Ep. 160: Katie Thomas - Finding, Connecting, and Developing Relationships with Key Stakeholders

Contact Katie Thomas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiethomascpa/
Leaders Online: www.leaders-online.com

4 C Process: www.leaders-online.com/4cprocess

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Adam: (00:04)
Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Adam Larson, and I'm here to preview episode 160 of our series. Katie Thomas, owner of Leaders Online, rejoins Count Me In today to talk about finding, connecting, and developing relationships with key stakeholders. Katie does a lot of marketing and social media for executives and helps them increase their presence in the industry. In her conversation with Mitch, she talks about the power of technology and social media as it pertains to increasing influence and nurturing lasting relationships. Keep listening as we head over to the main part of the episode now.

Mitch: (00:51)
So Katie, the first time we spoke, you talked about how technology really changed the landscape of the accounting industry. We talked about analytics, growing your business, becoming more profitable, things along those lines. But I understand a lot has changed since we spoke and that was, you know, February of 2020. So what I wanna kind of get into and, and start off is if you can kind of explain, you know, what you've seen over the last year and a half, and what else has changed across the accounting industry?

Katie: (01:20)
Yeah, so man, since February of 2020, I feel like technology has had to be embraced more than ever. I mean, there were a lot of firms using technology, but then there were a lot not, and I think it was this thing where the firms who weren't fully embracing technology, they knew about it, but it was kind of scary be because what you've done before, and if it was working, it's like why fix what's not broken, but then the pandemic hit and there was something that was broken. You could no longer have face-to-face meetings. You could no longer operate as you did before. And so it really forced the accounting firms and their clients into digital relationships, even if they were traditionally local relationships, like come in, meet face-to-face, it was, Hey, we've gotta find different ways to communicate with our clients. A lot of people jumped on Zoom and then managing the staff and the firm members that also had to change. So if you didn't previously use project management tool or document sharing, all of that had to be quickly learned and leveraged and utilized. So I think that the outcome of all of this is really cool because firms had to become confident in using this and they realize that they don't necessarily need as big of an office or they don't need to meet in person as much. And they can still maintain those relationships, whether it's with clients or with staff. I know a lot of firms I work with. They're like, okay, we miss getting together in person and we're still gonna do that. But you know, maybe it's, you don't have to be in the office eight to five every single day. There's some flexibility.

Mitch: (03:02)
Yeah. I think that's a great point. And you know, our focus for today's conversation really is on these relationships, right? Whether it's clients or key stakeholders inside or outside of the business, we'll get into, you know, how we connect with them and such, but to kind of connect the dots where we were and where we are. Can you first talk a little bit about maybe some of the things that technology can influence when it comes to stakeholder relationships and where we're going with our conversation today?

Katie: (03:29)
Yeah. So people really connect in two ways. There's gonna be emotional connections. So like that's just gonna be like conversations and how you feel out someone. maybe you have similar views, goals, thoughts, and people really connect this way through talking and through stories. So there is some technology that can help with this, even like Zoom or Loom or apps that just connect us. But really I see technology on the other side of how we connect the logical way that we connect and with technology, you can really see into the data and create a story through this to then help you connect and talk about why you're doing certain things, the outcome of why of what's happening. The data really gives us the facts and the technology and able to us to access the data to then create stories around this data. So technology is a key piece in communicating, but I really see it supporting a lot of that logical side of how humans can connect.

Mitch: (04:28)
That's really well said. And we did briefly talk about analytics last time and you know, the data and everything you just mentioned. It's, it's a great point. So to take it a step further, you mentioned Zoom and some other, you know, apps, as far as technology goes, whether they're specific tools or more broadly social media, just in general, what kind of resources can our listeners use to better find, connect and develop relationships with key stakeholders? You know, what can they go out and access in order to improve these relationships for the long term?

Katie: (05:01)
Yeah, so I definitely think Zoom's a really popular one. Another one I mentioned was Loom. So that's like a screen recording tool, which is super helpful if you're trying to explain something and you're not, maybe you're gonna deliver this through an email. You can walk someone through like financials or maybe a process or a report. And you can actually show yourself talking about it as well as share your screen. I think this one's great client portals are great tools. So client portals can be used to share documents, securely, communicate through them. I think that's a great one. and then social media platforms are also awesome because you can create content for a wide variety of people. You can have conversations in the direct message. You know, there's a lot of platforms out there. Maybe it's even like your project management tool where you're communicating, but really it's just identifying maybe where there's a gap in communication. And since there is a tool for about everything, if you Google that, you'll probably find someone that's found a solution or created a solution that you can utilize.

Mitch: (06:02)
Yeah. Google is a, it's a great tool in itself and very, you know, very helpful on a daily basis. But as I said earlier, you know, there's obviously a lot more to our conversation than technology. There's a lot more to the profession than just technology. So I do wanna take this a step further and really make sure we cover, you know, our listener side of things, the management accounting side, a little bit more of the accounting finance profession. As far as connecting with individuals, I know something that you really focus on with the marketing side of your business is enabling individuals to increase their influence. So I'd like to hear your thought on, you know, whether it's tools or strategies, what can individuals do to increase their influence and really make a greater impact on the business.

Katie: (06:47)
So I think one of the number one things that individuals can do to create a greater influence on the organization and individuals as a whole it's to really align their why with the company's why and wh...