20 Minute Pep Talk For Tax Preparers

Are you a tax preparer right now? Stressed out. Next 10 days, you've got the biggest deadline of the year. An enrolled agent, cpa, even just a bookkeeper, payroll administrator. We're here to give you a pep talk. My name is Mark Kohler. I'm a CPA attorney. Been in the tax industry 25 years. I'm here with my lovely partner, Patty Campbell, a certified relationship life coach. And we are going to give you the pep talk that's going to get you through the next 10 days. We've done this before. We were doing it during tax season.

Sunday night pep talks.

Sunday night pep talks were fun. We were just out there. You were talking to an advisor today that was stressed out.

Yeah, I was helping him manage his body, mind and time in the next 10 days, so coached him how to open an instacart account so he's not wasting time going to the grocery store.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, simple things.

We have got some tips for you here on the relationship with yourself, your spouse or partner and then your clients. And we're going to give you some tips that are going to be life changing here. We're going to keep this tight. We know you're super busy. Let's ask them some of these questions. Go ahead. You throw down. I'll throw down some here too. I'll start with the first one. Are you feeling overwhelmed, stressed out?

Yeah. You're probably spinning in confusion a little bit. A little. A little blame and regret. And a lot of these emotions are what's going to have you waste time, not create the time that you need to get these returns done.

Yeah. Are you trying to cope with a little bit of drinking, drugs, porn? What are you doing to kind of feel a little better at night? And it's going to create more shame and guilt spiral and then you're even wasting more time. These are feelings we know you're having. This is very common in the accounting industry. Time and time again we see people that really don't know what to do next.

Yeah. When you're spinning in overwhelm, you just want to feel better in that moment. And so you'll turn to anything, whether it's turning on Netflix or getting on Amazon or like Mark said, maybe it's a little over drinking or overeating and all these things. While it may feel better in the moment, it's definitely not going to get you where you want to go in the long run. You're going to waste time and you're going to get less done.

Okay. So we Know, tax deadline just 10 days away. Let's give you some practical things to do right now. And then we're going to start planting the seed of what to do better for next tax season. And, people, I've got the holy grail. It's called the tax advisory relationship with your clients, where you can have fewer clients, less burdens, more money, happier clients. And I know that many of you want to shift away from compliance and the stress you're feeling right now still have some compliance, but. But find a better balance. Okay, so the next 10 days. I loved what you said earlier to me. First thing, we got to plan what we're eating. Is that what you're saying? You're at someone today, just plan that?

Yeah, the simple things. It starts with that relationship with you. You are your biggest asset. If you don't take care of you, then how can you take care of your clients and your families and. Go ahead.

No, no, I was just gonna say, and this means literally on your calendar, say, okay, I'm gonna eat at these times, and I'm going to order it on Instacart.

Yeah, it's planning ahead the next 12 days, or however many days you have left till your deadline. I want you guys to be thinking about how you can save time. And a simple one is just getting. Ordering your groceries tonight on Instacart that are going to get you through the next 12 days. That's what I was helping a client plan today. That's just a simple, simple way of taking care of yourself and your time.

Today. I got hangry with my staff because I wasn't thinking about what I was going to have for lunch. Was it true?

I did story?

Yeah, true story. Because we get busy, we get stressed, we don't eat, and it gets worse. So, number one, plan your meals. Number two, it's okay to plan a little break here and there in the next 10 days. You're like, you have no idea. I'm so busy, guys. I was up until one last night doing QuickBooks myself for 3s corp tax returns. I know the feeling. But I'm gonna plan to go golfing once in the next four days. Cause I can look forward to that, work my ass off and have that. What else can I. I mean, that's okay.

Yeah, it's more than okay. It's actually necessary for you to have a plan to relieve stress. Whether that's get up and do jumping jacks every hour or go outside for a walk or plan time with your family. Have strategies that are gonna relieve the stress in a healthy way that are actually gonna recharge your batteries so that you can keep working.

I would challenge you right now and say, if you could go do anything you wanted to for the next two hours, what would it be? Would it be calling up your partner and going on a date to dinner? Would it be going out with one of your kids and throwing a ball? I just get emotional thinking about it. What do you need to do to relieve some of that stress? Then plan it. Put it on your freaking calendar for Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning, Friday night. You've got to give yourself a little breathing room. It's an airplane. What do they say? You got to take the oxygen mask first before you can help anyone else. And that includes your freaking clients that are pressuring you right now. We're going to come to that in a minute. But taking care of yourself, the shame, guilt. Are there any thoughts I could be thinking about better?

Well, so that's. Yeah, we're talking about a couple different strategies. There's some concrete actions that you can do, like planning your breaks and your meals and all of that. So you take care of your health and your fitness and your sleep and hydration. But then there's also the mental aspect of managing your stress, and that's a very different type of planning ahead, and that is really taking care of what you're thinking and noticing those sentences in your brain that are causing the stress.

I, like you said, noticing. Because what you could do. Patty teaches this in our Main Street Tax Pro program of a thought download. Pull out a piece of paper, maybe write down. What are some of the thoughts you're having right now that are getting you down? Oh, I like the one you said earlier today. I don't have enough time. Really? Do you really not have enough time? Is that true? Could you. I mean, what are other thoughts that you think are true?

Well, so there's the math and then there's the drama. So there's the actual hours that you have in the day and the number of tax returns or just the amount of work that you have. That's the math and that's the facts. So you want to get the facts really, really clear, and then everything else is just the drama that your mind is giving you. Like, I don't have enough time or I'll never get this done, or what are some other common ones?

Oh, well, that I have. My clients are disrespectful. My clients don't appreciate me. My family doesn't understand what I'm going through. Yeah, and we start saying that, yeah,

there's all these stories in your head and those are the ones that are really causing a lot of your stress overwhelm, frustration. And so it's important to pay att to all those stories in your mind because those are things that you can actually manage. And so if we just get really clear on what the facts are like how many hours you have and how much work you have to get done and then clean up your thinking around that, it's going to just make a lot of your unnecessary stress alleviated.

Love it. Love it. Now some advice moving forward. After the tax deadline, we're going to reevaluate our client mix. What our pricing is, our engagement letter, when we require our clients to deliver their information or there's penalties for them to pay you. And there's a whole way we could maybe go approach the year with more of an advisory approach, more proactive, more intentional. And it starts with a good engagement letter. We're going to be talking about this more after tax season. I'm going to say it right now if this is new that you haven't heard anybody in the accounting industry talk to you this way or please subscribe. Click down below. Follow I've got an incredible newsletter. Patty and I are coaching our tax pros around the country every month on business building and mindset, as well as 12 different modules and 75 tax strategies. You'll learn more about that below. Check it out.

Yeah, but you don't have to wait till after the deadline to start managing your time and those expectations and enforcing some of the boundaries around your time, around your, just the demands on your time. I think a lot of people, I know clients that I coach three people today that have a lot of clients that are bombarding them with last minute questions and they think they have to pick up the phone or answer the text or answer the email in the moment. And that is every time you get interrupted in task switch, it lowers your productivity, it lowers your efficiency. And so setting your boundaries now around your time and taking care of that because that's, that's your most valuable asset and so you don't have to wait till the deadline to start managing your time better.

Love it. Okay, we talked about the relationship with yourself. Now let's talk about the relationship with your family, your significant other, your spouse, your partner, whoever. You're going to go home tonight and fall on the couch. The sky is falling and you're Debbie Downer, Mark, upset, maniac, whatever it is, and you're frustrated. We've got to realize after tax season, we're going to have to go back to that relationship. And I've been there where you feel guilty now for ignoring them and not communicating with them. And that can change. The relationship with your significant other right now can improve by just opening up and talking about what you're going through.

Yeah, communicate. And it's okay to communicate your needs and your wants, but also be like, be clear about what you're able, what your capacity is in the next two weeks and maybe talk about life after that so that you're not just very much in the moment kind of dumping on them or letting your emotions kind of spread all over them. Have a plan for when you go home and how you want to connect with your partner or your family, even if it's for five minutes. And you'd be surprised at how much just that little bit of connection lowers your stress level.

Let me give you an action item. When you get home tonight, go up to that significant other, give them a 5 second hug or 20 second. Is it 20 second? Is it 5 or 20? I think it's 20 seconds. I'm going to go with 20. Hold them for 20 seconds and then tell them, I am so sorry that I haven't been here during tax season. It's been hard on me, but I know it's been hard on you. And this next 12 days are going to be nuts. But I would like to schedule some specific times to go on a walk with you, go to dinner, go to lunch, have breakfast, because you are important to me. And after the 15th, I want to have a different type of approach next year and I'm committed to it.

Yeah. And just that little bit of connection, it lowers the cortisol levels, it raises the oxytocin, which is the love hormone. And that right there is just. Even the 20 seconds or the five minutes that you spend can have dramatic impacts on, not over, not only your physical health, but your energy levels and also laying the groundwork for a better connection. When you come out of Texas, you

heard it from a certified life coach. The love hormone, that's what you're shooting for, trust me. So go hit that. You got to get that love hormone going and let them know that you love them and there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Okay? Now the third relationship is your client, who some of you are going to say is the cause of all your problems. But that's not the case. Sometimes we need to see the problem as an opportunity and we've got Clients that are pressuring us, that need things, they're being sending in their information at the last minute. But this is a chance to identify a teaching experience to say there's going to be a boundary next year, this is how it's going to work next year, and this is how I'm going to operate next year. And your client's stress right now is not your stress. And, but we adopt their stress for some reason. You've explained this to me before, that it's.

Yeah. So what I see with a lot of my clients is they are afraid of being sort of disliked or maybe rejected, like fired by their client. Or they're, they're simply, they don't feel their own value, like their time is not valuable enough to protect. And so they say yes to clients when they're really saying no to themselves. And so they give away their time, they give away their value, and they don't manage their own productivity levels because of some fear of being rejected, essentially.

And let me tell you, there are enough clients out there. There are incredible clients, business owners, wealthy clients that are starving for a good tax advisor all over America. And when you have needy, graspy, ungrateful, pain in the butt clients, you can let them go away gracefully or train them, or train them and have a better client base. That's what we're teaching every month in our Tax Pro program with real advisory strategies that work and move the needle as well as practical relationship techniques. So right now, in the last 12 days, what are you doing? You're sending out an email saying, if I don't, if you want to say this, I don't, it's up to you. If you say, if I don't have your stuff by Saturday night at midnight, I am not filing by the 15th. Any penalty is on you. And be firm and stick by it and communicate it to your client. You just can't wish it. You've got to tell the client in writing, here's my boundary in the next 12 days, here's how I'm going to operate. And then stick to it.

Yeah. And you can also make it fun. It doesn't have to be out of a place of anger, frustration, because that is going to convey kind of a different tone to your client and they will pick up on that. And, but it can be very firm from a place of just, you know, making it fun and go ahead.

Yeah, we had a client the other day that said, I'm going to say, if you get me your stuff by Saturday, I'll give you a Gift certificate to Subway for lunch. But if you don't, I'm going to charge you $20 and I'm going to have lunch on your ticket Monday. Make something funny that gets their attention. Give them a reward for getting their information in. And then it can also put down the guard of the client. So you can say now, next year, if I don't have your stuff by August 1st, here's what's going to happen. You can start creating those boundaries.

Yeah, it all starts with taking care of yourself first. Because when you take care of your mental health and your emotional health in the next 12 days, you're going to get to the finish line in a much better place than if you're. What is the opposite of that?

Oh, boy. Just destroying yourself, trying to just. We call it buffering in the life coach world, where you just. You want to buffer all these bad feelings, so you go do things to try to get a dopamine hit and feel better, and then it makes it worse. And not that that's. It's okay to go have a drink, but you're doing it intentionally, not to just numb the pain. That's the wrong approach. I like one thing you said earlier though, and I want to go back to it, is the value that you have to give to yourself. And a lot of accountants don't value that. They really can set the boundaries that your advice is helpful, you're providing a great service and you should charge for your time. And when you value your services as an accountant or advisor, cpa, enrolled agent, any of those, then the client's gonna feel that. They feel it when you disrespect yourself. Oh, and they're gonna take advantage of it. They can almost smell it. It's like blood in the water. And so building that value for yourself and your self esteem is just absolutely critical in the process.

Yeah. And that's the mindset piece that I help my clients with. And that comes from the belief in their own value, their own worth as an advisor and just as a human. And so when you are coming at anything in life, especially with your clients, from a place of inherent, just belief in your own, the value of your services and the value of your time, you're going to show up very differently with your clients and to the, to the deadline. Okay, yeah, go ahead.

No, I'm going to give you my last tip. Of course, you may say something. I'll get riffing in here again. But I'm going to give you my last tip. And then you got to give them Something that'll just change their life. Yeah. The secrets of life. Yes. Okay. All right, here's mine. 15th is around the corner. After that, I want to go into Q4 with an intentional plan. I would ask you to take a solid look at what it takes to become a tax advisor with real strategies that will give you more intrinsic value and belief in yourself. No more imposter syndrome. No more hoping you're going to get it at a CE course that's lackluster. I'm teaching CE all through October, November, when you subscribe to my channel, you're going to get those announcements coming out soon. Affordable CE that actually moves the needle in our program. We're talking about quality relationships with clients, Intentional Engagement Letters, advisory services. And here's what I want. You charging all of your clients before year end a $1,000 year end tax consultation. I've got a 40 point checklist of strategies that'll give them five to ten grand in tax savings, easily a small business owner. Of course, those strategies are real. They're well thought out. They're ethical, honest, intentional. You can do year end tax consultations at a thousand a pop and bring in advisory clients with your current, current client base. It's doable. So as you get through this next two weeks, know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. So that's kind of practical money making, business building point now. What's the secret of life?

Is there something managing your mind?

Oh, okay. All right, man. I just let my mind run around like a child with a knife in the kitchen. Right. That's kind of like my world.

Yeah. So it really starts with managing your thoughts. Because if, if you're feeling emotionally exhausted, it's because of all of these competing thoughts that are rattling around in your brain. So I really, really urge all of you to just take, take five, ten minutes after watching this and sit down and clear out your brain and decide how you want to think and how you want to feel and how you're going to plan to take care of yourself and your time in the next 12 days.

People, the sky is not falling. The tax industry is a little broken. We're running into the building, it's on fire. We get it. But we know the tax industry, the financial industry can be doing a better job for their clients, a better job for the advisor. And it starts right now with you saying, I can change my own little world and make it better up here and in the practice you take every day in your business. The American dream's real. And there's a ton of people out there that want the American dream. And you're the key to get it.

Well said.

All right. Well, thanks, everybody.

Thank you.

We'll see you on the backside October 16th.