Mind of Murph
"It's Alive!" (and living inside Intuitive Accountant).
I got to thinking that while many of our readers know me from all of my antics in the National Advisor Network discussion forum, many of you know only what you read in the brief bio our publication opened with. While I could give you an extensive description of my pedigree so to speak, you would hardly get to know me from that. Probably the best way to learn about the real ‘Murph’ is to get to know my feelings and opinions, likes and dislikes. From time to time my blogs, more than my articles, are flavored with my feelings and opinions; and as the NAN members know, I am far from not ‘voicing my opinions’ on so many topics.
So while my ‘good buddy’ Charlie Russell sometimes gives you one of his ‘rants’ in his blog, in my blog today I want to take ‘a minute’ to tell you just a few things about myself by comparing or contrasting myself against some other ‘well know names’ you may be familiar with.
Joanie Mann is known for ‘Bookkeeping in Bunny Slippers”, and Stacy Kildal even writes a blog, for another (unnamed) E-Magazine, called “Pajama Work”. It seems like more and more accounting professionals are giving up their office space and client on-site consults in favor of working from home (or anywhere) via laptop, remote access software, and Hosted QuickBooks (in Joanie’s case) or QuickBooks Online (for which Stacy is known as the “QB Online Queen”). Will Rogers once said, “I never met a man I didn’t’ like…”; if things keep going like they are with all this cloud stuff, the motif may one day be “I never met a client except on-line.” (NOT ME!)
I admit I do a lot of work from home simply because when you work 26 hours a day (I know, I know, you all think there are only 24 hours in a day, but those extra minutes that everyone else takes in a leap year build up when you stay up 24+ hours a day), you simply find yourself at home working. But even with homework (including the IA writers’ basement) I still task my way to the office every day to at least pick-up the mail (mostly junk). You would think with a name like “Bill” there would be lots of ‘checks in the mail.’ (NOT)
I love the opportunity of going to see clients; I thought everyone lived for the thrill of dodging that ‘female driver’ who is trying to put on lipstick by looking in the rear view mirror while weaving down the highway at 80 miles per hour. And when else can I enjoy a few ‘cat nap’ minutes except while sitting in a not-so-rolling parking lot on I-35 because the construction company has chosen to divert the southbound traffic into northbound lanes as they take the northbound commuter traffic to the service road. There just is pure pleasure in driving in heavy traffic, don’t you think?
My good friend Laura Madeira also thinks I am nuts for ‘going to see clients’ as much as I do. In her practice I think she may actually ‘pay clients’ not to make her come see them on-site…of course, most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area is her home-territory and driving from one side of the DFW metroplex to the other is like ‘moving cross country during the great migration west’! Things are growing there so fast that I can drive down for her NAN chapter meeting one month and when I go to the next one there is an entirely new freeway on-top of the one that had been there. I don’t blame Laura in the least for wanting to work remotely while sitting amongst the flora next to her pool, as her ‘newest puppy’ plays at her feet, can you?
Then there is Joe Woodard, ‘he never stops’; he is in the air so much he ‘should have wings’. Even at home base he is moving between two offices in Greater Atlanta, and of course the drive from North Atlanta to the Atlanta Airport is yet another ‘joy of life’ (NOT)! Been there, done that, more times than I can count; but he does get to live in the home of Coca Cola so that’s an advantage. Joe is in need of an ‘inspector gadget’ make-over, his gadget-hat could helicopter him back-n-forth from his front door to airport jet-way. Everyone in his ‘Woodard world’ could look up in the Atlanta sky and simply say “there is our Joe”.
As for me, I live in the Tornado Capital of the World; Moore, Oklahoma, yes two F5 tornadoes within the last 10 years; the first of which contained the fastest wind speeds ever recorded on the planet, and this most recent noted (at one point) for the widest damage path of any storm. My personal encounters with these storms has left only ‘minor physical damage’ but still a scar in the form of friends who have lost everything in one or the other of the two twisters. I can drive 1-1/4 miles north and pretty much look all the way to the west limits or east limits of our city down an alley of ‘nothing’ with a little rubble still left in place. An F5 leaves one heck of a scar on people and the earth.
Out of the aftermath of this destruction, were born a number of new clients for my practice, as well as many old ones in need of repair and restoration. Unless you have gone through one of these kinds of ‘disasters’ (be it tornado, hurricane, or wildfire) you simply don’t realize how many businesses right around you use QuickBooks until they are suddenly ‘at a loss’ and needing your quick assistance. Such is no place for ‘remote assistance’ (even if they use QB On-line or a Hosted environment); these clients need a friendly face, a hearty handshake and in some cases, a healthy hug to know that their ProAdvisor, of old or new acquaintance, is really there for them.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not being critical of any of the people who I have seemingly ‘picked-on’ in this blog; it is my nature to ‘poke fun’ at almost anything and anyone, all in good sport. We all have our styles and that is what makes life and people so interesting. So be it working in your slippers or pajamas from home, flying hither and yon so much you ellipse the globe before returning home, or driving hours to see a client you haven’t seen in 5 years, QuickBooks ProAdvisors come in all shapes and forms.
Hopefully I have peaked your interest with this little blog, so much so that you will want to read more just to see what other ‘stupid things’ I have to say. In the meantime please feel free to use the comment window below to tell us about your ‘favorite way to practice the QBPA game’.
Murph
PS – and thanks for reading Intuitive Accountant.