EP356: Alex Frolek - How To Become More Than "Just" A Bookkeeper

Michael Palmer: I think it's tough in this field because we go to school, we learn how to be technicians, but we don't necessarily learn the ins and outs of how to effectively run and build a successful business. So, I often feel like it's the case that we need to live it out in the business world. So, we've just been trying to learn. You're listening to The Successful Bookkeeper with your host, Michael Palmer. Listen each week as inspiring guests share their secrets of success to help you increase your confidence, work smarter, and build a business you love. This episode of The Successful Bookkeeper is brought to you by purebookkeeping.com, the proven system to grow your bookkeeping business. Welcome back. Welcome back to the Successful Bookkeeper Podcast. I am your host, Michael Palmer, and this show today is going to be fantastic. Our guest is a co-founder of Stell-X Solutions in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, and is a Pure Bookkeeping licensee, Alex Froelich. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Michael. It's wonderful to have you, Alex. And before we get into too much, I'd love to hear your career journey leading up to this point.

Alex Frolek (Apr 11): Great. Yeah, so Stephen and I, we have a little bit of an eclectic background. So first of all, the origin of the name Stelix, basically that's our couple name. So Stephen served in the military for 5 years from 2006 to 2011. Uh, that's including going to Afghanistan for 7 months in 2009, 2010. And so after that, he started working in construction in February of 2012 and still does to this day when he's not working, uh, with me at Steelix. So the way I actually found bookkeeping was a bit of a happy accident. Really, I was attending university pursuing a Bachelor of Arts, and I wasn't certain what career path I wanted to pursue, but always had a deep respect for the sciences. Now, unfortunately, I'm not a science brain, or else I would've pursued something in engineering or medicine. However, looking back, I distinctly remember one afternoon In my first-year chemistry lab course, my classmates teased me that I was moving so precisely throughout the experiment, but it worked out in the long run as the TA recognized this and advised me that I could leave early as my data was that good. Yeah, so after that incident, my perspective started shifting. To be honest, I was intimidated by the chem lab at first, but quickly loved it. I loved the math, the precision, the findings it would provide from the