EP264: Geraldine Carter- The Mindset of a Successful Bookkeeper

Michael Palmer: when you're so steeped in it, the outcomes are almost too obvious. So some of the work that I do with my clients is to help them put in regular English the value of the outcome of managing your AP and your AR, of monthly write-up and bank rec. Like, what are those things? Who cares? Why should I even want to buy that? Right? And if you can't convey that effectively, it makes your sales conversations much more difficult. You're listening to The Successful Bookkeeper with your host, Michael Palmer. Listen each week as inspiring guests share their secrets of success to help you increase your confidence, work smarter, and build a business you love. This episode of The Successful Bookkeeper is brought to you by purebookkeeping.com. The proven system to grow your bookkeeping business. Welcome back to the Successful Bookkeeper Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Palmer, and today's show is going to be a fantastic one. Our guest is the founder of She Thinks Big Coaching, where she helps CPAs get out of the accounting rut. Geraldine Carter, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted to be here. It's great to have you and looking forward to it. I mean, we were chatting just a little bit before the show started, and I think there's a lot of great things we can talk about to help CPAs and bookkeepers get out of the accounting rut or get out of any rut for that matter. But before we do all of that, Geraldine, please tell us about yourself, leading up to this point?

Geraldine Carter: Sure. So what got me to this point is that I started a business with a friend many years ago. I fell into the CFO role because I have an engineering degree. And then when I exited that company, started coaching casually on the side colleagues of mine who wanted some help understanding their financials. And I really enjoyed helping them explain what was going on with their P&L and their balance sheet. And then it occurred to me, like, why don't you guys know this stuff? Where's your accountant? And then a CPA reached out and asked if they could— if I could help them with their business. And that began me working with CPAs and accountants and bookkeepers to help them become better business owners, because all of us as business owners have a lot to learn in addition to becoming experts at our craft. I absolutely agree. I'm always curious about the obstacles that you faced in growing, starting, you know, that whole period of going from one thing to the next