How to Create an Amazing Employee Experience with Boris Musheyev at BorisMTax

In this conversation, Boris Musheyev, founder of BORISMTAX, ranked No. 2,051 on the 2025 Inc. 5000, shares his approach to employee experience, leadership, and building a strong company culture. Boris describes the firm as a tax planning and advisory business focused primarily on helping business owners better understand and manage their taxes through clear communication and education. He explains how leading by example and taking a family-first approach have helped him attract and retain talented employees by creating a workplace where people feel supported, personal needs can be discussed openly, and work-life balance is valued. Boris also discusses the importance of celebrating his team, offering flexibility, and avoiding unnecessary overtime outside of tax season. Above all, he emphasizes that people are the company's greatest asset, that hiring should be intentional, and that he will always prioritize his team when a client treats them disrespectfully. The conversation offers an insightful look at how thoughtful leadership and a people-first culture can contribute to both employee satisfaction and long-term business success. Episode Highlights & Time Stamps 0:06 Family First, Lead by Example 0:49 Employee Experience Matters 2:35 Meet Boris M. Tax 7:10 Core Leadership Principles 8:26 Building a Family-First Culture 11:46 Signs of True Family Values 15:22 Experience Over Output 17:50 People Are the Biggest Asset 20:58 Team Before Clients 23:17 Lead by Example and Growth The Bigger Leadership Lesson ✅The most important takeaway from this conversation is that culture isn't built through slogans. It's built through repeated actions. ✅If you say family comes first, your employees need to see you live it. ✅If you say people matter, you need to invest in them. ✅If you say respect matters, you need to protect your team when difficult situations arise. ✅And if you want people to bring energy and commitment to the business, leaders have to create an environment where people feel valued, trusted, and supported. ✅Boris's approach demonstrates that you don't have to choose between a high-performing company and a people-first culture. The right culture can become one of the reasons your company performs better. Key Takeaways for Founders ✅Lead by example. Your team will follow what you do more than what you say. ✅Make your values visible. Values only matter when they influence real decisions. ✅Put people before processes. Your employees are a major driver of growth and scalability. ✅Create an experience, not just a job. Give people reasons to enjoy being part of your company. ✅Support employees as whole people. Their families, goals, and lives matter. ✅Protect your culture. Not every client or employee is the right fit. ✅Invest in your people. Coaching, development, and personal support can build long-term loyalty. Remember that culture affects the bottom line. A strong employee experience can translate into stronger teams, happier customers, and a healthier business. Listen to the Full Episode If you're a founder working hard to grow your company but still find yourself too deeply involved in the day-to-day, this episode offers a different perspective: your company's growth isn't just about working harder. It's about building the people, culture, and leadership systems that allow the business to grow beyond you. Listen to the full conversation to hear Boris's firsthand experiences and practical approach to building a company where people genuinely want to show up, contribute, and grow.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  While we value hard work and we value dedication and we value loyalty, we would say family comes first. And when people see that, that as a leader, you're leading by example and you value not only your family, but you also value my family. Like it speaks a lot. And of that, you can build hardworking, you can build loyalty, you can build like dedication and so forth.

• 0:24Speaker 01

  If you're a founder who's built something real and now your business can't grow without you in the middle of everything, you're in the right place. I'm Gene Hammond. This is Growth Think Tank, where founders who are ready to stop being the ceiling of their own company come to think differently, lead better, and build a company that doesn't need them. This is the longest running leadership podcast in the world. Hundreds of Inc. 5000 CEOs have told their stories here. Let's get to work. Today, we're going to talk about how to create an amazing employee experience. You may not be thinking about what the employee experience is, but hopefully after today's podcast, you will think about it a little bit more and maybe you can make some changes.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  Either ideas that we share in the show, or you may think within your team, how can we actually improve this experience here? Let me explain to you why I think this is important. An amazing employee experience is not just about being back, you know, chairs and ping pong tables and pool tables and having beer on tap. I worked in the dot com era where those things were culture. But I will tell you, an amazing employee experience starts with leadership and starts with respect. It starts with you really understanding your values. And when you get the right employees on board,

• 1:47Speaker 01

  you attract them and you create that experience, they will be more loyal than ever. They will stay with you. You will be able to keep them. And that formula allows you to continue to serve those clients, hopefully even get better as a service-based company and manufacturing company. It doesn't matter, but you get better over time because you have this culture and you protect it and others protect it. That amazing employee experience will give you so much more than just good feelings. It actually will show up in your bottom line. It'll never be on your P and L, but it will show up on your bottom line. I know this because through experience, I know this from watching others, those that make the mistakes.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  And so today, we're going to unpack this for you, how to create an amazing employee experience. We have with us the founder of Boris M. Tax. He's been on the Inc. list three times. He's got a small but dedicated team that does tax advising and planning. They don't do tax prep, really. They're much more proactive with their approach. Boris Musheyev, Musheyev, I think I got that right. I probably butchered the last name, but Boris is a pistol. He is so excited. He shows that here on the podcast and he's going to talk to you about his perspective and his principles of leadership. I'm not going to tell you what they are, but I will tell you, you might feel a little bit

• 3:13Speaker 01

  odd about one of them, and it's family first. And he believes that. He shares why he does it. He gives examples over and over and over about creating that amazing employee experience. And so if you're listening today and you're wondering why your culture isn't really the way you want it to be, this is a great place to look at and see how you can improve that experience. My hope is that you will take this content and you will do something today. Not for me, but for you and your team. Now here's a great interview for Boris.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  Hey Boris, how are you?

• 3:53Speaker 00

  Good, thank you.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Excited to have you on the podcast today.

• 3:57Speaker 00

  Excited to be here.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Before I dive in, let's, let's talk about your company. Give us a really good idea of what Boris M. Tax stands for.

• 4:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, so we are a tax planning and advisory firm located in New York, in the city of New York, actually. But we service clients all over the United States. We have clients in over 40 states right now. And we primarily specialize in doing tax planning and advisory for business owners. So we work with them throughout the year. We do their tax planning strategies. Our clients save tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars on taxes. But not only advisory and planning, we also prepare their taxes and pretty much we are that tax advisor in their corner.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  So based on that, I get a feeling that you're not just about doing tax returns.

• 4:43Speaker 00

  No, never. When somebody wants to work with us, we don't take them on as a tax, tax preparation client. We only take them on if they're a business owner and we can help them save money on taxes. And tax preparation is just an attaché to it, so to speak, like an attached type of service. But now it's only planning and advisory.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  Right. So that's a good distinction. I also heard you say you save them lots of money, which I think a lot of, you know, tax planning would say the same thing. But what really separates your company from the others out there in your industry?

• 5:16Speaker 00

  So it's a loaded question because I think that at the point where I met with my company in a tax, providing tax planning and advisory, like it's been a journey, learning from a lot of mistakes. And to provide a really, really good service to business owners. Because one thing that we excel, I believe more than anybody else, is the ability to communicate and educate business owners about the things that they can do on their taxes to save money on taxes. So that's, I would say, that is, that is what separates us. If they work with other tax advisors or planners, which we have seen many times, is that the business owners still don't know why certain things are being done on their taxes or what else could be done. For us, that was also true when I was just starting out.

• 6:01Speaker 00

  But now at this journey, at this stage where we're at with that, with our business, I would, I would say that we have excelled at that and our clients are absolutely satisfied and get a lot of, we get a lot of feedback about how could we communicate that to them.

• 6:16Speaker 01

  So Boris, as fascinating as I am about, you know, talking about tax planning and, and learning from you, because I've, I've watched a few of the videos on YouTube, doing a great job over there, explaining things, using your whiteboards. And I encourage anyone that's got some questions about specific elements, good resource for tax planning education.

• 6:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  We're not going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about your company. We're going to talk about leadership and culture because that's what we do here at Growth Think Tank.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  Finally, a break from talking about taxes, Gene. Thank you.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  All right. Well, I know you don't have any of these questions, so everything is going to be shooting from the hip. Do the best job you can to just kind of, you know, answer this the way it would help another, you know, business owner. Because you speak with them all the time about tax planning, but now they're getting a peek inside how you run your business. So big question, just wondering where your mind goes with this. If you think about leadership, it's, it's a collection of principles. What are one or two principles that really drive the success of Boris M. Tax?

• 7:20Speaker 00

  First one, I would say is setting an example. You as a leader to set an example of how you want the company to be. So if you want it to be a certain way and you want your people to operate a certain way, everything builds about example because of that builds the energy, of that builds the attitude, of that builds the positivity. So one of the things that I have been practicing and still doing, and I wouldn't say I'm perfect at it, but always lead by example.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  And the second thing is that I'm a family man, so married, got five kids. And the second core value, so to speak, that we insert and infuse into our business is family first. While we value hard work and we value dedication and we value loyalty, we would say family comes first. And when people see that, that as a leader, you're leading by example and you value not only your family, but you also value my family. Like it speaks a lot. And of that, you can build hardworking, you can build loyalty, you can build like dedication and so forth.

• 8:26Speaker 01

  You know, I, I don't hear that a lot on the show. I hear the lead by example, but the family first, I want to dive into that a little bit because this is interesting. I'm a family person too. Like I don't, I never want to sacrifice this. Now, I did have a, I do have a 19 year old and I asked him the other day and he said, you know, dad, I said, what, you're looking back at your childhood. What, you know, what do you remember? He goes, I remember you worked really hard. I was like, yeah, I did. But do you remember all the good times we had and all the things we did? And he's like, yeah, sort of. But I'm glad that you, you have defined it for your culture as family first. Does that allow you to attract better talent to have that value?

• 9:06Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, it absolutely resonates with people. I had people accept the job offer just because they said, I really like that. It's like, that speaks to me. Or like, I want to build a family and I want to be in a company that will help me with that. About three or four years ago, I hired this girl to work for us as a bookkeeper. And she had two kids at that time. And apparently as soon as she took a job, two months later, she found out she was pregnant. And she told my, her managers, like, listen, I have a, you know, I have a situation. I'm pregnant. I'm afraid to tell Boris because I'm afraid to lose my job. And you know what my manager told her? She's like, are you kidding me? He's going to love it. Go tell him. Nothing is going to happen to you. When I heard that, I was like, that's amazing.

• 9:49Speaker 00

  Like my manager told her, listen, you need not be afraid. Go tell him and he's going to be happy for you. And of course we were. And of course we accommodated her day, days off and whatever it is that she needed to take care of that baby. But yeah, it definitely helps you not only attract talent, I would say, but also helps you keep that talent.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. Which really, most people don't really understand the power of that. Attracting the right talent is very important, but keeping it is critical because it's really hard to build, you know, I know you were on the Inc. list three years in a row. That means you've got over six years of really good, solid growth, what that tells me. And that you, you're able to keep the people that keep that growth, that keep that institutional knowledge pushing forward.

• 10:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, 100%. And, and you know, keeping people is not easy, Gene. I know it goes a lot more. It's like building a culture, developing a culture, cultivating a culture, creating that positive environment. It's like all of these things that sound nice. Hey, we've got family first, but now I've got to act on it. Now, now we've got to fulfill the promise, right? Many other things that it comes to, to making that happen.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  I've been a business owner for, uh, since 2001, multiple businesses. I'm a serial entrepreneur, have multiple businesses even now. And just last year was the first time I, I got to pay for maternity leave. I don't know how I, you know, it never came up, you know, all the employees we've had before. I didn't avoid it. I wasn't, you know, looking for the, you know, how do I get away from this? But it came up and she was afraid to tell me to, just like your, your employee was afraid to tell you. And I said, I don't, I don't have to do this. I get to do this. I'm, I'm excited to be able to give back to you and your, you know, to help you start your family. And so that was something that, um, was special to me as a business owner to be able to do that.

• 11:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:46Speaker 01

  When you're talking about family first, I'm kind of curious, what other things would we see across your organization that would let me, you know, send a signal that you really are family first?

• 12:00Speaker 00

  I work with my wife, Mariana. She works together with me in the office. And, uh, we, uh, number one, it's, uh, when, when we say family first, at least in our organization, we also need to lead by example. So for example, always having a positive attitude and energy towards each other, uh, always being polite with each other, which signals to other people, uh, this family, you know, is polite. And, you know, we, we, uh, we put that into our culture. Uh, most importantly though, we have kids. So we've go, you know, people see us that, you know, we will take some time off to go to attend to either kids play or a graduation or whatever it is that

• 12:43Speaker 00

  has to do with the kids. So like sometimes randomly I would go and pick up my child from school, just to spend some time with him. Right? So like it's a random surprise pickup, go have lunch together, go like, I don't know, laser bounce, whatever it is to like play a couple of, uh, arcade games, whatever that is. And people see that, right? And because when they, we say family first and we see that, um, or if somebody is ill in the family or sick, whatever it is, we need to take care of that. People always had this situation happen. A loved one is very sick. Something happened, something tragic happened and they need to take off. They did not hesitate to ask for it. And to take some time off, we had somebody visit her mom for two, three months in another country. We had somebody take a, a leave to take care of the

• 13:27Speaker 00

  father that unfortunately was, uh, ill with cancer for a few months. And they knew that they can, hey, like, we see this environment, we see this, our leaders and they're totally family oriented. So I can approach them with my family needs and they can accommodate. And that's, that's what's been happening.

• 13:48Speaker 01

  I love all of this. Um, side note, I work with my wife too. Not always easy.

• 13:54Speaker 00

  I would say it was not probably for the first two years. I mean, it's still not uh, easy, but it's not as hard as it was the first two years because you've got to adapt. You gotta be like, you, you gotta have those per, different personalities at work, at home, and even at work, a softer personality. Cause you know, at work as a leader, you gotta be firm, you gotta, you know, at the end of the day, we want to get shit done. Right? So like, but you know, having that attitude with, with your wife's like, whoa, you have to find the balance, obviously.

• 14:21Speaker 01

  If you're listening to this show, chances are you're a founder who's built something significant, but you're still too deep in the day to day to see the path forward. That's exactly what the Founder Freedom Strategy Call is for. It's free. It's 30 minutes with me personally. And we'll pinpoint exactly what's keeping you stuck and what you need to do about it. Book your time with me at my personal URL, schedulewithgene.com. Now back to the podcast. I agree with this. I, I want to switch gears, but it really, because I think a lot of people listening in here are working really hard to grow their business. Maybe they got some headwinds ahead of them. Maybe they just love to work hard. Maybe that this part of their identity is to put in that extra time because that's their founders and they care so much about their businesses.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  And I'm sure you and your team work really hard, but you also have, it's, it sounds like, you know, you don't, it's not just about the work. It's about the whole work experience. Like, give me a little bit more insight around that.

• 15:22Speaker 00

  Uh, for my company, you mean for the culture and for the people? Yeah, absolutely. So it's, you're right. It's not about the work. It's about the experience. So we as accountants, we tend to do a lot of boring work. That's at least what people think. At Boris M. Tax, the work is a little bit more than boring. It's actually a little bit more exciting because we get to use tax strategies and plan throughout the year and see savings. We got clients that were tearing up when they saw their savings. We have clients excited, screaming at the phone, whatever that is. But yes, it's about experience of being here. And for example, we only work overtime during tax season, right? So like, as you know, every accountant, they work overtime. Everybody knows this. We, we try to start our tax season hours as late as

• 16:03Speaker 00

  possible, which is in February, only 10 weeks. Okay. Maybe a couple of weeks in October, September. If anybody's working past eight o'clock or past six o'clock, I would come out and be like, you're done. You're going home. We're done. Like, cause I know, right? I know if I know a person, certain position is doing a very important work, like there's a certain project, obviously I wouldn't say that. But if I see somebody's working on something that doesn't need to be done right now, just go chill, go enjoy. You've got a family. Um, birthdays is a big thing in the office. Every month we celebrate, you know, that month's birthday. We've got July birthdays coming up. And, you know, we, we basically create custom using a music on Suno app using AI, basically about that person. We buy cakes and stuff and we also have a wish list. Every employee gets

• 16:48Speaker 00

  put together their own wish list. And from that wish list, the company would buy them a gift, but if anybody else wants to buy a gift from that wish list. So it becomes a very special hour on that day at Boris M. Tax. Um, a lot of fun, a lot of energy, a lot of excitement. I never walk into the office, shouldn't say never, but almost never walk into the office with a grim face, sad or anything of that sort. High energy. I don't care what type of a terrible day that I'm having, but I'm walking in with high energy to infuse that energy. So it's about making that experience. Like you said, like I, I say, I have people saying, I, I want to come to work the next day. I want to be in the office. Like, I never thought that this would be possible because we make, you know, we try to create that experience.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  I really do appreciate you sharing all this with us because I think a lot of founders listening in this are like, you know, I wish it was different than the way it is today, but they, all they know is to work hard. They're working early, they're working late and they're wondering

• 17:48Speaker 00

  The biggest asset, Gene, sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you. It's just that I've come to, to realize early in my career, thankfully, um, is that the biggest asset you have in your business, like we all know this, but I don't think we realize, like really realize it. The biggest, one of the biggest assets are your people.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:06Speaker 00

  You can't grow without people. Right? Like I, I say a motto in the company, we, uh, company for the people by the people. Right? Our company is for the people by the people. Right? You can't grow without people. If you don't give them a good place to work at, like it's expensive to hire a new person. And not in monetarily expensive, but expensive in terms of a time. So why, why do that? Why, you know, not create, not realize that, you know, the biggest asset that you have is your people, just cultivate them. Obviously train those that can be trained. Obviously bad fits, you have to let go, you know, hire, uh, slow fire fast. That's a big motto of mine. Uh, so, but yeah, like the biggest asset is your people. Your people will help you grow. Your

• 18:50Speaker 00

  people will help you scale, but you've got to, you've got to treat them and cultivate that culture and make them, make it meaningful for them. And, uh, since we're on this topic, since you like, what I'm saying, I'll add another thing that I do at least once a year with everybody is that I meet with them and we set personal and professional goals together. And a lot of people talk to me about their finances. They talk to me about their money, where they want to be. And it has nothing to do with salary, extra bonuses or extra raises. People just share their goals. Like I want to buy a house in the next five years. I want to buy a car. I want to get healthy. I want to lose 20 pounds. I want to do this. I'm like, right. You know, like I, I tell them, I've set a lot of goals in my life and I think I know a little bit about goal setting. Let me help you map this out.

• 19:36Speaker 00

  And, you know, I had a girl that I, I met with her the second time already after six months. She said Boris, I had three student loans. Thanks to her conversation, I was able to pay one of them and I'm on track to pay my second biggest one. And she's like, and she's very disciplined. She's like, I am just like, I'm like, you go on vacation this year? She said, no, I'm not. I'm going to pick, cause she got a little bonus coming. She's like, I'm going to put it towards my student loan. I'm like, you know what? You go on vacation, I'll pay for it. I'm like, cause I love your dedication. So she's like, she's super grateful. So that's, that's it. I'm glad we had, I'll let you, I'll let you lead it from here. Sorry. I got a little, I got a little carried away.

• 20:13Speaker 01

  I, I love your excitement around this and around your people because I, I'm glad we went there. I know this wasn't our planned conversation. I'm very interested in the tax strategy that you and your company, whatnot. I really am. I like numbers and I like, I like money and I like to not pay as much taxes I need to, I only want to pay what I owe, not the extra. Um, but really fascinated with, you know, the culture that you've created here. And it's no surprise to me that your company is continuing to grow and that your clients are happy because you have happy employees. I want to share with you some research that we've done over the years. I call it the impossible question. And I get some pushback on this, but most people get it when they really

• 20:56Speaker 01

  understand how powerful culture is. The impossible question is, as a leader, what's more important? Your customers or your employees? I think I know what you would say.

• 21:08Speaker 01

  What would you say?

• 21:12Speaker 00

  I'm not gonna lie, it's a tough question, right?

• 21:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's impossible.

• 21:16Speaker 00

  I don't think it's a, there is a right answer, but I tell you what, what I always put my team above the client when it comes to, let's say, a client is being disrespectful, or whatever it is, like, like, okay, like, we don't care what you're paying for the firm, to the firm, what your fee is, this can't happen. I've fired clients multiple times for this, like, this just can't happen, right? Team loves it, like Boris is always looking out after us, and it's true, I am. I'm like, listen, guys, one thing I don't want everybody to have is what I used to have when I used to work for these firms, is that when I go home and I go to bed and the numbers and the clients are just rolling in my head, I'm like, let's just try, I mean, by nature, it probably will happen, because that's the industry that we're in, but we don't need to add on to it. So it's a tough question.

• 22:01Speaker 00

  Obviously, clients are important to you, but a team member, team members are also important as well. And if they're working well together, I, I don't know, it's good. But if they're not, you have to figure out who's the problem.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  It takes both, and I will tell you, ninety-three percent of the people that are Inc. five thousand founders, so smaller companies, not huge, say that it's team first. Take care of the team, which you've already said, and they take care of your clients. And that's, that's the data that, that is really tried of, a lot of people find interesting. I find, I found it very interesting when it started to develop and I started looking at things. But what we, what you've shown, hey, leading by example is take, you know, putting family first, all of that together, you show this, not just by words, but by the, the actions that you take of actually taking care of your people, so that they can take care of clients when the time comes.

• 23:00Speaker 00

  Hundred percent.

• 23:02Speaker 01

  Boris, we're wrapping up here. What's one thing that you feel like, because you work with a lot of, you know, founders and CEOs in, in the tax planning, but you get a look inside their world, what is, what was one thing you would share with them that you feel like would make a big impact on the way they lead their companies?

• 23:19Speaker 00

  The way they lead their companies? I mean, I, I can only say what I do. And for me, what works best is everything that I've discussed here is to, number one, lead by example, right? Don't be a hypocrite, you lead by example. And at the same time, provide an absolutely amazing experience working for you. Not another dread, not another paycheck to collect. And it takes time, it takes coaching, obviously. I didn't come here, I haven't developed all of these things, techniques that I told you, but because I woke up and I'm this genius guy that I can think of these things. It takes self-development, it takes coaching, it takes going to certain conferences and learning, uh, learning things.

• 24:03Speaker 00

  It takes time, but it's absolutely possible.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  Well, Boris, thanks for being here on the podcast. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

• 24:10Speaker 00

  Thank you, Gene.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  Fantastic interview. I know that I say that so much and it gets overused, but I just, I love what I'm doing. I love connecting with these leaders. I did not expect for Boris to deliver like he did today, because I thought we would come in and talk about tax planning and strategies and that, you know, and the mistakes that people make. And I think he's an incredible resource for you. He's got plenty of content on YouTube that you can check into that, lean into it, and maybe you'd find out he's the right person for you. But I'm not here to sell you on Boris. I'm here to give you some new insights around that employee experience that we've been talking about today. If you create an amazing employee experience, you will have a better run company. I know that. That means your clients will be happier and you will be more profitable. There's so many reasons behind it.

• 24:58Speaker 01

  I'm not going to unpack them right now, I'm going to let you sort that out for yourself. But if you need anything from us, we'd love to support you. If I can help you with leadership and growth, just check out free content that we have. The latest book we have is Get Founder Freedom. We'd love for you to pick up a copy today, just go to getfounderfreedom.com. When you think of growth and you think of leadership, think of growth, think tank. As always, leave a courage. We'll see you next time.