As we say goodbye to the old, we are grateful for all the guests who have graced our show from the first episode seven years ago till now, with 207 episodes aired we are grateful for our listeners who have made this possible.

We will still be rebranding and coming back better and bigger, especially with the launch of the Bourbon Whisky Podcast “The Kentucky Bourbon Whisky Snob Pod” on YouTube and Ky in Video in September.

You can find out more on the new podcast on Peter’s social media handles:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermargaritis

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Bill Sheridan is a knowledge hunter, content curator, and lifelong learner. As chief communications officer for the Maryland Association of CPAs, he created and co-authors the association’s acclaimed blog, CPA Success; produces the MACPA’s “CPA Spotlight” podcast; and manages the association’s member communications and numerous social networks. Bill regularly speaks at national conferences on the future of the accounting and finance profession, the strategic uses of social media, and the evolution of communication, collaboration, and education. He delivers frequent presentations on behalf of the Business Learning Institute and is a certified Insights to Action strategic facilitator. He is inspired by and in awe of his wife, Alison, and their daughter, Molly. They live in St. Louis, Mo.

As accountants in an ever-changing world, we need to know the facts, but the one thing we need in order to remain relevant is to learn people skills and go beyond what we know to who we are working for and with. Building better relationships and anticipation of changes that happen with people.

Knowing where we are in the technological scene, sooner or later, we will be using it to crunch numbers in the accounting scene. As accountants, we will have to develop necessary skills that machines cannot duplicate and do, making us relevant in changing times.

You can catch Bill on his socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/billdsheridan

https://twitter.com/BillSheridan

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David R. Peters is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP) with over fifteen years of experience in financial services. He was formerly the Chief Financial Officer of Compare.com and has been a financial advisor since 2015. He holds master’s degrees in accounting, business administration, and financial services and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Financial Planning & Retirement Income at The American College. He is currently a continuing education instructor for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Surgent, and Kaplan Professional, and the President and owner of David Peters Financial Group Inc, Peters Tax Preparation & Consulting PC, and Peters Professional Education LLC.

People dealing with complex financial jargon that they don’t understand need someone to simplify the information and give sound advice, and that is what David believes CPAs are. There is a level of trust that one needs in order to put your life in someone else’s hands.

As a person, you can learn the words of anything, but you need to go beyond the words and actually communicate in a way that makes sense to the people in the room with you, and it leads you as an accountant to go beyond your normal facts and learn something new.

He brings on board his experiences and what he believes is the future and progression of CPA as a whole. More and more, the accounting profession is coming off from just a room of accountants to meetings with different individuals who have different functions in an organization. The accountant needs to begin to evolve and adapt to be able to cater to the needs of all these people.

You can catch David on his socials:

https://www.davidpetersfinancial.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-peters-financial/

https://www.facebook.com/davidpetersfinancial

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBLKAMd0JeKpm6Y9rv4_oLQ

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1185392

https://open.spotify.com/show/3qaBHGu27HncW2vtv8YpQ0

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Joey Havens, CPA, is currently serving HORNE as the managing partner of strategic growth. Joey actively challenges the mainstays of business culture and strategic planning. He advocates for a faster approach to growing leaders using a holistic approach and intentional sponsorship. Joey is an active member of CPA Practice Advisor’s Top 30 Thought Leaders, where he works with other accounting professionals to help lead and shape the industry. Joey is a frequent presenter/teacher/facilitator on creating a culture of belonging, strategic planning, and leadership development and loves to teach young professionals the “ABCs to Outstanding.” He currently serves on the board of The Mustard Seed, a Christian community for adults with developmental disabilities, and Empower Mississippi. He is a past board member of HORNE LLP, Friends of Children’s Hospital, JDRF, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the AICPA Women’s Initiative Executive Committee.

Joey believes in working at an organization's culture as the soul and core. Culture is the soul of the organization; it’s the people, their language, it’s the behaviors we allow over time and accept them.

He brings to the table more than 30 years as an influencer. He shares his experiences about organizational culture, what he has learned, and how culture influences the growth of an organization, whether positive or negative. How autonomy works in the organization and how to use it to increase the culture.

You can catch Joey on his socials:

https://joeyhavens.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeyhavens

https://twitter.com/joeyhavenscpa

https://www.instagram.com/joeydhavens/

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Our guest today is Lee Cockerell, the former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World® Resort. One of Lee’s major and lasting legacies was the creation of Disney Great Leader Strategies, which was used to train and develop the 7000 leaders at Walt Disney World. Lee has held various executive positions in the hospitality and entertainment business with Hilton Hotels for 8 years and the Marriott Corporation for 17 years before joining Disney in 1990 to open the Disneyland Paris project. He is now dedicating his time to public speaking, authoring a book on leadership, management, and service excellence titled, Creating Magic…10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney. which is now available in 13 languages, and his latest book, The Customer Rules…The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service.

Leadership is about learning, unlearning, and relearning what is out there, taking in what you were taught, and having the capacity and mindset to make up your own mind in any situation. Every situation is different, but how we handle it tells much about who we are and what we want to accomplish.

When dealing with people, understand that they come from different backgrounds, have different stress levels, and know how to balance them. Being professional is knowing what you are doing, learning how to better it, and how you carry yourself.

You can catch Lee on his socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecockerell/

https://www.facebook.com/createmagic/

https://www.leecockerell.com/

https://twitter.com/leecockerell?lang=en

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Our guest today is Ruben Minor, president of RAM Consulting Group. This organization focuses on speaking, training, and coaching individuals and groups regarding leadership, team dynamics, relationship building, diversity, equity and inclusion, fundamental business philosophies, and business and personal branding. Reuben has a rich and resourceful network of professionals across the business spectrum, ranging from influential political figures to educational leaders and entrepreneurs. 

Ruben leverages his network to make more meaningful connections for his clients and business partners, evolving into lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. Ruben also served this country for 15 years in the US Navy as a supply Corp officer, is a John Maxwell certified professional speaker, trainer, and coach, and is intimately engaged in the community, serving as president of the Council for the village of Galena. Reuben enjoys spending time with family, history movies, and hiking and, as a side note, is a professional speaker. 

Corporations have learned a lot post-COVID, as employees have realized that they do not have to face toxic work environments. Unfriendly cultures have existed for decades and are therefore not expected to change overnight. It will be a constant, intentional effort by those in leadership, and making sure that they're keeping in step with the culture in the corporate community. 

The beauty of good leadership is that it can have an excellent platform to impact someone you may never know how to. 

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Our guest today is Lauren Schieffer, whose passion is helping organizations that want to build their next generation of leaders. Whether it's training, keynotes, or longer-term consulting partnerships, she uses her Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership to help transform the way managers think, makes decisions & act toward the people they lead. In her varied career, Lauren has navigated almost every aspect of corporate America – from trucking to achieving top-tier Sales Director status for a global cosmetics firm to managing a non-profit foundation.

Today she is here to speak about her Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership and her perspective on how a leader needs to be accommodative of each person's differences. Lessons that the pandemic taught us and what we need to know from that.

In leadership, the difference between significance and success is that success is about inward accomplishments that you have done. It's all about you. Significance is about outward focus, how many lives you touch, and how you change the community. Lauren is focused on growing others first.

You can catch Lauren on her socials:

https://laurenschieffer.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenannschieffer/

https://www.facebook.com/Lauren-Schieffer-High-Road-Solutions-191278604217872/

https://twitter.com/lschieffer

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLRuzLkApRfy5G5XPieEwow

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Our guest today is Kate Colbert, a former higher-education insider, and current world-renowned marketing expert who develops college-and-university brand stories that are meaningful to the prospective student and measurable on the institutional balance sheet. She has overseen brand and enrollment marketing, public relations, and alum relations at two Chicago-area graduate schools. Kate has additional expertise in corporate education, university crisis management, and faculty relations. She is a six-time recipient of CASE District V's annual awards for excellence in marketing and communications.

Today she is here to speak about her new book: Commencement: The Beginning of a New Era in Higher Education. Higher education's future and our role in making it happen. She gives her perspective on where we are going and the changes institutions must make to make them more competitive in the changing times.

Kate is keen on giving the best experience to learners and giving them skills not only just for the sake of getting a certificate but enhancing and giving them skills that are not found redundant with the world going into automation and more technology. The idea from her book is getting micro-credentials that give you valuable skills no matter the changes being seen.

You can catch Kate on her socials:

https://twitter.com/KateColbert

https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/katecolbert

https://www.facebook.com/KateColbertAuthor/

https://www.instagram.com/katecolbert6121/

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Our Guest for today's episode is Nathan Minns, who uses Improv comedy as a tool to develop confidence in innovation and communication. He is the founder of Green Light Improv.

Nathan takes us on a journey of Improv as it is used in a business setting. The lessons he has garnered throughout the years and his stories make improv seem not so scary. And it isn't scary at all.

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On today'sepisode, Peter llookst the incredible journey he has gone through in the last 7 seven years with his podcast “Change Your Mindset” amazing guests he has had over the years. As he introduces us to a whole new chapter of his podcast, Journey into the World of Bourbon.

He is not saying goodbye yet to the “Change Your Mindset” podcast; he just wants to explore more and live his life a little bit fuller.

We welcome you to pitch a seat, relax and enjoy all things bourbon (or American bourbon), as Peter calls it. As we take you on a cruise of American bourbon, and storied that go with sharing wisdom and fun with a glass in your hand. "The Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Snob Podcast” will be launched soon.

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Our guest today is Theresa Rose, with 20+ Years of consulting, marketing, and business management experience, drives Theresa's strategic thinking, creativity, and sound foundational frameworks. Her career has included senior management roles in marketing and product development for a Fortune 100 company and high-growth startups. In addition, as a former Community Builder and Head of Thought Leadership for an executive network, Theresa has seen the challenges of growing a thriving business based on personal intellectual property and how to amplify it for maximum income and impact strategically.

Theresa Rose brings a wealth of wisdom on the power of strategic marketing. A business grows when finding solutions to the world's problems by finding passion in your own life that motivates you to bring your best.

Each of us can create a memorable picture model of who we are from 3-5 words that we can come up with from so much verbiage that can give us a more transparent and more precise goal of what we want and how we can succeed with this in mind. This gives you a comprehension of the actions you must focus on to achieve your goal.

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Our guest for today is Jennifer Elder, CSP, CPA, who works with proactive leaders and organizations that want to survive, thrive, and adapt to rapid change, risk, and disasters by developing aggressive and positive strategies to stay ahead of the competition, make intelligent decisions, stay ethical, and continually add value.

In her effort to make a difference, Jennifer has traveled a lot for work and gives insight into some of the experiences that she has gone through. What makes a difference in driving one own travel smoothly and more accessible are some of the dos and don’ts of travel.

One of the take always from this conversation would be doing your best to be as humane as possible whether you are traveling or handlings clients who are traveling.

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Bill and Don Tomoff share a passion for helping others based on their career experiences, interest, and personal/professional growth. They use their #TwinzTalk and #TwinzTechTip hashtags for tips that will help others evolve their skills, awareness, and mindset on development, enabling others to become stronger people and contributors to the world around them!

ChatGTP, according to the twins, is about learning for you to help others learn, which is why they advocate for it. It’s about making things easy for the user. The good news is that ChatGPT can be applied in all the fields as long as you custom-make it for your own needs.

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Jay began teaching for Second City in 2010 and teaches in both the Improv and Conservatory programs. He is also a facilitator with Second City Works, teaching improv to business professionals to drive behavior change. Previously, he was on faculty at The Second City Chicago, iO Chicago, and ComedySportz Chicago. He is the co-host of “Improvcast with Jay and Landon” and currently performs around town with the group Zer0 H0ur with Bill Chott and Jay Sukow, as well as the monthly show Improv Famous. He has over 25 years of experience as a leader.

As an Improv leader and coach, Jay speaks about the dynamics of living the future and having a standard that we can never live up to instead of living in the moment and the “now.” A difference in how we look at the world shifts our focus from our failures into the zone of learning and growing.

We will always have stressors in our lives, and instead of avoiding them, we need to learn how to deal with them because we all have seasons and ups and downs; just because it happens now doesn’t mean that it will be the same forever. However, always having a positive mindset in all situations will lead you to a happy and more content life, both personally and professionally.

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Chris is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER Professional and a Certified and Chartered Retirement Plans SpecialistSM (CRPS®, conferred by College for Financial Planning). In addition, he holds the following licenses with LPL Financial: series 7 and series 66. In 2020, Chris was recognized as a Five Star Wealth Manager* by the Seattle Times.

Outside the office, Chris hosts the podcast "CAPitalize" (available on Spotify), roots for his Oregon Ducks, and, most importantly, loves spending time with his wife, Stephanie. He gives thanks to God for every blessing that comes his way.

Christopher, the CAP in CAPitalize, investment journey began when he was ten years old. Over the years, he has grown his business by going beyond just having clients and investing in the same platforms he recommends to his clients.

Chris learned that in the journey of being a financial planner, personal touch when dealing with your clients is better. Please get to know your clients before engaging them on their needs. In most cases, the planning process is usually in reverse. According to Chris, you start with the market and the trends before you understand the client's needs since, in most cases, the clients also do not know what they need in investment.

Simple language that every person can understand is the key to getting more clients, retaining your clients, and getting referrals for your business. Chris is big on understanding his client's passion, which makes him want the best for his clients and the outcomes they can receive.

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Today's guest is Nick Lozano who is a technology professional who has a love for digital media. He co-hosts a podcast called >Lead.exe, which is for anyone who wants to level up their leadership skills and enhance their careers. ​ As someone in Tech, you need soft skills because you will have to sell yourself and the business to your clients and potential prospects. So much as we need technical skills in the business world, softer skills are even more critical.

During the initial talks about Tech, Nick brings about the analogy of building a house; you can make it as high as you need to go, as big as you want, or it can be a simple one-room house and still be great. The complex sides of technology can be a headache, especially for someone outside the industry. Nick's soft skills make it easier to understand the technical side of technology in a fun way.

The audience you present to will determine how you will do your presentation for your message to go through. This is even more so when you have a paid sponsorship and must make the audience get the news across. Sometimes being simple and precise works better than using jargon.

Making mistakes is part of the process, and I know there is room for failure, but the lowest point is if you fail once, learn from it; this is how you gain experience. The downside is that if you are making mistakes and you aren't learning from them, you are wasting your time and energy. Be prepared for how you will receive feedback, which will broaden your perspective on issues. All feedback is there to build you; the good and the bad appreciate everyone who will give it to you.

Nick humorously shares his story and experiences making this a unique and fantastic interview to begin the year.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis continues his series on: Take a Load Off: Stress relievers for overwrought leaders. Peter shows how Business Improv is a tool that all leaders need to master to learn how to overcome pressures that come from business.

Awareness is one way that can help you develop confidence and help you overcome stress. Being aware of your environment can help you control your involvement in any situation, enabling you to manage and control your reactions to different triggers.

Being prepared in any circumstance adds a layer of confidence. You may not be able to foresee the unexpected, but you can be ready for the curves that may come your way. Without being prepared, in most cases, you are more concerned about anxieties and the stress of not binge prepared.

As Peter shares with us the rest of the tools he believes can help manage stress for leaders, he gives fantastic examples of different stages that help drive the points home.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis begins his series on: Take a Load Off: Stress relievers for overwrought leaders. He also shows how Business Improv is the way to go when facing uncertain situations and changes in the business world.

When trying something new, always try it with a beta test on people you are sure will give you honest feedback before taking it to the market. Peter gives an example of how something he hadn’t thought about previously became one of the most successful business decisions for 2020. Something set up to be educational also turned out to be entertaining, enjoyable, and a bonding session to learn.

What makes you happy? What doesn’t make you happy? What stresses you? Stress is part of our everyday lives. It comes from the good, the bad, and the in-between. Stress is an opportunity to make a change and make a positive outcome in the long run. Stress can help you add value to your life and business.

Peter shares some of his tools to manage stress into a positive outcome.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis continues his on Unscripted Give-and-Take and how to use Business Improv to resolve disputes and negotiate deals. Going for an all-in approach is not an excellent way to begin a business with someone you are trying to build a relationship with.

You have the tools you need to have a win-win outcome in a negotiation. The beginning of every conversation is a smile that disarms the other party. Your smile needs to be genuine. You may not get everything you need, but you will get the chance for future business opportunities.

Humanizing the conversation during negotiation creates an atmosphere of calm and respect so that both parties can feel comfortable no matter the outcome. Do not manipulate the other party to get them to make your point. You can show them the benefits of what you are telling them to their goals and agenda, which makes the relationship last longer.

Preparedness during negotiation is better than memorizing facts and figures for that table. Adapt to the changing moods and turns at the table, and do not follow a written-in-stone script; you will fail.

Peter gives excellent tips on what to look for at the table during negotiation.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis talks about Unscripted Give-and-Take and how to use Business Improv to resolve disputes and negotiate deals.

Sometimes during negotiations, we must understand that you can negotiate up instead of down. Therefore, be able to negotiate to your best and have a win-win outcome.

As a business owner, entrepreneur, consultant, or employee of an organization, even when you feel that you are not a great negotiator, it’s good to learn the skills for your business and yourself and give credit to your skills and experience. Then, be confident to sell your expertise to the best you can.

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In today’s episode Peter Margaritis continues his conversation on New scripts; communicating and collaboration for better results. One idea at a time; one conversation and one interaction may be what your organization needs in order to go to the next level. When working in an organization, each team mate has an agenda and visions, if they do not have a common goal each will work on their agenda’s and build their own till the “tower” collapses.

Emotions and how they affect the work place are a new way to look into how people interact with each other and with clients and customers.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis talks about new scripts, communication, and collaboration for better results. We can be given the same space and business concept but still have different results from our competitors. How does communication affect your business from beginning to end? How we articulate our wants and needs in the industry directly affects the results we achieve and get.

Every organization needs to have a simple, straightforward, effective communication strategy that reduces jargon in the workplace. In addition, laying a foundation of innovation and improvement that inspires internal and external communication enables you to stand out against your competitors.

In the long run, simple processes can bring consistent desired results.

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Today’s guests are; Joe Taylor, a founding member of JTaylor in 1999 and currently Chairman of the Board of Managers. Joe delivers a full complement of business advisory and tax planning expertise to their clients with a particular emphasis on the areas of business formation and structural planning, business reorganizations, business, buy, sell, structuring, estate, and gift tax planning, business valuation, business planning, development, and more. Courtney McKay is also a founding member of JTaylor 1999 and has over 25 years of public accounting experience primarily focused on consulting and Business Advisory Services. She has extensive knowledge of business enterprise valuations, incentive compensation plans, and damage assessments. In addition, she has assisted clients with strategic planning, including joint venturing, business acquisition, and due diligence services.

According to Joe and Courtney, Communications plays a vital role in business, especially when accounting language seems so foreign to the test of the other departments in the organization. They agree that practicing and repeating communication to make accounting more approachable is essential to its effects on the rest of the organization.

Communication is an essential skill that separates those successful in the accounting industry. It’s not just running numbers but what you do with the numbers that make the difference. The skills you learn will enable you to know how to deal with different situations and people and what response you need to give them. Drawing examples from amongst themselves, they agree that communicating with colleagues is very different from how you will disseminate information to a client or the rest of the departments.

Listen to Joe and Courtney as they give tips on what they have learned in their journey and how they can help you navigate the ups and downs of accounting and personal growth and development.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis continues discussing the inner critic. We can learn how to turn off the inner critic, but they are not always so bad. The only people who know that you have done a flop are you, your inner critic, and nobody else.

As we continue to silence the inner critic, sometimes we are so focused on what went wrong that we forget that we are human beings and are allowed to make mistakes. Instead of focusing on yourself, it’s more important to focus on your audience and to whom you deliver.

Vulnerability can be a great way to connect to others. Giving examples from a fantastic songwriter, Peter gives excellent insight on how opening yourself up to others can make you a better connection and relatable, especially in the message you want to deliver.

Sometimes you need to reason with your inner critic instead of silencing them.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis talks about turning off the inner critic in yourself. Sometimes it’s hard to quiet that voice that makes you not want to take risks. But, it gives you advice, usually in the negative kind, that holds you in your comfort zone.

Peter gives insight into the inner critic and why the critic comes out. Sometimes it’s because of self-preservation, but most times, the critic has no basis for criticizing. As Peter puts it, the inner critic is a good companion, but you shouldn’t let them control you.

Quieting the inner critic may seem like a hurdle, but once you do, you will have a better time at work, during meetings, and going on stage.

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In today's episode, Peter Margaritis continues to talk about safety, and today the main focus is psychological safety in the workspace. How a team works and is assembled speaks more volumes than the members' contributions.

Peter talks about the meaning of psychological safety, the books he draws from, and how to handle conflict. How we react to stimuli (conflict) speaks volumes about the psychological calmness in the office. As an improv leader, it's up to you to shift the culture of your organization or team to an open and intentional squad, where they can speak their mind and have their ideas and opinions listened to.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis talks about scripting your mind and body and letting go of negative energy and dismissal. This is not only from others but also from yourself. As an Improv Leader, it’s easy to be in class but afraid to improvise. Sometimes it’s easier to beat ourselves up and focus on the negative energy and thoughts and term yourself as a failure.

Instead, Peter reflects on why we do not bring up the apparent ad. In so doing, you are better off storing the memory for future use and engagements. Going off script may seem unnatural, but this is where courage is most needed, and you learn, in the art of business, improvisation requires you to take time and be intentional.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis continues to break down what it means to master authentic leadership, the art of mono-tasking, and being present. The distractions in our daily lives facilitate us being present because we are usually present with half of our consciousness. Other times we think of a different place we should be or something else we need to think about.

He gives insights from different scenarios, like his interview in season 3 and from a Japanese leader from Japan. Improv Leadership is not just about being physically there but internalizing and making decisions from the said words.

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In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis breaks down what it means to master authentic leadership, the art of mono-tasking, and being present. The more we do things at once, the more poorly we do multiple things. A lack of presence means one is not listening with your ears and eyes.

They drew examples from one’s life and the effects of carrying around your past. Work and personal balance of the mind and body are important. Peter gives us a glimpse of how an Improv Leader needs to be.

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Improv Leadership sometimes means learning and being vulnerable as a tool that fuels the leaders' thoughts and actions. It leads to turning the spotlight on others. Peter has explored different methods in today's episode on how as a leader, one can motivate others and make them shine. The light shines every day, not just during special events.

Examples include Oprah Winfrey, Simon Sinek, and great movies like Remember the Titans and Don't Think Twice. The Improv leader's qualities and responsibilities regarding their teams and how they treat them.

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Leaders who lead with an Improv Leadership Style have a foundation of respect, trust, and support for their organization and people. These leaders know how to prepare in advance and, at the same time, empower the people who are under them to shine. These leaders understand that it is not only about themselves and what they bring to the table; it's also about their leadership in delegation and listening to their teams' suggestions and opinions.

Peter gives us amazing insight into how a leader can make himself valuable to his team and those he leads. He also puts into perspective through his demonstrations of the effects a leader can have if not taking the chance to listen to their subordinate staff.

Individuals require a leader who will act as a unifier and believe in individual contributions. Trust is the virtue required to achieve this kind of respect and unity. And when it comes right down to it, it's up to the leader to create that environment of mutual trust and respect.

To learn more visit: petermargaritis.com

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What does collaboration mean to you? David Savage believes that most people use the term without really fully understanding it and therefore aren’t able to access the full potential of true collaboration. Our guest today, David Savage, is the author of several books, including Breakthrough to Yes.

Over a ten-year period, David and his partners collaborated to develop five companies and four not-for-profits. Since 2007, his company, Savage Management, has focused on building capacity, innovation, and accountability in people and in and between organizations and communities. David works with leaders and organizations to advance their success through collaboration, negotiation, conflict resolution, and business development. In this interview, David shares his 10 Essential Steps of Collaboration. Collaboration is possible if one identifies the collaboration's intention and goal. It also means being accountable to your team.

Listen to his advice on how to embrace conflict, the importance of not being a sideliner, how ego is the enemy of progress, and much more in today’s episode.   

To learn more and for the complete show visit: petermargaritis.com as well as David’s website: https://www.davidbsavage.com/. 

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Vulnerability, empathy, and the willingness to let go of our ego matter when it comes to developing the kind of leadership capacity our employees, peers, and other stakeholders deserve from us. Crucial to the development of dynamic, admirable leadership is learning to communicate in a way that doesn't negate the experiences of others.

Listening and presence exercises can kick your leadership into hyperdrive when added to the ‘yes..and’ collaborative approach. The sense of not knowing when someone is looking intently at us for an answer is hard for all of us, but it's especially difficult for leaders with overdeveloped egos. One of the biggest challenges in leadership is, by and large, the perception that not knowing is a sign of weakness. Instead of driving their egos crazy during these moments of ignorance, leaders should lean into the not knowing, stop talking, and listen to their team for direction and vision.

Exercise two is talking without ‘I’, an Improv exercise demonstrating how to park your ego. Each player tries not to use the words ‘I’, ‘me’, or ‘my’, and instead responds to the other person using ‘we’ or ‘us’. This exercise aims to help us park our ego, so we can collaborate with our partner using the general philosophy ‘Yes… and.’ The idea is to develop stronger self-awareness about the degree to which your everyday language and decision-making might be, by default, a little bit more self-centered than you realize.

Exercise three is ‘thank you’, which demonstrates how to park your ego and show gratitude. This exercise aims to show gratitude to the other person for the information they are providing. The more we offer appreciation, the more the other person appreciates our efforts. Learning to accept praise with a ‘thank you is also valuable and can be a sign of humility.

Sometimes good people with decision-making authority just make bad decisions. When difficult situations arise, the ego can take center stage, but doing the work to minimize the role of your ego when we lead will ultimately take us to a place of more effective leadership.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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In today's episode, we welcome Stacey Rodgers to the podcast. Stacey is the executive director of people and culture at Cohen & Company CPA firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. Stacey offers a unique perspective when it comes to helping the firm to develop and maintain outstanding client service teams. As a former auditor who built her career within Cohen & Company, she has a dual understanding of what clients need and expect from their accountants and how to help the firm train and develop employees to be successful.

Being at the center of the firm's goal of employing the best and the brightest, Stacey oversees the execution of all people and culture initiatives, including performance management, employee engagement, employee development, and recruiting. In addition, with a focus on attracting, developing, and retaining talent, she works to ensure the firm exemplifies its foundational principles. Stacey is also very passionate and very knowledgeable about the accounting profession's challenges.

Over time, three things have remained the same: first, hiring the right talent; second, training that talent; and third, keeping that talent engaged and excited about their careers. That is the three-legged stool that is critically important to any organization. So it does boil down to the people and ensuring that you have all of those things working together, despite what's happening around you, within and outside your organization.

The pandemic has helped organizations to learn that they need to be more open to the different working styles of their people and become much more people-centric in their decision-making. A lot of the research shows that during this time of the pandemic, people had the opportunity to step back and reflect on what they wanted. Similarly, opportunities opened up in a way they've never been available before because of the changing market in that dynamic.

Leaders have stronger and better relationships today because of the adoption of technology and its capacity to enhance what they do daily. If leaders find the right way to use it going forward and take all the lessons they've gained due to this pandemic, they can come out in a much stronger position than they did going into it.

New hires need to learn how to communicate, both internally and externally. They also have to learn how to manage their time. So, for example, there is a difference when someone comes in with the ability to navigate a client problem without having someone to teach them how to do that, as compared to doing that through instinct.

At the end of the day, people who want to help people further their business and solve their problems. However, people underestimate the power of communication and building relationships and the importance of everything we do. Public accounting enables people to acquire these networking skills, which translate to success no matter where your career takes you.

Once you surround yourself with people who are experts in their fields, you will build a relationship and network that will last you a lifetime that goes beyond the purpose of building a business. The most successful people are those who recognize that they can't do it alone. If you think you can accomplish all your goals on your own, you will only go as far as your ego and head can go. It is only when you start to understand who are the right people you need to surround yourself with that your business can begin to be successful.

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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We all have an ego. Some egos are underdeveloped, others are well developed, and yet others are overdeveloped. Overdeveloped egos can, in some cases, ultimately transform into full-blown narcissism. Conversely, when a person's ego becomes overdeveloped, they can begin to operate from the perspective that the world revolves around them.

More often than not, narcissistic leaders stop listening to those around them, which ends up creating toxic cultures. CEOs who make everything about them and disregard the advice from their teams are doomed for failure. Listening to understand is one of the critical components of leadership, yet it's just on the side because of an overdeveloped ego.

Leaders who lead with an improv leadership style have a foundation of respect, trust, and support for their organization and people. These leaders know how to suspend their judgment, be active listeners, and be present and adaptable. They also believe and ultimately understand that leadership is the positive effect you have on another person. In improv leadership, you praise a teammate in public and only criticize them when appropriate and in private.

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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In today’s episode, I welcome Anne Gannon. Anne is a certified public accountant who specializes in providing a monthly accounting and tax service that works for the business owner, not just the accountant. What makes Anne unique is that she is anything but your stereotypical accountant. After all, she spent her earlier years chasing the dream of professional golf. The time spent traveling the country playing golf had an impact on Anne, but she quickly realized that all the entrepreneurs and members of the hospitality industry she had met along the way were being underserved by their accountants. In 2016, she founded the Largo group, a firm specializing in over-delivering for entrepreneurs and business owners.

There are a lot of similarities between sports and being an entrepreneur or business owner. You have to keep looking forward, not dwell on the past. The one good thing in business as an owner is that you can control your business and improve it daily. If you can see a path forward, then you can make it happen.

When the pandemic happened, things were not very clear for a large number of businesses. The business owners that made it through had to change their mindset because some models just didn't work anymore. Businesses had to listen and pay attention to their customers. They had to be more data-driven and not so bottlenecked into thinking they know what their customers want but realize they had all this data where they could find out what their customers wanted and answer.

Everyone in accounting should try to teach accounting as it makes you look at it differently when trying to communicate to people who don't understand it. When you have to teach accounting, you realize that not everybody speaks that same language. It's taught well in school, but there are a lot of things that they leave, and also, it is taught by a lot of people who haven't failed in the public accounting world.

Accounting is all about how hard one works at it, and it is a skill more than it is something that someone is born with. If you really work hard and train yourself, you can teach yourself accounting. A lot of times, when people don't get it right away, they get discouraged.

Accounting is not an option. If you're going to run a successful business, you have to understand the fundamentals. When training non-accountants, it's good to start slowly and then get people to open up about how much they understand.

With technology, providing that extra level of customer service to clients is important. To improve your communication, start with your favorite clients so as to focus on what it is that these clients love about you.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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It can be hard to teach leaders to flip the script when it comes to being more empathetic and even vulnerable if those leaders are wearing thick protective armor over their humanity in the workplace. Two-face, empathy-devoid leaders take pride in their distance. But unfortunately, their aloof and impersonal workplace behavior starts degrading relationships, and then projects begin to fail.

Self-absorption creates a toxic work environment. Empathetic leadership creates an empowered workplace, and one person's behaviors and attitudes can impact many. A very effective way to increase empathy is by replacing assumptions with a sense of curiosity that opens us up to empathy. You achieve this through conversation and questioning to reveal what lies beneath the surface of the other person's issue or perspective. Curiosity is a good thing. It helps us ask questions and gather more facts and information, which eliminates unfounded assumptions. The more questions we ask, the closer we get to the root of any issue, and once discovered, we can help devise a plan to help solve the problem at hand.

The word improv looks a lot like the word improve. It's a powerful reminder that when we master improv, we improve relationships, teams, organizations, products, and careers. Improvisation is all about empathy for business leaders and provides an excellent foundation to empathize with others. First, as a leader, you must be a great listener and fully present during every conversation. When ego, agenda, and emotion are infused too strongly in a conversation, the conversation halts and negativity is nearly always an immediate result.

Great leaders inspire and motivate through empathy, not ego, agenda, and emotion. Developing the kind of empathy to improve your leadership in this way can start with an improviser mindset. People still find it difficult to understand that a leader's emotional intelligence, of which empathy is a crucial component, is more critical to the organization than the leader's technical knowledge. The truth is that technical skills are more accessible to learn than soft skills. To get promoted in today's business world, you must master your interpersonal skills, which are hard to master. Mastering the soft skills is easier, thankfully, with an improviser mindset. The better you treat and understand the people you serve, the more empowered and loyal the stakeholders become.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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In today's episode, we are joined by Karl Ahlrichs. Karl specializes in helping professionals make order from chaos. He's a national speaker, author, and consultant presenting on people issues in all industries and is often quoted in the local and national media. Karl's experience is ideally suited for times of organizational change, as he pulls up on risk management and organizational development theories to replace best practices with next practices. He owes much of his communication mastery to working as a writer and editor in daily media, to the on-the-job writing experience, and to the process of becoming a published author.

Karl Joined Gregory and Appel insurance in 2010 after serving as the founding partner of Exact Hire, bringing his HR operations diversity and belonging in learning and development skills. Karl's affinity for design, composition, and learning started at a very young age by taking and examining 1000s of boring pictures with the goal of improving his craft. In 2003, he was named the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Human Resource Professional of the Year for the state of Indiana. He is also on boards of several organizations, including the Maryland Society of CPAs.

What motivates high performers only comes from a quality relationship with a boss they respect, and that only comes from intentional conversation where the boss appears to listen to them. Money is a very small part of why employees quit.

Leadership requires somebody with communication skills. However, there is a heightened hunger for empathy, where the leader shows their team that they're invested in them as people, not just employees. Empathy goes beyond attention and means being willing to say, 'I feel your pain without being judged or called out.'

The topic that is never discussed enough is mental health. When a person is in pain, all they can think of is the pain. When the person is not in pain, they can think about anything and everything. As a leader, you have to know your people and be aware of when their behavior changes. When someone has a mental health issue, they exaggerate their core behaviors and become more of what they are.

When your people exhibit extreme behavior, pull them into privacy, make good eye contact and ask if there is anything you should know. Leaders should also ensure that they look after their own mental health so that they can be prepared and tuned in to their teams' mental health.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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There are dozens of remarkable leaders and scholars singing the praises of empathy in the workplace. For example, in his book, Geoff Colvin, the Fortune Magazine Senior Editor, argues that as workplaces evolve and leadership models change, the most important skill that leaders must possess is empathy. Similarly, an article published in the Harvard Business Review after a survey of 6000 leaders, Jack Singer and Joseph Folkman, revealed that women leaders were more decisive as compared to their male counterparts when it came to empathy.

People use the terms sympathy and empathy in overlapping and interchangeable ways, but there's a distinct difference. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and feel what they feel, not what you think they feel. It involves grief and pain when and because someone else is feeling it. Every single day in our role as leaders, we encounter situations where empathy would serve us and others well. Sympathy, on the other hand, means understanding someone else's suffering. It is more cognitive and keeps a certain distance.

Even if it is hard to show empathy, you must be vulnerable and authentic and put your ego aside. It's about making a human connection and not just pushing the conversation to a conclusion so you can get on with your day and get back to work. Being vulnerable is putting yourself out there for others to see. It takes courage, and it takes time. Being vulnerable is a sign of being human, authentic, genuine, and honest, and by being vulnerable, you create a stronger human connection. 

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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This is an excerpt from the book, Off Script: Mastering the Art of Business Improvisation.

Leadership is not about self-promotion, being the center of attention, talking as much as you can, speaking in the third person, always being right, even when you're wrong, disrespecting others, or being a narcissist. However, in some organizations, these traits are viewed as effective leadership skills, which is the slippery slope to the leaders and potentially the organization's demise."

The one skill that helps to save people's careers and organizations is the art of listening. Leadership is all about becoming a better listener. Leadership is all about listening to understand versus listening to respond. Listening to understand means you genuinely want to understand what is being said to you directly, in the room as you participate in a meeting, or while attending a presentation as an audience member. When you listen to understand, you park your ideas and biases somewhere else, and you go out of your way to eliminate all distractions while listening.

When you're exhibiting the kind of listening skills worthy of a true leader, you suspend your judgment, set your ego aside to focus on listening to what the other person is trying to communicate, and you do so all the while managing your emotions. When you are "listening to respond" rather than "listening to understand," you aren't fully listening to what is being said. We can all strengthen our listening skills if we work on them daily.

Leaders of organizations tend to be controlling, but the ability to let things go and see where the journey takes us can be more powerful. Improv exercises teach us practical skills that can be applied in moments when the gameplay is the furthest thing from our minds. They can teach you and your team how to be better communicators and leaders. When practiced often, these improv games give you muscle memory of how to behave in real-world situations.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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My guest is Lon Graham, who's a speaker coaching advocate. Lon speaks to sales teams, coaches, and sales leaders and is an advocate for sales professionals. He is also an award-winning sales and leadership professional. His message of getting the sales you want comes from over 25 years of experience in healthcare, corporate programs, events, and the airline industry. Lon is an active member of the National Speakers Association.

Sales are complex, and two statistics prove that. The first statistic is that sales have the highest turnover; a third of the sales force leaves yearly, which is 10 points higher than any other profession. The second statistic is that the average tenure of a sales professional is a year and a half.

There is transformational power in being nice to people. If you start by being nice to people, talking to them, and spending a little bit of time getting to know them, they will be more inclined to want to talk to you, and then they will give you a chance to come back.

The four C's is a framework designed to get people to become better at sales. The first C is Choice which addresses how to choose what you want. The following C is Commit, which addresses the steps to take for you to progress towards that goal. The third C is Connect which is about knowing who to connect with. Finally, the fourth C is celebrating, which is about recognizing the progress that you've made and acknowledging wins.

To get what you want as a sales professional, you have to connect with the person who has it; that person is your client. What makes sales so hard is how to connect with your client. The starting point is meeting your client in their story and understanding what they're doing and what they're dealing with so that you can provide solutions to their challenges. When you do that, they're going to connect with you, and they're going to help you get what you want. The four Cs framework is shaped like a wheel because it's progressive.

The two things that are so important for sales professionals to learn are first, what your client or potential client does best, and their productivity. The second thing is knowing your ideal client. By knowing these two things, you have an insight into how that potential client thinks, and if you can contribute to them doing more of what they want to do with who their ideal client is, you've just made them more productive and more profitable.

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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If the thought of networking makes you sweat, it's time to rethink what networking is. Anytime you are at an event or even in a meeting where you don't know someone, you have the opportunity to network. It's about introducing yourself and getting to know someone. This involves having the right attitude, believing in yourself, having a plan, and remembering to smile.

By taking just a little time to get in the right mindset, you'll have a lot more confidence walking into any event, and simply smiling can make anyone more approachable. Any gathering of individuals, no matter how large or small, is an opportunity to meet someone. Preparation is vital in making connections, and this means doing your homework. Engage people by being curious about them. It is a great way to break the ice and create a rapport with someone. The key to effective implementation is to be a good listener with your eyes and ears. Always end a conversation by asking someone to feel free to contact you at any time, if you could do anything for them

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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My guest was Rory Henry has 15 plus years of experience working in tax and, most recently, financial advisory professions. He's built a program AFO Wealth Management Forward, that works with accounting firms to implement holistic Wealth Management Services. Rory is a technology enthusiast at heart and adept at finding ways to improve the client experience using technology to streamline tax, accounting, and wealth management services.

Rory is the co-host of a leading accounting and financial podcast, AFO Wealth Management forward. His interviews include the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Fortune Magazine, accounting today, Channing Webb and venture-backed FinTech companies, and nationally recognized thought leaders. In addition, Rory has launched Arrowroot Family Office and Goal Setter Financial Literacy Initiative to help 1 million kids gain a pathway to financial freedom. The program is enlisting fortune 1000 companies, athletes, entertainers, and Financial Thought Leaders, to bring resources and awareness in the fight to help kids in underserved communities. Rory has a bachelor's degree from UCLA and passed the series SIE, Series 63, and series 65 Security exams. Rory is an avid sports fan outside of work, plays golf, and enjoys performing improv comedy at theaters throughout Los Angeles.

Active listening and dropping the ego is huge because it helps you find out what a person's wants and needs are. Improv is empathy because, in the end, you're trying to put yourself in someone else's shoes. It's finding out where they are in life, where they want to be, and then helping them get there, and that's real influence. People want to be heard and understood. You can provide some feedback or add to a conversation. But coming in and providing unsolicited advice is never the smart thing to do. When an improviser has a good idea or wants to interject, they'll lean forward.

I love helping out clients by looking at their situation in a holistic viewpoint and then being able to provide the right advice to set them up for success in the future. For example, we have a program promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion through financial literacy. We believe that providing financial literacy to the next generation is vitally important to our society.

We have to do a better job of providing kids with the foundation of financial literacy so we can set them up for success in the future. We have teamed up with technologies to help kids learn about financial literacy exciting and fun. Reaching kids in underserved communities that may not have financially literate role models is especially important.

We're sitting in a technological revolution, and these digital devices enable us to reach the masses. Children are inundated with information, so we have to try to set up an environment and make the content engaging. This will enable them to start understanding financial concepts.

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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According to some recent research, adding more laughter to the workplace helps improve the organization's culture. Humor allows people to cope with stress and build relationships and is associated with intelligence and creativity.

Workplace humor is about a positive, light-hearted, open attitude and a playful mindset. One of the best ways to create a competitive advantage is to create a culture that embraces laughter. By injecting humor and levity into our work lives, we give ourselves an opportunity for human connection —something so easily lost in today's pandemic weary and technology-driven world.

Humor has not been seen as a top leadership characteristic but rather a secondary leadership behavior. However, there is more research evidence that humor should be one of the top leadership behaviors. Incorporating humor into your company culture isn't that easy, but well worth it. It is essential to understand your own company culture when it comes to humor in the workplace and bring it in a way that fits and enhances the culture and the people.

There is a delicate balance between creating a culture that embraces humor and developing leadership that learns how to use humor to strengthen the organization, and it's well worth the effort.

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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My guests today are Dr. Alan Patterson and Jenny Knuth. Alan has more than three decades of international business experience. In 2006, he formed Mentore, a consulting practice specializing in leadership and organizational development. Many global and national businesses and organizations have tapped his expertise, including Anheuser Busch, Biogen, Federal Reserve Bank, Johnson and Johnson, Hewlett Packard, Major League Baseball, and the United States Navy. He's the author of 'Leader evolution: From Technical Expertise to Strategic Leadership.' In addition, Alan has been a college lecturer and frequent presenter at several state and national conferences. He released his new book 'Burn ladders, Build Bridges: Pursuing Work with Meaning and Purpose,' on May 6 of this year, and can be found on Amazon. Jenny, Dr. Alan's marketing person, also joins us in our conversation.

While working with my clients, I realized that there is blind faith in career progression and that people were on this treadmill that inherently held that someone else would decide for them the next step. Despite the need for such judgments, it is evident that devastation has taken place because people have become very limited, thus the need for a better concept and a better mindset.

Many people feel like the moves they need to make are out of their control, and I beg to differ. There's a lot within your control, but the approach has to be different. If you're looking for meaning and purpose, you're not going to find it on the ladder. That meaning and purpose comes through meeting and working with people.

It's not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to who is a ladder burner. However, the people you find on the edge of the organizations have created these multiple relationships across the organization. So people that speak up have this broader view of their job and are looking to make a difference would be characterized as ladder burners.

A ladder climber puts themselves in the middle of their universe, but it is about how they can help ladder burners and is never about themselves. The idea of burning the ladder is a shifting mindset, and building bridges is the action that creates opportunities to build relationships.

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The way we show up does make a big difference, whether in person or virtually. Perception is reality, and the perceptions we create with others, especially with decision-making executives, really matter. People want to interact with humans they can see, hear and experience in person, whether remotely or in person. When we can see and hear each other, we see and feel the energy, engagement, body language, and attitude.

 According to the Vytopia press release dated April 12, 2022, executives view the lack of employee engagement as a subpar performance. 92% of the executives say employees who turn their cameras off are generally less engaged in the work overall. Having your camera turned off during any virtual event is disengaging, disrespectful, and simply impolite.

The world has changed in so many ways since the pandemic began. One of those ways is the increase in hybrid work as a preferred work method. Virtual meetings and learning are becoming part of the lexicon in evolving and growing our businesses. Ask yourself how you will change your unseen presence to one that sends a message and perception to senior leadership that you are engaged and ready.

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Our guest today is Ruben Minor, who is the president of RAM Consulting Group, an organization that focuses on speaking training and coaching individuals and groups regarding leadership, team dynamics, relationship building, diversity, equity and inclusion, fundamental business philosophies, and business and personal branding. Reuben is a leader with a rich and resourceful network of professionals across the business spectrum, ranging from influential political figures to educational leaders and entrepreneurs. 

Ruben leverages his network to make more meaningful connections for his clients and business partners that evolved into lasting mutual beneficial relationships. Ruben also served this country for 15 years in the US Navy as a supply Corp officer, is a John Maxwell certified professional speaker, trainer and coach and intimately engaged in the community, serving as president of the Council for the village of Galena. Reuben enjoys spending time with family, history movies and hiking and as a side note, is a professional speaker. 

Emotional intelligence is the ability to process information that has been received. The information goes through a filter system in your mind, which helps you to dissect what's being said, what the intention is behind it, so that your response to what you are processing will be emotionally appropriate. Emotional intelligence, like sales, is either you naturally have it and you're good at it, or you don't have it and therefore becomes a difficult process for you to gain that. 

It takes a special savvy person to be sensitive and to know how to respond, and not hurt someone. Psychological safety entails asking how one can create an environment where a person feels safe enough to say and express what is on their mind. Naturally, everybody wants to be heard, and when you have the ability to exercise psychological safety, then that's the foundation of building great relationships.

Corporations have learned a lot post COVID, as employees have realized that they do not have to put up with toxic work environments. Unfriendly cultures have been in place for decades, and is therefore not expected to change overnight. It's going to be a constant, intentional effort by those in leadership, and making sure that they're keeping in step with what the culture is in the corporate community. 

The beauty of good leadership is having the ability of having a wonderful platform to impact someone that you may never know how so. 

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To succeed in the highly competitive world of financial consulting, accounting professionals must possess the right mix of technical experience and soft skills, or think of them as power skills, or better yet, emotional intelligence — EI. EI plays an increasingly significant role in today's business environment. Therefore, you must optimize your EI to improve your bottom line and increase your organization's job satisfaction, engagement, and retention rates.

EI is the ability to understand, use and manage your own emotion in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. EI helps build stronger relationships, succeed at work, and achieve your career and personal goals. It can also help you connect with your feelings, turn that into action, and make informed decisions about what matters most to you.

The four components of EI are defined as self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and relationship management. Self-awareness entails how you understand your emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. Self-management refers to controlling and managing yourself and your feelings, resources, and abilities.

 In social awareness, you assess whether or not you recognize the emotions in others. It is about reading the emotional landscape and responding with empathy. Social awareness skills will help us understand professionalism in the workplace and make it easier to share information, communicate, and collaborate with others. Social awareness is a fundamental part of creating relationships with the people we work with and the customers and clients we need to build our businesses.

When we understand the top three elements of EI and apply them correctly, CPAs can begin to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well on a team and manage conflict. Improving your EI requires that managers first understand how people feel about their jobs and help them to improve morale.

Three main elements, empowerment, meaningful work, and recognition, can drive and engage workers to stick around even when they're unhappy with their pay or leadership. However, disengaged employees are three times more likely than engaged ones who quit within six months, resulting in a loss of productivity and cost amounting up to $3 million per year.

Improvisation plays a critical role in EI. In business, life, and sports, EI separates high performers from mediocre and average performers. Improvisation is the ability to adapt to change. It is the yes and philosophy of improv and EI leadership. This skill is also crucial for career development. Improvisation allows people who may not have a natural knack for talking themselves out of trouble to get creative by thinking on their feet.

Think about how you build an EI culture in your organization from start to finish. The first thing is to hire people skilled at managing their emotions and reading those of others and then develop a culture that promotes the skills, so employees see the value in developing EI.

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In today’s episode, we are joined by Rod Collins, a returning guest. Rod’s initial episode was released on February 14th, 2022. The topic of conversation was ‘The Benefits of Flat Organizational Structures.’ Today, our discussion focuses on the strengths of running a collective intelligence workshop when you're trying to solve problems or coming up with new ideas. If you have not listened to the earlier recording, I highly suggest giving it a listen and then following up with this episode.

Rod is a leading expert on digital transformation in the future of business. He is the host of The Thinking Differently podcast on the C-suite Radio Network, where he explores how technological innovations continue to transform the rules of how successful businesses. Rod is a regular blog contributor on Substack and the author of Wiki Management, a revolutionary new model for a rapidly changing and collaborative world, highlighting the innovative tools and practices used by a new breed of business leaders to sustain extraordinary performance in a world reshaped by digital disruption. Rod is the former chief operating executive of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Employee program, one of the nation's largest and most successful business alliances. Under his leadership, the business experienced the most significant five-year growth period in its 60-year history.

A collective intelligence workshop gets a microcosm of the business in the room. Everybody who would touch on the business's project, process, and initiative must be in the meeting room. We come up with a way to develop good ideas where we put them into groups to discuss their ideas. At the end of the sessions, each table reports the vision they have settled on. As a decision-maker in a rapidly changing world, you want the best picture, which helps move things along.

After identifying the ideas, we open them up to agreements and disagreements because we want creative energy. The members are also allowed to present their grievances to uncover unknowns that always mess up projects. By having the whole system in the room, things get to be handled in real-time and rapidly, and it helps to drive unanimous consensus.

In rapidly changing times, dexterity to speed is your key to adaptability. My experience is that collective intelligence is more significant than one person providing answers, and frequently this is the power of a network. 

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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This excerpt from the book “Off Script: Mastering The Art of Business Improv.“

The Silent Killer of business is ultimately a lack of financial acumen. The death knell of a company comes from having leaders who are empowered to make important decisions and who don’t understand the fundamentals of Accounting and Finance. Leaders need this understanding and knowledge to make more informed, smarter, and more profitable decisions. Further, without the key elements of Improv in place, we won’t have the courage or safety to talk about the money.

We need to teach accounting and finance to non-financial leaders to remove the complexity of accounting and financial jargon and teach them the fundamentals in plain English. When you switch the accounting and finance light bulb on and include it as part of the Improv leadership development, your leaders will make better business decisions because their business acumen has been fully achieved.

In business, problems and solutions are always about money. The improv exercises in this book provide you with tools that can always make you stronger regardless of your title or the amount of work experience, or your confidence. Your ability to generate significant results from these improv activities sometimes hinges on the participants’ essential financial acumen to have these conversations in the first place.

The combination of improv, off-script leadership skills, and strong financial acumen can take you and your organization to new heights. It’s been my great honor to introduce you to the world where more yes is possible. A world in which respect, trust, and support underlie our every interaction, a world in which we can focus on what matters and listen to the people who matter. A world in which we can adapt to any contingencies, opportunity, or crisis, like a seasoned, talented improviser, ready to accept the gifts of change and forge forward into a story that’s worth waiting to be written.

If you'd like to learn more about off-script mastering the art of business improv, go to www.offscriptimprov.com. 

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Today, our guest is Robert Bendetti, Jr., CPA, who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Life Cycle Engineering. As CFO, he is responsible for all financial operations of the company and accounting contracts, purchasing, Process automation, and IT. Before Life Cycle Engineering, Robert served as VP of Finance at Galey and Lord and CFO of the Coastal Logistics Group and a financial management position within Lockheed Martin, Hormel Foods, and Hilton Hotels.

Robert is also president and founder of the Global CFO Council. The purpose of the global CFO counselors is to provide an educational and networking forum for senior financial executives to share the best practices, discuss current financial issues, and learn about current topics related to their job performance. There are 1500 members in 32 countries. Robert has a great sense of humor and embraces Improv due to his background in the performing arts.

There are four L's that goes into changing your mindset. These include Learning, Leading, Listening, and Leaving. The first L is learning, which comes from podcasts, books, mentors, and networking, and it could be professional certifications, which is a great way to learn in whatever field you're in.

The second L is leading, which includes serving and empowering others and volunteering wherever you're. In the current environment, community, civic, and industry associations desperately need folks like us to volunteer at any phase of your career. There's no greater way to learn and change your mindset than by embedding yourself with others and serving and empowering them.

The third L is listening, and a great way to grow is by being a mentor and having mentees and listening to them. Another way to do this is to listen to your customer, and the only way you can listen to the customer is if you're out with the customer. It is also essential to listen to your team members and learn from them.

I am primarily an internal consultant to the CEO and the business operations leaders. But also, my customers include the end-user of the service and products and solutions that we sell, and then I have all the team members at the company. My job is to keep everybody happy, engaged, excited and equipped to do their job.

The last L is Leaving, and sometimes to change your mindset, you got to change some things about your environment. You need to take out some things and leave like negative influences, some bad friends or some habits.

To affirm those that are listening and doubt themselves, you can learn enough so that you can have an enjoyable conversation and interact with people, or have the confidence to say something in a meeting or to your boss in the moment, instead of on the way home and have all the regret not doing it. Those are the kind of skills that you can learn by doing maybe a little reading or listening to a podcast or taking an Improv class.

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit petermargaritis.com.

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Saving a few pennies is not worth losing a customer. In this era of social media, bad reviews, pictures of disappointing meals, and word of mouth can significantly impact your business. While we must always watch our costs in order to make a profit, it is important to realize that it is the revenues that drive that profit. If we don't get a return business, we lose revenue, and the business loses sustainability and growth period.

As a professional speaker, I customize my presentation to each audience and never do the exact same presentation twice. It takes a lot of work, and has been a key driver in the success is my business for 12 years. I will never serve leftovers to my audience or client. It's simply not a good business plan or practice.

We all need to remember that we are in the people business. We have no business when we don't treat our people and customers with the respect that they deserve, and provide them with a constantly reliable and top quality product or service

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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After serving in Vietnam, he was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone. He flew A-37s to support the Peruvian Earthquake Relief Effort and assumed command of Joint Command Post personnel. After that assignment, he was stationed at Craig Air Force Base in Selma, AL as a T-38 instructor pilot and flight commander. His next assignment was in Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, where he was assigned to the Aggressors, a squadron that flew McDonnell F-15 Eagle fighter jets. His next assignment was in Vicenza, Italy, where he brought Penny and his four children – Stephanie, John, Athena, and Katherine. Uncle Dean led the 5th ATAF’s crisis action support during this tour in support of Desert Shield/Storm. Uncle Dean was pinned a Colonel on December 1, 1989. Uncle Dean and the family returned to the U.S. in August 1991 to Randolph Airforce Base in San Antonio. Dean held several roles at Randolph, including base commander, before retiring in 1997. 

When I published my first book in 2015, Improv is No Joke: Using Improvisation to Create Positive Results in Leadership and Life, I sent him a copy. He read it and enjoyed it. However, he felt that I left out one chapter in the book that should be there: a chapter on Ethics. His comment got us discussing the ethics issue, particularly the responsibility of educating and training our workforce. Uncle Dean believed that it was the employer’s responsibility to train the employees, no matter how long they stayed, because they needed the knowledge to be better stewards of their communities and country.

During his retirement from the Air Force, Uncle Dean did become an executive director for a non-profit association for a few years. While playing golf with him at Randolph Air Force Base, it was the first time that I looked at him without any intimidation and saw him as the person he was – a loving man to his family, country, and God.  

I would be remiss if I didn’t say that he was an outstanding public speaker who commanded and engaged an audience. We did talk a lot about the speaking business, and I did share some of my speaking videos with him, and he provided excellent feedback.

I WAS DEVASTED when I received the news that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 

He was a man that meant a lot to me and my life. Uncle Dean was a great leader, and may his memory be eternal.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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My guest today is Chris Barber. Chris is the Chief Nerd at Cheaper Than A Geek IT service provider. They have demonstrated a history of providing award-winning support in the IT service industry. Cheaper Than A Geek helps small businesses save money with a smart managed IT service. As an industry leader Cheaper Than A Geek has pioneered providing cutting-edge information technology services for even the smallest companies. They have perfected the art of even one-person companies getting enterprise-grade IP support, like next-generation computer and network security, encrypted disaster recovery, and ensuring maximum uptime and efficiency. They are incredibly proud of the many customer service awards earned due to their commitment to client successes.

When it comes to cybersecurity, the effort level on the part of the bad guy is not any different, regardless of whether it is a large or small entity. There is a presumption among these bad guys that the smaller entities are less fortified, and therefore these small businesses are constantly under attack. Small companies need IT security, just as good and just as severely as big firms, but they don't have the budget.

I have been advocating for over a decade before the pandemic that we should see more work-from-home behavior since the technology is undoubtedly present. Some of this work-from-home shift will be permanent and probably for the betterment of everybody. The security attacks are real, so we're throwing most of our research and development behind it to stay ahead of these bad guys and keep everybody safe.

In IT and business, there are many ways to secure your environment, and a lot of it comes down to the IT provider's philosophy. We've always subscribed to a school of thought that you should take security down to the computer level's endpoint level. This turned out to be a good strategy because when everybody started working from home when the pandemic hit, they had their security in place.

Owning a business is not for the faint of heart, and I've always been very cautious and conservative. However, I think it was a little too careful, and if I could find a younger Chris, I’d tell him to take chances.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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Today, my guest is Courtney DeRonde, a CPA and managing partner of TDT CPAs and Advisors— the boutique advisory and accounting firm for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. The company helps overwhelmed, successful leaders, understand and maximize financial information to achieve better results and move the organizations to the next level.

As the owner of a firm and managing partner, she also has first-hand experience running and scaling a small business. Courtney understands the need to help and teach clients the importance of being more financially literate. When TDT takes on clients, they learn more about their business to become a better partner, not just for a transaction.

The first question that successful business owners ask is, “how does my business make money?” As businesses grow and scale, you get the increased activity that you're not directly involved with anymore. Therefore, the mindset shift is looking at good information that tells you where your business is making money.

The second question is about cash flow, and it is a shift from how much I have to what is flowing in and out of business over the next few weeks. Continuously looking at that helps eliminate surprises because most financial surprises are not usually positive. This mind shift allows you to be prepared and take action if things don't look good shortly and not just look at where you stand today.

Our approach with our clients is very much from an educational standpoint, and the goal is to empower them to understand and use the information that we give them to make decisions.

The third question is about determining the highest leverage of time and talents. It's really about understanding how you uniquely contribute to your business is. Most of the time, it's not going to be where you're spending most of your time.

Your product needs to be profitable, but it doesn’t have to be the best. It would be best to focus on the mix of something that you can do profitably and something that people need. Once you get something out there, you can improve it and make it better.

Often, people don't have accurate information in their heads about costs and overheads just because no one's helping them understand how all of this information flows. Pricing is a big part of how we help clients with recognizing and getting information around margins.

There’re certain times when it might make sense to lower your margin on a particular bid because of the future opportunities that can come from it. The main thing is knowing your actual margin to avoid paying to do the job instead of getting paid to do it.

If the price is a very sensitive issue, you need to give clients a couple of options. This gives them the opportunity and the agency to decide what they want.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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As an accountant, understanding how to sell yourself, both in an educational setting and in the workplace can help you succeed professionally.

Technical accounting skills are the foundation of accounting education. However, in today's accounting profession, technical skills are not enough to grow your career by themselves. You need to develop your power skills.

Power skills, aka soft skills, are helpful in just about any career and essential to communicate accounting complexities to those non-accounting business leaders. They include aspects like curiosity, self-awareness, empathy, and more.

According to the Josh Burson company blog, titled, ‘Let's Stop Talking About Soft Skills, They’re Power Skills’, states that the skills of the future are not technical, they're behavioral. The article goes on to state that IBM's latest research lists the top five power skills that are most critical in the workforce today are;

1.     willing to be flexible, agile, and adaptable to change.

2.     Time management skills and the ability to prioritize

3.     Ability to work effectively in team environments.

4.     Ability to communicate effectively in business contexts.

5.     Analytical skills and business acumen.

Considering how important they are for success both in your professional and personal development, it makes sense to begin the process of learning these power skills in the university classroom.

Accountants speak the foreign language of business — accounting, which is no different from speaking Spanish, Greek or Chinese to someone who's not fluent in the language. We need to be cognizant of this fact and become better translators of our technical accounting knowledge.

The college classroom allows us to experiment, fail, hone and gain confidence. Failure is a part of the process when we view learning any new skill. How do you eat an elephant‒one bite at a time. Higher education needs to change how accounting is taught and align it with the critical power skills required to succeed in today's business climate.

Let us begin to embrace the term financial leadership.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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My guest today is Jen Nash, The Connector in Chief. Jen helps people add more meaning to their lives through connection. She's a master facilitator, passionate about masterful storytelling, corporate training, and an author and sought-after executive coach. With over 20 years working as an entrepreneur building a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio, and offering consulting services to Fortune 100 former tech, health, and finance giants, Jen Nash now regularly inspires and supports leaders to deepen their connections of all the good things in life.

 Born in Canada and raised around the world, Jen is an IFC certified executive coach and a graduate of the coach of the Life program. She studied communication design at Parsons and the New York School of Social Research in New York City. When not traveling the globe learning new ways to say thank you in finding bright souls with whom to foster lifelong friendships, Jen Nash can be seen biking around New York City, Los Angeles, or striding around El Centro, Mexico.

People have this innate fear of talking and connecting with strangers, and it is human. In chapter two of my book, I ask the reader to scan the top eight excuses that come up to avoid connecting with people. I then ask them to pick the one that resonates with them, and I jump into it.

Networking to some degree sounds hard because there's a net underneath; you're working. I genuinely believe that if you want to stay employed for the rest of your life, you want a net around your work. But connecting is so much more because it is about infusing that little moment with intangible fun.

We really get hard on ourselves, and it's like from the outside to the inside, humans second guess themselves. One of the things that I suggest in the book is if you're feeling awkward, be honest, lean into that vulnerability and share that because all of a sudden, it just makes you human.

I think that in life, we have this misconception that there is such a thing as good and evil. Sometimes we all need to accept that we don't always get the final say. Unfortunately, I believe that humans only grow when they're in pain. One of the exciting things about the big power of tiny connections is these little sparks with other people that are not always pleasant.

When you look into the answer to what more you want out of life, you can understand where you might want to consider leaning in and connecting. I truly believe that every person you meet has the power to change your life, and you have the ability to change theirs.

There are a lot of people who are held back by fear. Only a courageous person can realize that they will never get more if they keep living precisely how they have been living. It is hard but sometimes, when you hold a spotlight at something scary, all of a sudden; it's not so frightening because the spotlight is illuminating all the dark crevices, and you're seeing it.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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 Being an active listener creates many advantages in life and work. However, mastering the art of active listening is easier said than done. Active listeners pay attention to what others are saying without thinking about how they will respond or how the conversation might affect them. They listen to a big difference in what the other person is saying – not what they hear.

We can all become more active listeners. Here are three essential tips to consider as you work toward becoming a more active listener – and communicator!

Listening = Communication

Communication is an essential part of any relationship, whether personal or professional, so learning how to listen effectively is a critical part of communication and building stronger connections. Without communication, there would be no relationships.

Active listening skills are learned, not innate

The keys to becoming a great listener are awareness and practice. A common mistake in conversations is getting caught up in what we want to say – instead of listening to what the other person is saying. So instead of just waiting for your turn to speak, spend more time actively listening. Then respond when you've genuinely heard what's being said.

There's no easy shortcut to learning active listening skills. However, what you can do right away is to PAUSE in a conversation and consider what the other person is expressing with thoughts and ideas. Respond by asking questions. Let them talk. Make eye contact. Repeat what you think you heard and get their affirmation that you listened to what they said – not what you wanted to hear. The more you practice these skills professionally and personally during your conversations, the better you'll get at them!

When you're in conversation with someone, your natural tendency might be to formulate your response while they're still talking. So instead of making any judgment or addition based on your assumptions, focus solely on listening and learning as much as possible from what they are saying. In other words, don't give advice when someone hasn't asked for it! Instead, show that you want to understand their perspective and feelings before proposing anything.

Seek Ways to Practice Every Day

Developing active listening skills is easier said than done, but as with most skills, constant practice will pay off greatly. One way to begin your daily routine is to jot down three things you heard that made sense and one thing you listened to that didn't make sense—keep these notes in your phone or on a whiteboard at work. Then, as you go through your day, take note of what you hear that doesn't seem to be making sense; then do some follow-up research. Wash – Rinse - Repeat!

Each day, take time out of your schedule to reflect on how you interacted with other people. In addition to building quality communication skills that will become practical tools for handling any situation, active listening can also help develop effective team dynamics at work and help create more meaningful professional relationships outside of work.

We all need to become more active listeners!

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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My guest today is Rod Collins. Rod is a leading expert on digital transformation and the future of business. He's the host of the Thinking Differently podcast on the C suite Radio Network, where he explores how technological innovations continue to transform the rules of how successful businesses work. Rod is a regular blog contributor on Substack and the author of Wiki Management, a revolutionary new model for a rapidly changing and collaborative world, highlighting the innovative tools and practices used by a new breed of business leaders to sustain extraordinary performance in a world reshaped by digital disruption.

Rod is a former Chief Operating Executive of the Blue Cross Blue Shield federal employee program, one of the nation's largest and most successful business alliances. Under his leadership, the business experienced the most significant five-year growth period in a 60-year history.

Today, our conversation centers around the concept of self-managed distributed network corporate structures versus the traditional hierarchy of power and control corporate structure.

There are two fundamental ways that organizations can be set up. For the last 150 years, most organizations have followed one model: the centralized, top-down Command and Control hierarchy. The self-managed distributed network is the second model practiced by a smaller number of companies that are more adaptive to change.

The form of power that works in the hierarchy is coercive power. In networks, their design principle is nobody smarter than everybody, and so they leverage collective intelligence, and the way things get done is through collective power.

One difference between a self-managed network and a top-down hierarchy is that the individual unit of work is the particular person in order. In contrast, in networks, the unit of work is the team. 

The networks are more likely to grow in rapidly changing times because networks can adapt better. In hierarchies, the basis for strategy is central planning, and once those plans are formulated, they tend to be fixed and compliance enforced. They approach the process through iterative discovery in the network, which is very important in rapidly changing times.

Regarding leadership, the prototype for the leader in the hierarchy is the individual hero who will come in and save the company. In networks, leadership is a team function. The team can maximize its strengths by pulling in the appropriate optimal talent to take the effort forward, which means everyone gets to experience being a leader.

As with all C-Suite leaders, the CEO does not direct the company's activity, but the role of the CEO is to play facilitative training and maintain the unique culture to make sure that this team-based self-management approach is preserved.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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The traditional hierarchy organizational structure has been around since the 1950s, and so have many of the strategies developed to make it work well. As time goes on though, some of these strategies are becoming less effective, while others are simply out of date.

 A flat organization is a company that does not operate on strict hierarchies like most traditional businesses. In these companies, decisions are made at the operational level rather than from senior executives who have little contact with employees at work sites.

One thing about flat organizations is that not all companies can be flat because not every business model is suited to a flat structure. However, if your company isn't in a tightly structured industry, using a flatter organization can help you become more agile and responsive to reducing hierarchy-related costs.

Most companies have tried experimenting with flat organizational structures, but few have mastered it. Yet some organizations are very successful in doing so. They have implemented policies and protocols that allow them to maintain a happy employee base while producing outstanding results

The last few years have seen an increase in companies pushing towards flatter organizational structures. The 10 elements of a flat organization include

1.      There are no strict hierarchy layers.

2.      Everyone is responsible for what everyone does.

3.      Each employee's opinion matters, regardless of rank or seniority.

4.      Decisions are made as close to customers as possible.

5.      One size fits all. (Is it a good approach?)

6.      Teams across geographies come together regularly if not daily.

7.       Employees can take their leave whenever they want and are encouraged to do so.

8.      Employees are encouraged to use their initiative and not to feel micromanaged.

9.      Employees wear many hats.

10.  Collaboration and teamwork are emphasized within functional areas

Ego and office politics kill successful collaboration but in a flat organization, these hierarchy collaboration killers rarely exist, and if they do, they're immediately addressed. Collaboration is one of the underlying principles in improv leadership.

To achieve a successful partnership, there must be a foundation of respect for the other party. Each party should be trustworthy and supportive of the team. If any of these three foundations are missing, collaboration ceases to exist.

Flat organizational structures are not for every organization, however, your organization can adopt a flattish approach and become nimbler by distributing the power and authority to others to make decisions without your approval. 

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This podcast has reached people all over the world in 136 countries and all 50 U.S. states. I am continually blown away by the power of this exciting medium. It has only grown to what it is today through consistency, commitment, and patience.

See you all in 2022!

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Read: Off Script: Mastering the Art of Business Improv

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joeyhavens
• Blog: blog.hornellp.com/bebetter
• hornellp.com

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• freshbizsolutions.com
• Read: 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/coachkon

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I’ve documented much of the journey of writing this book directly through the podcast, and today we’re going to wrap things up to talk about the whole story: Why I wrote this book, what it means to go off script, and how you can use improv to sharpen your business and leadership skills.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Read: Off Script: Mastering the Art of Business Improv

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Through confirmation bias and the disconnect between higher management and their workforce, it can be very easy to make the wrong decisions when it comes to structuring a company in this new, post-COVID world. Thankfully, Gleb has studied the data extensively and he knows exactly where people are going right and where they’re going wrong.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Read: Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage
• gleb@disasteravoidanceexpert.com
• Access the “Assessment on Dangerous Judgment Errors in the Workplace” and the “Wise Decision Maker Course” for free
• Follow Gleb Tsipursky on
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube
• RSS feed

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Even when we think we’ve reached the right answer to our questions, we need to pause and ask ourselves “What else could this be? What are the blind spots I’m not seeing?” We need to think through that and come to realize that maybe this could be something else. That’s a big part of listening.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• leadexe.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/briancomerford

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Do you remember the song, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down?” Mary Poppins was onto something. To digest something undesirable, but necessary, combine it with something sweet. You can take this advice literally, but if you’d rather not indulge in a sugar binge, why not give humor a try?

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• 10 Reasons Why Humor Is A Key To Success At Work

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When the pandemic started, there were a lot of people sitting around waiting for things to get back to normal. Eric heard it again and again in his circle, but he responded, “That’s the last thing you should be doing. You should be asking yourself ‘What now?’” And that simple question became a movement designed to stop people stopping and help them pivot.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• ericmtwiggs.com
• thewhatnowmovement.com
• Read: The Discipline of Now
• Listen: The 30 Minute Hour™

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• shockyourpotential.com
• kukuabiz.com
• Read: Tell Me More
• Read: Sales Mixology

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• ronkarr.com
• Read: The Velocity Mindset
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ronkarr
• www.offscriptimprov.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• offscriptimprov.com
• 5 Skills to Develop Right Now

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• bobdusin.com
• Read: Truth in Comedy

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: The Everyday PM
• Instagram: @anncampea
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anncampea

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Toby York wants to see if he can change your mindset around those questions. He’s not your typical accounting instructor. He’s the founder of Accounting Cafe, a community for anybody who believes that accounting education can be an engaging and enjoyable experience for teachers and learners alike. He’s a senior lecturer at Middlesex University Business School, teaching Entrepreneurial Finance and Financial Accounting, and is an accredited Color Accounting trainer as well as an advisor to the Color Accounting Foundation.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• accountingcafe.org

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One thing is true: those who love White Castle will always have a story to tell. Jamie Richardson, VP of Marketing and Public Relations, and John Kelley, Chief People Officer, are going to share some of those stories.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamie-richardson-0b39184
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/john-kelley-798a631

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• catylator.com

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John Sanchez, the son of a 30-year army veteran, moved a dozen times before graduating high school. Those moves were the beginning of John’s lessons in resilience. A “recovering accountant,” John’s communication skills were in dire need of improvement just a few years ago – and he didn’t even know it. Through self-development he has turned his weakness into a strength and now makes a living teaching others to do the same.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• johnsanchezusa.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fpajohn
• Instagram: @fpajohn

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• terrilechton.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Will Hill and Paul Miller are the hosts of the podcast “Pulse of the Practice.” Will has been with Thomson Reuters since 2001 and currently serves as Customer Proposition Strategy Lead. Paul is the owner of Business by Design, an advisory-focused tax and accounting firm. They are going to explore different aspects of building a sustainable relationship business in your organization.

We have to stop looking at our job as just being in the tax business, otherwise, as soon as taxes are done automatically, we’re out of a job. We need to know our true value so that we can keep growing and moving. Taxes are a function of our business, but our true value is in helping clients achieve their goals.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Listen: “Pulse of the Practice”
• tax.tr.com/practice-forward
• mybbd.com
• linkedin.com/in/wghill
• linkedin.com/in/businessbydesign

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After graduating, he started Polywampus Improv Comedy, which performed regularly in and around the Philadelphia area for seven years. He closed up Polywampus to focus on the speaking and training side of the business, using improv comedy as a tool to teach valuable business skills such as creativity, innovation, and adaptability. He’s also the best-selling author of “Improvise to Success!” and “Say ‘Yes, And!’” He talks about how improv can be combined with business to cultivate powerful ideas, get over the stress of things you can’t control, and have fun.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• avishparashar.com
• dinghappens.com/podcast
• facebook.com/avishparashar

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• How Martin Luther King Improvised “I Have A Dream”

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This is David Veech’s second appearance on the podcast and, in it, he answers these questions and more. He first appeared in season 3, episode 13: “Getting LEAN in Leadership,” where we discussed how the principles of LEAN manufacturing could carry over into leadership and team development. At the end of our interview, he asked if he could come back to talk about building satisfaction at work and we were thrilled to make that happen.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: leadersights.com
• Read: “The C-4 Process”
• Read: “Leadersights”
• Email: david.veech@leadersights.com
• S3E13. “Getting LEAN in Leadership with David Veech”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• To Succeed in a Negotiation, Help Your Counterpart Save Face

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Bob Pacanovsky has been an entrepreneur for 25 years, primarily in the hospitality industry. He and his team have created over 7,000 meetings, events, and receptions that each had just one chance to make a wild experience and a lasting impression on clients and guests alike. Now, as a keynote speaker and strategic trainer, he uses his two decades of experience in the trenches to teach companies how to focus on service excellence and hospitality to cultivate more loyal customers and employees. 

When you go out to eat, you're expecting more than just good food — you're expecting a wonderful, memorable dining experience. Good customer service and consistent food quality are the expectations. But if you want to go above and beyond that, if you're going to exceed expectations, you need to hone in on creating black tie experiences.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• bobpacanovsky.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bob-pacanovsky-3432619
• Facebook: facebook.com/BobPacanovskyBlackTie
• Twitter: @BobPacanovsky

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These mistakes come as a result of a lack of practice, confidence, our nerves operating in overdrive, or all of the above. They might be acceptable for a staff meeting, but not for a board meeting, all staff meeting, an analyst call, or a keynote address. Some leaders can articulate and deliver their thoughts and ideas in a way that inspires and motivates their audience. Others can express their thoughts and ideas through the written form but fail with the vocal delivery. Let’s talk about how to have a flawless presentation — and if such a thing even exists.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Michael Bay walks off stage at CES show

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When we experience adversity, there are many paths we can choose to go down. We talk so much about “bouncing back,” but wouldn’t that put us right back where we started, before the setbacks? What if we could “bounce up,” and use everything we learned to put ourselves in an even better position than before?

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• mjcallaway.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mjcallaway
• Read: “Bounce-Up: Outpower Adversity, Boost Resilience, Rebound Higher”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Most people are programmed to chase success. It’s outwardly focused, with the weighty titles, flashy accomplishments, accolades, and parking spaces. Significance is inwardly focused. It’s about being of service, first, and has nothing to do with how much power or money a person has. True leaders, significant leaders, build people up to be the next generation of significant leaders.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• laurenschieffer.com
• Lauren’s books: laurenschieffer.com/laurens-book
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laurenannschieffer
• Instagram: @laurenschieffer

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Read: “Humans Are Underrated”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Ed “The Rainmaker” Robinson has been a business growth advisor and sales trainer for over 30 years. His company provides business growth strategies and leadership skills that transform professionals into rainmakers. He refers to himself as a recovering CPA. In this conversation, he outlines the five step system to creating a balanced business practice.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• edspeaks.com
• linkedin.com/in/ed-the-rainmaker-robinson-389858
• Read: "The Million Dollar Rainmaker"

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• “Anne Mulcahy: The Keys to Turnaround at Xerox”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Dr. Alan Patterson has more than three decades of international consulting experience in change management, leadership development, and executive coaching. In 2006 he formed Mentoré, a consulting practice that focuses on aligning strategy, organizational structure, job responsibilities, and skillsets to major shifts in the business. His expertise has been tapped by many global and national businesses and organizations including Anheuser-Busch, BioGen, Federal Reserve Bank, Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett-Packard, and the US Navy. He believes that the corporate ladder is an outdated model for measuring success and that we need to burn the ladder and come up with a new model that works for more of us.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• mentore.com
• linkedin.com/in/dralanmpatterson
• Read: "Leader Evolution"

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The traditional corporate culture does not allow you to speak your mind and ask questions without feeling insecure or embarrassed, but good news is that you can create a culture where all ideas have validity, where ideas are accepted and discussed, and where questions are asked without any judgment or the fear of embarrassment.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• "High Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here's How To Create It"
• "The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team"
• S4E8. Financial Leadership

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Russ Riddle is known as the Anomaly at Law because he’s down to earth, clearly communicates, and lavishes others with levity. He has practiced marriage for 37 years, law for 29, fatherhood for 28, and braved adventures as a juvenile probation officer and professional speaker. His love of levity stems in part from an intellectual property law practice that has served such clients as Barney, Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine, and the voices of Jimmy Neutron and Larry the Cucumber. We talk about what it takes to be a successful negotiator, what “success” actually means in that context, and how to make the whole process less intimidating.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• russriddle.com
• Read: "Persuasive vs. Abrasive"
• Read: "Lawyer Up - The Smart Way"

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First, CFOs speak in the foreign language of accounting. If they are not able to translate accounting jargon into English, then the people they work for will not understand the significance of what they are saying. Second, accounting has an image problem for non-accountants. It’s an image full of pages of mind-numbing numbers that make no sense, leading to ‘listener shut-down’ and creating a phenomenon that, in turn, leads to lack of accounting acumen within your organization.

What is the antidote to this mind-numbing issue? Leadership.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• S3E30. How to Cut the Right Expenses & Make Your Balance Sheet a Fortress with Ken “Mr. Biz” Wentworth

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Lauren Schieffer can address all of those questions and more. She’s the daughter of an Air Force officer, and she grew up being uprooted and relocated every couple of years. This experience imbued her with profound independence and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. The lessons she learned from growing up have helped her make smart decisions and overcome adversity with humility and a sense of humor.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• laurenschieffer.com
• Lauren’s books: laurenschieffer.com/laurens-book
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laurenannschieffer
• Instagram: @laurenschieffer

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• 10 Reasons Why Humor Is A Key To Success At Work

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• heatherettinger.com
• lumawealth.com
• Read: “Lumination: Shining a Light on A Woman’s Journey to Financial Wellness”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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• What skill is the most helpful during a negotiation? 
• How does ego play a role in negotiating? 
• What role does leverage play during negotiations?

I will address all of these questions, and how the world of IMPROV can help make you a much better negotiator, and more, in this episode.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Read: “The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Adam Wilkinson is a sales partner and corporate educator at Colour Accounting. He advocates that accounting should be a standard form of literacy—just like reading, writing, and arithmetic. He is a chartered accountant and professional development trainer who leads unique and engaging workshops in accounting and financial literacy, and he loves helping people understand how simple accounting can be.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• coloraccounting.com/wilkinson
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adam-wilkinson-2421843
• Read: "The Joy of Accounting"

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Good Therapy: Inner Critic

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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I’ve previously touched on using powerful improv exercises to build stronger teams, and I want to add on three more exercises you can use with your team: “Beach ball, bouncy ball, frog, and more,” “Emotions,” and “Yes And to solve a problem.”

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• YouTube: Improv Game: Emotions

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Jeff Koziatek is a nationally recognized speaker, certified life coach, author, award-winning entertainer, and mindset catalyst who wants to help people address the above questions in their lives. After 20 years of work in the entertainment industry producing award-winning films, running an event management company, and acting in movies and television, Jeff started Core Authenticity to help people dream big and achieve those dreams. He believes in the inherent value of each person, he’s passionate about helping people find significance in who they are, and he’s here to help us do the same.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• coreauthenticity.com
• Instagram: @jugglingjeff
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeffkoziatek

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1. Why this?
2. Why now?
3. What do I have to do?
4. What’s in it for me?

Bob discusses these questions as if he was to bring the tenets of improvisation into his firm. So why should you consider bringing improv into your organization? Let’s discuss that now.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Read “Getting to Yes And”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• moneyhoneyrachel.com
• Instagram: @moneyhoneyrachel
• Read: “Money Honey”
• Read: “Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• conferences.io

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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If you’re not sure about the answers to any of these questions, you really should be — and Ken "Mr. Biz" Wentworth is going to help you get there.

Ken developed his business expertise during 20+ years in leadership positions, advising businesses, from Fortune 15 companies to startups, on how to establish a solid financial path. He is also the author of two bestselling business books that have helped thousands upon thousands of businesses:  “Pathway to Profits” and "How to Be a Cash Flow Pro."

If you aren’t sure about the state of your balance sheet, or if you just need to cut down on expenses, Ken has a process you can go through to evaluate it:

• First, if you don’t have a working balance sheet, create one and put the systems in place to keep it updated.
• Go through your expenses, line by line, and score each expense from one to three. Three means it has a direct impact on revenue, two means it has an indirect impact on revenue, and one means it has no impact on revenue. The last thing you want to do is reduce expenses that have a direct impact on revenue.
• Next, go through each line and score them from one to three again, but this time, score each expense in relationship to its impact on customer service. Three means it has a direct impact on customer service, two means it has an indirect impact, and one means it has no impact.
• Tally up the total of each expense. Protect the fives and sixes, those are the main drivers of revenue, and consider how you can cut any twos or threes substantially or entirely.

You might be wondering why Ken prioritizes customer service as much as direct revenue generation, and the answer is pretty simple — 62% of the customers that leave you will leave not due to price but due to customer service issues. “People simply won’t pay a premium for crappy service.”

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• mrbizsolutions.com
• Mr. Biz Radio
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrbiztweets
• Facebook: facebook.com/MrBizSolutions
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mr-biz-wentworth
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrbizsolutions/
• Read: “Pathway to Profits” 
• Read: "How to Be a Cash Flow Pro"
• Listen: “S2E42. Being a Strategic Partner for Businesses with Ken “Mr. Biz” Wentworth”
• Yahoo Finance: “Top Entrepreneurs You Can’t Miss During Covid-19”

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What organizations need is an innovative approach that creates open and effective communication, both internally and externally, during your organization's day-to-day workings. And, believe it or not, that innovative approach is found in the principles of improvisation. It creates a unique, powerful approach that promotes a simpler, more positive, and effective way to communicate, collaborate, and cooperate as a team.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• linkedin.com/in/petermargaritis

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Allison Clarke is a certified speaking professional and an expert in leadership and influence. She’s helped thousands around the world break through the barriers to boost profitability, improve productivity, and increase team cohesion. Not your average speaker, Allison consistently challenges both her speakers and herself daily. For over five years, she’s carried out daily acts of kindness with strangers, colleagues, friends, and family. Allison walks her talk.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• allisonclarkeconsulting.com
• Read: “The Kindness Habit”
• facebook.com/kindnesshabit
• linkedin.com/in/allison-clarke-csp-ab53b913

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The landscape of business as we know it continues to change rapidly. What worked today may not work tomorrow, and almost certainly won’t ten years from now. Having the best team to accomplish the fast-paced demands of marketing, productivity, and customer service requires leaders that attract and embody more than just the technical and operational mindset.

What’s needed is inspiration, motivation, and creativity. Enter: The improvisation mindset.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Braveheart Speech: https://youtu.be/TME0xubdHQc

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Instagram: @jordankahana
• Instagram: @sunnithewestie
• YouTube: youtube.com/c/JordanKahana

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David Kelly, CEO of the legendary design firm IDEO, tells us about the importance of building creative confidence. In an experience in elementary school where a classmate was ridiculed by a peer during a project, that classmate shut down and quit the project. We often opt out of creativity due to experiences like this. We tell ourselves we aren’t creative. But it’s not true. It is important for us to understand that we are all creative, and David is here to help remind us.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• "Withum's 2013 State of the Firm Music Video - WS+B Jump On It"

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• linkedin.com/in/doncraig
• haleyaldrich.com/about-us/our-people/don-craig

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Many CEOs have well-developed egos, and businesses need that in their leader. But what if your CEO is narcissistic? A narcissistic CEO stops listening to those around them and does things to feed their ego at the expense of the company. Let’s discuss how you can practice shelving your ego in order to be more collaborative and respectful.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• peter@petermargaritis.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Natalie Siston is the founder of Small Town Leadership. She takes the lessons she’s learned from small town living and applies them to achieve significant business success. Whether you’re a corporate leader looking for an effective way to motivate today’s workforce, a manager striving to bring out the best in each individual, or someone hoping to make sure your work matters, big success starts by thinking small.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• smalltownleadership.com
• linkedin.com/in/nataliesiston
• instagram.com/nataliesiston

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And when you think about it, choosing to adapt to an unexpected challenge is the embodiment of improv and creating a supportive community for special needs individuals requires great leadership — so there’s a lot to learn from Eric and Rebecca even if you don’t have any children at all.

If you have a kid going through the challenges associated with sensory processing differences, you will want to check out her book. It is packed full of tips and strategies for you to support your child in the best way possible, setting them up for a future that makes them truly sensational.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• sensationalkidssensationalfamilies.com
• Read: “Sensational Kids, Sensational Families: Hope For Sensory Processing Differences”
• linkedin.com/in/rebeccaduvallscott
• linkedin.com/in/eric-d-scott-81231643
• facebook.com/groups/SensationalKidsSensationalFamilies

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In my introduction to improv, I realized I was not that great of a listener. This was largely due to my inflated ego. To be a good listener, you need to adopt the “Yes, and” philosophy. Instead of pulling a conversation away from somebody else and back onto yourself, you need to add to it. There’s no room for ego.

Active listening is hard. It takes intention, time, and effort. Start working on strengthening your listening skills every single day. As each day passes, you will become closer to becoming a better listener, developing better relationships, and having more significant impact on the world.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• YouTube: It's Not About The Nail

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• poegroupadvisors.com
• linkedin.com/in/brannon-poe-65984012/
• Accounting Practice Academy
• Listen: Accounting Flight Plan podcast
• Read: “Accountant’s Flight Plan”
• Read: “On Your Own”

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• "‘Oh, My God, Where Is This Going?’ When Computer-Science Majors Take Improv"
• "Improv Training: The Power Of Funny Business"

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: http://innovabiz.com.au/
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jurgenstrauss

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David Veech joins us to discuss those questions and more. He’s had many different roles in life: infantry officer, husband, father, author, student, farmer, grandfather, and teacher. David now teaches organizations how to obliterate their obstacles, accelerate innovation, and elevate performance by teaching leaders how to love, learn, and let go. Leaders who apply his lessons achieve higher productivity, higher preferability, and higher professionalism as they build great workplaces.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: leadersights.com
• Read: “The C-4 Process”
• Read: “Leadersights"
• Email: david.veech@leadersights.com

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• caveday.org
• jakekahana.com
• linkedin.com/in/jakekahana
• nstagram.com/jakekahana
• facebook.com/jake.kahana
• twitter.com/jakekahana

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These questions and more will be discussed by Ruben Minor, the president of RAM Enterprises, an organization that focuses on speaking, training, and coaching individuals and groups regarding leadership, team dynamics, relationship building, fundamental business properties, discovering your personal why, and business and personal branding. We discuss the moment Ruben realized how important leaving a legacy was and how your personal story can be used to inspire others.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: rubenminor.com
• Listen: RAM Podcast Series
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/minorr

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: margotescott.com
• Listen: margotescott.com/podcast
• Facebook: facebook.com/MEscottLCSW
• Twitter: twitter.com/escott_margot
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/margot-escott-lcsw-40a733b1
• Read: "Improv for Scientists, Accountants, Lawyers, Doctors and You"
• Read: "No Joke: The Serious Role of Improv in Medicine"

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: https://theradicalcpa.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jody-padar-18a9711
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theradicalcpa
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/theradicalCPA
• Read: “The Radical CPA: New Rules for the Future-Ready Firm”

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As we hopefully begin the slow process of opening up our economy, anxiety and stress will still be amongst us until proven therapies and a vaccine have been developed. As a leader dealing with a crisis of any form. we can't get locked into today — we need to start looking ahead at how our business will change. What do we look like right now in this environment?

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• https://extrememeetings.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/brianswalter

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: kayfrances.com
• Read: The Funny Thing About Stress: a Seriously Humorous Guide to a Happier Life
• Facebook: facebook.com/FunnyLadyKay
• YouTube: Youtube.com/channel/UCXmDtSVVsCV9NdkdJ2wuX6w
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/KayFrances
• Twitter: twitter.com/KayFrancesMBA

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: www.jenniferelder.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sustainablecfo
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/sustainablecfo
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferhelder
• Faster Disaster Recovery: A Business Owner's Guide to Developing a Business Continuity Plan

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more about Today Improv
• Listen: ImprovCast with Jay and Landon

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The very best leaders are those leaders who you would do anything for. So how do you become an authentic leader, the kind that people love to follow? That’s what we’re here to discuss.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: https://christopherrjones.com
• Listen: https://christopherrjones.com/podcast
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamchristopherjones
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherrjones
• Mary’s website: http://www.maryfoley.com

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A better understanding of accounting will only help you and your employees become better stewards of your organization. The more that you and your employees have a basic understanding of accounting will only help the organization thrive because everyone can see the financial impact that they're having on the organization.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more: https://www.coloraccounting.com
• Watch: https://www.coloraccounting.com/offer-haw
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterframpton

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Dino shares how he has stumbled through his various careers in life, how our experiences in life shape us, and how we can use that to find common ground and relate to one another.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Whiskey Business Podcast: soundcloud.com/whiskeybusinessshow
• Instagram: instagram.com/whiskeybusinesspodcast
• Watch: thestreetwherewelive.com

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The show was originally titled Improv is No Joke and on April 30, 2018, the name was changed to Change Your Mindset with Peter Margaritis, CPA. The overarching theme of this podcast is leadership, with a heavy emphasis on improv as a leadership enhancer. We are currently lining up guests for the upcoming season and need your help. What topics would you like to hear more about, and what guests would you like to see interviewed on the show? We would also love to share your good and bad leadership stories on the podcast.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Warren Buffett: This is your 1 greatest measure of success in life (and if you don’t have it, ‘your life is a disaster’)
• Share your stories: tina@petermargaritas.com

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more at: wereduceturnover.com
• Book: Staying Power: Why Your Employees Leave and How to Keep Them Longer
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carasilletto

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Darren’s story of failed entrepreneur to budding comedian and eventually world renowned public speaker is an incredible journey, full of lessons to absorb.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Schedule a workshop: stagetimeworkshops.com
• Learn more at: darrenlacroix.com
• Free webinar: storytellingwebinar.com

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Ken works with small to medium-sized businesses that are really good at what they provide, but need some help on the financial side to run their business a little more profitably. He’s an on-demand CFO. People hire him to help them run their business more profitably and more efficiently, and that comes in a lot of different forms.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more at: mrbizsolutions.com
• B2B Radio: mrbizsolutions.com/mr-biz-radio
• Facebook: facebook.com/MrBizSolutions
• Instagram: instagram.com/mrbizsolutions
• Twitter: twitter.com/mrbiztweets
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ken-mr-biz-wentworth

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Her story of how she went from war-torn Bosnia, attending a school where she didn’t speak the language, and discover improv as a way to get her over her fear of public speaking and shatter the negative beliefs she had about herself is truly fascinating.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more at: moneyformeaning.com
• TedX Talk: https://youtu.be/7gDUe96hTdI
• Money for Meaning: Philosophy for a Life of Extraordinary Freedom: amazon.com/Money-Meaning-Philosophy-Extraordinary-Freedom/dp/0997963905

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Tara has a lot of great tips and advice for us to think about during our day as it relates to our daytime and our nighttime breathing in order to get a good night's sleep. She discusses the long-term ramifications of nighttime breathing issues and the effect it has on our bodies and on our brains.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:

• Learn more at: o2tara.org
• Resources: o2tara.org/talk
• Instagram: instagram.com/o2taraclancy
• Facebook: facebook.com/o2Tara

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Improv had always been a part of Eileen, but it was only recently that she discovered its name and process. After retiring from an accomplished career as a teacher and mentor from the Chicago Public School System, Eileen challenged herself to take an improv class at the Second City. That one class turned into a two-year, life-changing experience, and inspired her to create Room2Improv. The more she took, the more she realized that everyone needed an improv class. And she realized that this is what Chicago Public School children need.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:Learn more at: room2improv.comFacebook: facebook.com/Room2ImprovYouTube: youtube.com/user/room2improv

Change Your Mindset is a production of Crate Media

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Chrissie started her career in the traditional public accounting world doing tax and audit work. Early in her career, she was sent on an audit where one of the clients had been involved in a fraud incident, and Chrissie was tasked with determining the dollar amounts. After that, she was hooked on the puzzle of finding out how people were stealing money and how much was taken. She went through the CPA exam, and transferred herself to a firm that specializes in forensic accounting so she could grow in that niche.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:Learn more at https://www.powersforensic.com/E-mail: chrissie.powers@powersforensic.comPhone: 614-745-5192Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chrissie_PowersLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissiepowers/

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:Learn more at https://www.wadetrim.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralph-picano-8a65b410/Twitter: https://twitter.com/PicanoRalph

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Kevin spent 33 months in a federal prison for a crime he didn't knowingly commit. His boss at the time was committing stock fraud, and when Kevin discovered this, he realized he had these severe blind spots. How did he wind up working for this boss, and how could he have possibly believed he was a good man doing good things? He became passionate about discovering that for himself.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:Learn more at https://www.blindspots.comOrder an autographed copy of Blind Spots: https://ww3.blindspots.com/offers/cuGr2LVH/checkoutFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevinmccarthycspLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmccarthycspTwitter: https://twitter.com/kevinmccarthy01

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Dave uses humor to teach corporations, associations, individuals, and groups how living and working with intentional joy is an act of leadership and a disciplined will. He has 20 years of real-world experience speaking, coaching, and writing about the benefits of a joyful mindset in a business context, including how to unleash creativity, improve health, increase engagement, supercharge learning, and provide legendary service and care while reducing stress and conflict. As a veteran educator, performance consultant, comedian, and comedy writer, Dave fuses entertaining stories, in-depth research, and proven learning strategies to provide conversations about joy to celebrate success, solve people's problems, and build a bridge between where you are now and where you want to be.

Dave came out of education. He was a teacher, and grew up with a family of teachers, teaching high school English. He did that for 11 years, and then he got into stand-up comedy. That led me to an opportunity to be a weekly radio guest in Columbus on a local FM station. And from there, he met a motivational speaker, Phil Sorrentino, who got him started down the path of combining humor and development.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:Learn more at: davecaperton.comRead: Happiness is a Funny Thing by Dave CapertonFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/dave.capertonTwitter: http://twitter.com/speakofjoyLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davecaperton

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Bill Tomoff is currently a CFO for InstallNET International and a consultant with Invenio Advisors, focusing on training and professional development. Bill volunteers with and is on the board of directors of Special Love, an organization serving children and families fighting childhood cancer.

Don is the founder of Invenio Advisors LLC, a consulting firm specializing in information management, process improvement, reporting, and data analysis, as well as education and training. Since 2010, Don is focused on the identification of process improvement opportunities and leveraging readily available technology tools to drive that change. In addition to consulting, Don is an active instructor for the Maryland Association of CPA's Business Learning Institute.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:Bill’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billtomoffBill’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/btomoffcpaBill’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/btomoffcpaDon’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dontomoffDon’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dtomoffcpaDon’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/DTomoffCPA

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: petermargaritis.com

Resources:Learn more about Today ImprovListen: ImprovCast with Jay and LandonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/todayimprov/Twitter: https://twitter.com/todayimprovFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/todayimprov

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Gleb serves as the CEO of a boutique consulting and training firm, Disaster Avoidance Experts, whose clients range from Fortune 500 companies to mid-sized businesses and nonprofits. He's also the author of a national bestseller on avoiding disasters in business, The Truth-Seeker's Handbook: A Science-Based Guide, and an upcoming book, Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters, which is coming out November 2019.

What’s Wrong With Going With Your Gut?

Our emotions are short-term oriented because they evolved from the ancestral Savannah. And it really helped us survive in the wild because we didn't really have an opportunity to invest into the long term. We couldn't build a bank account. We couldn't build a house. We needed to get away from predators as quickly as possible while hunting our food as effectively as possible.

But as a result, “these gut reactions, they really misfire very often in the modern world and bring down high-flying careers and big companies.”

So, how can we avoid succumbing to human nature? Well, it’s right in the title of Dr. Tsipursky’s book: don’t go with your gut.

Our gut tends to make really bad choices in our modern business environment (and in modern life in general, really). So, it's important to see what your gut is telling you, but then always check that with your head. And in the book, you will find specific, structured decision-making processes that you can use to check with your head.

Resources:Learn more at disasteravoidanceexperts.comPreorder: Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters (November 1, 2019)LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dr-gleb-tsipursky-89ab4b23Facebook: facebook.com/DrGlebTsipurskyTwitter: twitter.com/gleb_tsipurskyInstagram: instagram.com/dr_gleb_tsipursky  

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"It took a crippling disease for us to understand that we have no vision. Losing our sight allowed us to gain vision. That was the greatest gift that's ever been given. We can't hide from our adversity. Our goal is to help others recognize their adversity, go blind, and gain vision. This happened to us. And now, we want to help others have that same focus.”

A Radical Vision

When Brian was 10, he started to develop some health problems due to a cavernous malformation, which is a malformed blood vessel that can form anywhere in your body. Brian’s just happened to have formed in his brain stem.

So, as a result, Brian dealt with a variety of different issues throughout his life. Then, at the age of 43, it started to bleed, and bleed, and bleed. And when it bled, it put pressure on the nerves that control his vision, and he started to go blind. So Brian had to undergo a brain surgery in order to remove the cavernous malformation from his brain stem.

Brian still can’t see out of both eyes, but in other ways, he has more perspective and vision than ever before in his life.

Resources:Learn more at https://www.aradicalvision.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/aradicalvision/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aradicalvision/Twitter: https://twitter.com/aradicalvisionRead: INSIGHT by Dr. Tasha Eurich

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One of the things that really impresses me about Robin and KBS is that she was creating a virtual organization long before cloud computing was a mainstream term – and she takes the same innovative and thoughtful approach to establishing efficiencies and solutions that fit the current business environment for her clients.

The old mindset – although many still use it – is that having a CFO is too much money for a small- to medium-sized business. As it turns out, Robin says, small businesses have some pretty big problems or big decisions, too! And they may not need a full-time CFO, but they do still need someone to help guide them financially. “We're really meeting a need of businesses that are struggling to run their businesses; they love what they do, and are really good at it, but just need some help on the back end.”

An Anticipatory CPA & OrganizationYou know Robin is a member of the Maryland Association of CPAs because she describes herself as an “anticipatory CPA” – something we’ve talked about in past episodes with Bill Sheridan, as well as other guests.

Robin defines an anticipatory CPA as “one who is looking out towards the future, anticipating trends, and is really focused on what's going to happen next, instead of being a historian for our clients... And, ultimately, when you think about it, from its most basic elements, a successful business should always be thinking about where they're going and not where they've been. So, I live in that world,” and we should all be living in this world.

Everywhere in the accounting and finance profession, and really almost any profession, people are having conversations about change; changing demographics, changing technologies, changing societal expectations, etc. And, especially when it comes to technology, our profession tends to see this change as a threat – but that’s just our fear of the unknown talking. 

Robin compares this to autonomous vehicles, something that still feels futuristic and foreign to many of us, although there are already autonomous vehicles driving on our roads. Robin envisions a future where not only do autonomous vehicles become popular, but it might even become illegal for humans to drive because it will be a safety risk. 

And you know what? That change doesn’t hurt our ability to commute or get places – it gives us more time! The same thing is true for the technologies that are going to transform the way we do work in our profession, although the transition might be difficult to wrap our heads around.

So, what will you do to become more future-ready? What steps will you take to change your mindset and get out of your comfort zone? What risks are you willing to accept in order to be prepared for tomorrow – all the while knowing that, in order to enact change, it takes baby steps? 

Resources:Learn more at https://www.kbscfo.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kensingtonbusinesssolutionsTwitter: https://twitter.com/kbscfoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbscfo/

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Now, many of the financial planners that I've interacted with in the past could not or would not adapt their conversation to meet the needs of their clients. Instead, many only seem to be serving their own needs and, at times, come across condescending. Phil is just the opposite.

Phil believes in taking a needs-based approach and providing hands-on personal service for his clients – and I believe this is something that all professional service providers need to start doing, and soon. It helps your clients in the long term, and it’ll help your business, too.

I've been a client of his for just over a year and, during this time, I've had more conversations about my financial position and pending retirement than ever before. Albeit, I'm a lot closer to retirement than I was five years ago, but this is the kind of service that really adds value and increases trust. He is doing a great job, and it's something we all can learn from.

So, do you provide a needs-based approach in your work life? If so, how can you help others become better in this approach? If not, will you develop the skills necessary to become a needs-based and hands-on personal service to your clients, customers, and employees?

Either way, sit down, devise a strategy, and work on it every single day.

Resources:Learn more at https://www.vorisekfinancialcorp.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-lovegrove/Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillovegroveFinancial Advisor Success Podcast: https://www.kitces.com/blog/category/21-financial-advisor-success-podcast/Between Now and Success: https://stevesanduski.com/podcast-blog/Planet Money: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-moneyWall Street Journal podcasts: https://www.wsj.com/podcasts

--

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Amy also recently released a book, The Modern Seller, which is not a book about prospecting or negotiating skills. It's a book that explores the five skill sets that individuals and organizations need in order to become successful. In this episode, Amy explains each one of these skill sets in great detail, focusing on how they apply to the financial service industry. However, no matter what industry you're in, the ability for you to develop these five skill sets is crucial in the disruptive business environment that we are operating in today.

So, let’s dig into the five skill sets of The Modern Seller....

A modern seller is agile.

Until the last decade or so, “agility” was something that you heard about in sports and athletic training, not a business concept.

According to the Center for Creative Leadership, which does research on the top skills that organizations are looking to hire for and build, agility really popped onto the radar about 10 years ago. And they think that, by 2022, things like adaptability and versatility are going to be in the top five skills that organizations are looking to hire for.

Amy says that they are also skills that we need to be thinking about when it comes to business development and growth – because our clients are expecting that of us! They're expecting us to show agility as professional organizations, and in order to do that, we have to be developing agility in ourselves.

A modern seller is entrepreneurial.

Whether you're a manager, a senior manager, or someone at the highest level in your organization, look at yourself and look at the people in your firm. Do they see themselves as employees, or do they see themselves as the founder and the CEO, maybe the chief bootstrapper, in their own book of business?

Because there’s a big difference there. When an employee thinks of their book of business or their team's book of business as a business itself, they make different decisions. They look at the top line and the bottom line, and they look for the best opportunities.

So, we want to have people in our organization that are thinking entrepreneurially because that's what's going to help us grow.

Now that you know what a modern seller is, are you ready to become one?

Then you’re going to need to take some action.

So, what’s the next step in the pursuit of becoming a modern seller for you? Which of these five skill sets have you best developed? Which of the five skill sets is your weakest? Will you build on a strategy of strengthening your weakest and leveraging your strongest?

Devise a strategy and work on it every single day, even if it’s just for 30 to 60 minutes. It takes baby steps in order to change a habit.

“You can go to a training, you can read a book, but the switch has to be in the application; applying things, trying them, failing at them, and moving forward. That's the only way that we learn.”

Resources:Learn more at amyfranko.comRead: The Modern Seller: Sell More And Increase Your Impact In The New Sales EconomyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyfranko/Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmyFranko

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This episode is focused on public accounting, but it also has great implications to business and industry accounting professionals. So, I encourage anyone in accounting – or just interested in how AI is going to change the nature of work – to listen to the interview and decide how these technologies might affect your organization.

Now, in March of 2016, artificial intelligence was introduced to the accounting profession when IBM and KPMG signed an agreement to bring Watson into KPMG's audit practice. At the time (and still, really), many of the small- to middle-sized firms speculated that this technology was too expensive for their practices.

Samantha, however, saw an opportunity. She felt that if the larger firms had this advantage, how long would it be until they started taking clients? She turned that question into action, and 18 months after IBM and KPMG's announcement, Samantha was able to bring artificial intelligence into her audit practice at an affordable price.

In fact, Samantha was awarded the Innovative Practitioner Award 2018 from CPA.com for her efforts – and it was well deserved!

Now, if you're still a little skeptical or just curious, then start listening or keep reading and you'll learn how she did it.

Small Firm, Big Technology

For context, Samantha’s firm only has about 15 employees, depending on the time of year. They do mostly everything that small firms do, except for government contracting, and she happens to be the audit partner at this firm.

So when Samantha heard about KPMG introducing AI into their audit practice three years ago, she thought she was probably going to lose a lot of revenue if the large firms have Watson and her firm doesn’t have anything.

“I'm not going to be able to do auditing anymore,” Samantha though. “[But] I really don't like tax. So, I have to find a solution."

Samantha started by talking to her software providers, asking how they were implementing AI into her platform... and they said they weren't. They were only going to look into AI for the large firm platforms. She was a little discouraged, but she didn’t stop searching. Instead, she did what most of us do when we have a question: she Googled it.

She just happened to come across a company called MindBridge, a Canadian startup company that was willing to work with her and let her try it out. Still, she was skeptical. She thought she can't afford the software, it’s probably not going to do what it says it's going to do; was she setting herself up for disappointment?

Resources:Learn more at gwcpas.comCheck out MindBridge.aiTwitter: https://twitter.com/sbowlingcpaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-bowling-cpa-cgma-25531420

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On top of that, from 2016 to 2018, Kimberly served as 104th Chairman of the American Institute of CPAs, where she received numerous awards and recognition. Notably, she was the youngest person, the fifth woman, and first person of color to serve as chairman in the AICPA's 130-year history. Kimberly was also the second Chairman for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, an organization founded in 2017 that has 667,000 members in 184 countries.

Kimberly has been able to walk the fine line between technology and accounting throughout her career, but she’s been able to leverage her accounting and finance acumen in every role she’s had. Even working at NASA Goddard, Motorola, and now Oracle, she’s always recognized that there were both technology and finance implications of every business decision (as well as people and process implications). “And I've been able to leverage both of those on top of the foundation that my parents set for me when they said very early, ‘don't be afraid, and you need to pay your dues, and work hard to get ahead.’”

Kimberly also learned from her parents and the church that she needs to give back – and she really took it to heart! She’s held executive roles, chair roles, and leadership, and she’s a passionate advocate for state CPA societies.

So why does she do it? 

It all comes back to servant leadership, and recognizing that other people inspired and helped her when she was younger. Some people may just need a little bit of help. Other people may need role models. Other people may need to hear that you made it through some tough times to get where you are. It's about helping people who might just need a small helping hand or inspiration, especially other people from socioeconomic backgrounds that are less common in the accounting and technology fields. 

“It's important to lift as we climb,” Kimberly says. “And I think it is important because the more of us that can give visibility to the options that are available, the more of us that will be attracted to the profession, that will stay in the profession, will be advanced and promoted to the highest levels of the profession. And I think that if not me, who? If not now when? And we all have individual accountability and responsibility to do our part and to pay forward.”

Resources:Check out AICPA-CIMA.comConnect with Kimberly on LinkedIn--

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She loves networking, making connections, and creating opportunities – and I know that is a big fear for a lot of people, but it’s also a necessary part of being a lifelong learning and, increasingly, growing your career.

As Cara says, “If you work with me, you don't just get me – you get my network.” That's an extremely valuable thing you can offer employers and clients, and it’s a resource that will only get more valuable over time. “We're all in this together, we all want to do better, everybody wants to feel valued, everybody wants to be respected, and I feel like collaboration is the best way to do that.”

So, why do so many people hate the word networking?

I blame it on most people’s mothers, and then most people laugh at me. But what did your mother always tell you? Never talk to strangers! And when most of us think about networking, we think of talking to a group of strangers. But a stranger is somebody with a bottle of Mogen David at the Ohio Stadium looking at a lamp post going, "Oh, you're awfully tall." That's a stranger. But in a business environment, people that we don't know are opportunities.

You don’t even have to get face-to-face with real people to get started! One of Cara’s mentors, Mike Taylor, once said during a presentation that Twitter is the number one professional development tool. 

She signed up for Twitter during his presentation and, fast forward to 2019, she uses Twitter daily to talk to people all across the world that do the work and have the same challenges that she does.

“And I feel like, especially since I've been more networked, that my depth of knowledge has expanded more than somebody that has been doing the same old thing for five years or ten years because it's so important to me, and so important for your growth, to constantly be getting feedback.”

People that embrace that growth mindset won’t just have a better network – they’ll be better positioned over the next 10 to 15 years, as our workplaces evolve. “You're going to have to have a growth mindset to stay malleable and employable,” and that’s true in pretty much every industry, but it is especially true for CPAs. As we’ve mentioned before, CPAs will need more than just technical skills to thrive in the coming years.

So what are your next steps in becoming a better networker? Is it changing your mindset? Is it not sitting or standing with your office friends and meeting new people? Is it breaking through your shyness and comfort zone to explore possibilities? What do you need to do? And where could you get out of your comfort zone?

I challenge you to start by just taking 10 minutes, writing down some ideas – But the key here is follow through. Whatever you come up with, just do it!

Resources:Twitter: https://twitter.com/caranorth11LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caranorth11/

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Lucy is co-founder of Well Balanced Nutrition, where their goal is to help people worry less, love what they eat, and live their best life.

Now, you don't have to be a CPA or an accountant to learn from this episode because all professionals, at some time during their work year, will have to put in the extra hours over an extended period of time. When this happens, most of us revert to fast food and no exercise to get through this high-stress timeframe.

Often, when we talk about nutrition and wellness, people fall into the trap of thinking that they’re doing everything wrong, or that there’s too much they need to change to even bother – but thinking like that is the fastest way to fail. 

So, instead, Lucy encourages people to raise their awareness, then decide on just ONE thing that they can do better.

You know that old adage, “Everything's good in moderation?” Lucy tells us it’s total crap. You have to know thyself and recognize what your trigger foods are. She mentions the book Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, which talks about the differences between moderation and abstinence. Some people can have just a few cookies or chips and be fine, but some people can’t have the package in the house without devouring it all – so it just takes a little awareness about what will hurt and help your wellness journey.

After you remove any obstacles to your health, pick just ONE thing to work on during this busy season; one bad habit you can make a good habit, which will in turn change your mindset around your health. Baby steps – that is the answer.

Then maybe you can add on another healthy habit when you’re less stressed this Summer, or during the next busy season.

Resources:Learn more at https://www.wellbalancednutrition.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/wellbalancednutritionncRead: Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin

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CPA Practice Advisor named Jennifer one of the Top 25 Women in Accounting in 2018. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants named her a Woman to Watch in 2015. She has been awarded Outstanding Educator by the American Institute of CPAs five times. And in 2018, Jennifer earned the designation of Certified Speaking Professional, making her one of only 10 people worldwide who hold both the CPA and CSP designations (but maybe I can push that number from 10 to 11 in 2019).

Becoming a Future-Ready CFO & Accountant

In the past, the role of the CFO was primarily looking in the rear-view mirror at the historical financial statements and reporting it to the other people in the car. This tells you where you have been, but it doesn't necessarily tell you where you’re going. “And there's too much change, too much risk out there. The CFO now has to shift that perspective and look forward. They have to start to be able to look into the crystal ball, see what's coming down the pike.”

Future-ready CFOs, and future-ready accountants in general, have to think about what's going on in the world and how it might affect your organization, which means you want to be looking at trends. What are the trends in the world at large? What are the trends in your industry?

In the accounting and finance world right now, the trend everybody's looking at and talking about is technology. How are things like artificial intelligence going to change everything?

When Jennifer teaches classes on the skills of the future and presentation skills, she breaks it down into five words you need to focus on to really add value to your organization: what, so what, and now what.

The what is data. The so what is why should they care? If we're talking about the what, we're just presenting the data that we think somebody needs to get, but we have to think about it from our client’s perspective. “Step out of your own head, get into the head of your audience, and think about what's important to them.”

Now what, then, is the action that’s going to help your client move forward.

Change Your Mindset is now being distributed on C-Suite Radio. You can find Change Your Mindset and many other outstanding business podcasts on C-Suite Radio by going to www.c-suiteradio.com.

Resources:Learn more at http://sustainablecfo.com/Check out jenniferelder.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferhelderTwitter: https://twitter.com/sustainablecfo

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We discuss whether the profession is moving in the direction of becoming more future-proof, or future-ready, through the lens of the conversations he’s been having with his guests for nearly a year.

So, let’s get right to it: is the profession future-proof?

The short answer is no, we're not future-proof or future-ready yet – but we're getting there. However, we might be getting there a little slower than Bill and the other folks over at the MACPA hoped.

“It seems like they're starting to realize that this stuff is real. It's not going away. In fact, it's starting to impact them right now, and they need to pay attention to it. So, that's encouraging that they are starting to pay attention,” Bill says.

And in a way, this seeming reluctant to look forward makes sense for the accounting and finance profession. “When you think about the profession itself, accounting and finance will spend their entire careers looking behind them. By definition, they're accounting for things that have happened in the past.

“So, turning around, and looking through the windshield, and noticing what's coming at you, isn't a muscle that they've spent a lot of time building. And so, they're just starting to do that now. And the more they do it, the better they'll get at it.” Becoming future-ready starts with being aware of what's going on.

It comes back to the idea of the anticipatory organization, an idea championed by MACPA President and CEO Tom Hood. In this sense, anticipation a three-step process: aware, predict, and adapt. 

So, first step, being aware of change. That involves asking questions and start to understanding it. Next is predicting what will happen. So, now that I'm aware of it, what kind of impact is this going to have on me and the people that I work with? And then, finally, adapting. What can we actually do about it?

For example, here's a question for accounting and finance pros out there: how can you take advantage of 5G in a way that will benefit the people that you work with? 

“That's the muscle that we have to start building. We know this is coming, and in very short order. So, what are the opportunities embedded in something like that? And we need to start thinking about that now before it hits mainstream and evolves into something else.” So becoming anticipatory is the practice of building that muscle – because change is going to happen over and over.

“We need to be able to help walk our clients and customers into the future. In order to do that, we need to be there before them,” Bill says.

Change Your Mindset is now being distributed on C-Suite Radio. You can find Change Your Mindset and many other outstanding business podcasts on C-Suite Radio by going to www.c-suiteradio.com.

Resources:

Listen to Future-Proof: https://blionline.org/blog/ | Apple Podcasts

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billdsheridan/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillSheridan

Take Sally Hogshead’s assessment: howtofascinate.com/you (use code “FutureProof” to take it for free)

Read: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle

Read: When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink

Read: The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last by Tom Peters

Read: The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Hal Burrows, Kenneth H. Blanchard, and William Oncken

Read: The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker

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My guest today is a gentleman who knows more about fraud than just about anyone else in the accounting and finance profession: Gary Zeune, CPA, Managing Director of The Pros & The Cons.

The Pros & The Cons is the only speaker bureau in the country specializing in white-collar criminals. His 40 plus ex-con speakers tell the stories of how and why they embezzled, took kickbacks, and cooked the books to the tune of up to $2.7 billion. His speakers include Mark Morse, a former CFO at ZZZZ Best; Paul Allen, an ex-bank CEO; and Dunlap Cannon, the largest real estate closing attorney in Memphis.

But regardless of what kind of entity they worked at, regardless of the dollar amount, there are several really common elements between everyone who commits fraud – the biggest one being that they don't think they're going to get caught. To put it simply, ego gets in the way.

So, why would someone be so stupid to think they aren't going to get caught?

Well, consider this: have you ever broken the speed limit while driving? Everybody, including me and Gary, have done. It's illegal, so why do we do it? We do it because we think we're going to get away with it – just the same as somebody cheating on their expense report or cooking the books at the bank for $2.7 billion.

People say, "Well, I'd never let that happen to me." Well, when you get in your car and you go on the freeway, most of us start going the speed limit. Then, you go two miles over. Then, you're three miles over. Then, five. After you're driving for an hour, you might be going 10, 15 miles over the speed limit. What happens is when your brain is bombarded by constant stimuli, the same stimuli, your brain becomes desensitized.

That's why frauds always start little and get bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

Most people think that there is a bright line on ethical behavior, but that's not the way it works. Ethics is not absolute. Ethics is situational.

So you might think going just five or 10 miles over the speed limit isn’t so bad, but would you break the law by driving 30 or 40 miles over the speed limit? Most of us the answer is no, most of the time, but what about when you have a medical emergency and you're taking your child to the hospital? Your child's health and well-being is more important than you staying five miles over the speed limit, so you change your behavior and break the law even more because there's something more important to you in this situation than the speed limit.

So, if you don't do something about fraud, it’s just going to grow – which also means you need to know how fraud works so that you can identify it.

You may get an expense report for $1000, including a $12 fake cab. If you don't bust someone over it, assuming you catch it, and then make the punishment worse than the crime, they're going to do it again. “And it will get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. That's where it always starts.”

Gary shares a number of great fraud stories in the episode, and you can learn even more by reading some of the following articles he wrote or contributed to:

• Scott London, Ex-Auditor From Insider-Trading Scheme, Is Out of Prison, Has a Job
• What do Fraud, Ethics and Strategy have in common?
• Fraudsters in Demand as Speakers Amid White-Collar Crackdown - Risk & Compliance - WSJ
• Prison-Bound KPMG Ex-Partner Remorseful for Insider Tips - WSJ
• Former KPMG Partner Scott London Speaks out Before Starting Prison Term - Accounting Today
• WSJ Special Report - White Collar Criminals for Hire - From the Penitentiary to the Podium
• Confessions of an insider trader on the eve of his prison sentence - WSJ MarketWatch
• Forbes Former KPMG Partner Scott London Shares Cautionary Tale Before Prison
• Former KPMG Partner Scott London to Hold CPE-Eligible Webcast on Ethics Before He Goes to Prison for Insider Trading
• Ever Thought, 'How Did He Get Promoted?' Here's How - WSJ
• How to Tell If Your Coworkers Are Using Their Manipulative Powers for Good or Evil - At Work - WSJ
• What Corporate Climbers Can Teach Us - WSJ

Resources:

• Learn more at http://www.theprosandthecons.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gzfraud/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gzfraud

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Today, we follow up on that conversation to check in on the progress that they have made, learn about any unforeseen challenges that they may have faced, and how they handle these challenges.

To recap, in 2010, the Indiana Society created a board-level task force on knowledge management. Jennifer worked with the task force on competency to examine how things have changed in education and everything snowballed from there.

Then, on July 1, 2017, the State of Indiana signed House Bill 1467 into law.

Following that, the Indiana CPA society created an all-online ethics course. It's interactive, and you have to actively participate in it by including comments or replying to other people's comments. Initially, it did count for a waiver of four hours, but if you take that course now, the certificate says you meet the ethics requirement in Indiana.

There’s no test, but, “the part of it that makes it more interactive and kind of tests, if you will, the competency gained is the questions and commentary that the learners have to include.” For example, there might be a case study that you read, and then it would ask what the learner would have done in this particular part of the situation.

So, how’s it going so far?

“We find that it tends to be people just get it right away and really liked the idea, or really people struggle with anything that's different, which I find so interesting because it has been around a long time,” Jennifer says. “We're 104 years old, almost, as an organization, but CPE, the credit hours system, is only 40 something years old... Sometimes, I don't understand that challenge to change.”

I'm so happy the folks in Indiana are working on this because we live in, to some degree, an la carte world. People learn in different ways, and being able to provide the opportunity to learn in the way that fits them best will only make them more successful.

Appropriately, the competency rule in Indiana is an option. It's not mandatory.

Jennifer also shares a story about her son and his friend that really hits home with me, and explains why this approach will only be more important as our profession moves forward:

Jennifer’s friend visited, and both of their kids were running around the house like maniacs playing hide and seek. At one point, they sat down and Jennifer’s friend said, "Oh, I can count this for her PE class."

Over the break, there was some incentive for students to be active for four hours per week. It didn't have to involve going to the gym or working out, it just had to involve being active. “And I just thought, gosh, if we can do that for sixth grade PE, we should be able to figure it out."

Resources:

• Learn more at http://incpas.org
• Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbbriggs/

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Our guests are Allen Lloyd, CEO of the Montana Society of CPAs; Boyd Search, CEO of the Georgia Society of CPAs; and Chris Jenkins, CEO of the South Carolina Association of CPAs. All three are CEOs who used to work for the Ohio Society and are now running other state societies, so naturally, our discussion centers around the state of the CPA associations and the issues that members are facing in the accounting profession, both current and in the future.

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, which is why this isn’t a one-on-one conversation. These three highlight that each association needs the ability to recognize the idiosyncrasies or uniqueness of their membership and try to tailor their offerings to meet the membership’s needs.

For example, Chris Jenkins and the South Carolina Association of CPAs recently overhauled their membership model to create something completely new: an all-inclusive membership. And this was a pretty radical move!

“It's about bringing the association back to what it originally was, and the association was a community,” Chris says. “We spend a lot of time talking about CPE, and we spend a lot of time marketing CPE, but there are a lot of CPE vendors out there. What we were trying to do is deliver the maximum value for the minimum price. So, we wanted to roll CPE in as a member benefit.”

That’s right – SCACPA isn’t trying to upsell their members to purchase additional CPE credits anymore! The conversation around CPE is so often competence versus compliance, and when you take the price point out of the CPE, it becomes more of a competency-based system.

The world is changing rapidly, and as the world changes, associations need to change too.

Allen Lloyd and the Montana Association face a very different problem than our other two guests: they’re a state with just a million people that's three-and-a-half times the size of Ohio. CPE is difficult for them because it's difficult to get everyone together – then, even when you accomplish that, none of the cities in Montana are that big, and they're spread out so far from one another, making it difficult to get teaching talent to come.

So the MSCPA got rid of their eight-hour seminars and switched to cluster events. Instead of getting people together for an afternoon, everyone gets together for two or three days. None of the classes are longer than four hours and members can pick and choose what they want to do.

Georgia, on the other hand, is a much more populated state. There are over 21,000 CPAs licensed in the state, and 85% of their members are actually in Metro Atlanta. This creates both opportunity and challenges because, while they are compressed in this space, traffic is terrible and it's not going to get any better.

So Boyd and the GSCPA have made significant investments in their live stream technology, and they’re doing it all themselves. “We have our own equipment, our own staff, and we do it for ourselves,” Boyd says. “And in an age when a lot of people are partnering with outside companies, or with other states, or whatever, we have moved in the opposite direction where we are entirely reliant on ourselves.”

So the society owns the process, owns the technology, and hires the people beginning to end – and that has paid huge dividends for them financially. Although they have not experienced tremendous growth in their margins, they have offset losses that you can see in other states and other providers.

Change is scary. Change is necessary.

People in associations have a fear, and not an entirely irrational fear, that if they create too much change, the people who have supported the associations for the last 30+ years won't like them anymore.

“But we also have to recognize that if we don't change, if we don't do something different, the people who are going to support us for the next 30 years are not going to find us relevant. They're not going to find value in us,” Chris says.

So, each association, and really each firm, has to have a method of controlled change, in which you try to balance the needs of both without making either one 100% happy... and no matter what you do, you’re never going to make everyone happy.

But if people can find the value, they will want to be part of your association or work with your firm.

Resources:

• Montana Society of CPAs: https://www.mscpa.org/
• Connect with Allen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mscpaexecdir
• Georgia Society of CPAs: https://www.gscpa.org
• Connect with Boyd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boyd-search-2099356/
• South Carolina Association of CPA: https://www.scacpa.org/
• Connect with Chris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj52973

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We’re joined by third-time guest Karl Ahlrichs, a human capitalist consultant who knows a thing or two about how individuals and teams really get things done.

Why can’t we multitask?

You can think of multitasking as either the ability to perform multiple tasks at one time or switching back and forth from one thing to another – but neither is an effective way to do... well, just about anything.

If you think you can effectively perform multiple tasks at once, I’d like to present exhibit A: “If you've eaten at a quick service restaurant like Kentucky Fried Chicken, they will hand you a multitasking eating implement that is with a spoon and a fork – the spork. It fails at both tasks! It's basically a spoon that can hurt you.”

And if you’re switching between tasks, that has its own costs. There is up to a 40% reduction in productivity from this, when compared to focusing on a task and completing it then turning to another task and completing it. Decision fatigue also sets in, as Karl calls it, and you become less effective as you think.

For example, imagine you’re balancing a spreadsheet and writing a document. If you were to split your brain power between those two, it is not a simple 50/50 split. There is a loss of time to task switching, and every flip takes about 20% of the brain's total processing power, leaving 80% for the task at hand, not 100%. So, instead of a 50/50 split, it's a 40/40 split with 20% wasted.

But this isn’t just lowering your productivity. It basically lowers your IQ by about 15 points – the equivalent of staying up all night – and it lowers brain density in areas of the cortex that are responsible for empathy, cognitive, and emotional control.

“So, over time, if you do a bunch of multitasking that is paying off in these short-term ding ding dings, it makes you less cognitive and have poorer emotional control.”

Still don’t believe us? Try it for yourself!

Karl walks us through a simple exercise to demonstrate the impact of multitasking and task switching:

• Take out a sheet of paper, a writing implement, and something to time yourself with.
• Write “A B C D E F G H I” on one line and then, underneath it, write “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.” Time yourself.
• Now do it again, but don’t write the two lines sequentially. Instead, alternate between letters and numbers (A, 1, B, 2, and so on). Time yourself.

How long did it take you? The first time it took me 11 seconds, but the second time it took me 15 (and I might have messed up once).

How to Put an End to Multitasking

The overall process is pretty simple: identify the tasks at hand, identify and focus on the workflow process that you want to use, decide what needs your full attention, triage, prioritize, reduce distractions, and then just pay attention to one thing at a time.

To make this easier on yourself, do less! Delegate, hand things off to colleagues, or hand things off to technology. Remove the stuff that someone else can do from your plate “so that your precious brain power can be used for the good stuff, for the creative moments.”

If you need some help creating a more effective workflow, Karl suggests trying out the Kanban method. It’s pretty simple: create a to-do list, a doing list, and a complete list on a whiteboard (or something similar), then write all of your tasks onto sticky notes. There shouldn’t be more than a couple things in your “doing” list at any given time, and writing them all out will both help you prioritize and figure out what can be delegated.

If you want to learn more about Kanban, head over to www.personalkanban.com.

Another thing that makes a big difference is aerobic exercise. “Overall physical fitness appears to improve the outcome of all tasks, and it improves cognition.”

I hope that gives you some ideas for taking on tax season. If you are looking for some more ideas, feel free to reach out to Karl or myself.

Resources:

• Learn more about Karl at http://www.expertspeaks.com/
• Connect with Karl: Twitter | LinkedIn
• Learn about Kanban: www.personalkanban.com

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After working in the public relations and marketing industry for over 15 years, she realized that happiness isn't found in what society deems important and felt a calling to help others reach their fullest potential while embracing all that life has to offer. Now an author, professional speaker, motivational blogger, book publicist, and home decor business owner, Stephanie connects her passion for embracing creativity with her dedication to helping others live life in perspective.

In her recently published book, Color Today Pretty: An Inspirational Guide to Living a Life in Perspective, Stephanie invites others to change their lives by finding perspective from within.

She has a wonderful message to share with all of us as we begin to move into 2019, and for those in the accounting profession, as we move into that busy season (although I prefer to call it the opportunity season).

What Does it Mean to Color Today Pretty?

The idea of “Color Today Pretty” came to Stephanie in a dream, and it’s since become her life purpose and, really, a movement.

In the dream, Stephanie played the role of a female Simon Cowell on America’s Got Talent – essentially, the person that stands between someone's dreams and their reality.

A contestant walked up and started painting, and it was just awful. She told the young boy to give up and get a job, but he didn’t react by getting sad or angry like most people on the show. “Instead, he took his canvas, he brought it over to me, and he gifted me with a smile, and he said, ‘That's okay. I just want you to go color something pretty today.’”

“I realized that he had a choice. You know, there's a lot of ways to get from point A to point B in life. And I was sitting here thinking that I stood in between his ability to have this dream make it a reality, but this young kid taught me something different,” Stephanie says.

“What I realized at that moment is he couldn't control my reaction. He couldn't control if I was going to help him reach his dream, but he could control his reactions and his responses to what happened in life to him. He decided to color that day pretty, to take that moment and make it purposeful and meaningful. And he wasn't going to let me stop him.”

From that moment, Stephanie shifted her lens on life and learned to find beauty in the mundane – and she believes that if you can embrace this mentality, too, you can do anything.

One of the things I enjoy about the book is that it’s not coming from the perspective of "You know, I've got life figured out and here’s how you do it." Instead, it's more of a journey through what Stephanie has experienced, showing how shifting her perspective has allowed her to take some of the most difficult moments in her life and use them to grow instead of hinder her growth.

“There is a way for people to focus on the things that matter. But, sometimes, we have to go through an acceptance process to get there, to be able to see through the right lens, to be able to focus our spectacles, per se, and really see that, at the end of the day, the only thing we can control in life is ourselves.”

Resources:

• Learn more at http://colortodaypretty.com
• Color Today Pretty: An Inspirational Guide to Living a Life in Perspective
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colortodaypretty
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colortodaypretty/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-feger/

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Carrie always knew she wanted to start a business at some point, but she struggled, and her fear of leaving Deloitte was so great that she nearly broke down before finally deciding to move on. It was hard work to break away from the vision of success that she had been raised to believe.

How did Carrie redefine success for herself, build a thriving entrepreneurial consulting business, and write a bestselling book within two years of leaving Deloitte? She connected her knowledge and experiences to her passion to create the life that she wanted to live and aligned her business vision with her life vision. Now, she is driven to help others to do the same.

From Corporate America to Entrepreneur

Carrie fell into public accounting because she liked working with a variety of clients, learning about many different business issues, understanding how tax impacted those businesses, coaching her clients, and coaching her people.

But after being in public accounting for 18 years, she needed to look at really where things were going. She asked herself, “What am I creating here at Deloitte? What does that look like? And is that what I'm here to create?” She came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to find that thing in the various potential partner paths in public accounting.

“I knew that I wanted to create a business of my own.”

I know many of you have had that same thought, but a lot of people don't really realize the barriers that one goes through when going from employee to entrepreneur.

“I had been modeling a version of success that I had seen throughout my life and I was living this version of success that I had been raised to believe,” Carrie says. “I needed to redefine what success meant to me and find success in a way that meant I would have to humble myself for a while. I would have to take a pay cut for a while. I would have to create something of my own that, at that point, I didn't know what it was. And those were huge mental barriers to break through.”

“Your business is always a reflection of you. Your business is you and you're selling you, and you're defining what you're creating yourself – and all those things are infinitely exciting, and infinitely terrifying, and humbling.”

As an entrepreneur, Carrie is able to guide people and help them make this transition a little more easily. There are still big barriers, but with a little help and a plan, they’re a little less daunting.

This takes the form of Power to Pivot, Carrie’s system to take people through those initial steps to go from this chaotic not knowing feeling to just knowing.

“I see so many people going out and buying a franchise, or buying a shop, or a business that already exists. And several years later, they're just as miserable. And, actually, sometimes, more because they never honored what it is that they are truly meant to create. It's finding that, creating that big vision, and then planning for it.

You can learn more about Carrie’s system in her free on-demand training session called Authentic Ambition: How to Create a Post-Corporate Life You Love Full of Abundance, Creativity, and Joy. She goes through the system in detail and offers some very specific items to think about, so you can start exploring your options right now.

Resources:

• Learn more at CarrieSechel.com
• Free training session: Authentic Ambition: How to Create a Post-Corporate Life You Love Full of Abundance, Creativity, and Joy
• Read: BASE Jump: Finding Yourself in an Unfulfilling Professional World

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Before founding PrepLink, Sean worked as a CPA for several firms in their tax departments, and the idea was born out his frustration with the lifestyle of public accounting – a frustration many of us understand all too well.

Sean realized that by providing a tool that allows accountants the option of finding remote, flexible work, he could tap into the abundance of talented and experienced CPAs willing to take on freelance assignments and open that up to firms who can benefit from a large pool of reliable on-demand experts.

“I want to offer a small firm all the resources of a large national accounting firm.” So when a small firm needs help with a specific subject matter they don’t know much about or a big project that needs more hands, they know they can find someone perfect for the job and bring them on.

PrepLink isn’t just outsourcing, though. It’s a new network for public accounting, allowing firms and professionals to establish and build relationships within the CPA community.

Sean shares an example of how he plans to use PrepLink to help him navigate the complexities of Nexus for an online business operating in multiple states:

“Right now, I have a business. I have clients all over the country. I'm actually going to have to use PrepLink to bring on people to help me understand my requirements as an internet business with all these accounting firms that I'm dealing with across the country. I need help there.”

But it's just not the accounting entrepreneurs like Sean who will benefit from this. It's tax managers or auto managers have this nagging feeling that there's to be a better way of doing things. “I'm screaming from the mountaintops,” Sean says, “if you offer flexibility, the amount of people willing to work with you will outstrip the amount of work that you have.”

Sean also stresses that you don't have to use PrepLink. “You can do it yourself. I hope this message gets across. Just offer flexibility and offer optionality, and you'll get people. You'll get amazing people.”

Resources:

Learn more at preplink.ioConnect with Sean: LinkedIn | TwitterConnect with PrepLink: LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter 

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You may not believe it’s possible – mostly the laughing part – but today’s guest, David Krebs, is here to prove you wrong.

David is an author, speaker, Thomson Reuters Gear Up Tax Class teacher, silver-certified bowling instructor, and Olympic Calculator Edition champion, and he is unique in the tax space for two reasons: One, his unparallelled passion for helping his clients save money and grow their businesses. Two, when he's teaching or working with his clients, he makes taxes fun.

That's right – taxes and fun, in the same sentence, on purpose!

David even says that his spiritual gift is making tax law fun. Because “if you have to sit through a seminar for eight hours on taxes, and you enjoy it, that is a gift!” And I really couldn’t agree more.

In this interview, you'll hear the passion that Dave exudes, and it's completely contagious. He got me so jazzed that I think I want to attend one of his tax seminars. And I've never – I mean never – willingly wanted to attend a tax seminar.

If you also find yourself wanting to attend one of David’s seminars, look at the full list of upcoming events at gearup.com and send David a message asking if he’ll be speaking at the sessions near you (dave [at] cpaagi.com).

Resources:

Learn more at cpaagi.comAttend one of David’s talks: gearup.comRead: "How an improv class can help develop essential business skills" 

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Kristen is the creator of Slide Deck Improv, a 10-year veteran of public accounting, and the owner of Kristen Rampe Consulting. Jason actually worked for Kristen during his short tenure as an accountant, but he left the profession to pursue improv and acting. Now he’s back in the professional services field as a fellow facilitator for Slide Deck Improv.

So what is Slide Deck Improv?

It’s the most fun way to improve your presentation skills and gain confidence in your abilities, all while practicing the life skill that is improvisation.

Slide Deck Improv combines the basic concepts of business communication and improvisation with practical – and fun – hands-on exercises.

The groups take part in improv games, culminating in the titular event: people take turns coming onstage, the audience chooses a topic, and then the presenter has to prepare a presentation on that topic using a slide deck they’ve never seen before.

In the process, presenters get an opportunity to take a risk in a safe environment, while practicing new communication and storytelling skills.

“I think one of the beautiful things about improv is that it shows you what you actually do know and what you actually have internalized; to have a little bit more faith in your abilities and to not feel so insecure in a public realm,” Jason says. “I think a lot of us feel like we can't do it, we don't know how to do it, we don't trust our instincts. [But Slide Deck Improv] opens up a whole new realm for people.”

I fell in love with this program the very first time I saw it, and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of it. Because we’re not just teaching business communications skills, we’re teaching everyday life skills.

Improv is all about connecting with your audience, no matter who the audience is. It could be your customers, clients, a sales team, family, strangers, whatever – at the end of the day, it comes to people talking to people. And if you can connect with and engage people, you're going to have this newfound confidence in your abilities.

If you want to see Slide Deck Improv firsthand, check out these videos of their past presentations  on YouTube.

Resources:

Learn more at slidedeckimprov.comFollow Slide Deck Improv: LinkedIn | Facebook | TwitterWant to do this yourself? Learn more about the upcoming Small Group DIY Kit 

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This talk was first inspired by a quote from Socrates: “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

Sound familiar? Because 2000 years later, some older folks are still singing this tune – and yet, things are still getting done.

“Everybody thinks that their beginning and their end are like the ultimate beginning and the end... [but] anybody who had been in business for even a short while knows that so much of what we see is just something old with a new name.”

Burnout & Karoshi

Part of Courtney’s presentation covered the idea of karoshi, which can be translated literally as “overwork death.” Both Courtney and I have seen how this affects the Japanese people first hand, and you can learn even more about it in The Washington Post’s article “Do Japanese really work themselves to death? In some cases, yes.”

The sad truth is that the work culture in Japan has led to thousands of deaths, to the point where the government is now involved – and our culture here in the U.S. isn’t so different.

“It's going to come here, I think. It might come more slowly, it might take a different form, but we are turning into a culture that is work-obsessed. Well, we've been there for a while.”

The average workweek is 47 hours now. Not only that, from 2000 to 2014, the productivity at work increased by 21.6% – but, at the same time, the remuneration only increased by 1.8%. And that is simply unsustainable.

“We abandon our humanity, and we're working people to the point where they can't take it anymore, and they leave. And I think when we make millennial a pejorative term, we're kind of doing the same thing.”

So let's all cut each other some slack, let’s learn what we can about self-care from the younger generation, and let's add a little humanity to the equation; Let’s just bring some humanity into the boardroom, into the conference room, into our meetings, into how we manage our people, and how we interact with our people.

Don't just ask, “Will it work? Is it profitable? Is it right?” – Ask, “Is it humane?”

The evidence that treating people like people isn’t just nice, but a financially viable strategy, is abundant. So do you have the guts to do it?

Resources:

• Learn more at courtneykirschbaum.com
• Connect with Courtney: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
• Watch Courtney on YouTube
• Read: "“Yes, and” Take a Negotiation Lesson from Improv Theatre"

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Now, this isn’t about converting accounting and finance professionals into marketers – It's about helping people like accountants make better decisions about their accounting practice by thinking like a marketer.

In Think Like a Marketer, Kate discusses the five principles that will help you make this mindset shift and change everything for your business:

Communicate for connection and meaning, not just to transact sales. (For a little bonus reading on this subject, check out this article in the Journal of Accountancy: “Networking Tips for Quiet People: A Little Preparation Can Take the Fear Out of Networking”)You live and die by your customers' insights. You may think accounting professionals are a group of subject matter experts who are all about the data and numbers, right? But thinking like a marketer requires looking at numbers that most professionals just aren't. For example, when is the last time you did a client satisfaction survey?Market yourself in a way that's strategy religious and tactic agnostic. This is not about where you go to church – If that you have a marketing strategy that you’re confident in, you need to be sticking religiously to that strategy. But in terms of the tactics you apply and the activities you do in marketing, you need to be really open-minded and agnostic.Create cultures and processes that align with your brand. What are you willing to do differently in your day-to-day processes, up to and including the way the building is laid out, in order to really deliver on the story that you’re telling to the marketplace about what makes you a better accounting firm than the accounting firm down the street?Do everything in service of maintaining a virtuous cycle of creating value for the customer while capturing value for you. 

I am confident if you execute to these five principles, you'll begin to see signs that your marketing is resonating with your audience and having an impact.

“It doesn't matter where you are in your journey. Whether we're talking about a book that you just wrote, or if we're talking about a business that you founded, or a business that you work in, the perfect time to start thinking like a marketer is now.”

Resources:

Learn more at thinklikeamarketerthebook.comJoin the Think Like a Marketer Community: facebook.com/groups/1757442721002369Connect with Kate on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/katecolbertThink Like a Marketer: How a Shift in Mindset Can Change Everything for Your Business 

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On top of all the work that Rebekah does, she’s just downright passionate about the profession, taking a “rising tide raises all ships” philosophy to everything she does to train and educate her fellow and future accountants.

Rebekah focuses on what she calls the three P’s:

1. People – “I develop people! I am passionate ... about helping people find their strengths and find their place in the accounting profession. So, on an individual basis, with each of our members, I want to help develop them and develop their careers.”
2. Pipeline – MACPA is over  100 years old, and in that time they’ve learned that we have to be constantly thinking about and developing future CPAs. So a lot of Rebekah’s work involves talking to college students, high school students, and even elementary school students about the accounting profession. “So, I’m always thinking about who is our next generation CPA, who's our next generation member, and preparing them for the profession.”
3. Profession – The MACPA isn’t solely focused preparing accounting and finance professionals in Maryland. “We really believe that the rising tide raises all boats. So, we want the profession to grow to be successful, to be anticipatory, to be future-ready. And so, as we do that all over the world, we believe we are benefiting Maryland, and we believe that Maryland CPAs are even better positioned to be future-ready because of that.”

Speaking of the future of the profession, there was an article in Accounting Today titled “Melancon: It’s time to reimagine accounting” covering a presentation that Barry Melancon, the President and CEO of the AICPA, made this year at the AICPA ENGAGE Conference.

My favorite quote from this article is when Barry says, "We've changed significantly just in the past year, and we're never going to see the pace of change that's slower than what we're seeing now. And, you know, we won't be obsolete, particularly, if we embrace these changes."

Just let that sink in. How does that affect you and your business, and how does that affect you as an accounting financial professional as we move forward?

I highly recommend reading the article and listening to Barry's podcast interview with Bill Sheridan on Future-Proof, a podcast for accounting and financial pros.

After doing so myself, I have decided to invest my CPE time and dollars into learning more about blockchain and artificial intelligence. I've been somewhat reluctant to do this, but I want to have this better understanding of this technology.

Resources:

• Learn more: MACPA.org | BLIonline.org
• Connect with Rebekah: Twitter | LinkedIn
• Listen to Peter on Episode 19 of Future-Proof & subscribe on Apple Podcasts

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Now, most CPAs don't feel that way – and that is what makes Owen a great leader!

Owen embraces the essence of leadership. He is currently Vice Chair of Finance for the Ohio Society of CPAs, is also on the board of the Construction Financial Management Association, and has been on the board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (an organization close to my heart).

“I encourage, first, for everybody to find something they're passionate about; and second, to find an organization that aligns with them and realize that what will come of that are some great friendships, some great networking opportunities, and business connections.”

That’s a lot for one person, in addition to having a job and a family, so our conversation covers a wide variety of topics: his role as a financial controller, why the construction industry needs to embrace more lean practices to become more efficient, and his volunteer time.

As you’ll hear, Owen is passionate about everything he does and is a great role model for both young and old. I am very proud of him, and I'm envious of his drive.

I also have an exciting announcement: my new book, Taking the Numb Out of Numbers: Explaining and Presenting Financial Information with Confidence and Clarity, is available for purchase on Amazon.com! If you'd like to learn more about the book, head on over to TakingTheNumbOutOfNumbersBook.com.

Resources:

Learn more about the Ohio Society: ohiocpa.comConnect with Owen on LinkedIn 

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This is an issue that comes up a lot in firms today and it’s only going to be a bigger issue with each passing year. So if you’re clinging to the old ways – well, consider this a wake-up call.

Because the firms who are set in their ways, who have decades-old policies they haven't revisited, are the ones who contact Cara saying things like, "We can't recruit anybody... And when we do recruit somebody, they're only staying one or two years, or they don't want to be on the partner track anymore. What's the problem?"

The Millennial Mindset

Cara is the author of a short book titled The Millennial Mindset (which you can get for free here). It contains some stories about Cara’s childhood, as she happens to be one of the oldest millennials, talking about things like technology, respect for authority, and entitlement (everybody's favorite topic when it comes to millennials).

“And what that little booklet talks about is the backstory of why am I, as a millennial, so entitled, and why do I have no loyalty to anyone or anything,” Caray says. “[It] tells a lot of those stories of how I grew up differently than the previous generations, which is a pretty good aha moment for a lot of managers and older colleagues, even, that really do not understand how millennials see the world so differently.”

Why Your Employees Leave & How to Keep Them Longer

Cara also co-authored a new book called Staying Power: Why Your Employees Leave and How to Keep Them Longer. This book focuses on specific strategies for reducing employee turnover today, covering the evolution of our employees over the last 20 to 30 years in the workplace.

“Today, we are in an employee's market. It's absolutely the employees' choice, the candidates' choice, of where they're going to work.”

The power has shifted – and it's time for your mindset to shift as well.

Survey after survey says that the new generation of workers don't leave because of pay. They leave because of things like antiquated software and mandatory Saturdays.

What the new generations want is flexibility and to be heard; they would like more transparency across the entire organization. It can be frustrating for staff when they feel like the partners are the only ones who know what's going on.

People are only going to stay as long as they feel that it's a good place for them to work and you're only going to keep them so long as they're providing what you need as an employer – so it has to be mutually beneficial.

“I want to challenge each and every one of you to turn up your appreciation dial and start to thank people for doing a great job, even if it is their job.”

Some of you are probably cringing right now at the idea – "That's why they get a paycheck," after all.

But we know that there are people who come to work and don't do their job, or they don't do a great job, or they're not as dependable as some of the other staff on our team.

You will gain so much more loyalty and people will want to work for you longer if you show the appreciation that is deep down inside of you. Because if you dig down, you probably are thankful for the people who show up, show up on time, do great work, and take great care of your clients or any of the projects that they're on.

GIVEAWAY: Want a free copy of Staying Power?

Cara is offering one free autographed copy of Staying Power: Why Your Employees Leave and How to Keep Them Longer to Change Your Mindset listeners. If you want a chance to win, all you have to do is tag Peter on social media and mention the book.

You can find Peter...

• On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theaccidentalaccountant
• Twitter: @pmargaritis
• Or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermargaritis/

After a week, we will pick one lucky winner to receive a signed copy of the book.

Resources:

• Learn more at crescendostrategies.com
• Connect with Cara: Facebook | LinkedIn
• Staying Power: Why Your Employees Leave and How to Keep Them Longer
• Get a copy FREE: The Millennial Mindset

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After the seminar, she sent me an email with a nice compliment about the class and asked if I knew of any great summaries that I could share with her for taking accounting data and turning it into a powerful story… but at that time, and even still, I didn’t know of any.

Instead, I helped Jennie develop her story for the organization in exchange for using this exercise as a case study for my upcoming book, Taking the Number Out of Numbers: Explaining and Presenting Financial Information with Confidence and Clarity. The big problem with presenting accounting information to non-accountants is the language barrier – not everybody speaks the foreign language of Accounting.

But on top of that, most of Jennie’s co-workers speak a different foreign language: engineering. So she has to learn a second foreign language and translate that into accounting, then translate all of the relevant information into plain English for executives and clients.

So the big question: How do I communicate complex financial information to those who do not speak Accounting?

The information is often complex – accounting is difficult! – so our goal should be to make it as simple as possible. Your audience probably doesn’t need to know anything about accrual, debits, or credits. They just need to understand enough about the organization to make the best possible decisions for their business.

As John Medina, the author of Brain Rules, says: numbers are boring.

Luckily, there's always a story behind the numbers! And the more you can evoke emotion with that story, the more you can keep people awake and attentive, the more impact your presentation will have.

After my class, Jennie was able to take a presentation about the balance sheet for her organization and tell a story using a dollar bill to help them understand what the costs were and how the organization became profitable.

It might seem like an extremely simplified way to present a balance sheet – and to a degree, it is – but it was a huge success.

Jennie received a compliment from one of the employees in the room after that presentation: “She said usually when you used to get up in the meetings, you would smile and act like you were happy about the numbers. So I thought they must be great. I had no idea what you were saying, but then you were smiling so I thought great… But she said this time, when you put the dollar up there, I actually understood what you were talking about – I could understand the business.”

You see, when you take the NUMB out of numbers, it leaves you with ERS: effective, relatable stories, which leads to confidence and clarity.

So I challenge you to look at your financial presentation and ask yourself: Is it time for a change? If so, give me a call or send me an email: petermargaritis.com/contact.

Resources:

Learn more about Jennie & Five Nines: gonines.com/project/jennie-scheel-cfo/ 

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DeLeon & Stang is very much an anticipatory organization. They have created an exceptionally positive culture and go beyond traditional services by providing clients with a future-forward look at the financial situation. In this episode, we’ll examine how their future-forward approach applies to creating a mission statement, deciding to open a new location, rolling out new benefits in 2018, and more.

Why is DeLeon & Stang different?

When Brad and Allen DeLeon started the firm, neither of them had worked in public accounting. So as they started the firm, they didn't quite know how a CPA firm typically ran. “In some respects, that maybe hurt us a little bit. But in a lot of respects, I think it helped in that we didn't have some of the idiosyncrasies that you hear about in traditional CPA firms.”

So they put employees first, they said yes before no, and they had fun – because they didn’t know any better.

Just recently, this has led to two key decisions that a lot of CPA firms would not make:They opened a new firm in Frederick, MD, without an existing book of business or acquiring a new firm. Frederick is definitely a good market to be in, it’s a growing market, but that wasn’t the main reason they opened the office: it was a huge commuting benefit for employees! Traffic in the D.C. area can be bad, to put it mildly, and this office can save some people hours in their daily commute. On top of that, it’s the kind of modern office that you probably don’t associate with CPAs, and it’s likely to appeal to a younger generation.DeLeon & Stang recently introduced an unlimited PTO policy. It’s still a work in progress, they knew it wasn’t going to be perfect. “We still have strides to make, but we thought it was the best thing to do. We just want people to do their jobs… It doesn't really matter when they go home, as long as the clients are happy and as long as things are getting done.”

I think DeLeon & Stang is one of the most interesting firms in the country – and hopefully, we’ll see a lot more firms that look like this in the future.

Resources:

Learn more at deleonandstang.comConnect with Rich on LinkedInConnect with Brad on  LinkedIn 

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John came to the NSA Ohio chapter in February 2017 and delivered a presentation on this topic and it was absolutely life changing for me – this knowledge has been the biggest game changer in my professional speaking career.

John emphasizes that the job of any speaker is sharing what you know, creating a safe environment to learn, and inviting your audience into that safe environment, and we need to understand how the brain works, consumes information, and processes it to achieve those goals.

What Presenters Should Know About the Brain & Learning:Your cells will eavesdrop on what you're sending your brain. So if you're sending your brain negative information or positive information, your cells tend to pay attention to that, which then can cause a chemical reaction resulting in a cascade of chemicals, either for good or for bad. So try to keep pessimistic thoughts out of your head!

Dr. Molidor says we don't refer to people as left or right brain anymore. Brains are hemisphere. They have both right hemisphere and left hemisphere. There are also a lot of redundancies, meaning when one side is working the other side is also active. So if you’re speaking to just one side of the brain, “you’re wasting opportunities.” Talk to both hemispheres: Tell the story, show the emotion, give the data, give the numbers. Contextual cueing teaches the audience to associate a symbol with an action. Everything from your header size to image choice to font color creates a contextual cue, and you should make sure those cues are consistent and conducive for learning. When you do that, the brain can focus on what the presenter is saying because you have cued it to do so The brain loves stories. “The oral tradition has been part of how the brain structure, if you will, has evolved over time.” Not only that, but different parts of the story are stored in different parts of the brain. So to access that information, you’re actually going to access different parts of the brain, and in doing that, the brain actually is more activated. And when we active more of the brain, we have a higher probability of things being remembered. Give your audience “commercial breaks.” If you’re putting out a lot of info, you have to give the brain a break so they can process it. We’ve also taught a generation of learners that they will receive these breaks, through the way both schools and entertainment like television are structured. Brains love oxygen, so you need to get the audience moving or inhaling oxygen occasionally. Asking them to stand up and do jumping jacks may not make sense, but even just getting the audience to yell or shout forces them to inhale more oxygen. The brain looks for patterns… and it looks for patterns even when they don’t really exist, so you have to be wary of that. Similar to contextual cueing, you should consider how the patterns in your presentation can help the audience actually figure out what you’re presenting to them.

Resources:

Connect with Dr. Molidor on  LinkedIn

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 Well, today’s guest, Eddie Turner, thinks he has the secret sauce to collaboration: “It should be facilitated – facilitated collaboration is what accelerates performance and drives impact.”

Eddie is known as “the leadership accelerator” because he works with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact. He is a C-Suite network adviser, international certified coach, certified trainer, and professional speaker.

Staying Ready (So You Don’t Have to Get Ready)

As professionals, we need to ask ourselves, when is the last time our industry innovated?

That question needs to be asked because if we aren't ready, we have to get ready – only then can we stay ready – because the change is coming!

Look at the taxicab market (Uber), the hotel market (Airbnb), and now even grocery stores (Amazon & Whole Foods). Disruption is happening and the old guard can’t keep up.

Are we next?

Because Watson is already here. Watson is working, right now, with the big four and the audit practice. We saw the H+R Block commercials last year – Watson IS the machine learning that is going to disrupt our industry.

Things have changed, and accountants and finance professionals don't have to crunch the numbers – we have to communicate information to the end user, listen to what they are saying, and learn to have a dialog again.

We have to be continuous learners and continue to develop ourselves. Because if we're not continuing to educate ourselves, we're leaving ourselves vulnerable to the disruption that technology will introduce.

And the easiest way for us to learn is through facilitated collaboration, particularly with facilitators as talented as Eddie.

“What speakers are finding is no longer do audiences show up to listen to the sage on the stage. They show up to have a conversation, to have a dialogue, even with a keynote speaker.”

Resources:

Learn more at eddieturnerllc.comConnect with Eddie: LinkedIn | Facebook | TwitterCheck out Adobe Connect --

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If you are in the learning and development business, in any industry, pay close attention because all industries and professions need to adapt and change in response to new technologies and changing behavior. 

The conference objectives were:

 Creating a fun and dynamic learning environmentTrying to avoid fluffOffering strategic sessions that spur creativityCreating sessions that challenge attendees to think differentlyCreating multiple learning opportunities that foster collaboration, not only with other educators but also with our vendors More about our guests:

 Michelle Sopp is the Vice President of Learning for the Oklahoma Society of CPAs and the chair for the 2018 National CPE Educators Conference. One of her biggest takeaways from the conference is that today’s learners just learn differently, so the learning experience needs to be more engaging and broken up into smaller increments.

Jennifer Oleska is the Director of Education and Training for the Georgia Society of CPAs. One of her biggest takeaways is that associations need to create a better content ramp for bringing in new members, so that we can create a valuable and even beautiful friendship between the members and the organization. “Give them what they need and then they want to be invested and involved with us in the future because they know we're invested and involved in them as well.” Chris Fleck is Senior Manager of State Society Learning at the AICPA. Chris and Bret were both part of the “FOOD Group” pre-conference meeting, which means “For Our Own Development.” His biggest takeaway is that we’re currently in the process of re-skilling the profession, with associations like the AICPA on the forefront in figuring out what skills professionals need going forward.

Bret Johnson is Director of Channel Management and Development for the AICPA. One of his biggest takeaways is that the AICPA and state associations need to embrace more collaboration so that we can stop re-doing work that other organizations have already done. In this way, we can innovate more effectively, together.

Resources:

Michelle: LinkedIn | TwitterJennifer:  LinkedInChris: LinkedIn | TwitterBret: LinkedIn--

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That’s why I sat down to talk with Amy Vetter, a key influencer in the accounting industry and an accomplished tech executive, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker. Amy is the author of Integrative Advisory Services: Expanding Your Accounting Services Beyond the Cloud, the CPA and accounting professions' guide to the future of delivering advisory services to their clients.

I've been dying to interview Amy since I saw her speak at the 2018 National CPE Educators Conference in New Orleans. She was the kick-off keynote speaker of this conference, and let me just sum her presentation up: She knocked us over!

Amy just understands what the profession needs going forward, and on top of that, she has a knack for explaining what the profession needs going forward – and that’s why her book is so valuable.

Integrative Advisory Services is a toolbox that any firm can pick up (and should) if they want to begin thinking differently.

It’s an effective (and surprisingly interesting) accounting book because there are a lot of stories; real life experiences that relate to how we can help clients, the challenges that the profession is facing with technology, and what we can do about it.

One of the key ideas in the book is that we need to evolve our relationship with our clients. We need to become CHERISHED Business Advisors – not trusted.

We've been talking about being the ‘trusted business advisor’ in the profession for a long time, but if you look up the definition of trusted, it means you’re being honest and sincere.

“And to me that doesn't describe that relationship because that's what we should be. We take ethics courses. We have a CPA exam and say we're going to be ethical… I don't feel like that's something that you should be striving for. You just should be that.”

What you want to strive for is being cherished – when clients can't imagine not having you as part of their business because you are providing so much value. Money isn’t an issue because you're an integral part of their business.

“As an advisor, you’re helping to save businesses. You're helping them stay in business. You're helping their families, their employees’ families. It's the most rewarding job as an accountant, I believe, when you can get in that role.”

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Resources:

• Learn more at AmyVetter.com
• Connect with Amy: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram
• Integrative Advisory Services: Expanding Your Accounting Services Beyond the Cloud

• Business, Balance, and Bliss: How the B3 Method Can Transform Your Career and Life

• Watch Amy’s TEDxTalk: "Disconnect to Connect: The path to work-life harmony"

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Change Your Mindset is produced by Podcast Masters

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First, I’d like to thank all of the guests who have given their time and shared their knowledge with my audience – without you, we never would have reached this milestone. I’d also like to thank my audience, especially those of you who listen every week. I hope you’ve been able to gather some nuggets of wisdom and applied them in your everyday life!

Now for my special announcement: I’m re-branding the podcast and changing its name to “Change Your Mindset | with Peter Margaritis, CPA, CGMA, AKA The Accidental Accountant.” I will also be changing from a weekly schedule to a bi-weekly schedule for a period of time.

Note: If you are already subscribed to the podcast, you do not have to change anything. The title of the show will simply be updated in your podcast app of choice.

Why the change? I want to serve the accounting profession better than I have over the last 100 episodes.

I firmly believe that, in the next five to 10 years, the accounting profession will move from a compliance role to more of an advisory role – we have to quit thinking about the way it used to be and listen to the younger generation on where they feel it’s going to go.

The essential skills CPAs will need by the year 2025 are communication skills; leadership skills; critical thinking & problem solving skills; anticipating & serving evolving needs; and synthesizing intelligence through insight, integration, and collaboration: otherwise known as interpersonal skills, people skills, or soft skills.

Building strong communication skills does begin with embracing the principles of improvisation – or, more accurately: Building strong communication skills begins with embracing the APPLIED principles of improvisation.

And applied improvisation is not about making jokes, becoming a comedian, or just being silly, which is what a lot of people think when they hear the term improv. Instead, applied improvisation takes these techniques and applies them to business, relationships, and life.

The style, dialogue, and conversation about applied improvisation will not change – that is the essence of the message in Changing Your Mindset because applied improvisation builds relationships, develops people, strengthens corporate cultures, and increases an organization’s bottom line – but with an increased focus on why (and how) we need to change our mindsets, if we want our businesses to survive the next 10 years.

And while our conversations will focus on the accounting profession, what we will talk about applies to every profession and the challenges we all face on a daily basis.

So even if you are not a CPA, this may be the platform that will allow you to move away from group think by hearing the thoughts and ideas of people who are different form you, but striving for the same result: happiness and prosperity.

Resources:

• Connect with Peter at PeterMargaritis.com

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Improv Is No Joke is produced by Podcast Masters

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Scott has been in adult education for more than two decades, and he loves this work because he is able to help others realize lifelong goals, whether that be pursuing a degree, completing a certificate, or getting a job.

Scott has always utilized improvisation, subconsciously, but over the last couple years, he’s been making a point of using the principles of improvisation to consciously improve his communication.

Improv & Angry Customers

Scott gets ample opportunity to practice because, like many of us, he deals with angry customers on a regular basis. The practice seems to be paying off, because he’s learned a lot!

When a customer comes in angry, they usually just want to be heard. However, a natural reaction to an angry person is getting defensive – but that’s the worst thing you can do with an angry customer.

Scott’s goal is to disarm the angry person, without them knowing they’re being disarmed. He does this by listening, expressing empathy, and asking questions that give the other person an opportunity to be part of a solution (e.g. What would you like to see happen?). This conversation is about them, not you.

“Being grateful, the simple act of saying thank you and saying please, and showing respect through communication goes a very long way, especially when working with students and customers.”

You don’t have to like them to effectively communicate or improvise with someone – but you do have to respect them.

“People have forgotten how to communicate. The technology has allowed us to become lazy and insincere in the ways that we communicate, and I would suggest that we, as people, are suffering as a result.”

Resources:

• Check out Butler Technology and Career Development Schools at ButlerTech.org

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Improv Is No Joke is produced by Podcast Masters

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to humor, Kay is the real deal. She performed as a professional stand up comedian for many years and appeared on a number of national television and radio programs. Plus, as you’ll hear in this episode, I was laughing throughout the entire interview!

But Kay isn’t just funny; she uses humor to put her examples in a context that is relatable to everyone in the audience. However, when she is discussing ways to reduce stress, she is very serious and to the point – and this ability to make you laugh, while remaining serious about the message, is what elevates her to the level of a great humorist (and stressbuster).

For the accountants out there, this is an especially stressful time of year – but Kay has some advice:

• Knowing how stressful this period of the year will be, it is even more important to let go of stress about things that don’t matter.
• Self-care is more important than ever. We all know that we operate better on a good night’s sleep than three hours of sleep. Eating a bag of Cheetos may sound better than a salad, but you will feel and function better after the salad.
• You have to make time for relaxing (without compromising your self-care). Even though it may not feel like you have time to wind down, making time for it will actually give you more energy throughout the rest of your day.
• Learn to say NO. You’ll have more time in the other 8 months of the year, but you have to protect your time during the busy season; you have to make yourself a priority.
• Be optimistic! The American Heart Association found that, all things being equal, people with an optimistic spirit have better heart health, a stronger immune system, and a decreased risk of stroke.

Resources:

• Learn more at kayfrances.com
• Connect with Kay: YouTube | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook
• Read: The Funny Thing about Stress; A Seriously Humorous Guide to a Happier Life!