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He’s Interviewed Hundreds of Accounting Leaders - This Is What They All Miss · The Accounting Leads Now Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of CFO Chronicles.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: In this episode, I'm joined by Gary DeHart, publisher of Insightful Accountant and the driving force behind the top 100 ProAdvisor awards.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: We dive into the future of accounting, from AI integration and small firm growth to what it really takes to lead in this rapidly evolving industry.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Gary also shares how military leadership principles apply to business, plus a behind the scenes look at what's coming up at Scaling New Heights and Intuit Connect.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Billcom, helping firms streamline AP and get paid faster, and the Universal Accounting Center, your partner in building a more profitable practice.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Don't miss this one, especially if you're looking to level up your firm and stay ahead of the curve.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Enjoy, gary.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us today on CFO Chronicles.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: We have Gary here from Insightful Accountant.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Gary, we had a chance to meet at GrowCon a couple weeks ago.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: It was a pleasure to meet you and come by your booth and have the opportunity to do an interview with you at our booth, and we had some amazing headshots.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: So thank you very much for the generosity there at GrowCon.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I would love if you could take us back.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: How did your career journey lead to the creation of Insightful Accountant?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well, thanks for having me.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Certainly glad to be here.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: It's always good to have conversations and part of my push this year actually is to do my goal that I set for myself is to do 150 podcasts this year, and I'm not tracking it, so I don't know exactly what my number, and not not necessarily just beyond them.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: It's more about producing my own, but the conversation we had prior to even kicking off actually was very helpful for me about thinking of what we need to be doing with that content.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: So, but again, thanks for having me winding it back.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: So so, grocon, actually I'll even touch on that before we wind back.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Grocon, for those who don't know, is it's an annual event put on by the Universal Accounting Center.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: James and I were both there exhibiting.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: You spoke right, yeah, and it was an interesting group for me because I've been in this space for a very long time and we'll get to that.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: But that's one of the few shows I've ever been to where I didn't know people, and it's very rare that we go to a show that we don't know people, and I knew two of the speakers and I knew one attendee and that was it and out of you know it wasn't the biggest show, but what?
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: 110, 120 people?
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Uh, unusual not to know more than that.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Actually, I knew three of the speakers and so, but how did I end up here?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Well, got a real estate degree.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So my mother built houses when I was growing up she was a home builder in middle Georgia and I thought that's what I was going to do.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: So I went to college, got a real estate degree and have never, ever used it.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: First job out of college was in media.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: We called it publishing back then, back in the Stone Age, and so it was with a magazine publisher business-to-business magazine publisher.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: They did have one, and then ended up with two consumer products.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: But I worked on a magazine for the textile industry and then another one, a competitor for the textile industry, and so I've worked again in media and, as my career progressed, I ended up working for the company that owns and publishes Accounting Today, and I was working for a magazine they own called Employee Benefit News, and then I was moved over to Accounting Today.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I was the associate publisher for that product, and that was in 2000.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: We started this in 2013.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: So I think I started working on Accounting Today, in maybe 2007 or 2008, something like that and had, in that capacity, had gone to most of the Scaling New Heights trade shows and I missed the first one, but I've been to all the other ones and Joe Woodard is the guy that runs that.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: He, as I, was walking around these shows.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: You know the the difficulty with shows is getting the attendees to engage with the sponsors.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I mean show producers.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: They make their money on the show floor.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: They don't make the money on attendees, and the attendees were engaging, very heavily engaging, with the sponsors.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: So Joe and I got to know each other.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: He lives here, I'm in the Atlanta area, he is as well.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: He and I ended up on a flight back together, sitting next to each other and from we can't remember if it was California or Vegas, one or the other and, uh, just struck up a relationship there, and that was probably in maybe November of 2012, and decided hey, you know what, he had a.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: He has an amazing trade show, he had a conference or an association, so he had an audience already.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: He was looking for media.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I had media background and so we said, hey, you know what, let's go into business together.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Let's start a business.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: That was 2013.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: We kicked it off, we off, uh, we you part of this business partners in 2008.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: We um, oh sorry, gary, I'll just I'll interject there just for a second, I lost your audio just for a little bit there after he's saying you guys met on the plane, struck up a relationship and and uh, uh, you guys, yeah, kicked off, kicked off a business.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, so I can go back to there.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're still kind of in the yellow on the on the wifi there.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: So, um, yeah, so we we sat next to each other on a flight back from some trade show, back in again I think it was November 2012 and decided, hey, after many lunches, many breakfasts, hey, let's, you know, let's start a business.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: So we started insightful accountant.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: At the time, it was intuitive accountant, um, we changed it about a year into it, changed it to insightful accountant.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Then we parted ways as business partners in 2018 and, uh, kind of Bob Allard, who worked for Joe at the time, is now my business partner.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: We still have a good working relationship with the Woodard Group and with Joe.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: We present our awards program the Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards at Scaling New Heights, and that's next week or in two weeks.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: So we're looking forward to that.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: That's in Orlando, right, it is yeah, orlando, june 23rd through the 25th, awesome, awesome.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Is that one you go to?
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Do you go to that?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Not yet.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: We were introduced to a lot of different shows that got on our radar at GrowCon, so our plan now will be to attend more trade shows.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: We're going to be attending Women who count in the fall in arizona after meeting sharon fuller at uh growcon, so we're really excited about that and and we'll try to attend um into a connect the following weekend.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: So, just being on that side of the country, the plan will be to attend both of those shows yep, yeah, yeah into a connect will be a good show, it's.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Uh, it's interesting, we've been actually joe watered um, actually helped them start that event okay, years ago when I started.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: It was quickbooks connect at the time, but I mean he planned all the content he bobbed.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: My current partner sold the sponsorship space on the floor for the first year, maybe even the first two years of it, um, but then, you know, into it, took it all over, brought it in house, but it's a good, great event yeah, a lot done, awesome.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I've never been to vegas, so you know what?
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: What better time than than for an accounting event?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: I've been to vegas way too many times and could never, ever go back again and be perfectly happy.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: But what I didn't know?
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: And again, I've been to vegas probably, literally, probably, 30 times and, uh, I don't gamble.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: I like to play poker with my friends, but I don't gamble and I just don't lose the money.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but if you, if you're not aware, but if you have time, take a weekend and go up to zion national park yeah it is.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: It's a two and a half hour drive from Vegas and that time of year it was late October.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: It's probably beautiful at the end of October.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I went in December a couple of years ago and if you have a chance, do it.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: It is well worth it.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: And it's right there and Grand Canyon is pretty close as well.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was on my radar being at Grocon, um, and I was like all right, next year, when we go back to salt lake, if it's not from the vegas trip up, I'll definitely be taking a trip south from salt lake designs it looks stunning yes, it is.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: There's so much there, I've only been to zion.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I want to go to the other parks, but uh, just to zion and maybe next year, but over my shoulder here.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: So this is from Grocon this year.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: So we went fly fishing.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: My son was with me.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: You met him.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: So we went fly fishing on the day before Grocon and then we fished on the day after.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: But the other picture actually is also from Utah, but from a trip several years ago.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very cool, if you fly fish, you got to do that next time.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, definitely so, Gary.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: What, what gap or opportunity did you see in the accounting profession that inspired you to launch, to launch the publication?
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the the biggest thing for us was the focus in on the QuickBooks ProAdvisor and you know it's Joe Woodard's show.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: That was his primary focus at the time.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: It was an Intuit exclusive event and they only trained on Intuit products.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Now it's different.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: They cover, you know, all general ledgers.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: But for us it was that it was hey, let's build a product that is hyper-focused for that QuickBooks ProAdvisor space.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: And again, we still cover more than that as a magazine, online magazine, but we cover more than that.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: But that's an easily identifiable and addressable market is the QuickBooks ProAdvisors and so we've kind of built out of that.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: But it was primarily to focus on the technology that's impacting the accounting profession and to tie in with what Woodard was building at the time.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: You know, an Intuit-centric event and association.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Again, we cover outside of Intuit, but that is still really our core.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: And, as I mentioned before, we do annually we do a top 100 pro advisor awards program where we identify and it's not a popularity contest, it's based on merit the top 100 pro advisors in the US and then top 50 globally, and then we also have an additional top 25 up and coming pro advisors and that is.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: It's been a very good.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: It's been good to see that that program grow and evolve to what it is now, because most as you get deeper into this world, you'll see that there's so many people in the accounting profession that are smaller firms, right, either, like me.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I'm in a guest room right now.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: You know, in my house.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: You know a lot of them.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: All these people work from home and a lot of people are isolated.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: A lot of people have some community, but not a lot, and if you're not in a bigger company that has resources or has the ability to or really kind of lift you up for your accomplishments, that's what I think this awards program has done for the audience.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: It's done for the profession, and what I have really enjoyed seeing is I'll go to shows and have people like Debbie Kilsheimer I'm sure you met her at the show.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: She was one of our award winners yeah, maybe 2015 or something and she still talks about that, how that impacted her, how it impacted her, her business, but how that recognition really means something and we're able to provide that.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So that's been.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: That's so good for us.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the, what you're touching on there, the, just the, the remote working and having that recognition from your peers from another group.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I think that goes so far and I'm sure everyone really appreciates what you guys are doing there with the awards program and you guys must get a lot of joy and benefit from that as well, acknowledging everyone for all of their hard work within the industry.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: It is and it's been.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: So it started off it was just the 100, right.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: And then we kept getting feedback from people who were saying, gosh, you know, I've only been in the profession for, you know, five years, seven years person that wins all the awards and in those rankings they've been doing this 20 years.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: You know, 15 to 20 years.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I'll never, you know, until they retire, I'll never be able to take their place, right, because it is it's not a popularity contest, like I mentioned before, it's a merit-based.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: So when you apply, there's roughly 150 questions maybe that you have to answer and it's all about your CPE, your training, what are you doing socially?
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: How are you?
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: What's your client base look like?
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: How engaged are you in the app ecosystems?
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: And are you, you know, are you referring the apps?
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Are you working with your clients on?
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: So it's very, very, very involved.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: So there's other awards programs out there, but when people get these awards, it's because they've earned them.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: And so three years ago, I think it was we taking that feedback that we'd received from people saying, hey, you know, I'll, I'll never, never get in there because there's so many older people in the profession.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: So that's when we added this, this up and coming, 25 top 25 up and coming and that has allowed us to broaden who.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: We can recognize people who are newer in the firms, newer in the space and, you know, broaden our audience.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: So it has has been good but it is great being a part of it.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: And this year, at scaling new Heights, if you're going to be in Orlando, we are doing a big party for you know all of the award winners on Monday night at that event.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: That's so awesome, that's so cool.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: What's one major trend in the accounting, in the accounting tech that you believe firms are still underestimating?
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Well it's.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: I mean I hate to say it because it's a broken record and we're going to hear it for the next like 15 years, right, but it's AI and it's leveraging AI, and we just did a survey.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I still have it open, I don't.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I was just looking at survey results a little bit earlier and we're basically asking hey, what's your content preferences?
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: What are you looking for?
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: What do you want us to write about?
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: And QuickBooks Online was number one, not surprising, that's our core.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: But number two was AI, and I think it's really leveraging and understanding how to use that tool because it is a tool.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: I think it's really leveraging and understanding how to use that tool because it is a tool, but at the same time, not making your business all about that tool.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say disconnect, but there's to me a missed opportunity for people, whether they're bookkeepers, whether your practice to where you can better advise your clients, is where people need to be focusing their efforts to better understand how to use the AI tool so they can better advise their clients.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: So I think it's kind of a combination of those two things.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, where do you think someone should start when it comes to AI?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Because I know it's like the sexy buzzword that everyone's excited about and they want to get into AI and use it.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of different avenues to go down.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of different ways to use it.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Ultimately, I think it comes down to the prompts that you're giving it and who the individual is.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: We're not there yet.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it's not terribly far before ai just could completely take over everything, but it still has to be run by the individual to prompt it.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: What would you say to someone who's kind of looking to get started, to get their feet wet, to try to just get a little bit of AI incorporated into their business?
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I would say from I'm not an AI expert by any means, but I've had.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: We've got a series going right now on my podcast with this lady, diane Gilson, who was actually she was our I think it was our 2019 ProAdvisor of the Year.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: I think it was our 2019 ProAdvisor of the Year, and she's desktop-based, like her whole business was around working with contractors, construction on desktop, and about a year ago she said that she decided you know what If desktop's dead, so am I.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: I'm just not going to be.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: She still has her business and is still doing that, but her focus in her business is AI.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: She's like I'm going to teach people how to use AI.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: So I asked her that same question in our first.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: We're doing a six part series and we just recorded the part three yesterday.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: But on part one, I asked her a very similar question.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: And it's just get your hands dirty, right?
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you just have to use it, just like if you're going to, you know, if you want to go, learn how to build a chair, right?
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Well, your first chair is going to be pretty ugly and you know, the more you build it, the more you work on them, the better your chair is going to get over time, and so it really is that and I think you really have to carve out time to use it.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: And really is that, and I think you really have to carve out time to use it.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: And it's so funny because, as I was speaking with her yesterday, she was talking about I think last conversation was prompts and then yesterday was how can you use it for a meeting?
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Let's say, I got a meeting coming up.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: What do I do?
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Well, ask chat gpt, and that's what she's focused on ChatGPT.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Obviously, there's other providers, but you just have to use it and you have to read and or, better yet, have it read to you.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Right, grok my brother is a big fan of Grok and my business partner he uses Grok, and it's more conversational in the way that you leverage the tool, and so I think you could even ask it right, hey, I'm running a bookkeeping firm.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: What's the best way for me to use ai?
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: yeah and see what it says.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Right and but I think with everything, you have to make sure you read the answer and make sure the answer makes sense, because it's not 100 full proof and um, but obviously it seems to be getting better every single day yeah, yeah, I.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I always tell our team and anyone else who's using it or asking use it as like a platform to completely brain dump what's your thoughts are.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Just like type out your thoughts and then, as it keeps feeding you back answers, just keep brain dumping until you get what you're looking for.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Like there's there's probably wrong ways to prompt, but for the most part, there's really is no right or wrong way, because you get to drive, you get to choose where the vehicle goes and just you keep feeding it until you kind of get what you're looking for.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: At least that's how I'm using it.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I use it as a spot to brain dump, to organize my thoughts.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, now I know what I want to do and I could add in my own, my own personalization afterwards, but it really helps with writer's block or like just getting started on something.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've used it for just hey, I had to do a short presentation.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Give me an outline for this.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Here's the topic.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: I want four slides and it gives you boom, boom for this.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Here's the topic.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I want four slides, you know, and it gives you boom, boom, boom.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Then I was going to do one.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: We've started the scaling up.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Are you familiar with that kind of business management method?
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, it's.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: It's really driven more for bigger companies.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: But we're friend of mine is an implementer and he, I went to one of his sessions on it and like, wow, this does make sense.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: We're because we're all over the place, we're all remote, remote and we're all doing, but not, we weren't necessarily doing all going to the same place, pointing at the at the same.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: You know North Star, if you will.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: And and I'd asked him if he could do a presentation, he was like, oh, I'm not sure if I could on this certain date.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: So I went in and chat GPT and just like, hey, I need to do a presentation on the scaling up process.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: And then it asked me would you like for me to put this into a PowerPoint template?
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Sure, would you like for me to add graphics?
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Sure, although the graphics aren't great, right.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they were getting better, but I think that's the key is, the more you're in it, the more you understand how much you can get from it and how much you can push it to get you what you really need.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: And the more you're in it, the more you learn how to, how to prompt it to get what you, what it is that you really want.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty mind blowing stuff.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: It's fun to play with it's.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: It's cool, um, gary, you've featured countless thought leaders.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: What qualities make someone stand out in this space in your opinion?
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: I think it's probably I'm going to go back to our, to the top 100.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Not that I want to keep beating that to death, but, like with those people, you know, the practitioners it's the ones who continually, continuously are learning.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: It's that people who are and again, that's kind of what our, what that top 100 process kind of shows, is like these are people who are continuously learning, whether it's about a new app, whether it's about you know a new way like cashflow Mike right, he was at at Grocon whether it's learning a different method of serving your clients or, you know, becoming, you know, the specialist in AI, right, I think it's that it's probably that continuous learning would be number one, especially from the practitioner side, I think, from other people who are more like a Randy Johnston, you know, I think Randy, while he is a continuous learner, he's also a continuous sharer.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: He is the most willing to share a person of his knowledge that I think I've ever met, and he doesn't look at it from a hey, this is a transactional reason for me to share this.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: He shares because he has this immense knowledge that does come back to him because he has a training business, he has a consulting practice and and he's a speaker all around the country.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: But I think it's probably those two things having building your knowledge base and being willing to share it, and not not only willing to share it because you're getting paid to.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, ok, awesome.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Just a couple more questions for you because I know you're.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: You have an appointment here for lunch.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: So if you were advising a firm with two to five members today, what should they focus on over the next 90 days?
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Are they starting out or are they're kind of?
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: So there's already a firm running with, say, two to five members on the team.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've never run an accounting firm, so I have to always want to make sure that there is no CPA or letters behind my name.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Accounting wasn't really my best class in college either, but the irony of life we share that't really my best class in college either we share that, then we share that in college, yeah, and so the irony of life has me running a magazine or an online product for accounting professionals, I think.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Well, probably one is Leverage AI, laura Redman.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever met Laura Redman, but she runs a firm called Redman Accounting and years ago, one thing that she shared with me that they do that, I think, is amazing.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: We don't do this internally, but as a scaling up process, as we're diving more into it, we are going to add this.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: They have I don't remember how big our firm is, but they each month identify, let's say, you know, this month, james is going to be.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Actually, I don't think they assigned it.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Each person on the staff is tasked with finding an app or a solution that they don't know anything about and to learn about it, and then they come back and they bring it back to the team and they share.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Hey, we looked at XYZ app and we thought it was going to be great for workflow, and what we found out is it's terrible for workflow but it's good for this, and so I think that kind of goes to that continuous learning.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: So I think that kind of goes to that continuous learning.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Right, but engage your team to.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: You know, if you've got five people on your staff, well, there's five apps a month you can look at.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: And or, you know, maybe one of those apps is AI.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Maybe one of those person wants, you know, find out who wants to be the AI person and task them to it and don't make them do it on their spare time.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Pay them to do it.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: You know, pay them to do it.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: I think that's one thing that the profession is is.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: I think the younger people in the profession are already moving out of the hourly, minutely mindset.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: But you know, we have a couple of three, two and a half people in the Philippines and we use HubSpot and I've said, hey, you go train on HubSpot on my dime and when you get certified we'll pay you to get certified.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Why would I not?
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: You know what's the saying is.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: You know it's better to have a trained person leave than have an untrained person stay.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: So I think you, we have a lot of.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: There is a lot of change coming very rapidly from a technology standpoint at firms and they need to be prepared for that change, and a lot of it's going to be AI, A lot of it's going to be the apps that are being built that help with the workflow or help with client communication.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: That would be one, or maybe that's two things, but I think another would be whatever it is, take time to sit down with your team and find out what is it that, where are the gaps, and either train up to fill the gaps or hire to fill the gaps.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: And through again, through this scaling up process that we're going through right now.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: We're finding that and we know our processes aren't great, but fix the first process, then the second, then the third, and if you're really weak on sales, well, hire a salesperson or get better at it.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: If you're really weak on marketing, you know, call james, um, you know and find somebody that can help you in marketing, because what we find ongoing over the every year we've done surveys, two of the areas that they tell us, that our readers tell us that they need help in business development and marketing they're always in the top.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: The last one, when I was looking at the survey this morning, those two were in the top 10.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: I think they were like number six, number eight.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: They're always, always in top 10 because this is a highly intelligent group of people.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: They are typically numbers focused and not people focused, and I don't say that as a bad thing, it's just.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm a great accountant.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: I may not be a great salesperson.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Well, if you're not and you want to grow your business, you have to figure out how to do that.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: And you know process.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: People are key to make that happen.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's probably the two or three things that come to mind for me.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: So good.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Last question for you, gary what is the best piece of advice you've ever received?
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I know I'm putting you on the spot.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a best piece of advice I've ever received.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I really that's a great question.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: I'm going to have to get back to you on that.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: What comes to mind, what's kind of floating around there, maybe in the front or the back of your mind, when you hear that question.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: That's a great question.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Well, I want to have like a personal side.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: I want to have a business side.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Um, I think actually I'm going to pull all the way back to I was in the national guard and for about uh, seven years and as part of that, your, um, your 10, what they call it, it's like your 10 leadership principles.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: One of them is is keep your troops informed, and that has well, actually two.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: I'll take two, actually one of your, I can't remember what they were called, it's been a while, but one was seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: I think would be number one.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: And then two, keeping your troops informed, whether that's in a military setting, whether it's a business setting, whether it's within your family.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: I think ensuring that everybody's on the same page, everybody understands what you're doing and what you're trying to accomplish, is going to keep everybody happy.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: That may not actually may not keep everybody happy, because you may have some people.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Once you share whatever that vision is and are informing people.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: There are some people possibly that might self-select out and go.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: It's not where I want to go right, but probably those two things.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: And then, happy, go I'm.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: It's not where I want to go Right, but probably those two things.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: And then, and happy wife, happy wife, happy life Right.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: So Perfect.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: That's great, that's um.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: That's really good.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing that.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Um last last question is a very quick one, gary.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Last, last question.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, last, last question when can people get in touch with you if they want to continue the conversation or, you know, learn a little bit more about what you guys are doing?
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, I mean.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: So we're on, uh, we're on all the social media either.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Um, you know Gary D heart.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Uh tied that in with insightful accountant.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: You'll, you know, find me on whatever social channel.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: We do post a lot.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Most of what's posted is is our team posting it.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: It comes out under my name, but most of it's our team Really there and our website, you know insightfulaccountantcom.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: I do want to plug real quickly this Be Insightful program and that is our.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: It's basically a training program that we're building out nine training tracks Right now we've got you can join it for a dollar and then it's $50, $49 a month after that and it's we're covering all the things that we were just talking about.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: We actually have human resources, which is another topic that comes up very high in all of our surveys.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: So we have a human resources track, we have an app comparison track, we do tax, we do marketing, we do business development, three or four others, but just to encourage people to go out there and again, insightfulaccountantcom or bloginsightfulaccountantcom is pretty much where you'll find us.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: We will be at Scaling New Heights exhibiting there.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Then we'll be walking at Intuit Connect no exhibiting no exhibiting Awesome, gary.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on today.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Sharing, sharing all of your knowledge and I'm I hope everyone goes and gets in touch with you.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: I really like what you guys are doing.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: It was a pleasure meeting you at GirlCon.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to see you at the next event, wherever that may be.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks again for coming on today.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Really appreciate it.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: Looking forward to it.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: And also, if you know if you will have some content you want to share, send it our way.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: We'd love to put it out there.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Perfect, awesome, we'll make sure links are in the show descriptions so people can get in touch with you.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Gary, enjoy the rest of your day, all right, thanks, you too.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I hope you found value in today's conversation.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things.
• 33:31
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• 33:35
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• 33:39
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• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Second, if you're ready to take your business to the next level and attract the high-end clients you deserve, head over to accountingleadsnowcom or click the link in the show notes to book your strategy.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Call it and don't forget you can connect with me on LinkedIn to stay up to date on what's happening in the world of accounting and financial growth.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: We've got exciting topics coming up, so stay tuned for the next episode of CFO Chronicles.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Until then, keep pushing forward your growth is just one strategic move away.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success.
• 34:21
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• 34:24
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• 34:28
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• 34:32
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• 34:37
  Speaker 3: Until next time, keep striving for success and unlocking your business's potential.