Queenstown – 35 Accountants Bungy jumping
I didn’t realise how much my ‘stunt’ would work in Queenstown. At every break at the conference we drew 2 delegates names out of a hat. They were the prize winners. They didn’t know what their prize would be. 4 days later we transported the entire group of 200 delegates to AJ Hackett Bungy. The prize winners (17 of them in the end) were gifted a bungy jump.
If they didn’t do it they had to re-gift the prize and pay $500 to charity. We had another 18 buy a bungy (all accountants remember) for a total of 35 jumpers. Many were scared / nervous / petrified but they did it anyway. As one of our speakers (Dandapani the ex-monk) said “proceed with confidence”.
As the leader I went first. Here is the opening video of me jumping. Note the perfect swan dive!
Queenstown – day 4 – 6
Conference days. John Warrilow was first up with an awesome 3 hour workshop on how Accountants can help their clients sell their businesses. To push the value of a business up the acronym of TVR needs to be in place – Teachable, Valuable and Repeatable. He gave the delegates the 6 hierarchy of recurring revenue as well as a plethora of tools on how they can help their clients.
Next up Dandapani (my wild card ex-monk). Dandapani (or D-man as we affectionately call him) rocked the house. An ex-monk who spent 10 years in the Monastery is now teaching people on personal development. He was simply awesome. Everyone loved him and his message of concentration, energy management & relationships suited every person in the room. We even convinced the ex-monk to play some golf with us – his first time.
Then we had Gold Medalist and 5 time Olympian (the only woman in Australia to do so) Natalie Cook deliver a session on ‘Sustained Motivation’. She has been at the top of her game for 20 years and what she taught us all are all the tricks to her success. Not only is Nat an awesome success story and inspiration she is a very handy golfer. She took the cash with a stableford score of 50 points. Might have to re-handicap her next time!
We also had 5 of our best performing accounting firms speak on their success. We call it “the Best of the best”. Greg & Vanessa spoke on workflow from Alliott. Tracey, Paul & Sandra from KSM spoke on team performance. Tracey & Jason from Proview, Peter & Bernie from ZJL and Ray and Danella from Taggart all spoke on Revenue and Clients. Thank you all for your words of wisdom.
I delivered a session and so did my business partner, Colin Dunn. The feedback was this was our best conference ever.
What was interesting from this conference we had many Accountants elect not to attend because they thought the speaker line up was a bit weak. Judging by the comments in writing how wrong they were. The 200 delegates loved it!
Queenstown day 3 – Extreme Accounting!
Day 3 in Queenstown – raining, cold and exciting! We had our opening cocktail event tonight complete with amazing views, great laughs, the Haka (which I did with a Monk, a Canadian, a bunch of Aussies and a few Kiwis) and we even have a new competition – Extreme Accounting.
Although we had the team / client / sponsor plane stranded in Brisbane we still had circa 200 people at the Gondola for a lot of fun tonight. Seeing we are in the adventure capital of the world we have a competition – Extreme Accounting photo comp. The delegates need to have a photo of themselves doing something which the judging panel may deem to be extreme …. accounting extreme.
We’re not sure what that means until we see the snaps coming through. Winner gets a hefty prize. Photo of me and 2 of our guest speakers, John Warrilow (Canadian) and Dandapani (the monk).
Remaining Relevant seminar tour
After 18 months not touring I am back on the road bringing my latest ideas to the Accounting profession. A jam packed day of what is going on, what to do and how to do it! The entire day is focused on ‘future proofing’ your firm.
See short video for details or click here for more info and to register.
Fattening the pig the day before the market
When Accountants first interact with my coachingclub process or my content and methods they often get very excited about their potential.
If you have had relatively modest growth / KPI improvement over the past few years then you hear about case study after example after case study that directly applies to your firm – you get excited. This is natural.
Just last week a multi-partner firm with flat revenue told me their goal was to double the revenue ($7.5m to $15M) in the next 3 years. That’s 26% per year of revenue growth. That can be done – however (without acquisitions) some major changes need to happen. This firm has a HUGE amount of untapped potential (>1200 clients who are under-serviced) but their behavior, decisions and actions were telling me that they would not do it. Not even close.
But it’s 3 years away will say some of the partners. Yes it is. To grow by 26% per year you need approx. 2% revenue growth PER MONTH. Month in month out. If you fall behind then next month better be a cracker.
Business growth takes focus & discipline. It’s no different to fitness. If you are fat and unhealthy don’t expect to be BUFF next month. Or to flip it around the other way…. you can’t fatten the pig the day before the market. It takes time.
There is no issue with setting goals that stretch you – you just need the right strategies put in place.
Next week (Wednesday January 30 @ 1:30pm Brisbane time) I am running a free webinar on which goals to set and more importantly how to achieve them. You can register here.
Below is a sneak preview of some of the goals we will be looking at.
