Change Your Mindset

I recently started facilitating an experimental new professional development program called Slide Deck Improv, and today I am excited to introduce you to two of partners in crime in this venture, Kristen Rampe and Jason Lieu. Kristen is the creator of Slide Deck Improv, a 10-year veteran of public accounting, and the owner of Kristen Rampe Consulting. Jason actually worked for Kristen during his short tenure as an accountant, but he left the profession to pursue improv and acting. Now he’s back in the professional services field as a fellow facilitator for Slide Deck Improv. So what is Slide Deck Improv? It’s the most fun way to improve your presentation skills and gain confidence in your abilities, all while practicing the life skill that is improvisation. Slide Deck Improv combines the basic concepts of business communication and improvisation with practical – and fun – hands-on exercises. The groups take part in improv games, culminating in the titular event: people take turns comi

My guest today is Courtney Kirschbaum, who I had the pleasure of speaking with after her keynote address at the Georgia Society of CPAs’ Southeastern Accounting Show in Atlanta. Courtney’s keynote address was titled “The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?” and it focuses on the idea that everything old is new again, especially when it comes to panicking about the younger generation.   This talk was first inspired by a quote from Socrates: “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”   Sound familiar? Because 2000 years later, some older folks are still singing this tune – and yet, things are still getting done.   “Everybody thinks that their beginn

My guest today is Kate Colbert, the Founder & President of Silver Tree Communications and Silver Tree Publishing and the author of the newly released book Think Like a Marketer: How a Shift in Mindset Can Change Everything for Your Business. Kate provides great marketing advice for people in any kind of business, and she tailored this conversation for the financial professional. Now, this isn’t about converting accounting and finance professionals into marketers – It's about helping people like accountants make better decisions about their accounting practice by thinking like a marketer. In Think Like a Marketer, Kate discusses the five principles that will help you make this mindset shift and change everything for your business: Communicate for connection and meaning, not just to transact sales. (For a little bonus reading on this subject, check out this article in the Journal of Accountancy: “Networking Tips for Quiet People: A Little Preparation Can Take the Fear Out of Networking”)You l

Rebekah Brown is the Director of Development for the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute. Rebekah frequently presents to groups both locally and nationally on the future of the accounting profession and, as a certified Insight to Action facilitator, she has guided firms, nonprofits, and accounting professionals in the United States and Canada in their strategic planning process.   On top of all the work that Rebekah does, she’s just downright passionate about the profession, taking a “rising tide raises all ships” philosophy to everything she does to train and educate her fellow and future accountants.   Rebekah focuses on what she calls the three P’s:   People – “I develop people! I am passionate ... about helping people find their strengths and find their place in the accounting profession. So, on an individual basis, with each of our members, I want to help develop them and develop their careers.” Pipeline – MACPA is over  100 years old, and in that time they’ve learned that w

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Owen Wyss is the Financial Controller at Thompson Concrete Construction, and he can best be described by a quote he gave in a recent AICPA article titled “Tired of Getting After-Hours Work Email?” Owen said, "Given the fact that my company does pay for me to have the ability to access my email on my smartphone, I believe they expect me to be available in an emergency or in order not to delay a project or task, especially since we operate globally." Now, most CPAs don't feel that way – and that is what makes Owen a great leader! Owen embraces the essence of leadership. He is currently Vice Chair of Finance for the Ohio Society of CPAs, is also on the board of the Construction Financial Management Association, and has been on the board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (an organization close to my heart). “I encourage, first, for everybody to find something they're passionate about; and second, to find an organization that aligns with them and realize that what will come of that are so

Cara Silletto is a retention guru who works with companies all around the country, in all different industries, to help them reduce employee turnover. To accomplish that, she bridges the generational gaps and helps managers be more effective in their roles.   This is an issue that comes up a lot in firms today and it’s only going to be a bigger issue with each passing year. So if you’re clinging to the old ways – well, consider this a wake-up call.   Because the firms who are set in their ways, who have decades-old policies they haven't revisited, are the ones who contact Cara saying things like, "We can't recruit anybody... And when we do recruit somebody, they're only staying one or two years, or they don't want to be on the partner track anymore. What's the problem?"   The Millennial Mindset   Cara is the author of a short book titled The Millennial Mindset (which you can get for free here). It contains some stories about Cara’s childhood, as she happens to be one of the oldest millennials, talking about

My guest today is Jennie Scheel, CFO of Five Nines Technology Group and a previous attendee of my Financial Storytelling seminar.After the seminar, she sent me an email with a nice compliment about the class and asked if I knew of any great summaries that I could share with her for taking accounting data and turning it into a powerful story… but at that time, and even still, I didn’t know of any.Instead, I helped Jennie develop her story for the organization in exchange for using this exercise as a case study for my upcoming book, Taking the Number Out of Numbers: Explaining and Presenting Financial Information with Confidence and Clarity. The big problem with presenting accounting information to non-accountants is the language barrier – not everybody speaks the foreign language of Accounting.But on top of that, most of Jennie’s co-workers speak a different foreign language: engineering. So she has to learn a second foreign language and translate that into accounting, then translate all of the relevant i

My guests today are Rich Stang and Brad Hoffman, who are partners in the Maryland accounting firm DeLeon & Stang – and it is not your average firm. I have included a case study on DeLeon & Stang in my upcoming book, Taking the Numb out of Numbers, and I brought Rich and Brad on the podcast so they can talk more about their fascinating firm.DeLeon & Stang is very much an anticipatory organization. They have created an exceptionally positive culture and go beyond traditional services by providing clients with a future-forward look at the financial situation. In this episode, we’ll examine how their future-forward approach applies to creating a mission statement, deciding to open a new location, rolling out new benefits in 2018, and more.Why is DeLeon & Stang different?When Brad and Allen DeLeon started the firm, neither of them had worked in public accounting. So as they started the firm, they didn't quite know how a CPA firm typically ran. “In some respects, that maybe hurt us a little bit. But

My guest today is Dr. John Molidor, a Professor of Psychiatry and Community Assistant Dean at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine as well as a past president of the National Speakers Association Board of Directors. John shares his extensive knowledge about how to prepare a presentation that takes your audience's brain into consideration and provides a richer learning experience, or a “brain-friendly” presentation.John came to the NSA Ohio chapter in February 2017 and delivered a presentation on this topic and it was absolutely life changing for me – this knowledge has been the biggest game changer in my professional speaking career.John emphasizes that the job of any speaker is sharing what you know, creating a safe environment to learn, and inviting your audience into that safe environment, and we need to understand how the brain works, consumes information, and processes it to achieve those goals.What Presenters Should Know About the Brain & Learning:Your cells will eavesdrop on what you

Collaboration is a buzzword in business today. Everyone talks about it. But how do you do it? Well, today’s guest, Eddie Turner, thinks he has the secret sauce to collaboration: “It should be facilitated – facilitated collaboration is what accelerates performance and drives impact.”Eddie is known as “the leadership accelerator” because he works with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact. He is a C-Suite network adviser, international certified coach, certified trainer, and professional speaker.Staying Ready (So You Don’t Have to Get Ready)As professionals, we need to ask ourselves, when is the last time our industry innovated?That question needs to be asked because if we aren't ready, we have to get ready – only then can we stay ready – because the change is coming!Look at the taxicab market (Uber), the hotel market (Airbnb), and now even grocery stores (Amazon & Whole Foods). Disruption is happening and the old guard can’t keep up.Are we next?Because Watson is already here. Watson is wo

Today I sit down with four incredible guests – Michelle Sopp, Jennifer Oleksa, Chris Fleck, and Bret Johnson – to discuss our major takeaways from the 2018 National CPE Educators conference held earlier this year. If you are in the learning and development business, in any industry, pay close attention because all industries and professions need to adapt and change in response to new technologies and changing behavior. The conference objectives were: Creating a fun and dynamic learning environmentTrying to avoid fluffOffering strategic sessions that spur creativityCreating sessions that challenge attendees to think differentlyCreating multiple learning opportunities that foster collaboration, not only with other educators but also with our vendors More about our guests: Michelle Sopp is the Vice President of Learning for the Oklahoma Society of CPAs and the chair for the 2018 National CPE Educators Conference. One of her biggest takeaways from the conference is that today’s learners j

This is an exciting time to be in the accounting profession – we are at a turning point, and the profession is recognizing that just counting beans is not going to get us into the next century (or even the next decade). We need to change our role and relationships with our clients, and we need to be proactive about investing in developing technologies that will allow us to do so.   That’s why I sat down to talk with Amy Vetter, a key influencer in the accounting industry and an accomplished tech executive, entrepreneur, and keynote speaker. Amy is the author of Integrative Advisory Services: Expanding Your Accounting Services Beyond the Cloud, the CPA and accounting professions' guide to the future of delivering advisory services to their clients.   I've been dying to interview Amy since I saw her speak at the 2018 National CPE Educators Conference in New Orleans. She was the kick-off keynote speaker of this conference, and let me just sum her presentation up: She knocked us over!   Amy just understands what

Today I’m celebrating my 100th episode (because I technically started this show with episode 0) – and I have a special announcement for all of you.   First, I’d like to thank all of the guests who have given their time and shared their knowledge with my audience – without you, we never would have reached this milestone. I’d also like to thank my audience, especially those of you who listen every week. I hope you’ve been able to gather some nuggets of wisdom and applied them in your everyday life!   Now for my special announcement: I’m re-branding the podcast and changing its name to “Change Your Mindset | with Peter Margaritis, CPA, CGMA, AKA The Accidental Accountant.” I will also be changing from a weekly schedule to a bi-weekly schedule for a period of time.   Note: If you are already subscribed to the podcast, you do not have to change anything. The title of the show will simply be updated in your podcast app of choice.   Why the change? I want to serve the accounting profession better than I have over th

Scott Palmer is the Executive Director of Adult Education at Butler Technology and Career Development Schools, and he joins me to discuss how the principles of improvisation have helped him create a collaborative environment with his team, his students, and the institution.   Scott has been in adult education for more than two decades, and he loves this work because he is able to help others realize lifelong goals, whether that be pursuing a degree, completing a certificate, or getting a job.   Scott has always utilized improvisation, subconsciously, but over the last couple years, he’s been making a point of using the principles of improvisation to consciously improve his communication.   Improv & Angry Customers   Scott gets ample opportunity to practice because, like many of us, he deals with angry customers on a regular basis. The practice seems to be paying off, because he’s learned a lot!   When a customer comes in angry, they usually just want to be heard. However, a natural reaction to an angry person

Kay Frances is a motivational humorist who has shared her message to “lighten up, stress less and take care of ourselves” for over 30 years. Kay is “America’s Funniest Stressbuster” – and she even wrote the book on stress, The Funny Thing about Stress; A Seriously Humorous Guide to a Happier Life!   When it comes to humor, Kay is the real deal. She performed as a professional stand up comedian for many years and appeared on a number of national television and radio programs. Plus, as you’ll hear in this episode, I was laughing throughout the entire interview!   But Kay isn’t just funny; she uses humor to put her examples in a context that is relatable to everyone in the audience. However, when she is discussing ways to reduce stress, she is very serious and to the point – and this ability to make you laugh, while remaining serious about the message, is what elevates her to the level of a great humorist (and stressbuster).   For the accountants out there, this is an especially stressful time of year – but Kay

Bob Pacanovsky is what you might call a “Wow!” expert – with 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, primarily in the hospitality space, he has learned how create engagement, retention, and loyalty with customers, employees, and clients. Bob took that expertise and founded The Black Tie Experience, which helps companies and leaders create that Black Tie Experience for their customers and employees.   The black tie is much more than a uniform – it’s a mindset. You don’t actually have to have a black tie on to deliver a Black Tie Mindset, you just have to create an impression that LASTS:   Look Act Speak Tact (or how you behave) Serve   We tend to rush to the service part because we want to create an unbelieve customer or employee experience, but “we have to know how to look the part and act the part before we can actually serve the part.”   One of the most important things to keep in mind – and this can be difficult – when working with other people, whether they’re your customers or employees, is that it’s n

Kristen Rampe,  Founder of Kristen Rampe Consulting, returns to the show to discuss how CPE educators can get the best out of their presenters and subject matter experts and a new training tool for those who want to build confidence when speaking in front of a crowd: PowerPoint Improv!   If you want to get better at speaking, this episode is for you.   Kristen conducted an excellent breakout session during the 2018 CPE Educators Conference, in which a group of us discussed how we can get more engagement from our audiences.   One of the things she talked about was giving the different personas in the room what they need – but what does it really mean to know your audience?   You need an understanding of...   Who’s in the room What their background is Why they’re there What they want to learn   If you don’t know who they are and what they want, it’s going to be a lot harder to provide value or engage them. Remember: in any speaking engagement, it’s not about you, it’s about the audience.   PowerPoint Improv  

Chris Loehrer is a right-brain person living in left-brain world, meaning he is extremely creative, has a BFA in animation and film, but currently operates in a leadership role within The Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA)… not exactly what you might expect from a creative type.   In this episode, Chris offers a unique perspective on the topic of leadership, and shares the challenges he faces with getting some of his ideas across and accepted in a numbers-driven, linear thinking business environment.   Chris is the Studio Operations Manager at OSBA. He was hired to create innovative products and services for membership across all departments, as well as communication plans that tell the story of membership benefits and the value of membership.   However, the bulk of his work in recent months has been implementing new and innovative delivery methods for getting those products to members. In the process, he works with many different teams.   When working with different teams, Chris takes a “Minnesota nice” appro

Ted Janusz is a speaker and marketing guru, and he’s here to help you get the most out of your online presence. We discuss how you can set your organization apart from the competition, how to get your clients and prospects spending more time on your website, and what you can do to raise your level of authority to be perceived as an expert in your field.   Marketing isn’t the same as it was even just 10 years ago – or, at least, your marketing shouldn’t look the same as it did 10 years ago.   For starters, everyone has to have a website. “It’s like the modern business card.”   However, just having a website isn’t enough. You also need the right website.   There are two big marketing trends that emerged in 2017: influencer marketing & video. 79% of people who come to your website scan it, rather than read it – so you need to prioritize visual information, especially videos. Your site needs to grab someone in just a few seconds. Otherwise, they’ll move on. The people visiting your site only care about one thing