Change Your Mindset

Carrie Sechel is an entrepreneurial business consultant, speaker, and the bestselling author of BASE Jump: Finding Yourself in an Unfulfilling Professional World. Before creating her business, Carrie spent 18 years in public accounting, including seven years as a partner with Deloitte.

Carrie always knew she wanted to start a business at some point, but she struggled, and her fear of leaving Deloitte was so great that she nearly broke down before finally deciding to move on. It was hard work to break away from the vision of success that she had been raised to believe.

How did Carrie redefine success for herself, build a thriving entrepreneurial consulting business, and write a bestselling book within two years of leaving Deloitte? She connected her knowledge and experiences to her passion to create the life that she wanted to live and aligned her business vision with her life vision. Now, she is driven to help others to do the same.

From Corporate America to Entrepreneur

Carrie fell into public accounting because she liked working with a variety of clients, learning about many different business issues, understanding how tax impacted those businesses, coaching her clients, and coaching her people.

But after being in public accounting for 18 years, she needed to look at really where things were going. She asked herself, “What am I creating here at Deloitte? What does that look like? And is that what I'm here to create?” She came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to find that thing in the various potential partner paths in public accounting.

“I knew that I wanted to create a business of my own.”

I know many of you have had that same thought, but a lot of people don't really realize the barriers that one goes through when going from employee to entrepreneur.

“I had been modeling a version of success that I had seen throughout my life and I was living this version of success that I had been raised to believe,” Carrie says. “I needed to redefine what success meant to me and find success in a way that meant I would have to humble myself for a while. I would have to take a pay cut for a while. I would have to create something of my own that, at that point, I didn't know what it was. And those were huge mental barriers to break through.”

“Your business is always a reflection of you. Your business is you and you're selling you, and you're defining what you're creating yourself – and all those things are infinitely exciting, and infinitely terrifying, and humbling.”

As an entrepreneur, Carrie is able to guide people and help them make this transition a little more easily. There are still big barriers, but with a little help and a plan, they’re a little less daunting.

This takes the form of Power to Pivot, Carrie’s system to take people through those initial steps to go from this chaotic not knowing feeling to just knowing.

“I see so many people going out and buying a franchise, or buying a shop, or a business that already exists. And several years later, they're just as miserable. And, actually, sometimes, more because they never honored what it is that they are truly meant to create. It's finding that, creating that big vision, and then planning for it.

You can learn more about Carrie’s system in her free on-demand training session called Authentic Ambition: How to Create a Post-Corporate Life You Love Full of Abundance, Creativity, and Joy. She goes through the system in detail and offers some very specific items to think about, so you can start exploring your options right now.

Resources:

• Learn more at CarrieSechel.com
• Free training session: Authentic Ambition: How to Create a Post-Corporate Life You Love Full of Abundance, Creativity, and Joy
• Read: BASE Jump: Finding Yourself in an Unfulfilling Professional World

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Sean Kenny is the Co-Founder of PrepLink, a platform that allows accounting firms to work with freelance CPAs remotely, flexibly, and on demand. He is on a mission to transform the landscape of public accounting, and as you’ll hear in this episode, he is extremely passionate about this mission (and, personally, I think PrepLink is going to evolve into something very special).

Before founding PrepLink, Sean worked as a CPA for several firms in their tax departments, and the idea was born out his frustration with the lifestyle of public accounting – a frustration many of us understand all too well.

Sean realized that by providing a tool that allows accountants the option of finding remote, flexible work, he could tap into the abundance of talented and experienced CPAs willing to take on freelance assignments and open that up to firms who can benefit from a large pool of reliable on-demand experts.

“I want to offer a small firm all the resources of a large national accounting firm.” So when a small firm needs help with a specific subject matter they don’t know much about or a big project that needs more hands, they know they can find someone perfect for the job and bring them on.

PrepLink isn’t just outsourcing, though. It’s a new network for public accounting, allowing firms and professionals to establish and build relationships within the CPA community.

Sean shares an example of how he plans to use PrepLink to help him navigate the complexities of Nexus for an online business operating in multiple states:

“Right now, I have a business. I have clients all over the country. I'm actually going to have to use PrepLink to bring on people to help me understand my requirements as an internet business with all these accounting firms that I'm dealing with across the country. I need help there.”

But it's just not the accounting entrepreneurs like Sean who will benefit from this. It's tax managers or auto managers have this nagging feeling that there's to be a better way of doing things. “I'm screaming from the mountaintops,” Sean says, “if you offer flexibility, the amount of people willing to work with you will outstrip the amount of work that you have.”

Sean also stresses that you don't have to use PrepLink. “You can do it yourself. I hope this message gets across. Just offer flexibility and offer optionality, and you'll get people. You'll get amazing people.”

Resources:

Learn more at preplink.ioConnect with Sean: LinkedIn | TwitterConnect with PrepLink: LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter 

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Have you ever laughed out loud at a tax seminar? Do you wish that you could understand complex tax law in simple terms? Would you like to make more money with great tax planning strategies?

You may not believe it’s possible – mostly the laughing part – but today’s guest, David Krebs, is here to prove you wrong.

David is an author, speaker, Thomson Reuters Gear Up Tax Class teacher, silver-certified bowling instructor, and Olympic Calculator Edition champion, and he is unique in the tax space for two reasons: One, his unparallelled passion for helping his clients save money and grow their businesses. Two, when he's teaching or working with his clients, he makes taxes fun.

That's right – taxes and fun, in the same sentence, on purpose!

David even says that his spiritual gift is making tax law fun. Because “if you have to sit through a seminar for eight hours on taxes, and you enjoy it, that is a gift!” And I really couldn’t agree more.

In this interview, you'll hear the passion that Dave exudes, and it's completely contagious. He got me so jazzed that I think I want to attend one of his tax seminars. And I've never – I mean never – willingly wanted to attend a tax seminar.

If you also find yourself wanting to attend one of David’s seminars, look at the full list of upcoming events at gearup.com and send David a message asking if he’ll be speaking at the sessions near you (dave [at] cpaagi.com).

Resources:

Learn more at cpaagi.comAttend one of David’s talks: gearup.comRead: "How an improv class can help develop essential business skills" 

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I recently started facilitating an experimental new professional development program called Slide Deck Improv, and today I am excited to introduce you to two of partners in crime in this venture, Kristen Rampe and Jason Lieu.

Kristen is the creator of Slide Deck Improv, a 10-year veteran of public accounting, and the owner of Kristen Rampe Consulting. Jason actually worked for Kristen during his short tenure as an accountant, but he left the profession to pursue improv and acting. Now he’s back in the professional services field as a fellow facilitator for Slide Deck Improv.

So what is Slide Deck Improv?

It’s the most fun way to improve your presentation skills and gain confidence in your abilities, all while practicing the life skill that is improvisation.

Slide Deck Improv combines the basic concepts of business communication and improvisation with practical – and fun – hands-on exercises.

The groups take part in improv games, culminating in the titular event: people take turns coming onstage, the audience chooses a topic, and then the presenter has to prepare a presentation on that topic using a slide deck they’ve never seen before.

In the process, presenters get an opportunity to take a risk in a safe environment, while practicing new communication and storytelling skills.

“I think one of the beautiful things about improv is that it shows you what you actually do know and what you actually have internalized; to have a little bit more faith in your abilities and to not feel so insecure in a public realm,” Jason says. “I think a lot of us feel like we can't do it, we don't know how to do it, we don't trust our instincts. [But Slide Deck Improv] opens up a whole new realm for people.”

I fell in love with this program the very first time I saw it, and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of it. Because we’re not just teaching business communications skills, we’re teaching everyday life skills.

Improv is all about connecting with your audience, no matter who the audience is. It could be your customers, clients, a sales team, family, strangers, whatever – at the end of the day, it comes to people talking to people. And if you can connect with and engage people, you're going to have this newfound confidence in your abilities.

If you want to see Slide Deck Improv firsthand, check out these videos of their past presentations  on YouTube.

Resources:

Learn more at slidedeckimprov.comFollow Slide Deck Improv: LinkedIn | Facebook | TwitterWant to do this yourself? Learn more about the upcoming Small Group DIY Kit 

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My guest today is Courtney Kirschbaum, who I had the pleasure of speaking with after her keynote address at the Georgia Society of CPAs’ Southeastern Accounting Show in Atlanta. Courtney’s keynote address was titled “The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?” and it focuses on the idea that everything old is new again, especially when it comes to panicking about the younger generation.

This talk was first inspired by a quote from Socrates: “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

Sound familiar? Because 2000 years later, some older folks are still singing this tune – and yet, things are still getting done.

“Everybody thinks that their beginning and their end are like the ultimate beginning and the end... [but] anybody who had been in business for even a short while knows that so much of what we see is just something old with a new name.”

Burnout & Karoshi

Part of Courtney’s presentation covered the idea of karoshi, which can be translated literally as “overwork death.” Both Courtney and I have seen how this affects the Japanese people first hand, and you can learn even more about it in The Washington Post’s article “Do Japanese really work themselves to death? In some cases, yes.”

The sad truth is that the work culture in Japan has led to thousands of deaths, to the point where the government is now involved – and our culture here in the U.S. isn’t so different.

“It's going to come here, I think. It might come more slowly, it might take a different form, but we are turning into a culture that is work-obsessed. Well, we've been there for a while.”

The average workweek is 47 hours now. Not only that, from 2000 to 2014, the productivity at work increased by 21.6% – but, at the same time, the remuneration only increased by 1.8%. And that is simply unsustainable.

“We abandon our humanity, and we're working people to the point where they can't take it anymore, and they leave. And I think when we make millennial a pejorative term, we're kind of doing the same thing.”

So let's all cut each other some slack, let’s learn what we can about self-care from the younger generation, and let's add a little humanity to the equation; Let’s just bring some humanity into the boardroom, into the conference room, into our meetings, into how we manage our people, and how we interact with our people.

Don't just ask, “Will it work? Is it profitable? Is it right?” – Ask, “Is it humane?”

The evidence that treating people like people isn’t just nice, but a financially viable strategy, is abundant. So do you have the guts to do it?

Resources:

• Learn more at courtneykirschbaum.com
• Connect with Courtney: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
• Watch Courtney on YouTube
• Read: "“Yes, and” Take a Negotiation Lesson from Improv Theatre"

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My guest today is Kate Colbert, the Founder & President of Silver Tree Communications and Silver Tree Publishing and the author of the newly released book Think Like a Marketer: How a Shift in Mindset Can Change Everything for Your Business. Kate provides great marketing advice for people in any kind of business, and she tailored this conversation for the financial professional.

Now, this isn’t about converting accounting and finance professionals into marketers – It's about helping people like accountants make better decisions about their accounting practice by thinking like a marketer.

In Think Like a Marketer, Kate discusses the five principles that will help you make this mindset shift and change everything for your business:

Communicate for connection and meaning, not just to transact sales. (For a little bonus reading on this subject, check out this article in the Journal of Accountancy: “Networking Tips for Quiet People: A Little Preparation Can Take the Fear Out of Networking”)You live and die by your customers' insights. You may think accounting professionals are a group of subject matter experts who are all about the data and numbers, right? But thinking like a marketer requires looking at numbers that most professionals just aren't. For example, when is the last time you did a client satisfaction survey?Market yourself in a way that's strategy religious and tactic agnostic. This is not about where you go to church – If that you have a marketing strategy that you’re confident in, you need to be sticking religiously to that strategy. But in terms of the tactics you apply and the activities you do in marketing, you need to be really open-minded and agnostic.Create cultures and processes that align with your brand. What are you willing to do differently in your day-to-day processes, up to and including the way the building is laid out, in order to really deliver on the story that you’re telling to the marketplace about what makes you a better accounting firm than the accounting firm down the street?Do everything in service of maintaining a virtuous cycle of creating value for the customer while capturing value for you. 

I am confident if you execute to these five principles, you'll begin to see signs that your marketing is resonating with your audience and having an impact.

“It doesn't matter where you are in your journey. Whether we're talking about a book that you just wrote, or if we're talking about a business that you founded, or a business that you work in, the perfect time to start thinking like a marketer is now.”

Resources:

Learn more at thinklikeamarketerthebook.comJoin the Think Like a Marketer Community: facebook.com/groups/1757442721002369Connect with Kate on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/katecolbertThink Like a Marketer: How a Shift in Mindset Can Change Everything for Your Business 

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Rebekah Brown is the Director of Development for the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute. Rebekah frequently presents to groups both locally and nationally on the future of the accounting profession and, as a certified Insight to Action facilitator, she has guided firms, nonprofits, and accounting professionals in the United States and Canada in their strategic planning process.

On top of all the work that Rebekah does, she’s just downright passionate about the profession, taking a “rising tide raises all ships” philosophy to everything she does to train and educate her fellow and future accountants.

Rebekah focuses on what she calls the three P’s:

1. People – “I develop people! I am passionate ... about helping people find their strengths and find their place in the accounting profession. So, on an individual basis, with each of our members, I want to help develop them and develop their careers.”
2. Pipeline – MACPA is over  100 years old, and in that time they’ve learned that we have to be constantly thinking about and developing future CPAs. So a lot of Rebekah’s work involves talking to college students, high school students, and even elementary school students about the accounting profession. “So, I’m always thinking about who is our next generation CPA, who's our next generation member, and preparing them for the profession.”
3. Profession – The MACPA isn’t solely focused preparing accounting and finance professionals in Maryland. “We really believe that the rising tide raises all boats. So, we want the profession to grow to be successful, to be anticipatory, to be future-ready. And so, as we do that all over the world, we believe we are benefiting Maryland, and we believe that Maryland CPAs are even better positioned to be future-ready because of that.”

Speaking of the future of the profession, there was an article in Accounting Today titled “Melancon: It’s time to reimagine accounting” covering a presentation that Barry Melancon, the President and CEO of the AICPA, made this year at the AICPA ENGAGE Conference.

My favorite quote from this article is when Barry says, "We've changed significantly just in the past year, and we're never going to see the pace of change that's slower than what we're seeing now. And, you know, we won't be obsolete, particularly, if we embrace these changes."

Just let that sink in. How does that affect you and your business, and how does that affect you as an accounting financial professional as we move forward?

I highly recommend reading the article and listening to Barry's podcast interview with Bill Sheridan on Future-Proof, a podcast for accounting and financial pros.

After doing so myself, I have decided to invest my CPE time and dollars into learning more about blockchain and artificial intelligence. I've been somewhat reluctant to do this, but I want to have this better understanding of this technology.

Resources:

• Learn more: MACPA.org | BLIonline.org
• Connect with Rebekah: Twitter | LinkedIn
• Listen to Peter on Episode 19 of Future-Proof & subscribe on Apple Podcasts

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Change Your Mindset is produced by Podcast Masters

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Overwhelmed by trying to stay current with the rapid change in technology? Have sleepless nights because you fear that someone will #hack into your company? Just need IT help? Then this episode is for you.

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Owen Wyss is the Financial Controller at Thompson Concrete Construction, and he can best be described by a quote he gave in a recent AICPA article titled “Tired of Getting After-Hours Work Email?” Owen said, "Given the fact that my company does pay for me to have the ability to access my email on my smartphone, I believe they expect me to be available in an emergency or in order not to delay a project or task, especially since we operate globally."

Now, most CPAs don't feel that way – and that is what makes Owen a great leader!

Owen embraces the essence of leadership. He is currently Vice Chair of Finance for the Ohio Society of CPAs, is also on the board of the Construction Financial Management Association, and has been on the board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (an organization close to my heart).

“I encourage, first, for everybody to find something they're passionate about; and second, to find an organization that aligns with them and realize that what will come of that are some great friendships, some great networking opportunities, and business connections.”

That’s a lot for one person, in addition to having a job and a family, so our conversation covers a wide variety of topics: his role as a financial controller, why the construction industry needs to embrace more lean practices to become more efficient, and his volunteer time.

As you’ll hear, Owen is passionate about everything he does and is a great role model for both young and old. I am very proud of him, and I'm envious of his drive.

I also have an exciting announcement: my new book, Taking the Numb Out of Numbers: Explaining and Presenting Financial Information with Confidence and Clarity, is available for purchase on Amazon.com! If you'd like to learn more about the book, head on over to TakingTheNumbOutOfNumbersBook.com.

Resources:

Learn more about the Ohio Society: ohiocpa.comConnect with Owen on LinkedIn 

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 Change Your Mindset is produced by Podcast Masters

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Cara Silletto is a retention guru who works with companies all around the country, in all different industries, to help them reduce employee turnover. To accomplish that, she bridges the generational gaps and helps managers be more effective in their roles.

This is an issue that comes up a lot in firms today and it’s only going to be a bigger issue with each passing year. So if you’re clinging to the old ways – well, consider this a wake-up call.

Because the firms who are set in their ways, who have decades-old policies they haven't revisited, are the ones who contact Cara saying things like, "We can't recruit anybody... And when we do recruit somebody, they're only staying one or two years, or they don't want to be on the partner track anymore. What's the problem?"

The Millennial Mindset

Cara is the author of a short book titled The Millennial Mindset (which you can get for free here). It contains some stories about Cara’s childhood, as she happens to be one of the oldest millennials, talking about things like technology, respect for authority, and entitlement (everybody's favorite topic when it comes to millennials).

“And what that little booklet talks about is the backstory of why am I, as a millennial, so entitled, and why do I have no loyalty to anyone or anything,” Caray says. “[It] tells a lot of those stories of how I grew up differently than the previous generations, which is a pretty good aha moment for a lot of managers and older colleagues, even, that really do not understand how millennials see the world so differently.”

Why Your Employees Leave & How to Keep Them Longer

Cara also co-authored a new book called Staying Power: Why Your Employees Leave and How to Keep Them Longer. This book focuses on specific strategies for reducing employee turnover today, covering the evolution of our employees over the last 20 to 30 years in the workplace.

“Today, we are in an employee's market. It's absolutely the employees' choice, the candidates' choice, of where they're going to work.”

The power has shifted – and it's time for your mindset to shift as well.

Survey after survey says that the new generation of workers don't leave because of pay. They leave because of things like antiquated software and mandatory Saturdays.

What the new generations want is flexibility and to be heard; they would like more transparency across the entire organization. It can be frustrating for staff when they feel like the partners are the only ones who know what's going on.

People are only going to stay as long as they feel that it's a good place for them to work and you're only going to keep them so long as they're providing what you need as an employer – so it has to be mutually beneficial.

“I want to challenge each and every one of you to turn up your appreciation dial and start to thank people for doing a great job, even if it is their job.”

Some of you are probably cringing right now at the idea – "That's why they get a paycheck," after all.

But we know that there are people who come to work and don't do their job, or they don't do a great job, or they're not as dependable as some of the other staff on our team.

You will gain so much more loyalty and people will want to work for you longer if you show the appreciation that is deep down inside of you. Because if you dig down, you probably are thankful for the people who show up, show up on time, do great work, and take great care of your clients or any of the projects that they're on.

GIVEAWAY: Want a free copy of Staying Power?

Cara is offering one free autographed copy of Staying Power: Why Your Employees Leave and How to Keep Them Longer to Change Your Mindset listeners. If you want a chance to win, all you have to do is tag Peter on social media and mention the book.

You can find Peter...

• On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theaccidentalaccountant
• Twitter: @pmargaritis
• Or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermargaritis/

After a week, we will pick one lucky winner to receive a signed copy of the book.

Resources:

• Learn more at crescendostrategies.com
• Connect with Cara: Facebook | LinkedIn
• Staying Power: Why Your Employees Leave and How to Keep Them Longer
• Get a copy FREE: The Millennial Mindset

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Change Your Mindset is produced by Podcast Masters

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