Conquering Workflows & Systems For Bookkeepers & Accountants | with Alyssa Lang (Workflow Queen)

Mastering Client Experiences: Unveiling Secrets to Winning Proposals and Satisfaction with Christy Bowie

• Season 1 • Episode 86

Share episode

Alyssa Lang interviews Christy Bowie, CPA and Founder of Christy Bowie Financial Solutions and the "In the Know" newsletter, on getting through the challenges of team management, leveraging productivity tools like ClickUp, and providing a luxury client experience in the financial industry.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • How to create a good client experience and what that actually looks like
  • What an outstanding proposal process looks like
  • How to connect clients with the right team member to better serve your clients
  • How to create an excellent client experience for your clients

About our guest:

Christy is a CPA & Financial Consultant who empowers service-based entrepreneurs to grow their business by taking away the stress of finances & creating strategic plans to scale. After starting her career serving some of the world's largest private equity companies as well as high net worth business owners and investors, Christy learned the powerful strategies that successful CEOs use to scale. Christy has served hundreds of small businesses in various industries, stages of businesses, and revenue ranges and has a passion for helping founders build legacy businesses that can provide generational wealth and a lifestyle they love. Christy’s goal is to help you feel empowered as a business owner & get back to being the CEO instead of stressing about details.

Connect with Christy Bowie:

Follow Christy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itschristybowie

Check out her newsletter: https://learn.christybowie.com/in-the-know/

Resources mentioned in this episode:

💻 Kickoff with Asana for Bookkeepers & Accountants

⚙️ Asana

⚙️ Dubsado

⚙️ ClickUp

💻 Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants

🗞️ Christy’s In The Know newsletter

⚙️ Notion

Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me, @workflowqueen

For more information about the Conquering Workflows & Systems for Bookkeepers & Accountants Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:

Visit our website: workflowqueen.com

Check out our courses: workflowqueen.com/courses

Follow the Blog: workflowqueen.com/blog

Connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alyssa-lang-wq

Connect on Instagram: instagram.com/workflowqueen

Connect on Facebook: Facebook.com/workflowqueen

Podcast Publishing Tools we use:

Hey everyone. And welcome back to another episode. I'm so excited to be bringing on such an incredible guest. I absolutely love her. She's just such a bundle of joy and she's just so much fun. I got the opportunity to actually meet her in person in Dallas. About a year ago. Her name is Christie Bowie, and she's actually the owner and founder of Christie buoy financial solutions. She's got so much to share in this episode. And to be honest, I was actually really blown away by our conversation and some of the really cool things that she brought up about her client experience. So in today's episode, we're going to talk about how to create a good client experience and what that actually looks like in real time. And then what an outstanding proposal process actually looks like and how she applies that to her firm, how to connect clients with the right team members to really better serve your clients. And also we're going to cover how to create an excellent client experience for your clients. If this is something that you've been really wanting to focus on, as far as creating a better client experience, a better process and a better way to really serve your clients, then this is the episode for you. I hope you enjoy.

Alyssa:

Hey everyone and welcome back to the end of the episode of the conquering workflows and systems for bookkeepers and accountants podcast. I'm so excited because I am bringing on such a very special guest. Her name is Christy Bowie. I actually got to meet her in real life. Recently, I think it was back in September, I want to say of 2023, while me and Brooke Swan went out to represent my own firm. At a event that I was sponsoring. And so I got to actually meet her in real life. She happened to work with one of our, we both worked at the same operation specialist, which was really cool. Her name was also Brooke. So lots of Brooks in my life and my assistant's name is Brooke. I just can't get away from the Brooks anymore, but I'm so excited that I got to meet her. She's just so much fun. Just a great ball of energy. And it was funny. We both were at an event that had nothing to do with taxes or bookkeeping, but we just happened to be in the same field. So I'm so excited because she's got some great resources for you guys to share today. So welcome to the podcast, Christy, uh, please feel free to introduce yourself and tell us about all the things you.

Christy:

Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and I'm so excited we got to meet in person, which was so much fun. Thanks so for our listeners, my name is Christie and I am a CPA and financial consultant. I really focus on, having a bunch of retainer clients that we are supporting in a capacity that I like to call a luxury client service, right? So my firm is really focused on taxes and tax strategy, but as a part of that, we focus on bookkeeping and, you know, at the top of it really is the client service and making clients feel safe. supported, confident, comfortable with their finances. Cause I think we all know this can be a very stressful topic for a lot of clients. And so, you know, my firm is super dedicated on providing that luxury level of support. So that's really where I think that we stand out in the industry.

Alyssa:

Yes. I love that so much because I feel like so many people always want to focus on like so many different parts of the business or different parts of the experience. And I tell this to people all the time. My number one favorite process over every process in my whole entire firm is the client experience. If you can create a solid client experience, you have clients for life. And sometimes like nobody wants to care about all the numbers. It's like they just make me feel heard and seen.

Christy:

Yeah. Your clients don't know, like, quite frankly, they don't know how good at this. You are, you're the only one who's going to know that. And like, I'm not saying, you know, go BS it and don't do a great job, but at the end of the day, they know how they feel working with you, not the numbers. So yeah, that's something we've really been focused on lately.

Alyssa:

I love that. So let's kind of dive into that because we really didn't have like a idea of what we're going to talk about today. So that's actually a really great conversation to kind of dive into. Cause I think this is a big area that some people are always questioning, especially to me and asking me these questions of, well, how do you create a good client experience? Considering we do the same repetitive stuff every single month, like how do we actually set that tone? So I'd love to kind of like, take a step back and ask you, what What are some of the things that you do like in your, if you don't mind sharing about like, how do you uplevel your experience? How do you make sure that they feel seen and heard without draining the hell out of you?

Christy:

Yeah, I would say the number one thing, it actually starts going all the way back to your proposal process for clients. And that is, you know, having clients understand exactly what you are doing for them and why they need that. So I had a client once upon a time who, uh, You know, they just wanted their taxes done. They, you know, they wanted a few things. They knew what they needed to have done. And I sent them this quote for bookkeeping, quarterly tax estimates, tax returns, all of that. And it was a much higher dollar number than they were expecting. And they were like, no, I don't want all that. Blah, blah, blah. They were shocked, basically thinking that the line items I put in there were trying to upsell them. And so that is that first really line of communication that we can break down, Hey, I am not upselling you bookkeeping. I actually, you know, this is why it's important. And so I've started including in my proposals. And if a client is really tentative, I'll actually give them, a bigger breakdown of what exactly everything is, but started including in my proposals a couple key things. And number one, I actually use Canva proposals and write out, it's probably about five pages. And the first page says, Hey, here's me and my firm. And here's what we stand for. So one of the things that I mentioned there is, you know, we're a women owned and led firm and we have all us based accountants. And for me, that's something that I pride myself in and for a client that is you know, relatable to us and is willing to, you know, pay for that, they see that right away. So number one, you know, what do our clients value, including that in there? And then the second page says, here's what you are looking for. And so I don't say, you know, you're looking to have your tax returns filed, right? I'm saying I have a sales call with them. I'm taking notes and I'm saying, you told me you want to feel more confident. Well, here's how we do that. And here's why these processes do that for you. So I include three bullet points on the second page about what you are looking for. The third page is then a breakdown of the, you know, proposed package for them. Right. And I have started to say, you know, there's bullets, oh, monthly bookkeeping. We reconcile your account, all that. Most of our clients don't know what that means. it took me a really long time to be like, your clients don't know what books are like, they're looking at you like hardback, which, what are you, what are you doing? And so I've started doing a breakdown of that kind of saying. You know, every month we go through your bank accounts, we categorize the transactions, and we send you a report, right? The verbiage included in that, and then saying why it's important so that we can create your estimated tax payments. Or, you know, a lot of so what's is included in this proposal. Then I will also include, so the first half is kind of getting them to understand why you need this in your business based on what you told me. I don't have a generic, I mean, I do, I have a template. But I spend probably a good hour customizing these proposals for every client based on their sales call. So it's really customized to them. The first half is letting them know what they need. It's that education process so they feel seen and heard. You are giving me exactly what I need, not trying to upsell me. And then the second half of that proposal is laying the groundwork for the expectations about what is going to come next. and how you accept this proposal. There is nothing worse than, you know, a client being like, okay, I'm ready to go. Like, I don't know what to do next, or I don't know what's happening next. I think it's the third or fourth page says, here is our expected timeline. Here's what I need from you. Step one, accept this proposal, sign the contract, pay the deposit. Step two, this is going to be your start date. Step three, within a month of your start date, you'll have your first meeting. Step four, you know, every month after that, we'll send you your books by the 15th of the month, right? Just laying out for people. What is that expectation? Because I think that a lot of the, you know, quote unquote bad client service comes from there not being the same expectation on both parties. So in the second half is that expectation of timeline. And I also outline what their costs outside of my service will be. So I say, Hey, you will also have to pay for QuickBooks subscription. You may have to pay for, you know, Gusto if we want you to do payroll, right? So. In that whole proposal, I have outlined educating my clients, I have given them the next steps, and I have laid expectations for both my firm and you know, what they're going to have out of me. So that's the, the first line of defense that I take when creating that client experience is telling them exactly what they're going to get from me so that nobody is caught off guard, thinks I'm upselling them, doesn't know what they need.

Alyssa:

Yeah, I love that so much. And I love that you just shared like the whole breakdown, because I know that you're going to get everyone excited. I actually really like that one of the values that you put down, which I totally made a note seriously for myself, not even to make notes for the podcast. It was that you like to highlight that you are U. S. based and all of your team members are also U. S. based accountants, because I'm the same. Like, I know a lot of people who love to offshore, but like, I don't align with offshoring. Like, I just don't feel safe about it. Like I don't like my I think that they have every right to know if it's being offshored. And I love that you put that up front and you're like, we do not offshore. Like all of my team members are all us based and that's it. You'll never have to worry that your stuff's being sent to the wrong country or to somewhere that's not the U S. But I love that more. So highlighting that so other people can understand that, like, You can set the tone and you don't necessarily, if you are someone, if you're listening right now and you do offshore, it doesn't mean that you have to go say we offshore, like you don't have to put it all bold, but you get to determine what is the thing that makes you stand out from everyone else. Because that is a big thing. A lot of people don't like the idea of being offshore because they're like, this is my financial data. And so I love that so much. And then also putting in the bullet points of their experience, because that's something that we do in our emails in Dubsado. So. We have like an email that first gets sent out with them with the proposal. And in that email, we essentially let people know like, Hey, just so you know, like things that you had said on the call were X, Y, Z, and this is how we're going to benefit you because the way that they talk, cause they're, they're different goals are gonna be different than another call. That you're going to have, and I just think it's so interesting that like you just broke that whole thing down. So that was already so amazing. So I would love to hear a little bit more about like other ways that you're, I know that me and you are very similar because I've got to meet you and you, I know me and Brooke both told you this, but you reminded me so much of my prior business partner cause she was just so like fun and bubbly and. I think that's what sets us apart because I think a lot of times a lot of people are very introverted. So if you were introverted and you weren't the person you are, like what would you do to like maybe put yourself out there in a way that maybe made someone feel good and confident whether in an email or in a way to up level the experience even before you've landed them as the sale.

Christy:

Yeah. And I would say this kind of changes based on where your company is at. For me, it's been, you know, I now have two accountants on my team. I have, you know, a couple different people. And a lot of that for me is matching that client with a provider who meets them where they're at, who is really good at whatever they're not. And sometimes it's not me. I have a. team member on my team who is probably less technically, educated on the accounting side. But their absolute strength in life is making people feel like they are the most important thing in the world. And like that they're taken care of. So if I have a client who has a little bit more anxiety, That's who I'm going to put them with, right? And sometimes that's not actually my expertise, right? I'm a little bit more of, I don't know, I'm just more of like, okay, let's get it done type person. I don't always have the patience, so maybe some client needs that. And then I would say, you know, me and my two bookkeepers are all very, very different personalities. So that has been a way that I'm working on matching people with what they need. I'm still at the place where I'm providing all the oversight and still involved in a lot of it. So I can kind of see, but that's been a good place to say, you know, this client needs something very specific, especially if it's not something you can provide and figuring out where your role in your business is going to be. based on your personality and what your clients need. So that's really good. The other thing is just templatizing as much as possible. Because the less you have to think, better things are, right? If you were in a really good place or you had somebody who had the strength to be positive and educational and say things well, right? Template of emails for you or templates of onboarding, whatever that is. then you don't even have to think and you don't have to, you know, be the one doing that every single time. So those are kind of the two things that I would recommend.

Alyssa:

Yeah. I love that. I love the one pairing your team members. And then the second one was what, can you remind me what you just, I like have the worst memory in the whole car. I remember I loved it. Templatizing. Templatizing. Because as soon as you said it, I was like, hell yeah, you know, you know who you're talking to. Yeah. The queen of templating everything. yeah. Because like, like you said, sometimes there are like even team members that like really are more introverted who don't really like to have conversations a lot of times, which is okay. But like, we expect that our team is going to email our clients, like having those, you Email templates like makes them less resistant because like now they don't have to think of what to say when all they would like to say is yes versus like, yes, we love this so much. I'm so excited to talk to you. It's like we want that. Like that's like the fluffy version is what I call it. So I love that. I love, I love the connection piece because I do the same thing naturally as well as like, who can I connect people with? And it's the same too in referral. So like, for example, when we have clients that I meet with, that are like just not aligned with us, maybe they're just outside of our niche or, you know, whatever. A lot of times I'll still meet with them because I want to get to know what they need. And then I'll connect them with someone. a lot of the times I'm reading the personality more than anything. And I'm like, you're not going to get along well with this one, but I know this student here of mine, who's really going to love you so much and be super supportive. And so I really liked that you brought that perspective because I think it does speak create a better client experience. It allows people to feel seen and heard and that you really cared enough to partner them with the right people.

Christy:

Another thing that we have I use ClickUp and I have a, something called a client roster, right? So instead of every client, just having a list, I also have a generic client roster. And in that client roster, this is where I store information about every client from, you know, what type of entity they are to their email, whatever. But one of the categories we have on there is Just generic notes. So I have a client who anytime we email them, their assistant has to be copied or it won't get done. Right. I have a client who is getting married actually this week. Right. So we put in our notes, Hey, they're getting married this week. Be sure, you know, I have a flower delivery waiting for them. Right. Little things that you know, they know that you're Thinking of them, taking care of them, but that can be shared between the whole team because, you know, or just kept for you later, right? I'm not necessarily going to remember your dog is named Joe in six weeks from now, but I want to. I want you to think that I've been thinking about you and Joe for the last six weeks, right? Yeah. Really taking note of important things about your clients. I have every clients, you know, if they have a spouse, I have their spouse's name. If they have kids, if they have pets, things that are important to them, or things we talked about last call that are maybe outside of their business. We also have, you know, we have a category to keep that. And for me, you know, maybe as my team members shift around, if one comes onto the account, if one leaves the account, that's all still stored there, right? It's not in my head. And if I roll off and Kelly rolls onto a client, it's not forgotten. Like everything is stored in our system.

Alyssa:

Yeah. I love that for us. It's notion, but same concept. And so we used to do it in a sauna and that's where, cause I know that you took, which is really funny. I didn't know that you were in kickoff of Asana until I met you. I'd be like, yeah, totally taking kickoff of Asana. I was like, how weird that like I happened to sponsor this event, meet a student, didn't know you were my student, but we just naturally connected and then realize that you were in my program. I just thought it was so crazy, but, um, I don't remember if you remember that part of the program, but we talk about putting client cards and information inside of them. It used to be Asana, but then we migrated it to Notion because Notion is way more robust, but I do know that ClickUp does offer those docs. So the docs allow for more expansion and like,

Christy:

Yeah, so we actually have it in like a list form, but we add like custom fields and we do this whole weird thing. So like I took a lot of the concepts from your Asana course and said, I love this idea, but for my firm, it should be this way. And we actually did set it up all in Asana first. And then I said, you know what? Click up is going to be better for me, right? So you know, as everybody is going to think about it, I am a huge advocate of that program even though I don't use Asana. Like I would still say one of the best investments I've made. It was awesome because it got me thinking about my business differently. And then. I was able to say, you know what, that may work for Alyssa's firm. It doesn't work for mine, but here's another way I can think about it. Cause I know the system So I actually, probably about a year ago, converted everything into ClickUp. And since then we've been doing our own, you know, we have dashboards now and we have you know, I, and I am on a paid version of ClickUp to get a lot of these features, but we started creating things that just work for how we work and how we grow as a team. Bye. Yeah, there's no right answer. There's a lot of softwares that can manage all of this for you.

Alyssa:

Yeah, my uh, best friend, her name is Serena Shoup, but she also has a podcast in the space, and um, she came over recently and we were talking and it's, she like pulled up something on her screen because she was here in person, And she pulled up something in Notion and I was like, girl, let me see your Notion because I'm, so I built the Notion and I gave it to first guinea pig was Brooke Swan, the one that you met. And then it became Serena. And then after that, it was like, okay, I got feedback from them. And then we went ahead and rolled it out for our students. And I was like, guys, I want to see how you're doing it. But me and Serena were talking and sitting and all of a sudden I was like, it's so crazy how we can have, and me and her serve course creators, coaches, and creatives. We serve the same people, except she's on zero and that we use QBO. And they're different. But yet she has the same structure that we had originally built into the software for her. But it's so funny, like you said, it's like, but it's also not having to think from it from the scratch. And I think that that's where a lot of people, like you said, I think a lot of people think like a kickoff of Asana is just like templates. And that's all it is. And I'm like, you're literally going to learn project management concepts. And a lot of people came in, use ClickUp. And use keeper, which is probably a really great segue because I get this question all the time, but it's been so many years since I ever even tried ClickUp. So I would love to know what was the determining factor between, I don't get offended by the way. I love it still, but that's different strokes for different folks. And I would love to hear.

Christy:

Yeah, for me, it was a lot of the automations as well as the dashboard views for me, like the dashboard views are everything. So I actually have a dashboard view. And so what a dashboard view does is it takes in all of the tasks from a, you know, certain lists and then. Formats it in a different way. So I have a dashboard view for every single one of my team members that basically has, I think how we have it set up is anything overdue is at the top. Anything due today is in the middle and ever anything in the next five days is at the bottom. So at any given time, instead of going through every list and seeing what my team members have outstanding I can. Just pop into there and see, oh, hey, you know, Kelly has this, Eliza has this, like, whatever. And be able to easily see that. I also have a it's called, By type, workflow by type, I think. And so I have a pivot the same way as I do for my team members for any big tasks. So any month end close, I have a tag that says month end close. I pivot it by that month end close and I can just pull up, Hey, it's the 10th. Where are we for all of our month end close tasks?

Alyssa:

Oh, cool.

Christy:

So, yeah. And, and I actually have a big view that's, I think it's month end close 10, 99 11, 40. Right. And so I can see. Pretty much the big rocks of my firm at any given time. For me, I'm super visual and so being able to see all of that has been super helpful. But I think the first thing that caused me to move over was the automation flow.

Alyssa:

Yeah, I know they have a lot more.

Christy:

Yeah, and I know your program is based on the free version of Asana, and now I do use the paid version of ClickUp, so I'm not sure if that, if that makes a difference, but as I added team members was when I said, ooh, I think I need a little bit more.

Alyssa:

of the automation. And so I know that it for sure is a little bit cheaper going to ClickUp because even ClickUp I think on the free version you were able already to do custom columns versus Asana you had to immediately upgrade. Which I think is so limiting but like it is what it is. Like the software itself is great and that's why I teach it on the free so people don't have to upgrade because there's workarounds for everything. It's using tags for statuses instead of doing columns. But I now have the paid version of Asana as well and so like I actually like migrated myself and my own firm because. There's a lot of the custom columns and our own rules. We call them rules versus automations inside of Asana. But I always love hearing it because yeah, so one of the concepts we teach is like the group to work, which is exactly what you're talking about as far as like the 1099 group worked like throughout the end of the year. It's like, I still want to store the tasks for the individual clients into their client projects. So then we could see what work do we do for the client in general, but then like we call it like cross referencing so you could show it in one project and show it in another. And it's a super simple concept. It's just called. Monthend. We have one for QC too. So we have like, I don't know if you do this, but we have one for monthend and one for QC. The QC is the task that the quality control person does. And then the monthend is for the bookkeepers. And it's nice to see like a high level overview and whatnot. And it's just been such a cool concept. And I just love hearing how other people use stuff because we think it's the software that's going to solve the problem. It's the process, not the software.

Christy:

Yeah, exactly. And you know, I always, anytime we have a team meeting every week or two, I say, what else do we need? Like, how do you visually see this? Because everything that we have right now has been built for my brain. Like, do you process this the same? Does it work the same? I tell my team members, you can make your own dashboards, like to view it. Cause what I love about the dashboard is it doesn't change anything. It just works. holes so they can choose to view it however their brain works. And so that's what I love is like your brain may not work the same as mine and that's totally fine but do what works for you in the system.

Alyssa:

Yeah, I love that. We started to use, because I get a lot of this question of, why do we use Notion if we use Asana? And I'm like, well, Notion is totally different than Asana. It does not, we don't use it for text. That's one that like,

Christy:

I don't yet understand. Yeah, I think,

Alyssa:

my friend, once you, once you like saw it and like you actually got to see like its capabilities, I do know, however, because we have several students in my Breakthrough Program, because we give our whole entire Notion setup, um, We have several of them who use ClickUp, so they use the concept, just like you were saying, it's all about just understanding the concept and then morphing it into whatever software you use. They've actually taken the concept of what we built into ClickUp because they have that DOCS capability but there's still some limitations because Notion does have more, like, Amplified things that it can actually do but that's one of the things that Brooke Swan actually helped me create was recently um, Because I just hired like a personal assistant who's also executive So she helps with my house stuff house projects like updating our sales things and doing this like just so many hodgepodge things poor girl I love her and her name's Brooke My problem hiring all the brooks. I just don't get it It's either alissa's or brooks and I just don't understand and so anyways The other day I was like, my friend, I just need somewhere that I can go because like, notion is like where we get information, but not where we execute the work. So like we go to Asana to actually do the work. And so I wanted to be able to see quickly my sales pipeline, my open discussions that I have with my assistant, like any of the open house projects. So they have this new feature called like backlink databases, where it's similar to what you're saying. So like you said, it's like, it really doesn't matter. It's just like, My brain works with this system in this place. It's just, it's the same thing. So now I have one place I go to in Notion to start my day. I look at my sales pipeline. Do I have any calls for today that I need to go through? Then I look at my open discussions. I open up like my open house projects. I've got like, as you can see behind me, so many projects going on in this goddamn house. you lose your mind and you lose track of everything. And. I think just this goes to show the importance of just picking a system. Stop trying to look at like, well, this one is what this person uses. I have to use it. And I really love that you tried one and you were like, you first identified what was wrong, that the other one was not solving for you. Then you probably researched the other options and found that they were going to solve it for you. Maybe also at a lower budget and also easily be able to give you some of the new functionality you needed. So I really love that you shared that.

Christy:

Yeah. And I will say, you know, I know you mentioned that you may be able to do click up cheaper. I have no idea what I pay because to me, it's worth it. I.

Alyssa:

Same. I don't even know how much I pay for a sauna, but I know it's worth it.

Christy:

I have not a clue, but I have never batted my eye yet. Let's add a new person here. Let's do this. I don't care. My life is in there. If you take that away, I don't know to breathe. So sorry.

Alyssa:

It's so funny that you say that because I legitimately tell them, they're like, what, how much? And then it's pay for all these seats. I'm like, I don't know when a piece of tech is doing the job really well. Also, the other caveat to that is, are you charging your clients correctly? Because most people are only looking at the profitability directly from the client, not looking at the overhead of the company. So I always tell people, like, you wouldn't really be so mad about prices if, like, maybe you priced your clients correctly. But that's not always the case. Like, I get it. I'm also one of those people who are like, just I'll just buy a freaking travel trailer tomorrow or some stupid ****. So like, that's my problem. Like, for me, I'm like, yeah, let's do it. Like, I know they don't understand the investment. Like, I just do it. But I love that we, like, talked about this because I am just like you, that I legit, like, don't care how much it is. I just know it works really well. And there's no way I'm going back. Yeah,

Christy:

for sure.

Alyssa:

I would literally throw up in my mouth if I ever had to, like, do pen and paper again. I have a pen and paper that I like to, like, Like jot, like really random, like notes throughout the day, but nothing.

Christy:

If I get overwhelmed, I'll like go to pen and paper. I'm like, okay, I just need like a physical, you know, one, two, three, but most of the time I'm good with my calendar and my ClickUp. We're good.

Alyssa:

Yeah. I love that. So let's circle back just for a quick moment about client experience. Cause one of the big things that I wanted to like kind of highlight today Was a resource that you have actually for the accounting space, which I think is so cool, but actually goes back to the client experience because a part of creating a good client experience, like you kind of touched at this point at the very beginning where you said you do still want to know what you're doing before you just say, like, you look calm because there's a lot of people out there who are super confident. But don't know their crap. And then at the end of the day, like are doing a really bad job that we have to pick up on. So I want to talk about one core component that I think you do really well at, which is doing the right research and getting the right information to know and understand, like tax law, tax rules, tax information. industry trends, like whatever that looks like. So I'd love for you to touch on the resource that you had talked about that you have for sale for people specifically in our accounting space to kind of keep up with that, to be able to deliver a great client experience and know all the**** Christy: yeah. So what I've created is actually a weekly newsletter subscription. It's called In The Know. Basically it's keeping you in the know with everything that's going on in the financial space, whether you are a financial planner, a bookkeeper, a tax professional, or you're just adjacent to the industry. It's literally 15 a month. So even if you're like three quarters of that stuff doesn't apply to me, that's fine. One quarter of it does. Right. So it's really supposed to be a resource that helps connect every financial professional and get them thinking about what their job related to other financial professionals is. So I feel like this requires a little backstory of like how I got here. So, um, When I was working in the job before I started my own business, I actually was working at a financial planning firm. And it was very unique in that, I had my investment license, I was doing financial planning with clients, but I was also a CPA and doing the tax work. And so I was able to understand the correlation between, okay, you know, the financial planner advised that you invest in a SEP. Great. The tax preparer needs to know to adjust the tax. the tax projections that they're going to contribute to a SEP or the bookkeeper needs to know if they're an S corp to add health insurance premiums to the W 2, right? I've just listed all three financial professionals who need to be communicating with each other at the end of the year. And in that job, because it was a bigger firm and like we did it all internally in the firm, I was the point person who at the end of every year would say, Hey, is there health insurance included in their W 2? Hey, did they make their SEP contribution? Do we have that included in the tax projection? Do we have it included in the return? Right? And so I was literally there being that kind of quarterback between everybody. I ended up leaving that firm and saying, you know, when I started my own firm, I said, I do not want to do the financial planning myself. I'm like, Oh, Because personally, I really, you know, believe in number one, checks and balances, right? I love when somebody else looks over my work because, hey, we're, you know, we're all human. We all make mistakes. So I love that component. I also personally think that those are just two deep expertise levels that like, you can't be an expert at both. So when I left, I said, I want to create really great relationships with financial advisors who will talk to me and bookkeepers who will talk to me, right? So that we, you know, I have clients who We plan meetings. It's me, their financial advisor and that, right? Like those are the relationships that I wanted to create. And I started out just as a tax planning firm. And unfortunately I very quickly found that. My clients did not have good, reliable bookkeepers who talked to me or who provided me the information I needed. I got to a point where I said, I was looking, I distinctly remember, I was looking at a tax return. I said, I cannot put my name on this. The books are so wrong. I like, I can't. And so I actually ended up bringing bookkeeping in house in my firm because I said, you know, I can't find out there what I want. So this is a note to you bookkeepers, the more you communicate with your client's tax accountants, the better that relationship will be. That's really, I promise you, that's what we want. We want to feel confident about those returns we're signing. So that is kind of, you know, I brought everything that in house. I still kept the financial advisor part separate, but this is when I started to learn when clients did not work with my preferred advisors or in the beginning when they didn't work with my preferred bookkeepers, This information was not being spread. And I brought on a client where, you know, their health insurance premiums weren't included in their W 2. And it was a year later, and I'm trying to clean up the tax return. And so, I said, you know what? There's got to be some main source where I'm knowing, you know, what bookkeepers are worried about this time of year or financial advisors are knowing what the tax preparers need this time of year. Right. So I said, what if I create this newsletter where I'm just kind of giving generic tips, generic information once a week about I think, you know, one week was, In January, I did a whole month of, you know, updates to tax law for 2024, which is important for really everybody in this field. I've done, you know, a filing status one. And then I'll also share tips about just running your firm in general. Cause I think a lot of financial pros deal with the same issues in that we have to have secure portals, which is very unique from anything you'll get in the US. generic business coaching, right? They're like, use this. You're like, I can't. So, and in fact, I think last week I included information about my onboarding process and proposals and literally shared the template of that proposal that I walked you guys through in the beginning. So straight up handed the Canva link out. So there is some really, really useful information in there. And my goal was really just to make those relationships between all parties of your clients, wealth building journey, be really strong. Yeah, I love that. And I love that you're sharing just like tips and strategies and just, you know, what to know about. And also like, you're also not boring, which is really nice because I'm telling you, like, I can't tell you how many times I've been subscribed to some sort of newsletter resource and online book. system or whatever, because I came from the tax space and then I turned into the bookkeeping and then it was like, when I do this all over again, I'm no longer going to ever touch taxes ever with a 10 point poll. It'll just never happen again. So props to you. But you want to be informed. Yeah, but I want to be informed because like, also me, the audit trail person in me, because like when you start in the tax space, you know that like, oh, I'm tracking every conversation from the client, every little note. When there's a lot of bookkeepers who don't even care about that, like I know several of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That just like don't care. And it's like, cause they've never been exposed to what could happen if you don't have an audit trail of information. So I really liked that, but you're also not making it boring because like sometimes I, my eyes like literally glaze over.

Christy:

Yeah. It's not very technical. It's like, here you go. Wait, like human words,

Alyssa:

like this is what you do. Like, here's a story like, and then you're just, you've always had a great way of like making things fun, but also like straight to the point. So. I'm really excited. And for anyone listening who's interested in that, we are going to link it below. You said it was called the in the know, correct?

Christy:

Yes. Okay, perfect.

Alyssa:

So we're going to make sure to link that below for anybody who's actually wants to learn more about her newsletter and wants to check it out. Highly recommend it. I know that Christy does a lot of work to really make sure she sources from the right information and whatnot. So I'm really grateful that you shared that with us today. So I kind of want to like wrap this up. So usually at the very end, I always like to ask, like, what is one thing if someone is at the beginning of their journey, what would you recommend to them as they're building their firm or as they're getting into this space?

Christy:

Yeah, honestly, this is going to be so cliche, but like, keep going at it. I would say it takes two to three years for you to really start feeling, which is longer than you want. I know, but like for you to really start feeling good, I can tell you this year, I think I'm in year two to three right now. And I work a lot less and I get a lot more out of it this year, like dramatically. This time, two years ago, I was panicking, like, where's my next dollar going to come from? I sent out three proposals this week because I have put that investment in those first two years of putting my name out there and meeting people. And so. A lot of those things that you think are, you know, useless in the first year, like they are going to come back to serve you. And I would also say, in those first few years, when you probably have fewer clients than you want, when you, may not see the work paying off as much as you want, Focus really, really hard on serving those clients so, so well, because I'll tell you these days, 90 percent of my referrals come from those original clients that I served really, really well. So just focus on doing what you do best and doing a really good job at it and it will pay off over time.

Alyssa:

Yes, I love that. And so my last question is for anyone who is a little bit more ahead of you, what is one question that you would want to ask them about how to get to where are? Team.

Christy:

Anything

Alyssa:

about

Christy:

organizing your team, being a good manager. You should ask

Alyssa:

me, my friend. You know that I have like a whole thing on just team and building it.

Christy:

Yes. Yes. That's been my biggest struggle. You know Trusting people when your standards are so high be, you know, knowing when to, I think I said this, to someone the other day, I was like, I'm a really good accountant, but I don't know that I'm a great boss. And so, you know, that I think is a huge struggle, especially for probably a lot of financial professionals who are like, I'm really freaking good at what I do, but the managing people part of it that's, you know, that's something that Yeah, I am working on.

Alyssa:

Yeah, that can actually it's so funny. I was just talking to Serena today actually about the same topic that know a specific leader that they're incredible, smartest person I've ever met, like seriously, so incredible. But there's a disconnect between their knowledge and information between the team. And it actually is detrimental to the company. And I think it's very interesting. Um, When you see that, because like the leadership side is a really big, big component, because if you're not trickling down to your team, the information and your expectations and your values and your services, what you really expect from them, it can make or break the success. Because when you start to remove yourself from the day to day operations, and as you start to step away or become the removable CEO, like I like to call it, You actually risk that you're, there's going to be a disconnect between yourself and your team and the quality of work. Not saying at all that that's the case, but the reason I bring that up is because I love that you're even the fact that you have awareness around that you actually want to learn how to be a better leader and learn how to build your team up is already the first step because that's the hardest step. There's a lot of people out there who are like, I got my **** together. I'm great. I'm this most amazing person. But at the end of the day, it's like, But your **** stinks. And I love that you shared that because like that alone, like my friend, I am always here for you because team is my favorite thing to talk about. And I've done a really great job of finding some rock stars. I still have my own leadership hiccups. I still have my own things I'm trying to work on that I wish I didn't do, or I wish I did more of, but it's all a part about the learning And I really love that you shared that about wanting to learn more about that.

Christy:

Yeah, and I'll even say, you know, one of the things that I am doing when, at the beginning, I told everybody to templatize everything, that's what I'm doing for myself, I'm putting it in my ClickUp, hey, check in with your team every quarter, have a formal evaluation with them, anything that I can do to remind myself to stay on track. And it's in ClickUp, it's going to happen. So, you know, that's the first step we're taking towards, remind, have, have your team's concrete goals, follow up with them, have a formal meeting. So, , just those reminders for me to even do that stuff is definitely the first step.

Alyssa:

I love that. Well, thank you so much for being here today and for sharing all your knowledge and resources. I would love to know how can people get ahold of you. I know we have, we're going to drop your link below for your in the know newsletter, but how can people get in the world and be around you?

Christy:

Yeah. The best place you can find me is on Instagram and it's at, it's Chrissy Bowie. And also my website, which will be linked there. You can find everything in my Instagram link tree. That's probably the best place to go. You can message me. You can ask questions. But yeah, I'm, I'm always around there.

Alyssa:

I just realized too, that I've been saying Bowie as your last name this whole time.

Christy:

Oh, you know what? Everyone does. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize it's Bowie. One time, somebody convinced me that that's how you say it. I was like, oh, am I wrong?

Alyssa:

You're like, that's weird. I didn't realize that when I popped out that I was going to be told that like, this is not my last name.

Christy:

No, I mean, they just like said it so many times. And I was like, that sounds right.

Alyssa:

But I definitely was like thinking of David Bowie. So like, then I was like Bowie and this whole time it's Bowie. I'm so sorry.

Christy:

Oh my gosh. No worries at all.

Alyssa:

Well, thank you so much for being here today. And I can't wait. Maybe we'll bring you back on.

Christy:

Yes, please. Well, it's so good to talk to you and I'm so appreciative for the opportunity.