REMEMBER – THIS IS THE “WISHY-WASHY” VERSION – FOR THE REVISED, MORE INSPIRATIONAL VERSION, READ HERE
It’s been a busy week for me. I’ve been at QBConnect in San Jose, California for the Intuit Global Conference. There were certain events for Intuit VIP Accountants, like me ☺ but there were two days of networking with 4500+ other Accountants, Bookkeepers, Small Business Owners and Developers from around the world. It was incredible to see all of the knowledge being shared, and the excitement about all of the changes coming in our industry. Accounting and Bookkeeping has been a pretty static industry for the last 50 years, so the excitement is certainly welcome. ☺
The sessions were kicked off by Sekou Andrews. If you’ve never heard Sekou before, check out Sekou World on YouTube. He has the most amazing poetic voice for his inspirational messages, and composed one specific to our industry for the event. “When you are under fire, get out the marshmallows…”
Jessica Alba and Brian Lee then spoke to all of us about the start of The Honest Company, and some of the challenges that they encountered. Their advice on entering into a business partnership – “If you want to take on a partner, you have to know yourself, your own strengths and weaknesses, so you choose the right match”
I was so proud to see a Canadian up on the stage – Robert Herjavec. I was even one of the lucky attendees who got to meet Robert backstage after the event! (You can see my pic here on our Facebook page) I must admit, that I’m not usually one who is star-struck, but when a speaker can bring tears to the eyes of their audience of 4500+, you can’t help but be in awe of what they are able to accomplish. “Nobody leaves “good enough” for “potentially better””
The end of the day was none other than Oprah Winfrey. Yup, you read that right, Oprah Winfrey at an accounting conference! I’ve always been a huge fan and she continued on with the message and theme of the day “Be true to yourself and travel through this world with intention”. Oprah has always been bigger than life, and she certainly was here as well on the big stage.
I was tweeting a lot through the whole conference…..words or thoughts that touched me, inspired me, made me excited about going to the next level in my business. But with Oprah, I just sat and listened. She spoke to us about our brand, and how it tells people who we are. She advised us all to listen to the whispers. The whispers that our intuition tells us, as we set out on the wrong path, or where we need change the path that we are on. And she is still so down to earth, despite all of her fame and fortune “I’ve made more money than I’ve ever dreamed of, but money does not make me. My feet are on the ground, I just wear better shoes”
Although as you can see, there were a lot of big names in attendance, it was the smaller Breakout Sessions which will likely have the most immediate impact on our businesses.
Our very own local celebrity, Steve Loates, was one of these presenters – teaching us about the power of “LinkedIn and Taking Connections to Clients”. Jason Nazar, taught us to how to Grow Your Business Like an All-Star CEO, Geni Whitehouse, one of LinkedIn’s top influencers entertained us as she taught us “How to Get from No Voice to Influencer”. Mike Michalowicz had us laughing as he showed us how to “Grow Through Client Replication” Mark Wickersham and Ron Baker were both there to reinforce the principles of Value Pricing in our industry, and the list goes on and on. My plan is to write separate blog posts on each of the sessions that made the most impact on me, as this post would otherwise be about 5000 words ☺
There was so much knowledge that was also shared from fellow attendees – we ate together, drank together and partied together with a private concert by the Goo Goo Dolls, a trip to the Intuit Head office in Mountain View, and a Winery tour and dinner to close off the event.
Thanks so much to Intuit for bringing together so much talent and education under one roof and allowing me to be a part of it all again this year.
Now to go home and implement what I’ve learned ☺
Blam! Blam! What I Learned at QBConnect
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Juliet Aurora is the CEO of AIS Solutions and Co-Founder of Kninja Knetwork. Through both of these businesses she fulfills her mission to Educate and Empower those around her. In 2017, her firm was named Intuit's Global Firm of the Future, the first time the title has ever been awarded to any firm outside of the US. She has also has been named as one of the Top 50 Women in Accounting, one of the Top 50 Cloud Accountants and one of the Top 10 Canadian Influencers in the Bookkeeping Industry. Her passion for education is channeled through the Intuit Trainer Writer Network, hosting Kninja Knowledge Webinars and most recently, developing a Cloud Accounting Course for the next generation of accounting professionals.
Keep up with the great job of making the difference in the BUSINESS WORLD !