Thriveal is just different. Man, is it the truth!

I was talking to another local CPA today and was reminded of how unique we are in our community. It is almost refreshing to hear the different perspectives of a successful old-school CPA* now and then.

We (Thriveal) talk about value and subscription pricing, tech stacks, AI, remote hiring, capacity, marketing, client experience, EOS, accountability, mentoring, etc., etc.

He is concerned about retiring in 7 years (when he qualifies for Medicare), working more hours (because he is paid more), hating QBO, portals suck, team members relying too much on him for everything, etc, etc. 

He also mentioned how he was planning to prepare 800+ tax returns this year.** I am floored by that. I was also deeply saddened after our conversation. I can tell that he truly doesn’t love the work anymore. He is burned out in the profession. He is kinda bitter and grouchy.

A few takeaways thoughts:

• He does want what the money (and tax season) means. He has a nice lifestyle outside of Jan-through-April. He talked about travel, golf, fishing, and grandkids. He has a beach house and a mountain house. So there are bright spots.
• What I told my wife about the conversation: How do you have a relationship with 800+ (realistically 500 with multiple entities) families and business owners? I feel like not only is the workload overwhelming but you also sacrifice any time for true relationships with the humans you serve and advise.
• Comparison is a fool’s errand. My first thought was, “I’m not doing near that amount of work so I must not be successful.” What?!? I am building a completely different practice. If we look at another practice and compare ourselves, we are always going to come back with insecurity or, worse, superiority (judgment). We are all making “do you want what that means?” choices. I sense that he let the practice happen to him versus trying to be proactive about what he wants BUT maybe this is exactly what he wants.

There is a podcast (The Stoic Coffee Break) that I listen to frequently that ends with the phrase: “Be kind to yourself and be kind to others.” I know we can all get a little “grouchy and bitter” during this time of year. The conversation ended today with me saying, “It sounds like you have a set goal in mind for retirement and I’m excited about your journey after that.” He kinda nodded and said, “Welp, let me go do some tax returns”. I felt like those were both kind words. Words of hope and words of reality. We both understood each other.

So, be kind to yourself and be kind to others today.

Curtis Hardwick has been a member of Thriveal since 2020. Apply now to join a community of like-minded firm entrepreneurs. If you have questions about membership or Thriveal events, email us at [email protected]

* He is probably one of the best-known and respected CPAs in our local community.

**This is not throwing shade on any members who are prepping a lot of returns. I have never done that many returns in a year. I’m prepping around 150 and feel slammed. I don’t know how to manage five times that.