Building Community and Connection in Business with Tyler Wynn

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:18)
So if we hear dogs barking, Tyler has informed us, it's just the wild horses going by. So don't worry about that. Welcome back to the show, everyone.
Bliss Business Podcast, where we explore how empathy, connection and purpose transform business from the inside out. I'm Stephen, joined by my co-host Tullio. According to a recent study by the Harvard Business School, businesses with a strong sense of community and culture outperform competitors in retention, satisfaction and long-term profitability. But how do we actually design companies that foster belonging rather than burnout today? We're diving into what it means to build meaningful connection in business, and why true community might be the most strategic advantage of all. Tullio, introduce our guest today.

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:06)
Yes, our guest today is Tyler Wynn. He's the president of Ledgers USA. And Tyler is not your typical accounting firm leader. He believes that connection is the currency of good business, and he's built a thriving organization that puts people first, whether it's his team, his clients, or his local community. Tyler, welcome to the show. So let's get started. Tell us about Ledgers USA and how community building has become a core principle in your leadership approach.

**Tyler Wynn** (1:38)
Okay. Well, just from a community aspect, are you talking about from our company side or from the consumer or client side? Which side do you want me to start at?

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:49)
Both.

**Stephen Sakach** (1:50)
Yeah, both is fine. Because I think there is that internal community, right? That culture that's really important, but also, yeah, let's start with the external.

**Tyler Wynn** (1:59)
Okay. So we take a unique approach. And sometimes I think it's like a big issue in business right now. So as you probably are well aware, I think 75 percent of all small businesses fail within the first 10 years. And 46 percent of most small businesses don't use an accountant. So and the number one reason most small businesses fail is from financial mismanagement. So it got me wondering like why? So maybe there's a big disconnect between accounting firms and small businesses. So what we do probably differently on the community level is we want to build our product, build our, I guess, our value for the customer. So it's all about what our customer needs, building a community with them. And our whole goal is to help them thrive. So that's where we build a community aspect from the consumer level, kind of giving them everything they need. It's not about us. It's about like being a servant, serving them. Like we're just here to help them achieve their dreams from the consumer side.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:07)
Tyler, what inspired you to lead with that sort of service mentality versus, was it the numbers of just seeing that disconnect with businesses and accounting firms, or what inspired you as far as to take that kind of approach?

**Tyler Wynn** (3:25)
I mean, this is a kind of a long, short story, but so back when I was a kid, my parents used to always argue about money. So in my earliest childhood memories, I remember my parents will always argue about money. And back in the 8 housing crash, my family was in construction, so we were affected about that. So that kind of instilled me like, hey, I don't want to ever be in that situation. I want to know my numbers. I want to know everything I can about accounting, business, et cetera. And once I started getting in, before Ledgers as well, before Ledgers, I started trying to buy businesses. And I bought one business, but come to find out that business had no idea what their numbers were. They were playing the old debt with the new debt. And come to find out a lot of small businesses don't know the numbers. So that leaves me like, then why? So how can we, rather than me trying to acquire a bunch of companies, how can I actually help these people that from their family aspect? So how do I provide them value to help change their lives? So it kind of led me under, I'm almost like a rabbit hole of how do I provide value and help change a lot of these people's lives? And I actually met a guy named John Hewitt. Everyone probably knows who that is.
He founded a company called Loyalty Brands and he told me about Ledgers. And what Ledgers does is pretty much help a lot of these small businesses achieve their dreams. They kind of all came into path. But for me personally, it comes back from my history of I just really want to help small businesses and help them achieve their dreams. Because I can envision from their side, from like from the kids level. So I know what their kids felt would feel like if they do fail. So kind of the backwards approach is, hey, I don't want anyone else to go through that. So I want to really help them on that side.