Oh Joe!

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I confess, I love Addie Visor. I've tried for the last for years to track her down for a selfie.

Addie is fun in her "over-the-top" expression of feelings for Joe. Why do we love Joe? Because caring pours out of this man – and who doesn’t want to be cared for and thought of?

It doesn’t take long to see in a general session the impact we have on Joe, which in return makes an impact on us.

The "Scaling New Heights'" vision is clear: "Transform small business through small business advisors."

And that means us. Woodard seeks to transform each ProAdvisor by helping them grow and achieve more than they thought possible through networking together in a community of support, training and education.

So once again, I was touched and inspired by "Scaling New Heights" this year.

For our firm, Accounting Lifeline, Ann and I picked a specific Yeti, before the conference, which was our need to define and refine a niche.

So how did we do? It was amazing.

One of the goals that goes along with defining your niche is marketing. We found an unexpected treasure, a one stop shop ReachLocal.

ReachLocal can help you create or tweak your website, gather reviews, market to new clients and give you statistics on how your marketing channels perform. The real gem is the Needs Analysis it performs with each company, which is designed to help determine how much should be spent on marketing and what the expected results of those dollars will be.

Given there are so many options to help tailor to our client’s unique needs, I'm likely to write an article to share my actual experiences and results with this group.

But even though I viewed "Scaling New Heights 2017" as a total success...I know that there is still more to come next year in at "Scaling New Heights" in Atlanta.

Tame the Machines nails it in three words. Don’t run from what you don’t understand, instead, participate so that you can be part of the evolution. 

If you asked my 9 year old son, Clayton, what his Yeti is, he'd tell you what keeps him up at night is Artificial Intelligence. #SNH18 is right up his ally, because he gets it that technology is evolving.

Hector Garcia summarized this evolution by saying, “Children come with YouTube channels,” which I interpreted to mean, "Don’t stop the youth from using and understanding their world through technology."

The door has already been sprung wide open for technology exploration. 

So what’s next? Who knows, but just as the car replaced the horse and buggy, Artificial Intelligence will make as significant an impact in our future (and present).

Here's a real-life Scott morning example of how Generation Z thinks. Clayton asked me what I thought he should wear – shorts or pants. I told him pants, because recess would be a little chilly.

Then my Gen Z kid wanted confirmation of my assessment, so he asked Alexa what the forecast was. She gave the high and the low, and the progression of temperatures throughout the day. In response, Clayton didn't wear pants, because by recess, the temp would be plenty warm for shorts.

Clayton didn’t just rely in my expert mom advise, which was filled with caution, instead, he went out and found the untainted information and made an informed decision. This difference made him more comfortable at recess. I believe this is an example of what's to come.

As a mom, I'm thrilled to have a child who doesn’t just believe what's stated, but instead fact finds. GO Clayton. That’s a win for his life (and his recess comfort).

Accounting fact finding will be made easier, too. More truths will be seen and accessible, not only for us, the ProAdvisor, but for our clients, too.

Our clients are hungry for information on how to run their business better. If you don’t learn how to harness it, someone else will, and you'll be replaced. Just like my incorrect mom advise on the temperature.

I want to harness that information. I want to be part of what’s coming. I want to "Tame the Machines," not run and duck my head in fear due to a lack of understanding or simply in fear of change.

I believe this evolution of technology and Artificial Intelligence will be like the evolution of the car, there'll be some bad ones and some fantastic ones, but in order to discern which is which, it must be understood.

So I say, "Bring on the Machines"