Since the phrase ‘countercultural firm owner’ is part of Thriveal’s purpose statement, I thought it would be helpful to explore what this phrase means. First, here is Thriveal’s purpose:

Thriveal inspires countercultural firm owners to embrace their entrepreneurial creativity within the profession.

Many recognize the phrase ‘countercultural’ when discussing a certain time in history like the 60’s. The 1960’s was a countercultural time when certain demographics of brave people distrusted a current establishment and decided to go against that establishment with a grassroots voice and often disruptive behaviors. The establishment, or people who adhered to established ways of doing things, often didn’t understand or even distrusted the ways of these countercultural crowds. Some call it a movement.

The culture of the Thriveal community is very similar to countercultural movements like the 60’s in the following ways:

• a distrust or disagreement with current established practices of running a public firm, a desire to go against established practices by trying new things, or by trying things the establishment does not agree with,
• a group of brave people doing brave things,
• an obvious distinction between the established way of doing things and a demographic that wants to run firms differently, a recognition that countercultural work is grass roots in that there are no establishments supporting these counterculture firm owners (except Thriveal!), and
• a distrust among the establishment as to why countercultural firm owners do things in new ways.

To be clear, in the Thriveal community, we don’t create countercultural firm owners; we are only a place for them to congregate. We want to inspire entrepreneurs in the Thriveal community, and we believe we happen to attract countercultural people that already have a desire to do brave new things in new ways. In our monthly Thriveal Introductory Call, a free presentation each month where you can learn about Thriveal membership, we often say that we are not a ‘best practices community.’ This means we are not going to pass out manuals on how to grow firms. We won’t publish best practices. Every countercultural firm owner in Thriveal is building their own firm, in their own way, with their own priorities. To be sure, there are solid ways to grow companies and firms, but we can’t know what each firm owner is committing to and where they are on their journey. So we inspire them with new knowledge, expose them to disruptive ideas, give them access to a countercultural community, and allow for the intimate ability to challenge each other in an online private community. We also don’t want to create or encourage disruption just for the sake of disruption. We simply feel that countercultural firm owners can learn new things, stretch themselves, and grow more strategically when they are inspired to question the common practice of operations in most firms today.

We are a virtual community, so we can do the work of inspiring countercultural firm owners online, but we also see the value in coming together once a year in person at an annual gathering in Greenville, SC, called Deeper Weekend. As the name states, we want to take countercultural firm owners deeper into a topic that we feel inspires these disruptive firm owners to do braver things in growing their firms. Thriveal is not a movement, but a support structure for the disrupters, those that are not okay with the current way other firms treat clients and grow their businesses.

Thriveal may not be for every firm owner. But we openly welcome the brave, those that know they need support, and those that are willing to lead firms in new ways. We are a diverse group of people who may all look different but still need deep support for the journey that each of us is on. We want to inspire the right people.

Is the Thriveal community for you?

Jason is the Founder of Thriveal and the Chief Innovative Officer of his CPA firm, Blumer & Associates. He is the co-host of the Thrivecast and The Businessology Show and speaks and writes frequently for CPAs and creatives, his firm’s chosen niche. Jason loves to watch documentaries on just about anything. He lives in Greenville, SC with his wife and their three children.