then, you know, speak to that at all? Anything that's Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, we also have run into misconceptions about immigration from people that have nothing to do with immigration.

Like one of my, you know, we've got, we've got calls from people just randomly from the internet that are like, Now, what the hell are you guys doing? Just bringing in all these people and stealing American jobs. We've had receptionists just like so upset by the, you're just out there stealing American jobs.

You know, you just pay Americans to do this. That happens. All that, that's happened like multiple times. That's ridiculous. And that it, it comes from this general idea that, uh, Immigrants come here to steal American jobs. Right. That's not the reality. The reality is, is that all these companies prefer not to hire us.

Mm-hmm. They, they prefer to just walk down the street and find really good people that are eager to work and can, can accomplish their business objectives. Uh, but that's not the reality. And so, they have to hire us. Yep. And they have to hire us. And they're grateful at the end of the day. They did. But, uh, yeah.

I think that that's probably the biggest misconception that I've run into is that Immigrants are, are here to steal American jobs. Uh, at least the way that these guys are, are folks are petitioned to poor. That's not the case. You actually have to test the labor market in most instances to make sure that you're not adversely affecting the US workforce.

So, uh, it doesn't really make any sense, but you cannot, not gonna stop you from pissing off the random guy on White pages. Yeah, I can imagine. 

I mean, it's an interesting shift though, like there. The, the labor shortage. Yeah. You know, in, in America and the, the, some of these jobs that people just don't wanna work.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. And so, we're seeing this, it's a, it's a crazy time right now of, um, there is a huge need for what, you know, you do at the law firm Yeah. 

And serving these clients. Yeah. I saw someone post on LinkedIn like a couple weeks ago that there's not a, uh, issue. With hiring people right now that in terms of the number of people available, the issue is with how you're actually hiring 'em.

And I'm like, that's not true. No, no. Everyone's experiencing these problems. There's actually a shortage of labor willing to perform certain types of job functions. Exactly. Like it's a real thing. Yeah. 

And I mean, a whole other conversation is how did that happen and how did we get to here? 

Where, oh, let's talk about these spoiled brats.

Oh my gosh. Seriously, dude, what the hell? No one wants to work. People are so soft now. Oh my gosh. No one wants to work. No one wants to work. If you brought back my great grandpa from the dead and you said, Paul, look at all these jobs, he's gonna be like, well, where are all the people? Exactly. He then you're gonna be like, no, they just, they just don't want it.

Like, well, what are they doing? I'm like, I don't know. Yeah, that's a whole nother camera, whatever they're doing. I'm glad I didn't figure that out in college. I probably want it worked out. Right. Exactly. 

Yeah. It's interesting phenom. Um, well, cool. Well maybe talk about some of the biggest challenges that, um, you know, the businesses face when navigating the immigration system and.

Um, stuff that comes up for former law trying to, trying to service the clients Yeah. 

And stuff like that. Yeah, I think so. The, the biggest thing that we run into is basically government interference. Mm-hmm. And that's not to say the government interference is deliberate, cuz it's not. Right. Uh, ordinarily it's not.

At least the, the main thing that we've run into is, uh, you know, department of Labor delays, whether that's cuz they're understaffed or just the time of year or whatever it is. Uh, department of Labor delays directly impact the, uh, timeline on the filing. And so, it makes it to where our clients get people later sometimes.

Uh, same with the USCIS embassy appointment availability, like these sorts of things you just run into, you can't control 'em. Right? Uh, and so that, that's probably the. The biggest hindrance for people is the unpredictability there. And then the other thing would be regulatory changes. Uh, there's kind of this, uh, immigration, at least in this regard, is run by executive branch.

By the executive branch, whether it's the Department of Labor, uh, department of Homeland Security. And so, they're delegated authority to change regulations. And with that it changes how the, the. Actual programs applied. And so, trying to work with employers on fitting that in within their business model, but also making sure they don't run a foul of whatever the actual immigration rule is.

Mm-hmm. Uh, is a constant issue. Yeah. Uh, but it's something that we're happy to take on. I mean, it's, it's actually kind of fun. Yeah. Like, I don't like reading, but for some reason, you give me a Department of Labor final rule, I'm all in. 

You're a bookworm. All of a sudden. That's, that's actually a good question is like how, how do you keep up with the regulatory changes and how, like, you know, everything's always constantly moving and shifting, so how, how do you keep up with that?

Yeah, so we're, we're a part of a bunch of different, uh, Associations and they keep you pretty well updated. Mm-hmm. And then, but they don't give you a whole bunch of detail. And so, they'll tell you like, hey, just, just so you know, this final rule's coming down the bike or this proposed rule's out there, submit your comments.

And what I do is I actually read through it. Mm-hmm. And then, I think about a, as I'm reading through it, that the active reading part of it is, I'll read through it and think about how it applies to all of our different clients. Yeah. And I'm, I'm pretty familiar with how our clients operate, so it makes it not that difficult because normally, uh, the, the rule will affect similarly situated employers similarly. And so, I, I'll just go through it and then we try to advise our clients through webinars or mass emails or reaching out to 'em directly. Just whatever we can do to make sure that they know what's coming, what's coming down, and how it impacts their business.

Yeah. That's excellent. And then what do you think kind of the future of immigration, I mean as if you think kind of five to 10 years, even 20 years, like. Where do you see the future of immigration going and yeah, and changes and stuff like that? Yeah. I'm going to guess through no fault of my own that due to a declining birth rate.

It is immigration's gonna become more and more important. No fault of your own. Indeed. That's right. I got tell you. How many kids do you have now? Only four. Only four. Only four. The oldest one's six though. So yeah. So yeah, we're getting on number five soon for sure. No. Oh yeah. No, we're, we're not done. God willing, we are not done.

My, I've told, I've told my wife for a long time, my whole goal in terms of reproduction is to have so many kids that people think is weird. And right now, I'm on the, I'm on the border. You're getting, you're getting there, but whenever you get to like six kids, six, yeah. Five kids are still like, eh, that's a lot of kids.

Six kids. Something about six. Yeah. Yeah. Something about, something about being on two hands is weird. That is what it is. It is. It is. No, that's too, that's what I'm going for. I'm going for weird. Yeah. Okay. 

Well, you're getting there. Funny. Yeah, but think about it. Then you average the two of us. That's two kids.

It's true. Well, it'd be three until I get, yeah. When I get to six, we need to six second only four right now. That's, oh yeah. 

Between us, we're doing great. 

Between us. We're not doing great. We're doing, we're doing remarkably average, but so you see the birth rate going down in the future. It is. And you see, I think the birth rate in the United States right now is like Drew Google this.

I think it's 1.8. I think that's the, I think that's the birth rate of the United States, which, I mean, it's, if you got 1.8 and there's two. 

It's below replacement. Yeah. Below replacement. Yeah, a little bit. I think 2.3 is maybe replacement, but even, even a bigger issue is not even that, is that the generations aren't wanting to do the jobs that are needed.

That's true. And I don't see that trend changing either. No, no, no, no. If anything, it might get worse, but then you gotta complement it with AI coming out. It's true. And possibly AI replacing a lot of these, not replacing, but supplementing or, or changing the whole industry. Yeah. Right. And you know, ai, I don't know if AI's gonna, I'm sure it will at some point, like.

Alleviate some of the labor issues related to more blue-collar work. That's not the ones ais after the first place. No, exactly. No, no, no. You're a copywriter. Yep. You are getting put outta work and you are not gonna go work for a trash company. Exactly. So, I think it, I think it actually, you're right. I think it exacerbates the problem and there's gonna be a lot of people left out there.

Yeah, no, I think it does too. Hmm. But the second that AI can pick up my trash dude, that is, or if it could just incinerate my trash. That would be sweet. I'm ready to watch that. I, I firsthand I'm too, just throw it up in the air. 

Um, yeah. Maybe, uh, the question I have is kind of thinking about maybe a client that you've serviced that you can talk about their journey through the immigration process and kind of how it helped their business.

Sure, sure. Um, Man, I don't know which one to use. 

Yeah. And you don't have to, you don't have to use names. You can just say client A or whatever, but, oh, don't you worry. I wasn't about to use the name. So, we've had, uh, I'll, I'll just kind of tell you what's, what's pretty normal. Mm-hmm. Uh, a lot of times we grow with our clients and so we'll get a client, they're a small client.

Let's say they need four people to perform whatever this job function is. Mm-hmm. Uh, while they get those four people and they do a great job, their customers are happy, their customers are giving 'em more work. They start adding more people and it is kind of like a content cycle like that. Mm-hmm. So, we've got some clients that.

Start with four or five people, you know, have over 40 now. Pretty, pretty normal. Wow. For people to go through that kind of growth trajectory. Wow. And one of the cool things is because a lot of the immigration programs that we use are seasonal or are peak load, meaning that you work more during a particular time of year than the other times of year.

Yeah. It makes 'em very elastic, which is really great for companies because that means that they're not having all this unnecessary overhead during the slow months. They have that overhead when they actually need the work done. And that's a, that's a big deal for people. Huge. And so, it makes it to where their business is that much more scalable.

Mm-hmm. And I think that, that, that's pretty awesome. So, uh, that's kind of the, the normal progression. What I, what I don't see is people start using immigration and then stop using it. Right. Because they come to rely on it, because it, it works. And they get people that they, that wanna perform whatever that job is.

You know, I, yeah, you don't, you, you're not gonna put out a. LinkedIn ad and get some copywriter that's so excited to come and do your construction project. But it is, uh, it's, it's definitely a, it's definitely a cool thing to be in cuz it does solve the problem, 

so. Yeah, it does. And then, so when, when these guys are coming for the seasonal work, are businesses getting.

The similar same guys up every year. Yeah. And so, they're already kind of know the business. Right. And, and they can help even train the new guys and stuff like that. So, like you said, it's just kind of this avalanche. Yeah, exactly. That just continues to grow. Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. Yeah. So, they do, yeah, they'll bring in the same people year after year.

It, it just helps grow their business. Those people are, Excited to leave whenever it's cold, but they're excited to be back and, and make money Because they make it killing. 

Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's such an opportunity and it's a, it's a win-win for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, that's great. Tell, tell, tell us a little bit about, um, you know, kind of how the wages are determined and just kind of like what that process looks like.

Yeah, so wage determination depends a lot on immigration category, but if you're talking about like H-2A, uh, for example, which is. Temporary or seasonal agricultural workers. Mm-hmm. Uh, they are either grouped into this statewide adverse effective wage rate, just, or if they're, that's, if they fall under these seven different.

Job categories, agricultural equipment, operators, farm workers that are, you know, like if you're out there picking crops, right? You're all gonna fall into the same wage category. Uh, but let's say that you're an agricultural employee that's performing some kind of type of construction or, or truck driving right now, uh, although there was litigation recently filed on this to try to stop this wage rule.

Right now, the way that it is the state workforce agencies applying in the particular SOC code. And then that SOC code, they'll look at the statewide average for whatever that occupation is, and then you'll have to pay those wages. Uh, so it could be a carpenter, a carpenter helper, a rebar worker, wow, a truck driver.

There's a lot of stuff that falls in there. Uh, so that's kinda how it works with H-2A. With H-2B, which is temporary or seasonal non-ag agricultural workers. Uh, you, the first thing you file is a prevailing wage determination, and in that you disclose what the job duties are, the experience requirements, the counties, and then the Department of Labor references what's called the OEWS wage rates and which are collected by the Department of Labor every year just to see what the average wage rate is for that occupation in that area.

Mm-hmm. And they apply that wage rate and that's what you pay your H-2B workers and any corresponding US workers. Wow. 

So, it sounds, it sounds like the, you know, probably from what the workers are used to getting paid and then coming to work at this average rate of, in the states, yeah. They're experiencing a huge increase in their life.

Okay. These people are killing it. Yeah, exactly. And I, you know, that's part of why they're so excited for it. Right. They're coming up here and then they make more money over the course of couple months than they would make over the whole year in Mexico. Maybe even a couple weeks. Yeah. Like they. They make significantly more money here than they do back home.

So, they're eager to get up here a year to work and, uh, send that money back to their family. Go home, live like freaking kings. Exactly. 

I mean, what, what the solution, you know, the business gets their workers at, at a, at a reasonable wage, which they'd have to pay anyway. And, and, uh, the guys get such great rates.

Exactly. So, yeah, it's, yeah. 

Pretty awesome. It works out well. Yeah, it sure does. It works out well. Yeah. You know, and I, but I was thinking, I know you're an accountant. I am an accountant. I'm a CPA actually. You are a CPA. Yeah. And you passed the test on your first try. All four of 'em. 90 or above? All four of 'em.

90 or above. But anyways, um, I've got a client. Okay. Client has an open position for framing carpentry work. Just wondering if that was something you would be interested in. Well, you know, my skillset does not quite cater to that. These fingers are used to typing. 

Not so much humoring. You do have soft fingers, not too soft.

Those things have touched iron in years. 

I lift weights every day. What are you talking about? Yeah, you do yoga. 

Hey man, I still exercise. 

I dunno, I don't see a lot of construction workers doing a pigeon pose. 

Well, they should. Those hips are probably tight. 

I don't even know what a pigeon pose is.

Talk, talk a little bit about that, the working out and kind of your, your work-life balance and. Um, how you've been able to, you know, continue to be with your family, to work out and stuff like that while growing in such a successful firm. 

Yeah. Um, I do definitely work out a lot. I actually started working out because my back was always hurt and I went to the doctor and I had a pinched nerve in my back that just want to go away, and I went to the doctor and he, and he said, no, this doesn't sound smart.

But you gotta start doing deadlifts. And I was like, you're right. That doesn't sound smart at all. That doesn't sound smart at all. Sound like a terrible idea. Yeah. That hurts my back. Just hearing that. But then he, then he then he said, well, what are you gonna risk? Your back already hurts. And I was like, pretty good point.

Pretty good point. So, I started working out cuz of that. Uh, interesting. And since then, my back has not hurt once, so apparently the doctor knows more about health than me. Yeah. Surprising. Yeah, I know. Shocking. Shocking. You wanna think? Uh, but so I, I started working out cuz of that. And I really, really enjoyed that.

You know, I mm-hmm. It's something that's hard. Uh, I also work out in the mornings cuz I hate it. Like I, I don't like to get up to go work out and so I make myself Yeah. Because I think it's really good for you to do things that you really don't want to do. Yep. Uh, and then the days that I get up and I get there, and I still don't wanna work out, those are the days that I really make it hard on myself.

Cuz it's like, you gotta just get over it. Amazing. So, I, I, I've, I've really enjoyed that, prioritized that, and I think it's been good. Now I've got other motivations like. I wanna be able to throw my six-year-old around, like I throw my one-year-old around. Mm-hmm. I want to be able to pick her up with one arm if I'm picking up my, my, my son with one arm.

Yeah. Uh, and so, you know, just you, because you, you pick up your kid and you start tur twisting him. You're doing this little like helicopter thing with your kid and then your six-year-old walks up there half your size. She's like, daddy, I wanna do it too. And I'm like, I want you to do it, but I haven't, I haven't lifted weights today.

Uh, so I, I found motivation in that. Yeah. 

That, that is great. Where do you think that drive kind of came from originally to, to, you know, to build a successful company, to wake up and work out to do things that you're uncomfortable with and like push yourself past your limits? 

Um, yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know.

I think it was childhood. Like your, your upbringing, like nature versus nurture, you know, like what, what do you think is really a, a big influence in your life that helped you get to where you are? Uh, I, I've always been very competitive. Yeah. And I think that probably played a role in it. I can speak to that.

You have. I didn't, I never liked to lose. It was never something that I wanted to participate in. Uh. But, you know, I, and so I, I think a lot of it came from that, and then just kind of focusing that of because I don't, you know, like I don't, I don't look out in the world and think like, man, they've got a bigger business than me.

Or right. Uh, man, that person's stronger than me. I don't think about that anymore. Mm-hmm. I probably did at some point, but now I, now I just think about it more for myself. Like, no, you can do more than that. Yeah. What are you doing? Right. And then also the, the more that our culture has been okay with the idea, of making excuses for things and making just complaints.

I wanted to be the exact opposite of our culture. Mm-hmm. And so, I've, I've really tried to make a deliberate effort to, to do that. What about you? Where's your motivation come from? 

I. Yeah. I, I think that's a good question. I think it's, it's also habits, you know, it's like how that's true. How you build your environment.

Did you just say good question on your own question? Well, you switched it back on me, so it was a good question. I thought, I'm interviewing you here. People know The Immigration Guy, not The CPA. No, I, for me it is, it was about who I surrounded myself with, you know, and, and the, the influential people in my life.

Mm-hmm. And so, I think being in a, a good household that, Taught, you know, good, strong work ethic and that you need to work for a dollar. And that, you know, it's, it's important to understand the value of a dollar. Yeah. And then that, um, it, it takes hard work to get to Anything worth having is typically pretty difficult.

Yeah. 

And that's what makes it worth having. Yeah, I agree with that. You know, and I can attest to your family really thinking a dollar is like really hard to get. Yeah. 

We were savers. We didn't go on many vacations. No, sir. And we didn't have, you know, yeah. There's not much luxury stuff going on. But we lived a great life, a very simple life, you know, and we lived, um, always below our means.

I think that was the, yes, I completely agree with that. The biggest thing is that I, I grew up in a household that was live below your means. And watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. Yeah. Yeah. No, it, it's a, it's a great outlook. It's responsible, uh, and it it's really cool. And, and I, I love that you still have that mentality, especially for me.

Yeah. Because you're like, Kyle, what are you doing? Exactly. Why'd you go to Subway? McDonald's? It's cheaper.

Did you have to sit in first class? Did I have to go? You had to even go. 

Exactly. You know, that's what, that's what a good financial guy should be doing. Exactly. You're like, those people don't have a Zoom account. 

Yeah. Come on. Yeah, no, I think it's interesting though cuz it's, it's this concept of living in a mindset of, um, scarcity and abundance.

Yeah. And it's something that I've been working on myself. Cuz growing up it was a mind of scarcity. Like, okay, watch the dollars, make sure that we don't spend too much, like there's a scarce amount of things. Mindset of abundance is there's a unlimited money out there. We just gotta go out there and get it.

Yeah. And, and it doesn't matter how much you spend cuz you can always make more. Yeah. And I think obviously there's somewhere in the middle. Yeah. That's the healthy place to live. Yeah. Cause you, you know, you don't take the money when you die and you sure as heck don't wanna be living in a mountain full of debt or way over your head.

That's right. You know, so. That's right. Yeah. I think that's just an important thing for everybody to try to figure out where that happy medium is for themselves. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's probably gonna. Vary a lot based on person and, and risk tolerance. But then at the same time, like that, the, the world of abundant side of that, that's a much worse place to live if you're just like it.

Look, if you've got money and you're living in a life of scarcity, you're, that's fine. Right? Like the, the worst-case scenario is you're eating too many beans and rice when you could be eating lobster. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it's fine. These things are doing pretty good. Yes. Whereas on the other side of it, I think the consequences are a lot worse.

A lot worse. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah, so maybe kinda steer towards the, the responsible mindset, but yeah. Maybe not the middle. Maybe it's like a, like, like a 30% on the, on the abundant side? No, on the scarcity side. Yep. On the scale. Yep. Scarce one. Abundance 10. Let's go to the three. Yeah. This basically, I live below my means, but every once in a while, I treat myself that splurge a little.

You know, Bahamas call my name, not mine. Don't have a passport. We're getting you a passport and we're taking a trip. No, I don't travel. Gotta save that money. That's true. You got a good point. Thank you. I'm gonna start using that one on you. 

I'm sorry I can't go man. I got sick. That's great. Well cool. And well I really appreciate, you know, you having me on the show and, and this conversation and I think.

You know, it's great listeners learning more about you and, you know, it's, it's fun checking in with you like this and yeah. Seeing you. No, no, no. We're not done. We're not done. I, I, I appreciate you too. Appreciate. How long have we been doing this, drew? 44 minutes. That's easy. I, man. Yeah. What time is our next, our, I think our thing starts at 2 35 minutes.

Five minutes? Yeah. Okay. Quickly tell people about your business. 

All right. Thank you for that. Um, business is called Financial Synergy. And it's a, uh, fractional CFO controller or bookkeeping business. Um, I got my start with Kyle here. He was my first client and, um, I've helped his firm grow exponentially through helping him with bookkeeping, invoicing, reconciliations, financial reporting, skew analysis, stuff like that.

So really in my business right now, we're really trying to focus in on law firms. Yeah. Um, we want to help add value to law firms, help them know their numbers. Um, we're familiar with this program called How to Manage, which Kyle was a part of and introduced me to, and so we kind of like to use some of their philosophy and, and, and work with alongside them to help implement some of the things that they're suggesting to their, um, clients.

Yeah, and I, I, I'll tell you that one thing that I love about you and about your business, is that you have a full comprehension of all things financial, but you don't stop there. And, and I think that's where a lot of financial services fall short, is they stop at the reporting. Mm-hmm. They don't actually improve anything, but you improve everything you touch.

Thank you. Like I, I'm like, Hey, we should probably. Like, look at this, and you're like, no, I did that like three weeks ago. And I'm like, okay, well that, that's great. Uh, or if it's something that we're working towards, like you're really good at saying like, okay, this is how it's gonna impact these other operational things, and you're, you're particularly talented at that.

So, uh, I think that that's a huge part of your business and something that people really. Couldn't possibly understand until they're working with you. So, I appreciate all for that you've 

done there. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And I try to be very process oriented and yeah, like you said, how is this gonna impact something over here?

Yeah. And, and really taking, um, all of the things I've learned and trying to package it into one. Yeah, and like you said, it's not just financial and I think that's the way the name comes in, financial synergy. It's like how do you bring finances synergistically into your business? To help fuel other segments and operations.

Oh, that's where that came from. I thought you were just drinking too much one night. And that's possible. That too. You Googled cool words. 

Well, it's funny is it actually came from my dad. His business was called Synergy. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Synergy Consulting. I didn't know that. Yeah, he was doing like food brokering and stuff, and his business is called Synergy.

Yeah. And so, when I started business, like, man, what I name my name, I'm like, Financial Synergy. I'm gonna take one off my dad's block. Oh yeah, that's right. No, yeah. Okay, so I got it. You and your dad are drinking one night. Exactly. And you're like, dad, I wanna start this financial business. What should I do in knowing your dad, the first thing he said was Synergy.

Yeah. You're pretty much on point. You're like, wow. Okay. That makes sense. Now. Looked up on the Secretary of State, it was available. Boom baby. Yeah. 

Yeah. The website is financialsynergy.co. Because someone did take financialsynergy.com, which I wasn't too happy about. No, no, no. But this is a, this is an important point.

Okay. Did you go get some broker to overpay for a domain? No. Absolutely not. No. No, sir. Absolutely not. No. We just dropped the M. Exactly. We drop the M. We're in business. Business. 

Look me up. “.co” it's company. It's a company. Now don't not.com. No. Those people suck. Those are the worst. They are the worst company.

I have never not worked with. Yeah, me neither. I don't know nothing about. I know nothing about, but I know dot CO's way better. It may might be. Okay. We don't know, but I do know dot CO's uh, well, I appreciate the shout out. Thank you, Kyle. Yes, of course. Thank y'all for listening to The Immigration Guy Podcast.

We really appreciate it. You can find us on our website, go to www.farmerlawpc.com. You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Just search at Kyle Farmer, FLPC. Uh, you can find our law firm on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. All you have to do is search for at Farmer Law PC. Go ahead and subscribe to download all the episodes of our podcast.

You can download 'em and listen to 'em whenever and wherever you want. Uh, we'll be releasing new episodes every Wednesday on Spotify, Apple Music, Stitcher, which is apparently a real thing. Amazon Music, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. This is not legal advice, so any information that you get from this podcast should not be taken as such, if you are looking for legal advice, you should consult with a competent attorney for advice regarding your individual situation.

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