The Successful Bookkeeper Podcast

“Culture always defaults to the worst behavior that we allow. And I think that is true of our leadership as well.” -Zach Montroy All of us have had experiences of toxic or unhealthy workplace cultures. While a healthy culture is everyone’s responsibility to co-create and maintain, office power dynamics are normally structured from the top down. It is the leaders who have to set the tone and make sure everyone has what they need to show up motivated, knowing they will be supported in their work. It is easy to identify what makes us feel good, but just because we have positive success in one area doesn’t mean there aren’t areas for improvement. If we want our businesses to truly thrive, we have to practice the hard conversations and be in a positive state of leadership, leaning away from command and control and being open to hearing some tough truths. Zach Montroy, founder and CEO at the Intention Collective, is this episode’s featured guest. He speaks to the power of values, especially courage in building a brave workplace. He has spent his career helping businesses put direction, courage and vision into their strategies, identifying the destination and helping set the course to make it possible. If you are feeling listless in your bookkeeping business, not really sure which direction to go, or how to have the hard conversations, this episode will give you the courage to take an authentic look at what needs to change. During this interview, you'll learn... Why embedding values into our culture matters How to identify & understand workplace culture The importance of self-awareness & principles in leadership  To find out more about Zach, click here.  Connect with him on LinkedIn. Time Stamps 01:31 - Zach discusses his career journey  03:12 - Understanding the problem  08:14 - Leadership starts with the self  12:00 - Confronting a toxic culture  14:38 - Daring to lead  17:18 - Creating the best place to work  22:56 - The work of the Intention Collective  26:33 - Resources to support your business This episode is brought to you by our great friends at Dext! Do you chase after your clients’ receipts, enter data manually and lose information? Dext Prepare is a bookkeeping automation software that removes unnecessary tasks from your workflow. Giving you and your clients more time to focus on what matters. To learn more, visit Dext.com today!

“Going those first few years on that solopreneur route can be very lonely at times and finding people that you can talk to and collaborate with and learn and grow from is huge.” -Danielle Hendon   Building a business is all about bridging gaps and creating connections. Between yourself and your clients, your team, and your network. But before we can build anything successful, we have to be confident and sure in our own abilities.    If we can’t articulate what it is we can bring to clients that no one else can, how can we expect them to choose us, or have faith in our abilities?    When you know what it is you love to do, it makes it much easier to create links with others that can fill the gaps in your ability. If you love spending time doing the numbers, but find all of your time taken by marketing or client contact, are you really any better off doing it alone than you would be hiring someone to do those things for you?   Danielle Hendon, owner of 4 Corners CFO, is this episode’s featured guest. She will provide advice on how small businesses can pay themselves what they are worth, by arming them with the understanding they need to make continued profits.   If you are thinking of starting a bookkeeping business, aren’t sure how to spend more time doing the things you love or are afraid of investing time in potential relationships, then this is the episode to get you thinking differently about yourself.   During this interview, you'll learn... The value of letting go of the little things How to know when the time is right for growth & change The importance of figuring out what you have to offer  To find out more about Danielle, click here.   Connect with her on LinkedIn.   Time Stamps   01:38 - Danielle discusses her career journey 05:14 - The cornerstones of business 06:01 - Taking the leap 08:20 - Figuring out what you have to offer 09:54 - Letting go of the little things  16:20 - How to know the time is right 22:50 - The challenges of new hires  24:31 - Empowering our clients  28:15 - Sticking to the right path 31:00 - Learning more about Danielle

“I’m all about making money, but at the same time, we are taught our whole life that money is the answer to everything, and it’s really not. Because at the end of your life, you don’t think about your wallet.” -Bridget Hilton Life is short. We know this all too well, and yet rarely make changes to ensure we are living a life without regret. Research shows that we feel the loss and regret of the thing not done, far more than the things we did, but got wrong. Not only that, but our biggest mistakes often prove to be the greatest factors in our growth. Teaching us and pushing us beyond what we thought it was possible to endure, allowing us to expand in emotional and intellectual intelligence and problem-solving.  Our choices ripple out into the world around us, when we think about what it means to live a life without regret, consider your legacy, your ripples, and whether they left the world better or worse. At the end of our lives, we don’t regret making enough money. But we do regret all the time we lost to the grind. Bridget Hilton, author and keynote speaker at Experiential Billionaire, is this episode’s featured guest. She speaks powerfully about what it means to live a life with no regrets, how new experiences empower us to be bolder, and how your life can transform when you give back. If you find yourself putting your dreams off, or worse, not even daring to dream them, then this is the episode to get you thinking about today, not someday! During this interview, you'll learn... The value of new experiences How to live a life with no regrets The importance of giving back  To find out more about Bridget, click here.  Connect with Bridget on LinkedIn and Twitter. Time Stamps 01:43 - Bridget discusses her career journey 05:32 - Building LSTN 07:42 - The gift of hearing  10:15 - Experiential Billionaires  15:10 - The power of new experiences  16:46 - Writing the Experiential Billionaire  19:29 - The most valuable parts of your life  28:08 - Embracing the future  30:29 - Using our lives in the best possible way

“If you want to turn your customers into superfans, being good is not going to cut it, you have got to be super!” -Brittany Hodak We’d all like for our potential clients to pick us over the competition, yet we often struggle to communicate our experience and value in a way that speaks to the heart of the customers we want to work with. Awareness of your business isn’t the issue; it is apathy that kills revenue. If you can’t clearly communicate why potential clients should care about what you do, how can you expect them to care? Once you communicate your value and it reasonates with people then do great work for them, you can create superfans who recommend you to everyone they know. If we can delight clients with every aspect of their experience with us, they will always come back. But more importantly, they become brand ambassadors, which will add more value than any paid marketing. Brittany Hodak, a Customer Experience expert and author of Creating Superfans: How To Turn Your Customers Into Lifelong Advocates, is this episode’s featured guest. She shares the five points of her Super Model plan, giving you the tools to create the best possible customer experience and long-lasting customer loyalty. If you are living in a service mindset and are unsure how to create an environment in which clients want to choose you, this is the episode to start your mindset shift into the experience economy.  During this interview, you'll learn... The value of creating business superfans How to exceed your client’s expectations The importance of an experience-focused mindset  To find out more about Brittany, click here. Buy her book at this link! Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter. Time Stamps 03:30 - Brittany discusses her career journey 07:54 - Creating superfans for your business  10:54 - Overpowering apathy  16:42 - The Super Model 20:38 - Understanding your customer’s story 24:28 - Getting personal  32:00 - Exceeding expectations  35:19 - Repeat for your reputation

“I have been a small business owner, and I know when you are short of cash, that three or four days of time, if you could get that money early, that could be a game-changing event for your life.” -Nick Chandi The world is constantly changing, and the pace of that change has never been quicker. Despite this, North America is lagging behind Asia in its adoption of instantaneous payment technologies. We may have digital transactions and payments that seem instant, but even these rely on an old system of checks and balances within our banks to resolve. Nick Chandi, CEO and co-founder of Forwardly is this spotlight session's special guest. He helped create the first real-time payment solution for small businesses in the United States. Creating a platform that can automatically reconcile transactions for a more seamless and modern payment workflow.  The old ways are comfortable, but we live in an on-demand economy, we want faster and more convenient services. Services that will become the norm in no time at all. While adapting to change can be stressful, there are people like Nick who make it their mission to make these changes as easy and comfortable as possible. If you aren’t sure which direction the future of payments will take, or how it will apply to you, this is the episode for you to hear how your bookkeeping business could change for the better. During this interview, you'll learn... The value & benefits of instant payments How better access to cash flow is better for business The importance of keeping up with the times To learn more about Nick, find him on LinkedIn and Twitter. Time Stamps 01:27 - Nick discusses his experiences founding Forwardly 02:35 - Revolutionizing transactions 05:33 - This bank is always open!  08:16 - The value of access to better cashflow 12:28 - The benefits of instant payments  21:38 - No risk, full rewards  23:46 - The results so far  26:07 - Features for the future This episode is brought to you by our great friends at Forwardly! Join the first real-time payments solution for small businesses in the United States. Start receiving funds three days earlier than ACH and for up to 80% fewer fees than cards! Visit Forwardly.com for more information!

“A good manager is not anymore managing people, but also managing tools…if you give the right instructions, you can manage an army of robots…combining that with your team, and combining that with your robot team, then you can be a great manager.” -Nicolas Boucher Artificial intelligence is here to stay, like all great technological revolutions, it can feel scary to have our foundations shaken. That is why it has never been more important to be able to adapt and go with the flow. To ride the wave of AI to new heights in your bookkeeping business, rather than hope it passes you by. It is important to remember that what we think of as AI, isn’t a truly sentient lifeform. It is an incredibly complex program for sifting through the collected knowledge of mankind, faster than any one human could do alone. But it is still us, when it generates answers, it takes that knowledge from everyone who has faced that issue and posited an answer online. Nicolas Boucher is a German keynote speaker and expert in leveraging ChatGPT for finance teams. In this episode, he masterfully unpacks our fears around AI, while giving tangible examples of how your business can be dramatically enhanced with the application of AI tools.  If you are struggling to get along with AI tech, Nicolas also offers his top tips for getting started with ChatGPT. Helping us to understand the possibilities rather than fear the results. AI will only replace us if we aren’t applying our creativity and experience to our work. As long as you love what you do, a computer will never do it better.  During this interview, you'll learn... The value of combining people & AI tools  How AI can revolutionize our teams The importance of understanding the source of our collected knowledge To find out more about Nicolas, click here. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter. Time Stamps     01:58 - Nicolas discusses his career journey 06:35 - Transform work with AI 10:16 - Understanding the source of AI 14:14 - Incorporating AI into your life  19:00 - Knowing the limits  24:45 - 5 tips for getting started with ChatGPT 28:52 - Getting creative with AI 33:00 - Learning more about Nicolas This episode is brought to you by our great friends at Practice Protect! With Practice Protect, you can access all your cloud apps from a single dashboard with just one click – no more passwords to remember. It also integrates seamlessly with over 6000 cloud apps and platforms, including Quickbooks Online. Take control of your data security. Head to PracticeProtect.com to book a demo TODAY.  

“Having a community to support me, it just was instrumental. It's something you can't talk to your friends and family about. They just don’t get it.” -Paige Papaioannou Not everything is as easy as the internet makes it seem. But thanks to the internet, there is a wealth of information and possibilities for connection with people on a similar journey to you. By being in a community of like-minded people, you can learn from the mistakes of others and support one another. Paige Papaioannou, owner of Books By Paige, is this episode’s featured guest. She has spent her career helping businesses thrive through her expert accounting and advisory services. In her conversation with Michael, they explore what it's like to build a business that works for you, not one you are left trapped working in. By creating systems and processes that make the work that you and your team easy to replicate, you’ll create a bookkeeping business that can run without you, that won’t shut down if you lose any staff, and can be easily scaled to accommodate increases in growth. If you are struggling and want to move from people-driven to system-driven processes, this is the episode to get you thinking differently about the future of your bookkeeping business. During this interview, you'll learn... The value of connecting with a supportive community How to build a bookkeeping business that works for you, not one you work for The importance of building client relationships in your own way To find out more about Paige, click here. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Time Stamps 01:47 - Paige talks about her career journey 07:22 - Juggling work/home life balance  09:52 - Building a business that works for you 13:35 - Trusting the process  17:04 - Do-it-yourself marketing 20:35 - Getting clients in your own way 27:08 - Looking to the future This episode is brought to you by our great friends at Forwardly! Join the first real-time payments solution for small businesses in the United States. Start receiving funds three days earlier than ACH and for up to 80% fewer fees than cards! Visit Forwardly.com for more information!

“By having the opportunity to work with, and work beside, and learn next to, and learn with people who have a different vantage point on whatever the problem is… when we get to be with that other person, our ability to understand the complexity actually increases, and that’s where we are able to innovate more impressive solutions.” -Deb Mashek The better we are at collaborating, the more likely it is that people will want to work with us. Yet so many of us struggle to work effectively with others. What happens when we sit and ask ourselves what collaboration really means? Are we only happy when we are getting our own way? What does it really feel like and mean to co-create something with other people? These are big questions, but they matter if we are to get to the heart of why it is we need to work with other people. Balance is critical, as is a mutual respect for our skills and the skills of others. If we are able to set effective expectations through a lens of respect, we are far more likely to find success in our collaborations. Deb Mashek, founder of Myco Consulting and author of the new book Collabor(h)ate, is this episode’s featured guest. She has spent her career helping people recognize different viewpoints and creating the space for understanding to flourish between seemingly disagreeable people. If you struggle to vocalize your opinion, aren’t sure how to speak with someone about viewpoints you disagree with or are finding it difficult to communicate your worth and effort, then this is the episode to take you from CollaborHate to CollaborGreat. :) During this interview, you'll learn... The value of setting healthy expectations How viewpoint diversity can shape your business for the better The importance of building a communal mindset  To find out more about Deb, click here. Connect with Deb on LinkedIn. Buy her new book, Collabor(h)ate at this link. For the 10 kickoff questions mentioned in this episode, visit here. Time Stamps 01:50 - Deb discusses her career journey   04:45 - Understanding viewpoint diversity      06:38 - Getting to the heart of collaboration 09:35 - Collaboration through the lens of small business  16:40 - Keeping ourselves community-minded 22:29 - Communicating more effectively  27:04 - Deb talks about her new book

“One of the biggest barriers I experience is my own distractibility, my own attention and how I am focusing it.”  -Natalie Ruskin What we show others on the outside, is often not aligned with how we feel on the inside. There is real pressure to present a certain way to be considered successful in business. But the reality is, we all have different ways of working and being and we all need help from time-to-time to understand what it is that really matters to us. This is a challenge when negative beliefs can be so addictive. We sabotage ourselves so others don’t, or just to make the pressure of doing things we don’t love, stop. We will never feel at peace until our outer projection aligns with our inner one. We have to stop seeking to show people we are successful, and live being successful. When we bring awareness to each moment in a non-judgmental way, we can see more clearly the things that truly matter to us.  Natalie Ruskin, coach and host of the A Success Of Our Own podcast, is this episode’s featured guest. She has spent her career helping purpose-driven people thrive in their work and well-being. She speaks to the power of finding and connecting with our sense of why. How to measure what matters to us, and how simple and consistent changes to your mindset will change your outer world for the better.  If you are struggling with your purpose, or are unsure how to measure it, this is the episode to open your mind to the power of your why. During this interview, you'll learn... The value of connecting with your 'why’ How to build a success mindset The importance of understanding our internal success metrics  To find out more about Natalie, click here. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Listen to her podcast here. Time Stamps 01:54 - Natalie discusses her career journey  09:36 - Creating internal metrics for success 15:50 - Building the habits that will change your life 25:44 - Figuring out your why 31:27 - Holding ourselves accountable  33:25 - She talks about her new podcast

“When you like somebody and they do good work, you’re going to refer them. I want my friends to win, I want everybody that I like to win, for their businesses to succeed and for them to enjoy it.” -Cara Steinmann Networking is tough. We have all received an email or LinkedIn DM, selling us hard on a person’s skills. On their unique ability to fix problems we (because we aren’t them) are unable to solve. The people using these methods must have some success, or they wouldn’t be so prolific, but for most of us, this way of doing things gives us the immediate YUCK.  What would your network look like if instead of thinking about how you could sell your skills to others, you focused on what you could learn instead? If you connect with people who inspire and motivate you, not to sell them your skills but to develop them further. Cara Steinmann, founder of The Ravel Collective & host of the Ravel Radio podcast, is this episode's featured guest. She has spent her career building a space for women to be themselves, share their wins and connect more deeply with other women in business.  In this episode, Cara speaks to the power of supportive communities, leaning into the joy of referring, and the need to understand our core values, so we can connect more authentically with others, and create businesses that focus on bringing the right people together.  If you are struggling with networking, or just want to understand how much more successful you could be when aligned with your values, then this is the episode to get you thinking about the impact true networking could have on your life.  During this interview, you'll learn... The value of supportive community networks How to find people that share your values The importance of understanding core values  To find out more about Cara, click here. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Time Stamps01:55 - Cara discusses her career journey  06:20 - Finding the right people for you 11:55 - The power of supportive communities  15:18 - Facing our networking fears  23:24 - Figuring out temperament mismatches  31:04 - Leaning into the joy of referring  38:16 - Uncovering our core values  46:15 - Finding the people who share your values  53:54 - Connecting authentically  58:59 - Where you can network successfully