Accounting Conferences: Bridging the Gap

Welcome to Accountants LawPod, where accounting professionals and law firms converge, hosted by Linda Artesani, Sarah Prevost, and Steven Libhart.

Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. And this week we have a special guest, um, and I'll let Sarah introduce her, but we're going to talk about accounting conferences, specifically Bridging the Gap, which we just all came from. We're going to talk a little bit about QuickBooks Connect, and we're also going to touch upon ClioCon. And Sarah's going off to Bookkeeping Buds, so we'll touch on that one too. So Sarah, tell us about our very special, very much loved guest.

Well, she's the N in the SNL section of our name in our company that people— our client actually dubbed us one day, so we— it stuck. We're known as the SNL team, and she's our account manager in our firm, The Proper Trust. She's also my cousin who is Truly a sister because our moms are the twins. So the mamas, this is the other twin's, one of her, one of the children. And we've been blessed with Nicole after me just persuading her after how many years?

Begging.

Trying to join years.

Begging, Sarah. It was begging.

Begging.

It's begging, persuading, begging, asking, inferring like this is the better path. No, I'm kidding. And we've also been fortunate enough to have her sister join our team as well. So we are really, um, kind of in a special place. As— and this— what, what prompted this topic and prompted us to go to this conference was because Nicole saw the, um— as most of you know her as Nicole, but in our family she is Nicole. That's the way you say her name. So we'll get the pronunciation out, was because she saw something come across from Dawn Brolin and said, hey, we should sign up for this on a virtual thing. This lineup looks awesome. And then it goes, heck with that. We're going. And Nicole was like, what?

And we weren't taking Sarah. We weren't taking her. She was just coming back from another place. And I'm like, she doesn't need to go again. She's going on a bunch of—

We had our own plans, Linda.

We did. And she kind of hopped in and said, oh, you two are not going without me. I'm glad you did, though, Sarah, because it really was a great conference.

It was.

I'm going to start questioning you all, and I'm going to start with Nicole so she can just tell us, because you like this conference, what caught your eye about it?

I think specifically wellness, right? That was a main focus for this conference, which I think was something that we're all trying to continue to implement, but also just make sure we're doing in the company with our teams, just ourselves, our family life, everything is just taking care of ourselves. You don't realize how important it is. But this conference specifically, having that be a part of it, and it wasn't only yoga, meditation, stress relief being accessible and available daily, but it was just the topics of the conference that create wellness in your team as well as your company itself and in the way you navigate the business, right? So That for sure is what stood out the most to me.

Yeah.

What do you think was your favorite? What was your favorite session?

My—

oh, that's hard to say because there were so many friends were in covering panels and so forth. On a continuum, though, I'm curious, and I think Linda and I, we were— this resonated with you and I. So I know it was short notice. We signed up like literally within a 2-week span. We were signed up and bought tickets and on our way. But do you feel From the lineup in that short span, what we got out of it, Nicole, was what you're hoping for. What little bit we knew, we, we actually got what we wanted out of this. For sure.

100 times over. I mean, and that's the thing. If you ask me the next thing that really caught my eye or really stood out with this specific conference is the lineup, that all the speakers, the sessions, the subjects, I think really just seemed so appealing and, you know, of interest. And so to be able to go and enjoy and, and hear so many colleagues—

I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a conference.

Oh, it was so— it was just— it hit so many emotions, you know, like it was just fulfilling, it was enjoyable, it was exciting, it was You know, not exhausting, which typically conferences can be.

I found it exhausting. But you guys, I was ready. Well, I was checked out on the last day, half, second half of the day. I was like, all right, brain's done. I'm full. So that was—

It was like, it was true. That's true, Linda. I think you and I hit a wall, not because it was terrible. It was just because it was so like, how could you put more into us on that last day?

But that's every conference, don't you think? I mean, every conference at some point my brain's like, done. I just think, you know, what I liked about this one, Sarah, is that, you know, we're always speaking at conferences. So we were just attendees here, and it was fun to— I never went to so many sessions as I did this conference. And the other time I've ever done that was in Canada when I went to QuickBooks Connect Canada because I wasn't speaking and I got to go to the sessions as an attendee. And a lot of times at Connect, I don't even get to do that because I'm pulled in 8,000 directions. I don't get to attend the classes, or a lot of the classes in the past were Not as to the level of I would have benefited. This, this definitely was because this conference, I think for me, yeah, I like the wellness piece. I love that they had yoga. That was great.

Yeah.

I love that they— the food was great. I mean, how many— I don't think I can tell you how many conferences I've been to that had great food. And this one did. You don't typically get the best food.

Well, and to be fair, we're both vegetarians.

Yeah.

And we're both vegetarians, and the option for that was also really—

I mean, but it was delicious. Yeah, the food was hot. I mean, every— that hotel did a great job. The hotel itself was wonderful. Um, quiet room. Uh, I think that because it was smaller, of course it's easier smaller than having to like, you know, you gotta think into 3,000 people as opposed to 200 people. Totally different animal. But I think with this conference because of the theme. They stuck to the theme on every single session, and they taught you things in different ways at every session. It stayed with the fact that we as accountants work too many hours. We tend to overwork. We become hermits. We don't have another life. We like what we do, which is great, but we tend to do it ourselves. That was another one, like, okay, so we don't delegate very well, and it's hard to delegate. So that was another part of it. And the fact that they've made fun of themselves, that's what made it funny. And I think we get to meet and have— it wasn't stacked so tight that you were literally running to the next session. You had time to talk to other people. The things at night weren't so formalized that you—

Well, they offered options of sessions, but it wasn't too many options, right? It was just right with This session was like kind of a main session depending on the timing, and then there were 2 like side sessions. So it was like you really got to have the opportunity to choose what you wanted to do, but you didn't have too many where you're like, I can't get to that one, or is this one going to be good, or, you know. So you really, you got to like pick and choose but not feel like you're missing something either.

So when you're throwing something off, like, like throwing on a conference like that, and And the small feedback, little snafus were so minor because the contentment of the guests and the attendees were— it was just so fulfilling. And I believe you hit it, Linda. The quality of the sessions resonated with where we are today as firm owners and as a team player in a firm. There were things that Nicole was like, I never thought of it like that. Okay, so as firm owners, We've never been able to have sessions where the quality and the value and the idea that we were on the same page with people that are maybe as a one all the way up to a larger firm. That was also nice. The position that we put ourselves in, the liabilities, the sections in which we choose as firm owners, we're running and gunning. To your point, Linda, we're not delegating enough. But in the inside of that mindset, That really resonated here. That really was open and honest here, and where the movement, where we possibly might be seeing firms going. So I feel like Randy and his team, because he, he really, his team really supported him in this idea. Randy and his team on year one to have a live conference come together like this with these minor little feedback things that were so just little things. With just overall phenomenal. And you felt that you were sitting in the room with the right people at the right time. And so thank you for that because it— I jokingly said I felt like I was in the room with like 100 and some of my friends. There were like 200 people there, but it was just— you don't get that pause. And thank you for allowing space between sessions to give the, you know, the hallway chat. moment to get connected or reacquainted or follow up. We did not get— we don't get a lot of that. We're running from session to session, and that is a missed thing. It's way too packed.

And sometimes you forget how important that is.

Yeah.

Being attending at a conference and actually seeing someone in person and being able to network or connect or, you know, just have like that moment where you're like, oh, I've been meaning to call you to ask you about this or chat about that or It's just an opportunity that you don't get daily, but also at other conferences because you're running to that next session.

Well, that for sure. Last year's Connect was running. It was like you had— and it was so far apart that you had to like get there and go down escalators and everything. I think that's something they're working on this year not to have happen. They're going to give that space because they had the feedback that there wasn't space there. And I think one of the things, because we stopped to talk to Randy and the team, and he said that what they did was they looked at other conferences and the marketing team went out and looked at the other conferences and said, what, what did they do right? What did they do wrong? So I didn't repeat it. And I give them a lot of credit for that. Even the food. So the food, even in that, like the lunches and stuff, it didn't vary a lot. Like breakfast was the same, but it was healthy. So there was still like, you could still get your, you know, your muffin or whatever, your typical lunch or breakfast conference food. But they also had oatmeal and they made sure they had a healthy option. And that stayed with that theme of getting us all away from our desk, making us not work 9, you know, 80-hour weeks. Some of us do. It was a very, it was somewhat tax-focused. So you're looking at the tax people that just grind it out and talking about advisory in a way that you can incorporate in the real world. And I think that for us, I first looked at that lineup. I'm like, I don't know if this is gonna fit us because we're not that tax firm, but it actually did fit us well. And there was things on mergers and acquisitions. And there were topics about the 25-hour mindset and There was just so many people you respect. They talked about outsourcing. There was just so much baked into that session. And we were lucky. There's 3 sessions that were together. And when they did have 3 sessions run at the same time, we had the ability because it was 3 of us to kind of go to all 3 of them, which was great. But my favorite was Sean Duncan's, which was an extra session that you had to pay extra for.

Yes. Yes.

That was my absolute favorite. And talk about starting out on a high note. Like, we started out there and Listening to his stories and understanding where he came from and what he figured out that he's sharing the work to get to be able to not be— it's not so much that I don't think as a firm owner you have to think about running a firm, let the— get the people to do everything yourself so you can go sit with your toes in the sand. That's not— that was not the concept of it.

No.

It was more about it shouldn't always be on your shoulders and you should build a firm if you wanna scale it. If you're at the place like we are where you wanna keep growing and scaling it, well, you can only grow and scale to how far the owners can do unless you build something that doesn't rely, isn't so reliant on the owners. And I think that was another big piece that they pounded home. I loved when they did the session with the comedian.

Oh, John Garrett. I love him.

John Garrett was hysterical. And when he did the session with the LinkedIn But, you know, it makes you stop and think because he asked us, what is your and? What else do you do? What are you really as a human? You don't define yourself by your job. What is your and? And I think that kind of gave me pause because I'm thinking, well, what else do I do? No, I don't do anything else. And when did— how did I become this? Because I had this stuff and I became this where I don't have the and. And I need to start thinking about the and because everybody should have Away from the computer screen, time away where you look forward to it.

Well, you do have an and. I'll tell you what I see. And that was the beauty of this conference. You help each other out without— in the deep, you're not demeaning each other or better than. You're realigning your passions. Like, what do you like outside of it? How does it swing into the inside person inside of a firm, the identity of that? Realizing firms— one guest speaker, she was phenomenal, and she's like, look, show me the kids that get on the Zoom. Like, yeah, we're— this is our day. This is our lives. That balance of what that is. So I think for you, Linda, you're in this segment of the fitness space, your continuation of your yoga, your things where you're at in your space. right now. And you have this natural curiosity, which is such a beautiful thing. Sometimes I find myself going, why the hell are you asking me that question? And I kind of like prickled up like, what? Wait, just don't off-track me. But then I realized that's a great question. I have to— I have to let it sink in. But it's, it's a nice balance. And I think for you and I as firm owners together, this really— it was nice to see other people that were us, maybe not same gender, but are us. And we have fun. Like, we we roll up our sleeves. We work hard. We also have fun together, and we enjoy each other's company. We genuinely care about each other. We've lived through a lot of crap together, and it was just nice to have that peace of mind to know that this is this is life. This is the way it goes. We're not alone in this. Um, and we've talked. Openly about our community as a whole. And just like in the legal profession, it's the same thing. Things happen with other firm owners. What then? How do you plan for that? You don't think that way initially. Everyone says, oh, have your exit strategy. But what if your exit strategy didn't include some crisis in the middle or some opportunity that had to change? That's where I felt like this conference peeled back a piece of that. In a, like, almost like an orange or a lime or a lemon. You just peeled it like a citrus pop. Like, you just had to open your eyes to thinking about it differently. And that's okay. To me, I don't know if you felt this way, Nicole, but I felt like it gave you an opportunity to, like, realign what are your favorite pieces, the organization, the foundational pieces.

Yeah.

It gave you that opportunity to see, like, if I do this away, if I can get myself out of this day to day, I could do this now. And we could speak differently to get everyone to support it.

Yep.

I don't know about you 3 or you 2, but the 3 totally collectively, the 3 of us, I feel like we came back with a different perception of how we're going to do this. Yeah.

Well, and I think for me, and I know you both are visualizing it as firm owners, right? And what could be different to continue to grow and scale and build this the firm that you've already success— you know, successfully continued to grow. But for me, I, I got a lot out of it as being able to look at it on the employee team member side.

Yeah.

And what could we all work towards to continue to support that growth as well? What could we be doing differently? Like you said, focusing on the ands, you know, which can be outside of work. But for me, in my personal and my work life, organization and logistics is something that I'm like I'm great at. I love doing. It makes me happy. It seems corny, but it does. So how can we be able to put more time into making that present in our current company, you know, in the current company, and then taking me out of that day-to-day minutia that's keeping us from being more organized, or, you know, maybe hindering that a little bit.

But I love that when she was talking to people, I could see the wheels turning. Yes. And then she was thinking about, like, what she could do to implement it and bring it back.

Yeah.

And she and I did conspire when you were off flitting off, whatever you were doing when you were, uh, in the dance part of it. You took off and I was—

Oh yeah, I was dancing. I, oh, I got to remind you.

Okay, what are we gonna do to get Sarah to do—

Right.

We gotta plan it out how we're gonna handle it to get you to like take more time off and not be, you know, because sometimes we have to pull you back out of the craziness of overdoing.

And, um, yeah, well, and as we all know, It— you're gonna—

it's gonna happen.

The work's always gonna be there, so you're always gonna feel like you need to put that time into work. But how do you manage it daily, weekly, monthly, or however that schedule needs to go to be able to feel like it's okay to step away even though that work is still needed? You know, I mean, obviously not missing deadlines or anything like that, but, you know, being able to put your and and your wants A little bit more ahead of, like, the need if it's not a desperate need in that moment, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, there's a— it just begs the question of certain things and realigning. And I think, Linda, we've talked about this privately. It's, it's scary sometimes when you're like, oh, God, you think about the change and then you're realizing I'm forced to have to make this change. And we're in that position right now. You and I are both—

With Sarah at a conference, she's there one second, and if you take your eyes off of her, she's gone. And then if you want to go to bed, then—

I'm social.

Yeah, she's like, all right, here's another person she knows. We're going to make our way back out the door. And then finally I'm like, I'm going to bed. I'm done. I'm tired. It's the last day or whatever. And next to the last day, just whenever you get there. And then you do come in afterwards, not that long afterwards, but it's like, where'd she go now? Nicole, where'd She go now? We're like, it's there, we can find it.

You're all trying to keep your eyes on her, right?

The love of— like, I, I do, I enjoy— my cup fills up seeing these people and re— just chatting and connecting and finding out where you are in your world. Um, how's life been? You don't get to go to all the conferences together, so when you do get to cross those paths That IRL moment, it just means so much to me.

This conference too, we found out a lot of people that are our friends have been our friends for years are in the same place. So they probably would have been riding the same journey that we've been. And now they've grown up into this place where they're in a higher— they got more people, a lot of staff where they maybe were just themselves when we first met them. And they're in the same place. We had the same questions.

And it was nice to collaborate and figure out, well, how are you doing here?

How are you finding staff? And all these things that we all face, and it was nice to see and collaborate with others. And, you know, I think that that's about— that was the best part about this particular conference. And they're gonna do it again next year from what I can see. And they sent out a few surveys, and I did just— everything they did was just, to me, top-notch. I don't think out of all the conferences I've been to— I've been to a lot of conferences. I mean, if you follow me, you've seen me follow it. You know, I've been to a lot of them. This one has to go near the very, very top, if not the top.

I, you know what, it definitely— and I appreciated hearing about this later because having sat there— but the conference we did in May of 2021, that intimate— Oh, that's right, the one that was that location.

Oh yes, that was another one.

That was another one that hit the mark, right? Yeah, this one, yeah, different, and it was very much enjoyable.

That one was Well, well done. That was their first one. So, I mean, I remember thinking when we got back from that one, like, boy, they're going to do any more of these. How do you beat that one? I felt the same way after we left this, the Tri-Merit one. I was like, God, how are they going to— how can they make this better? Yeah, I don't know.

Well, I don't know. It's just small things, really. Like I said, it was just these, like— but the front desk, the support staff, everyone, It's just nice to know who they are. It's nice to be engaged with them. They worked so hard. This is so much of them, as much as it is the, the awards night was hysterical.

Um, the best.

Yeah, Scott's opening too.

I think this conference, first of all, the, the speakers were younger for the most part. Not all of them, but on the majority.

It's a good mix. It was a good mix.

It was a very good mix. It was very diverse. That was probably the most diverse conference I've ever been to.

Well, I think having some of the sessions be— sorry, having some of the sessions be panels because then you feel like it's a little bit more transparent and less like planned and you're just listening to someone.

Their experience is what I've been after.

Yeah. The mergers and acquisitions one was just so interesting because you had the guys from— well, you had Matthew from Acuity on there and you had Michael Lee and then you had another gentleman and they all came from different places and to hear their stories, Some things aligned, some things didn't, but you learned a lot from it. And I think that those were— that's what made the sessions with the panels powerful. And then even the ones that they were alone, I still think, I mean, the comedy part of it was great. And that's the part of within Intuit when they do QuickBooks Connect, they have their main stage and it's always the same. They're always coming out to tell you what they've got on the futures list, which I always appreciate. And then they also always have a you know, main stage, you'll know somebody that's there. Yeah. Ryan Reynolds. Right. And then there'll be people you've never heard of. And I find that over the years, the most powerful speakers are the ones I've never heard of that get up and tell their entrepreneurial story, whether you're either crying or you're laughing or whatever. Those are always the ones that touch me more than the star like Serena Williams. I couldn't wait to see her. She did a great job, but she wasn't the one that kind of touched my heart more than though. It's always the one that you don't expect. And I think that That's the thing about these conferences. You don't want to miss that. And the main stage is when they're like that. And this was— I mean, I guess you would call that the main stage. It never really felt like a main stage. They never called it that in TriMerit. But we went to everything. We didn't miss anything. And I think that John Garrett was just so—

Unfortunately, we missed that whole vendor section because we were doing—

Yeah, that's probably the thing I would tell them to do differently.

That would be the only, like, really one of the main things is I think incorporating them in the middle section, not in a subsection.

They were kind of tucked away.

Yeah. And just being more— because most of them are friends, most of them we know, most of them we haven't really— we're meeting for the first time. It was intimate enough. I loved having dinner with several of them, like at the gala and like intermixing. So it just— because it's so important to our day-to-day lives. That was also nice.

A lot of the people that did speaking at this conference are speaking at Connect.

Yeah, I saw that too.

That's beautiful.

Yeah, that was really nice. And I know we're just picking on it, but we have Scaling New Heights. There's a lot. So like Scaling New Heights is so big and vast. There's so many sessions in one block. It's hard to pick.

But then there's a lot of them are not specific to our needs there. It's more of a broader base. Yeah, well, that desktop is always predominant at Scaling. I've always think of that as the desktop conference, although they're shifting away from—

they're shifting away from that. Yeah, I mean, they have big time, they have to.

But I think that Scaling offers a different mindset. But I've always thought that was a pretty high-level conference as well. It's not as big as QuickBooks Connect. Yeah, it's very focused on their on their speakers for sure.

Yeah, but you do feel like there's— even with all conferences, there's so many competing things to do, and it's hard to have the knowledge of where to go and the value of time. And these are not cheap conferences for us to spend money on. This is not an inexpensive thing. This wasn't— none of them are. Flying in, doing all of these things. So We always have to kind of refine that as we grow in volume, the volume, the value and the volume of them.

If somebody is listening to this podcast and you're thinking about it, because I did that for so many years, I wasted so many good Connect years because I sat and said, should I? I really want to, but I don't want to go out by myself. It's definitely worth that in your business if you're in that place where you want to grow. I think you can have your chance to go to Connect. you know, grow, learn, or scaling, or any of these really.

Or even just personal growth, personal growth for yourself.

And meeting people.

And meeting people. This is your education, you know, moment. So.

Well, that's interesting because, you know, obviously I came from a different accounting industry or background, but when, you know, Sarah's my cousin, so we would talk about different things that we could relate to, and she would always try to get me to go to conferences. Always. And I just felt like, oh, I don't know that it's relative with what I'm doing or the company I'm working for, if it's needed or whatever it may be. And I just had a conversation with someone last night saying how much I wish I had done it sooner, how beneficial it is to attend conferences, how much more I've learned with just networking with different people, not only the sessions, but just, you know, or being able to say, to someone that maybe needs a specific type of accounting and be like, oh, I know this person, let me connect you, you know, or just having that referral or just— there's so much you come out of a conference with more than just, you know, something you can take back and, you know, do in your accounting firm, but just knowledge, relationships, everything really in the end. I mean, there's— I can't say enough of like I should have done it sooner, but I didn't. Now I'm happy I did. I do. I feel like it's really contributed to my knowledge, my experience, and who I am as doing accounting.

Okay, my burning question. My burning question. What book did you hear that you should read? Because I swear to God, I have like an Audible master list of damn books. I'm like, when am I going to get to all these?

So at Bridging the Gap, Yeah, the What's Your Hand?

Oh, oh, John Garrett.

Yeah, that's already in my— I think it's in my car, in my Audible library.

So I loved reminding my dearest tall friend there, John, you interviewed me once on your podcast. That was a cute comedy moment. But, um, yeah, he's— it's just him If you were to just sit with him and talk to him, he's funny. Like, just, we, we've done that before at QuickBooks Connect where we've sat in that lobby bar off to the side and just belly laughed, cracked up. And that's where I felt like this had, like you're saying, Linda, had humor in it. And funny.

I mean, I didn't expect it, you know, it was unexpected too. I knew, I knew he was, he was a comedian, but I didn't expect to like laugh out loud laugh. I mean, Yeah. When you started pulling up those LinkedIn pages, I thought, oh my God, please don't be mine. Please don't be mine.

And I know, right? Don Brolin mentioned this joy. I mean, having joy in conferences, in your work life. I mean, so many things, right? So it's like you have that laughter, you have that joy that excites you.

But she brings joy no matter what.

She brings joy.

She's another one that makes you laugh.

She holds our heart for sure. Now, what's interesting too, and I'm I'm so grateful that you mentioned Sean Duncan because I had had the opportunity to pop in his class at Scaling. And I just— you heard me, Linda. I was like, oh my God, right? How do we do this? But could never articulate it. And then the fact that we had this opportunity, we seized it just 2 months later, not even.

I know because you had mentioned it and you introduced me to him. And then next thing you know, we're sitting there and I'm like, oh, now I see why she really wanted us to work with him because it was just It got my wheels spinning. And it's— I think I could see why he says he does it with people a lot longer than obviously 3 hours. He takes you through the whole program at a slower pace, and I can see why you wanna do that with his program.

Yeah.

But I think there's so much value in that and a different way of looking at things. That's what I loved about it. And we've got our homework, we've got our books, and, you know, love to stick with it.

Well, and Dawn did it with him. They did a session together similar to his format. And And it really did transform her. She definitely talks about it. She's very open about it. Um, she was open about, you know, that was the nice thing. She was open about her crazy stories of like, I'm gonna get sued, or I have to do X, or I'm have— this is my concern, I'm going to do X. And we got some tangible pieces that actually helped us understand, okay, your story may not be exactly mine, but how you went through the path— bless you— how you went through the path really kind of resonated with— I know Linda and I were both like, oh my God, our hearts sank a few times. We're like, oh yeah.

It was finding the right client and making sure that you get the clients you want to work with that value you and getting rid of the ones you don't. One of my favorite lines, I still remember it, was Give yourself a birthday gift. Fire some client that's just not working out in your firm.

That's your birthday gift. You are so hell-bent on that for— I'm kind of nervous.

I had a person come in my mind like that. I'm like, oh.

Well, you have about 6 weeks.

I know my birthday's not that far away. I know. Look out, buddy. No, I mean, but really, I mean, you start to think about it. You start to think about it. And he's right about that, right? Because And you just, it's part of our analysis. Are we making money? I mean, in your heart of hearts, you kind of know which ones you are, but it's very eye-opening to do the math and do the analysis and see, because sometimes you think, you know, and I've had that experience in my own firm with Artesani Accounting where I sat down, I was, oh wow, I really like this guy, everything about him. And he was only a small client, but I was losing $7 a month off of him. I was paying him I was paying $7 to have him as a client. And it's not a lot of money, but that's foolish. And that was really, you know, getting rid of him, that made it easier to decide to part ways or raise the rate. And, you know, we ended up parting ways because he didn't have the money to spend on it. So I think that that's part of figuring out your legacy clients. What do you do with them and how much bandwidth you wanna put place on them and figuring out what your perfect client is. And then taking that and replicating it. I think that's another piece of it because you don't need 5,000 clients. You only need—

So true.

You don't need to have because you want to give great service and you wouldn't be able to give that service if you want to be in accounting and bookkeeping for years and years to be able to provide that service with technology along the way. You want to be able to set yourself up in a place that you can continue Doing the work and doing the better work where you're using your mind because it's not the automated pieces just happen and they're just gonna get better. I mean, I already see how much faster things are getting better.

Well, we talked about this in the legal side of it is what's a small boutique to a mid-market. And it's similar in this profession as well, which is how many clients you have doing whatever. Well, if we're looking at quality versus quantity and vice versa and all these things, this mindset shift is not just at that level. It's also at— and we see this in the legal— where does a firm like this go? It's not the same as it once was. And there was some open dialogue about long-term firm owners there saying, we're not going to be the same. We're not going to even have the same offerings to our staff. We're not going to be looking at it in the same lens like we used to 8, 10 years ago. It's different.

And we don't today. It's not the same as it was 8 or 10 years ago.

Yeah, it's different.

So if you look at it from that perspective, so if you're afraid of technology, if you look at it from the perspective of you do adapt, I mean, I just think that's another reason to go to these conferences because you're going to learn what's out there, what's new, and stay on top of technology. You really need to survive.

Yeah.

It leads us into QuickBooks, actually ClioCon. So we're going to go to ClioCon next, which is very law specific.

Very.

Ladies have been. I unfortunately didn't go because of Mr. Hurricane Ian last year, and I'm looking forward to going this year. So totally different conference. A lot of attorneys are there, and I'm excited to go. So what was your experience last year with ClioCon that you had a good takeaway from it?

I think for her and I both, we had the opportunity to really spend time with the engineers, product feedback, whether we moved the needle or not, other people that do what we do, maybe in different parts of the country or out of the country. Obviously, there were sessions that were just so tailored to legal that it probably wasn't for us, right? Like certain ones. So I'm excited to see what they will do. And I know we're looking at connecting with fellow colleagues that were at ATG that will be at ClioCon that are in the same space and people that have reached out to us. So that's nice too. I'm— I don't know. And all— well, the cake, the cake obviously is Mel Robbins for me. I am So, so excited. I have been following her pretty big name so long.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I'm just head over heels. I can't believe we're gonna see her live. So, Nicole?

Yeah, I mean, I think Sarah kind of spoke most of what, you know, for us it was less of attending sessions and kind of gaining knowledge in that sense. We did more of focusing on like being able to put time in with the engineers. Clio Con does a great job of bringing in all, you know, a good amount of engineers and allowing you to schedule time to sit down and work with them on specific things that maybe you're having struggles with in the software itself or just being able to provide feedback too. 'Cause they had another team that was just there to kind of hear your ideas or what you thought would, you know, make the product better. And for us, because we do law specific, we use it quite a bit, but for different types of, Clients. And so there's different needs for different clients, and being able to share that with, with them face to face and not just through the chat was great.

And being—

and Clio did a good job of being able to have, like, I guess what they would call vendor relations, or like our side of things, so that we could all— everybody that is there for those reasons, or that is on the vendor side of it, was being able able to connect and kind of have, you know, networking time with each other as well. So that, that I think was really beneficial at Clio for all of us.

Was there a lot of time to network with the— I mean, it's a room full of lawyers, so was there a lot of time for us to meet with anybody to kind of connect with, with maybe that needs accounting?

Kind of, not—

I mean, not specific, but, you know, there's events that you attend and you just kind of start chatting and You end up—

a lot of their events are extra add-ons. They don't actually come with the ticket price too.

Right.

Yeah.

There's one event I think included, and then there's kind of extra events throughout the trip.

Extra networking events that probably because the ticket price for it.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, Nashville is great from what little we saw. We barely spent that much time there. I just— that airport is just horrendously hard to travel in and out of.

For you.

Yeah.

For me, that's the other bonus or good thing about Bridging the Gap. They kept it near the airport. It was really convenient. Easy in and out for being Chicago, right?

Yeah. Really simple. Yeah.

Which is another thing that they thought of, right? I mean, that's the thing. And that's why we have QuickBooks Connect, which Sarah and I are going to be speaking, and we're going to be talking about legal. And Steve, by the way, Steve, is not here, that this, in case you didn't notice, our dear friend Steve, we didn't even mention him in the beginning. We're missing our Steve. But, um, so we're gonna be doing a session at QuickBooks Connect based upon, uh, the legal tech stack. So that one is, it's gonna be, we haven't finished building it out. We should probably work on that this weekend. Um, it should be interesting because we're gonna really focus on our, our software that we use for our clients. So They're going to have other sessions that are going to be specific to certain industries, uh, like I would imagine e-commerce, construction. Those are going to be well presented there. Uh, the sessions are going to be— they're geared towards the advanced user, just kind of like what we just came from. That kind of a— that's the audience for QuickBooks Connect, which—

Mhm.

It's 3,000 people, but they're really focused and driven on that higher tiered Attendee. So it's gonna be— we should be able to go to any session that we want there. It's not gonna be how do you use QuickBooks 101? That, that's not gonna be part of this conference, which is interesting. They're focusing on more of that mid-market space, the mid-sized firm space. But I mean, that's their baby. So QuickBooks Advanced, which we use.

Yeah.

I think that there's gonna be a lot about where the AI is going in their product, I would imagine. I'm just guessing. I mean, I don't know, but I'm just assuming because that seems to be—

Well, AI is everywhere. Such a hot topic. I mean, it was a big topic at BTG in a good way and also in a way that was like, I'm not comfortable with that. I'm suspect of that. And that's fair for us to be in that space to ask those questions. I'm presuming Clio Con will be the same. And then other conferences of the like, because it's obviously, it's just everywhere. And we'll bless you. Now it's your turn. Um, the— and then Bookkeeping Buds, which I'm excited for. I'm going to be back at Chicago next week, uh, with our assistant Tierra, and, um, I'll be there speaking about, uh, handling client pushback, which I, you know, really— it's something that's just kind of native to my personality of, um, how to navigate that space in a very professional, kind way without giving yourself up in the middle of that. Yeah.

Yeah. We have to vote on a firm-wide vote who's going to talk. It's always like, Sarah will do that. She's good at it because you do have a way to defuse an upset situation and you have a really good way of finding the right words with attorneys especially. So if you can do it with attorneys, you can do it with anybody. But it's really to help people because we all run into that. If you run a firm, you're going to run into that. Moment where things aren't going right or you have an angry client. It's part of doing business. And yeah, your session for sure, I think, gives you tips to prepare for that because it's gonna happen.

Tangible pieces. I know at scaling, what I appreciated was that people were like, we just didn't have enough time with you.

And I was like, no, your session wasn't long enough. I really feel it was, it was just like you were just rocking and rolling and you hadn't even got through the whole audience. There's so many questions.

So, so many questions.

You'll get some. more time at Bookkeeping Buds to go through that again and answer questions about how to do that, because it really— it was a great session.

Yeah. Thank you. Well, thank you, Linda. I mean, and I feel like with a conference like Bookkeeping Buds is similar to BTG, where it's a specific niche, it's part of— it's a member group. It's so nice to see Cindy. We just enjoy her so much. She's such a friend to us. She's so sweet and happy and I just— it's nice to see that she's continued this. It is a lot of work, you know.

It's a conference.

Yeah, yeah. That just any conference in that member-based one. And I'm looking forward— I know some friends in that group. I'm looking forward to meeting new people. Obviously, I like meeting new people. I like socializing. Let's just be real.

You won't have your leash on with me and Nicole pulling you away, so you're gonna have free rein. Watch out, Bookkeeping Buzz.

Yeah, of course. Anyways, so yeah, we've— it's a great— I mean, it feels that anytime between May and end of year, we are just always in a speed race train of conferences and values of things that we need to attend or do. And it's a lot, but it's all—

And then you get to the beginning of the year and you're starting out with the craziness of season, right? So when we get really busy, we get all the records done. So Yeah, and the holidays and all that. So it's just the year is just blowing by. The fact that we're in the last month of, you know, we're going into the 4th quarter pretty soon. It's like, how did this happen? It went by fast. So yeah, and these conferences are great. So I think that there's a takeaway really if you're considering going to one. If you think you're introverted and you don't want to be around a big crowd, pick one of these smaller ones and go to it. But if you can go to Connect, go to Connect because it's Incredible. I mean, you will meet a lot of people, and it is always top notch. It's always glitzy. It's always— they do a lot of preparation for that conference, and it shows.

Yeah.

So I think that you'll really—

it's the mamas. Yeah. And we've got ZeroCon next year, which I'm definitely—

Not we. Well, I can't go there. It's against my religion.

No, no, no, no, no. We're a multi-platform firm. Yes, you can. We have colleagues that are in both, as we've seen. We've seen—

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So yes, uh, anyways, so there, there's a lot. And, and also, Nicole added value here, and why we brought you on today was because a key member in your team, if you have that person and that makes sense to take on that extra expense, that value is there. For Linda and I, it's always been a no-brainer just because of the value for us that we've received. It's hard to convey to the team.

Although it's funny though, when we came back and they were all like, oh my God, the 3 of them are gone. What are we going to do? And I think that it was funny to hear. I think your sister actually said it's like, none of them are here. We don't want to bother them. And they survived. So it was only a couple days, but they survived.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for us picking this topic and doing this and you all joining us. I know we have a very busy schedule for a short week. So yes, of course. And we're, you know, at some point, Tira, who's behind the curtain here, will be a guest as well. So that'll be interesting to do.

She's going to take us out.

Today.

So, Kira, take us away.

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Now, Steve, because he's not here, Really quick, where Steve is, is in a— he mentioned this last week, right? Sheepdog, huge event.

We should be getting pictures.

We should be getting pictures. We should be seeing these. And it'll be interesting because it was just kind of a big ordeal. So I'm curious about how that's going because that's not even a world I know. I just watch it on a movie. So we should find out how he's doing and check in with them. But thank you for joining this week, everybody. See you all next week.

Bye-bye.

Bye.