Aly & Andrews All Aussie Accounting Adventures
Aly & Andrews All Aussie Accounting Adventures
Went to the BGL Roadshow… Here’s What Moved Us Most
The accounting world is full of opportunities to connect, yet so many us are still going it alone, heads down, caught up in the day-to-day, unaware of the incredible ecosystems waiting for them.
In this episode, Aly and Amy reflect on their time on the road with the BGL RegTech roadshow, sharing real talk from a roadshow that’s built a loyal following over the last nine years. It’s more than just a CPD checkpoint, it’s a heartbeat moment for many in the industry, especially solo practitioners who might only make it to one event a year.
They unpack why spaces like this matter, especially when you don’t have a big team or in-house sounding board. Events like these offer more than industry updates, they offer direction, inspiration, and genuine connection.
One standout moment? Daniel’s unforgettable keynote on courage, where he didn’t shy away from talking about shame, failure, and ownership. It hit differently. When someone stands up and shares something real, you can feel the room shift.
Aly and Amy also open up about their own experiences of connection, from deep convos at conferences to the quiet comfort of admitting, “I’m not okay.” Turns out, meaningful moments don’t need to be loud. They just need to be real.
If you’ve ever felt like you're doing this whole thing on your own, this episode is your reminder: connection isn’t a bonus, it’s a necessity. And whether it’s at a big event or a one-on-one chat, finding your people can change everything. So join Amy and Aly on their next accounting adventure.
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Hey, ali Hi Andrew.
Speaker 2:You're not Andrew, you're Ali, that's okay. Okay, okay, so I'm being Andrew, hang on, hang on. So I've been on the road lately. Ali and I met someone at the baggage claim.
Speaker 1:Okay, Andrew.
Speaker 2:We had so much baggage in common.
Speaker 1:Now clearly, oh my gosh God, we just screwed the pooch on that one, didn't we? Ali?
Speaker 2:I am not Andrew, you are not Ali.
Speaker 1:No, I'm also not Andrew. I don't know who I am right now.
Speaker 2:This is actually Ali, and Amy Yay, coming to you live from VGL RegTech we are on the road. Pretty, coming to you live from VGL RegTech, we are on the road, and you know, last episode Andrew had a rendezvous with Jack in the Snow, so this isn't as classy, but it is pretty good all the same.
Speaker 1:They cheated on us, Ali. They so cheated I didn't even get told.
Speaker 2:So what did we do as revenge, Amy?
Speaker 1:We cheated on them back. And that is revenge, served cold, so we are going to go to the intro music and we will be back very soon. That was so funny. Great intro, ali.
Speaker 2:Great You're welcome, and that's why Andrew does all the intros, amy.
Speaker 1:So you have been on the road with the team from BGL. Yes, how has that been? Because I have seen you at a couple of different locations. Yes, randomly.
Speaker 2:Yes, I know and I've seen you and it's been quite an enjoyable experience whenever I see you. So the BGL road shows are back on the road. In fact, next year will be their 10th year and I think I've actually done five of those. Wow. I'm like their adopted child, I even have their BGL. T-shirt this year I'm emceeing.
Speaker 1:Well deserved.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I love it. They're such a great band.
Speaker 1:I saw you sporting a little short skirt actually up on stage a little, A little cheerleader skirt.
Speaker 2:I pulled out all the stops because you have to do what you have to do to get the crowd's attention. Amy.
Speaker 1:And you know what the Melbourne one can I just say I don't know why I was down there and I was screaming. I was actually being loud because I was like, here's my girl, ali. I will cheer her on, but they were a bit of a tough crowd to get warmed up. They are a tough crowd but they're warm.
Speaker 2:The first week was Brisbane, gold Coast, first time Sydney Sydney crowd was on point this year, wow. Last week we had Adelaide and Perth, which were also amazing, and then this week was Hobart. I didn't get to Hobart it was a smaller crowd, but the other crew did and obviously today, the big crescendo where we have the Melbourne, and numbers were over 600 in person and over 600 online.
Speaker 1:Amazing. So it's growing every year. It's been such a good event. I actually I always enjoy coming to the BGL Roadshow I'm not personally exhibiting from a clarity show perspective, not because we don't want to, it's just. There's just lots going on. There's just so many events, which is probably what we're talking a bit about today it's just like huge event season at the moment it is, and it's just like huge event season.
Speaker 2:At the moment it is, and we're just about to launch into Zero Con as well. Whoa.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh gosh, there's so much coming for that, I know. But yeah, BGL I love turning up to the BGL Roadshow because it's just like seeing my family again.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Like my chosen family, the ones that I actually genuinely love. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:I mean not forced to love, if you get my gist. No, I totally get it, and that's why I love the BGO crew so much as well. They are very family orientated. Their crew never changes. They've got so many loyal employees that just stick on forever. It's just great. The group is different too. The people that attend a BGO reg tech are actually quite different. You don't normally see them at a zero environment, which is where we see most. If they're attached or the ecosystem is outside of that. It's usually the people that this is their one event a year and you know they don't know anything else exists outside of this, and that's the other thing. There are so many ecosystems and so many accountants that don't actually go to events.
Speaker 1:Yes, they don't even know they exist. Literally Clayton. His speech today was all about connection and things like that.
Speaker 1:And one of the activities that he actually got us to do was to basically turn to your left or right and start up a conversation. And how powerful was it? Very. But the gentleman that I spoke to was like I said oh, are you going to Xerocon? He goes oh no. Or are you Xero? He goes, oh, when's that on? I was like okay, how do you not know this? But equally, I mean, we kind of live and breathe that, so I kind of get it.
Speaker 2:And I think sometimes, especially if you go to events, you are kind of living in a bit of an echo chamber.
Speaker 2:You do kind of see the same type of sponsors the same type of people, and so one of the things is there are so many different types of events that you can go to. Like, andrew and Jack went to that skiing event where there was a group of accountants and Andrew's heard the rumble as well and that was just, you know, a very small group of accountants kind of coming together, so you don't necessarily need to go to a huge roadshow.
Speaker 2:But the thing that I love about like a roadshow, even Zero do them is that there's so much thought leadership and so much content that comes from that. And when you're a sole business owner or you know you're not from a mid-tier or big four where they just feed you, you have to kind of go out to these things to get fed yourself, to get the thought leadership, to know where the product's going and to kind of know where things are heading From a sponsor point of view. What's the purpose that you would get from that.
Speaker 1:Look, I mean, obviously, the purpose for us attending events and sponsoring events and things ultimately always has a commercial outlying, under, you know, underlying aspect to it, for obvious reasons. But equally, saying that I love attending the events because it's there, like you said, the actual thought leadership that comes out of those speeches and everything, I always take something away, like I've seen Sharon McLafferty speak, I I reckon dozens of times she could just like have some dulcet tones on a podcast and I'd listen to it and fall asleep and wake up to it.
Speaker 2:Like I could listen to her forever.
Speaker 1:Yes, literally right. But every time I see her speak, there's something else that I take away and there's something new that I get out of it.
Speaker 2:And that's what I love about. And I don't know why every accountant wouldn't use Slipstream the success stories that they get from that.
Speaker 1:Crazy, good, absolutely crazy, and that's to your point around thought leadership. That's the reason why I attend and that's the reason why we sponsor and continue to sponsor these events as well is because there is a lot of good content out there and there's also a lot of amazing people that are genuinely here just to help improve the lives of business owners. Yeah, the lives of accountants help you be more successful, help you be more efficient, more profitable, whatever it is, whatever your desires are, yeah, there are people in this ecosystem that are here to basically help you. If only you start seeking out, like attend an event and just start asking questions. Exactly that's what the whole point of it is how can we help improve the lives of the client base that we obviously try and service?
Speaker 2:but then when the sponsors do reach out to you after the event, or if you've, you know, got your little tags, you know signed and they're reaching out to you take some time after that event to actually engage with them to find out how they can help you, how they can support you yeah because so often we go to these things and we walk away and we don't make any changes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes it's about it's about finding what changes we need to make and implementing and taking carving the time out so that we're not just constantly going around trying to fix the problem. We're actually solving the issue and getting efficiencies from there but it is hard.
Speaker 1:You come to an event like this, you speak to heaps of different people, you come away like your brain is exploding with excitement, with all the different things that you can do and all the rest of that kind of stuff, like I've met this person and I want to implement this and I want to do this, and that it's hard to then walk away. And even I have it and I'm even I'm not even an accountant, right I have it just purely from the connections that I meet, in the conversations that I have around, what we can do either for our clients and or, you know, partnerships and discussions and things and I walk away sometimes just going oh, that was amazing, oh, my God, where do I start? And where do I start? It's the one percenters, and that's exactly what I was going to say. It is the one percenters, like every time you rock up to an event, just make a deal with yourself that you're going to make one, just one change. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just one. Don't go in and go oh, there's 15 different suppliers. I'm just going to pick up each and every single one of those products. They're all amazing, you will never get there, yep. But if you say my task and my major pain point is electronic signatures, then you know you're rushed to Fusign. You go, you talk to them, you get a trial booked in and off, you go from there and you can get other information from other people and talk to people what they're using, what they're doing.
Speaker 1:But often it's just those little one percent changes, because if you do try and do too much too quickly, you'll just get completely and utterly overwhelmed and it just won't happen true, but then again, equally, if you do try and do it all all at the one time and you're overwhelmed, then you know you can come and speak to clarity street shameless plug, because that's literally why we're here is to help you sort that out.
Speaker 2:Sorry, no, but it is so true and so often we think that we can do it, but we're actually not the best change managers and we're not the best people to implement. So it's actually better that we go out to people who are experienced, who have done it before, who know accounting businesses back to front, who can support you every step of the way, who have seen absolutely everything and nothing would shock them at this point yep, literally, and whether that's through the app vendors directly or an implementation partner, whoever that is, find the right fit for you.
Speaker 1:But I mean, I think I use this analogy quite a bit with people, which is I've been in the accounting industry for 15 plus years now. Um, I'm not personally an accountant but I've been around accountants long enough, worked in practice, couple of practices and things like that, and I run my own business. I have, you know, an entity, I've got a couple of trusts and you know a few individuals and things like that, and I'm you know, I know enough I could do it myself. Should I do that?
Speaker 1:though that's right just because I can doesn't mean I should, and you know it's a similar situation, like, I think, every accountant out there definitely has the ability and the smarts and you're all very intelligent human beings and you could make these changes in your business. But should you? Is that the best use of your time?
Speaker 2:No, and you're not going to get the biggest bang for your buck. You're not going to be efficient, you're not going to be productive, you'll be learning as you go, and the thing with implementing tech is it's so foundational. If you get that foundation wrong, everything else breaks when you're trying to fix it later and it's too hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's like when a client comes to you with messy work, you would have preferred that they came to you at the beginning rather than the end right. Yes, like don't dye your own hair. Get somebody who's a professional to do it for you, because you just never know what's going to happen. And that's really what you guys are like the hairdresser right Like you, help to do the right colour and cut so you walk out looking amazing. Thanks, good analogy.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. Look, I'm going to get to some sponsors right now, and so we'll click over to them and hear their dulcet tones. I love our sponsors. I know they're so amazing.
Speaker 3:I love software that continues to innovate over years and years of time, and BGL is one that stands out above the rest, if you ask me, ali 100%, but they do so much as well Corporate compliance, self-managed super funds, bgl ID verification and Simple Invest 360.
Speaker 2:Honestly, there's so much in there.
Speaker 3:It's so good. It means that there's a bunch of stuff within your firm you need to do and you only have to go to one place to be able to do that, which is fantastic. No mucking about with different things, just get in, get it done and make it happen absolutely EGL. Ali, I'm sure you get asked all the time, just like I do. Who do? You use for digital signatures and I know we use the same team, the crew at Fususe Sign right.
Speaker 2:They're the absolute bomb. Yes, I get asked that all the time. It is digital signing done. Simply, my friend, it is amazing.
Speaker 3:It's so simple. I love it. It gives you great control, heaps of flexibility, and the experience for clients and team is quite exceptional too right, super easy to use on both sides. Bloody amazing, excellent.
Speaker 1:Get amongst it, friends. Fuse your signatures today with Fuse Sign. Thanks, sponsors, we love you.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much. It's been so good connecting with them actually. There's quite a few sponsors of the podcast here today, bgl obviously being one of them. So I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into the content of the roadshow today, because there has been some absolute gold in that, yes, were you there on daniel's session no but I've heard amazing things.
Speaker 1:I've heard amazing things, didn't he talk on courage.
Speaker 2:He talked on courage, but it's not what you would expect from a regtech event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, daniel spoke about his journey, yeah, um, of I guess, discovering himself and how he started out as a pretty cocky footballer Yep, and had some disappointments along the way and the learnings that he got from that. But he spoke about things that you don't often hear a guy speak about on stage. He spoke about shame Yep. He spoke about sadness Yep. He spoke about guilt. He spoke about apology, ownership and his journey back, and he aligned that with the bgl journey when they went from um desktop to cloud on their superfund product and absolutely cocked it up as they said yep, and where they literally had to come out, apologize and say we're so sorry, please back us in. And what he speaks about then is really the ownership of the problem and then how you resolve it and how you can then work through it. Yeah, and I've spoken to so many people after that session who were hit and like were in tears.
Speaker 1:I've had a couple that have spoken to me about it since yeah posted as well.
Speaker 2:I think what really stood out to me from that whole conversation that Janelle was having was that we don't have those conversations enough Agreed. Every single person that I speak to has a story, has a journey, has a moment of discovery, but we hide it Like it's something that we should.
Speaker 2:There's so much shame and we can't talk about it because we don't want to air our dirty laundry but the moment that you shine a light on something, it no longer is something that you should be fearful of, and it ends up becoming the thing that is your strength, not your kryptonite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that was the power of daniel's talk on courage and when I think about BGL, and I just asked the audience then how many years have they been working with BGL? Some of them are up to 30 years. That's an enormous amount of time to use a software, considering how much change has occurred in the software space over that period of time. But what that has taken for BGL to do that is they've made mistakes along the way, but they've had courage. Yeah, they've had courage to continue and to persevere and to move forward, and that's the power.
Speaker 1:I agree, and it's something that we that I speak about with the team as well around um, you know the thought around oh, I have to have a difficult conversation with someone. I'm like how about we reframe that and we say I need to have a courageous conversation? Yes, I love that. A courageous conversation. It completely reframes it. It doesn't make that it's necessarily easy, but it does take the negativity away from it but I think the more conversations that you have, that might feel a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 2:Or, yeah, hard it's like a muscle yep, you actually grow it and then it doesn't become so hard. It still might not feel nice, but it's not as difficult. And then, it becomes your new baseline and I think if we were all a bit more honest about our lives and how we're going and about the journeys in our life, that we would actually all start to feel a little bit better about ourselves oh, I agree.
Speaker 1:Like, how did you get to such high count? I agreed with that. I mean, you and I had a moment a couple of months ago when we were at the another conference, at another conference, at another conference, exactly XPM conference, fire up, wasn't it? Yeah, xpm, power Up, power Up. It was the account kit one. Oh, that's also happening. Just before Zerocon, zerocon yes, on the Tuesday, on the Tuesday before Zerocon, so feel free, I highly recommend.
Speaker 2:Yes, I am also presenting you, go, you'll get so much gold from it.
Speaker 1:We did, yes, we connected. We really connected Very deeply. There were tears.
Speaker 2:There were hugs.
Speaker 1:There were more tears, more hugs, yeah, but to that point though we're so used to because we are in the event space and we are known within the industry, it's really easy to just rock up to events like this and go ready one, two, three game face and then, when everybody's like how you going, how you going, how you going and sometimes it's an awkward scenario to obviously open up but equally you're like do you say I'm okay, because I don't? Sometimes I do, it depends, it depends on the people, right, okay, yeah it definitely depends on the people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll be like, no, I'm not okay. No, you know what?
Speaker 1:right now life's a bit of a shit show. But you know what? Right now life's a bit of a shit show, but you know, like we're okay and things will be okay. But actually I'm not necessarily okay all the time. But then you find that balance between going but I also don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but also this is just who I am, like I'm alive, I'm still living, but also just things aren't as peachy as what they should be, but also that is also life. It is, that is the rollercoaster of life.
Speaker 2:That's how we evolve, and Daniel said this on stage, and this is what I think. As women, we find that a lot easier right, yeah. Like once I had a great DNM with you. I walked away and I felt a lot better.
Speaker 1:Likewise.
Speaker 2:Nothing had actually changed.
Speaker 1:No, but I felt so much better about things. I was just saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I think that's the principle is that sometimes women find that a lot easier. We let everything out, we share, we care and nothing necessarily resolves itself. I haven't given any pertinent advice to make any changes, but just sharing, yeah, and having somebody on that same level as you and knowing that they're going to look out for you and care for you.
Speaker 1:I'm here, are you okay? You can call me, and whether we do or we don't, it doesn't actually matter. It's just knowing that there's somebody else there. That's got you know. They've got your back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're in your corner, just in case and the next time you see them, you feel so connected to them and you're checking in on them. Yeah, and you know that's the importance of connection, which is in our industry to connect. And I'd never heard Clayton speak before.
Speaker 1:No, neither had I. I've seen him at so many events.
Speaker 2:I can see why he's such a big speaker in the US. Agreed. Because he is honestly, the loveliest bloke you will ever meet he is a classy guy. Yes, he's the loveliest.
Speaker 1:And he's been in the industry for so long, I know, and I had the week actually off the back of one of these events and it was just again such an amazing moment of connection. Like every time I see him, we have the biggest hug. It's just like, yes, I know.
Speaker 2:He's such a good egg, and that's where, with Zero Con coming up and with everything that we're talking about this season around, any type of connection point really is what we're talking about. Yep, but what we're trying to highlight is there are so many yeah. We're trying to highlight is there are so many yeah, and it might be that you don't enjoy the large conferences or the large road shows. You might enjoy the more intimate gatherings, or you might enjoy an online community, or you might enjoy a one-on-one yeah, whatever, that is what I want to call out to everybody that's listening is find your connection point yeah, find the point that you connect with authentically and that sits well with you and that you get nourishment from it and walk away feeling better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because we're not all the same. Yep, Correct. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Some people are like Zerocon oh, it's going to be so draining. But then you know, come to a networking event, then something else. Like you know, that's what we did on the road last week with Seamless SMSF.
Speaker 3:Yes, what we did on the road last week with Seamless.
Speaker 1:Yes, what a great event that was so good, we did an event in Adelaide and then one in Perth, as well, so good. Just you know.
Speaker 2:Just food, good drink, great people, deep conversations. Just come along have some good combos and chat and also, seamless, do a networking event.
Speaker 1:I love their networking. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Networking is so good. I love it. There are so many ways that you can connect, so I think that that's one of the reasons we wanted to put this series on this year is really about how do we connect?
Speaker 1:Yeah, how do we connect. How do we be human? I?
Speaker 2:love it. Yeah, how do we be human? I know, and you're a beautiful human, you are too. And I'm super pleased that we were able to have a little recording of our own, I know Without the boys. It's been great. I love this. It's like the takeover. Yeah, it is, Do you reckon?
Speaker 1:Do you also like being an emcee for the Roadshow? Oh, I love it.
Speaker 2:You love it. Oh look, there is something about You're very good at it.
Speaker 3:You're very good at it. There is excited and I want to get out there.
Speaker 2:And the wonderful thing about BGL is that it's not scripted. Yep, you're allowed to do whatever you want, and so. I've literally had so much fun connecting with everybody, seeing everyone's faces and how they're reacting to all of the content. I've absolutely loved it, and I actually emceed the Zero Summer Series, so it's just my emcee year this year. Yes, good, but I absolutely love it. It's been the best Did you take it.
Speaker 1:I think you need to bring your gold pom-poms more often. Just saying Just to any event. Just to any event, if I'm on stage or not. Yeah if you're on stage or not. Bring your pom-poms. You have amazing legs, so why not show them?
Speaker 2:well, they were very white because it's been winter technically and I did not put any tan on. So, yeah, everyone, just everyone, got the full alley today. But that's all right. And you know what I was going to do? A somersault. But then I realized I had my cheerleading outfit on I was like I shouldn't do that, but it was a big enough.
Speaker 1:Stage two oh, you totally could have done a cartwheel or something. Maybe I can do it on the way back Next year.
Speaker 2:No, I've still got opportunities.
Speaker 1:I've got to get on there one more time. You can totally do it, ellie.
Speaker 2:Yes, I know I love this. I love it Awesome.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to love you and leave you, Amy. It has been wonderful chatting with you.
Speaker 1:Hopefully some of our listeners come up and say hello. Yes, please come up and say hello. I think we're going to be doing a podcast recording there as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, it'll be great, yep loving it. Love you guys. See you everyone, bye, bye.
Speaker 4:Wasn't that a fun adventure, my friends, thank you so much, so incredibly much, for hanging out with us today. Ali, you've been amazing. Andrew, you've been amazing. Andrew, you've been all right. How good is it to be able to have adventures together.
Speaker 2:It so is, and you know what. Keep following us. We are all over the socials at Accounting Adventures. Check us out on the website. Give us a bit of a like. You know how much we love that stuff.
Speaker 4:The best thing about the adventure is the people that we do it with. So thank you so much for listening, thank you so much for hanging out with us, and please bring all the ideas, keep them coming. We can't wait to share more cool adventures with you.
Speaker 2:We love you guys.