Last year's winner of Insightful Accountant's 'Up-n-comer' ProAdvisor Award was Ingrid Edstrom, and last year's winner of America's Got Talent was Darci Lynne Farmer. So what could the two of them possibly have in common, the answer is 'their puppets'! Darci Lynne fascinated American audiences week after week with her puppetry and ventriloquism and Ingrid has fascinated the ProAdvisor community and her own small business clients through the use of puppets as well.
Ingrid is the owner of Polymath, a small firm in Ashland, Oregon that specializes in bookkeeping and business strategy services for the travel industry, most specifically cultural and adventure tour companies. Currently Polymath is shepherding forth the technology evolution for the industry through in-depth comparison research into the booking and reservation applications that serve the tours industry, with a focus on effective time-saving integrations with accounting applications, primarily QBO.
Ingrid told us, "...our vision at Polymath is to make the world a better place, built on a foundation of thriving small businesses. The company gives back to the business community through free educational resources at AskABookkeeper.com, and the puppets on the show add a fun twist that keeps the conversations lighthearted and engaging. Polymath is working to create for small business what Bill Nye does for science: taking the big, intimidating topics and making them more approachable, digestible, and fun. The educational puppet show launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2017 that produced interviews with well-known guest stars, including Ivan Misner and Sekou Andrews."
In addition to client services and education for small business, Ingrid dedicates a great deal of her time toward advancing the accounting profession, particularly for bookkeeping professionals. This past year she dedicated herself to assisting the Institute for Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) via the re-creation of their core documents by updating the language to be more applicable to bookkeepers in the USA. She also assisted with the re-creation of the new ICB-USA certification exam, a tool which will facilitate better core standards for the bookkeeping profession.
Ingrid is not only working toward advancing bookkeeping professions, but advancing the accounting profession in an entirely different direction, which she believes it has already begun. She told us, "...as the accounting profession moves more in the direction of relationship-based services due to automation by technology, I believe that we are going to see a rise in women accountants as well as female leaders educating our industry in communication and soft-skills. It all begins with women being willing to step forward, be leaders, and not make themselves small. Big changes can happen quickly when we simply make the choices and follow them with action."
From having attended her first Scaling New Heights conference in 2015, to being recognized in both the Intuit Firm of the Future contest and Insightful Accountant's Top 10 awards, things really do appear to be happening quickly for Ingrid. When I asked her about such rapid recognition she told me, "...when I attended my very first accounting conference, Scaling New Heights in 2015, I did even own a smart phone. The things I learned at that conference enabled me to implement a dozen new apps and switch to value pricing at Polymath. Three months later we were awarded 3rd place in Intuit's Firm of the Future contest. Things really can happen just that fast, if you choose correctly, and follow through."
Regarding her vision for the accounting industry, Ingrid told me, "I think we are going to see a shift over the next few years in the accounting profession away from the traditional partner-hierarchy firm structure. Young accountants want more from their lives than the promise of someday making partner if they keep their heads down and work hard. That is one of the reasons why Polymath is an employee-owned company with a round-table structure. We believe that be best way for people to take ownership of their work is literally, and we seek team members who care deeply about our vision and wish to invest in it long-term. Together we build something that is so much more meaningful than a job or even a career. Our work is our life, and we are proud of it. We are experimenting in methods of co-leadership, and we are happy to share our learning with our colleagues in the hopes of creating happier, healthier firms everywhere."
Ingrid seems to be on such a 'high plain' when she is discussing the future of the profession, so I thought I should turn her attention back toward the day-to-day of her practice. I asked her to tell us about her firm in terms of the things, including Apps that have helped them accomplish so much in just a short time. Ingrid said, "...we are now pretty much a QBO exclusive firm, but to go along with that we love and make use of TSheets, LivePlan, Flight, FileThis, Pex, Expensify, Bill.com, TransactionPro, Teamviewer, Zoom, Intuit Online Payroll, Asana for workflows and task management, Practice Ignition, Buffer for social media, LastPass, Mailchimp, and all of the Google tools including Gmail, Google Calendar, & Drive."
Wow, that's a wealth of Apps, but Ingrid told us, "true, but that's not even touching on the list we are currently researching for our niche in the tours industry. Once we figure out the top ones there for integration with QBO, we're going to have the workflows for those clients totally automated."
I guess the level of automation Ingrid is trying to accomplish should help her spend some more quality time, away from the office, because she clearly has a couple of passions, one of which is her unique home life, or at least her home life seems unique to me. She explained, "...Jeff and I have a 2 acre farm with an orchard, goats, chickens, & rabbits. We love the home that we built ourselves, and we love hitting the road to travel in the gypsy wagons that Jeff creates in his woodworking business. We play Irish music in our little band, and we brew hard cider & mead. Our work is our play. We enjoy accomplishing big things, improving ourselves, and creating amazing things to share with the world. We love to encourage others to live their dreams, as well, creating a rising tide that raises all ships."
As passionate as Ingrid seems about home life, she also has a passion for travel. In fact I can say when I have seen Ingrid at events that she often seems far more 'touristy' than the typical conference attendee. In asking her about her love of travel Ingrid shared, "...I particularly enjoy long road-trips while talking for hours with Jeff about quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and other mind-blowing topics. We love going to music festivals and staying up all night jamming with friends around a bonfire. We sneak away for a long weekend every couple of months, depending on the season. We also try to get away to a farther destination each year. This year we will be heading up for a 3 weeks in Alaska!"
I'm confident that wherever Ingrid travels, she is always in the company of Penny, her puppet. It's like the two of them, Penny and Ingrid are one, and yet two at the same time. Each bringing out the passions, love and health of the other, and then passing that on to those they encounter either in person, or via their various web-based presentations. In my way of thinking they share the same motivations, so I just had to ask Ingrid about what makes up her motivation, especially in regard to such a unique approach to life, work and family. She told me, "...I believe that we create the world around us, with our thoughts, words, choices, & actions. I endeavor to live my life to the fullest with passion & integrity, and that means taking on A LOT of amazing adventures while honoring my commitments to the best of my ability. I believe that the answer is always love, and that freedom is accountability. I am blessed to share my life with an amazing partner who compliments these beliefs with his love of mastery and inspiration."
Ingrid went on to say, "...our business problems are our personal problems in disguise. In order to be successful we need to endeavor to be healthy & whole in body, mind, spirit, time, relationships, and finance... in that order. Body has been the most challenging for me, as I often like to live inside my head. I remind myself to work out by bribing myself with audio books. I am always working to improve myself through ongoing education on multiple levels. Self awareness, ongoing self-discovery & improvement, a willingness to step outside comfort zones, and genuine interest in helping others through the impact of our work: these four things create a solid foundation on which we can build just about anything. When we add to that a clear passion and the grit to weather life's challenges, we manifest our dreams into reality."
It certainly seems that Ingrid has indeed manifested her dreams into reality. If you are a women involved in the accounting, bookkeeping or consulting profession we would love to have you tell us about how you have manifested your dreams into reality by participating in this weekly series. Simply post 'count me in' within the comments section of this article, or any future Women in Accounting Wednesday article.
Your comment will record your email in confidence, then I will reach out to you because I'm certain that our readers would love to hear about you and your vision quest as well