CFO Chronicles: The Secrets Behind Success

I Spoke on Stage, Signed 100 Books, and Still Felt Like an Imposter

• James Donovan • Season 2 • Episode 36

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I walked off stage and knew our business had just leveled up.

This wasn’t just a marketing play,it was a career milestone, a systems test, and a visibility machine rolled into one.

In this episode, I break down what really happened at GrowCon 2025, from battling nerves backstage to booking deals, meeting the team in real life, and learning where our systems still break.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • The ROI of sponsoring high-ticket events (and what most firms get wrong)
  • What happened after my talk that I didn’t expect
  • The moment I realized I’m not the bottleneck in my business anymore
  • How we’re building for scale and what this event exposed in our systems
  • The underrated real value of masterminds and community

If you’re serious about growing a firm that doesn’t rely on you 24/7 this one’s worth the listen.


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Speaker 1:

This was, hands down, one of the best experiences I feel like I've had in my professional life. I want to compile all my thoughts over what just happened the last couple of days. We sponsored the event last year. This was our second year coming back and sponsoring and it was incredible. We'll get into some of the details.

Speaker 1:

Some highlight highlights to rhyme off at the top. I mean sponsoring for the second time a little bit more brand awareness recognition amazing seeing some attendees who were there last year. Always awesome to see the team at universal accounting. And again, massive shout out to roger and Christy and everyone at Universal Accounting. You guys run an amazing event and thank you so much for sponsoring this episode. For anyone who is listening, please make sure you go check out universalaccountingcom. They're amazing what they do. They help you work and build your firm into the firm that you want and get out of the day-to-day operation. So make sure to check them out.

Speaker 1:

Some other highlights being able to speak on stage for the first time. So again, can't thank Roger and the team enough for giving me that opportunity to do that. Being able to hand out my new book, book solid, to all the attendees Pretty surreal moment having a lot of attendees come up and ask for the book to be signed, ask for pictures. Nothing I ever imagined when writing that book a couple months ago and having it published. Getting to meet my team member, blue, who I've been working with for almost two years now over Zoom and phone calls, getting to meet in person and spend the last four or five days together walking around provo, going on some hikes, attending the event, having meals. It's been absolutely incredible meeting so many different sponsors, uh, meeting so many different attendees and real, genuine connections. I feel like I'm really leaving this event with a lot of great friends. So overall, this was just such a cool experience. I do want to speak a little bit about sponsoring the event and sort of what that means for the business. We did it last year first time and it's obviously a big investment. It's scary for a smaller business, but coming back and doing that for the second time and having people walk up and say, hey, I've seen your ads or I've seen your stuff everywhere, I really like what you're doing. It's very humbling and very affirming reaffirming to know that we're on the right track and what we're doing is making a difference. There's a lot of people coming up and mentioned hey, you know I've been, I've been following your newsletter, I've been following some of the strategies you use and I really appreciate it. Um, so that's great and it's awesome to hear other people's wins and that we're making an impact, even if they're not a direct client of ours. So that's that was just so cool to hear.

Speaker 1:

Having the chance to go up on stage. I can't tell you how nervous I was the day. Uh, christy and the team got back and said that I've been accepted to speak. I knew it was a step in the direction that I needed to take. I want to get on more stages. I want to put myself out there a little bit more. Step into the.

Speaker 1:

The uncomfortable um I was. I'm lying. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sweating and nervous before walking up on stage after lunch. Um, I was backstage getting miked up and they were getting ready to make my introduction and and, yeah, my heart was pounding a bit.

Speaker 1:

There was no turning back at this moment and it was just a chance to go out and deliver a really powerful message and shout out to some friends and mentors who really helped me get in the right mindset of this isn't about me and that's where the nerves are coming from. It's about the attendees and having a chance to leave a really impactful and valuable message. So that's what I tried to channel. I feel like the message came across pretty well. It was well received. I got a lot of feedback after which I was shocked about which I was shocked about. I thought I did all right, but it was really cool and, again, really humbling to have a lot of people come up and say thanks so much for what you delivered. I wasn't aware of this or I wasn't doing all of these things, so I hope I was able to positively impact a lot of businesses and they can go and better their clients' businesses and that ripple effect. So that was the goal. I think it came across. It was an amazing experience Again, we'll have the episode post or the presentation posted here on our social channels shortly but being able to do that, being able to give a copy to all the attendees in the audience of my new book, having everyone hold that up and come up afterwards and say how excited they are to read it and how some of them were already starting to read it while we were at the event over the couple days coming back up to the booth, so it was just a very, very fulfilling event.

Speaker 1:

I'm so proud of our team. I'm so proud of Blue for killing it at the booth and having so many genuine conversations with everyone. I'm really looking forward to nurturing those connections and seeing where they go and hopefully impacting and helping out more and more in the accounting space. I really have a passion for this industry and I want to see everyone succeed, so if there's anything I can do to help anyone out who's listening to this, please don't hesitate to reach out. I want to make sure everyone's rowing in the right direction and even if it's just that subtle tweak that makes a massive difference in their business, I'd love to be a part of that and help out, so don't hesitate to reach out. Another win that really stands out to me is how well my team handled myself and Blue being out of the office for the better part of this last week. We also brought on two new hires, one started a week ago and one starting on Monday. We had a team member out on vacation, working relatively part-time, so not the most ideal timing in regards to a lot of people being out new people starting, but the team absolutely crushed it. Anna, thank you so much for holding down the fort. You're amazing, you're an absolute rock star. It's really cool to.

Speaker 1:

There was a lot of conversations at the event. Kim Fader spoke about systems and how to scale and how she was able to step away for the week and she has team members on vacation, but she has the systems in place to rely on on that for her business vacation, but she has the systems in place to rely on on that for her business. And that was very eyeopening for myself and blue knowing all right, cool. Well, we're, things are running. Yeah, there's probably some areas where we can improve, but that's what it's all about and it's being able to step away, to have those bottlenecks and those areas of weakness highlighted and now we can fix them. And if we wouldn't have come here and we wouldn't have been away for the time we were, it would have taken us a lot longer to identify where those gaps are. So to me, that's a massive win. I think any time we can identify a weakness or where a potential gap is that's a massive win. That's not a loss in my eyes. So again, shout out to to anna and the team for for holding that down indy, audrey, tarim, um all the sponsors that were there making making so many different connections.

Speaker 1:

There's so many amazing services in the industry that are there to help accounting firms and bookkeepers and tax preparers. So when you see these vendors and you see these posts coming from GrowCon or other events you're attending, make sure you're going and speaking to the other vendors. They're there to help. They're there because they have a valuable service. I know for a fact Roger and the team at Universal Accounting. They're not just picking anyone who applies to go to their event. They're making sure they're vetting their, their sponsors, so there's actual value being provided. So make sure you're checking, checking those out when you are attending events.

Speaker 1:

And for anyone listening to this, who who didn't attend grow con, I highly recommend you attend next year. It's going to be in salt lake city. It's going to be another amazing event. I'd love to see you there. So make sure to check that out. If you're looking for more information, just send me a message. Happy to get you connected, get you the links you need.

Speaker 1:

Shout out to Rami at People Processes Amazing guy, what they're doing over there is absolutely incredible. I'm so excited to have him come on the podcast doing over there is absolutely incredible. I'm so excited to have have him come on the podcast. We had some amazing conversations over the last couple days, shared some really cool ideas. So, yeah, I just want to say shout out rami really appreciate that. What else? A little little bit of rambling on now. It just overall, this was such a cool, cool experience and I'm so humbled to have been a part of it. And again, just all the amazing connections that I felt I was able to make and definitely some friendships. I know that we'll carry on, even outside of business, which I think is the most important piece.

Speaker 1:

The gala on the first night having amazing food, being able to sit down and interact with other sponsors and speakers and attendees um, the universal staff. That that, to me, is what it's all about that networking, just learning about others and and their business and their personal lives. They had an amazing comedian come in cave on flew in from vegas. He absolutely crushed it, for for the hour he was on stage his jokes were incredible. Um, yeah, that was. That was a lot of fun, uh. Then the second night having a vip casino night. So vip for for all the vip attendees sponsors, speakers being able to play some table games poker, blackjack, roulette, craps Such a fun evening.

Speaker 1:

And then, obviously, just being in Utah, I was blown away by how beautiful this state is. I've heard it's incredible. I've never been here before. And from the second flying over the mountains when the plane started to descend, until now recording this podcast, looking out of my Airbnb on the ninth floor at these mountains in Salt Lake City, it's insane. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world I've been. It does remind me a little bit of New Zealand with the mountains, but it's so cool here Having the opportunity to go on a hike in Provo with Blue for really for some team bonding. I mean, we haven't. We've been working together on over Zoom in a box for the last two years, so being in person out in outdoors in the nature, hiking to a waterfall, getting some pictures and just being able to bond and learn more about each other on a personal level was so cool. So yeah, I just so. I feel so fulfilled and so grateful and so happy with how everything turned out. This to me is a really big milestone personally and professionally is a really big milestone. Personally and professionally.

Speaker 1:

The thought of public speaking has always petrified me. I was so nervous a couple of years ago when one of my best friends asked me to be the best man at his wedding. So that was kind of first first experience in my adult life public speaking after absolutely botching uh, being an MC at a friend's wedding before that, so had had a little bit of nerves doing that. And then now, obviously, speaking at an event with a hundred plus attendees in the room other professionals in your industry. It was quite daunting, but I'm trying to trying to remember this feeling for when that next opportunity arises, to take advantage of it, because I'm so excited about the feedback, how it was received, and I want to make sure I can share that with as many people in the industry as possible. So, yeah, this was huge. Yeah, this was huge.

Speaker 1:

If you guys are getting value from these episodes. I do have a selfish ask. I would love for you to rate and review the show on whatever platform you're listening to it on Spotify, apple Music, youtube, whatever it is. Leave a comment, leave a review. Let me know your thoughts. If there's certain topics that you want to hear, if there's certain guests that you want to have on the show, I would love to make this as interactive as possible.

Speaker 1:

I'm here to help the accounting industry grow, be better, make more money, grow a business that they want to be growing. That's my goal here. So thank you so much for taking the time to listen to me ramble on about my experience here at GrowCon 2025, my experience in Utah. I'll definitely be back. I can't wait to attend next year. See all the attendees, see all the sponsors again and, of course, the team at Universal Accounting. Again, massive shout out to you guys.

Speaker 1:

Roger, christy, leslie, robert, connor You're all amazing. Thank you so much for everything you do for my business, connor. You're all amazing. Thank you so much for everything you do for my business, for having us in the community and we'll speak to you in the next one. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success. I hope you found value in today's conversation.

Speaker 1:

As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, make sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss any future episodes. If you enjoyed today's discussion, please rate and review the show. It helps others discover the insights we share here. Second, if you're ready to take your business to the next level and attract the high-end clients you deserve. Head over to accountingleadsnowcom or click the link in the show notes to book your strategy. Call it's time to position yourself as the advisor your clients need. And don't forget you can connect with me on LinkedIn to stay up to date on what's happening in the world of accounting and financial growth. We've got more exciting topics coming up, so stay tuned for the next episode of CFO Chronicles. Until then, keep pushing forward. Your growth is just one strategic move away.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind success. We hope today's episode provided valuable strategies to help you attract more high-paying clients. Be sure to subscribe, follow and share with fellow professionals. Connect with us on LinkedIn and leave a review or comment to join the conversation. Your feedback helps us bring you the best insights in finance and marketing. Until next time, keep striving for success and unlocking your business's potential.