Scaling New Heights 2018 was exactly that – a place for accounting professionals to scale new heights in their profession, push their limits as people and accountants and learn how to be the best in their field.
You’d think that a conference where all the attendees are essentially competing against each other for clients or awards or even the vendors are competing for the attendee’s attention, that the atmosphere would be competitive or intimidating; but it really wasn’t. The speakers, the attendees and the vendors created a community. A true community that supported each other and genuinely wanted to help each other succeed.
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Working for Insightful Accountant, I did know a good amount of people at the conference or had at least read some of their work or emailed them at some point. As someone who is relatively new to the accounting industry, I was expecting to meet a lot of people. What I was not expecting was people coming up to me saying, “You’re Mollie from Insightful Accountant?!” Not only did they know who I was, but they knew some of the articles I’d written while working with Insightful Accountant, which as a writer, was such a great feeling.
Joe Woodard and his team have created more than a community, they’ve created a group of trusted advisors who help train each other, share their ‘secrets’ to success and help each other grow their firms and improve their overall skillset in various accounting software platforms and add-on apps.
In Joe’s New Attendee Welcome Course, he spoke about this community they have created and how we are all here to elevate each other to new heights. To reach their goals as professionals and people and ‘empower the small business owner.’ While I was there, I was able to talk to Joe a little throughout the conference, obviously being incomprehensively busy during this time, he would pass me, stop me and say hey, that he noticed my work and thought I had done a really great job working at Insightful Accountant. He took the time to take an interest in me, someone who isn’t a ProAdvisor or a customer or even an accountant. Just someone who he noticed working hard and he wanted to make sure I knew he noticed it.
I spent most of my time during the Exhibition Hall hours behind the Insightful Accountant booth. Being back there I was able to meet face-to-face with our readers. I was able to talk to them, see what they liked, see what they didn’t like. Some told me niches and topics they wished we covered; and some just wanted to see the faces behind Insightful Accountant. It was such a cool experience meeting all of you.
Bill Murphy, or as most of you know him, Murph, was a hot topic at Scaling New Heights. Everyone wanted to know where Murph was, when his courses were, if he was walking around the Exhibition Hall, when he’d be by the booth and everything in between. I had multiple people tell me that Murph’s articles have changed their practice, made their workflow better and that he genuinely changed these peoples’ lives.
Working with Murph, I know how hard he works. I know how late he stays up researching to make sure every single fact is correct; every single review has been read and every question has been answered. He is the definition of dedication and a cornerstone of the Scaling New Heights and ProAdvisor community. Which made his winning of a Lifetime Achievement Award even more deserving. I know everyone who has met him, read his work or has spent any amount of time with him, no matter how small, would agree with me on that.
The entire experience was full of overwhelming support. Between Joe, the Woodard team, who I was on a first name basis with all of them by the end of the conference, to the different vendors and attendees all having fun and teaching each other new ways to ‘transcend the machines’ and proofing your practice for this new technological shift that has and will continue to change the profession.
I know I’m not alone when I say this, but I can’t wait for Scaling New Heights 2019! See you in Salt Lake City!