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CPA & Consultant for Accounting Firms
Happy Frye-Day.
Q2 was a lot. Three conferences, two trips to Vegas, one U-Haul through Walla Walla, and a side trip to the Grand Canyon the same night I saw James Taylor perform. I'm still processing it a little.
Life is an adventure, and I made some big moves in the last 3 months. Now a medallion status member, I've been on more planes in 3 months than I ever imagined. I've had such a wonderful time on my travels and getting settled into my new city. Here's a little bit of a debrief on Q2 and a preview on Q3. Hope you enjoy!
Q2 Highlights
The three biggest highlights from Q2 were:
- Conference travel, especially going to the profitability workshop where I met Ron Baker for the first time, the guy who literally wrote the book on implementing value pricing in 2006, along with Joe Woodard.
- Going to AICPA Engage for the first time, which made two trips to Vegas for me.
- I then went to Scaling New Heights in Orlando, which was fantastic and just a great reminder of how much has changed in the last year, including jobs, apartments, and commutes.
Ed Kless, Joe Woodard, and Ron Baker at their VIP "Profitability Workshop"
Brad Seegmiller (getCanopy.com), me, Thomas Shelley (Magnetictax.com), Sasha Orloff (Puzzle.io), Jody Padar (theradicalcpa.com) and Patrick Nelson (getCanopy.com) at the coolest dinner in Vegas at the Wynn, "Delilahs".
I decided to stay an extra day or two in Vegas and take a helicopter to the Grand Canyon and saw James Taylor perform later that night.
One of my first big conferences where my name was "on the bill". I was the first speaker of the whole dang thing in San Antonio. Rightworks is good people.
You probably recognize this guy! Dave Leary at AICPA Engage at his Earmark booth.
The Commute Surprise
The biggest thing that surprised me in Q2 was that I actually enjoy commuting and probably miss driving and having a car. 20 miles one way on an interstate with a beautiful view of mountains is actually pretty nice.
The other thing that was surprising is just how much I enjoy being in the office and being around people and how nice it is to be able to chit chat and interact with co-workers in a way that I haven't been able to for several years.
Brad Seegmiller who leads partnerships at Canopy and I enjoy a rooftop lunch in our apartment building. I coincidentally moved into the same building. He's a great coworker on our Tuesday / Thursday wfh under our hybrid work policy.
I'm most glad that I took the leap to make such a big change in my life that was pretty scary. I know most of my Canadian friends don't quite understand due to the nature of the current relationship between Canada and the U.S. right now. I'm excited to be here and to try and make a difference as a person of reason with the microphone.
Coming Up
For Q3 I am headed to Denver for Xerocon, which was one of my first accounting conferences, so I'm excited to get plugged back into some of those people and see what's going on there.
Personally I'm also going to France for the second time ever and the last time was 16 years ago, so I'm excited to drink some wine in Bordeaux and just really chill because I've been burning the candle at both ends for quite a while.
What I'm Focused on for H2
For the second half of the year I plan to focus a lot more on being directive and prescriptive in my consulting, including establishing a cleaner playbook for firms setting up a CRM. My preferred CRM is HubSpot, managing leads, getting leads as well as turning them into opportunities or deals, and working them diligently and proactively through the sales process.
Success in Q3 looks like:
- Back on a good workout routine now that I am settled in my apartment with my cats and have a little bit of time to just stay in Salt Lake
- One additional consulting client who I can help overhaul their sales or operations
Hit reply if you're a firm owner thinking about your sales process or CRM setup for H2. Always happy to talk it through.
— Luke