Thriveal CPA Network

01/09/2013

Just Say No To Funneling

My pastor, Peter Hubbard, is a great teacher and story teller. Back in 2008, we were working our way through the New Testament book of Ephesians as a church and we were learning about corrupt and uncorrupt speech. This is when I first heard about funneling.

Funneling is something most all of us have mastered without really even trying. It is the art of taking any topic, no matter what it is, and making it about yourself.

For example,

Your Colleague: We had some killer green beans for Christmas.

You: I once had a restaurant owner for a client. His green beans were really good too. With my guidance, he was able to open 4 new locations his second year. Read more

Category:: Coaching
Comments:: 15

10/22/2012

Design Thinking From the Customer’s Perspective

This week, a bunch of CPAs were learning about “design thinking” from my friend Jason Blumer. They were learning to take a real interest in their clients (isn’t that crazy?) in order to help their clients grow and get better. Suffice to say… these aren’t your typical accountants!

As part of the experience, Jason brought in a few of his own clients and local business owners to serve as guinea pigs or lab rats. (I was just going to go with lab rat, but lab rats are injected or exposed to all kinds of funky chemicals before the chemicals are packaged for people to use or ingest… or something like that. Guinea pigs seem relatively useless but are probably better looking. So let’s go with guinea pig.)

Category:: Coaching, conferences
Comments:: 5

08/27/2012

Asking Better Questions

I’m getting better at asking questions of my customers. Business coaching is a skill, and I’m growing in this area. Business coaching is all about asking questions. When my coaches ask me questions, I realize how far I have to go to begin asking great questions of my customers. But we can all grow and excel at this important interpersonal skill.

5 Ways to Ask Better Questions
1. Ask deep questions. You could ask questions that are shallow – they elicit small amounts of information. The shallow questions might get to the heart of the issue, but it doesn’t pull out a lot of information from your customer. You want a lot of information, so ask deep questions.

shallow: “Do you struggle to lead your team with confidence?”
deeper still: “Can you tell me 10 ways in which past failures are keeping you from leading your team effectively today? Can you give me some examples? Now prioritize the top 3.”

Category:: Coaching
Comments:: 2

06/01/2012

Pioneering the New Firm Self Study Coaching Course is now LIVE!

Are you ready to take the dive into firm ownership? Or do you need a kick in the pants on moving your firm to serve globally, make new innovations a mainstay in your firm or taking your firm into the clouds? Are you tired of the same way our stodgy profession has progressed in the past? Do you know how to market to new clients online? Are you still using time sheets (and losing money)?