rod burkert

Turn the practice you have into the practice you want!

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Shoehorns

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Have we ever meant “Happy New Year” quite as much as we do at the start of 2021? Yet, we’re also starting 2021 a little unsure what it will bring … because 2020 blindsided all of us, and we can’t quite relax just yet, can we? So, it’s hard to know what to say to you here as a way to welcome our analytical souls to the dawn of 2021.

But I will try.

Here’s my New Year wish for you: Forget 2020 to the degree you can and bolt the door behind it. Onward to 2021. A new start. A fresh page on which build/grow/scale the practice you want … based on the life you want.

The tagline for my coaching business is Turn The Practice You Have Into The Practice You Want!TM. I thought a lot about the tagline over the holidays, and it occurred to me that you can’t have the practice you want until you first have the life you want. The latter determines the former.

But we’ve been conditioned to think the reverse is true. That work comes before life and that we need to shoehorn our lives in and around our work. But what if we thought differently. What if we conditioned ourselves to shoehorn our work in and around our lives?

From Untamed by Glennon Doyle, a book I read over the holidays:

I looked hard at … my entire life and asked: How much of this was my idea? Do I truly want any of this, or is this what I was conditioned to want? Which of my beliefs are of my own creation and which were programmed into me? How much of who I’ve become is inherent, and how much was just inherited? How much of the way I look and speak and behave is just how other people have trained me to look and speak and behave?

Wow. And ouch. But how does this affect us … now?

Well, different people are in different stages (ages, income, kids, etc.) of their lives. And THAT should dictate the kind of practices they have … at that moment.

Yet, stages of life change (that’s why they are called stages!). But how many of our practices adapt to our stages of life changes? And how many of our practices look exactly like they did 5 or 10 or more years ago? Because that’s the way everyone else we know has done it. Because that’s what we were all taught.

We are all copying each other. But no one has bothered to check if the original was a counterfeit.

I try to practice what I preach. The practice we started in 2000 was a traditional tax purpose BV practice in center city Philadelphia. It made sense for 10 years based on the stage of life we were in. Until it didn’t.

Things shifted.  So we sold three properties and just about everything else we owned. We said goodbye to family, friends, and neighbors. We moved into the RV and created the practice we wanted based on the next stage of our lives. We shoehorned our work in and around our life (and lifestyle).

At the beginning of December 2020, we closed on some land in Colorado. A new stage of our life together is percolating. A different practice model will follow.

Are you happy with your practice? Is it meeting your needs at this stage of your life? If not, your discontent may be your imagination nagging you about what your life could be, were it not for some collective thought that says what it should be.

You can’t have the practice you want until you first have the life you want.

* * *

Tool

Cliché Finder Avoid clichés like the plague. Or, at least, only use them once in a blue moon. LOL. This is a free self-editing tool you can use to check your writing.

* * *

 Group Coaching Program

People have been asking for a Group Coaching option. Voilà!
The sessions will be on the 2nd/4th Mondays of the month, starting January 11.
There are some other goodies/benefits in addition to the actual coaching.
Are you interested?
Email me, and I will send you the details.

* * *

Where I will be Zooming in

If I’m coming to you, let’s meet up! (Covid permitting, of course.)
> May 21: NYSSCPA Business Valuation Conference

* * *

RV Shenanigans

Amy and I have moved on from Phoenix to Tucson but are uncertain how long we will be staying or where we might be heading next. Like many of you, much of where we go and what we do is governed by Covid caution. Our bubble is the RV and, thankfully, it is mobile. FWIW, Tucson seems to have better Covid policies and practices in place than Phoenix.

On a lighter note, every morning during the slower-paced times of the holidays Amy and I started a 15-30 minute practice of sitting in the front of the RV … looking out the window at whatever view we had … drinking coffee … and talking about life. It’s something we’ve vowed to continue doing even though the faster-paced times of normal working days have returned.

* * *

Don’t be good. Be great.
I’ll be back on January 20.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Builder ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want and sharing their ideas and expertise on how to do that.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn

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If you missed my last post: Ever read the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Well, all I really need to know about building my BVFLS practice I learned from Santa Claus. Set yourself up for 2021 with the new 12 days of Christmas – 12 lessons every practitioner can learn from the man in red.

On to this week: Yep, the title of this post is a euphemism for an embarrassing and disappointing experience … mine. I imagine every blog/newsletter author is publishing an upbeat missive that celebrates the end of 2020 and spurs you on to greater heights in 2021. (I already wrote that post – see above.) Me, I’m writing a post about painful lessons learned … though it will spur me on to try something new/different/better next year.

The experience relates to my Practice Development INSIDER interview series.
I had wonderfully high hopes for it when I first conceived of the idea in April 2019.

I found an ideally suited virtual assistant to be the showrunner. She formerly worked in training at a large CPA firm, was well-versed in putting on webinars, and, most importantly, could negotiate the NASBA accreditation and compliance maze so the interviews would qualify for CPE credit.

We launched in July 2019.

I thought a ton of people would tune in on the first Friday of every month to learn from “an incredible line up of seasoned BVFLS practitioners who will openly share their experiences, insights, and secret sauce about how they built and continue to grow their practices.”

I had great guests.
Mercer, Hitcher, and Fannon led off the top of the order; Seigneur was batting clean-up.

I had great press.
Andy Dzamba from BV Resources was a frequent attendee and wrote favorable reviews in BV Wire.

I had great emails.
People told me I was getting better at interviewing as the shows went on.

I had great testimonials.
My favorite was: The webinar made me feel like I had walked down the hall to chat with some colleagues.

We kept the interviews short … first to an hour, then 75 minutes.
We priced them fairly … first at $97, then down to $49.
We offered CPE.
We provided audio and video recordings and a transcript.
We created an online store where people could access the archived interviews.

How could these interviews not be in demand?

 

We ran 18 interviews before we decided last week to fold this tent.
Why?
People showed up … just not enough of them.
As in not enough to cover our costs, which included my virtual assistant, guest honorariums, transcription fees, NASBA costs, and archive store hosting.

I was demoralized leading up to the decision last week, and I am still feeling deflated as I write about it this week.
Not because I have never failed before.
But because I feel I have never missed the mark by so much before.
And because I knew I had to make it public so that people wouldn’t wonder what happened to the series.
And so that I could share my lessons with you.

What are the lessons I learned?

Some of the takeaways are positive, others not so much.
Here are six I have so far:

#1 Virtual Assistants. Don’t do what you are not good at. I could have learned everything I needed to market, sell, and deliver the webinars myself … but at what (opportunity) cost. Plus, I found Danielle, and she will be helping me with many future endeavors.

#2 Price. Don’t lower it. We lowered the price (i.e., your investment) from $97 to $49 on the one-year anniversary of the interview series. A lot of people showed up to that interview. I thought it was the price … turns out it was the guest. And, frankly, I was too chickesh!t to raise the price back to the original $97. Price conveys value, and I am not sure if people believed there was enough value there at the lower price of $49. Though at the same time, because of Covid, there were a lot of free CPE options out there that I was competing against. So maybe I have not learned the “right” lesson yet about pricing.

#3 CPE. It is a decision factor. People ask for and want CPE … but they won’t come just because of it.

#4 Messaging. It’s important. For example, there is a perceived difference between ‘practice development’ and ‘practice building.’ Not everyone needs practice development, but most people want to build and grow their BVFLS practices in other ways.

#5 Platform. People didn’t need to show up in person to watch the INSIDER interviews. They only need to be in a place where they can hear the interviews.

#6 Aspiration. I think people want to see someone who can inspire them. But I am not sure if my INSIDER attendees believed they could build their practice the way some of my guests did … that their ‘overnight’ success won’t happen to them. People forget that before someone like Jim Hitchner became JIM HITCHNER he was just jim hitchner.

 

So I am going to be spending the last two weeks of the year licking some wounds.

But, you ask: I thought you said this experience was going to lead you to something bigger and better in 2021?
It has.
Stay tuned.

* * *

Group Coaching Program

People have been asking for a Group Coaching option.
So I wanted to let you know that I will be starting a program in January.
I am still deciding on 1st/3rd or 2nd/4th Mondays of the month.
There are some other goodies/benefits in addition to the actual coaching.

Are you interested?
Email me, and I will send you the details.

* * *

Where I will be Zooming in

If I’m coming to you, and it’s post-Covid possible, let’s meet up!
> May 21: New York State Society Business Valuation Conference

* * *

Happy Holidays to all!
I’ll be back on January 6.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Builder ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want and sharing their ideas and expertise on how to do that.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.

All I really need to know about building my practice I learned from Santa Claus

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If you missed my last post: The Preloaded Year. I’d like to think that all my posts are valuable to you in some way, shape, or form. But I believe this last post is especially valuable because it not only encouraged you to keep your foot on the practice development accelerator through the end of the year, it told you how to do it and gave you a calendar and a formula for planning next year.

On to this week: Ever read the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Well, all I really need to know about building and growing my BVFLS practice I learned from Santa Claus. Set yourself up for an incredible 2021 with the new 12 days of Christmas – 12 lessons every practitioner can learn from the man in red.

 

#1 – Deliver on time.

Would you still believe in Santa Claus if he came late or missed a year.

#2 – Everyone loves a giver.

Don’t always be a taker. Win your prospects over with your generosity.

#3 – Hire a team of hardworking people that make you look good.

SC gets all the glory, but the elves work hard to make it look easy. Maybe you need to hire some elves (think talented, hardworking, and maybe offshore).

#4 – Build your database.

SC has a list, and he checks it twice. Most practitioners don’t have a list.

#5 – Qualify the audience of people you serve.

SC grades the kids on that database as either naughty or nice. Do you grade your prospects, clients, and referral sources? Who’s been naughty? Who’s been nice? You know what to do.

#6 – Teach your clients how to treat you.

Every kid knows to leave out milk and cookies for SC. Do your clients and referral sources know how to help you?

#7 – Leverage.

SC has a team of doppelgangers who work the crowds at every shopping center on the planet starting after Thanksgiving. This allows the real Santa to get the real work done.

#8 – Limit access.

SC has things set up so you can’t reach him whenever you want. You’ve gotta send your request to an obscure PO Box at the North Pole. Are you too easy to get a hold of?

#9 – Run special events.

SC is the original Product Launch Formula guy. (If you don’t get the reference, Google Jeff Walker.) He builds massive anticipation and even gets your kids to do a countdown before the big morning.

#10 – The costume.

If SC wore regular clothes like everyone else, he wouldn’t stand out. He’d look like everyone else. Do you have a “costume” that makes you THE advisor?

#11 – Get others to talk about you.

Santa’s PR elves get everyone taking about him so he never has to talk himself up.

#12 – Build a business that gives you free time.

With his team, SC does not work all the time—certainly not 24/7/365.

* * *

Next INSIDER webinar

Join me this Friday, December 4 at 1pm ET on Practice Development INSIDER for my interview with Michael Blake and Ed Mysogland. If you want to know what goes into putting on a BVFLS podcast, this interview is for you!

* * *

Don’t be good. Be great.

I’ll be back on December 16.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Development ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.

The Preloaded Year: 2021

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If you missed my last post: Everything changes … will your practice keep up? The world around us is changing, but our BVFLS practices are not. For example, most of these Covid-impacted months have been used by BVFLS cognoscenti to tell us how to refine the technical stuff we already do. Things like Covid-impacted projections, Covid-impacted cost of capital, and Covid-impacted DLOMs.

We should always be focused on doing things better. But not at the expense of doing things differently. Because what about the bigger picture? Like the direction of your practice as a result of these Covid-impacted times! For example, are traditional BVFLS services the only thing you will ever offer? Ever?

On to this week: Here’s the backdrop: It’s mid-November, and there is a decision we all face this time of year because of the combined effect of the holidays and year-end. That decision: whether to apply the brake or the accelerator to our practices.

I get it. Thanksgiving is just around the corner … then holiday parties if you’re up for in-person gatherings these days … then holiday shopping … then Christmas … then the down week between Christmas and New Years … then New Years … and we don’t come back to work until Monday the 4th.

But in the blink of an eye, we can easily “lose” 5-6 weeks … and it’s easy to justify because we think there’s nothing we can really do.

You can probably guess that I believe the better decision is to apply the accelerator … and there are 3 specific accelerators I would like you to consider.

#1 – Hunt for new clients through year end
#2 – Provide value to existing clients through December
#3 – Preload the new year

That last one – preloading the new year – is really important … it’s the title of this video after all!

Because if you’re like most BV peeps, you’re rounding the corner a little dazed and confused. Some of you had great years and are reeling from your version of crazy busy. Others of you have not had such great years and are wondering what happened – and what has to happen – in order to turn things around.

Either way, you feel like you deserve a break … a few weeks of downtime.

But when you come back to work on January 4th, it’s going to take you a week or so to get your mojo back … so more lost time. Then, you realize you need a plan for 2021, and instead of making concrete progress on your practice, you’re planning – in January – how you’re going to make that progress. You end up spending opportunity time planning when you could be hitting the ground running and, frankly, smashing it!

So to get a jumpstart on that third accelerator, here is a challenge for you: Can you write a plan for your next year on a single piece of paper?

If not, then your plan might be too complex. And I have a 1-page solution for you.

Watch the video, learn more about the 3 accelerators, and get your 1-page plan from me.

Thanks for reading this far.
And for your kindness and generosity.

I’ll be back on December 2.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Development ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.

 

Everything changes … will your practice keep up?

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In case you missed my last post: “Slide” the practice you have into the practice you want. 2020 has offered up many lessons about the demand for our services: how we sell and prospects buy … and certainly, how we deliver. So based on lessons you learned, how will you position yourself for success in 2021? I have a framework that can help with that.

On to this week: I fear that the world around us is changing, but our BVFLS practices are not. For example, most of these Covid-impacted months have been used by BVFLS organizations and cognoscenti to tell us how to refine the technical stuff we already do. Things like Covid-impacted projections, Covid-impacted cost of capital, and Covid-impacted DLOMs.

Is this good stuff? Of course, it is … to the extent we need to solve these problems for our clients in the (hopefully short!) remaining Covid-impacted months.

We should always be focused on doing things better.
But not at the expense of doing things differently.
Because what about the bigger picture?
Like the direction of your practice as a result of these Covid-impacted times.
For example, are traditional BVFLS services the only thing you will ever offer? Ever?

Or, like your clients who have had to “pivot” their products and services to reflect Covid-impacted times, will you have to (or should you want to) reinvent/redesign/ reimage/recalibrate yours?

I had an interesting call a few weeks ago with a valuation firm.
They do a lot of what I label as “compliance” type valuation work.
And they want me to provide report writing training to their people.

I get the need to be better at report writing.
But maybe we’re not asking the right question.
Instead of asking how do I get better at report writing, is the right question should I even be doing this work?

I get that reports are absolutely needed for compliance work. But do we really want to get better at work that is being valued less and commoditized more? So that as time goes on, we get better at something that we get paid less to do?!

Is it time to take a hard look at your business model and pivot now so you can be ahead of the curve? This does not mean you stop doing business valuations … but it might mean looking at why (what purpose) you are doing the valuations or how you deliver the results.

I have not seen any of the BVFLS organizations and cognoscenti talking about this.
(But I have been watching your back, and I wish more practitioners were paying attention.)

I see one of the most important steps toward your success being a written plan. Because research shows the simple act of writing out your goals significantly increases your odds of achieving them. But taking the time and making the effort to write out a plan seems daunting. So I created this one-page framework that can do the heavy lifting for you.

And it starts with the vision of the practice you want in, say, 2-3 years’ time. Because I can tell based on my experience of coaching BVFLS practitioners, vision is more important than having great marketing. It’s more important than using great technology. It’s even more important than doing great work … because we know people who do less than stellar work, yet have stellar practices.

So what is your 2-3 year VISION for your practice?
What GOALS do you need to achieve in the next 12 months to be on track with that vision?
What PROJECTS must you complete in the next 12 weeks to meet your 12-month goals?
What ACTIONS must you take this week to move you forward on your 12-week projects?

Knowing where you’re going—having a vision—is the one element that differentiates highly successful practices from struggling ones. Watch the movie 12 Strong. In one scene, soldiers on horseback are negotiating a cliff edge at the top of a deep canyon. One soldier says, “Don’t look down – look forward. The horse goes where you look.” It’s a great metaphor for our practices.

Where are you looking?

* * *

Next INSIDER webinar

Join me this Friday, November 6 at 1pm ET on Practice Development INSIDER for my interview with Greg Caruso and Zach Sharkey. If you really want to know what it goes into writing a BVFLS book, this interview is for you!

* * *

Don’t be good. Be great.
Don’t be the best. Be the only.

I’ll be back on Nov 18.

 

 

 

 

 

PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:

1. Join Practice Development ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want.

2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.

3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.

4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.