You are not being hired, you are engaging.

Lucky for you dear reader, this week my email is super quick. I have stuff on the go that I need to put my energy towards.

But I wanted to ship out a quick note reminding you that if you are a business owner, make sure you think like one. And make sure your communications and processes reflect it.

Accounting professionals are uniquely positioned to offer their clients business devastation insurance advice.

To mitigate the total loss of not just their livelihood but also to protect them personally.

I bet you thinking “wait, what isn’t that the role of insurance brokers?”

Yes, but… you should be a partner in this because insurance is based on business valuations and income. But by and large insurance brokers don’t follow up enough on the health of a business and owners almost always don’t take the consequences of misinformation seriously enough.

You are so not alone if you struggle with pricing your products and services!

Even the most seasoned of business owners wonder and worry if they are doing it right.

It’s a fine balance between leaving money on the table and pricing yourself too high on the work you really want.

And then buckle down to make it happen.

I am going through big changes in my business right now. And as I preach “Change is hard. Not changing will be harder.”

I have really nailed down what lifestyle I want. I think many of you may be navel-gazing right now as well. The last few years have got a lot of folks re-evaluating their lives and their work.

I should have replaced my computer a few months ago.

It was freezing, and took a looooong time to start up (I had it set to shut-down & start-up automagically every morning, but it stopped starting up without me)

I was frustrated, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to part with it.

It worked just well enough to get through my day until one day it didn’t.

I was still enjoying virtual workshops, open mic, and panel discussions - any session that was meeting format rather than webbie format.

I didn’t love them though, and I am so happy to be back in the live event world.

But a thing happened last week at a virtual conference that I’m not sure could be replicated IRL.

It will be harder to step in it, if you have a clear idea of who you are dealing with.

My Dad* is a bit of a rough & tumble guy. He wears Carhartt coveralls, a green polka-dot welder’s cap and is generally a little scruffy. Clean but definitely scruffy. He looks like your average working Joe and talks like one too. He loves a good convo about backhoes and tractors while sitting at a bar with buddies.

If you can swing it at all, go to a live event.

I think my biggest takeaway from the AWLS conference was that I need to think about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion much more.

You didn’t see that coming as the most important thing that I got out of an accounting conference, did ya?

Actually, I’ve made too many to count but last week I made a mitake that I want to share.

I got out ahead of myself on my free online scheduler event, in terms of sponsorship.

I did not think it through and put an automated process (or really any process) in place. I just sent out a note to my app partners to see if they wanted to join in, on a bit of a whim.

A blog about dogs and loyalty. We can learn a lot about it from our canine friends.

Take a few minutes to assess if you are creating sustainable client loyalty.

Work through what you are doing well and craft up ways to improve where you are falling down.

Yesterday I celebrated my 60th year of being 5 feet above.

I am off making poor life choices in Key West as this blog is posting. Not all my friends have had the same privilege. So I never lose sight of how precious life is, and how fun it can be.

A lot of the fun comes from embracing change and adapting.

I considered whether I should be blogging at all right now.

It seemed a little frivolous.

I am so saddened by the geopolitical events in Eastern Europe right now.

As of course, are many of us.

I have zero - as in absolutely zero - understanding of what is going on with Russia and Ukraine right now. There will be no armchair political rhetoric from me.

What I do know, however, is that many people who until recently led lives just like ours have had their world up-ended. And I wanted to throw out a little context to who these people are.

Especially in the workplace.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

- Arthur C Clark 1962 - Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination

And magic is undeniably fun.

This week’s note is short and sweet.

It’s to the point on how to find team members.

Actually, it’s two the point - it features two hiring options you should check out.

I “don’t do hiring consulting” and personally only have 1 team member (she’s kickin’ - I’m a lucky duck). But I see so many people struggling with this, and since I am a fan of these programs mentioned here, I wanted to share.

Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.

• Ryunosuke Satoro

Who are you hanging out with these days?

But the better question is “why are you hanging out with them?”

Are they positively influencing you? Reinforcing the best of you? Do they represent your values and drive your best you forward? Do they make you feel good about your best self and lift your not-feeling-good-about-you-self up? Are they a collective force for good?

Or are they reinforcing the worst of you? Pushing your self-worth down? Are they self-aggrandizing? Creating chaos and disharmony for you and for others? The collective good is of no interest to them.

It’s the bluest time of the year.

I’m sure many of you may be feeling the effects of shorter days, colder weather and an impending tax season.

Plus, you may be feeling like the only one who doesn’t have their act together on everything (anything…). You are comparing your reality with your picture of your peers’ “success”.

Worse, maybe you aren’t even considering yourself a peer of people with a big social footprint (BSF’rs).

Well here’s a reality check for you. No one - and I mean no one - has it all together, all the time. And for some, it’s a challenge to get it together even some of the time…

It’s interesting times for clear directions.

I’m going to preface this discussion with I wouldn’t want to be making Covid decisions for the masses & imparting them. I have the utmost empathy and admiration for anyone trying to keep us safe from our silly selves. And I am more than happy to follow whatever directives I can figure out - I’ll do my part willingly.

I’m still pausing (aka hanging out on Estero Island, Florida) to try to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. But I did go to Scaling New Heights last week and that definitely gave me some insight into one thing.

I am going again!

It’s back to its usual time slot in June. If you can swing this one or any of the upcoming #InRealLifeConferences I suggest you do.

Using tech to create 5 Star Client Experiences

We have had many renovations done over the years. Some went better than others.

The one thing that was consistent with the great experiences were great processes that were clearly communicated.

We have another one coming up in January and we are using a contractor that we used previously. We loved our experience with them and are happy to be having them do the work again.

What is the definition of an accountant?

Someone who solves a problem you did not know you had in a way you don’t understand.

Now back to the real purpose of this note…

Next week I am leading a session on branding and marketing for accounting professionals with the Dext Academy.

Last week I suggested some homework for it - visualizing your best you and what you want your business to look like.