344 The EASY Way To Market Your Accounting Firm

Nobody wants to take time marketing their accounting firm. It's yucky. We all struggle with self promotion. We don't identify as marketing people. We're accountants. Can't we just go and just do the accounting all day? Listen, there's a hundred hard ways to do marketing, but there's a few easy ways. Today we're talking about how to tactically be a broken record, not reinvent the wheel every single time you go out and post. Like most things in life, the hardest thing is starting. And I'm going to show you how, if you can get over the hump. The ongoing creation of really valuable stuff for the audience actually gets easier the more that you do it. Going to give you some really practical examples. And then we're going to do an AI experiment that I'm actually very excited for. I think it's fascinating. Come on in, check it out. Let's dig in. These days on social media, it's actually completely fine. Arguably a better strategy than always trying to be novel and having something new to say is coming back and saying the same thing over and over again. After all, what converts on social media is speaking to very, very specific pains, speaking to finding specific people at like a turning point or at a plateau or at this threshold that a business is trying to get past. If you think about a specific vertical you've served in the past, maybe that's dentists, like, you know, as they're opening their second location for the first time or as they're hiring associate for the first time, maybe it's gyms, maybe they're opening a new gym. Maybe their gym just hit capacity. They're at these turning points in their business where they might be stuck or they might see an opportunity, but they're not sure quite how to get there. Cutting through the noise and the just the volume of stuff that is on social media, it's about speaking to a specific type of person who has blocked in a specific way. And I'm finding a hundred different ways to speak to that pain. And almost all of us, even if we don't engage in social media for our firm right now, consistently, almost all of us have had these start stops in the past and we've tried it before, right? And if you're going to post something today, unless you've got something front of mind and it's just one of those days where it's flowing and if that's the case, great, capture that. Because for most of us, those days, myself included, are few and far between. But since it's probably not one of those days. The best place to start is usually looking backwards what stuff that you've done in the past. Oftentimes when we are getting started, we'll do this like big high effort post or video or something like that that might find some people and might be helpful, but could also be repurposed into 10 to 15 different things, more bite sized versions. That blog post that you put a bunch of, bunch of effort and thought into, there's probably 20 client stories that led to that one blog post, three audits, 10, you know, trainings that you went through, CPE stuff that you went through that led to everything that was in that one blog post. But to break that up into more bite sized bits of content, things that people can relate with, things that will stop people scrolling because they'll be like, oh this, that's a person like me. Like that's the story of someone who's in my situation or that's a pain that feels very specific to me that I don't see many people talking about chunking out that, that past piece of thing, chunking out that past thing that you already made. That's oftentimes the easiest way to put something together, but we usually don't. And this is a product of, of the spotlight effect that you think that everybody sees the things that you do. They don't. You think that everybody cares. They, they, they don't. Which is actually great news that nobody gives a hoot about what you're doing, they only care what you can do for them. And we're also blocked by the fact that we, we just can't get our heads around how big the world is, how many people are out there. We see a lot of the same faces on social media in our own feeds and we think that like there is this bubble and that is as far as your content is ever going to reach. That's just not the case. There will always be more people. I mean even for the biggest, biggest mega social media celebrities, there is more people that they are still finding every single day. And so for you, like no, you just, you haven't plateaued. There are more people out there. So three things to keep in mind. Understand. Number one, understand that most people will not see what you post even if they follow you. If you post something, there's a, I don't know how to put a percentage on it. There's a huge percentage chance that if you're thinking of a specific follower, they will never see that post for any one of a number of reasons. One, like A big one. Social media posts are ephemeral if they don't even log in in a couple of days, which the normal social media consumer, while a lot of us are on there every single day, it's probably just as many that are in there, I don't know, a couple days a week. There's a good chance that they're just not even online when that thing's coming through. Some platforms like LinkedIn have a much longer duration where they will surface stuff that's like a week or even two weeks old. But that's usually only the highest performing stuff. So most people that even that follow you will not see the stuff that you post. Algorithms increasingly are interest graphs. They are serving up content based on what you signal you are interested in, rather than being social graphs serving up content based on who you follow. So followers these days have never been less valuable than they are today. That's why it's ultimately really important to transition those people to an owned audience, like an email list. It is an unbelievable power in this day and age to hit a button and send an email to a bunch of people. If you think about how off the wall algorithms are these days and how they're constantly changing, Twitter is just really, really hard to build anything on right now. LinkedIn, who knows? LinkedIn right now, unfortunately, is probably the best place to be. But that could change. But algorithms, increasingly, it's kind of the TikTok ification of every algorithm. They are, are driving content based on interests, not based on who you follow. So even if somebody does follow you, their algorithm and, and Twitter's a great example of this is filled with all sorts of stuff that you absolutely did not opt into. So one, remember that most people won't see what you post. Two, remember that everyone forgets what you said pretty much as soon as you said it. Super fans are, are going to be the exception. So there's, there's a group of people that tune into this podcast every single day. Bless your hearts. It's just part of the routine. It's, it's kind of habitual. That's actually why I, in the beginning made the podcast daily, is there's something very unique about a daily habit that's different from a weekly habit or anything else like that. And the, the folks that you have that level of a relationship with, those are different because for every one of you who tune into this show every single day, there is 10,000, 50,000 people who online know who I am and read a thing here or there. But that's the Vast majority of people. And for those people, they will read your post and five minutes later, they will have completely forgotten about it. So if you post something very similar a week later, three weeks later, whenever it is, all they care about is, is this providing me value in where I am today? Which might be a different place than they were a week ago or a month ago. People aren't like, sitting there going, hmm, did they? I think they posted something like this before, like, nobody cares. I'm saying all these things from a place of compassion because they are all, all my own blockers as well. Third thing, because every post will find new people, and that's ultimately the goal with a post. A very common mistake in social media. And this is, I will say social media, if you are trying to do it to build your business strategically, not social media to connect with friends and all that sort of thing. This is more like if I'm trying to get the maximum ROI out of investing time in social media, big mistake people make is making a post and being like, I know I've said this thing before, or sorry if I sound like a broken record. First off, don't flatter yourself. Nobody has. And if they did, they don't remember. Second, you're ensuring that no new people will read it by doing that. Because as soon as you put up a prerequisite to something making sense, everybody's gonna be like, see you later. Like, if you put episode two on a YouTube thumbnail, nobody's gonna watch it unless they've watched episode one. And that framing of, sorry if you've heard this before or I, I know I just talked about this last week. Anything you reference beyond the scope of just the value of that post is going to feel like a prerequisite, and it's gonna make people just. Just leave. So assume every single post is your first ever post into a new audience. In many cases it is. And doing the opposite, like framing it in terms of the inside jokes or the thing you said last week, it's just going to find a very small number of people. Now, again, this is like business social media advice. If you're doing this stuff for fun, if you're doing it to go super deep with the inside joke people, and I definitely do this sometimes, that's kind of a different story. Okay, four ideas for how to repurpose stuff that you've already done in the past. Number one, turn your longs into shorts. And this is one of my favorites. You do like a podcast or something like that. Within that podcast or within that Webinar or within that loom that you recorded could have even been an advisory call with a client. There are all sorts of ups and downs and you're covering all sorts of different things that could each be their own little bites sized bits of content. And the, you have, you have an abundance of valuable things up in your noggin. If you are advising clients every single day, you have so much that you can readily share that will help people on social media. It's just not in that right format yet. And sitting down and writing for an algorithm, you know, we know how to like respond to clients over email, that sort of thing, sitting down and writing, that's one of those things that is hard to start. Like that's just hard to get that motor running, get that part of your brain working. So the easier version of this awesome oftentimes is going back to something that you've already done. Because as you go through those talk tracks, you kind of have a flow because you've probably done a version of that talk track a bunch of times. You know how you kind of fall into those sort of common channels in a client conversation where you're sort of following the same path that you do. Anytime you're discussing that topic, you get into that like rut. Not rut like in a negative context, you get into that flow and that's something that you can do like until the end of time. It comes naturally to you because you've done it so many times. Going back to that old content sometimes can get your head into a place that makes it really easy to write about that thing that you know a bunch about. Because you've done the training, because you've seen the client stories, because you've seen the ways that it can go sideways and the upside of getting it right. Oftentimes that old stuff can be a helpful trigger to get you into that frame of mind to make something new that's about the same subject, but just to get those words to start flowing. Second way to repurpose stuff, use your social analytics. If you've posted anything in the past. Platforms give you really good data about just what people will engage with. What got the most impressions, the signal couple signals to look for the big one, like the big daddy is simply impressions. That's ultimately how many people that post was served up to. And algorithms will only serve that post up to people if other folks are engaging with it. That is in some ways the North Star. Like that is a good signal of is this something that's finding people? But I will caveat that with the fact that the trap here can be at the end of the day. In many ways that is a vanity metric. If you did bigger numbers, but ultimately didn't find any of the people who you can help and who would buy your services. I can make funny stuff that converts really, really well, but I can't build a business around funny stuff. I could make general accounting content or general tax content for entrepreneurs, for example. That will get way more traffic than any of my stuff. That is for small firm owners, which is a very small audience, but that's ultimately not my business. Is there an entirely different business that could be there, like built there? Maybe. But that's not the business that I'm running. That's not the one that I'm even interested in. This episode is sponsored in part by Liflow.

Big news.

LifeFlow just raised raised a whole pile of money. A new Series A and you better believe they're going to pour that into making cool stuff. Lifelo Easy way to connect your accounting ledgers to Excel to Google Sheets QBO0 liberate the data from the accounting ledger. But let me give you some backstory. Since they started in 2021, their mission has always been help businesses manage and understand their finances better. Lifelo was born to help you automate manual work so you can serve more clients, scale your firm efficiently and deliver high value advisory services. In this way every everyone wins. We all win. Today they support thousands of firms and businesses, but they are launching Live Flow next, a game changing platform designed to help you and your team become high growth financial advisory powerhouses. Whole bunch of new stuff coming there that I'll be telling you more about in the coming weeks. Okay, Lots of fun stuff happening at Live Flow. Check out the link down in the show Notes. This episode is sponsored in part by Team up who helps you find talented accountants in the Philippines. Conversation Online I actually realize a lot of folks when they think about offshoring, what they're actually thinking about is delegating work to a group that then does the work and gives you the work back. Because most of the offshoring failures I've heard they said, you know, the work quality wasn't good enough or something like that. And that is why the only way I ever touched offshoring was just hiring my own people. Just like I do onshore. I honestly don't wanna chuck my work into a black box and just like hope that the quality comes back how I want it to. I just wanna develop people and I want them to work with me, that's what Team up helps you do. They got recruiters on the ground in the Philippines that will find you really talented people, and you develop them just like anybody else that you do in your team. And I think that's actually a big, big misnomer with how you offshore these days. And it's probably because a lot of the cold outreach, even though it's coming from people saying, I will do your bookkeeping, these are Personas that offshore groups use to pull more work into that offshoring service. And you go down that path, you get into the sales process, and you get, like, their very best person who will dazzle you, and you're like, oh, this is great. And then you send them 10 times as many projects, and it goes to the back of the office, and you're like, this sucks. What have I done? The solution, Just hire people, test them before you hire them, train them. It's not any different than hiring people onshore. It's what I did. You want to get started? Talk to folks at Team Up. Link down in the show notes. Another metric to keep an eye on is how many people are saving a post. And different types of platforms have different versions of this. Like on Twitter, that's a bookmark. TikTok has its own version of bookmarking. That is a super powerful signal that I wish the algorithm actually rewarded more than, because it's ultimately like somebody signaling there's something of value here that I. That is so important that I need to circle back to it. I've had some of those posts on Twitter recently where the. The, like, the metrics are not all that impressive. Like, it may. You may have 50 likes or something like that. But if you drill into the post so it will show bookmarks, there may be like 150 bookmarks. And you're like, okay, like, this is something that is getting people's attention and getting them thinking that's what actually matters, is are you getting people thinking the audience that you want to work with? And then just like anecdotally, did it lead to interesting conversations? Did it lead to engagement from folks that you want to engage with? Social media, at the end of the day, is about building human relationships. A fun part of running a small firm is that social media and how you reach people is not strictly a numbers game. It's not just all about the data. It's about, oh, this is a smart person that this post found. And it led to me having a DM conversation with this smart person and a zoom call with this Smart person, person. At the very least, maybe I learned something. Maybe they have a network and I started getting connected there. Like I have. I have so many examples of that where I've gotten pulled into different networks that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten into just because we had a smart conversation on social media. Like, that's the cool opportunity. But it's not what big brands do where they're like, how do we tinker with every single word and maximize reach? Like how Johnson and Johnson or Coca Cola or Nike are approaching social media. That is, that is a big impersonal numbers game. What I love about social media and running small firms is it doesn't take a huge amount of relationships to totally change your firm and to find that next 1.5x client. I think a lot of my content's actually coming down to like this whole concept of your next 1.5x client where they'll pay you one and a half again, what anybody now is paying you for doing largely the same work and just always looking for that next one and rebuilding your practice a client at a time. Anyways. Small firm running like, that's what I actually really enjoy about social media is you're building human relationships, actual connections with the goal of finding that next 1.5x client or connecting with the facilitator that could help you find those, like the consultant who's putting out content for the same audience that you do a partnership with, stuff like that. So number two, look back at your old social media analytics, see what worked. Don't be afraid to rewrite, modify, like use that as a draft for the post or whatever content it is you're working on that day. Number three, use AI to remix those past things I've shared before. What I do pretty commonly is I'll take the transcript from a daily podcast, I'll put it into an AI tool. I still think Claude is the best at this cloud AI. I'll put the whole transcript into there and say, give me a list of 30 non obvious insights from this podcast. You gotta prompt it to not give you something generic because always remember, language models are probabilistically generating the next word based on what all the previous words are. So without any specific instruction, what it will give you is always going to be vanilla. It'll be professional sounding oftentimes and it'll be grammatically correct and all that. Like, like better than our own writing and in many ways, but it won't be particularly interesting. So you have to suss that out via prompting and the framing That I often use is look for non obvious insights and then usually I will say provide the direct quotation so that it gets me back to that frame of mind of the thing that I said so I can kind of remember where I was at. And then I will say like, you know, give me kind of a short pithy version of this that's kind of a concise, a more concise way of, of saying it. Because if you see the transcript of yourself talking verbally, it's not at all the way that you like type and write the words out of mouth, much less concise than words on paper. So I'll have the AI grab the exact quotation of like those non obvious points and then try to rewrite it into something more concise. And I don't know that I ever actually just use what it gives me word for word. The goal is to just get into a frame of mind to grease the skids of doing that thing yourself. Because it's the getting started. Getting over that initial hump is always the hardest part. Okay, number four here, last idea. And then this demo I'm going to show you is wild. Number four. Make a long version of a high performing thing and use the same hook. So for any given concept you can have a 30 second version of it, a three minute version of it, a 30 minute version of it, a three day version of it. And so if you have something that was shorter, that did really well, don't ignore that signal. Like don't hit that grand slam and then go home and then turn up and do something different the next day. Those grand slams are signals. And at the end of the day, the best way you can build a killer marketing machine for your accounting firm is to find that pain that is super painful, that people will pay top dollar for you to solve for and just crank on that sucker until the end of time. And that may not sound fun or sexy, but that is how you transform your firm into like a lead generating a money making machine. Because if that problem will pay you better than the problems you're currently solving for clients, and you can repeat that and pull people through that same flow and get your stories and your frameworks around that, that problem nailed so that you can train them to other people, you can have salespeople working off of the scripts that you provide that know that framework in and out, like that's how you ultimately, you know, delegate the sales process because you're truly making that turnkey and then those people are coming in with the same problem. It's Getting solved more or less in the same way. And because it's valuable, people will pay you top dollar for it. And you can plug people into that process, ensure a consistent result, rather than being completely reliant upon expertise and just walking into open ended conversations with entrepreneurs that may be doing anything and expecting to be able to give them value. That requires a lot more of someone, obviously infinitely harder to standardize. And then the people coming to you will assign wildly different values to the advice that you give them. So if you hit that home run, if something feels like it really strikes a chord with somebody, that's an important signal that we need to circle back to and continue to refine and continue to hammer on. Because those social media posts, if every single one is feeling around in the dark trying to find something, then it's not necessarily taking you anywhere. Right. A big percentage of them should be repeatedly hammering on the things that have worked best in the past, just being consistent. Because on the other side of those posts, different people are turning up every single day. You're finding the same people who are maybe in a different frame of mind, where today they're more open to it. But of all of the things that you could talk about, the thing you talk about tomorrow, the most likely, like, good version of that is the best thing you've done in the past. So let's not overcomplicate things. That's a great place to start. Okay, onto this demo. I've talked about this a little bit in my content. I'm very excited for this notebook lm. It is a tool developed by Google and it's actually a really cool interface. Basically you can attach any data sources you want to it and have a chat conversation with it. It's not something that I would use for like client information or anything else like that right now, but research.

For example.

Right now the limitations are you can attach up to 50 files each with up to 500,000 words each, but you can also point it to like YouTube URLs and it'll pull the transcript, upload PDFs, website URLs and then have a chat conversation with an assistant that is trained on all that information. Super easy to use, cool interface. And the wild thing that they released two or three weeks ago, the people are still kind of like, whoa, this feels interesting. Like something different they released. Basically it will generate a podcast conversation between two people about that subject matter. And I didn't listen to. I like, I didn't play with it for about a week and a half because I'M like, that's kind of dumb. That just feels like a regurgitation of maybe something you already know or just creating information for the sake of information. Like how is that valuable to me? And then I started seeing more use cases, like there's a study that maybe you're struggling to understand or some really complex stuff and it being broken down into a more conversational format that like picks apart specific pieces of it and actually kind of becomes an interesting way to learn more about it. And then I listen to a couple of these things from end to end and it is really weirdly engaging. Like these are not real people. This was generated by a machine. Why is this like somehow compelling? And some people now think that Google have potentially stumbled into something significant here because it's just like a. I don't want to. Maybe enjoyable isn't the right word, but it's, it's a whole lot better than reading output in a chat box from a, from a AI assistant. So here's what I did in the spirit of repurposing content. Anytime somebody comes to me and says, how do I find better clients? How do I build an accounting firm from scratch? Whatever it is, I've got a little playlist of four daily pot episodes where we've gone through building a firm from scratch or rebuilding a client list from scratch, going out to new media, attracting better paying clients. That whole thing where like we're partnering with consultants and, and you know, creating a report that these people want to download that will get you their email address. That old podcast episode, if you've been around, you know what I'm talking about. I put those four episodes into NotebookLM and it generated a 10 minute podcast of people discussing the best ways to build a better client list. We're gonna listen to that now. I think it's absolutely fascinating. I'll interject with my commentary. Really interesting future versions of this is them becoming interactive, being able to hop in and actually talk with the podcast hosts. Imagine. And there'll be, and we've already had versions of this, but there'll be much better versions of this in the near future. Imagine me having two hypothetical co hosts where in a much more real time way we're like bouncing around ideas and building on things as opposed to what we've done in the past, which is kind of just like a chatgpt conversation and then you put a voice on top of it. Anyways, let's dive into this. I think it's really interesting. I haven't listened to this yet. Basically they're going to give their commentary on those four podcast episodes about building a firm from scratch. Today's episode is sponsored in part by Cloud Accountant Staffing. They're going to help you find super talented accountants in the Philippines Come work for you Biggest thing I learned in the process of hiring Filipino accounts to come work for my firm about about half of the last 10 hires I made were in the Philippines when I was running my firm. Biggest thing you learn they are completely normal people with families and lives and are incredibly capable and multiple and they can pretty much do anything your onshore team can do. I don't know why that is, and there's something about it that is uniquely American. We oftentimes we associate offshore work with like junior level stuff, entry level stuff, probably because support calls and stuff like that go offshore. But boy did we have people doing technical stuff. So I'm just going to show you this resume is a real resume. The one a Cloud Accountant Staffing's recruiters in the Philippines were able to bring to a firm. This guy got his bachelor's in accounting three years ago and spent the last few years doing US Tax Prep Pro Connect Tax online. You use that RC reports Core V what is this guy Sponsored By Jason Daly 1040, 1065 1120s, 1120 man, this is the sort of resume where if it came across your desk and it was an onshore person, you would be like, please come to my office stat. And we will have talks. And there's a growing ecosystem of super talented folks in the Philippines because there's so many firms hiring over there now. Not just small firms. You've got, I mean big, foreign, regional. I mean you've got tens of thousands of people in the Philippines that work for giant firms. But that is all feeding into there being an ecosystem of super talented accountants over there that are all going through the same things that onshore ones are. They want a better lifestyle, they want flexibility. They want a lot of the things that small firms can offer. A cloud accountant staffing can help you find some good ones. Learn more Check out the link down the show notes this episode is sponsored in part by financial sense because WorkflowCon is back baby, with the theme Freedom to Scale. Unlock your firm's potential for operational freedom and profitable growth. It's happening October 22nd and 23rd virtual conference, totally free. Not just for Financial Sense users. This year they're helping firm owners remove themselves from the day to day routine so they can stop being the bottleneck in their firm. Systematize it so it can Run without you. Giving you the freedom to focus on scaling, Standardize your processes to empower your employees and improve client satisfaction. Scale your firm, whatever that means for you. Hiring new staff, getting acquired by PE. Get that out of my ad. Ready. Work 10 hours a week and travel or hit a million in revenue. Bunch of smart people are gonna be there. Speaking. Don Brolin, Sabrina Paris, Kelly roars, Nancy McClelland, Erica Goode, Chadwick Davis, Blake Olives, Brandon Hall, Keela Hill Trawick, Kelly Parker. A lot of people we've had on this pod. Logan McGrathman, Ryan Lazanis and others. Fun virtual conference, really. I'll put a link to register down in the show notes. Check that one out.

Hey, everyone. Ready to, like, dive into something kind of interesting today?

Let's dive in.

So we all know building a successful firm, especially in accounting, can feel like, you know, a marathon, right?

Yeah.

You're racing against the competition, trying to keep up with tech that changes every five minutes. True, but what if I told you one of the biggest keys to success is actually, like, shrinking your focus?

It's funny, right? You would think casting a wider net would bring in more clients.

Right?

But narrowing your focus, becoming the expert in a specific niche, that's where. That's where the magic happens.

Jason De. He talks about this a lot. I've been kind of digging into his videos.

My name is Jason Daly.

Stuck with me. He said a more profitable accounting firm has more specific clients that will pay more.

And that's the key difference. Right? You're not just attracting any client who walks through the door. You're attracting clients who understand and value your specialized knowledge.

Okay, just. Just to reiterate the context, if you're very confused right now, these are two AI generated hosts discussing past episodes of the podcast, totally on their own. I did not script this or anything. This is fascinating.

They're willing to pay a premium because you're not just an accountant, you're their accountant. The one who truly gets their business.

Okay, so that makes sense. But how do you actually find that, that sweet spot?

Right.

In one video, Daley uses this example of specializing in accounting for summer camps.

Okay, so we're starting to see some of the issues already. He thinks my name is Jason Daly. It will get stuff wrong. They've said that they're going to add more steerability to it so you can give a direction on, like, I want you to specifically discuss these topics, or here's some additional context that may help, but it's already, like, somehow compelling.

I don't know about you, but when I think summer camps, I think s' mores and sing alongs. Not exactly like high finance.

And that's the beauty of it. There are these hidden pockets of opportunity everywhere. You might not think summer camp screams, know, lucrative business, but Daly breaks down the numbers, and it's actually a multi billion dollar industry.

Wow.

And with that comes, you know, a lot of complexity.

It's funny you should mention complexity because Daly actually talks about this. He. He has kids himself and said, I can't imagine very many things more anxiety inducing than being responsible for hundreds of children at a time. And this is a guy who loves numbers.

Yeah.

So if, like, running a summer camp stresses him out, imagine what those camp owners are dealing with.

Exactly. They're juggling regulations, staffing, logistics, not to mention the financial side of things. They need someone who understands the unique challenges of running a summer camp. Someone who can help them navigate, you know, the financial weeds and ensure their business thrives.

Why is it so you're not just.

An accountant, you're like a trusted advisor, a partner who truly understands their world.

Precisely. And it goes beyond just the camp owners themselves. Remember that ecosystem we talked about? Think about all the businesses that cater specifically to summer camps. You've got software providers, equipment suppliers, insurance companies that specialize in camps.

Right? Right.

Each of those businesses needs accounting services too.

Oh, wow. I never even thought of it that way. So by specializing in summer camps, you're not just tapping into one market, you're tapping into an entire network.

Exactly. And that's the power of niching down. You become part of a community, a go to expert. Within that ecosystem, it's not just about crunching numbers. It's about building relationships and becoming an integral part of an industry you're passionate about.

Okay, so you've convinced me. Niching down makes a lot of sense. But let's talk about the how. How do you actually connect with these ideal clients? It's not like camp owners are like hanging out in the accounting aisle at the bookstore.

Right.

You're right about that. They're not exactly scrolling through spreadsheets on their summer vacation.

That's where a little creativity comes in.

Okay.

Daley talks about this idea of niche watering holes. You know, those places where your ideal clients congregate.

So like online forums, industry events, places like that?

Exactly. Think about it. What's one thing almost every industry has.

These days besides a healthy fear of tax season?

Besides that. Associations. Daly points out, there's an association for everything under the sun.

Right.

And they're Gold mines for connecting with your niche.

Right. Like the American Camp association we mentioned earlier. They have webinars, conferences, even an accreditation program for summer camps.

And each of those is an opportunity.

Wow.

Imagine sponsoring a webinar on, you know, financial best practices for camp owners. Sure. Or creating a downloadable guide to help camps navigate the accreditation process.

Yeah, you're not just slapping your logo on a banner ad. You're aligning yourself with an organization they already trust.

And trust is huge, especially when you're dealing with people's finances.

Right.

Another strategy Daily talks about is is the power of valuable content. Okay, this could be an ebook, a series of blog posts, even something as simple as a checklist tailored to the specific needs of summer camp owners.

I love that idea. It's like you're saying, hey, I understand your challenges and here's some free help to get you started.

Exactly. You're demonstrating your expertise, building credibility, and positioning yourself as the go to resource for their specific needs. And with today's technology, you can amplify that reach even further. Oh, yeah, think about it. Niche podcasts, online communities, social media groups dedicated to running summer camps. You can even partner with industry specific software companies.

Oh, that's a good one. Daly mentioned that he found this software platform called Upperhand, which is specifically for sports facilities and camps. They've got a huge user base and are always looking for valuable content to share with their audience.

Exactly. You could write a guest post for their blog, collaborate on a webinar, even explore setting up an affiliate program where you get a commission for every new customer you refer to them.

It's a win win for both of you. You're tapping into their existing audience, and they're providing even more value to their customers. So we've covered a lot of ground here, finding your niche, connecting with those ideal clients. But I remember Daly also talked about the importance of refining your niche. What exactly did he mean by that?

This is where it gets really interesting. And it's something most people don't even consider. Okay, he uses this great example of a colleague whose business just exploded.

It's very complicated.

After they were mentioned in a YouTube video aimed at. Wait for it. Caddy insurance provider Caddy insurance.

I didn't even know that was a thing.

Right, but it illustrates the point perfectly.

Yeah.

Sometimes the real gold is hidden within those seemingly obscure sub niches.

Wow.

Think of it like a tree. Okay.

You start with a broad niche, like accounting for fitness businesses.

Okay, I'm following you.

But then you discover branches, sub niches within that broader Category. Instead of just gyms, you could specialize in boutique fitness studios. Okay. Or maybe you focus on gyms that cater to, you know, a specific clientele.

Right.

Seniors or athletes. You could even niche down by service.

Oh, wow.

Becoming the go to expert for gym payroll or helping fitness businesses navigate the complexities of opening multiple locations.

So it's about understanding those micro needs within the larger niche.

Precisely.

Okay.

Daly even shared a story about an accountant who found incredible success specializing in taxes for professional golf caddies.

Golf caddies. It's amazing how these seemingly niche areas can be incredibly lucrative when you really dig in and become the expert. But how do you even know where to start with this whole sub niche thing?

That's where observation and a healthy dose of curiosity come in.

Okay.

As you engage with clients in your niche, pay attention to their pain points.

What are they struggling with? What questions are they asking? What keeps them up at night?

Yeah.

Those are your clues.

So it's not just about picking a niche and sticking with it blindly.

Right.

It's about constantly exploring, experimenting, and refining your focus as you. As you learn more.

You got it. It's an ongoing journey of discovery.

Right.

The more you learn, the more you realize there's always another level to explore. And that's what makes it so exciting. You're not just building a business. You're constantly evolving and discovering new ways to provide value.

It reminds me of what Daley said about niching down being like a form of protection.

Right.

With AI and these big online platforms popping up, it's easy to feel like you're getting lost in the shuffle.

It's true. Those platforms are great for, you know, general needs, but they can't replace the human touch, especially when it comes to TurboTax.

Anyone?

Specialized knowledge, Right? Imagine trying to explain the ins and outs of, say, mobile cryotherapy regulations to an algorithm.

You know, I don't think TurboTax has a form for that. So by going deep into a niche, you're not just, like, future proofing your business. You're becoming irreparable.

Did he just say, I don't think TurboTax has a form for that? That is a sick burn.

Placeable. So where does this leave us? What's the takeaway for our listeners who are thinking, okay, this all sounds great, but how do I actually apply this to my accounting firm?

I think Daly nails it when he talks about finding that intersection between your passion and a real market need. It's about unearthing those hidden gems, those niches where you can truly Shine as the expert.

He also had this great suggestion to get the ball rolling. He said, google how to start your niche business.

Yeah.

You might be surprised by what you discover. I tried it myself with goat yoga. Just out of curiosity. Let's just say the opportunities are endless.

Exactly. And remember, it's not about having all the answers right away.

Did he just say that he googled how to start a goat yoga business? I think he did. Right.

It's about asking the right questions, being open to new possibilities. And as we talked about constantly refining your focus as you go. Think of it less as climbing a ladder and more like exploring a jungle gym. There are multiple paths you can take to reach the cop.

That's such a great way to put it. So to wrap things up, what would you say is the most important thing for our listeners to remember as they embark on this niche finding adventure?

I think it boils down to this. You have unique knowledge and experiences that are incredibly valuable. Don't underestimate the power of your expertise. By embracing a niche and becoming the only one who does what you do for the specific people you serve, you're not just building a business, you're crafting a fulfilling career that lights you up.

I love that. And who knows, maybe someday you'll be the go to accountant for like underwater basket weaving instructors or professional thumb wrestlers.

There you go.

The possibilities are truly endless. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive everyone. Until next time, Happy ning.

Okay. Isn't that just wild? Like why is that. I don't know if compelling is the right word, but there is something interesting about it. And it's. We've talked about this with other AI stuff before. Ultimately if you just ask AI to spit out a thing, it's going to be very generic and not very interesting. If you put AI on top of your own stuff that is interesting. AI can make interesting. I'd argue that's interesting. That's a good, good chat because the underlying stuff is some non obvious points and some kind of mind expanding concepts. But why is. Why are two AIs talking about this who don't know how to say niche? Why is that so interesting? This is fascinating to me. I don't know the ways that I. We're still kind of thinking about what are all the ways that you could use this? Definitely chucking in. It's a form of summarization. Chucking in like big bodies of text. Like that's an interesting way of consuming things. I'm very interested to see how they continue building on it. Any interactivity. Oh my gosh. If we could have a conversation with those two people. If that conversation plays out like it does, but you can interject and add to it. You think about just how good the chat GPT Advanced Voice now is to have actual conversations with people playing roles like that. Like, we are so close to that. Like less than 12 months. That is so interesting. Not just in business context, but in personal contexts as well. Like for, you know, a lot of folks brought up the elderly with the chat GPT Advanced Voice stuff. But wow, how odd is that? I thought about, I may do this this week. I thought about on Friday posting on social media a podcast about my podcast that week. And it's like a summary of the whole week of podcasts in a 10 minute podcast. And honestly, it's almost like a condensed version. Like if you weren't going to listen to the whole podcast and you wanted to get a week of Jason Daly In 10 minutes, it kind of has value, right? Like, if that's the only way that you can consume it that way, that's kind of interesting. But I'm fascinated to see what this develops into. If it's almost like a whole new paradigm of consuming AI generated stuff. I don't know. Very interesting. Let me know your thoughts. Drop a comment down below. If you're thinking about talking more about what you do, especially if you're a U.S. tax person. Getting, getting past the deadline now. If you're thinking about how to more consistently get out there with what you do, get creative. Maybe there's something dumb to do with this Notebook LM podcast thing, but look to the past and what has worked before and what you see is working for other people. Use that as a signal for what to do today so that you're not putting it on your back every single day, having to reinvent the wheel. Thanks for coming and hanging today. Until tomorrow, I'm Jason Daly.