In today's blog, I am going to share with you an email that I have received from one of our podcast listeners, which is in response to a question I asked in another podcast: "What's holding you back from doing the program?" I asked if listeners would kindly email me because the more I understand, the more I know, – the absolute more I can help you, and the more I can tailor everything. I've got the email here in front of me, and I'm actually going to start at the bottom and just mention that this wonderful listener said that she is a absorbing all my content, which is exactly what I asked. To rinse and repeat, if you're a bookkeeper in practice or a bookkeeper at the beginning of the journey, wherever you're at, I have worked my bum off to build the entire The Strategic Bookkeeper project to serve you. And let me tell you, that was no small feat. And, to help you as best I can, if you are not yet in my Transformation Program and you really want to get the most out of me and my content before you join – I would really love for you to use me. Just like this amazing bookkeeper who I mentioned has emailed me, and now, I can help. So, she said that she's absorbing my content – and that's what I want and need you to do. I need you to read my book once, twice, three times, four times – it's an absolute how-to guide! Listen to my podcast, join Book Club, and grab my free training Profit-first: How to build and maintain a highly profitable practice. Now, if you completely immerse yourself in all those content, I guarantee that you're going to be able to kick goals, and then you can get in The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook group and ask questions, or even make podcast episode suggestions. Because, this particular bookkeeper that emailed me has said that she is struggling with finding the cashflow. And, the $99 a week to invest in the program – even though she knows that investing in the program is going to give her an ROI that pays for it – she's just struggling at the moment to find that. So, what I'd love to do is maybe help you find a bit of that through my content, but rather than going on a sprinkler focus absorbing other content that's out there, which is wonderful and fantastic too, please absorb my content on a fire hose focus, so that I can help you best. And again, lots of gratitude for this wonderful bookkeeper for doing that. Now, the next thing on the email, this bookkeeper's trying to decide – she's been in practice, she's had clients, and then she's been down a path where she's exited practice but she didn't like being an employee. That really struck me because honestly, those of us that are entrepreneurs, those of us that are self-employed and on the Entrepreneur's Journey, we are filled with uncertainty and lots of other things – the total opposite to having a job. But, I truly believe that those of us that choose that path and that journey, it is where we're meant to be, and there's a good reason that we love it. So this bookkeeper is at that point where she's wondering: she would love to go back into practice, but there were issues last time she did. There were things just not working the way she'd like them to work, and she's once bitten, twice shy. So she is talking about the direction she wants to take on this and more. The first thing I'm going to say here is plan. What I want this wonderful bookkeeper to do, and we're going to call her Trish – Trish, what you need to do and what everyone needs to get clear on (I do this with all my entrepreneurial clients as well as my bookkeepers, and they kind of scratch their head and just go, how am I just not seeing this?) — You must understand the destination that you're trying to head for. Let's take Trish for example. Now, I'm not sure how old Trish is, but the destination we are heading for and what we need and want is going to be different at the different stages of our life, okay? I'm 51. What I want now is different to the goals that I was setting back in my 30s. So the basic way to look at this for Trish, for everyone, is to start with money. Start with going, well, this is the income that I want, and you can think short term, medium term, long term, and yet again, depending on where you're at, okay? So start with money, and then go for time wealth. The reason I say that is because once you've got that goal in mind – let's say you want a take home income before tax of 100,000 or 50,000 or 200,000 – only when you know exactly what you want to earn, can you work back from there to create the small but mighty practice. In this case, I'm going to say that Trish's goal is just to have $80,000 a year in take home income before tax, but that's net profit for her to take. It is one thing to say, oh, we want 400,000 take home, and absolutely you can aim for that and get that, but it is up to you to decide. Don't let anyone tell you what your goals and what your dream on your term should be, okay? Let's just say Trish only wants to take home $80,000 a year, and she wants to work 20 hours a week. For me, I like more if I can aim to work around 12, but sometimes I might work 40 or 50. Well, that is the entrepreneur's journey. Tomorrow morning, even though I've been a little under the weather, I'll get up at 5:00 AM I'll kick some big goals. I do lots of work for my tribe. I'm actually currently rolling out a really great module around events and workshops for them, and so I'll be up at 5:00 AM doing that. The entrepreneur's journey is not the job person's journey. I've done the podcast there – but let's say, on average, Trish wants to do 20 hours a week, $80,000 a year. Well, that's the destination, how do we get there from where we are now? Let's say Trish has exited her bookkeeping practice. So she's just been doing a little bit of work for other people and she wants to go from zero clients to a chapter of her own clients that is going to give her $80,000 a year income, 20 hours a week, and she's filled with purpose and valued. Here's what that could look like: Trish will be aiming for approximately 10 to 15, erring on the side of caution, really high-value strategic bookkeeping clients. These clients would be paying Trish $10,000 or more per annum, with a very low cost of sales. We could be aiming for up to double of $80,000 a year here, but I'm erring on the side of caution. We could say, 10 ideal clients who pay Trish 10,000 or more a year, and then she has a low cost of sales and business expenses – like The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation program. Let's imagine Trish is paying me $99 a week, because once she gets some traction, she invests in the program because in there, this stuff is exactly where we're at in helping you ongoing, and it's always evolving and changing. But as I mentioned in another podcast, one of the bookkeepers in the program, I've helped her come up with a plan that'll pull about $90,000 more profit out of her existing database with no new clients. So I think, this top 10 clients is a great one for Trish to aim for. So imagining that and in terms of the plan that we're making... so Trish's got my book, my podcast, the book club, and the Profit-first training. Using everything that I give Trish in there, then what she's going to want to do is come up with the best way to find at least one good client that can pay for the Transformation program. Because then, if we bring Trish into the program... looking at the mind map below, or what I call the business big picture— On the left-hand side is everything that you need to have ideally nailed for before a PC knocks on the door. And then on the right-hand side, I've got all the moving parts of how we make it all work. Right now, on the left-hand side, you've got the entrepreneur's mindset. You've got the work smarter, not harder, which is less clients, more revenue on profit. You've got pricing system, which is outcome, billing, price for profit, minimum viable rates. Then you've got productised service. So you need a simple suite of productised service, something I call the 80/20 rule. So 80% is the same, all the time, and you need to be able to offer up Strategic Bookkeeping, also known as advisory. Then you need your product ladder in place. That is content, welcome lines, core and succession, and you need a killer conversion process that allows you to convert more PCs into clients, and then VIPs without price as a priority. That includes needs analysis, welcome lines, video, sales letter, and follow up. So all of that on the left-hand side is going to take Trish a while to nail. If Trish worked diligently using all of my content that I've given her, that I've given all of you, it's going to take anywhere between a year, two years, five years, to get all of that stuff, version one nailed. Whereas when you come into the program, it is served up day one on a silver platter, and then we help you with how you implement it. Now, how I do that is a little bit of magic because when I ask the bookkeepers in my tribe, even they don't think they have nailed these. And then when I show them how they've got it all in place now, they're simply surprised. I knew that I wanted bookkeepers to get runs on the board immediately, and so I knew I wanted to serve all that up. So I think, the smartest thing for Trish to do would be to do some smart things based on my content. For example, if I'm looking at the right-hand side of my mind map, we absolutely need to generate business. We talk about find new clients, and Trish may need to find new clients but ultimately, what she needs to do is generate business, remembering that we can generate business from existing clients as well as our market, our prospective clients from partnerships and more. So this "generate new business" is a phrase that I'd like you to really embrace. In terms of Trish finding and onboarding some ideal clients without price as a priority, well, I'd suggest that finding one new client wouldn't be too hard. If I'm looking at the right-hand side, you've got brand, digital ecosystem, audience, attractions, strategies, database capture, database nurture, business development, and standard operating procedures. Now, Trish might have an old database, and in my free training that I offer you, I talk about database in there, as well as in my book as well as in my podcast. Database is the diamonds at your feet. So simply reaching out to past and inactive clients is usually the low hanging fruit, and you can do this. Trish was also saying in her email how she would love to rebrand and get the right assets in place, et cetera – but this is all a big job right now. Looking at your database and looking for past and inactive clients is something you can do without any collateral, without anything. Literally, I've got bookkeepers and people at training events who do it and they say, Jeannie, oh my goodness, it works. I just reengaged a past client. I just reengaged an inactive client – and voila, we have new business, we have a new client. We've really generated new business from someone on our database. So for Trish, for everyone, I promise that generating some cashflow to be able to join my tribe can be done by finding a client. And then when Trish finds that person, you can work on your conversion process using book club as your guide. If you join in – and I am not promising that that will be available forever because my job is to push you out of procrastination and get you doing it – you'll get all my recorded podcasts where I go into each chapter completely free. When I did the conversion chapter, I explain how to convert a PC into a file health check first, increasing your overall conversion rates. Let's say you convert five out of 10, you're going to convert seven out of 10, boom. And then that will give you more time for them to be in the customer journey, to get to know and trust you. You can do all these without any collateral. You can get runs on the board and generate enough income to join my program by doing these simple things. Zero collateral – all you've got is that you are a really great, technically skilled bookkeeper, and you are ready to do the mechanics and mindset and the productivity. You're ready to make no excuses, and no failure. If you can give me those two things, together, we can get a run on the board in order to help you be able to afford to pay for the program, so I can serve it all up done for you. And I would love to do that. So, if Trish finds someone, then that person on the database is already going to know and trust her. They might really appreciate the manners message that says something like, Hi, Sally, we haven't spoken in ages. I just thought of you and I wondered how everything's going. Make sure that they know you're the bookkeeper reaching out, so you can say things like, Are you keeping up with the books? I thought I'd just check if you need a hand, because if you do need a hand, I'm just a phone call away. I talk and train on this a lot. Birthdays – we must be working the heck out of our database, okay? Use Microsoft Excel to start. That's where I recommend Trish starts: database. The next place I recommend Trish starts is to hang her sign out on social media. And I'm not talking business social media, I'm talking personal social media. Use all the collateral I've given you and then go into your personal social media. It is the new networking room for the entrepreneur. I know that it can feel a little icky because social media can feel a bit yuck, but everything has the meaning we give it, and I don't find it yuck. I use it the right way. So hang your sign out, make sure everybody knows what you do. If you are starting a business, social media. Just like I say in my book, all you need is to post three times a week to show up consistently. Your version one is perfect, my friends. Whatever you put out for version one is your perfect version one. If you don't have a website and you want to get a website, contact my friends at Bizink. Mention The Strategic Bookkeeper and they'll take care of you wonderfully. It breaks my heart when I see bookkeepers spend tonnes of money on terrible websites, and so we've sorted that relationship for you. But, what I'm going to say to Trish and everyone is, if you don't have a website right now, it might be smarter to get a run on the board to be able to afford my transformation program, which is exactly what Trish wants to do in this email. I would not be serving you if I didn't tell you that, okay? That would seem like the smarter thing, and honestly, you can access my tribe members in The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook group and just go, anyone in the tribe, what can you tell me about this, or what have you saved or leveraged through the website collateral from TSB? Matt, the head of Bizink, when he rolled out the second website for one of our tribe members that's using our collateral, our marketing, and marketing copy, he rang me and said, Have you seen it? Holy cow, it is the best bookkeeper website we've ever done! So when you are collaborating with us, you're going to turbocharge that relationship. But coming back to Trish's email and what I want for everyone, it is to get runs on the board so that if what's holding you back is not being able to find that $99 a week, then I'm helping you right now with how you find that. And then the other thing, to rinse and repeat, is make sure you know what you're working for because as I say, I would be looking for Trish to have a handful of small but mighty clients. Now, there are other things in Trish's email – she's had staff before that didn't go so well. Who can relate to that? I certainly can. I've been the people pleasing manager. I've made all the mistakes. I've been there, done that. I would say that these days I have a lot of mastery in that area, and that's something that we can help you with in the program too. But let's work hard and let's get started by doing it ourselves, and that's what Trish would be doing. So in terms of team, I would absolutely recommend that anyone out there in this kind of position is going to go and look for a handful of high value clients and do the work yourself, and then come into the program and we'll make staff easier. Otherwise, there's a lot of high value content in my book, but being part of our tribe, you'll get the support from not just me, but the entire tribe. Everyone in the Transformation program, absolutely everyone, even the members who clearly are levelling up to become experts and ambassadors that will one day be coaching you as well, I get so excited to have that level of support around things like staffing. It's impossible for me to even convey how transformational that is. So absolutely, for Trish's email, that is what I talk about. And the reason that I'm connecting so heavily to the program is because Trish said that she knows she should be jumping in with both feet and joining the program, but she's not doing it because she can't find that $99 a week. And so that is why I'm explaining the answer for Trish in how she's going to afford it, and to help you with that too, okay? And other things that Trish said is that she is really keen to work in advisory. This is exactly what I need to hear. If you are keen to go beyond basic bookkeeping and into strategic bookkeeping, then we're going to give you the keys to the kingdom and all the collateral to not just do the strategic bookkeeping. Because, my friends, that is the easy part. But to build demand and desire for strategic bookkeeping so that your PCs and clients can't press go fast enough, and you're able to build this beautiful, small but mighty practice to build your thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms, that is the goal. So the other thing Trish did say, in terms of rebranding, I'd rather let us help you do that. We will save you bucket tonnes of money. So the Transformation program at $99 a week for a minimum term of a year with a 100% money-back guarantee, is a fraction of what you'll give to what will probably be a very average marketing person, okay? I just had an entrepreneur tell me he's paid $20,000 for a website a long time ago, and he hasn't even seen it yet. And this is a common tale which I hear from bookkeepers too. It is much smarter to come in and work with a veteran bookkeeper who specialises in brand marketing, selling, and administration for bookkeepers, my friends. The other thing that Trish said at the end is that she'd also like to get into one-off, one-on-one training for, say, Xero or QBO. Now, we do have a standalone course available to you called Be a Brilliant Trainer. I am a very gifted trainer and assessor myself; I've been told by clients when I train them in software that there is no comparing the way that I train to others. And obviously, I train in The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation program as well. So I decided, based on demand, that I would create this standalone course. And so if you're interested in that, you can find out all the details here. Be a Brilliant Trainer is a beautiful short audio course that you can do while you're out and about driving, going for a walk, whatever. You'll be certified in two hours. You'll learn what you need to know, and you will learn when it works and when it doesn't work in terms of training – and you'll be given a productised service that allows you to charge a thousand dollars for three hours of training, which pays for 20% of the program. You'll also be given a special qualification badge by me, and you'll be able to display that in your marketing collateral as a competitive advantage. And, it is also counts for CPD, okay? I am a registered BAS agent here in Australia, and that entire course is CPE points for you as well. So that answers Trish's last question. Trish also expressed her gratitude for everything that I'm doing, and I'm really grateful for that. The Strategic Bookkeeper Project fills my cup. I do believe it's my Dharma, and so it's my privilege to show up and serve everyone.

For this read, I will be taking it straight out of my recent podcast of the same title – and that episode, so pure and so inspiring, I tell you. So I had the chance to interview Deb, one of our tribe members, and it's so powerful to share with everyone regardless if you're in the program or not. I actually wonder, can I do a blog post that really does justice to just how incredible her journey has been? Deb's going to share with you as she just shared with me, her journey and her story in the Transformation Program. What really excites me about watching Deb's journey – her progress, her wins, everything in the program – is that Deb is the quintessential bookkeeper. And as you'll learn from Deb by the end, "if I can do it, anyone can". The impact the program's having absolutely fills my cup. I've said that a million times and I'll say it again. Like I say, I feel like I could rattle on and on in this intro about Deb and what she's got to share, but how about we just jump in and learn her story? Read the full transcript here. #thestrategicbookkeeperprogram #transformationprogram #tsbtransformationprogram #bookkeepingprogram #bookkeepingcourse #bookkeepereducation #bookkeepingonlinecourse #bookkeepingtraining #successfulbookkeeping #bookkeepingbusiness #bookkeepingpractice #strategicbookkeeping #bookkeeper #bookkeepingselfhelp #jeanniesavage #thestrategicbookkeeper #thrivingbookkeeping #bookkeeping #ebook #freeebook #bookkeepingguide #bookkeeperguide

In today's blog, I am going to start by telling you a few things: it's fairly early on a Tuesday morning when I'm writing this and the tradies will be at my house soon (as many of you know, I'm renovating my home). The other thing is, I'm sitting here and I'm sucking on a lozenge because I have picked up another little cold, which is really frustrating. And, I wanted to share a little vulnerably – but very much to serve you – that one of the things I'm doing around my health is levelling up my mindset. I prioritise myself and my health above all else. I put myself first – my physical, mental, and spiritual health. I learned years ago the hard way that if we don't put ourselves first, if we put our kids first or anyone else first, then we can't show up in a way that is best for them anyway. I absolutely prioritise myself and my health. However, I have fallen victim (if you put it that way) to a few things, and a good friend of mine who I call one of my "one-inch friends" talked to me about this. My one-inch friend concept comes from Brene Brown who says: "Get a 1x1 inch piece of paper and write down the names of the people that you can rely on to be very honest with you, even when it might be hard to hear." So I call these people my one-inch friends, and I am privileged to have quite a few of them in my life. Now, my one of my one-inch friends, Julie, said to me recently gently that she felt I should level up my mindset around my health. She didn't put it that way, but that's exactly what she said. She said to me, "Jeannie, your mindset around everything is extraordinary." She calls me like her sage, and she said, "So why is it that your health is different to that?" And these things are confronting to hear. This is why they are our one-inch friends. So long story short – my mindset around my health that I decided to adopt was that perfect health radiates from within me, and I spontaneously heal. So I'm turning up today with that mindset, and I am very happy to say that I'm getting through this little cold in record time. The reason I'm sharing that with you is because as a coach in The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, or even outside that, when I talk to you right now, I want to remind you that there are three things that are really heavily involved in you finding success in your bookkeeping practice: Mechanics, Mindset, and Productivity. I'm sure there are lots of other things, but when I observed the tribe members in my program in the early days – who was getting results, who was struggling more – it wasn't just the mechanics because I gave everyone the same keys to the kingdom and everybody comes in ultimately with a very similar starting point. We can all say: "Oh, I'm busy... I'm this... I'm that..." I know that we are all the same "busy", but some of us found a way to get there and I truly believe, or should I say in my experience, I know that beyond the mechanics (which is the things that you need to do), it's your mindset and your productivity that makes the massive difference. For example, if your mindset is "I can't, and I don't have time and I feel overwhelmed", then my clients won't accept a price rise. Whatever your mindset is, that completely holds you back. I don't care what I give you in terms of mechanics, your mindset will prevent you from finding success. And I wanted to share that this morning, I've been inspired to do this post from an email that I got yesterday. I got this email from a beautiful bookkeeper who's not in the Transformation Program, and she was telling me how busy she is and how she's killing it in her practice. She's got about 4 staff and they just can't keep up with demand and all this. Honestly, I knew in my heart, I knew from all my experience, this was a busy bookkeeper, not a thriving bookkeeper. So I simply asked her some questions. Sure enough, the responses have told me that she's very busy – but is she really achieving the work smarter rather than harder in practice? Is she achieving the time wealth? Is she achieving the income and lifestyle that I help bookkeepers achieve when I help them with the mechanics, their mindset, and their productivity? So what I wanted to do in today's read (which I may end up breaking this into a little series of posts with such a huge subject), I want to ask you if you are making this mistake, or more broadly, "Are you making these mistakes?" We are going to dive into a bit around client attraction because when I survey bookkeepers, 50% of them say "I need more clients". It's definitely something that bookkeepers focus on when actually that is just a piece of the puzzle. Now, I said to my one-inch friend, Julie, "Honestly, I know in my heart that the first person we ever need to find the courage to be honest with is ourselves – and it is hard". And so, I'm going to ask you to find the courage to be honest with yourself, which is very hard for all of us, and to truly ask yourself: "Am I the busy bookkeeper?" Because, what I'm going to share here, we've all been there – including me. And today, I'll share with you the mistakes and misconceptions that you might be making in order to direct and redirect you. And, I'm going to refer to the mind map below, which I call the big picture for bookkeepers. On the left hand side, it's got everything that you really need to have done and ready and sorted, before you even answer the door to a prospective client, and arguably answer the door to an existing client with new needs. Then, on the right hand side, there are all the other pieces of the puzzle that you need to have in place in order to nurture that prospective client or client to onboard without price as a priority. Now, those sentences that I just said there, they were really concise and short – but let me tell you right now, it was like me giving you a novel. So if you want to go back and read this again, I would actually really encourage you to. The ability to find onboard and retain clients without price as a priority – it's not just a throwaway line. It is like the Indiana Jones movies when he's searching for the giant diamond or whatever it is, when he's risking his life and he's doing all these crazy things and he keeps going relentlessly. It's like, nothing will stop him looking for this diamond. Your ability to find onboard and retain clients without price as a priority is like that diamond that Indiana Jones would do anything to get – it's kind of like the elixir of your practice, which probably leads me into the mistakes and misconceptions. Mistakes are acting wrong, and misconceptions are thinking wrong. And if we are thinking wrong, we tend to act wrong. And with find, onboard, and retain clients without price as a priority, the mistake that bookkeepers make (that I made in the early days too!), is not understanding and truly focusing on what's really required to make that happen. What bookkeepers often look to do is to find new clients, and then to onboard those clients, and to do that using what I call the employee mindset and a math equation as pricing. Then in terms of retention, there are so many pieces to this puzzle, but if we come back to the three parts of the buying decision – relationship, convenience, and price – you need to be a 10 out of 10 in relationship. Because one of the mistakes that I made early on, I was able to lose a client when somebody else came along and impressed them more, dazzled them more, and gave them something that was maybe perceived as a dollar cheaper. It was believing that retention will just happen because you're a great technician. I guess the first mistake is really around going to market in your practice without a rock solid understanding of what it means to find, onboard, and retain clients without price as a priority. In order to expand on the mistakes that you might be making in regard to exactly what I just shared, I think the best way that I can do that is to share what I do, and what the tribe members are doing. We are seven months in to opening the doors to the program, and a lot of them have been with me the whole seven months, but we've also got newer tribe members. And so I'm going to share this with you as I seek to help you with the mistakes that you might be making, so I can direct and redirect you. My job as a coach, and it's something that I really believe and know in my heart, is to direct and redirect you. I've done it with business clients, and now I do it primarily with my bookkeeping clients. I'm giving you fresh direction, so it might be something that you really don't know. For example is the customer journey. You come to me (just like the bookkeeper who reached out to me by email) and you've got a lot going on in your practice – you're doing this, you're doing that. You tell me what you're doing because you still have a problem. Like the bookkeeper I did the hot seat with, she had so much work and therefore, a capacity problem. However, all of the work wasn't really translating into the dream. The dream becoming a nightmare rather than a reality. So, when she came to me, I checked her practice audit first, because when you come into the program, you complete a practice audit for me in a Google form, and then I've got all the results in a spreadsheet so that I can – at any time – look at what was happening in your practice at the beginning. And if we do hot seat, it's really helpful as well. I was able to analyse her practice before we caught up, and it was clear to me – as a coach sitting on the outside of her practice – what she needed to do. But, during the hot seat, I went down a rabbit hole on one particular subject, and that was a client that she was working with that had not been paying her, and what was going on there and why. Then the other rabbit hole we went down was the staff that she was considering recruiting. Now, long story short, in terms of direction and redirection on the client – that was problematic. The reason I focused on that is to change her mindset. Her mind and her behaviour around that client was going to change her mind and her behaviour around everything. I knew that. So what I had to do was redirect her, and then the same on the staff she was about to recruit (to be honest, it was going to be a disaster). She knew all the things that I told her and showed her. She tended to have in her heart and her gut, and that's what happens. Our gut doesn't often steer us wrong. I know when I'm talking to bookkeepers that aren't in the program, deep in the pit of their gut, they know they should join – but they develop a case for why they don't need to. Our gut doesn't often steer us wrong, and I just wanted to digress into this direction and redirection because that's why I'm here – to give you direction, and more importantly, redirection. I think of it this way: if you are headed in a specific direction thinking that you'll get there, but then you are veered off course, my job is to steer you back on course in the direction of income and lifestyle, of a thriving practice with delighted clients, and your dream on your term. So going back to some stories of me, of the tribe, and how we get this find onboard and retain clients without price as a priority to help you with the mistakes you might be making... Just by looking at my mind map above, I've got kind of a the top 12 mistakes that you could be making, because success is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle. And one of the first mistakes that I see bookkeepers make (that we get the tribe to not make anymore)— the employee mindset and a math equation for pricing. The second podcast that I ever recorded is about pricing and employee mindset. If you haven't listened, I recommend that you do. To give you an example of how my tribe gets this right, when I have a tribe member come in to the program, I do ask them "have you listened to that podcast?". If you haven't, you're going to take that action because we're not going to be surprised by the results we don't get, from the work we don't put in. So listen to that podcast, and with the tribe – definitely the ones that get the best results are putting in the work. So they get the Pricing Academy which is a foundation member bonus, and otherwise available for purchase standalone. So, once you get the Pricing Academy, which has my productised services, you also get my thought leadership around outcome billing. I often hear bookkeepers talk about value billing or fixed pricing. Honestly, these are phrases coined by suppliers and alike, and accountants. I'm talking to bookkeepers, and I'm a bookkeeper who's been there, done that. Now, I want you to read this: Outcome billing. In my tribe, we have like a mantra – we sell outcomes, not hours. We are outcome billing. You will not hear anyone in my tribe talk about value billing. Can you tell me what value billing is? Because I used to feel like it was the emperor's new clothes. The absolute first thing is to move away from your employee mindset. Let's say, as an employee, you were getting paid $30-40 an hour, and then you can double that rate. Amazing. Oh my goodness, right? That's employee mindset. The entrepreneur mindset is completely different to that, and it's multi-faceted. And I did another podcast on that called The Entrepreneur's Journey. So the entrepreneur's mindset – which is always evolving – when you have had 35 years in employee mindset being paid an hourly wage, this will not happen overnight or even in a year, but you will begin the journey and you'll rock it and kill it, then you'll kill it and rock it even more in the years to come. However, one of the foundations around pricing when it comes to the entrepreneur mindset is to sell hours, not outcomes. To actually focus – in a linear fashion – it is to build a thriving practice, before you seek to delight clients, and certainly, before you ever get the privilege of living your dream on your terms. And a thriving practice is one where you have a smart strategic pricing strategy, which has got productised services and minimum charge-out values, and where the hourly rate is not a math equation. For example: you had one client getting one type of productised service. If you were to break that down hourly, they might be paying you 2, 3, 4, 500,000, or $2,000 an hour. If that makes you go, "Oh my god, that makes me sick in the stomach, I don't understand that", then I want to tell you, you probably have some form of employee mindset going on, and that's the first thing that you need to think about. When you engage a real estate agent to sell your home, they charge you a percentage of the sale price they are charging you for the result that they get. As an entrepreneur, your job is not to sell your time or your hours, and that's actually not what your prospective clients and your clients want either. I can tell you right now – what they want is they want you to help them. If you think of just reconciling the bank account is helping them, well, then you've got a little bit of a ways to go and I'd love to be the person that helps you get there. Well, I've sat on this first misconception for a while. This first misconception is such a foundational piece, and I want to continue these posts week on week as we explore a bit more of these mistakes relevant to finding new clients – which, as I said, 50% of bookkeepers are going to tell me that's what they need. Where diving deep relevant to that, but also relevant to how you actually build a practice where you are working truly smarter, not harder. And that means, doing a certain amount of work for a massive result. Because, I can tell you right now, the bookkeeper who emailed me, bookkeepers all over the world and myself in the early days – I have had eight staff before and done the same profit as I can do with two staff. Working smarter rather than harder. I am going to wrap up this blog with a couple of things. So, action plan – your action is to absolutely listen to these two podcasts: Unlock the Power of Strategic Pricing and The Entrepreneur's Journey. Tune in to those two podcasts, grab my mind map, and be honest with yourself and ask yourself, if you really understand all the parts of the mind map and whether you have got all of that ready. If you haven't, then, what action are you going to take? When I got this email from this bookkeeper, I asked myself, "What is it that I'm not conveying about the Transformation Program that doesn't help this person see that it is the answer to all their problems?" I don't know whether it's because they sit in a place of not being entirely honest with themselves and wanting to believe that they can keep working and working and working. I'm imagining that kind of trudging and trudging and going and going, then one day it'll all fall into place, because this bookkeeper's email tells me a million things that this person's trying to get right. Everything that this bookkeeper's trying to get right is served up done for you in the program. So I ask myself: What's holding them back? Is it that I'm not conveying what's inside the program enough or properly? Or is it more that they don't believe that they need it , that they can actually build all these things themselves? And if that's the case, it's a misconception that I totally relate to because in the early days, I did seek help. As you'll read in my book, I thought I found help and it was never the help I needed and I had to do it myself in the end anyway. My first five years were my f*ck up years, and I look at bookkeepers and I think I know what they're headed for. They're headed for getting 2, 3, 4, 5 years more in and turnover having gone up – but their time wealth and their income not being where it should be or could be. That leading to those feelings of the dream just not becoming a reality. And so that other action is around being honest with yourself, okay? The way I see it, you've got two options: You can do it alone to try and save some money, or you can back yourself and go for it and join my tribe. And let me tell you, we are knocking it out of the ballpark. That's not a sales pitch. That is me serving you, dare I say courageously to find success.

Today's read is something very different; we're shaking things up a bit! (And honestly, don't expect this to be a regular thing). But, here's the deal with The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation program – it's always evolving. Right now, with our close-knit group, I've got the chance to experiment with some cool stuff, which means the tribe gets results even faster! So, recently on a Saturday I held a hot seat coaching session with Melissa, one of our awesome tribe members from the United States who's launching her bookkeeping practice. Now, one-on-one coaching isn't something we usually do in the program, but hey, I'm all about going the extra mile to help my tribe get results! And so today, I'm sharing with you the raw transcript of how our conversation went, in order to give you a sneak peek into how the program rolls. It's like getting a backstage pass, letting you see what it's like when you're part of the tribe. And the best part? You'll hear directly from one of our fantastic tribe members! Read the full transcript here.

If you have read my book, you'll hear me talk about three types of marketing: Brand, Advocacy, and Paid. For today, I want to help you understand advocacy as it relates to creating advocacy in your market through prospective clients (PCs) – not just with your existing clients. And for me, as a bookkeeper, that is a bit of a mind blowing concept. If you had come to me ages ago and said, did you know that you can create advocacy for your brand for who you are and what you do, with people that aren't even working with you? I'd be like, What??! Right? And so today, I want to give you a real life example. I am literally looking at an email from a PC who has never actually pressed go, and I kept in touch with him. He's cool, we vibe, I'd love to work with him, but we haven't yet, and he has referred me onto someone else. He actually has gotten to really know and trust me, and he is quite happy to be out there as my sales and marketing team, telling people that I'm awesome and that if they need a great bookkeeper or even better, strategic bookkeeper, they should use me. And so I want to link this to database and give you simple strategies for using database. And also, to a really high value resource that you can get access to which is our Profit-first Playbook – a FREE training on how to build and maintain a highly profitable practice. Because, for this blog, that is front of mind with regards to what I'm going to share with you on advocacy and action steps around database. But just to segue for a minute, I'm going to tell you the two books I recommend to everyone that revolutionised my health. One is called Deep Nutrition by Dr. Kate Shanahan – heavy duty read, like 12-hour audiobook. And then, Deep Science – I'm a whole different person because I read that book, plus with the revised version of Dr. Mosley's The Fast 800 Diet. It's only three and a half hours audiobook. And so with that little tip around health, I just want to tell you to always keep in mind to be the healthy bookkeeper as well, okay? So going back to our main topic: I'm looking at my little notepad and there are three things I want to cover and give you action around. I really want you to do your best attempt at taking action immediately after you read this blog, or as soon as you can reserve a tiny bit of time. And then, as I mentioned, I want to make sure you access the Profit-first Playbook: How to maintain a highly profitable practice – 100% free bookkeeper training. And if you haven't read my book, you must read my book. If you're more of a hardcover person or audiobook person, you can get that too, because I'm going to share with you a little, but the book is going to give you a lot more. Now, advocacy is the main form of marketing that you want to use. I was just actually talking to Matt Wilkinson from Bizink, our website partner. Nobody globally does websites for bookkeepers and accountants better than Matt. And, he was saying that he loves to talk about leads to loyalty, and this is definitely about leads to loyalty as well. I've just received an email, and this person, let's call him Justin. He and I connected about a year or so ago and we had a good chat. I did a needs analysis and a proposal to take over from his existing bookkeeper, who he wasn't entirely happy with. Now, even though I followed up and we've kept in touch, we haven't been able to proceed. There was even a time when he got one of my emails and he said, "Jeannie, good timing." So to be clear, we have automated emails that go to him, and I also send the occasional text message. The automated emails is what I call passive nurturing. And then, when I've got my business development hat on and I just send a nice text message, that's what I call manners marketing. It's good manners to keep in touch with people. And, in the Profit-first workshop, I share with you this incredible mind map that I've done that tells you exactly how all this fits in. So, Justin got one of those emails and he said, "Oh my goodness, good timing, Jeannie. Absolutely really want to go ahead in the next couple of weeks", but it didn't happen. And that's okay because as you may know, if you've read my book, Justin is going through the customer journey – the windy road with twists and turns of digesting a lot of content on average 7-11-4: 7 hours over 11 touch points and 4 platforms. Basically, think of it this way – if we remove the marketing language and take it back to basics: Justin and I have spoken on the phone. I've texted him, he gets emails from us, he listens to my podcast. Do you need a podcast of your own? No, you don't. But if you want to launch your podcast, go for it. I will let you know that in the program, we have a Done-for-You podcast. I'm just rejigging it as at November 2023 to make it a little bit more powerful for the Tribe before we formally give them more assets around how they can use that to promote themselves. So in terms of the 7-11-4, 7 hours, 11 touch points, four platforms, if we go backwards, the platforms he's been on is the podcast platform, the email platform, the text message platform, these, again, marketing language platform. But let's take it down to basics. If you talk about touch points: watch, read, listen, do. He's listening to the podcast, he's reading my emails, he's having dialogue on the phone, he's reading my text messages, he's following our social media. So there's lots of touch points here. And don't worry, you don't have to be a marketing expert to make this work for you, but I would recommend that you use my podcast and my book to slowly but surely educate yourself just little by little on these concepts. I promise you, some of them you're already using in the real world. You talk to people, you text people, you email people. So it's just kind of a step beyond that. This is the deep science and art of it, but don't be overwhelmed. In this case, we have sent an automated email, so this is all kind of on autopilot, but you can do this even without all the stuff in place. And literally, I'm looking at my email and he just sent me another email – I'm doing this in real life for you right now. I've sent an automated email, which you can do exactly this as a manual email as a pivot to action. I'm going to tell you what I did, and you can consider, I'm going to sit at my computer and do exactly what Jeannie did, just that I don't have my database maybe as organised, and it's not going to be a preset auto. I'm going to go in, and I'm just going to email all my prospective clients, anyone that I've ever kind of talked to about the possibility of doing services, my past clients as well, and my inactive clients. So anyone who you could categorise a PC, you could send them exactly what I sent Justin. The subject line is, "are you behind on the books or BAS?" Pretty simple – relevant to all your prospective clients, no reason you can't send that out. If you are sitting there thinking, oh, I don't think I really have my database in order, well, whatever accounting software you are using, your clients are in there – but all your past clients and inactive clients are in there too! So some of your prospective clients are in there. Technically, you could go in, export, and just take the clients out and everybody else is a PC. If we were doing fast furious or as I've heard it put before, quick and dirty, you probably don't have a million clients. You might have 10 clients, five clients, 20 clients, you can quickly extract them and everybody else is a PC. Now, if you only send this message to those people, you are on fire, my friend, these are the most engaged. They've done business with you before. Now, if there's anyone in there that you never want to speak to again, just take them out. I want to give you ways to simplify this stuff so that you can actually take a small piece of action immediately with the potential to get results. Now, segue for a minute, I did actually consider having this blog exclusive for my paying program participants only. But, I decided I wanted to give this to everyone because I could definitely find ways to help you inside and outside the program – but more so when you're in it, actively participating with the rest of the tribe. So in terms of the email I sent Justin, and which you could send out as well, you could use the nine-word email formula. Now, I just did a private podcast on that for my paying members. For you, all you really need to know is you could Google that, but I don't recommend you do because you'll go down a rabbit hole of how it's used for all different industries. For bookkeepers, I like to call it the nine-word email, text, or phone call. It could just be a really simple email that said, Hi, name. Are you behind on the books or BAS? That's it. It's an email of nine words or less, that simply seeks to pick up where you left off. So in terms of all these people that are either past clients, inactive clients, or if you know where your database is of anyone that you've ever sent a proposal, or anyone that inquired but you didn't send a proposal, import them in and you can send it out to them. All you need is this in Microsoft Excel, and technically you could even not use MailChimp. You can import them into MailChimp pretty easily and send out a nice mail, merge with their name, but you could also kick it quick and dirty and just go. I do recommend you use their name, but if you are doing zero now, anything is better than zero. Version one might be using Microsoft Excel and you're just using your Gmail or whatever, and you're just sending it out. You're going, you know what? I'm just going to take action. But version two and version three is going to be a bit more organised, all right? So I recommend you just use the nine-word email and you just send that. I love nine-word emails in this age where we have limited focus and we're also time poor. It's awesome. Mine kind of said, "Hi Justin, as always, I'm sharing this with you for one reason, which is to help you do better in business." I've also done it in what's called sales page format. Sales page format seeks to do some of the copy is in bold, centred, and also in a larger font. And what that does is when you get an email like that, oftentimes you only read that. So if he only read the stuff in bold, I'll tell you what he would read, do better in business up-to-date accurate numbers is globally recognised as pillar one for success optimise your business performance, your profit, and cash How can I help? Free of charge Back in the driver's seat, you'll have the floor I'll share insights freely That's all he would read. But basically, because I'm kind of a version 10 already, mine talks about, so last time I touched base, I wanted to know what your gut feeling around your numbers was. This time, I'd love to know: are you behind on the books and BAS because up-to-date accurate numbers, blah, blah, blah. It's what we call numbers 101 and it goes on and on, and then I actually give this person an opportunity to book in a complimentary 90-minute strategy session. Now, I like the nine-word email as much or better than I just told you. In sales and marketing, things are always evolving, and right now, I love the nine-word email, so please don't feel like you have to be doing my version 10, okay? Now I want to pivot back advocacy and how it works. So I've shared the story of when we met and so far, a bit of our communication. So then, I got an email today and it says, "Hi, Jeannie, I've referred to you, (let's call him) John Smith. Reach out to him as well. He has thousands of followers in his coaching business. And here's the message from this. John Smith says, does anyone have a great bookkeeper who's on the Gold Coast where I am or in Brisbane? I need a few hours a week, please. So basically, based on this friend of his wanting a bookkeeper, he's referred me even though he's not a client, even though he's never given me money, even though he's a prospective client. He has such a high opinion of me, that he's happy to actually tell people around him. This is the power of creating advocacy in your market, not just with your clients. We absolutely always think that advocacy only comes from working with someone because then, they become a happy client – and a happy client advocates for you. Well, these days in the economic and the tech landscape that we live in, the exciting thing is that you can and should be creating advocacy in your market for your brand, rather than just focusing on your clients. And, the book and free training is definitely going to help you with that. One of the most powerful things that you can start doing is keeping in touch with your prospective clients and your clients. With your clients, you need to make sure you're on the phone having dialogue once a month, and you might be thinking, but what if they don't have any queries? Get on the phone, once a month, ask, hi, how are you? Trust me now, believe me later. There is going to be a magic that happens. In my program, the tribe members often say, Jeannie, there's a magic that is happening. Well, there is a momentum that is happening, and it's through marketing layering, which I talk about in the Profit-first Playbook workshop. So, make sure that those quiet clients that you never hear from, you're calling them once a month. "Hi, Jeannie the bookkeeper here. We haven't spoken this month. Do you have a moment? Just want to find out how's things." Powerful, powerful, powerful. It will deepen retention, referrals, everything. Not to that mention you might have the opportunity to find out that they have other problems that you can solve. The power of keeping in touch is in having conversations. Now I'm going to tell you exactly my reply to Justin's email. I said, "Hi, Justin, thanks so much, and please call me anytime during or after hours on my mobile number, even if it's just to chew the fat on business generally. Always happy to be a sounding board. Hope you're looking forward to Christmas with the family." Now, there's a science and art to what I put in there. So why would I say please call me during or after hours? Well, my father has a saying that I love and it goes open the doors and give the people what they want. Sometimes, the time that a prospective client might think of me is actually after hours. And if we think about the reason for that is that, they've had a long day or a long week or a long month, and what they're thinking about is, I wish I had some more help in the business, and their brain is just tossing and turning things over. And then because I keep in touch, I pop into their head and they think, oh, pretty sure that girl could make my life easier. I would be quite happy with this person. And then, he's going to think, she always says on repeat all the time, please call me anytime during or after hours. So if I wanted to, I could just call her. She's already making my life easier and we're not even working together. Imagine if I gave this person some money. Now, how many after hours calls do I get a week? Zero. How many do I get a year? Two. I am more than happy to see a missed call or to receive a call if I'm not busy tending to the kids or Latin dancing. I have no problem. I 100% embrace the entrepreneur's journey. I'm not trying to have the best benefits of a 9-5 job and be an entrepreneur, and I recommend that you don't either. And then why do I say, even if it's just to chew the fat on business, generally, always happy to be a sounding board – it's because whenever we talk to a PC about where they're at and what's happening for them, we are doing more needs analysis. This is why it's really important to keep having conversations. And then obviously, hope you're looking forward to Christmas with the family. I remember him telling me about his family and how he just moved here. This is ages ago, and I love that, and I hold him in my mind, and of course I'm thinking about his beautiful little children and enjoying time with them. But the science and art here is, as I say in my book, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it, and everything that I've talked to you about today leans into the why. So call me during or after hours, even if it's just to chew the fat on business generally – I want to know his why. You know what I mean? What are your wins? What are your losses? What are you struggling with? And I'm telling you, literally 15 minutes ago, he sent back to me. "Hi Jeannie, appreciate that. I'm going through an acquisition of a practice at the moment, but hopefully we can connect in the new year." Basically, he's telling me I haven't started using anyone else. I'm still with the bookkeeper I'm not happy with. I did a podcast on relationship, convenience, and price – the three buying triggers. Now, he is only staying with his existing bookkeeper because it is inconvenient to leave them. That bookkeeper doesn't realise this client is holding on by a thread and will leave, will run from his practice, the minute that he has the space to do so, but it is inconvenient to change bookkeepers. So this business owner is telling me, I absolutely want to work with you and I'm going to. All I have to do, with my business development hat on, is keep in touch with him. I actually talk about this more in the Profit-first Playbook, free training. I give you some more information on how you can do that in there, but to keep simple: Imagine if, every day, you reached out manually to a past client with a text message, or an inactive client, someone who hasn't said yes to a proposal, right? Keep in touch. Somebody that's six months ago said yes to somebody else just to say, "Has it all worked out? Are you happy? Call me anytime to chew the fat on business. Generally happy to be a sounding board." What would happen in your practice? You would eventually say, gosh, I just seem to have a pipeline of leads now. So if your head's spinning now, just remember, you can re-read this blog anytime. I'm going to tell you that embracing the diamonds at your feet— your database will revolutionise the results you get in your practice. After you finish this blog post, if you have a past client or an inactive client, just send them a text message which seeks to understand where they're at, which is also the nine-word email that picks up where you left off. So, Hi, Sally. Haven't heard from you a while. How's things? or, Hi, Sally, you just popped into my head. Are you keeping up to date with the books? If you're not, please just sing out during or after hours. So there's two messages you can send. I can tell you right now that two weeks later, I'll get a reply that just says, "You're such a gem for thinking of me, Jeannie", and this is authenticity and manners marketing, my friends.

I want to ask you: Will you be one of the 20%, or one of the 80%? Today, I want to educate you around the science of what that means, the five key areas that I primarily think that bookkeepers make mistakes around that leads to struggling to find the success they want and need, and, the three big keys to making it work so that you can be one of the 20%. Before we get stuck in, I thought I would share something a little personal with you: I'm totally into the Science of When, it's Daniel Pink's science-based book and it is why elective surgeries are done in the morning. For me, I'm always listening to the bookkeeping community, primarily in The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook group – and based on listening to what they tell me they need and want and what they're struggling with, my little brain gets working and I come up with this thought leadership and ways to educate you, inspire you, challenge you, and that is generally in the morning. So it is a gorgeous morning here on the Gold Coast, and I'm writing this blog for you. And I am so passionate about this one because I'm passionate about bookkeepers making the decision to take a step in the direction that will lead them to having success, because I just see it all too often that inaction costs them everything. In this post, I'm going to name it to tame It. It might sound like I'm pitching the program, but I'm not. And I want to explain that what I'm pitching is that you learn the statistics around success and failure, that you accept them to be true, that you realize that there is a choice around action and inaction, and that you take action. I am pitching you to take action, in order to find success. In terms of my program, you're going to read my book or listen to the audio book. You're going to listen to my podcast, you're going to attend my free trainings, and you're going to SELF-ASSESS when you're ready to join. But, here's what I know, inaction can and will cost you everything. And that's what I dive into here. And so I just wanted to name it to tame it before we got started that if it sounds like I'm pitching the program, look, I have no problem singing the praises of the program because I know it's extraordinary, but I'm actually pitching you to take action. And I was talking to an accountant friend not so long ago, we're great business buddies, and we were talking about our clients getting a return on investment for our services. He is absolutely a strategic accountant as I am a strategic bookkeeper. And so we were kind of chewing the fat on that, and then we talked about something else and he said, oh, that seems to be expensive or That costs a lot. And then he caught himself, and he put his hand to his mouth, and he said, I just did it - I'm such an accountant. Everything for me is a cost. Whereas ultimately, whatever we were talking about was something that was a clear investment. It was like a Yes, if you do that, you're going to basically get a really quick return on investment higher than the fee – which is also exactly what my program is. It's what my book is, it's what my podcast is. I know that my podcast is free, but it is something intended to give you value in order to do better in business. That is my VALUE approach. So what I expect is for you to kick goals, for you to make money, because then I'm giving you value and I'm proving myself to you. My book is very low cost, and you know that you can make lots of money and save time by using the book. These things are not a cost, they're an INVESTMENT. And in fact, our bookkeeping practices are a form of investment. And when we become time rich and we're still pulling six figures profit out to put food on the table and prioritize the things we want, that is the return on the investment. So in terms of the program, same thing. Within no time, you make more than the program fee. As I said, inaction have been costing bookkeepers and accountants everything, and I do believe it is linked to all of us, myself included – we find it very easy to see things as a cost rather than investment. And actually, basic bookkeeping alone is seen as a cost, not an investment. Let's quickly take in the difference between a cost and an investment: A piece of clothing that I really don't need is a cost, but a practical snow jacket is an investment in me not freezing to death. But yeah, definitely consider your own profile and your own bias. I am the same as you in that way because, if, as a bookkeeper, you can actually shift your mindset to invest some time and money in something that will help you to find the success that you want and deserve, then that is the action that will help you get what you want. Because in terms of the program, just for example, if you say, well, I'm not going to do the program because I don't want to pay the fee for it, I don't want to spend the time in it, then that is inaction. And then in the year or two or three or four or five years that you're struggling along trying to find success, it is the inaction that has cost you. Whereas let's say, with the program, you go, okay, I see that's an investment. Jeannie has guaranteed I'm going to get a return on investment or she'll give me my money back. Or, actually when I do my sums, if I invest this specific amount of money and a specific amount of time, then I can see that within a 12 month period I'm going to get a return on my investment. But ultimately, the kicker here is that with bookkeepers and what I've seen in the 80/20 rule – it is a science-based rule, and in fact, if you look at all of your clients, 20% of them will be giving you most of your revenue. It is a science model, and 80% of bookkeepers, through inaction, will never find the success they're looking for. And that's why 20% of us in the industry are winning the work and finding the success. We're winning the work off the 80% who are getting it wrong. It's a bit of a hard pill to swallow, but it is the art and science of it. When I talk about joining my program, I have no shame in talking about that. It is not a sales pitch. I recently said to someone, my program is probably not right for you – because at that time, this person couldn't find it in themselves to trust me, and that's not going to work. When you step into the program, you step into a place of trust. Since then, that wonderful community member has joined, and we are great business buddies and we're going to do great things together. What the key takeaway to this is that, when I talk to you about my program being a return on investment, I do that because the cost of inaction for bookkeepers breaks my heart. So hopefully I'm being really clear on that. It is for you to self-assess the right time to join the program. But if I didn't educate you on this, if I didn't tell you this, if I didn't tell you what I'd seen, if I didn't tell you the science of the 80/20, I wouldn't be serving you. Now, all these actually translates into business. The official business statistics globally are that 80% of small businesses go bust in their first five years. Bookkeepers are not separate to this. Bookkeepers are in that pool – 80% of bookkeepers through inaction and through thinking the wrong way and taking the wrong action, will shut up shop within five years, or be in a position where they're scratching their heads wondering why they're not making as much money or time as they probably could in a regular job. So my question to you is, are you going to be in the 20% or are you going to be in the 80%? And if you're struggling right now, what are you going to do about it? Based on those metrics and even my own journey, if you've read my book, you'll hear me talk about my first five years as my f*ck-up years. And if you haven't read my book, read my book. Inaction will cost you everything. It's available in audio form, less than six hours long, an hour a day while you're going for a walk, okay? Please start with the book. (And actually, it's compulsory before you come into the program, and we give you all the audiobook files in there as well just in case you haven't done it.) Back to the science and statistics – it is natural to understand that within five years, you should have got there. So if you are beyond five years in and you haven't achieved what I achieved, which was a six-figure income and the ability to work a handful of hours a week to work whatever I wanted, then you are absolutely at risk, and you need to take action and get some help. Five years in, you should absolutely have nailed marketing, selling, and systems. You should have nailed pricing system, the marketing X factor, which is trust, keeping your promises relentlessly. You should have nailed leadership and management brand and brand assets, and you should have nailed what rather than why. I thought about it, and I've determined five KEY AREAS that bookkeepers fall over on – the five key areas you need to nail, non-negotiable, if you're going to be one of the 20% that succeed: 1. Pricing and products It is globally recognized for every service-based business that one of the pillars for finding any success is pricing strategy. So again, in bookkeeping, we are professional services. And this is not just my stuff, this is not my rule of the game. This is the rules of the game. So in terms of pricing, there is a pricing system and productized services micro niched into helping bookkeepers, and that is OUTCOME BILLING and PRODUCTIZED SERVICES. You can listen to my podcast on pricing and for outcome billing, the important bit is that outcome billing is selling an outcome not an hour, okay? Productized services are selling benefits and outcomes, not just features and functions. And if your head is spinning right now and you're like, this is all new to me, I recommend you jump into the Facebook group and actually say, Jeannie, I just listened to this podcast and I don't fully understand what you're saying – I will point you to content that explains more, okay? So the next thing on the list, 2. The marketing X factor I would sing about this one all day. It's simple, but 80% of bookkeepers are getting it wrong. It is trust. It is keeping your promises. What does trust look like at work? It looks like I'd do what I said I'd do, in the timeframe I said I'd do it. It looks like time and task. Are you surprised that 80% of bookkeepers are getting that wrong? And they'll actually tell me, oh, it's okay. My clients understand. No, your clients are ringing me to change over. And actually, I'll let you know that what contributes to bookkeepers getting this wrong is, more often than not, they take on more work than they can handle, which is poor capacity management. Now, everything I give you right now, everything I talk about, is nailed for you in the program. I've got all the detail. Please do listen to my podcast Some of my favorite things because it explains the impact. The third one, 3. Leadership and management Boy, did I learn this the hard way. I was actually thinking about this yesterday and I was like, what if I had have known this way back when? It's like almost this ethereal stuff that explains everything. Now, leadership, which I did not understand at the beginning, is, As a leader, you set the vision and the mission of the organization. This is outlined in brand, your organization's personality, why you exist. I didn't start that way. I didn't have a vision or mission early on, and I've dived into the science and art of it the last four years, to create a groundbreaking vision and mission, which is done for you in the program. Because as a bookkeeper, we can leverage this together. You need to be able to have a clear vision – that is why you exist in the eyes of your customers. And then a mission, that's how you going to achieve that vision for them. And then, you need to inspire the team to bring that vision to life by following your mission. When you have team, whether that is a subcontractor or through a digital marketing agency, you need to be able to wear the manager hat and wear it well. That is Plan, Organize, Staff, Direct, Control – zero tolerance, my friends. So once again, jump in the Facebook group and just say, Hey, Jeannie, no idea what you're talking about. Give me more content. And I'll just point you towards all of that. These things, they are also a diagnostics tool. You can look at them and, oh, I'm not getting that right, et cetera. And then, you can start to diagnose the problems to come up with the solutions, which, I'm going to put my hand on my heart and say, the easiest, quickest solution is join the program. Fourth on the list, 4. Brand and brand assets I was chatting to a bookkeeper the other day and they kind of were trying to tell me what they needed and what they didn't need in the program. And this bookkeeper's in Canada, and I had a look at their website and I could see that there was a complete lack of brand, which is organization personality, and the brand assets had been developed without the brand, which leads to them being... how would I put it.. it's like they lack the power, and therefore they can't actually do what they're intended to do. A brand is intended to connect you in a deep way to your market, and it does it positioned in your brand assets and your brand sphere, which is your brand weaved through your brand assets. And primarily, this is the digital ecosystem. Website and socials is the fundamental way that you are going to create an invisible pipeline in your bookkeeping practice, which is one of the big five keys so that you're not on the seesaw strategy of do the work, win the work, do work, win the work, one at a time. You have an invisible pipeline of people that float in a brand sphere that quickly connects them to you being able to find, onboard, and retain them without price as a priority. And you've got the competitive advantage. So the very last of those five things, your five point plan for really diagnosing why maybe you're not finding the success you are finding, is 5. The What rather than Why What we need to do is have the Why rather than What, or two Why's to every What, okay? And the bookkeepers who know me well enough know that I'll always talk about it. It's very connected because your why is your brand. It's why, in the eyes of your client, they want to work with you. And then what is the features and functions. So the What is what you do, like bookkeeping, financial reporting, tax accounting, all these other things that is like a car that you jump into, drive to your dream holiday. And the dream holiday is the Why. What I see bookkeepers do all the time, and I did this at the beginning as well – so bookkeepers, we are detail orientated people and we will always talk about What we do, not Why we do it. And to really have success, you need to be able to connect the Why, the benefits and the outcomes. So just as an example, the bookkeeping is the What, the benefit of having your bookkeeping up to date and accurate is peace of mind, numbers in your pocket, these kind of things. The ability to see how your business is performing, which is how you're going to improve your profit and cash, it is optimization of business performance, optimization of profit and cash and more. So if you come into the program and you hear me talk and you hear me educate you, or even in the free trainings that I've done, you'll hear me go deep into the Why language. Now, this takes time for you to bet into habit. How much time? A year – and that's why the program is a lap around the sun. So, I've given you five point plan, okay? You can re-read this as often as you want. I want to wrap up by reminding you that inaction is what costs bookkeepers and business owners everything. You need to take the right action and invest the right amount of time and money to get the right return on investment, find the success that you want, and be one of the 20%. Remember, this is a global statistic – 80% don't find success. If you join the program and you do the work, and you work the system with me, then your success is pretty much guaranteed. Because, you're buying into a system that is proven. So another fact is that, while 80% of small businesses go bust in their first five years or near on bust, systems like franchise systems have a failure rate in the very small, single digits. The best of the best is 1% and less. And, The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program is a licensed membership system, a proven system with a money back guarantee. So joining in, you're buying into a system and the global data and metrics around the success of a proven system (which is talked about in the E-myth, a world bestselling iconic book). The statistics are that, the failure rate is 1% rather than 80%. The systems which aren't as amazing, their failure rates are still in the single digits, but they can be up to 6%. When you buy into a phenomenal, amazing system, the failure rate is 1%. If you go at it alone, the failure rate is 80% – I absolutely want to help you be one of the 20%. The last thing I want to share with you is something close to my heart, and that is something I know and that is, when you come through the program, you're absolutely going to be one of the 20%, right? And then, there's going to be 20% of my program participants who shine the brightest. And that is the 2% – because the 80/20 rule continues to work within itself. So for example, if you look at your client base, 20% of your clients are bringing you the most work. Now, look at the 20% of that 20%, and 2% are the highest value to your practice. And so what excites me is that, I know that 20% of you, which ends up 2% of you, will just shine so bright. And I'm so excited! My vision is for you to become tribe experts, and for you to be in there delivering some of the training as you shine. So absolutely, you can aim to be in the top 2% of bookkeepers globally that shine the brightest, okay? I am absolutely proud and humbled to be in the top 1% or less of bookkeepers globally that are shining the brightest. I absolutely pinch myself, but I did the work and I invested the time and money. And recently, a business buddy and someone I work with actually said to me, Jeannie, nobody gets results like you. And then she said, but Jeannie, nobody shows up like you. And showing up is about showing up ready to not just work hard. You absolutely have to work hard. In the eight weeks before I launched The Strategic Bookkeeper Program, I worked seven days a week, day and night. So show up, ready to work hard, make harder decisions, invest time and money, and then back the hell out of yourself. I have backed myself like a crazy woman over the years, and it's not hard. There's times I've folded and I've listened to the voice of shame, or I've listened to some well-meaning person who thought they knew better. And I'll tell you what, I reflect on the inaction that I took when I didn't back myself, what I didn't do, the different decisions I made based on well-meaning people who thought they knew better than me, and if I had have made those decisions, if I had have taken that action, I would be better off today for it.

For today's read, I want to dive into some things around SYSTEMS and TEAM. I know I've been talking a lot about sales and marketing, and that's because the sales and marketing stuff is much harder to nail. SOPs, not so much – but there is a part of SOPs, which is really related to the management and few other things, that makes it much harder than it should be. So, let's jump in and learn some stuff that will move the needle today or another day, depending on whether you've got team now, or you intend to hire. I'm sure you've noticed that our podcasts and blogs around sales and marketing are micro niched into bookkeepers. And that is, to help you with exactly what you need to know – I'm not a generalist, I'm a specialist, right? Sales and marketing for bookkeepers is a lot like painting a Picasso. It is not linear. It is throwing paint on a canvas, and it is a windy road down the customer journey from A to Z. It is the science and art. It interacts with so many things. Even Google! The algorithms change – what works one day doesn't work another day. Different referral partners work differently. You get information off people that's completely wrong. It is not your specialty. It is not what bookkeepers generally do well, right? I could go on and on. So the sales and marketing stuff is really hard to nail and honestly, globally, I've seen what's on offer out there. And look, this is probably why nobody in the bookkeeping space is offering the kind of help and support that I am offering because, you know what? It's much easier to offer support around systems and standard operating procedures. And actually ,it's easy to sell that to bookkeepers because your profile is such that you naturally bias into wanting to believe that standards, systems, and SOPs are what will build your thriving practice, when actually they're just a piece of the puzzle. If we can't find new clients when we need them, if we can't create a beautiful pipeline strategy, not only will we not grow our business, but we won't have much fun – because we'll be on the seesaw strategy. When you find a new client, you certainly need to know what to do with them as well. I give you lots of stuff on that if that is a problem that you really, really want to solve. The book is great, the podcast is great, but there is nothing like the program. It is a Ferrari. So I would encourage you to either join, or begin to look at what's inside and the value of it. Now, let's talk about the 5% things around standard operating procedures that will make all the difference. And as I talk to you today, I'm holding a bookkeeper in my mind that reached out to me not long ago. We had a beautiful chat. We had so much in common. It was just open hearts, open minds, amazing. And, she has taken over a bookkeeping practice. So I know that she's got team, right? She's got heaps of clients, and she said to me, I'm so bogged down with trying to kind of fix everything, the infrastructure, the back end – because the sales and marketing is the front end, and the administration is the backend. Imagine the front end of your business like a little girl running around with a flower in her hair skipping, and then the back end, imagine that as a serious woman with glasses on, sitting at a desk, ticking off tasks. The backend, like I say, is very structured and linear, and the front end, not at all. So I hold this bookkeeper in my mind because it's a great example of someone who really needs this kind of information. So whether you have a team now or you're going to recruit a team in the future, the minute you have one person, everything will completely change; you go from you, to plus one. I remember doing that and you think, it's just someone helping me, right? Oh my goodness, no – read the E-myth or do the Blinkist up E-myth summary, 10 to 15 minutes. Here's the thing about RECRUITING your first staff member or recruiting team: You are recruiting humans, not robots. You are recruiting messy, beautiful, flawed humans. And I did a podcast that talked to you about the four types. So you've got the superstar, the workhorse – that's who we want on our team. And then unfortunately, you've got yo-yos and time wasters, and we need to hire slow and fire fast. And one of the reasons for that is because, unlike the creative windy road of sales and marketing where things are all over the place (and it's hard to even tell what's correct and what's not!), in the backend, things are very linear, very black and white, and there's not much room for movement – which in my opinion makes the backend a lot easier if you are prepared, or rather, makes it simpler, because simple isn't always easy. My friends, I have learned the hard way that in terms of the backend, we need to be prepared to make the hard decisions far more than we need to be prepared to work hard. Hard decisions, rather than working hard. Hire slow, fire fast. Hold people accountable, no excuses. So when you recruit your first team member, let me tell you, your business is going to change. Imagine it going from one to 10 in terms of the challenges that you'll face. And the way that you can minimize those challenges is to really absorb and implement the things I give you. And, the best way you can implement what I give you is to absolutely use the invisible hats. So when you're implementing what I give you, I want you to take your personal or parent or friend hat off, and you're going to have to put your big boss manager hat on. But the great news is that you don't always have to wear it for very long and you can interchange hats, but you absolutely are going to have to do it. I absolutely wish I had done this better in my business over the years prior to starting my bookkeeping practice. I did it really, really well in other people's businesses. And I firmly believe that's because we're not at the top in a way. We get to blame the owner of the business or whatever, not verbally, but in our mind it's like, well, I'm being paid to do a job. I'm being paid to manage this team and I'm going to do it in a very structured box ticking way. I'm going to be fair, I'm going to keep my values intact. But then, when it comes to our own business, there's nobody – we can't look over our shoulder at the big boss who everybody knows is to blame. Do you know what I mean? I certainly found it completely different doing it in my own business versus doing it in someone else's business. And what I'm talking about is that people pleasing manager, the people pleasing monster, leaving the friend hat on. And then when I did wear the manager hat on, having half the friend hat, half the mom hat, half the manager hat, and even having the sales and marketing hat on, we definitely don't want to have that on when we are in the backend dealing with administration and dealing with staff. The only hats we want to wear when we are in the backend are the manager and leader. So, if you have a team of one or more, or you're going to recruit: In terms of standard operating procedures and developing those for yourself, or even if you come into the program and we give you everything done for you and then we hold your hand for a year – As the owner of the business, you are not the best person to develop the SOPs or roll out the SOPs, whether it is outside or inside of our program. If you have a team of one or more, usually that person or someone on your team is the one who is best heading it up. Now, in the book I give you psychometric testing, which is really easy to do and I do recommend that you get that done with you and your team. Everybody on my team has theirs done. I don't recruit before I have it. And we all share it and we laugh a lot about it. And then we're able to really understand each other's strengths and weaknesses. So, this will really help you understand this person's aptitude for taking care of the standing operating procedures. So that is number one, hold it in your mind. Number one, you are not the best person to do it. If you are all by yourself, then absolutely you can document what you do in order to create SOPs. I call it the "I did it" document. If you're working all by yourself, you could have a document open and you say what you're doing, how often you do it, how long approximately it takes is a really good one. And then, the last column is a link to a basic SOP that tells someone if I became unavailable, this is how you would do it. Remembering that we're not teaching someone how to be a bookkeeper either – because we recruit bookkeepers, and this is going to be for the day-to-day bookkeeping primarily because we always want to be documenting the critical client flow first. But, there is a crossover into the admin onboarding et cetera, because the administration of your business happens while the critical client flow is happening. And then, the onboarding and offboarding is to be considered as well. So, the second thing is a mistake I've definitely made before, and I think most bookkeepers make it. It's back to the fact that we recruit humans, not robots, and that is that. So we recruit a human and it's easy to feel like, okay, great, I'm just going to ask them to do something and they're going to do it. And they're always going to tell me the truth. The truth is not a black and white. What I would say with regard to that is, when you bring on a team member, it is natural for them to want to, I think of Frank Sinatra when I say this, do it my way. You need them to do it your way. Your way is your standard operating procedures. We call our SOPs The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way, and then we turn it into the Cloud 9 Way – we've built it off the back of ours. So, what I say to my team is, you need to believe in my way and you need to trust me and you need to do it my way. Zero tolerance. There's no room for movements. If you don't want to do it my way, that is okay, but you can't work for my brand if you don't do it my way. Because, we are going from our vision for our clients to our mission, and that is all backed up by our processes. So if you're not going to do it our way, then best of luck and let's keep the friendship and end the employee-employer relationship or subcontractor, whatever you want to call it. I actually once had a really amazing employee and as we began to turnkey the business, she said to me, I don't like that you are turnkeying. I don't like that. I have to follow processes. And I said, well, this is business 101, and you're amazing, and I love working with you. That's not something I can be flexible on. Every business needs to turnkey. And so she moved on. And to this day, we are still friends. We still get along really, really, well, but I couldn't keep someone on my team that had such a major conflict. So then, what do we do about that? Well, number one, we manage them. Alright? In terms of getting your SOPs in place, the team has to be using them 100%. Zero tolerance. I believe you should give yourself a special project that is over one year. Begin it, you monitor it, you manage it, and you celebrate at the end. Now, there was a time that if you told me that, I would go, but they're just SOPs and I just give them to the staff and they follow them – I wish it was that simple. These are humans. We have habits at play. They all want to do it their way, and often they feel like they know better than you, and also that you don't understand their workload, you don't understand all the different excuses they've got for skipping steps, and just telling you they're doing it because you don't really understand. Now, let's say you came into the program (and actually, it's the same if you don't come into the program, but it's going to be easier for me to brain dump thinking of it that way) – and we give you the SOPs and we kind of help you with how to get started. Let's imagine for a minute that you've got two on the team. So the day-to-day of what you do, the work is the ongoing stuff. Anything that you need to introduce and implement is, to some extent, a special project. And using that phrase "special project" is great because we can also say, okay, this is the beginning of the project, here's what we need to do, and I'm going to check in and check on the progress, so you can have a way to understand how it's all going. So somebody on your team, for example, if you're in our program, they would head up all the standard operating procedures. Now, what they need to do is pretty simple. They need to take the SOPs, learn them, implement them. If there's anyone else on the team, they need to help them with how they implement them, then they need to look at if everything is working in respect of, is everyone doing all the things that they are meant to do in the timeframe they are meant to do them. And then, they need to have a way and a forum to tackle things that come up weekly. In our team, we have something called "The better every week" process and sheet. We don't do interruptions. We have ways to tackle all that so that every week, everybody has a forum to talk about the things that need to be modified and improved, and who's going to do it. So, over that year, let's say you are just catching up with the person involved once a month, just to look at how everything's going. And internally, we have things like the critical drivers of profit. We can see profitability on jobs. SOPs are to primarily keep your promises to your clients. They are the second thing. They are to make your business super efficient, okay? Time wasters and yo-yos will make your business inefficient and cost you a fortune and your profits will drop. Very linear, very black and white. So that is a mistake I see bookkeepers make, and I've made it myself. Okay? So SOPs, SOPs, here you go. So easy – bookkeepers are built for them. Implement, go. Absolutely, make it a year long special project. Now, that does not mean that you can't implement and start using them very quickly. Your team needs to be following a process and checklist, and they can all jump in and get all that cracking immediately and use them. What happens when you have it as a special project? I talk about it in the program with everything – I can give you everything and you can get cracking in a month. But then, what we want to do is hold your hand while we look at what's working, what's not working, and we progress and we practice – and in terms of standard operating procedures, until it is perfect, until it is turnkey, until there are no excuses. To give you an example of exactly what happened in my practice, I've had standard operating procedures from the get go, but over the years, we've tested and measured different kind of formats, and I have recruited team and I haven't been zero tolerance. And then, I've had to tackle the fact that they are not following the SOPs. Here's something that I did as a mistake: When team members weren't 100% performing, when there was little cracks happening, when there were problems happening rather than zero tolerance managed, I tried to improve the SOP – and I now know that what I should have done was just hire slow, fire fast, zero tolerance. It doesn't have to be mean like, I talked about with the team member who has moved on because she wasn't keen on turnkey. It was fine. I've referred work to her. And I'm a marshmallow, I'm such a softie, but there's no real place for the wearing the wrong hat when you're at work. Another example is a beautiful friend of mine, first person I ever worked with, worked with me for ages – we've known each other half my life. And when we updated our vision and our mission and started moving to strategic bookkeeping, she said to me, I love your vision. I love your mission, and I don't want to be part of it. And I loved her honesty so much and she moved on. She's so amazing because see, she knows if she's not 100% on board, then it's not going to work. So these things don't have to be yucky at all. And then another example, so some years ago I decided, I want to change up the way the SOPs are working, and I'm going to create this special project and come hell or high water, I'm going to move heaven and earth to make sure I get the result that I want. Turnkey operations. So, I appointed someone to head it up exactly like I'm talking to you about, just in a simple way. And then we had regular meetings to track what everyone was doing. In this case, one of the things I decided that I wanted the team to do was to create client how to videos, and also written instructions. 80% of what we do for our clients is pretty much the same. 20% is the nuances that we really need to document. And especially when it comes to payroll, I just found that this stuff was kind of keeping me up at night. So what I wanted to create was more business continuity planning. I love business continuity planning for my clients, for my practice, so that if a staff member left suddenly, the business continuity around that client's account was very streamlined and easy. So you would think, this is pretty easy. I said to the team, as you do your work on a client's account, I just want you to create a set of how two videos. So literally, when you're working on the account, you just press record on your Loom, you explain what you're doing, and that goes into the folder and then we have something. There's a document that we have that details and the little nuances as well. So that's for their task instructions. All right? So pretty simple. Now, one team member in particular pushed back and just pretty much said, I'm not going to do it, and tried to tell me why. So in this case, I've got too much work on, so I can't do it. And I said, no, that's okay. I'll take the workload off you. There you go. You've got time now. She did not want to do it. Now, why she didn't want to do it is actually irrelevant. The fact is, I guess the point I want for you to take home on this is, that humans are messy. Why we do what we do, who bloody knows, right? So what I said to that team member and to the whole group was, come hell or high water, this project will get done. I will remove any barrier that you have. This is my highest priority right now. You're on board or you're not on board. There is no gray. And so very reluctantly, this team member did that, because I was quite happy to take all her work off her if that needed to be her priority, all right? But, I needed to be prepared to do what I needed to do. And another example is another team member we had. Now, this team member was working remotely, and he simply wasn't doing his job and he was kind of telling untruths about it. He was actually a really nice guy. And once we implemented Precision by Dext together with the workflows, we could really visually see that he wasn't doing what he needed to do in terms of process, time and task. And so throughout the project, we were able to quickly have a discussion with him. And again, hire slow, fire fast. He really wanted to stay on the team, but we could see that he had really poor habits that prevented him from being able to work from home. So we parted on really lovely terms, but it was what it was. Another one is that, I have a price and service guarantee in my practice. Attached to the service guarantee, we need to deliver all parts of the SLA. And, I discovered that some team were simply not sending out end-of-month financial reports. They were telling me they were, but they weren't. And again, the excuses in their mind, well, I'm really busy. Jeannie doesn't understand, and I know better than her, so I'll just nod and say yes. I needed to be zero tolerance about that. Now, what has been the effect of me doing all the things that I've told you that I have done? RETENTION has been one of them. Our client retention has gone from good to great, to exceptional. Another one is PROFITABILITY. Our profitability has gone up and up and up and up. And the third one is CAPACITY. So our capacity to do work has opened and opened and opened, as we've become more and more efficient. We've been able to reduce our team by natural attrition as people left, and not have to replace them because of committing to wear the manager hat and wearing it well. I don't actually have to do it much because my right hand manages the practice, but, commit to do this and be zero tolerance, and accept that when you put the manager hat on, you're not going to make friends. The good news is, you can take it off and put the friend hat on again. And, committing to all of this has truly meant that piece of the puzzle has allowed my business to thrive. This is not just about finding clients – this is about find and on board, without price as a priority. That's being able to convey your value, and talk about your why rather than just your what, supported by your SOPs. If you need to, re-read this, and really do think about your decision to step up, make the hard decisions, and wear the manager hat, and wear it well.

In today's read, I absolutely want to give you value around the things that you need to do in your practice, and I want to connect it to a sort of comment that I had from one of our amazing community members. It's around the, "I don't have time to spend a year with you Jeannie, but I really want to." So, I'm absolutely going to connect this to what you need to do, regardless of whether you come into the program. However, I definitely want to address the fact that it's not really about spending a year with me. I'm going to be here for a year to help you, and everybody's going to need different kinds of help. It's about the five elements across the seven ingredients. So it's about education, assets, implementation, team, and support across the five ingredients in my methodology. What I give you access to from day one when you come into the program, is going to help you from day one to build your thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms. And so within the first four weeks, we are spending no more time than you currently spend in your practice. This is golden the way I have structured it. Don't give me any more time in your day than you're really spending right now. Why did I structure it that way? Because I'm a busy multitasking mama, and I've structured it for every busy, multitasking parent. So, as I said, I was just talking to a community member and she had said to me that she absolutely loves everything that we are presenting. That there is nothing really globally that hits the mark like we are giving you. And you know what? After spending 14 years and in the last four years building this for you, and spending bucket tons of money and giving you everything that I would've dreamed to have been given at the beginning of my journey, or within the first five f*ck-up years that I talk about in my book, it is not really a surprise to me that the feedback from the community is, "Holy cow, Jeannie, there is nothing like this worldwide." I'm a bookkeeper just like you, that built this for you off the back of my two top human needs: growth and contribution. Being able to contribute to your success absolutely sets my soul on fire. Let's talk about why I want you in the program, even if you have not one minute to spare in your day, okay? Because, I don't actually expect you to go to your computer and to dedicate hours specifically to my program – I want you to get all of this done without actually dedicating extra time. Here's how it works: Everything that you need to learn is in the academy, and we use Kajabi, which is the gold standard of training academies, and I'm a trainer and assessor. So you've got this academy with everything in it. Listen to everything audio-style. What does that do? Oh my God, it saves you bucket loads of time. So if you do basically anything during your day where you can listen, then you are going to be able to digest everything. I need you to learn on the fly while you're going for a walk, while you're doing the dishes, while you're having a lunch break. And, just a side note, please do take a lunch break. Please don't multitask while you're eating. You can spare 10 to 20 minutes to eat without being at your computer – and taking a break is a strategic way to do better in business. Trust me now, believe me later. So, if you can just give me 20 minutes a day while you are doing other things like cooking, or while on a walk, or you're at somewhere else where you can just mute everything and listen to the content – that's all I need from you. The next thing is, while you are working and you are at your desk, doing your bookkeeping work for your clients or anything else that you do in your working time, you're going to have the academy open, and you are going to use what I give you on the fly while you're working over that year. It's not about finding extra time to work with me, it's about me giving you this beautiful academy full of the stuff that you need to build your thriving practice, to delight your clients, and to ultimately get that income and lifestyle. For example, let's imagine you're at your computer, and you've been listening to all the podcasts, and you're like, yes, this is amazing, I get it – and you've got that kind of repeating a bit in your mind. Let's say, in this case, a prospective client has come through and said, "Hi, Joe's accountant referred me to you and I need this and I need that and I need this and I need that." Boom, you're in the academy, and you are going to use the CONVERSION process. You are going to use the NEEDS ANALYSIS. You are going to whip up your MILLION DOLLAR STORYBOOK BROCHURE in no time. And the reason I call it the million dollar storybook brochure is I believe that you would never be able to create that even with a marketing team on your own, okay? Because I have created that as the leader of our organization with a marketing team behind me, and I've second guessed the hell out of a team of marketing professionals the entire way. So unless you've got a 14-year bookkeeper veteran on your marketing team with all your mix of agencies, there's no way you could create this – not even for 20, $30,000, but if I had to put a fee on it... $20,000 and you'll get something that maybe is 10% as good as what I've created. So, you've got a prospective clients come through, you say, "Yes, I would love to help you out. Can I give you a call back in an hour? Can I give you a call back in three hours? Can I give you a call? When's a good time for us to do a 15 minute needs analysis?" In the time between that person calling you and you doing the needs analysis, you are going to be able to do what you need to ONBOARD and RETAIN that client without price as a priority. You're even going to get in the member-only Facebook group and go, Jeannie help, and I'm going to be so excited to jump in with you. So, that's one example of how you would use the academy and everything in the program in order to get a massive result. Now, just out of that one perspective client, you could get your return on investment in the entire program back, okay? Because, I'm going to help you with how you onboard and retain them as a forever client without price as a priority. Another example is when you're at your computer and let's say, you are on the seesaw strategy, which is the delivery-hustle. So delivery being I do the work, hustle being I go out and get the work. Let's say you're doing the work and then you identify, I really need to get some more work because I need to make more profit. Well, first of all, as soon as you come into my program, I'm going to help you see that getting more work is not the answer to making more profit. The answer to making more profit is to be more strategic. The old work smarter, not harder, but, I actually give you the devil-is-in-the-detail around the step-by-step that makes that happen. It is absolutely to be more profitable, which is the source of the problems you face. If we play the Why game... why do I need more clients = more profit. Why do I need standard operating procedures, quality, process, retention = all roads lead to more profit. So, why do I need to go to networking to find new clients = to get more profit. If we play the Why game, it's about PROFITABILITY. That three parts that I talk about, thriving practice, delighted clients, your dream on your terms – your dream on your terms is income and lifestyle. That is profitability. Time, profit and time. And so when you're thinking, oh, I need to find new clients because as Jeannie has explained to me I need more profit, then, you would pause and take a breath for a moment and you would do some of the work that I give you. You would leverage the sh*t out of the BRAND that I license you to use together with the brand ASSETS. And then, you would use an ATTRACTION strategy that would not only bring you more clients, it would begin to fill up an invisible PIPELINE that would be throwing seeds into the ground, that would slowly come up, and be nurtured into fruit trees that would give you the fruit. We would move you off slowly from the seesaw strategy (where you do the work and then you get the work), to the beautiful PIPELINE strategy where you are leveraging my brand and my brand assets to create an absolute Rolls-Royce of a brand sphere, with a unique selling proposition and more, in order to over time you'll go, How did that happen? I don't do the seesaw anymore while I'm doing the work, yet the inquiries just seem to come through. That, my friends, is the science and art of sales and marketing specifically done for bookkeepers. I will help you move to that, until one day, just like the client that I worked with eons ago, he said to me when we pulled an extra quarter of a million out of his business, How did that happen, Jeannie? And it was like, it happened step-by-step over time over the last year, but he was like, how did that happen? So, I'm not asking you to do extra work. I'm asking you to do the work you're doing now, with me, and my collateral and all my stuff in there. And often I say to my clients when I work with them strategically, I've learned this over time. I say now, I won't necessarily ask you to work harder, but I will ask you to make harder decisions. And before I forget, thank you to the community member that emailed me and actually shared this comment with me that she felt like she couldn't do this another year program. And actually, I shared something with her that I want to share with you too. What I said to her is something that a friend taught me. It was probably 12 years ago, and it was relating to the fact that I'd paid for some daycare and then I decided to take my son out for various reasons. And she said to me, Well, I'm glad you're not one of those people that thinks, well, I paid for a punch in the face now I want my punch in the face. It is natural for us as humans, if we've paid for something, even if it's crap, to want to keep going with it since we paid for it. Well, we have paid for stuff in my practice. I have tested and measured stuff. I have paid tens of thousands of dollars, probably well over hundreds of thousands of dollars, testing stuff. I have paid for punches in the face in order to serve you up the stuff that works, the final versions of everything— Of how you build a website, of brand, of everything, so that you don't have to waste the time and money and get the punches in the face. So if you try things and you're like, that's not working, or oh, okay, Jeannie showed me how, if I talk about what rather than why I'm going to miss opportunities. People buy why we do what we do, not what we do. Why do you exist in the eyes of your client? People buy thriving business, not bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is the vehicle you get in to drive to destination. Why? Destination benefit, destination outcome. So if you've paid for stuff and it's not working, or you realize why it's not working, you need to walk away. Don't be the person who says, I paid for my punch in the face, I want my punch in the face. So going back, let's say you're working, that prospective client came through – you're going to be able to offer up an outcome billing, productized service. If you're currently hourly billing and you're selling what you do, features and functions, then immediately you're going to be able to do it on the job, implement on the fly, a PRODUCTIZED SERVICE with an outcome bill attached – and you're going to stack your VALUE in a way that means that PC is prepared to onboard without price as a priority. So it's going to be on the job implementation using those assets. I'll rinse and repeat: Education via podcast, together will the assets – they are all in the academy to use on the job implementation, on the fly, on the job. And then, you've got the team and support. The team behind you. I'm like your sales and marketing and management team behind you that you wouldn't conceivably be able to recruit and pay yourself, and then the support of the whole team HQ, together with the support of the entire private Facebook community. I could give you a million examples of the things that you would do on the job in your practice, leveraging my collateral that you get in the program, but what I'm going to finish up with now is that, all I want you to do is promise me, If you're not in the program while you are running your bookkeeping practice, if you identify what you really need to do A or B or C, I want you to think about asking me, Jeannie, is that included in the program? – so that you can compare paying someone else to create whatever you need, versus what's already inside the program. Because I know, for the program fee, for what you pay over a year... And I give you the ability to pay it weekly only because I wanted to make it cash flow affordable to as many bookkeepers as possible, allowing you to get the return early. So let's say you get the whole return in a month, you're like, Oh my God, one action and I made an extra five grand – then that's going to allow you to pay for the program in advance. Over time, you're going to have the cashflow from getting the return on investment. All I want is for you to ask the question, rather than go and spend a thousand dollars, $2,000, $5,000, $10,000 and more, on something that is already inside the program tested, measured, proven to give you results, so that you won't go paying for something that in isolation costs you as much as the program, or will end up being a punch in the face. And so my friends, if you could imagine the passion in my voice there, that's just because it breaks my heart to know that a bookkeeper will go on waste time and money on something that I know that I can give you in the program, that will give you the results – and I give you a money-back guarantee! No marketing agency is going to do that. We have built standard operating procedures in different ways, in different platforms before, and I literally got a punch in the face and walked away. I was told by a really well-known bookkeeper, she put us in front of someone who does SOPs, and I bought into their stuff. I spent about 10 grand because they said, workflow maps are the way to go and you should do it this way. We did it all. We went from what we were using to what they were using. It was a punch in the face that is built for big business and not for us. So again, that's just an example of something we've tested and measured and gone down rabbit holes to bring you what we know is the simplest, most beautiful system for you to use. And with SOPs, we give you two options. You've got the manual kind of system, and then you've got Trainual as well. So that, my friends, is a wrap on helping you to self-assess how the program can help you without actually spending really much more time at all. Any more time that you're going to spend on any activity that you need to spend in your practice, you are not going to spend extra time. You are just going to do it with the material that we give you, while you are working day to day. I would love to hear your comments, questions, suggestions, dropped into the Facebook group. And if you are less comfortable with that, just drop me an email. Love hearing from you. Absolutely love it.

So what I really love doing is write about the things that I want to help you with, in order to help you to move the needle in your practice. And today, I want to talk to you and educate you around: the four types of team members that you'll ever come across, professionalism & promises kept, and a brush on zero-tolerance management. And, I'm going to link this topic to a prospective client I recently spoke with (I love, love bringing you stories from exactly what I'm experiencing in my practice!), in order to help you in your practice. Because, we are all bookkeepers going through similar things – and the stories I share with you of my success, along with where other bookkeepers are getting it wrong and falling over, will help you to forensically look at what area of your bookkeeping practice can be improved. So, I was speaking to a prospective client recently.. and I'm just going to put it into perspective a little bit. So, right now, in my bookkeeping practice, we are absolutely on wait list. No way would I be bringing more clients onboard right now. And, our wait list is usually about a month. So why would I be speaking to a prospective client? I've said this before and I'll say it again: In our business, we are never standing still – we are either growing or we are receding. Just like in nature. Nature is either growing or dying, think of trees and even humans. And I know that in business, we need to be doing our business growth activities, and a lot of ours in my practice tend to actually be on autopilot. We play with a lot of stuff in order to test and measure it for The Strategic Bookkeeper Tribe. And so if you did not join the program when the doors open on August 1, worry not because the program is evergreen. We have a way to bring you into the program seamlessly, so that you can absolutely start working with me to build your thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms. If you are keen to know how that works, just drop us an email or ask in the The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook Group. Because, three things: Number one, the program comes with a MONEY-BACK guarantee. Number two, I do not get you to spend extra time working with me – this is about ON THE JOB application and implementation. And number three, that money-back guarantee, it kicks in after a year but my expectation is to help you get the ROI really early, allowing you to pay for the program as we go along. But yeah, most of the things we do are an autopilot, but they still have to be set up properly to work properly. Our social media actually has a certain amount of time and money invested in it. We don't spend any money on social media advertising, however, I do have team that takes care of the social media posts, and timing is always a factor. So, that's just to put into perspective talking to that prospective client. When I was chatting with this PC, I did raise capacity and I told him that right now we're on wait list. This client's needs, he needs a fair bit. It's probably a half day client a week. And a lot of the clients we bring on, we can smash through their work in an hour a week. So someone who needs four or five hours, that can be the equivalent of four or five smaller clients – so I have to consider that. And in terms of our capacity and the way I run my practice, I want to be small but mighty. I want to do the least amount, with the biggest impact on my clients and on myself. I've worked damn hard for it. So here's what I don't want to see in your practice. I don't want to see the seesaw effect, of where the seesaw goes one way and it's like, okay, I'm doing the work, and then suddenly the work dries up and you realize, oh my goodness, a couple of clients have off boarded from natural attrition, and then the seesaw swings the other way and it's like hustle, hustle, hustle. I need to try and win some work. There are so many things wrong with that. The way that works is, simply, when you're hustling, you're not being strategic – you're working harder and probably feeling a little bit more... desperate is the wrong word, but not as choosy. So, we want the seesaw even at all times, where at one side of the seesaw we're doing the work, and at the other side of the seesaw we've got our MARKETING LAYERING in place, and all the pieces of the puzzle in place, so that an invisible PIPELINE is being filled up slowly over time. And with this prospective client, he said, I found you on Google. So that is one of the results of marketing, layering, and pipeline. We do no paid advertising to be clear, but at the time of writing this, I have been experimenting with more Search Engine Optimization (SEO), so that I can learn more, and bring what I learn to the Tribe as they come through the program. So going back to that prospective client, I was doing a NEEDS ANALYSIS with him. I'm still happy to do the analysis because very early on, I was able to assess that he was prepared to wait. He's got a bookkeeping solution right now. He is fine to wait a month or two months, even three months. What's important to him is the right solution. So, we started the needs analysis, he's using another bookkeeping practice, and as I always do, I just kind of said, "Okay, I know a few things because we spoke the other day. Right now I just want you to brain dump anything else that you want to tell me about you and about your business." And you would be surprised when you asked that question, because if you listen to that, I didn't start with, "Are you behind on the books? Do you have payroll?" – I asked him to tell me what was important to him. Those kind of open questions are great. And he told me all the beautiful, what I call ethereal stuff, all the stuff that doesn't directly relate to the bookkeeping, but guess what? It relates to the why. What is the bookkeeping there to achieve for him and what kind of solution is he looking for? So definitely, you want to know that. And, I don't find the needs analysis linear. It's not like I have a set of questions and we go question by question. It's more creative than that. So, I start with those open questions, and then once we've got through a bit of that, I then go back to more of the formal bookkeeper kind of questions, and I check them off. And a lot of them gets answered anyway in our nice free flowing conversation. So at some point, in the needs analysis, I said, okay, can I please ask you with your current bookkeeping solution? And we are familiar with that practice. We do get clients come through from there from time to time and say, what exactly are you not happy with? And in a nutshell, in my own words, what he told me is that the bookkeeper was likely quite skilled, however... And he'd actually had a few bookkeepers from this practice. One of them didn't like the fact that he likes to psychometrically test the bookkeeper – and actually, we psychometric test across all of our team and then we get together and we have really a lot of fun with who we are. So psychometric testing is amazing and everybody should be doing their Wealth dynamics, Psychometric test, or at least their DISC analysis. And the starter maintainer finisher, which I developed. So, one bookkeeper he had from this agency didn't like that, and so she didn't want to work with them. And then there was a second bookkeeper, I'm not sure what happened there, but then the third bookkeeper they had, and I see no problem with staff turnover. However, what I'm hearing here is there has been a lack of consistency and professionalism. So the bookkeeper has been making a lot of excuses for breaking her promises. She complains a lot about how hard she's working, which I often find when we're complaining about working hard, we're not leveraging tech and automation and streamlining the way that we should be. She ends up with of personal commitments that get in the way of work, and she talks about that a lot. She's a mom with kids, which this client is massive on supporting parents with flexible work environments, and I'm a mom with a special needs child, so I get it. However, this comes back to professionalism. There wasn't a big issue with her work, although she had made mistakes, but that is normal. We're human. When he told me what the problems were, what I heard was there is a lack of professionalism, and I could talk about that till the cows come home – lack of professionalism, promises broken. So those two things, and this bookkeeper sounded to me like a yo-yo, or possibly a time-waster. As a bookkeeper in practice, when you are recruiting team, an admin, someone to help you with some graphics, a bookkeeper, anyone, there are four types that you'll encounter. That is, the superstar, the workhorse, the yo-yo and the time-waster. And I can tell you right now, in terms of zero tolerance management, hire slowly and fire fast. Have I always had a zero tolerance management in my practice? Hell no. I had to learn the hard way. I had to learn from losing money, to profit bleeding, and being stressed and having to tame that people pleasing manager, and actually learn what MANAGING is compared to LEADERSHIP. And that while leadership is, in my opinion, fun and a bit more creative, management is a linear process. It is plan, organize, staff, direct and control. There is no room for movement. It doesn't mean you don't walk in with your values and your ethics, and you're absolutely a nice person, but management is linear. And when you wear the manager hat, you're not wearing the friend hat. You need to change them. However, being a manager is key. This is all elaborated in my book, in the Systems and Team chapter. If you can lean into that, together with hire slow, fire fast, and be zero tolerant, this will absolutely revolutionize your practice – and I'm going to be there to help you in the program. When you come to these bridges, you are going to say, "Jeannie, help. I don't know what to do." Or, you're going to say to other members on my team that are brilliant with this, help, I don't know what to do, and we're going to help you. So the four types. First is the SUPERSTAR. Usually, these are bookkeepers in practice who are managing to successfully run their practice. And, those bookkeepers out there who have contacted me and said, "I've read your book twice." "I've listened to the audio book, I've listened to every podcast." "I'm coming to every training or I'm listening to every training." – well hello, superstar. A superstar absolutely does their time and tasks. They do what they said they'd do, in the timeframe they said they'd do it. That is promises kept. They are highly professional and are critical thinkers that can pretty much be left alone to do the job, and they can also give themselves that pat on the back, the support that we need to give them as well. But pretty much, these are people that could run your business for you, like my right hand, Jo. Then you have your WORKHORSES. And workhorses are a little bit like superstars. They are great with time and task. They are going to keep their promises, do what they said in the timeframe they said they do it, which is rule number one for building a highly profitable practice, for thriving and delighting your clients, and living your dream on your term. So the workhorses are going to do those things. Where they differ from the superstar is that they need to be given the job to do and the instructions, and then they will work so hard to do it and do it well, and keep promises. They might not be as much of a critical thinker, but they are still really valuable on the team because they're a great workhorse that gets the job done. Their performance is consistent. They're reliable. They're just going to turn up, get the job done. Although, every now and then, you might be a bit frustrated because if you're a superstar, then in terms of a workhorse, sometimes you might think, really, you had to ask me that question? But ultimately, even in terms of asking you questions, they're not going to interrupt you yet. They're going to be consistent. Interruptions are going to be in accordance with the systems and processes you've got, which we have a lot of in the program. Because, when you get comms and you reduce interruptions and all of that is streamlined, your profitability will soar. So, moving on to the YO-YO. A yo-yo's performance is up and down. So one minute it feels like they're a superstar or workhorse, and the next minute, they're inconsistent. They missed a deadline, they didn't do a task. Hire slow, fire fast. A yo-yo will tear your house down, will burn your house down as will a time waster. So here's interesting about a TIME WASTER. They're not just wasting your time and your client's time, they're wasting their own time. Based on what that prospective client said to me, that bookkeeper sounded mainly like a time waster – wasting her own time, wasting the client's time. And holy moly, what he told me, he didn't even complain that much about it. He said, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, and she's great in some ways. And I thought, oh my goodness, you are paying good money for this service. I don't think it is too much to ask that we are professional, that we keep our promises – those two things alone. I'm the mom of a special needs child and he can't even go to school at the moment. He's 13 years old and he is at home. If I can turn up and be professional, we all can. Okay? But if you have a yo-yo or a time waster, if you recruit team like that, there is no fixing it. You need to hire slow and fire fast. Now, action steps and a little bit of information around that. First of all, if you are coming into the program, look, we absolutely help you with how to recruit winning teams, and a part of that is psychometric testing. And then once you do, we're there to support you with what's going on. One of the actions to take is that there is no place in any business, in your bookkeeping practice, for the people pleasing manager or the people pleasing monster. And I work with my clients around this, and they love it and we all talk about it. A nice person is a nice person, and if you're a nice person just like me, I am totally prone to the people pleasing monster. But because I know it, and I've talked about the three A's to change before, so there's awareness, right? So because I'm aware that I'm kind of a bit of a big softie and a marshmallow, then I can accept that I'm going to be prone to the people pleasing monster or the people pleasing management style, and then I can take action. And the action that I take is to really be aware and accept what a manager truly looks like – plan, organize, staff, direct and control. I don't need to manage. Primarily, I sit in the leadership role, so then I get people around me to support me in mainly the day-to-day manager roles. But when I need to put my manager hat on, and this is one of the actions that I find really helpful, I literally gesture taking an invisible hat off, and putting an invisible hat on. I'm going to take my friend hat off right now because I'm absolutely friends with everyone on my team, I love them. We throw the love word around here all the time. But, I will take my friend hat off, and I will even take my leader hat off. I'll put my manager hat on, and for the minute or two or 10 that I need to wear the manager hat, I will wear it 100%. I will wear it well, and I will know that my values come with that hat. So one of my values is fairness. So my top values is courage, honesty, authenticity, kindness. When I put my manager hat on, all of those are intact. I really do encourage that hat wearing, so that you can help yourself shift gears and you actually literally can say it to a team member: Right now, I'm going to take my friend hat off and I'm going to put my manager hat on. If you ever get told by a yo-yo or a time waster that you are micromanaging them, no, you're not micromanaging them – you are managing them. You're not standing over them. You have to manage in your business, you have to wear the manager hat, in order to build a thriving practice. And if you don't build a thriving practice, your staff won't even have a job. So, do not apologize to your team for wearing the manager hat and wearing it well. Unfortunately, you don't make friends with the manager hat on, but the good news is that you can take the manager hat off, and put your friend hat on – and I've been doing this in some capacity all my life. So if I can do it, you can do it. And if you're coming through the program, we're going to be giving you tons of great stuff to recruit and manage winning teams. But also, one of the big parts of the value that I love, love, love about the program that's kind of invisible is that we are going to cross the bridges with you as you come to them. We're going to give you the support that you need when you need it, with that mentoring and that coaching and that high end confidant that you need. And don't forget that if there is anything that you want help with, do share with an open heart and an open mind via our Facebook group. If you don't want to do that, you can always reach me via email, then I can jump in and create podcast and video content for you as well.

As I write this, it's morning here in Australia and I am sitting, having my coffee and I was just responding to a beautiful VIP Client who's been with us for... feels like forever. And so I thought I would jump on and do a blog relating to few things. Prior to writing this, we've done our annual price rise, which is always a little daunting for bookkeepers – and it kind of should and shouldn't be. Where it gets daunting is that it is a time where we kind of go, we want more money, and our clients don't want to give anyone more money. And often realistically we're saying, I want more money, but I'm not giving you any extra, right? We're just doing a CPI price rise, which is normal, natural, and needed. But as clients and even as consumers and customers ourselves, we're always going to be wanting to know, Well, what's in it for me? If you're charging me more, I don't care about CPI. What I care about is, what's in it for me? What's the value I'm getting? I'm going to connect today's read with how to stack your VALUE, and how the program can help you in this part of our practice, okay? As you are reading this, the program has launched and it's live, but it doesn't mean it's too late to jump in. If you did not join the program when the doors open on August 1, worry not because the program is evergreen. We have a way to bring you into the program seamlessly, so that you can absolutely start working with me to build your thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms. If you are keen to know how that works, just drop us an email or ask in the The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook Group. Because, three things: Number one, the program comes with a MONEY-BACK guarantee. Number two, I do not get you to spend extra time working with me – this is about ON THE JOB application and implementation. And number three, that money-back guarantee, it kicks in after a year but my expectation is to help you get the ROI really early, allowing you to pay for the program as we go along. So, I'll go back by talking to you about what I was just doing. We've just done our annual price rise, and I'll always say to you that 80% of your clients should definitely just be accepting it and be happy enough with that, and 20% you'll sometimes get pushback and sometimes it's a time where you'll be kind of cleaning things out. Occasionally, a client or two might offboard from us. And that said, we want to retain the clients that we want to retain for sure. Now, even with the 80%, what I would encourage you to do is find ways so that you can add value, give value, and remind your VIP clients of the value that they might just not be noticing. And just to remind you, value is not about features and functions. VALUE is about benefits and outcomes. So one of our beautiful VIPs, I just love working with him. I don't get to see him that often anymore because my team takes care of things in the practice, but, eons ago, it was me and I was working with him. As I've said before, our retention has gone from good to great over the years. And when I was building out the program, I looked at what I'm doing and I get to look forensically at the different moving parts that influence RETENTION, as well as find and onboard without price as a priority. And actually, even though I already knew this, it struck me more that in terms of retention without price as a priority, we set our clients up for that from the very beginning of the customer journey – when they are just prospective clients. The customer journey in depth is something that I go through with you in the program, but it's one of the first things you do, and I'll help you fully understand what I call part one of the customer journey right now. So, somebody is in the market, you could serve them right through to being in your brand sphere and making an inquiry. That's part one. Part two is after we've onboarded them, and there's actually a roundabout between part one and part two (that's what we call them in Australia, where you're on the road and there's a little fork in the road, almost like you get to a spot where you can go a few different ways). I call it that because after they onboard, there's a part of the customer journey called BUYER'S REMORSE. And the way that we manage or actually eliminate buyer's remorse at that roundabout or the rest stop... That little rest stop is either going to be somewhere that makes them feel great and amazing and eliminates buyer's remorse, without you knowing it. This is customer journey for you in your bookkeeping practice. At that rest stop, without you knowing it, they might also possibly feel alone and all these other things, and it's the feelings and the experience at the rest stop that is one of the moving parts that influence retention without price as a priority, that influences relationship. So, from the early days when they first get exposure to your brand, that is how we build out all the different things for the customer, including the ability to retain them without price as a priority. It starts right at the beginning, and then it continues. Continuing on with talking about price rise and value and the experience I just had, this particular VIP client, when we sent out the price rise, he had a conversation with us. He was one of the 20% that kind of said, I don't know, can we talk about this? And so we had a chat about his situation and his situation had changed a little bit. He found that his wife, who's now a mama with a one-year-old, is able to handle the day-to-day bookkeeping. So what we did is we definitely had a conversation, then we pivoted to offering him up one of our DIY bookkeeper support packages and that we charge a really good monthly fee for (and by good monthly fee, I mean that we charge a fee that allows us to run a thriving practice). So, we charge a fee to service that is viable for us to be highly profitable, while also serving the client in a way that makes them delighted with the outcomes and the benefits they get – which means that we retain them, and also that we can pull the income and lifestyle out that we want and deserve. And so what I want to impress upon you here is that, the fee we charge for that DIY bookkeeper support package is a productized service full of benefits and outcomes, not just features and functions. And just to connect that to the program for a minute, you do get my entire suite of productized services and how to use them, and we'll help you with outcome billing as well as all the other things, okay? So in this case, we created a DIY bookkeeper support package and had a chat to the client. He said, that sounds really good. And then we sent that via Ignition software. We did our normal conversion process, which you can read about in the book, and did the VIDEO SALES LETTER for him. In the program, I help you create really quickly and easily a three-part video sales letter and stitch it together. I created a video sales letter and stitched it to my static video sales letter, which is a pre-recorded video sales letter that stacks the value of your competitive advantage, using a done-for-you for brochure, of 14 years in the making (conservatively worth $20,000 alone). And then, I add in a little bespoke video that explains the proposal and just in a really lovely way, chats to the client or the prospective client. I also went through the productized service to remind my client of all the value and the benefits. So exactly what I put in there, you absolutely get full access to and training in the Transformation Program. Going through all of that with the client, reminding him of these benefits and outcomes rather than the features and the functions— Because, the features and the functions are already offered by every bookkeeper. That doesn't give me a lot of selling points or competitive advantage, but the outcomes and the benefits do. So I run through them and one of them I tell you about in the book, and that is I offer every one of my VIPs a 90-minute planning session annually. So I said, don't forget, you get your 90-minute annual planning session that is conservatively valued at a thousand dollars. And so I noticed last night I had a text message from that client and I thought, I'll check it in the morning when I'm at my desk. And I did, and it said, Hi, Jeannie, I have just signed the DIY proposal, sorry for the delay. Actually, we haven't had a 90-minute strategy session since you visited in December 2021. So yes, we would love to organize that soon to get back on track. We have two staff leaving and looking at employing an apprentice in the next few weeks. Parenthood has been really hard, but is getting more fun as he is growing up. Turns one this week. Thanks, client name So as you can imagine, I knew that they'd had a child in the last year, and of course I'm interested in that. I love all this stuff. So when I did the video sales letter, I just said at the end, I hope you're enjoying parenthood, because I've been there for so many years and watched everything evolve. But if you look at that text message, he's seen and felt the value, and nobody else is offering that. He's not going to be comparing me to others. The fee we charge for a DIY package, like I said, it's a lot more than most bookkeepers out there would think they could charge. Why is that? Do we charge for hours here at my bookkeeping practice? Does a strategic bookkeeper charge for her time? Does she or he charge for hours? We don't sell hours – a strategic bookkeeper sells outcomes. The profitability that we all make on a DIY package could be the same as what we made on an end-to-end bookkeeping package. Though, I'm not sure as I'm not in charge of that right now, but I do see the critical drivers of profit and the metrics when we do our virtual CFO process internally. But what I'm saying is that, that productized service is built for a profitable practice. First, just like putting your oxygen mask on, we can't serve our clients unless we've taken care of ourselves as well. It needs to be a win-win. Stacking the value of that service retained that client, with a productized service that serves us, as well as him. I think that client has probably been with us now for near on a decade. So you can see, our retention is really, really good. Now, I'd like to talk about key takeaways so that you can think about the action that you are going to take. In terms of that particular client, if I showed you how to do that in the program – if I helped you with that productized service alone – that would actually give you over 60% of the program fee back immediately. I love to talk real numbers, real return on investment. And remember, this is just an example of the kind of results we're getting overall. The revenue you would generate from that one client and our beautiful DIY bookkeeper support productized service, and how to make it all work, would be more than 60% of what the program fee is. Which means, if you did that twice, then your return on investment has now exceeded the program fee. And that is the tiniest example that I can give you. So the key takeaway is, if you're thinking about the program and you're worried about, will I get enough out of it? – that's an example. And just the other day, I was talking to a bookkeeper and she had been since a little bit on the fence about the program, and it was more of a mindset thing. She said to me, I'm once bitten, twice shy, that she'd done stuff before where she invested money and she'd been let down. And I really gently and politely said, I get it. But we all have had relationships, whether they are romantic or business or otherwise, where we've been hurt, and we have to make a decision as to whether we're going to take that baggage into the new relationship. And a little bit of it is unavoidable, but life is 5% what happens to us and 95% our attitude to it. So I then challenged this beautiful bookkeeper just to think for herself and self-assess for herself whether the program was for her, and whether she could leave that baggage behind. Because the other thing I said is just in my bookkeeping practice, I wouldn't proceed with a client that didn't trust me. Occasionally, in my practice, I'll get a prospective client that goes on and on about a bookkeeper who let them down and they kind of say it in a way which says to me, you are guilty until proven innocent. And I don't proceed with those clients because one of our core values is trust. And unless PC is prepared to trust me yet to be the expert, then I don't find the relationship works. So I challenged this beautiful bookkeeper, and she said to me that that was the advice she needed to smash through that limiting belief and have that realization. And she said, I'm all in. I'm so excited. Let's do this. And we talked about that return on investment. And once again, the brochure alone, getting a return on investment is so easy. What I loved about that conversation is she said to me, I've gone from this fear around the 1% idea that I might not get value to "Oh my God, I get it. What was I thinking? I'm all in." And she said, I don't want to work with you just for one lap around the sun. I want to mentor and a coach and support forever. And I was like, yes! That's what we all need. We need support forever. So once you've finished your first lap around the sun, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I give you ways that we can continue to support you because we all need somebody to support us. The other thing that she said, which I totally resonated with, is that she'd met various bookkeepers and coaches and that kind of thing, but there was really no one that she looked at that was the caliber that she thought was really going to get her there. Whereas when she read my book and my podcast, she resonated so much that she could see I was of a caliber that I could get her there – because I'm a bookkeeper who's been there, done that. So that's a big part of it. I've been there surrounded by people that I knew couldn't get me there. However, I would say that I have proven that I can get you there. Now, the next key takeaway is the planning session that I talk about in the book. All right? So hopefully, you've read the book. If you haven't, grab a copy. Listen to the audio book. Use the hard cover as a how-to guide that gets really worn in your bag and you write all over it. And lastly, successful business owners educate themselves regularly. The more I've educated myself the last four years (I have leaned in to give you more and bigger and better, and tested and measured stuff in the program), the more I've become convinced of the value of educating as business owners. So if this blog resonated with you, read it again or listen to the podcast version. And program-wise, everything is designed with an additional piece of tech that makes it audio friendly, as well as giving you the backup videos and resources in a full training portal in an academy. So that would be my last key takeaway: to educate yourself. Please do use the book and the podcast – and the program is yet another form of education. It's education, assets, implementation, team, and support. If you express interest in the program, you're going to get more information on that. And there is also a podcast on the program, so you can have a listen as well. Go forth and thrive in practice, my friends.

Are you familiar with Keep In Touch (KIT) marketing? This can also be called database marketing, but I like to call it MANNERS MARKETING, or the Diamonds at your Feet. And lately, when I've been running some events, bookkeepers tell me it's an area that they are neglecting – and yet when I talk to them about it, they can totally see how this could be really powerful for them. And so today, I would like to share some examples and some stories, and then give you some actionable steps. My wonderful father always had a saying, and that was, “Never forget your customers and they'll never forget you”. And definitely, that has always stayed with me. I think it's a really beautiful saying because to me, it speaks of NURTURE. And whenever we use the word marketing, bookkeepers (and I feel the same!), it does kind of cause us to shut down a bit, like, oh, marketing, I don't want to do marketing. It feels icky. Whereas, when we use the word nurture, that feels totally different. And when we say never forget your customers and they'll never forget you – of course, I don't want to forget my customers, my clients, because in fact, it is manners to remember the beautiful people that we work with, and that we have previously worked with. And that leads to the word DATABASE. So database and database marketing, it all sounds clinical, but when we strip it right back, this is about the people that are in your kind of NETWORK. And again, network, it just sounds like, such a business word. But what I mean is if you imagine me right now, and I'm spreading my little fingers out like tentacles, and I'm kind of thinking about all the different people that I've met in my life and that somehow and some way I'm connected to, and I could tell you a million ways, and it's going to be a little bit different for you depending on who you interact with and the kind of person you are. Most of you know that I'm a Latin dancer. So as you can imagine, I've got thousands of Latin dancing friends. That's what it's like in Latin dancing. It's like if you're a dancer and I'm a dancer, we're friends. But then, thinking about all the people I've come across and interacted with in my life that in some way I'm still connected with – thanks to social media – now, I get to look through my friends' profiles and see them whether they're married with children and they look happy. And one of my friends I noticed that I was really close to when I was younger, he lives overseas now with his wife and the two beautiful girls, and I'll go on and look through and just get so much joy out of connecting with them just online. So when I talk about database and network, think people, humans – think your kind of humans, the kind of people that you like, the kind of people that you love. Take those clinical words around network and database and really turn it into HUMAN INTERACTIONS. The people that in some way, shape or form you are connected to, means that they are in your wider network. They are on your database. Your database could be your phone, your social media, your email... And if we were to categorize those people, we might say, I've got old school friends, so I consider them old friends. And then I've got, anyone that I connected with in the business world, but I don’t hang out with. They're not my friends, but I've kept in touch with them and they're on my database because I do really like them and we connected as humans and we vibed. I call these people my business buddies. And then, there's kind of old friends that I know I might never catch up with, but there's still a connection. Then there's your closer friends (people that you talk to more often), and what I would call your community. So community, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And communities come from things like churches and hobbies, like my dancing and sports. Anything where you come together as a tribe and a community and you connect, that is community. As you can see, there are many labels. And so when I use that word segmentation, again, it's very clinical, but just think about all the different people when it comes to SEGMENTATION of your email database – it is probably a little bit more clinical because it does relate to how you can and will serve them. So for example, if I was going to look at everyone on my database, and if I was you and I was new to this and I was segmenting, think about the products and services that you currently sell. So, who is currently engaged in your products? If you have one core product that you sell, which is just bookkeeping, who's getting that on a regular monthly basis? This clients are who I call VIP Clients. Who's on my business email database that has the potential to be a client, but for whatever reason, they're not right now? That could be someone you worked with historically that moved on, but you still vibe with them. You like them. If they came back tomorrow and talk to you, you'd consider working with them. So they are Prospective Clients. Those are the two simplest categories there is – and I could go into a lot more detail because we actually have a really great product ladder, which I dive into this podcast. So basically, we have core products, and then we have succession products. We do break our VIP Clients up into more than one category, but there is nothing wrong with a version one database. Right now, I just want to impress upon you that you've got VIPs, and then you've got PCs. And when you read my book, you'll see just how much I use those terminologies. Your VIPs are all the clients you service on a regular basis, and your PCs are prospective clients, which is kind of like anyone else who runs a business, who's ended up on your database, who has the potential to work with you. Another great category for your database is Accountants. So every accountant that a client has, or even just accountants that you've met on at networking events can go on this category. And then there's lots more you can do, but we want to keep it simple. Next thing I want to do is talk software. People do ask me "what software would you recommend, Jeannie?". Look, we use a software called ActiveCampaign, but there's no right or wrong to software. MailChimp is free and it's brilliant. There is nothing wrong with getting started with MailChimp as well, but it doesn't matter too much as long as you've got a software that can connect to several other software you're using. Now, I want to give you a little example of the power of database and what happens, unfortunately, when you are not leveraging database. So the other day, I was thinking about my house and a few things that I want to do in the house, as most of us do. I thought, oh, I really want to maybe change a few things in the house. And a while ago, it was probably four years ago, I had someone come and put a new flooring in my bedroom, and the new flooring solution was really great. What I loved about this guy is unlike other people, this person vibed with me because he was really bossy. He knew. He knew what he was doing. He was a really direct communicator. He listened to me when I said to him, look, I don't actually want choice. I have no interior design gene in my body. I just want you to tell what I'm doing, what it will cost, and I just want you to turn up and do it. And he said, 1, 2, 3, this is what you're doing. This is what it'll cost. I'll be here on this date. And, oh, the heavens have opened. And it was brilliant. He kept his promises, everything went really well. So the other day I thought, oh, I really would like that guy to come back and do another floor for me. I don't remember who he is. His contact details have gone from my phone. I mean, I don't remember his name anyway, so what if he had a simple way to keep in touch with me, even if that was once every six months? Usually for businesses like that, I would recommend once a quarter, and it was just a text message that said, "Hey, Jeannie, Tom here, just saying hi and reminding you I'm available if you need me." That is not intrusive. I mean, there are other ways to do it. I love text message for businesses like that, but as a bookkeeper, email can be quite good because we're working collaborating with business owners that are on the email. But I like both and I actually like automated and non-automated. Now, that is an example of how if he had a nice basic keep-in-touch marketing system, he would potentially be creating the following things. Number one, a PIPELINE of inquiries, because People will buy when they're ready – but what's important is to keep them in our BRAND SPHERE floating around, so that they can make the buying decision when they're ready. So it creates a pipeline, because someone like me will buy four years later when I'm ready. But if he's doing that with all of his database, you can imagine the multiplier effect. And most people find that kind of keep-in-touch marketing really helpful, which is one of the reasons I call it Manners Marketing. I believe it is manners to keep in touch with the people that we are seeking to serve. What we're all doing, we are seeking to serve, be of service and help, alright? And never ever do I really get, leave me alone, don't keep in touch with me. And every now and then, if somebody does say, would you remove me from your database? I mean, we have links so they can just click and remove themselves too. Then, it's not impolite. And once, actually, it even led to someone explaining how busy they are, and I was able to say, if you are busy, you need me more than ever, and it was a really cool conversation. Going back to the example of the flooring guy, you can see the impact if he did have that keep-in-touch marketing system – he would be serving me much better. I'm frustrated that he doesn't keep in touch. Now I need to go back to square one and deal with people that are going to frustrate me, or start searching through Google in the hope that I stumble across him. Whereas, if he was just politely keeping in touch with me, then it would be serving me. The other thing it does as well is a pipeline of leads – it creates WORD OF MOUTH marketing. Let's say he was contacting me once every three, four months, and I got the message, I might say to a girlfriend, oh, just got this message off the guy that did my flooring. He's so amazing. You said that you were doing your flooring and I'll recommend him – so it can create ADVOCACY for your services and your brand. So absolutely, if you read my book, you'll see I talk about Advocacy Marketing being your number one marketing strategy that I want you to focus on, and keep in touch. Marketing will absolutely create advocacy for your brand. It will create people in the market talking about you. Talking about how valuable you are, and you don't even know this is going on. The funny thing about marketing is when you have the layers and you have your tentacles out there in this beautiful authentic way – which is not really marketing, like I say, it's about manners and staying connected to people – people will be talking about you behind your back and saying lovely things that will lead to somebody else reaching out to you that you didn't even know, and therein filling your pipeline of leads. And this week I've had a few people reach out, Hey Jeannie, I really need a bookkeeper. Can you help me? That's what happens, and this is the result, the ones that I've had lately. It's just simply the results of keep-in-touch marketing layered with the other pieces that I talk about in my book, which includes being able to see my profile, read about results-based marketing and more. So that's all in my book, and that's really easy to do. I give you a linear process for getting that all sorted and ready. But right now, this is just about the keep-in-touch marketing component. Here's story or two that's related to me and my bookkeeping practice to inspire you. So literally, I have jumped on to do this post immediately after talking to someone who is a past client. So we serve them, goodness, I would say it's like seven years ago, a long time ago, and we're still linked on Facebook. They're probably still on my email database, maybe, maybe not, right? But we kind of do a lot across both platforms. And actually, they reached out to me a year or so ago and just talked to me about bookkeeping, but again, didn't go ahead again then, but they're in my brand sphere and they're floating around now. So, she was once a client, but she's now a prospective client. Let's call her Sally, and she can see me on social media. If I win an award, or get nominated, I might share it on socials and just say, Hey, celebrate with me. It'd be nothing. It won't be business. It'll be very genuine, just yay me celebrate. Whereas on my business socials, it'll be more professional and bigger and grander because that's the more appropriate place for it. But, I will share it across both. So she might be following my business socials as well as my personal socials, and basically, she knows that we vibe. I'm the kind of person she'd like to work with. She feels like this is someone I know, like and trust. Then, she can see this is also someone who's at the top of her game in her industry. All indications are that if I was to work with her again, it's going to be easier and better than if I went out and tried to find someone else. Now, in the meantime, who knows, she might have gone and tried someone else as well. And I remember my father saying that some of his competitors were his best advertising. And this is the power of keep-in-touch marketing. Even when people go elsewhere, which actually a past client has just resigned with us after going elsewhere – it's okay. These things will happen from time to time and we don't need to be in total control of it all, but if we're using this beautiful keep-in-touch marketing system, they will often come back to us. I'm never emotional when someone leaves me. I'm very authentic and if I think they're making the wrong decision, I'll tell them that. If they are a little bit outgrowing us, we also offer in-house recruitment services, something you can do too. The moral of the story is just keep in touch, okay? Last night, I was on the phone for quite a while with someone that I only met once, but we're connected on Facebook. Look, I love to connect with people. So when I meet someone and we get along, I'll be like, yay, let's Facebook Connect. And then they're in my network. And then I didn't realize he kind of owns a business. And so this is about four or five years later, he's contacted me and we had a great chat last night. And he went, Yes, Jeannie, I'm going to work with you. Absolutely. Send me a proposal tomorrow. Let's work together. Keep-in-touch marketing. All I'm doing is keeping in touch with the people that are in my network connected to me some way, and that's what happens. So keep-in-touch marketing and the diamonds at your feet – so, so powerful. And in terms of taking action, you're going to take small actions, one step at a time, and you're going to give yourself a lap around the sun. This is a gift that will keep on giving, okay? It's okay to take time to do this. So the first thing I'd like you to do, rather than think about, oh my goodness, I've got to go into my Xero or QuickBooks or my file and bring all my database across to a software – here's what I want you to do first: I want you to, right now, think about a past client or an inactive client that you've worked with before, and for whatever reason, they are not engaged in regular work right now. So picture them in your mind. You might come up with one, two, or three, that's fine. Write them down, picture them in your mind. I would like you to reach out to them, and I'm going to give you a script on the fly, even though I do them all the time. And I will let you know right now, in The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, all the scripts and messaging, all the keep-in-touch assets, strategies and resources – it's all done for you. So be sure to join in, okay? Going back to the scripting, we're going to call this PC Tom, and your name's going to be Sally, so, Hi Tom, Sally here from Sally's Bookkeeping. You just popped into my head. I just thought of you and I was wondering how's everything going? That is one example of a message you can send. It can depend on the past client, but that is one message that you can send. Just, how's everything going? If you've recently done a catch up but you haven't heard from them in three to six months, you can say, are you still up to date? Because if you're not, can you give me a call? I really, really want to make sure that you stay up to date. You're not selling your services, you're seeking to understand, which is manners marketing. I'm going to look at running a free training around building, maintaining and using your database, but for now, you can read this over and over and if you really want to fast track and get a lot of done-for-you stuff, the program's there, and the book's got heaps in it around database as well. What I hope you take from this read is the wow moments and the aha moments, and the absolute 100% belief that KIT Marketing is a beautiful, beautiful, manners based strategy for you to use. And in fact, I often use the phrase as a courtesy. When I reach out to people, Hi, this is Jeannie. I'm touching base as a courtesy. Again, use every word I've given you. Use that as a script. I'm reaching out as a courtesy to check in, see how everything's going – the response I get from these, phenomenal. This is just the most beautiful strategy for bookkeepers because it simply requires you to keep in touch with people and to nurture them. Okay? So work on your action steps, and I look forward to hearing how you go with all of this, hopefully in The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook group, so that we can share it with the whole tribe and we can all benefit from working and growing together.

I'd like to share with you a topic that I was recently speaking on for the Institute of Professional Accountants (which was my privilege), about the changes in consumer behaviour post-pandemic – which can also be called: How to Stay Competitive in a Post-Pandemic World. And actually, the night before I was speaking, an accountant asked me what I was speaking on, and he said, "Oh, I'm not very competitive." And that struck me. And before we continue, I just want to say that whether you are booked solid with clients or whether you have more time on your hands than clients, and you really need to attract new clients, being and remaining COMPETITIVE is key to continuing to thrive in your business. In fact, the clients that you currently have are staying with you because of your selling points and your competitive advantage, even if that is that you are a great bookkeeper who meets your deadlines and tasks. That basically means you do everything you said you'd do, and believe it or not, that is called the marketing X factor, in my opinion. There are a lot of bookkeepers who struggle to do what they said they'd do in the timeframe they said they'd do it. And so if I dived into that with you and your business, I might tell you that's a really lovely part of your competitive advantage. The point being, please don't tell me you don't need to be competitive. You absolutely do need to be and remain competitive in the eyes of your clients to continue to retain them, let alone find and attract new ones. Education is key to thriving in business as well. And so, please stick with me for this read, and together, we'll take on and navigate this post-pandemic journey. Just a quick side note – if you did not join the program when the doors open on August 1, it doesn't mean that you can't join in. The program is evergreen. We have a way to bring you into the program seamlessly, so that you can absolutely start working with me to build your thriving practice, delight your clients, and live your dream on your terms. If you are keen to know how that works, just drop us an email or ask in the The Strategic Bookkeeper's Way Facebook Group. Because, three things: Number one, the program comes with a MONEY-BACK guarantee. Number two, I do not get you to spend extra time working with me – this is about ON THE JOB application and implementation. And number three, that money-back guarantee, it kicks in after a year but my expectation is to help you get the ROI really early, allowing you to pay for the program as we go along. So, the big shift in consumer behaviour post-pandemic as it relates to our accounting industry... As always, this will be a mix of structured agenda and relaxed sharing. Let's have a look at what it the Big Shift is, and why you need to ADAPT or why I recommend you adapt, and then how you can adapt. Something that I want to let you know about the Big Shift is that it's something that I've been observing for a little while now since the pandemic started over three years ago. And then, I caught up with a business buddy who is just amazing in the marketing space. And, he really walked me through a lot of this and really filled in a lot of the gaps. But let me tell you right now, I am personally still adapting. This is new stuff, and not many people are talking about it. And so I want to start by talking about what was happening before the big shift, because I think that will really help you understand it, and then after the big shift. So before the big shift, it was the typical CUSTOMER JOURNEY. In terms of your market, someone within your market or someone that you could serve (a business owner who became aware of a problem that you could solve for them), somehow found out about you. Let's say their accountant told them about you, or they met you at a networking event, or maybe found you on Google, and they decided to give you a call. The customer journey was that they had a problem, they realized that they need someone in the bookkeeping space to solve that problem, and they reached out either by giving you a call, or sending you an email. And that meant that you were able to have a conversation. And another thing I want to mention is that before the pandemic, local was quite meaningful. Local had a lot of value. Business owners, on the whole, wanted to work with a bookkeeper who was local, even if they never met them. Even if they only ever interacted over the phone and everything was done remotely, they just liked the idea that that person was just down the road just in case they needed to see them face to face. Local had a lot of value. Now, in terms of power and influence... Since this person in your market would give you a call or send you an email, this meant you had a lot of POWER and INFLUENCE. Because, during this initial discussion, this was a dialogue where you could realistically do what I would call a NEEDS ANALYSIS. You're on the phone discussing and analysing what they need, and you're able to have a conversation which influences that person around using you or not using you – because you're assessing each other. So that was before the pandemic. Now, once the pandemic hit – and even post-pandemic, everything really started to change very rapidly. One of the trends that was accelerated was this habit and behaviour that– I want to do everything ONLINE. I want to find out everything I need to know online. I want to get all my questions answered online. And actually, I want to be able to take action easily online. So this was something that was slowly but surely happening. In the accounting industry, it was definitely something that was really slow – slower than other industries. An example of an industry where it was gaining traction would be, say, the personal services industry. Think about massage, for example. People were really starting to get used to finding what they wanted online and then actually booking in. And, they never interacted with the massage therapist until the day that they turned up at their appointment. So this was happening in various industries a lot more than it was happening in the accounting industry. For me as a bookkeeper, for you as a bookkeeper or an accountant, it was much more manual, I'd like to say. There was much more dialogue – whereas in other industries (think of restaurants), people were getting really used to the convenience of simply going online, finding out everything they need to know, booking in, and turning up in a really hands-free way. Along with this, local began to lose value. And that is because everybody was forced online – everybody was forced to adapt, to buy groceries online, to do things that some of us were just choosing not to do. So suddenly, I was hearing from clients very far away. Our practice is on the Gold Coast, and we were getting phone calls from Tasmania, and people were much more likely to use us irrespective of where we were located. But, that meant that the power around local began to lose value. The other thing that changed is that, our market began to want to get to know everything they needed to know about us 24/7 online, in their own time. And that was not happening in the accounting industry prior to the pandemic. In our industry, that was not the expectation of our market. Their expectation was to be able to get some information online. But part of the customer journey post-pandemic, which is very different now, is that if you were referred to someone pre-pandemic, that person would often call you immediately, and will likely use you. But now, that customer journey has changed because without that person realising it, their behaviour on the whole has changed. So now, when they are referred to you, they Google you and they spend time floating in your DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM, what I call your BRAND SPHERE. And they want to get to know, like, and trust you online, and get more third party endorsements, before they reach out. And actually, I know someone that was referred to an accountant with a really good recommendation. This person went online and sat in their brand sphere, and didn't like what they saw. So regardless of their referral, they did not use the services of that accountant. Everything has simply changed. The last thing I want to mention here, post-pandemic, you've lost power and influence. Because, if we think of that story that I just shared with you prior to the pandemic, our behaviour was, "I'm referred, I'll call that bookkeeper or accountant." Now, "I'm referred. So I'll go online and I'll check that they're credible. I'll check that they look trustworthy." So there's CREDIBILITY. Know, like, and trust. They're going online, and they are seeking to get their questions answered online. And if they can't, then they may move on. The power to have a conversation around the needs analysis and influence them through question and answer, which is just a natural part of what we do, has dramatically changed. Now, just a couple of food for thought items. I call this "If you're not convinced", which is a big subject. I really hope that as you read this, you can reflect on your own behaviour as a consumer, like, when do you look for things that you want and need in the business or personal space? Because, a lot of us do so at nine o'clock at night, on our phone. Prior to the pandemic, our behaviour was different. As I say, certain industries like shoe shopping, fashion shopping – there was a lot of adaptation of this kind of behaviour that we went online. But in the accounting industry, it wasn't common place to do all of our question and answer for a bookkeeper or an accountant, at nine o'clock at night, on our phone, in bed. And that is more commonplace now. So in terms of why we should adapt: what got you here may not get you there. I get that this requires a change, and you might be thinking, "Do I really, really need to adapt?" Well, in business, just like in nature, I would say definitely, adapt or die. The Kodak story is the quintessential adapt or die story. And in a nutshell, in case you haven't heard the Kodak story: even though a Kodak engineer was the first person to design a digital camera, Kodak did not want to adapt when the digital camera era began to come in. So they buried their head in the sand. They said, "No, we own the camera space and we're going to stick to analog and we're not going to adapt." Until some years later, it became apparent that if they didn't adapt, they were going to die. And then they adapted too late, and so they did file for bankruptcy. Now, there are lots of business stories like Kodak around, like Border Books. They were around for 100 years. They refused to adapt to using a database, which I talk about a bit in The Strategic Bookkeeper. And so, they closed their doors. And I think that's just sad that a wonderful iconic business closed their doors because they refused to adapt. So let me tell you right now, in business, as in nature, adapt or die. So now more than ever, your market does expect to be able to get to know you 24/7 online. I know I'm rinsing and repeating here, but people expect to be able to immerse themselves in your brand 24/7 online. I'll give you the how on that but let me just tell you, we can go on this journey together. I'm absolutely adapting with you. My website for my bookkeeping practice, I redeveloped that a few years ago, but it needs updating again because consumer behaviour has changed. And in The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, I will be helping the Tribe members much as they want and need around how to renovate or build your WEBSITE, in line with the current economic tech and business landscape. So, your market expects to be able to get all their questions answered online in watch, read, do, listen formats, and with third party ENDORSEMENTS as well – which is not as mysterious as it sounds. If I say to someone, "Jo's a great bookkeeper," that's third party endorsement. But, we can look at Google REVIEWS and AWARDS – those are great third party endorsements, as are any software company endorsements. So let's talk about how to adapt now. The first thing I want to encourage you to do is to play the long game. Like I say, you don't need to do all of this overnight. This is new stuff. And if you begin adapting now, you won't have your own Kodak moment. So, play the long game, go on a lap around the sun slowly, but surely adapting. You can absolutely look at joining my program and I'll help you with all that. Next thing, like Nike says, "Just Do It." That is progress over perfection. Please don't feel like you have to be perfect first out of the gate with this stuff. Fail in a controlled environment. Practice will make progress. And the third thing is about the how of this, which is strategy and planning. The key principle around how we're going to do it is this phrase, "Your market is still asking the same questions, they're just not asking them directly. Answer them online, and here's how to get started." There are three big keys to getting started around adapting to this new kind of behaviour in our market. First is definitely knowing that your market wants to get those questions answered online in a 24/7 way. Second is that they want to float in your brand sphere and self-assess, need and desire. And the third one is just to embrace the rise of PR and the death of marketing. Nobody wants to be advertised to any more, which is another reason we've seen a massive rise in third party endorsements. Because, that's more public relations. Here's what others are saying about me. The rise of PR and the death of marketing is something that's been happening for a very, very, very long time. That one is not new, but it's very much at play in this business landscape. So in terms of the how, I also want to tell you a fun fact: our brains don't differentiate between digital and real. And that's why celebrity endorsement works. That is exciting because rather than have to do as much one-on-one, face-to-face (which still has value and can also be fun and a nice way to get out of the house), it is proven that our brains can build, know, like and trust with another human digitally online. So there's a power for you in that. And that means there's also a power in personal BRAND. That doesn't mean that your business has to be called Jeannie's Bookkeeping Services, but it does mean, for example, that as the principal, people will want to get to know me – they'll want to make sure they vibe with me as the person behind the brand. So there is a power in personal brand. So three steps to get you started: Content, Profile, Platforms. Content is king, engagement is queen. Answer your market's questions online with your content. Just think of yourself as a consumer, and then think of the kind of questions that you get asked and the way you could answer those questions. So to give an example.. the product ladder is where your content is held. Content is step one in your product ladder. And if you haven't, you can read all about product ladder in my book. Examples of content is everything on your website. When somebody can go to a page about one of your services or your productised services, they are immersing themselves in your content and are able to get value by finding out how you might be able to help them. Our most popular website page for my bookkeeping practice is our About Us page. That speaks volumes. And so that is content where people can find out about me and my team and my brand, and see if we vibe, in order to self-assess, once again, their desire and their need to work with me. Social media posts are another example of content. Blogs and videos and a business health check is an example, a how-to guide. So how to deal with the ATO, how to get up to date with your books, which you can do in audio form, video form or a blog. Those are examples of content. So one question that business owners often ask is, "Where's all the cash?" You can answer that question in a blog. You can turn that blog into a mini book, that can be turned into some audio clips into some videos as well. You can content repurpose, but you already probably have a treasure trove of content in your business. Sometimes, it's just really about looking at the mountain of value that you're already sitting on and then looking at maybe repurposing some of that. Or, make it easier, join my program and I do all this for you. I give you, I think, 500 social media templates. So that's a bit of a dive into content. Then engagement being queen – we want to make sure that people are engaging in your content. So if you do have a mini e-book, like I've got one, The 7 Deadly Cash Flow Sins, then how are you sending that to audiences? And that's your platform. But let's look at profile first. Profile should be reasonably easy for you. And I go through this in the attraction chapter of my book, which has also got a playbook for the attraction chapter. So literally, I say there here's how to do it, let's do it together. So with profile, let's say you go into a bookshop and you head to the recipe section. There you see lots of books, some authors you've never heard of and some by chefs that you know and love. Which books will grab your attention? Which will build value in your mind immediately? Will it be the ones from authors that you've never heard of? Or will it be the ones from chefs that have a profile? So you have a profile, but you absolutely need to make sure that that's in your content and that it's displayed prominently. So in my book, I talk about the various parts of your profile that are probably fairly obvious– your SKILLS, your experience, your licenses, even insurance and registrations, AFFILIATIONS with different professional associations and software houses, including different BADGES you might have. Then, you can add on to that. Look at how you could level up. If you think, "Well, I've already done that, it's really well-displayed," – how can you level up from that? I definitely recommend looking at entering some awards and looking at winning awards. With either of those, you'll get a media pack that you can display as content. And that is a third party endorsement, which is very, very powerful. Now, let's move on to platforms. The best description I ever heard of a platform, because a platform is like social media et cetera, is someone said it's like an actual platform. So imagine that I have stepped up onto a platform and I've said, "Hey, attention bookkeepers, do you need to find new clients or something?" And if you're a bookkeeper that did, you might turn around and say, "Oh, that's me." I'm on a platform and I'm grabbing your attention. So I want you to think of these digital platforms, like social media, as an actual platform. You put your content on the platform in order to help people to get to know, like and trust you, and in order to convey how you can help to solve their problems. So examples of platforms: social media is one, but it's actually the one I like the least. EVENTS are a great platform, and that leads me to PARTNERS. Strategic partnerships, which I go through in my book, are a platform from which you can do all of these things. You can serve up valuable content and speak to your market. Now, you can combine running an event with a strategic partnership, and you've got a really powerful platform there. Email is also a platform, as well as text message. I love all of those platforms more than I like social media, but social media is a part of MARKETING layering, so it is important that we do it. It's important that we show up consistently so people can build, know, like and trust credibility. So let's wrap this up by simplifying how you're going to go about adapting, but also why, and a few other things. So first of all, if you've read this far, well done. Successful entrepreneurs do the things that others won't, and put in the hard work that others don't. Be the 20%. It is so important to continually EDUCATE yourself so that you know what you need to know, in order to take the right action. Number two, you can re-read this as often as you want to. And this is about taking a step, not a giant leap and getting it all done in two seconds. When you read through this, then what you can do is you can observe your own behaviour as a consumer. So what I would love for you to do is begin to look at various brands that you interact with, just things that you love, that you shop at, and just start to notice what they do well, and what they don't do so well. Start to think about how they act in terms of everything you're learning from me, because that will really, really help you. And, just take a step in that direction. Have a look at your website, have a look at the content that you've currently got – begin to value what you've got, and just take small steps. So that's definitely what I'd say in terms of helping you take action. And, I would encourage you to look at The Strategic Bookkeeper Transformation Program, because I know that's going to help you step by step, and it would absolutely be my privilege to help you to thrive in practice by becoming a strategic bookkeeper through the program.