Jon Morris, Founder & CEO of Fiscal Advocate joins the show to talk about intentionality. Business owners should be intentional about their strategic planning and the importance of having (and sticking to) an ideal client profile. Listen in to hear his growth story, and Jon’s advice for business owners.
Transcript:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles Podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This small business podcast is brought to you by EAG Advertising and Marketing. We’re going to talk about marketing, but we’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs—by diving into their stories and learning what makes them tick.
Today, we’re talking about being intentional with alignment, because I’m joined by a man with a long history of business leadership: Jon Morris. Jon is the founder and CEO of Fiscal Advocate, and he knows that everyone has a strategic plan—whether you know it or not—and it’s probably aligned with your budget. In fact, your budget is likely to speak louder than your strategic plan. Let’s bring Jon Morris into the conversation. Jon, welcome to the program.
Jon: Jeff, thanks for having me here. Really great to be here.
Jeff: Before we jump into Fiscal Advocate, I wanted to go back a bit. Talk about your background and your journey. You have a connection to EAG CEO Michelle Markham from back in the day at Ketchum Directory Advertising, and then you turned that into Rise Interactive. Give us a brief trail to follow here.
Jon: I’ll go even earlier than working with Michelle. Right out of college, I started my first digital agency. It was basically a lot of what I did later at Rise—programmatic display advertising, search advertising at the very beginning, SEO, and other digital tactics. I met a guy named Gene Daly who worked at Ketchum Directory Advertising and later became the CEO there. I built a relationship with him, and when I closed down that first agency—it wasn’t a success—he hired me to be the head of digital marketing for Ketchum. That’s when I met Michelle. We worked on a lot of accounts together. She ran the Kansas City office at the time. It’s really cool that years later, we’re now working together again. It’s been a fun journey.
Jeff: Outstanding. So tell us more about Fiscal Advocate and what you do—what benefit you bring to professional service businesses.
Jon: When I left Ketchum, I went to business school at the University of Chicago. I entered the annual business plan competition, the New Venture Challenge, and took second place—won $10,000, though I’m still bitter; it should’ve been first. That was my seed money to start Rise Interactive. I grew Rise from just me to a little over $37 million in revenue in 16 years. A big part of that success was how we used financial data—understanding benchmark numbers, decision-making, and spending time and money intelligently. When I sold Rise five years ago, I thought, “It’d be really fun to help other companies do the same thing.” Fiscal Advocate helps service-based companies—mostly marketing and tech firms—with budgeting, forecasting, and business intelligence. We help them understand things like: What should your gross margin be? What percent of revenue should go to sales and marketing? R&D? How effective are those investments? The goal is to help companies grow faster, increase profits, and improve cash flow by leveraging financial data.
Jeff: You’re focused specifically on professional services firms?
Jon: Exactly. We have deep expertise in that specific segment. I’m not trying to be a mile wide and an inch deep—I want to be an inch wide and a mile deep.
Jeff: That’s a good call. We don’t often focus enough on that ideal client profile. Talk about that—why it’s so important.
Jon: Unless you’re Google or Microsoft with billions in sales and marketing, your budget is limited. The smaller your budget, the more impactful every dollar must be. So rather than trying to market to everyone, narrow your focus to your ideal client profile. It can be regional—maybe you want to own Kansas City. That’s what we did at Rise; we wanted to own Chicago for a long time. Or it can be vertical, like hospital marketing. At Fiscal Advocate, we go after U.S. companies between $1 million and $20 million in revenue, focused on marketing and tech services. All of our marketing, sales, and innovation are aimed at that segment. When people don’t have an ideal client profile, it’s often out of fear—fear the phone won’t ring, fear of turning away business. But once you start investing in your ideal profile, the opposite happens. My phone rings all the time, but now it’s with the right clients. If someone calls outside that profile, it’s usually because they’re too small. And that’s fine. It’s about alignment and focus. Start small—align your sales, marketing, and innovation around one vertical. You can still accept other work, but over time, your brand will reflect exactly who you serve best.
Jeff: I’ve heard you say many times that everyone has a strategic plan—whether you know it or not—and it’s defined by how your budget aligns with it. Talk about that.
Jon: All we have is time and money. If you’re spending them on something without a plan, that’s still your plan. It reflects what you’ve decided is important. For example, people used to ask how we scaled Rise. I’d ask, “What percentage of your revenue do you spend on sales and marketing?” Most said, “None—it’s all word of mouth.” That’s a strategic choice. You’re saying growth isn’t important. We, on the other hand, probably had the highest marketing spend in the industry because it was important to us. That’s why I believe in annual and quarterly planning—making sure your time and money support your revenue, profit, and cash goals. If you don’t budget for it, you’re not serious about it. If you typically win four clients a year with no marketing budget and expect to double that without spending more, that’s unrealistic. You have to allocate resources intentionally. And even then, it’s a learning process—sometimes the first investments don’t work, but they teach you what will.
Jeff: Let’s talk about AI. You’ve developed a new product—can we talk about that?
Jon: Absolutely. It’s called LUCA, named after Luca Pacioli, the father of accounting. It’s an AI CFO co-pilot going into beta now and launching in January. Think of it like ChatGPT for service-based companies, but focused on your finances. Upload your income statement, balance sheet, or tax returns, and LUCA can answer detailed financial questions and guide decision-making with precision.
Jeff: That sounds incredible—and definitely intentional innovation.
Jon: Exactly. At Fiscal Advocate, we handle finances for marketing and tech service companies—bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, fractional CFO guidance. Most of our competitors don’t invest in innovation. They’ve been doing it the same way for 20 years. We want to be forward-looking, so clients see us as the innovative choice. That’s what strategic planning is all about.
Jeff: Outstanding. Let’s move into the lightning round—some quick questions to get to know you personally. You coach your daughter’s soccer teams. What’s the best part about that?
Jon: These days, I just coach my daughter one-on-one. The best part is the time together. One of my daughters wants to play in college, so we practice every Thursday. I played soccer through college, and most of my best friends are from those years. Team sports teach discipline, teamwork, leadership, handling heartbreak and success—it’s all valuable life training.
Jeff: It’s a World Cup year. Who do you support?
Jon: Gotta support the U.S. I’ve followed them since working for Sports Marketing back when the World Cup was hosted in the U.S. I’ve attended tournaments in France, Germany—you name it. Some good years, some rough ones. But I’ll always root for the U.S.
Jeff: Love it. Next question: In Meet the Robinsons, there’s a theme that we learn more from failure than success. What’s a great lesson you’ve learned from failure?
Jon: My first agency was a failure. I blamed the dot-com crash, but really, I had bad financial and HR practices. As CEO, 70% of your costs are people—and you love those people. But when the numbers say you need to make cuts, you can’t drag it out. I learned financial and HR discipline from that failure. Another example: at Rise, we lost a pitch to a company using “programmatic advertising.” I’d never heard of it, but we quickly realized we’d been out-innovated. Within weeks, we launched our own programmatic trading desk. Failure can drive innovation if you’re willing to adapt.
Jeff: That’s a great example. Last question: How do you celebrate a big win?
Jon: Poorly! I need to get better at that. I’m good at big celebrations—maybe a dinner—but not as good at recognizing small wins. At Rise, I focused too much on the bottom 10%, always fixing problems. At Fiscal Advocate, I try to focus on the top 90%, celebrating what’s working. It builds morale and helps people grow from strengths instead of fear.
Jeff: Great insight. Finally, tell people where they can find you.
Jon: Follow me on LinkedIn—I post at least three times a week and would love to connect. Visit fiscaladvocate.com for resources, my eBook, and blog articles. Or email me directly at jon@fiscaladvocate.com.
Jeff: Outstanding. Jon Morris, CEO of Fiscal Advocate, thanks for being on the show.
Jon: Thanks so much, Jeff.
Jeff: And that’s our show! Thanks to our friend Jon Morris, and thank you for listening to the Small Business Miracles Podcast. Remember to subscribe, leave a five-star rating and review, and drop us a line at eagadc.com. Until next time—we’ll be out here helping entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.