Becoming a Purpose-Driven Leader with Patrick Brensinger

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00:01 
Michael Praeger 
Welcome to the Power of Change, the podcast that delves into the intersection of leadership and technology in the finance world. I’m your host, Michael Praeger, the CEO and co-founder of AvidXchange. In each episode I dive into the leadership topics and industry trends with business leaders, partners and customers who embrace the power of change. So today, super excited, we have an awesome guest here, Patrick Brensinger, senior advisor with Trinity Growth Advisors. And I had an opportunity to work with Patrick closely in an operating role and actually several operating roles that he had at a company called Associa.  

 
Patrick, one of the things to start with, and I didn’t even realize this until we started, you know, doing some preparation for today’s podcast is you actually, you know, started your career and have a little bit of a background in kind of fraud and forensics many moons ago in that function. But maybe just tell us a little bit about how you got your career started.  

 
00:57 
Patrick Brensinger 
Yeah, Mike, I appreciate the time with you. I’ve over the years enjoyed our conversations and when you brought the opportunity to do this, I just was so grateful to have this time together. I had clients from the WWE all the way through, other types of very colorful clients in that arena and learned a lot. But what had really spoke to my heart early on in college, I had been at A and M when 911 happened and I saw how the school engaged and I was actually one of the students that had helped create an environment. They called it red, white and blue out. It was different colors and stands. Long story short, raised about a quarter million dollars.  

 
And about a month after 911 we had taken those funds to New York and actually met some of the firefighter policemen that took us through ground zero a month after. And so that left a very big impression on me about how those folks had showed up, especially the firemen, how they ran in when the world was running out. And I wanted to help. And so coming out of school, my skill set, I’m still recovering CPA, I want to be very clear, but I had that background at PwC. One of the things said to me early on is that they were one of the groups under the fraud forensic practice that was chosen to work on the 911 victim compensation Fund. And I, I made a deal with the partners here in Dallas.  

 
I said, if you will, if I pass the CPA exam, I want to go work on the fund. And they said deal. And I was a wrongful death adjudicator. I actually worked with families from 9 11. And so on my wall I actually have A quote “man in the arena.” And the reason and my awareness of that came from a battalion chief who saw tower one get hit. He decided when he saw tower two get hit, when he got down there, that he was going to go in that day and every day prior, he had carried the quote “man in the arena” with him. And so now when I work with teams and I teach leadership, I talk a lot about whatever arena you’re in, how do you show up and how do you give your very best.  

 
02:49 
Michael Praeger 
That’s an awesome lead into a little bit of your background. I love it. You know, you’ve led a number of different organizations through incredible growth and transformation. And maybe just talk about the leadership principles that you’ve kind of learned yourself and from others over the years that have remained those constants for you as you kind of been able to leave through different levels of scale and complexity.  

 
03:09 
Patrick Brensinger 
Yeah, there’s a couple that come to mind, Mike. One of the things that became very clear to me on the journey in the dash is this idea of one of the most valuable things we have is our time to focus. And so as a leader, you become even more acutely aware that you’re a steward for a season of your team’s time, talent, focus, and how do you really make sure that’s deployed in ways where they’re in their flow and they’re giving their best? I think in life, I try to teach folks and I try to model myself to be curious, to always be asking questions. You know, early on in my career, Mike, I think I thought I had to be answer guy.  

 
And as I’ve gotten further into life, I realized, if I can be a really good question guy, that’s a better spot to be and to really learn how to ask great questions. The second thing is, you know, I want to be positive in people’s lives. I think we have the opportunity to be intentional in the way we show up. And my goal is to add value and to uplift folks that I get to serve in different capacities and influence. So that’s important. And the third element I talk to folks about is the idea of option C, which is so often we get in binary thought processes where we think, okay, well, it’s only this option or that option.  

 
And, Mike, you and I had a time back when I was serving at Associate, where we had that kind of moment where were looking at saying, I don’t know how we get through an impasse. And what I appreciate about your leadership is you and I got together and said, well, there’s gotta be an option C. How do we work on a solution that allows for AvidXchange to feel like there’s, you know, value in it and then also Associa at the time that there’s value in it? And we came up with an option C together. To me, I try to teach that often, and I shared this with someone yesterday I said, you know, I’m in a place now where so much of my learning is about what I can share with others because I want more for you than from you. So how do I get in that position of learning to share and be abundant and growth in mindset?  

 
04:57 
Michael Praeger 
I almost have, like, you know, we’re only on the first question. I have, like, a full page of notes already. So, hey, maybe just let’s transition into those, you know, kind of leadership kind of characteristics. And then you’ve also had some really interesting kind of career transitions, right from how you started your career to, you know, being in the leadership role of one of the, you know, the largest, you know, HOA community, you know, managers in the country, and even within Associa, a handful of really, you know, different roles, and now starting another transition. Maybe talk a little bit about those transitions and how you kind of view transitions and how you navigated them.  

 
05:34 
Patrick Brensinger 
Yeah, it’s. It’s a great question, Mike. So I ended up coming into it thinking, you know, if I can, you know, go through college, and then I’ll have some, some different experience in the consulting kind of world, work at some point into, you know, a corporate role, and then work into finally showing up at some point being a CFO. Well, I ended up being a CFO at 33 years old, Mike, And I didn’t really know what I didn’t know at that time. And I had a lot to learn. But what I found is as I began to understand what was happening in a service model, it was kind of the caboose on the train. It was the thing that if you did everything north of it well, that ended up being the outcome.  

 
And I began to see a need to move into operations because there were so many things that we needed to do north of that really needed to get worked on. And I believe it starts with purpose and leadership. It starts with the way you engage your employees, your clients, you create growth, and then that leads to financial success. But I knew there were things north of it. And so as I got more involved in that, there was a meeting in 2015 where I sat with John Carono, the owner of Associa. We talked about the need to look at some things differently. And I tried to bring solutions forward. He said, hey, would you do that? Would you. Would you bring those things in and implement them?  

 
And I had to go home and talk to my better half because that was a big career change. That was a, that was a pivotal moment for me. And I’m so glad that I took that calculated risk because I would tell you that it opened my vision and I began to see so much more of what it takes to be a leader across different areas, really, in the operational area focus. And it really helped me grow. And so I went from CFO at Associa to chief operating officer to president and sitting on the board. And it just taught me so much by seeing at each one of those stages a broader and a broader view of the business.  

 
07:11 
Michael Praeger 
Well, you know, and kind of maybe going back to you a little bit how we started and, you know, the combination of those experiences of navigating these transitions along with you self described what I would say your leadership style as being purpose driven and rooted in stewardship. How do you maybe bring that leadership style to high growth pressure environments in terms of, I think a lot of our audience is around, you know, growth businesses, right? And how to grow and scale, which is a different, very different dynamic than maybe a company that’s static or shrinking, right? Which has its own challenges, right? So maybe, you know, talk a little bit about, you know, that your leadership style and, you know, applying it to growth, you know, kind of dynamic.  

 
07:57 
Patrick Brensinger 
I really had a sense that so often companies, as they grow, they’re like skiffs. They’re small, nimble businesses. And then they have this dream of becoming this cruise liner, this massive company. The challenge there, Mike, is that when you do that, you got one captain on the bridge. And when that thing turns, it’s a slow turn and it’s a large wake. The better scenario and what I really spent a lot of my time as a leader working on is how do you go from being a skiff, not to a cruise liner, but to a fleet?  

 
So what I mean by that is I wanted a bunch of captains further into the business, closer to the front line, that had a framework, understood the organizational intent, the mission, vision, values, but they were empowered in ways to be able to be nimble, to be able to react quickly to the business they saw. And we had to get them in a position where it was a leader-leader, model, where were really trying to support them and lift them up. And the last thing I would say is being purpose driven. I’ve looked at the research, companies that are purpose driven outperform their peer set by 3x over, over a period of time. So how do you compare what individuals are saying is important to them and what the company is saying is important and try to match them?  

 
Because I really believe, Mike, the next frontier in the space scale is engaging the workforce. In a way, you’re getting them in their flow, their gifting and you’re speaking to their purpose. Because if you can activate a workforce again, all of us are better than one of us.  

 
09:16 
Michael Praeger 
I love it. Yeah. As you know, don’t grow to scale to be a cruise liner, but to become a fleet. Combining that with purpose driven leadership to get the 3x return. Right.  

 
09:27 
Patrick Brensinger 
Right.  

 
09:28 
Michael Praeger 
All right, so let’s maybe transition a little bit to technology. I know a big part of the work that we, you know, did together at Associa was technology based. And I know one of the things that, you know, was, you know, super impressive. I know you were really proud of was the shared service center. Maybe talk a little bit about that role of technology as a leader, you know, and how technology can both, you know, leverage and define, you know, kind of leadership.  

 
09:54 
Patrick Brensinger 
Yeah, great question, Mike. I use what we call a value creation pyramid. If you can visualize it, the lowest level of value creation is transactional. The mid level is analytical. The highest level of value creation is strategic. And so often people in the time they spend it kind of looks like a triangle. They spend more time in the transactional space and very little on the upper areas where they can create a lot of value. And so what I’ve been working on is looking at things like, even today, agentic AI and saying, how do those tools and technology really do the transactional, analytical stuff and allow human agency to focus on higher levels of value creation. So how do you unlock that?  

 
And I would say that the journey with Avid and Associa, the shared service center, was one of saying, look, I’ve got a ton of folks that are doing blocking and tackling work. How do I get them out of that and up focus them into higher, engaging higher value activities where they’re working on it and not always as much in it. And so I think technology has a place as a critical part of the tool and toolkit. And to me, as a purpose driven leader, I just think that’s so critical. It’s gonna create a different level of engagement with them and the clients are gonna feel a better experience. But technology can really help tackle a lot of those things that need to get done and done at scale in a way that allows them to be freed up to do higher value activities.  

 
11:10 
Michael Praeger 
Yeah, I think you combine that with going back to. One of the things you kind of mentioned way at the beginning at the start here was around one of the key characteristics of being curious. And I think we’re at a moment in our careers. Many of us are well into our careers, maybe a second stage of our careers. Right. And so new things could be scary. Right. And what I tell people, you know, every day in our business is be curious. You know, the world is changing so fast and there’s so many great things that you can learn and deploy. And just being curious to learn something new every day, you know, every year, every season, as you say, can really kind of, you know, be a big difference as a leader.  

 
11:48 
Patrick Brensinger 
I would agree, Mike. And I have a great mentor in my life, a guy named John Maxwell. And one of the things that John will talk to us about is this idea that you need to deepen your well. And the idea is by deepening your well, continuing to learn, you’re going to have content that you can use to pour into people, whether you intentionally know that opportunity yet or not. But the point at which you want to pour is not the time you need to be poured into. You need to be doing the work to learn and to grow so that you have something to offer to others when those opportunities arise. And as a leader, how you can influence and help your teams. And one thing you taught me that I’ll always remember is don’t be the lid on the organization. Allow yourself to grow at a rate at least or not higher than the growth of the business. So you’re not a lid on the business and the teams within it. So I’ve always appreciated that.  

 
12:36 
Michael Praeger 
I remember that dinner. That’s a challenge that continues for me because in a business that continues to compound growth at a pretty healthy clip, it’s like, how do you personally do that for yourself and your own leadership capabilities to continue to scale. And for me, you know, I share a lot of the same characteristics that you mentioned, but it starts with, you know, being curious and having that growth mindset. I’d love to, you know, kind of, you know, end by talking a little bit about some of the kind of personal routines that different leaders have. What’s the secret to Patrick and some of the routines that you have? 

 
13:06 
Patrick Brensinger 
But I, I tend to be very intentional, Mike. So, so I look at it both on a personal basis and a professional. On the professional side, I really work with businesses and I teach them the idea of setting a vision three to five years out, looking at 36 months into a year. And then really where I spend a lot of time is on the quarter, on the 90 days. And so build from here down in and then execute from here out. So we talk about winning the day, winning the week, winning the month, the quarter, and all those different pieces and that becomes really important. Personally, I also do it on a 90 day basis. I look at three things that are really important to me every 90 days. One, I start with self care.  

 
If you don’t put the oxygen mask on first, how can you be there for your teams or bring your best? And I think that’s important. Second, I work on relationships. I believe that relationships are, when all is said and done, one of the most important things you have. And so improving the quality of relationships in your life, being intentional with that in your time and your focus. And the third are around growth goals. Right. Things I want to do to continue to stretch myself. We get this opportunity every day to get up and make the most of it. And if you have a bad day, good news is at midnight it stops. The new day begins. So there’s that reset that we have. So I’ve spent a lot of time really looking at that and talking about winning the day.  

 
I often find that people look around and they get really worried about comparing to others and I think that’s a robber of joy. My comparison point is, am I better today than I was yesterday? Can I get better today so tomorrow I’m better? Let me keep that track.  

 
14:30 
Michael Praeger 
Well, I feel like we’ve won the day here for sure and certainly the listeners to the Power of Change podcast are going to feel that way. So in closing, you know, just there’s a handful of notes that I took away, Patrick, that I think have been really powerful. Being curious, the power of asking questions, the power of positive energy. Have an option C as alternatives. You and I have scrimmaged that one deeply in the past. Don’t scale to become a cruise liner, scale to become a fleet. Combining that with purpose driven leadership and outperform, you know, your competitors by 3x. And I think, you know, kind of where we ended was with technology. You know, how you use, you know, technology to elevate, you know, not only your own, but your employee experience to higher values or higher levels of value creation.  

 
And so we’re certainly focused on that at AvidXchange, both internally for teammates as well as for our customers. I love the ending of deepen your well and certainly don’t be a lid on your organization’s ability to grow. So with that, you know. Thank you, Patrick. Today was rich in lots of nuggets and I think in every episode we take away a handful of nuggets. I think, you know, today people are going to take away, you know, a couple pages of nuggets. So super excited to have you as today’s guest again. Patrick Brensinger, Senior advisor with Trinity Growth Advisors on today’s episode of the Power of Change podcast.  

 
15:53 
Patrick Brensinger 
Thank you so much for having me on. I really enjoyed it, enjoyed the time with you.  

 
15:58 
Michael Praeger 
Thanks for listening to the Power of change presented by AvidXchange. If you like what you’ve heard, subscribe to our channel and leave a five star review. While you’re waiting for the next episode, head over to AvidXchange for our latest research reports and business insights. And if you’re interested in learning more about accounts payable automation from AvidXchange, click the link in our show notes to connect with our experts. Thanks again for listening to the Power of Change. We’ll see you next time.